Garrett kept his eyes on the gravel road. “I fed him, and he decided to stick around. He’s not the best cow dog in Texas, but he tries hard.”
Hubert closed his eyes in canine bliss as Mimi scratched behind his ears. “How did you ever come up with the name Hubert?”
“That was the name on his fancy rhinestone collar. When he showed up on my doorstep, he still had it on, along with a frayed pink bow and pink toenails.”
“I still can’t believe someone could just dump him, then take off.” She shook her head. “How could anyone be so cruel?”
A muscle twitched in Garrett’s jaw. “Happens all the time. And not just to animals.”
Before she could ask him to explain, a loud horn sounded behind them.
“Damn.”
“What’s the problem?”
“It’s not a what, it’s a who.” He steered the pickup truck to the edge of the road, then rolled down his window as another pickup pulled up beside them.
The petite brunette in the driver’s seat smiled at him. “Hey, Garrett. I see you’ve got a tagalong today.”
“Venna Schwab, this is Mimi Banyon. She just hired on for calving season.”
Mimi was surprised to hear him sound so cheerful about it. Especially since he’d been silent and surly most of the afternoon.
Venna rested her elbow on the truck door, her gaze flicking over Mimi. “Really?”
Mimi leaned forward in the seat and waved. “Nice to meet you.”
Venna wrinkled her nose. “You’re a mess, honey.”
Mimi forced a smile. “Nothing a little hot water can’t cure.”
Venna shrugged, then turned her attention to Garrett. “I hope having an extra hand around means you won’t have to work so hard. I’ve hardly seen you lately.”
“It’s almost calving season, Venna. You’re probably as busy as I am at the Triple C.”
She laughed. “True. But I can always make time for a little fun.”
Mimi definitely felt like a third wheel. She thought about hopping out of the cab and walking the rest of the way to the house, just barely visible in the distance, but her aching body protested that idea.
Venna leaned a little further out the window. “Speaking of fun, are you going to Connor and Lacy O’Hara’s barbecue on Saturday night?”
Garrett nodded. “I planned on it.”
“Good. Do you need a date?”
Mimi wondered when she’d become invisible. Venna sure wasn’t letting the presence of Garrett’s hired help put a damper on her outrageous flirting.
“Actually, I’m taking Mimi to the barbecue.”
“You are?” Mimi exclaimed, realizing a second too late that it was the wrong thing to say.
Garrett turned to her. “Yes. I am.”
“Oh.”
Venna looked between the two of them, confusion wrinkling her brow. “You’re taking your ranch hand on a date?”
Garrett cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a date.”
“What would you call it?” Venna asked, her gaze fixed on Mimi. Perhaps she finally saw some competition behind all the dirt and manure.
Mimi leaned forward. “I’m sure Garrett’s just being polite. I might not even be here on Saturday, so he may be free after all.”
“Thanks a lot,” Garrett growled under his breath.
“I’ll be sure and give you a call, Garrett.” Venna waved as she drove away, leaving a cloud of dust lingering in the hazy twilight.
“She seems nice,” Mimi said as Garrett pulled the pickup onto the road.
“Nice enough.”
“Pretty, too.”
He glanced at her. “Pretty enough to snag two husbands.”
She waited for him to elaborate, but he kept his gaze focused on the road. She’d heard about the strong, silent type, but this was ridiculous. At least now she understood why he was avoiding Venna. She tried to ignore the tiny glimmer of satisfaction it gave her. Garrett’s love life, or lack of one, shouldn’t matter to her one bit.
Leaning back against seat, she gazed at the sun hovering on the horizon, awed by the beautiful palette of colors arcing across the sky. Was there any place more beautiful than this?
Garrett pulled the pickup truck into the driveway, then cut the engine. “We need to talk.”
Now, there was a novel idea. “What about?”
“About where you’re going to sleep tonight.”
“Oh. I forgot about that.” Her cheeks warmed as she realized she’d just taken for granted that he’d invite her to stay at the house. Did a ranch hand normally sleep in the barn? She’d enjoyed her brief interlude in the hayloft yesterday, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to sleep there for the next four weeks. Especially if it was occupied by mice, rats or other assorted rodents.
