Texas-Sized Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

retire or find other jobs, he was sure. He would look into hiring them himself.
    Out of sentiment Caitlin wanted the house she grew up in, but she spent little time here. She could move everything out of the house into another home elsewhere. He saw no valid reason to sell the place back to her and several reasons to turn her down. He didn’t want Santerres left in the county. He didn’t want to have to worry about Caitlin and that old house sitting in the center of his property, leaving part of the property out of his control. If Gabe struck oil, it would be even more important to own the land. While he had mineral rights, he didn’t want to have to drive around Caitlin’s holdings.
    Was he being uncooperative because she was a Santerre? So what? It was his property, legally purchased and he couldn’t help if her half brother had not informed her about the sale or her father hadn’t included her in ownership. From all he’d heard, her father never had involved her in anything in his life. It was solely the grandmother who had adopted Caitlin to give her a Santerre life.
    â€œYour grandmother has been gone now—what—five years?” Jake asked, trying to recall when he heard that Madeline Santerre had passed away.
    â€œYes. You have an excellent memory because I know that wasn’t a date that meant anything to you,” Caitlin replied, looking away. “I loved her with all my heart,” she addedquietly. Her emotional answer indicated she probably cared so much for the people who had worked for her grandmother because she didn’t have anyone else. Her father and half brother had rejected her all her life. So had her birth mother in giving her up for adoption. “The minute Grandmother heard my mother planned to put me up for adoption, she stepped up and took me in.”
    â€œSo where did you go to college, Caitlin?”
    â€œTo Texas University and then to Stanford. My degree is from Stanford. I had intended to go into law, but by my junior year I was earning a lot of money with photography, so I finished college and became a photographer. What about you, Jake?”
    â€œTexas University, too, but years ahead of you. Then a master’s in business from Harvard. Then back to work here. Pretty simple and predictable.”
    â€œSure,” she said, smiling at him. “You told me what you don’t like, so what do you like, Jake?”
    â€œBeautiful women, slow, hot kisses—”
    She laughed, interrupting him. “That was not what I had in mind. Besides women, what do you like?”
    He grinned. “Making money and doing business deals, watching the business grow, the usual. I swim, I play golf, play basketball with my friends, I ski, I like snow-covered mountains or tropical islands. I’m easy to please. Your turn.”
    â€œI’m even easier to please. I like a riveting book, quiet winter nights, getting just the right picture, little children—”
    â€œThat sounds like marriage is looming.”
    â€œNot at all. No man in my life, but I hope someday. Don’t you want to marry someday?”
    â€œYes, but not this year,” he said a little more forcefully than he had intended.
    She laughed. “Okay, so you’re not ready. I think I can make the same promise safely. I will not marry this year,” she said, mimicking him and he had to smile and was relieved she made light of his comment.
    The rain turned to a steady, moderate rain. Jake took her hand, aware of her smooth skin, the warmth and softness of her. “Let’s go in where it’s warmer. I’m glad we don’t have to get out in this,” he said.
    She looked down at her clothes. “I just have what I’m wearing. If you can stand seeing me in the same thing in the morning, only more wrinkled, I’m happy to stay because water may be over some of the bridges, I’d guess.”
    â€œGreat.” He switched on