Deciding she was probably right, he reached for the phone and immediately spotted Quint’s number illuminated on the ID. “I’m here,” he answered. “What is it?”
“Where the hell is ‘here’?” Quint demanded. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the past hour!”
Laramie didn’t let the other man’s ire get to him. He’d learned long ago that Quint was wired to a different gear than Laramie moved in. Whereas Quint grew hot and bothered in the flash of an eye, Laramie normally remained cool and steady.
“I had something personal to do. I turned off my phone for a while.”
A stretch of silence passed and Laramie figured his explanation had taken the other man aback. It wasn’t often that he took time away from the ranch for “personal” reasons. And no one was more aware of that than Quint.
“Oh. Well, I’m here at the Chaparral waiting on you. I’ve got to drive up to the Pine Ridge ranch and try to smooth his hackles. I need you to go with me. You can talk to the bastard more sensibly than I can.”
“Yeah, you probably should take me. Otherwise you might wind up in jail on assault charges.”
Quint chuckled, then after a pause said, “Sorry for barking at you. I’ve had a lot on my plate here lately.”
“Forget it. I know your plate is overloaded right now. Bark all you want. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“You can find me at the vet barn.”
After punching the end button on the phone, Laramie tossed the instrument into an open storage cavity on the console. As he pushed down the accelerator and sent the truck speeding on down the dirt road, Leyla asked guardedly, “Is someone in trouble? You mentioned something about jail.”
He shot her a patient grin. “That was a joke. The trouble isn’t that bad. At least I don’t think it is.”
“I hope not,” she said with concern.
He let out a heavy sigh. Before Leyla came into his life, he never resented the interference of his work. But she was changing him, making him realize he needed more than keeping a crew of ranch hands busy and a few thousand cattle healthy.
“One of these days we’re going to find out who’s responsible for all this sabotage,” he said flatly. “And then there’s going to be some hell to pay.”
From the corner of his eye he saw her frown. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything about the problem, he thought. But if he ever expected her to understand his life, she needed to know everything it entailed. And right now some of it wasn’t pretty.
“Do you ever worry that these incidents—or whatever you call them—might turn into something more dangerous?”
“To tell you the truth, Leyla, I almost expect it. Anybody who can poison a baby calf is a very disturbed person. So far he’s gotten away with this stuff. That’s going to make him bolder. But I look at it this way—in the end evil always destroys itself.”
“That’s true,” she agreed. “But what happens in the meantime?”
The uncertain look on her face had him reaching over and squeezing her hand. “I don’t want you to worry, Leyla. Not about anything. Especially about me or you. Or us.”
She cast him a doubtful look. “Is there really an us, Laramie?”
“As far as I’m concerned there is.”
She shook her head, then looked away from him. “I should have never went to bed with you,” she said softly.
His boot unconsciously eased off the accelerator, making the truck slow to a crawl. “Why are you saying that?” he demanded. “You just told me you didn’t regret it!”
“I know. And I don’t. But I—” Her head twisted back around and she stared at him, her eyes full of anguish. “I didn’t expect it would suddenly have you thinking of us as a couple!”
Frustration very nearly had him steering the truck to the side of the road. He wanted like hell to pull her into his arms and tell her all the things he was feeling, all the things he was dreaming and hoping for the three of them. But he couldn’t stop now. Quint was waiting.
“We’re going to talk this out, Leyla,” he said firmly. “But not now. After Quint and I get back from the Pine Ridge ranch.”
*
Fifteen minutes later, they reached the Chaparral ranch house and Laramie dropped Leyla off at the backyard gate. When she entered the ranch house, the kitchen was empty, so she headed straight to her apartment. There she found Sassy watching television and Dillon sound asleep on the carpet.
Hearing the door open and close, Sassy looked over her shoulder as Leyla entered the room. “There you are,” the maid said. “I was beginning to think you and Laramie had left the country.”
