“Shame on you, Dad.”
“Aw, hell, boy.” Ulysses let his arms drop.
“Why, Dad?”
“You came home, boy, and I wanted you and Bennie to stay permanently. I thought if you thought I needed you —”
“That we’d stay.”
Ulysses nodded. “I know it was a low trick—and Mabel had no part of it, mind you. The woman’s a saint. But I did what I had to. I didn’t want to let you go again.”
“I’m sorry, Dad. Sorry I left, sorry I hurt you, sorry the ranch suffered because of it.”
“Now, that’s the last thing you ought to be sorry for. The ranch is just land.”
“But you worked hard for it.”
“Not for
it,
boy, for your ma. For you. All I ever wanted was a little piece of land, a few head of cattle. I’m a simple man, Tyler. Always have been. Your ma didn’t understand that. I built this place up for her. When she left, it lost its meaning.” He shook his head. “Now I ain’t blamin’ things on her. She’s a good woman, she’s just different from me, is all. She wanted different things out of life. I loved her and wanted her happy, so I let her go. I let you go, too, because I wanted you to be happy. And I’ll let you go now if it’s what you want.”
“I want Bennie to be happy.”
“Then do what you have to, boy. Your old daddy understands.”
It was as if a weight had been lifted. Tyler took a deep breath and for the first time he didn’t feel the tightness in his chest. The guilt. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Don’t worry none about me,” Ulysses went on. “I’ll be fine. Why, my hearing’s nearly shot, but it ought to last a good six months more. And if I decide to have that surgery on my old arthritic knees, why, I’m sure I won’t be laid up more ’n a few months. Three or four at the most. Mabel and Jed can run things, even if the ranch is a good size larger thanks to you. But don’t go frettin’ over us. We’ll manage —”
“Dad.”
“Oh, go on.” Ulysses waved him away. “I’ve got a hot-pink turtle to win for my grandbaby. A going-away present.” He slapped a twenty on the counter. “Maybe I’ll even get something for Lucky.” He picked up the Uzi and aimed. “Take that Yellin’ Helen, you old nosy, highfalutin, pain-in-the-ass, hemorroid-causin’ nanny goat...”
The words faded in a string of
pops
as Tyler headed back inside the gym. He still had a loose end to tie up, one that belonged to a beautiful and lethal-to-his-sanity cabdriver.
And for the first time since he’d decided to return to Houston, Tyler actually smiled.
13
“C
ONGRATULATIONS, Lucky! You deserve it, darlin’! Glad to have you here in Ulysses, sugar! Hey, Lucky, I’ve got this knocking in my engine...”
The praises and well-wishes surrounded Lucky as she shook hands, accepted hugs and smiled so much her cheeks felt ready to explode. This beauty-pageant business was tough stuff, especially since Lucky had never in her wildest dreams expected to win. She’d hadn’t even wanted to win. But winning felt kind of nice, especially for the invisible flat-chested woman.
“I knew you could do it!” Earline hugged Lucky. “This lucky dress has never let me down. It was made for a winner!”
If only Lucky’s prize were a hunky cowboy instead of a new saddle and a year’s supply of hoof-and-nail cream. But, as usual. Lady Luck wasn’t shining on her, she realized when Bennie rushed up to her and told her she’d just talked to Ulysses who said he’d just talked to Tyler who’d said he’d just talked to Helen. Bennie and Tyler were going back to Houston.
“It’s all my fault!” Bennie started to cry again. “I fell and now Grandmother is mad, and so is Daddy, and this is my punishment for entering the stupid beauty pageant in the first place. How could I have had such a crazy idea?”
“You didn’t. I did.”
Bennie shook her head. “You can’t take the blame again. And it won’t matter anyway. It’s settled. We’re going back and that means you’re not going to be my nanny anymore, and I was really hoping you would end up staying and—”
“That’s not in the cards, baby.” Lucky wiped the moisture from Bennie’s cheek. “I was only temporary. You know that.”
“This isn’t fair,” Bennie wailed. “It’s not supposed to turn out like this. We’re friends.”
“And we’ll always be friends, no matter how far apart we are, or if your father hires a dozen more nannies. You’ll always be special to me and I’m really going to miss you.” Bennie threw her arms around her and the tears Lucky had been fighting spilled over. “You’re really special,” Lucky whispered. “Always remember that. You’re special and beautiful and...” I love you, and
I love your dad, and I love it here.
But she couldn’t say any of those things. It would only make leaving more difficult. “I—I’m going to catch a ride with Earline,” Lucky said instead, putting Bennie away from her. She dashed the wetness away and tried to gather her control.
“Don’t cry,” Bennie said.
