One Texas Night.... Sara Orwig

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      Two

      Allison Tyler studied the small figurine in her hand, turning it to look at the initials and number on the underside. With her phone she took a picture that went first to her dad and then to her iPad. She made brief notes on her tablet. She was interested in getting a picture inventory, whatever descriptions she felt she needed and sending them on to her dad to do the research about each piece.

      She’d battled mixed feelings since the first call to her father from Jared. The Delaney mansion Jared had inherited and wanted to sell was supposed to be filled with antiques and valuable art. It was a great job for them, just as it had been for her dad to work directly with him before. Jared had a hobby of deep-sea salvaging and twice had hired her father to go over items he had brought up from a find in the Gulf off the Alabama coast.

      Jared. She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

      He’d been a constant companion of her brother’s throughout their school years, but he’d been of little interest to Allison. Until six years ago when he had bumped into her at the wedding reception, and she’d felt as if a lightning bolt had struck her. He was incredibly handsome, sexy, appealing. She couldn’t resist flirting with him. He’d set her heart pounding, and within the next hours, she’d decided he was the most exciting man she had ever met.

      The night had been magical. Her brother had once told her that he didn’t want his best friend around her. Though Jared was a great friend to Sloan, where women were concerned, Jared was totally unreliable. Sloan had described him as a playboy, a man who lived life on the edge, who liked mountain climbing, bull riding, white-water rafting, wild adventures and beautiful women.

      At eighteen, when she had looked into Jared’s vivid green eyes, she had been as drawn to him as a moth to flames. Exuding self-confidence, he had flirted, made her pulse race, and when he had kissed her, she had melted. No other kisses had been like his.

      But the next morning, along with daylight, common sense set in. She couldn’t get involved with a heartbreaker like Jared. She was just a college freshman. Her life was simple, safe and ordinary, and she wanted to keep it that way. Jared, on the other hand, was a risk taker. She never again wanted to go through getting the news that someone she loved deeply had been killed taking a risk. Like her mother, who had flown her small plane through a Gulf storm, killing herself and Chad in the crash. Allison never wanted to experience that kind of needless hurt again.

      And there was Sloan. She suspected if Sloan knew about her night with Jared, it would end their long, close friendship. All she could do, then, was get Jared to agree they would not see each other again and the night had never happened.

      She had since tried to forget him. It had been a struggle to forget someone as dynamic as Jared Weston. That night she had tossed her usual caution aside because he had been too handsome, too appealing, too exciting.

      Now she was older and wiser, and she still felt Jared was a man to avoid. Currently she felt responsible for her dad, and she didn’t want to cause him worry. In addition she had a running undercurrent of anger. Jared had tried to buy Tyler Antiques and Appraisals after her dad’s heart attack. When her dad had refused to sell, Jared had bought another appraisal company and then approached her dad once more, wanting to merge the two, leaving her dad in charge of his part. Her dad loved his business that he had built, and he did not want to sell. Jared had said the offer would remain on the table. Her father never mentioned it again, and she hoped Jared was not now attempting to get their company.

      In minutes, she forgot business when her thoughts returned to that night with Jared. How tempting would he be to her now? She suspected very tempting, because she had never been able to forget him. How appealing he was would not matter. He was still off-limits. Sloan had already told her that Jared was about to become engaged. That should keep distance between them.

      She had arrived the previous day at the sprawling mansion in Houston. With very little landscaping, the gray three-story Gothic had a cold palatial appearance with medieval turrets, parapets and arched windows, and she could see why Jared intended to sell it. She couldn’t imagine living in a home the size of the mansion, much less one so forbidding in appearance.

      Jared had not arrived yet, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Tarkington, as well as the cook, who introduced herself only as Marline, were uncertain about exactly when he would arrive. Allison did not need Jared present to start an inventory of the art and furnishings. All she felt was relief that he was not here. By noon the first day, she had inventoried and tagged six rooms of furniture, sending brief descriptions and pictures to her father. She’d begun with the bedrooms so that they’d be done and she wouldn’t have to deal with Jared in a bedroom—even if they were only remotely polite to each other. But she still had more bedrooms to complete, even after this one.

      She paused in front of an ornate gilt-framed mirror to look at her image. It had been six years since she had seen Jared. How much would he think she had changed? How well did he СКАЧАТЬ