Читать книгу Cowboy Comes Back / The Cowboy's Convenient Bride: Cowboy Comes Back / The Cowboy's Convenient Bride - Wendy Warren - Страница 10

THE CUPBOARDS WERE almost bare and the propane was getting low in the tanks.

Kade realized he was searching for an excuse to go to town, so why not just go? And while there, maybe he’d stop by the café and grab a bite. He’d avoided public places in Otto because he hated playing Kade Danning, rodeo champion, when that was no longer who he was. And it bothered him that people who’d ignored him back when he’d been just ordinary Kade Danning, a local kid who could have used some support while dealing with his asshole dad, now embraced him. But if he was going to be here for months and months, which seemed a definite possibility considering the condition of his father’s property, then he needed to re-introduce himself to Otto society, such as it was.

As he drove past the bar he noticed there were more vehicles than was normal for eight o’clock, but the hand-lettered Chorizo Night sign explained the full lot.

Libby’s truck was parked next to the building, and yet he pulled in anyway, citing the adage about it being a free country. He no longer drank, but what better night than Chorizo Night to say hello to his neighbors?

He spotted Libby immediately sitting at a table with Dennis Mann—Menace, they’d all called him back in high school. A tall, fair-haired guy carrying a plate filled with beans and salad, chorizo in a bun balanced on top, sat down next to Libby and she smiled at him. A few minutes later Jason Ross and a pretty blonde sat down. He’d heard Jason had gotten married. That had to be the new missus.

Kade automatically started searching for a place to sit on the other side of the room, prior to getting in line. Someone said his name and he turned to see Cal Johnson, one of his old classmates, now wearing a deputy sheriff’s uniform and sporting a shaved head.

“I’ve been planning to stop by and say hello,” Cal said. “You saved me the trouble.”

“Glad to oblige,” Kade said, shaking his hand.

More people gathered around and before long he was in the center of a crowd at the end of the food line, renewing old acquaintances, some of which he wasn’t even aware he’d had. A redhead who introduced herself as Trista attached herself to him, and it became clear that he was no longer destined to be lonely if he didn’t choose to be. He was starting to feel just a bit claustrophobic. And also like a fraud. It’d been three years since he’d won a buckle, and during one of those years he’d actively tried to destroy himself. He wasn’t really hometown-hero material. But the novelty of having a two-bit celebrity around would wear off eventually, and then maybe he could actually hang with some people. Be just plain Kade Danning.

He pulled out his wallet, paid the cashier ten bucks, got a paper plate in return and started loading up. Cal waved him over to his small table and squeezed in chairs for both Kade and Trista, who’d followed.

“I just love a good chorizo,” she said with a half smile. No doubting her meaning. Kade smiled noncommittally, then glanced in Libby’s direction. The blond guy had said something, and she was laughing. Kade took too big a bite of his chorizo and almost choked.

Maybe he should have stayed home.

“KADE’S HERE.” Jason sat down with his plate of food.

“I know,” Libby replied. She’d spotted him almost as soon as he entered the building, as if her Kade radar had been on. It had been just a matter of time until they ended up in the same place at the same time, Otto being as small as it was. She was glad now that she’d gone to see him and that they’d gotten the first big meet-up out of the way. It made things easier. Not great by any means, but easier.

Which made her wonder, did all people feel this much pain over ex-lovers years later? She didn’t have a lot of experience in that particular arena, since she never allowed herself to get serious about anyone. It saved a lot of wear and tear on her emotions.

“Who’s Kade?” Kira, Jason’s wife, asked.

“A blast from the past.” Libby lifted her glass to her lips. No doubt Jason would explain all to his wife later.

Less than an hour after he’d arrived, Kade got to his feet, said his goodbyes to Cal Johnson and the other people at his table and headed for the rear exit. Libby was not at all surprised to see Trista, who’d been cozied up to him since he’d arrived, follow him out the door.

She was, however, surprised to see Trista come back in a few minutes later, her expression bordering on angry. Perhaps Kade had learned to say no, after all. Too bad it was a few years too late.

The jukebox started up, overly loud as always, and Libby accepted a challenge from Menace to play a game of pool. Life went on, and it didn’t really matter if Kade was in Otto or not.

Later, while Kira and Libby’s vet and occasional escort, Stan, were playing one of the worst games of pool Libby had ever witnessed, Jason came to stand next to her. Together they leaned back against the wall, watching the action and occasionally wincing as an easy shot went askew.

