Cheyenne Bride

by Laurie Paige

  “Right.”

  He flicked her a sharp glance. “That’s ninety-eight horses. We’ll be working sixty hours each of the next two weeks.”

  “Or more.”

  “Or more,” he agreed. “You don’t seem displeased.”

  She grinned. “I’ll love it.”

  “Huh. This won’t be a picnic.”

  He mounted one of the geldings and let himself out the gate into the paddock where a small bunch of cows and calves milled about, uneasy at being removed from the herd.

  Leanne climbed on the gelding she was to test. First she opened and closed the gate from horseback, which depended on the animal knowing what the rider wanted and doing his part by standing close to the gate, walking through as it swung open, then moving into position so the rider could refasten it. Then she put the cutting horse through the rest of its paces—backing it, asking it to spin in place and checking its response to rein and knee pressure as well as body position. She pretended to fall and hung off the side. The horse stopped and stood quietly until she was firmly back in the saddle.

  She and Cade each cut a cow-calf pair from the rest and had their mounts hold them for a full minute before letting them return to the herd. They lassoed and tied yearlings while the horses kept the rope taut. After an hour, they left the animals ground-hitched while they saddled up the next pair, then they consulted.

  “Seasoned,” she told him of the gelding she’d ridden. “Sweet.”

  “Same here.”

  He moved the two mounts to one of the arena pastures, then swung up on the next one. They repeated the whole procedure. They spent five hours in the saddle, then headed toward the bunkhouse for lunch. Rand met her on the way.

  “Suzanne set a place for you at our house,” he said. He cast a glare in Cade’s direction. “He’s invited, too.”

  “Good,” Cade said. “I go where my wife goes.”

  She felt his heat at her back and knew he’d stepped close as soon as her brother appeared. “We’ll be right there,” she promised. “We’ll, uh, wash up first.”

  Rand hesitated, then walked off.

  Cade took her arm and headed for the main house. “Say whatever’s on your mind.”

  “Don’t quarrel with my brother,” she requested, giving him a beseeching glance. “Or Bill. No matter what they say.”

  “That’s a tall order.”

  “They’re probably going to ask you some questions. Rand may want to know how you plan to support me or something equally obnoxious. Bill might tell you to treat me right or else. They’ve been looking after me all my life.”

  “Yeah, men tend to take care of their own.”

  His tone was so repressive she didn’t continue the discussion, but she found herself avidly curious about him. She wondered about the people he loved, those he considered his “own.” She wondered how it would feel to be loved by this man.

  “Cade, did you love the woman who left you at the altar very much?” she asked as they stepped on the verandah.

  He gave her an oblique glance. “What brought that on?”

  She stopped and gazed at the hills as she thought. “I don’t know. It’s just…sometimes I’m not sure I know what love means. I don’t understand relationships. The male-female thing.”

  “Who does?” He held the door open for her to precede him into his room. When he tossed his hat onto a bed post, so did she. They went into the bathroom. Cade took one sink and she took the other.

  “Is it merely a physical attraction that we glorify by calling it love and making it a grand thing, eulogized in song and poem and story? Or is it the sweet yearning of the soul for its mate?” She stared at him through their reflected images in the mirror. “What do you think?”

  He gave his usual sardonic smile. “I think we’re wasting time. Your brother is expecting us. If we don’t arrive soon, he and his sidekick will probably come looking. We wouldn’t want either of them to think we’re indulging in matrimonial pleasures, would we?”

  Turning on the water, he splashed his face, then lathered it. Fascinated, she watched as an intense yearning grew inside her. She wanted his kisses, his gentle but exciting touch, his soft murmuring in her ear. She wanted the full taste of pleasure she instinctively knew would be hers if they made love. She wanted him.

  A hot blush speared through her whole body. “Love can’t be simply an attraction between the sexes, can it?”

  He rinsed his face, then looked at her in the mirror, his eyes questioning. “What is it you want to know?”

