His husky voice rippled across the phone line and shivered down her spine.
“I am, too,” she said softly, then hung up before he could hear the emotional tears in her voice.
Chapter Five
The next day Lonnie was still in a daze. As he paced around the small motel room and waited for Katherine’s call, he continued to wonder what he’d gotten himself into.
A woman in his house! Eating at his table and sleeping in his bed. Well, not his bed, he mentally corrected, but the bed across the hall. And that was bad enough. What was he going to do with her?
Nothing Corteen, that’s what! The woman was pregnant. She wasn’t in any shape to be on the hunt for a man. And even if she was, he wasn’t looking to fill the bill. Not that a woman like Katherine would look at him sideways, he thought wryly. She was all soft and pretty and intelligent. She could have most any man she wanted. And she wouldn’t want a big, bumbling cowboy sheriff, who could count the number of his past girlfriends on one hand.
The loud ring of the telephone suddenly broke into Lonnie’s thoughts and he dove at the instrument situated by the head of the bed. The receiver jostled from its cradle and clattered to the floor.
Biting back a curse, Lonnie scooped up the telephone and rammed it against his ear. “Lonnie Corteen here.”
“Lonnie, it’s me, Katherine,” she said in a breathy rush. “I think I have everything ready to go. I’m sorry it’s so late, but I had to speak to my doctor about making the trip. And then I had to deal with my boss about starting my leave.”
He glanced at his wristwatch. In just a few minutes it would be noon. “Is there going to be a problem with your job? You leaving so unexpected like this?”
There was a slight pause and then she answered, “No. Everything is okay with my replacement.”
“What about your doctor?”
She sighed. “He wasn’t all that keen on the idea of me traveling. In fact, he advised me not to make the trip. But he didn’t forbid it.”
Concerned now, Lonnie sat down on the edge of the bed. “Katherine, maybe we should plan for you to travel later. If making the trip caused you or the baby any harm, I’d never forgive myself.”
“It’s not that the trip might make me or the baby ill, Lonnie. He’s just afraid I’ll go into early labor. But after I told him that I’d be traveling with a sheriff and that you would make sure I got immediate medical treatment if it was needed, he was okay with the whole thing.”
Lonnie’s gaze lifted to the ceiling. She certainly had much more confidence in him than he did. “Well, I’d certainly do my best to take care of you, Katherine. But if the situation was—” He didn’t finish what he’d been about to say. He didn’t want to scare her. He just wanted her to be aware of the risk she was taking. Car trouble could happen at any time to anybody. And there were long stretches of Texas plains where there was nothing but empty cornfields, herds of cows and a lone windmill here and there. He might be a county sheriff, but he couldn’t conjure up medical help where there was none. “Well, I just want you to be sure you want to go,” he finished.
“I do.”
The two simple words were like the soft, playful thuds of a fist to his midsection. He wasn’t quite sure if he loved the feeling or hated it.
Rising to his feet, Lonnie reached for his hat and levered it down on his head. “Okay, Katherine. That’s all I need to know. I’ll be over there to pick you up in a few minutes.”
When Lonnie knocked on her apartment door a few minutes later, Katherine was all packed and ready to go. She let him in and gestured to the two small bags sitting on the floor near the couch.
“That’s all I’m taking. I figure I won’t need much for just a week’s time.”
Lonnie was glad to see Katherine had dressed warmly in a pair of cream-colored corduroys and a peach-colored sweater. The wind was fiercely cold, and if they had to get outside the truck for any reason he wanted her to be protected.
“What about your cats?” He looked at the two felines that were perched on the back of the couch, watching him with suspicious eyes. Apparently they’d already figured out they were being left behind and Lonnie was the reason.
Katherine glanced at her beloved pets. “I have a friend who’s coming to pick them up after work. She’ll take them to her house and let them stay there until I get back.”
“You could take them with us,” he offered. “I wouldn’t mind them being in the house.”
