My Dearest Cal (12 page)

“There’s no need to hurry. I want to see the new horses settled before I come up.”

“The trip was successful?”

“I thought so,” he said, then grinned ruefully. “We’ll see what Chaney has to say when he sees what I’ve brought home.”

She laughed. “There’s something to be said for a man who values honesty above tact.”

“It can be a little rough on the ego, though.”

“I can certainly vouch for that.”

“He says you’ve been doing a good job.”

“He likes my blueberry muffins.”

“I mean with the horses.”

Her eyes widened with pleasant surprise. “He said that?”

“And more,” he teased. “But I think I’ll keep the rest to myself.”

She blushed and started back to the house. “Marilou.”

“Yes?”

“I’m glad you stayed.”

“I hired on for a month. I didn’t want to go back on my word.”

“I would have understood if you had,” he said. Left unsaid was how terrified he’d been that she would go, scared off by his nasty temper and blatant advances. He’d realized while he was gone that he
wasn’t going to shake off his feelings for her quite as easily as he’d hoped. That figured out, he had only to decide how best to understand them. The only way to do that, it seemed to him, was to get this issue of that damned letter settled once and for all. With that out of the way, maybe then they could figure out what there really was between them. Maybe they’d discover that the letter was the only glue holding them together at all. It was what a part of him hoped…and what the rest of him somehow dreaded.

It was nearly an hour before he finally made his way back to the house. Chaney came out just as he reached the back door.

“I put the horses in the barn by the new paddock,” Cal told him. “As soon as I eat, I’ll be back down to see what you think of them. You were right about that Seattle Slew colt. The price went too high. It just about killed me to do it, but I finally backed out of the bidding.”

“Ain’t no sense going into hock for an untried horse. There’s plenty of potential with some of the others if you know what to look for. You’re gonna have to start looking for a trainer now. Whether you want to hire one here or send the horses out, it’s time.”

“My inclination is to hire our own. Think about it, Chaney. See if any names come to mind. When I come back out, we’ll talk about it. I don’t want to do anything on this without your say-so.”

Chaney nodded. “I’ve got some ideas. A lot depends on how much you’re willing to spend.”

“I told you when we started up that I would spend what it took to make this place the best. That hasn’t changed.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Cal studied his manager closely, convinced that there was something on the old man’s mind. “You got something else to say?”

“Nothing that can’t wait until you’ve had your breakfast.”

“Come on. You might’s well spit it out before you choke on it.”

A frown creased Chaney’s brow and his eyes grew serious. “What’re you gonna do about her?”

“Marilou?”

Chaney looked disgusted at his deliberate obtuseness. “You know any other females around here?”

“Okay. What do you want me to say?”

“Is she going or staying?”

“That’s up to her.”

“You ain’t got no opinion on the matter?”

“None I care to discuss.”

“I ain’t asking you to discuss ’em with me, so long as you discuss ’em with her. Seems to me she’s got a right to know where she stands around here.”

Cal nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Chaney’s expression turned even more sour.
“I’ll keep that in mind
,” he mimicked under his breath. Glaring at Cal, he added, “If you ask me, that ain’t no way to treat a lady. Not that you asked me, of course.”

Cal grinned at the unexpected championing of Marilou. “You must really like her blueberry muffins.”

“I don’t know what they’ve got to do with anything.” He threw up his hands. “You just go on and do whatever you dang well please. Suppose you will anyway. Just know that she’s been fitting in real good around here. I’d hate to see her run off because the two of you can’t settle your differences.”

Cal watched his retreating form and shook his head. What the devil had gone on around here while he’d been gone? Had sweet Marilou spun her web of magic around Chaney’s tough old heart, too?

He walked into the kitchen and found the woman in question seated at the table, her hair back in its tidy braid, her face scrubbed and glowing, her eyes closed. At the sound of the screen door slamming, she jumped, startled awake.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “Why don’t you go up to bed? You can’t have gotten much sleep last night.”

“I’ll be fine. I have work to do today. The garden needs weeding. I haven’t had a chance to get to it the past couple of days.” As she talked, she went to the oven. She withdrew a plate stacked high with pancakes, ham and eggs and put it on the table.

