Drifter's Darling (Culpepper Cowboys Book 12)

by Merry Farmer

  “Um, Elvie? You planning on introducing us to your friend?” Nancy asked from behind her, voice filled with humor.

  “Yeah.” The single syllable came out high and wispy. “Evan, this is my sister-in-law, Nancy, and our friend, Denise.”

  “Evan?” Denise asked, a little too loud.

  “This is Evan.” Elvie made a slightly lame introduction a beat too late.

  “Pleased to meet you, ladies.” Evan let go of Elvie’s arms long enough to take a half-step forward, hand outstretched. He shook Nancy’s hand first, then Denise’s. Every inch of him was respectful and modest. Every inch of him was hotter than Hades and made Elvie want to drop everything to jump his bones.

  She actually had to shake her head to knock some sense into it. The man was a walking fantasy, but in spite of one hot and heavy make-out session over a month ago, she didn’t really know the first thing about him. But—hello, nurse—she sure wanted to learn.

  “Evan, what are you doing here?” As soon as the question was out of her mouth, she winced. “I mean, I thought you’d moved on with the rodeo. I wish I’d gotten your phone number, though. I totally would have called you. I mean—” Try not to sound too desperate, Elvie, she scolded herself. “I mean…I would have called you.” If there was an award for looking like a total dork in front of a man, she would totally win it.

  Fortunately, Evan grinned, turning to give her his full attention. “I stopped working for the rodeo about a week after they came here.” His voice was every bit as deep and resonant as she remembered. He had the kind of voice that was very well-suited to whispering dirty, dirty things in the dark from a horizontal position. “A man’s got to work, though, so I called up Karlan Culpepper to ask if he needed an extra hand on his ranch for a few weeks.”

  “Thank God he said yes,” Denise murmured, then exchanged giggles with Nancy.

  Elvie flushed hot. “There are hundreds of ranches in Wyoming. Why call the Culpeppers?” This time her wince was more of a grimace. How stupid could she be?

  Evan chuckled. “I haven’t been able to get Culpepper out of my mind,” he admitted with a modest shrug that made him look about ten years old…in a very not ten-year-old body. “I forgot something here.”

  Elvie blinked. “Forgot something? What?”

  His grin grew even more sheepish, and he kicked his toe into the pavement in front of the store. “Well, the thing is…” He rubbed the back of his neck, then glanced up at her. “I forgot to take you out to dinner.”

  Elvie’s heart plopped down into her stomach, sending swirls of excitement even lower. Such a simple statement, and yet it made her want to shimmy out of her skin. Or maybe just out of her clothes.

  “Ahh…oh.” A sudden attack of bashfulness hit her. She glanced down, feeling as though her cheeks were on fire, then peeked up at him.

  She didn’t try to make the look flirty or charming, but Evan blushed like a schoolboy.

  “Yeah, can you believe I forgot about something that important?” he pushed on, regaining some of his confidence. “It’s downright irresponsible, if you ask me.”

  “Totally,” Elvie croaked, then cleared her throat. “We’re going to have to do something about that.”

  “I was hoping you’d think so.”

  “Because you can’t just go forgetting stuff like that.”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “I’m glad you remembered and came back.”

  “Me too, I’m thinking.”

  And then they stood there in silence, gawking and giggling at each other. Elvie couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so…so…so….

  “So when are you going to take her out?” Denise blurted from the sidelines.

  Evan cleared his throat and stood straighter. “I was thinking supper tonight.”

  Supper. Supper. Did she have any plans? What was supper anyhow? Her brain couldn’t seem to focus on the concept.

  “She’d love to go,” Nancy answered for her.

  “Great.” Evan grinned from ear-to-ear with those delicious lips of his. She remembered all too well how they knew exactly what to do when they came in contact with hers. “Do you still have that clinic over across the street?” He turned and gestured to the big sign that said O’Donnell Veterinary Clinic.

  “Uh-huh, I sure do.” All Elvie could manage to do was smile…and continue to stare at his lips.

  More silence before Evan asked, “So what time do you get off work? I can come over there and pick you up.”

