Ranger's Wild Woman Cowboys By The Dozen

by Tina Leonard

  “That comes from being let down. I know that I’ve resolved to be a better mother than mine was.”

  Hannah’s eyes widened. “Are you…expecting?”

  Mimi was quiet as she looked out the window for a moment. Then she turned to Hannah. “If there’s been a miracle, yes. I certainly hope so. But Hannah, if you don’t mind, don’t share that with Ranger, or anyone. The Jefferson boys are not the only ones who have superstitions.” She sighed deeply, and the sound was tired and sad. “I’m too afraid to believe in miracles anymore.”

  WHEN RANGER came in to check on her, Hannah had been doing a lot of thinking. “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi. How’s the ankle?”

  “Fine. It’s good enough for me to drive now.”

  He glanced toward the window. “It’s late. You should probably spend the night.”

  “Will I be an imposition?”

  He looked at her. “Aren’t you always?” But his tone wasn’t mean.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I thought that was your goal. You impose yourself on people and then when they get used to you, you disappear, taking part of their heart with you. Only by then, you’re long gone and calling it just friends.”

  “Ranger, you don’t sound coherent.”

  “I heard you tell Mimi that you were faking your ankle sprain.”

  Hannah’s gaze slid away. “You claimed I wasn’t impressed with how you rescued me. I thought I should give you a second chance, and find out if you were right.”

  “Yes, but this time I’m not going to rescue you, Hannah. So you’re wasting our time.”

  “Ranger—”

  He shook his head. “If I stay in here another minute, I’m going to dive into that bed and make love to you, you little faker. But then you’ll just run off again. And I think somewhere under the curse and the arguing and the fake marriage, I was hoping you would fall for me the way I was afraid I was falling for you. Only, you can’t fall for me, because you’ve got a built-in safety valve.”

  “I’m trying, Ranger,” she said. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Faking it.” He shook his head. “The really bad news is that Brian made some phone calls. Guess what? Not only is Hawk a true medicine man by the standards of his tribe, he is a legal, ordained minister.”

  Hannah gasped. “Oh, God. I attacked a man of the cloth! I’m going to hell for that, don’t you think? Wouldn’t you think that gets me a first-class ticket on the H-train?”

  Ranger stared. “Uh—”

  “I don’t get it,” she said. “So, he marries people and then rents them his honeymoon house? Sort of like a Native American Las Vegas? And he does P.I. work as his goodwill contribution?”

  Ranger shrugged. “How should I know? Anyway, Hannah, I think you’re getting lost in the details. We’re married. Not just in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of the law, as well.”

  Hannah gasped. “Married?”

  He nodded, watching her carefully.

  “Oh.” Her gaze became strained.

  “Yes, my little wife. How does that sound?”

  “Well, it sounds—” Hannah got up out of the bed, forgetting to limp. “Well, it sounds…different,” she said, edging toward the door. “And I must say…it sounds different.”

  He waited.

  “You know,” she said, “I’m going to take a short walk and think about this, Ranger. A real short one. Just to take it all in. It’s such a shock, you know. I’m speechless. Married. Won’t everyone be so…surprised?”

  And then she ran out the door.

  “Amazing recovery, that,” Ranger said. “Mrs. Jefferson, I believe you just set a record for long-jumping that staircase.”

  HANNAH RAN to the truck, telling herself not to hyperventilate. Married! He’d crept up on her with that one. “Breathe,” she told herself. “Breathe!” She got behind the wheel and started the truck. She pressed the gas pedal so hard the engine revved like her heart.

  And then she saw the letter on the seat next to her. In Ranger’s handwriting.

  Something told her it wasn’t a love letter.

  Hannah, I was pretty certain you wouldn’t be happy when I told you that we are married. I know how upset you probably are, and the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you. I wouldn’t want to be married to someone who doesn’t want to be married to me. Rest assured that by the time you’ve broken the seal on this envelope, I’ve already called Brian and asked him to draw up divorce papers. Best of luck, and I hope you find the happiness that you’re seeking.

