A Real Cowboy

by Carla Cassidy

  She got out of bed, grabbed a nightgown and crept out into the hallway and to the bathroom. Sammy’s room was dark and her heart squeezed tight as she thought of Lucas sharing that room with her beloved son.

  Had she merely reminded Lucas that not only was Cassie and her time here limited, but that his own time here might be limited, as well?

  Country girl...city girl...she wasn’t sure where she fit. She’d grown to love it here, but the idea of staying here, of turning her back on the life that she knew in New York City, was more than a little bit daunting.

  She finished in the bathroom and, clad in her nightgown, went back to her bedroom. She got into bed and shut off the bedside light.

  Her question about what kind of a lover Lucas would make had been answered. He’d been masterful yet tender, taking and giving with an intensity that had stolen her thoughts, her very breath away.

  Now, although the sheets smelled of him and his body heat lingered in the bed, her thoughts turned to the trauma of the afternoon and the near abduction of her son.

  She’d nearly lost him. If Lucas and his men hadn’t rushed to the rescue, Sammy would have been gone. Why? Who? Who had paid Jeff Bodine to take her son away from her?

  * * *

  Making love with Nicolette had been a big mistake, a mistake that haunted Lucas’s sleep and continued to haunt him throughout the next morning.

  He wasn’t working outside today and didn’t intend to again until he knew for sure that Sammy was safe. Besides, he was eager to hear from Dillon about the plans for tonight to get to the man behind Jeff Bodine.

  He’d tried to keep things as normal as possible between him and Nicolette during the morning hours, but the truth was he’d let her in too deep, allowed her access to places in his heart he’d never shared.

  Tomorrow he would know her one week, but it felt as if he’d known her for months. Their living conditions, the circumstances of the danger to Sammy, had drawn them together in an intense way that had nothing to do with time.

  Making love to her had been amazing, but their conversation afterward had simply served to remind him that she wasn’t going to be around here forever. The last thing he wanted to do was fall in love with her. She and Cassie and Sammy might be here a month or two, but ultimately he believed Nicolette and her son would follow Cassie back to the life they’d had before Cass had died.

  For the first time in years he wondered where his mother was, if she was even still alive. Her complete and total abandonment of him had created a shattering of his heart that he’d believed nobody could ever heal again.

  And then he’d met Cass, who had been both employer and mother figure. She’d given him back his self-worth, built in him a self-respect that had been lacking when he’d first arrived here at the ranch.

  She’d rebuilt his heart piece by piece with her love and support, with her expectations and assurance that he could be a man proud of who he was at his very core.

  Her death had been like a second abandonment, and he knew if he allowed himself to fall in love with Nicolette only to have her leave, his heart would shatter once again and there would be no more picking up the pieces.

  He wouldn’t let himself go through that kind of pain again. He’d be here for Nicolette and Sammy as long as they needed his protection, as long as they needed his support, but he refused to give them any more purchase into his heart.

  He now stood at the kitchen window, watching in the distance as his fellow cowboys went about the daily chores. His shirt pocket that held his cell phone burned with the need for it to ring, for him to know how Dillon and his men intended to play out the continuing drama of Sammy’s near kidnapping.

  They’d managed to get through breakfast and had just finished lunch with only a slight tension between Nicolette and him, a tension that obviously wasn’t noticed by Cassie or Sammy.

  The other three had gone upstairs when lunch was finished, leaving Lucas alone with his thoughts. At the moment he was pretty sick of his own introspection. He needed something to happen, some answers, some sort of closure as to what had happened yesterday. He knew that Nicolette needed the same thing.

  There was no question in his mind that the tension that radiated from her throughout the morning wasn’t just a result of their night spent together, but also the need to know who was behind the scheme to take Sammy.

  “No word yet from Dillon?” Nicolette’s voice pulled his attention from the window.

  He turned to face her and tried not to process how pretty she looked with her hair loose, and dressed in a pair of jeans and a forest-green blouse that accentuated the green of her eyes. Desire instantly leaped back into his veins, a desire he consciously ignored.

  “No word,” he replied. What the hell was wrong with him? Why whenever she was near did he fight the desire to touch her, to want her?

  “Surely he intends to do what we talked about yesterday,” she said and sat at the table.

  He took the chair across from her and set his coffee cup in front of him. “I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t do some sort of a sting tonight to catch the man who is behind all of this.”

  “I want to be there,” she said.

  He looked at her in surprise and then narrowed his gaze. “I don’t think that would be wise.”

  She lifted her chin just enough to show her steely determination. “I think it would be very wise,” she countered. “Sammy will be fine here with Cassie, and you could get a couple of the other men to guard the house.”

  She leaned forward, bringing with her the scent of her fruity, floral perfume, a fragrance that had been in his head for what seemed like forever. “I need to be there, Lucas. I need to see the man behind the curtain. I might be the only one who can immediately identify him. In any case, nobody is going to stop me from being at that diner tonight at midnight.”

  She held his gaze, her eyes now narrowing slightly. “You can either stay here or you can come with me. It’s your decision.”

