Chapter Six

Trent drove back to the ranch house at a sedate pace so that Lucky wouldn’t fall off the back. She’d insisted on walking back, but he wouldn’t let her. The compromise was to go slowly enough she wouldn’t have to hold on to him.

He still didn’t understand why she was so upset. They’d almost had sex. She was single, free to make her own choices and no one held her back.

Then why was she so upset by what they’d done?

It had all changed at the mention of her fiancé. Her dead fiancé.

As soon as they pulled up in the barnyard, Isaac emerged from the barn. “There you two are. I was about to ride out and check on you. Was the fence that bad?”

“No.” Lucky leaped off the back, grabbed tools, the roll of barbed wire and hurriedly entered the barn without another word.

Isaac’s gaze followed her. “Was it something I said?”

“No.” Trent didn’t feel like talking, nor did he feel like owning up to his little tryst with Lucky in the pool. It just wasn’t any of Isaac’s business.

Isaac wasn’t letting him off that easily, following him to the shed at the back of the barn where they stored the ATVs. “What did you two do?” He dropped down beside the tires and whistled. “You took her to the creek?”

Trent fought a groan. “Yeah. So?”

Isaac straightened and crossed his arms. “Did you make a pass at her?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“I hired her. That makes it my business.” His eyes widened. “Fuck, Trent. You did her, didn’t you?”

“Keep your voice down.”

“The hell I will. I want this ranch hand to stick around. And didn’t I tell you earlier that I liked her?”

“And I’ve want to sell this hell hole from the beginning. It’s nothing but work, and my paying work is falling behind.”

“Then sell me your half. You needn’t have anything to do with the ranch or anything else, including me, ever again.”

“You know I can’t do that. Terms of the will specifically say we both have to sell or neither can sell. If you agree to sell, I’m on it. I’ve even had an offer.”

“Fuck you, Trent. This is my home. I’m staying. If you don’t like it, get the hell out.”

“You can’t handle the upkeep on your own and you need my help. This place doesn’t make enough money to support paying more than the two ranch hands and one is out until his knee gets better. You need my help.”

“You don’t want the ranch.”

“I guess that leaves us at stalemate.” Trent dug the remaining tools out of the ATV’s toolbox and stomped away.

“Damn right it does.” Isaac called out after Trent, “And don’t think I’ll ever sell. You might hate this place, but I don’t.”

Trent stopped, turned around and glared at his brother. “You said you’d give it a year and if I still wanted to sell, you’d consider it.”

“I’ve considered it.” Isaac crossed his arms. “I don’t want to sell.”

Trent spun away, trudged to the house, kicked off his boots and stripped as he walked down the hall. A shower ought to clear his brain sufficiently to let him get to work on the project he’d been commissioned for.

Another oilrig to be placed in the Gulf. As if they didn’t already have enough. This would be his tenth rig and, frankly, he was tired of it. He hadn’t gone to school to be an architect to spend his life as an oilrig specialist. Back in college, he’d had dreams of building beautiful museums, something that combined his love of history, art and mathematics. Not something that destroyed the environment and littered the floor of the gulf.

He’d gone into the field straight out of Texas A&M, working with some of the best architects in the industry. He’d worked his way up the ladder until he was designing rigs on his own. Why? To prove to his father that he didn’t need him. That he could make it on his own, without the ranch, without him, without putting up with his negativity.

As he stepped into the shower, he realized his fists were knotted.

His father was dead. He’d died almost a year ago, without ever telling Trent he was proud of him and all he’d accomplished.

Then why the hell was he still pushing himself?

He turned on the water, leaving it on cold, the drops pelting his body and all the tiny puncture wounds he’d accumulated when he’d been wrapped in barbed wire.

An image of Lucky’s shocked face came to mind and he laughed, forcing his anger out. Yeah, he’d been mad about being wrapped in barbed wire. But when she’d stood beside the pool, staring around in wonder, he’d gotten a glimpse of a new perspective.

I can’t see how anyone could not love this place, she’d said.

But he didn’t love it. He despised it and every moment he’d had to work on it with his father telling him all the things he did wrong, never giving him a lick of encouragement.

