Rough Wrangler, Tender Kisses

by Jill Gregory

  She went directly to the kitchen, where she’d noticed a shotgun was kept propped near the door. It was midafternoon and Francesca was just whisking an apple pie from the oven as Caitlin strode over and picked up the gun.

  “Senorita?”

  The woman’s questioning glance annoyed her. She knew the housekeeper was only surprised to see her taking the gun, but she wasn’t in a mood to answer questions. She was in a mood to ride clear across this gorgeous land, to be alone, to forget all about Wade, and Cloud Ranch and this difficult situation she found herself in. And about the impact Wade’s kisses had had upon her.

  “I’m riding to town, Francesca. Do you need me to leave the shotgun here for you or may I take it?”

  “We have another, under the shelf in the pantry, if it is needed, but, senorita, what do you know about firing such a gun?”

  “It can’t be all that difficult.” Caitlin shrugged and clasped the shotgun at her side as she crossed to the door. “Do you need anything in town?”

  “No. But, Senorita Caitlin, if you’ve never fired a gun, Senor Wade would want you to know how to—”

  “Senor Wade has nothing whatever to say about anything I choose to do.” Caitlin met her gaze squarely. “I don’t need his permission—for anything.”

  Unexpectedly, Francesca grinned, her pretty olive-skinned face lighting. “ Su padre—he could be stubborn too. Obstinado. Senor Wade—now he is a more patient man. But still—”

  “Patient about what?”

  At the deep sound of Wade’s voice, both Caitlin and the housekeeper turned and found him leaning his shoulders against the door leading from the hall, his Stetson low over his eyes.

  “Never mind.” Caitlin gripped the rifle tighter. She spun back toward the kitchen door but his voice stopped her.

  “What are you doing with that?”

  “None of your business.”

  She flung the words over her shoulder and let the door slam behind her without glancing back.

  She heard him coming after her but kept walking—in fact, she walked faster, refusing to look over her shoulder. He caught up to her just outside the barn and stepped in front of her, blocking her path. Caitlin sidestepped, trying to reach the door, but he moved even faster, his powerful body barring the way.

  “Stop this at once and leave me alone,” she ordered.

  “Not a chance. Not until you tell me where you think you’re going with that shotgun.”

  “I’m riding into town, if you must know. I have a letter for my sister—the one waiting patiently for me to return to her in Philadelphia, remember? I’m going to send it to her—if that’s all right with you.”

  “And the shotgun? You sending that to her, too?”

  “I happen to own every bit as much of this ranch as you,” she reminded him coldly, “so I guess I own this shotgun, too. That means I don’t need your permission to borrow it.”

  “But you damn well need to know what you’re doing when you fire it.” He wrenched the gun from her. “I’ll bet you’ve never used a shotgun in your life, have you?”

  “What difference does—”

  “Do you even know if it’s loaded?”

  Loaded? She bit her lip. “I didn’t check . . . yet. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to—”

  “Listen up, you little tenderfoot.” Wade shook his head. “You could get hurt firing this thing without knowing what to expect. It has a kick. You have to hold it a certain way, aim it a certain way—if you want to hit anything near what you’re aiming at.”

  “Fine, then I won’t take the damned shotgun to town with me. Does that satisfy you? Step aside and let me get my horse.”

  “Forget it. I’ll hitch up the wagon and take you to town myself.”

  “The last thing I want is your company!”

  “Why?” He stepped closer. “Afraid?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” She tossed her head. “You overestimate your powers, Mr. Barclay, if you think that being in your company causes me any inkling of fear. I simply don’t wish to be bored to death during the duration of the journey!”

  And with that she tried to march around him into the barn, but with a muttered oath, he caught her around the waist with his free arm. “You’re the most stubborn woman I ever met. I said I’m taking you into town and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  Caitlin tried to pry herself free, just as another voice, a deep, soft, amused voice, emerged from the side of the barn.

  “Reckon I can’t wait another minute to meet the lady who has my big brother all riled up. Reckon I just have to shake her hand.”

