Never Say Never (11 page)

Jill rinsed off the cookie plate, then meandered back to stand in the wide parlor doorway. Eunice was placing a festively patterned runner on top of the sideboard. Holly was still snoozing, and Joey was hanging ornaments in a tediously perfectionist manner. Dustin walked over to Jill and paused at her side.

“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go upstairs to wash up. I feel a little gritty after cutting down that tree. Think I’ve got pine needles down the back of my shirt.”

Jill noticed the deep lines of weariness around Dustin’s eyes. Of course, he’d worked outside in the cold all day, then come home early to take Joey on his first tree-finding mission, but…there was something more in the depths of his dark eyes that she couldn’t quite fathom.

She thought she saw sadness, a wearying kind of sadness. “You certainly deserve a break. Besides, I think you got everything started so well, Joey can finish decorating his first trophy tree by himself.”

“Yeah.”

Dawning pride beamed from his eyes as he glanced at his son, before he swung his gaze back to Jill. She started to say something, but Joey called out before she could speak.

“You…you under the mistletoe, Daddy!”

Jill’s gaze jumped upward. It was true. Eunice’s hands had been busy, and she’d not missed putting a sprig of mistletoe in the doorway, cleverly twined with a bright red ribbon.

Joey asked, “You…you hafta kiss her now?” Jill’s eyes widened. Dustin’s gaze was pinned to hers. The weariness appeared to be gone, replaced by something else she wasn’t sure about. He paused, perhaps considering Joey’s words, maybe out of politeness. Surely he wasn’t going to…

No. This was all wrong. Dustin was a grieving man. She was the housekeeper. Not knowing what to say, Jill turned and fled into the kitchen.

Chapter Seven

Jill’s quick escape had saved Dustin from making a stupid blunder. Kissing his housekeeper was not a good idea for all folks concerned. As much as he might have been tempted by the mistletoe, any fool knew that once he kissed Jill, nothing would ever be the same between them. In order for this relationship to work, it had to stay on an extremely formal, professional level. Otherwise, it was going to become even more awkward around the Regret Ranch.

Still feeling unsteady despite this assessment of the matter, Dustin turned to his mother. “I’m going to shower. I have to go out tonight, and I don’t want my potential clients run off by the sawdust and tree leaves I’m wearing in my hair.” He paused, thinking about the expression on Jill’s face a moment ago. “Would you mention to Jill that I won’t be here for dinner after all? I’ve decided to treat the city boys to a real cowboy’s meal.”

Eunice nodded. “Go ahead, Dustin. I’ll let Jill know the change in plans.”

“Thanks.” Dustin stomped up the stairs, thinking that at least this way he could avoid Jill at the dinner table. Damn it, he had actually liked Joey’s strange suggestion. He had to get a hold on himself, though perhaps in the morning the whole situation would have blown over to his satisfaction.

Eunice listened to her son walk upstairs before looking at Joey, who, completely unaware of the adult angst he’d stirred up, was engrossed in watching the tree lights sparkle. Actually, she thought Joey’s idea about a kiss had been a good one, and quite opportune. The thought had occurred to her as she’d hung the mistletoe up in its customary place that perhaps something fortuitous might come of it.

The very way Dustin and Jill had reacted to the notion made Eunice smile. Electricity had sparked through the air as the two of them had stood stock-still, frozen with unconscious desire. It had been a rather unique moment to witness, those two people becoming aware of each other as .they hadn’t been before. Eunice pushed a tiny tendril of Holly’s hair away from her temple. She liked Jill. She wouldn’t mind at all if a little romance sprung up around the ranch, although neither Dustin nor Jill were exactly ready—or willing—for that to happen.

However, more than one romance had started during the season of giving, and even the most carefully sealed hearts had been known to unwrap.

After touring his big-city spenders around the ranch to show them the cattle and the way the operation was run, Dustin took them out to dinner. It was an experience he’d rather have foregone under normal circumstances, but with these two gentlemen ready to move the existing cattle stock they already had to his ranch, and perhaps buy a few of his steers to add to theirs, Dustin stood to add another layer of profit margin to the ranch account.

