He smelled lunch cooking as they walked down the long hallway that led to the good-sized dining room where the hands ate lunch every day. Breakfast and supper were prepared and eaten at the bunkhouse, but the Chance family believed in gathering the whole crew together for lunch.
Nash gave a lot of credit to that tradition and Mary Lou’s down-home meals for creating such loyalty among the hands. Mary Lou Sims had been in charge of the Last Chance kitchen for as long as Nash could remember. An independent woman in her mid-fifties, she’d remained stubbornly single until last summer, when she’d finally married the ranch hand everyone knew by his last name, Watkins. She’d kept her own last name, insisting she preferred the sound of it.
When Sarah and Nash entered the fragrant kitchen, Mary Lou had both ovens and three burners going. She moved quickly around the space with the precision developed over a thirty-year career. When she’d checked everything to make sure all was well, she turned to them with a smile, her wispy gray hair sticking out in all directions. “What’s up?”
“Nash is going into town and I wondered if you needed anything,” Sarah said.
“I expect you’ll be going by the Lickity Split,” Mary Lou said, “so you can tell your mother about buying the Triple G.”
“Yes, ma’am, I will.” Nash felt like an eight-year-old being reminded of his chores. Only a few people could take that tone with him. Mary Lou was one and his mom was another.
“Then while you’re there, I’d like you to pick up three gallons of chocolate peanut butter swirl. I’m letting the boys have ice cream tonight, besides the popcorn. They don’t know that yet, so don’t tell them.”
Nash grinned. “I won’t. But that’s a nice touch. I thought Pete’s idea of setting up a screen and projector outside was brilliant. But adding in chocolate peanut butter swirl is even more brilliant. That might wipe the sulky expression off Ace’s mug, at least for a little while.” He almost wished he’d be there to see it, but he had a date with a carpet and a hot woman.
“That was part of my devious plan. I’m gunning for that Ace kid.” Mary Lou glanced over at Sarah. “Did you mention tomorrow night yet?”
“Not yet.” Sarah turned to Nash. “Morgan says Bethany’s very nice, and I have to agree with that assessment if she’s willing to work with you on financing that ranch. We’ve been remiss in not doing this sooner, but I’d like to invite her to dinner tomorrow night. It’s the neighborly thing to do.”
Nash tried not to panic. It was only dinner. No big deal. Except he didn’t believe that for a minute. He should have seen this coming. Everyone on this ranch was dying of curiosity as to why he’d suddenly gone from Bethany’s handyman to the guy being offered the ranch on a silver platter. Knowing him as he’d been in the old days, they’d all jumped to the same conclusion.
It wasn’t the right conclusion, though, he told himself. He hadn’t seduced Bethany in order to sweet-talk her into selling him the ranch. She’d done the seducing. He’d even been afraid that having sex with her had ruined his opportunity to buy the ranch.
Fortunately it hadn’t, and she wasn’t offering it to him because they had fun in bed. At least he hoped to hell that wasn’t the reason. She’d told him that she didn’t want to risk selling it to someone who’d tear it down. That was her story and he was sticking to it.
Sarah peered at him. “Nash, is anything wrong? You look as if you’re in pain. Do you have a stomachache?”
“No, no.” He quickly ran a hand over his face. “I’m fun...I mean fine. I’ll ask Bethany about dinner. I’m sure she’d love it.”
“Good.” Sarah continued to study him with a worried look in her blue eyes. “The Grace family has always concerned me, but the parents weren’t particularly social, especially the father, so I gave up trying to establish a friendship. Jack doesn’t remember Bethany at all from school but she was much younger than you two boys. Gabe and Nick say she kept to herself. But she’s doing you a good turn, Nash, so I’d like to thank her for that.”
“And I know she’ll appreciate it.” Nash decided to skedaddle before he put his foot in his mouth. “Anything else you need from town, Mary Lou?”
“Just the ice cream. Hang on a minute. I’ll get you a cooler and a couple of ice packs so it’ll keep on the way home.” She hurried into a large pantry.
Sarah continued to watch him. “You’re not upset about this dinner, are you, Nash? I don’t have to do it. I just thought—”
“It’s a great idea, Sarah. Thank you for coming up with it.” He wasn’t about to throw her hospitality back in her face. He knew Bethany wouldn’t do that, either. But it could be a tense evening as he worried about advertising their close relationship and she worried about being recognized as a bestselling author.
“Okay, then. As long as you’re fine with it, you might as well invite your mother and Ronald while you’re in town. They’ll want to come.”
Nash felt his chest tighten. So everyone wanted to get a look at Bethany, the poor woman. “Sure.” He tried to make his response light and breezy. “I’ll be happy to invite them.”
“We’ll have a good time.”
“I’m sure we will.” He gave Sarah an encouraging smile despite the dread rolling in his stomach.
Moments later, armed with the cooler and a couple of ice packs, he left the house and was soon driving one of the ranch trucks down the bumpy road to the main highway. He never could have imagined that investigating a column of smoke rising in the blue Wyoming sky would lead to all this commotion. But ending up with a ranch of his own was worth any angst he felt now.
