The Cattleman (Sons of Texas Book 2) (9 page)

Beyond that, he
had rarely seen a baby unless friends in town or the wife or girlfriend of one of the ranch hands had one. He had never even held one. No way could he let her talk him into agreeing with her.

He sighed. “I wouldn’t know where to begin. I can’t remember the last time I even saw a baby.”

“Actually, you do know where to begin.” She angled a sly smile at him. “And I might add, you do it very well. I can’t imagine making a baby being more enjoyable than it is with you.”

His cheeks warmed with self-consciousness and he wasn’t even a man who embarrassed easily. When they were both hotter than a prairie fire and he was buried to the hilt inside her and she told him how big he was or how good he felt, that was one thing. But when they were in the bathroom cleaning up afterward, open conversation a
bout making babies was another.

“Mandy. C’mon now. Let’s save that talk for later, okay?”

“That’s fine,” she said. “But the way things are going, we really should start thinking more seriously about real birth control.”

Ouch!
That hurt. But she was right. Their opportunities for sex were erratic these days and inopportune moments were bound to happen.

“I mean,
think about it. What would happen if we hadn’t been together for a month or six weeks and you showed up when it was the wrong time of the month?”

Chapter 6

Leaving him with that
unsettling thought, Mandy turned away and unhooked her robe from the back of the bathroom door. Pic admired her perfectly-shaped body from behind. She was tall and slim, had a swimmer’s long lean muscles. She had been swimming on Drinkwell’s pitiful swim teams since adolescence. She was like a damn fish and Pic couldn’t swim a stroke. He even feared water that was more than knee deep. Though he had lost touch with her after he got married and she left Drinkwell, he had heard she raced in college.

He watched her slip on the pink robe and tie it closed, hiding her nakedness. “When did you cut your hair?”

“You just now noticed it?”

“I noticed.” He grinned. “But I had other things on my mind.”

“Last week.” Turning toward him, she ran her fingers through it and fluffed it out. “What do you think of it?”

Her shiny brown hair had been past her shoulders for as long as he had known her, but now it was almost as short as his. He liked her hair long, but it was her hair. How could he tell her how to wear it? He shrugged. “It’s
really short. But it’s fine.”

“You don’t have to be so enthusiastic,” she said, laughing. She gave his shoulder a girly punch.

Her laugh had a musical quality to it. Hearing it made him want to laugh too. “Baby, it’s fine. You look pretty no matter what length your hair is. You look like a pixie.”

“
You think so?” She turned back to the mirror and picked at a few strands. “I guess it is sort of a gamin look. I know you liked it long, but I had it cut because it wasn’t in good shape and I’m going to be in the pool more now.”

Thank God she had dropped the talk about babies.
“Why’s that?”

“Remember me telling you about the new coaching techniques I learned at that workshop I went to in Houston? I’ve been thinking a lot about it and I’ve decided to put some of what I learned in place here. I’ve revamped my program. Believe it or not, I’ll be bringing tiny little Drinkwell’s girls’ swim team to the cutting edge of the sport.”

Pic didn’t doubt she could accomplish this. Besides his big brother Drake, she was the most positive-thinking, goal-oriented person he knew. She had been that way even when they were teenagers. “I thought it was already cutting edge. Those girls have won two state championships.”

“But they can be better.
And I’m going to teach them things some of them can take beyond Drinkwell.”

“Big plans, baby. Sounds like a big job.”

“It is. I’m doing it for two reasons only. Sarah Nelson and Alicia Gonzalez. They’re two of my returning seniors. You know their families, don’t you?”

Sarah Nelson’s daddy was the only plumber in
town and Alejandro Gonzales owned the only landscaping business. “Yeah, I know ’em.”

“
Both of those girls are good enough to get scholarships.”

His Mandy was a natural-born caretaker.
“Good Lord, Mandy. Everybody in Treadway County already thinks you’re a hero, including me. Next thing you know, they’ll be hanging your picture alongside the rest of the school dignitaries.”

She smiled. “Wouldn’t that be fun? But that isn’t what I really care about. What I really want is to get those two girls some help to go to college.”

Before they could take the conversation further, Pic glanced at the digital clock on her vanity. “We’re gonna have to give up something, darlin’. We’re not gonna have time for supper, the rodeo and the dance all three.”

“We don’t have to go to Stephenville. I’ve got some cold chicken. Or I could bake a frozen pizza. We could eat, then go back to bed and watch a movie.” She left the bathroom. “I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder.

She returned a minute later with a blue robe she had bought him to wear at her house. Wearing a robe made him feel silly, but he had already resigned himself to it back when she had gone to the trouble of buying it for him. After all, he couldn’t walk around her house butt-naked. He shrugged into it. “You don’t want to go to the rodeo? And the dance? I know how much you like to dance. And it’s your birthday.”

She smiled, rose on her tiptoes and kissed him. “We don’t have to. After all, my birthday really isn’t until Sunday.”

He laughed. “Well, we can’t go dancing on Sunday. All these Baptists around here think it’s bad enough to go dancing on Friday or Saturday night. They’d have to have a prayer meeting for us.”

She pulled the panels of his robe together over his front, then tied the belt in a neat bow. “I love you in this color. It makes your eyes look that much bluer.” She looked up, studying his face. “I’ve got some eye drops that might be good for your eye.”

He lived in a world of men. Nobody fussed over him the way she did. “It’s getting better. Listen, if we’re not gonna go to Stephenville to celebrate, what if we go up to Fort Worth tomorrow?”

She straightened his robe at the shoulder, then slid her arms around his middle. “How long are you staying with me?”