  “Oh, uh…”

  “Six o’clock,” Denise answered for her. “The clinic stays open until six o’clock. You know, so people can bring their pets in after work if they need to.”

  “She’s just on a lunch break right now,” Nancy added. “We were going to grab something at Bob’s Burger Barn, but if you want to take her…”

  “Oh, no, I don’t want to interrupt.” Evan grinned and shifted his weight. “You ladies enjoy your burgers. I’ll see you tonight, Elvie.”

  It took way too long for Elvie to summon the words, “Yeah, I can’t wait.” But boy did she mean them!

  Evan nodded one more time to Elvie, then to her friends. “It was a pleasure meeting you, ladies.”

  “The pleasure was all ours,” Nancy answered.

  “Or all Elvie’s,” Denise murmured so that Evan couldn’t hear. At least, Elvie hoped Evan couldn’t hear.

  He smiled at Elvie for a long, lingering moment, then turned and strode off with an easy stride on legs that could give a girl unholy ideas.

  As soon as he was back in his truck, Nancy and Denise squealed and started jumping up and down.

  “He didn’t get away! He didn’t get away!” Denise chanted.

  “Oh, man, you’re going to have so many juicy things to tell us tomorrow!” Nancy added.

  “No, no,” Denise corrected. “If all goes well, then she won’t have anything to tell us.” When Nancy looked confused, Denise reached into her bag and took out the wax lips. “A lady never kisses and tells.”

  Nancy caught on with a laugh and got out her wax lips too. They quickly unwrapped them and put them on, then chased after Elvie with groaning, giggling sounds all the way across the store parking lot and on toward Bob’s Burger Barn. Elvie laughed and played along with them, but inside she was already melting. Chances were good that she’d get to put Evan’s lips to the test again.

  2

  Elvie O’Donnell. She was something else. Evan hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her for a month. He couldn’t stop thinking about her now as he hauled bales of hay from the back of one of the Culpepper’s trucks and tossed them into the enclosure where most of the herd had gathered for supper. Simple, hard work had always been his antidote for all sorts of brain distractions. Ever since he was a kid growing up on a farm in Colorado.

  Hard work wasn’t enough to push Elvie O’Donnell’s bright eyes and full lips from his mind. She had soft, silky hair too. He’d enjoyed threading his fingers through it during that amazing make-out session in the rodeo stable almost as much as he’d enjoyed feeling her curves. Almost. Elvie had some knock-out curves. He’d have to be dead not to be turned on by that.

  But it was her strength and compassion that had really won him over. He grunted as he lifted the last hay bale over the fence so that a group of pushy cows could get to munching. As soon as that was done, he leaned against the fence with a sigh. The way Elvie had treated old Bart’s dog, Bart, Jr., had warmed his heart…and made him wish he was the dog. She had the poor creature as docile as could be as she examined him, quickly figured out what was wrong, and prescribed treatment. Bart had been over the moon with the service he received. Evan hadn’t been able to stop himself from following her around like a puppy for the rest of the day.

  A lazy grin spread across his face as he leaned against the fence, the honest scent of cows and grass filling the air, the autumn sun just warm enough without being hot. Yep, Elvie was something else. He wasn’t even sure how they’d ende
d up in that clinch in the stable, but boy was he glad they did. Normally, he would have been as respectful as could be to a pretty, important woman, but the second their lips touched, it was like someone flicked a switch. He’d never wrapped himself up in a woman so fast in his life. If that last, little thread of sense hadn’t kicked in and told him to put on the brakes before clothes started flying, well, he might be Mr. Elvie O’Donnell already.

  Not that it would have been a bad thing.

  He laughed at his own foolishness. One of the cows let out a long moo.

  “What are you laughing at?” he asked the old girl. “I would have married her if I’d…you know. I don’t go around loving and leaving girls.”

  The cow ignored him, munching on her hay. Evan shook his head and backed away from the fence. He turned and headed to the truck, taking off his cowboy hat to wipe his brow. Maybe that’s what had drawn him back to Culpepper. No, he knew that’s what it was. When a girl felt right in your arms, you had to do something about it. Even if you’d only known the girl for one day.

