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Perhaps he should simply tell her that she was the answer to his prayers, someone he liked, someone he trusted.
Someone who could keep him out of the clutches of the wrong women. Even as the words formed, he groaned. Telling her that would certainly go a long way toward charming her. No matter how unemotional she might be, even a woman who’d been chosen as the solution to a problem of sorts wanted to be wooed a little. As a practical matter, he knew Kelly would see the sense of his proposal, but he would definitely have to dress it up with a little romance.
Damn, how was he going to pull this off? Kelly was the most fiercely independent woman he’d ever met, especially since her divorce. She might not want to marry anyone after her experience with Paul, especially not a man who, at one time or another, had been pictured on the society pages with half of Houston’s eligible female population. His track record, though certainly not immoral, might be a too vivid reminder of her ex’s habits.
Since the divorce, Kelly had taken charge of her life. She had returned to the falling down ranch her family had left her and tackled the task of making it work with the kind of gritty determination he couldn’t help but admire.
For the past two years she had worn herself ragged, working from before dawn until well after dark, seven days a week. The ranch hardly had a look of prosperity about it, but there was no mistaking that her efforts were paying off. There was fresh paint on the old house, inside and out, and her herd of longhorns was growing. Even now the livestock was visible in the distance, grazing on newly acquired pastureland she had bought with every penny of her divorce settlement.
The hard work should have taken its toll, but, he was forced to admit, in recent months Kelly had never looked healthier or happier. She no longer had the haggard, tight-lipped, stricken look of a woman who’d been betrayed by the man she’d loved. In fact, she glowed, radiating a sense of serenity and bone-deep satisfaction that had made visiting her the highlight of his trips home.
Whenever the weighty sense of family that Harlan Adams imposed on all of his sons grew too burdensome, Jordan slipped away from White Pines and spent time in Kelly’s kitchen, sipping the herbal tea she preferred and talking of inconsequential things that somehow all added up to a kind of tranquility he found nowhere else in his life. The thought of spending the rest of his days around a woman capable of creating such a peaceful atmosphere soothed him.
Okay, so they wouldn’t be marrying for love. Neither of them had had much luck with messy emotions anyway. An old-style marriage of convenience struck him as the sensible way to go. Kelly would never have to worry about money for herself or her daughter again and he would never have to deal with another female barracuda.
As he walked toward the front porch of the ranch house, a porch that sagged and dipped from years of use and sloppy construction, he noted the huge pots of bright flowers she tended with such care in the evenings. They were thriving, the blossoms providing vivid splashes of color against the front of the white house.
Already anticipating their life together, he sighed with contentment. Kelly was a nurturer. Like those flowers, he and any children they ultimately might have would thrive in her care. Assuming he got over this uneasiness he felt with these pint-size enigmas, that is.
He fingered the small jewelry box in his pocket and smiled, pleased with his decision. Kelly’s fat gray-and-white cat wound between his legs, purring and shedding on his navy pants. Jordan glanced down, felt a momentary touch of annoyance, then sighed. The old tomcat was part of the package and at least he seemed delighted by Jordan’s presence.
With a rare twinge of trepidation, he knocked on the screen door and called out, “Hey, darlin’, it’s me.”
He heard the thunder of tiny feet as Dani came careering around a corner and raced down the hallway. She skidded to a halt, her blond curls bouncing.
“Hi, Jordan,” she said, swinging the screen door wide and coming out to join him. “Mommy’s in the barn. Francie’s having kittens. A lot of kittens.”
Jordan cringed. “Really?”
“Want to come see?”
He would rather eat dirt, but the sparkle of anticipation in Dani’s eyes was too powerful to resist. “Sure.”
To his astonishment, Dani tucked her hand trustingly in his and tugged him around the side of the house toward the barn. “You could have one, if you wanted,” she told him.
“I work very long hours. I’m not sure what I’d do with a kitten in Houston,” he said, trying to sound as if he regretted it when the truth was he couldn’t have been more relieved.
“Cats don’t mind if you’re not home very much. They’re very independent,” she informed him. “We hardly ever see Francie, except when she’s going to have kittens.”
Old Francie reminded him of certain types of people who only turned up when they were in trouble. He hoped Kelly wasn’t going to view his visit that way.
Dani stopped on the path in front of him, her face turned up, her brow knitted with concern. “Mommy says we have to give all of them away,” she told him.
Her eyes suddenly and, Jordan thought, rather suspiciously filled with tears.