Leyla could feel her cheeks warming with color. “We stayed out a little longer than we’d planned. I hope you haven’t been in a big hurry to leave.”
Batting a hand through the air, Sassy said, “Not at all. I love being with Dillon and there’s nothing waiting on me at my place in town.”
“Thanks,” Leyla told her. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
Sassy chuckled. “Just getting to eat your pies and cakes are enough payment.”
Leyla inclined her head toward Dillon. Has he been asleep for very long?”
“About five minutes. I started to move him to the couch, but he looked so comfortable I hated to disturb him.”
“That’s fine. He likes to sleep on the floor.” She glanced at the small toys scattered around her son. “Did he give you any problems?”
Sassy’s smile was full of affection. “Not even one. We had fun playing ranch. Dillon wanted to be the boss. Like Laramie.”
No matter where she went or what she did, she couldn’t get away from the man. And to make matters worse, she didn’t want to. Walking over to the couch, Leyla took a seat on an end cushion. “I’m not surprised.”
“He talks about the man constantly. Have you noticed?”
Dillon talked about Laramie just as much as Leyla thought about him. And now, God help her, she’d fallen in love with him. She’d given him her body as though she were planning on being with him until the end of time.
What had she been thinking? He’d never said anything about love or marriage or forever. But he had implied he wanted her to stay on the ranch. And she instinctively knew he didn’t want her to hang around just to have a torrid affair. He wasn’t that sort of man. But even if he proposed marriage to her, how could she accept? The ranch was several miles of rough traveling just to get to a two-year college in Ruidoso. To become an RN, she’d have to travel far away to another city. There was also her aunt to consider. The woman was soon going to need a home and someone to care for her. How could she expect a man who’d been a bachelor for all these years to suddenly deal with all these family issues at once?
“I’ve noticed,” she replied to the maid’s remark.
Sassy aimed the remote at the television. Once it went quiet, she turned a sly grin on Leyla.
“I won’t ask where you two went. But I will ask if you had a nice time.”
Warmth filled Leyla’s cheeks. Nice? The time she and Laramie had spent on that old iron post bed could hardly be called nice. Wild and incredible would be a better description.
“Yes. It was nice.” Trying to appear as casual as possible, she tucked her legs beneath her and smoothed a hand over her skirt. Thankfully, before they’d left the little house she’d taken the time to redo her hair and makeup. She was confident that outwardly she looked the same. It was her insides that were different. She felt as if they’d been shaken to pieces, then shaped into something she didn’t recognize. In a matter of a few short hours she’d learned so much about Laramie and about herself. Yet there was still so much she didn’t know. And doubts about the future refused to leave her mind. “He wanted to show me a piece of property.”
Sassy’s frown was almost comical. “In the middle of the afternoon? With all that’s been going on around this ranch, it must have been damned important. Quint stopped by the house a little earlier looking for him. He seemed pretty
stressed about something.”
Why had Laramie suddenly made an issue of taking her to see the place Diego had willed him?
He’d wanted you to learn about the uncertainty surrounding his birth and how he’d come to live in the little stucco. And most of all he wanted to make it clear that the Chaparral was his home now. A home he’d never leave.
Forcing herself to focus on Sassy’s remark, she said, “He and Laramie are headed up to the Pine Ridge ranch. I think it’s something to do about the cattle that strayed onto Pickens’s land.”
Sassy grimaced. “Hmm. Well, most neighboring ranchers are pretty understanding when that sort of thing happens, but from what I understand Pickens is a hothead.”
Suddenly Laramie’s remark about jail and assault charges made more sense. He and Quint must be expecting trouble out of their neighbor to the north. The notion sent a shiver down her spine. If anything happened to Laramie, it would tear her right in two and Dillon would be devastated. Her son wouldn’t understand. Just like he hadn’t understood when Laramie had been gone from the ranch for days during spring roundup.
Another thought suddenly struck her and she shot the maid a curious look. “Sassy, how do you know these things that go on around here? Are you dating one of the ranch hands?”
