Designs on the Cowboy

Dylan knew he should agree, but then he would have to explain about their sister and how she’d managed to hornswoggle him into agreeing to let someone—who turned out to be Glory—work on his house.

“Like I said, it was Erin’s idea to make some changes,” he said, ending the discussion.

It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to avoid Glory. As he walked toward where she stood, he saw her say something to the driver, who then got in the pickup and drove away.

“I didn’t mean to take you away from your work,” she said when he drew closer to the house.

Wishing his brother had been anyplace else besides next to him at the barn when Glory pulled in, he spied the paint and boxes by the door to the porch. “Need a hand getting this stuff inside?”

“Oh! Yes, I guess I could use a little help. Thank you for noticing.”

He loaded his hands and arms with paint cans, and she hurried to open the door for him. “Where do you want them?” he asked, carrying them into the house.

“Here in the kitchen is fine.”

He set them down by the door, and then stood there, wondering how to get out of this uncomfortable situation he was now in. He’d never spent a lot of time talking to women, except for the occasional “howdy, ma’am” or to answer a question about his health, which was always good. Not that he’d been celibate. There were ways. But standing in the kitchen with nothing to say while Glory looked around the room from top to bottom was proof that he wasn’t at the head of the class when it came to his conversational skills.

He watched as she walked across the room and stopped at the doorway that led to his bedroom. Not that he particularly needed to watch, but he couldn’t help it. There was something in the way she moved, but he managed to turn his attention away from her. After all, she was a married woman. She and Kyle had been together for forever.

“Have you ever considered using this for a ranch office?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him.

“No, I never have.” He tended to do paperwork at the kitchen table and store that same paperwork in a corner in his bedroom or the dining room. He’d always thought it was foolish for him to have the house, but that was the way it had worked out. Once Luke turned eighteen and graduated from high school, Erin left for the rodeo circuit and rarely came home. He and his brother had shared the house. When Luke decided to marry Kendra, she’d vetoed the idea that Dylan would move out and let them have the house. Instead, she’d insisted on a big, new house, and Luke had had it built.

Glory’s eyes shone. “I have some great ideas for it.”

“For what?”

“For an office. It would be perfect.”

“So I guess I’ll sleep upstairs, then,” he said, thinking aloud and not realizing he’d actually spoken.

Nodding, she faced him and asked, “Which room do you think you’d like?”

Before he could tell her that none of them would suit him, he heard the screen door on the porch open and close. He could almost taste the relief when Luke stepped into the kitchen.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Luke said, looking from Glory to Dylan.

“Nope,” Dylan answered, ready to escape the house.

“We were just discussing the idea of making an office in here for ranch business.” She pointed to the room behind her. Her smile grew and she laughed, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I’m standing here in this house with the Walker brothers.”

“It’s good to see you, Glory,” Luke said, glancing at Dylan. “I heard you’ve opened a new business in town.”

“I have. Glory Be Antiques and Decorating. We aren’t officially open yet, but when Erin and I ran into each other in Texas and she learned about my plans...” She shrugged and smiled at both of them.

“I remember your grandad’s leather shop,” Luke said. “There was nothing like it for hundreds of miles.”

Glory’s smile dimmed, and Dylan recognized the sadness in her eyes. “He loved making saddles,” she said. “It broke his heart when he couldn’t work anymore. And then he...” She took a breath. “But the shop is still there. I think Gram has been thinking of selling his tools. She’s mentioned it. I’m not sure what we’ll do with the space. I—” She lowered her head for a moment, and then raised it again, smiling. “Maybe I’ll use it for a workroom myself. Someday. It’s— Let’s just say it’s difficult for both of us to go in there without thinking of him.”

Luke glanced at Dylan, and then nodded in agreement at Glory. “I understand completely. So you’ve moved back to town permanently?”

This time her smile was sincere. “I hope so. I’ve missed Desperation. And I hope we can make a success of the business.”

“The town hasn’t changed that much. And with Kyle’s connections, you shouldn’t have a problem getting customers.”

Dylan, who’d been watching her throughout the conversation, noticed that her smile dimmed considerably when his brother mentioned her husband’s name.

“Kyle and I have been divorced for some time,” she said, avoiding eye contact with either of them.

Dylan was too surprised to hear what Luke was saying. Her announcement left him stunned, and he wondered just how big of a fool Kyle Andrews was to have let Glory Caldwell go. Not that it changed anything, he told himself. Whether she was married or not made no difference. She’d been hired to fix up his house. But in the back of his mind was the thought that he definitely needed to give her a wide berth. He’d already thought about her too many times, and it wasn’t the kind of thing he should be doing.

* * *

“ARE YOU GOING to the Walker place today?” Louise asked.

Glory nodded. She placed her coffee cup on the kitchen table and rolled up the plans she’d worked on in the evenings during the past week. “The man who’s tearing out the kitchen cabinets will be there in about fifteen minutes, so I need to get going.”

“Is everything working out all right? I mean, with the Walker boy.”

Glory turned to look at her grandmother and wondered how to answer. It wasn’t Dylan’s fault that she’d begun to form an unwanted attraction to him. She certainly couldn’t tell her grandmother about that. Gram would be thrilled, she was sure. Dylan, not so much. He barely knew she was there. Which, she reminded herself, was as it should be.

“Dylan is a very nice man,” she answered as she headed for the door. “He isn’t crazy about me being there and doesn’t care what I do to the house, but I have faith it will all work out.”

“Oh.”

Her grandmother’s disappointment was so clear that Glory had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing, even though it wasn’t funny. It would break Gram’s heart to know she had absolutely no desire to form any kind of relationship with Dylan Walker or anyone else, no matter how often she thought of him and enjoyed getting glimpses of him throughout her day. After all, he was more than easy on the eyes. But she was determined to keep her mind on business, not on him.

“I’d better get going,” she said, needing to escape her grandmother’s questioning eyes. “I have some things I need to talk over with him before he gets busy with ranch work. I’ll see you later.”

After kissing her grandmother’s cheek, she hurried out the door and to her car. A quick look at her watch told her she didn’t have time to enjoy the drive, and she turned her mind to the work she needed to do that day.

When she arrived at the ranch, she immediately noticed that Dylan’s pickup was parked near the barn. Her heartbeat picked up. She pressed her lips together and reminded herself that she was there on business. And business was all she was interested in. Focusing her thoughts on the job ahead, she decided that the things she needed to talk to him about could wait.

She’d just climbed out of her car when another pickup, this one pulling an empty trailer, turned into the long drive and parked behind her. “Good morning,” she called to Jim White, who climbed out of the vehicle and approached her.

With a touch to the brim of his cap, he nodded. “Morning, Miz Andrews. The town’s buzzin’ with the news that you’re back.”

She felt the heat of a blush on her face, but smiled. “I hope it’s a happy buzzing.”

He followed her up to the house. “It is, for sure,” he assured her. “Now what all is it you want me to do here?”

Ready to get to work, Glory led him into the kitchen and explained what needed to be done. Gathering the photos from the dining room, she showed them to him, so he’d have an idea of what she envisioned it would look like, once the old was gone and the new was finished.

“It’s mighty nice,” he answered. “Who’s doin’ your cabinetry?”

She understood that this was the way it was in small towns. In a big city, it didn’t matter. A job was a job, and most people didn’t know the other contractors, unless they’d worked with them before. “I heard good things about Ned Parker, so he’s doing it.”

He nodded. “I don’t think he’ll disappoint you.”