The Rancher And The Redhead

by Leigh, Allison

  “You did,” Squire repeated sharply.

  She swallowed and looked at him. Looked at those eyes that could have been Matthew’s, they were so similar. “Did I?” Her jaw twisted to the side. She’d never forgive herself for taking so long to get help to Matthew. “Then what’s taking them so long? Shouldn’t he be conscious by now?”

  Squire only sighed heavily and tightened his hand on hers.

  Several hours later the doctor came out and told them that Matthew would be all right. Emily started crying at the news, and Jefferson held her tight, his face expressionless, though his deep blue eyes darkened with relief.

  Jaimie turned and saw Daniel, leaning back against the wall and raking unsteady fingers through his hair. Several minutes later, he announced he was going to call Tristan and Sawyer to let them know that all was well.

  Squire sighed deeply and held Jaimie gently against him.

  And then she fainted.

  “No we don’t want any tasty gelatin.” Matthew glared at the unrelentingly cheery nurse who was trying to foist a tray of unappetizing hospital food on him. “We want to get outta here. Where’s the doctor?”

  The nurse managed to retain her cheerful smile. “He’s on rounds. He’ll be here within an hour, Mr. Clay, and once all our release papers are signed, we can leave. Now, are you sure we wouldn’t like to try a little lunch?”

  What we wanted to do was wrap our hands around someone’s throat. He shoved back the sheet covering him and stood up. He would rather eat that infernal tasty gelatin than tell the nurse... Geez, she couldn’t be more than twenty-two...that his abrupt action brought on a serious head rush.

  He’d already been in the hospital for two days. Two days too long, as far as he was concerned. He needed to get back to the ranch. No doubt calves were dropping all over the place. Daniel couldn’t be expected to keep up with it on his own. What was more important, Matthew had some serious rethinking to do.

  The nurse suddenly turned to the door, then threw up her hands. “Maybe you can do something with him,” she announced as she left.

  Jaimie halted in the doorway, her eyebrows peaking even while color rose in her cheeks. “My word, Matthew. You want the nurses to remember you, don’t you?”

  He glanced down. So he wore only blue silk boxers. “Nothing nurses don’t see a hundred times a day,” he said. His sharp eyes noted the dark shadows beneath Jaimie’s eyes.

  She smiled slightly, not meeting his eyes, and closed the door behind her. Color climbed into her cheeks. “I think you’re a lot more memorable than you think.”

  He eyed her. It was the first time since they’d been brought to the hospital that they were alone together. It had seemed as if every time he’d turned around one of his brothers or his father or Emily or Gloria had been in the way. Even Maggie had escaped the maternity ward long enough to stick her head in his room before her release. They were his family and he loved them. But it was enough to make a man ready to tear down walls. “So are you here to spring me from this place?”

  She held up a ring of keys. “As soon as your doctor gives the word.”

  “Which won’t be any too soon,” he snorted, then held out his hand. “Come here.”

  Her eyes danced over his chest, then she leaned back against the door. Her dress of swirling blues and purples clung gently to her curves and drifted around her slender ankles. “Matthew—”

  “Come here,” he said again. Steadily. “I haven’t thanked you yet.”

  Her hair tumbled around her face when she looked at the keys in her hands.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll just come and get you.” He did, scooping her against him. He loved the way her eyes widened, the pupils dilating, her lashes falling heavily. “Thank you,” he said, serious. “If you hadn’t found me...well, let’s say I’ve got stuff on this Earth I still want to do.” Most of which concerned this vibrant, tormenting redhead.

  “Don’t.” She slid out of his arms, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “I should have immediately gone to the cabin and called for help. It would’ve been faster. You’d have been in less danger if I’d—”

  “Whoa.” He closed his hands over her beautiful face. “You saved my life. You.” He kissed her lips gently. “I still don’t know how you managed to get me loose. The last thing I remember was getting my hand stuck. I was trying to push the snowmobile off, and then it slid...ahh, sweetheart, don’t do that.”

  “I was so scared,” she managed, her breath hitching.

