by Sara Orwig
When Cole left, Luke packed up his things to go back to Royal. He had three interviews already set up to hire a man to run the ranch. He also had two interviews to hire a contractor to build another ranch house. As soon as he reached Royal, he bought a black sports car and had it delivered to his hotel.
That night back in Royal, over a solitary dinner in his hotel room, for a moment he was lost in a vivid memory of holding Scarlett in his arms and kissing her. She had kissed him back, a fiery kiss that was a challenge and an invitation at the same time. He wanted her in his arms again. He shouldn’t kiss her or even see her again, but he couldn’t shake her out of his thoughts. Why did it seem so damn good to be with her?
He wanted to call her, ask her out, go have a fun evening, bring her back to his hotel and make love all night long. That was a dream and about as likely to happen as Rich Lowell appearing in Royal and surrendering to the police for his misdeeds.
Scarlett was probably back to not speaking to him and would tell him again to get off the McKittrick ranch. Luke blew out an exasperated breath. He needed to put Scarlett out of his thoughts, get done what he came to do and go home to California where he really fit in better. With his family, his genes, he would never be the man for Scarlett. Why was it so impossible to forget her?
* * *
He woke shortly before 6:00 a.m. the following morning. His phone was buzzing. He picked up and heard Will.
“We need a clandestine emergency meeting at my ranch today. Can you get out here by eleven?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Thanks. I want you here so I can fill you in on what’s going on. We have to keep this meeting quiet, so don’t breathe a word of it to anyone, okay?”
“Will do, and I’ll see you.” Putting aside his phone, Luke stretched and sat up. He’d slept in because he usually was up by 5:00 a.m., maybe a carryover from living on a ranch a lot of his life and getting up early. His schedule was blown to hell anyway after staying up all night at the Double U.
He wondered what had happened to cause Will to call a meeting. Well, he would know soon enough, he supposed. He also wondered how the animals were doing. He needed to get out to the Double U. He had talked several times to the man in charge of the crew of cowboys who were working on the ranch temporarily. Also, he had a contractor with a crew that would start work today. They would demolish the house he had grown up in, and he had seen this done before to homes in Silicon Valley. The house and any trace of it would be gone in hours. He’d have a vacant lot.
Did he want to rebuild in the same spot? He thought about the big trees on the property. There was a live oak that he suspected was well over one hundred years old. He thought it would be best to just rebuild where the original house had stood.
He wasn’t in a hurry, but the sooner he could get good people hired, the sooner he could let go and let someone else take charge of the Double U and get back to the home he loved in Silicon Valley.
Once again his thoughts drifted back to Scarlett. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate on other things, she was always first and foremost in his mind. A grin spread across his face. He would drive out and check on the livestock, and if he had any sick animals he was calling her. First, because he wanted to see her. Second, she was a miracle worker where his livestock were concerned.
She’d always had a way with animals and had never been afraid of any of them. He remembered seeing her as a kid walk up to a snarling, growling, injured dog that was in pain and had its teeth bared. Smiling, he remembered how he kept telling her to get back, but she just went ahead and knelt by the dog, speaking softly, holding out her hand with a treat. She started singing, and the dog stopped growling and looked at the treat and took it. When he did, Scarlett gave him a shot so fast that Luke could barely believe his eyes. In seconds, the dog calmed, and she picked it up, put it in a carrier and off she went.
Later, he asked where she got the painkiller and when she learned how to give animals shots. She gave him one of her smug looks and said that she was studying to be a veterinarian and she had learned how and where to give a dog a shot for pain. Scarlett worked one day a week when she was fifteen for the local vet, and she obviously was a quick learner.
Still smiling over the memory, Luke shook his head, thoughts of her still prevalent in his mind as he carried on with his morning routine.
At 11:00 on the dot, he drove up to Will’s house at the Ace in the Hole Ranch, one of the finest spreads in Texas—which made Luke think about the ruin his father had brought to the Double U.
