“Did Garrett ever talk about the baby’s father?”
Mrs. Mac stepped into the kitchen just in time to hear the question. “If you want to know something about Garrett’s past, don’t you think you ought to be asking her?”
Joshua wasn’t fazed by the rebuke. “Every time I broach the subject, she shuts up like a clam. Even Casey hasn’t been able to get anything out of her.”
Mrs. Mac looked startled. “The child told you that?”
He nodded, his expression grim. “She finally stopped asking. It can’t be healthy for either one of them to keep this veil of silence thrown over the past.”
“No,” Mrs. Mac agreed slowly. “I’ve suspected for some time that there was more to the story than Garrett has ever revealed to me.”
“What has she told you?”
Mrs. Mac looked troubled. “Joshua, I understand your need to know, perhaps even better than you do yourself.”
“I love her, if that’s what you mean.”
Elena burst into excited Spanish, kissing him on both cheeks. Mrs. Mac nodded thoughtfully. “You surprise me.”
“Didn’t think I was capable of love, huh?”
Something that might have been a smile tugged at her normally stern lips. “No, young man. I wasn’t sure you had the guts to admit it.”
“I don’t like to waste a lot of time and energy ignoring the inevitable. I’m going to win her over, Mrs. McDonald. Will you help me?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I think our Garrett has finally met someone worthy of all she has to offer and man enough to make her see it. It could take time, though. Promise me you won’t give up on her. It could be a bumpy ride.”
He grinned. “She warned me of exactly the same thing, only in a slightly different context. I don’t scare easily. I guess if I did, I’d never have made the trip out here, no matter what Cal did to persuade me. Something told me eighteen months ago I was lost when it came to Garrett. I managed to persuade myself that the feelings would diminish with time and distance and sanity, but they haven’t,” he concluded with a shrug. “I guess the only thing left is to come up with a battle plan.”
“I can see to it that the two of you are thrown together,” Mrs. Mac offered, her eyes snapping with excitement at the prospect of matchmaking. “We could have a party. This old house hasn’t seen a wonderful, romantic ball in many years.”
“The party might be good, but forget the rest. I think Garrett’s had her fill of being maneuvered. What she may have missed is a simple, old-fashioned courtship.” A chagrined expression crossed his face. “Come to think of it, so have I. This could be fun.” He met Mrs. Mac’s sparkling gaze. “Any suggestions? What worked on you? I heard you were a softie when it came to ice-skating. I’m not sure I have the ankles for that, but I could try.”
A dreamy look came into her eyes. “So Garrett told you about that, did she? Skating under a full moon certainly sets the right mood for romance. In the meantime, though, you could start with flowers, lots and lots of flowers.”
Joshua threw back his head and laughed. “I’ve already tried that one. They wound up on the kitchen floor.”
Suddenly the memory of the scene just a short time before came back to him.
“Of course, I was the one who put them there,” he admitted thoughtfully.
Before he’d sent them crashing, before the fight had erupted, he’d seen the wistfulness in Garrett’s expression, seen the shimmering tears of delight in her eyes before the gift had been somehow spoiled. Maybe what she needed rather than lavish bouquets was one single rose.
Chapter Nine
Garrett found the single, perfect rose lying on her saddle when she went to the barn at dawn a few days after her fight with Joshua. She’d been so successful in avoiding him that she’d actually convinced herself he’d given up on her. Soon he would finish his work and return to Florida where he belonged. Now with the sweet scent of the white bud counterpointing the more familiar earthy aroma of hay and horseflesh, she realized he had only been giving her room to breathe.
“Oh, Joshua,” she murmured as she touched a finger to the velvety softness of the petals. The man was definitely sneaky, sliding through her defenses just when she thought she was immune to his charms. Anger had been her best defense so far, but how could she possibly get angry over something as beautiful and unexpected as this?
