She looked at him with new regard. For some reason, she’d come to the conclusion that he probably had one of those perfect families she’d always dreamed about. A family with a mother that was loving and encouraging and a father who’d always been there for him with a steadying hand. “Your father died?”
Neil nodded soberly. “A heart attack. He was only forty-five—a very young man.”
“That’s so—tragic. What about your mother? Is she still living?”
Neil nodded. “Oh, yeah,” he said, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice. It was a rare occasion that he and Claudia visited on the telephone and even more rare that they visited each other in person. But he didn’t feel guilty about the fact. She was happy living the high social life. Neil was only an afterthought to her. “About the time I graduated high school she got married again. To a politician. Thank God I was headed off to college by then and didn’t have to be a part of their family. Now they live in Santa Fe where he works at the state capital.”
“What about siblings?”
He sighed. “No. I’m all by myself.”
She nodded glumly. “Me, too. And I hate it. There have been so many times I’ve wished and prayed that my mother would remarry and give me a sister or brother. It never happened. She wants no part of a man.”
“Hmm. Well, I can understand that. She doesn’t know what happened to your father. In the back of her mind she might believe he tried to hurt her. Or maybe she believes he’s still alive and she wants to wait for him to return.”
“Do you actually think my mother’s husband or companion—whatever he was—tried to hurt her?” Raine asked quickly. That was another idea that had never come to her before now. It made her see that Neil’s judicial mind was constantly branching out in different directions. Forget about hiring a private investigator, she thought. Neil Rankin was much better than a gumshoe would ever be.
A few feet ahead of them was a low, wooden bench shaded by a clump of banana trees. Neil guided her toward it. “Let’s sit,” he suggested. “Unless you’d rather go somewhere inside?”
Raine shook her head and allowed him to help her onto the bench. “This is fine. Just lovely,” she assured him. “It’s not too often that I get up here to San Antonio. I always enjoy it whenever I do.”
“Do you normally make the trip by yourself? Or do you bring friends along?” Neil asked as he settled himself next to her.
“Usually there’s someone with me. My mother. Or sometimes Mercedes or Nicolette comes along with me. They’re daughters of one of the families who own the Sandbur, the ranch where I work.”
Now that the two of them had stopped walking, Neil had released his hold on her arm. Raine realized she felt an immediate disconnect and almost wished he would reach for her hand. Even though he heated her blood in a way that was totally sinful, there was something about his strong touch that made her feel as though everything was going to turn out okay, that he would move hell and high water to make it that way.
“So you and your mother both work for the Sandbur ranch,” he commented. “How long has Esther been associated with the ranch?”
Raine watched with appreciation as he crossed his long legs out in front of him. He was wearing a pair of starched khakis and a pair of chocolate colored cowboy boots made of ostrich leather that most any Texan would be proud to wear.
“Esther first went to work for the ranch many years ago when I was only a toddler. So the place has always been home to me. That is, until I moved into my own apartment.”
His brow puckered with confusion as he held up a hand. “Wait a minute. I thought you told me she got a job as a clerk in a bank right after you were born.”
Raine nodded. “She did. That’s where she met the two sisters who own the ranch. Elizabeth and Geraldine. Most of their fortune was deposited in the bank where my mother worked and they were periodically coming in to do banking business. Mother got acquainted and somehow the sisters lured her to the ranch to cook and keep house.”
Perplexed, Neil shook his head. “But she was a bank clerk. Why would she want to go from filing bank documents to cleaning house? Wasn’t that a step down?”
A soft laugh passed Raine’s lips. “Not really, when you stop to think that the sisters paid her twice the amount of what she was making at the bank. Plus they allowed her to live in one of the ranch’s rent houses for free. In fact, she’s still living in that same house. It’s getting old now. But then so is the big house and its twin on the hill.”
Neil was certain he’d never seen such shiny hair in his life. The sun sparked the strands and turned it to the color of molten honey. He felt like a kid wanting to reach out and grab a piece of hard candy.
“Tell me about the sisters. Are they still running the ranch?”
“No. A few years back, Elizabeth Sanchez passed away. Her husband is still living, but physically disabled. Geraldine Saddler is still going strong, but she’s a widow now and has handed her reins over the ranch to her son, Lex. He and Elizabeth’s two sons, Matteo and Cordero, also help. They have sisters, but only one presently lives on the property and she had a job outside the ranch.”
“These three men are cousins?” Neil asked as he tried to keep the information Raine had given him straight in his head.
Raine nodded. “That’s right. The sisters married. Elizabeth became the wife of Mingo Sanchez and Geraldine married Paul Saddler.”
“So,” Neil said after a moment, “your mother has worked for these two families for many years?”
Raine looked up at him and felt her heart give a little jolt. He had to be one of the sexiest men she’d ever laid eyes on. His sandy-blond hair contrasted with his darkly tanned skin, but not nearly as much as his blue eyes. They were that light color of blue of a sparkling, mountain lake on a summer day, the sort that invited a hot body to jump right in.
“That’s right. And now I also work for them. The whole bunch is like family to us. Especially since—” She broke off, her lips twisting with pained regret. “Since my mother and I are the only real family we have,” she finished.
