Capturing the Cowboy's Heart (24 page)

“Me?”

“I came down on you pretty hard the last time you were in here.  It’s just that Cade is a real good friend of mine—”

“I know.”

“Not in the way you might be thinking.  We’re just friends.  I prefer my men tall
,
blonde
and frustratingly blind to what’s right in front of him
.  That is, when I have time for a man.”  She looked around.  “This place tends to keep me pretty busy.”

“I can imagine.”  Lacy couldn’t resist
adding,
“
Your type of man sounds a lot like
Burk
.
”

Katie snorted.  “He’d be the last man on earth I’d ever be interested in.”

It was definitely Burk, but
it really wasn’t any of her business
Lacy thought as she took a drink of her wine cooler
.  She wouldn’t be in Deep Creek much longer and
hoped
to keep things with Katie
at this new comfortable level f
or the rest of her stay there.  It was hard enough dealing with Cade’s rejection.

“I’m going to grab a table
,” Lacy said
.  “L
et me know when my order is up and I’ll come get it.”  She needed to sit down. 
The stress she’d been under for days had left her exhausted. 

“
I’ll bring it out to you.  Would y
ou want a glass with that?”  Katie asked
, nodding toward the bottle in Lacy’s hand
.

“No
, thanks.
”

“You sure you
’re feeling okay?  Maybe I should call
Cade
-”

“Don’t,” she blurted out.  “
Cade’s got his hands full at the ranch.
  All I need is some food and a little time alone.
”

Katie arched a questioning brow, but let it drop.  “Okay.  But if you need anything just holler.  My ear’s included in that offer by the way.”

She
managed a grateful smile.  “Thanks, Katie.”
 
Turning, she made her way across the empty dance floor
a
corner table by the jukebox.

She finished off her wine cooler as she sat contemplating the coming holidays, sinking deeper into a rarely felt state of self-pity.  For a woman who prided herself for her emotional strength and ability to cope with tough situations, she didn’t know how to deal with the loss of control in her life. 
She couldn’t bring her grandmother back.  Couldn’t make Cade care about her.  Couldn’t
bear the thought of being alone
. 

Katie came over to the table carrying a tray.  Beside the plate with her turkey sandwich was a handful of chips and another cooler.

“Perfect timing,” Lacy said,
handing
Katie the empty bottle
, while keeping her teary gaze averted
.

“Enjoy.” 
Katie hesitated as if wanting to say something
else
, then walked away, returning to her place behind the bar.

It was a good thing she was sitting
with her back to the bar. 
She
didn’t want Katie
to see her
tears
, knowing she
would either insist on talking about it or calling Cade
.  Neither
of which Lacy wanted to happen.  This was something she had to work
through
on her own. 

The second bottle of the sugary sweet wine was going down almost as quickly as the first had
.  O
nly this time she was
beginning
to feel the alcohol’s effects. 
She was becoming emotionally numb
.
 

Cade.

Lacy sighed softly. 
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t push the man
from her thoughts. 
His words had hurt her
deeply
, but she understood.  Really she did.  While she was dreading the upcoming holidays, she
couldn’t even imagine how hard they must be for Cade.  Going through them remembering what he’d had and lost. 
Would any man ever love her as much as Cade had loved
his wife?  S
till loved her
.

She
pushed away from the table and stood
, a
bit unsteady on her feet
.  S
he
made her way to
the jukebox and dug a
couple of dollar bills
out of her purse.

Later when dinner guests and late night drinkers arrived things would pick up, but for now she needed some sort of distraction.  Music would do it.  It didn’t matter to her what songs played as long as they ended the silence that filled the near empty room, so she began picking
numbers at random.
 

The
first
CD dropped and began to play.  Lacy closed her eyes and swayed to the music.  She had never taken the time to listen to the words of a song before.  She’d always been too busy between work and taking care of her aging grandparents.

Now all she had was time.

*
             
*
             
*

Cade had just stepped out of the shower when the phone rang.  He ignored it, assuming Burk would grab it. 
But a
fter several rings, he grabbed for a towel and wrapped it around his waist on his way out to the kitchen to answer it.

He snatched up the receiver. 
“Hello?”

“Mr. Tyler?” a male voice replied on the other end.

“This is him,” Cade replied with a frown.  He was in no mood to talk to another bill collector.  Especially, during the holidays.

“This is Mr.
Matthis
from the bank.”

Cade rolled his eyes. 
Yep, after his money. 

“I’m sorry to be calling so late, but I just returned from a meeting and needed to speak to you regarding your loan payment.”

“I dropped off a check yesterday.  I know
it wasn’t the full amount
, but I’ll have another check to you next week, I promise.” 

“That won’t be necessary.”

Damn!  They were
finally
foreclosing.

“Look, Mr.
Matthis
, if you could just give me a few more days to come up with the money—”

“Your account is up to date,” the man
promptly
assured him.  “The payment made on
your
account today will cover you for several months.”

“The payment made today?” Cade echoed in confusion.  “There must be some sort of mistake.” 

