Desert Heat (21 page)

Annie shook her head, letting the sweet thoughts slip away. Charlie loved her. They were happy together, one of the most blessed couples that God had put on this earth. That’s what she wanted for Dallas.

And it wasn’t gonna happen with a city gal like Patience Sinclair.

Patience slept deeply. It was the clean country air and the quiet, she thought, combined with a mind-blowing, stress-relieving round of sex.

Dallas took her riding after breakfast that morning and this time he actually showed her some of the ranch. It was beautiful, a lot of wild, untamed hill country, as well as some really great cattle grazing land. Pride sparkled in his eyes as he talked about ranching and his dream of owning a place like the Circle C.

“I’ve been saving ever since I started rodeoing. Eventually, I’ll have enough money to buy a spread of my own.” He grinned. “All I have to do is keep winning.”

But winning wasn’t always easy, even for a champion like Dallas. His leg and shoulder were healing, but it wouldn’t take much to injure them again and put him out of the running, at least for the rest of the year. She hoped he would be able to make the Finals, earn a chance at the really big money. Dallas deserved to be happy.

But then, so did she.

She watched the easy way he swung down from the saddle, the way his eyes swept the grassy meadow, the faint smile that edged his lips.

“You seem different out here.” Patience swung down beside him. “More relaxed.”

Dallas took her reins and tied both horses to a cottonwood tree. “This is the life I want, Patience. The life I’ve always wanted. I’m at home in the country. I could never feel that way in a city. It’s something my father could never understand.”

“Annie says your mother felt that way, too.”

“Yeah, I suppose she did. She was never really happy in Houston. I used to feel sorry for her. I think her depression caused the cancer that finally killed her.”

Patience reached over and linked hands with him and the sadness eased from his face. “I can see why you love it here so much. It’s beautiful and in some way oddly compelling.”

“It’s the vastness, maybe, or the fact the land is still so untamed.”

“You’re right, there. Back in the old days, Comanche raided this area until almost 1880. It was a favorite hunting spot and also a source of paint.”

“You mean like war paint?”

She nodded. “They found blue and yellow clay south of Bandera, red and white northwest of here.”

Dallas chuckled. “Still full of trivia, I see.”

Patience smiled. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s interesting.”

Patience squeezed his hand. She looked out over the open green fields. “You’ll have your ranch someday, Dallas. I know you will.”

He carried their linked fingers to his lips, kissed the back of Patience’s hand. They made love there on the grass and afterward swam naked in the stream. It was a beautiful day she would always remember, followed by a memorable week. Except for a slight reticence on Annie’s part, she was treated as if she were part of the family, joining easily into their way of life.

As Dallas had promised, they played cards a couple of nights. Patience thought she gained a little respect when she shot the moon playing Hearts, burying each of the other players in unwanted points. They played a little Texas Hold ’Em, and she was smart enough to let Annie win.

Apparently the woman wasn’t fooled, which for some strange reason seemed to gain Patience another couple of Brownie points. Still, Annie was worried about Patience’s involvement with Dallas. She didn’t want him in a relationship with nowhere to go and that was exactly the sort they had.

Patience sighed as she headed downstairs. It was morning—but not by much. She wasn’t normally an early riser, but this was a working ranch and for the people here, work started at the crack of dawn. Today the men would be rounding up Charlie’s second string of bucking horses. They’d be loading the stock trucks sometime in the afternoon.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she caught a glimpse of Dallas through the living room window, dressed in his worn jeans and boots, heading for the barn, looking so sexy a little curl of heat slid into her stomach. Annie might be worried about Dallas, but Patience wasn’t. With the number of women who flocked around him at every rodeo he attended, he would hardly have time to miss her.

Dallas’s life would return to normal, but Patience wouldn’t forget him anytime soon. Leaving Dallas was going to hurt and she knew it. Still, he was hers for the present and she was determined to enjoy whatever time they had left.

The men returned to the house for the breakfast Patience and Annie prepared—pancakes, bacon, and eggs—then went back to work. They were headed toward the barn when a light beige Buick sedan drove up in the front yard. From her place next to Annie at the kitchen window, Patience watched Charlie and Dallas walk over to greet their visitor.

“That’s Mal Sullivan—everyone calls him Sully.” Annie wiped her hands on her apron. “He owns the Double Arrow Ranch. Borders our spread a little southwest of here. Sully had some cattle rustled the same night we did. I guess he’s come over to talk to Charlie about it.” He was an average-looking man, brown-haired, late forties, well-dressed in tan slacks and a white pullover shirt and a pair of polished brown cowboy boots.

“I really feel bad about all the trouble Charlie’s been having.”

Annie shrugged her shoulders. “Happens that way sometimes. We’ve had a lot of good luck over the years. Guess this just sort of evens things out.”

