Читать книгу Safe In The Rancher's Arms: Stranded with the Rancher / Sheltered by the Millionaire / Pregnant by the Texan - Джанис Мейнард, Catherine Mann - Страница 12
ОглавлениеI’ll be here when you’re ready. Drew replayed that sentence in his head a thousand times as he made his way from stall to stall checking on his horses. He relied on top-notch employees. But he wanted to see for himself that the horses were safe. These beautiful animals were more than dollar signs to him. They were noble steeds with bloodlines that went further back than his own.
He spoke softly to each one, smiling when a whinny of recognition greeted him. They were muscle and sinew and most of all—heart. Ever since he was a boy, he had loved the sights and sounds and smells of the horse barn. As an adult, he was fortunate to make his living working with these creatures. Though he would be reluctant to admit it, he grieved each time one of his prized stallions left the ranch.
An hour later, walking shoulder to shoulder with Jed down the streets of Royal—or what was left of them—he forgot all about Willowbrook. The random pattern of the destruction was hard to fathom. On one block, houses had been razed to the ground, no more than piles of rubble. But one road over, dwellings were untouched.
The west side of town was hardest hit; almost all of the businesses there a total loss. Smaller tornadoes had touched down across the county.
Drew had seen TV coverage of bad tornadoes. In his lifetime he’d personally witnessed a few storms that ripped up trees and tore off roofs. But nothing like this. Ever. The governor and his entourage had helicoptered in at daybreak and assessed the damage in preparation for a news conference. Faces from national news stations and The Weather Channel popped up everywhere. That, more than anything else, brought home the enormity of the disaster.
Royal was about to become famous for all the wrong reasons.
Earlier in the day, Jed had made contact with the point man for search and rescue. Now, he and Drew and a half dozen other members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club joined a team with canine support going from house to house looking for survivors. Thankfully, almost everyone had been accounted for by this point. While Drew and Beth had been trapped in the cellar the afternoon and evening before, the immediate rush to find missing and dead had been urgent and thorough.
Today was about making sure nothing was overlooked. Sometimes the elderly had no one to raise a red flag if they went missing. And they might be too weak to cry out for help. Hence, the careful attention of a half dozen teams working a grid system across the town.
Drew squatted in a sea of pink insulation and crumpled Sheetrock to pick up a lavender teddy bear, probably some little girl’s prized possession. He set it in a prominent place, hoping someone would find it.
Families were beginning the grim and heartbreaking task of sifting through what was left of their homes in an effort to reclaim valuables. National Guard units patrolled the hardest hit neighborhoods, discouraging looting.
Royal was a great place to live and raise a family, but in situations of chaos, the occasional vermin crawled out to prey on others’ misfortune.
By the time the sun hung low in the sky, Drew was beat. He and Jed grabbed a burger at a restaurant offering free dinners to rescue personnel. They stood outside to eat, in full view of what was left of Town Hall. Almost all of the three-story building had been leveled. Only a portion of the clock tower still stood, the hands of time perpetually frozen at 4:14.
Drew’s stomach knotted. He tossed the last half of his meal in a trash receptacle and stared at the eerie scene. It was painful remembering where he and Beth had been at the moment they heard the sirens. Why had they been spared when others had not?
It was one of those questions with no answer.
He turned his back on the tragic scene and rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes. Jed’s light touch on his shoulder startled him.
“You doin’ okay, big brother?”
Drew nodded automatically, but inside he wondered if anything would ever be okay again. “Yeah.”
Jed rolled his neck. “A bunch of the TCC guys and gals are going to meet at the club first thing in the morning for another follow-up meeting.”
“Good idea.” Jed lived in Dallas and was a part of that branch of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. He was only visiting Royal for the moment, but he knew most of the same people Jed knew. Unfortunately, he’d picked a hell of a time to come. Drew was glad to have him around.
“I ran into Gil Addison while you were talking to the fire chief. Gil has been coordinating the whole thing. He wants to ensure that we’re pooling resources and maximizing relief efforts.”
