The Birthday Fantasy (5 page)

They came to a stone bench and sat down.
The garden was alive with the sounds of night insects and the soft conversation of other couples wandering through the colorful maze.

Tate leaned
over his long legs and stared down at his clasped hands. “So, you really are moving to Dallas?”

With a sigh, she nodded. “That’s where Robbie is.”

“What are you going to do with the ranch?”

She rubbed her forearms
against a sudden chill. “Daddy’s there.”

Tate
straightened and turned toward her. “He hasn’t told you, has he?”

Snapping her gaze to his, she held her breath. “About what?”

“Oh, hell.” He swallowed and glanced back at his hands. “It’s not my place to tell you.”

Her heart slamm
ed into her chest. She grabbed his forearm. “Tate, what do you know? Damn you, tell me.”

He took another deep breath and
rubbed his hand over the dark shadow of beard at his chin. “He’s…”

As he took her hand and held it, he stared into her eyes,
and she knew what he was going to say. Her heart cracked and her breath froze. “He’s sick?”

Tate cl
osed his eyes and nodded. “He has cancer.”

Pain and terror r
ipped through her. She couldn’t--wouldn’t--believe it. “He’s getting treatment, right?”

“
He will.”

“How long has he been sick?”

“I don’t know. He just found out two weeks ago when his doctor did some tests.”

As she stared at her best friend,
burning anger slithered into the cracks in her heart. “How could he keep this from me? Why do you know, but I knew nothing?”

“
He told me the night he found out. He came to my house and we got drunk.” Tate leaned back and pulled her into his arms. “God, Jamie, I didn’t realize you didn’t know.”

She stiffened, afraid of the contact, but soon realized she needed it. His heart sounded strong and steady under her ear where her face pressed into his chest.
“He never said a word. I noticed he’s lost weight, but I never thought he was sick.”

He rubbed her back, giving her his strength. “I don’t think he believes it himself. He’s never been sick a day in his life.”

She snaked her arms around him. A traitorous thought bloomed in her mind. She was thankful Tate was here with her now and not Robbie. He would’ve been supportive, like Tate was now, but Robbie didn’t truly understand her relationship with her father. Tate did because he had the same sort of love and respect for the man he thought of as a father. “What kind of cancer does he have?”

“
Colon.” Tate’s voice dipped so low, it nearly cracked.

She closed he
r eyes and let the tears fall. He brushed his fingers over her cheek to lay his rough, warm hand on the side of her face. “He’s tough, Jamie. I know he’ll fight this thing.”

As she breathed in Tate’s musky scent, she prayed he was right. “I can’t lose my daddy. I can’t
.”

****

Her father couldn’t die. He had to beat this thing.

Jamie stared into the darkness of the gauzy canopy. Tears had long ago soaked her hair and the pillow under her head. She’d stopped wiping at them hours ago.

He was the only constant in her life--besides Tate and Maria. He’d taken care of her since she was a baby and never once complained. She remembered all the times he’d played dolls and tag with her and a million other childhood games. As she closed her eyes, she recalled the time when she was about five or six and he’d been napping in his favorite chair. She’d snuck in and put blue eye shadow and bright red lipstick on him. How he’d slept through it all, she still didn’t know. Despite the tears and the heartache, she smiled at the memory or her cowboy daddy wearing Maria’s makeup when the old foreman had walked in and had seen him. Daddy hadn’t lived his Cover Girl look down for years.

But not once had he ever been angry with her.

“Oh, Daddy. What am I going to do without you?”

The soft click of the door opening had her turn
ing her head to Tate’s silhouette in the doorway. He didn’t need an invitation, but she reached out to him, and he climbed into bed beside her. He was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, but she didn’t pay much attention as he tucked her into the crook of his arm and held her to his body.

“Shhh... Go to sleep, princess.”

“Tate?”

He soothingly stroked her hair.
“Yeah?”

“
Just hold me. Don’t leave me tonight.”

He met her gaze and swallowed. “I won’t.”

****

Sleep was impossible as Tate held Jamie. She’d fallen asleep not long after he’d c
ome to her bed. Her soft breathing was the only sound in the room. She warmed him where she lay against his side and on his chest. The scent of sunshine and honey filled his senses, but he didn’t feel the overwhelming desire he usually felt with her. Instead, he only felt pain for her. His heart broke for her.

“Tate?”

He looked down to meet her watery eyes. “I thought you were asleep.”

She shook her head against his should
er. “Tell me about your father. He raised you, too, right?

He never talked about the man he’d
tried for most of his childhood and teenage years to emulate. “Nothing much to tell. My sister and I were stuck with him after my mother left him when I was twelve and Linda was ten.”

“He was a rodeo cowboy?”

“Yeah. A bronc rider.”

“That’s what you were.” She shifted to sit up. The short nightgown pulled up her long slender legs
, and she pulled it around her knees, making her look so young, all Tate wanted to do was protect her from all the bad crap of the world.

“
I wanted to be just like him for years, and just about succeeded,” he scoffed as he pulled himself up to sit against the padded headboard. He’d followed his old man to the rodeo, looking up to him and believing he’d been a hero, but in the end, he’d learned his father had been a drunk and a troublemaker. By the time Tate was twenty, he’d too been well on his way to becoming just like him. When his mother died and Tate and his father showed up at the funeral drunk, he realized he had to get away from the toxicity of Lester Dawson. He’d left the rodeo and eventually wandered onto the Raines Land Ranch. “The best thing that ever happened to me was getting away from him. Hank was more of a father to me than Lester Dawson ever was. I owe him my life.”

