The Ranger And The Widow Woman

by Bagwell, Stella

  Hating to be grouped with the women he’d known in the past, she said, “You imply you know all about women, but I’m wondering how that’s possible when you’ve never been married.”

  His expression turned cagey. “You don’t have to marry a woman to know what she’s all about,” he assured her.

  “Really? I guess you think ‘playing house’ is just as... enlightening as marriage.”

  Charlie had never “played house” with any woman. He’d come close once with Angela. Over several months his feelings for the tall blonde had grown from mild interest to what he’d believed was love. It had been a slow, gradual thing, careful and well thought out on his part. He’d truly wanted her to be his wife and he’d thought she had wanted the same thing. But when he’d finally proposed, she’d simply laughed at him. Did he honestly think any woman would be fool enough to marry him? she’d asked. He could barely unpin the badge from his shirt long enough to have dinner, much less be a husband.

  The confrontation over his desire to marry had ended their relationship. Charlie had never been so hurt and humiliated in his life, but the experience had well and truly opened his eyes about women and his job. Since Angela, he’d kept his enjoyment of females on a casual basis. And even those times had grown scarce in the past year.

  “I’ve been—enlightened enough to know I don’t want a wife.” He stood up and gazed down at her with hard eyes and a grim mouth. “Now what about the jobs? Do you want them or not?”

  The closer the man was to her, the weaker she got, Violet decided. As she tilted her head back to look at him, every nerve in her body stretched as taut as a guitar string.

  “You haven’t told me what they are.”

  “Painting, cleaning, hanging wallpaper, things like that.”

  “Where?”

  “Here. For me.”

  She tried not to look as shocked as she felt. “What’s the other job?”

  “My mother has some bookkeeping she’d like you to do for her.”

  So he’d discussed her situation with his mother. She didn’t know whether to be furious, flattered or just downright grateful.

  She glanced away from him and swallowed as a ball of mixed emotions knotted her throat. “I don’t know what to say. I never expected anything like this.” She looked back at him. “What would I be paid?”

  “The repair bill on your car.”

  “The mechanic said it would take a few hundred.” She couldn’t believe Charlie or his mother had that much work for her to do.

  “I remember what the mechanic said.”

  If he wasn’t such a rock-hard wall of muscle she would have tried to shake him. “I don’t want pity, Charlie. Or handouts. I think it would be better if you took us into Ruidoso so I could hunt for a legitimate job.”

  It probably would be better for all of them, Charlie silently agreed. But it was too late for that. While traveling through the desert he’d found a little sage hen with a broken wing. He couldn’t allow her to try to fly again until he fixed her.

  “What’s the matter? Scared of getting your hands dirty?”

  Her spine stiffened and her lips pursed to a thin, angry line. “No. I don’t think I’m too good for manual labor. But—”

  “Good. We’ll start after you get unpacked.”

  He turned to go as if to end the discussion then and there. Violet grabbed him by the forearm. He glanced back at her, and she swallowed as her heart beat heavy with anticipation. “Sam and I are going to continue to stay here with you?”

  “Where else?”

  Violet could think of a thousand, a million other places she should be rather than here with this Texas Ranger. Yet she couldn’t think of one where she wanted to be more. And that was the most terrifying part of all.

  “All right. I guess I’ll take the jobs.”

  Nodding, he started to move away, yet once again Violet tightened her hold on his arm. His questioning gaze lifted from her small fingers wrapped around his flesh up to her face.

  “Thank you, Charlie.”

  He started to tell her she might not be thanking him after everything was said and done. But something on her face touched him, pierced the hard crust around his heart.

  “You’re welcome, Violet,” he murmured huskily, then turned and left her on the porch, staring after him.

  Chapter Five

  Violet had just cleaned the remnants of lunch from the kitchen table when Charlie’s father, Roy, pulled up in a pickup with a stock trailer hitched to the back.

  Sam immediately came running in from the front yard, squealing that a man had come with horses. Charlie went out to greet him, and in spite of Violet’s attempts to keep him inside, Sam followed right on his heels.