Katherine turned wide eyes on him. “That’s kind of you, Lonnie. But I wouldn’t dream of taking advantage of your hospitality in that way. They’ll be fine with Althea. And maybe they’ll appreciate me more once I get back,” she added with a smile.
She had an angelic smile, Lonnie thought. Sweet and dreamy with an innocent charm that would almost make a person think she’d never kissed a man before. But all he had to do was look at her belly to see she’d done far more. And she was paying dearly for it now, he thought grimly.
Thrusting the sad thought from his mind, he reached for her coat on the arm of the couch. “Come on, we’d better get started before it gets too late. I’m not wild about driving after dark. You never know when there might be a deer or a stray cow or horse on the highway.”
He helped her on with the coat, then grabbed up her bags. Once they were outside of the apartment, she made sure the door was locked safely and that everything on her to-do list was marked off.
“It’s not really a very pretty day for traveling, is it?” she commented as they descended the stairs. “The wind is freezing and the clouds look dark and heavy.”
“I’m hoping the clouds will begin to clear as we head west,” he said. “But I doubt that happens. The weather is supposed to turn bad by tomorrow evening.”
He had offered her his arm before they started down the staircase. Katherine clung to it tightly, grateful for the support of his strong body.
“How long will it take to get to Hereford?” she asked. “If I remember right, it took several hours to drive from Canyon to here.”
“Probably six and a half or seven. Want to change your mind?”
The two of them had reached his pickup truck and Katherine stood to one side of the door while he unlocked it with his key. Maybe she should change her mind, she thought, as he helped her into the cab. No doubt it was foolish for her to be heading off on a trip this late in her pregnancy. But she was tired. Oh, so tired. And it was like Althea had said, a week away from everything would do Katherine a world of good.
She frowned at him. “Last night you were gung-ho for me to go. Now you sound as if you want me to back out of the trip. Why?”
Because he was worried, Lonnie thought. Because it made him jittery to think he was giving this woman so much attention. And liking it in the process.
“I’m still gung-ho,” he said. “Especially if it gets you and the Ketchums together.”
She cast him a look of warning as he helped her up and into the cab. “I wouldn’t count on that.”
“Well, I wouldn’t count it out, either,” he murmured.
Without waiting for her to make any sort of reply, Lonnie shut the door and went around to take his seat behind the wheel. In moments they were out of the parking lot and heading for the major vein of traffic that would eventually lead them out of the city.
Katherine remained thoughtfully quiet as the big sheriff negotiated the truck through the lunch hour traffic. What was she doing anyway? she kept asking herself, as the skyline of Fort Worth slowly slipped behind them. She didn’t want to meet Seth Ketchum. And she sure didn’t want to think of the late Amelia Ketchum being her mother. So why was she heading west with a man she hardly knew?
From the lowered veil of her lashes, Katherine studied his profile and, as she did, she realized she had to be honest with herself. Something about the man had gotten to her. He’d charmed her with his simple talk and slow smiles. He’d made her want to dream, to think there was something better out there in the world f
or her, something precious that she dare not turn her back on.
“Are you okay?”
His question brought her head up, and she looked at him squarely. “Yes. I’m fine. Just thinking.”
“Worrying, you mean?”
A tiny frown marred her forehead. “What makes you say that?”
“You look worried. You’ve looked that way ever since we drove away from your apartment.”
She heaved out a sigh. “Well, it’s not every day that I take off in the middle of a workday with a strange man.”
“I’m not a strange man. I’m a sheriff. That ought to put your mind at rest.”
Katherine made a helpless gesture with her hand. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that I’m not normally impulsive. And I never take time off from work. This trip wasn’t necessary, so I’m wondering if I’ve done the right thing.”
A brief smile touched his rugged face. “Well, look at it this way, it probably won’t hurt anything.”
Her eyes widened. “Probably?”
Lonnie shook his head in disbelief. “Just a figure of speech, Katherine. Mercy, you need to calm down or I’m going to be delivering that baby on the side of the road.”