But it was tough to entertain when his mind was on Jill. He hadn’t liked slipping out the front door without saying goodbye to her. Didn’t seem right somehow. At the time, of course, it had felt like the best thing to do. Now, sitting in the dimly lit interior of The Cattle Drive restaurant, across from two city slickers who thought they were hot stuff by wheeling and dealing in the commodity of beef, Dustin regretted his cowardice.

The woman deserved at least a goodbye called to her in the kitchen as he walked out the front door. It wouldn’t have hurt anything. Dustin swallowed half his beer, then acknowledged that he’d been protecting his pride. A black-hearted monster inside him had whispered that Jill had looked mighty horrified that he might kiss her. That wasn’t the usual reaction a woman had to getting close to him. Delighted, expectant, hopeful, he’d prefer to think though not to be bragging. But he’d never yet seen a woman with the look that Jill had been wearing.

It was a bit discouraging.

The dime-store cowboys seated at his table were enjoying nodding at the local women who had no more brains than to be flirting with men they didn’t know. The fact that the men were with Dustin probably gave the waitress and her friend the notion that the strangers were okay dudes. But Dustin couldn’t help thinking that Jill wouldn’t openly flirt with a man she didn’t know.

Hell. She wouldn’t even let her boots warm the floor under a mistletoe branch long enough to consider play-kissing a man she
did
know.

Half an hour later, Dustin had said goodbye to the men and waved them off onto the main road where they could head back to Houston. They’d been impressed with his outfit, as he’d expected. The Reed Ranch was a fine place to keep stock and Dustin was proud that they’d agreed on a good deal. All in all, it had been a very prosperous evening.

He paid his bill, then left the dinner table to sit at the bar. There was a television high up in the corner and a football game was on the screen. Just one more beer—five more minutes to give Jill time to be in bed so he wouldn’t have to see her—and he’d head on home. He knew it was chicken-hearted, plain and simple.

“Hey, Dustin.”

The sheriff slid onto the barstool next him. Dustin was glad to see him.

“You off duty?”

“Yep.” Marsh whisked a hand over his checked shirt and grinned. “Even the sheriff gets an occasional Saturday night off.”

“You got a date?”

“Naw. Looks like you’re having a dry night as well.”

Dustin sipped his beer. “I like it that way.”

“Shoot. That’s not what we used to say when we were teenagers. If we didn’t have a date on Saturday night, we cowered at home playing pool or watching TV.”

“I don’t remember too many of those nights,” Dustin said with a shrug.

“Fortunately. Or we might have gone crazy with hormones.”

Leaning back on the barstool, his gaze glued to the television set, Dustin said, “I like it better this way.”

“What? You like being without a woman on Saturday night?”

“Women have a tendency to drain the sanity out of your soul.” His tone was ironic.

“Hm.” Marsh thought about that for a minute, nodding his thanks to the woman who laid a beer down in front of him without noticing her I-can-get-off-early-tonight smile. “Why do I get the funny idea you’re not referring to Nina this time?”

He shook his head, not wanting to discuss what had happened. Or the discomfort it had worked up inside him. “I’m not referring to anybody.”

Dustin could feel Marsh’s stare on him. “How come you won’t look at me when you say that?”

“Because you’re so damn ugly.”

Marsh laughed. “Because you’re lying. Something’s got your underwear bunched.”

Dustin sighed, giving up the pretense that he was watching the TV when they both knew he wasn’t. “I got talked into putting up a Christmas tree today.”

“That seems pretty normal for this time of year.”

“Yeah.” Dustin snorted. “Well, that meant decorations, and you know my mother has never skimped on the holiday doodads.”

“Always looks like Mrs. Claus’s house,” Marsh agreed cheerfully.

“You’re a hell of a friend,” Dustin complained, eyeing Marsh with a help-me-out-here expression. “Anyway, I found myself standing under the mistletoe with Jill.”

“Oh, I like that idea.” Marsh’s eyes lit up.

