Home Is Where Hank Is (Cowboys To The Rescue 1) (17 page)

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Authors: Martha Shields

Tags: #Contemporary, #Romance, #Fiction, #Forever Love, #Adult, #Bachelor, #Single Woman, #Sensual, #Hearts Desire, #Harlequin Treasury, #Series, #Cowboys, #Rescue, #Family Life, #Western, #Rancher, #Rodeo, #Teenage Sister, #Caretaker, #Household, #Manage, #Persuade, #Reconcile, #Relationships, #Marriage Minded, #General Romance, #Silhouette, #1990's

BOOK: Home Is Where Hank Is (Cowboys To The Rescue 1)
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Against the circle of logs surrounding the area—felled decades ago to act as both benches and heat trap—lay an assortment of bodies wrapped in blankets. Which one was Alex?
Then he spied her, and a curse tore from his throat. Instead of being cozily snuggled in her bedroll, she leaned against a log on the opposite side of the fire, fast asleep, chin on her chest.
He started around the fire, then saw a pot still on the grate over the flames. Grabbing the tongs on one rock supporting the grate, he pulled the pot off the fire. It felt half full. She’d evidently stayed up to make coffee for the second watch, then waited for him.
She was shivering in the night air, and he saw her tighten her arms around her body. He was going to give her hell in the morning, but for now he had to get her warm.
Their tightly wrapped bedrolls lay beside her. He unbuckled the leather belts keeping them together and laid them side by side between the log and the fire. On second thought, he rearranged the sheets and blankets to make one big bed instead of two smaller ones. They’d both get warm faster if they shared body heat. She’d probably shoot him in the morning, but he’d worry about it then. They couldn’t do anything, anyway, with so many people around. He just wanted to hold her.
His task done, he bent down and lifted her in his arms.
She startled awake with a gasp. Her eyes searched wildly until they fell on him. She relaxed and smiled sleepily. “Hank.”
“Why aren’t you in bed?”
She yawned and stretched. “Hmm?”
“You should’ve been in bed hours ago. The hands can make their own damn coffee.”
“I just—” she yawned again “—wanted to see you.” Her head lolled against his shoulder. She rubbed her cheek against the rough denim of his jacket and snuggled deeper into his arms.
Emotion stampeded through Hank as he knelt on the blankets and laid her down gently.
She just wanted to see him.
He was glad she was asleep. If she’d been awake, there’s no way he’d be able to yell at her for nearly freezing to death. He’d be too busy kissing her.
He pulled off her jacket and tugged off her boots, then settled her between the blankets. After performing the same services for himself, he slid in beside her. He pushed a strand of hair off her cheek, then placed a kiss on it.
“You’re the damnedest woman I’ve ever known. What the hell am I going to do with you? Or without you?”
Chapter Nine
A
lex snuggled deeper into the warmth. It couldn’t possibly be time to get up. Dimly aware of movement around the campfire, she turned on her side away from the fire and hit her nose on a hard, unmoving wall.
Surprise cleared her head and she instinctively pulled back. Her eyes popped open, but she could only see a dark shape close beside her. Hank. She would know him if she were blind—by his smell and the warmth of his arms.
So what woke her? The tales of grizzly bears that had kept her awake, waiting for Hank, spun through her head. Moving slowly, she peered over her shoulder, then relaxed. Just Casey building up the fire.
The arm Hank had draped over her eased around to her back, bringing her attention to the man in her arms. She whispered, “Are you awake?”
He leaned forward to place a kiss on her temple. “No.”
“What are you doing in my bedroll?” she asked quietly.
“When I came in from my watch last night, you were shivering
beside
it.” He brushed a strand of hair from her face. “Remind me later to give you a lecture on the dangers of hypothermia.”
She shuddered and crept a little closer. “I couldn’t go to sleep. Derek and Buck told me about the grizzly bears that roam the mountains. I wanted to keep the fire going and...and...”
“And what?”
“And wait for you,” she said, glad the darkness hid her hot cheeks.
“So I could keep the monsters away?” he asked softly.
Alex buried her head under his chin and moaned. “That sounds childish, doesn’t it? I wasn’t thinking about it that way. I just...”
“Yes?”
“I just feel safer when you’re around.”
He gathered her closer and lifted her mouth for his kiss—warm, deep.
When he pulled away, she sighed. “I suppose I should get up and start breakfast. It’s near dawn, isn’t it?”
“Another hour, probably.”
“You said last night you need to have the herd moving by first light.”
“Yep.”
“Then...” She tried to sit up, but he held her down.
“Just a few more minutes,” he breathed.
Alex glanced over her shoulder. “What will your men think when they see us sleeping together?”
“Who cares?”
“Hank, please...”
He peered around her at the fire. “Casey’s the only one awake. He won’t say anything. And we’ll be up before the others, I swear.” He drew her closer. “Please, Alex. I don’t wake up with a beautiful woman in my arms every day. I want to enjoy it.”
Alex sighed and sank into him. How could she argue with that?
 
