The Rancher's Lullaby (Glades County Cowboys) (12 page)

He turned in his saddle, surprised to see that Lisa and Puck lagged farther behind than he’d thought. Waiting for them to catch up, he signaled Gold to a halt. But Puck veered off the trail, his head dropping toward a clump of tender grass shoots that grew around a small windfall. The hair on the back of Garrett’s neck came to attention.

“Lisa,” he called. “Rein in.”

Before she could, a loud hissing scream rent the quiet. A streak of tawny brown fur shot out from the weeds and the jumble of downed tree limbs. Puck’s eyes flared when a large tailless cat burst into view right beneath his nose. The gelding’s ears flattened. He snorted and backed away, but the cat darted through his legs. It dove into another patch of dense scrub. Grass rustled and branches crackled as it disappeared.

Garrett held his breath, his eyes on Puck. The horse’s front legs rose. Too far away to do a damn thing to help, he watched while Lisa shouted and grabbed for the pommel. In the process, she dropped the reins. Still hissing, the bobcat snarled from its new hiding place. Puck reacted to the noise and the loose reins the only way he could. He ran.

Garrett swore time stopped. With Lisa hanging on for all she was worth, horse and rider flew past him. He kneed Gold after the runaway, all the while telling himself Lisa wasn’t in any danger. Not really. Not as long as she kept her balance and her seat.

“Hang on,” he called. He spurred Gold, urging the quarter horse to go faster. Just the same, his heart pounded. He had to reach her, had to get to her before she fell.

Puck galloped fifty yards before he ran out of steam. Blowing air and shaking his head, the horse finally slowed to a walk. Meanwhile, Lisa sat ramrod straight, her white fingers clutching the pommel as if she’d never let go. A scattering of freckles stood out against skin that had gone ghostly pale.

Garrett’s stomach plummeted. Beneath him, Gold side-stepped, probably reacting to the reek of fresh cat piss that permeated the air.

“Easy, boy,” he murmured. He shortened the distance between the horses. When he’d gone as far as he dared, he dismounted. Hastily he draped Gold’s reins over a tree branch. Small twigs crunched beneath his boots as he approached the runaway and its rider.

“Hey, boy. It’s all right,” he murmured soothingly. Holding his breath lest the horse spook again, he grabbed the reins that trailed in the dust. Once he had them wrapped around his wrist, he let out so much air that he shuddered. At last, he turned to Lisa. “Want some help down?”

His arms instantly filled with her trembling curves. He pressed her to his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” he murmured into her hair. “I should never have put you on Puck. I shouldn’t have ridden ahead. It was my fault. Are you all right?”

She lifted her face to his. “I’m fine, Garrett. A little shaken up, maybe—”

She laughed, but he heard the nervousness in her voice. He clutched her tighter. “I don’t know what I’d ever do if I lost you.”

The moment the words spilled from his lips, he knew. Knew their friendship had grown far beyond the bounds she’d set for them. He leaned down, searching her face, praying for some sign things had changed for her, too. The flicker of awareness he saw in her dark eyes gave him just what he was looking for.

Heaven help him, he had to kiss her. He bent and put his heart into it.

Trailing kisses down her cheek, across her jaw, he finally reached her lips. Gently he explored them. He wanted more but refused to rush, refused to take more than she was willing to give. When she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close, a groan rose in his chest. Her lips parted and he swept in, possessing her. Their tongues danced until he swore every drop of blood in his body headed south. Her ponytail had curled forward. He brushed it aside to sprinkle kisses along her chin until he reached the soft hollow at the base of her throat. Her unique floral scent filled his senses. He drank it in, unable to get enough of her. He traced the outline of her jaw with one thumb.

He stared down into her dark eyes. A bemused look filled her face. “Now what?” he whispered.

* * *

I
N
TIMES
OF
extreme danger, your life flashes before your eyes.

Lisa guessed there was some truth in the old saying, because hers certainly had when Puck bolted. Only, she hadn’t expected Garrett to star in every scene. Lying beside her the night of the storm. The protective stance he’d taken against her ex. The brush of his fingertips against her chin when he wiped ice cream from her cheek. His strong fingers strumming his six-string. His clear voice providing harmony as she sang. His tenderness toward his family. How hard he worked to be a good father for LJ.

She loved him, she admitted to herself, staring up at him. She’d known it for a while but had been afraid to let herself think the words. Seeing the same emotion reflected in his blue eyes, she sighed.

