Wildcat Cowboy (The McCabes of Texas #2)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Unfortunately, no sooner had they pulled up next to the old derrick, than the huge rotary drill began to make a hideous grinding sound, sort of like tires that were stuck and spinning in the sand. Simultaneously the alarm on the derrick began to sound. To Josie’s chagrin, Ernie and Dieter were already running in their direction, but Gus—her father’s highly valued old hand and resident tool and drilling expert—was nowhere in sight.

  Wade vaulted from his truck, knowing as did she that the alarm meant trouble with a capital T. “This is exactly what I was afraid of, now that Big Jim is not around!”

  “Not to worry, cowboy,” Josie shouted, jumping down from the cab of her battered blue Wyatt Drilling pickup truck. Aware she was closer than anyone else, she raced up the metal steps leading to the drilling platform. “I know exactly what to do!”

  With Wade hard on her heels, Josie raced across the metal floor and yanked the lever that shut down the drill. An ear-splitting whine pierced the air as the heavy machinery ground to a halt, then all fell silent once again.

  Josie caught her breath as Dieter and Ernie joined her on the high metal platform.

  “Damn drill keeps getting hung up,” Dieter complained to Josie.

  His expression concerned, Ernie added, “We hit another pocket of sand and gravel. It keeps caving in on the drill and clogging things up, which in turn stops the drilling.”

  “The cuttings are probably slipping past your desander and staying in suspension in your drilling mud,” Josie said “If Big Jim were here he’d tell you to clean your pits and mix new mud.”

  “It’ll cost time,” Dieter argued.

  “In the short run, but not the long run,” Josie advised calmly.

  Gus, who’d been off on an errand, arrived in time to hear the tail end of the discussion. “Josie’s right,” he said as he joined the group assembled around the drill. “So let’s get started.”

  Leaving Gus to supervise, Josie and Wade headed back over to the trailer, which had been set up as an on-site office.

  “Where’d you learn all that?” Wade asked, amazed.

  Josie shrugged, belatedly aware she might have looked a little too competent just now, as she got out the logs detailing rates of penetration, shut-down, time, weight on bit, trip time and how much torque was being used to turn the bit She laid them out for Wade to peruse.

  “I picked it up, I guess.”

  He thumbed through a couple of pages, his attention more on her than the meticulously detailed drilling records in front of him. “In Dallas-Fort Worth?”

  Josie could see, like it or not, she was going to have to tell him a little more about herself. “My parents divorced when I was just a baby,” she admitted uncomfortably, going to the cabinet to get out the samples of the rock they’d been drilling through, as well. “My dad was a roughneck, and whenever I spent time with him. I also spent time at the drilling sites.” She added the latest geological surveys to the stack, then edged around behind the desk to check for messages that had come in while she was out.

  “How did your mom feel about that?” Wade asked, watching as Josie picked up a stack of pink papers imprinted with the header While You Were Out.

  Josie scanned the messages quickly. Noting three of the five calls were from her mother, she made a face. She really did not want to speak to Bitsy at this moment.

  Aware Wade was still waiting for her to answer, Josie replied, “She didn’t like it but there was nothing she could do about it. The court ordered I spend summers and most vacations with my father, and that’s always where he was. And speaking of mothers, shouldn’t you be running off to talk with yours just about now?”

  “Don’t remind me.” Wade grinned at her unrepentantly. “The lecture on why I should ease up on women and just pick a bride is one I can do without. But you’re right,” he said dryly, consulting his watch, “I should go see them. Just not for the reason you think.”

  LILAH AND JOHN McCABE were already in the hospital conference room with one of Houston’s most sought-after photographers when Wade arrived to watch the portrait taking. “I still don’t think this is really necessary,” Lilah said to Wade, as she straightened her white nurse’s uniform and the pink cardigan she habitually wore with it.

  “Same here,” John, who was wearing a shirt and tie and lab coat, grumbled.

