Kitabı oxu: «The Rancher's Blessed Event»

Chapter One

Emily Dunn bolted upright in the bed. Her heart was thundering in her chest and nothing about the dark room felt familiar.

Jerking her head to the right, she saw a row of curtained windows. Back to the left, her eyes fixed on a nightstand. There, beneath a table lamp, the red glowing numbers of a digital alarm clock glared twelve forty-five.

Slowly her senses began to right themselves and everything came rushing back to her. The accident. The funeral. The awful realization that her husband was never coming back.

Swinging her legs over the side of the mattress, she reached for a robe lying at the end of the bed. It was a cold October night, but whatever had awakened her so abruptly had left her sweating beneath her nightgown. She swiped a hand against her damp forehead, then stood on shaky legs to pull the burgundy velour robe over her bare arms and shoulders.

Knowing sleep was out of the question now, she headed to the kitchen to make herself a cup of cocoa and switch on the radio. Snow had been predicted in the mountains around Alto, Ruidoso, Lincoln and Hondo. An hour ago when she’d gone to bed, the sky over the ranch was low and gray, but no snow had yet fallen.

Halfway to the kitchen Emily stopped in her tracks. She was certain she’d heard a rattling noise outside. Perhaps something other than her troubled thoughts had interrupted her sleep? It could have been a piece of loose sheet iron whipping in the wind, but an inner feeling told her something or someone was out there.

Quickly tightening the sash of the robe around her waist, she hurried to the nearest window and pulled back the curtain. Throughout the ten years she’d lived on the Diamond D, she couldn’t remember them ever having a prowler or anything stolen. But now that Kenneth was dead someone might view the place as easy pickings. The ranch was located on a lonely stretch of land north of the valley where the mountains turned to desert. Certainly no one came here unless they meant to.

The noise came again and this time Emily decided it was definitely the rattle of a stock trailer. What in the world was going on? Her father, Harlan, would never drive over here in the middle of the night unless it was an absolute emergency. At ten, she’d spoken to him briefly on the telephone and he’d been on his way to bed. As for the rest of her family, they would never show up in the middle of the night without calling first.

An uneasy chill swept through her as her mind began to spin. Her uncle Roy was the sheriff of Lincoln County. She could call him. But he and Aunt Justine lived a good thirty minutes away. She didn’t want to disturb them unless it turned out to be a real emergency. Besides, if a thief was already out there, he could drive off with a whole trailer load of cows and horses by the time the law could get here.

Her jaw grimly set, she walked quietly but quickly back to the bedroom and took a .30.30 rifle down from a rack on the wall. A box of bullets was in the nightstand. Her heart tripping over itself, she loaded the rifle full, then jacked a shot into the barrel. She didn’t intend to shoot anyone. But she wouldn’t hesitate to scare the hell out of them.

Rifle in one hand, she pulled on a pair of cowboy boots, then dropped a cellular phone into the pocket of her robe. If she did find more trouble than she could handle outside, she would at least be able to call her uncle Roy for help.

Moments later, she slipped soundlessly from a door at the back of the house. Wind was blowing from the north and Emily realized the mist stinging her face was actually bits of snow too fine to see in the dark.

Shivering from cold and fear, Emily made her way to the corner of the house, then carefully peeped around the edge toward the barn. The yard lamp at the corner of the corrals would normally have illuminated the front of the barn, but the light had been broken for months. What little moonlight there might have been was blotted out by the clouds. The most she could discern was the back of a two-horse trailer.

Realizing she had no one but herself to handle things, Emily stepped away from the shadow of the house and moved stealthily toward the barn.

Whoever had driven here was more than likely in the barn, looking for saddles or tack to steal, she decided. A good saddle was always worth several hundred dollars. Especially if the saddle had been handmade as were the ones on the Diamond D. She’d be damned before she’d let someone take them!

Inching forward, she could see the club cab pickup pulling the horse trailer. It was a fairly late model with Texas plates. This thief was obviously a long way from home. Not to mention traveling in style.

She was creeping closer to the open doorway of the barn when suddenly a light flared on inside the building. Stopping dead in her tracks, she held her breath and waited. Only a bold thief would turn on a light.

A few more seconds passed. A horse nickered, but nothing else stirred. With sudden decision, she stepped into the open doorway of the barn, the rifle aimed and ready.

