Rodeo Bride (5 page)

She was still unconvinced. “They might ask a lot of gossipy questions about Toby and Lisa.”

“Then I just won’t answer. Do you always feel this responsible about everything that happens here?” he asked.

“No. Yes. I guess I feel I have to. This ranch is my whole world. It’s what makes me who I am, and these people…the women…if
I
fail, they lose their livelihoods when they’ve all already had to face too many bad things in their lives.”

“But it’s me you’re trying to protect this time.”

She shrugged. “Maybe you could use a sanctuary for a few weeks, too. Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’ve been exempted from the tough stuff. It couldn’t have been easy marrying Lisa and losing her. Or going to war. Or being wounded.”

Toby had fallen asleep and was listing to one side in her arms. Without a word and with seemingly little effort, Dillon took him and tucked him against his shoulder. Then he reached out and slid one palm along Colleen’s jaw.

He had a magic touch. She wanted to lean right into his palm, step up against his body. Instead, she forced herself to simply look into his eyes.

“I doubt that divorce is ever easy for anyone, but I’ve had a long time to think about it, and I think my marriage was doomed from the start. I can’t even really blame Lisa. She has that princess aura, and I chose her thinking she would be a good wife for a businessman the way other men choose a suit off the rack. But she wanted someone more exciting than I was, someone more willing to make the rounds of the social circuit and less of a workaholic and I should have realized that
from the start. When I got called back into service and went overseas, she was livid about the fact that I didn’t fight my tour of duty. As for the rest…no, none of that was easy, but still easier than a lot of other people who went to war have had. From that perspective, I can’t complain.”

“Are you just being nice, trying to make me feel better and forget that I messed up? Because I
did
mention the car and your work on the ranch. Now Harve Enson thinks you’re some foolish guy who’s easy prey and he’s going to stalk you just because he’s bored and has nothing to do with his time.”

He stared down into her eyes, his own that unsettling blue. “If I really wanted you to forget something, I’d try a more drastic approach.”

“What?”

He shifted the baby and leaned into her, sweeping his arm around her waist. “I’m not easy prey,” he whispered when his lips were just a breath away from hers. “What I am is curious. Maybe even a bit fascinated.”

He touched his mouth to hers and his touch was so…hot, so…she didn’t know what. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. Like jumping your horse over a barrier so high that you weren’t sure you could land safely. Fear and elation and excitement all mixed together. And when it was over, there was definitely an insane desire to do that dangerous thing all over again, she thought as he pulled away, leaving her lips aching.

“That was…what was that about?” she asked.

“It was probably about following through on a bad idea even though you have an incredibly delicious mouth, Colleen.”

Her lips were still burning. Her body was still aching. Now she knew what kissing him was like and what she’d been missing and would never have. Darn it, she’d have been better off not knowing that.

“We shouldn’t do that again,” she whispered.

“You’re probably right. I seem to have bad luck with the women of Bright Creek. Probably best to keep my distance.”

And just like that, she remembered one more reason why she had to stay smart about Dillon. He was temporary. He would leave her in the dust. He had never been for her and never would be. And thinking of him was only going to take her mind off her own concerns and very real goals of keeping the ranch running and saving money for the ranch camp.

“Let’s go get the baby out of the sun and then later today, after I’m done with my work, I’ll give you some more lessons,” she said. “Some basic stuff.”

“Basic. All right. I can handle that.”

Hours later, Colleen was struggling to keep a straight face as Dillon stared down at his son and then looked at the diaper he held in his hand.

“An interesting contraption,” he told his son.

Toby stared at him with those huge blue eyes and jabbered something unintelligible.

“The tabs go in the back and fasten in the front,” Colleen said helpfully.

“Of course they do. Toby just told me so. Didn’t you, buddy?”

Toby just stared.

“Oh sure, go quiet on me
now
,” Dillon said. “Just when I’m looking for a little support here.” He smiled, and Toby responded to his daddy’s smile, giving a delighted little squeal.

“All right, then. Let’s get this on you.” Dillon lifted Toby’s tiny bottom and slid the diaper under him. He brought the front of the diaper up and looked at the left of the diaper and then the right. He brought the sides of his hand up and sighted along it.

“The tabs…” Colleen began.

“I know. In the back, fasten in the front,” Dillon repeated.

“Then what are you doing?” she asked gently.

“I’m measuring.”

Colleen couldn’t keep from chuckling. “Dillon, it’s a diaper, not an engineering project.”

Dillon gave her a patient, measured look. “Toby, she doesn’t understand that we are men, and we have our own way of doing things.”

