Heavenly Angel (22 page)

“Really?”

“Yeah, but I doubt he’d do it in front of all these people. You’d say yes no matter where he proposed, wouldn’t you?” He smiled at her, reading her mind.

“I’d be all over him like a duck on a june bug.” Teresa sighed, laying her head against his chest.

“The change in you from when we first met is remarkable. I thought you were too good to be true when Grace introduced us. Since you’ve met Joaquin and realized what you want in life, you’ve bloomed. It’s amazing to remember you were the shy beauty who brought me a pecan pie. Remember the first time I kissed you?”

“I’ll never forget. That was my first kiss and second.” She gazed at him with love in her eyes.

“I gave you your first kiss?”

She nodded, sentimental tears in her eyes. His lips descended to hers in a tender kiss as he led her in the dance. Aching with desire for him, she wished for nothing more than to be consumed by him and Joaquin both.

Chapter Eighteen

After the song ended, Angel walked her to the ladies room and waited for her as he usually did. Tonight, Joaquin was not the only one drawing hungry looks. He didn’t think she saw them, but Angel noticed that she was the recipient of more than a few appreciative stares. She was radiant tonight, even more than usual, and that attracted the attention of others.

He caught a glimpse of Joaquin across the club. Ben was at their table escorting Dinah out of Teresa’s chair and away toward the bar. There was something not quite right about that woman, but Angel couldn’t put his finger on it. He’d heard a few interesting rumors about her but didn’t honestly know what to think about her. He was relieved she’d vacated Teresa’s chair so she could take a break, though. He stepped to the bar to order another round of drinks for their table while he waited for Teresa.

Returning to the hallway where the restrooms and office were located, he thought he heard Teresa’s voice. Looking in the dimly lit hallway, he could see Teresa pressed against the wall, trying to escape the close proximity of an overly friendly cowboy. Her brows were drawn together, and she spoke in clear, sharp tones.

“I told you, I am here with my fiancé. I do not want to sit with you or your friends.” She didn’t sound frightened, but she didn’t sound happy, either.

The man was taller than her and outweighed her by a good seventy-five pounds. “Come on, honey. I saw you dancing with those two cowboys and kissing them both. You can drop the ‘fiancé’ line. I promise we’ll treat you right. Don’t worry,” he said good-naturedly as he leaned toward her.

Angel tapped him on the shoulder and got his attention. “Teresa, go to the end of the hallway and wait for me there. Don’t leave, just wait for me.” Teresa looked up in relief and scooted past him, still pressed against the wall.

Angel turned his full attention to the cowboy who now looked a little embarrassed. “When a lady tells you no, you should accept that she means it. That beauty
is
engaged to me. If you’d checked her finger while you were ogling her, you would have seen the two carats worth of diamond she carries on her delicate finger. She’s here with me and my brother. If you have a problem with that then we can go outside and have a little chat about it,” he said, pointing at the backdoor.

The tall ranch hand raised his hands palm up in apology. “Sorry, man, we saw her dancing with you both and made some assumptions. That was a dumbass thing to do. I apologize. We’re new in town and haven’t had any time to relax in a while. No harm, no foul?”

Angel would have liked to stay angry at the guy for making assumptions about Teresa’s character. It was obvious the guy had not intended to insult either of them. He seemed liked a good guy. Something about him also seemed vaguely familiar. “Are you going to apologize to her?”

The cowboy nodded affirmatively. “Sure. I didn’t mean anything by it, just happened to see her waiting in the hallway on my way to the men’s room and thought I’d take a chance. I’m
really
sorry.”

The man was nice enough about it and willing to apologize to Teresa, so Angel decided to throw him a bone. A nice, juicy, ripe, and ready one, he figured.

“I can see you didn’t mean to offend Teresa, so I’ll give you a tip. There’s a woman sitting at a table near ours who
is
into group encounters, but you can’t mention how you know that.” He followed Angel as he walked back to Teresa. “Also, see that tall redhead in the red spandex dress at the bar?”

“Uh-huh!” the cowboy responded eagerly.

