Page 51 of A Man for Amanda
“He started it. He said I didn’t have my mind on my work, and he was right.”
“So your mind was wandering. Big deal.”
“It is a big deal. Damn it, I like my job, and I’m good at it. But I haven’t been concentrating, not on that or the necklace, or anything, since...”
“Since the big gun swaggered in from the West.”
“It’s not funny.”
“Sure it is.” Lilah wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin on them. “So you lose a little concentration, misplace one of your lists or miss an appointment by five minutes. So what?”
“I’ll tell you so what. He’s changing me and I don’t know what to do about it. I have responsibilities, obligations. Damn it, I have goals. I have to think about tomorrow, and five years from tomorrow.” The trouble was, when she did, she thought of Sloan. “What if he’s just a glitch? A wonderful, exciting glitch that throws off everything I’ve planned out? A few weeks from now, he finishes up here and heads back to Oklahoma, and my life’s a mess.”
“What if he asks you to go with him?”
“That’s worse.” Flustered, Amanda rose to wander in distracted circles. “What am I supposed to do? Throw away everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve hoped for just because he says saddle up?”
“Would you?”
Amanda shut her eyes. “I’m afraid I would.”
“Then why don’t you talk to him?”
“I can’t.” She sat again. “We haven’t talked about the future. I guess neither of us wants to think about it. It was just that today, I started thinking—”
“You would get back to it.”
“I started thinking,” Amanda repeated, “that a month ago I didn’t even know him. It’s crazy to start planning my life around someone I’ve only known such a short time.”
“And you’ve always been the sensible one,” Lilah put in.
“Well, yes.”
“Then relax.” For encouragement she patted Amanda’s shoulder. “When the time comes, you’re bound to do the sensible thing.”
“I hope you’re right,” Amanda murmured, then forced herself to add a decisive nod. “Of course you’re right. I’m going to work in the storeroom until dinner.”
“See you’re back on track already.” Lilah chuckled to herself when Amanda strode out. “Come on, Fred.” She nuzzled his nose. “Let’s go see if we can derail her.”
Sloan walked into the storeroom, armed with a bottle of champagne, a wicker basket and some of Lilah’s sisterly advice.Keep her off balance, big guy. The one thing you can’t let her do is get logical on you.
Though he wasn’t exactly sure what had prompted Lilah’s visit, he approved the spirit of it. Just as he approved the way Amanda looked, hunched over a desk in the storeroom, glasses on her nose, hair clipped back. There were neatly labeled file boxes stacked behind her, dozens of dusty cardboard boxes scattered alongside her and several fat piles of paper in front of her.
“Hey, Calhoun, ready for a break?”
“What?” Her head came up quickly, but it took a moment for her eyes to focus. “Oh, hi. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Where were you?”
She lifted a ledger. “Back in 1929. It seems my illustrious great-grandpapa made a little pin money running liquor in from Canada during Prohibition.”
“Good old Fergus.”
“Greedy old Fergus,” she corrected. “But a businessman through and through. If he kept such meticulous books of his illegal activities, he certainly would have a record of sale if he sold the emeralds.”
“I thought Bianca hid them.”
“That’s the legend.” She leaned back to rub her tired eyes. “I’d rather have the facts. I had this thought that maybe he put them in a safe-deposit box he didn’t tell anyone about. But I can’t find any record of that, either.”
