by Tina Leonard
It was the Curse of the Broken Body Parts, and it was massacring his heart. He had to break the curse—fast.
“CHANGE OF PLAN,” Ranger said to Hannah the next morning. He’d gone into the bedroom and found her sitting up, wide-eyed and wild-haired and too cute for his own good. “Out of the sack, sweetie. I’m going to feed you some breakfast and some coffee, and then we’re borrowing Hawk’s truck and we’re heading for that riverboat of yours.”
Her lips parted, something he found disturbingly attractive. “What about the military?”
“This minor detour won’t take long. I can’t allow you to travel alone. Too much befalls you. You’re not really safe to the general public. So I’m appointing myself your bodyguard, to protect everyone involved.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she pulled the sheet up to her chin over her crossed legs. “I think you have something wrong there. Too much befalls you. I don’t need you, Ranger. I got along fine without you for thirty-six years.”
“See, but that’s just it. I don’t think you have gotten along fine without me. You need assistance, and I’m free.”
“You want to see the man I was supposed to marry. Because you don’t believe he exists.”
He raised a sardonic brow. “Methinks you are one to invent tales, my dear, but I don’t hold that against you. Really. It matters not a bit to me if you author the next bestseller on manhunting. I will deliver you to your significant other safe and sound, take a spin on your riverboat, assure myself of your safety and then be off. This is what friends do for each other.”
“He is not my significant other. He was going to be, but then I changed my mind. And you and I are not friends,” she reminded him.
“I figured you for a fickle female. I do feel for the poor chap you changed your mind on.”
“Yesterday you wanted to pound some man on my beha—”
“And as for friends, you and I are on pecking terms,” he insisted. “That stands for something. My father felt strongly about chivalry. He also felt that a man often wants what he can’t have, and sometimes not to his betterment.”
She cocked her head at him. “What illustration are you making? That you want me but it’s really better if you don’t have me?”
He backed away from the door, grinning. “Breakfast in thirty minutes. Pack your bag. We’re hitting the road to Mississippi.”
“What about Hawk’s truck?” she called after him.
“I’ll return it safe and sound, just as he better do to mine,” Ranger called back. “Dress quickly. The sooner we get there, the better.”
HANNAH STARED AFTER RANGER. The man had lost it. He was acting strangely, but then he and all his brothers were devilishly enigmatic. There was all this unrealized sexual tension between her and Ranger which could be factored in, but his new desire to enter her world and see her riverboat and the man she was supposed to have married was puzzling.
And when he met the man he’d called her “significant other,” he was going to be in for a shock.
She hoped it was one he took well.
“MASON,” MIMI CALLED as she tapped on the front door of his house, opening it to stick her head inside. “Mason, it’s me!”
“In the kitchen,” he called back. “Hey, Mimi. You really look nice.”
What she would have given for him to have told her that before! “Thanks. So do you.”
“I’m heading out to a party. Have to put on a bolo for that, I guess. And clean jeans.”
She knew he was referring to the party that the new gals in town were having tonight, in the home above their hair salon. A momentary flicker of jealousy hit her, but she pushed that aside. There was no place for those feelings in her life anymore.
“You and Brian going?”
“No. I’ve got to finish packing. And I’m getting nervous about leaving.”
He frowned. “Flying bother you?”
“No. I’m worried about leaving Dad.”
“Shoot. Mimi, the sheriff’ll outlive us all. He can take care of himself fine.”
She sat in a kitchen chair, wondering how much to tell Mason. After all, they were neighbors. Once best friends. Her dad shouldn’t mind her talking to Mason—but then again, he was the sheriff. If he was going to make a one-way trip to the ranch in the sky, he was going to do it without a lot of people fussing over him. And without folks thinking they could use his weakened condition to break the law. “Mason,” she said softly, “he’s my dad. All I’ve got besides Brian.”
“Mimi, honey.” He sat down next to her. “What’s gotten into you?”
Shaking her head, she didn’t allow the tears of worry to push past her eyes. “I really need to know that you’ll look in on him. Often.”
