Wildcat Cowboy (The McCabes of Texas #2)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “Not to mention my friendship with Big Jim that, I’m happy to remind you, goes back some thirty-five years,” Gus grumbled bad temperedly.

  Josie filled two glasses, added lemon slices to both and handed one to Gus. “Never mind the fact Big Jim will find out what I’ve done, in going behind his back. With no good news—in the form of my success—to soften the blow.”

  Gus stirred three teaspoons of sugar into his tea. “So why don’t you quit now and ’fess up while your dad can still come in and save the day? If not today, then eventually?” Gus demanded.

  Josie sipped her tea. “Because it isn’t necessary, Gus.” Josie believed in herself enough to put her money where her mouth was, and it was time everyone else did, too. She leaned forward earnestly. “I know I can do this. I know I can hit oil. I just need a little more time.” And one way or another, Josie decided, determined, she was going to see she got it. She’d come too far, risked too much, to back out now.

  “CAN’T GET A DATE for Friday evening to save your life, huh?”

  Scowling, Wade hung up the phone on his brother, Jackson McCabe’s, desk. Like Wade, Jackson had spent his late teens and twenties living in other parts of Texas, but now, as one of two newly appointed general surgeons at Laramie Community Hospital, he was back for good, married to the love of his life, and busy settling into the office suite where he would see his patients.

  “Can you believe it?” Wade replied, frustrated beyond belief. His plan for getting another gal pal to help him plan the party Friday night and then attend it with him had failed dismally. “It’s like they’ve all suddenly been comparing notes!”

  “Imagine that,” Jackson said dryly as he hung his undergraduate diploma on the wall behind his desk.

  Wade closed his little black book with a snap. He was afraid he was running out of options here. He stood and began to pace. “They all say I’m too picky. Always trying to make them over.” He stopped and shook his head. He really didn’t understand it. “I’m only trying to help them be all they can be.”

  Jackson regarded him with amused eyes and a straight face. “Hard to imagine why they wouldn’t cotton to that.”

  Wade knew where this was going, and he didn’t want to hear it. He aimed a lecturing finger at Jackson and regarded him sternly. “Just because you got married to the love of your life a few days ago, and our parents are renewing their wedding vows at the end of this month, doesn’t mean the rest of us McCabes should start looking to get married, too.”

  Jackson grinned like the satisfied new husband he was and continued measuring and marking the wall with ruler and pencil. Due to their responsibilities as physicians in the community, Jackson and Lacey’s honeymoon had been delayed. But that was okay, they had both said, because every day they spent together as man and wife was a honeymoon. And Wade had to admit—Jackson had never looked better.

  Jackson paused and winked at Wade salaciously. “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”

  Wade grimaced and handed Jackson a picture hook. “I have tried it, remember? Sandra and I couldn’t even make it through the engagement.”

  Jackson finished hammering and hung his med school diploma on the wall, too. “That’s because Sandra was all wrong for you.”

  Wade conceded that now, reluctantly, but he hadn’t thought so at the time.

  “You just haven’t met the right woman yet,” Jackson continued, adding his residency and board certification diplomas beside the other two. “When you do, take it from me, you’ll fall like a ton of bricks.”

  Jackson stared out the window at Laramie’s Main Street. The downtown area dated back one hundred years and was comprised of a number of impeccably maintained neat white brick buildings with colorful awnings, inscribed with the names of the various businesses, shops and offices. He had grown up here. And he loved it still.

  Realizing he was feeling a little homesick, not sure why, Wade turned back to face Jackson. “Now you sound like Mom.”

  “She’s right.” Jackson gave the diploma frames a final straightening, then looked up as a knock sounded at the door.

  Manila folder in hand, Josie Lynn Corbett strode in. She was still in the same boots, jeans, T-shirt, the bandana still knotted around her neck. The only things she’d added were sunglasses and lip gloss. So why then, Wade wondered, was his pulse suddenly pounding like he’d just run a 10-k race? Why was he suddenly viewing her like a woman he’d like to date? Why couldn’t he seem to take his eyes off her? She wasn’t even his type! It wasn’t like he was going to pull her in his arms, take down her hair and run his fingers through it and deliver a steamy kiss to those soft, sexy lips of hers! Not in this lifetime, anyway!