“Who’s in there?” she called loudly. “Come out or I’m going to shoot!”

Two horses Emily had never seen before were tied to the top rail of a nearby stall. Both animals, a bay and a gray, skittered nervously at the sound of her raised voice.

To the left of her, hinges creaked. Her head twisted in the direction of the sound and her heart beat like a drum in her throat as she watched the door to the feed room slowly swing forward. When the man finally stepped out and into the dim light, she stared in shock as the room seemed to tilt around her.

“Cooper? Is that you?”

The man slowly pushed the brim of his Stetson back off his forehead, then turned to face Emily head-on. Inclining his head toward the .30.30, he asked, “Is that the way you greet people on the Diamond D now, or just me?”

It suddenly dawned on her that she was still pointing the barrel of the rifle straight at him. Lowering the weapon, she drew in a bracing breath and took a couple of shaky steps toward her brother-in-law.

“No one prowls around in my barn at this time of night. What are you doing here?”

Cooper didn’t miss the my in her answer or anything else about the woman standing a few steps away from him. It had been a long time since he’d seen her. Ten years to be exact. Yet he would have known her in a crowd a thousand miles away from this place.

“This was as soon as I could get here.”

Emily hadn’t expected him to get here at all. And the fact that he had stunned her ability to think, to do anything but continue to stare at him. Slowly and purposely her eyes took in everything between his brown boots and gray hat.

He looked as he had ten years ago, she decided, only a little older. His hair was still a tangle of sable brown curls against the back of his neck. Beneath the gray down jacket he wore, she could glimpse his trim waist and muscled thighs. If he’d put any weight on his six-foot frame, she couldn’t see it.

Cooper had never looked anything like his brother Kenneth, who’d been blond with a heavier build and smooth, almost classical features. The difference in the two men struck her even more as her gaze settled on his lean face. Cooper could not be called a handsome man. The bone structure of his face was roughly chiseled, his lips thin and his eyes hooded. Yet put all together he had a striking, masculine appearance. One that she had certainly never been able to forget.

“Kenneth’s funeral was two days ago,” she said bluntly.

His gray eyes caught and held her blue ones. “I figured as much. But the news of his accident didn’t catch up to me until yesterday. I’ve been driving ever since.”

If that was supposed to make her feel better, it didn’t. His few hours on the road to get here didn’t make up for ten years of neglect.

“I really don’t know why you bothered to come at all.”

Cooper’s gaze slid over the silk curtain of blond hair lying against Emily’s shoulders, the slender curves of her body beneath the heavy robe. She had to be thirty-five or six now. The same age as himself. Yet she looked far younger. And oh so achingly beautiful.

“Kenneth was my brother. That’s why I bothered.”

So he wasn’t here because of her. Emily had known that, but hearing him say it cut her anyway. Which was ridiculous. Cooper had never really cared for her. She’d known that for a long time now.

Gripping the rifle, she said, “I’m cold. I’m going in. Are you staying here tonight?”

Her question brought a twist to his lips. “You might not think so, but the Diamond D is still my home.”

Her brows arched with disbelief. He’d not stepped foot on the Diamond D once in ten years. She couldn’t see how he could still consider it his home. As far as she knew, the man didn’t have a home.

“That’s debatable,” she said stiffly, then turning to go, she tossed over her shoulder, “I’ll make you up a bed.”

“Emily.”

Pausing at the door she looked back at him. The moment her eyes connected with his, warm, sweet memories flooded her mind and brought searing tears to her throat. She wanted to run straight to him and cry her heart out against his chest. It was a shocking, reckless feeling that overwhelmed her with guilt. Yet it was there inside her just the same.

“I just wanted to say... I’m very sorry about Kenneth.”

And so was she. For so many reasons. “Me too, Cooper.”

She left the barn and Cooper turned back to his horses. And in that moment he realized he’d never felt more alone in his life.

Fifteen minutes later he found Emily in the kitchen. She was still in the robe and cowboy boots, but thankfully the rifle was nowhere in sight.

Shrugging out of his jacket, he hung it and his hat on a peg by the door, then turned and let his eyes drink in a room that had once been so much a part of his life. Other than the curtains on the windows and the Formica table being replaced with a wooden one, it looked the same as Cooper remembered.