“You might want to try your luck there, too, but she likes it a little rough, I hear.”

The guy got a quizzical look on his face. “Rough, huh?”

“Don’t misunderstand, cowboy. She’d be the one getting rough, not you.”

The look on his face told Angel that was a whole lot more kink than he could handle. “Holy shit. Point me in the direction of the other gal first, and I’ll keep that one in reserve.”

“First, do your duty,” Angel said with a chuckle, indicating Teresa standing beside him.

The cowboy earned even more points when he removed his hat. “Ma’am, I’m really sorry I made such an ass of myself earlier. My powers of observation were seriously lacking. I can see now that you definitely are engaged to this gentleman by the ring on your finger, nor do you look like the type trolling for a group one-night stand. I’m
very
sorry. Please forgive me?” His hand was over his heart, the picture of sincerity and remorse.

Teresa looked him over speculatively and said, after smiling at Angel, “Thank you for apologizing. I forgive you. You seem like a nice cowboy. You should settle down with a good girl and not waste your time and money on loose women. But if that’s what you’re after, there’s a whole table of them next to ours. Why don’t we trade tables with you?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Angel commented, “How many of you are there?”

“Three, over there.” He pointed to a table with two decent-looking cowboys sitting at it. “We’re working out at the Rockin’ C until we can get our own place out on FM 709 started up again. We haven’t been into town since we got here except to buy supplies and groceries. We’d be happy to trade tables with you. If you’re in here on a regular basis, maybe you could introduce us to some decent gals, especially if they’re as pretty as you are. No offense,” he added deeply, glancing at Angel, who chuckled. He was starting to like this guy.

“None taken. My brother, Joaquin, is waiting at our table. I’ll introduce you. I wish you luck with your ranch. We’re over at the Divine Creek Ranch on FM 709. I’m Angel, and this is my fiancée, Teresa, by the way.”

“The Warner Place?” the man said and got an incredulous look on his face.

“No, the Warner Ranch is farther out. But Joe Warner’s son, Jack, and his two friends own the Divine Creek Ranch. You know Jack and Joe?” Angel asked with a funny feeling in his gut.

“Holy crap! It’s a small world!” He held out his callused hand. “The name’s Kendall. Kendall
Warner
.”

Teresa’s jaw popped open, and a smile spread across her face.

“My dad, Jack, was Joe Warner’s brother. My brothers, Richard and Boone, are over at the table. Dad died a couple years back and left us his spread. We decided to settle down and try to make something of the old place. Jack is named after my dad. We’ve been meaning to get in touch with them.”

“I’ll be damned,” Angel uttered in disbelief. “I remember meeting your father once when he came to visit Joe during the summer. He was an old man back then. He must have met your mother late in life. Joe said he lost touch with Jack over the years but not intentionally.”

“He always meant to get in touch, but the years and work got away from him. Mom lives in Washington with our younger sister. So you’ve known the Warner family a long time?”

“Since I was a teenager. Your uncle and my dad are long-time friends. You need to get in touch with Joe and Jack. I think they’d all love to meet you. They’d probably be up here tonight, but their wife Grace is babysitting our little boy tonight.” As he said it, he caught the warm look Teresa shot him and held her a little closer around the waist.

Kendall got a confused look on his face, and Teresa said, “It’s complicated but all good. Listen, forget about the loose women and come sit with us. We’ll call Jack and Grace and tell them we found you.”

“Just…don’t tell them how, okay, ma’am?” Kendall said uncomfortably.

“Only if you stop calling me ‘ma’am.’ I’m your age. Call me Teresa or Miss Palacios if you must.”

“All right, ma’—Miss Palacios.”

Angel pointed out their table, and Kendall went to tell his brothers about meeting them. Angel and Teresa made their way over to the table where Joaquin still waited.

Joaquin smiled at the look on Angel’s face. “Meet someone interesting?”

“You’re not going to believe this.” Angel told him what they knew so far.