It occurred to Patience that perhaps Charlie might not have mentioned his conversation with the Laramie County sheriff, or told her that the destruction of the stock trailer hadn’t been accidental. Both he and Dallas were the protective sort. Charlie probably hadn’t wanted Annie to worry.

They watched Mal Sullivan give a final wave, climb back in his car, and drive away.

“Charlie’s thinkin’ about sellin’ a chunk of land to Sully,” Annie said. “Or maybe takin’ out a second mortgage.” Annie fiddled with the apron she wore around her waist. “I don’t much like the notion, but it’s better than selling the land, I guess.” It wasn’t like Annie to discuss private matters, which showed just how worried she was.

“Maybe Dallas can help.”

“He’s offered. Charlie won’t have it and I don’t blame him. The boy’s worked too hard for the money he’s earned.”

“Maybe they’ll catch the men who stole your cattle and things will settle back down.”

“I hope so. I surely do.”

But stolen cows were the least of the problem. There was also the matter of the sabotaged truck and the potential danger the rodeo company faced until whoever did it was apprehended.

Thinking of Dallas and Charlie, Patience helped Annie finish the breakfast dishes, then went out to watch the men bring in the first batch of fresh bucking horses the Circle C Company would be taking on the road.

Tomorrow, she, Dallas, and Charlie would be leaving the ranch, heading for the rodeo Charlie was producing in Lawton, Oklahoma. As soon as Dallas finished his ride Saturday night, he and Patience were renting a car and driving to Colorado Springs for the final day of the big Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo.

It was a grueling life, not the sort she would ever want to live. But it was certainly exciting. And definitely an adventure.

Patience tried not to think how soon that adventure would end.

The good news was Dallas won in Oklahoma. His ride went off without a hitch and his knee held up. He wrapped it good before he rode and it was healing very well. He rotated his arm, trying to work the soreness out of his shoulder. It was still a little stiff, the muscles across his chest kind of tight, but his body was improving every day.

As soon as the Saturday night rodeo was over, he rounded up Patience and they left for Colorado Springs in the Grand Prix he rented from Avis, trading off driving, both of them sleeping in shifts. It was a long trip and he needed to get there as quickly as he could. He was proud of himself for weakening only once, pulling off the road into the darkness so they could make love.

Dallas smiled at the memory, thinking of Patience’s hand sliding over his thigh while he was driving. She gave him a come-on look that was both sensual and kind of sweet. Now that she had discovered her sexuality—thanks in large part to him—she was nearly as insatiable as he.

Nearly.

At any rate, they restrained themselves enough to get to Colorado Springs halfway rested. It was almost dawn when he pulled into the rodeo grounds and spotted his big black Dodge rig parked next to Patience’s Chevy truck and travel trailer. She was sleeping against the door of the rental car. She roused herself as he drove over the uneven ground and stopped next to his rig.

Dallas turned off the engine. “Well, we made it.” Getting out of the car, he rounded the hood to the passenger side and opened the door. “It’s early yet. Maybe we can catch another couple of hours sleep. We could both probably use it.”

Patience stretched and yawned, climbed out of the car. “I wouldn’t turn it down.” She looked longingly at her trailer, then glanced toward Dallas’s rig. “I wonder which one they’re in?” It went unsaid that Shari and Stormy were probably together.

“Maybe they’re in mine,” Dallas said hopefully, since Patience’s bunk was bigger than his. But just then the door of the trailer swung open and a groggy-eyed Stormy stepped out, feet bare, wearing only his half-buttoned jeans.

“Hey, guys!” He scratched the sandy hair on his chest. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks. Horses okay?”

“Sure. They’re fine.” He blinked, seemed to come fully awake, and his carefree smile slipped away. “Everything’s okay except…we had a visitor while you two were gone. Showed up the first night of the show.”

“Yeah? Who was it?”

“That guy, Tyler Stanfield.”

Dallas’s stomach clenched. “Stanfield was here?”

“He must have known Patience was traveling with Shari. Maybe he tracked down the truck registration or something. I guess he figured if he found the rig he’d find Patience.”

Dallas flicked a glance in her direction. Her face looked pale and unconsciously she moved a little closer. Dallas slid an arm around her waist.

“It’s all right,” Stormy said, “you don’t have to worry. Me and Blue and a couple of the boys had a little talk with him. We told him if he wanted to keep walking on those two legs of his, he’d best leave Patience alone.”

“I can’t believe he found me,” she said softly. “I can’t believe he came all this way.”

“I don’t like this,” Dallas said. “This guy just can’t seem to get the message.”

“I think maybe he did this time.”

“Why is that?”