  Ranger

  There was no one on the porch to watch her make her escape. She could go without anyone noticing. Ranger expected her to. He wanted her to. He understood how she was.

  It didn’t feel right.

  Maybe she should walk back in the house and tell him not to start divorce proceedings. But she’d already lost Ranger. He would never be able to trust her. She could barely trust herself.

  She didn’t know what to do.

  They’d hurt each other so many times.

  Crying now, because it was all too painful and she didn’t really understand why she couldn’t be a woman who wanted a husband and a hearth and a home, she backed the truck up and headed toward Mississippi.

  RANGER WATCHED from the upstairs window as Hannah ran to the truck. He saw her break open the letter. He called Brian. “Do it,” was all he said, and Brian said, “Done.” He hung up the phone, waiting as Hannah drove away, watching the truck disappear into the distance. As he had known it would.

  She had done exactly as he’d expected her to. Which made him feel better about not telling her the truth.

  That he’d fallen in love with her the minute he’d laid eyes on her red-tipped blond hair and cut-out tennis shoes. That he would have changed his life for her. That no one had taken hold of his heart the way she had.

  He had not told her the truth, because it would not have made her happy to hear it. As Maverick had said, a man wanted what he couldn’t have, and not always to his betterment.

  “WHAT HAPPENED?” Jellyfish asked.

  Hannah resolutely set out cards on the gaming table. The room was quiet because the customers hadn’t yet ambled in from dinner. “Nothing happened. We were married, accidentally. We’re getting divorced, on purpose.”

  “But maybe you love him.”

  She eyed her friend stoically. “It doesn’t matter. Ranger and I analyzed our relationship. We over-analyzed it, and under-analyzed it, and then we euthanised it. End of story.”

  “Huh.” Jellyfish rolled some dice toward the end of the table. “So, what about Cissy?”

  “I tried to call her today, but Valentine wouldn’t put me through.” Hannah cocked her head for a moment. “Then she said the strangest thing; she wished Cissy had never come back because she’s turned mean. Which is a truly spectacular thing for one of Marvella’s girls to say, because they’re not exactly short on that particular quality themselves.”

  “I thought Cissy was nice.”

  “Me, too. Sometimes a person acts a certain way when they’re in a certain place as a defense mechanism.”

  “You’d know all about that.”

  Hannah gave Jellyfish a disgruntled eye. “How so?”

  “You act like a sister to me. When Ranger was around, you acted jumpy. Like he mattered, but you didn’t want him to.”

  “Well, when you and I decided to get married, we were doing it as a partnership. Neither you nor I believed in true love. It seemed like the smart thing to do.”

  “And now?”

  “And now I am married. And I would never again call a marriage of convenience a smart thing to do.”

  Jellyfish tossed the dice again, turning up snake eyes. “Maybe it wasn’t so convenient.”

  “That’s what we all know, now.”

  “I mean, maybe it was more a marriage of passion.”

  “Well, we definitely liked each other that way. But that’s not love,” Hannah sai
d.

  “Really? What is love?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, Jellyfish.” Hannah sighed. “It’s being there for each other. It’s trusting each other. It’s being breathless when you’re eating oatmeal together.”

  “Maybe.” He put the dice away and picked up a chip. “So. Hawk’s picking up his truck from the pier, and you’re coming with me.”

  “Right.” She felt sad, and knew she’d feel sadder once the boat pulled away from shore, but fortunately she had Jellyfish, and he was really the only stable thing she’d ever had in her life.

  Ranger had tried, though. If only she could have been more settled—

  “I’m going to make a long-distance phone call before we go,” she told Jellyfish.

  “You’ve got thirty minutes. Take your time. I’m going to greet some tourists.”

  “Okay.” In her room, she sat on her bed and put the phone in her lap. She stared at it a long time.

  Then she pulled out a phone book she kept in the headboard cabinet and dialed the number.

  “Hello?” a woman’s voice said.

