“Spill, Max.” Marvin’s horse stirred restively. He controlled the big animal easily.
She tapped her fingers against her thigh. “Why would Dusty be nice and charming with all the other women on this earth but not with me?”
“How do you know he is?”
“Charlie told me, yesterday in the stables.” She muttered, “After he’d entertained half of Rodeo’s female population.”
Marvin bit his lip.
“Are you smiling?” she asked.
“No.”
“You wouldn’t want to do that at my expense, right?”
“Course not.”
“Good. I’m glad we got that settled.”
“Take a hard look at how you treat Dusty,” Marvin said, returning to Max’s original concern.
“I treat him just fine.” If she sounded strident it only made sense. The question made her defensive. She’d treated the man well at first. It had been Dusty who’d gotten her dander up.
Or had it?
“When you brought him home that first day from town, your back was already up.”
Marvin had a point.
“Why?” he asked. “What had he done or said to you?”
Marvin’s incisive stare unnerved her, making it impossible to fudge the truth, let alone outright lie.
“Nothing,” she admitted.
“Then what was your problem with him?”
“The women were all over him.”
“What women?” Marvin’s horse nudged his shoulder to get him to mount up and ride. Marvin ignored him. “Where’d you meet? In the diner?”
She nodded. “You should have seen the women falling all over themselves to get his attention. Asking for his autograph. I need a man to take this job seriously and get this rodeo off the ground.”
“Hasn’t Dusty been working hard at that?”
“I guess.”
“Max, be honest,” Marvin admonished.
“Okay, yes. He’s a hard worker.”
“So it isn’t his work ethic that’s bothering you.” He mounted to ride out after Josh. “As soon as you figure out the rest, come back for another talk.”
He rode off, leaving Max to ponder what the rest meant.
* * *
The following morning, Charlie entered the living room with a worried frown. She set a cup of coffee down at Dusty’s elbow.
“What’s up, Mom?” Dusty asked. His stomach tightened. He’d heard her phone chime a few minutes ago. “Is there something wrong with Dad?”
“No, no,” she soothed but still looked worried. “It’s your aunt Marcie.”
“What about her? Is she hurt?”
“No. It’s her daughter. Belinda’s been admitted to the hospital with preeclampsia.”
“Pre-what?”
“It’s a condition pregnant women get. It’s high blood pressure and dangerous for both mother and fetus.” She waved her hands in front of her. Weird. Mom was unflappable, yet here she was flapping.
“You know Marcie,” she said, “and how she worries about Belinda. She’s such a worrywart.”
Mom’s younger sister was as rock-solid as Mom was. She didn’t flap. She didn’t worry. She’d raised Belinda to be confident and full of backbone.
“What are you up to, Mom?”
“Up to? Nothing. I have to go.”
“Go?”
“Yes. I’m driving home to offer my support to the sister who needs it desperately.”
Dusty burst out laughing.
Mom glared, indignation written across her face. “Belinda’s condition is not funny.”
“No, but you are. You’ve got to be, hands down, the world’s worst actor.” He shifted on the sofa. His hamstring might be protesting a little less today. Marginally. His knee still hurt like a son of a gun. “Cut the crap, Mom, and tell me the truth.”
“Fine.” She sank into an armchair and smiled, back to her usual self. “I’m driving home this morning.”
Dusty pointed to his leg. “And this?”
“You’ll have to find another nurse.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
“Because why?”
She studied him.
“Come on, Mom, you can’t fool me. Tell me whatever scheme it is that you’ve hatched.”
She gave in with a delicate shrug. “Might as well tell you the truth. It’s Max.”
“What about her?”
“I can’t for the life of me figure out what she has against you.”
“Don’t look at me for answers. I can’t figure her out, either.” Dusty took a sip of coffee. His mom brewed a better cup than anyone he knew.
“I think if she has a chance to spend time with you she’ll see what a wonderful person you truly are.”
Dusty choked on the coffee he’d been about to swallow. “Spend time? How?”
“I think she should be your nurse.”
“My nurse? There isn’t a woman on this earth less suited to nursing and nurturing.”
“Now, there you are wrong, son. Have you seen her with Josh?”
He had. She did well by him and gave him plenty of affection.
“She’s not warm and cuddly, Mom.”
“She doesn’t have to be cuddly, only competent. How hard is it to check on you once in a while?”
“Mom, this isn’t like you. You’ve never abandoned me in the past.”
“I’m not abandoning you, but Max and you have to come to terms with each other. She is your boss. You are her employee. I’ve never seen you behave unprofessionally before.”
She knew him well. He’d learned professionalism early on in the competitive world of rodeo.
He’d let his standards slip with Max. He shouldn’t be arguing with her. He shouldn’t be thinking about kissing her.
“You have to work together if you are going to make the rodeo a success.” Charlie stood. “Violet told me how important the success of this venture is to the town. Try to get along with Max. I know you can, Dusty.”
