Lucky in Love

by JoAnn Ross

  “Actually, I seldom eat ice cream.”

  “You know what I mean,” he said in a way that had Jude wishing again that the subject hadn’t come up.

  “Yes. I do.” She reached out, caught his hand as it completed another frustrated pass through his hair and linked their fingers together. “It’s been a long night. Though a wonderful one,” she said quickly when he shot her a look. “But neither of us have had much sleep. Perhaps we’d be better off discussing this later. When we’ve both had time to gather our thoughts.” And our arguments.

  “Are you trying to manipulate me again, New York?”

  His tone lacked an edge, letting her know that he was teasing. “Yes. Is it working?”

  “I’ll let you know. After I get some sleep.”

  “That sounds very reasonable.”

  “I don’t know about reasonable. I wasn’t exactly thinking of sleeping alone.”

  Oh. “That sounds better yet.”

  “Yeah.” He gave her hand a quick squeeze. “One more thing we can agree one. Looks as if we’re on a roll, darlin’.”

  * * *

  ANY THOUGHTS JUDE might have had of inviting Lucky into her bed disintegrated when they pulled up in front of the ranch house. A huge tractor trailer was parked between the house and the barn. O’Neill Rodeo Stock had been written across the gleaming white surface in shamrock green paint.

  Lucky didn’t sound particularly excited to see the trailer. “My folks are back.”

  “Oh.” Although she was a grown woman, Jude suddenly felt as if she were sixteen years old and about to get caught staying out all night after the prom.

  Once again Lucky proved to be on the same wavelength. “Maybe we can sneak in the back way.”

  They looked at each other as he parked the truck beside the trailer, then burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of their situation.

  Marianne O’Neill didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow at their disheveled condition. She rose from the kitchen table, greeted her son with a hug, then turned to Jude with a friendly smile.

  She was a tall, slender woman who seemed, like Lucky, not to have a superfluous ounce of fat on her. Hard work had muscled her shoulders and arms, the sun had created little lines at the corners of her brown eyes, suggesting she was a woman who smiled easily. And often.

  “Hello.” She held out a slender hand. “Welcome to our home, Jude. Buck’s been telling me all about you.”

  “Oh, dear.” Jude shook the hand that proved stronger than it looked.

  Lucky’s mother laughed at Jude’s feeble attempt at humor. “It’s all good, believe me. In fact, we were just discussing your magazine when you came in—”

  “Where’s Dad?” Lucky interrupted, wanting to avoid any discussion of Hunk of the Month. He may have been able to sidestep Buck, but his mother was another matter entirely. Although outwardly she could appear really easygoing, he also knew she could be like a damn pit bull worrying a bone when she got her teeth sunk into something.

  “He’s out in the barn, with that nice young man. Your photographer,” she told Jude.

  “Zach.”

  “Yes.” Marianne smiled again. “I knew his mother. Lovely woman, a champion barrel racer, like her daughter, and her quilts always won the blue ribbon at the county fair. I hadn’t seen Zach since he was a young ’un. I should have realized he wasn’t a boy any longer, but it did come as a surprise to see that he’s all grown up.” She sighed. “Just like my own children...

  “And speaking of my children...how is Katie? Buck suggested that she was having problems—”

  “It was just a misunderstanding, Mom,” Lucky assured her quickly. He exchanged a look with Jude. “I think, if you don’t mind, I’ll go out and say hi to Dad.”

  “Of course, dear. That will give Jude and me an opportunity to get acquainted.”

  At that, Lucky shot Jude another questioning look that she answered with a faint nod. She could handle this, she thought, holding the jacket closed. She was, after all, an adult woman with an important, high-powered career. There was no reason to feel uncomfortable just because she’d spent the night rolling around in this woman’s son’s sleeping bag.

  Lucky surprised her, drawing her to him for a quick kiss that rocked her and caused color to darken her cheekbones. “Good luck,” he murmured. “And remember, if you need rescuing, the cavalry’s just across the way in the barn.”

  With that single playful statement, he eased her nervousness. Before Jude knew what was happening, she was sitting at the pine table with Lucky’s mother, drinking coffee and discussing Kate.

  “The boys were worried when she fell in love with Jack,” Marianne divulged. “In fact, I had to practically sit on my husband to keep him from going to New York when she moved in with him. I reminded him that, although she’d always be our darling baby girl, Kate was a grown woman. Capable of making her own decisions. Men,” she said as she heated up their coffee from a Mr. Coffee carafe Jude hadn’t seen before, “can be so terribly old-fashioned. And I’m afraid the O’Neill men in some ways are worse than most.”

  “So I’ve discovered.” Jude took a sip of the rewarmed coffee. “This is wonderful.” She practically wept as she felt the warm rush of caffeine jolt through her.

  “Thank you. But of course boiled mud would taste good after Buck’s battery acid.”

  “It is a little strong.”

  “It’s horrendous. We’ve all hated it for years, but he seems real proud of it, so none of us have had the heart to try to get him to change the recipe.”

  “You have a wonderful family.”

  “It’s not that unusual. We have our spats, but when you live an isolated life as we do out here, you grow up understanding that, when push comes to shove, family is the one thing you can always count on.

