Wildcat Cowboy (The McCabes of Texas #2)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Josie got out the bread. Holding open the door to the fridge with her hip, she also handed out deli-sliced turkey, Swiss cheese and ham. “I didn’t realize you had to be so precise.” She grabbed some green olives, too, and added those to the sandwich makings on the counter.

  Wade reached past her for mayo, mustard, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes.

  “With certain things—like the amount of butter or sour cream you put on a baked potato—it doesn’t matter,” Wade replied. Tearing open the head of lettuce, he began to rinse the leaves. “But when it comes to other stuff—like making coffee or baking a cake—it really does.”

  Josie began laying out slices of bread, two at a time, across the counter.

  “How do you know so much about cooking?” She’d always thought it was a feminine, domestic chore. Wade made it look anything but In fact, he was so competent in this domain, even in someone else’s kitchen, he made her a little envious.

  “My mother insisted we all know how to cook a few things, whether we liked it or not And the knowledge came in handy for all of us at one time or another. What about your parents?”

  Josie added a slice of cheese to every sandwich, then additionally layered them with turkey and ham. Josie pressed her lips together regretfully. “My mother doesn’t cook, never has, never will. If she needs coffee, and there’s no one else around to make it for her, she goes out and buys some. Ditto for everything else, as she has no interest in anything at all domestic or housefrau-ish.”

  Wade laid the lettuce on paper towels to drain and sliced up the tomatoes, too. “What about your dad?”

  “He cooks like I do—” Josie added mustard and mayo to the sandwiches “—haphazardly at best.” Josie grinned. “Or maybe I should say I cook like he does, since he’s the one who taught me what little I do know when we were out on various drilling sites. The trailer kitchens were never well equipped. Cookbooks or actual recipes were scoffed at. I was just expected to make do in a very unobtrusive way.”

  Wade layered slices of lettuce and tomato on each sandwich. “How old were you when all this was going on?” he asked lazily.

  “Six when I started making peanut butter and jam sandwiches for the guys.” Josie added tops to all the sandwiches they’d built. She looked over at Wade and smiled as he began cutting the sandwiches. “Eight or nine when I started making coffee. To tell the truth, I never graduated much beyond that because my results were always so lousy.” Josie got out bags and began wrapping the sandwiches for the guys. “But I had other talents—like my ability to read geographical surveys and spot a good place to drop a well—that evened things out. So the guys respected me for that.” Josie smiled, recalling how good that had felt then and still did.

  Wade shook his head at her. “You must have been something, even then,” he drawled admiringly.

  Josie smiled and rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t your average city girl, that’s for sure.”

  Wade paused. “Was it hard—going back and forth between your mom and your dad?”

  Josie sobered. “Yeah. It was.” She stopped and shook her head, as if that would dispel some of the less happy memories. “It was such a delicate balancing act. I was always worried they’d stop loving me the way they stopped loving each other. Eventually, of course, I realized that wasn’t true—that they would each love me in their own way no matter what—even if they couldn’t get along with each other. But it was tough, always feeling as if I had to live up their considerable expectations, instead of being free just to be me.”

  Wade studied her. “Do you still feel pressured?” he asked softly, compassionately. Noting the coffee had stopped brewing, he went about filling an extralarge stainless steel thermos.

  Josie grinned as she added paper cups, individual packets of sugar and powdered creamer to the stack of things they planned to take. “You mean by guys who expect me to know how to cook—or at least go out of my way to learn—and be a perfect lady?” she asked dryly.

  “Touché.” Wade lifted his hands in mea culpa fashion. His eyes gentled. “I’m sorry I tried to get you to change.” He gathered her in his arms and stroked her hair. “I like you just the way you are,” he said softly.

  Josie’s heart swelled. “I like you, too,” she whispered back.

  In fact, if the truth were known, she had fallen in love with him. And one day soon, the time would come to tell him that.

  “You said you had something you wanted to talk about or ask me,” Wade said as they packed up the sandwiches and the coffee and carried both back out to his Expedition.

