Luke's Would-Be Bride

By the time the telephone had jangled four times, she’d managed to gather her thoughts enough to ask, “Do you want me to answer that?”

He shook his head and reached for the receiver. With his voice a low drone in the background, she took another deep breath and turned back to her task. By the time he hung up the phone, she was well on her way to getting back on an even keel. “Another emergency?” she asked conversationally.

She felt his eyes on her back, but she didn’t turn around.

“I guess you could say that, but not the way you mean. That was my brother, Clayt. I’m still not sure how it happened, but he, Wyatt McCully and I somehow managed to get ourselves roped into planning the town picnic. We put our heads together at the Crazy Horse last night, but I’m afraid we didn’t get very far. DoraLee Sullivan, the owner of the Crazy Horse, said it was like watching three nuns plan a stag party.”

Smiling at the mental picture his words evoked, she took her first casual breath since she’d found him lounging in the doorway several minutes ago. “Is the Crazy Horse the local saloon?”

“The one and only.”

Keeping her eyes focused on the filing cabinet, she said, “Is that where the people of Jasper Gulch go for fun?”

“Aside from rolling up the sidewalks at eight every night, there isn’t much to do in Jasper Gulch. Every now and then I mosey on down to the Crazy Horse to watch the old-timers play poker or listen to the local bachelors complain about the weather and the long, lonely nights out here.”

Jillian couldn’t imagine Luke Carson moseying anywhere, but she didn’t think it would be wise to mention that particular observation or to ask about those long, lonely nights he’d mentioned, so she remained quiet. Unfortunately her stack of files had run out and so had her diversions. As if he knew it, Luke said, “There’s been a noted lack of women in these parts lately, you know.”

She turned around, smiling in spite of herself. “So I’ve heard.”

“Have you also heard that things are starting to look up around here?”

Jillian wanted to believe he wasn’t referring to her arrival in town, but the tone of his voice left little room for such possibilities. He was a decent man, and probably a lonely one. She wanted to warn him not to get his hopes up where she was concerned. More than anything she wanted to let him down easy, but how?

“I’d be happy to show you around the Crazy Horse sometime, Jillian. What are you doing tonight?”

He tipped his hat up, and for the first time since he’d stepped foot back inside the office, she saw the expression in his gray eyes. A zing went through her, and although she tried, she couldn’t look away.

Luke didn’t know what was going through Jillian’s mind, but he knew what was going through his body. Damn, it felt good. He had half a mind to stride to the other side of the desk and reach for her hand, slowly drawing her closer, to tip her face up a little and gently cover her lips with his.

He took a step closer and then another. Before his eyes the expression in hers changed. Slowly, deliberately, she pulled her gaze away and turned her back on him.

Luke’s footsteps froze in mid-stride.

He settled his hands on his hips, disappointed. What was going on here?

It didn’t take long for his disappointment to make way for his anger. For crying out loud, this was the third time he’d brought up the subject of spending time with Jillian. And the third time she’d ignored him completely. He’d given her a few hours to feel comfortable, then had started hinting for a date. He hadn’t thought too much of it when she’d given him a noncommittal hum when he’d suggested they catch a bite to eat in Pierre or take in a movie. At the time he’d assumed she hadn’t heard. After all, she was up to her elbows in a new job. Now that he thought about it, she hadn’t had any trouble answering his questions concerning her trip out here from Madison. And she hadn’t given him that little hum when he’d told her how his great-great-great grandfather, Jasper Carson, had come to found this town. Only his requests to spend time with her outside the office had been met with complete silence.

She’d heard his invitations. All three times. But she was ignoring them. Luke wanted to know why.

Keeping his voice purposefully low, he asked, “Ever been to the rodeo, Jillian?”

She shook her head cautiously. And Luke moved in to set the hook.

“That’s too bad. The rodeo is South Dakota’s numberone spectator sport. I don’t think there’s a living soul out here who doesn’t look forward to rodeo days. Since I’d really hate to see you miss it, I’d be happy to take you.”

