Heidi Hormel – The Accidental Cowboy (страница 7)
“Lavonda?” He had been keeping her at arm’s length, worried his housemate would figure out his trip wasn’t about beans. She was much smarter than he’d assumed a cowgirl would be. Of course, he’d been picturing a cowgirl with big hair, sprayed-on trousers, and big—
“Absolutely.”
“But she—”
“I know she doesn’t look like a roughing-it camper, but believe me, she’s tougher than she looks. That girl has a bronc riding champion buckle.”
Jones still hadn’t reconciled her rodeo riding with the pixie-sized woman with the sleek hair, polished nails and soft skin, but her boots looked well used. “I don’t know that—”
“Let me call her.” Gwen pulled a phone from her pocket. “Stanley can help you look for a professional guide, but this will get you out in the field right away.” She stood and walked out as she spoke to Lavonda.
“Gwen is a problem solver,” Stanley said. “I’ll call around, but most guides are booked in advance.”
Jones’s stomach roiled with excitement, fear, anticipation—he had no idea with what. He and Lavonda alone in the desert could be a recipe for disaster or... Affairs happened at dig sites. He’d seen more than one start during the plotting of a Bronze Age village. His current decision must be based on what was best for his career, not what might get him into Lavonda’s sleeping bag.
“Is there a problem with this woman?” Stanley asked.
Jones pulled himself together. “I just didn’t understand that she had trail skills.”
Stanley shrugged his narrow shoulders. “If Gwen says she does, then she does. It’s not that unusual for a cowgirl.”
Gwen entered, smiling, “She’ll do it, and she’s the kind of price we need. Free.”
“Free? I don’t think that we can—”
“Don’t worry. We’ve have worked out an agreement. She understands that it’s a temporary thing until you find a real guide. Her words. Not mine. So, Dr. Kincaid, we have that little problem solved. This is working out well. Our students are very excited for your seminar. I didn’t realize that beans were so popular. Got to go,” she finished abruptly.
Jones shook her hand and tried to read the older woman’s face. There was something there that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was like finding a number of pottery shards and piecing them back together. You knew it was a pot but not its shape.
Jones made himself leave the office at a stroll, unconcerned and confident. What had he just committed himself to? Days on end with a sexy woman affiliated with the university from which he was attempting to hide his real mission. Having an affair with a cowgirl had not been on the map or his plan, even if it seemed as though the Fates were setting things up that way.
Back in her old life, Lavonda had been fearless, telling 60 Minutes they couldn’t film on her company’s property and pushing away Anderson Cooper’s mic. But when Gwen called, she’d caved, saying yes to leading the kilted giant on his search for beans. The older woman had been Lavonda’s first boss. She’d helped her find her footing in the corporate world, from what to wear to understanding the hierarchy of vice presidents. Giving in to one friend meant facing another. Lavonda would have to call Olympia to back out of helping at her and her attorney husband’s ranch. Lavonda felt bad about letting her down and worse because she’d been ducking calls. She just wasn’t up to defending herself from questions about why living at the university’s run-down ranch as the “caretaker” was a good career move.
“Hi, Lavonda.”
Darn her friend. Why had she answered? Lavonda had hoped to just leave a message. “How’s it going?”
“You don’t want to know. Remind me again why I thought it was a good idea to get married?” Olympia asked, her tone somewhere between exasperation and affection.
“Because it was easier than arguing with a lawyer about it?”
Olympia laughed. “You got that right. What’s up?”
“The university roped me into helping out an archaeologist. I’ve got to babysit him while he wanders the desert, make sure that he doesn’t die, that sort of thing. I’ll be out on the trail for at least a week, and I might have to go out with him again later. I’m sorry but I won’t be able to come to the ranch for a while.”
“No problem. Cal’s getting better at helping, and Spence’s law practice is doing well enough that we’ve even hired someone to come out a couple of times a week to help around the place.”
