Drake was touched by her loyalty, but he couldn’t ask her to fight his battles. He stepped forward. “I appreciate that more than I can say, but if Jack wants to have it out with me, we should. Maybe it’ll clear the air. I’m sick of having the most prominent family in Shoshone treat me like a leper.”
“A leper?” Jack looked wounded. “I hardly think that’s fair, Brewster. We’ve been polite. From a distance.”
“Which is exactly how they used to treat lepers, Chance!”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Josie blew out a breath. “Drake, we came over this morning to invite you to Regan and Lily’s engagement party next weekend.”
Drake was stunned into silence.
“I was working up to that,” Jack grumbled. “Then everybody jumped on me.”
Drake still couldn’t get his head around it. “You’re inviting me to a party...at the Last Chance Ranch?”
“Yes.” Josie’s tone was friendly but efficient. “It starts at one, and we’ll be serving an outdoor barbecue. You can bring a gift if you’d like, but it’s certainly not—”
“You bet I’ll bring a gift! Regan’s my best friend!” Belatedly he realized he wasn’t exactly displaying his Southern gentleman’s manners. “I appreciate the invitation. Thank you.”
“It required a big family meeting,” Jack said.
“Jack.” Josie gave him a look of warning.
“Well, it did.”
“We don’t need to discuss it, though.”
“Oh, please do.” Drake was fascinated. “I’ve never been the subject of a big family meetin’ before. I want to hear about it.”
Jack seemed all too willing to share. “See, Morgan was on the phone with everybody last night, carrying on about the incident at the hamburger joint. So my mom, Sarah Chance Beckett to you, called a family meeting early this morning because she said we couldn’t keep this up. Regan’s been saying you’re an okay guy, and now Tracy seems to think so, too, so we voted, and...” He shrugged. “Looks like you’re in. Congratulations.”
“I’ll be damned.” He glanced over at Tracy. “Will you be my date for this shindig?”
To his surprise, she hesitated. “I’d be glad to, but don’t forget that Jeannette will probably still be here then. You might rather take her, instead.”
“If it comes to that, I’ll take both of you.”
Tracy’s cheeks turned pink. “No, that’s okay. I can get there on my own.”
He realized that suggesting all three of them go together might not have been his brightest idea.
Then Jack spoke up again. “Who’s Jeannette?” He looked from Drake to Tracy. “The name sounds familiar, but I can’t place her.”
Josie cleared her throat nervously. “Are we talking about Regan’s Jeannette? Wait, I don’t mean that like it sounded. She’s not Regan’s Jeannette anymore, obviously. But is she the woman I’m thinking of? Because if she is, then—”
“Yes, it’s that Jeannette, and I invited her to come here for a visit,” Drake said. “I cleared it with Regan and Lily, first, of course.”
Jack stared at him in obvious disbelief. “Brewster, I was just thinking that maybe I might like you, and now I discover to my great disappointment that you have shit for brains. Are you telling me that you have invited Regan’s ex-fiancée to Jackson Hole?”
“It was my idea,” Tracy said. “Well, not the inviting part, but having Drake call her was my idea. They’ve been buddies since they were kids, and now they’re not friends anymore. That’s a shame.”
“Of course they’re not friends!” Jack scowled at Drake. “You slept with her! You can’t be friends with someone you...” He shot a glance in Josie’s direction. “Well, yes, you can, but not in this case. This is a particularly screwed-up case. You really invited her here? Really?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Can you uninvite her?”
“No, I can’t. She’s probably already booked a flight. She should be here in a couple of days.”
Jack groaned. “We’re just now getting used to you, and you bring the other half of the triangle into town?” His scowl deepened. “Hold it. Scratch that. You can’t have two halves of a triangle. It would be the other third of the triangle, but who the hell gives a damn about geometry at a time like this? Brewster, you suck.”