“What she understands is that if you don’t fasten that diaper on soon, Toby is going to respond to all this fresh air, and we’ll have a lot of cleaning up to do,” she said, raising a brow.

Dillon gave her a wry grin. “Have I mentioned what a wise woman Colleen is, scout?” he asked his son. “Of course, you already knew that. Let’s get you diapered up.”

When he was done, the diaper was almost perfectly straight, but not quite. He eyed it with a frown.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she said. “You did great, and it’s going to get easier…until he learns to crawl and wriggle away,” she teased.

Dillon laughed. He scooped his son up into his arms. “I can hardly wait.” Then, his expression grew serious. “Thank you for helping me, Colleen. You’re a good teacher.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Yes. You did. He’s happy. That’s all you.”

She wanted to tell him no, that Toby had been born a happy child, but her throat was closing up. She
needed
to ask him not to praise her, for fear she might do something foolish and take it too much to heart. She could not start yearning for praise from Dillon.

Finally, she found her voice. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “I guess…it’s time for Toby’s story and bed. Then…I have some written material you might find helpful.” Which was such a stupid, inane thing to say, but he nodded, took Toby and headed for the rocking chair.

Soon the sound of his deep, hypnotic voice could be heard
in the kitchen where she had retreated so that Dillon could have some private time with his son.

She was alone in a way she hadn’t been for the past three months. Maybe she’d never been this alone, Colleen thought. Because now she had experienced joy, a special kind of joy. And she craved it.

Get over it,
she told herself.
Be happy with what you’ve been lucky enough to have been given. And stop moping. There’s still a lot to do today. And maybe this would be a good day for you to go back to eating at the bunkhouse.
She was spending too much time alone with Dillon.

But by the time the day was done and the lessons were over, Millie had gone to bed with a headache, the women in the bunkhouse had made their own dinner and she and Dillon were all that was left.

“I’m not much of a cook, but I can manage something,” she told him when he came back from putting Toby in his crib.

“I’d offer to do the honors, but I’ve never learned how.”

“You’ve always had servants, haven’t you?”

“It goes with the territory. My parents were too self-involved to cook. I was too busy. Fortunately, there are people who will cook for you if you pay them well.”

She was pretty sure that he paid better than well. Before he’d come here she’d done her homework on him. She’d seen his name on one of those Web sites where people gossiped about which celebrities were lousy tippers at restaurants, and Dillon was a legendary highly generous tipper.

“I can help,” he offered, but the thought of him being next to her while she cooked…after that kiss…well, she’d probably have a brain meltdown and slice off a finger or two.

“Go. Ramble. Read. Do something,” she ordered.

He smiled and wandered out of the room. In a minute, she heard the noise of glass doors opening and closing and went
to see what the commotion was. He had opened the china cabinet and was setting the table.

“You really are a rodeo queen.” He motioned to the trophies and ribbons he’d had to move to get at the dishes.

“Well, everyone has to be good at one thing,” she said.

He frowned at that. “I’m sure you’re good at many things.”

Automatically the sound of her stepfather telling her that she was good for absolutely nothing, that she was ugly and useless and that he couldn’t believe someone as pretty as her mother had given birth to her, dropped in. She hadn’t allowed that thought for ages.

“I was a great barrel racer back when I had the time to practice,” she said as if she was trying to force that opinion down someone’s throat.

“I would have liked to have seen that.”

“I—” Colleen’s words were cut off by the sound of Dillon’s cell phone ringing.

He looked at the display. “Unfamiliar. Probably a wrong number, but…”

He clicked it on. Colleen went back into the kitchen to give him privacy.

“What’s this about, Lisa? Yes, I know you called earlier. You’re in Europe. Fine. Where am I? I’m with my son.”

Lisa,
Colleen thought. Maybe Lisa wanted the baby even though she hadn’t asked one question about him these past few months. Or maybe she wanted Dillon again. A woman like Lisa tended to get the things she wanted.

With an extra dollop of force, Colleen slammed the pan onto the stove.

“Lisa, we haven’t talked in a year. What exactly do you want now?” Dillon continued. “I see. Well, you do what you have to do.”

Colleen took out another pan and banged it on the stove,
too. She wanted to scream, “Tell her not to call you here.” But she didn’t.

“I’d say this conversation is over,” Dillon said.

Another pan. And another. And…

Colleen sensed rather than saw Dillon come into the room. She whirled and looked at him. He was leaning casually against the far wall, as if he’d been there all day and could stand there for another entire day. He looked as if nothing at all had happened.

“How can you be so calm?” she asked.

“I’m not, but tonight I’m too tired to think and react logically, and at the moment I have no recourse other than to keep tabs on her whereabouts. I already knew she was in Europe before she told me.”

