“You make it sound like I’m your cheating wife.”

She sighed. “I didn’t leave you. I left my job.”

But she had left him, Mac thought. It hadn’t felt like an employee walking out, but a betrayal.

“Same thing.” His gaze fixed on her and for the first time, he noticed that she wore a tiny tank top and a silky pair of drawstring pants. Her feet were bare and her toenails were painted a soft blush pink. Her hair was long and loose over her shoulders, just skimming the tops of her breasts.

Mac took a breath and wondered where that flash of heat swamping him had come from. He’d been with Andi nearly every day for the past six years and he’d never reacted to her like this before. Sure, she was pretty, but she was his assistant. The one stable, organized, efficient woman in his life, and he’d never taken the time to notice that she was so much more than that.

Now it was all he could notice.

* * *

A Bride for the Boss is part of the series Texas Cattleman’s Club: Lies and Lullabies–Baby secrets and a scheming sheikh rock Royal, Texas

A Bride for the Boss
Maureen Child

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Mills & Boon Desire line and can’t imagine a better job.

A seven-time finalist for a prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, Maureen is an author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism Award, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill Award. She is a native Californian but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah.

To all of the wonderful writers in this fabulous continuity series—it’s been an honour working with all of you.

And to Charles Griemsman, thanks for being such a great editor and for not tearing your hair out during this process!

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

One

“What do you mean, you quit?” David “Mac” McCallum stared at his assistant and shook his head. “If this is a joke, it’s not funny.”

Andrea Beaumont took a deep breath, then said sharply, “Not a joke, Mac. I’m dead serious.”

He could see that, and he didn’t much care for it. Usually when Andi stepped into his office, it was to remind him of a meeting or a phone call, or to tell him she’d come up with some new way to organize his life and business.

But at the moment, she had angry glints firing in her normally placid gray eyes, and he’d do well to pay attention. Having a younger sister had taught him early to watch his step around women. Violet had a temper that could peel paint, and Mac knew that a wise man stayed out of range when a woman got a certain look about her. Right now, Andi—his calm, cool, organized executive assistant—appeared to be ready for battle.

Andi looked the same as always, even though she was in the middle of tossing his well-ordered world upside down. June sunlight slipped through the wide windows at Mac’s back and poured over her like molten gold. Her long, straight, dark brown hair hung past the shoulders of the pale blue blazer she wore over a white dress shirt and dark blue jeans. Black boots, shined to a mirror gleam, finished off the outfit. Her storm-gray eyes were fixed on him unblinkingly and her full, generous mouth was pinched into a grim slash of determination.

Looked like they were about to have a “discussion.”

Mac braced himself. Whatever she had in mind just wasn’t going to fly. He couldn’t afford to lose her. Hell, running McCallum Enterprises was a full-time job for ten men and damned if he’d let the woman who knew his business as well as he did simply walk away.

She’d been his right-hand man—woman—person—for the last six years and Mac couldn’t imagine being without her. When something needed doing, Andi got it done. Mac didn’t have to look over her shoulder, making sure things were handled. He could tell her what he needed and not worry about it. Andi had a knack for seeing a problem and figuring out the best way to take care of it.

She could smooth talk anyone, and if that didn’t work, he’d seen her give an opponent a cool-eyed glare that could turn their blood cold. There’d been plenty of times when Mac had actually enjoyed watching her stare down an adversary. But he had to say, being on the receiving end of that icy look wasn’t nearly as enjoyable.

What had brought this on?

“Why don’t you take a seat and tell me what’s got you so angry.”

“I don’t want a seat,” she said. “And I don’t want to be soothed like you do those horses you love so much...”

He frowned. “Then what exactly do you want?”

“I already told you. I want to quit.”

“Why the hell would you want to do that?”

Her gray eyes went wide, as if she couldn’t believe he even had to ask that question. But as far as Mac knew, everything was just as it should be. They’d closed the Donaldson deal the day before and now McCallum Enterprises could add Double D Energy Services to its ledgers. And Andi’d had a lot to do with getting David Donaldson to sign on the dotted line.

“I just gave you a raise last night for your work on the energy project.”

“I know,” she said. “And I earned it. That deal was not pretty.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“You told me to take over the planning for Violet’s baby shower.”

He drew his head back and narrowed his eyes on her in shocked surprise. With her talent for list making and organization, Andi should be able to handle that shower in a finger snap. “That’s a problem? I thought you and Vi were friends.”

“We are,” she countered, throwing both hands high. “Of course we are. That’s not the point.”

“What is the point, then?” Mac dropped into his chair and, lifting his booted feet, crossed them at the ankle on the edge of the desk. “Spit it out already and let’s get back to work.”

“For one, you don’t decide on Vi’s baby shower. For heaven’s sake, you stick your nose into everything.”

“Excuse me?”

“But my main point is,” she said, setting both hands at her hips, “I’m tired of being taken for granted.”

“Who does that?” he asked, sincerely confused.

“You do!”

“Now, that’s just not so,” he argued. “Let’s remember that raise yesterday and—”

“In the last day or so, you had me arrange for the new horse trailer to be dropped off at the ranch. I called Big Mike at the garage to get him to give your car a tune-up before the weekend, then I saw to it that the new horses you bought will be delivered to the ranch tomorrow afternoon.”

Scowling now, Mac bit back on what he wanted to say and simply let her get it all out.

“I drew up the plans for the kitchen garden your cook wants for behind the house and I made sure the new baby furniture you’re giving Vi was delivered on time.” Andi paused only long enough to take a breath. Her eyes flashed, her mouth tightened as she continued. “Then I called Sheriff Battle to make sure he cleared the road for the delivery of the last of the cattle water tanks.”

“Had to clear the road—”

“Not finished,” she said, holding up one hand to keep him quiet. “After that, I bought and had delivered the standard half-carat diamond bracelet and the it’s-not-you-it’s-me farewell note to the model who can’t string ten words together without hyperventilating...”

Mac snorted. All right, she had a point about Jezebel Fontaine. Still, in his defense, Jez was seriously built enough that he’d overlooked her lack of brain cells for the past month. But even he had his limits.

“You’re my assistant, aren’t you?”

“I am and a darn good one,” she countered. “I’ve kept your life running on schedule for the last six years, Mac. No matter what you throw at me, I handle it and add it into the mix I’m already juggling.”

“You’re a damn fine juggler, too,” he said.

She kept talking as if he hadn’t said a thing.

“Then when I asked you for this afternoon off so I could go see my nephew’s baseball game, you said you had to think about it. Think about it?”

“I appreciate a good Little League game as much as the next man,” Mac said slowly, keeping his gaze fixed on hers, “but we’ve still got some details to be ironed out on the Double D deal and—”

“That’s my point, Mac.” His eyes widened when she interrupted him. “There’s always something that needs to be handled and I’m so busy taking care of those things I haven’t had time to find a life.”

“You’ve got a pretty good life from where I’m standing,” he argued, pushing up from his desk. “Great job, terrific boss—” He paused, waiting for a smile that didn’t come, then tried to continue, but he couldn’t come up with a third thing.

“Uh-huh. Job. Boss. No life.” She took a deep breath. “And that stops today.”

“Okay,” he said flatly. “If it’s that important to you, go. See your nephew’s game. Have some popcorn. Hell, have a beer. We’ll talk more tomorrow morning when you come in.”

