Best of Cowboys Bundle

by Vicki Lewis Thompson, Barbara White Daille, Judy Christenberry, Christine Wenger, Shirley Rogers, Crystal Green, Nina Bruhns, Candance Schuler, Carole Mortimer

  “You don’t have to. I will.”

  His eyes narrowed. “The Porters don’t take charity.”

  “It’s not charity. Karen can pay me back out of the profits. With my connections, I figure I can get a model for about five hundred dollars an hour, plus expenses.” She knew that would get him.

  He raked his fingers through his hair. “For cryin’ out loud. This whole thing is getting out of hand.” He seemed ready to make a quick exit.

  “All you have to do is go about your regular business and my photographer and cameraman will be as unobtrusive as possible and take some shots of you. And then we’ll chat together for the commercial.”

  Buck would undoubtedly be miserable through the whole thing, but she was prepared for that. He was silent, but shifted on his feet as if he was deciding what to do.

  “Dammit. All right. I’ll do it if it’ll save the money.”

  She knew she’d backed him into a corner, but no one could represent the spirit of the Rattlesnake Ranch better than Buck.

  “It won’t be all that bad,” she said, hoping to placate him.

  “Yes, it will,” he snapped, heading for the door. Then he stopped and turned toward her. “Merry, would you mind seeing that Cait gets to bed by eight-thirty? I have to drive up to the line shack and update Ty about Karen. I should be back before then, but in case I’m not…”

  “I’d be glad to watch Cait. Go ahead.”

  “Thanks for dinner. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  He clamped his hat on his head, grabbed his boots and was gone before she could say another word.

  Chapter Seven

  B uck slipped behind the wheel of his pickup. He could have easily sent one of the hands or another one of the hands with the message for Ty, but he wanted to do it himself. He needed to do some thinking and let off a little steam.

  A model? Him? He was a rancher for heaven’s sake. He punched the top of the dashboard with his closed fist.

  The pain that shot up his arm didn’t make him feel better, but the other things that Merry had said made him grin. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she had been looking at him—and liking what she saw.

  Killer blue eyes?

  And she had been thinking about him without his shirt on.

  He thought of Merry in the tree bed yet again. How he’d like to join her there and wondered what it’d be like if they made love.

  Was there a passionate woman under her uptight, businesslike demeanor?

  He heard a rumble of thunder and saw lightning flash in the distance. A storm must be brewing. Just like the storm that was churning in his mind.

  He hadn’t stopped thinking of Merry since he’d met her. She’d behaved foolishly with those burros and the lizard, but it made him want to protect her. He liked the way she’d brought him coffee in the morning, even if it was flavored. How she was able to get some reaction from his daughter.

  If Merry could only get Cait to open up a little more, he’d be eternally grateful.

  But she was a TV star. He was only a rancher. There was no future for them. He had nothing to offer her, no more than he’d had to offer Lisa Daniels, who turned down his offer of marriage, or Debbie Dalton, who’d accepted—and then divorced him.

  He remembered the night he was going to ask Lisa to marry him. It was on a Friday night at Gordo’s, a bar in Mountain Springs. He was just about to pop the big question when Lisa informed him that she was breaking up with him.

  The Wednesday before, she’d met a wealthy plastic surgeon while she was waiting tables at the Road Runner Restaurant and was leaving to join him in California on Monday.

  Then there was Debbie, his ex-wife. She wasn’t as kind. One afternoon, she told him that she’d met a Nashville record producer while Buck was in Phoenix with Caitlin. The producer convinced Debbie that he’d make her the next Reba McEntire.

  There was an ugly scene in the barn, with Debbie yelling and him yelling back.

  Debbie’s words still echoed in his mind. “I never wanted this life, Buck, but you went and got me pregnant. Now I’m stuck with a brat and a husband that’s never going to amount to anything.”

  Debbie had never looked back. She got what she wanted, he supposed. Her records were climbing the charts, she’d made a couple of videos and had performed on a country-music awards show.

  And he’d got his divorce papers in the mail almost immediately after her departure.

