Cattleman's Choice

Chapter Two

When dawn burst over the valley in deep, fiery lights, Mandelyn was still awake. The night before might have been only a dream except for the swollen discomfort of her lower lip, where Carson’s teeth had cut it.

She sat idly on the front porch, still dressed, staring vacantly at the mountains. It was spring, and the wildflowers were blooming among the sparse vegetation, but she wasn’t even aware of the sparkling early morning beauty.

Her mind had gone back to the first day she’d ever seen Carson, when she was eighteen and had just moved to Sweetwater with her Uncle Dan. She’d gone into the local fast-food restaurant for a soda and Carson had been sitting on a nearby stool.

She remembered her first glimpse of him, how her heart had quickened, because he was the only cowboy she’d seen so far. He was lean and rangy looking, his hair as unruly then as it was now, his face unshaven, his pale eyes insolent and intimate as he lounged back against the counter and stared at her with a blatant lack of good manners.

She’d managed to ignore him at first, but when he’d called to her and asked how she’d like to go out on the town with him, her Scotch-Irish temper had burst through the restraints of her proper upbringing.

Even now, she could remember his astonished look when she’d turned on the stool, coldly ladylike in her neat white suit. She had glared at him from cold gray eyes.

“My name,” she’d informed him icily, “is Miss Bush, not, ‘hey, honey.’ I am not looking for some fun, and if I were, it would not be with a barbarian like you.”

His eyebrows had shot up and he’d actually laughed. “Well, well, if it isn’t a Southern belle. Where are you from, honey?’

“I’m from Charleston,” she said coldly. “That’s a city. In South Carolina.”

“I made good grades in geography,” he replied.

She’d given a mock gasp. “You can read?”

That had set him off. The language that had followed had made her flush wildly, but it hadn’t backed her down.

She’d stood up, ignoring the stares of the astonished bystanders, walked straight over to him, and coolly slapped him with all the strength of her slender body behind her small hand. And then she’d walked out the door, leaving him staring at her.

It was days later that she learned they were neighbors. He’d come to talk to Uncle Dan about a horse, and that was when she’d found out who Carson Wayne was. He’d smiled at her, and confessed to her uncle what had happened in town, as if it amused him. It had taken her weeks to get used to Carson’s rowdy humor and his unpolished behavior. He would slurp his coffee and ignore his napkin, and use language that embarrassed her. But since he was always around, she had to get used to him. So she did.

Later that first year, she’d gone to the rodeo, and Carson had been beating the stuffing out of another cowboy as she was coming out of the stands. Obviously intoxicated, he was throwing off the men who tried to stop him. Without a thought of defeat, she’d walked over to Carson and touched him lightly on the arm. He’d stopped hitting the other man immediately, looking down at her with dark, quiet eyes. She’d taken his hand, and he’d let her lead him around the corral, to where Jake was waiting nervously. After that, Jake went looking for her whenever his boss went on a spree. And she always went to the rescue. But after last night, she’d never go again.

With a long sigh, she walked back into the house and put on a pot of coffee. She fixed a piece of toast and ate it with her coffee, checking the time. She had a meeting at nine with Patty Hopper, a local woman who’d just come back home fresh out of veterinary school and needed an office. Then, after lunch, she had to talk to the developer who was interested in Carson’s forty-acre tract. It was going to be another long day. The man had insisted on seeing Carson personally, but after last night, it was going to be heavy going. Mandelyn didn’t particularly relish the thought.

Patty met her at the vacant house Mandelyn wanted to show her. The small, dark-eyed woman had light brown hair and a broad, sweet face. She and Mandelyn had been on the verge of friendship when Patty went away to college, and they still met occasionally when the younger woman was home on vacation.

“Well, what do you think?” Mandelyn answered her. “Isn’t it a great location, just off the town square? And I can help you get a great interest rate if you want to finance it over a twenty-year period.”

