Читать книгу The Doctor Wore Boots - Debra Webb - Страница 9

What the devil had he done?

Reality crashed down around Dex Montgomery as he stood in the designated pick-up area at Gallatin Field Airport in Bozeman, Montana. Ty had told him where to wait for his ride, and someone from the Cooper clan would pick him up.

Dex swallowed hard, his head aching from one Scotch too many. It was the first time in his entire life he could recall having too much to drink and a hangover all in the same afternoon. But now, as the grim reality of his actions settled around him, he knew today was not like any other he’d experienced in his thirty-two years. He doubted his life would ever be the same again.

The Gucci briefcase, Louis Vuitton garment bag, and state-of-the-art cellular phone he’d left home with just four days ago were now in the possession of a virtual stranger. A stranger who was his twin brother, who, in another hour or so, would be climbing into his limo and riding to his home to meet his family.

What the hell was he doing here?

Dex dropped the army-style duffel bag belonging to Ty Cooper to the ground. He tugged at the collar of the unstarched shirt he now wore and attempted to straighten the off-the-rack jacket. It was very obvious to Dex that his brother had absolutely no taste in clothing. The jeans were criminally worn and far too tight for comfort. The boots—Dex shook his head—had definitely seen better days. Though he doubted that even in mint condition he would have cared for the unnaturally high-arched footwear. He tried not to think about the cowboy hat perched atop his head. The urge to remove it was almost more than he could restrain.

Didn’t cowboys keep their hats on at all times?

What had possessed him to change clothes with another man, brother or not, in an airport rest room?

Temporary insanity. It was the only possible explanation. Stress had finally taken its toll. George, his valet, friend and confidant, had warned him that he was pushing too hard, working far too many hours. But Dex had refused to listen. He had to prove his worth, couldn’t risk disappointing his grandfather. He was thirty-two, for Pete’s sake. He had mountains to climb and oceans to cross. His mark to make.

He had lost his mind. Here he stood, in the middle of nowhere, when he should be dictating correspondence, crunching numbers, planning takeovers. His grandfather counted on him, trusted him unconditionally.

He couldn’t do this.

One telephone call would end this ruse here and now.

Dex grabbed the bag he’d abandoned on the ground and pivoted toward the airport entrance. This was a bad idea. Surely there would be another flight out of here sometime tonight. At the moment he really didn’t care where it was going, as long as it took him back to a more recognizable form of civilization.

“Ty!”

A vehicle screeched to a halt behind him.

“Ty! Over here!” a feminine voice shouted.

Dex froze. Ty. His transportation had arrived. Dex swore under his breath. He should just keep walking without looking back. But then he’d never know…

Slowly, his head throbbing with frustration and the lingering effects of alcohol, he turned and faced step two of his self-created nightmare.

A young woman waved from behind the wheel of an old pickup truck. “Sorry you had to wait!” she called. She leaned across the seat and opened the passenger-side door. “I didn’t know until an hour ago that I would be coming to pick you up.”

Blond hair, blue eyes—she was very young, twenty-two or three maybe. Dex frowned, searching his memory banks for the name that went with the face. Leanne. Leanne Watley. Neighbor. Family friend. The kid-sister type, Ty had said.

“I got here as fast as I could,” she hastened to add when he continued to simply stare at her. “Come on. Gran’s holding supper until I get you home. They’ve got a big celebration planned for your return.”

Somehow his feet moved. Dex wasn’t exactly sure how he managed the monumental task considering his brain felt paralyzed with uncertainty, but he took the necessary steps just the same.

He slid onto the ragged bench seat and awkwardly settled the big duffel onto his lap. He couldn’t imagine what possessed people to drive vehicles like this. There was no place to put anything. And the seat was most uncomfortable.

Leanne laughed. “You can put that in the back. It’s not raining.”

The back. “Of course.” His face heated. He wasn’t usually so inept. As he climbed out of the vehicle, Dex hoped she couldn’t see the level of disorientation afflicting him. His movements felt jerky, his ability to think nonexistent. He placed the worn bag into the bed of the truck and settled back into the passenger seat. He closed the door and offered her a strained smile. “Thank you.”

She frowned, just the slightest creasing of her smooth brow. “I guess you’re really tired. I’m sorry you had to wait for a ride.”

“Your delayed arrival was completely understandable,” he assured her. “Considering the unexpected change in my return itinerary, your reaction time was quite acceptable.”

Her eyes widened with something that looked very much like worry. “Are you all right, Ty? You sound a little…strange.”

