by Liz Ireland
Cody swallowed. “A present? For me?” He smiled limply. “Gee, you shouldn’t have.”
Lucian left the room briefly and came back hefting a large brown moving box that he heaved into Cody’s arms. Not expecting the gift to be as heavy as an air conditioner, Cody nearly toppled over under the weight of the brothers’ largesse. With effort he managed to stay upright, but beads of sweat popped out on his brow, and he feared he’d pulled a muscle in his lower back. “What is it?” he gasped.
“First-aid kit,” Lucian answered tersely.
Somehow Cody sensed it would have been pointless to mention the little white plastic box sitting in his glove compartment, a compact square packed tightly with miniature scissors and Bandages whose waxy wrappers were now slightly yellowed with age. From the bulk of the new kit, the Treadwell brothers seemed to think people needed to travel with their very own Jaws of Life.
“Any aspirin in here?” he joked, “because I think my back’s going out.”
In fact, if Ruby didn’t get out here pretty soon, they might have to skip the movie and head straight for a chiropractor.
“Oh, sure. We got your aspirin, your ibuprofen, acetaminophen and antibiotic ointment,” Buck said proudly.
Cody tilted his head. “There must be quite a few bottles.”
“It’s heavy on account of the bottled water,” Lucian informed him. “There are two gallon jugs in there.”
Buck stood and circled him, proudly listing the rest of the contents as if it were a secret family recipe. “Also, you’ve got your various other necessary medical supplies—a jack, two wool blankets, ten cans of beans and franks, a pound of rice, instant coffee, a Swiss Army knife, matches, emergency flares and a heavy-duty inflatable Army surplus raft.”
Farley frowned. “What about tissues?”
Lucian sent him a blank look. “What about it?”
“I told you to put some tissues in there.”
Lucian rolled his eyes. “Now what the heck for? That stuff is bulky!”
Bulkier than a raft?
Farley’s face turned red. “It’s key, Lucian! I told you this. Facial tissue is not just for sneezing into. It can double as toilet paper, or bandages in case you run out of gauze.”
Cody didn’t savor being at the center of a fraternal spat. “Gee, and I thought Ruby and I were just going to a movie….”
His attempt at levity landed with a thud, but at least the two brothers stopped arguing about tissues. In fact, Farley turned and stomped out of the room.
Bill put his hands on his hips and settled a hard gaze on Cody. “There’s thirty miles between here and the movie theater, some of it mountain road.”
Having grown up in Heartbreak Ridge, Cody wasn’t exactly a bumbling city slicker naive in the ways of survival, but apparently the Treadwells had high standards when it came to survival skills. In fact, thanks to them he suspected that he was better equipped for an emergency than the local Red Cross. He feared, however, that he was going to be called on to exhibit his disaster worthiness; maybe they had an obstacle course out back or would give him a Popsicle stick and some Elmer’s glue and tell him to build a log cabin.
He bet Lucian could.
Luckily, before he was forced to demonstrate his fitness for driving their sister to the movies, Ruby appeared, and she was so dazzling the subject of safety was immediately dropped.
Of course, anyone with hair the color of an orange chrysanthemum was bound to divert attention, especially when Ruby had put glitter in her hair that made it sparkle like the morning sun. She was gorgeous, and Cody had to admit that he’d never been the orange-hair type. Naturally it didn’t hurt that she was wearing a stretchy black knit minidress that hugged every curve like a best buddy. He was awestruck by her, so much so that he nearly dropped the first-aid kit on his foot.
She cast him a doubtful smile. “You think my boots look weird with this outfit, don’t you?”
He’d been so focused on the dress he hadn’t taken in the rest of her, but now his gaze swept down toward those pointy-tipped red boots of hers. It wasn’t the boots but her shapely legs that captured his attention.
“You couldn’t look better, Ruby.”
She beamed with pleasure. “You’re looking pretty snappy yourself.”
Jeans, white shirt, brown boots—real snappy! He suddenly felt like a heel for not dressing up more.