“Doing all right?” Jason finally asked in a gruff, man-not-comfortable-talking-about-emotions voice.

“I haven’t been hit by the cue ball yet.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

“I’m doing fine in every possible way.” She shifted her gaze sideways toward Jason. “I went to see him.” She didn’t have to explain which him she meant.

“Yeah?”

She moistened her lips. “I met his daughter. Cute kid.”

Jason didn’t reply. At least one of them wasn’t playing a game.

“I’m still angry,” she said in a low voice, giving up the act as she brought her attention back to the pool table. “I don’t want to feel a damned thing. Nothing. But I can’t help it. It’s disturbing.” On many levels. She exhaled and went silent for a moment before saying philosophically, “He’ll be gone as soon as the ranch sells.”

“Have you seen what kind of shape that ranch is in? It’ll be a while before he gets it ready.”

She gave Jason a sharp look. “Any more good news?”

“I don’t think he’ll bother you.” Jason smiled a little as Libby’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Couldn’t help myself.”

“Jason, keep your nose out of my business. It’s kind of embarrassing to have a self-appointed big brother taking care of business that I need to handle myself.”

But Libby would have done the same for him in a similar situation. In fact, she’d once made an attempt to protect him from the woman who eventually became his wife. Considering the circumstances, though, she’d been justified.

“I understa—Whoa!” Jason jerked sideways, bumping into her, as a ball flew off the table, barely missing him before bouncing off the wall.

“Sorry,” Stan muttered. He took the ball from Jason, put it back on the table and started lining up his next shot.

LIBBY WAS IN A mood the next day, but fortunately no one came close enough to achieve injured-bystander status. Actually all of the employees of the Wesley BLM field office were maintaining low profiles, and whenever Ellen did a walkabout the staff made an effort to appear busy, even if she’d just cut funding for their current project in her massive rearrangement of the budget and now they had little to do.

Ellen seemed quite happy, though. She’d patrol the offices at least twice a day, her perfectly polished glasses sparkling in the dim fluorescent light. Ellen was forever polishing something—her glasses, her desk, her résumé.

Everyone on staff had taken a hit that week except for Libby, who still was working on her recommendations for the range-usage report. Not much Ellen could do about that, since it was almost completed, but Libby’s office mate Stephen had lost his project. He was now busy planning a totally unnecessary range survey in order to justify his existence. Being the newest person on the staff, he was one of Ellen’s favorite victims, and now he sat with his head down, his lanky body hunched over his desk, his wire-rimmed glasses sliding down his nose as he concentrated and tried to make himself invisible.

Several other people had suffered similar hits. The Wesley office was becoming a bureaucratic nightmare. Ellen’s work here was almost done. And no one would write a negative word on her supervisory evaluation because they all wanted the woman promoted and gone.

“Libby …”

Libby grimaced at the sound of Ellen’s voice, set her pencil down on her desk with extreme care and rose to her feet. She straightened her shirt, then followed Ellen down the hall to Ellen’s office. Her boss indicated a map laid out on the desk.

“I’ve noticed that you seem to be concentrating your herd-management efforts on these two areas.” She pointed. “Why is that?”

“One herd was affected by the recent range fires and the other is the one where we’re studying the effects of the contraceptive program.”

“I’m not so much interested in herds as in areas,” Ellen said.

Areas? “I don’t follow you.”

“The area that needs the most management is here.” Again Ellen pointed at a location on the map, making Libby wonder if they were speaking the same language.

“That herd is in fine shape. Not too big, not too small. The range is holding up well.” Which was why they had relocated the mustangs to that particular region after a devastating fire two years ago. It had turned out to be a wise decision.

“There’s some question about that.”

Libby raised her eyebrows. This was the first she’d heard of a problem with that range. She was about to say so when Ellen clipped out, “Those are all the questions I have. For now.”

“Fine.” Libby headed for the door. She had questions now, but she wasn’t going to ask them of Ellen. She would gather more information and find out what her boss was getting at first.

KADE HAD KNOWN better than to use his dad’s ancient Chevy truck when he made a dump run Friday afternoon, but it carried more trash than his own short-bed truck and he’d felt like driving the old beast again. Besides which, it needed the carbon blown out of the engine, and he was in a mood to do just that.

Unfortunately, on the way back from the dump, he blew more than carbon. If he wasn’t mistaken, he’d just blown a rod.

