Rancher's Double Dilemma

by Pamela Browning

  Except to plan an early return.

  Sheila Sue had bought a whole row of junior foods at the supermarket the day before. “See?” she said brightly.

  “I stocked up so you can stay a month before I have to buy baby food again!”

  “That’s wonderful, Mom,” Lacey said automatically, but inside she knew she couldn’t possibly stay that long whether or not she returned to the ranch permanently. She was far from feeling comfortable in this condominium tower high above the ocean; she felt as if she were trespassing on someone else’s turf. She had never felt that way at the ranch, even from the very first day. The ranch house had quickly become home to her.

  Home. The word flowed gentle on her mind, and it lapped softly at the edges of her consciousness, all warm and peaceful and full of good things.

  LACEY, wearing the brand-new green silk dress that her mother had insisted on buying for her, sat across the table from her date. Brian was only an inch or so taller than she, and he wore shoes that squeaked. Besides that, he was already in love.

  Not with any other woman, but with himself.

  He continued talking. He had monopolized the conversation all evening. “And then I bought a few thousand dollars’ worth of stock in a tech company, and the company went under. Not that it hurt me. My portfolio was up in other areas. So I took a vacation in Tahiti last year, where I lived in a thatched hut with no running water.”

  Lacey’s dress hurt. There was some kind of label sewn into the right seam and it was digging into her waist.

  “Excuse me, Brian,” she interrupted smoothly. “I’d better go phone my mom and see how the twins are getting along.” She needed a break from this guy, a respite from his bragging.

  “No need to get up,” he said. “My cell phone’s right here.” He produced it with a flourish and handed it across the table to her.

  There wasn’t much Lacey could do but dial up Sheila Sue—forget pulling the label off the dress or enjoying a bit of peace and quiet in the haven of the ladies’ room.

  Sheila Sue answered the phone on the second ring. “Mom, hi, I called to check on the girls.”

  “Is something wrong?” her mother asked sharply.

  “No, no, everything is fine. No problem. Brian and I are at the restaurant.” He was watching her like a hawk, studying her breasts with ill-concealed interest. Lacey crossed her arms on the table and thought, There! See what you think of that!

  Sheila Sue was blithe and cheery. “You’re supposed to be having a good time. Don’t think about these darling babies for a change, Lacey. Enjoy yourself.”

  Brian was now jiggling his leg under the table, which made the ice in Lacey’s glass tinkle slightly. She resisted the urge to scratch at the itch the label inside her dress created. “That’s, um, hard to do, Mom,” she ventured cautiously.

  “Oh, dear. You’re not having fun?” This question was delivered in a tone of dismay.

  “I only called to ask about the girls,” Lacey said. Brian smiled at her and bolted down half a glass of wine before summoning the waiter and ordering an appetizer.

  “I know—you can’t talk. Is that it?”

  “That’s right.”

  “The girls and I are enjoying each other. Fletcher built a sand castle for them on the beach.”

  “I’ll see you in a little while,” Lacey told her.

  “Stay out as late as you like,” her mother advised magnanimously. “Live a little.”

  Lacey sighed. “Okay, Mom. Bye.” She handed the phone back across the table to Brian.

  “I ordered escargots,” he informed her expansively. “You like escargots, don’t you?”

  Lacey met his eyes honestly. She had never wanted to eat snails. “Not really,” she said. “But that means there’ll be more for you.”

  Brian beamed. “Wonderful!” he said, and proceeded to regale her with stories about his college days, which seemed to have consisted of little studying and lots of keg parties.

  Lacey had never been to college, unless you could count a couple of weeks in beauty school before she realized that she wasn’t cut out to be a hair stylist. She didn’t feel any kinship with this man. Certainly she wasn’t attracted to people who liked to talk about themselves at great length. She liked people who did things. Who were busy and productive. Like Garth.