  Wade dropped into a contoured chair. He smiled as his parents allowed the photographer to seat them in front of the blue screen. “The portrait of the two of you will be a nice addition to the lobby,” he said.

  “Oh, please,” John and Lilah rolled their eyes in unison. “No one is going to want our portrait in the lobby.”

  Wade lifted a dissenting brow as he steepled his fingers together in front of him. “You’re wrong about that. Everyone in Laramie knows you two are the reason this hospital even exists,” Wade said. John and Lilah had fought hard to make their dream a reality. As a result, everyone in Laramie and the surrounding rural community had benefited.

  John winked at Lilah mischievously. “I suppose we could hang it in the staff lounge and let the staff throw darts at it.”

  Lilah tossed back her head and laughed as the photographer snapped their photos in quick successions. It wasn’t the dignified photo session—or portrait of his parents—he’d envisioned, but maybe it was better his folks be remembered this way, Wade thought. As the fun-loving, hard-working, giving and affectionate people they were.

  “So how are the plans for the bridal shower coming, Mom?” Wade asked casually as the photographer guided his parents into another pose.

  “It’s going to be held at Remington’s Bar & Grill on Saturday evening,” Lilah reported happily as she slipped her hands around John’s waist She leaned her cheek against her husband’s shoulder. “We’ve rented out the whole place!”

  John wrapped one hand around Lilah’s waist, and tucked his other beneath her chin, lifting her face to his. “From what I hear it’s going to be a little wild,” he teased.

  Lilah blushed as she gazed up at him adoringly. “I’m sure those are just rumors, John.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” John grinned at his wife disbelievingly then mugged for the photographer. While Wade watched, the photographer snapped several more photos before turning Lilah away from John, her back to John’s chest, her head resting against his shoulder. “That’ll be the day! Especially when the Lockhart girls are all expected back for it!”

  Lilah nestled contentedly against her husband. “It’ll be nice to have them all in town again,” she murmured as more photos were snapped.

  “Speaking of which, Wade,” Lilah continued, slyly, “none of the Lockhart girls are married now, either.”

  “I know what you’re thinking, and you can doggone well forget it, both of you!” Wade said sternly, as he thought of the four feisty, spirited, beautiful, wonderful women he’d grown up with. Unfortunately it didn’t make a difference how attractive the Lockhart women were. They’d played together from the time they were toddlers on. “The Lockhart girls were like sisters to all of us,” Wade reminded his parents. Even if they had lately—because of the various directions their lives had all taken—begun to lose touch with each other.

  “One of them may have a friend who is just right for you,” Lilah persisted.

  Wade paused, his curiosity getting the better of him. “I know Meg’s a nurse and just got back to town, and Jenna’s designing dresses. What are Kelsey and Dani up to these days?”

  “Dani is a theater and movie critic for the San Antonio newspaper. She’s supposedly quite good, although she is roundly criticized for her reviews of romance. Apparently, she’s never seen even one—drama or comedy!—that she’s liked yet,” Lilah supplied with a sigh. “And according to her sisters she’s equally cynical and hypercritical when it comes to men.”

  Wade ran a hand across his jaw. “I don’t remember her being that way in high school. In fact, she was almost boy crazy, wasn’t she?”

  Lilah and John nodded in unison.
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  “So something must have happened to turn her against romance,” Wade theorized bluntly.

  “Unfortunately, no one knows what it is,” Lilah said.

  Wade figured whatever had happened must have been significant: the Dani he recalled had never been one to hold a grudge against anyone, never mind the whole male gender.

  “What about Kelsey?” Wade asked, as the photographer posed Lilah. and John yet again.

  Lilah sighed as she exchanged concerned looks with her husband.

  “Kelsey is still something of a ne’er-do-well, I’m afraid.”

  Wade remembered Kelsey as the pampered baby of the family and the life of every party.

