Ultimate Texas Bachelor (3 page)

Telling herself Brad's scrutiny was not sexual in nature, Lainey explained, “I walked in and almost tripped over one of her babies. Next thing I knew, I was surrounded by scurrying…screeching…beasts.” She shuddered again, recalling the panic that had ensued.

He reached over and gave her bare knee a warm, companionable squeeze. “Given the way you were screaming and leaped up here, they probably think the same thing about you.”

Trying not to think about the way her skin was tingling from just that brief casual contact, Lainey frowned at him. “Very funny.”

He folded his arms in front of him. “I suppose you want me to remove them.”

Lainey rolled her eyes. He was enjoying her discomfiture and dragging this out on purpose! “Duh.”

“Okay.” Brad pivoted on his heel. “I'll be right back.”

“Wait!” She reached out for his shirt, missed. “You can't leave me here!”

But of course he already had.

She looked back at the armadillos nervously. She hadn't seen one of them since she was a kid and living in rural Laramie. And she'd never viewed one this close. The mother had a pointed face and large pointy ears that stuck straight up. A hard brown shield covered the mama's shoulders, another her rump. Between the two were nine bands, hence the name. Her tail was long and tapering, sort of like a rat's tail, only this was completely covered with disgustingly bony rings. She had scattered yellowish hairs across her body, particularly around her face, and wicked-looking claws on all four of her feet. Lainey had no doubt Big Mama would fight to the death to protect her young—Lainey would, too.

She did not want to tangle with the animal.

What seemed like an eternity later, but was really only a couple of minutes, Brad strode back in, carrying a large
metal animal cage and wearing heavy-duty elbow-length leather ranch gloves. “Just so you know,” he warned her, eyes twinkling, “this probably isn't going to be pretty. Or quiet.”

Unsure whether it was excitement or annoyance speeding up her heartbeat, Lainey said in a strangled voice, “Just get them out of here!”

Brad moved a couple of boxes to block any exit attempt the five armadillos might make, then waded into the kitchen, trap in hand. When the baby armadillos scattered, Big Mama ambled away from Brad and then broke out into an awkward run, slamming into the side of one cupboard, then another. For a while it was kind of like trying to catch a greased pig. As soon as Brad would get near Big Mama, she would head off in the other direction. Unperturbed, Brad stalked the mother armadillo calmly, until he finally had Big Mama cornered, then reached down and grabbed her swiftly by the base of the tail. Big Mama squawked in terror and spun wildly, but Brad held on and somehow managed to drop her into the metal trap and shut it again without getting scratched or bit. The other four babies were caught in the same manner. Once all five were in the trap, Brad locked the lid.

Lainey breathed a huge sigh of relief. She hadn't realized until that moment how glad she was to have Brad there, saving the day. “Now what?” she demanded.

“Depends.” Brad gave her an assessing look. “You like armadillo meat?”

“You're kidding.”

The corners of Brad's lips twitched as he said drolly, “Guess that's a no.” Brad picked up the cage of animals and swaggered for the door.

“Tell me what you're going to do with them!” Lainey called after him, belatedly feeling just a tad sorry for the cornered creatures. She was sure, after thinking about it a moment, that they hadn't meant to intrude or scare her to death.

“You want to know?” Brad's dark brown eyes held a dare. “Come along and see!”

 

L
AINEY THOUGHT ABOUT IT
for a minute, then declined his invitation with a shake of her head. Accepting dares was what had always gotten her into trouble. It was enough of a risk just accepting a job here without disclosing what she hoped to gain for herself, and do for Brad in the end. “Thanks, anyway,” she said.

“Suit yourself.” He headed amiably out the door.

Lainey heard the sound of metal on metal as he put the cage into the back of his pickup, then he climbed behind the wheel and drove off.

When she was sure he and the “uninvited guests” were gone, she climbed down from her perch and started to explore. But no sooner had she cleared the kitchen than a sound near the door had her spooked again…and climbing right back up onto the kitchen counter. Surely Brad McCabe wouldn't be gone that long, she told herself.

Fifteen long minutes later, he returned. He pushed back the brim of his Stetson. “Any particular reason you're still sitting up there?” he asked with a curious lift of his brow.

Lainey was beginning to feel pretty darn foolish, but better safe than sorry…. “I thought I heard something over there.”

Brad frowned. He seemed to know instinctively that she wasn't joking around. “Where?”

Lainey pointed toward the living room window she had opened soon after she arrived. She could handle just about anything except wild animals. Those scared the heck out of her.

