A Cowboy Comes Home

Six

An insistent, intermittent buzzing dragged Mandy from the depths of a deep sleep. She was comfortable, toasty warm, and she sincerely hoped it wasn’t time to get up yet.

As consciousness returned, she felt Caleb shift against her. She knew she should recoil in shock at having cuddled up to him while she slept. But his big body felt so good against her own, that she decided to pretend she was asleep for a few more seconds.

The buzzing stopped, and his deep, husky voice penetrated the darkness. “Yeah?”

He didn’t pull away, either, and she let herself sink into the forbidden sensations. She’d kept her blouse on, while he was wearing his blue jeans, so there was no danger of intimate skin contact. Still, her belly was snuggled up to his hip, her breast against his arm and her calf against his.

“Anybody hurt?” His voice sounded stronger, and her brain engaged more thoroughly on his words. “Good. So, how bad is it?”

She heard the rustle as he swiped a hand across his forehead, into his hairline, and she could picture him blinking his eyes open in the darkness.

“Tell her to call Orson Mallek. He can source the parts worldwide.” Caleb shifted, his arm grazing her nipple, and it was all she could do not to gasp in reaction. “A week will cripple us,” he said. “Tell them forty-eight hours max.”

Arousal invaded her system, hijacking reason. The urge to wrap herself around Caleb and give in to her desires, to hell with the consequences, was quickly gaining traction in her brain.

“Colorado,” he said into the phone.

She felt him shift, and knew he was squinting at her in the dim light, probably wondering if she was awake or asleep. It was getting to the point of unreasonable that she could have slept through the conversation.

It was time to put up or shut up.

Grabbing a final scarp of sanity, she drew away, shifting onto her back, putting some space between them.

“Call me when you know something. Thanks.”

“Something wrong?” she asked sleepily, hoping against hope he’d buy that she’d only just woken up.

“A breakdown in the chassis plant.”

“Is it serious?”

“Depends on how long it takes to repair.” He moved to his side, propping on an elbow, facing her in the predawn glow. “We can go a couple of days before we have to start cutting back shifts. After a week, we’re looking at temporary layoffs. I hate to have to do that.”

She found herself curious. “How many people work for your company?”

“In that plant, a few hundred.”

“Overall?”

“I don’t know. Thousands, anyway.”

“You have thousands of people working for you?” It defied Mandy’s imagination.

“Not directly.” He chuckled.

“Nobody works for me.”

“And you don’t work for anyone else, either. It’s a whole lot simpler that way.”

“Technically, I work for my dad. Though,” she allowed, “that’s definitely going to change for a while.”

“Who’ll take over the ranch?” Caleb asked, laying his head back down on the pillow. “Is Seth the heir apparent?”

Mandy thought about it. “It’s hard to say. Especially with his mayor campaign coming up. Travis’s the most hands-on of us all, but he’s more of a day to day, roll up his sleeves guy. Seth definitely takes the strategic view, but he’s not out on the range very often these days. Abigail’s the organized one. She knows pretty much everything about everything.”

“And you?” Caleb asked. “What’s your strength?”

“I don’t know. Diplomacy, maybe.”

He chuckled. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Hey,” she protested. “People like me. I broker compromises all the time.”

“Not for me, you didn’t.”

“Jury’s still out on that one. I predict that someday you’ll be thanking me for my role last night.”

“I wouldn’t hold your breath.”

“My point is-” she fought the urge to engage further in a debate with him about selling the ranch “-we all have different strengths.”

“What about your other sister, the little one?”

“Katrina?”

“I haven’t seen her yet.”

Mandy resettled herself, bending one knee, which brushed up against Caleb’s thigh. She let it rest there, pretending she didn’t realize she was touching him. “That’s right. You left before it happened.”

“What happened?” There was concern in his voice.

“Nothing bad,” Mandy hastily put in. “Katrina attended a fine arts boarding school in New York City. She’s still in New York. A principle dancer with Liberty Ballet Company.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m serious. She loves it. Then again, she always did hate the ranch.”

His tone turned contemplative. “So, Lyndon Valley produced more than one city dweller.”

“You two would probably have a lot in common.” Mandy kept her voice flip, careful not to betray her disquiet at the thought of Caleb and Katrina. She wasn’t jealous of her baby sister. She’d never cared about being glamorous before, and she wasn’t about to start now.

“What about you?” Caleb asked. “Do you like the ranch, living and working so closely with your family?”

“Absolutely.” Mandy couldn’t imagine any other life. She loved the quiet, the simplicity, the slower pace and the wide-open spaces.

“What about when you get married?”

“Nobody’s asked me yet.”

