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“I don’t care what his name is. He is not the right man for you.”
“Yeah, well, according to you, neither are any of the other men I’ve dated since I was sixteen.”
It was an old argument and Grant knew he’d lose. Zoe dated who she wanted, driving him crazy in the process.
She grabbed her coat. After she’d put it on, she yanked on her gloves and hat. The bobble bounced wildly from her harsh tugging. “I’m really not in the mood to argue about this. I’ve got forty little yellow bells to cut out for tomorrow’s craft project. I’d better be getting home.”
Grant grabbed his car keys from the drawer by the sink. “Take my truck. You don’t want Bud to freeze.”
She considered his suggestion silently. He could tell she was warring with her desire for independence and her concern for the hamster. “What about my landlady’s car?”
“I’ll follow you and drive my truck back.”
She chewed on her lower lip. “It’s a cold ride. Mrs. Givens doesn’t need the car right now. It belongs to her son and he’s away at college. Just bring it by when you get back from your trip. I assume you are flying out in the morning?”
“Yes.”
“You could have one of your hands make the transfer tomorrow, if you like.”
“We’ll see,” he said noncommittally, knowing he would not do so. He would rather she kept his truck until his return, when hopefully her own vehicle would be repaired. He was careful not to let the satisfaction he felt show in his face, however.
If she thought he was getting away with being “overly protective”, as she called it, she was stubborn enough to insist.
That Sunday, Zoe rushed around her apartment before Mrs. Givens arrived for tea. She had invited her landlady the previous week and didn’t want to cancel at the last minute. It would make the older woman suspicious. Zoe didn’t want Mrs. Givens to realize that she had taken in another stray. Even this close to Christmas, she had the feeling that one more pet would prompt an eviction notice.
She led her German Shepherd, Snoopy, into the back bedroom and shut the door, and then tucked Bud’s cage into the cubbyhole above the sink in her tiny bathroom. That should do it. With luck Zoe would find a new owner for Bud before Mrs. Givens was any the wiser. The hamster’s exercise wheel squeaked as Bud’s short rodent legs trod a constant rotation on the plastic device. Princess, one of Zoe’s cats, watched with a hungry look. Zoe tapped the acrylic cage and smiled. Even Princess could not get into the hamster’s haven.
Just to be safe, she shooed the cat out of the bathroom and shut the door. The doorbell rang and Snoopy let out a shattering series of barks. She hushed the dog before opening the front door, and almost fell backward as she came face-to-face with Grant’s imposing six-foot-two-inch frame.
He reached out to steady her. “You okay?”
“Sure.” She’d just been expecting a rather short, rather round older lady rather than his well-muscled, ultra masculine person. She’d done a pretty good job of sublimating her body’s response to Grant since that awful night when she’d been nineteen, but every so often feelings she’d rather not acknowledge leapt past her defenses. Like now.
“What are you doing here?” Her breathless voice gave her away, but if Grant followed past patterns he wouldn’t notice.
Sometimes she wondered if he thought she was as sexless as he wanted her to be. Not that she wasn’t, but she shouldn’t be, darn it. And that wasn’t going to change any time soon. Not as long as her body still thought Grant was the one, even if her mind and her heart now knew better.
“I have come for my truck.”
“I thought one of your hands would come for it.” She frowned in consternation. She hadn’t been mentally prepared for a confrontation with Grant right now, even a pleasant one. Not when she needed all her wits to make nice with her increasingly annoyed landlady.
“Still mad I called your boyfriend a clown?”
“I’m not mad, just busy.” She forced a smile.
She hadn’t been angry the other night either. Not really. Grant couldn’t help being overprotective. Besides, she wasn’t really dating Tyler, just trying to fix him up with a friend of hers from school. They were both skittish. “Mrs. Givens is coming for tea.”
