Trouble in High Heels (9 page)

The situation was strange enough, and she didn’t want Virginia or anyone else to pick up on the dynamics, whatever they were, between her and Jackson, so she took the high road of civility. “Virginia and Maria, this is Jackson James. He’s my accountant and advisor. I’m sorry we didn’t give you much notice for our visit, but both of us would like to help while we’re here. And if you don’t have room, I’ll totally understand.”

“Nonsense,” Virginia said. “Of course we have room. We always have room for you. And right now, I can offer you pie.”

Jackson entered the house and Lori introduced him to Virginia and Maria. He greeted each of them. “Thank you for letting us come on such short notice.”

“Lori is always welcome here. We loved her from the first summer she spent here at the ranch. She was great with the horses and the kids.”

“Really,” he said, surprised by the woman’s assessment of Lori. It was tough for him to visualize Lori doing such hard physical labor. “I’m hoping we won’t need to stay long.”

“Don’t worry about a thing. Now, as I was saying,” Virginia said. “The pie is ready. Would you like a piece?”

Jackson inhaled the mouth-watering scent. “I never turn down just-baked pie,” Jackson said as the four of them returned to the kitchen.

Virginia urged Lori and Jackson into kitchen chairs around a small breakfast table. “Do you have any campers?” Lori asked. “Are they out on the horses or resting?”

“We’ll have campers in a couple days,” Virginia said as she served the pie. “I’m low on staff this summer, so you can be sure we’ll be busy. Thank goodness some family members and counselors will come with the campers and serve as helpers.”

“I can help,” Lori offered.

Jackson nearly choked on his pie in surprise.

Virginia ’s eyes rounded with excitement. “That would be fantastic. The campers will love you, and we have some new horses that you will love.”

Jackson watched Lori bite her lip. “I’m a little rusty with the horses. Maybe I could help in the kitchen or with the housekeeping duties.” That made sense, he thought. No heavy lifting for the princess.

Virginia paused, then gave a slow nod. “That will work, too. I just thought you would enjoy working with the horses more.”

“Oh, I’m sure your routine is different now. It will be easier for me to jump right in with helping in the kitchen.”

“Okeydoke,” Virginia said. “Two more hands. Maria, the jackpot arrived at our front door, didn’t it?”

Maria gave a neutral smile. “We’re always grateful for volunteers.”

Maria was no fool, Jackson decided. He suspected the striking Latino woman had already rendered judgment on Lori as useless. Which wasn’t completely true. Even though Lori had been a major pain in his ass, he knew she had a good heart.

“If you have any repairs you need done on the house, I can help with those,” he said to Virginia.

The older woman lifted her hand to her throat. “Oh, stars, you have no idea what you’re offering. I hate to take advantage of you, but I’m desperate enough to do just that. There’s a loose board in the front porch.”

“I noticed that,” he said. “I could probably take care of it this afternoon.”

Virginia beamed. “Well, isn’t this too good to be true? Jackson, you can work on the house, and Lori, Maria can get you started on some casseroles and cutting and chopping of vegetables. We like to do as much ahead of time as we can, since things get so hectic when the kids are here.” She smiled at Jackson. “You want another piece of pie?”

That afternoon, Maria gave Lori the recipe for a chicken-and-stuffing casserole. Lori hit a little snafu when she overlooked the instruction to precook the chicken and chop it into pieces. Not understanding the use of soups, she prepared them according to the instructions on the can. When she pulled the huge casserole out of the oven, it was a mess.

Maria stared at her in chagrin. “You could not read the recipe?” she asked. “You did not see that you are supposed to cook the chicken first? And the soup?” She shook her head and went off in a spate of Spanish that Lori couldn’t interpret word for word. She got the gist, however, that Maria was pissed.

“I’m really sorry,” Lori said. “I’ll pay for the ingredients. I’ll-”

Virginia entered the kitchen, and Maria immediately began talking to the woman in excited Spanish. Virginia looked at the casserole and grimaced, then looked at Lori.

