Читать книгу Not Your Average Cowboy - Christine Wenger - Страница 11

Buck shook out the folded serape and picked out a couple of pillows that were positioned on the furniture.

He’d decided to sleep on the couch after all, just in case Cait had her usual nightmare. He wanted to be nearby. Karen usually handled nightmare detail, since his presence sometimes made things worse, but Meredith shouldn’t have to deal with it.

He also didn’t blame her if she didn’t exactly feel safe. After all, she was a city girl who didn’t know her way around a ranch or the desert.

With her big green eyes, shiny blond hair and designer everything, Meredith was a tenderfoot and totally out of her element. It wouldn’t be long before she was gone, and that was fine with him. Although he appreciated her help with Karen’s illness, and her attempt to be nice to Cait, he didn’t want her changing his ranch—his life—around.

Until he could put her back on a plane and get the time to work on his furniture—his plan to save the ranch from bankruptcy—he’d keep an eye on her, for his sister’s sake.

He supposed he owed Merry a debt of gratitude for coming to help. It wasn’t her fault that the ranch was going under. He’d tried like hell, but he couldn’t turn a profit. There had been too many unforeseen expenses after his parents had died. Because he’d wanted his brother and sisters to go to college, he did what he had to. He refinanced and took out loans. Because he wanted Caitlin to go to the best psychiatrists around, he took out more loans.

At this point in time, the Rattlesnake Ranch needed to diversify and not depend only on cattle. He’d hit the area banks and applied for more loans so he could buy a couple of bulls with a good track record that he could breed to some of his more outstanding cows. He also wanted to buy a half-dozen good bucking horses and some basic breeding equipment that he needed to get started. All his applications were denied. Bank after bank told him that he had too big of a debt load already.

Karen, Louise and Ty had insisted that something serious had to be done. Hell, Buck always thought that, too, which was why he wanted to get into rodeo-stock contracting.

Then Karen suggested the dude ranch thing, saying that the profits could go into paying off all the loans first. Then he could develop the rodeo-stock part of the operation.

That might happen if he lived long enough, but it wouldn’t happen in the year that he said he’d give them to make the dude ranch a success.

Already he couldn’t stand the thought of strangers living in his house. The ranch meant everything to him, much more than it did to his brother and sisters. Karen wanted her own nursery and flower shop in town. Louise had set her sights on being a corporate lawyer. Ty—well, Ty didn’t know what he wanted yet, but he definitely didn’t want to be stuck on the Rattlesnake much longer. Ty liked to roam.

Buck wanted to buy them out, and he was pretty sure they’d all want to sell. They just didn’t have the love of the land that he had. He knew that they were only sticking around because they felt that they owed him.

But they didn’t owe him anything. After the car accident in Florida that killed his parents, he just did what he had to do, plain and simple, and was glad to do it.

He’d been in the Army and assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, when he was called into the chaplain’s office and told that his parents had died. It had been his folks who’d encouraged him to take some time off from the ranch and see the world after he graduated, and when the Army recruiter came to his high school, he’d thought it was the perfect answer. He could see the world and serve his country while doing so. Mostly, though, all he ended up seeing was Fort Benning for a year as an assistant to the captain of Human Resources.

He’d received a hardship discharge from the Army and came home to take care of his brother and two sisters, even sending them all to college, just like his folks would have wanted. Now, to save the ranch, he’d had to go along with his siblings. He hated to do it, but his gallery sale wasn’t scheduled until six months down the road. He’d tried to stall things until then but was overruled, and the wheels started moving even before Karen had placed that call to Meredith. His sisters and Ty didn’t want to wait until the sale.

“Why bet against a sure thing?” Karen had asked.

The Rattlesnake Ranch was going to become the Rattlesnake Dude Ranch, and Buck was powerless to halt things at this point.

