Cowboy to the Rescue

To hide her dark, unsettled thoughts, she quickly pretended an interest in the books in front of her. “Anything whole is always stronger than something divided.” She darted a glance at him. “You’re a lucky man, Lex Saddler.”

He didn’t say anything to that, and though her head was turned away from him, she could feel his thoughtful silence, his warm gaze traveling over her.

“So where do you plan to start this morning on Dad’s case?”

Bracing herself, she turned to face him. “Right now I have copies of the police and coroner’s reports, so-called witness depositions and general information about the company Paul worked for. Your mother has given me pertinent data as to where Paul grew up, how they met and a general idea of their marriage, especially around the time that he died. For the next couple of days, I’m going to delve into all that.”

“So what do you need from me? I mean this morning.”

No doubt he was itching to get outside, and she couldn’t blame the man. From the few open spaces between the live oak limbs shading the window, sunshine was streaming through the panes of glass, slanting golden stripes across the hardwood floor. Out on the lawn, dew glistened on the thick Saint Augustine grass while mockingbirds squawked angrily at a pair of fox squirrels. It was a lovely morning. One that needed to be taken advantage of.

She looked at Lex speculatively. He was a man who needed to be doing. Sitting and talking about the past would only make him tense again.

Smiling tentatively, she walked toward him. “I’d like for you to take me on a horseback ride.”

Chapter Three

Like an idiot, Lex felt his jaw drop as he stared at the lovely woman in front of him. He’d been expecting a taped question-and-answer session or, at the very least, to help her go over stacks of his father’s personal papers.

“Riding? For pleasure?”

She laughed softly. “Why, yes. That’s the only sort of riding I’ve ever done. Don’t you ever ride across the hills just for the sake of riding?”

He stroked a thumb and forefinger against his chin. “Not since I was about ten years old. After that, I got on a horse to go someplace or to herd cattle. And as for hills, the only kind we have around here are fire-ant hills.”

Dimples appeared in both her cheeks, and Lex felt the middle of his chest go soft and gooey. What was the matter with him? he wondered. A woman’s simple smile had never affected him this way.

“Well, perhaps this morning you could pretend you’re herding cattle, and we could talk a bit about your father’s case along the way? It’s a shame to waste the sunshine, and I’d enjoy seeing some of the ranch.”

She was making spending time with her easy, Lex thought, way too easy.

“Then you’ve got a date.” He glanced at her strapped sandals. “Do you own a pair of boots? Not the kind you wear down a fashion runway, either. The cowboy kind that will hold your feet in the stirrups?”

“I do. Give me five minutes to change. Where shall I meet you?” she asked.

“In the kitchen. Cook will give us some cookies and a thermos of coffee to take.”

“I thought you didn’t know how to ride for fun,” she reminded him.

Feeling unexpectedly happy, he laughed. “I’m a quick learner.”

Ten minutes later, the two of them were out the door and walking toward an enormous white wooden barn. At the nearest end, and along one side, wooden corrals separated groups of horses, some of which were munching alfalfa hay from portable mangers.

Inside the barn, Lex saddled a gentle mare named Hannah for Christina and, for himself, a paint gelding called Leo that he most often used as a working mount.

While he readied the horses, Christina used the time to look around the inside of the cavernous barn. Besides the outside horses, there were at least thirty stalled inside the structure, and though she was far from an expert on horse flesh, she recognized without being told that some of the animals were worth a small fortune. Their stalls were pristine, and their coats, manes and tails groomed to perfection.

A number of wranglers and stable boys were already hard at work, and she could easily see why the Sandbur was one of the largest and wealthiest ranches in the state of Texas. But whether that wealth had played into Paul Saddler’s death was yet to be seen.

“We’ll take them outside and mount up there,” Lex told her. “Can you lead Hannah?”

“Sure. I’m not a complete greenhorn around horses.” He handed Hannah’s reins to her, and as they headed toward the open barn door, the gray mare fell into obedient step behind her. “One of my best childhood friends owns horses and keeps them stabled at the edge of the city. We’ve ridden together since we were small girls,” she told him. “Only lately, I’ve gotten out of practice. She has to fly back and forth to California to care for her ailing mother.”