Dex realized his mistake immediately. He was Ty Cooper now. Looking like him wasn’t enough, he had to speak and act like him as well.

“Jet lag,” he offered as much to his surprise as to hers. Could one actually acquire jet lag on a short jaunt that only crossed one time zone?

She nodded. “Oh.”

By the time they left Bozeman behind, the sick feeling in the pit of Dex’s stomach had escalated to a near-intolerable level. He shifted restlessly, peering out the window. How long before they would reach the ranch? How could he possibly fool Ty’s grandparents? This would never work. He should just demand that she turn around right now and take him back to the airport. Instead, he reviewed over and over again the information Ty had relayed to him regarding his family and the layout of the ranch. He reminded himself again to use his left hand as much as possible. Ty was a lefty.

“How’d the meeting with those investors go?” she asked, breaking the long, awkward silence.

Dex jerked back to attention. “Excuse me?”

“Are you sure you’re feeling all right?” She looked at him with that genuine concern again.

“Yes, yes,” he assured her. “I’m fine. The meeting went…was okay…I guess.” He’d forgotten to ask Ty why he was in Chicago. She’d said investors. “I won’t know anything for a few days,” he added for good measure. That was typical. Investors made lots of promises, but the real story was revealed much more slowly. If Ty had begun some sort of deal, only time would tell if it was a good one or not.

Leanne sighed. “That’s too bad. I know you were hoping to have news when you got back.”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah. I was.”

He glanced at the young woman behind the wheel. What was she thinking? Had she seen through him already? Worry twisted inside him. If he couldn’t get through a few simple questions from a neighbor without making her suspicious, how on earth would he fool the Coopers?

“I know how much this deal means to you, Ty,” she went on, worry weighting her voice. “But maybe it’s like your pa said. Maybe you’ll just have to be happy with things the way they are. It’s not like you don’t have enough buyers to keep your ranch going. The Circle C has provided high-quality beef to its customers for three generations now.”

The cattle market. So that was the kind of investors Ty had gone to the city to meet. Dex was somewhat familiar with the distressed American market. Foreign beef had made a big comeback in the United States recently, a huge surge from the past couple of years when disease had wrought such devastation for European countries. Was Ty trying to increase the reach of his own ranch’s production? That sounded reasonable to Dex. He’d have to ask Ty about that or risk making a wrong step.

“I’d like to go to Chicago sometime,” Leanne said wistfully, drawing Dex’s attention in her direction. She huffed, her gaze steady on the endless ribbon of blacktop that lay before them. “I’ve never even been out of the state. I don’t know why I’m fretting over Chicago. I doubt I’ll ever be going there.”

Dex looked at her then, really looked at her. She was quite attractive. She wore no makeup as far as he could tell, but she didn’t need any. She looked vibrant, healthy. That notion sent the corners of his mouth tilting upward for some reason he couldn’t understand. She was nothing like the women he knew. Oh, and young. He almost asked her age, but caught himself just in time. Ty would know how old she was. Young, that was certain. Too damned young.

“You should go sometime,” he suggested. “Life is short, make the most of it.”

“I don’t see that happening,” she said regretfully. Her gaze locked onto his as she slowed to make a right turn onto a gravel road. In that infinitesimal moment something electric passed between them. Startled, she looked away.

Startled himself, Dex gave his head a little shake. What the hell was that? He was disoriented, that’s all. He’d be fine as soon as he—

As soon as he what? There was no way he was going to be fine. He was in the middle of nowhere with strangers. Worst of all he was pretending to be someone he’d only just met.

This whole idea had sounded much more doable before he’d sobered up.

Miles of nothing stretched before him as well as behind him. In the time since they’d left the city of Bozeman, they had encountered highway and mountains, nothing more.

A blue sky, fading slowly into dusk, looked almost low enough to touch. Dex couldn’t recall ever feeling this close to the heavens before. He scrubbed a hand over his face. The disorientation was clearly turning to delusions. This was bad. Very bad.

She turned right again, this time onto a long winding dirt road. The sun barely hovered above the mountaintops in the distance. Acres and acres of fenced pasture yawned on either side of the rough road. Cattle grazed serenely on the lush carpet of green grass.

Around the next bend in the road, a sight that Dex would not soon forget appeared before him. A two-story sprawling ranch house stood against the breathtaking backdrop of majestic mountain ranges. A barn right off the pages of a New England calendar lay in the distance, as did other not-readily-identifiable structures. A corral he recognized from its circular design encompassed a large area near the barn. His gaze shifted back to the house. It was the house that held the place of honor among nature’s and man’s embellishments. With the authenticity of a perfect reproduction from the set of an old black-and-white Western movie, the house looked homey, inviting.

