A Cowboy's Homecoming

by Leigh Riker

  For a long moment, there was silence while Noah navigated the dark road. Then, although things were going downhill fast, he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “Another thing that’s been bothering me. I’m told you called Daphne at the office—”

  “To ascertain your travel plans, yes, because you wouldn’t tell me.”

  He spoke through gritted teeth. “I didn’t know at that point.”

  She sighed. “Noah, what is going on with us?”

  He clenched the steering wheel. Say it, but how without the right words ready? Here, too, like in the restaurant, she would be hurt, there would be tears, even shouting, and he might well run the truck off the road. He couldn’t seem to speak.

  Margot didn’t have that problem. “All right, then let me be blunt. Your internal clock isn’t ticking. I want a family, but I’ll be thirty-five in April. I can’t afford to spend another two years of my life wondering if we’ll ever go any further than we are now.”

  His mouth pressed tight not to say the wrong thing, he turned in at the gates to the WB. Its name and metal logo gleamed in the moonlight, a reminder of where he’d come from, if not where he’d gone. And Noah’s heart seemed to swell. Cowboy or not, this—like Sweetheart Ranch for Teddie—was Noah’s birthright, even from a distance.

  Margot kept going.

  “Your mother and I looked in several jewelry stores this afternoon.”

  Noah dodged a pothole in the driveway. This kept getting worse. Did she expect him to propose while they were at the WB? He felt like a heel.

  He and Margot had rubbed along companionably, sharing their common interests, their urban lifestyle—if not an apartment together—for long enough that Noah should have made that formal commitment by now. He didn’t cheat and he had never strung a woman along before either. He shouldn’t start now. And yet...

  She wasn’t the right woman for him. He wasn’t the right man for her. She deserved someone who would love her as Margot needed to be loved.

  “Noah?”

  The look in her eyes did him in. “This isn’t the place,” he said, “to have this conversation. In a truck? We’ll talk but not here.” Not tonight. “I promise.”

  Yes, he was stalling. Hated himself for it, and she would feel humiliated for speaking so frankly then being rebuffed, but he’d find the words by tomorrow to tell her—somehow—that there would be no ring.

  * * *

  WITH BANDIT TROTTING after her, Meg rapped on the bunkhouse door. She’d had two choices tonight. Answer the ringing phone—if it did ring—and talk to Mac again or bring these blankets back to Gabe Morgan, as she’d promised Kate.

  Blinking into the darkness, Gabe stared at her from the open doorway, his hair shining under the porch light, his eyes with that sober yet curious look. Arms crossed.

  Meg thrust the blankets toward him, forcing Gabe to catch them, then turned away. “They’re the ones you lent to Kate. She laundered them. You’re welcome,” she prompted him.

  “Thanks,” he said, his tone wry. He set the blankets on a bench just inside the door. “But why don’t you come in for a minute? It’s time we talked.”

  Adrenaline flashed through her. “About...?”

  He waved a hand between them. “The silent treatment I keep getting.” Bandit’s tail swished back and forth like a fly swatter, his dark eyes bright. “The dog likes me,” Gabe pointed out.

  “Bandit likes all people.”

  She turned to peer around Gabe at the interior of the bunkhouse, curious in spite of herself to see how he lived in these job-related quarters. Was he messy like Mac or a neatnik like her? She stepped back. Why should she care? “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “What? You don’t feel safe inside with me?”

  “I know little about you. I’m happy to keep it that way.”

  “Man, that’s cold. I can’t believe you and Kate are related.”

  She turned away but he lightly caught her elbow. Meg stared pointedly at their contact until he let go. “Wise decision,” she said.

  Instead of going back into the bunkhouse, Gabe closed his door, left the porch and walked beside her. “I’ll see you home, then. I’m on my way to check that sick foal.”

  Meg picked up her pace, Bandit dancing at her heels. Overhead, the black sky was clear, sprinkled with stars, the air crisp and biting. “No snow in the forecast,” he said, as if determined to make idle conversation. “Kansas is pretty on a night like this. Pretty anytime, really. I don’t even mind the wind or the dust, but then I was used to that.”