“You plan to raise your children on the ranch?”

“I do.” She nodded with conviction. “Kids need fresh air, hard work, a sense of responsibility and purpose.”

Caleb was silent for a long moment.

“What about you?” Mandy asked. “You plan to raise your children in a high-rise apartment?”

He stretched onto his back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “That’s a very long way off.”

“But you do plan to have children one day.”

“I don’t know.” He sighed. “I didn’t have much of a role model for a father.”

“You’re nothing like he was.”

“I’m nothing like your father, either.” He turned to look at her. “He’s a fantastic family man. I’m better at business, focused, driven and narcissistic.”

“You cared that you might have to lay people off just now,” she pointed out. “That isn’t narcissistic behavior. It is empathetic, compassionate behavior.”

He turned toward her again, his thigh coming fully up against hers, his midnight-blue gaze capturing hers in the gathering dawn. “You comfortable behind those rose-colored glasses?”

“You cared, Caleb.”

“I’m not the devil incarnate. But that doesn’t mean I should be raising children.”

“What do you want to do? With your future?”

“I’ve been thinking in two- or three-month increments for an awful long time now.”

“Okay,” she allowed. “Where do you want to be in three months?”

His gaze softened on hers, and he reached out to smooth back a lock of her hair. “I can tell you where I want to be in five minutes.”

Her chest hitched, and her lungs tightened around an indrawn breath. His finger traced down the curve of her cheek, along her neck, to trace the vee of her blouse. Her pulse jumped and prickly heat formed on her skin.

“You took off your jeans,” he told her in a husky voice. “Why did you take off your jeans?”

“They’re uncomfortable to sleep in.”

“I thought it was to make me crazy.”

She shook her head. “You kept your pants on, I figured we were safe enough.”

His mouth curved in a small smile. “Since you cuddle in your sleep?”

“I never knew I did that.” She felt as though she could fall forever into the depths of his sexy eyes. “I’ve never slept with a man before.”

“No way.”

“I was in a girls dorm in college.”

His hand dropped away, and his expression turned guarded. “You’re not…”

“A virgin?” She couldn’t help but laugh at the guilt on his face. “Didn’t I just tell you I went to college?”

“You scare me, Mandy.”

She sobered, unfamiliar feelings bubbling to life inside her. She might not be a virgin, but her experience was with swaggering eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds. They were about as different from Caleb as a person could get.

“You scare me, too,” she told him on a whisper.

“Scaring you is the last thing I want to do.”

She nodded, and he slowly leaned in to kiss her.

His lips were firm but soft, confident as they slanted across hers. They parted, hot and delicious. And he pressed her back into the pillow, one arm snaking around the small of her back, pulling her up against him.

A surge of desire swelled inside her. Her back instinctively arched, and she parted her own lips, opening to his tongue, savoring the intense flavor of his passion. Her arms went around his neck, anchoring her, while her breasts rubbed against his chest. Her nipples went hard, tight, intensely sensitive.

He groaned, sliding his hand down her hip, over her silky panties, down her bare thigh. His kisses wandered along the crook of her neck, circling her ear, separating her blouse to kiss his way to the tip of her shoulder.

She pressed her lips against his neck, drawing his skin into the heat of her mouth, tasting salt and dried rainwater. His hand convulsed on her bottom, voice going hoarse. “You’re killing me, Mandy.”

“Is that good?” It felt good from her side. Very, very good.

He kissed her shoulder, kissed her neck, kissed her mouth, dragging her pelvis tight against his. “You need to tell me yes or no.”

She opened her mouth to say yes.

But he pulled back, and his sober expression stopped her.

“I…” She suddenly hesitated. This wasn’t college. This was far more complicated than college.

“We step over this cliff,” he warned her in an undertone, “we can’t come back again.”

She struggled to interpret his words. “Are you saying no?” she asked in a small voice.

When he didn’t answer, her stomach clenched tight. Was she being swept along on this tidal wave alone? How humiliating. She stiffened.

When he finally answered, his voice was controlled and compassionate. “I’m saying you’re not the kind of woman I usually date. You need to think about this.”

She pulled back farther, feeling as if she’d been doused in cold water. She hardened her tone. “Excellent suggestion.”

Without giving him a chance to say anything more, she flounced out of the bed and snagged her jeans from the floor. “In fact, now that you mention it, breakfast is probably a much better idea.”

She strode her way toward the bathroom, hoping against hope the light was too dim for him to get a good view of her scantily clad rear end.

