wanna go back to Tulsa,” she murmured as Morgan headed west.
“Wise idea,” he agreed. “Despite the hype, Oz isn’t the magical paradise we’d have tourists believe.”
Jan’s cell phone shrilled in her purse, contributing to the headache she felt intensifying behind her eyes. “Hello?”
“Jan, things are falling apart here,” Diane whined in a voice that reminded Jan of a mewling Siamese cat. “Nobody knows how to operate this new software program. They keep grilling me and you know I’m uncomfortable leading a meeting. I can’t do it!”
“Diane, just take a breath and calm down,” Jan ordered.
Morgan took his eyes off the road momentarily to toss her a grin that implied she shouldn’t be calling the kettle black after her little scene with Richard. Childishly, she stuck out her tongue at him. He chuckled.
“When are you coming home?” Diane wanted to know.
“I’m not sure. I have another crisis to resolve,” Jan reported.
“My gosh, boss, the company needs you. I need you. You have to come home. I’m not ready to command yet.”
“Of course, you are,” Jan encouraged as she massaged her pounding temples. The headache was increasing in intensity by the second. It felt as if elf-size carpenters were drilling holes in her skull. “You have the educational background and know-how. That’s why I hired you.”
“Well, you made a mistake. The staff keeps storming the office, firing off questions at me and interrupting each other. It’s so noisy I can’t think straight!” she yowled.
“Breathe, Diane,” Jan instructed. “Now listen very carefully. Don’t sit there making up excuses as to why you can’t handle the situation while I’m talking to you. Just listen to me. Are you listening with both ears?”
“Yes, boss,” Diane said dutifully.
Jan closed her eyes against the glaring sunlight that aggravated her headache and gave Diane the step-by-step procedure to follow, in hopes of pacifying the staff. When she finally convinced Diane that she could handle the situation, Jan disconnected and then slumped against the seat. Between her family and her assistant she felt emotionally and physically drained.
“So, maybe going back to Tulsa isn’t such a hot idea,” Morgan said.
Jan didn’t open her eyes. It took too much effort. “I’ve decided to fly off to a deserted island in the South Pacific. No forwarding address. No phone connection,” she whispered. “Nothing but uninterrupted silence.”
“I’ll help you pack.”
“I haven’t unpacked,” she reminded him, then pried open one eye to glance at him. “Now, if you’ll agree to marry my sister and adopt my parents, I’ll be indebted to you for life.”
Morgan gave his raven head a shake, then smiled. “Sorry, but Kendra isn’t my type and I already have an uncontrollable mother to deal with.”
“Not your type?” Jan scoffed. “Kendra is every man’s fantasy.”
“I’m not every man,” he clarified as he hung a left and drove down the graveled road. “I’ve gotten attached to a flame-haired fireball female who tells everybody else to calm down while she tries to take her sister’s unfaithful fiancé apart with her bare hands.”
“I wasn’t going to take Richard apart,” she corrected, lips twitching. “I was only going to jerk out his eyeballs and castrate him on the spot.”
“Oh, pardon me. My mistake…Janna?”
“Yes?” She sighed tiredly and squirmed to find a more comfortable position on the seat.
“About last night’s kiss, I—”
“I liked it,” she broke in. “It was the only good thing in an otherwise hellish day.” She glanced his way, wondering how he’d reacted to her honesty. Maybe she shouldn’t have admitted any such thing, but she was suddenly wishing there was one person in Oz that she could be truthful and open with. She was tired of playing mediator for her parents, watching what she said and how she said it. She just wanted to be herself for a few minutes before she had to psych herself up to deal with Kendra’s latest shenanigan.
“So, we’re square then?” Morgan asked. “No hard feelings—except on my part, obviously. No regrets on either side of that kiss?”
Jan chuckled at his off-color play on words. “No regrets, except that I didn’t listen when you warned me not to stay at Kendra’s because I wouldn’t get any sleep.”
He waited a beat and then, without taking his eyes off the road, he said so quietly that she had to strain her ears to hear him. “You probably wouldn’t have gotten much sleep at my place, either, despite your current status.”
Jan pondered the quiet comment during the drive to Evan Gray’s ranch. Why, she wondered, was he suggesting that she could experiment with sex at his place? Because she was convenient? Because she was a challenge to him? Because one-night flings were the norm for him?
She closed her eyes, massaged her aching temples and decided this wasn’t the time to puzzle out the answer to that question. She had a killer headache and a gone-wild sister to rescue—again. No sense borrowing trouble when she already had a truckload of it.
5
MORGAN WATCHED in admiration as Janna drew herself up to full stature, cut a quick glance toward Kendra’s car, and then strode determinedly toward the two-story farmhouse. Despite the apparent exhaustion and emotional turmoil swirling around her, Janna was intent on dragging her sister from Evan’s clutches and saving Kendra from a critical mistake.
What Janna didn’t know was that Evan Gray was probably the one man in Oz who could handle Kendra and who loved her still, despite her engagement to slick Richard, the ladies’ man. Morgan well remembered Evan’s drunken binge after he’d lost Kendra to the smooth-talking lawyer. What Morgan didn’t know was whether Kendra had lingering feelings for Evan or if she was just looking for vindication. Whatever her true agenda, Morgan didn’t want to see Evan hurt again.
Morgan bit back a chuckle when Janna pounded both fists on the door, then grabbed her aching head. One look at her ashen face indicated she was operating on sheer will. When no one answered the insistent knock, Janna invited herself inside.
“That might not be a good idea,” Morgan cautioned, then sighed when she flagrantly ignored him. The woman was hell on wheels, he decided.
Morgan grimaced when he heard country music and slumberous laughter wafting down the hallway. He snagged Janna’s arm, but she shook loose and darted ahead of him. “No,” he muttered as he clamped his hands over her eyes as she rounded the corner to the bedroom.
Sure enough, Evan and Kendra were exactly where Morgan predicted they’d be and they’d done exactly what he presumed they’d done. In between a raft of four-letter words, Evan more or less told them to leave. Not that the command had any effect on Janna. She clawed Morgan’s fingers from her eyes and gasped in dismay.
“Kendra!”