  He climbed into the driver’s seat and turned the truck on, heading over rough land toward the Culpepper barns. Yep, he’d had to come back. He hadn’t been lying when he told Elvie he’d forgotten to ask her out. He’d forgotten to ask another important question too. Culpepper had a reputation for short engagements and fast weddings after all.

  “No.” He spoke the single word aloud, sighing as he did. His mood turned on a dime and he lost his dreamy grin. No, he couldn’t marry Elvie. Aunt Cassie had seen to that.

  Aunt Kissie, he reminded himself. His frown deepened. She was technically his great-aunt, and she was a former hippie. She’d gone and changed her name from Cassandra to Kissandra, Kissie for short, right about the time that her latest boyfriend had given her a massive confectionary empire. Aunt Cassie had read him bedtime stories as a kid, taken him out on nature walks, and sent him postcards from all of her crazy travels. Kissandra Lipinski had inherited a company and made a fortune selling wax lips, Kissie Lips.

  And now, technically, that fortune was his.

  Which was why he couldn’t marry Elvie. It was why he couldn’t—or rather, shouldn’t—stay in one place for more than a couple days. There was no way he would be able to escape the life-changing embarrassment that Aunt Kissie had heaped on his shoulders if he planted his feet long enough to be found. There was no way he could avoid being changed the way she had been changed. His life as he knew it would be over.

  He wasn’t about to let his life be over.

  Karlan and Cooper Culpepper were cleaning up for the day as Evan drove the truck into its parking spot outside the biggest of the barns. Cooper looked up and nodded as Evan hopped down and strode to hang the keys on the row of hooks just inside the barn door.

  “Where’s Angus?” he asked.

  “He headed home early,” Evan explained. “Said something about his wife cooking a special dinner.”

  Cooper chuckled and exchanged a knowing glance with Karlan. “I hear you have a special dinner yourself tonight.”

  Evan practically missed a step as he approached the Culpepper brothers. “Where’d you hear that?”

  “Mom can’t talk about anything else,” Karlan said with a smirk.

  Evan’s brow went up. “Your mom’s been talking about me?”

  The brothers exchanged another look. “Sure, why not?” Cooper said.

  “Because I’ve only been here two days?” Evan offered. “Because she hardly knows me?”

  Karlan chuckled and slapped Evan on the back as he crossed to get his hat from the stack of hay bales inside the barn. “Mom treats everyone she knows like they’re lifelong friends of the family.”

  “Yeah,” Cooper added. “And she’s known Elvie for most of Elvie’s life.”

  Evan nodded as he considered that. “Fair enough. I certainly owe her a whole mess of thanks for letting me stay at her house.”

  Karlan and Cooper laughed. “She’d be offended if you tried to stay anywhere else,” Karlan said.

  Evan’s first instinct was to assure the brothers that his stay was only temporary and that he would be out of Linda Culpepper’s hair within days. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Dangerous as it was for him to linger anywhere long enough to be found, his heart, his gut, and his soul longed to stay right where he was.

  “I’m gonna have words with Angus about leaving our new hire to do all the work himself.” Karlan’s half-joking statement pushed Evan out of his thoughts.

  “At least Evan here knows what he’s doing,” Cooper added.

  “Growing up on a farm teaches you a lot,” Evan said, starting to walk in the direction of the Culpepper houses with the brothers. It taught you how to live simply, to appreciate God’s creation, and to take life as it comes. It did not teach you how to be in the spotlight as a laughingstock. “I enjoy manual labor.” And he wouldn’t enjoy running a confectionary business, not at all.

  “Well, I can see you know your stuff,” Karlan said with a smile. “We’re lucky you swung back through this way.”

  “We’re not the only lucky ones,” Cooper added with a wink.

  The brothers peeled off and headed on to their own homes, leaving Evan to head on to Linda’s house alone. He needed to be alone for a minute, if only so he could gather his thoughts. Because those thoughts were all over the place. He liked the Culpepper ranch. He enjoyed working with the brothers. Linda was an excellent host. He’d been drifting for too long. And those were all thoughts that paled in comparison to how badly he wanted to get Elvie back in his arms and keep her there. He’d stop and make a home in Culpepper in a heartbeat…if it didn’t mean the end of everything he wanted out of life.

