Never Say Never (6 page)

He scratched his head. “I was trying
not
to be moody. I think I was trying for levity.”

Eunice shook her head with a smile. “You’re trying too hard. I know Nina needed constant conversation and support, but I think if you relax a little, you may find Jill is more self-possessed than she appears. But don’t tease her too much. Remember, she’s got some emotional struggles right now, too.”

“You mean, I can keep the conversation to our orphan and what her responsibilities are with Joey, and two or three hours in the car won’t seem like having a root canal?”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Eunice said. “Holly and I are going to play while you’re gone, and we may even have a hot dinner on when you get back.”

“Mother, don’t,” Dustin said worriedly. “You’re doing enough by watching Holly. And the Copelands will probably bring Joey back while I’m in Dallas.”

“You see? That’s just what I mean, son. You don’t mean it, but you’re being heavy-handed. A woman doesn’t like to feel dependent, less capable. I think that’s important to keep in mind when you’re talking to Jill.” She smiled, to keep the sting out of her advice, but Dustin shook his head, at a loss.

“I’ll try to remember,” he said, before kissing her on the cheek and leaving the room. Why did dealing with women seem to require a course in How Not To Be A Social Moron?

He had an uneasy feeling that Jill wasn’t going to be an easy-A course, either. And that he might flunk, regardless of how hard he tried to get good marks.

“Ready?” Dustin asked.

“Ready,” Jill replied, allowing Dustin to help her up into the cab of his truck.

Starting the truck, he waved to his mother, who stood watching from the parlor window. Naturally, the moment they were ready to leave, Holly had gone into a full-blown baby tantrum that couldn’t be easily soothed. It had concerned him enough to suggest that perhaps he should call a friend over to sit with his mother while he and Jill were gone. Eunice had nearly snapped his head off with irritation.

“Dustin Reed, be on your way before I become upset with you. We’ll be fine.”

He’d left, unable to ease the way he felt. Jill was waiting outside for him.

“Do you think she’ll be all right?” he asked her.

“I think she’ll be great. Apparently, your mother’s arthritis has receded quite a bit today.”

“All right.” Dustin sighed in surrender. “Women. I hope you both know what you’re talking about.” But he couldn’t help another anxious glance at the window.

Eunice was holding up an object in her arms, pointing down at it with a grin.

“Holly’s gone to sleep again,” Jill said, smiling. “You owe me an apology.”

“For what?” Dustin was outraged.

“For that snide comment about women.
I hope you both know what you’re talking about
,” she repeated for his benefit. But she was still smiling.

Dustin backed the truck down the driveway. “Sorry.”

He didn’t sound that way at all.

“It’s actually your mother you should apologize to,” Jill said lightly.

Dustin stopped the truck at the end of the driveway. “Look. There’s something we should get straight. I just apologized. It’s something I don’t do often. But if you keep harping on me, I’m going to say something you don’t like again. Then you’ll want me to apologize again, only I’ll probably feel like I was justified in making whatever comment I did. I think we should go slowly on what I should say or not say.”

He paused. Jill’s eyes were huge. “Wow, that was a mouthful. Could you repeat that? I don’t think I caught it all.”

Dustin stared at Jill before he saw the twitching at the side of her mouth. The woman was
trying
not to laugh at him. Dustin shifted into gear and let the truck start picking up speed. “I can tell it’s going to be a long ride into Dallas,” he grumbled.

“It’s always a shame to meet a man who can dish it out but who can’t take it,” Jill said innocently.

“And that is supposed to mean what?”

“That you were plenty willing to use me as joke bait this morning. But now I’ve found something to get your goat over, and you don’t like it.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Dustin replied, his tone tense. “I’m just not ready for it, is all.”

“What’s there to be ready for?” Jill appeared honestly confused.

Dustin was, too. “I think I’m not ready for such an attractive female to be living in my house,” he said honestly, glancing her way.

Jill’s blue eyes went round with astonishment.

