Heart of Steele (23 page)

“Nothing urgent.” She sat at the end of the
bed, partially facing him. “I need to leave. In about fifteen
minutes.”

He rubbed a fist in one eye. “Why? Where are
you going?”

There was no way she was going to reveal her
family skeletons. She’d decided yesterday to lie. “I’ve got a
screen test tomorrow. I’m heading home.”

“Home?” His brows dropped. “To LA?”

“Yes.” She had to look away. “I didn’t want
to tell you last night because you looked like you needed
sleep.”

“Damn it, Tracy, what is this about?”

She stood. “It’s about me leaving.” She
gestured toward the window. “Val’s sister-in-law lives close by.
She’s going to give me a ride to the airport on her way to
work.”

“Hold on.” He threw back the covers and got
to his feet.

Two hundred and thirty pounds of macho male
in a tight pair of black briefs stormed toward her. “You’re going
to Montana, aren’t you?”

Shock gripped her, and before she could brace
herself, her mouth dropped open.

He watched her face. “I heard you on the
phone yesterday. You’re not going to LA. Why are you lying to me?
What are you hiding in Montana?”

Tracy propped her hands on her hips. “Why did
you listen in on my private conversation?”

Steele’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll admit it. I
have trust issues, okay? But you can see why.” He gripped her upper
arm. “Is there a man there? Is there someone else, Tracy?”

Tugging out of his grip, she looked out the
window. “It’s family business. I don’t want to discuss it with
you.”

“Someone’s getting out of prison. Who is
it?”

A wave of panic dizzied her. “This is why I
lied to you, Steele.” She looked into his dark, angry eyes.
“Because I knew you wouldn’t just let me go and do what I needed to
do. You’d want to go with me, arrange everything yourself, take
over for me like I was someone you need to protect. But I’m not.”
She lifted a hand to touch him, but dropped it instead. “I’m
capable of doing this alone.”

He ran a hand down his face. “Just wait a
while. Let’s talk this out. I won’t try to run your life, but I
don’t want you to leave like this.”

This was the opportunity she’d been looking
for. “What would you do to get me to stay?”

“What?” He scowled. “What the hell do you
mean?”

“I’ll stay, Steele, if you tell me your
secret.”

A horn honked in the yard. Her ride was
here.

“I don’t know what you mean.” He growled. “I
could sit you down and tell you a thousand things about myself that
no one knows.”

She stepped closer and stared into his eyes.
“I want your biggest secret. The one that makes you so angry that
you yell at your employees, shout at other musicians, and tell your
dad, over the phone, not to have any more bastards.”

His jaw clenched and his gaze burned into
hers. “What do you know?”

“Tell me, Steele. I’m right here, and you can
trust me.” She prayed he’d take that first step and just say the
word
Ryder
.

He stood for nearly a minute, his breathing
growing faster. Then he turned his back on her.

The adrenaline from the last few minutes
rushed out of her and she thought she’d be sick on the carpet.

The horn honked again.

“Goodbye, Steele. I’ll miss you.” She forced
her numb legs to walk from the room, along the hallway, down the
steps, and out the door. Thank God someone else was driving. Her
whole body shook like a paint mixer.

As Val’s sister-in-law drove her pickup away
from the ranch, Tracy forced her eyes away from the side mirror.
She’d known this was temporary, even when she’d invited Steele into
the bathtub with her at his cabin. She’d hoped, though...

No more pretending. Biting her lower lip, she
held back emotions she didn’t realize she possessed. This had been
her first experience with love—from head over heels to rejected and
hopeless in less than a week.

Next time a director asked her to cry in a
scene, she had the perfect motivation

****

Steele watched the pickup drive away, keeping
an eye on it until it was only a dust cloud on the gravel road. He
would have only had to say a few words about his brother to get her
to stay. Hell, he’d planned to tell her everything this week
anyway.

But she’d lied to him, and that ate at his
soul. His phone rang in his bedroom, where he’d undressed last
night. “Fuck it.”

“Shit.” His dad was having his stress test
this morning. And maybe Tracy... He jogged through the bathroom to
his dresser. Dalton, his architect. He’d texted him on his way home
last night.

