Van, Becca - Slick Rock Cowboys [Slick Rock 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

Chapter Two

Johnny looked over to Clay as they finished loading their truck with some horse and cattle feed. Since it was lunchtime, they decided to drive on over to the diner for a meal instead of going home and having their usual sandwiches. Since their last housekeeper had left a month ago, the two brothers had had to put up with their own miserable cooking, and they were getting mighty tired of eating charcoal or half-raw food. They lived mostly on canned food and toasted sandwiches. Every time they tried to cook, the food almost always ended up in the trash and they would end up having toasted sandwiches, as usual. They really needed to get a housekeeper, or at least a cook, and fast.

“Clay, watch out,” Johnny yelled as he watched a bedraggled woman with bare feet fall into the middle of the road, right in front of their approaching truck.

Johnny reached for the dashboard to hold himself steady when Clay stomped on the brake pedal and brought the truck to a screeching halt in the middle of the road. He put the stick into neutral, pulled on the parking brake. Johnny heard Clay’s footsteps following behind him as they rushed to help the fallen woman.

Johnny got to the woman before Clay and knew his brother watched as he picked the slight female up into his arms, carried her off the road, and headed for the diner. Johnny froze in the doorway of the diner, staring down into the woman’s thin face, while Clay held the door open for him.

“Tara,” Johnny whispered, knowing his brother had heard him when he saw Clay move closer in his peripheral vision to look at the woman in his arms.

“Oh my God. It is Tara,” Clay confirmed as the brothers stared down at the woman who had haunted their dreams for the last eight years.

Johnny and Clay jumped as a car horn sounded, and Clay ran to the truck to get it out of the middle of the road. Johnny carried Tara into the diner and sat down carefully, pulling her onto his lap, making sure to support her slight body with his own. He looked up to see Clay rushing through the door of the diner then looked back down to the woman moaning in his arms. Tara was just coming around as Clay sat on the seat across from him. Maisie, the owner of the diner, brought out a clean washcloth, as well as some water and ice.

Johnny was wiping what looked like soot off of Tara’s face with the damp cloth, and then he brushed her blonde hair away from her face. She was rail thin and as pale as a ghost. It looked like the slightest breeze would push her over. She gave a low moan just before her eyes fluttered open.

Johnny stared into the green eyes which had taunted him and his brother when they were younger, and he watched as their woman began to come around. She was their woman, had been since she was fourteen years old. He and Johnny had just been waiting for her to grow up. Johnny and Clay had felt like perverts lusting after their young neighbor, and had begun having sex with any willing female just to keep control of themselves while they waited for her.

“Are you all right, sweetheart?” Johnny asked.

“Where am I? Who are you?” she asked with a frown, rubbing her hand over her forehead as if trying to bring her memory back.

“You’re in Slick Rock, Colorado. What happened to you? What’s your name?” Johnny asked as he watched Tara through narrowed eyes suspiciously. He wasn’t sure if she was faking, not wanting to be with them. She had never even said good-bye when she left Slick Rock. All the resentment and bitterness Johnny had been feeling over the years came to the surface. He had to clench his jaw to prevent himself from railing at her.

“Um, I…I can’t remember. Where’s my purse?” Tara asked, moving off the man’s lap to sit beside him as she looked around then out the window to the road.

“Here, why don’t you have a drink of water, honey? I’m Maisie, I own and run this here diner. These two men are Johnny and Clay Morten. They’ll take real good care of you.” Maisie sat down next to Clay and pushed the glass across the table.

“Thank you.”

“Can you remember how you got to Slick Rock? You didn’t have a purse on you when you passed out in the middle of the road,” Clay replied.

* * * *

Tara sat up in her seat and stared at the man next to her and the other one across the table from her. She felt as if she ought to know them, but how could that be? She didn’t even know where she was.

She looked at the handsome man sitting across from her. Clay had collar-length black hair and light-green eyes and looked to be around thirty years old. She could tell he was tall, about six foot three at a guess, even though he was sitting down. He had a square jaw, a little sexy indentation in his chin, and high cheekbones. He wore only denim blue jeans and a T-shirt beneath his open flannel shirt. She could see his muscles rippling beneath his shirt as he moved. Her eyes slid away from his body over to his brother, Johnny. He was just as handsome, with similar familial features, except his hair was dark brown instead of black, and his eyes were hazel. She could see small flecks of gold mixed in with the brown and green. He was taller than his brother and a couple of years younger. He was slightly wider across the chest and shoulders than Clay, more muscular. Johnny seemed to be less intense than Clay, his body language more relaxed.

“Bus, I think. Yes, I came here on a bus. I’m sure I had my purse with me.”

“Excuse me, honey, I need to go and serve some customers. Clay, come on over and order your lunch,” Maisie ordered, rising to her feet and moving toward the counter, Clay at her heels.

Tara watched as Clay moved away to the counter of the diner with Maisie. She could see them talking but couldn’t hear what they said because they were too far away.

* * * *

“I think you need to take that little gal down to Doc Foster. She looks mighty unwell to me. But before you do, we’ll fill her belly with some good food. You want the usual?” Maisie asked.

“Yeah, thanks, Maisie. Can you call Doc and set up an appointment for us after lunch? Me and Johnny will make sure she gets down to Doc’s place,” Clay stated as he glanced over his shoulder back at the table. He was about to turn back when he watched her familiar move of brushing her hair back behind her ear.

The pain he felt when she had first left all those years ago reared its ugly head and stabbed him in the heart. Why had she left without telling them where she was going? Why had she not written to them and let them know she was all right?

