Chapter Two
Wade spent the rest of the afternoon seething over his run-in with the Blackhawks’ houseguest. The woman had more audacity and arrogance than any female he’d encountered in years. While that might have been stimulating in the short term, it was nothing to tangle with over the long haul.
Not that Wade was a long-haul kind of guy. He’d learned that from his daddy, God rest his sorry butt.
Blake Travis had been one of the wealthiest men in Montana when he’d met Wade’s mama at the Lucky Horseshoe Saloon in Billings thirty years ago. To a woman like Arlene Owens, he had seemed like the answer to a prayer. She had fallen for him like a ton of bricks. To hear her tell it, the man had been God’s gift to womankind—not just rich and powerful, but also kind and generous. He’d certainly left her with something to remember…Wade.
Unfortunately, it turned out that old Blake had a nasty habit of seeking out vulnerable women, impregnating and then abandoning them. He seemed to think it was his right to take whatever he pleased and damn the consequences. He simply bought off anyone who raised a fuss. Arlene had learned all this long after it was too late to help her protect herself.
Totally naive about his reputation, Arlene had been convinced that the man would provide for her and her baby, if only he knew about their situation. Off she’d gone to the Travis ranch outside of town to share the good news. There she’d been greeted by Blake’s wife and introduced to his two legitimate sons and heirs. The long-suffering Mrs. Travis had given Arlene a modest check and assured her that it was the best she could hope for in terms of support from that sneaky, lying snake of a philanderer Blake Travis. Stunned and humiliated by the mere existence of a wife, Arlene had taken her at her word.
She had considered packing up everything she owned and moving, but a stubborn streak that Wade had inherited kept her right where she was. And once Wade was old enough to ask about his daddy, she had told him the unvarnished truth.
Over the years, Wade had built up a healthy loathing for the rich, who thought they could play havoc with people’s lives and leave others to clean up their messes. His occasional chance encounters with his half-siblings had been tense affairs. He’d bloodied their noses and threatened to do worse. They’d been sent off to boarding school soon afterward, and his mother had gotten a stern warning from the sheriff that Wade was on thin ice.
When Wade turned eighteen, he’d gone to tell his daddy just exactly what he thought of him, but Blake had had the misfortune to die before Wade could share his opinion. That had left him with a lot of outrage and no satisfactory way to rid himself of it.
It had also left him grimly determined never to find himself in the same fix. He was responsible when it came to women. He never lied. He never cheated. And he used fail-proof protection—or at least he assured himself that it was as close to fail-proof as a man could get. There would be no trail of heartbroken women or abandoned children in his life.
If and when he ever settled down, it would be for life, and with some sweet, down-to-earth woman who’d stick close to home, raise his children and never give him a moment’s grief. Karen Blackhawk’s friend had grief written all over her.
He muttered yet another curse at the memory of the way she’d come after him with every bit as much temper as he’d used in trying to scare the daylights out of her. With her fancy boots, designer jeans and those soft, neatly manicured hands, everything about her spoke of money. Maybe she knew horses, but he suspected whatever she’d learned had been during a childhood of privilege. If she’d ever done a hard day’s work in her life, he’d eat his hat.
“Problem?” Grady asked, appearing in the stable office just as Wade uttered another colorful profanity.
“Tell that woman to stay the hell away from my horses,” Wade said without a moment’s thought to censoring himself with the man who’d only been his boss for a few weeks now.
Grady’s lips twitched with amusement. “Had a run-in with Lauren, did you?”
“Is that her name?” He scowled at Grady, who was still fighting a grin. “It’s not funny. She’s going to get herself killed. She doesn’t have the sense God gave a gnat. You should have seen her. She walked right into the corral with Midnight, like he was some docile pet pony.”
“So?”
“You know what that horse is capable of doing. I shudder to think about what could have happened.”
“But nothing did happen, did it?” Grady said. “Wade, Lauren’s no tenderfoot. She grew up around here. Karen says she learned to ride practically before she could walk. I’ve watched her in action.”