Less than fifteen minutes later, he cruised into the little town of Shoshone, which still had only one stoplight at its lone intersection. He glanced around at the small collection of businesses with a new sense of belonging. Soon he’d be a man with a ranch, a man who could buy livestock and a man who could sit on his front porch in the evenings and enjoy a cool one.
That made him so happy he nearly ran the red light. Screeching to a stop, he looked across the intersection to the Spirits and Spurs, the bar that Jack’s wife, Josie, owned. Josie insisted the historic bar was haunted by the ghosts of cowboys who used to hang out there. She called them Ghost Drinkers in the Bar. Sometimes she could be coaxed into singing a rendition of “Ghost Riders in the Sky” with the lyrics changed.
Nash decided that after he closed on the Triple G, he’d invite all his friends to the Spirits and Spurs for a celebration. He might even ask Jack to drive him there. He’d be quite likely to tie one on after he became the proud owner of a ranch.
His list of errands was trickier than he’d thought. He’d have to get the ice cream last, which dictated going to the feed store first. That meant talking to his new stepfather, Ronald Hutchinson, without giving anything away, because if he did, Ronald would be on the phone to his new wife over at Lickity Split before Nash could get there.
So he shopped quickly, smiled a lot and said very little to Ronald. Then he drove straight to the ice-cream parlor.
When he walked in, his redheaded mother grinned at him. “Knew you were coming.” She walked around the counter and gave him a hug. “Ronald said you were at the feed store and you seemed to be in a powerful hurry.”
“That’s because I have to tell you something before you hear it from anyone else, and that’s a real challenge in this town.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re engaged to that Grace woman!”
“No! Good Lord, no. Why would you think that?”
“Well, everyone in town is speculating about you two. They say she’s real cute, and she’s single. You’re also very cute and single, and you’re working out at her place, and neither of you is getting any younger.”
He sighed. “That’s true. I’ve aged several years in the past two minutes.” He scowled at her. “Mom, for crying out loud. I wouldn’t get e
ngaged to someone I’d known for a few days. I don’t care if she’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, I still—”
“Is she?”
“Is she what?”
“The cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”
“Well...uh...”
“I knew it! Your eyes are sparkling like they haven’t sparkled in a long time, and that Grace woman is the only change I know of in your life, so I figure she’s the reason.”
He took her by the shoulders. “I’ll tell you the reason, and it’s not because I’ve fallen for the Grace woman—I mean, Bethany. It’s because she’s agreed to sell me her ranch. I’m going to have my own place!”
“Good!” His mother reached up and pinched his cheeks. “Good for you. Are you and the Grace woman going to live there together? I don’t mind if you want to do that. It wasn’t right for Ronald and me. I felt we had to get married, but—”
“We won’t be living there together.” Nash wished he’d said that without a catch in his voice, but maybe she’d missed it.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” No, she hadn’t missed it.
“Look, I like Bethany, but she’s returning to Atlanta at the end of the week. That’s where she works.”
His mother looked smug. “For now.”
“She’s not coming back here, Mom. She has an important job in Atlanta and she’s staying there.”
“Then she’s stupid.”
“No, she certainly is not. And if you’re going to take that attitude toward her, then I don’t know if you should come to dinner at the Last Chance tomorrow night.”
His mother clasped her hands together. “Sarah’s having a dinner? Bless that woman. Of course Ronald and I will be there. I’m just sorry your sister and Hutch aren’t in town so they can get a look at this Grace woman.”
“Her name is Bethany.”
“I’ll be sure and call her that, too, unless she goes by Beth. Some Bethanys shorten their name to Beth, so maybe I should ask her.”
“It’s Bethany. She doesn’t shorten it.”
“So you say the whole blessed thing, too? I would think when you two get cozy, you’d want to shorten it up some.”
Nash could think of no way to tackle that comment so he remained in his own silent hell and wondered how he’d ever make it through tomorrow night’s dinner.
“I mean, when Ronald and I are getting lovey-dovey, I call him Ron, and he calls me...well, never mind what he calls me.”
“I’m glad you spared me that, Mom. Okay, I need three gallons of chocolate peanut butter swirl, and then I have to get back.”
“Of course you do. But Bethany must really like ice cream if she’s going to eat all that in less than a week.”
“It’s not for her. Mary Lou’s serving it to the boys tonight.”
“Oh, well, then what kind of ice cream does Bethany like? You should take her some when you see her tonight.”
“Mom!”
“It was just a suggestion. If I were Bethany I’d want you to bring me some of your mother’s excellent ice cream.”
He folded his arms and stared at her.
“All right, all right. Come back to the freezer and I’ll load you up with the chocolate peanut butter swirl.”
He didn’t get away with just that, of course. It was easier to accept a free pint of fudge ripple for Bethany than argue about it. Yep, tomorrow night would be a real rodeo. Fortunately, he had one more night alone with Bethany before his friends and family blew the lid off their private little affair.
11
THANKS TO MORGAN’S CONTACTS, two burly cowboys had arrived at ten in the morning and had carted away every stick of furniture from both the living room and Bethany’s parents’ bedroom. A couple of hours prior to that, Bethany had boxed up all the clothes from the master bedroom closet and the rickety dresser. The two men had taken those boxes, too.