He had asked what they should do next but, in her mind, there was only one thing to do: kiss him again. She meant to stand her ground, but her feet betrayed her. She shifted forward, letting him know she couldn’t wait another second for his touch. As she rose on tiptoe to meet him, his lips grazed hers. She moaned and let her eyes drift shut as she sank against him. But when his tongue teased her mouth, she forced her lids open again. She wanted to drink in every facet of the tall rancher, from the broad planes of his cheeks to the dark stubble that shadowed his chin. His touch ignited the smoldering fire she’d oh-so-carefully banked while they prepared for the roundup. The velvet surface of his tongue fanned those flames, sending desire racing through her core.

His hand on her waist drew her until she pressed against him. She wanted him closer still and skimmed one palm up his arm to a wide shoulder. The tension she’d been carrying simply melted away as she sank into a second kiss, and then a third. Soon, kisses weren’t enough. She wanted more. Longed for his touch on her skin. Wanted to run her hand along the narrowness of his waist. Wanted to find the nearest cool, shady spot and stretch out beside him. She would, too, except there were snakes and spiders and all manner of creatures—including bobcats—roaming around.

Stepping out of Garrett’s embrace, she tugged her lip between her teeth. “We should get back, don’t you think?” If they lingered much longer, someone might send out a search party.

She loved it when Garrett leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “A blanket under a tree in the woods isn’t what I envisioned for our first time, either.”

Pleased that they were thinking along the same lines, she gave his arm a playful tap. “You forget, cowboy. It won’t be our first time.”

A faraway look glimmered in Garrett’s eyes. She’d noticed it before and wondered what he was thinking. Now she knew he was reliving the night they’d spent together. The way she’d treasured those same memories.

This time, when Garrett offered to help her into the saddle, she reveled in the way his hands circled her waist. Mounting up, he leaned in for a kiss that lasted until the horses stomped their hooves, their weight shifting.

“Guess Puck wants to head for the barn,” Garrett said with a slow grin.

“And who can blame him? After the scare he’s had.” She brushed aside a tiny lingering fear the same way she brushed aside the fly that landed on Puck’s mane. She trusted Garrett to take care of her...and her heart. He was everything she’d been looking for, when she hadn’t even known she was looking.

An uneventful ride took them to the barn, where they turned the horses over to one of the stable boys. As they headed for the house, Garrett’s hand on her shoulder sent a more-than-friends warmth straight through her. When they walked into the kitchen, she didn’t bother trying to hide her smile at the way his fingers threaded through hers.

His mom turned away from the sink as they came in. “You’re back earlier than I expected.” Her eyes narrowed at them. “Is everything all right?”

Suddenly self-conscious, Lisa brushed a hand over hair that had worked its way free of its rubber band.

A frown crossed Doris’s lined lips. “What happened?” she demanded.

Lisa froze, not ready to share the pleasant interlude she and Garrett had spent in the woods. She needn’t have worried. The protective rancher angled his wide shoulders in front of her.

“Puck spooked. Ran off with Lisa.”

Doris gasped. She stepped forward, fear shining in her blue eyes. “Are you all right?” she asked.

Subjected to a scouring gaze, Lisa waved the older woman’s concerns aside. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “It was nothing. I stayed in the saddle. I didn’t fall. I did everything the way Garrett taught me. He’s a very good teacher.”

A clatter of boots in the hallway drew everyone’s attention just before Jimmy burst into the room.

“The puppies were neat, Gramma. LJ fell down in a heap in the middle of them. He didn’t want to leave. He cried all the way home.” The boy glanced at Garrett. “Mom says to come get him. He pooped his diaper and she didn’t have a new one. The truck stinks! Can I have something to eat?”

“There’s pound cake on the counter.” Doris squeezed the sponge and set it in the dish drainer.

“Thanks.” Barely slowing on his way through the kitchen, Jimmy grabbed the top slice off the tray. “I’ll be in the barn with Niceta.”

“I’ll see to LJ,” Garrett announced as the screen door slammed in Jimmy’s wake. “After that, maybe Lisa and I’ll take him back to Hank’s. I’ve got a hankering to see those new pups, too.”

“Don’t you bring any pets into this house, Garrett Judd.” His mom swatted him with the kitchen towel.

The big man rolled one shoulder. Lisa’s grin deepened when he winked at her. “Every boy needs a dog.” Whistling, he tromped down the hall.

Her hands on her hips, Doris turned to Lisa. “You should sit down. You sure you’re all right? No cramping? No...anything?”

Lisa ignored Doris’s questions. She had a few of her own. What was up with the older woman today? Garrett’s mom had never struck her as the nosy type, but she’d been acting strange all afternoon.