“Oh, I can imagine that,” Wade said with biting sarcasm. “She is something to look at, no question about that.”
Grady frowned at him. “I’m talking about her skills. She’s every bit as good with horses as you are,” he insisted. “Give her a chance.”
The praise made Wade’s stomach turn over. Filled with trepidation, he studied Grady’s solemn expression, then heaved a sigh. “Dammit Grady, is that an order? Please tell me you didn’t go and hire her.”
“Without talking to you? Of course not,” Grady said, though he looked vaguely guilty when he said it.
“Then what the hell was she doing out there?”
“Like I said, she’s good with horses. She’s also one of Karen’s best friends. She needs something to keep her occupied while she’s here. We asked her to help out with the training, work with Midnight and a couple of the others that aren’t doing well with the usual techniques. She’ll answer to you. I’ll make that clear to her. Your job is safe.”
“I’m not worried about my job,” Wade snapped. “I’m worried about her pretty little neck. The woman’s got more guts than sense. Midnight could have squashed her like a bug. You know how he is.”
“I went over his history with Lauren before she went out there. She’s worked with abused animals before. She knew what she was doing,” Grady insisted in yet another futile attempt to soothe Wade.
“Couldn’t prove it by me,” Wade retorted, still seething over the scene he’d walked up on.
“She got out of there in one piece, didn’t she?” Grady reminded him, his tone mild. “Midnight didn’t come to any harm, right?”
“This time,” Wade conceded. “Next time, she might not be so lucky. A horse won’t give a hang that she’s beautiful or has a gentle touch. If he’s of a mind to, he’ll still kick her from here to next week, or break his own leg going wild in his stall.”
Grady still didn’t seem to be taking Wade’s concerns all that seriously. If anything, his amusement seemed to be growing. “I’m pretty sure I heard a compliment in there somewhere. Lauren got to you, didn’t she? What’s really bugging you? Is it that she has a way with horses or that she looks great in a pair of jeans?”
Wade wanted to protest that it was neither, but clearly, Grady had already drawn his own conclusions. Anything Wade had to say would only add fuel to the fire. Too much protesting would have a contradictory effect.
Besides, there was some truth to what Grady said. Once he’d calmed down, Wade had been forced to admit that he admired Lauren’s refusal to back down from either Midnight or from him. And her tush did do amazing things for a pair of faded jeans. There was no denying that, so why bother trying?
“Are you telling me to let her do whatever strikes her fancy where the horses are concerned?” he asked Grady, unable to keep a note of resignation from his voice. He wanted to be very clear on his boss’s expectations and where to place the responsibility for any disasters that took place.
“As long as it’s not going to get her killed, yes,” Grady said.
Wade shrugged, aware that any further argument would be a waste of breath. Until something disastrous happened, he’d go along with it, as long as Grady understood that any calamity was on his head. “Okay, then,” he told him. “It’s your ranch and your insurance.”
“And your reputation,” Grady pointed out, his expression just a little too doggon
e innocent to suit Wade.
“How’s that?” Wade asked, his gaze narrowed.
“Everybody knows you’re in charge of the horses around here. It’s your reputation that will suffer if you let anything happen to Lauren on your watch.”
Well, hell. His boss had just set a pretty tidy little trap for him.
“I had a talk with Wade this evening,” Grady said as he joined Karen and Lauren around the dinner table.
Lauren’s gaze shot up. “Oh?” She could just imagine what kind of remarks Wade would have made about their encounter. Still, Grady didn’t look overly upset, so maybe the man had been smart enough to keep his opinions to himself.
“He understands that you’re going to be helping with the horses,” Grady added.
“How does he feel about that?” she asked. Not that it mattered to her, but it might to Grady.
Grady grinned. “Pretty much like you’d expect after the run-in you two had. He has some reservations, but he’s withholding judgment for the time being.”
