The Rancher & Heart of Stone

by Diana Palmer

  She said so to Ben as she made her way to the barn to check on a calf they were nursing; it had dropped late and its mother had been killed by predators. They found it far on the outskirts of the ranch. They couldn’t figure how it had wandered so far, but then, cattle did that. It was why you brought pregnant cows up close to the barn, so that you’d know when they were calving. It was especially important to do that in winter, just before the spring calves were due.

  She looked over the gate at the little calf in the stall and smiled. “Pretty boy,” she teased.

  He was a purebred Santa Gertrudis bull. Some were culled and castrated and became steers, if they had poor conformation or were less than robust. But the best ones were treated like cattle royalty, spoiled rotten and watched over. This little guy would one day bring a handsome price as a breeding bull.

  She heard a car door slam and turned just as Cort came into the barn.

  She felt her heartbeat shoot off like a rocket.

  He tilted his hat back and moved to the stall, peering over it. “That’s a nice young one,” he remarked.

  “His mother was killed, so we’re nursing him,” she faltered.

  He frowned. “Killed?”

  “Predators, we think,” she replied. “She was pretty torn up. We found her almost at the highway, out near your line cabin. Odd, that she wandered so far.”

  “Very odd,” he agreed.

  Ben came walking in with a bottle. “‘Day, Cort,” he said pleasantly.

  “How’s it going, Ben?” the younger man replied.

  “So far so good.”

  Maddie smiled as Ben settled down in the hay and fed the bottle to the hungry calf.

  “Poor little guy,” Maddie said.

  “He’ll make it,” Ben promised, smiling up at her.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Maddie said. She was reluctant to be alone with Cort after the night before, but she couldn’t see any way around it.

  “You’re up early,” she said, fishing for a safe topic.

  “I didn’t sleep.” He stuck his hands into his pockets as he strolled along with her toward the house.

  “Oh?”

  He stopped, so that she had to. His eyes were bloodshot and they had dark circles under them. “I drank too much,” he said. “I wanted to apologize for the way I behaved with you.”

  “Oh.” She looked around for anything more than one syllable that she could reply with. “That’s...that’s okay.”

  He stared down at her with curiously intent eyes. “You’re incredibly naive.”

  She averted her eyes and her jaw clenched. “Yes, well, with my background, you’d probably be the same way. I haven’t been anxious to repeat the mistakes of the past with some other man who wasn’t what he seemed to be.”

  “I’m sorry. About what happened to you.”

  “Everybody was sorry,” she replied heavily. “But nobody else has to live with the emotional baggage I’m carrying around.”

  “How did you end up at the party with John?”

  She blinked. “Well, he came over to show me some things about animal husbandry, and he asked me to go with him. It was sort of surprising, really. He doesn’t date anybody.”

  “He’s had a few bad experiences with women. So have I.”

  She’d heard about Cort’s, but she wasn’t opening that topic with him. “Would you like coffee?” she asked. “Great-Aunt Sadie went shopping, but she left a nice coffee cake baking in the oven. It should be about ready.”

  “Thanks. I could use a second cup,” he added with a smile.

  But the smile faded when he saw the fancy European coffee machine on the counter. “Where the hell did you buy that?” he asked.

  She flushed. “I didn’t. John likes European coffee, so he brought the machine and the pods over with him.”

  He lifted his chin. “Did he, now? I gather he thinks he’ll be having coffee here often, then?”

  She frowned. “He didn’t say anything about that.”

  He made a huffing sound in his throat, just as the stove timer rang. Maddie went to take the coffee cake out of the oven. She was feeling so rattled, it was a good thing she’d remembered that it was baking. She placed it on a trivet. It smelled of cinnamon and butter.

  “My great-aunt can really cook,” she remarked as she took off the oven mitts she’d used to lift it out.

  “She can, can’t she?”

  She turned and walked right into Cort. She hadn’t realized he was so close. He caught her small waist in his big hands and lifted her right onto the counter next to the coffee cake, so that she was even with his dark, probing eyes.

