Maid in Montana. SUSAN MEIER
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the house clean, my laundry done and supper made. Nothing else.”
He strode to the door, grabbed the knob and faced her. “You got that?”
She nodded.
“Good.”
But as Jeb was walking to the barn, he wondered if Sophie really did understand what he’d said. It was easy to tell from her few comments about her parents that she’d probably spent her childhood trying to please them, which made her one of those people who was always working to fix everybody around them.
Lord, if she ever found out the truth of his life, she’d have a field day.
He stopped walking. Actually that wasn’t funny. In less than a day, she’d already gotten him to sit down to a breakfast he didn’t want, withhold a reprimand for not keeping her baby out of his sight and engage in a personal discussion about her parents. She’d grown up looking and listening for clues of how her parents felt. If he spent too much time in her company, she’d sense he was hiding something and she might even make it her life’s mission to get him to talk about it so she could help him.
He was strong enough—stubborn enough— that he didn’t believe he’d spill his guts and tell her things he didn’t want anybody to know, but why risk it?
Her primary function was to prepare his house for his clients. He could easily take cooking off her list of duties and never even have to worry that their paths would cross.
That was a much better idea than sitting three feet away from her and her child, risking that she’d work whatever magic she wove and somehow get him talking about himself.
Sophie was in the middle of supper preparations when Jeb opened the back door and strode into the kitchen talking. “Sophie, can you come back to the office with me for a minute?”
She looked up from the pepper she was chopping then glanced at the baby monitor on the counter. Brady had just gone to sleep. She didn’t believe he would wake up. She could leave him for five minutes without the monitor…right?
“This won’t take long.”
She smiled and said, “Sure,” but waited until Jeb was in the hall leading to the front foyer, before she snatched the monitor from the counter as she passed it. He hadn’t said a word about Brady that morning, but that was actually the problem. She’d never met a person who didn’t oohh and ahh over her baby. The fact that her boss hadn’t even addressed the adorable child sitting in the high chair next to him could mean he really was one of those people who didn’t like babies. If that was the case, she might have to rethink her strategy. Stuffing the monitor into her apron pocket, she followed Jeb into the office.
“Have a seat.”
She sat with a smile. A big smile. He wouldn’t have called her into his office unless he had something important to discuss. She had to show him that no matter what he wanted she’d do her best to accommodate him. No matter what he said, she would agree.
He sat on the big leather chair behind the desk. “I’ve decided to modify your duties.”
Great! More work! Finally a way to prove herself! If she had any luck, he’d changed his mind about breakfast. She was a much better cook than housekeeper, and breakfast was her specialty. She could easily impress him with omelets and waffles. If he’d simply add breakfast into her duties, he’d beg her to stay the entire year of their contract.
“I’m taking all cooking off your list of responsibilities.”
All the breath whooshed out of Sophie’s lungs. “What?”
“The cooking. I’m taking it off your list of job duties. You have plenty to do without it.”
“No, I don’t!”
He fiddled with some papers on his desk, then looked up at her. “Yes, you do.” He leaned back in the seat. “You were surprised this morning when I didn’t get up with the sun because you thought that’s what ranchers do.”
Heartsick because she’d lost her best way to impress him, Sophie nodded.
“Usually that’s true, but in our case I don’t really run the Silver Saddle. I run the ranch management company that owns the Silver Saddle. As ranch foreman, Slim gets up and gets the day going with the hands. That’s what every foreman at every ranch my company manages does. I personally don’t run the ranches. I have great foremen who do that.”
“And what do you do?”
“I market my business.” He sat up again, leaning forward on his desk, obviously comfortable talking about his company, looking like a lethal combination of sexy rancher and savvy businessman. “This house,” he said, pointing around in a circle, “is a big part of my marketing plan. Remember, during the interview I told you I had frequent guests?”
“Yes.”
“The guests are wealthy people who buy ranches so that they have a private country retreat. Somewhere they can go and be themselves. Be comfortable. But after a year or so of owning a ranch, they realize how much trouble it is to run it, so they go looking for somebody like me. Or a company like mine. We do the work for the ranch. They reap the benefits.”
“I’m still not sure what this has to do with me.”
“If it were just me living here, I wouldn’t have a housekeeper. I’d let the dust pile up. But because of my guests I need the place to be clean. Which means you’re part of the business. You’re not really a maid. You’re more of an extension of the ranch management company, making sure everything sparkles for clients.” He relaxed and leaned back on his chair again. “So that’s all I want you to do.”
Knowing he was waiting for a reaction from her, Sophie stalled for time by running her tongue along her lips. A smart woman would simply say okay. Sophie told herself to say okay. To smile. To accept his order. Not to argue that cooking was her forte and if he’d just allow her cook for him, he’d never let her leave.
She took a breath. Told herself again to simply say, “Okay.”
Just say okay!
She opened her mouth, but instead of her one-word agreement, she found herself saying, “This is because of Brady, isn’t it?” But once the words were out of her mouth, she wasn’t sorry. The guy was going to fire her for something that wasn’t her fault and she’d be damned if she’d roll over and play dead.
“No.”
“Yes. It is.” She rose from her seat and leaned across the desk. “You didn’t even look at him this morning.”
He rose, pressed his hands on his desk and leaned toward her. “I asked you to keep him away from me. If we push everything else aside in this discussion, the bottom line is you disobeyed an order from your boss. Now you’re paying the consequences.”
“But Brady’s a sweet kid!” She paused, drew in a breath. “You know what? Maybe if you’d spend some time with him you might get a little sweeter.”
He gaped at her. “Are you kidding me? After disobeying a direct order, now you’re sassing?”
Sophie reared back and pressed her palm to her mouth. In her zeal to prove that she could work with Brady, she’d forgotten that he didn’t want the baby in the room. But he was right about the sassing. That didn’t help her cause at all. And she knew better. But when it came to Brady, her motherly instincts always surprised her.
He sighed. “Look, I have potential clients arriving in three weeks. What I need… No, what the business needs is for this big house to be clean, looking like the perfect retreat from the hustle and bustle of a busy life. After that you can leave. I’ll even give you the thousand dollars. I just want you and your baby gone.”
Tears filled her eyes. She was being fired because she had a baby. She shook her head in disbelief. “He doesn’t