You're Still the One (10 page)

              He understood her; he always had, except she hadn't seen it. What about now? Was there any hope they might have another chance?

CHAPTER 7

              Almost an hour later, Rick stood in the barn on his parent's property. Frustration sawed through him, as it had since his conversation with Katie at breakfast. He should've kept his mouth shut. Pointing out Katie's responsibility to her family was not only none of his business, it was futile.

              Only Katie could change the way things were in her family, and she wasn't inclined.

              She stool at the stall door behind him, watching quietly with those big eyes. The blue-gray depths were clear, interested, but he remembered how they'd gone dark with desire yesterday.

              He shoved away the mental image and tightened the cinch on Apple, the palomino mare he'd chosen for Katie to ride. Chacha, the younger mare, was full of herself today; Rick would ride her.

              Katie moved behind him, stroking Apple's nose and talking softly to the mare. He glanced back, noting the way Katie's jeans gloved her tight little rare. Rick determinedly pulled his gaze away. There was no way he could've stayed with her in the house.

              All he'd thought about since yesterday at the shooting range was how close she was to his bed, how she'd feel beneath him.

              He'd hoped that, out here busying himself with the animals, he wouldn't be so aware of her. He didn't want to feel this frustration, didn't want to feel
anything.
She'd proved once again that when there were problems, she would still push him away, still wouldn't let him help her. She hadn't changed, and he wasn't interested.

              He figured if he told himself that a hundred times, he might believe it.

              She murmured to the mare, and her voice slid over Rick like silk on skin. Reminding him of her hands on him yesterday, the feel of her breath whispering against his lips. Her soft floral scent flirted in and out of the more potent smells of horse and hay and saddle leather.

              He shouldn't have told her how he'd tried to shield her from more responsibility, shouldn't have tried to justify his take-charge attitude. It didn't matter. None of it did. All that mattered was finding Grace and staying away from Katie until they did. He wanted her, and no matter how much that fact ate him up, it was still a fact.

              Even as irritated as he was, he couldn't dismiss the changes in her he'd noticed, though her overdeveloped sense of responsibility to her family wasn't one of them. She seemed more dissatisfied with Grace, more willing to speak her mind to him, more vulnerable than he'd even seen her. Those differences intrigued him, planted maverick thoughts in his mind to see just what else might have changed.

              In college, he'd always been the one to lend an ear, to try to soothe away any troubles, but he'd never let her do that for him. At the time, he thought he would appear weak to her. Instead she told him at breakfast  that she believe he'd never needed her.

              Well, it was better for her to continue believing that. He wasn't going to let her hurt him again, and opening up to Katie had hurt written all over it.

              "This mare looks just like the one I used to ride."

              "You rode Beauty. This is her foal, Apple." Down the stable horse snorted, and Rick grinned. "There she is, saying hello."

              Katie turned, then moved down two stalls to where the mare stood.

              He pulled another saddle blanket from the weathered wooden wall behind him and shouldered his way past Apple, who had her head buried in an oat bucket. Chacha, a black-and-white paint, sidestepped, then butted his chest with her nose.

              "Yes." He scratched a spot behind her ear, then placed the yellow-and-red striped blanket on her back. "You can run today."

              Just outside the stall, he heard Katie speaking softly to Beauty, and the sound torched something deep inside him, something could and sharp that he refused to define. He needed a lead in this case so he could track down Grace and Katie could be on her way. That's where he needed to keep his mind.

              He tugged the saddle from the same wall that had held the blanket and settled it onto Chacha's back.

              Katie stepped inside the stall, bringing that nibble-me scent with her again.

              Apple blew out a breath and moved toward Katie, nudging her jeans-clad hip for a treat.

              "Nothing for you yet, baby," Katie cooed as she ran a hand down the mare's neck.

              Rick clenched his jaw, tried not to remember how she's grabbed onto him yesterday as if he were the only shelter in a twister.

              Chacha bumped him with her rump in protest, and he realized he'd yanked a little too hard on the cinch around her middle. "Sorry."

              He patted the mare, then turned to Katie. "Go ahead and mount up. "I'll need to adjust the stirrups for you."

              As she swung one trim leg over the saddle, the seat of her jeans pulled taut across her rounded bottom. His body tightened.

              Disgusted, he yanked his gaze away and moved beside the mare to find Katie smiling at him.

              "What?" He reached for the stirrup strap, unbuckled it and threaded it up two notches.

              She laughed, a soft, lively sound that pinged across his nerves. "Remember the first time you brought me out here?"

              He remembered a hot and desperate session in his car, which was probably not what she meant. "Yeah."

              She patted Apple's neck. "I did all right on the ride until we were on the way back here and Beauty realized we were headed for the barn."

              Rick grunted, hoping she would stop with the memories before she worked her way to the one where he'd started. He stepped around to her other side, reached for the strap.

              "She took off like a shot, scared me out of my wits."

              "You were howling like a wet cat."

              She swatted at him. "I was not. "I was... startled."

              He grinned. Without thinking, he reached up and wrapped his hand around her calf to place her foot into the stirrup. Firm muscle flexed beneath his palm.

              He froze. So did she.

              He wanted to slide his hands up, cup the heat between her legs just like that saddle was.

              "You didn't catch up to me until she'd stopped in the barn."

              Katie's voice was strained, as if she were forcing the words. Hell, he knew he would be.

