When she’d kissed him, she’d been operating from pure need. Her attraction to him was growing, but she felt constantly off-kilter and out of step. He seemed to want to push her away, but he kissed like a dream and she couldn’t get it or him off her mind. This was getting complicated.
“So are you going to let Sam do this?” Ethan asked, coming back into the room.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to talk to Caleb about it. I’ve got to go back over to his place tomorrow, anyway.” She looked up in time to see Vivian and Ethan exchange a look. “To catch a cat for him,” she said quickly. “It needs to be spayed and Caleb can’t catch it on his own.”
“Oh.” Ethan nodded knowingly. “Catching a cat. Sounds neighborly.”
“Since you already have plans with him, you might as well talk to him about Sam working for him. Can’t hurt,” Vivian added.
Oh, yes, it could. Catching that silly cat was neighborly, not personal. Talking to him about Sam was personal.
* * *
“GET THE CAT, LANEY,” she muttered to herself the next day. “Talk to Caleb about this crazy idea of hiring Sam. Get the cat. Take it to Don and leave everything else—including Caleb Ransom—alone.”
“Huh, Mommy?” Sam looked up from the bowl of his favorite crunchy cereal. “You gonna leave Mr. Ransom alone?”
“I wish I could,” she answered with a sigh, buttering a piece of toast and taking a bite. She had spent hours last night trying to fathom why he wanted Sam to work for him. Jenny was probably right, that Caleb was lonely and wanted to have someone around without actually coming out and saying it. She wasn’t sure about that, though. Caleb certainly hadn’t shown any reluctance to express his desire to be by himself. Things had changed, though.
One way or another she and Sam had wormed their way into his life—and she and Caleb had kissed, more than once, and she had completely enjoyed it. She didn’t know what she’d been thinking when she had come on to him so strongly, touching his arm, turning him to face her, teasing him. Only that Caleb had awakened a neediness in her that she’d been ignoring since her husband left. Why did it have to be her moody, difficult neighbor, though? Why couldn’t it be someone who was nice, easy to understand...? “Boring,” she muttered.
“Good morning, Mom,” Sam said dutifully, having misheard her. “Are we going to go say good morning to Bertie and Mr. Ransom? Can I show them my new cowboy book?”
“Yes, Sammy, we are, and yes, you can.” And that was all. She would trap the cat and they would leave. “As soon as we finish breakfast and you’ve brushed your teeth and washed your face.”
“Okay,” he answered, surprising her. He loved running water, but didn’t like washing his face in the morning, or brushing his teeth at any time. But the certainty of visiting his favorite dog and cowboy had made his usual objections evaporate.
Cheered that they were avoiding their customary morning confrontation, Laney dressed in khaki Bermuda shorts and a sleeveless navy blue shirt. Sam dressed in red shorts and a cowboy shirt. Clapping his hat on his head, he announced he was ready then dashed to the Jeep.
When they arrived at Caleb’s, Sam’s feet had no more than hit the ground than he spun around, his face frantic. “I forgot my new book, Mom! I want to show Bertie and Mr. Ransom my new book.” Tears filled his eyes.
“Oh, Sammy. I’m sorry, but...”
“If you want to go back for it, he can stay with me,” Caleb offered, stepping out of the barn. He held a bridle in one hand and a cleaning rag in the other.
Sam gave a little hop of joy. “Please, Mom?”
Laney looked from her son’s hopeful face to Caleb’s watchful one. She didn’t know why she hesitated. She knew Sam would be safe with him.
“Oh, all right,” she said. “I’ll only be gone for a minute.” Sam ran to stand beside Caleb while she jumped back in the Jeep and hurried home.
As soon as she was gone, Sam looked eagerly at Caleb. “Can I say hi to Addie and Awesome?”
“Sure. Let me put these away,” he answered, indicating the bridle and rag in his hand.
“Can I pet Awesome? She wants me to. I know she wants me to.”
Sam’s pleading face got to him. He mulled the request over for a second then said, “Sure, why not?”
