Chapter Eight #2
As he walked down to the barn to talk to one of his men, Rey had a terrible premonition that Leo had been serious when he joked about being willing to marry Meredith.
Would she be desperate enough, lonely enough, frightened enough, to marry Leo and give up her job and living with her father?
Her father had beaten her badly. She might be looking for a way out of the torment, and there was Leo, successful and handsome and charming, just ready to take her in and protect her.
Rey felt himself choke on dread. He couldn’t imagine living in a house with Meredith if she was married to his brother. He’d rather throw himself headfirst into a cement mixer!
But, then, Leo had been teasing. Leo was always teasing.
Rey forced himself to breathe normally and at least give the appearance of someone who was relaxed.
Sure, it was just a joke. He didn’t have to worry about the competition.
There wasn’t any. He pulled his hat lower over his eyes and walked on down the aisle to the man who was doctoring a heifer.
* * *
Several days later, Meredith received a huge bouquet of assorted roses from Billy Joe, now out of the hospital and back on the shooting range. She put them in water in the kitchen, along with the card, which the brothers blatantly read.
“He’d marry you,” Rey drawled with pure acid in his tone as he dragged out a chair and sat down to lunch. “He’s been widowed twenty years.”
Meredith gave Leo a mischievous glance and fiddled with putting biscuits in a linen-lined basket. “He’s not bad-looking for a man his age, and it wouldn’t hurt him to have a nurse under his roof.” She glanced at Rey’s eloquent back. “But can he cook?”
Rey sipped coffee noisily.
“And does he slurp his coffee?” she added without missing a beat.
“That was done deliberately, to show you that I don’t give a damn about manners!” Rey growled.
“All right, just don’t expect me to take you to any nice restaurants while we’re courting,” she said easily, setting the basket of biscuits on the table.
“Lady, you aren’t taking me as far as the mailbox,” he said curtly.
He looked ferocious. That black temper was already kindling.
Meredith studied his bent head curiously.
You never knew about men. She’d seen some very mild-mannered ones come to the emergency room with wives who’d been beaten within an inch of their lives.
It didn’t hurt to see how far a man would go when he got mad.
Especially after her experience with her father.
“You’ll have to learn to scrape the mud off those enormous boots, too,” she went on in a conversational tone. “And not slurp your soup. Your hair could use a good trim…”
“Damn it!”
He shot to his feet, eyes blazing in a rigid face, with a dusky flush creeping along his high cheekbones with all the warning color of a poisonous reptile.
Meredith stood her ground, watching him clench those big fists at his side.
“Rey,” Leo cautioned abruptly, and started to get to his feet.
Meredith went right up to Rey, looking him in the eyes, quiet, still—waiting.
Rey was breathing through his nostrils. His jaw was clenched with fury. But intelligence won easily over bad temper. His chin raised slowly. “You’re testing me,” he said out of the blue. “You want to know if I’ll hit you.”
“It’s something a woman needs to know about a man,” she said very quietly.
“And she needs to find it out where she can get help if she needs it.” She didn’t look at Leo, but Rey knew that was what she meant.
She smiled gently. “No, you don’t hit,” she said in a soft, quizzical tone.
“You do have a temper, but it’s not a physical one. ”
He was still breathing through his nose. “If you were a man, it might be,” he told her bluntly.
“But I’m not a man,” she replied.
Her eyes were almost glowing with feeling.
He got lost in those soft, warm, grey eyes.
He hated the way he felt when he was near her.
He’d been fighting it ever since he carried her up to her garage apartment after she’d fainted at the hospital.
He liked the feel of her in his arms. He liked kissing her.
He liked the way she picked at him and teased him.
No woman had ever done that before. As his older brothers had been before they married, he was taciturn and uncommunicative most of the time. His very attitude put most women off.
It didn’t put Meredith off. She wasn’t afraid of his temper, either.
She made him into a different person. It wasn’t something he could easily explain.
He felt comfortable with her, even while she was stirring him to passion.
He could imagine just sitting in front of the television with her and holding hands, late at night.
The image intimidated him. He sat back down, ignoring Meredith, and started putting butter and strawberry preserves on four biscuits.
Leo gave him a measuring look. “Don’t eat all the biscuits.”