“That’s good.” Lavonda could see Olympia’s stepson puffing out his chest as he did barn work. He’d been so sick as a little guy that any kind of “man’s work” made him strut around proudly.
“What about you? Besides this guide thing, what else do you have going on?”
“I’m still doing work for the university when they need it.” She knew her friends and even her family had begun to worry at her lack of focus. “I’ve got a couple of possible projects on the horizon.”
“If you say so. What’s he like? Egghead, right?”
“Why would you assume my guidee is a man?”
“Sorry. This person.”
“It is a man. Scottish. He showed up in a kilt and everything.”
“What? Wait. A kilt?”
“He competes in Highland games and agreed to be on the Angel Crossing campus team at an event in Tucson. Although why anyone would think Arizona was a good place to wear wool is beyond me.”
“So he wears a kilt, does manly competitions and digs in the dirt?”
Lavonda ignored the implied question and went on, “He’s studying beans, which apparently is an exciting thing if you’re an archaeologist. Gwen is trying to talk me into writing press releases. Not sure how that’s going to work, but I could be up for the challenge. I mean how do you make studying beans not the punch line to a fart joke?”
“The beans are definitely lowering his sexy level.”
“What do you care about his sexy level?”
“I’m looking out for you. If you’re not concentrating on finding a job, then you should be concentrating on your love life.”
“Who decided you should be my own private dating service?” Lavonda did not want to think about the havoc Olympia and Lavonda’s sister, Jessie, could wreak if they had any idea that Lavonda had looked at Professor McNerdy and imagined...things that should not be said to nosy sisters and friends.
“I didn’t realize you were so touchy.” Lavonda almost heard the shrug through the phone. “Anything else going on besides the hottie in the kilt?”
“He’s not hot,” Lavonda protested.
“I knew it. He’s hot and you’re interested.”
“How could you know that?”
“Because I know you and now you’ve just admitted it. There’s one good thing about being married to a lawyer—you learn all kinds of sneaky ways to get people to admit to things.”
“That’s not fair.”
“You should have told me you were interested in this guy instead of pretending it was all business.”
“But it is.”
“I know your mama told you that lying is a sin.”
“If—and that’s a big if—anything goes on between the two of us, that’s our business.”
“Like what was going on between Spence and me was our business, right?”
“That was different. You were living together.”
“Yep, that makes this so different.”
“You were pregnant and there was Cal, too. A lot more was at stake.”
“Don’t try to wiggle out of this,” Olympia said with the tone of no-nonsense authority that had crept into her voice since becoming a mother.
“Hey, don’t go telling Jessie any of your fantasies about my love life. I don’t need her sisterly advice.”
Olympia laughed. “I won’t need to tell her anything. As soon as you start talking about this guy, she’ll know. What’s his name anyway?”
“Jones.”
“As in ‘Indiana’?”
She smiled. Could the academic really be nicknamed for a movie character? “Could be. Wouldn’t that be a hoot and a half.”
The two women talked about what Lavonda would need for the weeklong hike, then Olympia said, “If you like this guy, go for it. Maybe it’s just what you need.”
“How about I just focus on keeping the two of us safe and sound in the desert. The poor man almost bit the big one when a scorpion crawled up his leg, but Cat saved him.”
“Dang it. I wish I had time to hear that story, but Cal’s bus will be here any minute.”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Olympia was right. She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to Jones, despite his strong-silent-type swagger. Mama would call him a volcano under an ice cap. Although there was no reason she and Jones had to act on their mutual attraction. God, that sounded like corporate speak. Sure. An affair or fling might be fun and might even make her feel she was living rather than marking time. Except, in college she’d tried the just-sex thing. That hadn’t ended so well. What if it wasn’t just her lady parts that wanted Jones? Plus, the professor didn’t live in the real world, really. He might not understand how a fling worked. She didn’t want to hurt him, even if he could be a pompous jerk. Then, she could lose her job and the place that had begun to feel like home if she “fraternized” with the guest. Not that anyone had said anything, but Jones sort of, kind of, was her boss.