Ranger's Wild Woman (3 page)

“Kisser?” Archer stared at his twin. “Did you kiss her?”

“Technically, it was a peck,” Ranger began.

“He pecked both of us, then,” Cissy inserted. “Only my kiss went beyond the peck category, I feel certain.”

“You kissed her, too? And they’re both riding in the same vehicle with you?” Archer grinned over the
seat at his twin. “No wonder the atmosphere in here has been decidedly icy. Brr.”

Hannah didn’t want to hear about the kissing Cissy had gotten from Ranger, but knowing that the man was such a fast-and-loose kisser was the main reason she didn’t want to let her heartstrings get pulled any tighter. Obviously, her kiss hadn’t meant anything to him.

“I knew this was a bad idea. Cissy, I vote we call Jerry. Sooner or later, he’ll be by this way in his rig. We should have done that in the first place, I guess.”

Maybe, but she and Cissy had agreed between themselves that burdening anyone with their departure wasn’t fair. And, frankly, they were afraid they couldn’t say goodbye if they had to face down a couple of salons full of friends. And Cissy would have had to say goodbye to Marvella—no easy thing, considering Marvella would have thrown a fit.

But for Hannah, saying goodbye to Delilah would have been impossible. She couldn’t have said goodbye, and she wouldn’t have. In the end, she would have stayed—always captive to the hope that Ranger would return. Call. Ask her out. Remember their kiss.

Ranger crossed his arms at her, and Hannah felt her heart sink a little deeper in her chest. Did he have to be so handsome, even when he was being so dreadfully bossy? “Go,” she told him. “Head off. Don’t waste my time giving me the omnipotent eye.”

“The omnipotent eye,” Archer mused. “Isn’t that what Helga does to us when we put our boots on the coffee table?”

“Can I speak to you alone for a moment?” Ranger said to Hannah.

“I don’t see why—” she started, but Cissy gave her a shove and Ranger gave her arm a pull and she was heading off toward a picnic table with Ranger before she’d finished her sentence.

“Look,” he said, sitting her down on the plank seat. “Have you thought this through?”

She thought she heard concern in his voice, real concern, and it startled her out of her indignation. “Yes, I have. And you can stop looming over me like you know everything and what I know could fit into a thimble.”

He stared at her. “I’m not looming.”

Okay. So at over six feet he couldn’t exactly help his proportions. She’d wanted to be able to read his posture, and now she certainly could. “So. How long did you think about your road trip?”

“A while.”

“I don’t remember you mentioning it before.”

“We didn’t talk much.”

No, they hadn’t. Mostly, she’d wanted to kiss him. And that peck comment had hurt her feelings, because it had been more than that to her. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going into the military.” He gave her a most belligerent glare, daring her to laugh.

Which she did. “Okay, that’s it,” she said. “Get back behind the wheel and stop harassing me about my spur-of-the-moment plans.”

“Hang on.” He put his boot on the bench beside
her and leaned forward. “I’m a man, and you’re a woman.”

She cocked a brow at him. “Continue. So far, you’re astounding me with your powers of observation.”

“What I’m saying is, it’s one thing for me to be heading off into the wild blue yonder. Joining the military is an honorable, responsible way to work through this phase of my life. You, on the other hand, are going off willy-nilly, shady-lady, to get a job as a card dealer in a floating casino. That is not a particularly admirable thing, not that I’m making any judgment calls here.” He held up a hand to ward off her rebuttal. “I just don’t know that it’s safe. And maybe you know that it’s not such a good idea, or you wouldn’t have snuck off like a thief in the night without telling Delilah.”

“You’re big-brothering me, and I don’t like it,” Hannah told him.

“Not exactly that,” he admitted. “Since I kissed you, I feel a bit more responsibility than the average Joe, I guess.”

“You called it a peck,” she reminded him, her indignation clear. “A peck. If you pecked me, what did you do to Cissy?”

“Now, Cissy,” Ranger immediately rejoined, leaning back to grin at her, “that girl can suck the lips off a man’s face. She takes a man’s breath and makes him feel that dying in her arms is a good thing.”

“Really!” Hannah hopped to her feet. “You know what? I’ve had enough of your bellyaching and your grousing. You get us to the state line, and that’ll be
just fine, Ranger Jefferson. And you can just let the military have your sorry self. Maybe they can kick some sense into you.”

