A Real Cowboy

by Carla Cassidy

  He focused his attention back on Cassie, who was talking about the plans Adam had made for the shed takedown. “He’s renting a couple of big Dumpster containers from Gus and we’ll have the flooring ripped out in no time and then he assures me that all of you know how to build a new structure.”

  Lucas nodded. “We’re all as quick with a hammer as we are with our guns. We helped build the barn on the Swanson Ranch and got it up and functional within two days.”

  “Men of all talents. I like that,” Cassie replied. “I appreciate the way you have all worked for me since we arrived. I was afraid you’d all up and leave without Cass here anymore.”

  “We’re doing it for you because of our love for Cass,” he replied. “We’re still at heart Cass’s cowboys.”

  “I thought you all were Cassie’s cowboys now,” Sammy said.

  Lucas looked at the woman who was the temporary boss. “It depends on Cassie whether we all eventually consider ourselves her cowboys. It will take time before she proves herself worthy of our total loyalty.” And he didn’t figure she’d be around long enough for that to happen.

  “Speaking of time,” he continued, “I say it’s time we get the rest of breakfast fixed. I imagine it won’t be long now before Nicolette makes an appearance.”

  By the time the biscuits were browned and the gravy was bubbly, Nicolette had joined them in the kitchen, and they ate together, the topic of conversation the fun they’d all had the night before.

  Lucas noticed that throughout the meal, Nicolette checked her cell phone several times. He assumed she was keeping an eye on the time, wanting to make the call to the lawyer the minute the law offices opened in New York.

  Although she appeared upbeat and chatty, she only picked at her breakfast, and he was surprised to realize he’d come to know her well enough to not be fooled by her cool-and-calm behavior.

  Inside she had to be screaming in dreadful anticipation...hoping...praying that her phone call this morning would end the mystery surrounding her son.

  It was exactly eight o’clock when she excused herself from the table and went into the great room to make her call. Lucas insisted that he and Sammy would clean up the breakfast dishes, and after a small protest, Cassie gave in and went upstairs.

  “Did Cookie teach you how to make that gravy?” Sammy asked as he helped Lucas carry plates and silverware to the sink.

  “Actually, my mom showed me how to make it,” Lucas replied. The memory tied a small knot of tension in his chest. “I was about twelve when she taught me. Biscuits and gravy are a cheap, easy meal.”

  “Where’s your mom now?” Sammy asked. He set a glass into the sink and then turned to look at Lucas. “Does she live around here?”

  “I don’t know where she is. She ran away when I was fifteen.”

  Sammy’s eyes widened. “She ran away? Moms can do that?”

  “I didn’t have a very good mom and good moms don’t do that.” The last thing he wanted to put into Sammy’s head was any possible thought that Nicolette might just up and decide one day to run away from him.

  Sammy walked over to him and grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry you had a bad mom. I have a good one. She’d never run away from me. I wish you’d had her as a mom.”

  The last thing Lucas felt toward Nicolette was any kind of maternal feelings, but Sammy’s sweet words of support chipped away another piece of Lucas’s defenses. Damn, but it was going to be hard to have to say goodbye to this miniature cowboy.

  They had just finished placing the last of the dishes in the dishwasher when Nicolette returned to the room. Her face was pale, her eyes huge as she stared at Lucas and then looked at her son.

  “Sammy, why don’t you run upstairs and make your bed and get dressed.”

  “Okay, I’ll be right back,” he replied as he flew out of the kitchen.

  Nicolette stumbled to the table and sat down hard, as if her legs couldn’t hold her up a minute longer. Lucas sat across from her, waiting to find out what had her looking as if she’d just suffered a severe shock.

  “I spoke to Vincent,” she said. She placed her cell phone on the table next to her and stared at it. “Apparently he’s been trying to reach me for the past week or so but only had the phone number to our apartment and the store. Anyway, apparently Joseph named me as a beneficiary in his will.”

  She looked up at him, her beautiful eyes holding more than a little bit of disbelief. “It’s enough money that I shouldn’t ever have to worry again.”

  “But that’s wonderful,” Lucas replied, happy that she’d be able to have the financial means to pursue whatever dreams she might want for herself and for Sammy.

  “That’s not the big news,” she replied. “The really big news is that Joseph left the rest of his estate to Sammy. My son is now a multimillionaire.”

  Lucas’s stomach knotted. “And that makes him a perfect target for kidnapping and ransom. We need to let Dillon know about this new information. We now know the probable motive, and all Dillon has to do is find out who has this knowledge and who would go to the lengths to attempt such a crime.”

  “There’s only one person who would know what was in the will besides the lawyer and me, and that’s Samuel.” Her voice was flat as she held Lucas’s gaze.

  “Then Dillon will coordinate with the New York authorities and we’ll get the bastard who obviously sees his son only as a dollar sign,” Lucas replied firmly.

  “And in the meantime?”

  “In the meantime we keep doing what we’re doing—we live our lives and we protect Sammy.”

  She reached across the table to grab his hand. Hers was cold, as if all of her fear pooled in her fingertips. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. He felt her emotions without her needing to speak words.

