Cowboy on the Run (16 page)

Carrying the child upstairs to her bedroom, he placed her onto the twin mattress of a canopy bed draped in a luxurious waterfall of pink. Nate tucked her in, pulling a fluffy pink comforter up to her chin and kissed her cheek. Whatever he whispered into the child’s ear made her smile.

Jessie stood back and watched, holding Gage to her side. The scene tugged at her heartstrings, but she welcomed the bittersweet emotion. This was what fathers did. They made everything all right in just a few words and a kiss.

And she had kept this moment from her kids.

From Nate.

He kissed Jade on the forehead, and turned back to Jessie. Gage held out his hands, and without hesitation, Nate took him and followed her down the hall to her son’s bedroom on the left.

Gage’s room was a subtle green, reminiscent of a summer day. She couldn’t help but wonder what Nate’s reaction would be to this shade. The room had a calming effect on a person, so much different than the busy tint of Jade’s room.

He tucked the boy into bed, pulling the forest green cover up over his small body, while whispering something Jessie couldn’t hear. Her son reacted with a fit of contagious giggles.

This must be another trait fathers were known for, finding a boy’s silly side. She smiled, misty eyed. After a few more chuckles and an exchanged knowing look between father and son, the child was ready for sleep.

Making their way back down the hall, she glanced through her bedroom door. The white quilt on her queen-size mattress seemed to be illuminated in the dark. It would be so easy just to fall into bed with him.

And what was the harm? What more damage could be done by adding sex? Her guard was down. Gone. With what happened with her father, the stampede and everything, Nate had been there to lean on. But that was only part of it. Seeing him with the kids had dissipated any resolve she had to keep her distance from him. It had undone her. All of her defenses were useless now.

The warmth of his hand embraced hers as if he were having mutual thoughts.

In a moment, they were wrapped in each other’s arms, a frenzy of need and desire, the heat sweltering and consuming. His hands like fire on her lower back pulled her into the unyielding hardness of his chest. His lips, hungry and demanding, claimed her mouth with an undeniable urgency.

Her head swam, so dizzy by his kiss, she hadn’t even noticed they were no longer in the hallway but in her bedroom.

Suddenly, he stiffened, distancing himself.

“No, Jessie, stop. We have to stop this.”

Nate pushed her away with a firm but gentle hand. She read regret in his gaze and her desire deflated in an instant.

He reached out to touch her cheek. Swallowing the hurt, she brushed aside his hand. Persistent, he pulled her back to him, tilting her chip upward. His mouth found hers, searching, desperate. She succumbed, lost in the passion of his kiss...only to have him pull back again.

“I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want to, in fact...the opposite. I want you more now than I’ve ever wanted you before.” He glanced around the room, and his stare landed on the bed. “This is hard as hell. The timing’s all wrong. I told myself I would take things slow with you. I want you to have faith in me again. I want to trust you again.” Nate stepped back as if allowing his words to sink in. “It will take some time, Jessie.”

She shook her head, understanding the meaning of the words he didn’t voice—he couldn’t trust her again.

Time.

No, it would take more than time. It would take a miracle.

“With all the things that happened tonight, I’d just be taking advantage of you. You would hate me in the morning. And I’d resent you. Hell, I would resent me.” He attempted a smile, keeping his distance. “You’re vulnerable right now.”

Jessie stepped away. He was right. At the moment, she was more fragile than a piece of glass.

“Of course,” she replied in a shaky voice. “I...ah...I don’t know what came over me.” Her face burned hot, and she sucked in a deep breath thankful for the darkness of the room. She had all but thrown herself at him, deserving his rebuff.

Voices drifted up from downstairs.

“We should join the others.”

The warmth of his hand embraced hers as he led her down the stairs. Shamefully, his touch made her long for more, rekindling the desire again. It didn’t seem fair. How could she want him now more than ever?

They joined Doyle, Rosita and William at the dining room table. The housekeeper enticed them to sit down, pouring each a cup of coffee.

“Doyle and William found over a dozen snakes. Can you believe it?”

