Reminding himself of the complications of getting involved with Caitlan, he shored up his resolve. “We haven’t had much time together lately, Laura. I’d really enjoy if you came with me.”
She waved a hand between them. “I’ve got things I want to do around here today. And Karen might come over this afternoon. Caitlan was saying just yesterday how she’d love to see the ranch.” A sudden smile lit up her features, her eyes dancing with excitement. “You know, I just thought of something.”
“Really?” he said dryly. “I can hardly wait to hear this one.”
“Dad, stop being so stuffy!” she huffed in exasperation.
He raised his brows. “Me? Stuffy?”
“Yes, you.” Laura poked him playfully in the chest, then gave him her best impression of an angelic look. “I was thinking, why don’t I make you a couple of sandwiches, and after you and Caitlan check the ranch you can take her on a picnic?” Satisfied with the merit of her plan, she began wrapping sandwiches in plastic wrap.
“Laura, I don’t think that’s a good idea—”
She gave him a pointed look. “If you’re going to be out checking the ranch, then you’re both bound to get hungry.” Grabbing a knapsack from a kitchen drawer, she put three sandwiches inside. “Here, I’ll pack you a few sandwiches, some potato salad, and apples.”
Paula chuckled, and J.T. glared at her, somehow knowing he’d lost this round.
“The girl’s right, you know,” Paula said, handing over two shiny apples to Laura. “You need to get out of the house, and Caitlan would love to see the place. You both just might get hungry, too.”
J.T. didn’t mention that he could just as easily eat lunch before he went out. He’d always used ranching as an excuse to forget everything and clear his head. Now, cooped up in his office, he found he constantly wondered where Caitlan was and what she was up to. What harm could there be in taking her with him? And a picnic was an innocent enough gesture, considering they were bound to get hungry.
“Where is Caitlan, anyway?” He watched as Paula filled a thermos with lemonade and added it to the sack.
Laura handed J.T. the care package with an encouraging smile. “She went to take Missy some milk and scraps. She’s probably still down in the barn. Why don’t you go get her?”
“I guess I will.” J.T. grabbed one of his old Stetsons off the coat rack and jammed it on his head. “We won’t be gone long.”
“Don’t worry about hurrying back.” Laura practically pushed him out the kitchen door. “Oh, and have a good time!”
J.T. shook his head at his daughter’s matchmaking. In the back of his mind he knew he should at least be annoyed by Laura’s meddling, but he found it difficult to get mad at her for something he wanted just as much.
* * *
“Hello, Missy,” Caitlan said in a soft voice as she approached the mamma cat and her kittens. “I brought you some milk and chicken.” As soon as she placed the bowl and plate next to the cardboard box housing Missy’s family, the feline abandoned her nursing kittens for the food. Caitlan laughed softly at the loud mews of protest coming from the box.
Missy feasted on her meal, and Caitlan stroked the cat’s back and scratched her behind the ears. Missy purred deep in her throat and let out an appreciative meow.
Smiling, Caitlan turned her attention to the mewling kittens. Murmuring sweet words to them, she reassured each of them with a touch and a caress that their mother would be returning soon. She heard steps behind her and assumed it was one of the hands working around the ranch today. From what Laura had told her, on weekends the hands rotated days off, and most of the men spent their time lazing around the bunkhouse and barn area.
Then the fine hairs at the nape of her neck tingled with apprehension.
“Well, if this isn’t a tender scene.”
The familiar, insolent voice sent a shiver racing up Caitlan’s spine. Standing, she turned and gave her nemesis a tolerant look. “What do you want, Randal?”
He pushed off the stall he’d been leaning against and approached her with slow, stalking steps that made Caitlan uneasy. “You know what I want.” Bloodshot eyes raked her from head to toe. “I want some answers.”
Caitlan didn’t care for the heinous glint in his gaze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She started past him, determined not to get into another confrontation.
Blocking her path, he shoved his hands hard against her shoulders, and she stumbled back into the wall. Missy, eating by Caitlan’s foot, hunkered down and glared at Randal, her tail swishing in warning.