  “I’m so pleased we’ve finally met,” she continued, seeming to change the subject. “Kate has told me so much about you. I was sorry to hear that you’d lost your father last year.”

  “I was sorry, too. But at least he died doing what he loved to do.” She’d decided Lucky had a point about that.

  “True. My Michael has always insisted that he wants to die in the saddle.”

  “With his boots on,” Jude suggested.

  Marianne’s laugh was lighter, more musical than her son’s, but Jude could see the resemblance in the gleaming brown eyes. “Exactly.” She took another longer sip of coffee and eyed Jude thoughtfully over the rim of the mug. “So, I take it my son is going to be your Hunk of the Month.”

  A blaze of color flamed her cheeks. “You know about the magazine?”

  “Of course. I bought a copy as soon as Kate told us you’d hired her as your assistant. It’s quite...how should I put this?...stimulating.”

  “Does your husband know?”

  “About Lucky? No, not yet. But I will tell him. We’ve never kept secrets from one another.”

  Oh, God. Jude worried how Lucky was going to react to his parents knowing he’d agreed to pose in those bubbles.

  “I think he’ll be a little surprised,” Marianne admitted. “But after the initial shock wears off, I have no doubt he’ll view it as I do...as a terrific PR vehicle for the cowboy way.”

  Jude began to relax. “That’s what I told Lucky.”

  “And aren’t you a clever woman?” Marianne beamed at her. “No wonder my son’s fallen in love with you.”

  “Oh, he’s not—”

  “Of course he is, darling. Trust me, I’ve watched the girls come and go in my son’s life. But the last time I ever saw that gleam that’s in his eyes when he looks at you was his sixth Christmas when he came downstairs and discovered the sheltie mix puppy Santa had left him.”

  “That’s quite a comparison,” Jude murmured, reaching for one of the biscuits that were in their usual basket in the middle of the t
able.

  “It may seem a bit unflattering,” Marianne admitted. “But not if you knew how much he loved that dog. So, how do you feel about him?”

  “I don’t know.” Her gaze slid out the window to where the three O’Neill men were busy unloading horses from the trailer. “Confused, mostly.”

  “A sure sign.”

  “It’s been such a short time.” She looked down at her hands which were trembling ever so slightly. Jude knew how to achieve success in the workplace. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a clue how to manage her personal life. She’d tried to convince herself that her feelings for Lucky had been based on lust. But that had been the biggest lie of all. She cared for him. Deeply. Truly. But having been brought up to avoid spontaneity, she couldn’t quite trust her unruly feelings now. “We only met a few days ago.”

  “I knew the minute Lucky’s father landed in my medical tent that he was the man for me.”

  “You were lucky.”

  “True. But if there’s one thing that all the years of ranching has taught me, dear, it’s that sometimes we make our own luck.”

  That stated, Lucky’s mother stood up, put her mug in the dishwasher, and headed toward the kitchen door. “I have to go help Michael with the stock,” she said. “I hope we’ll have many more opportunities for some girl chats. As much as I dearly love my husband, and our life, the rodeo world is overpopulated with males. It’s always a treat to get to talk about things like hairstyles and the latest fashion rather than the difference in torque between a Dodge truck or a Chevy, or horse colic, or the best way to control botflies.”

  “We should finish up shooting today,” Jude said. “Then I’d planned to stay for a few more days before returning to Manhattan.”

  Something flickered in the depths of Lucky’s mother’s dark eyes, but it came and went too fast for Jude to decode it.

  “Isn’t that nice?” she said neutrally, then left the kitchen.

  Jude watched her walk across the gravel driveway, watched the way Lucky’s father put a casual, affectionate arm around her waist, observed the way they seemed to fit so perfectly in each other’s space. He bent down and said something, his mouth close to her ear, suggesting his words were just for her.

  She smiled up at him and even from this distance, Jude could see her warm and generous heart in her eyes. As he smiled back and brushed a finger down her cheek, in a casually intimate gesture that reminded Jude of his son, emotion welled up in her, moistening her eyes, blurring her vision.

  As impossible as it sounded, Jude knew that she’d fallen in love with Lucky. The idea was thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. She’d worked hard to get where she was, struggled to achieve the level of success she enjoyed, proving all those naysayers—who’d thought she’d only been hired because of her father—wrong. But the pleasure she’d once gotten from her work had dulled, like a pretty gold ring that turned out to be brass.

  “So you’re sick of your job,” she murmured. “Join the real world, kiddo.” If she was dissatisfied where she was, changing careers was the logical thing to do. And Jude had always prided herself on being a logical, practical woman.

  Falling in love with a cowboy from Cremation Creek, Wyoming was not the slightest bit logical. But that was exactly what had happened. The problem was, she wondered as she pushed herself up from the table, could love be enough?

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE NEXT FEW days flew by, making a mockery of Jude’s attempt to stop the world—or at least their little corner of it—from spinning. Zach finished taking the pictures, proclaimed himself brilliant, overnighted the film back to New York for processing, then took the opportunity of their unscheduled vacation to visit his family on their ranch.