  Choosing to stay inside, Violet walked over to a living room window and watched her son trot out to where the two men were standing near the stock trailer.

  Meeting Justine had been one thing, she thought, but the sheriff of Lincoln County was another matter entirely. For all she knew Rex might have asked the Amarillo police to put out a missing person bulletin on her and Sam. If so, Roy Pardee might have seen it, taken one look at her, and concluded she was Violet O’Dell. It was a long shot, but lawmen, especially one who had been in the business as long as Charlie’s father, had unusually keen eyes.

  But would Rex actually go so far as to contact the police? she wondered for the thousandth time. Her father-in-law had sworn he would if she ever left with his grandson. And he was a man who always made good on his threats. The men who worked for him could attest to that. Still, if the truth behind his business ever came out, Rex stood the chance of losing a lot more than his grandson. Violet only wished she could be the one to expose him.

  From her view at the window, Violet watched the men unload the horses. A big gray and a smaller sorrel. Once they were safely out of the trailer, Charlie led them over to a barn a few yards north of the house. Roy followed, and Sam tagged along at the older man’s side.

  As the sheriff sauntered over the dusty ground, Violet could see where Charlie had gotten his fine looks. The older man was not as tall or heavily built as his son, but even though he had to be in his late fifties, he was still a very fit, handsome man.

  Charlie looped the reins of both horses over a hitching post, and the two men ambled over to the nearest shed. They talked for several minutes, and Violet had decided to go back to her work of cleaning the kitchen cabinets when she noticed the sheriff turn his attention to Sam.

  Squatting down on his heels, it appeared as if he asked Sam a question because the boy immediately began to bob his head up and down. Then before she could guess what it was all about, Charlie reached down and plucked her son off his feet.

  When he carried him over to the big gray and sat him astride the animal, she gasped. Sam had never been on a horse before! This one was huge and wasn’t even wearing a saddle!

  Instantly forgetting her plan to stay out of sight, Violet ran out of the house. By the time she reached the barn, Charlie was leading the horse in a small circle in front of the barn. Sam’s grin said he was in heaven.

  “Hi, Mommy! Look at me! I’m riding a horse. See how big he is?”

  Curbing the urge to snatch him off the animal, Violet stopped just short of their circular path.

  “Yes... I see how big he is. But don’t you think you’ve had enough riding for now?”

  “No! I want to take a long ride with Charlie. He said we could ride way out in the hills and look for cows and coyotes.”

  Violet didn’t know what shocked her the most. Charlie’s suggestion of spending time with her son, or how eager Sam was to go with him. In either case, she was terrified of him falling and breaking bones or being trampled.

  Even though Sam had been born and raised in Texas, and his father and grandfather had been in the packing plant business, he hadn’t lived on a ranch or been around livestock. The few times Sam visited his father’s work place, he’d seen the horses and feedlots full of cattle at a dist
ance. But that was all. Brent had never wanted his son to grow up being a cowboy. There were already too damn many of them in Texas, he’d always said. Violet had often wanted to remind him that without the cowboys he wouldn’t have a business at all.

  Steps sounded beside her. She glanced around to see Charlie’s father walking up to her, and her heart jolted with sudden fear.

  “There’s really nothing to worry about ma’am. Ole Joe is as gentle as a dog, and Charlie’s not going to let him fall off.”

  Violet knew she probably looked wild-eyed and hysterical. But for the past few months she’d had nothing but worries and fears. Especially the fear of losing her son.

  Swallowing nervously, she did her best to nod at Charlie’s father. “I’m sure you’re right. I’m just a littie... nervous. You see, Sam’s never been on a horse before.”

  “I figured as much when I asked him about riding.” He thrust his hand toward Violet. “I’m Charlie’s father, Roy.”

  Even though he was the sheriff, shaking hands with Roy wasn’t nearly as disconcerting as when Charlie had wrapped his big fingers around hers.

