Picking Up Cowboys (6 page)

chapter seven

Catherine was feeling guilty, like a little kid who’d played with matches when her mother had said not to.  She’d overreacted last night.  She should have stayed and calmly discussed Gage’s plans with him.  He had a right to his dreams, the same as she had a right to hers.

She smoothed out the wrinkles in her bedspread and tiptoed down the hallway, skipping the third stair from the top to avoid waking Gage.  She would need to apologize, but she wanted time to think about the best way to do it.  The longer he slept, the longer she had to compose in her mind what she wanted to say.

Why had she gotten so defensive?  Bundling into her warmest coat, adding scarf, hat and thick, woolly gloves, she pulled the front door closed behind her.  The path Gage had shoveled to the barn was starting to melt a little in the unusually sunny day. 

Catherine smiled at the neatly piled mounds of snow on either side of the tunneled path.  It was nice not having to freeze her ears off while she shoveled snow.  Even when her father had been alive, he’d usually been too ill from the previous evening’s escapades to be much help.

Catherine gave a little skip and kicked some snow into the air.  She held her arms out to her sides.  She felt unconfined and almost giddy.  Winter in the mountains would do that to you, sneak up behind you and wrap its arms around you, whispering fun into your ear.

Catherine glanced at Gage’s shuttered window.  A burning desire to have him with her zinged through her.  Ridiculous.  Was Gage really the type of man who would frolic around in the snow?  Suddenly Catherine wanted to find out. She grinned and pulled open the heavy, red-painted wood door to the barn.

Peanut and her foal nickered softly in greeting and Catherine pulled a couple of sugar cubes from her coat pocket.

“Hi, girl.  I know these really aren’t very good for you, but you love them.  And I love you.  So there you are.” 

Peanut gingerly nuzzled the cubes from her outstretched palm and then blew a moist puff of breath into Catherine’s face.

“Do you think the reason I get so angry at his plans for this ranch is because a secret part of me wishes I could spread my wings?”

Catherine filled Peanut’s feed bucket.  The horse looked at her for a moment, an almost pitying look in her wide brown eyes.  If life could only be as black and white as it was for animals.  Peanut didn’t worry about how to deal with a sometimes aggravating, sometimes irresistible man.

“What right do I have to condemn him for having dreams just because mine never came true?”

Catherine stopped, realizing what she’d just said.  Often, she came to know herself best when she was talking to her horse.  This time was no exception.  She’d just said what had been bubbling under the surface for many years.  The resentment, the despair, the loss of dreams.

“My dreams never came true.  I gave them up to keep this place running for Pop.”

Peanut continued to eat, making soft chuffing noises.

“I wanted to explore the world.  So why am I now determined to keep this place?  Have my dreams changed?  Or am I still trying to please my father?  Would I rather be out traveling and seeing the world?  The money Gage offered me could accomplish that.”

Peanut didn’t have an answer but then neither did Catherine.  She only knew that the thought of her rustic cabins being ripped out and the rolling landscape being covered with a steel and concrete hotel made her throat ache and her gut twist.  She might not be in perfect tune with her innermost wants, but the thought of commercialism hit the wrong key.

The gentle purr of an engine interrupted her soul searching. The main road had been clear for over a week but she wasn’t expecting any visitors.  Maybe it was the garage, delivering Gage’s repaired car.  Although they’d said it would take them a week just to order parts.  Catherine gave Peanut a final pat and trudged out to see who the visitor was.

A midnight-blue, Chevy Blazer coasted to a stop a few feet behind her truck.  A tall, blonde with the muscles of a body-builder slid from the vehicle.  He wore scruffy jeans, and his eyes were the icy-black of a frozen lake.  Cold.  Hard looking.  They reminded her of the look she’d seen in the eyes of mad bulls just before they charged. A tiny shiver of fear raced over her spine.  She was out here all alone.

Her gaze flew to the middle window on the second story of the house.  If she screamed, would Gage hear her?  Probably not.  Maybe she should go back into the barn and bolt the door from the inside.  If she turned now, right this minute and ran, she could probably just make it before the man reached her.  Shudders wracked her body, and they weren’t from the cold.  She had the very visible reaction to stress that her body created.  Some people could appear cool and unruffled in any situation.  Not her.  She always gave herself away by shaking like a mouse in a roomful of cats.

You’re being ridiculous, Catherine
, she scolded herself. 
Oh, yeah, you’re going to spread your wings all right.  You can’t even greet a simple
visitor without
assuming the worst.

