“I love you, Willa. Do you know that, yet? God, I love you.”
Willa gasped as she heard the words. Caught up in the frenzy of desire, she didn’t have the breath to respond, except with her mouth, with her hands and body. Desperate to be closer, she pressed her hips, her breasts, into him. He gave a laugh that was half groan and let her weight send him backward, to lie on the rock.
In the next instant, he started swearing. “Ow-w-w. God, that hurts.” His hands gripped her shoulders and pushed her away, not roughly but with unanswerable force. Then he rolled to his stomach, pressing his face against the tablecloth, pounding a fist against the rock beneath. “Damn, damn, damn.”
She put a hand on his back. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head and didn’t answer. Gradually, the pounding fist slowed, stopped, relaxed. His shoulders loosened and lifted on a deep breath.
“Sorry.” He turned his face to the side. His eyes were still squeezed shut. “My back and hip are about as flexible as this boulder.”
“It’s okay.” Now she could breathe, and her pulse had steadied. Her brain was working again. “There are better places for…that kind of thing.”
With his hands flat against the rock, Daniel pushed himself backward until his feet touched the ground, then straightened up. He wiped his sleeve across his face and gave her a rueful smile. “‘That kind of thing?’”
Willa scooted off the boulder, grabbed up the tablecloth and started folding. “You never know who might be watching.”
He made a show of looking around them. “I see your point. We had a whole audience of cows, just for starters.”
She couldn’t help smiling as she stuffed the cloth into the saddle bag. “Exactly.” Then she glanced at him. “Are you ready to go on? Can you ride?”
He took a couple of experimental steps. “I’ll be okay.” A few more steps brought him to stand right in front of her. Putting a finger under her chin, he tipped her face to his.
“I meant what I said. You don’t have to do or say anything right now. Just remember. I love you.” He kissed her mouth, quick and hard, then turned to limp stiffly toward the horses.
Willa believed him. And she would remember. But what she wasn’t sure of, as they rode through the rest of the beautiful afternoon, was what she wanted—needed—to tell him in return.
JUST BEFORE DINNER THAT NIGHT, Willa opened the front door to find Hobbs Sutton on the veranda. “Good evening, Sheriff. Come in.”
He stepped inside and shut the door behind him. “Nice to see you, Willa. How’s everything?”
“You mean, except for my son who’s still on suspension from school and the rustlers working out of the desert around my ranch?” She grinned at him, then led the way into the parlor. “Great. Just great. Have a seat.”
He nodded as he took the chair she indicated. “I just looked at the two fence breaks with Daniel. I’ll be filing a report, of course. And I’ll put out a notice with auction houses and feed lot managers about the missing cattle. Not that I’ll get much cooperation, ’specially on the other side of the border. Short of catching the rustlers red-handed, I don’t have much to offer.”
“I know. I’m most worried about what Daniel might decide to do on his own.”
“Yeah, I could see the wheels spinning in his brain. Unless he keeps a twenty-four-hour watch all along the fence, he doesn’t have much recourse. And I don’t think he’s got enough hands for that kind of operation, does he?”
“No, though I wouldn’t put it past him to hire more.”
“Deep pockets, I guess.” Hobbs leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Listen, Willa, the main reason I stopped by is…” He took a deep breath. “There’s a…a good movie coming to Laredo next week, one of those prize-winners everybody talks about. I wondered if you would have dinner with me on the weekend, and see the film. Whatever night works best for you.”
Willa couldn’t quite hide her surprise. “I—”
The sheriff raised a hand. “You can think about it, let me know later in the week.” On his feet again, he looked down at her with a gentle longing in his eyes. “I’d really like to see you more often. You’re a special woman, Willa. Special to me.”
She dropped her gaze to her own fingers, woven tightly together in her lap. After a few seconds, she realized what she had to say. Getting to her feet, she stepped forward and took his hands in hers.
“Hobbs, I really appreciate your invitation. I like you, and I know you’re a good man.”
