Expecting...

“Boss said he wants to see you this afternoon.”

“This afternoon? I’m not waiting around until afternoon to talk to him. I want to see him now.”

Mike pointed out the window where Zach was cleaning the windshield of his racy black sports car. “There he is. Don’t blink or you’ll miss him.”

Mallory dashed past the mechanic and out the front door. Zach was just easing his tall frame into the front seat. “Wait a minute,” she yelled. She didn’t wait for him to answer, she went back in the house, grabbed her purse and jacket from her room and went back outside.

He turned to look in her direction, his face expressionless, as if he’d never seen her before, never heard her yell at him to wait, and started the motor. She yanked the passenger door open.

“Wait a minute. I was expecting a meeting. I need to talk to you.”

“Later,” he said brusquely.

“No, now. I’m the housekeeper, right? I’m supposed to housekeep, but I don’t know what to do or how to do it.”

He exhaled loudly and impatiently. “Don’t do anything. Relax. We’ll talk about it when I get back.”

“I can’t relax. I’m a believer in the Puritan work ethic. If I’m working for you I’m going to work. But I can’t work if I don’t know what to do. I want to talk about it now.”

“I’m going to town now.”

“Then I’ll go with you,” she said, climbing into the seat next to him. “I have some shopping to do. We can talk along the way.”

He shook his head. She fastened her seat belt with a loud click.

“Okay,” he said, racing the motor. “But when we get there, you’re on your own. I’ve got business to attend to.”

“I know. At the job agency.”

He headed down the driveway without speaking. She looked out the window. She’d said she wanted to talk, but now that she was sitting next to him, the smell of leather upholstery mingling with his citrus aftershave, she couldn’t think of anything to say. Her mind was blank. The questions that were burning to be asked were all forgotten.

Her body was buzzing with awareness. Awareness of his oxford cloth shirt with the sleeves rolled up revealing muscular sun-bronzed arms. His strong, capable hands on the steering wheel. This idea of riding into town with him was not a good one. Sitting so close she had goose bumps on her bare arms. She was acting too much on impulse these days, unable to think logically. She had half a mind to tell him to stop and let her out, that she’d walk back.

But he distracted her with a question. “So who’s responsible for laying this work ethic on you?”

“My grandparents.”

“They lived with you?”

“No, we lived with them. They were wonderful. Hardworking, old-fashioned in some ways, but understanding, too.”

“What about your parents?”

“My father was in the foreign service. Two years here, two years there. At first they sent us back in the summers to Grandma Annie and Grandpa Ted’s, my sister and I, but the schools were iffy and Mimi and I were tired of moving all the time, making new friends, changing schools. So finally we came back to live with them yearround in Arizona. Grandpa had a small telescope set up in the backyard. I guess that’s where I got the idea I wanted to be an astronomer.”

He nodded.

“But that’s not what I wanted to talk about,” she said. “It’s about the job.”

“Must have taken a lot of hard work and study to get the job, and years of graduate school.”

“That’s where the work ethic came in handy,” she explained. “But that’s not the job I mean.”

“What classes do you teach?”

“Three sections of Astronomy 101 and an advanced seminar. I really like the freshmen best,” she said, turning to face him, enthusiasm spilling from her voice. “Taking them out the first night with a map of the sky. We plot the stars and the planets. The best part is to see the students get excited.”

“The way you did when you looked into your grandfather’s telescope.”

She studied his profile, the high cheekbones and the broad forehead. She didn’t expect someone who’d seemed so self-centered to also be intuitive. “Yes. How did you know?” she asked.

He shrugged and asked some more questions, which she answered. But she never got a chance to discuss her duties at all. When they arrived, he pulled into a parking space on the main street.

“Meet you back at the car, in what...two hours?” he suggested.

“Fine,” she said.

Zach burst into the placement office on the third floor of the only high-rise in town. The name on the door said “Frank Lovejoy and Associates. Personnel and Consulting. Specializing in Ranch and Country.” The receptionist looked up and murmured, “Uh-oh,” as he brushed by her on his way to see Frank, the president, founder and CEO.

“Gotta have a foreman, Frank, and I’ve got to have one today,” he said, pounding on the man’s desk. A greeting in this case was superfluous.

