The Perfect Proposal (12 page)

Mitch shook his head and shot Les a level
look. “Sir, I don’t mean any disrespect, but I didn’t come here
with Annie to fool around. I came to pitch a hot dog campaign. And
frankly, thus far —”

An electronic ring interrupted Mitch’s
courageous and probably stupid statement. Puzzle, he frowned. They
were still in the woods, a good quarter-mile from the estate. Where
on earth was that noise coming from?

Les looked startled as well, then grunted and
began to pat himself down. “Now where did I put that blasted cell
phone?” Les asked himself distractedly.

Several rings later, Les retrieved the small
black phone from one of his hip pockets, and flipped it open.
“Hullo.” He grinned. “We’re on our way back now, sugar. Umm-hmm.
Naw, we didn’t get anything. Didn’t even see one. Ain’t that
somethin’? Hell, I’m startin’ to think there aren’t any deer in
these woods.” His brow puckered. “Oh, he did, did he? I didn’t know
that.” He covered the mouthpiece and looked at Mitch. “Remind me to
fire my foreman when I get back,” he whispered. Les started.
“Uh-huh, sweetie-pie, I’m still here. Oh, she is?” Les looked at
Mitch and smiled mysteriously. A definite twinkle lit his
raisin-like eyes. Is that right? How long has she been up there?”
Les chuckled maddeningly, even as dread curdled in Mitch’s stomach.
“Oh, she does? Okay.” Les handed Mitch the phone. “Annie wants to
talk to you.”

Mitch cleared his throat and took the phone.
“Yeah.”

“
Mitch?” Annie said sweetly.
So sweetly that the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. “You
realize of course that
this means
war?”

Mitch nodded mutely, then feeling like a
moron, realized she couldn’t see his gesture. “Uh, now Annie —”

“
Don’t ‘now Annie me, Mitch
Hightower,” Annie hissed angrily, obviously trying to keep her
voice down, but failing nonetheless. In his mind’s eye, he could
see her cheeks hot with temper, that curly hair bouncing with each
angry jerk as she ranted at him. To his eternal chagrin, his blood
heated. “I can’t believe you’d sink to such a level. As of now, the
gloves are off. Do you understand me?” she demanded.

“
Uh,” Mitch replied dumbly.
He shot Les an awkward glance and noted the man’s pleased
expression with a flash of irritation. Embarrassed, Mitch turned
away from Les’s prying eyes and made an attempt to smooth Annie’s
ruffled feathers.

“
Look, Annie, I think you’re
getting all worked up for nothing.”

She humphed in his ear.

Mitch show another look at Les, then smiled
uncomfortably. “Women,” he told the little cowboy.

Annie sucked in an outraged gasp. “What did
you say?”

Mitch directed his attention back to the
angry female at the end of the line. “Uh, nothing.” Mitch frowned
and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Could we talk about this when
I get back?”

“
Oh, you can bet on it,”
Annie told him in a poisonously sugary voice.

Mitch ended the call, handed the phone back
to Les and heaved a beleaguered sigh. That certainly hadn’t gone
well.

“
I take it your little woman
is upset,” Les remarked, his lined face wreathed in a commiserating
smile.

“
She’s not my —” Mitch
started. Aw, hell, why bother. He nodded. “You could say
that.”

Les stuffed the phone into his pocket and
resumed their trek through the woods. “Well, me and the missus been
married thirty-two years and if I’ve learned anything, it’s you’d
better have an apology ready.”

“
But I didn’t —”

Les smiled, his eyes crinkling at the
corners. “You don’t know much about women, do you, boy?” Mitch
scowled at the untruth, but Les forged ahead. “It doesn’t matter if
you didn’t do anything wrong, just apologize,” he said with
authority. “They like that. Then apologize again. And it wouldn’t
hurt if you got her a little gift.” Les blazed through the woods as
though the hounds of hell were on his heels. Mitch struggled to
keep up, both physically and conversationally.

“
A gift?”

“
Yeah, something shiny.
Diamonds will do.”

Mitch’s mind reeled. Hell, he’d shut off her
alarm clock, not had an affair. Wait, he and Annie weren’t even
dating, much less engaged. Damn. Les had him so turned around he
didn’t know which way was up. Trying to talk to the man was like
playing leap-frog blind.

“
And, of course, after that
comes the best part.” Les smiled slyly. The estate grounds were in
sight and Les kicked up the pace another notch. “Hmmm. Wonder what
Cookie made for lunch?” he mused aloud.