He glanced over at her. “That must be stressful. What about your mother? Does she live in San Antonio?”

Christina caught herself before she grimaced. Frowning at the mention of her mother wouldn’t make a good impression. Especially to someone like Lex, who obviously adored his mother. But he could hardly know the sort of life that Retha Logan had lived. He couldn’t know that in her fifty-one years of life, she’d already gone through six husbands and was now working on her seventh.

“No, she lives in Dallas.”

“You see her often?”

“Not too often. She stays busy, and so do I.”

“What about your father?”

His questions were simple and something to be expected. Even so, they made her feel very uncomfortable. Especially when she was the one who usually did the asking, not the answering.

“He still lives in San Antonio,” she conceded. “You see, my parents divorced when my brother and I were teenagers. So it’s been a long time since we were all together as a family.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Thankfully, they’d reached the open yard in front of the horse barn, and Christina halted her forward motion. “Can we mount up now?”

“I’m ready,” he agreed, allowing Leo’s reins to dangle to the ground and turning toward her. “Let me help you.”

“Won’t your horse run off?” she asked, with dismay.

“No. He understands what I want him to do.”

“Smart horse.”

He chuckled. “That’s the only kind we raise here on the Sandbur.”

Christina stood to one side as he slipped the bridle reins over Hannah’s head.

“Put your foot in the stirrup, and I’ll give you a boost,” he said.

His boost turned out to be a hand on her rump, pushing her upward, but when she landed in the seat of the saddle with hardly any effort at all on her part, she couldn’t be cross with him.

As he swung himself onto the back of the paint, she said, “I suppose that’s a technique you use to help everyone into the saddle.”

He laughed under his breath, and Christina realized she’d never heard a more sexy sound.

“Well, just the women. None of the men around here need help getting into the saddle.”

Women. No doubt he had girlfriends in the plural, she thought. He had that rakish, devil-may-care attitude that drew women like bears to a beehive. She ought to know. Mike had been a charmer deluxe, the smoothest-talking man she’d ever run across. Still, that shouldn’t have been any excuse for her to go on believing his gaff for four long years. Once she’d finally smartened up and left, she’d vowed to never believe anything a smooth-talking man said without some sort of action to back it up.

Lex nudged his horse forward, and Christina quickly drew the mare abreast of Leo. As they moved away from the barn, he pointed in a westerly direction.

“The river is that way, and that’s where my sisters love to ride,” he said. “But the trail is rough. We’ll go north today and travel the road that leads to the vet’s house. Maybe later, after I see how well you can ride, we’ll go to the river one day.”

Christina had only suggested getting out this morning because she’d believed it would be a way of getting Lex to relax and talk more freely about his father. She’d not been thinking about future days or spending any more casual time with this man. But now that they were riding along, their stirrups brushing, the wind at their back and a crooked, contagious grin on Lex’s face, she could very easily imagine doing all this again. It was a dangerous thought…especially since it seemed so tempting.

“I promise not to hurt Hannah or myself,” she assured him.

Forty minutes later, they reached a small stream with a low wooden bridge. On the other side of the little creek was a small house shaded by oaks, a barn and a network of cattle pens. Before they crossed the bridge, Lex suggested they stop for a break. After dismounting, he tethered their horses to a nearby willow tree and pulled the thermos of coffee and plastic-wrapped cookies from his saddle bags.

“Is that the vet’s house?” Christina asked as they took seats on the side of the bridge.

“Yeah, Jubal and his family live there. He’s our resident veterinarian. I don’t think any of them are home at the moment, but I’m sure you’ll get a chance to meet them all later. Angie has a teaching degree, but for now she’s staying home to take care of their daughter, Melanie, and baby son, Daniel.”

Another real family, Christina thought wistfully. The Sandbur seemed to be full of them, reminding her just how unsuccessful she’d been in finding a man to love her and give her children.

“Sounds like a nice family.”