“I can assure you there’s no mistake, Mr. Tyler.  The money’s already been
posted
.  I’m calling because the young woman you sent in to make your payment forgot your
payment receipt
.  We don’t like to send documents like that through the mail, so I’m calling to see if you’d prefer to stop by and pick it up the next time you’re in town.”

Cade ran a hand over his face.  This was crazy.  He was dreaming this.  He had to be.

“I’d rather get this straightened out now.”

“We’re just about to close.  If you could just come by tomorrow sometime...”

“I’ll do that.”

“Thank you, Mr. Tyler.  We’ll see you then.”  A dial tone replaced the voice on the other end of the line. 

Cade was still in a daze as he crossed the kitchen to place the phone back on its stand.

Just then Burk
strode
into the kitchen.  “
Lacy’s gone out for the evening.
”

Cade turned
.  “What?
”

“Lacy.”  Burk handed him what appeared to be a note.  “I found this tacked on the barn door.”

Cade looked down at the piece of paper in his hand, then back up at Burk.  “What
sort of
errands
would she have
to do?”

“Beats me.  Maybe she would have told you if you hadn’t been trying so hard to avoid her.” 

“I wasn’t...”  There was no since denying it.  “Look, I just got a call from Mr.
Matthis
—”

“The bank prez?”
Burk cut in with a worried frown.

“Yeah.  Seems someone made a pretty big payment on the ranch loan.”

“Who?
” he snorted.  “
The loan fairy?”

“I’m serious.  I told
Matthis
I’d be in tomorrow to straighten it out
.  He thought I sent some
woman in to... Damn it
all to hell
!” 

“What?”

“Lacy did it.  It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Nothing you’re saying is making any sense to me.”

“We’ll talk when I get back.  Right now, I need to
find Lacy
.”

Burk look down at the towel wrapped about Cade’s waist and
raised a brow
.  “
M
ight be a good idea to
put some clothes on
first, or I’ll be bailing you out of jail
, too
.”

“Always the comedian,” Cade muttered as he left the kitchen and hurried down the hall to his room.  He was just pulling on his jeans when the phone rang again.  Maybe it was
Matthis
calling back to say that he had discovered the cause of the mix up.  Then his suspicions of Lacy having anything to do with the deposit would be unfounded. 

His bedroom door creaked open and Burk poked his head into the room.  “It’s for you,” he said, holding the cordless out.  “It’s Katie.”

“Katie?”

*
             
*
             
*

Cade stepped into the bar and spotted Lacy right away.  It was hard not to in that short, sexy skirt and those incredible legs.  She was standing next to the jukebox, her back to him. 

He crossed the smoky room to stand behind her.  “
Dalton
, we need to talk.”

She spun around to face him, the drink in her hand sloshing out over the bottle’s rim as she attempted to steady herself.  “Well, well, if it isn’t Cade Tyler, champion bull rider, sexiest butt in the west.”  

His
jaw fell open.  Katie was right.  Lacy was smashed.  He grabbed a napkin from a nearby table and handed it to her.  “Here.”  

“Thanks,” she said, dabbing at the wine on her hand as she moved past him. 

He followed her to the bar, watch
ing as she took several staggering
steps.  “
Dalton
, you’re drunk!”

She turned to him with a smile.  “I am not.  I’ve only had two bottles of wine.  Hmm, or was that three?  Anyway, I’m just pheasantly relaxed.”

“You’re pheasantly relaxed?”  Cade arched a brow.

Katie, who was standing behind the bar, shrugged with a frown.  “I wasn’t sure what to do.”

“You did the right thing.” 

“At least someone does the right thing in your opinion,” Lacy muttered as she pushed her wine cooler bottle toward Katie.  “I’ll have another.”

“That one’s still half full,” Cade replied as he grabbed hold of the teetering bottle and handed it to Katie.  “She’s had enough.”  How could Katie have let her get to this point?

“She’s only had t
hree with food
,” Katie said with a worried glance Lacy’s direction.  “This was her
fourth
.  I didn’t think—”

“It’s fine, Katie.
  I appreciate your calling.
” 
He slipped an arm around Lacy’s
waist to steady her.  “Come on,
Dalton
, you’ve had enough.  I’m going to ignore that comment you made about my ass and we’ll go home where you can sleep this off.”

Her purse slipped from her shoulder and spilled across the wooden floorboards.  Cade bent to retrieve its lost contents.  “What’s this?”  He straightened, holding up a box of allergy medication.

“It’s for my eyes.”

He held up the box.  “Did you take this tonight?” 

“Yepperoo, boss man.  I had to.  All th
e
hay and dust
that comes with being a hand makes
my eyes water.”

“Geez, Dalton, you aren’t
supposed to
mix this stuff with alcohol.”  He looked to Katie.

“I had no idea,” she said. 

“She’ll just have to sleep it off.  It’s not your fault, Katie.”  He shoved the medicine back into Lacy’s purse and handed it to her.  “All right,
Dalton
, let’s get you home.”