The Ranch Stud

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Max smiled warmly at them both from the screen.

  “Either way, you two will be stuck together forever and ever, living and working side by side as long as you remain on this ranch. So you might as well make the best of it. Meantime, I’ll see you at the wedding forty-eight hours from now.” He lifted a cautioning hand. “Meantime, although the two of you are free to roam wherever you want or need to go, I expect the two of you to stay together under the same roof twenty-four hours a day, with no more than three thirty-minute separations. You break the rules and the deal is off. I don’t imagine you will like that much, either.”

  “No more than I like anything else,” Patience muttered.

  “You can second me on that sentiment, too,” Josh added grimly.

  “But I want you two young’uns to listen up and listen good anyway,” Max continued, as if lecturing a wayward child. “When you go to a dance, the proper thing to do is to dance with the one that brung you. That applies here, too. So no more mooning over your lost love, Alec Vaughn, Patience McKendrick. ‘Cause you know now for certain what I think we have all long sensed, that he’s never coming back to you. And, Josh, no more moving on every time a new wind blows. It’s way past time you both made a fresh and lasting start for yourselves.”

  “As if it were just that easy,” Patience said, perturbed.

  “It might be,” Josh replied with an unnervingly pensive look in her direction, “given that the time and the woman and the moment were right. Which is not to say that this is the case here and now,” he added sarcastically.

  “Amen to that,” Patience shot right back.

  Oblivious to the tension in the room, which was so thick it could have been cut with a knife, Max continued on-screen, “I know you both probably have a ton of questions. Cisco Kidd can answer a lot of them, especially the ones that pertain to the terms of the will and the triple wedding I set up for all three of my heirs. As for the rest, I’d advise you to just listen to your hearts. ‘Cause if you do, I guarantee you’ll know what to do.”

  Max tipped his hat at them. “Happy trails. Remember I love you,” he said huskily, “and know I’ll always be thinking of you.”

  At the sentiment in her uncle’s low voice, Patience’s heart ached and her eyes flooded with tears. Uncle Max’s picture faded to an endless vista of blue Montana sky, then to black.

  JOSH GOT UP to turn off the television and videotape machine. “I knew your uncle was eccentric, but—”

  “It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it,” Patience admitted with a weary shake of her head. First losing Max, then all hope of ever seeing Alec Vaughn again.

  He edged closer. “Who is this Alec Vaughn, anyway?”

  Patience shook her head. This was the umpteenth time Alec’s name had come up today, which was, undoubtedly, why she had thought she had seen Alec in Josh, when the reality was that no two men could have been more different. Alec was gone forever, she knew that now; Josh was still here. Alec had been sweet, blond, with an incredibly sensitive and poetic soul. Josh—though drop-dead gorgeous in his own way—was brawny and rough-hewn to a fault. Alec had been classically handsome, his nose arrow straight. Josh’s face was scarred, his nose broken, at least once if she had to guess. Alec had been thin and tall in that wiry, nonjock way. Josh was also tall but he was muscled from head to toe, his shoulders twice as wide. The only resemblance the two men had was the color of their eyes, which were a seductive silver-gray. But even there, there were differences. Alec’s eyes had been loving, warm, open. Josh’s eyes were cynical, challenging, untrusting in the extreme. “It’s not important,” she said at last.

  Josh studied her. To her chagrin, he was unwilling to let it go. “Max seemed to think it was. He seemed to think you were still in love with him after all this time.”

  Patience set her chin. “Max was wrong. I gave up on the idea of ever having a life with Alec again a long time ago.”

  Josh lifted a skeptical brow. “Was Max wrong about your wanting a baby, too?”

  “No,” Patience allowed plainly. She looked into Josh’s eyes and knew she had been crazy to see Alec in him, even for a minute. The two men were as different as night and day. The way Josh kept pushing her was proof of that. “That much is right on target. I do want a baby.” Desperately.

  “I see.” Josh snorted derisively. “You just don’t much care who the father is.”