“I won’t be in,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s time for a change, Mac. For both of us. I’ve gotten too comfortable here and so have you.”

He laughed abruptly. “You call dealing with what all that’s been going on around here comfortable?”

She nodded. “There’ve been problems, sure, but we handled them and things are slowly getting back to normal. Or, as normal as life gets around here.”

Mac sure as hell hoped so. It had been a wild time in Royal, Texas, over the past couple of years. A lot of turmoil, more than their share of trouble. There was the tornado, of course, then the drought that held most of Texas in a tight, sweaty fist and then a man he used to think of as one of his oldest friends, Rafiq “Rafe” bin Saleed, had come to town with the express purpose of ruining Mac’s reputation, his business and his family. And he’d come damn close to pulling it off.

Remembering that was still enough to leave Mac a little shaken. Hell, he’d trusted Rafe and had almost lost everything because of it. Sure, they’d worked everything out, and now Rafe was even his brother-in-law, since he and Mac’s sister, Violet, were married and having a baby.

But there were still moments when Mac wondered how he could have missed the fact that Rafe was on a misguided quest for revenge.

Without Andi to help him through and talk him down when he was so damned angry he could hardly see straight, Mac didn’t know if the situation would have resolved itself so quickly.

So why, when life was settling down again, had she chosen now to talk about quitting? Mac had no idea what had brought this nonsense on, but he’d nip it in the bud, fast. Now that things were calming down in Royal, Mac had plans to spend more time actually working and even expanding the family ranch, which Violet used to handle. With his sister focusing on the place Rafe had bought for them, Mac wanted to get back to his roots: being on a horse, overseeing the day-to-day decisions of ranch life and working out of a home office to keep his wildly divergent business interests growing.

Life was damn busy and Andi was just going to have to stay right where she was to help him run things—the way she always had.

“Where’s this coming from, Andi?” he asked, leaning one hip against the corner of his desk.

“The fact that you can even ask me that is astonishing,” she replied.

He gave her a slow grin, the very same smile that worked to sway women across Texas into agreeing with anything he said. Of course, Andrea Beaumont had always been a tougher sell, but he’d use whatever weapons he had to hand. “Now, Andi,” he said, “we’ve worked together too long for you to get snippy so easily.”

“Snippy?” Her eyes fired up again and Mac thought for a second or two that she might reach up and yank at her hair. “That is the most insulting thing...”

She took another deep breath and Mac idly noticed how those heavy breaths she kept taking made her small, perfect breasts rise and fall rhythmically. For such a tiny woman, she had curves in all the right places. Funny he’d really not taken the time to notice that before.

Andi was simply there. She kept on top of everything. Nothing ever slipped past her. But apparently this had slipped past him.

“This is coming out of the blue and I think you owe me some sort of explanation.”

“It’s not out of the blue, Mac,” she said, throwing both hands high. “That’s the point. I’ve worked for you for six years.”

“I know that.”

“Uh-huh. And did you notice I didn’t even take a vacation the last two years?”

His frown deepened. No, he hadn’t noticed. Probably should have, though, since every damn time she did take some time off, he ended up hunting her down, getting her to solve some damn problem or other. The fact that she’d stayed here, working, had only made his life continue on its smooth, well-planned path, so he hadn’t had to think about it.

“Is that what this is about?” He pushed off the desk, braced his feet wide apart and folded his arms across his chest. “You want a vacation?”

Her mouth flattened into a straight, grim line. “No. I want a life. To get that life, I have to quit. So, I’m giving you my two weeks’ notice.”

“I don’t accept that.”

“You don’t get a vote, Mac.”

“See,” he said tightly, “that doesn’t fly with me, either.”

It was like talking to two brick walls, Andrea thought, staring up at the man who had been her focus for the past six years. About six foot one, he had short, dark blond hair that in another month or so would be shot through with sun streaks. His summer-green eyes were cool, clear and always held a sort of calculating gleam his competitors usually took for affability. He was lean but strong, his build almost deceptively lanky.

Mac McCallum was the stuff women’s dreams were made of. Sadly, that was true of Andi’s dreams, too.

Six years she’d worked for him. She wasn’t sure exactly when she’d made the supreme mistake of falling in love with her boss, but it seemed as if those feelings had always been with her. A part of her had always hoped that one day he might open his eyes and really see her—but the more rational, reasonable part of Andi knew that was never going to happen.

To Mac, she would always be good ol’ Andi. She knew he saw her as he did the new laser printer in the office. Efficient, able to get the job done and nearly invisible. The raise he’d given her notwithstanding, he didn’t really appreciate just how hard she worked to keep McCallum Enterprises running smoothly—he just expected it. Well, it had taken her a long time to reach this point, but she really wanted a life. And as long as she was here, mooning after a man she couldn’t have, that wouldn’t happen. Andi had been working up to quitting for a long while now, and today had finally given her the last little nudge she’d needed.

It was liberation day.

“Go on, Andi. Go to your nephew’s game. Enjoy the rest of the day and we’ll talk about this again when you calm down.”

He still didn’t get it, and she knew that she had to make herself clear. “I’m completely calm, Mac. I’m just done.”

A slow, disbelieving smile curved his mouth, and Andi told herself to stay strong. Stay resolved. There was no future for her here. But watching him, she realized that he would spend her two weeks’-notice time doing everything he could to change her mind. Knowing just how charming he could be was enough to convince her to say, “I haven’t had a vacation in two years. So I’m going to take my vacation time for the next two weeks.”

“You’re just going to leave the office flat?” Stunned now, he stared at her as if she had two heads. “What about the contracts for the Stevenson deal? Or the negotiations on the Franklin Heating project?”

“Laura’s up-to-date on all of it and if she needs me,” Andi said firmly, “she can call and I’ll be happy to walk her through whatever problem she’s having.”

“Laura’s the office manager.”

True, Andi thought, and though the woman had been with the company for only a couple of years, she was bright, ambitious and a hard worker. And as a newlywed, she wouldn’t be spinning romantic fantasies about her boss.

“You’re serious?” he asked, dumbfounded. “Now?”

“Right now,” Andi told him and felt a faint flutter of excitement tangled with just a touch of fear.

She was really going to do it. Going to quit the job she’d dedicated herself to for years. Going to walk away from the man who had a hold on her heart whether he knew it or not. She was going out into the world to find herself a life.

With that thought firmly in mind, she turned and headed for the door before Mac could talk her out of leaving.

“I don’t believe this,” he muttered.

Can’t really blame him, she thought. This was the first time since she’d met Mac that she was doing something for herself.

Andi paused in the doorway and glanced back over her shoulder for one last look at him. He was everything she’d ever wanted and she’d finally accepted that she would never have him. “Goodbye, Mac.”

* * *

Outside, the June sunlight streamed down from a brassy blue sky. Summer was coming and it seemed in a hurry to get here. Andi’s footsteps crunched on the gravel of the employee parking area behind the office. With every step, she felt a little more certain that what she was doing was right. Sure, it was hard, and likely to get harder because Andi would miss seeing Mac every day. But hadn’t she spent enough time mooning over him? How would she ever find a man to spend her life with if she spent all her time around the one man she couldn’t have?

