Capturing the Cowboy's Heart (9 page)

“Yes.”

“Please hold, Dr. Michaels will be right with you.”

She dropped onto her stomach across the bed and waited for her grandmother’s doctor to come to the phone, her heart sinking with every passing second. 

The classical music
playing in the phone during her wait was
replaced by a man’s voice.  “Lacy?”

Dr. Michaels. 
She tightened her grip on the phone.  “
Yes.”

“I’m calling about your grandmother.”

She closed her eyes. 
“She’s gotten worse?”

“I’m afraid so.”

A tear rolled down her cheek.  “I’ll
head back to
Denver as soon as I
pack
.”

“It might be better if you didn’t come.”

“What?”

“Remember what happened the last time you visited your grandmother.  I know it wasn’t your fault, but I don’t think her heart could take that again.”

She remembered it
all too
well.  It was the most heartbreaking day of her life.  Her grandmother, who hadn’t recognized her own granddaughter at all for months, went crazy.  She would never forget the fear she’d seen in her grandmother’s eyes
,
or her screams for someone to get Lacy out of her room
.  Her grandmother had been convinced Lacy was there to kill
her.  They finally had to sedate her grandmother to end her terrified ranting. 
That day Lacy had to accept the painful truth. 
The woman who had raised her, had loved her unconditionally all her life, was gone.

“I understand
,” she said, her words strained.

“
I know you are out of town on business, but I thought you would want to know.”

“Yes, thank you for that.”

“
I’m sorry, Lacy.  I know how hard this has been on you.  Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease for all of those involved.  Know that we’re keeping your grandmother as comfortable as we possibly can.”

Tears stung her eyes.  “Do whatever you have to do.”

“We will.  I’ll be in touch.”

“Thank you, doctor.”  Pressing END, she dropped the phone on the comforter and buried her face in her arms, letting the tears fall.

*
             
*
             
*

“Dalton?”  Cade tapped on the door again. 

Silence.

What had he done to upset her?  He was the one under the microscope.  One she wielded.  Only now, for some reason, she was the one acting as if she’d been wronged.

With a sigh, he opened the door and stepped into the room uninvited.  Her head rose from the pillow with a startled gasp, drawing his gaze.

“I’m sorry
,” he said, immediately regretting barging in.  “
I didn’t realize you were lying down.  I thought...”

She sat up and slid from the bed, dragging a hand across her cheek.  “Did you need something?”

He
pressed further into the room.  “I guess I was sort of hoping you’d consider striking our last conversation from the record.  It’s not anyone’s business who I have or haven’t slept with.” 

It was then he noticed her red
, puffy
eyes.  “
Dalton
?  You okay?”  He hadn’t exactly been
in the best of moods
at dinner
and had taken it out on her.  Was he the cause of her tears?

“I
’m fine.”

“Then why were you crying?”

“I
t’s nothing.”  She turned away and walked over to the window.  “Just cheap contacts.  Suppose that’s what I get for buying them at one of those quickie places.”

He hadn’t realized that she wore contacts.  And he’d been pretty close to those striking, whiskey colored eyes.  “So about our last conversation...”

“Consider it stricken,” she muttered over her shoulder.

“Thanks.  It’s just that I don’t want Karen dragged into this interview if at all possible.  Her name was dragged through the mud enough after she died.”

She turned to face him.  “
Why
?”

She d
idn’t know?  “Her accident wasn’t big enough news for them,” he
answered thickly
.  “They had to make it sound like she’d driven off the road on purpose.  That I was having some sort of illicit affair
and had driven her to it
.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not true, you know.  There
was no
other woman.  And Karen would never hurt herself that way.  Her death was an accident.”

“Cade...”

Their conversation
was getting too deep.  He hated d
igging into his emotions, into his past, that way.
  It was easier to feel nothing at all. 

“How’s the room?” he asked, needing to divert the flow of their conversation.  “
I know it’s not much, but-”

“The room is fine,” she said, cutting him off.  She made her way around the bed and grabbed
for
her jacket. 

He eyed the jacket in her hand.  “Where are you going?” 

“Out for a while.”  She slipped it on and started past him.  “Thanks for dinner.”

“Thank Burk.  He
made
it.”  Cade followed her out to the kitchen.  “Isn’t it kind of late to be heading out?”

“Not for me.”

“You really ought to get some sleep
, Dalton
.  I wasn’t joking when I said we get up at five-thirty around here.  Not only that, but I expect my ranch hands to follow my orders.  I’d hate to have to fire you before you actually did some
real
work.”

She glanced down at her watch.  “It’s not even eight yet.”

“Eight is late on a ranch.”

“Don’t worry
,” she said.  “
I’ll be up at five-thirty to do whatever exciting ranch duty you throw my way.”  She opened the door and then turned back
to
Cade.  “Your wife was a very lucky woman.”  That said
she
walked out, closing the door behind her.

Her last statement s
urprised
him
.  Truth was, her behavior since quitting dinner seemed off for Lacy.  Not that he knew her well, but
something had clearly upset her. 
That something most likely being him. 
He wasn’t buying her story about cheap contacts. 

