Texas Tender

by Leigh Greenwood

If she did what Carl wanted, it would mean she believed that Will knew more about how to solve her problems than she did. Of course, men always stood together, even when they were strangers, but there was something different about Will. He was the most easygoing man she’d ever met, yet he was capable of handling himself with his fists or with a gun. From all she could gather, he knew his way around a ranch. And through some mysterious method she had yet to begin to understand, he’d inspired a town of strangers with enough confidence to make him their sheriff.

  There was clearly more to this man than met the eye. Well, more than met her eye. Everybody else seemed to think he’d hung the moon.

  Funny, but until this evening she hadn’t realized how bone tired she was. She couldn’t remember a time over the last five years when she hadn’t been struggling against something. The harder she worked, the worse things got. The more desperate she became, the more impossible the situation. It would be wonderful to share some of the load. If Carl wanted it, he could have it. After all, he was the one who really loved the ranch.

  As for Will Haskins, he had gotten Jordan to agree to sit down and talk with them. That was more than she’d ever managed.

  “I’ll give it a try,” she told her brother. “Will Haskins has more tricks up his sleeve than I suspected.”

  Idalou was determined not to lose her temper, but remembering his past duplicity made it hard to endure Jordan McGloughlin’s air of self-importance. She couldn’t hold him personally responsible for all the circumstances that made selling their bull necessary, but if he’d been a good neighbor, he’d have helped her out when they were having trouble. Completely ignoring her because she was a woman was his worst sin.

  “The sheriff told me you found some of my cows on your land yesterday,” Jordan said as soon as Idalou and Carl were seated in his office. Alma Mc-Gloughlin had provided coffee. Idalou had declined, but Jordan and Carl had poured cups for themselves while discussing whether the cooler weather would bring the possibility of rain.

  The office had been furnished with deep leather chairs and a desk featuring a dozen pigeonholes stuffed with pieces of paper. The walls were covered with mounted heads of deer and buffalo, a style of decoration Idalou found tasteless and a bit gruesome. The dominating presence of so many shades of brown gave the room a somber, almost depressing feeling. Idalou itched to add a little color to alleviate the heaviness of the room.

  “Two cows with their calves,” Carl said. “They’re the first I’ve seen in a couple of weeks. And I’ve been

  over every inch of our land searching for the bull.”

  “You still haven’t found him?” Jordan asked.

  It was all Idalou could do to keep her lips pressed together and her hands clenched in her lap. Everybody knew they couldn’t find their bull. How was she supposed to believe in Jordan’s goodwill when he said things like that?

  “No, but I will.”

  Carl seemed to have no trouble acting as though he and Jordan were on good terms. They were sitting back in their chairs acting as if they weren’t talking about anything of greater importance than whether to go into town for a beer or stick with coffee. Idalou decided she simply didn’t understand men.

  “We should be looking for him right now,” she said with as much control as she could muster. “Our loan payment is due soon.” Everybody knew that, too.

  “I’d appreciate it if you could ask your men to be on the lookout for him,” Carl said.

  “I want you to know I have given my men orders to keep my cows off your land,” Jordan said.

  She’d heard this before, yet the cows still came on her land.

  “I expect a few will wander off, no matter how carefully you watch them,” Carl said.

  Idalou couldn’t stand it any longer. “Both of the cows we saw yesterday had calves sired by our bull.”

  “I’ve got my own bulls. I paid good money for them.” Jordan’s response to her showed none of the calm that had been in evidence when he addressed Carl. “If it comes to that, some of your cows have bred to my bulls.”

  “We know that,” Carl said, flashing his sister a look that said leave this to me. “It’s just that you’ve got so many more by our bull than we have by yours. I was hoping that when you came to sell them, you could give us a little something in the way of a stud fee—if they sell real good, that is. It would help us a lot.”

  Idalou bit her tongue to keep from speaking. Carl was practically begging for what should have been theirs by right. She knew Jordan would never give them a single dime, so it was useless to ask.