The news twisted her insides into a knot as she accepted a cup from Rosita. She spared a glance at Nate, who was drawn in by the statement. How quick the incident upstairs had been forgotten. Wincing, her pride took the brunt of the hit.

“Fourteen,” William offered. “And we killed every one of ‘em.”

His words hit her like a brick wall, the count so high, so shocking. She placed her cup down on the table, her hand trembling too much to hold it.

Her dad had been lucky. They all had. She shuddered, shattered by the thought of what else could have happened.
What if the kids had been out there?

“And to think, I first thought it was the lightning startling the cattle into stampeding.” Doyle took a long thoughtful draw on his coffee. “I suppose it could have been either, but I’m favoring the snake theory. We’ll have to check over the steers in the morning to be sure.”

She studied the man’s weathered face as thousands of questions raced through her head. “Check the steers?”

“For snakebites,” he said, directing his answer toward her.

Jessie gasped, the reality of the night dawning on her.

“Pardon my bluntness, Ms. Jessie, considering your dad’s in the hospital and all,” Doyle apologized.

She brushed aside his concern with a wave of her hand.

“What I can’t figure out is where the damn snakes came from in the first place,” William interjected, redirecting her attention back to him. “Worked this land for sixty some years, twenty of them right here on this spread, and I’ve
never
seen as many rattlers in one spot before.” He scratched his head. “Hell, I ain’t seen that many snakes in my lifetime.”

“That’s a blessing,” Rosita interjected, topping off his coffee. “Snakes come from the devil himself.” Her top lip sneered in distaste.

“You got that right. They’re evil.” The foreman nodded his head in complete agreement, volunteering a supportive pat on her backside.

“You are, too, William McCredie!” Rosita protested, slapping his shoulder with her free hand.

The playful bickering between the two of them caused Jessie to smile. She stole a glance at Nate, who happened to be standing at the head of the table, his expression unreadable and his arms crossed over his chest.

“It’s just weird, that’s all,” Doyle added, without a second glance at the open display of affection between the two lovebirds. “It’s almost as if they’d been planted here. It’d be a good idea to have the boys scour the pasture as soon as the sun comes up to search for more rattlers.” He scratched his head. “It’s just strange, as if someone put them on the ranch on purpose...almost as if the stampede was intentional.”

Jessie gasped, overlooking his mention of boys and her pasture. Instead, she focused on the stampede. The notion someone had maliciously caused such an act had never entered her mind.

“We need more coffee, wench,” William barked at Rosita, softening the order with a flirtatious wink.

“Yes, your highness,” she retorted sassily before heading into the kitchen to brew another pot.

The moment she was gone, William’s playful smile disappeared. “And we never did figure out what killed three of our best steers, did we?”

A grave fog of somberness filled the air. Jessie stood. The question lingering in the back corners of her mind was now brought out into the open, laid out like a large feast spread on her dining room table.

“That’s enough,” Nate said, putting the topic to rest. “Look, it’s been a long night. We’re all tired. Let’s try to get some sleep and mull it over in the morning.” He shot a concerned glance in her direction. “You don’t mind if Doyle and I borrow your dad’s truck for the night, do you, Jess?”

She shook her head and stared at the floor. What if the stampede
had
been intentional? Her head spun with hundreds of what if’s. But why on earth would anyone do such a thing? It just didn’t make any sense.

They didn’t have any enemies. None she knew of. And it wasn’t as if there was some big corporation trying to buy her land, desperate to go to any means necessary to get her to sell.

She allowed herself a meek smile at the direction of her thoughts. Nate was right. It had been a long night, and she was tired. Things would look different in the morning. Besides, at the moment, her brain was past the point of rational thoughts.

Chapter 19

Why bother even going to bed? Nate glanced up to the sky. Barely breaking dawn. He sighed, heading to the barn. He’d spent the last hour trying to convince his friend to leave as he’d planned, which he finally did just before sunrise.

Might as well throw himself into work. The way his mind was racing, sleep would never come anyway. Nate had barely slept a wink since returning home, blaming it on Jessie, although now he had a different concern. His thoughts drifted back to the unexplained rattlesnakes.