“Carrots,” the older woman said. “We need chopped carrots, potatoes, and onions. And after that, you can snap beans. Maria, why don’t you take some of the horses for a ride?”

Lori meticulously chopped carrots until dinnertime, when Virginia appeared again. “Oh, my, you didn’t get to the potatoes yet, did you?”

Lori felt a sinking sensation at the surprise in the woman’s tone. “Was I supposed to chop them first?”

“No,” Virginia said. “I just thought we might use some of the vegetables for dinner tonight.” Virginia paused. “But you know, it’s so hot, I think sandwiches and chips would be a great idea for dinner.” She squeezed Lori’s shoulder. “Sweetheart, are you sure you wouldn’t rather work with the horses tomorrow?”

“Oh, no. I’ll get faster,” Lori said. “I just haven’t done much cooking lately.” Or ever, she silently added.

Maria swept into the kitchen and glanced at the bowl of carrots. “Carrots? She has only sliced the carrots?”

Virginia gave a determined smile. “I’ve decided on sandwiches for dinner. Everything okay with the horses?”

“All good,” Maria said. “Holt and I took them for rides.”

“Holt?” Lori asked.

“He’s a neighbor who helps part-time when he can. Used to ride the rodeo. He’s great with the horses,” Virginia said. “Maria, let’s put some sandwiches together.”

“I’ll help,” Lori offered.

“That’s sweet. Would you mind setting the table?”

The following morning, Lori was put on housekeeping detail. She dusted and mopped the floors of the two cabins, and cleaned bathrooms and windows. She even vacuumed the curtains the same way she’d seen her housekeeper do. Exhausted by the end of the day, she returned to the main house.

She smelled something delicious baking in the kitchen and walked inside. Jackson sat in a kitchen chair, chatting easily with Maria and Virginia. She felt a twinge of jealousy at how quickly the women had accepted him. Maria shot him a teasing smile, and Lori felt the twinge turn to a stab that went deeper. Frowning at the feeling, she brushed it aside.

Virginia looked up at her and smiled. “There’s our little cleaner. Come on in, sweetheart. The cabins all spick-and-span?”

“Both of them sparkle,” she said, proud of herself for doing a good job.

“Both?” Virginia echoed.

“Both?” Maria repeated. “You only did two of them?”

Lori blinked. “There are more? There were only two when I was here before.”

Maria sighed. “Ay caramba…”

“No, hold on just a minute, Maria,” Virginia said. “Lori is right. We built the other two cabins the spring after she worked here.”

Maria tossed her dish towel aside and met Lori’s gaze. “All right. I will finish the other two cabins and eat my dinner later.”

Lori felt her pride roar to the surface. It was as if that dish towel was actually a gauntlet. “Oh, no,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

“It will take you all night,” Maria said, shaking her head as she moved away from the counter. “The cabins have to be ready for the campers tomorrow.”

Lori stepped directly in Maria’s path. “I said I would do it, and I will,” she said firmly, then glanced at Virginia. “ Virginia, would you toss me one of those apples? That should get me through.”

“Of course, dear, but you don’t have to-”

“Excuse me, but yes, I do,” Lori said and surprised herself when she caught the apple. Maria made her feel small and inept. That was bad enough, but the fact that she did it in front of Jackson made Lori understand the concept of catfight. Which was crazy. She shouldn’t and didn’t care that Jackson viewed her as vapid and useless. If she kept telling herself that, she would believe it.

J
ackson walked into the barn to check on a loose stall door and heard the scrape of a shovel from the other side of the barn. The horses were out for an afternoon ride with the campers, so he figured it was a good time to take care of cleaning stalls. He checked three of the doors and found the third one was the culprit. Pulling out his tools, he replaced the stripped screws.

Just as he finished the job, he heard a feminine voice humming. He didn’t recognize the song until the voice put words to the Justin Timberlake number about bringing sexy back. His lips twitched. If he didn’t know better, he would swear that was Lori’s voice, but she couldn’t possibly be mucking out horse manure.

