The Cattleman's Proposal (The Men of Mulhany Crossing Book 1)

by Helen Lacey

  She took a deep breath. What she needed was someone to talk to. Not Patrick. Not Ella. Joley left the stables, trudged towards the round yard and found Mike long reining a three-year old filly.

  “I need to borrow your truck,” she told him and waited for Mike to dig the keys from his pocket. “If anyone asks where I am, say I’ve gone to see a friend.”

  Two minutes later, she drove the truck from the yard, dust spinning in her wake.

  Lynette was exactly what Joley needed. A friend. And some sympathetic and caring advice. The second cup of herbal tea helped soothe her fractured nerves and the impulse she had to keep bursting into tears.

  “Are you really leaving?” Lynette asked once they were sitting again at the big kitchen table. “Or were you testing the waters?”

  “Manipulating him, you mean?” Joley sucked in a breath. “I don’t think so. I meant it at the time.”

  “And now?”

  Another breath, deeper and filled with raw emotion expanded her lungs. “Leaving Nate and leaving Gwendonna would break my heart. But he doesn’t love me and he never will.”

  Lynette’s brows came up. “Are you so sure? Look, I know Nate. I know he can be…let’s say stubborn about some things. But underneath that obstinate front is a reasonable man. Alyson ripped his heart out, no doubt about it, but I’ve never seen him as content as he seemed with you.”

  “Great sex and common interests.”

  “What?” Lynette frowned.

  “That’s what we have. That’s all we have.” It hurt to say the words, hurt to know they would never have more than that. In fairness, he’d always made it clear what he wanted. He hadn’t lied. “The sex is fabulous and for the moment it’s holding his attention,” she said bluntly. “But what if that fades? What are we left with? He didn’t want to fall in love with me. And he didn’t want me to love him. I knew what I was getting into when I came here. And initially all I wanted was my business back.”

  “And now?”

  Joley shook her head. “I don’t want to settle. Sure, I want passion and compatibility, but I also want love. The kind of love you read about. The kind that lasts.” She sighed and looked gently towards the other woman. “Like you and Marshall have.”

  Lynette watched her over her cup. “Oh, we’ve had our problems. There’s no such thing as the perfect relationship.”

  “You just get what you get, you mean?”

  “Something like that.” Lynette said. “Falling in love is the easy part. Marriage is hard work.”

  Joley wasn’t sure she’d ever find out. But she wanted to know. She wanted to get married, have children and live a full life. She wanted to marry Nate. And the idea of having his baby filled her with an ache so deep, so all consuming she could barely catch her breath.

  “I thought I knew what I wanted. I thought I knew who I was. Turns out I don’t. Turns out I’m in love with a man who doesn’t believe in love.” She sighed painfully and then smiled at her friend. “Thanks for the talk.”

  “Anytime,” Lynette said and smiled. “Don’t give up on him, Joley. Talk to him. He’ll meet you half-way—I’m sure of it.”

  Joley wished she had her new friend’s confidence. When she finally returned to Gwendonna it was past three o’clock. The place seemed unusually quiet and she noticed Nate’s truck was missing. So he’d gone out. No biggie. It would give her time to pack her things. She expected to find Mike and Justin in the stables preparing the afternoon feeds, but instead the feeds were half-prepared and neither Mike nor his nephew was around. She dropped the truck keys on a hook near the door and walked out.

  Outside, Joley noticed Stick’s truck was also absent. No Mike, no Justin, no Sticks, and specifically no Nate. Something didn’t feel right. Back at the house a minute later, Joley came through the mudroom. She was walking up the hallway when Ella’s voice caught her attention.

  “There you are,” said her mother in a clipped voice. “I’ve been calling your phone.”

  “It’s been switched off. I was visiting a friend.”

  “It would have been nice of you to say so before you left. I’ve been worried about you.”

  Joley felt bad and touched her mother’s arm. “Sorry,” she said and tried to smile. “Where is everyone?”

  “Beverly and Gabby are in the front living room, imagining the worst.”

  Joley stiffened. “What do you mean?”