He knew that look, the one that said she wouldn’t be swayed from the course she had set no matter what.
“Okay.”
“Thank you, honey.” She hesitated and he waited.
“Do you think,” she said, “what you and Marvin are doing is right?”
Dusty shifted uneasily. A tough cookie, Max would be okay. Besides, she would never find out, would she?
“Isn’t it unfair,” his mom went on, “to fool a person like this?”
Dusty didn’t know how to respond. He’d never done anything this dishonest before.
“Tell her why you’re here,” Charlie urged. “Tell her that you know Marvin.”
He shook his head.
She raised her hands and then let them drop into her lap. “At first when your dad explained why you were here, I thought it was a good idea, for the sake of the rodeo. Since meeting Max, I have serious doubts.”
“Me, too,” Dusty admitted. “But I don’t know how to change it now. Anything I say will hurt her. She’ll feel like Marvin betrayed her. I’ve got to just help her to make the rodeo as successful as this town needs it to be and then leave. She’ll never know.”
“Are you sure that’s the best way to handle it?”
“Positive, Mom.” Now that he knew Max he didn’t want to wrestle with her about his deceit. Best to get through this ordeal unscathed.
Charlie’s expression admitted defeat. “I did my best. I have to pack. Tell Marvin I washed his bedsheets and remade his bed.”
She made for the door but Dusty stopped her. “Wait, are you honestly torn up about this?”
She sighed. “No, you have to handle this how you see fit, but...” She paused, as if weighing what to say.
“B
ut what?”
She sat back down. “Well, I might as well just come out with it. You’re going about this all wrong. I only say that because I like Max.” Her gaze met his directly. “I like her for you.”
Her meaning dawned on him, as did mounting horror. “Mom...just what the heck are you talking about?” Dusty all but shouted.
She huffed out a breath. “Okay. So let’s see. I want you to be happy. I want you to be in love and to love and to be loved. I want grandchildren. That just about covers everything.”
Grandchildren! Love! Where had this come from? “You’re jumping way ahead of reality,” he said when he could speak.
“Yes, I am, but with good reason. I’ll be the first to admit that you, as my wonderful miracle baby, were indulged as a child. Somehow, you turned out to be a fine young man. Incredibly sweet.”
Sweet? He thought of himself as sexy. Rough and tumble.
“You aren’t spoiled in the traditional bratty sense,” she continued.
“Thanks, Mom,” he said drily. “Why do I sense a but?”
“Because there is one. Plenty of good things in life, and especially women, have come to you easily. Max is one woman you can’t charm.”
Dusty shrugged. “So?”
“So, you’ve met your match, son. I always knew you would. She doesn’t want the charming boy you’ve always been. She wants a man who lives a lot more deeply than you do.”
He scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that a relationship with Max won’t come easily. She could be the making of you as a man.”
Dusty resented his mom’s characterization of him. He didn’t need Max to make him. “Max and I don’t even like each other, let alone are in danger of falling in love, but you’ve got us getting married and having babies.”
“That’s right.”
He shook his head, so damned bewildered. “I barely know the woman.”
“Considering that you hardly know her, you sure have a strong reaction to her. I find that interesting.”
“It’s not interesting,” he shot back. “It’s nothing. Okay? It’s not a reaction to. It’s a reaction against. There’s a difference.”
Charlie crossed her arms at her waist. Rarely militant, his mom sure looked it now. “Explain the difference to me.”
He didn’t know the answer. “Let me put it this way. I don’t find her attractive.”
“Because of the way she dresses?”
“Maybe. I don’t think so. You know that kind of stuff doesn’t carry weight with me. I like what’s inside. A lot.”
“True. I do know that about you. But if the problem isn’t the way she dresses, what is it?”
“She’s too—Mom, I think there’s something wrong.”
“What do you mean? Wrong how?”
He shrugged. “I think there’s some serious stuff going on inside of her that makes her hide herself. The only person I ever see her really let down her guard with is Marvin. The only one I see her really show love to is her son.”
“She might just be an introvert.”
“Probably, yeah, but I get the sense that she’s damaged. Or there’s been some damage done to her.”
“Can’t you deal with it?”
“I don’t know if I want to. I mean, I have a good life. I’m having fun. Why would I want baggage?”
“Good question. Figure it out and call me.”
“No. I mean I don’t want it. I don’t want to take it on when there are so many uncomplicated women out there.”
“True, but uncomplicated women might not be as interesting.”
Dusty thought his mother’s arguments through.
“Let me ask you something.”
“Go ahead,” she said.
“You barely know her. She’s hard-edged and stern. She has no sense of humor that I’ve seen. What on earth do you like about her?”
“Her very sweet vulnerability.”
“She’s not vulnerable.”
“She is.”
“I haven’t seen any trace of that.”