Mitch was more confused than ever. “What’s
the best part?”

Les stopped so abruptly Mitch almost
broadsided him. The tiny meat magnate smiled as though Mitch were
slow-witted. “Why, the makin’ up part, of course!”

Les tsked under his breath, then continued
his fast-paced hike to the house. “I see we’ve got our work cut out
for us. You’re nowhere near the ladies’ man the papers made you out
to be.”

Mitch barely heard that parting
statement—visions of making up with Annie had blocked out all other
sensory perceptions. Soft arms and long legs, rumpled sheets, that
curly mane of hair spread over a pillow. Over his chest. Mitch
pulled in a ragged breath and expelled it with a whoosh. Maybe Les
was on to something after all.

By the time Mitch and Les made it the house, Annie
had hit a full boil. She’s simmered for the past two hours while
she awaited their return. Frankly, she’d wanted to blast him face
to face, but she hadn’t been able to resist blowing off a little
steam over the phone. To Annie’s embarrassment, Cora had found the
exchange particularly amusing.

“
Oh, I can remember when Les
and I used to have our little spats,” she’d confided with a
conspiratorial wink. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“
Really,” Annie’d told her,
her stomach tensing at the insinuation that she and Mitch were a
couple. “It’s not a spat. Just a little professional
misunderstanding.”

Cora gave her another knowing grin.
“Misunderstanding, lover’s quarrel…whatever.” She waved a small
bejeweled hand, dismissing Annie’s protests. “It’s all the
same.”

When Annie’d opened her mouth to refute that
as well, Cora had quickly cut her off with, “Have another bite of
fried okra, dear. Isn’t it delicious?”

Actually, it was and Annie’d
munched on it until she doubted she would have room for lunch.
She’d been so infuriated with Mitch’s disappearing act this morning
that she hadn’t taken the time to eat breakfast. Annie narrowed her
eyes as another wave of fury crashed over her. She’d missed her
quiet time
and
her
breakfast.

Mitch would pay, she thought ominously.

If the coward ever showed his face. Annie
harrumphed angrily. As soon as the great hunters had returned,
Mitch—without even a glance in her direction—had beat a hasty path
to the guest bedroom to change back into his clothes. Les, garbed
like a midget Rambo, had followed less enthusiastically—until he’d
gotten a whiff of lunch.

A fond smile curved Annie’s lips. If she’d
factored out being here against her will, living with Mitch, and
battling for her career, she would truthfully say Les and Cora were
delightful. A little eccentric, yes, but still entertaining hosts.
She could even grow fond of the twins—who, thank heavens, had gone
to town with some relatives visiting for the reunion this
afternoon—given the chance.

Under normal circumstances, Annie had begun
to think that she would have actually enjoyed her stay here.
Perhaps Will had been right when he’d suggested she needed a
vacation. It had been years since she’d taken one.

At last, Mitch slunk guiltily into the dining
room. Well, actually he sauntered in that confident way of his that
drove her nuts, but Annie preferred to think that he slunk. Made
him sound more like the no-good sneak that he was. The coward still
hadn’t met her gaze. She fumed, hoping he’d look up so at last one
of the daggers shooting from her eyes could score a direct hit.
Between his eyes. The other imaginary darts had
landed…elsewhere.

“
Well, Mitch,” Cora
remarked, smiling warmly. “I hope you enjoyed yourself this
morning. Les rarely has anyone to go hunting with him. I’m sure he
enjoyed your company.”

Mitch’s lips quirked as though savoring a
private joke. “Yes, ma’am. The property is beautiful. I enjoyed
it.”

“
Woulda enjoyed it more had
we got ourselves a deer,” Les boomed, his eyes trained expectantly
on the doorway of the kitchen. Eagerly awaiting lunch, no doubt.
“Still, Mitch and I had quite an interesting talk.” Les’s gaze
swung meaningfully to Annie and she felt herself blush.

She glared at Mitch, doing her best to
telepathically transmit her anger to him. It seemed to work,
because he finally looked up at her and grinned hesitantly.

Annie’s breath stalled in her lungs. A weaker
woman would have softened when met with that clear blue gaze, she
thought unwillingly. A weaker woman’s knees would have probably
knocked. Annie ignored her own galloping heart and told herself she
absolutely wasn’t smitten with his overconfident Adonis, just
intrigued by the unusual color of his eyes. That had to be why she
couldn’t quit staring into them.