  “I’m Violet. Your son—”

  With a knowing smile he held up his hand. “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I’m just glad you’re here.”

  Glad? With the man being a lawman, Violet would have figured he would be suspicious of any strange woman settling into his son’s vacation home.

  “You don’t want to know why I’m here?”

  Roy Pardee chuckled, and Violet decided if Charlie possessed just an ounce of his father’s laid-back charm, he’d be nigh impossible to resit

  “If you can keep Charlie’s mind off his job, I don’t care why you’re here.”

  Violet was about to ask the man what he meant by that when Charlie led the horse and Sam over to them.

  “Well, Sam, it looks like your mama is chomping at the bit to get you off Joe,” Charlie said to the boy.

  He lifted Sam from the horse’s back and set him down in front of Violet. She was relieved her son didn’t whine or cry in protest. But in the past twenty-four hours, she’d noticed that Charlie seemed to bring out the little man in her son. She could only suppose that Sam was either eager to have Charlie’s admiration or he was scared the Ranger would scold him for misbehaving.

  “Can I ride later, Charlie?” Sam asked. “Are you still gonna look for cows and coyotes?”

  He nodded at the child, then glanced at Violet. Her white face angered him. The woman worried about everything she shouldn’t, rather than the things she should.

  “We might even look for sidewinders, Sam.”

  Violet glared at him through narrowed eyes. “Come on,” she said to Sam. “It’s time you came back to the house with me.”

  As the two men watched her go, Roy’s expression turned to one of wry speculation. “I believe you ruffled her feathers a bit.”

  Charlie grunted. “I meant to ruffle her. She’s going to make a mama’s boy out of Sam, and I hate to see it.”

  Roy glanced at his son. “Justine told me Violet had recently been widowed. I expect that would make any woman a little overprotective.”

  “I’m sure it would. A little. But not to the point of obsession. Mom never treated me that way and you know it. If she had, I would have grown up a sissy.”

  “Your mother never had to deal with the death of her husband,” he pointed out, then, adjusting the brim of his hat on his forehead, he added, “Charlie, sometimes you expect too much out of people. Especially yourself.”

  “What’s that suppose to mean?” Charlie asked sharply.

  Roy’s brief smile was that of an indulgent parent. “Once you figure it out, son, you won’t have the problem anymore,” he said, then slapped him affectionately on the shoulder. “Enjoy the horses. I’ve got to get home and pack a bag. Randall and I have to head to Las Cruces in the morning, and I’m afraid we’re going to have to stay over a day or two.”

  “Thanks for bringing them over to me, Dad. And be careful on your trip.”

  As he turned to go, Roy tapped the badge pinned to his breast and grinned. “Careful is my middle name, son.”

  Charlie waved, but he didn’t grin back.

  Violet pumped the trigger on the spray gun. Liquid cleanser blasted the cabinet door then slid in brown rivulets to the countertop. As she swiped a cloth back and forth over the gooey, grimy wood, she wondered again how she had gotten from her home in Amarillo to here. True, the house she’d lived in with her father-in-law had not been a real home to her. But she hadn’t left it to go to work for a Texas Ranger. An arrogant, know-it-all one at that!

  She was scrubbing the wood viciously when a quiet voice shattered the silence.

  “Picturing that cabinet door as my face?”

  From her precarious perch on the countertop, Violet jerked around to see Charlie had slipped into the kitchen and right up behind her. She hadn’t known he was anywhere around, and the sight of him nearly made her lose her balance.

  “Among other things,” she muttered. “I thought you’d be long gone by now. Out on the range hunting rattlesnakes.”

  His expression unmoving, he said, “I will be. When the sun gets a little lower. Besides, I’m not going without Sam. Not after I promised him.”

  Gripping the edge of the counter, she twisted around far enough to be facing him head on. “Over my dead body!”

  Laughter erupted from him. “Violet, if I really wanted to take Sam on a horseback ride, I wouldn’t have to kill you to do it!”

