“Sorry, gotta run, ladies. Business to tend to.”
But it was the same everywhere she went. The town had never had anyone rich in their midst, at least not anyone who was planning to stay more than a day or two. “I saw that car when he drove through town yesterday,” Bill Winters said with a long, low whistle. “A man would do a lot for a sleek, fast car like that. A brand-new Ferrari? Pricey. I never thought to see one in Bright Creek. So…that guy at the house, this Dillon Farraday, Lisa’s man, I guess he’s pretty used to having the best, eh?”
“Um,” Colleen muttered, loading the rest of her supplies into the truck.
“Of course he’s used to the best,” Harve Enson said. “He married Lisa, didn’t he? And Lisa was the best we had to offer. Certainly the prettiest I always thought. Lisa was the Lupine Festival queen, wasn’t she? And the homecoming queen? She was the lead in all those plays and had the most boyfriends before she ran off to Chicago to go to college. You went out with her, didn’t you, Rob?” he asked his son, who had just come out of the hardware store next door.
“Who?” Rob asked.
“Lisa Breckinridge.”
“I went out with her once, before she started dating that college guy three years older. Why do you want to know?”
“Her ex-husband is staying with Colleen.”
Rob raised his eyebrows and looked at Colleen as if Harve had just announced that she was really from an alien planet. “I don’t get it. Why is he doing that?”
“He’s come for his baby, Rob, not for me,” she said between gritted teeth. It was patently obvious that Rob couldn’t think of any reason a good-looking man would be visiting her.
“I didn’t mean that in a bad way,” Rob mumbled, and to his credit, he blushed and looked uncomfortable. “I just…I mean…”
“Forget it, Rob,” she said, letting him off the hook.
“The point is,” Harve continued, “the man is used to champagne.” Harve suddenly looked at what Colleen was doing.
“Colleen, I don’t know why you’re buying so much stuff. He’s come for his kid and how long will that take? A man like that won’t want to stay in a little do-nothing town like Bright Creek. For sure he won’t want to stick around long on a little horse ranch. No disrespect, Colleen,” he said. “You’re the best horsewoman around and you rent out the best fishing pond of anyone, but unless this guy’s a fisherman, there’s not much of what he’s used to at your place.”
Which seemed to be the general consensus and was, in fact, the truth, so Colleen shouldn’t let it sting so much.
“We’ll see,” Colleen said. “He’s staying for three weeks, so I’d appreciate it if you’d all stop gossiping about him. If we don’t act like do-nothings and gossips, he won’t think that’s what we are.” Hastily, she threw the rest of her things in the truck and headed for the driver’s side door.
“Three weeks? What’s he going to do?”
She kept moving. She was so not going to bring Toby further into this than she already had. Dillon probably didn’t want to broadcast the news that he had asked her to give him lessons in something most people considered basic knowledge. Announcing that might embarrass him, which might result in him leaving and taking Toby away from her immediately.
Besides, while everyone already knew that Toby was Lisa’s son and that she had been married to Dillon, they also knew Dillon had been away at war last year. And so far no one had openly questioned the paternity of Lisa’s child. At least not in my presence, Colleen thought. Maybe because Lisa apparently still held legend status here despite leaving her baby with Colleen. Maybe they assumed—or hoped—Lisa had a good reason for deserting him. So, if it protected Dillon and Toby, Colleen could live with the lie that Lisa was the best of Bright Creek. That meant not even venturing near the topic of Toby, Dillon and Lisa any more than she had to.
“He says he’s going to fix things on the ranch.”
Harve and Bill exchanged looks. “By himself? Colleen, hon, did you explain to him how long that place has been falling down around your ears?”
No, she had not. She still had some pride, and the beginning of the demise of the ranch house went back to the worst time of her life, when her mother had remarried and brought darkness to their lives. It was not something she wanted to drop into a conversation with Dillon.
“Dillon says he can do it,” she said. But as she started to open the door, she heard words that she wished she hadn’t.
“A one-man reclamation team raising those old buildings from the dead? This I have to see. Besides, if he’s going to be here for a while, I sure would like to take a ride in that car.”
Harve told Rob what Dillon had been driving, and Rob let out a low whistle. “Man, that’s sweet.”
“Yeah, I wonder if he’ll let us inside it.”
“I don’t think—” she began. But Harve and Bill were already walking away, lost in their plans. And even Rob, who was still standing on the sidewalk, had a speculative gleam in his eyes.
Uh-oh, Colleen thought as she got in the truck and drove away. If one person came, more would follow. Colleen had a feeling that Dillon hadn’t counted on having an audience gawking while she instructed him. And as the woman who had uttered the words that were surely the start to the Bright Creek equivalent of the Gold Rush, it was up to her to head off the townspeople and divert their attention from Dillon. The man needed to learn to change diapers, not give test drives of his car.
He’s not going to thank me for this, she thought.
The sight that met Colleen’s eyes when she drove up to the house made her heart flip around and her breath catch in her throat. Dillon stood next to her porch, which was already looking sturdier. He was shirtless, a hammer was snagged in the back belt loop of his jeans and he was holding Toby up against his naked chest. He was, in short, gorgeous. A man feast for a woman’s eyes, the best the male species had to offer visually. A lot of bests in Dillon’s world, Colleen thought. His car. His ex-wife.
