Ranger's Wild Woman (7 page)

Hannah sighed to herself as she melted into Ranger’s arms. It had taken all her courage to come back down the hall to him, wanting him and yet not wanting him. Wanting something more than what they’d had so far, knowing she didn’t have any more than this to offer him.

And maybe he understood that she was just lonely. That’s all it was. She was lonely and scared of her life. It was going nowhere, and she had as many issues as he did, only she wasn’t admitting it. It would be heaven to make love with him, but tomorrow she would be glad she didn’t take advantage of him.

She closed her eyes. It felt great to be curled up against Ranger, even if she knew it was only for one night.

Tomorrow, she had to get to Mississippi.

Ranger had to offer himself to the military.

“I’m thirty-six,” she whispered to Ranger. “Just in case you thought I looked too young for you.”

“I’m thirty-two,” he whispered back, “just in case you thought I looked too old for you.”

“Do you really think the military will take you?”

“Yeah. I’m strong and willing and possessed of all my faculties and at least I can swab decks or something. Do you really think the riverboat will let you deal cards to ogling men?”

“Yes. I’m smart and willing and possessed of all my faculties and really good at it. Besides, the man I was supposed to marry owns the boat.”

Ranger sat up and flipped on the lamp beside the table, pulling her to sit beside him. “Okay,” he said, “you can’t slip that humdinger in there like it doesn’t count. You married me under false pretenses.”

“I didn’t really marry you. It was the fakest of fake marriages. And I’m not married to him. I said I was supposed to marry him. Why are you so outraged?”

“Because I’m going into the military where there are no women, or at least not many, and you’re going to a riverboat that a significant other of yours owns,” he said, feeling huffy.

“The two have no relation.”

“Hannah Hotchkiss,” Ranger said, his voice intense, “you’re making up a phantom man to keep your distance from me, aren’t you? A cardboard fiancé?”

“No. Truly, you’re safe from me.”

“Damn right I am! Because I wouldn’t touch a woman who had a boyfriend, and you know it. Don’t you?”

“Yes, I do. But that has nothing to do with anything.”

He stood. “It has everything to do with everything. Is that the joker who stomped on your heart and made you so nontrusting? You definitely have trust issues.”

“No,” she said emphatically. “And that’s not my issue, thank you.”

“It was someone else?”

“Yes.”

“Go back to bed,” he said.

“Ranger!”

“Go back to bed. There’s only room for one on this sofa, and that one is going to be me. I’ll be up at first light to get you on the road toward Mississippi.”

“Fine.” She got up from the sofa and flounced down the hall.

“Fine,” he mimicked.

“Fine,” he said again. His every cell seemed to have closed up inside him, gasping with shock. The man she was supposed to marry! What the hell kind of bomb was that to drop on a man who still had some lingering cactus needles lodged in his feet? They were small and spiny and they bothered him—he’d need tweezers and a strong light to get them out and maybe a real doctor—but they were nothing like the strange, cracking feeling inside him right now.

It was the Curse of the Broken Body Parts, and it was massacring his heart. He had to break the curse—
fast.

“C
HANGE OF PLAN
,” Ranger said to Hannah the next morning. He’d gone into the bedroom and found her sitting up, wide-eyed and wild-haired and too cute for his own good. “Out of the sack, sweetie. I’m going to feed you some breakfast and some coffee, and then we’re borrowing Hawk’s truck and we’re heading for that riverboat of yours.”

Her lips parted, something he found disturbingly attractive. “What about the military?”

“This minor detour won’t take long. I can’t allow you to travel alone. Too much befalls you. You’re not really safe to the general public. So I’m appointing myself your bodyguard, to protect everyone involved.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she pulled the sheet up to her chin over her crossed legs. “I think you have something wrong there. Too much befalls
you.
I don’t need you, Ranger. I got along fine without you for thirty-six years.”

“See, but that’s just it. I don’t think you
have
gotten along fine without me. You need assistance, and I’m free.”

“You want to see the man I was supposed to marry. Because you don’t believe he exists.”

