His Texas Wildflower (5 page)

Jake had to admit he'd been disappointed that Rebecca had so quickly decided that she didn't want Gertie's property. As though it was all meaningless to her. For some reason he'd wanted to think she was a deeper sort of person than that. But then maybe he wasn't being fair. Maybe she wasn't in a position to care for the place, the way it deserved to be cared for. She obviously had a life back in Houston. She might even have a special man waiting for her return, he thought grimly. The lack of a ring didn't necessarily mean anything nowadays. She might even have a husband.

The idea bothered him far more than it should have.

Trying his best to shake it away, he glanced up at
his mother. “You're probably right,” he replied to his mother's comment. “And selling it won't be much of an effort. The land joins up with Apache Wells. Abe would be glad to fork over a very fair price to make sure it becomes a part of his ranch, instead of watching it go to some developer.”

“Maybe someone should give this information to Gertie's relatives?” Clara suggested. “They'd probably be grateful to have someone drop a buyer into their lap.”

When Rebecca Hardaway had spoken of finding a Realtor to deal with selling the place, he probably should have spoken up and told her that a Realtor wouldn't be necessary. Abe would buy the property without batting an eye.

But something had kept the words inside him. Selfishness? The hope that Rebecca Hardaway would be forced to stay in New Mexico longer than necessary? The hope that while she was here he'd get the chance to know her, spend time with her, maybe even get physically close to her?

Dream on, Jake. Rebecca might have leaned that sexy little body against you once, but there won't be a next time. If you do see her again, there won't be any tears in her eyes and she'll see you for just what you are—a cowboy who can offer her little more than a lusty roll in the hay.

Picking up a steak knife, he sliced ruthlessly into the meat on his plate.

“Maybe I'll do just that, Mom.”

A
t the same time, some twenty miles south in Ruidoso, Rebecca sat in a luxurious hotel suite. From her seat on the long moss-green couch, she could look out the plate-glass wall at the picturesque view of Sierra Blanca. Next to her right arm, a telephone sat on a polished end table and all she had to do was lift the receiver from the cradle and press a button to have a full course meal delivered to her room.

But at the moment she wasn't seeing the beauty of the tallest peak in the southern part of the state, or concerning herself over ordering dinner. She was thinking about Jake Rollins. Something she'd been doing ever since she'd driven away and left the man standing in front of her aunt's house.

So why don't you stay on and make use of the property?

With a bit of loving care this place could be a nice
little home. But I guess a fancy lady like you would never settle for anything this simple.

Today Rebecca had planned to get a list of things done. First of all, to ask around town and find a Realtor she could trust. Secondly, to contact the nearest animal shelter to find homes for the pets Gertrude had left behind. But Rebecca hadn't attempted to do either of those things. She'd walked a short distance around town, ate lunch, returned to the hotel and for the past two hours sat wondering why Jake Rollins's words continued to haunt her.

It wasn't like the man had anything to do with her life, she mentally argued. Up until yesterday, she'd never met him. Yet the things he'd said to her, the way he'd looked at her, had done something to her thinking.

With a heavy sigh, she rose to her feet and walked across the room to where a gilt-edged mirror hung over a small accent table. The image showed a young woman dressed casually but fashionably in a pair of summer white jeans and a sleeveless cashmere top. Her blond hair was twisted into a sexy pleat and her face touched with just enough color to look pretty but not overdone.

Her friends would tell her that she looked perfect, but that had come to mean very little to Rebecca. On the inside she felt far from perfect. And she didn't understand why.

Even before she'd learned about Gertrude and traveled here to New Mexico, she'd been feeling empty, as though spinning wheels were quickly carrying her to nowhere. Then yesterday, when she'd stood beside her aunt's grave with hardly a soul there to tell the woman goodbye, a heavy sense of reality had stung her. She wasn't sure why thoughts of missed opportunities and
connections were upsetting her, but she couldn't get rid of them.

Across the room, her cell phone rang. The sound cut into her dark thoughts and with a heavy sigh, she walked over to collect the small instrument from where she'd left it on a low end table.

Her mother's name and number were illuminated on the front and she braced herself with a deep breath before she flipped the phone open and lifted it to her ear. Gwyn had been ringing the phone all day, but Rebecca had ignored her calls. She wasn't ready to talk to the woman, but years of being a devoted daughter couldn't be wiped away in a matter of days. And Gwyn deserved to know that she'd arrived in New Mexico safely.

“Hello, Mother.”

Gwyn let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God you finally answered! Is everything all right?”

