The Girl with the Golden Spurs (16 page)

The sincerity in his low tone caught her off guard, and she was barely able to keep her lips from quivering. She’d caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror downstairs and imagined that she probably looked stiff and pale and very young to him in her simple black sheath and a long strand of white pearls. She’d tried to look grown-up by drawing her unruly hair back from her slender face into a chignon, but the hairdo had been a mistake. Untidy strands of platinum silk kept falling against her cheek, and she kept pushing them away.

“Would you like some coffee?” Leo said.

Oh, God, she couldn’t do this.

She had to do this.

She nodded too quickly. “Black, please.” Unable to face
sitting down at the table yet, she turned and found Cole standing beside her.

“Why don’t you take a seat beside your brother, Lizzy, while I pour you a cup?” Cole said.

Even though he wore jeans and a long-sleeved white work shirt, he looked every bit as tall and commanding as Leo did in his fancy Italian suit.

She nodded.

You can do this. You can do this
.

When she eased herself into a chair, Walker took her hand briefly and touched it to his lips. Everybody else smiled and greeted her. Trying to hide her insecurities, she did the same, but she either talked too fast or mumbled her answers.

You can do this
, she repeated silently even as she thought that everyone in the room, including Walker, seemed far more confident and poised than she.

Cole brought her her coffee and she sipped it gratefully.

Leo seated himself at the opposite end of the long table facing Lizzy. “Are we ready to begin?”

Somehow she resisted the urge to squirm in her leather chair. Cole stood at the refreshment table.

“At the last board meeting we asked your father to give up Cherry or resign,” Uncle B.B. said without preamble. “He refused to give us an answer that day. Because of him, the ranch has suffered a great deal of negative publicity. Our bottom line is suffering. Since his stroke and the media’s fascination with Miss Lane’s disappearance, it has only gotten worse. In short, we believe that it is in the best interests of the ranch for us to have a strong leader to steer the south Texas ranching operation during his convalescence.”

Feeling defensive, Lizzy sank lower in her chair. “Someone other than me?” she said.

“Uncle B.B. doesn’t mean to be unkind, Lizzy,” Sam said gently.

“Caesar read us a memo saying he wanted you, but, dear, you
have
been absent from the ranch for years,” Aunt Nanette added.

Hawk was dark and silent. Walker leaned back in his chair and said nothing, as well.

“I believe you should step down and let a more experienced person fill your father’s position until…he returns,” Uncle B.B. finished.

“If he returns,” Lizzy said, forcing herself to sit straighter.

“Good,” Uncle B.B. said. “I’m glad that’s settled. The important thing is for us to choose the right person.” His broad shoulders seemed to expand. He smiled warmly at everybody.

Cole was so busy slathering salmon and cheese on a cracker, he didn’t return Uncle B.B.’ s smile. But when Lizzy glanced nervously at him, he beamed and waved his cracker at her. When he offered her one, she shook her head so fiercely several more flyaway tendrils came loose.

“What kind of man do you think we need, Leo? What is the biggest challenge facing the ranch right now?” Lizzy asked, pushing the strands of hair out of her eyes, only to have them fall back again. “I know we’ve got the museum opening and the celebration coming up.”

“That won’t be a problem. I’ve come home to take charge of that,” Walker said.

“Which everybody is thrilled about.” Leo smiled. “You asked about leadership, Lizzy.”

Before taking the helm of Golden Spurs, Leo Storm had been the CEO of an immense ranch and agribusiness in Montana for more than eight years. Had he ever doubted himself in his whole life? Probably not, Lizzy thought. After all, he held a degree from Harvard.

From what Lizzy had read about him in the reports Cole had given her, he was an extremely able executive. Never
theless, someone, possibly a ranch insider, appeared to be sabotaging everything Leo did and everything Caesar had done.

“We’ll need a man who understands the new technology involved in ranching operations,” Leo said. “Then there are environmental values to consider. Not to mention that consumer demands and tastes change constantly, and we must change to meet them. Then there are crises like mad cow disease. So, we need someone strong and flexible. But I guess the biggest challenge—at least in south Texas—will always be the weather. It’s usually too damn hot and too damn dry for anything other than rattlesnakes to thrive down there.”