  And a man every bit as tall and muscularly built as Wade, with the same black hair but eyes that were dark gray instead of blue, strode up, a grin as wide as Silver Valley upon his handsome face.

  “Where the hell did you come from?” Wade exclaimed, still holding Caitlin about the waist, as he gazed into the amused eyes of his youngest brother.

  Nick Barclay shrugged his big shoulders. “Washed up at the stream. Wanted to look presentable before meeting Reese’s little girl. And I guess, ma’am, that would be you,” he said with a slight, gallant bow.

  Caitlin stared at him, disconcerted not only at Wade’s closeness and the tight way he was holding her—a hold that made her heart beat faster and her pulse quicken— but at the sight of another man who could only be a Barclay.

  “You must be Nick . . . or Clint,” she murmured, and pushed uselessly at Wade’s enclosing arm.

  “Nick Barclay at your service, Miss Summers. Just remember, don’t believe anything my big brother has said about me. Not a word is true. Now, big brother, why are you holding on to that little girl like you’ll never let her go?” Nick Barclay’s voice was soft and serious, but his long-lashed gray eyes crinkled with amusement at the corners.

  Wade released Caitlin. He didn’t even try any longer to hold back the grin that spread across his face as he set the shotgun down and walked forward to shake his brother’s hand.

  The next moment, the Barclay boys were embracing, clapping each other with resounding thumps upon the back.

  Caitlin saw the obvious affection between them. Wade’s tension and anger had disappeared and when he stepped back, he looked relaxed. “How long can you stay?” he asked.

  “Couple of days. Till you fill me in on those rustlers. Then I’ll get started tracking ’em down.” He rubbed his jaw. “Nothing Reese hated more than rustlers.”

  Reese. Always Reese. These Barclay boys had all known him, idolized him, loved him. Well, why not? she asked herself bitterly. He had raised them, been a father to them in this big, comfortable house—the house where she was an outsider, a stranger.

  The familiar pain twisted through her as she turned away.

  “I’ll let you two catch up,” she said quietly and with a cool glance at both of them, she returned to the house. When she told Francesca that Nick had arrived, the woman’s delight sent her spinning into rapid action, preparing food for the guest.

  Caitlin set the table with a white lace cloth and pretty blue and white flowered plates, while Francesca rushed from cupboard to stove to pantry like a woman on fire. By the time Wade and Nick entered the house, Caitlin was setting out coffee cups and slicing wedges of apple pie, and Francesca tore, beaming, out of the kitchen bearing a platter of ham slices, beans thick with molasses and onions, and thick slabs of sourdough bread.

  “Join us,” Nick invited Caitlin when she started toward the stairs. He had the same kind of charisma and air of quiet command as Wade and she somehow couldn’t refuse. She felt Wade’s gaze on her as she slipped into a chair but she didn’t glance at him.

  Nor did she speak much during the late-afternoon repast—mostly she listened to the brothers talk as they heaped food onto their plates. There was an easy camaraderie between them, a warmth she recognized as similar to what she and Becky felt for each other. But they were both men, equals, and for all their good-natured sparring, they both knew it—Becky was o
nly a little girl, Caitlin thought with a pang, someone who needed her big sister to look after her.

  “So, Caitlin,” Nick turned to her, flashing that gorgeous Barclay grin, as she set her coffee cup back onto the saucer. “How do you like Cloud Ranch?”

  “It has its good points, I suppose,” she admitted reluctantly, aware of Wade’s keen gaze upon her.

  “Good points? What might those be?”

  “Well,” Caitlin took a deep breath. “The house is certainly a fine one—large and comfortable. And the land . . . it’s very pretty.”

  “Pretty. That’s all?”

  Her smile turned to a laugh, despite herself. “Well, all right, it’s breathtaking . . . particularly the mountains. And when the sun sets, the sky glows with the most beautiful colors, violet and rose and there’s this stunning gold light which is so luminous and clear . . .”

  She broke off, dismayed by her own enthusiasm, and threw Wade a stricken look. She finished primly, “However, I much prefer the East.”