Porters had ranched this land since after the Civil War. He’d die before he sold to that lunatic Russ Pardee, who made him periodic lowball offers. Pardee probably already knew that a Southwest developer, the Jace Corporation, was interested in making a golf course and condos for the rich out of a chunk of the Rattlesnake, and he no doubt planned to turn Buck’s land over to them for a fat profit.

In the dim light, Buck scanned the family room. Everything in it held special memories for him. He remembered his mother painting all the pictures that were displayed. There was Ty riding his first horse. Louise, with her red hair flying, running barrels. Buck, his dad and Gramps fishing by the river. Karen potting flowers.

He remembered helping his dad put in the beehive fireplace around which the family gathered every night. Blankets, rugs and pottery made by their Pima Indian friends were displayed through the house.

He had to give Karen a lot of credit for playing the Meredith Turner trump card. He should be grateful that there was a way out, but he was going to be the laughing stock of Arizona when he opened his ranch to dudes. Russ Pardee would see to that.

Damn. His brain was going in circles. He wanted to get rid of Meredith so the dang-blasted dude ranch wouldn’t be a success, but that would be like kicking himself in the ass.

He needed to shut down and get some sleep, but he was finding that harder and harder to do with everything on his mind.

Now he had Karen to worry about. He wondered how his sister was doing over at the hospital. She’d looked so sick and pale. He knew she’d be okay after her surgery, but he hated for her to have to suffer all that pain. He said a quick prayer for her, tried to get comfortable on the couch, closed his eyes and hoped that sleep would come.

Merry awoke to the neighing of horses instead of the sound of honking traffic. She couldn’t remember where she was, but twisted tree branches were over her head.

Burrowed into her side on the bed was a little girl with light blond hair. Caitlin.

Cait had had a bad dream during the night, just as Buck had said she might. She’d been crying and whimpering in her sleep, and Merry remembered getting up and putting her arms around her. Then she’d lain down next to Cait in the tree bed.

Merry had pushed back Cait’s sweat-soaked hair, and in the girl’s sleepy state, she’d mumbled, “Mommy, why don’t you love me?”

Merry felt the tears stinging her own eyes. She remembered thinking the same thing when she was Cait’s age.

After Cait was quiet, Merry got up to go back to the futon. Then the girl had said, “Mommy, don’t go.”

Merry looked at the sleeping child. She had Buck’s jaw and maybe his nose. She definitely didn’t have his thick black hair. She wondered about Debbie, Buck’s wife. There weren’t any pictures of her in the house, and Karen hardly spoke of her.

Merry decided to get up and start breakfast. Carefully, she moved away from Cait so as not to wake her.

On her way to the kitchen, Merry stopped, startled by the sound of soft snoring. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw the massive form of Buck sleeping on the couch in the living room. His chest was bare and broad with just a hint of black hair. A blanket was draped—barely—across his middle and over one leg, but his other leg was exposed from his thigh on down.

Her fingers itched to touch the hard muscles of his chest and arms. She wanted to trace a path with the palm of her hand down his tight stomach and let it linger. Instead, she tucked her hands into the satin-lined pockets of her khaki pants and forced herself to steady her breathing, then she hurried to the kitchen.

The kitchen had always been her sanctuary.

She paused for a minute as she flipped on the light switch, wondering why Buck was intruding on her waking moments as well as her dreams.

It was more than a little unsettling to be so attracted to Buck. He wasn’t her type at all.

But who was her type? George and his kiss-and-telling to the tabloids had hurt her to the core. Before George, it’d been her assistant director, Mick.

Mick had charmed her in the hope that she’d make him director. After she’d given him her heart and soul, she’d come close to doing just that. Luckily, or unluckily, she’d caught him in a lip-lock with the studio’s receptionist.

She’d finally learned her lesson with George. She was going to be more careful than ever. In fact, she might forget about romance altogether.

