by Helen Conrad
“I wasn’t gone,” she sighed, happily snuggling back against him. “I’m right here.”
“Out of reach is too far away.” He leaned down and nuzzled into her neck. “What are you standing here thinking about?”
She grinned. “About girls in distress,” she answered. “About caballeros who ride to the rescue.”
“Mmmm,” he murmured, still nuzzling. “Great stuff. I do it all the time.”
“I know you do.” She giggled. “You did it for me once. Do you remember?” Briefly, she retold her story of the encounter at Merle’s, when he let the local toughs know she was off limits to them.
He thought for a long moment. “Are you sure that was me?” he asked at last.
“Don’t you remember?” she cried, turning to look at him. “What, do you do these things every week?”
He grinned at her, his face still sleepy. “Just about. You meet the nicest people that way.”
She gave him a pretend chop in the ribs and laughed when he bit her earlobe in retaliation. “I think it’s time you limited your supply of new acquaintances made like that,” she suggested. “Let’s winnow the number down to a manageable amount. Say—one.” She reached up and slipped her arms around his neck. “Me.”
“Only one?” He pretended to look forlorn. “Even on holidays?”
“Especially on holidays.”
He sighed. “I didn’t know Indian maidens were such jealous types.”
She nodded smugly. “That we are.” She thought for a moment, then shook her head ruefully. “I didn’t realize how jealous I was myself until I came up against Megan Reilly.”
“Megan was never a threat to you,” he told her earnestly, stroking her long black hair. “She’s a lifelong friend, but never a lover.”
“I know. You’ve told me before.” She smiled at him. “But there was a time I would have sworn otherwise. And Petra telling me you and she were going to get married didn’t help.”
“We never had any such plan.” He began to peel the straps of her nightdress down about her shoulders, kissing the flesh he exposed as he went. “Although Allison was working on that angle practically from the day poor Megan was born.” He sighed. “Megan didn’t ever want to marry me any more than I wanted to marry her. She wants a career in Hollywood. Her mother made her come out here for the summer as one last hope to get her mind off show-business. And on me.” He shook his head. “It didn’t work. Every time we were together, we spent the whole time plotting her big escape. When she left after the Californio Days ball, she was full of ambitions, as always.” He pulled her close, peeling back the silky fabric of her gown a little at a time. “Megan will be big some day. And I’ll always be her biggest fan. But that was as far as it ever went.”
Shawnee knew that now. She’d talked with Megan that last day, and the girl had told her as much herself. She was a little ashamed of how jealous she’d been.
“She’ll always be welcome here to visit,” she said quietly. “I like her.”
“So do I.” His exploring tongue had found the hollow behind her ear. “But I love you,” he growled. “And the difference is remarkable.”
She closed her eyes and enjoyed his lovemaking, enjoyed the trail of tingling sensation he made across her skin with his touch. They’d only been married a week and they couldn’t get enough of each other. She hoped this easy excitement would never fade. But even if it did, they had so much more to keep them together.
Their wedding had been amazing—a good old-fashioned Spanish barbecue with Santa Maria style-meats cooking on huge grills and filling the air with wonderful smells. Strolling musicians played Mariachi music and brightly dressed pretty girls whirled performing Mexican dances. Choirs of little children sang wedding songs and magicians did magic tricks. A makeshift rock band composed of Santiago teenagers from Santa Barbara and Carrington teenagers from Destiny Bay played in one corner of the lot while a string quartet played classical music in another. The grounds themselves were covered with tables and chairs decorated with roses and sitting ready for the huge crowds of people who attended.
“It was more a fiesta than a wedding,” Lisa had commented, though not in any way complaining. She’d had a wonderful time as well. Everyone had.
“It had to be,” Shawnee had told her. “After all, once you get scores of Carringtons and throw them into the mix of all the Santiago clans that exist in this area and up in Gold Country, you’ve got too many people to begin to get precious about seating arrangements.”
