It wasn’t a big place, and definitely not a showpiece like Hendersons. But it looked homey. A comfortable two-story. Maybe a little small with four grown kids, but it was pretty with the sky blue siding and white trim that seemed so popular along the Front Range.
Julie tried to have him wait in the front drive, but he figured that wasn’t fair. He didn’t want her to face her family alone while a “young man” sat waiting out in his car. It simply didn’t feel right.
However, he hadn’t counted on meeting them all at once. It was only when he and Julie walked into the kitchen at the end of the Larson’s lunch (which locals called dinner) that he remembered the stew bubbling away on the kitchen counter. Well, it would be found and consumed shortly, so no need to panic there.
Introductions were made. “Nathan has agreed to drive me down to Great Falls for a morning meeting. I have to go change.” It didn’t fool anybody.
“I’ll be quick,” she whispered and disappeared from the room like a shot.
Five sets of eyes turned on him and their reactions were all different.
Mom looked pleasantly surprised.
The twins looked ready to rough him up, maybe just for the sport of it.
Nathan had expected Julie’s father to be the worst of it, but he was all polite manners: shaking Nathan’s hand in greeting, offering him dinner even though it was clear they were already done, and giving him a glass of lemonade when he turned down the food.
It was the oldest brother, Matthew, who looked the most displeased. He rose silently from the table and stood just as silently with his arms crossed until he looked bigger than Lucy or the moolk that he and Mark had barely survived out at the lake.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” her father started off the conversation. Which was better than the “Who on earth are you?” that Nathan had been expecting.
“I’m staying up at Henderson’s. You may know my brother, Patrick, sir,” Nils Larson was definitely a sir. “I’m out visiting,” though he decided to leave out that he was from New York. From Julie’s comments he’d guess that while an outsider might be unwelcome, someone from New York City or Los Angeles would be considered certifiable. Or perhaps eligible for target practice—Matthew certainly looked at him that way.
“How are you liking the ranch lifestyle?”
“I see much to recommend it. Except for an,” he made a guess, “elk that Mark Henderson and I ticked off the other day.”
“Good man. Served his time and then some. Have you served?” But Nils glowered at his sons. Apparently none of them had either and that looked to be a bone of contention.
Matthew opened his mouth and Nathan hurried his answer to keep the peace.
“No, sir, I haven’t,” Nathan changed back to his earlier topic quickly. “The elk took exception to Mark’s fishing methods and head-butted our helicopter before we could escape aloft.”
“Head-butted a helicopter?” One of the twins remarked in surprise.
“Great big antlers,” Nathan held his arms out wide. “Like great curved platters with spikes.”
“Moose, not elk,” Matthew growled out.
“Oh. Thanks. I’ve lived most of my life in cities, so I wasn’t sure. Mark’s fish dragged the line across the bull’s legs while it was browsing in deep water. It was very unhappy about it.”
“Do you fish?”
“No sir. I cook.”
“Like at a restaurant?”
“I did. Not anymore.” Could he sound more useless if he tried? “I’m helping Ama Henderson while I’m here.”
There was a shift in the room and Nathan could feel it. It was like when a star reviewer was spotted in the restaurant. Everything shifted. Tension went from typical service-scaled worry to full-blown flambé. The only step beyond that would be fire-in-the-kitchen panic.
“And what are your inte—” Matthew had been leaning back against the kitchen counter, but now stood straight to tower over Nathan. Maybe there was a step beyond fire-in-the-kitchen panic—something like Oh no! Oh no! We’re all going to die.
“We’ve got to run,” Julie breezed into the room, now carrying a small backpack. She’d changed and washed her face, but he could still see the dirt line along her neck. Thankfully riding to his rescue rather than wasting precious moments to shower.
“Did you eat yet?” Nils Larson’s manners stepped back in.
“We—” Nathan started, but Julie jumped right in.
“Ama fed us. We’re all set. Come on, Nathan. I’ve got a whole list of errands in the city.”
“The city?” That only had one meaning to him—New York.
“Choteau is the town, Great Falls is the city. Helena is the capital and Bozeman is too far away for anyone to think about,” she was speaking fast, obviously trying to hide her nerves. She turned to her family, “Nathan wanted to see some of Montana while he was here so I agreed to play tour guide if he’d help me with my errands. Gotta go. C’mon, Nathan.”
She was halfway to the door before Nathan had time to turn and shake Nils hand again. “Pleasure to meet you, sir. I look forward to a chance to talk.”
“You may count on it, young man.”
Matthew made the moose look timid.
Julie couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move fast enough.
Nathan pulled his keys out as they crossed the front porch and she grabbed them out of his hand.
“Get the gate. Make sure it latches behind you.” The top was down so she vaulted over the door and slammed into the driver’s seat.
Then couldn’t find the key hole.
Nathan leaned over the passenger door and pressed a big button marked “Engine Start” and it purred to life.
She didn’t need purr. She needed roar.
He strolled to the front gate as if he had all day and her family wasn’t at the windows, breathing down her neck. She never should have brought him here. She never should have brought him with her. Was it too late to pull out? Leave him back at Henderson’s?
