Courage To Believe (Cowboys of Courage 2)

by Charlene Bright

  It really hurt his pride to admit he didn’t have any other horses. What sort of cowboy only had one horse? Maybe if he stretched his budget and lived on rice and beans for a few months, he could get a second one, just to be able to say he had more than one.

  Gillian put the granola bar she’d been crunching down on the tarp and grabbed his elbow. “Just…stay with me, Lucas. If it takes a little longer for your clothes to dry, so be it. I’ll eat bugs or nuts and berries or whatever. But don’t leave me.”

  She didn’t seem particularly frightened, and Lucas wondered why she was making such a desperate request. “What’s the big deal? You were out here alone in a much worse situation, and I have to give you credit for not being terrified out of your mind, especially after dark. Now, here in a tent and safe, why would you fear being alone?”

  Gillian stared at him for a long time, and he wasn’t sure she planned to answer him. When she finally let go of his arm, she said softly, “You told me there could be mudslides and rockslides and fallen branches and everything. How do you expect to traverse that safely in the dark? Even a flashlight isn’t good enough for most of those hazards. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  Lucas would have thought it was sweet, but he figured a city girl like Gillian didn’t want to be stranded again. Lucas was her only hope to get home at this point, and if something happened to him, she’d be stuck again. “I appreciate that, Gillian, but remember, I’m trained in SNR, and this is my home territory. I’ve lived here all my life, and I know this mountain like the back of my hand.”

  She jutted her chin out stubbornly. “And sometimes, you get a scratch on your hand that’s unfamiliar. Come on, don’t give me those lines. You’re an expert, and you still lost your horse tonight. You can’t make any guarantees.”

  Lucas sighed a long, heavy sigh. “Okay, you win. I’ll stay.” If she felt reassured, she would calm down, and he could sneak away later.

  But she smirked at him, and the expression was so endearing he couldn’t get irritated. “I really don’t believe you. But that’s all right, I’ll just refuse to sleep. Or better yet, you do realize I could very well have hit my head and not know it. In fact, I just might have a concussion. I really do need full time care until we can get that checked out.”

  She was baiting him, but Lucas knew the type. Gillian would follow through with her manipulative threats. She didn’t just talk a big game; she’d make good on any threat she put forth.

  She was spunky, and Lucas found that ridiculously attractive. “All right, I get it. You have my word, I won’t leave you. But you have to realize, we could be here for a long time. These clothes could take days to dry.” This time, he let a bit of underlying flirtation ring through, testing the waters.

  To his utter surprise, she hit him back with, “I guess I’ll get an eyeful when you go to hunt and gather like a caveman, won’t I?”

  Finally wrapping himself in a blanket as the chill reached deeper in his bones, Lucas argued, “If that’s the case, I hunt, but you gather. And since you can’t walk, you’ll have to crawl. It’ll be pretty difficult to stay wrapped in that blanket dragging yourself through the snow looking for nuts and berries that don’t exist in the winter.”

  Gillian blushed and scowled all at the same time. “It’s May. It’s so wrong for it to still be winter here.”

  Noting that the rain still fell in sheets but the thunder and lightning had calmed, Lucas pointed up. “Well, this is the first actual thunderstorm since last September, so I guess you could say spring’s on its way.”

  She rolled her eyes, and he laughed, leaning forward toward her ankle. He needed to do a real inspection, now that he had shelter with a modicum of warmth and some light from the lantern-style flashlight. It was even a little warm in here now. “I’m pulling the blanket away,” he warned her, just up to the knee for now. I have to see if there’s anything I can do for your ankle to minimize the impact of the damage.”

  She didn’t seem so reluctant to let him see her leg as she had earlier. In fact, she flipped the blanket back to expose the hugely swollen mass. Lucas winced just looking at it, and he really didn’t like having to touch it. He knew he couldn’t help but cause some pain to the girl. “I want you to take a deep breath, count to three, and let it out slowly.” It was the best distraction he knew, and he waited until he heard the release of breath to squeeze her ankle.