“What did she want?”

“She seemed to want to tell me that she’d been planning to come back to the States, but that she didn’t have enough cash to make the trip and I—”

He paused.

“What?”

“How are we going to eat all this?”

Colleen looked down and saw that she had taken at least six pans out of the cabinet. They were squeezed together on the big commercial stove.

“I was angry,” she said. “Really angry.” She suddenly couldn’t help smiling. “If Lisa had been here, I would have…”

“You would have what? Fed her to death?”

Colleen’s smile grew. “Hey, I said that I wasn’t a good cook, but nobody ever died from my cooking.”

“I’m oddly reassured.”

But Colleen wasn’t. Standing here alone in the kitchen with Dillon, she felt vulnerable. He’d asked her earlier today what she was good at, but at this moment, staring at him
across the room this way, all she could concentrate on were his lips. She wanted to be good at kissing Dillon Farraday. She wanted to forget that any adults other than the two of them even existed and she wanted him to kiss her again.

And since that wasn’t going to happen, Colleen simply opened the refrigerator, pulled out a little of this and a little of that and hastily made two sandwiches. She handed one to Dillon.

“I do happen to make a darn good sandwich,” she told him, trying to turn her thoughts back to the mundane.

“Looks delicious. I’ll be sure to savor it.” Which certainly didn’t sound as mundane as it should have. In fact, when she woke in the middle of the night from a sound sleep, she realized that she had been dreaming that she and Dillon had been locked in a fierce embrace.

Surely it was just the newness of having a man in the house. “Tomorrow I will be so over this phase,” she promised herself. No more thinking about Dillon beyond teaching him his duties.

D
ILLON
awoke to the sound of hushed whispers in the other part of the house. That was Colleen’s low husky voice. Already he knew it. Already he was regretting having touched her…and yet not regretting it at all. For all her tough cowgirl ways, there was something very soft and vulnerable about her. And her skin was equally soft, her lips warm and womanly.

And my mind is where it has no business being,
he thought. There were too many things to do today, too many important things to tend to. And some things he needed to talk to Colleen about. Despite his seemingly calm demeanor last night, Lisa’s sudden reappearance worried him. Lisa, he’d discovered early in their marriage, had a reason for everything she did. She was good at masking her ambition behind a smiling facade but she was very ambitious. All his instincts told him she wanted money, and the tool she might use as leverage was a baby.

All that had passed through his mind last night, but he’d put off telling Colleen because…maybe because he hadn’t wanted to upset her.

That wasn’t like him. He had never shied from getting right to the tough stuff. When he’d been growing up, the only way to get his parents’ attention had been to aim right for the jugular and cut directly to the heart of whatever topic he’d
needed to take care of. He’d been that way ever since and it had stood him well in business and in war. Even in his personal life, he had jumped right in, met and married Lisa within a matter of weeks. But with Colleen, who had erected barriers the minute she’d met him and didn’t have any qualms about making him abide by rules, he thought, looking at the offending door that separated him from her, he found himself wanting to ease into topics. With her shields up, she was hard to read at times, so going slowly was important. She tried to be tough. He knew she was strong in many ways, but he also sensed that she could be easily wounded. He could fail her, and he didn’t want to either hurt her or fail her, not when he was pretty darn sure that she’d had more than her share of men doing that kind of thing.

But we still have to talk about things,
he thought. Money and attention were Lisa’s weaknesses, he’d learned. And now that he was back on his feet and able to be approached about giving her more funding, Lisa was probably going to be trouble. He would need to protect Toby. Things could get ugly, and he didn’t want any of this spilling over onto Colleen. Unfortunately, given her affection for Toby, he wasn’t sure how to protect her. Anger that the woman he had once trusted enough to marry might betray him again and roll over Colleen in the process made him want to swear.

Blowing out a breath, he rolled over, grabbed his clothes and got dressed. Then he padded to the door and gave a rap.

The door opened and he found himself facing Millie holding Toby, who had milk on his face, partially running down his bare baby chest and trickling into his diaper. The baby perked up and made happy smacking noises when he saw Dillon.

Dillon’s heart flipped right over, and he held out his arms. Millie handed over Toby.

“Looks like breakfast was a winner,” Dillon said, giving his child a kiss. “It also looks like I’ll be taking my first lesson on giving you a bath.”

Millie chuckled, but he wondered why she was the one feeding Toby. Colleen had told him only yesterday how much she liked feeding Toby his breakfast.

“Where’s Colleen?” he asked.

Millie hesitated.

“Is this one of those ‘none of my business, because it has nothing to do with me’ occasions?” he asked.

