by Becky McGraw
"Got it," she yelled as she swung the bundle inside the dark compartment then swiped her hands together to knock off the dirt coating her hands from the bedroll.
"Good girl," he praised with a wide smile as he threw a saddle and a couple of headstalls into the compartment. Her heart wiggled in her chest and Leigh Ann smiled proudly. See she could be useful. She wanted to be more useful.
"What else can I help with?"
"Follow me." Wes walked back toward the barn and she trailed him, doing double-time to keep up with his long strides. They walked into the well-lit barn, and he kept going until he stopped in front of a stall. Leigh Ann skidded to a stop and backed up. There was no way she was getting near a horse again. She had pressed her luck by riding with Trace Rooks, only because she had no other choice. She had a choice here, and she chose to stay far, far away from the animal.
"Come here, baby," he said as he flipped the latch and walked into the stall. Wes was a brave man, but Leigh Ann was not nearly as brave. Even if he called her pet names, and talked softly to her, there was no way she was going any closer.
Leigh Ann waited where she was, but quickly realized that soft, sexy voice and endearment had been for the horse, not her. Leigh Ann watched Wes walk up to the horse and run his hand along her cheek. Her blood heated as she remembered those hands running along her skin like that just a few hours ago. Blood rushed to her head and Leigh Ann swayed, when Wes scratched behind the big horse's ear and she rubbed her head against his hand.
"That's it, sweetheart. It won't be long now," he purred as he laid his cheek to hers lovingly. Wes turned toward Leigh Ann and smiled broadly. That smile did things to her insides, melted them, and made her yearn to see more of them. She had thought he didn't smile much, before. He had smiled plenty last night. And grinned, and laughed, and played.
Leigh Ann loved that Wes...wished he would stay around.
But she knew when daylight came, he would probably revert back to being stand-offish with her again. And he would want to keep her at arm's length. Sadness ripped through her heart, and she almost wished that the sun would never rise again. Leigh Ann had a feeling that last night was a one time thing for Wes, and all she would have tomorrow were memories.
For her, it had been a life-changing experience. Last night she found out what it was like to make love to a man she wanted. And last night she had fallen in love with a man for the first time in her life. Wes Jepson had been hurt so badly by his ex-wife, he would probably never let himself love anyone again. That was a damned shame, because the man had so much to give. But even one-sided love was better than never having experienced it.
Leigh Ann did not regret one moment of last night, or making love to him.
But she would not beg him to make love to her again. And she wouldn't count on him being in her life permanently. That would be setting herself up for failure. Last night he hadn't mentioned forever, or even tomorrow. Leigh Ann hadn't expected it, but she still held out a little hope he might develop feelings for her eventually.
If that didn't happen, she could only hope that one day she would find another man who could make her body sing like Wes did. When she found him, she would marry him and they would have a family. A real family that loved each other unconditionally. And she wouldn't put unreasonable expectations on her husband or children. She would expect them to give her the same consideration.
She wasn't perfect, nobody was perfect, not even her mother.
"The baby will come soon," Wes announced as he walked out of the stall and shut the door. Leigh Ann shook her head, because she thought he was talking to her again.
"Come here, I need your help carrying some saddle blankets," he said and walked toward the back of the barn. Leigh Ann stumbled after him, then got her wits back when she reached what she guessed was the tack room. It was dark inside, so she waited at the door and shined the light inside, so Wes could see.
A moment later he came out with his arms loaded down with striped blankets. He dropped three on the ground. "Take those," he said then walked toward the front of the barn, leaving her to follow again.
By the time they finished loading the trailer, the sky was turning orange with the first rays of dawn. Wes walked back inside the barn for the last time and said over his shoulder, "Open the tailgate of the trailer so I can load Charlie."
No please, no thank you, no baby or sweetheart for her now. The closer to dawn it got, the gruffer he had become with her, the shorter his orders. She was the hired help now, and he was in boss mode.
