“Oh, I didn’t realize you were…” Her voice trailed off and her face turned a delightful shade of pink.
So, he thought. Pretty Danielle is trying to guess my age. He’d been taken from anywhere from twenty-five to thirty. He didn’t mind; it gave him a broader range of women to choose from. Looking down at her, his gut churned remembering the sparks he’d felt from a simple touch and knew that his heart was now spoken for. Time to start convincing her that hers was too.
Her colored deepened and he wondered if she was remembering how perfectly she’d fit against him or if she was thinking about kissing him again. Need to have her pressed up against him again shot through him, singeing him. Hell, he wanted a tongue-tangling, mind-blowing, full-bodied kiss from this woman… and more…
“Cowboy Jesse?” Lacy was standing beside him, holding on to her mother’s hand.
Damn, he’d better get his mind where it belonged—in the barn—and out of the bedroom, or else he’d blow his chance to get to know Danielle better. “Yeah?”
“What will the horsies do now?”
Delighted with her question, he squatted down so they were eye level when he answered. “They’ll relax once I turn the lights off and drift off to sleep. They know they’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
“Do they get days off?”
“We do give them a day or so, now and again, but we’ve only got five horses, so they don’t get much more than that.” He stood up and turned off the first set of lights at the back of the barn.
“When do you get a day off?”
Danielle’s softly asked question had hope swelling inside of him. She had to be just as interested in him if she wanted to know that. “Ranching’s a tough business,” he said quietly. He didn’t want to scare her off, but he didn’t want to sugarcoat the truth either.
“My brothers and I work twenty-four/seven, so there’s not much time off, ’cept when we’re in bed,” his eyes met hers and he couldn’t keep from grinning when he added, “sleeping.”
He watched as her eyes narrowed and her gaze dipped down to the top of Lacy’s head. Jesse wasn’t stupid; he caught her silent warning that he’d better keep things clean for her daughter’s sake. With a shrug, he ushered them toward the front of the barn, turning off lights as they went.
“I’m glad you came today.”
Danielle smiled and looked down at her daughter and back into his eyes. “We are too.”
“It’s a busy time of year for us at the Circle G.”
“From what my uncle says,” Danielle said, “it’s busy all year out here.”
“Well, except for twice a year when the cows are calving; that’s when it’s insane around here.”
“What’s calving?”
He normally had a quick comeback that was a little rude and a lot crude, but this was Danielle’s pixie pink cowgirl asking him. He remembered to think first and told her, “It’s when the baby cows are born. Sometimes there’s a bunch born all at once.”
Lacy’s eyes brightened at the thought. “Do they have big horns when they’re borned? Doesn’t that hurt the mommy cow? Can I play with them?”
Danielle’s eyes were bright with amusement, but she held her tongue, waiting to see how he would answer. He’d get even with her later and the look he sent her promised both retribution and passion. Her eyes widened a heartbeat before softening with an answering passion that smoldered in their depths until soft blue deepened to sapphire.
“I uh… no.” He tried to remember what the heck Lacy had asked. “They don’t have horns when they are born, so it doesn’t hurt the mother. You can come and visit the next time we’re expecting calves.”
Lacy danced all the way back to the house. “Are the momma cows ’specting soon?”
Jesse had to tear his gaze away from Danielle’s tempting mouth to answer her daughter. “Uh, not for the next little while. I will let you know in plenty of time, OK?”
“OK.” Lacy raced up the steps and smiled up at Tyler, who was holding the back door open. “We fed all the horsies apples, and know what?”
His older brother grinned down at Lacy. “What?”
“Cowboy Jesse said I could watch baby cows being borned.”
Their eyes met and Tyler’s smirk irritated the hell out of him. He promised himself that he’d punch Tyler later. “What else did cowboy Jesse say?”
“That horses can’t help biting you if you don’t feed them right.”
“Then I guess cowboy Jesse knows everything.”
“Uh-huh,” Lacy said, slipping past Tyler into the kitchen.