  “I’ll have to wait until I see what kind of price they bring,” Jordan said after a pause, “but I’ll see what I can do. It may not be much,” he hastened to add, “but it ought to be something.”

  Idalou was too surprised to speak. Jordan had always denied any responsibility for his cows being on their range or breeding with their bull. What could account for the change in his attitude? Could it have been Will?

  “We’d sure appreciate that,” Carl said. “Your cows wandering on our land isn’t such a problem as long as we can get a little compensation.”

  “I told your father not to spend so much money buying that bull,” Jordan said. “It’s too much of a risk with a small operation like yours.”

  “Lou felt the same way,” Carl said, “but it was Dad’s dream.”

  “And now you’re left trying to get out of the hole he dug. You shouldn’t feel guilty about what’s happened. If he’d been alive, he wouldn’t have made it, either.”

  It made Idalou angry to have Jordan speak that way about her father, but she’d said the same thing herself.

  She was glad she hadn’t said anything about the stud fee, because now she’d have to take it back. She still didn’t know if she could believe him. She just hoped they could hold on long enough to put him to the test.

  One thing she did know: None of this change in Jordan would have happened without Will Haskins. She had no idea what Will had said or how he’d said it, but he’d managed to do in one evening what she’d been unable to do in three years—get Jordan to admit he’d taken advantage of them. She didn’t entirely trust Will. After her father’s bad judgment had gotten them into debt, Jordan’s sharp dealing had made it worse. Webb’s jilting her had so devastated her self-confidence, she wasn’t sure she could trust any man, but she had to thank Will. Now, before she said something to ruin the whole morning, she’d better leave. She stood.

  “Thank you for seeing us.” She was unable to make herself thank him for doing what he should have done without Will’s prodding. “Carl and I had better be going if we expect to find that bull before the loan payment is due.”

  “I really appreciate what you’ve done,” Carl said, shaking hands with Jordan. “I’d like to talk with you again soon.”

  “Anytime.”

  The look in Jordan’s eyes didn’t match his words. Idalou was certain he thought Carl wanted to talk about marrying Mara. He didn’t know her brother if he thought Carl would try to marry a woman who professed to love another man. Carl loved Mara, but he had his pride.

  Idalou stopped by the kitchen to thank Alma Mc-Gloughlin for the coffee. She was relieved that Mara wasn’t around.

  “I hope Jordan means what he says,” she said to Carl once they were in the saddle and away from the house. “Of course, if we don’t find that bull, he won’t have to back up any of his promises.”

  “I’m sure he means it, and I’m sure we’ll find the bull,” Carl said. “Now stop trying to find something to complain about, and be glad the sheriff is better at talking to Jordan than you are.”

  “Than either of us.”

  “I’ve never talked with him before, but that was probably a good thing. He doesn’t like it that Mara’s sweet on me.”

  “She says she’s in love with Will.”

  “I told you Will explained all that.”

  “Then he needs to explain it to Mara’s mother. I went to thank her for
the coffee, and she couldn’t stop telling me how wonderful Will is. If she has her way, your precious Mara will be married to him before the summer’s out.”

  “Will says he’s too old for Mara. He’s probably too old for you, too.”

  Idalou didn’t believe Will could ever be interested in her, but compared to Van, he was practically perfect. Even if he did have a way of making her lose her temper. She promised herself she’d be very careful how she behaved around him in the future. At the very least, she owed him a lot for bringing Jordan to a sense of his duty.

  “I came to invite you for breakfast tomorrow,” Idalou said to Will. “I was going to invite you for supper, but it seems the ladies of Dunmore have already lined you up for lunch and supper for the next two weeks.”

