Laredo's Sassy Sweetheart (13 page)

“Right.” Laredo nodded, happy that his family was so quick on the uptake.

“You are being a typical male, and I think it would serve you well to think over your plan for ruts,” Ranger informed him. “I don’t think Miss Katy’s going to cotton to it.”

“Are you recommending I should let her pose?” Laredo was outraged. If so, these were not the brothers he cared to claim.

“I’m stating that you can’t have your cake and eat it, too,” Ranger said mildly. “You can’t do your thing and expect her not to do hers.”

“Mine doesn’t involve shedding clothing! Mine doesn’t involve people gawking over my naked physique!”

Tex laughed. “That’s presuming anyone would gawk.”

“Well, they’ll gawk at Katy, and I don’t like it,” Laredo stated stiffly. “You just figure out another way I can handle this matter, then, wisenheimers.”

“No, no.” Ranger held up a hand. “We don’t interfere, we only participate when needed. It’s your life, it’s your funeral, ’cause she is surely going to kill you as you try to drag her off. But hey, we’ve always been a family for the rowdy choice, so I vote
you go for it. I’ll sleep in Katy’s bed and do a convincing Katy voice when Miss Delilah does bed check.”

“She doesn’t actually do bed check,” Laredo said stiffly, “but Rose the mouse will need to be fed and watered.”

The brothers stared at him. “Oh, no,” Ranger said. “I didn’t agree to mother hen a mouse.”

“Oh, hell,” Tex said. “I’ll baby-sit the damn mouse and play Katy in the night.”

Laredo frowned at his brother. “I didn’t particularly like the phrasing of your statement.”

“I’m going to sit in my truck and laugh my butt off as you drag Katy kicking and screaming out of here,” Ranger said. “Remember, the doctor said you were to suffer no further damage to your head, and that includes female inflicted. So when does this plan go down?”

“Friday night,” Laredo said grimly. “I can keep her busy until then. After that, I’ll be busy at the rodeo and I won’t be able to keep a direct eye on her. Plus, she told me that if I rematched, she’d pose. So I have to get her out of here before I ride Saturday. Helga can keep an eye on her.”

Because she was just prissy enough to take a train out of there Saturday afternoon after he hit the dirt. That was one lady who couldn’t be trusted to let a man get away with living his life the way he chose.

He wasn’t about to let her get away that easily.

Certainly not to display her charms to every Tom,
Dick and Harry on the planet. He felt ill just thinking about that!

No way. If there was going to be a first in her life, she needed a winner. Not another loser like ol’ Stanley.

That was the hero in him talking—the rescuer. The real underlying reason, as he would barely allow himself to acknowledge, was that he saw red when he considered the possibility of another man touching her, even on paper.

He wanted her all to himself. Not forever. Just long enough for him to figure out why he couldn’t stop thinking about her. And wanting her enough to make him dizzy and desperate at times.

Dizzy. Desperate.

But not, he told himself, forever.

He’d seen what passed for forever, and he knew too well that there was no such thing. Like Santa Claus and fairy tales, he couldn’t waste emotion believing in them.

It was all about trust. And he knew trust and forever didn’t go together. Katy knew it, too, thanks to Stanley. She was looking for a second forever, though, like a sweet little lamb being led to slaughter. Oh, she denied it, but it was there in the hope in her eyes. Exactly what the
Playboy
photographer had seen. Vulnerability.

Laredo shook his head to clear the buzzing. If he didn’t get Katy to himself real soon, he was certain he was going to go mad.

“Heart-to-heart?” Marvella asked.

Delilah nodded. The two of them hadn’t spoken a direct word to each other in maybe fifteen years. Her sister had changed, her face leaner and perhaps more withdrawn than Delilah remembered. But she had been close to her older sister as a child, which made their emotional separation and Marvella’s destruction all that much more heartrending.

“Go for it,” Marvella said. “But make your heart-to-heart quick. My schedule is full. We’ve picked up forty percent from the rodeos.”