“’Cause when he showed up again the next morning, Shari called the police. She told them about the restraining order Patience had against him and that he had followed her all the way from Boston. They don’t cotton to guys like that around here. They pulled him over a ways down the highway and hauled his ass in.”

“They put him in jail?” Patience asked in disbelief.

“Overnight, I guess. He posted bail the next day. When he got out, they drove him straight to the airport.”

“So Stanfield’s back in Boston,” Dallas said with relief.

“Sure is. And he’s in a passel of trouble. I don’t think he’ll be bothering P.J. again.”

Patience sighed. “Tyler may be a little obsessed, but he’s not crazy enough to get too far on Daddy’s bad side. I think Stormy may be right. After his bout with the police, he’ll be worried what his father might do. I don’t think he’ll be giving me any more trouble.” She managed a smile, but Dallas thought she looked even more exhausted than she had when they arrived.

“Come on. My trailer’s empty. We can still get a couple more hours sleep.”

“I need to call my dad first. Let him know what’s going on. He can keep us posted on what’s happening with Tyler.”

She used the new cell she had gotten in Stormy’s name in Cheyenne. When she finished the call, they walked arm-in-arm to his trailer. Unfortunately, by the time they got there, sleep was no longer on his mind. Maybe it was Stanfield showing up, or just that he hadn’t actually slept with her since their trip to Houston, not in a bed at any rate.

He was hard by the time they reached the door. Dallas told himself she needed to get some rest, but Patience started kissing him the minute they stepped inside, apparently of the same mind as he.

Afterward they snuggled together, Patience curled next to him on the narrow bunk, and he thought how good it felt to have her there beside him. He thought of Tyler Stanfield and his hand unconsciously fisted. The bastard had better not come near her again.

But Patience wouldn’t be around much longer. In a few more weeks, she would be leaving, returning to her life in Boston, and he wouldn’t be around to protect her. She’d be on her own, gone for good, and knowing that, he’d be a fool to let himself get anymore involved with her than he was already. He might be attracted to her, but that was as far as he could afford to let it go.

It was time he started thinking with the head on his shoulders instead of the one in his jeans, time he started reining in his emotions before he got sucked in any deeper than he was already.

But looking down to where Patience slept nestled so sweetly against him, feeling the brush of her hair against his cheek, Dallas wasn’t all that sure he could.

The show went well that Sunday afternoon. Patience watched nervously as Dallas rode a horse called Fan Dancer, worried he might reinjure his knee, but the ride went smoothly and he scored a nice solid eighty-eight points, enough to win him third place money that day. He should have been happy, but instead he seemed moody and out of sorts.

He was worried about Charlie, and Tyler’s arrival had only added to the strain. She prayed Tyler had learned his lesson and she thought that after his night in jail, maybe he actually had.

The truck sabotage preyed heavily on everyone’s mind. So far Sheriff Harden in Cheyenne hadn’t turned up any leads. Dallas was disappointed, but at least nothing new had happened during the week that they had been gone. The Circle C crew was headed for New Mexico. Dallas kept in close touch with Charlie via his cell phone, and they would be joining him as soon as the Pikes Peak Rodeo was over.

Once they reached the next town and got settled in, Patience planned to finish her thesis, which she had been away from far too long. Fortunately, the paper was basically done. She needed to review her research, go over her writing a final time and make any last minute changes, but she hoped to have it finished and ready to submit by FedEx the end of next week. Three weeks after that, she would be eligible to take her final oral exam and apply for graduation in September.

By then she would be back in Boston, teaching her first class at Evergreen College.

Her chest felt heavy. By then, her adventure would be over and Dallas would no longer be part of her life. She told herself it was for the best. Dallas was the wrong man for her and she was definitely the wrong woman for him. It was a fact they had both accepted from the start.

Patience sighed as she drove the pickup and trailer that afternoon the last few miles to Cottonwood Creek. Beside her, Shari seemed equally lost in thought.

“So what did you guys do while we were in Texas?” Patience asked. She hadn’t really had a chance to talk to her roommate since she and Dallas had gotten back from the ranch.

Shari turned away from the window. The New Mexico landscape was harsh and forbidding, but also starkly beautiful. Miles of shifting sand and sage, magnificent flat-topped buttes rising hundreds of feet up out of the desert floor, blue skies that went on forever.

“Stormy’s got a friend in Colorado. A bull rider named Pete Mathers. Pete asked us to come to his wedding. Since we had a little time before we went to Colorado Springs, we decided to go.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“I suppose it was. It was only a very small wedding, immediate family and a few close friends, but it was outside in a pretty spot that overlooked the river.”

“Nice people, I suppose.”

