Maher glanced at Thomas and paused. “Don’t I know you?”
Thomas stood, guessing that the game was up. Maher was no man’s fool.
“He’s a reporter. He wants to interview you.”
“Stop by the Vendome at lunchtime. I grant interviews while I eat. You know their restaurant?”
“He knows,” Laney answered for him.
Maher bid Laney good-bye and said he’d return tomorrow about the same time.
When the men had gone, Thomas stood. “Well, I guess I should thank you for setting that up for me.”
Laney pulled the ledger from her pocket and set it on the counter. “You’re welcome, Ranger.”
Chapter 5
Sizing Up the Opponent
“How long have you known?” Thomas didn’t even attempt to deny the charge. What surprised him was that she had elected not to confront him with the truth in front of the others. Stuart and Maher both would have been hot in their handlebars if they’d known he was a Ranger and they’d been discussing anything in front of him. He’d felt certain Maher had recognized him and had been ready to call him on it.
“Since last night at the Vendome.” She motioned toward the door. “Are you ready to get down to business?”
Never were truer words spoken. “I am. Just what gave me away?” he asked, opening the door for her. She passed in front of him, making Thomas aware that the top of her head came to the tip of his nose. Strange, but he could have sworn she met him eye to eye every time he had looked at her previously. Laney O’Grady had that kind of effect on a man, he decided.
“You gave yourself away when you came to my defense so readily with my brother-in-law. You looked like the archangel Michael himself, ready to tear Dannell’s soul out of him. That, with the fact that you sat with all those other men who were obviously some of the Texas Rangers we all know are in town, and the fact that you didn’t have any writing material with you, I just put two and two together. What I haven’t figured out yet is why you told me you were a reporter.”
Her brother-in-law? That explained more clearly some of the conversation Thomas had overheard between them.
Laney strode over to the horse and began examining his old saddle. “Hmm…Good. It clears the withers. There’s free movement of the shoulders and it’s the proper shape and length for its back.” She rocked it back and forth. “There’s good weight distribution.” Her amber eyes finally focused on Thomas. “Which means a proper-fitting saddle that really doesn’t need to be replaced. So what’s your true story, Ranger Longbow?”
“In the first place, I never said I was a reporter. You gave me the role.”
Laney looked thoughtful. “I guess I did. And everything you said could have been associated with either job. So, you’re apparently trained with words. Are you as good with explanations?”
He saw no further need to keep the truth from her and was suddenly glad he could be aboveboard about his visits. “I tailed Maher into your shop, suspected you were in cahoots with him about wherever they’re going to move the fight, and ordered the saddle so I had a reason to be there whenever Maher was. As you obviously heard last night at the restaurant, I was assigned to tail you.”
Anger clouded Laney’s face. “I don’t appreciate you misleading me, Mr. Longbow. I could have taken another order yesterday, but didn’t because I assumed I could count on the income I would make from your saddle.”
Her eyes closed for a moment, and he could tell from her expression that she was willing herself not to lose her temper.
“I’ve already chosen the tree horn and started some of the drying and shaping of the bull hide for your piece.” Exasperation filled her tone, despite her effort to remain calm.
She never said she was innocent of his suspicions about her, Thomas noted, but her argument with her brother-in-law was apparently foremost in her mind. “Is this about the money for the adoption?”
If a look could cut a man down to size, hers was as sharp as an axe. She headed back inside. Thomas reached out to gently stop her. “Wait, Laney. I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation with this Dannell character, just like you couldn’t help connecting me with the Rangers. So we’re square. And don’t worry, I ordered that saddle. I mean to pay for it.” He could feel her resistance slowly ease beneath his fingertips. “Come measure my horse. He deserves something new.”
Finally, after a long moment of decision making, she moved toward the bicycle tethered at the hitching post alongside Justice. “Turn my sign around on the door so everyone will know the shop is closed for a while. We’re going to take a ride.”
Thomas turned the OPEN sign to CLOSED and mounted. He watched as she straddled the strange-looking bicycle, revealing a lacy edge of those bloomers he’d heard were the new rage for women.
He hadn’t much taken a position on them before, but if they afforded him a sight of such pretty calves and ankles, then he was all for them.
“Where are we headed?” he asked, noticing the flex and lift of her long legs as she rode. He couldn’t help but wonder how far they might wrap around his own legs, if she lay beneath him. Get your mind where it should be, he told himself, urging Justice into a slow trot just to see if she could keep up with him. She did.
The woman had stamina. A dozen delightful ways to test just how much, pumped hotly through his veins.
“Nowhere particular. The fit of the saddle doesn’t just depend on measurements or even the horse,” she informed him as she rode. “It’s also about you. The better you use your own body control and feel to let the animal know what you want, the easier the ride. I wanted to see your balance, the way you move with him, how you cue him.” She eyed Thomas from hat to boot. “You sit with your shoulders, hips, and heels aligned. That makes a balanced riding position. That’s why you’ve had a lot less wear on your animal and the saddle. All that makes a difference in how I’ll build your new one. About the only thing you could use to improve what you already have is a little talcum powder.”
