Chapter Twelve
Sam leaned on the top railing and contemplated the pleasing picture of horses grazing in one field and cows in another. Lally stood beside her, chewing gum, her gaze fixed on the mountain range beyond the fields.
“Gawd, why would anyone want to live out here? There’s no nightlife, it’s freezing cold, and everywhere smells of shit.”
“It is something of an acquired taste,” Sam agreed. “Not the cow dung; I mean, who eats that? But the rest of it.” Lally’s initial enthusiasm for the ranch had quickly worn off and she’d gone quiet. “After three weeks out here, I kind of love it.”
Lally sniffed. “Three hours is quite enough for me, but maybe that’s because Ry Morgan deliberately chose to take us to all the stinkiest parts.”
“Why on earth would he do that?”
“Because he hates me.”
“Ry Morgan hates you?” Sam tried not to sound too surprised. “Everyone loves Ry.”
“Well, I don’t. When he competed in the rodeo, he spent his whole time complaining about me and saying I was a bad influence on HW. He even tried to stop me moving in with HW after he abandoned his own twin. He’s an asshole.”
Sam had to acknowledge that Ry had been noticeably unfriendly to Lally on their tour, expending all his charm and warmth on Octavia, whom he was currently chatting with over by the pigpen. Lally hadn’t liked the pigs at all.
“I don’t understand why HW came back here,” Lally said.
“It’s his home and I think he missed his family.”
“I’m not sure why. When he used to get drunk, he’d tell me stuff . . .” Lally’s voice trailed away. “Not that he gets drunk anymore. He’s no fun when he’s sober.”
“Weird, because I can’t imagine him drunk,” Sam admitted.
“Oh, he’d do such stupid, dangerous stuff, he was awesome!” Lally sighed. “Back in the day, there was no one who could party like HW.”
“Maybe he just got tired of it.” Sam paused. There was a brittleness about Lally that made her wary of saying the wrong thing. “Most people do.”
“Not me.” Lally opened her purse. “Do you think the old guy would mind if I used his bathroom?”
“I’m sure Roy wouldn’t mind at all.” Sam pointed at the house. “His door’s always open; why don’t you go on in? I’ll tell him where you are.”
Lally set off for the house and Sam walked back to where Ry, Octavia, and Roy were still talking about the pigs. Ry looked up as she approached and came over to meet her.
“Where’s Lally? Did she fall down a big hole somewhere?”
“In your dreams. No, she just went to the bathroom.” Sam frowned at Ry. “You really don’t like her, do you?”
“Nope.” Ry’s usual smile was absent. “She was a bad influence on HW.”
“From what she just told me, it was the other way around.”
“Let me put it this way: Lally has always had a very shaky relationship with the truth. After she met HW, he became completely unbearable, and his rodeo ranking plummeted. It was only after I bailed on him and he got rid of Lally that he finally got his shit together and focused on winning.”
“You can’t blame her for everything,” Sam pointed out. “HW’s not a child.”
“I know that, but he’s always had a weakness for women like Lally.”
“Beautiful blondes, you mean?” Sam was beginning to wonder what HW apparently saw in her.
“Nope—women who need a lot of emotional support and attention. It’s like he thinks he’s the only person who can save them from themselves.” Ry looked past her shoulder. “Speak of the devil. Look who’s just turned up.”
* * *
HW got out of his truck and walked over to the group by the pigsty.
“Hey, where’s Lally?”
Ry and Sam both pointed at Roy’s house. “In the bathroom.”
“I’ll go talk to her.”
“You sure you want to do that, bro?” Ry asked.
“I don’t have a choice.” HW nodded at his twin. “Keep an eye on Sam for me. She has a tendency to wander.”
“Hey—”
HW didn’t wait to hear what Sam had to say, continuing on into Roy’s small house. The kitchen was deserted, but a light shone under the bathroom door. HW tapped on it.
“Lally? It’s HW. When you’re done, we need to talk.”
He paced the small space, noticing Roy’s slow cooker was working on something that smelled like barbecue and that the coffee in the percolator was bitter as hell. He emptied out the coffee dregs, refilled the well with water, and set a new batch to brew. Not that he needed any more stimulants; he was wired enough as it was.
“HW!” Lally appeared in the doorway of the bathroom, her smile bright and one hand clinging to the doorframe. “I thought you were ignoring me.”
HW stayed still as she almost fell over her own feet and then giggled.
“Oops, I nearly tripped.”
“You’re tripping on something all right,” HW muttered.
“Now, don’t be mean.” Lally sat on the couch and patted the seat beside her. “Come and talk to me. How have you been?”
