Heart of Texas Series Volume 1: Lonesome CowboyTexas Two-StepCaroline's Child Page 2

  She’d driven away without looking back. She hadn’t investigated any of the other buildings, and she was annoyed now for letting the opportunity pass. She might have found more old roses had she taken the time to search.

  “They’re beautiful,” Laredo said. The light pink bud, perfectly formed, lay like a jewel in the palm of his hand.

  “They truly are exquisite, aren’t they?” The sheer joy and excitement she’d felt on discovering the roses quickened her voice. “I just couldn’t be happier! It’s so much more than I hoped to find!”

  His gaze held hers and he nodded, seeming to share her enthusiasm.

  Warming to her subject, Savannah added, “It’s incredible to think they’ve survived all these years without anyone to care for them.”

  Laredo gently withdrew his hand from the rosebud.

  “Would you be more comfortable if I rode in the back, ma’am?” he asked.

  “Savannah,” she insisted.

  The smile returned again, briefly. “Savannah,” he echoed.

  “You’re welcome to ride in front with me.”

  He climbed slowly into the cab and she could see that the action pained him considerably.

  “I don’t suppose you know anyone who’s looking for a good wrangler?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t,” she said with sincere regret.

  He nodded and winced, pressing his hand against his ribs.

  “You’ve been hurt,” she said.

  “A cracked rib or two,” he answered, obviously embarrassed by her concern. “My own damn fault,” he muttered.

  “A horse?”

  “Not exactly.” His voice was rueful, a bit ironic. “I got shoved against a fence by a bull. You’d think that after all these years working ranches, I’d know better than to let myself get cornered by a bull.”

  “My daddy cracked a rib once and he said it left him feeling like he’d been gnawed by a coyote, then dumped over a cliff.”

  Laredo chuckled. “Your daddy sounds like he’s got quite a sense of humor.”

  “He did,” Savannah agreed softly, starting the engine. She knew the tires hitting the ruts in the road would hurt him, so she drove slowly and carefully.

  Laredo glanced over his shoulder—to check on his saddle, Savannah suspected. She was surprised when he mentioned the roses a second time. “I never thought to smell roses like those again.”

  “I’m so glad I found them!” she burst out. “These are the best ones yet.” Their scent was sweet and strong and pure, far more aromatic than modern hybrids. These roses from Bitter End were probably White Lady Banks—a rare and precious find.

  Savannah talked excitedly about her roses; the cowboy encouraged her, asking interested and knowledgeable questions.

  What surprised Savannah was how comfortable she felt with Laredo Smith. They could have talked for hours. Generally when it came to conversation with a man, especially a stranger, Savannah was shy and reticent. The ease with which she talked to Laredo was unprecedented.

  It wasn’t just roses they talked about, either. Soon Savannah found herself telling him about her gardens at the ranch and the love her mother, Barbara, had for flowers. One topic led swiftly to another. She described Promise and assured him it was a friendly town. He asked about having his truck repaired and she mentioned a couple of reliable garages.

  “Oh, my,” she said, and held her palm to her mouth.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “I got to chatting away and almost missed the turnoff for the ranch.” Such a thing had never happened before. Then, hardly knowing what she was doing, she glanced over at him and said, “The fact is, Laredo, the Yellow Rose could use an extra hand. If you need a job, we’d be happy to offer you one.”

  Laredo brightened visibly. “I’m good with horses and I’m willing to work hard.”

  “Grady’ll probably have a few questions for you.” She added this second part knowing her brother wasn’t going to be pleased with her hiring a stranger. In the past he’d always been the one to do the hiring and firing, but if he took offense, he could discuss the matter with her. Every instinct she possessed told her Laredo Smith was worthy of their trust. Besides, they needed extra help, whether Grady was willing to admit it or not.

  Laredo grew quiet, and then she felt his eyes on her. “Since you offered me the job, I think it’s only fair to tell you I was fired from my last position.” He told her he’d been accused of theft, wrongly accused. He neither cast nor accepted blame. “I may be a lot of things, but a thief isn’t one of them. If you change your mind, I’ll understand.”

