Count This Cowboy In (5 page)

"Is there any more of that tea left?" he asked.  "And who can take his time on what?"

Sam, who was instantly flustered again at his question
and his deep sexy voice, was glad when Consuela got up and said, "I'll get you some tea and don't you worry about our girl talk.  Girls are allowed to gossip once in awhile."

Trevor laughed at her words
, shook his head.  "Just don't let me catch you gossiping about someone I know.  People get hurt that way and I won't have it in my house."  He smiled at Consuela.  "Thanks for the tea."  He took a big drink and smiled again.  "Boy, that's good.  I guess I was thirstier than I thought." 

Consuela asked him a few questions about supper, but Sam wasn
't listening.  She was wondering about his statement.  What did he mean by he won't have gossiping in his house?  She was still staring off into space wondering about that when Consuela came over and gently rubbed her shoulder.  She glanced up and the older lady gave a tiny nod toward Trevor, who was talking.  She quickly looked up at him.  He looked at her like he was waiting for an answer, so she said, "I'm sorry, what?"

He smiled as he said,
"I don't know what you were thinking about, but you sure were thinking hard.  Anything you want to share out loud?"

She tried to nonchalantly answer,
"No," but she felt her own face flush. 

He chuckled and said,
"Now I really wish I knew what it was you were thinking about."  But then he quickly brushed it off by saying, "I asked if you were ready to go look at my dire financial situation."

"
Oh, sure, come on in.  I printed off some things that should help you out."

"
Will you decipher them for me, too?"

"
I'll answer any questions that I can, sure."

They headed into his office
and she rather liked how he led her in with a gentle hand on her back.  As they were nearing the door he asked, "So can I afford you?"

She smiled up at him and said,
"I think we can work something out."

"
Good."  They started looking over the financial statements for the last six months and Trevor was lost.  Sam gave him credit, though; he studied them carefully, asking good questions and soon had a fairly good understanding of the statements.

"
Trevor, can I ask you something?"

Still studying the latest statements, he said,
"Sure."

"
If this is none of my business just say so, but I know your sister always paid the bills and she left several weeks ago."

He mumbled,
"Yeah."

"
Even when she was here paying the bills, did you know how the ranch was doing?  I mean, did you know if you were even running in the black?"

He stopped studying the documents and looked at her curiously.  Finally, he said,
"Sam, from what I'm seeing here I will be able to hire you as my bookkeeper.  For us to work well together I think it would be very helpful if we knew a little bit about each other.  If I tell you my story, how I got to where I am now, will you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

A stunned Sam looked at Trevor, who was looking very sincere.  She
'd never shared her whole story with anyone and wasn't ready to yet.  She wasn't even sure that Millie, her best friend through high school and college, knew the whole story and she was there through most of it.  Relating it would mean reliving it and she hadn't been able to do that yet, even with her.

Trevor seemed to understand the inner struggle she was having
and suggested, "Speaking for myself, Sam, I have a couple things in my past that affect me now.  If I come clean to you now, I can relax around you and not have to worry about keeping any secrets or saying the wrong thing.  You may be able to understand why I do some of the dumb things I'll no doubt do over the next year while I'm doing a lot of learning."

His comment certainly had her wondering
and he did have a point, to a degree.  She looked up at him and said, "I guess if we're going to be working together it would be easier if we knew a little more about each other."

"
It would.  Let me start and maybe it'll be easier for you then."  He led her over to the couch at the other end of his office.  Once they were seated, he began. "I grew up here, in this very house, with Carol and Mom and Dad and Consuela.  She's been our cook and housekeeper forever, but she's more than that.  She's part of the family.  Anyway, I always planned on taking over the ranch some day.  It's all I've ever wanted to do.  I just didn't plan on taking it over this soon."

"
What happened?"

"
My dad ran it.  I've worked on the ranch since I was about five, but after I graduated from college Dad started concentrating more on training me on the administrative aspect of it.  Mom always did the books for the ranch and he and Dad had just decided I was ready to learn that aspect of it when they were killed in a plane crash.  That was eleven months ago."

He paused
and Sam could see how difficult this was for him.  She said, "Trevor, I'm so sorry.  That had to have been awful, to lose both parents at the same time."

He looked at her a moment, as if gathering strength, before saying,
"Thank you.  It was hard.  It was so unexpected.  Carol and I weren't at all ready for it.  I guess we assumed things would be the same as they'd always been for a long time yet.  Anyway, I inherited the ranch and she got the house in Connecticut.  She stayed here," he paused as if thinking, "for several reasons.  This was home for both of us and we needed each other.  But then she went out to check on the house and ran into a guy she'd known in college.  Long story short, they're married now and she moved there."

"
And you're out a bookkeeper."

He smiled as he said,
"I'm out a bill payer.  Like I said, Dad was just ready to teach me about keeping the books and how to read these statements.  He hadn't started yet and unfortunately, Carol didn't have any training in anything like that, either.  She knew more about computers than I did and our accountant showed her how to pay the bills, but that's about all either of us has done."

"
So you didn't know if you were making money or losing money?"

It was his turn to blush now as he said,
"Not for sure.  I knew the ranch always ran in the black and I've been doing everything the same way we always have before.  Carol always said there was still money in the bank after we paid our bills every month.  I talked to our accountant that does our taxes and he assured me he'd come out and look at everything in a month or two to make sure we have everything we'll need to do our taxes.  He and the attorney that handled the estates took care of last year's taxes."

