“I don’t think so, Zac,” she shot back.
“We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?” he tossed over his shoulder with a wink, making his exit with a half smile lingering on his lips.
Delaney watched with a warm flutter inside her chest as he climbed into his truck. She didn’t even try to deny her attraction anymore. She wondered what might have passed, had she not balked.
Zac continued to surprise her. He actually wanted kids? When she’d decided on artificial insemination she’d never given any thought as to how the father of her child might feel about it. If she and Zac did this, didn’t he have the right to know his child? And would it really be fair to bring a child into the world without a chance to know his or her father?
A sudden unbidden vision came to mind of the stolid Zac McDaniel holding a baby in each of his arms with a goofy grin pasted on his face. Her chest gave a painful squeeze.
Damn him for doing this to her.
She’d given up on love and romance and happily ever after. All she wanted was a baby to fill the empty space in her heart, but now he’d made her ache for more. She shook off that dangerous thought. No, Delaney. You have a plan. It’s solid and simple. All you have to do is stick to it.
CHAPTER FIVE
Zac spent the next few days trying not to think about Delaney—to no avail. What the hell was he signing on for anyway? She was talking artificial insemination for Christ’s sake! This whole thing was crazy. Ty had implied that she’d lost her mind, that her biological clock had pushed her over the edge. Was he about to jump off the cliff of insanity with her? Instead of hours rolling around with her in a big king bed, he’d have to submit to needles and jacking off into a Dixie cup? But Delaney wanted a baby and he wanted Delaney. If shooting a load into a test tube gave him another shot at her . . . He’d made the offer but had yet to hear her answer.
Maybe it was time for a new strategy. He plucked the phone from his pocket and dialed.
“Hello?” Delaney answered, sounding breathless. He wondered why.
“It’s Zac. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Not really,” she replied. “I’m just fixing some fence.”
“You aren’t pulling wire by yourself?” he asked.
“Uh. Yeah. Someone has to fix it.”
“Don’t you have hired help to do that kinda thing?” She certainly had the money to hire several hands. Why the hell had she chosen to do it all herself? “Pulling wire’s hard work to do all alone.”
“I can handle it. I’ve done it before.”
“Where are you? I’ll come help.”
“I’ve got it, Zac,” she insisted, sounding mildly irritated.
“Why is it so damned hard for you to accept help when someone offers it?” he asked. “Life is hard enough as it is, Delaney. Why choose to make it harder on yourself than it has to be?”
“It’s no big deal, Zac. Cows push posts over all the time. Who do you think’s been fixing it this all these years, the fence fairy?”
He had to stifle a chuckle. Delaney had already proven she was no shrinking violet, but it also seemed the former Miss Yellow Rose had grown a few thorns. The woman had more grit than anyone gave her credit for.
“Accepting help doesn’t mean you’re weak or incompetent, Delaney. We all need a hand from time to time.”
“I’m sorry, Zac. I’m not used to anyone offering.”
“Wait a minute,” he said, suddenly putting two and two together. “You share miles of common fence with the Circle B. Are you saying Tom never helped you?”
“Tom’s first loyalty was always to Ty. He’d never refuse to help me, of course, but he didn’t exactly go out of his way to make things easier on me either, so I never asked him.”
“You shouldn’t have had to ask,” Zac said. “Helping when someone needs it is just being neighborly.”
“Maybe, but most of my ‘neighbors’ around here want me to fail and go back to Houston.”
“Was Tom among them?” Zac asked.
“Maybe. I know for certain his foreman was one of them.”
“You mean ol’ Bart?”
“Yeah. Bart. That mean ol’ fart made no secret that he doesn’t like me. That’s why I tried never to ask for anything.”
“But Bart doesn’t like anybody, me included. He also doesn’t run the place anymore,” Zac said. “If you need something, I’m here for you.”
“Thanks for the gesture,” she said softly. “I appreciate it.”
“It’s not a damned gesture,” he almost growled. “I mean it. If there’s anything you can’t or don’t want to handle, Delaney, I want you to call me.”