“I hope it’s not ruined,” she said, studying it worriedly. “Maybe I should make more.”

“This will be just fine,” he said, his voice gruffer than he intended, thanks to the lecture he’d just had from Chaney.

When she’d poured him a cup of coffee, he
watched her standing indecisively between table and sink. “Sit back down,” he said impatiently.

She lifted startled eyes to meet his. “Is anything wrong?”

“We need to talk.”

Apparently she didn’t like his tone, because she stiffened defensively. “About what?”

“When is this vacation of yours over?”

“The end of next week.”

“What are your plans?”

“Plans?”

“Are you going or staying?”

She blinked once, revealing a flicker of hurt, before carefully shuttering her emotions. “I’m not sure there’s any reason for me to stay.”

“What if I asked you to.”

“Why would you do that?” she asked bluntly.

“You’re making yourself useful around here.”

Her mouth curved ruefully. “Just doing what I’m paid to do.”

“You’re doing more than that and you know it. I don’t want to take advantage, though. If you’re planning on staying, we need to think seriously about what you’d do and what your pay would be.”

“Cal, you don’t need me here,” she said with what sounded to him like a trace of wistfulness.

“I never said that.”

“I’m not blind. Anybody could do the cooking and cleaning. As for the work I do down in the barn, you could hire a groom in no time. I’m just a rank beginner.”

“Do you enjoy it?” he asked, genuinely curious.

The smile that spread across her face was answer enough, but she said, “I’m learning so much. I love being around the horses. I can’t wait to see them run. And I’ve been reading your books. Chaney didn’t think you’d mind. Breeding is all so complicated, I mean if you do it right and don’t just let nature take its course. And the business side of it, I haven’t begun to figure that out yet. What makes a yearling a good investment? It seems to me that it’s awfully risky. I saw the story about the spring sales and what you paid for those horses. That’s more than I’ll earn in my entire lifetime. I had no idea.”

Her eyes were shining like polished gemstones. “Do you know what I was reading just last night before Winning Pride had her foal? I think it was in the
General Stud Book
or maybe it was the
Thoroughbred Record…
”

“Hey, slow down,” he said, laughing.

“Sorry,” she said, grinning apologetically. “I get carried away. I guess I’ve just been storing all this up, waiting for the right audience. Chaney lets me talk, but I’m not so sure he really listens.”

“Oh, I think he’s been hearing you loud and clear. I get the feeling he’d like to see you stay on, though he’d never flat-out admit it. What do you really want to do, Marilou?”

“It’s not just up to me.”

“If it was?”

She hesitated. Finally she lifted her gaze to his. “I don’t think it’s possible for me to stay on here as an
employee, not after the other day. We couldn’t go on sleeping down the hall from each other and just ignore the rest. At least I couldn’t,” she admitted, an embarrassed pink creeping into her cheeks.

Even though he recognized the truth in what she was saying, Cal’s heart sank. “There’s a lot between us,” he agreed. “There’s no avoiding that, and I can’t promise to keep away from you.”

“Then I guess that’s our answer.” She’d locked her hands together in front of her on the table and sat staring at them. Finally she asked, “What about your grandmother, Cal? I don’t want to go home without knowing that’s resolved.”

“Find her, then,” he said softly, overcoming his deep-seated reluctance. “I owe you that much, I guess.”

“This is for you, Cal, not me.”

Angrily he shoved his chair back from the table. “Don’t give me a bunch of psychological babble. Can’t you ever leave well enough alone? You’re coming out the winner. I’ve agreed to let you look for her.”

“You won’t regret it,” she vowed, beaming at him in spite of his nasty tone.

“I already do,” he said with a heavy sigh. He took one last look at her, then walked out the door.

Chapter Eight

T
hough she had Cal’s blessing to begin the hunt for his grandmother, Marilou recognized that his heart wasn’t in the search. Oddly enough, neither was hers. To her surprise, she let the whole day pass without making any attempt to track the old woman down. She blamed her actions on the fact that she had a lot of catching up to do around the house. She’d been so busy helping out with the horses that she’d gotten behind with the gardening and cleaning.

