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The large woman patted Josie’s back consolingly. “There, there, dear. You don’t have to explain. But you come and find Consuela if you want to chew the cat, okay?”
Josie blinked. “Pardon me?”
“She means chew the fat.” Luke grinned.
Consuela shrugged. “Cat—fat—it makes no sense either way. But you come to me if you want to talk, okay?”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Enjoy. ¡Buenos Noches!” The large woman let herself out the door with a wave of her hand.
The room seemed suddenly very still and quiet. Luke awkwardly settled his large frame in the chair across from Josie.
“It all looks delicious,” she remarked, surveying the spread of Caesar salad, prime beef, scalloped potatoes and baby carrots.
“Consuela’s a wonderful cook. She and her husband have been with my family for over twenty-five years.” Luke gave a wry grin. “She takes a lot of liberties with the English language—and with poking her nose in other people’s business.”
“She seems very kind.”
Luke inclined his head. “She is. My mother died when I was twelve, and she practically raised me afterward.” He set the bottle of champagne on the table. “She’s right about being a good listener. If you get lonely and want to talk, you should take her up on her offer.” He regarded Josie in the flickering candlelight. Her profile was delicate, almost fragile. Looking at it, he felt another stab of guilt at the way he’d exploded at her in the barn. It couldn’t hurt for him to take a hint from Consuela and show a little sympathy. “For that matter, I can be a pretty good listener, too.”
Josie reached for her napkin. “I’m okay. I’m actually relieved the wedding was called off.”
Yeah, right. And he was going to sprout wings and fly. He’d seen denial before; in fact, he’d been in it himself. It was the first stage of the grieving process, and it was obviously where she was right now.
“I’m not heartbroken. I don’t even really feel hurt.” She placed the napkin her on her lap. “I’m angry…mostly at myself. How could I have been so blind?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Well, you know what they say about love.”
Josie leaned across the table, her face earnest. “That’s just it. I didn’t love him.”
Boy, she must really be hurting if she needed to lie to herself like this. Well, he wasn’t going to burst her bubble. Let her think whatever she wanted—whatever it took to get her through the night.
The thought made him reach for the champagne. “I’m sure everything will work out for the best.” He popped the cork and sent it flying across the room, narrowly missing the fireplace, then sloshed some into Josie’s glass. He filled his own and raised it in a toast “To new beginnings.”
Josie clinked her glass against his. “To a wonderful week at your ranch.”
Luke frowned at her over the rim. Baby-sitting her tonight was one thing; doing it for a whole week was quite another. “Let’s wait and see how you feel about things tomorrow.”
“I already know how I’ll feel…exactly the same.” She took a sip of champagne. “I’ve wanted to visit a guest ranch all my. life, and I’m not going to be cheated out of the experience just because Robert turned out to be a heel.”
Luke’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You’re the one who selected the Lazy O as a honeymoon destination?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a first.”
Josie’s brow knit in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Luke stabbed a bite of salad. “Most of the brides we see are dragged here kicking and screaming by a new husband who’s watched one too many Westerns. After a couple of days, even the ones who initially think it sounded like fun are asking directions to the nearest mall.”
Josie daintily buttered a roll. “I’ve always thought a ranch was the most romantic place on earth.”
Luke’s lip curved into a grin. “You’ve obviously never mucked out a stall.”
Josie laughed. “Actually, I have. I spent my summers at a camp that offered riding lessons, and I made a habit of hanging around afterward to help out in the stables. It was a way to get to spend more time around the horses.”
Luke hid his surprise by spearing another leaf of romaine lettuce. Well, anything could be fun for a while, he thought—until the novelty wore off. His ex-wife had had the same reaction to life on the ranch.
He decided to change the subject. “You mentioned you had hotel experience. Do you work at a hotel in Tulsa?”
Her blue eyes darkened like troubled water. “No. I’ve been working as the office manager in my father’s law firm for the past six months. But before that, I worked at the Royal Regent Hotel in Chicago.”
“I’ve heard of it. What did you do there?”
“A little of everything. I went through an eighteen-month management-training program, which meant I spent a few months in every department Then I worked in convention sales for a year and half.”
“Why did you leave?”
Josie swirled the champagne in her glass. “I didn’t like the ethics of the new sales director. He didn’t care about the clients, only about their money. He wanted me to promise things I knew the hotel couldn’t deliver in order to get convention bookings, and I refused to lie. The hotel lost a major piece of business because I wouldn’t do things his way. So I resigned before I got fired.”
