Cowboy in Charge (12 page)

He could just envision her reaction if he dared to do that in the middle of SugarPie’s.

“I’ll bring you a sweet tea,” she mumbled. Abruptly, she turned away.

Over near the cash register, he saw Sugar handing change to a customer. She had her gaze trained on him. If she thought he was upsetting Layne, she wouldn’t hesitate to come and show him the way to the door.

A minute later, Layne brought his tea and a straw. “You sure you don’t want to go ahead and order?”

He shook his head.

“Fine. Here’s a menu to keep you occupied. I’ll be off shift in another half hour or so.”

He didn’t need the menu when he could sit back and enjoy the view as she walked away. She wore a pink headband that matched her shirt and held her hair away from her face. The long, golden-brown strands fell in waves down her back. Her hair smelled like wildflowers. He knew this from the lingering scent of her shampoo when he’d taken his shower after she had finished hers. He knew this from resting his chin against her hair last night.

Last night, when he’d come within a millimeter of kissing her.

He’d had thoughts in that direction before then, and he’d had to struggle not to give in. He wanted her. And it wasn’t just about sex.

The more time they spent together, the more humbled he was to see how much she loved her daughter and his son. The longer they were together, the more amazed he was to see everything she handled as a single mom, from grocery shopping with both kids in tow, to carting them halfway across town to the sitter and then trekking back again on her own to get to work. And with every day that went by he caught more glimpses of the girl he had loved.

He grabbed his tea glass and took a gulp, trying to distract himself from his own thoughts. As if he didn’t already know her feelings, Layne had made them perfectly clear. A relationship between them wouldn’t stand a chance.

Sugar came bearing down on him from across the room. With the coast clear, she must have decided to close in. She took the extra chair at his table. “What’s the verdict?”

The abrupt delivery combined with her soft accent threw him. “About what?”

“About Layne holding up for the rest of her shift. The way you were eyeing her up and down, I assumed you were checking to make sure she would last the morning.”

“I was just looking around.”

“Oh? I didn’t see your gaze wandering to my pastry case, and that’s what usually catches folks’ attention.”

“Don’t worry, I checked that out when I walked in. I hear you cater the sweets for the receptions at the Hitching Post. I may check with Jed to see if they want to branch out. Mrs. Browley makes a mean chocolate-chip cookie.”

Sugar gave a snort that made him think of Burning Sage, who’d come so close to head-butting him at the rodeo in Cheyenne. Funny, until the conversation with Mrs. B, he hadn’t given a thought to rodeo since he’d gotten back here. For sure, Greg would have something to say about that.

Sugar leaned forward and said in a low voice, “You won’t know the definition of the word
mean
if you do wrong by Layne again.” Rising, she said with a smile, “Enjoy your sweet tea.”

“And my lunch. Layne’s joining me after she finishes up.”

“That’s nice. So long as you’re footing the bill.”

He laughed, letting her have the last word. She meant well. They
all
meant well.

Sobering, he looked down at his glass of tea. He knew now just how wrong he’d been years ago. These past few days had shown him how much he had lost out on as a result of his own actions, how much he had missed by not being around for Scott’s birth. He was grateful for this chance to see his son now.

But this short visit wasn’t enough. He’d already come to the conclusion a week here and there wouldn’t satisfy him, either. He wanted the right to see his son anytime he could.

He shot a glance at Sugar as she made her retreat.

Despite what anybody in this town believed, this time around, he was determined to do the right thing.

Chapter Twelve

Layne ate her small salad and cup of vegetable soup as quickly as she could without seeming as though she were shoveling food into her mouth. She couldn’t help noticing the sidelong looks she and Jason were receiving. There hadn’t been this much excitement in SugarPie’s since the day six-year-old Tommy Engleson had let his pet lizard loose. Accidentally, of course.

Jason had chosen a small round table that, with his long legs, put them knee-to-knee. She was conscious of each time his jeans brushed her panty hose and every time his boots hit the toes of her work shoes.

