Platinum Cowboy. Rita Herron
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She arched a brow. “So this is a test?”
“No, it’s just that I can usually judge if an employee is going to click by their interaction with my other workers and with the animals.”
Her blue eyes darkened. “And how am I doing so far?”
He grinned. “Let’s see how it goes in the morning. Now I’ll show you to your quarters.”
She stood, brushing down her skirt. “Fine.”
He dragged his gaze from her legs and started to tell her to dress for work in the morning, but then he remembered her comment about growing up on a ranch and bit back the gibe. He didn’t want to piss her off any more than he already had.
He just hoped she was more endearing to his animals than she was to him.
LORA LEIGH CLIMBED IN her Jeep and followed Flint in his truck down the graveled road, past the most beautiful pastureland she’d ever seen and several barns, to a small white wooden cottage shaded by giant live oaks and elms. A large weeping willow also shadowed the porch with its sweeping, spidery arms, as if to reach out and embrace her.
A swing on the small front porch and a pot of pansies added a homey flair. Dust swirled around her as she parked and climbed out. She went to retrieve her suitcase from the back, but Flint grabbed it and her cosmetic bag, so she retrieved her laptop.
“I have some apartments on the west side and a few small cottages throughout the ranch for other employees,” he said. “But I thought you’d be more comfortable here. It’s closer to the barns for the horses you’ll be in charge of and will give you some privacy from ranch hands.”
She’d read about his housing projects, the apartments both on the ranch and in town.
“Besides the ranch hands, grooms, trainers and their assistants and vets, I have a wildlife biologist on board as well as scientists specializing in crop production. Each of the vets is assigned to a specific area, but I also have a vet clinic near the main house. It has an office and a computer set up and is fully equipped with medical supplies and equipment. It adjoins the office space for my managers.” He gestured toward a long white building from which a plume of smoke arose.
“That’s the cafeteria. We serve breakfast starting at five o’clock, and meals are available throughout the day.” He led her up the narrow pebbled walkway to the porch, then climbed the steps. She couldn’t help but notice the way his tight jeans hugged his butt and the way his denim shirt stretched across those massive shoulders.
Heaven help her. She had to stop ogling him. He was the enemy.
Flint unlocked the door and pushed it open, then gestured for her to enter. “It’s not fancy, but it’s comfortable, ” he said as she entered.
“It’s fine,” she said, although it was more than fine. A comfortable oversize blue sofa and a chair sat in the living room, in front of a braided rug, and the area opened to a modern kitchen with a breakfast bar and a pine table.
“It’s just one bedroom,” he said, “but there’s a nice bath, and the view’s not bad. You can see the sunrise from the porch in the mornings. The kitchen is stocked with basics to get you started. You’re welcome to take meals at the cafeteria, or you can eat on your own.”
She enjoyed cooking, and when she closed her eyes, she could still smell the scent of her mother’s homemade cinnamon rolls and buttermilk biscuits in the oven and the fresh sausage frying in the pan.
But she intended to use every minute she could here to find out what had happened to Johnny.
Flint strode into the bedroom and settled her suitcase on a luggage rack at the foot of the bed. Two windows, with billowing curtains, flanked the antique four-poster bed, which was covered by a quilt in various shades of blue and white calico.
She stopped to admire the intricate pattern and tiny stitch work. “Oh, my, this is a Dresden plate pattern. Is it handmade?”
He nodded, an odd expression lining his chiseled face. “My mother made it. Quilting was kind of a hobby of hers.”
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
He stepped back from the bed, his gaze meeting hers. “Do you quilt?”
She hesitated, reluctant to share anything personal with this man who she was supposed to hate. “Yes. My grandmother and mother were both quilters. They taught me when I was a little girl.” And her mother had left her a wedding-ring quilt for her hope chest, the last one she’d made before she died.
Not that Lora Leigh ever planned to marry. She didn’t trust men. Some were intimidated by her degree, some thought she was too much of a tomboy, while others implied she wasn’t sophisticated enough. She just never seemed to fit…
“Well, I guess we have something in common,” Flint said quietly. “Other than our love of horses.”
Emotions bounded up to her throat. She didn’t want to have anything in common with him. To like him at all.
In fact, she felt like a traitor for being on his land. And especially for thinking for even a moment that Flint McKade was handsome.
That he might not be the bad guy she’d pegged him to be.
No, he was bad. He’d said he was sorry about her father’s death, but he hadn’t apologized for driving him to suicide. Stealing her father’s land had been the last straw.
Flint might as well have put the rifle in her father’s hand.
All that blood on the wall…
She couldn’t erase the image from her head. Her father’s vacant eyes, pale skin, his body covered in blood…
“Well, it’s late,” Flint said quietly. “I’ll let you settle in, and I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll come by around six.”
She didn’t trust herself to speak, so she nodded and forced herself not to turn around and watch him leave. But when she heard the door click shut, the tears began to fall.
Wrapping her arms around herself, she walked to the window and looked out into the night. Somewhere in the distance, frogs croaked, a coyote howled and horses whinnied, reminding her of all she loved about ranch life. The land was rugged in places, dotted with rocky areas, boulders, sagebrush and wild animal life, yet crops survived, cattle thrived and breeding season was in full swing. The stars shimmered in the inky night sky like glittering diamonds, the smell of horses and hay and lush green grass welcoming her as if she were home.
But she wasn’t home. She’d lost her home because of Flint.
Angrily, she swiped at the tears and cursed herself for being weak and for admiring for even a second the ranch that Flint had built. She’d find out what had happened to Johnny, make sure he was alive and safe; then she’d get the hell off the Diamondback and start over someplace else.
But she’d have to watch herself, force herself to be nice and professional. Flint was so influential in the ranching and farming community; if he wasn’t pleased with her work, he could ruin her professional reputation in Texas. And she had no one to take care of her now, no one to turn to, no one to rely on but herself. She had to maintain her reputation and integrity, no matter what.
Of course, if worst came to worst, she could leave the state. Once she found Johnny, there would be nothing holding her here.
She turned to look at the northernmost part of the ranch, at the acreage that had held her home around which swirled the memories that had shaped her life. She had no idea what Flint intended to do with the paltry spread.
But that piece of land would always hold her heart.
And no one would ever touch her heart, especially not Flint McKade.