Resisting Mr. Tall, Dark & Texan Page 12

  She was all too aware of him, of the lean line of his jaw, of the shape of his lips—lips she had kissed when she shouldn’t have.

  Lips she longed to kiss again.

  She made herself meet his dark, knowing eyes. “Okay, I admit it. I love it here.”

  His smile was slow and also contagious. “I knew it,” he said. And nothing more.

  Lizzie spotted the deep-blue flowers growing along the stream bank as they were shaking out the blanket, getting ready to mount up again. They were low-growing flowers, maybe eight inches high, the nodding blossoms in clusters, shaped like tiny thimbles.

  Steph saw her admiring them. “Mountain bluebells,” she said. “They don’t grow tall so high up, but they sure are pretty, aren’t they?”

  “Yes,” Lizzie agreed. “Oh, yes, they are.”

  It seemed, somehow, an omen. Instead of the Texas Bluebell Bakery, why not the Mountain Bluebell?

  An image took form in her mind of a nice wide wooden sign above her bakery door, a sign she would hire Allaire to paint for her. The Mountain Bluebell, it would say in proud, tall block letters, with a sprig of blue thimble-shaped flowers nodding over the words.

  She turned to mount up and found Ethan, already on the bay mare he was riding, watching her. Even shadowed by the brim of his hat, it seemed to her he had the strangest expression on his handsome face.

  “What?” she demanded.

  He laughed. “Not a thing, Lizzie. Not a thing.”

  Chapter Nine

  They got back to the house at six. Ethan said he was going out for dinner. She’d have the evening to herself again.

  She knew then, with a grim sense of certainty, that there had to be someone else.

  Someone else. How ridiculous. How could there be some one else when they’d never been together in the first place?—not in that way.

  Not in the man-woman way.

  She put on a smile. “Have a great time.”

  He gave her one of those long, unreadable looks he’d been giving her way too often lately. “Thanks, I will.” And he went to his rooms to shower and change.

  She didn’t hang around waiting to watch him go. No way. She headed for her own room, where she picked up the phone to call the broker in Midland and let him know she’d changed her mind about buying a bakery in Texas.

  It was a brief conversation. He spent a minute or two trying to convince her not to be hasty. But then he seemed to get that she’d made up her mind. He wished her luck and told her to give him a call if there was any way he could help her again.

  After that, she looked up the Realtor’s numbers she’d taken from the for-sale sign at the empty bakery. But then she backed out of the contact without dialing.

  It didn’t seem right to go ahead with her new plans until she’d talked to Ethan about it—and no, not because she would ever let him change her mind.

  Uh-uh. She was set on her course now. She was going to live right here in Montana. She had a whole new perspective on the situation now and she could see that she’d been much too hung up on recreating the past. She realized that she needed to move beyond her family’s lost bakery. She needed to create something new, something all her own.

  And she was going to do exactly that.

  But still, she felt that she had to share her plans with Ethan before the fact, before she began to make them a reality. It seemed the least she could do, to forewarn him that she was staying in Thunder Canyon, too.

  Should she tell him now?

  No, not right this minute but soon. She would choose a moment when he wasn’t on his way out the door.

  After he left, she made herself a sandwich for dinner and had a big, fat slice of chocolate peanut-butter pie for dessert. She went to her desk and paid some bills. And then she went online to instant banking to see if her paycheck had come through from TOI for the month.

  It had. And then some.

  That ginormous bonus Ethan had promised she would get if she stuck with him until the end of July?

  Already deposited.

  Lizzie gaped at the entry. And then she blinked several times in rapid succession, certain she must be having some kind of hallucination.

  But no. When she looked again, that giant direct deposit was still there, way before it should have been.

  And the only way that could have happened was if Ethan had put it through early.

  She logged out of instant banking and shut down her computer.

  And then, kind of moving on autopilot, she went to the family room, where she turned on the TV, chose a movie on Showtime and settled in to watch the whole thing. She would not be turning in. Not until after Ethan got home.

  There was just no point in putting off the talk she needed to have with him. She was waiting up for him tonight and she was telling him about her change of plans when he got home. She was also asking him why he’d decided to pay her that bonus more than a month ahead of time—well, unless he brought someone home with him.

  If he brought someone home with him, he would be much too busy to listen to what Lizzie had to say. Too busy up in the master suite.

  With the door closed.

  Oh, God. The numb, confused feeling she’d had since she’d seen the bonus in her bank account was suddenly replaced by sheer misery.

  It hurt so bad to think that he might show up with some pretty little thing on his arm. More than once, she almost turned off the TV and went to bed. At least if she went to bed, she wouldn’t have to see him with someone else.

  But of course, she knew she was being ridiculous. If he came home with company, chances were she would see the woman eventually anyway—probably at breakfast. Now, that would be an experience. Cooking breakfast for Ethan’s new girlfriend…

  It was too ironic. How many breakfasts had she cooked for Ethan’s various lady friends? A lot of them. Before now, she’d been happy to do it. Most of the women he dated were too skinny anyway. They could use a healthy breakfast. She’d enjoyed coddling them, making them feel comfortable. She’d known they wouldn’t be around that long and, deep in her heart, she’d felt kind of sorry for each one of them.

