Читать книгу Luke's Would-Be Bride - Sandra Steffen, Sandra Steffen - Страница 9

“Did you ever see so many cowboy hats in one room?” Jillian asked, looking up from the box of pots and pans she was unpacking.

“Forget the cowboy hats,” Lisa said coyly. “Did you ever see so many cowboys in one room?”

“This is ranching country, so it only stands to reason that there would be cowboys here.”

Lisa pushed an empty box out of her way. With her hands on her hips she asked, “But doesn’t it seem more than a little amazing how things are working out? I mean, what were the chances that we’d see that advertisement luring women to Jasper Gulch? Could it be possible that there really are men in the world who are looking for more than a one-night stand?”

“You heard what they said at the meeting tonight,” Jillian answered. “The Jasper Gents are shy but willing.”

“I think they might have been stretching the truth a bit with that shy part.” Lifting her hair off her neck, Lisa asked, “Does it feel awfully warm in this kitchen to you?”

Jillian shook her head and said, “Do you think the fact that you decided to stir up a loaf of cinnamon swirl coffee cake, which you baked in a kitchen that was already sweltering hot, has anything to do with that?”

Lisa shrugged. “I couldn’t help it. After passing out those flyers to the people at the town meeting tonight, I had an incredible amount of restless energy. And you know I always cook when that happens.”

Straightening, Jillian strode to the refrigerator. Of course she knew that Lisa cooked when she got excited, just as Lisa knew that she couldn’t boil water. Their knowledge of each other went back through a series of years, through a series of heartaches, of whispered secrets and treasured smiles, to a time when they’d both needed a friend more than they’d needed anything else in the world. In the face of such a friendship, the fact that they were complete opposites only made things more interesting.

“I’ve never felt like this before.”

The deep, raspy note in Lisa’s voice drew Jillian around. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve never felt on the verge of so many possibilities. I mean, just look at this kitchen. Look at this house.”

Jillian glanced at the old-fashioned stove, the worn floor and painted cupboards. She’d seen a lot of kitchens that were more modern, but she knew what Lisa meant. This rented house marked a new beginning for Lisa, a chance at happiness, maybe even a chance at love.

Since the only items in the refrigerator were leftover burgers from a fast-food place in Western Minnesota and two half-empty cans of soda, she closed the door and stood leaning against it. A breeze wafted through the nearby screen, fluttering the flyaway wisps of hair around her face.

“You were lucky to find this house in so short a time.”

Lisa muffled a yawn with one hand. “We can thank that sweet old Cletus McCully for that. I liked him the moment I met him when he showed us this house two weeks ago. He said he trusts me. Can you believe that? He didn’t even ask for a security deposit. Did I tell you that he said people don’t lock their doors at night in Jasper Gulch? I’ve never lived in a town like this, and I certainly never thought I ever would. But just look at us. We’re here. You’ve already found a job, although I was hoping you’d take a little time off for a change, and I’m going to open a clothing store. Maybe you’re right, Jillian. Maybe dreams really can come true.”

Jillian followed the course of Lisa’s gaze out the window to the east. “Of course dreams really can come true. Travis and Cori are living proof.”

“Yeah. What do you suppose everyone’s doing back in Wisconsin?” Lisa asked.

“They’re probably doing what they always do at eleventhirty on a week night. Sleeping.”

“I’ll bet Travis and Cori aren’t sleeping.”

Jillian shook her head at Lisa’s reference to their friends who were planning to be married next month. “You, Lisa Markman, have a dirty mind.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for years.” After a slight pause Lisa added, “Do you think they miss us?”

For at least the thousandth time since she’d met Lisa, Jillian wondered what it would take to make her friend see herself for what she really was. At five foot five, Lisa was a little shorter than Jillian. Her hair was thick and straight, the ends reaching to her shoulders, heavy tendrils brushing her eyebrows. On the outside was a woman who wore bright clothes, had a sultry laugh and a figure to die for, but inside she was one of the most caring and loyal people Jillian had ever known.

“Are you homesick, Lisa?”