  Josie headed straight for him. She opened the folder for his perusal and stood close enough for him to see. “As you can tell, a special bank account has been set up to fund continued drilling on your property. All you have to do is sign all three copies of it and we’ll be all set.” Ignoring the warmth of her bare arm pressed up against his, Wade studied the simple, straightforward language of the contract.

  “Isn’t anyone gonna introduce me?” Jackson asked, stepping forward.

  For reasons he didn’t want to examine, Wade was very glad his handsome brother was now taken. “Jackson, Josie Lynn Corbett, from out at the drilling site,” he murmured without looking up. “Josie, my brother Jackson McCabe.”

  Josie strode forward in her loose and sexy tomboy stride. She took Jackson’s hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you.”

  While Wade signed the contracts, Jackson continued to study Josie, long after their brief handshake ended. “Have we met?” Jackson. asked finally.

  Josie stiffened at the question and shook her head. Wade looked up, wondering what was going on here.

  “You sure?” Jackson persisted with a lot less tact than usual. “You look awfully familiar.”

  “I have one of those faces. I’m always being told that I look like someone’s sister or cousin.” Josie laughed nervously.

  Like hell she did, Wade thought. Josie Lynn Corbett was one of the most natural beauties he’d ever seen in his life. There was nothing common about her. From the top of her head to the ends of her toes she was one memorable woman. And it irked him to think that his brother Jackson—successful surgeon and former playboy—might have somehow known her first.

  “I’m sure you have me mixed up with someone else,” Josie continued.

  Wade hoped that was the case.

  Jackson shook his head and continued to look perplexed. “I could swear—I never forget a face.” He paused, stroking his jaw. “You’re not from around here, I guess?”

  A self-conscious flush pinkened Josie’s cheeks. “No.”

  “Where do you hail from?” Wade asked as he handed over two of the signed contracts and kept one for himself. Generally speaking, tomboys weren’t his type. But there was something about this one that caught—and held—his attention. He was even more surprised to find out how curious he was about her, her present, her past.

  Josie accepted the papers Wade gave her with a businesslike nod and small smile. Looking for a moment as if the information was being dragged out of her, she said, “I grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.”

  “Really? I was just there!” Jackson snapped his fingers. “In fact, I almost took a job in town. Maybe we met there.”

  UNFORTUNATELY FOR HER, Josie thought uneasily, she and Jackson McCabe probably had encountered each other. Not randomly, but at a Corbett Foundation-sponsored gala. The foundation was always raising money for local hospitals. And if she wasn’t mistaken, Jackson McCabe had been at one several months ago, as part of a large group of surgeons. But she couldn’t have him remembering that! Because then he would also be likely to recall she had been sitting on the dais!

  Noticing Wade was watching her even more closely than his brother, Josie shrugged and turned her glance back to Jackson. “Maybe you saw me around Laramie pumping gas or buying groceries,” she suggested lightly,
wishing Wade would quit watching her with such interest.

  Jackson shook his head and continued to look baffled. “I don’t think that’s it.”

  Before Josie could back her way out of the door, a sixty-something woman in a pink sweater and a white nurse’s uniform waltzed in. Her name tag said Lilah McCabe, R.N. “There you are!” Lilah said the second she spied Wade. “I don’t care how many times you duck my calls, you are not getting out of our talk, Wade McCabe.” Saved by the Mom, Josie thought.

  Wade sighed loudly and regarded Lilah with a mixture of chagrin and affection. Josie thought, amused, Wade had seen this coming a mile away.

  “No, Mom, I don’t expect that I will,” Wade drawled affectionately. He winked at his mother, patted her on the shoulder and bent to kiss her cheek. “But I can sure as heck put it off a bit...say till the next time I’m out at the ranch with you and Dad. Meanwhile, I’m heading back to my ranch to go over the latest geology reports and core samples with Josie here.” Wade curved a surprisingly proprietary hand over her shoulder.

  “Josie, say hi to my mom,” he quipped.

  Before the two women could even finish exchanging hellos and nods, Wade hustled Josie out the door.

  “No son of mine has turned into a heartbreaker yet, and if I have my way, none of you ever will!” Lilah called after Wade.

