Lifeline Echoes (4 page)

"What's a horse like that doing in your
stable?"

Sean's face took on a troubled expression.
"He's not ours. He's a boarder."

Ryan chose his next words with care.
"Because . . . you're doing a favor for a friend?"

"For a friend." Sean spoke slowly,
apparently considering his words with equal care. "But it's
strictly a business arrangement." His direct look was a plea for
understanding. "We have five other boarders, and room for six more.
It's part of the business now."

"The Cross MC runs cattle." Ryan never took
his eyes off the colt bucking and kicking his way from one side of
the paddock to the other.

Sean stiffened but held his silence. When
Ryan swung his gaze away from the colt, they locked eyes and Sean
spoke without emotion. "Price of beef's down, not likely to go up
anytime soon. Cattle don't pay all the bills anymore. The boarders
fill in the gaps."

"It's a good idea," Ryan acknowledged. "What
does the old man say?"

Sean's always-ready grin flashed again.
"That the Cross MC runs cattle."

Ryan's bark of laughter startled the colt,
who expressed his displeasure with flattened ears, and a show of
teeth in Ryan's direction.

"By the way, your delivery arrived earlier,"
said Sean. "The lumber's stacked by the barn."

Ryan shrugged and looked away. "I took care
of a few needs. Some of the wood on the back barn's rotten, needs
seeing to. I figured I'd make myself useful." He swung his gaze
back to meet his brother's. "I found out we apparently don't use
Dr. Davis anymore when I tried to order cattle vaccines."

Sean lowered his eyes, staring at the
ground. He kicked at a pebble with a well-worn boot. "We use the
services of Dr. Pickeril up in Jackson."

"Jackson?" Ryan was genuinely surprised.
"Why so far away?"

Sean lifted a shoulder. "He's the closest
vet who has no ties with Brody MacKay."

Brody MacKay. The name turned his stomach as
Ryan struggled to recall what connection the MacKay family had with
the Drs. Davis, frowning when he came up blank.

"Davis Junior married some cousin of
MacKay's," supplied Sean. "Anyway, Pickeril's good. Really good. He
stopped an outbreak of what we thought was scours last spring
before it we lost too many calves."

Ryan's head jerked up. "We had scours?" Left
untreated, the dehydrating illness could wipe out an entire year's
worth of calves in a heartbeat.

Sean kicked at the pebble again, this time
connecting and sending the stone flying across the drive. "Yeah,
well. Turned out it wasn't really scours. There was some kind of
toxin in the ground in the south pasture. The cows were handling it
okay but the calves were sensitive."

"What kind of toxin?"

"Never determined conclusively. Spring rains
washed it away."

A sense of apprehension churned in Ryan's
gut. "We ever have problems with that pasture before?"

Sean shook his head. "State tested the soil
and found nothing, but we haven’t used the pasture since." He
shrugged. "I prefer to keep things a little closer to home."

It didn’t make sense. How would a
short-lived toxin make it to one of their distant pastures? Before
Ryan could press the matter, Sean's cell phone chirped. Judging
from the grin on his brother's face, the call was from someone of
the feminine persuasion. Someone important.

Pushing off the fence Ryan headed back to
his chore. He got to the door when Sean hailed him.

"Hey, Ry!"

Ryan paused, half turned to look at his
brother.

Sean held the open cell phone in one hand,
obviously not yet finished with his call. "It's good having you
home."

With one finger, Ryan pushed his hat toward
the back of his head and surveyed his brother, the rancher.
"Thanks. Feels good to be here." But he wasn't certain it felt
right.

As he worked, Ryan gave
some thought to his other life. It wouldn't be hard to leave it
behind except for
her
. His search had been a priority for so long, it had become
part of him. Maybe it was time to let her go, take his life back.
How long was long enough to look for someone who obviously didn't
want to be found? He was pretty sure he'd passed that mark a long
time ago.

With the last of the barns mucked, Ryan's
aching muscles demanded a hot shower. Sean was going to give him
grief about his stamina for ranch work if he didn’t get his act
together. Hoping to avoid his brother, he tramped along the side of
the stable, stopping short when a feminine laugh from the direction
of the main house drew his attention.