For more than a year, when he had the opportunity to get away from the ranch and she wasn’t too busy with her many tasks, he had started staying at her house two or three days at a time. Since she lived in town and was a teacher, as soon as the locals had noticed his lengthy visits, the gossip had flown. He and Mandy had endured it until it wore itself out and nowadays, everyone in Drinkwell accepted that they were a couple and they openly slept together without the benefit of marriage. But the biddies still talked about them being “shacked up.”

His own arms automatically went around her and they stood there, front to front. “I dunno. You going to church Sunday?” He bent his head and kissed her, a playful peck on the lips.

She leaned back against his arms, looking up at him with eyes soft with emotion. Less than an hour ago, they had been dark with passion and fire. From outward appearances, no one would ever guess how hot and sexy she was. Even now, if he got it up again, he could coax her back into bed.

“I was planning to,” she said.

“Then I’ll go home Sunday morning.”

“You don’t have to rush away. You could go to church with me
and
really
shock everyone.”

“Darlin’, if I set foot in that church, the roof might fall in.”

She gave a playful gasp. “That’s a corny old cliché. And don’t be irreverent. Lightning might strike you.”

“You know how I feel about it. No fancy building compares to being out in the north pasture with the sun rising over the mesa.”

“I know. And nothing some loud-mouthed preacher’s got to say will ever compare to seeing a new baby calf get on its feet for the first time.” She mimicked in a gruff voice what she had heard him say a hundred times. She looked up and into his eyes. “See how well I know you?”

“Tell you what,” he said. “
Let’s leave early tomorrow. I’ve got the drawing I did for Drake’s office in the bed of the truck. It’s Saturday, so he and his wife should be at home. We could stop by their house for a few minutes.

“Then we could go on up and
maybe hit that museum you’re wanting  to go to. There’s a playday in the coliseum and Troy’s got a horse in it. We could watch him, then go see a movie downtown if you want to. We could eat supper at that steak joint up by the courthouse. How’s that for a birthday celebration?”

She gave him a
impish grin. “Texas de Brazil? Oh, my God. My friends will be green with envy. But are those security guys going to be following us around?”

He shrugged. “They’d drive us up there if we wanted them to.”

“What will they do with themselves while we’re in Fort Worth all day?”

“They’ll do whatever it is that they do. They still get paid no matter what.”

“Good grief, Pic. That must be costing a fortune.”

“I’ll tell you what Drake told me. Necessary expense ’til they get this business with Kate’s arsonist figured out.”

As they left the bathroom, Pic’s phone warbled from the bedroom floor. He picked up his jeans, unclipped the phone from the belt and glanced at the screen. “It’s Drake. Looks like he’s in his office. I left him a message earlier.” He keyed into the call. “Hey, Bro. How’re things?”

“Good. Planning a quiet weekend. Got your message. What’s up?”

“Thought I’d better give you a heads up. I talked to Blake. They’re taking Kate off their persons-of-interest list.”

“Humph. About time. After they had to let that Barrett kid go, I wondered if they’d ever make another arrest.”

Pic sank to the edge of the bed. “They haven’t arrested anybody else, but I think they’re hot on somebody’s trail. What bothers me is they’re still looking at Troy. And they still haven’t been able to interview that Dorinda Fisk.”

Dorinda Fisk was a cougar at least twenty years older than Troy. Troy was reputedly only one of “her boys.” Pic wasn’t acquainted with her, but Dad and Drake were. Her husband was a powerful
senator from Dallas who hated the Lockhart family. Fisk and Dad had locked horns many times. He had barely been re-elected to his current term due to Dad’s donations and heroic efforts to see him defeated. For months, Fisk had prevented his wife from having a conversation with Kate’s insurance company investigator and with Blake. Fisk was strong enough to stand off even the Texas Rangers.

“Have you talked to Blake?” Pic asked his brother.

“No. I thought Troy had cleared things up. I thought he had stopped fucking around with Dorinda.”

“Not quite. I don’t think he’s spending as much time with her as he was. He just drops by when her husband’s back in Washington.”

A big sigh came over the line. Pic visualized his brother’s eyes rolling.

“And how’s that not spending as much time with her?” Drake asked. “That’s what he was doing in the first place. Y’all need to stay on top of this, Pic. Who knows where it’s going?
You need to try to have a conversation with Troy. Tell him he needs to leave that woman alone. See if he can explain why he’s still a person-of-interest.”

“I’ve already had conversations with him. How many times do we have to tell him? But I guess I can do it again. Maybe Sunday when I get back to the ranch. Or even Monday. Dad and I’ve got our hands full getting ready for the picnic.”

“You aren’t at the ranch now?”

“I’m at Mandy’s house. We’re going up to Fort Worth tomorrow. Spending the day celebrating her birthday. If you and your wife are gonna be around, I was thinking we’d stop by. I
want to deliver the picture I drew for your office.”

“Great. I can’t wait to see it. I know right where I’ll put it.”

The family members and Mandy were some of the few people who knew of Pic’s pastime. He had done a 12x16 colored pencil drawing of some horses from the Double Barrel’s remuda crossing the Brazos River in the late afternoon sun.

“Come for brunch,” Drake said. “How’s Dad?”

“Good. Mom hasn’t been down, so things are pretty calm.” The black-haired woman darted back into Pic’s mind. “Although Mom did send a woman to the ranch to take pictures of some kind.”

His brother
laughed. “You’d better watch out. When she starts sending women around, it can be dangerous.”

“Yeah, I’ll watch my step.”

They exchanged a few more words before disconnecting. Mandy looked at him with inquiring eyes. “Is Drake ordering you around again?”

Pic shook his head and chuckled. “You know how he gets. He orders
everybody
around.”

“There’s nothing new about that, is there? What’s happened now?”

“One of those good-news, bad-news situations. The insurance company and Blake and Jack are dismissing Kate on that barn fire. But they’re still looking at Troy.”