A Real Cowboy

He would have died for Cass, and it shocked him that in the brief time he’d known Sammy and Nicolette he was starting to feel the same way about them. It didn’t make sense, was completely irrational considering how little he knew about Nicolette, but it was there, nevertheless.

“While Adam and Dillon and his men are here, I’ll just go get some things from my bunk,” he said, suddenly feeling as if he needed some distance from the very scent of her, from the emotions she evoked in him.

As he stepped out the front door and headed around the house where the ladder still stood leading up to Sammy’s bedroom, a new fiercely burning knot formed in the pit of his stomach.

He dismissed his crazy thoughts about Nicolette and instead his mind filled with all kinds of questions. Had the incident in the café with Lloyd Green prompted some sort of crazy attempt at retribution?

Everyone knew Lloyd was a mean soul, but a little milk on his jeans didn’t warrant this kind of reaction. Still, with Lloyd and his group of buddies there was no telling for sure. He might have just thought it would be fun to terrorize Sammy and Nicolette.

Lloyd worked for Raymond Humes on the ranch next to Cass’s. Throughout the years there had been plenty of bad blood both between Raymond and Cass and the cowboys who worked for each of them.

Lucas’s feelings toward Nicolette and Sammy were definitely confusing, but the ladder against the house felt ominous, and as he reached the bunkhouse, he smelled more than a hint of danger in the air.

* * *

Dillon and his men finally left. By the time they did Nicolette had laid Sammy on the sofa and she was pacing the floor, trying to wrap her mind around that unexpected and frightening face in the window.

Cassie and Adam were in the kitchen seated at the table and talking about rotating men outside the house each night for the next couple of nights or until Dillon came up with a guilty party and a reason for the ladder.

Nicolette heard only the murmur of their voices as she was mentally focused on the vision of that ski mask and those eyes that had appeared to hold such glittering malevolence.

Who could it have been and what had he wanted? Was it just an accident that he’d been about to enter the room where her vulnerable son was soundly sleeping? Dillon had told her the window was still closed, but that didn’t mean if Nicolette had been three minutes longer climbing up the stairs the man wouldn’t have been through the window and into the bedroom.

And then what? She couldn’t imagine, for everything she thought of was too terrifying to contemplate.

She stopped pacing as Lucas came in the front door, carrying an oversize duffle bag and a sense of security she welcomed. The only thing better than the sight of him would have been if he’d cradled her in his arms to steal away the cold wind that had blown through her since the instant she had seen the man at the window.

As if reading her mind, he dropped his duffle bag to the floor and stepped forward, his arms open to welcome her. She didn’t hesitate. She ran into his embrace, a sob escaping her the instant he enfolded her tight.

His body was hard against hers, yet seemed to meld around her. He stroked her hair with one hand while his other slowly rose up and down her back in an obvious effort to comfort her.

“I was so scared,” she whispered.

“There’s no reason to be scared anymore,” he replied.

She buried her face in his chest, breathing in the scent of night and the faint fragrance of a spicy cologne. She told herself it wouldn’t matter whose arms she was in, as long as they were big and strong, but she knew that wasn’t true. She needed his arms, Lucas’s arms around her.

She’d known him for only three short days, but it didn’t matter. Already he’d become safety and security for her and her son.

She didn’t know how long they stood together, locked in an embrace, before she realized the cold that had been inside her was gone and she wasn’t just warmed, but a new fire had begun to burn in the pit of her stomach. It was a fire that had nothing to do with comfort or a feeling of security, and when she recognized it for what it was, she finally stepped away from him.

“Sorry about that,” she said, her gaze not meeting his. “Just chalk it up to a moment of weakness.”

He stepped toward her and took her chin in his fingers, forcing her gaze to meet his. “It’s going to be all right,” he said. “Dillon is a good man. He’ll figure it out, and in the meantime I’m here to make sure nobody gets inside this house.” He dropped his hand back to his side, and at that moment Adam and Cassie came into the room.

“Sawyer is going to keep an eye on the house through the rest of the night,” Adam said.

“That really isn’t necessary since I’m going to be in the house,” Lucas replied.

“We’ll have him on duty tonight and then tomorrow figure things out.” Adam raked a hand through his hair, his gaze lingering on Cassie. “I don’t want you to worry. We aren’t going to let anyone harm you. I’ll talk to you in the morning.” He looked at his watch. “It’s already after midnight. Why don’t we plan to meet here around ten.”

“That’s fine with me,” Cassie replied. “And now that the excitement is over, I’m going to bed.” She looked at Nicolette. “Are you coming up?”

Nicolette shook her head. “I’m too wired to sleep. I’ll be up a little bit later.”

Adam left, Cassie disappeared up the stairs and Lucas looked at Nicolette. “Do you want me to carry Sammy upstairs?”

“Only if you’re going up now.”

“I’m a little wired myself,” he replied. “Why don’t we go into the living room, where we won’t bother Sammy,” he suggested.

She nodded and followed him from the great room into the smaller, more formal living room. She sat on one side of the sofa and he sat on the other.

“You should have told me what happened in the café when we were in town this afternoon,” he said.

“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it in front of Sammy. He was so upset when it happened and the only thing that made his world okay again was a cookie and ice cream from Daisy and the cowboy boots from you.”

“Still, I could have settled it with Lloyd right then and there.” His jaw clenched tightly, making him even more handsome and slightly dangerous looking.

She smiled. “Then I probably would have had to figure out how to get the money to pay bail for you.”

His jaw softened and he returned her smile. “You got that right. Lloyd and his fellow cowboys are nothing but a bunch of bullies and thieves. Cass couldn’t abide Raymond Humes or any of the men who worked on his ranch. The bad blood goes both ways, which is unfortunate since his ranch is next to this one.”

“Why the bad blood?” she asked curiously.

Lucas shrugged. “I don’t know where it all began. Things were already bad when I first came here, and that was fifteen years ago.”

“Fifteen years—you must have been a baby.”

“I was just shy of seventeen years old and I hadn’t been anybody’s baby for a very long time.” He paused and took off his holster and set it with his gun on the coffee table before them. “What’s your story? How did you come to be here with Cassie?”

She leaned back against the sofa. “In order to tell you that I have to start at the beginning when I got married, and it’s a long story.”

“We’ve got all night,” he replied easily.

“I can sleep in tomorrow, but you have chores to do.”

“Tomorrow is my day off, so there’s no problem,” he replied.

Nicolette had a feeling his questions were less about wanting to really know about her past and more about wanting to take her mind off the horrible events of the night.

“I met Samuel when I was working as a salesperson in an upscale dress shop during the day and going to night school in the evenings. It was obvious to me that he probably didn’t have to look at price tags and it was equally obvious that he was flirting with me. But, he told me he was looking for a dress for a woman about my size and wanted shoes to match.”

She paused a moment, remembering the first time she’d seen her future husband. He’d had sandy brown hair, earnest brown eyes. He possessed boyish good looks and was exceedingly charming.

“Anyway, he bought a ridiculously expensive dress and shoes and after I rang up the purchases he told me to wear the clothes and meet him that night at a fancy French restaurant. Before I could protest, he left the store.”

“And so you went to the restaurant to meet him?”