The barn door squeaked on its hinges just then and she looked up, fully expecting to find Joshua. Her traitorous pulse hammered at the prospect. Filled with a mixture of anticipation and dread, she slowly turned, only to find Red stomping his boots on the ground and shaking the snow from his jacket. Deep inside her, relief warred with disappointment.
“You riding out with us today?” he asked when he saw that she was saddling Bright Lightning.
“I thought I would.”
He nodded, his expression turning thoughtful. Garrett recognized the look. He was worried. Instantly she was all business.
“Red, is something bothering you? Is there something happening around here that I should know about?”
He glanced pointedly at the rose. “You tell me.”
“Meaning?”
“You’ve been jumpy as a June bug these last few days. You’re standing here clutching a rose and now you want to take off to check the fence in the northwest section. I’m just trying to figure if any of that has anything to do with what’s going on between you and this Ames fellow.”
“There is nothing going on between me and Joshua. Nothing,” she said too quickly, too emphatically. Her gaze skidded guiltily away from his, then determinedly returned to see Red’s eyes narrow consideringly.
“Well, now, I might have believed that if I hadn’t seen the two of you coming out of that cabin the other day. The tension was thicker than a morning fog in the Tetons. Just now you jumped about a foot in the air when I opened that door. Unless I miss my guess, you was expecting him.”
She shook her head. “Not really.”
“Hoping for him, then.”
“Absolutely not.”
Again he nodded slowly. Garrett was busy congratulating herself on the success of her deception when he said, “Maybe, just maybe, you can fool yourself, woman, but you can’t fool me. I’ve known you too long. I’ve seen the way you keep a man at arm’s length and do it with a smile, so’s he never knows he’s been flat-out rejected. Lord knows, you’ve done it enough to me and the other cowboys around these parts. If you’d been shut up in that cabin with any one of us overnight, you’d have walked out of there in the morning just as cool as you pleased. Instead your face was all flushed like you’d been riding lickety-split over the back forty.”
Garrett felt a renewed blush creeping into her cheeks. “Red, this really isn’t any of your business,” she reminded him.
“Maybe. Maybe not. But I know what I saw. If the man did a thing to hurt you, I’d expect you to tell me about it. I’d take care of him so he wouldn’t bother you again. You and Casey are pretty special to me and to all the men. Either of you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask.”
The sweet satisfaction of being cared for brought fresh tears to her eyes. “Thanks. I know I can count on all of you, but there’s nothing to worry about. I’m a grown woman. I can handle Joshua.”
“If you say so,” he said doubtfully. “He the one who gave you that flower?”
“Yes.”
“Means a lot, a man giving a woman a flower like that, wouldn’t you say?” Red commented shrewdly.
She thought of all the flowers Joshua had delivered to her house a few nights before and the way they’d ended up all over the kitchen floor. “It’s just a rose.”
“You ever found one waiting for you out here in the barn before?”
“No.”
“Then I got one last thing to say and I’ll stay out of it till you come askin’ for advice. You watch your step around a man like that. You ain’t used to his slick, big-city techniques. Before you kno
w it a man like that’ll have you all mixed up, doing something you’re likely to regret. You’ll wind up getting hurt. None of us around here wants to see that.”
Garrett sighed. She knew more than Red could ever imagine about slick, big-city techniques and a whole lot about regrets. She recognized a practiced seduction technique when she saw it and certainly knew better than to believe that a single rose meant anything. Regretfully she let the flower slide from her fingers and drop to the barn floor, its significance as faded as its petals were likely to become.
“Let’s get going,” she told Red, taking Bright Lightning’s reins and following the still-troubled foreman outside. Ominous gray clouds scudded by overhead. As she closed the barn door she glanced inside and saw that the rose had been trampled. Blinking back tears, she mounted her horse and turned toward the north, into the cold that suddenly seemed crueler than ever.
