Wanted!

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  The magic was still here, pulsing under her feet as she trained her viewfinder on the sky, the mountains, the trees, Nick. He’d turned to look back down the road, and she was able to take several shots of him without his knowledge. Her pictures of daybreak were for him, but the last few were strictly for her.

  Yesterday she’d captured him shirtless and virile. This morning he still exuded that broad-shouldered machismo, but his body language telegraphed intense concentration. Zooming in, she focused on the set of his jaw and rigid line of his back. The mood was the polar opposite of the pictures she’d taken the day before.

  Walking to a different spot on the rock, she aimed the camera at him and was about to take another photo when he looked over at her. “Someone’s coming.”

  “I don’t hear a motor.”

  “That’s because he’s on horseback.”

  She listened more closely and heard the steady rhythm of hoofs on dirt. Judging from Nick’s tone of voice he knew exactly who was coming, and had heard the horse long before he’d announced the news to her. It didn’t take much imagination on her part to guess who was coming. Even a tenderfoot like her knew that ranch life began at dawn, and Nick hadn’t been there.

  The hoofbeats grew louder and a rider on a black-and-white paint rounded a bend in the road. Once the horseman saw them he drew back on the reins and slowed to a trot. Dominique didn’t know Jack well, but she had no doubt that’s who was astride the dramatically marked animal. He would be possessive of the one he chose to ride.

  Vaguely she remembered that the animal’s black mask had earned him the name Bandit. Bandit had the bearing of a show horse. He pranced forward, tossing his mane and generally looking proud of himself.

  Technically speaking, Jack and his horse would make good photography subjects, but she didn’t feel like asking him to let her take his picture. From what she’d seen of him so far, she’d bet he would turn her down, anyway.

  Rather than walking to meet his brother, Nick stayed put. Dominique decided to do the same. She’d been caught standing on the sacred rock, and wondered if Jack would object to that. If he did, too bad. She’d been invited.

  Jack pulled his horse to a halt in front of Nick and swung down from the saddle. He flicked a glance at Dominique and the tent. “Ma’am.” He tugged on the brim of his black Stetson.

  He hadn’t smiled, so neither did she.

  “Hello, Jack.”

  Nick’s wide-legged stance was clearly defiant. “To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?”

  “You weren’t at the house. Figured I’d find you out here.”

  Nick didn’t move a muscle. “Seemed like a good night for a campout.”

  Dominique held her breath and hoped she wouldn’t witness a fistfight this morning. Other than in the movies she’d never seen two men fight each other, and she didn’t want to now.

  “Nick, I know you’re upset.”

  Dominique relaxed a little. Jack’s tone held more compassion than she would have expected from him. “I’m not upset.” Nick didn’t raise his voice, but icy anger infused every syllable. “I’m furious. How dare you keep this from me?”

  “It wasn’t my secret to tell.”

  “Granted, but you could have talked him into telling me! You were the heir, his damned namesake. If you’d put the pressure on, he would have caved.”

  “I tried.”

  Nick’s shoulders bunched under his denim jacket. “The hell you did.”

  “Believe what you want.” Jack turned away and vaulted back onto his horse. “I came out here to tell you not to take it out on Sarah. She doesn’t deserve it.”

  “Doesn’t she? I think they call it aiding and abetting.”

  “It wasn’t her secret to tell, either.” Jack tightened the reins to control the prancing paint. “You were too young to realize what was happening, but I walked in on a couple of huge fights between them. She begged him to say something when you were old enough to accept the truth, but he swore you’d never have to know.”

  Nick’s chest heaved. “Then she should have told me after he died.”

  “Oh, yeah? Think about that, Nick. She’d lost the love of her life, and you’d expect her to go against his wishes and tell you she’s not your biological mother?”

  “I had a right to know, dammit!”