“You know I’ll do whatever you want.” He took her hand in his. “And I can have my ornery brothers check on him, too.”
“No! Only you. Please.” She could trust Mason to do as he said. And maybe Last. But she didn’t want Last to figure out her secret. And he would. Mason was the most responsible of the lot, and he was also the most likely to overlook telling details.
Last was so sensitive he’d figure everything out in a second. And then her father would be upset and embarrassed.
“I really need to go on this honeymoon,” she told Mason, making certain her voice carried her urgency. “But I need to know that you’ll do everything as I say. No deviation from the plan.”
He grinned at her. “Mimi, we’ve always deviated from any plan we ever had.”
“Not this time, Mason.” She took a deep breath. “And here’s the phone number to the hotel, in case you need to call me.”
He looked at the paper as if it might burst into flames any second. “Uh, Mimi, I’m not going to call you on your honeymoo—”
“Mason! Please!”
“Hey. Hey, little gal, slow down and relax.” He released her hand and leaned back to take a good look at her. “Is there something you want to talk about?”
“No.” She shook her head, wiping the back of her hand across her eyes.
“Everything okay with you and Brian, right?”
“Everything’s fine.” She nodded emphatically. “And it’ll be even better. Soon.”
“Okay, then. You just let me take care of the sheriff.”
She smiled at his confidence. He really was making her feel better. “I knew I could count on you. I’ll pay you back somehow. Someday.”
He raised his brows. “Actually, you could now.”
This was more like Mason of old, the teasing in his voice, the grin in his eyes. How she’d missed that! “I don’t have time for plots. I’ve got to finish packing.”
“I need to know something. Just a little piece of info is all I want.”
“Okay. I’ll give it to you if I can.” Her heart heated and stirred inside her, those feelings she thought she’d put to rest once and for all. But she and Mason had always had the most fun when something messy was cooking between them.
“My brothers tattled on you about Helga.”
Uh-oh. This was trouble she hadn’t expected. “Tattled on me about Helga?” she repeated to buy time.
“They said she wasn’t the one who hung the curtains and kept this place together after the flood.”
“Well, I really don’t know, Mason. It wasn’t me.”
He looked at her, his gaze gleaming and mischievous. “They say Annabelle did all the work, but that you didn’t like her.”
“I like Annabelle just fine!”
“Now. But not then. You told your friend, Julia Finehurst of the Honey-Do Agency, that you wanted a battle-ax sent out to work here.”
Her eyes shifted of their own accord. “Well, maybe I said I thought you should have someone mature in the house. After all, you wouldn’t want some young thing distracting your brothers, would you? And goodness, a young girl’s reputation has to be thought of. Helga’s more of a mother figure, a chaperone to you men. Something to soften the Malfunction Junction wild-man i
mage. Don’t you think?”
“Mimi.” He drummed the table for an instant. “You did trick me.”
“No, I did what I told you I was going to do in the beginning. Remember the e-mail we wrote? I definitely said an older woman was preferred.”
“But after Annabelle was here, you let me think Helga had made all the changes.”
“You could have asked, Mason. Really.”
“I think you believe that I overlook details, Mimi.”
She couldn’t help her gaze widening innocently. “You may be just a little absentminded, Mason. Details have a way of getting past you.”
“And I did miss that Helga doesn’t do much except boss my brothers like a termagant.”
“A what, Mason?” She frowned. “Have you picked up a new word?”
“It’s the word Bandera used to describe Helga. It means a shrew, Mimi,” he said softly. “My brothers are leaving the ranch to get away from her. You told me that a housekeeper would keep things tidy. Make things better. But it’s made things worse. And you let it stay that way because you preferred a Helga to an Annabelle.”
She pursed her lips at him. “They’re grown men, Mason. They can get used to a housekeeper who wants them to keep their boots off the table. I don’t think they’re leaving because of Helga, but you can believe that if you want.” Standing, she put her hands on her hips. “Is there any other burning issue you’d like the answer to?”
