“Garrett, you couldn’t have phoned with better news. I’ve been worried sick about that ranch ending up with strangers.”
“Well, don’t get your hopes up too high, Wayne. I’m still a long way from a final decision, but it just sort of struck me as a pretty good idea.”
“Darned good, Garrett. When would you and Collin like to come?”
“Would Thursday through Saturday night be all right? I’m planning on inspecting every detail of the ranch, Wayne, and if we got there early enough, that would give us Thursday afternoon and all day Friday and Saturday. We would leave for home on Sunday morning. Now if our showing up that way would inconvenience you in any way, I’d like you to say so.”
“Garrett, I couldn’t be more pleased. Believe me, your visit will not inconvenience anyone. And I don’t mind telling you right now that I hope you decide to buy the place. Even if the new owners would be men I haven’t yet met, they’d still be Kincaids.”
“They’re Kincaids all right. Course, you understand I still have to find ’em, and that could take some doing.”
“Yes, it could,” Wayne agreed.
It hadn’t escaped Melanie that neither her grandfather nor her brother had asked how she’d gotten along with Eli the day they’d gone to Elk Springs and left her in the foreman’s hands. It was okay that they hadn’t, of course. She wasn’t a child after all, and both of them had a lot on their minds. Since they obviously deemed Eli honest, reliable and totally trustworthy, it undoubtedly never occurred to them that he might have made a pass at her.
Not that Melanie harbored any ill will toward Eli because he’d kissed her. Quite the opposite, actually. She’d never thrown herself at a man as she’d done with Eli and his rejection still smarted. He’d called what they’d been doing behind that shed “crazy,” and she couldn’t quite forget that. She herself saw nothing at all crazy or even inappropriate in two consenting adults being so physically drawn to each other.
But she told herself that if Eli ever lowered his guard and behaved like a human being with her again, she would do the rejecting and see how he liked it. In the meantime, she would act as though nothing more than a little impersonal conversation had passed between them. However, Melanie soon found out that was easier said than done.
The day after her talk on the front porch with her grandfather, Eli practically tripped over his feet in showing her where the training equipment and supplies were kept, even escorting her to the training field.
She couldn’t help rubbing his nose in it, just a little. “Changed your mind, did you?” she said sweetly.
Granite-faced, he said, “Yes, I changed my mind. Sorry I didn’t believe you yesterday.”
“We all make mistakes,” she said nonchalantly. “Oh, if you wouldn’t mind one more imposition, would you please cut Sassy from the herd and bring her out here to me?”
“Don’t you know how to rope a horse?”
“Don’t you know she should be wearing a bridle?”
“I don’t put a bridle on a horse until it’s ready for the saddle.”
“Big mistake. Huge mistake.”
“I suppose you’re an expert? Look, you could talk to a dozen people and get a dozen different responses about the best way to break and train a horse.”
“No kidding,” she said in a deliberately bored tone. “If Sassy was wearing a bridle, I could walk out in that pasture and get her myself.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Well, of course not, you…you dolt! None of those horses are wearing bridles, and I’m only talking about the headstall, or head collar, not the full bridle with bit and reins, which I’m sure you know.”
Eli’s skin flushed darker at the word dolt. “I think we can differ on methods of training horses without resorting to name-calling, don’t you?”
Shooting him a dirty look, Melanie walked off. “Speak for yourself, Forrester,” she said over her shoulder.
Melanie’s technique with unbroken horses was primarily based on patience and consistency. Once Sassy was wearing a head collar, Melanie attached a lead rope—always approaching the young filly on her left side—and then walked her. Around and around the training field, staying well within its perimeter, Melanie walked Sassy and spoke softly to her.
“There’s a good girl. Isn’t this nice, you and I becoming friends?” Mostly the one-sided conversation was nonsensical, but Melanie knew it wouldn’t be long before Sassy became accustomed to her presence and voice, which was the first major step in training a young horse.