Looking more bored than scared, Brad strode over to investigate. He reached the antique sideboard that blocked Lainey's view, stopped dead in his tracks. “Well, I see the problem,” he said eventually, backing up slightly and rubbing his chin.

“What is it?” she demanded, feeling even more alarmed.

He leaned over. When he straightened he held a half-burned pillar candle in his hand. “What do you think? Look dangerous to you?”

Lainey regarded Brad skeptically, aware her knees were still shaking a little. “That's all it was?”

He glanced around, looking puzzled. “I don't see anything else over here. This, however, was on the floor, lying on its side.”

“Why would it just fall off like that?” she asked suspiciously.

“The wind?” He set the candle on top of the sideboard and lazily made his way toward her.

Lainey's heartbeat kicked up a notch. “You're sure there are no more wild animals in here?”

“Well, I don't see or smell anything else,” Brad drawled as he walked through the combination living room and dining room, past the kitchen and half bath, and through the back hall, where the two bedrooms and full bath were located. He returned to stand in front of her, grinning wickedly. “Now, are you going to continue sitting up there or are you going to get down so we both can get back to work?”

Swallowing hard around the sudden dryness in her throat, Lainey moved toward the edge of the counter. “First tell me what you did with the party of five,” she countered curiously.

“I drove them to a distant pasture and turned them loose next to a stream.”

Sounded good to her. “Are they going to come back?” she asked nervously.

He taunted her with an impudent smile. “After the way you were carrying on?”

She tossed her hair—something she hadn't done since high school. Maybe college. “I'm serious.”

“It's doubtful.” He regarded her, eyes alight with interest. “Since there are numerous places for them to burrow and there's plenty for them to eat where I let 'em loose.”

Lainey scooted to the end of the counter. “What do they eat?”

“Grubs, earthworms, insects, sometimes berries and bird eggs. Not that I saw any bird's nests in the area.”

Lainey realized there was no way to get down off the counter gracefully. She fervently hoped Brad would realize that and turn away—but he didn't. “How did the armadillos get in here in the first place?” she asked, carefully swinging her legs over the side of the counter.

Brad watched as her skirt slid higher than she would have liked.

Wordlessly, he reached for her. Hands on her waist, he lifted her down to the floor. He held on to her just long enough to steady her and make sure she had her balance. That was all it took for Lainey to feel a surge of desire more potent than anything she had ever felt.

She sucked in her breath, stepped back.

He stepped back, too, looking just as stung, as they struggled to claim the threads of the conversation.

“We were talking about how they got in here,” Lainey prodded, trying to appear cool.

“Beats the heck out of me.” He shrugged, the powerful muscles in his shoulders straining against the fabric of his shirt. “I didn't see any holes in the wall. The guest house sits on a cement slab, so they certainly didn't burrow through that.”

Lainey bit her lip as she noticed the flush of sun on his face. And something else…something interesting…in his eyes. “And they're too big to come up through the plumbing,” she said.

Clearly enjoying toying with her, he looked her over from head to toe. “They don't like water anyway.”

So full of facts, he was practically an encyclopedia of Texas life. “So how
did
they get in here?” Lainey challenged. If he knew so much, he must know that.

“Must have walked in last night.”

Lainey regarded Brad skeptically.

Reluctantly, he explained. “The place had a musty smell, so Lewis propped open both doors and a few windows to get a nice cross-ventilation going. It was after dark, and armadillos are generally nocturnal this time of year. Big Mama probably thought this looked like a good shelter, or maybe she was just foraging for food with her babies and got shut in here when Lewis closed up.”

Lainey walked over to survey the place where the candle had fallen. She did not appreciate having the wits scared out of her for the second time that afternoon. How was she ever going to sleep in here tonight? “Well, don't open up the place to whatever might inadvertently wander in here again,” she warned him haughtily.

Brad angled a thumb at his chest. “I didn't do it the first time.”

Lainey swung around to face him, bumping her face on his shoulder in the process. “You weren't concerned about the musty smell?”

Once again, Brad put out a hand to steady her. “Why should I be when my brother already was?” he asked, his capable fingers radiating warmth through her shirt to her skin. “Besides,
I
didn't hire you to help us get organized.”

“And why is that?” Lainey demanded tartly.

“I don't see any sense in paying someone for something you can do yourself.”

Lainey pushed away the ridiculously romantic fantasies his nearness was evoking. “Except you two
haven't
done it yourselves,” she pointed out.

“So?” he shot back. “We would have gotten around to it eventually.”

She smirked, not about to let him get away with that whopper. “How long have you been living out here?” she asked.