  For the first time in his life Lucas wondered if fate had somehow placed him here at the ranch specifically for the day that a wonderful woman and a little boy would need him.

  And for the first time in a very long time, he felt as if he were exactly where he was supposed to be.

  * * *

  Nicolette sat on the back porch alone, breathing in the sweet-scented night air and listening to the chirps and clicks of insects that filled the silence like a miniature chorus.

  A half-moon hung in the starlit sky and the faint breeze was comfortably warm.

  It had been a little over a week since she’d found out about Joseph’s will, nine days since Dillon had all the details and was investigating with the aid of a couple of New York detectives.

  Samuel was under close scrutiny, but they could find no ties between him and either Jeff Bodine or Del Hawkins. He’d insisted to the officials that he hadn’t been surprised by his father’s will, that he’d never expected his father to leave him anything.

  If not Samuel, then who? The question had haunted her all week, and that wasn’t all that had haunted her. Along with her concerns for her son’s safety was the realization that she was completely and totally in love with Lucas Taylor.

  There was no way she was going to leave this ranch unscathed by heartbreak. What a loser she was when it came to love. The first time around she’d fallen in love with a man who had loved his money and himself far more than he’d ever loved her.

  Her second love was with a man who had proclaimed from the very beginning that he had no interest in a long-term relationship, that he was a man unable to emotionally invest in anyone.

  All week she’d watched Lucas interact with Sammy. All week she could have sworn there had been times when he’d felt a deep yearning inside him, not just for her son, but for her. Yet, for the past nine days he’d managed to keep an emotional distance between them that had made her want to scream.

  As if conjured up by her very thoughts, she heard the faint squeak of the screen door and instantly smelled his scent. He eased down on the stoop next to her.

  “Long week,” he said.

  “One of the longest of my life.”

  “You k
now law enforcement is doing everything they can.”

  “I know,” she replied. “I just want this over and done with. I want Sammy to be able to go outside and play without bodyguards around him and I want the person responsible for all this to be behind bars.”

  “Even if it is Samuel?”

  “Especially if it’s Samuel,” she replied. “And all clues point to him.”

  “But I still don’t understand what good he thought it would do to take Sammy. You’re still his legal guardian and therefore in charge of his inheritance.”

  She looked up into the night sky, which had become like a welcome friend for so many nights while she’d been here. “I can’t begin to think like Samuel might think. Maybe he figured if he kidnapped Sammy, then I’d tap into the trust fund to pay a huge ransom to get him back. I don’t want to believe it’s the man I was married to, the man who fathered Sammy, but the fact that I’m even considering him as a potential suspect speaks to the fact that I don’t believe he has any integrity, any morals at all.”

  “If he’s behind this, then sooner or later he’ll be caught.”

  She gazed at him, noting how the moonlight turned his eyes a silvery blue. “It’s the later in that sentence that has me frustrated. It’s been three weeks and both you and I know this situation can’t go on forever. You need to get back to your real work, and to be honest, I need to get away from you.”

  She looked back up at the sky and released a deep sigh, deciding to speak exactly what was in her heart. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Lucas. I know we haven’t known each other that long, but my heart doesn’t know the space of time. I see you with Sammy and I want you to be a constant in his life. I look into your eyes and I yearn for things I know I can never have from you.”

  He stiffened, his entire body tense next to hers. Once again she gazed at him. “Don’t worry, my love for you is my own problem, not yours. But it’s been three weeks since we found that ladder going up to Sammy’s room. How long do we continue with this false life we’re living? How long are you willing to sacrifice your own life?”

  He shrugged. “As long as it takes. I made you a promise, Nicolette. I promised that I’d see you and Sammy through this and I don’t intend to break that promise.” He sighed. “Maybe it’s time to start rotating the other cowboys into the house. Maybe that would at least make things easier on you.”

  It wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. What she’d hoped for was that by telling him of her love, he’d reciprocate and tell her that he was in love with her, too. She’d somehow hoped that he’d have a startling moment of clarity and confess that he wanted her in his life forever.

  “Maybe that would be a good idea,” she finally replied, grateful that none of her inner emotions were in her voice. “But let’s wait until after tomorrow before doing anything.”

  “What happens tomorrow?”

  “I have a favor to ask you. Could you keep an eye on Sammy while Cassie and I go to lunch in town?”

  “You know that’s not a problem,” he replied easily.

  She drew in a deep breath of the night air. “Tomorrow I’m going to tell Cassie that I’m not going back to New York City with her.”

  Lucas shifted positions next to her in obvious surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t want to move back to the city. I also don’t want to run a shop. What I want is a nice little ranch house here in Bitterroot with a big yard where Sammy can play. I want to go back to school and get my degree and hopefully get a teaching position here in Bitterroot. I might have been born a city girl, but I want the country to be my home, and now with my inheritance I can follow my dreams and do what I think is best for my son.”

  He was silent for so long, she wondered if she’d put him to sleep. She looked at him and he stared out at the distance to some undefinable point. “Are you sure this is what you want?” he finally asked.