She headed toward the truck without waiting for him to reply. Ranger stared at her retreating red-tipped blond hair and saucy backside as she flounced off. He raised a brow. “Baby, baby,” he murmured. “I do believe that little gal is jealous.” And then he grinned.

R
ANGER QUIT GRINNING
by the time Archer and Hannah decided they had something in common. Snug as two bugs in the back seat, they taught each other their best tricks at cheating in card games.

It was bad enough, Ranger thought sourly, that his twin was full of bad ideas and tomfoolery. Of course, it was all in the spirit of fun, under the guise of
tricks,
but he didn’t think it was a good idea for her to know any more tricks than she already did. Her repertoire was astonishing. Where did such a little spitfire learn so many sideways maneuvers?

Worse, he didn’t want Archer teaching her anything, card tricks notwithstanding. And he sure as hell didn’t like the repetitious, nerve-grinding, unnecessary bursts of laughter from the back seat.

Those two were becoming way too close for his comfort. And they were having way too much fun, playing reindeer games in the back seat while he sat up here like a chauffeur. Ranger’s teeth ground together. That’s what it sounded like: reindeer games. Childish. Immature. His twin was leading Hannah
astray, and she was going there with a smile on her face.

“Don’t you think the two of you have played enough games?” he demanded. Cissy glanced up at him from the magazine she was reading, and he gave her a sidelong glance that was empty of the irritation he felt.

Hannah and Archer ignored him.

“Gotcha!” Hannah squealed, moving fast to grab something from Archer’s side of the truck. He moved to elude her and cards went flying over the seat and everywhere else. It was snowing diamonds and hearts, and Ranger’s temper snapped. “I can’t drive if you two are going to keep acting like monkeys in the back seat.”

Archer looked at him. “Cool it, bro. We’re not bothering you.”

Oh, they were bothering him a lot. His gaze met Hannah’s in the mirror. Ever so pointedly, knowing he could do nothing about it, to show her utter disdain for his comment about monkeys, Hannah stuck her tongue out at him.

No one else noticed, but that wasn’t the point. The woman was set on bothering him. She was going to make him pay for his remark about Cissy. He shouldn’t have said it, especially since he’d colored what happened between him and Cissy, but it was too late to take back his exploratory quest into Hannah’s jealousy. Now she was in top wild-filly form.

And that naughty pink tongue drove him nuts.

“I’d offer to drive,” Archer said, his tone not se
rious at all, “but it’s more fun to sit back here with Hannah. Deal, lady.”

She gave Ranger one last pointed glare in the mirror before the sound of shuffling cards shredded his nerves.

Great. The two of them were having the time of their lives. And he sat up front with Cissy Kisserton, who really hadn’t sucked the lips off his face at all.

Hannah Hotchkiss was just about the most annoying woman he’d ever met!

A burst of laughter erupted from his twin, and Ranger decided enough was enough. “I think I’ll take a break here. Give everybody a chance to stretch.” He pulled the truck alongside a historical marker, well off the highway. The road’s shoulder was thin, and below, a beautiful canyon stretched as far as he could see, dry and majestic and peaceful. Ranger felt his brain start to compress to a normal size. He took a deep breath, determining that he could forgive his twin anything. He smiled at Cissy, who had so far borne her seatmate’s bad temper without complaining.

He could even feel more jovial toward Hannah. “Let’s get a beer out of the back of the truck, and we can all sit back there and munch. We can even play some of those card games you love,” he told Hannah as kindly as he could, in an effort to be forgiving toward her for everything she’d done to him. He could be a good host. He could be fair and even-tempered. “Card games and icy beer sounds like a great combo, doesn’t it?” he asked the group at large
as he clambered into the truckbed. “And could you ask for a better view?”

Hannah followed his lead, clearly not certain to what they owed his new, improved mood. He set the cooler in the middle of the truckbed, pulled out beers for everyone, closed the lid and pointed to the faux table top. “Deal,” he told her. “Any game you like.”

“I’m best at strip poker,” she told him.

He choked on his beer. It went down hard on his Adam’s apple, making him mad all over again. “Strip poker! Hannah Hotchkiss, are you trying to drive me insane? Because if you are, you’re…you’re…” He stopped when he saw the incredulous stares on Cissy’s and Archer’s faces. Belatedly, it came to him that she’d been teasing him, getting his goat. Janking his chain—which was a cross between a jerk and a hard yank.