Catherine straightened her shoulders.   She would just march right up to him and ask him what his business was. So he was big.  So what?  She could be mean and sometimes mean was scarier than big.

“Can I help you with something?”  Catherine was proud of the surliness in her voice.  Just the right touch of accusation and bravado.

The body builder meekly snatched his beaver style hat off his head and held it in both hands.  “Ma’am, I work for Mr. Maddock.”

“Gage?” The fear faded away to be replaced by relief.  The man worked for Gage.  How silly could she have been?

“That’s right ma’am, he asked me to come on out here so I could get to work.”

Catherine narrowed her eyes.  What possible type of work could Gage be calling his employees out here for?  He was in the construction industry, the hotel building business, resorts and spas.  She was almost squinting now.

“Exactly what type of work, Mr.--?”

“Dillon.”  He nervously brushed his palm over the material on his thigh.  “Rick Dillon.”

“Mr. Dillon,” Catherine smiled sweetly.  She intended to find out exactly what Gage Maddock was up to.  “What type of work are you planning on doing here?”

The man strode around to the back of the blazer, pulled open the door and wrestled loose a tripod with a sight on the end.

“I’m a surveyor.”  His chest puffed out with pride.

“A what?”  Catherine shrieked.  “Slimy, no-account, lying, cheating, rotten, double-crossing--”

“Ma’am?  I don’t think you truly understand the context of my work.”

Catherine barely heard him as she took off for the house with ground-eating strides.  She was going to kill him!  She was going to drag him out of bed by his ear.  He had no right to call a surveyor onto her land.  No right to assume that he could go on with his resort plans despite her protests.  She was going to set him straight and she was going to set him straight now.

Something tugged at the warm cocoon of comforters Gage had wrapped around himself.  He grabbed the corner, pulled it up to his shoulders and tried to turn onto his side.

“Wake up.”

Gage opened one eye to see Cat standing over him like an avenging angel.  Her hair was tousled and her eyes were shining brightly.

She was obviously angry about something.  What could he have done?  He’d been sleeping. Very well in fact.  Not that he really minded being awakened by a honey-blonde vixen.

“If you wanted to join me, you really didn’t have to ask.”  Gage lifted the covers and patted the mattress beside him.

Cat gasped and the two bright spots of rose on her cheeks deepened to a dull red.  “I’m not here to sleep with you.”  Her gaze dropped to his bare chest and he saw the muscles in her throat work as she swallowed.

“Sleep wasn’t what I had in mind.” 

She flushed even more and Gage hid his grin.  She wasn’t totally immune to him, that much was apparent, and she was having a hard time keeping her mind focused on what she wanted to say and keeping her gaze focused on his face.

“Sleep is exactly what I had in mind. Permanent sleep.  Forever.  For you.”  The finger she pointed at the end of his nose shook slightly.

The woman was riled up about something.  Gage felt the soft mattress under his back and allowed himself to experience a moment of regret for having to leave its comfort, before slinging back the covers and rising to his feet. 

Maybe it was because she was pregnant.  He rubbed his hand over his sleep-roughened jaw and tried to clear his still groggy thoughts.  His brother-in-law had once told him that pregnant women were impossible to live with, you never knew what might set one off.  At the time he’d thought that each woman must be different in how she reacted to being pregnant, now he wished he’s listened to the man a little closer.

“Is this what they mean when they say a woman’s hormones are in overdrive?”

“Of all the male chauvinist things to say.  You’re the one with the excess of hormones.  Too much testosterone.  You think you rule the world.”

Her gaze dropped to his hips and down.  He was wearing white briefs.  When he raised his head she was still focused on his undergarments.  Her tongue darted out and wet her lower lip.

If she didn’t stop looking there, his reaction was going to become blatantly obvious in a few more minutes.  “See something interesting?” 

Cat glanced away, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Care to share with me why you’re angry, or were you just making general observations about me?”

“Your surveyor is here.”

Surveyor?  Oh no!  He’d forgotten to tell his secretary to cancel that.  He’d been so sure that Cat would take his first offer to buy her out, that he’d ordered a surveyor out here before he’d ever left Boston.

He rubbed his hand over his conflict-stiffened neck.  Would she believe him if he told her that?  Her foot tapped a muted beat on the rug that covered the hardwood floor.  Arms crossed over her chest so tightly, it was a wonder she could breathe.  No, he didn’t think she was in any mood to listen to explanations.  So much for their peaceful reprieve from all the fighting.