Kade got out of the truck and lifted the heavy hood, propping it open as heat rolled off the engine. Crap. Now he had a walk ahead of him, because his phone was in the pocket of the jeans he’d changed out of prior to loading the trash. Even if he’d had his phone, however, who would he have called? He didn’t have anyone’s number—except for Libby’s landline, which he still knew by heart. Wouldn’t be calling Libby, that was for sure.

A rooster tail of dust appeared down the road where it hooked onto the paved state highway, and Kade felt a small surge of hope. Maybe he could catch a ride, take advantage of his status as a washed-up minor celebrity.

As the vehicle neared, though, he realized he’d have no such luck. It was Jason Ross.

After their exchange in the hardware store Kade fully expected Jason to drive on by, but instead he pulled to a stop on the opposite side of the road and rolled down his window.

“You appear to have a situation,” he said in a flat voice.

“What’s new?” Kade asked, irritated. He didn’t need people stopping by and pointing out the obvious. He was about to say words to that effect when Jason asked, “You want a lift?”

The words came out grudgingly, but Kade figured this was no time to resent the less-than-enthusiastic delivery of an invitation. Not unless he wanted to walk four miles in old cowboy boots. “I’d appreciate it.”

“Hop in.”

Kade got into the passenger side of Jason’s truck, something he’d done a couple of thousand times during high school. His old man had rarely let him drive the very truck he was now leaving by the side of the road, but Jason had always had wheels and been happy to share. Back then Libby was usually sitting between them wherever they went, whether it was to a party, on a hunting trip or to a rodeo. Probably a good thing she wasn’t there now, Kade reflected, since it would put the odds at two against one. When push came to shove, Jason would side with Lib.

“Are you going to call Menace?” Jason asked.

“I don’t think I’ll have it fixed. I may just tow it home, then sell it as is with the ranch.” Which brought another thought to mind. He cast Jason a sideways glance. “Cal Johnson told me your wife’s family is in ranch and farm real estate.”

Jason nodded without taking his eyes off the road. “Yeah, they are.”

“Would it be worth my while to call them? About my place, I mean.” Kade was probably pushing things, but he felt certain Jason would set him straight if he was. “I had Marvin look it over, but … he doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”

Jason actually smiled. “Well, Marvin’s only had his shingle out for a few months now, and I don’t think he’s made too many sales.”

“So what about your in-laws?”

“They pretty much stick to big-money deals. And if they did buy your ranch, they’d probably chop it into lots. It’s the way they do business.”

Kade shrugged. “If they can sell the lots, more power to them. I don’t care what happens to the ranch once I’m gone.” No truer words had ever been spoken. Kade couldn’t wait to unload the place, along with the memories, to move on, start over.

“Maybe your neighbors care.”

“I’m not trying to screw my neighbors, but I’ve got to sell and I’ve got to get as much out of it as I can. I had some trouble with the IRS.”

“I heard.” Jason turned the corner into Kade’s driveway, then pulled to a stop next to the barn. He shifted in his seat to face Kade. “You, uh, might talk to Kira. My wife. She and her sister have their own real-estate business. Kira handles small ranch sales in Nevada and her sister takes care of those up in Idaho.”

“After talking to you in the hardware store, I didn’t think you wanted me hanging around your womenfolk.”

“Yeah.” There was a touch of chagrin in Jason’s expression. “I’ve been thinking. What happens between you and Libby isn’t any of my business. It’s just that … well, I don’t want to see her—” he hesitated “—like she was.”

“For that to happen, she’d probably have to stop hating me, and I don’t see that on the horizon.”

“Good point.”

“Yeah,” Kade said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. “So, do you think your wife could stop by and take a look at the ranch and give me some advice on how to make it most salable?”

“I’ll have her call you. There’s a pen in the console. Write your number on something.”

Kade wrote his cell number on the back of a receipt. “Thanks,” he said as he handed the paper to Jason.

“No problem.”

And it sounded as if he might actually mean it.

KADE HAD JUST entered the trailer when his cell phone rang. Maddie’s name appeared on the screen and he picked up immediately. School was barely out—Maddie never called this early, before her homework was done.

“Dad, Mom says that if I visit you, I can’t go to horse camp!” She sounded both angry and distressed.

Thanks, Jillian. “Honey—”

“Shandy gets to go, Dad, and we wanted to share a bunk bed and everything.”

“Maddie, we’ll work something out.” Riding horses with Dad wasn’t going to compete with riding horses and sharing a bunk bed with her best friend. “Could I talk to your mom?”

