Her Rugged Rancher (13 page)

Shivering slightly, she hugged her arms to her chest. “So what happened? How did you go from your grandfather demanding you become a miner, to working as a cowboy?”

Noah shut the window, then took her by the shoulder. “You're cold. Let's go back to bed.”

Once they were under the covers and Bella's head was pillowed on his shoulder, he asked, “Warm now?”

“Mmm. Just right.” She hugged her arm around his chest. “Now finish telling me about your grandfather.”

She wasn't going to let the story of his young life die. Not until he'd finished the whole thing. But oddly enough, now that Noah had started talking, it was far easier than he'd expected.

“There's not a whole lot more to tell, Bella. I learned early on that it was useless to argue my point. So I kept quiet and stayed out of his way as much as I could. When I was fourteen a friend found us a job on a nearby ranch mucking out horse stalls. We were too young to drive, so every day we had to walk five miles out from town and back. But we didn't mind. I fell in love with the livestock and the land and decided I wanted to become a rancher. The foreman was a nice guy and could see I wanted to learn. He and the hands took me under their wings, taught me how to rope and ride and deal with livestock.”

“So how long did you work there?”

“For the next four summers. That was long enough to learn about the work involved in keeping a ranch going.”

“From living on the J Bar S, I've learned it's never-ending work,” she replied, then asked, “How did your grandfather feel about all this? Was he proud you were learning a trade?”

He snorted. “Proud? Oh, Bella. He didn't see me as a grandson. He saw me as a nuisance. As soon as I turned eighteen and graduated high school, I went off on my own and I've been taking care of myself ever since.”

“Did you ever go back to visit your grandparents?”

He sighed. “I've gone back to Benson once and that was to attend my grandmother's funeral. She'd been a good woman and deserved more than what she'd gotten from her husband. Then three years later I learned Granddad had died. But by the time I'd heard about him passing, he'd already been buried. Which was just as well. I don't think I would have gone to say goodbye to him.”

When several moments passed and she didn't say anything Noah decided he'd finally managed to break through to her. The account of his childhood had succeeded in bursting the fairy-tale bubble she'd built around him. They weren't from the same stock. In a few minutes she'd find some excuse to get dressed and make a beeline back to her fancy house. He should be feeling relief; instead he felt dead inside.

Finally, she said, “When you first told me how your father dumped you onto your grandparents, I wondered how a man could do such a thing. How he could turn out to be such a callous and, frankly, worthless human being? But it's easy to understand now. He didn't know how to love you or be a father. How could he? He'd never had a loving father to teach him.”

“I didn't have one, either, Bella. It's a defect in my family that's been passed on and on. That's why it has to stop with me. That's why I'm not about to father a child or take a wife.”

She lifted her head to look at him. “Cycles can be broken, Noah. And you're strong enough to break it. That is, if you want to.”

Did he want to break the cycle and be everything his father and grandfather hadn't been? There'd been plenty of times Noah had watched Jett interacting with his children and he'd wondered how it would be to have a little person of his own to look to him for love and guidance and security. To have a part of him live on through his children was something most every man wanted. But Noah could see that being a father was a job that was far too complex for him to handle. Still, the idea that she believed in him, even after all that he'd revealed about himself, was enough to warm his heart.

Beneath the covers his hand slipped up and down her arm. “This guy you're going to defend. I'm glad you're taking his case.”

Her head stirred against his shoulder and he knew she was studying his face in the darkness.

“You are? Why?”

“Because sometimes a guy just needs someone to believe in him.”

Shifting so that her upper body was lying across his chest, she brought her lips next to his. “We all need that, my dear Noah.”

Like a soppy fool, emotions filled his throat and made it impossible to speak. But Noah figured he'd already said more than enough tonight.

With a groan of fresh desire, he deepened the kiss and when her arms fastened tightly around him, he pushed everything from his mind, except making love to Bella.

* * *

On Thursday of
the following week, on her way home from work, Bella stopped by Jett and Sassy's to spend a few minutes with her nephews and niece.