“Oh.” After a moment, she murmured, “Thank you.” Then she didn’t say another word until they reached the highway into Dallas.

Obviously, the lady hadn’t been ready for an honest answer. At least, Dustin thought wryly, the truth had brought him a good stretch of time without having to make casual conversation with his new housekeeper.

Jill’s parents, Lana and Bob McCall, weren’t far off from what Dustin had expected. Lana was petite and blonde and doted on Jill; Bob was easygoing, balding a bit, and doted on Jill. Their home was welcoming, though Dustin shied from looking at the stockings hung on the mantel.
Bob
,
Lana
,
Jill
,
Andy
,
Darla
,
Tommy
, they read. There was an extra nail where another stocking must have once hung, but had been removed for some reason. Dustin glanced at Jill, remembering that she’d recently broken off an engagement. He wondered if the empty nail was her ex-fiancé’s. Poor fellow, Dustin commiserated.

Of course, he theorized, the guy could have always found another nail to hang his stocking on. If that were the case, maybe he wouldn’t mind Dustin thinking alarmingly warm thoughts about Jill. He watched her give her mother and father exuberant hugs, then turn to look at him.

“Sit down, Dustin, please. I’ll go get packed.”

Dustin sat, his posture stiff. Lana sat across from him and Bob squeezed in close beside his wife.

“So!” Lana said too brightly. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“No, thank you, ma’am.” He tried to ease himself back into the pillows of the well-stuffed sofa, wanting to appear confident, but the truth was, the pillows hardly moved and he felt like he was a teenager waiting for his prom date, anyway.

“So!” Lana repeated. “Jill’s going to be living with you.”

It was a statement, but came out as a confused question. Dustin understood. “Actually, no, ma’am. She’ll live at my house, with my mother and an infant we’re keeping for someone, and my son, Joey. It’ll be quite a lot for her to do, being the housekeeper at the ranch. My mother and I sure appreciate her agreeing to try the job out for a while.”

He was careful to emphasize “mother” as many times as possible. Lana looked a little less perturbed. Bob, he wasn’t sure about.

“This is certainly unexpected. When Jill told me she was applying for a housekeeper’s position, I wasn’t thinking of…” She stopped uncomfortably. Dustin waited, ill at ease himself.

“Well, I don’t think I—I mean we—didn’t expect her to be living with a single male.” Red crept into Lana’s cheeks. Bob cleared his throat.

“My wife died nearly a year ago, in a car accident,” Dustin said, careful to keep his voice neutral. “But if I had a daughter, I’d worry about her as much as you’re worrying about Jill if she came home and told me these same plans.”

“I’m sorry about your wife,” Lana said, obviously meaning it. “You understand that we’re concerned, though we don’t want you to think we’re being…”

She paused. Bob cleared his throat. “Parental,” he said helpfully.

“I understand parental perfectly,” Dustin said, relaxing a bit. “I’ve developed a major dose of it since…” He’d started to say
since my wife died
, but stopped as he realized he didn’t want to say that. It was much too personal. Rubbing his jaw as if he could massage out the sudden tightness, he said, “You know, why don’t you come out to the ranch for Sunday supper? My mother and I would be happy to have you. You might be interested in my cattle, Bob, and, Lana, I think you’ll find you have a lot in common with my mother.”

Lana’s face lit with genuine excitement. “Sunday supper would be wonderful. Don’t you think so, Bob?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen cattle close up,” he replied.

“Well, you wouldn’t want to be too close, anyway.” Dustin grinned easily. “I’ll have my mother call you tomorrow. Please understand, we’re not fancy at the ranch,” he warned.

“Tell your mother I’ll be glad to bring whatever dishes will complement her menu, but I’m especially proud of my strawberry bread and ham rolls.”

Bob cleared his throat again, in what Dustin was beginning to recognize as a conversational prop. “Jill, are you ready?”