“How noble of him,” Lauren snapped, and shoved aside her plate. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea, after all. You’re paying him good money to handle your stock. I’m sure he’s very good at his job. I don’t want to create problems by getting in his way. None of us really knows if I’m going to make a worthwhile contribution around here. Maybe it’s best if I bow out and leave it to the experts.”
Karen shot a warning gaze at her husband. “Lauren, you’re not the problem. And if Wade has a problem, he’ll get over it. We want you here—right, Grady?”
“Of course,” he said at once, surreptitiously reaching below the table to rub his shin, which Karen had apparently kicked. “From what I heard, you managed to get in that corral with Midnight. Nobody else has been able to get near him, not even Wade.”
Lauren’s spirits brightened. “Really?”
“That horse kicks up a fuss like you wouldn’t believe when Wade gets anywhere close,” Grady confirmed. “Knowing his history, I probably shouldn’t have agreed to buy Midnight, but I couldn’t bear the thought of him being put down because no one could handle him. It’s not the horse’s fault that his last owner was a mean son of a bitch.”
“You’re right,” Lauren said. “He’s a spectacular animal. It’ll take time, but I guarantee he’ll be worth every bit of effort I put into him.”
Grady exchanged a look with his wife, then asked Lauren, “You’re making Midnight your special mission, then?”
Lauren nodded, accepting the challenge without hesitation. Not just because she’d fallen in love with the high-spirited creature, but because it would give Wade Owens fits to have to sit by and watch her succeed where he had failed.
“Because you believe in him or because you want to show Wade up?” Grady teased.
“Does it matter?” Lauren said, refusing to admit that he’d hit the nail on the head. “Either way, you get what you want.”
Grady chuckled. “This is going to be better entertainment than the westerns on TNT.”
Lauren held up her glass of tea in a mock toast. “So glad I’m able to provide you newlyweds with a diversion.”
“Oh, I can think of plenty of things to do that are more exciting than watching you tie that man up in knots,” Karen retorted, turning a heated gaze on her husband.
“Come to think of it, so can I,” he said, kicking his chair back as he reached for her hand and then pulled her from the room.
“I’ll do the dishes,” Lauren called after them, barely containing a laugh at the speed of their departure.
Still, after they’d gone, she sighed, unable to stop the wave of envy that washed over her. She’d been married twice, but she had never been in love like that, never taken one look at her husband and forgotten about everything else. Maybe she’d spent too many years faking emotions on-screen to know the real thing when it came along.
Thinking about that, she absentmindedly finished off the leftovers, then groaned at the amount of food she had eaten. It was more than she consumed in two days when she was working on a movie. At this rate, unless she exercised hard for a solid three hours every day, she’d be as big as a house by the end of summer. Already, her size-four jeans were getting snug in the waist, and she’d barely been here twenty-four hours.
It doesn’t matter.
The shocking words echoed in her head. Lauren dropped down on a chair and stared at the empty lasagna dish with a sense of astonishment. For the first time in ten years, her weight actually didn’t matter. Nor did her dress size. She was finally free of all of the unnaturally rigid self-control she’d been forced to live by from the moment she’d taken up a career in front of a camera.
“Oh, my,” she murmured, reaching for the last piece of garlic bread as a final act of defiance. It was loaded with butter and garlic, and it tasted absolutely heavenly, even though it was no longer warm from the oven.
A tap on the back door had her looking up guiltily and brushing crumbs from her lips.
“What’s this? Pigging out on the food I brought by last night to celebrate your arrival?” Gina asked, grinning.
“I am,” Lauren said, shoving aside that nagging guilt. “And you know what? I don’t care.”
“Uh-oh, is there a rebellion in the making?”
“There is,” Lauren confirmed. She eyed the box in Gina’s hand eagerly. “Did you bring dessert?”
“Cheesecake, as a matter of fact. I was experimenting with a tiramisu flavor. Rafe had to fly to New York this morning, so I’m looking for a guinea pig.”