  In spite of herself, she asked the question. “You’re not from here?”

  “Texas born and bred. My dad’s kind of in the oil business, but I always had a thing for horses, the outdoors. Ended up here.”

  “You’re the opposite of Noah Bodine.”

  “Am I? From what I’ve seen, Noah’s got more of the WB in him than he’d admit. He’s good with the colt, has a nice touch.”

  “I’ve tried to tell Kate that he’s not how she sees him.”

  “About her husband, you mean? I’ve heard some of that sad story.”

  And Meg shouldn’t add to the gossip. “You won’t hear any more from me.”

  In the darkness, Gabe laughed softly. “And here I thought we were getting started.”

  “On what?”

  “That talk. How long are you going to stick your nose in the air whenever you see me?”

  Her shoulder accidentally bumped his. Meg stepped away. “You want to know why I keep my distance? For one, you’re foreman here and, as you said, I’m not Kate. I don’t need to talk to you about this ranch or learn where you came from, and especially I don’t need to know where you’re going next. Men like you, cowhands or foremen, are usually transient, which I’ve seen before.” Also pilots, she thought. “When I was a girl, I used to spend part of my summers with Kate and her dad, sometimes the better part of a year.”

  “Why?”

  “Why not? I may be Kate’s aunt, but we’re also friends.”

  “She’s younger than you.”

  “Not that much.” She had to smile. “I liked being around Rob and Noah, too, who were more my age.”

  “That explains summers.”

  She sighed. “I’m a military brat. My parents were based at Fort Riley.”

  “Both of them, huh?”

  “The family business.” Meg’s throat tightened. She remembered all the times before they’d left, packing their gear, and hers, the tense silence in their base house, the fresh uncertainty. Getting into the car in the middle of the night for the drive to Sweetheart. Saying goodbye again. Her ever-present fear. “They usually deployed separately, but when they went away at the same time, I stayed here with Kate and her dad.”

  “Your second home, then.” Gabe looked up at the stars.

  “It is.” And even more so since she’d split from Mac. Her only home at the moment.

  “I’d expect you to marry a guy with deep roots.”

  “A man who stayed in one place?” Meg winced. “Yet, go figure, I didn’t. Something for a shrink to deal with someday, but for now all I can tell you is, I felt attracted to the glamour of his career.” She told him a little about Mac’s constant travel for a legacy airline, the exotic places he’d seen, but not about his neglect of their marriage or its sad demise after she lost the baby. Gabe already seemed to have deduced she was the next thing to an orphan. They were nearing the house now. “We’ve had our talk,” she said. “Goodnight, Gabe.”

  “Meg.” He kept pace with her. For several moments, he studied the sky again, and she listened to the soft lowing of cattle from the darkened pasture. “Reading between the lines—I can tell you’ve had a rough time. I imagine a stay-at-home guy would have worked better for you after being shuttled around as a kid.”

  She stiffened. He
r fears hadn’t been solely a reaction to being uprooted. “I’m not some pathetic lost soul. Don’t feel sorry for me.”

  “I don’t. But I think I understand.” He didn’t say why—part of the mystery of Gabe Morgan. He laid a hand on her shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about from me. You may even be right, that I’m here for the short-term.” He paused. “In spite of all that, I like you. Can’t help myself.”

  Meg eased away from his touch, which she should have done sooner. Why hadn’t she walked away the instant she felt his hand on her?

  “All I ask,” he said, “is for you to stop being some kind of ice queen whenever I’m around. I’ve never hurt you...” He hesitated before adding, “Your ex did.”

  * * *

  THE NEXT AFTERNOON, Kate drove back from town with a silent Teddie. She glanced at him again in the rearview mirror. At home, the colt had been doing better when they left for Teddie’s annual physical at Barren’s medical practice on Cottonwood Street. But obviously, he wasn’t thinking of Lancelot now. “Are you okay, Bunny?”

  “I don’t like Doctor McCord.”

