Midnight Ride

by Cat Johnson

  He’d woken early and slipped out of the house before he had to explain the dog to his parents, who’d luckily been out when he’d returned home. Immature, avoiding the conversation, maybe, but it was the best he could come up with right now until he figured some things out.

  Maybe he could leave the dog at Rohn’s house at night if his parents really pitched a fit. He looked at her in the seat, happily watching the scenery pass. She wouldn’t be happy about that. Neither would he, truth be told.

  He glanced over as he pulled into Rohn’s driveway and she wagged her tail, just because he’d looked her way. As miserable as he was about the situation with Janie, this little dog could still bring a smile to his face.

  “You excited for your first day of work, girlie?”

  She stood up in the seat, ears forward. This one would make a good cattle dog. She was so eager to please, she’d take commands well.

  And dammit, he needed to name his little girl before she only responded to the nicknames he’d been calling her. Tyler slowed the truck to a stop. Colton’s and Justin’s vehicles were already there. He sighed and braced himself to deal with the guys and Rohn while bearing an unexpected, not to mention uninvited, puppy.

  How did he get himself into such messed-up situations? Tyler wished he knew. Hell, he was basically a good guy. Why couldn’t he catch a break?

  With a sigh he grabbed the pup and tucked her under his arm, mentally preparing to face Rohn. Tyler would grovel if he had to, to get the man to allow the dog on the ranch during working hours, and maybe longer, depending on his parents’ reaction later.

  He glanced down at the little girl in his arms, feeling her heart thunder beneath the hand that held her. “Good thing you’re so damn cute. Let’s hope that’s enough to make Rohn fall in love with you.”

  It hadn’t been enough for Janie, though. Pushing that depressing thought aside, Tyler strode to the kitchen door. “Morning, all.”

  “Morning.” Only Colton answered as three sets of eyes focused on the little bundle of tail-wagging joy in Tyler’s arms.

  He figured he needed a name and he needed one quick. The pup would seem more like an already established part of his life—one he couldn’t part with—if she had a name other than girlie. The image of Janie’s dresser and the old stoneware pitcher filled with white wildflowers hit him. “This is Daisy. She’s going to be working with us from now on. If it’s all right with boss man here, that is.”

  Tyler tipped his head toward Rohn, laying the adorable little dog’s fate squarely on his shoulders. The older man’s brows rose. He no doubt knew Tyler’s plan. That he’d look like the bad guy to everyone if he refused to let the dog on the property.

  “Where’d you get her?” Colton asked.

  “The shelter. She’s a mutt, but they think she’s got some cattle dog in her.”

  Rohn leveled a look at Tyler. “She fixed?”

  “Yes, sir.” Tyler nodded, happy he had an answer that would satisfy Rohn. “The place I got her from won’t adopt out pups until they’re fixed and have all their shots. You can still see where her little belly was shaved from the operation.”

  “A’ight.” Rohn sighed. “If she and Cooter can get along, she can hang around here.”

  No problem there. Cooter was so old they’d long since lost track of his age. A bloodhound, he had no interest in herding cattle. His main goal was to wolf down his bowl of food as fast as possible so he could go back to sleep.

  “Great.” Tyler grinned. “Thanks, boss.”

  “You’re welcome. Now grab yourself some coffee so we can all get to work.”

  “Yes, sir.” Tyler moved toward the coffee machine, but turned back to Rohn. “Here. Hold her for a sec while I grab a mug.” It couldn’t hurt to get his boss good and attached to the dog, just in case she ended up having to live here until Tyler could come up with a better plan.

  Rohn frowned, but took the pup thrust at him. She stretched forward to lick his face and Tyler knew Rohn was a goner. The man shook his head even as his expression softened. “All righty. Enough of that.” He pulled her close to his chest and rubbed her ear with one hand.

  Justin laughed. “She is pretty damn cute.”

  “Yeah, she is,” Rohn agreed, even if his tone sounded as if he was reluctant to do so.

