Stella Bagwell - A South Texas Christmas

“She’d chase you out of the house if she had any sort of suspicion that you were an attorney or private investigator.” Raine chewed on her bottom lip as she contemplated the situation. “We’ll have to be more subtle than that.”

Neil let loose a wry chuckle. “Subtle. You mean we’ll have to lie to her, don’t you?”

The frown creasing her forehead grew deeper. “Don’t try to make me feel any guiltier than I already do,” she answered. “There’s no other way to handle it. You’ll have to come to the house as—” She broke off as her mind searched for some feasible excuse to invite him into her mother’s home.

“Your love interest,” Neil finished for her.

Raine’s mouth fell open as her heart thumped loudly in her ears. “My…what?” she asked with a gasp.

Neil laughed softly. “You heard me. I’ll be your new sweetheart. Anything wrong with that?”

“Just about everything is wrong with that!” she blurted out loudly.

Neil glanced around him to see if Raine Crockett’s outburst had garnered any attention. Thankfully there was no one sitting near them, except for an elderly couple, who was grinning at Neil as if to say they understood all about lovers quarrels. Well, at least the two of them had already fooled someone, Neil thought wryly.

Bending his head toward her, he said with hushed sarcasm, “Since you’ve protested so loudly, I suppose you have a better plan. You still want me to be a computer salesman?”

Neil a salesman? Now that Raine had met him in the flesh, the idea was laughable. And how in heck could she ever explain her association with a man who came across as an American version of 007?

She regarded him thoughtfully. “That would never work. Mother doesn’t own a computer. She hates the things. Besides, you don’t look like a computer geek.”

“Thanks,” he said with dry humor. “Then maybe I should rent a spray truck and pretend that I’m a termite exterminator.”

Raine waved a dismissive hand at him. “That wouldn’t work, either. She had the house checked recently for termites.”

Neil had only made the suggestion as a joke, but she’d taken it seriously. She was taking everything about this matter way too seriously and that worried Neil. In spite of his eagerness to spend more time with this beautiful Texas rose, he didn’t want to get himself mixed up in some sort of family squabble. There was nothing more dangerous than standing among fighting relatives.

Sighing, he said, “I don’t like the idea of lying and sneaking.” He added, “That’s not the way I work.”

He was looking at her with a bit of disgust and Raine could feel his disapproval all the way to her bones. She told herself it shouldn’t matter how he viewed her, just as long as they discovered the truth. But as she studied Neil’s perfectly chiseled face, she realized his opinion of her mattered very much.

“Believe me, Neil, I normally don’t go around…fibbing to people. It’s just that I understand how my mother’s mind works. If she has any suspicion that you were a lawyer, P.I., or anything like that, she’ll clam up tight.”

He rubbed a thumb against his chin as he regarded her for long, silent moments. Raine could feel the sweep of his blue gaze and like an idiot she began to wonder what it might feel like if he were looking at her with adoration, as if she were the only woman in the world for him.

Stop it! She silently scolded herself. You’re acting like a ninny. The man was here on the behalf of another client. He didn’t really care if her mother was Darla Carlton. He was simply doing a job. And the very last thing he would be doing was looking at Raine as any sort of love interest. Not when he could probably pick and choose any woman he wanted.

As for Raine, she’d never been overrun with male pursuers. She’d been a shy, skinny teenager, all arms and knees and braces on her teeth. Esther had been a strict mother with very modest ideas. She’d insisted that her daughter dress down to avoid attention from boys her own age. Getting involved in that sort of relationship would only cause her trouble and misery, Esther had often preached to Raine. To say the least, her high-school years had been dull and lonely. She’d felt like a freak on the outside looking in.

Raine had not been the sort to disobey or talk back. Esther was her only parent. Her only family. She’d never wanted to hurt her mother in any way, even when it meant that Raine was miserable herself. Her one defiant streak had been the short fling she’d had in college and its disastrous failure had only proved to Raine that she’d been so overprotected she didn’t know how to have a love affair.

But that had been during her adolescent and ensuing teenage years. Now that she was a grown woman, things were different. She couldn’t dismiss her need to find her roots, in spite of her mother’s encouragement to let the past rest. After the fiasco she’d gone through with the private investigator and her mother’s fury, she’d tried to do a little discreet searching on her own, but she’d gotten nowhere. It wasn’t until last week, when she’d found Darla Carlton’s picture in the paper that she’d felt any sort of real hope again. Working with Neil Rankin might prove to be difficult under her mother’s eagle eye. But, if she ever wanted to find her father, it was a chance she was going to have to take.

“Raine? Did you hear me? Do you want to go on with this or not?”

Neil’s questions broke into her rambling thoughts, and as she looked at him, she nodded haltingly, then with enthusiasm. “I do. I really do. And it if means we have to cozy up to each other in front of Mother, then so be it. I’m a pretty good actress. I won a leading role in a college play. I think I can make her believe that we’re—in love.”

The corners of his mouth turned downward. She made it sound like being close to him was going to be hard work. Neil wasn’t accustomed to that sort of reaction from a woman. Normally they were all more than eager to snuggle up against him. Obviously Raine was going to be a challenge, but Neil had to admit he was looking forward to the task.

“You make it sound like this will be a role for the Oscar.”

Picking up her coffee, she tried to appear casual, but her stomach was fluttering and if her fingers hadn’t been clutched around the cup, her hands would have been shaking.

“Trust me, Neil, the roles will be difficult for both of us,” she told him. “Mother isn’t accustomed to me bringing home boyfriends.”

Neil smiled inwardly at the idea of him being Raine’s boyfriend. He hadn’t been one of those since he’d taken Destiny Granger to the high-school prom.

Reaching for his coffee, he asked in a teasing tone, “Why? Don’t you have any?”

Her green eyes were solemn as she lifted them to his face and just for a moment, for a flash of time, the look on her face reminded Neil of his friend Linc Ketchum. Dear Linc, his longtime buddy, who’d watched his mother walk away and never come back. Could it be that Esther Crockett truly was his long lost mother and Raine his sister?

No! Don’t even go there, Neil. It was much too early to be having such thoughts. And not for anything would he get Linc’s hopes up needlessly. No, if he believed something about Esther Crockett resembled Darla, he was going to keep the notion to himself until something more concrete came along.

“I have dated,” she admitted. “But not very much. And only one guy on a regular basis. But that only lasted a few weeks.”

Surprise crossed his face and she said, “I’ve been busy getting a college degree in accounting. I haven’t had time for men.” Plus she wasn’t ready to get her heart broken all over again, she thought dismally.