Grudging admiration filled Luke’s chest. As much as he didn’t want to like this woman, he couldn’t help but respect her for refusing to compromise her principles. He raised his glass in a brief salute. “Good for you. Not many people have the courage of their convictions.”
Josie gave a rueful grin. “I’m afraid my convictions didn’t result in a very flattering job reference. I can’t land another job in the hotel industry to save my life. So when my father asked me to fill in for a few months while his office manager recovered from major surgery, I moved back to Tulsa.”
“Is that when you met your fiancé?”
Josie nodded. “He’s an attorney at my father’s firm. We started dating when I moved back, and three months later we were engaged.”
Luke watched her toy with her salad, trying not to notice the way the candlelight gleamed on her dark hair and lit her blue eyes. Curiosity was burning a hole in him.
It was none of his business, he warned himself. The less he knew, the better off he’d be.
But he couldn’t resist asking the question, anyway. “So what happened?”
“With the wedding? I narrowly avoided making the mistake of my life, that’s what happened.” She took a sip of champagne and regarded him over the rim of her glass. “Do you want the whole story?”
He was dying for it, but he feigned indifference. “Only if you want to tell me.”
Josie put down her glass and leaned forward. “Well, I was a nervous wreck before the ceremony. I thought some exercise might calm my nerves, so I went for a walk down a back hallway of the church. I ended up outside the room where Robert and the best man were waiting. I could hear their voices through the air vents.”
“And?” Luke prompted.
Josie’s full lips thinned into a narrow line. “I learned a few things about the man I was about to marry.”
“What things?”
“For starters, that his idea of matrimony doesn’t include fidelity.”
The whole thing was probably nothing more than a mis-understanding, Luke thought. Most likely the lovebirds would be back together before the weekend was. out. He picked up the champagne bottle and refilled her glass. “When you just hear part of a conversation, it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusion.”
Josie shook her head. “This conversation left no other conclusion to be drawn. Robert gave a graphic account of his all-night exploits with the jump-out-of-the-cake girl from his bachelor party. When his friend said it was hard to believe he was finally going to settle down, Robert laughed and replied, ‘Who said anything about settling down? As far as I’m concerned, getting married is nothing but a career move.’”
Josie placed her napkin on the table and pushed back her chair, shaking her head in disgust. “He only wanted to marry me so Dad would make him a partner. He didn’t even try to deny it when I confronted him.”
“You confronted him?”
Josie nodded. “I marched right into the room and told him I’d heard the whole conversation. He went white as a ghost. He begged for my forgiveness—and pleaded with me not to tell my father. Can you imagine the nerve?”
What was hard for Luke to imagine right now was any man preferring another woman over Josie. Her hair had dried into a mass of shiny, unruly curls that swayed when she moved her head, and her heart-shaped face was as sweet as a valentine, despite its indignant expression. Her eyes had the longest, silkiest lashes he’d ever seen on a human being, and they held him as enthralled as her story.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“Fortunately, my sister Sara had followed me into the hallway and heard the whole conversation—otherwise Robert probably would have tried to lie his way out of it. Sara helped explain things to my parents while I got the heck out of there. To avoid a scandal, it was agreed that the minister would announce that the wedding was postponed by mutual agreement.”
Luke shook his head in amazement. “You’ve had quite a day.”
Josie reached for her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
For a person who’d been through such an ordeal, she sure seemed composed. But she’d left out a key element, Luke reflected: she hadn’t said how she felt about the man. If she’d planned to marry him, she must have cared for him.
“What did you see in this guy in the first place?” Luke asked.
Josie had been asking herself the same question, and she didn’t like the answers. They reflected too poorly on her decision-making abilities. They pointed out all too clearly how heavily she’d relied on the opinions of others, how little she’d trusted her own judgment.
She pushed out of her chair and crossed the room to the fireplace. Leaning against the mantel, she settled on a partial answer. “I honestly don’t know.”
Luke stood and joined her before the fire. His gaze was as warm on her face as the fire was on her back. “Was it just a physical thing?”
The question startled her so much she replied without thinking. “Oh, no. It wasn’t physical at all.”
“If you’d gone through with the ceremony, I imagine things would be getting pretty physical right about now.” Luke’s voice was tinged with sarcasm.