  His words were a mimicry to all the threats she’d heard in the past months. And suddenly without warning it was Rex’s voice in her head, not Charlie’s. It wouldn’t be hard for me to get custody of Sam. All I would have to do is bring up your brush with the law back in Georgia, and you’d never see your son again!

  Rage at Charlie, at Rex, at men in general began to boil her blood. Before she knew what she was about to do, she jumped down from the cabinet counter, flung herself straight at him and pummeled his broad chest with both fists.

  “You bully! You hateful—man! Don’t you threaten me! Ever!”

  Charlie had expected his words to rile her a little. He supposed he’d even wanted them to. She irritated the hell out of him in a thousand ways, and he wanted to get back at her somehow. But in his wildest imaginings he hadn’t expected her to flog him.

  “Damn it, Violet! Calm down!” Charlie finally managed to snatch both her wrists. He held her firmly until she finally stopped fighting and sagged weakly against him.

  “What in the heck was that all about?” he demanded. “Have you gone crazy?”

  Violet knew her face was red from exertion and embarrassment, and she could see Charlie’s eyes watching her breast heave to regain her breath. Without a doubt she’d acted like a wild woman and still looked like one. But for once she didn’t care. When she’d left Amarillo, she’d made a promise to herself never to let another man try to control her. And she’d be damned before she did!

  “I was crazy for ever agreeing to stay here with you,” she said angrily. “This time I’m leaving. And I mean it!”

  Any other time Charlie would have been furious with her. But curiosity over her fierce reaction erased any anger he was feeling.

  “We’ve already been over all this,” he said curtly. “And I don’t understand why you’ve gone so wild all of a sudden.”

  As Violet looked up at him, it dawned on her that he couldn’t possibly know why she was so angry and so desperate to get away. And above all else, she mustn’t let him find out.

  Her eyes fell from his and her shoulders slumped. “Sam is my son. Not yours. I won’t let you take him over... just because...you’re doing me a favor.”

  His expression was incredulous. “I have no intention of taking over your son!”

  She looked at him with disbelief. “No? You put him on that horse without even asking my permission.”

  He groaned, but Violet couldn’t help thinking i
t sounded more like a growl. “My word, Violet, I wouldn’t put him or any child in danger!”

  “A horse could kill him!”

  He dropped her wrists and grabbed her by the shoulders. If his fingers were biting into her flesh, Violet didn’t notice. She was gripped by his blue stare.

  “A drive into Ruidoso could kill him!” Charlie flung at her. “Can’t you see you need to ease off the reins a bit? You’re going to make a sissy out of him!”

  “My son is not a sissy! And anyway...it’s none of your business.”

  That was true, Charlie thought. But something about Sam made him remember back to when he was four years old and it had been just him and his mother. He’d been desperate to have a father show him how to do big-boy things. When his parents had eventually married, having his daddy around and spending time with him had been heaven. Charlie couldn’t give Sam his own father back, but while they were here at the cabin, he could at least see the boy had a chance to experience the outdoors.

  “No,” he said coldly. “I guess Sam isn’t any of my business. I guess you aren’t, either.”

  He dropped his hold on her shoulders, and before Violet could guess his intentions, he walked out of the kitchen, then out of the house.

  His leaving stunned her just as much as the things he’d said to her, and she looked around the small kitchen while still feeling his presence, the clamp of his strong fingers on her wrists and shoulders.

  What was the man all about? she wondered. And why did she care if he was angry or disappointed with her? He was the one who’d gotten out of line!

  You’re making your son a sissy!

  She’d wanted to slap his jaw when he’d flung the accusation at her. But now as she stood in the silent kitchen, the words haunted her. Was Charlie right? Had she, in her fear of losing him, been holding on to Sam too tightly?

  Groaning aloud, she thrust dark hair off her moist forehead and walked over to the screen door leading out to the backyard. Sam was sitting under the sole cottonwood. Between his straddled legs was an assortment of trucks, tractors and farm animals, including horses. He had a vivid imagination and could entertain himself for hours if necessary. But she didn’t want Sam to live only in his mind.