The Rancher's Hand-Picked Bride. Elizabeth August

he had, at least, a passing acquaintance with. His plan was to hand Gwen the names of three women and tell her to set him up with them. That would make his part a bit more palatable and hers easy, allowing them to get finished with this charade quickly. Stopping his doodling, he made his final list.

      Gwen stood at the window in her bedroom, knowing she had to leave the sanctity of the room and face Jess but not wanting to. She’d never understood why he had such a strong effect on her. He just did.

      Her mind went back to her first day in school after she and her mother had moved to this panhandle area of Texas. She’d been in fourth grade. When it came time for lunch, a couple of the popular girls had attached themselves to her, more to find out all about her than to claim her as a friend. The three of them were just finishing eating when Jess wandered over to introduce himself. The other two girls had twittered, clearly excited and pleased by his presence. He was two years older and the fact that he was welcoming Gwen was clearly an event as far as her friends were concerned. But he made her feel weirdly uncomfortable in ways she’d never felt before and that had scared her. To hide her discomfort, she’d given him a cold look that told him she didn’t want him anywhere near her. The two girls she’d been eating with were both stunned and quickly made excuses to get away from her. From then on she’d been excluded from the popular crowd. But she didn’t care. They would have expected her to invite them to her house and she never invited anyone there. In addition to the house always smelling like liquor and stale cigarettes, her mother was a lousy housekeeper. Bottles and full ashtrays littered all the rooms except for Gwen’s and she never knew when her mother might come home early from work with a new “friend.”

      Even Henry, the one lasting friend she’d made while in school here and who she’d learned to love like a brother, had only been inside a few times. His home life had been as bad as hers in its own way, so she hadn’t been quite so embarrassed about him coming in. Still, the uncertainty of finding her mother drunk or with a “friend” caused her to check the house before she let even him enter.

      A knock on Gwen’s door startled her, jerking her mind back to the present. Answering the summons, she found her nemesis standing there.

      “I suppose I should be flattered that you didn’t answer with your weapon in your hand,” he muttered.

      Again a tint of red colored her cheeks. She’d tried to make herself leave the bat behind, but it had been her security blanket from an early age and she couldn’t sleep without it under her bed. “You said I was safe from you and from what I’ve heard, Logans keep their word.”

      Jess nodded to emphasize this point, then extended a piece of paper toward her. “I’ve decided to make your job a lot easier by providing you with the names of three women you can set me up with.”

      “I suppose they’re ones who will be totally disagreeable to your great-grandmother, so she won’t get any more ideas about matchmaking.”

      “No. Morning Hawk would never believe you would find anyone totally unsuitable. They’re women I might consider marrying if I was of a mind to get married. After you’ve stuck around here for a couple of days, you can say you know enough about me and we can get on to the dating phase of this.”

      Before Gwen could respond, he strode away. Closing her door, she stared at the names he’d given her.

      For a moment she was surprised that Jeanette Harrison wasn’t at the top of the list. Then recalling the exchange between Jess and Morning Hawk, she realized he was excluding her because he knew Morning Hawk considered her unsuitable and he wanted this little game to flow easily and quickly to its finish.

      And it should, she thought as she reviewed the list. She knew all three women to some extent. Each had been born and raised in this rural community of which the Logan land was a part. And they’d all attended the same grade school and high school as she and Jess. After high school, they’d continued their educations and eventually settled in and around Lubbock.

      The first was Susan O’Rilley…a tall, slender redhead who was not only beautiful, but very clever and highly intelligent. She had a law degree from Harvard. Currently she was an assistant district attorney in Lubbock, and there were a lot of people who believed she would eventually be top dog.

      Next was Mary Beth Lloyd, pretty, medium build, a brunette, also college educated. She taught grade school and had a motherly aura.

      The last was Brenda Jackson, a blonde with curves in all the right places. She was a nurse, and a great many of her male patients said she’d given them a new lease on life just by walking into their rooms and smiling at them. Gwen had even heard her referred to as “that healing angel” and “the angel in white.”

      “This list should please Morning Hawk.” Still, the whole business grated on her nerves. Abruptly, she squared her shoulders. “I can’t stay in here forever.” Opening the door, she stepped out into the hall.

      “So where to now?” she murmured under her breath. Old habits died hard. Without even making a conscious decision, she headed away from the main part of the house, casing out the hall on which her room was located. She’d always felt safer when she knew her surroundings. There were three other bedrooms there. The first two she peered into had a vacant feel to them. Pictures and mementos on the bureaus led her to believe they had belonged to Slade and Boyd Logan, Jess’s older brothers. And she guessed they were kept in readiness for visits from either of them and their wives. The third door was the one next to hers on her side of the hall.

      Opening it, she looked around cautiously. It had a lived-in look. There was a shirt hung over a chair and the mild scent of aftershave lingered in the air. Without any doubt, she knew this was Jess’s room. As if she’d uncovered a rattlesnake’s lair, she took a step back and pulled the door closed.

      “Looking for me?”

      The sound of Jess’s voice startled her. Turning to face him, she ordered herself to appear calm. “No. I was merely checking out my environment. You know, escape routes in case of fire and such.”

      “There’s a window in your bedroom and we’re on the ground level.”

      “So I might be somewhere else.”

      A sarcastic smirk tilted one corner of his mouth. “My room?”

      “I didn’t know it was your room before I opened the door. And I can tell you this will be the one and only time I do that.” With a look that said this was a promise, she strode past him and down the hall.

      In spite of the air of relaxed comfort the decor of the house portrayed, Gwen felt out of place. Deciding to make herself useful, she headed to the kitchen to offer assistance.

      Lilly greeted her with a smile. “Morning Hawk told me why you’re here and swore me to secrecy. I’m supposed to tell everyone that you’re helping her with some sort of genealogy search.”

      “Sounds like a good cover.”

      Lilly shook her head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her. It’s not like her to mettle in her great-grandsons’ lives like this. And it’s not like the family was worried Jess would never get married. He’s got nothing against marriage.” Her expression took on a hint of apology. “I’m not saying your services aren’t valuable. In fact, I was telling Jess earlier today how you helped out my niece. But hiring a matchmaker. I can’t believe Jess is going along with it.”

      “He didn’t have a choice.”

      Lilly nodded solemnly with understanding. “When his great-grandma gets a bee in her bonnet, generally humoring her is the best way to handle it. Sometimes, it’s the only way. And she did tell me that he only has to date the women you pick. She’s not actually insisting that he marry any of them.”

      “That’s right,” Gwen confirmed.

      “Well, I guess it’s all right then. I just hate to see her putting Jess through all of this on a whim.” A puzzled expression came over her features. “What’s really peculiar is that I’ve never known her to do anything on a whim.”