by Katie Lane
She knew staying away from each other was for the best. But even now the thought of never being able to taste Cru’s lips again diminished her bubble of happiness. It completely burst when she rounded the copse of trees and saw the blackened remains of Chester and Lucas’s house.
Suddenly, she realized just how lucky Cru, Chester, and Lucas were to be alive. She also realized how much Chester and Lucas had lost to the fire. Not only the house, but also their furniture, their clothes, their memories. They didn’t just need a place to stay. They needed help restoring their lives. She intended to make sure they got that help. Maybe she could talk to the pastors of the two churches in town and see if they could take up a collection. But first, she had to convince them to come stay with her and her father. Since they didn’t like Hank, it wouldn’t be easy. But she refused to let them go to a hotel room, or even worse, sleep in the barn.
And speaking of the barn…
Penny reined in Severus when she saw the bright red Porsche parked in front. Her heart did a little leap in her chest. What was he doing there? She thought he was staying at the boardinghouse in town. He had probably come by to check on Misty. Which was exactly why Penny was there. She’d planned to bring the horse back to the Gardener stables. If Cru was caring for the horse, it was best if she turned around and headed home. But before she could, something on the ground by the barn caught her attention. She looked closer and realized it wasn’t something but someone. Her heart lodged in her throat as she urged Severus into a gallop. When she reached Cru, she reined in and swung down from the saddle.
“Cru!” When he didn’t respond, she knelt down next to him and pulled her phone from her pocket. She tried to dial 911, but her hands were shaking so badly she kept pressing the wrong numbers.
“Shit!” As she tried again, Cru rolled to his back and blinked at her.
“I’ve never heard you cuss before.”
She lowered her phone. “Oh my God.” She wilted over his body in relief, her head pressing against the strong, steady beat of his heart. “I thought you were dead.”
He took a deep breath, lifting her head. “So did I.”
She started to rise, but his arms came around her and held tight. There was something desperate in his hug. Something that tore at her soul. She relaxed back against him.
“What happened?” she asked.
He took another deep breath. “I don’t know. I just passed out. I guess those painkillers the doc gave me for my shoulder were stronger than I thought. Or maybe it was just from lack of food.”
She lifted her head. “You haven’t eaten?”
“I just woke up and was headed into town to get something to eat when it happened.”
“You slept here? I thought you were going to the boardinghouse in Simple after you left the hospital.”
“I wanted to see if I could salvage anything from the fire and was too tired to drive back into town.” His gaze lowered to her mouth, and she suddenly realized how close they were. Close enough that she could feel his warm breath against her face when he spoke. “What did you have for breakfast?”
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve got something right there.” He brushed a finger over the corner of her mouth and a shiver of heat raced through her. It settled in her panties when he stuck his finger in his mouth and gently sucked. “Frosting? You had cake for breakfast?”
“Cinnamon rolls,” she said breathlessly. She knew she was still looking at his mouth, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Especially when he licked his bottom lip.
“Damn, that sounds good. I’m starving.”
She was starving too. Starving for the one decadent slice of dessert that she couldn’t have. She pushed against his chest until he released her, and then quickly got to her feet. “Then we better get you something to eat.” She slipped her cellphone in her back pocket and held out a hand.
“We?” He got to his feet without her help.
“You can’t drive. Not when you’re on strong painkillers.” Without a thought, she brushed the dirt off his jaw. The stubbles of his morning beard were prickly and sent tingles down her arm. She jerked her hand back and stuffed it in her back pocket so it wouldn’t be tempted to touch him again.
He studied her for a moment before he smiled. “Are you always such a mother hen?”
“I’m not a mother hen.”
“I don’t know what else you’d call it. You mother Chester and Lucas. And now you’re trying to mother me.”
“Maybe I’m just trying to keep you from killing yourself . . . or someone else. I’ve seen the way you drive when you’re sober. Strung out on pain pills, you’ll be a danger to everyone on the road.” She held out a hand. “Now give me your keys.”
“I’m not strung out on pain pills. I took one last night. Besides, I promised Lucas and Chester I’d be back to get them before noon. I’ll grab a donut on the way.”
“Sugar is the last thing you need. You need a full breakfast with plenty of protein. You also need something bigger than that two-seater rocket of yours if you plan to pick up Chester and Lucas.”
“I was going to take Chester’s truck.”
“Fine, but I’m driving. Now give me the keys.”
He scowled as he stuck his hand in his front pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “Do you even know how to drive a shift stick?”
“My granddaddy taught me how to drive his old Chevy truck so I think I can manage.” She took the keys from him and put them in her front pocket. “Let me just take care of Misty and put Severus in the barn, then we can go.”
“I took care of Misty.” He glanced around. “And your demon horse seems to be missing.”
Placing two fingers in her mouth, Penny whistled loudly. Severus came trotting around the barn.
Cru shook his head. “I guess all males do your bidding.”
“Only well-behaved ones.” She took Severus’s bridle and led him into the barn.
On the way to the stall, she noticed a piece of paper on the ground and leaned down to pick it up so Severus wouldn’t trample it. When she saw Cru’s picture attached, she stopped short and read through the questionnaire. When she finished, she felt like Severus had trampled her heart.