  For some reason, Patience noted, this notion bothered Josh Colter. It bothered him a lot. Though she didn’t see why it should. It was none of his business who fathered her future child—or children. She shrugged her slender shoulders, admitting, “So I’ve given up on finding the perfect mate.” So what? It wasn’t as if Josh were married or the least bit settled, either!

  Josh quirked a disapproving brow. “I gather your two siblings have given up on finding the perfect mates, too?”

  “My brothers have been as unlucky in love as I have.”

  “And yet you’re considering Max’s demands, aren’t you?” This stunned him.

  Patience sighed and explained, “We all are going to do our best to see Max’s wishes are carried out. It’s the least we can do after all he did for us.”

  “Which was—?”

  Her voice softened. “He took us in when our parents died.” Years later he had done the same for his protégé, Cisco Kidd. “He gave up a lot to raise us. Without Max, we probably all would have ended up in foster homes.”

  “And yet none of you are married?” Josh concluded heavily.

  Patience cringed. “According to Max, that was his fault as much as ours. Early on, he was a bit too involved in our love lives,” she added wryly.

  Again, Josh looked surprised. He sat back down and took a sip of the soft drink he’d got for himself. “How so?”

  “He loaned Trace the money to start his own business as a wedding gift. Trace was so busy proving himself he didn’t have any time for Susannah and she split. He encouraged Cody to elope with Callie Sheridan, who was seven years his junior. It was too soon, I guess, because Callie ran out on Cody during their honeymoon and Cody has yet to get over it.” In fact, he had been living like a hermit. He hadn’t had a haircut or a shave in ages….

  “And you?”

  There was no other way to put it. “I was jilted on my wedding day.”

  “By this Alec Vaughn guy,” Josh guessed slowly.

  “Yes.”

  Josh shook his head. His silver eyes were reflective. Abruptly, he seemed a million miles away as he murmured, “You must hate the guy, then.”

  “Not really,” Patience allowed, knowing her anger with Alec had long disappeared. She continued with earnest intensity, “If not for Max—” Her mouth tightened in a mutinous line.

  “What?” Josh rested a forearm on his thigh and leaned forward in his chair.

  Patience studied the toes of Josh’s handcrafted western boots. “You heard what Max said on the tape. Max didn’t want us to marry. He told Alec if he insisted on going through with the wedding he would have no choice but to disinherit me.”

  “And so your fiancé skipped out on the ceremony,” Josh concluded grimly.

  “He left town altogether. Never to be heard of again, at least not by anyone the two of us knew at Yale.”

  “And you blame Max for that?” Josh regarded her incredulously.

  Patience knew she had good reasons for feeling that way. She got up to throw her empty soft drink can in the recycling bin. “I’m sure Alec was only trying to do what was best for both of us, leaving that way. I’m sure he was only trying to protect me.” Because Alec had loved her—she knew it! There was no faking the way they had felt, no faking the passionate love she had seen reflected in his eyes.

  Josh drained the rest of his drink in a single gulp, then crushed the empty can in his hands. He regarded her boldly, making no effort to mask the icy cynicism in his gaze. “Then again, maybe he was just after your—or more specifically, Max’s—money. Maybe he split when he saw he wasn’t go
ing to get any. Maybe you’re better off without him.”

  Patience had heard the same spiel many times. From Max, her brothers, even Pearl, the proprietress of Pearl’s Diner in Fort Benton. She watched as Josh got up to throw the can into the bin beside hers.

  “You don’t know anything about Alec!” Patience replied indignantly, sure she had been right about this much. “Alec was a sensitive, caring—”

  “Fool?” Josh interjected politely.

  Patience clamped her arms together in front of her. She knew there was some reason she did not like Josh. As it turned out, he was much too judgmental. “I am not going to discuss him with you,” she announced, only wishing she had made that decision sooner.

  Josh regarded her gravely, as if he had already expected as much. “It probably helps soothe your wounded pride, doesn’t it, canonizing your ex-fiance this way. But it doesn’t help anything else.”

  Patience glared at him. She had already heard the same from her brothers, from Cisco, from Uncle Max. She did not want to hear it from Josh Colter, too. “Are you finished?”