  Ella tutted. “Well, if you’d had your phone switched on you’d already know. Sometimes you are so—”

  “What do you mean?” she demanded, gripping her mother’s arm tighter. “What’s going on?”

  “Patrick and Nate are missing.”

  Joley’s breath stilled. “Missing?”

  “They left four hours ago. Gabby’s been trying to contact both of them for the last two hours.”

  Her heart, her breath, her very skin all stilled. “I don’t understand…where are they?”

  “That’s just it,” Ella replied. “We don’t know. They left around ten this morning. Patrick wanted to see the property and Nate agreed to go with him. They asked me along, of course, but I wasn’t up to a sightseeing trip.”

  “Patrick’s flying?” Joley asked, putting the pieces together and before Ella could respond she raced up the hallway and into the living room.

  Gabby’s face was white as a sheet and she rushed towards Joley. “I know something is wrong,” she breathed and took Joley’s hands. “Mike and Sticks have gone out to the hanger, but they aren’t there. Mike just called me. We hoped you might know something.”

  Joley switched glances from Gabby to Beverly. “No. I’ve been visiting a neighbor. Tell me, when you last had contact with them?”

  “Patrick called me a couple of hours ago and said they were on their way back,” Gabby told her. “We’ve been expecting them ever since. Neither phones work now.”

  “And the cockpit radio?”

  “Nothing. I’ve called the local airport and asked them to try and make contact, but it’s as though they’ve simply disappeared.”

  Joley’s heart jumped inside her chest. “Well, they can’t have,” she assured the other woman as she starting mentally ticking off her action plan. She needed to get to her Jabiru and start looking. “I’ll contact you every half hour unless cell reception fails. Otherwise I’ll contact the airport tower. If I don’t spot them within the next two hours I’ll organize a search and rescue. Stay close to the phone.”

  “What are you going to do?” Beverly asked, her face ashen.

  “I’m going to find them,” Joley said and headed for the door.

  ***

  Nate had to admire Patrick Cohen’s piloting skills. Without them, he was pretty sure they’d both be dead by now. Once the Cessna had starting having engine trouble, Patrick had scoured the area for a suitable emergency landing area. He’d allowed the other man to do his thing and buckled up. Minutes later, they were on the ground amid a trail of aircraft debris as the aircraft’s wing hit some trees and buckled against the force, breaking off and flipping the plane five times. But thankfully, they were very much alive. Nate had dragged Patrick from what remained of the cockpit and settled him close beside a rocky outcrop, which at least offered some shade from the glaring afternoon sun.

  The other man had cuts, bruises and a busted leg. He was in pain, but he held it together. Nate couldn’t believe he’d escaped with only minor injuries. Once he had Patrick’s leg placed comfortably and covered in the emergency blanket, he rifled through the battered and mangled cockpit to search for a phone that might work. He found his own but had no reception. The radio hadn’t fared well and wouldn’t be of any use either. He jumped up onto a rock ledge and held the phone high to encourage service but got nothing.

  Help, he figured, would come. So they needed to sit it out. They’d travelled close to the perimeter of Gwendonna, he figured and wouldn’t be difficult to track.

  “You don’t like me much, do you?”

  Nate snapped
his attention around. Patrick had dozed off for half an hour or so and Nate had been alone with his thoughts. Thoughts—all about Joley. Looking potential death in the face as they had come in to land. When the aircraft had fallen apart, the only thing Nate could think about was the possibility of never seeing her again. And of her never knowing how he felt.

  He looked towards Cohen. “Not particularly.”

  Patrick winced. “Mutual,” he said and took a deep breath. “I suppose it’s because of Joley?”

  Nate glared at him. “I’m not going to have this discussion.”

  “I was out of line last night,” Patrick said and half shrugged. “I just don’t want to see her get hurt. It almost broke her last time and I had to pick up the pieces.”

  “She loves you,” Nate said and regretted it immediately.

  Patrick’s brows shot up and he grimaced in pain. “I love her too. But not in the way you might think. If you weren’t such an arrogant S.O.B you’d figure that out for yourself.”

