The Rodeo Man's Daughter (Harlequin American Romance)

by White Daille, Barbara

  Maybe that’s why she’d unbent once in a while and let him off the hook when the judge cracked down on him. Maybe it’s why she was conversing so freely with him tonight. And why he somehow felt he could trust her in return.

  “We could use some straight talking right now,” he said, thinking of his earlier conversation with Tess. You could tell she and Ellamae came from the same family tree. Tess’s flat responses couldn’t have gotten any more direct, though in a closemouthed way that left him more frustrated than before. He sensed it wouldn’t be the same with Ellamae. But to get from her, you had to give. “As for what happened, I got bored with things. And then I got hurt.”

  “Yeah, we heard about it. That bull tossed you six ways to Sunday, didn’t he?”

  He nodded.

  “I saw you limping some when you got here. Noticed it got worse after you stood at the grill a while. I thought that rehab place fixed you up.”

  He shrugged. “After a long day, I get to feeling some aches.”

  “Don’t we all.” She gave him a surprisingly sweet smile. “Well, you shoot pretty straight yourself, so I’ll tell you this. Roselynn might come back here ready to chat with you, but she won’t allow you much without a sugar coating on it. Tess won’t allow you anything at all.”

  He nodded again.

  “Found that out already, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  She smiled. “Then, it’s lucky you got me. I’ll flap my jaws in a good cause any day.”

  Together, they shot glances toward the doorway. All clear.

  “Okay, then.” Caleb tipped his chair forward another notch. “Start flapping.”

  TESS PUT THE CARAFE of hot chocolate in the center of the tray and surrounded it with coffee mugs. The girls didn’t need the extra sugar this late, but since they wouldn’t sleep much tonight, anyway, that didn’t matter.

  What mattered was what she needed, and that was to get rid of Caleb. To safeguard her peace of mind. Her sanity. And maybe to protect her heart. Something inside still hurt after that unfeeling apology he’d given her.

  Roselynn came into the kitchen and set the pie plate on the counter near the sink. “Need any help?”

  “No, I’ve got it, thanks.”

  She looked over at the carafe. “You have enough for Caleb to have a cup of chocolate, too, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Mom. But I would imagine he’ll be leaving any minute now.”

  Leaving…as he’d done so long ago.

  She tightened her grip on the handle of the carafe. How could that one word, that one thought, fill her with both bitterness and longing at the same time?

  “I don’t know,” her mother said.

  Tess started, afraid she had spoken her question aloud.

  But Roselynn stood looking through the doorway. “It appears he and El have settled in for a nice little chat.”

  “Oh, have they?” Tess grabbed the tray. If there was one thing Aunt El was known for, it was believing she knew what was best for everyone—and not hesitating to tell them.

  Tess didn’t want to think about the earful Caleb might be getting. But she certainly wanted to put a stop to it. “Can you bring the napkins, please?”

  “Tess…” Roselynn frowned.

  “What’s wrong, Mom? Headache?”

  “No…nothing. I’ll go get some more napkins from the pantry.”

  In the dining room again, Tess saw her mother had been right. Caleb and Ellamae had their heads closer together than two sticky buns in a breadbasket.

  She sailed across the room and plunked the tray on the table between them. Caleb backed off just quickly enough to keep from getting hit in the head.

  A head that was as hard as that bull’s he’d been talking about earlier. She ought to know.

  “Hot chocolate!” Nate yelled.

  The girls dropped their cards and clustered around the smaller table. Tess kept busy pouring drinks and passing out not-quite-filled mugs. No sense inviting spills. Upholstery and rug cleaning were expensive.

  She looked through the doorway of the room to the grandfather clock in the hall. Almost nine. The girls would be up for hours yet, if they ever did get to bed.

  She’d had to laugh. All those empty guest rooms upstairs, and they had chosen to sleep on the couches and floor in the living room.

  “It’s getting late,” she told them. “Time to go off to the other room, now.” At least that put them closer to their sleeping arrangements for the night.

  “Come on in with us, Caleb,” Nate said.

  Tess could have won money on that being her daughter’s next step. “No, Caleb’s going to be leaving.” Again, that word caught at her, made her want to sigh. Her voice shook just a bit as she added, “You girls go on.”

  Up went the stubborn jaw. Another step in her daughter’s attempt to get her own way.

  “But Mo-om,” Nate wailed. So predictable. “He’s drinking his hot chocolate, too.”

  “He can drink it here.”

  “Why can’t he come with us?” Nate’s bottom lip jutted out.

  Tess gripped the edges of the tray. “Anastasia Lynn LaSalle,” she said evenly.

  Lissa poked Nate in the ribs. “C’mon, Nate. When it’s all your names, you know you’re in big trouble.”

  Before Nate could say another word that would get her in deeper, before Tess could add something she might regret, Caleb spoke up.

  “You run off, now, like your mama says. I’ll see you girls in the morning.”

  Tess turned to him. Bad enough her own daughter was trying to make the rules around here. She didn’t need him attempting to call the shots, too. She didn’t need him at all.

  “I don’t think so, Caleb,” she said, her chin as high as Nate’s had been. “From now on, if we need to discuss any business at all, we’ll meet at the office.”