* * *
Joshua found the crushed rose late that afternoon. A swift fury swept through him, followed by a growing sense of resignation. This wasn’t going to follow the quick battle plan he’d envisioned. Winning Garrett was obviously going to require an all-out campaign. Maybe he could get Mrs. McDonald to speed up plans for the ball. He very much needed to hold Garrett in his arms again and he doubted she’d let him do it except on a dance floor.
He went back to the main house and found Mrs. McDonald in the parlor going over the books he’d just finished working on. “Checking to see if my addition’s okay?” he inquired.
“Looking to see what you’ve embezzled,” she taunted right back. Shrewd blue eyes assessed his mood and her tone softened. “Did you find Garrett?”
He didn’t even bother to ask how she’d known that’s where he’d gone. “No. There’s no sign of her.”
“It’s my guess that she rode out with Red and the men. There have been problems with the fencing.”
“Is that part of her job?”
“No, but she likes to ride when she’s thinking about something. My hunch is that you’ve given her a lot to think about the past few days.”
The thought of her out there with Red grated on his nerves. For the first time in his life he was afflicted with a nasty streak of pure jealousy. “Any idea which direction they were heading?”
“I know exactly.”
He glanced at her and found that her gaze was studiously fixed on the columns of figures in front of her. “Would you care to share that information with me?”
“No.”
“I thought you told me you were going to help me.”
“That’s what I’m doing. Chasing after her like a man who has the right to won’t win her over.” She looked up at him then. “Don’t threaten her independence, Joshua. She’ll only come to resent you.”
He sighed as he recognized the wisdom in her advice. “What should I do, then?” he said, wandering around the room, picking things up and putting them down.
“Wait and while you’re at it, you might take a look at my personal checkbook. It doesn’t seem to match the statement I got last month from the bank. Hasn’t for some time now,” she added.
“How do you expect to find signs of embezzlement, if you can’t even balance your own account?” he teased.
“Gut instinct, boy. Don’t you dismiss that so easily.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Joshua, seriously, if you’re starting to get restless here already, maybe Garrett’s not the woman for you.”
“Meaning you don’t think she’ll ever be a whither-thou-goest sort of wife.”
“Precisely. She went through a lot to get to Wyoming in the first place and as far as I can see, it’s given her something she very much needed. She’ll fight to keep it.”
Suddenly he was afflicted with the unexpected and confusing sense that he was in a situation in which he was absolutely helpless. He didn’t like not being in control. He hated the uncertainty. “Why does love have to be so damned complicated?” he growled, thumping an original Remington bronze back onto its pedestal.
“It’s not the loving that’s complicated,” Mrs. Mac told him. “It’s the details. If you think of it that way, the two of you should be able to work out anything. Now I think I’ll go take my nap.”
“If you can rest easily that must mean the books are okay.”
“So far,” she retorted. “So far.”
She struggled to her feet. Holding herself erect, despite the pain that was reflected in her eyes, she crossed the room and patted his hand. “Use this time that Garrett’s away to think things over carefully. Don’t start something that you can’t live with. It wouldn’t be fair to either one of you.”
“I’m not sure how much thinking I’ll be able to get done between now and dinner,” he told her. “It could take me longer than that just to decipher what you’ve scribbled in this checkbook.”
“There’s no rush. Garrett’s not likely to be back tonight. Chances are they won’t make it back for a day or two, especially if we get another snowfall tonight.”
Joshua’s eyes widened and thoughts of his own snowbound night with Garrett sent a dozen provocative memories racing through his mind. “A day or two,” he repeated, more disgruntled than ever. “I’m supposed to relax while she’s out on the range for a day or two with a bunch of cowboys?”
“If you can’t do it now, it won’t get any easier,” Mrs. Mac warned him. “That’s just something more for you to think about.”
“Well, hell,” he muttered when she’d left the room.
“I heard that,” she called back.
Chuckling ruefully, he shouted, “Sorry.”