“He does not.” Tracy got right in Jack’s face. “I started all of this by saying he should get in touch with her, but if he thinks it’s an even better idea to bring her out here so that she can clear the air with Regan, and Regan and Lily agree to it, then it’s a done deal. You don’t have to meet Jeannette, so it’s none. Of. Your. Business.” She held his gaze with defiance radiating from every part of her trembling body.
Jack blinked. “Oh.” He adjusted the angle of his hat so it sat back a little more on his head. “You have a point.” He looked over at Drake. “Sorry, Brewster. Sometimes I forget I’m not the king. Fortunately I have people more than willing to remind me of that.”
Drake was blown away, both by Tracy’s fierce defense of him and Jack’s instant capitulation. “Apology accepted.”
Jack held out his hand and Drake shook it. Then Jack glanced at Josie. “Think we should mosey on home, now?”
She rolled her eyes. “Not yet, Your Majesty. Drake needs to know whether Jeannette is welcome at the party. I’d be happy to have her. I’ll bet Regan will want her there. But if you’re going to treat her like a leper, too, then—”
“Oh, God. Here we go with the leper thing again.” Jack sighed and faced Drake again. “Please bring whoever you want to the party, Brewster.” He looked to Josie for approval. “Is that okay?”
She smiled. “That’s fine. Let’s go home.”
“Yeah, let’s do. I’m exhausted.”
Josie came over and hugged Tracy. Then she sent a cautious smile Drake’s way. “See you two later.”
Jack gave Drake one last glance. “I really do like the hat. It suits you.” Then he slung an arm around Josie’s waist and they headed back to the big red truck.
Once they were out of hearing range, Drake turned to Tracy and cupped her face in both hands. “I don’t know what to say. You were incredible. It’s not even your fight, but you stood up for me.” His gaze searched hers and found what he was looking for. She loved him. He knew it more surely than he knew his own name. “Tracy, I’m in love with you, and I think you’re in—”
“Drake, you can’t trust what you’re feeling now.”
“The hell I can’t. I’ve never met a woman I’ve wanted this much, and not just sexually, although that part is beyond amazing. That’s rare, by the way. Take my word for it because I’m the one who’s supposed to be the experienced person in this group.”
“Okay, I believe you, but—”
He tightened his grip and poured out his heart. “I want you, Tracy. All of you—your compassion, your loyalty, your crazy fantasies, your great laugh, your quirky sense of humor, which is so much like mine it’s scary. But mostly I want that certain something we share, as if we’ve known each other forever, as if we will know each other forever. I want to be with you, Tracy. Whatever it takes, I want to be with you.”
“Oh, Drake...” Her eyes grew moist. “I wish it could be that simple.”
“It is simple. We’ll make it that way. We’ll—damn, there’s my phone.” And it was Jeannette’s ring. Terrible timing. He decided to let it go to voice mail.
But Tracy gently took his hands from her face and stepped away from him. “Take the call. It might be Jeannette.”
“I don’t care. I’ll get it later.”
“Take the call.”
The moment was spoiled, anyway, so he reached for the phone in his pocket. It had stopped ringing, but then his text message signal chimed. He opened the message. When he lifted his
head, Tracy was watching him, a question in her eyes.
He knew the news would mean their time alone was pretty much over. “Jeannette finished work ahead of schedule and she’s flying in tonight. Come with me to the airport. I want her to meet you. I want her to meet the woman I—”
“No, Drake.” She shook her head. “For one thing, I have to work tonight. For another, you two need time alone.”
“We can talk on the way back from the airport. I’ll come by Spirits and Spurs.”
“Please don’t.” Panic gripped her. She didn’t want to face what could end up being the love of Drake’s life while she was in a public situation where she couldn’t escape. “She’ll be tired, and I’ll be busy. It wouldn’t be a good beginning for either of us.”
“I guess not.”
“Just take her back to your cabin. I’ll meet her...later. Now let’s go round up the horses and put them back in the barn before Sprinkles wears Dottie to a frazzle.”
