Lone Star Rancher (10 page)

“Well, I had better head back to the Flying Aces,” Jessica said after almost two hours had passed.

Leslie grimaced, but walked her back to the station wagon. “Promise you'll spend a couple of days with us after you visit with the folks.”

“I promise.” Jessica signed a cross over her heart.

When she drove off, she looked back and waved while her sister stared after the departing vehicle. Leslie waved, then hurried down the street to the hardware store to share her news with Marty.

Of all the dumb luck, Jessica mused on the short trip to the ranch. Running into Leslie on the street. Still, she'd been glad to see her sister.

To heck with the stalker. Other than those phone calls, which probably were wrong numbers, she'd had no trouble. Roy was most likely obsessed with some other woman by now.

No one was at the house when she arrived. Quickly she ran inside and up the staircase to her room. When the test was completed, she considered the results in puzzlement.

She'd been so sure…but now…well, she wasn't sure at all. How accurate were these tests anyway?

Perhaps she should wait a couple of days and try it again, although according to the instructions, this should have been plenty of time for a positive result.

If she were pregnant. Which she didn't seem to be.

She tossed the stick into the trash basket along with the box and wrappings, oddly disappointed.

 

The crowd pushed forward as soon as the gates were opened. Clyde apologized when he jostled an older man also heading for a row of ringside seats inside the covered stock-sale arena.

“That's all right,” the man answered, glancing at him with bright blue eyes and a friendly smile.

Clyde's lungs seized up for a second. Jessica's father. She'd said the older man liked to attend the sales, but he hadn't thought once of actually running into him.

“You're two of the Fortune triplets,” Mr. Miller said, including Miles in his glance, “but I can't tell which two you are.”

“I'm Clyde, Mr. Miller,” he said as he shook hands. “And this is Miles. Steven is the absent one. He couldn't be with us today.”

“Actually he wasn't invited,” Miles interjected. “We're here to buy him a surprise bull for his new ranch.”

Mr. Miller appeared thoughtful. “Steven is the one marrying that gal who plans some of the governor's events, right?”

“Right,” Clyde affirmed.

“I saw the announcement in the paper. Bet that will be a big to-do. Which one of you is going to be his best man?”

Miles answered. “I think Ryan Fortune is doing the honors for Steven. The plan is for a small family wedding at present, but I suppose that can change at any time. These things tend to grow, it seems.”

“Don't I know it!” Mr. Miller said. “By the time my younger daughter got married, everybody in Red Rock was at the wedding.”

The three men chuckled in complete understanding as they chose seats in the first row so they could closely inspect the livestock brought into the arena.

“The bull is our wedding present for Steven,” Miles said, “but I'm not sure if it's appropriate for Amy. I think we should get her something for the house. Maybe your daughter can advise us on that.”

Clyde gave his brother a hard poke in the ribs. Miles glared, then realization dawned in his eyes as he recalled that Jessica's visit was unknown to her family.

“Leslie knows about things like that,” Mr. Miller said, nodding. “She's added a gift department to the hardware store. It seems to be doing well.”

Clyde sat between his brother and Jessica's father to waylay further conversation.

“Sorry,” Miles muttered.

He smiled slightly, acknowledging that Jessica's dad hadn't caught on to which daughter his brother had meant.

For some reason, a wave of guilt sluiced over Clyde like the first spray of hot water when he stepped into the shower. Even if the older man had known of Jessica's visit,
he wouldn't know that she had spent the previous night in his arms.

Another type of heat rushed through him. Jessica. Those long, slender legs, delicate but strong. The wonder of her body, filled with feminine delights. She'd certainly delighted him beyond anything he'd ever experienced.

His head grew dizzy as blood pounded through him. He cleared his mind with an effort.

“You heard from your sister lately?” Mr. Miller asked.

Clyde and Miles glanced at each other, then away. So his brother had caught the undertones in the older man's voice, too. Miles pretended to be interested in the sales brochure, leaving Clyde to answer.