Though the room was bare now he could easily imagine what it had looked like two days ago when they’d buried his brother. The kitchen had probably been crammed with friends and distant relatives. All sorts of food dishes would have lined the cabinets and tables. There had surely been lots of tears and hugs meant to comfort, and talk about what a good man Kenneth had been, and how tragic it was for him to have been killed in the prime of life.

Cooper was actually glad he hadn’t been here. He could do without all those people with their endless questions and pointed looks. Without having to ask, he knew people around here considered him the black sheep of the Dunn family. The prodigal son who’d waited too late to come home.

“I’m making cocoa. Would you like a cup?” she asked, breaking the silence.

The room was cold. He drew closer to her and the cookstove. “Yes. It’s been a few hours since I’ve eaten.”

Not trusting herself to look at him, she motioned with her head toward the refrigerator. “There’s plenty of leftovers if you want to dig them out.”

In other words she wasn’t going to bother feeding him. Well, Cooper hadn’t expected her to go out of her way to see to his comforts. But he had planned on her being a little bit warmer than this.

“The cocoa will be enough,” he told her.

Her eyes remained fixed on the saucepan of milk as she stirred it back and forth with a hypnotic rhythm. In the brighter light of the kitchen, Cooper could see the lines of fatigue on her face, the deep bruises of lost sleep beneath her eyes.

He’d expected to find her grieving. After all, Kenneth had been her husband for nearly ten years. Yet the longer he studied her, he decided she was more weary than anything.

“I was in east Texas yesterday. Before that, Montana. I’m sorry I missed Kenneth’s funeral.”

Emily doubted the sincerity of his words. Yet he was here now. She should at least give him credit for making any sort of appearance, she decided.

“The eulogy was very nice. The church was packed—even some of my old accounting clients came—and I’ve never seen so many flowers.”

Her voice was wooden and Cooper wondered if she was deliberately making it so to keep from breaking down in front of him.

“I’m glad for that much at least. Can you tell me what happened? The message I got only stated that Kenneth had been killed by a fall from a horse. Is that right?”

The cocoa was bubbling around the edges. Emily carried the pan over to the cabinet counter and filled two large mugs. At the end of the table she placed a mug for him, then sat down with her own.

“You know how Kenneth never would let a horse get the better of him,” she began. “But this one was mean all the way through. I’d begged him to get rid of it but—” Her eyes on the mug in her hands, she shrugged. “He didn’t listen to me.”

Cooper joined her at the table. “Was this a green horse he was breaking?”

It seemed incredible to Emily that she was sitting here talking to him as if he’d never really been away. As if nothing had ever happened between them. Down through the years she’d imagined him coming home so many times and how it might feel to see him again. Yet none of her imaginings came close to the strange mixture of pain and joy surging through her at this moment.

“No. It wasn’t a young horse he was just breaking,” she answered. “He used the gelding to work cattle and ride fence line. But the animal was temperamental and Kenneth had to watch him every second. The day he...I’d gone into Ruidoso and he’d planned to go check on a bull he’d been doctoring. We don’t really know what happened. It appeared the horse spooked for some reason and started bucking. Kenneth fell and it snapped his neck.”

Cooper drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. His brother had always been a good rider. But even the best of horsemen got caught off guard at times. He knew that as well as anyone.

“Are you the one who found him?”

She shook her head. “I was out looking for him. Along with my dad and Uncle Roy and several of his deputies. Daddy was the one who found him.”

He sipped the cocoa and rubbed a hand through his dark hair. “It’s hard to picture Kenneth not being able to handle a horse. He was always so good with them.”

In spite of Cooper’s long absence from the Diamond D, Emily could see he was feeling a loss for his brother. Her heart almost softened toward him. Almost, but not quite.

“It wasn’t really the horse that killed him. It was the liquor,” she said bluntly.

Cooper’s gray eyes narrowed on her pale face. “Liquor? What are you talking about? My brother never drank.”

Glancing away from him, she lifted the mug of cocoa to her lips. After she’d managed to take a couple of swallows, she asked, “How do you know?”

Rage at the loss of his brother, his home, and all that had happened ten years ago surged up in his craw like bitter acid. “Kenneth was your husband, but he was also my brother,” he said stonily. “I knew him.”

The bit of compassion she’d felt for him a moment ago vanished. “Yeah. Back when? Before you became a big rodeo star? Well, I’m sorry, Cooper, but the brother you knew wasn’t the one that fell from a horse and broke his neck.”