"
Wow."

Trevor sighed as he said,
"Yeah.  I wanted to tell you that so you'd know why I know so little about the ranch I run.  You don't know how glad I am to find out I can afford to hire you because I know my ranch right now is a bookkeeping nightmare.  I appreciate your patience in teaching me how to make some sense of these things you printed off for me.  If you have enough patience I'm hoping to get a better handle on this end of running the ranch this year.  Since Dad died I've been busy enough trying to step into his shoes and earning the respect of the hands so we can keep this place going."

"
That's really important.  I'm glad you did that.  I'm sure they respected you as you were working with them and knew you could do the ranch work, but proving to them you can run the ranch is altogether different.  They had to see that for themselves before you could count on them totally."

He looked at her with respect. 
"Sam, the fact you know that tells me a lot.  You said you lived on a ranch in the past, you said in Texas.  Could you tell me when, or what happened, why you moved off the ranch, when it's obvious how much you like living on a ranch?"

Sam looked at him and took a deep breath.  It was hard to even think about, let alone talk about, but it couldn
't have been easy for Trevor to tell her about his past.  She was debating if she could trust him.  Finally, she looked at him, as if seeing him would somehow settle the debate.  Oddly enough, it did.  His expression was so patient and kind and she remembered what he'd just confided to her.  He deserved to know at least part of her story.  She'd always heard if she could just talk about the problem, it would help.  Well, she was about to put that theory to the test.  She took another deep breath and started.

"My story.  Trevor, I want to be honest with you."

"
I want that, as well, Sam.  Honesty is very important to me."

Th
at statement, like a couple others he'd made, caught her off guard.  She decided to tuck it away in her mind for later.  She'd think about it tonight. "I'm not sure how much of this I can talk about because there's parts of it that hurt too much yet."

She was surprised when he reached over and gently took her hand in his
. "I'm sorry, Sam.  I didn't mean to bring up something that painful.  If you're not ready to talk to me yet, I understand."

"
Thank you," she said sincerely.  "But it might help to talk about a little bit of it anyway and you do deserve to know something about me.  After all, you're giving me a job and letting me live on your ranch and I appreciate that."

"
That's a two way street, Sam.  You're helping me out a great deal."

"
I'm glad."  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I used to live on a ranch with my mom and dad, too.  There was just me, no brothers or sisters.  I loved them a great deal and they may have spoiled me just a tad bit.  Especially my dad."

He continued rubbing her hand
.  Trying to lighten her stress a bit, he chuckled and said, "So you were a spoiled brat, huh?"

"
Hey, I wasn't a brat."  When he looked at her with his eyebrows raised in a questioning fashion, she sheepishly admitted, "Well, okay, maybe a tiny bit of a brat."

"
Good for you.  There's the honesty I like to see."  He winked at her and said, "Okay, go on, now that we've established that.  I'll bet you were a cute little brat when you were little."

"
Oh, you," she said, punching his arm. He was making this a lot easier than she thought it would be.  He had somehow put her at ease.  "I loved everything about living on a ranch, especially the horses."  She paused, staring at nothing in particular, before adding, "But then I went off to college.  While I was there my mom died."

She felt his hand tighten around her hand, which for some reason felt very comforting to her.  That gave her the strength to continue,
"That summer my dad and I became even closer, which I didn't think was possible, but we did.  Then I went to school again in the fall and he met a lady and got married.  Not long afterward he died."

Trevor rubbed her back gently. 
"Sam, I'm sorry.  That had to be hard for you."

Nodding her head, she said,
"It was.  It was awful."  Gathering strength, she quickly finished, "When I graduated I got a job in Houston, but my heart wasn't really in it and I did terrible.  I got fired.  I finally realized the place I've always felt the most comfortable is on a ranch, so here I am."

Trevor knew there was a lot she was leaving out, but he could also see how hard this much had been for her.  Maybe in time she
'd fill in some of the blanks, but until then he wasn't going to push her.  He simply said, "Sam, thank you for telling me that.  If you're from Texas, that means you don't have any close friends nearby yet.  I'm sure you have friends you keep in touch with by phone, but if you ever want to talk to a live person, I'll be happy to listen or talk and I'm sure Consuela will, as well."

"
Thank you."  She stared at her hand, still in his, feeling the gentle, lazy circles he traced with his thumb and wondering what it would feel like to have his hands around her.  Startled by the turn her thoughts had taken, she blurted out the first thing she could think of.  "Consuela seems really nice."

"
She is.  She's a gem.  She did a lot for Carol and me when our parents died."  He looked over at her as he said, "She likes you, you know."

"
I hope so.  I like her, too."

"
No, I mean she likes you for real.  I'm not sure how, but she's a good judge of people.  It usually takes her awhile to warm up to people because she has to feel they're a good person first, but she's really taken to you."

Sam thought about that
and some of the things she'd told her before Trevor came in.  That would give her something else to think about tonight. 

"
So how much am I going to pay you and how soon do you want to move in?"

She
grinned at him, thankful for changing the subject.  "Well, I did some checking as to how much other ranches pay their bookkeeper.  Most of them do not include a place to stay, though.  I wrote down the amounts that I found, both with and without a place to stay."