“Home sweet home,” he murmured as his heart rate increased, sending adrenaline surging through his veins.

“Yessiree Bob,” Leanne agreed.

She smiled, a gesture that sent a spear of heat straight through him. Were all the women out here so innocent-looking and apparently sweet?

“Come on, they’ll be waiting.”

She got out, skirted the hood and reached in back for his bag before he had the presence of mind to react.

Dex wrenched the door open and all but fell out of the truck. “I’ll get that,” he insisted, grappling for his equilibrium and at the same time reaching for the heavy duffel. She was certainly stronger than she looked.

“Gran fixed your favorite for supper,” she told him with another of those wide, sincere smiles.

He nodded, but hoped to God he could bow out of dinner, er, supper. He wasn’t ready to play Ty Cooper to a larger audience just yet. And he didn’t have a clue what Ty’s favorite meal was supposed to be. Surely the Coopers would understand that he was exhausted after his trip and required an early retirement this evening.

Dex followed Leanne up the steps to the wooden porch that spanned the front of the house. A low growl froze him in his tracks. His eyes widened when his gaze sought and found the source of the sound. A dog. A large, rather fierce-looking animal that appeared poised to lunge at him. Dex had no experience with dogs to call upon. Grandmother Montgomery had allergies. Pets had never been allowed in the Montgomery residence.

“Lady,” Leanne scolded. “Why would you growl at Ty? Just because he took a trip without you?” she said in that child-like tone adults took when speaking affectionately to children or animals. “He’s only been gone a week. Now you be a good girl. You know better than to misbehave.” She scratched the big animal, which Dex now recognized as a golden retriever, behind the ears.

“You should recognize me, Lady,” he put in when Leanne looked up at him as if she expected some sort of reaction. He certainly wasn’t about to reach down and touch the animal.

Leanne gave Lady’s head one final pat. The dog lumbered away, then dropped onto the porch as if too tired or disgusted to pursue the situation further.

“Looks like you’re not the only one feeling out of sorts this evening.”

Dex feigned a laugh. “Jet lag,” he repeated.

Leanne stared at him for one long moment. “Yeah. Maybe I don’t want to go to Chicago if flying is that tough on you.” She opened the front door and entered the house as if she lived there.

No locked door. No knock first. Dex would have been appalled at the Coopers’ lack of security measures had his heart not been pounding like a drum in his chest. He had to find a way out of this. He would never fool these people.

“We’re here!” Leanne shouted as she wandered down the hall.

“Welcome home!”

Dex jerked to an abrupt stop in the middle of the hall. The duffel thunked to the hardwood floor. What looked like a dozen people, of varying sizes and ages, all beaming smiles, and heading for him, crowded into the entry hall. A big banner reading Welcome Home! draped from one wall to the other. One would think that Ty had been gone for months.

An older woman, her gray hair in a tight bun, her hazel eyes shining with emotion, threw her arms around him first. “It’s good to have you back home, son.”

His Grandmother Cooper.

Dex opened his mouth to speak but no words formed. He felt suddenly overwhelmed with unfamiliar emotions as those slim, frail arms tightened around him.

A strong hand clapped him on the back even before the older woman released him. “Take that hat off, young man.”

Dex turned to greet the man who’d spoken. Tall, slim, thinning gray hair, brown eyes. Dex dragged the hat from his head and dropped it on a nearby table. “Pa,” he offered, the single-syllable word steeped in too many emotions to sort. This was his mother’s father.

The older man slung an arm around his shoulder and started down the hall, Dex in tow. “Come on, boy, supper’s waiting.” He paused and beamed a proud smile in Dex’s direction. “We’re glad you’re home, son.”

Everyone started talking at once then. Dex lost track of the number of times his journey was halted so that he could be hugged and welcomed home. His Grandmother Cooper insisted that Leanne stay for supper. For some reason he couldn’t begin to understand, he was glad she agreed to stay. He’d analyze that bit of irony later.

Right now it took all his powers of concentration to watch his step. Especially since three small children all but clung to his legs as he followed the crowd into the dining room. He felt certain his back would be bruised considering all the hearty poundings he’d taken from the male Coopers. For these people, outward displays of affection were apparently a way of life.

The dining table was long, like the one in his home back in Atlanta, only this one was a rustic country style, the tabletop scarred from years of everyday use. The heavy stoneware dishes bore the same worn appearance and spoke of both hard times and good times, neither of which were forgotten or taken for granted.

