Sleepless in Montana (44 page)

Jemma’s floppy Panama hat and cutoff shorts
were suited to the sweltering July morning, and her temper was just
as hot. From the look of Jemma, she’d passed the point of
apologizing and backing away from Carley’s mean mood.

Hogan had been waiting for just that
wide-open, fire-woman look from Jemma, and it was time for the
women to settle. “Let them go. We can’t settle it for them.”

Ben’s blue eyes skipped to his son’s black
ones. “Fine talk for someone who’s been sheltering Jemma for the
past week. Carley is in an evil mood, hammering at everyone. She’s
mad as a hornet.... I think she’s jealous that you haven’t come
around on her side. She’s mean enough now to take on that stalker
and scalp him.”

“I’m not choosing sides on this one. Jemma
knows that. Carley is just working to get it out.” Hogan was
confident about Jemma’s strength, that she would survive without
Carley’s friendship.
But would she leave him, if that
relationship and tie to his family was gone?

“You’re in this, no matter what you say,” Ben
noted. “That woman of yours has got you stirred up. Son, you’re
almost emotional. You’ve got that damned if I do, and damned if I
don’t look.”

“I’ll be glad when it’s over. Both the
argument between Carley and Jemma, and getting the stalker,” Hogan
admitted grimly.

The sight of Jemma crying over the dinner he
had cooked the night before— which reminded her of a Carley-time—
had been unnerving.

Waking up at two or three in the morning to
hear the juicer humming, or to find Jemma sitting on the couch and
crying over old movies had been frightening. He’d put a television
set into the bedroom, so he could hold her close while she watched
movies. Massaging her body had relieved her taut nerves, but had
caused his body to ache.

“Well, we’ve got to know each other a bit
during all this mess. That’s one good thing,” Ben said reverently.
“You’re a fine man, Hogan Kodiak. I’m proud to call you my
son.”

Hogan nodded, shielding his face by looking
off to the arguing women. But his heart was full, and maybe he was
a bit emotional. Just maybe he was close to forgiving his father,
it would take a hard heart to hold on to the old grudges when Ben
was trying as best he knew, and when he was so happy with Dinah and
his family.

“Well, hell.” Hogan said finally, in the
style his father used, “Maybe I’ve got a good man for a
father.”

Ben’s hissing breath told Hogan that he had
been caught unaware by the return. When Hogan turned to look at
him, Ben winked. “I’m wanting those grandkids out of you. I need
some crayon drawings on my refrigerator, like every other grandpa I
know.”

Hogan shook his head and grinned. “When she’s
feeling up to speed. Jemma is one fast mover.”

Ben returned the grin. “You’ll have to catch
her on the run and get a ring on her finger. She’s changed, too.
The two of you are good together: one running at top speed,
everything wide out in the open, and the other steady as a rock.
That’s a good team.”

Hogan removed the sweaty red bandanna wrapped
around his forehead and tossed it aside. Jemma feared having
children and the restraints of a relationship. Hogan studied his
father. “You did the best you could, Ben. I made it.”

“It was a poor, sad life for a child with you
carrying most of the burden, and me drinking for that spell.”

A quick flash of his dark childhood slid
across Hogan’s mind, then dimmed. He’d found more in his homecoming
than he’d expected.

He saw Ben differently now, recognizing a
love for a woman in another man. Hogan had reminded Ben of Willow
every day, and that must have hurt terribly. If anything happened
to Jemma, Hogan wasn’t certain of how he would feel or what he
would do, but he knew that part of his heart would be gone.

That must have been how Ben felt with
Willow’s death and when Dinah left him. “I’m working it out. I’m
looking forward to playing a bit when this is over— with Jemma. Do
you think you can work it out?”

“Stop telling me what to do!” Carley shouted.
“I’m sick and tired of you. ‘Take it easy with the baby calves’
isn’t what we’re here for. Miss Prissy Jemma.”

Experienced in new-Carley’s wrath, Mitch
settled back into the shade of Ben’s pickup with a jar of ice
water; he looked as though he would wait out the brewing
thunder-and-lightning argument and hole up a safe distance
away.

Aaron, Ben, and Hogan came to lean against
the pickup with Mitch, each man sipping his ice water. A scarf tied
around her head and dressed in a simple cotton blouse and jeans,
Dinah stood stark still, pale and shaking. She covered her mouth
with both hands. Ben walked to her and wrapped his arm around
her.