Other cars were parked in the drive, and he wondered how many knew the truth about what was happening. A butler showed Luke where everyone was gathering. With a firm handshake and friendly green eyes, Will welcomed Luke.
“It’s good that you’re here, buddy. I talked to Cole, and he’s here, as well. He thinks this money trail is going to really help.”
“I hope so. As I said before, I’ll do my best.”
Will gave him a crooked smile as he shook his head. “Thanks. I can’t ask for better than that.”
“I hope this meeting helps shed some more light on the case.”
“Yeah, me, too. Thanks for coming on such short notice.”
“No problem. I’ll go say hello to the others.”
“Sounds good. We’ll start in just a minute.”
It was easy to spot Aaron Phillips’s dark hair and broad shoulders on the other side of the room, so Luke began to head that way, saying hello to others as he went. Toby McKittrick was present, standing across the room, and if looks could kill, Luke was certain he’d be a dead man. He nodded at Scarlett’s big brother, seeing ice in Toby’s aqua eyes before Toby turned away.
Luke couldn’t be angry with Toby for being rude because Toby was protective of his family. Luke would always be sorry for hurting Scarlett but the alternative—if he had proposed to her when she was sixteen—would probably have brought Toby after him with a shotgun and dire warnings to get out of her life. Luke couldn’t regret not getting engaged to Scarlett back then. He hadn’t been ready for marriage at eighteen, and he didn’t think Scarlett was at sixteen, even though she thought she was.
He moved around the room, greeting friends from his high school days and earlier. Nearly all the men in the room were members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, and Nathan Battle was among those present.
“Nathan, thanks again. If I’d lost the ranch at an auction, that would have been a horrible blow.”
“Forget it. You own the Double U now, and it’s in your name, so that takes care of losing the ranch. Good luck with the restoration. If anybody can get it done, you can.”
“Thanks.” Luke smiled and moved on to greet Aaron, Jason’s brother.
“I’m sorry your brother is missing, Aaron.”
“Thanks, Luke,” he said, turning worry-filled eyes on Luke. “That’s why this meeting has been called. They’ve turned up some new information. You’ll hear about it in just a minute. I guess the only good news here is now we know a little more and we have an answer.”
“I’ve come home to all kinds of problems, my own with my dad and all this with Will walking into his own funeral.”
“Yeah. Welcome home,” Aaron remarked drily. “I’m sorry about your dad being sick.”
“Thanks. We won’t start on what all my dad has done. Take care, Aaron.”
He moved on to greet Rand Gibson, second in command to Will at Spark Energy Solutions, an oil, gas and solar energy company that Luke knew had been extremely successful.
“Congratulations on making Forbes’s list,” Rand said, shaking hands with Luke.
“Thanks. I’m doing what I love, and I suppose you are, too.”
Before Rand could answer, Will spoke above the sounds of everyone talking. “I think we better call this meeting to order. Thank you for coming on such short notice.
&
nbsp; “I’d like to get this meeting started because it was called suddenly and I know I’ve interrupted plans and schedules. It won’t take long,” Will said. “Well, for starters, Cole Sullivan, the PI I hired, has discovered that Jason has actually been kidnapped and may be in grave danger. He encourages anyone with information regarding the case to step forward so they can work to bring Jason home.” He looked around the room. “If there is anyone here who has information, please talk to the police or Nathan. Even if it seems insignificant, if you know something about Rich or Jason, please let the authorities know.”
Nathan waved his hand. “Right now, all we can do is hope and pray that Jason is still alive out there,” he added.
Luke thought of the urn of ashes at Will’s fake funeral. It was beginning to look as if those ashes might belong to Jason.
How could Rich Lowell, who had grown up with all the men in the room, betray those friendships in such a terrible way? No one could answer that question.
* * *
When the meeting adjourned, Luke left to go to the Double U ranch to meet with Abe Ellingson, his new builder, and Reuben Lindner, the man he had hired to run the ranch, so the three of them could go over what needed to be done and what Luke wanted.
