The Accidental Cowboy by Heidi Hormel

Author:Heidi Hormel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“Tell me you can’t come and take care of Cat,” Lavonda said to Olympia as soon as the other woman answered the phone.

“Okay. I can’t take care of Cat. Why am I saying this?” A faint “yes we can” in a young male voice came through the phone.

Lavonda paced in her room, ignoring Cat’s glare. “Is that Cal?”

“You know how he feels about that animal. Really, why am I not able to take care of her?”

“I’m supposed to take Dr. Kincaid out on the trail. If I can’t find someone to care for the animals, I won’t be able to do that.” It wasn’t the best of excuses, but Lavonda would take anything to stay at the ranch while Jones went out into the desert and he wandered there like Moses, for all she cared. She should never have agreed to guide him in the first place. It might have been her hormones talking and she had put those in their place now.

“Dr. Kincaid...” Olympia paused. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“I told you the eminent archaeologist residing at Hacienda Bunuelos will be out in the desert and needs a guide. Me.”

“That’s the same kilted guy that you—”

“He’s the professor being hosted by the university that owns the ranch.”

“Stop, Lavonda. Tell me what’s going on or I’m packing everyone up—including the puppy—and coming for a visit.”

“Cat heard that,” Lavonda said, stalling. She looked at the feline, who really did have extra menace in her stare.

“If that threat doesn’t work, I’m pulling out the big guns. I’ll tell Jessie or...your mother.”

Lavonda cracked. She should be better than this. A professional businesswoman should have more backbone than to cave at the thought of someone calling her mother. She told Olympia about the meeting in Gwen’s office, about Jones’s—or should she say Ross’s—lies, and the most telling fact: Dolly-Acropolis.

“I can see why he might not want to broadcast he’d found dolls instead of gold,” Olympia finally said.

“He lied.”

“So?”

Lavonda could almost hear the shrug through the phone. “Let me say it again. He. Lied.”

“Sounds more like he didn’t reveal everything. And you’re telling me that you’ve been completely open and honest with him about everything? Because this certainly is not about him deceiving the university. This is about him and you.”

“There wasn’t a him and me. We just...” Lavonda trailed off because honestly—as if anything about the situation invoked honesty—she didn’t know what they had been.

“Of course, there was a you and him. You don’t get involved—and I would say something else here, but little pitchers, big ears—if you don’t feel something or want a more permanent relationship.”

All of that made Lavonda want to cry, wail and beat her breasts. She didn’t even care how overly dramatic that sounded. “Be that as it may,” she responded, “he lied, and I want my interactions with him to be limited. Going out on the trail is not limiting my exposure to more of his lies.”

“Let me try this. When you worked in PR, you never lied, right?” Olympia didn’t wait for an answer.

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