CHAPTER SIX
Cade looked up from the horse he was tending to. Something had Charlie Bull in a tizzy. His first thought was if the bull wanted something to complain about he should try spending five minutes alone with Lacy Dalton.
Laughing, he left the stall and stuck his head out the barn door to check on his prize bull. His heart stopped. There in the pasture stood Lacy Dalton, looking terrified as Bluster, his prize bull, stared her down from its favorite spot on the hill.
“Son-of-a...”
Bluster bawled once and stomped his foot, staring at Lacy with wild eyes.
“What?” Burk said as he raced up beside Cade to look out.
“Dalton’s in there with Bluster!” Cade broke into a run, his heart pounding furiously against his chest. He vaulted over the fence.
“Get Lacy!” Burk called after him. “I’ll distract Bluster.”
Cade cut across the field. “Dalton, get out of there!”
She didn’t move. Was the woman crazy or just testing her ability to make him that way?
Oh, God, not now. For once in your life, Dalton, do as you’re told.
Bluster shook his head and snorted louder this time, sending a spray of mucus into the air around him. He lowered his head then raised it again as he trotted toward the intruder.
Burk pulled out his neckerchief and waved it in the air, hollering to the bull.
At this point, Cade was in an all-out sprint. Lacy turned to him as he barreled down on her.
“Cade—” His name rushed from her lips as he tossed her over his shoulder and ran for the fence. “What are you doing?”
“I’m saving your damned neck one more time.” He glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see Bluster ground his hoof in the dirt, then break into a run, head lowered.
“Cade, I’m going to drop it,” she shrieked.
Drop it? No, he was going to drop her if she didn’t stop squirming. And he had no intention of doing that. His goal was to get them both out of the pasture with all their body parts intact. When he reached the fence he dropped Lacy over it and then launched himself headfirst over the top rail behind her.
Air rushed from his lungs as he hit the ground and rolled, ending up on top of Lacy. The pounding of hooves thundered by behind him and then faded away.
Bracing himself above her, he looked down at her, his heart pounding. “Is insanity a prerequisite for becoming a journalist? Never mind. Don’t answer that. I already know the answer.”
She had nearly gotten them both killed and all he could think about was how easy it would be to kiss her. All he had to do was lower his mouth...
With a groan, he pushed away, rolling onto his back in the grass beside her. “Dalton, what in the hell were you doing out there? You nearly scared the life out of me.”
“Saving a kitten,” she said, her voice trembling.
He turned his head to look at her. “Saving a what?”
“Her.” She pointed to the tiny ball of fur now wandering off toward the barn. “She went into the pasture with your bulls.”
“You followed a kitten into a pasture filled with bulls?”
“I couldn’t stand by and let it be trampled.”
“No, get yourself trampled instead,” he said with a frown. “Geezus, Dalton, those are barn cats. They can take care of themselves. Unlike you.”
“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” she replied, her voice catching. “I have for a very long time.”
He didn’t miss the look that came into her eyes. One of loneliness? Need? Heartache? “Damn it, Dalton,” he ground out as he reached out to drag her up against him, covering her mouth with his.
Her hands came up as if to push him away, then curled into the front of his shirt. She returned his kiss with the same reckless abandon that drove him.
He eased her back onto the grass and moved over her, deepening the kiss. He could feel her heart beating wildly beneath his own as she clung to him. Her body arched into his and a hunger he hadn’t felt for a very long time consumed him.
He groaned as her lips parted, beckoning him to taste her. Lord, how he wanted her. That realization had him pulling away.
“Cade?” she said, breathless from their kiss, her tawny eyes glazed with passion.
He scrambled to his feet. “You could have been killed. Hell, I could have been killed.” He walked over to the fence and braced his hands on the top rail.
“That wasn’t my intention,” she said shakily.