Rebecca's jaw tightened. “Is that question supposed to be some sort of joke? How could everything be all right? I just watched my aunt—an aunt I didn't even know I had—be lowered into the ground!”

“Now, Rebecca, honey, please let's don't start in about all of that now. Gertrude is gone. There's no use talking about her anymore.”

If it hadn't been for disturbing the other hotel guests, Rebecca would have actually screamed into the phone. Instead, she tried to calm the rage boiling inside her. “Sure. Just forget her,” she said, in a voice heavy with sarcasm, “and get on with our neat little lives. The way you've seemed to do for the past thirty years.”

There was a long stretch of silence and then Gwyn asked, “When are you coming home?”

Clearly Gwyn was still refusing to open up about Gertrude and her indifferent attitude about her own flesh
and blood caused something to suddenly click inside Rebecca. Feeling strangely calm, she said, “I'm not. At least, not for a good while. I have things to do here. And I want to make sure they're done right.”

Gwyn gasped. “What sort of things? What are you talking about?”

“Listen, Mother, my aunt left everything she had in this world to me. And even though she's gone now, she still deserves my attention. I owe her that much—” Emotions suddenly filled Rebecca's throat, choking her. “That and so much more.”

“But, Rebecca—she—your job—you'll have to be getting back here to Houston soon!”

“You worry about my job, Mother. You seem to love it much more than I do, anyway.”

“Rebecca! You—”

“I'm sorry, Mother. I'm very busy. I've got to get off.”

Rebecca hung up the phone, then purposely walked over to the closet and pulled out the luggage she'd brought with her. An hour later, she'd packed all her things, checked out of the hotel, and after purchasing a few items at the grocery store, headed north to Gertie's place.

As she drove northwest, out of the mountains and onto the desert floor of the Tularosa Basin, she picked up her cell phone and pushed a button that would connect her with her boss in Houston.

“You're going to do what?” the woman exclaimed loudly in her ear.

Rebecca felt the ridiculous urge to smile, but forced herself not to. Even before her father had died, she'd been a responsible child, who'd grown into an even more responsible adult. She'd never done an impulsive thing
in her life and she was shocked at how good it felt to be doing it now.

“I need to take a leave, Arlene.”

“Yes, but you said indefinitely! Surely this break you're taking won't require that much time! What will I do without you? The Dallas show is coming up and then New York City. I have to have a buyer there! Otherwise—”

Outside her car window, the sun was casting a purple and gold hue across the desert floor. She'd never seen anything so wild and beautiful. “Send Elsa. She knows what she's doing and she'll be more than happy to step into my shoes.”

Arlene snorted and mouthed a curse beneath her breath. The woman's reaction didn't surprise Rebecca. Arlene was in her late fifties and had spent more than thirty years working for Bordeaux's. Still single, she'd made the famous department store her life and believed that Rebecca and its other employees should, too.

“Elsa doesn't have your taste or finesse with people. I want you back here in two weeks. That's all I can afford to give you, Rebecca.”

The demanding ultimatum brought an angry flare to Rebecca's nostrils. She'd given so much of herself, her life, to Bordeaux's and all she could expect in return for her commitment was two weeks?

“That's not enough, Arlene. Not by a long shot.”

Her retort must have shocked the woman because the line went silent. It stayed that way for so long that Rebecca actually pulled the phone away from her ear to see if the instrument was still receiving a tower signal.

“What's come over you, Rebecca?” the woman finally retorted. “I realize you must be grieving, but from what I understand this death was a distant relative. Surely
you can put it behind you and get yourself focused on business again.”

She was nearing the turnoff to Gertrude's house and the road that eventually led to Apache Wells. Jake and the Cantrells had shown her more compassion in one afternoon than this woman had shown her in the six years she'd been working for Bordeaux's. What did that say for the people she'd surrounded herself with?

“Taking this time off is important to me, Arlene. If you feel you need to replace me permanently, I'll understand. Just mail my final paycheck to my apartment.”

Another long silence followed Rebecca's statement and then Arlene said in a mollified tone, “Now wait a minute, Rebecca. Let's not get so hasty about things. You're a great asset to Bordeaux's and I don't want to lose you.” She paused and released a long sigh of surrender. “All right. Take as long as you need. Your job will be waiting when you do get back to Houston.”

Arlene's concession should have inspired Rebecca, filled her with joy to know that she was that good, that appreciated at her job. Yet she felt nothing but relief that her conversation with the woman was over.

“Thank you, Arlene. I'll be in touch soon.”

Ten minutes later, she parked her vehicle behind a Ford pickup truck that sat beneath an expanse of sagging roof connected to the left side of the house.