“Yes.” She moved to the stack of belongings in the hallway. Dustin picked up most of it, and Bob got the rest. Jill said goodbye, with effusive hugs and kisses, before settling in the cab. Lana and Bob stood at the side, watching Dustin secure everything in the back.

“I’ll tell Mother about your strawberry bread and ham rolls.” Dustin put his hand out for Bob to shake. “We’ll see you for Sunday supper at the ranch.”

Lana smiled, her eyes misting. “Take care of her, Dustin.”

Bob muttered some appropriate comment. Dustin nodded. Then he walked to the cab and got in. Jill smiled as Dustin shut the truck door.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” she asked.

Dustin shook his head, waving as they drove away. “Do you need to go by your apartment to pick up anything else?”

She hesitated only a fraction of a second. “Not right now. There were enough of my things at Mother’s to last me for a week.” She was quiet for a moment before she turned to look at him. It wasn’t that he’d turned to glance her way to know she was looking; it was that he could feel her gaze as surely as if light was beaming warmly on his face.

“Yes?” he asked, knowing his tone was brusque but unable to stop himself.

“Thank you for inviting my parents out. They’ve been so worried about my…engagement breaking off, and now I’m uprooting myself, which they totally didn’t expect. I think they’d hoped I’d go home and stay with them for a while to lick my wounds. Coming out to see the ranch will make them feel much more at ease.”

“Forget it,” Dustin said roughly. “It was a bribe.”

Chapter Four

Jill sat up straight in the seat. “A bribe?”

“Yeah. I’m thinking if they know their daughter is safe and happy, then they won’t want you to leave the ranch.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Jill said softly.

They were silent the rest of the drive back, except for some tersely polite comments about the scenery. Dustin hadn’t been deaf yesterday to Jill’s intention to stay only one week if he didn’t mind his p’s and q’s. Could she blame him for trying to ease things with her folks? Shoot, at the rate he was going, he was going to run out of housekeeper candidates by the new year. Yet Dustin sensed he’d hurt her feelings with his blunt answer, and he really hadn’t meant to. He was just telling it the way he saw it. Obviously, Jill was a tenderhearted little thing. He hoped his mother was right about her being perfect for the job. A tender heart wasn’t likely to survive the harshness of life on a country ranch. The previous housekeepers hadn’t possessed hearts, and they still hadn’t been able to cut it.

Dustin was still mulling that over as he slowly drove up the long driveway to his house. The sheriff’s cruiser was parked outside. Murmuring an apology to Jill, he shut off the truck and got out, crossing the yard and taking the porch steps three at a time.

Inside, a miniature version of himself met him in the hallway. “Joey!” he said. For a moment, he wondered if he should hug the child, but the serious expression on his son’s face forestalled him.

“Hi, Daddy,” his son replied quietly. “Grandma says you’ve…you’ve got a surprise for me.”

His mother must mean Jill. “Yes. She’s out by the truck.”

“My new mother?”

Dustin winced. “No, son. A new housekeeper, to help around the house. And with the baby.”

“Oh. She’s loud. And she…she smells funny.”

Dustin frowned as he looked down at the child. “Jill does? Did Grandma tell you that?”

“No. I helped change her.”

“Oh.” Dustin was so relieved he didn’t know what to think. There was so much on his mind it was like two trains colliding at once. “Why don’t you go outside and meet Jill while I check on Grandma? But be careful walking down the porch steps.”

“Okay.”

Dustin opened the door and called to Jill, who was eyeing the cattle which peered over the wood rails at her just as cautiously. “Jill. I’d like you to meet my son, Joey.”

“Joey!” Instantly, Jill came forward to help the boy down from the porch. “I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

“Why?”

She hesitated. “Because…because I need a friend if I’m going to live here.”

Joey digested that. “You won’t stay long. You…you not be my best friend.”

“Well, I…”

Jill’s eyes darted to Dustin’s and he shrugged. Best she know now that Joey had suffered for his mother’s passing. This job wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.