Her Lucky Cowboy (21 page)

“You are one gorgeously built man.”

He glanced over his shoulder at her lying naked on top of his bed, her dark hair mussed, blue eyes bright with appreciation as she stared at him. His gaze roamed down her toned body softened with curves he craved even now.

“How’d I get so damn lucky?”

“You smiled, and I was lost,” she admitted.

“I’ve kept you with me all this time. From the moment you saved me after I fell from my horse at fifteen, I’ve been waiting for you to come back to me. And you finally did.”

The soft, seductive smile she gave him settled into his heart. He couldn’t live without this woman in his life. He didn’t want to. He needed time to think about that. Let it settle in his mind, like it had settled in his heart.

Chapter 15

B
ell grabbed the truck door handle and pushed the door open, while Dane opened his. Her head whipped toward him. “What are you doing?”

“Coming inside with you.”

“Into my house.”

“That’s where you’re going, right?”

She needed to change out of his shirt and sweats before he took her to the sheriff’s office to give her statement about the accident, but she didn’t want him to see where and how she lived. Her home was nothing like his spacious, clean, bright house.

“What’s the matter, Bell? You’ve met my entire family. Don’t you think I should meet your grandmother?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s different, and you know it.”

“Sweetheart, there is nothing and no one who will change my mind about the way I feel about you.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.”

“You’ve seen my past. This is yours.”

“No, this is my reality.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” Dane slipped from the truck and closed the door.

No choice, she climbed down, closed the door, and met him at the front of the truck. He took her hand, and they walked to the porch together.

Bell took a deep breath and opened the door. As expected, the smell of stale cigarette smoke and dust assaulted her nose and turned her stomach even more than Dane’s seeing this did. Dane scrunched up his face and looked down at her.

“Turn back now.”

“After you, sweetheart.”

She led him into the house, sidestepping the five-foot-tall stacks of junk her grandmother refused to throw away.

“This place would make a great episode about hoarders.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“They have these shows on TV about people who are hoarders.”

“That’s not TV, that’s sad.”

“Yes, it is. Especially knowing this is how you live.”

She leaned in and whispered, “I get rid of what I can. Mostly what is truly garbage. The rest I try to keep organized. It’s a daily chore and fight with her.”

“About time you came home.” Her grandmother’s gravelly voice came from the kitchen, along with the sound of her beloved
Wheel of Fortune
.

Bell walked to the arched opening.

“Look at you. The least you can do is brush your hair and wear proper clothes when you’re in public. Don’t need to disgrace me even more. What will people think of me?”

“The same thing I think, that you’re a mean and spiteful—” Dane clamped his mouth shut on the last word when Bell reached back and grabbed his wrist.

Her grandmother pulled her housecoat together at her breasts and stared, dumbfounded, at Dane.

“You brought him here? Into my home? You want to whore around, you’ll not do it in this house.”

“How you tune out the venom that comes out of her mouth is beyond me.” Dane shook his head, his eyes scanning the piles of dishes, papers, and other debris littering every surface in the kitchen.

Her grandmother sat at the table, a lit cigarette in the ashtray nearly burned out and a new one lit in her hand. She took a deep drag and blew out the smoke. One of her favorite word search books lay in front of her, along with her electronic handheld poker game. She had several other types stacked beside her—Yahtzee, Slots, and
Wheel of Fortune
. A small TV set sat in front of her for only her to see. The buzz of the wheel spinning filled the kitchen as she watched her favorite show. Diabetes had made her vision so bad that she practically had to watch it with her nose pressed to the screen. Bell had never been allowed to watch. She’d never been allowed to stay in the kitchen longer than it took to make a meal and take her plate back to her room.

“It’s a talent. Come on.”

“You get out of this house right now.”

“We’re leaving in a minute.” Bell limped to her bedroom along the corridor of crap she’d stacked up, making a path from her room to the kitchen that also split off toward the front door.

Bell pushed open her door, let Dane pass, and closed the door quickly.

“Holy shit.”

