The Rancher's Surprise Son (Gold Buckle Cowboys Book 4)

by Christine Wenger

  “I don’t want to talk about money, Cody.”

  “Look.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I’ll call my friend Skeeter McAvoy. Skeeter has a good pen of bulls. I’m going to have to practice—and soon.”

  “And where are you going to find the time?”

  “That’s the problem. Maybe Slim will let me sneak out early the next couple of days and I can drive out to Skeeter’s ranch.”

  “I really hope you win, Cody, and that you end up in one piece.”

  “I will, if you’re there cheering for me.”

  “Of course, and Johnny will be with me.”

  She tipped her head up and their eyes met. Cody pushed aside the fact that Laura hadn’t told him about Johnny, and that she wouldn’t let him fully claim his son right now.

  He pulled her toward him and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. This was his Laura, the girl he grew up with and whose pigtails he pulled. The Laura who grew into a woman, who gave him a son, whom he always knew he was meant to be with—forever.

  He loved her. He’d always loved her. Their lips met, tentative at first, then he increased the pressure, and it was as if they’d never been apart.

  They kissed and touched and when Johnny whined and woke up, they pulled apart.

  They’d make it. Somehow.

  All he had to do was win the bull-riding competition at the Duke Ranch Rodeo in a couple of weeks. First place would be worth at least fifty thousand bucks.

  That kind of money would kick-start his future with Laura and Johnny.

  * * *

  Laura enjoyed her speaking engagements and always geared her speeches to the specific event.

  The Duke Springs Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Facility was one of her favorite places that the Duke Foundation supported, and she did volunteer work there whenever she could. It was clean, comfortable and homelike.

  The residents, along with their relatives and friends, were also invited to the luncheon at the conference center downtown, and the coordinator said that about three hundred people were expected.

  That would be a nice crowd.

  The rehab part of the facility wanted some modern equipment. The nursing home part wanted new rugs, some smart TVs and a couple of washing machines and dryers.

  The Duke Foundation could cover all that. Plus, Laura had a surprise for them—an addition with a new indoor pool complete with lifts and ramps. She was going to work with the administrator and architects to give them exactly what they needed.

  As she was dropping off Johnny for Cindy to babysit, Cody had just returned from riding practice bulls. He walked to meet her and moved as if he was sore, shuffling as though he should be at the rehab facility himself.

  He lifted Johnny out of the truck, and it looked as if every bone and muscle in his body screamed for mercy.

  Cody gave Johnny a kiss on the cheek, and Johnny didn’t seem to mind.

  “Hi, cowboy!” Cody said. “Haven’t seen you since this morning. You did a great job on Pirate today. Pretty soon, I won’t be holding the reins and leading Pirate.”

  “Really, Mr. Masters?”

  “Really.”

  “That’ll be cool.”

  Cody set Johnny on the ground, and Johnny ran to the porch. “Cindy?”

  “She’s inside, Johnny,” said Georgianna. “She’s setting up some kind of project for you two to do.”

  “Cool.” Johnny swung open the front door and it banged against the house. He ran inside.

  “Johnny really likes Cindy,” Laura said to Cody.

  “I can tell.”

  Just as soon as Johnny left, he ran back out to give Georgianna a hug.

  “Hi,” he said.

  “Welcome, Johnny. I was wondering if I’d get a hug from you today.” Georgianna gave him a kiss.

  He ran back inside the ranch house. Bang! The screen door whacked against the house again.

  “Go easy on the door, Johnny!” Laura yelled.

  “Okay!” was Johnny’s response from inside.

  Cody chuckled. “I love to see that Johnny is so happy and comfortable at the Double M.”

  “I made sure that your mom and Cindy both knew him and saw him grow, and that he knew them.”

  “Thank you for that.” Cody fell into step beside her as she walked to the Double M’s ranch house. “Do your parents know that my mother and sister are babysitting Johnny tonight?”

  “No way. They think Clarissa’s sister is watching him because Clarissa has the day off. I didn’t correct them.”

  Cody shook his head. “So you’ve been lying to them when you bring him over here?”

  “Yes. It’s become a habit.”

  “Someday you won’t have to.”

  “That would be a miracle,” she said.

  Cody put his hand on the small of her back, and she immediately felt the warmth. She leaned into him.

  “Want to check out my room for space?” Cody said.

  Laura couldn’t picture herself living at the Double M, but maybe she’d get used to it. She’d have to find another job other than running the foundation—darn it—and find trustworthy babysitters for Johnny. Cindy had school, and Georgianna was certainly busy.

  Could she do that?

  “Sure, let’s go look at your room,” she said. She remembered it from sneaking around with Cody in their younger days, but it’d been a while.

  The room was way too small.

  “Cody, do you think that Cindy would switch rooms? Hers is bigger.”

  He shrugged. “I could ask her. If it means Johnny living here, she’d jump at the chance.”

  “But remember, I won’t have a job if I move out to live at the Double M. My parents would pretty much banish me.”

  “Even Johnny?” Cody asked.

  “They’d file for visitation, if not custody. Remember?”

  “No way would they get custody of my son!”