A rusty green pickup was parked on the
circular drive in front of the house. Propped against the driver's
side door with one foot bent backward to rest on the fender, stood
Ms. Chicory Eyes. Sean leaned forward, said something to her, and
she threw back her head. Her melodic laugh echoed across the yard,
spreading over Ryan like honey, and heating his blood to one notch
above simmer. He lingered in the shadow of the stable and watched
the exchange.

She stepped away from the fender and
mock-punched Sean in the arm. Then she reached for the door handle
but Sean said something else. With another laugh and a toss of her
long chocolate-colored hair, she climbed into the truck. She threw
a careless wave in Sean's direction, started the truck's engine and
drove off.

No sign of a goodbye kiss. Good. Ryan waited
until the dust settled after her departure then crossed the yard to
the house. It had been a long time since his interest had been
piqued by a woman. He hadn't realized how lonely he'd become until
just now.

"Who was that?" he asked. Good move, just
keep it casual.

Sean's eyebrows inched higher and one corner
of his mouth pulled upward. "That would be Sandy, our best boarding
customer. Domingo's owner."

"You two looked friendly."

"Yeah, I like her." Sean settled his hat
back further on his head. "You want to meet her? She'll be at
Valentine's tonight."

It took Ryan less than a second to accept
the invitation.

****

"Bar's expanded some." Ryan scanned the
parking lot, jammed to overflowing. "Always this busy?"

"Usually on Friday and Saturday." Sean
maneuvered his pickup into a tight space between another pickup and
a compact car. "Does a fair business the rest of the week but
Friday and Saturday, there's a live band."

Ryan noted the promotion for a band called
Cowboy Blue featuring Ray Dan Beckley on the marquee in front of
Valentine's Bar and Grill. The sound of lively music thumped across
the parking lot. The last time he'd been to the bar, the music had
consisted of a broken down juke box and good-natured arguments over
what songs to play.

He continued to scan the parking lot without
realizing he was looking for anything. Then he felt the jolt of
pleasure when he spotted the beat-up green Chevy pickup near the
rear entrance. A smile of anticipation tugged at the corners of his
mouth and he opened the door to go inside.

The color scheme was the same green, gold,
and dark wood Ryan remembered but it had a richer feel. On walls
which had once been Spartan, now hung photographs of the town, the
plains, the mountains. The expansions had been well thought out,
with good use of space. An annex had been added, with a pool table
and a row of electronic arcade games. A stage occupied one end of
the main barroom and a huge plasma screen TV dominated the wall
behind the bar. Make that expanded a lot.

Ryan's lips pulled into an approving smile
when he noted the ancient oak bar remained. He was momentarily
warmed by some fine memories made at the far end of that scarred
wood counter with the bar owner's somewhat more experienced
daughter. But when he spotted dark hair and chicory eyes tending
that same bar, his blood began to run hot.

Her hair was piled into a riotous dark mass
on top of her head, looking deliciously bedroom-tousled. Ryan
mentally calculated how quickly he could take it down and run his
fingers through it. Now, where the heck had that thought come
from?

With the exception of glossy red lipstick
coating what looked like very kissable lips, she wasn’t wearing
heavy makeup, giving her a classy natural look. The picture of
small town barmaid was completed by large gold hoops dangling from
exquisitely shaped earlobes.

Then she glanced up. Across thirty feet of
crowded room chicory eyes met his, holding him with a look that set
off an immediate conflagration in his blood. The indignation of the
previous night had been replaced by sparks of interest. He
acknowledged her with a slow nod, somehow managing to stay upright
and following his brother into the bar. Her very presence was
unsettling in ways he wasn't certain he'd ever understand.

As Sean cut them a path to the bar, the band
stopped playing and the lead singer began speaking to the patrons.
"What do you think? Can we get our Friday night favorite up
here?"

