Homecoming Ranch (21 page)

“Just double-checking,” Madeline said briskly.

“You also double-checked in case you were in a car wreck and incapacitated.”

“You can’t be too careful,” Madeline reminded her.

“Yeah, Madeline, you can.”

Madeline could hear Bree’s kids in the background, the low voice of her husband telling them to be quiet, that Mommy was on the phone. Madeline felt a familiar but strange squeeze in her chest, the one she always felt when she was confronted with the evidence of an actual happy family and the glaring absence of same in her life.

“Any movement on DiNapoli?” Madeline asked brightly, trying to ignore the sound now of pots and pans being banged around Bree’s kitchen.

“Nothing,” Bree said through a yawn. “I told you I’d call you the minute I heard anything.”

“Right. Just hoping. Okay, well—I guess I’ll see you next week?”

“We’ll all still be here,” Bree said. “Madeline—don’t worry so much. You’re only gone for a few days. Everything will still be here, including your listings. You made sure of it, remember?”

“Yes.”

“With your flowcharts—”

“Right, okay—”

“And your e-mail alerts.”

“Okay, okay,” Madeline said. “Sorry.” It was no secret to Madeline that she had some control issues. It wasn’t the first time she’d gone a little overboard with Bree. She had tried to temper herself, she truly had, but her anxiety of something falling through the cracks outweighed her need to try and not bury Bree with details. It was an ongoing battle for her.

“Just enjoy yourself for once, will you?” Bree said. “Breathe some mountain air and unbutton the collar of your shirt.”

Wow
. She was seriously going to have to address her wardrobe since it seemed to weigh so heavily on everyone’s mind. “Okay, I will.” She would certainly try, anyway.

She made one other call, to Teresa, her co-coach of the soccer team. “No problem,” Teresa said cheerfully. “Guess what? Melania scored a goal! It was completely by accident, but still.”

“That’s fabulous!” Madeline said, wishing she’d been there to see it.

“The girls are asking about you.”

“Tell them I’ll be back soon,” Madeline said.

“Will do. Have a good time!” Teresa said.

A good time. What a novel idea.

Madeline donned a new sundress and checked herself out in it. She liked what she saw—she had a good figure for the dress. She never
wore dresses at home—they felt too casual, too loose. Suits and pumps, that fit her life in Orlando.

Was that true?

She was beginning to wonder.

Madeline carefully packed her things, checked her room and bathroom three times for any items left behind, and made her way to the lobby.

Dani whistled at Madeline when she came into the lobby, rolling her carry-on bag behind her. “Now you look like a mountain woman, sweetie.”

Madeline glanced down at herself. She was wearing the red dress with the white polkadots, Luke’s denim jacket, and her hiking boots. She’d braided her hair and donned the cap, ready to work, to do whatever needed to be done. At least
that
felt familiar. It felt natural. That was who she was, really—a take-charge, get-it-done kind of gal.

“So where are you going?” Dani asked as she printed Madeline’s bill.

“I haven’t worked that out quite yet, but I’ve got a couple of options.”

Dani grinned. “Sure you do. Pretty girls always have options.”

Madeline smiled. “Thanks, Dani.” She paid her bill and tucked it away into the clear envelope marked “receipts” in her day planner. “See you around?”

“I hope so!” Dani said. “We have breakfast specials every day this week, so come on down and get some when you’re ready.”

Madeline walked outside into bright, crystalline sunlight. She paused to breathe in deep, felt the crisp air expanding in her lungs and making her feel instantly better. All right, then, the best course of action was to tackle the tasks at hand, which she had conveniently listed just this morning. Number One: Extend the lease on her car rental.

She stood on the covered sidewalk and called the rental company with her plan to keep the tin can for the week… until she discovered she would have to pay a fee for converting her weekend contract to a weeklong contract.

“That makes no sense whatsoever,” Madeline insisted.

“Maybe not, but that’s the rules,” the man said.

He would not be argued out of it. The only option left to Madeline that did not entail forking over an extra one hundred and fifty bucks was to take the car back to Denver and get another one. It was one enormous loop of red tape, but Madeline was not the sort to let go of one hundred and fifty bucks without a fight.