HW took a seat in Roy’s favorite chair right opposite her. “Why did you come to the ranch, Lally?”
“To see you, HW. To make sure you were happy. Paul said you’d be miserable stuck out in the middle of nowhere and that you’d be cool about seeing me again.”
“It is nice to see you, Lally, but—”
“But this is a fancy, rich kind of ranch, isn’t it? Why didn’t you ever bring me to meet your family here? Wasn’t I good enough or something?”
During the dying days of their relationship, HW had learned to dread that particularly sharp tone.
“I never came here myself, Lally. That’s why I never brought you.” He shifted on his seat. “How are things going with Paul? When you texted me, I thought maybe you two had decided to make it official or something.”
Lally’s lip trembled. “Paul is nothing like you, HW. How could you think that I’d ever prefer him?”
“Then why did you text me?” HW didn’t want to ask the question, but he also didn’t want to spend the rest of the afternoon dancing around the issue.
“I wanted to ask you if you’d take me back.”
HW forced himself to meet her eyes and immediately noticed how dilated her pupils were. “What did you just take?”
She blinked at him. “What’s that got to do with you?”
“You can’t have it both ways, Lally. You either want to have a relationship with me, which means I have a right to know what you’re sniffing up your nose, or you carry on doing what works for you and leave me out of it.”
Lally brightened. “So if I give up the crazy stuff, you’ll go out with me again?”
The temptation to say yes just to make sure she got the help she needed hung in the air between them, but he couldn’t lie.
“Lally, if you need help getting into rehab or anything like that, I’m your man, but I can’t go back and date you anymore. Our lives have changed. We’ve both moved on and I’m not coming back to the rodeo.”
“What?” Lally pressed her hand to her mouth. “You can’t do that!”
“Yeah, I can. That’s why Paul came all the way out here to see me.”
“But Paul has—” She hesitated. “Paul has plans for you.”
“And I’ve already told him to wrap things up,” HW said as gently as he could. “He and I are going to part company.”
“Then what will happen to me?” Lally whispered.
It was typical of her to only think of herself.
“Whatever happens between you and Paul, you have a job in his organization, right? You’ll be fine,” HW said encouragingly. Maybe if she realized he wasn’t coming back, she’d also work out that any information she held on him was worthless. “We had some fun times together, but I’ve changed. I really have become a boring old rancher just like Ry. You’re a beautiful woman and deserve a lot more than that, Lally.”
She wiped furiously at her eyes. “Don’t pretend to be nice to me, HW. Every single man I’ve ever known in my life just dumps me like a piece of trash!”
“I never think of you like that, Lally,” he said gently. “I just think we want different things from life.”
“Easy for you to say when you live here and your brother is a billionaire or something.”
HW tensed as she rose to her feet and glared at him.
“I told Paul this would be a wasted journey.”
“I’m sorry about that. But I can’t be the man you want, Lally.”
She tossed her head and stomped out of the house, leaving him sitting there alone. Should he have asked her directly about her threat to go public with some gossip about him? There’d been some wild occasions in his past that he really had no recollection of, and with all the technology at hand these days, Lally could’ve caught him doing some crazy shit. But at least she knew he wasn’t coming back to the rodeo or willing to take up with her again. Would those things be enough to convince her to let things go? Or would they make her mad enough to want payback?
HW shoved his hand through his hair and groaned. If she was still taking drugs—and he was pretty certain just from looking at her that she was—there was no telling what she would do. She had a vindictive streak a mile wide and might dump him in the shit just for the hell of it. He couldn’t allow her to blacken his family name again. Seeing his grandma in tears had been one of the worst moments of his life. Had Paul introduced Lally to a whole new level of addiction?
HW stood up. He’d have to sweat it out, get his business sorted with Paul, and pray for a clean break and a new dawn.
* * *
While Ry dealt with Octavia, Sam climbed into HW’s truck and waited for him to emerge from the house. If he came out grinning and covered in lipstick, she just might make use of the old rifle stashed in the rear of the truck and shoot him dead. Not that it was any of her business what he did, seeing as they weren’t involved or anything, but maybe she could see it as a general service to womankind.
Lally came flying down the slope, her color high, and went straight to Ry.
“Take me back to Paul right now! I’m leaving.”
Sam wanted to do a little celebratory dance but stayed silent so she could hear better as Ry looked Lally up and down.
“I’m waiting for HW. You didn’t murder him in there or anything, did you?”
“Men like him never die; they just move on to the next conquest!” Lally spat. “You’d know all about that, Ry Morgan, wouldn’t you? How many times did you look the other way when he was drunk or high? How many times did you introduce him to a new woman just to try to get rid of me ?”