“There is, actually. Why do you think they’re leaving?”
Nobody wanted to have this talk with Mason. It was a circular conversation, because he believed what he wanted to believe. He did what he wanted to do, and the consequences be damned. But he was asking for the truth, and by golly, she didn’t mind giving it to him, if for no other reason than to take a little pain out of her own scar tissue—courtesy of the hardheaded man standing in front of her. “Because you take all your frustration out on them, Mason. That’s why they’re wild. That’s why they’re leaving. Once Frisco Joe opened the gate, they saw freedom just outside their fences. And so they’re going, one way or the other.”
He crossed his arms and stared at her. “I think Helga’s why they’re leaving.”
“And I think it’s you. But we’ve never agreed on much, Mason, which is why we liked hanging around each other. You steadied me, and I unsteadied you.”
“What if I fire Helga?”
“Go right ahead. Cut yourself out of a good housekeeper who’s not afraid of your moods.”
“My moods!”
“Yes,” she said defiantly. “And when you’re ready for me to tell you why you’re such a horse’s ass, I’ll be happy to do that, too. Because I’m the only one who will.”
He stood, too, towering above her, but she held herself tall and glared back.
“My brothers think you liked knowing I wouldn’t be looking around for a woman if all my shopping, my cooking, my washing and my cleaning was taken care of. And they say you sicced Helga on us out of spite because I didn’t ask you to marry me.”
“Get over it,” she snapped. “I have.”
And she walked out the front door, giving it a good slam because she felt like venting right here at his house, where a good vent would feel the best.
What a horse’s ass. She would never admit that she’d wanted to marry him. Never. That had been her secret all these years—blast his brothers for trying to save their own skins—and it was a secret she’d be keeping.
Among others.
At this point, her life required secrets. And no one, not even Mason, would know them.
MASON SQUINTED his eyes when Mimi slammed the door, his ears ringing. That hadn’t gone the way he’d meant it to, but with Mimi, nothing was easy.
She had wanted to marry him, the little torturer. And he’d been a brainless ox not to see that she’d wanted him that way. His heart expanded. It felt like a golden chalice inside him, won at the end of a long, wearing quest.
And yet, while it made him feel good, it also made him feel worse. She would never be his.
“Hey,” Tex said, slapping Mason on the back as he walked into the kitchen. “Heard from the renegades? Archer and Ranger?”
“No.” Mason rubbed his chin, thinking. Mimi claimed his brothers were deserting because of him. But she was wrong. “I may fire Helga.”
“You do that,” Tex said cheerfully on his way to grab some orange juice out of the fridge. “Don’t let me slow you down. One more reason to celebrate tonight. Party, party!” He hesitated, then turned. “Why now?”
“Just because,” Mason said, testing the water.
“Oh. Hey, are you all right? I smell…perfume.” Tex sniffed the air again.
“Mimi was just here.”
Tex stared at him. “And does she know you’re planning to get rid of her auto-bot? She’ll allow it?”
Mason’s teeth ground together. “Helga is not an auto-bot. And Mimi doesn’t do the hiring and firing around here. I do. With input from all of you, I might add.”
“We’ve been inputting for weeks. It hasn’t helped. Where are you going all duded up?”
“To the party. Aren’t you going?”
“Yeah. In a bit.” Tex winked at him. “Maybe you oughta ask out one of those new gals. Nothing like a new woman to get you over an old woman.”
“I don’t need to get over Mimi,” Mason asserted as haughtily as he could.
Tex laughed and took the orange juice with him. “I was speaking of Helga,” he called over his shoulder. “Old woman? Get it? The one you’re supposedly firing.”
“Shh!” Mason hissed, in case Helga was around, and she did tend to stay quite close to him. Up till now he’d liked that about her; he’d liked having his every beck and call immediately answered. But now that he knew Helga was a plant sent by Mimi, one of her twisted ideas, he wasn’t amused.
“Very funny, Tex,” he muttered. But his thoughts wandered back to Mimi. He wasn’t surprised that she’d pulled a fast one on him. She’d done that constantly. In fact, he reluctantly admitted missing her hijinks.
