Читать книгу The Long, Hot Texas Summer - Cathy Thacker Gillen - Страница 10

Chapter Three

“A favor,” Amanda repeated, wondering why she was so drawn to him. And even more important, why she was so curious. He was just a client. She shouldn’t need to understand Justin McCabe on a personal level, never mind try to figure out why he had taken on a challenge of this nature. And yet, she sensed there was something motivating him. Something he didn’t like to talk about.

“Don’t worry.” Justin rose and headed for the lodge kitchen. “It’s nothing all that drastic.”

Intrigued, Amanda followed him. “I can’t wait to hear it, then.”

Justin wandered over to the fridge and peered inside. He took out a package of New Braunfels smoked sausage links and set them on the counter. “I volunteered to host a fund-raising dinner and I’ve got no clue what I need to do to get ready for it...or even what kind of food I should serve.”

Amanda couldn’t have been more shocked had he proposed marriage. “And you’re asking me? The carpenter?”

Justin set a skillet on the stove. He opened a bottle of Shiner Boch beer and poured it into the skillet, then added the links and turned the burner on to simmer. “You’re still a woman. And you like to cook.” He went back to the fridge and brought out containers of pre-made German potato salad and green beans with almonds. “I figured you would know this stuff.”

Amanda did. Unfortunately, she had gone down this particular path before, and it wasn’t a mistake she intended to repeat. “Isn’t this the kind of thing you should be discussing with your girlfriend?” she asked.

Justin went to the fridge again and brought out two more bottles of beer and a jar of jalapeño barbecue sauce. “Don’t have one.” He opened both beers and handed her one.

Their fingers brushed, sending a thrill spiraling through her. Amanda took a small sip of the delicious golden brew and studied him over the rim. “Don’t have one as in you recently broke up with someone, or don’t have one as in you don’t want to be in a relationship?” she asked before she could stop herself.

The corner of his mouth quirked up and he took a drink. “You really want to know?”

“I do,” she murmured. Though maybe she shouldn’t...

He let out a long breath, then turned and dumped the green beans into a saucepan to heat. “A couple of years out of college, I got engaged to a woman I worked with.” The words seemed to come with difficulty. “Pilar and I were both vying for promotion. But there was only one slot available at the company where we worked, and the competition for it was intense. I’d been there longer, had an edge. So Pilar picked my brain at length about what I thought it would take to land the top job, then passed my ideas off as her own before I could present them to my boss.” He took another sip of beer. “Suffice it to say, she got the promotion.”

“That’s terrible!” Amanda blurted out, stunned by the depth of his ex’s betrayal.

“The worst of it was that Pilar didn’t think she had done anything wrong.” There was a long pause as Justin lounged against the counter. “She said that the corporate world was brutally competitive and to succeed one had to be ruthless. She was only surprised I hadn’t done the same to her, or at least tried. But—” cynicism crept into his low tone “—she felt we could still go on, forewarned and forearmed.”

Amanda couldn’t believe her ears. “Obviously, you felt otherwise.”

“I realized I didn’t want to be in a relationship where competitiveness was a factor. So I ended it.”

“Over her objections,” Amanda guessed.

“Yes.”

Amanda couldn’t blame him for brooding. Setting the bottle aside, she closed the distance between them and squeezed his hand compassionately. “I would have done the same thing in your place,” she admitted.

“What about you?” He drained the remainder of his beer. “Is there a reason you don’t want to help me out? A boyfriend waiting in the wings who might not approve?”

Hoping Justin hadn’t picked up on how attracted she was to him, because an awareness like that could propel them right into the bedroom, Amanda flushed. She moved a slight distance away and worked to contain the emotion in her voice. “I’m not attached, either. Although, like you, I was engaged once, several years ago.”

His gaze scanned her face and body, lingering thoughtfully, before returning to her eyes. “What happened?”

“Rob’s parents got wind of the fact that I had a less-than-admirable record before I went to live with my grandparents.”

His gentle expression encouraged her to go on. Amanda drew a bolstering breath. “They heard from one of their friends, who managed a department store, that I had been caught shoplifting there. As you can imagine, my potential in-laws were not pleased. They had in mind a very different type of woman as the mother of their grandchildren.”

He caught her hand when she would have turned away. “So your fiancé broke up with you?”

Amanda leaned into his touch despite herself. “I broke up with him. I didn’t want to come between Rob and his family, and I certainly didn’t want to have kids with a man whose own parents detested me.”

Justin turned around and brought out two plates. “And Rob didn’t try to persuade you otherwise?”

