One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas) (22 page)

“It might be next week or next month. You’ll get tired of slumming someday, but don’t wait too long.”

She wiped the kiss away with the back of her hand. “Forever doesn’t have a deadline, and I’m not slumming. I’m living my life the way I want to live it.”

“My forever has a deadline, and it’s Halloween, darlin’,” Tanner said.

“Why Halloween?” Rhett asked.

“That gives her a little more than two months to figure out that you can’t begin to give her what I can. She’ll get tired of living in poverty,” Tanner said.

He swaggered out of the café and blew her a kiss as he went out the door.

“Rhett, I’m so sorry.” Leah blushed.

“You have no reason to apologize. He’s rattling your cage and trying to keep the feud alive. Nothing much has happened in the past couple of weeks,” Rhett said. “If he can entice you away from Double Shot Ranch with a ring, then it would start some more crap. I got to admit, that was one honkin’ big-ass diamond.”

Leah rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Someday we’ll look back on this and think it’s funny, but right now I’m so angry I can’t even think about that day. I can’t imagine why you aren’t mad.”

“I wish you would have told him yes.” Rhett bit into his sandwich.

Leah slapped the table so hard that the salt and pepper shakers rattled together. “Why? So you’d be rid of me?”

“No, so I could watch that fool backpedal. He probably has that ring on a ninety-day deal. He’s put up the money for it with the deal that if you don’t say yes and he returns it, the jeweler will give him his money back. You are a pawn in the feud. I’m surprised that Mavis hasn’t shoved Declan or Quaid at Betsy to show Naomi she can play the same game,” Rhett said. “Hey, put beer on that list and maybe a bottle of Jack if we can hit a liquor store before they close.”

Leave it to a man to think about beer at a time like this. She picked up her drink and downed half of it before she came up for air. “I don’t want you to think that I’m measuring you or what you have by him and Wild Horse.”

“I don’t. I’m me and that’s all I am or ever will be. And believe me, even if I could afford a ring like that, I wouldn’t, because it’s not you, Leah. You aren’t a gaudy, flashy woman,” he said.

“What kind of woman am I?” she asked.

“My kind.” He grinned.

The week went by in a blur. Rhett was up at five every morning, let Dammit out, peeked in on Leah, and wished they had more time together. For the next three hours, he and Dammit were outside, learning where everything was located on Double Shot until eight, when he drove to Fiddle Creek and worked until the afternoon. Then he came home long enough to take a quick shower, change clothes, and kiss Leah as she graded papers at the card table and go to the bar. By the time he got home at near midnight, she was sleeping.

Tempers were running as hot as the temperature outside on Saturday night. It had been days since it had rained. The last threat of it they’d even seen had been on Monday, when Leah had moved into the house. That storm had moved around them, and they hadn’t seen so much as a drop of rain. The thermometer didn’t drop below ninety that week, not even at night, and the days were triple digits.

Then there was the fact that the Gallaghers had not retaliated for the last stunt the Brennans pulled, and they were getting nowhere with getting Leah to move onto Wild Horse. Tension in the air at the bar that night said there was something underfoot, and Rhett hoped it wasn’t something to do with Leah.

“Hey,” Jill said when they had a lull in business, “I want you and Leah to know that I fussed at Aunt Polly for leaving y’all with nothing in the house but your bedroom furniture.”

“Know what she said?” Sawyer propped a hip on a tall stool beside the beer machine. “She said that y’all needed the experience of finding your own things, that it would make you closer and give you something to do and talk about. I told Jill we should go back to the bunkhouse and strip it down to nothing so we could do the same thing.”

“And I told him that we didn’t have time for that. I’m so glad this is our last barroom duty. Now we can concentrate on the ranch and store,” Jill said.

“Is it really? I thought we had one more week, or at least Monday night since Rosalie isn’t taking it until the first day in September,” Rhett said.

“No, she says it won’t be open Monday so she can take inventory, and then Tuesday night it’s all hers. I hear she’s got a daughter who’ll be doing relief work for her,” Sawyer said. “And I talked to our cousin Lawson, and he’ll be here by Wednesday evening. We’re going to miss you.”

“Lawson will do you a good job.” Rhett nodded.

“I know, but we’re going to miss you and Dammit,” Jill said. “The cats whined for the first three days he wasn’t there.”

“Get a dog.” Rhett grinned.

“We’ve got ranch dogs already,” Jill said.

“A ranch dog is different than a pet. They can be both, but you got to train them,” Rhett told her.

“Hey, we need two pitchers of beer and four cheeseburger baskets,” Tanner said.

Sawyer slapped four pieces of meat on the grill. Rhett took two pitchers from under the bar and filled them. Jill took the money and made the change.

“I hear the bar will be closed Monday and when it opens on Tuesday, it’ll have a new owner,” Tanner said.

“That’s right. And I hear that Rosalie is tougher than Polly ever was, so y’all best not start anything in here,” Jill told him.

“Where’s Leah tonight?” Tanner asked.