He had to admit she’d janked him pretty good.

Well, he could jank a pretty mean chain himself. “Strip poker? Go right ahead. Deal me in, lady.”

I’ll just love seeing you lose.

“I don’t think so,” Hannah said narrowly. “I really don’t trust this sudden change in you. I’ll sit in the truck. Thanks for the beer, though.” She hopped into the back seat.

Archer shrugged and joined her. “Guess I’m not in the mood, either. Maybe after a few more hours on the road.”

Cissy grabbed her beer and slid into the front seat. Ranger glared after the three of them. “Now, look,” he said. “All of you are riding in my truck, on my gas money. Archer, you’re a stowaway, and you ladies are hitchhikers. That means I get to call some of the shots.” The good mood he’d tried to work himself into was totally, completely gone.

Archer pushed his hat back. “Okay, boss. What do you want us to do, besides play cards? We’re happy to earn our keep somehow. I’ll chip in the gas money for me and the gals. How’s that?”

Ranger liked that even less. “The gas money isn’t the point.”

“What is, then?” Hannah asked, staring up at him with those ridiculously innocent eyes, and that perky hair just flying away all over her head like it had training in getting his attention.

Like Hannah and her antics with Archer. None of them understood him. Now he knew why Crockett was always moaning that no one appreciated his artistic bent or the beauty in the nudes he painted. He empathized with Bandera, who spouted Whitman like a dervish and claimed his memory-driven talent and Shakespearian oration were underrated by his brothers. He could even see why Tex got so frustrated when his brothers laughed at his buddus interruptus problem—buds that wouldn’t bloom—in their mother’s rose garden.

It hurt to be misunderstood. And he just didn’t want to say out loud what he really felt.

But he was going to have to do it. Somehow.

“I think it would be best if you and Cissy changed places,” he primly told Archer.

“Why?” everyone asked at once.

Irritation spiked his brows. “Because it would just be best for the sake of
propriety.
”

Archer’s expression said Ranger had lost his case with that one. “You’re beginning to sound like an idiot, bro.”

Hannah blew a huge bubble with pink gum, let it pop and blow back against her lips. How could any woman drink beer and chew bubble gum? It was weird. It was amazing. Disquieting. And it made him
think about her pink tongue and her pink lips and her red-tipped dirty-blond hair. And sex.

Sex with…Hannah.

“Have you always had mental problems?” she demanded. “I’ve never heard so much nonsense in my life. How can riding in the back seat have a lack of propriety about it?”

“I can’t see you clearly,” he complained.

“We’re not doing anything exciting,” Hannah told him. “Nothing any more exciting than you and Cissy are doing.
Currently.
”

Maybe the edge in her voice was only heard by him, but it told him everything he needed to know. She’d been jealous of him and Cissy kissing, and now she was feeding him his own medicine with a large spoon.

Well, two could play at that game. “Never mind,” he said cheerfully. “Miss Cissy, let me help you into the seat. Comfortable? Did I tell you how much I like you in those jeans? No girl wears jeans like you do.”

And then he gave Hannah a big grin as he closed Cissy’s door.

K
NOCK YOURSELF OUT
, Hannah thought to herself. Play your one-man band in Cissy’s orchestra of admirers. I don’t care.

She couldn’t waste any time focusing on some ill-tempered male. Besides, Archer was proving to be very adept with card tricks. “Teach me that thing you did with moving the jacks around and pulling out a
queen,” she said to him. “It’s a really smooth move.”

“Only if you’ll teach me how you know which card I pulled from the deck. I can’t figure out how you’re doing it,” Archer said admiringly. “It’s like you’ve got an extra eye or something.”

Hannah smiled, and shuffled the deck.

T
HREE HOURS DOWN
the road, Ranger had to admit his plan had totally backfired. He might as well be a professional limo driver for all the attention Hannah paid him. She and Archer laughed like hyenas, and they still hadn’t worn the ink off those stupid cards yet. Well, they’d bent a few, so Hannah had merely reached into her duffel and pulled out a brand-new deck. This had set Ranger’s neck muscles to Too Tight, just like an over-wound machine.

And then, to make the whole thing more annoying, Archer pulled out dice. The two of them had been clacking and rolling them, and blowing on each other’s hands for luck.

It was all so disgustingly happy Ranger could only be grateful for the impending darkness. Then they’d have to quit their gaming, he thought with a mental rub of his palms.

