head, looking worried. “Good question.”
Chapter Two
J ackson Wade Alton—Jack to everyone at Laurel Glen and Jackson to everyone on the Circle A back home in Colorado—watched from the darkened doorway of Stable Four as Elizabeth Boyer climbed into her little sports car and drove off. The woman had haunted his thoughts from the moment he’d laid eyes on her at dinner the other night.
Actually it had started just before that. Somehow Jackson had known she was in the room before Ross Taggert had acknowledged her presence. Tall, blond and beautiful, she was every inch a lady and exactly like all the other women he’d ever found attractive and started courting, only to lose them or become disillusioned by them in the end.
What was it with him? he wondered impatiently. Had he inherited some self-destructive gene that drew him toward disappointment that bordered on heartbreak?
He pushed Elizabeth from his mind for probably the ten thousandth time since meeting her. This quest of his to get to know his biological family was enough for him to handle right now. He didn’t need attraction and heartbreak to distract him!
The day he’d come, at Ross Taggert’s invitation, to discuss the foreman’s job, Jackson hadn’t been prepared for the similarities between him and his family. Cole had been the first person he’d met, and their shared resemblance had shocked him nearly speechless.
Because Ross had already seen his resume and checked out his references, Ross had hired him within what felt like only minutes. He’d also invited him to dinner at Laurel House, the family’s impressive home on the hill beyond the farm’s stable compound. Jackson would describe it as a mansion, but Ross called it the house, as if it were a three-bedroom colonial rather than a brick and stone memorial to a proud family’s history.
Jackson thought it was a miracle he’d survived that first night at Laurel Glen with his job intact thanks to Elizabeth Boyer’s arrival at the dinner party Amelia, Ross’s wife, had arranged to welcome him. He’d been nervous going in but he’d been doing fairly well until he’d turned and encountered eyes the color of emeralds staring at him in worried confusion. After that he’d had trouble keeping his mind on the conversation swirling around him.
When they’d been called into dinner, he’d found himself seated next to Ross and across from Ross’sdaughter, Hope, and her husband, Jeff Carrington, who lived on a neighboring farm. Like Ross and his wife of less than a year, the couple was expecting a baby. The four of them fell into an earlier conversation, but time and again Jackson found his attention snared by Elizabeth, who’d been seated to his left. She wore a light scent that reminded him of the warm sultry evening outside, and it had wrapped itself around him the same way the garden had as he’d approached the rear door to Laurel House that evening.
After a while, he’d noticed Elizabeth wasn’t participating in the conversation any more than he was. He’d wondered if she was as distracted and aware of him as he was of her, but he’d tried to dismiss his musings as unimportant. She was clearly Cole’s, and he didn’t want to poach on his cousin’s territory. There was no way he would risk damaging any relationship he might be able to develop with Cole over some society debutante who’d dump both of them in the end anyway.
Then, just when he’d convinced himself he had no choice but to give Ms. Boyer a wide berth, she and Cole left, leaving the rest of the family making comments on their relationship. The family was divided about how serious they were, but they all felt the two were wrong for each other. Jackson told himself he didn’t care. Elizabeth was just as wrong for him.
He had a lousy track record with women. Time and again he’d tried to establish long-lasting relationships with what his father disdainfully called city girls.Why he gravitated toward women fated to
Chapter Two
J ackson Wade Alton—Jack to everyone at Laurel Glen and Jackson to everyone on the Circle A back home in Colorado—watched from the darkened doorway of Stable Four as Elizabeth Boyer climbed into her little sports car and drove off. The woman had haunted his thoughts from the moment he’d laid eyes on her at dinner the other night.
Actually it had started just before that. Somehow Jackson had known she was in the room before Ross Taggert had acknowledged her presence. Tall, blond and beautiful, she was every inch a lady and exactly like all the other women he’d ever found attractive and started courting, only to lose them or become disillusioned by them in the end.
What was it with him? he wondered impatiently. Had he inherited some self-destructive gene that drew him toward disappointment that bordered on heartbreak?
He pushed Elizabeth from his mind for probably the ten thousandth time since meeting her. This quest of his to get to know his biological family was enough for him to handle right now. He didn’t need attraction and heartbreak to distract him!
The day he’d come, at Ross Taggert’s invitation, to discuss the foreman’s job, Jackson hadn’t been prepared for the similarities between him and his family. Cole had been the first person he’d met, and their shared resemblance had shocked him nearly speechless.
Because Ross had already seen his resume and checked out his references, Ross had hired him within what felt like only minutes. He’d also invited him to dinner at Laurel House, the family’s impressive home on the hill beyond the farm’s stable compound. Jackson would describe it as a mansion, but Ross called it the house, as if it were a three-bedroom colonial rather than a brick and stone memorial to a proud family’s history.
Jackson thought it was a miracle he’d survived that first night at Laurel Glen with his job intact thanks to Elizabeth Boyer’s arrival at the dinner party Amelia, Ross’s wife, had arranged to welcome him. He’d been nervous going in but he’d been doing fairly well until he’d turned and encountered eyes the color of emeralds staring at him in worried confusion. After that he’d had trouble keeping his mind on the conversation swirling around him.
When they’d been called into dinner, he’d found himself seated next to Ross and across from Ross’sdaughter, Hope, and her husband, Jeff Carrington, who lived on a neighboring farm. Like Ross and his wife of less than a year, the couple was expecting a baby. The four of them fell into an earlier conversation, but time and again Jackson found his attention snared by Elizabeth, who’d been seated to his left. She wore a light scent that reminded him of the warm sultry evening outside, and it had wrapped itself around him the same way the garden had as he’d approached the rear door to Laurel House that evening.
After a while, he’d noticed Elizabeth wasn’t participating in the conversation any more than he was. He’d wondered if she was as distracted and aware of him as he was of her, but he’d tried to dismiss his musings as unimportant. She was clearly Cole’s, and he didn’t want to poach on his cousin’s territory. There was no way he would risk damaging any relationship he might be able to develop with Cole over some society debutante who’d dump both of them in the end anyway.
Then, just when he’d convinced himself he had no choice but to give Ms. Boyer a wide berth, she and Cole left, leaving the rest of the family making comments on their relationship. The family was divided about how serious they were, but they all felt the two were wrong for each other. Jackson told himself he didn’t care. Elizabeth was just as wrong for him.
He had a lousy track record with women. Time and again he’d tried to establish long-lasting relationships with what his father disdainfully called city girls.Why he gravitated toward women fated to
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