Jillian didn’t know where to look. She’d gone through the stack of files on the corner of the desk, so she couldn’t look there. She half wished the phone would ring. But it didn’t, and she couldn’t look there, either. In the end she squared off opposite Luke and raised her gaze to his. The moment of truth wasn’t far away.

“When do rodeo days begin?” she asked.

“In August.”

“That’s next month.”

Although Luke raised his eyebrows, he didn’t say anything. She felt like an idiot, anyway. He’d as good as told her he thought his former secretary didn’t have both oars in the water, and here she was sounding even worse. It required all her willpower to hold his gaze, all her courage to say, “I appreciate your invitation, Luke, but I really can’t make that kind of commitment.”

“You can’t.”

Those two little words were issued in a clipped tone of voice men everywhere used moments before their patience went right through the roof. Giving her head a firm shake, she said, “No, I can’t.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because,” she said, keeping her voice as steady as possible. “I can’t guarantee I’ll still be here by then.”

She closed her eyes, waiting for the explosion. When it didn’t come, she chanced a glance his way. His lips were set in a firm line, his chest puffed out like a porcupine’s quills. She quickly diverted her gaze to her watch. “Would you look at the time! It’s twelve o’clock already, and I told Lisa I’d help her in the store right after lunch.”

Without another word, she hurried to the back room where she’d stashed her purse first thing that morning. When she came out again, she couldn’t help noticing that Luke hadn’t moved an inch. It was the longest she’d seen him stay in one place all morning.

“Well,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Eight o’clock sharp. ’Bye.”

The blast of hot air from the street brought Luke out of his stupor. He didn’t know what was happening to his concentration, but he didn’t like what had just happened to his ego. He’d asked Jillian out four times, which was exactly how often he’d been shot down.

He scooped his hat off his head with one hand and rubbed his face with the other. The Carson brothers may not have had much in the patience department, but they’d never had any trouble with women. Luke himself had turned a fair number of heads in his day, even with the lack of females in the area these past few years. Until about a minute ago he’d been confident that he could turn Jillian’s.

What the hell did she mean she couldn’t guarantee she’d be here next month? Where was she planning to go? He supposed he could wait until she came to work in the morning to find out. Wait, hell.

He crammed his hat back on his head and strode straight out to the sidewalk. He didn’t even bother to close the door.

It was high noon, and some of the people of Jasper Gulch were out and about. Cletus McCully was sitting in his usual spot on the bench in front of the post office, and Opal Graham and her spinster daughter Louetta were heading for the diner for their usual Tuesday lunch.

Luke spotted Jillian trying to cross the street in front of Josie’s Five and Dime. Shading her eyes with her hand, she glanced to the right and then to the left, waiting for Karl Hanson to move his old truck on down the street. Luke headed toward her, his long strides eating up the sidewalk in record time. By the time she stepped off the curb, he was only five yards away.

“Jillian, wait!”

She looked over her shoulder and came to an abrupt stop.

He slowed his steps and called, “You need a key.”

“A what?”

He took another step, feeling the heat rise off the pavement in waves. “A key. I never know when I’ll have to make an emergency run to one of the ranches. If it happens in the middle of the night or early in the morning, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to open the office at eight.”

“Oh, in that case…”

Jillian’s lips continued to move, but an approaching car in dire need of a new muffler drowned out whatever else she was saying. From the corner of his eye, he saw a rusty splotch of brown and fleetingly wondered why Roy Everts didn’t break down and get that car of his fixed. The old man drove like a maniac, taking out fence posts and mailboxes every other day. Luke turned his head just in time to see Roy take the corner wide, barreling through the town’s only stop sign. In a flash Luke realized the old geezer was about to take out Jillian today.

“Jillian. Look out!” Luke reached her on the run, his feet moving before his brain had decided what to do. A horn blared just as his arm snaked around her waist. He pulled her to his chest so hard it knocked the wind out of her.

Roy missed her by two feet.

Craning her neck to look at the car, which had come to a stop in front of the Crazy Horse, she gasped, “Who was that?”

