Lucky In Love (22 page)

Nellie Luckadeau, Slade’s grandmother, could have danced a jig in a pig trough half full of fermented slop. Never had she seen Slade so angry. He was the cold, calm, collected, and slow-moving cowboy who never had a temper fit. She’d begun to think he’d never feel anything again and suddenly he was ready to chew up railroad spikes all because she’d brought home a stray, homeless girl. Well, praise the Lord and pass the biscuits, her prayers had been answered.

Slade shifted his big blue eyes to his grandmother. “I can’t believe you drove to Wichita Falls. I told you I’d be here as soon as I could.”

“Ellen wanted to get home this afternoon and she’d have missed her bus. Damned near did anyway, what with the wreck and all. Don’t get your under-britches in a wad. I drove. I backed out into a car. I’ve got damned good insurance that’ll pay for the damages and if I didn’t, I expect I could handle the amount. I was lucky to be sittin’ there when Jane got off the bus. Now I’ve got a driver and you can get on back to your ranchin’ and quit your bellyachin’ about me hiring her. She told me on the way from Wichita Falls that this was her lucky break. Well, I reckon it’s mine, too. And if you’ll admit it, it’s your lucky break because damn it all, Slade Luckadeau, you don’t have to worry about drivin’ me anywhere long as she’s here.”

“She’s not a driver, she’s a con artist. I bet Jane Day isn’t even her name. It’s so close to Jane Doe that she probably picked it from the air when you asked her. It doesn’t even show any imagination. She’s here to swindle you, Granny. Wait and see. She’ll end up with everything you own before she leaves.” He stormed out of the house. His boots sounded like bolts of thunder and his spurs jingled like a wind chime as he stomped across the wooden porch.

“Don’t worry about him, Jane. He’s just got a burr in his britches. He’ll get over it. Let me show you to your room. But before I do, look me in the eye and tell me you aren’t a con artist,” Nellie said.

Jane took a step forward, looked up, and met the tall older woman’s eyes. “I am not a con artist. I’m not here to rob you of anything. I just need a place to stay for a few weeks. I’m grateful for the job and I’ll work like a mule.”

Jane picked up a stuffed duffel bag and carried it through a living room that looked seldom used, a dining room with a long table that could easily seat a dozen people, a den where most of the living went on by the look of the well-used, overstuffed sofa and recliners, and down a hallway. She would never have guessed she’d end up on a ranch south of Ringgold, Texas when she left Greenville, Mississippi two days before. But she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Like she’d said, she’d work like a mule for six weeks and then go back home to settle matters.

“That’s all I need to know,” Nellie said. “Follow me.”

“Old house started out as a two-bedroom frame back in the beginning,” Nellie said. “My husband’s father built it for his new wife. Then the kids came along and they added this wing with an extra three bedrooms. When my husband bought out his sibling’s interest in the ranch and we got married, he added another wing for us. It’s got a sitting room and a bedroom. Sitting room turned into his office and my sewing and quilting room pretty quick. My boys lived on this wing the whole time they was growing up. We saved the original two bedrooms for guests. Slade lives in this room.”

She motioned toward a shut door. “Here’s where you can toss your belongings and sleep at night. Reckon the rest of the time I’ll keep you busy. Make yourself at home and get settled in. We serve up three meals a day.

We’ll start dinner in an hour. That’s for the whole work crew. Part of the deal we’ve always made on the Double L: a good salary and dinner at twelve sharp. Supper is flexible depending on what’s going on. If Slade is cutting hay, we might not eat until eight or nine. If he’s able to get in early, it’s around six. It’s not as big as dinner because the help all goes home to their families. Just the three of us at that time. You. Me. Slade. Sometimes my sister, Ellen. She spends a lot of time over here. Ignore Slade if he gets testy.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be out there in an hour to help you,” Jane said.

“Might want to stretch out. Don’t reckon you got much sleep on that bus, did you?”

“No, ma’am, I didn’t. And thank you,” Jane said.

“And no thanks due. You’ll work for the money I promised you and you’ll have a room and board as long as you want to stay here.” Nellie shut the door.