For the first time since the two of them had met, it struck Neil as to just what this young woman had gone through because of her mother’s lost memory. She didn’t know where her roots had started or if the man who’d sired her was still alive. She could only wonder and dream about having a sibling out there somewhere, a person who probably didn’t even know they had a sister in Texas.
And then he thought of his buddy, Linc Ketchum. The man had been deeply hurt when his mother had remarried and walked away from him and the T Bar K ranch in New Mexico. For years his friend had bottled up the pain and lived mostly like a hermit. If Nevada Ortiz hadn’t come along and shown him true love, he would still be living that way, Neil thought.
His gaze traveled over the gentle slope of Raine’s cheekbone, the smooth, straight line of her nose and finally the soft curve of her full lips. She was young and full of life. She would have so much love to give to a man and their children. He didn’t like to think of her wasting these precious years searching for the past and being too scared to step into the future.
Impulsively Neil reached for her hand and lifted it to his lips. As he kissed the soft skin of her fingers, her eyes flew wide, her lips parted.
“What are you doing? Practicing for tonight?”
Smiling, Neil leaned closer and pressed another kiss on her warm temple. “Yeah, I’m practicing,” he murmured. “Or something like that.”
Chapter Five
His lips were injecting some sort of twilight drug into her temple. What else could be the reason for this sensation of floating? she wondered dreamily.
A set of strong, warm fingers suddenly curved around her shoulder, the faint rasp of a five-o’clock shadow brushed against her cheek. She sensed more than saw his lips descending upon hers. But she was too tranquilized to do anything but let him have his way.
For long moments she could only respond to the thrill of his
hard lips moving over hers, the sinfully delicious taste of his stolen kiss.
Then nearby laughter drifted across from the river, reminding Raine that the two of them were in a very public spot and practically necking like a pair of teenagers.
Raine jumped out of his arms as though he was an exploding firecracker and backed several steps away from the bench.
Neil stared at her, a sleepy, sexy grin adorning his face. “Oh, now, what’s the matter, honey? Why are you looking at me like you’d like to throw a dagger at my chest?”
Was she? Raine felt more like cuddling back up to his side and the shock of that realization must have put a glower on her face. She drew in several long breaths and tried to calm her roiling senses.
“What do you think is wrong with me?” she asked in a strained voice. “You behaving like Romeo isn’t part of the deal! In fact, you’d better decide right now whether you want to flirt or do your job!”
Neil laughed. He couldn’t help it. Not when she was so beautiful and the words coming out of her mouth were so sweetly outraged.
“I thought it had everything to do with my job. We are going to be lovers, remember?” He just had to remind her.
Groaning with frustration, Raine moved back to the bench and plopped down on the far end away from him.
“Maybe you should be the one remembering,” she retorted. “We’re going to be lovers only in pretense. And if you can’t agree to those terms, then we’d better call it quits right now!”
Neil scooted toward her, but only for a short distance. He realized if he slid too close, she’d be back on her feet in a flash. “Raine! There’s no need for you to get so bent out of shape. It was just a tiny get-to-know-you kiss. It couldn’t have been all that offensive, could it?”
There hadn’t been one damn thing offensive about it, Raine thought. That’s why she was so upset. Even if he was stronger than a jolt of tequila, she couldn’t start swooning over this man.
“No. There was nothing wrong with your kiss. It’s your brashness and this attitude that you think you can touch me—in a familiar way.”
She was getting way too worked up about this. But then, so was he, Neil realized. Only he was worked up in a far different way. Kissing Raine had been too darn good for his own peace of mind. He wanted to repeat the act. Over and over. And already he was imagining what it would be like to have her naked and trembling in his arms.
“All right, Raine,” he said gently. “I promise to behave myself. But I’m going to warn you right now, whenever we’re in the presence of your mother, we’re going to have to give her some sort of physical display. The first time you start behaving as though I have smallpox then she’s going to smell a fish.”
He was right, of course. But how was she going to handle having him touch her, Raine wondered, when that little kiss of his was enough to make her shake?
Jutting her chin with more confidence than she felt, she glanced at him. “Look, you just worry about your end of the bargain and I’ll hold up mine. Like I said, I can act when there’s a need for it.”
Act? Yeah, right. As long as Neil Rankin believed she was acting, Raine tried to assure herself, then everything would be all right.
“And I can be a gentlemen when needed,” he replied, his blue eyes narrowed on her face. “So there shouldn’t be a problem, should there?”
Shaking her hair back, she tilted her head to a regal angle. “None that I can imagine,” she lied.
He rose to his feet and offered his hand to her. “Now that we have that settled, I think we’d better head to the ranch. Don’t you?”
Raine wasn’t all that anxious to show up on her mother’s doorstep with Neil on her arm. But dallying around here in San Antonio with the man might prove to be even more dangerous. Especially if he decided to try some of his “practicing” again.
Placing her hand in his, she allowed him to pull her to her feet. “You’re probably right,” she answered. “The drive will take at least an hour and like I said before, it would be better to get there before dark.”
“Good. Where are you parked?”
She pulled her hand from his and motioned in the direction from which they walked.