Noting that Justin had simply assumed she’d dine with him, Amanda shook her head. “In the end, he agreed a long-standing family quarrel wasn’t what he wanted, either.”

“And since then...?” Justin asked, seeming to understand implicitly how devastated the whole debacle had left her.

She decided she might as well eat with him—she was starving and he had enough food to feed four people. “I’ve had dates here and there, but nothing with the potential to be lasting.”

It seemed the kind of guys she wanted to date all had stellar childhoods and stable, loving families. In the end, none wanted to be dating a former delinquent.

The most vulnerable part of her did not want to find out that Justin felt the same way.

Justin loaded their plates with food and motioned for her to sit down at the stainless-steel work island that ran down the center of the room. He took a seat and his smile turned seductive. “So there’s really no reason you shouldn’t help me, then.”

Except that it would bring them closer, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to be closer to someone who made her feel this wildly excited and yearning for more.

She liked the way she had been before. Content with what she had, and who she was. Not longing for the Cinderella fantasy of a spellbinding romance.

Aware Justin was still waiting for her answer, Amanda settled onto a high-backed stool opposite him. “Don’t you have a mother or a sister or someone else you could ask?” Her mouth and throat had suddenly gone bone-dry.

He added a healthy splash of barbecue sauce to his plate and cut into his sausages with gusto. “I don’t have any sisters. My four brothers know as little about party planning as I do.”

“There’s still your mother,” Amanda persisted.

Justin set the barbecue sauce in front of her. “She’s a wildcatter, with her own company to run. Not only is she completely inept in the kitchen—to the point that it’s a running family joke—she’s pretty busy scoping out a new drilling site in the Trans-Pecos area of southwest Texas.”

“So,” Amanda said, picking up her knife and fork, “it’s back to me.”

Laugh lines crinkled at the corners of his eyes. “That lunch you served us proves you’re an amazing cook.”

She kept her eyes locked with his, even as her heart raced in her chest. She took a bite of the meal he had prepared. The sausage was delicious—crispy on the outside, meaty and flavorful on the inside. “This is really tasty, too.”

“The supermarket deli made half of it.”

Amanda felt her face flush even as she savored the tang of the German-style potato salad. “One excellent home-cooked meal is not going to get you what you want.”

“Sure?” His eyes danced with merriment. “Because there are more meals where this came from.”

Amanda raked her teeth across her lower lip. She knew he was attracted to her, too. Sparks arced between them every time they were near. “Is this just an excuse to spend time with me?” she asked warily.

He dabbed at the corners of his mouth with his napkin, poker-faced once again. “I said I wouldn’t hit on you while you were working here.”

And he hadn’t. The problem was, she was beginning to want to proposition him. At least in fantasy...

Heat climbed from her chest to her neck and face. “I believe that you really do need help for this worthwhile cause, but why does it have to come from me? Surely you could hire a party planner or caterer.”

Finished eating, Justin leaned toward her, forearms on the table. “We don’t have the budget for that. Plus, word would get out. And since entertaining is going to be part of the ranch director’s job...” He let the thought trail off.

Unbidden, another wall came tumbling down. One that, perhaps, should have stayed intact. “So to help them take you seriously, this has to be well-done,” Amanda guessed.

His mesmerizing blue eyes found hers. “You got it.”

She bit her lip, intrigued despite herself. “How many guests are you going to have?” She did like cooking for a crowd.

“Twelve,” he replied, setting his glass down. “Thirteen, if you’ll come and speak to the rest of the guests about your own experiences turning your life around and how it led to you becoming the upstanding adult you are today.” He glanced at her admiringly. “Because clearly whatever it is—whatever it takes to connect with an at-risk kid—you have in spades. I can see it in your dealings with Lamar and the way he instinctively relates to you.”

Amanda didn’t know what was worse. The thought of wanting to hit on Justin—when he was so obviously off-limits and out of her league. Or being simultaneously recruited to plan and cook for his party and be the star of his dog-and-pony show on dysfunctional childhoods.

Thoroughly insulted, Amanda set down her napkin and stood. “I have to hand it to you, McCabe. You really know how to make a gal feel good.”

He seemed taken aback by her sarcastic tone.

“The answer is no,” she snapped. “To all of the above.”

And no to the idea of ever making a play for him, as well. Heaven help her, she thought wearily as she strode from the kitchen. When would she ever learn?

* * *

THE NEXT MORNING, it didn’t take Lamar long to notice the atmosphere. “Is Amanda mad at you?”

She’d certainly taken his compliments—and request for help—the wrong way, Justin admitted ruefully.

Wishing he had even a small part of Amanda’s natural ability to communicate with troubled kids, Justin asked his teenage charge, “Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know. I saw her shoot you this look when she was heading over to the bunkhouse. She was definitely angry.”