“You’ve always had a vivid imagination, Lally.” Ry took his time opening the doors of his truck. “Why don’t you get in the truck out of the heat and I’ll go check on my brother?”
Just as he turned toward the house, HW came down the steps, his famous smile absent and his hazel eyes covered by his sunglasses. He nodded at his twin.
“I’ll meet you back at the ranch, okay?”
“Sure.”
To Sam’s disappointment, Ry didn’t ask HW to explain a damn thing, but maybe because they were twins he didn’t need to. Ry got into his truck and headed out. Sam held her breath as HW got into the driver’s seat and banged his forehead three times on the steering wheel while cursing fluently.
“I guess you and Lally aren’t getting back together, then?” Sam asked.
HW’s head shot up and he turned to glare at her. “Who the hell let you in here?”
“No one. I managed it all by myself. I think you did the right thing, by the way. Lally wasn’t very keen on the ranch at all.”
“You asked her about that?” HW stretched out his arms and stared up at the roof of his truck. “Who am I kidding? Of course you did. Anything else you want to share with me?”
“I liked Octavia a lot.”
“Octavia is a saint to put up with Paul.”
“She works as Paul’s PA, right, and Lally is his girlfriend?”
“Yeah. Lally is one of Paul’s many girlfriends. She also works in his PR department.”
“Okay.” Sam looked out of the window. “Are we going back to the ranch now?”
HW snorted. “No more questions?”
“Not at this moment. You look way too stressed to deal with me right now.”
He gave a strangled laugh. “God, Sam. You have no idea—”
“Shh. Stop talking.”
She grabbed hold of the front of his shirt and kissed him hard on the mouth. It didn’t take him more than a second to catch on and kiss her back. By the time she wrenched her mouth away from his, she was practically in his lap and his hands were all over her.
“Better now?”
His golden gaze narrowed. “You’re kidding. And weren’t we supposed to be done with the touching thing?”
“Sorry; I forgot.” Sam disentangled herself from his arms. “I just couldn’t bear to see you looking so sad.”
“I’m never sad.” HW started the engine. “I was just surprised to see Lally again.”
“So what did she want?”
He paused to look over at her. “I thought we were done talking about this.”
“Answer the question.”
“And what if I told you to mind your own business?”
“Then I’d be all upset and you’d feel really bad and tell me anyway.”
HW sighed. “She wanted us to get back together and, as you correctly guessed, I said no, and she didn’t take it well.”
Sam was quite surprised that he’d capitulated so easily to her question. “Lally came all the way out here just to ask you that?”
“She came with Paul, who was in the area on business.”
“Did Paul know his girlfriend was going to proposition her old flame?”
“Probably.”
“So what did Paul want?”
“To try to persuade me to keep competing for another year.” HW grimaced. “He doesn’t believe I mean to retire.”
“Well, I can see why. You came in second overall this year, so most people would think you’d want to go for that first place one more time.”
He gave her the side-eye. “I thought you didn’t follow the rodeo much and didn’t know a thing about me?”
Sam smiled sweetly at him. “Did that sting?”
“A little.” He shrugged and set off down the bumpy track that eventually joined onto the main ranch road. “Most of my sponsorship deals are up for renewal at the end of this year. It seemed a good time to get out without reneging on my commitments.”
“But Paul doesn’t see it that way.”
“That about sums it up.” HW turned the wheel sharply to the right and they turned onto the paved road. “He’s threatening to retain money owed to me if I don’t commit to one more year.”
“Does he know who your brother is?” Sam asked as the truck finally righted itself and she loosened her grip on the overhead handle.
“Which one?”
“Chase, of course.”
“What about him?”
Sam stared at his profile. “I bet he has the best lawyers in California working for him and would do anything to help you out.”
“He probably would if I asked him.” HW put his glasses back on as he faced into the sun. “I’d prefer to handle things myself.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a big boy who can deal with his own problems.”
Sam considered his reply as they approached the ranch. Was HW worried that Chase wouldn’t help him? His whole relationship with his family was so weird . . .
The white limo was still parked in front of the barn and the driver was out there checking the engine.
HW pulled up alongside Ry’s old truck but made no effort to get out. Eventually he blew out his breath.
“I need to say good-bye to Paul, and make sure he understands what I told him.”
“Sounds good.”
“Not really, because he’s such a snake he’ll keep on pretending he hasn’t heard me until he thinks he’s worn me down. I know how he operates.” He stared out of the dusty windscreen. “I just want to walk away and be here, you know? Just . . . stop, and no one but me seems to want that to happen.”