No. The answer was clearly no, even though Millie didn’t speak. Her hesitation told him that Colleen’s absence
did
have something to do with him. Did this have something to do with that thing about the car Colleen had mentioned yesterday? And if he asked, would he get an answer?

Fire fast and catch her off guard,
he thought.
She’ll either tell you something or think you’re totally crazy.

He smiled down at his son, then quickly turned toward Millie. “Is there any chance there are visitors coming today?” he asked with as much of a frown as he could muster with a baby pulling on the button of his shirt and slobbering on his arm as Toby bent over and tried to chew without teeth. “Colleen seemed to think my car might bring some…um…crazed fans out of the woodwork.”

Millie’s eyes opened wide. “Now, you’re not to worry. As soon as the first man showed up a few minutes ago, Colleen headed down to the entrance to make sure no one tried to sneak up here.”

“She’s guarding the Ferrari?”

“I wouldn’t exactly say guarding. Just telling everyone to back off. People are curious, but Colleen says that you and Toby are our guests, you’re our responsibility and she doesn’t want those men bothering you when you and Toby need some
quality bonding time. Jokes might be made. Or they might try to coerce you to let them drive your car. In other words, she feels that our neighbors aren’t minding their manners. But don’t worry. She has her shotgun, and Colleen hardly ever misses.”

Dillon blinked.

“Dillon, I’m just kidding, hon,” Millie drawled. “Not about Colleen hardly ever missing, but about her having her gun. Colleen doesn’t
need
a gun, but she
is
down there reading the riot act to the locals who came out to poke around and ask you nosy questions.”

Which was totally wrong. She had done him a favor loving and caring for his child for the past three months, and now she was teaching him how to be a good father despite the fact that he was taking Toby away from her. Last night she had patiently sat down with him and given him a crash course on car seats and other safety issues. She had shepherded him through his first diaper change and assured him that Toby would let him know if he got the thing on too tight.

Dillon looked down at his son’s milky face and gave him a kiss. “I’ll be back,” he said and he held Toby out to Millie. “Can you man the baby while I go give Colleen a hand?”

“You can’t do that. You’re supposed to be a—”

“Don’t say
guest
. Everyone keeps saying that. That’s an order.”

Millie shrugged. “Sorry. We’re just trying to be hospitable.”

“And I appreciate it. But things will run more smoothly if you simply accept the fact that I’m used to taking charge and being responsible for my own actions and welfare. I’m not good at being a taker. At least I hope not. Now, where will I find her?”

“Probably down where the entrance to the Applegate is. Colleen won’t stop the fishermen from going through, but she’ll want to make sure that no one decides to wander up to the house to snoop around.”

He nodded. “Toby?”

“Of course,” Millie said. “And…thank you. It’s nice that there’s some man who doesn’t automatically assume that Colleen should be capable of doing everything. People have always taken advantage of the fact that she’s a doer. She takes on too much. Not that I should complain. If she hadn’t been the kind of person she is and taken us in, who knows what would have happened to us, but…yeah, I’m glad you’re not simply taking her for granted the way everyone in town seems to.”

Interesting. Dillon was certainly going to find out more about that topic when he got a few minutes, but for now, it seemed that Colleen was off fighting dragons for him. He was grateful, but he just wasn’t a dependent sort of guy. Couldn’t ever be.

As he started out the door, Millie called to him. “The fastest way to the entrance is straight across the south pasture and through the orchard. If you take the road, it’s a lot farther.”

“Thank you,” he said as he took off toward the entrance. Despite the uneven ground and his uncooperative leg, he moved as swiftly as he could, given that he had left his cane behind. He wasn’t sure what this was all about, but he knew this much. If he weren’t here, Colleen wouldn’t have to take care of the extra work of making sure he wasn’t “bothered.” Which was crazy, given the fact that he
was
bothered and hot and all kinds of attracted to her every time she got close to him. A man wanting to ask him about his car? Or even watching him struggle with a diaper? That was easy stuff. Not wanting to touch Colleen? Far too difficult.

When he entered the orchard, the first thing he noticed was a striking sculpture of metal and what looked like broken bits of glass. It glittered in the sun, the glass tinkling in the breeze. Other bits of colored glass hung from the trees amidst the glossy leaves, the budding fruit and the gnarled branches. It
was a bit like a living art gallery, but Dillon didn’t stop, because midway through the orchard he heard Colleen’s voice.

“Harve, now I know you didn’t come here to fish. You only fish on Saturdays and the occasional Sunday. If you’re here during the week, it’s to spy on Mr. Farraday.”

“He’s rich. He’s probably used to people staring at him.”

