Читать книгу The Rancher's Blessed Event - Stella Bagwell - Страница 10
ОглавлениеChapter Two
On the edge of a windswept break, Cooper reined the gray to a halt and gazed out at the snowy mesa floor. Many times in the past he’d ridden to this very spot where the sagebrush grew belly high to a horse and a lone pinon pine stood sentinel over the ranch below.
However, this morning Cooper felt no joy as he looked down at the home that had been in the Dunn Family for more than a hundred years. The Diamond D was not the same. Not physically nor spiritually and the knowledge saddened him greatly.
He hadn’t expected it to touch him like this. Hell, it had been years since he’d been on the place. He’d figured once he’d seen it again, the old ranch wouldn’t mean that much to him. After all, it had always been Kenneth’s baby. Their father had seen to that. William Dunn had never hidden the fact that of his two sons he considered Kenneth to be the better rancher. It was one of the main reasons Cooper had worked so hard to succeed at bronc riding. He’d never felt as if he really had a place of importance here on the ranch. Yet in spite of all that, it cut something deep inside him to see the home place like this. So shabby. So empty.
Pushing his coat collar up against the falling snow, Cooper nudged the gray down the bluff and back toward the house. Smoke was spiraling up from the old rock chimney, signaling him that Emily had just stoked up the fire.
Unconsciously his fingertips touched the spot on his jaw she’d slapped. The memory of her anger this morning put a wry smile on his lips. Emily was still Emily after all, and he wondered how she was going to react when he told her what he planned to do.
Almost a half hour later, Cooper found her in the living room in front of the fireplace. The rocking chair she sat in was an old oak one that had belonged to his mother. The back was high and the arms and legs carved. Though he’d never known his mother, others had told him the chair had been a favorite of Laura Dunn’s and it comforted Cooper somehow to see Emily in it now.
“The snow is getting heavier,” he said as he grew near her and the warm fire.
She glanced up from the blue jeans she was patching to see him shedding a heavy sheepskin coat. Snow still clung to his shoulders and the brim of his hat His nose and cheeks were reddened by the cold wind. She wondered why he’d bothered to go out on such a nasty morning.
“It’s only the end of October,” she replied. “I hope this isn’t a forewarning to what the rest of the winter is going to be like.”
Taking a seat in a stuffed armchair a few feet away from her, his eyes wandered over the room. Other than being run-down, it really hadn’t changed much in appearance, either. The ceiling was low and traversed with dark oak beams, the walls white plaster, the floor Spanish tile. The house was typical hacienda style and in its early years had once been regarded as a showcase. Now it needed money and a complete refurbishment. As did everything else he looked at on the place.
His eyes coming to rest on her face, he said, “I didn’t see much hay stacked away in the barn. Is that all you have?”
She nodded. “That’s it. Kenneth didn’t want to bother planting an alfalfa crop.”
His features twisted with confusion. “What the hell did he plan to feed this winter?”
Emily grimaced and placed her mending on the floor beside the rocker. “When our alfalfa ran out, he’d planned on buying more hay from Daddy. It would be cheaper that way. Especially with Daddy giving us a generous cut.”
“That doesn’t sound like Kenneth.”
Her expression both wry and sad, she glanced over at him. “No. Not the Kenneth you used to know.”
“For as long as I can remember the Diamond D raised its own alfalfa. It was one of the reasons why the ranch did so well.”
She looked back at the fire while thinking how ironic to hear Cooper repeating all the old arguments she’d given Kenneth. “I know. But the tractor has been giving us lots of problems. Kenneth figured by the time we fixed it, then counted the cost of fertilizer, labor and baling, we’d be better off not raising a crop of hay.”
Scooting to the edge of the chair, Cooper leaned toward her. “I’m going to tell you flat out, Emily. This place looks like hell. What’s been going on?”
Emily had figured that once daylight came, and Cooper had the chance to look around the place, he was going to be appalled. The ranch looked nothing like the one he’d known before he left for the rodeo circuit.