“Sorry,” he muttered after yet another collision.

She wondered if he had picked the table because it would put them this close together. She also wondered what he and Sugar had been so cozily discussing and laughing about earlier.

Not that she was paranoid. Or that she was trying to manufacture reasons to get upset with him. But between Sugar and Jed and Mitch and anyone else he might have spoken to since his return, she couldn’t help wondering something else. Maybe he was trying to get back into their friends’ good graces—by making her out as the bad guy. By showing them what a nice guy he was.

When Sugar came by to drop off the check, he snagged it from her fingers.

“I’ll take care of it,” Layne protested.

“Too late.” He rose and went to the cash register.

Smiling complacently, Sugar followed him.

Layne slipped into her jacket and went to wait near the door.

No matter what he was trying to show people, she couldn’t deny he
was
a nice guy, especially when it came to the kids. He never turned down requests to color with Scott or to play with his race cars or read to him from his storybooks. He didn’t ignore her daughter to spend time only with their son.

Though he’d drawn the line at volunteering his diaper-changing services again—a thought that, despite everything, made her fight a smile—he had gotten over his initial awkwardness around the baby and grown more comfortable with handling her. He would settle Jill in her crib, shake one of her small rattles to get her attention, or return her pacifier to her mouth. And when he talked to her, his tone was different from the one he used with Scott. He seemed to have learned to adapt to the kids’ personalities.

She wished she and Jason could adapt their personalities to one another, too.

He tucked his wallet into his jeans and approached her, giving her a smile that lit his eyes and made her knees weak. “Ready?”

She nodded. She said goodbye to Sugar and a couple of the regulars seated near the front of the shop. Jason held open the door for her.

The day had turned overcast, and there was now a chill in the air, accompanied by a stiff breeze.

“
Brr-r-r
. Looks like we might be in for some bad weather.” She crossed her arms and headed for his truck. When he matched her stride and casually draped his arm around her shoulders, she almost missed a step.

“Looks like for once, the forecasters were right,” he said. “They predicted some rain.”

“You mean,
for once
, you actually slowed down to notice what was on the channel?”

“I’ve been noticing a lot of things lately.”

“Oh?” She kept her gaze on his truck and tried to keep her tone light. “Like what?”

“Like Jill’s got your chin, and she sleeps in the same curled-up position you do.”

His response surprised her, but she couldn’t have appreciated anything more than a comment about one of her kids. She smiled up at him. “Yes, she does.”

“And like Scott’s got your blue eyes and the same stick-to-itiveness when it comes to getting something done.”

“He is pretty focused sometimes.” She stopped beside the truck and waited for him to unlock the passenger door. He kept his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Her heart started to thump.

“And like you still fit up against me as if we were two puzzle pieces linked together.”

“We’re a puzzle, all right,” she murmured.

He moved to stand in front of her. He reached for the lapels of her jacket, holding them closed, protecting her from the breeze. “I always did enjoy a good puzzle.” He tugged gently, bringing her a shade closer as he dipped his head.

His mouth was cold from the air around them, minty from the plastic-wrapped candy he’d taken from the dish beside the cash register. She wondered if he’d done that deliberately, too, taken the mint with the knowledge he intended to kiss her. The thought that he might have wanted...might have planned...might have looked forward to just this moment sent a pleasurable thrill racing through her.

“Still cold?” he murmured against her mouth. He slid both arms around her, holding her against him, warming every inch of her, outside and in.

They stood in the parking lot, in public, in view of her friends, the way they had done all over town during their dating days, and somehow she didn’t care. She let him kiss her, and she kissed him, too.

And she wished they could go back to those days and start all over again.