And the best part? She and David had been joined together forever and ever to come. Petra had told her that was the way things worked in this family and she was ready to live the dream.
And living at Rancho Verde was a dream come true. Allison had turned out to be no problem. “Well, it’s about time, isn’t it?” she’d grumped when they announced their wedding plans. “You two have been making eyes at each other all summer. I thought you’d never get around to making it legal.”
Petra had been thrilled. “You’ll be my aunt,” she’d giggled, still uncomfortable in her restraining sling. “Won’t that be fun?” Her shoulder was healing rapidly and she was looking forward to riding again as soon as possible. But even better from her point of view, her father had come for the wedding, and he was still staying with them. From all evidence the rest of them could see, things were going pretty well between him and Allison. After all, she was a Santiago, wasn’t she?
Riding was something Shawnee hadn’t abandoned, even though David took up most of her days. David still had reservations about her riding Miki, but he was coming around, since he had very little choice.
“We’ve got to practice every day,” she’d warned him. “I’m going to win the Cup next summer.”
“Of course you are,” he’d agreed archly. “Santiagos always win.”
She’d stared at him in mock astonishment. “Is that why you married me?” she’d teased. “To make sure the Cup stayed in the family?”
“Naturally. What did you think?”
But she knew what to think. He loved her. It shone in his eyes as he looked down at her naked body now, so creamy golden in the morning sunlight. Her nightdress lay in a smooth, satiny pool at her feet and his dark hand reached out to touch the exquisite tip of her breast.
“Oh, David!” she gasped, reaching for him, amazed as always by the jagged thrill of desire that tore its way through her body.
“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed, eyes narrowed as he gazed at her. “Your hair is dark as chocolate and your eyes—like native silver themselves.” He touched her cheek. “Like a treasure I found in a mountain stream,” he murmured. “Why did it take you so long to admit you loved me?”
His eyes looked curiously vulnerable, as though she could slay him with a single word. Her heart broke open, spilling out all her love and affection in a flood that he couldn’t possibly misunderstand.
“I was trying so hard to hate you,” she admitted. “And all the time I knew it was impossible.” She smiled as her hands went to his chest, fingers tangling in the thick, curly hair. “I’ve loved you from before you knew I existed.”
His hands took her face before him. “And I’ve loved you from the moment you burst out of that water, all wet and shiny, just for me.”
“Just for you?” she teased, laughing softly. “How did you know that?”
His mouth tilted in a semi-smile. “Because that was the way it had to be.” There was a snuffling sound at the door. At first they ignored it, sharing a kiss that seemed to fuse their souls along with their bodies. But the snuffling got louder, and then there was the sound of little nails against the door.
“It’s Hank,” Shawnee whispered, a little short of breath.
David only held her more tightly. “Don’t you dare let that dog in,” he growled. His hands swept across her body, his touch hardening along with his sense of urgency.
“Oh!” she moaned as he pulled her down with him to the thick carpeting of the floor
. “But David, the bed . . .”
“I can’t wait that long,” he murmured tensely. “Can you?”
“No!” she cried out, half-laughing, half-frenzied. And as they came together, drenched in shimmering sunlight, she knew it would always be like this, the love, the caring, the quickening need to demonstrate it with passion. Was there a woman in the world as lucky as she was? She pulled his dark head to her in fierce love and knew the answer.
Destiny Ranch
Destiny Bay Romances -
The Ranchers Book 2
By Helen Conrad
Cast of Characters in the series Destiny Bay~The Ranchers #2
Destiny Ranch
Carly ~child of the town of Destiny, returning to look for answers.
Joe Carrington ~his wife left him and their two children and went off to start a new life. He had to pick up the pieces, and he hires Carly to help him.
Millie~the neighbor who knows things she doesn’t want Carly to know
Trevor ~Millie’s son who thinks Joe may be his father
Phyllis Carrington ~Joe’s mother, an original manipulator.