“Real nice. But Marla—that’s the girl Pete married—has a couple of kids from a previous marriage. All four of them are living in a single-wide trailer.” Shari looked over at Patience. “Of course Pete says it’ll only be for a little while longer. He busted his leg real bad at Calgary this year and hasn’t been able to ride, but according to Pete, he’s going to win big next year.”

There was disbelief in Shari’s voice.

“I take it you aren’t convinced,” Patience said.

“You know how cowboys are. The next rodeo is always going to be the big one.”

Patience made no reply. After a summer of traveling the rodeo circuit, she knew exactly how cowboys were.

The thought was somehow depressing.

“So what about this guy, Tyler Stanfield?” Shari asked. “How’d he find you?”

“He’s got a friend who’s into computers. I hear they can track down practically anything these days.”

“You think he’ll stay in Boston?”

“Actually, I do. His father will have a fit when he finds out Tyler followed me out here. Since Daddy holds the purse strings, I think he’ll make sure his son’s ridiculous obsession rapidly comes to an end.”

Shari didn’t say more and neither did Patience. They continued along the road and arrived in Cottonwood Creek late afternoon, Dallas and Stormy having altered their schedule to make more Circle C shows. The first performance didn’t start till tomorrow night, but Dallas wanted to be there to help Charlie set up for the rodeo. He’d been edgy all day and oddly withdrawn. Patience figured it was worry over Charlie and left him alone.

It was early the following morning that she finally sat down at her laptop in the cramped little dining area of the trailer, determined to get the final work done on her thesis. Shari was in the bathroom when the phone rang, her dad calling to say Tyler was definitely in Boston and it looked as if he was going to stay there.

She hung up feeling relieved and able to settle into her work, checking and rechecking her research. Then the bathroom door cracked open and Shari stepped out. For the first time, Patience noticed how pale she was, that there were faint purple smudges beneath her eyes.

“Shari? What’s happened? What’s wrong?”

She gave out a brittle little laugh. “Is it really that obvious? What’s wrong is that last night Stormy asked me to marry him.”

“Wow! That’s terrific!” Patience grinned. “Congratulations.”

“Are you kidding? I told him no. I’m not going to marry him. I couldn’t possibly do that.”

Patience sat up a little straighter in the booth. “Why not? Stormy loves you and you love him. Any idiot can see that.”

Tears filled Shari’s eyes. “It doesn’t make any difference.” She scrubbed at the wetness escaping down her cheek. “I don’t want to marry a cowboy. I don’t want to spend my life in a single-wide trailer or live out of a suitcase for months at a time. I don’t want to sit home while my husband’s on the road half the year.”

Patience couldn’t help feeling sympathetic. It wasn’t the sort of life for her, either.

“In three weeks, I’m going home to Oklahoma,” Shari continued. “I’m starting back to school, just the way I planned.”

Patience didn’t know exactly what to say. In three weeks, she would be leaving, too, returning to Boston, beginning the life she had worked so hard for all these years.

In the meantime, she and Shari were living in a crowded trailer, traveling every week. It was fun for a summer, but she couldn’t imagine that kind of life with a husband and kids. And she wouldn’t want to be left behind, either.

Patience reached over and squeezed Shari’s hand. “I wish I could say something that would make you feel better. The truth is, I can’t. I’ll be leaving, as well, going back to my life in Boston. I understand exactly why you feel the way you do.”

Shari sniffed and wiped away the last of her tears. “I’m really glad we traveled together this summer. I’m lucky to have you for a friend.”

Patience reached up and hugged her, but neither of the women said more. They were there for each other. Both of them knew it, accepted it without question. No matter what happened when summer was over, Patience had made a lifelong friend.

The Cottonwood Creek Rodeo was an old-fashioned, small-town show, not even Pro-Rodeo sanctioned, which meant that the purse was small and even if Dallas won, it wouldn’t count toward his yearly total.

Originally he had planned to compete in the big Caldwell, Idaho, rodeo, which had a much larger purse, but he kept thinking of the sabotaged trailer and seeing dead horses, and as much as he needed to add to his winnings, he had decided against it.

At least Cottonwood Creek was a more relaxed show, with lots of locals competing and less pressure than a PRCA rodeo. Volunteers did much of the work, including the check-in and getting the necessary signatures on the liability waver forms from people moving around behind the chutes.

Charlie wound up handling the entry fee money, locking it in a small, fireproof safe in the production trailer. He didn’t like the responsibility, Dallas knew, but in rodeos like this one, the rules were made up as they went along.

The rodeo went well, an outdoor night show warmed by the evening summer heat. Big flat-topped buttes surrounded the arena, which nestled at the base of a mountain that had once been the home of ancient Acoma Indians. Ruins of the pueblo remained, their haunting shadows phantom-like in the orange rays of sunset.