Grant leaned down and scratched the silver fur on her cat’s neck. His lean, tan fingers moved in a mesmerizing rhythm, a rhythm Zoe had an overwhelming desire to experience herself. She tamped down the feeling, just like she’d been doing with similar desires for the past four years—longer if you counted how long she’d wanted Grant before The Night.
He straightened and dropped a set of keys in Zoe’s hand. “She’ll be happy I brought back her son’s car.”
His fingers brushed her palm and she jerked her hand back at the contact. Darn. She needed to get some perspective here. She turned around too quickly and nearly went sailing when her feet got tangled with Alexander, Princess’s brother. She yelled. Grant gripped her shoulders and pulled her toward him. She landed against his chest. Still standing, but barely.
Snoopy’s barking, the parrot’s screeching and Grant’s laughter faded as Zoe became aware of the feel of Grant’s hard chest against her back. What would he do if she turned around and kissed him?
Would he open his lips over hers and let her taste his tongue like he had that one time when she’d discovered passion included a whole lot more than the rather innocent dreams she’d been weaving around Grant since she was sixteen? More likely he’d think she’d gone nuts. And she had if she was contemplating giving Grant another run at her heart.
She trusted him with her life, and always would, but her emotions were a different matter entirely.
The sound of another voice alerted Zoe to her landlady’s arrival; she jumped away from Grant. This time she watched where her feet landed and managed to stay upright. “Mrs. Givens. Grant was just returning your son’s car.”
The elderly woman smiled and patted Grant’s cheek with her fleshy pink fingers. “Dear boy. You are so very thoughtful. I’m sure we would not have missed the car if you had waited until the weather improved before returning it.”
Grant turned his smile on Mrs. Givens and Zoe was able to collect herself enough to find his truck keys. “Here.” She handed him the keys. “We won’t keep you. I know you have better things to do than stay and have tea with us.”
For whatever reason, her hormones were in overdrive today, and no way could she handle Grant’s presence at her tiny dinette table. Mrs. Givens frowned at Zoe.
Grant just winked. He really wasn’t fond of Zoe’s landlady. “As always, my schedule is full.”
She knew it was true, and didn’t understand why he had come to bring the car back himself. “Then I guess you had better go.” Zoe pushed him out the door. “I’ll talk to you later.”
She closed the door on his rather astonished expression and turned to Mrs. Givens, who was trying to avoid stepping on one of the cats and frankly doing a better job of it than Zoe had earlier.
She smiled at Zoe. “That Grant Cortez is such a nice boy. I remember we all worried when his daddy put him in charge of the ranch at such a young age, but he’s certainly made a success of it.”
“Yes, he has.” Not to mention his other business interests. She often marveled at the fact that their friendship had survived childhood.
Zoe wasn’t in a league with the Cortezes of the world any more than she was with the famous actors who now made up a good part of the winter and summer population of Sunshine Springs. It was the new Vale—only more exclusive in some ways, since many of the families had lived in the area for generations and land was hard to come by.
Grant had been forced to pay her father premium rates for the ranch when it had been sold because an actor, a rock star and another cattle conglomerate had all been bidding on the property at the same time.
“Still, a young man at twenty-two should have been dating, not running a spread the size of the Double C.” Mrs. Givens tsked her disapproval.
Zoe agreed, knowing better than anybody what it had cost Grant to take over the ranch at age twenty-two, leaving his dad and stepmother free to move to Portland like Lottie had wanted. He’d given up his plans for a career on the east coast and lost his fiancée all in one devastating blow.
He’d resurrected the career, on his own playing field…but not the relationship. And he hadn’t had another serious one since.
“Not that he hasn’t done his share of dating these past six years. He’s very photogenic.” Which was the older woman’s way of alluding to Grant’s many pictures in the press with the supermodels and actresses who graced his arm socially.
Linda was the daughter of an aging rock star who’d breezed into town and thought nothing of dating the area’s most eligible bachelor…until he’d gone into “protect Zoe” mode.