Jesse paused and stared at his brother. Tyler’s gaze narrowed and he said, “Anytime, anyplace, Bro.”
“Except here and now,” Emily said coming to stand next to Tyler. “We have company, and besides, I don’t like sleeping alone. Do you?”
Jesse laughed, hoping his brother would punch first and think second. But after one last glare, Tyler looked away and tugged Emily inside.
“Thank you for being so nice to Lacy.”
He held the door for Danielle and walked in behind her. “It’s no hardship; she’s a great kid.”
Danielle’s smile seemed to blossom from the inside. It was one thing he had noticed about her—the way her eyes would light up when she smiled. He really wished he didn’t have to leave tonight. He wanted to taste her so badly; his hands ached from clenching them so he wouldn’t reach out and simply grab hold of her.
“Danielle, I have to go.”
Her smile faded, but a trace of it remained as she nodded. “We should too. Time to leave, Lacy.”
“But, Mommy—”
“No buts, remember?” She hated having to be the responsible one alone; it would be easier to share the burden, but that was no longer an option for her. “We have to get back and help Uncle Jimmy finish the food prep for tomorrow.”
“Can we make more pie?”
She laughed, delighted that her daughter enjoyed creating pies alongside of her great-uncle. “Count on it, sweet pea.”
Lacy raced back over to where Jesse stood in the doorway. “Thanks, Jesse!”
He tipped his hat. “My pleasure, little lady.”
“Can I come back tomorrow?”
He glanced from mother to daughter and grinned. “I’ll be working with my brothers most of the day without a break. How about the day after?”
“OK!” Lacy was tugging Danielle’s hand, but her mother stopped her. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Lacy stopped tugging and looked up at her mother. “Um… Oh! Thank you for letting us visit and stuff.”
Danielle shook her head and frowned down at her daughter. Jesse would bet money there would be a discussion on the ride back to Sullivan’s house. “What my darling daughter forgot to say was thank you for dinner and letting us take you away from your chores.”
She smiled and turned to leave, pausing in front of Jesse. “I’m sorry for causing a problem earlier, but I was terrified for my daughter’s safety.”
He nodded. “You had no reason to be. Ranchers are very alert, watchful individuals; we’d lose half our herd if we weren’t.”
“I know,” she rasped. “Tyler explained it to me. I’m still sorry, but I would probably chase after her again, even knowing that you would stop in time.”
Their gazes locked on one another and he sensed a strength that went right down to Danielle’s core. Something inside of him clamored to be a part of the life she led with her child. “Being a parent must be hard work.”
She agreed. “Hardest job I’ve ever loved.” With one last look, she and Lacy were gone.
“And you can’t go chase after that woman, why?” Dylan had his arms around Ronnie and was distracted by something she whispered.
“Can’t you call whoever you’re helping out and cancel?” Tyler turned and brushed a kiss to the top of his fiancée’s curly head.
Rather than answer his brothers, who wouldn’t hear him anyway because they were
both so wrapped up with their women, he stalked out the back door, got in the truck, and drove away.
***
“So how did the visit go?”
Danielle smiled at her uncle. “Obviously it went well, since we’re getting back so late.”
He nodded. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was something more interesting about the Circle G than its horses.”
She laughed, and hollered up the stairs after Lacy, “Make sure to use lots of soap!”
Her daughter didn’t answer her, which meant she was probably daydreaming about her new hero.
“I’m going to have to make sure she gets into the tub.”
Her uncle frowned down at her. “You know I love you, June bug.”
She paused with her hand on the newel post. “I count on it, Uncle Jimmy, and love you back.”
He nodded. “That’s good because what I’m about to say is guaranteed to piss you off.”
She turned to face him. “Won’t be the first time.”
“You’ll only come to heartache if you let yourself fall for another cowboy.”
Folding her arms in front of her in a protective stance, she knew it was the gospel truth. “What if I can’t help myself?”
He mumbled something she couldn’t hear, and then said, “Then I’ll be here to help you pick up the pieces.”