Justin sighed and ushered Lamar through the lodge onto the back deck, where the sun was already beating down. The heat had risen past an uncomfortable ninety-five degrees, and it was barely past nine o’clock. “I may have ticked her off last night when I asked her to do me a favor that would help out the ranch.” Justin whistled and all five dogs came running.

Lamar hunkered down to pet them and was soon covered with doggie licks and kisses. Reveling in the unchecked affection, Lamar looked up at Justin. “That doesn’t sound like Amanda. Seems like usually she’s happy to help out with stuff. She even volunteers. Like with lunch yesterday. I mean, she didn’t have to feed us, but she did.”

“Yeah.” Justin had also been surprised by this morning’s standoffish attitude. “Maybe I just caught her at a bad time.”

The only thing he knew for sure was that Amanda had felt used or manipulated. Which rankled. All he had really wanted was to find a way to bring down the barriers she had erected around herself and get to know her better. So something else a heck of a lot more satisfying than just friendship might be possible. But that hadn’t happened. Worse, he had undermined whatever small gains he had made in his pursuit of her.

And he was, Justin admitted reluctantly to himself, pursuing her. Despite the fact he had promised not to make a pass at her. While she was working on the ranch, anyway. Once that was done, all bets were off....

“Am I going to be helping her today?” Lamar asked hopefully as he gave the dogs a final pat and rose to his feet.

Justin pushed aside the disappointment that he was still a less than acceptable choice from the teen’s point of view. But, like Amanda said, he had to remedy that by giving the kid something he could accomplish and feel good about. “No, you’re going to be assisting me,” Justin said, ignoring Lamar’s immediate scowl of displeasure. “First off, we need to give the dogs a bath.”

Dismay quickly turned to trepidation. “All five of them?”

Justin nodded, figuring the task would take a good part of the morning to accomplish. “They need to be bathed before we put on their monthly flea and tick medicine.”

Lamar shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t know if I’m going to be any good at that, either.”

Justin refused to let fear of failure get in the way, for either of them. “Do you know how to pet a dog?”

“Sure...”

Justin smiled and pressed on, “Do you know how to take a bath yourself?”

The boy scoffed. “Well, duh.”

“Then you’ve got all the skills you need.” Justin went into the mudroom off the kitchen and pointed to the shelves. “Grab the leashes, that stack of towels and the box of treats.” Justin picked up the rest of the supplies and stepped out onto the long deck that ran along the back of the lodge where the dogs were still waiting curiously.

One by one, Justin roped the leashes to the railing and then snapped the secured leashes to their collars. He asked Lamar to turn the water on and bring the hose up on the deck. Already sweating himself, Justin adjusted the handheld sprayer to the shower setting and handed it over to Lamar. “Let’s wet them all down first.”

While he did that, which also cooled the dogs off, Justin made sure the towels were well out of the way and opened up the shampoo and conditioner bottles. He handed one of each to Lamar, instructing, “Soap, rinse, condition and rinse again.”

The teen nodded, looking both serious and nervous, but Justin knew the kid would do fine once he actually got started. “Why don’t you start with Sleepy, since she’s the most patient?”

Lamar knelt down next to the dachshund–bassett hound mix. Sleepy lay on her side, lazy as ever and ready for a nap. Already starting to panic, Lamar looked at Justin. “How am I going to wash her?”

“Start with what you can reach.” Justin drizzled a line of shampoo down Roamer’s spine and began working it into his soaked coat. “She’ll get up.”

Lamar looked over at Justin and mimicked his actions. The teenager frowned at the dog’s fur. “It’s not lathering.”

“Did you use shampoo? Or conditioner?” Justin asked, belatedly figuring out what had happened. It was an easy mistake to make—the white plastic bottles all looked the same. Only the labels were different.

“Oh. Conditioner, I guess.”

“It’s okay. Just rinse it out and pour on some shampoo.”

Lamar seemed frazzled. It didn’t help matters when Woof, who was still waiting his turn, began to bark hysterically.

“It’s okay, Woof,” Justin said firmly. “Calm down.”

Reacting to the excited hound, Fetcher strained at her leash then took it between her teeth. Justin knew it wouldn’t take much to chew through it and reprimanded the Labrador–golden retriever mix. “Fetcher, drop!”

Assuming they were involved in a tug-of-war, Fetcher pulled all the harder on the woven fabric lead. Anxiously, Woof intensified his barking and howling. Professor—the poodle–black Lab mix who hated chaos of any kind—began to look for a way out. Any way out.

