One Man and a Baby Page 5

  Rick handed Ellen a twenty for his coffee. “She was married?”

  “A whole year. Got married at twenty. Got divorced at twenty-one. And lost her fight to keep her trust fund at twenty-two.”

  Ellen took a breath before she set Rick’s change on his open palm. “Let me tell you something, Rick. Ashley’s really toughened up after everything she’s been through, but the gossip nearly killed her.”

  Considering that Ellen was currently the one telling the tale, Rick only smiled.

  “I wouldn’t want to see her go through another bout like that.”

  “If she learned her lessons she probably won’t.”

  “I would say you were right except now with her daddy leaving, she’s probably vulnerable.”

  Not quite comfortable with the direction the conversation was taking, Rick said, “I suspect she is.”

  “So she might look like an easy mark to somebody with a little more experience.”

  At that Rick’s spine straightened and he hissed out a breath. He got it now. Ellen was warning him off. He almost couldn’t believe it, then wondered what he expected. The people of this town had always thought the worst of him. He’d given them cause when he was a teenager, but no one had stopped to consider that he might have grown up.

  “You know, Ellen, that’s very interesting. But I learned a whole bunch of things myself, so I know a bit about mistakes. If Ashley really learned her lessons as you say she did, then she shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

  He left before Ellen had a chance to reply, and cursed a blue streak driving back to Seven Hills. He hated people like Ellen who spent their days talking about other people, but he hated even worse that she was right. He and Ashley couldn’t even have a fling. The gossip would kill them. In every whispered scenario, she’d be a stupid idiot for hooking up with another opportunist and he’d be the opportunist.

  The fling idea absolutely wouldn’t work to settle their attraction, which meant he was back to his original conclusion. The one he made the very first night he stayed at Seven Hills. His only option was to get rid of Ashley. But this time it wasn’t just to keep his job. It was to prevent both of them from becoming the object of gossip. If he didn’t get her to stop playing farmhand somebody would notice the look in her eyes when he walked in her direction, or the twitch of Rick’s palm when she was close enough to touch, or hear the quiver in either one of their voices. Then the gossip would be so bad they’d both have to leave town.

  And he couldn’t do that. He needed the security and privacy of a place like Seven Hills and he needed this job. More than that, if everything Ellen said was true, then Ashley needed to be with her dad. She needed to drop the idea of running the family horse farm and move to the Caribbean.

  Rick pulled his truck into a parking space in front of the barn, got out and strode into the office. When Toby arrived fifteen minutes later, coffee in one hand, newspaper in the other, he fell onto the seat in front of the desk. “You get your coffee?”

  “Got some at the diner.”

  Toby shook his head. “One cup of coffee is hardly enough to get the old engine started.” He handed his store-bought cup across the desk. “You can have this one.”

  “I got mine to go.” Rick lifted his takeout coffee.

  “Saw you driving over to your sister’s this morning, too.”

  “Yeah, thought I’d stop by and say hello.”

  Toby laughed. “At four o’clock in the morning?”

  “You more than anybody else know about the odd hours a manager has to keep. Since Drew gets up before dawn like I do, it’s as good a time as any to visit.”

  Accepting that, Toby nodded. “Your sister’s a good girl.”

  “Yes, she is,” Rick agreed. He didn’t know what he’d do if she hadn’t been available to help him.

  “And Ashley’s a good girl, too.”

  Rick glanced up. He’d wondered why Toby was suddenly so full of small talk this morning. Now he knew. Rick was about to be slapped with another sermon. But at least he could reason with Toby. Maybe even win him over to his side.

  “Yeah, Ashley might be a good girl, but she doesn’t belong running a farm. Hell, she doesn’t even belong working here. She should just go back to riding and doing whatever else it is girls like her do.”

  “I think you’re wrong,” Toby said, then sipped his coffee. “I can see her chatting up potential buyers for the horses or sweet-talking the guys we want to buy from.”

  “I don’t need to sweet-talk anybody. I can negotiate well enough on my own without any extra assets.”