  She let her mind wander back to the ranch, picturing the sun setting along the rolling horizon, the hands calling to each other as they chivvied their horses along to the barn after allowing them a long drink of water from the trough. Garth would be sitting on the porch swing right about now, creaking gently back and forth as he studied the fireflies winking on and off in the broom weed near the fence. Cody would likely be in town with Kim, and Garth would be all alone with no one to keep him company. He would be missing Ashley. He might even be missing her, Lacey.

  Her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them away before Brian could see.

  “Lacey, is anything wrong?” he asked, the first indication that he’d thought of her all evening.

  “No,” she said, and she was saved from having to provide an explanation by the arrival of the escargots.

  Aside from the escargots, which she didn’t sample, the food was wonderful, the ambiance of the restaurant lovely, and Brian—well, he was not for her. Lacey couldn’t enjoy the food or the restaurant, and she couldn’t wait to get away from Brian and back to the girls.

  After dinner Brian asked her to come over to his apartment for a nightcap, but knowing what he really wanted, Lacey was all too happy to plead concern for the babies and ask him to take her home.

  “I’d like to see you again,” he said seriously when he had delivered her to the lobby of the condominium, but Lacey told him that she expected to be busy during the rest of her stay, and she fled into the elevator before he could kiss her good-night.

  When she let herself into the apartment, Sheila Sue came running and was full of questions. “Did he ask you out again? Did he compliment you on your new dress?”

  “Brian said he’d like to see me again, and he never complimented me on anything. He’s a man in love, Mom. I don’t want to go out with him again.”

  “In love? His mother never mentioned another woman!” Sheila Sue appeared nonplussed.

  “He’s in love with himself, and that doesn’t work for me.” She pushed past her mother. “I want to see my babies.”

  Sheila Sue followed her into the nursery and stood behind her as Lacey looked down into the two identical Jenny Lind cribs that her mother had bought for the twins. Michele was sleeping with her pacifier in her mouth, her bottom in the air. Ashley was clutching her stuffed lamb and sleeping on her back.

  Lacey pulled the cover up over Ashley, and without waking up, the baby rolled over on her side and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

  “Isn’t that the cutest thing!” her mother marveled as she slid an arm around Lacey.

  Lacey nodded. Part of her wished that Garth could be here to see them looking so adorable in the identical pink pajamas that her mother had bought them today. It seemed as if everything she saw and did made her think about Garth—what he’d say if he knew about it, how she’d reply when he talked about it, all the things about him that she had taken for granted when she lived in his house.

  A lump rose in her throat, and she turned to go.

  “Fletcher and I are in the media room watching that new sci-fi program. Want to join us?” Sheila Sue whispered when they were out in the hall.

  “I’m bushed, Mom. Exhausted. The plane trip yesterday must have taken more out of me than I thought.”

  Her mother looked momentarily disappointed, then rallied. “Of course it did. Now aren’t you glad you’ve got me to help you? You can stay right here in Fort Lauderdale if you get a job with Brian’s mother. I’ll see you in the morning, dear.” She leaned over and kissed Lacey’s cheek, and Lacey hugged her in return. She didn’t want her mother to think that she was ungrateful to her for providing the ticket for this
visit, and she really was tired. And, although Lacey wouldn’t have had to lack for company right now, she was lonely. Plus, the very thought of working for Brian’s mother was depressing.

  Once in her room she yanked off the itchy dress, pulled on her nightgown and eyed the telephone on the cunningly skirted table beside the bed. The skirting was plaid in shades of blue, and it was overlaid with a square cloth that had layers of yellow-and-blue fringe sewn along the edges. Garth had a round table beside his bed, but it didn’t have a skirt like this. It would be easy to make one, though. She lifted up the fringe, studied it carefully, decided she would buy the fabric for one as soon as she got back to the ranch.

  If she went back to the ranch.

  The phone taunted her. It seemed to say, “Here I am. Why don’t you pick me up?” Her hand moved closer to the phone, toyed with the cord. She knew the ranch’s telephone number by heart. She wouldn’t even have to look it up.

  Without thinking about it for one more second, she picked up the telephone’s receiver and punched in the ranch number. The phone on the other end rang and rang, and Lacey sank down on the bed. Garth should have answered by this time. Or his machine should have. So where was he? What was going on there, anyway?