He couldn’t resist a peek at the songstress, and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor at the sight of Lori wearing a hat, gloves, boots, and borrowed jeans that didn’t fit. Swinging a fork and her butt, she moved in time to an MP3 player in her pocket. She was so intent on her job and the music, she didn’t notice him.

Unable to tear himself from the unlikely sight, he stared for several moments.

Lori turned around, saw him, and screamed.

Jackson grimaced and moved toward her with his hands lifted. “For Pete’s sake, it’s just me.”

She pulled earphones from her ears. “I didn’t know anyone was there.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “How long have you been watching me?”

“Not long,” he said. “Just long enough to know you’re not a contender for
American Idol.”

She scowled at him. “Thank you very much. You can leave now.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “With this kind of show? No way.” He glanced at the stall. “You’ve done a damn good job.”

“Of course I have,” she said, grabbing the wheelbarrow and pushing it out of the stall.

He walked along beside her. “I didn’t know mucking out stalls was on your usual list of activities.”

“It isn’t now, but I did it all the time in college and during my summers here.” She dumped the contents of the wheelbarrow into a predetermined pile. “I’ve actually spent much more time taking care of horses than cooking or cleaning.”

“That’s right. Your major was equestrian studies. So why aren’t you helping with the campers?”

“Cleaning stalls is one of those things that comes right back to you. But I haven’t ridden in a while. I’m rusty.”

“Why not?”

“I took a few spills, broke a bone or two. Daddy refused to let me get back on a horse.”

“Daddy’s gone now,” Jackson said.

“True,” she said and shrugged. “But if I want to be helpful, I need to stick with an area where I’m sure I’m competent.”

“I’m stunned. I never would have pictured you, Lori Jean Granger, heiress to millions, doing something like this.”

She met his gaze. “I guess that means you either underestimated me or overestimated me. I wonder which,” she said and moved on to another stall.

“You know you may need to stay here at the ranch for at least a couple of weeks before everything dies down in Dallas?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I’m fine with that. I’ve always liked it here. The only part about waiting is that I need to get married so I can help out Virginia financially.” She shrugged. “But I guess that’s more your problem than mine.”

“Mine?”

“Yes, you have to bring in the prospects. It might be tougher getting the right man for the job to come all the way down here.”

Jackson swore. She was right about that one.

“It wouldn’t hurt you to show a little patience,” Virginia said as she pulled hot biscuits from the oven.

Maria rolled her eyes as she packed the dinner baskets assigned to each cabin. “It would be easier if she weren’t so useless. All that food she wasted, and then she took forever to clean the cabins. I bet she doesn’t even know how to make a bed.”

“She does,” Virginia said. “It’s just been a while. If you understood how overprotective Lori Jean’s daddy was, then maybe you wouldn’t be so hard on her.”

“Overprotectiveness was never an issue with my father,” Maria said, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. Her father had been so abusive she’d repeatedly run away from home, but every time she’d left, he’d found her and beat her. She rubbed the scar on her cheek. The last time Maria had run away, she was eighteen and Virginia and Skip had intervened.

“I know, sweetheart,” Virginia said and gave Maria a quick hug. “I wish Skip and I could have done something for you sooner, but we didn’t even know you existed until we found you sleeping in the barn.”

“Lucky for me,” Maria said. “But how long do we have to let Lori stay here?”

“As long as I told you that you could stay here,” Virginia told her in a firm voice.

Virginia had assured Maria that she could stay on the ranch as long as she wanted. “But I was helpful,” Maria said. “I didn’t ruin entire meals.”

“Give Lori some time. She’ll be helpful, too. You may not see it, but she has a heart of gold.”

“If she has this heart of gold, then why doesn’t she just give you the money for the ranch?” Maria demanded.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Virginia said. “I just know that if she needs a place to stay, I’m going to give it to her.”

L
ori glanced at her diamond-encrusted Rolex as she left the cabin in sparkling-clean condition behind her. If anyone had told her that she would spend her days trying to set a new record for cleaning toilets, she would have laughed them into next week. Glancing up, she nearly ran into Geoffrey.