  He folded her close, kissing the tears that leaked from her tightly closed eyes. “Scared or not, you did what needed to be done.”

  She drew in a shuddering breath, shaking her head, and pulled his right hand down. She spread his fingers to show the bandage. “I nearly cut your hand in two.”

  “Ten stitches was all,” he countered.

  Her fingers glanced over the dark bruise on his chest. “Your rib.” “Bruised,” he dismissed. “You didn’t do it. The snowmobile did.” He caught her hand before she could touch the bandage on his jaw. He’d have a doozy of a scar there, it was true. “Better a scar on my face,” he added, “than a slit throat.”

  Her mouth worked soundlessly and she moved away. He watched her stop by the huge bouquet of flowers that stood on the window ledge. Unease climbed down his throat, and he yanked on the jeans that had been lying on the chair beside the bed.

  “You’ve been right all along,” she said, fingering a delicate petal.

  “About what?”

  “City girls.”

  It was the last thing he’d expected her to say. He slowly finished buttoning his jeans. “What about ’em?”

  “That we have no place on the ranch.”

  He went still for a moment, then picked up the dark blue denim shirt. What about a place in the heart of a stick-stupid rancher?

  She sighed quickly and turned away from the flowers. “I..um...applied for a job here with the day care center a few weeks ago. The interview was this morning.”

  Which explained her dress. She was a vision in it, but he preferred those thermal shirts and snug jeans. And he didn’t want to think real hard just now on Jaimie finding a job, even if it was right up her alley. He didn’t want to think about anything that would take her away from him.

  “What about Maggie?”

  Jaimie clung to her dwindling control. But it was so terribly difficult with him watching her, his expression unreadable. She’d thought about it for the past two torturous nights. Reliving those awful moments at the creek. Knowing now that she loved him, more than she’d ever realized she was capable of loving anyone. Knowing, too, that no matter how close she and Matthew had become, she was still a city girl. She folded her hands tightly together.

  “She’s settled back at the Double-C now,” she finally managed to say. The baby should be released any day.” She turned back to the flowers. “The hospital offered me the job. They’ll hold it open for two weeks, so I can help Maggie until then.” She swallowed past the knot in her throat, making herself finish. “Gloria said she’d come up and stay for a few more after...after I leave. She can handle meals and...and everything.”

  Matthew felt gut kicked. If he’d thought it bad when BethAnn had dumped him all those years ago, it was nothing compared to what he felt now. Then he silently swore long and hard at himself for caring. For being soft enough to care. He’d known this would happen. He’d counted on it, for crissakes. He’d done everything for Jaimie but pack her bags. “So you’re leaving, then,” he stated flatly.

  She pushed back her hair, avoiding his gaze. “It was the plan,” she said unevenly.

  He shoved his arms into his shirt and fastened it. Unable to look at her, he pulled on his socks and boots and headed for the door.

  The nurse scurried after them, waving a sheaf of papers, when Matthew stalked out of the hospital. Jaimie trailed unhappily after him. He took the keys from her and held her door, then rounded the truck and climbed in.

  They dr
ove back to the Double-C in silence.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jaimie was so busy over the next few days that she shouldn’t have missed Matthew. Yet miss him she did.

  It had been Squire who had told Jaimie not to worry about fixing their morning breakfast. He delivered the news as if it would be a great relief to her, since she was so busy helping Maggie get resettled in her home.

  But Jaimie knew better. Now that she’d told Matthew about the day care job, he couldn’t wait for her to go. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought the man was acting...hurt. But that was ridiculous, because Matthew all along had made no secret of the fact that she didn’t have a permanent place in his heart. Or on the Double-C.

  If he felt anything for her at all, other than the mind-blowing chemistry they shared, it was probably some misguided sense of responsibility. She’d been the one to drag him from the creek, after all. And he cared about her as much as he’d let himself care about any woman.

  Still, she couldn’t quite shake the sense that her plans had upset him. And since the man had been unrelentingly scarce since his release from the hospital, Jaimie despaired of ever finding out for sure.

