Wrangling the Redhead

by Sherryl Woods

  When the phone in his cheap motel room rang, he stared at it. “What the hell?” No one knew where he was. No one who mattered, anyway. With the kind of pickup work he was doing these days, he answered to no one. Nobody kept track of his whereabouts.

  His mental dismissal didn’t seem to stop the ringing. It went on and on until he finally yanked up the receiver just to stop the noise.

  “Yeah, what?”

  “Gracious as ever, I see,” Grady Blackhawk said.

  Wade was stunned. He’d deliberately not gotten in touch with Grady because he’d feared the other man would reveal his location to Lauren. Stubborn as she was, she might come after him out of some sense of obligation, and he knew that he didn’t have the strength to resist her if she did. Maybe in a few months he would, but not yet.

  “What the hell do you want?” he asked curtly.

  “I want you to come back.”

  “Not an option,” Wade said.

  “Lauren’s gone.”

  “So what?” he asked, though for some reason his heart ached at the news. She had gone back to Hollywood, after all, just as he’d predicted.

  It didn’t surprise him. That sudden trip she’d taken to Los Angeles had clearly been the handwriting on the wall. The lark was over. Once she was back in the spotlight, evidently she’d decided it suited her better than a ranch in Wyoming.

  “Thought it might make it easier for you to say yes, if you knew that,” Grady said, as if he’d been dangling a tasty carrot in front of Midnight.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Wade lied.

  “Can’t face the memories?” Grady inquired, hitting the nail on the head. “Maybe that should tell you something.”

  “All it tells me is that I made the worst mistake of my life when I thought I’d be enough for her. In fact, she’s probably enjoying herself back in Hollywood now, laughing over her brief romance with a small-town cowboy. It’ll make a great anecdote for her next TV interview.”

  He’d caught one of those interviews on the night he’d first left town. She’d looked so gorgeous, so composed and glamorous, he’d simply stared at the screen, fascinated and sick at heart.

  “Lauren would never demean what the two of you shared that way,” Grady chided. “And if you weren’t being an idiot, you’d know that. She loved you.”

  “Let’s not even go there,” Wade warned. “If I’m even going to consider what you’re asking, we have to agree that the topic of Lauren is off limits.”

  “Fine. Whatever,” Grady retorted. “Just don’t let your damn stubbornness and pride keep you from doing what you know you want to do. I’ve got a job with your name on it. Come back, Wade.”

  Then the sneaky, conniving, son of a bitch added, “The baby’s due soon. We really need all the extra help around here we can get.”

  Wade felt the knot in his stomach ease. He’d been looking forward to the baby’s arrival almost as much as Grady and his grandfather, Thomas Blackhawk, had. The news had been a turning point for Wade. It had kicked off the start of his own dreams for the future.

  “Your grandfather must be over the moon by now. Is he driving you crazy?” he asked.

  “He’s been hovering the last couple of weeks. He thinks the whole thing was all his idea. I might have to fight him to get to be in the delivery room,” Grady confirmed. “So, anyway, you can see that Karen’s going to be out of commission for a while. Help me out.”

  Grady was right, Wade thought. Why shouldn’t he go back if Lauren wasn’t there? She probably wouldn’t show her face until the next class reunion in another eight or nine years, and by then surely his heart would be completely healed. Working for Grady had been the best setup he’d ever had even before Lauren had set foot on the ranch. Why should he sacrifice that just because the fool woman had broken his heart?

  “Will Karen be able to keep her nose out of this? I don’t want her pestering me about Lauren.”

  “She won’t say a word,” Grady promised.

  “I’ll believe that when I see it.” Wade uttered a little sigh of resignation. “I’ll be there as soon as I can get there.” He paused, suddenly thoughtful. “How did you find me, anyway?”

  “Does it matter?” Grady asked, sounding evasive. “All that counts is the fact that you’re coming back where you belong.”

  Yeah, maybe. But it remained to be seen if he could bear being there without Lauren.

