her own mother had resented her existence, claiming that having a baby had caused her to lose her figure and thus, her husband. Jackie had always been the outsider, the ugly duckling with no real place to call her own.
She certainly didn’t belong on a ranch with Steven Rollins, but she was going anyway. And the truth was that, if she and Parris were ever going to make a go of this company, Parris was going to have to take part in the operation.
“You’ll be just fine,” Jackie told her sister. “And I’ll only be a phone call away.”
“Jackie, you’re going to a ranch, for heaven’s sake, with cows and cow-related things and…and manure. It may only be a phone call away, but it’s also the edge of the world. And what if something comes up that’s too complicated to handle? What do I do if another someone wants to take back a donation?”
Jackie sighed. “Do your best to be gracious and charming, Parris. Remember that this business is all we have. It’s what we live on.”
“So why are you leaving? You’ve never even met that baby.”
She had explained the details to Parris already. “I want something this business can’t give me,” she told her sister.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know. I just know I have to do this. And anyway, I’ll only be gone two weeks. How wrong can things go in that time?”
She and Parris exchanged a look. Things were going wrong every day. The whole operation could collapse. She really wanted to bring Suzy here.
But somehow she knew that even a court wouldn’t insist that Steven rip his child from her home on a forced visit to an egg donor. She wasn’t even sure the courts would give her any rights. Obviously this was shaky ground all the way around, or he wouldn’t have let her have her way at all. Neither of them wanted to risk the legal system.
“I’ll check in all the time,” Jackie promised. “If someone is being especially difficult, I’ll call them or we’ll arrange a conference call or even a video connection. Somehow we’ll keep the business alive.”
“All right, if there’s no other way.”
There wasn’t. If there was any way she could avoid going to stay in Steven Rollins’s home—where he would be around every day watching her every move, making her remember how it had felt to have him touch her hand—she would have jumped at it. But there wasn’t.
Somehow she was just going to have to learn how to stay out of the man’s way. What she needed was a plan.
“Do you think this will work?” Merry asked Lissa.
“Do I think they’re attracted? Of course they are. He’s a very masculine man and she’s very sweet with lovely eyes. They’re attracted, but do I think they’ll fall in love?” Lissa frowned.
“You’re right. I’ve thoroughly checked into both of their pasts. Steven was forced to give up his dream of a football career and then his dream of a fulfilling marriage, so now he’s through with anything vaguely romantic. And he doesn’t want her, or any woman, on his ranch or near his child. As for Jackie, she doesn’t want to go near a man, and the ranch thing…”
Merry suddenly looked at her godmother with stricken eyes. “It’s not going to work, is it?”
“Well, they hardly seem suited,” Lissa began, “and they are moving off the resort, where you won’t have much control.”
“And already days have passed,” Merry said. “I’ve wasted time on them, but I don’t have any new prospects at the moment. That’s it. I’m just going to have to do my best to work a miracle long-distance.” She pulled a cell phone with a screen for color pictures from the pocket of her dress.
“What are you doing, Merry?”
“You know what I’m doing. I’m using what little useful magic I have to watch them.” She could use the phone to watch what happened on Steven’s ranch. “I’m not sure what I can do when I’ll be here and they’re on a ranch, but if I see a promising circumstance, then I’ll…”
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll do something. Anything.”
“Careful, Merry. You remember the first time you tried to force two people together who didn’t fit. Both of them vowed never to get involved with anyone again, and they haven’t to this day.”
“I know. That was a mistake. I’m not going to make any mistakes with Jackie and Steven—I hope.”
Chapter Three
The trip to Rollins Acres wasn’t very far, which was a good thing, Steven mused the next day after they had disembarked from the ferry to the mainland. Because if ever two people were less suited to spend time closed up in a truck together it was himself and Jacqueline Hammond. The mere fact that the woman had not balked at riding in a pickup truck was in itself amazing.
She clearly didn’t belong here. Dressed in a dove gray suit that hit just above a very pretty pair of knees, her dark hair pulled back in a low, sleek ponytail with a silver clip, she was the epitome of refinement and primness.
“You ever ride in a pickup truck before?” he caught himself asking, a trace of amusement lifting his lips.
She gave him a look that told him she didn’t like being laughed at. “Well, I usually only ride in golden pumpkins pulled by white horses,” she said, “but don’t worry. I can stifle my inner stuffiness long enough to withstand a ride in a pickup truck. And for the record, Mr. Rollins, I wouldn’t exactly call this a pickup truck in the conventional sense. You’ve got a DVD player, a GPS, more cup holders than one man could possibly use and leather seats. If this were a colder climate, I’ll bet you would have heaters in the seats, too.” She gave him a placid knowing smile.
He couldn’t keep from chuckling. “Touché, Ms. Hammond. I probably had that coming, but my point was…”
She sighed. “I know your point, Mr. Rollins. I don’t belong on a ranch. For the record, I did buy a pair of jeans, and I’ll eventually wear them. I just…it’s just…I’ll be meeting your daughter for the first time and I…”
Her voice trailed off, and suddenly he realized that she was nervous, genuinely nervous about meeting a baby. This self-assured woman who had dared to stand toe-to-toe with him—a six foot one male with a body grown hard from work—was nervous. She hadn’t given an inch, even when he had pushed her and even when it was obvious that he was making her uncomfortable. She’d stood her ground, but now she had dressed to impress a one-year-old child.
“Well, Suzy is pretty partial to gray,” he said, turning to give her a smile, hoping to lighten the mood, “but she’s going to be mighty disappointed that you’re not wearing pearls and white gloves.”
To his surprise, she shook her head and smiled back. Not just a weak, polite smile, either, but a brilliant one that made his breathing stop and sent heat sizzling through his body in a powerful flow. “I was thinking maybe the diamond tiara,” she quipped.
“Just the thing,” he agreed amiably, but inside him a storm was brewing. His
