Claimed!

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “LET ME drive him home,” Alex said once Josie announced her intentions. “You shouldn’t be dealing with that jerk.”

  “I appreciate your protectiveness, but better me than you.” Josie smiled at him. She loved having her only sibling around, although she hated his reason for coming.

  His divorce from Crystal had become final this week, and he’d taken unused vacation time to get some perspective on the situation. Crystal had initiated the proceedings, and he still hadn’t recovered from the shock.

  Only two years apart, Josie and Alex had fought like wildcats as kids, but as adults they were the best of friends. Alex was the first person Josie called for advice, and vice-versa. They were always there for each other, and she was happy to have him camp out on her hide-a-bed for as long as he needed to.

  “What if I promise not to rough him up?” Alex said.

  Josie laughed as she headed into the bedroom to change out of her bathrobe. “I wouldn’t believe you. You should have seen yourself once you knew who he was. You all but pawed the ground.”

  Alex followed her down the short hallway of her apartment. “Have you forgotten how miserable you were when he pulled the plug on the relationship?”

  “No, I haven’t forgotten.” She turned and looked at her blond Adonis of a brother. Crystal was an idiot who’d never appreciated him. “Tell me this, Alex. If you thought there was a chance to start over with Crystal, would you take it?”

  He hesitated. “I don’t know. We’ve said some things that can’t be unsaid.”

  “Same with me and Jack. But we meant a lot to each other once.” More than a lot. Jack had been everything to her, and she’d kidded herself that he felt the same. Then he’d spoken those horrible words that she’d never forget—No big deal, Josie. It was just sex.

  “Be careful, sis.”

  “I will.” And she would be, she vowed as she went into her bedroom to exchange her robe for the western shirt she’d thrown on the bed. Ten months ago, when she’d been more gullible, Jack had been capable of cutting her off at the knees.

  But since then she’d admitted to herself that she’d woven a fantasy out of nothing. Jack had never told her he loved her, never suggested they could spend their lives together. No matter what happened between her and Jack now, she wouldn’t wear rose-colored glasses ever again.

  She liked having the advantage that he’d come to her, though. True, he was slightly drunk and his guard was down. Ever since the painful phone call announcing Jonathan’s death and the end of their relationship, Jack had avoided the Spirits and Spurs. Josie had run into him a few times in town, and he’d remained polite but distant. He wasn’t that way now, but he could be again.

  In fact, she could count on it. Jack didn’t like to be vulnerable, and that’s exactly what he’d been tonight. He didn’t want her driving him home, but she’d played her trump card by reminding him that his dad had been killed behind the wheel.

  She’d played that card willingly. Jack might be able to navigate the rural two-lane between Shoshone and the Last Chance Ranch, but she wasn’t going to risk it. If anything happened to him…

  Grabbing her wallet, her cell phone and the keys to her Bronco, she headed down the hall.

  Alex stood and tossed aside the magazine he’d been reading. “I’m going. Mom and Dad told me to keep an eye on you while I was out here, and this qualifies.”

  “You’re not going.”

  “I don’t trust him.”

  “I’m perfectly safe, Alex. Jack may have broken my heart, but he’d never harm me. Underneath all that bluster is a very gentle soul.”

  Alex snorted. “So I noticed when he assaulted me.”

  “That was a mistake.”

  “Oh, it was a mistake, all right. Now he’s on my list.”

  “Please don’t judge him by tonight. He’s not that kind of guy.”

  “What kind of guy is he?”

  “Confused. His mom left when he was three. He pretends it was no big deal, but I think it colors everything.”

  Alex gazed at her. “You’re still in love with him.”

  Josie opened her mouth to protest, but she knew it would be a lie. She’d tried to stop loving Jack, but she hadn’t had much luck. She’d meshed with him in a way she hadn’t with any other man. Their conversation came easily and their silences were never uncomfortable.

  Then there was the sexual connection. His deep voice still haunted her dreams. She’d wake in the middle of the night, hot and aching for his touch.

  With Jack she’d lost all her inhibitions. She’d felt alive, sensual, beautiful. Several people had warned her that he was a playboy who never stayed with a woman for long.

  Some said it all went back to his mother leaving. Jack didn’t want to be left again, they figured, so he made sure he cut out before another woman could hurt him. But his affair with Josie had lasted six glorious months and he’d shown no signs of leaving.

  Extraordinary circumstances had ended the relationship. Josie wondered what would have happened if Jonathan Chance hadn’t died and reawakened all Jack’s fears of being abandoned by those he loved. It was clear Jack hadn’t forgotten about her if he’d come here tonight ready to fight for her.

  Alex sighed. “So you’re in love with him. Unfortunately, I don’t think that he’s—”

  “Maybe he isn’t in love with me, but we were building something together. Then when his dad died, it all went to hell.”

  “He was cruel and insensitive. Those are your words, by the way, not mine.”

  “I know, but people can change. They can escape their past.”

  “Oh, Josie, don’t fall into that trap.” Then he laughed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Listen to me, giving you advice when my love life is in the dumper.”

  Josie moved closer and gave him a hug. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me.”