Beth Carrington~Joe’s seven year old daughter
Jeremy Carrington~Joe’s six year old son
Doris~Carly’s cousin, a waitress at the Kit Kat Koffee Shop
Shawnee Carrington~young horsewoman who marries:
David Santiago~latest owner of Rancho Verde, the ranch the Carringtons lost
CHAPTER ONE
YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN
“I need a real woman, Doris. Not some slick little refugee from the fast lane.”
The rugged man in the denims and cowboy boots pushed his wide-brimmed hat back on his head, his handsome face a picture of stubborn resistance.
Doris sighed, rolled her brown eyes and leaned across the Formica cafe table so that she wouldn’t be heard by all the eavesdroppers at the other tables.
“Joe Carrington, you’ve got some nerve. It’s not like you’ve got people lining up to take this job of yours, you know. Those two little kids are cute as the dickens, but they aren’t angels, and everybody knows it. You’ve gone through all the local talent. There’s not a woman left in this town who would tackle taking care of Jeremy and Beth, much less you and that big old house of yours. I’m offering you someone decent who will do for you for a while. You won’t find anybody better, and you know it.”
“’Decent,’” Joe echoed, his voice, usually edged with humor, just this side of bitter this time. He raised his dark, cloudy eyes and gazed at her with self-deprecating amusement. “Is that what it’s all come down to, Doris? Do I have to settle for ‘decent’?”
Doris leaned back, her plump hand smoothing the apron of her waitress uniform. She was pleased, thinking she was finally getting through to him.
“My cousin Carly is more than decent, honey. Come on. You can see that for yourself.”
Reluctantly, he turned and looked at the woman Doris was talking about. She was perched on a stool at the counter, her long, caramel blond hair hanging like a banner of silk down her back. The dark panes of her sunglasses stared back at him. Even though her eyes were obscured, he could see she was pretty. Too skinny. But pretty. Her long, slender legs were made for the designer jeans she wore. The plaid shirt was rayon rather than cotton. And the short suede jacket was cut for fashion rather than utility. Expensive clothes. City clothes. This woman was no more a rancher’s housekeeper than he was a stockbroker.
He thought of his two kids, Beth and Jeremy, and that awful empty feeling in the pit of his stomach was back again. He felt like a man in a shipwreck trying to save his kids, trying to get each one something to cling to while he searched for the life raft. And all the time the water was swirling harder and harder around them, and he was beginning to wonder if he was really going to save them after all.
He needed help. That was certain. But this little piece of city driftwood wasn’t a life preserver.
“Give me a break, Doris,” he growled, turning back. “When it comes to feeding a family, the only thing she’ll know how to make is reservations. I need someone better than that.”
Doris set her round shoulders and glared at him. “What you need, Joe, is a miracle. You haven’t had anyone who lasted more than four weeks with those kids in two years of trying.” She sighed and shook her head of soft brown curls. “Well, Carly ain’t no miracle. But she’s about the only chance you’ve got of having your kids looked after any time soon. You’d be a fool to turn her down.”
He looked back at her and his wide mouth twisted into a grin that held as much pain as humor. “Call me crazy,” he drawled. “But I’m not ready to take in tourists yet, just because the Dewdrop Inn went and burned down just when you needed it.” His dark eyes sharpened. “Say, why can’t she stay with you, anyway?”
“I...” Doris hesitated. This was something of a sore spot with her and she almost blushed. “Well, you see, Brian’s been sort of staying with me for a while now, and he’s lookin’ to be just on this side of proposing. Carly is my cousin and all, but.. .well, darn it, look at her. She’s just too... too good-looking.”
His grin was affectionate but teasing. “And you don’t want Brian to lose his focus before he gets that big question out of the way. Is that it?”
She slapped at his hand and he threw back his head and laughed. “Even you can see that the woman is bad news,” Joe told her when he sobered, glancing back across the room. “So why the hell would I want her?”