“Which brings me straight to the point. Your schedule is full because of my cowboys.”

“Your cowboys?” Marvella smiled and sat down, not offering Delilah a seat. “How do you figure? Your bull hasn’t won in two separate weeks. I’d say it’s Bad-Ass Blue that’s garnering the attention. He’s well on his way to being a superstar, I’d say.”

Marvella examined her long, pretty nails. Even at her age, she was an attractive woman. If only her
eyes held more love for mankind, she could even be called gracefully aged.

“All the better for his sale price. I love profit, don’t you?” Marvella asked coyly.

Delilah shook her head. Maybe a few die-hard rodeo buffs were coming to see the winning bull, but the real magic lay in the charming town. The Jefferson brothers had added fairy dust. Of course, Marvella’s salon would be pulling more extra business—Tex had ridden the winning bull.

“Marvella, I want this weekend’s rodeo to be fair. No cheating, no dirty tricks. My cowboy has a concussion, and he shouldn’t be riding at all. I think it would behoove us to let the best man win without interference.”

Marvella shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Tex offered to ride Blue on his own.”

Sure. After Cissy had softened him up. Delilah sighed. “Look. This is between you and me. It has nothing to do with our employees, the Jefferson brothers or Lonely Hearts Station. We should settle our differences like ladies.”

Marvella’s gray eyes suddenly glowed with heat. “How dare you suggest that I am not a lady? Who slept with whose husband, Delilah dear?”

Delilah didn’t answer. It was true that Marvella’s husband had divorced Marvella to marry her. But the circumstances were not as Marvella cared to paint them. The trouble was Marvella seemed quite content to blame Delilah for the downfall of her marriage.

“Would you say that your behavior was becoming of a lady?” Marvella asked smoothly. “I mean, I wouldn’t. I would classify you more as a…husband-stealing hussy.”

Outrage bubbled inside Delilah. She forced herself to remain calm. “Name-calling isn’t going to get us anywhere. I’m worried about Tex and Laredo and—”

“They’re big boys,” Marvella snapped. “Quit trying to mother everybody on the planet. It’s annoying, it’s manipulative and it bores me.”

Delilah blinked. “Can I assume that you intend to remain busy with your bag of tricks?”

Marvella stared at her. “I have no idea what you’re babbling about, but it sounds like poor sportswomanship to me.”

The sisters held each other’s gaze for several seconds. “You know,” Delilah said suddenly, “I’m not certain that Jacuzzi or some of the other accoutrements of this room have a permit. Do you happen to know if your permits are up-to-date, Marvella? And could you swear in a court of law that your business is reputable?”

Marvella smiled thinly at her. “Delilah, don’t try to use your seat on the council to threaten me. All the town fathers have been to my salon, my dear. They’re not all regulars, but…” She let her words trail off.

Delilah stared at her sister, a sinking feeling inside.

“We do give good service,” Marvella finished
with a laugh. “And it’s
all
about service. You know, I think that’s the real reason you’re here. You’re going under, and you want a shoulder to cry on. Unfortunately, I can’t stand poor sportswomanship in business, either. Did you care for my feelings when you stole my husband, sister?”

The look in Marvella’s eyes was so determined and so cold. Involuntarily, Delilah felt a shiver go through her. She really had no defense against this much hatred. There was no recognition of warmth, of childhood memories. Marvella was locked in her own world of revenge.

“I’m sorry I came,” Delilah said, completely regretting seeing how her sister had changed.

“Well, I’ll see you on Saturday, Delilah, dear,” Marvella said. “See you
lose.
”

“I
DON’T TRUST HIM
,” Katy said, busily picking the lock on the storage area in Laredo’s truck bed. “He’s planning to ride, and it doesn’t matter what the doctor says, he’s bound and determined to give himself the permanent stupids.”

“Why do you care?” Hannah asked, squinting at Katy’s handiwork and surreptitiously watching the street should any Jefferson brother happen to amble by.

“I care for two reasons. First of all, I got him into this. He’s only doing it out of a sense of duty.”

