Wild Western Nights

“Maddie, welcome home.”

“Thanks, Sol. You look the same as ever,” she said, stepping forward to give the foreman a hug.

“Older now. It’s good to have you here.” He smiled at her and pushed his broad-brimmed Western hat back on his head. “How’s your mom?”

“She’s fine, so are my grandparents.”

“You should have brought your mom with you. Tell her hello from all of us.”

“I will. This is a fast business trip and then I need to get back to my work in Florida. It was easier to come by myself.”

“Let me get your things. You leave all this to me.” He moved past her to take her bags from the car after she opened the trunk. She shouldered a bag and picked up a suitcase.

“Leave those, Maddie. I’ll get everything.”

“Thanks, Sol. I’ll bring this much. You can get the rest. I’m going in anyway so there’s no need to go empty-handed.”

“Things are in pretty good shape here. When will you have somebody out to look at the place?” he asked as they walked to the house.

“I have an appointment this afternoon in Lubbock with an agency. Tomorrow I’m meeting a broker who is driving here from Fort Worth. I have a third appointment with a representative from another agency in Dallas. I’ll choose one to handle the sale and then I’ll better know the schedule for placing the ranch on the market. I’m glad you’ve found a job you want.” She entered a side door, smelling a vacant, stuffy odor as she turned off the alarm.

“Hard to leave this place, but life changes,” he said, glancing around. “It’s not the same with your granddad gone.”

“I know it’s not. It was good of you to stay for as long as I need you. It’ll be a lot easier if we can sell the place as is, with cattle included and some of the furniture still in the house. If we can’t sell it that way, then we’ll do what we have to do. I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I hope we sell quickly.”

“I’ll pass the word along. We’re down to a skeleton crew now. Most hands have taken jobs elsewhere. Some have been hired on places with the stipulation that they can’t start until you’ve sold the ranch.”

“I appreciate that,” she said. “Leave the bags here at the foot of the stairs. I can get them.”

“I’ll take them to your room,” he said, moving past her to carry the bags upstairs.

“Would you like a cup of coffee? I can have a pot brewed in no time,” she called after him.

“Thanks. I’ll come have coffee later if that’s all right. I have to get back to work now.”

She returned to the kitchen to get a glass of water and followed him to the back door. “Thanks so much for unloading my car. I’m not certain how long the arrangements will take, but I hope to get everything done this week and head back to Florida.”

“The men want to say hello to you, but most of them are out in the field right now. It’s good to have you home. Sorry it isn’t the happiest occasion.”

“Thanks again, Sol,” she said to the man who had been their ranch foreman since she was two years old.

He left, striding across the porch, jamming his hat farther down on his head.

She hurried up to the room that was still hers—white furniture, frilly white curtains, a view of the front and the big oaks that had been planted years ago by her grandfather.

She paused to stare at her canopied bed. Swamped with memories, she could envision making love in that bed with Gabe the summer she had been twenty-one. They’d had the house to themselves and she had wanted to show Gabe her home. In her bedroom, he had prowled around the room looking at everything until he drew her into his embrace for a kiss. They had made love right here, in her bedroom.

She thought now about the result of that afternoon, Rebecca. At this point in time, she couldn’t guess how Gabe would feel if he discovered the truth. She suspected he’d feel the same as he would have six years ago.

Except for himself, Gabe had never really had any responsibilities. He was immensely wealthy, a millionaire; his older brother had grown up running interference between Gabe and their strong-willed father. She’d worried over her decision countless times, but she always came to the same conclusion—for her sake and for Gabe’s, to save them both and to save their child from upheaval and unhappiness, Rebecca would remain a secret.

An ache deep inside started and she gave herself a small shake, closing her eyes as if that would shut out all memories of him. She busied herself unpacking and getting ready for her appointment with the agency in Lubbock.

Picking up her phone, she called home. First, she talked to her mother and then she listened to her daughter’s high-pitched voice as she came on the phone.

“I miss you, Mommy,” Rebecca said.

“I miss you, too,” Maddie replied, feeling her insides clutch. She always hated to be away from Rebecca, especially overnight, and she missed her daughter intensely. It had been a couple of hours since the call she made after landing at DFW. She could imagine Rebecca’s big blue eyes, her brown hair falling almost to her shoulders. It was Rebecca’s blue eyes that would give away the truth if Gabe ever saw her. “I miss you terribly,” she said.

“Come home.”

“I will as soon as I can. Grandma is with you and she said you are baking cookies. You will get a cookie soon.”

Maddie sat in a rocker and talked to her five-year-old for the next twenty minutes. Finally, Rebecca said goodbye and Maddie’s mother, Tracie, came back on the phone. They talked another fifteen minutes before Maddie ended the call.

Touching her phone, Maddie looked at Rebecca’s picture, clutching it to her heart for a moment and then staring intently at it. Long ago she had locked away wishful thinking. She had stopped imagining what might be between her and Rebecca’s father, always reminding herself that Gabe was not ready for fatherhood or marriage. He probably never would be. And she had her own dreams, for a career and a life in the city. She didn’t want to spend her adult life on a ranch.

These painful thoughts and memories were what she had dreaded about this trip. She’d hoped she wouldn’t encounter Gabe, and now that she had, she was still certain it was best he didn’t learn about his daughter. If she could get through this week, she would leave Texas for good and her heartache over Gabe would fade, as it had before.

Maddie reassured herself that she could spend this evening surrounded by old friends, cut the time short and tell Gabe goodbye early. If so, their time together would be over and she wouldn’t see him again.

Two

Gabe walked across the familiar porch, remembering all the times before when he’d taken the same walk to pick up Maddie. Now, when she swung open the door, his heart pounded just as it had six years ago. She wore a dark blue, knee-length, sleeveless dress with a scoop neckline that revealed gorgeous curves. Her blond hair was caught up high on her head and fell freely in back.

His mouth went dry and he thought again that she was far more beautiful now than she had been at twenty-one. “You look fantastic,” he said in a husky tone.

“Thank you. You look rather nice yourself,” she added, sounding polite. “I have my purse and I’m ready to go.”

Why hadn’t he visited her after she moved away? He had always remembered her bitterness when they had parted and he had worked at trying to forget her. Now memories of the good times bombarded him. He’d always liked being with her. She had been gorgeous since she turned eighteen. Now she was devastating.

He inhaled an exotic scent he could not identify.

“I want to hear about the years since I last saw you,” he said as he climbed into the car.

He listened while she talked about her job, her graduation from the university in Gainesville and settling in Miami where her grandparents lived. She barely mentioned her family, but he knew from past conversations that they were important to her.

“I’m still surprised to find you here. We should have kept in touch, Maddie.”

“We’re far apart, in years, in geographical areas, in lifestyles, in goals.”

“We have a friendship that can bridge all that, and we have this attraction between us. Now that you’re grown up, the years no longer matter.”

“Gabe, where are we going?” she asked, looking out the side window as he turned through the front gate. “This is your ranch.”

“Yep, it is. I thought I’d cook tonight. If I take you out anywhere in this county, or any of the surrounding ones, you’ll have other people welcoming you back all night and guys wanting to dance and talk. I don’t care to sit and watch.”

She laughed. “You can’t be jealous. And I know you’re never bored.”