She played with the edge of her nightgown. “
Is that why you stay on the ranch?”

He laughed, but it sounded hollow even to his own ears. “No. I stay because I love that place.”

“Robbie thinks Daddy should sell it.”

“I’m sure he does. He’s a developer and all he sees is the profit that could come from building all over it.”

She nodded and turned to lean against the headboard beside him. She stretched her legs out next to his. He followed the toned length of them to her slender feet. Despite the fire building in his groin, he refused to give into the need. Now wasn’t the time.

“I could never get rid of Raines Land. You know that, right?” She looked
across her shoulder at him.

“I know.”

They were quiet for a long time, and Tate thought about going back to his own bed.

“Tate, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Why haven’t you ever settled down?”

He floated in those deep blue eyes and knew he couldn’t lie to her. But he wasn’t ready to admit the truth either. “I lost my chance.”

“Ever wish you could get it back?”

No way was he going to answer her question. “I’d better get to bed.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead. Her breath caught as she stared into his gaze. “Try to get some sleep, princess.”

He left her bed and headed straight for his room. After closing the door, he leaned against the wood panel and shut his eyes. How was he going to get through another three days with her torturing him at every turn?

Jamie found Tate cooking breakfast in the small kitchen the next morning.

“Hey.” He turned from the stove with two heaping plates of eggs, bacon and toast. “Glad you
’re up. C’mon. I thought we’d eat out on the patio.”

He was dressed in a pair of
faded blue jeans and a white button shirt open showing off his broad chest. She shivered as she caught a glimpse of the line of dark curls running from his pecks down between his six-pack to disappear under the open top button of his low-riding jeans.

Sweet Jesus!

She swallowed hard and followed him out the French door to the small round table, where he’d already put butter, silverware and mugs for coffee. “You should’ve gotten me up.”

He
set the plates on the table and pulled out one of the cushioned chairs for her. “Nah. I figured you needed to sleep after last night.”

S
he sat and picked up the carafe of coffee and poured some in their mugs. Trying desperately to keep her eyes off his chest as he sat across from her, she looked out over the lake. “I’m sorry that I kinda lost it. Thanks for staying with me last night.”

“I’m sorry
you had to find out like that. Iq thought he’d have told you...” He shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “If you’d like to leave? I’ll call John to come and pick us up.”

The lake glittered like a million flashing lights in the morning sun. Lush green mountains surrounded the water. Overhead, an eagle soared on the warm breeze. The view was breathtaking and she suddenly never wanted to leave. She picked up her mug with her left hand, the sun
reflecting off the three-carat diamond on her ring finger. The setting was way too fancy for her and she rarely wore the thing, but she’d slipped it on yesterday morning after she talked to Tate on the phone. It was the symbol of her commitment to Robbie, but she was glad he wasn’t here.

Meeting Tate’s intense green eyes, she realized a terrible truth.
She was glad Tate had kidnapped her, and she wasn’t ready to leave quite yet.

“No. Daddy was right. I need a vacation. Let’s enjoy the days we’ve got here, but when we get home, my father and I are having a nice long talk.”

He picked up his fork and a slice of toast. “Your dad’s tough, Jamie. I know he’ll beat this thing.”

“I hope so.” She looked at the plate of food and her belly growled. She was suddenly starving. As she dug into her eggs
over medium--cooked just the way she liked them--she smiled. “So, Mr. Travel Agent, what do you have planned for me today?”

He chuckled and
pointed toward the lake with his fork. “See that waterfall on the other side of the lake?”

In the misty distance, water cascaded from the river
feeding the lake. “Yeah.”

“
If I remember correctly, you’d mentioned something about tanning? That would be the perfect place to do so.”

She swallowed a bite of her eggs. “So would that beautiful beach right here.
”

He shrugged and finished his breakfast. “Sure, but if we take a boat to get there, then it’s more of an adventure.
The pictures of the fall are beautiful.”

“Why can’t we just drive over there?” She finished her toast.

“Apparently there’s no access road to it. The only way is to boat there.”

“And you know how to boat us across
the lake?” As far as she knew, Tate knew nothing about boats. “Why can’t we just ride horses over there? I know they offer trail riding up the in the mountains.”

“Can’t be too hard to figure out, can it.”
He sipped his coffee. “Besides, I thought we’d go riding tomorrow. Taking a boat sounds fun.”

****

Jamie had tried her level best to convince Tate to ride horses over to the fall, but the pigheaded idiot was determined he could drive a boat across the lake. She stood on the dock by the shopping center and stared at the small motorboat.

“
You expect us to take that out over the lake?” Jamie pointed to the floating coffin.

“
Sure.” Tate paid a ruddy-faced man with his credit card for the boat rental. “I told you. It can’t be that hard.”

With a raised brow, t
he man handed back Tate’s card.

J
amie sat the tote bag holding a blanket and towels beside an Igloo cooler and hugged herself. Even with a sarong wrapped around her waist, she felt awkward in the blue and white string bikini she’d been crazy enough to buy yesterday. “Tate, have you ever been in a motorboat before?”

He grinned
. “Of course. I’ve been fishing a time or two.”

She couldn’t help the eye roll.
“Oh, that makes you a bona fide expert.”

The man look
ed from Tate to Jamie and mumbled, “Ah, newlyweds can be so much fun.”