“Just keep walking, Andi. You’ll be glad of it later.” Much later, of course. Because at the moment, she felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

What she needed was affirmation and she knew just where to find it. When she got to her car, Andi opened the door and slid into the dark blue compact. Then she pulled her cell phone from her purse, hit the speed dial and waited through five rings before a familiar voice answered.

“Thank God you called,” her sister, Jolene, said. “Tom’s shift ended two hours ago and now that he’s home, he says he needs to unwind...”

Andi laughed and it felt good. “So which wall is he tearing down?”

Jolene sighed. “The one between the living room and the kitchen.”

While her sister talked, Andi could picture exactly what was happening in the old Victorian on the far side of Royal. Her brother-in-law, Tom, was a fireman who relaxed by working on his house. Last year, after a brushfire that had kept him working for more than a week, he built a new powder room on the first floor.

“It’s a good thing you bought a fixer-upper,” Andi said when her older sister had wound down.

“I know.” Laughing, Jolene added, “I swear the man’s crazy. But he’s all mine.”

Andi smiled sadly, caught her expression in the rearview mirror and silently chastised herself for feeling even the slightest twinge of envy. Jolene and Tom had been married for ten years and had three kids, with another on the way. Their family was a sort of talisman for Andi. Seeing her sister happy and settled with her family made Andi want the same for herself.

Which was just one of the reasons she’d had to quit her job. Before it was too late for her to find what her heart craved. Love. Family.

“And,” Jolene was saying, “I love that my kitchen’s about to get a lot bigger. But oh, Lord, the noise. Hang on, I’m headed out to the front porch so I can hear you.”

Andi listened to the crashing and banging in the background fade as her sister walked farther away from the demolition zone.

“Okay, backyard. That’s better,” Jolene said. “So, what’s going on, little sister?”

“I did it.” Andi blew out a breath and rolled her car windows down to let the warm Texas wind slide past her. “I quit.”

“Holy...” Jolene paused and Andi imagined her sister’s shocked expression. “Really? You quit your job?”

“I did.” Andi slapped one hand to her chest to keep her pounding heart from leaping out. “Walked right out before I could change my mind.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“You and me both,” Andi said. “Oh, God. I’m unemployed.”

Jolene laughed. “It’s not like you’re living on the streets, Andi. You’ve got a house you hardly ever see, a vacation fund that you’ve never used and a rainy-day savings account that has enough in it to keep you safe through the next biblical flood.”

“You’re right, you’re right.” Nodding, Andi took a few deep breaths and told herself to calm down. “It’s just, I haven’t been unemployed since I was sixteen.”

The reality of the situation was hitting home and it came like a fist to the solar plexus. If this kept up, she might faint and wouldn’t that be embarrassing, having Mac come out to the parking lot and find her stretched out across her car seats?

She’d quit her job.

What would she do every day? How would she live? Sure, she’d had a few ideas over the past few months about what she might want to do, but none of it was carved in stone. She hadn’t looked into the logistics of anything, she hadn’t made even the first list of what she’d need do before moving on one of her ideas, so it was all too nebulous to even think about.

She had time. Plenty of time to consider her future, to look at her ideas objectively. She would need plans. Purpose. Goals. But she wasn’t going to have those right away, so it was time to take a breath. No point in making herself totally insane. Jolene was right. Andi had a big savings account—Mac was a generous employer if nothing else—and it wasn’t as if she’d had time to spend that generous salary. Now she did.

“This is so great, Andi.”

“Easy for you to say.”

Jolene laughed again, then shouted, “Jilly, don’t push your sister into the pool.”

Anyone else hearing that would immediately think built-in, very deep pool. In reality, Andi knew the kids were jumping in and out of a two-foot-deep wading pool. Shallow enough to be safe and wet enough to give relief from the early Texas heat.

“Jacob’s game still at five today?” Andi asked abruptly.

“Sure. You’re coming?”

Of course she was going to the game. She’d quit her job so she’d be able to see her family. She smiled at her reflection as she imagined the look on Jacob’s little face when she showed up at the town baseball field. “You couldn’t keep me away.”

“Look at that—only been unemployed like a second and already you’re getting a life.”

Andi rolled her eyes. Jolene had been on her to quit for the past few years, insisting that standing still meant stagnating. As it turned out, she had a point. Andi had given Mac all she could give. If she stayed, she’d only end up resenting him and infuriated with herself. So it was no doubt past time to go. Move on.

And on her first official day of freedom, she was going to the Royal Little League field to watch her nephew’s game. “I’m just going home to change and I’ll meet you at the field in an hour or so.”

“We’ll be there. Jacob will be so excited. And after the game, you’ll come back here. Tom will grill us all some steaks to go with the bottle of champagne I’m making a point of picking up. You can drink my share.”

Andi forced a smile into her voice. “Champagne and steaks. Sounds like a plan.”

But after she hung up with her sister, Andi had to ask herself why, instead of celebrating, she felt more like going home for a good cry.

Two

Andi went to the baseball game. Jolene had been right: eight-year-old Jacob was thrilled that his aunt was there, cheering for him alongside his parents. Of course, six-year-old Jilly and three-year-old Jenna were delighted to share their bag of gummy bears with Andi, and made plans for a tea party later in the week.

It had felt odd to be there, in the bleachers with family and friends, when normally she would have been at work. But it was good, too, she kept telling herself.

After the game, she had dinner with her family and every time her mind drifted to thoughts of Mac, Andi forced it away again. Instead, she focused on the kids, her sister and the booming laugh of her brother-in-law as he flipped steaks on a smoking grill.

By the following morning, she told herself that if she’d stayed with Mac and kept the job that had consumed her life, she wouldn’t have had that lazy, easy afternoon and evening. But still she had doubts. Even though she’d enjoyed herself, the whole thing had been so far out of her comfort zone, Andi knew she’d have to do some fine-tuning of her relaxation skills. But at least now she had the time to try.

Sitting on her front porch swing, cradling a cup of coffee in her hands, Andi looked up at the early-morning sky and saw her own nebulous future staring back at her. Normally by this time she was already at the office, brewing the first of many pots of coffee, going over her and Mac’s calendars and setting up conference calls and meetings. There would already be the kind of tension she used to live for as she worked to keep one step ahead of everything.

Now? She took another sip of coffee and sighed. The quiet crowded in on her until it felt as though she could hear her own heartbeat in the silence. Relaxation turned to tension in a finger snap. She was unemployed and, for the first time since she was a kid, had nowhere in particular to be.

It was both liberating and a little terrifying. She was a woman who thrived on schedules, preferred order and generally needed a plan for anything she was going to do. Even as a kid, she’d had her closet tidy, her homework done early and her bookcases in her room alphabetized for easy reference.

While Jolene’s bedroom had been chaotic, Andi’s was an island of peace and calm. A place for everything, everything in its place. Some might call that compulsive. She called it organized. And maybe that was just what she needed to do now. Organize her new world. Channel energies she would normally be using for Mac and his business into her own life. She was smart, capable and tenacious. There was nothing she couldn’t do.

“So.” After that inner pep talk, she drew her feet up under her on the thick, deep blue cushion. “I’ll make a plan. Starting,” she said, needing the sound of her own voice in the otherwise still air, “with finally getting my house in shape.”

She’d bought the run-down farmhouse a year ago and hadn’t even had the time to unpack most of the boxes stacked in the second bedroom. The walls hadn’t been painted, there were no pictures hung, no rugs scattered across the worn, scarred floor. It pretty much looked as lonely and abandoned as it had when she first bought it. And wasn’t that all kinds of sad and depressing?