If he hated it so much, why was he there? He had an apartment and office in Houston.

He’d told himself he was there because of Isaac.

One full-time foreman and Isaac only part time could not run a ranch this size. The ranch wasn’t making enough money to hire more help, thus the reason he’d moved home when his father had died. Isaac needed his free labor to help out, especially when he had to be away for his regular job as a geologist for oil speculators. Trent figured that even having the competent help of another experienced rancher wouldn’t be enough. Especially one with a long, leggy body that wrapped around a man’s like it was his second skin.

His cock twitched, rising at the thought of plunging deep into Lucky’s body. What would she feel like sheathing him? Warm, wet and wonderful, no doubt.

After the abrupt end to their lovemaking, Trent wondered if he’d have a chance to find out. The water wasn’t cold enough to chill his desire. He had to have her, the blowjob not nearly satisfying enough to shake her from his thoughts. Once with her ought to be enough to get her out of his system. Once usually did it for him with most women he had sex with.

When he stepped out of the shower, he dried off and dressed in clean jeans and a soft chambray shirt. He padded barefoot into his father’s office, sat at the desk and powered up the computer.

He spent the rest of the afternoon working on the Limitless 11, the latest in his patented designs. With his computer screens set on the intricate details of the structure, he worked without stopping, his mind going back and forth from girders to girl thighs until the smell of smoke drifted in through an open window.

“What the hell?” He leaped from his desk and ran out the French doors onto the deck. Smoke was coming from the other side of the house, the breeze wrapping it around the porch. He raced to see where it was coming from.

As soon as he rounded the corner, a wall of smoke billowing from the kitchen window hit him. Shouts and curses accompanied the clatter of pans from within.

Trent burst through the door. Smoke engulfed him, blinding him, making his eyes sting and clogging his lungs. He ducked low and spied jean-clad legs too slender to be his brother’s. “Lucky?”

“I tried to tell you I was…” cough, “…hopeless…” more coughing, “…in the kitchen. I can’t…see to turn off the…damned burner.”

Crouching below the heaviest smoke, Trent raced across the floor and groped for the knobs on the stove, shutting off the burner.

Red-hot flames rose from a skillet, the smoke puffing out from there.

Trent grabbed a pan lid from the drawer in the bottom of the stove and threw it over the flames. Within seconds, the fire was out and the smoke began to recede.

“What the hell happened?”

Lucky staggered out the door onto the deck, doubled over and coughed like she was expelling a lung.

Trent pulled a glass from the smoked cabinet, rinsed it, filled it with water and joined Lucky on the deck, handing her the glass. “Drink.”

Isaac came running from the barn. “What happened?”

“Good question.” Trent’s gaze turned to Lucky whose coughing had slowed, though her face was smudged with soot. “Mind cluing us in?”

Her brows pulled together and she brushed a lank strand of hair behind her ear. “I told you I was hopeless in the kitchen.”

Before Trent or Isaac could say anything, she turned and ran for the barn.

Isaac glared at Trent. “What did you do to her?”

Trent raised his hands. “I was working in my office. Hell, I didn’t know she was in the house until I smelled smoke. I thought she was in the barn with you.”

“She was, at least until I rode out to bring that sick heifer in.”

“Did you get her in?”

“Lucky?”

Trent’s jaw tightened. “No, the heifer.”

“Got her in the last stall in the barn. Got a call out to the vet. He said he might not make it until morning.”

“How’s she look?”

“Lucky? Hotter than hell.” Isaac grinned at his brother, then his grin faded. “The heifer, not so good. Not sure she’ll make it until the vet gets here.”

“Damn.” Trent hated losing even one of the animals. His father would have kept better track of the cattle. He’d have checked every other day on the herd, if not every day.

Another reason they should sell the ranch. They weren’t cut out to be ranchers. They had other work demanding their attention, Trent’s work as an architect and Isaac’s work as a geologist.

“When are you due to head back out in the field?” he asked.

“Not for another week. Then I’m off to Montana.” Isaac glanced at the house. “I hired her. I’ll take care of the mess in the kitchen. You check on the cow and see if there’s anything you can think of.”

