Her Secret Thrill(34)

She’d expertly avoided her brother and both of her sisters through the entire event. They’d threatened to announce her arrival at Holcomb Industries today, and she’d threatened to kill each and every one of them if they did. Okay, so she’d done that in her head. Out loud she’d merely voiced her concern that this was to be her father’s day, and any announcements about her future plans, which she pointlessly reminded them were not concrete, should be held for another time.

Of course, it would have been better if she could have given them those concrete plans, but since she didn’t have any, there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

And it didn’t help that she couldn’t stop thinking about Jake. Everything reminded her of him. Liza was upset with her because she refused to call him at work again, but her heart had taken enough of a beating. She’d heard the silent message he’d sent loud and clear. If he’d wanted to hear from her, he would have called her back.

Which left her here. At a luncheon with a bunch of people she didn’t know and didn’t want to know. Maybe this was her clue. If she couldn’t figure out what would make her happy, maybe she should do what would make everyone else happy. Maybe she could even learn to like pineapple-zucchini pasta.

If Jake fed it to her, maybe.

She tossed her fork down and stood up. Enough. She was making herself sick with all her moping and whining. It didn’t help that one stray thought of him had set her body off. Again. As often as thinking about him pained her heart, her stupid body went on full alert every time. And Liza hadn’t helped any by not-so-casually mentioning that Jake had probably ruined her sexually for any other man. Natalie would have hated her for that, if it weren’t quite probably true.

God, she had to stop this. She stood and searched the crowd for her father. This was his coming-out party, of sorts. Not that he was happy about it. He’d envisioned a black-tie dinner party or an A-list soiree, something of that nature. Tea parties weren’t generally his thing. But she’d argued that he needed to take small steps. His doctor had given him the go-ahead to move slowly back into the business, on a greatly reduced schedule. Her brother had been running things fairly efficiently in her father’s absence, and she knew they all hoped he’d ease gracefully into a sort of semiretirement.

This benefit was a start in that direction. It was being held at their country club, with her sisters as hostesses, so he was among both business associates and family friends. Not too taxing, yet public and important enough to assuage his ego.

She spied him talking to Mrs. Fentweather, head of the ladies’ auxiliary at the club. Natalie felt a momentary pang of guilt as she watched her father force himself to ignore the ungodly peacock feather hat she wore, the fronds of which were bobbing and weaving around his head and into his drink, all the while feigning interest in Lord only knows what cause she was spouting on about. She smiled and silently applauded him as he deftly foisted the old biddy off on an unsuspecting board member. Smooth as always, Dad.

She was forced to admit that he looked good. His color was back and his weight up. Only she would notice the tiny lines of fatigue that pulled at the corners of his mouth. Thankfully, the event was nearing conclusion. She’d have to call the house and make sure his room had been made up so he could rest a few hours before dinner.

Her gaze narrowed when he sipped at something clear and fizzy. No alcohol, he’d agreed. But then she spied the twist of lemon, realized it was probably sparkling water, and relaxed. For all his general bullheadedness, he’d essentially followed his doctor’s wishes. Well, with her there forcing him to. But regardless of how he’d gotten there, she was finally beginning to believe that he was really going to be okay. And that he might even stay that way for a while.

Which meant she’d better come up with some plans soon or the next luncheon would be honoring her coming home to work at Holcomb.

Maybe she would take Liza up on her offer of a retreat. The never-ending L.A. sunshine might be just the thing to help her clear her head. And her heart.

Just then, Melissa came up behind her and tugged her elbow, almost making her spill her drink. “Natalie,” she hissed, “there is someone here looking for you.”

Natalie managed to save her dress from being splashed and turned to face her sister. If the tone Melissa had used hadn’t made it clear, her sister’s expression did. Whoever had arrived was not on the approved guest list. Which didn’t make sense to Natalie. She hadn’t invited anyone because she didn’t know anyone, and even if she had, she wouldn’t have subjected a friend— Oh! She craned her neck, suddenly feeling tons better and even a bit guilty for all her mean thoughts. “Is it Liza?”

It had to be. Liza could hobnob with the best of them, and had—but this wasn’t L.A. and her family had limited acceptance for anything that didn’t drip blue blood. Or tasteful diamonds and pearls. Natalie wouldn’t put it past Liza to show up wearing thigh-high leopard-print boots and a spike wig. But rather than panic, she grinned. This was exactly what she needed: something to shake her out of her heartbroken stupor.

Her sister’s frown was as deep as Natalie’s grin was wide. She smoothed a finger over Melissa’s cheek. “You’ll get wrinkles scowling like that, you know.” Her sister’s expression smoothed with almost comical swiftness, but Natalie was too excited and relieved to enjoy it. “Where is she?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s not Liza. It’s some—”

She never got to finish. The crowd had gone suddenly silent except for a few gasps and one or two Oh my’s.

Confused, Natalie turned toward the door…and froze when Jake came striding through the crowd.

She blinked. Twice. But it still looked just like him. The outfit had thrown her off. He was wearing faded jeans, well-worn cowboy boots, his beat-up leather jacket…and what had to be a Stetson. It all looked incredibly good on him. But more than that, he looked at home in them.

He stopped right in front of her, and Natalie was fully aware that every eye in the room was on them, her family’s most of all.

“Hi.” She was totally flummoxed by his sudden appearance. Her heart was pounding so hard, it was like a drum in her ears, and her insides were all but quivering with unstoppable joy. Her mind was simply mush.

“How is your father?”

“What?” Of all the possible opening sentences she could have imagined—and she’d lost a ton of sleep imagining every possible scenario, or so she’d thought—this never would have made the list.

“My father is doing really well.”

“Good, I’m really glad to hear that.”

Melissa shouldered her way between them. “I’m very sorry, but this is a private function and—”

That snapped her out of it. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Lissy, get a grip.” She turned to the rest of the crowd, and for the first time in her life couldn’t have cared less what any of them thought of her or the situation. “I’m sorry for the interruption, everyone.” Then she took Jake by the elbow and said, “We’d better step outside if we’re going to have any hope of a conversation.”

Jake merely shot the crowd that grin of his, tipped his hat and followed her. Natalie swore she saw several women fanning their faces as he strode past. It shouldn’t have made her smile, but it did. She had no idea why he was here or what he planned to tell her, so she had no business letting herself get remotely excited about—

They’d barely made it through the doors into the lobby area when he took hold of her arm and spun her back to him. “I know this is possibly the worst time and place to do this, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I called at your house and they gave me directions here.”

“That’s—that’s okay. Worst time to do what?”

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I know you think we don’t have a chance, but—”

Now she interrupted him. “That’s not true. That’s why I called you.”

He stopped, seemed stunned. “It isn’t? You did?”

Hope began to unfurl inside her heart. “I tried to contact you in Tulsa and again in St. Louis, but the hotel didn’t have you registered. I took that as a sign that you didn’t want to hear from me again, but Liza talked me into calling you at work. You weren’t there, and I didn’t know what to say, so I just left my name.”

“You’re kidding. I never got the message. I’m…I’m not working for Lannister Cattle. At least, not directly.” He looked honestly confused, but that was nothing compared to her confusion.

“You’re not working for your family?”

He was still shaking his head. “I didn’t know. God, I can’t believe—” He shook it off and turned back to her. “I’m running the Double L.”

“So why did you come here?”

He shrugged, and that vulnerable look he sometimes got, the one that melted her heart, flickered over his face. “Because I love you. I never told you. And with all the other decisions I’ve made, that’s one thing I’d decided to do. I should have told you the first hundred times I wanted to.” He fingered the brim of his hat. “Maybe you wouldn’t have left me in New Orleans.”