Rules about Lily Read online

  Chapter One

  “Have you lost your mind?” Lily sputtered.

  “No, I think it’s a good a plan as any” Jared said calmly.

  “You want me to help you to run an advertisement and interview women as possible wife material. Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “Yes!” She sucked in a long dismayed breath.

  “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Where did you get an idea like that?”

  “Well, I’ve been watching some of those reality TV shows recently and they seem like something that could work for us. It would weed out all the definitely nots and give me a viable batch of women to work from, it would save us a lot of time, and…” She interrupted him abruptly.

  ”Whoa there crazy man, what do you mean us and we? If you think that I’m helping you with this cockamamie scheme of yours, you are out of your mind.” She turned around to leave the room but was stopped as Jared jumped up and rounded the desk to grab her elbow before she had taken two steps. He was quick for such a big man, six foot four inches of ropy muscles, built up from a lifetime of ranch work. His hands touched the delicate skin of Lily’s elbows and she was not surprised to feel the small sparks shoot through her arms. He seemed unaware of the reaction he always caused as his calloused hands made contact.

  “You have to, nobody knows me better than you. Not only are you my best friend but you’re also my personal assistant. It’s in the job description.” his tone was cajoling. She never refused him anything when he used that tone, if she was honest she would admit that she never refused him anything at all, regardless of the tone. She was shaking her head from side to side both at his words and in denial of her natural reaction to his touch.

  “This is definitely not part of any job description I ever looked at and it is way above and beyond the call of duty. I will not help you pick up women. Why would you need to do something like that anyway, it’s not like you have any problem with the ladies? I’ve seen at least a few dozen come and go over the last couple of years alone” Yeah, if men were held to the same standards as women around here, Jared Mcguire would be called a big ole slut.

  “That’s what I’m talking about, exactly how far has that approach gotten me? Nothing but lots of great sex but no lasting relationships and we’re not picking up women; that would be tacky. Think of it as helping me with a screening process, but instead of a potential employee it will be for a potential wife.” She was still looking at him like he was kicked in the head by a cow.

  “Come on Lily, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with something like this. I know you’ll be watching out for my best interest at every turn and with you helping, it will be someone we could both like. Your opinion matters to me on this very much” he reasoned.

  “You’re making this sound like a sane idea. I could end up choosing a woman with a flatulence problem that will cheat on you and run off with half your money. And when that happens I don’t want you come running to me.” She started to grin just thinking about the possibilities.

  “You wouldn’t do that to me Lily, besides you’re going to be spending almost as much time with her as I will, so you have to like her as well. You will have equal input about the woman, except for the sex of course, that part I will have to decide on by myself.” He grinned at her salaciously and wriggled black eyebrows over sparkling blue eyes.

  “Do you seriously want to go through with this?” she asked, praying he would say no.

  “Absolutely”

  “But why? I didn’t even know you were looking for a wife, you never said anything about it before.” She sounded hurt that he would keep something like that from her; she thought she knew everything about him.

  His voice turned serious for a second “Lily, I’m thirty-three years old, I’m in good health, fairly rich and have been working hard the Mcguire ranch for as long as I can remember. I’m ready to settle down and have some children. I want a large family to fill up this huge house. I’m ready to know that there’s more than this to life.” He sounded like he had actually given this a great deal of thought. Lily knew she would regret saying this but she plunged on.

  “You know I’m there for you Jared. I always have been no matter how harebrained your schemes were or how much trouble you always got me into or how many nights we’ve spent in lock-up with old Sheriff Barnes or…”

  “Ok ok, I get it, but don’t blame all that on me, at least half of that belongs to you, because you my love, are a magnet for mishaps.” He let go of her elbow to drape his forearms over her shoulders. “So now that we decided we’re going to do it, what happens now?” he stared at her with a hopeful look. The man was outrageous.

  “Why are you looking at me like that. I don’t know what comes next, it’s not like I do this kind of thing everyday. We will have to get together to go over those annoying details, like what kind of woman you’re looking for, how soon you want this to happen, what kind of therapist you want to see.”

  “Haha, very cute smartass.” He tugged gently at the braid behind her head and chuckled.

  “Ok, give me a couple of days to think about it and I’ll get back to you with a game plan. I know insanity is instant with you but it will take a couple of days for me to get infected. Now, I’m going home and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow. Do not call me tonight unless you want to feed me. You make most people tired, me, you make hungry.” She pushed up to her toes to reach up within his loose embrace and kissed him on the cheek and waited until he returned the kiss to her forehead before letting her go, it was an everyday ritual.

  “Bye Jared”

  “Bye Lily and Lily?”

  “Yes Jared?”

  “Thank you”

  “Don’t thank me yet Jared, we’ll probably try to kill each other before this thing is over.”