But no. Archer pulled out a flashlight, aimed it at the roof of the truck as he jammed it into the seat to steady it, and they went on giggling like children keeping secrets from their elders.

Cissy closed her magazine and looked at him with
a smile. “We sure do appreciate you taking us this far. I thought for sure we were out of a ride back there at the weigh station.”

He didn’t want to be reminded of his bad behavior. “Naw,” he said reluctantly. “I just hope you two have thought your new employment out fully. Mason would get all over me if I let either of you get hurt.”

“We’re not your responsibility, Ranger.”

“Not technically, I know. But we feel that all of you gals who helped us through the big storm are pretty much our sisters now.”

“I wasn’t there,” she reminded him.

“No, but Hannah was. And we know you. So we care about you.”

She didn’t say anything to that.

“In a brotherly sort of way, of course,” he hastened to explain. “We care about you like a little sister.”

It seemed to him that Cissy looked hopeful for a second. Then her impossibly large aquamarine eyes dimmed as she shook her head and re-opened her magazine.

“You sure have a lot of magazines in your bag,” he pointed out.

“I’m taking up cooking.” She smiled at his raised brow. “What? Didn’t you think a girl like me would want to cook?”

He frowned. “What do you mean, a girl like you?”

She shrugged.

“Oh, you mean, a gorgeous girl like you!” he said,
his tone saying, I just got it. “The kind who’s so nice guys are always fighting to take her out!”

The most grateful smile he’d ever seen on a woman’s face lit Cissy’s eyes. “You’re okay, Ranger,” she said softly. “If I can help you in any way with your mission, let me know.”

“My mission?”

She barely moved her silvery brows to indicate the back seat, where neither Archer nor his partner in gaming was paying them any mind. “My little gamine friend,” she said softly.

Oh, no. They were not going there. He might have discovered that Cissy had a lot of smarts underneath that sexy platinum hair, but she wasn’t going to start reading his mind. He wasn’t that easy. “She’s not my mission. I’m joining the military to do my duty by my country.”

She smiled.

“If they’ll take me,” he amended. “I am a bit older than they like.”

“Hey, tough guy,” Cissy said, closing her magazine to look at him. “Maybe I should swap seats with her.”

“I like you right beside me. Don’t even think about it. She’ll just give me a heart attack, I’m sure. Death by arguing or something. Worse, she might insist on driving my truck, and then I’ll have to show my really ornery bachelor side.”

“As if she hasn’t seen that already. And survived it. Who would have known?”

“Exactly,” he said with a nod. “Hey, not exactly!”

Cissy laughed.

“How did you two get together anyway? I don’t remember the two salons having many cross-street friendships.”

“I didn’t want to live Marvella’s way anymore. I went to Delilah’s to ask for a job. I met Hannah in the hallway. She’d been crying.”

“Hannah crying?” Ranger scowled, the thought extremely unsettling. “I find that hard to imagine.”

“It wasn’t pretty,” Cissy told him. “That cute little face all scrunched up and running mascara. She is not a pretty crier, I warn you. Of course,” Cissy said with a sigh, “she’d been crying over some dopey guy, and that’s probably what made her so pathetic. I mean, what man is worth crying over?”

“She was crying over a man?” Ranger asked incredulously. “Are you sure?”

“Oh, positively. She spilled the whole story about him. Boy, he really broke her heart.”

“What a butthead,” Ranger said hotly. “She deserves better than someone who’s careless with her feelings!”

Cissy pulled a file out of her bag and began filing her nails. “I know. That’s precisely what I told her. That’s when she said she was going to Mississippi, and I said I could use a change of scenery, and presto-chango, here we are. Kind of funny how life works, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. All except the crying part.” It really bothered him that some boob had made Hannah cry. He resolved right then and there to be nicer to her. She was such a fragile little thing, always acting tough-enough, like a pullet in a chickenyard, but he knew better now, thanks to Cissy. Hannah was tenderhearted underneath that spicy attitude and paprika-tipped hair. Why, he just wanted to hug her to him and keep her safe and protect her from all the louses on the planet—

Giggles ripped from the back seat, and Hannah squealed as Archer grabbed her, wrestling her like a dogie to the seat. Cards flew, dice rolled, and something that looked like a sandal flew through the air. That was all Ranger’s ping-ponging, bug-eyed vision could see in the rearview mirror.