Darn it! For half a second, Harve’s words about Lisa being the best slipped in before Colleen hastily tromped that sucker of a thought down. As a woman who had been hurt too much and who wasn’t most men’s idea of perfect femininity, she might not want to enter into the bride game, but she still liked to look, and no way was she going to let thoughts of Lisa spoil this brief, perfect moment.
Dillon looked up and smiled, those ice-blue eyes focused on her. “Welcome back,” he said.
She couldn’t help smiling at him even though she knew it wasn’t smart to make these exchanges a habit. They left her too warm and yearning for things she could never have.
“This isn’t finished,” he said, indicating the porch that certainly already looked much straighter than it had. “Might take a few days. Until then, you’ll need to use the side door.”
Colleen nodded slowly. She wasn’t sure where to look. His direct blue gaze was compelling. His bare chest made her feel even warmer than she should on such a warm day. The fact that she wanted to step closer made her feel as if she really should take a step back. In the end, her dilemma was solved when Toby began to babble and buck and hold out his arms to her.
“Little traitor,” Dillon said affectionately, winking at his son, and just like that he lifted Toby, dropped a kiss on the top of his silky baby hair and turned him so that the baby could see Colleen better. “Don’t worry, big guy. She’ll have some time for you, I’m sure. See there, I told you she’d be back.”
Toby’s response was to blow a bubble and wave his arms around.
But entranced as she was with the child she loved, it was the man’s easy manner with him that held her attention. Dillon had never had a child. Most men would be at least a little tentative at first. The new fathers she’d met always were. But not Dillon. Toby looked totally right and comfortable held against his daddy’s big body.
Big, half-naked body, Colleen thought, then immediately wished she could keep a lid on her thoughts.
“I need
to put a shirt on now that I’m done for the day,” he said as if he’d read her mind. He looked down at Toby, then at Colleen, a question in his eyes. “Not that I’m abdicating my paternal responsibilities or anything, mind you, or that I’m foisting him off on you, but…”
“Here,” she said with a smile and reached out to take Toby from him. “As if I’d complain. He’s a treasure. Right?” she asked the baby, who promptly crowed and smiled and stuffed his fist in his mouth.
“Nothing like a compliment from a lady, is there, Toby?” Dillon asked as he snagged his shirt from the railing and slipped it over his shoulders. “Did you get everything you needed?”
“Yes, but I need to talk to you about something.”
“Not a problem. Why don’t you show me a bit of the ranch? I’ll get a hat for the big guy here.”
“I’m impressed. Most men wouldn’t have thought of the fact that a baby is more sensitive to the sun.”
“Yes, well, don’t give me too much credit. Millie’s the one who reminded me. I could only bring him outside to sit with me if I promised to stay in the shade.”
“But you learned quickly.”
He laughed. “You should teach school. You’re good at giving pats on the back for small accomplishments.”
“School? You must have been talking to someone. It’s no secret around here that I’ve wanted to start a ranch camp for girls for several years. I’d especially like to be able to give at-risk girls from the city who’ve never been near a ranch the chance to see how empowering this life can be.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
She shrugged. “Money. A proper building for them to sleep in. Maybe a fear that I might not be good at it.”
“Never know until you try, will you? Of course, that’s easy for me to say, but it looks as if you’ve already made a start with Gretchen and Julie. Millie told me that their father was an abuser and you were aware of that when they came to work for you.”
“Yes, but they do work here. And they’d grown up on a ranch. I didn’t have to teach them anything or expose them to a lifestyle they’d never lived. All I did was give them a job.”
“Is that all?” he asked, a teasing tone in his voice. “Just a job where they don’t have to live in fear. Millie told me that you also gave her a place to stay when her husband died and left her with tons of debt.”
“Millie makes more of things than actually exist. Besides, the women are my friends. They give as much as they get, so even if their situation helped spawn the idea for the ranch camp, it’s nothing like bringing girls here who’ve never even seen a horse and trying to teach them some basic skills. It’s not the same as being in a situation where I might actually harm someone if I do or say the wrong thing. With Julie and Gretchen, there was nothing I needed to teach them about raising, riding or caring for horses.”
“Just horses? I thought you were a cattle ranch.”
“No. When my mother, stepfather and stepbrother died in a small plane crash while I was at a rodeo, and the ranch passed to me, I sold the cattle and some of the land to pay bills. We’re a small horse ranch with a number of sidelines. We have an orchard, we open our section of the creek to fly fisherman, Gretchen and Julie make and sell flies and Millie has a small bread-making business. Basically, if we have the time and know-how and we can make money off of it, we try it.”
While they were talking, they made their way to a pasture where horses were grazing. One of them, a white one, whinnied and slowly ambled over to the fence.
“Hey, Mr. Peepers.” Colleen shifted the baby to her side to keep him away from the horse and stroked the aging animal. “He’s a sweetheart. Mr. Peepers and I did some fine barrel racing together.”
“So, you’re a cowgirl. A rodeo queen.”