When she entered the house, she found Sassy in the kitchen dicing vegetables and cutting strips of beef to make fajitas. Skyler, her three-year-old daughter, was sitting on the floor with a coloring book and a small box of crayons. The girl was dressed in jeans and boots, while the flowered headband holding back her strawberry curls gave her a sweet, girly look.

The minute she spotted Bella entering the room, she raced over and hugged her little arms tightly around her legs.

“Auntie Bella! Look, Mommy! Auntie Bella is here!”

The tall woman with a thick red French braid hanging against her back, turned away from her task at the cabinet to greet Bella.

“Well, hello, stranger,” she said with a wide smile. “I was beginning to wonder if you'd disowned us or something. You haven't stopped by in days.”

Bella reached down and lifted Skyler into her arms, then cuddling the girl close to her, she walked over to Sassy.

“I've been extra busy this week,” she told her sister-in-law.

“Jett tells me the office is getting busier and busier.”

Work wasn't the only thing that had kept Bella busy this past week. Each evening she'd been racing home, hoping that Noah would stop by to spend time with her.

The night she'd spent with Noah at his cabin had been magical and the next morning she'd emerged into a different world. Everything around her had seemed bright and vividly alive. Each minute of every day was special because it brought her that much closer to being in Noah's arms again.

Crazy or not, she'd given more to him that night than just her body. She'd given him her heart and everything that went with it. Her hopes and dreams and plans were all wrapped up in one tall, rugged rancher—even though she still had no idea what he was really thinking about her or the future.

Since then he had relented and stayed one night at her house. On another occasion, he'd eaten supper with her, but before the evening had progressed to the bedroom, he'd been called away on an emergency with a downed fence and loose cattle. That was three nights ago and she'd not heard from him since. The time apart was not only making her ache to see him, it was also making her wonder if something had caused him to change his mind about her and the two of them being together.

“Very busy. Peta doesn't want help, but we're going to have to hire another secretary soon. Are you sure you don't want the job?” Bella asked teasingly.

Sassy laughed. “Oh sure, why not? Between being a wife, mother, cook, housekeeper and ranch hand, I might as well add secretary.”

Bella chuckled. “I know I've said this a thousand times, Sassy, but you're incredible. Jett is a lucky man.”

A look of deep affection came over Sassy's lovely face. “No. You got it wrong, Bella. I'm the lucky one to have Jett.”

“And Gypsy, don't forget her,” Bella tacked on. Gypsy was a young Shoshone woman who worked during the day as the children's nanny. At night she went home to live with her grandparents in nearby Silver City.

“Yes, thank God for Gypsy,” Sassy replied. “I couldn't do half of what I do without her help. I just hope she waits a few years before she finds a man and starts having babies of her own.”

“Auntie Bella, we have a new baby!”

Skyler's announcement had her glancing down at the child, then tossing a questioning look at Sassy.

She let out a hearty laugh. “No. She doesn't mean that. Not yet.”

“Yet? So you and Jett are thinking about another baby soon?”

“Why stop at three?”

Why indeed, Bella thought. Her brother and sister-in-law were deeply in love and they cherished their children. At one time, Bella had expected to have her own family by this stage of her life. But a cheating husband and a bitter divorce had gotten in the way.

Before Bella could give Sassy a reply, Skyler's little hand was patting her cheek in an attempt to get her attention.

“The new baby has spots on his rump. And his legs go like this.” She made a wobbly gesture with her arms. “Mommy says he has to learn how to walk. Just like Mason.”

“Mason isn't walking now, is he?” Bella asked with dismay. “He's not old enough to pull that off.”

Smiling, Sassy turned back to her cutting board. “Skyler thinks her little brother is Superman. She believes Mason should be able to walk at seven months old. The baby she's talking about is our new colt. One of the mustang mares I got from Finn delivered her baby yesterday.”

“You wanna see him, Auntie Bella? He's pretty! And he's gonna be mine. Not J.J.'s!”