Rising from the rocker, she stood with her back to the warmth of the fire. “You’ve been here a few hours and you want to hear in one short explanation what’s happened to the ranch,” she said dryly.
Cooper’s gray eyes drifted up and down the length of her. She was a tall woman and from the looks of her, age hadn’t added any extra pounds to her slender frame. If anything, she appeared thinner. But it was difficult for Cooper to really tell much about her shape beneath the baggy jeans and sweater she was wearing.
“Do you not want to tell me? Or do you just not know? Which one is it?” he asked.
He sounded outraged and Emily stared at him in disbelief. “In the ten years you’ve been gone, you’ve never wondered or worried about the ranch’s condition. Don’t you think your display of concern is a little late in coming?”
Her sarcasm made Cooper want to go to her and shake her. But her fragile appearance stopped him. He got the feeling if he touched her, she just might break.
“Ever since Dad died, the Diamond D has been in Kenneth’s hands. That’s the way he wanted it,” he said quietly. “My brother would have never let it get in this condition without a reason.”
Lifting her eyes to the ceiling, Emily let out a long sigh. “A reason? Why not several reasons?”
“Okay. So there was more than one. Tell me.”
Her mind said she didn’t owe this man any explanations. He’d forfeited everything when he’d walked away. Yet when she looked at him, her heart interfered with her thinking. Kenneth had been his brother and this had been his home. It couldn’t be easy for him to find them both gone.
“Cooper, the ranch’s decline happened over years. Little by little Kenneth seemed to lose interest. And then all sorts of problems kept popping up, like broken-down vehicles, sick cows, bad weather. The list goes on. But I guess the plummeting price in the cattle market is what finally broke the place.”
His brows shot up. “The ranch is broke?”
She supposed that was hard for a man like him to imagine. Through the gossip grapevine and what little bit of sports news she caught on TV, she knew Cooper Dunn had made plenty of money these past ten years riding broncs in the PRCA. He was a champion, a celebrity figure in the world of rodeo. His finances had done nothing but grow.
“Let me put it this way. The ranch isn’t making money.”
“How many cattle are you running now?” he asked.
“A hundred and fifty head.”
The amount was so paltry she might as well as said none. He looked at her and the disgust on his face brought a flush of anger to her cheeks.
“I know it sounds and looks bad,” she told him, “but when you have a bad streak of luck—”
“You get up and fight back,” he interrupted hotly. “You don’t lose interest and you sure as hell don’t start drinking!”
“I didn’t do either of those things,” she retorted. “Nor do I plan to.”
But Kenneth had. She couldn’t have made it any plainer to him. But the ranch was still here. Barely. Cooper couldn’t let it die, too.
Rising from the chair, he went to stand beside her. She looked up at him as his shoulder came close to nudging hers and as Cooper searched her azure blue eyes he realized he’d forgotten nothing about this woman. Her honey pale skin, the length of her pert little nose, the curve of her full lips. Lips that he’d kissed whenever the urge had struck him. And the urge had struck him often. To his dismay, it still was.
“I was planning on leaving this evening. Along with the bronc riding, I’ve started competing in the team roping and I’m drawn in a rodeo in Arizona two days from now. But I’m not going.”
Aghast, she whispered, “Not going?”
Glancing away from her, he shook his head. Emily’s already jumpy stomach took a nosedive. “Why? I’m sure there’s several more rodeos for you to make between now and the National Finals in December.”
“Eight at least. But they’ll manage to go on without me.”
Maybe, Emily thought. But she wasn’t at all sure she could survive with him here. All she had to do was look at him and she remembered everything about him. The taste of his skin, the flash of his smile, the sweet bliss of his body next to hers. Oh God, it wasn’t right for her to think of such things with Kenneth barely gone. But she couldn’t stop herself. She’d never been able to stop herself.
Turning her gaze to the fire, she asked, “Why would you possibly want to stay? There’s nothing for you here.”
