by Becky McGraw
He sucked in a sharp breath and his face lit up, then he said, “Marry me, Katie—that would solve things!”
Katie’s heart felt like it melted inside of her chest, and pooled around her knees like candle wax. She couldn’t marry him, not like this. She shook her head and told him softly, but firmly, “I can’t, Tommy…not like this. If and when I get married, it’s gonna be because of love, and nothing else. You’re only asking me now because you’re afraid, and I’m not going to say yes to that.”
“Dammit, I do love you!” he grated and shook her, “Marry me, because I love you.”
“I love you too, that’s why I’m saying no…you don’t need to do this impulsively either. If we got married, she’d fight you even harder, it would make things worse. I’m a distraction right now, and you need to focus on settling this for Dixie…for us.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
The hollow cackle of Edith Preston’s laugh still rang in Katie’s ears, three weeks after she’d made the call that sent her running from the Rockin’ D Ranch back to Bowie. She’d told the old woman that she was leaving Tommy and Dixie, and that she’d won. Edith agreed to drop the suit, only if Katie stayed away permanently. She told her emphatically that she was not going to let Tommy Tucker disrespect her daughter’s memory, and that included having a relationship with another woman or getting remarried. She told her in no uncertain terms if she ever came back to the Rockin’ D, Tommy would lose Dixie permanently.
Katie knew what the woman was actually doing was punishing Tommy for what she believed he’d done to her daughter. She wanted him to be lonely and miserable for the rest of his life, and Dixie to be motherless. So she was using that poor child as a rope in her tug-of-war with Tommy. It was horrific, and it made Katie want to choke the life out of the horrible old hag. Tommy was the only one who could stop her though, and until he did, they couldn’t be together.
Their separation was so complete, she hadn’t talked to him in two weeks, not since the repairs on the bunkhouse were finished, and she moved there from Karlie and Gabe’s cabin. Katie hadn’t had a land line installed yet, and since there was no cell phone reception out here, he couldn’t call. When she’d gone to Henrietta last week for her doctor’s appointment, she saw he’d left her a couple of messages, and she’d tried to call him, but he hadn’t answered the phone, and she hadn’t been back to town since.
Every day, either Karlie or Gabe came out to check on her, and brought her pre-cooked food that Imelda had sent with them from the Double B, or take out from the Blue Bird. Other than their visits though, and a few conversations with the contractors working on the other buildings, she was alone…and damned lonely. She missed Tommy and Dixie so much, it felt like she had a twelve-gauge shotgun hole right in the middle of her heart.
Maybe she should go eat lunch at the Blue Bird today, she thought, so she could try calling Tommy again to check on them…to hear his voice. Katie was just about to go get dressed to do that, when there was a knock at the door of the bunkhouse. She got up from the sofa where she’d been watching a soap opera on television, which eerily resembled her life these days, and went to answer it.
The man standing on her doorstep was the contractor she’d hired to dig a secondary well out by the barn to use for watering the livestock. The one for the house wasn’t enough to sustain both structures.
Katie greeted him, then stepped back for him to come inside. He pulled off his hard hat and stomped his boots on the door mat then came in and said, “Ma’am, we have a problem with the well…might be a good one for you, but not so good for us.”
Katie groaned, all she needed was another problem to deal with. Termites in the walls of the big old barn had been her last hurdle. There was extensive damage, and the contractor had to adjust his repair estimate to include an exterminator and stud replacements.
“What’s the problem?” she asked and flinched, waiting for the cash register sounds to start ringing in her ears.
He chuckled and she wanted to punch him in the nose. “Well, we were drilling for water, and got about halfway down and hit oil…a lot of it…too much for us to continue digging your well there.”
Katie shook her head and repeated, “Oil?”
“Yes, ma’am…you need to get a wildcatter out here, and an engineer to check it out. We’re going to have to wait to see, before we start drilling your well again,” he told her.
Oh, god…more money, and more delays, she thought and sighed.
“Why aren’t you smiling, ma’am? I’d be grinning like a polecat in a lavender patch,” he told her and grinned just like that.
Unless this man was independently wealthy, she didn’t have a clue as to why he’d be happy to have to put out more money on property that was fast becoming a money pit to her way of thinking. She shook her head, and her eyebrows drew together. “Why would you say that? This is gonna cost me a lot of money for the engineer and to have you redrill in another spot, right?”
He snorted and scratched his head, then asked her, “Ma’am did you not hear me say oil?”
“I heard you quite clearly,” she said shortly, aggravated that he was making fun of her.
