Randall Honor Read Online Free PDF Page A

question her when the front door opened and Russ entered. “Jon! How’d you manage last night? Everything to your satisfaction?”
    “It was wonderful, but I was a little embarrassed about all the help.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. We just wanted to make you welcome. I figured yesterday was a tough one.” He grinned, then asked, “Are you here to see me or Tori?”
    “You, please, Russ, if I may, before I go back to the clinic.”
    “Sure. Come on in.”
    Once he was seated in front of Russ’s desk, Jon got right down to business. “I need to hire you to do my books.”
    Russ grinned. “Doc must’ve told you about Abe. He’s a nice old man, but he does love to talk.”
    “Yeah. I hope you won’t hold it against me that I wanted to check things out before I made a commitment.” That was a nice way of saying they weren’t his first choice.
    “No problem. We’re kept pretty busy by our regular customers.”
    “But you’ll take me on?”
    “Sure. Tori has a system worked out that—”
    Uh-oh. Here we go again. “Russ, I want to be clear about this. I want you to handle everything for me. Not Victoria.”
    For the first time he found a less than cordial look on Russ’s face. “Why?”
    “I don’t have a lot of faith in women accountants, especially one as pretty as your cousin.”
    Russ continued to frown. “No one ever complains about working with Tori. She’s brilliant.”
    “Look, I’ll be brutally frank. I think your family has lined me up as your cousin’s future husband, butI have no intention of marrying while I’m here. I’ll be glad to return the gifts I received yesterday, except the cake and the lasagna. I’m sorry, but I’m going to remain a bachelor as long as I’m in Rawhide.”
    Russ stared at him. “You think—but we were—have you said that to Tori?”
    “I didn’t want any misunderstandings,” Jon said stiffly.
    Russ threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Oh, mercy,” he finally said as his chuckles lessened. “Is she mad at you?”
    “Oh, yeah. No woman likes to be rejected. But it’s not her…exactly.”
    “Glad to hear it.” He leaned forward. “Listen, Jon, what we all contributed to your home yesterday was to welcome you. Nothing else.”
    “But Doc and Anna—”
    “Ah, well, I can’t help what they said. Doc announced to the entire town he intended to get you married to a local girl so you’d stay instead of leaving. So you’ll probably have a lot of women hitting on you. But I imagine that happens to most single doctors.”
    By the end of that speech, Jon was frowning in consternation. “I can’t believe he did that!”
    “Then you don’t know Doc. Or this community. Matchmaking is a popular pastime.”
    “I guess I’d better have a personal discussion with Doc,” Jon said grimly. “I thought it was just your family that thought—I apologize.”
    “If it will make you feel any better, Tori has toldeveryone she’s not interested in marrying you. I think you’re safe there.”
    It surprised Jon that Russ’s words didn’t make him feel better. “Why?”
    Russ appeared surprised, too. “Why? She didn’t say. I don’t think she’s ready to marry. She’ll only be twenty-four in September. She’s got plenty of time.”
    Jon wasn’t going to ask any more questions. He didn’t want to convince her cousin he was interested in her. “Okay, good. Now, about my bookkeeping.
    You’ll do it?”
    “No.”
    His brief answer startled Jon. “Why not?”
    “I do most of the ranching cases. I have some soft ware that Tori’s dad created. Tori does the retail stuff.
    And that includes Doc’s business. You’ll have to ask her to take you on.”
    “But I can’t—” Jon stared at Russ, not happy with the alert interest in his eyes, the smile on his lips.
    “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
    “Somewhat. I suspect Tori may enjoy it even more.
    Especially if you made her mad.”
    “Oh, yeah, I made her mad. What do I do if