Feet apart, wearing the brand-new pair of steel-toed boots he’d purchased at the Lyndon shopping mall, Caleb chainsawed his way through the third fallen tree on Bainbridge Avenue. The physical work felt good, and tearing trees apart gave him an outlet for his sexual frustration.

Lyndon was a mess this morning. Mandy hadn’t been far off when she’d guessed last night was the storm of the century. The wind, rain-and even hail in some places-had taken down trees, damaged buildings and sent several people to the hospital. Fortunately, no one had serious injuries.

Mandy was on the clearing crew a few hundred yards down the road. Hands protected by leather gloves, with about a dozen other people, she was hauling branches and sections of tree trunk to waiting pickup trucks. Though Caleb’s gaze strayed to her over and over again, he told himself that this morning had been for the best. If she wasn’t ready, she wasn’t ready. And he wasn’t going to push her into something she’d regret.

In other parts of town, Caleb knew many other crews were working, while construction experts, carpenters and engineers assessed the damage to buildings and other town infrastructure.

His phone buzzed in his breast pocket, and he shut down the chain saw, setting it on the ground by his feet. He stripped off his leather gloves, releasing the pocket button and fumbling his way into the deep pocket to address the persistent buzzing.

“Terrell here,” he barked shortly.

“Caleb? It’s Seth.”

“Oh, hey, Seth.” Caleb swiped back his sweaty hair. “Everything all right with your dad?”

“Better and better. They’re going to start some physical and speech therapies in a few days.”

“That’s great news.”

“Agreed. Listen, have you seen any of the storm coverage? It’s all about how bad Lyndon got hit last night.”

“We’re in the thick of it,” Caleb replied, glancing around once more at the destruction. “Mandy and I are still in town.”

Seth’s tone turned worried. “Is she okay?”

“She’s a hundred percent. We’re helping out with the cleanup.”

“Good. That’s a relief. Listen, the cleanup is what I wanted to talk to you about. As the president of Active Equipment, is there a possibility of you making a donation to the town? Maybe a couple of loaders.”

“Absolutely,” Caleb responded, wondering why he hadn’t thought of it himself. “Let me see which dealers are closest, and how quickly they can respond.”

“That would be terrific.”

“Hey, no problem. They can use all the help they can get here.”

“And…uh…Caleb?”

“Yeah?”

“Would you be comfortable with me making the public announcement? I don’t want to steal your PR or anything.”

Caleb got it. “But it wouldn’t hurt your mayoralty campaign any to be the front man on this?”

“Exactly.”

“Hey, go for it,” said Caleb. “It was your idea. You deserve the credit.”

“Thanks.” Seth’s tone was heartfelt.

“Happy to help out. Are you coming into town?”

“I’m going to try. But it may take a while. The airport’s closed.”

“Wow.” Caleb was surprised to learn about the airport. “I’m working on Bainbridge. This thing must have hit the entire town.”

“Get to a television when you can. They’ve got aerials.”

“I’m on the business end of a chain saw for the moment. And I think power’s out all over the place.”

“Mandy’s okay?” Seth confirmed.

“She’s a trouper,” said Caleb, his gaze going to where she struggled with a section of tree trunk that had to be thirty-six inches across. To his astonishment, she smiled while she worked, obviously making a joke to the man beside her.

“That, she is,” Seth agreed. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Roger, that.” Caleb signed off.

After making a few calls to Active Equipment headquarters and giving them Seth’s contact information, Caleb resettled his gloves and yanked on the pull cord for the chain saw. The action restarted the engine, and he braced his foot on the big log in front of him, ripping his way through the next section of the downed cedar tree.

Working methodically, he made it to the end of the tree, sheering off branches and bucking the trunk into manageable sections. Then he glanced up to see Travis approaching, thirty feet away.

Caleb shut it down again, wiping his forehead. “Where’d you come from?”

Travis glanced around. “Whoa. This is unbelievable.”

“Tell me about it. You should have heard them coming down last night. You here to help?”

“I am now.” He tugged a pair of work gloves out of the back pocket of his jeans. “My original plan was to bring Danielle in to the airport.”

Caleb glanced around but didn’t see Danielle among the workers. “Airport’s closed.”

“We know that now. But she was getting pretty antsy this morning.”

“Where is she?”

“I dropped her off at the coffee bar. She wasn’t exactly dressed for brush clearing.”

Caleb cracked a smile. “I think it would be dangerous to let her loose out here.”

“She might break a nail?”

“She might get somebody killed.”

Travis raked a hand through his short hair. “Yeah, she’s definitely better with a computer than with power tools. She’s making calls to see what her options are for getting back to Chicago.”

“She can take my jet,” Caleb offered, seeing an opportunity to make amends for some of the unfortunate complications of her trip to Colorado.

