Free The Cowboy's Temptation by Elizabeth Lennox Page A

knows what is happening on almost every inch of this place.”
     
Elissa glanced at her friend, noting the odd way Veronica had phrased her statement. “What doesn’t he know?”
    Ronny shrugged. “I don’t think he knows what is happening in his own house. He thanked me for cooking for him this past week. He said he’s never tasted better,” she said with a smile.
Ronny’s comment filled Elissa with a warmth she hadn’t known in years. Smiling brightly, she laughed. “He really said that?”
     
“Yep,” Ronny said, nodding for emphasis.
     
“What did you say?”
    “I didn’t really have a chance. He was discussing something with Rick when I came out of the kitchen. He just thanked me and walked out the door. I would have said something, but my mouth was hanging open in shock that he didn’t know it was you who was cooking all week.”
“Why would he know?”
     
Veronica stared at her friend in surprise. “Why wouldn’t he? Why didn’t you tell him?”
    Elissa brushed a petal off her leg that had just fallen from a nearby tree. “He’s never around when I cook and he eats much later than we do, so I’m generally already upstairs in my room when he walks in. We really don’t run into each other in the house.”
    Ronny eyed her friend suspiciously. “I’ll grant that it’s a huge house. With fifteen bedrooms, it pretty much qualifies as a mansion. But you two seem to know what the other is doing whenever you two are in it. Want to tell me something?”
Elissa blushed. “There’s nothing to tell, I promise.”
     
Ronny eyed Elissa suspiciously. “Uh-huh. Okay, you’re secrets are yours. What would you like to do today? I don’t have any papers to grade until tomorrow night.”
    “I have no idea. I’ve been getting into a routine of going to town to get groceries each morning. I get back here in time for my riding lessons with Jake, then I cook and clean all afternoon until you get home.”
“You still have riding lessons with Jake?” Ronny said, an astonished look on her face.
     
“Yes, why?”
     
“So Jake has been teaching you all week?” she asked, laughing at the idea.
     
Elissa nodded. “What’s so funny about that?” she asked, feeling like she was missing something significant.
    Ronny threw back her head and laughed harder. “What’s so funny about Jake taking the time to teach you how to ride? If you don’t know the answer to that, you’re in worse shape than I realized. But I’m guessing that everything will work out perfectly in the end. Come on, I feel a huge need to clean the baby’s room. Can you help?”
    They spent the rest of the morning cleaning her house from top to bottom. It was odd because whenever Elissa thought they were finished, Veronica came up with one more item that she desperately needed cleaned and off they went to scrub.
By lunchtime, Elissa called a halt. “Ronny, you could eat off the floors in this house. Let’s take a break and go have some lunch,” she said.
     
Veronica looked at her nice, clean kitchen and relented. “Okay, I guess we can clean the kitchen again afterwards.”
    Elissa laughed. “Oh, no we won’t. Come on,” she said, grabbing Veronica’s hand and pulling her out of her house. “We’re going up to Jake’s. He’s never there around this time of the day anyway so it will be safe.”
“What do you mean by ‘safe’?”
    Elissa bit her lip, wondering how she was going to cover up that flub. She’d meant that it was a safe bet that they wouldn’t run into Jake, but she didn’t want to reveal that to Veronica. The woman was too perceptive already. “I meant that you won’t care if it gets dirty,” Elissa quickly fabricated.
“Oh, okay. You’re right.”
     
But as soon as they walked into the large kitchen, Veronica started cleaning the counter tops. “Sit,” Elissa said, pointing to a chair.
     
“I’ll just clean this one while you make us a sandwich.” “Sit,” Elissa repeated and pushed her