“Dad always took care of the sick animals. Anytime I tried to help, he refused. Said I’d do more good by getting Dusty out there to help him. He was too stubborn for his own good.”

“Yeah.” Isaac shoved a hand through his hair. “And Dusty’s not here to help.”

“It’s probably not a good idea to call him.” Trent scratched his five-o’clock shadow. “The man’s probably pumped up on morphine or some other painkillers.”

“Wouldn’t be right to bother him.” Isaac glanced at his brother hopefully. “Would it?”

“No.” Trent tipped his head toward the barn. “I’ll go see what I can do to make her comfortable.”

“What do you want for dinner?”

“Something not burned.”

“Frozen pizza?”

“We had that last night.”

“Frozen chicken wings?”

Trent sighed. “We need to sell this place. I miss the restaurants in Houston.”

“And the smell of oil refineries?” Isaac’s lips thinned. “I’m not selling.”

“You get to escape every other week.”

“We can hire more help.”

“Damn right. I have deadlines I can’t miss.”

“Saving the world one oilrig at a time?”

“Maybe. At least I’m trying to help make this country less dependent on foreign sources of fossil fuels.”

“So noble.” Isaac bowed, his whole attitude reeking of sarcasm. 

“Don’t knock it, you’re in the same business, finding oil for speculators.”

“Yeah, but you have a talent for building things. It doesn’t have to be oil rigs.”

“Oh, go cook something.” Trent stomped off to the barn, his brother’s taunt hitting far too close to home. After the brightness of the Texas outdoors, the interior of the barn was dark and filled with shadows.

He stood for a few moments, allowing his sight to adjust to the darkness.

Then he heard Lucky talking.

He followed the sound to the last stall where the heifer lay on her side, breathing hard.

Lucky crouched on the ground beside her, smoothing a hand over the animal’s neck.

He must have made a noise, because Lucky glanced over her shoulder, her gray eyes rounded, sad. “She’s dehydrated.”

“The vet’s coming in the morning.”

“If we don’t get fluids in her, she might not make it through the night.”

“There’s only one large-animal vet in the county.”

“Then we have to do something.” Lucky pushed to her feet. “Where are your supplies?”

“In a cabinet in the tack room.”

“Show me.”

Trent led the way, and Lucky followed him.

“Do you keep salt, potassium chloride and calcium chloride?”

He stared at her. “I have no idea.”

She frowned.

“What? My foreman usually handles ordering supplies for the animals and takes care of any sick ones.”

“You own the ranch.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t ask for it.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Inheritance from my father. The only thing he ever gave me.”

She tilted her head, a smile playing at her lips. “I detect resentment.”

“Yeah.”

Her smile disappeared and she brushed him aside. “I don’t have time for it,” she said, her voice brusque, no-nonsense. One by one, she went through the cabinets until she located a box of salt and two more with calcium chloride and potassium chloride. She pulled them down onto a counter and then reached for the metal tube lying on a shelf above.

“What are you doing?”

“Saving that cow’s life, if I can.”

“You’ve done this before?”

“I told you, I worked on a ranch. I’m good with animals. That heifer is dehydrated. If we don’t get her hydrated, she might not be around for the vet in the morning.”

Curious now, he watched as she measured amounts of the three ingredients into a clean bucket. “How do you know she’s dehydrated?”

She rolled her eyes his way as if to say any idiot would know if they had worked around cattle much. “Her eyes have receded.” Once she had the ingredients in the bucket, she filled it with water and stirred. “If you’ll bring that tube and pump, we can get started.” She didn’t wait for him.

Trent grabbed the lid for the bucket that had a pump affixed to it, the tubing and nose pincher and hurried after Lucky.

She’d set the five-gallon bucket of liquid to the side and was herding the cow out of the stall and out the back door of the barn into the small corral. She didn’t stop until she had her in the chute with the neck clamp. Quickly, efficiently, she situated the heifer in the clamp and held out her hand for the nose pincher with the short gray tube attached.

Trent handed her the items she asked for and observed while she worked on the heifer, shoving a longer tube through her mouth and into her belly. Soon she had the concoction she’d stirred up pumping into the heifer’s stomach.