He spent the next three hours talking to the builder about the house and the outbuildings. Reuben left to go back to Royal to set up interviews to hire cowboys to work at the Double U.
When his meeting with the builder was finished, Luke fed and checked the livestock. In less than an hour he found a sick calf. He knew it was a case for Scarlett, so he sent her a text. Luke felt an uncustomary sense of loss, albeit a feeling he’d had several times since returning to Texas. How could his father let everything go to hell like this—starving animals, a rising debt—all to drink himself senseless? Luke thought of Scarlett. If he was the last man on earth, he didn’t deserve her and shouldn’t get entangled in her life. Suppose he turned out like his father someday?
When Luke got no text answer and couldn’t get Scarlett by phone, he climbed into his pickup to drive to the McKittrick ranch. As he approached the house, he spotted two women rocking on the porch. When he stepped out of his pickup and headed toward the house, the dogs came running, so he paused to pet some of them and let them calm down. The dogs followed as he walked toward the porch. His gaze flitted over Mrs. McKittrick and then swept more slowly over Scarlett, and he was startled by what he saw. Seated in a rocker facing her mother, Scarlett held a baby in her arms.
Waving to him, Joyce McKittrick went inside the house. He climbed the steps and walked to Scarlett, his pulse beating faster. Why did she always look so good to him? Dressed in a red T-shirt that fit her gorgeous curves and snug jeans, Scarlett rocked the little baby.
Knowing nothing about babies, Luke looked at a little boy with thick, curly black hair, big, long-lashed, soulful brown eyes and beautiful, golden-brown skin. Luke gave the bigger dogs a cursory pat and walked up to Scarlett. “Are you babysitting?” He’d heard Toby and Naomi had a little girl, so it wasn’t her niece.
As she gave him a level look, Scarlett raised her chin. “No, I’m not babysitting. This is my baby boy, Carl.”
Flabbergasted, Luke looked at the infant again. “He’s yours?”
“He’s my adopted baby. I can’t have children of my own, Luke.”
Stunned, he looked at the baby and then at her. Why hadn’t someone mentioned Scarlett’s baby when he’d been told that she had been engaged until the guy walked out on her?
“Why a baby, Scarlett?” he blurted, still staring at the little guy.
“I thought I was going to get married and we wanted a baby, so we started adoption proceedings. It takes time to adopt a baby, just as it takes time to have a baby. Tanner walked out and the marriage was off, but then Carl came up for adoption shortly after he left. I think Tanner went to Chicago. I lost track of him.” She tenderly stroked her baby boy’s head. “It just seemed like it was meant to be. The agency approved the adoption, I went through the legal process and I’m now a single mom.”
He heard the note of challenge in her voice and stopped staring at the baby to look at Scarlett. “Congratulations seems inadequate. That fits you, Scarlett. You collect animals to care for. Why not a baby?” he remarked, his surprise diminishing fast after her explanation. It was so like Scarlett to adopt a baby if she could. She was a caregiver deluxe, and it spilled over in all aspects of her life.
“Why are you here, Luke?” she asked, a cold note in her tone.
“Oh, damn, I forgot. I’ve got a really sick calf and I can’t help him—”
Instantly, Scarlett stood and handed the baby to Luke. “I’ll get my things. Hold Carl for a minute,” she said. “Watch him until I get back.”
Luke couldn’t recall holding a baby in his life. “Scarlett, I can’t—”
“Sure, you can. He doesn’t bite. He only has one tooth,” she flung over her shoulder as she disappeared through the door, and he was certain she was laughing.
He blinked and looked down at the little baby she had thrust into his arms. He was holding Carl underneath each arm. Realizing that wasn’t any way to hold a baby, Luke sat and put the little boy in his lap.