“He might surprise you.” Lord, she prayed he would surprise her too, because she couldn’t stop thinking about him and they way he connected with Lacy. “He’s wonderful with Lacy, the way he—”
“Will he stick? When things get tough again out at the ranch, and he doesn’t have time to spend with Lacy or you? Are you a passing fancy, a reminder of…”
Danielle felt her heart fall to her feet. Digging deep for the courage to uncover the truth, she whispered. “What is her name? Who do I look like?”
Her uncle stared down at his feet and shook his head.
“Mommy, the water’s stuck! Can you turn it on?”
“Be right there, honey.”
“You’ll have to tell me eventually.” Turning to go up the stairs, she said, “It would help to know before I hear it from someone in town.”
“Give little June bug her bath and then tuck her in. We can talk about it when you come back down.”
An hour later, Lacy was clean as sunshine and tucked into bed. Trudging downstairs, Danielle felt old, worn, used up, and worried about what she might hear. Drawing in a cleansing breath, she steeled herself for whatever it was Uncle Jimmy had to tell her.
She walked through the empty downstairs and finally found him on the back porch with two tall glasses of iced tea on the table next to him. “Have a seat.” When she did, he handed her a glass.
She sipped slowly, letting the cool tea soothe her suddenly dry throat. “It’ll be better if you just tell me.”
He nodded. “You look a lot like Lori Jones.”
“A former girlfriend of his?”
“Sort of.” Her uncle tipped his head back and drank from his glass. With a sigh, he set the glass back down. “It’s not too late to cut yourself off from him.”
She laughed. “You heard the way Lacy’s been talking about him. She was over the moon when I drove out there today. She’s hooked.”
“Between the two of us, we can keep her busy enough that she’ll forget about him in time. Isn’t that how it worked with Buddy?”
Her smile faded. “He left us and no matter how young you are, that’s something you always remember.”
“He was a nice guy but didn’t stick, and let his dream get in the way.”
Sadness engulfed her. “We were both so wrapped up in one another, we got careless, but I believed that his love for me would be strong enough to keep up with his dream… I guess I was wrong.” She had cried buckets over that realization and had none left now. “Being a bull-riding star was, and will always be, his love and the only thing he’ll ever need.”
Her uncle rose from his chair and pulled her into a hug. Easing back, he met her gaze and said, “Sometimes a man’s dreams are so big there isn’t any room for anything else.”
She looked out into the night, watching the fireflies rising from the ground to dance in the air. “I know.”
“But the right man will make room beside his dream for the woman and child who will make his life whole and his heart’s desire that much sweeter.”
Later, alone in the bedroom she shared with her daughter, Danielle stared up at the ceiling and wondered if Jesse could be that man. How would she know? Would she have the guts to find out? She’d come to stay with her uncle to start over, not dive right back into a relationship with another cowboy.
Closing her eyes, she let her mind drift and pictured the type of man she should be interested in. He’d be tall, whipcord lean, and look great in a three-piece suit… a banker or businessman.
Her dreams were vignettes featuring a man in a suit who came into her life, robbed her blind, and left just as quickly. Each and every time, a tall, dark, handsome cowboy rode in to pick up the pieces of her heart. Grateful, she took the handsome wrangler’s hand to thank him and ended up in his arms, with his lips hovering a breath above hers, poised to kiss her.
Danielle woke with a start and sat up in bed. Moonlight slashed through the darkness of the room. She glanced at her daughter’s bed, worried that her own dreams might have wakened Lacy.
She sighed in relief; her little girl was still asleep. Lying back down, she wondered why she couldn’t get cowboys off her brain. It wasn’t just the fact that she was in Texas; she’d never lived in any other state.
An image of a smiling cowboy, perched in the saddle as his horse stood on his hind legs pawing the air, filled her. “It’s all Roy and Trigger’s fault.” Her mother had always loved the cowboys of the silver screen and had spent early Saturday mornings watching old movies with Danielle. That love had filtered down and formed the image of the perfect man in her young heart. She couldn’t think of a time when she wasn’t infatuated with men who made their living in the saddle or out on the range.