"Yes, sir," she said snapping a salute, before she turned and walked to the back of the trailer. The more time that passed from the last time they made love a few hours ago, the more distant Wes became, and it bothered her. Even though she doubted they would be lovers again, she at least hoped they could be friends after last night, but he wasn't acting very friendly right now.
Wes rounded the back of the trailer leading a chocolate brown horse, she assumed was a boy, since his name was Charlie. Leigh Ann stood way back and watched him tie the horse to the back, before he jumped up into the trailer through a side door. He walked around inside, filled a sack with hay, then walked to the end and led the horse inside. The horse went calmly and Wes secured a clip to his halter, before taking off the lead rope and exiting the trailer through the side door.
"Let's get going, we have to meet Clay and the rest of the team down by Caprock Canyon at seven." Leigh Ann looked at the sky and estimated it was probably at least six o'clock now. Caprock was at least two hours from them, if her memory served her right.
"We're going to be late," she announced.
He smiled at her, the first smile since the sun came up. She took that as a good sign. "The party won't start til we get there, baby," he told her with a laugh. "But we do need to get rolling." A smile, a pet name and a laugh. Maybe things would be okay after all.
Wes stopped halfway to Caprock to pick up two large coffees and breakfast sandwiches at a fast food restaurant. Leigh Ann was glad, because she kept catching herself dozing off. The man hadn't said two words to her since they left the office. When his truck door closed, it seemed like his mouth had shut just as tightly. Leigh Ann wanted to talk. She felt like they had a lot to talk about considering what happened last night.
"Wes, about last night..." she started and watched his hands tighten on the steering wheel. He squirmed in his seat, cleared his throat then leaned forward and reached for the radio dial.
"Let's see if we can find a country station," he said evenly, but she heard a note of panic behind the words. "I need to focus, and put the pedal down, because we're late. That hiker isn't going to find himself, and Clay will be pissed if we don't get there soon."
"I thought you said the party would wait for us?" she asked with frustration.
"If my other guys beat us there, it's not going to look good."
"Your other guys?" Leigh Ann repeated. She thought Wes was part of a team that was run by Clay, that the mysterious Texas Ranger was gathering people to help them.
Wes cast her a glance, the first time he had looked at her since they hit the road. "Yeah, the equine team is mine. I formed it and mostly fund it. The other men who help me are volunteers. While you were in the shower, I called them and they're meeting us there."
"Oh." Leigh Ann got the picture now. That's why Wes had needed so much gear loaded into the truck. There were others who would be involved in the search, and he was the one heading things up. That also meant once they got to the campground, they wouldn't have a minute of time to talk about anything, including last night. Unless she pinned him down now.
Latin music, a talk radio channel, then gospel music blared into the cab of the truck, before Wes finally found a classic rock station and moved his hand from the knob. That is how Leigh Ann felt right now with the thoughts running through her head. Confused and discombobulated, senselessly flipping channels in her brain, replaying her interactions with Wes since she'd met him, trying to hone in on
the one that would explain how he was acting toward her. Why he was so afraid of her. Nothing.
She folded her arms over her chest protectively, bracing for whatever answer he would give. "Why don't you like me?"
His head spun on his shoulders to look at her, then he looked back at the road. "I like you. Why would you think I don't like you?" he asked as if the thought were foreign to him. She knew it wasn't. Leigh Ann had felt the derision in his actions, heard it in his words since he met her. Even though that was the last kind of vibe she got from him last night. Last night he had liked her well enough. Too much. But then she had forced his hand. She was going to do the same thing now, because she wanted answers.
"Because before last night you wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole. You found excuses to be out of the office on calls that didn't exist. And when you talk to me, you treat me like I'm dense, like I'm a child and a bother. Is it because I'm blonde?" she asked seriously. Some people had preconceived notions that light hair meant the person with it was light-brained. Maybe Wes was one of those.