  Her tone was enough to freeze the fires of hell, but to her growing annoyance, he merely ignored her. Crossing to his desk, he picked up a bone-colored Stetson and fitted it on his head, pulling it low across his brow to shield his eyes.

  Ignoring her increasingly forbidding look, he continued lazily, “I can also see why Max wanted me involved here. I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me.”

  Patience stomped closer, planted both her hands on her hips and regarded Josh as she would a rival boxer stepping into the ring. “Let’s get something perfectly clear here, Dr. Colter. I loved my uncle dearly, despite his flaws when it came to parenting three very willful and energetic adolescent kids. And mine in behaving with nothing even resembling childlike obedience. So, in an effort to honor my Uncle Max, I will do my best to carry out his last wishes and stick to your side like glue for the next forty-eight hours. I will write my column in the writing studio he built for me and live under the same roof as you and accompany you on whatever it is you do around here. And I will even willingly take part in the triple wedding he set up for Trace, Cody and myself and our appointed mates. But that is absolutely as far as I am going,” Patience announced determinedly.

  Half of Josh’s mouth lifted in a knowing curl. And she knew even before he uttered one syllable that she was not going to like what he said. “No baby making?” he asked guilelessly.

  Irritated beyond belief, Patience tossed her head. Her blond hair flew away from her face in silky waves. “You better believe there is going to be no baby making.”

  Josh’s eyes twinkled with devilish lights as they caressed first the tousled layers of her hair and then her upturned face. “How about just getting married, then,” he propositioned boldly, as if unable to resist, “and saving the baby making for a more appropriate date.”

  That was another difference between Josh and Alec, Patience thought. Alec didn’t tease, especially about things that were this important!

  “There is no way I am trapping a man—any man!—into a lifetime marriage, even a rude, reckless cowboy like you,” she replied.

  Again, Josh Colter favored her with that goading half smile. With the tip of one finger, he pushed the brim of his hat back until it sat at a rakish angle, then tilted his ruggedly handsome face down to hers. “And why not, ma’am?”

  He put heavy emphasis on the last word—just to annoy her, Patience was sure. His ploy worked.

  With effort she controlled her temper and confronted him as bluntly and honestly as she knew how. “Because there’s no better way to ensure a marriage will fail than to force someone to the altar. And,” she continued with unabashed chagrin, “it’s no secret around here that I have already failed once at this getting-married business. I have no intention of doing it again. So…” She fastened her eyes on Josh’s, figuring they might as well lay all their cards on the table now. “Will you help me or not?” she said.

  Chapter Two

  Dear Patience,

  Should I marry for reasons other than love?

  Signed,

  Not Getting Any Younger

  Dear Not Getting Any Younger,

  That’s like asking if you should buy a horse that’s half-sound. Shoot for the whole package, honey.

  You Won’t Be Disappointed,

  Patience

  In the past, Josh had considered himself remarkably laid-back and easygoing. But these days, due largely to a more or less ongoing devastating personal experience that he did not want to share with Patience McKendrick or anyone else on the Silver Spur, he did not take kindly to people who used or coerced others to achieve their own means. And that included the incredibly beautiful woman in front of him.

  “That all depends,” Josh drawled, towering over her in a way that he knew darn well would intimidate her. “What’s in it for me?”

  Patience McKendrick tensed at the edge in his voice, as he knew she would, but she defiantly kept her ocean blue eyes locked on his. “A generous cash settlement after we divorce.”

  As if that were all it would take to get him enmeshed in the late Max McKendrick’s baby-making strategy. “Which will be when?” Josh countered, figuring he already knew the answer to that.

  “Just as soon as Cisco Kidd, Uncle Max’s attorney, says it is okay.”

  Though he was tempted to acquiesce solely for the pleasure of having Patience in his bed—where she soon would be if she was his wife, Josh couldn’t help but think—he was not about to let Patience or Max or anyone else in her eccentric family use him like so many bundles of money to get what they wanted, no matter how guilty he felt about what had happened to her in the Alec Vaughn matter. Sure, now it was easy to see how the whole catastrophe could have been avoided—and Alec’s life, such as it was then, spared—if only he had been paying more attention to everything that was going on around him. But he hadn’t been, Josh admitted, because then, all he’d been able to think about was his own future and that of the woman he had loved and subsequently lost. Aware Patience was waiting for an answer from him, Josh frowned. “No deal,” he said shortly, turning down her offer of a buyout pointblank.