“Makes sense.” Gil owned a thriving ranch south of town and had been TCC president for two years. Drew checked his watch. “I promised Beth we’d get her house secure before tonight. We’d better head back.”
“Suits me. There’s going to be plenty to do tomorrow.”
* * *
Beth couldn’t wait to see Drew again. When he wandered into the kitchen, she could see from his expression that the work today had been heartbreaking and difficult.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
“Jed and I got a burger in town.”
“You want some dessert? Mrs. Simmons made apple pie.”
“Maybe later. We need to get out to your place.”
She nodded. “Your foreman has been so kind. He’s already loaded everything we’ll need into the back of your truck.”
“Jed’s going to help me. You don’t have to go. It might be dangerous.”
She frowned. “It’s my house.”
“Fine,” he said, his tone resigned. “Be out front in five minutes.”
Beth grabbed a jacket and a flashlight. Despite what Drew had said that morning, she planned to recover a few valuables. She lived out in the country, but even so, she didn’t like the idea of her home being vulnerable to anyone who chose to intrude. Drew was used to being obeyed. That much was clear. But he would have to get over it. Accepting his help did not mean letting him boss her around.
He climbed behind the wheel of his huge truck, leaving Beth and Jed to enter from the other side. Beth found herself sandwiched between two handsome Farrell males. Both men carried an air of exhaustion. She decided then and there not to deliberately provoke Drew.
He had been out working, while she had enjoyed the luxury of a wonderful nap tucked beneath a fluffy comforter, resting on sheets soft as a whisper. The bed Drew had chosen for her was huge and comfy and decadent. Did he have any thought of sharing it with his guest at some point in the future?
Her focus changed entirely as they traveled the relatively short distance between the two properties. Not a word was spoken in the cab of the truck as they witnessed the storm’s track. It had effectively ripped a trail along the private road, turning abruptly to power over Beth’s property and head toward town.
As they parked in front of her house and got out, the memories of the tornado came rushing back. It’s over, she told herself repeatedly, but still her knees knocked and her stomach pitched.
She touched Drew’s arm, her gaze beseeching. “I’d like to get my computer and pack a few clothes. If I go in through the side that’s not damaged, I’m sure it will be fine.”
He glanced back at Jed. “I’ll stay with her. Do you mind sorting out the supplies? We’ll do the tarps in a few minutes.”
Jed nodded. “No problem.”
Beth’s house was small, but even so, it was almost unbelievable to see what was damaged and what was not. The back of the house was relatively unscathed. One broken window...a few shingles missing. The bedrooms were habitable. At the front of the house, the small living room wasn’t in bad shape except where a piece of lumber had punctured the vinyl siding. But the kitchen was a mess. The tornado had ripped apart one quarter of the house, shattering crockery and literally plucking off the roof and twisting it into an unrecognizable mess.
Standing in what used to be the doorway to her kitchen, Beth lifted her shoulders and let them fall. “Well,” she said, forcing words from a tight throat. “I needed new appliances anyway.”
Drew took her hand and tugged her backward to a safer part of the house. “Don’t go in there, please. Anything could fall on your head. And Beth....” He trailed off, his expression troubled.
“What?”
“Just because the rest of the home seems intact doesn’t mean that it is. It’s entirely possible that the house was momentarily lifted off its foundation. Which means you may have structural damage that could result in leaks or other problems. I don’t want to upset you, but it’s better to assume the worst and then be happy if it turns out not to be as bad as we think.”
He was right, of course. But hearing it laid out logically did nothing to lessen the impact of what had happened. She had worked so hard for this house. It was more than four walls and a roof. It was a symbol of all she had overcome. Seeing it in shambles broke her heart.
With Drew hovering, she quickly packed a bag with as many clothes as she could grab. Other than her computer and some pieces of jewelry, the only things worth stealing were her television and Blu-ray player. She sincerely doubted anyone would go to the trouble to drive out here and take electronics, so she left the living room as it was. As she handed off her small suitcase to Drew, it occurred to her that theft might be the least of her worries. What was going to happen when it rained? The tarps were surely a short-term solution.