With the exception of the Eagles playing Heartache Tonight on the radio, silence reigned in the truck. Leigh Ann's arms tightened on her chest, as she listened to the lyrics that should be her mantra right now. She wished he had chosen that song last night, so at least she would have had some forewarning of what was to come. "Tell me, Wes," she finally prompted again.
"I like you Leigh Ann, I just can't love you, or give you what you want," he told her without looking. He blew out a frustrated breath. "I don't have time to talk about this right now though. We'll talk later...and I'm sorry."
He drops that on her, then expected her to just shut up? Was she defective or something? "Why can't you love me? Is something wrong with me? Do you think I'm pretty enough to sleep with, but too much of an airhead for a relationship?"
"See that's why I stayed away from you!" he growled, his hands practically bending the steering wheel under his grip. "The relationship talk. I don't want a fucking relationship with anyone, Leigh Ann. We had sex, it was great...but that's the end of it."
A vein popped out on the side of his neck and beat furiously as he leaned forward and twisted the radio knob violently, raising the music to a blaring level. That signaled the end of their conversation. His agitation practically charged the air in the truck, so she decided to back off. For now.
It was great. Well, that pretty much told her what she needed to know at the moment anyway. Wes Jepson had used her, even though he didn't like or respect her. She had just gotten the royal brush off, and she was supposed to be okay with that.
She was going to tell him exactly what she thought about that later. But now wasn't the time. Wes didn't need to be upset when he was going out in the woods to try and find someone, maybe putting himself in danger in the process. Leigh Ann didn't want to be the cause of a distraction that might cause him to get hurt, so she kept her mouth shut.
But she would get answers from him later. They would talk.
I'm not letting you leave, I need you here. Well, the jury was out on whether she was staying or going. Leigh Ann needed the job with him, she had been hasty leaving yesterday. This time, she would think about it and decide rationally whether she would stay. One thing she knew is that she wasn't going to let Wes use her again.
Even though she loved him, she was done letting herself be used as a plaything. Wes might not respect her, but she had enough respect for herself not to let that happen. She had four previous men who wanted her for that purpose, her mother had wanted her to let them use her. Leigh Ann was not going to be any man's trophy or toy, she knew she was worth a lot more than that. Like her sister told her, she was a lot more than Miss Texas. She had a brain, a compassionate nature, and she wasn't settling for being a plaything to a man who didn't love her because of those qualities, as well as her beauty.
By the time they reached the campground an hour later, the missing man had already turned up. He had left early to go fly fishing yesterday, and hadn't bothered to tell his family where he was going when he left. After getting turned around in the woods, it had taken him all night to find his way back to camp.
It was a false alarm that had roused the twenty rescuers from their beds at three in the morning to drive two hours to a campground for no reason. She wondered if this kind of thing happened to Wes all the time. She knew it pissed her off that they hadn't looked better before calling out the troops.
Sleep-deprived and grumpy, Leigh Ann stood near the coffee urn outside the base camp tent, pouring herself another cup. Hearing the men inside the tent just standing around shooting the breeze now, while they drank coffee irritated her, so she came outside to get some space.
The fact that she was sleep deprived was her own fault she knew. Because she had stayed up to make love to Wes Jepson four times last night. Well, almost four times. It would have been four times if they hadn't been interrupted. She took a sip of the thick, black brew in her cup and cringed, both from the bitterness in her mouth and in her heart.
Last night, Leigh Ann had done things with and to the man she had never done before with anyone else. Heat rushed up her neck as she remembered. Embarrassment and shame shot through her, with the thought that perhaps she had been too enthusiastic. Maybe that was why he was acting this way today. He was embarrassed too. If he only knew he was only the second man she had ever made love to, he would know better.
Or maybe she was just a notch in his bedpost. That thought made the coffee in her stomach boil. She was going to have an ulcer worrying about it, if she didn't force herself to think about something else. Move on, Leigh Ann, she ordered herself and swallowed another sip of coffee. You knew that might be the case last night, and you still slept with him. It's your own damned fault.