“I don’t know. He seemed genuinely determined to ride Bloodthirsty again.”

“Well, he’s got hero syndrome. Bad, too, I might add.”

“Are you going to cure him of it?”

“Nope.” The storage bin popped open, and Katy gasped.

“What’s in there?”

She’d been expecting to see his gear, which she planned to filch so he couldn’t possibly ride. What she found instead was nothing. “It’s empty.”

“And his stuff isn’t in your room.”

Katy shook her head. “He’s been sleeping in his truck with his brothers. Sometimes they drive off and don’t come back until the morning. I thought maybe they’ve been going back to Union Junction at night, but I haven’t gotten up the nerve to ask.”

“Well, he has to have equipment.”

“Yes.” Katy closed the trunk and relocked the lock. “He’s one step ahead of me somehow.”

Hannah climbed up into the trunk bed. “Okay, his vehicle is here. He is not. But he could be someplace trying on his gear. He could be training to ride Bloodthirsty.”

“Do you think he’d take that chance? He knows his brains are already scrambled.”

Hannah shrugged. “I don’t think we fully comprehend the minds of men. Don’t waste your time. So, what was your second reason for doing this, before your plan went belly-up?”

“That I’ve fallen in love with him,” Katy said slowly. “Stupidly, impossibly, in love with him.
Which is really the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, up to and including trying to marry Stanley.”

“Oh, boy,” Hannah said. “You were just supposed to have him rid you of your virginity. You were supposed to remember that he has a wandering foot. You weren’t supposed to stray from the course.”

“I know. What makes it worse is that he doesn’t care about me at all. He didn’t even care about me posing for
Playboy.
”

“So, are you going to?”

“No. I thought about Stanley looking at my naked body, and I felt genuinely ill. I’m not nude model material.”

“You could tell him,” Hannah suggested.

“Tell him what?”

“That you’re in love with him.”

Katy blinked. “And he would die of embarrassment. This is a man who is riding a bull out of an overinflated sense of duty. What do you think he does for a woman who burdens him with her emotions?”

“Says, ‘Me, too’?”

She shook her head. “No. He hits the road in his shiny truck and he never even glances in his rear-view mirror.”

“Oh.” Hannah sighed. “Well, if you can’t steal his gear, and you can’t tell him the truth, then what have you got?”

“Nothing,” Katy said miserably. “It’s all about
trust, and I forgot how to trust anyone. Then when I found somebody worth trusting, I blew it.”

“You don’t know that you’ve blown it yet,” Hannah soothed.

“It feels blown like an old tire.”

“Well, here he comes, so puff yourself back up.”

Katy straightened, not able to help herself from looking too eager. “He’s wearing his gear, the snake!” she whispered to Hannah.

“I know how you can steal it!” Hannah whispered back.

“How?”

“Play strip poker. You can borrow my cards.”

Katy blinked as Laredo and his brothers neared. It was like looking at a mirage of the best-looking, toughest cowboys one could imagine simply appearing like magic in the middle of the dusty town street. Her mouth watered. “No strip poker. It’s too risky. He’d probably win.”

“Then just strip him, Katy. Like I stripped y’all the night we went to the creek. Be brave!”

“Be brave?” She had a mouse for a pet. She wasn’t the type of girl to roar and break things and raise hell.

“Hey, ladies,” Laredo said as they reached the truck. All the brothers tipped their hats, but Laredo’s smile seemed to turn to a grim, determined line as he looked at Katy. “What are you doing in my truck? Stealing my beer?”

“Exactly,” Katy said, trying to match his teasing tone. And yet, his eyes were not smiling for her.

“So, where have you handsome cowboys been?”

“We rode some horses over to the hospital and did some lasso tricks for the kids,” Ranger said. “Laredo wanted to talk to the doctor who treated him.”

Something burning seemed to lodge in Katy’s heart, although she told herself it was silly to be jealous of the beautiful physician. “Did you tell her you were going to ride in a couple of days?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He tipped his hat and looked at her. “And she said I was a fool, but that there was no prescription for that, so she would come to watch in case I needed a physician on hand.”