“I’m not. I—I just have something in my eye.” Lucky hurried away as fast as three-inch heels and a skintight straight dress allowed. She was going to save Tyler the trouble of firing her and leave tonight
She already had a portion of her money. She could leave Tyler a note with an address where to send the rest. He would make good on his deal, she knew that, though she wouldn’t blame him if he changed his mind, especially when he realized Lucky was responsible for tonight. Her letter would spell everything out. My idea. I’m the uncultured ditz. The harebrained schemer. No way would she let Bennie take the rap. Lucky could still see the shock on Helen’s face that brief moment when they’d made eye contact. There’d be hell to pay for tonight.
She pushed her way through the crowd backstage in search of Earline.
Chicken, a voice whispered.
So? Better to be a chicken and leave before she made a fool of herself and cried in front of Tyler Grant.
Tough-as-nails Lucky Myers didn’t cry. Crying was for sissies. Or babies. Or lonely women hopelessly in love for the first time in their life.
And Lucky didn’t qualify, she told herself. She didn’t.
SHE WAS LEAVING.
He’d known it when he’d found her missing from the festival. But somehow it hadn’t seemed quite real. Now, as he stood at the open garage door and watched her fumble with her car keys, reality hit him like a fist in the gut
“Darn it.” She tried unsuccessfully to unlock the door of her cab.
“Sneaking off without saying goodbye?”
“Saving you the hassle of firing me.” She tried the key again and missed by a good inch. “Just for the record, I didn’t try to mess things up on purpose. I really thought Helen would be pleased when she saw Bennie looking so pretty and ladylike.” She sniffled.
“Are you crying?”
She shook her head and swiped at her nose with a raggedy tissue. “Of course not.”
“You are.” He stepped forward, the knowledge drawing him, touching something deep inside him that he’d tried so hard to bury. “You’re crying.”
“You must have been by the homemade-wine booth.” She sniffled again. “You’re imagining things. I never cry.” She yanked open the car door.
“We need to talk, Lucky.”
“Look, I didn’t mean to make things worse for you,” she said. “I wanted to make up for the tractor incident. I had no idea Helen would go ballistic when she saw Bennie—”
“Not about tonight. About you. Me...us.”
“
Us?
Since when is there an us?”
“Since...since I took your—accepted your virginity. Now there’s an us. A me. A you... By the way, you looked great tonight. You deserved to win.”
“Thanks to you. You taught me that getting dressed up can be fun. But it’s not me, Tyler. Some pretty clothes and a lot of makeup can’t change who I am.”
“Please don’t cry.”
“I’m
not
crying.”
“It’s okay. It’s healthy. Women cry all the time.”
“Look,” she said, turning wide, bright eyes on him. The first of the festival’s fireworks sizzled across the night sky in brilliant jags of blue and purple and red. Shadows played across her damp face, making her look vulnerable, despite her murderous gaze. “For the record, crying has nothing to do with being a woman. I can belch, cuss and spit with the best of them, you included, Tyler Grant, and don’t you forget it.” She climbed in and moved to close her door, but his hand blocked the way. “Now move it or lose it, buddy. I’ve got things to do.”
“We’re not through. We—”
“There is no we. You said yourself it would never work between us. I’m a tough-talking, gum-chewing cabdriver from the wrong side of the tracks. Hardly your type.”
“Dammit, woman, you don’t know what my type is.”
“So tell me.” Lucky gave him a pointed stare. A burst of green stars overhead revealed the wetness on her cheeks.
“You,” he said truthfully. “You. A woman who’s real. One who isn’t afraid to butt heads with me. One who tells the truth and makes my daughter laugh. A woman who turns me inside out, and turns me on.”
“
Used
to turn you on. The novelty wore off right after I gave and you accepted.” The flood of multicolored Roman candle dazzle spilled past the open garage door. “You went slumming for a little while, and now it’s back to country-club living—women with legs up to here, breasts out to there, designer clothes and a family name you can trace clear back to the prehistoric era—your type, buddy. Face it, Tyler. You want everything I’m not.”
He laughed, a harsh, angry sound that stirred his blood as fiercely as her words. “With the way I’m feeling now, I’d definitely argue that. And for the record, your legs are pretty damned long. And pretty damned
pretty
.” He grabbed her arm and in two strides pulled her to the door of the garage. Then he hauled her flush against him. “And I want you, Lucky. I miss you.” Before she knew what was happening, he lifted her onto the trunk of the Chevy and pushed her dress clear up to her thighs.
“This doesn’t solve anything,” she murmured as his lips ate at hers. “I mean, it does solve one thing, but not the important things.” She tugged at his shirt while he worked the zipper of her dress. “Not that you, uh, your... well, you know, isn’t important. It is, and I want you and I—”
“Damn, but you talk too much, woman.”