“That dress is too short,” Bill grumbled disapprovingly.
“No, it’s not,” Cody interjected quickly.
A self-serving comment if ever there was one!
Ruby laughed. “Bill always says that. I think he feels obligated because he’s the oldest.”
“I feel obligated because your dresses are always too short.”
Ruby took Cody’s elbow, steering him firmly toward the front door. “We better hurry or we’ll miss the movie. That’s not so secret code for let’s get the hell out of here.”
A flurry of brothers tromped after them with last-minute commands.
“Be careful.”
“Slow on the turns.”
“Lay off the beer.”
“If you run into fog, keep the headlights on low.”
A moment later, Farley came chugging down the walkway after them. “Here!” He slammed an economy pack of facial tissue on top of the first-aid box. “Lucian doesn’t know the first thing about anything!” he said in disgust, then whirled on his heel and stomped toward his brothers.
The trip was delayed another fifteen minutes when it was decided that the passenger-side airbag of Cody’s truck needed to be disabled because of Ruby’s petite stature. The brothers had plenty of statistics to back up their argument, and Cody figured that if he didn’t go along with them he might spend the rest of the evening watching Sports Center in the Treadwells’ living room. So they waited while Bill and Buck unhooked the mechanism.
Meanwhile, Lucian left, saying he had somewhere to go. He’d changed from his fatigues into jeans and a solid green shirt.
Cody nudged Ruby. “If something happens, Lucian’s only going to be partially camouflaged.”
She grinned. “Should we warn him of the danger?”
Finally, they were able to escape down the rutted driveway. “I’m beginning to understand why you might feel a tad overprotected.”
Ruby shook her head. “Believe me, this is just the beginning. There hasn’t been a man yet in my life who’s made it past three dates, and most don’t even last till the first good-night kiss.”
Good-night kiss?
The words were a bolt of lightning to his nervous system.
Heretofore, he’d been doubtful about how realistic a suitor he was supposed to be. Obviously, the brothers were taking him seriously, and Ruby had certainly dressed to kill this evening. But probably that was part of the act she was putting on for her brothers and had nothing whatsoever to do with her feelings about him. He doubted she had any feeling for him anyway, unless it was gratitude. Maybe she didn’t even feel that much, since he’d told her he had his own motives for going out with her.
The trouble was, there was nothing put-on or fake about his growing feelings for Ruby. What would she do if she knew that the only lips he’d thought about kissing lately were hers? Probably she’d either laugh in his face or leap out of the truck and go screaming into the night. Over the past few weeks they’d become friends, but there was nothing remotely romantic between them. In her mind, this date was just a business deal, pure and simple.
He drove to a roadside diner called the Tavern way out of town.
Ruby blinked out the window at the Tavern’s blue neon sign. “This is a nice place.”
For some reason, he didn’t want to admit to her that he wanted to take her somewhere nice on their first date. It wasn’t as if he needed to impress her or anything.
She glanced at him suspiciously. “Isn’t this a little out of our way?”
He shrugged. “I thought it might be more…private. You know, so it’ll sound mo
re realistically romantic when you tell your brothers.”
“Good thinking—only I doubt I’ll have to tell them anything.” Ruby laughed at his puzzled expression. “Okay, let’s get to work.”
She hopped out of the truck and marched ahead of him into the Tavern.
To his shock, the first person they saw when they walked in the door was Leila Birch…sitting with Lucian! Cody couldn’t believe it, and even Ruby gasped.
Ruby’s brother broke into a big smile. “Why, look who’s here!” he exclaimed to Leila. He got up and started pumping Cody’s hand.
“What a coincidence,” Cody muttered.
Ruby was uncharacteristically mute.
“Ya’ll want to join us?” Lucian asked.