“Hey, Dalton.”

“You’re finally ready to start that project?
I’ve already sent the materials list to the mill, and contacted the
general contractor.”

“Hang on a minute. I didn’t mean to get you
all fired up about this.”

He cleared his throat. “Steele, I printed out
your text message. ‘Start the house project tomorrow morning. Need
it done in two months.’ That was from your fingers, wasn’t it? Or
was that a drunk text?” He laughed.

“Not drunk, just...” Thinking he needed to
have a nest to lure Tracy to. He trotted down the stairs and strode
to his office.

“Tell me now if you’ve changed your mind, but
friend...” His voice took on the tone his father had when he knew
Steele needed advice. “You’ve had these plans for years. Now’s as
good a time as any. And especially with your dad needing you
around, now. How’s he doing, by the way?”

His dad did need him. The old guy spent too
many hours doing everything alone. “He’s good. He’ll come home
today.” It wasn’t his business to spread word of Angus’ mystery
vacation.

Dalton rattled on for a few minutes.

Steele touched the spots where he and Tracy
had used a red pencil to change walls and add features. He’d
dreamed of living in this house, envisioned Tracy in his bed with
his child in her arms. A man couldn’t put his life on hold forever
while he waited for the perfect moment to arrive.

Today was the day.

“You got the house plans handy?” He cut
Dalton off in mid sentence.

“Got ‘em right here.” The sound of papers
shuffling came through the phone.

“I’ve got some changes to the house, and you
see where the garage is?”

“Yes.” More paper shuffling noises. “Find
plans for a full-size recording studio. That’s the lower level. Up
above, I want a sound stage with all the trimmings, and offices.
Plenty of offices.”

Dalton let out a whistle. “This’ll be a
mother of a big project.”

“The house gets first priority, but find a
second contractor to run the studio build. Price doesn’t matter. I
want this done as fast as possible.” Never in his teens or twenties
would he have imagined possessing the resources to be able to say
something like that. What good was all that money sitting in the
bank if he wasn’t happy?

“Send me your changes on the house plans, and
give me a couple days to work them and the studio plans up. I’ll
send the surveyors out today within the hour. But Steele?”

He headed upstairs for clothes so he could
jump on a horse and ride out to the building site. “Yeah?”

“Where are you gonna park your truck?”

They both laughed. “Won’t be able to afford
one after you get through with me.”

****

Angus came home that afternoon in a parade of
trucks. Ryder, whom Angus had announced would be staying at the
ranch, led the way carrying their father, Val came next with
two-year-old Charlotte tucked into her car seat in the mini-van,
and her husband, Travis, following in his truck with Gage, their
wild four-year-old.

Steele trotted down the porch steps to grab
his niece and nephew as they rushed him and screamed his name.
Picking them up in his arms, he kissed their pudgy cheeks and
listened to them ramble on about their new puppy.

Val squeezed his arm as she walked past. “You
look good with those. You should get a couple of your own.”

Travis laughed as he carried Angus’s bag into
the house. “Be careful, they’re more work than you think.”

Angus stood outside the passenger door of
Ryder’s truck, gazing out at the ranch.

Everyone waited silently for him on the
porch.

Steele knew how he felt. His land, his home.
It had to frighten him to think about being taken too early.

His housekeeper and cook, Nora, stepped out
onto the porch. “Welcome home, Mr. McLairn.”

His dad turned, a huge smile on his face.
“Miss Nora. Have I been looking forward to your cooking.” The man
rubbed his palms together, looking so young. A few wrinkles, but
otherwise...wait. Hadn’t he collapsed onto the hardwood floor?
Shouldn’t he have a broken nose, black eyes, or at least some
bruising?

“Where’s your lady, Steele, my boy?”

“She had to get back to LA.” The lie stuck on
his tongue, and his dad gave him the eye.

As Angus walked closer, little Gage held out
his arms to him. “Buppa.”

“Come here you little wrangler.” He took his
grandson in his arms, kissed Charlotte on the cheek and tickled her
ribs.

She giggled and tucked into Steele. Her soft,
baby smell did wonderfully strange things to his chest. He kissed
Charlotte’s hair and followed the rest of the family into the
house.