“Who me?” She straightened, visibly pulling herself together. “This is my home now. The Jasper Gulch Clothing Store is set to open in less than a week, and I’ve already met a good share of the bachelors here in town.”

A dozen men’s smiling faces flashed through Jillian’s mind, but only one unsmiling face remained. A strange kind of warmth started in her throat and slowly settled lower. Trying to think of something—anything—else, she said, “Did any of those men make a lasting impression on you?”

“I met so many of them in so short a time it’s not easy to remember their names. Let’s see. There was one man named Karl, and I think one of them said his name was Boomer. There was an Archie and a Ben and I remember a boy named Jason, and of course that sweet old Cletus McCully. And there was that woman named Mel who owns the diner and Isabell Pruitt, who, if you ask me, looks as if she makes a habit of sucking lemons, and I remember someone named Clayt.”

“And Luke.”

“Who?”

Jillian gave herself a mental shake. “Shouldn’t the loaf of coffee cake be cool enough to eat by now?”

Lisa reached for a towel then hurried away toward the front door. Jillian stood perfectly still at the kitchen counter in Lisa’s newly rented house. She could hear the sound her friend’s bare feet made on the worn linoleum. Otherwise the night was silent.

She’d always heard that the plains were supposed to be windy places. Tonight only the barest of breezes wafted through the open window. She wondered what the weather was like in Wisconsin. Although her life in Madison hadn’t been easy, it was still the one place in the whole world that she considered home. It was where she’d grown up, where her parents and grandparents were buried and where she’d met the three best friends she’d ever had. It had felt strange to leave Ivy Pennington and Cori Cassidy yesterday morning. But Cori was getting married soon, and Ivy, an older woman, who’d been the surrogate mother of them all, had encouraged Lisa and Jillian to check out the Jasper Gents here in South Dakota. Lisa had been so excited about coming to Jasper Gulch, Jillian hadn’t been able to turn down her request to come with her.

In all honesty she had been feeling at loose ends lately. And she was enjoying the change of pace. Her rent was paid on her apartment in Madison, and it was going to be fun to watch Lisa systematically search for the man of her dreams. But the one thing Jillian hadn’t figured into her summer holiday agenda was her reaction to Luke Carson.

“Jillian,” Lisa said, interrupting her train of thought, “where did you say you put that coffee cake?”

“Right there on the railing,” she said, hurrying through the quiet house and out onto the porch. “Right there next to the…”

Her voice trailed away the moment she realized she was looking in the exact spot the loaf should have been. Walking to the edge of the porch, she checked the bushes then peered at the dark houses all around them.

“Someone must have taken it,” she said incredulously.

“Someone stole our coffee cake?” Lisa whispered.

“It looks that way.”

“Who in the world would steal such a thing at a quarter to midnight in the little town of Jasper Gulch?”

“Does it make you nervous?” Jillian asked, looking sideways at her friend.

Lisa’s brown eyes lit up with excitement. “Are you kidding? We’ve only been in town for fifteen hours, and I’ve already had more fun than I had in an entire month in Madison. I wonder what other surprises are waiting for us in Jasper Gulch.”

Luke Carson’s image filtered through Jillian’s mind all over again. She tried to blink it away.

Yawning again, Lisa said, “I’m about ready to fall asleep on my feet. If you want to go on up to bed, I’ll turn out the lights.”

Jillian looked at the dark houses all around, then at the leaves that were stirring in the slight evening breeze. Keeping her voice as low as the murmur of insects hiding in the dry grass, she said, “You go ahead. I’ll be in, in a little while.”

“You aren’t afraid to be out here by yourself after what happened to my cake?”

Jillian shook her head. She’d been on her own for a long time and knew how to take care of herself. Giving the dark windows of the neighboring houses a cursory glance, she said, “There’s probably a perfectly logical explanation for that. Cletus McCully said that other than the ugly color of orange paint Bonnie Trumble used on the front of the Clip and Curl, the only crimes committed in Jasper Gulch are gossiping and jaywalking. So I doubt a hardened criminal stole our late-night snack. A stray dog probably took it, or maybe a raccoon. You go on ahead. I think I’ll sit out here for a while and unwind.”

