Cowboys Don't Quit

by Anne McAllister

  Dan leapt into the pool at once, barely missing two other boys who were playing water tag. Kevin stood on the side, then looked over his shoulder at Luke.

  "It's okay," Luke said. "Go on."

  "You come, too," Kevin said as his brother surfaced and splashed water at him.

  "Later," Luke promised. He sat down on one of the lounges and dropped the towels in a heap.

  "Come on, chicken," Dan called his brother. "Jump!"

  Kevin sat down and dangled his feet in the pool.

  Jill appeared just then, her tall slim figure as tempting as he remembered it, even though this time she was carrying Jimmy, Jr.

  Luke remembered the last time he'd seen her in a bathing suit. The weekend at Big Bear. His jaw tightened.

  "See?" she was saying to Jimmy, Jr. "There's Dan. Let's go in with him."

  "Nnn!" Jimmy, Jr. shrieked, slapping his hands against Jill's shoulders. '"Nnn!"

  She put him down on the edge of the pool next to Kevin, then sat beside him briefly. "Ooh, it's warm," she said, flipping a quick smile over her shoulder at Luke. Then she slid off the side into the water and turned to take Jimmy, Jr. in her arms.

  "Can I stand there?" Kevin asked her nervously.

  "Not quite," Jill said. "Let's move down here." She edged away toward shallower water. Kevin went with her and slid carefully into the pool. Dan dove and plunged around them like a playful dolphin. Luke watched.

  "Hey, Luke! C'mon in!" Dan urged.

  "Yeah, c'mon!" Kevin called. He was jumping up and down, too, now, confidence growing.

  "Naw." Luke shrugged. "I'm tired." He looked away, but in doing so caught Jill's eye. She was watching him, her expression concerned. His jaw locked and he deliberately looked the other way, then turned over and stretched out on the lounger, ignoring all of them.

  "Lookit me, Jill! Lookit, Luke!" he heard Kevin shriek a few minutes later.

  "No, look at me!" Dan yelled. "Jill, look! Luke! Watch!"

  Luke heard Jill cheer, then laugh. "What a splash!"

  He supposed both boys must have been doing cannon-balls by that time.

  "Watch me now!" Kevin called. "Watch this!"

  "Terrific!" Luke heard Jill say after another huge splash.

  "Now me!" There was another shout, then another. And pretty soon it sounded as if half the kids in Bluff Springs were clamoring to have Jill watch them.

  Luke rolled over finally, feeling guilty for turning all the responsibility over to her. He looked where she had been, then discovered that she had moved and was now standing in the pool almost at his feet. She still held Jimmy, Jr. in her arms, while she watched Dan and Kevin and half a dozen other kids as they took turns jumping. As she watched, she shifted the baby from one arm to the other, then after a few minutes, shifted him back again.

  "I'll take him."

  Her head jerked around. She looked up at him. "What? Oh—" she smiled at him "—thanks."

  He hunkered down beside the pool and reached for the boy as Jill lifted him up. But the moment Jimmy felt himself being taken out of the pool, his face screwed up and he started to cry.

  Jill laughed. "I guess he doesn't want to get out just yet." And she took him back and cradled him against her side. "I'll keep him awhile longer."

  "He's too heavy for you."

  Jill shrugged. Their gazes met. He saw gentleness in her gaze. He saw understanding—understanding of feelings that, until this very moment, he hadn't even known he had.

  He hadn't been in the water—except in his dreams— since Keith had died.

  He sat down on the edge of the pool now and dangled his legs. The water was warm and soothing, just as Dan had promised. Still he felt reluctant. It was so easy to remember.

  But Jill remembered, too. Slowly he pushed himself off the side and slid down into the pool until he stood next to her.

  She smiled. Don't, he wanted to say.

  He held out his arms. "Give him to me," he said, and he took Jimmy from her.

  "Practicing, Luke?" He looked up to see Lucy Campbell from the hospital.

  "Just helping out," he said.

  "Fatherhood becomes you." She gave Jill a conspiratorial smile. Jill flashed Luke a half guilty, half worried look—a definitely apprehensive look. But before anything more could be said, Paco appeared.

  "C'mon in!" Dan yelled.

