“I’d love to have coffee with your father.”
“Great. And if you’re worried about consuming caffeine at this hour of the evening, Greta will make you a pot of decaffeinated.”
She laughed. “Rafe, I often work the night shift. I’m used to drinking coffee at all hours of the day or night.”
With a sly little grin, he urged her toward the door. “Then I won’t feel a bit guilty about keeping you up late tonight.”
* * *
Two days later, Rafe was tossing several lariats and branding irons into the bed of his truck when he heard a footstep behind him.
Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted Denver, his ramrod, sauntering up and from the grim look on the man’s face, he clearly wasn’t happy about something.
Turning, Rafe cut straight to the matter. “What’s wrong?”
“Selby’s mare, Opal, has come up lame this morning. Doc doesn’t think it’s serious, but she’s going to have to be turned out to pasture for at least three months before we can use her again. Selby needs a mount and all that’s left in the pen this morning is Lute. He’s—”
Rafe interrupted with a shake of his head. “A bit of an idiot if something comes along to spook him. I don’t want Selby on him today. We’ve got mountain riding to do. Tell him to—” He stopped and thought a moment. “Just wait until I get to the saddling paddock.”
“What about the rest of us?” Denver asked. “You want us to load up and head on out?”
“What part of that did you not hear? I said wait! We’ll all leave together!”
From the look on the ramrod’s face, Rafe could see he hadn’t appreciated his gruff reply.
Heaving out a heavy breath, he wiped a hand over his face. “Sorry, Denver. I didn’t mean to be so short. I’m just getting damned tired of being without enough horses.”
“It is getting to be a problem,” Denver agreed. “We’ve had a rash of mounts come up either sick or injured. And some of them have just been overworked during this roundup. Finn needs to—”
“Wake up!” Rafe finished hotly. “I’ll be at the paddock in a few minutes.”
Turning on his heel he started toward the broodmare barn, his long, angry strides eating up the ground.
When he entered the building he had serious doubts he’d find his brother there. Finn had an annoying habit of being anywhere other than where he was supposed to be. But to Rafe’s surprise, he found his younger brother about to step into a small office situated in between a row of horse stalls.
The moment he spotted Rafe’s approach, he paused at the threshold and waited until he was within earshot before he spoke.
“Rafe, what are you doing here? I thought you and the guys were leaving for the White Pine range this morning?”
“That was the plan! We should have been gone thirty minutes ago!”
“So why are you hanging around here? Did someone tell you that I needed to see you?”
“Hell, no! I need to see you! For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to corner you, but you’re always gone or busy. This can’t wait any longer!”
Finn’s jaw tightened. “What are you talking about? You’ve had all kinds of opportunities to talk with me. We were sitting together at the dinner table two nights ago!” he shot back at him.
Rafe clenched his teeth together as he tried to hold on to his patience. “You expect me to discuss business in front of Lilly?”
“Aw, yes, Lilly,” Finn drawled in a suggestive tone. “I’m still trying to figure out what you’re doing with her.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Finn stepped through the office door and motioned for Rafe to join him. Once both men were inside the small room, Finn shut the door.
“Are you trying to insult Lilly? Because if you are you’re begging to get your head knocked off,” Rafe warned him.
Unperturbed by Rafe’s show of temper, Finn shook his head and sank into a chair behind a desk piled with papers and empty coffee cups. “Don’t be stupid. Lilly is a nice woman. A very nice woman. That’s why I’m asking what you’re doing with her. She’s not your style.”
“And how do you know what my style is?” He flung the question at Finn.
His brother shrugged. “Think about it, Rafe. You’ll figure it out—eventually.”
Deciding not to let this encounter turn into something about Lilly, Rafe said, “I didn’t come down here to the barn to discuss my personal life with you, Finn.” Shoving one corner of the desk free of clutter, Rafe eased a hip onto the space. “I’m here to talk to you about the remuda. Or I should say—the lack of one. Spring roundup has worn out the whole string. We’ve not had enough mounts to rotate this past week. And this morning Selby’s mare has come up lame. Lute is the only animal left in the remuda and he’s not worth a damn in the mountains.”
“I know all about Opal turning up lame,” Finn cut in. “Doc says it’s a soft-tissue injury. She’ll have to be put to pasture for at least three months before she’s ridden again.”
Rafe stared at him. “You knew about this? Damn it, why didn’t you call me?”
Finn’s indifferent expression made Rafe want to curse a blue streak.
“What good would that have done?” Finn countered. “Denver or Selby would’ve explained everything to you.”
Rafe’s teeth ground together. “Denver or Selby doesn’t manage the Horn’s horses. And apparently, you don’t, either!”
Finn frowned at him. “Why are you here trying to jump down my throat and pick a fight with me? I’ve been doing my job.”
“Like hell! All you’ve done for the past three months is moon over those mares and colts. Well, let me tell you, brother, there’s more to this ranch than breeding and selling horses! How do you expect me and my men to work cattle without mounts?”
