“Cody, this is Cord.”
“Where the hell are you?”
“In town with your daughter and the baby.”
That was greeted by a long, telling silence. “I see,” he said finally, though he sounded as if the opposite were true. “Mind telling me when you intend to get back to work?”
“Look, it was a rough night last night,” Cord explained. “Justin thinks he’s found the baby’s grandmother. Sharon Lynn was taking it hard. I couldn’t leave her here alone.”
Cody muttered a harsh expletive, then added, “No, I suppose not. Is she okay?”
“She’s sleeping now. She’s due at Dolan’s within the hour. As soon as she’s up and on her way, I’ll be out there. Leave my assignment with Harlan Patrick or one of the other men.”
“Just see me when you get here,” Cody said and hung up abruptly.
“Oh, boy,” Cord murmured, grazing a knuckle over the baby’s cheek. “Looks like I’m in for it.” She regarded him with wide, solemn eyes. “Not to worry your pretty little head, though. I’ll handle it.”
“Handle what?” Sharon Lynn murmured groggily, wandering into the kitchen just then.
She was clad in a thick, terry-cloth robe, but she was still sexily tousled, reminding him all too vividly of the night and the bed they’d shared. No woman had the right to be that seductive at the crack of dawn, not when there was nothing to be done about it.
“Nothing,” he replied in a choked voice, regretting that he couldn’t snag her wrist and haul her down for a long, slow kiss that would wake them both thoroughly.
She seemed to accept the response at face value. “You should have gotten me up,” she complained with a yawn. “I could have fed the baby, so you could get to work. Daddy’s probably fit to be tied.”
“He’s a reasonable man,” Cord said, despite recent evidence to the contrary. “He’ll understand.”
“Are we talking about my father?” she inquired dryly. She reached for the baby. “Go. Don’t jeopardize your job.”
After his conversation with Cody, Cord knew she was right. He relinquished the baby reluctantly, then finished the last of his coffee. He was almost to the door, when she stopped him.
“Cord?”
Shrugging into his coat, he turned back. “Yes?”
“Thank you for staying last night. Thanks for...” She seemed at a loss for words. “Thanks for everything.”
He grinned at the all-encompassing word. “Anytime. I’ll see you two later.”
“It’s not necessary.”
He frowned. “You keep saying that, darlin’, I’ll get the feeling you don’t care about me. Besides, I thought we were past that. I’ll be back.”
She nodded, a smile barely perceptible on her lips. “I’m glad.”
He resisted the urge to go back and kiss her. He’d been hard and aching all night long. He knew he could never pull off a quick, chaste brush of his lips over hers. If he touched her now, it would be a go-for-broke kiss and it would lead them down a path she wasn’t anywhere near ready to take. He had to keep reminding himself of that—over and over, if that’s what it took.
“See you,” he promised again and left before he could change his mind.
At White Pines, he found Cody in his office, clearly waiting impatiently for his arrival. He leaned back in his chair and scowled at Cord’s entrance.
“Finally.”
Clearly his boss was spoiling for a fight. Cord tried to placate him. “I got here as quickly as I could. What is it you need me to do today?”
“We’ll get to that. First I think you and I need to have a talk.” He gestured toward a chair. “Sit.”
Cord had a feeling this talk wasn’t going to be about ranching, that it was going to be about matters he’d just as soon not get into with Sharon Lynn’s daddy, but he dutifully sat just the same.
“What exactly is going on between you and my daughter?” Cody began bluntly.
Cord bristled at the question, even though he understood Cody’s need to ask it.
“With all due respect, sir, she’s a grown woman. I think that’s between Sharon Lynn and me.”
Cody rose halfway out of his chair, a scowl on his face. “Now, listen here, you impertinent son of a gun.”
Cord held up a hand in a quieting gesture. “Sir, I know where you’re coming from. You’re worried about her. What I can tell you is that I will never do anything to hurt her. Circumstances, fate, call it what you will, threw us together and brought that innocent little baby into our lives. There’s a bond between us because of that. It may lead to something more. It may not. For myself, I hope it does. That’s as honest as I can be.”
Apparently it wasn’t quite enough to satisfy his boss. Cody’s gaze remained suspicious. “And this has nothing at all to do with the fact that she owns a ranch of her own?”
Cord went absolutely still, caught between shock and fury. He should have anticipated the question. Somehow, though, he’d pushed his discovery that Sharon Lynn was the widowed owner of a nearby ranch from his mind. He should have seen that Cody would add up his plan to buy his own place and his growing friendship with Sharon Lynn and come up with a devious scheme. In Cody’s place, he might have done the same. Still, the question rankled.
“What are you asking me?” he demanded quietly.
“I’d say it’s plain enough. I’m asking if your interest in my daughter has anything at all to do with the fact that she has some property. You told me yourself that it’s your goal to move on as soon as you can get enough money for some land. I can’t help thinking that courting Sharon Lynn would be a quicker way to go about it, wouldn’t it?”