“Don’t like it too much,” Dustin growled. “That’s my mistletoe.”

“Yeah. But not your lady.”

Dustin didn’t like the smug look on Marsh’s face one bit. “No, and she ain’t looking, so don’t be thinking,” he growled.

“How do you know she’s not looking?”

He paused. For a man, this was a humiliating thing to have to admit, even to his best friend of many years. “She didn’t want me to kiss her while we were under the mistletoe, as Joey called it.”

“That’s supposed to mean she ain’t looking? Sounds like she just ain’t looking for
you
.” Marsh took a long swallow of beer before putting the mug down quickly. “Hey, what made you think you should kiss her, anyway? You’re not usually moving this fast, Dustin. I’m surprised at you.”

“It was Joey’s idea,” Dustin said. “He pointed out our location, asked if I had to kiss her, and damn my soul if the thought didn’t appeal to me before I realized how stupid it was.”

“You were actually going to do it?” Marsh’s eyes were round.

“Well, I’m not sure. But I was giving the idea some thorough consideration.”

“And while you were pondering this life-altering matter, the lady in question made good her escape.” Marsh hit the bar with his palm, laughing uproariously.

“I wish she’d thought it was so funny,” Dustin complained. “Instead she looked like somebody’d given her a whack on the rear.”

“Uh-oh.” Marsh paused to wipe his eyes. “And your pride took a meltdown.”

“Well, my mother was in the room, and—hell, yeah. It was awkward.”

“I wish I’d been there.” Marsh shot his friend a look filled with laughter. “Don’t take it so seriously, Dustin. It caught her off guard as much as it did you. And if she’s trying to get over a fiancé, then she isn’t going to be in the mood to be kissing anyone for a long time.”

“I thought you didn’t trust her.”

“No. I didn’t say that.” Marsh wrapped his hand around his empty mug, giving it a series of light thumps on the bar. He took the beer the waitress handed him, too deep in his thoughts again to see her smile, bigger this time. “All I’m saying is that if she’s really trying to forget a near miss at the altar, then she doesn’t even feel like kissing Santa Claus.”

“I thought your next warning about Jill would be that she’d probably be out to steal the ranch out from under me. Considering her desperate situation.”

His friend scratched his head thoughtfully. “Maybe Jill’s not like other women we’ve tangled with. Once burned, twice shy. She might be looking for a secure roof over her head, but as for wanting to get hooked up again, maybe not. Maybe I let my mouth run away with me the other day.”

“It’s probably dense of me, when you think how I got taken in by Nina, but Jill does strike me as being a pretty honest woman.”

“Just one who got caught in a bad situation.” Marsh ate some of the stale goldfish crackers that were sitting in a bowl on the bar. “So, what are you going to do if her ex comes knocking?”

“Why would he?”

“I’ve been thinking…”

“Jeez. We just agreed that what you’d been thinking before about Jill wasn’t worth two cents. That she wasn’t a manhunter or a gold digger.”

“Yeah. But put yourself in the poor old ex’s place. She shucked him. After he got over the shock and the blow to his pride, he might be thinking twice about letting such a woman get away from him.”

“You worry me, Marsh. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had the hots for my housekeeper.” Dustin couldn’t help the astonishment in his voice.

Slowly, Marsh turned to look at him. “Would it matter if I did?”

Dustin could feel his jaw slackening. “I—what the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe just what it sounded like.” Marsh shrugged, but didn’t remove his eyes from the tight lock on Dustin’s. “So would it matter?”

“I think it would,” Dustin said tightly.

“Well, then.” Marsh looked away, crossing his arms over his chest and hooking his boots around the barstool rung. “Guess I know now why you’ve got such a hump in your back over Jill not letting you kiss her, then.”

Marsh had him, yet relief filled Dustin that his best friend wasn’t interested in his housekeeper. Something had told him that was going to be a very bad thing for their friendship. All their lives, they’d dated very different women and kept their friendship because there was no rivalry between them. One pretty smile had done just as well as another as far as both of them were concerned. Nothing worth losing blood over.