He stepped toward her. “We closed on the property two weeks ago.”

She felt a completely uncalled-for fluttering in her middle. “And continued to live in this chaos?”

He poked the brim of his cowboy hat up with maddening nonchalance. “Why not? Doesn't bother me any more than armadillos, field mice, snakes and porcupines do.” He lifted a brow. “Course if
you're
not comfortable coming face-to-face with wild animals,
you
could always head on back to Dallas.”

That sounded like a dare. Lainey stepped toward him this time, not caring that her move left them mere inches apart. “Excuse me?” She angled her head up at him.

“This is a ranch, you know.” He leaned toward her ear and whispered conspiratorially, “Animals of all sorts are supposed to be all over the place.”

It was the stalking males that worried Lainey.

“I know where I am, thank you very much!” Not that she would ever let herself fall prey to someone as demonstrably fickle as Brad McCabe. Even if she had always wondered just how ardently he could kiss….

“Good.” He paused, gave her a self-assured, faintly baiting look. “'Cause for a moment there, you bein' so surprised and all, I was beginning to wonder just how much you remembered about life out in rural Texas.”

“Enough,” she replied sweetly, “to know a great big pile of horse bucky when I see or hear it.”

“Excuse me?” He mocked her earlier reprimand to a tee.

Finally, for Lainey, everything fell into place. “I know what you've done here, Brad McCabe. And I am not amused,” she told him heatedly. “Not in the least!”

Well, that was good, Brad thought with no small trace of irony, because he sure as heck didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

“You planted those armadillos in here to chase me away!” Lainey declared with an indignant toss of her head.

“Now why would I go and do a darn fool thing like that?” he demanded right back, furious at being once again
erroneously
suspected of being the bad guy, and at the same time amused because she was so far off track in her assumption.

Lainey ran a hand through her tousled blond hair, pushing it off her face. “You made it abundantly clear yesterday afternoon that you did not want me here!”

Brad adapted a no-nonsense stance, legs braced apart, arms folded in front of him. He figured he would let her make a fool of herself first, then set her straight. “So?”

Lainey's green eyes glimmered hotly. “So I accepted Lewis's job offer anyway.”

Brad released an exasperated breath. “An action I am sure you will quickly come to regret, if you haven't done so already.”

“Well, these silly little hijinks of yours are not going to work!” She stomped closer yet.

Brad hooked his thumbs through the belt loops on either side of his fly and rocked back on his heels. “Sure about that?”

“I have just as much right to work on this ranch as anyone else.”

“Maybe so. But can you handle it?” Brad stepped closer, purposefully invading her space, not stopping until he had backed her against the sideboard in the center of the room. “Can you handle me?” Not sure why he had started this, except somebody had to set her straight, Brad flattened a hand on either side of her, caging her between his arms, and leaned in close. “You know my rep.” He let his glance drift lazily over her softly parted lips before returning, ever so deliberately, to her eyes. “I'm bad news with all the ladies.”

To Brad's surprise and grudging respect, Lainey inhaled deeply and stoically stood her ground. “A fact that makes no difference whatsoever to me, since I am a widow.”

And thereby off the market—perhaps forever—in her estimation. Not in Brad's. Lainey may well have felt she had already been there, done that, but he hadn't. And being around Lainey, even for a short period of time, had him thinking all sorts of crazy things. Like what it would be like to have her in his bed. Or his life. And not as a thorn in his side. But as a lover, confidante, friend.

Not that this was even a possibility, he reminded himself sternly.

He was in the business of getting her out of here as soon as possible. Before he got in over his head and she got hurt.

“Well, yee-haw.”

She lifted a brow in wordless inquiry, her cheeks turning an even deeper pink.

He smirked in a way meant to infuriate. “If memory serves, a lot of young widows I've come across in this town have been hot to trot.” And he was reputed to be randy as could be. If that combination didn't send her running…and get her safely and quickly off the Lazy M Ranch…he wasn't sure what would.

Unfortunately, Lainey wasn't taking his hint.

She lifted her chin, ice in her smile. “I am not in the least bit sex-starved, I assure you, Brad McCabe.”

He felt a stab of jealousy as unexpected as it was intense. He hadn't heard anything about Lainey having a boyfriend. Nor had she mentioned that as a potential problem yesterday when Lewis had been talking to her about moving to the ranch for a couple of weeks—or longer. Surely if there was a man in Lainey's life important enough for her to bed, she would have wanted to run the possibility of her moving out here with “the most loathed bachelor in America” with her beloved, if only as a courtesy. Or, at the very least, asked Lewis if it would be all right if she had “visitors”—meaning a territory-staking male friend—at the ranch to see her while she was here. Instead, the only person she had seemed concerned enough about to mention was her eight-year-old son. Who was, coincidentally, also the person in her life most likely to prevent her from kicking up her heels and having a little fun.