Embarrassed color filled Katherine’s cheeks. He was right. She couldn’t stay in this state of turmoil the whole time she was away from Fort Worth. She needed to relax and enjoy being away from the everyday grind and having the opportunity to see new things. And even if Lonnie Corteen was the sexiest man she’d ever met, that wasn’t a fact to fret over. He wasn’t going to make a play for her.
“Lonnie, that letter you told me about. The one my mother had written to Amelia Ketchum. Do you still have it?”
The look on his face said her question had surprised him. “Sure. It’s in my bag behind the seat. Why?”
Katherine shrugged, then turned her gaze out the window. They were getting out of the suburbs now. Farm and ranch land was beginning to spread out from either side of the major four-lane highway. “I suppose I should have read it that first night you came to the apartment. But I—to be honest with you, Lonnie, I was scared.”
The brief glance he tossed at her was long enough to see the convulsive movement in her throat as she struggled to swallow. Her emotional tussle bothered him like hell. Not because he was softhearted and melted at the first sign of tears. No. A man couldn’t be softhearted and be a county sheriff. But the uncertainty surrounding his own mother’s disappearance made Lonnie appreciate a little of what Katherine was going through.
“I can understand that,” he said. “Do you want to see the letter now?”
She shook her head. “No. Maybe later, after we get to your place.” Katherine looked at him, her eyes a little pleading, a little wary. “Does it—does my mother talk about me?”
Lonnie nodded. “She does.”
Her chin tilted firmly upward. “I’m not going to ask you what it says. I’ll wait and read it for myself.”
“I don’t know what it says exactly,” Lonnie explained. “I haven’t read the letter. That’s something private from Seth and his family to you.”
Katherine studied him closely. “Oh. I just took it for granted—”
“Seth told me a little of what the letter contained. That’s why I knew that Celia talked about you.”
“Oh,” she said again, then plucked at the corduroy fabric covering her knee. “Tell me about where you live.”
She was changing the subject, a fact that Lonnie didn’t bother to mention. There would be plenty of time later for him to bring up the subject of her family.
“My home is nothing special, Katherine. About a thousand acres of rolling prairie, a few barns, and a little stucco house with two bedrooms. I raise a few cows. A few horses.”
My home. Lonnie’s two words brought a wry smile to Katherine’s lips. She’d never thought of her apartment as a home. It was just a place to stay, to eat and sleep and live out her life until—until what? she wondered. Until something magical happened and some gallant knight came along and carried her off to his home where the two of them would have a happy-ever-after family? No. She, more than most women, knew things like that didn’t happen. Not even with modern-day knights. A woman had to make her own home. She couldn’t wait around for a man to do it for her. And Katherine was trying to do just that. If she stayed put at her job as Richard’s secretary, her bank account would continue to grow. She’d be able to purchase a place in Fort Worth on a quiet, little street where her baby could grow up to attend a decent school with decent friends.
“Your home sounds very nice,” she murmured.
A soft chuckle passed his lips. “I don’t know if I’d go so far to say that. Just wait till you see how messy my house is.”
“Oh, it couldn’t be worse than mine.” Turning slightly toward him, she studied him with interest. “I’m curious to know how you find time to have cows and horses. I figure a county sheriff is normally a busy man.”
“I’m always tight on time,” Lonnie agreed. “But I have a unit of good deputies that don’t have to call me when any little thing happens. They can handle things first and tell me about it later. That takes a whole lot of stress off me.”
He didn’t look like a man who got stressed over anything, Katherine thought. He looked like one of those easy-going men who never panicked in a sticky situation. She also sensed that if anyone riled him to anger, he would be tough as nails.
“Have you been a lawman for a long time?”
“Ten, nearly eleven years. I went to work when I was nineteen years old as a deputy for Ethan Hamilton down in Lincoln County, New Mexico.”
“I didn’t know deputies could be that young!” Katherine exclaimed.