“Did you say woman?”
“Uh-huh.”
She smiled. “That’s what I thought you said.” Then she met his lips in a bone-melting kiss that ended with her flat on her back, sprawled on the Chevy’s trunk, fireworks bursting overhead. “I’m still not your type.”
“Yeah, yeah. No breasts out to here.” He pushed down the bodice of her dress and closed his hungry mouth over one nipple. He nibbled and suckled while she gasped and panted. “Or legs up to there.” His hand traveled her leg, pushing material up until his fingers reached the silk-covered heat between her thighs.
“And the name,” she murmured. “Don’t forget the name.”
He pulled away from her, staring deep into her eyes as he slid panties and panty hose down her legs and pulled them free. “
Lucky
. Your name is Lucky. I don’t care about tracing it, or impressing people with it. I’m the only one that needs to be impressed.” He glanced down at his straining denim. “And I’m pretty damned impressed right now.” He ripped his shirt up and off, then worked at his jeans. The deft slide of fingers, the hiss of a zipper and he was ready. “You do this to me, Lucky.”
“Any woman would do that. You’re a normal, hot-blooded male. You automatically get aroused. I could be anyone.” Even as she said the words, she heard the challenge in them. The eagerness for him to prove her wrong, to make her feel special. To make her feel like a desirable woman, for once in her life. Okay, so make that twice.
“No one makes me this crazy.” He stroked his rigid length and desire spiraled through her. “No one makes me ache this much, burn this hot. Just you.” She heard the conviction in his voice, saw the sincerity in his eyes, and warmth filled her.
A warmth that had nothing to do with the sexual tension gripping her body and everything to do with the undeniable fact that she loved this man. She
loved
him.
“You really want me that much—” He silenced the question with an urgent kiss.
“Don’t even think about doing that right now,” he said when he ended the kiss. “I’m ready to explode, and if you start all those innocent, breathy questions, I’m liable to explode right here and now, and I thought we’d go for someplace a little more private.”
But the thought of him pulling away from her for even a few seconds was unbearable. She needed to touch him. To feel him. Her hands skimmed his shoulders, clutched at his mus cles. “This is private.”
“We’re on top of a car.” He kissed her long and hard.
“But everyone’s still at the festival.”
“This is true.”
“And I really need you right now.”
“But we’re outside.”
“You’re outside.” She sucked in a ragged breath. “That’s the problem. I need you inside. Now.
Please
.”
“You’re the boss, honey.” He pulled her to the edge of the car and plunged into her with one deft stroke.
She sighed and he groaned, his forehead against hers, eyes closed for a long moment. “I’ve needed this for so long,” he murmured. “I’ve needed you for so long. I’ve been such a jerk.”
“I’ll say.”
“I’m sorry, Lucky. I really am. Do you forgive me?” He stared down at her, so desperate and unsure and her heart went out to him.
She smiled. And gasped. “Move it or lose it, buddy. It’s not nice to keep a lady waiting.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He kissed her long and slow and deep, while his erection throbbed inside her. Anticipation skittered along her nerve endings, priming them, readying them for the devastating assault of feeling that was sure to follow.
He didn’t disappoint her. He cupped her buttocks, rocked her against him. Slow at first. Then his fingers flexed, muscles bunched and he urged her closer, himself deeper. He moved her faster, his hips bucking, hers rocking. Faster and harder. Deeper and more desperate. Then it came. The heavens opened up, trumpets blared and the angels sang.
Heat flooded her, washing through, melting her until she collapsed against Tyler’s sweat-slick, heaving chest. He drove deep one last time, groaned and clutched her fiercely. As they held each other, hearts beating a frenzy, breaths shallow and fierce, the sky faded to a serene black.
“The fireworks are over,” she finally said, the statement true in more ways than one. Everyone would be home soon. Reality check. “We’d better get dressed.”
He lifted his head to stare at her. “I don’t care whose type you think you are. You...me...we’ll make this work out for us.”
Joy rushed through her, his words capturing her heart the way his strong arms captured her body. He wanted her with him, despite who she was, because of who she was.
“Will you marry me?”
“I think that’s my line,” he said.
“Then I accept.”
“I’m not asking.” He shook his head and moved away from her. “Dammit, Lucky. I can’t. I want to, I would in a heartbeat, but I can’t.”
A sad smile lifted her mouth. “That’s what I thought you’d say.” She righted her dress, retrieved her panties and started to pull them on. Tyler fastened his jeans and reached for his shirt.
“We’ll hook up in Houston,” he said. “And I’ll set you up in an apartment close by me. A nice high-rise or something.”