One Tall, Dusty Cowboy

by Stella Bagwell

  “I’ve never invited a woman here to the Horn. But you’re different.”

  Her eyes narrowed with skepticism. “How so?”

  He shrugged. “You’re Gramps’s nurse. You’ve already made several visits here to the house. It’s not like you’re a stranger.”

  She seemed to accept his explanation and Rafe was relieved. He didn’t want her getting any ideas. Like she was more special than his past dates. Because she wasn’t. She was just like he’d told her—different.

  “Okay. I accept.” She quickly stepped around him and plucked a tote bag from the end of the cabinet counter. As she walked to the door, she asked, “What time should I be here?”

  “Make it six. I should be back to the ranch yard by then.”

  She gave him a little wave then stepped out the door and Rafe had to fight the urge to race after her and pull her into a tight, passionate embrace.

  Yeah, that would be real good, he thought drily. Kissing her like he was about to take his last, dying breath would go a long way in convincing her that he had no intentions of getting serious.

  Mentally cursing the thought, Rafe went in search of the coffee thermos and did his best to push Lilly from his mind.

  Chapter Five

  Having dinner at the Silver Horn ranch with Rafe was no big deal, Lilly told herself as she drove the last quarter mile up the long drive to the three-story house. She was going to be eating with the same man she’d shared a burger with last night. The only difference tonight would be that some of his family would also be sitting at the table.

  Deciding she’d enter the house the same way she did every morning, she parked at the back and headed down a stone pathway that led around the south side of the structure where the kitchen was located.

  “Lilly! Wait up!”

  At the sound of Rafe’s voice, she turned to see him striding across the manicured lawn. As she paused and waited for him to join her, she couldn’t help but admire his long-legged stride or the way his white shirt made his features appear even more rugged.

  When he reached her side, she said, “I was just going around to the kitchen.”

  “I was in the family room with Dad and saw you drive up.” He wrapped a hand around her arm. “We have a bit of time before dinner will be served. I thought we’d go down to the barns and I’ll show you some of the foals born this past month.”

  “I’d love to,” she told him. “I even wore my boots just in case we ventured from the house.”

  He glanced down at the black, snub-toed boots peeping from beneath the hem of her jeans and smiled. “Very nice. They even have real scuffs on them. I’m impressed.”

  She smiled smugly. “Nothing drugstore about me, cowboy. I even know how to ride a horse.”

  “Is that a fact? You couldn’t have learned that in nursing school,” he said as he urged her into a slow walk across a wide area of hard-packed ground.

  She laughed. “No. I learned about riding when I was just a kid. I had a Washoe friend named Blue Jay Bravo. He and his family were our nearest neighbors. His father always had horses and during the summer school break, Blue and I rode everywhere together. Usually bareback and with only a halter for a bridle.”

  “Hmm. Sounds like you two were little daredevils. I can’t imagine you being friends with a little boy.”

  “Why not? I didn’t have any siblings and Blue’s two brothers were much older than him and had already left home. It was natural that we became buddies. I was always an outdoor girl, anyway. He was quiet, but when he did say something it was usually very funny and he always made me laugh.”

  “Where is Blue now or do you know?”

  “The last time I spoke with his parents they told me he lived somewhere outside of Fernley, I think. Training mustangs. He still isn’t married. But he should be. He’s a great guy. He’d make some woman a nice husband.”

  “Thank God he lives at Fernley,” Rafe said drily. “Otherwise I think I’d be jealous.”

  Laughing, she cast a droll glance at him. “I doubt you’ve ever been jealous.”

  Since Rafe had never had the desire to make any woman his own, he’d avoided feeling jealous or possessive. “Not that I can remember. But there’s always a first time.”

  Wrapping his arm against the back of her waist, he inclined his head toward a group of barns some fifty yards to their right. “Most of the new foals are in a paddock behind the big, red barn. We’ll start there first.”

  Once they reached the structure, Rafe guided her through a maze of gates and alleyways, until they arrived at a tall fence made of wooden boards. Beyond it, a green, grassy paddock stretched over several acres. Inside, broodmares with babies at their sides, nipped at the grass and milled in the flimsy shade of a small stand of desert willows.

  While Lilly gazed out at the beautiful animals, she was acutely aware of Rafe standing so close to her that his side was pressing into hers. And though she told herself to move over and put space between them, she couldn’t bring herself to break the warm and solid contact. His touch made her feel good. Made her feel protected and wanted. She couldn’t give that up. Not yet.

  “I’ve heard that the Silver Horn produced beautiful horses. Now I see why. The babies all look so healthy. I’m not an expert on equine conformation, but to my eye these appear to be top notch.”

  Rafe gestured out to the foals. “This is stock that will eventually be sold. Our working ranch stock is kept in a different area.”

  She cast him a thoughtful glance. “If I remember right you said your job was overseeing the care of the cattle. Who oversees the horse management?”

  “My younger brother Finn.”

  “Younger than you? He must be good at his job for Bart and Orin to trust him with such an important division of the ranch.”

