Calder Born, Calder Bred

by Janet Dailey

  Taking a last drag on his cigarette, Ty flipped it into the air and watched the crimson trail it made arcing into the darkness. The front door opened, but he steeled himself not to turn. Light footsteps approached him from behind.

  “May I join you?” Tara took his acceptance for granted as she slipped her hand through the crook of his arm and hugged it to her. The warmth of her body was pressed along his length, and Ty was all too aware of the contact his arm made with her breast, its rounded shape imprinted on his muscled flesh.

  “You already have.” Raw and tense, he swung his gaze outward.

  Tara shrewdly studied his profile. She’d caught that flare of reaction deep in the wells of his brown eyes. His words might be cold to her, but he wasn’t. She noticed the fine lines that had sprung into his face, cutting out the youthfulness. Its ruggedness was purely masculine now, roughly handsome. There was a comfortable certainty in her that eventually she would wear down his resistance as she turned her head to look at what he was seeing.

  Lights from windows of the many buildings comprising the headquarters fanned out from the knoll of The Homestead like so many groundstars. The trees along the river made intricate cobweb shapes against the night’s glow. From some barn, a horse whickered.

  “It looks like a small city,” Tara murmured. “So many lights. So many buildings.”

  “In a way, it is. We’re practically self-sufficient with our own water supply, an auxiliary generating station, sewer system and all the utilities. There’s two small fire trucks, a garage for repairing vehicles, not to mention a grade school for the younger kids, a veterinary facility, a totally equipped first-aid station, and a commissary.”

  “I’d like to see all of it.” She sighed and snuggled closer. “It’s cooler out here than I realized. Why don’t you put your arm around me and keep me warm?”

  “Why don’t you go inside and get a jacket?” But Ty didn’t object when she shifted his arm to curve it around her and buried herself deeper into his side.

  “This is better, isn’t it?”

  “Stop it, Tara.”

  “I’m glad you came home tonight.”

  It was not the words so much as the way she said them, as if she had already made it her home and she would always be here waiting for him. Her upturned head made an invitation of her glistening lips. The urge was too strong and the habit of kissing them too deeply embedded in his memory. Before his mouth ever reached her lips, she was turning into him.

  The heated contact jolted him and Ty started to pull back, but her slim hands were around his neck, their insistent pressure not letting him go. Her lips were all over his, breathing their drugging sweetness into his mouth and eating him until the blood was hammering so loudly in his brain he couldn’t think.

  He was suddenly angry, hating the weakness that made him putty in her hands. He gripped her wrists and pulled them down from his neck, breathing hard as he broke the kiss. But his anger didn’t stop the need that trembled through him.

  “No games,” he insisted.

  “Why must you be so dense?” Impatience broke through her before she made one of her lightning changes of mood. “You leave a girl no pride.” Her drawling voice was provocative and gay. “I’ve come nearly halfway across the continent to tell you I was wrong—to try to make up for the mistake I made. What do I have to do before you’ll ask me to stay?”

  “For what purpose? To torment me all over again?” Muscles snapped along his jawline, tension running rampant through him.

  “No.” She tipped her head, looking at him in a way that both promised and withheld. “I know words aren’t enough, Ty. But give me a chance to show you that I mean them.”

  He listened, beaten by the knowledge that he was unable to deny he wanted her to stay. “You have your chance, but I won’t be batting at any more strings.” He’d not give her an easy time of it.

  She saw that. For a moment, she saw beyond that to a point in time where she would have to offer herself and accept his terms. Instead of dreading that moment of absolute surrender, she was stunned by the pleasurable rush of anticipation. She had stepped so carefully around her emotions for so long it was an exciting thought to let them take over just once.

  “We’ll have fun together. You’ll see.” Her dark eyes gleamed with knowing secrecy.

  Ty didn’t know what was going on in her head, but the look in her eyes, so confident and alluring, made his blood run hot. “We’d better go inside before you get chilled.”