Carly watched the two of them nervously. Her slender hand reached automatically for her purse, going for a cigarette. Stopping herself, she sighed softly. No more smoking. That had been one of the conditions she’d laid down for herself. She was going to be clean now that she’d left city life. Organic foods. Lots of sleep. She needed space to think, and clean living was going to be her way of finding it.
She’d already quit smoking, actually. She’d thrown away her last pack just before her bus had left Washington, D.C. The funny thing was, she hadn’t really missed it. There had been so much to see and think about on that bus trip, she hadn’t had time to miss it.
The bus. It made her smile to think of that trip. She’d decided to take the bus to California because she knew Mark would search the airports. And the private limousine companies. And maybe even the luxury shipping lines for cruises through the Panama Canal. But he would never think to check the bus lines. The concept of his little Carly taking a bus with the other plebeians would be beyond his comprehension.
But she’d done exactly that and she’d been pretty darned proud of herself. She’d had plenty of time to calm down and begin to get her head together on the long trip. And the bus had brought her right into town, straight to where her cousin Doris worked as a waitress at the Kit Kat Koffee Shop.
The only problem was, Doris didn’t seem to have room for her.
“Why don’t you go on down to L.A.?” Doris had suggested. “You must have old friends there from your high school years.’’
“No.” Carly had been glad for the dark glasses at that point. Without them, Doris would surely have seen the haunted loneliness in her eyes. Going to L.A. would be no better than staying in Washington. She had to get away from that sort of life, those sorts of people. She’d come all the way across country looking for Destiny, the little town she remembered as a piece of slow, simple heaven just a few miles in from the Central California coastline. This was where it started—the farms and ranches of the California heartland.
“No, Doris, I don’t want to go to L.A. I want to be here, to remember my childhood, to learn to breathe again.”
Her cousin’s kindly face had softened. “How old were you when your mama dragged you off to Hollywood to try to make you into a movie star? Let’s see. I was about eighteen, so you must have been...”
“Ten. I was just ten.”
“And you never did become a movie star, did you?”
It wasn’t said in a malicious way, but there was a certain sati
sfaction in Doris’s tone. And why not? Carly thought to herself. Why not?
“No, I never did become a movie star, or even anything close,” she admitted with a smile. “That was my mother’s dream, not mine.”
“But you’ve done pretty well for yourself in the East, haven’t you? Didn’t you say you were a secretary...?”
“Congressional aide,” Carly corrected her quickly, then frowned, impatient with herself. As if that really made any difference. It had seemed an important distinction once, but the farther away from Washington she got, the more those lines seemed to blur.
“Whatever,” Doris said. “But you work for somebody big in government or something, don’t you? A good job in the big city. So what do you want to come back here for?”
Carly hesitated. There was no way she was going to be able to explain such a complicated set of reasons to her cousin right here in the cafe between customers.
“I...I needed a rest,” she said simply. “I wanted to go back to my roots and remember who I really am.”
Doris looked at her as though she’d suggested worshiping pyramids and having her body frozen for posterity. “Roots,” she muttered rather scornfully. “Well, I never had no time to think about my roots. I’ve been too busy making a living all these years to worry about things like that.”
Carly knew there would be no percentage in trying to explain, so she ignored her cousin’s remark. “I just wanted to come back, Doris. I wanted to see the town where I lived my first ten years.”
Doris pursed her lips and stared at her with a penetrating gaze, then leaned closer, saying in a low voice, “Are you sure that’s all? You haven’t come back looking for your father, have you? Because I can tell you right now he hasn’t been seen in this town for years and years. Let sleeping dogs lie, I always say. You shouldn’t go hunting for things that might end up hurting you in the long run.”
Carly’s heart skipped a beat and suddenly she was short of breath. She put a hand over her heart, wondering at the panicky feeling that was welling up in her. What the heck? She swallowed and calmed herself. Good grief. She must be overtired from the bus trip. What else could it be?