Taming Clay Read online

  “Relax, Clay. I’ve already called the ones I know for sure are late and talked to them. I explained what happened. And I promised those here in town that we’d have checks in their hands tomorrow and those that aren’t in town I told them we’d send checks out overnight tomorrow and they’d have them the next day.”

  Clay downed the whiskey in his glass and went back for another one. “How many?” he growled.

  “Eight so far. Three here in town, five that aren’t. One of them I had some questions about the bill, but given that it’s past due I didn’t think it was the right time to haggle with them. We should go ahead and pay it and then we can go over the bill line by line when you have time and see if it looks right to you,” she said then walked to the back window and gazed out.

  “Yeah. Okay. I’m goin’ back to bed. You should to,” he said then carried the fresh drink across the room and up the stairs without speaking again. She waited until she was pretty sure he was directly above her and just about at his door.

  “Goodnight, Clay.”

  She heard his steps hesitate for just a heartbeat before they started again. And the smile spread slowly across her face when he replied after several seconds.

  “Goodnight, Hailey.”

  Jesus, what a sexy guy. Who knew that the sun-burnished skin of his face and neck would be the same on his chest?

  She shook her head and walked through the back door then over to the railing. The image of him on a horse had already flashed through her mind earlier. One of him working on fences or doing any number of things with no shirt had come quickly after that first glance. She didn’t see any harm in letting her mind drift in that direction. It would never go any further than her thoughts, so it was no big deal. Every girl needs a fantasy man. Clay Cardell could fill that role any time, any place. The stubble that darkened his jaw said that his hair wasn’t normally as light as it appeared. He probably spent too much time outside without a hat and the sun had lightened it naturally because the beard was a couple of shades darker than the close-cropped hair. The bare, sculpted chest that she could picture slick with perspiration was enough to make her eyes drift closed on a slight sigh. But it was that single top button of his jeans that wasn’t fastened that had really sent that fire flashing through her. She quickly downed the rest of the whiskey and turned to go back inside. Maybe she’d have wild dreams about her new boss. She could hope.

  * * *

  “Good morning. Isn’t it a beautiful morning,” Hailey said brightly as she came through the kitchen door and started straight for the coffee pot. When Clay only grunted a response and Isobell smiled at her she poured the coffee then went back to sit at the bar.

  “Didn’t sleep well? That drink of whiskey didn’t help?”

  Clay’s cup hit his saucer and he leveled a gaze at her. “I’m not paying you to worry about how I sleep. Just do your job and don’t worry about other stuff,” he snapped.

  “Ah, didn’t sleep well at all. I’m capable of multitasking. I can do many things at once. You know what you need? You need to get out of this house. I know the signs. Go ride a horse. Herd some cattle. Fix some fences,” she said as she spooned scrambled eggs onto her plate then got several pieces of bacon and a biscuit before she looked up at him to find his flat expression aimed directly at her.

  “And how would you fucking know what I need?”

  Hailey shrugged her shoulders as she spread butter and jelly on the biscuit. “Am I wrong? I get cranky when I don’t get to ride for a long time. Which, by the way, I’ll warn you now that I’m getting close to. A few more days and I’m going to need a short break to get on a horse.”

  Clay flexed his jaw several times as he ate. It irritated him that she had so easily pegged the one thing that he knew was bothering him the most.

  “I need to pay those bills,” he finally said lowly.

  “Which will take you all of about five or ten minutes. We’ll do that right after breakfast if you have time. You write the checks and I’ll take them into town. I’ll take care of that and then you can go ride or whatever it is you need to do,” she said easily without looking back at him again. She knew he was clenching and unclenching his jaw, but he didn’t say anything else.

  “Oh, this is good. I’m famished. And I haven’t had a homemade biscuit in years,” she said then took another bite.

  “Oh, you’ve lived a deprived life,” Isobell said.

  Hailey nodded and waited until she swallowed then said, “I have to agree. At least as far as homemade biscuits are concerned anyway. My mom died when I was real young and my dad’s cooking skills just about rivaled mine. It’s a wonder I don’t have pinto beans growing out of my ears. That’s about all either one of us was any good at. But then you really can’t mess those up unless you just outright burn ‘em.”

  Clay shook his head slightly and kept eating. Isobell saw it and so did Hailey but neither one of them commented on it.

  “He didn’t hire somebody to help out?”

  Hailey snorted and said, “My daddy? Honey, you don’t understand. The great Filmore Lambert didn’t need anybody’s help doing anything. Not cooking, cleaning, or raising a teenage daughter. If hadn’t been for girl friends at school, I seriously believe I still wouldn’t know anything about sex, periods, or anything like that.”