Cru was an orphan? He’d been so cocky and sure of himself. She’d always figured he was just a wild teenager whose parents hadn’t been able to handle him. But he hadn’t had parents. Not even foster parents. Penny had been eleven when her mother passed away and it had seemed like the end of the world. How much harder would it have been for a four-year-old to lose his mother?
Especially when she was all he had.
“Penny?” Cru’s voice caused her to jump guiltily and glance over her shoulder. He stood in the doorway with the sunlight outlining his tall, lean body. As a teenager, she’d seen him as a charming bad boy. After he got Evie pregnant, she’d seen him as an irresponsible jerk. In the last few weeks, she’d seen him as Lucas and Chester’s caregiver—a man she couldn’t exactly admire, but couldn’t hate either. And now, she couldn’t help seeing him as a little four-year-old boy frantically searching for his mother.
“Do you need some help?” he asked.
She turned back around so he wouldn’t see her tears and quickly folded the paper and stuffed it into her front pocket. “I’m fine. I was just texting my dad to let him know I wouldn’t be at the branding pen until later today.”
“You can get back to work. I’m really okay.”
Cru might be okay, but she wasn’t. Cru was no longer the bad boy. He was a lost boy. And Penny knew what it was like to be lost after losing a parent.
“No,” she said. “I’ll drive you. Daddy can survive without me for a little while.”She took her time removing Severus’s saddle and bridle, hoping to get her emotions in check. But they unraveled again when she walked out to see Cru leaning against Chester’s truck. He had put on his cowboy hat and a pair of aviator sunglasses. With the dark shadow of his day’s growth of beard, he look
ed even more of a sexy bad boy than usual. But now she knew the reason behind his bad boy ways.
Her eyes welled with tears, and she quickly tried to brush them away. But he saw and straightened from the truck.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just have hay fever.”
He smiled. “A cowgirl with an allergy to hay. Now that’s funny.” He opened the truck door for her. “Come on, cowgirl, this cowboy needs to eat.”
On the drive in to Simple, Cru told her about the items he’d salvaged from Chester and Lucas’s house. But she had trouble concentrating on the conversation while her mind was still stuck on the image of a little boy standing alone in a bus station.
Cru handed her a faded bandanna. “Your eyes are watering again. You really need to think about getting some allergy medicine.”
“Thank you.” She took the bandanna and blotted her eyes before handing it back. “It sounds like Chester and Lucas will have to replace almost everything. I’m going to talk to the pastors of the churches in town and see if they won’t take up a collection. It probably won’t be enough to cover a new house, but it might be enough to buy the materials and I know we could get some volunteers to help rebuild. Maybe we could even have a house raising.”
“You mean like a barn raising? That’s a good idea. Logan wants to chip in and he’s going to see if some of the other boys can too. You remember Logan, don’t you?”
“Of course I remember him. The tall, dark, and brooding boy. Evie thought he was stuck-up, but I liked Logan. He was always nice to me.”
“Because you were a cute kid who told funny knock-knock jokes.”
“They weren’t funny. They were stupid.”
“I didn’t think so.”
She glanced over at him and saw that he was studying her. She got lost in the green pastures of his eyes for only a few seconds before she returned her attention to the road. “Then we have a plan for rebuilding their house. Now all I need to do is talk them into staying at the Gardener Ranch.”
“You’re going to invite them to stay at your ranch?”
“It only makes sense—we’re their closest neighbors. They can’t afford to stay at Dixon’s Boardinghouse indefinitely, and we have plenty of room.”
“That’s real nice of you, Penny. But I was planning on paying for their hotel rooms. And they don’t exactly get along with your daddy.”
“Well, it’s time they got over it. They’ve been feuding with each other for decades and it’s sheer stubbornness. Maybe this is the perfect way to end that feud.”
Cru snorted. “Good luck. I can’t see those stubborn fools giving in on anything. I’m not even sure they’ll be okay with people raising money to rebuild their house. They hate charity. And if they view raising money to build a new house as charity, they’ll view your offer of a place to stay the same way.”
He had a good point. Penny puzzled the problem over as they headed down the dirt road. When they passed a herd of Gardener cattle, an idea hit her. “What about if I turn it around? And instead of making it out like I’m helping them, I’ll make it out like they would be helping me?”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’m going to offer them jobs.”
“Jobs? Please don’t tell me you’re going to let Lucas become your new cook.”
She laughed. “I doubt Sadie would give up her position. But I’m sure we can find some other things for them to do around the ranch.”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t sound too safe to have a couple of old guys wandering around a working ranch.”
“Then you’ll just have to come along to keep an eye on them.”
Once the words were out, Penny felt more than a little stunned. What was she doing? She had thought it was hard resisting him before. How much harder would it be if she saw him every day? Not to mention how pissed Evie would be once she found out. But not even her sister’s anger could change Penny’s mind. She couldn’t stand the thought of him being at Dixon’s Boardinghouse all alone. When her mother died, she’d had her sister and father to help her get through the loss. Cru had no family after his mother left him.