Since the morning air was still cool, she went outside to get the weeding done first. She was kneeling down staring at all the little green shoots in the ground, a frown on her face, when Cal came up behind her.

“Whatever it is, it can’t be that serious,” he said.

“I’m afraid it is.”

“Bugs?”

She shook her head.

“What then?”

“You’re going to laugh at me.”

He grinned at that. “Actually I could use a good laugh.” He hunkered down beside her and stared at the ground. “I don’t see the problem.” He crumbled a clump of earth between his fingers. “Ground feels good. Everything looks healthy.”

“Too healthy,” she grumbled.

“Huh?”

“I’m weeding,” she said, as if that explained everything. Judging from his blank expression, he still didn’t get it. “Cal, I can’t tell the weeds from what I planted.”

He managed to keep from hooting, but he couldn’t suppress the smile that stole across his face. “That’s a problem, all right. Haven’t you ever done any gardening before?”

She shook her head. “I just figured you’d look at what was coming up and know if it was a good guy or bad one. I mean I planted all these nice, tidy rows, but now it’s not so clear to me exactly where they are.”

“Maybe you should just let it all run wild and see how it turns out.”

She scowled at him. “You are not taking this seriously. And you’d better, because I’m going to leave it in your hands when I go.”

He frowned at that, but kept his tone light. “Then
we’re both in trouble, because I don’t know any more about it than you do.”

“Well, we’re just going to have to learn,” she said decisively. “I’ll go to the library later and get a book. Or maybe I’ll call the nursery and have them send someone over. Do you suppose they make house calls?”

“For the right price, they’ll probably talk to the damned plants for you. Call them, if it will make you happy.”

He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her face. Finally he reached over and brushed the tip of her nose. “You have a smudge,” he explained, his voice dropping. But then his finger moved on to her lips, tracing the curve of her mouth and sending waves of heat through her. She had the most compelling urge to draw that finger deeply into her mouth.

“What am I going to do about you, Marilou?” he said, and she could hear the helplessness and frustration in his tone.

“Kiss me?” she suggested, her breath catching at the instantaneous flaring of desire in his eyes. Maybe if they made love right here in the middle of the garden she could stop worrying about the damned weeds…

He shook his head, ending that fantasy. “Can’t do that, sweetheart.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t think I could stop with a kiss anymore. I want you too damned much.” He caressed her cheek, then swept the pad of his thumb across her
lips one last time. Anticipation turned her insides to warm honey, but he was already standing up, already stepping away.

“Cal,” she whispered, wishing he didn’t have quite such a strong sense of integrity.

“I have to get back to work,” he said, looking around desperately as if he hoped Chaney would materialize to rescue him.

“Cal,” she said again, but he had already started away and he never looked back.

Marilou blinked back tears of frustration as she turned back to the garden. She still couldn’t tell weeds from vegetables, but she yanked up a few sprouts just for the satisfaction of it.

“Oh, hell,” she finally muttered. Then she went inside and called the nursery for help.

While she was waiting, she began to clean, spending most of her time in Cal’s office. As she was straightening the closet, she came across an old camera, a 35 millimeter that had seen better days. Still, she held it lovingly, focusing it, testing its weight in her hands. Suddenly she desperately wanted to take photographs of everything, especially of Cal. Once she was gone, she would at least have something to remember the adventure by.

Abandoning her chores and forgetting all about the impending arrival of the man from the nursery, she borrowed Chaney’s truck and sped into town for film. She spent the rest of the afternoon roaming the farm, shooting pictures of the horses, even capturing Chaney at work, when he wasn’t aware of her presence.
Roddy, sporting a blush and a shy smile, posed with Devil’s Magic. Even Zeke and Pedro paused long enough in their chores for her to get a picture. The only person she missed was Cal. Maybe she was going to have to make do with her memories after all.

That night at dinner, she finally had to admit to herself that she’d spent the day delaying the inevitable. Somehow she had recognized that she and Cal had reached a real turning point. Whatever happened next with his grandmother was going to alter things between them forever. She put the letter in plain view on the kitchen table, then waited for a reaction. Cal’s glance kept straying toward the pale blue envelope. His lips settled into a frown and stayed that way.