Stranger in Cold Creek (20 page)

And saw the source of that movement.

Riley.

His eyes were so narrowed that it looked as if his eyelashes were stuck together.

“What the hell's going on here?” Riley growled. He opened his eyes enough to look at her. Then at Heath. Then at the other
thing
that was going on. “And what are you doing with my sister?”

No way was Heath going to be able to explain with the bulge of his filled-out part beneath the sheet. And neither could Anna.

Chapter Two

W
ELL
,
HELL
IN
a big-assed handbasket. This visit was off to a good start.

Heath had known it wasn't a smart idea to come to the McCord Ranch, and he was getting a full reminder of why it'd been bad, what with Riley glaring at him.

“Get dressed,” Riley ordered, and yeah, it was an order all right. “And we'll talk.” Then he turned that ordering glare on his sister.

But Anna obviously wasn't as affected by it as Heath was, even though Riley was in uniform and looked thirty steps past the intimidation stage. Still, Anna matched Riley's glare with a scowl and waltzed out.

Thankfully, Riley did some waltzing as well and left, shutting the door behind him. Though it was more of a slam than a shut. Still, he was gone, and that gave Heath some time to take a very uncomfortable walk to the adjoining bathroom for a shower. Cold. Just the way he hated his showers. And if he stayed on the ranch, there'd be more of them in his near future.

It was time for a change of plans.

Not that he actually had plans other than passing time and moping. Yeah, moping was a definite possibility. At least it had been until Anna had shown up in the doorway. Difficult to mope in his current state.

Regardless, Anna was off-limits, of course.

He repeated that while the cold shower cooled down his body. Repeated it some more while he dressed. Kept repeating it when he went down the stairs to apologize to Riley and tell him that he'd remembered some place he needed to be. Riley would see right through the lie, but after what he had witnessed in the guest room, he'd be glad to get Heath off the ranch.

Heath made his way downstairs, meandering through the sprawling house. Since he was hoping for some coffee to go along with the butt-chewing he would get from Riley, he headed toward the kitchen.

He heard women's voices but not Anna's. He was pretty sure they belonged to Della and Stella, sisters and the McCords' longtime housekeeper and cook. Yep. And Heath got a glimpse of them and the coffeepot, too, before Riley stepped into the archway, blocking his path.

“I know,” Heath volunteered. “You want to hit me on the head with a shovel.”

“Hit who with a shovel?” Della asked, and when she spotted Heath, she flung the dish towel she was holding. Actually, she popped Riley on the butt with it and went to Heath to gather him into her arms for a hug. “It's good to see you, boy.”

Heath hadn't even been sure the woman would remember him after all this time, but clearly she did. Or else she thought he was someone else.

“Nobody's gonna get hit with a shovel in this house,” Della warned Riley, and then she added to Heath, “Have you seen Anna yet?”

“Earlier,” Heath settled for saying.

“Well, I hope you'll be seeing a lot more of her while you're here. Never could understand why you two didn't just sneak up to the hayloft or somewhere.”

Heath choked on his own breath. Not a very manly reaction, but neither was the way Riley screwed up his face. Della didn't seem to notice or she might have used the dish towel on him again.

“Have a seat at the table, and I'll fix you some breakfast,” Della offered.

“Heath and I have to talk first,” Riley insisted.

“Pshaw. A man's gotta have at least some coffee before he carries on a conversation. Where are your manners, Riley?”

“I think I left them upstairs.”

Della laughed as if it were a joke and, God bless her, she poured Heath a cup of coffee. He had a couple of long sips, figuring he was going to need them.

“Thanks. I'll be right back,” Heath said to Della, and he followed Riley out of the kitchen and into the sunroom.

No shovels in sight, but Riley had gone back to glaring again, and he got right in Heath's face. “Keep your hands off Anna, or I'll make your life a living hell.”

Heath had no doubts about that. He didn't mind the living hell for himself so much, but he didn't want any more of Riley's anger aimed at Anna. “I'll get my things together and head out.”

Riley's glare turned to a snarl. “And then Anna, Della and Stella will think I've run you off.”