  “That’s not much of a choice,” he replied drily. “I can’t let you go off half-cocked into this kind of a potentially dangerous situation. In any case, it’s really not our call. It’s all up to what Dillon thinks is best for everyone.”

  She leaned back in her chair. “I don’t care what he says. I have the name of the diner and a vehicle at my disposal and I intend to be there whether he thinks it’s a good idea or not.”

  “This is a side of you I’ve never seen before,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  He couldn’t help the smile that twitched at his lips. “Bullheaded. I’ve never seen your stubborn side.”

  “Well, take a good look at me because I’m feeling totally bullheaded about this issue.” She held his gaze and then continued, “I might be stubborn, but I’m not stupid. I don’t plan on getting in the way of Chief Bowie and his men. I’ll stay hidden someplace outside the diner until they get the man arrested. But I want my face to be one of the first he sees when he’s led out of the diner. I want his face to be the first one I see.”

  He couldn’t blame her. If he was in her position and it was his son who was at the center of a kidnapping scheme, he’d want to be there, too.

  “Fine, when I talk to Dillon I’ll tell him that you and I intend to be at the diner,” he said.

  Her gaze softened. “Thank you, Lucas.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. I’m still not sure this is a good idea.” He broke eye contact with her, the soft green of her eyes threatening to pull him into places he didn’t want to go. He took a sip of his coffee and stared out the window.

  “Lucas?”

  Reluctantly he looked at her again. “About last night...” she began.

  “I thought we weren’t going to have a morning-after talk.”

  “I’ve changed my mind,” she replied. “I just want you to know that it was strictly a physical-attraction thing and I certainly don’t expect anything else from you except maybe your support while we get through this t
hing with Sammy.”

  Her words should have caused a river of relief inside him, but he was stunned that they didn’t. Somehow they made what had happened between them last night even worse.

  He gave her a curt nod. “I ride alone, Nicolette. Don’t expect anything else from me. I care about you and Sammy. I care about your welfare, but I’m glad you recognize last night for what it was...an explosion of desire between us that won’t happen again.”

  At that moment his cell phone rang. He got up from the table and left the room when he saw that it was Dillon’s cell phone number on his caller ID.

  He stepped out the back door to talk to the lawman, not wanting to speak in front of Nicolette. He had no idea what Dillon had planned, and if it wasn’t what Nicolette wanted then he didn’t want her to hear it firsthand. He’d have to figure out a way to make her accept that Dillon knew best how to handle the situation.

  He listened as Dillon outlined the plan for the night, and after a ten-minute discussion things were finally settled. He returned to the kitchen to find Nicolette seated where he’d left her at the table.

  “It’s all set,” he said as he resumed his seat.

  Nicolette sat up straight, a thrum of energy radiating from her. “Tell me the plan.”

  “It’s pretty basic. Dillon is going to have a man inside the diner around eleven. Dillon’s men will surround the diner and stay out of sight. He’s planning on riding with Jeff to the diner and once Jeff arrives he’ll sneak out of the car while Jeff goes inside.”

  “How do we know that Jeff won’t somehow warn the man to run?” she asked, her worry creasing a fine line across her forehead.

  “By that point it won’t matter. The place will be surrounded and anyone running out of the diner will be put under arrest. Apparently last night Dillon spent the night at the motel with Jeff and was there when he made the call telling the man he had the kid and will make the rendezvous tonight.”

  “Did you tell Dillon that you and I are going to be there?”

  “I did, and I have to say he wasn’t exactly overly thrilled by the idea, but I assured him we’d park and stay in the car until the whole thing goes down. He just doesn’t want anything to spook the guy or screw up the operation.”

  Her eyes shimmered in the afternoon light. “So tonight, just after midnight I should know the identity of the man who’s trying to kidnap my son.”

  Chapter 10

  Darryl’s Diner was definitely a dive, Nicolette thought as Lucas pulled his vehicle around the front of the building and then to the side to park.

  It had taken twenty minutes to get to the place, which lit up the lonely dark highway with flashing neon signs more appropriate on a Las Vegas casino.

  It was just after eleven and Nicolette had never felt so wide-awake in her entire life. Nerves jumped in the pit of her stomach and danced electric tingles throughout her veins.

  There had been only one car parked in front of the building, and she assumed it was whomever Dillon had assigned to be there. It would be somebody Dillon knew wouldn’t be recognized by the staff of the diner, somebody who would be unkempt and appear half-drunk to blend in with the usual local clientele at this time of night.

  Her heart beat rapidly as she thought of what was going to go down in the next hour or so. She prayed it would work, that by the time she placed her head on her pillow tonight the danger to Sammy would be permanently vanished and she’d have all the answers she needed to finally be at peace.

  “You okay?” Lucas asked softly.

  “I feel like my nerves are trying to jump right out of my skin, but I’m also hopeful,” she replied.

  “You sure it isn’t your ex-husband who is behind this?” Lucas asked. He unfastened his seat belt and turned to face her.

  “I can’t imagine why he would do something like this. Kidnap his own son.” She shook her head. “If Samuel called me tomorrow and wanted to spend time with Sammy, I would encourage it. I told Samuel at the time I left him that I would never stand in the way of his relationship with his son. Samuel has just never been interested in having any relationship with Sammy.”

