Diamonds are for Sharing: Her Valentine Blind Date / Tipping the Waitress with Diamonds / The Bridesmaid and the Billionaire

“Yes.” He straightened and looked her full in the face. “I know it will. You see, her family settled the area where the Triple M Ranch is located in the nineteenth century. Her great-grandfather cleared the land. Her grandfather started the first profitable herd. She grew up on that ranch.” He shook his head and his voice turned a little bitter. “And it was her own father who gambled away the family fortune and sold the ranch to C.J.’s father to keep from going to prison.”

“I see.”

“From the time I was a little boy, I was raised on stories of the Triple M. It just tortured my mother to think it was in C.J.’s family’s hands instead of where it belonged. C.J.’s mother, Betty Jean, was my mother’s best friend, but when C.J.’s father took over the ranch and then married Betty Jean, they broke all ties. My mother went to Europe and met and married my father. But she never got over losing the ranch.”

“I think I’m beginning to understand some of the intensity here,” Cari said tentatively, watching Jamie fall asleep propped against her legs. “But it still seems a bit extreme. Maybe it’s an Italian thing?”

“My mother is as much a Texan as she is anything,” he said with a crooked grin. “Maybe it’s really a Texas thing.”

She nodded, giving him that one. “Could be. We can be intense in our love for the land,” she admitted.

“Anyway, a few weeks ago, C.J. wrote to my mother. She wanted to come to Italy for a visit.” He frowned, thinking that over. “Okay, now I get it. Gino coming here last year, hoping he could buy the ranch, must have been what led her to believe we might be willing to do almost anything to get it back in our hands. So she decided to use it to leverage herself a husband.”

“A rich husband,” Cari reminded him.

“Of course. What good would a poor husband do for someone like C.J.?”

Cari shook her head. “You have a point there.”

“Anyway, I didn’t want her in Italy bothering my mother. And that was soon after Sheila called to tell me she’d had Gino’s baby.”

“And what did she want?”

“Just money. But when I demanded proof the baby was Gino’s, she disappeared. It was a few weeks before my people traced her to Dallas. And that gave me a reason to come here to take care of two things at once.”

That explained a lot of things, but it didn’t make anything seem easier. Max needed to get the baby situation settled, and he needed to get control of the ranch. Both were up in the air right now. That was one thing she had to keep in mind. No matter how much she cared for him, no matter what happened between them, Max Angeli was just passing through. In another few days, he’d be gone. And maybe her life—and her heart—could get back to normal.

“So now I know why you parachuted by mistake into my life,” Cari said with a tiny smile.

“Fate,” he said. “Fate can be a—”

“Don’t say it in front of the baby,” she warned, rising and getting Jamie and his things together for the walk back to the nursery.

“Cari, Cari,” he drawled, leaning back and looking at her languorously. “How long has it been since a man has made hot, sexy love to you?”

She threw him a sideways glance. “It’s been so long that I’m not sure I remember what those words even mean.”

“We should rectify that situation.” There was a smile in his voice, but a thread of interest, as well, and a hint of sensual urgency that made her pulse race.

She gave him a quick smile and turned to leave. “No, thank you,” she said back over her shoulder.

Laughing softly, he rose and followed her. “I forgot to tell you. C.J. and Randy are coming here for dinner.”

“Oh? Down in the dining room?”

She assumed they would want to be away from the baby so they could have a relaxing evening. No matter. She would just as soon be up here, taking care of Jamie. She really didn’t need any company.

“No,” he said, surprising her. “Actually, C.J. wants to show Randy that she can cook. So she’s going to prepare something wonderful on the little stove in the kitchenette.”

Cari turned and stared at him. “What?”

“So she says.” He grinned. “But we do have room service as a last resort.”

She shook her head ruefully. “Somehow I’m afraid we’re probably going to need it.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

BUT Cari was wrong. C.J. turned out to be a wonderful cook, to the surprise of at least two of the dinner participants. She threw together plates of finger food, which included bite-size pieces of filet mignon on toast, salmon and crème fraîche on rye crackers, a light-as-air pâté on sautéed slices of croissant, lobster tail on sourdough bread rounds, bruschetta on deep-fried parmesan toast, and a few other things, each more delicious than the last.

“Appetizers,” Max said without enthusiasm when she first put out her spread. But once he’d started eating, the only sounds to be heard were sighs of ecstasy.

“You see,” C.J. said to Randy, flouncing her apron as she sashayed past. “I can cook. And on little tiny good-for-nothing stoves, too.”

It turned out her purpose was to convince him that she could help him cater one of his large parties. He didn’t need much more persuading once he’d tasted her food.

“Hire her,” Max proclaimed, his mouth full of lobster. “She’s a genius at cooking. This is wonderful stuff.”

“I’m not trying to get a job with him,” C.J. said pertly. “I’m trying to hire on with you, and you know it.”

Max looked at the two women, one after the other, and inwardly he groaned. C.J. was gorgeous in an exaggerated way, all red lips and aggressive breasts and swinging hips, with fire-engine-red hair as icing on the very tempting cake. She was vivacious, exciting.

But—what the hell? He’d been there, done that. She was just like every other woman he’d dated since he was seventeen. He was bored with it, bored with her.

Cari was something new to him—warm, sweet, principled. She had standards. Imagine that! Rules she used to guide her life. He’d thought such things went out with high-buttoned shoes, except for boring, shriveled people who wanted to stop anyone from having fun.

But what Cari had was something different from anything he’d ever known. She had integrity. Wow. What a difference it made. Loving her would make him a better person. He knew that intuitively. She would change his life. Too bad it was so impossible.

Still she had a special spark that attracted him in a way C.J. and her type never could. What was he going to do about that? Or did he really need to do anything at all?

“That was the best meal I’ve had in ages, C.J.,” Cari told her when the men had gone down to the bar for an after-dinner drink and left the women behind.

“My one talent,” C.J. said with a sigh. “You see why I need to marry Max.”

They were lounging on the couch, and Cari was feeling almost friendly to the woman.

“Do you really need to marry him?” she asked hesitantly. “I mean, after all, I’m sure he’s willing to pay you quite a bit for the ranch. Why not just sell it to him and invest the money you get out of the deal?”

C.J. shook her head fervently. “No can do.”

“Why not? You could get a lot of money for it.”

“‘Money’ per se, isn’t what I want. Security is what I need. The kind that major wealth can bring. That’s my goal.” She settled into the corner of the couch, pulling her legs up under her. “Here’s a lesson in life, Cari. Money is very nice, but just plain old money has a way of slipping through your fingers. I’ve learned that often over the years. Money evaporates.” She nodded wisely. “The land is always there. It’s the goose that lays the golden egg. You don’t sell off that darn old goose. Not if you’re smart.”

“So the ranch is doing well?” Cari asked, wondering just who was managing it. C.J. didn’t seem to be doing it and she never seemed to talk about it.

“As well as can be expected. But that’s not where I count on to get my support. It doesn’t matter how much money the ranch makes. As I said, money can disappear in an instant. All kinds of things can make money disappear. Life can soak it right up. I’ve seen that happen. The ranch is my leverage. It’s something I can use to get the life I want. I’m just lucky I’ve got it.”

“I see.”