Something flickered in his gray eyes. Doubt? Guilt? Whatever it was sliced into Emily like the edge of a rusty razor.

“What are you trying to say? Had Kenneth become an alcoholic?” he asked.

She realized what her words were probably doing to him. Cooper had always looked up to his older brother. From what he’d once told her, Kenneth had been a steadying influence to him after their parents had died. Then later, when Cooper had decided to try his hand at bronc riding, Kenneth had urged him on like a proud papa. If either of the Dunn brothers had possessed a wild streak, it had been Cooper, not Kenneth.

Emily’s blue eyes were suddenly snapping with anger as she looked at him and it dawned on Cooper this was the most emotion he’d seen on her face since he’d arrived.

“No. Kenneth wasn’t an alcoholic, but it was in the makings. I told him not to ever get on that horse if he’d been drinking. But he did anyway. A man with drunk reflexes shouldn’t be on a gentle nag, much less a loco cow horse.”

Cooper felt physically ill. When the news of Kenneth’s death had reached him all he could think was what a senseless way to die. But now—what Emily was telling him made it far worse. “You know for a fact Kenneth had been drinking? You’d said you were gone to Ruidoso. You couldn’t have seen him.”

Emily pushed aside her unfinished cocoa and got up from the table. “The autopsy report stated there was enough alcohol in his bloodstream to make him well past the legal point of drunkenness. I’m sorry, Cooper, but that’s the way it was.”

He stared up at her in disbelief. “You’re sorry!”

Before she could make a reply, he jumped to his feet and grabbed her by the upper arm. “That’s all you can say, you’re sorry?” His face bore down on hers. “What the hell were you thinking, Emily? Why did you let him get on a horse in such a condition? What were you doing?”

Her features cold and stiff, she ripped her arm from his grasp. “What were you doing, Cooper?”

Her pointed question stunned him. His hand fell away from her arm, but his gray eyes mercilessly held onto hers.

The sick look on his face didn’t give Emily any pleasure and she decided they had both said enough for one night. None of it mattered anyway. Kenneth was gone. And so would Cooper, too. Probably by the end of the day.

Turning away from him, she started out of the room. Before she reached the door, she said, “I made up the bed in your old room. If you want any breakfast, I’ll have it ready by seven.”

Cooper wanted to call her back, but he didn’t. It was late and he could see she was exhausted. Now wasn’t the time to press her about his brother. But he would before he left here. And he’d make damn sure he got some answers.

The next morning Emily was frying bacon when Rose, her stepmother, called. Holding the portable phone with one hand, she forked the frying bacon with the other.

“I’m just checking on you,” Rose said. “Did you sleep last night?”

Emily closed her eyes and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. For twenty-three years Rose had been her mother in every sense of the word and throughout that time her love and gentle kindness had never wavered. Nor had it ever failed to touch Emily’s heart.

“A little,” she told her.

Picking up the weariness in her voice, Rose said, “You need more than a little sleep. Your dad is going to the horse sale with a friend so I’ve got the day to myself. Why don’t you go back to bed after you eat and I’ll come over and see to the chores for you.”

“You did that yesterday,” Emily reminded her.

“And it didn’t hurt me one little bit Now tell me if you need me to bring you anything and I’ll be over in an hour or so.”

Emily dropped a piece of bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels. “No,” she said quickly. “Don’t do that. I’ll be fine.”

“But honey, I want to help you.”

“I know,” she said, then decided she should explain. “Cooper came home last night.”

The line went quiet as Rose digested her daughter’s abrupt news. “Is he there now?”

Emily glanced over her shoulder to make sure the man hadn’t slipped into the kitchen without her knowing. “Yes.”

“How long does he plan to stay?”

“He hasn’t said and I haven’t asked.”

Rose went silent for another long spell. “How does he seem to be taking Kenneth’s death?”

“I think he’s still in a bit of shock about it.” And Emily was still in a shock over seeing Cooper again.

“Well, I know the two of them were close at one time. But frankly, I’m surprised the news brought Cooper home. He’s never bothered before. And what can he do now?”

“I’ve been thinking the very things you just said.”

“So you don’t really know his intentions?” Rose asked.

“Not yet.”