  Lily made her way to her house and settled in to spend a quiet night; she had gotten home and was both physically and mentally exhausted. Jared had a way of doing that to a person. She thought about all the years they had spent together and the trouble they often got themselves into. She wouldn’t change that for anything, she’d trailed after him since she was five and he was a bossy older ten-year-old. Some things hadn’t changed, she was still with him and he was still the bossiest man she knew especially where she was concerned.

  Lily didn’t know how “The Plan” as she called it, would change her life, only that drastic changes were in the works for both of them. She knew this day would eventually come, but still felt blindsided by his request. She had a degree in business administration and although she was only twenty-seven, she had years of experience. She started working part-time for Jared while she was in school and then moved into full-time status upon graduation. Jared was a hard taskmaster but he paid well and the benefits were outstanding. She did everything from attending corporate meetings to bailing him out of the local lock-up. She cooked him food, sat with him when he was sick and held him throughout the night when his father died.

  If another woman was there to do those things for him, what would she be left to do? Jared’s pace had always been so demanding that she hadn’t really dated and had no social life to fall back on. Strange that she never noticed the lack of companionship until now. She had also spent a part of the night coming up with ideas to put “The Plan” into action and also started looking for a place to live. She lived in a small house on the ranch, a pretty pale yellow with white trim and a front yard full of flowers that was far enough away from the main house. It afforded her some privacy but it was still part of the property that belonged to Jared, one of the benefits of the job.

  She of course, could not continue to live there once he had a wife. No woman in her right mind would be ok with that arrangement, no matter
how platonic there relationship had always been; especially one who was in love with her husband. That was the where the true problem lay. Molly didn’t know when it happened, one day she was she was calling Jared’s women stupid and the next she would have give anything to swap places with them. Jared never noticed, but then again she did a fabulous job at hiding it. She was afraid to do anything that would change her relationship to him or to his family; they were all she had in the world, so she kept her mouth shut and covered the heart on her sleeve with a smart ass attitude.

  She was not looking forward to telling Jared about her decision to leave, she knew he would complain, but he would have to acknowledge that there really was little choice. She had typed out her ideas in detail as though it was a merger proposal, which in fact it was, cross-referencing and color-coding like her life depended on it. She would go to sleep tonight and pretend that she didn’t fall down the rabbit hole. As Lily drifted off to sleep her memories became dreams and appeared as clear as thought the events happened just yesterday.

  Lily’s father had come to the ranch to work with the horses, he had a special touch with the wildest of beasts and had come highly recommended to Mr. Maguire. Although Mr. Maguire knew how to make money in the horse business, he knew very little of the animals themselves, so he did what any smart businessman would have done; he hired the best. Lily had lost her mother at birth and her bond with her father was strong, there wasn’t another person that Lily loved as much and she happily followed him to yet another ranch. Seth Lancaster was without doubt a great horseman, but the loss of his beloved wife caused an unwillingness to settle down into a permanent home of his own, his sprit was restless and so the pair moved every year.

  Lily was happy enough to trail from town to town with her father until they arrived on the Maguire ranch; the five-year old loved it on sight. The little girl roamed the ranch and her avid interest in all aspects of the ranch endeared her to everyone. In the first summer of their stay, Lily shared her time with the stable master, talking his ear off with a never-ending list of question, most of them starting with why, and she was never satisfied with ‘because I said so’ answers. She spent the rest of time underfoot at the main house, talking to Bella the housekeeper and Mrs. Maguire; the little girl soaked up the softness and comfort of the mother figures.

  The greatest delight and bane of her young existence was a ten- year old boy named Jared Maguire. As an only child and heir to the Maguire Ranch, Jared walked the ranch with the confidence and security of a well-loved child and absorbed the intricacies of the ranch he knew would someday be his to run. Guided by firm and loving parents, Jared never became obnoxious about his wealth and gained great pleasure in aiming his childish torture tactic towards Lily. He put chewing gum in her hair causing her to have her first haircut, tied her shoelaces together which resulted in a tumble that caused the small scar on her chin, he also took her candy and held her doll for ransom on a daily basis.

  This did not stop Lily from trailing after him; she loved the Maguire family, even if that family had to include Jared Maguire. She especially loved that Jared encouraged her company, that was until he turned thirteen and staring at girls became the most fascinating occupation in his life. He tolerated her for a couple of months more and then the girls started looking back at him. At the time she couldn’t understand why, just because he grew almost a foot taller that summer, or because his voice deepened or his shoulders widened. He always had the clear blue eyes and deep dimple in his left cheek, but he was just dumb old Jared, and if the girls couldn’t recognized that then they were just plain stupid.

  She and Jared didn’t spend much time together after that for a few years, but the relationship they had created never dwindled, he always found a way to pop up in the most inopportune moments, always just in time to stop boys from kissing her or asking her out. His size and strength intimidated his immediate peers and his wealth and power intimidated everybody else. She had yet to see anyone stand up to Jared, he took bossy to a whole other level. It just made sense to work with him at the ranch she loved so much and with the people she loved so much. It was comfortable and she was appreciated and respected and life was perfect.