  Maybe he was out with someone. Maybe he was drowning his sorrows at a bar over in the next county. Maybe—

  “Hello?”

  She hated the response his voice brought about, hated feeling breathless and silly and foolish.

  “Hello?” Garth said again.

  “It’s me,” Lacey said faintly. “Calling you.”

  A long silence, then a pleased, “Lacey. I miss you. How are the babies?”

  “Okay.”

  “Lacey, how are you? Is everything all right?”

  Lacey had to think about that for a moment.

  “Answer me, sweetheart. Are you okay?”

  “I guess so. I—”

  “Are you getting along with your mom? Are the two of you having problems?”

  “No, nothing like that. We’re real close and always have been.” But despite her love and admiration for her mother, she was stressed out by Sheila Sue’s machinations behind the scenes, by the way her mother was pushing Brian at her and her insistence that Lacey get a job in Fort Lauderdale so that she and the girls could live close by. Lacey couldn’t help it, she started to cry. She missed the ranch. She missed Garth.

  “Lacey, you’re not all right. I can tell. What’s wrong, honey?”

  Lacey pressed a fist to her mouth in an attempt to control her sobs. She didn’t want to be a crybaby. She needed to know she could handle any situation that came along, and she could—almost.

  “I miss you,” she said to Garth helplessly. “It’s only that I miss you so much.”

  “I miss you too, Lacey,” he said warmly, eagerly. “I love you. Please come home.”

  “I have to stay a while longer,” she said. “I haven’t got my head on straight, exactly. Like tonight. When you didn’t answer the phone right away, I was sure you were with somebody.”

  “With somebody? Like who?”

  “Like Donna, possibly.”

  “Donna?” He sounded flabbergasted.

  “I know she likes you.”

  “I like her, too, but I’m not interested in her that way. It’s you I love, Lacey. Only you.”

  She closed her eyes and pictured him in her mind. He would be sitting on the edge of his desk in his office, talking into the phone, swinging one booted foot and looking earnest. She knew that look, knew it well.

  “Anyway,” Garth continued, “Donna is going to be mighty busy soon. She’s running for mayor.”

  “Um—doesn’t Mosquito, Texas, already have a mayor?”

  “Old Horace has been advised by the vet to retire from the job. Seems he isn’t going to be capable of moving around quite so freely in his old age, and they’re looking for a home for him. I volunteered the Colquitt Ranch, where he can have his own paddock and not have to worry about town government matters.”

  Laughter rose up in her throat. “That’s wonderful, Garth.”

  “Donna will most likely run unopposed for the job. She’s happy as a lark, and one of the town councilmen asked her out to dinner. They’re trying out the new steak house in Tinsley tonight.”

  “Oh.” It was all Lacey could think to say.

  “When can I expect you home, Lacey?” Garth sounded serious now, even somber.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t like to hear you crying, Lacey. I want you to be happy all the time, and for the rest of your life. Come home and marry me.”

  “Give me time,” she said.

  “I’ve given you time,” he said gruffly.

  “A day?”

  “A day too long, if you ask me.”

  “Take care, Garth. Goodbye.”

  After she hung up, she realized she hadn’t asked him about Cody and Kim, what was the latest on their impending marriage. They hadn’t discussed any of the ranch details. They’d barely touched upon the girls. They had talked mostly of themselves, as if they were a couple.

  Well. Maybe they were.

  THE NEXT MORNING Brian’s mother stopped by the apartment at Sheila Sue’s invitation. The purpose was so that she could look Lacey over, and Lacey endured this mini-interview with stoic aplomb. Lacey thought that Andrea was too inquisitive, was overly patronizing and wouldn’t be a good boss.

  “But she’s hiring,” Sheila Sue objected, looking disappointed.

  “Mom, I don’t think I’d like living in Fort Lauderdale,” Lacey said.

  “I’d be here to help with the babies. It’s not easy being a single mother. Believe me, I know that from experience! You’ve got the twins to think about now, not only yourself.”