Somehow, looking at the stiff way in which she was holding herself, and the defenses that were in high gear, Brad didn't think Lainey had been kissed in a good long while. Too long, actually.

“Yeah?” He leaned in even closer and lowered his mouth to hers, prepared to have a little fun. “Well, let's just put that declaration to the test.”

Lainey hadn't thought Brad was really going to kiss her. She'd thought he was only trying to scare her off the ranch, and out of his way, by pretending to put the moves on her. But there was nothing feigned about the feel of his lips pressing against hers. Nothing fabricated about her reaction to the imprint of his tall, strong body pressed warmly against hers.

She hadn't felt this alive, this much a woman, since…well, she couldn't remember when. And though she repeatedly told herself she really had to stop this now, with every shift in pressure of his warm wonderful lips, every stroke and thrust and
parry of his tongue, she felt herself sliding deeper and deeper into the mystery that was him. And heaven only knows what might have happened next, had she not heard a discreet feminine exclamation of dismay, and a throat clearing—loudly—behind them.

Lainey and Brad broke apart at the same time, and turned in the direction of the sound. Right away, Lainey recognized Brad's uncle, Travis McCabe, and his wife, Annie. The handsome couple had both owned ranches before they married some fifteen years ago—since then, the Rocking M Cattle Ranch and the Triple Diamond had been combined.

“Lainey! I don't know if you remember me,” Annie Pierce McCabe said, stepping forward, looking much younger than her forty-five years.

They had never been friends—there was too much of an age difference—but Lainey had admired the moxie Annie had shown, creating a new life for herself and her three sons after her divorce. “Of course I do.” Lainey accepted the slender, red-haired woman's welcome. Annie was one of Lainey's role models, and one of the reasons why Lainey had been thinking about moving back to Laramie permanently, once her job at the Lazy M was done. “I've been using your barbecue sauce since it first came out.” Lainey smiled.

“She's famous for it, all right.” Looking fit and strong as ever, Travis wrapped a hand affectionately around his diminutive wife's shoulder, then greeted Lainey, too.

“Travis…Annie.” Brad nodded at them both.

“Brad.” Travis glared at Brad in scolding fashion even as he shook Brad's hand.

“We came to help!” Annie said, in an effort to let them both off the hook.

But Lainey knew that unless they addressed the ardent clinch that Annie and Travis had just witnessed, it would be like trying to ignore the elephant in the middle of the room.

She wrinkled her nose, pretending to misunderstand, while
at the same time transferring her embarrassment—and the blame for the romantic fiasco—squarely where it belonged, onto Brad McCabe's handsome shoulders. “You knew Brad would be putting the moves on me?” Lainey asked their company innocently.

Brad gave Lainey a surly look that let her know he had expected her to get him back; he just hadn't known—until this moment—how she was going to do it. “Hey,” he chided amiably, clapping a calloused hand across his broad chest. “I saved your life, sweetheart!”

Sweetheart.
Why did that sound so good coming from those lips, even if it was in sarcasm, and not a true endearment? Determined to demonstrate she was not intimidated by Brad McCabe, no matter what he dished out, she stood her ground. “I hardly think that's the case, since those armadillos were not going to bite me.”

Brad chuckled. “You never would have known that by the way you were screaming,” he countered.

Lewis came in behind them, as eclectically dressed as always. “What did I miss?” he demanded, looking about as unsuited for ranch life as was possible.

“Nothing,” Brad and Lainey said in unison, while Annie and Travis shook their heads and stifled grins.

Lewis frowned. “Doesn't look like nothing,” he murmured.

“Your brother was harassing her,” Travis explained helpfully.

“I thought I told you not to do that!” Lewis reprimanded Brad.

And just that quickly, the balance of power in the room shifted. Lewis hadn't meant to remind Brad that Lewis, not Brad, actually owned the Lazy M.

“Right.
Boss
.” Brad slapped his cowboy hat back on his head and stomped out. Travis shot a look at his wife, and then followed Brad.

“I—I didn't mean—” Lewis stammered, upset.

“I know you didn't and so does he,” Annie said gently, before turning back to Lainey. “You remember my three older sons?”

“The triplets?”