“His own personal physician.” Tex laughed. “None of us have ever had one of those.”

“None of you have ever needed one, maybe,” Hannah snapped. “Laredo’s already hurt.”

Katy couldn’t take her eyes off Laredo. “She’s coming to watch you?” That seemed medically sacrilegious on the doctor’s part, which meant the jealousy spiking hot inside Katy’s head would probably measure as a fever on a thermometer.

“Yep, and she’s bringing a bunch of kids. Actually, she’s organizing it, and Jerry’s going to help out.”

He looked so pleased with himself that Katy felt ashamed.

“So,” he said, “called
Playboy
yet?”

Her mouth dropped open at the surprising change of subject. “No, actually I haven’t.”

He walked away, whistling. “Let me know what
you find out when you do,” he called over his shoulder.

“Guess we’re heading to the cafeteria,” Ranger said. “See you soon.” He and Tex headed off after Laredo.

Hannah’s eyes narrowed as she stared after Laredo. “That man is way too casual.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I don’t trust him.”

Katy got down from the truck, her feelings totally blasted. “He doesn’t care about me anymore, Hannah. Maybe he never did. Certainly after he took that whack on the head, things have changed. Either it’s the doctor he met, or he knocked himself hard enough to forget that he ever wanted to make me a bikini top from beer caps. Or he wasn’t that interested to start with. But I’m not going to moon around after a man who doesn’t want me.”

She headed toward the salon. Hannah hurried up beside her. “So, what are you going to do? Call
Playboy
?”

Katy winced. She wished she’d never thought that she could unleash her inhibitions in such a manner. The truth was, she was exactly what Stanley had said she was: less tempting than a day-old biscuit.

Frigid.

“I’m leaving,” Katy announced. “It’s time I took a leaf out of Laredo’s book and headed out to do my own Big Thing. But you can’t tell a soul.”

L
AREDO AND HIS BROTHERS
crouched in the doorway of a nearby feed store, watching Katy and Han
nah go inside the salon. “They’re up to something,” Laredo said. “What do you think they were really doing in my truck?”

“I don’t know,” Ranger said thoughtfully. “Hannah had so much mischievousness gleaming in her eyes, she looked like a raccoon.”

“It’s the hair,” Tex said. “She’s really cute.”

“Raccoons are not cute,” Laredo said.

“That one is,” Ranger agreed. “Although she’s a bit too tricky for my taste.”

“Tricky?” If anybody was tricky, it was Katy. “At least she doesn’t dream of taking off her clothes for major publications,” Laredo stated.

“Well, hello, gentlemen,” Marvella said as she left the feed store. “How are the famous Jefferson cowboys doing?”

Tex grinned at her, taking the package she was carrying. “We’re fine.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to tell me you’re riding for me this weekend, Tex,” Marvella said. “A repeat would be a wonderful attraction.”

“You haven’t hired anyone?” Tex asked eagerly. Then his face fell. “Actually, Miss Marvella, I’m afraid I can only ride against my brother once.”

“Oh, dear,” Marvella said. “I am so disappointed.”

“Ride against me once?” Laredo sputtered. “You damn sure better be riding Blue this weekend! I have to beat you. Otherwise, I haven’t achieved my goal.” Or shown Katy that he could do it.

The brothers followed Marvella over to her salon. “Well, why don’t you three come in and we’ll talk it over?” she invited. “I think there’s some fresh-baked banana bread and mint juleps just waiting for someone to enjoy them.”

“I will,” Ranger said.

“I sure can,” Tex said.

With an uneasy glance toward the Lonely Hearts Salon, Laredo hesitated. But why be rude? This was the other half of the rodeo, which he was doing for Delilah, for Katy, for the sick kids, for Lonely Hearts Station and for himself. “I guess so,” he said.

“Excellent,” Marvella cooed. “Simply excellent.”