Maddie instantly yelled for Jillian, holding the phone close enough so that Kade winced at the volume.

“Well, I’m the bad guy,” he said as soon as his ex said hello, “which isn’t fair, Jill, because all I want is what I’m supposed to get according to our agreement. Thanks a lot.”

“I thought that you of all people would want Maddie to have this experience,” Jillian said primly.

“I want my time with my daughter.”

“Then why did you move to Otto?”

“You know why.”

Jillian’s voice dropped as she said, “Yes. And if you remember I warned you about Dylan Smith. I told you I thought something about him was off. But no. You said he was a friend and doing a great job handling your money.”

“Damn it, this isn’t about my accountant or my stupidity or anything else. I paid for that mistake.” And several others. “I’m fixing it the quickest way I can. And meanwhile, I want to see my kid.”

“Fine. I’ll tell her.”

Thus making him the bad guy. She’d set him up well on this one. Maddie would come for the summer. And she might even have some fun. But she’d be thinking about what she was missing, and Shandy would have stories to tell. Oh, yeah. Kade couldn’t win here.

“Don’t. But we will work something out. If not, I honestly am seeing a lawyer.”

“Don’t threaten me, Kade.”

“Then follow the agreement. What you did this time. We agreed not to play Maddie as a pawn against each other.”

“I’m not doing that! I’m just trying to keep her life stable.”

“By shutting me out?” Kade asked quietly. There was a long silence.

“I’m her dad, Jill. Her real dad. She has a right to know me and I have a right to know her. And I’m serious about the lawyer.”

“I believe you.”

“Let me talk to Maddie.”

Kade told Maddie she’d be going to horse camp and that she could spend a couple of weeks with him in June and August—which was about all the time she had after school ended and before it started again. Not the best solution, but one that would work. For Maddie, anyway.

By the time Kade hung up, his daughter was happy again, and he was wavering between feeling good that he’d made everything all right with her, and depressed because he’d really wanted them to spend more time together during the summer.

LIBBY GOT HOME from work mentally spent. It was exhausting to hold both her tongue and her temper for ten hours. That woman had to go.

After finishing with Libby, Ellen had browbeaten both Stephen and Fred. Fred didn’t care, but Stephen had come back to the office looking like a whipped pup. The only positive note was that they were about to have a four-day break from the Ellen regime while she attended a state conference.

“I tell you,” Fred had grumbled, rubbing a hand over the gray bristles on top of his head, “one of us needs to go along and keep a rein on her. Who knows what kind of lies she’ll tell or what she’ll promise to do?”

But Ellen wasn’t allowing anyone to go—probably for the same reasons that Fred had suggested.

The more Libby thought about it, the more certain it seemed that Ellen was up to something—and it probably involved accumulating political support. Ellen didn’t so much want to do a competent job as a showy job, one that would get her the promotion she wanted as she climbed government ranks. It ticked Libby off that in order to better her own position, Ellen would probably do things that were actually detrimental to the area but looked great on paper. And there wasn’t much Libby could do about it. But what she could do, she would.

Libby drove up to her house and instantly knew something was wrong when the Aussies came shooting out of the pasture, instead of appearing from the porch. She parked and jumped out of the truck, running toward the pasture. There at the far end she could see that one of her horses was down. Colic? If so, she had to act fast. She felt in her pocket for her phone, then realized it was back in the truck. She didn’t slow down.

It wasn’t colic.

Her best gelding, Cooper, was on his back with his feet in the air, entangled in strands of smooth wire fencing, his sides heaving as he struggled to breathe. It looked as if he’d rolled into the fence while taking a dust bath, got his feet caught in the wire and then panicked. His eyes showed white as Libby approached. She quickly assessed the situation and then raced back to the house, the dogs at her heels. She needed wire cutters and she needed help.

The vet was on speed dial, but when she hit Stan’s number the answering service came on, telling her he was away for the week and to contact his colleague, Sam Hyatt, in Wesley. Libby didn’t have time to wait for Sam to drive down from Wesley.

She hit Jason’s number. He answered immediately and she blurted out her story.

“Lib, I’m in Elko,” he said when she paused to take a breath.

Libby cursed, squeezing her eyes shut against tears of frustration. “I’ll call Menace.” She couldn’t think of anything else to do.

There was no sound on the other end of the line for a few tense seconds, then Jason said, “Call Kade. He’s close and he knows horses.”

Libby’s eyes snapped open. “Are you kidding?”

“He can get there fast and he’ll be way more help than anyone else near your place. Especially Menace.”