“That wouldn’t be a bit of your business,” Jill said.

Tanner picked up the two pitchers. “I’m going to marry her, so I expect it is my business.”

“Can’t marry someone that isn’t willing,” Rhett said.

“She’ll be willin’ real soon. Livin’ in poverty isn’t her style. She’ll figure it out real soon, so get ready for a broken heart. I’ll miss seeing you in here, Jill.” Tanner nodded her way.

* * *

Leah finished up her papers and got her lesson plans ready for the next week. The first week of school was always the week from hell, but this one had been even worse, with Gallagher and Brennan kids leery of each other and the other kids not knowing which side to take.

She thought about going to the bar, but that would have required getting cleaned up and she was very comfortable in her faded chambray shirt and cutoff jean shorts. She was sitting on the porch with Dammit right beside her when she saw headlights coming done the lane. Her heart did one of those familiar leaps that said Rhett was nearby and her pulse quickened.

The big, black truck parked right behind her red one and sat there several minutes. The hair on Dammit’s back stiffened, and he lowered his head. A low growl emitted from his throat, and his whole body quivered.

She looped an arm around his neck and said, “It’s okay, boy. Remember he got the new truck a couple of days ago. You’ll have to get used to him coming home in it rather than the old Fiddle Creek work truck.”

The truck door opened, and the moonlight lit up a blond-haired cowboy, not a dark-haired one. Dammit growled again and stood at attention, ready to leap.

“Stay,” she said softly. “I’ll get rid of him, and if I can’t, then I’ll call you.”

“Leah, darlin’, when did you get a big dog like that?” Tanner asked.

His boots crunched on the gravel and Dammit growled again.

“It’s okay, boy. He’s made of hot air and belt buckles. Nothing to be afraid of with him,” Leah whispered.

“Well?” Tanner asked.

“Dammit belongs to Rhett, but he and I are pretty good friends. He’s telling me he’d like to tear your ears off and have them for a midnight snack, but I’m keeping him at bay long enough for you to get off Double Shot Ranch.”

“I want to talk to you, Leah, and I’d like to do it without yelling.”

What in the hell did she have to do to make him back off and leave her alone? She had enough on her plate without adding an extra cowboy. There was the adjustment of the new job, getting used to living in a very different house with Rhett and yet seeing him even less than she had before, and trying to decide what to do about her mother.

“Stay right here,” she whispered to Dammit as she stood up.

She met Tanner halfway across the yard, both of them lit up by the headlights on his truck. “For the very last time, Tanner, I want you to leave me alone.”

He reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. “What about our history?”

She shrugged it off. “There is no history. I had a crush on you when we were only kids, but I’m over it, and this thing isn’t going to happen. This is a game. You want me because you can’t have me and women always fall at your feet when you pay them any kind of attention. But once you conquer them, you throw them in the ditch like trash.”

“Not this time.” He grabbed her by both shoulders and dragged her into his embrace, his lips bearing down on hers fiercely.

She wiggled, but he held on tighter, his mouth grinding against hers and his tongue forcing its way into her mouth. She kicked him in shins, but he hung on tighter, like a bulldog in a fighting ring. Finally, she landed a good right hook to his chin, and his head popped backwards.

“You’ll change your mind after a couple of nights with me. And, Leah, don’t you ever hit me again,” Tanner growled as he grabbed for her again.

She ran back a few steps and yelled, “Dammit!”

Tanner laughed and went for her. “Never knew you to cuss.”

“Dammit!” she said again.

The dog howled and bailed off the porch. By the time Tanner realized she wasn’t cussing, he barely had time to make it to his truck and close the door. He rolled down the window and hollered, “Leah, this was your last chance. No more waiting until Halloween. It’s over between us. And you will regret this, believe me, you will.”

She whistled for Dammit to stop trying to jump inside the window and the dog returned to sit in front of her. “I hope it’s over, Tanner. I really do.”

He pulled a phone out of somewhere in the truck and she heard him say, “Do it right now.”

Tanner sped away and Rhett parked in the place he’d been. Dammit whined and ran to greet him, tail wagging the whole way.

“What the hell happened? I saw Tanner kissing you and then Dammit chasing him to the truck.” Rhett talked as he crossed the yard.

Leah put her head in her hands, dropped to her knees, and let all the frustrations out in a long weeping wail. “I’m so sorry you saw that, Rhett,” she sobbed.

He gathered her up in his arms like a baby and carried her to the porch, where he sat down with her, tears wetting the front of his shirt. Poor old Dammit whined and licked her hands and cheek as Rhett rocked from side to side with her in his lap.

“His truck looks the same as your new one, so I thought you’d come home a little early and…” She hiccuped. “I made Dammit wait on the porch because I thought I could take care of it.”

He hugged her tighter to his chest with one arm and rubbed her back with the other. “From what I saw, it looked like you gave him something to think about. How’re your knuckles?”

