Unfortunately, that hadn’t been enough to erase his connection to the bastard who spawned him. Every foster family he had been placed with had looked at him as if he’d killed those women himself, and it hadn’t been long before he’d got in trouble with the system for running away. But when he’d been sent to the Last Chance Ranch he’d had no reason to run. He’d been accepted for himself, and not rejected for what his father had done.
Hearing Mariah start down the stairs, Jaron clenched his teeth and vowed not to bring that kind of ugliness into anyone’s life, and especially not hers. He’d never intentionally been cruel to anyone, but how could he be certain that he hadn’t inherited something from his father that would rear its menacing head at some point in the future? He couldn’t. And unfortunately, he didn’t see any way that would ever change.
* * *
“Do you have anything else in your freezer besides frozen pizza?” Mariah asked, laughing as she reached for another slice. She was still frustrated with him, but her anger had cooled enough that she could see the humor in his choice of convenience food.
When she’d finished arranging her shoes on the built-in racks in the closet, she’d come downstairs to ask if he wanted her to make them sandwiches for dinner. But Jaron had suggested that she put together a salad while he popped a pizza in the oven for their dinner. She’d offered to bake it, but he’d pointed out that her job as cook and housekeeper didn’t start for another couple of days and until then she was his guest.
“Pizza and burritos are about the extent of what’s in the freezer,” he said, shrugging. “The first thing you’ll have to do is go shopping for whatever you need.”
“I’m good at shopping,” she said, smiling. She failed to add that her kind of shopping didn’t include produce or anything else that couldn’t be zapped in the microwave or didn’t have directions on the side of a box.
“I’ve already added you to the approved users on the credit card I’ve designated for household expenses,” he said, taking a drink of his beer. “Buy whatever you need for the house.”
“Do I have a household budget to go by?” she asked. “I don’t want to overspend.”
Her statement drew a rare chuckle from him. “Spend as much as you want.” He named an amount that was more than she’d earned in a year working at the real estate management company. “If you need to go over that, let me know and I’ll have the card limit increased.”
“Unless it’s for a state dinner at the White House, I can’t imagine anyone needing that much for groceries,” she said incredulously. She’d known Jaron was wealthy, the same as his brothers were, but she’d had no idea. “Is there anything specific that you would like for me to buy?”
“I like pizza,” he said as he picked up another slice.
“What man doesn’t?” she asked, smiling.
“Hey, it’s easy and doesn’t require a lot of cooking skills,” he said, giving her a smile that sent heat streaking all the way through her. “I also really liked that apple pie you made a few years back for my birthday. One of those once in a while would be nice.”
“I’m surprised you remembered that,” she said, wishing that he hadn’t. There was no way under the sun that she could make another one without Bria standing beside her telling her step by step what to do.
“It was really good,” he said, nodding. “That was the closest I’ve ever had to something that tasted as good as Bria’s apple pie.”
“I’ll put that on the list,” she said, deciding to call Bria as soon as she and Sam got back from the stock show tomorrow evening. She not only needed her sister’s help making an apple pie, she needed the title of a really good, really easy-to-follow cookbook and help with a comprehensive grocery list of things to stock the pantry and freezer. “What else do I need to get besides food?”
He looked thoughtful a moment. “Well, you might want to get whatever you’ll need for cleaning the house. I’ve got a few things, but when I moved in Bria suggested that I wait until I hired a housekeeper so whoever it was could buy the products they preferred.”
More comfortable talking about cleaning than she was cooking, Mariah nodded. “Is there anything else I need to pick up while I’m in town?”
“I don’t think so.” He finished his beer then got up from the table to put the can in the recycle bin under the sink. “Really whatever you see that you think we need for the house or you want for cooking or cleaning is fine.”