At least, no family he knew about.
Penny had always gone along with Evie’s decision not to tell Cru about his son. But now that she knew about Cru’s mother, she felt a heavy guilt for keeping his son from him. He might be a playboy who had no desire to settle down, but maybe having a son would change that. It wasn’t her secret to tell, but she could try to convince Evie to do it.
“You want me to move to the Gardener Ranch?” he asked. She glanced over to see him looking at her with bewilderment. “I’m sorry, but I’m a little confused. I thought I was off-limits because of the entire sister thing.”
She turned onto the highway. “You are.”
“And yet you’re inviting me to stay at your ranch where we’ll see each other every day.”
“Are you saying you can’t resist me, Cru Cassidy?” She kept her eyes on the highway, but she could feel the heat of his gaze sliding over her. Her heart picked up speed and sweat collected between her palms and the steering wheel.
“I can resist,” he said in a low, sexy voice. “The question is . . . can you?”
His cockiness had her lifting her chin. “I think I can manage. You aren’t that irresistible. Just annoying. And to help out Chester and Lucas, I’m willing to put up with an annoying Double Diamond bad boy for a few weeks.”
Cru laughed. “Fine, Miss Penny Gardener, you’ve struck a deal. I’ll come to the ranch and help you keep an eye on those two old cowboys. But you need to know one thing. I’m not going to hide from you. If this bad boy tempts you beyond your ability to resist that’s your problem, not mine.”
Chapter Eleven
Chester and Lucas didn’t put up as much of a fight about staying at the Gardener Ranch as Cru thought they would. Of course, it wasn’t easy fighting a beautiful redhead with big, innocent blue eyes. All Penny had to do was tell them how much she needed their help at the ranch and they were toast. And Cru wasn’t much better. He had no business staying at the Gardener Ranch. Now that Lucas and Chester were settled into the bunkhouse with more than enough people to watch out for them, he should be cruising down the highway in his Porsche on his way to sandy beaches filled with suntanned, half-naked beauties.
Instead he was standing in a used car lot in Abilene getting ready to do something really stupid.
“It’s a nice car.” The salesman’s words were casual, but the gleam in his eyes was rabid as he walked around the sports car. “I could maybe trade you for that king-cab Ram truck you’re interested in, but you’d have to give me a couple thousand cash to go along with it. Cars like this don’t sell real well in Abilene.” He glanced at Cru’s green scrub shirt. “You a doc?”
“Nope.” Cru smiled. “A car salesman. So let’s cut through the bullshit, shall we? I know exactly what this car is worth and it’s worth more than any car you have on this lot. If you can’t sell it here, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble selling it somewhere else. So here’s my deal. Not only are you going to trade me that used Dodge Ram, but you’re also going to pay me cash. I’m thinking . . .” He used his finger to write a number in the dust on the hood of the Ram truck.
The gleam faded from the salesman’s eyes and he shook his head. “No can do, partner. There’s no way I can recoup my money if I strike that deal.”
Cru shrugged. “Then I guess I’ll try one of your competitors.” He got back in the Porsche and started the engine, making sure to give it just enough gas to cause the engine to growl. Before he could even pop it into first gear the salesman was tapping on his window. Not an hour later, Cru was heading out of the lot in the Dodge pickup with a hefty check in his pocket.
His next stop was a western store where he bought shirts, jeans, and boot socks. Since he had done laundry for Chester and Lucas, he knew their sizes and what styles they liked. Then he headed to a Walmart where he p
icked up underwear and toiletries. He used his credit card for the purchases. The check for the Porsche he planned to add to Chester and Lucas’s house fund. When he finished his shopping, he grabbed a Quarter Pounder, fries, and a Coke at a McDonald’s before he headed back to Simple.
Once on the highway, he should’ve felt depressed when he stepped on the gas to pass a semitruck and only inched past it at a snail’s pace. But he didn’t. There was something nice about sitting in a big ol’ truck with the windows down and a good country tune blaring from the speakers. As he passed, the trucker waved and he waved back—something he couldn’t have done if he’d shot past like a rocket. He had to wonder if you missed a lot of things when you went too fast.
On the dirt road to the Gardener Ranch, he couldn’t help opening the truck up. Trucks handled bumpy terrain much better than Porsches. He was having so much fun off-roading that he drove right past the white sedan parked by the side of the road. In the rearview mirror, he could see a woman sitting behind the wheel fanning at the dust trail he’d left behind.
He quickly stepped on the brakes and backed up until he was even with her open window. “Beg pardon, ma’am. I didn’t see you sitting there.”
The woman who stared back at him didn’t look like she belonged on a country dirt road in the middle of nowhere. She looked like she belonged in a library behind a tall desk piled high with books. Her dark hair was pulled back in a smooth, tight bun and she wore those cute, nerdy, black-framed glasses that city girls seemed to like.
“That’s understandable given the speed you were going,” she stated before she dismissed him and went back to looking at the phone she held in her hand.
“Car trouble?” he asked.
“No.” She tapped at the screen of her phone. “I’m attempting to get my global positioning system to work.”