Roughneck Cowboy (4 page)

“I get that you're protective of Matt and Samantha, but—”

“Matt and Sam had a rough childhood growing up without a mother. Even though they're adults, they've yearned for a mother's love their entire lives, which makes them vulnerable to you.”

What about him? He'd yearned for a father's love all his life.

“You're their only connection to Charlotte.” Duke stepped in front of Travis, blocking his view of the family. “Don't even think about taking advantage of Matt, Sam or Dominick. You mess with my family and you mess with me. Got it?”

Yeah, Travis got it, all right. No matter that he was Dominick's biological son, he was still an outsider. “Message received.”

Duke's posture relaxed when he changed the subject. “Renée said Charlie's mom isn't in the picture anymore.”

Evidently Charlie had spilled the beans about their
life in Houston. Travis didn't care. He had no secrets. “Julie left after Charlie was born.” Travis didn't go into details. No matter how he told the story of Julie abandoning him and a baby, he always came out looking like an idiot.

“Renée's seen everything in her job as a social worker. She says Charlie's a well-adjusted little girl for having grown up without a mother.”

“Her grandmother gets credit for that.” Travis worried about the impact his mother's death would have on Charlie in the long run. He wasn't opposed to marriage, but his job on the rig made relationships stressful. Travis would hate to marry and then have Charlie become attached to the woman only to be abandoned again when the stress of his work schedule caused another woman to pack her bags and leave.

“You like rig work?” Duke asked.

Travis studied his stepbrother, unsure if he was making polite conversation or was genuinely interested in Travis's answer.

“Don't get me wrong—I love my job.” Duke shrugged. “But every day is the same. Meetings. Phone calls. Emails.”

Oil rig work was exhausting, but Travis preferred physical labor over a desk job. “The crew on the rig is like a second family. We celebrate and argue like brothers, uncles.”
Fathers.
“At the end of a two-week rotation, I'm more than ready to return to the mainland.”

“Mind if I join the conversation?” Matt motioned to Travis's almost empty beer bottle. “Need another one?”

“No, I'm good.”

“Did you thank him?” Matt asked Duke.

“Not yet. We were discussing other matters.” Duke sent a warning smile Travis's way.

“We'd like to thank you,” Matt said.

“For what?”

“For choosing a career in oil.”

Roughnecking wasn't a career so much as a job.

“Dad's been holding out hope that Duke or I would change our minds and work for Cartwright Oil.” Matt chuckled. “I'd rather shovel horse manure than dig oil wells and Mr. Corporate here would rather brainstorm information systems than analyze oil productivity spreadsheets.”

Travis directed his words to Matt. “Our mother was the one who pushed me to sign up with a rig.”

“Your days of roughnecking will soon be over.” Matt and Duke exchanged a silent message. “When you turn thirty-two, you'll have access to your trust fund.”

Trust fund?
“I didn't come here for a handout.”

“No matter,” Matt said. “You'll get your share of Cartwright money just like the rest of us.”

No one could force him to accept his inheritance, but if what his brothers claimed was true, then Travis had to consider Charlie. He wanted to make sure she was provided for if something happened to him. Still…he hated that his siblings assumed he intended to sponge off their father.

“What are you guys discussing?” Samantha joined the group. “Why the serious faces?”

Ignoring their sister's question, Matt nodded toward the front door. “Where's Wade taking the kids?”

“To the bunkhouse to teach them how to rope the fake steer Dad bought a few weeks ago.”

“C'mon.” Duke nudged Matt in the side. “Wade couldn't throw a rope if his life depended on it.”

“Be nice,” Samantha scolded.

“Don't worry, sis. We won't hurt your hubby's feelings.” Chuckling, Matt followed Duke outside.

Relieved to be rid of his brothers and their suspicions, Travis turned his attention to his sister. Her eyes were the same shape and brown color of his. He and Samantha looked more like brother and sister than she and Matt.