Mrs. Givens smiled conspiratorially with Zoe. “I’m sure you know more than the tabloids even…”
The woman was an inveterate gossip, and Zoe had no intention of responding to the thinly veiled hint to share what she knew of Grant’s lovelife.
“It’s to be expected, I suppose.” She ushered her landlady to the table, where she had already laid out the tea things. “I’m trying a new apricot blend tea. I hope you like it.”
“That sounds lovely, dear.” Mrs. Givens was a true tea connoisseur. She went to sit down and an ear-splitting yowl assaulted Zoe’s ears. Alexander must have been sitting on the chair again.
Mrs. Givens shot up from the chair, stumbled one step forward, and fell over Princess. She gasped and crashed to her knees on the carpet. Her blond wig went askew and her thinning gray hair stuck out on all sides. Her polyester dress rode up so that the tops of her knees were exposed, and nausea climbed up Zoe’s throat.
Not today. The tea had been an attempt to stay on the good side of her landlady, but now disaster loomed darkly on Zoe’s horizon. Feeling doomed, she rushed to the woman’s side and lifted Mrs. Givens to her feet. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”
The older woman took several gasping breaths. “I…I…”
Zoe pushed her into the now empty chair. “Sit down. I’m sure you will feel better in a few minutes.” She patted Mrs. Givens shoulder, not at all sure the older woman would feel better in the next millennium. Her expression was not promising. “Let me pour you a cup of tea.”
Mrs. Givens nodded, causing her wig to tip further over her left ear. “A cup of tea. Yes. That would be nice.” She rose unsteadily to her feet. “But first I think I’ll freshen up in your powder room.”
“Certainly.” Zoe helped Mrs. Givens to the closet-sized bathroom—remembering the hamster hidden in there only when a truly awful sound emerged from behind the closed door.
The landlady came tearing out of the bathroom, her eyes wild. She pointed a trembling finger at Zoe. “You have a rodent in your…your…”
“His name is Bud. He’s a hamster. While technically still rodents, hamsters are domesticated and quite safe as pets.”
The expression of horror convulsing Mrs. Givens’ features didn’t auger well for Zoe’s chances of explaining her way out of the situation. She tried anyway. “Please. It will be all right. Bud is harmless.”
Mrs. Givens shook her head violently, causing her wig to fall to the floor. Princess and Alexander immediately attacked it with all the fervor of hunting felines left in a cramped apartment for too long.
“My wig,” Mrs. Givens wailed. Her hands flew to her head as she tried to hide the gray and white hair.
Wanting to cry, Zoe jumped to the rescue of the wig. She wrested it from the two cats and handed it to Mrs. Givens, who yanked it back on without much improvement in her appearance.
She stood up, trembling with indignation. “I have been more than tolerant.”
“Yes,” Zoe hastened to agree.
“I have put up with large dogs, screaming parrots, annoying cats, and even allowed you to keep your goat in the old chicken coop. But I will not stand for rodents.”
Zoe didn’t know what to say. Everything her landlady said was true. “I’m going to try to find a home for him. It won’t take me very long. Children love hamsters. I’m sure one of my students will be happy to take Bud home as a pet.”
Their parents would be even happier to get the paraphernalia that went along with a hamster for free.
Mrs. Givens sadly shook her head. “I know how much you love your animals, dear. But I simply will not abide a rat living in my home. Even if you found a home for him today, I would not feel safe. Who knows what you would bring home next?” She shuddered delicately. “You might even take it into your head to adopt a snake.”
“I truly am sorry. I didn’t realize you had such an aversion to rodents. I won’t bring any more home. I promise. As for snakes—even I draw the line at reptiles.”
Well, that wasn’t strictly true, and she was hoping Mrs. Givens had forgotten the iguana incident. The landlady’s narrowed eyes told her she hadn’t.
“I seem to remember a very reptilian creature living in your bathtub not a month ago. I’m very sorry, Miss Jensen, but you are going to have to find another place to live.”
