Wildcat Cowboy (The McCabes of Texas #2)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Wade quirked a brow. To her chagrin, he looked more interested than upset. “Sounds as if you don’t like waiting at home,” he drawled as the second song ended and a third began.

  Josie thrust her chin out stubbornly. “I’m not the waiting-patiently-in-the-background type,” she said flatly as Wade matched his steps to the up-tempo beat.

  Wade slid his hand down her spine, not stopping until it rested just below her waist. “Well, you’ll be happy to know that if—and when—I ever do decide to settle down with just one woman, that I plan on being with her every second I can,” he vowed determinedly, his ardent gaze roving her upturned face. “No matter what dreams I’m chasing down.”

  “What about her dreams?” Josie persisted, taking his hand and moving it back up to mid-spine.

  “She can have those, too,” he promised, his grin widening merrily. “In fact—” Wade paused long enough to tap the end of Josie’s nose with his forefinger “—I’ll make sure I do everything possible to make sure my woman gets what she wants out of life, in terms of her own career, too.”

  Josie rolled her eyes. Wade was making this out to be easy when it wasn’t. “It sounds good in theory.”

  Wade’s eyes darkened unhappily. “But you don’t really see it happening,” Wade guessed.

  Josie lifted her slender shoulders as the third song ended and a lively two-step began. “Forgive me for being skeptical—”

  “But bitter experience has taught you otherwise?”

  Irritated he saw so much of her feelings when she wanted him to see so little, Josie admitted grimly, “I was engaged once. When I finally got up the courage to tell Ben what I really wanted to do with my life—spend it finding and digging wildcat oil wells—you know what he did? He laughed. And told me to forget it. No wife of his was ever going to be a lady roughneck.” Josie’s heart ached as she recalled the hurt and humiliation she’d felt to find out that Ben didn’t have faith in her, either. Never had and never would.

  “I’m sorry.” Wade’s eyes filled with compassion. His hold on her gentled even more.

  “So was I,” Josie shot back adamantly, trying hard not to succumb to the tenderness she saw in Wade’s eyes. “So sorry that I ended the engagement then and there.”

  Wade gave her a considering look. “I don’t blame you.”

  Josie hesitated. “You don’t?” Of all the people who knew about the situation, Wade was the first to support her view.

  He shook his head. “You deserve the full backing and unceasing encouragement of the man in your life, whatever your dreams.”

  Josie studied him, taking in the rumpled windswept layers of his ash brown hair and handsome suntanned face. “You really believe that?” she whispered, amazed, as her heart began a slow, fluttering beat.

  “You bet your bottom dollar I do,” Wade countered firmly as yet another song began.

  Emotions awhirl, Josie tightened her grip on Wade. She looked into his eyes. “It seems I’ve misjudged you,” she murmured apologetically.

  “No problem,” Wade retorted easily. “I can forgive you for being skeptical.”

  Josie tightened her grip on him and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Wade continued sternly, “What I can’t forgive is the fibbing you did—”

  At the censure in his low voice, Josie froze. “What?”

  Wade flashed her a crocodile smile as his hot gaze raked her from head to toe. He stopped dancing, too. “Honey, you’ve been two-stepping like there’s no tomorrow for five minutes now, and your steps are smooth as silk. The only way you could do that so well and so easily is if you already knew how to dance.” Strong arm cinching her waist, he hauled her against him, hip to hip, and thigh to thigh. “Admit it,” he growled.

  She took exception to his flat, insistent tone.

  “When it comes to dance floor expertise, you’ve got more than your share, and—pleasurable as it’s been holding you in my arms,” Wade said, face hardening, “it’s not due to anything I’ve taught you.”

  LOATHING THE FACT she’d been caught in a cleverly laid trap, Josie flushed from head to toe and pushed away from Wade. She drew herself up straighter, so the top of her head almost reached his chin. “I admit pulling your leg about the dancing in order to discourage you, but not about the rest,” she told him with a haughty toss of her head. “I’m not the kind of woman who wants to spend a big part of her life wearing evening gowns and pearls. And I never will be.” And whether Wade admitted it to himself or not, that was the kind of wife a millionaire Texan like Wade needed. He needed someone like Josie’s mother, Bitsy, who adored living the high life and flitting from one gala event to another. Not someone like Josie who preferred to spend the rest of her life in jeans and a hard hat.

