The Prince's Cowgirl Bride

But not so quietly that Mac didn’t hear, because he flashed her an easy grin that, even from a distance of twenty-five feet, made her tummy quiver.

“Does that mean you think I’m cute?” he asked.

She ignored the question. “You haven’t mucked out enough stalls already this week?”

“More than enough,” he assured her, leaning on the handle of the pitchfork.

“Where is my sister?” Jewel asked. “And how did she con you into doing her job?”

“She didn’t con me—she bribed me.”

“With?”

“Promises of homemade cherry cheesecake.”

Jewel began stacking bottles and jars on the appropriate shelves. “I’d say she got the better end of the deal, but she does make a spectacular cheesecake.”

“Pot roast was also mentioned,” he told her.

“Crystal invited you up to the house for dinner?” Not that she objected, exactly. And since Simon had a late meeting and Crystal would be dining with them, she had no reason to object. But she was still a little wary of her sister’s reasons for issuing the invitation.

“She thought it would give you and I an opportunity to talk about my duties for the next several weeks.”

“If you want to stay on, I’d be happy to have you continue doing what you’ve been doing.”

“I want to stay on,” he told her. “And I want to help out here.”

She closed and latched the door. “Why?”

“Because it’s obvious to me that you could use a couple extra hands.”

“I could use a dozen extra hands,” she admitted. “But Haven doesn’t have the funds to hire any help. Mostly we take on coop students from the local high school.”

“And you come in every day after they’re finished to redo what wasn’t done properly,” he guessed, tossing fresh bedding into the stall.

She shrugged. “They’re kids. They do the best they can.”

“And they’re scared to death of Cayenne.”

“There’s no shame in being afraid of a twelve-hundred-pound animal. Randy Porter trained horses for more than thirty-five years and even he watches his step around Cayenne.”

Mac finished spreading the straw before he turned to her. “I could work with him.”

She’d have to be crazy to let him. He’d proven he was a competent groom, but what he was suggesting was way beyond the scope of anything he’d been doing in the past week, and Cayenne wasn’t like any of the horses he’d encountered at CTC. The Demon Stallion had earned his nickname by being both difficult and unpredictable, and though Jewel had been working with him personally over the past couple of months, she’d made little progress.

But while she might worry about Cayenne’s inconsistent behavior, her own had been no better. When she’d started training him, she’d planned to spend a couple of hours with him every day. The reality was that she didn’t always have a couple of hours to spare, there were simply too many demands on her to be able to dedicate the time and attention he needed.

And there were too many reasons why she should refuse Mac’s offer, not the least of which was that if he started hanging out around the Haven stable, their paths would cross more often.

On the other hand, if she spent enough time around Mac she might become inured to his presence so that warm tingles didn’t dance through her veins every time he looked at her, and her heart didn’t skip a beat every time he smiled.

“Dinner’s at six,” she finally said. “We can talk about it then.”

Chapter Three

Jewel decided to grab a quick shower after she finished up at Haven and was just tugging on a clean pair of jeans when she heard a knock on the back door. A quick glance at the clock confirmed that it was almost six. Confident that the housekeeper would let him in, she didn’t hurry. She was combing her fingers through the unruly mass of hair she’d released from its ponytail when the knock came again.

Ignoring the socks she’d tossed on the bed, she made her way to the kitchen. Where she expected to find Bonnie hovering at the stove, she instead found a note.

Crystal is driving me into town to pick up a package at FedEx. Dinner is in the oven. Enjoy.

She noted the two place settings along with the candles and wine on the table and seriously doubted that there was any package. She’d invited Mac to dinner because she’d believed Crystal and Bonnie would also be there. But somehow her conniving sister had managed to take what was supposed to be a business discussion over a meal and made it look like a date. And while she understood her sister’s motivations, she had no intention of being manipulated.

She tucked the candles and wine into the pantry, returned the stemware to the cupboard and moved the place settings to opposite ends of the table before she went to answer the door.

The first thing Mac noticed when Jewel opened the door was that she’d showered and changed since she’d left the stable. Her hair tumbled freely down her back, her freshly scrubbed skin glowed and her feet were bare. She wasn’t wearing any makeup that he could tell, but she looked beautiful, natural.

She noticed the flowers in his hand and frowned. “You shouldn’t have brought me flowers.”

“They’re only for you if you cooked the pot roast.” He was pleased to note that his response had surprised her, because he suspected that the only way he was going to make progress with Jewel was to give her the unexpected and keep her off her stride.

“I didn’t.” She smiled wryly. “For which we should both be truly grateful.”

He smiled back. “Then the daisies are for Bonnie.”

“You’ve met Bonnie?”

“Not yet, but your sister did such a good job extolling her culinary virtues I almost feel as if I have.”

“Well, you won’t meet her tonight, either. She had an errand to run in town.” Jewel took the flowers from him. “But I’ll put these in water for her and tell you that she’d appreciate the thought.”

As he followed her into the house, he thought she smelled good enough to eat, though he didn’t think the citrusy scent was perfume. She didn’t seem the type to bother with such frills. More likely the scent was from some kind of lotion or cream that she’d rubbed onto her skin after her shower.

He firmly shoved that tempting image from his mind and glanced around the kitchen.

The table and chairs appeared to be solidly built and obviously well used. The dishes were stoneware rather than china, the cutlery was stainless instead of silver, the napkins made of paper not linen. It was a family table, and the rich aromas that filled the air were those of a good, home-cooked meal, and he found the simplicity of everything appealed to him.

As Jewel appealed to him.

Noting that the table was set for two, he said, “I thought your sister would be here for dinner.”

“So did I.”

Something in her tone suggested that she wasn’t only surprised—but annoyed—by Crystal’s change of plans. And he wondered if it was the thought of dining alone with him that bothered her.

“Does her absence mean there’s no cheesecake?” he asked.

“No.” She smiled as she carried a tray laden with thick slices of beef and chunky roasted vegetables to the table. “The cheesecake’s in the fridge.”