He agreed, and while they did, he found himself regretting that he’d invited Jeannette to Jackson Hole. Maybe it would end up okay, but he had a bad feeling that her visit threatened to ruin everything.
16
TRACY THOUGHT SHE’D prepared herself to get through this night. She’d worked especially hard at Spirits and Spurs and had even stayed later than she needed to while she polished every item behind the bar until the area gleamed. She would hear from Drake the next day, and that was fine.
He and Jeannette had plenty to talk about. They’d stay up late, so he wouldn’t come back to Peaceful Kingdom in the middle of the night. But just in case, she left the front door unlocked because she’d never given him a key.
She was almost sure he wouldn’t come over, though. He and Jeannette would both be tired from the emotional stress of seeing each other and working through their issues. She couldn’t really believe he would just leave Jeannette and come back here.
Logically, he’d offer her his bed in the cabin, and...he’d take the sofa. Tracy did her best to picture Drake on that sofa, but the image of them sharing a bed wouldn’t go away, no matter how she tried to banish it.
Drake had claimed to love her, although she was afraid to believe it. But if he believed it, then he wouldn’t share a bed with Jeannette, not even just to sleep. Or would he? Tracy thought of how long Drake and Jeannette had been friends. If you knew someone that well, would you even think twice about sleeping in the same bed? Maybe not. And it would be fine.
No, it wouldn’t, damn it. She didn’t want any other woman waking up beside Drake, whether they’d had sex or not. She slept in Regan and Lily’s king-size bed that night, unwilling to stay in the room that contained so many hot memories of Drake.
Or rather, she didn’t sleep. All she could do was lie there and stare into the darkness, torturing herself as she wondered what was happening in Drake’s cabin. She’d never spent such a miserable night in her life.
Finally, when it was barely light out, she crawled out of bed, dressed in old jeans and a T-shirt, and staggered into the kitchen to make coffee. She might as well jack herself up with caffeine, because today didn’t promise to be any better, stress-wise, and coffee would have to substitute for sleep.
As the coffee brewed, she paced the kitchen in her bare feet and reminded herself that no one was to blame for her misery except her. She’d taken in the pregnant mare against orders. She’d elected to call Drake, and then she’d invited him to stay.
Oh, but it got worse. She’d initiated the sex. If she hadn’t gone to the barn that night, he wouldn’t have made the first move. Not with all the guilt he’d carried about Regan and Jeannette.
Tension would have remained high, but they wouldn’t have spent all that lovely time in bed together. She wouldn’t have taken him hat shopping. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with him. She didn’t regret any of it, but man, payback was a bitch.
She was pouring her first cup of coffee when the front door opened. Her stomach pitched. If he’d brought Jeannette over here without warning her, without giving her a chance to shower and fix her hair and put on makeup, she’d kill him.
Heart pounding, she finger combed her unbound hair and tugged down the hem of her T-shirt, but she was positive that she looked like hell. Couldn’t be helped.
He walked into the kitchen looking at least as ragged as she felt, although he had one thing going for him. He’d worn his hat. But he was in desperate need of a shave, and his Western shirt—the same one he’d left in—was badly wrinkled. He regarded her through bloodshot eyes, and his voice was hoarse, as if he’d used it a lot in the past few hours. “I love you.”
She felt as if a gigantic vacuum had sucked the air out of the room. “Drake, you may think—”
“I don’t think, Tracy. I know. Just like I know you love me, but I don’t want to stand here and argue about it. Put somethin’ on your feet. We’re taking a ride.”
She struggled to breathe. “Who’s we? Is Jeannette with you?”
“No. She’s asleep in the cabin.”
Okay. That helped. She took a shaky breath.
“We stayed up most of the night talkin’—about us, about Regan, but mostly about you.” He sounded tired. “I was pretty damned sure how I felt, but after all those hours of goin’ over it with Jeannette, every doubt is gone. Go get your shoes. Or your boots. Whatever.”
