Rough Diamonds. Diana Palmer
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relaxed and Mallory seemed perplexed.
“I’m buying,” he added.
Which indicated that he thought Morie couldn’t afford the expensive coffee and was declining for that reason. She felt vaguely offended. Of course, he knew nothing about her background. Her last name might be unusual, but she’d seen it in other states, even in other countries. He wasn’t likely to connect a poor working girl with a famous cattleman, even if he might have met her father at some point. He ran Santa Gertrudis cattle, and her father’s Santa Gertrudis seed bulls were famous, and much sought after at very high prices, for their bloodlines.
She cleared her throat. “Yes, well, thanks, but not today.”
Mallory smiled oddly. “Okay. Have fun.”
“Thanks.”
They moved away, but not quickly enough for her to miss Gelly’s muttered, “Very egalitarian of you to offer cappuccino to the hired help,” she said in a tone that stung. “I bet she doesn’t even know what it is.”
Morie gritted her teeth. One day, lady, she thought, you’re going to get yours.
She turned back to the tractors with a sigh.
A red, older-model sports car roared up at the office building and stopped in a near skid. The door opened and closed. A minute later, a pleasant tall man with light brown hair and dark eyes came up to her. He was wearing a suit, unusual in a rural town, except for bankers.
He glanced at her with a smile. “Looking to buy something?”
“Me? Oh, no, I work on a ranch. I just like heavy equipment.”
His eyebrows arched. “You do?”
She laughed. “I guess it sounds odd.”
“Not really,” he replied. “My mom always said she married my dad because he surrounded himself with backhoes and earthmovers. She likes to drive them.”
“Really!”
“My dad owns this.” He waved his hand at the tractors. “I’m sales and marketing,” he added with a grimace. “I’d rather work in advertising, but Dad doesn’t have anybody else. I’m an only child.”
“Still, it’s not a bad job, is it?” she asked pleasantly.
He chuckled. “Not bad at all, on some days.” He extended a well-manicured hand. “Clark Edmondson,” he introduced himself.
She shook it. “Morie Brannt.”
“Very nice to meet you, Miss…Ms. …Mrs. …?” he fished.
“Ms.,” she said, laughing. “But I’m single.”
“What a coincidence. So am I!”
“Imagine that.”
“Are you really just looking, or scouting out a good deal for your boss?”
“I’m sure my boss can do his own deals,” she replied. “I work for Mallory Kirk at the Rancho Real,” she added.
“Oh. Him.” He didn’t look impressed.
“You know him.”
“I know him, all right. We’ve had words a time or two on equipment repairs. He used to buy from us. Now he buys from a dealer in Casper.” He shrugged. “Well, that’s old news. A lot of locals work for him, and he doesn’t have a large turnover. So I guess he’s good to his employees even if he’s a pain in the neck to vendors.”
She laughed. “I suppose.”
He cocked his head and looked down at her with both hands in his pockets. “You date?”
She laughed, surprised. “Well, sort of. I mean, I haven’t recently.”
“Like movies?”
“What sort?”
“Horror,” he said.
“I like the vampire trilogy that’s been popular.”
He made a face.
“I like all the new cartoon movies, the Harry Potter ones, the Narnia films and anything to do with Star Trek or Star Wars,” she told him.
“Well!”
“How about you?”
“I’m not keen on science fiction, but I haven’t seen that new werewolf movie.” He pursed his lips. “Want to go see it with me? There’s a community theater. It doesn’t have a lot of the stuff the big complexes do, but it’s not bad. There’s a Chinese restaurant right next door that stays open late.”
She hesitated. She wasn’t sure this was a good idea. He looked like a nice man. But her new boss seemed to be a fair judge of character and he wouldn’t do business here. It was a red flag.
“I’m mostly harmless,” he replied. “I have good teeth, I only swear when really provoked, I wear size-eleven shoes and I’ve only had five speeding tickets. Oh, and I can speak Norwegian.”
She stared at him, speechless. “I’ve never known anyone who could speak Norwegian.”
“It will come in handy if I ever go to Norway,” he replied with a chuckle. “God knows why I studied it. Spanish or French or even German would have made more sense.”
“I think you should learn what you want to learn.”
“So. How about the movie?”
She glanced at her watch. “I have to help with calving, so I’m mostly on call for the rest of the weekend. It’s already past time I was back at work. I only have a half day on Saturdays.”
“Darn. Well, how about next Friday night? If calving permits?”
“I’ll ask the boss,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow.
“I have to,” she replied. “I’m a new hire. I don’t want to risk losing my job for being AWOL.”
“Sounds like the military,” he suggested.
“I guess so. It sort of feels like it, on the ranch, too.”
“All three of the brothers fought overseas,” he said. “Two of them didn’t fare so well. Mallory, though, he’s hard to dent.”
“I noticed.” She hadn’t known that Mallory had been in the military, but it made sense, considering his air of authority. He was probably an officer, as well, when he’d been on active duty.
She saw him staring, waiting. She grimaced. “If I can get the time off, I’d like to see the film.”
He beamed. “Great!”
She sighed. “I’ve forgotten how to go on a date. I’ll have to go in jeans and a shirt. I didn’t bring a dress or even a skirt to the ranch when I hired on. All my stuff is back home with my folks.”
“You’re noticing the suit. I wear it to impress potential customers,” he said with a grin. “Around town, I mostly wear slacks and sport shirts, so jeans will be fine. We aren’t exactly going to a ball, Cinderella,” he added with twinkling eyes. “And I’m no prince.”
“I think they’re rewriting that fairy tale so that Cinderella is CEO of a corporation and she rescues a poor dockworker from his evil stepbrothers,” she said, tongue-in-cheek.
“God forbid!” he exclaimed. “Don’t women want to be women anymore?”
“Apparently not, if you watch television or films much.” She sighed. She looked down at her own clothing. “Modern life requires us to work for a living, and there are only so many jobs available. Not much economically viable stuff for girls who lounge around in eyelet and lace and drink tea in parlors.”