Chasing Charlie: A Romantic Comedy (The Texas Two-Step Series Book 1) (10 page)

"
I
don’t need
that horse salve, Lily," said Davis as he examined his face in the small mirror he held. "It’s been three days. Surely the hives are starting to fade."

"Yeah, those blotches are part of your normal complexion," replied Lily as she prepared to apply the ointment on Davis’s face. "Now sit still so I can fix you up."

Davis laid the mirror on his desk, then let out a long-suffering sigh. If he didn’t let her have her way with him, he’d never hear the end of it.

"You look like a swarm of locusts’ survivor."

"Very funny." Davis sat still as she stuck the smelly goo on his face. "It’s just that weddings give me hives."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I only hope engagement barbecues don’t, because your reputation may not survive another bout."

"The doctor assured me they’ll go away."

"Did he mention scarring?"

"Are you done yet?"

"I’m finished with the ointment." Lily screwed the lid back on the jar, then ostentatiously placed it directly on the desk in front of him. "However, I’m not sure I’m done giving you a hard time."

Davis made a face at her. "I’ve got work to do, even if you don’t."

"All right, already." Lily walked toward the door. "But I’ll be back."

Davis growled, thinking she had a lot in common with Arnold Schwartzenegger. Davis pulled out a rope and looped it into a lasso, then took careful aim at the hitching post located in a corner of his office. Other executives installed miniature putting greens so they could practice their golf putts. He’d figured if he was forced to work on contracts, at least he’d be able to get in a little roping when his soul cried out for the prairie.

And his soul was doing some crying right now—but for something else, or rather someone else. Charlie.

She’d refused to fly back to Dallas with him. Instead, she’d ridden back with her brothers. Which hadn’t been such a bad thing since Davis had looked so ridiculous with red welts all over him.

But he missed her.

When Lily had interrupted him to apply the ointment, he’d been looking through his address book. His little black book. Trying unsuccessfully to find a woman he felt like calling. Davis tossed the lasso toward the post. He overthrew and the rope slapped against the wall.

Davis sat up straight. He hadn’t missed that post even once in the past year and a half. What was he doing, sitting here mooning over Charlie, missing his throws, when he could be phoning some woman who’d comfort his weary soul? He glanced at a name, Avis, wondering if he should call her. She always did try harder. But what was the use? Davis ripped the A page from his address book and tore it into shreds.

He tossed the lasso again. Perfect. That proved he could still concentrate. Charlie hadn’t totally destroyed his ability to think.

With a quick flip of the wrist, he freed the lasso and pulled it back to him. Looping it again, he threw once more. Another miss.

Davis grabbed the B page from the book, wadded it up and threw it across the room. Only one woman would be able to make him feel any better and she wouldn’t return his calls.

He’d left two messages for her at work and three at home. Why wouldn’t Charlie talk with him? Surely, if they talked, they could get things all ironed out.

Davis carefully aimed his lasso at the hitching post again. Another miss. The C page went the way of the first two.

What was the point? There wasn’t another woman for him. There was only Charlie.

At some point she’d have to talk with him, since they were expected at the Nelson Ranch on Saturday. Maybe he was going about this the wrong way? Two could play "hard to get."

It was already Wednesday. Before long, she’d have to call him if she didn’t want her brothers to send out a posse. Davis smiled.

Once they were on their way to Houston, he’d be able to find out how he’d hurt her feelings. He’d follow Jim’s advice, even, if that would repair things between them. Davis simply needed to use a little more finesse, a little more charm and a few more kisses. Charlie would soon be singing a different tune.

Davis tore all the pages from his little black book and threw the whole thing into the wastebasket. This time, when he aimed the lasso it slipped perfectly into place around the hitching post.

He took it as a sign his plans were perfect, too.

D
avis shifted uncomfortably
in the passenger seat of Charlie’s car. They’d been driving more than four and a half hours and had to be nearing the Nelson Ranch soon. She sure didn’t drive like any librarian he’d ever heard of, unless no one had bothered telling him that the word librarian was synonymous with speed demon.