Poor Leila Birch. Aside from her strained expression, she looked extra pretty tonight. She was wearing a blue silk dress with her blond hair pulled back in a fancy clip that made it look like a wheaty waterfall down her back, but Cody couldn’t help noticing that Leila’s looks paled in comparison to Ruby’s. Ruby was vibrant and alive from the top of her orange hair to the pointy tips of her bright red boots.
But Ruby looked as unenthusiastic over Lucian’s plan as Leila did.
“No, thanks, Lucian,” Cody said quickly. “Ruby and I spotted a table already.”
“A quiet candlelit corner table,” Ruby blurted.
He gaped at her in surprise, and she dug her elbow into his ribs.
“They don’t have candles here,” Leila pointed out.
Ruby lifted her chin. “We brought our own.” She took Cody’s arm possessively in a gesture that was apparently meant to appear loving, but Cody winced under her linebacker grip. Maybe she did have something in common with her brothers….
“Next time we can do a double date!” Lucian suggested brightly.
Leila looked as if he’d suggested bathing in worms for their next outing.
Ruby tugged Cody’s arm and pulled him toward the back of the restaurant, where they were shown a low-backed booth that was neither quiet nor in a corner.
“The nerve!” Ruby huffed as she plopped herself down. “Did you see that? Right in front of the doorway, just waiting for us like a spider in a web!”
“Those brothers of yours are a real case,” Cody agreed.
In fact, in a countermove, Lucian got up and moved himself to the other side of the table, so that he was sitting beside Leila and facing the back of the restaurant—and Cody.
Ruby frowned. “I wasn’t talking about Lucian. I was talking about that scheming Leila Birch!”
It was hard for him to imagine pale, quiet Leila as a designing vixen, but apparently Ruby wasn’t having any difficulty. “You weren’t surprised to see your brother here?”
“Of course not, but I had no idea that he was coming here with Leila!” She frowned and looked into his eye as if trying to gauge the extent of his heartbreak. “If I had, I would have warned you, Cody.”
He remembered suddenly that he was supposed to be out to hook the grocery-store beauty.
“That’s okay,” he said, trying to inject a little self-pity into his voice.
She shook her head sympathetically. “This is the first I’ve heard of the two of them as an item.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You were so stoic!” she exclaimed in awe. “While I wanted to tell her a thing or two!”
“It’s not Leila’s fault she likes your brother.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so noble.”
She barely paid attention as they ordered, tapping her fingers impatiently, and when the waitress headed to the kitchen, Ruby picked up right where they had left off. “For that matter, I doubt she really likes Lucian. I can’t imagine any woman liking him once they get to know him, unless Leila has a secret passion for duck blinds.”
Cody laughed. “I thought women went in for the he-man persona.”
Ruby twisted and boldly squinted Leila’s way. She frowned when she saw how close Leila and Lucian were sitting. “Maybe some do.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shrugged, eager to be off the topic of Leila. “Easy come, easy go.”
Ruby turned, astounded. “You don’t mean to tell me you’re giving up?”
Since he was such a poor liar, and especially since the supposed object of his affection had no idea he was using her as a front, he was glad not to have to keep up the ruse. “What can I do? I don’t want to steal Leila away from your brother.”
In fact, the situation was already dicier than he’d expected.
“Well, of course you’re not going to steal her, just coerce her.”
He took a long swig of iced tea. “Why?”
“Isn’t that why we’re going out?” Ruby asked. “So you can use a little reverse psychology and win her away?”
“It’s secondary to getting your brothers to loosen the reins on you.”
She got up. “Well, I say we bump your agenda back up into first position. Move over.” She plopped herself onto the bench seat next to him and scooted close enough that he was wedged against the window on one side and against her thigh on the other.
Across the room, Lucian nearly jumped out of his seat but was restrained by his date.
“There!” Ruby exclaimed happily. “Isn’t this cozy?”
Catching Lucian’s glare, Cody replied, “So cozy it’s going to get me killed.”
“Don’t be silly. Lucian’s not violent—not to anything that doesn’t have scales, feathers or fur and horns.”