Needing to collect himself, he kept his back to her. “Getting gored is not a pretty sight. Neither is having your head or body crushed by the hooves of an angry eight hundred pound bull.” Sighing, he turned to find Lacy out cold. “Ah, hell.”
He moved to kneel beside her. Reaching down, he stroked her cheek. “Come on, Dalton, wake up. You’ve got work to do.”
As usual, she didn’t listen to him.
“Some ranch hand you’re gonna be.” He pushed the sun-kissed strands of hair from her face and then ran his thumb over her lips.
Lacy stirred, her long lashes fluttering open. “What happened?”
“You fainted. That’s what happened.”
She sat up slowly. “I was listening to you rant and it suddenly sank in what could have happened if...” She glanced toward the pasture, her going even paler.
He helped her to her feet and then he bent to retrieve his hat. “Just consider yourself damned lucky that I got to you before Bluster did.” If anything had happened to her...
She offered a wan smile. “You’re not exactly a knight on a white horse, but in this instance I’ll gladly settle for a cowboy with a bad disposition.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Burk called out as he hoisted himself over the fence next to Lacy and Cade. “I’m still in one piece. No holes.” He started past them. “You two just go on about your arguing.”
“We weren’t arguing,” Lacy replied as she brushed bits of grass from her clothes.
“Only when you two were kissing,” he replied with a chuckle as he walked away.
Cade frowned. He had been so distracted by Lacy and those damned kissable lips of hers that he’d completely forgotten about Burk. Granted, his friend could take care of himself. That wasn’t the point. This constant distraction was making him careless, something he couldn’t afford to be.
“Thanks for the help with Bluster,” he called after his fiend.
Burk waved and kept on walking. “Anytime.”
He turned back to Lacy. “It’s a good thing Bluster didn’t kill you or I would’ve had to put him down.” Several years before, one of his bulls had taken the life of a young rider and he still carried the guilt of it.
“You mean kill it?”
“Yeah, and he’s my best bull. I wouldn’t have been too happy about having to do that.”
Her posture grew visibly rigid. “Well, it’s a good thing your precious Bluster didn’t kill me. How would I have rested in peace knowing my death caused harm to that...that foam slathering cow!”
“Bull,” Cade corrected.
With a snort of displeasure, Lacy left him standing there and stomped off toward the barn, cursing him and all cowboys in general as she went.
Lacy threw open the barn door, nearly knocking Burk over in the process.
“Whoa, there, little lady.” He closed the barn door behind her. “Take it easy. You’re gonna spook the horses.”
“Sorry.”
“You can’t be that anxious to start working. What’s up?”
“Cade is what’s up.” She rubbed her temples and sighed. “I’m sorry. This isn’t turning out to be a very good day or week for that matter.” She was still shaken from the passionate kiss she and Cade had shared.
For a brief moment, she had felt wanted. Needed. And that was a dangerous thing to allow to happen. Sooner or later, those you care about go away and leave you to pick up the pieces alone. Just like when her parents died, and then her grandfather. And now, her
grandmother was leaving her, too.
“Don’t judge him too harshly,” he said, his words cutting into her thoughts.
She looked up at him in amazement. “How can you put up with his mood swings? One minute he’s happy and having fun and the next he’s ready to fight.”
“You saw Cade having fun?”
She nodded. “Yesterday when we went for a ride in my car.”
He shook his head. “Well, if that don’t beat all. I haven’t seen Cade having anything close to fun since...”
“Since his wife died?”
“Yeah.” Burk glanced toward the door, then back at her. “He wasn’t always that way, like a rattler with its rattle going. Life’s been hard on him the past few years.”
“Life’s hard on a lot of people,” she replied softly, thinking of her grandmother. The woman who now looked at life through empty eyes.
Stop it, Lacy! The only thing that comes from feeling sorry for yourself is pain.
Straightening her shoulders, she moved further into the barn and looked around. “So what am I supposed to be doing?” She certainly wasn’t going to ask Cade and risk getting her head bit off again. Or her lips kissed.
