Ranger's Wild Woman (8 page)

“Get over it,” she snapped. “I have.”

And she walked out the front door, giving it a good slam because she felt like venting right here at his house, where a good vent would feel the best.

What a horse’s ass. She would never admit that she’d wanted to marry him. Never. That had been her secret all these years—blast his brothers for trying to save their own skins—and it was a secret she’d be keeping.

Among others.

At this point, her life required secrets. And no one, not even Mason, would know them.

M
ASON SQUINTED
his eyes when Mimi slammed the door, his ears ringing. That hadn’t gone the way he’d meant it to, but with Mimi, nothing was easy.

She had wanted to marry him, the little torturer. And he’d been a brainless ox not to see that she’d wanted him that way. His heart expanded. It felt like a golden chalice inside him, won at the end of a long, wearing quest.

And yet, while it made him feel good, it also made him feel worse. She would never be his.

“Hey,” Tex said, slapping Mason on the back as he walked into the kitchen. “Heard from the renegades? Archer and Ranger?”

“No.” Mason rubbed his chin, thinking. Mimi
claimed his brothers were deserting because of him. But she was wrong. “I may fire Helga.”

“You do that,” Tex said cheerfully on his way to grab some orange juice out of the fridge. “Don’t let me slow you down. One more reason to celebrate tonight. Party, party!” He hesitated, then turned. “Why now?”

“Just because,” Mason said, testing the water.

“Oh. Hey, are you all right? I smell…perfume.” Tex sniffed the air again.

“Mimi was just here.”

Tex stared at him. “And does she know you’re planning to get rid of her auto-bot? She’ll allow it?”

Mason’s teeth ground together. “Helga is not an auto-bot. And Mimi doesn’t do the hiring and firing around here. I do. With input from all of you, I might add.”

“We’ve been inputting for weeks. It hasn’t helped. Where are you going all duded up?”

“To the party. Aren’t you going?”

“Yeah. In a bit.” Tex winked at him. “Maybe you oughta ask out one of those new gals. Nothing like a new woman to get you over an old woman.”

“I don’t need to get over Mimi,” Mason asserted as haughtily as he could.

Tex laughed and took the orange juice with him. “I was speaking of Helga,” he called over his shoulder. “Old woman? Get it? The one you’re supposedly firing.”

“Shh!” Mason hissed, in case Helga was around,
and she did tend to stay quite close to him. Up till now he’d liked that about her; he’d liked having his every beck and call immediately answered. But now that he knew Helga was a plant sent by Mimi, one of her twisted ideas, he wasn’t amused.

“Very funny, Tex,” he muttered. But his thoughts wandered back to Mimi. He wasn’t surprised that she’d pulled a fast one on him. She’d done that constantly. In fact, he reluctantly admitted missing her hijinks.

But there was nothing he could do about that now.

“You know, Mason,” Tex said, poking his head back into the kitchen, “that new woman idea is probably worth thinking over. A woman is probably just what you need. Not necessarily new or old. Just…a woman.”

“How about you mind your own business, Dr. Love?” Mason demanded.

Tex disappeared from the doorway. Mason looked out the window toward the Cannadys’. Mimi was leaving, driving Brian’s sports car. Even at a distance, he could see that it was her—and that she was driving fast.

Big hurry to get on that honeymoon.

“Maybe I
should
start dating,” he told himself. “Just a date every once in a while.” To prove he wasn’t as much of a horse’s ass as Mimi claimed.

Yeah. That was it.

He would date. He needed a woman. Not that he
wasn’t happy for her, but he was playing Keep Away from Mimi with his thoughts, and his brain was racking up the win so far.

He definitely needed a woman.

“I’ve got the map out,” Hannah told Ranger as she dug around in the console of Hawk’s truck. “So we don’t take any more detours.”

“Burn the map,” Ranger said. “You and I are taking the long way to the river.”

“The long way?” She looked at her impatient driver. “I thought you said we were in a hurry to get there.”