When she’d gone, he continued to prowl the cluttered room restlessly, unable to rid himself of the image of Garrett riding off with Red. Again. Once more she’d chosen the company of the ranch foreman over him. Maybe it was a losing battle after all. He allowed himself ten minutes of thoroughly dispirited thinking, then snapped himself out of it. He picked up the phone and started making calls.
By the time Mrs. Mac came down to dinner, he’d had a fax machine and his own phone line installed. In the morning some of his most critical files would arrive by overnight express. If he was going to stay here and fight for Garrett, then he might as well stay busy. It was entirely possible that three-fourths of his jealousy problem resulted from not having enough to occupy his own time.
Mrs. Mac took in the new equipment and nodded in satisfaction. “Settling in, I see.”
“I hope you don’t mind.”
She grinned at him. “Not a bit. I was worried you might leave. I take it this means you won’t.”
“Not until she orders me away.”
“I thought she had.”
“Okay, not until she really means it.”
Mrs. Mac chuckled. “That’s the spirit,” she said, thumping her cane on the floor in approval. “Why don’t you go over and get Casey? I expect she’s doing her homework so she can play chess with you tonight. She’d probably like to help us plan that party, too. I think it’s time we got busy on that, don’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then get a move on, boy. These things don’t just happen, you know.”
When Joshua went outside he was surprised to discover that the night had turned foggy as a warm front moved in to push away the Arctic air of the previous days. Instead of more snow, it seemed they were in for a bit of Indian summer. Fortunately he had a solid sense of direction. He made it to Garrett’s house with only one slight detour into the side of a truck.
Still rubbing his bumped shin, he tapped on the door. “Casey, it’s Joshua. Mrs. Mac says dinner’s almost ready.”
The door opened wide and Casey greeted him with a grin. “Hi. I’ll be ready in a minute. I’m having trouble with my math.”
“Bring your books along. Maybe I can help you with that after dinner.”
“That would be great. Then we can play chess, okay? I was reading the book of rules you gave me today.”
“W
hen did you have time to do that?”
“In study hall.”
“Maybe you should have been doing your math then.”
“Why, when I knew you could help me tonight?” she said, tugging on her jacket and gathering up a stack of books.
“What if I’d said no?”
“You wouldn’t,” she said confidently. “You’re trying to get on Mom’s good side.”
He certainly couldn’t fault her logic, except for one tiny thing. “Your mother isn’t so crazy about the idea of you and me spending time together.”
“That’s just what she says,” she said dismissively. “Don’t you know anything about women?”
“Apparently not. Would you care to enlighten me?”
“Well, I probably don’t know about all women, but I sure know Mom. She, like, says a lot of stuff she doesn’t really mean, when it comes to men.”
“Why would she do that?”
“I figure it’s because she’s scared. If she chases them away, then she can keep things just the way they are.”
“And how do you feel about that? Are things okay the way they are?”
Casey’s hesitation and the brief sadness that flickered in her eyes were answer enough. “Sure,” she answered loyally.
“Really?” he pressed.
“Well, they’re okay for me, I guess, but I’m pretty nearly grown up. I won’t be around here forever. What’ll happen to Mom then? I mean, sometimes I think she gets pretty lonely now. She doesn’t say anything. It’s just the way she looks.” She stared up at him hopefully. “She hasn’t looked that way as much since you came. Now she just looks scared.”
“And that’s better?”
She seemed to puzzle over her answer before finally saying, “I think so. Don’t you?”
“I think we’ll just have to wait and see.”
She snuck her hand into his and held on tight. Joshua wasn’t exactly sure who was reassuring whom.
* * *
During dinner Joshua was struck by the sense of family that crept over him. Here he was with a woman who wasn’t his own grandmother and a teenager who wasn’t his own daughter, yet he felt a contentment he hadn’t felt in years. If only Garrett were at the table with them, he was certain he would feel complete.
Joshua and the Cowgirl Page 10