  Lacey drew a deep breath. “I have things I need to think over,” she said. “Would you please take care of the babies this afternoon? I need to gather my thoughts, Mom, I really do.”

  “Oh, of course I’ll look after Ashley and Michele. Proserpine and I can take them down to the pool, and you can have my car to go anywhere you like.”

  “If you don’t mind, Mom, I think a nice long walk on the beach is what I need.”

  “Why, that’s a terrific idea. Don’t you worry about a thing, Lacey. Proserpine and I will dress the girls in their new matching swimsuits and be down at the pool in a jiffy.” After a motherly pat on Lacey’s shoulder, Sheila Sue was off and running.

  Lacey stopped by the pink bedroom to visit the girls, presently being entertained by Fletcher, who knew how to make them laugh just by looking at them.

  “See you later,” she told them, and after kissing them each on the top of the head, she went to put on her new swimsuit.

  She took a long mind-clearing walk along the shore. Afterward she stretched out on her towel and drowsed lazily until a man came along hawking inflated rafts. On impulse she rented one and took it to the edge of the water, where she bellyflopped down on it and launched herself into the ocean. Before long she had paddled out past the snorkelers and other swimmers, past the buoy that marked the border of the condominium’s beachfront.

  The ocean was calm today. Except for the drone of a plane overhead, it was peaceful, and the gentle motion of the waves soothed her as they rose and fell beneath her raft. After a while it seemed as if she were viewing everything in slow motion, except there was a man on the periphery of her vision who was running along the edge of the water.

  She had to shade her eyes from the glare of sun on the water as she lifted her head and gazed toward the west, but after her eyes adjusted she saw that the man was wearing a plaid shirt, blue jeans and—cowboy boots? Startled, she pushed herself up on her elbows for a better look. He was also wearing a Resistol hat, the kind that Garth and Cody wore.

  She was imagining things. Here she was with a little extra time to relax, and what did she do but daydream! She knew well and good that it couldn’t be Garth. He was in Texas. He was home running the ranch.

/>   But it soon became obvious that it was Garth. She would know those chunky chiseled cheekbones, that hard-muscled physique anywhere. Never mind that he shouldn’t be here. Never mind that her mind couldn’t compute the peculiarity of Garth’s appearance on a Florida beach. I hope this isn’t a dream, she told herself. I hope this is really happening.

  Fascinated, she watched from her raft as Garth started shucking his clothes. The man renting the rafts stopped to watch as the handsome cowboy removed everything down to what appeared to be a pair of black briefs. Garth spoke to him and handed the man some money. The man gave him a raft. Through the joy that threatened to burst her heart wide open, Lacey became aware that a crowd was gathering and watching something out over the ocean. The plane, she thought. It flew annoyingly low over the water, she could tell by the sound of it, but she had no intention of sparing a glance at it right now.

  Spellbound, elated, Lacey watched as Garth bellied onto the raft and began paddling toward her with strong, sure strokes. She was confused: How did Garth, who should be at home in Mosquito, Texas, riding out to the squeeze chutes or checking fences, happen to be on a beach here in Florida? Paddling toward her for all he was worth?

  He hailed her when he was still thirty feet away. “Lacey!” he said, his grin brilliant against his tan. He kept paddling, leaving a white wake swirling out behind him.

  “What…? How…?” was all she could manage, but at the same time she was admiring the contours of his muscles, the tightness of his buttocks. She did so love to look at a handsome man.

  He drew up beside her and grabbed hold of the corner of her raft. “I couldn’t stand the way you sounded last night, so lost and alone,” he said, gazing deep into her eyes. Beads of sea water clung to his eyelashes, sparkling in the sun. Wonderingly she reached over and touched his face, unable to believe he was anything but a mirage.

  “How did you get here?” It was an inane thing to say, but it was all she could think of to ask even as a hundred questions chased through her mind.

  “My friend who flew me home from the governor’s conference in Austin told me one time that if I ever needed to use his plane, it was at my disposal. I figured I’d never need it more than I do now. I’m going to fly you and Ashley and Michele back to Mosquito right now. No arguing.”