  Yet Teddie hadn’t received any dreaded shots today, and Sawyer had reported he was in perfect health, hitting all his marks—exceeding, of course, in his mental development. There, he was off the charts. Kate still worried that Teddie had a big advantage over her, and Noah had made a sound point. How would she manage homeschooling when Teddie would probably bypass her, surely in a couple of years?

  “Why do you say that? Doctor McCord is a friend, Teddie.”

  More silence, which she should have expected. She’d given the doctor permission to broach the subject of Rob’s death with her son in private after the exam, but what exactly had Sawyer said?

  “He talked to you, didn’t he?” Kate recalled Sawyer’s attempt to communicate with her when he and Teddie had come out of his office. He’d lifted his eyebrows and given her a slight shake of his head. “About Daddy.”

  Teddie pouted. “He doesn’t know. He’s not my friend.”

  Kate swung the truck off the road and into the parking lot of the town’s fast-food restaurant. “Bunny, I think you may be hungry or, as Aunt Meg says, ‘hangry.’” He didn’t smile. “Let’s get a burger before we go home, all right? And discuss this?”

  He folded his arms. “I’m not hangry.”

  “Teddie, then what did he say?”

  “He said, ‘This is between us men,’ and I don’t have to tell.”

  “Teddie Bear...”

  “I’m not lying! He did say that, Mommy.” The words burst from him. “He said Daddy is never coming back, that he can’t because he...died. He’s the liar, not me!”

  So. Sawyer hadn’t succeeded either. How many times in the past year had she tried to make Teddie understand about Rob? Less than a week ago, he had wept again in her arms. During their ride with Noah yesterday, had Teddie realized how much he missed his father? She had to try again. “Honey, we live on a ranch. Remember when Bandit’s friend lost her puppy?”

  “That was sad. I cried.”

  “Well, the same kind of thing can happen...to people. Even people we love.”

  “Not to my daddy.” Teddie took a deep breath. “He lives in New York.”

  Kate said softly, “Yes, he did—and we missed him then. I know he always told you he’d be home someday. He thought he would keep his promise, Teddie.” Rob had booked tickets to fly home that Christmas. He’d never made it. “But he can’t.”

  “He’s not a puppy. Daddies don’t die.”

  Oh, dear God. After Rob’s accident, Kate had bought half a dozen books with gentle explanations for what had happened to their family, and Teddie had rejected them all. One morning last week, Kate had walked into his room to make his bed and seen them in his wastebasket, ripped to shreds. That’s when she’d called Sawyer to move up Teddie’s physical exam, then asked him to intervene, hoping that a more neutral party might help.

  With a sinking heart, Kate got out, opened the rear door, took Teddie from his car seat and leaned against the side of the truck, his rigid body held close to her. She smoothed a trembling hand over his silky hair. “Teddie Bear, we’re not trying to make you unhappy. But you can’t keep believing—”

  “Yes, I can! Mr. Bodine lives in New York, too, and he’s here now.”

  “That’s different.” She’d been afraid of this. Kate regretted taking that horseback ride yesterday but hadn’t been able to say no. Just the light in Teddie’s eyes had been enough for her to agree. Although she still didn’t want Teddie to rely on Noah, how could she have refused to let him have those few moments of sheer happiness? As they’d trotted across the frozen fields, the sun shining, the sound of his laughter and the easy conversation he’d shared with Noah dancing through the air, her own heart had healed a little. But in retrospect, had that ride been wise? “You know Mr. Bodine is only visiting.”

  He wiggled out of her embrace. “Then he’ll go back—and see Daddy.”

  Kate feared she’d been right. Teddie’s surprising friendship with Noah made him feel closer to his father. As she’d suspected, Noah was in part a surrogate for Rob until Teddie believed he would be here again. Encouraging more “organic” rides or any other event might make things worse. Maybe she should choose another counselor for Teddie, though the first one hadn’t worked.

  He thought for a moment. “Why didn’t they come together? He’s Daddy’s friend too.”

  Kate took his hand and buckled him back into his car seat, even though Teddie could do that himself. Yes, he and Noah were also friends. But what if, once Noah left, he never returned? That might be good for Kate’s peace of mind, but how would her son feel?