  When Clay’s cup hit his saucer with a loud clatter she looked up at him innocently. “Did I embarrass you?”

  “Do you ever shut up?” he growled.

  “Occasionally. Does it bother you?” she said sweetly.

  “What was your first clue?” he snapped.

  “Then I can always eat at a different time than you do,” she snapped back.

  He opened his mouth then clamped it back shut and drew in a deep breath. “Your food would be cold. Just eat so we can pay those bills,” he finally growled.

  “Yes, sir,” she said evenly.

  They ate in silence for several minutes until Clay glanced up at her then back down to his plate. For all of his complaining it was suddenly too quiet in the room.

  “Who are the three in town?” he finally asked.

  “Miller Farm Supply, Bill’s Tack Shop, and Yates Wholesale,” she rattled off then took a deep breath when he lifted his gaze to hers.

  “Are you kidding me? She didn’t pay Yates? Goddammit. That’s where we buy ninety percent of our supplies,” he said harshly.

  “She missed the last payment. That’s the one I have some questions about, too. But we should go ahead and pay the bill today.”

  Clay shook his head and shoved his plate back as he stared across the room just trying to keep from letting the anger inside of him just explode out.

  “Sonofabitch,” he finally muttered and shoved off the stool and walked out the door.

  Isobell sighed and shook her head as she gathered his dishes that held the half-eaten breakfast. “Yates is a hard-nosed old man. I’m surprised he didn’t cut us off as soon as it was one day past due.”

  “Oh, he did. Obviously nothing has been ordered since the due date. It’s only four days past due. I talked to him and promised him that I would personally be in this morning and put the check in his hand. He didn’t sound real happy, but I’m sure he’s a smart businessman. The amount this ranch purchases from him every month is not something to sneeze at. It’ll be fine.”

  “I swear, if I could catch that girl somewhere alone after what she’s putting him through…”

  “You’ll have to get in line,” Hailey said as she popped the last bite of biscuit in her mouth then rose and carried her plates to the sink. She stopped long enough to pour a cup of coffee then got Clay’s cup and filled it.

  “Peace offering,” she said with a grin then turned and started through the door.

  “I think I’ll write a book,” Isobell said as she watched her go.

  Hailey turned back to her with a puzzled frown. “On?”

  “The taming of Clay Cardell,” she said with the little smile growing.
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br />   Hailey laughed and shook her head. “I wouldn’t start calling the publishers just yet,” she said then laughed again and went through the door.

  She went straight to her office and got the stack of bills that she needed and carried them to Clay’s office. She set his coffee on the desk then laid the bills down beside it. He looked up at her then back down to the coffee.

  “You don’t have to do that. I can get my own coffee.”

  Hailey shrugged as she sat in the chair opposite his desk. “I was headed this way. It will cost close to a hundred dollars to overnight the five that are out of town. And the backup drive is a hundred and twenty. We need two. I’m assuming you have petty cash?”

  Clay turned to the safe without answering her. He opened it then counted out four hundred dollars in twenties then slammed the safe shut before he turned and laid it on the desk in front of her without saying a single word. He thumbed through the stack of bills then lifted a surprised look to her before he opened the computer program and started entering the information.

  “Wonder how she thought she was gonna get on all those Internet sites if she didn’t pay the satellite bill?” he muttered.

  “It’s only a couple of days past due. That’s when you fired her, right?”

  He nodded without speaking and she let her eyes drift around the room as he worked. He loved being a cowboy. There were several bronze sculptures that resembled the ones along the mantle in the living room. All of them depicting a western scene of some type, each one with a horse and a man either on his back or at his side. She finally let her gaze drift back to him and settle there. She hadn’t been disappointed in the vivid dreams that had filled her sleep. The best she’d ever had. Ones filled with rough hands that turned gentle, lips that stole her breath and so much more. And when she opened her eyes it was with a smile on her face. For such a short night, she had awakened feeling more rested than she had ever felt in her life. And strangely satisfied…that was puzzling.

  He knew she was watching him and it unnerved him just a little, and irritated him a lot.

  “Do you know this software?”

  “I do. It’s the same package we used.”

  “Then you know how to enter the checks,” he stated.

  “I do. I didn’t think you’d really want me to do that for a while. I can enter them and print them out, then let you sign them if you’d like,” she offered.

  He was silent for a while then nodded his head. “After we get the past-due ones done, we’ll go over them first and make sure what we’re paying. Then you can enter them and I’ll sign them,” Clay countered.

  “Okay. This package has a lot of good reports in it, Clay. Have you ever seen them?”