  Sorry and a little bit superior, too, a little bit smug. She’d been so sure that she would never put herself in a position to get her heart stomped on by a rich player’s fancy boots.

  Lizzie blew a few wild strands of hair out of her eyes and promised herself she would never feel smug about anything ever again. And as for tonight, well, she wasn’t running and hiding in her room. She needed to just stick it out and wait up till he came home.

  The movie ended. She started watching a second one.

  And then, finally, at a little before eleven, as she dozed in the easy chair, she shook her head to wake herself up—and saw Ethan standing in the doorway to the hall.

  Alone.

  Or at least, there was no one tiny and adorable anywhere in sight.

  His hair was windblown and he wore new jeans and dress boots, a plain dark shirt and a beautifully cut sport jacket. He gave her his trademark slow smile. “You’re half-asleep.” He shrugged out of the jacket, swung it behind him and let it dangle by a finger. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

  She blew that persistent curl of hair out of her eyes again. “I need to talk to you. Are you alone?”

  “Last time I checked, yeah.” He was giving her that steady look he’d given her way too often lately, that look that made her feel he could see inside her head—and maybe under her clothes, as well.

  She sat up straighter, smoothed her hair, which she knew was sticking out on the sides and flattened in the back, and pressed her lips together to keep from saying too much. But then she couldn’t stand it. She said it anyway. “I thought maybe you were out with, um, someone new.”

  Another long, unwavering look. “No, I was on my own tonight.”

  “Well.” Relief poured through her, cool and refreshing as a mountain spring. And her heart had set up a racket inside her chest. It pounded so loud that she almost feared
he might hear it—though of course she knew he couldn’t. “All right, then.”

  He was looking down now, the jacket still dangling back over his shoulder. He seemed to be studying those fine boots of his. “Dinner was about business. I’ve bought a three-story brick office building over on State Street, a block from the town square. It will be my new headquarters for TOI, Montana. I made the offer yesterday while you were at lunch. And I accepted the seller’s counteroffer this evening. And then, to celebrate, I had dinner with the seller. I liked him. He got caught in the crunch when the market tanked and was only too happy to give me a killer lowball price just to unload it.”

  A building. He’d bought a building in town. Of course. That made perfect sense.

  And she realized she felt a little hurt, even though she knew she had no right to be. In the past, he would always keep her in the loop when he made a deal such as the one he’d just described. He would want to know what she thought of the purchase, and get her impressions of the various people involved. He’d always claimed he appreciated her insights.

  But for some reason, he’d seen the building and then signed the papers without letting her know what was happening.

  He left the doorway and he came toward her in long, purposeful strides. Her skin kind of tingled just watching him approach. He was so glorious and manly and he looked so good in his jeans.

  The TV was still on. She shook herself out of her reverie of inappropriate desire, raised the remote and pressed the power button. The flat-screen went dark as he tossed the jacket on the back of the chair beside her and then sat down.

  “All right,” he said. “I’m home. What did you want to talk to me about?”

  Where to start? “I checked my bank balance after you left.”

  “Fascinating,” he remarked, meaning it wasn’t. He swung his boots up onto the ottoman.

  “You already paid me that bonus I’m not supposed to get until the end of next month.”

  He shrugged, a lazy lifting of one hard shoulder. “You were going to get it anyway. Why not now rather than later?”

  “Well, that wasn’t the deal, though. What if I packed up tomorrow and walked out on you?”

  He slanted her a look. “Like you would try and cheat me, Lizzie. Cheating’s not in you. We both know that.”

  Okay, he was right. She would never cheat him. Still… “It’s only that I have this feeling that I’ve taken advantage of you.”

  “Well, stop it. You haven’t.”

  “Yeah, I kind of have. It was too much money in the first place, just for two extra months. I shouldn’t have taken the deal. It wasn’t ethical of me, but I was greedy.”

  He chuckled, a sound that made her body ache somehow. With yearning. With something very close to need. “Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie. Don’t waste your energy on guilt. There’s no call for that. You were worth every penny of that bonus. Even if you got up from that chair right now, walked out of this house and never came back, I’d consider myself way ahead in any cost-benefit analysis of your term of employment, both at TOI and as my housekeeper.”

  She felt as if she might cry and that thoroughly annoyed her. As a rule, she wasn’t the type to turn on the waterworks at the drop of a hat. But lately, her tears always seemed to be lurking way too close to the surface. She swallowed, sniffed, ordered them gone. And she said, “Well, thank you. But since we got back from eastern Montana, I’ve hardly done any work for you.”

  “I’ll say it again. You haven’t taken advantage of me.” His voice was gruff. “Get over it.” He held her gaze. His eyes were darker than ever right then, dark and endlessly deep. “If anyone’s been taking advantage, it’s been me. And not only with my fatheaded campaign to keep you glued to my side until you gave up your own dream to answer my phone and bake my muffins for the rest of your life.”

  “Oh, Ethan…”

  “I’ve been thinking.” He watched her so steadily, so seriously. “About you.”

  Warmth spread through her. “You have, huh?”

