Live-In Mom

by Paige, Laurie

  There was speculation in the guard’s gaze. Ty smiled, realizing she must have told the guard she was leaving with him. The tight feeling dissipated.

  Carly went into the ladies’ room. She was back in a few minutes, dressed in jeans and her old sneakers.

  They certainly were full of holes. He’d buy her a dozen pair of new ones when—

  He broke the thought off before it could be completed. He wasn’t thinking of a future with her. A man would be a fool to think a woman like her would stay in a backwater like this forever. She’d probably head back for the big city when she grew tired of the bucolic life.

  Carly listened to the radio on the way to Ty’s house, aware of him following at a safe distance behind her on the gravel back road. She’d worked hard that day and was utterly weary.

  The resort was open from eight in the morning until midnight, but the stores closed earlier. She’d selected an eight-hour workday from ten until six. It was December 3. Opening day was only two weeks away if all went well.

  At Ty’s home, settled in the family room, she told him of her plans. “That will make it easier to protect me, won’t it? I’ll be in early—it’ll hardly be dark—so you won’t have to be running back and forth to the resort.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  The light was blinking on the answering machine. He flicked the button and listened to his messages. One was from Shane. He wanted to see Ty and asked if he’d come over. Before he left, Ty reminded her to stay inside.

  “I will,” she promised.

  He stopped beside her on the way to the back door. “I won’t be gone long. We have to look over a contract.”

  She nodded. He leaned down to give her a kiss. She lifted her mouth to his. He slipped a hand along her cheek and into her hair, pulling her closer.

  “God, you feel good.”

  Her eyes drifted closed as she savored his words. She luxuriated in the soft, urgent kisses he rained upon her face. These were the moments she held fast in her heart to remember when this time was past.

  When he lifted his head, he stared into her eyes. There were questions in his, questions he would have to answer, not her. It reminded her of one of those featured articles in a magazine—”Can This Relationship Work?”

  Neither of them knew the answer. She contemplated the situation after he left but was no nearer a solution when the phone rang sometime later.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Carly, can you meet me at the stable? I have something to tell you.”

  Chills crawled up Carly’s neck at the urgent summons. The caller was Venita. “Can’t you tell me on the phone?”

  “No, I was told not to.”

  “All right,” she said, making a quick decision. “I’ll be there in a minute.” She pulled a dark jacket on and removed a flashlight from the kitchen drawer. She’d use it as a weapon if needed.

  Instead of going the most direct route—out the kitchen door and across the stable yard—she slipped out the front door and through the line of oak trees, across the road and along the paddock fence. She reached the corner of the stable without being accosted by anyone.

  Venita waited in the shadows.

  Carly stepped from behind the corner. “Venita?”

  The girl started and clutched her hands against her chest. “Carly? Is that you?” she whispered.

  “Yes. What’s happening?”

  “I wanted to warn you…there might be trouble here-”

  “When? What kind of trouble?”

  “I don’t know, but you could be in danger. You mustn’t go out alone, and you’re to stay in the house if anything happens.”

  “Who told you this?”

  Venita shook her head. “That’s all I know.”

  “Who passed the warning to you to give to me?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Just… be careful.”

  “When is this trouble supposed to happen?”

  “Soon, I think.” The young cowgirl shivered. “I have to get back to the house. It’s cold out here.” She rushed off.

  Carly watched until the door opened and closed behind Venita, then she made her way back to the main house over the same route she’d taken to leave it.

  When Carly arrived at the house, she saw the light from the kitchen window shining on the driveway. Had she left it on? Or was Ty inside waiting for her?

  He was waiting.

  She’d hardly grasped the doorknob when it was pulled open from inside. She was in the kitchen before she could do more than blink and register the fact that she faced a very angry man.

  “Where the hell have you been?” he demanded, his fingers biting into the flesh of her upper arms.

  “Just out for a short walk. I saw Venita and talked to her, so I wasn’t alone.”

  If possible, he looked angrier.

  “There was no danger,” she quickly added. “I, uh, got some information from her. She thinks something may happen here soon.”

  “Go on,” Ty told her, hardly moving his lips.

  “Yes, well, she says someone told her I might be in danger and that if anything happened, I should stay inside. Ty, I know who the person was that warned her.”

  He ignored her information. A muscle moved in his throat. “I thought you were kidnapped or some damned thing. I was about to call in the FBI.”

  She squirmed under his hand. “You’re hurting my arm.”

  He released his hold on her arm. His chest lifted in a deep breath, but he didn’t say anything else. Wheeling around, he went to the phone and called Shane.

  “He’ll be over in a few minutes,” Ty said, hanging up.

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  Ty poured a cup of coffee and headed for the study without saying another word to her. She prepared her own cup and joined him. He was sitting on the sofa. She sat with him. He draped an arm around her shoulders and held her close.

  The sheriff walked in unannounced twenty minutes later. He, too, poured a cup of coffee before coming to the study. “Let’s hear it,” he said.

  Ty turned to her. “Tell him what Venita told you.”

  She repeated the entire episode, starting with the phone call.