  He cut his eyes to her then away as he shook his slightly. “No.”

  “After we get this mess straightened out, I’ll print some for you and explain them to you. They’re a good tool. Not just to see where your money’s going, but it can give you both some good forecasting figures and some good reconciliation tools as well. A way to balance what you ordered versus what you’re paying for. I always found the trending reports particularly useful. A picture of what any particular area’s expenses or even income is over time.”

  Clay shook his head and kept working. “Pepper didn’t use the software after I quit going over her work every day. I didn’t know that. What few checks she did write after that she wrote by hand.”

  “I can enter those and just not print them out. We’ll need that to get everything back in sync.”

  He waited until the checks were printing before he looked back at her again. “How did you learn all this?”

  “Trial and error. Daddy didn’t trust computers and refused to get one. I bought the one we used after I saved up enough money from what little wages he paid me. Then it took me six more months to save up enough to buy that software. By that time I was doing all of the work on the business side. I did it the way I wanted to do it and fought my battles with him about it. And I kept doing it the way I wanted to.”

  Clay was silent for a couple of seconds then finally said, “Somehow that doesn’t really surprise me.”

  Hailey laughed and said, “I wasn’t lying when I said I was stubborn.”

  His hands hesitated for just a brief second when he heard her laugh then tore the checks off and started signing them without replying. He had not intended to snap at her first thing, but he really hadn’t slept well. And what little he had slept had been filled with dreams. Dreams that bothered him a lot. He’d never dreamed about any woman, not ever. But last night every dream had been about one that was as sharp-tongued and self-confident as she was beautiful and sexy. She had not been in the house for one full day and she already had his world tilted off center a little. That did not bode well for the future.

  “Well, I see you made it through the first day.”

  Hailey turned her head and smiled broadly at Laine. “Well, not technically. It hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet, but I have to go into town. I figure by the time I get back we can call it a full day. Good morning, Laine.”

  “And good morning to you. Now that pretty smile is the way start out a day.”

  “What the hell do you want?” Clay snapped.

  “Good morning, Clay. I’m glad you asked. I’m doing quite well, thank you. And how about you?” Laine asked as he turned the bright smile to Clay, meeting the steady glare from him.

  “Do you want something or not?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do. I came to remind you that we need to move the herd to the upper pasture in a couple of days or so.”

  Clay nodded and said, “I doubt that I can go this time. Maybe. We’ll see.”

  “We’ll have this stuff straightened out before then, Clay. Probably by the end of today. You should go,” Hailey said then met his gaze without wavering.

  “Are you gonna start telling me again what I need to do? Because if you are…” He stopped talking when Laine chuckled and glared at him then went back to signing the checks.

  “You should go too if you can, Hailey. It would give you that chance to get back on a horse,” Laine said then raised his eyebrows innocently when Clay’s head came up slowly and he clenched his jaw several times without speaking.

  “We’ll see. I’m going to need a truck this morning. I should find you?”

  Laine nodded without letting his gaze waver from Clay’s as he answered her. “Yes, ma’am. I’m your guy. Anything you need, just let me know. I’ll be in the stables. My office is right inside the door on the right.”

  “Well see if you can find it,” Clay barked.

  Laine smiled broadly and held his eyes for just a second before he shifted them back to Hailey. “Let me know when you’re ready. See you then,” he said then turned without looking back at Clay again.

  Hailey watched him go then turned to find Clay’s gaze on her before he looked back down and signed the last check.

  “Do you know where these places are?”

  “I got directions when I called them. I’ll find them. Is there anything I can pick up while I’m there? There are a few things on the supply list but nothing marked urgent. I didn’t know when your normal supply runs are.”

  “Friday’s. We usually buy on Friday’s. If there’s nothing marked urgent you should be fine as long as Isobell has plenty of coffee,” he said then bit his tongue. That one sentence would tell her that he’d actually been listening and remembering the things she had said.

  “I’ll check with her,” she said as she rose then picked up the bills with their checks and the money he had laid on the desk.

  “Be back as soon as I can,” she said as she went through the door.

  When he found himself staring at the door again he shook his head. Why did he do that every time she walked through it? Damn she’s got a pretty laugh. He looked back down at the coffee cup then took a swallow from it. It was lukewarm now but somehow it didn’t seem right not to drink it.

  Hailey stuck the
money in her back pocket and went to her bedroom to get her bag. She stopped back by the office to pick up the print out she had made of the catalog page for the backup drives. She folded the five that were being mailed and put those in envelopes and took the other three checks and bills together as she started for the front door. She was almost to it when she remembered the coffee and shifted her direction to the kitchen.