“Uh, a few weeks ago. She's on a cruise this month.”

“Mmm,” Mr. Miller said. “Jessica hasn't called in a while, but she would tell her mother if she were going on a long trip. She didn't answer her phone last weekend and her cell phone isn't working. We get a recording that says it's disconnected, but it must out of order. I'm not worried, but you know how women get in a fret about things.”

“Uh, perhaps she'll call soon,” Clyde suggested. He would see that she did. Her father was clearly concerned, despite his denial. Jessica would feel bad about worrying her parents when he told her of the conversation.

An impatience to be home took hold of him. It lasted throughout the morning, during lunch with the other two, and into the afternoon when he and Miles bid on and purchased the prize bull they'd decided on as a present for their brother's nuptials.

After saying goodbye to Mr. Miller, Clyde arranged for the delivery of the bull to the new ranch. Miles had decided to stay in Austin and visit with old friends they'd met as they left the stock sale.

“I may stay the weekend,” he'd said upon parting.

Clyde wondered what woman, or women, his brother would call to fill those long hours. Miles, with a reputation as a playboy, had plenty of choices.

For himself, Clyde preferred the solitary life. He firmly reiterated this fact to himself on the ninety-mile drive back to the Flying Aces spread. The sun was sinking below the horizon by the time he arrived.

The front yard had been weeded, he noted, stopping near the barn and stable area. Lights were on inside the house, and he could see Jessica moving about the kitchen, going from the stove to the refrigerator and back.

His heart kicked up its speed.

Danger.
He felt the word echo inside him, a warning that he was becoming too involved, too susceptible to the charms of the woman in his house.

After turning off the engine, he sat there in the truck for a moment, as if to get up his courage to go inside. At the same time he couldn't deny the need to rush in and enclose her in his arms, to grab her to him and experience the reality of her body against his, to have the fact reaffirmed that she welcomed his embrace.

He muttered an imprecation and wondered where this was all leading. Nowhere, came the answer from that cynical part of him that had learned the lying ways of the world, and women in particular, at the ripe old age of twenty-two. He was no longer the young man who'd believed in love and all the trappings that passion inspired.

Both reluctant and eager, he shook his head cynically and strode to the house through the long, silent shadows of twilight. He and Jessica were adults. They each knew how the world turned. There were no false expectations on either side.

“Well, hello,” she said, smiling when he entered the back door. “You're just in time. Have you eaten?”

“No.”

“I prepared a shepherd's pie, if you would like to join me. Did you and Miles get the bull you wanted?”

“Yes.” He hung his hat on a peg near the door. Sticking his hands in his back pockets, he leaned against the counter while she finished preparing a salad.

The aroma of food filled the kitchen, the scent coming from the oven. When she opened the door and removed a casserole, he saw the mashed potatoes on top were browned a crisp golden color all over. The beef and vegetables bubbled in a rich gravy in the middle of the dish.

Hunger overcame the troubled thoughts that had plagued him on the trip home, hunger for food, for her, for things that didn't last.

Sucking in a harsh breath, he told her, “Miles and I ran into your father at the stock sale.”

“Oh, no,” she said, her eyes going wide. “Did he say anything? Did he see our picture in the tabloid?”

“Whoa,” Clyde said. “What picture?”

She told him of going to town and running into her sister and them having lunch together. “I had to tell her what was going on.”

“I guess the secret is out, then,” he murmured. “Your father doesn't yet know you're here. We didn't mention it. However, he is worried. Apparently your mother tried to call you last weekend and couldn't get an answer. They think your cell phone isn't working.”

“I need to call them.” She placed the shepherd's pie on the granite counter of the island, added plates, silverware, napkins and salad bowls filled with fresh greens. “Iced tea?” she asked.

“Please.”

He took his usual place at the end while she did the same. When she finished helping herself to the food, he
scooped a big portion onto his plate. He studied the scene from a distance, as if he were observing the couple from a point high on the ceiling.

They ate the delicious dinner and chatted about her father and the livestock auction, about ranching and its rewards and hardships.