  “I’m just saying that it never hurts to have a secret weapon.”

  “I know all about secret weapons, Toby. I dated somebody like Ashley and let me tell you secret weapons get old fast. And sometimes they even backfire.”

  To his surprise Toby laughed. “Yeah, I suppose there are times when that’s true. Gene’s been trying to get old man Clemmons’s farm from his boys for the past six months. First time out, he went over there with candy for the kids and all kinds of gifts and the Clemmons acted like he was there to trick them out of their land and all but called the chief of police.”

  Picturing it, Rick laughed.

  Toby shifted on his seat. “Yeah, we’re laughing, but it wasn’t funny then. Gene was amazed he even got them to sign a preliminary agreement.”

  “What’s holding up a final agreement?”

  “What else? Money.”

  Rick nodded. “Sometimes the only real negotiating tool is money. And if Gene can’t give them anymore…” He stopped. The Clemmons kids were basically good people, but they were rough. Exactly the kind of rough Ashley had been sheltered from most of her life and dealing with them would provide the type of real life situation that might force her to realize she would much rather live with her dad in paradise than spend her days dickering with farmers. “Toby, what do you have planned for today?”

  “Same as always.”

  Rick rose from his desk. “Think you can find me somebody to replace Ashley on mucking this morning?”

  “You’re setting her free?”

  “I think today’s the day she’s going to set herself free.” He left the barn and strode to the main house. There was a light on in the kitchen, so he bounced up the steps to her porch and knocked on the back door.

  Dressed in a clean T-shirt and jeans, Ashley answered the door. “I’m not late.”

  She walked to the butcher block in the center of the room and picked up her brick-red-colored mug.

  Rick entered the enormous kitchen of the main house. Painted the same color as her mug, with oak cabinets everywhere, copper pots as decorations, and hardwood floors with southwest print rugs, the room looked more like something in the showroom of a building supply store than somebody’s real kitchen.

  “No, but you’re also not mucking stalls today. Your dad’s been negotiating with the Clemmons kids for their father’s farm. We haven’t heard from them in a few weeks. I thought today would be a good day to send somebody over and take their temperature. You up for it?”

  She looked so surprised Rick almost felt bad for setting her up. But he had to. Managing a farm wasn’t easy and he didn’t think she had the finesse for it. Getting her to see that quickly was a kindness.

  “Yes, I’m up for it.”

  “Great.”

  Chapter Four

  Her dad would have worn khakis and a polo shirt. Ashley chose to wear a burnt-orange pantsuit for this meeting. She wasn’t quite as casual as her dad, and she ultimately intended to put a more professional face on the name Seven Hills. The farm had always been stately and grand, but she had a vision of Seven Hills—known for nearly a dozen Kentucky Derby winners one of which just missed the triple crown—as being elegant.

  She had even decided the night before that when she took control of the business, the staff would wear polo shirts with the farm’s logo above the left breast, and uniform pants would replace jeans. She had also det
ermined that she would keep the office in the main barn, and use the den and living room of the farmhouse for more important visitors like buyers.

  Driving up Crescent Hill, then down the dirt lane of the Clemmons farm, Ashley was very glad she owned an SUV. The closer she got to the house, the more rutted the road became and the more surrounded by trees. That was when she questioned her choice of heels.

  Still, she exited her vehicle, putting her sunglasses in her brown leather briefcase since the multicolored canopy created by the fall leaves blocked the glare of the sun. She walked gingerly up the stone sidewalk to the simple white-frame house and knocked twice. A young woman opened the front door but not the screen door.

  An odd sensation of warning rippled through her. The last screen door that hadn’t opened to her had belonged to an angry Rick Capriotti.

  “Can I help you?”

  Ashley smiled. “I’m Ashley Meljac.”

  “I know who you are.”

  “Great, then you probably know my dad’s been talking with your brothers about buying your farm.”

  The young woman turned and yelled, “Jake! That Meljac girl is here to see you.”

