Paige looked through more of the clothes, many of them obviously new, still boasting their price tags. Cowgirl chic? Or someone’s idea of cowgirl chic? She finally found a fairly ordinary pair of jeans she thought would fit and a white blouse, a bit frilly with its expansive, ruffled boatneck, but it would do, she decided.
She found a light pink bra she thought would fit and then wondered, if she asked, if she could have more boxers for underwear. She really didn’t want to wear another woman’s underwear.
But then there it was, a whole overnight case full of undies, including panties of all sorts of bright colors and varying amounts of…material. Okay, not what she would have chosen for herself, but at least they still had the tags on them, too.
She picked a pair in lavender and told herself to be grateful she wouldn’t have to run around his house without panties.
There was even a makeup case.
This woman even left her makeup behind?
Paige opened it and there, indeed, was a plethora of cosmetics, scented soaps, lotions…
Had someone left in a hurry? And not bothered to come back for her things?
Paige decided to be grateful for simple things, like a good lotion to put on her face, a bit of gloss for her dry lips and—yes!—a blow-dryer. She could have dry hair.
Dressing quickly, she dried her hair and, bracing herself, opened his bedroom door and went exploring.
His was the only bedroom in this wing of the house, but there was a locked door—probably his office, she guessed—and the library with the spare computer he’d mentioned. She’d be back there as soon as she found something to eat.
The living room was huge, a massive stone fireplace dominating the space, the furniture again oversize, all buttery-soft leather and polished wood. A glance outside the big windows lining the back of the room told her it was still miserable outside.
In the kitchen, she found a pot of soup simmering, smelling wonderful, and a note. The housekeeper, Marta, said she’d left the soup for Paige and Mr. Travis. It could simmer all day and would be fine. That Paige should feel free to help herself to anything else she wanted from the kitchen and to make herself at home in the house. There was a number to call if she needed anything from Marta, who lived in a cottage near the main house, although phone service had been spotty since the storm hit.
Paige happily ate a bowl of soup, along with some homemade bread she found and a glass of orange juice, then decided she really couldn’t wait any longer to call her brother, who was likely half out of his mind worrying about her. She only hoped he hadn’t done anything foolish, like send someone after her, or decided to come himself.
She eyed the phone in the kitchen, but then thought if she actually got through to Blake, he’d have a million questions, and she really didn’t have any answers for him and really didn’t want him to know she was sitting in Travis Foley’s ranch house, having gotten caught in the mine by Travis.
So she chickened out and sent him a very brief text message from her satellite phone instead.
Safe. Dry. Waiting out storm. Satellite service iffy. Phone battery low. Will call when I can. Paige.
There. She hit the send button and the message seemed to go through.
Her phone rang not five seconds later.
Blake.
Paige felt bad, but she just couldn’t do it yet, couldn’t tell him she’d gotten caught and that she had no idea if she could salvage anything of their plans to find the Santa Magdalena Diamond, and there was no way she wanted to tell him anything about Travis Foley.
“Sorry,” she whispered, and shut off her phone. He’d obviously gotten her message. He knew she was safe. That would have to be enough for now.
She went into the library to the spare computer, happy to find that the Internet connection, while slow and going in and out with the storm, worked well enough that with some patience she could at least see a few things.
The online weather forecast was grim. The remnants of the hurricane, now mostly just a huge blob of rain, was sitting right on top of them, stalled by a weather system moving in from the west. Massive flooding was possible. No one seemed to be sure when the two big weather fronts would end their standoff over the Texas Hill Country and the rain would move on.
Paige tried not to think about being stuck here for days.
She clicked over to the news. Her cousin Gabby’s marriage to her bodyguard was still making the rounds on the gossip sites. The global market for jewelry was still down, gold prices sky high, diamonds and other gems, too. Nothing new there.
Signing into her e-mail account from online, she found multiple messages from Gabby, which she skimmed quickly.
In love. In love. Life is wonderful. In love. Where are you?
Okay, Gabby was fine, just as Paige had left her.
And then a message Paige read word for word: Where did Penny disappear to? I’m telling you, Paige, something is going on with her, and it just doesn’t feel right. I think she may have finally gotten serious about a man, if you can believe that, and…well, she’s just so darned naive. I’d hate to see her get hurt.
Paige would, too. And she knew her sister was very inexperienced when it came to men. Paige was the adventurous one and by most people’s standards, she wasn’t very experienced herself. But Penny…she was downright innocent.
Paige shook her head. She typed in a quick message to Gabby, promising to try to find out what she could, then sent one to Penny, as well.
There was a short e-mail from her mother, which Paige dreaded opening but did, just to skim.
Hope you’re OK. That work is going well. Miss you. Love you. Please let me try to explain. Mom.
Okay.
More of the same from her mother, trying to explain her affair with Rex Foley.
Paige really wasn’t up to that today.
She had her own Foley man to contend with.
Travis didn’t think he’d ever spent a colder, wetter, more miserable day on the ranch, and mostly because he couldn’t stand the idea of being in his own warm, dry house with a woman. Because he didn’t trust himself there alone with her all day.
The ranch hands could have handled things easily. He knew that. They knew that. And they all knew he’d found a woman out in the storm, been stuck with her for an indeterminate amount of time and was, at first, in no hurry to be rescued. And that now she was back at the ranch and he was out here riding around in the cold and the wet with them.
They knew she was young, gorgeous and had fiery red hair, and anything beyond that was pure speculation. But they were all speculating like mad and having a good old time of it. That he was either an idiot or that he and the woman had already had a spectacular fallingout. One or the other.
“We gonna stay out here all day or find enough sense to come in out of the rain, Boss?” Cal finally asked shortly before dark.
“Just want to make sure everything is okay,” he said.
“Everything is just fine. It was fine hours ago.”
Travis didn’t bother challenging that notion. Just said, “I don’t recall asking you to stay out here with me, old man.”
“Nope, you didn’t. Just hate to lose you again. I promised your grandfather I’d take care of you, and I thought I was doing a fine job keeping that promise.