“Rafe, finding dependable working horses isn’t that easy. I don’t have to tell you that. I’m trying to locate some now, but I’m not going to drive all over the country picking up one here and two or three over there. I’m in the middle of making a deal for twelve from the Sandbur down in Texas. If that goes through, they’ll ship them to us.”
Rafe rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “And when might that be?”
“I can’t say. A deal like this can’t be pushed,” he said, then seeing Rafe’s disgust, he went on, “Look, brother, I’m trying to save the ranch some money by making a few negotiations. You ought to understand that.”
“What I understand is that the ranch is losing money if cattle go unfound and uncared for. Think about that, Finn. Or does that even matter to you?”
Rafe didn’t wait around to hear Finn’s response. The men were waiting on him. Besides, he’d made his point. There wasn’t any use in continuing to argue his case.
At the end of the barn, he stepped out the same door that he and Lilly had walked through the evening she’d come to dinner. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the bench where the two of them had talked, and the sight caused him to pause and wipe a cleansing hand over his face.
He’d not seen Lilly since he’d told her good-night and she’d retired to the green room, and that had been two nights ago. With his schedule being packed and punctuated with minor emergencies, and her shifts at the hospital ever changing, he’d not had the chance to see her and had only talked to her once when she’d called to thank him for dinner. And even that contact had been cut short with a problem on the ranch that needed his immediate attention.
Not being with Lilly was doing something to him, Rafe realized. Not being able to see her, talk to her and touch her was like eating a huge meal and still feeling hungry. No matter what he ate, the gnawing pains remained. And that troubled him greatly.
The woman was getting some sort of hold on him and to make matters worse, she wa
sn’t even trying.
I’m still trying to figure out what you’re doing with her.
Finn’s remark had cut deep. Not because he was annoyed with his younger brother over the horse situation. But mostly because Rafe had been wondering the very same thing. Lilly wasn’t his sort of woman. In spite of what she’d told him about love and marriage and babies, she was the type who needed all three. And Rafe wasn’t about any of those things. Not since his mother had died and he’d watched his father’s grief turn him into a shadow of the man he’d once been.
Yet everything he’d been doing with the woman said otherwise. But in all truth, he’d never planned on inviting Lilly to a family dinner or sharing private details of their lives with her. Whenever he was with her, things just seemed to roll out of his mouth of their own volition. He’d never entertained the idea of asking her to stay the night on the Horn, either, but somehow that had happened, too, thanks in part to his grandfather.
And even though Rafe had done nothing more that night than give her a chaste good-night kiss outside the door of the green room, he’d gone to his own room and lain awake for hours, aching to make love to the woman. He was still aching.
No. That wasn’t Rafe’s style. He’d never let any woman make him this needy before. So what was he going to do about it? About her?
The sudden ring of his cell phone jarred Rafe out of his thoughts and reminded him that he’d wasted too much time staring at a bench and thinking about a woman.
Taking off in long, frustrated strides toward the saddling paddock, he jammed the phone to his ear. “Yeah, Denver. I’m coming,” he said to the ramrod. “Get the horses loaded. Lute, too.”
* * *
“Start an IV on this patient now, Nurse. He’s going to surgery.”
Not trusting that she’d heard the doctor correctly, Lilly looked around at him. “Surgery? But Doctor, he’s not gone to X-ray yet. He might—”
The young doctor stalked over to where she was drawing pain medicine into a small syringe and studied the name tag pinned to her uniform.
“I don’t think I need to remind you, Lilly, that I’m the doctor here. You are the nurse. You follow my orders,” he said briskly.
And you can kiss my—you know what, she thought, as she shot him a challenging stare. The doctor had only come to work at Tahoe General a few months ago and during that time he’d made far more enemies than friends among the nursing staff. Lilly had tried her best to get along with him, but she couldn’t stand by and let him bypass proper procedures.
A few steps away, the middle-aged patient lying on an examining table spoke, “Nurse Lilly is right. I ain’t going to no surgery.”
Stabbing Lilly with another glare, the doctor returned to the patient’s side. “Trust me, Mr. Vaughn, your ankle is broken. The surgeon will want to take X-rays of his own before you go into surgery. There’s no point in making two sets.”
“Like hell! I twisted my ankle. I didn’t come here for a knife-carving party. All I wanted was something to kill the pain.” Throwing his legs over the side of the bed, he motioned for Lilly to hand him his pants then added with disgust, “I’m outta here!”
For the next few minutes an argument ensued with Doctor Sherman insisting that the patient couldn’t leave, but in the end he couldn’t stop the man from hobbling out of the examining room, then signing a release form and walking out of the hospital.
By the time the whole scene had ended, Lilly was already tending to another female patient with a head wound that was bleeding profusely. But rather than deal with the half-hysterical woman, the doctor ordered Lilly to join him out in the hallway.
“I think you ought to know that I’m reporting this whole incident to the director of nursing. He’ll deal with you accordingly.”
Lilly’s chin lifted. “For trying to follow the correct procedure? I hope you do report it to Mr. Anderson.”