  “I’m glad you were cautious about going out to the stable. I wonder why she was afraid to talk on the phone.”

  “Bugged?” Carly suggested.

  Ty unscrewed the covers on the receiver. “Nothing here,” he reported. “I’ll check all the ranch phones tomorrow.”

  “Do that,” Shane advised. He studied Carly over the rim of his cup while he took a drink.

  “What are you thinking?” Ty demanded.

  She looked from one to the other as the men communicated without words.

  “She might be the thing to draw Hodkin into the open if he’s the one behind the thefts.”

  “No,” Ty stated. He stood as if ready to fight, stance wide, hands formed into fists.

  “How?” she asked. “I’d like to help.”

  “I got a report on him from Montana,” Shane continued as if neither Ty nor she had spoken. “He was suspected of being in on a rash of extortions and robberies, but they had no conclusive proof. The problem stopped once he was out of the area, though.”

  “Ha, he is a crook just as I thought.” Carly flashed Ty a triumphant glance. She turned back to Shane. “But how can I draw him out?”

  “He seems to have taken a dislike to you for some reason.”

  “She bashed him with a rock,” Ty put in. “And she’s not going to get involved. It’s too dangerous.”

  “For you, too,” she reminded him. “You slugged him. He’s the type to carry a grudge to his grave.”

  “Then you can use me as the Judas goat, not her,” Ty informed his brother.

  She and the sheriff looked at him, then each other.

  Shane shook his head. “Actually, I don’t have a plan to use anyone. I was wondering if Hodkin plans to hit the ranch. Having Carly here could be an added attraction for him, a way of laughing i
n your face,” he told Ty.

  “I think you’re right,” she told Shane. “William must be his contact here. I think he’s the one who told Venita to warn me off if there’s trouble.”

  “William?” Shane questioned.

  “The replacement for Hodkin. He’s good with the horses. I was thinking of keeping him full-time. Carly’s right. Venita works with William. He must have told her to stay out of the way, or she overheard him and suspected something, then decided to warn Carly.”

  Shane stood. “I’ll do some checking and call you when I have news. By the way, Jonathan is getting restless. Tending a baby isn’t as much fun as he thought it would be.”

  “I’ll follow you home and bring him back.”

  “I thought I’d drop him off in the morning. He wants to give Carly another riding lesson. I think things will be quiet for the weekend.” The sheriff headed for the door.

  Ty walked with him.

  Carly heard them murmuring in the kitchen for a minute before she heard the door open and close, then the smooth purr of the sheriff’s utility vehicle driving off into the dark.

  When Ty returned to the family room, she turned to him with a happy smile. “This will make the local headlines. We’ll be famous for breaking up the gang.” She stood and flung herself into his arms, too elated to care about the scowl on his face.

  He remained unyielding another moment, then his arms swept around her and he crushed her so close she could hardly breathe.

  “When I returned and you were gone…” He let the words sink into the silence of the house.

  “I’m fine,” she assured him, realizing his anger was a reflection of his concern for her. Her heart leapt around like a gazelle in the confines of her chest. Whether he admitted it or not, he cared for her.

  She tilted her head back. “Kiss me,” she demanded, needing the security of his passion around her at that moment.

  Emotion rippled through his eyes, too fast for her to read, then he lifted her and started toward the steps that led to the bedroom. “I will,” he promised huskily. “I will.”

  Carly spent a wonderful weekend with her two favorite men. The only danger she encountered was losing her seat on the horse she rode and her heart to the Macklin clan. Jonathan showed her how to twirl a lariat, then Ty taught them how to lasso a fence post. She and Jonathan practiced on a calf, but a moving target proved too difficult for them.

  Laughing and teasing, they ate tortillas stuffed with chicken, cheese, beans and rice with Martha and Buck and the other couple, Mary and Chuck, in the ranch kitchen. William was off for the weekend. So was Venita.

  On Sunday, Ty took her and Jonathan to an all-night restaurant at the interstate exchange. They ate hamburgers piled high with onion and mushrooms and melting cheese, spicy french fries that looked like curls, and finished with apple pie for dessert.

  “What’s your schedule this week?” Ty asked, resting his arms along the back of the booth across from her. Jonathan yawned and snuggled against him.

  “I have merchandise to pick up Monday. The carpet will go in then, too. Other stuff will arrive Tuesday. On Wednesday, I’m going to wallpaper a chest to store sweaters in.”

  “Less than two weeks before the opening,” he commented.

  “Yes.”

  “Nervous?”

  “Some.” She met his eyes. “A lot,” she admitted.

  His sympathetic chuckle filled her with happiness. His gaze wandered over her, reminding her of the hours she’d spent in his arms during the night. He had touched her everywhere with his hands and his mouth before stretching his big, graceful body over hers for the final intimacy.

  Warmth seeped through her. Being with him invoked a wonderful sense of well-being in her. In his arms, her world seemed right.

  It came to her that the loneliness that had haunted her most of her life was gone. In its place were a man and his son, both so very dear to her.

  Back at the house, a message waited from Shane. Hodkin had been in another brawl and was in jail. He didn’t think there was any danger to her or Ty at the present.