  Instead of running and doing just that, Paco squatted down on the edge of the pool and looked at Luke with dark, serious eyes. "I can't swim. Will you teach me?"

  "Me?"

  "You swam with Keith. You told me about body-surfing. You said he was a champion."

  "He was. I'm not."

  "But you swam with him."

  "Not in competitions."

  Paco looked wistful. "I'd ask my dad, but I don't got a dad."

  Oh, hell.

  "Here," he said to Jill. "Hold Jimmy."

  Luke wasn't much of a teacher, but Paco was determined. The trouble was, he was also obviously scared stiff. His lean young body went rigid in Luke's grasp. His fingers dug into Luke's arms. His breath came fast and shallow.

  "Relax. You gotta relax," Luke said. "Here. I'll hold you. I got my hand under your belly. Feel it? Now stretch out and stroke forward. I'm not gonna let go. I promise."

  "You s-sure?" Paco stuttered, trying to stroke, his movements jerky.

  "I'm sure. Here, forget that. You gotta get used to the water a little. Come on, hang onto my back and I'll swim with you."

  "Not where it's deep!"

  "Not where it's deep," Luke promised. He took Paco onto his back and felt the boy's arms come around his neck like a death grip. "Loosen up a bit," he gasped. "You'll choke me."

  "S-sorry." Paco loosened his grip fractionally. Luke began a slow, easy breaststroke, with Paco riding along.

  "Can 1 ride? Can I?" Kevin yelled.

  "Not now," Luke said. "You can already swim. Paco's just learning."

  "I'll give Kev a ride," Dan said.

  "And not drown him?"

  Dan grinned. "Aw, shucks, how'd you guess?"

  "I have brothers, too."

  They shared a conspiratorial grin, then Dan promised, "I won't drown him. This time."

  So he took Kevin on his back while Luke swam with Paco, and gradually, as they moved back and forth across the pool, the boy relaxed. He saw how much fun Dan and Kevin were having and he started to smile, too. He even bounced up and down like Kevin did and waved at Jill.

  Luke looked over as Jill waved back. Then she grasped Jimmy, Jr. by his arms and twirled him around in the water, smiling at the little boy's giggles, then lifted him high into the air and snuggled him against her. Over the top of his head, her eyes met Luke's.

  And her gaze held so much of what he wanted and feared that he couldn't look for long.

  But if he couldn't look at her, other men could—and did. Mike Sutter's nephew, Garrett, and one of Sutter's hands, Dave Cole, had come for an evening swim and a chance to check out the available girls. It didn't take them long to find Jill.

  The next time Luke paddled back across the pool with Paco, Garrett was standing next to Jill, holding Jimmy for her. He had the beginnings of a wolfish grin on his face.

  "Sa matter?" Paco asked when Luke tensed beneath him.

  "Nothing." Luke stroked closer. "Splash Jimmy," he said to Paco.

  "Huh?" Paco looked at Jimmy, Jr. and then at Garrett holding the little boy and all the time easing closer to Jill.

  "Oh!" Paco, no dummy, splashed. He made sure he wasn't hitting Jimmy nearly as much as he was hitting Garrett.

  "Hey!" Garrett yelped, turning to see where the water was coming from.

  "Sorry," Luke said and gave them a bland smile. Paco grinned fiendishly.

  But it wasn't as easy to do a second time, when Dave Cole moved in as well.

  "You want to watch it," Luke said to Jill with deliberate casualness later that night as he headed toward the door.

  The boys had wanted him to stay the night in
the house, but he had dogs and horses to feed. And it was the better part of common sense not to hang around Jill too much.

  She was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, drying her hair with a towel, and she looked up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  He shifted from one foot to the other. "Garrett and Dave. You want to, uh, be careful not to...not to... encourage them."

  Jill looked at him from beneath the curtain of her hair. Then she shook her head. "They're nice guys."

  Luke grunted, trying not to look at her. He didn't need to. He could close his eyes and see her smiling up at Garrett, see her laughing at Dave's stupid jokes. His teeth came together with an audible snap.

  Jill's eyes widened. "Why shouldn't I encourage them, Luke?"

  "Keith—"

  "Keith," she said firmly, "would want me to be happy. You, of all people, should know that."

