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  Not an encouraging start. “We need to clear the air.”

  After each dog had a bowl of food he turned to her. “Go ahead.”

  She swallowed. “I’m sorry if I got in the way of whatever you were trying to accomplish with Lamar this afternoon. But I thought a time-out between the two of you might help. And I used the opportunity to tell him he should give you a chance.”

  His gaze drifted over her before returning ever so deliberately to her eyes. “Bet that went over well.”

  Like a lead balloon. “He’ll come around.” Amanda punctuated her words with a hopeful look.

  He stood, legs braced apart, arms crossed in front of him. “Is that all?”

  She wished. “I have a feeling you blame me for Lamar skipping out on us this morning.”

  “I’m sure he would have done the same thing whether you were here or not.”

  She lifted her chin. “Then why are you ticked off at me?”

  Leaving the dogs on the patio, he turned and strode back into the lodge. “I’m not.”

  “And if I believe that, you’ve got a lake in Odessa you’d like to sell me.”

  Justin walked down the hall to his office where stacks of paper and letters littered every available surface. Frustration emanated from him in waves as he took a seat behind his desk. “Let’s just say it wasn’t the best day for me, okay?”

  Amanda refused to give him sympathy. He was throwing enough of a pity party all on his own.

  “I don’t deny there were issues,” she countered. “But to be honest, the problems were also of your own making. I mean, really,” she continued, goading him with thinly veiled exasperation, “could you have given Lamar a worse task on his first day here?”

  Justin’s glance narrowed. “What do you mean?”

  Not about to let him pull rank on her—because in this instance they were equals—she moved around the front of the desk and leaned against it, facing him. “Lamar was sent here because he can’t stand school. So the first thing you do is give him paperwork?”

  His full attention on her, Justin rocked back in his swivel chair and waited for her to go on.

  Her frustration with the situation boiling over, Amanda continued, “Does anyone know why he is skipping so much? Has anyone even asked him?”

  Justin’s handsome features sharpened with chagrin. “I don’t know what he’s told others, but I can tell you that I haven’t discussed it with him.”

  Hands cupping the edge of the desk, her arms braced on either side of her, Amanda leaned close enough to search his eyes. “Don’t you think you should?” she persisted.

  Justin’s brooding expression returned. “I’m not his counselor.”

  Amanda exhaled and sat back. She knew this wasn’t her problem, and yet it was. “Then try being his friend.”

  His jaw hardened. “He’s got to respect me first.”

  Amanda knew better than anyone that a solely disciplinarian approach never worked with a kid like Lamar, just as it had never worked with her when she was ticked off at the entire world. “Set a good example. Inundate him with kindness and patience. The respect will come.”

  Silence fell between them. She couldn’t tell what Justin was feeling. Wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  Restless, Amanda stood and began to pace around the room. She paused to look at some of the awards hanging on the wall. There were several for community service and fund-raising, as well as his bachelor’s degree diploma from the University of Texas. Also on display were a model and numerous sketches of the Laramie Boys Ranch as it would look when it was completed with a dozen residential bunkhouses, barns and corrals, basketball and tennis courts, and a swimming pool. But the walls were devoid of the kind of pictures that one would expect to see—portraits of family and friends, and kids he had helped in the past. Truth be told, there was nothing uniquely personal here.

  Wondering if his quarters at the ranch were any different, she swiveled back around. “I know your heart is in the right place,” she said softly, determined to help him succeed with Lamar.

  He raked his hands through his shaggy hair and stood. “You just don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

  Amanda paused, her hands curving over the back of an armchair. It was difficult telling someone what they didn’t want to hear. For whatever reason, with Justin, it was ever harder. She met his eyes. “Kids like Lamar are complicated. They’re tough to reach because they play everything so close to the vest.”

  His broad shoulders relaxing slightly, Justin roamed closer. She inhaled the brisk masculine scent of his skin and hair, her pulse picking up another notch.

  “So how did you get through to him?”

  Feeling as if the room was a little too warm and small for comfort, Amanda turned and walked into the spacious living area with its abundant couches. She sank into a big armchair, wishing she could find the right words to reassure him. “I didn’t. Not really.” Pretending she wasn’t oh-so-aware of every masculine inch of him, she looked Justin in the eye, then lamented, “All I can tell you for certain is that Lamar’s self-esteem is incredibly low.”

  Justin rubbed the underside of his handsome jaw. “Which is why he’s acting out.”

  Trying not to notice how good it felt to be with Justin in such an intimate setting, Amanda fought back a flush. “Right.”

  Justin sat on the sofa opposite her. “Still.” Justin paused to look her over lazily, head to toe. “You connected with him a lot more than I did. He followed you around like a lost puppy.”

  Tingling everywhere Justin’s gaze had touched, and everywhere it hadn’t, Amanda shrugged. She knew that what she and Lamar had shared had, for the most part, been superficial, that there was much more going on with the teenager than he was divulging. There had to be, given the fact Lamar had been abandoned by his parents before becoming a ward of the state.