“What about the housekeeper? I might have a housekeeper for you.” Frank ignored Zach’s display of temper and shoved a manila folder across his desk.

Zach hesitated. He’d had a restless night. Thinking about her. The way her face paled when he told her Joe had gone. The way her hands felt captured between his. Her face pressed against his chest as he carried her to the couch. The glow in her eyes when she talked about her nebulae. He scoffed at horoscopes, but Tex’s warning lingered in his ears. “Don’t do anything...or you’ll be sorry.”

Zach leafed through the folder. The housekeeper was fifty-five years old. Hobbies were knitting and bridge. Came highly recommended. She sounded ideal. He didn’t need to read his horoscope to know she was right for the job.

“I’ll take her,” Zach said. Mallory would understand. She was already having second thoughts. In fact, she was so concerned about the job, she’d ridden into town with him just to talk about it. Of course she’d understand she couldn’t do the job.

“Don’t you want to interview her?”

“Not necessary,” he said shrugging off a twinge of guilt. “Now about a foreman.”

“I heard what happened,” Frank said, shaking his head.

“Hasn’t everyone?” Zach asked, irritably. He was trying to be patient. While the whole town was gossiping about his foreman and his housekeeper, all he could think of was how he was going to tell Mallory she was fired.

You can keep the advance, he’d say. Keep the first month’s salary. But you can’t stay. I don’t know what I was thinking. You were right. You can’t supervise people who know more than you do. Not that you don’t know a lost. It’s just in the wrong field. If you’d majored in housekeeping instead of astronomy...

No, that wouldn’t do.

It’s nothing personal, he’d say. Like hell it wasn’t. It was nothing but personal. Personal because of the way she appealed to his protective instincts. Instincts he didn’t know he had. Instincts he didn’t want to have.

“There must be a foreman in there somewhere,” Zach said, gesturing toward the file drawer. “Or better yet, out there.” He gestured toward the window, toward the hills beyond the town.

“No doubt, but... Hey, I got an idea for you. Only thing is he’s in semiretirement. You’ll have to talk him into coming back to work.”

“How old is he?”

“Ageless.”

“Don’t tell me it’s Slim Perkins.”

“It is.”

“The guy is almost ninety if he’s a day.”

“So? You some kind of ageist?”

“No, but this is hard work.”

“Give him a try.”

Zach exhaled loudly. “Okay. Send him out. Send them both out. As soon as possible.”

“Nice doing business with you, Zach. As usual.” Frank stood and shook Zach’s hand.

“Yeah, right.”

Zach felt a profound sense of relief as he walked down the main street in the charming town of San Luis Obispo, past the historic white-walled mission built by the missionary Father Serra in 1772, while the bell from the tourist trolley clanged as it clattered past.

To celebrate he walked into his favorite restaurant to have lunch. The ranch would get along without him for another hour or two, he thought, buying the local newspaper to read while he ate. But he never got a chance to read it. Mallory was seated all by herself in a big booth. If he’d thought fast enough he could have turned around and walked out the minute he saw her dark head bent over the menu. Or pretended not to see her and taken a seat at the counter.

But he didn’t. His feet took him to her booth as if he was a robot programmed to go wherever she was.

“Mallory,” he said briskly, taking the bench opposite her.

Her eyes widened. “Found your foreman already?” she asked.

“Yes.” Now was the time to tell her he’d found a housekeeper also, but he didn’t. The waitress came, and he ordered clam chowder. She ordered a tuna melt and iced tea. Then he leaned back against the vinyl seat and studied her, trying to figure out why she looked different. Was it the crisp striped tunic she wore? Or her short hair, feathered around her face? Whatever it was, she looked younger in this hairstyle, and totally defenseless. And totally impossible to fire. Damn, damn, damn.

He frowned. “You look different.”

“I had my hair cut and I went shopping,” she said. “Do I look more like a housekeeper?”

He shook his head. “Hardly,” he said. Her face fell.

He reached across the table, tilted her chin with his thumb so he could look in her eyes. The hurt she tried to hide caused his stomach muscles to tense. “That was a compliment,” he said. “Don’t worry, okay?”