Suddenly, Cookie entered the room, breaking
the disconcerting spell. Annie dragged her gaze from Mitch’s and
attempted to summon her previous anger. For some reason, she had
the odd impression that Mitch had somehow made it melt away. Which
was ridiculous, she realized. He couldn’t do that.

“
I say, Cookie,” Les
exclaimed happily, checking out the feast being laid out before
them. “You have outdone yourself today.”

His eyes sparkled with delight as he stared
at the splendid array of food. Roast beef and new potatoes, tender
baby carrots, snap green beans, and homemade rolls. Cookie, a big
burly man who looked more like an ex-con than a professional chef,
nodded gruffly at the compliment, then shuffled silently from the
room.

At the head of the table, Les quickly said
the blessing, then dug in with gusto. From the corner of her eye,
Annie watched Cora Peters gaze lovingly at her husband.
Inexplicably, a pang of longing struck Annie. Would she ever look
at anyone like that? she wondered. Frankly, other than the
occasional passing thought, she hadn’t given much thought to
finding her own fabled Mr. Right. She’d always been too busy
surviving, then making her way at Hightower.

Now, as she sat at the table with Les and
Cora and could practically feel their mutual love radiating around
them, Annie couldn’t help but think she might be missing something
incredibly important in her life. The thought saddened her beyond
reason.

“
Well, dumplin’, did you and
Annie have a nice hen party while Mitch and I were out this
mornin’?”

Cora dimpled. “We certainly did. And from the
comfort of the sitting room,” she added drolly. “Not traipsing
around the woods like Daniel Boone. Honestly, Les, I don’t
understand what you men get outta that.”

Les chuckled. “You know how I love to hunt.
Did Uncle Jarvis and Aunt May-Lilly get in yet?” he asked.

Smiling, Cora shook her head. “No, they’ll be
in this afternoon. Everyone else will be here on Friday.”

“
Good, good,” Les crowed
around a mouthful of potatoes. He looked at Mitch and Annie. “Y’all
will come to the reunion, of course.”

“
But —” Annie and Mitch
started simultaneously.

“
No buts,” Les interrupted
them in what had to be his boardroom tone. It brooked no argument.
“I insist. It’ll be quite a shindig. We’re gonna have a band,
dancin’, all the steak you can eat. Y’all will love it.” He smiled
reassuringly, then looked at Mitch. “Now let’s get down to why you
came with me to the woods this mornin’.”

Mitch looked properly confused.

Les smiled knowingly. “Aw, come on now boy. I
know you didn’t follow me into those woods this mornin’ cause you
had a hankerin’ to hunt. You were wonderin’ about when you’re gonna
pitch that campaign y’all are competin’ over.”

Annie smacked her palms on the table. “I knew
it!”

Les looked at Annie, a shrewd gleam in his
eye. “Of course you did. You’re smart.” He smiled. “And you’re mad
because you think he beat you to the punch. Given the opportunity,
you’d have done the same thing.”

Annie started to protest, but a warning look
in Les’s twinkling eyes made her think better of it.

“
So, I’m gonna put y’all out
of your misery.” He speared a baby carrot with his fork. “You’ll
give your complete presentations next Wednesday after lunch. I want
art boards, marketing plans, the whole nine yards.”

Wednesday?
Annie thought wildly. That was another five days.
Too long to live with Mitch, but barely long enough to pull
together a polished presentation of this magnitude. She’d thought
Les would want to hear ideas before either of them planned a
full-fledged campaign. She’d had to work double time on
this—

“
This is what I’ll require
of you until then,” Les said, back in his boardroom voice.
“Tomorrow, I expect you to inspect the entire operation located
here at the Triple P. On horseback.”

Annie smothered a gasp. A covert peak at
Mitch proved he was every bit as taken aback as she was.

“
Friday night, you’ll come
to the kick-off meal here at the house and meet everyone. Cora and
I have a wonderful family. I’m sure you’ll want to meet them.” Les
paused, seemingly daring either of them to refute his statement.
When neither did, he resumed his meal. “Saturday we’ve already
discussed. You’ll come to the reunion. Sunday, you can have a free
day to do with what you please. However, since nobody’s allowed to
work here on the Lord’s day, you’ll have to find another way to
occupy yourselves, other than working on your campaigns.” Les
grinned again, clearly pleased with himself. “Naturally, I expect
you to heed my wishes. I’d hate to take my business elsewhere.
Agreed?” he asked finally.