  Since Lisa and Debbie, he’d made it a habit not to get involved in a serious relationship. Maybe a nice little mutual pleasure with Meredith Bingham Turner was just what he needed.

  A fling with Merry could only be that—a fling—and nothing more. They were just too different. Plus, he already knew that when it came to money, control and ambition, Merry made Lisa and Debbie look like amateurs.

  Clouds of dust swirled in front of him. He lowered his speed and flipped on the radio to hear the weather report and to distract himself from more thoughts of Merry.

  “Heavy rains moving in,” the announcer said. “No unnecessary travel and stay out of the washes.” Buck could see lightning off to the right, over the Dead Horse Mountains.

  He shouldn’t have left Cait and Merry alone. Merry had probably never experienced a monsoon before, with its torrential rain and the accompanying light-and-sound show. No doubt she’d be scared out of her wits. Caitlin would be scared, too.

  Normally, he’d radio Cookie or the boys in the bunkhouse to check on them, but they’d all gone to town tonight to raise a little hell and hear the Lizard Rock Cowboys play.

  Buck would probably be back before the worst of it started. As long as he could reach the top of Indian Bonnet Butte, he’d be able to reach Ty on the CB and tell him about Karen. Cell phones just didn’t work out here.

  Buck liked the monsoon season. He loved to watch the forces of nature at work, as long as everyone was safe and secure and not on the roads or out in it.

  And Merry sure was something to watch, too.

  Damn, there she was, intruding on his thoughts again.

  The wind picked up and the rain started pummeling the truck as if thousands of horseshoes were being thrown at it. He pulled over to the side of the road, deciding to turn back. Just as he did, he heard a horn beeping, and Ty’s dark green pickup pulled up alongside his.

  Buck rolled down his window. The rain poured into the truck and onto his face and arm.

  “What the hell are you doing out in this, big brother?”

  “I was hoping to get close enough to reach you on the CB and tell you about Karen.”

  “What’s wrong?” Ty yelled over the noise.

  “Her operation was moved up. Emergency situation. It’s over, and she’s fine now.”

  “Great.” Ty wiped the water from his face with his shirtsleeve. “Meet you back at the house. You can tell me more.”

  “Wait.” Buck wanted to tell him that they had a guest and not to go charging into the house half cocked or he’d scare Merry, but Ty was already on his way, driving way too fast as usual.

  He swore and wondered if he would have been as carefree and as reckless as Ty if he hadn’t been stuck with so much responsibility at such a young age.

  Well, maybe stuck wasn’t exactly the right word. He just did what he had to do.

  If he had the money, he’d ask Ty or one of his sisters if they’d take over the reins of the ranch for a while. He wanted to sit on a beach somewhere and wile away the hours reading Zane Grey. Not too long, maybe a month or so would do it before he got bored out of his mind, but it sure would be nice.

  He hadn’t been off the ranch for eight or nine years, with the exception of a couple of rodeos or bull-riding events when he needed some quick money. As much as he loved the Rattlesnake, he had to admit that he could use a break—from everything.

  But Karen had dropped plenty of hints about starting her own florist shop and nursery in town some day. Lou had plans to hang out her own shingle. Ty still wasn’t sure what
he was going to do, but he had a restlessness inside him that would keep him wandering. Which left the full responsibility of running the ranch on Buck’s weary shoulders.

  Not to mention the added task of keeping an eye on Meredith Bingham Turner and making sure she didn’t dress up his ranch—his home—in ribbons and bows.

  As he cut the motor in front of the house, he heard a familiar scream. Then he saw Ty running down the porch stairs just as a pot headed for the back of his skull. He slid on the last step and fell face forward into a puddle as the pan clanked down the stairs and landed with a splash next to him.

  Ty looked up and blinked, mud and rain dripping from his face. “Who was that?”

  Buck laughed and offered a hand to help him up. “That, baby brother, is Meredith Bingham Turner, TV star and all-around celebrity, and the best screamer in all of the United States.”