Burk unbuttoned the cuffs on his shirt and rolled up the sleeves. “Did you ask Cade?”
“No. And I’m not even sure how I’m going to do this story seeing as how I have no intention of speaking to that man ever again!
A knowing grin moved across the ranch hand’s face. “So you’ve taken a shining to him, huh?”
“Excuse me?”
“You like him.”
Lacy snorted. “About as much as I’d like getting a root canal done without Novocaine.”
He chuckled again. “Something tells me Cade is in a lot of trouble.”
She wasn’t sure what Burk meant by that, but decided she was better off not knowing. She just needed to do her job, get the story and get the heck out of Cowboyville.
“Just give me something to do so he can’t say I’m not keeping up my end of our agreement.”
Rubbing his chin, Burk looked around the barn. “Well, let’s see. Why don’t we have you start with watering the horses?”
“That sounds easy enough.”
He moved over to the first stall in a long row of many. “Let me introduce you to the horses first, seeing as how you’re gonna be helping take care of them while you’re here. There are only four horses left, so it shouldn’t be too hard to remember their names.”
“Left? What happened to the others?”
“Had to sell ‘em off.” He reached out to run a hand down the horse’s back. “This here’s Ace. He’s a Dun.”
“A Dun?”
“That’s a breed of horse. You can tell them apart from the others by their sandy color and dark mane and tail. He’s Cade’s. Belonged to him forever.”
“He’s huge.” Yet she had no problem seeing Cade astride this beautiful animal.
“That’s just because you’re a wee thing.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me. What I wouldn’t give to have legs like Katie O’Brien.”
“You know Katie?” Burk’s eyes lit up at the mere mention of the woman’s name.
Cade was right. There was something there. “We met yesterday.”
His smile widened. “Nice gal, that Katie. A little too independent if you ask me, but nice.”
“You don’t like a woman who’s independent?” She wouldn’t have guessed Burk to be a chauvinist.
“It’s not that. I don’t mind a woman who can take care of herself, even one who speaks her mind like Katie does. She’s Irish. That part just comes natural.”
Lacy smiled. “So what’s the problem?”
He shifted as if uncomfortable by the turn in their conversation. “The problem is that sometimes a man wants to do some of the taking care of. That’ll never happen with Katie O’Brien.”
“Never say never,” Lacy teased.
Purposely ignoring her last comment, he turned back to the horse. “Ace here’s the only horse Cade’s ridden since his injury.”
“Why is that?”
“Riding pains him sometimes. Ace here’s a smooth ride and Cade is used to him. Not to mention he loves this horse.”
“Humph,” Lacy scoffed. “I didn’t realize that man was capable of loving anything.”
Burk perched a booted foot up on the bottom rung of the stall. “That’s where you’re wrong. Cade’s fully capable of loving, only he refuses to let himself do so. He’s afraid to let go of the past. Hell, I’ve seen more emotion from Cade since you arrived than I have in a very long time.”
It seemed to her the only emotion she brought out in Cade was irritation. She normally tried very hard not to rub people the wrong way. But with Cade it just seemed to happen. They were like two sticks of dynamite with very short fuses.
Burk moved on to the next stall. “This here’s Loco. Like his name, he’s plumb crazy, so stay away from him.” He pivoted on the straw littered floor and pointed to the horse in the stall across the way. “That’s Sunny. He’s a Chestnut. A fine specimen of horseflesh if I do say so myself.”
“Let me guess,” she said with a smile. “He belongs to you.”
“Sure does.” He led her down to another stall where the last of the horses stood watching them, it’s head craned out as if begging for their attention.
“That’s Dakota. He belonged to Karen.”
“Cade’s wife?”
“Yeah.”
“What really happened?”
He shoved his hands into the front pocket of his jeans and turned to her. “Do you want the real version or the one reporters wanted the world to believe?”
“The truth.”