With a whoop of joy, Sam ran for the corral as Caleb muttered, “I’m already in deep manure with your mom, anyway.”
As Caleb headed back into the barn, Sam reached the corral fence, which he quickly clambered up. “Hey, Awesome,” he called out. “What are you doing?”
Caleb smiled as he put the bridle away. Sam loved everything about the ranch and the horses were second only to Bertie on the little boy’s list of things he loved.
Since his leg was a little stiffer than usual, Caleb moved slowly toward the corral. He glanced up to see Sam teetering on the top rail, his extended hand within inches of the filly’s velvety nose.
With an effort Caleb kept himself from calling out and startling the boy, but he moved more quickly, wanting to reach Sam before he fell.
Then everything seemed to happen at once—Sam reaching out for the filly, Addie turning and seeing the little boy, Bertie’s sudden, furious barking, and a big, tawny-colored shape emerging from the shadows beside the horse trough.
It was a mountain lion.
Addie whinnied, high and furious, the sound splitting the air and startling Sam who immediately tumbled into the corral, landing with a thump and not moving. Awesome danced away skittishly, close to her mother.
“Sam!” Caleb broke into an awkward run, his attention fixed on the new threat to the corral. The mountain lion was long and lean, too lean. It was obviously hungry and therefore desperate.
Caleb watched in horror as the cat turned its attention from the filly and began to stalk the prone figure of the little boy.
“Sam!” Caleb called again, desperate for him to stand, to move, anything to escape the danger, knowing that the wild animal could move much faster than he could, especially with his bum leg.
He reached the corral fence at the same moment Addie apparently saw the danger to the little boy. Whirling around with another sky-splitting scream, she lunged toward the cat, then, Awesome close to her side, moved to Sam and stood protectively over him. Sam sat up shakily and looked around in confusion.
Caleb, who was climbing over the fence and dropping down to the other side, cursed as his bad leg crumpled beneath him and agonizing pain shot through him. He clapped a hand around a fence slat, fighting the blackness that threatened to overcome him.
“Not now, not now,” he whispered fiercely from between gritted teeth, trying to focus on what was happening.
Addie, oblivious to Caleb’s plight, was still taking care of business. She stood over Sam, who’d begun to whimper. Her head was down, her screams of fear and warning, one after another, splitting the air. When the mountain lion took a step toward her, Addie reared up on her hind legs and the cat backed off.
Caleb stepped toward Addie and Sam, hoping to pull Sam to safety, but his knee buckled and he went down. As he fell, he banged his head hard against the fence, but still, he managed to snag Sam’s shirt and drag him close.
Addie reared again and again, driving the mountain lion to the other side of the corral, until the desperate animal leaped over the rails and lit out for the Mule Mountains. The mare stood, chest heaving, breath huffing from her nose, then turned to examine her filly, ignoring the two humans huddled by the fence.
Caleb felt unconsciousness closing in and tried to fight it, but finally had to surrender. “Stay here, Sam,” he murmured as everything went black.
* * *
WHEN LANEY RETURNED, she could see right away that something was very wrong. Bertie ran straight for her, planted his feet and began barking. It wasn’t the single bark of greeting, thou
gh. This time he went on and on, then began turning in circles.
“What’s the matter, boy?” Laney asked, her gaze sweeping the yard for Caleb and Sam.
In response, Bertie turned and ran around the end of the barn with Laney close behind.
Bertie loped to the fence and continued barking. Laney rushed up behind him and saw Caleb and Sam in the corral. Caleb lay crumpled on the ground, apparently unconscious, his bad leg twisted beneath him. Sam was on his knees by Caleb’s head. He looked up at her with frightened eyes.
“Sam, what happened?” she asked as she scaled the fence and dropped down beside him.
He nodded, his face caked with dirt and streaked with muddy tears. “I was gonna pet Awesome. Caleb said I could. Then I falled in and then Caleb falled in. Then Addie was screaming and the cat runned away.”