“I read Charlotte's diary last night.” Her sad smile reminded Travis that he hadn't been the only one hurt by his mother's actions.

“Did it help you remember her?” he asked.

“Not really. I was two when she left. Matt was four. He claims he doesn't have any memories of Charlotte, but I think he has a few.”

Travis had grown up with a mother's love. Samantha and Matt had grown up with a father's love. On that score they were even. But Dominick was still alive and that gave Travis the advantage of forging a relationship with his estranged father—if he cared to. His siblings would never have that opportunity with their mother.

“I think Charlotte missed me and Matt. That's something, I guess.” The wobble in her voice sucker punched Travis in the gut.

“I'm sorry, Samantha.”

“You'd better stop calling me Samantha. Everyone in the family calls me Sam.”

“How come you're not suspicious of me like the others?” His sister was the only person in the house who didn't act uncomfortable around him.

She squeezed his arm. “A close call with death makes
a person look at life in a different light. Each day I have with my family is a gift. I don't view you and Charlie as a threat—I see you as a blessing.”

Travis appreciated his sister's acceptance. “Mom wasn't a mean person. I don't know why she walked out on you and Matt and kept me from the rest of the family.”

His comment brought tears to his sister's eyes. “Have you had a chance to speak privately with Dad?”

Dad.
The word sounded foreign in Travis's ear. “No.”

“He's hiding out in his office right now.”

So that's where the old man had holed up. Time was running out. Travis had one week left of his leave of absence from the rig and he'd yet to make child-care arrangements for Charlie. Tomorrow he intended to return to Houston to begin searching for a nanny.

“Dad can be a grouch, but give him the benefit of the doubt. He's a good man.” She caught Travis by surprise and hugged him, then left the room.

The door to Dominick's office stood partially open.

“Come in.”

When Travis entered the room, the first thing he noticed was the massive mahogany desk taking up half the space. The football game played on the flat screen TV mounted on the wall across from the desk and bookcases filled the back of the room. Various antique oil artifacts occupied the shelves along with family photos.

“Have a seat.” Dominick kept his eyes on the documents in front of him.

Travis closed the door, then sank onto the leather couch. “If you're busy—”

“I'm always busy. Oil never stops flowing.” Dominick tossed his reading glasses onto the desk blotter. “Why did you take a job on an oil rig?”

“Ran out of options. I'd gotten in trouble with the law.” At his father's raised eyebrow, Travis explained. “Disorderly conduct charge and two drunk-driving tickets. Mom said I needed to find a better way to blow off steam. She suggested—” more like threatened “—that I apply for a job with one of the oil companies.”

“Charlotte told you to work on a rig?”

“You sound surprised.”

Dominick shrugged.

“Mind if I ask what happened between you and my mother?”

“As a matter of fact, I do mind.” He stroked his mustache, then asked, “Did your mother ever remarry?”

“No. She worked as a secretary at a car dealership until Charlie came along, then she quit her job to stay home and take care of her when I worked on the rig.”

“And you supported both Charlotte and Charlie?”

“I make decent money on the rig.” Travis and his mother hadn't lived extravagantly, but between his paycheck and his mother's small retirement from her job at the dealership they'd managed to make ends meet.

“I could have given you both a hell of a lot more.”

When Travis reflected on his mother's life, he acknowledged her day-to-day existence hadn't been exciting. No secret lovers. No high-society social events. No exotic travel or beautiful vacation home. Not even a brand-new car. What had caused his mother to trade in a life of luxury for a make-ends-meet existence?

“I'd like to discuss Charlie,” Travis said.

Dominick grinned. “She's a pistol.”

Travis wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not. He loved his daughter but the past couple of years had been tough on her. Travis and his mother had become lax in the discipline department. “She's a little rough around the edges.”

“Like her father?”