An approving roar went up from the crowd,
loud enough to give a city rock concert venue a run for the money.
The lone spotlight rolled over the crowd, which was chanting a
name, "Sandy, Sandy, Sandy!" Finally, the light settled on Chicory,
standing behind the bar. She shook her head and laughed
good-naturedly, pointing to her watch and then back at the
band.

The chanting continued, grew to a raucous
level, and finally with a smile, Chicory surrendered, and handed
the cleaning rag she'd been holding to a pretty young girl with a
cap of blond hair.

Ryan took a second look at the other girl.
"Whoa! Is that little Melanie Mitchell?" he asked his brother.

Sean nodded, an eager grin splitting his
face. So that's the way it rolled.

Ryan whistled appreciatively. "She sure grew
up well." The poke in the ribs went a long way toward making him
feel like a big brother again. Ryan turned his attention back to
the bartender as she sauntered toward the stage.

The lead singer held out his hand to give
Sandy a boost onto the stage, just as the band shot into a sultry
opening with a heavy beat. Her foot, strapped into a gold sandal
with an impossibly high heel, began to tap and she closed her eyes
for a moment, as though feeling out the rhythm. When her hips began
to swing with the beat, Ryan felt an explosion of lust racing
through his system and his libido kicked itself into overdrive.

Her voice was throaty and full. Sexy as
fire. Interested in spite of himself, Ryan unashamedly ran his eyes
over the whole package in the same way as probably every other man
in the place.

She wore a scrap of lavender silk, which
slid over her body with the smallest of movements, taking a path
his hands ached to travel. Faded blue jeans looked like they'd been
painted on over nicely rounded hips and what details he couldn't
make out, his mind had no trouble filling in. The peek-a-boo wink
of an amber-colored gem in her bellybutton whenever the lavender
silk slipped upward was intriguing. But when his gaze moved to her
face, it was her eyes that held his fascination.

She sang in graphic detail about the
destruction of a cheating lover's four-wheel drive, miming each
action as she sang the words. Her hips rocking in time, she glided
across the stage, openly flirting with everyone close enough to
make eye contact. Every man there was probably considering the
prospects for getting lucky that night, and about half of them
would want to run out and check on their rides when she finished
singing.

"Wow!" One look at the overweight, balding
gentleman with the excitement-reddened face at the bar next to him
had Ryan considering the possibility of the man having a stroke. He
was breathing so heavily he could barely speak. "Wouldn't want to
get caught cheating on that one."

Ryan mumbled something he
hoped sounded halfway coherent, and sipped the beer Melanie set in
front of him. Chicory moved into another high-energy number with a
heavier, even sexier beat, he didn't think cheating
on
her would be a
problem. At least he couldn't imagine himself ever wanting to cheat
on her if they were together.

She left the stage to work the crowd, moving
among them, touching arms and hands and faces, openly flirting with
a few of the men as she sang about loving a goodtime cowboy. The
sexual energy in the room became even more tangible, yet somehow
the atmosphere didn't flash over to raunchy.

Her eyes locked with his and Ryan lost his
ability to think. Unexpectedly, she had become predator and he felt
very much like the prey in her sights. Without taking her eyes from
him, she approached with a sultry cat-like walk, the embodiment of
temptation. She stopped mere inches away and her body heat
assaulted him like a five-alarm blaze.

While she rocked in rhythm with the thumping
music and sang about a devil in disguise, Ryan forced himself to
remain completely still. Sending him a cheeky grin of appreciation,
the sexy singer reached up, plucked the hat off his head and set it
on her own. His gaze was imprisoned by luscious red lips singing
about being addicted to love. Breath backed up in his lungs when
she walked two red-tipped fingers in tempo, from his belly up to
his throat. All sense of his surroundings became lost in the steamy
regard of those chicory-colored eyes.

She ran the tip of her tongue along her
upper lip in almost slow motion. Then with a wink, she whirled
around to present her back to him while she flirted outrageously
with Sean. Feeling needy, with a distinct sense of unfinished
business, Ryan contented himself with watching the rhythmic sway of
her behind. She was so close he jammed his hands in his pockets to
restrain himself from doing anything to earn a boot of his own
sorry tail out into the parking lot.