  Aware Justin was still studying her intently, Amanda slanted Justin a haphazard glance. “Lamar had never actually seen any carpentry work being done, so he was interested in what I was doing.”

  “Plus,” Justin guessed ruefully, “Lamar was trying to get out of more desk work, assigned by yours truly.”

  “Good point.” A more companionable silence fell, and they exchanged smiles. “I want this to work out for you both,” she said.

  Really listening now, Justin leaned forward a bit. “Then where would you suggest I start?”

  Amanda tried to keep her eyes off the sinewy lines of his shoulders and chest. She did not need to be wondering how it would feel to be held against him. And she certainly didn’t need to be wondering what it would be like to kiss him!

  Amanda smiled and advised, “By doing something with Lamar tomorrow that would get you both out from behind a desk. Something that needs doing that he can feel good about at the end of the day.”

  Justin took her advice to heart. “I’ll work on it,” he promised, leaning toward her. “In the meantime, I have a favor to ask.”

  Chapter Three

  “A favor,” Amanda repeated, wondering why she was so drawn to him. And even more important, why she was so curious. He was just a client. She shouldn’t need to understand Justin McCabe on a personal level, never mind try to figure out why he had taken on a challenge of this nature. And yet, she sensed there was something motivating him. Something he didn’t like to talk about.

  “Don’t worry.” Justin rose and headed for the lodge kitchen. “It’s nothing all that drastic.”

  Intrigued, Amanda followed him. “I can’t wait to hear it, then.”

  Justin wandered over to the fridge and peered inside. He took out a package of New Braunfels smoked sausage links and set them on the counter. “I volunteered to host a fund-raising dinner and I’ve got no clue what I need to do to get ready for it...or even what kind of food
I should serve.”

  Amanda couldn’t have been more shocked had he proposed marriage. “And you’re asking me? The carpenter?”

  Justin set a skillet on the stove. He opened a bottle of Shiner Boch beer and poured it into the skillet, then added the links and turned the burner on to simmer. “You’re still a woman. And you like to cook.” He went back to the fridge and brought out containers of pre-made German potato salad and green beans with almonds. “I figured you would know this stuff.”

  Amanda did. Unfortunately, she had gone down this particular path before, and it wasn’t a mistake she intended to repeat. “Isn’t this the kind of thing you should be discussing with your girlfriend?” she asked.

  Justin went to the fridge again and brought out two more bottles of beer and a jar of jalapeño barbecue sauce. “Don’t have one.” He opened both beers and handed her one.

  Their fingers brushed, sending a thrill spiraling through her. Amanda took a small sip of the delicious golden brew and studied him over the rim. “Don’t have one as in you recently broke up with someone, or don’t have one as in you don’t want to be in a relationship?” she asked before she could stop herself.

  The corner of his mouth quirked up and he took a drink. “You really want to know?”

  “I do,” she murmured. Though maybe she shouldn’t...

  He let out a long breath, then turned and dumped the green beans into a saucepan to heat. “A couple of years out of college, I got engaged to a woman I worked with.” The words seemed to come with difficulty. “Pilar and I were both vying for promotion. But there was only one slot available at the company where we worked, and the competition for it was intense. I’d been there longer, had an edge. So Pilar picked my brain at length about what I thought it would take to land the top job, then passed my ideas off as her own before I could present them to my boss.” He took another sip of beer. “Suffice it to say, she got the promotion.”

  “That’s terrible!” Amanda blurted out, stunned by the depth of his ex’s betrayal.

  “The worst of it was that Pilar didn’t think she had done anything wrong.” There was a long pause as Justin lounged against the counter. “She said that the corporate world was brutally competitive and to succeed one had to be ruthless. She was only surprised I hadn’t done the same to her, or at least tried. But—” cynicism crept into his low tone “—she felt we could still go on, forewarned and forearmed.”

  Amanda couldn’t believe her ears. “Obviously, you felt otherwise.”

  “I realized I didn’t want to be in a relationship where competitiveness was a factor. So I ended it.”

  “Over her objections,” Amanda guessed.

  “Yes.”

  Amanda couldn’t blame him for brooding. Setting the bottle aside, she closed the distance between them and squeezed his hand compassionately. “I would have done the same thing in your place,” she admitted.

  “What about you?” He drained the remainder of his beer. “Is there a reason you don’t want to help me out? A boyfriend waiting in the wings who might not approve?”

  Hoping Justin hadn’t picked up on how attracted she was to him, because an awareness like that could propel them right into the bedroom, Amanda flushed. She moved a slight distance away and worked to contain the emotion in her voice. “I’m not attached, either. Although, like you, I was engaged once, several years ago.”

  His gaze scanned her face and body, lingering thoughtfully, before returning to her eyes. “What happened?”

  “Rob’s parents got wind of the fact that I had a less-than-admirable record before I went to live with my grandparents.”

  His gentle expression encouraged her to go on. Amanda drew a bolstering breath. “They heard from one of their friends, who managed a department store, that I had been caught shoplifting there. As you can imagine, my potential in-laws were not pleased. They had in mind a very different type of woman as the mother of their grandchildren.”