  She moaned and whimpered through it, but he had to mash around and see if he could detect a broken bone. He had a sneaking suspicion there was at least a fracture, but he wouldn’t be able to find that, especially since the limb was swollen to three times its normal size all the way up to her knee. Backing up, Lucas cleared his throat and handed her a canteen of water to help her cool off. “Well, I can’t feel it, but the symptoms are consistent with a break.”

  “You know, since you arrived like a knight in shining armor, you have been nothing but a bearer of bad news,” she told him, leaning heavily against the tree. Obviously, the agony he’d caused her was exhausting. “Do you think you could at least come up with something a little less doom and gloom?”

  He gave her a crooked smile. “You have shelter from the storm, and you’re not alone. I may not be the best company, but you won’t have to hallucinate an imaginary friend until you get a real hero out here.”

  * * *

  Gillian didn’t like the way he was suddenly self-deprecating. “Lucas, you aren’t poor company, and you have to excuse my attitude. I’m a little tired and sore and angry at the situation. I really didn’t expect to get stuck out here like some damsel in distress while I was on vacation. You just happen to have been the one who showed up, so I ended up taking it out on you.”

  He actually gave her an understanding look. “I probably would have done the same thing. I tend to be a little grouchy from time to time anyway. And to be honest, I was in the middle of my own crisis when the horse came charging onto my property.” He scrubbed his left hand down his face and winced.

  It reminded Gillian that he’d hurt himself. “We need to do something about your shoulder, too. Obviously, there’s not much we can do with my ankle. But if your shoulder’s out of socket, I can help you do something about it.”

  He shook his head. “As soon as it stops raining, I’m going to butt it up against a tree. That’ll knock it into place just fine. You’d end up hurting yourself if you tried to do it for me, but I appreciate the offer.”

  Gillian wished there was something more to be done. She frowned and watching curiously as Lucas dug through the first aid kit, and she smiled at the triumphant sparkle in his eyes as he came out with some sort of blue packet. Actually, it looked like he had three or four of them. “This should help both of us.”

  Before she could ask what they were, Lucas had torn two open and poured powder from them all over her injured leg. He followed it up by sprinkling water so cold it made her gasp on top. “What the hell…” she began, but he dropped his hand onto the swollen leg and began to rub. He mixed the powder and water into a paste and spread it from knee to heel, all the way around her leg. She realized somewhere along the way that Lucas had put aspirin on her leg, and even though it didn’t take away the pain, it brought it down to a manageable level.

  Or maybe that was the feel of his hand on her leg. Either way, she held her breath, trying not to think about how intimate that touch was. His motion slowed as it went from a professional assessment of need to a personal curiosity. Any other man would have been toast for that, but Gillian simply relaxed as the pain dwindled and the sensation of his touch became a soothing caress.

  Gillian’s pulse quickened, but Lucas suddenly drew back with a humble laugh. He shook his hand. “I think it’s going numb. You should have some relief now.”

  Not as much as she’d had when he was touching her. “Actually, it does feel a lot better. We’ll see how long it lasts, but I appreciate it.” She reached out. “Give me the rest, and I’ll put it on your shoulder.”

 
; “I can do it,” he told her shaking the packets. “I’m a grown man, and I take care of myself all the time.”

  Gillian rolled her eyes. “I’m sure that’s out of necessity because there’s no one else around. But take advantage of the offer and the luxury of having someone willing to do it for you. Give me those and the water, and turn around so I can reach without undoing all the good you just did for my ankle.”

  She’d never really taken on a particularly motherly tone before, but she felt it was necessary now. Lucas was one of those proud, stubborn men, the last of the true rugged men who also seemed to have a sense of chivalry. If she was going to survive this night and still have her sanity, Gillian was going to have to break through this tough exterior.

