Lost in Cottonwood Canyon & How to Train a Cowboy--Lost in Cottonwood Canyon

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Graham’s hands looked strong on the smooth leather of the steering wheel as he casually backed out of the parking spot. Emily would have hated to get a scratch on the paint, but he seemed completely oblivious to the fact that his vehicle cost as much as some people’s houses.

  “That doesn’t narrow it down much,” he said. “Three quarters of this parking lot are pickup trucks.”

  “Mine’s red,” she said.

  With a hitch to tow a horse trailer, because, unlike you, I am from around here.

  She told him the make and model, an entry-level truck. She’d bought it from her brother-in-law, a bargain with only seventy thousand well-cared-for miles on it. She’d added another ten thousand miles, driving it to Oklahoma and back at the start and end of every semester, and from her mother’s house to her uncle’s ranch every chance she got—like this weekend. She’d come to spend her last weekend of the winter break back at her uncle’s ranch. She’d be mucking out stalls tomorrow morning. Voluntarily.

  Emily flicked one of her ruffles into place. Yeah, her girly evening was rapidly coming to a close. Being taken care of by a man who was tough and strong had been sexy. Being taken care of by a man who was tough and strong and rich should have been even better, but instead, it only drove home that this was a fantasy with no hope of becoming anything else. He wasn’t from around here. He wasn’t staying around here, and he wanted to drop her off so he could get on his way.

  At Graham’s soft curse, she looked up from her ruffles. The entire front parking lot was flooded by police cars and motorcycles. Her poor truck was one of an entire row stuck behind a fleet of sheriffs’ vehicles. Graham stopped the SUV. She wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.

  She glanced at Graham. His eyes were closed. He rubbed his forehead with the fingers of one hand, disgust written all over his face.

  Her heart had already been sinking. Now it hit bottom. The man did not want to be stuck with her all night long. It hurt, because she would have loved to spend more time with him.

  Her pride rose to deal with the pain. He didn’t want to be stuck with her? Luckily for him, he wasn’t. She wasn’t helpless.

  Say good-night, Jane.

  “Well, thank you again for helping me get out of the bar. And for helping me get over the fence. Helping all of us get over the fence.” As long as she was relying on her own pride, she wanted to point out that the guys had needed boosts, too.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Really sorry. I wasn’t thinking—”

  “Nothing to be sorry for,” she said, imitating his earlier words. She didn’t want to hear the man apologize for not wanting her company. She slipped her fingertips into the top of her left boot and under the edge of her calf-high sock, where she’d stashed the key to her truck. “You travel safely to wherever you’re going. I’m… I’m glad I got to meet you. Thanks again.” She opened the door.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Good night, Graham.”

  “You can’t leave.”

  As if she’d stay now, when he’d wanted nothing more than to put her in her truck so that he could get on to wherever he was going. She slipped off the high seat to land on the ground outside, nice and solid on her own two feet, her smile plastered in place as if her disappointment wasn’t choking her. As she closed her door, she caught a glimpse as Graham threw his gear shift into park and opened his door. He was fast; she’d taken only a step in the direction of her red truck before he rounded the hood of the SUV.

  “Get back in the truck.”

  She almost, almost obeyed that tone of voice, reaching for the door handle before she snatched her hand back. “Did you just give me an order?”

  “You can’t stand out here.” He wasn’t looking at her, but over her, that sharp gaze on the police scene behind her.

  “I’m not going to stand anywhere. I’ll sit in my truck until the police leave. My phone’s in there. My jacket’s in there. I won’t freeze.”

  “It isn’t safe.”

  “I’ll be just fine as can be. No one is going to bother me with this many cops around.”

  He yanked the door open. “Your truck isn’t bulletproof. Let’s go.”

  “Bulletproof?”

  Wow, the poor man really was too much on alert—but then Emily heard the hoarse voice of a cop from behind her, sounding like something from a movie: “Let me see your hands!”

  She whipped around to see cops running from the bar back to their cruisers, opening their doors and crouching behind them as they drew their guns.

  “Put your gun on the ground!” ordered the hoarse cop, who was still standing, his weapon drawn and aimed at the front door of the bar.

  Two hands on her waist yanked her back toward the SUV. Graham practically tossed her into the cab headfirst, then she felt his hand squarely on her rear end, shoving her farther into the cab. “Go. Get behind the wheel.”

  She scrambled over the center console as Graham crowded her, climbing in behind her. She was still twisting around to get her butt in the seat when he slammed the gear shift down to the number one and pointed toward the field beyond the parking lot. “That way.”

  The SUV started rolling forward in first gear. The driver’s seat was set for him, too far back for her to reach the pedals well, so she had to sit on the edge and hang on to the steering wheel to reach the brake. In the passenger seat, Graham ducked his chin to look into the side view mirror, then he turned around to look through the center seats and out the back window.

  She’d just gotten her foot on the brake when she heard the unmistakable sound of a police megaphone. “Come out with your hands up.”