  Will’s morning had been filled with a string of visits from at least half the female population of Dunmore. He’d had enough coffee for a roundup crew, enough sweet breads and cookies to hold a party for all the children in town, and enough invitations to drop in whenever he was in their direction to fill his social calendar for weeks to come. He was regretting having asked that the town provide his meals. What had seemed like a harmless way to meet people and fill in the extra hours had turned into a nightmare.

  “I could skip breakfast for the rest of my time in Dunmore and still have too much to eat,” Will said, pushing aside a plate of doughnuts. “Do I look underfed? Why is everyone trying to force-feed me?”

  “Because you’re male, single, attractive, and apparently rich,” said Idalou.

  When she stopped and looked thoughtful, Will prepared himself for another devastating truth.

  “Do you mind if I take some of that food with me?” she asked.

  Will knew things weren’t going well for her and Carl, but he’d had no idea they had to go hungry. “Take all of it if you want. I won’t eat it.”

  He didn’t understand how she could laugh so easily if she was hungry enough to ask for food. “I’d never be able to eat a tenth of this,” she said.

  “I’m sure Carl would enjoy the rest,” he suggested.

  “Carl never eats sweets.”

  Will was confused. “If you don’t want it and Carl won’t eat it, why . . .” He let the sentence trail off when Idalou blushed.

  “I don’t want it for us. There are some families in town that don’t have much money. Their children never have anything like this. It would be a treat for them.”

  Will felt relieved as well as embarrassed. “Send over all the hungry urchins you can find. I’ll be happy to watch them devour every crumb.”

  “Thanks,” Idalou said. “That’s very generous of you. Now I have to thank you for talking to Jordan. I don’t know what you said, but he’s never been so agreeable.”

  “I just reminded him that, as the richest and most powerful man in Dunmore, people would look to him to show them how they should behave. He’s really a decent man. You just have to know how to talk to him.” He didn’t expect Idalou to believe that, but he hoped Jordan wouldn’t give her any more reason to disbelieve it.

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Idalou said. “Can you come at seven o’clock? Carl and I need to spend as much time as we can looking for that bull if he’s still missing.”

  Will was beginning to believe that somebody had taken the bull. He didn’t know whether the bull had been stolen or someone was just hiding it until Idalou and Carl lost the ranch. With an animal that valuable, it was never wise to discount theft.

  “As long as Jordan insists he doesn’t have the bull, I can’t go searching his property looking for it. If you want to swear out a complaint—”

  “If he has the bull—and I’m certain he does—he would move it before you got there. All the same, I do appreciate what you did for us. And I apologize for saying you’d gone over to his side because you wanted to marry Mara. Whom you marry is none of my business.”

  “Unless I wanted to marry you.”

  Chapter Seven

  “What?”

  Idalou forgot to look furious, forgot that men ignored her because she was a woman, forgot she was about to lose her ranch. She looked confused, vulnerable, human. And prettier than ever.

  “I just agreed with you. It wouldn’t be your business unless I wanted to marry you.”

  “But you don’t.”

  “I probably shouldn’t marry anybody. I have it on good authority that I’m too spoiled to make a good husband.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “No. My mother did, and she ought to know because she spoiled me.” Maybe spoiled wasn’t the right word. She’d smothered him with all the love she’d once lavished on twelve children. It didn’t matter that she now had more than a dozen grandchildren running about the Hill Country. Being under her roof, Will was closer.

  “I’m sure she didn’t mean it,” Idalou said.

  “I’m sure she did. She rattled off a long list of examples to support her statement.” Will looked at all the food scattered around the office. “And this is proof she’s right.”

  He felt a little disgusted with the way things were going. He’d intended to come to Dunmore, buy the bull, then inform Jake and Isabelle he planned to move out and set up his own ranch. Now he couldn’t leave town because nobody could find the damned bull, he was a sheriff with virtually nothing to do, the women of Dunmore were trying to kill him by force-feeding him, and every female over the age of eight found a reason to come by the office to gape at him at least once a day. If he had to listen to any more stories about cats and dogs that could have used rescuing in the past and might need it again—the story about Pepper had made the rounds the first night—he was going to swear off pets forever.

