Husband In Harmony. Sharon Swan
called Sam?” she had to ask. Bestowing such a simple name seemed out of character for parents who were hardly ordinary.
“Actually, it’s Samuel Lawrence, after both his grandfathers,” Adam explained.
“I see.” She paused. “Is he here in Arizona now?”
Adam nodded. “He’s spending the day with my folks, who live in Scottsdale.”
Oh, right. Jane did a mental eye roll. Of course his parents would live in Scottsdale, one of the ritziest sections of Phoenix. She’d never been to Scottsdale. Or anywhere else, she had to admit. But that didn’t mean she was pining to see the world. She truly wasn’t. She was content—more than content—where she was.
“I suppose,” she allowed, “if a boy likes the outdoors, he might enjoy spending a summer in the mountains.”
“Sam was raised in the city, as I was,” Adam said after the briefest of hesitations. With that, he looked back out at the lake and let the subject drop.
Jane frowned. To her, his short statement only brought up more questions. One major question, at any rate: why was he set on bringing his city-raised son to a place the boy might not even like? Although this time she won the battle with her curiosity and didn’t ask, something told her that there was more to the matter.
“Well, you’re welcome to have him come with you,” she said, “if you decide to stay here.”
Adam ran his tongue over his teeth, realizing it was time to make up his mind. If he didn’t have his own agenda to consider, he might tell Jane Pitt thanks but no thanks. For all that he’d been raised in a well-to-do family, he’d never been leery of working hard and tackling a challenge in the process. In fact, he had worked damn hard to get where he was in the business world.
Nevertheless, while his bid for success had paid off for himself and his clients, the blunt fact of the matter was that Glory Ridge Resort just might prove to be the exception. Despite his past track record and the substantial money the current owner was ready to invest, could the place ever be counted on to turn a consistent profit given the increased competition she’d indicated had sprung up in the area?
It would take more than money, he suspected. If he was right, it would take an idea, a pitch, a twist on the usual, to grab the public’s attention and draw people to this place. Hell, maybe it would take a miracle.
Whatever the case, since he had his own reasons for spending some time in a quiet, out-of-the-way spot—and he couldn’t think of a quieter, more out-of-the-way spot than this pine-strewn mountain—he felt compelled to give helping Jane Pitt with her objectives a try.
“Okay, I’ll take you up on your offer.” He turned his head and dropped his gaze to look straight at the woman beside him. “I’ll be back the day after tomorrow, with my son.”
She stared up at him, her calm expression betraying little of her feelings at that news. “Good,” she said after a moment. “I’ll get your cabin ready for you.”
He’d be living in a cabin called Squirrel Hollow. Adam suppressed a wince at the thought that it was probably as far from his upscale modern condo in Phoenix as he would ever get. “I don’t imagine it has a telephone hookup,” he said as they started back the way they’d come, feet crunching on the gravel path.
“Nope. Only phone line is at the office, but as the crow flies we’re near enough to Harmony for cell phones to work. I assume you’ve got one.”
“Yes.” He didn’t go on to say that he also had all his important contact information programmed into his Palm Pilot. No matter where he was, he could generally reach his clients and business associates with little trouble. “I was thinking more of a place to hook up my laptop,” he explained. “I’ll need to do some research online while I’m here. I guess I’ll have to tie up the office line to get it done.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Well, it’s not as if people are phoning nonstop to make reservations.” Her mouth drooped at one corner. “I just have to hope the situation changes down the road.”
“I intend to do my best to accomplish that,” Adam said, and meant it.
“Looks as if we’re about to join forces,” she replied in a voice that held more than its share of irony, as though she were reflecting on the fact that they made one odd couple indeed.
He could hardly deny it. The truth was, he’d never met a woman quite like Jane Pitt. He knew he ruffled her feathers, just as he knew she’d come to the conclusion that she needed his help in spite of it. They said that politics made strange bedfellows, but so did other situations.
Not that he was planning on luring Jane Pitt into his bed. Even though he hadn’t taken advantage of the comforts only a willing female could provide in a while, he’d have to be a lot dumber than he was to make a move on Jane. Handling a woman as prickly as she was, even on a business basis, would take some doing. On a private basis, a man who attempted a false step with her could wind up getting his head wrenched off and handed back to him for his trouble. Jane Pitt might be on the small side, but she’d pack a wallop when she wanted to. After less than an hour’s acquaintance, he was sure on that score.
“I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know what time I’ll be here,” he told her minutes later on reaching the spot outside the resort’s office where they’d first met.
“All right.” Again her calm expression revealed little. “Have a good drive back.”
He started to extend his right arm for the handshake they’d foregone on his arrival. Then he stilled completely as he caught sight of an animal ambling out from between two trees. He might not be an avid outdoorsman, but he knew what it was. And that knowledge had his breath catching in his throat.
“Don’t move,” he said in a rough whisper.
“Why?” Jane asked, and then turned her head to follow his gaze. “Oh, it’s only Sweet Pea.”
“It’s a skunk, for Pete’s sake.” And it was coming closer as he watched, strolling along as though it had plenty of time to get where it was going.
“A full-grown female skunk, as it happens,” Jane said mildly. “Don’t worry. She’s by and large harmless. My great-aunt found that out when she stumbled across her one day and didn’t get sprayed. Apparently, Sweet Pea started life as a domesticated animal. At least, that was the vet’s opinion, since she’d been descented and neutered before she somehow wound up here. Anyway, she settled right in and became more or less a pet.”
A pet skunk. Jeez, it was time to leave. Adam whipped around and started for his car. He got in, snapped the gleaming door shut and pulled out with a final wave. His last sight of Jane Pitt was in the rearview mirror as she watched him depart, her slender hands planted on her hips. He’d soon be back, he thought, negotiating a narrow mountain road. And heaven only knows what he’d have to deal with then.
“I MANAGED TO WAIT until he was out of sight before I started hooting,” Jane confided to her companions the following day. “Sweet Pea had Adam Lassiter moving his long legs toward his sleek sports car at a fast clip, let me tell you.” The memory had her grinning widely.
Jane’s younger sister, Ellen, who’d always been the pretty one in the Pitt family, met her sibling’s eyes in the long mirror stretched across one wall of the Cuts ‘N Curls beauty salon. “Are you sure he’ll be back?” she asked, her lips curving with clear amusement.
“Yeah, he’ll be back.” Folding her arms over the front of her well-washed white T-shirt, Jane propped one denim-clad hip against the round work island holding her sister’s tools of the trade. “He called this morning and said he and his son should get to Glory Ridge shortly after lunch tomorrow.”
“I remember Adam Lassiter as a boy,” Ellen’s current client offered from her seat in a high chrome swivel chair.
Neither Ellen nor Jane expressed any surprise at that news. Unlike