One Texas Night... Read online

  As soon as they had ordered and the waiter disappeared, Jared leaned forward. “Ryan, it’s your inheritance from your dad.”

  “I know that technically it’s my inheritance, but it’s because of our dads’ friendship.”

  “Friendship and gratitude for the time our dads were both roughnecks, working in the oil patch. When that fire broke out on a rig, your dad saved my dad’s life. The mansion is just a thank-you.”

  “I had nothing to do with any of that.”

  “Dad had it in his will that, if your dad is deceased, the mansion is to go to you. It’s yours to do with as you please.”

  “One of the Tylers commences cataloging the contents of the mansion this week. Have any of you changed your mind about the mansion or its contents?”

  “Absolutely not. I asked my brothers again, just for you, and they gave me the same answer. We don’t want any part of the mansion. We never spent time there, and it’s meaningless to all of us. Stop worrying about it. The mansion doesn’t hold fond memories for any of us.” Ryan reclined back in his chair, looking fully relaxed and filled with his usual self-confidence. “We inherited enough from Dad, and we’re happy you have the mansion.”

  “It’s a marvelous inheritance and I appreciate it.”

  “On the phone you said you’d hired Herman Tyler to do the appraisal. You have your own appraisal company now in addition to owning Weston Energy. Why hire Herman?”

  “He’s the best. I still have an offer to buy his business, merge it with mine and let him run his part, but he wants to keep it. Actually, I bought my appraisal company to try to entice Herman to run both and work for me, but he won’t sell. I keep the offer open. Ryan, as far as the house and antiques are concerned, what about Sophia?” Ryan’s half-sister was an artist. “I’d think she’d want some of the paintings.”

  “Will asked her, as well as Zach. That’s not her type of art, and, no, she doesn’t want any of it. None of us do.”

  “Even if I sell it?” Jared asked, intending to make certain no Delaney had regrets.

  “If you didn’t sell it, we would. Hear me,” Ryan said, leaning in, “we do not want the mansion or its contents.”

  Jared put up his palms. “I’ll take you at your word and drop the subject.”

  “Good. I’m riding in the Fort Worth rodeo later this month—bull riding. Are we competing again?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with devilment.

  Jared had to grin. “We’re competing, and I’m going to beat you.”

  “We’ll see on that one,” Ryan said, his lips twitching in a crooked smile. “Want to bet an extra hundred, plus a burger and a beer for the winner?”

  “You’re on,” Jared said, enjoying the friendly competition he had with Ryan.

  “I can’t wait.” Ryan tilted his head to study Jared. “You know, we’re kindred souls.”

  “We both like life on the wild side.”

  “You’re like I am—neither one of us wants to look back with regrets.”

  “Amen to that,” Jared replied. “That’s what my dad did.”

  When lunch was over, as Jared drove back to his office, he thought twice about his decision to involve Tyler Antiques and Appraisals in the Houston property. The call he had made to Mr. Tyler had not been what he had expected.

  Jared hadn’t mentioned Allison, so it had been a shock to hear from Herman that his daughter had taken over the part of the business that was conducted away from the office.

  Allison Tyler still was the one woman on the whole planet that he did not want to get involved with. His longtime friendship with her brother was important to him. Too important to jeopardize. Sloan took a dim view of all the women in Jared’s life and certainly would not want his sister to become one of them. Jared didn’t want to be hounded by a threatening, hand-wringing big brother, which Sloan would be. Sloan also still thought Jared had a daredevil streak and risked his life constantly in wild pursuits.

  His cell phone rang, and when he glanced at the caller ID, he saw it was Sloan. Feeling guilty as well as amused, he answered. “You didn’t waste time,” Jared remarked.

  “Yeah, right. I talked to Dad just now. I heard you hired him to do some work for you.”

  “That’s right. I’ve hired him before, and he does a great job.”

  “Thanks. I guess he told you that Allison will be the one to go to the site to inventory and catalog items, that sort of thing.”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “So you know why I’m calling. Women are drawn to you like ants to crumbs. And vice versa.”

  “I will not ask your sister out. Does that make you happy?” Jared said, having mixed feelings about Allison and knowing he was following the best course for everyone, himself included. “I’ve been seeing someone.”

  “That does not reassure me one degree. Whomever you’re seeing will be gone six months from now.”

  Sooner than that, Jared thought but did not say. He had already broken it off with Dawn Rainsford, but Sloan did not need to know about the women in his life or lack thereof. “Nonetheless, you can save your breath. Your sister is there for a job. We will not socialize. I have my own life, and I’m not tangling with you over her. I do not want to lose my friend over his little sister. Actually, though, isn’t she a grown woman now?”

  “Very, but I’m still her brother and looking out for her best interests. I figure you’re thinking about her and envisioning a ten-year-old kid who was a pest. I think the last time you saw her was at my wedding. She was fifteen. I don’t want you hitting on her.”

  “This is a moot conversation, Sloan. I’m not interested.”

  “She’s very pretty, and I know you far too well. Leave her alone. I don’t want her heart broken by you.”

  “That will never happen.”