  “I won’t,” she said, but the instincts that had felt so right moments earlier wavered like dry grass whipped by a harsh summer wind. “I...I appreciate your being honest enough to tell me,” Savannah said. Naturally the first thing Grady would want from a stranger, especially one she’d taken it upon herself to hire, was references. Well—like everything else about this day—she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

  “You won’t be disappointed,” Laredo added. “You have my word on that.”

  A plume of dust followed them as they headed down the pitched dirt driveway leading off the highway. No sooner had Savannah pulled into the yard and turned off the engine than Grady dashed out of the barn and stalked toward her like an avenging angel.

  “Just where the bloody hell have you been all afternoon?” her brother demanded, ignoring the shambling black dog that trailed him and nudged the fist clenched at his side.

  Savannah inhaled deeply and held her breath while she climbed out of the truck. If she hadn’t stopped to pick up Laredo, she might have returned before Grady rode in from the range. Rather than answer his questions, she leaned over and scratched Rocket’s ears. The old dog, who’d once belonged to their father, was now well past his prime. He wagged his tail in appreciation.

  “You might have left a note.” Her brother’s ranting continued despite her lack of response.

  “I apologize, but—” She wasn’t allowed to finish.

  “I don’t want an apology. I want to know where you were all afternoon.” His eyes narrowed on the man beside her. “And I have a feeling I’m not going to like the answer.”

  It mortified her to have her brother yell at her like this in front of Laredo. “Grady,” she said urgently, “perhaps we could discuss this inside.”

  “You did it, didn’t you? Even though I warned you! I told you not to look for Bitter End! Doesn’t anyone listen to me anymore? I thought you were smarter than this! Anything could happen to you up in those hills all by yourself. What’s the matter with you, anyway? You should know better than to risk your fool neck over something as ridiculous as a stupid rosebush.” His face had turned red with anger.

  Disregarding Laredo, her brother advanced toward her. Two steps was as close as he got before her newfound friend moved protectively in front of her, directly in Grady’s path.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “Grady, this is Laredo Smith,” Savannah said evenly, praying she sounded calm and in control. “His truck broke down, and, um, I’ve offered him a job.”

  A second of shocked silence followed. “You what?”

  The anger Grady had shown earlier paled in comparison to the fury that blazed in his eyes now. Savannah didn’t acknowledge his outburst. “Dinner’s in the Crock-Pot. Chili verde, your favorite.”

  Grady stared at her, his mouth hanging open, as if he didn’t recognize her as his sister.

  “I’ll have everything ready and on the table in ten minutes. Grady, would you be kind enough to show Laredo to the bunkhouse and ask Wiley to wash up?”

  “This is Wiley’s poker night,” Grady muttered. “But I—”

  “So it is,” she said, and headed up the porch steps and into the kitchen. Her heart pounced like a prairie rabbit’s at the approach of a hawk’s shadow. “Then there’ll just be the three of us.”

  It didn’t take her long to set the table for dinner. Whe
n she heard the door swing open, she squared her shoulders, and turned to greet her brother and Laredo with a wide smile. “I hope you two had a chance to introduce yourselves.”

  “We didn’t get around to exchanging pleasantries,” Grady snarled.

  “Laredo, I hope you’ll forgive my brother,” she said, placing the warm tortillas on a plate. “It’s clear he isn’t in one of his more cordial moods.”

  “Your brother?” The words slipped from Laredo’s lips in a low whisper of surprise.

  “The two of us are equal partners in the Yellow Rose Ranch,” she said as a subtle way of reminding Grady that she’d had every right to hire Laredo.

  Still grumbling under his breath, Grady pulled out a chair and reached for the blue-checked napkin.

  “Can I help you with anything, Savannah?” Laredo asked, looking around for something to do.

