Men to Trust: Boss Man / The Last Good Man in Texas / Lonetree Ranchers: Brant
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“She’s got a good brain, and she’s a quick hand in an emergency,” Grier told him. “It’s not about looks.”
“Sorry,” Kemp said belatedly. “I was thinking out loud.”
“I hear your new secretary quit,” Grier mused.
“She couldn’t spell,” Kemp muttered. “It’s no loss.”
“What are you going to do, have Libby and Mabel double up on work again?”
“Violet might come back.”
Grier pursed his lips. “I thought she was keen on having you for a barbecue as the entrée.”
Kemp shrugged. “We’re speaking again.” He tried not to let it show that they were doing a lot more than that.
“If you say so.”
“I can get another secretary whenever I need one,” Kemp added doggedly.
“Does the employment agency know this?”
Kemp gave him a glare. “Just because they hung up on me doesn’t mean they don’t want my business.”
“I’m sure.”
“Anyway, if Violet comes back, all my problems will be solved,” he said. “And now that I’ve got Riddle Collins’s secret stash in that suitcase, Libby and Curt Collins will be out of debt and back in their own home again.”
“That won’t suit Julie Merrill,” Grier murmured coolly. “She’s hot after Jordan Powell’s money. Poor Libby.”
“Poor Julie, if you can get her where we all want her,” Kemp said.
“I’m working on that,” Grier assured him. “One way or another, I’m going to put the last of the drug cartel out of business in Jacobsville.”
“With my blessing,” Kemp replied, smiling.
Kemp came into his office early the next morning with Riddle’s stash and showed it to Libby, who’d come in early for the occasion. She was ecstatic as they went over the proof of her father’s love for her and Curt.
A few minutes later, Kemp started out for the courthouse to file the revised will Riddle had left. When he walked into the outer office, the first thing he saw was Violet, sitting at her desk.
His expression was enough to feed Violet’s hungry heart. She smiled, flushed and beamed up at him.
“You said I could come back,” she reminded him brightly.
“Yes, I did,” he replied, smiling. “Are you staying?”
She nodded.
“How about making a fresh pot of coffee?” he asked.
“Regular?”
“Half and half,” he replied, averting his eyes. “Too much caffeine isn’t good for me.”
He went out the door, leaving Violet with her jaw dropping.
“I told you he missed you!” Libby whispered mischievously as she followed the boss onto the sidewalk.
As the day went on, Kemp found himself looking for excuses to go to the front of his office. He went through two pots of coffee, because that was the best excuse he had. Violet was wearing a sassy blue dress that emphasized her nice, rounded figure. It was fairly low cut in front, and with her frosted dark hair and her improved use of makeup, she was enough to turn any man’s head.
Libby and Mabel noticed his sudden interest in the coffeepot with subdued humor. They didn’t want to embarrass Violet, who flushed every time the boss came close.
It was almost inevitable that Violet stayed just a few minutes longer than Mabel and Libby at the end of the day.
She tidied up her desk and slowly gathered her purse and sweater. Blake came out to the front office and stood, openly staring at her, with his hands in his pockets and an odd, intent look in the blue eyes behind his trendy spectacles.
“Are you in a rush to get home? Can you phone your mother and tell her you’ll be a few minutes late?” he added.
“Of…of course,” she stammered. The way he was looking at her made her tingle from head to toe. She fumbled the phone to her ear and dialed, her eyes eating her handsome boss all the while.
She told her mother she’d be a few minutes late, trying not to react obviously to her parent’s amusement.
Blake held out his hand. Violet dropped her purse and sweater on her chair and went to him, letting him lead her back to his office.
He closed the door and pulled her hungrily into his arms. She sighed with pure delight as his hard mouth found her lips and he lifted her into an even more intimate embrace.
“I’ve missed you,” he ground out against her responsive lips.
“I’ve missed you…too,” she whispered back.
“Come home with me,” he suggested huskily.
She knew what he was really suggesting, and it wasn’t supper. She wanted to go with him. She wanted to be with him. But she was hesitant.