“They are,” he agreed, then handed her the bag of cookies. “Here. I’d better warn you that you can’t eat only one. They’re too good.”

After a breakfast of eggs and biscuits, she wasn’t the least bit hungry, but after one bite of pecans and chocolate chips, she couldn’t resist eating a whole cookie and wistfully eyeing those that remained.

He took a short drink from the thermos cup, then passed it to her. For some reason, drinking after the man felt very intimate. As Christina sipped the hot liquid, she felt her cheeks grow unaccustomedly warm.

“So your father was a rancher, too,” she commented after a few moments of easy silence had passed.

He picked up a tiny piece of gravel and tossed it into the shallow water. “For most of his early life—before he went to work in the oil business. And even after that, he helped here on the ranch as much as time allowed. Even to this day, I don’t know half as much about cattle as he did. He was a very intelligent man.”

There was love and pride in his voice, and Christina wondered how it would feel, to know her father had lived an admirable life. She was very proud that Delbert Logan was now staying sober, holding down a good job and taking care of himself, instead of expecting someone to take care of him. Still, she couldn’t help but envy the relationship Lex had clearly had with his father.

“That’s what I keep hearing.” She smiled at him. “It’s obvious that you were very close to him. Did he spend much time with all his children?”

“As much as possible. My sisters were very close to our father, too. But whenever he was home on the ranch, he and I were practically inseparable.”

“So you were living here on the ranch at the time of his death?”

He nodded grimly. “I hadn’t been out of college long and had moved back home from Texas A&M. God, I’m just thankful he got to see me graduate.”

No doubt, Paul Saddler would be proud of his son if he could see him now, Christina thought. Lex appeared to be a man who loved his family deeply and was dedicated to doing his part to keep their ranch successful.

“So what made your father decide to go into the oil business, anyway?”

Lex shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure. I was still in grade school when that happened. I think it was a time when cattle prices had sunk to the bottom of the barrel, and Dad decided he’d be more help to the ranch if he brought in outside money. You see, he’d graduated college with a chemical engineering degree and had always planned to work for one of the chemical plants located on the coast. But then he met my mother, and after they married, he decided that ranching would make him just as happy.”

“Hmm. So he went to work at Coastal Oil out of necessity?” she asked.

Lex nodded. “But I think after he’d been with the company awhile, the money and the benefits became too good to leave. Plus, he was getting something out of his degree. And then there was always the thought of a nice retirement check, which gave him more incentive to stay.”

She handed the thermos cup back to him. “Did you personally know the three friends Paul worked with? The ones who were with him the day of his accident?”

He poured more coffee into the metal cup. “Yes. They seemed to be okay guys, I suppose. Mom has always loved to throw parties for a variety of reasons, and these guys would always attend—until Dad died. After that, they never came back to the ranch. Guess they thought it might bring up bad memories for Mom or something. I thought it was a bit odd, myself.” He looked thoughtfully over at her. “Have you read through their testimonies?”

She nodded. “Yes, but I’m not putting too much stock in them. Most eyewitnesses are very unreliable. They don’t accurately recall what happened, even though they swear they’re sure about what they saw. And the ones that seem to remember every tiny detail are usually lying.”

“Oh. Do you think Dad’s friends accurately described what happened that day?”

“I don’t yet know enough about them or the case to form an opinion.” She gave him an encouraging smile. “Can you tell me more about them?”

His expression thoughtful, he gazed out at the open range dotted with gray Brahman cattle. “They were Dad’s work buddies, not necessarily friends of mine. But I recall a little about them. Red Winters was a big, burly guy. A bit obnoxious, always telling crude jokes. He thought he knew more than everybody, including my dad. Which was a joke. Red got his job because of who he knew, not what he knew. Harve Dirksen was sort of the ladies’ man type. Tall, dark, good-looking, and he knew it. About a year before Dad died, he was going through a messy divorce. I guess Mrs. Dirksen had gotten tired of his cheating. But in spite of their personal problems, they were always devoted friends to Dad. If he needed their help for any reason, they’d be there for him.”