She nodded, but he hadn’t convinced her. He could tell by the way she was studying the wine list upside down. If anyone was worried, it should be him. He’d just hired two housekeepers. Yesterday he had none, today he had two. Maybe that was best. Then if one ran off with the foreman, he’d have a spare. No, that was ridiculous. His fifty-fiveyear-old housekeeper running off with his octogenarian foreman? Not likely. Considering her background and his age, probably neither did a whole lot of running. He had to fire Mallory.

He told himself she wouldn’t mind. That she’d never wanted the job to begin with. And she was worried about what it entailed. She’d probably found out for herself by now that she didn’t belong at the ranch—look how fast she wangled a ride back to town today—and she would welcome the chance to get out of it. Where would she go? Back where she came. What would she do? Keep watching those dust clouds. Better than sweeping them out of corners.

“Have a nice morning?” he asked, trying to bring the conversation to a strictly impersonal level.

“Yes. I bought a few things,” she said.

“Like your new shirt there.” His eyes followed the modest neckline and the buttons that ran down the front.

“Yes.” She flushed and she ran her finger around the collar. “I wanted to get something... What do housekeepers wear, anyway? What did Diane wear?”

“I have no idea,” he said. She’d worked for him for six years and he couldn’t picture anything she wore. At all. Ever.

“Was she pretty?” Mallory asked.

“You got me.” He opened a packet of crackers and crumbled them into his soup.

She sipped her iced tea. “You don’t have to spare my feelings,” she said. “If she was pretty, say so.”

“I tell you I didn’t notice. What does it matter if she was Miss California? The important thing was that she was good at her job.”

“I thought if I looked like a housekeeper, I’d be able to act like one. Then someday I might be as good as Diane.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said, avoiding her gaze. If ever there was a time to tell her, it was now. You don’t need to look like a housekeeper, because you’re not going to be one. You wouldn’t have liked the job, anyway. It’s a lot of work. The kind of work you’re not used to. But he didn’t say that. He didn’t have a chance.

“Don’t tell me what to worry about,” she said under her breath as the waitress refilled her iced tea glass. “You have no idea what I’m really worried about.”

“No, I don’t,” he said, struck by the way her voice shook just slightly. He leaned forward, his soup forgotten. “Do you want to tell me?”

“Zach Calhoun, I thought that was you. Mind if I join you?” Before he could say yes he did mind, a tall woman lavishly decorated in silver and turquoise jewelry squeezed into the booth next to him and looked up expectantly at Mallory. Just when Mallory was going to tell him what was bothering her. He glared at the woman and stifled his irritation.

“How are you, Stella?” he asked. “Do you know Mallory... Mallory...”

“Phillips,” Mallory said.

Stella stuck her hand across the table to shake Mallory’s. “Nice to meet you.” Then she turned to Zach. “I heard about your foreman,” she blurted, unable to contain a knowing smile.

Oh, Lord, he should have known. Ranchers who hadn’t had much to say to him for years would now take the opportunity to gloat over his misfortune in losing Joe.

“Did you really?” he asked. He wished she wouldn’t bring this up in front of Mallory. But how was Stella to know she’d been jilted by Joe?

“The word is he got his girlfriend pregnant.”

“What?” he said, dropping his spoon onto the table with a loud clank. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mallory turn pale. Oh, no, she was going to faint again. Damn Stella for gossiping. Why hadn’t he told her to butt out when she’d appeared at the booth? Didn’t it occur to her that the news might hurt Mallory’s feelings?

On the other hand, it could be pure hearsay. Diane pregnant? He would have known. She would have been sick a lot in the mornings and thrown up, those things pregnant women did. No, it wasn’t possible. So Stella was there to gloat about his misfortune and to show him she knew more than he did about his own ranch and his own foreman. And maybe to make up for the fact she’d lost out on the bidding for a bull he’d bought last year.

She nodded solemnly and ordered a salad and a diet Coke. “That’s what I heard. From Randy who heard from Chuck who got it from Joe.”

“I wouldn’t take anything I heard third-hand very seriously. I would have known if Diane...no, it can’t be true. I don’t believe it,” he said firmly with a glance at Mallory who had little worry lines etched between her eyebrows.

“Believe it,” she said. “It pays to keep your ear to the grindstone.”

“I thought it was your nose.”

“Whatever it is, you apparently weren’t doing it and now you’ve lost two of your best workers. If I’d known Joe was leaving, I would have offered him twice what you were paying him. But they say he wanted to get away, put some distance between him and the gossip. How’re you ever going to replace him?”