  She had a sudden idea. Maybe, precisely because they were friends, this might work.

  “Teddie. What if N—Mr. Bodine talked with you about Daddy? Would that be okay?”

  “Maybe. We always talk,” he said.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  TEDDIE PEERED INTO the stall where Kate had been giving Lancelot a bottle of her own mare’s milk. “Better and better every day, Mommy?”

  “It seems so,” Kate said as Bandit barked and a truck stopped outside. Her heart skipped a beat. She’d gotten used to Noah’s daily trips from the WB to see the foal—and Teddie. Almost. This would be her chance to ask him about talking to her son.

  But this morning, when Kate stepped out of the stall, he wasn’t alone. He’d brought a woman with him.

  Noah had mentioned his girlfriend. Who else could it be?

  He helped her down from the truck’s cab. She wore a full-length down coat, high-heeled boots that must have cost the earth and what looked to be a cashmere turtleneck with black pants. Her dark hair was stylishly cut. Everything about her said elegance and money.

  Kate went to meet them, the empty bottle still in her hand. Her grubby appearance—hair that had dried on its own after a hasty shower, dirty jeans (she’d wrestled the colt into position) and her favorite parka with a stain—was a polar opposite. Kate had never particularly cared how she looked. Her daily work on the ranch didn’t allow for vanity. Now, instead, she felt somehow...less than the woman who gingerly stepped through the mud into the barn and turned up her nose.

  At Kate’s side, Bandit growled low in his throat. Noah stepped around him.

  To her surprise, he looked different this morning in a blue button-down shirt with a navy V-necked sweater, visible through his open shearling-lined jacket. His boots looked newly polished, although spotted with mud in places.

  “Kate, this is Margot,” he said. “Margot, meet Kate and Teddie.”

  “Hello,” was all the woman said, her voice cool.

  Teddie, who’d followed Kate and might normally start chattering away even with a stranger, said nothing. When Noah laid a hand on his head, Teddie slipped free, then resumed his perch on the stall door, talkin
g to the colt. He hadn’t greeted Noah, either, but Kate wouldn’t reprimand him right now.

  “Welcome to Sweetheart Ranch,” she managed as Margot looked her over.

  Noah raised his eyebrows. “As you know, Margot has been staying with us at the WB. I thought I’d bring her over, let her see where I’ve been spending time.” It sounded as if he was apologizing, perhaps because he hadn’t given Kate any warning of their visit.

  She wasn’t one to judge other people, but Margot wasn’t winning any points with Kate, which seemed to be mutual.

  Even Bandit had slunk over to plop down next to Teddie, who’d stopped just short of being rude. The dog gave Margot a baleful stare, then growled again.

  Kate said, “Please, Margot, look around. We’re not fancy here, but we do have some nice-looking horses.” While Noah’s girlfriend visited the animals, assuming he didn’t go with her, Kate could ask him about Teddie. But Margot didn’t move.

  “I’m not a horse person,” she murmured.

  “Oh. Well, then, um...”

  Noah’s gaze caught Kate’s, then slid away. He looked disappointed, even embarrassed, as if he’d hoped Margot would keep an open mind. “I’ll take a quick look at Lancelot, then we can go. I planned to do Monument Rocks today,” he told Kate, “but Margot thinks that’s too far for a day trip.”

  “I’m not an outdoor person,” she said, glancing down at her muddy boots.

  After the once-over she’d given Kate, Margot surveyed the barn from where she stood, taking in the stalls on either side of the aisle, flinching when one of the horses suddenly neighed, then sending Teddie and Bandit a dismissive look. Kate imagined Margot saying, I’m not a kid person.

  Noah tried another suggestion. “So we’ll drive to Topeka instead, see the state capitol, have dinner there.”

  “The city has some great restaurants,” Kate murmured, although what did she know? Her last day off this ranch for a social event had been to attend that wedding in New York. Oh, and that one Girls’ Night Out, which had been local. “Rob and I went to a good steakhouse near the capitol once, but I’ve forgotten the name.” And that had been years ago. Margot must eat in fine restaurants every night.