  Buck sprang to his feet as the roar of a motor cut the early morning silence. Headlights shone through the picture window, lighting up the living room and blinding him. In a quest to find his jeans and a weapon, he fell over the coffee table and blurted his favorite expletive.

  “What’s all the noise?” Meredith appeared from the bedroom, robe in hand. Her eyes blinked in the glare of the lights until she shaded them with her hand like a sun visor. “What’s going on?”

  Buck froze in place, unable to take his eyes off her. She wore a slip of a nightgown in a blue-green color, which became transparent when she stood by the window. Her curves were outlined, and she looked unworldly, ethereal. He ached to run his hands over her skin, to touch every part of her…But first he needed to find out what the racket was all about.

  Merry turned her attention to the window, and her nightgown became even more transparent. Finally, she slipped on her robe, which helped a little.

  “I’m sorry they woke you up, Buck. It’s my staff.”

  He looked at her. “Your what?”

  She pointed. “There’s Tim, my photographer, and that’s Buzz, who’s going to shoot the TV clip and the commercial.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And Joanne, my new assistant and publicist.”

  Buck couldn’t believe the intrusion. “What the hell are they all doing here at four o’clock in the damn morning?”

  “I forgot to tell you.” She slapped her forehead. “They flew in on a red-eye from Logan Airport and then drove from the Tucson airport. I’m surprised that they found the ranch in the dark.”

  “What luck,” he snapped.

  Buck knew he was crankier than the occasion deserved, but it had taken him hours to drift off to sleep on the couch after thinking about Merry all night, only to find himself dreaming of her. Now, after being rudely awakened—and seeing Merry looking all sleepy and sexy and silhouetted in the light so her nightclothes just about disappeared—he was more frustrated than ever.

  It was starting off to be one hell of a day, and he knew it would only get worse when he had to pose for pictures.

  “Cait’s still sleeping.” Merry grabbed a serape from the couch and wrapped it around herself. “I’ll let them in and tell them to keep it down. Then I’ll make us all some breakfast.”

  “Do what you’ve got to do. I’m headed for the bunkhouse.”

  “Please stay and meet them.”

  He didn’t answer. He didn’t want to meet anyone at this time of the morning no matter who they were.

  He was never going to like strangers invading his house—not now, not ever.

  He opened the front door to make his escape.

  “Don’t forget, you agreed to model,” Merry whispered. “We’re going to need you right after sunrise.”

  He bit back the reply that sprang to his lips.

  As he hurried down the front stairs, it was all he could do to keep himself from jumping into his pickup, pointing it away from the Rattlesnake and stepping on the gas.

  Merry could see the stunned expression on Joanne’s face the second she saw Buck running down the stairs shirtless, shoeless and zipping up his jeans. He did manage to plop his hat on his head. The next second, Joanne’s eyes became wider when she saw Merry adjusting her serape.

  “That’s some nightgown under that blanket,” Joanne said.

  Okay, it might be too much for the Rattlesnake Ranch, but she’d got the nightgown and robe on sale at Filene’s and had tossed it in her suitcase without thinking.

  Joanne took her by the arm and led her into the ranch house away from the gaping mouths of her staff.

  “A cowboy?” Joanne asked, eyebrows raised.

  Merry felt her face heat. “It’s not what you think.”

  Joanne held up a finger in warning. “Let me remind you that I’m still running interference from your last indiscretion.”

  “Indiscretion?” She shook her head. “My personal life is my own business.”

  “Not when you’re in the public eye. If you haven’t noticed, the tabloids haven’t gotten that message. They’ve had a field day with George Lynch and his kiss-and-tell tales.”

  Merry’s stomach churned with anger. She wanted to scream at the woman. “Buck is my friend’s brother. That’s all. He’s also going to be our model, and he’s one of the owners of this ranch.”

  Joanne looked around the room and turned up her nose. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.”

  Merry took a deep breath and counted to ten. They didn’t think along the same lines, didn’t mesh. But to her credit, Joanne had helped deflect some of the negative publicity surrounding George Lynch.