  Hannah took a deep breath. “Mother, it’s me. Hannah.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mason stared out the window toward Mimi’s house as rain fell in the darkness outside. “So, do you think Archer will call us eventually and let us know when he plans to return?”

  Ranger wondered how much he should confess of his twin’s plans. “I don’t know.”

  Tex glanced over at him. “We’re waiting for you to tell us where Hannah went, bro.”

  Another subject Ranger really didn’t want to delve into. “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t know much, do you?” Last asked. “Or do you just not want to talk about anything?”

  Ranger nodded, picking up his beer off the table. “That sums it up, I guess.”

  “Whatever happened to Cissy Kisserton?” Tex asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ranger said.

  “Well, that does it.” Fannin sighed at the ceiling. “Don’t ask him anything else. If Ranger says he doesn’t know one more time, I’m going to whale him a good one.”

  The rest of the brothers muttered their agreement.

  “Is the sheriff going to make it?” Ranger asked.

  Mason sat down heavily on the sofa, flipping the channels on the muted TV. “It’s bad, that’s all I know. I nearly had heart failure when I found the old man in bed like that. Dang, I thought he was already turning up daisies!” He shook his head. “I didn’t know how the hell I was going to tell Mimi.”

  Everyone digested this with sympathy. “What are the chances of him getting a new liver?” Bandera asked.

  “Slim to none, probably,” Mason answered.

  “I wish I could do something,” Navarro said.

  “Look at that,” Calhoun said. He pointed to the mute TV with his beer can. “Doesn’t your wife have a job on a riverboat, Ranger?”

  “Turn it up, Mason,” Crockett said.

  The sound came on, and the announcer’s voice accompanied pictures of a riverboat casino that had been rammed by another boat in Mississippi.

  “That’s Jellyfish’s riverboat!” Ranger exclaimed. His throat went dry and tight.

  “Two died and there were several injuries—”

  But Ranger didn’t hear another word. He was already out the door, sure the Mississippi police could direct him to the right hospital.

  The sight of the damaged riverboat had turned his stomach.

  “EXCUSE ME,” Ranger said to the intensive care nurse.

  “Excuse me,” he repeated. “I’d like to see Hannah Hotchkiss, please.”

  “I’m sorry. No one’s admitted except family,” the nurse replied.

  “But she doesn’t have any family here,” Ranger told her. “Except Jellyfish. And I need to see him, too.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. No one is allowed in the ICU except family members.”

  A flash of inspiration hit. “Hannah’s my wife.”

  The nurse raised a brow. “I’m sure she is. Why didn’t you say that before, then?”

  “I just remembered.”

  “I don’t think so.” The nurse prepared to turn away.

  “Wait. Please.”

  She turned around.

  “We got married by a medicine man. Here’s our rings,” he said, pulling the braided circles out of his wallet.

  She frowned at him. “Sir, your story is not moving my heart to believe you.” But she eyed the rings with interest. “Those are pretty unusual.”

  “But see, that’s the deal. Hannah’s an unusual woman. If you knew her, you’d understand that this is the kind of woman who would appreciate a ceremony in a Native American graveyard. She’s not a conventional girl. She’s afraid of things like commitment, and yet not afraid of snakes. She drinks beer and blows bubble gum. And the truth is, we’re getting a divorce, or at least we’re supposed to. But that’s really because I need to pull my head out of my behind.”

  “Really?” the nurse said dryly.

  “Yes. I’ve been trying to make her fit my memory of my parents’ happy, normal marriage. That’s never going to work for her. So I need to change the image.”

  “You love her, don’t you?”

  “I do. I really do,” Ranger said. “I’m just sorry she had to capsize in the Mississippi for me to figure it out.”

  The nurse pursed her lips, undecided. “I’ll have to ask her if she wants to see you, sir. What’s your name?”

  “Ranger Jefferson. I am so grateful to you. And if she says no, tell her…beg her.”

  “Don’t push your luck, sir,” the nurse told him. “Wait here.”