  Patience blinked, apparently unprepared for his refusal. “Don’t you want what Max left you?” she asked, stunned.

  Considering the chain of events that had led him to the nomadic life of a wanderer and then the Silver Spur, Josh didn’t even have to think about it. “Not at that price,” he said. He might not be honest about everything these days, but in those areas where he could be, he was scrupulously truthful and forthright. He wasn’t marrying Patience McKendrick, only to divorce her. When he married, if he married, it was going to be for life.

  “Then what price will it take?” Patience persisted, still intently watching his face.

  Aware they had been standing too close for too long, Josh moved away from her once again, finally seating himself on the edge of his desk. “For starters, hordes of money does not solve people’s problems. I’d wager it creates them.” In fact, Josh had only to look back into his own past, to the day he had found out how money, and the desperate need and want of it, had impacted his own life and all those close to him….

  HE COULD STILL recall his shock as he stood in the doorway, unable to believe what he saw. A member of his own family not only associating with such scum but actually doing business with them! Disgusted and disillusioned at the sight of the money changing hands, he was about to turn away, when the conversation abruptly took on a vile tone.

  His heart thudding heavily in his chest, he set his backpack down carefully and listened to the thugs repeat their demand his family take part in the murder of one of their neighbors and friends.

  To his relief, the demand was refused outright. But not, as expected, without a terrible price. Their expressions ugly and menacing, the thugs swiftly produced a pair of brass knuckles and a heavy metal club.

  He didn’t even have to think about what to do next. Un
armed and unprepared, he barreled in to the rescue….

  And had regretted everything that had happened ever since.

  “MEANING WHAT, EXACTLY?” Patience drawled, snapping him back to the present. Aware she was waiting for him to continue stating his position on Max’s wishes, Josh concluded, “So I’m not interested in the, inheritance.” The horses on the ranch, however, were another matter. He was very much interested in them. Max had owned some beautiful stock. Josh had enjoyed taking care of them. “Two,” Josh continued, figuring he might as well spell it all out now, “if and when I have a baby with a woman, I want it to be our decision. Not hers. Not mine.”

  Patience shrugged her slender shoulders. “I agree that would be the optimum situation. Unfortunately,” she continued, sending a droll look in his direction that carried with it absolutely no invitation to partake in parenthood with her, “it doesn’t always work out that way.”

  A cowboy could dream, couldn’t he? “You’d be surprised what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it.” Take his ending up on the Silver Spur. There were some—Holly Diehl included—who felt this was the last place on earth he should be. But Josh knew they were wrong. He knew that he owed it not just to Alec and himself but to Max, to make sure his niece was all right. Right now, despite Patience’s feisty declarations to that effect, he was not sure that was the case.

  “Listen, Josh, all I am talking about is us getting married, as briefly as possible, as per the terms of the will. Nothing else.” Patience seated herself on the edge of his desk, too, so they were side by side, almost like two kids on the edge of a dock, fishing.

  Not mollified in the least by her aggressively pragmatic attitude, Josh looked down at the way her slender fingers were curved on the wood and shook his head. “Again, I’m not interested,” he said.

  “Why not?” Patience shifted so their thighs were touching. She was plainly vexed.

  Josh looked down into her upturned face. “Because with me it’s all or nothing there, too,” he retorted, letting her know with a glance that he was through living his life in halfway measures. And she should be, too, he thought. “If I were to agree to marry you, I would want it to be a real and binding arrangement, not some sham acquiescence to your Uncle Max’s wishes. In short, I would want it all. You, the dream home in Lost Canyon, the horse-breeding operation and, yes, even the baby Max wanted us to have. If I were to agree, I would want it to be worth any time and energy we would put into the relationship.”