A South Texas Christmas. Stella Bagwell
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His brows inched upward as he leaned casually back in the little iron chair. “What sort of impression do you think I have?”
She breathed deeply while asking herself why she hadn’t thought all this through before she’d made the call to Neil Rankin’s law office. Instead she’d made the call and this trip without telling anyone, even Nicolette. And now she was sitting here feeling as though she was about to jump off the edge of a rocky cliff.
“Well, you’re probably thinking I don’t make a move without my mother’s consent.”
Her small fingers were playing nervously with the napkin lying in front of her. Neil wanted to reach across the table and take her hand in his. He didn’t like the idea that she was uneasy with him and he wanted to reassure her that he was on her side and that the two of them were in this thing together.
“Not really,” he said in an easy, teasing manner. “I don’t see any strings attached to that pretty blue dress you’re wearing.”
A tiny smile lifted the corners of her mouth and then as she looked across the table at him, the amused expression on her face deepened. “Believe me, it used to be that bad. Before I finally grew up and moved away to go to college. When that happened, Mother was finally forced to cut some of the strings.”
As Neil’s gaze roamed her lovely face, he suddenly realized there were lots of things he would like to know about this woman. He got the feeling that up until now her life had not been typical. And that would probably be an understatement, what with having a mother that wasn’t aware of who she really was or where she’d come from. Lord, Neil couldn’t imagine how that would be. And even though his father had been a remote figure in his life, the idea of never knowing him was incomprehensible.
“You haven’t told me about your job. What do you do?” he asked in hopes she would freely offer information about herself.
The waitress arrived with their pie and coffee. Once the woman moved away and the two of them were eating, she answered, “I have a degree in accounting. I’m the bookkeeper for the Sandbur Ranch.”
So she’d gone through the long, arduous task of college, only to take a job back home. Maybe she hadn’t cut as many of those parental strings as she believed, Neil mused. Or maybe the Sandbur was where she felt most comfortable. If that were the case, he couldn’t blame her. After working those first few months in Farmington, he’d thought he was going to end up on a psychiatrist’s couch
“The Sandbur…it’s a big place?” he asked.
Raine nodded. “The property consists of several thousands of acres. It runs around two thousand mama cows. A hundred head of bulls and two hundred and fifty head of horses.”
Not quite the size of the T Bar K back home, Neil thought, but damn close. “You never wanted to move away?” he asked curiously. “Like up here to San Antonio? A young, beautiful woman like you could have most any job you set your sights on.”
It was an effort for Raine to keep her mouth from falling open. She wasn’t used to men calling her beautiful. Especially not a sinfully handsome lawyer who looked like he probably jetted around the world with any exotic creature he wanted on his arm.
Stop it, Raine scolded herself. This man was here in San Antonio with her because of business and nothing else. Quit thinking about his personal life. Quit thinking about him period.
Struggling to focus her attention on the slice of pie in front of her, she said, “I love the ranch. It’s where I’ve always wanted to work. I’m not a—city-type girl.”
“Oh. Then you must be happy on the Sandbur,” Neil replied, but actually that wasn’t all he wanted to say about the matter. In fact, he wanted to go a step further and ask her why she wasn’t married and if she had a special guy in her life at the moment. But that was none of his business. And what this woman did in her spare time shouldn’t interest him at all. But it did, he realized. Even though she was far, far too young and innocent for the likes of him.
Beware those green eyes, Neil.
Even as Neil looked across the table at Raine Crockett and felt a little part of him melt like a warm candy bar, he could hear Quito’s warning in his head.
Chapter Three
Clearing his throat, Neil sipped his coffee and decided it was past time that he brought their conversation down to the real nitty-gritty of this meeting. He hadn’t flown all the way down here to Texas just to enjoy the charms of a beautiful ingenue. Not that he wouldn’t fly a thousand miles to lunch with an attractive woman. Neil had been known to do plenty of extravagant things to capture the hand of a fair lady. But Raine Crockett was off-limits. He expected she would be the sort that would leave a lasting impression on a man’s heart. And Neil definitely wasn’t in the market for heart problems.
“So tell me,” he ventured, “have you tried to hunt for your mother’s past before?”
A grimace tightened Raine’s lips. Just the memory of that time still had the power to hurt her. She’d been so confused and angry with her mother for not understanding her need to find the identity of her father. And since then, not much had changed with their stilted relationship. That was one of the main reasons Raine had decided to follow up on the photo in the newspaper. If she could discover the truth of Esther’s past and where her father might be, then maybe it would tear down the terrible wall between her and her mother.
With a single nod, she said, “Shortly after I graduated college I hired a private investigator, but Mother eventually found out about the whole thing and put a quick stop to it. She was furious with me. In fact, none of us on the ranch had ever seen her so angry. If I’d been living with her at the time, she would no doubt have thrown me out of the house. But by then I’d moved into an apartment of my own in town.”
“Oh. You don’t live on the ranch, but your mother does?”
She glanced at him and saw that he was surprised. No doubt he’d been thinking her mother tucked her into bed every night, she thought ruefully.
“That’s right. Esther has worked for the Sanchez and Saddler families ever since I was a baby. She lives in one of the smaller houses on the property. If she had her way, I would still be living there with her. But the two of us get crosswise with each other from time to time,” she admitted regretfully. “It’s best we’re not together too much.”
Neil held the same attitude about sharing a house with a woman. Too much togetherness was a bad thing. Tempers flared and cross words were flung until all the pleasure was taken out of having a companion in the first place. All too often he’d watched his mother and father go at it as if they were bitter enemies rather than husband and wife. He didn’t want that for himself. Ever. Just give him a few sweet, intimate hours with a woman and then he wanted to be left on his own, before all the fighting had a chance to start.
Shifting on the small, uncomfortable chair, he tried to push the sad memories of his parents from his mind. “So you still haven’t mentioned any of this to Esther?”
“No. Why borrow trouble?” she asked glumly.
He studied her thoughtfully as one question after another popped into his head. He wasn’t a detective, but, more often than not, a lawyer had to think and act like one. Asking the right questions meant success or failure in the courtroom. With Raine, Neil figured he was going to have to go gently. In more ways than one.
“It doesn’t bother you to go behind your mother’s back like this?”
Her gaze slid from his face but not before he saw a pained expression fill her green eyes.
“Actually it breaks my heart. Mother worked hard and raised me single-handedly. She loves me,” she told him in a quiet, strained voice. “I don’t want to do anything to hurt her. But I…more than anything, I want to find my father. I want him to be a part of my life. She can’t tell me anything about him. And she refuses to help me. So I have no other choice