  During this time, Kate was calling several times a day with ultimatums and threats from Tycoon Mary, but determined to live for the moment for once in her life, Jude dug in the heels of her boots and refused to budge. She spent every moment she could with Lucky. The two of them rode Lightning and Annie over the meadows and through the woods. They necked in the back row of the balcony of The Gilded Lily while Clint Eastwood’s six guns were blazing away in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. She even enjoyed sitting in Lucky’s study with him after dinner, watching him work on the ranch books that were now on computer.

  He was, she’d come to realize, much more than a “mere cowboy.” He seemed to be equal parts ranch manager, accountant, wildlife manager, veterinarian and environmentalist. In fact, Buck had told her proudly, because he’d suspected Lucky wouldn’t, last year the ranch had won a national government award for an educational program Lucky had set up allowing students to visit the ranch to study wildlife, streams, vegetation, geology, archaeology, birds and riparian areas. He was so many things, she mused. And amazingly, he was hers.

  “You realize, of course,” Lucky murmured late in the afternoon of her fourth day of playing hooky, “you’re not going to be able to hide out here with me forever.”

  They were lying in each other’s arms, after fulfilling both their fantasies of making love in a hayloft.

  “I know.” She held him tighter, as if she could prevent their time together from slipping away. “I keep telling myself that. But what if I were just to fax in my resignation?” She held her breath, waiting for the words she longed to hear. The words she’d once promised she would not need.

  He plucked a piece of straw from her tangled hair. “You don’t want to do that.”

  “You can be so arrogant.” Her disappointment went all the way to the bone, causing her temper to flare. “You think you know me so damn well that you can read my mind?”

  Lucky didn’t want to waste time fighting. Not when he could feel their stolen time together drawing to a close.

  “I know that when I touch your breasts—” he cupped one in his hand and felt it swell to fit his palm “—they bloom like my mom’s summer roses.”

  He dipped his head and kissed her temple. Her lips. The fragrant hollow of her throat. “I know when I kiss you, you melt like warm honey in my arms.”

  He drew her closer, fitting her against him. The buttery afternoon sun was warming the bright yellow straw beneath the blanket he’d spread out; Jude’s blood turned even warmer.

  “I know—”

  “All right.” She caught hold of his hair and dragged his roving mouth back to hers. “I concede. You can read my mind. Which means—” she stroked a wet swath against his bottom lip with the tip of her tongue and felt his deep shudder “—you know what I want you to do now.”

  “Let me guess.” He drew back and looked into her eyes, so hard and deep Jude was certain he could see all the way to her soul. “You want me to make love with you.”

  Her answering laugh was rich with emotion, ragged with need. “What a smart man you are.”

  “For a cowboy hunk.” He rolled over, rubbing against her in a seductive way. As he slipped inside her with silky smooth ease, it crossed Jude’s mind that if they weren’t careful, they were going to set the barn on fire.

  Then he began to move, slowly, deeply, claiming her in all the ways a man can claim a woman, and she forgot to think at all.

  * * *

  SHE COULD NO longer put it off. Tycoon Mary was adamant: if Jude wasn’t back in the office by Monday morning, no matter what the circulation rates on the special cowboy hunk issue turned out to be, she could kiss her job goodbye. Although Jude was willing to accept the consequences, Lucky wouldn’t let her.

  “You’re letting your heart run away with your head, sweetheart.” They were in the barn, surrounded by the scents of leather, hay and horses she knew she’d be taking back to New York in her memory. Lucky had brought her here to say their goodbyes in private.

  “I’ve let my head rule my entire life, up until I chased after you to Wyoming, and I’ve never been as happy as I’ve been here with you. Following my heart.
”

  “You keep talking like that and my head’s gonna swell so big I’m going to need to go shopping for a new hat,” he said. “And as good as it makes me feel to hear you say that, Jude, I’m not going to let you rush into anything.”

  “But—”

  He touched a finger to her lips, forestalling her protest. “There’s a lot to be said for patience, sweetheart. As Buck always says, given enough time, even an egg will walk.”

  “He also says that there’s a powerful difference between a good sound reason to do something and a reason to do something that just sounds good.” She jutted out her chin. “I like that one better.”

  “You never have fought fair.” Affection fought with regret in his warm gaze. “If you want to start trading off Buckisms, we’ll still be standing here this time next year.”

  “That’d be fine with me.”

  He shook his head. “Dammit, do you honestly think I want to put you on that plane this afternoon?”

  “Then don’t.”

  “It’s the right thing to do,” he insisted doggedly, as he had from the beginning. How could he explain that he was afraid to death that if he let her stay here with him, she’d end up hating the ranch and him, and breaking his heart in the bargain when she finally felt the need to return to the lights of the big city? Better to break things off clean right now, he’d decided.

  “I truly do love you, Jude, but—”

  “Then let me stay.” Jude found herself on the verge of begging. But beg she would, if that’s what it took to make him understand that her life—her future—was here at the Double Ought with him.

  “Aw, darlin’, if only it were that simple.” He touched his forehead to hers and sighed. “I’ve seen other men bring women out here and within six months two people who thought they were in love were making each other miserable.”