Jane threw herself on the full-sized bed, laced her hands behind her head, and stared at her surroundings. It had definitely been a boy’s room at one time. Cranberry and ecru plaid curtains hung at the window. A piecework quilt using the same colors covered the bed. The iron headboard and footboard had been painted a soft buttery yellow. A mirror hung above a six-drawer dresser with family pictures arranged from the larger eight by ten sizes at the back down to small ones in the front. The light tan carpet had been replaced recently and still looked new. The walls were painted a soft antique white but were bare.

She glanced at the door. No lock. She shared a wing with the abominable grandson, Slade, with no way to keep him from sneaking into her room and smothering her to death at night. At least she would know there was a possibility she’d be dead by morning and it wouldn’t come as a total surprise from the hands of the man she’d promised to love forever amen.

Tired beyond words, she couldn’t be still. She popped up and opened the duffle bag. Three pair of jeans, three T-shirts, a dozen pair of underpants, three bras, two pair of Nikes, and a few pair of socks. She had the whole thing unpacked and put away in one empty dresser drawer and the closet in less than ten minutes. She could easily make do with that much for the next few weeks. If she needed anything for a special occasion, she could always purchase it with the money she’d be paid each Friday night.

That almost brought a smile to her face. Who would have thought a week ago that she’d be working for a hundred dollars a week plus room and board? It would have been the biggest joke in the whole state of Mississippi. Ellacyn Jane Hayes working on a ranch for a tiny fraction of her normal salary, without her fancy clothes, cars, and credit cards.

She dug around in her purse for her cell phone to call her best friend Celia and whined out loud. She had vowed she wouldn’t miss her bank account or the credit cards she’d been wise enough to leave behind, or even her business, if she could just be safe. But she really, really did miss that cell phone.

“Damn you, John,” she mumbled. She missed her friend, Celia, even more than all the clothing in her closets, more than the laptop computer that she relied on so heavily, even more than chocolate.

She’d thrown the phone out the window somewhere between Dallas and Wichita Falls when she found the tracking device hidden under the battery flap. Finding it had been a fluke. She’d dropped the phone on the floor and the back fell off. When she picked it up, she recognized the little shiny metal thing immediately. She’d slung the phone out the window into the tall grass along the roadside and berated herself for all the expensive subterfuge she’d already sacrificed. The plane ticket from Jackson to New York hadn’t been cheap and had eaten up most of her cash. She’d left her Cadillac in the airport parking lot and taken a taxi to the bus station, where she’d bought a ticket to Dallas. No one would look for her on a bus.

She’d written a note that she had gotten cold feet and was on her way to New York for a few weeks to think things through. John would have gone there immediately if it hadn’t been for that damned cell phone tracker. Oh, well, it had happened and it couldn’t be helped. Now she was as safe as possible, hidden away on a ranch near Ringgold, Texas, population one hundred according to the history lesson Nellie had provided on the drive from Wichita Falls to the Double L Ranch.

She pulled the curtains back and got a view of Black Angus cattle just outside the fenced yard. Farther out she could see Slade on a horse rounding cattle into a huge semi truck. It was definitely a working ranch and Slade was a bona fide cowboy. He cocked his head toward the house and she dropped the curtain faster than if it had been on fire. Surely he couldn’t have seen her, but that glare he’d settled upon her when he found out his grandmother had picked her up in the bus station like a stray puppy was enough to give her cold chills. On second thought, those blue eyes could most likely see well enough through trees, cattle hind ends, and glass windows to fry her where she stood.

To say that Slade was angry was the understatement of the century. He’d never been so mad in his whole life. Not even the day his mother shoved him crying out of the car and disappeared with her new husband in a cloud of Texas dust. Granny had no business driving more than thirty miles to Wichita Falls to the bus station in the first place. All she had to do was exercise a little patience and he’d have taken Aunt Ellen to catch the bus back to Amarillo. Damn it all, he’d have taken time to drive the feisty old lady all the way to Amarillo, if Granny would have given him a chance.

But oh, no, she had to take matters in her own hands and get behind the wheel even though she couldn’t see jack shit. It had been a year since the doctor had told her about the macular degeneration and said she wasn’t to drive anymore. Slade should have taken her license away from her then, but he’d thought she had more sense than to endanger her own life as well as others. Well, he’d been wrong but he’d see to it he had that license in his possession before nightfall. And that little blonde was going right back to the train station come morning. He’d never liked brown-eyed women and he could see through a con from a mile away on a foggy day.