  Ashley took a breath. Nerves danced along her skin. The screen door hadn’t opened yet, but she was getting an audience with the oldest Clemmons son. She couldn’t believe Rick had so easily handed her her big chance to prove herself, but he had. And she began to wonder if he hadn’t finally realized she didn’t intend to give up, so he was bucking for the job of assistant manager. Which wouldn’t be such a bad idea. With her at the helm and Rick as backup, as well as available for advice, they would be an unbeatable team.

  Jake Clemmons appeared at the front door. He didn’t open the screen, either. Still, Ashley didn’t panic. Her father had only completed the beginning phases of negotiation. The screen door might not open until they were a little further along.

  “What do you want?”

  Ashley smiled. “You’re negotiating with my dad to sell your farm. I’m just here to see how your decision is coming on that.”

  Jake opened the screen door and Ashley’s heart flip-flopped. He was going to let her in!

  She shifted her briefcase to step inside the house, but was blocked when Jake leaned forward and spit a stream of tobacco that cleared the porch and landed in the front yard.

  “You here to offer us more money?”

  Not wanting to insult the man with a shiver of disgust, Ashley held it back, settling for a quiet breath before she calmly said, “I’ve seen my dad’s last offer and it was generous.”

  “There are six of us who live here. Six of us who will need new places to live if we sell this house and six of us who want to use that money as a jump-start. Your dad’s going to have to come up with a better offer than what we got.”

  “So you aren’t accepting my dad’s offer?”

  Jake laughed. “Ain’t that what I just said?” He spit again, narrowly missing her jacket sleeve.

  “Yes. That’s exactly what you said. I just wanted to be clear.”

  “So you offering us more money?”

  “No.” She wasn’t authorized to offer more money, and she suddenly saw what Rick had done. He hadn’t handed her a big chance. He’d sent her here thinking he would scare her. Or to show her she was out of her element. But either way she looked like a jackass. Particularly to the Clemmonses who were expecting a raised bid.

  “You know what? I’m going to go back and talk to my manager, Rick Capriotti, and see if the budget will allow us to raise our offer.”

  Jake smiled. “That’s right neighborly of you.”

  Ashley said, “You’re welcome,” turned and walked to her SUV. She wasn’t unnerved by the Clemmonses. She wasn’t upset by tobacco chewing. She didn’t care if the men cursed around her, or if she had to muck stalls, and do legitimate errands that sent her into town looking like a refugee from a manure factory. She did, however, hate being made to look like an idiot.

  She left the Clemmons farm, drove to Seven Hills’s main barn, jumped out of her SUV, strode into Rick’s office and slammed the door. “Today is the day you can consider yourself fired.”

  He glanced up. “You can’t fire me.”

  “No, but when I tell my dad you sent me to the Clemmonses to scare me, I’m sure he’ll fire you.”

  “Why? For upsetting his precious daughter?” He leaned back in his chair so far the two front wheels came off the ground. The position showed off his lean frame and long legs and drew her attention to the point that she nearly lost her train of thought.

  Ashley shook her head, annoyed with herself for noticing. “No, but he will fire you for putting us in a position where we now have to raise our bid on the Clemmons farm.”

  Rick’s chair fell to the floor with a thump. “I didn’t authorize you to raise our bid!”

  “Well, I did it anyway because you might be able to manipulate me, but I wasn’t going to let you manipulate the Clemmonses. They’re nice people. They need money. The farm is their only bargaining chip for a jump-start on life. When I went there today they were expecting a raised offer. I refused to disappoint them.”

  “That’s not how negotiating works. You have to start thinking carrot and stick. Give them something to reach for while subtly warning them that if they don’t reach they’ll lose.”

  “And that’s not how I work. I am fair, Mr. Capriotti. I do not trick people.”

  With that she marched out of the office and to the farmhouse. Striding toward the den, she shucked her suit jacket and dropped it onto one of the upholstered chairs around the shiny cherrywood table of the huge formal dining room. She yanked the scarf from around her neck and tossed it onto an antique French provincial table in the long hall. Without breaking stride, she flung off her high heels, letting them land with a thump by the waterfall built into the wall across from the stained-glass front door.