Jillian sank to the top step and wrapped her arms around her knees, listening to the sounds Lisa made as she walked up the stairs. A short time later a pipe rumbled somewhere in the old house. And then the only sounds she heard were the squeaks of crickets and the wind in the eaves.

She sat there for a long time, the air slowly cooling her skin, the quiet slowly lulling her thoughts. When she’d agreed to accompany Lisa all these miles to Jasper Gulch, she’d wondered what she would do with herself. Just like that, she’d found a job. It had been completely unexpected, but not as unexpected as the longing she’d felt deep inside when she’d first looked into Luke Carson’s eyes.

She tried to tell herself that the reason her longing was so unsettling was because it had come out of the blue. Surely it had nothing to do with the husky undertones in his voice or the intensity in his gray eyes. It wasn’t as if she’d never experienced those feelings before. It was just that they had a way of leading straight to heartache. And Jillian didn’t think she could survive any more of that.

She rose slowly and went inside, where she closed the doors and turned out the lights. She tiptoed up the stairs, washed her face and donned a clean nightgown. Crawling between the sheets, she stared at the moonlit shadows dancing on the dark ceiling, thinking about everything she’d done that day. She couldn’t help wondering what tomorrow would bring.

She was certain of only two things. She was going to put an end to whatever it was she’d glimpsed in Luke Carson’s eyes today and to whatever it was that had answered deep in her chest. And she was going to make sure he didn’t get the wrong idea about her presence here in Jasper Gulch.

Yes, first thing tomorrow morning, that was what she was going to do.

“It looks as if you’re making a dent in that stack of folders.”

Jillian glanced over her shoulder and found her new employer leaning in the doorway. His arms were folded at his chest, his hat shading the upper part of his face. In the four hours she’d been there, he’d come and gone twice. She hadn’t heard him return either time.

He’d met her at the door a few minutes before eight that morning and quickly filled her in on the operation of his small clinic, explaining that since this was cattle country he did most of his work out of his truck. He kept this small office here on Main Street to examine dogs and cats and an occasional hamster, but unless it was an emergency, he only scheduled appointments for every other Thursday. He’d pointed to the file cabinets, poked his head into his one-and-only examining room and had pretty much given her free rein of everything in between. Other than taking a few telephone calls, she’d spent the morning familiarizing herself with the workings of his practice.

“Are you getting a handle on Brenda’s filing system?” he asked from the doorway.

Since she couldn’t very well say something bad about someone she’d never met, she gave him a small nod and turned back to her filing.

“Liar.”

Her double take didn’t quite make him smile, but it raised his lips enough to crease one lean cheek. Pushing away from the doorjamb, he said, “Come on, Jillian. This is Jasper Gulch. If we didn’t gossip, we’d have nothing to do. Everybody knows that the only way Brenda Townsend could figure out what letter came after T was to recite the entire alphabet from the beginning. So you don’t have to try to protect her reputation.”

She smiled to herself and reached for another stack of files. “Then it wouldn’t be wrong of me to surmise that the gum stuck on the bottom of the chair belonged to your former office assistant?”

“You catch on fast.”

She glanced at the name on the next file, wishing his simple compliment didn’t make her feel so…complimented. Last night she’d vowed to set Luke straight about her presence in Jasper Gulch. It hadn’t taken her long to realize that that was easier said than done. It wasn’t that she hadn’t tried. It was just that Luke Carson wasn’t an easy man to deter. He had a restless energy that didn’t permit him to stand in one place very long. She didn’t know how a man his size did it, but he moved like lightning…without the thunder.

Reining in her thoughts, she asked, “Where did this Brenda go? When she left Jasper Gulch, I mean.”

“To Sioux Falls. The girl hated to type, but she sure seemed to enjoy chasing me around the desk.”

Being careful to keep her voice neutral, she said, “I would have thought it was the other way around.”

He made a sound only men could manage and said, “Give me some credit. The girl was nineteen and thought the olden days referred to the years before microwaves were invented. Believe me, I never chased Brenda Townsend around the desk, and I give you my word I won’t chase you. But don’t worry, I won’t hold you to the same rule.”