  Wade regarded Josie skeptically. He released a long breath and jammed his hands on his waist. The action pushed back the edges of his mocha suede sport coat, revealing the flatness of his abdomen beneath the starched white crispness of his shirt and his faded, black Levi’s jeans. “You haven’t given that kind of life a chance,” he told her brashly.

  If only he knew, Josie thought miserably, recalling how she’d been torn between the two worlds in which she’d lived for as long as she could remember, and now wanted to find her own niche where she could be appreciated for who and what she was, not denigrated for what she was not. A place where she could be comfortable just being herself no matter what.

  “But that’s about to change,” Wade promised as he flattened a hand against her spine and tugged her closer. He lowered his head swiftly and delivered a sexy kiss. As his lips caressed hers lightly, evocatively at first, then with growing ardor, Josie could almost believe everything would be different in her life if only she were dating him. But common sense told her not to put too much stock in any man, particularly if said attraction got in the way of her dreams.

  And right now, Josie reminded herself firmly, as she felt her traitorous body melting helplessly into his, she was here in Laramie County, Texas, for one reason and only one reason: to make a reputation that would earn her the respect she craved.

  Her goals reaffirmed and clearly defined, she put both hands on Wade’s chest and pushed away from him. “Dancing lesson or no, don’t think you can transform me into what you want me to be or need me to be, because you can’t,” Josie warned, still trembling from the sexy kiss. Her parents had tried that, to disastrous result! The resulting unhappiness had torn them apart and made what had always been a difficult situation even worse!

  Wade saw her response and grinned in satisfaction. “Change can be good,” he reminded softly, looking like he wanted to haul her close and kiss her all over again.

  “Not,” Josie said right back, ignoring the flutter of desire deep inside her as she stomped over to shut off the soft romantic music, “when it’s forced on you by someone else.” Just so he wouldn’t miss her point, she made a great show of unplugging his stereo and handing it back to him. She swept him, head to toe, with a deeply disparaging look. “Time to say good-night and be on your way, cowboy.”

  Unfortunately the offense she had hoped he would take at her blatant lack of hospitality did not materialize. Instead Wade McCabe only looked all the more determined to make her his.

  “I’ll be back,” Wade promised, his brown eyes twinkling merrily.

  Her emotions in turmoil, Josie sighed. How well she knew that.

  Chapter Six

  “She’s afraid of intimacy.” Wade declared an hour later. “That’s why she won’t go to the party with me Friday night.”

  Shane, his younger brother, who was busy scouting for a likely place to set up his own horse ranch and had decided to crash at Wade’s ranch house for the night rather than endure any more of his mother’s infernal matchmaking, grinned and slapped him on the back. “You just keep telling yourself that, Brother,” he counseled with a knowing wink, “and maybe you’ll believe it.”

  “I know what I’m talking about,” Wade insisted stubbornly. He knew
because it was an emotion he’d often felt himself. If you let yourself be vulnerable to another human being, you opened yourself up to the possibility that other person could hurt you. Josie didn’t want to be hurt any more than he did. But he wasn’t going to hurt her. His desire was to help her, to give her the inner confidence she needed to be all the woman she could be, because confidence was one thing he not only understood, but had in abundance of, in both his work and his social life.

  “Otherwise, why would she make such a big deal over a simple kiss?” Or two or three? Or the dozen more and then some he’d like to give her.

  Shane narrowed his eyes at Wade. “The question is, why would you?”

  Wade brushed off his baby brother’s concern. There was nothing out of the ordinary about his desire for Josie. She had caught his eye. It was natural for him to pursue the attraction. “I’m fine,” he said. More than fine.

  Shane rolled his eyes. “Sure you are.”