  “Jeez,” she said, and switched to the gas pedal, steering with one hand as she used her other to feel around for the seat controls. The only way out of the parking lot, thanks to the patrol car barricade, was to drive cross-country through the scrub brush. “Your paint job is going to take a beating.”

  “It’ll be just fine as can be.”

  Wait—that was something she’d said. Was he being a smart aleck? She didn’t have time to decide; she was adjusting the driver’s seat with one hand as she steered toward the edge of the parking lot with the other, all while glancing from the view out the windshield down to the unusual drivetrain indicator. “How do you put it in four-wheel drive?”

  “You don’t need to. It’ll adjust to the terrain.”

  “Okay. Hang on.”

  He braced one hand against the roof as they left the parking lot for the fields. They were bounced out of their seats a time or two, but she could feel the vehicle’s drivetrain adjusting, each wheel gripping individually when it got traction as she drove over hardened grooves in the earth, the muddy remains of a creek bed and the sandy soil beyond. She slowed once they’d gone the distance of a football field or so, but Graham gestured for her to keep moving while he kept watch out the back window.

  “Take us all the way out to the highway.”

  She hesitated.

  “Bullets fly more than a hundred yards,” he said.

  “If I remember rightly, we’re going toward a creek that probably isn’t dry.”

  “It’ll wash the dirt off the paint job.”

  Definitely a smart aleck.

  “You might want to fasten your seat belt, then.” She let the SUV roll forward as she pulled her seat belt across her chest and buckled it. “You’re going to find out how good your suspension is the hard way.”

  He looked at her instead of the parking lot scene for a moment, one of his infrequent smiles touching one corner of his mouth. “She’s more than a pretty paint job. She was built for this.”

  “So I’ve heard.” The manufacturer was legendary for getting its start building safari vehicles. Emily put her boot on the gas again, pushing their speed a little more. “If I didn’t fee
l like I was running for my life, I’d be enjoying this.”

  Graham turned around to face front and pulled his seat belt across his chest, too, as she drove on in silence. She couldn’t say he relaxed, but he wasn’t keeping a constant lookout behind them any longer. That had to be a good sign. Her knowledge of bullets was limited to her uncle’s rifles on the ranch. She didn’t know how far a police handgun could fire—and no one knew if the fighters in the club were armed, or with what. But if Graham was less concerned now, then so was she.

  Foolish little Jane, putting all your trust in this man who just swooped in out of nowhere.

  But gosh, he’d done just that. She was so very aware of him, of the size of him, the energy of his body in the close interior. Aware of the smell of his warm skin dominating the vehicle’s cool leather. Of the strength in his arm braced against the ceiling, the same arm he’d braced against the iron-edged bar to protect her when the only thing they’d known about each other had been their names.

  She knew more about him now: how he reacted in an emergency, how he helped strangers without a second thought. How he’d tried not to be too handsy at a school dance, once upon a time, because he’d listened to his mama’s advice, like a young man should.

  She liked everything she knew—except for one thing. He was only with her because the police had given him no choice.

  If it weren’t for that, she’d really be enjoying this.

  Chapter Four

  The creek was low at this time of year, so Emily drove Graham’s SUV through it easily enough. From there, it was just a short distance to the paved road, a two-lane highway that ran from the outskirts of Austin through hundreds of miles of cattle country. Emily headed west, away from the bar, away from Austin. There were no streetlights to cut through the black night, so the lights of another emergency vehicle were bright in the rearview mirror, although the red and blue flashes were at least a mile behind them. She watched in the mirror as the lights dipped below the horizon, adding to the distant glow of the police cars surrounding the bar.

  She whistled low. “Police are still showing up. Do you think there was a shootout? Could you see what was—”

  “No.”

  His answer stopped her short. There was an awkward moment of silence while she wondered why he was so curt.

  “We would have heard it if shots were fired,” he said.

  “That’s good. I hate to think of anyone in uniform getting shot in the line of duty.”

  Graham was silent.

  Emily didn’t mind. “This is a Thursday night that’ll be talked about for a while around here. I’ve never seen that many patrol cars out here. We’re not usually this violent out in the country.”

  “I can believe that. It’s empty out here. It’s as dark as…”

  She stole a peek at him when his sentence trailed off into nothing. There was no trace of a sexy smile, no smart-aleck grin, either. He was in perfect profile, the lines of his forehead, nose, jaw all highlighted by the glow of the dashboard lights. He might as well have been carved from marble for all the expression his face didn’t show.

  “As dark as what?” she asked.

  “As anywhere I’ve ever been,” he finished flatly.

  Emily looked out the windshield at the passing white dashes of the endless center line. She supposed being expressionless wasn’t the worst thing he could be. He could look impatient or irritated with the fact that he was stuck with her when he’d been ready to drop her at her truck and leave. Instead, he just looked stoic. Stoically surviving this additional time with her.

  She felt just as bad as she had in the parking lot. She’d tried to leave him when he’d started saying I’m sorry. It wasn’t her fault he’d thrown her into his SUV when the cops had started ducking for cover.

