The Maverick Cowboy(8)

Jenna swung around in her seat. "Does that mean he gets a say in the future plans?"

The dawning horror on Blue's face made her wish she hadn't started the conversation.

"Holy crap. I hadn't thought of that." Blue rubbed a hand over his stubbled chin. "I'm going to have to talk to our family lawyer."

"I don't get the sense that he'd want to interfere," Jenna said quickly. "He seems like such a nice, quiet guy."

"You think so?"

She regarded him warily. "You don't like him, do you?"

A muscle flicked in his jaw. "I find it hard to forgive him for falling into a bottle and walking out on his four kids who had just lost their mother as well."

"How long was it before you saw him again?"

"He turned up about two months ago. Chase said he knew where Billy was all the time, but this was his first visit back to the ranch in twenty years."

"Wow, that's a long time to be gone." Jenna put down her pen. "Why do you think he came back? Did he find out about Chase's plans for the ranch?"

"Nah, it was kind of a coincidence." Blue came to lean against the edge of the countertop and picked up his glass of iced tea. "Sort of a collection of things that ended up making him come home twenty years too late to 'make amends.'"

The sarcasm in his voice was edged with anger-something Jenna understood all too well.

"Do you think he really wants to make things right with you?"

"I don't know." Blue was back to pacing again. He had way too much energy to be confined in such a small space. "He's definitely changed and he says he's given up drinking."

"That's good," Jenna said cautiously.

"I suppose so." Blue half smiled. "I'm just all out of group hugs and family reconciliation moments right now. If he wants my trust, he'll have to earn it."

"Here you go, BB." Roy came through the door with a couple of cardboard boxes covered in cobwebs. "I got you the payroll and the daily ledger for the whole year."

"Thanks, Roy."

Blue put them on the table next to Jenna, who kept a wary eye out for spiders. When Blue wasn't looking, she quickly used her tissue to clean them up a little. He perched on the edge of the table, reached past her shoulder, and opened the first box. Inside was a bundle of correspondence and bills and several notebooks.



       
         
       
        

"Jeez, this is going to take forever."

"Get January to help you. She's a historian. She loves poking around in old documents," Roy advised. "Or I bet if Miss Jenna can read Big Mac's handwriting, she can read anything."

"Jenna has a full-time job." Blue talked over her head as he took several payroll books out of the box and flipped through them. "She's not going to want to get involved in this clusterfuck."

"I wouldn't mind helping." Jenna spoke before she could talk herself out of it. "I quite like deciphering puzzles and I'm used to research work."

Blue looked down at her. "I've got it."

"But I really wouldn't mind-"

"Seriously, I've got it."

Jenna picked up her completed paperwork and put it neatly in the folder. "Not a problem."

She'd forgotten he was rather like her sister Lily-a type A personality who could do anything she set her mind to. Funny how she felt like she'd been firmly set in her place and how much it stung.

"I'd better be off, then." She smiled at Roy as she put her things away in her bag. "Let me know if you see any side effects from the vaccinations."

"Will do, Miss Jenna, and thanks for coming out here."

With a brief nod in Blue's direction, Jenna headed out the door and lugged her bag over to her truck.

"Hey."

She looked behind her to see that Blue had followed her out. He jogged to a stop right in front of her.

"I didn't mean to imply that your help wouldn't be useful."

"I didn't think that you did. You just assumed that you could do it better." She inclined her head an inch. "And, hey, you're probably right."

"Roy said-"

"If Roy told you to come out here and smooth down my ruffled feathers, that was very sweet of him, but I'm a big girl."

"Hell, I was going to come after you anyway."

Jenna blinked at him. "You were?"

"When I turned down your offer of help, you looked like I'd kicked your favorite puppy."

"I did not."

He shrugged. "Well, your least favorite puppy, then."

She stepped into his space, the toes of her boots touching his. "If you kicked a single puppy anywhere near me, I'd shoot you."

"You'd shoot me?"

"Yes, Mr. Marine Officer and a Gentleman or whatever you are."

His mouth quirked up at the corner. "I enlisted. If we're going to be formal here, I'm Gunnery Sergeant Morgan." 

"That makes perfect sense. Aren't sergeants the ones who shout at everyone?"

"I'm not shouting, and I think you mean drill sergeants. I'm better at the more technical aspects of warfare."

"Like bossing people around and assuming you know better than everyone else?" she said sweetly. "I noticed that."

He sighed. "Look, all I wanted to say was I'm sorry if I was abrupt with you back there. I have a tendency to forget I'm no longer supposed to be-"

"Bossing everyone around," she finished for him.

"Yeah. The thing is . . ." He hesitated. "This business with my mom? It's kind of a sensitive issue for me."

"Don't tell me, you have feelings?" Jenna asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Sensitive ones."

She held his gaze and slowly exhaled. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. Your family business is nothing to do with me, and I let my own personal issues dictate how I responded to your perfectly reasonable decision not to involve me."

"You what?" He angled his head to one side. "Can you run that by me again in English?"

She glared at him. "My sister does everything so perfectly that I spent my entire childhood being told to butt out because I wasn't good enough. Okay? I obviously have a residual issue about it."

"Ah, now I totally get it. Imagine what it was like growing up with Mr. Perfect Chase Morgan as an older brother."

"Your brother is lovely."

"Exactly."

"And you're-"

"Not." He held her gaze. "I'm used to giving and receiving orders. Hell, I'm used to orders period, and after twelve years in the military, I'm just starting to come back into the real world. So if I'm being overbearing just tell me, okay?"

Jenna stared at him. "Just tell you."

He nodded. "You have a problem with that?"

"I just don't believe you mean it. You can't change who you are at your core."

"And as far as you are concerned, I'll always be a dictatorial dumbass?"

"I didn't call you a dumb anything," she protested.

"I'm just paraphrasing here. You'd probably put it more nicely." He took a step back and touched the brim of his Stetson. "So we're good?"

She nodded, and after a quick smile he turned and went back into the house, leaving her standing there like a fool.

No one was that direct.

Were they?

She got into the truck, made sure her bag was closed tight, and started the engine. As she bumped down the uneven drive away from the ranch, she tried to imagine Blue in one of the innumerable family therapy meetings her parents had considered mandatory when she was growing up.

They'd insisted that a healthy family dynamic needed to be worked upon, and to be fair, in Jenna's family there had been a lot of passive-aggressive shit going on. She bet Blue Morgan didn't do passive anything. He just told you how it was going to be and expected you to go along with it. Her parents would hate him.

She was still smiling as she pulled into a parking space in Morgantown and found her small purse. There was at least half an hour before clinic hours, and after dealing with the Marine, she needed coffee and chocolate to make it through the rest of the day. The dark aroma of roasting coffee led her toward Yvonne's café on Main Street, where she managed to find a small vacant corner table and settled into the comfortable chair.

The small space was done up to resemble a Parisian coffee shop, with outside tables shaded with umbrellas and an opulent interior décor that mirrored the richness of the cakes and coffee the proprietor Yvonne produced. It also had excellent Wi-Fi, which made both the passing tourists and the locals very happy.



       
         
       
        

"Jenna!"

She looked up to see Yvonne waving at her. Yvonne wore her usual black dress with a prim white collar that made her look vaguely French maid-ish, which Jenna knew was the exact effect she was going for,

"I wasn't expecting you in today. Didn't you have to go and see some pigs?"

Jenna hastily withdrew her muddy feet from sight. "I did, but I had some time before surgery. Can I have a triple-shot cappuccino and a chocolate muffin, please?"

"Of course you can," Yvonne said. "I'll be right back."