              He clenched his jaw against the memory, but still it flooded in. He'd run his hands over her, making sure she was all right, and she'd fallen full into him, laughing, kissing him hard and deep. Her hands and mouth had been eager, inviting.

              "The horse wasn't as rough on me as you were," she said in a shy, tentative voice. "You grabbed me so tight, I could barely breathe."

              So, she'd finally remembered. He glanced up and saw that color flagged her cheeks. She leaned over to fiddle unnecessarily with the stirrup he'd already adjusted.

              "Hey, I was trying." He managed to speak without snapping. Slowly, he moved his hand away from her. "Beauty couldn't be caught when she had the barn in her sights."

              "You were scared," Katie said. "I'd never seen you like that."

              "You'd never been on a horse before. I didn't want you to get hurt." He gave one last tug on the cinch to make sure it was secure.

              "I was fine."

              "Yeah, you were." He saw in her eyes the memory of how they'd kissed with reckless abandon, how he'd dragged her to his car only to stop two miles down the road to finish what they'd started.

              "Rick?"

              "That was a long time ago," he said gruffly, fighting the urge to haul her out of that saddle and kiss her until he forgot that she'd walked away from him. "Shouldn't have any problems with that today. Apple doesn't take off like her mother."

              He ignored the hurt in Katie's eyes, just like he ignored the want drumming through his veins. The way he'd been ignoring it all morning. Hell, ever since she'd popped back into his life. "You're good to go."

              She nodded, urged the horse to move into the middle of the barn, onto the packed dirt floor littered with feed dust and hay. He swung into the saddle and followed.

              He'd thought coming out here would block the images that had plagued him at the house. Images that involved Katie in his bed wearing nothing but him. Her little trip down memory lane hadn't been good for either of them.

              As he guided his mare past hers, followed, heading for the barn doors. She slightly behind him, drawn into herself again. Good, he decided, ruthlessly dismissing the urge to smooth things over. It wasn't his job anymore to comfort or protect.

              Just as they reached the barn's wide double doors, two people appeared outside. Recognizing their silhouettes against the strong glare of the sun, Rick groaned inwardly.

              "Rick, we saw your car."

              "Hi, honey."

              Dave and Vina Powell stepped inside the barn.

              Rick glanced back. Katie reined her horse to an abrupt stop behind his mare and shot a look at him. He saw panic then uncertainty in the blue-gray depths.

              "Hi, Mom, Dad." His hold tightened on the reins.

              "You've got company?" his mother asked pleasantly. Squinting as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light of the barn, she started around his mare's head, trying to get a look at who sat at the horse next to him.

              His father snagged her elbow. "Vina."

              Rick saw Katie wince, then she urged her horse forward so that a wedge of sunlight fell full on her face. "Hello Mr. & Mrs. Powell."

              "Katie?" Vina's tone was incredulous, and even Rick picked up on the indignity beneath the surprise. "Katie Foster?"

              "I'm helping Katie with a case," he said quickly, wishing that for once his parents would adhere to some sort of schedule. "We're taking a break while we wait for a phone call." He wasn't opening up the whole can of worms about Grace.

              Katie started to dismount. "It's been a long time."

              "No, no, it's all right. Stay up there." Vina's gaze went to Rick, then to Katie. His dad just stood there, Choctaw features unreadable, but Rick saw the questions in his black eyes. The warning.

              "I... hope you're doing well," Vina said stiffly.

              "I know this is very awkward." Katie fingers knotted and unknotted the reins. "I'm sorry."

              Rick's heart clenched. Whatever else they thought of her, surely his parents would admit she had guts.

              "Nonsense," Vina said briskly.

              His dad nodded.

              "I hope everything's okay," his mom said. "Rick mentioned a case?"

              "Mom."

              "My sister's missing."

              Though he'd given her the opportunity to keep quiet Rick admired Katie for not dancing around the truth. She had to expect the disapproval that came into his mother's brown eyes at the mention of Grace.

              "I hope she's all right, that everything works out."

              "I have every confidence that Rick will find her."

              His parents' features both tightened. Dave pulled on Vina's arm. "Let's leave them alone to get on with their ride, hon. We need to unpack anyway."

              Rick threw his dad a grateful look and kneed Chacha into motion.

              Katie followed him out of the barn, then reined up in the front of his parents. "I'm really sorry. I'm sure you didn't expect to see me here today."

              "No, but it's all right," Vina said firmly. "Good luck with your sister. I hope you find her quickly."

              "Thank you." Katie smiled weakly, said goodbye to Dave and followed Rick out of the paddock to the open field behind the barn.

              They rode in silence for several yards. Katie looked pale, even more so in the glare of sunlight. Her mouth was drawn tight.

              "I bet that was the surprise of their lives. Nothing like coming home to find your son's ex fiancée."

              "It's okay, Katie." Rick fought the urge to move closer to her, to take her hand.

              "I never apologized to them for breaking our engagement."

              "There's no need," he said tightly. His shirt collar suddenly seemed to choke him. He ran a finger beneath the neck of his cotton polo shirt.

              She nodded, but he could see she didn't agree. His mom had handled it better than he might've expected, Rick admitted, though he knew he'd get the third degree once she could talk to him alone. At least he could reassure her that he and Katie weren't picking up where they'd left off, that this was strictly business. He'd had all the heartbreak he needed for one lifetime.