“Being here this month has reminded me of how much I love this country. I guess Dorothy was right—there's no place like home.”

“Yes,” he said huskily, finishing the meal.

Had she really been there a month? Almost, he realized. The next Friday would be the last day of the month.

Steven's wedding day.

The full impact of his triplet's marriage hit him then. His brother would be a family man. It was almost mind-boggling.

His brain filled with swirling images of home and family, a wife and children, things he'd always assumed would one day be his.

“I found ice cream in the freezer. Would you like some with sliced bananas and chocolate sauce?” she asked.

“No,” he said. Without thinking, he reached for her. “The only thing I want is you.”

He kissed the startled smile from her lips.

J
essica returned to the family room where Clyde lounged on the sofa while watching a football game. He lifted one arm and held her against his side when she accepted the tacit invitation to sit beside him.

“Are your folks okay?” he asked.

“Yes. Dad mentioned seeing you and Miles at the auction today. He said you both had grown into nice young men.”

Clyde grinned. “I'm sure he had his doubts about us when we visited the Double Crown each summer.”

“I don't know,” she said in a musing tone. “However, he did say that he would lock me up the whole time you boys were in town if he ever caught me seeing one of you.”

Clyde's eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

“No.” She laughed and snuggled close. “You older men didn't look at your sister's friend once, much less twice.”

“We were blind in those days,” he murmured.

“Nope. I was a shy, awkward kid, hardly ‘date bait,' as the local boys so elegantly put it.”

“But now you're striking,” he said in teasing tones.

He turned her face up to his and kissed her lightly on the mouth. An hour ago he'd turned her world upside-down while he'd kissed her deeply and passionately as they'd made love. They'd acted as if it had been days instead of hours since they'd last touched each other.

Making love with him had been very satisfying. Being with him like this—like an old married couple, content to be together—was also satisfying.

Perhaps it should be terrifying, she admitted. Each hour together drew her deeper into a relationship that might not be wise.

Whatever the future, she was content. Clyde was an honorable man. He wouldn't abandon his child, nor its mother. Everything about him indicated his deep, caring nature. There were feelings between them.

When the football game was over, he flipped the channel to a news station. The weather was supposed to be partly cloudy over the weekend with a chance of thunderstorms late in the afternoon tomorrow and on Saturday. Sunday should be a fair day with scattered clouds.

“What do you have to do this weekend?” she asked.

“Cull the cows we're going to sell. The truck will pick them up on Saturday. Miles volunteered to follow them to Houston for the big auction there.”

“How do you know which ones you want to sell?”

“I track each cow in the computer. The ones that stop producing have to make way for the new breeding cows.”

“So scientific,” she said, more to herself than him. She was thinking of the test she'd taken earlier. Was she breeding or not? The test said no, but she was still late.

“A rancher has to be on top of the latest info,” he told
her. “The financial margins are so narrow, one wrong decision could wipe out a year's profits.”

She thought of all the money she made just to wear the latest fashions and smile at the camera. Her personal lifestyle was conservative, so she'd managed to save most of what she'd made for the past ten years.

“I've been lucky,” she said.

“Lucky?”

“That I happened to be at the right place at the right time when Sondra came to visit her niece, that she spotted me and offered to represent me—”

“For a hefty cut of all you made,” he interjected. “Violet says you worked hard to get where you are.”

“My trials and tribulations were nothing compared to hers. I don't see how anyone makes it through medical training. I worried about her during her internship.”

“She loves her career.”

“Yes, but it's been difficult, more so of late,” Jessica said. “I think we're both ready for a change.”

“Which is why she's on a cruise, I suppose.”

“Yes. She's rethinking her life.”

“Are you really contemplating giving up the glamorous career and returning to Texas?” he asked.

She nodded against his shoulder. “I'm signed up for two more years of haute couture work. At present, Sondra is negotiating a three-year contract with a cosmetics company. If I take it, I'll do only their ads and will travel some as their spokesperson. It would be a good way to taper off, then retire gracefully. By then, I hope to have a couple of kids and the usual assortment of dogs and cats.”

