cleared his throat. He didn’t want them asking themselves embarrassing questions about his attitude. He shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘‘Sorry. I didn’t sleep much last night,’’ he explained.
Meredith went to stand beside Leo, who took one of her small, cold hands in his and looked up at her with interest.
‘‘Have you seen a doctor?’’ he asked.
‘‘Your brother took me to the emergency room yesterday,’’ she said.
‘‘Rey. His name’s Reynard, but he’s called Rey,’’ Leo informed her.
She smiled. ‘‘You look much better today. Head hurt?’’
‘‘A bit, but my vision’s clear and I’m not disoriented,’’ he said, quoting the doctor. ‘‘I have a good prognosis.’’
‘‘That’s nice to hear. You were in pretty bad shape.’’
‘‘I’d have been in a lot worse shape, but for you,’’ Leo said. ‘‘I hear that you can’t work out in public for a while, until your face heals,’’ he added. ‘‘Can you cook?’’
She blinked. ‘‘Of course,’’ she said at once.
‘‘Can you make bread?’’
She frowned. ‘‘Bread?’’
‘‘More specifically, biscuits,’’ he added, and had the oddest expression on his face.
She shifted her purse in the hand he wasn’t holding. ‘‘Well, yes, those and rolls and loaf bread,’’ she said, as if everybody could do it.
Leo shot a glance at Rey, who was just staring at him without daring to say a word. He knew what was coming, and he couldn’t decide how he felt about it. He didn’t want to think about it.
‘‘How would you like a brief stay in Jacobsville, Texas, in a big sprawling ranch house where your only job would be to make biscuits every morning?’’ Leo asked with his best smile.
Rey and the other brothers were staring at her, waiting. She wondered why. And Rey was frowning, as if he didn’t like the idea at all. Probably he still secretly thought she was a hooker. He couldn’t seem to credit her with any sense of decency.
She thought about his attitude for a few seconds, and decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take the job, and show him that you really couldn’t judge a book by its cover. It wouldn’t hurt that arrogant cowboy to be taken down a step or two, and she was just the girl who could do it.
She smiled. It hurt her face, but what was a little pain for a good cause? She turned back to Leo. ‘‘Mr. Hart, I think I’d like that job very much!’’
Three
‘‘Good for you!’’ Leo exclaimed, animated and smiling. ‘‘You won’t be sorry, Meredith. Honest.’’
She smiled back at him. He was nice, like a big brother. She liked him already. ‘‘I can do housekeeping, too,’’ she told him. ‘‘I’ll earn my keep.’’
‘‘You’ll go on salary, of course,’’ he insisted. ‘‘It won’t be a holiday.’’
‘‘Nothing is a holiday with those two,’’ Simon murmured dryly. ‘‘They aren’t kidding about biscuits. They’ll run you crazy baking them.’’
Rey and Leo gave their brother a disgusted look.
Meredith grinned. ‘‘I don’t mind,’’ she assured Simon. ‘‘I love to cook.’’
‘‘It won’t be that hard,’’ Leo promised, with another speaking glance at Simon. ‘‘We just love biscuits. But we’ll make you feel right at home. Anything you need, you can have—a new stove…’’ he added mischievously.
She thought about her father and her job, and her smile faltered. ‘‘I have to wrap up a few loose ends first,’’ she began.
‘‘No problem,’’ Leo assured her. ‘‘I can’t get out of here for another day at least, or so that doctor said,’’ he added with impatience.
‘‘You’ll stay until he lets you out,’’ Rey said firmly. ‘‘Concussions are tricky. You know that.’’
Leo grimaced. ‘‘I guess so. I hate hospitals.’’
‘‘I’m not too wild about them myself,’’ Rey had to agree.
‘‘It would be a very sad world without them,’’ Meredith spoke up.
She seemed irritated, Rey thought, and wondered why. ‘‘I’ll run you back home when you’re ready,’’ Rey told her. ‘‘We’ll be in touch before we’re ready to leave.’’
‘‘All right.’’ She held Leo’s hand again and squeezed it gently, to the amusement of all the Harts except Rey. ‘‘You get better. I’ll see you soon.’’
‘‘Thanks again,’’ Leo told her with genuine gratitude.
‘‘It was nothing.’’ She gave him another smile, tugged her hand free, and let Rey herd her out the door after a quick goodbye to the other brothers.
‘‘I thought your brother was big until I saw all of you together. Goodness, you’re all huge!’’ she exclaimed when they were outside in the parking lot. She gave him a long scrutiny. ‘‘And there doesn’t seem to be an extra ounce of fat on any of you.’’
‘‘We don’t sit behind desks. We’re ranchers, not office workers, and we work hard, right alongside our cowboys,’’ he said. His dark eyes cut sideways. ‘‘Leo likes you.’’
She smiled. ‘‘I’m glad, because I like him, too.’’
That set him off and he tried not to let it show. He didn’t want her to like Leo. He wished he knew why. He glanced at her as he wove skillfully through traffic toward her house. ‘‘Do you have family besides your father?’’ he asked.
‘‘A cousin or two near Fort Worth,’’ she said. She glanced out the window, absently rubbing the ring finger of her left hand, trying not to choke up over the question. ‘‘What is Jacobsville like?’’ she asked to divert him from any further questions.
‘‘It’s small,’’ he said easily. ‘‘There are a lot of ranches in the area. We have good pasture and soil, and we get enough rain to manage healthy crops.’’ He grinned. ‘‘A lot of us are heavily into organic cattle raising. And with the industry under threat right now, we’ll probably keep our financial heads above water when some other ranchers are going under.’’
‘‘I like organic food,’’ she said. ‘‘It may have a few more blemishes and bug bites, but if it doesn’t kill bugs, it won’t kill me,’’ she added with a grin.
He chuckled. ‘‘Good point. Do you like animals?’’
‘‘I love them. I’d like to have a cat, but it’s not possible. Dad’s allergic to them.’’ She sighed wearily, leaning her head back against the headrest. Her bruises were still giving her a lot of pain. Her hand went to them and she winced.
‘‘You should see that plastic surgeon,’’ he reminded her.
She shook her head. ‘‘Can’t afford it. Even if I could, I don’t want to go through weeks of surgery.’’
He hesitated and then he shrugged. ‘‘Have it your way.’’
‘‘I’ll heal.’’ She touched her cheek again self-consciously. ‘‘I’m not sure going to work for you is a good idea. I mean, people might think the five of you beat me up!’’
He laughed wholeheartedly. ‘‘Nobody