  “Too late. I’m already worried. Listen, tell that guy that if he doesn’t treat you like royalty, he’ll answer to me. He doesn’t want to mess with somebody who grew up on the mean streets of Chi-town.”

  “You did not. You grew up in Arlington Heights.”

  He grinned. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have connections. I know people who know people. Mention cement overshoes to him.”

  She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll do that.” As if it would matter, but she didn’t say that to Alex. Jack Chance had been through hell and back. He wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything.

  2

  JACK CHOSE TO WAIT for Josie beside her dark green Bronco. As he leaned against the fender, cool night air blew most of the cobwebs from his brain and left him with a clear and present truth. He’d behaved like an ass tonight.

  He’d been doing that quite a bit lately, but tonight could qualify as his most spectacular display of assholeness in his entire thirty-two years. If they gave out medals for being a complete loser, he would win the gold, hands down.

  As his punishment, he would accept this ride home from Josie, because the reality was, he didn’t have a lot of choice. Rousting Gabe out of Morgan’s bed and demanding the keys to his truck would only add to Jack’s list of transgressions. Sure, he could walk home, but that would take a good hour, maybe closer to two. And besides, everyone knew cowboys didn’t walk.

  So instead he waited for Josie and stared up at the unlit sign of a cowboy on a bucking bronco, with Spirits and Spurs lettered underneath. The bar used to be called The Rusty Spur, but Josie had changed the name when she’d bought the place three years ago. Newcomers to Shoshone assumed the Spirits part referred to alcohol. A person had to stick around a while to find out that Josie considered the bar haunted. Many locals played along and called the after-hours visitors Ghost Drinkers in the Bar.

  Jack didn’t believe in ghosts. More specifically, he didn’t want to believe in ghosts. All he needed was to have his father come back from the dead and tell him he was screwing up the management of the ranch.

  He
probably was. Everyone complained that he worked them too hard, that he worked himself too hard. But he was in charge of the whole operation now, and he’d be damned if the Last Chance would go in the red on his watch.

  He’d never wanted to be in charge, but his dad had assumed he would be someday. Jack hadn’t known how to tell him that he didn’t want that honor, that he’d rather have Nick or Gabe run the place. It had seemed ungrateful.

  His unspoken dream was to take over as foreman when Emmett retired. He’d intended to propose that to Jonathan eventually, but he’d procrastinated and now it was too late. He would do what was expected of him.

  Footsteps on gravel alerted him that Josie had arrived. He turned to watch her walk in his direction. Even in the dim light from the dusk-to-dawn lamp he could tell her expression was wary.

  He ached for a return to the old days, when she’d greeted him with a smile brighter than a summer morning. Those days were gone, and if he’d had any idea of recapturing them, he’d ruined that possibility by attacking her brother and making a fool of himself in the process.

  “An apology seems pretty lame under the circumstances,” he said. “But I’m offering one, anyway. I’m sorry I tried to punch out your brother.”

  Her wary expression changed and she began to laugh. “Tried being the operative word. I’ve never seen you so uncoordinated, Jack.”

  Her laughter helped ease the tension. “Good thing I wasn’t at my best, then. You’d be a lot more pissed at me if I’d rearranged his face.”

  “He also would have rearranged yours. He might be a city boy, but he’s no slouch when it comes to a fight.”

  Jack admired her loyal streak. Ten months ago, he’d been entitled to that loyalty, too. “I don’t doubt it. He’s your brother.”

  That seemed to sit well with her, and she smiled. “And he’s more protective than I remembered. He told me to mention the possibility of cement overshoes.”

  “In Wyoming?”

  She shrugged.

  “He needs to acclimate to the western way of doing things. Out here we bury people up to their necks in ant hills and pour honey on them.”

  “Duly noted.” She pulled her keys out of her jeans pocket. “Ready to go?”

  “Sure.” He would rather stand out here and talk until dawn the way they had the first time they’d recognized their mutual attraction.

  He’d never forget that spring night. He’d flirted with her at the bar and then stayed until closing. She’d walked him out to the parking lot and they’d talked until sunup. Before he’d driven away, he’d kissed her and promised that the next night they’d do more than talk. And boy howdy, had they. They’d burned up the sheets that first night, and many nights afterward.

  As he climbed into her Bronco, he realized he’d never been a passenger in her vehicle. They’d gone into Jackson a few times during the six months they’d been lovers, but he’d always driven. This reversal of roles felt weird. It threw him off his game.

  When she got in, bringing with her the scent of peach schnapps, he braced himself for the tough part—being this close without touching her. They used to ride down the road with their hands entwined. A few times they’d parked somewhere secluded and made out because they couldn’t wait for the privacy of her apartment.

  “Buckle up, cowboy.”

  “Right.” He’d been caught staring at her and reminiscing. Not cool. He latched his seat belt and took a deep breath. “Thanks for driving me home.”

  “No problem.” She started the engine. “Just where is your truck, anyway? I seriously doubt you walked into town.”

  “I rode in with Gabe. We…had an errand over at Morgan’s.”

  “Oh?” She pulled the Bronco onto the two-lane main road, which was deserted at this hour. “So where’s Gabe?”

  “Still at Morgan’s, I’m sure.”