Rose groaned. “Oh Lord, Emily, I wished the man had stayed gone. Harlan isn’t going to like this one little bit. He hasn’t forgotten how Cooper hurt you. And if he’s come back with plans to take over his half of the ranch—well, all I can say is I see trouble.”

His half of the ranch. Like a cold north wind, the words rushed through Emily. It was true that Cooper and Kenneth had shared ownership of the ranch since their father had died fifteen years ago. But Cooper had never seen fit to take any interest in the place. Neither with money nor his presence. She couldn’t see that changing just because Kenneth was no longer here.

“You’re borrowing trouble, Mom. Cooper doesn’t have any intentions toward the Diamond D. Why would he? He’s a big rodeo star now. He has all the money he needs. And anybody with one good eye can see this place is falling down around my ears. No. You can rest assured Cooper couldn’t be bothered.”

“I hope you’re right, darling. You have enough on your mind without something like that. You haven’t told him anything, have you?”

Emily switched off the burner beneath the skillet and took a peep in the oven at the baking biscuits. “What do you mean? About the accident?”

“No. About you.”

Emily quickly glanced over her shoulder again. A few minutes before her mother had called, she’d heard Cooper head down the hall to the bathroom. Any second now she expected him to walk into the kitchen.

“I have no intentions of telling him anything about my condition. It’s none of his business. And I’d appreciate it if you’d tell Daddy and the rest of the family not to say anything if they happen to run into Cooper.”

“Is there a reason you don’t want him to know?”

She bit down on her lip as several reasons came to mind. “He...doesn’t need to know, that’s all. Now I’ve got to finish breakfast. I’ll call you later, Mom.”

“All right, honey, if that’s the way you feel. You know your daddy and I are here if you need us.”

Knowing she had her parents’ support was one of the things that had kept her going. “And I love you for it. We’ll talk later.”

She placed the phone out of the way then gathered a couple of pot holders and pulled the pan of hot bread from the oven.

“Something smells good. Is it biscuits?”

Emily glanced around just as Cooper walked into the room. Even though she knew he’d slept across the hall from her last night, it was still a shock to the senses to see him this morning.

He hadn’t shaved but she could see he must have taken a quick shower because his dark hair was wet and slicked back from his face. A red plaid shirt hung half buttoned on the outside of his jeans. His feet were bare except for a pair of white socks.

“Yes, it’s biscuits. And you shouldn’t be walking around without your boots. The floor is gritty. You’ll ruin your socks.”

He gave her a twisted smile. “I’ve been known to get grit in my boots before.”

No doubt, she thought. He’d made his living in thousands of dusty rodeo arenas. It shouldn’t matter to her if he ruined ten pair of socks on her dirty floors. And it shouldn’t feel so good to look at him, either. But it did.

Carrying the pan of biscuits over to the table, she motioned for him to take a seat at one of the empty plates. “How do you want your eggs? Scrambled or fried?”

“Fried, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

She went to the stove, broke four eggs into a skillet of warm grease, then carried a coffeepot back to the table and filled his cup.

“Are you always up and going this early?” he asked.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Normally I’m up and about much earlier. But I’ve tried to get a little more rest these past few days.” Not that laying in bed an hour and a half more did any good, she thought. She still felt drained and groggy, but she was determined to get better, to be able to smile and laugh again.

“You look tired.”

As she tended the cooking eggs, her free hand unconsciously fluttered to her bare cheek. With no makeup and her hair pulled back in a messy French braid she knew she must look awful. Her work jeans and old blue sweater didn’t help matters, either. But for the past couple of years, she’d ceased to think of her appearance as important. How irritating for Cooper to notice and point out such a thing to her.

“Ten years can do a lot to a person’s looks.”

He picked up the steaming cup of coffee and savored the smell as he brought it to his lips. After a careful sip, he said, “I didn’t say you looked older. I said you looked tired.”

The eggs done, she carried the skillet over to the table, ladled three onto his plate and one on her own.

As she took a seat opposite him, her eyes briefly met his and she wondered, if like her, he was remembering back to the breakfasts they shared ten years ago.

Emily hoped not. She hoped that once he’d left the Diamond D, he’d totally forgotten the unabashed way she’d loved him, the nights she’d spent cradled in his strong arms. Just thinking of the pleasure he’d given her sent a shaft of guilty heat rushing through her.

“I’m really okay,” she told him.