Nora was preparing a ridiculously huge meal
for them, and after Angus rested an hour in his room, they all sat
down to a fabulous steak dinner.

Despite their repeated questions, Angus
wouldn’t reveal where he was going the next morning. “Nora will
keep you boys fed, and Val will be tasked with keeping you from
harming each other in any way.”

Steele looked at Ryder, who was on his second
steak and eating like he’d been the one on hospital food for two
days. His brother pointed his roll at Steele. “No promises.”

After they ate, Ryder, Travis, and Steele
took the children to the barn where their ponies were stabled.

When the kids were safely seated on the
little Shetlands, Travis took a lead in each hand and walked them
around the corral. The kids’ squeals nearly popped Steele’s
eardrums, but he couldn’t stop smiling.

He and Ryder leaned back on the fence rails
as the sun dropped close to the horizon.

“Tracy’s gone?” Ryder watched the pony
riders.

“Yep.” He had no intention of spilling his
guts about the whole mess. Before he found out Ryder was his
brother, they’d shared things with each other. Now, Chase was his
only sounding board. He guessed that, in time, he and Ryder would
get back to the way things were. But then again, they might
not.

“You good?”

“No.”

Ryder huffed out a long breath. “Sorry,
man.”

Charlotte started crying for mom and Gage
wanted to go faster.

“Let’s help him out.” Ryder headed over to
the toddler rodeo and Steele followed. They spent another half-hour
walking in circles.

When they’d all made it back into the house,
they found Angus and Val deep in conversation in the living room.
The kids ran to tell them about their horsey ride, then Val sent
them to the kitchen for milk and cookies.

“Sit down, everyone.” She looked too
serious.

Travis sat next to her on the couch, and
Steele and Ryder each took a club chair. “What’s up?”

“Travis and I have news.”

Angus grinned like a fool. “A baby?”

She smiled and nodded, a blush rising to her
cheeks. “We haven’t told the kids yet, but we thought this would be
a good time to tell the family.”

Congratulations went around, Angus directed
Steele to pour four glasses of Scotch and one of water, and they
had a toast.

Three kids. He watched Travis’ face, but he
didn’t look like he was scared shitless, the way Steele would have
been. That strange vision of Tracy with a baby came back to him.
Was it a foretelling of the future? Or a picture of his secret
desire?

After a bit, the kids ran back into the room,
fresh-faced and with clean hands, thanks to Nora.

Travis stood. “Well, I’ll be getting the
hoodlums home now. Angus.” He shook his father-in-law’s hand. “Good
to have you home again, and whatever you’re doing for the next two
weeks, Godspeed.” Everyone got a hug from Charlotte and Gage,
including Nora and, surprisingly, Ryder. Travis herded the children
out the front door.

“And you, Valerie?” Angus cocked an eyebrow
at her. “You’re moving back home?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, but I wanted to
stay the night here. In my old room.” She sucked in her lips. “The
first time we’ve all been together.” Her jaw quivered.

“Ah, my girl. You’re our sentimental angel.”
Angus tipped his head down.

A swell of emotion burst through Steele
before he could tamp it down, and Ryder’s eyes were wide and
unblinking.

She waved her hands. “No, don’t get me
started. I’m too sensitive right now.” Val wiped a tear from under
her eye. “Let’s talk about something else.” She laughed. “Like what
you’re going to bring us from your vacation, Dad. Will it be a
coconut or fresh salmon?”

Angus’ laughter echoed off the ceiling beams,
and Ryder smiled at Val. For the first time, Steele could accept
that this was now his family.

****

It was three in the morning and Steele
flopped to the other side of his bed. He’d gotten no sleep as he
continually replayed his conversation with Tracy the previous
morning. “Fuck me.” He’d accused her of lying, practically gave
himself absolution for listening in on her private phone
conversation, and let her walk out of his home.

“Stupid.” He jumped out of bed and paced
along the walls, glancing out the window at the moonlit barns and
grassy meadow. What did he do now? Did he wait and let things cool
down before he went after her? Or go now before she had time to
think things through and realize what an idiot he was?