“What about a husband? Does he figure into your equation for the good life?”

“Of course. I want my children to have a full-time fa
ther as well as a mother.” She paused, then asked, “What about you? What's in your future?”

He shrugged, his eyes going dark and moody as if he gazed into a distant, painful place. “Steven and Amy can take care of producing the grandchildren my mom wants. Miles will probably marry someday. That lets me off the hook.”

“You were engaged once. I was told she died.” Jessica realized where her thoughts were taking her and shut up. She didn't want to arouse sad memories.

“She left me standing at the altar,” he corrected in cynical amusement. “Not literally, but almost. She didn't show up at the meeting place so we could go to the justice of the peace and get hitched. I waited for hours, a big bouquet of red roses wilting in my hands.”

Jessica was shocked. She couldn't imagine any woman running out on one of the Fortune triplets.

“I told my family she died in a car accident,” he finished, his face set and without expression.

She sensed the uncertainty he'd gone through, then the pain when he'd realized the woman wasn't going to show up for the wedding. Humiliated, he'd returned home alone to face his family's expectations.

She ran her fingers along his jaw in a gentle caress. “She broke your heart,” she said huskily.

“Do you feel sorry for me?” he mocked.

“For that young man. He was sincere and honest.”

“He was stupid,” he corrected. “She did me a favor, actually. Claudia pretended to be pregnant by some guy who'd deserted her. Sucker that I was, I gave her money. She took it and left town. That cured me of my romantic illusions.”

“You were generous. I can't believe how unselfish, how caring you were.” Jessica couldn't help the emotion in her eyes and the slight tremor in her voice. She gazed at him with admiration and love.

Tell him,
some foolish, hopeful part of her urged.
Tell him there may be a child, one that is his.

But she couldn't quite get the words to form. She had her own uncertainties about how he would take the news.

A muscle moved in his jaw. He smoothed the frown from her face with a finger along her forehead. “Don't set me up as a romantic hero in your mind. I'm not that boy. I'm not lonely or plagued by regret. My life is just the way I want it. That's how it's going to stay.”

“I see.”

“Do you?” he questioned.

There was a hardness in him now that closed the subject to further discussion. She fell silent, content for the moment to simply be with him, here in the soft quiet of the house, just the two of them.

“Ready for bed?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Going with him up the steps, she decided she would get another test kit and check it again before telling him anything. There was plenty of time to think about the future.

About nine months.

She smothered a laugh as excitement tumbled through her like acrobats doing tricks on a high wire at a circus.

Her, a mom!

 

Clyde kept an eye on Jessica the next morning. Like him, she was working with the cattle. He had her sitting on the fence, swinging the two gates as needed. Her face was flushed and her eyes sparkled as she helped him with the chore. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

Smiling, he countered as a queen cow challenged him and his mount. The experienced cutting horse quickly headed off the cow and forced it back into the milling herd.

He checked ear tags and directed those to be sold
through the chute and into a pen for pickup by the big cattle truck in the morning. The others he guided into the adjoining pasture where they settled to grazing.

“Chute,” he called, herding another group of three toward his helper.

Jessica quickly closed the gate to block the pasture entrance and force the cows the other way.

Once in the narrow fenced chute, the cows couldn't turn around and so had no choice but to go into the holding pen beside the barn.

Jessica laughed aloud as she swung the gates the opposite way when he called out, “Pasture,” to indicate the cattle they were keeping. The cows appeared confused by the change, but obediently went through into the pasture.

For a second he let himself observe her while images of them rolled through his mind like an old-fashioned movie—him and her making a life for themselves in the Wild West of yore, working together, facing danger….

Tenderness welled up inside, causing him to swallow hard as he tried to suppress it. He warned himself about being a fool for a woman, but try as he might, he couldn't find any cracks or flaws in her character.

She was what she was—a country girl who'd made good and was proud of it, but not conceited.

