Once a Rancher by Linda Lael Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

to get a mobile phone in the first place. Now she was adept at high-tech communication. “Sounds like a plan.”
    He went into the house and through a foyer with a chandelier that should have been in a museum somewhere. The piece wasn’t original to the house, but went back much further, probably to the turn of the nineteenth century; according to family legend it came from a grand Southern hotel. A beautiful creation of flawless crystal, it seemed incongruous—and yet oddly natural—in a ranch house set among mountains and prairie.
    By now such things were part of the landscape to Slater. His family was eclectic, to say the least.
    He entered his office, formerly his father’s study. He was comfortable there, among the belongings of generations—polished bookcases and a vast collection of volumes, most of them having some flavor of the Old West. There were classics and plenty of nonfiction, a smattering of epic poetry and high-brow philosophy, but a generous sprinkling of Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour, too.
    Slater settled into the old leather chair and booted up his computer. As he’d expected, a slew of emails awaited him, the majority sent by various crew and staff members wrapping up last-minute details on location.
    He took care of those first, and it was, as usual, a time-consuming task.
    There was a message from the resort concerning the dinner and meeting he had booked that morning, confirming the date he’d chosen—still almost a month out—but it was the second email that really got his attention. He was invited, in a briskly businesslike way, to have dinner the following week with the resort manager—none other than Grace Emery herself—so they could discuss “possible joint endeavors and promotions.”
    A slow grin spread across Slater’s face as he considered, just for a moment, a few possible joint endeavors he might be able to suggest.
    I’ll be damned , he thought, smiling.
    Recalling last night’s brief and testy exchange with her, he marveled at—okay, celebrated —the fact that the lovely Ms. Emery wanted to see him again. For any reason.
    Grace had been furious at her stepson, yes, and she’d virtually forced the boy to apologize. But she’d also taken an apparently instant dislike to Slater. Now, all of a sudden, she wanted to talk business? Over dinner?
    Since there was no one around to see, Slater punched the air with one fist and muttered, “Yes!”
    Ideally, the meeting would be one-on-one. No assistants. No heads of this department or that.
    Just Grace and him.
    But life was rarely ideal.
    Warning himself to rein it in, not to read too much into the unexpected invitation, Slater printed out the confirmation for the other event, his company gathering, filed it and sent the notice to his guests, indicating the time and place—one month from this coming Saturday.
    That done, he carefully composed his RSVP to the second get-together.
    Of course the email would go straight to Grace’s assistant, someone named Meg, but surely she’d see it, too. He rested his elbows on the desk, that smile still lingering on his mouth, although most of his triumph had subsided, turning into something more fragile, like hope.
    He’d sensed, despite the bristling body language and snappy retorts of the night before, that the attraction between him and Grace hadn’t all been on his side.
    But maybe he was wrong on that score. Maybe the invitation was exactly what it appeared to be—strictly business.
    Slater paused, leaning back in his chair, reflecting. Going by what his brothers had told him about Grace, she’d already given plenty of eager cowboys the brush-off. She was, after all, a busy woman with a demanding job, plus dealing with a troubled teenage boy. While Ryder seemed like an intelligent kid, the smart ones were often the hardest to manage. Throw in a move from one state to another and a