Heat rose up from the ground in waves but he didn’t notice it or the sweat pouring down his back, soaking the chambray shirt in big wet circles. It was June in north Texas and sweat was part of life.

“What you so mad about? Never seen you act like this,” Vince Johnson asked. His father was the foreman of the Double L Ranch and the tall, gangly young man had worked for Slade in the summers since he was barely big enough to sit a horse.

“Granny drove to town, backed into a car, drug home a stray woman, and is acting like nothing happened,” Slade said.

“It’s the woman that’s making you the maddest. Granny has driven to town before. She’s had accidents before and you’ve never gotten in a snit like this.”

Slade turned his horse to gather in another bull without answering. Damn kids these days. What made them so wise, anyway? He didn’t remember being that smart when he was sixteen. So what if it was the woman that brought on the fury? Granny had no right to hire live-in help without consulting him. They had always talked things over, hashing through the pros and cons until an agreement was reached.

He pulled a bottle of water from his saddle bag and drank long and deep, frowning at the house the whole time. He’d never liked being reminded of his vulnerability where his mother was concerned and he’d hated the idea of being blindsided. Not that Jane Doe or Day or whatever fictitious name she pulled out of her ass was anything like his mother, who was a tall, gorgeous blonde and could put Marilyn Monroe to shame. Pretty enough to be a model. Trashy enough to entice men. Smart enough to know the difference between rich and poor men. These days she had her nails and hair done in Los Angeles and the line of ex-husbands was longer than his arm.

Jane Day was pretty in an impish sort of way. She had dirty-blonde hair cut in layers from her chin to her shoulders, big brown eyes with perfectly arched brows, and a wide full mouth that would appeal to some men but reminded Slade too much of the pouting Marilyn look. It was that mouth that reminded him of his mother and brought on the memories.

The resemblance ended there, though. He would give credit where it was due and admit she had some redeemable qualities in that short little body with a waist so small he could span it with his big hands. After all he wasn’t blind. Nor was he dumb. The woman was after something, and she wasn’t finding it on his ranch.

Jane found Nellie in the kitchen. A large pot of beans simmered on the back burner of the stove. Cornbread was in the cast-iron skillet ready to pop into the oven.

“You know anything about cooking for a dozen hungry men?” Nellie asked.

“Little bit. What can I do?”

“Got any skill at a Mexican casserole to go with those beans and cornbread?”

“I could do that,” Jane nodded. “Hamburger meat is in the fridge.” “Chips?” “In the pantry right over there. You’ll find everything else you need in there or in the fridge. Better make two pans full or they’ll be whining about still being hungry.”

“Dessert?”

“Get some frozen peaches out of the freezer. I didn’t have time to make anything sweet this morning,” Nellie said.

“How about some warm brownies to go with the peaches?”

Nellie’s smile erased a few of the wrinkles around her mouth and deepened those around her blue eyes. “I knew I’d hired the right person.”

Evidently that’s who Slade had inherited his piercing blue eyes from—only Nellie’s had softened with age. Jane couldn’t imagine her shooting daggers like her grandson. When he was as old as Nellie, his eyes still wouldn’t be soft. He’d be able to pierce steel instead of heal broken hearts and melt butter.

“Slade came to live with me when he was eight years old. That was twenty-two years ago, six months after my son, Thomas, died in a car wreck. Thomas was so smart it was just plumb scary. Finished high school over in Nocona when he was sixteen and had his first college degree before he could even buy a beer. Wound up with a doctorate in engineering and worked down in Dallas. He wasn’t just smart. He was downright pretty. Looked a lot like Slade, only Slade has that tough angular look to his face that his Daddy didn’t have. Yes, ma’am, Thomas was intelligent in everything but women,” Nellie talked as she worked.

Jane listened.

“If I’d been picking a wife for him the one he got wouldn’t have even been on the far bottom of the list. But he was damned and determined that he loved her. I called it the Knight-in-Shining-Armor syndrome. He thought he could ride in on his intelligence and save her. She was dirt poor, pretty, and didn’t have two good brain cells in her head. They made it ten years before he died. Six months later she called me from a pay phone on the way here. Said she was bringing Slade to me to raise. She couldn’t look at him without thinking of Thomas and besides she was getting married again.”