Gaining her composure, Caitlan made an attempt to dodge Randal, but the quarters were cramped and his hands shot out and slammed against the wall on either side of her head before she could make a clean getaway.
His eyes glittered with malevolence. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She turned her head slightly as his breath, hot and fetid with the odor of liquor, slipped up her nose. Knowing better than to provoke someone who’d been tipping the bottle, she remained calm. “Let me go, Randal.”
“I want to know what the hell is going on!” he said in a low voice infused with fury. “You being here is just too damned convenient.”
Lifting a brow, she looked him square in the eye, hoping to intimidate him. “Do you have something to hide, Randal?”
Panic flashed in his glassy eyes, then was quickly replaced by a challenge of his own. “You tell me.”
If she informed him she knew he was behind J.T.’s attack, she’d put J.T. and this mission, in jeopardy. She couldn’t say anything. J.T. had to discover Randal’s intentions on his own. So, instead, she gave Randal a noncommittal shrug.
He looked at her long and hard, the uncertainty in his gaze shifting to an outright leer. Slowly, a crude grin curved his mouth. “I don’t know how you’ve managed it, but you’ve got J.T. wrapped around your finger.” He pressed his body to hers, grinding his hips obscenely against hers. “You must really be something in the sack.”
A thread of panic stole through Caitlan. Randal was a solidly built man, and she was no match for his strength. She pressed her hands against his chest and pushed, but he didn’t budge. “Let me go, Randal.” Her voice was even, in control. “You don’t want to do this.”
“Oh, I think I do.” He laughed, the sound full of malice. “The perfect retribution. I think I’d like a piece of J.T.’s woman for myself. J.T. always gets everything, and since he’s taken everything from me, I can show him what it feels like to be betrayed.”
Caitlan shook her head, seeing a chance to reason with Randal. “J.T. has never betrayed you. He wants to help you, Randal—”
“What do you know about it?” His hostility lashed out at her like a whip.
God, there had to be some good in Randal, she thought desperately. A shred of decency somewhere. She tried to tap into some virtuous part of him, wanting so badly to convert him.
It’s not your job to redeem Randal
, she reminded herself, but she wanted to at least try. For J.T.’s sake. “J.T. is a good man. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“Yeah, but it’ll be worth it just to see the look on J.T.’s face when I tell him I’ve had you.” That thought alone seemed to give him great satisfaction, brightening his leering face.
Ignoring the panic tightening her chest, she thrust up her china a notch. “You touch me and I’ll scream. There’re quite a few people around.”
He laughed again, seemingly enjoying the game. “And when they come runnin’ I’ll tell them you came on to me. Wouldn’t be the first time J.T. got himself involved with a slut.” He lowered his mouth to her ear. “Besides, you might find you like bein’ with me better than J.T.”
She shivered in revulsion. Drawing a deep breath, she shoved at Randal with all her might. He grunted at the unexpected move, and as she fought against him, he tried to grab her hands. In the shuffle he kicked the box of kittens, and Missy retaliated.
With a low-throated growl, Missy clawed at Randal’s leg as if it were a scratching post. Randal let out a howl of pain, then cursed, backing away from Caitlan. Even as Randal shook his leg to dislodge the feline, Missy hung on to his pants, her sharp claws ruthless.
Blessing Missy’s interference, Caitlan feinted around Randal and ran to the entrance. Slipping outside, she glanced back to make sure Randal wasn’t in pursuit ... and slammed into a solid wall of flannel-covered muscle.
J.T. caught her arm before she would have bounced back and fallen on her bottom in the dirt. “Damn, Caitlan. Watch where you’re going.”
Caitlan had never been so relieved to see anyone in all her guardian days. Pressing a hand to her galloping heart, she caught her breath and glanced up into J.T.’s face, shadowed by his hat. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s the matter with you?” His lips compressed into a thin line and his eyes narrowed. “You weren’t with King again, were you?”