Clearly, she wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding her jangled emotions. Drew hugged her with his free arm. “I know it seems overwhelming, but I’ll help you get things back together. Contractors, plumbers.... whoever else you need. You do have insurance, right?”
“Yes, thank God. And I think it’s pretty good. But I’ve never had to use it.”
“C’mon,” he said. “It’s almost dark. We have to string up the tarps while we can still see.”
They carried her things out to the truck and put them in the jump seat. Jed had already untangled ropes and unfolded three enormous sheets of heavy plastic. Beth leaned against the hood and watched as her Good Samaritans struggled and cursed and finally managed to get the first tarp in place. Gradually they encased the broken portion of the house in a shroud of overlapping layers.
It wasn’t airtight. And it wouldn’t keep out varmints, animal or otherwise. But hopefully it would protect her personal belongings from the weather. If she had to, she would rent a storage unit and move her things out of the house until the repairs were done. Since most of her furniture was thrift shop in origin, she wasn’t too worried.
Darkness closed in on them. As Drew and his brother tied off the last corners and used duct tape to secure vulnerable spots, Beth wandered over to the storm cellar. Squatting, she opened one side of the double doors. Without wind to contend with, it was as easy as raising a window. Nothing was visible down below. But she remembered. She would always remember.
* * *
Drew lowered the ladder and shoved it into the bed of the truck. His eyes were on Beth. She seemed so alone, it made his chest hurt.
Jed tossed a canvas bag of supplies on top of the ladder. “So what’s the deal with you and Beth Andrews?”
Still watching Beth, Drew shrugged. “We’re neighbors. That’s all.”
“C’mon, Bro. I wasn’t born yesterday. This thing you two have between you is more than surviving a tornado.”
Drew shot his brother a disgusted look. “Have I butted in about you and Kimberly? Drop it, Jed.”
“Fair enough. But be careful. Sometimes women mistake kindness for something else. It wouldn’t be fair to lead her on.”
“One budding relationship in your pocket and suddenly you’re an expert. Get over yourself. I can handle my love life without your help.”
Jed grinned smugly. “Who said anything about love?”
Muttering under his breath, Drew strode over to where Beth stood looking at the mass of metal and tires that had once been her car. “I’ve got an old rattletrap of a pickup out at the house,” he said. “We use it sometimes to run errands on the ranch. But you’re welcome to it for as long as necessary.”
Finally, she faced him. “I hate taking charity,” she said, her gaze stormy. “I’m already staying in your house. This is too much.”
“What does it matter, Beth? It’s not your fault the tornado struck here. It’s a whim of fate or whatever you want to call it.” He felt guilty that his place had been mostly spared. He would do whatever he could to help rebuild Royal. And he would start with Beth’s little bungalow.
It was so dark now he could barely see her face. “Let’s go.” She allowed him to take her arm and steer her toward the truck, but he knew she was struggling to deal with the blow to her life, her livelihood, her dreams.
As they pulled up in front of Willowbrook, Jed excused himself and walked away. Drew helped Beth down from the truck, his hands lingering a second longer than was necessary at her narrow waist. “I think I’m ready for that pie now. You want to join me? We can take it in the den and watch some TV.”
Beth nodded. “Sure.”
The kitchen was dark, the housekeeper gone for the night. But she had left the pie front and center on the table. Drew grabbed a couple of plates and cut two big slices. Beth looked askance at hers. “Seriously?”
He grinned at her, feeling the stress of the day melt away. “You’re still catching up on calories. It won’t hurt you. Besides, you know you’re a knockout.”
She blinked twice as if his words had shocked her.
Taking the can of topping, he spritzed both desserts with a fancy swirl. Since Beth was still mute, he dared to tease her. “Maybe when we know each other a little better, I’ll let you use the whipped cream.”
“In your dreams,” she shot back.
But he had made her smile.
They carried their plates to the comfy den. Drew lowered the lights to a gentle glow and sat down on the sofa with a sigh of contentment. Beth took a seat beside him, but at the other end. They both kicked off their shoes and propped their feet on the coffee table.