“Clay, you all right, honey? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” Maisie asked from behind him.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just remembered something from the past. Don’t worry about it, Maisie, just being fanciful is all.” Clay handed over the money for the three lunch orders.

“This one’s on me, young man. No, don’t argue. Not many people left these days that would help out a stranger.”

“Thanks, Maisie,” Clay replied, not willing to go into the details about Tara not being a stranger. He just felt too raw to be opening up with anyone just yet.

“Go on, I’ll call the Doc then bring your food out.”

Clay sat down at the table and watched as Johnny interacted with Tara. He couldn’t get it out of his head that he was finally actually sitting at a table across from their long-lost neighbor, and she had no idea who they were. He wanted nothing more than to call out her name, but was hesitant. She could be faking not remembering who she was, but if she wasn’t and had some type of amnesia, he could end up damaging their woman even more.

Johnny and Clay cajoled Tara into eating the plate of food Maisie had placed in front of her. They tried to get her to eat all the food, but she told them if she ate more than the half she had eaten she would make herself sick. Clay worried over that, because he knew she never used to worry about her weight when she was younger, not that she’d ever needed to. Clay wondered just how long it had been since she’d had a decent meal.

Once they’d all finished eating, Johnny and Clay each took her by the elbow and steered her to their truck.

“Wait. Where are you taking me?” Tara asked nervously.

Clay watched as she glanced around, and he could see how nervous she was. She was gripping one hand with the other, her knuckles white.

“We are taking you to see a doctor, sweetheart. We want to make sure you’re all right. After that, if you like, you can come and stay at our ranch. We are in need of a cook and housekeeper and thought you might like to work after you’ve rested up some. That way you’ll have a roof over your head and food in your belly until your memory returns or if you just decide you want to move on again,” Johnny said in a quiet, calm voice.

The last thing Clay wanted to do was scare Tara and have her run again. Clay and his brother had just about resigned themselves to the fact they would never see their woman again. Clay had discussed the issue with Johnny and had decided to push Tara from their hearts and minds and try to get on with their lives. Now that she was back in their clutches again, there was no fucking way he was letting her leave. But first he and Johnny had to find out if she was really sick or if not, what sort of game she was playing.

* * * *

Clay pulled into the parking lot in front of Doc’s, walked around his truck, and helped Johnny steer Tara into the office. They didn’t have to wait as Doc Foster had a gap and took Tara into his consulting room right away.

“Hi there, Miss, I’m Doc Foster, but everyone around these parts calls me Doc. Now what can I do for you?”

“I–I don’t know. I can’t remember anything,” Tara sobbed.

“There, there now,” Doc said in a calm voice as he rubbed the distraught woman’s back. “Why don’t you go behind that curtain, put on the gown, and I’ll check you over when you give me a holler?”

“Okay,” Tara whispered then gave an inelegant sniff. She grabbed a few tissues from the box on Doc’s desk and disappeared behind the curtain.

“Okay. I’m ready,” Tara called out after a few moments.

Clay watched as Doc checked Tara over thoroughly, making sure she didn’t have any bumps or lumps on her head with his fingertips. He checked her blood pressure and monitored her heart with his stethoscope. Clay realized he couldn’t find anything when a puzzled expression crossed his face. It was a different story when Doc checked her pupils. Doc checked the reaction of her eyes time and again until he finally put the pen light back into his coat pocket. Even Clay could tell her pupils were very sluggish and slow to respond. Clay saw Doc give Tara a pat on the arm as he moved away and closed the curtain so she could dress.

“You get dressed, now. I’ll be back in a minute,” Doc called out and exited the consulting room, Clay on his heels.

“How is she, Doc?” asked Clay.

“That’s Tara Rustle, isn’t it?” Doc asked as he looked from Clay to Johnny.

“Yeah, we were on our way to the diner after picking up some stock feed and I nearly ran over her as she collapsed in the middle of the road. What’s wrong with her, Doc?” Clay asked.

“She’s undernourished and slightly dehydrated. It looks like she hasn’t eaten properly in months. She is also suffering from deep shock. I don’t know what’s happened to her, but whatever it is, her mind couldn’t handle it and it’s shut down on her.”

“She couldn’t be fakin’ it, could she?” Johnny asked the question before Clay could.

“No. Her pupils are really sluggish. If I hadn’t checked her over and seen for myself she has no bumps or lumps on her head, I would have thought she had a head injury. She is going to need to eat and rest for the next few days. Hopefully, once she’s feeling more herself, her memory will come back of its own accord. Just be careful with her. I know you two boys have had a hankering for that woman for more years than I can count. And I know you never touched her while she was still a child, but I know you aren’t going to let her go this time. Just go real slow with her, or you could be doing more damage than good. Bring her back to see me if you think she needs some help,” Doc Foster stated then left the empty waiting room.

Tara came back into the waiting room five minutes later and stood hesitantly as she eyed Clay and Johnny nervously, biting on her lower lip as she shifted from foot to foot.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Johnny asked as he moved toward her.

“Yes,” Tara replied quietly.

“Do you remember if you had any luggage with you, baby?” Clay asked as he, too, moved up beside Tara.

“Uh, I…I can’t remember,” Tara replied with a hitch in her voice.

“Well, that’s okay. Don’t you worry about it now. We need to get you home so you can rest up. We’ll figure something out later. Come on,” Clay urged as he grasped one of her elbows and Johnny took the other.

They led her out to the truck, saw her comfortably and safely buckled in, then began the trek back to the ranch.