He raised a sardonic brow. “Methinks you are one to invent tales, my dear, but I don’t hold that against you. Really. It matters not a bit to me if you author
the next bestseller on manhunting. I will deliver you to your significant other safe and sound, take a spin on your riverboat, assure myself of your safety and then be off. This is what friends do for each other.”

“He is not my significant other. He was going to be, but then I changed my mind. And you and I are not friends,” she reminded him.

“I figured you for a fickle female. I do feel for the poor chap you changed your mind on.”

“Yesterday you wanted to pound some man on my beha—”

“And as for friends, you and I are on pecking terms,” he insisted. “That stands for something. My father felt strongly about chivalry. He also felt that a man often wants what he can’t have, and sometimes not to his betterment.”

She cocked her head at him. “What illustration are you making? That you want me but it’s really better if you don’t have me?”

He backed away from the door, grinning. “Breakfast in thirty minutes. Pack your bag. We’re hitting the road to Mississippi.”

“What about Hawk’s truck?” she called after him.

“I’ll return it safe and sound, just as he better do to mine,” Ranger called back. “Dress quickly. The sooner we get there, the better.”

H
ANNAH STARED AFTER
R
ANGER
. The man had lost it. He was acting strangely, but then he and all his brothers were devilishly enigmatic. There was all this
unrealized sexual tension between her and Ranger which could be factored in, but his new desire to enter her world and see her riverboat and the man she was supposed to have married was puzzling.

And when he met the man he’d called her “significant other,” he was going to be in for a shock.

She hoped it was one he took well.

“M
ASON,”
M
IMI CALLED
as she tapped on the front door of his house, opening it to stick her head inside. “Mason, it’s me!”

“In the kitchen,” he called back. “Hey, Mimi. You really look nice.”

What she would have given for him to have told her that before! “Thanks. So do you.”

“I’m heading out to a party. Have to put on a bolo for that, I guess. And clean jeans.”

She knew he was referring to the party that the new gals in town were having tonight, in the home above their hair salon. A momentary flicker of jealousy hit her, but she pushed that aside. There was no place for those feelings in her life anymore.

“You and Brian going?”

“No. I’ve got to finish packing. And I’m getting nervous about leaving.”

He frowned. “Flying bother you?”

“No. I’m worried about leaving Dad.”

“Shoot. Mimi, the sheriff’ll outlive us all. He can take care of himself fine.”

She sat in a kitchen chair, wondering how much to
tell Mason. After all, they were neighbors. Once best friends. Her dad shouldn’t mind her talking to Mason—but then again, he was the sheriff. If he was going to make a one-way trip to the ranch in the sky, he was going to do it without a lot of people fussing over him. And without folks thinking they could use his weakened condition to break the law. “Mason,” she said softly, “he’s my dad. All I’ve got besides Brian.”

“Mimi, honey.” He sat down next to her. “What’s gotten into you?”

Shaking her head, she didn’t allow the tears of worry to push past her eyes. “I really need to know that you’ll look in on him. Often.”

“You know I’ll do whatever you want.” He took her hand in his. “And I can have my ornery brothers check on him, too.”

“No! Only you. Please.” She could trust Mason to do as he said. And maybe Last. But she didn’t want Last to figure out her secret. And he would. Mason was the most responsible of the lot, and he was also the most likely to overlook telling details.

Last was so sensitive he’d figure everything out in a second. And then her father would be upset and embarrassed.

“I really need to go on this honeymoon,” she told Mason, making certain her voice carried her urgency. “But I need to know that you’ll do everything as I say. No deviation from the plan.”

He grinned at her. “Mimi, we’ve always deviated from any plan we ever had.”

“Not this time, Mason.” She took a deep breath. “And here’s the phone number to the hotel, in case you need to call me.”

He looked at the paper as if it might burst into flames any second. “Uh, Mimi, I’m not going to call you on your honeymoo—”

“Mason! Please!”

“Hey. Hey, little gal, slow down and relax.” He released her hand and leaned back to take a good look at her. “Is there something you want to talk about?”

“No.” She shook her head, wiping the back of her hand across her eyes.

“Everything okay with you and Brian, right?”

“Everything’s fine.” She nodded emphatically. “And it’ll be even better. Soon.”