“Are you sure this is what you do?” he asked, remembering his father and Dusty doing something like this when he’d let Trent near enough to watch.

“I’ve done it more times than I remember. I grew up on a cattle ranch in the panhandle. I was drenching cows at the age of nine.”

An hour and five gallons of liquid later, they moved the heifer back to the stall, gave her food and water and closed the gate. In that time, Trent had a whole new respect for the ranch hand they’d hired and it had nothing to do with how beautiful she was or how sexy she looked naked. Though that helped.

“She should be okay until the morning when the vet comes.” Lucky brushed her hands on her jeans and sighed. “The horses have been fed. Tomorrow I’ll check hooves and teeth. Is there anything else you want me to do?”

“I think you’ve got everything under control.” He had to admit he was surprised by her expertise and hard work. He hadn’t known many women…make that any women who could have done what she had that day. “You’re amazing.”

She snorted. “Except for the K.P. detail.” Her head hung. “My father raised me to work the ranch, but he didn’t bother to teach me to cook.”

“I gathered that.” He jerked his head toward the house. “I smell something that isn’t smoke. Isaac isn’t bad at the grill. Wanna go see what he’s prepared?”

She glanced down at her dirty jeans. “I need a shower. Then I’m headed to the Ugly Stick. I have to work off the damages from last night.”

He frowned, not too happy about having her work all day then late into the night at the Ugly Stick. “I can give you a ride.”

“I appreciate that, but I’m not certain how late I’ll be. I’d prefer to take my own truck.”

“I don’t mind. I was going there anyway, after dinner,” he lied. The more he was around her, the more he found himself wanting to be around her.

She trudged toward the house, biting at that full bottom lip. “All right. But I’ll drive my truck.”

He glanced at the old pickup. “Will it make it there and back?” He didn’t relish walking home in the middle of the night. “I really don’t mind driving.”

“Then you drive, but I’m taking my truck.”

“We’ll take your truck.” Biting back a grumble, he held the door for her as she entered through the kitchen. He hadn’t planned on going to the Ugly Stick, but now that he’d committed, he couldn’t take it back. Besides, after a full day working the ranch, Lucky had to be tired and shouldn’t drive herself home alone.

“Took you guys long enough. The steaks are getting cold.”

“Where’d you get steaks?” Trent asked.

Isaac’s chest puffed out. “Found them in the back of the freezer.”

“I can’t eat until I’ve had a shower.” Lucky glanced around the kitchen.

Isaac grinned. “I did the best I could with cleaning up. A coat of paint will take care of the rest.”

“I could pick up a can on my way through town, if the hardware store is still open.” Her face fell. “On second thought, I will when I have some money in my pockets.”

“We have some ceiling paint in the barn,” Isaac offered.

“I can paint the ceiling tomorrow.” Lucky glanced from Isaac to Trent. “Unless you want me to do it before I go to the Ugly Stick. I can, you know.” She started for the back door. “In fact, I think I should. It’ll cut down on the smoky smell.”

“No!” both Trent and Isaac said at once.

Her eyes widened. “I don’t mind. I created the mess, I should have cleaned it up.”

“We don’t mind, do we, Isaac?” Trent said.

“Hey, speak for yourself. I had to toss the pan and use steel wool to get the charred remains of a pork chop off the stove.”

“I’m sorry.” Lucky chewed that lower lip again. “Maybe it would be best if I moved on. My bad luck seems to be following me, even here.”

Trent slipped an arm around her shoulders. “I’d say you have a knack for more than that.” He glanced at his brother. “You should have seen how she took care of that heifer. What did you call it?”

“Drenching.” She shrugged. “Any ranch hand could have done it.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Trent nodded toward the hallway. “Do you have extra clothes?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“In the back room.”

Trent glanced over her head at his brother.

“I put her in the spare bedroom last night.”

She’d slept in the house the night before and he hadn’t known it. His cock twitched. And if he had, what would he have done? Stayed up all night wondering what she looked like naked?

“I don’t expect to stay in the house long. Just until I can earn enough money to rent my own place.”