Another time Luke would have called Roy every name in the book. But right that minute all his concentration was fixed on the woman in his arms. He’d noticed she was slender the first time he’d seen her, but he’d had no way of knowing how soft and pliant she would feel in his arms. Her hair smelled of warm flowers, her white blouse a thin barrier between his callused hand and the soft skin at her waist. This close, her eyes were an even lighter shade of blue and were wide open, staring into his.

“His name is Roy. Don’t worry, Cletus is already giving him the tongue lashing he deserves. Not that it’ll do any good.”

She moved, her thigh brushing his, her breathing expanding her chest, which in turn expanded his. Her lips were parted slightly and so full he was tempted to kiss her, here and now.

“Luke, what are you doing?”

Her voice was a husky rasp, but it brought him to his senses. He wouldn’t have minded kissing her in the middle of Main Street. But first kisses were meant to be private, especially if they were going to lead to second kisses.

Loosening his hold on her, he said, “I’m saving your life, of course.”

She glanced around. And stiffly stepped back. “Oh. I suppose you’re right. Um. Well. I don’t know what to say.”

She sounded breathless. Luke didn’t blame her. His breathing was still ragged, too. But his mind was functioning normally, and as far as he was concerned, there were several things she could say. She could tell him she’d be happy to go out with him, for starters. And maybe she could follow that up with an invitation of her own.

Unfortunately she didn’t appear to be getting ready to say either of those things. She was looking decidedly ill at ease. Since he didn’t want to scare her away, he tugged on her hand, drawing her with him to the curb.

Without releasing her fingers, he said, “Why don’t you say you’ll have lunch with me.”

“Lunch?”

“Yes, lunch. Come on, Jillian. I just saved your life. In some cultures that would make you mine.”

Her chin came up, and her hand stiffened in his. If Luke lived to be a hundred, he doubted he would ever see a more serious expression on another person’s face. He felt his own eyes narrow and his adrenaline kick into overdrive, because he recognized the look of a woman gearing up to speak her mind.

Chapter Three

Jillian tried not to bristle as she shot a quick glance at the people who were out and about on the narrow main street. She could hear Cletus McCully’s rusty old voice a half block away and an occasional grumble from the man who’d nearly run her down. Two women were standing beneath the diner’s faded awning across the street, and a handful of men were watching from the shade next door.

She remembered Luke telling her how the people of Jasper Gulch liked to gossip and realized that he was still holding her hand. This wasn’t the place she would have chosen to have this conversation, but she supposed saying what she had to say in front of the town’s watchful eyes had its merit.

After a long pause she firmly, deliberately, pulled her hand from his. “You may have saved me from serious injury, Luke. But my life is very much my own.”

He looked as if he would have liked to argue, but shrugged instead. “All right, Red. I can respect that. Now, how about that lunch?”

“My hair is not red.” Jillian’s mouth dropped open, his slow grin sending the air whooshing out of her lungs. What did she care what color he called her hair? And why did it feel as if her heart was doing a pirouette inside her chest?

“Red, gold, brown and amber. It’s beautiful. Now, do you want to stand here and argue or do you want to go inside Mel’s Diner—where it’s air-conditioned—and have lunch?”

For a full five seconds Jillian couldn’t speak. Feeling inordinately warmed in ways she preferred not to examine, she crossed her arms, doing everything in her power to conquer her involuntary reaction to this man.

“I’m not having lunch with you, Luke.”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

She released a huff of air at the poor impression he did of looking innocent. “Yes. No. I mean, my hunger has nothing to do with it.”

That got his attention. His eyes narrowed and he lowered his chin. “Would you care to explain what this does have to do with?”

Actually, she’d rather not, but didn’t see any way around it. “Look, if I have lunch with you, people will get the wrong idea about us.”

“And what idea is that?”

“They’ll think we’re a couple.”

He no longer looked as if he was trying to appear innocent. The mixture of surprise and curiosity on his face was definitely the real thing.

Jillian took a deep breath. She was doing this badly. She couldn’t blame Luke for jumping to conclusions. She had, after all, come to a town that had advertised for women, so it was no wonder he’d assumed she would be interested in dating the local bachelors.