“Talcum powder?” Thomas tried to determine just where her eyes were focused when she said that. He almost didn’t see a groundhog mound in the path, and had to steer Justice away before he crippled the poor beast.
Laney swerved for a moment, then regained her position alongside the horse. She nodded at the front of the saddle, grinning. “Your fenders. The straps attached to the saddle tree. They’re squeaking. Just sprinkle some powder on them and you won’t squeak when you ride.”
Thomas had noticed the squeak before, but it had never bothered him until now. With her eyes trained on the saddle as he rode, he became increasingly aware of how sensual the movement of riding was when someone else was looking at where he sat. Especially someone he’d wanted to kiss since the first time he laid eyes on her. “What do you say we head back in? I’ve got other business to attend to.” Like trying to get your eyes off my squeak before I embarrass myself.
“Fine by me,” she said. “I’ve got to get back to work anyway. I’ve got lots to do between now and—” She looked like someone who had caught a particularly wily mouse. “I mean, I’m expecting an important visitor in about thirty minutes. So I best be getting back.”
“Fitzsimmons or Maher?” Thomas asked. “Dan Stuart?”
She quit pedaling and he reined to a halt.
“As a matter of fact, it’s a judge. Judge Townsend, to be exact.” The arch of one brow lifted higher. “Care to ask him whether I’m a reliable citizen?”
“Tell me what this is all about, Laney, and maybe I won’t be so mistrustful.”
“It’s about nothing. Mr. Maher ordered something from me, just like you did.” She stared Thomas squarely in the eyes. “I’m just not at liberty to say what.”
Damned but if she didn’t look taller than she was again. “I’m not talking about you and Maher. I want to know about you and your conversation with your brother-in-law. I think I got most of it, but don’t leave anything out.”
To his surprise, she told
him. He figured she might tell him what he could do with his nosiness. He hadn’t missed much of the conversation last night, but the part that he had missed made him madder than hell at Dannell O’Grady and even more convinced that she had reason to be in cahoots with the boxers.
A woman wanting to get back a child whom she loved would definitely resort to any measure.
And he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was going to help her get the boy.
Trouble was, he hoped she just didn’t step over any boundary that would force him to have to arrest her before they found a way to rectify the issue and put Dannell O’Grady in his place…
Or before Thomas had a chance to kiss her.
Chapter 6
The Better Man
The ride back took longer than Laney had planned. The cross path was blocked by fun-making members of the McGinty Club, a group of lawyers, bankers, and other businessmen who had struck up a rousing march from the waterworks and were headed up El Paso Street, the city’s main thoroughfare. They drove a buckboard adorned with signs that read BARBEQUED BURRO MEAT AND ICE WATER, items that would be for sale for the upcoming boxing match. Laney half expected to see Judge Townsend and Dannell among them. Both were active in the club and took great pleasure in having their turns at firing off the cannon on top of McGinty Hill to announce upcoming civic festivities.
“Looks like the town’s gearing up for trouble tonight.” Thomas motioned toward two of the officials who were sitting atop a hay bale inside the wagon, trying to pour whiskey into two glasses. “It’s not even noon and they’ve already started celebrating.”
“The fight won’t happen tonight,” Laney announced, shaking her head at the men’s foolishness. “They’ll be wishing they had saved that for another time.”
“You seem sure of that.”
Thomas’s eyes focused intently on her now, and Laney realized too late that she had disclosed information that she shouldn’t have. He was too sharp not to pick up on her mistake. She thought fast. “I mean…well, you saw Mr. Maher’s eyes yourself. He couldn’t possibly fight tonight.”
“Tell me what you know about the fight, Laney.”
“I told you I can’t tell—”
“You said you couldn’t tell me about what Maher ordered.” The eyes of a man intent on his mission stared at her, waiting. “We’re talking about two different things.”
Grateful that the revelers had finally passed, Laney pressed down on the pedals and deliberately rode ahead of the Ranger so she didn’t have to meet his gaze. “I don’t know anything other than what’s been in the paper,” she said over her shoulder. “Surely nothing to inspire all this suspicion.”
“You didn’t grow up here, did you?” he asked, catching up with her.
Thomas changed the subject so abruptly she wondered where this line of questioning was leading. Her mind raced to think of reasons the truth might work against her, but it didn’t come up with any. So she answered him forthrightly. “My mother visited Kentucky. She met my father there and they married. He worked as a horse breeder for the O’Grady family and I grew up on their place. So I guess you’d say I’m from the East, but my heart is here in Texas.”
The Ranger took a moment before continuing. “So you fell in love with one of the brothers, I take it. The wrong one, in Dannell O’Grady’s opinion, from what I heard last night.”
He’d heard more than she’d wanted him to. She had meant merely to have the Rangers rescue her if Dannell got out of line. “I married his older brother, Marc.”
“Is that what brought you to El Paso?”
That and a dozen other reasons, she remembered. “He was ill and needed a drier climate.”
“His brother came with you?”