“Teddy, Tyler and Trevor are twenty now. They're all working the ranch for the summer.”

Lainey could hardly believe it. “They're in college now?”

“Yes. Tyler's planning to be a vet, Trevor a cattle rancher, and Teddy wants to breed horses. They all just finished their sophomore year at Texas A&M. They're on their way over. They're going to help us move furniture and try to make the guest house livable for you and Petey. Speaking of which, where is your son?”

Regret swept through Lainey. “Petey is on a trip with his relatives. He'll be joining me this weekend.”

“Oh. Our two youngest boys will be so disappointed. Kurt is nine and Kyle is eight and they were so excited to hear there's going to be another guy roughly their own age, on the next ranch over.”

Two boys came in. They were followed by three strapping young men who did indeed look all grown up. All five had rusty red hair and freckles, just like their mother. “They're bein' strict with us!” the taller boy, soon introduced as Kurt, said.

“Yeah, and that is not their job,” his slightly smaller brother Kyle pointed out. “It's yours and Daddy's.”

“They were headed for mischief,” Teddy told his mother.

“If anyone would know it when we see it, it'd be us,” Trevor grinned.

Tyler's eyes twinkled even as he claimed, “We weren't that bad.”

Lewis and Annie groaned as Brad and Travis came back in. Lainey had been just a teenager when Annie and Travis's romance began, but even she remembered the triplets—who had been four at the time—had caused lots of havoc in the
months and weeks before, during and after Annie and Travis had gotten together.

“Really?” Travis countered, his eyes twinkling, too. “Because I seem to remember, among other things, some ‘flying' eggs…”

A chuckle resounded through the group at the memory. “All right, all right, maybe we were that mischievous, but we've grown up okay,” Tyler claimed.

That they had, Lainey noted admiringly. It was clear all five of the brothers loved one another dearly. She had so wanted for Petey to experience the love and camaraderie of siblings, too. Instead, he was growing up an only child, just the way she had….

But there was no more time to think about that, because Annie had had enough of standing around. She clapped her hands together, looking every bit as anxious to get on with the “organizing” task ahead as Lainey was. “Okay, guys,” Annie told the assembled crew, “now that we've got all of you here to do the heavy lifting, let's get busy and start moving this furniture where Lainey thinks it should go….”

 

“L
ET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT
,” Brad said early the next morning when Lainey came face-to-face with him and his brother in the Lazy M ranch house kitchen. “It's only your second day on the job and you already want time off?”

Lainey ignored Brad—who looked unbearably attractive in jeans, boots and an old chambray shirt—and spoke directly to her real boss, or at least the only person she planned to take any orders from. “I wouldn't ask if an old friend of mine weren't in Dallas today, on business.”
With me.
“I haven't seen Sybil in a couple of years and she has enough time to have lunch with me. I'd really like to go.”

Clearly aware he was annoying her, Brad looked her over, taking in the fit of her pale yellow, linen sheath dress, matching cardigan and shoes, before returning ever so slowly to her
face. “Must be nice to be a dilettante,” Brad mumbled under his breath, just loud enough for Lainey to hear.

“Better than a smart-mouth any day of the week,” she muttered right back.

Lewis stepped between them. He looked annoyed at Brad, too. “Will you leave her alone before she quits on us?” Lewis demanded.

“So what?” Brad finished the second half of his orange juice in a single gulp. He set the glass down on the counter with a
thud
, as determined to rile Lainey as ever. He shrugged indifferently. “Then we'll simply hire someone else who will work more than one day in a row.”

“Keep it up,” Lainey told Brad, walking around Lewis to confront him, “and I'll be tempted to kick you in the shin.” It would serve him right for kissing her the way he had, when she knew he hadn't meant it. And she, unfortunately for her, had.

“Not going to hurt much with those fancy sandals you're wearing,” he said in a tone sexy enough to make her want to kiss him all over again. “And speaking of footwear…” He pretended to study her carefully. “This being a ranch—with free-roaming wildlife and all—”

Oh, brother. Like she was going to fall for that again. “Not to mention one very big and ornery beast,” Lainey added sweetly, hoping to shame him into behaving.

“—don't you think it's time for you to start dressing a little more practically?”

Lainey had been thinking about it—until he mentioned it, anyway. Clothes that were just right in Dallas seemed a little too fancy here. Lainey had been dressing the way Chip had expected her to for so long, she had no idea how she would dress if it were up to her. Deciding she did not like the presumption in Brad's eyes, she said, “I suppose you'd like to see me in boots and jeans?” The question was, what would she like to see herself in?