  Wade chuckled and gave his mother a deferential nod but did not slow his steps, nor did he allow Josie to slow hers as they turned the corner and headed toward the door to the parking lot behind the hospital.

  “What did your mother mean by that?” Josie asked in a low, humor-filled tone. She paused, manila contract file pressed to her chest, then continued wryly, “Or shouldn’t I ask?”

  Many men wouldn’t have answered such an intimate question. Not Wade.

  He released an exasperated sigh. “She thinks I don’t give women a chance,”

  Alarm bells went off in Josie’s head. “Let me guess,” she said dryly, casting him a probing sidelong glance. “And you think you do.”

  “Let me put it this way.” Wade held the door for her, then followed her out into the bright sunshine. “I know a sure thing when I see it.” He reached for his sunglasses the same time Josie reached for hers. “And by the same token,” he said as he walked her toward her Wyatt Drilling Company pickup truck, “I know a bad match, too. When it becomes obvious something isn’t right, I don’t waste my time or hers.”

  Josie swallowed as they skirted their way between the rows of parked cars and trucks. “Meaning, you dump them.”

  Her tone was contentious, but he refused to take the bait. “I prefer to think of it as being honest,” Wade said calmly.

  “How do they see it?” Shifting the folder to her other arm, Josie reached into her pocket for her keys.

  Wade shrugged his broad shoulders laconically. “I’m sure they’re grateful to me in the long run, when they’ve had a chance to think it over.”

  Josie inserted her key in the lock. “In other words, they’re mad as hell.”

  “They don’t have any right to be.” Wade watched her swing the driver side door open and roll down that window as a wave of heat rushed out, engulfing them both. “Especially since I usually take the time and trouble to point out the reason or reasons why we’re all wrong for each other.”

  Deciding the interior of the truck was much too hot to get in, Josie tossed her folder on the bench seat, then moved around the back of the truck to the passenger side. She opened the door and rolled that window down, too. “I’m sure that goes over like a lead balloon,” Josie muttered, recalling when that very indignity had happened to her, not so long ago. Finished, she turned to face Wade and propped her hands on her hips. “Just out of curiosity, who is usually at fault in this situation?” And was his mother right to worry he was becoming a heartbreaker?

  Wade regarded Josie with barely veiled amusement “I don’t like to assign blame.”

  “Of course not,” Josie countered sweetly, rolling her eyes. Was this shifting into a flirtation?

  He lifted an indolent hand. “It’s more like a Cinderella thing,” he explained with comically exaggerated seriousness. “You know, when the glass slipper doesn’t fit, it just doesn’t.”

  In no hurry to be on her way, now that the conversation had gotten really interesting, Josie lifted her face to his. “Give me an example, anyway.”

  Wade took her hand and led her toward one of the trees shading the perimeter of the parking lot. He stepped into the shade, taking her right along with him, before finally dropping her hand from his. “Suppose you and I were dating and you never wore anything but jeans and T-shirts, no matter where we went or what we did.”

  Glad she had her sunglasses on to shade the fiery temper in her eyes, Josie flattened her palms behind her and leaned back against the trunk. “As it happens,” Josie interrupted dryly, looking up at Wade McCabe, “these days, I usually don’t.”

  Wade shrugged and kept his gaze trained on hers. “I’d probably drop a few hints—”

  “Which,” Josie said just as decisively, “I’d ignore.”

  The corners of Wade’s sensually chiseled lips inched upward. “And then, that being the case, I’d probably tell you that you’re taking the Texas tomboy thing a little too far.”

  There was nothing Josie hated more than unsolicited advice.

  Especially since her relationship with Ben had ended because he had—in the end—disapproved of her, too.

  “Then I’d probably remind you that, as a general rule, you’ll never get the guys by being one of them 100 percent of the time.”

  “Has it occurred to you I might not want to get the guys, as you so tactfully put it?” Josie said hotly. In fact, right now she had no interest in having a boyfriend, period! Which made it stranger still to feel the tingles of awareness starting up inside her, whenever Wade was near.

  “Yes. In fact, I sensed that about you right away.” Wade took off his sunglasses and looked her up and down, giving her an up-close view of his beautiful dark brown eyes. “I just can’t figure out why.”