She groped for the truth, unsure if she wanted to tell J.T. about her run-in with Randal, and risk a potentially explosive confrontation between cousins. In Randal’s state of mind, which was precarious at best, Caitlan feared for J.T.’s safety. “No, I, uh, was with Missy and her kittens.” She smiled up at him as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “Did you need me for something?”
Frowning, he stared at her for a long moment, suspicion coloring his eyes. Finally he let go of her arm. “I was just going to do some spot-checking around the ranch.” Glancing over her shoulder, he shifted restlessly on his feet. He cleared his throat. “Laura mentioned you might like to see the spread.”
Despite the underhanded way he’d delivered his invitation, Caitlan couldn’t stem the thrill of pleasure racing through her. “I’d love to.”
“Go on up to the house and get a jacket,” he said, nodding in that general direction. “I’ll saddle up the horses.”
J.T. stared after Caitlan as she made her way to the main house, wondering why he felt like a gawky adolescent again, like the first awkward time he’d asked Amanda to go riding with him with the intentions of stealing a kiss from her. He’d been thirteen, and J.T. could still remember the rapid hormonal awakening that had made him see Amanda for more than just a “buddy,” had made him want to kiss her and touch her in more than a brotherly manner.
The first time he’d attempted to kiss Amanda she’d socked him in the arm. She’d been spitting mad, and confused. He’d seen the conflicting emotions in her eyes, and when he’d tried to apologize, she’d charged after him, knocking him to the ground. A skirmish ensued, but he came out the victor. He had kissed her again, gently, softly, and when her lips parted on a gasp, he’d introduced them both to their first deep kiss. Seconds later she had melted beneath him, warm and receptive to his exploration. And J.T. knew he was in love.
The sweet memory drifted through J.T., leaving him achy and empty inside. Why had he thought of that now? Shaking off the sensation of loss, he walked inside the barn, searching for a clue as to what Caitlan had been running from. And she had been running from something. He’d felt her tremble when he’d caught her arm, like she’d been spooked.
The horses in their stalls seemed calm, King included. He passed Missy, who shot him a disgruntled look before tending to her kittens. J.T. was on the verge of dismissing his concern when he saw his newest hand, Mike, in the tack room. Had the man said or done something to frighten Caitlan? Mike was moody, but he didn’t seem the surly type.
Mike turned, a curry comb in his hand and a cigarette dangling from his lips. He gave J.T. a curt nod, but before he could escape out the back door to the adjoining paddock, J.T. stopped him.
“You know the rules, Mike. No smoking in or around the barn.”
Mike squinted as plumes of smoke curled from the tip of his cigarette. “I was just getting a comb for—”
“No exceptions,” he said, watching as the other man’s jaw hardened.
“Sorry, boss,” Mike murmured, pulling the cigarette from his mouth. “It won’t happen again.”
“Make sure that it doesn’t.” With a curt nod J.T. dismissed the hand, then went to saddle up the horses.
An hour and a half later, after checking the west fences and the creek for any problems and finding none, J.T. reined Quinn to a stop in a meadow brimming with wildflowers. Caitlan’s mare, Blaze, automatically halted beside him. The creek cut a path through the meadow, and a huge apple tree, veiled with green leaves and white blossoms, dominated the area, its branches extending to form a shady canopy. Two elk sprinted into a nearby copse of brush and trees, followed by a scampering ground squirrel.
Caitlan’s gaze encompassed the daisies, primrose, and wild yellow plum blooming in riots of color around them. This place is beautiful,” she said softly.
“Yeah!” J.T. didn’t know what, exactly, had drawn him here, especially since it had been years since he’d come to this spot. So many memories of Amanda lived here, of their childhood together, that he reconsidered the wisdom of bringing Caitlan to a place he almost thought of as sacred.
Strangely, the grief and pain he used to feel when visiting this meadow was now only a dull, distant sorrow. Maybe coming here was a good thing, he decided. Maybe it was time to face old memories, then pack them away for good.
J.T. dismounted Quinn in a fluid motion. “Ready for lunch?”
Smiling, Caitlan slid off Blaze and removed her jacket, hooking it on the saddle. “Sounds great. I’m starved.”