The Rancher's Unexpected Family

His phone rang, and he deliberately put it on speakerphone. Anything to fill the silence. His foreman, Wes, said, “Holt, that cow with bloat needs seeing to or we’re going to lose her. The vet’s in the next county and you’re the best one to handle something this complicated.”

“I’ll be there in five.” Holt clicked off. He turned to Kathryn. “I have to go,” he said. Not I’m sorry, or Excuse me. The sudden defeat in her eyes made him want to say those words, but that might have given her hope for some-thing thatjust wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t the savior she had hoped he would be, and he wouldn’t pretend otherwise.

Her shoulders slumped. She turned toward her rusting car, then turned back. “Off to work a miracle, Holt?” she asked, throwing his “I’m no miracle worker” comment back at him.

“Off to do what I know how to do,” he said. “I don’t promise what I can’t deliver. Ever.”

And miracles of any kind were well outside his realm. As he had learned only too well.

Not waiting for her to leave, he strode to his truck. As he drove away in a cloud of dust, a pair of gray, hopeful eyes taunted him.

This time he didn’t hold back. He let loose with a string of blue language. Ms. Kathryn Ellis didn’t know how lucky she was. Women who got involved with an unbending, emotionally stingy man like him lived to regret it. As he’d been told before.

CHAPTER TWO

OKAY, dealing with Holt wasn’t going to be simple, Kathryn thought, back at home. If there was anyone else … But the mayor was adamant that he was the only one in a town this size who had the kind of influence she needed. The Double Bar C was known nationwide. The Calhouns had their fingers in many pies, and Holt was the one who oversaw all of that.

None of that would mean a thing, though, if the man didn’t agree to lend a hand. What to do? What to do? And why did it matter so much?

Because she was determined to turn her life completely around and this was the first step. I came back to my parents’ empty house despite the bad memories because I had no money or work, Kathryn reminded herself. Most of her life had been like that, running from one bad situation and one place to another. But with a baby on the way, she had to do more, to take a stand and become the kind of person a child could depend on. The next time she left somewhere she was going to do it the right way, having left something good behind her, because there was something good ahead of her.

Helping to build this clinic offered her a chance to leave this place on a positive note. On a more major note, it would allow her to use her heretofore useless deg in urban planning and beef up her skimpy résumé. Overseeing the project was the kind of thing that might put a gleam in an employer’s eye and finally help her provide a secure future for her and Baby Ellis.

But there was one more big reason. Despite her intent to slip quietly in and out of Larkville, she’d found that with her parents gone, the town was rather charming. She’d made a few friends, some of them her patients. She cared about them, worried about them and understood how scared they were at the prospect of losing their medical care. How could she not try to help? Still, even the best urban planner needed good people helping her. In this case, she had to get Holt’s help. How?

Butter him up, she thought. Flatter him. Play to his weaknesses. Everyone had weaknesses, didn’t they?

Kathryn splayed her hands across her belly as if communing with her child would help her focus her thoughts. “Play to Holt Calhoun’s weaknesses?” As if she knew what those were.

Well, maybe she did, a little. During the two years she’d lived here, she’d practically stalked Holt. Other than football, he’d spent most of his time on the ranch. Cows, horses, dogs would be high on his list, she assumed. She hated having to brave the ranch again, but she had no choice. Where else would he be?

“You can do this, Ellis.” Her words more bravado than fact. Still, she slipped on her maternity jeans, tennis shoes and a pink top and headed to the Double Bar C. When she arrived, she made a beeline for the stables. A bold move, because she was a little afraid of large animals. She might have lived in Texas, but her parents had been former city dwellers who hadn’t liked Larkville. Ranches hadn’t been part of her life. Too bad. She was on a mission to rewrite the future, and it all started here. She wasn’t running this time.

A snorting, snuffling sound came from her right where a white horse in the corral was tossing its head. It was a beautiful animal. A gigantic animal. And it didn’t seem to be too sure about her presence.