  “You looked lovely last night,” he said in a strange, deep tone. “I’ve never really seen you dressed up before.”

  “I...I don’t dress up,” she stammered. He was tracing her collarbone and the sensations it aroused were delicious and unsettling. “Just occasionally.”

  “I didn’t know you could do those complicated Latin dances, either,” he continued.

  “I learned them from watching television,” she said.

  His head was lower now. She could feel his breath on her lips; feel the heat from his body as he moved closer, in between her legs so that he was right up against her.

  “I’m not in John Everett’s class as a dancer,” he drawled, tilting her chin up. “But, then, he’s not in my class...at this...”

  His mouth slowly covered hers, teasing gently, so that he didn’t startle her. He tilted her head just a little more, so that her mouth was at just the right angle. His firm lips pushed hers apart, easing them back, so that he had access to the soft, warm depths of her mouth.

  He kissed her with muted hunger, so slowly that she didn’t realize until too late how much a trap it was. He grew insistent then, one lean hand at the back of her head, holding it still, as his mouth devoured her soft lips.

  “Sweet,” he whispered huskily. “You taste like honey....”

  His arms went under hers and around her, lifting her, so that her breasts were flattened against his broad, strong chest.

  Involuntarily her cold hands snaked around his neck. She’d never felt hunger like this. She hadn’t known it was possible. She let him open her mouth with his, let him grind her breasts against him. She moaned softly as sensations she’d never experienced left her helpless, vulnerable.

  She felt his hand in her hair, tangling in it, while he kissed her in the soft silence of the kitchen. It was a moment out of time when she wished it could never end, that she could go on kissing him forever.

  But just when he lifted his head, and looked into her eyes, and started to speak...

  A car pulled up at the front porch and a door slammed.

  Maddie looked into Cort’s eyes with shock. He seemed almost as unsettled as she did. He moved back, helping her off the counter and onto her feet. He backed up just as Great-Aunt Sadie walked in with two bags of groceries.

  “Didn’t even have fresh mushrooms, can you believe it?” she was moaning, her mind on the door that was trying to close in her face rather than the two dazed people in the kitchen.

  “Here, let me have those,” Cort said politely, and he took the bags and put them on the counter. “Are there more in the car?” he asked.

  “No, but thank you, Cort,” Sadie said with a warm smile.

  He grinned. “No problem.” He glanced at Maddie, who still looked rattled. “I have to go. Thanks for the offer of coffee. Rain check?” he added, and his eyes were almost black with feeling.

  “Oh, yes,” Maddie managed breathlessly. “Rain check.”

  He smiled at her and left her standing there, vibrating with new hope.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MADDIE STILL COULDN’T believe what had happened right there in her kitchen. Cort had kissed her, and as if he really did feel something for her. Besides that, he was very obviously jealous of John Everett. She felt as if she could actually walk on air.

  “You look happier than I’ve seen y
ou in years, sweetie,” Great-Aunt Sadie said with a smile.

  “I am.”

  Sadie grinned. “It’s that John Everett, isn’t it?” she teased. She indicated the coffeemaker. “Thought he was pretty interested. I mean, those things cost the earth. Not every man would start out courting a girl with a present like that!”

  “Oh. Well, of course, I like John,” Maddie stammered. And then she realized that she couldn’t very well tell her great-aunt what was going on. Sadie might start gossiping. Maddie’s ranch hands had friends who worked for the Brannts. She didn’t want Cort to think she was telling tales about him, even in an innocent way. After all, it might have been a fluke. He could be missing Odalie and just reacted to Maddie in unexpected ways.

  “He’s a dish,” Sadie continued as she peeled potatoes in the kitchen. “Handsome young man, just like his dad.” She grimaced. “I’m not too fond of his sister, but, then, no family is perfect.”

  “No.” She hesitated. “Sadie, do you know why nobody talks about the oldest brother, Tanner?”