At one time Cooper had thought there was plenty for him here because she was here. He’d hoped and planned to eventually come back a rich man, a man worthy to be Emily’s husband. But she hadn’t waited. She’d married Kenneth instead. Even now, after all these years, the knowledge stabbed him deep and hard.
“Unless things have changed more than I know, I’m still part owner of this place,” Cooper stated coolly. “I have a right to see that my own property is taken care of. Or were you planning on selling it and moving into Ruidoso or somewhere else in this area?”
His question put a blank look on her face. “Sell?” she echoed. “I’d never do that. Besides, as you said, you’re half owner. I couldn’t sell without your consent.”
It really didn’t make any sort of sense, but it was a great relief to Cooper to hear her say she had no notions to sell the Diamond D. Selling would probably be the smart thing to do. She was a woman alone, without the funds to get the place going again. With what money they could get out of the property, she would have enough to start a new home somewhere and he could go on back to his rodeo life and not have the burden of the ranch on his mind.
But the Diamond D had always belonged to a Dunn. His father had been born here and he’d died here. So had his grandfather. The Dunn men had carved this ranch right out of Apache land. Back then, water had been as precious as gold and the Lincoln county range war had turned the desert plains into a bloody battlefield. It was even rumored that during those days of the 1870s, Cooper’s great-grandfather Dunn had rode with the great rancher, John Tunstall, and rubbed shoulders with Billy the Kid.
Whether that part of the family history was true or not, Cooper couldn’t really say. But he did know for more than a century, a Dunn had ranched this land. How could he walk away from that?
“Cooper, is that what you want? You want to sell the Diamond D?”
Her voice finally penetrated his deep thoughts. “I’m sorry,” he said, swiping a weary hand over his face. “Were you asking me something?”
She repeated her questions and he quickly shook his head.
“No. I don’t want to sell the ranch.”
Her mind spinning, Emily’s gaze clung to his hard face. “But you can’t want to stay here!”
His gray eyes cut down to hers and once again, memories swamped her. No man, including her husband, had gotten as close to her as Cooper had. When she’d been in his arms, the rest of the world had faded away. Nothing had mattered but him and having him close. If he stayed on the Diamond D she’d be so tempted...so crazy all over again.
“Why?”
“Because this isn’t the way you want to live! You’ve got a career. And anyway, I live here alone. It wouldn’t look...right if you were to stay in the house with me.”
His lips twisting with wry amusement, he went over to the window and glanced outside. “I don’t really see any neighbors out there watching us.”
“Don’t be flip. You know I have friends and family around here. They’ll all think it rather odd, don’t you think? A brother-in-law moving in with his freshly widowed sister-in-law.”
“Moving in,” he repeated with a snort. “You make it sound like we’re two lovers who can’t wait to set up housekeeping with each other.”
His sarcasm stung her and she shot him a disgusted look. “That’s exactly the way it will sound to everybody else, too!”
Turning his back on her, Cooper stared out the murky windowpanes. He could feel cold air seeping around the wooden window frames, but the draft did little to cool his thoughts. Why did she have to remind him of how it had been to love her? She was his brother’s widow and that’s the way it had to stay.
“I don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks!” he said sharply. “This is between you and me. Like it or not, we own this ranch together. And I don’t want to see it go under.”
If anyone could get the Diamond D going, Emily thought reluctantly, it would be Cooper. He might have been riding in the spotlight for the past ten years, but he knew ranching backward and forward. And from the looks of him, he had the energy to follow his ideas through. But what about the mental commitment? How long would it be before he was bored and ready to head back to Cheyenne or Calgary or San Antonio?
No, Emily decided. She didn’t want him here. Especially with the baby coming. For so long she’d desperately wanted a child and now that she was finally pregnant she wanted to focus all her energy on carrying a healthy baby to full term. Cooper’s presence would dredge up memories too painful to bear.
“I won’t let the Diamond D go under. I promise you that,” she told him.