“Fetcher! Stop!” Justin warned, reaching past Roamer to comfort Professor.

Meanwhile, apparently hating the feel of the shampoo on his back, Roamer rolled around on the deck, trying unsuccessfully to rub the soap out of his coat.

Realizing it would have been better to hook up two hoses, Justin waited while Lamar rinsed the foam off Sleepy.

Justin handed the teenager the appropriate bottle with one hand; with the other he worked to pry the leash out of Fetcher’s teeth. “Condition next,” he instructed.

Lamar frowned, perplexed. “I already did. Before I shampooed, remember?”

Justin grimaced as Fetcher clamped down harder on the leash and tugged with all her might. Meanwhile, Woof continued making a racket.

Justin had to shout to be heard over the growing commotion. “Condition after you shampoo!”

Professor, deciding he’d had enough of the ruckus, began yanking against his leash, using all his weight to pull free. Justin leaped to put a stop to that. Which was, as it turned out, all the opportunity Roamer needed. One jerk of the German shepherd–border collie’s long elegant neck and he was out of his collar. Still covered with swirls of shampoo, Roamer left the dangling leash and collar behind, bounded over the backs of Woof and Sleepy and raced across the long veranda just as an unsuspecting Amanda rounded the corner.

* * *

ONE MOMENT, AMANDA was on her way to see what all the hubbub was about. The next, eighty-five pounds of wet black dog rammed her legs. The impact knocked her off her feet and sent her sprawling so hard onto the wooden floor of the deck that the wind was knocked from her lungs. Roamer splayed awkwardly over her, equally stunned by the collision. He whimpered and licked her face as if to make sure she was all right. Dimly, Amanda was aware the barking and howling had stopped. She blinked again and saw Justin hovering over her, his handsome face taut with concern. Then she noticed Lamar, who was apparently just as worried.

“Amanda!” Justin physically removed his still-confused dog who sat, suddenly compliant. “Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling down beside her.

Feeling a little better, but never comfortable as a damsel in distress, Amanda started to rise. Justin slid an arm around her waist and helped her into a sitting position. “I’m fine.” She looked over at the half-bathed dogs, realizing why there had been so much commotion. She made a face. “You were bathing the dogs all at once?”

“It’s what I usually do,” Justin admitted defensively.

Lamar edged away, shoulders slumped, mouth tight. “Except this time I screwed it up.”

Knowing the last thing the youth needed was another setback, Amanda shook her head and answered in the same tone her grandfather used when she needed bolstering, “No, you didn’t. No one did.” She paused to give the skeptical teen a long, level look. Then she smiled, letting both guys know she really was okay. “Dogs just get excited sometimes.”

His hands still cupping her shoulders, Justin shot her an appreciative look that warmed her almost as much as his tender, protective touch.

“Do you have a dog?” Lamar asked, coming closer.

Amanda let Justin help her all the way to her feet. Realizing belatedly how soggy her T-shirt was, she plucked it away from her chest. She smelled like wet dog—as did the guys. “No. I always wanted one, though.”

Lamar leaned down to pet the now-quiet circle of animals. He regarded her curiously, and the sense of near-familial intimacy between the three of them deepened. “Why didn’t you get one, then?”

Amanda was aware that Justin was listening intently. “None of the adults in my life wanted to take responsibility, so I knew if I got a pet, I’d be completely on my own. I guess I was worried I’d let him or her down.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Lamar protested.

It was good to know someone thought so. Unfortunately, Amanda knew better than anyone that she was better at short-term relationships, in general, than anything requiring a lifetime commitment. Only with her grandparents had she been able to forge something lasting. And that hadn’t happened until they had taken her in and put her on solid footing.

Lamar turned to Justin, not above pleading, “Maybe Amanda should help us finish giving the dogs a bath. Then we could do her a favor by helping her with the carpentry.”

Amanda didn’t want to cut into Justin’s time with Lamar. However, she did want to boost the teen’s confidence. And, given the mess the two guys had made of the doggie baths, it was clear they needed help getting back on track. “Okay.”

Justin blinked in shock at her quick acquiescence, which probably surprised him given the irate way she had walked out on him the evening before.

A little embarrassed that she had been so emotional last night—she could have just said no and left it at that—Amanda continued matter-of-factly, “I’ve got some heavy lifting that needs to be done, and I was headed over here anyway to see if I could borrow you both for an hour or so. Now I won’t have to feel bad about asking since I’ll be helping you fellas out first.”

“We would have helped you anyway,” Justin countered, in a way that let her know he was thinking about her curt refusal to his request for aid the night before.

Amanda refused to feel guilty about that. It had been a bad idea. It was still a bad idea.