An amused grin crossed his face. “Well, I guess I was kinda like Chester in Gunsmoke. I just had a penchant for being a lawman. And Ethan was nice enough to give me a chance. He taught me a lot about enforcing the law, and I’ll always be grateful to him.”
“Lincoln County,” Katherine mused aloud. “Isn’t that where the famous range wars occurred back in the 1800s?”
“That’s it.”
“You used to live there—in New Mexico?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “That’s where my mother left me. With a family in Carrizozo.” He shrugged. “So that’s where I grew up and that’s where I stayed until I was twenty-four.”
“Why did you leave?” Just as soon as the question was out, she wished that she could take it back. She was getting too personal. Learning all about this man wasn’t a smart thing to do. But she was interested in how he had become the person he was now.
He kept his gaze on the traffic. “Oh, by then I’d become Ethan’s chief deputy, but I knew if I stayed in Lincoln County that would be as far as I could move up on the roster. Everybody down there loves Ethan. He’ll be the sheriff there until he dies or retires. Whichever comes first.”
“You could have run against him in the sheriff’s race. You might have won,” she suggested.
His head twisted around and he stared at her as if she’d just said a string of vulgar curse words. “There’s no way on earth I would’ve run against Ethan! He’s one of my very best friends. If it wasn’t for him—well, I’d hate to think where I’d be today without him. I don’t repay my friends by stabbing them in the back.”
Katherine straightened her shoulders. “I wasn’t suggesting you did. I just assumed you would’ve liked to be sheriff down there. I’m sure this friend of yours would have understood if you’d tried a shot at his job.”
“Oh, yeah. He would have understood. But I couldn’t have lived with myself. And anyway, I wouldn’t have won the election. Ethan comes from a wealthy, well-known family. I was just, well, a regular guy. I had friends and I was liked. But I didn’t have the clout. If you know what I mean.”
Katherine knew very well. She’d never had clout, either. Being raised by a single parent who’d been forced to count her pennies, Katherine hadn’t been exposed to the higher social cir
cles. But that had never bothered her. She wasn’t the high-society type. In fact, she’d always felt uncomfortable and out of place around the rich folks in Canyon. And when Lonnie had talked about the Ketchums’ wealth, her mind had pretty much closed the door on them. She didn’t belong with that type of people. Maybe in the next few days she could make Lonnie understand that.
“Yes. I do know.” She glanced out the window to see they were well and truly away from the city now. Ahead of them on the far horizon, gray clouds swept down to meet the highway. Katherine hoped it wasn’t the sign of ominous things to come. “How long have you been sheriff of Deaf Smith County?”
“About five years. I worked there as a deputy first and then decided to run for the sheriff’s office. That’s when Seth Ketchum stepped in to help me get the recognition I needed to be elected.”
She thought about that for a few moments. “So. You owe Mr. Ketchum a lot.”
Lonnie nodded. “He’s like Ethan—he’s a good man.”
Lonnie was a good man, too, Katherine mused. That’s why he was going to this length to help a friend. He certainly wasn’t taking her to his home because he wanted her there. If she could remember that, she’d make it through the next few days without a scratch.
Once they reached the outskirts of Wichita Falls, Lonnie stopped at a fast-food restaurant to give Katherine a bathroom break and to buy two cups of coffee to take on the road with them.
Katherine had always been a good traveler. Normally, she could drive for hours without getting tired. But as the afternoon wore on and the miles slipped behind them, her back began to hurt and her legs ached. By the time they were nearing Amarillo, she was constantly shifting in the seat, searching for a more comfortable position.
“Why are we stopping here?” Katherine asked, as Lonnie pulled into a large parking lot.
He made a motion toward one of the buildings in front of them. It was a Mexican restaurant and from the looks of things, a rather busy one.
“I’ve eaten here before. It’s a good restaurant. And I know you have to be ready to eat and rest.”
A Baby on the Ranch Page 8