  “I hate saying this, but your beef is with a guy who’s six feet under. And by the way, I’m pretty sure Calamity Jane’s gone into early labor. Just in case you feel like being there.” Jack touched the brim of his hat again as he glanced at Dominique. Then he wheeled his horse and galloped back down the road, Bandit’s hoofs spitting dust.

  Nick stood rooted to the spot as he stared after him. Dominique had no idea what to say. Unfortunately, Jack’s explanation made sense. A stubborn man had insisted on fabricating a lie for whatever his reasons—to protect Nick or to protect himself—and love and loyalty had ensured that nobody would betray him.

  Nick would have a hard time focusing his anger on the living because they really didn’t deserve it, and focusing anger on the dead wouldn’t give him much satisfaction. He was in a tough spot, and she hated that for him.

  Because she was reluctant to initiate a conversation, and didn’t know what else to do, she tucked her camera and lens away and walked over to the tent. Setting her backpack beside it, she reached in and pulled out the double sleeping bag.

  After she’d rolled that up the best she could and tied it with the attached strings, she glanced at Jack. He still hadn’t moved, so she tackled the tent. It was held up by some bendy poles, and she decided to pull one out of the grommet it was shoved into.

  All hell broke loose. She’d had no idea the tent system was spring-loaded. As she tried to grab the collapsing pole, another one popped out of its mooring. The more she tried to corral the poles the faster the tent self-destructed, until it lay in a heap of tangled cords, pole sections and collapsed nylon.

  “Need any help?”

  A little concerned that this tent mess could be the straw that broke the camel’s back, she glanced over her shoulder.

  Nick stood behind her grinning.

  Thank God. “I was going for helpful but I seem to have created Armageddon.”

  He nodded. “Pretty much. This could take awhile to untangle.”

  She groaned. “I’m sorry. I was only—”

  “Never mind.” Moving around her, he gathered the whole thing into his arms. “I’ll deal with it later.”

  “No, I’ll deal with it…except I guess you’ll have to be there to show me what to do.”

  He dumped the tent and its various components in the back of the truck. Then he turned and took her by the shoulders and gazed into her eyes. “Watching you battle it out with that tent made me laugh. Thanks.” He gave her a quick, hard kiss on the mouth. “Now we have to go. I have a foal to deliver.”

  “Can I take pictures?”

  He smiled at her. “You bet.”

  She’d always admired courage under fire, and Nick was demonstrating it in spades. Keeping their relationship within the bounds of a temporary affair was becoming more difficult by the minute.

  10

  ON THE WAY BACK to the ranch, Nick drove a little faster than was wise and hit some ruts pretty hard. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” Dominique held on to the door handle. “I know you want to get there to help with the birth.”

  “I do. Calamity Jane’s my brother Gabe’s favorite horse.” Nick grimaced. “I suppose now he’s technically my half brother.”

  “Hogwash. He’s your brother. Do you suppose he cares about some technicality?”

  Nick gave her a quick glance. “Thanks for saying that, even if you don’t know Gabe from Adam.”

  “I don’t know him, but I know you. What if the situation were reversed?”

  Nick didn’t even have to think about it. “I wouldn’t give a damn. We’re less than a year apart. We grew up almost like twins. Matter of fact, I always t
hought Jack resented how close Gabe and I were…still are.”

  “So where is he, exactly?”

  Nick steered around a pothole in the road. “He’s riding in an event in Colorado.”

  “Are you going to call him?”

  “Once Calamity Jane delivers? You bet. He’d want to know mother and baby were doing well.”

  “That isn’t what I meant.”

  Nick sighed. “Family skeletons aren’t the kind of thing you want to get into over the phone.”

  “But you said you two are close. Wouldn’t he want to know something that important in your life?”

  A cottontail darted across the road in front of the truck and Nick slammed on the brakes, throwing both of them hard against the seat belts. “Sorry!”

  Dominique settled back against the seat. “No apology necessary. I would have been more upset if you’d run down that bunny.”