He liked her down-to-earth practicality about her life, her career and herself. Ah, but there had to be a hidden quirk that he hadn't yet detected. No one was as perfect as she was…or pretended to be.

She liked the wide-open spaces of the ranch. She liked working, whether before a camera or herding cattle or washing and sorting eggs. Clinton and his wife and kids sang her praises every moment he was around them.

So did Violet. She'd talked about her friend and her many virtues for years.

Suspicion reared its head. Had his dear sister and Jessica planned this? Did they think he was lonely and ripe to be lured into marriage and all that?

With a model who flew all over the world and met the crowned heads of royalty in her travels?

No way. At this moment, she had some bug in her ear about settling down to marriage and kids, but that was the old biological clock ticking. She was getting old for a model, she'd said, so maybe she'd decided on a new career—wife and mom and country living.

Fine. But he wasn't going to be the all-American husband and father in her dream world.

Nope, she could just find another gullible stud for the offspring she professed to want. The marriage wouldn't last five years, and then there would be the complications of divorce and custody of the children.

If he ever had kids, he wanted them to live at the ranch all year, not just summers and holidays. He intended to raise his family, and he wanted a wife who would be there at his side through thick and thin and all that.

Jessica would soon miss the glamorous life, the travel and privileges of being part of the world's elite set. No matter how much in love a couple were when they said their vows, family life could wear thin when problems came up.

Anger surged through him as he thought of all the problems that would ensue if he was crazy enough to get more involved with her. He frowned impatiently as his emotions went through more ups and downs than a Texas road in the hill country.

What had happened to the placid life he'd had just a month ago?
Her,
he answered his own question.

He studied her lithe elegance while she waved the breeding herd through the gate into the pasture and the others into
the sales pen. His heart clenched up as if a giant fist had taken hold of it and was squeezing out the last drop of blood.

With a curse, he finished sorting the last of the cattle, told her to close the gates, then reined the horse close to the fence. “Hop on,” he invited.

She swung a leg over the saddle behind him without the least hesitation and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Mmm, that was fun.”

“Yeah, right.” But he laughed when she did.

He headed for the stable to unsaddle and turn the cow pony out to pasture, too. While her body felt great against his back, her small, firm breasts caressing him, he determined not to get caught up in the dream of thinking she was his in any permanent way.

After all, the reality of sleeping with her was pretty exciting, and it was enough. He didn't need more. Satisfied that he'd figured out all the emotional kinks, he finished the chores while she watched, then went to the house.

The phone was ringing when they entered. Glancing at the clock, he saw it was already one. No wonder he was starving.

“Hello,” he said.

“It's Steven,” his brother said. “Do you want company tonight?”

“Like who?” he asked.

“Me and Amy. I thought we might come out and grill some steaks and chat for a while.”

“Sure. It's your place, too, although we rarely see you anymore,” Clyde added.

“Are you trying to put a guilt trip on me?” Steven demanded, not at all bothered.

“What good would that do? You're so far up in the stars, you don't notice mundane, earthly things anymore, like the cattle sale in Houston.”

“Miles said he was taking the cattle in.”

“That's right. Jessica helped me finish the sorting this morning. We're ready to roll when the truck gets here.”

“Good. I was wondering if you and Miles wanted to buy out my share since I have the new ranch to run. Think about it,” Steven advised before Clyde could respond.

Actually he'd already wondered if Steven wanted to sell his share since he had a full plate with his Austin properties. “Sure. See you later.”

“Around six?”

“That'll be fine.” When he hung up, Clyde glanced at Jessica, who was pouring them each a tall glass of tea with lots of ice. “Steven and Amy are coming out for dinner. I'll grill some steaks.”

“Great. There's plenty of stuff for salad. We can have baked potatoes and asparagus, too. And Cimma still has tomatoes in her garden. She said to help ourselves. How about lunch? Do you want a ham sandwich? Or how about grilled chicken salad? I like those.”

“The chicken salad sounds good. I don't think I've ever had one grilled.”