  “I see.” Nick nodded gravely. His cool glance, so like Wade’s, flicked from his brother to the golden-haired girl Wade had scarcely been able to take his eyes off of.

  “And my big brother? Has he been taking good care of you?” he asked slowly.

  For a moment Caitlin wanted to say that he’d been absolutely abominable to her, but instead she told the truth. “He saved my life,” she admitted, and glanced down at her plate.

  “Doesn’t surprise me. He’s the best man I know of to have around if there’s trouble.”

  “Trouble, unfortunately, is her middle name,” Wade said as he leaned back in his chair.

  Caitlin’s head flew up, her green eyes flashing. “If I’m so much trouble,” she countered sweetly, “then why don’t you make things easy on yourself and buy my share of the ranch so I can go back to Philadelphia?”

  “Reese taught me never to take the easy way out.” He studied her flushed face and vivid eyes a moment, then pushed back his chair. “Come on. You wanted to go into town.”

  “Your brother is here. You’ll want to spend time with him.”

  “Who says?” Wade came around the table toward her chair. “Besides, there’s that letter you wanted to send to your sister.”

  He was gazing at her with that quiet calm, mixed with a kind of gentleness that never failed to touch off a flickering heat inside her. Such a contradictory man. Tough as rawhide, but possessing a tenderness sometimes that couldn’t be concealed.

  No wonder her own feelings were as contradictory as he was.

  She glanced back and forth between him and his brother, who reclined in thoughtful silence in his chair. “It can wait until tomorrow,” she heard herself saying softly as she rose to her feet. “You and Nick must have some catching up to do.”

  She hurried from the dining room before either of them could argue with her.

  When her footsteps had retreated up the stairs, Nick eyed his brother piercingly.

  “So that,” he said slowly, “is Reese’s long-lost daughter.”

  “What of it?” Wade lifted his coffee cup.

  “Damned beautiful woman,” Nick remarked as Wade took a long gulp of the hot liquid.

  “So?”

  “Seems kinda skittish, though. Doesn’t want to stay put—if you’re around.” Nick’s eyes were fixed on Wade’s face.

  Wade shrugged. “You noticed.”

  “I noticed. And I noticed the way you looked at her.”

  “Yeah? Like how?”

  “Like you’d found yourself a mine filled with shimmering gold and you couldn’t wait to get your hands on it. But at the same time, you’re thinking if you touch it, it’ll disappear.”

  Wade said nothing, just stalked to the window and stared out at those mountains Caitlin had admitted she loved.

  “So why were you and she tussling out there by the barn? You’ve usually got a much smoother touch with the ladies, big brother.”

  “Yeah, well, I never met a lady quite like Caitlin Summers.” Wade frowned as he turned back to meet his brother’s eyes.

  “She wants to leave and sell me her share—and I can’t let her. For some reason, Reese wanted her here.”

  Nick nodded. “I know the terms of the will.” There was a brief silence. “So what are you going to do?”

  “Keep tussling with her until she gives up,” Wade growled.

  “Maybe you should think again, big brother. Not that I’m claiming to be more of an expert than you when it comes to women, because hell, I never saw any man who could reel in more pretty women just by saying ‘howdy, ma’am,’ than you—but . . . remember when I said she was skittish?”

  “Yeah?”

  Nick steepled his hands on the table. “She reminds me of those wild horses you’re so good at breaking. Kind of scared and strong all rolled into one, but sweet as maple sugar once they get to trusting you.”

  Wade returned slowly from the window, pausing beside the dining-room table. “She doesn’t like me,” he said.

  “Hell, I say she does.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “Well, then . . .” Nick cocked an eyebrow, and gave his brother a long look. “Neither did any of those wild horses we captured in Hope Canyon that summer a few years back. Not at first. But you managed to tame every single one of ’em.”

  “She’s not a horse, Nick, she’s a woman.”

  “Yeah, I noticed. So have you.”

  “And she broke Reese’s heart.” Wade’s jaw clenched. “You know she did.”

