“If you must do a nasty chore, listening to rock and roll will help the time pass more quickly.”
– SUNNY COLLINS
Jackson walked into the barn to check on a loose stall door and heard the scrape of a shovel from the other side of the barn. The horses were out for an afternoon ride with the campers, so he figured it was a good time to take care of cleaning stalls. He checked three of the doors and found the third one was the culprit. Pulling out his tools, he replaced the stripped screws.
Just as he finished the job, he heard a feminine voice humming. He didn’t recognize the song until the voice put words to the Justin Timberlake number about bringing sexy back. His lips twitched. If he didn’t know better, he would swear that was Lori’s voice, but she couldn’t possibly be mucking out horse manure.
He couldn’t resist a peek at the songstress, and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor at the sight of Lori wearing a hat, gloves, boots, and borrowed jeans that didn’t fit. Swinging a fork and her butt, she moved in time to an MP3 player in her pocket. She was so intent on her job and the music, she didn’t notice him.
Unable to tear himself from the unlikely sight, he stared for several moments.
Lori turned around, saw him, and screamed.
Jackson grimaced and moved toward her with his hands lifted. “For Pete’s sake, it’s just me.”
She pulled earphones from her ears. “I didn’t know anyone was there.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “How long have you been watching me?”
“Not long,” he said. “Just long enough to know you’re not a contender for American Idol.”
She scowled at him. “Thank you very much. You can leave now.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “With this kind of show? No way.” He glanced at the stall. “You’ve done a damn good job.”
“Of course I have,” she said, grabbing the wheelbarrow and pushing it out of the stall.
He walked along beside her. “I didn’t know mucking out stalls was on your usual list of activities.”
“It isn’t now, but I did it all the time in college and during my summers here.” She dumped the contents of the wheelbarrow into a predetermined pile. “I’ve actually spent much more time taking care of horses than cooking or cleaning.”
“That’s right. Your major was equestrian studies. So why aren’t you helping with the campers?”
“Cleaning stalls is one of those things that comes right back to you. But I haven’t ridden in a while. I’m rusty.”
“Why not?”
“I took a few spills, broke a bone or two. Daddy refused to let me get back on a horse.”
“Daddy’s gone now,” Jackson said.
“True,” she said and shrugged. “But if I want to be helpful, I need to stick with an area where I’m sure I’m competent.”
“I’m stunned. I never would have pictured you, Lori Jean Granger, heiress to millions, doing something like this.”
She met his gaze. “I guess that means you either underestimated me or overestimated me. I wonder which,” she said and moved on to another stall.
“You know you may need to stay here at the ranch for at least a couple of weeks before everything dies down in Dallas?”
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I’m fine with that. I’ve always liked it here. The only part about waiting is that I need to get married so I can help out Virginia financially.” She shrugged. “But I guess that’s more your problem than mine.”
“Mine?”
“Yes, you have to bring in the prospects. It might be tougher getting the right man for the job to come all the way down here.”
Jackson swore. She was right about that one.
“It wouldn’t hurt you to show a little patience,” Virginia said as she pulled hot biscuits from the oven.
Maria rolled her eyes as she packed the dinner baskets assigned to each cabin. “It would be easier if she weren’t so useless. All that food she wasted, and then she took forever to clean the cabins. I bet she doesn’t even know how to make a bed.”
“She does,” Virginia said. “It’s just been a while. If you understood how overprotective Lori Jean’s daddy was, then maybe you wouldn’t be so hard on her.”
“Overprotectiveness was never an issue with my father,” Maria said, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. Her father had been so abusive she’d repeatedly run away from home, but every time she’d left, he’d found her and beat her. She rubbed the scar on her cheek. The last time Maria had run away, she was eighteen and Virginia and Skip had intervened.
“I know, sweetheart,” Virginia said and gave Maria a quick hug. “I wish Skip and I could have done something for you sooner, but we didn’t even know you existed until we found you sleeping in the barn.”
“Lucky for me,” Maria said. “But how long do we have to let Lori stay here?”
“As long as I told you that you could stay here,” Virginia told her in a firm voice.
Virginia had assured Maria that she could stay on the ranch as long as she wanted. “But I was helpful,” Maria said. “I didn’t ruin entire meals.”
“Give Lori some time. She’ll be helpful, too. You may not see it, but she has a heart of gold.”
“If she has this heart of gold, then why doesn’t she just give you the money for the ranch?” Maria demanded.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Virginia said. “I just know that if she needs a place to stay, I’m going to give it to her.”
Chapter Eleven
“It’s not fun, sunbeam, but if you’re afraid of something, you’re eventually going to have to face it down, or it will own you for the rest of your life.”
– SUNNY COLLINS
Lori glanced at her diamond-encrusted Rolex as she left the cabin in sparkling-clean condition behind her. If anyone had told her that she would spend her days trying to set a new record for cleaning toilets, she would have laughed them into next week. Glancing up, she nearly ran into Geoffrey.
“There you are,” he said. “I was hoping you could show me around today. Last night we didn’t have an opportunity to share much time together,” he said, dressed in khaki slacks and a white shirt.
He really was cute, Lori thought. Floppy light brown hair, crooked self-deprecating grin, tons of polite British charm. She wondered if she could get along with him for six years. “Sounds lovely, but I need to clean two more cabins, and the clock is ticking. Maria will hiss at me if I don’t get them done.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Maria? Why would she hiss at you? You’re doing her a favor by cleaning.”
“Not fast enough,” Lori said, then decided to give the duke a little test. “Would you mind helping me?”
He blinked for a solid moment, then seemed to force himself to shake his head. “Clean,” he repeated as if it were a foreign word. “Of course not.” He gave a slightly forced smile. “I’m happy to help. Lead onward.”
Lori bit her lips to keep them from twitching. “Thank you so much. The other cabins are this way.”
As soon as they stepped inside the first cabin, she gave him a feather duster and a mop. “I’ll do the bathrooms. They take the most work.” After a few moments of scrubbing, she called out to him. “Everything okay?”
“It’s fine,” he said and sneezed. “Everything’s fine.”
Lori shined the mirrors. “I’m surprised you were able to find me at Miracles in Motion.”
“Your housekeeper took pity on me. I begged her. And gave her a one-hundred-dollar bill.”
Lori glanced outside the bathroom door. “A hundred dollars?”
He nodded and flicked the duster over a dresser. “I started low, but she wouldn’t budge.”
“I’m flattered that you were so determined, but I’m kind of surprised. We only met that once.”
“I thought we connected well. That and I wanted to cut myself out of the pack of wild dogs barking at your back door,” he said.