“The way he’s glaring at me now I feel like a twelve-prong buck.”
She grabbed his arm. “Just act natural.”
Hard to do when they were having a face-off with a couple ten tables away.
“Oh, and pretend you’re having fun,” she added.
He smiled. “I am having fun.”
As much fun as he could have pinched between a window and a woman, while another woman stared at him as if he’d ruined her evening and her date watched him as closely as if he were Public Enemy Number One.
“You look uncomfortable,” she noted.
In truth, he was most uncomfortable because he was intensely aware of every place his body was touching Ruby’s. Until she’d switched seats, he’d been able to get the prospect of the good-night kiss out of his head. With her so close he could smell a hint of her perfume, there was no detaching his mind from the idea that they were on a date, and dates usually ended with kisses.
Happily, their food arrived, and they could be distracted a moment from her brother’s glare. Also, Ruby had to move over to give herself enough elbow room to eat a plate of ribs.
“Leila doesn’t think I’m ladylike enough for you,” Ruby announced, licking a finger exuberantly.
He’d never thought a woman eating with her hands could be so sexy. “I doubt Leila cares one way or the other.”
“I don’t see what you like about her, anyway. She’s not right for you at all.”
Cody laughed. “Why not?”
“She’d make a terrible ranch wife.”
“How can you tell?”
“Well, just look at her. She’s twice as tall as me, but those skinny little arms of hers couldn’t lift anything heavier than a can of cling peaches. Certainly not a bale of hay.”
“Ruby, this is the twenty-first century, not the nineteenth. I’m not looking for a wife to do chores.”
“Ha!” Ruby rolled her eyes dramatically. “That’s where you’re mistaken. It might be a modern century, and people marry for love and no telling what all reasons, but the chores still have to be done, don’t they? This is why so many people get divorced!”
“That’s an interesting sociological theory.”
“Theory, my granny!” Ruby scoffed. “Just look at that brother of yours. He was doing fine till he up and married that city girl, but it wasn’t three months before she realized she wouldn’t be able to hack it in the country. Now Cal’s divorced, disillusioned and living up on Heartbreak Ridge all
by himself. You don’t want that to happen to you, do you?”
“No, ma’am,” he said obediently. Then he grinned. “That’s some talk coming from a woman who dreams of the modern urban life-style.”
She scowled. “You can’t be too careful, that’s all I’m saying.”
“I wasn’t planning on marrying Leila Birch. Or anybody.”
Ruby devoured another greasy rib, her face twisted in thought. “Well, sure as shootin’ Leila’s not the type to have a fling with.”
He raised a brow in surprise. “For a person who’s bumped my agenda to top priority, you sure seem bent on undermining my hopes of romance.”
“Romance—with that controlling creature?” Ruby rolled her eyes. “Have you ever seen the picky way she loads a grocery sack? I’ll bet she never lets a can bruise a banana. Do you honestly want that?”
Cody laughed. “There’s no pleasing you, is there? If I don’t pursue her, I’m letting your brother run over me. If I do, I’m letting Leila run over me.”
“I’d rather you just decided you didn’t like her. That would solve all your problems.”
He tilted his head to look at her. She sounded almost jealous, but how could that be? If there’s one thing Ruby had made clear from the beginning, it was that she thought he was a little too much of a square for her.
Certainly she wasn’t his ideal, either.
Could that old saw about opposites attracting be holding sway over them?
They gabbed nonstop through the rest of dinner, and by some miracle of timing, when he and Ruby were leaving the restaurant, Leila and Lucian were also heading toward the parking lot.
“Don’t tell me,” Cody guessed. “You’re going to the movies next.”
Lucian shook his head. “Nope. We thought we’d go to the Chugalug for a pool game, then back to the house to catch a wrestling match.”
“Leila, you lucky gal,” Ruby drawled.
Leila smiled unappreciatively at Ruby, then gave Cody a big grin. “Good night, Cody. You ought to come by the store more often. You’re getting skinny.”
