“No. I’m tired and I’m hungry. And I’m thinking we’d better check the water well pumps in Coyote Valley before we put in cattle there.”
“Coyote Valley? Are we going there tomorrow?” Abel asked as he entered the tack room carrying a stack of sweaty saddle pads. “That’s miles away from the ranch yard.”
“That’s right,” Matthew told him. “So you guys better not get sick tonight on Halloween candy. You’re going to have a hard day in the saddle tomorrow.”
“Halloween candy?” Pate asked blankly as he joined the group in the tack room. “Who’s going to be eating candy? I thought we were going to the Trail’s End.”
Abel rolled his eyes. “He’s talking about the liquid kind, goofy.”
“Oh. Well, don’t let one little worry go through your head, Matthew,” Pate said smugly. “I’ll make sure everybody stays in line.”
Abel grabbed the young cowboy by the back of the collar and playfully kicked him out the door.
TooTall patted Matthew’s shoulder. “You go on to the house, Boss. I’ll take care of your horse.”
“He has thorns,” Matthew told him.
“I’ll take care of him,” he reiterated. “You go.”
Matthew thanked him and left the tack room.
Outside, darkness shrouded the ranch yard and with the disappearance of the sun, cool air had moved in. After working in the heat all day, the drop in temperature put a spring in his step and he turned the long walk to the ranch house into short work.
When he stepped up to the back door, he noticed there were no lights on in the kitchen. Which was unusual. At this time of the day, Camille wouldn’t be anywhere else. But to give the men a much-needed break, Matthew had called it a day a little earlier than usual this evening. She might be upstairs in the shower, or changing out of the clothes she’d worn to work.
After letting himself in, he discovered the kitchen was quiet, along with the rest of the house. The cold greeting pointed out just how much he’d come to expect being greeted by Camille’s warm smile and even warmer kiss.
Well, you might as well get used to this, Matthew. This is the way it’s going to be when you go home to Three Rivers. No dinners or conversation. No teasing or laughter. And especially no loving arms wrapped around you or kisses to send you to paradise. So get used to it, cowboy. You made your bed with Camille, but it’s not going to last forever.
Shaking away the miserable voice going off in his head, Matthew quickly stripped out of his dirty clothes and stepped into the shower. At least he’d be clean whenever Camille did show up.
He’d dried off and pulled on a pair of jeans when he heard Camille’s light footsteps scurrying down the hallway, and then she was standing in the open doorway, her face a beaming picture of sunshine.
“Knock, knock! May I come in?”
Damn, but it was crazy how just the sound of her voice thrilled him, he thought. He grinned at her. “Sure. I don’t think I could stop you anyway.”
She walked into the room and didn’t stop until she’d smacked a kiss on his lips. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you got home. I was detained at the diner by my boss. Or I guess I should say used-to-be boss.”
He studied her sparkling blue eyes. “Maybe you should explain that part about used-to-be.”
With a light laugh, she wrapped her hand around his and tugged him over to the bed. “Let’s sit while I explain.”
He slanted her a wry look. “You think this is safe sitting here?”
She chuckled. “I think we can control ourselves for a few minutes. So let me tell you what’s happened. It’s very exciting.”
An uneasy feeling rippled through him. “Okay,” he said. “What’s happened?”
The smile on her face grew even wider. “Norman is selling the diner to me! That’s why I’m late. He wanted to talk it over with me to make sure I was still interested.”
“And you told him that you were?”
“I couldn’t get yes out fast enough!”
Matthew could see she was on the verge of jumping up and down with glee and he wanted to share in her happiness. But her announcement was the same as erecting a fence between them. She was digging her roots here in Cochise County, far away from him. And yet, he couldn’t blame her for going after what she wanted in her life.
“This is big news,” he said. “So, when will you be making the deal?”
“Sometime next week, after Norman gets the paperwork together.” She squeezed his hand. “Oh, Matthew, I’m so excited. There’s so much I want to do with the place. Changes I want to make with the menu and the building itself. It’s going to be a lot of work, but that just makes something more worthwhile, don’t you think? When you invest your all in it?”
Yes, Matthew knew about investing his all into something. For the past fourteen years, he’d invested his whole life into Three Rivers Ranch. He meant something there. His work was important and so was his relationship with the Hollister family. He could never leave it.
He gave her a wan smile. “Sure it does. And I’m happy for you, Camille. I hope it’s a huge success for you.”
Her beaming expression turned doubtful. “Are you really happy for me, Matthew?”
He cupped his hand to the side of her face and she immediately rubbed her cheek against the callused skin of his palm. She was the most sensual woman he’d ever known and just looking at her turned him on. After making love to Camille, no other woman would do. So where did that leave him?
His throat suddenly felt like someone was choking him. “I meant what I said. Why? You don’t believe me?”
She shrugged and looked sheepishly down at their clasped hands. “Yes—but I honestly wasn’t expecting you to say that. I thought you’d be chastising me for jumping into something so—well, big. Under the best of circumstances, the food service business is iffy. I could possibly fail.”