  So she missed him. And she worried about him. He and Dan and Joe were working nearly round the clock now, and two new hands would be starting at the end of the week. Life at the Double-C would only get more and more hectic as spring grabbed a good foothold.

  Staring at the pile of laundry she was folding on the kitchen counter of the cottage, Jaimie’s vision blurred. Oh, she would miss this place when she left. She would miss the sights and the sounds and even the smells. She would miss Maggie and her new little niece. She would miss Sandy traipsing at her heels everywhere she went, and she would miss D.C. and the kittens when they came.

  But most of all she would miss Matthew. Surviving without living at the Double-C was possible, she knew. But surviving without seeing Matthew...without being in his arms...well she wasn’t sure how she would do it.

  She heard the crunch of tires on the gravel outside the cottage and folded the last towel, leaving the stack on the kitchen counter as she went to the door. She threw it wide, then shivered in the brisk air as she watched Joe circle his truck and open the door for Maggie.

  No matter how much she hurt over leaving Matthew, at least she could go knowing that Joe and Maggie appeared to be doing better. Joe was around more, at least. Her brother helped Maggie out of the truck, then pulled a bag out of the back while Maggie unfastened the tiny blanket-wrapped bundle from the car seat.

  Maggie’s eyes sparkled as she slowly walked up to the cottage, Joe following her. Jaimie moved out of their way as they came inside.

  Joe took the bag into the newly finished nursery, and Maggie handed the baby to Jaimie while she removed her coat and gloves.

  Jaimie’s finger grazed the downy cheek of her niece. Despite her early arrival, J.D. was perfect. Jaimie had fallen in love with her the very first moment she’d seen her niece through the windows of the hospital nursery. Her little fists and legs had been pumping while she wailed a mighty wail until a nurse collected her and took her to her mama to be fed.

  And despite all of Jaimie’s own fears and reservations of having a baby after having witnessed all that Maggie went through, she’d known at that moment, that very moment when J.D. wrapped her tiny little starfish hand around Jaimie’s little finger, that every single moment of worry and misery and sickness would be worth it, to have a wonderful miracle such as this placed in your safekeeping.

  “I’ve got lunch ready,” Jaimie said now, clamping down on the wave of weepiness that threatened to overwhelm her. “I just need to heat up the soup for a few minutes.”

  Maggie sat down on the couch. She held up her arms for her daughter, and Jaimie handed J.D. to her. Jaimie prepared a tray for Maggie so her sister-in-law could remain on the more comfortable couch and set a place for herself and Joe at the table. Her brother sat down long enough to wolf down the meal, then he crammed his hat on his head and headed out.

  By the time Jaimie starting cleaning up after lunch, J.D. was fussing and squirming in her pale yellow blanket. Maggie had just started nursing when someone knocked at the door.

  Surprised, Jaimie went to answer it. Emily stood there, her dark hair blowing in the breeze. “Hope you don’t mind,” she greeted. “But I couldn’t wait a second longer to see the baby, again.”

  Maggie smiled from the couch and invited Emily in. “Afraid you’ll have to wait a few minutes to hold her, though,” she said. “I think my daughter here has one ferocious appetite.”

  Emily unwound her bright red knit wrap and laid it over the back of a chair. She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her hands across the swell of her pregnancy. “I can’t wait. I mean it. I cannot wait.”

  Standing by the table, Jaimie looked at the two women. Emily, thoroughly, happily pregnant. Maggie, nursing her newborn daughter.

  She swallowed the knot of longing in her throat and finished loading the dishwasher and wiping down the counters. She put away the clean towels and started another load in the machine that had been operating perfectly since Daniel had worked on it. When she joined the other women, Maggie had finished feeding J.D., and Emily held her on what little lap she still possessed.

  “I cannot get over how beautiful she is,” Emily breathed. She and Maggie shared a smile, then Emily glanced over at Jaimie. “Doesn’t it make you want one of your very own, too?”

