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Authors: Stella Bagwell

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BOOK: Millionaire on Her Doorstep
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Incredulous, Maureen stared at him. “You mean Belinda disappeared? She didn't let anyone know she'd left you behind?”
He shook his head. “No. It's a long story, but eventually she was found and placed in a mental facility. She died there shortly afterward.”
“So Chloe and Wyatt stepped in as your parents,” she said, stating the obvious.
“Because of us twins, they met and fell in love. After they married, they adopted us as their own children. But they never tried to keep our true heritage a secret. In fact, Dad has a diary of Belinda's, which was written during the time she was having the affair with Tomas. Perhaps you'd like to read it sometime. The entries aren't always happy. But it's interesting. She was an intelligent woman. Until the love affair broke her heart and sapped her spirit. But that oftentimes happens when one person cares too much for another.”
Maureen wondered if he was speaking from personal experience. And she wanted to ask him if he'd ever cared about a woman too much for his own good, but she couldn't bring herself to utter the question. Somehow she didn't want to think he'd ever truly given his heart to any female.
“So you think that's what happened to your mother? She cared too much for your father?”
He didn't answer immediately, and she studied his profile as he gazed out at the endless plain stretching below them. He was not the man she'd first thought him to be. He was more. Much more.
The faint smile on his face as he turned to look at her was both wry and sad. “I'm certain of it.”
So that was how Adam thought of love, Maureen concluded. He believed it was something that ruined people, that it had killed his mother and perhaps even his father.
For years now, Maureen had held the same notion. Caring about someone too much could only lead to destruction. She'd chiseled the wisdom into the stone that used to be her heart, and for all this time, even in her loneliest of moments, she'd not forgotten it
But now as she looked at him, she thought how sad it was that he didn't want to give his heart. Maureen had a right to feel jaded and ruined. Adam didn't. Or did he? she wondered.
“Is that why you've never married? Because of what happened all those years ago to your birth parents?” she asked before she could stop herself.
The moment the question was out, she could see a door slam shut inside his dark green eyes.
“Why I've never married is none of your business.”
His words stung even though she told herself they shouldn't. “I told you about my divorce,” she reminded him.
“Look, Maureen, I have my own private demons just like you. And they're not something I want to share with anyone.”
Not even with her. He'd made that perfectly clear, and she had to let it go at that, Maureen told herself. She was supposed to be his friend, nothing more. And as his friend, she had to respect his privacy.
“Sure. I understand,” she murmured, then forced herself to smile up at him.
Something flickered in his eyes and he looked away from her and out toward the distant horizon. “The sun has already set,” he said gruffly. “We'd better start back to the ranch before it gets too dark.”
He rose to his feet and reached his hand down for her. She took it, then he tugged her gently up beside him. Tilting her head back, she looked up at him, and for a moment the longing to kiss him was so strong she could scarcely breathe.
“Thank you, Adam.”
His eyelids lowered as his gaze lingered on the moist curve of her lips. “For what?”
She swallowed and swiftly glanced down at the toes of his boots. “For this ride. And for telling me the story about your parents.”
He grimaced. “I don't know why I did. I'm sure you found it boring.”
She forced herself to laugh, then pulling her hand free of his, she started back to the horses. “I'm the one who's as boring as vanilla pudding,” she called over her shoulder.
Adam could have told her his favorite flavor was vanilla. He could have gone after her and took pleasure in tasting the sweetness of her lips. But he'd made a pact with her to be
just friends
. And he couldn't risk jeopardizing the fragile truce they'd struck between them. This past week, he'd learned that having her company like this was much better than not having her company at all.
 
The next morning, Maureen was surprised when Adam invited her to ride into work with him rather than drive her own vehicle.
A week ago, she would have instantly found an excuse not to accept his offer of a lift. But after last night, she was beginning to believe he really did want their relationship to be friendly. And since they were both going and returning to the same place, Maureen decided taking one vehicle would be the practical thing to do.
The twenty-mile trip into town passed quickly as they discussed the day's schedule ahead of them. Once there, Adam stopped at a bakery long enough to let Maureen. pick up a couple of sweet rolls, then
she went to work in the lab and he in his office. She didn't see him again until quitting time that evening when he came back to the lab to fetch her.
“Ready to go home?” he called to her.
Maureen looked up from the microscope and glanced over her shoulder to see him standing in the doorway. He was dressed more like a businessman today, in dark trousers and a white shirt. The clothes gave him a suave appearance that no doubt turned the heads of all the secretaries and VIPs who met with him. But as for Maureen, she preferred to think of him as he'd been last night—in old boots and jeans, the battered gray hat dipped low on his forehead and a shadow of beard on his face.
Slipping off her glasses, she said, “Just give me a minute to put these tests away.”
“I'm in no hurry,” he said, then walked over to where she was stashing away several tubes of soil and sludge. “In fact, I hope you're not in a big rush to get home. I'd like to drop by my place to see how the carpenters are faring.”
She hadn't expected him to be making a detour this evening. But after last night she could hardly suspect his motives. If he'd really wanted to try to take up where they left off at the swimming pool, he'd had plenty of opportunities. In fact, the more Maureen thought about it, the more confused she became.
From the moment she arrived to work at Sanders, she'd told herself she couldn't let anything happen between her and Adam. She'd promised herself she wouldn't allow anything to happen. But still, she had to admit it had been deflating, even disappointing, last night when he hadn't kissed her. And
the whole situation was making her wonder if she was losing her mind.