He felt her hesitation. He let her slide down his hard body and he stared into her eyes hungrily. “Well?”
She swallowed. Her gaze was on his broad chest, because she couldn’t look him in the eye and refuse him.
“What are you offering me, Blake?” she asked quietly.
He scowled. “Are we bargaining for sex?”
She stared up at him, dumbfounded. “Is that all you want from me?”
He was confused. Usually logical and cool in his thinking, now he was like a young man on the brink of his first affair.
“I don’t want to get married, Violet,” he said gently. “You know that.”
She swallowed hard. “Yes. You’ve already said that. But I don’t want to be your mistress.”
His jaw tensed. “I don’t recall asking you to be.”
“What would you call it, then?” Violet asked sadly. “You want to sleep with me, with no ties, isn’t that the truth?”
He stuck his hands in his slacks pockets and let out a long sigh.
“My mother is old-fashioned,” she continued. “She raised me to think of sex as something that goes hand in hand with love and marriage. It would break her heart to have me settle for a purely physical liaison with any man, especially you.” She looked up at him miserably. “Jacobsville is a small town, Blake. Everybody would know.”
“I’m not a slave to public opinion,” he said harshly, feeling himself lose ground.
“Yes, but I am,” she replied. She stepped back, feeling a sudden coldness in his manner. It wasn’t what she’d expected when she came in here with him. She’d hoped that he might come to love her. They’d been so close at his house. Now they were like strangers.
He was furious. He was confused. This woman had caused him more inner turmoil than he’d known since the death of his fiancée, years before. He loved his freedom. But he hated the thought of losing Violet.
“Violet,” he began slowly, “I was engaged once. I loved her more than life. After I lost her, I didn’t want to go on living.” He frowned. “I…can’t go through that again.”
She looked up into his turbulent eyes. “Why would you have to? You don’t love me,” she said miserably. “You only want me.”
She turned and went to the door.
Before she could open it, his hand covered hers on the doorknob. “Wait.”
“I should never have returned here to work,” she said. “I’ll go back to Mr. Wright. You can get another temporary secretary to fill in until you replace me.”
“No!”
Tears blurred her blue eyes. She’d never been so miserable in her life. “Just let me go, please!”
He moved his hand. Seconds later, she was out the front door and gone. He stood alone in his office, feeling empty and cold. She wanted something he couldn’t give her. Why couldn’t women be like men, he wondered angrily, and just enjoy the present without asking for solemn vows of forever?
He went home in a snit and made supper for himself and the cats. They gave him odd looks, as if they sensed his inner turmoil.
He glared at them. “Don’t you start,” he muttered. Mee rubbed against his legs. Yow sat watching him with blue accusing eyes. “Great,” he muttered. “Now I’m talking to cats!”
He finished his meager supper and tried to get interested in a television program, but his body ached with thoughts of Violet in his arms. He wasn’t giving in, though. If she thought she’d get him in front of a minister by holding out physically, she was dead wrong.
He couldn’t forget their one time of intimacy, the beauty and joy of possessing her. It had been a perfect physical interlude.
Then he remembered something else he’d tried to forget. They’d had unprotected sex. What if Violet got pregnant?
He sat up straight, his eyes wide and stunned at just the thought. What would they do? He knew for a fact that Violet would never be able to go to a clinic. She’d insist on having the child. He had a horror of children. He’d never gotten over the fact that Shannon had been carrying his child when she died. It had warped his attitude toward pregnancy. He thought of children and he remembered how he felt when he knew his child had died with the woman he loved. It brought back nightmares of pain. Violet wouldn’t understand that. She wanted happily ever after. All he wanted was relief from the nagging physical hunger that was taking him over.
But if she was pregnant, he couldn’t desert her. Not only would it be unworthy of him as a man, it would reflect badly on his character in a town the size of Jacobsville. The gossip would ruin Violet’s reputation and the shame might well kill her mother, considering Mrs. Hardy’s fragile health.