That had left her with two empty rooms and the itch to rip up carpeting, but she’d promised not to. She hadn’t promised not to rip up the kitchen linoleum, however. Of the two jobs, it had to be the easier one. The glue had dried years ago and the linoleum gave little resistance as she broke it off in chunks and carried it to a trash bin on the little stoop outside the kitchen door.
This floor looked like pine instead of oak, but Bethany thought that might work well for a kitchen that would take some wear and tear. She’d recommend to Nash that he distress the pine so any future scratches and marks blended right in. Anything was better than the ghastly green-and-white-marbled linoleum that someone, probably her dad, had put down.
During one of her trips to the back stoop, she paused to admire the view of the Tetons. As a kid she’d sat out there quite a bit. Her mother had talked about enlarging the stoop into a porch because the view was so spectacular, but Bethany’s dad hadn’t worked up any enthusiasm for it, so the project had been scrapped.
Even though taking up the linoleum wasn’t particularly hard work, the job consumed most of the day. After showering and putting on clean shorts and another halter top, she brought a light supper of chicken salad and a glass of wine outside so she could watch the light changing on the jagged mountains.
She was still there when she heard Nash’s truck on the road. He was a little early, but that was fine with her. She could hardly wait to see him and show him the empty rooms.
Carrying her plate and wineglass inside, she set them on the counter as his boots hit the front porch.
“Bethany?” He opened the screen door. “So help me, if you’re ripping out that carpet, I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” She walked through the dining room doorway, hands on hips. Once again he’d left his hat in the truck. But he was still her fantasy cowboy, looking yummy as ever, and he’d arrived bearing gifts. He was holding something in a white paper bag.
“Doesn’t matter.” He glanced around. “You didn’t do it.”
“No, because I promised I wouldn’t. You’re not the only one who values a promise, cowboy.”
He gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry I doubted you, sweetheart.”
“But what if I had ripped it out?” She was curious about his reaction. “What would you have done?”
“I dunno. Maybe I’d pin you down and tickle you. That’s about as nasty as I get. Then I might have given you a massage, because you’d be sore as hell after doing all that.”
“Ooh, a massage. Now there’s a consequence I’m interested in.” She walked toward him. “Are you good at massages?”
He gathered her into his arms and whatever was in the bag bumped against her fanny. “I’ve been told so. Take off your clothes and I’ll give you a demonstration.”
“Not yet.” She wrapped both arms around his neck and leaned into his solid warmth. Whatever was in the bag was cold. She’d guess it was ice cream from his mother’s shop. “Let’s rip up the carpet first.”
“I hope that’s a euphemism for crazed jungle sex.”
“’Fraid not, Tarzan.” She rubbed against his growing erection. “You’re going to have to tame that bad boy until all this carpet is out the door.”
“You’re not helping.” He cupped her bottom with one large hand and brought her in tight. “If you don’t want to end up on your back in the next ten seconds, you’d better stop rubbing your sweet body against my cock.”
Her breathing quickened. “You tempt me more than you know, cowboy.”
“Good. Invite me back to your bedroom and I’ll tempt you some more.”
“Gonna smear ice cream all over me?”
“What an excellent suggestion. And here I thought bringing you ice cream was a dumb idea. Just don’t tell my mother what we did with it.”
“I doubt I’ll have the chance, since I wasn’t planning on meeting her.”
His blue eyes
lost their teasing light. “Um...I think you will be meeting her.”
“I will?” Bethany had a moment of panic. “She’s not out in your truck, is she?”
“No, she’s not. Take it easy.”
“Whew. For a minute there, I wondered if she’d insisted on coming out to see this ranch you were buying.”
“No, she wouldn’t interfere like that. But...Sarah’s organized a dinner party for tomorrow night, as a thank-you for...for deciding to sell me the ranch.”
Bethany stared at him in disbelief. “To thank me? She doesn’t have to do that. I told you that this is as much for my benefit as yours. It’s a win-win situation.”
“I know, but Sarah thinks of me as an adopted son, and she knows how much I’ve wanted my own place. Getting this ranch, which is right next to the Last Chance, means we’ll be neighbors, and she’s very happy about that. And grateful.”
“I see.” Bethany had grown up here and she knew as well as anybody that the Chance family was royalty in this area. An invitation from Sarah Chance was an honor, one not to be taken lightly or, heaven forbid, refused. But it made her uneasy to think of socializing when she didn’t want to be recognized.
She could tell Nash wasn’t any more comfortable about the invitation than she was. “Who will be there?”
“Sarah and her fiancé, Pete Beckett, the one who dreamed up the youth program, and—”
“That’s a plus. I’d like to find out more about that. He sounds like a cool guy, somebody I could invite on my talk show.” Then she remembered nobody was supposed to find out about that, or her books. “But I can’t mention my career. I’ll have to watch what I say.”
Nash sighed. “Yeah. That’s the dicey part.”
The cold carton was beginning to numb her fanny. “Let’s put the ice cream away and we can plan our strategy while we rip out carpet.”
I Cross My Heart Page 12