“What about the third man, Lawrence Carter?”

“The epitome of a nerd. Physically weak. Smart at his job, but socially backwards. He’d always been big in playing the stock market and had a degree in business along with being a chemist. Like I said, he was smart, but Red always bullied him around. I remember Mom mentioning that Lawrence had a sickly son, but I don’t know what came of that. You might ask her about it. But I’m pretty sure his wife left him, too, sometime after Dad died. But his luck turned around eventually. All three men came into a small fortune about a year after Dad died.”

Christina looked at him sharply. “Oh? How did that happen?”

Lex shrugged. “Dumping a bunch of company stock right before the value crashed. Just good timing, I suppose. A lot of stockholders lost all their retirement investments. Some demanded an investigation, but nothing criminal was ever proved.”

The wheels inside Christina’s head were clicking at a fast rate, but she didn’t voice her thoughts aloud. She needed much more time and information before she could share with Lex any of the ideas she was entertaining. Instead, she said, “Well, could be the men were just savvy traders. Sometimes it’s hard to tell a good businessman from a thief.”

“Yeah.” He rose from his perch on the bridge and offered a hand down to her. “We’d better be getting along. If you’re ready, I’ll show you the family cemetery before we head back to the ranch. It’s a little west of here, but not too far.”

“I’d like that.”

She closed her fingers around his, and with no effort at all, he tugged her to her feet. The sudden momentum tilted her forward, and she instinctively threw her hands out to prevent herself from falling straight into his arms. They landed smack in the middle of his chest, and she found her face only inches from his.

“Oh! I—I’m sorry!” she said breathlessly. “I lost my balance.”

As she started to push herself away, she realized that he had a steadying hold on both her arms.

“No need to apologize,” he said, with a grin. “I’m just glad you didn’t teeter over into the creek. You would have probably taken me with you.”

She desperately wished he would release his hold on her. Standing this close to him was creating an earthquake in the pit of her stomach. Everything about him smelled like a man, felt like a man. And everything inside of her was reacting like a woman.

“That wouldn’t have been any fun,” she said, trying to keep her voice light.

“Oh, I don’t know. Might be pleasant to have a little morning swim together.”

The suggestive drawl of his voice clanged warning bells in the back of her head, and she quickly jerked away from the clasp of his hands. “I—uh, we better head on to the cemetery.”

Christina walked off the bridge, and as she rapidly headed toward the waiting horses, she sensed him following closely behind her.

Once she reached Hannah’s side, the touch of his hand on the back of her shoulder drew her head around. As she met his gaze, she felt her breath lodging in her throat.

“Christina, are you okay?”

The softly spoken question caught her off guard, and for a moment she wasn’t sure how to answer. “Why, yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”

His brows pulled together in a frown of confusion. “Because I saw something on your face back there. You looked at me like you were scared and wanted to run away.” He gently touched his fingertips to her cheek. “You’re not frightened of me, are you?”

Totally disconcerted, she looked at the leather stirrup dangling near her waist, the ground where one of Hannah’s hooves was stomping at a pestering fly, at anything and everything but him. “That’s silly. Of course I’m not afraid of you.”

Her heartbeat hammered out of control as he moved closer and his hand slid lightly up and down the side of her arm. “You don’t need to worry about me, Christina. I would never hurt you or any woman.”

No. She figured this man would die before he’d ever lay an angry hand on a woman. But there were countless ways to cause another person pain, and she wondered how many women in his past had cried themselves to sleep at night, waiting for a call, waiting to hear him say, “Honey, let’s spend the rest of our lives together”. She’d experienced firsthand some of the ways a man could hurt a woman, and she wasn’t up to getting another dose of education on the subject.

Forcing a teasing smile to her face, she lifted her head and met his gaze. “The only thing I’m worried about is convincing your mother that I don’t need you hanging at my side eight hours of the day.”

That obviously surprised him. “You don’t?”

“No. I always work alone. It’s better for my concentration that way. If I come across things I need to ask you, I’ll make notes and get to you later.”

The relief on his face was almost insulting.

