about that, Gabe!”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if her denial were true and she’d come after him because she couldn’t help herself. But it was only in his dreams he heard her say those kinds of things to him…
“I haven’t come here to cause you any trouble. I promise I haven’t! The last thing I would want to do is interfere with your life.”
“What am I supposed to say to that?” he let the sarcasm fly.
“I know my arrival has come as a horrible shock. But now that I’m here, maybe there’s a job I could do? One of the P.I.s phoned the ranch and found out you run a school for troubled boys.”
He let out an angry laugh. He couldn’t help it.
“I don’t know what it would be, of course,” she offered lamely.
“Believe me, Stefanie, neither do I.”
“The thing is, I would take on any task that would allow me to stay for six months and give me a roof over my head. With this disguise and my fake name, no one would ever need to know the truth of our relationship. I swear to you I would keep away from the people you love.”
Gabe sat there in stunned silence. Gone was the composed, serene blond beauty he’d kissed goodbye on the cheek five days ago. In her place was this emotional, highly charged, intense woman in black curls who was talking faster and faster, a trait he’d never seen come out in her before.
“While I was waiting for help to arrive, I thought of an idea. Couldn’t you tell your staff that I was driving to the ranch to apply for a position when my car got stuck? Of course, if that’s totally unacceptable to you, would you mind if I tried to get a job in the area?”
She kneaded her hands together, another visible sign of her anxiety. “At least I would have the assurance that someone I once knew lived close by. I wouldn’t feel so alone…”
The haunting tremor in her voice just now revealed a vulnerability Gabe would never have imagined was there. In the setting where she’d been raised, Stefanie had always appeared to be in charge. Confident. But that woman was no longer in evidence.
“Before you say no to everything, please be assured you have my word I won’t retaliate by going home or revealing your secrets. It’s just that I don’t know where to turn.”
A huge sigh escaped her lips.
“I realize everything’s my fault. I should have told you I didn’t want to go on that trip. But I was afraid to bother you when you were involved with your own plans. I’m so sorry, Gabe,” she whispered shakily. “A-are you very angry?”
His dark head reared. Hell, yes, he was angry. And frustrated. And tied up in so many knots he couldn’t think straight. Her last words to him before he’d left the house kept resounding in his head.
You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I took care of myself before we met, and shall do so again.
What was that all about? Which woman was the real Stefanie? Was it possible she’d come because she missed him? Or did she have some ulterior motive that would turn him inside out if he knew the answer?
Just then her stomach rumbled. Hadn’t she been eating?
The sound brought him back to a cognizance of their surroundings. It had grown darker outside. Colder.
His first instinct was to send her to an opposite corner of the world. But he’d already tried that and it hadn’t worked. She would have no choice if he decided to drive her to Marion and settle her in the Branding Iron for the night.
But when he considered she’d been on the road for the better part of a week, and had run into a ditch during the blizzard, he didn’t like the idea of her spending another night alone in a tiny, sparsely furnished motel room way off the beaten track.
The coffee shop served as a local hangout for the cowboys in the area. On any given night things got a little wild in the bar. One look at Stefanie and…
Gabe started the engine and turned the Explorer around. In the semidarkness he felt her questioning gaze as if she’d touched him.
“It’s late, Stafanie. You sound like you’re ready to drop.” He could tell she was exhausted. Even if nothing else added up, that much was true. “I’m taking you to the ranch.”
“Thank you, Gabe,” she murmured emotionally.
He didn’t want her thanks. He didn’t want her anywhere near him.
“You’d better reserve judgment. I’m afraid all the bedrooms in the main house are occupied by the school staff. But there’s a small, semiempty room next to Marva’s behind the kitchen that once served as a nursery.”
“Who’s Marva?”
“I hired her to be the cook, but she’s also in charge of the main house.”
“I see. Do you live in the main house?”
His jaw hardened. “Yes. Provided I can find a spare cot, you’ll stay by her tonight and share her bathroom. Tomorrow morning will be soon enough to figure out what to do with you.”
Her body shifted on the seat. “Please don’t go to a lot of trouble for me. I don’t take up much room and would be h-happy to sleep anywhere,” she stammered.
He knew she wasn’t being intentionally provocative, yet the word “anywhere” disturbed him. Under normal circumstances Gabe would offer her his king-size bed and take the couch downstairs in front of the fireplace. But the way he was feeling right now, he’d probably join her before morning without her permission.
To add to his guilt, she’d come begging to him like a homeless person in need of food and shelter. For all intents and purposes she was homeless, given the terms of their contract and his desire for both of them to remain out of touch with their old lives.
Six months.
He’d decreed it himself.
“Gabe?” She said his name hesitantly.
“What is it?”
He heard her pained little gasp before she said, “I know I’m a horrible inconvenience.”
You’ve got that right.
“How do you want me to address you when we’re not alone?”
After a year of marriage the question was so ludicrous, it went beyond the absurd.
“Like you would anyone else you’d just met.”
More silence ensued, then, “Are you going to keep my identity a secret from everyone?”
With that searching question he flashed her an oblique glance. “If you’re including Clay in your question, then yes. On the drive out from the East Coast, he mentioned that he’d seen a picture of you in the Newport paper. For the time being, it might be best if you stayed in disguise.”
The troubled boys in his charge had