Her gaze lifted back to his face and the look in her blue eyes was so tender he almost believed it was love. But what did he know about love? he cynically asked himself. He probably wouldn’t know the emotion if it slapped him in the face.
“You’re not going to fail, Camille. I have faith in you.”
His words put the sunny smile back on her face and with a little cry of joy, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Matthew, you can’t know what that means to me. Especially when I think of what my family is going to say when they get the news. Especially Blake. He’s not going like it at all.”
He circled his arms around her. “Blake is living his life the way he chooses. You should have the chance to do the same.”
She reared her head and looked at him. “I think you honestly mean that.”
“Why wouldn’t I? Renee tried to change me and made me miserable in the process. No one should try to change you, either.”
She gave him another soft, melting look, then pulled out of his arms and stood. “Thank you, Matthew. Now I’d better go find something to fix for supper. It’s Halloween! Or have you forgotten about it?”
Rising to his feet, he reached for the clean shirt that he’d laid on the end of the bed before his shower. “No. I’ve not forgotten. Tonight is for treating. I thought we might drive over to Benson and have dinner out. We’ve not ever been anywhere together.”
She leveled a mischievous look at him. “We’ve been to bed together,” she pointed out. “But that’s not like a date, is it?”
He laughed. “Not exactly.”
Laughing with him, she hurried toward the open doorway. “Okay, give me a few minutes to get out of these greasy clothes and fix myself up.”
“You got it,” he told her.
She vanished from sight, and Matthew could hear her light footsteps racing down the hallway, then climbing the stairs to her bedroom. As he shrugged into his shirt, he walked over to the dresser mirror and stared at his i
mage.
Everything looked the same, he thought. And yet, everything inside him felt different. How in hell could he be so encouraging and thoughtful at a time like this? She might as well have planted a flag out in the courtyard that read, I’m here to stay and to hell with Matthew Waggoner.
Muttering a curse under his breath, he reached for a hairbrush and tugged it through his damp blond curls. There wasn’t any reason for him to be anything but encouraging and thoughtful. Just because they were having a sexual relationship didn’t mean she cared about him. Really cared, like I’ll-follow-you-to-the-ends-of-the-earth kind of caring. So he needed to snap out of it and get real. This thing with her was just a pleasurable escapade, a brief break from his days of horses and cattle and corralling a group of cowboys.
* * *
Camille and Matthew had dinner at a modest little Mexican café located on the edge of town, not far from the Trail’s End nightclub where Pate and the guys had gone to kick up their heels.
The food was delicious, but Matthew could’ve been eating bread and carrot sticks and washing it down with water and he wouldn’t have known the difference. He wasn’t sure what exactly Camille had done to herself tonight, but she looked like a piece of treasure all wrapped in a gold-and-brown-patterned dress that clung to her curves and pulled out the fiery glints in her hair. Her hair was different, too. The long strands were looped and pinned to the top of head, while a few of them had been left loose to trail down the middle of her back. Large gold hoops swung in her ears, and red lipstick made her whole face glow.
Hell, he wasn’t supposed to be with a woman like this, he thought. She was so far out of his league, it was laughable. But he wasn’t laughing. His heart wasn’t in the mood for it.
“They make great tres leches cake here,” Camille told him. “If you’re hankering for dessert.”
“I’m full to the brim,” he told her. “But you get a piece if you like.”
She shook her head. “Actually, there’s something else I’d like to do. If you’re agreeable, that is.”
He pushed his plate away. “What is it?”
She cast him an eager smile. “On the way back to Red Bluff, I thought we might swing by Dragoon. I’d love to show you the diner. It’s closed, obviously, but I have a key.”
He could see just how much it meant to her, and the fact that she wanted to share this part of her life with him made him feel just a bit special.
“I’d like that.”
He motioned to the waiter and after he’d taken care of the bill, they left the café. As Matthew drove his truck east toward Dragoon, Camille put the subject of the diner aside and instead questioned him about his day.
Then she said, “You’re probably going to laugh at this, but I’ve been thinking about getting one of the paints out and riding next Sunday after church. That’s about the only day I have for it.”
Surprised, he glanced at her. “How long has it been since you’ve ridden?”
“Oh, not that long ago. When Hannah and Nick come down, I usually try to ride once or twice with them. Of course, you have to be ready for a marathon ride with those two. They never want to get out of the saddle.”
Vivian’s daughter, Hannah, and Blake’s son, Nick, weren’t just cousins, they were the best of friends and both shared a love of horses. Occasionally Vivian would bring the two kids down so they could ride over the more gentle areas of Red Bluff.
“I can’t recall the last time I saw you on a horse,” he said.
She laughed. “It’s not always a pretty sight, but most of the time I don’t hit the dirt.”
They traveled a mile or more in silence before he said, “Actually, Blake has given me another job besides moving cattle.”
Camille frowned. “What’s come over him? Is he becoming a taskmaster or something?”