Teresa placed a palm on his brother’s biceps. “They’re going to call Jack. Wait till Grace gets a load of those cowboys. She’ll be up to her elbows in matchmaking schemes. I want a dance with you, Joaquin. You’ve been all by yourself over here waiting for us, and I don’t want you to feel neglected.” Angel patted her curvy bottom affectionately as he released her to his brother and sat in his chair.

“Well then, how about you come kiss my boo-boo.” Joaquin stood and grinned at Angel before he led her to the dance floor.

* * * *

Teresa stood at the stove while Michael sat at Angel’s kitchen table in his little booster seat, playing with Play-Doh, when a familiar sound was heard in the distance. She smiled when Michael’s head popped up from what he was doing and listened.

Angel was in the shower, and Joaquin was dealing with some issue Ash had called him about, saying he needed to talk to him. Michael started to go back to what he was doing when the noise got louder, coming down the drive to the foreman’s house.

“Wubida-wubida!” he squealed, imitating the throaty growl of Eli’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle. “Eli and Rachel home! Wubida-Wubida! Eli! Rachel-Baby!” he screeched as he carefully climbed down from the booster seat.

Angel came into the kitchen dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans as Michael went running for the front door, flung it open, and ran out on the porch hollering. “Eli! Rachel-Baby! You’re home!” The fringe on his little leather chaps flapped with his movements and the stiff winter breeze.

“You’re finally home from the moon! Eli! Rachel-Baby!”

They followed him out the front door as Eli rolled to a stop on his Harley with Rachel riding on the back. By the time they had their helmets off, Michael had toddled carefully down the porch steps and was running for the motorcycle. Eli’s immense size didn’t faze Michael a bit as Eli caught him and lifted him high in the air, still sitting on the bike. Rachel removed her helmet and climbed off then held out her hands for him expectantly. Rachel looked beautiful in full leathers. Her long hair was loose, flowing in the breeze as Eli placed a wiggling Michael in her arms.

She smiled radiantly at Teresa and said, “What have you been feeding this boy? He’s grown four inches since the wedding.”

She wrangled him into a hug, and he wrapped his arms around her neck and gave her a kiss and giggled, saying, “I missed you so much, Rachel-Baby, while you on the moon!”

Rachel looked at Eli, and they started laughing then she looked over at Teresa and whispered, “Rachel-Baby?”

“I know. He’s calling all of our female friends ‘baby’ now. It started with Grace,” Teresa said as she came down the steps and hugged Rachel then hugged Eli. He got off the bike and lifted Michael high on his shoulders.

“Welcome home, newlyweds,” Angel said. “Did you have a good time? Do any hiking?” he asked as he came down the steps.

Rachel glowed when she smiled at them. “Yes, Angel, we did. I got some beautiful pictures of snow on the rim of the Canyon. Our lodge was awesome.”

Eli nodded at Teresa’s hand. “We hear you have some interesting news.” he said speculatively. “I wonder if this Joaquin I keep hearing about is good enough for you, Teresa. He sounds like a bit of a tumbleweed to me,” he added teasingly as Angel grinned at him.

Teresa’s cheeks warmed, and she said, “Oh, he’s wonderful, Eli. You’ll meet him in a minute. He said he’d be right back. Did you hear about Jack’s cousins turning up?”

Rachel smiled widely. “You should see Grace. She’s beside herself. They’re going to meet them tonight for supper then go out to The Pony. We’re going to meet them there. Are you going out tonight after we eat?”

“We were out last night, so we’re planning on a quiet night at home,” Angel said as he slid a hand around Teresa’s hip. Teresa saw Rachel’s smile as she turned to him and snuggled up. There was a time when Teresa would not have made a move toward him like that with others watching, and Rachel must have taken notice.

“Well, supper is about ready. Why don’t we go inside?” Teresa offered, leading the way. Eli lowered Michael from his shoulders and carried him inside giggling, slung over his hip.

“Rachel-Baby! See my big-boy chair? I big boy now. Wanna come play Play-Doh with me?”

“Sure, Michael. Were you good while I was gone?” she asked as she took a seat by his booster chair.