  He knew it. But damn it... "With Garrett Sutter?" He fairly spat the name. "Or Dave Cole?"

  "So give me another suggestion."

  He couldn't. He had no right.

  Seven

  He was certain that once he got Annette and Jimmy and the baby home from the hospital, things would get better. Which went to show how little he knew. He couldn't disappear up the mountain and pretend that they could cope without the steer, because it was obvious they couldn't.

  Jimmy didn't have a walking cast, but at least he had a cast that wasn't split anymore. Still, he couldn't drive the tractor. Nor could he do the baling. He couldn't even hobble along and open the dams of the irrigation ditches.

  "I can help. I'll ride," Jimmy said. But if his leg dangled down too long, the swelling became far too painful, and the effort it took for him to get up on a horse's back in the first place made it unreasonable.

  At least everyone thought so but Jimmy. "I'm not an invalid!" he bellowed fifty times a day.

  "Stuff a sock in it," Annette told him. "Here. Hold the baby while I hang out the wash."

  So Jimmy held the baby, balancing her gingerly against the cast on his broken wrist, looking like he'd rather run in the other direction. But at least it liberated Jill to help Luke in the fields.

  "I don't need your help," he told her the first day she showed up as he drove out on the tractor.

  "That wasn't you calling around noon looking for a hand to help out with the baling?"

  He scowled, lifted his hat and rubbed a hand through sweat-drenched hair. "Know a lot about baling, do you?"

  "I grew up on a farm in Iowa."

  He stared. "I didn't know that." He'd always thought her innate elegance came from a sophisticated background.

  "You can take the girl out of the hayfield, but you can't make her totally forget it. Although I have to admit, I have four brothers who helped a lot more than I did. And it was in Iowa, so it might not be the same. But I think I could manage to be of some use if someone was willing to teach me." The look she gave him was a direct challenge.

  "What about your book? Don't you have a book to write?"

  "I'm almost finished. Want to read it?"

  "No." He started the tractor engine again. "Come on. Get on."

  "Ah." Cy grinned when they got there. "Now this sorta help is more like it."

  Luke let her rake. She caught on to the tractor driving quickly. "It must be like riding a bike," she called as she drove past.

  "Just don't grind the gears," he yelled back.

  "No fear," she said, and promptly did.

  Luke winced. He stripped off his shirt and wiped his face with it, then hung it on a fence post. "Come on, Cy. Let's get loading."

  He reckoned if he worked her hard enough that would be the last he saw of her.

  So the next day—and the next, and the next—he found her lots of work to do. Raking. Baling. Driving the bale mover. And every day she came back for more. And when she finished what he gave her, instead of retreating, exhausted, which she certainly had a right to do, she brought them food from the house, then went down and helped Paco with the ditches.

  She worked long and hard and she helped a lot. Luke appreciated it, in spite of himself. He even managed to say so after she'd been working with him for more than a week.

  It was almost suppertime that evening and they'd finished the haying at last.

  He gave her a ride back to the house on the tractor, and when she got down, he said, "Thanks. You've been a good hand."

  "Good farmer," she corrected with a smile, swiping her hair away from her face. She had taken to wearing a cowboy hat now, but it didn't quite tame the long strands. "I don't do horses."

  "You ride."

  "Like a sack of potatoes."

  "I could teach y—" He stopped, aghast at what he had almost offered. "You do fine," he said gruffly. "Anyhow, you won't need to do horses in New York." And he started the tractor abruptly, heading it toward the shed.

  Usually by the time he got in the house, Jill had grabbed a quick shower and was in the kitchen helping Annette get supper on the table.

  But tonight she was nowhere to be seen. He didn't intend to notice. He certainly didn't comment. Not, at least, until Annette said, "Let's eat," and he discovered that it was only she and Jimmy and himself at the table, Jimmy, Jr. having already eaten and Julie sound asleep.

  "Where's Jill?" he asked before he could stop himself.

  "Got a hot date." Jimmy winked.

  "She's going out to supper with Garrett," Annette announced with what seemed considerable relish.

  Luke didn't say anything, just shrugged and sat down at the table and started dishing up.