Jillian hadn’t intended to turn around, but once she had, she couldn’t look away. There was a maddening hint of arrogance about this man that was impossible to ignore. He might have been a country vet, but he was no country bumpkin. He had his masculine swagger down to an art form, and his smiles, well, they were just rare enough and just unexpected enough to chase nearly every coherent thought right out of her head.

Jillian stared wordlessly at him from her side of the cluttered old desk. He was watching her, his gaze steady, his expression thoughtful. His skin appeared even darker beneath his dusty black cowboy hat, his jaw square, his chin strong. As far as she was concerned, she’d noticed entirely too much about him. In fact, the first thing she’d done when she’d stepped foot inside the office that morning was notice he’d shaved. The second thing she’d done was give herself a mental kick for noticing in the first place. She gave herself another one, this time keeping her expression under stern restraint.

“Trust me, Luke. You have nothing to fear.”

“Do I look afraid, Jillian?”

She fought against the urge to smile and lost. Tipping her head ever so slightly, she said, “I think you know exactly how you look.”

“And how is that?”

She thought about all the words she could have used to describe him, but ended up shaking her head and saying nothing.

“Spoilsport.”

A strange sensation of déjà vu washed over her. The same thing had happened yesterday. Studying him intently, she said, “Have you ever been to a little town in Wisconsin called Maple Bluff?”

“No, I can’t honestly say that I have.”

“How about the University of Wisconsin? Have you ever been there?”

He took a step closer and shook his head. “I studied veterinary medicine at Michigan State, why?”

“It’s nothing, really. I just can’t shake the feeling that I’ve seen you someplace before.”

Stopping on the other side of his desk, he said, “We’ve never met.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because if we had, I’d remember. And so would you.”

He didn’t move, not even when the telephone started to ring. For a long moment neither did she. She thought she’d been prepared for the advances of the bachelors in Jasper Gulch. After all, it stood to reason that men who’d advertised for women would be interested in pursuing the new women in town. But she hadn’t been prepared for Luke Carson’s straightforwardness or his persistence. Actually she hadn’t been prepared for anything concerning this man, least of all her instinctive response to him. Truth be told, she was strangely flattered by his interest. But Jillian couldn’t afford to be distracted by romantic notions. Since she had no intention of leading him on, she knew she had to put an end to these feelings arcing between them once and for all.

By the time the telephone had jangled four times, she’d managed to gather her thoughts enough to ask, “Do you want me to answer that?”

He shook his head and reached for the receiver. With his voice a low drone in the background, she took another deep breath and turned back to her task. By the time he hung up the phone, she was well on her way to getting back on an even keel. “Another emergency?” she asked conversationally.

She felt his eyes on her back, but she didn’t turn around.

“I guess you could say that, but not the way you mean. That was my brother, Clayt. I’m still not sure how it happened, but he, Wyatt McCully and I somehow managed to get ourselves roped into planning the town picnic. We put our heads together at the Crazy Horse last night, but I’m afraid we didn’t get very far. DoraLee Sullivan, the owner of the Crazy Horse, said it was like watching three nuns plan a stag party.”

Smiling at the mental picture his words evoked, she took her first casual breath since she’d found him lounging in the doorway several minutes ago. “Is the Crazy Horse the local saloon?”

“The one and only.”

Keeping her eyes focused on the filing cabinet, she said, “Is that where the people of Jasper Gulch go for fun?”

“Aside from rolling up the sidewalks at eight every night, there isn’t much to do in Jasper Gulch. Every now and then I mosey on down to the Crazy Horse to watch the old-timers play poker or listen to the local bachelors complain about the weather and the long, lonely nights out here.”

Jillian couldn’t imagine Luke Carson moseying anywhere, but she didn’t think it would be wise to mention that particular observation or to ask about those long, lonely nights he’d mentioned, so she remained quiet. Unfortunately her stack of files had run out and so had her diversions. As if he knew it, Luke said, “There’s been a noted lack of women in these parts lately, you know.”

She turned around, smiling in spite of herself. “So I’ve heard.”

“Have you also heard that things are starting to look up around here?”