“We don’t mind your staying here, do we, Trent?” Isaac shot him a pointed glare.

“Not at all.”

Lucky stood straight. “I don’t take charity unless I have to.” She shot a glance at Isaac. “And I plan on paying you back that forty dollars, as soon as I can earn extra money.”

“You work here now. Your quarters are provided as part of the payment package.”

“Do you have a bunk house?”

“No. Only the foreman has his own small house on the property.”

“Then I’ll find a place to stay in town.”

“Don’t be stubborn, Lucky.” Isaac slipped an arm around her shoulder. “What if one of the animals needs you in the middle of the night? Trent and I are hopeless. We’ve had no training in animal husbandry.”

“Isaac’s right,” Trent added. “It’s either we pay your rent in town, or—”

“—you can stay in this house. We have three extra bedrooms. You might as well use one.”

Her brow furrowed and she chewed on that darned lip again, making Trent want to take over and taste it himself. “What’s it gonna be?”

She sucked in a deep breath and let it out. “Okay. But only until I can earn enough to pay my own rent. And don’t tell me you’d do the same for a male ranch hand.”

Trent smiled. “Actually, we would. Isaac and I have jobs other than ranching. We need the help and we’d pay for and put up with someone who can take care of things when we can’t. And today, you’ve proven that you can more than take care of the ranching duties.”

“All that said, it helps that you’re prettier than a toothless cowboy.” Isaac clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Go get your shower. You’re staying here.”

Isaac watched as she walked away, waited until she was out of earshot and then turned on his brother. “What the hell are you doing with Lucky?”

“What do you mean?”

“She hasn’t been here an entire day and you’ve already had sex with her in the creek?” Isaac crossed his arms. “I saw her first. I was the one who hired her to work at the ranch. I want to date her. Did you think of that?”

“Seems to me you had your chance already. When did you have time to steal a kiss from her?”

“I didn’t steal it. She gave it free and clear.” He glared at his brother, wanting to tell him that he’d had sex with Lucky, but he wasn’t one to kiss and tell. It was up to Lucky to share that information. Apparently, she hadn’t. “You have a crappy reputation with women. What happens when you get tired of her? If she fancies herself in love with you and you don’t return her feelings, our ranch hand will pull up stakes and leave.”

“So?”

“Didn’t you hear me? I want her for me. She’s just the kind of woman I pictured myself with for the long haul. Kind, independent, hardworking.”

“Beautiful, sexy and with legs that go on forever?”

“That too.” Isaac stabbed a steak with a fork and slammed it onto a plate. “Don’t run her off like you do every other woman.”

“If she’d wanted you, don’t you think she’d have shown it?”

She had and they’d done it. Isaac clamped down on his tongue to keep from saying that. “I was giving her a chance to get used to the idea of me and her.”

“You snooze, buddy, and you lose.” Trent slid one of the charred steaks onto his plate, spooned a helping of microwaved baked beans next to it and set it on the table.

Isaac placed the last steak on another plate and set his and Lucky’s plates on the table, a jar of steak sauce and two glasses of ice water. “I’m not done yet. But you’re right. I’m playing it safe. I think I could be the right guy for Lucky.”

“And I’m not?”

“Hell no. You aren’t stable enough. She needs someone who will care for her always.”

“She needs someone who can stir her passion.”

“I got this.”

Lucky entered the room with her hair up in a towel, her face scrubbed clean. “You two didn’t have to wait for me. Dig in.” She sat, lifted a fork and knife and polished off the steak like a true ranch hand.

Yeah, no dieting, stiletto-wearing, frou-frou woman with more hairspray than brains. Lucky was the real deal.

Isaac studied her and his brother as they ate in silence. Tonight he would step up the pace on his goal to woo the fair Lucky into committing to him. He had more charm in his little finger than Trent had in his entire body, and he cared about Lucky. That his brother had taken her in the creek had him scratching his head. Was Lucky like so many other women and preferred the bad boy to the boy next door?

Well, hell. He could be just as bad as the next guy. Lucky wouldn’t know what hit her. Isaac went after what he wanted, and he wanted Lucky for his own.