“Hi, Carl,” he said, smiling, his heart pounding with fear that he would frighten the little fellow. “Dammit, Scarlett—whoops, sorry, Carl. Thank goodness, you’re too little to repeat words. Your mama would be unhappy with me. I’m glad I don’t scare you.” He smiled at Carl again, and when the baby smiled back at him, a dimple showing in his cheek. Luke felt as if his heart melted.
“Hey, Carl, you’re a cute kid,” he praised, suddenly feeling at ease with the little guy. “You’re not screaming or crying or making angry faces. You must not even care that I don’t know zip about babies.”
Carl giggled and Luke laughed, making Carl giggle again. Scarlett stepped back outside.
“Well, look at you, Mister Doesn’t-Know-Anything-About-Babies. You’ve got him giggling and laughing and happy as all-get-out.”
“He doesn’t know he’s with a terrified man who has never held a baby before.”
“Then it is time you did, and Carl is a good one to practice with. You’re doing fine. You get an A for amazingly okay.” She smiled at him, and, as he smiled in return, Luke’s heart thudded.
He remembered the fun moments with Scarlett when they dated in high school, the laughter that came so easily. He felt an ache in his gut. This moment, laughing with Scarlett, holding her baby on his lap, felt so right—which was ridiculous. He was not interested in babies, families, getting tied down, and it could never work with Scarlett. Even if he wanted it, she didn’t. She was barely civil to him unless it involved animals and now her baby, Carl.
“I always figure babies and animals sense when someone is afraid of them or doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t seem to care.”
“He likes you,” she said, laughing again. “You’re good daddy material, Luke. Who would’ve guessed?”
“Scarlett,” he snarled, teasing her because she was teasing him. “I’m not daddy material in any way, shape or form. Forget that.”
She leaned closer, batting her eyes at him, teasing and flirting with him as her voice thickened, “I’m not about to forget that very appealing aspect of your personality.”
He drew a deep breath. “Scarlett, you’re just asking for trouble.”
Laughing, she took Carl from him and stepped away.”
“Let me give Carl to Mom, and then we can head out. I can drive and you won’t—”
“Forget it. I’m here. I’ll take you to the ranch and bring you back.”
She nodded and left to hand Carl off to her mother. Once again, he remembered old times with her, fun times when she was carefree, flirty and oh, so sexy. He wiped his brow. She had too easily fanned flames between them.
He was still amazed that Scarlett h
ad a baby. He was a cute kid and a happy little baby, which made life easier. It had actually been a fun few minutes, and that surprised him. He couldn’t recall holding a baby, and he wouldn’t have thought he could keep one happy five seconds.
In minutes, Scarlett reappeared. “Ready to go?”
“Sure am. And thank you, Scarlett. You’re coming to my rescue again. I really need you this time, too. This little calf is so dang sick. I don’t know whether it’ll be alive when we get there, but I had to try,” he said.
“I’ll do everything I can to help him, Luke. I promise you that.”
“I never doubted that for a moment.” He smiled at her. “Scarlett, pick out two of the reliable big mutts that we can take with us for watchdogs tonight. Unless you have to be back here for your baby, I have a feeling you may be sitting up all night. You and I will be on the ranch alone, and Milt Dawson, the man in charge of the cowboys, said last night there were vandals who just messed stuff up. He’s bringing lights and part of the crew will start staying at night after tonight. If you’re scared, I’ll bring you home, but he said it’s only vandalism, so it’s probably kids. Nothing big. I can run anyone off.”
“I don’t doubt that and I’m not scared. I may be up with the calf.”
“If we can, I want to sleep in peace and not have to keep one eye open for someone sneaking up. Do you have two big dogs we can take with us?”
“Oh, my, yes.”
She whistled and more than a dozen came on the run. She picked out four and got them in the back of the pickup with minimal effort. “We’re ready. It was that easy, and you can trust that you have four watchdogs.”
He laughed. “You could be an animal trainer, too. Very talented woman.”
“I just know them, and they know me. They’re smart and they do what I want.”
“I would, too, if you’d scratch my belly and pet me,” he said, leering at her, and she had to laugh.