"You can drink that stuff?" A very handsome dark-haired man dressed in police gear stepped up beside her with a wide, friendly smile on his face. He picked up one of the styrofoam cups from the stack beside the coffee urn and filled one for himself.
"I'm Brad Thomas, what's your name pretty lady?" he asked smoothly as he stood up and pinned her with interested eyes. "You new on Wes's team?"
She wasn't on Wes's team, in any way shape or form, Leigh Ann thought, but she returned his smile and it felt like her face was going to crack. "Not really. I'm just an observer," she replied.
"Oh, I saw you arrive with Wes and thought he had a habit of hiring only the prettiest women in Texas to be on his team...have you met Roxanne?"
Leigh Ann chuckled. "More than once. She's my sister," she told him and her eyes moved over his black vest that was stuffed with all kinds of tools and gadgets.
His eyebrows lifted, and he grinned. "That explains why you look like her then. Are you as mean as she is?" He rolled his eyes, as he hid a grin behind his cup. The black hat he had on shaded his eyes, so she couldn't tell what color they were. But he was nice, and right now nice was good. Her hurt feelings needed a little bit of salving.
"Not nearly," she laughed, then added, "Roxanne got all the meanness and I got the nice genes. Sometimes I wish I was like her." More than sometimes. She could use her sister's no-nonsense approach right now, as she geared up to confront Wes Jepson. But that wouldn't happen for a bit, so she decided to make small talk with Brad.
"So what do you do, Brad?" she asked with a wide smile.
"I'm a fireman by day, and a superhero whenever I get the call from the phone booth, like now," he said with a chuckle. She liked this man, he was open and friendly. And he appeared to like her too. She didn't have to pry a smile out of him.
Definitely a breath of fresh air after Wesley Jepson, who had done nothing but ignore her since they arrived at the site. "Is there a big S tattooed on your chest under that vest?" she asked flirting with him, because she could.
She wasn't in a relationship with anyone. Wouldn't be in a relationship with Wes Jepson. What did it matter? This was harmless anyway. Friendly. And it felt darned good.
"There's only one wa
y to find out, sugar," he said with a sly wink and a sexy grin.
Leigh Ann wouldn't be finding that out then. "Well, I'll just have to take your word for it then, since we don't know each other yet."
"Yet? Does that mean you'll go out with me, if I ask?" he asked hopefully. "You single, darlin?"
"She's with me, Brad," Wes said gruffly as he walked up to her and dropped his arm over her shoulder possessively. "Clay is looking for you."
"I saw him just a minute ago, but sorry if I was poaching," he told Wes taking a step back to hold up his hands. "I'll see you around, sugar. Give me a call if this joker doesn't treat you right." With a wink at Wes, and a last smile for her, Brad turned and walked off toward the tent. She followed his broad back until he disappeared under the flap of the tent.
Wes's arm immediately dropped from her shoulders, and he rounded on her to hiss through his teeth, "You are here to help, not troll for men, Leigh Ann. Stay away from the workers, they have a job to do. They are not here to entertain you."
"I shouldn't have come." Leigh Ann should have stayed at the office and packed her bags, but she was tired of running. She wasn't going to do it, unless he forced her to. Leigh Ann would put up with his meanness, get her paycheck and do whatever the hell she pleased in her off time. What she pleased had nothing to do with Wes Jepson anymore. The man could take a long walk on a short pier for all she cared. She was done.
"I shouldn't have let you come," he corrected as he jerked a cup off of the stack beside the coffee pot. "I knew you were just going to get in the way."
Hurt flitted through her to settle in the pit of her stomach to swirl around with the bad coffee she had ingested. "I'll be in the truck." Asshole, she added mentally, then spun to walk across the field toward the parking lot.
By the time Wes opened the door to allow fresh air inside the truck, Leigh Ann had been sleeping in the stagnant, hot air for over an hour. He stepped up on the running board and sat behind the wheel without a word. She folded her arms over her chest and looked out the window as he cranked the truck and pulled out of the campground.