“It’s only a survey, Cat.”  He laid his hand on her arm but she jerked it away.

“You plan to go ahead with your resort. You think you can just run right on over me and ignore my protests.  Well, not this time.”

“This time?”

Cat looked stunned for a minute, as if she’d just revealed a portion of her soul she’d meant to keep hidden.  Had her father ignored her protests?  Was that what she meant?

“I’m not selling.  Not now.  Not ever.  Got it?”

Anger burned through Gage. What right did she have to be so stubborn. This ranch was rightfully his.  Her father had practically stolen it out from under him.  She had to be aware of it.  She’d been old enough to realize that her father had a partner and then suddenly didn’t.  She’d been ten years old.  Not a baby.  But maybe, like her father, she felt no remorse.  If she had a shred of integrity, she would give him what was rightfully his, the ranch.  He’d offered her a fair price.

“I got it all right.  I’ve got your number perfectly.”  Gage gave her his coldest, most cutting look and strode from the room.  He had a survey waiting to be done.

The jarring slam of the front door signaled to Catherine that Gage was no longer in the house.  Her knees gave out and she sat down on the tangled sheets of the bed.  His raw, masculine scent still lingered.  She was a fool.  The whole time she’d been lambasting him, she’d also been thinking how irresistibly sexy he looked in his bare chest, with his sleep-tousled hair and stubble-roughened jaw.

No wonder her knees were weak.   Why oh why did she have to be attracted to Gage of all people? The only man in the world who’d ever tried to take the things she most loved from her was the only man she’d ever truly felt a spark for.  She must be twisted.

That was it. All those years of dealing with her father’s problems, the drinking, the gambling, the mood swings, had finally sent her over the edge.  She was probably imagining this whole thing from her padded cell, wearing a straitjacket from the Julia Bline Spring collection, complete with little purple lilacs embroidered on the sleeves.

But was the ranch the thing she most wanted in this world?  Or had it been what her father most wanted?  It didn’t matter.  She’d made a commitment to keep it running.

If she had considered selling him the ranch for a heartbeat earlier, it would never happen now.  Gage had just slapped her in the face with that surveyor.  He’d fired the first shot, the one heard around the mountainsides.  But she would be the soldier left standing. The battle lines had been clearly drawn.

chapter eight

The majestic stands of spruce had captured windblown snow from the alpine above to cast a glow across the base of the mountains.  Gage took a deep breath, allowing himself the luxury of smelling the crisp air, hearing the winds whispering in the high trees.

He loved this ranch, this land, and these mountains.  At eighteen he’d planned to make this place profitable by turning it into a dude ranch.  He would have the opportunity to live on the land his father had loved without the misery of constant worry over money that his family had experienced.

“Where you want me to start?”  Rick came to an abrupt halt.

“I thought the resort would look best nestled against the backdrop of the mountains.”

Rick set up his equipment and began taking measurements.  Not only was Rick a faithful employee but Gage considered him a friend.  They’d often had long discussions and debates.

“Rick, do you think dreams change?”

“Sure they do, buddy.”  Rick adjusted his tripod to another angle.  “We’re not static, two-dimensional people.  We change and grow, depending on our experiences.”

Gage relaxed a little.  “When I was eighteen, the only thing I wanted was to live on this ranch.”

“So, what stopped you?”

Gage frowned.  “I made the mistake of taking on a partner who was a con-artist.”

Rick looked up from his speculations.  “I can’t imagine you being conned, Gage, even at eighteen.”

Gage nodded.  “He swindled my mother.”

Rick whistled through his teeth.  “I see.  That lady back there wouldn’t have anything to do with all of this would she?”

“She’s the man’s daughter.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“She owns half of this place, but refuses to sell.  No matter how much I offer her.”

“Maybe you just haven’t found the right amount.”

Gage shook his head.  “I don’t know.  I offered her four times what this place is worth.  She didn’t bite.  Maybe some dreams can’t be bought.”

“Maybe you need to up your ante again.  Everyone has a price.”

Gage observed the sour expression on his friend’s face.  He’d once thought the same thing.  Now he wasn’t so certain.  Still, it couldn’t hurt to try one last time.

The sharp, pungent snap of smoldering pine cones greeted Gage when he returned to the house.  Catherine had started a fire in the fireplace and he stripped off his coat and gloves before going to warm his hands before it.

“Get your plans all drawn up?” she sneered.

“Not quite.  It was just a survey of the land.”

“Humph.”  Catherine snatched a book off the end table and buried her nose in it.