“I’ve been remodeling the second floor, so the bedrooms up there are a mess. I used to have a small cabin on my ranch that was used for a bunkhouse, but it burned down last month.”
“So that leaves?”
“My bed.”
“Your bed?” she echoed, certain she hadn’t heard him right.
He gazed at her through half-lidded eyes. “I think you’ll find my bed much more comfortable than my sofa.”
Maybe. But she doubted she’d get any sleep in his bed. For one brief moment, she allowed herself to imagine sleeping in Garrett Lord’s bed. In his arms. Kissing that hard, sullen mouth. A bolt of white-hot desire shot through her veins.
She closed her eyes, telling herself she shouldn’t be having erotic thoughts about another man already.
“I think I prefer the sofa,” she said at last.
“Sorry, that’s not an option.”
At the unyielding tone of his voice, her mouth fell open. Was this how he planned to get rid of her? Then she looked into Garrett’s green-gold eyes and knew she was overreacting. This wasn’t a man who played games. “Why not?”
“Because I’ll be sleeping on the sofa. It’s roomy, but not quite big enough for two.”
She shook her head. “I can’t kick you out of your own bed.”
He shrugged, then opened the door and climbed out of the pickup. “It will only be for a night or two.”
Her regret burned away at the arrogant confidence in his tone. The big jerk. Garrett Lord thought he’d be rid of her soon. Thought she was a spoiled city girl who would run back to Austin the first time she broke a nail.
She didn’t want to admit to herself that the thought of returning to Austin had crossed her mind a time or two in the last few hours. But Garrett’s doubts about her staying power strengthened her resolve.
“A night or two?” she muttered, following Garrett to the house and trying not to wince every painful step of the way. “Think again, cowboy.”
“Did you say something?” he asked as he held the door open for her.
“I said thanks for giving up your bed.” She smiled sweetly at him. “I’ll take it.”
GARRETT STRETCHED on the sofa and silently counted the chimes of the grandfather clock. Nine…ten…eleven…twelve. Midnight. He’d been lying here wide awake for almost two hours and wondering where he’d gone wrong. He had a beautiful woman in his bed. And he was on the sofa. Somehow, some way, he’d screwed up.
He bunched the pillow under his head and turned onto his side, the lonestar quilt slipping off his shoulder. Hubert slept soundly on the rug in front of the fireplace. No doubt Mimi slept soundly, too, after the day she’d put in. Hell, she’d dozed off over supper. He smiled into the darkness, remembering how he’d moved her plate away just in time to keep her hair from falling into the ketchup.
Then his smile faded. He was thinking about her too much. Way too damn much. She’d be gone in a day or two. Besides, she had a fiancé waiting for her out there somewhere.
Just like he had a mother out there somewhere. Only she wasn’t waiting for him or his brother or sisters to find her. In fact, she’d made it almost impossible. How could one woman disappear so easily?
LeeAnn Larrimore. A name as unfamiliar to him as the woman he’d once called Mama.
The search for her had finally narrowed down to the last name on the list. A list that had started with the names of women who had given birth to fraternal triplets in Texas around the same time period and with the right sex: two girls, one boy. One by one, the other names on the list had been eliminated as possibilities. So had any other potential leads. That left only LeeAnn Larrimore.
According to his research, she’d given birth to triplets at a free clinic in a town near Austin. She’d lived in Austin for a while, working in a grocery store until she’d been fired from her job. That’s when the trail had turned ice cold.
He flipped onto his stomach and closed his eyes, willing sleep to overtake him. He didn’t want to think about the woman who had abandoned her children twenty-five years ago. And he definitely didn’t want to think about the woman sleeping in his bed. How her silky blond curls would spill over the pillow. Or the way her body would warm the white cotton sheets, imbuing them with her unique scent. He closed his eyes, imagining the soft, steady cadence of her breathing as she slept. Then he imagined waking her with a kiss. Sliding his hands under the sheets and touching her. Making her breathing quicken.