Laughing at Skyler's emphatic statement, she kissed her niece on the cheek and sat her back on the floor. “I'll have to look at this new baby when I have more time. I have to be heading home soon. By the way, where are your brothers?”

“Daddy took J.J. to the barn,” she answered in a sulky tone. “'Cause he's big. I'm big, too, see?”

Bella hid a smile as she watched her niece attempt to make a muscle in her arm.

Sassy groaned. “See,” she said to Bella. “Our daughter needs a little sister to have tea parties with and play dolls.”

“I don't wanna play with dolls,” Skyler argued. “I wanna play with the calves and the new baby horse.”

Bella laughed while Sassy shook her head with amused surrender.

“You go finish your coloring,” she said to Skyler, “and let me and Auntie Bella finish our talk.”

When the child finally made a move to do her mother's bidding, Sassy leveled a pointed look at Bella. “So tell me what's been going on,” Sassy urged. “Anything new?”

Only that I've fallen in love with the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. But he doesn't want to make anything permanent with me. That's all,
Bella silently answered her question. Aloud she said, “I've taken on a criminal case.”

“Yes, Jett mentioned that to me. I think he's a little concerned that you're stressing yourself over the case.”

She was stressing herself over Noah, but she couldn't tell Sassy such a thing. Her relationship with Noah was still something private between just the two of them.

Grimacing, Bella asked, “So my brother thinks I'm not experienced enough to handle it?”

“He didn't say that at all. He only said there's a lot of footwork and digging that goes with criminal cases. That's all.”

Bella sighed. “Sorry. I didn't mean to sound defensive. It's just that I've been trying all week to gather useful information that might prove my client's innocence. But so far I've not gotten a break. This afternoon, I met with his accuser and that didn't go well.” Pausing, she shook her head. “Actually the woman isn't the accuser, even though it was her jewelry that turned up missing. Her husband is the one who filed the charges.”

“You say it didn't go well. What happened? She wouldn't talk?”

“Frankly, something has the woman terrified and I believe it's her husband. Though she didn't tell me that outright. Anyway, I have to find a way to make her open up. Because I'm quite certain she knows far more than she's admitting.”

“Well, good luck there.” Glancing over her shoulder, she gave Bella a clever smile. “What about your love life? Met anyone new?”

Noah had been here on the J Bar S for more years than Bella. But it wasn't until a few weeks ago that she'd been handed the opportunity to say more than five words to him, see him without anyone else around to distract either one of them. No, he could hardly be considered a newcomer here, she thought, but everything she felt for the man was certainly fresh and new.

“No. Not exactly.”

Sassy whirled around, her expression eager. “Not exactly? Does that mean you've found someone you're getting interested in? Finally?”

Bella tiredly pushed a hand through her tumbled hair. “I guess you could say that.”

“Oh! Who is he? Do I know him?”

You see him every day in the ranch yard,
Bella wanted to say. Instead, she merely gave her sister-in-law a faint smile. “It's too early to talk about right now, Sassy.”

Clearly disappointed, Sassy asked, “Why? Is he married and trying to get a divorce or something?”

“No. Nothing like that. He's just not ready for a relationship.”

“Oh, I see.” Groaning, Sassy rolled her eyes. “A man finally comes along and turns your head, but he has cold feet. Maybe you ought to look elsewhere, Bella. If you have to drag a man to the altar, he's not worth having.”

Even Casper wouldn't be strong enough to pull Noah anywhere near a marriage altar, Bella thought ruefully. But it was too late for her to look at another man. Noah had already taken up a permanent position in her heart.

“You're right, Sassy. If you have to pull love out of a man like a tooth or a splinter, then you're not getting the real thing,” she said, then desperately needing to change the subject, she asked, “Is Mason asleep? I'd like to peek in on him before I go.”

“Gypsy took him to the nursery more than an hour ago to rock him to sleep. Another tooth is trying to come in so he's been fussy.” She motioned Bella out of the kitchen. “Go check on them. It's time he woke up anyway. Otherwise, he'll keep his parents awake all night.”