  Mission accomplished. He knew the floppy-eared Daisy with her one blue eye and one brown eye and splattering of brown spots on her short white coat would charm even the hardest heart. Tyler turned toward the cabinet to hide his satisfied grin.

  “So, Rohn, you think any more about asking out Janie Smithwick?” At Colton’s question, Tyler’s good mood fled.

  He poured the steaming coffee and managed to get it all into the mug and not on the counter, but most of his attention was trained on Rohn’s answer.

  “As a matter of fact. I have. We’re going out to dinner tonight.”

  Tyler spun to stare at Rohn. “Tonight?”

  “Yup. I’m taking her to the Italian place.”

  “When did you call her?” Tyler realized he sounded a bit too interested. “I mean, it’s just kind of sudden, is all.”

  “Last night.”

  Last night, right after she had kicked him to the curb. What the hell? She hadn’t wasted any time. Janie had agreed to go out in public on a real date to a restaurant with Rohn. The one thing she’d refused again and again to do with Tyler even though he had asked, and he’d asked long before Rohn had.

  Crap. What did this mean? He couldn’t think past the noise of his pulse pounding in his head.

  Tyler glanced up and saw Justin watching him. Justin was the only one in the room who was aware of what had been going on with Janie. The only one who could even come close to suspecting how hard Rohn’s announcement would hit him.

  “Good for you.” Colton was grinning ear to ear over the news. Seeing his glee increased the sudden bout of nausea roiling through Tyler’s gut. Colton shot Tyler a look. “See? I told you she’d say yes. And you, Justin, owe me twenty bucks.”

  “You two bet on it?” Tyler turned to frown at them.

  “Yup.” Justin glanced at him. “I never thought she’d say yes if he did ask.”

  “Pfft. I knew she would. I should have put money on it with Tyler, too.”

  That would have been a bet Tyler would have lost. Never in a million years would he have believed Janie would say yes. Not after he’d been in her bed, buried inside her. No more than he’d thought Rohn would ever get up the nerve to call.

  He’d called, and she’d said yes. Jesus, he felt even sicker picturing her answering that phone and her agreeing to dinner out. He put his coffee mug on the counter, untouched, as the conversation went on around him.

  “So glad I could provide such good fodder for your entertainment.” Rohn shook his head, but still smiled. Of course he was happy. He was taking Janie out tonight.

  Tyler tried to slow his breaths, which were coming fast and short. He couldn’t stay here. He grabbed his mug and dumped the contents down the sink. “I’m gonna head out and get started.”

  He nearly forgot the pup, still in Rohn’s lap, until she whined when he walked toward the door. He turned back and reached for her, feeling justified that she at least still preferred him to Rohn. Small consolation, that, but it was better than nothing. Right now, that was what it felt like he had after losing Janie. Nothing.

  Though if he could lose her so easily, maybe he’d never really had her at all.

  Tyler pushed through the door of his parents’ house to find his brother in the kitchen.

  Tuck glanced up from snooping under the lid of a pot on the stove. “Wow, you’re home, and early for once . . . and you have a puppy with you.”

  “Yup.” He was in no mood for the third degree or any attitude after the day he’d had. “And you’re here. Still. When are you leaving, again?”

  Putting the lid back with a clatter, Tuck raised a brow.

  “Tomorrow. And what the fuck crawled up your a
ss today? I’ve seen you barely a handful of times since Becca and I have been here, so don’t act like we’re putting a cramp in your social life.” Tuck strode to the table and yanked out two chairs. “Sit your ass down and tell me what’s wrong with you.”

  Now he was in for a lecture. He should have kept his mouth shut.

  “I have to feed the dog first.” He’d forgotten the bag of food in the truck. Tyler thrust the puppy at his brother. “Be right back.”

  The expression on Tuck’s face would have been funny if Tyler wasn’t so miserable. He held the pup in two hands at arm’s length. The two were in pretty much the same position when Tyler returned with the bag of food. Tuck and Daisy, eyeing each other as if neither was sure what to make of the other.