“What if we can’t find homes for them?” she asked, sounding pathetic. “Will we have to drown them in the creek?”
The little minx was pulling out all the stops. Jordan choked back a chuckle at the preposterous notion that Kelly would allow harm to come to a single kitten. “No, Dani, I seriously doubt that your mother would drown them in the creek. Where would you ever get such an idea?”
“That’s what Daddy said should happen to kittens.”
“But you didn’t do it, did you?”
“No, because I found homes for every single one.” She looked up at him speculatively. “Maybe they’d like a new kitten at White Pines. I’ll bet there are mice there and everything. A kitten would be a big help.”
“I’ll ask,” he told her, wondering what his mother would have to say about a kitten scratching her precious antique furniture.
“Promise?”
“Cross my heart.”
A radiant smile spread across her face. “Thanks, Jordan. I really, really think you should take one, too. So you won’t be lonely.”
Actually, he had another idea for staving off loneliness. He glanced up and saw the very woman he had in mind standing in the barn, hands on slender hips, a challenging spark in her eyes as she regarded her daughter.
“You have your work cut out for you, young lady,” Kelly announced, barely sparing a glance for Jordan. “There are seven kittens in here. Francie’s tuckered out and so am I. See to it that Francie has some fresh food and water.”
“Cream, Mommy. Don’t you think she deserves cream just this once? Having kittens is hard work.”
“Fine, bring her some cream.”
Dani tore off across the lawn as fast as her churning little legs could carry her.
“And don’t put it in a good china bowl! Use plastic,” Kelly shouted after her. Finally she glanced at Jordan. “What brings you by on a Friday night? You didn’t mention anything about coming home when we talked earlier in the week.”
Jordan shrugged. He was struck by an uncharacteristic twinge of uncertainty. He tucked his hand into his pocket and tightened his grip around the jewelry box for reassurance. “Just an impulse.”
“Come on in. I’ll make us some tea. Chamomile, I think. You look almost as frazzled as I feel.”
“You don’t look frazzled,” he noted even though it was a charitable remark. Her hair was tousled, her makeup nonexistent, her clothes caked with mud and hay and other stains that didn’t bear too close a scrutiny.
Inside the cozy kitchen, which was shadowed in the gathering twilight, she smiled at him. She took down two china cups and placed them on the kitchen table. “And you’re a lousy liar, despite all that practice you get dispensing your charm all over Houston. How’s the oil business?”
“Challenging.”
Attuned as always to his moods, she paused while filling the teakettle with water. “Bad week?”
“No worse than most.”
Her gaze narrowed. “That doesn’t sound convincing, old chum.”
Jordan picked up the empty cup and turned it slowly in his hands. The fine porcelain was cracked and chipped, but he found the delicacy oddly enchanting. Flaws, he’d discovered over time, often made people, like china, more interesting. He wondered what flaws Kelly had. After all these years, he could think of none. Discovering them suddenly struck him as a fascinating pastime.
“Jordan?”
He looked up from the fragile cup and saw that Kelly was regarding him with a puzzled expression. Those huge brown eyes of hers were filled with concern.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Rexanne broke the engagement,” he announced casually.
“Good,” Kelly replied without the slightest hint of sympathy.
“Damn,” he muttered irritably. “Did everybody dislike her except me?”
“I didn’t dislike her,” Kelly corrected. “I just thought she was all wrong for you.”
“Why?”
“She was using you.”
“Weren’t they all,” he said dryly.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” she said as she poured the boiling water into the pot, tossed in a handful of tea leaves and waited for it to steep.
“Have you ever approved of any woman I’ve dated?”
Kelly took the question he’d intended to be sarcastic seriously. “There was one, back in college. I think her name was Pamela. You dumped her after the first date.”
“And she was right for me?”
“I didn’t have all that long to check out her sincerity,” she reminded him, “but, yes, I think she could have been. She was sweet.”
Jordan scowled. Sweet? Perhaps innocuous would have been a better description. He didn’t even remember a Pamela, which didn’t say much for either her or him.
“Actually, I think my taste is improving,” he said, his gaze fixed on Kelly’s face. There was no immediate reaction beyond a faint flicker of something in her eyes, something he couldn’t quite identify. She seemed slightly more alert, perhaps even a little wary.
“You’ve already found a replacement for Rexanne? Isn’t that a little cavalier?”
“Not really. I told you a long time ago that I thought it was time for me to settle down.”