When she’d finally broken down and called him, she’d insisted that she drive. No matter how many arguments he’d come up with for flying, she’d dug in her heels. She would drive.

He’d thought perhaps that would work to his advantage. But so far, things had fizzled. Charlie was concentrating too hard on her driving to be charmed and he couldn’t exactly ask her to practice kissing. Davis sighed.

He didn’t have much time left. There had to be some way to convince her that marrying him was a good choice.

"Charlie, I know I can’t live up to the image of your brothers. No man could."

She shrugged. "They’re nice guys but they aren’t exactly my ideals."

"Aren’t they why you’ve insisted you won’t become involved with a cowboy?"

Charlie gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. "No."

Just because she answered in a monosyllable didn’t mean she was telling him the honest truth. Heaven knew, he’d heard enough women say no and then turn around and say yes.

"I’m just starting out, but I’ve got a successful track record behind me of doing what I’ve said I’d do."

No answer to that one.

"In this day and age, very few people could afford a huge spread like the Nelson Ranch starting out. One day, if my plans work out, I’m hoping to be able to talk about my place with similar pride."

Obviously this wasn’t working. He needed some other way to get her talking. It was his only hope of figuring out how to convince her to marry him. "How about you?"

She didn’t say anything for a moment as she slowed and made a turn onto a smaller highway. "Me?"

"Yes. What do you, Charlie Nelson, want in life? What are you looking for in a mate? Do you have any plans?"

"I like working at the library. I’d like to become a library director at some point."

"That’s it?"

She looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "Pretty much covers it."

"Don’t you want to get married someday?"

"Most women do and I’m like most women in that. I just haven’t found the right man."

Davis liked to think she had. Nothing she said encouraged him. "So what is Mr. Right like?"

"I’d like him to be able to make me laugh."

He had that covered.

"He’d have to be intelligent."

So far so good. He might not be brilliant but he was pretty quick on his feet.

"But he shouldn’t be boring, either."

She must be talking about that egghead, Philip. Davis was certain that he, himself, was anything but boring.

"I’d like him to be good looking, but not so good looking that I’d have to worry about him around other women."

Was she picking on him about his face? The hives had faded but there were still traces. "If you loved each other, that shouldn’t matter, should it?"

"I guess not. I think he should be successful, but I don’t measure that in money. I measure it in a sense of achievement and pursuing things that interest him. And he should be a nice guy, someone I could trust."

Better and better. Davis was a perfect fit. He opened his mouth to tell her, but she spoke before he had a chance.

"And most important, he won’t be a cowboy. He won’t be interested in anything remotely connected with cows, ranches or rodeos."

That was the nail in his coffin. And if it wasn’t because of her brothers, what made her so sure about this? "What’s wrong with cowboys?"

"Probably everything that appeals to you about becoming one, Davis."

Charlie turned down a two-lane road. "Cowboys are risk takers and they don’t always use their heads in determining when they should act. They’re loners by nature and always have to be heroes, chasing after buckles, chasing after the emotional highs, chasing after some dream of the old west and independence."

Davis rubbed his forehead. He heard what she said, but he didn’t understand why this was a problem.

"I’m not saying it’s wrong, Davis. I’m saying it’s not how I want to spend my life. I made a conscious decision to leave this ranch three long years ago and I have no intention of coming back again except for quick visits. My share of this place gets plowed back into it for improvements. I live off my income as a librarian. This is my brothers’ dream and maybe your dream, but it’s not mine."

"Okay. I think I can understand that, but what is your dream?"

"A man who works a nine-to-five job and then comes home to me. Kids. Church and Sunday School. Volunteering for the PTA. Occasional travel. A nice little brick house with three bedrooms and two baths and a reasonable mortgage."

Charlie turned into the ranch. Overhead, suspended between two metal posts, was a white wrought iron sign proclaiming "The Nelson Ranch."

"My dream isn’t very exciting," she continued, "but it’s mine."

