“Who doesn’t?” he said, making a face.
She laughed. “And I adore romantic movies.”
“What about horses?” he asked, wondering if they had that in common. “Do you like to ride?”
“I haven’t ridden in several years, but I used to enjoy going on some of the trail rides offered at Jarrod Ridge.” Smiling, she added, “I even had a favorite horse named Smoky Joe that I always rode.”
Shane stood up and took her into his arms. “I don’t remember you going on any of the rides I guided.”
Loosely wrapping her arms around his waist, she gazed up at him. “That was because I was too young. When you were eighteen and leading those trail rides, I was only eleven.”
“Now hold on just a minute,” he said, frowning. “Didn’t you tell me one time that you worked at the resort when I did?”
“Yes.” He felt her body tense. “Of course, I wasn’t on the payroll. But I started doing simple things like delivering messages from one office to another. That was when I was eight.”
“Ah, the pre-e-mail and text-messaging days.”
She nodded. “By the time I turned ten I had graduated to showing guests how to find their way around the resort grounds. Then, at sixteen, I started working the front desk.”
Shane wasn’t opposed to a kid doing a few chores. Hell, his dad had him mucking out stalls and feeding horses from the time he was old enough to carry a feed bucket. But it sounded as if Donald Jarrod had his kids doing more than just simple chores.
“Whose idea was it for you to go to work at such an early age?” he asked, remembering that he had seen all of the Jarrod children working various jobs around the resort.
She shrugged one slender shoulder. “My father wanted all of us to know the business inside and out. I suppose he thought by starting us out young, we would learn what made Jarrod Ridge the premier resort in Aspen.”
He could tell by the tensing of her muscles and the tight tone of her voice that they were skirting a touchy subject. “Do you think it would be all right for you to go riding tomorrow?” he asked, deciding to lighten the conversation. It was obvious she didn’t care to talk about her father or the resort and he would have a much better chance of her agreeing to marry him if she were in a better mood. “I’d really like to show you the rest of the ranch. But if you think it would hurt you or the baby, we can wait,” he hastened to add.
Her expression brightened. “I would really like that. I’m pretty sure it will be all right. I have a friend in California who rode her horses until she was six months pregnant and everything was fine.”
“Great.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “If you think what you saw of the ranch from the top of the ridge is beautiful, you’ll really like seeing Rainbow Falls.”
Her eyes twinkled with excitement, making him glad that he had thought of taking her to see it. “You have a waterfall on your property?”
“Yup.”
“I love waterfalls. They’re always so peaceful and relaxing. We even have the sound of a waterfall piped into the massage rooms at the spa.”
“We’ll have to get up early,” he warned. “It will take us several hours to get there because of the terrain, but believe me, it’s well worth it.” For reasons he didn’t understand and wasn’t inclined to dwell on, he wanted to make the outing special for her. Thinking quickly, he added, “I thought we could pack a few sandwiches and have lunch by the falls.”
“That sounds absolutely wonderful, Shane.” She covered her mouth with her hand to hide a yawn. “I can’t wait.”
“I think you’ll have to.” He chuckled. “Aside from the fact that it’s already dark outside, you’d probably fall asleep in the saddle before we rode out of the ranch yard.”
“You’re probably right.” She yawned again. “For the past few days, it seems that I can’t get enough sleep.”
“Is that because of the pregnancy, too?” He knew a whole lot more about pregnant mares than he did about pregnant women, but he figured it could be the reason behind her fatigue.
“I assume that’s the reason,” she said, resting her head against his chest.
Shane tightened his arms around her and lowering his head, covered her mouth with his for a quick kiss. Then, reluctantly stepping back, he turned toward the kitchen counter. “Why don’t you go into the living room and put your feet up while I load the dishwasher and clean up?”
“Are you sure I can’t help?” she asked, sounding tired.
“Positive. It won’t take but a few minutes.” He rinsed their plates and started stacking them in the dishwasher. “There is one thing you could do for me, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Turn on the sports channel and see if you can catch who won the game this afternoon between the Rockies and the Cardinals.”
“You’re a baseball fan?”
Looking at her over his shoulder, he grinned. “I like baseball as much as the next guy. But this game is kind of special. I have a bet going with Cactus and I’d like to see who wins. He thinks the Cardinals will sweep the Rockies in this three-game series and I say they won’t.”
Laughing, she shook her head as she started toward the living room. “Men and their sports.”
