Forever And A Day (Montana Brides, Book #7) (9 page)

Jordan stared at Mac. “A washcloth?”

“You concerned you didn’t think of it?”

“Of course not,” Jordan huffed. He pulled a blanket over Sarah, tucking it under the mattress in case she did something crazy, like fall out of bed. The washcloth in Mac’s hand might have been thoughtful. Even considerate. But that didn’t mean she was anything more than Mac’s housekeeper, bare chest or not.

Mac stared at Jordan. “I thought you were over at Alex’s place? Sarah went into town ages ago. How did you find her?”

Jordan pulled the curtains in Sarah’s room. He wasn’t going to tell Mac he’d been worried about her. He’d think Jordan had lost his marbles.

“Emily sent Alex a picture from Charlie’s. He wanted me to check that everyone was okay.”

“Last minute wedding nerves will do that to a guy.”

“I wouldn’t know.” Jordan grabbed an extra pillow off Sarah’s bed and wedged it between her body and the mattress. At least she wouldn’t roll onto her back and choke.

“She’ll be fine,” Mac said as he walked out of Sarah’s room. “If she needs anything during the night, I’ll be here to help.”

“You think that makes me feel better?”

“Depends on where those feelings might be running.”

Jordan wiped his hand across his face. It was too late at night to discuss the finer points of a non-existent relationship. Especially when that conversation involved a woman who might be engaged.

He needed to go home and get some sleep. If Sarah didn’t arrive to cook breakfast tomorrow morning, he’d be in charge. He wouldn’t be able to whip up any pancakes, but he could put cereal on the counter and bread in the toaster.

“Let me know if you need anything,” Jordan said on his way out the front door. “If you see Sarah in the morning, ask her to call me if she can’t get across to make breakfast.”

Mac looked at him oddly, then followed him out of the ranch house and down the porch steps. “She likes dancing. The old fashioned sort, like waltzes and foxtrots.”

Jordan had been reaching for his keys. He stopped and tried to figure out where Mac was going. “You mean, Sarah?”

“Yeah. I’ll let you work out the rest.”

Jordan opened his door and leaned against the side of his truck. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a crazy cowboy?”

“All the time.” Mac laughed and turned to go back inside. “But you’d be even crazier not to do anything about Sarah. If you’re that way inclined.”

Jordan thought about where his inclinations might take him.

Halfway home he realized his inclinations wouldn’t be going anywhere. Sarah had a fiancé. He held a glimmer of hope that he was an ex-fiancé, considering she’d called him a bastard. But that didn’t change the fact that she’d fallen in love with an educated, city-slicker, brain-box.

He didn’t hold out much hope in the romance department. He had more debt than brains and didn’t know one end of a database from the other.

Not exactly groundbreaking reasons why she’d consider getting to know him better.

***

Sarah parked Alex’s spare truck beside Jordan’s home. It was six-fifteen in the morning and her head felt like a firecracker had exploded between her eyeballs.

Mac had looked at her suspiciously when she’d grabbed a mug of coffee. She didn’t know how much of last night he’d witnessed, but she wasn’t too proud of herself. She’d never gotten drunk before, never had a hangover, or left her car in a parking lot because she couldn’t drive home.

A door slammed behind her and she squinted across the yard at Jordan. He stopped in his tracks and stared at her. A rush of heat hit her in the face.

If she’d thought Mac was bad enough, Jordan was worse. He’d seen her when she’d been drunk. He’d taken her home, reduced what was left of her pride to the size of the bowl sitting beside her bed.

“How are you feeling?”

The smile on his face made her feel like a total idiot. “I could be better. Thanks for the ride home.”

He shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the shiny red truck parked a few feet away. “How are you going to get your car out to Alex’s ranch?”

“Mac has to go into town for some supplies. He’s taking another ranch hand and they’re driving my car back with them.”

“Worked out well, then.”

Sarah supposed so. But only if you discounted the Cosmopolitan and two Raspberry Margaritas that had contributed to an all-around embarrassing evening.

She scuffed her boots across the gravel, then looked quickly at Jordan. “I need to start breakfast.”

Jordan nodded, almost as if he’d already gotten tired of her company and moved onto other more important problems. “I was wondering…you said something last night…”

Sarah bit her bottom lip. She could only remember snippets of conversation, parts of a whole that added up to something she’d rather forget.

“…about a fiancé.”

“James?”

Jordan scowled. “You’ve got more than one?”

“No, I mean James isn’t my fiancé, not anymore.”

“Oh.” Jordan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We’ll…that’s good.”

That was the first time anyone had told Sarah that James’ hurried exit from her life was good. Looking back now she supposed it was, but at the time it had been devastating. “I really have to go. I’ll see you later.”

She felt like a coward. A full blown, in your face coward. She could see more questions running through Jordan’s head. But one question about her past before breakfast was enough. There were fourteen mouths that needed feeding and only one set of hands to pull it all together.

She walked across to the barn and focused on the menu she’d reviewed yesterday. Jordan might think her schedules were over the top and bad for his health, but they worked. Especially on days like today when her brain refused to cooperate with her body.

***

Four hours and two Tylenol later, Sarah finally felt as if she was getting somewhere. The Buchanans had left with Frank and Tim, going on a full day riding adventure. The threat of more wolf attacks had all but disappeared, but no one was taking any chances with their safety.

As they’d ridden out of the corral, Sarah noticed the rifles strapped to the cowboys’ horses, the quiet confidence in Frank and Tim as they’d ridden past her.

She pinned the last sheet on the clothesline, added a couple of pillowcases, and decided to check the booking forms for the next set of guests who would be arriving soon.