Sassy wrinkled her nose. “None on a steady basis. Like I told you, the one I want doesn’t know I exist.”
Leyla perceptively studied the other woman. “Are you talking about Laramie?”
Tilting back her head, Sassy let out a generous laugh. “There’s no need for you to get jealous. Laramie is certainly a hunk of eye candy. But he’s way too quiet and intense for my taste. I want a man who can make me laugh. Make me feel good and forget about my troubles.”
Funny that the other woman should say that, Leyla thought. Laramie didn’t just make her forget her troubles; he made her forget everything.
“Oh, by the way,” Sassy continued. “Reena called while you were out. She said Jim is getting his cast off one day next week.”
Even though the temperature in the apartment was pleasant, Leyla suddenly felt chilled and she unconsciously hugged her bare arms to her waist. Next week! When Quint had talked to her about taking this job, he’d told her to plan for at least two months of work. In the back of her mind, she’d been thinking that no matter what happened in the future, she still had a few weeks left to be with Laramie. Now it looked as though that time might be cut short.
The disappointment Leyla was feeling must have shown on her face because Sassy quickly continued, “I wouldn’t expect Reena to be coming back anytime soon, though. She said the doctor had ordered more X-rays to make sure everything was mended, and then Jim would need therapy.”
Even so, it was clear that Jim was on the road to recovery. Reena would be returning in the not-too-distant future. When that happened, Leyla would no longer be needed. She’d come here knowing the circumstances of the job. Just because she’d fallen in love with Laramie didn’t alter the situation.
Sighing, she rose to her feet and started gathering up the toys that Dillon had strewn around the room. “Well, I took this job with the understanding that it was temporary. The manager of the Blue Mesa promised to keep a slot open for me whenever I finished here.” Clutching the toys to her aching chest, she glanced at Sassy and did her best to smile. “Everything will be fine. I’ll just be leaving sooner than I expected.”
Sassy appeared to be as disappointed over the news as Leyla felt. “You’ll have to go back to that leaky house with broken plumbing. Have you started searching for a new rental yet?”
“No. I’ve been wondering if it would make more financial sense to have Aunt Oneida’s house repaired. With a little luck I might get a loan for the improvements. Making those payments couldn’t be any worse than doling out rent. And that way when my aunt leaves the nursing home, she’ll get to return to her own home.”
Shaking her head, Sassy rose to her feet. “Sounds nice for your aunt. But Leyla, how can you support the three of you on a waitress’s salary?”
Leyla wasn’t the type to stick her head in the sand and pretend she had everything under control. But she wasn’t going to let the problems crush her fighting spirit, either.
Smiling, she answered, “I’ll manage somehow.”
As Sassy helped her collect the last of the toys from the floor, she asked, “What about Dillon?”
Casting a cautious look at her friend, Leyla dropped an armful of plastic animals into a wooden toy box. “What about him?”
Joining her at the toy box, Sassy tossed in the last of the toys. “From what I can tell he’s grown really attached to Laramie. And he loves it here.”
Leyla bit back a sigh. “That fact goes through my mind all the time, Sassy.”
The maid shot her a look that was both awkward and annoyed. “Well, don’t you ever think that your son needs a daddy?”
Frowning, Leyla moved around the other woman and started toward the door that led out of the apartment. “I’m going to the kitchen. I need something to drink,” she muttered.
Sassy followed quickly on her heels and as they entered the quiet kitchen, the maid said, “Look, Leyla, I’m not trying to stick my nose in your personal affairs, but I just don’t get you. Or maybe I’m wrong in thinking you’re falling for Laramie.”
Leyla whirled around to stare at Sassy. Since she’d come to the Chaparral, she’d grown close to this bubbly, red-haired woman. But she’d certainly never talked about her personal feelings about Laramie to her. How had the woman guessed? Was she wearing the fact on her face? Oh, Lord, maybe Sassy could tell she’d spent part of the afternoon making passionate love to the ranch foreman.