“I don’t have Kade’s number.”

“He just gave it to me. Hold on a sec.” When Jason gave her the number, she hung up, repeating the digits over and over until she’d punched them into the keypad. Kade answered on the second ring.

“It’s Libby,” she said without hesitation. “I have a horse down. I need help.”

“Should I bring anything?”

“Wire cutters. Big ones. I’ll be at the far end of the field.”

The phone went dead and Libby grabbed her vet kit and headed out to where Cooper was struggling. She started working on the tautly stretched wire, trying to cut it with the only cutters she had at hand, but they were too small for the job. She needed her fencing pliers, wherever they might be.

Cooper’s breathing was ragged, but Libby couldn’t get the wire loose, much less get him back onto his side so that he could breathe better. She was frantically hacking away when she heard Kade speak behind her.

“Let me.”

Libby backed off, letting him crouch down to use his cutters. He did live nearby, but he must have driven ninety miles an hour to get there that fast.

“Watch it,” he said as he squeezed the handles. After the first wire popped, zinging wildly, he cut the second. The horse heaved, making the ends of a third wire, which was still wrapped around his hind leg, bounce.

“Damn,” Kade murmured as he saw how tightly it was wound, cutting the animal’s flesh.

He snapped the last wire, then started unwrapping it as Libby held the horse’s head steady.

“I did everything I could to make the pastures safe.”

Her parents had never done a damned thing for the small ranch, except let it fall down around them. When Libby had returned to Otto after college, she’d bought the property from them so that they could move to Arizona and continue drinking themselves to death.

The house and barn had been in fairly decent shape, only needing new roofs, which had almost bankrupted her, but the outbuildings were shot and the pastures had lain fallow for years. The fence posts were rotten and barbed wire was strewn everywhere, cropping up out of the ground in unexpected places, where a fence had gone down and had then been overgrown.

Libby had spent most of her free time cleaning wire out of the pastures and refencing them before she turned out her horses to graze. She didn’t want any of her animals injured, and now one of her horses was.

“If you have animals, accidents will happen,” Kade said without looking at her. He glanced up at what was left of the fence. “He must have got caught while rolling.”

“That’s what I thought.” It felt so odd, being there with Kade, agreeing with him, as if there was no bad history between them.

“Do you still ride him?”

“I did.”

“You’ll ride him again.”

Libby swallowed hard as she watched Kade work, stroking the horse’s neck to reassure him that she was there and that they were helping. Kade was probably right, but now Cooper’s hind legs were badly skinned and burned where the wire had cut and rubbed against them. Recovery was going to take time.

“Do you have a clean area where we can treat him?” Kade asked as he carefully unwound the last bit of wire from Cooper’s leg. The other horses were standing a short distance away, edging closer, curious about what was happening to their compadre.

“There’s a stall in the barn,” Libby said. “I’ll have to run the rest of the horses into the next field so they don’t escape.”

“Go do that.”

Libby jogged across the pasture to the gate. The horses, sensing greener grass on the other side of the fence, followed her. Libby opened the gate to let them walk through. By the time she crossed the field again, Kade had Cooper on his feet.

The horse took a tentative step forward and then another. The three of them walked slowly to the barn, Kade on one side of Cooper and Libby on the other, her hand on the gelding’s neck, talking to him in a soothing voice.

“His leg will probably swell like crazy,” Kade said once they had him in the stall. Libby had spread clean straw and then found a big roll of gauze. Together they cleaned and wrapped the damaged areas on Cooper’s hind legs, duct-taping the top and bottom of the bandages to keep them from slipping off.

Kade opened his own first-aid kit and took out a plastic tube of horse analgesic, phenylbutazone, which he shoved into the corner of the horse’s mouth, pushing the plunger all the way down.

“Do you want me to leave it?” he asked, referring to the medication.

She shook her head. “I have bute, too.”

As she walked with Kade to his truck afterward, she felt as if she were waking from a dream, one in which events and actions that had seemed so reasonable at the time became utterly bizarre upon waking. She would never have expected to end the day by having Kade rescue her horse—or by feeling grateful that he’d come to help.

“Do you want me stop by in the morning to check the bandage?” Kade asked as he set his vet kit on the seat of his truck.

“I can handle it.” She shoved her hands into her back pockets and glanced at the barn. “Thank you for coming.”

“I did it for the horse.”

Libby wasn’t sure if he’d intended the comment to comfort or sting. It did both.