  Sadie smiled. “Just gossip. They said he and his dad had a major falling out over his choice of careers and he packed up and went to Europe. That was when he was in his late teens. As far as I know, he’s never contacted the family since. It’s a sore spot with the Everetts, so they don’t talk about him anymore. Too painful, I expect.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “Yes, it is. There was a rumor that he was hanging out with some dangerous people as well. But you know what rumors are.”

  “Yes,” Maddie said.

  “What was Cort doing over here earlier in the week?” Sadie asked suddenly.

  “Oh, he was just...giving me some more pointers on dad’s breeding program,” Maddie lied.

  “Scared you to death, too,” Sadie said irritably. “I don’t think he’d hurt you, but he’s got a bad temper, sweetie.”

  Maddie had forgotten that, in the new relationship she seemed to be building with Cort. “People say his father was like that, when he was young. But Shelby married him and tamed him,” she added with a secret smile.

  Sadie glanced at her curiously. “I guess that can happen. A good woman can be the salvation of a man. But just...be careful.”

  “I will,” she promised. “Cort isn’t a mean person.”

  Sadie gave her a careful look. “So that’s how it is.”

  Maddie flushed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “John likes you, a lot,” she replied.

  Maddie sighed. “John’s got a barracuda for a sister, too,” she reminded the older woman. “No way in the world am I having her for a sister-in-law, no matter how nice John is.”

  Sadie grimaced. “Should have thought of that, shouldn’t I?”

  “I did.”

  She laughed. “I guess so. But just a suggestion, if you stick your neck out with Cort,” she added very seriously. “Make him mad. Make him really mad, someplace where you can get help if you need to. Don’t wait and find out when it’s too late if he can’t control his temper.”

  “I remember that boy in high school,” Maddie reminded her. “He didn’t stop. Cort frightened me, yes, but when he saw I was afraid, he started apologizing. If he couldn’t control his temper, he’d never have been able to stop.”

  Sadie looked calmer. “No. I don’t think he would.”

  “He’s still apologizing for it, in fact,” Maddie added.

  Sadie smiled and her eyes were kind. “All right, then. I won’t harp on it. He’s a lot like his father, and his dad is a good man.”

  “They’re all nice people. Morie was wonderful to me in school. She stuck up for me when Odalie and her girlfriend were making my life a daily purgatory.”

  “Pity Odalie never really gets paid back for the things she does,” Sadie muttered.”

  Maddie hugged her. “That mill grinds slowly but relentlessly,” she reminded her. She grinned. “One day...”

  Sadie laughed. “One day.”

  Maddie let her go with a sigh. “I hope I can learn enough of this stuff not to sink dad’s cattle operation,” she moaned. “I wasn’t really faced with having to deal with the breeding aspect until now, with roundup ahead and fall breeding standing on the line in front of me. Which bull do I put on which cows? Gosh! It’s enough to drive you nuts!”

  “Getting a lot of help in that, though, aren’t you?” Sadie teased. “Did you tell Cort that John had been coaching you, too?”

  “Yes.” She sighed. “Cort wasn’t overjoyed about it, either. But John makes it understandable.” She threw up her hands. “I’m just slow. I don’t understand cattle. I love to paint and sculpt. But Dad never expected to go so soon and have to leave me in charge of things. We’re going in the hole because I don’t know what I’m doing.” She glanced at the older woman. “In about two years, we’re going to start losing customers. It terrifies me. I don’t want to lose the ranch, but it’s going to go downhill without dad to run it.” She toyed with a bag on the counter. “I’ve been thinking about that developer...”

  “Don’t you dare,” Sadie said firmly. “Darlin’, do you realize what he’d do to this place if he got his hands on it?” she exclaimed. “He’d sell off all the livestock to anybody who wanted it, even for slaughter, and he’d rip the land to pieces. All that prime farmland, gone, all the native grasses your dad planted and nurtured, gone. This house—” she indicated it “—where your father and your grandfather and I were born! Gone!”