  “Let me grab a quick shower and get changed,” Merry finally said. “Please have the crew take some film and pictures of the sunrise and some other filler shots. I’d like everything done by this afternoon, so you can all head home.”

  “The sooner we’re done, the better.”

  “Exactly,” Merry said under her breath.

  “What’s going on at the homestead, big brother?”

  Buck poked his head out of the shower stall at the bunkhouse, and saw Ty pulling over a battered metal chair and stretching out his long, lanky legs. His sandy-brown hair needed a cut, and he was sporting two days’ worth of beard. His eyes always twinkled, and trouble always found him, but when Ty wasn’t brawling or chugging down a longneck, he was really a closet intellectual.

  “Dammit, Ty, can’t you give a man some privacy?”

  His brother’s grin was infectious, and Buck could never stay mad at Ty very long.

  “So,” Ty repeated, “what’s going on?”

  “Meredith Bingham Turner is off and running to change a ranch house into a dude ranch like you and the girls wanted. Her staff just rolled in.”

  “And that bothers you?”

  He soaped his chest with a fury. “You know it does.”

  “You still have that failure thing going?”

  “Failure thing?”

  “The silly notion that you failed in your quest to keep the ranch the way it always was.”

  Buck stopped in mid-soap. He could deny it, but Ty hit the nail right on the head. “What? Are you going to be a shrink now?”

  Ty shrugged his shoulders. “Two years ago I was going to be a botanist. Shrink was three years ago. This year, I’m taking the time off to figure out what I want to do.”

  “How time flies when I’m paying the bills.”

  “Big brother, I’ve taken out some loans myself and you know it. But talking about money is a bore, and I’ve been working off my debt here. But tell me about Meredith. She’s quite the looker. Married? Single?”

  “Single.”

  “Did you stake your claim already?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  Ty rubbed his chin. “Hmm…I think you are definitely interested in her, Bucklin Floyd.”

  “Get the hell out of here and let me finish my shower. I need to look pretty this morning. I’m the damn model for the advertising brochure and whatever the hell else.”

  Buck knew he shouldn’t have divulged that
little tidbit of information. He’d never hear the end of it.

  Ty got up slowly, but he struck quick. He grabbed Buck’s cheek and pinched. “You’re already pretty, Bucklin,” he said, then fled as his brother lunged for him.

  He’s absolutely gorgeous, Merry thought as Buck approached the corral. His shoulders had never looked wider and his eyes had never looked bluer. A long-sleeved chambray shirt was tucked into jeans that he’d been born to wear, and Merry wondered if the shirt was as soft to the touch as it looked. His lean waist was circled by a brown leather belt with turquoise stones and conchos and was held together by a large, oval silver belt buckle that glistened in the sun.

  He had a slight smile on his face, as if he had just heard a good joke. Maybe he wasn’t as mad as she thought he’d be.

  “We couldn’t have hired anyone that perfect,” Joanne whispered, just as Merry was thinking the same thing.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Buck said to Merry. “What do you want me to do?”

  Before she had a chance to answer, Joanne grabbed his arm and steered him toward the gate. “Let’s pose you feeding the horses in the barn or something.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at Merry and she knew she had to rescue him.

  “Joanne, I’ll take care of this project. I promised Buck that we wouldn’t pose him.” She pointed to a picnic table. “How about if you set up the outdoor picnic scene? You’ll find the things I want to use on the kitchen counter inside.”

  With Joanne again out of the way, Merry returned to Buck. He was leaning against the fence of the corral, looking at his horses. Now, this was a natural shot of a man who clearly enjoyed what he did. A man comfortable in his skin. Where on earth was her cameraman?

  She took a deep breath. “I know I said that we wouldn’t pose you, but how about a little shirtless hay forking, or whatever you call it? The sun’s perfect overhead. I don’t know how to ask this, so I’ll come right to the point. Do you mind if I spray you with water? You know, so it looks like you’re sweating?”

  She couldn’t quite meet his eyes.