Chapter Fifteen

While Audra and Michelle busied themselves inside the family's lodge, Jarrod was sitting on the porch recalling the past twenty four hours.

"It's not that simple, Nick. I just can't take Shelly up to the lodge!" Jarrod exclaimed as he heard what his brother was asking of him.

"You have to; you know Heath and me, we have to get some things done around the ranch before I go up there. Look, I plan on asking Audra to go to, but if there's trouble up there the girls will need help!" Nick snapped back.

"Look Nick, there's something…" Jarrod, who had decided he had no choice but to tell Nick the secret he'd been keeping from everyone, started to speak only to have Nick cut him off.

"We don't have time to anything discuss right now, Jarrod!" Nick swung around and headed for the door. "I just remembered…I have to meet an officer from the army to see just how many horses the army needs! He's to meet me at the surveyor's office as he has some other business to take care of, and I'm running a few minutes late as it is. I have to get out of here! I'll meet you at the ranch later."

"Nick…" Jarrod took a step forward only to find Nick was already out the door.

Jarrod sighed. If only Nick had listened, if only Jarrod had not found the whole family already gathered round to discuss the situation when he arrived home. Too many 'if only's' ran through his mind as the family's meeting replayed itself for him once more.

"I just know that the detective Fred talked to will try to see you." Nick walked over to where Michelle sat on the couch. "No, he doesn't know your voice, nor you do look exactly like you did before since you cut your hair and got those reading glasses. It doesn't matter though; I don't think it's a good idea for you to talk to him." He then went on to explain that he wanted Jarrod and Audra to accompany Michelle up to the lodge. "Mother, Heath and I, we'll join you in a a couple of weeks after Heath and I deal with some things here on the ranch that have been put off long enough. There's no reason for the detective to still be in Stockton by that time."

Heath, who sat next to Victoria, simply sat and listened, while Victoria vocally agreed with Nick.

Michelle glanced at Audra, who looked rather excited at the prospect of going up to the lodge again, to Hath and Victoria, who seemed to be in agreement with Nick, before turning to look at Jarrod and sighed inwardly. The man looked like more like an animal looking for a way to escape its predator. "I don't know, Nick." She said to the man who had slowly taken a hold of a good sized portion of her heart. "I think it might be okay talking to him. Perhaps convince him that any woman who doesn't want to be found can hide rather well."

If Nick hadn't seen the way she looked at Jarrod or heard the hesitation in her voice, he would have gone along with Michelle, only he saw and heard both. "No, it's taking too much of a chance when there's no need to. I've talked with Jarrod. He can tell you himself what he told me." Nick looked at Jarrod with a look that demanded an answer. .

"My schedule, as you know," Jarrod said as he looked from Nick to Michelle, "has kept me rather busy. I never intended to send the message I had anything against you or the possibility of you becoming a member of our family." Jarrod paused thinking about the discussion he and Michelle had had shortly after she'd first arrived. All of them included the fact that the Marquee was too set in his ways, too full of pride, to simply allow Michelle to walk away and "shame their family name or him". No, the Marque didn't need any reason besides his pride to come after Michelle. Also, he could still hear her saying, 'You can call it unbelievable, but my age will not matter to him. He will still consider it his place to be responsible for me, to do what he wants to me, because I am not married. He will have his revenge on me someday.' Remembering all that, Jarrod added, "I agree with Nick. It's not a good idea for that detective to talk to you right now. That is," he paused, shrugged one shoulder and then said, "unless you've changed your mind about your father." His eyes told her exactly what he was thinking.

"NO!" Michelle jumped to her feet without thinking. The moment she did that, Michelle felt as if she was going to die from embarrassment. She'd never reacted to any question or statement with so much force.

Jarrod came out of his thoughts and looked up. He could see Michelle stood inside the lodge next to the window. He could also Audra was sitting on the couch crocheting as the end of the couch touched the wall that the window sat in. Had he been able to read Michelle's mind, he would have learned her thoughts had wandered to the moment Nick and Jarrod entered the Barkley home and cornered Audra and she about what Fred had said, and what Nick wanted them to do.

He saw Michelle turn her head and say something to Audra before she, Michelle, disappeared from view. Before he knew it Jarrod heard the front door of the lodge open. He quietly sucked in his breath when Michelle stepped out onto the porch. The dress Michelle was wearing, a blue dress with white lace around the neckline and wrists, along with flowers that were scattered throughout it, was the fanciest thing the woman had worn since arriving on the ranch. Also, unlike the other dresses she had, this one actually accentuated everything about her. He silently cursed Nick for being right about the detective, Michelle and the fact that Audra and Michelle would need someone with them if trouble arose.

"May we talk?" Michelle walked over to where Jarrod was sitting; the whole time she was keeping her eyes on Jarrod.

"Of course," Jarrod closed the folder in his hands and sat it on his lap, keeping a hold of it as a means to give his hands something to do. "What's wrong?"

Michelle, who had been keeping an eye out for any sign that Jarrod was hiding something, hadn't missed the fact that he had stiffened ever so slightly as she'd started walking towards him. "What are you not telling Nick? What is it about me you don't like? Why don't you want me on the ranch?"

"I like everything about you; that's the problem" Jarrod answered in his head as he looked at her puzzled. "What are you talking about? Like I told Nick, my schedule has kept me extremely busy and, unfortunately, the wrong message was sent because of it. What gives you the idea there is more to it than that?" Jarrod stood up, keeping the folder in his one hand.

Michelle, who had had her fill answers that felt as if something was being left out before she left her father's home, wasn't about to let Jarrod get away with continuing in denying what she could plainly see…he was not comfortable being around her. "You do." She answered quite sharply as she took a step towards him, again she noticed slight non verbal clues he unintentionally sent; he wished he was elsewhere. Pointing out the few things she'd noticed when she came out onto the porch, she again demanded to know what the problem was.

It had been a long time since anyone had cornered him and successfully put his back up to the wall as it were. He could see she wasn't going to accept the few truths he'd already stated, and he silently cursed Nick for leaving the office without taking the time to listen to him. "You know the problem with not letting up when one is trying to get answers?" Jarrod, who no longer had it in him to deny what he'd been hiding, put the folder on the small, round, brown table that sat on the porch.

"What?" Michelle, who all of a sudden felt quite nervous as she saw the Jarrod stepped towards her with a look in his eyes that made her wonder if she'd have better off never saying him anything, asked.

"They just might get their answer." Jarrod told her as he took a couple more steps forward and took a hold of Michelle's shoulders. Before she knew it, Michelle found Jarrod pulling her to him, lowering his head, covering her mouth and kissing her with all he had, even to the point of sliding his tongue inside her mouth and ravishing it. However, what startled her even more was to find herself not pushing him away, but sliding her arms up his back and holding onto him tight instead. By the time he pulled away, Michelle found her heart pounding and head spinning with a thousand thoughts.

"I don't think you'll have to ask me that question again." Jarrod, who was rather unsettled, growled. "And, for both our sakes and Nick's, unless you break it off with him, never come near me again without Audra or someone with you. And, so help me, if you do break things off with him do so because you wanted to not because of me!" He then picked up the file and practically flew inside the lodge.

Michelle, who felt rather light headed, sat down on the chair stunned beyond measure. She'd never expected to have two brothers interested in her, or to realize she was interested in both of them as well. What on earth was she supposed to do?