Reflected Pleasures

Hesitating, he picked up a stack of pre-opened letters before he continued. “Fixing up old properties for resale was the way I made my first million. And I still like to be pretty hands-on when it comes to residential real estate. It relaxes me. Besides, I promised my aunt I’d help.”

Ty frowned down at the letters in his hand. “But as good as I am with tools and stuff, I’m absolutely terrible at acknowledging donations.”

He looked up then, staring at her as if trying to judge her capabilities. “The Lost Children Foundation is one of the most important things in my life, Merri. I’ve made more money in real estate and oil than fifty people could spend over a lifetime, but it will all be a waste if I can’t make a difference in abused or exploited children’s lives.”

She saw the honesty shining in his eyes, and suddenly noticed something else that looked a lot like pain buried deep within them, too. And her heart skipped another beat.

“Your foundation has already saved children…made a difference,” she said softly. “Mr. Jarvis, your attorney, explained it all when he hired me. What you’ve done, all that you’ve built for children. It’s quite impressive.”

Ty continued to stare at her for a moment, then nodded once and shoved the thick stack of letters into her hands. “Yes, well… Frank Jarvis told me you had some experience in nonprofit development. I hope that means you know how to send out thank-you letters, because a few of these donation letters date from six months ago.”

“Donors don’t feel appreciated when their generosity isn’t acknowledged,” she said with a disdainful frown. “How did you manage to fall so far behind?”

The smile that spread across his face this time was a wry one. “You aren’t the first person I’ve hired to fill this position.”

He raised an eyebrow and sighed in a self-deprecating way. “You’re the fourth…no fifth…young woman who has agreed to be my assistant. I was hoping one of them would eventually work into the Director of Development position I’ve been wanting to create. And take the burden of the everyday administration off my shoulders.

“Unfortunately, none of them lasted more than a few weeks—as you can probably tell by the state of things around here.”

“But why didn’t they last? The pay is fair and these offices are really plush. What made them all quit so fast?”

He started to shrug a shoulder but stopped midway and scowled. “I thought it was because this town is so out of the way and…backward. I mean, the nearest fashion mall is a three-hour drive away.”

Running a hand through his hair, Ty looked as if he was frustrated and confused. “But the last woman left screaming something about never again being taken in by such a handsome ogre. I guess that means she thought I was something I’m not. Or maybe the job was more than she bargained for.

“I don’t know for sure,” he added, finishing his shrug. “But I have always tried to be completely honest with everyone, and I expect that in return.”

Ty turned to retrieve his cowboy hat from its hanger on the wall behind the door. “I have an appointment now with my attorney and a new donor. I’ll be back in a few hours to check up on you and see that you get a lunch break.”

Honest. He would have had to say something like that. “Take your time,” she gulped. “I have plenty to do and I’ll be fine.”

He walked out with a quick nod but his words had made Merri nervous. She had to lie to him, to everyone, if she wanted to keep her freedom and her hard-won reality.

Two

There was a lot more to the unusual assistant than her outward appearance. Ty felt it in his gut. As he drove his Jeep down the block toward his attorney’s office, he went over what was bothering him about Merri.

It had seemed miraculous that he’d come back from New Orleans, discouraged at not being able to locate a new assistant, only to find that his attorney, Frank, had hired one right out of the blue.

And what an assistant this one was. All the other women—and it had always been women—who’d accepted the position had been stunning beauties with little knowledge of charitable organizations.

He’d wondered about that each time. In the first place, why would any single woman want to relocate to tiny out-of-the-way Stanville, Texas, and dedicate her life to helping a children’s charity? It hadn’t made any sense, even though he’d always hoped they would stay.

But this woman was…different from the others. Merri was businesslike and professional-looking, with her black pantsuit and sensible, low-heeled pumps. And she seemed genuinely interested in living in this two-bit town.

Stanville was his home. He loved it here and was truly grateful that he could leave the big cities behind, except for short visits, and come back to settle in the one place that had always felt welcoming. Ty had enough money to live wherever he wanted. And he wanted to be here.

