A Cowboy Comes Home

Four

All the lights were blazing when Mandy and Caleb drove up to the ranch house. Caleb’s rented SUV had barely come to a halt when she flung open her door, feet barely touching the dirt driveway as she sprinted across the porch. She rushed through the entry hall to the big living room.

There, she saw Seth first, his strong face pinched in concern where he sat on the sofa, holding her mother’s hand. Her sister Abby was furiously hitting keys on the computer, while Travis paced in the middle of the room, obviously ready for action and obviously frustrated because there was nothing he could do to help.

“Mom.” Mandy rushed forward, sliding down beside her mother and wrapping an arm around her slim shoulders. Her mother’s face was pale, eyes red-rimmed and hollow looking.

“The helicopter left about five minutes ago,” said Seth.

“They said there wasn’t room for Mom.” Travis sounded angry.

Mandy heard Caleb enter the house and cross the foyer behind her, but she didn’t turn. She felt guilty for being attracted to him, guilty for kissing him, guilty as sin for getting lost in his embrace while her father fell ill and collapsed.

“I’m trying to find her a ticket out of Lyndon for the morning,” Abigail put in.

“They’re taking him straight to Denver,” said Travis. “There’s a specialist there, a whole team with the latest technology for early stroke intervention.”

“That sounds good,” Mandy said to her mother, rubbing Maureen’s shoulder with her palm.

“Damn it. The connection is bogged down again,” said Abigail.

Caleb stepped fully into the room. “My corporate jet’s on the tarmac in Lyndon.”

Everyone turned to stare at him.

Seth came to his feet. “How many of us can you take?”

“As many as need to go.” He captured Mandy’s gaze for a long second.

“I’ll stay here,” Travis put in, drawing everyone’s attention. He glanced at his siblings. “I’m probably the least help there, but I’m the most help here.”

Seth nodded his agreement with the suggestion.

Responding to Seth’s concurrence, Caleb pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll have the pilots meet us at the airport. Mandy, why don’t you put together an overnight bag for your mother?”

Abby swiveled back to the computer. “I’m booking a hotel for us in Denver.”

“See if there’s an Emerald Chateau near the hospital,” said Caleb as he pressed the buttons on his phone. “We have a corporate account. Call them and use my name.” He put his cell phone to his ear and turned toward the foyer.

Mandy squeezed her mother’s cool hand. “Did you hear that, Mom?”

Maureen gave a small nod of acknowledgment.

“Good.” Mandy struggled to keep her voice even. Breaking down right now wouldn’t help anyone, least of all her mother. “I’m going to pack you a few things. You just sit tight.”

“He couldn’t speak.” Maureen’s voice was paper dry, her hand squeezing Mandy’s. “He tried, but his words were all muddled. Syllables sometimes, then nonsense.”

Mandy swallowed the lump in her throat. “I think that’s really common with a stroke. And it’s sounds like they’ve got a great team in Denver. He’ll get the best care.” Her gaze met her brother Seth’s and he motioned with his head for her to go pack.

She nodded in response, gently releasing her mother’s hand. The sooner they got to Denver, the better.

As she headed for the staircase, she passed Caleb in the foyer, where he was talking on the phone to his pilot. “Two hours, tops,” he said. “Right. We’ll be there.”

She stopped and turned back, reaching out to lay the flat of her hand on his chest, mouthing the words “Thank you.”

He placed his hand over hers and gave one quick squeeze then pointed her toward the staircase.

Mandy had never been on a private plane. The flight to Denver was, thankfully, quick and smooth. The Active Equipment jet had room for eight passengers, and Caleb had arranged for a car to take them directly from the airport to the hospital. There, Mandy’s mother was the only person allowed to see her father, and the nurse would let her into his room for only a few minutes.

The doctors were medicating him and monitoring him closely to watch for additional strokes. They told the family they needed to keep him calm. The initial prognosis was for a slow, potentially limited recovery. There was no way to tell how much of his speech and mobility he would regain. A doctor told them the first few days were critical.

Although Abby had booked regular rooms at the Denver Emerald Chateau, a word from Caleb to the front-desk clerk had Mandy, Abby and her mother in a luxurious, two-bedroom suite. Caleb and Seth had taken an identical suite at the opposite end of the twentieth-floor hallway.

It was nearly three in the morning before Mandy’s mother finally got to bed. Thankfully, she fell asleep almost immediately, and Mandy joined Abby, Seth and Caleb in the suite’s living room.