Trying for a conciliatory tone of voice, she said, “I know this seems odd, but I didn’t come to Jasper Gulch to find a man.”

He made that sound again, the one a man makes when he’s holding on to his temper by a thread. His gray eyes darkened to the color of thunderclouds, and his voice dropped an entire octave as he said, “Let me get this straight. You saw the ad for Bachelor Gulch, so you moved here. But you aren’t looking for a man.”

“That’s right.”

“Then would you mind telling me why you’re here?”

“I came to help Lisa get settled, and to help her find the man of her dreams.”

“Lisa’s looking for a man. But you aren’t.”

“Yes. No. I mean that’s right. Lisa is, I’m not.”

He didn’t move a muscle, not even to blink. He was still looking at her incredulously, but all in all he’d taken that better than she’d expected.

Glancing at all the people who were watching this little interaction, she considered walking away without saying another word. She hated to do that to him. He’d given her a job and was a member of this town, had in fact been one of the people responsible for bringing new women to Jasper Gulch. How would it look to have one of those women stomp on his ego in front of more than a dozen residents?

She hadn’t wanted the people of Jasper Gulch to get the wrong impression about her and Luke, but now she realized that as long as Luke understood, she didn’t care what anyone else thought. His reputation and social standing were on the line here. It just so happened that she knew exactly what to do to save them.

With quiet assurance, she laid her hand on his forearm, reached up on tiptoe and whispered a kiss along his jaw. In a voice meant for his ears alone, she said, “This is for the people watching. I’m really not in the market, Luke, but believe me, if I was, you’d be a fine choice.”

Without waiting for him to reply, she stepped back, turned on her heel and hurried across the street.

* * *

Luke came out of his befuddled state just as Jillian disappeared inside the new clothing store on the other side of the street. His arm felt warm where she’d touched him, and he swore he could still feel the gentle brush of her lips on his jaw.

She’d kissed him right here on Main Street in front of God and everyone. Not on the mouth. And not out of passion. She’d kissed him so he could save face.

It had worked. Cletus McCully and Roy Everts were both grinning from ear to ear while Opal and Louetta Graham whispered behind their hands. Even Ed, the town’s only barber, was giving him a thumb’s-up signal from beneath his red-and-white barber pole next door.

A slow heat that had nothing to do with the noon temperature washed over Luke, and his blood began to do a slow boil. He didn’t want charity, and he damned well didn’t need it.

He’d always prided himself on being somewhat of a lady’s man. Somewhat, hell. He felt downright smug about his ability to ignite a woman’s desire and expertly take her to great heights of pleasure. Sure there had been a noted lack of women out here these past few years, but he’d never had any trouble impressing the members of the opposite sex. He’d known his share of women in college and a few since. And not one of them had ever kissed him one second and told him she wasn’t in the market the next.

The market?

He wasn’t real estate, dammit.

He swallowed, hard, the set of his chin and the fury in his expression draining the grin from Cletus McCully’s wrinkled face. Luke knew his sudden trek across the street was met with more than one pair of raised eyebrows, but frankly, he didn’t care. He strode to the opposite curb and over the cracked sidewalk in front of the new clothing store. Without breaking stride, he gave the door a swift yank.

Several of the area bachelors looked up when he entered, but he didn’t stop to chat. He didn’t even bother saying hello. In fact, he didn’t slow his pace until he came within a few feet of the red-haired woman who was poking through a carton near the back of the store.

He knew the instant Jillian noticed him. She turned to face him, folded her arms and settled her weight on one foot. Luke scowled all over again. If she thought her protective stance was going to hold him off, she could think again. He’d faced bigger, meaner, ornerier opponents than her—snorting bulls who didn’t want an inoculation and stallions who didn’t want to be corralled. Oh, no, he’d never let a little thing like a defiant glare stop him before, and he wasn’t about to start now. He and Jillian were going to get something straight between them once and for all.