  “Jesus. Give her to me.” Tyler took back possession of the puppy, even though it did make getting a bowl out of the cupboard and pouring the dry food into it twice as hard than if he’d had two hands to use. “You’re supposed to hold a puppy like a baby, not like a bomb.”

  “What do you know about babies?”

  “Not a hell of a lot, but I know about animals, and puppies need to feel safe and feel your heartbeat. It reminds them of their mother.”

  “Oh, really. And how exactly did you become this particular puppy’s mother—or father, as the case may be?”

  “I adopted her from the shelter, and her name is Daisy. I’d appreciate it if you’d use it so she gets used to it.” Tyler sure as hell wasn’t going to explain any more about the events that had led to him being in possession of Daisy rather than the intended recipient, who could at that very moment be getting ready for her date.

  The scowl he hadn’t been able to fight all day returned. He set the dog and her bowl on the floor and then turned back to the cabinet for a second dish for water.

  After she had something to drink, the next stop was going to be the fridge, because he needed a beer. If Tuck had drunk the last of what Tyler had picked up for the family dinner the other night and hadn’t replaced it, he might have to knock his brother out on sheer principle.

  He yanked the door of the fridge open hard and the dozen or so bottles in the door clattered together. At least that was a welcome sound. First one he’d heard all day. Well, except for Daisy whining every time he left her sight. Sad but true, at least that made him feel loved.

  Tyler grabbed a bottle and popped open the cap. “Thanks for picking up more beer.”

  “No problem. Now sit down and talk.”

  He sat, but he didn’t want to talk. “Nothing to talk about.”

  “Okay, well, let me suggest a topic. Did you talk to Mom and Dad about a dog? Because they didn’t mention it to me if you did.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  His brother blew out a sound that said it all, but followed it up by saying, “Tyler, you can’t do shit like—”

  “Tuck, shut up for a second before you lecture me. She wasn’t for me. She was supposed to be a gift. The person I got her for didn’t want her.” He took a long swallow of beer as he remembered how she didn’t want him either, apparently. “And no, I didn’t ask her first. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

  “Her.” Tuck nodded. “I figured this had to do with some girl.”

  “She’s not just some girl. She’s not a girl at all.” His stupid brother always thought he knew everything.

  “So you were serious about this one.”

  This one. As if he had a revolving door of females waltzing in and out of his life. It seemed Janie and Tuck shared the same opinion of him.

  “I really wish I had half as many women in my past as people think I do. I swear.” Tyler shook his head. That was a moot point now since Janie was with Rohn. The puppy, however, chowing down noisily on the food, was not. “If Mom and Dad freak about the dog, I’ll just move out.”

  Probably long past time he got his own place, anyway. Maybe if he’d had one, Janie would have taken him seriously, like she obviously did Rohn, rather than treating him like some kid only good enough to have sex with a couple of times.

  He glanced across the table to see Tuck watching him. “What now? Got something else to lay into me about?”

  “Nope.” Tuck smiled.

  “You better tell me what’s got you amused before I knock that smile right off your face.”

  Tuck snorted. “Try it and you’ll be looking a lot less pretty in the morning. And I’m amused because I think my little brother has finally gotten his heart broke.”

  His brows rose. “And that’s enjoyable for you.”

  “That you finally are serious enough about something or someone to care about losing it, yeah, I am happy about that. I was starting to worry you’d never settle down.”

  Tyler lifted the bottle in a toast. “Glad to oblige.”

  The clock on the wall high above the sink caught his eye. Five o’clock. What time was Janie’s date? And how many more beers would it take before he didn’t care anymore?

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Janie stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, debating whether it was too late to call Rohn and cancel this . . . whatever tonight was.

  Maybe if she knew what this was, it would be easier to decide whether to go or not. Was it a date? A business meeting? A widow/widower support group? Two neighbors just sharing a meal?