  “I know. She never answered his letters all those years, never would set foot on the ranch. Did you ever ask her why?”

  “No. She told me why she didn’t come out right before he died, and I guess I can understand it, but I never asked her about all those years before.”

  “Maybe you ought to.”

  “Maybe you ought to mind your own business.”

  Nick shrugged. “Reckon you’re right. I didn’t mean to—”

  “She’s exactly the opposite of the kind of woman I always wanted to settle down with someday,” Wade burst out almost desperately as his brother stared at him. Groaning, he raked both hands through his hair. “She stirs me up inside something awful and she’s too damn beautiful and way too feisty and . . . she’s dead set on living in some big city somewhere—and there’s this new schoolteacher— you met her at Reese’s funeral. Luanne Porter.”

  “Pretty lady.” Nick nodded. “And I reckon she’s just what you want?”

  Wade couldn’t answer. He felt his chest constricting as he saw Caitlin’s lovely, high-boned face in his mind, remembered the passionate sweetness of her kiss. He contemplated the sparks that flew between him and Caitlin every time they were in the same room together, every time he came near that gorgeous body and those mesmerizing eyes, or saw that stubborn little uptilted chin of hers.

  “Luanne’s the one I want to want,” he said at last, so quietly and desperately Nick almost didn’t hear.

  His brother regarded him gravely for a moment, then cleared his throat. “Don’t know much about these things,” Nick said. “Thank the good Lord. But it seems to me, and you’d best remember this, big brother, that things don’t usually happen the way we want ’em to. Not much in life goes according to plan—and sure as hell, nothing involving a woman.”

  He clapped a hand on Wade’s shoulder, shuddered in pity for his brother, and strode out to fetch his gear.

  Wade dropped his tall frame onto a chair and closed his eyes.

  “Damn.” The realization that hit him struck him to his very core. Caitlin’s face, voice, and kisses had haunted him for days now—not to mention for nights. Luanne Porter was sweet, pretty, smart, and kind—but to Wade’s way of thinking, she was also tame. Somehow, against his will, against every reasonable, rational intention, the skittish blond beauty with the clearest green eyes he’d ever seen was close to doing something no other woman had ever managed to do—something he’d vowed no woman would e
ver do—if he wasn’t careful, she’d stampede through his life and damn well corral his heart.

  Chapter 14

  The stream beckoned like glistening green silk as Caitlin stripped off her clothes in a sheltered clearing along the bank. Dawg had followed her on her morning ride until she’d circled back toward the water, then he’d shot off in pursuit of a jackrabbit who’d peeped out from some brush. That was fine with her. She was perfectly content to be alone. She was far enough away that she couldn’t see the ranch house and she certainly couldn’t hear any of the commotion going on there.

  Which was exactly the way she wanted it.

  There was only the pale early morning sun, a glimmer of amber in the sky, the peacefulness of the dewy air, and the water that flowed gently in the shade of the cottonwoods.

  She had slept fitfully all night. She had far too much on her mind. Since the first time Wade kissed her, her nights had been haunted. And since the dinner at the Porters’ ranch all efforts for tranquil slumber had been in vain. But it wasn’t only the memory of his kisses that disturbed her sleep—there was also Becky.

  She planned to go to town that afternoon to post her letter to her sister and hoped fervently that there would be a letter awaiting her in turn. Caitlin prayed that the girl was handling her delayed return without too much dismay. And that the teasing, hushed whispers and pitying stares her sister had endured after word of her reduced circumstances leaked out at the school had subsided.

  All these thoughts churning through her mind had kept her tossing and turning. The restlessness drove her out of bed as dawn gilded the sky and the early birds began to sing, and she rode out across the wide grassland, over ridges, along red-rimmed ravines, taking care to note her surroundings even as she lost herself in the fresh beauty of the new day. She spotted antelope on a distant hilltop, and a hawk wheeled overhead. An odd exhilaration came over her at all the wild loveliness that surrounded her. But as the sun rose higher, and her skin grew flushed, her clothes began to feel heavy and uncomfortable and she suddenly thought with longing of the stream.