“—let’s talk about your apartment. Jesse tells me you’re thinking of painting,” Lucy said.
“Oh, absolutely.” She grinned and sent another look at Mac, still laughing and squealing atop Ivy as Jesse walked them around the perimeter of the corral. Sighing, she added, “Beige walls are just so…boring.”
“Agreed. Do you want some help?”
Jillian looked at the other woman and smiled. It was good to have a friend again. Good to feel like she was already carving a place for herself into Royal. “I really would.”
“Great. Let’s get Mac and hit the hardware store.” Lucy’s eyes were gleaming as she scrubbed her hands together in anticipation. “Oooh. Even better, we could leave Mac and Brody with Mom and not have to ride herd on kids in the paint department.”
Thinking of Mac’s adventurous nature and all the possibilities for getting into trouble in a hardware store gave Jillian cold chills. And yet. “Oh, I couldn’t…”
“Sure you can.” Lucy turned toward her brother. “Hey, Jesse, when you finish Mac’s ride will you take her over to Mom’s?”
“Not a problem,” he said, never taking his eyes off the little girl in his charge.
That should make Jillian feel better. But leaving Mac behind with Cora again seemed like an imposition. She’d already watched Mac for a couple hours earlier today so Jillian could take the interview.
“Don’t back out,” Lucy said and tugged at Jillian’s arm to get her moving. “If we get the paint right away, we can go by the Courtyard and check out the shops for furniture.”
True, she’d have to buy a few things, anyway, but she didn’t want to spend a lot of the money she had put away. Jillian had other plans for that. “No, I don’t think I’ll…”
“They have the cutest little consignment shop there. You’ll love it. And oh, I’ll look for a new desk for Brody. He’s getting so big, I swear. He’s going to kindergarten next year, can you believe it?” Lucy kept up a steady stream of conversation as she simply dragged Jillian in her wake all the way to a shiny red truck. Apparently, she was determined to not give Jillian a chance to change her mind.
Then she opened the passenger door and said, “Oh, when we’re finished shopping, we can stop at the Sweets and Treats, bring Mom some of the fruit tarts they sell there. They’re her favorite and it’s the perfect way of saying thanks.”
Jillian stopped dead and narrowed her eyes on Lucy. The innocence stamped on the woman’s features didn’t fool Jillian one bit. “That was pretty slick, telling me how to thank your mother for doing me a favor I didn’t ask her to do.”
Lucy’s head tipped to one side and she grinned. “Wasn’t it? Oh, come on. Admit it. You know you want to.”
Jillian looked back over her shoulder to where her daughter was being swung up into the arms of a tall, gorgeous cowboy. Oh, what she was feeling for Jesse was dangerous. Especially because just for a second, she was envious of her baby girl.
Not a good sign.
Leaving was definitely the right thing to do.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Jillian’s a lovely girl…”
Every instinct Jesse possessed went on high alert as he shot a wary look at his mother. Cora Lee was a strong woman who’d held her family together no matter what had come at them. She’d survived the loss of two husbands and had raised her three children while single-handedly running one of the biggest ranches in Texas until he and Will had come of age to take over.
Over the years, she hadn’t slowed down much, either. She didn’t run the ranch or the business end of the Sanders company anymore, but she kept up with what was happening both on the ranch and in Royal. Cora Lee wasn’t a woman to sit back and watch life go by—she jumped in and did whatever the hell she wanted or needed to do. She’d never once in her life thought that being a woman somehow made her “less”—and she hadn’t let anyone else believe it, either. She was strong, confident and impossible to ignore because she simply refused to allow her children to duck her interference.
She kept her fingers on the pulse of Royal, always knowing what was going on and why. Just as she somehow always seemed to know what her grown kids were up to. Jesse, Will and Lucy were her life and she didn’t mind one little bit sticking her nose in if she thought any of them needed her “help.”
“Yeah, she is,” he said in as noncommittal a way as he could manage. Damn. Jesse’d thought that with Will back, their mother would be more focused on him. It seemed Cora Lee was the queen of multitasking.