“I don’t think that anyone ever gets used to people staring at them and asking nosy questions. Besides, where he’s from people probably don’t make him feel like some sort of bug under a microscope. There are lots of rich people in Chicago. Lots of interesting cars, too.”

“Oh, come on, Colleen. We’re not going to bite him.”

“No, you’re going to bug him. The man just got home after being in the hospital, he’s still recuperating and he wants some alone time with his son while they get used to each other. He doesn’t need to become an oddity on display. And I don’t want you asking him any questions about Lisa, either. I especially don’t want you doing
that
, and after what I heard in town yesterday, I know that you will, so don’t tell me otherwise. Rob, is that you? Don’t you have a job?”

“It’s my break time.”

“Well, break time’s over. Now, all of you go on back to town. Sooner or later Dillon will show up, and then and only then, if he wants, he’ll answer your questions. The Applegate should be a sanctuary, though. Off-limits.”

“You’re a harsh woman, Colleen. And getting snootier every day. Why is that guy staying here, anyway? We all know how you feel about men on your place, and he’s sure not a ranch hand.”

“No, Harve, and neither am I. I’m the owner and I call the shots, including who I invite here.” Her point was clear. Dillon had been invited. They hadn’t.

“Maybe you’re trying to keep us away because you
wouldn’t mind getting engaged again, this time to a rich man who could spend his money on the Applegate and turn it into a moneymaker. If you keep him to yourself, no other woman can snatch him up the way it happened with Dave.”

Intense silence met that comment, followed by some throat clearing and someone swearing beneath their breath. At that point, Dillon decided it was time to make an appearance. He slipped between the last of the trees, coming out just to the east of the entrance to the Applegate. His eyebrows rose. There were at least half a dozen cars jammed up at the entrance, all blocked by Colleen’s pickup truck. She was standing in the bed, her blond curls fluttering in the breeze, and looking glorious in her obvious anger. Good. Because if someone had hurt her and brought her to tears, he’d just have to hit them and he wasn’t in nearly good enough physical condition yet to dodge quickly if it came to that.

“I’m going to try to forget that you said that, Rob,” Colleen said, but her voice seemed strained.

Dillon moved forward. He stared directly at Colleen, who looked startled, then started to the edge of the wagon bed. He shook his head.

“Hello, Colleen. I don’t mean to interrupt this meeting, but I was out taking a walk and it’s sure a nice day, isn’t it? You’ve got some great scenery here, too. I’m really glad I got out of Chicago to see it.”

He turned to the men. “Hi, everyone. I’m Dillon Farraday.”

There was some throat clearing, some shuffling. Some calling out of names. Harve Enson, Bill Winters, Rob Enson. More.

Dillon nodded. “I’m glad to make your acquaintance, but I couldn’t help overhearing part of the conversation as I was walking through the orchard, and I think some things may need clearing up. For the record, Colleen has been the perfect
hostess to me, and I’ve been a total pain of a guest,” he said, using the hated word. “I dropped in on her out of the blue, and she’s been caring for my baby for three months, which has to have cost her some work hours. In spite of that, she’s made me feel welcome. So, while I really want to be a model visitor to your fine state and not make any unnecessary waves, I have to tell you that I would really take exception to anyone who criticized Colleen or embarrassed her or gave her any grief for taking Toby and me in. I’d definitely have to do something about that,” Dillon said.

By now, everyone was looking at him. A small buzz of voices began in the crowd, and Colleen uttered something Dillon couldn’t make out, but sounded like a muffled curse. She crossed her arms.

Dillon would have liked to have climbed up to stand in the back of the truck with her, but he didn’t trust his leg to enable him to do that without him falling and looking like a fool. Right now, a commanding presence was called for.

“Well, now, Dillon, we all know better than to insult Colleen. She can ride a horse or shoot a gun better than any of us can,” one older man said. “And when she was younger, she could beat up the boys if they messed with her. Rob here didn’t mean anything by his comment. He was just irritated and not thinking straight. Nobody set out to insult Colleen, and they wouldn’t. She’s one of us.”

“And I’m not,” Dillon said with a smile.

The man looked startled. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant…I meant that we all like Colleen. She’s almost like one of the men.”

Dillon frowned. Colleen was definitely nothing like a man, but since she didn’t look happy to see him, and he had a distinct feeling that he’d already undermined some of her power simply by showing up here, he wasn’t going to point
out the fact that she was very obviously and achingly female. Or at least he wasn’t going to point that out yet. That time might still come along.

“But I’m glad you showed up, Dillon, because we wanted to meet you. Colleen, it looks like we win, after all,” one of the men said.