As he started the dishwasher, he couldn’t help but think about how fast his plans had changed. When he had first come up with the idea of bringing Lissa to the ranch for the weekend, he had thought they would be spending the majority of their time within the confines of his bedroom. But that had changed in the blink of an eye with her announcement that she was going to have his baby.
Now, even though it made him as jumpy as a day-old colt, his main priority was convincing her to let him do the right thing by her and the baby. He wiped off the counter, then turning out the kitchen light, headed for the living room.
He had three days of uninterrupted time with her to figure out how to get her to say yes. Given her argument about their not knowing enough about each other, it probably wasn’t going to be easy.
Smiling to himself as he walked down the hall, he decided he was more than ready for the challenge. His personal code of honor demanded that he make her his wife and help her raise their child. And there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that before he took her back to Aspen, she would agree to be just that.
Three
When Shane turned off the television, Melissa asked, “How much money did you win from your housekeeper?”
“None. If he had won, I was going to have to cook for the next month.” Shane laughed. “But since he lost, the old boy is going to have to keep the driveway cleared of snow until spring.”
“How old is Cactus?” she asked, hoping he was younger than Shane made him sound.
“I’m not sure,” he said as he rose from the couch to take her hand in his. “He’s a little sensitive about his age, but I’m pretty sure he’s at least seventy and probably a few years older than that.”
“He’s that old and you’re going to make him get out in the cold to clear the snow?” she asked, allowing him to help her to her feet. She didn’t like the idea of Shane taking advantage of the older gentleman. “Tell me you’re going to take pity on him and let him out of this stupid bet.”
“Not on your life.” Grinning, he shook his head. “I don’t feel the least bit sorry for him. He’ll be on a tractor with a heated cab, a built-in CD player that he can crank up as loud as he wants with his favorite bluegrass music, and if I know Cactus, he’ll have a Thermos of Irish coffee to keep him company.”
“You make it sound like he was going to win either way.”
Shane nodded as they climbed the stairs. “We go through this every fall. He’ll come up with a bet he knows he can’t win in order to do something he enjoys.”
She didn’t understand that kind of logic. “Then why doesn’t he just volunteer for the job?”
“Because that’s not how the old guy works,” he explained. “When his arthritis started making it hard for him to do some of the ranch work, I knew he didn’t want to leave the ranch. It’s been his home for as long as I can remember. So I started complaining about needing someone to cook and take care of the house.” Shane grinned. “I didn’t really need anyone to do that, and he knew it. But he couldn’t come right out and ask me for the job.”
“So that’s when the bets started?” she guessed.
Shane nodded. “He bet me that I couldn’t beat his time at saddling a horse. If he won, I had to buy him a new pair of boots and if I won, he would take the housekeeping job.”
She liked that Shane would go to those lengths to preserve the older man’s dignity. It told her a lot more about his character than he realized.
“You did it to save his pride.”
“Exactly.” Chuckling, Shane opened the door to the room he had shown her earlier. “So, with this latest bet, he not only gets to drive the tractor and pretend he’s doing ranch work again, he has something to gripe about while he’s doing it. And if there’s anything he likes better than complaining, I don’t know of it. He got his nickname because he’s prickly as a cactus.”
Melissa smiled as she entered the room. “He sounds like quite a colorful character.”
“He is.” Leaning one shoulder against the doorframe, Shane folded his arms across his wide chest. “He can be an ornery old cuss, but he’s got a heart of solid gold. I’ll make sure you get to meet him sometime.”
“I’d like that.” When he stood there as if he waited for something, she rose up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Good night.”
Before she could back away, he put his arms around her. “It will be once we go to my room.”
“I don’t understand.” With his strong arms around her and the feel of his hard body pressed to hers, she suddenly felt winded. “If you wanted me to spend the night in your room…why did you put my case…in here?”
“I thought you might like to have the privacy this afternoon when you freshened up,” he said, nuzzling the side of her neck. “I never intended for you to sleep here.”
When his lips skimmed the hollow below her ear, a tingle raced up her spine. “Oh, I thought—”
“—I’d want you to leave my bed once we’d made love,” he finished for her. “Not a chance, angel.”
That wasn’t what she had been thinking, but it was better than telling him that she thought he had lost interest in her now that she was pregnant. Some men couldn’t get away from a woman fast enough when they learned of an unplanned pregnancy. Not knowing him any better than she did, what else was she to think?
But apparently she had been wrong about his desire waning. She sighed. It was just one more example of their lack of knowledge about each other, not to mention a serious breakdown in communication.