“Garrett?” Mimi’s soft voice trickled over him in the darkness.
His eyes shot open, his heart beating wildly in his chest. He took a moment to steady his breathing, then cleared his throat. “What?”
She stepped into the living room. “Are you awake?”
“Yes.” He sat up, the quilt falling down around his hips. He shifted it slightly to hide the evidence of his desire. Then he saw her gaze drift to his bare chest and linger there.
“Did you want something?” he asked, his voice sounding rougher than he’d intended. Of course, Mimi didn’t help matters by looking so damn delectable. The woman had invaded not only his barn and his house and his bed, but his closet, as well. She wore an old T-shirt of his for a nightgown, the hem barely reaching mid-thigh. It revealed her long, slender legs, and he caught the faint scent of apples as she walked into the living room. She’d taken a bubble bath before supper and obviously found his sister’s stash of scented bath products.
Garrett’s breath caught as she moved closer to him, her blond hair gleaming in the soft glow of the fire. The shadows dancing in the room made it impossible to see her expression or read anything in her beautiful blue eyes. Was she purposely trying to torture him?
Or seduce him?
His fingers curled around the quilt at that thought. Part of him wanted to deny that Mimi would use her body as a ticket to stay on at his ranch. Another part of him desperately wanted it to be true. He swallowed hard. “What do you need?”
“I thought I heard something.”
He arched a brow, wondering whether to believe her. Some women played the damsel-in-distress part to the hilt, although Mimi hadn’t struck him as the deceptive type. Still, look at her track record. She’d stowed away in his hayloft. Stood up her fiancé at the altar. Found a way to sweet-talk him into offering her a job as a ranch hand—even if it was just on a trial basis.
She tensed, then looked toward the large bay window. “There it is again.” She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “Do you hear it?”
“Turn around.”
She blinked. “Why?”
He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the sofa. “You can either turn around or you can watch me put my pants on.”
She whirled. Garrett grabbed his jeans, grateful for the darkness that would cover the evidence of his arousal. Now he just needed to cover her. He picked up the quilt and tossed it to her. “Here, you’re going to need this. Come with me.”
Without a word, she wrapped the quilt around her shoulders, effectively concealing all that silky bare skin, then followed Garrett out the front door.
He stood at the railing of his front porch, feeling the grooves of the smoothly worn slat flooring under his bare feet. The air was cool and crisp, with endless stars twinkling in the night sky. The moon cast a gentle glow over the rolling hills and crags of the land he loved so much.
In the distance, the sound of high-pitched yipping carried across the peaceful night. “Is that the sound you heard?”
She moved beside him, pulling the quilt more tightly around her shoulders. “Yes.”
“It’s coyotes. Haven’t you ever heard them before?”
She unconsciously moved another step closer to him. “Sure. In the movies. But I thought they howled.”
He smelled apples and something else. Something uniquely Mimi. “They do sometimes. This sounds like a pack with pups. The full moon can make them crazy. Or maybe they just made a kill.”
“A kill?”
“A jackrabbit or maybe a possum.” He frowned into the darkness. “Sounds like they’re in the south pasture.”
She looked at him, the moonlight illuminating the concern on her face. “Maybe they killed one of the cows.”
He shook his head. “They’re smart enough not to go up against a twelve-hundred-pound cow with sharp horns. But a calf is another story.”
“Can’t the mother cow protect it?”
“Not always. Coyotes work in groups. Half of them will distract a mama cow while the rest of them bring down the calf. She’ll put up a hell of a fight to protect her baby, though. And she’ll bawl for days afterward if she loses it.”
“That’s awful. Can’t you do anything to protect them?”
“A good dog will keep coyotes at bay.”
“Like Hubert?”
He laughed. “Hubert? The coyotes would think he was a tasty midnight snack, not a threat. That’s why I let him sleep in the house.”
“Seems like you’ve made a habit of taking in strays.” Mimi rested one hand on the porch railing, gazing into the night. “You’re a nice man, Garrett Lord.”