He cursed under his breath. If he’d never invited Violet home with him, none of this would ever have happened. Why couldn’t he have just let her go and left it at that? He’d landed them in hell with his uncontrollable passion. He couldn’t blame that on Violet. All the same, he didn’t know what he was going to do.
But he couldn’t let her quit. Not until he knew about her condition. He picked up the phone and punched in her number.
Violet had managed to hide her misery from her mother. She knew that Blake wouldn’t mind if she quit again. It would probably be a relief to him. He wanted her and he couldn’t have her on his terms. Perhaps it would make things easier if she went back to work for Duke. She should pick up the phone and call him, right now…
The phone rang, making her jump. She picked it up without thinking.
“Hello?” she said.
“Don’t quit,” Blake said quietly.
Her heart jumped up into her throat. “Excuse me?” she stammered.
“Let’s take it one day at a time, Violet. All right?” he asked, and he actually sounded as if he was rethinking the future.
She felt reborn. Her spirit soared. She could hardly contain the happiness she felt. “All right,” she said on a soft laugh. “One day at a time!”
Chapter Eight
For days, Violet and Blake were hesitant around each other. He was the soul of courtesy. He didn’t curse or yell. He didn’t throw anyone out of the office. He seemed to be a changed man.
Violet loved the tenderness he showed her. He never raised his voice or made sarcastic comments about her work. But he wasn’t forward in any way, either, and he didn’t touch her. He seemed to be waiting for something, watching. Violet wondered why.
Julie Merrill was arrested for the attempted arson of Libby and Curt Collins’s house the following Saturday, and Cash Grier had a big surprise for the city council at the Monday disciplinary hearing. The patrol officers were exonerated and the mayor was embarrassed for trying to force them to retract drunk driving charges against his uncle, State Senator Merrill.
The next day was the primary elections. Calhoun Ballenger won the Democratic nomination away from Senator Merrill in a huge upset, and the mayor lost his job in a special election won by former mayor Eddie Cane. It was a great day for Jacobsville.
But on Wednesday morning, Violet lost her breakfast at the office. Blake, walking past the bathroom, heard her retching. He felt sick himself. Violet was healthy as a horse. If she was throwing up, there could only be one explanation. She had to be pregnant.
It was the end of the world. Blake went around for the rest of the day in a daze. So did Violet. He overheard Mabel and Libby murmuring about Violet’s bout of sickness and her upcoming doctor’s appointment. They clammed up immediately when Blake walked into the room. It didn’t take much to figure out that if Violet was pregnant, her boss was responsible. After all, who else had Violet been crazy about for a year? More importantly, who had she been alone with lately? It didn’t take a lot of guesswork.
Violet was panic-stricken after she lost her breakfast. She phoned Dr. Lou Coltrain’s office and made an appointment, all too aware that Mabel and Libby could hear her doing it. She told them she thought she had a virus and she was afraid of giving it to her mother. But they were suspicious and it showed.
She drove to Lou’s office after work, leaving Libby and Mabel to close up. She swore Dr. Coltrain to secrecy before she even mentioned her symptoms. Lou gave her a worried look as she had her nurse draw blood for a simple pregnancy test.
“One time,” Violet choked when Lou gave her the results of the test a few minutes later.
“One time is all it takes,” Lou said ruefully. “Oh, Violet.”
“What am I going to do?” the younger woman groaned, with her face in her hands. “I can’t even step on ants, Lou!”
The other woman patted her shoulder sympathetically. “I’m sure once Blake knows…”
Violet gave her a horrified look.
“Who else could it be?” Lou asked reasonably. “He’s the only man you care about, and you spent half a day at his house,” she added, smiling ruefully when Violet flushed. “Well, on the positive side, it won’t be difficult to find your due date.”
“He doesn’t want children,” Violet said. “He doesn’t even want anything permanent. He said so…!”
Lou eased her back down into the chair she’d bolted from. “Don’t panic.”
“My mother has already had a stroke! She raised me to be good…!”
“People are human,” Lou interrupted. “Your mother isn’t going to disown you or throw you out into the street.”