But whatever was going on back there, his twin and that sweet tenderhearted pullet were having one yahoo of a good time.

“Archer!” Hannah screamed, her voice delighted with laughter. “Stop!”

It was a full-blown ticklefest in the back seat, and from the sound of it, Hannah was on the happily losing end.

In the front seat, Cissy glanced at him without ceasing her filing. “Let me know if I can help you. When you decide to make your move, that is.”

“There’s going to be no move,” Ranger said from between gritted teeth. “At least, not from me.”

Cissy nodded. “Fear of failure?”

“No.” He glared at her. “Fear of the Curse of the Broken Body Parts.”

“Which is?”

“My brother Frisco fell for Annabelle Turnberry. He got a broken leg. Laredo got concussed when he fell for Katy Goodnight. I’ve kissed both of you. That actually puts fear into me. There could be two broken body parts waiting for me. No, it’s not fear of failure that sends me down the road, Cissy. It’s healthy self-respect and self-preservation.”

“You look fine to me so far. One piece, nothing missing. Nothing except a little spine, maybe. Just maybe. A small piece that could be mildly fractured and waiting for repair.”

“Not a durn thing wrong with my spine, thanks.”

“It’s pretty obvious you feel something for her, Ranger,” Cissy said softly.

“I feel protective. I feel brotherly. But nothing romantic, I assure you.”

“Okay. But let me make certain I understand this. You’ll know when love hits you by the amount of pain you suffer? Emotional masochism visited on the body in physical form?”

“To put it in my terms, doctor, if something breaks, I’ll know it’s the real thing.”

The giggling in the back seat subsided for the moment. Ranger decided they’d used up their oxygen share back there.

“Of course it could be your heart that gets broken,” Cissy said absently. “Which would be meta
phoric, not a physical manifestation. And what would that tell you?”

“Nothing,” he said as his eyes searched the rearview mirror. He couldn’t see a thing because of the darkness, but that didn’t stop him from trying to see. It had gotten too quiet in the back seat.

“Where are we, anyway?” Cissy asked.

“A few hours east of Lonely Hearts Station, but probably a couple more hours from the state line. Desert.” Ranger peered into the darkness. “The wind has picked up so much it’s blowing sand against the windshield.” Turning on the windshield wipers, he tried to clear the dirty glass.

“Where are we going to sleep?” Hannah suddenly asked, leaning over the seat to eye him.

“Sleep?” Well, that was something he hadn’t thought about. When he’d left this morning, he’d figured on sleeping in his truck. He hadn’t planned on riders. Women. “I don’t think there’s a hotel anywhere around here. We’re pretty far into the desert, I think. There haven’t been any signs for miles.”

The thought of the four of them sleeping in the truck was unappealing, particularly as Archer would no doubt enjoy sleeping with Hannah more than Ranger would enjoy sleeping behind the steering wheel. Once again, Ranger felt an annoying spurt of jealousy heat the top of his head. “I’ll stop here and let you stretch your legs. Archer, if I can borrow my flashlight, I’ll check the map and see where we are.”

Pulling down a deserted lane, Ranger switched off the truck.

“I’m too tired to stretch my legs,” Hannah said. “I could go to sleep this second.”

“Here. Lay your head
acquí.
” Archer put a pillow in his lap and pointed for Hannah to lie down.

Ranger didn’t think she would—and then, she did just that. It was as if she never gave a second’s thought to what was lying
beneath
Archer’s innocent pillow. Ranger’s eyes practically popped from his skull. Glancing at Cissy, he caught her shrug.

“You still seem to be in one piece,” she whispered as Archer sang Hannah a lullaby. “Guess you were right. She means nothing to you.”

“Damn right.” He ripped the map from the glove compartment and stared at it with the flashlight’s dimming beam. “The two of you wore this flashlight out with all your hijinks,” he groused, but no one answered. “Dang, that’s a lot of wind,” he said, glancing up to peer at the window. “I think we’re in a sandstorm.”

“That sucks,” Archer said, his voice sleepy. “I’m hungry.”

“You can reach through the back window and grab something out of the cooler,” Ranger said. “I can’t tell where we are, but it’s nowhere close to civilization, I’m afraid.”

“If you wait a little while, maybe the wind will quit blowing,” Cissy said. “I’ll take a snack, if you don’t mind, Archer.”