Deciding now wasn’t the time to sort out all that, Laney quickly examined her son; saw that, except for scrapes on his hands, he was unhurt. She hugged him and then fell to her knees beside Caleb.
“Oh, Caleb, what happened?” she asked. She checked his pulse, which seemed normal, then ran her hands over his head, examining it for an injury. When her hand came away bloody, she stifled a horrified gasp and looked at her son, whose eyes were huge in his face.
Jumping up, she dashed for the gate. “We’ve got to call 9-1-1. I want you to wait here with Caleb while I get my phone, okay? You stay right here.” She swung through the gate and Bertie ran in to check on his humans, sniffing and whining. Then she quickly closed it.
Sam nodded, looped his arm around Bertie’s neck and stared at Caleb’s white, still face.
Laney hurried to the Jeep to get her phone, dialed quickly and soon had paramedics on the way. She grabbed a blanket she always kept in the back and returned to the corral. By the time she was at Caleb’s side again, he had begun to stir and was trying to sit up.
Groggily, he asked, “Sam, are you okay? What happened to the...?” He tried to struggle to his feet.
“No, Mr. Ransom. We have to stay right here,” Sam said, putting a small hand on Caleb’s shoulder to push him back. “Or my mom will get mad.”
“She sure will,” Laney said, dropping down beside Caleb once again and grasping him by both shoulders. “Stay still,” she commanded.
Caleb’s dark eyes were full of pain, but he muttered, “I’m okay. I can get up.”
“Maybe so, cowboy,” she said in her firmest mom-and-teacher voice. “But you’re not going to. You’re staying right where you are until the paramedics get here. They’ll move you.”
He started to argue, but a wave of pain hit him and he sucked in a sharp breath between his teeth. He passed out again.
Caleb was still unconscious when the paramedics arrived fifteen minutes later, loaded him into their vehicle and left for the hospital in Sierra Vista. Laney made sure Caleb’s corral gate was closed and the house was locked up, gave Bertie food and water, and then followed the ambulance. On the way, she dropped Sam off at her parents’ house, promising him she’d call to tell him how Caleb was doing.
By the time she arrived at the hospital, Caleb was awake and being examined in the emergency room.
In spite of his obvious pain, he was glowering at the doctor. “I’ve got to get back to my place, Doc,” he said as Laney walked up.
“No, he doesn’t,” she said. “Don’t listen to him, Doctor.”
“Are you his wife?”
For some reason Laney’s gaze shot to Caleb’s face. He scowled, obviously not liking that suggestion.
“No.” Her answer came out squeaky and she cleared her throat. “No. I’m his neighbor. He can stay here as long as you think he should. Other people can take care of his place and his animals.”
“Don’t start thinking you’re going to march in and take over,” Caleb barked.
Laney tilted her head and smiled. “I already have, and don’t tell me don’t.”
The doctor looked from one to the other as if trying to decipher the dynamic between them. “The cut on your head doesn’t look too bad, but we’ll know more after we do some X-rays.” He left, pulling the curtain closed behind him.
“Caleb, what were you doing when this happened?” she asked.
To her surprise, he answered. “Chasing off a mountain lion.”
Laney gave a horrified gasp.
“Don’t worry, Addie did the job for me. She saved her filly, and Sam, and me. I need to tell the sheriff and the Game and Fish Department.”
“That’s what Sam meant when he said the cat ran away. I thought he meant one of the barn cats.” She started to shake as she thought about how close her son had come to being killed by the wild animal.
“To him,” Caleb said, “I guess it looked like a really big cat, and I’d never seen one before, but it was definitely a mountain lion. I could see he was starving—he’s so thin!—so there’s no telling where he’ll try again. Thanks for all you did today, Laney, but I can’t stay here.”
“We don’t know that yet,” she answered calmly, sitting in the chair next to the bed. “But I suspect the unthinkable is about to happen to you.”
He gave her a wary look. “What might that be?”
“You’re going to have to accept help.”
He glowered at her and then looked away. When he didn’t respond, she went on. “Is there anyone you want me to call? Your family?”