“That's fine with me,” she told him. “I don't have any errands to run.”
Adam helped her put away the last of the material she'd been using, then the two of them left the building through a back exit. Outside, the evening sun was still hot and it burned through Maureen's thin blouse as they walked to Adam's truck.
“I still haven't gotten used to the climate here,” she admitted to him. “During the day I nearly keel over from the heat and at night I'm shivering. Does it never change?”
“In the winter. It stays cold all the time. After the years you've spent living in Houston, all the snow might have you deciding you don't want to live here after all.”
Was that what he was hoping for? she wondered, then shook away the suspicious thought. It didn't matter whether Adam wanted her here or not. She'd come to Ruidoso and Sanders to make a new life for herself. Adam Murdock Sanders wasn't going to be a part of it.
“I'm not about to let a little snow run me off,” she assured him. “I'm not that soft.”
Adam's gaze drifted over the length of her. Normally, she wore jeans and hiking boots to work, but today she was dressed in fluttery, wide-legged slacks and a sleeveless blouse that was so sheer he could see the faint outline of lacy lingerie beneath it. The image had haunted him all day. And he wondered how he could keep on pretending he didn't want her.
The trip to Adam's place took thirty minutes over a mountainous dirt road. Maureen hadn't expected
him to live in such a secluded place and was even more surprised when they drove up to a modest ranch-style house built of chinked logs. Knowing his wealth, she'd expected him to live in something a little showier.
“It's beautiful,” she said as they stepped down from the pickup truck.
His glance at her was full of doubt. “You really think so?”
“Of course,” she said with a puzzled smile. “Don't you?”
He shrugged, then motioned for her to follow him to the front door. “I suppose. When I first bought the place several years ago, I had high hopes for it. But now...well, I guess it still needs a little more work.”
They stepped through the front door and into a small foyer. Immediately, the smell of sawdust and paint stripper filled her nostrils, and from somewhere in the back of the house a power saw buzzed loudly.
In the living room, Adam guided her around a stack of drywall and several buckets of paint, then down a long hallway. As Maureen followed him, she could see the house was very roomy and had obviously been in excellent condition before the carpenters had started their work.
Two men were busy in the kitchen. One was at work removing varnish from knotty-pine cabinets Maureen would have loved to have in her own house.
As soon as the carpenters spotted the visitors, they descended on Adam and immediately began to discuss the progress of the renovations. Maureen made herself scarce and wandered back through the other parts of the house.
She looked over every room, then returned to the
living area and lingered there for several minutes while Adam continued his discussion with the carpenters. Eventually, she gave up on him and slipped out a sliding glass door and onto a low patio built of redwood planks.
Unlike the place Maureen had bought, Adam's house sat in a clearing at the base of a mountain. The land was more open and arid here. Rather than spruce and tall pine, the trees were mostly piñon, scrubby cottonwood and poplar. Clumps of yucca and cholla grew with wild abandon right up to the patio floor.
She took a seat at a wooden picnic table shaded by a cottonwood. A barbecue pit built of red brick stood a few feet away, and she wondered how often Adam entertained guests here. Or more important, if a woman had ever lived here with him. In spite of its beauty, there was a lonely, primitive feel about the place. She couldn't picture him living in this isolated spot alone and liking it. But then she didn't really know the man. Not the way she wanted to know him.
“There you are.”
She glanced around to see him stepping out the glass door and onto the patio. “I decided to look around outside,” she told him. “It's very pretty. I get the feeling I'm sitting right in the middle of the desert.”
He groaned inwardly at the charming picture she made there in the dappled shade with the south wind whipping her loose brown hair and molding her clothes against the curves of her body. Since the night in the pool, he hadn't kissed her, but the memory was constantly urging him to. And he wasn't sure how much longer he could fight it.
Trying to shake away the thought, he walked over
to where she sat. “People who aren't from these parts are amazed at how quickly the landscape around here changes from forested mountains to desert.”
Expecting he was ready to go, Maureen rose to her feet. “Speaking of changes,” she said, “I don't understand what you're doing to your house.”
His brows lifted. “What do you mean? I'm renovating it.”
She frowned at him. “I understand that much. But why? From what I can see, the inside of the house was beautiful before you ever started. And those kitchen cabinets—you're going to ruin them if you don't leave them as they are.”
He jammed his hands into his trouser pockets. Mostly to keep from touching her. “That's your opinion.”
Her lips pressed together at his curt response. “Well, I know you didn't ask for it. I just can't figure out what you're trying to do with the place.”
He looked away from her and thoughtfully back at the house. “I've lived here for six years and I like the place. But when I walk through the front door, it still doesn't quite have that feeling of home to it. Do you know what I mean?”
Maureen knew all too well what he meant. She'd been searching for the same place, but in the back of her mind, she was wise enough to know she would more than likely never find it. When her baby daughter had died, her home had died with her.
“Adam, I think...” She stopped with a shake of her head.
A frown marred his face as he glanced back at her. “Go on,” he urged. “I told you last night I'd rather you speak your mind with me.”
“I'm not so sure you knew what you'd be getting into when you said that. But all right. I think you need to understand that rooms or the shape and color of them do not make a home.”
BOOK: Millionaire on Her Doorstep
5.83Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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