  He gave a slow nod. “Thinking that if your goal hadn’t been to own a bakery, I’d have lost you as my assistant long ago. You’d have your own office at TOI by now. You know that, don’t you?”

  She figured he wasn’t expecting false modesty from her. “Yeah, but that wasn’t what I wanted.”

  “So, then, let’s talk about what you do want, Lizzie Landry.”

  You, Ethan. I want you. The words echoed in her mind. But right then, she didn’t quite have the guts to say them.

  And besides, there was something else she wanted, too. She wanted to realize her dream at last. And her dream was the subject at hand right now. “I’ve changed my mind about going back to Texas. I want to buy a bakery that’s for sale on Main Street, right here in Thunder Canyon.”

  She waited for his shocked reaction.

  It didn’t come. He asked, “La Boulangerie, you mean?”

  Now she was the one with her mouth hanging open. “You already knew?”

  He made a low sound in the affirmative. “I had a feeling you were changing your mind about Thunder Canyon, that you were starting to really like it here.”

  “Oh, Ethan. I have. I do.”

  “I drove by that bakery on the way to sign the contract for the office building. I noticed the for-sale sign. Bonnie Drake’s the Realtor.”

  “Yes.”

  “Bonnie’s also my Realtor. So after I dealt with the papers for the office building, I asked her about the bakery. She says the owner is eager to sell. He wants to return to France, evidently.”

  “You think I could get a good deal, then?”

  “I think you could get a terrific deal.”

  She let out a soft, disbelieving laugh and covered her face with her hands. “This is so not the way I expected this conversation to go.”

  He chuckled, too. “You expected me to be an ass?”

  She lowered her hands and met his gaze. “I really didn’t know how you would react.”

  “I told you I was through being an ass, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, Ethan, you did.”

  “You should start believing in me—at least a little.” He held out his hand between their two chairs.

  She took it without so much as a second’s hesitation. His fingers closed around hers, strong and warm, and the now familiar thrill shivered up her arm. “I do believe in you.”

  He lifted her hand and he pressed his warm lips to the back of it. The touch of his mouth to her skin felt so good that she had to stifle a sharp gasp of pleasure. He lowered their joined hands but didn’t let go. “I have a plan.”

  “Tell me.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can start moving into my new building in two weeks, right after Independence Day weekend.”

  “That’s fast.”

  “It’s empty. It should be no problem to close on the property quickly. We’ll get right on the inspections, see that any necessary repairs are done. And I’m going to talk to HR down in Midland, see if there’s someone clerical, someone on staff now and already trained. Someone who would be willing to relocate here temporarily, with an eye toward staying if everything works out.”

  “My…replacement, you mean?” Even though his finding someone new was what she wanted, it still caused a twinge of sadness to see it happening, to know that someone else was really going to take her place.

  He didn’t answer her question—not directly anyway. “I would want my new assistant to start on the fifth of July.”

  She forced a cheerfulness she didn’t exactly feel. “And that way I would have almost a month to train her—or him.”

  “No, you’re going to be much too busy for that. I’ll make sure they send me someone with experience, someone who’s ready to hit the ground running.”

  “But I don’t… What do you mean, Ethan?”

  “I mean, if you meet with Bonnie Drake and you can get as good a deal as I think you can, you should buy that bakery fully equipped ASAP. And I also mean that I would be
letting you go early. On the fifth of July.”

  It wasn’t right. She’d promised to stay with him until July 31. “No, that wasn’t the deal.”

  “So what? I’m changing the terms.”

  “Ethan, it’s not right.”

  “I’m the boss. If I say it’s right, there’s not a thing wrong with it. And if all goes according to plan, your replacement will be here and ready to take over by the fifth. And you’ll have a new full-time job.”

  “I will?” She almost didn’t dare believe what he seemed to be telling her.

  But then he said it, right out loud, “You’ll be running yourself ragged getting ready for your grand opening.”

  It was too huge. Too amazing. Too wonderful for words. Lizzie couldn’t control herself. With a screech of pure joy, she leaped from her chair. “Oh, Ethan!”

  Still stretched out with his feet up, he gave her the slow, lazy once-over, starting at the flip-flops on her feet and ending with her ill-behaved hair. “Whoa, Lizzie. Could you show a little enthusiasm, you think?”

  “Get up here. Get up here now.” She dragged on his hand until he swung his boots to the floor and rose to stand with her.

  “What now?” His mouth kicked up at one corner as he arched a straight dark eyebrow.

  She grabbed him by his big shoulders. “I will pay you back the bonus. It isn’t fair that you should—”

  He stopped her with a finger against her lips. “Shh. Listen. You’re keeping that bonus.”

  “But it’s not—”

  “Lizzie.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t argue with the boss.”

  “Oh, Ethan.”

  “Enough about the bonus. Please?”

  “You are the best friend I ever had and I don’t know how to tell you how much I… How much it means to me. Not only that you’re finally seeing what I need to do in my life, but also that you’re…well, you’re…” She ran out of words. Because there were no words.

  He found them, though. “Willing to help you get what you want?”

  She clapped her hands in ecstasy, gave him a double thumbs-up. “Yes. That. Exactly that.”