He looked at her, wondering what she’d say if she knew he was thinking some not-so-nice thoughts right now. About her. About how he’d like to strip off that quilt and that old shirt and make love to her under the stars.
Mimi made the mistake of turning to him at that moment, her face tilted to ask him another question. He didn’t give her a chance. He captured her mouth with his, savoring her sweet soft lips as his hands rested lightly on her shoulders.
He closed his eyes as he breathed in her scent and sought refuge in the warm sanctuary of her mouth. She didn’t move at first, then her hands slid slowly up his bare chest. He deepened the kiss, her touch drawing a low moan from within his chest.
A shrill bark brought him to his senses. He abruptly stepped away from her, then looked at the porch floor to see Hubert sitting between their feet, wagging his tail.
Garrett took another step away from Mimi, letting the night breeze cool his overheated body. She was an engaged woman—reason enough to keep his distance—and vulnerable. He knew how badly she wanted to stay here. It would be unfair to take advantage of that fact. “Looks like the moon is making everybody crazy tonight. Sorry.”
“Garrett, I…”
“Forget it,” he said, not giving her a chance to comment on that kiss. He didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t even want to think about it. When she didn’t move, he met her gaze and saw his hunger reflected in her eyes. Or was that wishful thinking on his part? “You should go back to bed.”
She hesitated, then without another word, she walked into the house and closed the door behind her. If he was lucky, that kiss would scare her off, and he’d wake up to find her gone in the morning.
But Garrett was never lucky. He’d always had to work for whatever he wanted. Now he just had to decide if he wanted Mimi to go.
Or stay.
CHAPTER FOUR
A LOUD POUNDING woke Mimi from a sound sleep, then the bedroom door opened a crack. “Time to get up. We’re wasting daylight.”
She rubbed her eyes, then looked toward the window into the pitch-black darkness beyond. Even the sun knew it
was too early to be up yet.
“Five more minutes,” she said groggily, flopping onto the pillow.
Garrett called through the open door. “You can sleep until noon if you want, Mimi. Then I’ll take you back to Austin after lunch.”
His words were more effective than a bucket of ice-cold spring water. “All right, all right,” she said with a groan. “I’m up.”
She rose to her feet, every aching joint screaming in protest. Wincing, she moved to the dresser and stared into the mirror. Unfortunately, she looked even worse than she felt. Her face was red with sunburn, her nose was peeling and her hair stuck out at odd angles.
She’d seen Garrett’s reflection in the mirror when he woke her. He’d looked as handsome as ever in his old jeans and worn chambray shirt. He’d tasted wonderful, too. She closed her eyes for a moment, reliving that kiss.
With a sigh, she reached for the hairbrush on top of the dresser. Still only half-awake, she knocked her hand against the small, tattered teddy bear perched on the corner of the dresser, sending it to the floor. She bent to pick it up, aware of the ominous creaking in her sore knees.
It was old. Very old. With black button eyes and an odd stitching pattern on the mouth that gave it a whimsical smile. The excelsior stuffing had shifted inside it, making it too thin in some places and too thick in others.
Mimi carefully replaced the teddy bear on the dresser, letting her fingers caress the worn brown fur on its belly. She’d been too exhausted last night to notice the bear, but now she realized how incongruously it stood out in the utilitarian bedroom. Garrett didn’t have any pictures on the walls or other knickknacks. Just a bed, a dresser, a desk and a teddy bear.
Mimi smiled as she ran the brush through her tangled tresses. Garrett Lord didn’t seem like the teddy bear type. But then, what did she really know about the man, other than that he was a hell of a good kisser. She worked her hair into a neat braid, then secured the ends with a ponytail holder. She shouldn’t have let him kiss her last night.
She shouldn’t have wanted him to kiss her.
Her life was already complicated enough without adding romance into the mix. Besides, she wanted to prove to Garrett that she could work as well as any ranch hand. And somehow she doubted kissing was included in the job description. She wanted him to let her stay because she deserved it, not because he was attracted to her.
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