Abigail was handing Seth her cell phone. “Your brother wants to talk to you.”

“Thanks, tons.” Seth scowled as he accepted the phone.

The only vacant seat was on a small couch next to Caleb, and Mandy sat down. She felt his gaze on her profile, swore she could feel his energy through her pores, but she didn’t turn.

“Must we do this now? ” Seth was asking into the phone.

Mandy gave her sister a quizzical look.

“Seth was talking about dropping out of the Lyndon mayoralty race,” Abby explained. “Travis disagrees.”

Mandy disagreed, as well, strenuously. Her oldest brother had been planning this political move for over two years. “It’ll be weeks before he even needs to campaign.”

Abigail huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s what I told him. And that’s what Travis’s telling him.”

Mandy shook her head. “Dad won’t want him to drop out.”

Their father had been totally supportive of Seth’s decision to run for mayor. The ranching community was slowly being pushed out of the economic framework of the district as tourism operations and small businesses moved in and began to lobby for their own interests.

“Who’s going to run the place?” Seth demanded into the phone. “You?”

He listened for a moment, then gave a cold laugh. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

Caleb leaned toward Mandy. “This is a terrible time for them to have this conversation. They have absolutely no perspective at all.”

She knew he was right and nodded her agreement. They were all exhausted and their emotions were raw.

Caleb rose to his feet. He moved in front of Seth and motioned for him to hand over the phone. Seth scowled at him, but Caleb persisted. When Seth finally complied, Caleb put the phone to his ear.

“Travis? It’s Caleb. You need to go to bed. So does Seth and so do your sisters.”

There was a pause.

“In the morning. No. You listen. I don’t care who started it. I’m the only one here who’s not operating on grief and fear, and I’m telling you to shut it down.”

Caleb paused again. “Yes. I will.” His gaze slid to Mandy for a brief second. “Of course not.”

Abigail rose from her chair to lean over and give Mandy a quick hug. “I’m beat,” she whispered in Mandy’s ear. “Mind if I use the bathroom first?”

“Go ahead.” Mandy squeezed her sister tight, grateful to have her siblings close to her tonight.

“We’re going to have to call Katrina in the morning.” Abigail referred to their youngest sister who lived in New York City.

“It’s almost morning there now,” said Mandy.

“When we get up is soon enough. I’m sure it’ll be early.”

“Yeah,” Mandy agreed on a sigh. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

Abigail made her way to the second bedroom and its en suite bathroom.

Caleb put the cell phone on the coffee table.

Seth rose. “I’m ordering a single malt from room service,” he told Caleb. “You want one?”

“Yeah,” said Caleb. “I’m right behind you.”

Mandy came to her feet to give her oldest brother a big hug.

“You okay?” he whispered gruffly in her ear, ruffling her hair.

“I’ll let you know in the morning.” Mandy dreaded having him leave the suite, having her sister fall asleep, leaving her alone with her thoughts and fears. She wasn’t going to sleep. Her family had just turned on a dime. She had no idea what would come next.

Seth shut the door behind him, and Caleb turned to her. “You’re not okay.”

“I’m not okay,” she agreed, her body turning into one big ache.

He stepped closer. “Anything I can do to help?”

“You already have.” She drew a shuddering breath, trying to put the night’s events in some sort of order. “You have a jet?”

“Active Equipment has a jet.”

“But you own Active Equipment.”

“True enough.”

“Thank you for bringing us all here. I know my mom was terrified…” She swallowed, her throat going raw all over again. “I was so afraid he’d die before-”

Caleb drew her into his strong arms, cradling her against his body. “Of course you were. But he didn’t. And you’re here now. And there may very well be good news in the morning.”

Mandy found herself lying her cheek against Caleb’s chest, taking comfort in the steady thud of his heartbeat and the deep, soothing rumble of his voice.

He leaned in and kissed her gently on the temple, bringing all her earlier feelings rushing back. She felt off balance, out of sync, like she was floating in space without a lifeline.

“Caleb,” she stuttered. “What we-”

“Shh. Not now. Nothing matters right now.”

She closed her eyes. “Are you always this nice?”

“I’m hardly ever this nice.” He paused. “You need to sleep now.”

“I know.” She wished she could lie down right there, right then and stay safe in Caleb’s arms for the rest of the night. Deep down inside, she knew she was being foolish. She was emotional and vulnerable, and he seemed strong and safe. It was that simple.

These feelings would probably go away by morning, but right now, they were powerfully strong.