“I think your family would be pleased if you stayed,” Sam offered.
“I’m not sure about that.” He got out of the cab and came around to Sam’s side, his smile back in place. “It’s too late to go for our ride now. You’ve got plenty of time before dinner to do your own thing.”
He reached in and lifted her down to the ground; his easy strength always surprised her. She reached up to cup his slightly unshaven chin.
“Will you be okay?”
“I’ll manage.” He dropped a kiss on her nose. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure.” She didn’t want to let him go—wanted to take his hand and walk into the house so they could face Paul together. She removed his sunglasses and stared into his eyes. “I could come with you.”
“Sam . . .” His smile deepened and she grabbed a handful of his shirt as he lowered his head to kiss her properly. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got this.”
She was the first to step away, but only because if she didn’t she was going to climb him like a monkey and hang on until he forgot about anything except taking her to bed. He was way too good at compartmentalizing. She loved it when she could get under his skin; get him riled up and wanting her.
Except they’d made a deal not to go there anymore. . .
She blew him a last kiss. As she turned away she caught a glimpse of Paul, Octavia, and Lally coming down from the house. Only Octavia was smiling. Lally looked like she wanted to kill someone—possibly Sam—and Paul didn’t look much better.
She’d forgotten they were on public view. Had anyone seen HW kiss her? And if they had, what on earth would they make of it?
* * *
“So what’s going on with you and Sam?” Ry asked as he handed HW the bucket of scraps to mix in with the chicken feed.
Paul had finally left after yet another attempt to make HW change his mind. Lally hadn’t spoken to HW at all, but Octavia had hugged him and said she’d come back for a real ranch vacation once they were properly open. After an afternoon helping Roy move cattle and then dinner with his family, HW was wondering how Sam was doing and keen to go see her.
But on a ranch, chores had to come first, so he was in the barn helping Ry put the horses and the chickens to bed.
“Sam and I are getting on great. What about it?” HW focused on adding the food scraps into the grain and then divided the mix between two bowls.
“You kissed her this afternoon. We all saw you.”
“She kissed me.” Technically, HW wasn’t lying. “She likes to mess with my head.”
“So I’ve noticed, and you seem to enjoy it.” Ry walked out into the gloom. The sun was setting behind the Sierras, throwing the landscape into a mixture of purple shadows and angles that distorted reality. “She’s certainly not your type.”
HW followed him out. “I have a type?”
“Yeah, blond, busty, and with legs that go on forever.”
“Isn’t that every man’s dream?”
“Nope, and stop trying to change the subject. What’s going on with Sam?”
HW clucked to the chickens and tried to ignore his twin. “Any more sightings of that cougar? Roy said he found three dead chickens the other day.”
“HW . . .” Ry was just staring at him, his expression so patient that HW felt about twelve. “Sam came here as a guest and you’ve been teaching her to ride, so it’s only fair that you answer the question.”
“Why? What are you? The Morgan Ranch morality police?” HW said. “We’re both consenting adults who are perfectly capable of working out whether we want to hang out together after our lesson.”
“So you admit you’re in a relationship with her?”
“I’m not! We’re just . . .” HW hesitated. “Enjoying each other’s company. What the hell does it have to do with you or anyone else?”
“Because she came here as a guest.” Ry repeated. “What do you think January and Chase are going to say when they get back from San Francisco and hear about this?”
“You’re going to tell tales on me, bro? How adult is that?”
Ry sighed. “I don’t want to have to do that, but I will if you don’t level with me.”
“You’d go against me with them?”
“Don’t make this into something it’s not, HW.” Ry locked the door into the chicken coop and they both turned back to the barn. “I want you to be happy, you know that.”
“And you don’t think Sam makes me happy?”
“She’s just so different from everyone you’ve ever dated, and after everything she’s been through, the thought of her getting hurt by you is—”
“Stop right there, bro. Sam is the strongest woman I’ve ever met. She’s nosy, she’s bossy, she’s way too opinionated, and there’s a high probability she only exists to drive me insane.” HW got right in his twin’s face and poked him in the chest. “So don’t you ever go around feeling sorry for her. If she wants to hang out with me during her vacation, and set me right about everything that’s wrong with my life and my personality, that’s her choice, okay? So just shut the frick up and keep out of my life.”
Ry’s reply was slow in coming. “Nice.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” HW demanded.
Ry patted his shoulder. “I won’t tell Chase and January anything. I’m sure they’ll work it out for themselves eventually.”
“Work out what?”
Ry backed slowly out of the barn, his hands held high. “That maybe, just maybe, my twin has finally grown a pair and met his match.”