“There you are,” he said. “I was hoping you could show me around today. Last night we didn’t have an opportunity to share much time together,” he said, dressed in khaki slacks and a white shirt.

He really was cute, Lori thought. Floppy light brown hair, crooked self-deprecating grin, tons of polite British charm. She wondered if she could get along with him for six years. “Sounds lovely, but I need to clean two more cabins, and the clock is ticking. Maria will hiss at me if I don’t get them done.”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Maria? Why would she hiss at you? You’re doing her a favor by cleaning.”

“Not fast enough,” Lori said, then decided to give the duke a little test. “Would you mind helping me?”

He blinked for a solid moment, then seemed to force himself to shake his head. “Clean,” he repeated as if it were a foreign word. “Of course not.” He gave a slightly forced smile. “I’m happy to help. Lead onward.”

Lori bit her lips to keep them from twitching. “Thank you so much. The other cabins are this way.”

As soon as they stepped inside the first cabin, she gave him a feather duster and a mop. “I’ll do the bathrooms. They take the most work.” After a few moments of scrubbing, she called out to him. “Everything okay?”

“It’s fine,” he said and sneezed. “Everything’s fine.”

Lori shined the mirrors. “I’m surprised you were able to find me at Miracles in Motion.”

“Your housekeeper took pity on me. I begged her. And gave her a one-hundred-dollar bill.”

Lori glanced outside the bathroom door. “A hundred dollars?”

He nodded and flicked the duster over a dresser. “I started low, but she wouldn’t budge.”

“I’m flattered that you were so determined, but I’m kind of surprised. We only met that once.”

“I thought we connected well. That and I wanted to cut myself out of the pack of wild dogs barking at your back door,” he said.

She laughed. “They all want the money. What they don’t understand is that they’ll have to sign an iron-clad prenup.”

His dusting abruptly stopped. “Is that so?”

She nodded. “Of course. But whoever I marry will be generously compensated.”

“Really?”

“Until I’m thirty.”

The duster dropped to the floor. “Pardon me. Did I hear you correctly? Did you say until you reach thirty?”

She glanced outside the door at him. “Yes. The real reason I’ll get married is just to get access to my own money, which is unfortunately held in trust.”

“And what do you want to do with your money?”

“Give it away,” she said and gave the tub another swipe.

She heard a crashing sound and glanced outside the door. “Problem?”

“No, I just-” He picked up his broom and looked at her in confusion. “Why would you want to give away your money?”

“Because I have tons of money and I’m a philanthropist. Prime example is this ranch. Virginia really needs some money, but I can’t give it to her until I can access it.” She rinsed out the tub.

“Lori Jean,” Geoffrey said from directly behind her, startling her.

She whirled around to find him kneeling on one knee. “I didn’t know you were right behind me.”

“My apologies,” he said, mop and duster in his hands. “But would you do me the honor of becoming my wife? I think we could help solve each other’s problems. I’ve been told I’m not a bad man to have around. Amusing, clever, agreeable, not too demanding. I’m not a playboy, but I’ve also been told I’m not bad in the sack-”

Lori held up her hand. “That’s the thing. I’m not sure I want to have sex.”

“Oh,” he said, pausing for a long moment. Then she would swear he was mentally calculating how many years of abstinence would be required. He cleared his throat. “It might be difficult, but I suppose-”

“It might be okay with me if my husband-” She hesitated, searching for the right words. “If he took care of his needs with someone else, as long as he was discreet.”

“Ah, well, as you know we British are the epitome of discretion.”

She felt an odd lump in her throat. Marriage. Did she really want to go through with this? With him? “Would you mind if I think this over?”

He shook his head. “Of course not. It’s a big decision. For six years. You probably have some questions for me.”

“Right,” she said.

They stood staring at each other, awkwardly silent for a long moment.

The doorway swung open and Maria appeared. She lifted her eyebrow. “You haven’t finished yet?” she asked.

Lori hated the suggestion that she wasn’t good enough. “Three down. One to go. Getting faster.”

Maria tossed her hair. “So you are. With help from your English boy.”