  Then Cohen passed out cold

  Nate quickly checked him out, figured he’d been knocked unconscious with pain and pulled the blanket up higher. He wasn’t much of a nurse and did what he could to make the other man comfortable. And then waited. He knew enough about search and rescue operations to realize the sensible course was to stay put as long as it was safe. They had water and enough blankets to keep warm if they weren’t discovered until morning. Nate heard the distant bellow of cattle. Based on the rock formation and the landscape, he drew a rough map of where they were on some paper he found in the cockpit.

  It was close to an hour later when he heard the faint sound of a small aircraft. He got up from his spot by the rocks, quickly stretched his back and dusted off his jeans. Nate looked up and squinted. His sunglasses had flipped off in the crash and as he looked directly skywards, he squinted against the glare. But then he saw it. A small airplane flew from the east. It was little more than a dot in the sky, obscured by the clouds and glare of the sun. But it was enough for him to realize they were being rescued.

  As the aircraft got closer a strange sensation uncurled in his stomach. An acute feeling of recognition. Because he knew it was Joley. He was sure of it. Nate squinted again and refocused. The aircraft moved in a smooth arc, coming around once, then again, slicing through the sky. He watched, riveted as she maneuvered the Jabiru around and tilted the craft when it was obvious she’d worked out where to land.

  Nate remained where he was and watched as the airplane dipped and dropped. God, she was incredible. His admiration spiked. She landed within minutes, pulling back the speed as the wheels raced over the bumpy ground. Finally, she turned the craft around and killed the engines.

  He couldn’t move. She’d come to rescue them and he couldn’t help wondering just who she had come for. Patrick woke up and realized they had company.

  The hatch opened and then Nate saw her. She took the steps quickly and started running. Fast. And as she ran, Nate thought only one thing.

  Which one of them was she running to?

  When Joley saw the trail of wreckage, she experienced a pain so intense the breath in her lungs came out as a sharp, strangled gasp. It looked like a disaster. Her first thoughts were how they could have survived such a crash. If they hadn’t, how would she cope? What would she do?

  God no…please let them be alright.

  She hoped, she prayed that Nate and Patrick were safe.

  Imagining life without…without Nate…was the worst kind of pain she’d ever experienced. Thinking of him injured, or worse, was like an arrow through her heart. She loved him so much. He didn’t love her. Didn’t want her. But he had to be safe. He just had to be.

  Finding a landing spot had been easier than she’d thought and once she’d marked out an area, she had taken the Jabiru down. She’d never killed engines or unbuckled herself so quickly. She was out of the airplane in seconds.

  And she ran…and ran…and ran.

  Straight into the arms of the man she loved.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Patrick’s broken leg was the worst of his injuries and it was late into the night by the time he’d been transported from Gwendonna to the small hospital in Mulhany Crossing. The whole family piled into Nate’s truck which Joley drove, following the ambulance. Nate was in the ambulance too, under protest. Once Joley had informed the paramedics he’d taken a serious crack on the head a week before, they weren’t going to take the chance he might have a recurrence of concussion.

  They headed for the emergency department and Gabby was allowed through to triage to be with Patrick. Joley hung back while Ella and Beverly sat in the padded vinyl chairs with their legs tucked beneath their knees.

  It had been a long and arduous day. One Joley didn’t ever want to repeat.

  The flight back from the wreck to Gwendonna had been quiet. Nate had gotten Patrick into the Jabiru, hauling him over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift while Joley supported his busted leg. Once he was comfortable, she took off and they’d met Mike and Sticks at the hanger twenty minutes later. Patrick dozed in and out of consciousness but managed to explain the unexpected engine failure and forced landing.

  An hour in the waiting room quickly turned into two and when Joley couldn’t stand being excluded any longer she stomped to the reception desk and asked to be allowed into triage. The nurse took pity on her and discreetly buzzed her through.

