Cowboy Brigade

Almost too jittery to sit still, Lindsay forced calm into her voice. Before long she was immersed in the story, the girls leaning against her shoulders, eyes wide and wondering. Never mind they’d heard the same story at least fifty times before.

Lindsay loved her girls and would do anything to make them happy. Would it make them happy to know about their father?

WADE KNEW exactly what Lindsay had wanted to say to her grandfather and he got way ahead of her by reminiscing with the old guy as they shared the task of cleaning up the kitchen. Apparently Wade looked enough like his father that Henry Kemp automatically trusted him.

That worked in Wade’s favor, considering he was there to build trust and find evidence. He pushed aside the gnawing guilt at betraying the man who’d opened his home to him when his father had passed away.

Old Man Kemp had always been gruff, but he’d also been fair in his treatment of his employees. When it came to his granddaughter, he’d declared her hands off to the ranch hands. That included Wade.

They’d managed to keep their secret flirtation just that…a secret while Wade and Lindsay were in high school.

Deep down Wade always knew he was the hired help and Lindsay was in a different class altogether. That’s why he’d left to join the Army. He’d hoped to build a career for himself, prove he was worthy and then come back to ask her to marry him.

The idea had been a boy’s romantic dream. The reality had kicked him in the teeth.

As Henry stacked the last clean plate in the cupboard, he sighed. “I’m glad you’re here, Wade. The place hasn’t been the same since your father passed.”

“Nothing stays the same.” Wade dried his hands and laid the towel over the oven handle. “Sometimes things need to change in order to get better.”

“You got a point there.” Henry stretched and rolled his shoulders. “I ain’t gettin’ much younger, but I got plans to get this place going again. The Lockharts might have got the better of me once, but it won’t happen again.”

“How so?”

Henry shook his head. “I ain’t a tellin’. You’ll just have to wait and see, like the rest of them.” He strode toward the hallway. “Could you find my granddaughter and tell her I’m ready to go to bed. If she wants to talk, it better be soon.”

“Yes, sir.”

With the old man’s permission, Wade could walk through the house, searching for Lindsay. While he was at it, he’d look for anything that could be used as evidence that the old man was responsible for the most recent attack on Governor Lockhart.

Henry Kemp made no bones about his hatred for the Lockharts. He had the motivation to want to harm them. The question that tugged at Wade’s conscience was, did Henry have the killer instinct?

Henry headed for his office, while Wade walked toward the rear of the house, down the hallway he remembered that led to Lindsay’s bedroom. His groin tightened.

Back in high school, he’d sneaked into her room late one night when he’d been seventeen and she’d been sixteen. That was the night they’d both lost their virginity, the night he’d first declared his love to Lindsay Kemp.

Her bedroom door stood open, the lights off, the bed neatly made and empty. Although the room was empty, a soft voice carried through from somewhere inside.

Wade entered the room, the scent of Lindsay surrounding him, her presence filling the space. Everything about her room reminded him of Lindsay from the horse figurines she’d treasured as a child to the painting of a field of Texas bluebonnets that hung over her headboard.

Not much had changed in the room except the photographs of her daughters lining her dresser. He paused to stare at one picture of Lindsay and her twins, laughing in the sunlight, the love and joy reflected in their smiles made his chest ache.

Had he stayed in Freedom, would he have been a part of Lindsay’s life? He shook his head. Probably not. The hired help didn’t mix with the boss’s family. Not then and not now. Lindsay deserved better.

The voice continued on. Lindsay’s voice. He paused in front of what had once been Lindsay’s closet. It had been remodeled into a doorway into the room beside Lindsay’s.

A light shone down beside twin beds. Lindsay sat in the middle of one with a daughter nestled against either side.

Their dark hair spilled across the sheets, their faces soft and angelic, eyes closed.

Lindsay’s voice faded off as she smiled down at them. She laid the book on the nightstand and stroked their hair several times before she slipped out of the bed and reached down to move one of the girls.

Wade cleared his throat softly, announcing his presence.

Lindsay jumped, her eyes widening, then narrowing.

Wade crossed the threshold into the little girl’s room. “Let me.”

“I can get her,” Lindsay whispered.

He ignored her protest, scooping his hand beneath the little one and lifting. Light as kitten, the little girl rolled into his arms and snuggled against his chest. The scent of baby shampoo invaded his senses. Her silky, soft hair tickled his arm and everything about the little girl filled Wade with longing for something he could never have.

Lindsay turned back the covers on the other bed and moved aside.

Wade laid the child down on the bed and tucked her feet beneath the sheets.

Lindsay took over, adjusting the pillow beneath her head and drawing the blanket up under her chin, then pressing a kiss to the girl’s forehead. When she’d finished, she returned to the other bed and performed the same ritual.

A lump the size of Texas lodged in Wade’s throat. He could barely remember his mother, but the memories he did have involved a goodnight kiss just like the one Lindsay gave her daughters. “You’re a good mother.”

Lindsay switched the light off beside the bed and motioned Wade toward the door.

With one last glance at the sleeping children, he left the room. A sudden need for fresh air pushed him down the hall. Not until he was almost back to the dining room did he remember his initial task.

Wade conducted an about-face and bumped into Lindsay who had followed him. He grabbed her arms to keep her from falling, his fingers sliding across her skin, the urge to draw her closer so powerful that he shook with the effort to resist. “Your grandfather wanted to talk to you,” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

“We need to talk,” she said at the exact same time. “What?”

The green of her eyes drew him in, mesmerizing him, the curve of her full lower lip begged to be kissed. Wade swallowed hard on the rise of desire. He hadn’t come to the Long K Ranch to rekindle a burned-out flame. His mission was to expose this woman’s grandfather for attempted murder.

With all the self-control he could muster, his hands dropped to his sides, his fingers still tingling with her warmth. “Your grandfather said that if you want to talk to him, hurry up. He’d like to go to bed.”

She pulled that full bottom lip between her teeth and chewed on it like she always had when she worked a problem in her head. “Okay, but we really need to talk.”

“Tomorrow.” Wade turned and left before he forgot why he’d come. Before he started thinking there might still be something between them, if he gave it a chance.

He should have learned long ago that he didn’t deserve the boss’s granddaughter. Even less so now. A man who could betray his unit had no business dreaming about a life with Lindsay and her little girls. They deserved better.

Wade stepped out on the porch and dragged in a deep breath, which did nothing to relieve the pain in his chest. As a high school kid, he’d been a dreamer. He’d long passed the dreams. Time to get on with life and accomplish this mission as soon as possible.

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