Mysterious Mountain Man. Annette Broadrick

far. She couldn’t blow it now.

      She took a deep breath, prepared to make her pitch, when he said, “I’m downright flattered, ‘Becca.” There wasn’t an ounce of sincerity in his voice. “I’ll admit to being surprised to see you here.”

      Now that she could believe despite the fact that he’d concealed his surprise well. She looked toward the dusty windows and beyond to the brightly lit sky. “West Texas is certainly different from Seattle, I must admit.” She turned back to face the man across from her. She’d always found him formidable. “Did anyone tell you that we’ve been trying to contact you?”

      He opened his mouth as though to answer her, then paused, glancing past her shoulder. Betty arrived with a cup of coffee. She set it in front of Rebecca before turning to Jake. “You want some more coffee?”

      “No, thanks. Water’s fine.”

      Betty smiled at Rebecca, her eyes reflecting her curiosity. “So you came to see Jake, did ya?” she asked, making no attempt to hide her interest.

      Rebecca was surprised. She wasn’t used to having a server make personal conversation. “I—uh—” She stopped, not knowing how to respond. She was out of her element and wasn’t certain what was called for here, according to proper etiquette.

      “It’s all right,” Betty said, her voice filled with sympathetic understanding. “He’s used to women chasing after him.” She turned to Jake. “So. You expectin’ to hang around here overnight, or do you intend to git back home?”

      Jake lazily stretched before replying. “Haven’t decided yet, Betty.”

      “Well, we always keep your room ready for ya,” she said casually, before returning to the cash register where the other diners were waiting to pay for their meal.

      Rebecca knew it was none of her business, but she asked, anyway. “Are you related to Betty?”

      “In a manner of speaking.”

      She nodded, more to herself than anything. “I wondered about that when I saw them listed in your personnel file. It was our only lead to your whereabouts.”

      After straightening the knife, fork and spoon that Betty had placed in front of him, Jake picked up the spoon with his thumb and forefinger and began to flip it, tapping one end on the table, flipping it, then tapping the other end, as though he had nothing better to do than to make a repetitive noise no doubt designed to irritate her. She glanced at his long fingers, then away.

      “Well, now you’ve found me. So what do you want?”

      She took a sip of the coffee, her mind racing with questions and comments. She mentally replayed what Betty had said just now and surprised herself by verbalizing the least important question flitting through her mind.

      “Is that true?” she asked.

      “Is what true?”

      “Are you used to women chasing after you?”

      He twitched his shoulders and gave a quick shake of his head. “That was Betty’s way of pulling my leg.”

      She dropped her gaze to the steaming liquid. She was stalling and she knew it, but she couldn’t seem to bring any order to her thoughts at the moment. To immediately find the man for whom she’d been prepared to make a diligent search had thrown her off her stride. She needed a moment to regroup and to marshal all her arguments.

      “What do you want, Rebecca?” he repeated, impatiently. “Did Brock send you?”

      She stiffened for a moment before answering him. “No.”

      “I didn’t think so.” Tension filled the silence between them before he continued, his tone mocking. “As I recall, you never went out of your way to spend much time in my company when I worked at CPI, so it’s hard for me to guess what prompted this little visit.”

      Rebecca lowered her cup, carefully replacing it on the table. He certainly wasn’t making this meeting an easy one. What, after all, had she expected? Before she could comment on his remark, he continued by saying, “You think I never noticed how studiously you managed to avoid me?” His mouth curled slightly. “I was aware I wasn’t your idea of a corporate executive. Well, don’t worry. After a few years I came to the same conclusion, myself. Guess I don’t have the necessary killer instinct.”

      She controlled her surprise at this unexpected glimpse into the way his mind worked. “On the contrary, Jake. I thought you were an excellent executive. Since my father planned for you to take his place in the company, his views were obvious, as well.” She paused, searching for an explanation of something she’d never before attempted to put into words. “As for me, I’ll admit that I never went out of my way to get to know you, that’s true.” She forced herself to meet his dark-eyed gaze before saying, “I’m not particularly proud of the fact, but the truth is, for some time I was jealous of you.”

      His eyes narrowed and he quirked one of his eyebrows at her, but he made no comment.

      She shrugged. “Hopefully I’ve gotten over that rather adolescent reaction to the fact that my dad treated you like the son he never had.”

      “And that bothered you?”

      “It shouldn’t have, of course. There was no rational reason for me to see you as a threat. I never had any interest in learning to run the company. I much prefer working with the employees and leaving the rest of the business to the engineering and business majors. I never made any secret of my professional preferences.”

      “But you aren’t talking about professional preferences now, are you?”

      This wasn’t the topic she’d intended to discuss with him. Somehow, she’d lost control of their meeting before she’d had an opportunity to state her reasons for being there. He’d gotten a reaction from her. He was good at that—causing a reaction without giving anything of himself away.

      She sighed and shook her head. “I’ve had the past year to look at my behavior, to recognize and face how childish I was acting by distancing myself from you.” She glanced away before forcing herself to meet his gaze. “However, you have to admit you’re not an easy man to get to know, even in the best of circumstances.”

      “I had a job to do. I was never out to win any popularity contests...with you or anybody else.”

      She couldn’t resist a quick look at the way he was dressed. He still wasn’t attempting to impress anyone. Not that it mattered to her what he looked like or how he treated her. However, it would make her mission much easier if they could find a common ground.

      She needed his help, yet she resented having to ask for it. There’d been so many upheavals in her life lately, so much over which she had no control. She hated to ask anyone for anything. She’d grown up independent and self-reliant, traits her father admired, traits she’d continued to foster as she grew from the idolizing child to the adult who better understood her own motives.

      Her studies of human behavior and her degrees in psychology had helped her to deal with many of those unresolved childhood issues. What they hadn’t taught her was how to deal with an attractive man whose dark gaze managed to affect her pulse rate despite her understanding of chemical attraction and the theory behind opposites attracting. She didn’t want to be attracted to this man. She wanted her interest in him to be strictly a professional one.

      “I never understood why you left CPI,” she said, hoping to prod him into explaining more about who he was and what made him tick. Knowing his motives might also assist her in finding the most positive way to suggest he return to work for the company. “You were good at what you did. You had a bright future with the company.”

      He picked up his glass of water and took a drink from it. After he set the glass down, he murmured, “My reasons for leaving don’t really matter after all this time.”

      She straightened, placing her hands in her lap, hoping to downplay her nervousness. “Perhaps