The elder Coopers occupied the head positions at the table. Leanne sat across from Dex next to Angelica, the five-year-old daughter of Ty’s adopted brother Chad. Chad and his wife also sat on that side. Next to Dex was Chad’s older brother Court, his wife, and their four-year-old twin boys. At least he hoped he had the right name with the right brother.

Ty had explained that Court and Chad were the sons of Grandmother Cooper’s younger sister who had died years ago, leaving the boys alone in the world since their father had already passed away. The Coopers had gladly taken in the boys, adopting them and rearing them as Ty’s brothers. Dex suddenly wanted to know what that sort of love was like. That kind of family bond. Though he knew his grandparents in Atlanta loved him, it wasn’t the same.

“So, did you have a pleasant trip?” Grandmother Cooper asked as she offered a platter of steaks to Dex.

Dex stared at the enormous platter as he accepted it. Big, thick, juicy cuts of beef. He selected the smallest portion then passed the platter to Court. “It was…” How the hell was it? he wondered. “…as well as can be expected, I suppose,” he said noncommittally.

Grandfather Cooper snorted. “I told you not to get your hopes up, son. You’re just like your mother, always dreaming big dreams. But sometimes you just have to be satisfied with the way things are.”

Dex stared at the older man. Just like his mother. His mother’d had big dreams? What kind of dreams? He suddenly wanted to know.

“Enough of that,” Grandmother Cooper scolded when Dex was relatively sure his grandfather would have gone on. “Ty’s just gotten home. He can tell us about the business part of his trip tomorrow.”

She smiled at Dex and he had the abrupt, overwhelming feeling that it was exactly like seeing his mother smile. Before he could dwell further on the gesture a bowl of green beans was thrust under his chin. Dex peered down at the clearly overcooked vegetable. The whole meal was a ticket to an early grave. Green beans, cooked with what appeared to be a hunk of meat consisting totally of fat, steak, potatoes brimming with golden butter, and a slab of cornbread that looked as though it could keep them all fed for a week. The kind of meal the Montgomerys avoided at all costs.

Not a single lettuce leaf was in sight.

Dex surveyed the large group gathered around the table. Hadn’t any of them heard about eating healthy? Without warning, something hit him square in the chest. A green bean lay on the table, a greasy spot just above the fourth button soiled the tan-colored shirt he wore.

Across the wide expanse of worn, but well-polished oak Angelica smiled innocently at him. Dex peered at her in confusion for a moment, then at the bean once more. Had she thrown it at him? He lifted his gaze back to her just in time to see her use her spoon to launch another one in his direction. This one hit high on his right shoulder.

Dex frowned, uncertain of what course of action he should take, if any. He hadn’t spent any time around children. He only knew that they were messy and cried a lot. This one appeared intent on the former. He scanned the other adult faces. All were engrossed in eating or some discussion about the ranch he probably wouldn’t have understood even if he’d been listening.

Just when Angelica, an evil grin plastered across her pretty little face, prepared to fire at him once more, her father’s hand closed over hers. “Stop that, young lady,” he said firmly.

Relieved, Dex relaxed. “She’s a pretty good shot, Court,” he offered conversationally.

Everyone stopped talking and stared at him. What had he done? The sound of blood roaring through his ears made the silence deafening. Had he made a mistake already?

And then he knew.

“Chad,” Dex amended, then shook his head. He’d called the man by the wrong name. Dex shrugged. “Jet lag,” he offered in explanation.

All nodded, some even laughed and seemed to be satisfied with that excuse. All but Leanne, who studied him inquisitively. Flashing her a strained smile, Dex focused on the food on his plate. He’d have to be more careful. His head was throbbing, his heart pounding. But he was here now. He might as well give this trading places thing a shot. There was no reason he couldn’t do it. He glanced at the child sitting across the table. She gave him one of those I’m-not-through-with-you-yet looks. Then again, maybe he couldn’t do it.

Had he lost his mind entirely? Dex slowly studied the people seated around the table. Uncertainty undermined his newly found determination. How in the world was he supposed to fool all of them? When his gaze settled on his Grandmother Cooper again she chose that precise moment to turn toward him. Another of those heartwarming smiles spread across her lovely face. This was why he was here. This was his opportunity to learn what kind of person his mother had been. To see pictures…to learn about her past.

And maybe to somehow understand how a family as seemingly loving and generous as this one could take one child and turn their back on the other.