Bachelor Cowboy (14 page)

Aggie nodded and started down the hall. “She’s been terrified of them since she lost her parents. We try to stay with her and help her through it when we can, but we couldn’t do it today.” She turned back to give him a sad smile. “I’m glad you were here and she wasn’t alone. I’m sure it helped.”

Unable to speak, he nodded and headed for the door. Feeling as if he’d been sucker punched, he climbed into his pickup and drove home, fighting the muddy roads. When he finally made it to his house, he killed the engine and pressed his forehead against the steering wheel, his fingers still gripping it. His head felt as if it would explode. He knew he should go on into the house and take a couple of pills, but he wasn’t able to move. All he could think of was Kate.

He wasn’t in love with her. He’d never been in love with anyone. But he was damn close with her.

Kate sat at the O’Brien dinner table and wished she hadn’t accepted Jules’ invitation. If she had known Dusty would be there, too, she would have stayed home and worked on a way to continue farming. Dusty was his usual charming self, but after pouring her soul out to him the day before in the storm, she wasn’t interested in spending the evening with him. She was embarrassed for having allowed him to see her biggest weakness. It wouldn’t happen again.

Everyone was enjoying the strawberry crêpes dessert she’d brought, and she was flattered that Jules and Tanner considered her a friend, so the evening wasn’t turning out as bad as she had feared it would. Jules had assured her on her arrival that she and Tanner weren’t matchmaking, but she also admitted it wasn’t such a bad idea. Kate had laughed at her honesty. She only wished she could have been more help in persuading Dusty not to return to bull riding. Deep down, she knew he would be leaving soon. She had to accept that, but doing so was becoming more and more impossible by the day. If anything were to happen to him, she would never be able to forgive herself.

“This has been a wonderful dinner,” she told Jules as they all began to leave the table.

“Thank you,” Jules replied, “but most of the credit goes to Bridey. She’s the real cook in the family.”

Kate had known Bridey Harcourt, Tanner’s aunt, for years. Bridey’s stories of her childhood in Ireland were priceless and Kate told her how much she had enjoyed them.

“Probably not nearly as much as I enjoy telling them,” Bridey said, laughing. “All of these people have heard them so many times, they can recite them on their own.” When the O’Briens and even Dusty assured her she was wrong, her cheeks pinked with pleasure. “I’ll never forget the first time I met your aunt, Kate. She helped me pick out the best fabric for a dress I wanted to make. That was when I saw what a giving woman she was and not the least bit shy about it.”

Kate’s eyes misted, and she smiled and nodded, thinking of all the things Aunt Aggie had done for Trish and her. “If I remember, she has some of your recipes.”

“Yes! I gave her some, years ago. Have you tried any of them?”

Kate nodded. “Many of them. But I admit, I’ve made my own little changes and additions.”

Bridey patted her hand. “That’s the way a good recipe—and a good cook—gets better.”

Dusty moved to stand beside Kate. “You know, Kate, maybe Bridey would be interested in going in on that restaurant idea.”

“Restaurant?” Jules asked, looking from Kate to Dusty.

Kate gave Dusty a look that she hoped would stop him. It didn’t.

“I suggested to Kate that she should expand on her talent and maybe start a restaurant,” he explained to everyone.

“Are you serious about this, Kate?” Jules asked.

“Not in the least,” Kate said, hoping her smile appeared authentic. “Dusty knows it, too. Don’t you, Dusty?” she said, looking up at him.

“Now, Kate—” But he stopped, the expression on his face clearly showing he understood she meant business. And not cooking business.

She turned to the others, her smile more genuine. “Thank you all again for inviting me. I promised Trish I’d help with some of her wedding details, so I need to get home.” It was only a little fib. There was no guarantee there would be a wedding. “So if you’ll excuse me…”

“I’ll walk you out to your truck,” Dusty said, slipping her arm through his.

She wanted to tell him not to, but instead, she thanked her hostess and promised to visit again soon.