Jordan had told her where to find the folder, so she walked through the back door of Trent and Gracie’s home and knocked on the office door.

Jordan was sitting at his desk with paperwork spread out in front of him. He looked up and frowned.

Sarah waved her hand toward the filing cabinet. “I’m making a grocery list for next week. I want to check the booking forms for the guests.”

“Did Frank mention the phone call he had yesterday?”

Sarah shook her head. “Not yet.”

“One of the couples want to go fly fishing. I’ve got a note here somewhere…” He started moving papers around on his desk, opening folders, then frowning at the phone. “I called a local outfitter to see if they could take them on one of their fishing trips. They had two spare places so it’s all booked. The only thing we need to do is provide them with food and drink for the day.”

“What about dinner?”

“That’s provided by the outfitter. They won’t be back until about nine o’clock at night.” Jordan rummaged around some more, then scratched his head. “I know I’ve got the details here somewhere.”

Sarah lifted next week’s booking forms out of a folder and flicked through the papers. “Is it this couple?” She held up a red piece of paper that had been clipped to one of the forms. “Peter and Christine McEwan?”

“That’s them.”

She read the note and reattached it to the folder. “I’ll make sure they’ve got what they need. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” Jordan leaned back in his chair, giving her his undivided attention.

“I looked at your website the other day. It’s good, but there are things you could do to make it better.” Sarah paused and waited to see what his reaction would be. Jordan didn’t seem to be annoyed or defensive. He simply sat in his chair, waiting for her to continue.

“Have you thought about linking an online registration process to a database? That way you wouldn’t have to look for pieces of paper. Everything would be in one place and you could access it from anywhere, not just this office.”

“We got a quote from a company in Great Falls and they talked about something like that. It was more expensive than we could afford, so I asked a friend’s daughter to put a website together for me. Our website hasn’t got all of the bells and whistles that some of the big organizations have, but I haven’t got a bells and whistles budget.”

“I could help,” she said.

Jordan studied her for a few minutes.

She could normally tell what was on his mind just by looking at his face. But not today. He’d locked whatever he was thinking away, leaving her to guess what would come next.

He picked up a pen and paper and started making some notes. “So the website needs updating?”

Sarah nodded. “New pictures would add interest. You could also add a blog, an online registration process, links to social media sites, and an email contact form.”

Jordan raised one of his eyebrows. “Anything else?”

Sarah tried to work out if he was genuinely interested or in shock. He didn’t look as if he was in information overload, so she kept going. “If you wanted to add some color and movement, you could embed some movie clips. You know…” She pointed toward the window. “Show people what it’s like out here. The sun setting on the mountains, horses galloping across the prairie, maybe even show them through the barn accommodation.”

“How much will all of this cost?”

Sarah rubbed her hands down the side of her jeans. “I had coffee with Sally the other day. Sally Gray, Nathan’s sister.”

“I know who she is. She didn’t want you to look after more animals from the shelter, did she?”

Sarah smiled. “Not this week. But she has got a class technology project that she wants me to help with. If you’re okay with me using your ranch vacation business as a case study, her students and I will build everything for free.”

“Why would you do that?” Jordan looked bewildered by her offer.

“I want to make it easier for you to manage your business and easier for people to find you. The project will mean more to the students in Sally’s class because they’re working with a real local business. If I did a formal proposal, would you consider the idea?”

“Would you have time to do everything?”

“Not at the moment. But Mrs. Davies is due back next week and the students in Sally’s class won’t be ready to start their project for three weeks. That gives me a couple of weeks to organize what needs to be done.”

Jordan put his pen down on the desk. “I’m not happy with you doing all of that for nothing. It’s not right.”

“I’ll enjoy it. After a year of working on menu plans and housekeeping rosters, it will be good to stretch my IT brain again. The only downside is that you’ll have to show a group of ten-year-olds around the ranch.”

Jordan let a few minutes pass by while he thought about what she’d said. “I’ll make you a deal. You write out the proposal, but I pay you to redesign our website and all of the other things you suggested.” He held his hand up when Sarah started to object. “I can’t afford what you’d normally get paid, but we can work something out.”

“I didn’t offer to help because I wanted you to pay me.”

“I know, but that’s what’s going to happen. You don’t want to disappoint Sally’s class, do you?”

If Sarah didn’t know better, she’d swear Jordan was batting his big blue eyes at her. “I’ll put the proposal together, but I’m not accepting any money. Can I take this file away for half an hour to make notes on my laptop?”

“No problem. Leave it on my desk when you’re finished.”

Sarah stared at the piles of paper scattered over Jordan’s desk. “Are you sure?”

“Maybe not.” He grinned. “The filing cabinet might be safer.”

She held the folder close to her chest, then looked at the papers on Jordan’s desk. She could have walked away, left him to whatever he was doing, but she had something on her mind. Something she needed to say before the moment was gone. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night.”

Jordan’s mouth twitched.

“You think it was funny?”

“No, I think it was cute. I’ve never had so many compliments in the space of thirty minutes.”

Sarah hoped her face wasn’t as red as she thought it was. “I don’t drink alcohol. Not much anyway.”

“I could tell.”

Sarah scowled at his laughing blue eyes. “Some things are a little blurry around the edges, so I just wanted to say…well…I’m sorry. For you know, everything.” She took a deep breath and headed toward the door. “I’d better get going. I’ve got to get out to Alex’s ranch before lunch.”

Jordan stood up and moved across to the doorway. “You didn’t say or do anything to be embarrassed about. What I said before…about your ex-fiancé? I didn’t mean to ask you something that you weren’t comfortable talking about.”