“Please give me another chance,” Zoe pleaded, “It’s so close to Christmas. It’s almost impossible to find living quarters in Sunshine Springs.” Especially those that allowed pets.
Mrs. Givens’ expression softened, and Zoe would have been home free if Snoopy hadn’t perpetrated his trick of opening doors and come bounding down the hall. Mrs. Givens was not fond of large dogs, and she found Snoopy intimidating. Unfortunately, Snoopy adored her. He jumped up on Mrs. Givens to give the landlady a kiss goodbye.
Zoe shouted, “Down, Snoopy.”
The dog obeyed, but the damage was done.
Mrs. Givens wiped the dog slobber from her face, her expression murderous. “The time has come for you to find a home more amenable to your soft spot for animals.”
CHAPTER TWO
ZOE rang Grant’s doorbell.
It was a new experience.
So was coming in through the front door. She took in the different perspective of the imposing portico while she waited for Grant to answer. Snow covered the ground around the impressive Spanish-style mansion with Christmas-card loveliness. The house was old for the county, probably the oldest one within a hundred miles, and still the most impressive. Wrought-iron grillwork decorated every window and doorway, while the stucco glowed in the moonlight.
She took a deep breath of the frosty air, the faint scent of wood smoke teasing her nostrils. Grant must have built a fire in one of the many fireplaces. Probably the study. She could certainly stand being in front of that fire right now. She shivered and clapped her gloved hands together. Where are you, Grant?
She heard a bump and a muffled curse. The door opened. Grant’s dark hair stood on end, and the imprint of three fingers marked his cheek. He’d been asleep, but he wasn’t undressed so he hadn’t gone to bed. He’d probably fallen asleep in front of the computer again. The man worked much too hard.
His comical look of disbelief nearly sent Zoe over the edge into hysterical laughter. Although nothing about this situation was even remotely funny. She lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers in a quick wave. “Hi.”
Brilliant. Hi. That was really going to convince him to let her stay. She had to look pathetic. She tried.
Grant squinted at her. “Something wrong with your face?”
She sighed. Of course she couldn’t do a good job at pathetic. It wasn’t in her nature. Grant was the only one who thought she needed a full-time keeper.
“Mrs. Givens evicted me.”
How was that for pathetic?
Grant did not say anything. Zoe tugged at the ends of her wool scarf. “She detests rodents. Who would have guessed?” This time she tried for a look of innocent confusion. When Grant just stared at her, she gave up. Frustrated, she demanded, “Say something.”
“You rang the front doorbell.”
Zoe looked into Grant’s eyes. Were they bloodshot? She didn’t think so, but it was hard to tell with the hall light off. The outside light was on a timer, but its glow didn’t reach far into the entry hall.
“I know I rang the bell.” She sighed. “It seemed appropriate.”
Grant rubbed the back of his neck. He always reminded Zoe of her father when he did that. She frowned.
“Why?”
“It just did.” She chafed her arms and stamped her feet. “I thought you should have some say in the matter, after all.”
“Some say in what matter?”
“This matter.” Hadn’t he heard her say that she had been evicted? “The I brought one too many animals home and my landlady evicted me matter.”
Grant straightened. “I heard that part. But why ring the front doorbell?”
Couldn’t he think of anything besides the stupid doorbell? “Grant, I need a place to stay until I can find a home for me and my pets. I’ve tried everywhere in town and no one would even consider renting to me.”
It hadn’t been easy coming to Grant. Not that she didn’t think he’d want to help. She knew he would. But she’d been making it on her own, proving that her parents selling off her home and defecting to Arizona did not matter. She’d refused Grant’s offer to let her continue living in the family home. Even paying rent it wouldn’t have felt right. She couldn’t afford the kind of rent the place would have gone for on her salary as a kindergarten teacher, and wouldn’t allow Grant to offer it to her for less than the going market rate.