Tanner followed them to the front entry. “I have something I’d like to talk with you about, Dusty,” he said as Dusty opened the door for Kate.

“Sure,” Dusty said. “I won’t be
too
long,” he added with a grin and a wink. Neither sat well with Kate.

Instead of making something of it, she walked out the door and stepped onto the porch, breathing in the summer night air. Everything would have been perfect if Dusty hadn’t insisted on seeing her to her truck. Even a beautiful night couldn’t change the fact that Dusty had decided he knew what was best for her.

She waited until he joined her on the porch and
closed the door behind them, and then she turned to look at him. “What is it with you? I told you I didn’t want to make cooking a business.”

The look on his face was proof that she had taken him by surprise, but he quickly recovered. “But you already have. There’s the pies and cakes at the café and the barbecued beef at Lou’s. It already
is
a business. Why not expand it?”

“I don’t know why you can’t understand,” she said, shaking her head, “so let me put it this way. Bull riding is your career, right?”

“Right.”

“And you’re good at it.”

“Very good.”

Kate smiled at his certainty in his ability. She wasn’t that much different when it came to her farming. “And you enjoy it.”

“I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t.”

“You mean you wouldn’t be risking your life to do it if you didn’t.” It had come out of her mouth without thinking.

Frowning, he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I thought we agreed not to talk about that.”

“Just making a point,” she said, needing to defend her gaffe.

He nodded. “Point taken. At least on that. But I don’t see—”

“Let me finish,” she said, before she lost her train of thought. “You enjoy working on your house, but would you go into construction if you couldn’t ride bulls anymore?”

“No.” He took a step closer to her. “Kate, I only want to help. Maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet, but Aggie is leasing
the land to someone else. That will bring in some money, and you have your accounting business, but it may not be enough. Or am I wrong?”

She dug her fingernails, stubby as they were, into her palms, and said nothing.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” he asked, his voice soft and concerned.

“And I suppose that changes things?” Why did this man infuriate her so often and so much?

“You know, you’re beautiful when you’re mad.”

“Stop it!”

“Okay.” His grin was heart-stopping.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “It’s simple, Dusty. I don’t want you interfering in my life any more than you want me interfering in yours.”

He took a step toward her, but she took two back, and he sighed. “What did I do to lose your trust, Kate?”

“Is that what this is about? Trust?”

“You didn’t trust me enough to tell me about the farm. I thought we were friends. I thought we were—” He shook his head and looked past her.

“We were never that.”

“I think we still are.”

And Kate thought he saw too much. She had believed she was tough, but Dusty had come along and touched something in her that no one else had. He made her want things she’d never wanted before, and then he denied her those things.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said, trying her best to maintain what dignity she had left.

“Yeah, you do.”

“You seem to think you know me. You don’t.” She turned to leave.

Dusty reached for her, stopping her. “You’re always running away from me. Talk to me, Kate. Tell me something I don’t know.”

“You don’t need to know anything more.”

He was studying her intently and then pulled her closer. “What is it you’re afraid of, Kate?”

She ached with the need to tell him that she was afraid she would lose him, the same as she had lost her parents. “I’m afraid—”

But she couldn’t go on.

He touched her cheek with his hand and looked into her eyes. “What is it, Kate? Let me help.”

It was time to put herself out of her misery. Time to go back to life before Dusty. And there was only one way to do that. “If you want to help me—to help all of us—there’s one thing you can do.”

“What’s that?”

“Leave me alone. Leave
us
alone. Stay away,” she told him, trying to mean it with all her heart. “We don’t need you.
I
don’t need you.” Instead of waiting for an answer or for him to argue, she turned and hurried down the steps to her truck.

D
USTY WAS STUNNED
, unable to move, as he watched Kate drive away. He had only meant to help her and her family, but somehow she had taken it wrong, and she never wanted to see him again. The whole conversation had been crazy. But even crazier, he was hurting.