  “Oh.” She caught the green at Shoshone’s only stop-light and headed toward the edge of town. “So they’re back together?”

  “Looks like.” Jack thought it was Gabe and Morgan’s business when they announced the engagement. Although the ending to the evening could stand improvement in his case, he was happy that those two had patched things up.

  “I’m beginning to get the picture.” Josie increased the Bronco’s speed as they left the town limits. “You had nowhere else to go, so you came over to my place.”

  “You make it sound like a last resort.”

  “Wasn’t it?”

  “No. I could have…” She had him there. He had some buddies in town, but he’d made himself scarce recently because of the ranch responsibilities. After blowing his friends off every time they’d asked him to meet them for a beer, he couldn’t very well show up in the middle of the night looking for a ride home or a place on the couch.

  “Reliable old Josie.” Her good humor seemed to have faded some. “A guy can always count on her to take him in, right?”

  “That’s not the way I was thinking.” Fact was, he hadn’t been thinking or he would have figured out an alternative. Worse came to worse, he could have gone to Grandma Judy’s. Technically she wasn’t his grandmother. She was his stepmother, Sarah’s, mom.

  She would have taken him in, though. And then told Sarah all about it the next day. He could have weathered that, but he wasn’t about to get an eighty-six-year-old woman out of bed, especially one who’d had a hip replacement barely two months ago.

  “To think I imagined you’d chosen to come over to my place,” Josie said. “Instead I was just handy.”

  “You have it all wrong!” The more she voiced the truth, the harder he’d deny it.

  “No I don’t. Man up and admit it, Jack. I was the alternative to sleeping on a park bench, nothing more.”

  “Is this why you offered to drive me home? So you could chew my ass all the way there?” Not that he blamed her.

  “I offered because I’m a bartender, and I’m trained to recognize when someone is impaired and shouldn’t drive. I thought you had your truck and were about to get in it. I didn’t know you were stranded.”

  “So if you’d known I didn’t have a truck to drive, you would have let me walk?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You would have, wouldn’t you? Well, we can take care of that right now. Pull over.”

  “No.”

  “Pull over, damn it!”

  “I said I’d drive you home and I will drive you home. I honor my commitments.”

  “What do you mean by that crack?”

  Her jaw tightened. “I think you know.”

  She’d pushed him too far. Jack Chance always honored his word. “We didn’t have a commitment.”

  “Oh, good one, Jack! No woman ties you down, does she? You can spend every spare minute getting naked with her, but I guess it’s all about the sex, just like you said that day, because when it comes to making a commitment, you just can’t see yourself doing that, can you?” Her voice sounded funny, sort of choked up.

  He peered at her in the dim light of the dashboard. “Josie, are you crying?”

  “No!” She swiped at her cheeks. “Got something in my eye.”

  He didn’t buy it. She was crying, and that rattled him. In six months of being together, he’d never seen her cry. Of course, he’d broken up with her over the phone, because he couldn’t have done it in person. In person, he wouldn’t have been able to say the one thing that he knew would convince her they were finished—it was just sex. After delivering that message, he’d hung up quickly. He’d probably made her cry then, but he’d avoided thinking about that.

  “Josie.”

  “That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.”

  He sighed. “I’m sorry for…everything.” He doubted a global apology would do much good, but he wasn’t experienced at saying he was sorry.

  She cleared her throat. “No reason to apologize, Jack. You’re just being you. I guess you got tired of the celibate life, huh?”

  “What?”

  “
I know you haven’t been seeing anybody since we broke up. Everybody says you’ve become a workaholic. Stands to reason that given a free night in town with no truck available, you’d look up the woman you used to have sex with. Perfectly logical.”

  “Damn it to hell! That’s not why I came to see you tonight!” But it was, in a way. He’d had some vague idea that she might be glad to see him after all this time. She hadn’t hooked up with anyone, either, or at least that’s what he’d thought until he’d seen a guy standing in her doorway.

  “It’s okay, Jack.”

  No, it wasn’t. Everything was a gold-plated mess. He’d followed Gabe’s suggestion in hopes that he’d be able to make up with Josie and return to an uncomplicated relationship built on laughter and sex. At least he’d always considered the relationship uncomplicated.

  Clearly he’d been wrong.

  Jack didn’t know what to say that would help the situation, and Josie seemed all talked out, so they drove in silence the rest of the way to the ranch. The long road in from the highway was unpaved because that’s how Jack’s father had wanted it. Jonathan Chance thought an unpaved road would discourage gawkers, while true horsemen and women determined to see the registered Paints bred by the Last Chance wouldn’t be deterred by a little dirt and dust.

  Jack wasn’t about to pave the road and go against tradition, but as Josie’s Bronco jolted over the ruts, he vowed to have it graded soon. Maybe he’d rent a grader and do it himself.

  At last Josie eased to a stop in the circular gravel drive in front of the two-story ranch house. Constructed of logs by Jack’s grandfather Archie, the house had grown as the family expanded. The right wing was added when Jack’s father was born, and he’d built the left wing as his three boys grew older and needed more space.

  Each wing was angled so that the house seemed to offer an embrace. Or a trap.