  “People are just trying to be nice,” Idalou said. “Everybody likes you.”

  “Everybody except you.”

  She reacted with shock. “I like you.”

  He hoped his smile was sympathetic, not accusatory. “You don’t have to pretend. I dislike lots of people, and I don’t intend to apologize for it.”

  “I don’t dislike you,” she stated firmly. “I don’t understand you, but I don’t dislike you.”

  “What’s so hard to understand? Isabelle says I’m so simple she sometimes worries that I might be stupid.”

  Idalou’s body lost some of its rigidity. “I think you’re rather complex, and a lot smarter than anybody thinks.”

  Will’s eyes blinked in amazement. That was just about the nicest thing anybody had ever said to him. The fact that Idalou had been the one to say it was even more amazing.

  “The only problem,” Idalou added, “is that you’re too good-looking. People take one glance at you and their brains stop functioning.”

  “And your brain doesn’t stop functioning when you look at me?”

  “Absolutely not. I’m not such a poor female as that!”

  Will couldn’t stop the smile. “I never thought you were a poor female. I’d say you were a rather splendid example of one.” It pleased him to see Idalou become confused and fidgety. Apparently, she wasn’t the wildcat people made her out to be. Rather, she was a woman with sufficient spirit to fight back when people tried to ignore her or take advantage of her. Yet there was a soft side to her that responded to gentleness as well as compliments.

  “I think somebody has been slipping something into your coffee,” Idalou said with a nervous laugh. “I’d throw out the rest of it if I were you.”

  Aha! She was uncomfortable enough around him that she had to make an excuse for his having said something nice about her. She wasn’t used to it, she didn’t trust it, but she liked it nonetheless. She grew more interesting by the minute. He wondered if she’d have been more trusting and accepting if her parents had lived. He barely remembered his own parents. He didn’t even remember the uncle who’d taken him in very well. For all practical purposes, Jake and Isabelle were the only parents he’d ever had. Life with them had been safe and secure with more than enough love for any orphan boy. They’d e
xpected him to work hard, but they’d also spoiled him. He had a feeling that Idalou had had to be responsible long before her parents died.

  “I don’t think another cup or two will do me any harm. It’ll give me something to compare your coffee

  to when I have breakfast with you tomorrow.”

  “I can promise my coffee won’t affect your brain.”

  “My brother says my brain is already too small to be found,” he said.

  “If he did say such a thing—which I tend to doubt—it was probably because you’d been practicing your I’m-too-bone-idle-to-do-anything act.”

  Will hoped he didn’t show just how startled he was. No one had ever caught on to him so fast. When you combined the fact that she was pretty and feminine with her willingness to tackle anything in pants, this woman could be dangerous.

  “Not idle. Just unwilling to do things the hard way unless I’m forced.”

  She studied him with an unwavering stare.

  To break the tension, he said, “I’m headed over to Sonnenberg’s place. Since he doesn’t have a wife, I’m not in danger of being forced to eat anything.”

  Idalou looked him over. “You don’t look overfed to me.”

  “I would be if I ate all this. Don’t forget to round up your urchins.” He looked at the food and shook his head. “I doubt there’s a pound of sugar or a spoonful of honey in all of Dunmore that hasn’t been wrestled into some sweet intended for my consumption.”

  Idalou choked. At least that was what it sounded like until she started laughing.

  “I always thought a sheriff was supposed to protect the townspeople from thieves, murderers, and the occasional drunk,” she said when she managed to regain control of her voice. “It never occurred to me that we’d have to protect you from the wives and young women.”

  “That’s because you haven’t been saddled with this face,” Will said pointing at himself.

  “I’d never considered good looks a handicap before. I’ll have to tell Carl. He’s been making faces at himself in the mirror because he’s angry he’ll never look half as good as you.”