Heath had some more coffee, cocked his head to the side in an “if the shoe fits” kind of way. Because in a manner of speaking, Riley was indeed running him off. Except that Heath had already decided it was a good idea, too. Still, he didn't acknowledge that. He was getting some perverse pleasure out of watching Riley squirm a little.

“I'm guessing Anna, Della and Stella will make your life a living hell if they think you've run me off?” Heath asked. And he said it with a straight face.

Riley opened his mouth. Closed it. Then he did a wash, rinse, repeat of that a couple more times before he finally cursed. “Stay. For now. And we'll discuss it later. I've got to do some more paperwork at the base. Just keep your hands off Anna while I'm gone. Afterwards, too.”

His hands were the least of Riley's worries, but Heath kept that to himself. Besides, Riley didn't give him a chance to say anything else. He lit out of there while growling out another “Stay” order.

Heath would stay. For the morning anyway. But it was best if he put some distance between Anna and all those parts of him that could get him in trouble.

He went back into the kitchen, got a hug and warm greeting from Stella this time, and the woman practically put him in one of the chairs at the table.

“How do you like your eggs?” Della asked.

“Any way you fix them.” Heath added a wink because he figured it would make her smile. It did.

“Tell us what you've been doing with yourself for the past nine years or so,” Della said as she got to work at the stove. “I seem to recall when you left here that summer you were headed to boot camp.”

Heath nodded, took a bite of the toast that Stella set in front of him. “I enlisted in the Air Force, became a pararescuer and took college classes online. When I finished my degree, I got my commission and became a combat rescue officer.”

“Like Riley,” Stella said.

“Yeah, but he outranks me.”

“How is that? Didn't you go in the Air Force before Riley did?”

Heath nodded again. “Only a couple months earlier, though. We've been in the service about the same amount of time, but for most of that I was enlisted. I've only been an officer for three and a half years now. And Riley's my boss. Well, until the rest of my paperwork has cleared. That should be about the time Riley leaves for his assignment in two weeks.”

Della stopped scrambling the eggs to look at him. “You won't be going with him?”

There it was. That twist to the gut. Heath tried to ease it with some more toast and coffee, but that was asking a lot of mere food products. And Della and Stella noticed all right. He'd gotten their full attention.

“No, I won't be going with Riley this time,” Heath said.

He still had their attention, and judging from their stares, the women wanted more. Heath gave them the sanitized version. “The Air Force feels it's time for me to have a stateside assignment. It's standard procedure. A way of making sure I don't burn out.”

His mouth was still moving and words were coming out, but Heath could no longer hear what he was saying. That's because Anna walked in. Or maybe it was just a Mack Truck that looked like Anna because he suddenly felt as if someone had knocked him senseless.

She'd changed out of her sweats and T-shirt. Had put on a bra, too. And was now wearing jeans and a red sweater. Heath tried not to notice the way the clothes hugged her body. Tried not to notice her curves. Her face.

Hell, he gave up and noticed.

Not that he could have done otherwise. Especially when Anna poured herself a cup of coffee, sat down next to him and glanced at his crotch.

“Back to normal?” she whispered. Then she gave him a smile that could have dissolved multiple layers of rust on old patio furniture. Dissolved a few of his brain cells, too. “So, did Riley try to give you your marching orders?”

Since Della and Stella got very, very quiet, Heath figured they were hanging on every word, so he chose his own words carefully and spoke loud enough for the women to hear. “Something came up—”

Anna glanced at his crotch again and laughed. Obviously, a reaction she hadn't planned because she clamped her teeth onto her bottom lip after adding “I'm sorry.” Too late, though. Because Della and Stella weren't just hanging on every word but every ill-timed giggle, too.

“Well, I'm sure whatever came up—” Della paused “—you can work it out so you can stay here for at least a couple of days. That way, Anna and you have time to visit.”

“Especially since Anna needs some cheering up,” Stella added.

Anna certainly didn't laugh that time. She got a deer-about-to-be-smashed-by-a-car look. “I'm fine, really,” Anna mumbled.

Which only confirmed to Heath that she did indeed need some cheering up. Maybe this had to do with the “change of scenery or something” she'd mentioned upstairs.

Well, hell.

There went his fast exit, and no, that wasn't the wrong part of his body talking, either. If Anna was down, he wanted to help lift her up.