His expression turned malicious. “You and I both know the man’s ankle was broken. You were deliberately trying to usurp my position in front of the patient.”
If she allowed it, Lilly’s temper could be just as explosive as her mother’s. And there was nothing she’d like better at this moment than to tell this ego-bloated doctor what she thought of him. But through the years she’d trained herself to remain calm, even when she was under fire.
“Mr. Vaughn didn’t know it. And neither did I. Unlike you, I needed to see an X-ray to determine that. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a patient in there losing a lot of blood.”
* * *
Later that evening as Lilly drove home, she wondered if her wretched day was ever going to take a turn for the better. Her day had been long, to say the least, and in spite of the run-in with Doctor Sherman, and her mother ringing her cell for the past two hours, her thoughts remained steadfastly stuck on Rafe.
Slowly and surely the man had become an important fixture in her life. It was becoming unbearable to go a day without seeing him, touching him. What did it mean? Moreover, what was she going to do about it?
As she stepped into the house and the landline began to ring, Lilly was forced to put the questions about Rafe aside and pick up the phone. Otherwise, her mother would continue to call both phones until she answered.
“Hello, Mom.”
“Lilly! I was beginning to wonder if you were still alive!”
Lilly didn’t bother to hide her sigh as she kicked off her shoes and pulled the bobby pins from her bun. “Mom, you know I can’t be talking on the phone while I’m at work. And the E.R. has been swamped. I’ve just now walked into the house.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean you can’t take two minutes to send me a text! I’ve been going through a living hell these past two days.”
A living hell for Faye was a bad hair day or missing an episode of her favorite television program. Dealing with a real problem usually sent her to bed with a headache. “I’ve not exactly been on a vacation myself, Mom.”
Faye snorted. “You don’t have a husband telling you what you can or can’t do! Just because I bought a new couch for the den, your father is having a fit. He’s still threatening to make me send it back. And I’m not about to do that. It’s too embarrassing!”
Carrying the cordless phone toward the kitchen, Lilly tried to reason. “Dad probably thinks you can’t afford the piece of furniture.”
Faye muttered an expletive. “Every time I say we need something, he starts whining about saving for retirement. What are we supposed to do now? Live like paupers?”
The splitting pain in Lilly’s forehead was worsening with each word her mother spoke and instead of pulling a cold soda from the fridge, she opened a cabinet and reached for a bottle of aspirin.
“Look, Mom, I just got home. I need to change out of my uniform and—”
“Sure, cut me off. You’re just like Ron. I don’t—”
In the midst of her mother’s prattle, Lilly heard a knock at the door and was actually relieved for the distraction. At this point dealing with a pushy salesman would be better than Faye’s complaining.
“Sorry, Mom. Someone is at the door. I’ll have to call you later.”
Always careful to check through the peephole before opening the door, Lilly was totally surprised to see Rafe standing on the small porch. His faded jeans and white shirt looked as though he’d come straight from the cattle pen and the fearful thought that an emergency had occurred on the Silver Horn had her fumbling to open the door.
“Rafe! What are you doing here? Is anything wrong?”
“No.” Pulling the crumpled straw cowboy hat from his head, he gestured toward the doorway. “May I come in?”
More than flustered, she raked a hand through her tousled hair. “Oh. Of course. Please do.”
She stepped aside to allow him to enter and while he walked to the middle of
the room, she dealt with closing and locking the door behind her.
“I’m sorry, Lilly. I shouldn’t have just showed up like this. I’m still in my dirty work clothes and you weren’t expecting me.”
Dirty or not, the mere sight of him was filling her with joy. “None of that matters.”
“I tried calling, but all I could get was your voice mail.”
“I’m sorry. I should have explained to you that during work I have to keep my phone turned off. I’ve just now gotten home from the hospital. But I’m glad you’re here.”
“Are you?”
She meant to cross the floor slowly, to remain cool and collected and not let him see how much she’d missed him. But her intentions couldn’t overpower the need to be close to him. Rushing the last few steps to him, she flung her arms around him and nestled her cheek against his chest.
“I’ve missed you, Rafe. Very much.”
Even before she’d finished speaking, his arms were wrapping around her, drawing her close.
“And I’ve missed you, Lilly. I didn’t want to go another day without seeing you. So I drove into town in hopes of finding you home.”
Tilting her head back, she looked up at his face. “My day has been horrible. Seeing you—oh, I’m so glad you’re here, Rafe.”
“Ever since that night you stayed at the ranch I haven’t been able to think of anything but you.” Cradling her head with his hands, he lowered his face to hers. “When I kissed you good-night outside the door of the green room I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to take you inside and make love to you.”
Just hearing him say the words was enough to infuse her whole body with heat. “I was awake for a long time that night—wondering if you might come to me. And wondering what I’d do if you did come.”
His gray eyes were serious as they probed hers. “And if I had? What would you have done?”
Something inside her suddenly crumbled, and she realized she could no longer hide from the things he was making her feel and want.
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