  It was probably a good thing that Linda was out with her electrician friend when Evan reached the house. He was able to shower, change, and hop in his own truck to head into town without any more questions or teasing—even though he kind of liked Linda’s questions and teasing. On the way to the veterinary clinic, he popped into a cute little flower shop to pick up a bouquet of some of the sweetest smelling peach-colored roses he’d ever seen. Part of him wanted to go for broke and get red roses, but the more sensible part of him opted for the ones that smelled the best instead of the ostentatious ones.

  He might as well have bought out the entire florist, what with the way the clinic’s staff reacted when he strode through the doors.

  “Oh. My gosh. Are those roses?” a spunky teenage girl with part of her head shaved jumped up from the reception desk before Evan could take more than three steps into the waiting room. “They are! Look, Tina, they are roses. Oh my gosh, that’s awesome.”

  “Wow!” The older woman sorting through shelves of patient files twisted to gape—at Evan more than the roses.

  Evan opened his mouth, but he had no idea what to say as the girl dashed up to him and inhaled.

  “Mmm.” She closed her eyes in ecstasy, then opened them and glanced up at Evan, stars in her eyes. “The roses smell good too.” She laughed at her own joke, which had Evan laughing too. “You must be Evan, here for Doctor Elvie.”

  Evan’s brow shot up. He hadn’t stopped to consider that Elvie was Dr. O’Donnell and not just plain Miss O’Donnell. The title sent a warm lick of admiration through him. “I am,” he answered a bit too late.

  “I’m Destiny.” The girl thrust out her hand. Evan had to shift the flowers to his other hand to shake it. “Elvie gave me a job here after school. Tina works here all day, though.” Tina nodded and went back to work, chuckling. “I’m thinking I want to be a vet when I grow up too. Although Mom likes to tell me that I’m already far more grown up than she was at my age. I’ll need a scholarship in order to get into vet school, though. But college is still a couple years away. And…” She slowed down, blushing and rolling her eyes at herself. “I’m talking too much, aren’t I?”

  “I won’t tell anyone,” Evan chuckled.

  “I do that when I get excited. And we’re all really
excited about your date with Dr. Elvie tonight, aren’t we, Tina?”

  “Heck, yeah,” Tina giggled.

  That strange, zippy, self-conscious feeling of belonging through gossip that Evan had felt back with Karlan and Cooper returned. “I’m surprised that anyone is interested in the first place.”

  “Are you kidding?” Destiny fixed him with the kind of disbelieving look that only teenagers could manage. “Dr. Elvie hasn’t dated anyone since she got here, even though, like, half the guys in town have tried to ask her out. She’s turned them all down. Which makes you big, big news.”

  That awkward, pleased, embarrassed feeling in the pit of Evan’s stomach grew. “I’m not used to being big news.”

  Destiny laughed. “Well, if you’re planning to stay around here, you’d better get used to it.”

  Evan sobered up a little. Destiny had no idea.

  “So are you—”

  Evan stopped paying attention and Destiny stopped talking as Elvie walked into the room. Even Tina dropped what she was doing to look. Evan had expected her to be in her vet scrubs, but she must have had a space to change somewhere in the back of the clinic. She wore a simple shirt made out of a material that looked touchably soft and jeans that were tight enough to show off the delectable shape of her legs without being trampy. Those jeans disappeared into worn boots. She had her silky, brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and just a hint of make-up on. Whatever color of lipstick that was, Evan wanted nothing more than to kiss it off. He had to fight to keep his blood from pumping too hard to the wrong places and embarrassing him.

  “Wow,” he managed to say. “You look amazing.”

  “You’re not so bad yourself,” Elvie said, coming forward with a smile. Her eyes lit even further as her gaze settled on the roses. “Are…are those for me?”

  All at once, Evan felt out of his depth. He was no good at this fancy, dating stuff. He was much better at the whole kissing in a dim stall thing. Somehow he managed to keep his wits about him enough to hold the roses out to her. “They’re not nearly as pretty as you.”