  “There’s a cold pitcher of lemonade in the refrigerator,” she said, hoping Grady realized it wouldn’t hurt him any to lend her a hand now and then. She tried not to be judgmental of her brother, but lately he’d grown so cranky and irritable. It was more than their perpetual money problems, she suspected, but whatever plagued him, he kept to himself. Savannah wished he’d be more open with her, share his troubles, but that wasn’t Grady’s way. Like their father he kept everything locked inside, preferring to carry the burden of his problems alone. Once again she wished he’d think about marriage. She had the perfect woman in mind.

  ***

  Grady Weston was furious with his sister. He didn’t know what had come over her. It wasn’t like her to openly defy him, nor had he ever known her to pick up a hitchhiker. And never, not once in all these years, had she taken an active role in the management of the ranch. Yet in one single day, his levelheaded younger sister had not only gone against his express orders, she’d gone and hired him additional help. A stranger, no less!

  Grady wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, heard it with his own ears. Savannah wasn’t herself. He frowned at Laredo Smith, instinctively distrusting him. One look told Grady the saddle bum was an outsider, a drifter. Not to be trusted. Yet Savannah had invited the man into their home and their lives like a long-lost relative—and offered him employment. The problem with Savannah could be reduced to one simple explanation. She couldn’t see the bad in people. She was just too damn trusting.

  In spite of that, Grady had often admired Savannah for her common sense. But from all appearances, she’d lost every shred of good judgment she’d ever possessed. All within the space of a single day.

  “I can’t remember when I’ve tasted better chili,” Laredo said, serving himself a second helping when Savannah passed him the bowl.

  She lowered her gaze and Grady watched, amazed as color seeped into her cheeks. “I appreciate the compliment, but Nell Bishop’s the one who deserves the credit. It’s her recipe.”

  “My compliments to Nell, then, and to you, too.”

  Savannah’s blush deepened. If it wasn’t so pathetic, Grady might have rolled his eyes. The town was full of men who were interested in Savannah, but she hadn’t given one of them a lick of encouragement. Not a one. Then she happens on a complete stranger who doesn’t look like he’s got two dimes to call his own and she practically faints because he compliments her cooking!

  Grady shoved his plate aside, appetite gone. His day had gone poorly. A calf had died after a desperate struggle to save its life, and he wasn’t sure the mother was going to make it, either. He’d had the vet out, and they’d done everything they could, but it didn’t look promising. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’d found a break in the fence line. Luckily he’d been able to repair it before any of the herd had escaped.

  The problems never ended. Day in and day out, he faced one crisis after another, each one heaped on top of all the others. He didn’t know what it was to laugh anymore, didn’t know what it was to spend a night in town drinking with his buddies. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d kissed a woman. In six years his life had boiled down to two things—work and worry.

  It seemed a million years ago that he’d been young and carefree. Everything had changed for him—and for Savannah—in the course of an afternoon. The life he’d lived before they lost their parents was little more than a vague memory.

  After a day like this the last thing he needed was for the one constant, the one sane sensible person in his life, to lose her bearings. Go loco on him. Grady glanced at Savannah and he felt his heart twist with sorrow, frustration, guilt. His sister was as lovely as those roses she cared so much about. She was still young and pretty, although she didn’t appear to realize that.

  Grady hadn’t saved the ranch all on his own, nor was he the only one who’d dedicated his life to building back everything they’d lost. He couldn’t have done it without her. Savannah had found a hundred ways to encourage him, lighten his load, and he didn’t thank her nearly enough.

  Regret settled in the pit of his stomach. He shouldn’t have laid into her the way he had when she got home, but damn it all, he’d been worried sick. It wasn’t like her to disappear and not tell him where she was going. In the past she’d always been conscientious about that, and with good reason.

  Even though the risk of her encountering danger was slim, an accident could always happen. It had to his mother and father. Caught in a flash flood, they’d been swept away in a matter of moments and drowned. Never would he forget the day Sheriff Frank Hennessey had come to deliver the tragic news. So it wasn’t that Grady didn’t trust Savannah, but her disappearance that afternoon had brought back memories he wished he could forget.