“Everyone will know,” Violet groaned. She drew in a shaky breath. “I could move up to San Antonio,” she began.
“That would make it even worse,” Lou assured her. “And leave Blake to face the music all alone.” She pursed her lips and her dark eyes flashed. “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I thought better of him. He’s intelligent enough to know about using protection. He couldn’t have thought you were experienced!”
The flush got worse. “Am I wearing a sign?”
“It’s a small town,” Lou pointed out. “You aren’t promiscuous.”
Violet drew in another breath. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Go home and eat healthy. I’ll prescribe vitamins. You need to be in the care of a good OB/GYN specialist as well. I know one in Victoria I can send you to,” she added when Violet looked even more terrified. “She’s discreet.”
Violet ground her teeth together. “This isn’t how I planned my life.”
“Life is what happens when you make other plans,” Lou quoted. She frowned. “I don’t remember who said that, but it’s absolutely true.” She gave Violet a long, smiling look. “You’ll make a wonderful mother.”
A mother! In the terror of the moment, Violet had lost track of things. But now she realized that there would be a miniature version of herself or Blake. She felt…odd. Her hands went to her flat stomach in wonder. There was a baby inside her!
“Now you’re getting the picture.” Lou laughed. “There’s nothing quite like the feeling a woman gets when she realizes there’s a tiny life inside her body. When I knew I was pregnant, I could hardly believe it,” she added. “I was excited, and then afraid, and then I walked around in a daze of daydreams.” Her eyes misted. “It was the happiest nine months of my life. I can hardly wait to do it all over again, but we wanted to wait until our little boy was older. It’s hard to handle a baby and a toddler and a profession, all at the same time.”
Violet smiled, feeling torn by emotions. “I’ve always wanted children. I just hoped…well, I’d have liked being married.”
“Tell Blake and you will be,” Lou suggested.
Violet shook her head. “I can’t tell him. Not now. Maybe not ever.”
“He has an obligation to help support his child, Violet,” Lou said firmly. “You didn’t get pregnant all by yourself. As for keeping it from him, that isn’t going to be possible. Not in a town this small. For one thing,” she said, “when you get this prescription filled, everybody in the pharmacy is going to know what’s going on,” she added, writing it out. “It’s for prenatal vitamins.”
Violet had that base covered, at least. “I’ll drive up to Victoria and get it filled,” she said doggedly.
“All right, ostrich, hide your head in the sand while you can,” Lou said amusedly.
“I can do this,” she said firmly.
“Sure you can,” Lou humored her. She handed Violet the prescription. “No heavy lifting for the first trimester. And get plenty of sleep.”
“Plenty of sleep. Right,” Violet muttered, foreseeing sleeplessness that might never end, from worrying about her condition and her mother’s health.
Lou patted her shoulder. “You won’t believe me, but in five or six months, you’re going to look back on this day and smile.”
“If I were a gambler, I’d take you up on that,” Violet said heavily. “But thanks, Dr. Lou.”
Lou watched her go with worried eyes that Violet didn’t see. She wondered how in the world Violet was going to manage.
Blake knew that Violet had been to see Lou Coltrain because he’d seen her coming out of Lou’s office on his way home from work. The visit, combined with the hunted look on Violet’s face when she came in to work the next day, told the whole story. He cursed himself for what he’d done to them both. If he’d kept his head, if he’d used protection, if, if, if…! Now he was going to be a father and he had to marry the mother of his child or disgrace himself and Mrs. Hardy as well as Violet. He hated the whole idea of giving up his freedom. He hated the idea of a child in his life. He wasn’t family man material.
But he was a responsible man and he had a conscience. He was going to have to act. He didn’t want Violet doing something desperate.
If he told her that he knew about her condition, she’d know that he was asking her to marry him out of duty and she’d refuse. So he had to hide his real feelings and pretend to have a change of heart while there was still time. He had a poker face. He could pull it off. After all, what choice did he have?