  Maddie felt sick. “Oh, dear.”

  “You’re not going to run the ranch into the ground. Not when you have people, like King Brannt, who want to help you get it going again,” she said firmly. “If you ever want to sell up, you talk to him. I’ll bet he’d offer for it and put in a manager. We could probably even stay on and pay rent.”

  “With what?” Maddie asked reasonably. “Your social security check and my egg money?” She sighed. “I can’t sell enough paintings or enough eggs to pay for lunch in town,” she added miserably. “I should have gone to school and learned a trade or something.” She grimaced. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Give it a little time,” the older woman said gently. “I know it’s overwhelming, but you can learn. Ask John to make you a chart and have Ben in on the conversation. Your dad trusted Ben with everything, even the finances. I daresay he knows as much as you do about things.”

  “That’s an idea.” She smiled sadly. “I don’t really want to sell that developer anything. He’s got a shady look about him.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “I guess I’ll wait a bit.”

  “Meanwhile, you might look in that bag I brought home yesterday.”

  “Isn’t it groceries...dry goods?”

  “Look.”

  She peered in the big brown bag and caught her breath. “Sculpting material. Paint! Great-Aunt Sadie!” she exclaimed, and ran and hugged the other woman. “That’s so sweet of you!”

  “Looking out for you, darling,” she teased. “I want you to be famous so those big TV people will want to interview me on account of we’re related!” She stood up and struck a pose. “Don’t you think I’d be a hit?”

  Maddie hugged her even tighter. “I think you’re already a hit. Okay. I can take a hint. I’ll get to work right now!”

  Sadie chortled as she rushed from the room.

  * * *

  CORT CAME IN several days later while she was retouching one of the four new fairies she’d created, working where the light was best, in a corner of her father’s old office. She looked up, startled, when Great-Aunt Sadie let him in.

  She froze. “Pumpkin came after you again?” she asked, worried.

  “What?” He looked around, as if expecting the big red rooster to appear. “Oh, Pumpkin.” He chuckled. “No. He was in the hen yard giving me mean looks, but he seems to be well contained.”

  “Thank goodness!”

  He moved to the table and looked at her handiwork. “What a group,”
he mused, smiling. “They’re all beautiful.”

  “Thanks.” She wished she didn’t sound so breathless, and that she didn’t have paint dabbed all over her face from her days’ efforts. She probably looked like a painting herself.

  “Going to sell them?”

  “Oh, I couldn’t,” she said hesitantly. “I mean, I...well, I just couldn’t.”

  “Can’t you imagine what joy they’d bring to other people?” he asked, thinking out loud. “Why do you think doll collectors pay so much for one-of-a-kind creations like those? They build special cabinets for them, take them out and talk to them...”

  “You’re kidding!” she exclaimed, laughing. “Really?”

  “This one guy I met at the conference said he had about ten really rare dolls. He sat them around the dining room table every night and talked to them while he ate. He was very rich and very eccentric, but you get the idea. He loved his dolls. He goes to all the doll collector conventions. In fact, there’s one coming up in Denver, where they’re holding a cattlemen’s workshop.” He smiled. “Anyway, your fairies wouldn’t be sitting on a shelf collecting dust on the shelf of a collector like that. They’d be loved.”

  “Wow.” She looked back at the little statuettes. “I never thought of it like that.”

  “Maybe you should.”

  She managed a shy smile. He looked delicious in a pair of beige slacks and a yellow, very expensive pullover shirt with an emblem on the pocket. Thick black hair peeked out where the top buttons were undone. She wondered how his bare chest would feel against her hands. She blushed. “What can I do for you?” she asked quickly, trying to hide her interest.

  Her reaction to him was amusing. He found it

  really touching. Flattering. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind since he’d kissed her so hungrily in her kitchen. He’d wanted to come back sooner than this, but business had overwhelmed him.

  “I have to drive down to Jacobsville, Texas, to see a rancher about some livestock,” he said. “I thought you might like to ride with me.”