  “Is the movie star still in your life?”

  “Definitely not. According to your dad, I’ll only work with your sister a few days and then I’ll be out of there and let her take over the liquidation. Just don’t worry.”

  There was a stretch of silence that made Jared shake his head, but he hung on to his patience.

  “Okay, Jared. She’s busy, and she helps Dad, and she’s dating a guy she’ll marry. As a matter of fact, by now she’s probably engaged to Phillip Blakely.”

  “I’m happy for her,” Jared remarked drily. “How are you, Leah and the little Tylers doing?”

  “We’re great. You marry the right woman, Jared, and you can’t imagine how happy you’ll be. The kids are great. I hope the current woman in your life is the special one.”

  “Stop worrying, Sloan. See you at the next breakfast club.”

  When he ended the call, he wondered if they would repeat this conversation when they met with other businessmen for their monthly breakfast.

  Jared shook his head again. Sloan was a fire-breathing dragon about his sister, which was absurd. Allison should be twenty-four now. Even at eighteen, she had been mature and her own person, capable of taking care of herself. Now Sloan had a growing business of his own, as well as his kids to raise. He should let Allison go, but Sloan couldn’t let anyone connected to him go. He hovered over Allison, and he probably hovered over his dad as well, ever since his heart attack, even though the man was now healthy and back to work.

  For a brief moment when he had heard he would be working with Allison, Jared had thought about canceling, but he had worked with Tyler Antiques and Appraisals before, and Herman Tyler had been efficient with excellent expertise in the antiques business and the history of artifacts. Herman had been friendly and glad to have Jared’s business, so Jared dismissed the thought of canceling as fast as it had come. He had gotten through a night with Allison. He could get through a couple of days of working with her at the Houston mansion.

  He looked at his calendar. He’d
get his secretary to cancel and rearrange meetings so he would be free for the next couple of weeks to go to Houston and stay if he wanted.

  Had Allison changed in the intervening years? Had she ever thought about him? Had their night together been special to her? Questions were torment. If she truly was in love and engaged, as her brother indicated, Jared definitely had to forget her. But he could not avoid the curiosity. What was Allison like now?

  Two

  Allison Tyler studied the small figurine in her hand, turning it to look at the initials and number on the underside. With her phone she took a picture that went first to her dad and then to her iPad. She made brief notes on her tablet. She was interested in getting a picture inventory, whatever descriptions she felt she needed and sending them on to her dad to do the research about each piece.

  She’d battled mixed feelings since the first call to her father from Jared. The Delaney mansion Jared had inherited and wanted to sell was supposed to be filled with antiques and valuable art. It was a great job for them, just as it had been for her dad to work directly with him before. Jared had a hobby of deep-sea salvaging and twice had hired her father to go over items he had brought up from a find in the Gulf off the Alabama coast.

  Jared. She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  He’d been a constant companion of her brother’s throughout their school years, but he’d been of little interest to Allison. Until six years ago when he had bumped into her at the wedding reception, and she’d felt as if a lightning bolt had struck her. He was incredibly handsome, sexy, appealing. She couldn’t resist flirting with him. He’d set her heart pounding, and within the next hours, she’d decided he was the most exciting man she had ever met.

  The night had been magical. Her brother had once told her that he didn’t want his best friend around her. Though Jared was a great friend to Sloan, where women were concerned, Jared was totally unreliable. Sloan had described him as a playboy, a man who lived life on the edge, who liked mountain climbing, bull riding, white-water rafting, wild adventures and beautiful women.

  At eighteen, when she had looked into Jared’s vivid green eyes, she had been as drawn to him as a moth to flames. Exuding self-confidence, he had flirted, made her pulse race, and when he had kissed her, she had melted. No other kisses had been like his.

  But the next morning, along with daylight, common sense set in. She couldn’t get involved with a heartbreaker like Jared. She was just a college freshman. Her life was simple, safe and ordinary, and she wanted to keep it that way. Jared, on the other hand, was a risk taker. She never again wanted to go through getting the news that someone she loved deeply had been killed taking a risk. Like her mother, who had flown her small plane through a Gulf storm, killing herself and Chad in the crash. Allison never wanted to experience that kind of needless hurt again.

  And there was Sloan. She suspected if Sloan knew about her night with Jared, it would end their long, close friendship. All she could do, then, was get Jared to agree they would not see each other again and the night had never happened.

  She had since tried to forget him. It had been a struggle to forget someone as dynamic as Jared Weston. That night she had tossed her usual caution aside because he had been too handsome, too appealing, too exciting.

  Now she was older and wiser, and she still felt Jared was a man to avoid. Currently she felt responsible for her dad, and she didn’t want to cause him worry. In addition she had a running undercurrent of anger. Jared had tried to buy Tyler Antiques and Appraisals after her dad’s heart attack. When her dad had refused to sell, Jared had bought another appraisal company and then approached her dad once more, wanting to merge the two, leaving her dad in charge of his part. Her dad loved his business that he had built, and he did not want to sell. Jared had said the offer would remain on the table. Her father never mentioned it again, and she hoped Jared was not now attempting to get their company.