  And she still did, Josie thought. But now was not the time, knowing how he felt about dilettantes and heirs who took advantage of their parents’ business reputations. Like it or not she was going to have to prove herself first, then level with him and tell him everything.

  With effort, Josie shook off her guilt and the worry and intolerable frustration of having to wait that went right along with it. “It wasn’t important,” she said with a smile. Not compared to all the love and tenderness they had just shared.

  “Sure?” Wade studied her intently.

  Josie nodded. She’d tell him later, she decided. When the time was right. When he would have reason to forgive her. And not a second before.

  Together they drove over to the site. They opened up the back of Wade’s Expedition and laid out the food like a tailgate picnic. Figuring it would be better to eat down there, away from the vibration and the noise of the machinery, they set off to get the guys.

  “How’s it going?” Josie asked as she and Wade climbed the derrick steps to join them.

  Gus grinned and gave her a thumbs-up sign. “We’ve almost got the test tool out.”

  Without warning, there was a strange rumbling sound and a faint, slightly irregular vibration. It seemed to be coming from the center of the earth up. All five of them stopped dead in their tracks. None of them moving, none of them daring to so much as breathe as they exchanged tense, wary looks.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Wade asked incredulously.

  A second later he had his answer as black oil surged up out of the hole, a little bubble at first, then in a growing, pulsing stream that showered the floor of the derrick and the tops of their heads and the ground around them, and left no doubt at all what it was they had hit.

  “Oil!” Josie shouted with all-out joy and disbelief, the guys whooping and hollering all around her as she rushed forward to hit the switch that would shut it down. “We struck oil!”

  Wade grabbed her around the middle and lifted her clear off her feet. He brought her against him and gave her a Texas-size kiss. “We did it!” he shouted.

  Josie grinned and hugged him back, hard. She kissed him, too. Exuberantly at first, then with growing tenderness. She drew back. Beaming, she looked up at him and hugged him again, hard. “We sure did, cowboy. We sure did.”

  JOSIE’S NEXT THIRTY-SIX HOURS were filled with work, and Wade was with her every step of the way, documenting the discovery, temporarily capping the well, arranging for the oil to be sold. Figuring out where and when the next well—on the opposite edge of the oil field—should be dug. Suddenly it was Friday noon. And the party for Wade’s parents was in just five hours.

  Wade appeared in Josie’s office. Noting no one else was around—not that it would have mattered, as the rest of the guys had long since figured out what was going on between them—Wade crossed the distance between them in three long strides. Before she could do more than rake in one quick breath, he wrapped his arms around her, pressed his lips to hers, firmly, possessively. She kissed him back, just as hungrily, knowing in a moment she would have to get back to the business at hand, but wanting—for this moment, anyway—only to feel and luxuriate in the fastgrowing affection and tenderness they’d found. Eventually, reluctantly, he let the kiss come to a halt. Still holding her close, he looked down at her.

  She studied him, too—his eyes so soft and compelling against the thick fringe of ash brown lashe
s, his windswept untidy hair, sunburned cheeks and nose, the stubborn set of his jaw, the sensual shape of his lips. It was so easy to see why she had fallen head over heels in love with him. Easier still to realize why she could no longer envision her life without him. He’d brought her joy. A willingness to bend. The belief that two people really did belong together sometimes. That sometimes they needed to give as well as receive.

  He murmured, “I asked Gus, Ernie and Dieter all to come to the party tonight.”

  She moved closer, delighting in the feeling of having her body mold against his. She smiled up at him. “That was nice of you.”

  His palms stroked up and down her back. “I want ’em to come. I figure they’ve all earned a night out.”

  Josie looked up at his clean-shaven jaw. It felt so right, being with him here like this. Sharing their work, sharing their lives. “Do they know it’s black tie?”

  Wade nodded. “I’m having some tuxedos sent out for them. Meanwhile, I’ve got to go into town to the community center to see how things are progressing there. Want to ride along?” He waggled his eyebrows at her comically. “To tell you the truth, I could use the help.” Tilting his head, he studied her.

