The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter (10 page)

“You want to talk about it?” he asked eventually.

“About what?”

“What you saw last night?”

“No,” she said succinctly.

Harlan weighed everything he knew about raising kids and decided once more to let it pass for now. Let Janet hash it out with her first. If they couldn't settle it, then he'd step in and try to clarify what that kiss had been about…assuming he had it figured out by then.

“There she is,” Jenny announced, flinging open the car door. “See you.”

Her quick flight precluded any opportunity for him to exchange so much as a word with Janet. He rolled down his window and managed a wave that was returned halfheartedly before the car backed onto the highway and disappeared from view as quickly as it had come.

He chafed at letting a thirteen-year-old interfere in his life. He figured Janet ought to be mad as hell about it, too, but she seemed to have accepted Jenny's right to stand squarely between her and him.

For the rest of the week he only managed to eke out bits and pieces of information about Janet from her sullen, tight-lipped daughter. He couldn't seem to break the pattern that had been established on Monday. Janet never came any closer than the end of the lane. Her aloof behavior left him rattled and irritable.

He couldn't recall the last time he'd been so fascinated by a woman. It must have been when he'd
first met Mary, though. Not once in all the years since then had he ever strayed in thought or deed.

Mary had been a good wife, devoted to a fault. Sometimes he'd almost regretted the way she'd doted on him to the exclusion of their sons. He'd never doubted her love for Luke, Erik, Jordan and Cody, but she'd focused all of her attention on him. He'd felt cherished and, in return, he had made her the center of his life, as well.

Ever since her death, there had been this huge, empty space inside him. And, despite the attempts of his sons to fill the endless hours of the day, he'd been lonely. He hadn't really recognized that until he'd suddenly felt so alive the minute he'd walked into Janet Runningbear's office after that heart-in-his-throat spectacle of her daughter crashing his pickup into a tree. He wasn't going to give up the feeling she stirred in him without a fight.

By Friday he was at his wit's end. He figured the only way to get back on speaking terms with Janet was to get her clear up to the house. And the only way to do that was to see to it Jenny wasn't waiting at the end of that lane for her.

On Friday morning he enlisted Cody's help. “How about taking Jenny with you this afternoon? It's about time she got a real look at the workings of this place.”

If Cody guessed his father's intentions, he didn't let on. “I won't be back until dark,” he warned.

“That's okay.”

“Won't Janet be expecting to pick her up at five as usual?”

“I'll keep Janet entertained.”

Cody grinned. “If you say so. I'll come back for Jenny at lunchtime.”

“Thanks, son.”

“Don't mention it.”

Jenny rode off with Cody just after noon, looking as besotted as if she'd just been granted a date with her favorite movie star. Harlan spent the next few hours catching up on paperwork in his office, then dressed for his meeting with Janet as eagerly as if they were going out on a date. His sons would have laughed their fool heads off if they'd seen him debating what to wear, only to end up in a pinstriped dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, jeans and his best boots. A pile of discards worse than any Mary had ever left strewn around covered the kingsize bed.

Promptly at five he took a pitcher of iced tea, two tall glasses, a bowl of Maritza's
pico de gallo
and some tortilla chips onto the porch. Leaning back in a rocker, his boots propped on the porch railing, he settled back to wait. He wondered how long it would be before Janet guessed that he wasn't bringing Jenny to the end of the lane and resigned herself to driving to the house to pick her up. He figured fifteen minutes.

He was off by five. At ten minutes past five she came flying up the lane, sending up a cloud of dust. She leapt out of the car, her expression half frantic.

“Where's Jenny? Has something happened to her?”

“She's fine,” he soothed. “She's off helping Cody this afternoon. She won't be back for a while yet. Come on up and join me.”

Janet regarded the tea and tortilla chips suspiciously. “What's all that?”

“Just a little something to tide us over while we wait. Figured you might be thirsty and hungry this time of day.”

“Exactly when are you expecting them back?”