  WHEN THE NURSE returned thirty minutes later she said, “Miss Hotchkiss won’t see you, Mr. Jefferson.”

  His heart sank. “Did she say why?”

  The nurse dipped her head uncomfortably. “She said she doesn’t need to be rescued.”

  “I see.”

  “I’m sorry.” The nurse turned away to examine charts.

  “Is Brother Jellyfish in ICU also?”

  “Are you going to convince me that he, too, is a relation of yours?”

  “It’s this communal brotherhood thing,” Ranger began. “We’re all brothers on some level. You know, honey bees and snow-white turtledoves.”

  She didn’t glance at him. “I can’t give you any more information than I have.”

  He sighed. “All right. Thank you for trying. I’ll be down here in case you need to find me. When my wife decides she wants to see me.” Then Ranger stretched out on one of the vinyl chairs in the waiting room down the hall.

  THREE DAYS LATER, Hannah still ached all over. Maybe what ached most was her heart, though. While it was thoughtful of Ranger to come visit her, she knew what had been wrong between them couldn’t be changed.

  At least not now. She didn’t want him to see her hooked up to tubes, with bruises all over her face. She looked like she’d been in a shipwreck.

  “How is Jellyfish today?” she asked the nurse.

  “Getting ornery. We might be able to get him up for a short walk today.”

  Jellyfish had broken a few bones, including one in his foot and one in his wrist, when the other boat had crashed into theirs. Then he’d nearly drowned trying to rescue all the passengers who’d fallen in.

  “A collapsed lung isn’t fun,” the nurse said. “But you’re being a very good patient.”

  Hannah closed her eyes. “I want to complain. I just don’t have the strength.”

  The nurse cleared her throat. “You know, that cowboy would probably love to pay you a visit.”

  She opened her eyes. “Ranger’s still here? It’s been three days.”

  “I know,” the nurse said nonchalantly. “He says he’s not leaving until he sees you and makes sure you’re all right.”

  Hannah’s eyes drifted closed. “I’m so sleepy.”

  “Go to sleep, then.”

  But the door opened, and a whirlwind
of activity hit her room. Hannah tried to sit up. “Mother! Father!”

  “Don’t get up, Hannah. We’re here to take care of our little girl,” her mother said. “Nurse, you won’t be needed anymore.”

  Hannah was too shocked to interrupt. The nurse didn’t leave the room. She stared at the woman with the plaited gray hair to her waist and the bald-headed man with the moustache nearly as long as his companion’s hair.

  “Excuse me,” the nurse interjected. “This patient needs rest.”

  “This patient needs prayer,” Hannah’s mother said. “And a lot of it, from what I can see. Hannah, honey, we’ll have you out of here as soon as possible.”

  It was her nightmare all over again. “Mother,” Hannah said weakly, “this is the Intensive Care Unit. I can’t just go home.”

  “She’s not going anywhere,” the nurse agreed. “You, however, must abide by standard visiting hours.”

  “You can’t stop us from praying,” Hannah’s father said. “We believe in the power of prayer and holistic medicine, not the power of doctors and hospitals.”

  “Your daughter could have died,” the nurse snapped. “Now please leave before I call security.”

  “We’ll be speaking to your supervisor,” Hannah’s mother said ominously as they exited.

  “I’m so sorry,” the nurse said. “Can I get you anything?”

  “No, thank you.” Hannah could barely mumble. She was so tired and she felt so ill, and now that she’d seen her parents, she was distressed. Suddenly she was again a teenager, desperately ill and needing doctors and an operation.

  It was Jellyfish who’d convinced his father to slip her into the city to see a physician and then specialists. They’d taken her to the hospital for the operation. Jellyfish’s family paid the bills.

  Many years later, when Jellyfish left the commune and purchased the riverboat, Hannah repaid the debt by working for him six months out of every year. It was a bond between them that stayed strong.

  But she’d been on the phone with her mother, trying to salvage something from her painful past, when the riverboat got rammed. Her mother had heard her scream and had come here to make certain Hannah was cared for properly.