The Rancher and the Event Planner - By Cheryl Gorman Page 0,66
ankles. He knew Linc stared at him but he refused to acknowledge his glare. Instead, he kept his focus on the payroll, despite the numbers blurring before his eyes.
“You know I’m headed for Dallas in a few days and I’m planning to get to know JC a bit better.”
Anger simmered inside Rafe’s veins.
“I’ll show her all the hot spots and maybe even some of the more private hot spots.”
Rafe’s blood jumped to a rolling boil.
“I told myself, Linc, here’s a gorgeous, sexy intelligent woman, all alone in a new city. Why not take her out? Rafe isn’t interested in her, although any addlepated fool could see she had fallen head over horse trough for him.” He nudged Rafe’s arm. “Who knows maybe she’ll become part of the family after all.”
Rafe’s fury spewed in a red, hot geyser. He leaped from the chair until he was nose to nose with Linc, his teeth clenched hard, his hands fisted, ready to pound his brother’s face to a pulp.
Linc grinned, his eyes dancing with glee. He rose from his position on the edge of the desk and doubled over in shrieks of laughter. With mirth still choking him, he walked to the door and opened it. The ranch hands were crowded outside the door. Linc looked at them and said, “I was right.” The hands exploded with applause and woops. “Thank God,” one of them said. “Now things can get back to normal around here.” They shuffled back to their duties talking and laughing.
Heat crawled Rafe’s face from the neck up. “What did you mean by that?”
Linc turned and shook his head. “You’re in love with JC. Go ahead. Admit it. I dare you.”
Rafe straightened his shoulders. He could never refuse a dare, especially from his older brother. “Okay, I admit it. So what?”
“So, if you had any sense, which you don’t, you’d jump on your horse and ride to Dallas, fall on your knees and beg her forgiveness for being a first class idiot, ask her to marry you and bring her back to Salvation where she belongs.”
After Linc left, Rafe sat at his desk with his heart hammering, his breath heaving and a sick feeling swirling through his stomach that he had made the biggest mistake of his life. Any addlepated fool could see she had fallen head over horse trough for you.
Joy like a horse in full gallop, pounded through Rafe. Could she really be in love with him? Why hadn’t she said something? Why didn’t she tell him? Answers to his own questions swamped him and he held his head in his hands. He never gave her a chance to tell him, because he was too busy pushing her away.
The door to his office opened and he looked up. Molly walked in, her expression trouble free. “Hi, Daddy, I want to show you my picture.”
She climbed on his lap and laid it on top of the desk—a crayon drawing of the ranch house and barn. Stick figures stood in front of the house. “Who are all the people?” Rafe asked.
Molly pointed to each of the figures. “That’s you, Uncle Linc, me, JC, Dixie and Lucy.”
His heart suddenly leaped with happiness. He grinned at his wise daughter. A little girl of only six, but a whole lot smarter than her old man. “Why did you add Jennifer and Dixie?”
She looked up at him with her green eyes wide. “Because she loves me, Daddy and I love her too.”
Rafe stared at the picture. He was an addlepated fool. Jennifer fit not only in the picture as if she had always belonged there, but in his life as well. And in a sense, she had. He’d been so busy being a coward, being too stubborn to give himself another chance that he’d almost managed to lose her. He grabbed Molly in a bear hug. “I love Jennifer too, punkin. What do you say we head for Dallas and bring her home?”
Molly beamed, clapped her hands and said, “Yes!”
* * *
“I’m off to lunch. See you in an hour,” JC called to her new staff. She made her way out of the modern office space where her new job was located, and through the glass doors into the hallway. She’d rather be at the ranch, sharing her life with Rafe and Molly and enjoying a sunset.
A couple of people passed her in the hall and said hello. She’d made friends already since she arrived. A woman who lived in her apartment complex worked