Kathryn tried to quiet her nerves. She’d come prepared, knowing that Holt’s animals would be a part of this. If she could make friends with this creature quickly, then when Holt finally showed up, he might think she was a natural cow woman, like her better, and he and she might bond over equine details. She had gone online just last night to find some interesting facts. She now knew that there were more than three hundred and fifty breeds of horses and ponies and she knew that horses could walk, trot, gallop and canter.

But none of that mattered right now. Holt’s horse was looking at her as if she had horns and a red forked tail. Reaching for what she hoped would be her secret weapon, Kathryn dug into her purse and pulled a carrot from a plastic bag.

“Here, boy.” She held out the carrot clutched between her thumb and forefinger. “Look what I have.”

The horse lurched toward her a bit, and she jerked back, then stuck her hand out again.

“Don’t. Do. That.” The deep voice was unmistakable. It came from the barn behind her. “Stop moving. Right now.”

Kathryn froze. Holt walked up behind her, and she felt very exposed even though she was fully dressed. Seriously, the man exuded something masculine. He got attention.

But, of course, she was supposed to be the one snagging his attention, not the other way around.

“He doesn’t like carrots?” she asked.

“He loves carrots.”

“I—I see. Or, actually, I don’t.” She forgot to freeze and waved her hand around as she spoke. The horse followed with his head. He moved closer. Quickly.

Kathryn jumped.

Just then Holt stepped forward, gave a command to the horse and reached out and took her hand, forcing her to drop the carrot in the dirt. She looked at it with dismay.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because I assume you’d like to keep all your fingers. Horses have sharp teeth and massive heads. Daedalus is gentle, but he doesn’t know you or understand what you’re doing. He wants what you have, but the way you’re bobbing around, he’ll have to lunge for it, and his teeth might nip you. Or that big head of his might knock you on your rear.” Holt shook his head as if he’d had to explain to a child not to cross the street without looking.

“I—” Kathryn felt herself blushing. “Thank you. I didn’t realize. I didn’t think, I guess.”

“But you lived here in horse country.” His words were clipped. He looked as if he thought she was lying.

“I only lived here two years, and we didn’t have horses. My father came here following a job and he … well, he liked his privacy. He didn’t like me making friends, so I didn’t have any reason to learn about ranch life.”

“And yet here you are trying to feed my animal.”

She raised her chin. “Just because I didn’t have horses doesn’t mean I don’t want to know more about them. He’s a spectacular horse. And this is a … it’s a lovely ranch.”

“I like it.” He stared her down.

“I’d—I’d really like to know more about ranching.”

“Just out of the blue like that? Planning to move to a ranch, are you?” He looked mildly amused. As if he was trying to keep from laughing.

Oh, no. Did he think she was flirting with him, pursuing him?

“No. I’m looking for a job in a city, but odds are my baby will be born here, and I want to be able to tell her a bit about her birthplace.” As she said the words, Kathryn realized it was true. She did want her child to know something of her history. Because that kind of anchor had been missing from her own life. Her parents had moved constantly. They’d never discussed their lives before she’d been born. They’d never talked much at all without arguing or criticizing their only child for being a disappointment. Her ex-husband had continued the trend. Control by ignoring or criticizing her. Or making her feel that she was being unreasonable or demanding. It had been an effective system. Kathryn had always fallen into line. This time had to be different. She couldn’t let Holt’s opinion daunt her.

“So you want a history lesson and a tour. And you decided this when? This morning?”

She took a deep breath. “I—no—yes—no. I made that up about thirty seconds ago,” she admitted, in part because Holt made her far too self-aware, but also because she just didn’t want to get in the habit of lying. Good mothers didn’t lie. And, oh, she really wanted to be a good mother.

Holt shook his head again. “If you want a history lesson or information on how a ranch runs, I’ll point you in the direction of some books.”

“I want more than that.”

That had probably been the wrong thing to say. There was always the chance that he knew how big a crush she’d had on him when she was young. She hoped not, but the dark, fierce look in his eyes … the heat that rose within her …

Kathryn took a step backward. She caught her foot on something, a rock or … Suddenly she was slipping.

