Tillie started to cry. She jumped up, found a paper towel, blew her nose and wiped her eyes.
Opal eyes softened. “What’s this about needing money?”
Jake shook his head. It wasn’t the first time Tillie needed money, and it wouldn’t be the last. He didn’t know how many times Opal had helped them out but it was a lot more than he would have. The others, too, always saw Opal and her operation as a cash cow to be milked when hard times found them. He wondered if there’d be any ranch left to buy when they finally settled.
“Forget it,” Tillie said, “I got to have a smoke.” She banged out the kitchen door to the back patio. Opal followed her, leaving Jake and Howie by themselves in the kitchen.
“Care for a beer?” said Jake.
“You bet,” said Howie.
Ten
Fiona had halted outside the kitchen entrance from the living area when she heard the arguing. She was afraid to turn back and leave for fear they’d hear her, and she was too curious not to stay. After Opal and Tillie left, she heard Jake go outside. She made for the front door and walked around to the side of the house. He was striding toward the workshop, and she hurried to catch up. Inside he leaned against the work bench instead of getting back to work.
“I heard,” she said by way of greeting.
His face was impassive. He took a long swallow of beer then said, “Yep.”
“I didn’t realize the amount of animosity Tillie had toward you.”
“Yep.”
He crossed his arms and stared at the shop wall lined with shelves which were filled with the necessary tools and spare parts needed to run the modern day ranch. The place smelled of oil and metal and things men liked to do.
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. I knew this would happen. The animosity has always been there. I’m used to it. That was nothing new, but I didn’t know about Opal. That took me by surprise.” He looked at her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It wasn’t my place.”
Jake smiled wryly. “I’m glad you’ve come to know what your place is here. I’d like you to elaborate on that sometime.” He took off his baseball cap, ran a hand through his hair, and replaced the cap again. “This is a mess.”
Fiona leaned against the workshop bench beside him. “Do you think I should leave? Tillie sounded upset about my being here.”
“I don’t want you to leave, but it’s your decision. You are welcome to stay as long as you like.”
Fiona didn’t know what to say. Jake had never given her an option about staying. He had always pressured her to stay. Now it was her decision. That was a relief, but the confusion in her mind whirled around like a dust devil. “Maybe I could have a life here, at least part of the time. I still have to work. I’m not independently wealthy. Opal told me she didn’t want to spend a lot of the money fixing the house up since you were going to buy it and maybe you liked it the way it was.”
“You know about the ranch deal.” It was a statement not a question.
“Yep.” Fiona smiled at him.
“I can’t say as I want any decorating done. It’s all the same to me. My life is cows, hay, and irrigation pivots. A house is someplace out of the weather, where I eat and sleep and stay warm on a cold winter night.”
“I understand.” She hesitated then said, “It could be more than that.” She wasn’t sure why she said that. It was out of her mouth before she realized what she was saying.
Jake looked at her sideways. “Are you interested in homemaking?”
She shrugged. “It’s what I do. I try to make houses, homes.”
“I didn’t grow up in a home, so I wouldn’t know. We were always moving from one ramshackle place to the next. I appreciate Opal sharing her home with me.” He turned and looked at her full on. “Are you saying you want to make a home here with me?” A windswept strand of hair fell across her cheek, and he brushed it away. “What is it that you’re saying?”
“I don’t know,” she said in a small voice, not returning his gaze. He could do the smallest thing like that, and she could feel the electricity arc between them. “I don’t know what I want right now. I do know that I want to help Opal.”
He lifted her chin with a finger so she had to look into his eyes.
“What about me? You have a home here. You could stay on in the house with me. No commitment asked.”
He had deep, dark, inviting eyes. The intensity of his gaze mesmerized her. He looked down at her lips. Then his arms encircled her back, and he pulled her to him. Without any further thought her arms went around his neck, and they sank into a long, deep, bottomless kiss.
She pulled back to catch her breath. “Jake, Jake, Jake,” she said in a whisper then looked into his eyes again. “I don’t know what to do about you. I need to think about that offer.”
That’s all the hope she could give him. She couldn’t deny the chemistry between them. Her body wanted to sink to the floor with him, and let nature take its course. But her emotions were a wild horse stampede, galloping from one extreme to the other. She could go to bed with Jake. It could be a casual affair. But Jake was not a one night stand, and she knew it. He wasn’t that kind of man. She knew Jake would be a lifetime, if she said yes to his offer.
He smiled like he could see the galloping horse stampede. “No rush. I’m going to be right here for the rest of my life, if the ranch deal goes through, and the relatives don’t fight it. I wish she hadn’t told them today, but she has her reasons. She’s looking death in the face, and it has her rattled.” He rubbed her arms softly then sighed. “I need to get back to work. There’s this ranch to run, you know.”
He seemed reluctant to let go of her. He stroked her cheek. “You are so beautiful. You are something else, Fiona Marlowe. This will be continued.”
She knew that was a promise.
He let her go and stepped back. “Do you know any details about Opal’s health you’d like to share with me?”
Fiona smiled. His concern for Opal touched her. She really did care for this man, and she was afraid she was beginning to care too much.
“She starts chemotherapy Wednesday. She asked me to drive her back and forth to town. I said I’d be glad to. That’s why I bought the truck.”
He nodded like that made perfect sense. “Tillie will be real happy with that arrangement.”
“I feel an obligation to Opal. She’s been good to me. She made good on the deed for my knoll. I might rebuild and make it a bed and breakfast. Would you mind a bunch of strangers going back and forth on your ranch roads?”
“You mean, have a bunch of city people gawking at us buckaroos?”
Fiona smiled and nodded.
He shrugged. “I guess not. If it means you’ll stay here, and I get to see you, that’s all the better. But they aren’t my ranch roads yet.”
Two huge beasts came trotting through the open door, stopped and sniffed.
“Here, big guys. Come here.” Jake patted his leg.
The two Great Pyrenees walked resolutely up to Jake, and he scratched them under the chin. “Let me introduce you to the hardest working buckaroos on the ranch. This is Lester and Earl.”
They came almost to Fiona’s waist they were so huge. They had great black eyes and sloppy, friendly grins. “How do you tell them apart? They look like solid white twins. They remind me of polar bears except they have those huge heads.”
“After a while you know. Lester is more the philosopher. Earl is more the bloodhound, trotting from one smell to another.”
Fiona laughed and patted each one on the back. They panted, pink tongues lolling and grinning at the same time. They stood as if waiting for orders.