  With an irritated grunt, Lucas shoved the packets and the bottle of water toward her, and Gillian took them with a mocking grin. “Does it make you feel like less of a man to let a woman take care of you?” she quipped at him.

  He grunted again. “I don’t like relying on other people.”

  Something about his response didn’t ring true, but Gillian didn’t push the issue. Instead, she waited for him to settle in front of her, his left shoulder inches from her. At this angle, with the way the dim light fell across his back, the lines were shadowed in a way that made every muscle stand out. She had to fight the urge to trace those lines with her fingertips as she carefully sprinkled the powdered medicine, making sure none of it was wasted.

  Lucas made no sound as she added the water, but he must have felt the same chill she had because she watched those beautiful muscles tense before her eyes. Gillian winced for him and began to rub the shoulder, feeling the tendons and muscles rebel against it. The paste formed, and she spread it around what she hoped was the extent of the injury.

  Between feeling drawn to him and wanting to give him as much relief as possible in exchange for rescuing her, Gillian was gentle and caring in her touch. She tried to convey gratitude and a desire to ease his tension, and slowly but surely, the muscles relaxed. There was some swelling around his shoulder, but it wasn’t deep, and Gillian could compare it to the right one and see how it was slightly out of place. She had to look away for a second; just the sight of it and knowing Lucas was going to slam it back into place made her shoulder hurt in sympathy.

  She didn’t know how long she rubbed, but Gillian could feel Lucas leaning into it now, and she smiled to herself. This resembled the story she’d been building in her head far too closely, and again, she marveled that this wasn’t all just a dream. In her tale, the heroine had used a saffron-scented oil twice weekly to give the hero a full body massage. He’d been a client for a couple of years at her clinic, and there was definitely chemistry. Unfortunately, it was against the rules for massage therapists to have any sort of relationship with a client.

  Gillian had planned on a different client trying to force the heroine into a compromising position, and the hero was going to walk in on them and rescue her. At that point, they would end up together, rules be damned.

  Clearing her throat and shaking her head to take her out of the fantasy, Gillian finally drew her hand back from Lucas’s shoulder. “That seems to have helped you relax,” she commented, her voice a bit throaty and much more sensual than she remembered it sounding.

  “It’s virtually painless,” he replied, his tone gruff and deep. “Thank you. You have good hands.” The look he sent her over his shoulder said more, and if Gillian read it right, he questioned what more her hands were capable of.

  Lucas was the type of guy that would have made her throw all her morals right out the window if she weren’t injured right now.

  Gillian shrugged and averted her eyes. “So do you.”

  Scooting away from her as if there was a way to truly put distance between them in a tent so small Lucas seemed to take up the whole thing, he asked her, “What is it you do when you’re not up on a mountain getting thrown from your horse?”

  It was an attempt at changing the subject, a very obvious one. And yet, it was still humorous. Gillian laughed. “I’m working as a real estate agent right now, but I’m moonlighting in interior design. I’m trying to get a business up and running, but that takes a lot of work and advertising. Something has to pay for it, and having a real estate license is a great way to get potential clients. ‘Here, buy this house, and by the way, if you need some design help, call me back at this number. Here’s my card.’ ”

  “That’s pretty smart,” he told her, sounding genuinely impressed.

  Gillian shrugged. “A girl has to take care of herself. It’s not the sort of world it was a hundred years ago, where a woman cooked, cleaned, and raised children while expecting a faithful husband to pay for food and a place to live. Until you meet someone you can actually fall in love with, you have to provide for yourself. You probably have to work even with a family to afford to have one, and you need to keep that career going in case things take a turn for the worse and you end up alone again.”

  She knew she sounded bitter, but Gillian had watched her father cheat on her mother on three separate occasions before her mother finally divorced him. She’d seen her mother’s pain each time, and she’d realized it had been fear of life unprepared that kept her mother with her father for so long. In the end, Gillian’s mother had filed for child support, which her father thankfully paid for the first year before he decided to up and quit, and she’d worked part time as a store clerk while going to school. She’d crunched courses and gotten her ABA in nine months. At that point, she’d gotten a job as a receptionist and eventually worked up to office manager. It had taught Gillian a lot about preparation and not relying on a man.