  Jaimie went still. Her smile stayed, but it took an effort. “As often as I’ve seen the two of you green with morning sickness, I’ll have to take it under consideration. For a long while,” she managed lightly.

  The other two laughed, as she’d expected, then began discussing diaper choices and the absurdity of newborn clothing sizes. Jaimie cared for both women. She loved Maggie like a sister. But she felt like she was stifling in this room. She certainly couldn’t tell these two women that she felt like she was suffocating with envy.

  She pulled open the door. “I need to take care of some things at the big house,” she explained, cringing inside at the huskiness in her voice. “I’ll see you later.”

  Before they could comment, she’d closed the door behind her and hurried along the gravel road. She paused along the way, watching the cattle several hundred yards out. There were dozens of calves now. But as she watched, she felt certain that she recognized that little one that Matthew had saved.

  Bittersweet longing settled inside her soul.

  Then, as if she’d conjured him out of her thoughts, she turned to find Matthew watching her from the yawning entrance of the horse barn.

  Her breath hitched in her throat. She couldn’t tear her eyes from him no matter how much she tried. Finally, he settled his hat and started for her. Nerves twisted inside her chest. My God, how she loved this man. This man who was so good and kind and honest... who would love a woman until the earth stopped spinning once he finally decided to give his heart. If only it could be to her. If she could change her “city” roots, she would. If she could be more sensible—tougher—whatever it was that Matthew considered necessary to survive the ranching life. If she could, she would.

  But she was still only Jaimie Greene. A city girl whose smart mouth usually landed her in trouble.

  His boots crunched across the gravel and he stopped several feet away, propping his hands on his hips. His arctic gaze pinned her in place. Not that she could move, anyway, considering the way her feet seemed to have taken root. Then he shrugged out of the down vest he wore and tossed it at her.

  She caught it automatically.

  “I don’t need you getting sick again,” he said curtly. Then he wheeled around and headed back to the barn.

  When he was out of sight, she pressed her face against the slick vest. It smelled of him. She pulled it on, hugging the softness to her, not because she was cold, but because she fancied that it still held the warmth of his body.

  Her boots carried her to the big house, a
nd she took out the mop to clean the mudroom floor. Not until Daniel came inside more than two hours later and asked if she was cold did she take off Matthew’s vest and hang it on the peg inside his office.

  Matthew barely touched his dinner that night, and Squire demanded to know what was eating at him. He just stared at his father. “Nothing,” he snapped.

  Squire snorted. “Then how come that lemon meringue pie is sitting there without a single bite outta it?”

  “Back off, Squire. If you want the pie, then eat it yourself.”

  Unfazed, Squire reached for a second piece. “Think I’ll do just that No point in staring at something you want and not reaching for it when it’s right in front of your face.”

  Matthew dragged his attention in place. “What are you going on about?”

  Squire’s fork sank through the golden-tinted meringue. He shrugged, then lifted the bite. “Nothing.”

  His father’s eyes met his, but Matthew didn’t buy the unconcerned expression for a second. “Spit it out,” he finally said. “You’ve been aching to say something for the past several days. So...say it.”

  “I don’t need to say nothing that you don’t already know,” Squire said.

  Matthew shoved back his untouched plate, impatient. “I don’t need this from you right now.”

  “Well, son, what do you need?”

  I need to sleep without dreaming about green eyes and auburn hair trailing over my chest. I need to sleep without seeing my mother bleeding to death before my eyes. “Nothing. Not one damn thing.” His chair screeched as he scooted back and stomped from the kitchen.

  He unhooked a coat—not his favorite sheepskin one, for it had been ruined beyond repair from his dunking in the creek—and slammed out into the cold, clear night.

  He had no destination in mind. He just needed air. And peace from Squire’s unsubtle jabs. Shoving his fingers in his front pockets, he strode through the night. Then abruptly stopped, when he realized his steps were carrying him to Maggie and Joe’s place. The drapes weren’t drawn across the big picture window at the front of the cottage, and he could see easily into the lamp-lit interior. Could see Maggie sitting on the couch, rocking little J.D.