A few yards away, Carley’s voice hitched up a
note. “Don’t you tell me how to treat my family. They’re not
yours.”

“They have been my family.”

“Squatter,” Carley shot at her.

Jemma took off her hat and slapped it against
her bare thigh. “We’ve been all through that. You told me to think
of them as my family, and I did. You put an offer on the table,
Carley. I took it. It’s too late now to kick me out so easily. You
want some of this? Well, I’m good and ready. Come ahead.”

“You’ve stuck your nose into my life for the
last time. I don’t need your protection. I never did. You were
always there, making nice for me—’’

Jemma’s face was white, her ponytail a sunlit
mass of vibrant, shaking curls. “I did what I thought was
best.”

“You thought! You thought! I can do my own
thinking!” Then Carley leaped upon Jemma and both women went down
into the dust.

“Do something,” Dinah cried softly. “They’ve
been friends for so long. They’ve been more like sisters.”

“They’re sorting things out,” Hogan said, and
prayed that they would be friends again. Every cell in him wanted
to tear them apart, to make them listen to reason, but both were
set in their path.

They had circles under their eyes, and
Jemma’s nights in his bed were restless, her mind distracted during
the day. He wanted all of her with him, not a shell. “They can’t
settle it, if we’re in there keeping them apart.”

“When this is over, I’m getting married,”
Aaron said longingly as the women rolled over and over, dust clouds
flying up around them. “I’m building a better house on my land and
setting up an office. I miss Montana too much. And I want kids, and
a porch swing. Why do you think it’s taking the stalker so long to
make his move?”

“He hasn’t had a chance to get to her. He’d
be smart not to tackle her now, not with the butt-burning mood
she’s been in.” Mitch sighed slowly and shook his head. “I thought
I might buy a little section of land out here for a boy’s ranch—
kids from the inner-city, like me. I’ve decided I’m going to adopt
Jimmy, one way or another.”

“What’s that they’re arguing about now?” Ben
asked, frowning at the brawling, yelling women in the dirt.

“Carley is really getting it all out.... She
just said that when they were twelve, she wanted to see a horror
movie, and Jemma wouldn’t let her see that much blood.”

“Mitch, why are you buying land when you’ve
already got a good share of the Bar K?” Ben asked, without looking
away from his daughter and Jemma.

“That’s Kodiak land. I didn’t think—”

Ben cursed. “Those two are scrappy, full of
it. You think we should separate them? Mitch, I don’t want to
listen to any manure about you ‘just being adopted’ or your share
of Kodiak land. We’ll figure out the best spot for what you want
and build the damn thing,” he said.

He leaned down to better watch Carley and
Jemma. “How long do you think this is going to go on? Bets?”

“Stop it, Ben. You boys get over there and
put an end to it,” Dinah ordered, tears in her eyes.

“Now, honey. Hogan is right. They need to
burn this one out.”

“You?” Carley yelled. “You need me, Jemma
Delaney. You can no more fish than you can butt out of everyone’s
business. You’ve got about as much patience as a fire in a fast
wind. I’m going to show that producer the real stuff. I know how to
camp and I know fishing.”

“Oh, no, you’re not. I set this up. I’m
running this show. And you’re not taking that plum away from me.
I’ve done all the work, and I’m making a mint on that show.”

Hogan shook his head and emptied his jar of
ice water over his head. He looked out onto the Bar K’s pastures,
to the snow-capped mountains in the distance, and wished he were in
his studio where life made sense.

He couldn’t bear another night of Jemma
calling out to Carley in her sleep, of the tears in her eyes as she
stood watching the Kodiak ranch house.

He wasn’t certain if Jemma stayed with him
because she’d been exiled and her producer was due to arrive, or if
she really wanted to be with him. At any rate, he wanted Jemma to
concentrate on him, and it had been a long stretch between lovings.
While Jemma tossed in the late hours, he’d been sketching, trying
to find the images swirling within him.

He surveyed the bawling, restless herd;
Kodiak tempers were stretched too thin waiting for the stalker to
make his move.

