Roxann Delaney - Designs on the Cowboy

“First thing in the morning,” she said. “If that’s all right.”

He looked away. “Whatever works for you. I don’t care.”

When he didn’t say more, she took a step back. “I don’t know exactly what time I’ll be here.”

“It’s always unlocked.” Without saying anything else, he disappeared into the kitchen.

She heard the sound of his boots on the floor and the screen door closing. Although she was a little shaken, she decided she’d handled their little encounter fairly well. She would have to get used to the fact that he obviously didn’t have much to say, unless he thought it was important. That was all right with her. She didn’t need the distraction. Getting involved with someone again was the last thing on her mind, no matter how green his eyes were.

Later, when she’d finished looking over each of the rooms again and making copious notes she probably wouldn’t use, she climbed into her car and drove away. When she pulled out onto the paved road, headed for town, she took her cell phone from her purse and hit an autodial button. “Erin?” she said when a young woman answered. “I wanted to let you know that I’ve begun work on the house.”

“Wonderful!” Dylan’s sister replied. “I know you’ll do a terrific job and I can’t wait to visit the first chance I get. Is he cooperating?”

Glory wasn’t quite sure how to answer. “Well, he didn’t throw me out.”

Erin laughed, and they talked for a few more minutes about what Glory planned to do. When the call was over, she hoped Dylan would be happy with the changes, too. But it was hard to tell much of anything about him.

* * *

“WHO’S THAT?” LUKE ASKED.

Standing in the opening of the big barn, Dylan looked out to see Glory’s car coming up the lane. Before he could answer, a pickup with Mercer’s Hardware painted on the door turned into the lane behind it.

Luke took a step outside. “So you’re really going to do some work on the house?”

Turning to his brother, Dylan shrugged. “I told you that Erin said I needed to do something. Renovate, fix it up, whatever.”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t know that meant you were going to go through with it.” Luke was silent for a moment as they both watched the vehicles come to a stop near the screened-in porch. “Wait a second,” he said when Glory climbed out of her car and walked over to the pickup. “She doesn’t work at Mercer’s.”

“No, she—”

“Hey, that’s Glory Caldwell.”

“Andrews.”

Luke turned to him. “What?”

“Used to be Caldwell. She married Kyle Andrews.”

“Oh, yeah,” Luke said, turning back to watch what was going on. “So they’re back in town?”

“I guess.” But Dylan didn’t know for sure. She still hadn’t mentioned anything about her husband. Not that there was any reason to.

“You’d think we would have heard they were back. From what I remember of Kyle, he wasn’t shy about tooting his own horn.”

“Yeah, that was Kyle.” But Dylan hadn’t been surprised when Glory married the guy. After all, she was the Prom Queen and Kyle had been the King. Everybody said they belonged together. Dylan hadn’t questioned that. He’d just watched her from afar, like all the other guys had. Watching was all he’d done. There’d been no foolish ideas about asking her out. He’d known better, even then.

“Why is she here?”

Dylan wasn’t real happy about having to answer the question, but he couldn’t ignore it, so he hedged. “She has a decorating business.”

Luke looked at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“In Desperation?”

Dylan was getting tired of answering questions. “Yeah, in that building her grandmother still owns. The one with her grandfather’s workshop in the back.”

“And she’s doing the decorating stuff here, at your house?”

Not that he wanted to, but Dylan nodded.

Glory had walked around to the back of the pickup with the driver, who was unloading several gallons of paint, along with some boxes. While the driver took the buckets toward the house, she walked in the opposite direction, stopped and lifted her hand to her eyes. She was looking for him.

Dylan had planned to be absent when she arrived. In fact, he’d decided it might be best to stay clear of her as much as possible, considering that he never felt quite like himself when she was around. But when he saw her wave, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do.

“Go on,” Luke said. “I’ll meet you at the house in a minute. I need to fill my water jug.”

“Why should I?”

On his way to grab his jug from the back of his pickup, Luke stopped and looked back. “Because she probably needs to talk to you.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

Luke didn’t move. “It’s your house.”

“Right.”

“You make the decisions about what happens with it.”

Dylan knew he should agree, but then he would have to explain about their sister and how she’d managed to hornswoggle him into agreeing to let someone—who turned out to be Glory—work on his house.

“Like I said, it was Erin’s idea to make some changes,” he said, ending the discussion.

It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to avoid Glory. As he walked toward where she stood, he saw her say something to the driver, who then got in the pickup and drove away.

“I didn’t mean to take you away from your work,” she said when he drew closer to the house.

Wishing his brother had been anyplace else besides next to him at the barn when Glory pulled in, he spied the paint and boxes by the door to the porch. “Need a hand getting this stuff inside?”

“Oh! Yes, I guess I could use a little help. Thank you for noticing.”

He loaded his hands and arms with paint cans, and she hurried to open the door for him. “Where do you want them?” he asked, carrying them into the house.

“Here in the kitchen is fine.”

He set them down by the door, and then stood there, wondering how to get out of this uncomfortable situation he was now in. He’d never spent a lot of time talking to women, except for the occasional “howdy, ma’am” or to answer a question about his health, which was always good. Not that he’d been celibate. There were ways. But standing in the kitchen with nothing to say while Glory looked around the room from top to bottom was proof that he wasn’t at the head of the class when it came to his conversational skills.

He watched as she walked across the room and stopped at the doorway that led to his bedroom. Not that he particularly needed to watch, but he couldn’t help it. There was something in the way she moved, but he managed to turn his attention away from her. After all, she was a married woman. She and Kyle had been together for forever.

“Have you ever considered using this for a ranch office?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him.

“No, I never have.” He tended to do paperwork at the kitchen table and store that same paperwork in a corner in his bedroom or the dining room. He’d always thought it was foolish for him to have the house, but that was the way it had worked out. Once Luke turned eighteen and graduated from high school, Erin left for the rodeo circuit and rarely came home. He and his brother had shared the house. When Luke decided to marry Kendra, she’d vetoed the idea that Dylan would move out and let them have the house. Instead, she’d insisted on a big, new house, and Luke had had it built.

Glory’s eyes shone. “I have some great ideas for it.”

“For what?”

“For an office. It would be perfect.”

“So I guess I’ll sleep upstairs, then,” he said, thinking aloud and not realizing he’d actually spoken.

Nodding, she faced him and asked, “Which room do you think you’d like?”