“He’s not a boy. He’s a man,” Lori cooed, just to see if she could poke even a tiny hole in Maria’s thick hide. “But I guess since you don’t get many gentlemen around here, you wouldn’t know how to treat them.”

Maria blinked and gave Geoffrey a second assessing look. She opened her mouth and worked her jaw, but nothing came out. “Just finish the other cabin,” she finally blurted and stomped away.

“Moody,” Lori said.

“Fiery,” Geoffrey said, staring after Maria.

“She has zero patience,” Lori countered.

“She’s stacked better than the Oxford Library,” Geoffrey added.

Lori met his gaze, unable to keep her lips from twitching in humor. “Can’t argue with that.”

Geoffrey suddenly seemed to realize that he’d practically drooled over another woman in front of the woman to whom he’d just proposed. He grimaced. “Bloody hell. Well, you’re very well stacked, also,” he said. “Very well stacked. Better than Oxford. You have some kind of enormous library here in the States. What is it?”

“Library of Congress,” Lori said.

“Exactly,” he said with a firm nod. “You’re stacked better than the Library of Congress.”

“Thank you,” she said. “We still need to clean the last cabin.”

“Right-o. Lead on.”

That evening, Lori read another letter from her mother as usual before she went to bed, but her mind kept wandering to the prospect of marrying Geoffrey. After thirty minutes, she gave up, got dressed, and headed for the barn.

Did she really want to do this? Could she really go through with a business marriage? She thought of her sisters and their happy and passionate marriages. Maybe this was a weird twist-of-fate payoff. Since they’d had the tough upbringings, they were due love happily-ever-after. If the flip side were true, since she’d had the cushy childhood, she wouldn’t get the love connection.

It was terribly naive to think all her secret wishes would come true. And when she thought about it, if she got everything she wanted, she’d probably be exactly what Jackson had thought she was-a spoiled brat.

She wandered inside the darkened wooden building and inhaled deeply, wanting to recapture the way she had felt before the accident. Back then, there had been something peaceful about the barn at night. The horses rested easily. It was almost like watching a baby sleep, she thought as she looked into Lady’s stall.

She heard footsteps behind her and felt her heart kick a little as Jackson came into view. He was such a man. A man’s man. Strong, no-nonsense, sexy. The last description stopped her. Sexy? He was just different, she told herself, because he wasn’t falling all over himself to be with her. If she was attracted to him, it was just some sort of sick thing about wanting something she couldn’t have. But something had changed between them since they’d kissed. She couldn’t look at him without being aware of him as a man.

“Is this becoming a habit?”

She shrugged, leaning against the stall door. “There are worse habits.”

“I thought you’d be spending the evening with the English lord,” he said, standing beside her.

“Duke,” she corrected. “I spent a good part of the day with him,” she said.

“He must be very interested if he was willing to drive down here to see you.”

“I’m sure he is. I’m loaded and can solve most of his financial problems,” she said.

She felt his gaze on her. “You want to expound on that?”

“Not really,” she said with a breezy smile and moved toward the next stall. “I came here for the peace and serenity of the barn at night. Don’t feel you need to stay.”

He gave a rough laugh. “Dismissing me already?” he asked, joining her. “Are you sure you want to do that? I have some sugar in my pocket,” he said in a seductive voice.

She whipped her head around to meet his gaze, and then she was unable to stop herself from looking at his pocket. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it called that before.”

He laughed again, this time more loudly. “Sugar cubes,” he said. “Get your mind out of the gutter, sweetheart.”

She scowled, but he ignored her, moving farther into the barn. “Let’s see who is awake,” he said.

“Probably Rowdy,” she said, curious.

“Peace is peaceful as usual,” he said. He walked a few steps farther and there was a sound of a hoof on the floor. Seconds later, Rowdy poked his head out of his stall door. “Looks like you were right. You want to give him a sugar cube?”

Lori immediately felt herself stiffen with fear. The dark feeling circled around and inside her, sucking away her breath and nerve. She took a careful breath and tried to appear nonchalant. “That’s okay. You brought the treat. You can give it.”