Just as suddenly, she wasn’t. Holt’s big hands were on her arms. He was pulling her upward, toward him. Her heart was thundering, her breath was erratic. And then she was free, standing on her own. Trying to act as if she was perfectly fine.

“I’m perfectly fine,” she said.

A look of something that might have been amusement flitted across his face and then was gone. “Good. I was going to ask that in a minute.” Even though he’d had no reason to ask. She hadn’t even gotten near to hitting the ground. His quick reflexes and strong arms had seen to that. But his tone—was the darn man teasing her?

“I—I assumed as much,” she said lamely, flustered, not happy that she was letting Holt get to her. But hadn’t she always? Had she ever seriously thought they could be a couple when she was a starstruck teenager? She must have been insane. He was the worst kind of man for someone like her. Too intimidating, entirely too physical. His very presence made her feel as if her brain had gone missing. And her plan to butter him up, to humor him? The one that had seemed so right his morning?

It wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t a man who craved adoration. If he had been, he would have scooped her up in high school and had all the adoration he could handle. She sighed.

“What?”

She forced herself to look straight into his eyes and not flinch. “I came here intending to schmooze you.”

“I see. And how exactly were you going to do that?”

She looked at Daedalus. “Nice horse,” she said weakly. “Nice hat.”

He almost looked as if he wanted to smile.

Kathryn sighed again. “I’m afraid I’m not very good at schmoozing,” she admitted. “I feel totally silly.”

“Well, I’ve been told that I don’t know how to accept a compliment, so …”

Yeah, it had been a bad, unworkable idea. “I should go.” Kathryn realized that she was still standing far too close to Holt. His sheer size, the breadth of his shoulders, was forbidding. He was quite possibly the most masculine male she could ever remember meeting.

Not that it mattered. Even if she hadn’t been extremely pregnant, she was never going to allow herself to think of a man that way again. Especially not a man like Holt. He was the type who could swallow her soul and mangle it, when she had barely escaped her mistake of a marriage with her soul intact. Still, with her retreat she felt her grand plans evaporating. Holt wasn’t going to help her. She would have no project to her name, nothing to put on her résumé, probably no means of supporting herself and her child once the clinic closed. And her friends she wanted to help … that wasn’t going to happen, either. She was going to fail at all of that. Just because of this stubborn man.

No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t him. She was the one who had to convince him to help her. Winning others’ cooperation would be a big part of her job if she ever managed to get a job in her field. This was her proving ground.

Kathryn forced herself to look straight into Holt’s eyes. “Don’t you care about the people of the town?”

He didn’t answer that, but his brows drew together in a scowl.

“I see them,” she said. “Every day. People who come to Dr. Cooper with serious, frightening problems.”

As if she’d said something offensive, his expression turned colder. Without thought, she shoved her hand out and blindly touched his shoulder. Instantly, his muscles flexed beneath the pads of her fingertips. Her hand tingl her heart took an extra beat. Kathryn jerked back as if she’d touched fire.

The look in his dark eyes was deadly. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m going to discuss my feelings.”

No, she could see that would be a mistake. “I won’t, but—”

He raised one dark, sexy brow, and Kathryn had to work to stay focused. “But what do you think will happen if people don’t have a clinic or a doctor in Larkville?” she continued.

“It’s not something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about.”

“Of course not. You’re clearly an incredibly healthy man.”

He blinked, as if she’d said something shocking when all she’d said—did he think she was ogling him?

Most likely. Women would. She had in the past, and if her circumstances and her life and her entire world hadn’t turned out the way it had … No, no, no.

“I only meant that you’ve obviously not spent a lot of time in doctors’ offices,” she said a bit too quickly.

He didn’t respond.

“But there are people who need regular treatments or who need help quickly. If a doctor isn’t nearby, they may put off going at all. They might even die. Think about that.”

He frowned at her. “I’m thinking,” he said. And clearly what he was thinking wasn’t anything good. Why, oh, why was Holt the man she had to work with in order to get this thing done?