Something was going on. He just couldn’t figure it out. There had been way too many strange occurrences. He stabbed the pitch fork into the dirty hay, gathering a large scoop and placing it in the receiving wheelbarrow. And what had that been with Jessie last night? He gored the hay again.

No, don’t think about that
, he told himself, discovering the best way to get a woman off of his mind was to throw himself whole heartedly into work.

Perhaps it was better this way. To walk away while they still had their pride intact. They were like fire and ice, too much push and pull in their relationship, not enough give and take, both of them too stubborn to forgive, unable to forget. There was just too much pain in their past, too many feelings of betrayal to go forward.

“You’re up early.” Trent came up beside him, grabbing another pitchfork.

“Haven’t been to bed yet,” he answered a little too sharp, using the twines of the pitch fork like a bayonet against the defenseless hay.

“Worried?” The counselor filled his fork. “I forgot Doyle was leaving today.”

“He already left.” Nate paused to wipe the sweat off his brow. He glanced at his watch. “Over an hour ago. Said he wanted to get an early start.” He shielded his eyes from the sun, facing the slim redheaded man, whose head nodded in agreement. “Besides, I think he missed Sandy.”

His thoughts returned to Jessie. He knew what it felt like to miss a woman. Peeling himself away from her last night had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. What he wouldn’t give to see her pull down his drive.

“Looks like we have company,” Trent said, pointing toward a truck heading their way.

His pulse accelerated.
Jessie?

Even from this distance, he could see the driver was too tall. Disappointed, he continued working, taking out his frustration on the hay. After a few minutes, William came into view and parked the vehicle.

“The ranch is starting to look promising,” he observed, getting out of the truck.

Nate tossed another forkful. Using the farm tool as a support, he leaned his weight onto it. He took off his hat and wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his shirtsleeve.

Following William’s gaze along the horizon, he noticed a hazy gray ribbon swirling above the Calhoun ranch. Nate watched mesmerized for several minutes, never before witnessing a cloud move quite like this one seemed to. It took a minute to register...

Smoke.

Jessie’s ranch was on fire!

Speechless, Nate pointed and spared a quick glance at William. For the second time in two days, fear registered in the older man’s eyes.

“Go. Please hurry, Nate,” the foreman urged, his voice frantic with worry. “I’ll call the fire department.”

Nate was two steps ahead, running for the barn and his horse. He called out to the boys for help, and they all piled into the back of her dad’s borrowed pick-up as Trent slid in behind the steering wheel.

Spurring J.W. on at a reckless speed, he raced across the fields to the Calhoun ranch. Faster by horse than by driving, it still seemed to take hours to cross the mere mile separating the two ranches.

By the time he hit the front pasture, the barn was fully engulfed in flames, the harsh smell of smoke thick in the air, greeting him with its menacing presence.

J.W. bucked in response. Halting to a sudden stop, the horse raised his front legs in mutiny. Nate held on tight as the beast, wild-eyed and frightened, refused to go any closer to the fire.

Jumping down, he slapped J.W.’s hind quarters and the horse galloped back in the direction of the Walker land. Nate returned his attention to the barn as the bright orange and yellow flames bled together, devouring the aged wood. The building was going up quick. If he didn’t get control of the fire, the house could go up next.

Nate shot a glance at the house, then back to the barn. The dry wood, brittle from time, proved futile resistance. Suddenly, he caught a brief glimpse of someone in the center of it all, the feminine silhouette a dark shadow even with the blinding light of the flames.

Jessie!

A jolt of panic flushed through his veins. Scouring the exits, he refused to allow the fear to take over. The front of the barn, facing him, would be impossible to get through, the flames high and volatile barely tasting the wood it rapidly consumed. The back exit of the barn looked even more death inspiring.

Her chances of survival were slim to none.

Jessie was trapped.

Chapter 20

Jessie’s lungs ached, her throat itchy and raw as she struggled for breath, the acrid smoke filling her chest. The whole barn was in flames, and she was in the middle of it, the heat scalding her skin. But she was alive, for the moment.