  John nodded, adding, “Despite the fact her sisters have been very supportive of her every venture, Kelsey’s never yet stuck with anything for more than a few months at a time. Her latest plan is to somehow get back the ranch their parents owned when they were alive.”

  Wade watched as the photographer stepped back to his camera and focused the lens on his camera. “Does Kelsey know anything about ranching?” Wade asked curiously as the flash went off and another picture was snapped.

  “Not a lick. But you know Kelsey,” Lilah said dryly as she smiled and looked directly into the camera’s lens. “That won’t keep her from trying.”

  Wade knew that was true. Kelsey Lockhart was as mule-headed and impulsive as could be.

  The photographer grinned. “I think I’ve got it, folks.”

  “Great!” Lilah and John said in unison. As the photographer began to dismantle his equipment, Lilah headed straight for Wade. “As long as you’re in town, honey, I want you to join your father and me for dinner tonight. And I’d like you to bring a date. So—”

  “No problem.” Wade interrupted his mother smoothly, knowing a potential fix-up when he saw one. “I already had plans to ask someone to dinner, anyway.”

  Lilah lifted a skeptical brow. “Not your usual ditzy society belle, I hope?” John remarked.

  Lilah elbowed John in the ribs, giving the signal to use more tact, even as she tried again. “What your father means, dear, is we’re not sure your kind of glitzy woman would be comfortable with the kind of down-home supper at the ranch your father and I have planned for this evening. So maybe you should let us arrange a partner for you....”

  Not while he still had a breath left in him! Wade thought. “The lady I have in mind will be happy with any kind of home-cooked meal,” he said.

  LATER, AT THE TRAILER, Wade waited for Josie to answer him. Glossy dark brown tendrils were escaping from her ponytail to frame her delicate oval face. She had a big smudge of grease across her cheek and red ink—from the pen she had been using—slashed across her temple. Dirt from the drilling rig’s mud pit stained her jeans and splattered her red western boots. Perspiration dampened her T-shirt in the middle of her back, between her breasts and across her taut sexy midriff. If you discarded her pink hard hat covered with stenciled-on daisies, she looked like a kid who’d gotten hot and dirty making mud pies.

  “You did hear me, didn’t you?” Wade asked, when another minute passed and she still didn’t speak.

  Josie blinked. She swept off her hat, lifted her arm and wiped the sweat from her brow with the inside of her wrist. “You want to take me to dinner at your parents’ ranch?” she repeated in a low, deadpan voice. “Tonight...?”

  Wade shrugged. “That’s what I said.”

  Josie propped both hands on her hips and shot him a mildly rebuking look. “Why?” she asked, as if she were still waiting for the punch line.

  Wade let his glance rove the flushed, golden skin of her face. He didn’t know why he felt the one-two jab of physical attraction—she wasn’t at all his type—but he did. “Why not?” he shot back.

  Josie scowled as if she found it an insult just to receive the invitation. “I don’t have anything to wear.”

  “Believe me, what you’re wearing is just fine.” In fact, he’d like nothing better than to show up with her, as is, to get his matchmaking mother off his back once and for all.

  Josie tossed her hard hat onto the desk with a clatter. With a few choice words Wade was pretty sure he was meant not just to hear but to take to heart, she ripped the bandana from around her neck and used it to mop her face. A muscle ticking in her elegantly boned cheek, she regarded him suspiciously. “You—Mr. Discriminating about His Women to the Nth Degree—want me to look like this when you take me home to dinner?”

  Wade nodded, aware he liked the tartness in her voice almost as much as the fiery indignation in her blue eyes. “Right.”

  Her lips forming a soft, delectable pout, Josie stepped forward contentiously, until the two of them were standing toe-to-toe. She angled her chin up, the better to look into his face. “What’s really going on here?” she demanded in a low, furious tone.

  Wade rubbed his jaw laconically. Then, aware she was still watching him carefully, he shrugged as if to say why should anything have to be going on? Holding her steady gaze with ever-escalating pleasure, he drawled, “Given how hard y’all have been working around here, I figured maybe you could do with a home-cooked meal.”