The next morning did bring positive news. Caleb was surprised, along with everyone else, by Hugo’s rapid progress. Hugo recognized all the family members. They were each allowed to visit him, and he was able to say Maureen’s name, along with several other rudimentary words, enough to get his general meaning across. His meaning, Caleb noted, was that Seth should continue to plan his campaign for the mayoralty race, Abigail should stay in Denver with Maureen, while Mandy should go home and run the ranch with Travis.

Caleb had to admire the tough old man. Less than twenty-four hours after the stroke, Hugo was regaining movement in his right arm, and he also had some movement in his right foot and ankle. The doctors were very pleased with his progress and feeling optimistic about his eventual recovery, although they cautioned it would take weeks, possibly months.

Seth decided to stay in Denver for some political meetings, so Caleb and Mandy returned alone on the Active Equipment jet. Once in Lyndon, they exited down the airplane staircase and onto the tarmac outside a small maintenance building at the private area of the apron. It was late afternoon, and thick clouds were gathering as the sun made its descent and the air cooled down.

Caleb switched on his cell phone, and Mandy did the same. Hers immediately rang, and they picked up their pace to get away from the sound of the airplane engines.

She plugged one ear and called “hello” just as Caleb’s phone rang. They made it around the end of the building, blocking the noise.

Caleb answered his phone with one hand, unlocking and swinging open the chain-link gate with the other. There were few cars in the parking area.

“It’s Travis,” came the voice at the other end.

“Just touched down in Lyndon,” Caleb offered. “Did you talk to your mother?”

“Just got off with her,” said Travis. “Dad’s progress is still good. The doctors are amazed.”

“Good to hear.” With his free hand, Caleb hit the unlock button on his key fob and opened the passenger door first. Mandy was focused on her own conversation as she absently accepted his offer and climbed inside.

“About Danielle,” Travis continued.

“Were you able to reach her?” Caleb had tried Danielle’s cell this morning and got her voice mail. Odds were good that she’d headed back to Chicago and was on an airplane. Still, he’d asked Travis to retry the call and check the ranch just in case. He’d rushed off so fast last night, he’d barely had time to explain. Danielle wasn’t the most patient woman in the world.

“I drove up to your place,” Travis confirmed.

“So, she’s on her way back to Chicago?”

“Not exactly.”

“She’s not?” Caleb swung into the driver’s seat and slid the key into the ignition.

“You know that hairpin turn where you come out at Joe Mountain?”

“What?”

“Where the rear wheels always break loose?”

Uh-oh. Caleb didn’t like where this was going. “Is Danielle all right?”

“She’s fine. Now.”

“Give me the bad news.”

Travis confirmed Caleb’s fears. “She couldn’t recover from the slide, missed the turn. Got stuck at the edge of the pond. She wasn’t hurt, but evidently, there’s no cell service at that particular spot.”

Caleb groaned and thudded his head on the steering wheel. Mandy spared him a glance of confusion.

“How long was she stuck?” he asked Travis.

“A few hours. I have to give the girl points for moxie. She spotted the Eldridge barn and decided they might be able to help her.”

“That barn’s seventy years old. And it’s half a mile from the road.”

“Hard to judge, I guess. Miss Danielle may want to have her distance vision checked. She climbed through the barbed-wire fence and started hiking.”

Caleb groaned again.

“Didn’t go well,” Travis confirmed. “Apparently you owe her for a designer blazer that got torn. Oh, also the shoes that weren’t made for hiking.”

“Did she make it to the barn?”

“Barely. By the time she realized it was a derelict, a herd of cattle had cut her off from her car. I guess a bull made some threatening moves, and she ended up climbing into the loft. It’s dusty up there and, apparently, there are quite a few spiders.”

Caleb shouldn’t laugh. He really shouldn’t. “I’m in a lot of trouble, aren’t I?”

“Hell, yeah. You and me both.”

“Why you? I assume you rescued her.”

“By the time I got there, she’d been trapped for a few hours.”

“Do I by any chance need a new lawyer?”

“She was pretty desperate for a restroom.”

Caleb rewhacked his head. Anything less than marble fixtures was considered slumming it for Danielle.

“I told her to go behind the barn,” said Travis with an obviously suppressed chuckle.

“Are you laughing?”

“You also owe her for a pair of designer undies. There were nettles.”

“Could you just shoot me?”

Mandy had finished her call, twisted her body in the passenger seat and was now staring unabashedly at Caleb.

Caleb met her curious gaze.