  She was grown now and not much had changed, except the realization that she had fallen in love with her nemesis and best friend. She was working one afternoon, very much like any other afternoon, sorting invoices and inputting the information on a spreadsheet when Jared came home. He was dusty and smelled of horse and sunshine and playfully pinched Lily on her ass as he passed. It was something he had done numerous times before, but it had never caused Lily’s breathe to hitch before or a streak of heat to skim along her body to settle between her legs. She was pole axed for a full minute before she decided it must have been a fluke, a mistake; her sex deprived body causing her mind to hallucinate. Until the very next time he touched her and it happened again and yet again.

  She looked over at the clock and sighed, closing up her files and pushing them to her always unoccupied side of the bed. She had to get a good nights’ sleep; life as she knew it was officially over.

  Chapter Two

  Lily showed up at the main house promptly at seven a.m. expecting to be assaulted by Jared enthusiasm, but was instead greeted by Bella, the cook/housekeeper that had worked for the Maguire household for the better part of twenty years. Bella was a very large German woman in her mid-fifties that had migrated to the United States with her husband thirty-two years ago. The couple had come to the ranch looking for a quiet life, five years ago her husband died and the childless woman had enfolded the Maguire family into her equally large heart. She informed Lily that young Mr. Jared had gone out to the corral before the sun had come up, and muttered something about a new foal that was due. That did not come as a surprise to Lily; Jared always had a soft spot for newborns. As a child he was always carrying around a kitten, puppy, lamb or piglet and the rest of time you could always find him at the corral or in the barn. She thanked Bella and headed out into the early morning to find Jared. He was leaned against the high fence with one booted foot up on the lowest rail it was the same pose that two of his cowhands sported.

  “Good morning Hank, Lenny, morning’ boss.” She nodded to each man in turn. Jared reached out one arm and snagged her, pulling her in the circle of his arms in front of him. He nuzzled the side of her head, unconsciously sniffing her hair and the sweetness of her skin.

  “Look Lily, a new baby.” He said softly, pointing to the small week kneeded bundle. “What do you want to call her?”

  “I get to name her?” she asked in the same soft tone. The two cowhands had moved on when Jared had brought her into his arms. It was somehow another unspoken rule that no one touched Lily, there were invisible boundary lines that everyman saw clearly, everyone but Lily and Jared. They would have laughed out loud if anyone had ever mentioned it, which of course no one ever would. The staff, who were more like family saw them as a perfect, happy little family if they would every catch a clue and get on with it. Impatient sighs were often heard whenever Jared went of on a date, but the chemistry between them was strong enough for the most hardened cowpoke to see. They either didn’t know what it was or was choosing to ignore the situation but it was infuriating to the ranch family and especially to Jared’s mother, who loved Lily like a daughter.

  “I think I’ll call her Scarlett. She has the most beautiful red coat I have ever seen. What do you think Jared?” Jared placed a quick kiss on the side of her head.

  “I think Scarlett will fit her perfectly” They stood silently for a few minutes just looking at the small beauty.

  Jared turned them both and started walking back to the house with an arm around her shoulders. He always seemed to find a way to touch her, never noticing her arousal to his slightest touch. They went into his office and closed the door. He took his place around the desk and she sat in the visitors’ chair and picked up the folder she had placed there earlier.

  “So Lily, what have you got f
or me” he rubbed his hands together like he had just struck gold.

  “Well, I thought we should go about this like the classic Cinderella story. I will send out some hand written invitations to all the eligible young ladies in the surrounding counties and to some of your business contacts. The gist of the invitation will advise them that the handsome prince, that would be you, is looking to settle down and if they were interested they were invited to two weeks at the ranch for an opportunity to spend sometime with you and to enjoy a series of parties and relaxing activities such as massages and horseback riding.

  I think we should start with about twenty women, we’ll do a meet and greet and dismiss the ones you know you don’t want to continue. Once we’re down to five solid choices, I will give you a schedule that will allow you some individual time with all of the women and leave some free time open to spend with someone whose company you enjoyed more that the others. The staff will be briefed on the situation and I will hire a few extra hands to help with the cooking and cleaning etc. I will also be encouraging the women to bring a friend or chaperone if they wish.” He looked at her with no small amount of awe.

  “You are unbelievably awesome. You said that we needed to talk about the kind of woman I was looking for, what did you mean? You know the type I usually date, just pick some of those.” He made it sound so simple.

  “And I believe you were the one to point out how ineffective that approach has been thus far. Bottle blonds with big boobs are easy to find, if that’s all you’re looking for but…”

  “What’s wrong with liking big breasts?” His eyes slipped down to rove over her chest and blinked as he noticed how fully she filled the cream colored blouse.

  “Nothing at all, but what about personality, temperament and sense of humor that kind of stuff.”

  “Some of all of that sounds great, whatever you thing is good, I’m sure will be fine.” The man was the devil.