  He caught her hand when she would have turned away. “So your fiancé broke up with you?”

  Amanda leaned into his touch despite herself. “I broke up with him. I didn’t want to come between Rob and his family, and I certainly didn’t want to have kids with a man whose own parents detested me.”

  Justin turned around and brought out two plates. “And Rob didn’t try to persuade you otherwise?”

  Noting that Justin had simply assumed she’d dine with him, Amanda shook her head. “In the end, he agreed a long-standing family quarrel wasn’t what he wanted, either.”

  “And since then...?” Justin asked, seeming to understand implicitly how devastated the whole debacle had left her.

  She decided she might as well eat with him—she was starving and he had enough food to feed four people. “I’ve had dates here and there, but nothing with the potential to be lasting.”

  It seemed the kind of guys she wanted to date all had stellar childhoods and stable, loving families. In the end, none wanted to be dating a former delinquent.

  The most vulnerable part of her did not want to find out that Justin felt the same way.

  Justin loaded their plates with food and motioned for her to sit down at the stainless-steel work island that ran down the center of the room. He took a seat and his smile turned seductive. “So there’s really no reason you shouldn’t help me, then.”

  Except that it would bring them closer, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to be closer to someone who made her feel this wildly excited and yearning for more.

  She liked the way she had been before. Content with what she had, and who she was. Not longing for the Cinderella fantasy of a spellbinding romance.

  Aware Justin was still waiting for her answer, Amanda settled onto a high-backed stool opposite him. “Don’t you have a mother or a sister or someone else you could ask?” Her mouth and throat had suddenly gone bone-dry.

  He added a healthy splash of barbecue sauce to his plate and cut into his sausages with gusto. “I don’t have any sisters. My four brothers know as little about party planning as I do.”

  “There’s still your mother,” Amanda persisted.

  Justin set the barbecue sauce in front of her. “She’s a wildcatter, with her own company to run. Not only is she completely inept in the kitchen—to the point that it’s a running family joke—she’s pretty busy scoping out a new drilling site in the Trans-Pecos area of southwest Texas.”

  “So,” Amanda said, picking up her knife and fork, “it’s back to me.”

  Laugh lines crinkled at the corners of his eyes. “That lunch you served us proves you’re an amazing cook.”

  She kept her eyes locked with his, even as her heart raced in her chest. She took a bite of the meal he had prepared. The sausage was delicious—crispy on the outside, meaty and flavorful on the inside. “This is really tasty, too.”

  “The supermarket deli made half of it.”

  Amanda felt her face flush even as she savored the tang of the German-style potato salad. “One excellent home-cooked meal is not going to get you what you want.”

  “Sure?” His eyes danced with merriment. “Because there are more meals where this came from.”

  Amanda raked her teeth across her lower lip. She knew he was attracted to her, too. Sparks arced between them every time they were near. “Is this just an excuse to spend time with me?” she asked warily.

  He dabbed at the corners of his mouth with his napkin, poker-faced once again. “I said I wouldn’t hit on you while you were working here.”

  And he hadn’t. The problem was, she was beginning to want to proposition him. At least in fantasy...

  Heat climbed from her chest to her neck and face. “I believe that you really do need help for this worthwhile cause, but why does it have to come from me? Surely you could hire a party planner or caterer.”

 
Finished eating, Justin leaned toward her, forearms on the table. “We don’t have the budget for that. Plus, word would get out. And since entertaining is going to be part of the ranch director’s job...” He let the thought trail off.

  Unbidden, another wall came tumbling down. One that, perhaps, should have stayed intact. “So to help them take you seriously, this has to be well-done,” Amanda guessed.

  His mesmerizing blue eyes found hers. “You got it.”

  She bit her lip, intrigued despite herself. “How many guests are you going to have?” She did like cooking for a crowd.

  “Twelve,” he replied, setting his glass down. “Thirteen, if you’ll come and speak to the rest of the guests about your own experiences turning your life around and how it led to you becoming the upstanding adult you are today.” He glanced at her admiringly. “Because clearly whatever it is—whatever it takes to connect with an at-risk kid—you have in spades. I can see it in your dealings with Lamar and the way he instinctively relates to you.”

  Amanda didn’t know what was worse. The thought of wanting to hit on Justin—when he was so obviously off-limits and out of her league. Or being simultaneously recruited to plan and cook for his party and be the star of his dog-and-pony show on dysfunctional childhoods.

  Thoroughly insulted, Amanda set down her napkin and stood. “I have to hand it to you, McCabe. You really know how to make a gal feel good.”

  He seemed taken aback by her sarcastic tone.

  “The answer is no,” she snapped. “To all of the above.”

  And no to the idea of ever making a play for him, as well. Heaven help her, she thought wearily as she strode from the kitchen. When would she ever learn?

  * * *

  THE NEXT MORNING, it didn’t take Lamar long to notice the atmosphere. “Is Amanda mad at you?”

  She’d certainly taken his compliments—and request for help—the wrong way, Justin admitted ruefully.