He turned and stared at her. “What do you mean, you won’t let it? It’s already on its way.”
She flushed. “Not totally. I still have a hundred and fifty head of cattle and ten head of horses.”
His eyes quickly narrowed. “What about the horse that caused Kenneth’s accident?”
She shook her head. “Daddy’s already sold him.”
He was visibly relieved. “Good. I didn’t relish the idea of putting a horse down, but I would have.”
Emily shook her head with disapproval. “As if that would do Kenneth any good now. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A horse for a man. Is that your way of thinking?”
“Something like that.”
“I can’t imagine you laying one angry hand on a horse. You always loved them. And they you. I guess that’s why they’ve made you rich and famous.”
He walked toward her then and for a moment the smile spreading over his face made her forget he’d ever been gone.
“Who says I’m rich and famous?”
She shrugged, wishing she could keep quiet around this man. She didn’t want him getting the idea he’d been in her thoughts down through the years. “Oh, everyone here in Lincoln, I suppose.”
“Then everyone is wrong. I’m just one good cowboy out of many.”
More than bothered by his closeness, Emily stepped off the hearth and away from him. “I’m going to go make a pot of coffee. It’s nearly time for lunch and then I have to feed the cattle.”
“Who’s been doing your feeding?”
“My dad. But I told him not to come today. I want to take care of things myself and I can’t do that moping around the house.”
She didn’t look strong enough to drive a pickup, much less pitch a bale of hay off the back of it. But maybe her appearance was deceiving. Cooper certainly hoped that was the case.
He followed her out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. Built on the north side of the house, the room was naturally colder than the others. Rubbing his hands together, Cooper went over to a gas heater on the wall and was dismayed to see it wasn’t burning.
“Why don’t you have the fire on? It’s miserable in here,” he muttered.
As Emily filled a blue granite percolator with cold water, she glanced over her shoulder at him. “A fire means gas and the cost of LP is outrageous now. If you’re cold put more clothes on.”
Emily had always been a practical woman, but this was ridiculous. “Damn it all, Emily, do you think I can’t buy a tank of gas?”
He went over to the cabinets and jerked open a drawer he remembered being a catchall. Thankfully it still was and a box of matches was there among the odds and ends. He carried them back to the heater, lit it and turned the control knob to high position.
Her hands on her hips, Emily glared at him in silence. Cooper lifted his brows at her.
“I have on all the clothes I want to have on,” he said.
“You might own half of this ranch, but I’m the one who pays the bills. I’m not going to buy extra gas just so you can sit around dressed like you’re in the Bahamas.”
Cooper glanced pointedly down at his flannel shirt. “I haven’t seen too many of these on the beach before.”
Whirling her back to him, she poured a stiff amount of coffee grounds into the pot, then plopped the lid down and whammed the whole thing on a burner on the cookstove.
“Emily, I just told you I can pay for the gas. It’s no problem.”
“I’ll not have you paying for anything! Not while there’s breath in my body,” she hissed, her back still to him.
The venom in her voice stunned him. He’d expected her to be harboring a few bad feelings toward him. But not this bad.
“You’d rather freeze and keep your pride, I suppose,” he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “You’d rather sit around in a cold, drafty house and take the chance of getting bronchitis or pneumonia than take a few dollars from me.”
A few dollars wouldn’t fill the propane tank, Emily wanted to shout at him. It would take several hundred and he knew it. But now that he was so successful, maybe he considered that amount as next to nothing.
Turning, she lifted her eyes to his. “Look, Cooper, the minute you start paying part of the bills, you’ll get the idea you can tell me what to do. I won’t have that.”
He threw up his hands in a helpless gesture. “I can’t do anything for you, is that it?”
His voice was still edged with sarcasm, but she could hear something else in it, too. A need of sorts that made her heart want to weep. Ten years ago she would have given anything to have him concerned about her welfare. But he’d been too busy planning his own life and his own career. She’d been left high and dry and he’d never looked back until now. Did he honestly think she would want to accept anything from him after the pain he caused her?
