“Tallie? Great to hear from you,” Dr. Sterling said. “How’s it going?”
“Excuse me, sir,” said one of the house staff. “You are wanted on line one.”
“Take a message.”
“I’m afraid he’s rather insistent. It’s Governor Mitchell.”
Cole snatched up the phone. “Governor?”
The man sounded angry. Cole caught two words: “attack” and “hose.”
“What?”
The governor repeated himself.
“I most assuredly did not attack her with a water hose!”
“This is getting too good,” Wade muttered from the sofa in Cole’s home office.
Cole sat forward in his desk chair. “It was a problem with the irrigation system and it’s being repaired as we speak.”
“I shouldn’t have to tell you that Dr. Finley is there on a very important assignment. I would expect you to assist her in any way you can. From what I was told, you also tried to sabotage her dig in other ways.” Governor Mitchell paused. “Cole, I’ve known you boys for a lot of years and, frankly, I’m surprised and disheartened by the reports I’m getting from the director of the museum where Dr. Finley works.”
Cole was seething. He found himself out of his chair and pacing around his office. She did this. Governor Mitchell had been a family friend for most of his lifetime. But apparently Cole wasn’t the only one in the picture who carried some weight. And right now Tallie’s side was winning.
“It was all a misunderstanding, Ted,” Cole said in what he hoped was a convincing tone. “I was attempting to lend assistance not destroy her work.”
“I’d have to say your assistance blew up in your face,” the governor replied. “As I understand, she only has another six or seven weeks. Try and work with this woman, Cole. She’s highly regarded in the academic community. Graduated with the highest honors and is well on her way to becoming one of the top researchers in her field. It would not bode well for either of us if she botched this dig and you were the reason behind it.”
“I understand.”
“I hope you do,” he returned. “So, how are Chance and Holly? Is married life treating them well?” Cole’s younger brother, Chance, had just gotten married a little over a year ago.
“Yes. They’re doing great.” A lot better than he was. “They just moved into their own house here on the ranch. It’s kind of you to ask.”
“You tell them both I sent my regards. To Wade, too,” the governor said.
“I certainly will, Governor. Thanks for your call.”
Cole hung up the phone and felt the room spinning around him. He looked at Wade, who sat five feet away still trying not to laugh. “Governor Mitchell sends his regards.”
“I take it that call was about our little archeologist?”
“Don’t say a word,” Cole warned his brother.
“The two of you make a cute couple.”
“Wade, I’m warning you.”
“When did you meet her?”
“What does it matter?”
“Exactly.”
“New Orleans. That weekend I stayed over after the Coleman merger.”
“New Orleans? Interesting.”
“Shut up or leave.”
“This just gets better and better.”
“I think she’s in cahoots with someone who doesn’t want me to finish my project.”
“Maybe if you offered to help her, she would complete her mission faster and get out of your way.”
“Tried. Failed.”
“What did Mitchell want?”
“The irrigation thing. Someone told him I attacked her with a garden hose,” Cole said.
“And you would never do that.”
“I didn’t!” Cole’s anger returned. “Okay, I did have Red and a couple of the boys go digging on her site.”
“Bro, you are bad. What else?”
“I asked Stuart to turn some heifers loose in the pasture. She ran them right through the damned fence. Not only did I have to have somebody put up a new fence, Holly spent a week bandaging cuts and giving tetanus shots. But the damned sprinkler system wasn’t me.”
The most irritating part of the whole thing was that, despite everything, Cole still found her exceedingly attractive. He had even envisioned helping her clean the mud from her body, making certain to check every square inch. The thought had come to him while she’d stood there miserable and soaked to the skin, pointing her finger at him, and he still couldn’t shake the image from his mind.
He wished they had met under different circumstances. But when he thought about it, they actually had. If only he could rewind to what they’d shared that weekend in New Orleans. He would have liked to get to know her and see where it would go from there. But with their current situation, it wasn’t in the cards. She couldn’t stand him for reasons that were obvious. And she made him crazy. He didn’t exactly know how to get around that. He refused to grovel. So he would move on, suppress his feelings, and no one would be the wiser.