  She patted more flesh-colored cover-up into the dark circles beneath each eye with the tip of one finger. If she’d actually get a decent night’s sleep, she could probably forgo half of her makeup and she’d still look years younger.

  With a sigh, she turned away from the mirror and headed for the bedroom. What to wear was the next issue. She couldn’t look like she was dressed up since they were only going to the place in town, but she couldn’t dress in her usual jeans and boots either. And her outfit couldn’t be too sexy. She didn’t want to give Rohn the wrong impression.

  It had been years since Janie’d had to worry about what clothes she put on. Not during her marriage and not since. As long as she looked presentable for church, the rest of the time she dressed for comfort and utility. Even when Tyler was coming around, she didn’t worry whether she was in the soft old T-shirt she slept in or the jeans she’d worn to muck the stalls.

  That thought gave her pause. While she’d been in the middle of her fling—for lack of a better word—with Tyler, she’d come up with every opportunity to make things hard. Only hindsight cleared her vision of the situation and made reality undeniable. When it was just them at her house alone, things had been easy with Tyler. She hadn’t realized how easy.

  It was only her fear of the outside world creeping into what they had that made it seem hard. The problem was, there was no keeping the rest of the world out of her private little space forever. And that was why Tyler wasn’t here tonight, and she was dressing for what she hoped was not a date with Rohn, but could very well be one.

  A glance at the clock told her she’d better get a move on. He should be over in less than half an hour to pick her up, and she wasn’t dressed for the night yet.

  Staring at the clothes hanging in the closet didn’t help. Nothing jumped out at her and said wear me, so she started at one end of the rack and flipped through the contents, one hanger at a time.

  Some of the stuff in there hadn’t been worn in years. She really needed to go through her clothes. Since she wore the same things—her favorites—over and over again, she could probably donate half of her things to charity and never miss them. The choices began to overwhelm her, until she thought she’d lose her mind if she didn’t pick something soon.

  The clock was ticking. Janie reached out and grabbed the casual cotton dress she’d worn to Sunday service the other week. It would have to do. If it was good enough for church, it was good enough for the Italian restaurant in town, and it required no thought on her part. No coordinating a shirt with a skirt. It fit. It looked decent, and it was quick and easy to throw on.

  Sad that her life and her wardrobe had been reduced to what was the ea
siest. She should probably work on that, but not tonight. Tonight she had too much else to deal with thanks to this strange dinner invitation.

  Another trip to the bathroom to check her reflection, where she fluffed her hair even though it just fell right back to where it had been, and she was done. Janie grabbed the purse she’d filled with the essentials she’d need for her dinner out—she refused to call it a date—and headed downstairs.

  Rohn, as she’d expected him to be, was right on time, pulling into her driveway at two minutes to six. His effort to be punctual was endearing, even if his arrival ramped up her nerves.

  She was halfway out the kitchen door as he jumped out of the truck and headed to meet her. “Hey, Janie.”

  “Rohn. Nice to see you again.” She pulled the door shut behind her.

  “I was gonna come to the door to get you.” He looked a little disappointed as he said it.

  “No need. I saw you pull in, so . . .” Janie shrugged.

  “No use waiting.” Rohn dipped his head and smiled. “You always were the kind of woman who liked to do things on her own.”

  Janie wondered what woman Rohn was talking about, because it sure wasn’t her. She’d always felt like she’d relied on Tom and their hired men too much. That she felt the loss of their help so keenly proved that.

  She forced a smile. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  He tipped his head to the side. “Eh, women rarely see their own virtues.”

  Her brows rose at what seemed like a compliment, though she wasn’t sure. “I guess.”

  “Should we go?”

  “Sure.”

  With a nod of his cowboy hat, he laid a hand on the small of her back to steer her to the truck. The physical contact, even as small as it was, seemed so strange, she was glad when they reached the passenger door and he moved to open it for her.

  They lived in a small town, and nothing was very far from anything else. That proved to be a good thing as the small talk in the truck cab lagged.

  “So the place looks good,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road as he navigated the way to the restaurant.