She moved closer, though, and watched as Jackson stretched his hand out flat for the horse. Rowdy politely took the sugar cube with his mouth instead of his teeth.

Jackson glanced at her. “You sure you don’t want to give him one? I have more.”

She considered the offer and felt her palms immediately go damp. It wasn’t riding, she reminded herself. It was just a damn sugar cube. She took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Come here,” he said and put the cube into her open palm. He slid his arm around her back, and Lori felt a sliver of tension leave her body. Willing herself to remain calm, she tentatively lifted her hand toward Rowdy.

When he nodded his head and whinnied, she stiffened but kept her hand steady. She watched as the horse moved his super-soft lips over her hand and took the sugar cube.

She looked at Jackson and couldn’t help smiling. “I’d forgotten that their mouths feel like velvet.”

“Yeah, velvet,” he said, but he was looking at her mouth.

She felt as if she were going up the down elevator. She met his gaze and another crackle of electricity snapped between them. Was it just her? Was it some kind of masochistic tendency inside her that drove her toward him? Because he clearly didn’t think much of her.

Lowering her gaze to grab her equilibrium, she bit her lip. “Thanks for sharing your sugar,” she said, hoping she bothered him at least a fraction as much as he bothered her.

Geoffrey was bored out of his mind. He joined Lori to help clean the cabins and tried to engage in conversation, but she seemed distracted. After lunch, Lori announced her plans to muck stalls, and he bailed. She hadn’t accepted his proposal, and he was getting dishpan hands from his cleaning chores.

Wandering outside the barn, he walked toward the corral, where Maria and several others were helping a group of five disabled children ride horses, one at a time.

The children appeared to suffer a range of disabilities, some physical, some mental, and some both. He stared at Maria as she comforted a young boy. She hugged and cuddled him against her full breast as she murmured in his ear.

Lucky kid, Geoffrey thought. Bloody hell, he was sick. Jealous of a little kid. Shaking his head at himself, he continued to watch. As the lesson drew to a close, however, he went to the barn and got a soda for himself from the small refrigerator. On impulse, he pulled out an extra and met Maria as she walked toward the barn.

“Care for a refreshing beverage?” he asked her, offering her the can. “I thought you might be hot.”

She studied him for a moment as if she hadn’t quite made up her mind about him.
“Gracias,”
she said. “Very nice of you. Was there something you wanted?”

“Not particularly,” he said. “I don’t suppose this place has any musical instruments hidden anywhere?”

She frowned thoughtfully. “I may have seen a piano in one of the rooms upstairs in the house. I don’t know if it’s playable.”

“Would you mind showing me where it is?”

“You play?” she asked in surprise.

He nodded. “It’s a passion. Much more so than my day job, but family duty calls and all that rubbish.”

She smiled. “Sounds like you don’t want to answer the call of family duty?”

“You’re very perceptive. Now, the piano?”

“This way,” she said and guided him back to the house and upstairs. “I’m surprised you’re not spending the afternoon with Miss Granger.”

“I helped her clean the cabins this morning,” he said.

She murmured something in Spanish. “She needs help. She is so slow.”

“Better slow than not at all, yes?” he said.

She shrugged as she led him to the end of the hall and opened the door.

“Pardon me, but I must ask, how did you end up on this ranch, of all places? You’re so beautiful you could have been a model,” he said.

She stopped and stared at him.

He cleared his throat, feeling like a fool. “Well, I’m sure I’m not the first man to tell you that you’re beautiful.”

A trace of vulnerability deepened her eyes for an instant. She took a deep breath, which drew his attention to her prominent breasts. “Of course not,” she said. “But
gracias
.” She cleared her throat and pointed inside the room. “The piano.”

Geoffrey strode inside and swept the cover off an old spinet. It would probably sound like hell, he thought, but he ran his fingers over the keys anyway. “Needs to be tuned,” he said, continuing up the keyboard. He found a broken key that wouldn’t play. “Do you think Mrs. Dawson would mind terribly if I called a professional tuner? I would bear the cost.”