Melanie noticed Eli watching her and Sassy several times in the next few days, but other than mealtimes, when they sat at the same long table with everyone else, he stayed away from her.
“Big, strong, frightened little boy,” Melanie mumbled disgustedly during one sighting. “Who needs you anyhow?”
On Wednesday evening, Garrett announced at the supper table that he and Collin would be leaving in the morning on business. “We’ll be back on Sunday. Everyone will, of course, take their orders from Eli.”
Not me! Melanie thought. I’m not taking any orders from Eli Forrester and I just wish he’d try to give me one so I could lambaste the hell out of him!
Then Melanie forgot Eli and looked from her grandfather to her brother. They were forever busy, and she’d spent precious little time with either of them. Now they were going to be gone for four days? Doggone it, what about her?
Leaving the dining room afterward, Melanie caught hold of Collin’s shirtsleeve. “Where are you and Granddad going?”
“To the Kincaid ranch near the town of Whitehorn, Montana,” Collin readily replied. Since Garrett had asked him not to say anything about the possibility of his purchasing the ranch until he’d made up his mind on the matter, Collin merely added, “It’s just another business trip, Mel.”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Montana,” Melanie said, hinting shamelessly that she’d like to go along.
“Well, when we get back, I promise to take some time off and show you the whole darned state, if that’s what you want.”
Melanie smiled weakly. “Be warned, brother. I’m going to hold you to that promise.” Spotting Garrett following Eli, she let go of Collin’s sleeve, murmuring, “Talk to you later,” and returned to the now empty dining room to peek out a window. “Don’t do it, Granddad,” she whispered as she watched the two men talking not far from the house, fearing that Garrett was again asking Eli to entertain her while he was away.
Irma came in to clear the table, saw Melanie near the window and asked, “What’s so interesting?” Then she walked up behind Melanie to peer around her. “Hmm, nothing out there interests me. What’re you looking at?”
“Nothing, really.” Melanie left the window, stepped over to the table and began stacking dirty dishes.
“You don’t have to do that,” Irma said.
“I need something to do.” Melanie swept from the dining room to the kitchen with a large stack of dinner plates. She was hurt, angry and felt like a fifth wheel. If Garrett had so little time to give her, why had he bothered to invite her to come for a visit? Collin was no better. Darn it, how could they go off for four days and expect Eli to keep her company?
Feeling melancholy the next morning, Melanie phoned her mother. When Sue Ellen answered, Melanie breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness you’re home,” she said. “How are you, Mom?”
“I’m fine, but you don’t sound as though you are. What’s wrong?”
“Oh, I’m just being silly. Granddad and Collin went to Whitehorn for four days and the place feels deserted, which is utterly ridiculous because Irma’s in the house and a dozen men are outside.”
“Why on earth did they go to Whitehorn? The two branches of the Kincaid family never got along.”
“That’s what I thought. Do you suppose they kissed and made up?”
“I suppose it’s possible. If memory serves, Garrett tried to mend old wounds with his cousin Jeremiah years ago and g
ot nowhere. Maybe Garrett’s done better with the younger generation.”
“Jeremiah’s children?”
“Do you know that I don’t recall the names of those kids? Or even if there were any, to be honest. No, wait a minute. A few years back, Collin sent some newspaper clippings about that family. Someone was murdering everyone, or something equally as horrendous. Do you remember if I gave those clippings to you to read?”
“I seem to remember them, yes. Mom, when I called before to let you know I’d arrived safely, I deliberately didn’t tell you something because I thought it might upset you. But I’ve thought more about it, and it’s practically all Granddad and Collin do think about, so I’m going to tell you now.”
“Oh, goodness,” Sue Ellen said worriedly. “This sounds serious.”
“It’s getting more serious by the day if I’ve been reading Granddad and Collin correctly. It’s about Dad.”
“About Larry? Melanie, it’s not like you to let stale old gossip bother you.”