He stared at the door with a frown.  He should have apolo
gized to her for his earlier behavior. 
Idiot he was,
he had practically called her a hooker.
  And he’d only done that because
she was getting to him. 
Everything about her got to him. 
That sexy little body.  Those
heavily lashed,
gold-flecked eyes.  That
beautiful
smile.   

Burk was right.  He’d gone too damn long without a woman.  

The back door opened and
Burk
stepped into the
house
, pulling off
his hat. 
Speak of the devil. 
“I saw Lacy
driving off
on my way back from the barn.  Where’s she
headed
to
at this time of night
?”

He shrugged.  “She didn’t say.  I’m going to bed.  Leave the porch light on and the door unlocked.”

“You sure you ought to let her go wandering about those roads alone at this time of night?” Burk asked as he peered out the window above the kitchen sink.  “One wrong turn on those back roads and she’s as good as lost.”

“Lacy’s a big girl.  She’ll find her way home.”  Despite his words of reassurance, Cade found himself fighting the urge to go after her.  He didn’t want to care.  But damn it, he did.  There was only one way to get his mind off of Lacy and the emotions she evoked in him.

“Where you going?”

“To bed.”

*
             
*
             
*

Country music blared from the open T-top of the Corvette as it flew down the darkened country road.  The wind whipped Lacy’s hair and cooled her heated flesh. 

She was trying to outrun her life.  The fear of losing her grandmother and the unexpected feelings she was developing for Cade.  Pulse racing and heart drumming she pushed the gas a little harder.  Maybe she wasn’t doing 110, but doing 70mph down a dark, country road gave her the escape she needed. 

Flashing red lights in the rear view mirror put a quick end to that. 

“Shoot!”

She slowed and the lights came up behind her, siren blaring.  Lacy groaned.  There was probably one cop in the entire county and she’d chosen his road to drive down. 

Grudgingly, she pulled over and waited, watching in the mirror as the officer got out of his car.  He started toward hers, making his way around to the driver’s side door.

“Ma’am.”  He lifted the brim of his hat and lowered his head to peer inside.  The beam from the flashlight he held in his hand moved swiftly across the front seat and then
back
onto her face.  “I’ll need to see some ID.”

“Sure thing, officer,” she replied, half-blinded by the bright light. 
She
reached for her purse.  It wasn’t there.  Turning back to the sheriff, she attempted a sweet smile.  “I seem to have forgotten my purse.”

The sheriff raised a bushy brow, his already stiff smile fading.  “So what you’re telling me, ma’am, is that you have no I.D. on your person?”

She
shrugged.  “I’m sorry.  I’m afraid not.”

He rested an arm on the open window and did a quick search of the backseat with his flashlight.  “Where you from?”

“Denver.”

He said nothing as he continued his search of her car.

“What do you say you let me off with a warning?  I’ll even throw in a pair of tickets to the next
Rockies
’ home game.”  She laughed. 

He didn’t.  Instead, the sheriff stepped away from the door.  “Step out of the car with your hands in the air.”  He aimed the flashlight toward her with one hand, the other curled firmly over the handle of the gun in his holster.

Surely, he wouldn’t shoot her for speeding.  She didn’t care to find out, so she got out of her car.  “Look, just give me a ticket and I’ll drop off a check in the morning.”

His gaze skimmed over her, then his bushy gray brows drew together to form a single line.  “Now you listen here, young lady.  We don’t cotton to your type here in our town.”  

“My type?” she repeated.  What exactly was
her
type?

He gave a derisive snort.  “The kind of woman who makes money by tempting men with short skirts and pretty smiles.”

He was joking, right?
 
Lacy laughed.  “There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding here.”

He wasn’t hearing it.  “Save your explanations for the judge.”  Tucking the flashlight beneath his arm, he removed the handcuffs from his belt and pointed toward her car.  “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

“My back?”
she
gasped. 
Then she stiffened. 
“I most certainly will not!”  

“Excuse me?” the sheriff drawled
with a frown
.

“I said no.”  She hated the way he was looking at her, like she was some sort of streetwalker.  “I was speeding, not robbing a bank.  Just give me a ticket.”

“I make the rules here,” he growled.  “Now turn around.”

Lacy eyed the handcuffs dangling from his hand.  “I have no intention of letting you put those things on me.  I’ve read stories about this kind of thing”

“Lady, are you just plain nuts?”

Before she could reply, Lacy found herself handcuffed and seated in the back of the sheriff’s car.  She
sat watching h
er car fade away into the darkness
through
the rear window of the cruiser as it sped off in the direction of what she hoped was town.

C
HAPTER
FIVE

The phone rang,
dragging
Cade from a deep sleep.  Rolling over, he fumbled in the dark for the cordless he kept on the nightstand. 

He focused on the neon green numbers of the alarm clock. 
One o’clock
in the morning. 
1:25
to be exact. 
“
Who in the
world
...
” he muttered and then
dropped back onto his pillow with a tired groan
, bring
ing
the phone to his ear
.  “Hello?”