Hot Westmoreland Nights - Brenda Jackson [39]
She saw the wistful look in Lucia’s eyes. They had just returned from having dinner together after going to a movie. “You know how you can make yourself known, don’t you?”
Lucia rolled her eyes. “I know how you would make yourself known to him, Clo. You go after whatever it is that you want. You’re daring. I’m not.”
Chloe placed her hands on her hips. “So what are you going to do, Lou? Wait another year or so for him to need more paint thinner and hope you’re in your father’s store when he does?”
Lucia dropped down on her sofa with a downhearted look on her face. “Of course not.” She then looked up at Chloe. “Enough about me since I refuse to have a pity party. How close are you to getting Ramsey to do the magazine cover and interview?”
Chloe shook her head and dropped down beside Lucia, looking just as downhearted. “It’s not going well. Ramsey is avoiding me like the plague.”
“Why?”
Chloe smiled over at her friend. “Too much sexual chemistry in the air when we’re within ten feet of each other.”
“Must be nice.”
Chloe leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes thinking that in essence it should be nice, but it wasn’t. Ramsey made an appearance only when he had to. He got up each morning for his cup of coffee while she prepared breakfast and instead of hanging around, he took his breakfast and coffee into his office, claiming he had a lot of work to do. He came out for lunch to eat with his men, said very little and only stayed long enough to eat and leave. In the evenings, although she prepared dinner for him each evening, he usually stayed away until he was sure she was in bed.
He hadn’t been home when she’d left to come here for the weekend. She had left a note on the kitchen table letting him know she would be returning Sunday evening. She had left her cell number in case something came up and she needed to be reached.
A smile touched her lips. Who was she kidding? She was hoping he would contact her for any reason and that wasn’t good.
“Okay, Clo, you’ve gotten quiet on me. Open those eyes and tell me what’s going on.”
Chloe slowly opened her eyes to gaze over into Lucia’s curious ones. She had an idea what was going on, but to say it out loud would be speaking it into existence and she wasn’t ready to do that yet. There was no way she could tell Lucia that she might not be the only woman who’d fallen for a Westmoreland man.
“Stop being a worry wart. Nothing is going on.” Chloe drew in a breath thinking that Lucia had no idea just how true that was. Nothing was really going on. She was no closer to getting Ramsey to agree to that cover or an interview than before she’d shown up. Somehow, she had to get him to stop avoiding her, sexual chemistry or no sexual chemistry. And if she were to come clean now and tell him the truth, he would probably kick her off his land so fast it would make her head spin.
She stood, not ready for Lucia to question her further about anything. “It’s late and I think I’ll turn in early.”
“I think I’ll turn in as well. Mom and Dad invited us to dinner after church tomorrow and then later Aunt Pauline wants us to drop by her place.”
“All right and then after that I need to return to the Westmoreland place.” This would be her last week and she needed to make some kind of headway.
Later that night as Chloe lay in bed, images of Ramsey flowed through her mind. Two days ago while preparing lunch she had glanced out the window in time to see a shirtless Ramsey carrying a lamb in his arms across the yard to the barn. With jeans riding low on his hips she had stared at his physique, taking in every inch of his tight abs, strong arms and tight buns. He was the only man alive who could literally make her drool.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the following morning at breakfast when he’d sat with his men, she saw again how well he got along with them as well as his brothers and cousin.