But as she rolled through and he (finally) closed the gate behind him, her truck was now home and she wasn’t. There was no way she could take Nathan’s car without him and she actually did have to go to Great Falls.
“Take a breath. First gear. Clutch out with a little gas.” Nathan had climbed into the passenger seat without her noticing. “It’s fine, Julie. Let’s just get some distance so that you can breathe.”
She managed to get them moving, working her way up through the gears until they were flying down the road—washboard and pothole nothing more than low spots to fly over. She finally caught her breath when they reached the pavement and she could really open up the little car’s engine. She still needed roar but it was too well mannered an engine for that. However, the speedometer said they were doing eighty (a speed far beyond the one at which her truck would try to shake itself to death) and she felt much better.
“They seemed nice enough,” Nathan was the first to break the silence.
“Ha!”
“I mean for people who didn’t know what to do with me. Your big brother—at least I assume that’s who he was by his sheer size, almost as big as Mark Henderson—couldn’t decide what kind of machine to feed my soiled remains into: a combine, a scythe, or a shredder. Your father would make a fair job of auditioning for the role of a space alien bearing nasty body probes and a memory eraser—except without the memory eraser. Thankfully his manners were too good to start right away. I think the twins would help hold me down for either of them.”
“Matthew?” Julie puzzled at that one. “He’s always been the only one I could ever talk to. Not even Mom, who is like a straight line to Dad. You actually talked to Dad?”
“Let’s just say that if I ever have to meet him alone, I want Stan to show up in my place.”
“I can’t believe you met them at all. That definitely wasn’t part of the plan.”
“We were just supposed to sneak off to Great Falls and climb into bed together?”
Julie could feel the heat rising to her face and couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
“Wow! Brighter red than the rising sun.”
“When did you ever see the rising sun?”
“When someone kicked me out of my bunk in the middle of the night to go be bitten by a horse.”
Julie stomped on the brakes, skidding the car to skewed halt.
“What?” Nathan had one hand braced against the dash and the other at the center of her chest as if to protect her. His touch calmed her like a bucket of cold water.
“Clarence,” she felt foolish for startling Nathan. “I forgot about Clarence.”
“Julie,” again he used that calm-down-a-riled-bronc tone of his. “I’m sure Chelsea will pamper him plenty.”
Chelsea would. Julie had taken to keeping Clarence there because it was the only way she got to see her horse. She was rarely home while the sun was up—there was just too much going on at Henderson’s. She glanced at Nathan then turned away. Way too much…yet also not enough or why was she here.
She looked back the way they’d come, four long black skid marks that would have everyone down this way talking and wondering for months to come. “How could I forget about my horse?” It was no longer a worry, but still, it just wasn’t like her. She turned to Nathan, “How did I do that?”
Nathan’s soft laugh made her feel more at ease. “I never knew quite how good a compliment could feel. I’m so distracting that Julie Larson thinks of me even before her horse.”
It was true. He leaned over for a kiss. Her soft moan matched his.
The car jerked when her foot slipped off the clutch and then the engine died. He held her for a long moment before collapsing back in his seat.
“I really need to get you in a hotel room soon.”
She couldn’t agree more. Her hands were still clenched on the steering wheel and the gear shift, though her body was humming and she could still feel the heat of his kiss. “Not in Choteau. Everyone there knows me and reports would flow back to my family so fast it would make our heads spin.”
Nathan groaned dramatically, “I’m supposed to keep my hands off you until Great Falls? How far away is it?”
“How fast is your car?”
“What about the speed limits?”
“This is Montana. Those are really just suggestions.”
“Even with New York plates?”
Julie laughed, finally feeling like herself for the first time since Clarence had nipped Nathan’s behind. “Oh, city boy. There are so many things to fix. Are you really worth the trouble?”
“Let’s get to Great Falls and find out.”
Chapter 9
“The Hotel Arvon?”
“It sounded nice.” Nathan had never heard of it, but once they were in close enough range to get a phone signal, he’d done a quick search. All, absolutely all of the other top-rated hotels in town were the big chains. It didn’t bode well for the city. But the Arvon was a recent restoration of the original 1890 hotel and sounded promising. Even more promising, they’d had a room available on a half-hour’s notice.
Julie had done an impressive job of finally proving exactly why he’d bought a sports car even though he rarely left the city and never broke the speed limit. With the top down and the wind in her hair, it was hard to believe he was cruising through Montana and not a car ad. Truckers had popped their horns in loud blats of appreciation for the vision as Julie whipped past at speeds he hadn’t known his car could go. With the heater on and the growing warmth of the afternoon, it was a very comfortable ride.
“Nice?” Julie protested. “It’s the best hotel in town. Can you afford it?”
“I never spend money except on cooking. That plus a rent-controlled apartment for five years. So, a lot of it ended up in the bank for some reason. Besides, I’ll be gladly trampled by your horse if I’m going to take you somewhere less than the best.”
“Oh, Nathan,” she said it on a happy sigh.
