Paternity Lessons. Maris Soule
at me!” she cried. “She treats me like dirt!”
Tyler did look at her. Lanie’s jeans and boots were filthy, dirt ground into the denim and crusted around her soles. She even had dirt on her face and in her hair, and he had a feeling it wasn’t just dirt. The smell in his office was definitely pungent.
“I’m her slave,” Lanie said dramatically. “Is this what you plan on doing with me? Are you going to turn me into a slave?”
Tyler wasn’t sure what to think. Lanie’s physical condition certainly indicated something was wrong. Though she’d come home dirty the past four days, she’d never been this dirty.
“As for her—” Lanie turned and pointed a finger at Shaunna “—she’s not helping Magic. She doesn’t do anything with him, just lets him run around in that paddock. She won’t even let him into his stall except when it’s time for him to eat. And then you know what she makes me do? She makes me clean out his paddock. I have to scoop up his crap.”
She emphasized the word, and Tyler cringed, wondering how far her voice was carrying. He looked at Shaunna, expecting an explanation, but when his gaze met hers, her topaz eyes clear and steady, she merely nodded.
And Lanie wasn’t finished. “All she does is order me around. Do this. Do that. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. I’m supposed to be getting to know my horse, but when do I have time to get to know him? She’s got me so damn busy doing other things, I don’t have time to get to know him.”
“Don’t swear,” Tyler said, then spoke to Shaunna. “Is this true?”
“I expect her to follow the barn rules, and I expect her to do what I say when I say it,” she said calmly. “And I think she has more to tell you.”
He looked back at Lanie. Immediately, she glared at him. “What does it matter what I tell you? You’re going to take her side, aren’t you? I should’ve known it. I’m nothing to you. You don’t give a—”
She used the F word, and at exactly that moment, the door to his office swung open. In stormed his boss, Gordon Fischer, his face a crimson-red, and right behind him was Gordon’s niece, Alicia. Both looked shocked.
As soon as they were in the room, Gordon and Alicia scanned the office, their expressions almost identical as their gazes landed on Lanie, then on Shaunna. Both uncle and niece wrinkled their noses.
Gordon spoke first. “What is going on here?” he demanded, staring directly at Tyler. “Everyone up and down the hall can hear you two arguing. And the language...”
Tyler mentally cringed. He knew his boss didn’t like a scene. Gordon believed an accounting firm should represent calm efficiency and traditional values. You did not have family arguments in your office, and you didn’t swear.
Alicia said nothing, but he noticed how she was looking at Shaunna. The contrast between the two women was even more apparent than he’d imagined. Alicia was wearing her red power suit and high heels, her blond hair neatly confined in a twist and her makeup flawless. Shaunna, on the other hand, wore scuffed cowboy boots, soiled denims, a faded plaid cotton shirt that had a large stain across the front, and no makeup at all.
Although Lanie had met Gordon once, the day Tyler had given her a tour of the offices, and knew Alicia from the times Alicia had come to the hospital and then to the house, Tyler thought he’d better introduce Shaunna. “Gordon. Alicia. I’d like you to meet—”
Lanie didn’t let him finish. “Oh great,” she snapped. “Now you’re going to be all proper, just like you always get when Ah-lee-sha is around.”
She was looking at Alicia when she stretched out her name, and Tyler knew Lanie was a ticking time bomb. He didn’t want to imagine what she would come out with next. “Lanie,” he said in warning, hoping she’d get the message.
Lanie glared back at him and let out a series of words that would make a street kid blush. She then made her departure, bumping against the two standing in her way.
“I never,” Alicia said, turning to stare after the ten-year-old.
“Really,” Gordon said.
Then Shaunna spoke. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you here at work. I’ll get her and take her home for you.” She headed for the doorway, nodding at Alicia and Gordon as she passed.
Tyler watched her go, too dumbfounded to say anything.
Chapter Three
Alicia looked at Tyler. “Who was that woman?”
“That’s Shaunna,” he said, not sure if he should also go after Lanie or not. “Shaunna Lightfeather. She’s the one who’s going to rehabilitate Lanie’s horse.”
“And what were your daughter and she doing here in your office?” Gordon demanded coldly, his attitude clearly showing his disapproval.
“There was a problem at the stable.” Tyler glanced at Alicia and then at her uncle. “I didn’t get a full accounting.”
“The woman smelled like she’d been rolling in manure.” Alicia wrinkled her nose. “And so did your daughter.”
There wasn’t much he could say about that. “I’ve discovered that working with horses does leave a smell. Each night, I’ve been putting Lanie’s clothes in the wash as soon as she takes them off.”
“You’re going to have to do something about that child’s language,” Gordon said, shaking his head. “Can’t have that kind of talk around here.”
“I know.” Once again, Tyler wondered if he should go after Lanie.
“Well...” Gordon looked at his niece, then at Tyler. “I’ll leave you two alone. But see to it that something like this doesn’t happen again, Tyler. It disturbs everyone in the firm.”
“I’ll talk to Lanie,” Tyler said. He watched his boss leave, not sure he liked being reprimanded like a naughty boy.
As Gordon closed the door behind him, Alicia stepped closer to Tyler’s desk. “She’s very attractive...in a sort of earthy way.”
Tyler knew a dangerous situation when he heard one. There was no safe way to respond, so he half lied. “I suppose you could say she’s attractive. I really haven’t paid that much attention to her looks. I’ve been more concerned with whether she’ll work with Lanie’s horse.”
“She actually owns the stable where you’re boarding the horse?”
“Yes. That is, I think she does.” He still wasn’t sure what Alicia was getting at.
“Is it a big stable?”
“No, not very big. I’d say she has forty horses there. Maybe fewer. It’s nothing fancy.” Not a place where Alicia would board a horse...if Alicia had a horse.
She eyed him for a moment, then glanced toward the door as if the image of Shaunna was imbedded there. “You said her last name’s Lightfeather? What is that, Navajo or something?”
“I really don’t know. Someone said she was part Indian.”
“Is she married?”
“No.”
Alicia’s silence was poignant, and Tyler suddenly realized she was jealous. He found that interesting. Although they’d been dating for nearly a year, he always had the feeling she was keeping him at a distance. But he found that understandable. He was well aware that she was in a social class far above his. And even though he enjoyed her company, most of the events they attended were business oriented. He wasn’t looking for love and romance. He’d given up on that years ago. He and Alicia hadn’t even slept together.
The one thing he was concentrating on at this point in his life was his career, and Alicia had certainly helped him there.