  By the time she reached the den, she wore only her suit trousers and the little white tank top she had beneath the jacket. She strode to the desk, snatched up the receiver of the phone and dialed the number for her dad’s cell phone.

  “Hello.”

  “Daddy, it’s me.”

  “Hey, Ash, how’s it going? You learning a lot?”

  “Yeah,” she said, sinking to the chair behind the desk. It was so good to hear her dad’s relaxed, confident voice that she settled down, too. “I’m learning a lot more than I thought I would.”

  “Rick’s a great guy. Smart guy. You wouldn’t have believed his résumé. He bummed around on the rodeo circuit, then just stopped and finished his degree. Got a job on Tuscarora,” he said, naming one of the biggest horse farms in Tennessee, “then like a gift from God he came back to me.”

  “Yeah, well, your gift of God just sent me to the Clemmonses’ farm.”

  “Really?”

  “He wanted me to take their temperature on the sale.”

  “And?”

  “And they were expecting a raised offer.”

  To Ashley’s surprise, her dad laughed. “Those cagey dogs.”

  “Those cagey dogs need money.”

  Her dad laughed again. “You fell for that?”

  Ashley sat up in her chair.

  “Ash, they’re filthy rich. Their daddy socked away every cent he ever earned. They could all live in the south of France if they wanted. They choose to live here. They play hillbilly because they think it keeps people from taking advantage of them. But they aren’t dumb.”

  Once again feeling like an idiot, Ashley rose from her seat to pace behind the desk in front of the wall of windows. Beyond the rich green grass of the backyard and past the main access road that separated the house grounds from the actual farm grounds, Rick stood by the section of fence that she knew was in line for repair, gesturing to one of the hands.

  “So Rick gave you a little baptism by fire?”

  “Or something,” Ashley said, not quite sure what Rick was up to, but realizing that if she got him fired it wou
ld be a hollow victory. His tricks continually made her look like a fool, but that was exactly why she longed to beat him fair and square. To prove herself. If she was going to win this little contest they were in—and she would—she wanted it to be because she had shown herself to be the smarter of the two of them.

  “And you came out of your Clemmonses’ visit okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “You didn’t call me to insist I fire Rick.”

  Staring through the big window at the man in question, Ashley managed a laugh. “No,” she said, letting go of her big chance to get Rick fired, but determined to beat Rick. Really beat him. Show him she was so damned good they wouldn’t even need him as second in command.

  “Then why did you call?”

  She swallowed. “I just missed you.”

  “Well, I’m having a ball here,” her dad was saying when Rick began unbuttoning his shirt. Ashley tried to force her attention back to what her dad was saying, but when Rick shrugged out of his shirt, she forgot all about her dad and leaned forward to get a closer look. What was he doing?

  “I can’t wait to take you sailing, Ash. There’s nothing like it. Hot sun, salt breezes. The freedom. I can’t explain it.”

  “It sounds great,” Ashley said, mesmerized by the sight at the fence. Bare chest glistening in the sun, Rick centered a post in a predug hole and lifted a mallet, as if demonstrating the installation procedure to the worker. Then he swung and hit the wooden column with the mallet, sending all his muscles into rippling motion.

  She swallowed. Wow. Watching him was like seeing poetry in motion. He was that toned and fit…and gorgeous.

  “Maybe you could think about coming to the islands for the holidays.”

  Mad at herself for not paying attention to her dad, Ashley put her mind back on the phone call. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

  “I’d like you to think about coming down for the holidays.”

  Surprised by that, Ashley turned away from the window. “I’d love to come down for the holidays,” she said, but she couldn’t prevent herself from turning to gaze out the window at Rick again.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. What the hell was she doing? After two weeks of wishing she could spend the holiday with her dad, losing focus in her first real conversation with him didn’t make any sense.