  “Finn is twenty-eight. And he doesn’t have complete say-so over things. The final breeding decisions have to be okayed by Dad and Clancy. But otherwise they give him a pretty loose rein.”

  “I see. And what about you?” she asked curiously. “Do you have complete rein with the cattle and the men?”

  Rafe chuckled. “This is a family-operated business, Lilly. Bart isn’t going to let any of his grandsons have total control.”

  As she thought about his response, a little chestnut filly with a blaze face cautiously made her way to the fence where they were standing. Lilly positioned her face between the boards in order to get a closer look at the baby.

  “Does that bother you?” she asked Rafe.

  After a short pause, he said, “Not really. Sometimes I get aggravated. And there’s been plenty of times I’ve disagreed with a method or decision that I didn’t like. But a house divided eventually falls, so I’ll always do what’s right for the ranch, even if it isn’t necessarily right with me personally.”

  Lilly reached her hand through the fence and the baby tiptoed closer. Just as she was sniffing curiously at her fingers, the mother let out a loud whinny and the filly obediently raced back to the mare’s side.

  Straightening away from the fence, she looked at him. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever thought about leaving the Silver Horn and setting out on your own?”

  “Never. Why? Do you think that’s something a man ought to do? Go out on his own? Make his own way?”

  She shook her head. “Sometimes. But not in your case. I think it’s wonderful that this place means so much to you.”

  He gazed out at the mares and the thriving babies. “It means everything to me. It’s the one thing in my life that I can trust to always be here.”

  She would’ve never imagined that a man who changed women as often as he changed shirts would be looking for constancy in his life, but then she supposed she had a lot to learn about Rafe.

  “All of your family are here. You can count on them,
too,” she pointed out.

  Even as she said the words, a part of her senses were caught up in his masculine scent, the corded muscles of his forearms resting atop the second rail of the fence, the heat of his body as it pressed against her side.

  Since he’d kissed her last night, it was like something inside her had suddenly flared to life. Normally, having sex was the last thing to enter her mind. Now the subject was dominating her every thought.

  He said, “Not all my family, Lilly. My mother will never be on this ranch again.”

  A pang of regret slashed through her and it wasn’t only for Rafe’s sake that she was feeling the loss. It would be so nice if Claudia was still here. There were so many things Lilly would like to discuss with the woman. She’d been like a mother to Lilly. The kind of mother that Lilly had always wished that Faye would be. But Faye was far too self-absorbed to ever be in the same parenting league as Claudia.

  “And you lost a little sister. I’m sure it hurts that she can’t be here with all of you.”

  Slowly, he turned to her and Lilly was amazed to see the incredulous look on his face.

  “You knew about Darci?” he asked. “About her dying?”

  Why was he so surprised? Lilly wondered. The Calhouns were an old, established family in the area. When a family member died, it was hardly a secret. Then she realized that Rafe was probably thinking Lilly hadn’t lived in Carson City long enough to have heard that much about his family. He couldn’t know that Claudia had talked to Lilly about losing her little daughter.

  “Claudia spoke with me about it when—” she stopped abruptly, then carefully choosing her words, went on “—we became friends at the hospital. I recall her saying her baby had a heart defect that was untreatable.”

  He nodded ruefully. “That’s right. But it’s hard to imagine her talking about Darci. Mom kept everything inside and never talked about it to anyone—at least, not that we could see. After Darci died, she stored away all of my sister’s things, even the photos that were scattered around the house. It was like she wanted to banish our little sister’s existence. I think she and my father quarreled about that, but Mom wouldn’t budge.”

  No wonder Rafe was surprised to hear his mother had confided in her. At the time, Claudia hadn’t appeared secretive or reticent when she’d talked about losing her daughter. The woman had been trying to ease Lilly’s pain over losing her unborn child by letting her know that she understood because she’d experienced the same sort of grief. But that was something that Lilly was hardly ready to explain to Rafe. In all these years, she’d not told anyone, other than Claudia, about the miscarriage. It was just too painful and private. Moreover, the fact that she’d allowed Grant to get her pregnant only underscored what a fool she’d been to ever trust the man.

  “Well, sometimes it’s easier to talk about such things to someone outside of the family. And seeing Darci’s things was probably just too hard for your mother to deal with. She already had enough images in her heart to remind her of her daughter.”

  He sighed then eased one arm around her shoulders. “My mom lived among a house full of men. That couldn’t have always been easy for her. I’m glad she was able to confide in you. And speaking of confiding, there’s something I think I ought to tell you before we go in to dinner—just in case she’s brought up.”

  “She? You mean Darci? Or she as in one of your girlfriends?”

  With a sly chuckle, he urged her away from the fence toward an open doorway of the red barn. “I’ve never had any long-term girlfriends. So my family can’t tell tales on me. I was referring to my sister.”

  “Oh. Well, don’t worry. I won’t mention Darci or your mother.”

  As they continued on a slow path, he cast her a wry glance. “That’s not what I’m concerned about. You can mention Mom or Darci anytime that you feel like it.”

  By now they’d reached the barn entrance. At the left side of the door, a worn wooden bench was pushed up against the outer wall of the building. Rafe gestured for her to join him on the seat.