Someone had already built a fire in the fireplace. Everyone on Drew’s staff knew that as soon as the thermometer dropped below fifty for the first time in the fall, he wanted firewood and matches ASAP. It was a comfort thing to him, not so much for warmth as for the sound and smell. The pop and crackle—and the scent of burning wood. Fires reminded him of happy times with his dad...the many occasions the older Farrell had taken Jed and Drew camping in the Texas hill country.
The silence in the room was comfortable. He and Beth ate pie in harmony. It was, perhaps, a temporary détente, but he was content to enjoy the moment. Now that he was seated, the full weight of exhaustion rolled over him. Between the sleepless night and the hard, emotionally draining work in Royal today, his body felt battered.
He finished his dessert and set the plate aside. Closing his eyes, he let his head drop back against the sofa.
Beth’s voice caught him just as he hovered on the edge of sleep. “How bad was it in town?”
Not bothering to move his body, he turned his head to look at her. “Bad. As bad as I’ve ever seen in person.”
Beth was pale, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. “What did you and Jed do today?”
“Helped with the search and rescue teams. The houses we went to were all empty, but I heard that one of the crews this afternoon found a mom and two kids trapped in a bathtub with a mattress over them. They’d been yelling for help off and on for hours. But with their house crumpled on top of them, it took the dogs to sniff them out.”
“But they’re going to be okay?”
“Yes, thank God.”
“I want to go with you tomorrow,” she said.
“I understand. And there will be plenty of stuff to help with. But I’ll come back for you after lunch. Jed and I have a meeting at the Cattleman’s Club in the morning. Did you call the building inspector I told you about?”
Beth didn’t seem entirely pleased. “I did, but I feel bad about it. Jumping to the head of the line seems rude.”
“It’s not rude at all. That’s what friends do.”
“But he’s not my friend.”
Drew sat up, rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. Was he doomed to surround himself with stubborn women? He counted to ten. When he thought he had his temper under control, he glared at her. “I know you’re an independent woman. I know you can take care of yourself. But why not let me smooth the path when I can? I guarantee that if you try to find an inspector on your own, your house will sit there for a long time. Half of Royal is going to be in the same boat.”
* * *
Beth felt the pinch of shame. Drew was only trying to help. And she was being less than gracious. “I’m sorry,” she said stiffly. Her mother had raised two kids on government assistance, leaving Beth with an aversion to asking for or taking help. “You’re right. I’ll be happy to meet with him. Thank you.”
The sharp planes of Drew’s masculine face softened. He reached across the cushioned no-man’s-land between them and twined his fingers with hers, playing with the silver ring on her right hand. “Now, was that so hard?”
She managed a smile though she was distracted by the curve of his mouth and the way his sexy, humorous grin left her breathless. She tugged her hand away. “It must be gratifying to be able to hand out help without thinking of the consequences.”
Now he frowned. “Why does that sound like an insult?”
“I wasn’t being sarcastic. I’m serious. You have the means to help people without worrying about the bottom line. I imagine you find that rewarding.”
He released her and returned to his earlier position. Perhaps her impulsive statement had offended him.
Shaking his head in what appeared to be disgust, he frowned. “I won’t apologize for having money.” The words were flat. “If you weren’t so stubborn, and if you would let yourself think outside the box, you might realize that our dispute over the road could be handled in a way that would help your bottom line immensely.”
This time the silence that descended was awkward. He had shut her out deliberately. Maybe she had not been entirely truthful about her lack of sarcasm. It was possible she had some passive-aggressive issues to work through when it came to the inequity between their lifestyles. But if he thought he could buy her automatic compliance, he was mistaken.
Drew was champagne and Rolex and jetting to Paris. Beth drank tap water, used the clock on her cheap flip phone and had never been outside of Texas. Was it any wonder that she felt at a disadvantage when it came to dealing with a macho, Texas-born-and-bred billionaire?
“May I ask you something?” she said, wanting to get inside his head and understand what made him tick.
His gaze was wary. “I suppose.”
“When we were in the storm cellar, you started to tell me something about your engagement, but I cut you off. I’d really like to hear what you were going to say.”
He shrugged. “It’s not anything noteworthy.”