  “But just think for a moment, Cody. They are pillars of the community, and you have a manslaughter conviction on your record. I’m an unfit mother who hangs around with a convict and subjects her son to you. Who do you think the court would give custody of Johnny to?”

  “Dammit, Laura. Dammit!”

  “Don’t think about it now. Let’s go to the event and enjoy ourselves. It’s time for the community to see you again at another fundraiser. Someone will let the news slip to my folks, but I’ll face them in the morning and explain that you were just attending because you know someone living at the nursing home.” She grinned. “What a coincidence!”

  She ran her fingers through his hair and tried not to look at Cody’s bed.

  In less than a second, they could be stretched out on it and making love.

  * * *

  Cody wanted to make love with Laura, but it was hardly appropriate in his mother’s house. If they were married, it’d be another story.

  That was some of what he considered his “cowboy code.” Laura had always been his rock, his shelter from a storm, but he wasn’t used to just sitting back and letting someone else take the reins, even if that person was her.

  “Let’s go to Cindy’s room and take a look at it,” he suggested.

  “I’d hate to disrupt Cindy’s life.”

  “We haven’t. Not yet anyway. Let’s just take a look.”

  In her bedroom, Cindy was reading to Johnny. He was sitting on a child-size recliner, and he seemed mesmerized at her every word.

  “Cindy, I just wanted to thank you for taking care of Johnny tonight,” Laura said.

  “No problem. We are enjoying ourselves already. And later we are going to... Oops! I almost gave away our secret. Huh, Johnny? And here I thought that you’d be the one to give it away.�
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  “I keep the secret of finger painting.” Johnny grinned.

  Cindy rolled her eyes, and they all laughed.

  Laura noted that Cindy’s room did have more space than Cody’s. A twin bed could fit without everything being cramped. It would definitely do if it came to that, but Laura was still aiming for a double-wide trailer so they could be by themselves.

  She might have to climb down from her high horse and get realistic if she wanted to become a family with Cody and Johnny.

  If only her parents would let them live in her cottage, but she doubted Cody could survive on the Duke premises.

  “Cody, hurry up and take a shower. You smell like livestock. Then we need to get going to the conference center,” she said, then quickly explained to Johnny and Cindy. “It’s where the event is. I’m going to speak in front of a lot of people, and I have to admit that I’m a little nervous.”

  “No need to be nervous,” Cody said. “You’re an excellent speaker, Laura. Very natural.”

  “Thanks.” She gave Johnny a big kiss goodbye, and Cody did the same. Then he shook Johnny’s hand and ruffled Cindy’s hair—which resulted in a howl from her. Then he headed back to his room to take a shower and get ready.

  Laura went out on the front porch to talk to Georgianna while she waited for Cody. Laura avoided all talk about Johnny being Cody’s son.

  Soon, they were in Laura’s car headed for the Duke Springs Hotel and Conference Center.

  They’d decided not to walk in together. That way, Laura could keep to her story that Cody was just an attendee.

  He went in first, and wondered if he’d ever get used to the fact that people he’d known his whole life treated him as if he had the plague, while others felt that he’d paid his debt to society and was now a free man. Some shook his hand warmly, if somewhat warily. Others turned their back on him.

  Sitting in the rear of the huge room at a table alone, he reminded himself that it was the Dukes who’d built this town and positioned it around two hot springs. Out of the seven or more hot springs that were in the area, J. W. Duke controlled six of them.

  The last one was on Masters land, deep in the cottonwoods. Most of the time, it was barely a trickle, feeding into the creek. When he had the money, Cody would tap it and bring it out to its full capacity.

  That was another reason why J.W. coveted the Double M land.

  Cody looked around the meeting room at the conference center. Even that was top-notch. The hotel attached was a five-star property, and people came from all over to enjoy the hot springs. J.W. had hit the jackpot here.

  What he wouldn’t give to strip down and sit in one of those springs about now.

  He could tell that Laura was looking for him. Every now and then, her eyes found him at his solitary table, and she’d smile. He’d smile in return.

  She gave a brilliant speech, and the result was chuckling and downright belly laughs from the audience.

  After announcing the very generous items that the Duke Foundation was donating, she received a standing ovation.

  Then she reminded everyone about the Duke Ranch Rodeo at the fairgrounds that weekend. Funds would help build a day-care center and a new grammar school.

  When she announced that work was going to begin on the in-ground rehab pool at the rehab facility, everyone who could stand got to their feet and cheered.

  There were more speeches from other local dignitaries, most of which made him doze. None was as rousing as his Laura’s.

  As luck would have it, Cody was offered several desserts from waitresses on their way to the kitchen for refills, but every time the door swung open, Cody smelled something hot and greasy.

  What are they cooking back there?

  No sooner did he think that, when one of the waitresses came out coughing. Then she pulled the fire alarm on the wall.

  “Fire!” she yelled. “Fire! Everyone get out!”

  Chapter Ten

  Since Cody was sitting by the kitchen, he could see flames licking at the door leading to the conference room. Suddenly, there was a stampede of attendees.

