really. I told you a long time ago that I thought it was time for me to settle down.”
“Right, so you proposed to the first woman to cross your path after that, and look where that got you.”
“She wasn’t the first woman to cross my path,” he protested. “I was seeing several women at the time. Rexanne seemed like the best choice.”
“Maybe out of that lot, but did you ever stop to consider there was slim pickings in that bunch?” She waggled a slender finger at him. “I’ll answer that. No, you did not. You just decided you wanted to be married and filled the opening as methodically as you would have a position at your company. You probably had a stupid checksheet.”
She wasn’t all that far off the mark, though he wouldn’t have told her that for another gusher in his oil fields. “Well, I’m not going to be so hasty about it this time,” he said.
“You just told me you’ve identified the woman you want to marry. It’s been what? Two days? Maybe three since your engagement broke off?”
“Four, actually.”
She rolled her eyes. “Definitely long enough,” she said with a touch of unfamiliar sarcasm. “Jordan, why can’t you just relax and let nature take its course?”
He gave her a disdainful look. “I don’t have a lot of faith in nature.”
She gave him a wry look. “You would if you’d been in that barn with me an hour ago.”
“I don’t think the fact that your tomcat can’t keep his paws off of Francie is a testament to nature in its finest moments.”
She shrugged, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Okay, you may have a point about that. So, who’s the latest woman to capture your fancy?”
He leveled a look straight into her eyes and waited until he was sure he had her full attention. “Actually, it’s you.”
Kelly—calm, serene, unflappable Kelly—succumbed to a coughing fit that had her eyes watering and Jordan wondering if he’d gone about this in an incredibly stupid way. It wouldn’t be the first time the direct method had failed him.
Still, he was determined to make her see the sense of this. All of those lectures he’d given himself about dressing it up with a little sweet talk flew out the window. He set out to hammer home the logic.
“It’s a perfectly rational decision…” he began.
“You’re not serious,” she said when she could finally speak.
He pulled the jewelry box from his pocket and placed it on the kitchen table in front of her. Since she was eyeing it as if it were a poisonous rattler, he flipped it open to reveal a stunning three-carat diamond that pretty well proclaimed him to be dead serious. Despite its impressive size, it was simpler than the engagement ring he’d purchased at Rexanne’s urging. She’d wanted flashy. Kelly struck him as the kind of woman who would admire simplicity. Gazing into her eyes, however, he had the sinking feeling that admiration for his taste in rings was the last thing on her mind.
“You’ve obviously lost your mind,” she said, but her voice was softer now and laced with something that might have been regret.
“Quite the contrary. It’s the only rational decision for both of us.”
“Rational,” she repeated as if it were a dirty word.
There was an ominous undercurrent he didn’t quite get. “Actually, yes. I’ve given it quite a lot of thought. We’ve known each other forever—there won’t be any nasty surprises. We’ve both had more than our share of those. I can give you the kind of life and financial security you deserve.”
“And I can give you…what? A hostess? A cook, perhaps? A bed partner on cold nights?”
Jordan could feel the blood climbing into his cheeks as she enumerated some of the very thoughts that had occurred to him. They’d sounded better in theory than they did spoken out loud by a woman who was clearly insulted. She wasn’t taking this well at all. He searched for a new approach. “Now, Kelly…”
Unfortunately he never got to finish the sentence. Kelly was already shaking her head, rather emphatically, it seemed to him.
She stood and glowered down at him. “Not a chance. No way. Forget it, bud. Take a hike.” She seemed to be just warming up.
The flare of unexpected temper just might be one of those previously hidden flaws he’d been hoping to discover. He tried to calm her. “You’re saying no without giving the matter any consideration at all,” he advised her. “When you do, I’m sure you’ll see—”
“Not if we both live to be a hundred and ten and we’re the only two people tottering around on the face of the earth,” she assured him.
Jordan was beginning to get an inkling that she meant it and that nothing he was likely to say tonight was going to change her mind.
“Okay, okay,” he said, defeated for the moment. “I get the picture.”
“I doubt it.”
A hasty exit seemed in order. “Maybe I’d better let you sleep on it. We can talk again tomorrow.”
Kelly drew herself up and squared off in front of him. Fire sparked in her eyes, amber lights bringing that normally placid shade of brown alive. “We can talk tomorrow, if you like,” she said emphatically, “but not about this.”
Jordan edged carefully around her and made his way to the front door. “See you in the morning.”
“Jordan?”
Her voice halted him in his tracks. She had obviously followed him.
“You forgot something.”
He turned back. She was holding out the box with the engagement ring. “Keep it here,” he said, refusing to accept it. “Try it on. Maybe you’ll get used to the idea.”
She tossed the ring straight at him. He caught it in midair and sighed. “I’ll bring it with me tomorrow.”
“Don’t,” she warned angrily. “I’m not some poor substitute you can call on when the first string doesn’t show.”
Jordan was shocked by her assessment, even though he had to admit there might be just the teensiest bit of truth to it. “I’m sorry. I never meant it like that,” he insisted.
She sighed heavily. “Yes, Jordan, I think that is exactly how you meant it.”
That said, she quietly closed the door in his face. He was left standing on the porch all alone. Oddly enough, it was the first time in all the visits he had paid to this house that he was leaving feeling lonelier and far, far emptier than when he had arrived.
He made up his mind as he drove the few miles back to White Pines that night that that wouldn’t be the last of it. After all, hadn’t he wooed some of the most sought-after women in all of Texas? Maybe approaching this as a business proposition hadn’t been the wisest decision.