“You’ve found one,” Lauren said enthusiastically, getting up to grab plates from the cupboard.
“Where are Grady and Karen?” Gina asked.
Lauren directed a pointed look toward the ceiling.
Gina grinned. “Ah, newlyweds. I keep forgetting that they’re never available after dinnertime. I’m glad Rafe and I aren’t like that.”
Lauren hooted. “Only because he’s still out of town so much. Just wait till he moves his practice out here and hooks up with Emma. She’s so efficient, she’ll have them both out the door every afternoon by four. You’ll be just as disgusting as Grady and Karen.”
“Jealous?” Gina asked.
Though the question was meant to be teasing, Lauren considered it seriously. “You know, I am.”
“Then we definitely have to get busy and find you a man. After all, you were the one who was matchmaking like a crazy woman all during the reunion. You practically threw me at Rafe.”
“Of course, that was before we knew he’d followed you out here in the first place to try to put you in jail,” Lauren said.
“Actually, he wanted to put my business partner in jail. I was just a means to an end.” Gina grinned. “Then there was Emma. Weren’t you the one who pushed her into Ford’s arms at the dance?”
“No, that was our English teacher. I actually tried to set her up with some guy who turned out to be an exterminator from Des Moines who’s married to one of our old classmates. It was not one of my shining moments.”
“Still, turnabout is fair play,” Gina insisted. “There must be someone around who’s worthy of you.”
Lauren thought of her reaction to Wade Owens earlier in the day. Instant animosity was probably not what Gina had in mind, but there had been a lot of electricity crackling in the air this afternoon. It was just as well that her friend didn’t know about her encounter with the sexy wrangler.
She took a deliberate bite of cheesecake, savoring the smooth texture and fabulous flavor. “Oh, sweet heaven,” she murmured. “Who needs men when there’s cheesecake like this? It’s sinful.”
Gina beamed. “Yes, but this pleasure is short-lived. A man’s forever.”
“If you’re lucky,” Lauren said. “I’ve had two who barely lasted till the ink was dry on the wedding license.”
“Oh, don’t be so cynical,” Gina said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “They were jerks. We’re talking about a real man.”
/> Once again, an image of Wade popped into Lauren’s head. With that whipcord-lean body he was a real man, no doubt about that.
“What?” Gina said, staring at her curiously. “You’ve already met someone, haven’t you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve only been here a couple of days. I’ve barely left the house. Why would you think that?”
“Because of your expression.”
“My expression? What about it?”
“It went all dreamy there for a minute. You can’t fake a look like that, and only one thing can cause it—a man. Who is he?”
“You’re crazy,” Lauren insisted. “And if you keep bugging me, I’m going to tell everybody in town that your cheesecake tastes like spoiled cottage cheese and has the texture of sand.”
Gina regarded her with a horrified expression. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.” Even as she uttered the words, Lauren recalled that same dare coming from Wade’s lips earlier in the day. And what had she said? Maybe I will. Those were certainly words meant to get a man all riled up. What had she been thinking?
“Why do I have the feeling you’re having some sort of flashback?” Gina asked, studying her intently. “It’s that man again, isn’t it?”
“I’m telling you, there is no man.”
Gina patted her hand. “Keep telling yourself that. I spent a lot of time in denial where Rafe was concerned, too. So did Emma with Ford, and Karen with Grady, and Cassie with Cole. Just look at us now. I recognize the signs.”
Lauren shuddered. Gina couldn’t be right. Her with Wade Owens? She wouldn’t allow it.
Then again, if her friends were anything to judge by, she might not actually have much say in the matter.
Chapter Three
Lauren got up at the crack of dawn, filled her pockets with treats for Midnight—apples this time—then decided she deserved a hearty breakfast herself before she went out to work with the horse and risked an encounter with Wade. Both were going to require stamina, to say nothing of all her wits.
Wrangling the Redhead Page 3