Knowing he needed to tell Jules and Tanner goodbye, he went back inside the house. “That was a great dinner,
Jules,” he said, when he found both O’Briens still in the dining room. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“You don’t need an invitation, Dusty,” Jules told him. “You know that. Now you and Tanner get out of here so I can clean up.”

“I can help with that,” Dusty offered.

Jules laughed as she stacked the plates on the table. “I’m sure you can, but I’d rather you didn’t. Men just seem to get in the way when it comes to kitchen stuff. Not meaning to, of course,” she hurried to say.

Dusty grinned at her. “Another independent woman. I’d have never guessed.” But his smile disappeared as soon as he turned around to follow Tanner. He was still stinging from Kate’s demand that he stay away from her.

“Come on into my office,” Tanner was saying. “It’s become the last bastion of manhood around here. Even Shawn knows he’s safe in here,” he said, opening the door to the room. “At least from Jules, that is. Not so much from Rowdy.”

Dusty laughed, having witnessed the battles between Shawn and the ranch foreman, and took a seat on the old leather chair facing the massive desk. Tanner opened a wooden box that sat on the desk and offered the contents to Dusty. “Imported, if you want to indulge.”

Dusty shook his head at the rows of cigars. “I’ll pass.”

Circling the desk, Tanner lowered himself to the chair behind it. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

“About what?” Dusty asked, getting comfortable. The way his luck was going, it wouldn’t be good.

“I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a rodeo stock company.”

“Sounds interesting and the perfect thing for an old rodeo cowboy.”

“Old
being the operative word,” Tanner answered with a chuckle.

“But that wasn’t the main reason you quit,” Dusty pointed out.

“I
retired
,” Tanner said. “The fact is that I knew I was getting too old to get bounced and battered every weekend, even before I met Jules. But I wanted a couple more years to try for the championship. I owed it to myself. And I was lucky enough to retire with a gold championship buckle. That’s more than a lot of cowboys can say.”

Although Dusty and Tanner had competed in different events at different rodeos and in different organizations, Dusty missed sharing his vocation with his best friend. “So what about this idea of a stock company? Does Jules know about it?”

Tanner shrugged and leaned back. “I’ve mentioned it to her a couple of times. She doesn’t have a problem. For one thing, she’s been happy to point out that with my rodeo days over, it would be a good way to stay in it without getting all busted up.”

Dusty laughed. “I can see her point, considering. It sounds reasonable to me. So she’s all for it?”

“Right now, her hands are pretty full with Wyoming and getting her boys’ ranch started. She’s been dreaming of it for years.”

“That sounds like Jules,” Dusty said. “I hope it works out. But back to the subject, you’re wanting some pointers from me about stock?”

Tanner shook his head and smiled. “I’m wanting to know if you’d like to be a partner in the company.”

Surprised, Dusty wasn’t sure what to say, but it didn’t take him long to decide. “I’m not retiring. I’ll still be riding bulls.”

“Don’t you think the odds are against you on that? Especially considering your doctor’s warning.”

“Experience gives me higher odds,” Dusty reminded him. “You know that.”

“I know you’re talking crazy.”

“If it wasn’t for Jules, you’d still be competing instead of thinking about starting a stock company,” Dusty insisted.

“You’re wrong,” Tanner said. “I offered to quit when I asked her to marry me. She wouldn’t let me.”

“Then she’s an even better woman than I’d thought,” Dusty acknowledged. “What about Rowdy? What does he think of all this? After all, he’s your ranch foreman.”

“Rowdy likes the idea. He’ll still manage the regular ranch business. The stock company would be mine. Or mine and yours, if you agree to come in with me on it.”

Dusty was tempted. “Full partners?”

“Damn right. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“It sounds great, Tanner,” Dusty admitted, and he even seriously considered it. If he could find a way to do both—ride bulls and be involved as a stock contractor—it might be just the ticket.

“Are you thinking of settling down before too long?”

Dusty shook his head, thinking of the stubborn look on Kate’s face when she told him she didn’t want to see him again. “There’s no woman in my future.”