“I’m only getting my share. She,” he jerked his thumb towards Meredith, “didn’t make but eight this morning. That’s one for her, four for me, and three for you.”
“And why do you get four?” Leo asked belligerently.
“Because she proposed to me,” he said with pure smug arrogance, and a look that made Leo’s teeth snap together.
“I did not,” Meredith said haughtily, sitting down across from him. “I said I was thinking of you as a marriage prospect, not that I actually wanted to go through with a ceremony.” She cleared her throat. “I’ll have to see how you work out.”
Rey smiled faintly. “That sounds interesting.”
He didn’t necessarily mean what it sounded like he meant. She mustn’t jump to any conclusions here. But her cheeks were getting very rosy.
He noticed that. It was a devilish game they were playing, and he could do it better. He stared pointedly at her soft mouth as he put a cube of fresh pear into his mouth, slowly and deliberately.
She felt very uncomfortable in odd places when he did that. She ate her beef and gravy and tried to ignore him.
“I like having fresh fruit,” Rey said with a slow smile. He speared a grape with his fork and eased it slowly between his lips.
She moved restlessly in her chair. “It’s healthy stuff.”
“No wonder you were trying to get us to eat right,” Leo said, trying to break the growing spell Rey was casting on her. “You teach nutrition, I suppose.”
“In a way. I’m supposed to counsel patients on changing bad habits and making lifestyle changes when they’re warranted,” she explained. If only her hand didn’t shake while she was holding the stupid fork. Rey saw it and knew why, and she hated that damned smug smile on his lean face!
He picked up a piece of perfectly cooked asparagus spear and slowly sucked it into his mouth, using his tongue meaningfully.
“I have to fix dessert,” Meredith choked, jumping to her feet so quickly that she knocked her chair winding and had to right it.
“I saw that chair jump right out and trip you, Meredith,” Rey commented dryly. “You ought to hit it with a stick.”
“I ought to hit you with a stick instead!” she raged at him, flushed and flustered and out of patience.
“Me?” Both eyebrows arched. “What did I do?”
She pictured hitting him across the jaw with the biggest frying pan she had. It was very satisfying. Pity she couldn’t do it for real.
She went to the cupboard and drew out the ingredients for an instant reduced fat pudding. She had some low-fat whipped cream in the freezer that she could top it with. Meanwhile, Rey would finish his meal and stop using fruits and vegetables to torment her with. She could have kicked him.
Behind her, Rey was talking comfortably to Leo about some new equipment they were ordering, and about routine chores that had to be completed before Thanksgiving this month and the Christmas holidays next month.
Most of the ranch hands would have Thanksgiving, the day after, and that weekend free.
Next month, they’d have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day free, along with four days before or after, depending on the schedule.
Some of the men had families in far-flung locations and they had to travel a distance for the holidays.
The Harts made a practice of giving the men time off to go home during the holiday season by staggering work schedules, so that there was an adequate crew here to work when days off were assigned.
Then they moved on, naturally, to a discussion about Thanksgiving dinner.
“You’re going to stay until after Thanksgiving, aren’t you?” Rey asked Meredith.
She had her back to them. “Yes, I’d like to,” she said, because she’d already been planning special menus and light, noncaloric desserts for it. “Unless you’re planning to go away for it,” she added quickly.
“The family has a Christmas party, when we all get together. We sort of save Thanksgiving for just us, so the others can have the day with their wives and kids,” Leo told her.
“It’s been sort of hit and miss since Mrs. Lewis has been plagued with arthritis.
As you know, we got her to come back to work just briefly, but her hands won’t hold out to make bread and do any scrubbing with them, despite medicine.
She has her children up from Corpus Christi for the holidays and cooks for them. We sort of got leftovers.”
She grimaced. “Well, I’ll make sure you have a big Thanksgiving dinner this year,” she said gently. “With all the trimmings. Including biscuits,” she added when they both looked her way.
She finished whipping the pudding, and put it in bowls in the refrigerator to chill before she sat back down. “That will make us a nice dessert tonight,” she commented. “I don’t suppose you want it any sooner?”
They shook their heads. “I’ve got a meeting with our marketing staff in half an hour,” Rey said, checking his multifunction watch.
“And I’ve got to go over the new equipment list with our mechanic and see if we’ve got everything ready to order,” Leo added.