* * *
When Jaron drove his truck beneath the arched entrance sign of the Wild Maverick Ranch, Mariah’s heart skipped a beat. She still couldn’t believe that he’d kissed her, let alone that she was going to spend the night at his new ranch.
When she was eighteen, she’d had a crush on him and dreamed of nothing more than having him feel as enamored with her as she was with him. He’d known about the infatuation, and instead of teasing her about it as some men might have done, he had been a perfect gentleman. He hadn’t encouraged her in order to stroke his ego, nor had he discouraged her. He had simply ignored it and treated her the same as the rest of his brothers. She’d known he thought he was too old for her back then, and he’d been right. She hadn’t been mature enough to handle a relationship with a man in his late twenties.
As the years went by and they saw each other at the family gatherings her sister held for the six foster brothers, she’d seen Jaron watch her and known he found her attractive. But to her disappointment, he hadn’t asked her out or treated her any different than he had when she was a teenager.
Then as the brothers married and started their families, her relationship with Jaron had turned into a rivalry of sorts. Whenever one of the sisters-in-law became pregnant, Jaron insisted the baby would be a boy, while she just knew it would be a girl. But even as they argued about it, there had been an undertone of tension that had recently become so thick it was impossible to deny.
Mariah glanced at Jaron. But tonight something had changed between them. She’d known it the moment he punched the cowboy at the Broken Spoke. Although any of his brothers would have taken exception to the man grabbing her by the arm, Jaron had been absolutely furious. And if his reaction hadn’t given her a hint that things were different between them, the kiss he had given her certainly had.
She had been kissed many times before, and although they’d been pleasant, none of them had been like the kiss Jaron had given her. There had been so much passion in the caress that it had been overwhelming. And what she couldn’t get over was the fact that they had both ignored it, as if it hadn’t even happened. They had started talking about her car problems and where she was going to stay for the night instead of addressing the fact that after all these years he had finally acted on their mutual attraction.
“Unbelievable.”
“What’s unbelievable?” he asked as he parked his truck in the four-car garage and pushed the remote on the visor to lower the door.
Unaware that she’d spoken her thoughts aloud, Mariah shrugged. “I was just thinking about my day,” she lied.
“Some days are like that,” he said, getting out of the truck. “Maybe tomorrow will be better.”
“It has to be. I doubt it could get any worse,” she said, opening the passenger door. Before she could figure out how to get out of the truck without breaking one of her high heels, or for that matter one of her ankles, Jaron was there to lift her down from the seat. His large hands wrapped around her waist caused her to feel warm all over. “Th-thank you.”
“Would you like something to eat?” he asked as they walked through the door to the mudroom. “I’ve got a couple of frozen pizzas I can toss in the oven.”
“No, thank you.” She shrugged. “I had dinner after my meeting.” She didn’t add that she hadn’t been able to eat due to the fact that during the meeting she had learned she was out of a job—effective immediately. “If you don’t mind, I think I’d like to go on to bed.”
“Of course not.” He led the way down the hall to the stairs. “Bria and the other sisters-in-law made up all the rooms when they decorated the place, so you can have your pick.”
“They did a fantastic job,” she said, noticing the original paintings by a popular Western artist hanging on the wall as they climbed the steps. The decor reflected the Wild Maverick’s new owner and his cowboy lifestyle.
“They did a better job than I would have done, that’s for sure,” he commented. When they reached the top floor, he opened the first door they came to and flipped on the light switch to turn on the bedside lamps. “If you don’t like this room, there are four more to choose from.”
“This will be fine,” she said, looking around. Decorated in a cool shade of green and cream, the colors complemented the Native American artwork on the walls and the handwoven area rugs on the hardwood floor. “Bria and the others should consider going into interior decorating.”
“I was going to leave the bedrooms empty, but Bria pointed out that I needed to furnish them in case I had guests.” He shrugged. “I doubt that I’ll ever have that many, since all of my brothers live close by.”
“If you don’t think you’ll need the rooms, why did you buy such a big house?” she asked, unable to see the logic in him paying for something he didn’t intend to use.
“I wanted the land,” he admitted. “It’s close enough to all of my brothers’ ranches that we can help each other out when needed and not have to drive more than an hour or so to get there.” He gave her a half smile. “The house just came with it.”
She wasn’t surprised Jaron wanted to live close to his foster brothers. From what her sister had told her, all six of them had been in trouble with the law when they were teenagers and the foster-care system had given up on them as lost causes. They’d been sent to the Last Chance Ranch, and thanks to a special man named Hank Calvert and his unique way of using ranch work and rodeo to teach them life lessons, all of the boys had worked through their troubles and turned their lives around. They had all become honest, productive adults, and because of their similar problems when they were boys and having no families to return to once they were of age, they had bonded into a very close family of their own.
“I wish I could live closer to Bria and Sam,” Mariah said wistfully. Living a couple of hours away, she didn’t get to see her only sibling nearly as much as she would have liked.
Jaron surprised her, and if his expression was any indication, he might have stunned himself when he stepped closer and brushed a wayward strand of her hair from her cheek. “Maybe one day that real estate place you work for will open a branch office somewhere around here and you’ll be able to live closer to your sister.”
She knew he meant the gesture as comforting, but his gentle touch and the knowledge that she no longer had a job with the company caused her to blink back tears. “I doubt...that will ever happen.”
“What’s wrong, Mariah?” His deep baritone was filled with gentle concern.
“Nothing,” she lied. “It’s been a really tough day. And one that I would just as soon forget.”
She didn’t want to go into the dismal turn her life had taken. She’d lost a boyfriend, a roommate and her job in less than twenty-four hours, and when she’d left Fort Worth after her meeting, she’d planned on having a good cry once she got home. The boyfriend hadn’t really bothered her because they hadn’t been seeing each other more than a couple of weeks and their relationship hadn’t been serious. In fact, it never would have been. They both knew that one day they’d stop seeing each other and she hadn’t even bothered mentioning that she was seeing him to her sister. But the loss of her roommate and her job had been devastating. Her roommate had left without notice, and she was going to have to find a way to pay both halves of the rent. Without her job, she had no way of doing that. But since her car broke down and she couldn’t be alone for that