  “Tell me, Daddy.” Tara strolled along, linked arm in arm with her father as she escorted him to the waiting plane. She permitted a playful smugness to enter her expression when she looked at him. “Would you still like it if I became Mrs. Calder.”

  His stopover at the Triple C had been brief, not allowing any private moments between father and daughter until now. Dyson’s look was proud and amused.

  “Ty’s come around, has he?”

  “Not completely, but he will.”

  Tara surveyed her surroundings with a proprietorial air. Beyond the airstrip with its hangared aircraft and squatty helicopters, she could see the many roofs of the headquarter buildings and the stately Homestead, plus all the vast, open land that encompassed them. Dyson observed her expression with a dry smile.

  “You’re already visualizing yourself as lady of the manor, aren’t you?”

  “Someday I will be.” She was certain of it, all confidence. Then she swung around to him, gay and bright. “You can stay away longer than a month, can’t you? Surely you can find some excuse to delay your return.”

  “I could, but I have a couple of important meetings that I’m not going to postpone—even for you.”

  “Here? Who with?”

  “A couple of Calder’s neighbors. Actually I’ll be back in about three weeks, but I’ll be staying in Miles City, then fly up from there when I’m finished.”

  “If they’re neighbors, why aren’t you staying here?”

  “Because I don’t like to conduct deals in the house of a third party,” he replied evenly. “Besides, I don’t believe Calder would approve of my plans. It’s better if he doesn’t know what I’m doing until after it’s done. He might try to influence his neighbors not to accept my deal, and I’d just as soon not lock horns with that range bull.”

  “What are you and Stricktin after?” He was being mysterious again, the way he always was when they were planning some big, new venture.

  “Nothing that needs to concern you.” He stopped when they reached the open door of the twin-engine aircraft, and kissed her cheek. Straightening, he winked. “I won’t tell you to behave yourself. I’ll merely wish you luck instead. You’ve kept Ty waiting by the car long enough, now scoot.” He slapped her behind with fatherly affection to send her on her way, watched her for a thoughtful second, then climbed aboard the plane. Their separate plans might ultimately dovetail nicely.

  Stricklin was already in the plane, buckled in his seat. Dyson nodded to him and took an opposite seat to strap himself in.

  “I believe she is going to catch that young man, Stricklin,” he said with a glance out the small window at the couple. “What do you think of the match?”

  “It’s ideal,” his partner replied and meant it.

  14

  The spring roundup ended a week later, and it was arranged for Ty’s duties to keep him around the headquarters instead of working out of one of the far-flung camps of the ranch. With Tara exercising her prerogative as a guest and sleeping late in the mornings, she seldom saw Ty until noon.

  Most of the afternoons she was left to her own devices. Maggie Calder had given her a tour of the ranch facilities, taking her to visit the one-room schoolhouse and showing her the commissary with its assortment of grocery items, clothing, and miscellaneous hardware. Tara had found it all very fascinating, but she would have preferred that Ty had shown her these things. She spent irritatingly little time alone with him. Sometimes she wondered if he ever had a day off from ran
ch work.

  With slow steps, she descended the stairs, absently trailing her hand along the railing while she wondered how she was going to fill this Saturday afternoon. The front door opened and shut with a bang and Cathleen came sailing in. Tara glanced at the girl with sudden interest. Maybe she could persuade Cathleen to guide her to wherever Ty was working this afternoon.

  “Hello, Cat.” She used the family nickname for the girl.

  “Tara! I was just looking for you.” She changed direction to come to the stairs, stopping at the base of them, bright-eyed and out of breath, “Ty said for me to tell you to put on some riding clothes. He’ll be by the house in half an hour with the horses.”

  Just like that. He snapped his fingers and she was supposed to come running. With an effort, Tara smoothed the ruffled edges of her prickling nerves. “The lord commands and the lady obeys,” she murmured.