The oil rag had belonged to Jackson Reeves,
who blurted out— under Hogan’s prodding— that he didn’t know who
paid him well for the use of the truck. Jackson would park it in a
wooded clearing and come back to find a fat envelope on the seat.
The truck had been gone the day of Joe’s death.

Hogan inhaled slowly and gauged the yelling
match, which didn’t look like it was winding down. To keep himself
from interfering, he would keep busy— if he could.

“Let’s do it,” he said, swinging up on Moon
Shadow to run down another calf.

It took all Hogan’s willpower not to go to
that creek bank and see if the two women were all right. He
realized through the branding process that he was frightened of
what Jemma would do, if she were accepted back into Carley’s arms
and into the Kodiak ranch. He wanted Jemma with him, in his life.
He wanted to protect her, but for her own good, she had to settle
with Carley. Jemma was a woman who made up her own mind.

With the air of a man who had just discovered
he was very fragile, Hogan sighed and set back to work.

At noon, Jemma and Carley came over the bank,
walking a distance away from each other. Both were looking like
thunderclouds. Jemma pulled out the tiny hair brush she had stuck
in his back pocket and began untangling her hair. Hogan waited and
when she pushed the brush back in his pocket, he smiled

Everything was back to normal, but with an
equal spin for Carley and Jemma. This time Carley could hold her
own.

“I’m going home to take a nice long bath, eat
a ton of chocolate, sleep on your fancy satin sheets, and forget
about Carley’s evil temper,” Jemma stated darkly.

Hogan stood very still.
Jemma had said
“home.”
She was coming back to stay with him.

“You’re not going anywhere, you sissy,”
Carley muttered. “Unless you can’t take it.”

“I can take it.” Jemma caught Hogan’s face in
her muddy hands and looked up at him as though nothing mattered but
him.

She tugged him close for a hard kiss.
“Thanks. I know it must have cost you not to interfere, but I think
we’ll make it now.”

She returned Hogan’s brief kiss and gave him
another one, because he suspected she wasn’t letting anyone do more
than her. “I’m sorry that you haven’t been able to work and that
I’ve kept you so busy. You’ve been very patient— except that time
you yelled at me for getting up on the roof to clean the skylight.
And when I wanted to rearrange the furniture— and a few other
things. You’re a man who doesn’t like changes, Hogan. I know it
must have been hard on you, waking up at midnight to find me
cleaning.”

“Are you better now?” he asked Jemma while
Carley bent her head beneath the water-cooler spigot and let it run
over her.

“Much. She still loves me,” Jemma whispered
in his ear. “We’ll be okay.... Hey! Water girl, save some of that
for me.”

“Lay off, Miss Priss,” Carley volleyed back
without menace.

Hogan hooked Jemma back against him, holding
her tight. He loved Jemma, and her happiness was his.

He buried his face in her throat and caught
that feminine scent that could set his body humming. He wondered if
she was wearing those tiny slinky panties beneath her jeans— or
nothing at all, but he intended to find out. “Let’s go swimming
down the creek when this is over— naked.”

“You’re on.”

“I intend to be on and in,” he drawled
softly, just to watch her blush.

Jemma looked away to Carley, who had just
leaped upon Mitch, bearing him to the ground. She locked her arms
around him and kissed him until he groaned, his hands lowering—

“That’s enough, ladies.” Hogan chuckled and
tipped his hat back. He stopped smiling when Jemma turned to
him.

He went down in the grass, happily flattened
by Jemma’s squirming body and heated by her wild, hungry
kisses.

*** ***

Damn them.
The Kodiaks were playing in
the middle of hard ranch work. They should have been
frightened.

They knew what he could do, he’d sent them
warnings. The Kodiaks were living as though they were not
frightened, and that stupid arrogance infuriated him. He’d make
them fear him.

Carley had just leaped upon that outsider,
Mitch. “You shouldn’t have done that. That only makes me more
angry. He isn’t worthy of you, dear Carley. Only I have the right
to—”

The stalker frowned darkly and lowered his
binoculars. An expert at driving down the country road and using
the binoculars, or his night-viewing ones, he wouldn’t be noticed.
“You really shouldn’t have done that,” he repeated.

He’d seen Carley at the drugstore, blushing
as she glanced at him. Recognizing the flat, small plastic pill
container, he knew what the pharmacist had put in that little white
sack. Carley had set her mind to having sex with the outsider.