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Yes, but this way we’ll be even.”

Lamar squinted at them. “Am I missing something?”

“No,” Justin and Amanda said in unison, despite the chemistry sizzling between them.

Again, Lamar took note.

Wanting to move on, Amanda took a deep breath and asked Justin, “So which dog do you want me to bathe?”

Justin paused. “Probably better take Woof. Fetcher’s still pretty rowdy.”

No kidding, Amanda thought, watching her recommence rolling around on the deck as if wrestling an invisible opponent, her leash once again clamped in her teeth.

“I’ll finish Roamer and then start on Fetcher,” Justin continued, getting back down to work. “Whoever finishes first can handle Professor.”

“So how long have you had your dogs?” Amanda inquired, picking up a bottle of shampoo.

“I adopted Sleepy and Woof when I was still living in Fort Worth and working at a nonprofit there. They came from a shelter. Professor and Fetcher came from families here in Laramie who thought they could handle having a pet and then discovered they couldn’t.” His voice thickened with emotion. “I found Roamer on the side of the road. He was painfully thin and infested with fleas and ticks. It looked like he had been driven out to the middle of nowhere, abandoned and forced to survive on his own.”

Amanda’s eyes filled just thinking about it. “That’s awful.”

Lamar’s jaw clenched in youthful indignation. “How can people do that?” he asked fiercely. “When you adopt a dog—”

Or have a kid like Lamar, Amanda thought.

“—it’s supposed to be a lifelong commitment!”

Only sometimes it wasn’t, Amanda thought sadly. “I guess some people aren’t cut out for that kind of responsibility.” She waited for her turn with the hose, then wet Woof down and lathered shampoo into his fur.

Lamar became even more irate. “Well, you can count my parents in that tally,” he muttered.

Deciding the only thing that would comfort Lamar was total honesty, Amanda confided, “And mine.”

Lamar’s jaw dropped. “You got ditched by your folks, too?”

Beside Amanda, Justin went very still. She realized these were the kinds of intimate details that Justin had wanted her to share with his dinner guests—to help them understand the plight of an abandoned child, from the child’s perspective—and she had declined.

Having shared it once with a man she trusted, and suffered the fallout, she wanted to keep the miserable story to herself.

Yet, realizing it might make Lamar feel less alone to hear her story, Amanda forced herself to continue. “My parents divorced when I was two. I spent the next twelve years bouncing back and forth between their houses.” She sighed heavily. “Both remarried and divorced, more than once, so to say it was chaotic is an understatement. I wasn’t happy about it, and I showed my displeasure by acting out.”

Lamar finished bathing Sleepy before turning his attention to the patiently waiting Professor. “How?”

Amanda shook her head in regret. “I skipped school. Shoplifted. Raided the liquor cabinet of a friend’s parents’. Threw parties. Secretly sneaked out to movies I wasn’t old enough to see.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Justin listening intently.

“Wow.” Lamar sounded impressed.

Amanda held up a cautioning hand. “It’s not as glamorous as it sounds, Lamar. I came really close to ending up in juvie. Luckily, before that happened, I tried to run away. The local police found me and took me to the station, where I officially entered the system, and a sympathetic social worker decided I needed more stability than either of my parents were able or willing to give. She talked my grandparents into taking me in.”

Amanda paused, remembering. “They had rules. Lots of them. I had to study for my GED and be respectful, help my grandmother around the house and work as Granddad’s apprentice when I had any spare time.”

Lamar reached for a bottle, paused, as if unable to decipher the labels. “And that was a good thing.”

Noticing he needed the conditioner, Amanda handed it over, and was rewarded with a grateful smile. “Yep. For the first time in my life, I really felt safe. And loved. And cared for.” She paused to towel off Woof, taking care to dry his face and ears before his body, just as she had seen Justin do.

That accomplished, she continued her story. “The point is, even though my parents couldn’t handle me or my problems, I eventually ended up in a better place. I was happy.” She paused to let her words sink in and saw Justin was a captive audience, too.

She turned away from Justin’s tender expression. Swallowing, she pushed on. “Even more important, for the first time I saw what a good marriage looked like. It made me realize how important it is to marry the right person from the get-go.”

Lamar turned to Justin, a question in his eyes. “Do you think that, too?”

Justin nodded as he toweled off Roamer. “Yes. My parents have a very strong and happy relationship.” He smiled at Lamar then turned and caught Amanda’s gaze. “Having that kind of love and commitment as a foundation makes for a very good marriage.”

“And happy marriages,” Amanda concluded softly, pleasantly surprised to find them all on the same page, “make happy families.”