“Thank you, Zac. If there’s anything I can’t handle, I promise I’ll call. I really have to get back to this fence. Was there a reason you phoned?”
Her question brought him back around to his purpose. “Well, yeah. I called because I’m going to look at some bucking bulls for Ty. There’s a big herd reduction at an outfit just north of Laredo. I hear they’ve been producing some pretty rank stock by crossing some bucking lines with fighting bulls. Any chance you’d like to come along?”
“To Laredo?” She hesitated, calculating the distance. “You’ll probably stay overnight, won’t you?”
“Yeah. If you wanted to go, I thought we could spend a night in San Antonio. We can get separate rooms if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I don’t think so, Zac,” she finally replied. “I appreciate the offer, but I really can’t get away right now. Too much work to do.”
“Do you want me to take a look at the prospects for you? You’d probably do better if I negotiate for you anyway.”
“Why’s that?” she asked, bristling with resentment. “You think I don’t know a good prospect when I see one?”
“Don’t be so defensive, Delaney. I only meant they might try to take advantage of you, given that most people know you have a lot of money to throw around.”
“Oh. I thought you meant—”
“I didn’t.”
“I’m sorry, Zac. I’m just so used to people misjudging me.”
“Really? How ironic,” he mumbled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing all along with me?”
“How?” she asked.
“First, you blamed me for your divorce. Then, at the auction, you assumed I was stealing your heifer. Since then, you’ve implied more than once that I have the morals of an alley cat. You don’t think a whole lot of my character, do you?”
“I’m sorry, Zac. I admit that I thought you only wanted sex, but there’s no reason for you to go to such ridiculous lengths for it. Maybe I jumped to a few conclusions.”
“It’s time to stop jumping, Delaney. I’m not one of those people who want to see you fail. I respect what you’ve accomplished.”
“You do?” Her tone rose in surprise.
“Damn straight,” he replied. “I’m in your corner and I intend to stay there.”
“You really mean that?”
“I say what I mean.”
“I appreciate that, Zac,” she said softly.
“Call you again when I get back?” he asked.
“Sure,” she replied. “I’ll be around.”
Delaney hung up with mixed feelings. Maybe she’d been too hard on him, but it had only been a few days since all this started, certainly not long enough to prove anything. Part of her had wanted to accept Zac’s invitation, but what she really needed right now was some distance and objectivity. Every time he even looked at her, she felt herself weakening just a little bit more. He’d made it clear he was determined to wear down her resistance. Laredo was over eight hours away. How much resistance would she have left after spending the better part of two days and one night with him?
Pocketing her phone with a sigh, she turned back to the job at hand. She hated pulling wire, but with Zac planning to buy bulls, it was time to reinforce the woven wi
re fence with a strand of barbed wire. The last thing she needed was for one of his bulls to come through it into her herd.
After rolling out the spool and pulling the wire, she was fighting with the ratchet when her hand slipped. Almost instantly, the metal barbs pierced her worn leather glove and penetrated into her thumb. She dropped both the tool and the strand of wire with a curse. The wound stung like a bitch, and blood had begun saturating the leather. Ripping off the torn glove, she examined the wound and then rifled through her utility cart for the first aid kit she always carried on the ATV.
Damn it all! She knew it was her own fault. It would have made perfect sense to ask Zac to help her with the fence, but stubborn pride hadn’t allowed it. Now that same pride would require her to make a trip to the Frederick Urgent Care Center for a tetanus shot as soon as she finished.
Two of her young bulls, Romeo and Caesar, approached, watching intently as she bandaged her thumb. Figuring they were just curious, she paid little attention, until Romeo turned broadside and lowered his head with a snort. Young bulls often challenged one another, but they were too close to her and to the roll of barbed wire. She recognized the danger of the situation when Caesar replied in kind.
Leaping over the ATV, Delaney watched from the relative safety of the other side. Although she’d bottle-fed them both as babies, these weren’t babies anymore. They were easily eight hundred pounds, and with only a few yards separating them, any further move on her part could easily divert their aggression to herself.