  Wade had been back for two weeks now, and aside from enduring speculative looks from both Grady and Karen, it hadn’t been so bad. Images of Lauren only popped into his head every hour or so.

  He’d been stunned to discover that Grady had sold Midnight and their other horses, but he’d explained that the new owner had made him an offer too good to turn down. And without Wade or Lauren there to train the still-fractious stallion, Grady had seen no point in holding out. He’d handed Wade a sizable check for his share and assured him they could start looking for a new stallion and some broodmares whenever Wade was ready.

  “It could be a while,” Wade told him. He just didn’t have the heart for it right now. That dream and marrying Lauren had gotten all twisted up together in his head. It was too soon to consider following through with one without having the other.

  Grady frowned at the response. “Why wait? At least take a ride over to the Grigsby place this morning,” he suggested over breakfast. “There’s a horse over there I’d like you to take a look at. He sounds too good to pass up.”

  “What’s the rush?” Wade asked, regarding him with puzzlement. “You obviously weren’t that anxious to have a horse operation, or you wouldn’t have sold off our stock. You know perfectly well you could have found another wrangler to replace me.”

  “Didn’t see much point to keeping it without you around to manage things. I’ve got enough irons in the fire,” Grady insisted. “Now that you’re back, things are different. Besides, from what I hear, they won’t have that horse long. Somebody’s going to come along and snap it up. You’ll be kicking yourself if it’s not you.”

  “I don’t see why you’re pushing so hard, but I’ll drive over later and check him out,” Wade promised, then glanced curiously at Karen. It had almost sounded as if she’d uttered a sigh of relief. Or maybe it had just been a plain old sigh. She was pretty far along in the pregnancy now, and all her movements seemed to be a struggle. That must have been it, he concluded, then turned back to Grady.

  “I thought that ranch was up for sale back when we bought that stock. Did Otis or that son of his decide against it?”

  “No, it sold,” Grady told him. “The new owner’s starting up a horse ranch. There’s some fine stock over there already. Now that you’ve got that check in hand, I thought you ought to go over and take a look, just see what’s available.”

  “Okay, okay, I said I would.” Caving in to the pressure, Wade grabbed his hat and headed for the door, then glanced back at Karen, who was watching him intently. “You’re not going to deliver that baby today, are you?”

  She looked startled by the question. “No, why?”

  “You seem a little jumpy, and I heard that sigh a bit ago. If you were having pains or anything, you’d tell Grady, right?”

  “Of course I would,” she insisted.

  “She’d better,” Grady said, his expression dire.

  “Okay then,” Wade said. “I’ll head on over to the Grigsby place. Do you know the new owner’s name?”

  “No,” they chorused so emphatically that it stirred his suspicions at once.

  “Haven’t met ’em yet,” Karen said, then patted her swollen belly. “I haven’t been getting out and about the last few weeks. I’ll be anxious to hear all about them and what they’ve done with the place.”

  Wade grinned at her. “Then I’ll be sure to take notes on the paint and the curtains. Anything else in particular you’d like to know?”

  “Oh, just what you think of them,” she said.

  He nodded. “I’ll report in the minute I get back,”
he promised, chuckling over her blatant curiosity. Nosy as she was, he could imagine how frustrating it must be for her not to have been over to check things out for herself.

  An hour later Wade pulled into the winding driveway of the newly named L&W Ranch. He could see a few of the improvements right off. New fences had gone up. The pasture was greener. And there were indeed some fine-looking horses.

  The house itself had been painted, yellow with white shutters and white trim on the porch. A couple of comfortable-looking rockers sat side by side with a good view of the pastures. Whoever had bought the place had put some money into it, no doubt about it. It would be a fine place for a family. A part of him regretted that he wouldn’t be the one living there. The potential he’d seen back a few months when he and Lauren had come for the horse auction had been fulfilled.

  When he rounded the house, parked and stepped out of his truck, the first thing he noticed was that the horse in the corral was Midnight. There was no mistaking the sleek animal. Nor was there any mistake about the woman who was about to get into the saddle on his back. His heart leaped into his throat, quickly followed by panic. The latter overrode his dismay.