She turned and caught Dane staring at her room. Books stacked from floor to ceiling along the walls. At this point, she couldn’t remember what color they were painted. Her clothes hung on a rack in the corner. A light blue matelasse bedspread covered her single bed. Her desk sat in front of the window, a single antique glass lamp on the corner, her laptop plugged in, along with her cell phone charger. Her reading chair sat in the other corner. A round table beside it held several books and a bottle of water. On the other side, her air purifier hummed and tried to keep up with the smoke that filtered into her room.

“It’s like another world in here from out there.”

“This is my space.”

“Why do I smell oranges?”

“Orange oil in the bowl of potpourri on the desk. It helps mask the smell of smoke.”

“Out there is a death trap, fire hazard, disaster. In here . . .”

“Is me. My books. My quiet refuge from her.”

“Where did all these books come from?”

“Most of them were my grandfather’s. The rest I’ve acquired since college.”

“You’ve read them all.” The awe in his voice made her smile.

She nodded. “Yes. At least once. Some, a couple of times.”

She went to the closet door and opened it. She pulled out the top drawer of her dresser and selected a clean bra and panties. She found a pretty lavender tunic and a pair of yoga pants and turned to lay the items on the bed. Dane stared at her with such sadness in his eyes.

“You’re amazing.”

She bowed her head. “I didn’t want you to see this place. I never wanted anyone to see this place.”

“Why? I love this room. It’s comfortable. Warm and inviting, just like you. I could live in this room.”

“You can barely move around in here.”

“You’ve packed it pretty tight with your favorite things, but I don’t feel cramped. The ceiling needs to be painted and the roof needs to be repaired, judging by those water marks.”

“I fixed the roof last winter.”

“This place should be condemned.”

“As I said, soon my grandmother will have no choice but to leave. Her eyesight is getting worse, along with her feet.”

“I thought you’d never watched TV.”

“Did that space look like two could sit and watch? That TV is as old as I am, but I wasn’t allowed in the main house.”

“She kept you in here? All the time?”

“I’d go out in the night and clean up and organize the mess out there. Mostly I threw out the trash and did the dishes. If I didn’t, the smell was atrocious.”

“It’s not that great now.” He closed the distance between them. “Say the word, sweetheart, and I will move you out of here. My place is huge. More than enough room for you to store your books. I’ve even got a whole kitchen for you to keep your snacks.” He cocked his head to the shelf in her closet where she kept her groceries. Apples and oranges in a bowl, boxes of cereal she ate plain, bags of chips and pretzels, along with a couple boxes of multigrain crackers to go with her energy bars. A jar of peanut butter and single-serve jelly cups she took from restaurants sat next to a loaf of whole wheat bread.

So used to living this way, she never really thought of her sad reality.

“I think I need to get another scan of your brain. Your concussion must not have healed properly if you’re asking a woman to move in with you.”

Dane touched his finger underneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. “I’m asking
you
to move in with me.”

“Because you pity me living here. Like this.”

“No. Because I want you with me all the time.” Dane cupped her face and stared down at her. “You don’t have to say yes this minute. Think about it. The request stands. Whenever you’re ready, you know where the house is. Walk right in and make yourself at home.”

“I’m starting to think I don’t know who you are.”

“Yes, you do. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Dane sat on the edge of her bed, distracting her with soft kisses and caresses while she tried to get dressed with him taking up the majority of the available space in her room. He took advantage, smoothing his hand over her belly when she took his T-shirt off over her head. Kissing the top of her breast over the clean bra she put on. Sliding his big hand around her side and over her bottom.

“We’re never going to get out of here if you keep that up.”

“I can’t help myself.”

She pulled her pants up her legs and shimmied to get them over her hips. Dane groaned, making her smile. She sat beside him and pulled on her boots.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Dane took her hand and led her back toward the kitchen.

“She’ll infect you with her evil. The devil will return to claim his evil spawn.”

Dane walked into the kitchen and stood over her grandmother. “You give her every reason to leave, but she’s stayed to take care of you because she’s kind and generous beyond all measure. Say one more mean thing to her, and I’ll make sure she’s got more reason to walk out that door than she does to stay here with you. It’s coming, old woman. How it plays out is up to you.”

Dane took Bell’s hand and walked her out the front door without a nasty comment from her grandmother.

“Dane, that wasn’t very nice.”

“No one says mean things to you and gets away with it. She needed a healthy dose of reality. Believe me, what I said was tame compared to what I’m thinking.”