“Falling for Laramie? I’ve only been here three weeks!” She walked toward the coffeemaker.
“If you’re looking at the right man, you’ll know it in three hours or three days. It sure as heck shouldn’t take three weeks!”
Leyla fitted the coffeemaker with a filter and grounds. “I’m not you, Sassy. Besides, I’m not looking to have a long-term relationship with Laramie. He’s—”
“Crazy about you!”
Not daring to look at Sassy, Leyla added water to the machine and flipped on the switch. He’d certainly made love to her like he’d meant it. But that had been physical, she mentally argued.
“You couldn’t know that. You’ve never even seen the two of us in the same room together,” Leyla shot back at her, then sighed. “Sorry, Sassy. I didn’t mean to sound short.”
“And I don’t mean to pry. I just want you and little Dillon to be happy, that’s all. And if Laramie is offering you a place in his life, then what could be better?”
Keeping her back to her friend, she swallowed hard. “He’s not offering me a place in his life, Sassy. So quit dreaming. I did a long time ago.”
But Leyla couldn’t quit hoping. She had to believe that this time in her life she would make the right choices for her and Dillon. Even if those choices broke her heart.
Chapter Eleven
When Laramie finally finished dealing with Quint and their irate neighbor, he still had to make sure the ranch hands had all the fences intact and every stray animal back where it should be. By the time he returned to the ranch house, the hour was growing late.
Inside the kitchen the smells of cooked food still lingered, but he didn’t stop to satisfy his empty stomach. Leyla was on his mind and he wouldn’t get a wink of sleep if he didn’t see her tonight.
To his relief, he could see a shaft of light beneath her door and she answered his knock fairly quickly. The sight of her standing on the other side of the threshold, her petite curves wrapped in a plain cotton robe, was a feast to his eyes.
“May I come in?” he asked.
“Of course.” She pushed the door wider and he stepped inside the quiet little living room. “Did you find your supper?”
“I didn’t bother to look,” he admitted, then glanced past her shoulder at the quiet room. “Is Dillon alre
ady in bed?”
She nodded. “I never allow him to stay up this late. Why do you ask? Did you want to see him?”
Shaking his head, Laramie reached and pulled her into the circle of his arms. Once the front of her body was crushed up against his, he answered her question. “No. I wanted to see you. That’s all I’ve been thinking about.”
“It was getting so late I didn’t think I’d see you tonight,” she admitted. “Did everything go okay with Pickens?”
“I don’t want to talk about that now.” His hands roamed her back, his fingers playing with her loose black hair. It was coarse and straight and shiny enough to have been spun with sunshine. He lifted a stand to his nose and breathed in the delicate scent. “In fact, I don’t want to talk at all.”
“Laramie, you said—”
“I plan on saying a lot of things—just give me time,” he murmured, his mouth descending toward hers.
For a split second he thought she might want to argue that point, but then her eyelids drifted downward and her lips parted in anticipation.
Groaning with utter pleasure, Laramie closed the fraction of distance between their lips. The contact was an explosion, nearly rocking him back on his heels, and when her fingers thrust into his hair, he knew she was feeling the same incredible hunger.
Just touching her like this aroused him, filled him with a desperate ache to be inside her. He’d never had anything affect him so swiftly or deeply and the realization stunned him, frightened him with its intensity.
Tearing his mouth from hers, he whispered against her ear. “Do you have another bedroom? Besides the one Dillon is in?”
Nodding, she took him by the hand and led him to the far end of the room where a door opened into a bedroom with a view to the back patio. Through the parted drapes he could see a crescent moon hanging over a jagged edge of mountain and silver light flickered through the boughs of a ponderosa pine.
Leyla released her hold on his hand and walked over to the nightstand to switch on a small lamp. A golden hue suddenly spread over a double bed covered by a patchwork quilt and two pillows encased in lacy shams. Laramie could hardly wait to get Leyla spread out on the smooth covers, to have her warm softness pressed against him.
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