Doris balled the dish towel and tossed it into the sink. “You can’t be that far along. You should take it easy. Maybe give up the riding lessons until—” she paused “—until later.”

Along...?
Lisa started. Doris thought she was pregnant?

She bit back a laugh. If Garrett’s mom only knew how much she wished that were true. Her hand dropped to her midsection as her breath caught in her throat.

Was it possible?

Back when she still believed things would happen naturally, before a hundred trips to different fertility specialists, she’d studied the symptoms of pregnancy until she could recite them in her sleep. A missed period, sensitivity to smells, fatigue, nausea. Lately, she’d experienced all the signs, but she also had a perfectly valid, nonpregnant explanation for each. She’d never been regular; it was one of the reasons why conception had been so difficult. As for the fatigue, show her the owner of a struggling business who wasn’t tired all the time. An upset stomach didn’t count when a bad sandwich caused it. She’d chalked her recent aversion to coffee up to stress.

But what if she’d been wrong? What if the one thing she wanted more than anything else in the world had actually happened?

A sudden light-headedness sent the room spinning. She sank onto the chair.

Was. She. Pregnant? With Garrett’s child? Because it would have to be his. There’d been no one else.

“I have to go,” she murmured. “Tell Garrett I’m sorry, but I had to leave.”

Without another word she headed for her car and the closest drug store. One that sold the kind of test she thought she’d never need. Ever.

Chapter Nine

“Want to see the doggies again?” Garrett leaned over LJ.

“Dug-dug.” Pointing, his son struggled to turn over. Garrett held him in place long enough to tape on a new diaper.

“Want to go with Lisa and me to pick out a puppy?” He tried out the phrase that carried far more meaning than it had this morning. Him and Lisa. A couple. He’d denied his feelings for as long as he could, but he’d fallen in love with Lisa Rose.

Slipping LJ into a clean pair of shorts, he envisioned the future. With the proceeds from his house in Atlanta, he could afford a place of his own, a smaller version of the Circle P. Someplace where he and Lisa would share their first cups of coffee in their own roomy kitchen before he headed for the barn each morning. When he came home from a hard day of working cattle, she and their children would be waiting on the wide front porch to greet him.

The dream had flaws, and he blinked, forcing himself to face them. For one thing, the woman he’d fallen for had a business of her own to run. For another, LJ was, and always would be, an only child. He gritted his teeth, imagining his young son trying to fill the hours of long, lonely summer afternoons.

Growing up on the Circle P with Ty and four brothers, he’d always had someone to play with, whether it was pirates in the hay loft, cowboys and Indians in the barn, or swimming in the creek on a lazy afternoon. Try as he might, he couldn’t see Bree yelling “Geronimo!” as she swung out over their swimming hole any more than he could envision a teenage Noelle playing tag with his preschooler.

But, he was getting ahead of himself. He scooped up a freshly diapered and dressed LJ. He and Lisa had admitted their feelings for one another. That didn’t mean they had the future all neatly wrapped up with a bow. For a while, they’d take things slow and easy. He nodded, thinking of long kisses and lazy Sunday afternoons. Still smiling, he hoisted LJ to one hip and headed to the kitchen, where Lisa waited.

Except the only woman in the room was the one who’d raised him. He glanced out the window. Lisa’s familiar sedan had disappeared.

“Hey,” he said, settling LJ into his high chair for an afternoon snack. “Lisa left? We had plans.”

“She took off. Didn’t bother to explain. She just went. Guess you’ll have to ask her about it at the next jam session.”

Not before?

At the sink, his mom busied herself washing dishes. Garrett resisted an urge to scratch his head. His mom hated doing dishes. She’d always foisted that job off on him and his brothers when they were young. Seeing her standing at the sink was almost as strange as Lisa’s leaving without saying goodbye.

“Did something happen between the two of you?” He tried to imagine the two women in a fight and failed. In all of his thirty-six years, he could count the number of times Doris had lost her temper on the fingers of one hand.

“Like what? I hardly know her.”

One glimpse of his mother’s rigid posture put Garrett on alert. Doris might not have raised her voice, but she had other ways of imposing her will. The cold shoulder worked effectively, and he sensed she’d given it to Lisa.

“Mom, I like her,” he began, not ready to admit how badly he’d fallen for the musician. “I thought you did, too. Weren’t you the one who asked her to the Circle P in the first place?”

“As a potential employee.” Doris plunged her hands into the soapy water. “If I’d dreamed you’d be interested in her, I might not have been so quick to act. Are you sure you know her well enough to get—” she paused “—
involved
with her?”

