Jared: Red, Hot, & Blue, Book 4 (3 page)

“Excuse me?” Had she heard him correctly?

He shrugged. “It’s just not for us. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know why you would want to pass up this opportunity. Perhaps you and your mother don’t understand what I’m offering—” She shook her head in disbelief.

“We do, but the answer is still no.” Gone was the flirting cowboy. There was no more playful joking in his soft, even tone. He was really and truly turning her down.

Mandy wasn’t used to anyone actually saying no to her. Particularly not men. She was possibly for the first time ever, speechless.

Jared laughed. “You look shocked.”

“Honestly, I am.”

“I’m sure you’ll find another town that you love just as much as Pigeon Hollow. Small towns like this are a dime a dozen in the South.”

The town maybe, but not a woman-owned horse farm, and a handsome horseman with a voice like silk to go with it. No, she wasn’t willing to let it all go that easily. Mandy dug a business card out of the pocket of the suit jacket folded in her lap.

She stood and handed the card to him. “I’m not giving up, Mr. Gordon. I have one other town to see just south of here and then I’m coming back. I hope you’ll have reconsidered and have a different answer for me when I do.”

He treated her to a gorgeous crooked smile. “I’m not gonna say that I wouldn’t be happy to see you again, but my answer’s not gonna change.”

Mandy felt her heart quicken just a bit. He was back to flirting again. Maybe his answer wasn’t so definite. She was not at all opposed to a bit of flirtation with a handsome man, particularly if it got her a signed consent form and a hit show in the end. She might actually enjoy a bit of innocent gentlemanly male attention. It would be a nice change from the lecherous men in LA.

She caught his eye. “I respect your decision, but I’d still like to stop by on my way back through. If that’s all right.”

Jared studied her closely before he nodded. “Sure.”

“Thank you.” Mandy turned and felt his eyes on her back as she walked out the door. She smiled. She wasn’t defeated yet.

Chapter Three

Two days later, Mandy drove down Main Street in Pigeon Hollow and fell in love with it all over again. The other town she’d gone to visit had been a bust. She was still without a town for her show.

No town was going to live up to this one since she had set her sights on it. She had to convince the Gordons. She had to change Jared’s mind somehow.

Mandy slowed as she neared the diner and spotted a white pickup truck with
Gordon Equine
painted on the door. Luck was on her side today. Hoping her good fortune would continue with the Gordons, she swung into an open parking spot.

Before getting out, she pulled her jacket off and smoothed the skirt of her short, sleeveless sundress. Keeping Lois Gordon’s advice in mind, she hiked her boobs a bit higher inside her bra and was happy with the resulting cleavage. A bit more lipstick and she was good to go.

She walked into the diner and got a blast full of welcome air-conditioned cold air in the face. Raising her sunglasses up and setting them on top of her head, she glanced around the diner. There were plenty of people inside but Jared Gordon wasn’t one of them. Maybe he was in the restroom?

A cup of seventy-five-cent coffee at the counter would give her time to wait for him without looking suspicious, and she could get a look at some of the other local characters while she was at it.

Slipping onto one of the high counter stools, she ordered the coffee and then turned her attention to the dark-haired man in the khaki uniform next to her. A small town sheriff, a tin star on his chest and all, and he was cute too. She had to tape the show in this town. It was too perfect. She couldn’t have made it any better if she’d cast it herself.

Just to prove her already lofty opinion of the town’s characters and their marketability, Mac spotted her from his place inside the kitchen.

“Hey there, pretty lady. You come back for your stud?” A gravely bark of a laugh followed Mac’s question as he amused himself.

She laughed and decided to play along with the joke. If she was going to flirt her way into a contract, she might as well start now. “Actually, I did, but even though I saw his truck outside he doesn’t seem to be in here.”

At her response, Mac’s laughter filled the kitchen again, spilling out into the diner and making a few of patrons inside look up.

Even the hunky sheriff turned his ice blue eyes to her. “You talking about the Gordon truck outside?”

She nodded. “I was looking for Jared Gordon.”

He raised an inquisitive brow at that. “Were you now?”

“Uh-huh. Know him?” She was getting good at this southern speak. Short, sweet and to the point.

