than five minutes later Lila walked out and saw a tall man in cowboy boots down the hall. She recognized the broad shoulders and lean frame of Sam Gordon. He stood in a doorway talking to someone and glanced her way. The minute they locked gazes, a reaction shook her. Another jump in her heartbeat accompanied a thorough awareness of him. She raised her chin as if meeting an adversary.
As she drew close, he finished talking, stepping fully into the hall and turning to wait for her to catch up with him.
“I haven’t seen you here in a long time. Having lunch with your dad?”
“No, I’m not. I met with Shannon today. She asked for suggestions on planning the interior of the child-care center.” Lila caught the slight frown that was gone from Sam’s expression almost as fast as it had come.
“I can’t imagine a child-care center in this club. What I can imagine is the reaction the founders would have had to such a thing.”
“Sam, come into this century. The founders were a long time ago. You’re way too young to be a fossil.”
“I don’t remember you accusing me of being a fossil when we danced or kissed,” he said, leaning closer, “but then, there are some places, Lila, where our different opinions don’t matter one whit.”
“I walked into that one,” she said. “The child center is going to happen, so you might as well get resigned. You don’t like kids, Sam?” she asked, feeling a clash of wills with him.
“’Course I like kids, but here in the club—that’s a different. This club wasn’t founded to babysit a bunch of kids.”
“Who was it founded to babysit?” she asked sweetly.
He leaned closer, placing his hand against the wall over her head and hemming her in. Too aware of his proximity and her pounding heartbeat, she drew in a deep breath. “It was founded as a male haven where men could relax and enjoy a drink or a cigar or the friendship of cronies without kids yelling and running through the halls.”
She laughed. “Mercy me. You’re beginning to sound just like my dad. If I heard you and didn’t know you and couldn’t see you, I’d guess you were part of his generation.”
“That’s not all bad, Lila. You go out with me tonight and we’ll see if I’m an old-fashioned fossil,” he drawled softly, his blue eyes holding fires that sparked.
Lila tingled. She had gotten on dangerous ground with him again. “Thank you, but, Sam Gordon, you and I are generations apart in our lifestyles and ways of thinking, the places where it really counts. Lust is universal. Compatibility is not. I’ll see you around,” she said, hurrying away, trying to ignore her racing pulse and the stab of longing to go out with him.
He was totally off-limits and she shouldn’t have even stopped to talk to him, much less spent time flirting with him. They had little in common, so how could he hold such an intense appeal to her? Worse, now he was the father of her baby. For years to come she had tied her life to Sam’s, unless he had no interest when he discovered the truth. She knew just how her daddy and some of the old-fashioned men who were his friends would have reacted to the situation, and that was exactly the way she expected Sam to react. He would want to marry her.
She shivered. She was not marrying, settling for a life like her mother’s and living in Royal for the rest of her life. Being the “little woman” in the kitchen and his toy in the bedroom and being seen and not heard otherwise. No way was she going to become part of that scene.
She encountered Shannon in the hall. “I thought you’d be gone now,” Shannon said.
“I ran into Sam and talked a minute.”
“He’s here for the meeting. I’ve never missed one since I joined the club, which irritates some of the good ol’ boys,” Shannon said, smiling broadly. “I’m sorry, your dad is one of them. If looks could kill, I’d be gone.”
“That’s dreadful, Shannon. I don’t even know why you want to be a member and have to put up with that.”
“There are a lot of benefits. This is the most exclusive, elegant club in this area, so it’s great for private parties. I can swim, eat here, bring Rory here—you know they have the best chef and cooks for miles around. I love the dances.”
Lila laughed. “Shannon, when you’re here, you don’t have spare time to do anything except ranch chores.”
“When Rory can come and my foreman is well, I have more time. Rory does a lot. Maybe I can’t resist shaking up the old boys a little,” she added with a grin.
“Go to your meeting and shake them up. I’m going home to the Double H,” Lila said, walking away before she ran into Sam again.
Sam relaxed in the meeting room at the Texas Cattleman’s Club. He tried to focus on what was being said by Gil Addison, their president, but his thoughts kept slipping back to discovering that Lila intended to help plan the child-care center. The whole idea was repugnant to him. He looked around at the dark, rich wood, the mounted animal heads, trophies of past members and evidence of their shooting skills. The clubhouse was over one hundred years old, now, a monument to being built right and using the best materials.
The club had been a male haven. Leadership, Justice, Peace—the basic founding motto of the members. In an earlier day the club’s members had banded together covertly on secret missions to save innocent lives. That wouldn’t happen now with all the changes. The club was relaxing, filled with the things he liked to do—swim, dine, play billiards, exercise, just talk with friends. It was the perfect place for business lunches or dinners. Now women had moved into it and changes were coming, but the biggest alteration was a child center. Children racing through the clubhouse and scampering over the grounds would change the ambiance and the noise level would rise like a balloon in the wind. A child-care center. Beau Hacket had been bitterly opposed and Sam, as well as his twin, had lined up with Beau. There was not one positive reason to take children into the Texas Cattleman’s Club, but they had been voted down.
Sam glanced across the room at the female members, clustered together, their husbands, mostly younger members. Why did they want to be part of the club? A streak of stubbornness? To ruin the club for the men? To take it over and turn it into their own club? He couldn’t figure the logic, but they were not going away. Between their husbands, boyfriends and friends, they had solid backing, not only gaining membership but easily voting in the child-care center. Once they got the center, the club would become a whole different type of organization.
His gaze rested on Shannon. She was Lila’s close friend and the one who had talked Lila into helping plan the child center. He liked Shannon; she was a no-nonsense person and a fine rancher. Of all the women who had joined, Shannon probably had the most right to be there because she was a rancher and toiled like the men on her ranch. She ran the place and fit in with other cattle ranchers. A stranger would never guess, because when she left the ranch, she looked all woman.
Lila would help with the center. If she lived here, she would want to join. Beau had definite ideas, but he hadn’t been able to control Lila or raise her to live the way her family did. There were probably some stormy conversations at the Hacket house.
Sam tried to stop thinking about Lila except to acknowledge she was taking over too much of his thoughts.
Once again, he tried to pull his attention back to Gil, who stood relaxed, his black hair combed back and one