“Seven or so.”

She stared at him incredulously. “Seven? Why didn't you tell me?”

“I just did,” he said, holding out the glass of tea.

Janet ignored it. Hands on hips, she stared him down, practically quivering with indignation. “What kind of game are you playing, Harlan Adams?”

“I could ask you the same question. You've spent the past five days avoiding me. Whose idea was that? Yours or Jenny's?”

She sighed and sank down onto the top step. She finally accepted the glass of tea and took a long swallow. “A little of both, I suppose.”

“Shouldn't you have told me?” he said, mimicking her tone.

“I just did,” she said, and chuckled. “I'm sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. For a pair of grown-ups we are pretty pathetic, aren't we? Seems to me we should be past resorting to games or letting a teenager rule the way we live our lives.”

“We should be,” Janet concurred. “It's my fault. I should have insisted on bringing Jenny all the way to the house on Monday, but she was still so upset I gave in and dropped her at the end of the lane. After that, it became a pattern, I suppose. I couldn't seem to break it.”

“Don't go taking all the blame. I'm the one who put you in an awkward position in the first place.” He looked her over, admiring the creamy silk blouse she wore with a pair of tan linen slacks and a few pieces of expensive gold jewelry. She was all class, there was no mistake about that. “You haven't dated much since the divorce, have you?”

“Not at all.”

“So Jenny's still very protective. Is she hoping you'll get back together with her father?”

“No, she knows better than that. He doesn't have time for either one of us anymore. I think that's really the problem. She needs all of my attention right now.”

Her expression turned speculative. “It may be that she needs all of yours, too. You're providing a father figure for her. Maybe she's not ready to share you.”

“But what do you need?” he inquired softly. “Do you need a man in your life?”

She shook her head. “It's not in my plans right now.”

He thought of his sons and how hard they'd fought falling in love. In the end, when the right woman came along they hadn't had a choice, any more than he had when he and Mary had met.

“I wasn't aware you could plan for a thing like that,” he said.

“You can certainly avoid putting yourself at risk,” she countered.

“Is that what you've been doing since you got to Texas, avoiding risks?”

She nodded.

“Must have been a lousy plan, since we met anyway,” he observed, grinning. “Or do you suppose fate just had something else in mind?”

“I don't know what to think,” she admitted, then gazed at him imploringly. “Harlan, this can't go any further than it already has.”

The wistfulness in her voice contradicted the statement and gave him hope. “I think we both know that's not so,” he said. “But I'm willing to slow down and take things nice and easy, if that'll give you some peace of mind.”

“Why is it that peace of mind is the last thing I feel around you?” she asked plaintively.

He winked at her. “Darlin', I think that's exactly what we're going to find out. Now, why don't you and Jenny stick around for dinner? Let's see if we can't get things on an even keel again.”

Janet protested, but she didn't put much
oomph
in it. After seeing her resort to takeout the Sunday before, he could see why. Any meal she didn't have to prepare herself must have seemed like a godsend. Just like any meal he didn't have to eat alone these days was a genuine pleasure for him.

If he had his way about it, there were going to be a whole lot more evenings starting off just like this one.

J
anet couldn't quite decide whether or not to be irritated at Harlan's high-handedness in sending Jenny off to work with Cody. She knew he had done it just so he could end the stalemate she had started following that devastating kiss.

Jenny's shocked reaction had been partly responsible for her retreat, of course. But it was her own response that had truly shaken her. She wasn't sure she was ready to deal with a man as strong-willed and compelling as Harlan Adams, a man who made her heart pound and her blood sizzle with lust and temper in equal measure. She resented the fact that he had forced her into confronting the issue by facing him again.

Still, once dinner was on the table, her exasperation dwindled at an astonishing rate. Apparently she could be bought for a decent meal she didn't have to cook herself. Tender chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, a salad, vegetables—it was heaven.