  “Fortunately for both of us,” Josie returned haughtily, trying not to notice the way his hot glance was skimming her from head to toe, “you have no need to know.”

  Silence fell between them, and a warm breeze wafted over them, as Wade continued to study her beneath the deep blue Texas sky. “What does your family think about this job of yours, anyway?” he asked finally in a soft, seductive tone.

  Suffused with heat everywhere his eyes had touched, Josie swallowed and turned her glance away. How was it this man, whom she had just met, instinctively knew so much about her? She wasn’t used to anyone being that clued in!

  She looked into his eyes with all the directness she could muster. “My parents would rather I have nothing to do with roughnecks and drilling for oil, and instead wish I would marry some nice man and settle down and have a family, pronto,” she replied, ending with a soft, beleaguered sigh. In fact, both had been incessantly urging her to do just that for six months now.

  “So,” Wade said slyly, “why don’t you?”

  Chapter Three

  Josie hesitated. She didn’t want to talk about Ben and the heartbreak he had caused her. Never mind how devastating it had been to once again know she hadn’t quite measured up in the eyes of someone she loved. And worse, probably never could. Not in Ben’s eyes and not in her parents.

  Aware Wade was waiting for an answer, Josie lifted her gaze to his. “It’s not like I don’t want to get married someday,” she said eventually, as the warm June breeze stirred the air around her. “I do.”

  “But...?” Wade rested a palm on the tree trunk beside her.

  Josie tried not to think how much his nearness disturbed her. He was close enough she could feel his body heat and breathe in the sandalwood and leather scent of soap and cologne, close enough to feel the undeniable sizzle of sexual attraction between them. Aware that her heart was racing and her knees were trembling
slightly at the way he was towering over her, she shrugged and let her eyes rove over his tall, solidly built frame and broad, powerful shoulders.

  “First I have a lot to prove,” she said matter-of-factly, her cheeks warming slightly as she held his steady, probing gaze.

  “Such as...?” he murmured casually, moving closer yet.

  Sensing that this Texas playboy could—and would—be dangerous to her heart if given half a chance, Josie unlocked their gazes. She was not going to permit another man to break her heart and make her question everything, she reminded herself firmly as she fortified herself against his tantalizing grin.

  “That I can lead an independent life of my own choosing. That I can be who I’m meant to be without any interference from anyone else. And speaking of that independent life—” Josie glanced at her watch—she had dawdled far too long as it was “—I’d better get on back to the rig before Gus and the guys begin to wonder what’s happened to me.”

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Wade promised lazily. Josie shot him a curious glance as he stepped back, allowing her to move away from the trees shading the perimeter of the parking lot. “Now that we’re going to continue drilling,” he said easily, falling into step beside her as she approached her now-somewhat-cooled-off pickup truck, “I want to have a look at the latest core samples and the logs.”

  “No problem,” Josie replied. Hopefully he’d be as enthusiastic as she was, once he had the chance to study them.

  Wade hopped in his black Ford Expedition and she could see him in her rearview as he followed her through town, staying with her the entire twenty miles to the property he’d purchased just a few months ago.

  Had he tried, Josie thought as they turned into the narrow gravel lane, he couldn’t have picked a more incongruous piece of property. Topographically, of course, the Golden Slipper Ranch was much the same as other ranches in the area. The ten-thousand-acre property was comprised of gently rolling hills, vast flat meadows and several meandering creeks. But there all resemblance stopped. Instead of the usual rustic ranch house and barns, and numerous horse or cattle pastures, was a small, hopelessly feminine country cottage with all sorts of gingerbread trim. Josie had never been inside it, as the Wyatt Drilling Company trailers, the derrick and discovery well were located on the opposite end of the property. But as they zoomed past it, Josie wondered if the ranch house was as frou-frou inside as it looked to be on the outside. And if so, would Wade McCabe want that changed, if he ever decided to live out there? Or had the purchase been just another business transaction to the millionaire investor and Laramie, Texas, native? Josie knew—from their business records—that Wade McCabe already maintained both a home and an office in Houston and had for some time, as well as numerous other “investment properties” around the state.