“We had to tow her car back with a tractor,” said Travis. “Scooter says it needs parts. Hey, can you stop by the auto-parts store while you’re in Lyndon?”

“Sure,” Caleb agreed fatalistically.

“We’ll text you a list.”

Caleb braced himself. “She doing okay?”

“She’s been in the upstairs bathroom for two hours. I don’t know what women do in there, but hopefully it’ll improve her disposition.”

“Hopefully,” Caleb agreed, but he wasn’t holding his breath. “Thanks, Travis.”

“No need to thank me. That was the best entertainment I’ve had all month.”

“Don’t tell her that.”

“Already did. See you, Caleb.”

Caleb signed off, pocketing his phone.

“Were you talking to Abigail?” he asked Mandy.

She nodded. “The news on Dad just gets better and better. I’m so relieved.”

“Good to hear,” Caleb agreed.

“You were talking to Travis?” she asked him in return, raising her brows in a prompt.

“Danielle had some car trouble.”

“She’s still in Colorado?” Mandy was obviously surprised by the news. “I got the impression she was going to be on the first flight out.”

“They’re sending us a list of parts for the car.” Caleb turned the ignition key and started the Escalade.

“Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. Travis helped her out. But she’s frustrated to be stuck in Lyndon.”

His phone rang again, but he didn’t recognize the number. He flipped it open. “Caleb Terrell.”

“Mr. Terrell? It’s Frank Cummings here, Mountain Real Estate. I have some good news for you.”

“Hello, Frank.”

“We have an interested buyer.”

“This soon?” Caleb was surprised. It had been less than twenty-four hours since he’d listed the ranch.

“The gentleman has been watching for opportunities in the area, and he’ll be in Lyndon tonight. I’m meeting him for dinner. I was wondering if we might touch base with you by phone in a couple of hours? If all goes well, we’ll want to arrange a viewing.”

“I’m in Lyndon.”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

“Then you should join us for dinner.” Frank sounded excited at the prospect.

“Sure.” Why not? If it was a serious buyer, Caleb would like to look him in the eye and make his pitch. “I’m with someone,” he told Frank, his glance going to Mandy.

“Up to you, but feel free to bring them along.”

“Where and when?”

“Riverfront Grill at six.”

“We’ll be there.” He ended the call.

Mandy arched a brown. “We’ll be where?”

He pocketed his phone and pulled the shifter into Reverse. “Is there any chance I can trust you?”

Mandy buckled up. “To do what?”

“To behave yourself-”

She sputtered an unintelligible protest.

“Frank Cummings has a buyer,” he finished.

She froze, jaw dropping. “For the ranch?”

He reversed the SUV out of the parking spot, tires slipping to a stop on the gravel scattered on top of the pavement. Then he shifted into Drive. “Only thing I’m selling.”

“But… You… That’s too fast!”

“I don’t think there are any speed regulations.”

“Who’s the buyer? What does he want? Is he going to keep it as a working ranch?”

Caleb shot her a look of annoyance. “You can’t ask him questions like that. It’s none of our business.”

She clenched her jaw.

“I mean it, Mandy. If you come to dinner, you have to behave yourself.”

“You make me sound like a child.”

“You’re about as emotional as one.”

“Can you blame me? Really, Caleb. Can you blame me for trying to protect your land and your family-”

“It’s not yours to protect.”

“-from someone so determined to make such a stupid mistake?”

“You’re referring to me?”

“If the shoe fits.”

He glanced sternly at her one more time. “You want to come to this dinner, or not? I’m serious, Mandy. I don’t want to dump you off on the side of the road, but I’m not taking a lit stick of dynamite into a business meeting.”

She seemed to have to think about it for a moment.

He waited.

“I won’t ask him his plans for the ranch,” she finally promised, folding her hands primly on her lap, staring straight ahead and looking for all the world like a mischievous young girl.

He squelched an urge to waggle his finger at her. “You are to say nothing but cheerful, positive things about Terrell Ranch and the Lyndon Valley.”

She turned to him, tone dripping with sarcasm. “I love the Lyndon Valley.”

“And if you could do that little pouty thing with your mouth, make the guy think he’ll have a sexy, farmer’s daughter living next door-”

Mandy socked Caleb soundly in the shoulder. “Watch your mouth.”

“I’d rather watch yours.”

“And you’re worried about my behavior?”

He cracked a grin. “I’ll be good if you will.”

And then he found himself second-guessing the wisdom of that particular promise. Honestly, it might be worth letting her blow the sale if it meant they could flirt instead.