The Ultimate Texas Bachelor. Cathy Gillen Thacker

thought it a big deal.

      “You got suspended for violating the school dress code, didn’t you?” Lewis asked.

      Lainey nodded, her humiliation complete. She hadn’t thought about any of this since Chip Carrington had taken her under his wing and made sure she knew what suitable attire was. Ten years had passed and she’d never worn anything the slightest bit risqué since.

      Brad threaded his way through the boxes and furniture stacked here and there, and made his way into the kitchen. He pulled a soda can out of the refrigerator, seemed to think about offering one to Lainey, then didn’t. Probably, she figured, because he didn’t want to give her an excuse to linger.

      She watched as he popped the top.

      Wordlessly, Lewis walked over to the fridge and got out two cans of blackberry-flavored soda. Lewis brought one back to Lainey, still talking to Brad over his shoulder. “The reason you probably don’t recall any of this is that you had already graduated from Laramie High School two years before, and gone on to…well…”

      “Flunk out of college,” Brad said, finishing yet another sentence Lewis never should have started.

      Visibly embarrassed, Lewis pushed his glasses up on his nose again. He shoved a hand through his spiky, light brown hair. “Yeah. Guess you two have that in common, since you both were always in trouble back then.”

      Only because she hadn’t had the guidance she needed, Lainey thought resentfully. “Well, not anymore,” she said firmly. “I have an eight-year-old son now.” She was a pillar of the community in the Highland Park area of Dallas. Or at least she had been, until she had agreed to drive out to the Lazy M Ranch, to see what she could find out for her friend, Sybil.

      Brad and Lewis both glanced at her left hand, checking out the wedding and engagement rings she had recently stopped wearing. “I lost my husband, Chip Carrington, two years ago.”

      “Sorry to hear that,” Lewis said.

      Lainey nodded, even as she noticed the flash of sympathy in Brad’s eyes that disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared.

      “That why you’re looking for a job as a housekeeper?” Brad asked with a look of utter male supremacy.

      Lainey didn’t even want to consider what her blue-blooded in-laws, Bunny and Bart Carrington, would think about her taking a position as a domestic. Financially, she didn’t need to, thanks to Chip’s trust fund. Emotionally, intellectually…well, that was something else. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could go on living a life that didn’t even feel like her own. There were too many hours in a day, not nearly enough for her to do—and with her son, Petey, needing her less and less… Not that loneliness and boredom were any excuse for what Sybil had asked her to do, or offered in return, Lainey chided herself. Even if such action was the gateway to the career she had always yearned for and had never had the opportunity to go for. At least not yet.

      Aware Brad was waiting for her answer, she said, “I’m not here to apply for a job.”

      Suspicion hardened the ruggedly handsome features on Brad’s face. “Then what are you doing all the way out here?”

      Sybil had been right—this man had turned into quite a handful. “I was on my way back from Laramie and heard Lewis had bought a ranch out here. So I thought I would stop by and say hello.”

      “And yet you two were never friends,” Brad stated suspiciously.

      Lewis glowered at Brad, then turned back to Lainey. “I’m glad you stopped by and I’d be even happier if you’d agree to help me out here. Forget him.” Lewis indicated Brad with a telling glare.

      Brad stepped between Lainey and Lewis. He gave Lainey a slow, deliberate once-over that had Lainey’s pulse racing before addressing Lewis again. “I’m merely pointing out I think it’s mighty peculiar that Lainey here stopped by out of the blue. After what? Some ten years or so?”

      “What are you insinuating?” Lainey asked coolly, her soda halfway to her mouth, not sure whether she was angrier with Brad or herself for getting into this predicament. Surely there was an easier story she could have started with to jump-start her career!

      Brad flashed her a crocodile smile that didn’t begin to reach his battle-hardened eyes. “That Lewis is not what you are in search of.”

      BRAD HAD BEEN HOPING—in direct contradiction to the knot in his gut—that Lainey Carrington’s sudden appearance at the Lazy M had been innocent in nature. The look on her face, when he voiced his suspicion, told him it was anything but.

      Yet another female he couldn’t trust.

      Why did that surprise him?

      Was it her angelic beauty that had him wanting to believe he could trust her? Her fair, perfect skin and the ripe peach hue blushing across her high, elegant cheeks? The silky cap of neatly arranged honey-blond hair around her oval face? The straightness of her pert, slender nose and the determined set of her feminine chin? Or was it the enticing curve of her bow-shaped lips and the warmth in her long-lashed, forest green eyes? Brad couldn’t say for sure what it was that attracted him to her so fiercely. All he knew was that he had been around beautiful women all his life and been chased by more than he could count, but none had stopped him dead in his tracks the way Lainey Wilson Carrington had. None had made his heart stall in his chest, to the point he felt frozen in time. Like this moment was something he would always remember.

      Which was maybe why he should continue giving her a hard time. To keep the walls up and prevent himself from succumbing to such cornball sentiment. Brad gave her his kick-butt glare. “I’m still waiting for that explanation.”

      “Maybe you should back off,” Lewis said, looking ready to rumble for the first time Brad could remember. That didn’t surprise Brad—something about Lainey, some inherent sense of vulnerability, had brought out the knight in him, too, before he had come to his senses.

      Lainey turned to Lewis with a reassuring smile. “I don’t mind explaining what brought me here.” She drew a breath and turned back to Brad. “I stopped by because I wanted to talk to Lewis about the computer-software video games his company puts out. I heard some of the companies used kids to focus-test new products before they are actually marketed and that Lewis had built a new facility in Laramie for his company, McCabe Computer Games. I wanted to know if it would be possible to have my eight-year-old son, Petey, participate in a trial of a new computer game. I thought it might be a fun thing for him to do this summer while school is out. But when I arrived and saw the chaos, and realized Lewis was in the process of interviewing household managers, I knew that it wasn’t a good time to be stopping by after all.”

      Brad’s gut told him that as truthful as Lainey was obviously trying to be, she was also leaving out some mighty important parts. The deliberate omissions were what concerned him most. “And you have no interest whatsoever in me,” Brad surmised.

      The color on her cheeks deepened self-consciously, even as her chin lifted a challenging notch. “Why on earth would I be interested in you?”

      Brad answered her with a lazy shrug. “The same reason everyone else in America is. Because I am the villain du jour.”

      Lewis added, “You wouldn’t believe how many people—folks the family hasn’t heard from in years—have called up, wanting the inside scoop on what happened with Brad on that TV show.”

      Lainey flushed and didn’t meet Brad’s probing gaze. Another sign, Brad thought, that she was nosy as charged.

      Lainey defended herself with an indignant toss of her head. “Believe me, I had no idea you were out here, Brad McCabe. Never mind in such a cantankerous mood!”

      Not one to take an insult lying down, Brad narrowed his eyes at her. “What is that supposed to mean?” he demanded.

      Lainey glared at him, sipped her drink, and didn’t reply.

      “I think that’s pretty clear.” Lewis