“Car wreck. It was raining real hard that day. Karen had gone to town to do some shopping. Cade usually went with her, but he was down with the flu that day. On her way home, she lost control of the car and took out a tree. She died instantly.”
A rush of hot tears burned her eyes. How awful that must have been for Cade, to lose the woman he loved so tragically. No wonder he was a bitter man. He’d not only lost his career and a wife he treasured, but now he was on the verge of losing his ranch, too.
Lacy placed a hand on Burk’s arm. “Thank you for telling me.”
“I figure it might help you to understand why he does some of the things he does.” He stepped into Dakota’s stall. “Now back to work. See how the buckets are half empty?”
She peered over the top of the stall, watching him. “Yes.”
“They need emptied and filled with fresh water. You can empty them into that sink over there and then use the hose outside to fill them back up again. Be sure not to fill them so full they spill over when you carry the buckets back into the stalls. If you get the clean straw all wet we’ll have to change it.”
That sounded like an easy enough task. “I think I can handle that.”
He pointed to a net hanging above the stall. “These are hay nets. They need to be replenished as well.” He handed her a bucket. “Give me a shout if you have any questions.”
“Thanks, Burk.”
“Don’t mention it.” He walked away, disappearing into a room at the far end of the barn.
Lacy turned her attention back to Dakota, running her hand down the animal’s nose. “I bet you really miss her, don’t you?”
The horse whinnied softly.
“I know Cade does. But I doubt he’d ever come right out and say it. He the kind of man who’s determined to keep things all bottled up inside, for all the good it’s doing him.”
Lacy sighed softly. Who was she to talk? She was just as guilty of keeping her emotions guarded. She set the water bucket down by her feet and looked up at the hay nets with a frown. Why hadn’t she thought to ask Burk where she was supposed to get the hay from and how much to put in the nets.
“Need some help?” Cade’s husky voice rang out behind her.
She turned, no longer angry. Her hea
rt went out to him for all he’d been through. “Yes.”
“I want to show you something when we’re done here.” He walked over to Ace’s stall and rubbed the gelding’s nose. Then he pointed to the net she’d been staring at when he walked in. “No clue about hay nets, huh?”
“Not a one,” she replied, her eyes watering as she held back a sneeze.
“Don’t worry,” he said with a surprisingly warm smile. “You’ll catch on.” He pulled a pocketknife out of his front jeans pocket and cut the strings on one of the hay bales stacked against the wall. “Take a sheaf of hay, about this much, and place it inside like this.”
Muscles flexed beneath the faded blue denim of his work shirt with every move he made, making it nearly impossible for her to concentrate on what he was instructing her to do.
“Go ahead and give it try.”
She plucked some hay from the bale, her eyes itching and watering even more. Allergies. Whatever possessed her to offer to become one of his ranch hands in exchange for the story?
“Don’t give them any more hay than I showed you. We’re on a tight budget.”
“That bad, huh?”
His expression grew serious and he hesitated in his reply, looking back at Ace. “We’ve had some unexpected situations arise that cost money I hadn’t counted on spending. Truck repairs. Fence repairs. You name it.” He stepped away from the stall. “I’ll go see to Loco.”
She wanted so badly to reach out to him, to tell him how sorry she was that he’d had so much pain in his life, but she didn’t. Instead, Lacy stood watching him, so many questions racing through her mind. All the ‘what ifs’ that would never be answered.
Loco nipped at Cade as he reached for the net. He yanked his hand back, rubbing it. “Damn horse. Ever hear the saying don’t bite the hand that feeds you?”
“I’ll have to remember that,” Lacy said, handing him another sheaf of hay. “Cade...”
“Yeah?”
“About last night... I really appreciate your coming to get me out of that place.”
“No problem,” he replied without turning around. “I would have been awake all night feeling guilty if I had left you there anyway. Especially, if the sheriff shot you.”
She gasped. “Shot me?”
Capturing the Cowboy's Heart Page 8