Laney pedaled harder, making Thomas urge the horse into a trot to keep up. “Not in the beginning. We had some wonderful years together.” Two miserable years since. “He showed up at Marc’s funeral to offer me marriage. I refused. He always assumed I would marry him instead of Marc because Marc was so much older than I, but Dannell never stood a chance. It didn’t matter that Marc had already been married once. He was the better man. Dannell never accepted that I preferred someone else over him, even if it was his own brother. When I refused to marry him after Marc’s death, he convinced a judge that he was the proper guardian for Gideon.”
She didn’t say how Dannell had gone about defaming her to the judge. That was too much hurt to deal with anymore. Frustration and anger caused bile to rise in Laney’s stomach, but she willed it away. She would not let Dannell make her feel threatened anymore. She had the means to win Gideon and that’s where her mind needed to focus now. The future, not the past.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Laney. If there’s anything I can do to help you with the boy, just call on me.”
Sincerity filled his tone. She liked that about him. One of the many things she had begun to find appealing about Thomas Longbow. Though she was exasperated by his persistence, she also respected that same determination. She could understand the need to follow something through. She’d been forced to be careful and calculating in her efforts to regain custody of Gideon since her husband’s death. She’d let nothing sway her from her goal—not lack of money, not hard work, not a man who refused to keep his hands to himself. To ask Thomas to do less in a job that he had been assigned to do would have made him less of a Ranger. His persistence might aggravate her, but she couldn’t fault him for being the man that he was.
“Just don’t get in the way of what I need to do,” she said quietly, her legs pedaling to punctuate her determination. “It’s been a long, hard road to get him back.” The first year had been the hardest, growing accustomed to not hearing Marc’s and Gideon’s playful banter in the shop as they all worked together to make it a success. Marc had been so proud to set up shop and pass down his saddle-making skills to his son. Gideon was more than a worshipful son, eager to show his incredible eye for detail and handiwork. As much as Marc had taught her his skills, Gideon promised to far outshine Laney.
“Marc was my best friend,” she whispered. How could a total stranger understand what she felt? Yet Thomas didn’t seem such a stranger anymore, and the need to tell someone just what Marc had meant to her bubbled over. “Living with the grief of losing a man like Marc has been nothing but hell on earth. He wasn’t afraid to let me grow. I didn’t just have to be his wife, a pretty thing on a man’s arm.”
She couldn’t stop herself. The grief kept coming, pouring out of her in a rush of emotion that had lain dormant too long. “But do you know what it’s like, losing a child you’ve come to love as your own? It’s almost more than I can bear some nights. I lie awake listening for Gideon. The sound of his prayers as he said them before he went to bed. The gentle ‘thank you’ when I finished tucking him in. The sigh of relief when I told him that I would sit with him until the thunder and lightning rumbled away. All of that and a thousand memories more have haunted my nights.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I finally understand how much Marc must have felt when he lost Sarah to childbirth. Only I lost two people I cared for.”
Though Marc had never given Laney his true heart, she’d been happy to spend her life with such a good man. Their affection for each other had been growing and promised to one day become more, if she had been patient enough. But death was an impatient mistress and had taken him before they’d had a chance to become more than two people who had married to give each other companionship and to raise Gideon with two parents.
Laney braked and took her hand off the handlebar for a moment to wipe her eyes. Thomas reached out and grabbed the bicycle to steady it, forcing her to stop pedaling. She sensed his eyes focused on her but she couldn’t meet his gaze, knowing she would lose her composure altogether if she stared into the intense gray depths. Instead, she focused her attention on his nice strong hand circling the handlebar. Always curious about people’s hands, she held a particular interest in the way certain professionals requi
red different shapes and lengths of fingers to handle a task adeptly. Now that she’d seen Pete Maher’s boxing fists, Laney was even more aware of the strength of Thomas Longbow’s solid grip. A grip that might have possibly killed a man before, for all she knew. A Ranger’s firm, trustworthy hold.
“I’m going to be late,” she whispered, gently nudging him and taking command of the bicycle.
She was surprised when he let go and said, “I’ll meet you at the shop.”
He reined his horse away and rode ahead.
Laney wished she could just veer and take the day off, but she couldn’t. Judge Townsend would be there any moment to get the papers started, and she couldn’t afford the day away from the leather. If Thomas was good as his word about really paying for the saddle, then it would take every bit of her time to get the saddle and boxing gloves done on time. She wished now that she hadn’t told him how long it would take to complete the saddle, but he had seemed so insistent about having it done quickly. She suspected his rush had everything to do with when he felt the fight would occur.
When she arrived at the shop, Thomas stood at the hitching post waiting for her. He had already tethered his mount, and extended a hand to help her off the bicycle. He remained quiet for a moment, but his eyes softened in compassion as he said, “Thank you for sharing your story with me, Laney. I know that had to be hard for you. I thought you might want some time alone for those last few streets.”
His thoughtfulness touched her heart as surely as his hand gathered hers to help her off the bicycle. Her stomach tightened as the warmth of his touch enveloped her. Looking into those intriguing gray eyes filled with compassion and understanding, it hit Laney with a force so stunning that she felt herself lean into him.
She knew now why she’d opened up to Thomas.
She could fall in love with him.
Give Me A Texas Ranger Page 30