Her heart raced in panic when Romeo dropped his head and hooked the loose wire with his horns. He charged Caesar, popping several yards of wire from the staples that had anchored it to the posts. Torn loose, the new section of wire snapped back into a tight coil, catching the bull around the legs. Icy-cold fear clogged her throat.
Shit! Shit! Shit! This was far beyond anything she could handle alone. If there’s anything you can’t or don’t want to handle, Delaney, I want you to call me. Zac. She needed Zac.
Sliding her phone out of her pocket, she hit her call history and dialed.
Zac had just pulled out of his drive headed for Delaney’s place when his phone rang. Although she’d refused his help, there was no way his conscience would allow him to go all the way to Laredo without checking on her first. He plucked the phone from his pocket and stared at the number. It was Delaney. Was something wrong? They’d spoken less than an hour ago.
“Zac here,” he answered tersely.
“Zac? Thank God I got you!”
The urgency in her voice hit him straight in the gut.
“What’s happened? Are you okay?”
“I’ve got a bad situation,” she said. “One of my bulls is tangled up in barbed wire. I need some help. Are you still around or can you send somebody?”
“I’m here. I was just headed to your place. You got tools to cut it?”
“Yes,” she replied, “But I can’t get close enough to do anything.”
“The best way to do this is to tranq him, but I don’t have any drugs. Do you?”
“No. I don’t. I called Kevin, but he’s on another emergency call on the other side of Duncan. Even if he left now, he’s still over an hour away.”
“Kevin?” Zac repeated with a frown. “Who’s Kevin?”
“Kevin Clarkson,” she replied. “He’s my vet.”
“That bull’s not gonna stand there and wait on him.”
“I know that.” She gnawed her lip. “What can we do?”
“Hang on until I get there, okay? We’ll figure it out. Just promise me you won’t go near him, Delaney. I know you’ve been handling them for a few years, but bad shit happens even to the most experienced ranch hands when it comes to bulls. Promise me you won’t put yourself in danger.”
“I promise, Zac,” she sighed. “I know when I’m in over my head.”
“I’m coming now. Just tell me where you are,” he said, whipping the truck around. The only safe way out of this predicament was with the help of another cowboy and a coupla solid roping horses. Seconds after getting her location, Zac was pounding on the bunkhouse door.
“C’mon, ol’ timer,” he called out to Bart. “Get your gear. We got us a bull to rope. And bring a shotgun . . . just in case.” He hoped they wouldn’t need it, but with an injured bull, they had to be prepared for anything. Bulls were unpredictable under even the best of circumstances. Injury made them even more dangerous.
Zac then headed straight to the corral. It wasn’t hard to pick his horse from the bunch. The star-shaped scar on the bay’s ass told him the old gelding had experience with bulls. He’d know better than any of the other horses not to turn his backside to one. Zac was already tightening the saddle girth by the time Bart appeared with saddle slung over his shoulder and rifle in his hand.
“Where’s the fire?” the old man mumbled as Zac grabbed the shotgun.
“It’s gonna be under your ass if you don’t move it along,” Zac shot back. Ignoring the old-timer’s grumbling about whippersnappers, Zac slid the rifle into his saddle holster. “Can’t wait on you, old man. Catch up quick as you can, okay?” Bart grunted back something unintelligible as Zac threw a leg over his horse. Plying a spur to the bay, he rode out at a full gallop.
Twenty minutes of hard riding had Delaney’s ATV in sight. It was parked along the fence, but he didn’t see her. Where the hell was she? He prayed she’d heeded his warning. He exhaled in relief when he spotted her about ten yards south of the vehicle, standing maybe twenty feet from the tangled bull, wire cutters in hand. She turned her head slowly at his approach. He was glad to see she had sense to keep her body positioned toward the bull.
Although the animal was still standing, which he’d initially taken as a good sign, on closer inspection he found the bull wide-eyed and panting with blood dripping from his rear legs, where the wire was coiled tightly around its canon bones and pasterns.