Garrett ran a hand through his hair. Between supervising things on the Circle P and his newfound fatherhood, he didn’t have a lot of free time. Time a single man might devote to dating. What little he’d had of it these past six weeks, he’d spent with Lisa. They’d talked for hours in the break room of her store. They’d shared each other’s histories while he gave her instructions on horseback riding. He’d listened, really listened, while she played with LJ. As a result, he knew more about the town’s newest business owner than his mom gave him credit for.

“She has two sisters and a brother. She grew up singing in a family band with her folks. They still live in Virginia. One of her sisters runs a health-food store.”

Turning from the sink, his mom dried her hands on a dish towel. “I didn’t ask for a resume, Garrett. What do you really know about her? What makes you think she’s here to stay?”

She loves me. Isn’t that reason enough?
Apparently not, because his mother refused to back down.

“She’s a good person,” he insisted. “She’s building a life here. She’s taken that run-down store and turned it into a great little shop. She’s getting involved in the community, making long-term plans.” He poked LJ in the tummy just to listen to the boy laugh. “I think LJ is growing on her.”

“I heard she was married.”

His jaw flexed. “Divorced.”

“Her ex. What do you know about him? Is he still in the picture?”

“I don’t see that it’s any of your business.” His mom could be stubborn when she put her mind to it, but she’d always made a point of letting her sons find their own way. Not this time. This time she gave him the same look she’d used to ferret answers out of him as a kid. He shrugged, defeated. “I met him. Once. He dropped off a box of Lisa’s things while I was in the shop. I didn’t like him much.”

“So.” Doris pulled the plug. Water gurgled down the drain. “She still sees him.”

Garrett swallowed a grin. His mom had always been a grizzly bear where her children were concerned, but she didn’t need to give Lisa’s ex another thought. “Brad—his name’s Brad. He has a new wife. A baby on the way. He wanted Lisa to rejoin ’Skeeter Creek. She turned him down cold.”

“That woman wants a baby more than anyone I’ve ever known.” The dish towel hanging limply from her grasp, Doris folded her arms. “You’ve made no secret how you feel about another child, son. Unless your feelings have changed, you need to think long and hard about a relationship with her.”

“We’ve talked about it.” Garrett nodded. Lisa’s inability to get pregnant was her business, not information he was entitled to share. Even with his mother. Especially with his mother. He grabbed a box of Cheerios and spilled a handful of cereal onto LJ’s tray.

“I’m gonna mosey into town and get a haircut.” He ran a hand through hair that had grown a bit shaggy. “I won’t be gone long. Watch LJ for me.”

Refusing to take no for an answer, he stood. But Doris stepped in front of him. She blocked his path to the door. “I just want you to go slow, son. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

His mom had good instincts. Instincts he usually trusted. But not this time. This time, she was wrong.

* * *

L
ISA
DARTED
DOWN
the aisle of the CVS. She grabbed the first early pregnancy test she found off the drugstore shelf. The cardboard box fell into her basket with a thump. Stopping for air, she studied the other brands that crowded the shelves. Each promised to provide the fastest, most accurate readings available. Just to be sure, she grabbed one of each. She skulked around the vitamin aisle until no one waited to check out at the register. It didn’t take a native to know that gossip marched down Okeechobee’s main street faster than a high school band. The last thing she needed was one of her customers casually glancing over the items in her cart and jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Because she couldn’t be pregnant. No matter how many pregnancy symptoms she checked off, it wasn’t possible.

But what if she was?

Her heart thudded so hard her whole body trembled. When the clerk rang up her total, Lisa fumbled the first swipe of her card through the scanner. Apologizing to the matron behind the register, she swiped the card again and held her breath until the charges went through. The woman stapled her purchases into a plain paper bag without comment, and Lisa gratefully clutched the sack to her chest. Her heels rang against the tiles, each step sounding out the rhythm of “I Hope You Dance.” In the blistering late summer heat, her tires played the tune all the way to her parking spot behind Pickin’ Strings.

In her apartment, she tore into the first box with shaking fingers. The veins in her neck pulsed as she scanned instructions in a dozen different languages. By the time she found the ones in English, she thought her head might explode. She ran a finger down the steps. A recommendation to take the test first thing in the morning gave her a moment’s pause.

“Not gonna happen,” she whispered. She couldn’t wait. Couldn’t live through the night without knowing the answer to the most important question of her life.

She ducked into the bathroom. Five minutes later, she emerged, shaking worse than ever before. Questions crowded her head, each one more important than the other. How had it happened? How had she gotten pregnant? Not the deed. She knew exactly when and where, but how? After she’d tried every conceivable route to pregnancy, why now? Why with Garrett?