“I’m speechless.” Patty grinned warmly. “It’s exactly what I wanted. I’ve got space for an operating room here, and enough acreage out back to put in fences for runs. This gigantic living room will make a perfect waiting room. Yes, I like it. I like the price, too.”

“I just happen to have all the paperwork right here,” Mandelyn laughed, producing an envelope from her large purse. “Then you can meet with James over at the bank and convince him you need the loan.”

“James and I went to school together,” Patty told her. “That won’t be any problem at all. I’ve saved up a hefty down payment, and I’m a good credit risk. Just ask all my classmates who loaned me money!”

“I believe you.” Mandelyn smiled as she watched Patty sign the preliminary agreement. “This is a sunny office. I can see you making your fortune right here.”

“I hope you’re right.” Patty stood up, folding her arms over the tan sweater she was wearing with casual jeans. “Wow! All mine.”

“Yours and the bank’s, at least,” came the dry reply.

“You’re a jewel, Mandy,” Patty told her. She glanced curiously at Mandelyn’s lip. “I heard you were riding around with Jake in the early morning hours.”

“Small towns,” Mandelyn said gruffly. “Yes, I was. Carson had the local bar in an uproar again.”

Patty laughed. “Just like old times,” she said, and looked oddly relieved. “Carson’s a bearcat, isn’t he? I’m on my way out there next, on a large animal call. He’s got a sick bull.”

“Don’t get too close, he might make a grab for you,” Mandelyn teased.

“Me? Not Carson, he’s too polite.”

“That’s rich!” Mandelyn laughed bitterly. “He’s a savage. Something right out of ancient history.”

“He’s always been polite to me,” Patty said. “Strange, isn’t it, that he’s never married?”

Mandelyn felt her blood boil. “It doesn’t seem strange to me. He’s too uncivilized to get a woman. He’d have to kidnap one and point a gun at her to get a wife!”

“I thought he was your friend,” Patty said.

“He was,” Mandelyn said coldly. She turned. “Well, I’ve got a developer coming round in about an hour. I’d better go and have my lunch. I’m glad you liked the office.”

“Me too,” Patty said, laughing. “Say, do you really think Carson would be all that bad in bed?” she added curiously. “He’s awfully sexy.”

Mandelyn couldn’t meet her friend’s eyes. “If you say so. I’ll give you a call later about the details of the agreement, okay?” she said with a forced smile.

“Sure,” Patty said. “Thanks again.”

“My pleasure.”

Mandelyn had a salad at the local cafe, but she didn’t enjoy it. Her thoughts kept returning to Carson and to Patty’s disturbing remarks about him. Afterward, she went back to her office where the developer was pacing back and forth, waiting for her. She made a sly wink at Angie, her new secretary.

“Hello, Mr. Denton,” she said pleasantly, extending her hand. “Sorry I’m late. I was finalizing another deal.”

“Perfectly all right,” he returned, a tall, dignified man in a gray suit. “I’d like to go out to the ranch, if you’re ready?”

She hesitated. “I’d better check with Mr. Wayne first,” she said.

“I had your secretary do that,” he said curtly. “He’s waiting for us. I’ll drive my car.”

She didn’t like his high-handedness, but she couldn’t afford to antagonize a potential client, so she ground her teeth together in a false smile and followed him out the door.

“Sorry,” Angie mouthed at her.

Mandelyn gave her a shrug, and winked again.

All the way to the ranch, Mandelyn felt as if her stomach was tied in knots. She glanced out across the grassy valley rather than ahead to the ramshackle house nestled in the cottonwood trees with the mountains behind it. She didn’t want to see Carson. Why was fate tormenting her this way?

His black Thunderbird was sitting near the house, covered with dust and looking unused. The pickup truck Jake had driven the night before was parked by the barn. The corral was deserted. The front door was standing open, but she couldn’t see through the screen.

“This is where he lives?” Mr. Denton asked in astonishment as he pulled his green Lincoln up in front of the rough wood house.