  “Slow down!” he yelled, waving people to the exits. They were stumbling and tripping over the slower-moving wheelchairs and people on crutches.

  Where was Laura?

  The only exits that he could see were at the double doors by him, and he hadn’t seen her walk by.

  “Laura!” he yelled. “Has anyone seen Laura Duke?”

  No one answered. They were too busy shoving the person in front of them. Some kind souls did stop to help push wheelchairs and clear a path for those on crutches, but on the whole, the crowd was in a panic; they were just trickling out, and the smoke was getting thicker.

  What was the holdup getting out of the room?

  By now the fire had spread to the back wall by the exit doors.

  Some people had stopped to talk in the hallway. How could they do that when there were more people that needed to get out of the room?

  “Move it! Don’t block the exit! Move!” he yelled and got a little cooperation.

  “Don’t touch those doors!” he shouted. “They’re hot.”

  Cody moved as much of the crowd out of the room as he could until firefighters finally arrived. They tried to get in though the massive amount of people exiting. Cody detoured the crowd over a couple of feet so they could get to the fire.

  “Kitchen.” He pointed to the swinging doors leading to the kitchen. It was engulfed in flames. “Help me get these people out of here, will you?” he said to one firefighter nearby.

  The smoke was thicker than fog. “Let’s move it! No pushing, please!” Cody yelled. “Move!”

  And all the time, he kept looking for Laura.

  “Have you seen Laura Duke? Anyone seen Laura Duke?”

  “She was in the ladies’ room, the last I knew,” yelled a voice from the crowd.

  “Where?” asked Cody.

  “To the right of the stage.”

  “Thanks.”

  Cody fought the crowd going in the opposite direction to find Laura. The room was down a long hallway, and unfortunately, it shared a left wall with the kitchen.

  Hurriedly, he pushed open the door to the ladies’ room and yelled her name.

  “Laura?”

  He looked under the stalls and saw Laura lying on the floor, coughing.

  Going to her side, he helped her turn over. “Honey, let’s get you out of here.”

  Picking her up, he carried her to the exit doors. He was happy to see that, finally, the hotel staff had arrived on the scene and gotten the hallway cleared out. He was able to walk outside easily with a barely conscious Laura in his arms.

  Cody gently laid her on the floor and pulled his jacket off to put under her head. An EMT set her up with oxygen.

  “Let’s get her to the hospital,” the EMT said, then spoke into a microphone clipped to the shoulder of his shirt.

  Laura’s eyes fluttered, then more coughing.

  “It’s good that she’s coughing,” the EMT said. “It clears her lungs. We’ll get her to the hospital, and they’ll give her some humidified oxygen.”

  Cody reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly. “You’ll be okay, sweetheart. Don’t worry.”

  She tried to talk but coughed instead.

  “I’ll go with you in the ambulance,” Cody said. “Don’t worry.”

  * * *

  In a hospital wing that contained a plaque identifying her grandparents as contributors, Laura squeezed Cody’s hand. “Cody, call Clarissa. Her number is on my cell. Ask her to pick Johnny up at the Double M tonight, and take him home to my parents.”

  Why isn’t the Double M considered Johnny’s home, too?

  “Is your phone in your purse?”


  Her eyes opened wide. “I don’t have my purse!”

  “It’s at the hotel, isn’t it?” He was so worried about Laura, he could have cared less about finding her purse.

  She pulled her oxygen mask up. “It’s where I was sitting,” she said. “Hanging over my chair. Cody, my whole life is in that purse, and the big check to the nursing home is in it, and some—”

  “I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of Johnny. You just relax and breathe.”

  “Your mom knows Clarissa’s number,” she said.

  “Rest, Laura. That’s an order.”

  She opened up one eye.

  “Okay, okay. Make it a request!”

  Cody phoned the Duke Springs Hotel and Conference Center. After being transferred from one person to another several times, he finally got someone to find Laura’s purse and bring it to her hospital room.

  Then he sat and watched her sleep.

  He knew that he should phone her house and tell her parents that she was in the hospital, but he was avoiding it. If they asked, he’d stick to the story that they came separately, and he’d stayed to listen to her speak.

  He walked out into the hallway and looked out the window. It was monsoon season in Arizona, and it was raining like crazy. There would be no unnecessary travel in weather like this due to flash flooding. Taking a deep breath, he punched in the numbers of the Duke ranch house.

  “Hello?”

  It was Penny.

  “Mrs. Duke, this is Cody Masters. Before you hang up, I need to tell you that Laura is in the hospital. Smoke inhalation. There was a kitchen fire at the hotel where she was speaking and she passed out from all the smoke.”

  “Oh no!” Penny started to cry.

  “No, really. She’s going to be okay. I’m with her at the hospital, and they are giving her oxygen. They are keeping her overnight to make sure everything is okay. If it is, she can be released in the morning.”

  “We’ll be right up,” she said. “J.W. and I.”

  “I’d advise you to stay where you are. It’s pouring like crazy and you don’t want to get stuck. Besides, Laura is sleeping right now and can’t really speak due to the oxygen mask they have over her mouth. It’s up to you, but you shouldn’t drive in this.”