  He smiled, took a sip of his chocolate, licked whipped cream from his top lip.

  Tess set her jaw and glared at him.

  “Fine by me,” he replied.

  She narrowed her eyes. She’d never known him to give in so easily.

  “Business. Office. Got it.” He smiled again and set the mug on his table. “But I will see the girls tomorrow morning, anyhow. At breakfast.”

  “What?”

  He swept his arm out, gesturing at the space around them. “This is a bed-and-breakfast. I assume your mama serves breakfast to her guests. As I’ve just decided to take a room here for the rest of my stay in town, I reckon that qualifies me for the meals.”

  The girls broke into cheers loud enough to make the mugs on the tray rattle.

  Or maybe that came from Tess’s suddenly shaking hands. She clutched the tray, wishing she could hold it against her like a shield. She needed some kind of armor against Caleb—because obviously no one else in the room planned to help her.

  The girls were too occupied in high-fiving Caleb and each other. Aunt El was too busy smirking over the turn of events she’d probably brought about herself. And her mother…

  Her mother was standing there smiling quietly, eyes aglow at the idea of a paying guest.

  Tess swallowed a sigh verging on a sob of despair.

  Much as she wanted to kick Caleb out of their home, she knew full well her mom couldn’t afford to turn away any source of income. And as she gazed into his shining green eyes, she realized he knew it, too.

  Caleb had himself a room at the bed-and-breakfast for as long as he wanted it.

  And Tess had hold of a time bomb with an ever-shortening fuse.

  Chapter Five

  As Tess crossed the downstairs entryway, the grandfather clock in the corner chimed.

  Two in the morning.

>   Fighting back a yawn, she climbed the stairs to the second floor again. She’d known not to expect the girls to settle down any time soon, but her patience had deserted her. She’d decided a little friendly caution to the group couldn’t hurt.

  The warning had reduced their giggles enough that she could barely hear them from the top of the stairway.

  Roselynn’s bedroom lay at the far end of the hall. The noise from the living room wouldn’t bother her. Still, the warning to the girls had been good training for them, for the days when they had paying guests at the inn.

  If they ever did again.

  In the hallway, she came to an abrupt halt.

  They did have a guest on the premises.

  After the hour of troubled sleep she’d just tossed and turned through, how could she have forgotten that? Especially when that brief nap had been filled with images of their new boarder?

  As if she’d slipped back into those fitful dreams, the door to her right opened slowly. Silently. Caleb stood framed in the opening, the glow from the hall fixture highlighting him. She gulped, staring at his tousled dark hair and eyes hazy with sleep, to a bare chest dusted with dark hair that arrowed down toward the pair of blue cotton pajama bottoms riding low on his hips.

  He stood so close, she would need only to take a step to touch him.

  She gulped again, feeling a stirring inside that sent her hands grasping to close her robe. Grasping—and finding nothing but her long sleep T-shirt. It covered her completely. She’d had no reservations about going downstairs to the girls without her robe.

  But, oh, did she have her doubts about that decision now.

  Caleb stood looking at her as if the T-shirt were made of see-through nylon with only a few velvet swatches in strategic spots for decoration.

  “I’m sorry,” she said coolly, though she’d grown hot all over in response to his hungry gaze. She forced herself to put her hands calmly by her sides. “Did the girls wake you?”

  He shook his head emphatically, as if trying to clear it. “No, you did, pounding up and down the stairs. Thought we were having an earthquake.”

  “Very funny.”

  He grinned, a sleepy, crooked smile that only cranked up the heat within her. “Didn’t you feel the walls shake?”

  She could feel herself shaking now, all right, to the point she had to fight her need to grab on to something solid.

  Like Caleb.

  “Sorry,” she said again, abruptly this time. “I’ll try to be quieter in future.”

  “Good.” He slumped sideways, bracing one shoulder against the door frame. “I can’t imagine you’d keep your guests very long if you go around disturbing their sleep.”

  “Then they shouldn’t disturb mine.” Oh, great. She’d snapped the words without thinking, more in irritation at herself for her weakness than anything else. Maybe he wouldn’t realize what she’d said. Maybe he would think she meant the girls downstairs.

  But, even half-asleep, he caught on quickly. “Did I bother your dreams tonight, Tess?”

  “No.”

  He reached out to brush her hair back from her cheek. His fingertips whisked across her skin, sending a tickle along her jaw. He leaned close. Closer. She fought the urge to tilt her head the slightest bit, to let him cup her cheek with his palm. To lean even closer in anticipation.

  “You never were very good at lying,” he murmured.

  The combination of his softened voice and less-than-gentle words made her breath catch in surprise. As she backed a step away, his fingertips raised a trail of goose bumps on her skin. “I try not to.”

  “Good. Then, you’ll probably want to take back what you said. I did bother your sleep, didn’t I?”

  She attempted indignation, but the sound that came from her throat could have passed for a yearning sigh. Why couldn’t things have ended differently years ago?