She sank onto a kitchen chair. The clock above the stove ticked away the minutes. The refrigerator hummed. On the street below, a horn honked. Still she sat, trying to absorb the news.

Her stomach rumbled. The faintest wave of nausea rolled through her midsection. Remembering the settling effects of Doris’s tea, she boiled water. She’d taken a cup from the cabinet and unwrapped a tea bag when she recalled hearing that pregnant women should avoid caffeine. Pregnant, she thought, and shook her head.

After booting up her laptop, she searched for foods an expectant mother should avoid...or eat. The list was so overwhelming that she settled on a cup of hot water and a package of store-bought vanilla cookies she scrounged from a box in the pantry. She reached for a pad of paper, intending to write out a grocery list. When she stopped, the list of things she needed to buy stretched for three pages and included a crib, an infant seat and a high chair.

Slow down, she told herself. She’d have months to make these purchases. Tension wasn’t good for the baby.

The baby.
Awed, she cupped her hands protectively over her tummy. She closed her eyes, determined to do nothing but enjoy the moment. Tears dampened her cheeks. She let them flow without making an effort to stop them. A sudden urge to talk to her mom swept through her, and she reached for her cell phone. Her fingers hovered over the screen. She dropped the phone on the table. She couldn’t tell her folks. She couldn’t tell anyone. Not before she told Garrett.

Garrett
. She tugged a loose strand of hair. She had to tell him. He deserved to know he was going to be a father. She closed her eyes, willed herself to picture the rancher’s face when she gave him the news. He was bound to be surprised, shocked even. She had, after all, sworn she couldn’t get pregnant. And she’d been wrong. She imagined the rancher’s hand on her growing belly. Saw his face light up when he felt the baby—their baby—move for the first time. She could practically see him cradling their infant daughter or newborn son in his strong, tanned arms.

And if not? Garrett had said he didn’t want another child. She stared down at her still-flat belly. She really had no choice. Miracles like this came along only once in a lifetime.

She’d barely swallowed the last cookie when a knock at the door startled her. Lisa rose slowly. Spying Garrett through the peephole, she hurriedly blotted her cheeks and ran her fingers through her hair.

“Are you all right?” he blurted the moment she swung the door wide. “You had to have been scared when Puck took off. It’s okay if you were too shaken to stay this afternoon. As long as you weren’t hurt. You weren’t hurt, were you?”

Hurt, no. Shaken?
She was shaken all right, but it didn’t have anything to do with a runaway horse. Exercising every ounce of willpower she possessed, Lisa managed not to cup a protective hand over her midsection as she stared at the man who’d driven thirty miles to check up on her.

“You didn’t need to come all this way, Garrett. I’m fine,” she insisted. “In fact, I was just heading out to the grocery store. It can wait. Come on in. What made you think something was wrong?” She was babbling and took a shuddery breath. She had no business asking Garrett into her apartment when home pregnancy tests lined the counter in her bathroom. Especially not since each one displayed distinctly positive results.

She eyed the tall rancher as she searched for the right words to tell him what he deserved to hear from her own lips, but the moment he stepped into her apartment, she lost her train of thought. A thrill shimmied through her at how lucky they’d been in finding one another.

He peered down at her, concern filling his blue eyes. “I thought we were going to spend the afternoon with LJ. When you left all of a sudden, I thought maybe something was wrong between you and Mom. You two didn’t get into a fight, did you?”

“No, not at all.” Dismissive, Lisa brushed a hand through the air.

Garrett gave a brief nod before he posed another question. “Is it LJ, then? Am I asking you to spend too much time with him?”

“Just the opposite.” Now that she was going to have a baby of her own, she probably ought to get as much on-the-job training as she could. And what better child to learn from than Garrett’s own son? “I love doing things with LJ. He’s the sweetest kid.” She batted her eyes, teasing. “Just like his dad.”

Truth be told, she’d fallen just as hard for Garrett’s child as she had for him. Already she looked forward to walking the boy to the bus stop on his first day of school, waiting for him to come home each afternoon. She’d teach him to play the guitar and hold her breath while Garrett gave him riding lessons. They’d bake cookies together and eat them warm from the oven. At that last thought, she smothered a laugh. Okay, she corrected, maybe they’d go to the bakery together and reheat the cookies in the microwave.

“You’re so good with him, Garrett. It’s easy to see how much you love him.”

A troubled look darkened the rancher’s blue eyes. “It wasn’t always like that. Not so long ago, I could barely stand to be in the same room with the boy.”