  “You can stay on here. If you want to,” Ty said while the tape on the answering machine was rewinding.

  “I was wondering if I was still invited.” She shot him a questioning glance. “Maybe I should go?”

  He didn’t return her smile, but simply gazed at her as if thinking of something far removed from them and the moment. “Not yet,” he finally said.

  To leave him and not see him every day was going to hurt. She swallowed against the knot that formed inside and tried to figure out how she had let this happen to her, how cool, levelheaded Carly Lightfoot, who wasn’t going to depend on anyone for anything ever again, had fallen head over heels in love with a man who’d vowed the same.

  Well, she reasoned, a person didn’t let love happen. The heart did its own thing without orders from the brain. Maybe his was as insane as hers.

  Carly wrapped up the decorating of her shop. She was ready to put the merchandise on display. She worked late Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, choosing to stay in the bed-and-breakfast inn those nights due to rain in the valley. It snowed on the mountains. Friday was the first sunshine they’d had all week.

  She felt like kicking up her heels. Things were going as planned in her business. And she was invited to Ty’s house for dinner. Jonathan had called and issued the invitation.

  The boy admired her tremendously. She felt the same about him. He’d decided he was going to have his own business when he grew up and sell stuff just like her.

  Ty had listened with a sardonic gleam in his eyes. “He was going to be a rodeo star for a whole week after the roping lesson,” he’d reminded her.

  “I’m sure he’ll go through several careers by the time he’s old enough to have one.”

  “What did you want to be besides a famous boutique owner?” Ty had asked when he walked her to her car on Monday.

  “Well, my best friend and I decided we were going to be rich, famous, have husbands who adored us, raise perfect children and live next door to each other.” She smiled. “We actually will live in adjoining apartments when one becomes vacant next month.”

  “So one plan came true, and you’re on your way to the rich-and-famous part.”

  She wrinkled her nose as she walked to her car. He’d been strangely distant last weekend, even when he’d held her. He seemed to have a lot on his mind, none of which he was sharing with her.

  Well, he had his own life. She wouldn’t pry.

  At the inn, she changed to navy slacks and a white long-sleeved sweater that could be worn on or off the shoulders due to a drawstring in the neckline. After slipping into boots, she grabbed a warm parka and headed out again.

  She did some shopping for toiletries, returned, then read until it was time to go to Ty’s for the evening. He hadn’t said anything about her staying the weekend. Her pride wouldn’t let her ask. But she tucked an overnight bag in the trunk just in case.

  At six, she went out to her car and drove the few miles from the inn to the ranch along the county road that ran nearly parallel to the interstate highway. It was a pleasant drive past ranches and orchards.

  People here called anything over an acre a ranch, she’d learned. Thus, there were chicken ranches, cattle ranches and just plain ranches where the ranchers grew pears and pistachios instead of livestock.

  For someone whose family had been there since pioneer days, Ty was remarkably free of conceit about it. He was a complicated person, but not arrogant. She liked that about him.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of sirens on the interstate. When she arrived at the Stop sign where the exit was, she watched two county sheriff’s cars take the road she wanted. She followed them.

  When they pulled into the Macklin driveway, fear squeezed the air from her lungs. She turned in and drove directly to Ty’s house. A deputy sheriff stopped her when she would have gone in.

  “Sorry, miss, but you can’
t go in.”

  “I’m expected.”

  He shook his head. “My orders are no one gets in.”

  “What’s happened? Is Ty… is someone hurt?”

  The young policeman hesitated, then leaned near her. “It’s the boy. Someone snatched him—”

  “Jonathan? Kidnapped?” She pressed a hand to her heart as the horror of it hit her. “When? How?”

  He shrugged. “We don’t know. The bus let him off at the end of the drive after school. He started walking home according to the driver, but the kid disappeared before he got to the house.”

  “You’ve checked with the others on the ranch, with Martha and Mary? He’s not at their houses?”

  “No. Ty finished a call and walked down to meet his son as he usually does. He went all the way to the end of the road, but there was no sign of the boy.”

  “I’ve got to see Ty.”

  “Sorry, I can’t-”

  “You don’t understand. Jonathan invited me to dinner tonight. He was going to cook. I’m going in.”

  She gave the young officer a stern frown and sailed past him to the kitchen door. She walked in without knocking.

  Shane was on the phone. Tina was sitting in a kitchen chair nursing the baby. Ty stood with his hands gripping the back of another chair. He could have been a statue, he stood so still.

  “Ty,” she murmured, her heart bleeding for him. She ignored Shane’s warning glance and went to Ty.

  He didn’t move.

  She paused, uncertain what to do. Lifting a trembling hand, she touched his arm, wanting desperately to comfort him. “Have you heard anything?” she asked softly.

  He looked at her then, and she was struck by the fury in the ravaged gaze he turned on her.

  “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “I told the cops not to let anybody in.”

  She dropped her hand from him and stepped back. “I told the man outside I was expected.” Her words sounded flimsy, an excuse to barge in on a family that was suffering.