I moved so fast that the soup can of pens I kept on the desk flew off onto the floor. The damn actress was on my ranch and nobody had the decency to tell me? “I’m going to kill her,” I growled.
“Kill Cindy? Can you wait until I make a move first? I think she’s still single, and if Jillian really is her therapist, I might have a shot.”
“Jillian is not her therapist. At least, not a paid one. And how do you know about that?” I stopped my hurried stride to the house and stared at him.
“It’s pretty much everywhere,” Gordon said as he pulled out his phone. “Is your head buried in the sand today? Jillian and Cindy were seen shopping together this weekend before Cindy’s award ceremony. Can you believe that she didn’t win? I thought she was a shoe-in. Anyway, Cindy introduced Jillian as pretty much the best therapist in the world. The whole nation is trying to figure out who Jillian is.”
“Great. Just great.” I scrolled through the article and ran the back of my hand over my brow. “At least Blackwell knows that Jillian and I had been on a break. Otherwise, this would have been a disaster. It might still be a disaster. Therapist to the stars? It’s not the homebody ranch wife he’s been looking for.”
He took his phone back, and his expression darkened just a little. “I’m not sure that I would worry about Blackwell anymore. There isn’t a chance in hell that he knows what his son is doing, and once he finds out, he probably won’t be able to sell you the land fast enough.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as shouts and laughter rose from the main house. “Never mind. One crisis at a time.”
As I entered the house, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The actress was sitting on the kitchen counter, and every single one of my employees plus my own sister were crowded in the room and staring at her like an idle to be worshipped. As the actress talked, it was clear that she was adoring the attention.
The one person I didn’t see was my wife. I moved quietly behind the crowd, although I didn’t think that I could have pulled their attention away with anything short of a gunshot, and headed to the hall.
“What do you mean she’s planning on staying the week? Brendan is going to have a hernia if he finds out. This isn’t some resort. It’s a working ranch, and she’s just going to distract them,” Jillian said frantically to a man who looked big enough to knock me out with one swing.
“She’s already distracting them,” I growled as I walked up behind her. “Sweetheart. Care to explain what your famous client is doing with her butt planted on my kitchen counter?”
Her eyes widened just a little. “Before you get upset, please know that I had no idea that she was coming here. She just showed up because she was upset about not winning the award, and I have an obligation to my client.”
“Jillian, you’re not here to be a therapist. You’re here to be my wife,” I reminded her as I tried to keep my temper in check.
Anger stained her cheeks, and she took a defiant step toward me. “First of all, I can be both. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Secondly, as your wife, I should be allowed to have guests here.”
This was new. Now, suddenly, she wanted to play the role of wife? Leaning against the wall, I crossed my arms. “Two seconds ago you were asking the big guy here to leave. Now suddenly she’s a welcome guest?”
“The big guy has a name.” She turned to him expectantly, but he stayed silent. She growled in frustration but carried on. “And he’s Cindy’s bodyguard.”
“Excellent, he can be her bodyguard somewhere else.”
“Brendan.”
“How long has she been here? Thirty minutes? In the thirty minutes that she’s been here, she’s distracted everybody on this ranch. Everybody. I went to close up for the day, and I couldn’t find a single soul. Not to mention that there are at least a dozen horses still out in the pasture who haven’t been fed or closed up for the night. I wanted dinner, Jillian. I wanted to finish up, have a nice dinner, and seduce you, but now I can’t do any of that. She’s not staying the week.”
“Two days. I promise that she won’t make it longer than that. She’s not really the ranch type, trust me, but I actually think some time away from the spotlight might be good.”
“If you want her to be away from the spotlight, then you need to move that damn eyesore away from the ranch before my place is swarming with paparazzi,” I sighed as I relented. “Two days, Jillian. And then I expect her to be gone. And while she’s here, you better make sure that she’s not distracting my people. Got it?”