Dane held the door for Bell while she climbed back into the truck. He reached for her face, cupped her cheek, and leaned in for a soft kiss. He didn’t say anything more, just closed her door, went around the truck, and got in on his side.

“You’re moving much better on that leg.”

“It feels a lot better. Two more weeks, and I’m free of this damn brace.”

“But not free to go running all over that ranch and jumping off horses and such, thinking you’ve got full use of it.”

“Right, Doc. You know, if you lived with me, you could lecture me all the time about protecting your handiwork.”

“That’s one for the pro column.”

“It’s in the con for me, but I can live with it. And you.”

She didn’t answer, but the idea of living with him took root and sprouted. Soon it’d bloom into a dream she desperately wanted to make a reality. Obligation held her back from saying yes. That and wondering if all the good she felt now would turn to bad if Dane got tired of her. Bored. What if he changed his mind? They’d only just begun to explore this new intimacy between them.

“Get out of your head, Doc. It’s all going to work out.”

“How do you know?”

“Because if I want it and you want it and we work at it, we can make anything happen.”

She loved his optimism and held on to it for the long drive into town. He pulled into the sheriff’s office parking lot and helped her out of the truck. He held her hand and walked beside her. The connection they shared pulsed between them. She felt a part of him and smiled when she caught their reflection in the glass door. They looked like a couple.

“We should go on vacation,” Dane said out of the blue.

“Where?”

“Anywhere you want to go, sweetheart.”

“I’ll think about it. I’ve got about six weeks of vacation saved up.”

“Damn, must be nice to get paid to take time off.”

“I work like a demon.”

“Well, according to your grandmother, you are one.”

“I’ve apparently infected you, too.”

“Let’s hope there is no cure.” The smile he gave her said he meant it. She believed it.

She gave her statement—what little she could tell the officer—in less than ten minutes. Dane sat beside her, holding her hand while they waited for the officer to check something out and get back to them.

The officer walked in, holding a paper. “I think we might have something on the silver Mercedes.”

“Really?” Bell asked.

“A vehicle matching your description was carjacked from the doctor’s parking area at the hospital you work at.”

“Really?”

“Yes. The Bozeman PD are looking for the vehicle. So are we. Any reason someone would target you?”

“No.”

“Have you pissed anyone off lately?”

“No. I work at the hospital and clinic, but nothing out of the ordinary has happened.”

“Have you lost any patients? Maybe a family member blames you for a botched surgery.”

“First, I don’t botch my surgeries. Second, I haven’t lost any patients. Complications and side effects from anesthesia and medication are common, but nothing stands out. Nothing that left a lasting effect on a patient’s health.”

“Okay, Doc, how about in your personal life? An ex-boyfriend who took the breakup personally.”

“I imagine a breakup is very personal, but I haven’t been involved with anyone.” She turned and looked at Dane. “Well, except for him.”

“I’ll still need a list of the men you’ve dated.”

“Okay. Dane Bowden.”

The officer looked at him, eyes narrowed in confusion.

“She doesn’t date. At all. It took me three weeks to convince her to have dinner with me.”

“Seriously?” the officer asked Dane.

“Seriously. She’s a brilliant doctor who has dedicated her time to helping her patients. She’s nice to everyone she meets, even if they aren’t necessarily nice to her. I can’t come up with a single reason someone would target her.”

“If it’s not her, maybe this has to do with you.”

Dane’s eyes went wide with surprise. “Me? What the hell did I do?”

“You tell me. Is there someone you know who would go after her to piss you off?”

“If it’s anyone, it has to be Rowdy Toll. He’s jealous as hell that I’m friends with Brandy. Now she’s missing. Come to think of it, I had some trouble the last weeks on the rodeo circuit leading up to the championships in Vegas. I thought it nothing more than rivals playing pranks.”

“What kind of pranks?”

“Vaseline all over my ropes. Hiding my gear. Stupid shit. Someone even broke into my truck and tossed all my gear in a Dumpster right before the championships.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a hell of a lot of money on the line. The thing is, the only times it happened, I’m almost certain Rowdy was competing, too. Nothing happened at any of the rodeos where he didn’t compete against me.”