“You certainly have. You always were a sensitive little boy. You’ve grown into a sensitive man, when you want to be and you’re not too busy having fun. You’ve already guessed that she’s damaged. Ergo, you’ve sensed that she’s vulnerable.”
“I haven’t seen any such thing,” he insisted.
“No? Look deeper, son.”
She left the room and returned a moment later with her overnight bag.
She kissed his cheek, said, “Love you with all my heart,” and left the house.
Dusty picked up his empty coffee cup to throw across the room, but thought better of wrecking Marvin’s place.
He set it down on the side table with an audible clunk and pounded the side of his fist on the arm of the sofa, absolutely refusing to play his mother’s game.
Max saw Charlie put her overnight bag into her car.
A frisson that felt very much like panic ran along Max’s nerves.
She didn’t want Charlie to go. She liked her and liked having her on the ranch, just so Max could walk over for a hug.
How needy was that?
She didn’t even know the woman. Not really. Charlie had only been here a couple days and yet...
The thought of her leaving left Max bereft and a little teary-eyed.
She needed—Oh, God, she didn’t know what she needed.
Charlie walked toward her and enveloped her in her arms.
Max sighed.
This was what she needed. How did the woman know?
She blinked to clear her blurred vision, so damned tired of doing it all alone. Of always holding herself together when she wanted to cry.
She loved Marvin. He’d been a rock, but sometimes she wanted someone else to take over for a while, to paddle the unstable tippy canoe of her life across choppy waves to a serene shore, just for a few minutes. Or more. For a few days.
Never in her life had she had a holiday. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken off for the weekend. When had she last had a full day off?
Charlie smelled like a bouquet of roses, old-fashioned and totally, beautifully nice.
Dusty’s mother didn’t let go. Apparently, Max had to do that when she’d had enough.
She never would but forced herself to ease away from Charlie.
“You’re leaving?” Her voice hitched. She hoped Charlie hadn’t heard.
“Yes.”
Charlie explained why, but in her sorrow at losing this treasure she’d only just met, Max missed most of it. Something about a niece and a high-risk pregnancy.
“Come visit me sometime at my ranch,” Charlie said. “Okay? Promise me?”
“I would love to, but I can never get away.”
“You’ll make a point of it,” Charlie ordered. “I can’t come back until next week so you’re going to have to take care of my Dustin.”
“Oh, but—”
Charlie patted her cheek. “Thank you, sweetie. I trust you to do a good job.”
“I couldn’t possibly—”
“I know he can be a handful. You’ll never know how much I appreciate this.” She got into her car and drove off with a cheery wave through her window.
“But...” Max’s whisper trailed off into thin air.
“Welcome to my world.”
Max spun around.
Dusty leaned on his crutches on Marvin’s small porch, judging by his disgruntled expression, none too pleased with this new turn of events.
Well, neither was Max.
“My mom is a force to be reckoned with.”
Max couldn’t agree more, but she liked her. Adored her. Dust kicked up by Charlie’s car drifted to the ground, the rain of two days ago already dried up in
the unrelenting summer sun.
She turned back to stare up at Dusty.
“I’m a terrible nurse,” she said.
“I’m a worse patient.”
They stared at each other in some kind of weird stalemate, both loving and resenting Charlie for what she’d done to them.
A smile kicked up a corner of Dusty’s mouth, an acknowledgment that he understood everything going through Max’s mind.
Max’s traitorous heart stuttered when that shadow of a dimple made an appearance. A thatch of messy blond hair, deep blue eyes, white teeth and also a dimple.
No wonder women fell all over him.
Not her. Immune, she stiffened her resistance. She liked real men who stuck around and worked hard. She liked more from her men than—
That thought had her laughing. Her men? What men? There weren’t any. There had only ever been one, Joshua’s father, and their relationship had been brief.
A one-night love affair.
No way would she share that unfortunate pity-inducing detail with a man like Dusty. He could have any woman he wanted...and probably had.
“We’re quite the pair,” he said. “Terrible and worse. Between the two of us we’ll get by.”
He leaned on his crutches heavily and turned to hobble back into the house, pain making his lips white around the edges.
Not so happy and carefree, after all.
Max could almost feel sorry for him, until her sense of duty kicked in.
“I’ll be back later,” she said. If she sounded like she resented having to do so, well, who could blame her?
She dealt with a full plate every day.
“Mom, ow!” Josh’s voice, sharp and in distress, caught her attention.
She whipped around, her mother’s instincts on high alert.
Josh ran toward her on the brink of tears holding out his hand.
“Look.” He shoved a blood-tinged thumb at her.
Her heart switched from fear to tenderness, melted by his little-boy misery, the fear appeased by the triviality of the injury. “Oh, hey, what did you do?”
“I cut it.”
With a hand on the back of his neck, she steered him toward the main house.
“Bring him in here,” Dusty said. “It’s closer.”
Home on the Ranch: Montana Rodeo Star Page 12