It wasn’t New York, but it also wasn’t New York prices.
The block it was on wasn’t very impressive and that worried him. The hotel itself was a three-story, chunky brick building; only copper decorations along the roofline that were long gone green gave it any relief. Or maybe it was green paint. It was sandwiched between a used furniture store and an electrical supply, but the hotel frontage itself looked cheery and welcoming. There was nothing else particularly attractive in the area except an old railroad station a few blocks away. The main street they’d come in along was a mix of old brick and modern that lacked the frontier-town feel that’s he’d been expecting.
Once inside, the hotel was a welcome mix of modern with red leather furniture and Western art on the walls. Julie was practically vibrating with impatience while they checked in. The clerk didn’t even blink at the small knapsacks they were carrying instead of luggage.
When they hit the room, Julie hit him.
Full body slam!
Arms, legs, lips—she was everywhere at once. It was like being attacked by a whirlwind of spring and sunshine.
Nathan tried to slow her down a bit.
It wasn’t working.
There was a frantic edge to her that had him trying to ease back even more. She had his jacket off and his turtleneck as well. Her flannel shirt was wide open, revealing a flat stomach, a fit body, and a simple white cotton undergarment.
“Julie.”
She didn’t respond, just continued her attack.
“Julie!”
Still nothing.
He hooked his hands under her arms, lifted her up, and set her back down with a little space between them. She was nearly as tall as he was, so he didn’t get her moved far, but it helped.
“Julie.”
“What? I thought you wanted to jump into bed with me,” her eyes were narrowed in confusion.
“With you? Absolutely.”
She tried to surge at him again, but he kept her at bay. “Then what’s the problem?”
“With you!” Nathan couldn’t believe that he was holding off a gorgeous woman who was throwing herself at him.
Julie merely looked bewildered.
He took her hands in his and led her to a couch. She tried to protest as he pulled her down beside him rather than toward the king-sized bed. He resisted the urge to close her flannel shirt. Her body was a huge of distraction, but he guessed that pushing her away a second time would be a bad idea.
“Julie. Talk to me.”
“About what?”
He laughed. “That’s a good question. Talk to me about…why you’re here?” She’d been manic since she’d walked into the kitchen in the middle of his lunch preparations.
“I’m here to…” But she stalled out. “Because…I’m so sick of being a good girl!”
That came out with a blast of anger he wasn’t ready for.
“I’m starting my own company, which my father hates. I won’t sleep with every man who thinks I should, which they hate. I won’t marry someone I don’t care about, which my father (again) hates because he wants the help on the ranch. Cattle are more work than you can imagine. Mac and Emily and Chelsea all want me to be madly in love with you. And they—”
“Wait, what?” He almost missed it going by in the tidal wave of angry words she was suddenly flooding out.
“You’ll find him, Julie. Remind her that she likes you, Nathan. Isn’t he just the cutest thing?” She did a fair running imitation of each of the three in turn. Then she huffed out a hard sigh. “Then—” she shrugged.
“Then you decided that if you just jumped me and got it over with, they’d all leave you alone and you could go back to work.”
“Yes. Maybe…I don’t know.” Then she thumped her forehead against his bare chest and left it there. Then she groaned as if in pain. “Real nice for you, huh? I’m sorry, Nathan. You deserve someone better than me.”
“That’s hard to imagine, anyone being better than you.”
“Ha!” But she didn’t rais
e her head and it was a bitter sound.
He slipped his arms around her and brushed his hand down her smooth glory of hair and onto her back. “I’m serious.”
“So am I,” she mumbled against his chest.
He tipped her back until he could see the blue of her eyes. There were tears lurking there. Of frustration, of rage, of sadness? He didn’t know, but he didn’t like them.
Brushing gently at them only made them start to flow. Crying woman. What to do with a crying woman?
Nathan kissed her on the forehead and then on each salty eye.
“Julie?”
“Yep. Julie the mess here.” She didn’t even appear to be aware of the tears.
“What in the world have the men of your past done to you?”
“Bedded me and done,” the harsh edge in her voice cut at him. He knew men like that. Too many. Braggarts in the kitchen about what babe they’d scooped up at some bar. He figured that both sides got what they deserved out of those kinds of places—he’d done it more than a few times and could never seem to scrub off the feeling afterward. Not who he was anymore and definitely not who Julie was.
“I want to make love with you.”
“But you just said—” she blinked at him in confusion.
“Do you want to make love, with me? Not some male, but with me?”
“Oh!” She patted a hand on his chest a few times, the warmth of her fingers trickling over his skin just like the tears still sliding down her cheeks. “With you?”
“Uh-huh.”
She looked him in the eye, really looked at him for the first time since the horse stall three mornings ago. Apparently not trusting herself to speak, she finally nodded.
He’d prefer the words, but didn’t want to push his luck. Besides, she was more of an actions-speak-louder-than-words gal.
So, he scooped her in his arms—and almost dropped her on the floor when he stood. Sweeping a grown woman into bed always looked easier in the movies. Julie was giggling by the time he deposited her on the mattress.
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