  He was about to bolt in their direction, but Midnight stood perfectly still, clearly unfazed by his rider. Lauren leaned down to whisper in the horse’s ear. As if he understood her perfectly, he whinnied a response. Lauren laughed and caressed his neck. Just as he had months ago, Wade shuddered with envy at that touch. What kind of fool did that make him? He was still jealous of a horse, and all over a woman who’d betrayed him and no doubt hadn’t given him a second thought since.

  Lauren glanced over at him then, her expression solemn. “Welcome home.”

  He had the distinct impression that she was referring to more than his return to Winding River.

  “Care to go for a ride?” she asked.

  Wade didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to make of her presence here, of her attitude, of the sneaky way Grady had gotten him over here…of anything. This Lauren wasn’t the superstar he’d seen weeks ago in that tabloid or on the color TV in his motel room. This was the down-to-earth woman he loved with everything in him. What was the use of trying to deny it? If the depth of that love hadn’t changed in all this time, it wasn’t going to.

  But because he wasn’t going to risk his heart a second time, he settled for asking, “Why are you here?”

  “I own the place. Well, I’m half owner of it, actually. The other owner’s been away.”

  His gaze narrowed and his heart began its own little two-step. “Is that so?”

  “I’m hoping he might be back to stay now,” she said, her gaze on his, her expression uncertain. “Is he?”

  His hands bunched into fists. He jammed them into his pockets to keep from reaching for her. “What are you saying, Lauren?”

  “That this ranch is half yours,” she said as casually as if she were announcing that she’d bought him a new CD by his favorite country singer.

  “Why?”

  “Because it seems to me a deed ought to be in the names of both the husband and the wife, so there’s no mistaking that it’s jointly owned.” She frowned. “You did see the gate, didn’t you? It’s the L&W Ranch now.”

  As the absurd scope of the gesture sank in, he simply stared at her. “You bought me a ranch?” he repeated incredulously.

  “I bought us a ranch,” she corrected, grinning. “What do you think?”

  “If this is some sort of act, you’re very convincing.”

  “I’ve been told that before, but maybe we ought to leave my acting skills out of this. That’s what got us into trouble before.” She dismounted and walked over to him. “So, what do you say, cowboy? Will you marry me?”

  “Hold it. I’m having a hard time putting this all together. You intend to stay right here?”

  “Yep.”

  “What about your career?”

  “This is my career now. It’s the only one I want.”

  She sounded very convincing, but he was still afraid to believe his good fortune, terrified to believe that she would choose him over her career. “You’ll be content to be a rancher’s wife?” he asked doubtfully.

  “Absolutely,” she said without hesitation. “I’d already made that choice before you and I ever met. I wasn’t here on some lark back then, Wade. I’d come home. You made me certain I’d done the right thing.”

  “But the excitement, the glamour, the money,” he said. “How can you turn your back on all of that?”

  “It was a fluke,” she said. “I’ll tell you all about it if you want to know, but for now you just need to understand that I never wanted any of it. Oh, it was fun for a while and I got caught up in it, but this life is real. The people here are real.” Her gaze clashed with his. “And the man I love is here…and he’s real.”

  He searched her face for even the tiniest hint that she was lying to him, but her expression was open and sincere. He wanted to believe her. God, how he wanted to believe her.

  She touched his cheek. “The only question is, can you live with being labeled the superstar’s cowboy in every tabloid coast to coast? It will come to that. I can almost guarantee it.”

  Wade thought about it, thought about learning to live with who Lauren Winters really was. And then it came to him, this was who she was, this sexy woman who knew horses, loved the outdoors and loved him. He’d never even met that other Lauren Winters, though in the past weeks he’d watched every movie she’d ever made two and three times. They had made him heartsick over what he’d lost. He’d realized she was good on-screen, so he knew now what she was willing to give up to be with him. The most amazing part of all was that she apparently didn’t consider it any sort of sacrifice. In fact, if she was being totally honest here, she seemed to think it was a more-than-even trade.