Until a year ago, Andi had lived in a tiny condo that was, in its own way, as impersonal and unfinished as this house. She’d rented it furnished and had never had the time—or the inclination—to put her own stamp on the place. Working for Mac had meant that she was on duty practically twenty-four hours a day. So when was she supposed to be able to carve out time for herself? But in spite of everything, Andi had wanted a home of her own. And in the back of her mind, maybe she’d been planning even then on leaving McCallum Enterprises.

Leaving Mac.

It was the only explanation for her buying a house that she had known going in would need a lot of renovation. Sure, she could have hired a crew to come in and fix it all up. And she had had a new roof put on, the plumbing upgraded and the electrical brought up to code. But there were still the yards to take care of, the floors to be sanded, the walls to be painted and furniture to be bought.

“And that starts today,” she said, pushing off the swing. With one more look around the wide front yard, she turned and opened the screen door, smiling as it screeched in protest. Inside, she took another long glance at her home before heading into the kitchen to do what she did best. Make a list.

She knew where she’d start. The walls should be painted before she brought in sanders for the floors, and they’d probably need a couple of coats of paint to cover the shadow images of long-missing paintings.

In the kitchen she sat at a tiny table and started making notes. She’d go at her home exactly as she would have a new project at McCallum. Priorities. It was all about priorities.

An hour later, she had several lists and the beginnings of a plan.

“There’s a lot to do,” she said, her voice echoing in the old, empty house. “Might as well get started.”

She worked for hours, sweeping, dusting, mopping, before heading into Royal to buy several gallons of paint. Of course, shopping in town was never as easy as entering a store, getting what you wanted and then leaving again. There were people to chat with, gossip to listen to and, as long as she was there, she stopped in at the diner for some tea and a salad she didn’t have to make herself.

The air conditioning felt wonderful against her skin, and Andi knew if it was this hot in early June, summer was going to be a misery. She made a mental note to put in a call to Joe Bennet at Bennet Heating and Cooling. If she was going to survive a Texas summer, she was going to need her own air conditioning. Fast.

“So,” Amanda Battle said as she gave Andi a refill on her iced tea. “I hear you quit your job and you’re running off to Jamaica with your secret lover.”

Andi choked on a cherry tomato and, when she got her breath back, reached for her tea and took a long drink. Looking up at Amanda, wife of Sheriff Nathan Battle and owner of the diner, she saw humor shining in her friend’s eyes.

“Jamaica?”

Amanda grinned. “Sally Hartsfield told me, swears that Margie Fontenot got the story direct from Laura, who used to work with you at Mac’s. Well, Laura’s cousin’s husband’s sister got the story started and that is good enough to keep the grapevine humming for a while.”

Direct was probably not the right word to describe that line of communication, but Andi knew all too well how the gossip chain worked in town. It was only mildly irritating to find out that she was now the most interesting link in that chain. For the moment.

But Jamaica? How did people come up with this stuff? she wondered, and only briefly considered taking her first vacation in years, if only to make that rumor true. Still, if she went to Jamaica, it would be a lot more fun if she could make the secret-lover part of the gossip true, too.

“Secret lover?” If only, she thought wistfully as an image of Mac rose up in her mind.

“Oooh. I like how your eyes got all shiny there for a second. Tells me there might be something to this particular rumor. Something you’d like to share with a pal? Wait.” Amanda held up one finger. “Gotta fill some coffee cups. Don’t go anywhere until I get back.”

While she was gone, Andi concentrated on the sounds and scents of the Royal Diner. Everything was so familiar; sitting there was like being wrapped up in a cozy blanket. Even when you knew that everyone in town was now talking about you. Royal had had plenty of things to chew over the past couple years. From the tornado to an actual sheikh working a revenge plot against Mac, local tongues had been kept wagging.

And the diner was gossip central—well, here and the Texas Cattleman’s Club. But since the club was limited to members only, Andi figured the diner was the big winner in the grapevine contest.

She looked around and pretended not to notice when other customers quickly shifted their gazes. The black-and-white-tile floor was spotless, the red vinyl booths and counter stools were shiny and clean, and the place, as always, was packed.

God, she hated knowing that mostly everyone in there was now talking and speculating about her. But short of burying her head in the sand or locking herself in her own house, there was no way to avoid any of it.

Amanda worked the counter while her sister, Pamela, and Ruby Fowler worked the tables. Conversations rose and fell like the tides, and the accompanying sounds of silverware against plates and the clink of glasses added a sort of background music to the pulse of life.

When Amanda finally came back, Andi mused, “Where did Laura come up with Jamaica, I wonder?”

“Nothing on the secret lover then?” Amanda asked.

Andi snorted. “Who has time for a lover?”

Amanda gave her a sympathetic look, reached out and patted her hand. “Honey, that’s so sad. You’ve got to make time.”

She would if she had the option of the lover she wanted. But since she didn’t, why bother with anyone else? “How can I when I’m going to Jamaica? But again, why Jamaica?”

“Maybe wishful thinking,” Amanda said with a shrug, leaning down to brace folded arms on the counter. “Heaven knows, lying on a beach having somebody bring me lovely alcoholic drinks while I cuddle with my honey sounds pretty good to me most days.”

“Okay, sounds pretty good to me, too,” Andi said. If she had a honey. “Instead, I’m headed home to start painting.”

Amanda straightened up. “You’re planning on painting your place on your own? It’ll take you weeks.”

“As the gossip chain informed you already,” she said wryly, “I’m unemployed, so I’ve got some time.”

“Well,” Amanda said, walking to the register to ring up Andi’s bill, “using that time to paint rather than find yourself that secret lover seems a waste to me. And, if you change your mind, there’s any number of kids around town who would paint for you. Summer jobs are hard to come by in a small town.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks.” Andi paid, slung her purse over her shoulder and said, “Say hi to Nathan for me.”

“I’ll do that. And say hi to Jamaica for me.” Amanda gave her a wink, then went off to check on her customers again.

* * *

Several hours later, Andi knew she should have been tired. Instead, she was energized, and by the end of her first day as a free woman, the living room was painted a cool, rich green the color of the Texas hills in springtime. It would need another coat, but even now she saw the potential and loved it. She had a sense of accomplishment, of simple satisfaction, which she hadn’t felt in far too long. Yes, she’d been successful in her career, but that was Mac’s business. His empire. This little farmhouse, abandoned for years, was all hers. And she was going to bring it back to life. Make it shine as it had to some long-gone family.

“And maybe by the time it’s whole and happy again, I will be, too,” she said.

“Talking to yourself?” a female voice said from the front porch. “Not a good sign.”

Andi spun around and grinned. “Violet! Come on in.”

Mac’s sister opened the screen door and let it slap closed behind her. Being nearly seven months pregnant hadn’t stopped Vi from dressing like the rancher she was. She wore a pale yellow T-shirt that clung to her rounded belly, a pair of faded blue jeans and the dusty brown boots she preferred to anything else.

Her auburn hair was pulled into a high ponytail at the back of her head and her clear green eyes swept the freshly painted walls in approval. When she looked back at Andi, she nodded. “Nice job. Really. Love the darker green as trim, too. Makes the whole thing pop.”