  “And therefore it doesn’t make sense that he would be behind all this,” Lucas replied.

  “Exactly.” She unfastened her seat belt as well, wanting to be able to get out of the car as quickly as possible when the right time came.

  They both fell silent. Nicolette checked her watch, wishing that the minutes would pass faster, that she’d have some sort of answer that made sense right now, right this very minute.

  She released a deep sigh. It was still forty minutes until midnight. For the first time in her life time felt like an enemy, an emotionless entity keeping her from what she needed most...answers that would ensure her son’s safety.

  By the time another five minutes had passed, she became aware of shadowy shapes moving in the semidarkness around the building. “That will be Dillon’s men getting into position,” Lucas said.

  A new tension filled her. The ladder at the window at the house, Jeff’s unexpected crazy horseback kidnapping attempt to steal away Sammy. They were crazy events without an apparent motive. Hopefully every question she had would be answered in the next half an hour.

  She hated that they were parked on the side of the building, where they couldn’t see anything but car lights pulling into the parking spaces in front of the building.

  She wanted to see Jeff arrive in his car with the fake sleeping boy in his backseat. She wanted to see the man he was meeting pull up and park, get a glimpse of the car he drove, anything that would give her a hint about whom would be arrested tonight. And she hoped and prayed there would be an arrest.

  She stiffened as she saw headlights that indicated a car had pulled up at the diner. It was still twenty minutes until midnight.

  “Maybe that’s him or Jeff and Dillon,” she said and broke the silence.

  “Or maybe it’s some drunk wanting hotcakes and eggs to try to sober up,” Lucas replied. “There’s no way to keep out the usual customers without blowing the whole thing.”

  She released another sigh and rolled down her window partway. The air that drifted in smelled of fried onions and spoiling garbage, causing a faint nausea to roll in her stomach.

  “If you don’t calm down you’re going to have a heart attack before midnight ever arrives,” Lucas said, his voice a soft whisper in the interior of the car.

  “I’m trying to stay calm, but my heart is beating so hard I’m surprised you can’t hear it.”

  “I think I can.” He reached across to her and covered one of her hands with his. She welcomed his touch and curled her fingers around his, drawing strength and comfort from the simple connection.

  He had been so distant for most of the day, as if he wished he could take back their lovemaking, as if he wished he was back in the pastures instead of embroiled in the complications of her life.

  “I’m sorry I got you involved in all this,” she said and tightened her fingers with his. “I never meant for you to get entangled in this mess.”

  “You didn’t get me involved. I got myself involved.” He smiled at her, his features barely visible in the illumination from the corner of the building where a neon sign hung advertising homemade biscuits and gravy. “I’m not just doing this for you. I’m doing it for a little boy who dreams about being a cowboy just like me.”

  Nicolette’s heart swelled when she heard the obvious love in his voice. He might not want a forever-after with her or any other woman, but Sammy had definitely crawled under his defenses.

  If she decided to return to New York City when Cassie sold the ranch, then she’d have a little brokenhearted cowboy to deal with, for she knew that Sammy loved Lucas, too.

  Lucas pulled his cell phone from his pocket and held it to his ear. He must have had it set on vibrate because there had been no ringtone, but it was obvious somebody had called him.

  He listened for a moment and then replied “Okay” and hung up. “That w
as Dillon. Jeff is in place inside and now we just wait for the man of the hour to arrive.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket.

  “Maybe he won’t show up. Maybe Jeff somehow managed to warn him off with his phone call. Maybe he’ll change his mind and set up a different meeting or call Jeff again to change the date and time.”

  Suddenly Nicolette was filled with doubts and fears. What if it all goes very wrong tonight and we don’t get the answers I want so badly? What if the man who paid Jeff manages to somehow escape?

  “Or it all can go as smoothly as Dillon has planned,” Lucas countered. He gave her hand a final squeeze and then released it. “We’ll know if things are screwed up in the next ten minutes or so.”

  Ten achingly agonizing minutes. She definitely felt as if she would have a heart attack before that time. Her chest tightened with tension and she wondered how long her heart could sustain its frantic beat.

  She needed answers. She needed to know that after tonight Sammy would be safe and they all could spend the rest of their time at the ranch in peace and happiness.

  She had no idea what the future held for her. She was conflicted between her loyalty to Cassie and her building desire to form some kind of a life in Bitterroot.

  There was no thought about whether or not Lucas would have a place with her if she decided to stay. She’d like to believe he would, but she couldn’t forget that he’d told her he rode alone—and he hadn’t just meant during his chores.

  However, she didn’t need Lucas for any future plans she might make. She was falling in love with him and would like him to be a part of that future, but she and Sammy would be fine without him as long as this night passed with questions answered and danger vanished.

  Just when she thought she couldn’t stand it another minute, another set of headlights bounced in the darkness as a vehicle turned into the diner parking lot.

  She heard the sound of the engine shutting down and then a car door slamming shut. She wanted to fly out of the vehicle. As if sensing her need, Lucas reached over and grabbed her arm.

  “Not yet,” he said.