  She stiffened her shoulders and raised her chin. “The fact you feel you can ask that bothers me,” she said, sidestepping one truth but forcing herself to go full steam ahead toward another. “There’s no sense in your worrying about whether or not you affect my dreams. The sleeping ones, anyhow. You gave up that right a long time ago.”

  He raised his hand again.

  Smiling grimly, she backed another step, edging out of his reach. “I think you already know what you did to destroy my waking dreams. But that was a long time ago, too. We’re beyond that and on to something new.” Giving a firm nod, she added, “Breakfast will be served at eight. Then we’ll take care of the business that brought you back to town. Meanwhile, have a good rest of the night.”

  She turned and walked away, blinking rapidly to hold back tears. Of frustration? Anger? Sadness? She couldn’t tell.

  She knew only that she’d been kidding herself when she’d thought about needing to hold on to something solid, like Caleb.

  She’d felt the need, all right. To be close to him again. To relive the past with him. To revisit those days she had refused to talk about earlier when he’d brought them up to her.

  Need had to give way to reality. Trying to make a relationship with Caleb into something solid, something lasting, would never work. The past had already shown her the truth. The real man didn’t want her.

  She’d just have to try harder to keep the dream-Caleb out of her bed.

  No worries about that at the moment, unfortunately. This encounter with him guaranteed that in the hours until daybreak she’d find herself wide-awake and more restless than before. If a few minutes in the hallway had been that dangerous, what would happen if she spent all day tomorrow on the road with him?

  She just wouldn’t, that’s all. She’d use her sleepless hours to revise tomorrow’s schedule, making sure she and Caleb spent as little time alone together as possible until she could pull herself together....

  On second thought, she’d better revamp her schedule for the week.

  “ANOTHER SWEET ROLL, Caleb?” Roselynn held the wicker basket toward him. Earlier she’d made a point of saying how nice it was to have a man at the table with them again.

  He’d never had the pleasure of starting the morning off with a houseful of women. He found it a dubious pleasure, at best.

  The little girls chattered constantly, sounding like a bunch of jaybirds perched on a humming telephone wire.

  Roselynn seemed distracted now. The few times she attempted conversation, all she did was ask him if he wanted more of anything. Maybe the kids were giving her a headache.

  He couldn’t complain about the breakfast. He could complain about his second hostess, Tess, who didn’t seem to care whether he ate or not. Obviously, she still felt riled.

  So did he, as a matter of fact. Riled.

  And intrigued.

  Roselynn waved the sweet rolls at him again. “Yes, ma’am,” he said hastily, “I’d like another of those.”

  Before he could pluck one from the basket, Nate snatched the top one out from under his hand.

  “Nate,” Tess snapped. “That was rude.”

  The girl shrugged. “Sorry,” she muttered.

  “Don’t tell me, tell your guest.”

  Nate gave him a wide smile. “Sorry, Caleb. You want to share this one with me?”

  “No, thanks, I’ll get my own.”

  “Let me get some fresh from the oven,” Roselynn said, reaching for the basket. She rushed off as though she couldn’t wait to escape the tension between Tess and Nate.

  He looked over at Tess, all prim and proper with a long-sleeved shirt buttoned up to her chin. A far cry from her outfit of the previous night. That loose, flowing T-shirt she’d worn hanging down to her knees hadn’t given anything away. But his imagination didn’t need a handout. He could envision what lay beneath the T-shirt ju
st as easily as he could see how uncomfortable she still felt about getting caught in it.

  All through breakfast, she’d refused to make eye contact with him. Her gaze kept moving to her briefcase on the chair in the corner. She wanted his business taken care of. She wanted him gone. He’d picked up on her feeling during supper the night before, and that—and sheer stubbornness—had only added to his list of reasons for taking the room at the inn.

  Could he blame her for wanting to get rid of him? Maybe not. But he couldn’t give her the satisfaction of leaving. He’d tried to explain to her what had happened years ago. She’d made it more than plain she didn’t want to discuss it. Their past was in the past. She’d said it herself.

  Looking down, he stabbed at the ham steak on his plate.

  He still had his future to take care of.

  She seemed equally certain of the need to make sure he didn’t have a future around here.

  After their standoff upstairs in the hall last night, he couldn’t say she had things wrong. Staying this close to her might bring more trouble than he wanted to handle. He’d touched her face. Hadn’t wanted to stop touching her. But she’d backed away as if he’d been a rattler with his tail rising. It had taken him a hell of an effort to let her walk off.

  Another few minutes and he might’ve done something to get his face smacked. As if her verbal slap about her dreams hadn’t made him feel bad enough.

  You gave up that right a long time ago.

  Maybe one of these days he’d find out what rights he did have with her. Now that could get interesting, at least for as long as he stayed in town. Money wasn’t his only means of making an impression. He swallowed a grin along with another mouthful of coffee.

  “Mom,” Nate blurted, distracting him. “I forgot. When we went to the store yesterday, Mr. Harley said to say howdy.”

  “Oh, did he?”

  He looked over at Tess. She’d sounded a little put out about the announcement. Asking her directly wouldn’t get him anywhere. “I remember a Harley from school.” Harley wouldn’t remember him, though. The kid in his homeroom was too rich for the likes of him. “Doesn’t his daddy own the general store?”