* * *

J
ED
SAT
BACK
in his office chair and propped his feet on the corner of the desk, his ankles crossed. From that angle, he had a clear sight line to the two women who sat on his small couch. They had a strong resemblance to one another, his granddaughter young and dark-haired, his cook with her once-dark hair now streaked with gray. Neither one of them looked happy. And if his womenfolk weren’t happy, he was bound to hear about it. “Well, there’s no sense sitting there with your mouths locked tight. From the long faces you’re giving me, I know something’s up.”

Tina and Paz exchanged a glance.

“Things are not so good in some parts of the Hitching Post, Abuelo,” Tina said.

He locked his fingers across his belly and waited.

“Cole knows Jason’s back in town,” she explained.

“So you let the cat out of the bag, huh?”

“Jed,” Paz said reproachfully. “You can’t expect her to keep secrets from him. Cole is Tina’s husband.”

“More important to this conversation,” Tina said, “he’s Layne’s big brother.”

He shook his head. “And I can just imagine how he took the news. But it wasn’t a secret, it was just postponing the inevitable. The boy didn’t need the distraction while he’s running the ranch for Pete.”

Paz let out a definite snort of disbelief, and Tina laughed outright.

“Well, all right,” he conceded, “so I wanted him out of the picture for a bit. We knew he’d find out one way or the other. Now we just need to make sure he doesn’t gum up the works. Sugar says Jason and Layne are doing fine—with a little extra lovin’ care from her, as she calls it.”

“That’s a good thing,” Tina said. “Right now, she and Shay are our best bets for finding out what’s going on in town.”

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of folks keeping an eye on that pair,” Jed said smugly. “Shay and a couple of the others phoned in to tell me Jason and Layne had lunch at SugarPie’s. And that’s not all. You should have heard what those two got up to in the parking lot, Paz. Kissing. While standing right there for all the world to see.”

Her eyes rounded in surprise.

Tina slumped back against the couch and heaved a relieved sigh. “Well, I’m so glad to hear that. For a while, I was wondering if we were on the right track.”

“We are, for sure. Just standing in the wrong station. Sugar and Shay and everybody else are fine for helping out. But we—you and me, ladies—have got to do something to hurry things along.” He thought for a moment. “This working from a distance has me roped and tied. It’s time to get the pair of them out here to the ranch.”

“What’s the hurry?” Tina asked. “Is Jason planning to leave again soon?”

He shrugged. “Who knows? But he might get it into his head to do just that. And if it’s anything like the first time he left, nobody will know a thing until he’s long gone.”

* * *

J
ASON
DROVE
AROUND
and behind the Hitching Post to park near the barn and the corral. To his surprise, he had the parking area almost all to himself. The hotel guests might have gone off to see the sights—though there weren’t many sights to see unless you went all the way to Santa Fe.

He would have stopped in to greet Jed’s ranch manager but knew Pete wasn’t yet back from his honeymoon.

After their lunch at SugarPie’s, he had taken Layne to pick up the kids at their day care, then dropped them all off at her apartment. Following the terms of their agreement, since he’d been on his own that morning, he could have stayed. Could have spent time with Scott.

But after his time with Layne in SugarPie’s parking lot, he’d felt the need for some space.

A couple of hotel guests were braving the cooler air to take instruction in the proper way to mount a horse. Then again, if they were from up north, at this time of year they probably found New Mexico a tropical paradise compared to back home.

He scanned the corral, expecting to see Cole Slater, but the cowboys giving the instructions were strangers to him.

Gripping the steering wheel, he stared over the hood of the truck, seeing not the corral but Layne’s face when he had kissed her.

The way she returned his kiss proved she was feeling the same things he was. Didn’t it?

But even if his own conscience hadn’t started nudging at him, reminding him of how badly he’d once treated her, his encounters with some of the folks in Cowboy Creek wouldn’t let him forget. He’d had to pull away from her. He had to stick to the promise he had made to himself. He wasn’t giving in to any kind of attraction, getting caught up in any kind of “trouble” with her. Not until he had proven himself.