“Then tell me.”
He linked his hands behind his neck, staring into the fire. “Her name was Margie. We met at an equine convention in Dallas. Shared a few laughs. Tumbled into bed. We had a lot in common.”
Beth pondered his response for several long seconds. “And that was enough for an engagement?”
“We went back and forth seeing each other for six months. Her condo in Houston. My place here in Royal. By the end of the seventh month, it seemed like the right time to settle down. Start a family. So I proposed. She was pleased that I asked.”
“No grand passion?”
“I wouldn’t call it that. No.”
“Ah.”
“We made it a couple of months with a ring on her finger before the problems began to crop up. She was stubborn. Extremely bull-headed.”
“And so are you.”
“Exactly. We locked horns about everything. If I said the sky was blue, she said it was green. Soon, every time we ended up in bed turned out to be for make-up sex.”
“Some couples thrive on that.”
“Not me. I started to realize that I had made a huge mistake.”
“So what happened?” Beth was curious, more than she cared to admit.
Drew inhaled sharply, letting the breath out slowly. “I introduced her to a buddy of mine. Deliberately. He was from Houston. A handsome, charming veterinarian. They hit it off. Six weeks later she gave me back my ring.”
“Ouch.”
“But don’t you see? That was what I was after. People showered me with sympathy over my “broken” engagement. I felt like a complete and utter fraud.”
He turned away, perhaps already regretting his honesty. “So now you know my dirty little secret.”
Several minutes passed in silence as Beth tried to analyze her confusing response to his tale. Jealousy? Relief? Sympathy? Eventually, a slight noise alerted her to a change in the status quo. Drew had fallen asleep. Poor guy.
In slumber he seemed slightly less intimidating. She studied him intently, trying to see through the handsome package to the man beneath. For months he had harassed her about selling her property to him. Even yesterday, he had approached her with fire in his eyes. But in the midst of incredible danger, he had taken control in the best possible way and made the experience of surviving a killer tornado bearable.
His dark lashes fanned out against his tanned cheeks. The broad chest that rose and fell with his regular breathing was hard and muscular. Below his belt, a taut, flat abdomen led to long legs and sock-clad feet.
Part of her was disappointed that the evening had so obviously ended. Her attraction to Drew made her want to spend time with him. But the snarky, inner Beth said danger, danger, danger. A girl could get her heart broken by a man like Drew Farrell.
She wondered what had happened to Jed. Drew told her he was visiting from Dallas. But the man was like a phantom. If he was in the house tonight, he was keeping to himself. Too bad. It would certainly help to have a third party around. Someone who might be able to keep Beth and Drew from either strangling each other or tumbling into bed without weighing the consequences.
A gentle snore from the man on the couch made her smile in spite of her unsettled emotions. Drew was out for the count. He would probably sleep better in his own bed, but Beth definitely didn’t feel comfortable poking his leg and suggesting that he move. In lieu of that, she stood quietly, removed the fire screen, and added a couple more logs to the blaze.
Warming her hands, she studied the dancing flames. Already, she felt the pull of Willowbrook Farms. It was a warm, welcoming place, something she had never experienced growing up. She’d never slept on the street, but a home was more than brick and mortar. A home meant security and comfort. Beth and her brother had battled uncertainty and fear more times than not.
Shaking off the bad memories, she turned for one last wistful look at her would-be benefactor. She couldn’t afford to depend on Drew. She’d already had one man give her a helping hand. But at least back then, she’d been a broke college student, so there was some basis for taking what had been a huge gift.
Now, she was an adult woman who paid her bills on time and took care of herself. If she weakened and let Drew do too much, her self-respect would become an issue. Not only that, but there was a good chance he was trying to soften her up. Maybe he thought if she were beholden to him it would be easier to sway her to his way of thinking. Because she was attracted to him, the situation was even more fraught with pitfalls. If and when the two of them ever pursued what she now knew was a definite spark, she wanted a level playing field. A relationship of equals.
Unfortunately, that was never going to happen. No matter how you spun the fantasy, she didn’t belong in Drew’s world. She was the girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