“Thanks.” Andi took another long look and sighed. “I’ll go over it again tomorrow. But I love it. This color makes the room feel cool, you know? And with summer coming...”

“It’s already hot,” Vi said. “You are getting air conditioning put in, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Called them at about eight this morning, as soon as the sun came up and started sizzling. They’re backed up, though, so it’ll be a week or two before they can come out here.”

“Well,” Vi said, walking into the kitchen as comfortably as she would at her own house. “If you start melting before then, you can come and stay with Rafe and me at the ranch.”

“Ah, yes,” Andi said, following her friend into her kitchen—which was comfortably stuck in the 1950s. “What a good time. I can be the third wheel with the newlyweds.”

“We don’t have sex in front of people, you know,” Vi told her with a laugh. “We tried, but the housekeeper Rafe hired disapproved.”

She stuck her head in the refrigerator, pulled out a pitcher of tea and sighed with pleasure. “Knew I could count on you to have tea all ready to go. You get glasses. Do you have any cookies?”

“Some Oreos.” They’d been friends for so long, they worked in tandem. “In the pantry.”

“Thank God.”

Laughing, Andi filled two glasses with ice, then poured each of them some tea as Vi hurried into the walk-in pantry and came back out already eating a cookie. She sighed, rolled her eyes and moaned, “God, these are so good.”

Still chuckling, Andi took a seat at the tiny table and watched her friend dig into the cookie bag for another. “Rafe still watching what you eat?”

Vi dropped into the chair opposite her, picked up her tea and took a long drink. “Like a hawk. He found my stash of Hershey’s bars, so they’re gone.” She ate the next cookie with as much relish as she had the first. “I love the man like crazy but he’s making me a little nuts. Although, one thing I’ll say for him, he does keep ice cream stocked for me.”

“Well, that’s something,” Andi agreed, taking a seat opposite her.

“But, wow, I miss cookies. And cake. And brownies. The only bad part about moving to the Wild Aces when I married Rafe? Leaving the Double M and our housekeeper Teresa’s brownies. I swear they’re magic.” Vi sighed and reached for another cookie. “You want to make a batch of brownies?”

Andi really hated to quash the hopeful look on her friend’s face, but said, “Oven doesn’t work.” Andi turned to look at the pastel pink gas stove. The burners worked fine, but the oven had been dead for years, she was willing to bet. “And it’s too hot in here to bake anything.”

“True.” Vi turned her tea glass on the narrow kitchen table, studying the water ring it left behind. “And I didn’t really come here to raid your pantry, either, in spite of the fact that I’m eating all of your Oreos.”

“Okay, then why are you here?”

“I’m a spy,” Violet said, laughing. “And I’m here to report that Mac is really twisted up about you quitting.”

“Is he?” Well, that felt good, didn’t it? She had long known that she was indispensable in the office. Now he knew it, too, and that thought brought her an immense wave of satisfaction. Instantly, a ping of guilt began to echo inside her, but Andi shut it down quickly. After all, it wasn’t as if she wanted Mac to have a hard time. She was only taking the opportunity to enjoy the fact that he was. “How do you know?”

“Well, spy work isn’t easy,” Violet admitted. “We pregnant operatives must rely on information from reliable sources.”

Andi laughed shortly. “You mean gossip.”

“I resent that term,” Violet said with an indignant sniff. Then she shrugged and took another cookie. “Although, it’s accurate. Mac hasn’t actually said anything to me directly. Yet. But Laura called a couple hours ago practically in tears.”

“What happened?” Andi asked. “Mac’s not the kind of man to bring a woman to tears.”

“I don’t know,” Violet said, smiling. “He’s made me cry a few times.”

“Angry tears don’t count.”

“Then Laura’s tears don’t count, either,” Vi told her. “She was really mad—at you for leaving her alone in the office.”

“Probably why she made up the Jamaica story,” Andi muttered.

“Jamaica?”

“Never mind.” She waved one hand to brush that away. “What did Mac do?”

“Nothing new. Just the same old crabby attitude you’ve been dealing with for years. Laura just doesn’t know how to deal with it yet.”

Okay, now she felt a little guilty. Mac could be...difficult. And maybe she should have used her two weeks’ notice to prepare Laura for handling him. But damn it, she’d learned on her own, hadn’t she? Laura was just going to have to suck it up and deal.

“Anyway,” Vi continued, “I told her the best thing to do was stay out of his way when he starts grumbling under his breath. She said that’s exactly what he was doing already and that the office was too small for her to effectively disappear.”

Andi chuckled because she could imagine the woman trying to hunch into invisibility behind her desk. “Poor Laura. I really shouldn’t laugh, though, should I? I sort of left her holding the bag, so to speak, and now she’s having to put up with not only Mac’s demands but the fact that I’m not there to take the heat off.”

“Laura’s tough. She can take it.” Vi picked up a fourth cookie and sighed a little as she bit in. “Or she won’t. Either way, her choice. And if she walks out, too? An even better lesson for Mac.”

“You think?”

“Absolutely,” his sister said, waving her cookie for emphasis before popping it into her mouth and talking around it while she chewed. “The man thinks he’s the center of the universe and all the rest of us are just moons orbiting him.

“Maybe it really started when our parents died and he had to step up. You know, he’s only six years older than me, but he went from big brother to overbearing father figure in a finger snap.” She frowned a little, remembering. “We butted heads a lot, but in the end, Mac always found a way to win.”

Andi knew most of this family history. Over the years, Mac had talked to her about the private plane crash that had claimed his parents and how he’d worked to make sure that Violet felt safe and secure despite the tragedy that had rocked their family. He’d done it, too. Violet was not only a successful, happy adult, she was married and about to become a mother.

Maybe he had been overbearing—and knowing Mac, she really had no doubt of that—but he’d protected his sister, kept the family ranch and even managed to build on the business his parents had left behind until McCallum Enterprises was one of the biggest, most diversified companies in the country.

In all fairness to him, Andi had to say, “Looks to me like he did a good job.”

Violet shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, he did. But the thing is, he’s so used to people snapping to attention whenever he walks into a room, I think it’s good for him that you quit. That he’s finding out he can’t always win. It’ll be a growth moment for him.”

But Andi knew that growth wasn’t always easy. She also knew she should feel bad about being glad that Mac would have a hard time without her.

Apparently, though, she wasn’t that good a person.

* * *

She still wasn’t there.

From the moment Mac walked into the office that morning, a part of him had fully expected to find Andi right where she belonged, at her desk. But she hadn’t been.

Except for a few times when he’d had no other choice, Mac had spent most of the day ignoring Laura as she hunched behind her computer, pretending to be invisible. No doubt she’d been worried how the day would go without Andi there to take care of things.

Well, hell, he had been, too.

As it turned out, with reason.

“This day just couldn’t get worse.”

Mac left his office and fired a hard look at Laura. “I need the Franklin contracts. I tried to pull up the pdf and it’s not where it’s supposed to be. Bob Franklin just called, he’s got some questions and—” He noticed the wide-eyed expression on Laura’s face and told himself it was pointless to hammer at her.

This was Andi’s territory. Turning, he stomped into the back of the building where Andi had stored hard copies of each of their in-progress deals in old-fashioned file cabinets. Of course, their records were mostly digitized and stored in the cloud, with several redundant backup sites so nothing could be lost. But there was something to say for holding a hard copy of a contract in your hands. It was immediate and more convenient, in his mind, than scrolling up and down a computer screen looking for a particular clause. Especially when you couldn’t find the damn digital copy.

