Laredo's Sassy Sweetheart (11 page)

“Absolutely not. Hannah and I can bunk together for a few more days, until you’re feeling better.”

“I’m not the champion you were hoping for, Katy.”

She looked into his eyes and saw the disappointment he was suffering. “Come on,” she said. “Tex brought your truck. He can ride back with one of your brothers.”

“Tex, give Katy my keys,” Laredo instructed. “She’s going to drive me ho—um, she’s going to drive me back to Miss Delilah’s.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come back with us?” Tex asked, handing the keys over, anyway.

“I’ve only started on the first leg of my journey to doing a Big Thing. So the leg has a small joint in it I wasn’t expecting. It’s not enough to make me put my tail between my legs and head home.”

“You
should
head home,” Mason interjected. “Helga can take care of you. Katy needs to be working, I’m sure, not playing nurse to a cowboy who shouldn’t have tried to ride what he didn’t know anything about.”

Laredo scowled. “I’m fine, Mason. And let me be the first to inform you, since Frisco Joe didn’t seem to enlighten you, I’d rather be nursed by Hitler than Helga. We all would.”

Frisco Joe put his arm around Annabelle, who was holding baby Emmie. “Helga
is
Hitler, in woman’s attire. Did you know he had a thing for cross-dressing? And that it’s rumored he’s not really dead? Look closely at Helga’s face, and you’ll see a striking—”

“Enough!” Mason cut in, his tone allowing no further argument. “Your manners are showing, both of you. Helga took very good care of you when you were dumb enough to bust your leg.”

All the Jefferson boys rolled their eyes, knowing full well it was Helga’s ministrations that sent Frisco Joe running to Lonely Hearts Station to seek shelter with Annabelle Turnberry, now Jefferson.

“Thanks all the same, Mason. I’m staying here,” Laredo stated. “It’s safer, believe me.”

Katy’s eyes were locked on Laredo. “If you’re sure about this, let me get you back to the salon.
The doctor says it’s very important that you don’t scramble your brains again for three months, and that you rest completely for forty-eight hours.”

“I need it,” he said. “Because I’m asking for a rematch in a week’s time.”

“You can’t be serious,” Katy told Laredo once she was behind the wheel of his truck. “The doctor told you not to hit your head again for at least three months. You’ll end up with Troy Aikman syndrome.”

It didn’t matter, Laredo knew. Conquering Big Things had to do with bravery. Commitment. Grit. And not running out when things got rough.

“And our salon did win the Best Painted Hooves contest,” Katy continued. “We blew them clean out of the water on that one.”

Of course the prize money for that was smaller, but Crockett’s rendition had brought him a lot of attention, which he totally deserved since his own brothers were the first to rag him on his artistic endeavors.

No matter how much they really were developing an artist’s appreciation and a voyeur’s eye for his nudes.

“But that was Crockett,” Laredo said. “It didn’t have anything to do with me.”

“You asked him to paint for us. That’s something.”

Katy stopped at a single-light intersection, and Laredo put his hand over hers on the wheel. “Katy, you don’t understand. I know I can stay on next time. And I aim to prove it.”

“Well, any notoriety you bring to Miss Delilah helps the price of her bull,” Katy said slowly. “Goodness knows the gate take was up, and we even had some regional photographers doing some articles, so our tourism will probably improve—”

“Katy, it’s the least I can do.”

“Why, Laredo?” She stared at him. “Why do you want to help us so much?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do. Helping to save a small town in a struggling economy is worthwhile as far as I’m concerned. As soon as I get the chance, I’m going to tell Tex he’s a rat for riding against me.”

“He said that the Cut-N-Gurls didn’t have a rider. Which makes sense, if you think about it, Laredo. All these people had bought tickets. They would have been disappointed if we hadn’t had the rodeo with the headline event.” Besides the marquee rematch, several lesser bulls had been ridden. There’d been a calf catch, as well as a table of cowboys playing chicken to see who would be last to vacate their seat before a bull charged them. It had been a
huge success. “Maybe the Cut-N-Gurls weren’t even being sneaky this time,” Katy said.

“I may have seen evidence to the contrary. Hot pink with silver lettering, but never mind that right now. I just want to get in bed.”

She felt her face pinken as she parked the truck in back of the salon. “Here we are.”

They went upstairs, Katy leading the way. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“You can get me something,” Laredo said, drawing her into his arms, “but a drink isn’t what I had in mind.”

“I don’t think you should kiss me while your head isn’t totally clear.”

His arms locked around her. “I’m not suffering from temporary amnesia. I know full well that your name is Penny Calfcatcher.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Very funny, cowboy.”

“I let you down.”

“Not by half.” Lifting her foot, she nudged the bedroom door closed behind them, and began to pull off the Lonely Hearts shirt Laredo was wearing. “Let’s get you ready for bed.”

“You’re being very Helga-ish. I’m going to insist upon a winner’s kiss, even though I didn’t win.”

