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She led him down the hall toward her office at the back of the house. Since the last guests had left the day before and the newcomers hadn’t yet arrived, the only scents drifting from the kitchen were those of coffee and toast. Most days the smell of eggs, bacon, pancakes, cinnamon rolls overlaid with the zest of salsa and the saccharine of syrup would draw everyone within sniffing distance to Fanny’s domain.
Gina flicked the lights and sat at her desk. When she glanced up, Teo stood in the doorway seemingly transfixed by the photos on her wall. Most people didn’t even notice them.
“I was going to ask who’d taken the pictures for your brochure. But I can see now it was…” His eyes met hers. “You?”
Gina shrugged. He was the first person who’d ever noticed that the pictures in the brochure had a similar style to the ones on her wall.
“You’re very talented. Where did you study?”
“Study?” Gina laughed. “I picked up a camera, and I pointed it at stuff.”
His eyebrows lifted, and he glanced at the photos once again. “Then you’re even more talented than I thought.”
She had to look down so he wouldn’t see how much those words pleased her. She’d never told anyone, not even Jase, how much she loved photography. There was no point. She’d had the choice of selling this place and attending college or sucking it up and staying here.
So, in truth, she’d never really had any choice at all.
And that was all right. It wasn’t like she couldn’t still take pictures. She did so all the time. She’d just never be able to make a living at it.
Nahua Springs Ranch was her life. Unless, of course, she lost the place.
Gina cleared the uncommon thickness from her throat and reached for a registration form. “Fill this out, and we’ll get you settled.”
His fingers closed over the paper; he grabbed a pen. The chair creaked as he sat; then scratching noises followed as he complied. Outside, several car doors slammed.
Jase and the others were back.
Gina stood just as Teo signed his name to the bottom and held out the sheet to her.
She gave the document a cursory glance. Teo Jones. From some town in Arizona she’d never heard of—there were a lot of them. He was a teacher, which explained the glasses but not the body. Unless he was a phys-ed teacher, who perhaps coached track and basketball on the side and worked construction in the summer. She was more intrigued by the minute.
“Anything wrong?” he asked when she continued to stare at his registration.
“Uh, no.” Her gaze flicked to the two most important items on the page. He could ride a horse. He’d been camping often. That was all she needed to know. “If I could just get your credit c—”
He dropped a handful of cash onto the desk. Gina’s mouth hung open with the word card on the tip of her tongue.
“Cash is better, yes?”
Gina nodded. Who carried around that much money?
No one she’d ever met.
“About the pic—” he began.
“Gina!” Jase called from the front of the house. Usually she was waiting out front t
o greet the guests when they arrived.
“Coming!” she shouted, but his footsteps sounded in the hall an instant before he appeared at the door.
His gaze went from the pile of cash on the desk, to her startled face, to Teo Jones, who smiled his charming smile. It didn’t work half as well on Jase as it had worked on Gina.
“Who the hell are you?” Jase demanded.
From the tone of his voice and the tension in his shoulders Jase had pegged Teo as a bill collector. Several of them had begun to demand cash up front.
“A walk-in,” Gina said so brightly Jase’s frown deepened. “Teo, meet Jase McCord, my partner.”