Gage strode to her and ripped the book from her fingers.

She made a snatch for it.  “Hey!  I was reading that.”

“Upside down?  Interesting way to read.”

Her cheeks flushed bright red.  “Give me my book,” she said through clenched teeth.

“After we talk.”  He sat down on the couch next to her.  Catherine bolted to her feet.  Gage followed. 

“We have nothing to talk about.  Nothing.”

“I want to make it very clear to you exactly what I’m offering.”

“I know what you’re offering.  I’m not interested.”  Her icy-blue gaze raked over him with disdain and Gage had the sudden urge to rub his hand over the back of his neck.

“I will give you enough money that you never have to work.  Just think of the opportunities you can give your baby.”

Her pointed little chin jutted up and out.  “The answer is no.”

“Not only that but you can’t properly care for a child and run this ranch.  I think you know that.  You’re just being stubborn.”  Surely she had to see this?  It would be hard enough on her being a single parent, but add running this place on top of it and it became impossible.  He forced himself away from the thought of her trying to cope with a child on her own.  There was no reason for him to care one way or the other unless it affected her selling him her portion of the ranch.

“No.”  She turned away.

“Cat, surely you don’t want to waste your life--”

Catherine spun around and planted her hands on her hips.  “The answer was no yesterday.  It’s no today.  And it will be no tomorrow.  It doesn’t matter how much money you offer or how you try to manipulate me.  You won’t get this ranch unless I die.”  Pivoting toward the door, she stomped from the room and up the stairs, noisily hitting the third stair from the top and causing the old house to groan.

Okay, he’d been wrong.  Not everyone could be bought.  Apparently Cat couldn’t.  Either that or she was the most stubborn woman he’d ever met.  Possibly both.  He felt a reluctant tug of admiration.

What a shame her spirit and determination weren’t fighting for his cause.  He’d be sure to win against the strongest opponent.  They would make quite a team.

Gage’s thoughts skidded to a screeching halt like they’d slammed up against the hard surface of the mountains.  A team.  What if he could somehow turn this partnership into a team effort?  Would she be in his corner?  Then maybe he could get her cooperation on some of these issues.  As it stood now, he couldn’t move ahead with any plans for the ranch. She would block him every step of the way.

But, how could he convince her that a fifty-fifty partnership wasn’t such a bad proposal?  Remembering her fascination with his barely clothed body, he grinned.  He’d thought before that the best way to keep her from arguing with him was to kiss her.  Perhaps the best way to get her to agree with him was to seduce her.

But even as the thought crossed his mind, he dismissed it.  Cat was pregnant with another man’s baby; he shouldn’t even be thinking of getting involved.  He wondered where the father was.  If she was pregnant, she was the type who had been in a committed relationship...

Committed.  He probably should be for what he was thinking, but what if he wooed her?  Asked for her hand in marriage?  It was a crazy, erratic thought and yet, when the issue of the ranch wasn’t between them they got along well enough.  There was a definite physical attraction.  And Cat needed someone to care for her and the child she was carrying.  He could learn to love her child.  He’d only avoided taking a wife because he had yet to meet a woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But life with Cat would certainly never be dull.

He would have the best of both worlds.  Her fire and spirit in the bedroom and her loyalty and determination to help him with his business plans.  Gage grinned and threw a glance up the stairs.  Yes, it was time that Catherine Claiborne started to like him.  He’d charmed women before, this time wouldn’t be any different, except this time was for keeps.

* * *

“What is this?”  Catherine wrinkled her nose at the putrid smell drifting from the interior of the small brown sack.

“Pickle Ice Cream.”  Gage grinned proudly.

“Yuck!”  Catherine thrust the bag back at him.

“You don’t want it?” 

He looked so deflated for a moment that she almost snatched the bag back and forced herself to eat it.  His woeful eyes reminded her of a little boy who’d colored a picture only to be told he hadn’t stayed in the lines.

“Would you like it?” 

Gage shrugged.  “No.  But I’m not pregnant.”

Catherine barely managed to suppress a grimace.  That pregnant thing again.  How long would it come back to haunt her?  About nine months?

“Thanks for the thought, Gage.  But I really can’t eat that.  My stomach won’t take it.”

“Oh, I knew that.”  He rushed to the counter and spilled out some crackers, grabbed an already opened can of soda and carried them back to her.  “Soda crackers and flat lemon-lime cola.”  He placed them in front of her as if they were the most precious gemstones.