Reaching the outcropping perched above Eden Valley, Hank reined in and for the first time all day, took a moment to look beyond the herd. The sun had climbed high overhead as they drove the cattle ever upward to this rich, wide valley nestled between two mountains. Though it lay on public land, the valley had been feeding Eden cattle for nearly a hundred years. Hank’s great-grandfather had simply driven his cattle up the mountain. Hank now leased it. Sometime between then and now, it had been named after his family.
The herd stretched out beneath him, an undulating sea of black Angus cattle. The grass they’d already begun to eat was knee-high and green, watered by snow melt and a creek running through the middle. It would last the herd about a month, when they would have to be driven higher to grass just now beginning to green.
This was a good herd, one of the best he’d had in years. The winter hadn’t been too harsh, and he’d only lost a few calves to freezing temperatures or predators.
Suddenly the words he was using penetrated. Best herd
he’d
had.
He’d
only lost a few calves.
Hank had never thought of the herd as his before. For that matter, he never thought of the ranch as his. It had always been his father’s land, his father’s herd, his father’s house. He’d just been a caretaker, biding his time until he could leave. Until now.
Regret hit him like a punch in the gut. He would never be bringing a herd to Eden Valley again. This land had been used by his family for nearly a hundred years—and he was the one losing it.
Hank’s fist tightened on the reins, and his horse shied beneath him. He pulled the bay gelding back around, then scanned the valley again.
He wished he could keep it, not only for himself and his children, but for Alex. She was the one who’d made this ranch his home, by trying to make it hers, by loving him.
For the first time in his life, he could see himself growing old at the Garden. He could see bringing his sons to Eden Valley, and his grandsons...and daughters. He closed his eyes to savor the image of lifting a small golden-eyed girl up on a horse for the first time, when he remembered the rodeo.
Hank swept off his hat and raked a hand through his hair. What about his dreams of becoming a gold buckle hero? Was he willing to give them up, when he was so close to having another go at them?
He thought about the rodeo and the carefree life he’d had as a young man. But he wasn’t young any longer, not for a rodeo cowboy. He only had a few good years left to rodeo, at best.
How could those few short years compare with having Alex for a lifetime? How could sleeping in a different cheap motel room every night compare with coming home to the ranch that had housed Edens for a hundred years?
He suddenly realized that his dreams had changed. He only needed to be a hero to one person—Alex. He could always rodeo in the local circuit....
Reality hit like a summer thunderstorm. What the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t keep the Garden. He’d been trying to figure out a way to hold on for the past three years, with no success.
How could he let Alex give up her dream, when he knew he was about to lose the home she wanted—needed—so badly?
He couldn’t. She deserved a better life than he could give her—nomads on the rodeo circuit.
The loss stabbed deep as his gaze swept the herd again. He hadn’t known what he really wanted until it was too late. Until he was about to lose it.
Pushing the dismal thoughts away, he straightened in the saddle and searched the perimeter of the herd for his men. They were spaced out evenly, waiting for his signal to ride in. The cattle had been spread across the valley and had already settled down after their uphill journey.
To his left, Hank saw a column of smoke rising from the chimney of a small log cabin built before he was born. Alex was cooking one last meal before they headed down the mountain. Casey and his wife, Lila, would stay to watch over the herd until they were relieved by Jed and Derek in a week.
Raising his arm, Hank gave the signal for his men to ride in, then reined toward the cabin.
He spurred his mount into a gallop. He and Alex had ridden at opposite ends of the herd during the drive—he at point and she at the rear, riding drag. He intended on spending every minute possible with her on the way back.
Casey and Buck watched him ride up as they loosened the cinches on their horses.
“You sure are in a hurry, boss,” Buck said.
Casey chuckled. “Yeah. You must be hungry.”
“Question is, you hungry for the cook or her cookin’?” Buck slapped his knee.
Hank dismounted, unperturbed by the ribbing. He’d done a fair amount of it himself last year when Casey was smitten. “Lunch about ready?”
“Hell, I hope so,” Buck said. “I could eat a whole steer.”
Their heads turned as one when the cabin door opened. Alex came out onto the porch. “You boys ready to eat?”