His face changed. “But?”
“But I don’t want to lead you on. I’ll always be your friend, but that’s all I’ll ever be.”
“It’s been two years, darlin’. You don’t have to mourn forever.”
“I won’t.” Willa took a deep breath. Was she ready to say this? “There’s someone…someone else.”
After a long silence, he said, “Daniel.”
She nodded. “I don’t know what will happen. But—”
“It’s okay. I understand.” Hobbs stepped back, out of her reach, and stared at her for a moment, then turned and went toward the entry hall. “Let me know if you get anymore rustling out this way. I’ll see what I can do to muster up additional help.” Opening the door, he stepped outside without looking at her again. “’Bye, Willa. Good luck.”
“Goodbye, Hobbs.”
The thud of the door against its frame sounded permanent. Final. One part of her life ended, another just beginning.
As she walked toward the kitchen, she came face-to-face with Robbie in the hallway. He carried a bowl of ice cream in one hand and an entire package of chocolate cream–filled cookies in the other.
“Health food,” she said, trying for a joke.
Rolling his eyes, he brushed by her. “Whatever.”
She whirled and caught his arm. “Roberto, I am your mother and you’ll treat me with respect. You know that is the very least your father would demand.”
At the mention of his father, Robbie’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, ma’am.”
Willa released him. “Thank you.”
“Can I go now?”
“Yes.”
The slam of his bedroom door told her all she needed to know about her older son’s state of mind.
AS THEY CLEANED UP THE kitchen after dinner, Rosa shared with Lili what she had learned during her ride home with Luis. Then she waited for her sister to volunteer an account of her afternoon with Nate Hernandez.
But when the counters had been wiped, the dishwasher started and the light turned off, Lili hadn’t said a word. As they folded the latest load of laundry from the dryer, Rosa couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer.
“Did you enjoy your afternoon?”
Lili carefully smoothed imaginary wrinkles from a pillowcase. “Oh, yes.” Her cheeks turned a delicate shade of rose.
“Where did you go for lunch?”
“Um, The Trellis.”
“My goodness, that’s a very fancy restaurant.”
“It was nice.”
When she didn’t say more, Rosa sighed in frustration. “What did you talk about?”
Lili jumped, as if startled out of a dream. “Um, things. About the children, and Willa and Daniel. About Jamie, a little. About when Nate worked here.” She smiled. “We used to talk while he worked in the barn. I would bring him lunch, out in the farthest pastures, when he rode the fence line.”
“I remember.” Rosa nodded. “Where did you go after lunch?” When Lili looked puzzled, she clarified. “Yesterday.”
“Oh.” She finished another pillowcase before answering. “We walked around the historic part of Laredo. Then we went back to the church, the youth group arrived, and I brought the children home.”
“Did he kiss you?” Lili looked up, eyes wide, mouth an O of surprise. Rosa gave a smile of satisfaction. “That’s good. Did you make plans for another date?”
“He didn’t ask.”
“Did you ask him?”
; “How could I do that?”
Rosa grabbed up a stack of towels for Willa’s bathroom. “You say, ‘Nate, come for dinner Wednesday night.’ Or, ‘Nate, I’d like to see a movie next weekend. Will you go with me?’” She glared at her sister. “I wash my hands of the two of you. If you can’t think for yourselves any better than this, you really don’t deserve your own happiness.”
She ran into Willa in the hallway and shoved the towels into her arms with a mumbled “Good night.” Then Rosa went to her bedroom, curled up on her bed with her bracelet next to her heart and shed bitter tears—for her sister, and for herself.
AFTER THREE WEEKS OF ROB’S silent, unquestioning labor, Daniel decided to precipitate a reaction—rage, sorrow, defiance, he didn’t care. The kid needed to talk…or yell. Maybe that would be easier with somebody he hated.