“Zac! You’ve got to help him?” Delaney cried tearfully. “Caesar retreated with only a few scratches, but Romeo’s all tangled up. Thank God he hasn’t panicked yet.” She darted a worried look to the bull. “He’s bleeding pretty badly, Zac. What are we going to do?”
Rubbing his chin, Zac appraised the situation. The animal’s back legs were bound together with tangled wire, which hampered his mobility, but Zac knew not to underestimate his strength. If he had Bart, they could rope his head and front legs from horseback, and take him down that way, but he didn’t have Bart. He squinted at the horizon, looking in vain for a sign of an approaching rider. “That ol’ man better get the lead out of his ass. We need him now.”
“Bart?” she asked. “Where is he?”
“He was supposed to be right behind me.”
“What do you need him to do?” she asked.
“Rope the front legs. The way I see it, I’m gonna have to put the bull on the ground and hold him while Bart cuts the wire off.”
Delaney’s brows furrowed. “How the hell are you going to do that? Wrestle him down?”
Zac dismounted, lasso in hand. “Kinda looks that way. What’s he weigh? ’Bout eight hundred?”
“At least that much!” Delaney exclaimed.
“I was a decent bulldogger back in the day. Biggest steer I ever took down was probably six-fifty, but I was smaller then.” He gave the bull another assessing look. “I should be able to take this guy. Think you could manage the rope?”
“I don’t see why not,” she said. “I’ve handled one a few times. How are we going to do this?”
“I’m going to take him by the horns. If I can get him down, I need you to lasso his front legs and dally on the saddle horn.” He nodded to the gelding. “That horse’ll know what to do after that.”
“I think I can handle it.” Delaney accepted the rope with a nervous smile.
“What the hell happened to your hand?” he asked, noting her bloody glove.
“I stuck my thumb with some barbed wire. That’s how this all started,” she said.
>
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s no big deal, but I’ll probably need a tetanus shot.”
“You sure you’re all right to do this?” he asked.
“It’s only a scratch, Zac. I can handle the rope. Just tell me what to do.”
“You need to stand back and give me plenty of room. He can’t do too much with the back legs, but he’s probably going to thrash pretty wild with the front ones. Try to get both if you can. If not”—he shrugged—“one’ll just haveta do.”
“Are you sure about this, Zac? What about the wire?” she asked with a worried frown. “What if you get tangled up in it too?”
Zac darted her a sidelong look. “I guess that would really suck, wouldn’t it?”
“It’s not funny, Zac.”
“I ain’t laughin’,” he replied. “I’ll be careful. You just watch yourself. I need you to stay clear until his head and shoulder hit the ground. Once that happens, we’ve gotta move real fast.”
As instructed, Delaney stayed well back as Zac moved slowly toward the wary bull.
Romeo snorted and pawed in warning as Zac approached his shoulder. “Easy there, ol’ son,” he said in a low, soothing voice. “We only wanna help.”
The bull was trembling and smelled of blood, sweat, and manure. Zac held his breath, praying the animal wouldn’t hook him before he could take hold of the horns. As long as he stayed behind the shoulder, he was in the safety zone, but once he got in front, anything could happen. He was doubly thankful the animal was only half grown.
“Get ready,” he spoke a quiet warning to Delaney.
The next seconds were a blur of motion and adrenaline as Zac wrapped his arms around the bull’s horns, twisting until the animal’s slick nose met the crook of his elbow. The bull tossed his head with a snort as Zac threw his hip into the animal’s neck. Straining and grunting, he flipped the bull over his leg and onto its side. “Now, Delaney! Quick. Get his legs!”
While Zac lay on top of the struggling animal, she leaped into action, but failed to rope the legs. Letting loose one of the horns, Zac reached out to guide the lasso over a foreleg, but the bull jerked before he could catch it. On the third try, Delaney got them both. She gave a solid yank on the rope to tighten the loop and then turned to the horse, who stood ears pricked in readiness as she dallied the rope to the saddle horn.
Beauty and the Bullrider (Hotel Rodeo Book 2) Page 6