  Water beaded on his tanned skin. It ran down the twin lines beside his mouth and dripped off his chin. She suppressed an urge to snuggle into his arms and catch the drops with her tongue. She wanted desperately to kiss him.

  “I don’t know,” she murmured, looking down as tears burned behind her eyes. She bent and wet her face. When she reached out, he put the soap in her hand.

  They washed up quickly, sharing the single bar of soap without words. He tossed her a towel, then dried his face and hands on a matching one.

  “I think love is composed of many parts,” he told her, neatly hanging up the towel. “First comes the sexual attraction. That’s what brings people together so they can get to know each other. They learn to trust each other by sharing things—”

  “What things?”

  He flicked her a sideways glance that left her steaming with desire, then he grinned. “Laughter. Their deepest thoughts. Their worries. Their hopes and dreams. If there’s a significant level of mutual interest, then they commit to each other.”

  “By having sex?”

  “Making love is one way. By standing up in front of their friends and family and making it known that they plan to build a life together is another.”

  “Marriage.”

  “Yes, marriage.”

  “Bill and I shared all those things, but I still didn’t want to marry him. Do you think something is wrong with me? Maybe I’m incapable of committing to the long term, the way a lot of men are supposed to be.”

  “Men commit when it’s the right woman, the right time and the right circumstances. When those three come together, so will you.”

  Her heart bucked and plunged as he explained his idea of love and marriage. She wanted all that he described. However, she didn’t think those things would ever come together for her. She pushed the thought aside and tried for a lighter note as they left his quarters. “Thanks, doc. How much do you charge for advice?”

  “Nada. For you, it’s free.”

  He was back to his sardonic mode. She liked his wry sense of humor, she realized. It went with his Gilas drawl and laid-back manner.

  As they crossed the road and walked the short distance to the foreman’s house, Cade spoke again, this time in answer to her earlier worry. “I promise I won’t sock either of them, no matter what questions they ask or remarks they make.”

  “Thank you.” She sighed in relief at his vow. “I’m not going to say anything hateful, either. No matter what Rand says.”

  “Famous last words,” he murmured.

  They glanced at each other as they climbed the two steps onto the porch leading into the kitchen and smiled in total understanding. Leanne knocked to be polite, then led the way inside.

  Mack held his crying nephew while Suzanne, looking harried, dished up the noon meal. “Hi, come on in. Dinner in two shakes,” she told them.

  Leanne noticed that a roast held pride of place on the table and filled the room with a delicious aroma. She realized she was starved. “Here, let me help. What do you want me to do?”

  Suzanne gave her a grateful smile. “Take the corn sticks out of the oven before they burn.”

  “Sure thing. Mack, why don’t you and Joey take Cade into the living room? I hear the TV. Rand and Bill must be catching the weather report.”

  Cade followed Mack and the baby out of the kitchen. Leanne put on an oven mitt and rescued the corn sticks. After dumping them into the napkin-lined basket on the
counter, she stirred the creamed corn, then tasted it, keeping an ear tuned to the living room in case trouble erupted.

  Not that she expected any, but it didn’t hurt to be alert, as her father used to say.

  “This is done,” she told Suzanne, getting a bowl from the cabinet. “This one okay?”

  “Yes.” Suzanne tore salad greens into bite-size pieces. She gave Leanne a thoughtful appraisal.

  “Have I got egg on my face or something?”

  Suzanne’s mouth tilted up at the corners. “Rand is having a hard time thinking of his little sister as a married woman.” She laughed softly. “I think this is going to be a good experience for him.”

  “How so?”

  “Everyone has to learn to let go of the ones they love. I’d like him to get the lesson down pat before Joey gets to the rebellious stage and strikes out on his own.” She poured dressing on the salad and began tossing it.

  Leanne set the big oak table. They worked comfortably with each other as they put the food out.

  “It’s nice having another female here,” Suzanne commented as they finished. “There’re so few of us. Until Gina came, it was only me. People think the ranch is cursed. Families don’t want to stay. Do you think you and Cade will live here?”