“Okay, then. You just let me take care of the sheriff.”

She smiled at his confidence. He really was making her feel better. “I knew I could count on you. I’ll pay you back somehow. Someday.”

He raised his brows. “Actually, you could now.”

This was more like Mason of old, the teasing in his voice, the grin in his eyes. How she’d missed that! “I don’t have time for plots. I’ve got to finish packing.”

“I need to know something. Just a little piece of info is all I want.”

“Okay. I’ll give it to you if I can.” Her heart
heated and stirred inside her, those feelings she thought she’d put to rest once and for all. But she and Mason had always had the most fun when something messy was cooking between them.

“My brothers tattled on you about Helga.”

Uh-oh. This was trouble she hadn’t expected. “Tattled on me about Helga?” she repeated to buy time.

“They said she wasn’t the one who hung the curtains and kept this place together after the flood.”

“Well, I really don’t know, Mason. It wasn’t me.”

He looked at her, his gaze gleaming and mischievous. “They say Annabelle did all the work, but that you didn’t like her.”

“I like Annabelle just fine!”

“Now. But not then. You told your friend, Julia Finehurst of the Honey-Do Agency, that you wanted a battle-ax sent out to work here.”

Her eyes shifted of their own accord. “Well, maybe I said I thought you should have someone
mature
in the house. After all, you wouldn’t want some young thing distracting your brothers, would you? And goodness, a young girl’s reputation has to be thought of. Helga’s more of a mother figure, a chaperone to you men. Something to soften the Malfunction Junction wild-man image. Don’t you think?”

“Mimi.” He drummed the table for an instant. “You did trick me.”

“No, I did what I told you I was going to do in the beginning. Remember the e-mail we wrote? I definitely said an older woman was preferred.”

“But after Annabelle was here, you let me think Helga had made all the changes.”

“You could have asked, Mason. Really.”

“I think you believe that I overlook details, Mimi.”

She couldn’t help her gaze widening innocently. “You may be just a little absentminded, Mason. Details have a way of getting past you.”

“And I did miss that Helga doesn’t do much except boss my brothers like a termagant.”

“A what, Mason?” She frowned. “Have you picked up a new word?”

“It’s the word Bandera used to describe Helga. It means a shrew, Mimi,” he said softly. “My brothers are leaving the ranch to get away from her. You told me that a housekeeper would keep things tidy. Make things better. But it’s made things worse. And you let it stay that way because you preferred a Helga to an Annabelle.”

She pursed her lips at him. “They’re grown men, Mason. They can get used to a housekeeper who wants them to keep their boots off the table. I don’t think they’re leaving because of Helga, but you can believe that if you want.” Standing, she put her hands on her hips. “Is there any other burning issue you’d like the answer to?”

“There is, actually. Why do
you
think they’re leaving?”

Nobody wanted to have this talk with Mason. It was a circular conversation, because he believed what
he wanted to believe. He did what he wanted to do, and the consequences be damned. But he was asking for the truth, and by golly, she didn’t mind giving it to him, if for no other reason than to take a little pain out of her own scar tissue—courtesy of the hardheaded man standing in front of her. “Because you take all your frustration out on them, Mason. That’s why they’re wild. That’s why they’re leaving. Once Frisco Joe opened the gate, they saw freedom just outside their fences. And so they’re going, one way or the other.”

He crossed his arms and stared at her. “I think Helga’s why they’re leaving.”

“And I think it’s you. But we’ve never agreed on much, Mason, which is why we liked hanging around each other. You steadied me, and I unsteadied you.”

“What if I fire Helga?”

“Go right ahead. Cut yourself out of a good housekeeper who’s not afraid of your moods.”

“My moods!”

“Yes,” she said defiantly. “And when you’re ready for me to tell you why you’re such a horse’s ass, I’ll be happy to do that, too. Because I’m the only one who will.”

He stood, too, towering above her, but she held herself tall and glared back.

“My brothers think you liked knowing I wouldn’t be looking around for a woman if all my shopping, my cooking, my washing and my cleaning was taken
care of. And they say you sicced Helga on us out of spite because I didn’t ask you to marry me.”