“Gee thanks, Mom,” she murmured, falling asleep dreaming of a handsome cowboy with devastating dimples and a heart of gold.
Chapter 11
Lacy smiled at Miss Dawson. “Unca Jimmy gave us his list.”
“Well.” Pam smiled. “Let’s see what he needs.” Leaning on the counter by the cash register, she grinned. “Looks like more baking.”
“My favorite’s his chocolate pie,” Lacy confessed.
Pam’s laughter was like a warm hug. “Your great-uncle has a way with pie crust, but he won’t give me his secret ingredients.”
Lacy looked up at Danielle and grinned. “We know it but can’t tell.”
Pam nodded. “I suppose it wouldn’t be right to try to wheedle the secret out of you.”
Lacy’s hold on Danielle’s hand tightened. “I promised.”
With an exaggerated sigh, Pam looked back down at the list. “Then I’d better see what he’s got on the list, so I won’t be tempted to ask you again.”
Lacy seemed relieved.
“I hear you two were guests out at the Circle G yesterday.”
“News travels fast.” Danielle couldn’t believe how much faster than back home.
“Did you have a good time?”
Her daughter was grinning up at Pam and helping her stack the dry goods on the counter. “I gots to feed apples to the horsies and ride on Tyler’s shoulders and—”
“I thought you went out to see Jesse?” Pam’s confusion was obvious and for a moment Danielle considered leaving her floundering, but at the last minute, she couldn’t. “We did. He was, um… showing us around the ranch.”
“You know what, Miss Pam?” Lacy asked, tugging on the woman’s elbow.
Pam smiled down at Lacy. “No. What?”
“Mommy rescued me first, then cowboy Jesse had to rescue her.”
Pam’s gaze lifted to meet Danielle’s. “Really?” Without lookin
g away, she asked, “What happened?”
“I kind of runned out in front of the horses and Mommy scooped me up, but I sat on her chest hard, and she made this really awful sound.”
Pam tore her gaze from Danielle’s and looked down at Lacy. “How many horses?”
“Just three, but you know what?”
The owner of the store didn’t ask; she simply waited to be told. Lacy whispered, “Cowboy Jesse had to pick Mommy up ’cause her legs weren’t working right.”
“Lacy’s exaggerating just a bit.” Danielle wondered if it had seemed that dramatic to someone so young and realized it just might have. “I was doing all right until I tripped, that’s when I knocked the wind out of myself with Lacy’s full weight on top of me.”
Pam placed a hand to her breast. “Land sakes, what were you ladies thinking?”
“My instincts to protect my daughter kicked in.” The horror of that instant in time replayed in her mind, tormenting her. “How was I supposed to know that the men would see her and pull up before their horses trampled her?”
The older woman shook her head. “You’re not from around here, so that would explain things. But, honey, those Garahans would never let one hair on your daughter’s head come to harm. They’re ranchers—”
“Tyler and Jesse tried to explain that to me last night, but it wouldn’t have mattered. I’d still chase after her. I could never just stand there watching if my baby girl was in danger.”
Pam nodded. “Well, you two did have quite a day yesterday.” She had placed the list on the counter while listening to their story and glanced down at it. “We’d better get this filled so you can bring Jimmy what he needs. I’d bet money that you’ll be going out to the Circle G again today.”
Danielle shook her head. “Jesse said they’d be too busy today, and he couldn’t give Lacy a riding lesson.”
“Ronnie could,” Lacy whispered. “She was gonna teach me, but I wanted cowboy Jesse to. Maybe she could teach me just a little bit. Then he wouldn’t feel bad that I didn’t wait, cause he could teach me too.”
Danielle rolled her eyes, and Pam laughed and said, “That sounds like a good idea. Ronnie usually closes up her shop around four o’clock. Her shop is called Guilty Pleasures. She sells lovely lingerie and scented oils and such.”
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