“I might.”

She smiled. “Either you do or you don’t.”

He watched her closely. “You’re not from around here.”

It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway. “No, I’m not.”

“What you want with him?” This sexy guy practically smoldered with brooding good looks. She’d have to put a camera team on him too.

Mandy let out a short laugh. “You southerners sure are a suspicious bunch. I thought you were supposed to be famous for your hospitality. You know, the kindness of strangers and all that.”

He cocked a brow in her direction. “We also watch out for our own.”

She’d give anything to have a video crew with her right now. It was just too perfect.
We watch out for our own, stranger
. She wouldn’t have been at all surprised if John Wayne swaggered through the door and spit some tobacco on the floor. Well, maybe a little surprised, since he was dead, but the entire town had the feel of a place out of its time.

“You got much crime around here, Sheriff?” Mandy had to know more. She couldn’t help herself.

They could put a camera in the car with him all during his shift. It would be amazing. Although, if she thought Jared was going to be a tough sell, this guy would probably be worse by the looks of him. He hadn’t even cracked a smile. Forget about flirting with him, she’d probably get locked up in the town jail for solicitation or something.

“Deputy.” His single word, delivered in a deeper than average voice, interrupted her thoughts.

“Excuse me?” Mandy dragged her spinning mind from visions of the sheriff character on screen back to the man seated right in front of her.

“I’m a deputy, not the sheriff.” He stared at her over the rim of the coffee mug held in his hand.

“
The
sheriff. You mean there’s only one?” She flashed back to sheriff Andy Griffith and his deputy Barney Fife in small town Mayberry back in the black-and-white days of TV during the sixties.

He frowned at her as if he thought she was an imbecile. “’Course there’s only one.”

“Of course. Sorry.”

Still looking suspiciously at her, he set his mug down on the counter. After throwing a few dollars down next to it, he inclined his head to her in a kind of goodbye gesture that managed not to have one bit of warmth in it. He strode his booted feet right out of the diner and she regretfully watched him go. If she didn’t get to tape the show in this town, she’d never forgive herself.

“You lookin’ for Jared Gordon?”

Apparently the fun wasn’t over just yet. Just as “I’m a deputy” left, the waitress came over.

Mandy looked the chubby young woman up and down. Her nametag read
Misty
. How sweet. “Yes, Misty, I am.”

“You, uh,
dating
him?”

She’d used the word dating like it was a euphemism for something else, a word that wasn’t quite so nice and would get you an FCC fine if you used it on network TV. Well, well, well. Was this jealousy she saw before her? The plot thickened.

Mandy answered Misty’s question with one of her own. “Are you?”

The brunette shook her head, sending the ponytail held back with the unfashionably large hair accessory flying from side to side. “Nope, but my friend is. She wouldn’t take kindly to no woman snooping ’round her man.”

Hmmm. What was this? A warning? A threat? More importantly, why the hell was Mandy experiencing something that felt suspiciously like jealousy over the news that Jared had a girlfriend? She supposed it spoke to how serious the relationship was, or wasn’t, since he’d never brought whomever this girl was home to meet his mother judging by what Lois had said.

An existing love interest for Jared in the show. Mandy’d have to think about how to work that angle. Meanwhile, she had Misty to deal with. “I’m not snooping. I have business with Gordon Equine.”

“What kind of business? You ain’t looking like no horsewoman to me.”

Mandy had had about enough of the waitress and her grammatically incorrect interrogation. “
Private
business. Thanks for the coffee.”

She dug a dollar bill out of her purse and slipped it beneath the coffee cup.

Mandy stood and called a goodbye to Mac in the back. With Misty still shooting daggers at her, she was out the door. Perhaps she was enjoying the fact she’d left the waitress suspicious as to her intentions toward Jared a bit too much. Good, it would serve the girl right for being so nosy.

Still not knowing why there was a Gordon truck parked outside and no Gordon inside, Mandy decided to head over to the farm. If she couldn’t find Jared, she could at least talk to his mother. Maybe woman to woman they could work out a deal. She had to have at least one Gordon on her side and get them to sign the consent form. This town was too intertwined to film here if she didn’t have all of the main characters on board. As far as Mandy was concerned, the Gordons struck her as the town headliners.