“Maybe we should market rattlesnake meat,” Lizzy said.

Everybody laughed.

“You didn’t tell her we need to play hardball with the oil company,” Uncle B.B. said.

“He means Sheldon Oil,” Aunt Nanette chimed in.

Uncle B.B. frowned. “We’re being paid for old gas and new gas. We think Sheldon is paying old prices for new gas, which means lower prices, and we’ve got to do something about this.”

“Why don’t we sue?” Aunt Mona suggested.

“All I want is more money,” Aunt Nanette said.

“A lot
is
going on,” Lizzy said.

Uncle B.B. smiled. “Believe me, we’ve only touched on a few of the high points.”

“Lizzy, you don’t have to worry your pretty head about any of this,” Sam said kindly. “You can just leave it all to us.”

It would be so nice to lean on Sam.
Dear Sam
. But strangely the part about not worrying her pretty head made her feel defiant instead of comforted.

Lizzy stunned herself as well as the others when she stood up. “You may be right, Sam. But Daddy did ask me to take over for him. Suddenly hearing what he’s been up against, I feel called to serve…at least temporarily.”

There was an audible gasp. In the ensuing silence, she took a deep breath herself. Seconds ticked by, and everybody in the room except Cole and Walker seemed to tense. Walker toyed with his pen while Cole appeared totally absorbed in spreading thick, gooey Brie onto another cracker.

“I’m going to ask Cole if he’ll help me—if I do take over.” She glanced at him just as he chomped a rat-size bite out of his cheese and cracker sandwich, but he turned his back to her and stared out the window.

Everybody at the table except Leo rose and began to object at once. Aunt Nanette even pounded the table.

“But Lizzy,” Uncle B.B. yelled louder than the rest. “We had it all worked out before you showed up.”

“Obviously she and Cole had it all worked out, too,” Aunt Mona said.

“I appreciate all your hard work, Uncle B.B.,” Lizzy offered softly.

“Why do you want to do this when you’ve always hated ranching?” Sam began. “Did Cole put you up to this?”

Because something’s wrong here. And because you don’t
think I can
.

“It’s not that I want to do it,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll come around to your point of view very soon. This is simply something I’ve got to do right now. For Daddy. He’s so helpless. I want to help him. It’s the least I can do.”

“But can
you
do it?” Uncle B.B. yelled. “That’s the question.”

Cole wiped his mouth with a paper napkin and strode to Lizzy’s side. “She asked me to help her—and I will,” he said. When she looked up at him, seeking support, his handsome face was dark and closed.

“A Knight? Are you kidding? Your father would roll over in his grave,” Uncle B.B. said.

“Daddy isn’t in his grave,” Lizzy said.

Yet
, someone amended silently.

Leo listened to everybody. Finally he said, “All right. We could talk all day. I propose we try this for ninety days. We can see how things go. After all, Lizzy grew up on the ranch, Caesar taught her everything he knew. Besides, she’ll have Cole.”

There were audible groans.

“It’s Caesar’s wish,” Leo added. “For all his faults, he was a hell of a rancher.”

At that, everybody, Hawk, even Uncle B.B., shut up and stared at Lizzy so intently, she began to tremble.

But one of them had murder in his heart.

After the board meeting she followed Cole and Leo into Caesar’s lavish office. Cole was moody and silent, but he took meticulous notes while Leo worked out the details with her for their new arrangement. Leo suggested Cole give her a tour of the ranch first thing and bring her up to date. Meanwhile, Cole sat down and typed his notes into his PDA.

Leo also showed her an outline of the speech about the ranch’s history and future that Caesar had planned to give at the museum opening and asked her if she would deliver it. Even though she wasn’t a gifted orator like her father, she agreed.

When she and Cole finally found themselves in the elevator alone together again, their briefcases bulging with documents, Cole’s scowl was darker than ever. He stood as far from her as he could possibly get in the gilded cage that whisked them to ground level.

They were both flying back to Houston with John, and once she’d been dropped off in Houston, Cole and John would continue on to the ranch. Hawk and Walker had plans to see Caesar. Lizzy wanted to check on her father one more time and have dinner with both her brothers in Houston before
she drove to the ranch. Gigi had promised to loan Lizzy her daughter’s car.