“Right, so you proposed to the first woman to cross your path after that, and look where that got you.”
“She wasn’t the first woman to cross my path,” he protested. “I was seeing several women at the time. Rexanne seemed like the best choice.”
“Maybe out of that lot, but did you ever stop to consider there was slim pickings in that bunch?” She waggled a slender finger at him. “I’ll answer that. No, you did not. You just decided you wanted to be married and filled the opening as methodically as you would have a position at your company. You probably had a stupid checksheet.”
She wasn’t all that far off the mark, though he wouldn’t have told her that for another gusher in his oil fields. “Well, I’m not going to be so hasty about it this time,” he said.
“You just told me you’ve identified the woman you want to marry. It’s been what? Two days? Maybe three since your engagement broke off?”
“Four, actually.”
She rolled her eyes. “Definitely long enough,” she said with a touch of unfamiliar sarcasm. “Jordan, why can’t you just relax and let nature take its course?”
He gave her a disdainful look. “I don’t have a lot of faith in nature.”
She gave him a wry look. “You would if you’d been in that barn with me an hour ago.”
“I don’t think the fact that your tomcat can’t keep his paws off of Francie is a testament to nature in its finest moments.”
She shrugged, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Okay, you may have a point about that. So, who’s the latest woman to capture your fancy?”
He leveled a look straight into her eyes and waited until he was sure he had her full attention. “Actually, it’s you.”
Kelly—calm, serene, unflappable Kelly—succumbed to a coughing fit that had her eyes watering and Jordan wondering if he’d gone about this in an incredibly stupid way. It wouldn’t be the first time the direct method had failed him.
Still, he was determined to make her see the sense of this. All of those lectures he’d given himself about dressing it up with a little sweet talk flew out the window. He set out to hammer home the logic.
“It’s a perfectly rational decision…” he began.
“You’re not serious,” she said when she could finally speak.
He pulled the jewelry box from his pocket and placed it on the kitchen table in front of her. Since she was eyeing it as if it were a poisonous rattler, he flipped it open to reveal a stunning three-carat diamond that pretty well proclaimed him to be dead serious. Despite its impressive size, it was simpler than the engagement ring he’d purchased at Rexanne’s urging. She’d wanted flashy. Kelly struck him as the kind of woman who would admire simplicity. Gazing into her eyes, however, he had the sinking feeling that admiration for his taste in rings was the last thing on her mind.
“You’ve obviously lost your mind,” she said, but her voice was softer now and laced with something that might have been regret.
“Quite the contrary. It’s the only rational decision for both of us.”
“Rational,” she repeated as if it were a dirty word.
There was an ominous undercurrent he didn’t quite get. “Actually, yes. I’ve given it quite a lot of thought. We’ve known each other forever—there won’t be any nasty surprises. We’ve both had more than our share of those. I can give you the kind of life and financial security you deserve.”
“And I can give you…what? A hostess? A cook, perhaps? A bed partner on cold nights?”
Jordan could feel the blood climbing into his cheeks as she enumerated some of the very thoughts that had occurred to him. They’d sounded better in theory than they did spoken out loud by a woman who was clearly insulted. She wasn’t taking this well at all. He searched for a new approach. “Now, Kelly…”
Unfortunately he never got to finish the sentence. Kelly was already shaking her head, rather emphatically, it seemed to him.
She stood and glowered down at him. “Not a chance. No way. Forget it, bud. Take a hike.” She seemed to be just warming up.
The flare of unexpected temper just might be one of those previously hidden flaws he’d been hoping to discover. He tried to calm her. “You’re saying no without giving the matter any consideration at all,” he advised her. “When you do, I’m sure you’ll see—”
“Not if we both live to be a hundred and ten and we’re the only two people tottering around on the face of the earth,” she assured him.
Jordan was beginning to get an inkling that she meant it and that nothing he was likely to say tonight was going to change her mind.
“Okay, okay,” he said, defeated for the moment. “I get the picture.”
“I doubt it.”
A hasty exit seemed in order. “Maybe I’d better let you sleep on it. We can talk again tomorrow.”
Kelly drew herself up and squared off in front of him. Fire sparked in her eyes, amber lights bringing that normally placid shade of brown alive. “We can talk tomorrow, if you like,” she said emphatically, “but not about this.”
Jordan edged carefully around her and made his way to the front door. “See you in the morning.”
“Jordan?”