“Fine,” she said pertly to the car guy. “I’ll return it tomorrow and check it out again. Will that make you happy?”

“Not particularly, but it doesn’t matter to me. Would you like me to reserve that for you?”

She rolled her eyes. “
Please
.”

“Okay. Midsize or compact?”

“You already know what I want! I already
have
the car, which, I’d like to point out is a kind of a piece of junk.”

“Sorry, but I can’t guarantee it will be that car,” the man said.

Madeline thought she was teetering on the edge of losing her mind completely. As she argued with the man about renting yet a different car, she noticed Luke walking down the street toward her, his hands shoved in his pocket, his gaze on the sidewalk in front of him. Her pulse instantly ticked up, and her mind was suddenly clouded with the memory of that kiss, that singularly spectacular and quite unexpected, delicious, knee-melting kiss.

As Luke walked past her, he glanced up briefly, took two steps, then stopped and took two steps back, dipping a little to better see her, a smile on his face.

Madeline gestured to her cell phone, then held up one finger to indicate she’d only be a minute longer. “Okay,” Madeline said. “Thanks. I’ll be there tomorrow.” She clicked off the phone and smiled at Luke.

“So what did you do with Madeline?” he asked. “You know, the woman in bad shoes and stained shirt?”

“You should recognize me by now, as this is the bazillionth time you’ve ‘run into me,’” she said, making air quotations with her hands.

“That’s because you happen to be staying at the place with the best breakfast in town. So what’s going on here? You decide to stay a couple of days and do a complete about-face?”

“You know what they say, when in Rome,” she said airily.

Luke folded his arms across his chest and eyed her up and down. “I like it,” he said, nodding approvingly. “I like it a lot. But I didn’t have you pegged for the polka dot type.”

Madeline laughed.

“I didn’t think you could get any cuter, but you just did.” He reached for the tail of her braid and playfully flicked it.

Madeline was thrilled with his approval. Absurdly thrilled. So thrilled that she set feminism back about two decades. “It’s just a sundress,” she said.

“It’s a dress all right,” he said easily, and Madeline could feel herself melting inside. “Before you were cute in a Madeline-work-no-play kind of way. Now you’re cute in a funky, fun way. Like the jacket,” he added with a crooked smile.

Madeline realized she was beaming. But no one had ever called her fun before, and she was surprised by how much she liked it.

“Heading out to the ranch?” he asked.

“Ah, yes. About that,” she said, crossing her feet at the ankles, which was a little hard to do in hiking boots, “I’ve been kicked out of the Grizzly Lodge and I need a place to stay.”

“That’s not good,” he said casually, his gaze sliding down her body to her boots, and slowly up her legs again.

“I’m sorry—I know you’d rather I stay somewhere else. But there isn’t really any other place.”

Luke shrugged. “What’s one more at this point? Technically, it belongs to you. In fact, you should stay in my old room. Last one on the left,” he said, and flicked his gaze over her. “The bed’s pretty comfortable.”

A tiny shiver slipped down her spine. “I promise it will be like I was never there. In fact, I
won’t
be there much. I have to work, I’ve got it all lined up. And I have to go to Denver tomorrow—”

“Denver? What for?”

“To return that crappy little car and get a new one,” she said. “It’s a complication with the rental company that defies all logic and is too absurd to even say out loud.”

“I know you don’t like complications,” he said, playing with the tip of her braid again, rubbing it between his fingers. “As it happens, I’m going to Denver tomorrow, too. I could pick you up and bring you back if you need a ride.” He tugged on her braid, forcing her to take a step closer to him.

“Great idea… but then I’d have nothing to drive while I’m here.”

“You could drive my mom’s Pontiac. It’s not the most stylish thing in the world, but it runs like a tank.”

Madeline remembered the Pontiac in the garage. It
looked
like a tank. “I don’t know how to drive a tank,” she said. “And I don’t have night goggles.”

“You drive it the same way you do when wearing a pink hat,” he said, pulling her one step closer. “It’s just sitting there, collecting dust. It could stand to be driven around for a few days. And it’s free.” His gaze slid to her mouth.

Free definitely appealed to Madeline’s frugal nature. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Seems invasive.”

“I’m sure.” He’d pulled her so close that she could see the flecks of blue in his gray eyes. “I should point out that it’s also got a decent backseat.”