“I was primarily focused on getting out of Hawk’s lair. There was far too much romance, and you weren’t succumbing to that. I don’t think you trust me. Maybe men in general.”

She snapped the console closed after replacing the map. “I think Hawk is pretty sneaky. No guy has all that romantic stuff like candles and bubble bath unless he’s expecting company. And then he left it all behind like it was nothing. Like he didn’t expect female company any time soon. I think he does all that medicine man stuff to lure females.”

“Hey, don’t knock it. Every man’s got his game.
But don’t start obsessing about him. He could be married and his missus left him, for all we know.”

Hannah considered that. “He said he was going to track someone. That’s kind of an unusual statement to make, don’t you think?”

“I think he’s an unusual guy. And I’ll be forever grateful to him for saving me since Archer obviously wasn’t going to. Or you, for that matter.”

She looked out a window. “When you told me that piece of advice of your father’s, were you…I mean, you sort of sounded like he wasn’t around anymore.”

“He’s not.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” She’d been afraid of that.

“Far as I know, he’s not dead. He’s just not around. Or he could be dead. I don’t know.”

Ranger’s voice was terse. Hannah turned to look at him. “For a long time?”

“Since the day Mason turned seventeen. We never knew where Maverick went. He just went away, leaving a note behind that said he…he loved us, he would miss us, but he just couldn’t go on living without our mother. And that he knew we’d be fine.” Ranger took a deep breath. “And then Mason was on his own raising us, just like Maverick was on his own at seventeen.”

“And you’ve never gotten a phone call from him? A letter?”

He shook his head. “Not so much as a postcard. And yes, we filed a missing persons report. We sent out letters to anyone we thought who might know
something. He simply disappeared, him and his broken heart. The fact is, we were lucky Mason was able to keep us all together. There were a lot of folks in town who said we belonged in foster care. In fact, there’s a lot of folks who still believe the state shouldn’t have left us with Mason.” He shrugged. “They couldn’t have stopped us. We would have set everything in the town on fire before we allowed them to separate us.”

“Ranger!” Hannah was surprised but not shocked—and her heart was torn over the raw emotion in his voice.

“In the end, we did what we wanted. And they call our ranch Malfunction Junction because we used to get into a little trouble. Not enough to get arrested—well, maybe, if Sheriff Cannady hadn’t been next door to bust our heads instead of hauling us to the county jail every once in a while. Mrs. Cannady used to cook for us some, but then she up and left for the bright lights of Hollywood, and that was the last anyone heard of her. Believe me, nobody even dares mention Mrs. Cannady around Mimi. Once that ugly genie is out of the verbal bottle, it’s like watching our little sister turn into a she-devil on command.” He glanced at Hannah. “It’s not pretty.”

“Poor Mimi!”

“Yeah. She’s had it rough. We would have felt pretty sorry for ourselves if it hadn’t been for Mimi. She kept the pity party to a dull roar. At least we know why our dad left. His heart was broken, and he
kind of lost it. We knew he was losing his grip. But Mrs. Cannady just left because she felt like it, and she abandoned a daughter and a husband who didn’t deserve to be dumped.”

“Maybe Hawk could track your dad,” Hannah suggested absently as she dug some pretzels out of a bag for Ranger.

“I could track him myself at this point, I guess. Or any of us could go looking for him, though I’m not sure where we’d start. But we came to the conclusion that if he wanted to be found, he would have let us know.”

He munched some of the pretzels she handed him. “You’re not so bad when you’re not trying to romance me,” she said.

“Yeah, well. I still fantasize about winning your shirt. I mean, what man wouldn’t?” His gaze skimmed over her before returning to the road.

“That’s kind of sweet, in a boneheaded sort of way.” She popped the tops on some Big Reds and placed them in the cup holders. “I’ve always been on my own.”

“Tell me something hard to figure out.”

“I wanted to say yes to you about the romantic interlude. But I got scared.”

He turned to cock a brow at her. “You should be scared.”

“I know. I am. I mean, how can I want a man who just wants to use me to chase off his boredom?”

“Well, it’s not only that. You’re cute, for a whacky girl. You disturb me. In a good sort of way.”