“Well, I do have plenty of work that can’t be done by anyone else but me,” he admitted. “And anyway, I’m not very good at putting puzzle pieces together. Now my sister Mercedes is a different matter. She worked as an intelligence gatherer for the military.”

Christina nodded. “Yes. Geraldine told me. But she’s pregnant with her first child, and Geraldine doesn’t want to put any undue stress on her—especially with such dark matters. And your other sister, Nicci, has her days packed full with being a doctor and caring for her family. And your mother is incredibly busy, too. So that leaves you. But I don’t expect you to drop everything and alter your life just because I’m here.”

His gaze was almost suspicious as it roamed her face. “Are you giving me this reprieve for other reasons?”

Forcing a light chuckle, she turned her back to him and reached to untie Hannah’s reins. “Reprieve? You make it sound like spending prolonged time with me would be a prison sentence.”

“That’s a ridiculous notion. You must realize that you’re a very attractive woman. I’m sure you’ve never had a man complain about spending time with you.”

No, she thought dismally. Mike had never complained about spending time with her. Especially while they’d been making love. He’d just never wanted to make their time together into something permanent.

Glancing over her shoulder at him, she said, “You’d better get to know me before you say that.”

“I plan to,” he promised. Then reaching for her arm, he helped her back into the saddle.

During the next week Christina rarely saw Geraldine Saddler. The ranching matriarch was an extremely busy woman, spending most of her waking hours working on some sort of charity project or overseeing the actual running of the ranch’s daily activities. It was as common to see her dressed in jeans and chaps, driving around in her old Ford truck, as it was to glimpse her leaving for San Antonio in a sequin and satin cocktail dress. She was a woman to be admired, and Christina envied her children for having such a strong, respected mother, a mother who viewed loving a man and raising his children as the most ultimate blessings and responsibilities in her life.

As for Lex, she’d been meeting with him in the evenings, after supper, to go over details of the investigation. So far she couldn’t have asked for him to be a more perfect gentleman. And he’d even helped her begin to see inside the person who’d died in the gulf waters off Corpus Christi. She had to admit that Lex wasn’t the problem that she’d first expected him to be. But her reaction to him was definitely a problem. A huge one.

She’d hoped that the more she was around the man, the more she’d be able to control her racing heart and quell the ridiculous heat that colored her cheeks and warmed every inch of her body whenever she was near him. Trouble was, the more she tried to fight the attraction she had for the rawhide-tough rancher, the stronger it seemed to grow.

That fact hit harder than ever later that evening, as she left her room to go to dinner. Halfway down the staircase, she met Lex coming up. He was dressed very casually in jeans and a short-sleeved polo shirt. The moss-green color set off the tawny-blond streaks in his hair and the dark tan of his arms. She drank in the sight of him like a parched flower soaking up raindrops.

“There you are,” he said, with an easy smile. “I was just coming up to fetch you.”

“Oh. Have you been waiting?”

“No. Mom is away for the evening, and I wanted to see if it was okay with you if we had our meal in the kitchen. I hope you’re going to say yes, because I’ve already sent Cook home.”

“Of course it’s okay with me.” In fact, Christina was happy about the change. Even though the dining room of the Saddler hacienda was very beautiful, she preferred a smaller, cozier setting to eat her meals, especially when there were only two people present.

“Good.” He wrapped an arm through hers and began to escort her down the remaining stairs and in the general direction of the kitchen. “Would you like a drink first? Since Mom’s not here, Cook didn’t make margaritas, but I can shake something up.”

Just the scent of him, the touch of his hand and the smile on his face were shaking her up. Much more than a splash of tequila. She wondered what he would think if he knew that. “Actually, I don’t normally drink anything alcoholic.”

He glanced her way. “If having it around bothers you, you should have told us.”

Shaking her head, she said, “I don’t expect people around me to be prudes, and I even drink spirits occasionally—you saw me drink a margarita the first evening I was here. But my father is a recovering alcoholic. Each time I take a sip, I think of what he’s gone through.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. How is your father doing now?”