  Wade scowled. “I am!”

  Shane lifted a skeptical brow. “And that’s why you’ve been talking about nothing but kissing Josie Lynn Corbett for the past half hour.”

  Wade made a face. “Her reaction to it—” to me, he added silently puzzles me, that’s all.”

  “Uh-huh. You’ve kissed a lot of women in your time, Wade, and I imagine more than one of ’em has had a reaction that was less than 100 percent favorable, yet I never heard you grumbling about any of them kicking you out of their place immediately after el smackeroo.”

  That’s because he had never cared in quite this way before. Wade rubbed the late-night stubble on his jaw and stared out at the starry Texas night. A muchneeded rain was predicted for morning, but so far there was no sign of it. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe this is different,” he said finally as he stuck a package of popcorn in the microwave.

  Shane opened a long-necked bottle of Lone Star beer and drank deeply. “How so?”

  Wade watched the paper bag in the microwave slowly begin to inflate. “Because I don’t trust her and I’m still attracted to her.” Since Sandra had betrayed him that had not been the case. Trust was the big litmus test with every and any woman he dated. One hint of dishonesty and he was out of there. Yet with Josie he kept going back.

  Shane frowned as the popcorn began to pop and the buttery smell filled the room. He reached into the refrigerator and handed Wade a beer. “That’s the kind of woman you want to stay away from.”

  Wade got out two bowls. “Tell me about it.”

  “So why don’t you?” Shane asked as the microwave timer dinged and the oven shut off.

  Wade opened the door. Being careful not to burn himself, he lifted the bag out by the edges. “Because she’s working at the site where they’re drilling my discovery well, that’s why.”

  Wade opened the bag then stood back as a wealth of fragrant, buttery steam escaped.

  “You could fire her,” Shane said, as Wade divided the popcorn equally into two bowls. “Tell her to go back to Odessa.”

  Wade shook his head as he took a sip of beer, then popped a few hot, fluffy kernels of corn into his mouth. “Nope. I want her here. But you’re right. I do need to take action, to get control of the situation,” Wade said firmly. And now that he thought about it, he knew exactly what to do.

  THE RINGING OF THE PHONE brought Josie out of a sound sleep. Groaning, she rolled over, grabbed the receiver and put it to her ear. A glance at the clock told her it was one in the morning.

  “Josie Lynn!” Her father’s familiar voice floated over the telephone wires. “I’m glad I caught you, hon.”

  Josie struggled to hear above the sound of the rain pounding on the roof of her trailer. She sat up against the headboard. She’d forgotten to adjust the thermostat before she went to bed. It was obvious the air conditioner was working overtime. She shivered in the cool air and dragged the sheet up across her breasts.

  “I didn’t think you could get to a phone.”

  “The oil company flew me back in a chopper to the closest town,” Big Jim explained in his boisterous voice.

  Knowing it must be important if her dad went to this much trouble to call her, Josie reached over and switched on a light.

  “Great news, hon. We struck oil and it’s a huge field. They want me and the men to stay on and continue drilling their discovery wells. Which, considering the size of the lake we’re sitting on, means I’ll be here for at least six months or longer.”

  At the pure excitement in her dad’s voice, Josie’s heart sank. She could continue this ruse a little while longer. But indefinitely...? she thought, as the rain picked up intensity outside. Someone would be sure to catch on. And that someone was likely to be Wade McCabe.

  “So I think the best thing for you to do,” Big Jim continued, “is go back to Dallas and be with your mama and work at the Corbett Foundation again.”

  Josie swallowed.

  News of a huge new South American oil field— and the wildcatter who’d been successful in drilling down to it—wouldn’t stay quiet for long. Unless he were so busy and diverted he was entirely cut off from the news in the oil world, Wade McCabe would be sure to hear about it.

  Which in turn would mean he’d also learn Big Jim Wyatt had no intention of coming back to Texas anytime soon. Wade would then want to talk to Big Jim, and once he did—Oh, mercy, Josie thought Mercy!