Jenny wasn't nearly so easily won over. She sat at the dining room table in stubborn silence, glaring from Janet to Harlan and back again. Apparently she had belatedly guessed that the price of her afternoon with Cody was this unwanted reunion. By the end of the meal Janet's nerves were raw from the tension in the room.

“I think we should go,” she said the minute they'd finished dessert. The housekeeper had served a chocolate silk pie that had almost inspired Janet to ask for the recipe until she'd reminded herself what a disaster she'd make of it. “I know eating and running is impolite, but we have things we should be doing.”

Harlan regarded her with undisguised amusement. “Such as?”

“Homework,” she retorted automatically. “Jenny's doing some make-up assignments so she'll be ready to take advanced English in the fall. She fell behind at the end of the term at home.”

“Mom, it's Friday night,” Jenny protested, then clamped her mouth shut the instant it apparently dawned on her that speaking out might mean staying at White Pines longer.

Janet hid a smile. “I suppose we could stay a little longer,” she said, her expression innocent.

Alarm flared in Jenny's eyes. “No, you're right,” Jenny contradicted hurriedly. “I should get my homework done. I have a big project due next week. It'll probably take me hours and hours, maybe the whole weekend. I won't get any sleep at all.”

“Sounds like a tough assignment,” Harlan agreed. “What is it?”

Jenny looked trapped. “A paper,” she finally blurted in a way that said she was ad-libbing as she went along. “On Edgar Allan Poe.”

Harlan leaned back. “Ah, yes, Poe. Now there was a writer. Pretty scary stuff, it seemed to me when I read him.”

“You read Poe?” Jenny asked in an insulting tone of disbelief that suggested she was surprised to discover that Harlan read at all.

“Poetry, short stories, just about all of it, I suppose,” he said, clearly unoffended. “Of course, by today's standards, I suppose he seems pretty tame. Not nearly as graphic as some writers. It always seemed to me there was something to be said for leaving things to the reader's imagination, the way Poe did.”

Jenny's expression brightened. “That's what I thought,” she said eagerly, then caught herself. “Never mind. You probably don't care about what I think.”

Janet's breath caught in her throat as she waited for Harlan's reply. Her ex-husband had never been interested in hearing his daughter's thoughts on much of anything. For the most part, Barry had believed children should be seen and not heard, unless showing Jenny off had had some professional benefit. He'd enjoyed being perceived as an up-and-coming lawyer and proud family man. When Jenny's grades had slipped in direct proportion to the amount of arguing going on at home, he'd lost what little interest he'd ever had in her school days.

For a time, Janet had been fooled by her ex's superficial evidence of concern and pride. Now that
she'd observed Harlan Adams for a couple of weeks, especially when Cody was around to banter with him, she had seen what a genuine family was all about. What she and Barry and Jenny had shared had been a mockery of the real thing, more feigned than substantive.

She watched now as Harlan fixed an attentive look on Jenny. That was the gaze Barry had never quite mastered, an expression of real interest. Seeing it warmed Janet through and through and further endangered her already shaky determination to keep Harlan at a distance.

“Of course I'm interested in your opinion,” he assured Jenny. “And if you're going to be in an advanced class, you must be pretty smart.”

“My teacher in New York said my short stories and essays are really good,” Jenny admitted, pride shining in her eyes. “She said I could probably be a writer someday, if I want to be.”

“And do you want to be?” Harlan asked.

Jenny nodded, her expression suddenly shy as she revealed a dream that Janet knew she'd shared with almost no one. It was a tribute to the fragile trust flowering between Jenny and Harlan that she was telling him.

Once again, Janet couldn't help thinking that the theft and subsequent accident that had brought Harlan Adams into their lives was turning out far better than she'd had any right to expect, especially for Jenny. It made her more determined than ever not to do anything to shake the trust the two of them were establishing, even if it cost her a chance with Harlan for herself.

“I'm going to write about Native Americans,” Jenny said. “I want to tell all the stories that Lone Wolf told Mom.”