Madeline had never known how arousing it could be to have a man look at her mouth the way he was looking at hers. “Are you going to kiss me again?”

“I’d like to,” he said. “Are you going to kiss me again?”

“It’s not a good idea,” she said softly.

“I know,” he responded agreeably.

“Yesterday was an anomaly,” she said. “Bad storm and all that.”

“Oh.” His gaze lifted to hers. “We’re going with the bad storm defense, huh?” He smiled, and let go of her braid.

That smile swirled around in the pit of Madeline, lighting her up. “So… does this mean you are okay with me staying at the ranch with Libby?”

Luke laughed at that. “
No
,” he said firmly.

He stood so close that she could almost
feel
him against her. It made her feel warm. Too warm.
Hot
.

But Luke kept smiling as if he could see how hot she was feeling, just how out of breath. “See you at the ranch later?”

“Yep.” She nervously crossed her feet at the ankles, put her hands on her waist. “Lots to do.” She made a little circling gesture with her fingers. “To resolve things.”

He nodded, his eyes shining with pleasure. “Okay. But stay out of my stuff, Blue Eyes,” he said, and stepped around her. He started to walk away, and looked back over his shoulder. “By the way, I dig the boots.”

Madeline instantly looked down, almost having forgotten them. When she looked up, he had walked on.

She turned around and stared at her tiny little car, her heart racing a mile a minute. Her palms were kind of sweaty. Good God, she had not come to Colorado to get involved with some… some
hunk
and then fly back to Orlando! What was she doing? She was kidding herself, that was what. Any attraction to that man was going to end badly. She was going to get all giddy and excited that a man as handsome as Luke would find her attractive, and then she’d leave Colorado for Orlando and her life. It was her way: She’d always let a guy get close to her, a perfectly wonderful guy, and then back off. Run. It was a habit she had never examined too closely for fear of what she might discover. But it was as she’d told Luke—not a good idea.

So what was bothering her? Ah yes… she hadn’t wanted him to agree that it was not a good idea.

“Jesus,
stop
it, Madeline,” she muttered.
Just. Stop
.

But as Madeline got in to her car, she wasn’t sure if her head wasn’t telling her heart to stop being her twisted self for once? Or stop toying with the idea of a hot affair with Luke Kendrick?

This time, when Madeline’s clown car puttered into the drive at the ranch, she was ready for the dogs—she’d picked up dog biscuits at Walmart.

She emerged cautiously, the open bag in her hand, biscuits ready to be handed out. She was mildly disappointed that only one of the dogs bothered to come out from under the porch. As the dog approached, she was quick to hold up a biscuit. That proved to be a mistake, however, because the moment she held it up, the other three leapt to their feet and rushed out from under the porch, straight for her.

“Stop!” she cried out. “
Stop, stop!”
Madeline tossed biscuits at them, which they were incredibly adroit at catching, their tails swishing furiously behind them. They crowded in closer, wanting more, and a twinge of panic sprouted in her chest. “
Stop
!” she shouted again.

“
SIT!”
she heard Libby bellow, and from the corner of her eye, saw her striding from the garage, carrying a box, and all four dogs sat instantly. “Garage!” she commanded as she marched forward. With a wistful look and sniff in the direction of Madeline’s box of biscuits, the dogs reluctantly slunk away, trotting off down into the meadow, their noses to the ground.

Madeline sagged against her car. “I don’t know how you do that.”

“Haven’t you ever had a dog?” Libby asked, taking the box of biscuits from Madeline.

“No. We moved too much when I was a kid.”

“Oh, really? Was your mom in the Armed Services?”

Madeline laughed. “No. She was flaky.”

Libby blinked. She handed the box of biscuits back to Madeline. “Well, for starters, you don’t offer biscuits unless they follow your command. Otherwise, it’s a free-for-all.” She suddenly smiled. “Look at
you,
” she said. “Cute dress.”

“Thanks.”

“Are you going to try hiking?” she asked, leaning back to have a look at Madeline’s boots.

“Maybe, yeah,” Madeline said. She hadn’t thought of it before this moment, but she’d seen some well-worn trails leading into the forest and thought, why not? “First, I was hoping we might talk,” she said.