Caleb retrieved his phone and dialed Danielle’s cell. He made the offer of the jet and asked her to touch base with Seth to make sure the heavy-equipment donation went quickly and smoothly. Then he signed off.

“That’ll give her something productive to do,” he told Travis.

Travis glanced around. “Where do you need me?”

“See the tall kid in the blue T-shirt?”

“At the black pickup?”

“He’s keeping the chain saws fueled and sharp. Grab one, and you can start at the other end of that tree.” Caleb pointed as he moved on. “If we can open up this next hundred yards, we’ll have a corridor to the highway.”

“Will do,” said Travis. “By the way, it was nice of you to let Seth organize that equipment donation.”

“His idea,” said Caleb, flipping the switch and setting up to restart the chain saw. “Besides, Lyndon will be lucky to have him as mayor.”

Mandy hopped up onto the tailgate of a pickup truck to take a break from the heavy hauling work. She was tired and sweating, and her shoulders were getting sore.

Somebody put a cup of coffee in her hand. She offered her thanks and took a grateful sip. She normally took cream and sugar, but she wasn’t about to complain. It was nearly two in the afternoon, and she’d been hauling brush steadily since breakfast.

Her animosity toward Caleb had been forgotten when the sun came up and they saw what the storm had done. In fact, it seemed frivolous now to have even been thinking about lovemaking this morning.

“You eaten anything?” Danielle’s voice startled Mandy, and she glanced up to see the perfectly pressed woman picking her way across the debris-strewn road to the pickup truck.

“What are you doing here?” Mandy couldn’t help exclaiming.

Danielle was wearing slacks today, but they looked like expensive, dove-gray linen, and they were topped with a jewel-encrusted mauve sweater and paired with pewter-colored calfskin boots. Her makeup was perfect, and not a single hair was out of place.

“Travis brought me into town.”

“Travis’s here?” Mandy glanced around, but didn’t catch a glimpse of her brother.

“I was hoping to catch a flight to Chicago. But the airport’s closed.”

As Danielle arrived at the truck, Mandy looked for a blanket or a stray piece of clothing to throw on the tailgate to protect the woman’s expensive slacks. She spotted a quilted shirt, grabbed it and shook it out, laying it inside up on the tailgate and motioning to it.

“Thank you,” said Danielle, awkwardly hopping up and settling herself. She snapped open her designer handbag and extracted a deli sandwich, handing it to Mandy.

“You’re a saint.” Mandy sighed, accepting the offer.

“You’re amazing,” Danielle returned. “How on earth can you work this hard?”

“Practice.” Mandy took a big bite of the thick sandwich.

“Well.” Danielle smoothed her slacks, setting her handbag down in her lap. She gave a delicate, self-deprecating laugh. “I’ve been dialing my fingers to the bone.”

Mandy smiled at the joke. “Nobody expects you to do manual labor. Anymore than they’d expect me to compose a legal brief.”

“That’s very kind of you to say.”

“Don’t even worry about it. Thanks for the sandwich.”

They sat in silence for a moment, the sound of chain saws, truck engines and shouts surrounding them. Bainbridge Street was a hive of activity.

“I’ve been working with your brother Seth.”

Mandy swallowed. “On what?”

“Caleb’s having him coordinate a donation from Active Equipment to the town of Lyndon, loaders, backhoes, etc. He’ll be on Channel Ten to make the announcement in a few minutes.”

Mandy’s tone went thoughtful. “Really?” Her gaze went to where Caleb was bucking up trees. “I assume it’s a political stunt?”

“Move,” said Danielle. “A political move. And a smart one. Everybody wins.”

“I suppose they do.” Though it seemed a little slick to Mandy, she couldn’t say she saw any serious flaws.

“Speaking of everybody wins…” Danielle looked straight at Mandy. “I have an idea.”

“For Seth’s campaign?” Mandy hoped it didn’t involve her. She was planning to stay firmly on the ranch and out of sight throughout the mayor race.

“For finding Reed.”

Mandy swallowed, her attention perking up. “I’m listening.”

“I don’t know how long it normally takes to sell a thirty-million-dollar ranch. But, I’m assuming it’s a while.” She brushed some imaginary lint from the front of her slacks. “So, I’ve been thinking, and I’ve come to the conclusion that my best interests may be the same as your best interests.”

Her gaze drifted to Caleb. “He’s having a little too much fun out here. I need him back on the job, and the shortest route to that end would appear to be finding Reed.”

“You think he’s having fun?” Mandy couldn’t help interjecting. “He hates it here. He can’t wait to leave.”

“So he says.”