  “What’s that?” Cathleen tipped her head, frowning in puzzlement.

  “Nothing, my kitten.” She shook her head and turned to retrace her steps up the stairs. “Half an hour doesn’t give me much time. I’d better hurry.” Flashing a round-eyed look of mock haste at the girl, Tara went to change.

  It was a full forty-five minutes before she emerged from the house. The impatience on Ty’s expression faded to reluctant admiration as she crossed to the horses, assuring her the extra time she’d taken with her appearance had been worth it. From the beaded fringe of her jacket to her designer jeans, from the feather-banded hat to her Italian-made cowboy boots, she was fashionably western dressed with the latest the exclusive Texas stores had to offer.

  “I thought we’d go for a long ride this afternoon,” Ty said. “You haven’t really had a good look at the ranch, except flying over it or driving across it.”

  “I’d like that. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do with you.”

  Ty gave her a leg up onto the back of the flashy blood bay, made sure the stirrups were properly adjusted to her leg length, then mounted his own horse. Together, they rode north and west, their horses setting into a rocking canter that could be kept up for miles.

  Buildings were left far behind as they traveled deeper and deeper into the land, rising and falling with the swells of the earth. The sun was a gold disk in the gigantic sky, and the horizon was a smoky blue haze of ridges. There was nothing out here but endlessly stretching miles of more of the same. Its emptiness was almost oppressive, surrounding Tara until she felt like a minuscule object.

  Finally Ty reined his horse to a halt near the rim of a flat-topped butte and dismounted to hold the bridle of Tara’s horse as she swung out of the saddle to join him. Leaving their horses ground-tied, they walked to the edge where there was a commanding view of the surrounding expanse of land. As Tara stood beside him, she felt overwhelmed by the silence and the vastness. A great well of loneliness seemed to fill her, and she edged closer to Ty. He glanced down at her briefly; then he took her hand, lacing their fingers together and unknowingly giving her assurance.

  When he began pointing out the extent of Calder range, indicating the direction of far-distant boundaries, she listened to the quiet pride in his voice and absorbed it into her own feelings. From this plateau and in all directions as far as the eye could see, the land belonged to his family. And it was going to be her family.

  “There’s a certain magnificence about it, isn’t there?” she said when he had finished, but she didn’t mention the quality of melancholy it also evoked in her.

  “It has a way of humbling a man and bringing him down to size,” Ty agreed.

  She didn’t want to hear such talk. “But you’re a Calder, Ty. You can do and be anything you want. With the Calder power and influence, someday you could be governor of this whole state.”

  After struggling so long to have his abilities recognized by his family, her praise and belief in his potential nourished his underfed ego. Yet he smiled, faintly amused by her suggestion.

  “Did I say something funny?” Tara was a bit stung by his reaction.

  “My granddad had a philosophy about politicians. My father explained it to me once” he said, humor lines wrinkling the corners of his eyes as he looked out at the land. “It went something along the lines of ‘Why be governor when you can buy one?’”

  Being the manipulating force behind the scenes was a tantalizing prospect. Her pulse quickened as she studied the intelligence in his features, the relentless determination and will to succeed.

  “You’re wasting yourself playing cowboy, Ty,” she said firmly. “With your background and education, you could be so much more. My father has a high regard for you. I simply don’t understand why you’re here, working like a common cowhand, when you could be doing something important and worthwhile.”

  “I’m learning the ranch business from the ground up, you might say,” Ty stated.

  “Why? It isn’t important that you know how to do everything as long as you hire people that do. Your father is a wonderful man and I admire him a lot, but his methods are sadly outdated.” She tempered her statement. “I don’t mean to be criticizing him. I just want you to be successful and important in your own right.”

  “I’ve made a commitment to my father. You may be able to back out of a promise without any qualms, but I don’t find it so easy,” he inserted stiffly and started to turn away.