Jillian wanted to believe he wasn’t referring to her arrival in town, but the tone of his voice left little room for such possibilities. He was a decent man, and probably a lonely one. She wanted to warn him not to get his hopes up where she was concerned. More than anything she wanted to let him down easy, but how?

“I’d be happy to show you around the Crazy Horse sometime, Jillian. What are you doing tonight?”

He tipped his hat up, and for the first time since he’d stepped foot back inside the office, she saw the expression in his gray eyes. A zing went through her, and although she tried, she couldn’t look away.

Luke didn’t know what was going through Jillian’s mind, but he knew what was going through his body. Damn, it felt good. He had half a mind to stride to the other side of the desk and reach for her hand, slowly drawing her closer, to tip her face up a little and gently cover her lips with his.

He took a step closer and then another. Before his eyes the expression in hers changed. Slowly, deliberately, she pulled her gaze away and turned her back on him.

Luke’s footsteps froze in mid-stride.

He settled his hands on his hips, disappointed. What was going on here?

It didn’t take long for his disappointment to make way for his anger. For crying out loud, this was the third time he’d brought up the subject of spending time with Jillian. And the third time she’d ignored him completely. He’d given her a few hours to feel comfortable, then had started hinting for a date. He hadn’t thought too much of it when she’d given him a noncommittal hum when he’d suggested they catch a bite to eat in Pierre or take in a movie. At the time he’d assumed she hadn’t heard. After all, she was up to her elbows in a new job. Now that he thought about it, she hadn’t had any trouble answering his questions concerning her trip out here from Madison. And she hadn’t given him that little hum when he’d told her how his great-great-great grandfather, Jasper Carson, had come to found this town. Only his requests to spend time with her outside the office had been met with complete silence.

She’d heard his invitations. All three times. But she was ignoring them. Luke wanted to know why.

Keeping his voice purposefully low, he asked, “Ever been to the rodeo, Jillian?”

She shook her head cautiously. And Luke moved in to set the hook.

“That’s too bad. The rodeo is South Dakota’s numberone spectator sport. I don’t think there’s a living soul out here who doesn’t look forward to rodeo days. Since I’d really hate to see you miss it, I’d be happy to take you.”

Jillian didn’t know where to look. She’d gone through the stack of files on the corner of the desk, so she couldn’t look there. She half wished the phone would ring. But it didn’t, and she couldn’t look there, either. In the end she squared off opposite Luke and raised her gaze to his. The moment of truth wasn’t far away.

“When do rodeo days begin?” she asked.

“In August.”

“That’s next month.”

Although Luke raised his eyebrows, he didn’t say anything. She felt like an idiot, anyway. He’d as good as told her he thought his former secretary didn’t have both oars in the water, and here she was sounding even worse. It required all her willpower to hold his gaze, all her courage to say, “I appreciate your invitation, Luke, but I really can’t make that kind of commitment.”

“You can’t.”

Those two little words were issued in a clipped tone of voice men everywhere used moments before their patience went right through the roof. Giving her head a firm shake, she said, “No, I can’t.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because,” she said, keeping her voice as steady as possible. “I can’t guarantee I’ll still be here by then.”

She closed her eyes, waiting for the explosion. When it didn’t come, she chanced a glance his way. His lips were set in a firm line, his chest puffed out like a porcupine’s quills. She quickly diverted her gaze to her watch. “Would you look at the time! It’s twelve o’clock already, and I told Lisa I’d help her in the store right after lunch.”

Without another word, she hurried to the back room where she’d stashed her purse first thing that morning. When she came out again, she couldn’t help noticing that Luke hadn’t moved an inch. It was the longest she’d seen him stay in one place all morning.

“Well,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Eight o’clock sharp. ’Bye.”

The blast of hot air from the street brought Luke out of his stupor. He didn’t know what was happening to his concentration, but he didn’t like what had just happened to his ego. He’d asked Jillian out four times, which was exactly how often he’d been shot down.

He scooped his hat off his head with one hand and rubbed his face with the other. The Carson brothers may not have had much in the patience department, but they’d never had any trouble with women. Luke himself had turned a fair number of heads in his day, even with the lack of females in the area these past few years. Until about a minute ago he’d been confident that he could turn Jillian’s.