She looked up at him. “Laredo, I can’t. I’m too nervous. Too uncertain. When I thought you were riding for the Cut-N-Gurls, I nearly died a thousand deaths. I thought last month had repeated itself, with them stealing our cowboy. Only this time, you’d
been stolen from me, just like my—” she drooped her head “—my ex-fiancé.”

“Katy—”

He tried to tip her chin up but she shrugged his finger away. “You’re braver than me, Laredo. Already you’re itching to get back on and try again with Bloodthirsty. But I’m not a get-back-in-the-saddle girl, I guess. I want to keep both my feet firmly planted on the ground.”

He stared at her, and she had to glance away from his deep, probing gaze. His expression was puzzled and disappointed and wistful. It made her heart turn over hard in her chest. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I really am.”

“No way would I have ever done that, Katy,” he said softly. “I would never have ridden for the opposing team.”

“I know. I knew that then, but seeing was believing, Laredo, if only for eight horrible seconds.” She shook her head. “I had no reason to imagine that the announcer was wrong, or that your twin had gone over to the other side.”

“It’s not my fault,” he told her, stroking her face. “Katy, you’re going to have to learn to trust again one day. I propose that I’m the man you should trust.”

“Why?” she asked. “You were supposed to leave today. Right after the rodeo. Nothing’s stopping you but a concussion.”

“I could leave now. But I haven’t.”

She turned her face slightly away. “Laredo,
please don’t press me. I have a thousand thoughts racing through my head, and I just don’t want to…make another mistake. My heart can’t take it.” She took a deep breath. “Remember the fight-or-flight theory? Well, I want to stay on my flight plan. I’m finishing up my summer here, and then I’m going on to Duke where I belong. I’m going to teach science, be the best prof I can be and bury myself in academic pursuits. If I hadn’t strayed from my plan in the beginning, I wouldn’t have ended up a jilted woman. I’m not straying again,” she said, her voice resolute as she turned back to look into his eyes.

“You really thought I would do that to you?”

“I didn’t know.” She couldn’t look at the pain in his eyes. “I just really didn’t know. The Cut-N-Gurls can be so tricky.”

“Your confidence is down,” he said comfortingly. “And I understand that. But, Katy, sometimes a man can’t be taken in by a woman. They have to want to be. And I don’t want to be taken in by those ladies. I like you.”

The shell around her heart crackled a little, allowing hope to stream in. “I know you find Cissy attractive.”

“Sure. Even Cissy finds Cissy attractive. But that doesn’t mean I’d go there. And don’t say anything about the Jefferson reputation. Tex may be my twin, but we couldn’t be more different.” He rubbed his chin, wondering about his brother’s sudden penchant for the beauty queen temptress. “Actually, to be
honest, I’m a little surprised by my brother. Tex isn’t the type to fall for a girl like…well, never mind.”

“See?” she said softly. “If you’re surprised about Tex, why is it so unlikely that I would have misjudged you? The Cut-N-Gurls have a focal goal, they go for it, and rarely do they not achieve it.”

“They didn’t this time.”

“Maybe they seduced Tex, thinking it was you.”

“Jeez, do not even mention that around my twin. He would have a fit. His ego couldn’t take it.” Laredo laughed softly. “Even if they did, that should just confirm to you that I’m unseduceable.”

“Completely?”

“Care to find out?” He nuzzled her nose.

“You have a concussion. Why don’t you crawl into bed before you short-circuit something?”

“Maybe I will.” He sighed suddenly, sounding tired, and sat on the edge of her bed. “Hey, Rose. What’s going on in the mouse house?” Something on the nightstand caught his eye, and slowly he picked it up. “‘Lars Van Hooven, photographer,
Playboy Magazine.
”’ He turned his gaze to her. “Why do you have this business card?”

She snatched it from his fingers. “No special reason. And just because you’re bunking in here does not give you permission to snoop.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “You’re not thinking of posing, are you?”

Starting to say no, Katy stopped herself. “I might.
They’re looking for sweet, unsophisticated, country girls—”

He sat up stiff and straight. “I don’t think so.”

She automatically bristled. Okay, so she’d gone into more description than was necessary just to jerk his chain, but his attitude made her want to call Lars Van Hooven on the spot. “Wait a minute, there, cowboy—”

“No, Katy.”

A gasp escaped her. “Laredo, you can’t tell me what to do.”

“I’m not,” Laredo insisted. “I’m expressing my opinion.”

“You don’t get one!”

“I do, too. I’m voting no. You won’t be able to do it, Katy, and anyway, if you think you want to pose nude, you can pose for me.” He leaned back against the headboard and crossed his arms. “In fact, you can start now.”

“What?”

“Take off your clothes and pose for me. I want to see your smiles, both horizontal and vertical.”

She frowned at him. “I’m not undressing in front of you. And may I add that I don’t like your tone? It smacks of…possessiveness or something.”

He raised a brow at her, which made her nervous.

“And besides, you’re missing the point I’m trying to make.”

“Which would be what, Miss July?”

She gave him a gimlet eye. “You rematch on that damn bull, and I pose.”