“Where are we going?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.”
“There’s coffee if you want some.” She gestured to the pot.
“That’ll be nice to have, at that. I’ll fix us a thermos.”
“I’ll be right back.” She hurried into the bedroom and put on some sneakers. Her boots had a strong association for him, and she didn’t want to cloud the issue of whether he was in love with her by causing him to think about sex.
When she returned to the kitchen, he picked up the thermos. “Let’s go. We need to be back in time to feed the critters.”
She nodded. Whatever he was up to, he seemed to have taken all the factors into consideration. He helped her into his dusty black SUV, but that was the only time he tried to touch her. He behaved like a man on a mission, a man who wouldn’t allow himself to be distracted until he’d achieved his goal.
This was a side of Drake she’d never seen before. He’d always seemed so laid-back with his Southern accent and his tendency to joke about nearly everything. That Drake wasn’t driving the SUV and pushing the speed limit. Fortunately nobody else was on the road at this hour.
To her surprise, he seemed to be going toward the Last Chance. But that would also take them past the cabin where Jeannette lay sleeping. “You’re not taking me to see Jeannette, are you? Because I’d rather not go over there looking like I’d been pulled backward through a knothole, and I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate seeing me before she has a chance to—”
“I’m takin’ you to a place Josie mentioned to me a while ago. After you and I came to an impasse yesterday, I called her and got directions. I wasn’t sure whether I’d need them or not, but it seemed like a good plan to have in my hip pocket.”
“Are we going to that flat rock, the one that’s supposed to be sacred to the Shoshone tribe?”
“That’s it. Have you been there?”
“No. It’s on Chance land, so I’d have to ask first, and I just never... To tell you the truth, I would have felt funny telling them I wanted to go stand on their rock to clear my mind.”
“You have my permission to feel as funny as you want, because that’s exactly what we’re gonna do. I’m runnin’ out of ways to convince you that what we have is the real deal, so we’ll give this a shot.”
“You’re, um, driving kind of fast.”
“I want to get there before the sun comes up.”
“Okay.” She settled back in her seat and
decided not to talk to him for the rest of the trip. If he insisted on barreling down the highway, she didn’t want to interfere with his concentration. “I’ll watch for cops.”
“Thanks.” He floored it, and they came to the Last Chance turnoff in no time at all.
The road was unpaved and known for being an axle-breaker, so he slowed down. Drake swore each time the SUV bottomed out. “Jack needs to maintain his damned road.”
“He leaves it this way on purpose.”
“You’re kiddin’ me.”
“No. It’s how his father chose to discourage trespassers. Other family members take a different view, and they’ve argued about it for years. It’s still like this, so I guess Jack’s winning.”
“Bully for him.” Drake hit another pothole and cussed again. “Wouldn’t hurt to have a few lights out here, either.”
Tracy smiled. Drake was used to the manicured pastures and well-maintained roads of Virginia farms. He was wearing an awesome Western hat and he had fully subscribed to the cowboy code of honor, but at heart he was a Southern gentleman. She cherished that about him. It was part of who he was.
But she wasn’t questioning her feelings for him. He thought he could convince her of his sincerity by standing on a piece of granite at sunrise. It was the kind of scenario that would appeal to the soul of a poet. She cherished that about him, too.
They rounded a curve and the ranch buildings came into view. Drake whistled under his breath and slowed down. “Now that’s impressive.” He brought the SUV to a stop and switched off the headlights.
“Uh-huh.” In the predawn light, the immense two-story log house loomed even bigger than in broad daylight. Faint light glowed in a couple of the windows. The occupants might be starting their day.
“I like the way the wings are angled.” Drake leaned on the steering wheel and peered at the house. “Like they’re welcomin’ you to come and sit a spell.”
Riding Hard Page 16