“He doesn’t want to be in Colorado,” Mandy insisted. And he sure didn’t want to be in the Lyndon Valley, on his own ranch, surrounded by painful memories.

Danielle smiled patiently, and a wealth of wisdom seemed to simmer in her dark brown eyes. “I’m not going to take that chance.” Then she became all business. “Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to give me your cell phone, and I’m going to dial a number, and you’re going to talk to a man named Enrico. Tell him everything you know about Reed’s disappearance.”

Mandy hesitated. She couldn’t help remembering Danielle’s suggestion that they track Reed’s credit-card use. She wanted to find him, but this felt a little too off the beaten path for her. “Is Enrico a code name?”

Danielle’s laughter tinkled. “His name is Enrico Rossi. He’s a private investigator.”

“Would I be breaking the law?”

“You? No?”

Mandy felt her eyes go wide, and her blood pressure slipped up a notch. “But Enrico will?”

Danielle cocked her head. “I haven’t the first clue what Enrico might or might not do. But he will find Reed.”

Mandy was tempted. Frightened, but tempted. “Will I go to jail for this?”

“None of his clients have so far.”

Mandy tried to figure out if Danielle was joking. “You’re scary, you know that?”

“I’m practical.” Danielle waved a dismissive hand. “There’s an off chance he’ll hack a password or two, but he’s not going to steal anything, and he’s certainly not going to harm anyone. And, since you won’t be paying him, there’s absolutely no legal trail that leads back to you.”

“I won’t be paying him?” This was sounding stranger and stranger all the time.

“He owes me a favor.”

Mandy felt her shoulder slump. “Good grief.”

“It’s nothing clandestine or mysterious. I was his defense attorney. Pro bono. When I was first out of law school.”

“So, he’s a criminal.” A criminal who could find Reed and stop Caleb from making a colossal mistake that would reverberate for generations. Where was the moral balance on that?

“He had a misspent youth.”

“What did he do?” Mandy was absolutely not getting caught up with thieves and murderers, not even to find Reed.

“He was a big bad street kid, who got into a fight with another big bad street kid, who it turned out, was trying to recruit Enrico’s little brother into a gang. Enrico won. He was charged with assault. I got him off.”

That didn’t sound so bad. In fact, it sounded kind of noble. “What happened to his brother?”

“He just won a scholarship to UIC. He wants to go into law.”

“So, Enrico’s a good guy?”

“Enrico’s a great guy. Eat your sandwich, and we’ll make the call.”

It turned out that Enrico didn’t sound remotely like a tough, streetwise criminal. He was articulate and seemed intelligent, and he said he was confident he would find Reed. When Mandy saw Caleb and Travis approaching the pickup truck, she quickly finished the call and disconnected.

“Thanks,” she whispered to Danielle as the two men approached.

“You look unexpectedly cheerful,” Travis said to Danielle.

While Caleb focused on Mandy. “You holding up okay?”

“I’m feeling optimistic,” Danielle responded, sending a brief glance to Mandy.

“I’m just fine,” Mandy answered Caleb. She drew a breath, both nervous and excited after her call with Enrico.

“Pretty hard work,” Caleb observed.

“Piece of cake,” Mandy responded with a shrug. She was tired, and she’d definitely be sore in the morning, but she still had a good few hours left in her.

Danielle retrieved two more sandwiches from her purse and passed them to the men. Both smiled and voiced their thanks, digging right in.

“Any news from the outside world?” Caleb asked Danielle between bites.

“Seth should have made the announcement on air by now. Equipment will be on a flatbed truck coming out of Northridge this afternoon. They’re hoping to have the airport up and running by tomorrow. And I was able to book a couple of rooms at the Sunburst Hotel.” She looked to Travis. “I guessed you might want to stay over?”

“You guessed right,” he responded, glancing around at the destruction. “They’ll need me another day at least.”

“Mandy and I can keep our cottages at the Rose,” Caleb put in. “Apparently, they’re structurally sound. Though they can’t guarantee we’ll have electricity. But they did offer us a discount.”

“I’ll take the cottage at the Rose,” Travis put in. “Mandy can stay at the Sunburst with Danielle. She’ll be more comfortable there.”

Caleb’s jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed in what was obvious annoyance at Travis’s unilateral decree.

“Sure,” Mandy quickly agreed. She didn’t care where she slept. It wasn’t as if she and Caleb had plans for a clandestine meeting.

She might have been swept off her feet in his bed this morning. But she’d had plenty of time to reframe her mind-set. Caleb had been right to suggest some sober second thought on the matter. Making love with him would have been a colossal mistake. One she had no intention of making.