“We struck oil on your property, Miss Upton…if it’s a deep vein you could be a very rich woman,” he said slowly and distinctly, like she was mentally challenged.
Katie felt like she’d stepped on an electrical wire, as clarity struck her, then she did grin like a polecat in a lavender patch. “Holy, shit…” she whispered and covered her mouth with her hand.
“That’s more like it!” the contractor hooted, then picked her up and swung her around. When he set her down, he said, “Let me know if you need some recommendations on drillers, I know a few.”
In shock, Katie shook her head then closed the door behind him and just stood there with her mouth open. She needed to talk to her sister, and get her mind together. Katie’s feet barely touched the floor as she headed for the shower.
Katie made it to the Blue Bird in less than an hour, and excitedly called Karlie and asked her to meet her there. She sat at a booth and sipped on an iced tea, while she waited for her sister, smiling at every new person who entered the cafe. The smile on her face had been perpetual, since she understood what the contractor had been telling her. There was oil on her property, and that could mean a different kind of life for her and her babies.
She put a hand over the slight rise of her belly, which was growing every day, as her babies grew. She was only about three months along, but because she was having twins, she looked at least five months pregnant. Her clothes didn’t fit anymore, so she’d bought some maternity clothes at a shop in Henrietta, when she’d gone to the doctor last week. Katie had to go see the doctor again next week, and she was counting down the days, because he was going to do another ultrasound and told her he would probably be able to tell her the sex of the babies.
The bell over the door chimed again and Katie looked up expectantly, then a grin spread over her whole face when she saw her sister and Gabe walk into the cafe. Neither of them were smiling, both wore looks of concern, as they spotted her and walked over to the booth then sat down.
Without preamble, Karlie demanded anxiously, “What’s wrong, Katie?”
“Ask me what’s right, instead,” she said smugly, then took a sip of her tea.
Her sister huffed out a frustrated breath, then said shortly, “Okay, what’s right then?”
“The well contractor hit a snag when he started drilling,” she told Karlie obtusely.
Karlie shook her head, then slapped a hand on the table and said, “That’s good news?”
“Yep…because he hit oil, instead of water when he was drilling,” Katie told her breathlessly then squealed and danced in her seat.
“Holy, shit!” Karlie and Gabe said in unison and Gabe vaulted out of the booth, when Karlie elbowed him in the ribs. Katie slid out of her seat and they all hugged and danced around in a circle. Every head in the cafe turned in their direction, an
d Katie could hear the cook in the kitchen banging pots around, that’s how quiet it had gotten. She pulled out of their group hug and looked around, then slid back in the booth, and Gabe and Karlie did the same, but all of them had ear to ear smiles on their faces.
“So, what do you need to do now?” Gabe asked.
“He said I needed to find a drilling company and an engineer to check it out and see if it’s a vein.”
“Okay, so we should wait to get excited then…because we have to find out exactly what he drilled into?” Karlie settled down and her smile slipped a little.
“Yeah, but don’t burst my bubble…I’m still excited. It’s been a while, since something good has happened to me…well, other than the babies, of course,” she said and deflated a little. Emotion surged up into her throat as she told them, “I miss Tommy and Dixie…”
Karlie covered her hand with her own then said sympathetically, “I know, sugar…it’s a tough situation, but it’ll work out. Have you talked to him?”
“No…I called him last week when I went to the doctor, but he didn’t answer,” Katie replied and reminded herself to try again today before she left town.
“When is your land line going to be hooked up? You really need to get that done, because you’re pregnant and alone out there,” Karlie said firmly.
“They said by the end of the week, but you know how that goes…” she said with a shrug.
Gabe’s face brightened and he said, “Hey, you know what? Chase, the guy who lives next to the lake house is in oil exploration, I think…doesn’t his daddy own a drilling company?”
Excitement flooded Katie again and she smiled. She had forgotten all about Chase Rhodes, and Gabe was right he was in oil drilling. “He sure is…I’m going to call him right now,” she said and pulled her phone out of her backpack, then scrolled through the list, until she found his number, and hit send.
He answered right away and she said, “Chase? This is Katie Upton…do you remember me from the lake house?”
“Of course, I remember you, sugar…you’re unforgettable,” he told her in a low sexy drawl.
She felt blood rush to her face, as she remembered the last time she’d been with him in the cove at the lake. “Um, I have a question for you…”
“I hope it’s can you meet me at the lake, because I’m over the asshole cowboy who hurt me…” he said with a chuckle.
