The Ultimate Texas Bachelor

She marched closer yet, her sexy shoes tapping across the blacktopped ranch driveway. She seemed to be spoiling for a fight. Although, not necessarily with him, Brad noted.

“Care to elaborate?” Lainey asked tightly.

“Nope.” Carrying the bundles of pipe, Brad headed for the newly painted beige barn.

She skipped to keep up with his long strides. “Don’t be such a—”

Curious as to what she would call him, Brad prompted, “What?”

“Donkey’s rear end!”

He grinned. Somehow, he hadn’t seen her cussing. At least not out loud. Not that her verbal imagery hadn’t done the trick in getting her message across.

Lainey danced across his path, forcing him to detour around her. “Just tell me where he is and I’ll leave you alone,” she said.

Grimacing, Brad set the bundles down on the cement floor of the barn with a loud clank. Then he straightened to face her. “He went to Laramie, to work at his facility there.”

Her expression fell and she took a step back. Sunlight poured down from the blue Texas sky, illuminating the honey-gold strands of her hair. “How long is he going to be gone?” she asked.

Brad shrugged, noting the flush of color across her cheeks, the mist of perspiration at her temples. “You’d have to ask Lewis, but he usually puts in a twelve-hour day, if not more.” So did Brad.

Frustrated, Lainey raked her teeth across her lower lip. “I really need him here, to tell me where he wants me to get started.”

Determined to be as ornery as possible, in hopes she would get ticked off and leave, Brad tipped back the brim of his hat and regarded her with an indifferent gaze. “You’ll have to take that up with him.”

To his disappointment, Lainey looked undeterred. “I guess I could go ahead and move my stuff into the guest house.”

Brad looked back at the SUV. The rear seat was down and it looked packed to the gills with stuff. Even the front passenger seat was heaped with belongings. Brad frowned. “Where’s your son?” Not that it mattered to him, but the other day, Lainey had sounded like her son Petey was a very important part of her life.

“Obviously, he’s not with me today.”

She didn’t look happy about that. Which made Brad ask before he could stop himself, “Everything okay?”

Lainey folded her arms in front of her. “You really care?” she asked.

He shouldn’t, Brad knew. Not if he was going to keep his distance from the lovely blonde.

“That’s what I thought.”

Suddenly, she looked near tears. Brad, who had never been much good in the comforting-others department, had an insane urge to take her in his arms. Instead, he remarked, even more matter-of-factly, “If you want to go around looking like you lost your best friend, that’s your business.”

Lainey swallowed hard, her eyes moistening. “How about if I go around looking like I am losing my only child, then?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” Lainey sighed and shoved her hands through her hair. “It’s none of your business anyway.”

“True enough.” Brad was silent. What was going on here? It wasn’t like him to get involved in anyone else’s private business. He had enough trouble managing his own. “Still, if you want to talk…” he found himself saying.

Lainey’s voice grew turbulent. “He’s at the theme parks in central Florida with his two cousins, aunt and uncle.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“Because I wasn’t invited.”

Ouch. “That was rude.”

Lainey’s slender shoulders stiffened. “I’m sure Bart and Bunny didn’t mean anything by it. They thought I needed some time to myself.”

She didn’t look like she needed time to herself. Brad strode back to the pickup for another load. “When will they be back?”

Lainey remained in the shade of the barn. “The end of the week, which will give me enough time to get settled in and have everything ready for Petey here—so it’s probably for the best, anyway.”

She didn’t look as if she believed that, Brad noted. Not that it was any of his affair.

“Is the guest house unlocked?” she asked.

Brad dropped the second load of pipe next to the first, then fished in his pocket for the key. He dug it out and handed it over, knowing the reason why Lewis had made himself scarce when Lainey would be moving in. Not that it was up to Brad to deliver the bad news to Lainey. It was her fault. She should have investigated further before taking the short-term job with his brother. “Lewis asked me to give this one to you.”

“Thanks.”

Years of ingrained training had Brad asking, albeit reluctantly, “Need any help unloading your SUV?”

“Nope.” She swung away from him, and walked to her vehicle, spectacular legs flashing in the bright June sunlight. As he watched her go, Brad couldn’t help but notice she looked more like a well-to-do suburbanite, out for a day of shopping, than a housekeeper or—what was it Lewis had called it—personal organizer?—about to embark on the massive task of making the Lazy M ranch house livable.

Telling himself to quit thinking about her and concentrate on the installation ahead, he continued unloading his pickup, laying pipe, sprinkler heads, fans and linear heat sensors on the cement floor of the freshly scrubbed-out barn. He was nearly done when he heard the first scream. Shrill and terrified sounding, it split the air with the intensity of an air-raid siren.

“What the…?” Brad dropped the box in his hand.

Another scream pierced the air, louder and longer than the last.

He took off at a run.

LAINEY WAS STILL SCREAMING when Brad charged through the open front door and found her crouched, still shaking and scared, atop the kitchen counter.

His expression went from panicked to amused in an instant.

“Look, I know the place is a mess, and you must feel frustrated as hell, but don’t you think you’re overdoing the drama just a tad?”

Lainey wished that were the case. Not that Brad didn’t have a point. Perhaps she shouldn’t have yelled like a banshee when she discovered the state of her quarters for the next few weeks.

Unbelievably, the guest cottage was in even worse shape than the Lazy M ranch house. Instead of being crowded with boxes, though, it was heaped with old furniture of various kinds and all sorts of odds and ends. In short, it looked the way many people’s attics looked after being neglected a good ten, twenty or thirty years. But that wasn’t why she’d been yelling her head off for the past two minutes.

“Follow your nose, cowboy!” She pointed to the source of the foul odor that had prompted her to head for the kitchen in the first place. “And get those…creatures out of here!”

“Huh?” His expression perplexed, Brad swaggered through the maze of belongings and stared down at the five exceedingly ugly creatures on the other side of the counter. “Armadillos?”

“Nine-banded armadillos.” Lainey shuddered, not about to admit how glad she had been to see Brad charging to her rescue. Not that she considered herself a damsel in distress, of course. “A whole family of them.”