When it was quitting time, he went out to the main office. “Violet, how about a cup of coffee and a steak and salad at Barbara’s Café?” he asked carelessly. “You can take a salad home to your mother.”
Libby and Mabel hid delighted smiles, said their good-nights, and left at once to give the couple some privacy.
Violet stared at her boss curiously. “Supper? With you?” she stammered.
He forced a smile. “Supper with me. Are you game?”
“People will talk.”
He shrugged. “So?”
She felt a little better. At least he liked her enough that he wasn’t backing away from gossip. Maybe there was a little hope for the future after all. She smiled. “I’d love to!”
“Good. Call your mother and we’ll walk over to Barbara’s after we lock up.”
“I’ll do it right now!”
Barbara served three meals a day, and her café was always crowded after quitting time. Today was no exception. When Violet walked in with Blake Kemp, conversation muted at once and all eyes turned toward the couple in the buffet line.
They chose steaks and salads, and Violet placed an order to go for her mother. But she insisted on paying for her own order, to Blake’s dismay.
“Talk about independent women,” Blake murmured dryly as they sat down to eat.
“Mama raised me that way,” Violet said simply, smiling. “She said we need to depend on ourselves and not impose on other people.”
“I never thought of steak as an imposition,” he mused.
She laughed. “Thanks for the offer, anyway,” she replied.
He finished his salad in short order and started on his steak. He didn’t use condiments. He noticed that Violet didn’t, either.
“What sort of music do you like?” he asked abruptly.
She hesitated with a piece of steak halfway to her mouth. “I like country-western and classical. And some hard rock,” she added impishly.
He laughed. “Actually, so do I.”
“Do you like to read?”
He nodded. “I like ancient history and biographies.”
She smiled sheepishly. “I like women’s fiction and books about gardening and gourmet cooking.”
He searched her eyes. “Your mother said you like astronomy.”
“I do,” she agreed. “But I can’t afford a telescope.”
He leaned forward. “I have a twelve-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain.”
That was an expensive composite telescope, part refractor and part reflector. She’d dreamed of owning something so large and efficient. She gasped. “You do?”
He laughed. “I spend a lot of time outside at night. Since I live so far out of town, I don’t have problems with light pollution.”
“I’ll bet you can see the craters on the moon,” she sighed.
“I can see inside them,” he corrected.
She whistled softly. “I’d love to look through it.”
“We can arrange that. Think you could get used to two warlike Siamese cats?”
“I like Mee and Yow,” she replied, curious.
He stared down at his plate. “I’ve been giving a lot of thought to our situation,” he said finally. “Since you left and went to work for Wright, my priorities have changed. I’m not as happy being alone as I used to be.”
She put down her fork and sat just staring at him. Her heart was beating her to death. Could he mean…?
He lifted his eyes to hers. “I said that I wasn’t a marrying man. And at the time, I believed it. But I like having you around.” His gaze fell to her mouth and his eyes darkened. “In fact, I’d like having you around more than just at work.”
“I don’t understand,” she faltered.
He reached for her hand and curled her fingers into his. He looked into her blue eyes and felt as if he were drowning. “I think we might get engaged,” he said, trying to find the right words and failing miserably.
“You and me?” she exclaimed.
“You and me,” he agreed. He slid his fingers over hers. “Violet, we have a lot in common. I think we’ll find a lot more as we go along.” His voice lowered. “And physically, there’s no question of compatibility.”
She flushed softly. “But, you said you didn’t ever want to get married, and that you’d never want children…”
“A man says a lot of stupid things when he’s trying to hold on to a comfortable routine, Violet,” he replied. “I’m a loner. It’s been hard for me to even think about changing my life, in any way.”
“You don’t love me, though,” she blurted out.
He couldn’t pretend to. It would look like a lie. Violet was perceptive. His fingers curled around hers. “Friendship and affection can lead to it,” he said gently. “I can’t give you any guarantees about happily ever after. But I can promise you affection and companionship and respect. The rest will fall into place. I know it will. Give it a chance. Say yes.”
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