  “Some of the guys call me an old woman because I’ll do almost anything to avoid hitting an animal. But I just—”

  “You’re a vet, Nick. Of course you don’t want to see something senselessly maimed or killed.”

  “No, I don’t.” He resumed driving, but more slowly than before. Rabbits were always running across the road, and he usually thought more about that. “People have always said I got my soft heart from my mother—well, Sarah.”

  “You probably did. She probably raised you that way.”

  “She raised us all that way, but I was the only one who decided to be the champion of all injured or sick animals. I thought it was some genetic thing she passed on.” He wanted to be angry with Sarah for that, but she’d never said healing was in his genes. He’d assumed that all on his own.

  “Look, I don’t have siblings, so I’m probably the last person in the world who should be giving you advice, but I think it would help you to talk with Gabe soon. When’s he due home?”

  “In about two weeks.” Nick slowed to let another rabbit cross the road. “The news can wait until then. He doesn’t need to be thinking about something like this when he’s out there trying to win events.”

  “I thought he was showing horses.”

  “He’s on a circuit of cutting horse competitions. It takes plenty of concentration to do well, and every time he wins, it makes the Last Chance horses look that much better to prospective buyers. I don’t want to distract him. Nothing will change between now and two weeks from now.”

  “I still think you should tell him sooner.”

  Nick’s patience, not in the best shape, snapped. “And say what, exactly? ’Hey, Gabe, turns out I’m the kid of some woman named Nicole O’Leary, who got frisky with Dad and then left town. Sorry, don’t know a single damned thing about her. Bye.’”

  “I’ll bet Sarah knows something about her.”

  Nick pulled up by the barn and killed the motor. “I’m sure she does. But seeing as how she’s recently lost my dad, I doubt that would be a cozy conversation, either.”

  “Maybe not, but you have a lot of unanswered questions, and I would think—”

  “Leave it, Dominique.” He opened his door before glancing back at her. “This is something I have to handle my way in my own time.”

  She opened her mouth as if to say something else, but then closed it again. Her dark eyes sparked with anger. “Understood,” she said brusquely as she opened the passenger door.

  He grabbed her arm. “Look, I know you were there for me when I needed someone desperately, and I appreciate that.”

  She met his gaze and was obviously still fuming. “Apparently I stepped outside my assigned role. Don’t worry. It won’t happen again.”

  “You don’t have an assigned role.”

  “Not anymore, that’s for sure. But I think yesterday I did, and you know what? That’s okay. It’s better, in fact. Keeps everything cleaner.”

  Knowing he should apologize for being an ass, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from continuing to be one. “What about the role you assigned me? When we met, all you wanted was a naked, preferably nameless cowboy!”

  Dominique wrenched away from him. “This conversation is over.” She jumped down from the truck, grabbed her backpack and ran toward the house.

  Nick climbed out and glanced from there to the barn. Butch and Sundance wandered over looking as confused as he felt, their tails wagging slowly, their expressions uncertain. They’d picked up on the tension immediately.

  The decision whether to go after Dominique or not was made for him when Jack came running out of the barn. “Thought I heard your truck. Get your butt in here. She’s ready to deliver.”

  DOMINIQUE STORMED UP to the ranch house as if her tail were on fire. How dare Nick speak to her like that? Last night she’d been there to cushion one of the biggest blows he’d ever received in his life, and today he’d essentially told her to stay out of his business.

  Her steps slowed. Wait a minute. She didn’t want to be in his business. She didn’t want to get so involved with Nick that she wouldn’t be able to function happily without him when she returned to her life in Indianapolis.

  Those words she’d flung at him in anger just now were absolutely true. Having an assigned role made everything cleaner when the time came to leave. She’d provided a physical outlet for him when he’d needed one. And if she was perfectly honest with herself, she’d admit he’d done the same for her when they’d first met.

  She had no right to get on her high horse about any of that, because the arrangement was exactly what she’d hoped for on this trip to Wyoming—hot cowboy sex. How Nick handled telling his news was so not her business, and he’d had the good sense to tell her to back off.