“And now I have to hunt down the stupid contract the hard way.” He yanked open the top file drawer and started flipping through the manila separators. He made it through the Fs and didn’t find the Franklin takeover.

Shaking his head, he told himself that he was the damn boss. It wasn’t up to him to find a damn contract on a damn deal they’d done only three weeks ago. The problem was it was Andi’s job and she wasn’t here to do it.

Laura was good at what she did and he had no doubt that in time she might grow to be even a third as good as Andi at the job. But for now, the woman was an office manager suddenly tossed into the deep end. There were a couple of part-time interns, too, but neither of them could find their way out of a paper bag without a flashlight and a map.

“So bottom line?” he muttered, slamming the drawer and then opening another one. “I’m screwed.”

Normally, this late in the afternoon, he and Andi were huddled around his desk, talking about the day’s work and what was coming up on the schedule. He really didn’t want to admit how much he missed just talking to her. Having her there to bounce ideas off of. To help him strategize upcoming jobs.

“Plus, she would know exactly where the stupid contract is,” he muttered.

Mac hated this. Hated having his life disrupted, his business interfered with—hell, his world set off balance. Worse, Andi had to have known this would happen when she walked out and, no doubt, she was sitting on a beach in Bimini right now, smiling at the thought of him trying to set things right again on his own.

“Take a vacation. Who the hell has time for a vacation?” he asked the empty file room. “If you love what you do, work is vacation enough, isn’t it?” He slammed the second drawer shut and yanked the third open. What the hell kind of filing system was she using, anyway?

“She loved her work, too,” he muttered. “Can’t tell me otherwise. In charge of every damn thing here, wasn’t she? Even setting up the damn filing system in some weird way that I can’t figure out now. If she thinks I’m going to let this damn office crumble to the ground then she’s got another damn think or two coming to her because damned if I will, damn it!”

Temper spiking, he slammed the third drawer shut and then just stood there, hands on his hips, and did a slow turn, taking in the eight filing cabinets and the dust-free work table and chairs in the center of the room.

“Why the hell is she on a beach when I need her help?”

His brain dredged up a dreamlike image of Andi, lying back on some lounge, beneath a wide umbrella. She sipped at a frothy drink and behind huge sunglasses, her eyes smiled. Some cabana boy hovered nearby enjoying the view of Andi in a tiny yellow bikini that Mac’s mind assured him was filled out perfectly.

Mac scowled and shut down that mental image because he sure as hell didn’t need it. “Why is she off enjoying herself when I’m here trying to figure out what she did?”

But even as he complained, he knew it wasn’t the filing that bothered him. Given enough time, he’d find whatever he needed to find. It was being here. In the office. Without Andi.

All day he’d felt slightly off balance. One step out of rhythm. It had started when he got there early as usual and didn’t smell coffee. Andi had always beat him to work and had the coffee going for both of them. Then she’d carry two cups into his office and they’d go over the day’s schedule and the plans that were constantly in motion.

Not today, though. He’d made his own damn coffee—he wasn’t a moron after all—then had carried it to his desk and sat there alone, going over schedules that she had set up. She wasn’t there to talk to. She wasn’t there to remind him to keep on track and not to go spinning off into tangents—so his brain had taken one of those side roads and he’d lost two hours of time while researching an idea on the internet. So the rest of the day he was behind schedule and that was her fault, too.

“What the hell is she doing in Bimini? Or Tahiti or wherever it is she went looking to relax?” Shaking his head, he walked to the window and stared out as the twilight sky deepened into lavender and the first stars winked into existence.

In the distance, he could see the fields of his home ranch, the Double M, freshly planted and only waiting for summer heat to grow and thrive and become a sea of waving, deep, rich green alfalfa. Beyond those fields lay miles of open prairie, where his cattle wandered freely and the horses he wanted to focus on raising and breeding raced across open ground, tails and manes flying.

This was his place. His home. His empire.

He’d taken over from his father when his parents died and Mac liked to think they’d have been proud of what he’d done with their legacy. He’d improved it, built on it and had plans that would continue to make it grow and thrive.

“And it would be a helluva lot easier to do if Andi hadn’t chucked it all for the beach and a margarita.”

When his phone rang, he reached for it, digging it out of his pocket. Seeing his sister’s name pop up didn’t put a smile on his face. “What is it, Vi?”

“Well, hello to you, too,” she said, laughing in his ear. “Nothing like family to give you that warm, fuzzy feeling.”

He sighed, scraped one hand across his face and searched for patience. He and Vi had been at odds most of their lives, especially since he had been in charge of her and Vi didn’t take kindly to anyone giving her orders. Through it all, though, they’d remained close, which he was grateful for.

Usually.

Already annoyed, he didn’t need much of a push to pass right into irritated. “What is it, Vi? I’m busy.”

“Wow, I’m just choking up with all this sentiment. Must be all these hormones from being pregnant with your first niece or nephew.”

Reluctantly, Mac smiled. Shaking his head, he leaned back against the nearest cabinet and said, “Point made. Okay then, what’s going on, little sister?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just wanted to see how you were holding up—you know,” she added in a sly tone, “with Andi gone and all.”

“Heard about that, did you?” Hadn’t taken long, Mac thought. But then the only thing that moved faster than a Texas tornado was gossip in Royal. He hated knowing that the whole town was talking about him.

Again. During that mess with Rafe, the McCallum family had been pretty much front and center on everyone’s radar. With that settled, he’d expected life to go back to normal. Which it would have if Andi hadn’t gotten a wild hair up her—

“Of course I heard,” Vi was saying, and he could tell by her voice she was enjoying herself. “People all over town are talking about it and I figured Laura could use some advice on how to defuse your temper.”

“Temper?” He scowled and shifted his gaze back to the view out the window. He realized it was later than he thought, as he watched Laura hurrying across the parking lot to her car. He sighed when she glanced back at the building uneasily. Hell, he’d be lucky if Laura didn’t desert him, too. Still, he felt as though he had to defend himself. “I don’t have a temper—”

Violet laughed and the sound rolled on and on until she was nearly gasping for breath. “Oh my, Mac. That was a good one.”

He scowled a little as Laura drove out of the lot, then he shifted his gaze to the twilight just creeping across the sky. “Glad you’re having a fine time.”

“Well, come on,” she said, laughter still evident in her tone. “Don’t you remember the roof-raising shouting you used to do at me when I was a kid?”

“Shouting’s not temper,” he argued, “that’s communication.”

“Okay, sure,” she said, chuckling. “Anyway, how’s it going in the office without Andi there riding herd on everything?”

“It’s my business, Vi,” he reminded her. “I think I can take care of it on my own.”

“That bad, huh?”

His back teeth ground together and he took a tight grip on the shout that wanted to erupt from his throat. It would only prove his sister right about his temper. And yeah, she was right about Andi being gone, too. It wasn’t easy. Harder, frankly, than he’d thought it would be. But he wouldn’t admit it. Wouldn’t say so to Vi and for damn sure wouldn’t be calling Andi to ask for help while she sat on some beach sipping cocktails. She’d made her choice, he told himself. Walked away from her responsibilities—from him—without a backward glance.

“Well, when I saw Andi earlier, she was doing just fine, in case you were interested...”