It was plenty exciting—too bad it depressed him. He turned his concentration to their surroundings and looked around with interest. In the distance he could see a windmill and a couple of L-shaped cattle sheds beside a pond and what looked like watering troughs. His interest piqued. He couldn’t see the main house yet, though, or even the bunkhouse and outbuilding area.

She had to have room for him in her future. "It’s a very nice dream, Charlie. It’s almost identical to mine and I can’t understand why it excludes a husband who’s a cowboy."

When she started to deny how similar their dreams were, he added, "It’s your dream, I accept that. I’d just like to know why, what happened to make you so certain, a guy like me couldn’t share it."

"Don’t be ludicrous." She glared at him. "You’d be bored within a day of playing house. You’d be out there, looking for another risk to take so you’d feel alive rather than buried in parenthood and the ties of matrimony and monogamy."

As they came over a small crest, Davis saw the main ranch for the first time. It looked a lot like Highland Park Shopping Center with its red tile roof, stucco walls and southwestern flair. It was a large, sprawling building, obviously added onto through the years as the ranch grew.

Davis chewed over what Charlie had said. "So you think a cowboy is incapable of monogamy and being happily married?"

"That’s not what I’m saying."

"That’s exactly what you said, Charlie." How could he ever be bored with a woman like her by his side? One moment prissy as all get out, up on her high horse, and the next scrunching up her nose and doing something utterly outrageous. And, most surprising of all, she was more appealing than any woman he’d ever met. No, he’d never feel tied down or bored with her.

Charlie turned down a long paved driveway leading to the rear of the house, where a large garage stood. She stopped the car just to the left of the house. To the rear, Davis saw a covered patio and a pool area already being decorated for the barbecue. The smell of burning mesquite was heavy in the air, as well as barbecuing beef and ham.

Charlie was wrong. She’d discounted something important. Love didn’t make distinctions about career choices.

It hit Davis that, no matter how much he denied it to himself and to Jim, he loved Charlie with all his heart. Jim was right.

Davis had been stubbornly denying the truth about his feelings for her. He wasn’t sure when or how it had happened, but now that he looked into his heart, he knew he’d never be the same again.

Nothing but a lifelong commitment would be enough. That was what made life possible. Love had all the answers.

He needed her by his side. For some reason, she refused to allow herself to need him. "So your beliefs about cowboys are why you didn’t take me seriously when I suggested we could get married?"

Charlie laughed, the sound coming from low in her throat. "You were proposing to the Nelson Brothers, not me." She swung open her door to greet her brothers, who were rushing to the car.

What did she mean by that? Perhaps Jim was right—he’d screwed up the question. He’d try again as soon as he got a second alone with her. While he’d heard of other people being in love with someone who didn’t return their love, he was sure that wasn’t the case between him and Charlie.

He watched her trade hugs with her brothers, a smile on her face, yet there was a tightness about her brow that suggested she was troubled. Like him. While she denied it intellectually, every other indicator led him to believe she cared for him as much as he cared for her.

Jim had accused him of being stubborn, but Davis suspected that Charlie won the Stubborn Stakes. Climbing out of the car, he stretched his legs, then shook hands with Monty Joe and Bobby Gray.

"Already letting her take you for a drive, huh, Davis?" asked Bobby Gray. "It must be true love."

Davis laughed. "You know how she is. She decided she wanted to drive. Unless I’d rendered her unconscious, I didn’t see any other way to change her mind."

Charlie slapped his arm playfully. "Nonsense. I knew my way here and you didn’t. Besides, I let you fly us to the lake."

"Well, come on in and let us show you around," said Monty Joe. "We’ve got a few hours before the party starts, if you’d like a short tour of the ranch?"

Davis grinned from ear to ear. Talk about a dream come true. He’d read everything he could about the Nelson brothers and their famous ranch, but to actually get to see it in person was great. Almost like Christmas morning when he was a kid and found a few surprises under the tree that he hadn’t known he wanted, but there they were. Wishes he had never known could come true.

"Go have fun," said Charlie. "Don’t forget to have him back in time, Monty Joe."