The trip to the Gordon’s house didn’t fail to impress her, even the second time. She drove beneath the trees lining the winding gravel road that led to a beautiful white farmhouse complete with porch and rocking chairs. It was all too perfect and it would photograph beautifully.

Mandy breathed in the scent of jasmine as she pulled herself out of the rental car and into the warm air. Ignoring the front door, she followed the path to the back door where she’d entered two days ago.

She saw Lois Gordon right where she expected her, in the kitchen. Mandy knocked on the screen door just as Lois was pulling a pie out of the oven and looking younger than ever in capri jeans and a button-down shirt tied at the waist.

Hands still covered in oven mitts, Lois turned toward the door with a smile. “Hey there, darlin’. Come on in.”

Mandy swung the screen door open and it squeaked charmingly. Even the noises around the farm added to her love of the place. “Thank you, Mrs. Gordon.”

“Lois.”

“Lois, then.” Mandy nodded. “Do you bake a pie every day?”

Lois pulled off her oven mitts. “Pretty much. Jared and the boys who work for us enjoy it, but this particular pie is for my book-club meeting tonight. Sorry I can’t offer you a piece. I’ve got some fresh lemonade made though.”

Mandy held up a hand. “That’s fine. Thank you anyway.”

“What can I do for you, darlin’?”

“I was just wondering if you’d thought any more about the show. I really think you’d be great.”

Lois sat down and patted the seat of the chair next to her. Mandy lowered herself into it.

“Darlin’, that decision isn’t mine to make. It’s Jared’s. More than half the responsibility of working this farm is already his, but all of it will be when I’m gone. I have to respect his decision.”

Mandy smiled. “I don’t think you’re going anywhere for a long time.”

“From your mouth to God’s ears, but nobody knows what’s in store for them.”

She had to have this woman, this town, on her show. Mandy hadn’t wanted anything this much in a long time. Frustrated and running out of ideas, Mandy idly ran one finger over a small crack in the old table. She could picture Lois and Jared seated here, eating pie. “I truly don’t understand why your son is so set against it.”

“He can be stubborn, I can tell you that.” Lois let out a short laugh. “It’s a Gordon trait, I’m afraid. In any case, you’ll have to talk to him yourself.”

Mandy pursed her lips. “I was planning on it. I saw a Gordon Equine truck parked outside the diner, but I didn’t see Jared there.”

Lois shook her head. “The boys took the truck to run some errands in town. Jared’s here. He’s out back behind the barn unloading the hay truck.”

Mandy sat up straighter in her chair. “Really? He’s here now?”

“Really.” Lois nodded. “You can go on back and see him if you want.”

“I think I will. Thank you.” Newly inspired, Mandy jumped up from the chair.

“I’ll be seeing you, Mandy.”

Mandy paused in the kitchen doorway. “I hope so, but if Jared doesn’t agree, I’ll be leaving for LA tomorrow.”

A slow, knowing smile crossed Lois’s lips. “I think I’ll be seeing more of you.”

The entire trip to the barn, Mandy wondered how Lois could be so sure of that.

Standing on a mountain of tightly stacked hay bales, Jared flung another two from his perch atop the trailer. They flew through the small door in the wall of the barn.

He pulled his shirt off and wiped the sweat from his face with it. If he had known the guy he bought hay from was going to drop the truck off today, he would never have let Raul and Mick both go into town to pick up horse feed. Since it was lunchtime, they’d probably stopped at the diner too, so he didn’t expect them back for a while.

Jared huffed out a breath. He’d get the hay off the truck and into the barn by himself, but they could have the pleasure of stacking the two-hundred-plus bales inside the hay room when they got back. That thought helped a bit, but not much. He adjusted his gloves, grabbed the string of two more bales, one in each hand, and heaved them through the door.

“Hey, Casanova!”

Jared smiled when he heard Bobby’s voice from below. “Bobby. Perfect timing. You’re just in time to help.”

“Are you crazy? I joined the department so I wouldn’t have to be a farmer. Too much damn work.”

“You’re telling me.” Jared paused in his work and walked to the edge of the stacked bales so he could better talk to his friend. “Why are you calling me Casanova?”