He came to attention. “You saw her? Where?”

“Her house.”

Mac frowned out the window at the darkening sky. “She said she was taking her vacation time.”

“And she’s using it to fix up the house she’s barely seen since she bought it.”

He heard the dig in there and he wouldn’t apologize for working so much. And as his assistant, Andi had been expected to spend as much time as he did at the job—and she’d never complained until now.

“With what I pay her as my executive assistant,” he argued, “Andi could have hired crews of men to pull that house together at any point in the last year.”

“Speaking of points,” his sister said, “you’re missing Andi’s entirely. She wants a life, Mac. Something you should think about, too.”

“My life is just fine.”

“Right. It’s why you’re living in the big ranch house all by yourself and the last date you had was with that airhead model who had trouble spelling her own name.”

Mac snorted. She had a point about Jez. But when a man dated a woman like that, he wasn’t worrying about her IQ.

“You realize you’re supposed to be on my side in this?”

“Strangely enough, I am on your side, Mac. You’re the most hardheaded man I’ve ever known—and that includes my darling husband, Rafe.”

“Thanks very much,” he muttered.

“I’m just saying,” Vi went on, “maybe you could learn something from Andi on this.”

“You want me to quit, too? You ready to take over?”

She laughed and he could almost see her rolling her eyes. “A vacation isn’t the end of the world, Mac. Even for you.”

While Vi talked, telling him all about the new nursery she and Rafe were having designed, Mac’s mind once again focused on Andi.

Why in hell she’d all of a sudden gone off the rails, he still didn’t understand. But if she was here in Texas and not being waited on by hot-and-cold-running cabana boys, maybe he could find out.

He smiled to himself. And maybe, he could convince her that quitting this job was the biggest mistake she’d ever made.

Three

It had been a long day, but a good one.

Andi was feeling pretty smug about her decision to quit and was deliberately ignoring the occasional twinges of regret. She’d done the right thing, leaving her job and—though it pained her—Mac behind. In fact, she should have done it three years ago. As soon as she realized that she was in love with a man who would never see her as more than a piece of office equipment.

Her heart ached a little, but she took another sip of wine and deliberately drowned that pain. Once she was free of her idle daydreams of Mac, she’d be able to look around, find a man to be with. To help her build the life she wanted so badly. A house. Children. A job that didn’t eat up every moment of her time until it was all she could do to squeeze out a few minutes for a shower every day.

Shaking her head clear of any thoughts at all, she sipped her wine and focused on the TV. The old movie playing was one of her favorites. And The Money Pit seemed particularly apt at this moment. The house needed a lot of work, but now she had the time and the money to put into it. It occurred to her that she was actually nesting and she liked it. The smell of fresh paint wafted through the room, even with the windows open to catch whatever the early-summer breeze might stir up. It was a warm night, but Andi was too tired to care. Her arms ached from wielding a roller all day, but it felt good. So good, in fact, she didn’t even grumble when someone knocked on the front door, disturbing her relaxation period.

Wineglass in hand, she answered the door and jolted when she saw Mac smiling at her from across the threshold. He was absolutely the last person she would have expected to find on her porch.

“Mac? What’re you doing here?”

“Hello to you, too,” he said and stepped past her, unasked, into the house.

All she could do was close the door and follow him into the living room.

He turned a slow circle, taking in the room, and she looked at her house through his eyes. The living room had scarred wooden floors, a couch and coffee table and a small end table with a lamp, turned on now against the twilight gloom. The attached dining room was empty but for the old built-in china cabinet, and the open doorway into the kitchen showed off that room’s flaws to perfection.

The whole house looked like a badly furnished rental, not like someone’s home. But then, in her defense, she hadn’t had the opportunity before now to really make a difference in the old house. Still, her newly painted soft green walls looked great.

He sniffed. “Been painting.”

“Good guess.”

He turned around, gave her a quick smile that had her stomach jittering before she could quash her automatic response. “I can smell it. The color’s good.”

“Thanks. Mac, why are you here?”

“First off,” he said, “where the hell did you file the Franklin contracts?”

She hadn’t been expecting that. “Alphabetically in the cabinet marked T for takeovers. There’s also a B for buyouts and M for mergers.”

He whipped his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. “Of course there is.”

“Laura could have told you this.”

“Laura’s not speaking to me.”

“You scared her, didn’t you,” Andi said, shaking her head.

“I’m not scary.”

“You don’t scare me.”

“Maybe I should,” he muttered, then shrugged. “I’m also here because I wanted to get a look at what you left me for.”

“You make it sound like I’m your cheating wife.” She sighed. “I didn’t leave you. I left my job.”

But she had left him, Mac thought. It didn’t feel like an employee walking out, but a betrayal. Damn it, she’d taught him over the years to count on her. To depend on her for too many things—and then she was gone. How the hell else was he supposed to feel?

“Same thing.” His gaze fixed on her and for the first time he noticed that she wore a tiny tank top and a silky pair of drawstring pants. Her feet were bare and her toenails were painted a soft, blush pink. Her hair was long and loose over her shoulders, just skimming the tops of her breasts.

Mac took a breath and wondered where that flash of heat swamping him had come from. He’d been with Andi nearly every day for the past six years and he’d never reacted to her like this before. Sure, she was pretty, but she was his assistant. The one stable, organized, efficient woman in his life and he’d never taken the time to notice that she was so much more than that.

Now it was all he could notice.

Dragging his gaze from her, he took a deep breath and looked down the short hall toward the back of the house. “Do I get a tour?”

“No.” She really wanted him out of there. He had to wonder why. “I painted all day. I’m tired. So—”

He looked back at her and thought she didn’t look tired to him. She looked downright edible. “You don’t have to do it all yourself, Andi. I could have a crew out here tomorrow and they’d be done with the whole place by the end of the week.”

“I enjoy painting.”

He shot her a speculative look. “You enjoy hacking your way through jungles, too? A team of gardeners could tear out those briars growing wild by the front porch.”

“I don’t want to hire someone—”

“I said I would hire them.”

“No.”

“Why the hell not?” He could understand stubbornness. Hell, he sort of admired it. But this was pure mule-headedness. There was no reason for her to work herself into the ground trying to prove a point. “People who own houses hire people to work on them all the time.”

“You don’t get it, Mac,” she said. “I want to do the work.”

“You obviously need the help.” He gave another quick look around. He could see what his sister had meant. The house did seem to be practically void of any kind of personal decoration or warmth. “You’ve been here—what? A year? As organized as you are, it shouldn’t have taken you nearly that long to whip this place into shape. But it looks like you’ve hardly touched it.”

Insult shot through her tone. “Seriously? When was I supposed to do any of that? I spend—spent—all of my time at the office. And on those extremely rare—I’m talking bigfoot-sighting rare—occasions when I did get an entire weekend off, I tried to squeeze in a little family time. See people. Go outside.”

Mac rubbed one hand across the back of his neck and wished he could argue with her, but he knew she was right. He had pretty much monopolized her every waking moment for the past six years. But it wasn’t as if he’d held her hostage. She’d made a hell of a lot of money thanks to the job she’d walked away from so easily.

“You don’t have to make it sound like you were in prison,” he pointed out in his own defense. “You love the work as much as I do.”

“I do enjoy the work, and I’m good at it,” she added as if he needed reminding. “But I want more out of life than closeting myself up in an office.”