Rebecca recalled a truck being listed in Gertrude's will and she assumed the old red F-150 had belonged to her aunt. In this isolated place a person had to have transportation of some sort. She wondered if the vehicle was still in running condition and made a mental note to check the thing out after she'd put away the perishable groceries. Keeping a rental car for an extended length
of time would run into a huge expense. The truck would solve that problem.

At the back of the car, she opened the trunk and started to lift a sack of groceries when she suddenly heard a low whine and felt a nudge against the back of her leg.

Turning, she saw the dog had spotted her arrival and come to greet her. His mouth was open and he appeared to be grinning as though he couldn't be happier to see her.

For a moment, Rebecca forgot the grocery bag and squatted on her heels to wrap her arms around her furry brown friend.

“Well, here you are again, big guy,” she said to him, then stroked a hand down his back. Beneath his long, thick hair she could feel his backbone and realized the animal had obviously not been getting enough to eat since Gertrude had died. “I'll bet you're hungry, aren't you? I'll bet you'd like a big bowl of juicy dog food.”

As if on cue, the dog let out a long, loud whine. Rebecca smiled and patted his head. “All right. Come along and I'll see what I can do,” she told him.

With plastic bags dangling from both hands, she urged the canine to follow her onto the porch. Once she opened the door, she pushed it wide and invited him in.

“Just for a while,” she warned him as he shot past her, his tail wagging furiously.

During her visit yesterday morning before the funeral, she'd discovered several dozen cans of dog and cat food stacked in a small pantry. She emptied two of the cans into a plastic bowl and set it on the floor.

While the dog gobbled it hungrily, she stored what
perishable food she'd purchased in the refrigerator and found places for the rest of the things in the cabinet.

By the time she was finished with the chore, the dog had cleaned the bowl and was looking up at her, his head tilted curiously to one side. No doubt he couldn't understand why his mistress was gone.

The notion was a sad one. Especially when Rebecca tried to imagine her aunt and the dog together. It was difficult to form such a picture in her mind when she didn't have the tiniest idea of what Gertrude had looked like. There were no photos of the woman sitting around the house and even in death, she'd clearly been a private person by leaving orders with her lawyer to keep her casket closed.

If Gertrude and Gwyn had been identical twins, then the woman would have been petite and dark-haired with hazel-green eyes and a square face. But her mother hadn't seen fit to tell her even that much about her sister, so Rebecca could only guess and imagine Gertrude's appearance.

Trying not to dwell on the loss and become maudlin all over again, Rebecca spoke to the dog, “I have no idea what your name is, boy. Is it Furry? Smiley? Buddy? No. None of those fit. What about Beau? Back in elementary school I knew a boy named Beau. The tips of his ears sort of flopped over like yours. But he was nice. And I liked him.”

The dog responded with another whine and pushed his head beneath Rebecca's hand. Smiling, she gave him a loving scratch between the ears. “Okay. Beau it will be. Now let's see if we can start cleaning up this place.”

 

A week later Jake was at Marino's Feed and Ranch Supply, purchasing several sets of horseshoes, when he heard a woman's soft voice call his name.

Turning, he was completely shocked to see Rebecca Hardaway standing a few feet away from him. What was she doing in a place that was mostly frequented by farmers and ranchers? More important, what was she doing still here in New Mexico? He figured she'd probably already wrapped up her business and gone back to Texas.

His heart was suddenly beating fast as pleasure ricocheted through his body. “Hello, Rebecca.”

He started toward her and she met him in the middle of the dusty aisle filled with pesticides and grass fertilizer.

Smiling, she extended her hand to him. “Hello, Jake.”

He took her hand, while his gaze quickly encompassed every inch of her. She was dressed casually in blue jeans and a pink hooded T-shirt. Her blond hair was pulled into a ponytail and her face was completely bare of makeup. She looked fresh and beautiful and rested. And just looking at her made something inside of him go as soft as gooey candy.

“This is a surprise to see you,” he admitted. “I figured you'd already left the area.”

She shook her head. “No. I've decided to stay on for a while. I'm living out at my aunt's place now.”

It was all Jake could do to keep his mouth from falling open. That day he'd visited Gertie's place with her, she'd seemed almost indifferent to the place. What had changed her mind so much that she'd actually been motivated to move out there?

“Oh. How's that been going?”

She laughed softly and Jake warmed to the sound, warmed even more to this different, more approachable Rebecca.

“Well, let's say I've never done so much cleaning in my life, but the house is coming around. I've decided I'll have to hire a man to help with the outside. There's so much heavy junk that needs to be hauled away. But I did get the truck going and turned in my rental car.”