My Dearest Cal Read Online Free PDF Page B

with open curiosity. “How you gonna talk him into it?”
    Marilou frowned and admitted, “If I knew that, I’d be out there after him instead of wasting my vacation in this chair. I’ll think of something, though. I can promise you that.”
    “Maybe you ought to go think on it someplace else. He sees you here later, he’s likely to be madder than an old wet hen. He ain’t the kind of man who likes to be pushed.”
    “What kind of man is he?” she asked, seizing the opening and hoping for clues that would help her plot a new strategy.
    “One who wouldn’t like me gossiping about him.”
    “It wouldn’t be gossip,” she said. At the lift of Chaney’s bushy gray brows, she added, “Not exactly.”
    “You put whatever name you like on it, I ain’t saying a thing. He owns this place, and I’d like to hang on to my job.”
    “So, he’s tough.”
    “Listen here, missy, you didn’t hear me say nothing like that.”
    She grinned innocently. “I could have sworn I did.”
    “Women!” He threw up his hands in disgust. “You just go on and think what you like. I’ll be getting back to work now.”
    “Thanks for the talk.”
    “We didn’t have no talk. If you say we did, I’ll call you a liar.”
    “I suspect your boss is already calling me far worse,” she said, surprised by the odd little pang of regret that crept through her. Why should it bother her what a jerk thought?
    Chaney muttered something unintelligible, then said grudgingly, “If you want any more of that lemonade, there’s a pitcher full in the refrigerator. I suppose you might’s well help yourself.”
    “Thanks.” Surprised by the gesture, she nodded. She considered whether it would be wise to probe anymore, then decided to risk the one question that had been nagging at her. She knew that the old hand could answer it, if he was of a mind to.
    “Chaney?”
    “Ma’am?”
    “Who’s Lady Mary? Would she have any influence with him?” She tried to inject the question with nothing more than innocent curiosity, but it seemed to reverberate with hidden meanings. Maybe a man wouldn’t notice them, she thought hopefully.
    Chaney obviously did. She caught the faint suggestion of a sly smile tugging at his usually sour, down-turned mouth. “Why, ma’am, I’m not so sure that’s something I ought to be discussing with you,” he said evasively. “I suppose if you get real curious, sooner or later you’ll find out for yourself.”
    Marilou had a feeling that there was the tiniest suggestion of implied criticism in his comment, but there was also a dare. Somehow she knew that before the day was out, she’d take him up on it.
    Once she’d been left on her own, Marilou decided that a little more lemonade might help her quench this odd, insatiable thirst that had developed the minute she had laid eyes on Cal Rivers with his gray-blue eyes, pitch-black hair and powerful masculine body that belonged astride a horse.
    Or a woman.
    Dear heavens, where had that wayward thought come from? Foolish question. The man’s sex appeal was practically branded on him. He radiated sexual energy the way Florida Power and Light sent out electricity.It was just what they did. That didn’t mean she had to fall under his spell. She refused to behave that predictably.
    She hurriedly poured herself another glass of the thirst-quenching lemonade, then wandered into the living room, looking around with blatant curiosity at the prissy furniture that didn’t fit at all the man she’d just met. It must have come with the house, or else this Lady Mary had done the decorating with all the dark wood and old-fashioned brocades. She wandered on, poking her head into other rooms as she went. Snooping, her mother would have said disapprovingly. Marilou preferred to think of it as reconnaissance. She needed to know everything she could about Cal Rivers if she was going to talk him into doing what was right.
    “You know I’m right about this, Mama,” she murmured