When their elevator reached the lobby, Cole held the doors for her and said he was hungry and intended to catch a quick bite on the river. “You take the limo to the airport, and I’ll catch a cab later.”

“But—”

He wouldn’t even look at her.

“Are you mad at me, Cole?”

He shook his head too fast. “See you in an hour and a half, okay?” Then he practically bolted out of the elevator.

“Since we’re sharing a limo, maybe I should just join you for lunch? Is that all right?”

He turned slowly, his glittering gaze too sharp as he studied her. “Suit yourself.” But he didn’t smile.

With him stiffly leading the way, they strode single file along the crowded river bank. He walked so fast, she had to run to keep up with him.

He chose a French restaurant that wasn’t too packed. Since it was a nice day, he asked for a table outside by the river where they could watch barges and tourists stream by their table.

The day was bright and crisp, and the river sparkled beneath the cypress tress. When the waiter brought menus, Cole didn’t even let him set them down. “We’re in a hurry. We’ll take your specials.”

Then he ordered drinks, which came almost immediately along with a wire basket of bread and assorted butters.

“Why the rush?” she whispered, fearing his reason was that he wasn’t pleased she’d joined him.

“The specials here are wonderful,” he said, evading her real question as he smeared butter on a piece of bread.

“Thanks for saying you’d help me, Cole.”

“You could have asked me first, you know. You really put me on the spot in the boardroom.”

“You offered to help in New York.”

“And you told me to keep my distance. Doing both is going to be tricky.”

“Okay, I—I didn’t know I was going to ask you until I did it. I’m new at this, okay?”

“Okay. I don’t know when I’ll have time to do the tour,” he replied coldly.

“I can wait.”

“So, what about New York?”

She blinked. Now it was her turn not to want to look at him or answer. “What about what?”

“To be blunt—the sex? You’ve been mad as hell at me ever since. Like I said, I was told to keep my distance. Now we’re to be housemates and business partners?”

“Well, I’m still not exactly happy about New York.”

“But—”

“I see no reason why one stupid little incident—”

He lifted his beer mug to his lips. “The hottest sexual
aberration
of my life, to be more exact.”

“Well, only because your memory is not too good at the moment.”

He scowled. “Don’t keep throwing that up at me.”

“Fine.” She emptied sugar packets into her tea, squeezed her lime juice into the tall glass and made a fuss of stirring. “I don’t see why one idiotic mistake made during a horrible period in my life needs to ruin our business relationship, Cole.”

“Oh, so that’s what we have now? A business relationship?” He smiled grimly.

“Partners.” She dinged her iced tea glass with the long spoon and set it down. “You said you’d help.”

“And I will.”

“And you’ll keep your distance, too…just like you promised in New York.”

“Since we’ll be living in the same house, I assume you mean sexually?” His silver-blue eyes drilled her.

“Hands off! That’s what I mean.”

He leaned a fraction of an inch closer over the table. “What about lips?”

His soft voice and his hungry glance got her edgier.

“Don’t!”

“Where do you stand on a little light flirtation?”

“No.”

“You’re not going to ask me to marry you to make this a real partnership, so people won’t question my leadership, are you?”

“Marry you?” She regarded him warily. “Whatever gave you a crazy idea like that?”

“Before you propose publicly, ask me in private first.” His voice was hard.

“I would never want to marry you! I don’t want anything of that nature to do with you. Don’t you get it?”

“Got it,” he snapped.

“When you asked me to lunch—”

“I didn’t ask you, darlin’. You invited yourself.”

“Because I was trying to thank you for agreeing to help me, you big, handsome lug.”

“Handsome. Well, finally—a compliment.”

She pushed her chair back and picked up her purse. “I didn’t want to start a fight, so I’ll go.”

When she started to stand up, his tanned hand closed over her wrist. “No! Stay.”

Even after she quit struggling to pull free, his hand lingered on her wrist. She felt his thumb making warm circles on her soft skin. “I’m inviting you to lunch with me now.” His blue eyes were intense.

Mesmerized, she sank back into her chair. “Since we’ve already ordered,” she relented.

“When we get to the ranch, I’ll leave you the hell alone,” he said cheerily. “You can count on it.”