  “Let’s set down for a minute.”

  Even though several ranch hands were tending to evening chores around the barn, none of them were paying special notice to their foreman or his dinner guest. Lilly could only assume that it wasn’t unusual for women to visit the ranch. Otherwise, they’d probably be getting a few stares.

  After she’d eased down beside him, he said, “Do you remember the other night at the Green Lizard when we were discussing Gramps and I said I’d tell you something later?”

  She thought for a moment as she tried to recall their conversation. “I do remember now. But to tell you the truth I’d forgotten it,” she admitted. “Why are you bringing Bart up now?”

  He grimaced. “Because he’s—well, let me start right off by saying that I—that is—my brothers and I have another sister. A living sister.”

  Her jaw dropped. “A sister! Was she a lot older or something? Claudia never mentioned having another daughter. And Bart has never said anything to me about having a granddaughter.”

  The frown on his face held a tinge of regret. “Gramps wouldn’t. He’d rather forget the whole matter. You see, Sassy is our half-sister.”

  Lilly’s mind began to spin as she tried to keep up with what he was telling her. “Oh. Your dad was married before? I wasn’t aware of that, either.”

  Rafe shook his head. “No. Dad had a brief affair with a woman who used to live in this area. My brothers and I didn’t know about Sassy. Dad didn’t know about her, either. We found out that she was a Calhoun quite by accident.”

  Amazed now, Lilly studied him intently. “I’m not sure I’m following you, Rafe. Your father had a brief affair that produced a daughter, but he didn’t know about the child until recently?”

  Releasing a heavy breath, he raked a hand over his dark hair. “That’s right. About a year ago, Sassy traveled out here to Carson City from New Mexico because someone had told her she looked like a Calhoun. She was twenty-four then and looked enough like Finn to pass as his twin.”

  “That must have shocked everyone—especially Finn. But that hardly proved she was your sister. I guess she had documents or something?”

  “No. She was as much in the dark as we were. Then she and Finn decided to do DNA tests. While everyone was waiting for the results to come back, Gramps began acting bizarrely. In fact, he got so worked up he had to be hospitalized. Turns out, he’d been hiding Sassy’s existence from Dad and the rest of us. He’d paid off the mother—Marcia Stapleton—to leave town and not tell Orin about the pregnancy. You see, this all happened not long after Darci had died and Mom was in shock with grief. Gramps didn’t think Mom could take hearing about her husband having an affair and getting another woman pregnant. Gramps planned to keep tabs on the child and perhaps claim it back into the family once Mom was strong enough to handle the truth. But he lost track of Marcia’s whereabouts and whether or not she’d given birth to the child. And Mom—well, I often wonder how she would have viewed Sassy.”

  “How do the rest of you view her? Does she live around here now?”

  Lilly was relieved to see that the smile on his face was full of genuine love. At least the outcome of Sassy’s appearance hadn’t been all bad, she thought.

  “We’re all crazy about her. It’s great having a sister live close by. She married Jett Sundell about a year ago and they have a baby son. The little tyke is Dad’s first grandchild, so he’s busy spoiling him.”

  “I see. Sounds like most everything turned out happily for her and your family. But it shocks me about Bart hiding such information. He seems like such a family man. I can’t imagine him keeping something so important from his own son. Orin must have been furious when he found out about Sassy,” she mused aloud then looked at him as another thought struck her. “But why didn’t this woman go to Orin in the first pl
ace? Work things out with him instead of Bart? It doesn’t make sense to me.”

  Rafe shrugged and it was easy for Lilly to see that he wasn’t proud of Bart and Orin’s past indiscretions. The fact that he was willing to share such intimate family details with her was more than surprising. She’d not expected that from Rafe. Nor had she expected to feel so incredibly drawn to him because of it.

  “It didn’t make sense to me or my brothers, either. But from what Gramps explains, the woman was more concerned about getting money from the family than she was about her own baby. Dad had already walked away from her—he’d told her flat out that he wanted nothing else to do with her. In her grief Mom had rejected him and he’d turned to this other woman for just a short time. Then he came to his senses. So Marcia must have believed she’d get more money out of Gramps—especially with him being the head of the family and basically holding the strings to the Calhoun fortune. But who really knows. Gramps deceived the family back then. For all we know, he could still be holding back on the way it all really happened.”

  Feeling more connected to him than ever, she reached over and clasped her hand over his. “I’m glad you shared this with me, Rafe. And I promise, Bart or anyone else won’t be hearing anything about this from me.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I’m not concerned about that. Gramps or Dad might bring up the subject themselves. If they do, at least you’ll know the situation.” His lips took on a rueful slant. “Now you see why I called Gramps controlling. He’s always been that way. But I hope you don’t hold any of this against him. I realize you get on well with him and now—”

  “Rafe, this isn’t going to change my feelings about Bart. We all make mistakes, don’t we? And I figure Bart has done a lot of suffering for the choices he made.”

  He nodded soberly. “So has Dad. But you know what? Having a daughter, no matter the circumstances, has been great for him.”