  Josie hugged him briefly, then tucked her hand in his. She’d be happy to go anywhere with him. “Sure, I’ll go.” In fact, she’d be delighted.

  At the community center, it was pure bedlam. The caterers were at odds with the florist, who were at odds with the musicians, who were trying to set up to rehearse. Wade took one look at all the activity and didn’t know where to begin. Josie took one look and grinned. “Definitely a work in progress,” she drawled, already rolling up her sleeves.

  Wade looked tense, worried and completely out of his element. “Can you help?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Josie stood on a chair, put two fingers between her teeth and let out a whistle that would stop New York City traffic. As it had in the past, it worked like a charm. Every eye turned her way as all activity stopped. “I want the representative in charge of every company here.” Josie pointed to the table in front of her. “Meanwhile everyone else just sit tight.”

  Ten minutes later she had listened to everyone’s grievances, sorted out the conflicts, given the orders and had Wade working on hanging the congratulatory banner. It took two more hours, but when they were finished they had transformed the rec center into the themed Time Capsule that Josie had helped Wade to envision. A slide show of photos, recapping Lilah’s and John’s lives as community healers was all set to go. At the far end of the gaily decorated room, up on the stage, was the architectural model of the new hospital wing being donated in Lilah’s and John’s names. Wade had covered it with a deep blue velvet blanket to ensure secrecy.

  “Think they’ll be surprised?” he asked Josie.

  As surprised as I was to find myself falling in love with you, Josie thought. She nodded, feeling happier and more content than she ever had in her life. “I talked to Meg a few minutes ago. She said the staff was taking turns keeping them busy over at the hospital—your parents haven’t a clue about tonight—they still think they’re attending the society wedding of one of Mayor Moore’s cousins, whom they delivered years ago. Your dad is still arguing against wearing a tuxedo.”

  “But my mother—”

  “—is insisting he do it, anyway,” Josie supplied.

  Wade breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

  Josie grinned. “Speaking of getting all gussied up.” Josie looked down at her own shirt, jeans and boots. “Any chance I could catch a ride with you back to the ranch?”

  He tugged the end of her ponytail affectionately. “There’s every chance.”

  They rode back in silence, feeling exhausted and excited. Once again Josie wanted to tell Wade who she was and how she had come to take the job drilling for oil on his ranch, but once again she knew the timing was all off. Her dishonesty was likely to upset him. She didn’t want him upset on the night his parents were being honored. The information would keep until tomorrow, but then she would definitely have to tell him. And then get down on her hands and knees and beg his forgiveness and swear never ever to do anything remotely like it ever again.

  Wade stopped his truck in front of her trailer. He turned toward her and draped his arm along the back of the seat. “I’ll be back in an hour. Will that give you enough time?”

  Josie nodded, knowing she had her work cut out for her if she was going to transform herself from tomboy into the Texas princess of Wade’s dreams. But it was a challenge she was up to. “More than enough.”

  “PROBLEM?” Wade asked as the shoeless Josie let him in the door.

  Flushing hotly, for she couldn’t recall when she had been so embarrassed, Josie covered one stockingclad foot with the other and gestured at the collection of tennis shoes, galoshes and boots in front of her. “I forgot I didn’t bring any dress shoes from home when I moved out here.” She’d left her entire collection of designer pumps and evening sandals at her home in Dallas. “And we also forgot to pick up the boots you were having made for me—” Which left her, Josie noted, in the incredibly fragile evening dress of silk-chiffon.

  “You forgot,” Wade interrupted, his hot, appreciative glance taking in the uppermost swell of her breasts, spilling out of her lavender-mauve dress. “I didn’t. I had them sent out with the tuxedos for the guys.”

  Still grinning, he presented her with a ribbonwrapped box, then got down on one knee in front of her, like some knight errant, protecting his queen. He looked sexy and handsome as all get-out in his black tuxedo and pleated white shirt. The bracing fragrance of his sandalwood and leather cologne clung to his skin, immersing Josie in memories of their lovemaking and the kisses they had shared. And would share again. “Allow me,” he said softly in a low, husky voice that only made her want him all the more.