“I already have. Nobody’s indispensable, you know.”

“We’ll see about that. Wait a few weeks and I’ll ask you again.” She took a sip of her drink and looked across at Mallory. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around. Are you and Zach...”

“Friends,” Zach said, before she could open her mouth. “Mallory is an astronomer.”

“Really. How fascinating. Could I get some advice from you? I’m a Libra.”

Mallory might have smiled at the question if it weren’t for the pain in her chest. How many people were gossiping about Joe and the housekeeper? How long would it be before she was part of the gossip? On the other hand, she was grateful to the woman for changing the subject. The best thing she could do now was to play along.

“Libra,” Mallory said thoughtfully, gazing off across the crowded restaurant “Let me see. Yes, now I’m getting it.” She shifted her gaze back to Stella. “What you need to do is to stay in your cocoon. Don’t stray from home until your moon is in another house. Does this make any sense to you?” she asked.

“Yes, it does. You know I had a feeling I should have stayed home today. First I had a flat tire and then I broke my fingernail changing it. Instead of going to the bank, I’m going right home after lunch. You’re amazing, you know,” she said beaming at Mallory. “What’s your sign?” she asked Zach.

“How should I know?” he said.

“When’s your birthday?”

“October twenty-eighth.”

“You’re a Scorpio.” Stella turned to Mallory. “What’s in store for him?” she asked.

Mallory surveyed her boss’s rugged face as if she knew what she was doing. “Scorpio,” she repeated, her mind floundering. It didn’t help that Zach was looking at her with an expression brimming with cynicism. “Let’s see. While Mars joins Venus in Capricorn, you should weigh your options and change direction.”

“She’s unbelievable, isn’t she, Zach?” Stella said, wide-eyed with wonder.

“Unbelievable is the word for it,” he said drily.

“Let’s see what the newspaper says,” Stella enthused while Mallory nibbled on her sandwich. “Not that a newspaper would know more than a live astronomer, but still...” She reached into her bag, pulled out a section of her newspaper while Mallory nibbled at her sandwich. “Here we are. Listen to this, Zach. ‘Worrisome situations around home base can be a drag.’ Oh, ho, that’s definitely you.”

“Pure coincidence,” Zach said flatly. “Everyone has worrisome situations at home base.”

“‘Your best bet is to act swiftly,’” Stella continued unabated. “Sounds like you’ve done that. ‘There’s a strong temptation to do something rash. Despite the current chaos, stay calm. Unexpected good will come of this.’” She tilted her head to observe his reaction. When there was none, she continued. “Your thoughts and feelings are at odds,” she read loudly. “Since your thoughts are well-known, try siding with your feelings for a change.”

He smiled blandly and nudged her arm. “Thank you, Stella, for those words of wisdom. It was good seeing you again.” He stood up. Stella had to move so he could get out of the booth. He grabbed Mallory’s arm with one hand, the check with the other and almost dragged her along with her shopping bag to the cashier while Stella went back to reading horoscopes.

“The woman doesn’t know when to quit. ‘Thoughts and feelings at odds.’ What garbage,” he muttered when they were out on the sidewalk. “What possessed you to play along with her? You didn’t have to do that. You could have explained the difference between astrology and astronomy.”

“I know, but she didn’t want to hear that. She wanted someone to tell her what to do. So I did.”

“Am I the only one who doesn’t want to hear my horoscope? Tex believes in the stars, too.” He was irritated by this run-in with Stella, but he was grateful for one thing. His horoscope mentioned nothing about romance. Not that he believed in that kind of thing.

He led Mallory down the Creek Walk that wound through the downtown to get back to his truck, his hand clamped on her elbow. As if he was afraid she was going to run away. He had another housekeeper, so why should he care if she ran? He didn’t know why, but he did care.

“Sorry you had to hear all that garbage about Joe. I don’t know how these rumors get started.”

Mallory paused at the edge of the creek to set her shopping bag down and catch her breath. She was still shaking after hearing what the woman said about Joe. She wished she’d never come to town. It certainly made hiding out at the ranch more desirable, at least until the gossip died down.

“Then you don’t believe...what she said?” she asked, glancing up at him.

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