Melanie sighed. “It’s not gossip, Mom. It’s fact. Six facts, to be exact. When Granddad and Collin opened Dad’s safety-deposit box, they found proof that Dad had fathered six illegitimate sons.”
“What?”
“You’re upset. I shouldn’t have told you.”
“Of course I’m upset! Six sons? All with the same woman?”
“Apparently not.”
“Not with six different women?”
“I…I believe so. I haven’t actually seen the birth certificates, so I suppose it’s possible that more than one man has the same mother. But your guess is as good as mine on that score.”
“Are these sons still children or are some of them older?”
“They’re, uh, they’re all grown men, Mom. A couple of them are older than Collin, and one is the same age as he is. That really bothered Collin.”
Sue Ellen started crying. “Of course it bothered Collin. Dammit, why can Larry still hurt me from the grave? Melanie, I’ll call you back. I need some time to pull myself together.”
“Mom…I’m so sorry!”
But Sue Ellen had hung up and didn’t hear her daughter’s anguished apology.
Melanie finally pulled herself together and decided that moping around the house and feeling ignored because Garrett and Collin were so close and did everything together, while she was really nothing but an outsider no matter how much anyone tried to sugarcoat the truth, was just too infantile even for a person who had every right to wallow in self-pity.
Plopping her straw hat on her head and donning her dark glasses, she stuck her riding gloves into her back pocket and left the house. For a few seconds she stopped and just breathed in the sweet smell of spring, but then she walked directly to the main horse pasture to pick a horse to ride. It didn’t seem possible that this was her fifth day on the ranch and she still hadn’t gone riding. Obviously, she’d let too many other things distract her, but it was an easily remedied oversight.
At the fence, she whistled softly through her teeth, and as she’d hoped would happen, several horses perked up their ears and ambled over to meet her. She petted their noses, then decided that the roan gelding was the friendliest. The gate was nearby as were some ropes, looped over posts. Going for a rope, she let herself through the gate, then walked over to the roan, who was still very friendly.
“You’re a sweetheart, aren’t you?” she crooned while looping the rope around his neck. As docile as a lamb, he let her lead him through the gate. She tied him to a post and went to get a saddle and the other necessary trappings for horseback riding. Removing her sunglasses in the tack room and tucking them into her shirt pocket, she started checking the available saddles for one that would fit her and she’d be able to lift.
“What’re you doing?”
She jumped a foot and whirled on Eli. “Do you always sneak up on people? Good grief, you scared me half to death!”
“You look pretty healthy for someone who’s half-dead,” Eli drawled wryly. “I asked what you were doing.”
“Is it really any of your affair?”
“You might not like it, I might not like it, but yes, it’s my affair.”
Melanie rolled her eyes and heaved a put-upon sigh. “Granddad asked you to entertain me again.”
“I wouldn’t exactly describe it that way. What he said was to keep an eye on you and especially not to let you go riding by yourself.”
“He did not! He knows I’m an experienced rider, and he wouldn’t—”
Wearing a no-nonsense expression on his handsome features, Eli clasped her arm. “Simmer down. He would and he did. So you can’t go riding right now because I’m busy with something else. Later on—probably in an hour or so—I’ll be free to go with you.”
Melanie drew herself up to her full height and glared at Eli. “Number one, I’m not waiting an hour for you or anyone else. Number two, I’m a grown woman and I do not need a bodyguard. Number three, I do not want you going with me!” She shrieked that last part, then immediately regretted sounding like a banshee.
And the worst part of this little scene was that if Eli had asked her to go riding with him—sort of like a date—she probably would’ve been thrilled. Being ordered around just naturally went against the grain, though, and however handsome he was, and however weak in the knees she felt because they were alone and physically connected through his hand holding her arm, she was not going to let him tell her when she could or could not go riding.
“Spoiled rotten,” Eli said grimly. “I knew it all the time. You’re going riding no matter what I say, aren’t you?”