Jillian didn’t know what was going through Luke’s mind, but it couldn’t have been pleasant. He’d planted himself in front of her, his feet spread apart, his hips thrust forward, his eyes never leaving her face. His lips were set in a straight line, his stare drilling her to the floor.

It wasn’t easy to think when he turned all that roaring intensity on her, so she let her instincts guide her. And her instincts were telling her she’d sorely misjudged him.

“Luke, I…”

He held up one hand, and she stopped. He reached for her wrist, pulling her fingers from the crook of her right arm. Turning her palm toward the ceiling, he pressed a key into its center and curled her fist around it.

“I don’t take charity, Jillian. And I don’t give a rip what the people of this town think.”

With a tug on the brim of his hat, he turned on his heel. He didn’t utter another word. He didn’t have to. The slamming of the door spoke volumes.

She stared into space, her mind blank, her heart racing. When the room finally came back into focus, she glanced around. The local bachelors who were helping Lisa in the store quickly averted their eyes and went back to work hanging shelves and unloading boxes. Lisa’s attention wasn’t so easy to divert. She tucked her hair behind her ears and quickly made her way to the back of the store.

In a voice barely above a whisper, she said, “What in the world was that all about?”

Jillian became aware of an ache in her hand and slowly opened her fingers. Tracing the indentation the key had made in her soft skin, she said, “That was my new boss, Luke Carson. He dropped off this key to the office.”

“That was the local vet?”

Jillian nodded.

“You didn’t tell me he was so good-looking. Or so tall.”

Jillian glanced around the room. She didn’t catch any of the bachelors in the act of looking at her, but several of them were paying a lot of attention to the toes of their scuffed cowboy boots.

She’d spent the first eleven years of her life in a small town, and knew how quickly gossip could spread. This little scene would no doubt be all over Jasper Gulch within the hour, which was exactly why she’d given Luke that kiss in the first place. She’d meant it to be a balm to his ego, but her plan had backfired. She’d tried to protect his reputation, to prevent the other men from knowing she’d turned him down. With very few words he’d let her know exactly how he felt about that.

Jillian wondered why his reaction to her little performance brought out airy hopes she’d forgotten she even had. Unfortunately, with that hope came a dark sense of gloom she understood all too well.

“So, do you have a thing for the local vet?”

Jillian almost choked on her next breath. “Lisa, for heaven’s sake. You know I’m not going to stay in Jasper Gulch.”

Lisa sighed, her smile a little sad. “I know, Jillian. I was just hoping you’d change your mind.”

Biting down on her lip, Jillian felt herself going soft inside. “You’ve been one of my closest friends for fifteen years, and it sure isn’t going to be easy to go back to Madison without you. But you know my stay here is only temporary. We both do.”

Lisa took a deep breath and heaved a great sigh. Within moments a wry grin stole across her face. Inclining her head to the left, she said, “That might be true, but we’re both here now, and on the other side of this very room are men who’ve been deprived of feminine companionship for far too long.”

“Lisa, you’re incorrigible.”

“I know. You’ve gotta love me for it, don’t you?”

Jillian shook her head, wondering how she’d ever gotten lucky enough to have met Lisa Markman all those years ago. Cori Cassidy and Ivy Pennington, too, for that matter. Life hadn’t been easy for any of them back in Wisconsin, but one thing Jillian had learned from living these past thirty years was that she could face just about anything as long as she had friends at her side.

“Now come on,” the most brazen and brassy of those friends said with a wink and a gentle nudge. “We have a captive audience, and I don’t intend to waste it.”

“Lisa, for heaven’s sake. They’ll hear you.”

Lisa brushed the hair from her eyes and brought her chin up at a proud angle. She was wearing faded cutoffs and a T-shirt, but Jillian doubted she’d ever seen a more regal pose. Keeping her voice low and steady, Lisa said, “If one of these bachelors turns out to be the man for me, he’s going to have to love me for who I am, what I am, the way I am.”

Jillian nodded, wondering what there was about the air in this room that brought out so much pride and vigor in a person. It had been apparent in Luke’s expression a few minutes ago and in Lisa’s right now.

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