As if he could shut his thoughts into the pickup truck, he slammed the driver’s door closed and headed toward the hotel. A man came down the back steps and strode toward the parking area, his hat brim shading his face. Not a guest on the ranch, but one of Jed’s wranglers. One of his grandsons by marriage. Layne’s brother, Cole.

He paused and waited for the other man to approach him. They’d been on civil terms once upon a time—for the most part anyway. But after all the years that had passed since then, he couldn’t expect that now. Besides, Mitch Weston had warned him Cole would be ready to give him an earful when they met. Better to see the man here and get this confrontation over with, rather than face him inside the hotel and make things awkward for everyone, especially Layne when she learned about it.

And knowing the folks in Cowboy Creek, she would learn about it.

Cole stopped in front of him. “I heard you were back in town.”

“I heard you were managing the ranch.”

“Temporarily, while Pete’s away.”

He nodded. “Jed tells me he keeps a full stable, the way he always did. Daffodil still around?” He’d had a soft spot for Daffodil, a mare Jed had pulled from the herd, claiming she had earned her keep and an easy retirement.

“Yeah, she’ll never leave the place. Unlike some cowhands I know.”

“You also know the hands come and go.”

“And some don’t come back for a good long time. Until it suits them, I guess.”

He scowled. “I’m not the only one of us who left town and took a while to come back. Or so I hear. Besides, your sister threw me out.”

Cole raised his brows and spread his hands in disbelief. “What was the difference between that time and all the others? You two broke up more often than I’ve broken in a new saddle. Though I have to say I thought it was all over between you when you dumped her on her sixteenth birthday. That was low, considering she was still getting over losing our mama. But no, like always, you got together again. Until you left for good. What kind of man does that?”

“I told you, she kicked me out. I knew she had you to depend on. How could I know you wouldn’t set foot in Cowboy Creek again for a while, either? But she had Sugar. Jed and Tina. Other friends. It’s not like I left her all on her own.”

“No, you sure as hell didn’t. You left her carrying your baby. A man doesn’t walk away from a woman he’s gotten pregnant. Not knowingly. I told Layne if I had suspected that would happen, I’d never have signed the paperwork to let the pair of you get married.”

“It takes two to make a pair.”

“You forgot the rest of it, pal,” Cole said. “It takes two people willing to stick around and work things out. Is that what you’ve got in mind now? Because if you start something with her again without having any plans to stay, you won’t have a chance of steering clear of me. You’ve already messed with Layne’s head—you and Terry both. And I’ll break your neck before I let you break her heart again.”

Cole strode past him.

He stood with his hands fisted, taking a few deep breaths. From behind him, he heard the roar of an engine. He stood and watched as Cole drove away.

Damn the man, but he was right.

What was he trying to prove by rekindling a relationship with Layne? What was the point in trying to earn her trust? Except for his son, Cowboy Creek now held nothing for him but reminders of why he had stayed on the move. As soon as he could come to terms with Layne about child support and a visitation schedule, he was only going to leave town. He was only going to hurt her again.

He turned back to his truck, but before he’d reached it, he heard someone hailing him from near the hotel. Jed had come out onto the back porch.

After a final deep breath, he made his way in that direction.

The older man stood waiting for him, his thumbs hooked in his belt loops and a smile on his face. “Well, what brings you out here this afternoon?”

“Coffee would do, for starters.”

“C’mon in, then. You’ve picked a good time. Let’s head around to the front and go through to the dining room. The place’ll be quiet. I’d invite you into the kitchen to say hi to Paz, but it would be more than our lives are worth for me to step foot in there with you now. She’s halfway between lunch cleanup and supper prep.”

Jed led the way through the empty hotel lobby and hung a right down the hall to the dining room. “I was going to get in touch with you today anyhow. Paz and Tina have invited you for Sunday dinner. I imagine you remember well enough not to cross Paz when she wants to serve you a meal.”