  Leanne didn’t quite know what to say. Dismissing a lie, she spoke from the heart. “I would love it, but I don’t know exactly what our plans are.”

  Suzanne surveyed the table. “I think that’s it. Dinner,” she called through to the living room.

  Leanne waited nervously for the men to enter. She heard the TV go off, then the collective footsteps as the four men trooped into the kitchen. Rand carried his son.

  After strapping Joey into a high chair, Rand gestured for Cade to take a seat on one side of the table and Bill to sit on the other. Mack took the chair next to Bill. That left the one beside Cade open.

  Instead of sitting as the other men did, Cade waited until Leanne set the bread basket on the table, then held the chair for her. Prickles skimmed up and down her neck as she accepted the place next to her pretend husband. His light touch on her nape was reassuring.

  Glancing up, she met Bill’s hard gaze. He, too, had seen the subtle caress. She felt his anger and sensed his frustration. An apology stuck on the tip of her tongue. She didn’t know what to say to him.

  “I noticed the clouds gathering over the mountains,” Suzanne said into the uneasy silence after they were all seated. “Are we in for another storm today?”

  “Tonight, most likely, and tomorrow,” Rand said.

  The talk stayed generally on the weather and ranching problems. Near the end of the meal, Rand cleared his throat and looked directly at Cade. “You planning on living here at the ranch?”

  “Assuming Garrett is able to buy the place, yes.”

  “Wayne and Sterling have filled me in on that,” Rand said, nodding.

  Leanne had met Wayne but before she could ask about the other man, Bill spoke up. “Who are they?” he asked, interest springing into his eyes.

  “Wayne Kincaid is one of the trustees for Jennifer McCallum, along with Jenny’s adoptive father, Sterling McCallum,” Rand explained. He went on to outline the complicated connections to the Kincaid ranch. “Jenny is six, the youngest—as far as anyone knows—of old Jeremiah Kincaid’s illegitimate kids.”

  He paused as if realizing that Cade was also a Kincaid bastard—Larry’s. Leanne tensed. If Rand or Bill made any remarks about Cade and his birth, she wasn’t sure Cade could uphold his promise. Luckily her brother stuck to ranch history.

  “She inherited the ranch after Lexine Baxter killed off her father-in-law and her husband. Dugin Kincaid was the only known legitimate heir at that time. Wayne was thought to be dead, killed in Vietnam. He came back to Whitehorn a few years ago.”

  Suzanne smiled at her husband. “Thank goodness that terrible Lexine didn’t decide you might know too much and have to be disposed of, too.”

  Rand met his wife’s gaze. His face softened into a smile that first appeared in his eyes. Leanne felt their love as a tangible thing.

  Cade was right. It was more than sex. But how did a person know for sure it was love?

  She covertly studied Bill, then Cade. When she thought of her longtime friend, she definitely felt warmth. He had helped her through some rough patches in her life.

  Affection? Yes, definitely. Love? Sort of. But not the kind that led to marriage.

  The certainty stole over her. She had been right to tell him they shouldn’t marry. It would never have worked. She didn’t love him the way Rand and Suzanne loved each other. She didn’t yearn for him or miss him when he wasn’t around. She didn’t think of him very often.

  Her eyes were drawn irresistibly to Cade. His dark eyes, sprinkled with green and lined with gold, gazed back at her. Neither spoke, but the tension was there, the pull of man to woman, woman to man.

  Their voices dwindled into the background as the conversation centered on the Baxter woman dressing in an assortment of Indian ceremonial clothes and scaring the stuffing out of old Homer Gilmore, a prospector who had thought aliens had landed, and any others who ventured into the woods where she was searching for some fabled sapphire mine.

  “Dessert,” Suzanne said.

  Leanne was plummeted back to reality as her sister-in-law placed slices of homemade chocolate pie in front of her and Cade. “This looks delicious.”

  “She’s the best cook this side of the Mississippi,” Rand declared.

  Leanne smiled at the pride he took in his wife. Her big brother surprised her in many ways as a married man. He was more thoughtful and considerate than he used to be. Maybe there was something to the myth about love taming the savage beast.