Touché. “Now that Mom's gone and Charlie's mother isn't in the picture…” He hated talking about death, but in his line of work, dying on the job was a real possibility. After the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Travis's mother had convinced him to make out a will and he'd granted full custody of Charlie to his mother should he die. “I'm concerned that if something happens to me on the rig, there won't be anyone to take care of Charlie. I was hoping you'd consider—”

“You're asking me if I'd take in my granddaughter?”

“Yes.”

“In a heartbeat,” Dominick said, his voice hoarse.

Travis hadn't meant to offend the old man, but he was relieved his daughter wouldn't be left in the state's care if he kicked the bucket before she reached eighteen. “As soon as we return to Houston, I'll have a new will drawn up.”

“What will you do with Charlie when you're working on the rig?”

“I'm hoping to hire a live-in nanny.”

“That can be expensive.”

“We'll manage.”

“Do you like your job?” Dominick asked.

“The past few months I've been shadowing a
motorhand and learning how to maintain the drilling rig engines, transmissions, hydraulic systems and electric generators.” Travis was good with tools and a quick study. He hoped his supervisor would follow through with his promise of a promotion to rig technician if Travis passed all the mechanical exams.

“How much money are you making?” Dominick had been in the oil business his entire life. He knew roughnecks were the low men on the totem pole. “Fifty thousand?”

“Forty-five.”

“Would you consider a position with Cartwright Oil for triple your current salary?”

A job that earned over a hundred thousand dollars a year?

“After taxes,” Dominick added.

Shit.
That was a lot of money. “What kind of job?”

“Rig technician. I could use another man in the field to help maintain the equipment on my rigs in Oklahoma and Arkansas.”

“Don't you have several employees in that job right now?”

“You can never have enough experienced men in the field. Equipment breakdowns can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a week in lost profits.”

Dominick's confidence in him pleased Travis, but he doubted the workers on the rigs would accept him as easily. He'd have to work his butt off to prove he deserved the job.
You'd have a chance to show your father what you're made of
.

“You're a natural fit for the job,” Dominick said. “If you decide to take me up on the offer, I could use your help with something else.”

“What's that?”

“You and Sara Sanders are both single and around the same age—”

“I'm not interested in—”

“Of course you're not attracted to a woman like her, but I'm sure you could gain her trust and convince her to sell the Bar T to me.”

Sara Sanders's face popped into Travis's mind. He admired her stubborn determination and refusal to allow his father to intimidate her, but he doubted she could hold out forever against Dominick. It was only a matter of time before Cartwright Oil won. Still…“You want me to bully her into doing business with you?”

“I never said you should threaten her.” Dominick shrugged. “She's a single woman with few prospects. Give her some of your time and attention and before you know it, she'll be signing on the dotted line.”

Travis had never led a woman on before and didn't care to begin now, but his father was handing him an opportunity to win his favor. Travis was eager to fit in with his new family and prove to his siblings that he had no ulterior motive where the Cartwright fortune was concerned. What could it hurt to become friends with Sara Sanders? If he convinced her to sell to Dominick, all the better.

“What kind of housing is available in the area?” Travis asked.

“You're welcome to stay on the ranch with me. There's plenty of room in the house for the three of us now that Samantha and Wade have moved into their new home. I'm away on business several days a week, so you and Charlie would have the place to yourselves most of the time.” Dominick snapped his fingers. “Juanita's
kids are grown. She'd be willing to stay overnight or keep Charlie with her at her place if we're both on the road at the same time.”

“What about Matt and Samantha? Shouldn't you discuss this with them?” He didn't want Matt accusing him of mooching off their father.

“I've never asked for my children's approval before and I won't start now.”

Travis wasn't all that bothered by his siblings' lukewarm reception. They had every right to be protective of their father. Travis would have felt the same way about his mother if Matt and Samantha had shown up unannounced on their doorstep. Travis was more concerned with Charlie and how she'd adjust. Overwhelmed by the turn of events, Travis said, “I'll think it over.”