  Guilt cascading over her in near-paralyzing waves, Josie buried her face in her hands, as a childhood saying came back to haunt her with amazing speed. “When first we practice to deceive, what a tangled web we weave.” She’d done that all right and then some, Josie admitted to herself miserably.

  “And that will make your mama so happy,” Big Jim continued. “To have you back in the city, where you belong.”

  But that was the problem, Josie thought. She didn’t belong in the city. Never had. She belonged out in the Texas countryside, where she could combine the passion of looking for oil and the science of finding it into a family tradition of her very own. “I can’t do that, Dad.” Completely energized and wide awake, Josie leaped determinedly from her bed. She’d come too far to give up now.

  “Sure you can,” Big Jim disagreed.

  Josie shoved the hair from her face as she padded barefoot, wearing nothing but a T-shirt and panties, out to the small trailer kitchen to make some coffee.

  “Okay, then let me rephrase,” Josie told her dad tightly, not caring what this call from halfway around the world was costing as long as they got this much straight. “I don’t want to do that.”

  Big Jim blew out an exasperated breath. “Now, Josie, be reasonable. There’s not a dam thing for you to do there in Odessa except tell people me and my men are out of the country, and Gus can do that as well as you.”

  Now was the time to tell him the truth—that she wasn’t in Odessa—that his call had simply been electronically forwarded to her here.

  It was time to tell Big Jim she had taken a giant gamble—and accepted a job on his behalf she’d had no business and no authority to accept—and just be done with it, Josie lectured herself sternly.

  And yet she couldn’t. Because if she did, she knew exactly what her dad would do. He’d get Wade on the phone, now, even if it was the middle of the night, and that would be the end of her wildcatting days, period.

  And Josie couldn’t give up now. Not when she was so close to achieving everything she had ever dreamed of. Not when she was so close to making her parents proud.

  Pushing her considerable pangs of conscience aside, Josie blew out an exasperated breath of her own and tried to prepare her dad, well in advance, for the inevitable truth telling.

  “I told you I wanted to be involved in the business—” And if you had just let me. If you’d just believed in me, or tried to include me or given me a chance, I wouldn’t have had to take such drastic measures.

  “And I let you fool around a bit in the office so you could feel a part of things,” Big Jim continued in the patronizing tone Josie hated
, “but by now you must see that wildcatting isn’t the life for you.”

  What wildcatting? Josie fumed. All her dad had “allowed” her to do was answer the phones and take messages! This after dragging her to countless sites all over Texas, and some even in the Gulf of Mexico, and teaching her from the ground up just what exactly it was he did for a living.

  Had he not kept her so close to his side during her court-ordered visitations with him, had he not taught her everything he knew about the oil-finding business, Josie might never have known how much she loved it

  But he had and she did, and now they were both going to have to find a way to deal with that.

  Josie filled the reservoir with water, hunted for a clean spoon and stuffed a paper napkin in the bottom of the plastic cone over the drip hole and dumped in what she thought was the right amount of coffee grounds.

  “You’re wrong, Dad,” Josie told Big Jim bluntly as she switched on the coffeemaker and looked out her kitchen window at the drilling rig in the distance. “This is the life for me.” Josie frowned as she saw the flashlights arcing and three men running back and forth on the drilling platform. “And I’ll prove it to you, Daddy.”

  Perdition! Something was wrong! It had to be if they were all up in the middle of the night! Scowling and mentally swearing at this continued run of bad luck they were having on the drilling site, Josie pivoted on her heel and headed for her bedroom, the portable phone still pressed to her ear. Snatching the closest pair of mud- and grease-streaked jeans from the pile of laundry on the floor, Josie cradled the phone between her shoulder and ear. She perched on the edge of her bed and struggled into them.

  “No, honey, you won’t,” Big Jim stated in his firmest tone of voice while Josie rolled her eyes and searched around for a work shirt to put on over her fire-engine-red Roughnecks Do It Better T-shirt. “Now you go on back to Dallas like your mama wants. Because she is right about this, you’ll see. And then I’ll see you when I get home.”