  “What if I said no?” he asked carefully. “Would you still stay on here?”

  Her eyes locked with his. “Yes,” she said quietly. “But I would miss you every single day of my life.”

  The words settled over Wade like a benediction, chasing away the last of his doubts, promising him everything he’d ever dreamed of.

  “Okay, then,” he said, the beginnings of a smile tugging at his lips. “I’ll marry you on one condition.” As if her agreement were a certainty, he was already reaching for her.

  “What’s that?”

  “Promise to take me to the Academy Awards one of these days, just so we can tell our kids we’ve been.”

  She leaped into his arms and covered his face with kisses. “We’ll ride in on a pair of white horses,” she promised. “They’ll be talking about it for years to come.”

  He laughed, suddenly feeling as giddy as if he’d been granted the moon and stars. He twirled her around until they were both dizzy, but then his mood sobered as reality crept in.

  “Will you be content, Lauren? Can you be satisfied not being a somebody?”

  She frowned at him. “Don’t you ever say that, Wade Owens. I will be a somebody. I will be a rancher and a mother and, best of all, I’ll be your wife.”

  Wade nodded thoughtfully, then swept her up and kissed her soundly. “Then I don’t give two hoots what the tabloids call me, darlin’, because you and I are getting hitched.”

  “Thank goodness,” she teased. “For a minute there, you had me worried.”

  “No need to worry. You’re not the only one in the family with a flair for the dramatic. I know a happy ending when I see one.” He grinned. “In fact, it reminds me a little bit of Kiss the Stars.”

  She looked surprised at that. “You saw that? When?”

  “The better question might be how many times?” he admitted. “Probably a half-dozen. I think it was my favorite.”

  “Mine, too,” she said. “The critics hated it. They thought it was sappy.”

  Wade met her gaze. “What do they know? They’re just frustrated screenwriters who are jealous of a good thing.”

  Lauren laughed. “When
did you get to be so smart?”

  Though she’d asked it in jest, Wade returned her smile with a serious look. “The day I fell in love with you.”

  She rested her palm against his cheek. “This is better than any movie I ever made,” she assured him.

  “It’s better than any movie ever filmed,” Wade said, then grinned. “Of course, so far I’ve only had a short course in Lauren Winters’s films. Maybe my judgment’s not so great.”

  “I think your judgment’s just fine. You picked me, didn’t you?”

  Wade stroked a finger along the pale curve of her cheek. “I don’t remember having any choice at all in the matter. You were just in my heart.”

  He glanced toward the house. “You fixed up a bedroom in that place yet?”

  “Oh, yes. Despite Gina’s pleas for me to do the kitchen first, I did the bedroom. I knew that was the first place you’d want to see.”

  “Smart woman,” he said.

  “The smartest,” she agreed, and led him inside, where Wade spent the rest of the day proving just how clever—and lucky—they both were.

  He’d just wrangled a Hollywood superstar into agreeing to marry him. Or had it been the other way around? He chuckled as he felt her hand slipping under the covers to slide up his leg. What difference did it make? This was clearly the life they’d both been destined for.

  Epilogue

  It was the strangest thing. Once she and Wade had agreed to get married, Lauren had been in no big hurry to arrange the ceremony. She’d had excuse after excuse, from the birth of Karen’s baby to Gina’s marriage to Rafe. The delay had driven Wade and the Calamity Janes crazy. They’d been pestering her for months now to set a date or to explain why she was so reluctant to stand in front of a minister and exchange vows with the man she loved.

  The truth was, she had endured a media frenzy with her first two marriages. There was no way she wanted news of this wedding to leak out and turn a special, private moment into a circus. She had finally explained that to Wade, who’d come up with the perfect suggestion—a small wedding right here at their house with only friends and family in attendance. Even better, they hadn’t even told the guests they were coming to a wedding, so there was no chance of an inadvertent leak. And they’d picked a date before Emma’s due date, so they wouldn’t steal that baby’s thunder.