Valentine Cowboys (7 page)

He glanced over his shoulder, Misty at his heels. “Yeah?”

“Together or not at all.”

Dakota nodded and headed for the calving shed.

“Oh, and lock the dog up in the bunkhouse for the night,” Justus called after him.

“Will do.” Dakota raised a bare hand but didn’t stop.

“And get your damn gloves while you’re there!” Justus yelled.

He heard Dakota laugh. “Yes, Mom.”

“I’ll clear the mucous and give it a slap and if that doesn’t work I’ll get the hose and breath into its nose.” Dakota shook his head. You’d think it was Blue’s baby being born, and not one of the hundred-plus calves they’d see born this season alone.

“Just one nostril—”

“While I hold the other nostril and its mouth closed. I know, Blue. I’ve seen you do it hundreds of times.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later then.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Bye, Dakota.” There was a sigh in Blue’s voice.

“Bye, Blue.” Dakota smiled and disconnected the call just as Justus came through the door.

“Look what Mrs. Jones did for us when I told her we wouldn’t be able to leave here to eat dinner in the main house.” He held up a basket holding two short fat thermoses and two tall thin ones.

Dakota frowned. “What’s in ’em?”

“Hot beef stew and even hotter coffee.” Justus grinned and put the basket holding the containers, napkins, and cutlery down on the bench along the wall.

“Good.” They were going to need both the food and the coffee for the long night they had ahead.

“You call Blue?” Justus glanced at Dakota then back to the heifer.

“Yup, just hung up with him.” Dakota blew on his cold hands. “He’s being a worrier.”

“Nothing more than I expected. He’s not used to being away.” Justus scowled a little when he saw Dakota had obviously forgotten his gloves again, but at least he didn’t lecture him on it.

“Yeah. You call Melody back yet?” Dakota crossed his arms and shoved his bare hands under the armpits of his coat.

Justus’s brows knit in a frown beneath the brim of his hat. “No, I told you I was waiting so we could call together.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway.” Dakota shrugged. “We don’t have anything good to tell her. Tonight’s a bust, and tomorrow night Blue’s back.”

“Crap. I forgot he gets back tomorrow.” Justus let out a huff. “We can still go out with her.”

“But we can’t bring her back here.” If anything did happen, it would have to be in the truck again. Not that he’d be picky about the place, but a man needed room to work.

“What about here, tonight?” Justus looked up at Dakota.

“Here?”

“Sure. It’s not so bad. And you know most of tonight will be sitting around and waiting on this calf. If everything goes smooth, we won’t have hardly anything to do.”

“No, but I’m not sure how Melody’s going to feel about this.” Dakota glanced around the calving shed. Yeah, it was clean, and not freezing cold, but not exactly toasty warm either. He supposed they could turn up the electric heater and throw a blanket over some of the hay bales.

“We won’t know until we ask.” Justus grinned. “Besides, I’m thinking she’s been living in the city long enough that this kinda thing would impress her. Miss Casey sure seemed to take to the ranch stuff.”

Dakota laughed. “It was Blue that Miss Casey took to, more than the ranch, and you know it.”

“Yeah, that’s true. He still thinks we don’t notice that he spends most of the night in her room and sneaks back to the bunkhouse just before dawn.” Justus smirked. “Anyway, I’m calling Melody. You on board with inviting her here?”

The heifer let out a groan of discomfort and kicked out with her rear hoof. Another contraction, but they were still coming far apart. This was going to take a while. Dakota let out a breath. “Sure, what the hell.” At that point they had nothing to lose.

With one final glance and a nod toward Dakota, Justus pulled out his phone and moved nearer to the doorway. He pushed a few buttons as Dakota realized his heart had kicked into high gear. Then Justus was speaking.

“Hey, Mel. It’s Justus. There’s been a slight change of plans but I was, well we both were, kind of hoping you’d be up for it. ” Justus listened for a second and then glanced at Dakota. The anticipation was making it nearly impossible for him to stand still. “I’ll let Dakota tell you what’s happening.”

Dakota found the phone thrust at him. Clearing his throat, he took a step forward and grabbed it from Justus. “Hey. It’s Dakota.”

“Hi.” Melody’s soft voice filled his ear, even as his cock grew hard.

Dakota dragged in a breath. “We thought you might like to get a taste of life on the Maverick ranch.”

“Um, sure. If that’s all right.”

“Sure, it’s all right. We’re the only ones here right now so we can’t leave, and we’ve got a heifer about to calve. Now likely everything will go smooth—” he hoped, “—but we still have to be here waiting on her. We thought maybe you’d like to join us. I know it’s not exactly a date but…”

“No, it’s fine. I’m not really in the mood for hanging out at the bar tonight anyway.”

