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Handing his horse over, Jared spun around in the direction of the main house. The day he had graduated from A&M, his dad handed him the keys to the front door, all the books for the ranch, including his name on all the banking accounts, and moved himself and his wife into a lush little four thousand square foot house nestled in the heart of a two-acre treed lot in the burbs. Both his mom and dad had never been happier.
His next thought was how hard would it be to talk his mother into finding a last-minute replacement. Even she would understand any human being would be dead to the world after walking for hours across the ranch on foot with a lame horse. Expecting him to dress up and be social was asking a lot under the circumstances.
“About time.” The front door barely latched behind him when his mother appeared in the library doorway. “You’re not answering your phone.” She sniffed the air. “And you need a shower. A long shower.” Despite her announcement of his less than pleasant odiferous contribution to the room, she marched straight up to him and kissed him on his cheek. “We don’t want to be late.”
All dolled up in a sleek black evening gown, her favorite sapphire and diamond earrings with matching necklace, and her hair high on her head in a simple style that showed off the depth of her sparkling sky-blue eyes, he remembered how excited she’d been when he her one and only son agreed to share a night out with her. He simply didn’t have the heart to confess how bone tired he was. “I need a few extra minutes.”
Her gaze softened and her hand gently cupped his cheeks. “Hard day?”
“You could say that.”
Love and concern shone clearly in her eyes. “What happened?”
He shook his head. “Had to walk Pepper home. She’s limping.”
“Oh, dear.” Her expression crumpled with concern. His mom may not have been cut out to be a country girl, but her kindheartedness extended from animals to humans alike. Tonight’s charity du jour was for veterans, next week it could be for stray cats. “Nothing serious, I hope.”
“Me too. Randy will let me know, but right now a long hot shower would do me good.”
“Take a soak. We can be a little late.” She rubbed her hand along his cheek again.
Strangely enough, even though he was a grown man who didn’t need or want coddling, his mom’s loving touch still had a way of making him feel better. There was no way he could disappoint her by asking to skip tonight. Maybe if he were lucky, he could avoid all the annoying people and just spend the night dancing with his mom.
“I’ll call for Mary. Have her make you some hot chocolate. Good for the soul after a hard day.” Mary had been the family housekeeper since before Jared was born. She was as devoted to the Gold family as she was to her own.
“Thanks, Mom.” Offering a return smile and gentle squeeze of her hand, he proceeded up the winding staircase to the master suite at the end of the upstairs hall. He might have to nix the hot chocolate and down a gallon of coffee instead, otherwise his mom might find him sleeping in his soup tonight. Maybe a fifteen-minute power nap would help.
Collapsed on his bed, eyes closed, he had no idea if he’d fallen asleep or not when a rap sounded at his bedroom door. “Come in.”
The door swung open and carrying a tray, Mary smiled at him sweetly. “Your mother asked me to bring you some hot chocolate. I thought you might prefer coffee. Brought the whole carafe.”
“Bless you.” He pulled himself upright. There were many things in life he had no doubt about, but he wasn’t so sure this house could run without Mary. He knew she was getting up there in years. She’d lost her only son and daughter-in-law in a car accident a few years back and was now raising her only grandson. Some days he thought the responsibility of raising a young boy and taking care of him was more than a woman of her age should take on, and then there were times he was convinced with a heart of gold that Mary would outlive them all. At least for tonight, coffee pot in hand, she was his knight in shining armor. Hopefully, for his mother’s sake, consumption of the liquid caffeine would be enough to convert him from an exhausted cowboy into Prince Charming.
Chapter Two
So far, the evening was starting out exactly as challengingly as Eve had expected. Her grandparents always drew a reasonable amount of attention, not just because they were prominent citizens in both social and political circles, but because her grandmother could charm the gold from a leprechaun. She had been a tremendous asset to the Governor for his two decades in politics, but Grams only succeeded in attracting more male attention than Eve and the Baron name garnered on their own. Somehow Eve had managed to dodge both Maude Vandemeer’s stuffy and thrice divorced son as well as Octopus Hands Healy without insulting anyone or resorting to hiding in the ladies’ room. Though she didn’t doubt if the evening continued on the same path, she just might spend more time camping out in the john than at their table.
Hopefully, once the cocktail portion of the evening was over and everyone was seated, she, firmly ensconced between her grandparents, would be able to avoid extra attention.
“It’s all delicious, isn’t it?” Her grandmother sidled up beside her, perusing the tray of hors d’oeuvres a nearby waiter held out for them, then plucked a bite-sized ball of something. “Have you tried these quinoa bites?”
Eve shook her head. She hadn’t tried anything yet, except for nursing a single glass of her favorite white merlot.
“The name is awful, but they are scrumptiously delicious.” Small plate in hand, Lila Baron pilfered two more quinoa bites onto her dish and smiled graciously at the waiter.
To appease her grandmother, as the waiter turned to face her, Eve popped one in her mouth. “Oh, they are better than one would expect.”
“Would I steer you wrong?” Her grandmother laughed that sweet sound that always made others nearby want to laugh with her. “Oh, Margaret Gold is flagging me down. I’ll be right back.”
Eve nodded and watched her grandmother glide across the room. Considering her age, the lady still held herself straight and tall and moved with the same grace Eve always remembered. One thing was sure, when Eve reached eighty, she hoped to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps.
“There you are.” The chairperson for the charity benefit came up to her, rubbing her hands together enthusiastically and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “There is so much buzz over the naming rights for your latest scent. I can not tell you how thrilled we all are that you would be willing to do this for us. After all, you could get stuck with a dud of a name.”
The thought had occurred to her as well the first time she’d done such a thing for charity, but they’d found that most people were reasonable about being redirected with a suitably marketable name. The hardest one was when Ginger Harkenrider wanted to name it Hark the Angels. Finally the woman took a shine to Sweet and Spicy, believing it was a take on her name Ginger.
Slowly inching her way deeper and deeper into the corner, Eve nibbled on more quinoa bites and scanned the attendees. She recognized a good many of the people and was fairly certain she also knew which ones would be digging into their wallets tonight for a good cause and which ones weren’t spending a dime above the price of their dinner. From where she stood, she spotted a gentleman smiling at her grandmother. Tall, sandy hair and broad shoulders, the guy knew how to wear a tux. Without a clear view of his face, all she could tell was that many a woman tried to capture his sun-kissed hair color from a bottle, and many more women would most likely be trying to get up close and personal with the man tonight. Unless of course he had a wife to run interference. She didn’t envy his wife if he had one. If his face was as appealing as his silhouette, she’d have her hands full beating the women away. Another reason Eve was better off single. Men were a handful. Handsome men were mostly attitude. Rich handsome men were simply trouble. Heaven knew that until recently, her brother Kyle was an excellent example of handsome and rich fodder for the tabloids.
Tired of waiting for the man to turn around, Eve dragged her gaze away from her grandmother and the mystery guy. Most likely by the time Grams was done with him, his checkbook would be open and charity coffers would be overflowing. That made her smile. Her back to the crowd, she watched the staff walk away from the latest addition to the hors d’oeuvres table. A caviar bar. Or was it a caviar fountain? Whatever it was, it was caviar, and she loved caviar. Especially with a little cream cheese on not too dry toast. She could graze her way through the entire set up for the rest of the night—to heck with whatever dinner they were serving.