“No. I’ll call them if there’s anything I want them to know.”
Laney’s eyes sparked with interest. So he did have a family. A dozen questions sprang to her lips but she held her tongue. “You realize, don’t you, that you’re ridiculously stubborn?”
“So I’ve been told.” He leaned his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.
Laney watched as his face relaxed and he appeared to doze off. She knew she should probably leave, and she didn’t doubt that’s what he wanted. This time, though, he wasn’t going to be able to go down that avenue of avoidance. He’d shoved people away long enough, including his family, from what she could tell.
The emergency room and imaging department weren’t busy, so Caleb was taken to X-ray within minutes. He would also undergo a complete examination.
Laney took the opportunity to call the sheriff about the mountain lion and was promised that a deputy and officers from Game and Fish would be out to Caleb’s place right away. She then called her dad to tell him what had happened and to ask him to bring Sam in for a more thorough examination than the one she’d given him in the corral. Besides, she wanted to hug her little boy again and reassure herself that he was all right.
“Your head looks okay, no concussion,” the doctor was saying to Caleb as she re-entered the exam room. “Probably that cut won’t need stitches.”
Laney bit her lip against a comment about the hardness of his head. Caleb gave her a look that said he knew precisely what she was thinking.
The doctor then held up the film and Laney stared when she saw the amount of metal in his leg. For a moment she thought the shiny objects were fragments of shrapnel, but then realized they were strategically placed pins. Surgeons had fastened the pieces of his leg back together.
“IED?” the doctor asked tonelessly.
“Yeah. Afghanistan,” Caleb responded, giving Laney a look she couldn’t decipher. Was it a challenge? Daring her to say something? Puzzled, she looked at him, but he turned his gaze back to the X-ray.
The doctor pointed to a line that slanted across his shin bone. “Hairline fracture here, but it’s a clean break. You’ll need to be in a cast for six weeks, as well as physical therapy. This may have been the best thing that could have happened to you.”
“How?” Caleb asked, frowning.
“You’ll have to give it time to heal. I don’t think you did before. If you take care of it this time, th
ough, it shouldn’t cause you so much pain. Of course, with that much metal in you, you’ll feel it every time the weather changes.” The doctor turned to leave. “After we get the cast on, we’ll get you to a room. You should be able to go home in a couple of days.”
He was gone before Caleb could open his mouth to argue.
Laney reached over and took his hand. “Give it up,” she said. “You have to rest in order to heal. You don’t have to do this alone.”
Caleb looked at her then away. “I’m not good at accepting help,” he said in a gruff tone.
“Then it’s time for you to change, isn’t it?” She paused, her eyes searching his face. As she looked at him, thoughts of what might have happened that day suddenly hit her with the force of a Mack truck. Tears filled her eyes.
“Sam c-could’ve...b-b-been killed and...and you, too,” she said between sobs, leaning forward, her arms crossed over her stomach. “Y-you s-sa...saved his life.” Boneless in her grief, she dropped her head onto the bed and sobbed in earnest.
Caleb placed a comforting hand on her head, letting her fright and worry pour out.
She felt his hand and reached for it, gripping it hard and turning her head so that his palm rested on her cheek. The steadiness of him calmed her and, after a few minutes, she sat up, embarrassed.
Caleb handed her a box of tissues. “It wasn’t me,” he said. “Once my leg went out from under me, I was pretty much useless. Addie saved Sam. Her protective-mother instincts included Sam, as well as her filly. I’ve never seen anything like it. She was incredible.”
Laney gave him a wobbly smile. “Then she’s getting a lifetime supply of sugar cubes from me.”
“She’ll like that.”
Caleb’s color was coming back, though he still looked exhausted. She saw how his mouth tightened whenever he fought a wave of pain.
Laney was glad to think about something besides her terror over what might have happened to Sam. “You’ll have to take the pain pills, you know.”
“How did you get so bossy?”
“I teach high school. I spend my life with adolescent boys. Had to learn how to handle them.”
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