Cord was on his feet before the words were out of Cody’s mouth. Because he was older, because he was Sharon Lynn’s father, he cut him more slack than he would any other man asking the same questions, making the same rotten accusation. He braced his hands on the desk between them and leaned across.
“You listen to me and listen good,” he said tightly. “I’ve gotten nothing in life that I haven’t worked for. I sure as hell don’t intend to start now. Until she told me the story of her marriage, I didn’t even know Sharon Lynn was related to the man who had owned that property nearby. She’s not using his name. She’s not living there. I had no idea she was the widow folks had told me might be interested in selling.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I don’t lie,” Cord said emphatically.
Cody still wasn’t through. “But now that you do know,” he began, his expression hard, “that’s all the more reason for staying in contact with her, isn’t it?”
“I am with Sharon Lynn because of the baby and because I’ve grown to care deeply for her. For you to say otherwise is a disservice to her and an insult to me.” He met Cody’s harsh glare with one of his own. “Maybe you’d like it better if I move on. I can be out of here in an hour.”
“And leave Sharon Lynn after telling me how devoted you are to her?” Cody asked with an edge of sarcasm.
“I didn’t say I’d be leaving her or Los Piños, but I will leave White Pines this morning, if that’s what you want.”
Harlan Adams stepped into the office just then and stared from Cody to Cord and back again. “What the hell is going on in here? You two are making enough ruckus to scare the horses clear down to the barn.”
“Just a little disagreement, Daddy,” Cody said in a milder tone.
Harlan turned a skeptical gaze on Cord. “Is that the way you see it, too?”
Cord nodded, despite the anger churning inside him.
“Then what was that crazy talk I heard about you leaving?” Harlan asked.
“I was just asking if that’s what Cody wanted.”
“Well, why the hell would he?” Harlan retorted, gazing at his son. “Right, Cody?”
Cody flushed a
dull red. “Daddy, you don’t know all the facts.”
“What facts? I know this man knows ranching. I know he’s a hard worker.”
“Couldn’t prove that by me,” Cody muttered.
“Excuse me?” his father said.
“Nothing.”
Harlan nodded. “That’s better. I also know that he’s been a real godsend to Sharon Lynn in this crisis. Dani and Justin have both told me how he stuck by her all day yesterday, when she was jittery as a June bug waiting for news about that baby’s mama.”
“He should have been working,” Cody repeated defiantly.
His father frowned. “Since when is work more important to us than family? I’d think you’d be grateful he was there for your girl when she needed somebody to stand by her.”
“If that’s all it was,” Cody said, “I would be grateful.”
“You have any reason to believe otherwise?” Harlan asked. “I’m talking hard, cold facts, not crazy suppositions.”
“No, but—”
“Until you do, then, I’d suggest we all settle down and get back to work.”
Cody sighed heavily. “Yeah, fine.”
Cord couldn’t let the matter rest so easily. He met Cody’s gaze evenly. “You sure that’s what you want?”
“Yes,” Cody said with obvious reluctance.
Harlan Adams beamed. “There, now. Isn’t that better?”
“Yeah, right,” Cody said. “I just pray we don’t all live to regret it.”
“You won’t,” Cord assured him quietly. “I guarantee it.”
His temper still hadn’t cooled. He doubted Cody’s had, either. The truce between them wasn’t likely to last. But it had bought him some time.
Time to prove his intentions were honorable. Time to convince Sharon Lynn that they had a future and that that property of hers had nothing to do with it.
* * *
When her brother slid onto a stool at Dolan’s late that afternoon, Sharon Lynn was surprised. Usually Harlan Patrick headed out to be with Laurie Jensen the minute his work was done. She automatically filled a glass with ice and his favorite soda, then put it down on the counter in front of him.
“I haven’t seen much of you around here lately,” she commented. “What brings you by?”
“I just felt like it. Is that a problem?”
She frowned at his tone. Normally he was the most affable man in the world. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, dammit.”
“Well, you don’t have to bite my head off,” she snapped right back. “You came in here. I didn’t chase after you just to pester you.”
He raked a hand through his sun-streaked hair and mumbled an apology.
“What was that?”
“I said I’m sorry, blast it all. Can’t you hear, either?”
She slapped down the rag she’d been using to wipe the counter and walked out from behind it. She grabbed his elbow and spun him around until they were face-to-face.
“Listen here, you big jerk. If you and Laurie had a fight, you don’t get to come in here and take it out on me.”
“Who says I had a fight with Laurie?”
“I can’t think of another thing that would send you running in here behaving like a bear with a thorn stuck in his paw. Am I right? Did you two argue?”
“You could say that, though it’s hard to argue with a woman who won’t listen to a damn thing you have to say.”
She saw the flash of genuine hurt in his eyes and said more soothingly, “You two fight all the time. Is there some reason this time is different?”
“She’s left,” he said succinctly.
Sharon Lynn stared at him in shock. “Left? To go where?”
“Nashville.”
“She actually left?” she repeated incredulously. “She didn’t just threaten to go?”
“I said she left, didn’t I?”
“Okay, okay. I just can’t believe she finally did it.”