Anger pushing her away from the cabinets, she went over to stand in front of him. “Buy the damn gas if you want. Just don’t start giving me orders, understand?”
Seeing her intention to walk away, he grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her back to him. Her bosom heaving, she glared up at him and tried to jerk away, but he wouldn’t slacken his hold.
“You’ve grown as hard as nails, Emily. Why? Has your life here been that bad?”
Compared to the grip he had on her arm, his voice was soft. The sound of it caught at something inside Emily and she knew above all things now, she had to hold on to her composure. She could never let herself break down and admit to him that her marriage to Kenneth had grown into a painful one.
“I’m not being hard, Cooper. I’m being realistic.”
His eyes gently roamed her upturned face and as they did he wondered what had happened to the soft, beautiful woman who dreamed and hoped and looked at life with stars in her eyes. And in that moment, he knew he’d give anything to see that woman again.
“I never thought I’d come back and find you like this,” he murmured.
She swallowed as bittersweet emotions balled in her throat. “I never thought you’d come back, period,” she countered.
Cooper didn’t profess to know women. Down through the years he’d had little time for the opposite sex. He’d never really been around any of them enough to learn their likes and dislikes, what they were thinking and feeling. But at one time in his life, he’d known Emily. And as he took in the pain on her face, it struck him that Kenneth wasn’t the one that had made her like this. He had.
“Emily, I—”
Before he could say another word, Emily tore loose from his grip and fled the room.
Cooper was still staring after her when the sound of the coffee boiling out the spout and onto the cookstove finally snared his attention.
He went over and adjusted the burner to a slow perk, then pulled a coffee mug out of the cupboard. Apparently Emily was no longer in the mood for coffee, or him.
But whether she wanted to or not, she was going to have to get in the mood for him, he thought grimly. Because there was no way in hell he was going to leave now.
A few minutes later, as Cooper was finishing his coffee, Emily returned to the kitchen. Except for two bright spots on her cheeks, she looked as white as bleached flour. A couple of old coats were thrown across her arm and tall rubber boots were on her feet.
Tossing one of the coats at him, she said, “You wanted to help. Put that on and come with me.”
Unaffected by her order, he remained in his chair, his hands cradled around the coffee mug. “It’s time for lunch.”
“We can eat whenever we get back,” she said in a clipped voice.
If she’d been a man, Cooper would have taken the coat and thrown it straight at her. As it was, he got up from his chair, snatched away the coat that was still on her arm and pushed her into a chair.
“We’re going to eat. Now!”
“I’m not hungry,” she retorted.
“It looks as though you’re never hungry, but you’re going to eat just the same,” he snapped back at her.
Indignant, Emily watched him rummage through the shelves of the refrigerator. One by one he set out a plate of fried chicken, a bowl of potato salad, a container of baked beans and a saucer of sliced tomatoes.
At the cabinets he searched until he found two plates and forks, salt and pepper and a roll of paper towels. After pouring her a mugful of coffee, he refilled his own.
“Eat,” he said as he took a seat to her left.
She glared at him. “I told you not to be giving me orders.”
“I haven’t paid any bills so the deal isn’t on yet”
As far as Emily was concerned, the deal would never be on. But she filled her plate just the same and made an earnest attempt to eat.
Her aunt Justine was a registered nurse and she’d been stressing over and over to Emily just how important it was for her baby to get the proper nourishment in the early stages of development Even if she didn’t have much of an appetite, she would eat for her baby’s sake. The child was the one ray of light she could look forward to, the very purpose of her being. She wouldn’t let Cooper or anything jeopardize her pregnancy.
“I want to talk to you,” she told him and when he looked at her with raised brows, she added, “Seriously.”
“I’m already getting the urge to call you Your Honor. Just how much more serious do you want to get?”