“And painting your house yourself, digging out briars and a mountain of weeds like I’ve never seen before, is ‘more’?”

She frowned and he felt her irritation coming at him in thick waves. “For now, yes.”

“You really must be desperate if you call painting and gardening a vacation,” he said, watching her. “I really expected the rumor about you and Jamaica was true and you were off having silly drinks in coconut shells.”

That mental image of Andi in a bathing suit rose up in his mind again, and now, thanks to seeing her out of her normal buttoned-down attire, his imagination was doing a much better job of filling out that dream bikini.

She huffed out a breath, folded her arms over her middle, unconsciously lifting her breasts high enough that he got a peek at the tops of them thanks to the scoop-necked tank she wore. A buzz of electricity zapped Mac and he had to work to keep his own hormones in line. How had he spent six years with this woman and not noticed how nicely she was put together?

She’d always worn her long, straight brown hair pulled back in a businesslike knot or ponytail, so until tonight he never would have guessed that it was wavy when she let it down around her shoulders—or that lamplight brought out hidden golden streaks among the dark brown. Andi had always worn sensible, straitlaced clothing on the job, so seeing her in that sleeveless tank and loose, silky sleep pants was a jolt to his system. Not to mention the fact that her upper arms were sleekly muscled and tanned. Where did she get that tan?

“Do I really strike you as the kind of woman who would enjoy lounging on a beach for two weeks?”

“Yesterday,” he told her, “I would have said no way. But today—” he paused and let his gaze sweep up and down the length of her in an appreciative glance “—maybe.”

She seemed to realize what she was wearing and he thought he actually caught a flush of color fill her cheeks briefly. Andi blushing? How many more surprises could a man take?

“You should go,” she said simply.

Yeah, he probably should. But not yet. He could see that she was nesting or some damn thing here and until she’d gotten it out of her system, nothing would budge her out of this tiny, unfinished house. So the quickest way to get things back to normal would be for him to help her. Besides, if he really had kept her so busy she couldn’t even unpack over the past year, maybe he owed it to her.

Whether Andi knew it or not, she was going to be bored senseless with nothing more to do than paint and mow the yard and whatever the hell else needed doing around here. Her mind was too sharp, her organizational skills too well honed for her to be happy puttering around the house. The sooner she realized that, the better for all of them.

“Tell you what,” he announced. “I’ll take the next two weeks off, too.”

“What? Why? What?” She shook her head as if she hadn’t heard him clearly, and who could blame her?

Mac couldn’t remember when he’d last taken time off. He’d always been reluctant to leave the business in anyone’s hands but his own. Not even his vice president’s, and there weren’t many people Mac trusted more than Tim Flanagan.

Now, with both Mac and Andi out of the office, and Tim off investigating another possible business move, there’d be no one there but Laura and a couple of interns. But it wasn’t as though he was leaving the country, he told himself. He was right here in Royal, so if Laura ran into problems, he was completely reachable. Besides, two weeks would be over in a blink and everything would get back to normal.

“You quit your job so you’d have time to do stuff like this, right?”

Andi’s lips pursed for a second before she nodded. “In a nutshell, yes.”

“Fine. Then I’ll be here for the next two weeks, helping you slap this place into shape.” He curled his fingers over the brim of his hat. “Once we’re done, if you still want to quit, fine.”

“I will,” she told him. “In fact, I already have quit.”

He shrugged. “You can always change your mind.”

“Not going to happen.”

“We’ll just think of these next two weeks as a sort of trial period,” he said as if she hadn’t spoken at all. “You can see what it’s like to be out of the office and still have a chance to call off your resignation.”

“Mac, you’re making this harder than it has to be.”

Yeah, he thought, recognizing the stubborn set to her chin, the flash in her eyes. Her mind was set. But then, he reassured himself, so was his. And when Mac McCallum made a decision, it was set in stone. In short order, he was going to prove to Andi that she wasn’t the kind of woman to walk away from a high-powered job. She liked the responsibility. Thrived on it.

He had no doubt at all who was going to come out the winner in their little contest of wills. And by the time Andi had spent two weeks doing nothing but nesting, she’d be yearning to get back to the office and dive right in.

Giving her a slow smile, he said, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll go in, take care of a couple things, tie up some loose ends and then I’m all yours.”

“Mine?”

His smile deepened. Maybe it was small of Mac, but he enjoyed seeing her confused and just a little flustered. That almost never happened. Andi was too controlled. Too organized. Too on top of every damn thing that entered her universe. Being able to throw her for a loop, he decided, was fun.

“Yeah,” he said, hooking his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “Like I said, I’ll be here, helping you. So for the next two weeks, you’re the boss and I’m the employee.”

“I’m the boss?”

He winked. “Like the sound of that, don’t you?”

While she stared at him, he shifted his gaze around the room, checking out the freshly painted walls. “You did a nice job in here—”

“Gee, thanks.”

“—but,” he added as if she hadn’t spoken, “the ceiling could use another coat. Hard for you to reach it I guess, since you’re not all that tall.”

“I used a ladder—”

“I won’t need one to go over it tomorrow. Then we’ll do the trim.”

“I don’t want your help.”

His gaze immediately locked on hers. “Maybe not. But you need it.”

She opened her mouth, then shut it again and took a breath before speaking. “Mac, I appreciate the offer...”

“No, you don’t.” In fact, her storm-gray eyes were smoldering. Typical Andi—she’d never admit there was something she couldn’t do on her own.

Her lips twitched. “Okay, no, I don’t. But then, you don’t really want to take time away from the office to paint my house, either.”

Mac thought about it for a minute. Ordinarily no, he wouldn’t. His company had been his life for so many years now, he couldn’t really imagine taking two weeks away from it. But if he wanted to keep Andi working for him—and he did—then he’d have to invest the time to convince her to stay. So he shrugged off her comment as if it meant nothing. “When I was a kid, my dad had me out on the ranch painting the barn, the stables, the fence around my mother’s garden. I’m damn good with a paintbrush. And at woodworking. The ranch carpenter taught me a lot back then. I’ve got a fair hand at plumbing, too, though that can be iffy.”

“Why would you want to use your no doubt impressive skills on my house?”

Here he gave her a grin and a wink. “What kind of Texan would I be if I didn’t ride to the rescue?”

Her head snapped back. “Rescue? I don’t need to be rescued, Mac. And now’s a good time to remind you that for the last six years, I’m the one who’s done most of the rescuing.”

He laughed. Her outrage put fire in her eyes and a rush of color in her cheeks. Her breath was coming fast and furious and her breasts hitched even higher beneath that skimpy tank top. He’d have to remember to make her furious more often.

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll give you that. You’ve been riding herd on the business and keeping things moving for six years. So now it’s time I paid that back.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need you to pay me back for doing my job.”

“Maybe it’s not about what you need,” he said, and felt tension crawl through him as he stared into her gray eyes, where the fire was now banked, simmering low. This woman had been a central part of his life for years and he wasn’t ready for that to end yet. Now that he was here, with her, in this nearly empty house with the dark settling around them, he wanted that even less than when he’d first come here.

“We’ll work together and at the end of two weeks, if you still want to walk away, so be it.” Sounded reasonable, though Mac had no intention of letting her go. “This is my decision, Andi. And you should know better than anyone else, once I make a call, I stick to it.”

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