“But it would be better if you didn’t have me. That’s what you think your father’s advice meant.”

“No. I think sometimes things are not meant to be. And you are definitely not in the plans, obviously. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing or a bad thing. You’re just meant to remain an unknown in my life.”

“I thought men lusted after unknowns. Strived for them.”

“They do. But their common sense kicks in, too. It tells them some things are unknown and gonna stay that way, so head to a greener pasture.”

“Like you did with Cissy.” She nodded sagely.

“Look. You’ve got that a little skewed. Cissy is a nice girl, and what guy wouldn’t want to kiss her—”

“She’s about ten years younger than me.”

“Oh.” Ranger gave her a sidelong glance. “Don’t give me that innocent look. Now I know what the problem was all along. Hannah Hotchkiss, you’re pouting!”

“What?”

“You’re feeling sorry for yourself because you’re the older woman!” And he started roaring with laughter.

She started to say something to shut him up, to put him firmly in his place, but then changed her mind, popping another pretzel into her mouth instead.

And then she smiled.

R
ANGER DIDN’T LIKE IT
when Hannah smiled like that. She was keeping a secret, and that wasn’t a good sign. Especially when he was supposed to have been winning their verbal volley. “Listen, maybe the riverboat isn’t a good idea for you.”

“Why not?”

She opened her eyes, big and innocent, and he gathered himself up to do more verbal battle. “You’re too delicate. Far too innocent,” he said importantly. “It sounds very dangerous to be an unchaperoned female on a boat where men will be, carousing and…and other things.”

Her stare had a twinkle in it. He pursed his lips and set the cruise control.

“Have you appointed yourself my guardian?”

“I told you we think of you as someone special,” he said gruffly.

“We?”

“And I just want to see you safe. Out of harm’s way. So naturally I’m concerned about you gallivanting off on a riverboat.”

“Maybe you should come with me,” she suggested.

His brows rose. The thought had occurred to him, but he wouldn’t have dreamed of suggesting it. He’d been hoping for an invitation, but now that he had it, he wanted to make certain her suggestion was sincere. “I think the military might be an easier assignment than watching a woman on a riverboat.”

“I didn’t say come and be my bodyguard,” Hannah said with a laugh. “Come watch me play.”

“Play?”

“Deal the cards.”

“Oh. And play the suckers.”

She frowned. “The casino doesn’t take bets for less than five thousand dollars.”

He whistled. “That doesn’t allow for suckers.”

“No, it doesn’t. Anyway, that’s why I invited you to come watch me.”

He thought about that. “You’re suggesting I don’t have the wherewithal for such a game?”

“I’m saying there’s no point in you losing that much money. Especially to act as if you’re keeping an eye on me, which I don’t need, by the way.”

Ranger was outraged. “First, how do you know I would lose?”

She shrugged. “Your face gives away every thought you’re having.”

“It does?” That disgruntled him. It’d be a lot healthier for him emotionally if this wiry-haired female couldn’t read his face.

“Pretty much. I know that right now you’re feeling testy about what I said. A few moments before that, you were thinking guardian thoughts, but not necessarily those of a brother.”

“How do you know that?”

She smiled at him. “Because you looked at my legs when you said that it might not be safe at the casino.”

He forced his eyes back to the road where she
couldn’t read them. But bingo, she had him. The thoughts he was having were more of the possessive type. And for what? She’d thrown his ring in the dirt. He’d rather set his own hay bales on fire than admit she’d damaged his pride. In his pocket was the ring he’d scooped from the dirt, after she’d turned her back. He’d hoped to adopt a careless attitude about it, but it didn’t seem to be getting through to his head.

“And there are very thick layers inside your head,” she said.

He jerked around to stare at her.

“Very thick skull,” she clarified. “You’d best keep your eyes on the road, cowboy.”

“How did you know what I was thinking?” he demanded. “And for the record, my thick skull was a boon in rodeoing.”