He nodded. “So am I. Let’s go,” he urged.
As they retraced their steps along the riverbank, Raine expected him to reach for her hand or loop his arm through hers. Instead he kept an appropriate distance between them and his hands to his sides. The fact that he was sticking to his promise should have pleased her, but instead she felt flat and just a little disappointed. A realization that troubled her greatly.
As it turned out, Neil’s dark green SUV was parked only a few cars away from Raine’s white pickup truck. Before they climbed into their respective vehicles, Raine gave him brief directions of how to follow her out of the city and onto the main highway that would lead them to the Sandbur.
Neil had no problem keeping up with Raine in the busy city traffic. She was a cautious, by-the-book driver and before long they were beyond the suburbs of San Antonio, traveling south on Highway 181. At first, the hill country was lush and green and dotted with plenty of spreading live oak and huge pecan trees. But later, as the miles passed behind them, the area grew flat and much more rugged and arid. Cacti, yucca and mesquite trees began to appear and where the grass had been thick and green, now it was thin and spotty.
By the time they turned off the main highway and headed west on a farm to market road, few house places could be found and traffic was practically nonexistent. Eventually the landscape turned even more isolated. Miles passed before a living creature of any sort appeared and that came in the form of white Brahman cattle. With the sighting of the cattle, Neil also noticed the fence separating the land from the highway changed from sagging hog wire to sturdy strands of barbed wire strung tautly along fat, cedar post. No doubt they were on Sandbur land, he decided. Even behind the windshield of his SUV, he could feel the mystique of the a huge old ranch, especially one that had been handed down through generations of family.
Once they reached the entrance of the ranch yard, Neil expected Raine to pull over and share the next step of the trip with him, but she surprised him by simply driving on through the iron gates and onto a narrow graveled road that led through a series of barns, outbuildings, and livestock pens.
A half a mile passed before a huge house on the far right appeared. The two-story structure was made of rough, pale green stucco trimmed in dark wood and roofed with matching wooden shingles. The porch running along the front was elaborate with several wooden pillars supporting the overhang. A quick glance at the place was all Neil had time for before they moved past the ranch house, but it was enough to see an assortment of brightly colored lawn furniture interspersed with potted flowering plants adorning the porch.
As they traveled on, more cattle pens fabricated from iron pipe appeared on both sides of the narrow road and then another huge house appeared to their left. The structure sat several yards back from the road and was shaded with live oaks, Mexican palms and weeping willows. Compared to the home they had just passed, the red brick house wasn’t quite as elaborate, but almost. It, too, had two stories, but the style was more antebellum than Mexican.
Apparently the “sisters” had done quite well for themselves, Neil couldn’t help thinking, as he kept one eye on Raine’s taillights and the other on the rich surroundings of the Sandbur.
Just past the red brick, Raine turned to the left and traveled another quarter of a mile. When she finally brought the truck to a halt, Neil could see they had stopped in front of a small house with pale yellow siding. As he cut the vehicle’s engine, he noticed a black dog leaping off the small square of concrete porch and racing toward the chain-link fence surrounding the yard.
While the dog barked a vicious warning, Neil waited in the vehicle until Raine walked over to his window before he climbed out to join her.
“Is this where your mother lives?” he asked.
Even in the dusky twilight
, he could see a weary, nervous expression on her features, and he realized she was dreading the moment Esther Crockett laid eyes on him.
Casting a wary glance at the house, she nodded. “Are you ready for this?”
She made it sound as though he was about to face a judge who’d already decided he was guilty as hell and needed maximum punishment. Surely the woman couldn’t be that bad, Neil considered. And if she truly was that difficult to deal with, then it was about time Raine stood up to her.
“I couldn’t be more ready,” he said, then grinned at her. “But maybe you’d better forewarn me before we go inside. What am I?”
Before she could answer, the front door decorated with a wreath of pine cones, opened on the house and a woman stepped onto the porch. The black dog raced back to her, but kept up its barking.
Stepping closer, Raine lifted her mouth close to his ear. “On the way down here, I called my mother and told her we were coming. I said that you’re a financial advisor and we first met over the phone when I needed some advice about tax shelters for the ranch.”
Bending his head, he replied in a hushed tone, “Sounds good enough to me. Just don’t ask me to do any rapid calculations in my head.”
The woman on the porch called out, “Raine? Is that you?”
Raine slipped her arm through Neil’s and tugged him toward the house.
“Yes, it’s me, Mother,” she answered. “And I’ve brought someone with me.”
Esther Crockett was a tall woman somewhere in her early sixties. Dressed in dark slacks and a plain white blouse, her graying blond hair was pulled severely back from her face and wrapped in a coronet at the back of her head. The corners of her mouth were turned downward and Neil could only wonder if the expression was a reaction to him or if she wore a permanent frown on her face.
At the foot of the porch, Neil stood on the bottom step and reached a hand up to Esther.
“Hello, Mrs. Crockett. I’m Neil Rankin,” he introduced himself.
The woman cast a skeptical glance at her daughter, then settled it back on Neil’s face before she extended her hand to greet him.
A South Texas Christmas Page 6