  But as jaded as her comments were, Lucas actually laughed out loud. “I guess you’re right. I can’t imagine it, though. Being unfaithful, that is. I mean, love makes you stupid, and you’ll do all sorts of crazy things to make a woman happy. It’s like being under a spell, and men turn into drooling morons when they’re in love. I don’t know how a guy could possibly notice another woman when they’re whipped like that. It’s why I refuse to fall in love. I’d probably be willing to buy a diamond ring that would cost enough to force me to sell my ranch before I ever get it built.”

  Lucas was definitely an interesting breed, a perfect mix of everything she thought she might want in a man and all the things she found maddeningly frustrating about them. “See? And here I was, worried you wanted something from me when you first got me into this tent,” she said teasingly, though for some reason, she was a bit hurt.

  “You have every right to think like that,” he told her. “A woman who looks like you can’t be too careful about that.”

  Was that a compliment? It was hard to tell, but Gillian thought he was saying she was pretty or sexy or something of that nature. And yet, he hadn’t really touched her at all. He’d taken her clothes off in a very clinical manner, and though he’d slipped into a place of familiarity putting the aspirin on her leg, that was likely just gentility.

  She didn’t know what to say, and now, the silence was awkward. Thinking quickly, she went back to the whole question and answer routine to try to clear the air. “You said you’re building a ranch, but you’ve been with Search and Rescue for a while, right?”

  Lucas nodded and started moving around nervously. She watched him empty the bags and move them around until they rested like two pillows as he spoke. “I’m a lifer, which means I’ve lived in Courage all my life. A lot of people in Treasure County are lifers. My parents were, but they weren’t all about the ranch life. I grew up near town, but I always wanted a ranch. Dad thought I should become a dentist or something. Instead, I started working as a ranch hand doing odd jobs for some of the cowboys up here on the mountain from the time I was twelve and thirteen.”

  He laid back on one of the bags, looking uncomfortable as he tried to stretch his legs out without taking up too much space or touching Gillian. “By the time I was sixteen, there wasn’t much I didn’t know how to do, and I got a
regular job with Garrett’s family on their ranch. I’m sure you’ll meet Garrett soon enough. He’s the new sheriff.” There was some sort of amusement in his tone when he said it, and Gillian would have to ask about it later. Now, he went on, “It didn’t take long to realize I couldn’t afford a ranch without some other source of income, so I enrolled at the county college in fire and rescue. I added the EMT course when I realized it paid better, and I fell in love with it.”

  It was Gillian’s turn to be impressed. “It takes a special sort of person to love that kind of work.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a people person. I get along with a lot of people, but I’m mostly a loner,” he told her. “And I don’t have a hero complex. I just don’t like the idea of people being injured or dying needlessly.” He looked a bit sheepish as he said, “I guess I believe in the inherent good in people deep down, even if it puts me in a bad place from time to time.”

  Now, she could tell he had a specific memory in mind as those mossy green orbs focused on some not-so-distant past. “Someone close to you hurt you.”

  Chapter 6

  It was a statement, not a question, and Lucas wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He hadn’t really talked to anyone about the grudge he held against Hoyt. After all, Garrett was the one with the cross to bear in that whole incident, and he seemed to be doing all right. Then again, the boy had Shakota as a distraction, and Lucas could see where that might make things a little easier for Garrett.

  But Gillian didn’t know anything about the situation, and considering her aunt and uncle lived in Hoyt’s old place, Lucas didn’t know how appropriate it would be to even mention his resentment. Besides, he didn’t really know her, and she was supposed to be his patient, not his confidante. “Everyone gets hurt sometimes, Gillian,” he said, trying to blow it off. “You should lay down and get some rest. The storm’s calmer. We should be fine for the night.”