Lydia stood and walked over to her and jerked the dangling garment from her finger. Lydia counted to ten, reminding herself that she was a professional and that she didn’t want to go to jail for hurting Presley Ann.
“The faucet handle to my shower is broken. Chance told me I could use his until he got the part needed to fix it.”
“Right. Hey, whatever works for you,” Presley Ann said knowingly as Lydia jerked the used towels from the towel bars that Presley Ann had left hanging there and then strode from the room, dropping them in the hamper sitting in the hallway.
Presley Ann followed her to the master suite and began flicking the dresser with the duster while Lydia sprayed the mirror in the bathroom and wiped it down. She glanced out the bathroom door and found Presley Ann looking out the window. Fed up with her laziness, Lydia walked out of the bathroom, collecting her thoughts before giving Presley Ann the ax.
As if sensing her presence, Presley Ann held back the lace curtain and said, “He sure is a fine man.”
“Who?”
“Chance. Clayton. Both. Whichever.”
“Whichever?”
Presley Ann couldn’t tell them apart and had even admitted it to Chance and Clayton at lunch the day before. Her attitude communicated that she didn’t care if she couldn’t tell them apart.
“Yes. Whichever. Fine and rich is what matters to me.”
“Presley Ann, what are you getting at?”
Presley Ann turned from the window to look directly at Lydia, and the cold calculation in her eyes wasn’t hidden for a change. “Can I level with you?” Without waiting for Lydia’s response, she gestured dismissively to the house around them. “I know this all means a lot to you. You seem like a hard worker and you take a lot of pride in what you do.”
That was all true, but Lydia failed to see what that had to do with anything. “We have work to do, Presley Ann. What are you trying to say?”
“You are a caregiver. You enjoy taking care of them. I could give a rat’s ass about this house or whether or not the dust bunnies are eradicated. You have your goals and I can respect those. They aren’t much different from mine.”
“Huh?” Lydia thought the two of them were like night and day.
“It’s obvious that Chance, or Clayton or…whichever is sweet on you. He likes what you do for them. Hell, they both do, I guess. But I saw him kissing you the other day. If that’s how you want to work it, I say go for it. But we could make all this a whole lot easier for each other and maybe even wind up being friends.”
Not likely.
Lydia didn’t like where this conversation was going as Presley Ann continued to speak. “When I found out from my aunt that the Carlisles needed someone out here I knew it was my chance. My dad wants to put me to work in one of his damned stores. He says I need to make something of myself. This is my chance to do that—make myself a Carlisle. I thought I could get their attention, but all this running and working that you’ve got me doing is making it more difficult for me. I don’t stay on the ranch so I don’t get to be here in the early morning. I only see them at lunch and I go home before they come in for supper. I’m just not wired for all this housework the way you are, I guess.”
She made it sound as though Lydia looked on her labor as a hobby or something. So I like a clean house. Shoot me!
“Presley Ann, what are you getting at?” Lydia already knew, but she wanted her to spell it out.
The young woman looked her in the eyes and smiled. “Here’s the deal. I won’t get in your way, with the one you want.”
“Whichever?”
Lydia had meant it sarcastically, but Presley Ann smiled brightly and said, “Exactly! We could work together, since we’re after the same thing. Let me stay here so I can catch the other one and then I’ll insist down the road that you’re working too hard and that they should hire a whole staff. Lord knows they have enough money to afford it. Since you love this house so much, you can have it. I’ll have him build me another new one.”
It irked Lydia like crazy that Presley Ann referred to whichever of the men she planned to claim so ambiguously. Presley Ann smirked as she looked out the window and said, “It is a plus that there are some fine men around here. Mmm-mmm. Look at that ass.”
Jealousy flamed white hot inside Lydia as she drew closer and looked out the window at which of the Carlisle men she was referring to. Anger replaced the jealousy when she realized the only man Presley Ann could see at the moment was Richard Warner as he unloaded a truck. He was bare-chested, and Presley Ann confirmed that she was indeed talking about him when she said, “I’m licking that six-pack the first chance I get.”