She smiled sublimely. “I didn’t know what you were thinking. I was talking about gambling. You don’t have a poker face, and you have a very thick skull. Gamblers are usually more easygoing, at least on the outside.” Her smile grew broader. “You’re always tense.”

“You make me that way!”

She tapped him on the arm. “You make yourself tense. I don’t think the military will want you. No poker face, no easy spirit. You should get married, Ranger.”

His jaw went slack for a moment. “How would that help?”

“It would relax you, for starters.”

“You don’t relax me.”

“Yes, but we’re not married.”

“Even when we were, you didn’t relax me.”

“I inoculated you from the phobia of bad luck, though. You said so yourself. The Curse of the Broken Body Parts? Remember?”

He didn’t want to talk about that, so he declined to answer.

“You became immune to your hypochondria when you married me. So marriage is good for you. Not to me, because I don’t want to be married. But marriage to someone.”

“Just about the only other single woman I know is Cissy,” he said sneakily.

“I don’t think so,” Hannah replied without looking at him. “She’s in love with someone else. Plus she’s married, so that’s a problem for that plan.”

“Whoa. Hang on there. Cissy is married?”

“Yeah. That’s one of the reasons she’s traveling with me. Her husband up and disappeared two years ago, and she fell in with Marvella for employment. She’s got some younger siblings she supports. But she wanted to have a different life than she can have with Marvella, so I invited her to my ex-fiancé’s riverboat.”

Ranger felt his teeth go on edge. All this talk of ex-fiancé’s and disappearing husbands was enough to make him nervous. “I don’t understand how she’s married but in love with someone else. Not that I
should be saying this, but Tex had a major itch going for her last month at the rodeo.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. But she’s too elegant for Malfunction Junction. Anyway, what about the disappearing husband?”

“Well, apparently, the police told Cissy that her husband was involved in some illegal matters that he never bothered to share with her. Had Cissy known, she would have given him the very hard boot. Remember, she had siblings to support. She didn’t need any bad examples in their lives. But she didn’t know any of this until he came up missing.” Hannah sighed. “The police think they’ll only find his body if they ever do find him.”

“Wow. That was some unsavory stuff he must have been involved in.”

She nodded. “Drugs. Dealing, mostly. But he told Cissy that his family was privately wealthy and that he’d take care of her nine siblings if she married him. He wanted a wife for respectability, because the stakes were high, I guess. But it all turned out badly, and Cissy says she’s never marrying for convenience again. And certainly not for money.”

“Marriage of convenience?” Ranger asked slowly. “As in, they never…”

She shook her head. “Never. So now she’s looking for a new job, a new way of life. Her mother is wheel-chair-bound, but has been watching the kids while Cissy worked for Marvella.”

“And now on your riverboat.”

“It’s not my riverboat.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think I like it. You were safer with Delilah.”

She cocked her head at him. “Have you already appointed yourself my bodyguard?”

He shrugged that off with a frown. “How long are you planning on staying on this job? I might point out that you seem to be a bit flighty.”

“This from a man who rolls down a hill nearly nude.”

He gave her a stern look. “We’ve talked about my family, we’ve talked about Cissy. It seems to me that we talk about everything except you, Hannah Hotchkiss.” He turned back to look at the road but his mind was working hard. “Did you deliberately occupy my brain so I wouldn’t ask anything personal about you?”

“No. Your brain appears to be permanently vacant.”

Okay. He’d set himself up for that. “Wisenheimer, could you please fill me in on your life?”

“Is that why you’re taking the scenic route? And driving thirty miles an hour? I could get there faster if I walked.”

“I couldn’t. I think I’ve still got some needles in my feet.”

“Do you want me to drive?”

He shook his head. “You talk. And keep me awake.”

“Didn’t you sleep well last night?”

Not with her sleeping down the hall. All he could think about was her warm body under the covers. “Don’t deviate from your assignment.”

“My life story won’t keep you awake. It’s not as interesting as yours. In fact, it’s downright boring. Let’s choose another subject.”

“Hannah, I’m a captive audience. Try out my attention span.”

She shifted in the seat next to him. “What do you want to know?”