  If she could remember to keep her relationship opinions to herself, they could enjoy each other’s bodies without worrying about messy emotions.

  In the meantime, she was missing a golden opportunity to photograph the birth of a foal, something she’d never seen. Spinning on her heel, she hurried back down to the barn.

  Butch and Sundance where lying in the sun just outside the door, as if stationed there. “Hi, guys.”

  They glanced up, thumped their tails in greeting, and put their heads back on their paws. Dominique had the distinct impression Nick had told them to stay right where they were until he showed up again.

  She ducked through the doorway into the coolness of the barn. Yesterday afternoon she’d roamed the ranch snapping pictures of paint horses romping in the pasture and Emmett schooling a cutting horse. Then she’d prowled through the barn looking for artsy shots of stall doors and tack hanging from pegs.

  She’d stopped by Calamity Jane’s stall, but even if she hadn’t scoped out the situation yesterday, she’d have figured it out, because of the group of ranch hands hanging around offering advice.

  Dominique looked for Emmett before remembering he had the day off and might even be going on a picnic later today with Pam. Probably just as well he wasn’t here, considering that he’d been in on the conspiracy to keep the details of Nick’s birth secret. Nick might not be ready to see the foreman just yet.

  “Hey, Jack, you said the show was gonna start, but I don’t see nothin’ yet,” commented one lanky cowboy with red hair sticking out from under his hat. The guy looked no more than twenty-two.

  Slipping her camera out of her backpack, Dominique approached the group and stood next to a short, older man with a graying handlebar mustache.

  She could hear the murmurs of Jack and Nick and the heavy breathing of the horse, but she couldn’t see anything. Finally she tapped the older man on the arm and asked softly, “What’s going on?”

  He glanced at her. “Oh, Calamity Jane’s just taking her time, is all. Everything’s under control now that the doc’s here.”

  “That’s good to know.” Despite herself, she was impressed with the fact that the cowboy referred to Nick as “the doc.” She hadn’t seen him work in that capacity. She only knew him in connection with manual labor and sweaty sex.

  The cowboy looked at
the camera in her hand and moved aside. “Go on up so you can take some pictures.”

  “But then you won’t be able to see as well.”

  “I’ve watched this process a bunch of times. It’s always a thrill, though. You’ll be glad you’re here.”

  Dominique thanked him and moved into his spot. The stall door was open so the cluster of men surrounding it could see in. Predictably, the mare was another paint—a reddish-brown color with white splotches. She lay on her side in a bed of straw, her flanks heaving, while Jack stroked her neck. Nick, wearing long rubber gloves, crouched at the business end. A medical bag sat next to him.

  Dominique felt a rush of pride watching him as he prepared to help deliver this foal. He’d draped his jacket over the side of the stall and rolled his sleeves up past his elbows. He wore his straw hat, but he’d pushed it back on his head so it wouldn’t interfere with the job he was doing. He was intent on his task and probably had no idea she was there.

  He wouldn’t expect her to be there, in fact, after the way they’d parted. While Jack continued to stroke the mare’s neck, Nick talked to her in soothing tones. From where Dominique stood she couldn’t make out the words, but there was no mistaking the comforting quality of Nick’s voice.

  She had a sudden image of him in the delivery room for the birth of his child. He wouldn’t be the guy turning green or running for the nearest exit. Nick would hang in there and do what he could to help the woman he loved deliver their baby. Now that he knew his own mother hadn’t had that kind of support, likely he’d be even more committed to giving it.

  Raising the camera, Dominique took a picture of Nick as he knelt down to get a better look. “We’re there, Jack,” he said distinctly. “Come on, Janey, girl. You can do it.”

  The horse moved her legs restlessly and gave a little groan as something transparent and blue poked out from her hindquarters.

  “That’s it,” Nick crooned. “Hang in there, sweetheart.”