But there was nothing he could do about that now.
“You know, Mason,” Tex said, poking his head back into the kitchen, “that new woman idea is probably worth thinking over. A woman is probably just what you need. Not necessarily new or old. Just…a woman.”
“How about you mind your own business, Dr. Love?” Mason demanded.
Tex disappeared from the doorway. Mason looked out the window toward the Cannadys’. Mimi was leaving, driving Brian’s sports car. Even at a distance, he could see that it was her—and that she was driving fast.
Big hurry to get on that honeymoon.
“Maybe I should start dating,” he told himself. “Just a date every once in a while.” To prove he wasn’t as much of a horse’s ass as Mimi claimed.
Yeah. That was it.
He would date. He needed a woman. Not that he wasn’t happy for her, but he was playing Keep Away from Mimi with his thoughts, and his brain was racking up the win so far.
He definitely needed a woman.
Chapter Eight
“I’ve got the map out,” Hannah told Ranger as she dug around in the console of Hawk’s truck. “So we don’t take any more detours.”
“Burn the map,” Ranger said. “You and I are taking the long way to the river.”
“The long way?” She looked at her impatient driver. “I thought you said we were in a hurry to get there.”
“I was primarily focused on getting out of Hawk’s lair. There was far too much romance, and you weren’t succumbing to that. I don’t think you trust me. Maybe men in general.”
She snapped the console closed after replacing the map. “I think Hawk is pretty sneaky. No guy has all that romantic stuff like candles and bubble bath unless he’s expecting company. And then he left it all behind like it was nothing. Like he didn’t expect female company any time soon. I think he does all that medicine man stuff to lure females.”
“Hey, don’t knock it. Every man’s got his game. But don’t start obsessing about him. He could be married and his missus left him, for all we know.”
Hannah considered that. “He said he was going to track someone. That’s kind of an unusual statement to make, don’t you think?”
“I think he’s an unusual guy. And I’ll be forever grateful to him for saving me since Archer obviously wasn’t going to. Or you, for that matter.”
She looked out a window. “When you told me that piece of advice of your father’s, were you…I mean, you sort of sounded like he wasn’t around anymore.”
“He’s not.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” She’d been afraid of that.
“Far as I know, he’s not dead. He’s just not around. Or he could be dead. I don’t know.”
Ranger’s voice was terse. Hannah turned to look at him. “For a long time?”
“Since the day Mason turned seventeen. We never knew where Maverick went. He just went away, leaving a note behind that said he…he loved us, he would miss us, but he just couldn’t go on living without our mother. And that he knew we’d be fine.” Ranger took a deep breath. “And then Mason was on his own raising us, just like Maverick was on his own at seventeen.”
“And you’ve never gotten a phone call from him? A letter?”
He shook his head. “Not so much as a postcard. And yes, we filed a missing persons report. We sent out letters to anyone we thought who might know something. He simply disappeared, him and his broken heart. The fact is, we were lucky Mason was able to keep us all together. There were a lot of folks in town who said we belonged in foster care. In fact, there’s a lot of folks who still believe the state shouldn’t have left us with Mason.” He shrugged. “They couldn’t have stopped us. We would have set everything in the town on fire before we allowed them to separate us.”
“Ranger!” Hannah was surprised but not shocked—and her heart was torn over the raw emotion in his voice.
“In the end, we did what we wanted. And they call our ranch Malfunction Junction because we used to get into a little trouble. Not enough to get arrested—well, maybe, if Sheriff Cannady hadn’t been next door to bust our heads instead of hauling us to the county jail every once in a while. Mrs. Cannady used to cook for us some, but then she up and left for the bright lights of Hollywood, and that was the last anyone heard of her. Believe me, nobody even dares mention Mrs. Cannady around Mimi. Once that ugly genie is out of the verbal bottle, it’s like watching our little sister turn into a she-devil on command.” He glanced at Hannah. “It’s not pretty.”