“Neither can I,” he said in a bemused, betrayed tone that came close to breaking her heart.
For all of his jovial, devil-may-care attitude, Harlan Patrick had loved Laurie Jensen deeply. Always had. Probably always would. But her desire for a singing career had stood between them for a very long time. Harlan Patrick had never taken it seriously enough. Everyone in the family had warned him about that, but he’d been so sure Laurie would give up singing for a life with him.
Sharon Lynn sat down on the stool next to him. “You know she loves you,” she reminded him.
“Just not enough to stay here and marry me.”
“She’ll be back. Country music is a tough business. Stand by her, be there for her. There’s no guarantee she’ll make it. Let her take her best shot. That’s the only way to get it out of her system.”
He regarded her bleakly. “She’s good, though. Really good,” he admitted. “What if she makes it? What if she becomes this huge success and never comes back? What if someone else comes along and makes her forget all about the cowboy she left behind in Texas?”
“Don’t you think you’re selling yourself short? You’re every bit as handsome and sexy as any man she’s likely to meet.”
Harlan Patrick gave her a lopsided grin. “And you’re biased as hell, but, thanks, anyway. Even so, you know what they say about out of sight, out of mind.”
“You could have gone with her,” Sharon Lynn reminded him. “That was always an option. You’ve got that business degree Daddy insisted on. The two of you could have learned the music business together.”
“I might have a business degree, but the ranch is all I care about. It always has been.”
“Is it more important than Laurie?”
“No, of course not, but—”
“But you’ve always gotten your own way and you can’t believe it didn’t work out the way you wanted this time, too.”
“Hey, whose side are you on?”
“Yours, but you are stubborn, just like all the rest of us. Maybe one of us should learn to bend once in a while.”
Harlan Patrick gave an exaggerated shudder as if the very idea of compromise were repugnant to him. Sharon Lynn grinned. “Not an option, huh?”
“Not this time.” His gaze met hers. “Let’s change the subject. This one’s depressing. How are things with you and the cowboy?”
“Cord?”
“You know any other cowboys?”
“A whole slew of them,” she reminded him.
“Okay, smart-aleck. Yes, Cord.”
“You’ve probably seen him more recently than I have. You tell me.”
Harlan Patrick grinned. “Let’s just say he survived his first big-time run-in with Daddy.”
“He fought with Daddy? Because he was late this morning?”
“I don’t think that was it.”
“What, then?”
Her brother looked vaguely uneasy. “I wasn’t there.”
“But you heard. The men out there are worse than a bunch of old ladies when it comes to gossip.”
“Daddy seemed to disapprove of the amount of time he’s been spending with you. He apparently asked straight-out if it had anything to do with Cord trying to get his hands on Kyle’s ranch.”
Sharon Lynn stared at him in shock. A queasy sensation began in the pit of her stomach. “Daddy asked him that?”
“That’s what I heard.” He gave her a penetrating look. “Is that what he’s after, sis?”
“No, of course not,” she said indignantly. “The subject of Kyle’s ranch has never even come up. I don’t even know if he’s aware that I own it.”
“If he wasn’t, he is now. Could be that Daddy has succeeded in planting the idea in his head. It would be mighty convenient for him if he could take it off your hands for a pittance of what it’s worth.”
Harlan Patrick grinned. “That’s pretty much what he told Daddy, too. He threatened to quit.”
“He didn’t do it, though, did he?” The idea of Cord leaving the area bothered her more than it should have. Whether he went or stayed shouldn’t matter, but it did. The prospect of him leaving a place he’d wanted so badly to work was all the more troubling if he was being virtually forced to go by her overly protective father. “Harlan Patrick, tell me exactly what was said out there.”
“You sound worried, sis? Would it really bother you if he did leave?”
She ignored the question. “Did he go through with it or not?” she persisted.
Harlan Patrick’s smirk indicated he found her response telling enough. “No,” he reassured her. “Granddaddy busted in on them and saved the day. They’re operating under a cease-fire for the moment.”
Sharon Lynn barely contained a sigh of relief. She would step in, too. Smooth things over.
Harlan Patrick regarded her knowingly. “Don’t even think about getting into the middle of this, sis.”
“Why not?”
“It’ll only convince Daddy he’s right to worry and it’ll be a slap at Cord’s pride. He doesn’t need you fighting his battles for him.”
“Amen to that,” Cord said, joining them. He gave Harlan Patrick a curt nod. “You’ve told her?”
“I thought she should know,” her brother said defensively.
“You’re right, she should,” Cord agreed, “if only so she can make up her own mind whether or not to trust me.”
“But I do,” Sharon Lynn insisted.
Cord smiled. “Thanks, darlin’.”
“As for the ranch—”
“I don’t want to discuss the ranch,” Cord retorted grimly. “Not ever. I’ve heard about as much about that ranch today as I care to. I won’t have it getting in between us.”
She was pretty sure she saw a new level of respect in Harlan Patrick’s eyes as he gave Cord a nod, then kissed her goodbye.
“Later, sis. See you in the morning, Cord.”
Wildflower Ridge Page 29