Holt felt as if he’d been kicked in the gut. By something a lot bigger and more lethal than this fragile woman standing before him. Kathryn wasn’t just looking for a favor. He was used to doing small favors. Like it or not, they were part of the ranch’s role in the community. But Kathryn wanted more than a small favor. She wanted him to ask for favors, and that wasn’t his style. The thought of opening himself up that way, begging, burned him like fire. What’s more, for a minute he had thought she’d wanted him to discuss his feelings. And he definitely wasn’t that guy. He worked, he did his duty, but discussing what he felt—or did not feel—was for other men. Actually, indulging in those deeper emotions was for other men, too.

Still, he looked down into those pretty eyes and realized he could no longer ignore her request for a favor. His father, Clay, had died of pneumonia when he’d refused to see a doctor until it was too late. And his friend and former ranch hand, the one he’d been with these past few months … what if Hank had gone to the doctor and found his cancer sooner?

Holt swore beneath his breath.

Kathryn wrapped her arms around her abdomen as if those slender arms could protect the child inside. That single movement made him remember things, feel raw inside. He didn’t like that one bit.

But as if his swearing had unleashed something in her, she changed before his eyes. “Okay, I get it. You’re never going to help.” Her eyes flashed fire, and suddenly she didn’t look so fragile anymore. She looked a bit like a miffed tigress. “I hate to say this, Holt, but sometimes I don’t like men very much.” With an accusing look, she swung her head and turned to go, her blond hair catching on the pale pink collar of her blouse, exposing her long, slender neck. And whether it was her tigress ways or that beautiful neck, a jolt of physical awareness shot through him.

Don’t notice that, he told himself, trying to ignore the instant heat that her innocent manner and her movement had called forth in him. Don’t think of her that way. Kathryn was a woman on a mission, a woman dedicated to passionate causes, and a woman with a baby on the way. She wasn’t in the market for anything short-lived or based on physical chemistry alone, while he wasn’t open to anything more. He didn’t get involved with women who wanted too much from him. After Lilith, he especially didn’t get involved with pregnant women. The fact that Kathryn was both passionate and pregnant made her radioactive. A woman to steer around, not get close to.

And yet, here he was, thinking about the long, naked column of her neck and trying not to think about any more of her naked. Holt wanted to swear again. He held back.

At that moment, Blue, Holt’s German shepherd mix, wandered near. Blue was big and slobbery with a torn ear. He looked like a dog who could eat humans just for fun, and most people kept their distance when they first met him.

Kathryn bent over and held her hand out to him so he could sniff and make up his mind about her, then rubbed him behind his ears just as if he was a cute little puppy. Blue looked as if he was in ecstasy.

“He’s a killer,” Holt said, disgusted with Blue, but mostly with himself.

“I can see that. You trained him to go for the throat?”

Holt raised one brow. “I trained him for a lot of things. Right now he seems to have forgotten all of them. I guess you’re better at schmoozing than you thought.”

She glanced up quickly and evidently noticed him staring at her. A delicious pale pink climbed her throat, making him want to groan.

Kathryn quickly looked at Blue. “No, he just likes to be rubbed.”

“Who doesn’t?” Had he really said that? Oh, yeah, he had. The startled look in her eyes left no question. The woman was shocked. Just yesterday he would have been glad. But today she had made him think about things he couldn’t ignore. He was going to say yes. The truth was that he couldn’t have anyone else on his conscience. He already had a whole lot to answer for, things he struggled not to think about every day, and like it or not, he was going to have to get mixed up in Kathryn’s passionate project and do a bunch of things he didn’t like.

But two things he wouldn’t do. He wouldn’t expose his soul, his demons, that part of himself only he was privy to, by letting her know just how she’d talked him into this. And he wouldn’t let her be in control the way it had gone down with Lilith.

Time to do a little creative backpedaling. Somehow.

“I probably shouldn’t have made that last comment about Blue,” he began, not very smoothly.

At his name, Blue’s ears perked up a bit, but he was still looking like some lovesick fool, slobbering all over Kathryn’s hand. What was it with the woman?

“So you think I should help you get this clinic built?” he asked, stalling while he tried to think of some good idea. She was looking at him as if he’d been the one who’d slipped and maybe hit his head on a rock. And why not? The woman had been all but begging him to help her for days.