“Bet the ranch on it, Forrester!” She yanked her arm free. “Now, why don’t you trot on out of here and leave me be?”
Eli wondered how he could be so attracted to a woman with her mouth and sense of independence when he’d always preferred the quiet type who didn’t argue over every damn thing a man said or did. But there was no questioning Melanie Kincaid’s appeal; he felt it in every cell of his body. Would she lie down here with him if he kissed and caressed her, as she’d said she would have done behind the shed that day? Had any woman ever said anything more exciting to him?
Her offer was constantly on his mind; that was the trouble. He got hot just thinking about that one sentence. I would lie down right here if it wasn’t broad daylight and someone could come along and see us. And he, damned fool that he was, had gotten all noble and practically told her they were both crazy. Or something like that. He remembered saying something was crazy anyway, and from the haughty way Melanie had been talking to him ever since, he’d probably said she was crazy and she wasn’t, dammit! She was beautiful and sensual and he wanted her more than any woman he’d ever known.
Still, she could be nicer about his trying to follow her own grandfather’s orders.
“I don’t think you realize the dangers you could run into in this neck of the woods,” he said flatly while watching her check the weight of a pretty, pale leather saddle. “Wandering across this ranch isn’t like riding some protected trail in San Diego, you know.”
Melanie couldn’t help laughing. “You do come up with some gems, Eli.” Turning her head, she sent him a glance. “Do you really think I’m unaware of the many differences between southern California and Montana?” She laid a folded blanket on the saddle, then a bit and its accompanying paraphernalia, and said, “This one will do just fine.” Picking everything up, she started for the door.
“Dammit, why won’t you listen to reason?” Eli demanded, stepping in her path and blocking her exit.
“Why are you so determined to make me angry?” She stared right at him, not backing down an inch.
He finally threw up his hands. “Okay, fine, you win. I’ll go get my horse.”
She moved around him to reach the door. “Don’t hurry on my account,” she tossed back behind her as she walked out.
Muttering about overbearing, bossy women, Eli followed her out, then went in another direction to get his hor
se, which was in a corral and unsaddled. “Could you possibly bring yourself to wait a few minutes while I saddle up?” he shouted at her retreating backside.
“Nope, not one second! When I’m ready, I’m gone.”
Suddenly, it was a game, and giggling under her breath, Melanie rushed to saddle the roan in record time. If he hadn’t been such a gentle, well-mannered horse, it would have taken longer than it did, but in a very few minutes, she was on his back in the saddle. And she waited only until she got the feel of the horse beneath her and learned how he responded to commands before she urged him into a gallop, then a run. Laughing merrily, she looked back and saw neither hide nor hair of Eli.
Maybe he would never catch up to her! What fun!
Eli kept his horse at a walk. Melanie and the roan were far ahead of him, but just seeing her was enough for Eli. He was “keeping an eye” on his boss’s granddaughter as Garrett had asked him to do, and she wasn’t close enough to bedevil him or tempt him into doing something that he knew he would later regret. No matter how much he wanted to sink himself into Melanie’s lush female body, instinct told him that he would be better off walking into a lion’s den than making love to Melanie Kincaid.
And so he rode and thought, rode and thought, and once in a while he’d remember the job he’d left undone so he could plod along behind a spoiled city woman. She probably thought it was cute and clever of her to stay far ahead of him although he knew his horse was much faster than the roan she was riding and he could catch up with her anytime he felt like it.
God, if ever a woman needed a lesson in good sportsmanship, or even needed to be taken down a peg or two, it was Melanie Kincaid. And wouldn’t he just love to be the man to tame that little wildcat? Even if he did regret it for the rest of his days?
Groaning out loud over his own ambivalence, Eli pulled his hat lower on his forehead. Then he noticed that Melanie had taken a new direction and was heading for the sandy, dangerous cliffs overlooking Dove Lake.
The Kincaid Bride Page 7