  In minutes, she forgot business when her thoughts returned to that night with Jared. How tempting would he be to her now? She suspected very tempting, because she had never been able to forget him. How appealing he was would not matter. He was still off-limits. Sloan had already told her that Jared was about to become engaged. That should keep distance between them.

  She had arrived the previous day at the sprawling mansion in Houston. With very little landscaping, the gray three-story Gothic had a cold palatial appearance with medieval turrets, parapets and arched windows, and she could see why Jared intended to sell it. She couldn’t imagine living in a home the size of the mansion, much less one so forbidding in appearance.

  Jared had not arrived yet, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Tarkington, as well as the cook, who introduced herself only as Marline, were uncertain about exactly when he would arrive. Allison did not need Jared present to start an inventory of the art and furnishings. All she felt was relief that he was not here. By noon the first day, she had inventoried and tagged six rooms of furniture, sending brief descriptions and pictures to her father. She’d begun with the bedrooms so that they’d be done and she wouldn’t have to deal with Jared in a bedroom—even if they were only remotely polite to each other. But she still had more bedrooms to complete, even after this one.

  She paused in front of an ornate gilt-framed mirror to look at her image. It had been six years since she had seen Jared. How much would he think she had changed? How well did he remember that night? In six years she was certain it had been over and forgotten long ago for him. She took a critical study of her appearance: black slacks, a black cotton shirt, her hair secured on her head with a clip. Several blond tendrils had fallen around her face. She tucked them away and continued her inventory of antiques, moving to an upstairs sitting room.

  In minutes a light knocking caught her attention and she turned. Looking as commanding and self-assured as she remembered, Jared stood in the doorway, leaning with one shoulder against the jamb. Her heart missed several beats as he smiled. Locks of wavy black hair framed his face. His spellbinding green eyes had not been an exaggeration of her memory. Six years ceased to exist. It could have been this past Saturday night that they had been together as far as her clarity of memory was concerned. A heart-pounding, unforgettable night of seduction. She thought her memories of him had dimmed, but she had simply fooled herself.

  Her pulse raced and her physical reaction to him was far more intense than she had expected. Something she couldn’t keep from happening. Dressed in a navy suit and matching tie and Western boots, he was breathtaking. She had a flashback, an instant memory of being naked in his arms, flush against his hard, muscled body.

  “So how’s it been for six years?” he asked, coming into the room.

  She was thankful he couldn’t detect her racing pulse. To her chagrin, her memory triggered heat that flushed her face. She hoped to look relaxed, to keep hidden all indications of her racing heartbeat.

  “It’s been busy, and I’m sure you can say the same. It’s warm in here,” she said, in an effort to explain her cheeks that had to be pink, because she could feel their warmth.

  “I agree,” he said in a huskier voice than she remembered, and she realized the next few days of working with him were going to be far more of a strain than she had anticipated.

  Strain or temptation? a small inner voice taunted.

  “I’ll shed this jacket,” he said, shrugging it off and draping it on a chair. His tie followed, and he unfastened the top buttons of his snow-white shirt. Her insides tightened. She could imagine him peeling away the shirt. He turned to face her again.

  Reaching out, he caught her left hand and turned it in his. “I don’t see an engagement ring. Sloan said you’d be engaged.”

  She laughed, relaxing slightly. “My dragon brother, who thinks he is protecting me, still sees you as the wild man. No, I’m not engaged,” she replied, catching a flicker in the depths of his green eyes. She
was amused and annoyed slightly with her brother, but not surprised. Attempting to focus on their conversation, she tried to ignore the warmth of Jared’s hand, his thumb lightly brushing back and forth over her knuckles. A faint touch, yet scalding. She had all the compelling reactions to him that she’d had that first night, now more disturbing because of the hours of passion with him. “Sloan is still protective even though I’m twenty-four and capable of taking care of myself.”

  “I think I’m the one Sloan is trying to manipulate here,” Jared replied. “He still wants me to keep away.”

  “He said you’re almost engaged.”

  Jared’s perfect white teeth flashed in a grin, while he shook his head. “Your rascal brother. No, I’m not about to become engaged. Not even close.”

  “I should have guessed,” she said. She knew she should get them back to a professional discussion, but she was too tempted to flirt with him as she had that magical night. She forced herself to withdraw her hand from Jared’s. “This mansion is filled with treasures.”

  “Take a break and let’s get a cool drink and talk about what I would like your company to do.”

  Was there a streak of disappointment that he was also being professional? “Of course,” she said as she nodded. She would get directions, and then he could stay out of her way. She would tag the things to sell and get ready to list them in a brochure for their clients. With her father doing the research, she should be able to get a complete inventory in two to three weeks at a maximum.

  “Sure. It’s better I hear the directions from you rather than from my dad secondhand.”

  “You could have called me,” he said lightly, startling her for an instant until she realized he was referring to the directions.

  “I figured I would see you here and could get the info. Why did you hire my dad when you have your own company now?” she asked bluntly.

  “Your dad is the best. I’m happy to have my own company, and it’s good, but your dad is the best I’ve ever worked with.”