“Good. So you know how to get here?”

“Everybody knows where the Maverick place is,” she laughed. “But that’s about it. I mean I know where the main gate is, but I can’t say I’d know where to go after that.”

Dakota smiled. “No problem. Cell phone signal is spotty here so you might not be able to call us when you arrive, but if you give me an idea of when you’ll be here, Justus or I will drive out and meet you in the drive at the front gate.”

“Okay. I guess half an hour?”

Dakota glanced at the clock on the wall and smiled. “See you in half an hour then. Oh, and Mel, dress warm. We’re in the calving shed so we’re kinda roughin’ it tonight.”

He could imagine that one of her eyebrows had shot up at that, like it had at the bar when they’d been talking and she hadn’t liked something he’d said. Damn, he found that move sexy, even when she was on the phone and it was all in his imagination.

“Uh, all right. I’ll put on a heavier sweater.”

And how he would love to take off that heavy sweater. Dakota reined in his thoughts.
One step at a time.
“Good. We’ll see you soon.”

“Okay, bye.”

Dakota disconnected the call and handed the phone back to Justus, who’d stood by and waited surprisingly patiently throughout the entire conversation.

“She’s coming?” Justus asked.

“She’s coming.” Dakota was happy she was coming, but he’d be happier when she was
coming
. Memories of last night in the truck flew through his brain.

“Now what?” A look of doubt darkened Justus’s features.

Justus didn’t seem to be taking to this situation as easily as he was. Dakota shot him a glance and then looked back to the heifer. “I guess we’ll see.”

“Dakota, I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Neither have I. You know that.” Though he’d thought about it a good hundred times in the past twenty-four hours alone.

“Exactly how’s it gonna work? I mean, I know how it went in the truck, but that was just, you know…but if we…” It seems the thought of both of them having sex with Melody at the same time had rendered Justus incapable of putting a full sentence together. Not surprising.

Dakota shook his head. “It’ll be fine.”

“I hope so.” Justus blew out a shaky breath. “Besides, there’s no guarantee anything at all is going to happen. In fact, I guarantee it won’t, which is good really. We should get to know her again before—”

Dakota frowned. “You
guarantee it won’t
? Why?”

Justus raised his gaze to Dakota and cringed. “Oh yeah, I never got around to telling you. During the first phone call, Melody told me she didn’t think she was ready to have sex yet.”

“She actually said those words? That she’s not ready to have sex?” Dakota’s frown deepened. She’d seemed plenty ready last night in the truck.

“Yup. I asked her, so don’t worry, she’s not a virgin or anything. She’s just not ready.”

“You came right out and asked if she was a virgin?” Dakota nearly choked. One day he’d have to teach Justus how to talk to women. It figured it was his phone she’d called. Just Dakota’s luck. He’d better take over communications. With Justus in charge they’d all be back to exchanging paper valentines in cardboard mailboxes and nothing more, like they were in fifth grade again.

“Stop repeating everything I say. She took me by surprise, okay. I was throwing hay to the horses and suddenly she’s on the phone saying she wants to meet us.” Justus scowled. “Anyway, we agreed to a normal date, well at least a date with the three of us, not so normal but whatever. I said we’d just see how things go.”

”Okay.” Dakota sighed. What was done, was done. He’d just have to deal with it. He glanced around the calving shed. “I’m not sure this exactly counts as a date though.”

“Well, we have stew and coffee, and I think there’s buttered rolls in the bag. That’s kind of like taking her out for dinner.”

Dakota laughed. “Kind of, but not quite.”

“Hey, we’re cowboys. This is us. She better get used to us. If she doesn’t like the way things are, then maybe she’s not the girl we should be hanging around with.”

That was the first smart thing Dakota had heard Justus say during this conversation. Dakota shot him a look and a nod. “You’re right. I agree one hundred percent.”

If they were just in it to fuck a girl, she could be anyone, and who cared what she thought of them or their lives. But this was Melody, the girl Justus had built up to goddess-like perfection over the past twelve years, and it did matter what she thought of them, and their way of life.

It would definitely be interesting, if nothing else. But Dakota didn’t hold much hope there’d be anything more than calving going on here tonight. That was fine. He doubted Justus was ready to handle it all yet anyway. However, Dakota was. His dick, hard as a rock just from the conversation, was ready for more. It would sure be nice to have Melody’s soft hands, or even better her hot mouth, wrapped around it. Damn, now he was uncomfortably hard. It was going to be a long night.