  It wasn't his business what she did. All the same, he couldn' t stop himself from giving her a hard look when she came downstairs a few moments later, her long hair piled into an intricate knot on the top of her head, a few tendrils escaping to tickle her neck. Her lissome curves were no longer outlined in denim and chambray, but in coral-colored silk the likes of which Bluff Springs had never seen.

  "Wooo-weee!" Jimmy whistled.

  "Oh, envy," Annette murmured, shooting Luke a significant look.

  He gritted his teeth, bent his head and sawed at his steak.

  "Where'd you get that?" Annette asked.

  "In New York."

  Luke chomped down on a piece of steak. It figured. All that business about being an Iowa farm girl was obviously long forgotten.

  "Reckon I better ask Garrett what his intentions are," Jimmy joked.

  Luke ignored him. He wouldn't have looked up even when Garrett came to the door to get her, except Jimmy invited him in, then kidded him about going out with the second-most-beautiful woman in Colorado.

  "I won't argue, only because Annette's a good friend," Garrett said, smiling at Jill in a way that said all too clearly who he really thought merited being number one. Luke's knife hit his plate with an extraordinarily loud smack.

  Garrett glanced his way and his smile faded slightly. "I'm not poaching, am I? If you and Jill are—"

  "We aren't," Luke said, and he shoved his chair backward so hard it tipped over. He ignored it on his way out.

  Three days passed. Luke didn't go down to the ranch. No one came up. Cy had said he'd look in and take care of what he could, and since the haying was done, Luke felt justified in staying away.

  At least he did until the evening of the third day, when he was sitting on the steps of his cabin, sipping an after-supper cup of coffee and whittling a coyote out of pine. He was appreciating the solitude and the serenity of his existence and determinedly not thinking about Jillian Crane and the effect she had on him. A glance down the mountain showed him a rider heading his way.

  For a single instant, his heart leapt as he remembered Jill coming up before. But another long moment's scrutiny proved it wasn't Jill. It was a man. With two good legs. A man who sat a horse easily. Garrett?

  Luke stood up, his fists curling lightly at his sides as he watched and waited. And then he saw who it was, his whole body relaxed and a grin spread across his face.
r />   "Noah!" He came down the steps waving a hand at the rider, who waved right back and spurred his horse to move a little faster.

  "Son of a gun, what're you doin' up here?" Luke demanded as his younger brother got within speaking distance. Rodeo bronc rider Noah Tanner didn't often make social calls as he moved relentlessly back and forth across western America in pursuit of the NFR gold.

  "Just passin' through," Noah said now, swinging down out of the saddle. "On my way to Washington, then thought I'd stop and see Tanner and his brood." He grinned. "Mag's p.g. again. Did you know?"

  Luke shook his head.

  "They're both happy as pigs in you-know-what. Anyhow, I was within twenty miles and, hell, I figured I hadn't seen you in a long time, so why not? Besides Tanner said—" He broke off suddenly.

  "Tanner said what?"

  "Nothin'."

  "What'd Tanner say?" Luke thrust his face right into his brother's and was glad of his extra two inches.

  "Said I should see if you were okay," Noah muttered. "He was worried."

  "Of course I'm okay. Why shouldn't I be? Since when did you two start playing mother hen?"

  "Reckon Tanner has a time or two," Noah reminded him.

  "Yeah. But you?"

  Noah rubbed the back of his neck. "You weren't doin' so good the last time I saw you."

  Right after Luke had bought the ranch and moved back to Colorado, he meant. Right after he'd spent months on the road, trying to forget the past.

  "You looked like you'd got stomped by Mr. T," Noah went on. He meant the bull, Luke knew, not the television actor.

  "That was then. I'm fine now."

  "If you say so," Noah agreed equably. He didn't look completely convinced, but he let it drop. "Got any coffee goin'?"

  "I'll make some."

  "Appreciate it," Noah said. He turned his horse out while Luke went back to the cabin. Then, carrying his saddle, Noah came in and sniffed appreciatively. "One good thing about you havin' been a Hollywood hotshot, you learned how to make interesting coffee."

  "This is good, old-fashioned Colorado coffee."

  Noah made a face. "Left that behind, too, did you?" He settled onto one of the narrow beds and grinned up at his brother. "Didn't leave Jill, though, I see."