  She looked at Cade and wondered if she wanted him tamed. Wild was so exciting…

  Ever aware of his pretend wife, Cade glanced at her in time see a grin flit over her face before she suppressed a laugh.

  What amused her about murder and Indian curses and all the rest of the baggage that went with the Kincaid name?

  His host brought the conversation back to the topic evidently very much on his mind. “What if the sale doesn’t go through and Garrett Kincaid changes his mind about buying the ranch for all his grandsons? What will you do about Leanne in that case?”

  The question brought his hackles up. “I’d expect my wife to go wherever I do. I’d expect her to work along with me so that maybe we could buy a spread of our own one day.”

  Rand and his friend Bill looked patently displeased with his reply. Cade mentally shrugged. They didn’t particularly please him, either.

  “No wonder you and Leanne fell immediately in love,” Suzanne put in, delight in her smile. “You both have the same dreams. That’s wonderful.”

  Cade relaxed at the open approval from Leanne’s sister-in-law. At least there was one person at the table who might be on his side. He cast a sideways glance at Leanne. He wasn’t sure where his “wife” stood on the subject.

  She’d appeared startled by Suzanne’s words. Now she looked somewhat introspective but pleased. He couldn’t decide what this meant. If anything.

  Bah. Who knew what women were thinking? They were as unpredictable as the wind off the Crazy Mountains.

  They finished dessert with only some minor skirmishes. Cade answered all of Rand’s questions evasively, but remained pleasant in spite of the ex-fiancé’s scowl, which grew fiercer as the conversation wore on. At last he and Leanne could leave with the excuse of work to be done before the storm moved in.

  “You handled that very well,” Leanne complimented him, giving his arm a squeeze as they headed for the paddock.

  It was an odd sort of pleasure, almost an ache, that settled inside Cade. He didn’t know exactly what that feeling meant, but he knew it was worrisome.

  Leanne coaxed the mare through the door of the arena. “Good girl,” she crooned, rubbing the animal’s neck.

  With the storm fast approaching, Cade had deci
ded to move into the building and keep working. That suited her. Dealing with the horses left her little time for thinking about Cade and the situation they were in.

  She had the horse back up, pivot, spring forward, cut a cow from a group and hold it. The mare did the work, but not willingly. She grabbed at the bit and frequently shook her head. Leanne marked her down as “seasoned but temperamental” and released her in the designated paddock. Before she could exit the gate, the mare reached out and bit her on the shoulder.

  Surprised, Leanne emitted a yelp of pain. She gave a hard downward yank on the mare’s head to let her know this was not acceptable behavior, then exited.

  “Leanne! Are you okay?” Bill rushed up to her.

  She managed a faint smile. “Well, for someone just bitten by a cantankerous horse, I’m fine.” She headed for the tack room in the stable.

  “How bad is it?” he asked, trailing along with her. “We’d better check it out.”

  She lifted her shirt away from her shoulder and peered at the wound. Teeth marks curved in an interesting pattern of red over her skin, which wasn’t broken. Bruises were starting to form. “It’s nothing.”

  “Nothing,” Bill scoffed. “You could have been seriously injured. Where’s the liniment?”

  “In that cabinet.” She pointed with her chin while she gingerly checked the soreness of her shoulder muscles and felt her collarbone.

  “Can you move your arm and shoulder? You could have a broken collarbone.” Bill found a bottle of horse liniment in a cabinet.

  “I think it’s okay.” She felt a little shaky. Her shoulder hurt worse than she wanted him to know.

  “Take your shirt off. I’ll rub this in.”

  Once she would have followed his orders without a thought to propriety or modesty, but now she found herself reluctant to expose even her shoulder. “I can take care of it,” she told him.

  “Don’t be stupid. I want to check that bite out.”

  “No,” she said firmly. “I’ll handle it. I’m not a child.”

  He glared at her, impatience in every line of his body. “Then stop acting like one.”