On Tuesday, he sent Nate with the hands to check the herds and kept Rob with him to work on the old storeroom in the barn, which he was turning into an office. Under Nate’s supervision, Rob had carried out grimy tins, tubs, boxes and buckets. Today, they would rip off the rough boards nailed up as makeshift shelving, then wash down the ceiling, walls and floor.
“After that,” Daniel told Rob as they began prying the first board, “the room will be fit for human habitation.”
Rob applied leverage to his hammer but didn’t say a word.
“You go back to school next week?”
No answer.
“You’ll have to do some hard work to make up for the failing grades, I guess.”
A nail screamed as it tore loose, but Rob didn’t reply.
The gradual approach wasn’t working. Daniel aimed straight for the heart. “Do you think your dad would be proud of what you’ve done?”
Rob threw him a furious glance. “None of your business.”
“Was he the kind of man to lie and steal and cheat?”
Finally, the boy faced him. “You know he wasn’t. He was a soldier. He did the right thing.”
“Maybe the real reason you’re so mad is because he left in the first place. If he’d cared about you, and your mom and Toby and Susannah, he would have stayed home. But he left, because you weren’t—”
“Shut up! Shut up, shut up!” Rob came at him, both arms swinging. He butted his head into Daniel’s belly, punching and kicking. “He cared about us, he cared about his country. You shut up!”
He landed some solid hits before Daniel got hold of his arms and forced them wide apart. His fury far from spent, Rob kept trying to kick, aiming at Daniel’s bad leg.
“That’s enough.” Daniel grunted at a direct slam to his knee. He shook the boy hard. “That is enough!”
Rob stood still, glaring and panting. “Take it back. Take what you said back.”
“I take it back. I believe your dad loved his family very much.” Daniel released his grip. “The question is, do you?”
For a long moment, Rob didn’t speak, didn’t move. Then his hands clenched, unclenched. He spun around, and Daniel thought he would take off out the door.
Instead, he dove to pick up the hammer he’d dropped.
Daniel held up both hands. “Rob…” For a second, he feared for his life.
But Rob laid into wood instead of flesh. He pounded the shelf he’d been working on and the wall behind it, over and over, as fast as he could draw back his arm.
There were words between the blows. “Why? Why didn’t you die? Why couldn’t he be the one who came back?” Tears streaked through the dirt on his face. “Why did he have to go there, anyway? We wanted him here. I needed him here.”
Daniel closed his eyes, hearing the echo of Willa’s words.
“I hate him for going.” Rob spoke softly, then louder. “I hate him for leaving us! I hate him. I hate him.” He stopped hammering and stared at Daniel, across the room. “I hate you!”
The hammer flew into the corner farthest from where Daniel stood. As it landed, the boy broke for the door. Through the window, Daniel saw him race across the ground, heading toward home.
Nate came in a short while later and took stock of the room’s condition. “What’s happened here?”
“A hurricane,” Daniel told him. “Here’s hoping it cleared the air.”
Chapter Thirteen
Some advantages of a military background were the skills you developed and the contacts you came away with—like the friend specializing in counter-terrorism technology who was currently on leave at home in Dallas. After several phone consultations and a drive to the Big D, Daniel had assembled the equipment he required to deal with the enemy stealing his cattle. Three fourteen-hour days of work got the system up and running. With Nate’s help, he set up a command center in the barn, complete with receivers for the signals from sensors on the fence lines, a phone connection and satellite computer hookup. Now he would know when his fences were cut and he could catch the bastards in the act.
He didn’t mention the plan to Willa, because she would want the sheriff’s department involved or else veto the whole enterprise. Daniel planned to call the sheriff when the system alerted him that the rustlers were operational. Otherwise, Sutton would simply say he didn’t have the personnel to sit on their butts and wait for an alarm.
The week of Thanksgiving brought rain—hours of downpour every day. Daniel, Nate and the hands kept watch in the pastures for cows in trouble—stuck in the mud, stranded on the wrong side of a rushing creek, struck by branches from windblown trees. Daniel came in every day wet and exhausted to fall asleep in the barn with the console monitoring his fences, then started over again the next morning at dawn.