  “I’ve spoiled the afternoon, haven’t I?” Tara said contritely. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s the first time you’ve said that.” He paused, wanting to believe her, yet remembering how she had tried to press her ambitions on him.

  “It is, isn’t it?” She laughed. “I’ve made so many mistakes with you that it seems I shall always be begging your forgiveness.”

  He arched a brow. “Now, that would be a novel experience.”

  “There are a lot of novel experiences we haven’t shared.” She leaned toward him and tipped her head in an age-old gesture girls learned almost before they left the cradle. This time he gathered her into his arms and kissed her hard, breathing roughly when it was over. She ran the tip of her nail over his mouth. “You still love me, don’t you, Ty?” The purring certainty in her voice was enough to put him off. He let her go and moved toward the horses to break the spell she’d woven around him again.

  When Chase pulled his truck up in front of Sally’s Place, he almost didn’t see the camping trailer parked in the building’s shade. Only the nose of the trailer hitch was poked into the sunlight, and Chase had caught the flash of light reflecting off its metal surface.

  The sight of it brought him up short and changed his direction, and he went over to take a closer look. An electric cord ran from the trailer through the opened slit of the restaurant’s kitchen window to hook the trailer to a power supply, and a wooden step had been set out in front of the trailer door to supplement the retractable metal ones. A thick film of dust and dirt covered the exterior, indicating it had traveled some distance since the last time it had been cleaned.

  No one seemed to be about, but the windows were cranked open, a further indication someone was staying in it. Chase walked to the rear of the trailer. The license plate on the bumper was bent and half covered with road dust. The trailer was carrying Texas tags. He rubbed enough of the dirt off to read the numbers, then straightened, more puzzled than before.

  Using the back entrance, he walked through the empty kitchen and out the swinging door into the restaurant side of the caf6-bar. There weren’t any customers around, just Sally going around to the tables filling the sugar containers.

  “Hello, Chase.” Pleasure glowed in her quietly expressive face. “I saw you drive up and wondered where you had disappeared.” She continued pouring sugar from the pitcher into glass containers. “I’ll be through here in a minute. Help yourself to some coffee.”

  “I noticed that trailer parked alongside your building.” He took a cup from the plastic rack and filled it with coffee. “Who does it belong to?”

  “A man named Belto
n. Actually there’s three men living in it, but I think Belton owns it.” She screwed on the cap and wiped the outside of the jar before setting it down and moving her tray to the next table. “He came in . . . Saturday, I guess it was, and asked if he could park their trailer there and plug into my electricity. He offered to pay me seventy-five dollars a month, but I couldn’t accept that much. So I just charged him fifty.”

  “What do you know about him?” Chase frowned.

  “He’s from Texas.” She shrugged lightly. “I know they’re working somewhere around here. All three of them wear those black engineer’s boots. They look like those oil men that used to be out at your place—the way they dress, I mean.”

  “I don’t like the idea of you having three strangers parked right outside your window, especially with you sleeping by yourself upstairs. It’s not safe.”

  She smiled at his grimness. “What is the difference whether they are ten feet away or two hundred? They would have parked the trailer somewhere. Why shouldn’t I get the benefit of charging them to park here? Plus, it’s three more paid breakfasts and dinners, not to mention they asked me to pack a lunch for them the last two days.”

  “You’re too trusting.” Chase resisted her logic.

  “It’s good business,” Sally returned calmly. “And I make sure all the doors are locked and bolted before I go to bed at night. And if worst comes to worst, I have a gun.” She was quietly mocking him.

  “How long are they going to be here?”

  “Through the summer, I guess. Maybe longer. One of them was asking about the vacant houses in town. He wanted to know who owned them and whether any of them were suitable to live in now. I had the feeling they might be moving here for a considerable length of time.” She filled the last container and walked to the counter where Chase stood sipping at his coffee. “It would be nice to have people living in some of those abandoned houses again. Some of them just need minor repairs.”

  “They didn’t say who they were working for?” He persisted in his search for information.