  For a small hospital, it was a hive of activity. There were ten triage beds and she’d walked past three when she heard Gabby’s voice mid way through a sentence. Joley stilled a few feet from the curtain and discreetly slid into the empty triage cubicle next door

  “—and Patrick shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Nate’s response sent a shudder through her. “But he did. What’s done is done.”

  “Nothing is ever that black and white, Nate. She’s—”

  “I’m not going to talk about my relationship with Joley. It’s not important. There’s nothing to discuss.”

  Not important? Nothing? Is that what he thought? They were nothing? Her heart cracked open.

  “I don’t believe you,” Gabby said quietly.

  “Believe what you like. Nothing means nothing, got it? Just leave it alone. I’d better get back to my bed before the nurse returns.”

  Joley heard him walk away. Only when he disappeared into another cubicle further down did she let out a breath. After a moment she pushed herself out from behind the curtain and came across Gabby slumped in a chair in an otherwise empty cubicle.

  She looked up when she spotted Joley. “They’ve taken Patrick to X-ray,” she explained. “He’ll need surgery on his leg. Looks like it’s broken in two places. And he’s got a couple of fractured ribs. He’ll be out of action for a while.”

  There were tears in Gabby’s eyes and Joley offered comfort. “He’s strong. He’ll be fine. A few broken bones won’t hold him back, believe me.”

  Gabby nodded. “Yes. And thank you. The thought of what might have happened if you hadn’t found them. And the accident could have been so much worse,” she shuddered as she spoke. “I couldn’t imagine losing my husband and my brother at the same time.”

  Joley felt a stab of guilt. She hadn’t given much thought to anyone else’s feelings. Hearing Gabby talk about both men, knowing how important they were to her, caused shame to snap at her heels. “You should probably get some rest,” she suggested when she registered the younger woman’s pallor. “There’s a motel down the road. I can arrange for you and your mother to book in there tonight.”

  Gabby nodded, clearly emotional. “My brother is really lucky to have you.”

  Joley’s throat closed over. She wished he did have her. She’d hoped he did. But her hopes had dwindled and now lay crashed around her feet. They were nothing.

  She smiled, excused herself and kept walking through triage. When she found Nate sitting on the edge of a bed, his shirt pulled from his jeans and undone, the breath sucked from h
er throat. He had a dark purplish bruise across his ribcage and another down low on his belly.

  He looked up when she curved around the curtain. “Hi,” she managed to say. “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine,” he replied. “They’re wasting a bed in here.”

  She took a step into the cubicle and felt the heat between them immediately. “The doctors probably just want to be sure. That’s a nasty looking bruise.”

  Nate stretched backwards and his chest expanded. His skin was so tempting and her fingertips tingled when she imagined reaching out to touch him. Since she’d fallen into his arms at the crash site there had been a heavy tension between them. Of course she’d pulled back when she realized Patrick had been hurt. But for those precious seconds, when she asked over and over if he were okay, it had been as though there was no one else on earth. Afterwards, once they had Patrick in the Jabiru and were on their way back to Gwendonna, only a few words had been said.

  “I’ll live,” Nate told her.

  “Patrick’s having tests. And then he’s off to surgery. Are they going to release you tonight?”

  He shook his head. “No. I’m under twelve hour observation. I’ll pull out in the morning.”

  “Is there anything I can get you?” A touch, a kiss…whatever you want. “Some fresh clothes?”

  “Rachel and Mike are coming in the morning; she’ll bring whatever I need.”

  He doesn’t need me. I’m not important. Silence stretched between them like brittle elastic. We’re nothing. “Well, I should probably head back to Gwendonna. Ella is exhausted.”

  Nate pushed his shirt together and straightened. “And are you leaving tomorrow?”

  She shrugged, breaking inside. “I need to take my mother home. Beverly is staying on with Gabby. I’ll fly Ella out tomorrow morning.”

  “And are you coming back?”

  Joley’s lungs shuddered. “The business,” she said in a vague, almost faraway voice. “With Patrick out for goodness knows how long…I need to sort some things out. I need to cancel flights and tuition and look at hiring another contract pilot to pick up the slack. I can’t do that from here.”