AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He patted her on the back, his meaty hand nearly leveling her. “I knew I liked you. Abit on the scrawny side, but I can take care of that.”
Chaz stepped in before Mojo pounded her into the ground with his enthusiasm. “She’s fine how she is.”
“Not if she’s eating for two.”
Chaz whipped around. “What did you say?”
“I have the eye,” Mojo insisted proudly. “Got it from my momma. She could see things like that and so can I.”
Shayne caught Chaz’s hand and tugged him toward the door. “Come on. Mojo’s just teasing. It’s too early to know for sure.”
He allowed himself to be drawn from the kitchen. “Mojo’s gonna find himself out of a job if he’s not careful.”
“Trust me. You don’t want to do that.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? You really that bad?”
“Worse.” She shot him a grim look. “Far, far worse.”
“But, you don’t understand, boss.”
Chaz didn't look up from his accounting book. “There's nothing to understand. Jumbo. She's in charge. If she says to move something to the left, you damn well pick up the house by the foundations and move it to the left. Got it?”
“But... But she has a clipboard.”
That caught Chaz’s attention. “A what?”
“You heard me. It’s one of those official ones with a pen hangin’ from it.” Jumbo’s single eyebrow knotted into a ferocious scowl. “And it gets worse. Idon’t know how to tell you this, boss. So I’m gonna come right out and say it. But I want you to brace yourself.”
Aw, hell. “I’m braced.”
“She’s makin’ a list. Just like she was Santa friggin’ Claus.”
Chaz put down his pencil. “A list, you say?”
“Don’t that beat all?” Jumbo began to pace, eating up the huge room in three short strides. He turned and rumbled toward the desk again. “It wasn’t very nice of me, but I peeked at the damned thing. And it’s numbered and everything.”
Chaz ran a hand across his jaw. “Numbered.” He shook his head. “That sounds serious.”
Jumbo planted massive fists on his equally massive hips and glared, his eyebrow doing a mambo from one side of his face to the other. “Whatcha gonna do?”
“Looks like I’ll have to talk to her. Any idea where she is?”
“In one of the bedrooms.” He shuddered. “I’ll just wait here until you turn her from the devil’s spawn back into that sweet little lady you married.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
Chaz ran her to ground in the spare bedroom he’d considered using for Sarita. His wife was curled up on the padded bench in the bow window that overlooked the pasture, cradling something in her arms. Tossed to one side was the clipboard with its ominous list and he couldn't help but grin. She'd even changed for the role she'd taken on, dressing in neat black wool slacks, crisp black blouse and power jacket. And she'd tortured that glorious hair into a business-likeknot.
He came up behind her and made short work of the knot, allowing the straight, pale strands to slide free. Then he slipped his hands beneath the golden waterfall and massaged the stiffness from herneck.
“I didn’t think it was possible, but you actually scared Jumbo.”
She kept her back to him, leaning against his chest and staring out at the snow-peaked Rockies. “So I gathered. Isuspect it was the clipboard that put him over the edge.”
“He’s in my office trembling like a scolded puppy. I’m standing here prayin’ he doesn’t wet the carpet.”
A hint of laughter touched her voice. “I’m sorry. Iwas just trying to be organized.”