Josie gazed into the fire and swallowed hard. She hadn’t really allowed herself to think about that part of the marriage. Every time she’d started to wonder about it, her mind had shut down, refusing to pursue the train of thought. She’d told herself it would all work out when the time arrived. Now she realized she’d avoided thinking about it because the necessary feelings were missing.
“Surely you’d kissed him,” Luke persisted.
“Well, yes, but there wasn’t any—I mean—” Josie swallowed once more. Her eyes locked on his lips as they had in the barn, and again she felt that strong, magnetic tug. “Nothing happened,” she murmured in a voice at least an octave lower than usual.
He stepped closer, his gaze trapping hers. “Nothing else happened, or you felt nothing when you kissed him?”
“Yes. Both.” Mercy, his eyes were sexy…so dark and intense and probing. With a jolt she realized she was looking at a mirror image of the attraction unfurling in her belly. She knew she should avert her gaze, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away.
Sparks flew between them, filling the air like the scent of the cedar logs on the fire, raising the temperature of the room. Her voice lowered to a husky whisper. “Nothing ever happened.”
But something was happening now.
Luke moved closer until he was standing directly in front of her. The air all but disappeared from her lungs. A log snapped on the fire, and heat blazed between them.
Attraction, hot and primitive and strong, curled between them like smoke. A shiver snaked up Josie’s arm and down her spine. She knew she was staring, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away. If the building had caught fire, she doubted she could have moved to save her life.
The loud, impertinent ring of a telephone shattered the spell.
Luke strode across the room and jerked the phone off the table. “Hello?” he demanded.
Josie watched, dazed and jelly-kneed, her heart still racing like a runaway horse.
A scowl crossed his face. “One moment.” He turned to Josie, his face stony, his eyes inscrutable, and thrust out the receiver. “It’s for you. It’s Robert.”
Chapter Three (#ulink_73713221-9029-5f8f-ac5f-7ad233fe9174)
The next morning Josie pushed through the double oak doors from the lodge’s dining room to the kitchen and found Consuela attacking a mound of dough with a rolling pin as she talked with a dark-haired man in rapid Spanish.
The housekeeper looked up, her smile as welcoming as the kitchen’s warmth after the chilly predawn hike from the cabin. “Why, good morning, Miss Randall!”
Josie smiled back. “Good morning, Consuela. And please, call me Josie.”
The housekeeper beamed and pointed the rolling pin at the middle-aged man behind her, who was as thin as Consuela was hefty. “Josie, I’d like you to meet my husband. Manuel helps Mr. Luke with the ranch.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure’s mine,” he replied with a grin. “Hope you enjoy your stay.” He gave Consuela a hearty kiss on the cheek. “Well, I’d better go see to the horses.”
Consuela stopped rolling dough to kiss him back. Her eyes were soft and affectionate as she watched him leave the room.
“Have you been married long?” Josie asked.
“Twenty-seven years.”
“You still seem very much in love.”
“Si. He’s a wonderful man.” She turned concerned eyes on Josie as she resumed her attack on the dough. “But how are you this morning? What are you doing up so early?”
Josie pulled her hands from the pockets of her plaid wool jacket and appreciatively inhaled the scent of baking bread and brewing coffee. “I’m fine. I’m an early riser, that’s all. I saw a light on in here and came in search of coffee.”
Consuela nodded amiably. “It’s on the counter. Help yourself.”
Josie selected an empty mug from a stack of cups near the pot and filled it with the fragrant, steaming brew. She looked around the kitchen, admiring the glazed brick floor, the cedar plank walls, the gleaming copper pots and pans. Despite its industrial-size appliances and sparkling stainless steel equipment, the kitchen had a homey, rustic charm.
Consuela’s dark eyes were warm and intent as she regarded Josie. “Did you get any sleep?”
“I slept like a baby.” Once she’d finished tossing and turning, Josie added silently.
“I was afraid you had too much on your mind to sleep well.”
She’d had a lot on her mind, all right—but her thoughts had not been on the man Consuela supposed. Instead, she’d found herself strangely preoccupied with Luke. He’d marched out of the cabin after handing her the phone, leaving her alone to talk with Robert.
The conversation with her former fiancé had been brief. She’d had little to say, and when she’d hung up the phone, the only emotion she’d felt was relief.