“Not quite…” she laughed nervously, then said, “I think there’s oil on the property I just bought…the contractor was drilling a water well for me and he hit oil instead of water. He told me I need to get it checked out.”
“Wow, sugar…you must be excited…that’s fantastic, congratulations,” he told her in a more professional tone. “So you need someone to look at it then? I have an engineer on staff, so we could probably get out there Friday, if that’s soon enough?” he asked her.
Two days, god, she didn’t know if she could wait, she wanted to know now! But she knew he was probably busy, “Okay, that would be great,” she told him.
“If you give me your address there, I’ll get the engineer to take a look at the maps, and other wells in the area, so we have a better idea of the odds that you have a big enough reservoir there for drilling,” he told her, and she gave him her address.
“Do you own the sub-surface rights to the property? Was that transferred in the sale?” he asked.
“I own all the rights to the property…I made sure of it, before I bought it,” she told him. The title policy had insured all rights were being transferred to her, and the closing agent had made certain, both she and the seller knew that and agreed to it.
“Good, good…okay, I’ll pull the property description, and get the engineer working on it, then we’ll see you on Friday…I look forward to seeing you again, Katie.”
Katie didn’t want to ruin her chances of him helping her, so she didn’t tell him there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell they’d ever get together, because she would forever be in love with her asshole cowboy, instead she told him, “I look forward to seeing you too, and thanks.”
“You’re welcome, sugar…” He said then disconnected and she sat there staring at the phone.
“What did he say?” Karlie asked her anxiously.
“He and the engineer will be out on Friday to take a look. He’s going to check maps and wells, or something, and they’ll have some information then.”
Karlie let out a loud whoop, which had all the diners looking their way again. Katie felt blood rush to her face again and shushed her sister, then said, “I don’t know how I’m gonna be able to sleep until then.”
After they ate lunch and talked a little more, Katie left the diner with her mind spinning and her head in the clouds. As she drove back to the ranch, she rolled down the window of the truck, and let the wind whip her hair around her face, then turned up the radio loud, and sang at the top of her lungs.
By the time Friday came, Katie was a nervous wreck and the anticipation inside of her was verging on painful to tolerate. Trying to distract herself, while she waited for Chase to arrive, she’d cooked herself breakfast, then cleaned up the kitchen, and moved on to scrub every inch of the bunkhouse to within an inch of hospital sanitation standards.
The pine cleaner and other disinfectants she’d used had her head buzzing, and she felt lightheaded. When she finished, she’d realized using all that stuff pregnant, probably wasn’t such a good idea, so she opened the windows to let some fresh air in and dissipate the overwhelming odors.
Katie decided to go outside and get some real fresh air, until Chase and the engineer got there, because the windows weren’t getting rid of the noxious smells fast enough. She stomped her feet into her old boots, and plopped an old straw cowboy hat on her head, then walked outside. Her heart did a happy dance in her chest when she saw a dust cloud coming down the driveway, as she got to the middle of the yard. Shielding her eyes with her hand, she squinted trying to make out the vehicle, hoping it was Chase. She didn’t recognize the newer black truck, so that was a good sign.
When the truck pulled to a stop in front of the barn, under a tree, she started walking over there. Before she got there, the doors opened and a black man in jeans and a polo got out of the passenger side and smiled at her, then reached back inside. When Chase’s blond head appeared over the top of the truck on the other side, she let out a whoop, then picked up her step, almost running over there. He looked over at her and grinned his white, toothpaste commercial, smile, then waved, before he reached back in the truck as well. They met at the back of the truck, and he leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“Hey, sugar,” he said then his blue eyes moved down her body to her toes and back up. When his eyes met hers again he lifted an eyebrow, and asked, “Pregnant?”
“Yep, twins,” she told him with a forced smile, and smoothed the maternity top over her baby bump.
He shook his head then his eyebrows crashed together, and he asked, “Cowboy asshole?”
“None other,” she said with a huffed breath.
“You doing okay?” he put his hand on her shoulder and asked with concern.
“Yeah, I’m doing fine…it’s gonna be tough, but then so am I,” she said with a cocky grin.
“That you are, baby…ok, let’s get to it. The water well guy left the bore open, right?”
“Yeah, he did, it’s over here,” she said and led them around the barn. She stood back and watched while they did their thing, referring to maps and reports they had now and again, and the engineer took some samples, then they walked off for a few minutes and talked, looking seriously involved in whatever they were discussing. Finally, both of them broke out in big grins and then came back over to her.