“I am a cowgirl, a horsewoman. These are my babies.” Instantly, she wished she could call back the last comment. Already Dillon suspected the truth: that she couldn’t have children and that it broke her heart. She’d seen it in his eyes when they’d discussed her desire for babies yesterday. And she didn’t want him feeling sorry for her. There were enough people in town who already did that and always had. It set her apart and made her too different. It created barriers she’d never understood how to breach. She needed to turn the conversation in a different direction, so she might as well discuss what she’d brought him out here to say. “I love my life, Dillon, and my world here. I’ve made it all myself, and I’m responsible for whatever happens here. So, I have to tell you, I might have done something wrong and made a mistake when I went into town. One that will affect you.”
She explained about Bill and Harve and Rob and the car. “I should have made them understand. Argued more. Made it clear that you weren’t here to give tours of your Ferrari.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“No. I was the one who made the mistake. I want you to know that I won’t let them come on my land to pester you.”
“They’re your neighbors.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’re just being nosy. That’s not right.”
He turned her around and placed his hands on her shoulders, the baby between them. Her entire body felt as if it might melt at his touch. “When I leave here, you have to live with your friends and neighbors. It’s only a car. I don’t mind giving a test drive to a couple of your neighbors. Seriously not an issue with me.”
She was still unconvinced. “They might ask a lot of gossipy questions about Toby and Lisa.”
“Then I just won’t answer. Do you always feel this responsible about everything that happens here?” he asked.
“No. Yes. I guess I feel I have to. This ranch is my whole world. It’s what makes me who I am, and these people…the women…if I fail, they lose their livelihoods when they’ve all already had to face too many bad things in their lives.”
“But it’s me you’re trying to protect this time.”
She shrugged. “Maybe you could use a sanctuary for a few weeks, too. Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’ve been exempted from the tough stuff. It couldn’t have been easy marrying Lisa and losing her. Or going to war. Or being wounded.”
Toby had fallen asleep and was listing to one side in her arms. Without a word and with seemingly little effort, Dillon took him and tucked him against his shoulder. Then he reached out and slid one palm along Colleen’s jaw.
He had a magic touch. She wanted to lean right into his palm, step up against his body. Instead, she forced herself to simply look into his eyes.
“I doubt that divorce is ever easy for anyone, but I’ve had a long time to think about it, and I think my marriage was doomed from the start. I can’t even really blame Lisa. She has that princess aura, and I chose her thinking she would be a good wife for a businessman the way other men choose a suit off the rack. But she wanted someone more exciting than I was, someone more willing to make the rounds of the social circuit and less of a workaholic and I should have realized that from the start. When I got called back into service and went overseas, she was livid about the fact that I didn’t fight my tour of duty. As for the rest…no, none of that was easy, but still easier than a lot of other people who went to war have had. From that perspective, I can’t complain.”
“Are you just being nice, trying to make me feel better and forget that I messed up? Because I did mention the car and your work on the ranch. Now Harve Enson thinks you’re some foolish guy who’s easy prey and he’s going to stalk you just because he’s bored and has nothing to do with his time.”
He stared down into her eyes, his own that unsettling blue. “If I really wanted you to forget something, I’d try a more drastic approach.”
“What?”
He shifted the baby and leaned into her, sweeping his arm around her waist. “I’m not easy prey,” he whispered when his lips were just a breath away from hers. “What I am is curious. Maybe even a bit fascinated.”
He touched his mouth to hers and his touch was so…hot, so…she didn’t know
what. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. Like jumping your horse over a barrier so high that you weren’t sure you could land safely. Fear and elation and excitement all mixed together. And when it was over, there was definitely an insane desire to do that dangerous thing all over again, she thought as he pulled away, leaving her lips aching.
“That was…what was that about?” she asked.
“It was probably about following through on a bad idea even though you have an incredibly delicious mouth, Colleen.”
Her lips were still burning. Her body was still aching. Now she knew what kissing him was like and what she’d been missing and would never have. Darn it, she’d have been better off not knowing that.
“We shouldn’t do that again,” she whispered.
“You’re probably right. I seem to have bad luck with the women of Bright Creek. Probably best to keep my distance.”
And just like that, she remembered one more reason why she had to stay smart about Dillon. He was temporary. He would leave her in the dust. He had never been for her and never would be. And thinking of him was only going to take her mind off her own concerns and very real goals of keeping the ranch running and saving money for the ranch camp.
“Let’s go get the baby out of the sun and then later today, after I’m done with my work, I’ll give you some more lessons,” she said. “Some basic stuff.”
“Basic. All right. I can handle that.”
Hours later, Colleen was struggling to keep a straight face as Dillon stared down at his son and then looked at the diaper he held in his hand.
“An interesting contraption,” he told his son.
Toby stared at him with those huge blue eyes and jabbered something unintelligible.
“The tabs go in the back and fasten in the front,” Colleen said helpfully.
“Of course they do. Toby just told me so. Didn’t you, buddy?”
Toby just stared.
“Oh sure, go quiet on me now,” Dillon said. “Just when I’m looking for a little support here.” He smiled, and Toby responded to his daddy’s smile, giving a delighted little squeal.
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