  He hadn’t figured she’d react this way to a simple request for her company. Women usually climbed all over each other and stood in line to get a date with him. He didn’t kid himself—he knew it was as much for the money in his bank accounts as anything else—but even without that he wouldn’t have had any trouble getting a date. Until now, anyway. With this one very sexy, very feisty, Texas tomboy.

  “And maybe that would be true if I didn’t think you had an ulterior motive that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with helping me,” Josie shot back, even more sweetly.

  “Outspoken little thing, aren’t you?”

  Josie blushed fiercely. “I’m not little—except compared to Texas-size men like you.” She studied the length of his six-foot-five, two-hundred-twenty-pound frame. “And this has something to do with that talk your mother wanted to have with you, doesn’t it?”

  Abruptly, Wade figured he might as well level with her. It was the only way he’d get her to go out with him. And suddenly he very much wanted her to go out with him. “My folks both want me to date less glitzy women.” And go for women of substance. Women he could possibly fall in love with, instead of women who wouldn’t hold his interest for more than a few days—or nights—at the very most. “Tonight, I’m giving them their wish.”

  “What a thoughtful person you are, ” Josie retorted in a low, deadpan voice.

  “I like to think so,” Wade agreed sagely. He’d found out the hard way that he wasn’t cut out for the kind of emotional intimacy needed to sustain a relationship. It had been a painful revelation. He wasn’t going through that again. Nor would he put anyone else through the same. Luckily for him, Josie appeared every bit as interested in business and uninterested in romance as he was.

  “And the answer is...”

  Wade was sure Josie was about to say no when Gus came striding in.

  Josie looked at Gus, colored slightly, then turned to Wade. “Yes,” she said swiftly. “I’d be happy to go to dinner with you.”

  WADE STARED AT JOSIE with only slightly less astonishment than Gus. Clearly, both had expected her to refuse the invitation to date a client. And under normal circumstances, Josie thought, she wouldn’t be. But like it or not these weren’t normal circumstances. She’d only had to look at Gus’s face as he’d entered the trailer to know that Gus’d heard all about the latest in a series of problems with the drilling and that Gus had had an attack of conscience and would spill all to Wade—promptly!—unless she did something lightning quick. “Just give me a second to talk to Gus in private and let me get cleaned up and then I’ll be right with you.”

  “I’ll wait here, if it’s okay with you,” Wade said.

  Josie nodded. She went to a shelf and brought back copies of the latest seismic survey of the ranch for him to peruse. “I’m make it as fast as I can,” she promised
. Gus on her heels, she headed out the door and down the steps.

  Together they crossed the dusty ground to the trailer where Josie was bunking for the duration.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing?” Gus demanded with the familiarity of an old family friend.

  “Keeping the door open for success is what it looks like,” Josie said. Dam it all, she’d come too far and done too much to quit now. She couldn’t pull something like this and fail and then face her phenomenally successful father—it would just be too much!

  “It isn’t just our hides at stake here, Josie.” Gus followed Josie into her air-conditioned living trailer. “Big Jim’s reputation is on the line, too.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Josie shot right back emotionally. “Don’t you think I want my father to be proud of me?” It seemed she had waited her whole life for that to happen! And the same went for her mother, too.

  She knew she had crossed the line in even accepting this job in her father’s absence. He’d left her in charge in name only, not in any real fashion. Yet she also knew if she were successful she would receive kudos for her actions. She looked at Gus imploringly, more determined than ever to succeed. “Look, just don’t do or say anything to blow this,” she pleaded softly as she kicked off her mud-caked boots and—for lack of a better place—washed them off in the kitchen sink. “Not now. Not when we’ve come so far. I meant what I told him earlier.” Finished, Josie vigorously toweled off her boots with a paper towel and said passionately, “We’re close to striking oil here, Gus. I can feel it in my bones.”