Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,115

possible for Kasie. She insisted on three coffee breaks before noon, and the pressing nature of the information coming in by fax kept Kasie working long after Pauline called it a day at three in the afternoon and went home. If Mrs. Charters hadn’t helped out by letting Bess and Jenny make cookies, Kasie wouldn’t have been able to do as much as she did.

She’d only just finished the new computer entries when Gil came in, dusty and sweaty and half out of humor. He didn’t say a word. He went to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a scotch and water, and he drank half of it before he even looked at Kasie.

It took her a minute to realize that he was openly glaring at her.

“Is something wrong?” she asked uneasily.

“Pauline called me on the cell phone a few minutes ago. She said you’re making it impossible for her to do her job,” he replied finally.

Her heart skipped. So that was how the other woman was going to make points—telling lies.

“I’ve been showing her how to key in this data, and that’s all I’ve done,” Kasie told him quietly. “She hates the computer.”

“Odd that she’s done so well with it up until now,” he said suspiciously.

“Debbie did well with it,” Kasie replied bluntly, flushing a little at his angry tenseness. “She was apparently having to put her own work as well as Pauline’s into the computer.”

He took another sip of the drink. He didn’t look convinced. “That isn’t what Pauline says,” he told her. “And I want to know why you suddenly want my girls in a boarding school, after you’ve spent weeks behind my back and against instructions winning them over, so they’re attached to you.” He added angrily, “I meant it when I said I have no plans to marry. So if that changes your mind about wanting to take care of them, say so and I’ll give you a reference and two weeks severance pay!”

He really did look ferocious. Kasie’s head was spinning from the accusations. “Excuse me?”

He finished the drink and put the glass down firmly on the counter below the liquor cabinet. His pale eyes were glittery. “John and I spent six of the worst years of our lives at boarding school,” he added unexpectedly. “I’m not putting my babies in any boarding school.”

Kasie felt as if she were being attacked by invisible hands. She stood up, her mind reeling from the charges. Pauline had been busy!

“I haven’t said anything about boarding school,” she defended herself. “Pauline said...”

He held up a hand. “I know Pauline,” he told her. “I’ve known her most of my life. She doesn’t tell lies.”

Boy, was he in for a shock a little further on down the road, she thought, but she didn’t say anything else. She was already in too much trouble, and none of it of her own making.

She didn’t say a word. She just looked at him with big, gray, wounded eyes.

He moved closer, his mind reeling from Pauline’s comments about Kasie. He didn’t want to believe that Kasie was so two-faced that she’d play up to the girls to get in Gil’s good graces and then want to see them sent off to boarding school. But what did he really know about her, after all? She had no family except an aunt in Billings, or so she said, and except for the information on her application that mentioned secretarial school, nothing about her early education was apparent. She was mysterious. He didn’t like mysteries.

He stopped just in front of her, his face hard and threatening as he glared down at her.

“Where were you born?” he asked abruptly.

The question surprised her. She became flustered. “I, well, I was born in...in Africa.”

He hadn’t expected that answer, and it showed. “Africa?”

“Yes. In Sierra Leone,” she added.

He frowned. “What were your parents doing in Africa?”

“They worked there.”

“I see.” He didn’t, but she looked as if she hated talking about it. The mystery only deepened.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said, unnerved by his unexpected anger and the attack by Pauline, which made her look like a gold digger. “Maybe I’m not the best person to look after the girls. If you like, I’ll hand in my notice...!”

He had her by both shoulders with a firm grip and the expression on his face made her want to back away.

“And just for the record, ten years isn’t a generation!” he said through his teeth as he glared down at her. His gaze dropped to