Catherine looked at them, told her stomach to quit doing flip-flops and forced herself to nibble on one.  She really shouldn’t care if she hurt his feelings.  Besides, she was feeling just the tiniest bit queasy.  She would just have a couple of them.  For her own sake, to settle her stomach. That was the only reason.

Gage moved behind her and gently messaged the tense muscles in her shoulders. 

“Now what are you doing?”  Catherine raised her hands and tried to push his away but he refused to move them.

“Don’t pregnant women’s backs hurt?”

Catherine wanted to scream.  Did he have to throw her lie in her face every two seconds?  Of course he didn’t know it was a lie.  Or did he?  Maybe that’s what this was all about.

“Why are you doing all this?” she asked suspiciously.

Gage hooked his foot around the chair closest to her and sat down.  “I just want to get to know my partner better. Where’s the crime in that?”

Catherine narrowed her eyes.  “If you think you can charm me into selling out to you...”

“No.  I promise you will never hear another word from me about buying this ranch from you.”

“You don’t actually think we can work together?”

“I do.  I think we should call a truce.”  His mouth tilted up into that slightly lopsided grin.  Catherine thought it was probably a good thing he wasn’t offering to buy the ranch at that moment.  When he smiled like that, she would agree to anything.  Almost.

“A truce?”

“Christmas is three days away.  I don’t want to spend the holidays fighting with you.”

Catherine felt a lump of emotion ease down her throat.  This would be the first Christmas without her father.  Not that they ever really did much for Christmas, but at least she’d known he was in his room passed out. 

“I don’t either.”

Gage reached across the table and rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip. Catherine started to shake, tried to press herself into her chair to stop it, and failed miserably. Gage chuckled deep in his throat.

“Then it’s a deal. We’ll call a truce and enjoy Christmas.”

Gage’s eyes dropped to her lips and Catherine wet them nervously.  “Deal.”

Gage half stood, leaned over her.  “I think we should seal it.”  His lips closed over hers before she could protest.

Catherine let him tease her lips, stoking the fires that had been banked within her.  He ran his tongue across the center of her lips, and she opened to him.  He tasted like Christmas candy canes.  Catherine groaned and moved deeper into the kiss but Gage was already pulling back.

Why was he stopping?  Didn’t he like her kisses?  And why should she care?  She didn’t really want him to kiss her.  It would be better if he was disgusted by her kisses.  At least then she wouldn’t be forced to endure them.

“Do you have any  Christmas decorations around here?”

His green eyes sparkled.

“In the attic.”

“I’m going to go get us a tree.”  He moved toward the hall.

“Not without me, you aren’t.”

“Cat, it’s freezing out there.  Let me do it.”

“No.  I go get the tree every year.  It’s a sort of tradition.  I hadn’t planned on having one this year but if we’re going to I want to help chop it down.”

“Then bundle up.” 

* * *

Gage set a fast pace and Catherine struggled to keep up. She would never admit it. She’d insisted on coming along, and she refused to slow him down.

“This one.”  Gage stood in front of a seven foot Aspen.

“No.  Not that one.”  Catherine tugged on his sleeve.

“And just what was wrong with that tree?”

“It’s beautiful.” 

He chuckled. “That’s a problem?  You want an ugly tree?”

“Not really.  I just can’t bear to cut down something so majestic.”

“So, what do we do for a tree?”

“Follow me.”  Catherine took big steps through the snow, leading him to the edge of a line of trees.  “Over there.”

He followed the direction of her pointing finger.  “That thing?  You’re kidding right?”

“Please Gage.  It’s dying anyway.  I know it isn’t the prettiest tree but it won’t survive ‘till spring.  This is its one chance at beauty.”  Catherine could feel her eyes misting over with emotion. 

“You really do love this land, don’t you?”  Gage’s voice was filled with a quiet acceptance.

“I love every tree, stream, and mountain peak.”

Saying the words freed her to an extent.  Yes, someday she wanted to see the world.  But through being forced to stay here and help her father care for the place, it had crept into her heart and rooted itself there.  She still wanted to take more risks, live a little, break free from her normal, dull self.  But she now realized it was possible to do that right where she was.

Her gaze landed on Gage.  What better place to start than by allowing a friendship to form between her and Gage?  True, she’d never really wanted a partner, but that had been the old Catherine.  The new Catherine realized it would give her a little time to pursue some outside interests.  She might even take a couple of classes at one of the nearby colleges. When money was better, maybe she could take a trip somewhere.