Though his crew argued with him, he gave them all Thanksgiving Day off. He and Nate could handle any emergency in the fields. Maybe the storms would break for the holiday.
No such luck. He woke on Thursday morning to the same old sound of rain pounding on the roof, plus the ringing of the telephone.
“Boss…”
He barely recognized the weak voice. “Nate?”
“Boss, I cain’t get there this morning. I cain’t move three feet away from the john.”
“That’s bad. Something you ate?”
“Maybe. Got a couple of burritos on the way home last night. Woke up a few hours later with my guts twisted like barb wire.” He made a choking sound. “Gotta go.”
Daniel hung up the phone and lay back with a groan. No problem. He could take care of his ranch by himself. He hoped.
His invitation for dinner with Willa and her family was for five. If he started early and ate in the saddle, he could check on all the pastures and be home with enough time to clean up.
He began with the herd farthest from the house, grateful that he didn’t have to check the fence line as well as search out cows in danger. By the time he stopped for lunch at noon, he felt pretty confident. All the cattle had been present and accounted for, with no imminent threats he could see. Even the rain had backed off to a sporadic sprinkle.
Then he reached the field where he and Willa had picnicked by the creek. The wind picked up and the sky darkened, with the rain beginning again in earnest. He counted thirty cows, where there should have been thirty-five, thanks to the rustlers. After two recounts, he was certain—more cattle were missing.
Daniel sat there on his horse in the pouring rain, wondering what a seasoned, experienced rancher would do. Of all the times for Nate to be sick…
Wiping his face with a hand gloved in wet leather, he stared at the ground around him, hoping for some indication of what course to follow. Four days of rain had turned the soil to liquid mud in which hoofprints melted away after a few minutes. The creek had risen several feet up the gentle slope of its banks, a churning brown soup of foam, rocks and tree limbs. He thought about how pretty the place had been just a couple of weeks ago, when he’d kissed Willa on the rock and told her he loved her. That day, he’d begun to believe he could have his dream ranch and the woman he needed.
Something else from that day jingled a bell in his
mind. Chasing down the memory, he remembered her explanation of how dangerous the little stream could be when the rains came. Like now.
Following the direction she’d indicated that day, he rode farther north along the path of the creek, allowing Calypso to pick his way slowly across the slippery ground. Just as Willa had said, the banks became steeper the farther he went, and the water moved faster. What cow would be stupid enough to get caught up in this surging, roaring flood?
Even as he asked himself the question, he heard a pitiful call from somewhere up ahead. Calypso pricked his ears and moved toward the sound without prompting. They came to a cluster of willows and shrubs growing beside the creek, and Daniel discovered a path he hadn’t seen before, a depression worn into the sides of the ravine that took the cattle directly to the creek bed itself. The U-shaped tunnel was already half-filled with muddy water.
And on the other bank, where a similar chute led down to the creek, three of his missing cows stood lined up as if to come back across.
Cursing the stupidity of cattle and the lack of cell phone transmitters, Daniel rode Calypso as fast as he dared across the five miles back to his barn.
In keeping with today’s luck, however, Rob answered the phone at the Mercado house. “She’s…uh…not here.”
Daniel forced himself to stay calm. “I’ll try the barn.”
“Not there, either. She went into town.”
“Right. On Thanksgiving Day, when all the stores are closed, your mother drove into town in the pouring rain. Give me a break. Just put her on the phone, please.”
“I told you, she’s not here.”
“Look, son—”
“I’m not your son.”
“And right now you should be thanking God for that fact.” He pulled in a deep breath. “Look, Rob, I’ve got animals in trouble and nobody to ask for help but your mother. If I have to ride down to your house, I will, but the more time I waste, the more likely it is those stupid cows will die. Do you want that to happen?”
He held his breath through a silence that seemed to last forever.
Christmas at Blue Moon Ranch Page 15