Hank bounded up the four steps to the porch and took Alex in his arms. He didn’t give her time to protest as he kissed her hard and deep, ignoring the whistles and comments from their audience.
“What was that for?” she gasped, when his lips finally released hers.
“To thank you.”
“For what?”
He couldn’t keep the sadness from his smile. “For being you.”
She frowned. “Hank, are you—”
“What’s going on, Derek?”
Jed’s call brought everyone’s attention to the tall cowboy. Hank glanced around. Derek hadn’t dismounted at the cabin but instead had guided his horse to the south side. The hand’s attention was somewhere down the trail.
Hank pulled Alex to the edge of the porch. “What do you see?”
“Someone’s coming up the trail, boss,” Derek told him.
Relieved that Derek’s eagle-sharp eyes hadn’t spotted some kind of predator bearing down on the herd, he called, “Can you make out who it is?”
The hand shook his head. “They’re riding the cherry roan mare from the Garden. Must be Claire.... Yep, it is. She’s riding like devil’s after her.” Derek spurred his horse and rode out to meet her.
Hank hopped the porch rail and strode over to the spot Derek had just left. “What the hell...”
“She wasn’t supposed to come with us, was she, boss?” Jed asked from right behind him.
“She had a test yesterday in English that she couldn’t miss,” Alex told him as she came up and slipped her hand into Hank’s.
“You think something happened to the Garden?” Casey asked.
“Of course something’s happened,” Buck said. “Claire wouldn’t come racing up here for nothing.”
“Whatever’s happened, we know Claire is okay,” Alex said.
Hank squeezed her hand gratefully.
“Maybe a barn burned down,” Buck said.
“Or the house,” Casey added.
Hank threw a glance around the group. “We’ll know soon enough.”
The group became so quiet, he could hear the two horses’ pounding hooves get louder and louder.
Finally Derek topped the hill. Claire was a length behind. In another three strides, she reined in the foam-flecked roan. “Hank, it’s Travis.”
Hank grabbed her bridle, his heart slamming to a stop. All the rodeo injuries he’d seen over the years raced across his mind—from being gored by a bull to necks broken by falls from broncs. “What happened?”
Claire’s wide, frightened eyes filled with tears. “He’s in the hospital in Phoenix. The doctor called this morning. He hasn’t—” she released a small sob “—hasn’t woken up yet.”
“Bull riding?”
She nodded. “The bull came after him when he got off. His ribs, his arm, his head. I can’t remember what all the doctor said. But they want us to come.”
“As soon as we get fresh mounts.” He turned and searched the group. “I’ll take the gelding Lila was riding. Casey, give Claire Alex’s mare. Alex and Lila can take the roan and the bay.”
“Right, boss.”
Jed headed for the bay Hank rode in. “I’ll switch saddles for you.”
Buck moved to help Casey with the other horses. Derek dismounted and helped Claire down from the roan.
“I’ll get something for you to eat.” Lila turned toward the cabin.
Alex put a hand on Hank’s arm. “Do you want me to come with you?”
He shook his head. “We’ll be riding too fast for too long. You’d just slow us down. The others will be heading back this afternoon. Ride with them. You should be home by nightfall.”
Casey led the gelding up then and handed Hank the reins. Hank kissed Alex on the forehead, looking like his mind was a thousand miles away, then mounted. Claire urged her horse beside his, and they conversed softly for a moment.
Her eyes stinging with tears she refused to let fall, Alex backed away. Suddenly all the things Hank hadn’t said took on new meaning.
He didn’t want her to go with him.
She knew she had no right to feel this way, but she couldn’t stop the stab of desolation that swept through her. She wasn’t an Eden. She’d tried to make herself part of this family, but when family really mattered, Hank and Claire were riding off without her. The pain was achingly familiar—deserted again. Yet another place where she didn’t belong.
Unable to breathe, she turned to escape into the cabin.
“Alex!”
His bellow stopped her in her tracks.
“Where the hell are you going?”
She turned slowly to see the hands parting to let Hank’s horse through. Her heart hammered at the look on his face.
When he reached her, he leaned over, grabbed her under her arms and pulled her up in front of him. Burying his face in her neck, he breathed, “Why were you running away?”
She held on with all her strength. “You were leaving me.”
He pulled back so he could see her face, his own clearly confused. “Darlin’, you wouldn’t be able to keep up with us. I want you to go, but—” Suddenly he looked down, then behind him.
Looking over his shoulder, Alex saw everyone staring at them.
“Don’t you people have something else to do?” Hank scowled.

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