  But it was more than the memory of his parents’ accident that had distressed him. For three or four months now his sister had been asking him about the ghost town. In the beginning he’d answered her questions and hadn’t given her curiosity much thought, but when she persisted, he’d asked her a few questions of his own. That was when she mentioned the old roses. Damn fool woman was willing to risk her neck over something as...as unimportant as flowers. If that didn’t beat all, he didn’t know what did.

  Grady had warned her plenty, not that it’d done any good. Hell, he couldn’t have found the abandoned frontier town again had he tried. The one and only time he’d ever stepped foot in Bitter End, he’d been about fifteen. Grady and the two Patterson brothers had overheard their parents talking about a ghost town somewhere up in the hills. Without their parents’ knowledge the boys had decided to go exploring, to find the place for themselves.

  Grady and his friends had set out, thinking it all a grand adventure. As he recalled, they’d spent weeks looking, and when they finally stumbled on the ghost town, it’d spooked them so badly they’d never discussed that day again.

  Grady didn’t believe in ghosts; he wasn’t a superstitious man. But the town was haunted by something he’d been too young to name or understand, something he didn’t fully comprehend even now. An unfamiliar sensation had descended on him that day, and not only him, but the others, too. He remembered the silence that had come over them, how they’d whispered to each other as if they were afraid someone could hear. He remembered a feeling of deep sadness and an ambiguous kind of threat. It hadn’t made sense then and made even less sense now.

  What mattered was his sister, and Grady didn’t want her wandering around in the country alone in search of some half-dead flowers. Especially if it meant she was wandering around in Bitter End.

  “Would you care for another helping?” Savannah asked Laredo, breaking into Grady’s thoughts.

  Laredo planted his hands on his stomach and shook his head. “As delicious as it is, I don’t think I could manage another mouthful. As I said earlier, this is one of the best meals I’ve had in years. I hope your brother appreciates what a fine cook you are.”

  Even from across the table Grady could feel Savannah’s pleasure at the other man’s remark. It sounded genuine, but Grady suspected Laredo Smith was a consummate con m
an, who knew a good thing when he saw it. It was clear to Grady, if no one else, that Laredo Smith was out to take advantage of his sister. Not that he had a raindrop’s chance in hell of doing so as long as Grady lived and breathed. The drifter could sweet-talk some other rancher’s sister. He’d get nowhere with Savannah; Grady would personally see to that.

  “I’ll help with the dishes,” Laredo offered.

  Grady resisted suggesting that Laredo was laying it on a little thick, but he was already out of Savannah’s good graces and she wouldn’t appreciate his sarcasm.

  “I’ll do the dishes later,” Savannah said. “It’s more important that I take care of the roses.”

  “I could help you with that,” he suggested next, and then, as if qualifying his statement, he added, “My grandmother let me help her.”

  “That...that would be lovely.”

  Grady couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen his sister this flustered.

  Like a schoolboy eager to please his teacher, Laredo stood and carried his empty plate to the sink.

  Grady couldn’t allow this to continue. It was time he set the other man straight. “Before this goes any further, you need to know, Mr. Smith, that there’s no work for you here.”

  “Excuse me,” Savannah said, her voice rising, “but I was the one who hired Laredo.”

  “I’ll be happy to drive you back into Promise myself,” Grady volunteered, ignoring his sister. “Would now be convenient?”

  The two men glared at each other.

  “Grady,” Savannah protested, but to no avail. He’d tuned her out, unwilling to listen to her arguments.

  When she couldn’t attract his attention, Savannah tried reaching Laredo. She said his name, but he, too, ignored her, eyes locked with Grady’s. The silent battle of wills didn’t last long. Slowly Laredo’s shoulders relaxed, and he nodded. “Now would be fine.”

  Grady hadn’t expected him to capitulate this easily. If anything, he’d anticipated an argument. Laredo Smith was no fool. The way Savannah had fussed over him at dinner, blushed and made a general idiot of herself, there was no telling how much the drifter could take her for.