  She slowed the SUV and made a U-turn in the middle of the empty road. Once they were facing the direction of the bar, she pulled a good car’s length off the road and put the vehicle into park. She left the lights on, so other cars would see them on the shoulder, if another car was actually on this rural road. He didn’t ask her what she was doing.

  She explained, anyway. “We can see the glow of the sheriff’s lights from behind that little rise in the road. When the red and blue cut off, we’ll know the coast is clear.”

  And you can take me back to my pickup and get rid of me at the first possible moment.

  “All right.” He opened his glove box and took out a cell phone, checked the screen, then tossed it to the center console.

  Of course. He probably had someone to check in with, someone from the place he’d just left or the place he was going to. He couldn’t make a call with her sitting right here, staring at him and listening to every word. She’d never felt like such a burden before.

  She hated it. She pretended she didn’t and let go of the steering wheel. “You’ve got a real nice ride here. It was fun to drive, considering the circumstances. But, you know, that whole little episode was pretty intense. Think I’ll walk it off a bit while we wait.”

  “Emily.”

  Jeez, he said her name like her mother would, Emily said in a tone that meant be sensible.

  “No bullet is going to come over that rise and get me.” She unfastened her seat belt.

  “You’ll freeze.”

  “No, I won’t. I’m just going to stretch my legs.” She opened the door.

  “Emily—”

  She dropped down the foot to the gravel shoulder of the road and shut her door. The emergency lights flashed on the horizon. The air temperature hadn’t fallen any further. This was as cold as it was going to get tonight. Not too bad—if she’d had her jacket. She started walking and swung her arms, too. It did feel good to shake off some of the tension.

  She avoided the bright headlights and walked around the back of the vehicle to the other side. Graham’s door opened and the interior lights came on, highlighting the rounded bulk of his shoulder muscles under that navy shirt. He stepped out and slammed the door shut. In the sudden shadows, he handed her a coat.

  Oh, Tarzan. He was still taking care of her when he’d rather be free of her.

  “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.” She held the coat in one hand.

  He leaned his back against the door and crossed his ankles, apparently prepared to relax out in the cold air. “You might as well put it on, if you’re going to walk around while we wait.”

  “But now you’ll be the one freezing without it.” Although the headlights were pointed away from them, they still illuminated her little piece of the night enough that she could see her breath as a mist in the cold.

  He shrugged in the shadows. “I’ll get back in the SUV if I can’t take it. If you feel the need to walk, you wear it.”

  She swirled his coat around her shoulders like a cape, feeling a little bit sheepish. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t need to walk anywhere, for any reason. “I thought—I thought you might want some privacy to make a call.”

  “There’s no cell reception out here.”

  “Oh. Right.” That must have been why he’d tossed his cell phone, not because he couldn’t make a call in her presence. To walk or not walk—which would make her look less dumb?

  He tucked his hands into his front pockets. “Are you scared of me?”

  With his face in shadows, she paid more attention to his tone of voice. He sounded concerned, actually concerned about her, Emily, the girl that the boys didn’t always like because they couldn’t beat her in a roping contest. A man who was concerned about her—it tugged at her heart. It made her weak in the knees. She was scared by how hard she wanted something she hadn’t thought she needed in her life. She didn’t need it; she just liked it. Loved it.

  “When the police drew their weapons, I pushed you into my SUV pretty abruptly,” he said. “Ma
ybe I scared you. I didn’t mean to. If the police needed to take cover, then we did, too.”

  “I’m not scared of you.” That was sort of a lie, but she wasn’t scared of him the way he meant. She kept her chin up and pretended her heart wasn’t pounding just because he was talking to her with concern in his voice.

  “I can imagine a woman might feel uneasy being out in the middle of nowhere with a stranger. I promise you, you’re safe.”

  His hands were still tucked in his front pockets as he leaned against the door. He was being as physically non-threatening as he could be, she realized, putting himself in her shoes and trying to imagine what she might be afraid of. Just—jeez. What a good man. Who knew a man like that could swoop in to her local bar from out of nowhere?

  He was watching her. “I’d never push anything farther than a woman wanted to take it.”

  “Even though you were a handsy prom date?”

  A beat of silence. “Even then, I could take no for an answer.”

  “Because your mama taught you better.”

  “Some things you don’t have to be taught. Of course I wouldn’t hurt a woman I wanted to…touch.” The slightest smile softened his features, but then he slayed her with a casual wink. “I just can’t imagine it would be any fun if she wasn’t having any fun.”

  Well.

  She couldn’t say anything to that. It was amazing she could even stand, because her bones had just turned to mush and she wanted to drop like a ribbon at his feet.

  His voice was a gentle rumble in the night. “I’m trying to figure out why you got out of a warm car to stand in the cold air. Twice, not that I’m counting.”

  “I was trying to give you some space. You didn’t plan on being stuck with me all night.” Her voice sounded sad. She tried to put a little spunk into it. “In my defense, this wasn’t my idea. I can take a hint. I did take the hint, in fact.”

  “What hint was that?”