A little smile slowly crossed her face. In spite of everything that had happened it was nice to see he hadn’t lost his wit. It had been one of her favorite things about him. He’d always been able to make her laugh.
When she’d first met Cooper, he’d been sidelined from his bronc riding with a broken leg and had come home to the Diamond D to heal. He’d needed a nurse to help him with physical therapy and eventually, through a mutual friend, he’d learned Justine had worked as a therapist and didn’t live all that far away.
When her aunt had driven out to the Diamond D to meet Cooper, she’d invited Emily to accompany her. From the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, she’d been awestruck. Not because he’d already started to make a name for himself in the world of rodeo. Athletes had never really impressed Emily all that much, even when they pitted their strength against a twelve-hundred-pound horse. But for some unexplainable reason, she’d felt an instant connection to Cooper, a pull like an electric force from which she couldn’t break away.
That had been more than ten years ago. Now he was back sitting only a few inches away and here she was once again feeling that same pull toward him. She had to stop it, she firmly told herself. She couldn’t let herself feel drawn to this man. He was a user. A heartbreaker. She didn’t need him.
“I want you to rethink this idea you have about staying here on the Diamond D,” she told him. “You only have a couple more months to go before the season ends and then you’ll have a bit of time off after the National Finals in Las Vegas. At this late date, it doesn’t make sense for you to sideline your career. You can always come back later and check on the ranch.”
He shot her a skeptical look. “And what’s going to happen during November and December? You can’t keep this place going by yourself.”
She lifted her chin proudly. “Most of it, I can. And Daddy is already checking on a man to help me with the heavier work. If you feel you just have to do something, you can contribute to his wages. Otherwise, you’re going to lose a lot of money and possibly even your position in the PRCA standings.”
Any other time Cooper would have agreed with her, even appreciated the common sense she was using toward both their predicaments. But oddly enough, the money he might win in the next couple of months, or his number one position in the money earned column, didn’t really mean what it once had to Cooper. He could live without the glory, the stardom and the big paychecks.
“I’m not all that worried about the next two months of rodeos. I’m more concerned about getting things done around here. There’s hardly enough hay for the horses, let alone the cattle. Fences are falling down. The roof on the barn is sagging in and God only knows what else needs to be repaired. You said it had taken years for the ranch to get in this run-down condition, well, it looks as though it’s going to take quite a long time to fix it.”
Emily knew he was right. And she should probably be glad he wanted to make things better. But she couldn’t live in the same house with him. She wasn’t strong enough to forgive or forget what he’d done to her. Even worse, she wasn’t at all sure she had the strength or courage to resist him.
“You’re right. It will. But wouldn’t it make more sense for you to simply hire the work done?”
He shrugged while his eyes made a shrewd assessment of her face. “Actually, the idea of doing some good ol’ outdoor manual labor appeals to me.”
“Sure,” she said with dry disbelief. “This from a man who earns his living in eight-second intervals.”
Even though she was being calm enough and sensible enough, Cooper could see that Emily didn’t want him here. She either hated him, he concluded, or she was actually worried about what others might think of them living in the same house together.
“You’ve made it obvious you don’t want me here, Emily. And I’ll tell you something else. I’m not all that sure I want to be here.” His gray eyes pinned hers. “You and I aren’t exactly two people who should be thrown together as partners. But like it or not, we are.”
She put down her fork and crumpled her dirty napkin. “I can live with us both owning the ranch. As long as you’re a silent partner.”
He very nearly laughed and for a split second Emily wished that ten years had never passed and she was back in that time when she’d loved and laughed and hoped along with him.
“I never was good at keeping my mouth shut,” he said, while shoveling the last of the potato salad from his plate. “But I’ll consider your suggestion. Maybe we can work something out so you won’t have to put up with me and I won’t have to miss the last of the rodeo season.”
Dear God, she silently prayed, maybe he was finally listening to her. Cooper had to understand the two of them weren’t meant to be working partners or partners of any sort. He needed to leave here before the past came crashing in on both of them.