  Her heart pounding, Josie sat down on the edge of the sofa. Everything she had ever wanted or needed was right here, with the two of them.

  To her surprise, it wasn’t so much having her first real success in the oil business, as finding the love of her life. And knowing he was every bit as besotted with her as she was with him.

  Shooting him an amused look—it was a revelation to discover she rather liked being treated as the Cinderella he had envisioned and wanted her to be from the very first—Josie hiked up the long skirt of her evening dress. Looking as if he were enjoying the process immensely, Wade took the kicky satin evening boots, dyed the same shade as her dress, and fit them on her feet. Grinning all the more, he began the slow, sexy work of lacing them up. Luxuriating in the feel of his warm, capable hands cupping her calves and closing around her ankles, she let out her breath in a long sigh.

  Finished, he helped her to her feet and took her into his arms. Gave her a slow, measured look. “You know,” he drawled huskily as he ran a hand lovingly down her face, “if we didn’t have to be there before my parents to orchestrate the surprise, I’d say to heck with getting there early or even on time, and I’d carry you into that bedroom and make hot, wild love to you all evening long.” He ran his fingertip along her collarbone and felt her pulse jump. His lips were warm and firm on hers. “You know that, don’t you?”

  “I’m beginning to,” Josie admitted breathlessly. Whatever happened tomorrow or the next day or the day after that, she would never forget what they had shared.

  He kissed her again. And then again. Until both were trembling. Aching. He pulled back reluctantly, the need in his eyes matching hers. “We’d better go,” he told her huskily, “or we won’t get there at all.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “So there really were no lessons on how to be a lady,” Lilah said to Wade and Josie, once the surprise had been revealed and the party for Wade’s folks was in full swing.

  Josie looked at Wade, who, not surprisingly, had begun to look a tad sheepish. “Actually,” she hedged, laughter in her low voice.

  Heat climbing into his face, Wade laced an arm about Josie’s waist. He adm
itted good-naturedly, “I did try to teach her a thing or two.”

  John surveyed Josie, the way a father surveys his son’s prospective bride. Amusement in his eyes, he drawled, “Hate to tell you this, son, but it doesn’t look to me like Josie needs any help in that regard.”

  Josie grinned and looked up at Wade. It pleased her to have John and Lilah’s approval. It seemed to please Wade, too. Tucking her hand in Wade’s, she turned back to his folks. “I couldn’t resist pulling his leg a little when he ‘decided’ I was too much of a tomboy for my own good.” She shrugged. “So I let him teach me how to dance.”

  Wade brought Josie closer. “But it was Josie who ended up teaching me a thing or two.”

  Lilah smiled. “Well, I couldn’t be happier for the two of you. It’s about time Wade stopped trying to make over all his dates and accepted the woman in his life for who and what she is, without wishing she were otherwise.”

  The only problem, Josie thought uncomfortably, was that Wade didn’t know yet who and what she really was, and she wasn’t sure how he would react when he did find out. But she wouldn’t think about that now, she decided firmly. Tonight was the fulfillment of all the Cinderella dreams she’d had when she was a kid. She was here with her Prince Charming, and she was going to enjoy herself. Midnight—the end of the party and the return to reality—would come soon enough.

  “Things must be going pretty well with Wade McCabe,” Meg Lockhart said to Josie later, at the punch bowl.

  Josie picked up two glasses of champagne punch and drank deeply of one of them. “What makes you say that?”

  Meg smiled, the nurturing side of her in full evidence. “You’re glowing with happiness,” she murmured approvingly.

  Josie set her glass down on the table and topped it up once again. On the other side of the rec center, she could see Wade exactly where she’d left him—deep in conversation with his three brothers. He looked handsome and debonair in his sexy black tux. Just looking at him, she felt her heart do a funny little hop. “It’s that evident,” she murmured, thinking how ardently he had kissed her earlier and how he had promised to do so again as soon as the party had ended.