Stella dished up two plates of eggs for Anna and him, and she smiled at them when she set them on the table. “You two were as thick as thieves back in the day.” She snapped her fingers as if recalling something. “Anna, Heath even gave you that heart necklace you used to wear all the time. It had your and his pictures in it.”

Hard to forget that. Heath referred to it as the great engraved debacle. He'd spent all his money buying Anna that silver heart locket as a going-away gift. Something to remember him by after he left Spring Hill and the McCord Ranch. It was supposed to be engraved with the words
Be Mine
.

The engraver had screwed up and had put
Be My
instead.

Since Heath hadn't had the time to get it fixed, he'd given it to Anna anyway, but he hadn't figured she would actually wear it. Not with that confusing, incomplete
sentiment
.

“Where is that necklace?” Della asked.

“I'm not sure,” Anna answered, and she got serious about eating her breakfast. Fast. Like someone who'd just entered a breakfast-eating contest with a reprieve from a death sentence waiting for the winner.

Della made a sound that could have meant anything, but it had a sneaky edge to it. “I think Heath needs some cheering up, too,” Della went on. “And not because Riley was going on about that shovel. That boy needs to get a new threat, by the way,” she added to her sister before looking at Anna again. “I get the feeling Heath could use somebody to talk to.”

Heath suddenly got very serious about eating his breakfast, as well. Either Della had ESP, or Heath sucked at covering up what was going on in his head.

Anna finished gulping down her breakfast just a bite ahead of him, gulped down some coffee, too, and she probably would have headed out if Stella hadn't taken her empty breakfast plate and given her a plate of cookies instead.

“I need you to take these cookies over to Claire Davidson at her grandmother's house.”

“Claire's back in town?” Anna asked, sounding concerned.

Heath knew Claire. She'd been around a lot that summer he'd worked at the McCord Ranch, and if he wasn't mistaken Claire had a thing for Riley. And vice versa.

“Her grandmother's sickly again. Thought they could use some cheering up, too.” Della shifted her attention to Heath. “And you can go with Anna. Then maybe she could show you around town.”

“Spring Hill hasn't changed in nine and a half years,” Anna quickly pointed out.

“Pshaw. That's not true. The bakery closed for one thing. And Logan bought that building and turned it into a fancy-schmancy office. It has a fancy-schmancy sign that says McCord Cattle Brokers. You can't miss it.”

Logan—one of Anna's other brothers who ran the family business and probably also owned a shovel. Ditto for Logan's twin, Lucky. At least the two of them didn't stay at the ranch very often, so Heath might not even run into them. Well, he wouldn't as long as he avoided the fancy-schmancy office and any of the local rodeos since Lucky was a bull rider.

“I thought I'd go out and see if the ranch hands needed any help,” Heath suggested.

That earned him a blank stare from the women. “You don't have to work for your keep while you're here,” Stella said. “You're a guest.”

“I know, but I like working with my hands. I miss it.” He did. Not as much as he'd miss other things—like having the job he really wanted—but grading on a curve here, ranch work was missable.

“All right, then,” Della finally conceded. “At least walk Anna to the truck. There might be some ice on the steps. We had a cold spell move in.”

“Now, go,” Stella said, shooing them out. “Della and I need to clean up, and we can't do that with y'all in here.”

This wasn't about cleaning. This was about matchmaking. Still, Heath grabbed his coat so he could make sure Anna didn't slip on any ice. He only hoped Anna didn't ask why he needed cheering up, and he would return the favor and not ask her the same thing.

“So, why do you need cheering up?” Anna asked the moment they were outside.

He groaned, not just at the question but also because it was at least fifty degrees with zero chance of ice.

“Is it personal or business?” she added.

“Is yours personal or business?” he countered.

She stayed quiet a moment and instead of heading toward one of the trucks parked on the side of the house, she sat down in the porch swing. “Both. You?”

“Both,” he repeated. But then he stopped and thought about her answer. “Yours is personal, as in guy troubles?”

For some reason that made him feel as if he'd been hit by the Anna-truck again. Which was stupid. Because of course she had men in her life. Heath just wasn't sure he wanted to hear about them.