But he still couldn’t get his head around why a nice young woman would want to bury herself here.

His thoughts went back to his new assistant. Her skin was fair and creamy, and she looked like she should be a natural blonde. But instead of highlighting whatever she had been born with, the hair that she’d pulled up in a tiny bun on the top of her head was dull and the color of an unattractive wood table. Brown. Just brown.

He’d never met any woman that seemed so unconcerned with her appearance. She didn’t wear any makeup or jewelry, which shouldn’t have seemed so out of place, but on her it did. She was tall and her body appeared to be as skinny as a toothpick. Though it was hard to really judge what her body looked like under the heavy suit jacket and pants.

It was her eyes that had most captured his attention. Hidden behind inch-thick, black-rimmed glasses, those deep-set windows to her soul were an incredible shade of green. They sparked as she controlled her displeasure with him and the unfamiliar surroundings, and sizzled when she studied him from under her ultra-thick lashes.

Emeralds. Yes, perhaps those eyes could be called the color of emeralds. Expensive and exclusive.

In total, there was something off about the picture Merri Davis presented to the world. He couldn’t quite say what yet. But given enough time, he would figure it out.

Ty parked, went into the attorney’s office and was ushered immediately into Frank’s conference room. The new donor they were expecting was a rich farmer from the panhandle and hadn’t arrived at the office just yet. But Frank was waiting for Ty, sitting at the far end of a conference table that was big enough to seat twenty.

Frank stood and shook his hand. “Sorry about your great-aunt Lucille Steele, Ty. But she was rather advanced in age, wasn’t she?”

Ty nodded and took a seat. “Yeah. And she died peacefully in her sleep. We should all be so lucky to go that way.

“But I do wish I could’ve talked to her one last time,” Ty continued. “I had an interesting experience with a gypsy while I was there and I would’ve loved to ask Lucille what she knew of her. Now I guess I’ll never know.”

“Interesting? You want to talk about it?” Frank sat down in his chair again and leaned back.

“Not much to say. She was a strange old lady who gave my cousin a book and gave me a mirror…then she just disappeared. I don’t know her reasons, but it feels wrong.”

“You want me to have a private investigator do a little digging? Maybe try to find her?”

“I guess so. I can give you the very few things I know about her later. But it really doesn’t seem terribly urgent now that I’m home. At the moment, I want to talk about the new assistant for fund-raising you hired while I was gone.”

“Merri? I think she’s the answer to all your problems. We were really lucky to get her.”

“That’s just it, Frank. How did we get her? I hadn’t been able to get so much as a nibble on anyone who was qualified and would also be willing to relocate this far out in the sticks. I was about to give up.”

Frank smiled. “Between us, we have now come up with five different women to take that job. And none of the first four worked out due to circumstances beyond our control. I was talking to…”

“Just a minute. It sounds like you might know why the other assistants quit. Do you?”

“I have a good idea,” Frank admitted. “In a couple of the cases I managed to conduct cursory exit interviews and checked with outside sources.”

He studied Ty for a minute, then continued. “It seems that most, if not all, those women had marriage and not employment in mind when they agreed to take the job.”

“Marriage?” It suddenly hit him what Frank must mean. “You mean to me?”

“Well, your picture has been in several of the state-wide Texas magazines as an eligible bachelor. Think about it. You’re filthy rich. Single. Good-looking…in a rough-and-tumble sort of way. Why wouldn’t a woman want to take her best shot at that?”

It took Ty a minute to get enough of his powers of speech back to make it clear why not. “I never gave any of those women…or anyone else for that matter, the impression that I was looking for a wife. I’m not.”

He fought to bring his voice under his command. “I have no intention of getting married. Not now. Not ever.”

Frank raised his eyebrows. “Never? That sounds like a broken heart talking. You want to tell me the story?”

“No.” It had been ten years since he’d given a single thought to his old college flame, Diane, and to what a fiasco becoming engaged to her had been. And he didn’t want to think about it now, either.