What the hell did she mean she couldn’t guarantee she’d be here next month? Where was she planning to go? He supposed he could wait until she came to work in the morning to find out. Wait, hell.

He crammed his hat back on his head and strode straight out to the sidewalk. He didn’t even bother to close the door.

It was high noon, and some of the people of Jasper Gulch were out and about. Cletus McCully was sitting in his usual spot on the bench in front of the post office, and Opal Graham and her spinster daughter Louetta were heading for the diner for their usual Tuesday lunch.

Luke spotted Jillian trying to cross the street in front of Josie’s Five and Dime. Shading her eyes with her hand, she glanced to the right and then to the left, waiting for Karl Hanson to move his old truck on down the street. Luke headed toward her, his long strides eating up the sidewalk in record time. By the time she stepped off the curb, he was only five yards away.

“Jillian, wait!”

She looked over her shoulder and came to an abrupt stop.

He slowed his steps and called, “You need a key.”

“A what?”

He took another step, feeling the heat rise off the pavement in waves. “A key. I never know when I’ll have to make an emergency run to one of the ranches. If it happens in the middle of the night or early in the morning, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to open the office at eight.”

“Oh, in that case…”

Jillian’s lips continued to move, but an approaching car in dire need of a new muffler drowned out whatever else she was saying. From the corner of his eye, he saw a rusty splotch of brown and fleetingly wondered why Roy Everts didn’t break down and get that car of his fixed. The old man drove like a maniac, taking out fence posts and mailboxes every other day. Luke turned his head just in time to see Roy take the corner wide, barreling through the town’s only stop sign. In a flash Luke realized the old geezer was about to take out Jillian today.

“Jillian. Look out!” Luke reached her on the run, his feet moving before his brain had decided what to do. A horn blared just as his arm snaked around her waist. He pulled her to his chest so hard it knocked the wind out of her.

Roy missed her by two feet.

Craning her neck to look at the car, which had come to a stop in front of the Crazy Horse, she gasped, “Who was that?”

Another time Luke would have called Roy every name in the book. But right that minute all his concentration was fixed on the woman in his arms. He’d noticed she was slender the first time he’d seen her, but he’d had no way of knowing how soft and pliant she would feel in his arms. Her hair smelled of warm flowers, her white blouse a thin barrier between his callused hand and the soft skin at her waist. This close, her eyes were an even lighter shade of blue and were wide open, staring into his.

“His name is Roy. Don’t worry, Cletus is already giving him the tongue lashing he deserves. Not that it’ll do any good.”

She moved, her thigh brushing his, her breathing expanding her chest, which in turn expanded his. Her lips were parted slightly and so full he was tempted to kiss her, here and now.

“Luke, what are you doing?”

Her voice was a husky rasp, but it brought him to his senses. He wouldn’t have minded kissing her in the middle of Main Street. But first kisses were meant to be private, especially if they were going to lead to second kisses.

Loosening his hold on her, he said, “I’m saving your life, of course.”

She glanced around. And stiffly stepped back. “Oh. I suppose you’re right. Um. Well. I don’t know what to say.”

She sounded breathless. Luke didn’t blame her. His breathing was still ragged, too. But his mind was functioning normally, and as far as he was concerned, there were several things she could say. She could tell him she’d be happy to go out with him, for starters. And maybe she could follow that up with an invitation of her own.

Unfortunately she didn’t appear to be getting ready to say either of those things. She was looking decidedly ill at ease. Since he didn’t want to scare her away, he tugged on her hand, drawing her with him to the curb.

Without releasing her fingers, he said, “Why don’t you say you’ll have lunch with me.”

“Lunch?”

“Yes, lunch. Come on, Jillian. I just saved your life. In some cultures that would make you mine.”

Her chin came up, and her hand stiffened in his. If Luke lived to be a hundred, he doubted he would ever see a more serious expression on another person’s face. He felt his own eyes narrow and his adrenaline kick into overdrive, because he recognized the look of a woman gearing up to speak her mind.