The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,31

after a while, he gave in to the voyeuristic pleasure. She walked like she was dancing, seeming to walk on her tip-toes.

He found himself watching her whenever she was out of the house. And he didn’t deny that he enjoyed it when he found her inside the house. A lascivious grin settled on his face as he remembered her luscious body fitting itself to his for several memorable kisses.

Stop thinking along those lines, Jake, old boy. He shifted uncomfortably on the sofa as his body instantly reacted to the memory of their few kisses. How could such a petite, delicate wisp of a woman make his body react just at the memory of her body?

Jake shook his head at his wandering mind and dug into the chicken pot pie, discovering that one of his old favorites was even better than he remembered it. There were so many vegetables and chicken in the flakey crust, there was almost no room for the creamy soup. He ate every bite in the bowl, then sat back against the worn leather couch satisfied but still confused.

Then he looked around the room. He didn’t really understand why, but he felt more comfortable in the room tonight. There was definitely something about the room that was different but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“What the hell is going on here?” he thought, sitting up again. He glanced at the coffee table and noticed that most of the little nick knacks that had once been there were gone. Looking at the shelves, he saw all of them neatly arranged against the books. His eyes roamed over the other surfaces and, sure enough, all of them were cleared of the irritating clutter. Nothing was missing. But everything was moved to a more pleasing position, grouped to form interesting areas around the room instead of resembling clutter covering all horizontal surfaces.

“Who the hell is doing all this?” he said to the air.

Standing up, he walked through the large room, noting the small details that his mind had not taken in until now. The room was definitely clean and smelled fresh. Everything was dusted and polished. Walking into the living room, he realized that it was the same. All of his mother’s china was neatly stacked in the shelves, the silver polished and shining in the dim light, the old, weathered candles replaced with new ones in the wall sconces.

He walked from room to room, noting the slight changes that went beyond just a thorough scrubbing and polishing. The house seemed to shine and small things were rearranged in a more pleasing way. Jake hadn’t ever realized how much stuff his mother had collected until it was all moved to one area.

Going into his office, he pulled back the large leather chair and forced himself to go through the ledger. He pulled the stack of bills forward and picked up the first one.

Jake punched in some numbers on his computer and the appropriate screen came up. But the invoice was already booked into the correct line. He picked up the next one and, sure enough, that one was also booked.

Scrolling to the bottom of the ledger, he scanned the file and was relieved to note that all the invoices had been booked and were catalogued appropriately. They were even showing as being paid.

Annie must have come by again without him seeing her. She’d done a great job. Usually, he had to make several corrections once the accountant had gone through and paid all the bills but this time she’d gotten everything right.

With a sigh of relief, he sat back and ran through the numbers at the end of the spreadsheet. He was in better shape than he’d thought. The orders for the fresh supplies and grain were at the bottom and even those had been ordered. The reason for the increase in cash flow was in the smaller order. He played with a few numbers and was satisfied that Annie had done the correct order.

That was strange. Annie usually didn’t bother with supply orders. She only logged in the invoices and made sure they were set up to be paid.

Jake’s mind snapped to the little woman with disturbing blue eyes and tiny, blistered hands. He knew that she’d been in school with Ronny and had studied math. Could she have done all this?

Jake looked at the clock. It was only eight o’clock. He had been planning on working for several hours going over these invoices. But since they were