Merry pushed all that to the back of her mind and flipped the switch to start the coffeemaker. She admired the bright Mexican tiles, and wondered if Karen’s mother had a hand in designing those, too. It was a great kitchen with yards of counter space and gleaming appliances.

Everything about the rambling ranch house was homey and comfortable. It had the feel of a close-knit loving family.

It was a shame to turn it into a dude ranch. This was a house meant for a family. Oh, sure, guests would feel warm and welcome, but the house wouldn’t speak to them like it spoke to her. It represented everything she’d never had growing up.

Cranking open the windows above the sink, she took in a deep breath of the cool morning air. Instead of the smell of Boston Harbor, Arizona had the scent of horses and something else…mesquite maybe, or sage.

Morning was her favorite time of the day. She loved to sit with a cup of coffee and watch as the world around her came to life.

She noticed that distant mountains looked like a lacy silhouette against the orange glow of the sky. At the base was a smoky layer of clouds that made the mountains look like they were floating. She knew that it was going to be hot soon.

As Buck kept reminding her, it was the desert.

The chirping of the birds surprised her. Back home, the squawking of the seagulls drowned out any other birds that might be nearby, but here in the desert, the birds were singing in several-part harmonies. It was all a glorious cacophony of sound, and right now it sounded better to her than the Boston Symphony.

She peeked into the refrigerator, looking forward to the prospect of cooking a big breakfast for Buck and Cait and maybe even the ranch hands. Instead of the pressure of testing recipes for her show and making sure everything was just perfect, she could cook for the fun of it, just like she had once upon a time. Before cooking became her gold mine, then her albatross.

As her eyes skimmed the contents of the refrigerator, her mind quickly sorted everything into various combinations of dishes. She could make several different quiches, or omelets, or even her ham-and-cheese scones.

Depending on when everyone usually ate, she might even have time to make her maple biscuits.

She wondered what Buck would want for breakfast. She figured him for the meat-and-potatoes type, nothing fancy, so he’d probably like eggs like rubber and bread that was carbonized. He’d want potatoes swimming in grease and onions and a hunk of artery-clogging meat. She could do that.

She glanced in the direction of the living room where Buck slept and wondered what, if anything, he had on under that blanket. She wanted another peak at him lying on the couch.

As if by magic, the door opened and Buck materialized. “G’morning.” He rubbed his closed eyes with the tips of his fingers. “I checked on Cait. She’s still sleeping.”

He ran his hands over his chest as if he was rubbing himself awake, and Merry couldn’t turn her eyes away. He wore only jeans, but a white, long-sleeved shirt hung around his neck, the same shirt he’d been wearing last night. He clearly wasn’t a morning person in the least, but he looked very male, from the top of his disheveled black hair to the bottom of his bare feet.

He yawned, then sniffed the air, his eyes still at half mast. “Coffee?”

“It’s not quite ready yet,” Merry answered. “Can I make you breakfast?”

The second his eyes focused on her, he froze and blurted, “I thought you were Karen.”

“Hospital.”

“Right.”

“How about breakfast?”

“Uh, no. I have to take care of the horses.” He crossed the room, bent over to grab his boots, then he hurried out the door.

Looking out the window, she saw Buck hopping as he pulled on his boots. He shrugged into his shirt and continued walking as he buttoned it. He let out a low whistle, and several horses that were in the corral moved toward the fence and hung their heads over it. Laughing, he petted their noses.

“I overslept, ladies and gents, but I’ll feed you now,” she heard him say.

The coffeemaker gave a final chug, and she decided to deliver Buck’s coffee to him at the barn and watch him feed the horses. Since she didn’t know how he took his coffee, she found a silver tray, draped a yellow-checked napkin over it, and set a creamer and sugar bowl on it along with a spoon and two mugs of coffee, one for him and one for her.

Tentatively, she walked out to the corral, ever alert for anything that crawled or slithered. She could feel every pebble under her feet, and knew for a fact that she should have packed some sturdy shoes rather than strappy Italian sandals.