She raised her hand and showed him. “If they bruise, it was worth it. I feel violated. I think he planned to kidnap me, but when I hollered at Dammit, he changed his mind.”

“From now on, I’ll be home in the evenings.”

“I think it’s over,” she said.

He continued to rub her back. “Why?”

“Because he called someone on the phone and said something to them about doing it. He was so mad, and I think whatever is about to happen was the Gallaghers backup plan,” she said.

“Think you should call your father?” he asked.

“In a minute. I want to sit right here until I get control of my voice. If Daddy finds out what Tanner did, there’ll be blood and the feud will never stop,” she answered.

Dammit whined and whipped his head around to the south. His nose shot up and he sniffed several times before he let out a lonesome howl. Leah stuck an arm out from the cocoon that Rhett had her wrapped up in and looped it around his neck.

“It’s okay, boy. He’s gone and he won’t be back. You did good,” she said.

“He is not getting away with this,” Rhett said.

“Promise me you won’t do anything. If we leave it alone and live our own lives right here on Double Shot, it’ll quiet down.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Dammit sniffed the air again, whimpered, and shook free of Leah’s hold. He ambled around to the end of the house, let out a howl, and took off like he was chasing down a coyote or a jackrabbit.

“What’s gotten into him?” Leah asked at the same time the smell of smoke hit her nose. “Oh. My. God. They’ve set fire to our ranch.”

Sirens sounded before she could unwind herself from Rhett’s embrace and get to her feet. He grabbed her hand and followed Dammit’s baying, taking them out to the road, where smoke billowed. The fire trucks were already there, putting out a long line of grass fires running parallel to the ranch fence line when Leah and Rhett arrived.

One of the firemen shouted from the road. “Y’all call this in?”

“No, we had no idea it was on fire. What caused it?” Rhett asked.

“Dry as it’s been, could have been a lit cigarette thrown from a car window. Crazy thing is, it’s running up and down the road, and the way the wind is blowing, if it had been from a cigarette, it would have traveled right onto your property. You’re a lucky man tonight.”

“Lucky, my ass,” Rhett mumbled. “It was set and…hell’s bells, Leah, this is a diversion. Call your dad right now.”

“It’s after midnight,” she said.

“Call him and tell him the Gallaghers are about to do something tonight. Probably a fire since the fire trucks are out of water,” he said.

“We got it all wet down. Call us if any hot spots fire back up. Took every drop of our water to put this one out because it was so long,” the fireman said.

Leah yelled across the blackened earth. “Thank y’all for getting out here so fast.”

“We got the call forty minutes ago.”

“Here.” Rhett handed Leah his phone. “Call your dad now. I haven’t been home forty minutes. They made the call before the fire was even set.”

Leah punched in her dad’s cell phone, and it went to voice mail after the fifth ring. She didn’t bother with a message but hit the numbers again. He picked up on the fourth ring that time.

“Daddy, listen to me. The Gallaghers are about to set fire to something. I don’t know what but…” She went on to tell him what had happened.

“It’s probably a threat, but I’ll get Declan up, and we’ll check things out on this end. Why would they set fire to Rhett’s ranch?”

“Because…” She told him what Tanner had done in the restaurant the previous Monday and about him showing up at the ranch that night.

“I’ll kill the bastard with my bare hands,” Russell said.

“Daddy, please forget that and go check out the ranch. The fire trucks are empty and on their way back to Gainesville,” she said.

“I’m up and on my way. I’ll call you later if anything is wrong. If I don’t call, then you’ll know it’s okay. And, Leah, honey, thanks for the call.”

“It’s Rhett’s idea. He thinks this fire was a diversion,” she said.

“Then tell Rhett thank you.”

Rhett took Leah’s hand in his and headed back toward the house with Dammit right behind them. They made it to the porch before his phone rang. Leah knew before he even answered it that it was her father and something was burning on River Bend. It was one of those gut feelings that was never wrong, and her insides clinched up into pretzels as she waited to hear what was on fire.

“It’s probably Sawyer wanting to know what’s going on over here or Polly if she and Gladys are up late watching television,” he said.

Rhett sat down on the porch step and pulled her into his lap before he handed the phone off to her. “It’s your father,” he said.

“Daddy?” she said.

“It’s the hay barn at the back of the property. We’ve called the fire department, and they said they’d come back to town but their trucks are empty and it’s too far from a pond to pump water from it. It’s already too far gone for them to do much good. We’ll have to stand watch for a couple of days to make sure the hot spots don’t fire back up and get carried to another part of the ranch with this wind. They will pay for this,” Russell said.

“So Rhett was right. It was a diversion and a means to make sure the fire trucks were empty,” Leah said flatly.

“Looks that way. And before you figure it out and go into hysterics, your old barn cat, Ella, put all five of her kittens in the back of my truck. The place was on fire when we got here, so I guess she’d moved them out before that. Want me to bring them over to you after church in the morning? She won’t like it, but I can put her and the kittens in the carrier you used to take her to the vet,” Russell asked.