“I do. I really do.”

“How do I know you’re not just some Goody Two-shoes who gets fired up about causes and then drops them to move on to the next one? You just said that you weren’t staying.”

“I’m not. I’m an urban planner. The jobs I’m looking for will be in cities and I have a baby to support, but I assure you that I won’t run out on this project.”

“How do I know that you’re truly dedicated?”

She raised that pretty chin. “You could try taking my word on it.”

He shook his head slowly, almost sadly. “Kathryn, Kathryn, I’m a businessman. I can’t just take your word on things.” Even though he did that every day. But she couldn’t know that. And anyway, he didn’t really know her. There was a good chance she might bolt and he would be left with a mess on his hands.

“And this project will take time away from my ranching duties. I might have to set a few things aside. Like …”

He paused.

“Like …” she prompted.

“Well, like Blue here. He’s used to me having time to put him through his paces. What if I don’t have time for that stuff?”

She raised one pretty brow. “You’re telling me that the only thing holding you back is that you’re worried you won’t have time to exercise Blue?”

The dog moaned when she said his name as if he’d been waiting for her to do that all his life.

Holt gave him the evil eye. Which Blue ignored.

“A man’s dog is his best friend.”

“You have friends, then?” she asked, still in full tigress mode.

Holt looked taken aback. “That seems like a snotty thing to say to a man when you’ve asked him to do you a favor.”

She blushed that pretty pink that started somewhere beneath her clothing, and Holt swallowed hard. “You’re right. Of course,” she agreed. “What if—if you get bog down and can’t take care of Blue, I could, er, put him through his paces?”

“And you think it’s my duty to the town to take care of getting this clinic?”

“Just to help. I’ll be doing a lot of it, too.”

“Ah.”

“Are you trying to intimidate me?”

He shrugged. “Is it working?”

“No.”

“Good. Because I was really just testing you to see how dedicated you are. So you’ll do a lot of the work, you’ll walk my dog and you’ll—what?”

Kathryn raised herself up to her full height. Despite being shorter than him and very pregnant, she somehow managed to look down her nose at him. “I’ll make sure that your town has a first-rate clinic, Mr. Calhoun.”

He nodded, then turned to the dog. “What do you think, Blue?”

The dog turned sad eyes on Kathryn and nudged closer, obviously hoping for more of that rubbing. Then to Holt’s surprise, Blue gave a little woof. That wasn’t like him. He was well trained, and he didn’t bark unless there was a reason to bark.

Kathryn crossed her arms. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that Blue doesn’t think the clinic is a good idea.”

Holt wanted to smile, but he managed to refrain. Kathryn Ellis was pretty cute when she was miffed. Why had he never noticed that before?

“Not at all. Blue thinks I should sleep on what you’ve said and then I’ll give you my reply tomorrow.” If they were going to work together, he was going to call the shots. He wasn’t going to risk a repeat of Lilith.

“I see.”

She didn’t, of course, but he had to give her credit for being a good sport about the whole thing.

“This isn’t a joke,” she said quietly.

She was right. “No, ma’am, it isn’t. I’ll be in touch. Real soon. That’s a promise.” And for some reason he couldn’t fathom, he held out his hand. It was, possibly, the dumbest thing he’d done in a long time.

Kathryn placed her hand in his and he closed his big palm around her much smaller one. As her skin slid against his, he was more aware of her as a woman than he’d been when he was undressing other women.

Quickly, she pulled away. Good idea.

Not like this business of him and Kathryn working together, he thought after she’d gone. That had bad idea written all over it. Unfortunately, he was already in. Now all he had to do was tell her. For real this time. Maybe he’d be lucky and she would decide he was a crazy man and find someone else to ask her favors for her.

But he knew that that was a long shot. Kathryn was determined to get her clinic, even if she had to put up with a man like him to get it.

Still, he bet it would be a long time before she would let him shake her hand again. That was a shame. And a blessing. At least one of them was thinking straight. It sure wasn’t him. Or Blue.