  He focused his gaze back on her. “You’ve come into a lot of money. You could go anywhere, do anything. A ranch house in the middle of nowhere seems rather humdrum.”

  Although she’d wished for something different from him, she couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips. “It will be anything but humdrum. It will be a ranch filled with love under the beautiful Oklahoma sky.”

  She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I’ve fallen in love with this place. I feel like this is where we belong, that this is home.”

  “I have a feeling Cassie won’t be particularly thrilled with your decision,” he replied.

  “I know. That’s why I want to tell her with just the two of us away from here. But Cassie will be fine no matter what she decides to do with the ranch. It’s time I think about my son and my future, and this is where I want it to be. Cassie is a survivor. Eventually she’ll be fine with my decision because she’ll have to be.”

  “So, when exactly do you plan to start putting this all into action?” he asked.

  She released her hold on her knees and stretched her legs out before her. “I figured I’d start looking for a place right away, although I don’t intend to move for a while. Right now I know the safest place for Sammy is here at the ranch with all of you looking over him. But I also think it’s possible that maybe now that the light is shining on Samuel, the danger has passed.”

  “Are you willing to bet Sammy’s safety on that?”

  “No, which is why at the moment I don’t plan to make any major changes to our living arrangements,” she replied. “Besides, it could take me weeks to find exactly what I have in mind here in Bitterroot. I have a vision of the place in my head, and sometimes visions take time to find in reality.”

  “Nicolette...I’m sorry...”

  She held up a hand to stop him from completing his sentence. She didn’t want to hear his apology for not loving her. “Please, don’t. You don’t owe me any apologies or explanations about anything. You’ve been a gift from fate, a support when I’ve desperately needed it. You’ve been a straight shooter from the very beginning and you have nothing to be sorry about.”

  He got up from the stoop, as if eager to escape a conversation that had gotten far too personal, much too deep. “Are you coming inside?” he asked.

  “I’m just going to stay out here a little bit longer,” she replied. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure and lock up when I come in.”

  He hesitated at the door, as if reluctant to leave her seated alone in the dark. Finally the screen door creaked and she felt the absence of his presence.

  She stared back up at the sky, surprised to see the stars all melted together beneath a mist of tears. She hadn’t meant to tell him that she loved him. She’d simply been unable to hold her feelings for him in any longer.

  Somehow she’d hoped...foolish hopes, she thought as she swiped the tears that had begun to fall down her cheeks. The past couple of weeks had been a glimpse into a fantasy she’d desperately wanted to claim as fact.

  Lucas wasn’t just the real kind of cowboy her son loved, but he was the real kind of man who had stolen her heart. It hurt like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Her heartbreak over Samuel had come slowly, ushered in on broken promises and disappointments until she realized she didn’t love him at all.

  This pain of knowing that Lucas didn’t love her was like an arrow piercing through the very center of her. It was going to be difficult to remain here in Bitterroot and see him occasionally and know he would never be anything but a cowboy who’d once made exquisite love to her, a cowboy who had kept her son safe when danger had threatened.

  But he would never be the man who loved her. He would never belong in a little ranch house with her and her son. As the stars twinkled overhead and the sweet scent of night surrounded her, she allowed her tears to consume her.

  Chapter 15

  “I’ve decided that while you two ladies are enjoying your lunch in town today, a couple of us cowboys are going to get Sammy onto the back of a horse,” Lucas said the next mo
rning as they were all seated at the table enjoying coffee.

  “It’s about time!” Sammy exclaimed.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Nicolette asked. It was impossible for her not to remember that the last time they’d planned to put Sammy on a horse, he’d been stolen away by Jeff Bodine.

  “It’s an excellent idea, Mom,” Sammy said. “A real cowboy needs to know how to ride a horse.”

  “I’ve already arranged for Dusty and Nick to help,” Lucas replied. Nicolette knew that by “help” he meant they would be there with their guns to make sure nobody took off with her son again.

  “And then once we have Sammy riding, it will be time to get you on a horse,” Lucas said to Nicolette.

  She could tell by the twinkle in his eyes that he expected her to protest. “I think I’d like that,” she replied. “If I’m going to have a cowboy as a son, then maybe I need to get some of my cowgirl going on.”

  “Ha, this I’ve got to see,” Cassie said drily. “A woman who has never even owned a dog is going to climb on the back of one of those big beasts.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt for you to learn to ride, too,” Nicolette returned. “Instead of riding around in that silly golf cart, you could just saddle up and ride your range.”

  “I like the golf cart,” Cassie replied, her lower lip in a pronounced pout.

  “That’s just because you can wear your dumb high heels in a cart,” Sammy said.

  “Maybe I’ll fool you all and buy myself a pair of fancy boots while we’re in town today,” Cassie replied.

  “That would be a good start,” Lucas observed. “It might give the men a little more confidence in you.”

  “Then, I’ll have to see about that,” Cassie agreed easily.

  “Are you having lunch at the girlie place or at the café?” Sammy asked.

  “I’m treating Cassie to lunch at the café today,” Nicolette replied. “And you’ll be eating lunch with the men in the bunkhouse.”