“It’s a matter of pride, Katy. I know I can do it. I’d just never felt a bull beneath me before, and I didn’t know what to expect. Now I do. Experience counts.”

“You’re wearing your experience in the shape of a dented skull. Laredo, I got you into this, and I have to be the one to say it’s not worth getting yourself brained over.”

“Well, you can’t just say you don’t like my decision for a rematch—which, I might add, the Lonely Hearts Station city fathers and mother agreed to with great interest—you’re only going to pose for
Playboy
because you don’t want a rematch.”

“I’m going to do something daring,” Katy stated. “Not daring by some girls’ standards, maybe, but certainly by mine. It’s my Big Thing, Laredo.”

His mouth thinned into a straight, compressed line. “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

“Say what?” She was curious, staring at the cowboy on her bed. Golly, but he was handsome. And yet so stubborn! Now that she thought about it, Stanley was not so handsome, and rather spineless. Just the opposite of Laredo. But she hadn’t known who she was looking for before, just the what, which was a belated spring fling, which then turned into a marriage proposal.

But Stanley hadn’t turned out to be a spring fling. She had the experience now to know better.

However, as she stared pugilistically at Laredo, she recognized that he was even less of a spring fling than Stanley. All that claptrap Stanley had given her
about staying a virgin until after they were married had come down to him desiring not her but her family connections.

“You want me to say that I won’t do the rematch. But I’ve already said I would, and I can’t back out now, because that would be reneging on the Jefferson name.”

“That’s what you had to say? That load of turkey trimmings?” Why had she hoped he would say something romantic, like I’m only doing it to impress you?

“Katy!” Laredo swung his feet over the side of the bed and stalked toward her. “You’re making this very tough on me.”

“I actually don’t see why you should care, Laredo.” Katy was only being honest. “It’s my body. My life. My chance to be…uninhibited.”

It appeared that he ground his teeth together. She could hear what sounded like crunching sandpaper in his mouth before he put his hands on her shoulders. “Katy Goodnight,” he said, “you’re far more ornery than any marquee bull. So…I’m going to go spend the night somewhere else.”

S
HE’D LEFT HIM
with no choice, Laredo told himself as he stalked outside. For the first time, he began to feel a real headache coming on. Originally, he’d had a tender, bruised area on his head, but this went below the surface.

No one had ever infuriated him like Katy Goodnight.

For such a sweet-faced girl, she made him want to toss her down on the bed and kiss her until she said she’d do whatever he wanted her to. Mainly, not pose in a girlie mag! She was so innocent she didn’t realize what men bought those magazines for. And if she thought he was going to allow her to let men see her and fulfill their sexual needs while staring at her—

“Whatcha doing?” Tex demanded from his truck bed.

“What the hell are you doing?” Laredo demanded, although it was obvious. Tex and Ranger were enjoying the brilliant starlit night, both of them sitting on top of barrels they’d retrieved from heaven knew where and drinking beer out of the still-packed cooler.

“Trying to decide if we should come in there and drag you out and take you home,” Ranger said. “We’re debating the points in your IQ for saying you wanted a rematch. I’ve got you at about seventy, but Tex says you’re closer to a hundred.”

Which marked him from somewhat mentally challenged to pretty much mentally challenged, depending on whose scale he cared to use. “Is that beer still warm?”

“Nah. We got some ice out of Miss Delilah’s freezer and restocked the cooler. Nice chilly brew-skis now,” Tex said with satisfaction. “How’s your head?”

“Hurting, but not necessarily from Bloodthirsty’s tricks.” He climbed up into the truck bed, sat on the
edge of the truck and took the beer Ranger offered him. “What made you ride for the Cut-N-Gurls, Tex?”

“Sex,” Ranger said, though Tex shook his head.

“Not sex. Just wanted to do a little riding again, I guess. It was for a good cause, too, and that made up my mind. However, I had no idea you’d get thrown so easily.”

“Don’t go easy on my pride or anything.” He took a swig of beer.

“I’m not,” Tex said. “What I meant was that I figured it was all good clean fun. I figured you’d stay on come hell or high water to impress Katy, and I figured without a Cut-N-Gurl rider, you wouldn’t get the chance to show off.”

“So you did it for me?” Laredo asked.

“Not necessarily. I really wanted to ride again. I liked being a hero.” He sighed deeply. “I’d rather have been a hero for this salon. I had to take my apologies to Miss Delilah, and I sure did feel like a rat.”

“You are a rat,” Ranger said with a grin, “but you meant well.”

“Do you like Cissy?” Laredo asked.

Tex stared at both his brothers. “She’s a nice girl.”

“That’s it?” Laredo probed.

“Well, how do you feel about Katy?” Tex asked defensively.

“Most of the time, confused. I want her naked, I
want her pure, I want to spank her, I want to…I don’t know. Marry her, maybe.”

“What?” both his brothers yelped.

“Man, you hit your head harder than we thought,” Tex said. “Marriage isn’t a Big Thing.”