“No. He’s asked me to stay a few days longer than we’d first planned on. He wants me to look over the whole property. He’s thinking about running more cattle down here year-round.”
Wide-eyed, she turned slightly toward him. “Seriously?”
“That’s right. Three Rivers has been thriving. He wants to invest and broaden its assets.”
She shook her head. “But he needs the space down here for winter grazing. That won’t work if he has it full of cattle all year long.”
“Good deduction, Camille. You are truly a rancher’s daughter.”
“Thanks. But even a child could see the problem with running out of grazing land.”
“Nothing concrete has been said to me, but I’m getting the impression that Blake and your mother are planning on purchasing more land down in this area. If they can find something suitable.”
“Hmm. That’s very interesting. But what has any of that got to do with me horseback riding?”
“Well, it means I’m going to put you to work. We can ride together and you can help me look the land over.”
A wide smile spread over her lips and then she laughed. “Oh my goodness, the foreman of Three Rivers Ranch is going to see how I sit a saddle! Okay. But you promise you won’t laugh at me?”
“I promise I’ll never laugh at you, Camille. With you. But never at you.”
She reached for his hand and when she lifted the knuckles of his fingers to her lips, he wanted to stop the truck on the side of the highway and pull her into his arms. He wanted to tell her all the wants and wishes and feelings that were swirling inside him and tearing at his heart.
But he couldn’t expose himself like that to her. She wasn’t in this thing with him for the long haul. All she wanted from him was sex.
Yeah, wouldn’t it be great, Matthew thought, if he could go back to the days when sex was all he wanted.
Chapter Nine
The Lost Antelope was a long, squatty building with stucco walls painted turquoise. The roof was terra-cotta tiles and the window frames and door were stained dark brown. Two large plate glass windows sat on either side of the door. In the left window, a neon sign advertised a popular beer, while in the opposite window hung a metal sign that simply read: Good Food.
The parking area was plain dirt with a faint bit of gravel left over from years gone by. At the back of the building, a rickety windmill was shrouded with mesquite trees.
Camille’s beloved diner was like nothing he’d been expecting, and for long minutes after he cut the truck motor, he simply stared out the windshield.
“What’s wrong? You’re not saying a word,” she said.
“No. I’m thinking.”
“Well, if you were expecting a fancy café with outdoor seating and half-naked waitresses serving espressos, then you should be disappointed. It’s just a simple place with good food—just like the sign says.”
“I’m not disappointed,” he told her. “I’m surprised, that’s all. It just doesn’t seem your style.”
“Hmm. What is my style, Matthew? Something more modern and expensive-looking?”
“All right, I confess,” he said sheepishly. “I was thinking along those lines.”
She cast him a reproachful look before she shoved off her seat belt and opened the truck door. “Come on. Let’s go in and I’ll show you around.”
He walked at her side across the hard-packed ground to the back of the building, where a security light illuminated a single metal door.
Since the diner sat on a lonely spot near the highway and wasn’t exactly a part of the tiny settlement of Dragoon, Matthew wouldn’t be surprised to learn it was often vandalized—although he couldn’t see any sign of prior damage to the door or the walls of the stucco structure.
“How many times has this place been robbed?” he asked.
“Never. Norman always takes the money home with him in the evening. I like to believe little desert angels guard the place, because it’s never been defaced or damaged. The insurance on the property i
s outrageous. But that’s to be expected.”
She unlocked the door, pushed it open and reached around the left wall. Fluorescent lighting instantly flooded a square room with shelves built into the walls on three sides. As Matthew followed her inside, he glanced around at the industrial-sized canned goods, along with an assortment of boxes that were jammed and stacked in every available space.
“This is where we store most of the nonperishable food,” she told him. “And a few odds and ends like table napkins and paper towels and that sort of thing.”
He was amazed at the volume of stored food. “You actually use all this? Looks like there’s enough stockpiled in here to feed a small army.”
She looked amused. “Norm is ordering all the time. Otherwise, these shelves would be wiped out.”
Motioning for him to follow her, she reached through an open doorway leading into a connecting room and switched on another light. As the two of them moved forward, she said, “In this area is where we keep the refrigerated and frozen foods.”
Matthew glanced around at several refrigerators, the sizes ranging from small to large, plus two huge upright freezers. The floor was bare concrete and the cinderblock walls painted pale green. So far, everything he’d seen was impeccably clean and neat.
“One of the freezers is sort of iffy at times. We keep a close watch on the thermometer to make sure the compressor isn’t going on the blink.”
“You don’t have a walk-in freezer?” he asked.
Shaking her head, she said, “No. Norm considered it, but the cost of running the thing wasn’t going to be feasible.”
She flipped another light switch, then pushed through a single swinging door that was colored the same green as the walls. They stepped into a small kitchen and Matthew gazed curiously around him. The space was equipped with a large flat grill and another stove with six large gas burners and an oven below. On the opposite wall from the stoves was a long row of cabinets with a wooden work counter. The scars made from cutting and chopping covered nearly every inch of the worn surface.
The Rancher's Best Gift Page 10