Eight
“Cole?”
It was Debra Davis, his secretary, a middle-aged woman who’d been his right hand for almost ten years. Hopefully she was calling him to give him the good news that something—a loophole, a favor, money—something had been found that would remove the good doctor from his land once and for all.
He knew he was on shaky ground. Tallie was just too damn tempting. In fact she was the first woman in all the years since Gina’s death who’d touched him on a level he never thought he would feel again. He needed to keep his eye on the ball, to stay focused on building the corporate retreat. Every time he came in contact with Tallie he lost his mind. He wasn’t getting much sleep. Had no appetite. And her beautiful face was always in his thoughts. It was all he could do to stay away. This last-ditch effort to remove her was as much for self-preservation as it was the project.
“Talk to me, Debra.”
The silence on the other end of the line was not a good sign.
“There’s nothing,” his secretary finally said.
“What do you mean there’s nothing?” Cole asked, sitting forward in his chair, ready for some serious explanations. Debra was the best. She could find information where there wasn’t any. She could make things happen that seemed impossible. She was Cole’s genius at the controls. No one could best Debra. This was not the answer he’d anticipated but after receiving the report from his security division, he wasn’t surprised.
“I checked with Jeremy—” the lead counsel at Masters Corporation “—the court, Dr. Finley’s boss at the museum. There’s no way around it. Sorry, Cole, but it looks like you’re stuck with her for fifty-one more days.”
This was not happening. He’d dealt with bureaucratic red tape before but this was pure insanity.
“See if you can get him on the line, Debra.”
“One moment.” And it literally only took Cole’s assistant one moment to get Tallie’s boss on the phone.
“This is Henry Sterling.”
“Dr. Sterling? Cole Masters. Thank you for taking my call.”
“Of course, Mr. Masters. How can I help you?”
“As I’m sure you know, one of your archeologists, Dr. Finley, is working on some land I own in Calico County.”
“Yes. We are all most excited about the possibility of what she may discover.” He caught himself, apparently realizing that would not be why Cole was calling. “Your administrative assistant called earlier, asking if the dig could be postponed or cancelled. I’m afraid I couldn’t accommodate her.”
Cole had to make the man understand his need for Tallie to leave. “I don’t know if you are aware but I am in the process of developing that land. In fact, I have cement trucks standing by to pour the foundations for both the main lodge and thirty cabins. Then a pool will be constructed along with other amenities. The dig, as she refers to it, is causing me a serious delay.”
“That is regretful.”
“It’s more than regretful.”
Cole felt his frustration rise to the surface. “I’m sitting around twiddling my thumbs while she scrutinizes dirt.” Which wasn’t entirely true. He had plenty of projects needing his attention, but this was his project. Other than the sheer indignity he would suffer if this venture fell apart, his brothers would never let him live it down, all in good-natured joking, but still... Plus, he needed Tallie off his land for a very personal reason. The longer he was presented with the temptation of this woman, the harder it was to keep a hold on his sanity. “Why is there no one helping her?”
“Unfortunately all of the archeologists and even the approved volunteers from both the museum and the university are tied up on other projects. Dr. Finley was scheduled to join a dig in Brazil that is also short on manpower as soon as she finishes at your property.”
“Was?”
There was a long pause. “You understand I can’t discuss Dr. Finley’s employment or any health issues she might have. Let me just say that her participation in the Brazil dig is still to be determined.”
“Of course.” It struck Cole as odd that Dr. Sterling would bring up her health. What medical condition could she possibly have? He hoped it wasn’t cancer or some equally horrific disease. His heart did a flip-flop in his chest. Guilt at giving her such a hard time almost overwhelmed him. “Why don’t you hire more people? That would seem to be the obvious solution.”