“I figured you would be,” she grumbled.
Taylor soaked another ten minutes until the water started to turn cool, then she reluctantly pulled the plug and climbed out of the tub.
A thick pale-blue flannel robe that zipped up the front was draped over the edge of the sink, along with a pair of fuzzy pink slippers. After Taylor had finished drying, she slipped into those, conscious that she wore nothing underneath.
Russ was sitting at the kitchen table. “Where’s Mandy?” she asked, doing her best to sound casual and composed, as if she often walked around a man’s home in nothing more than a borrowed robe.
“She’s on the phone, talking to Travis Wells’s boy.”
This must be the famous Eddie who’d caused Taylor so much grief. Not knowing what she should say or do, she walked over to the counter and filled her empty mug with coffee. She’d just replaced the pot when Russ’s hands settled on her shoulders. He turned her around and gazed into her eyes.
“I shouldn’t have laughed.” His voice was husky, his expression regretful.
She lifted one shoulder in a delicate shrug. “I don’t think you could’ve helped it—laughing was a natural reaction. I must have looked ridiculous.”
“Do you forgive me?”
She nodded. Her sojourn in the bath had washed away more than the mud; it had obliterated her anger. She acknowledged that she hadn’t been completely guiltless in this fiasco, either. “You weren’t really to blame. I did it to myself with my stubborn pride. You’re the rancher here, not me. I was a fool to think I could free that poor calf when you couldn’t. I brought the whole thing on myself, but you were handy and I lashed out at you.”
Russ lifted her chin with his index finger. “Did you mean what you said about hating Montana?”
Taylor didn’t remember saying that, although she’d muttered plenty about Russ and his stupid cows and everything else she could think of.
“Not any more than I meant what I said about everything else.”
“Good.” Russ obviously took that as a positive answer. He raised his finger and traced it slowly over her cheek to her lips. His touch was unhurried and tender as if he longed to ease every moment of distress he’d caused her, intentionally or otherwise. His eyes didn’t waver from hers, and when he leaned forward to kiss her, there wasn’t a single doubt in Taylor’s mind that this was exactly what she wanted.
His mouth settled over hers, and she sighed softly in hopeless welcome. His kisses, as always, were devastatingly sensual. Taylor felt so mellow, so warm.
“I could get drunk on you,” Russ murmured in awe.
“It must be the whiskey,” she whispered back.
He shook his head. “I didn’t have any.” His hands were in her hair, his lips at her throat, and the delicious, delirious feelings flooded her.
Sliding her hands over the open V of his shirt, she wound her arms around his strong neck. He leaned her against the counter and pressed himself against her, creating a whole new kaleidoscope of delectable sensations. Taylor let her head fall back as he continued to kiss her. He was so close she could feel the snap of his jeans. He was power. Masculine strength. Heat. She sensed in him a hunger she’d never known in any man. A hunger and need. One only she could fill.
Then, when she least expected it, Russ stilled his body and his hands and roughly dragged his mouth from hers. Not more than a second had passed when…
“Oops…oh, sorry,” Mandy said as she walked into the kitchen. “I bet you guys want me to come back later. Right? Hey, no problem.” She backed out of the kitchen, hands raised.
Russ’s arms closed protectively around Taylor, but she broke free and managed a smile, then deftly turned toward the teenager. “There’s no reason for you to leave.”
“Yes, there is,” Russ said. “Taylor and I have to talk.”
“No, we don’t,” she countered sharply. “We’ve finished…talking.”
Russ threw her a challenging glance that suggested otherwise, and Taylor, who rarely blushed, did so profusely.
“We haven’t even started talking,” Russ whispered for her ears alone. Taylor wasn’t going to argue with him, at least not in front of his sister.
Mandy stared down at the linoleum floor and traced the octagonal pattern with the toe of her tennis shoe. “You’ve already talked to Russ?” she asked, darting a quick glance at Taylor. Her soft green eyes were imploring.
“Not yet,” Taylor said pointedly.
“Disappear for a while, Mandy,” Russ urged, turning back to Taylor.
“No,” Taylor said forcefully. The minute the girl was out of the room, the same thing would happen that always did whenever they were alone together. One kiss and they’d burst spontaneously into a passion hot enough to sear Taylor’s senses for days afterward.
“No?” Mandy echoed, clearly confused.
“I haven’t talked to Russ yet, but I will now.”
The fourteen-year-old brightened and nodded eagerly. She pointed toward the living room. “I’ll just wait in there.”
“What’s going on here?” Russ demanded once Mandy was out of the room.
“Nothing.”
“And pigs fly.”
“Sit down,” she coaxed, offering him a shy smile. She got a second mug and filled it with coffee, then carried it to the round oak table where Russ was waiting for her. His arm slipped around her waist, and she braced her hands against his shoulders.
“You’re supposed to talk to me?” he asked.
She nodded.
“This has to do with Mandy?”
Once more Taylor nodded.
Russ frowned. “That was why you drove out to see me earlier, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” she answered honestly. He kept his arms securely around her waist, but he didn’t look pleased. Taylor felt the least she could do was explain. “Mandy came to talk to me after school, and she asked me to approach you about…something.”
“She isn’t comfortable coming to me herself?” Russ muttered, looking offended. “I’ve been trying as hard as I can to listen to her. I can’t be any fairer than I’ve already been. What does she want now? To get an apartment in town on her own?”
“Don’t be silly,” Taylor answered, riffling his hair, seeking some way to reassure him. “Mandy knows you’re trying to be patient with her, and she’s trying, too. Only this was something special, something she felt awkward talking to you about, so she came to me. Don’t be offended, Russ. That wasn’t her intention and it isn’t mine.”
He nodded, but his frown remained. From the first, Taylor hadn’t been sure she was doing the right thing by approaching Russ on Mandy’s behalf. She’d only wanted to help, but regretted her part in this now. Look where it had led her! Two feet deep in mud.
Positioning herself on his lap, she rested her arms over his shoulders, her wrists dangling. “You’re right,” she said, and kissed him long and leisurely by way of apology.
His eyes were still closed when she’d finished, his breathing labored.
“Mandy,” Taylor called, embarrassed by how noticeably her voice trembled.
The teenager raced into the kitchen so fast she nearly skidded across the polished floor. “Well?” she asked expectantly. “What did he say?” She seemed a little startled to see Taylor sitting on her brother’s lap, but didn’t mention it at all.
“I haven’t said anything yet,” Russ growled. “I want to know what’s going on here. First of all, Taylor drives out to talk to me, and from what I can tell she’s wearing your clothes.”
“I couldn’t very well send her out there in the dress she was wearing at school. I’m certainly glad I insisted she put on something of mine, otherwise look what would’ve happened!” Mandy declared.
“What’s that got to do with this?”
“You were supposed to be back early today, remember?” Mandy reminded him pointedly. “You said something about driving over to Bill Shepherd’s this afternoon—”
“Oh, dam
n,” Russ muttered, “I forgot.”
“Don’t worry. He phoned while you were out with Taylor, and I said you’d probably run into some trouble. He’s going to call you back tonight.”
Russ nodded. “Go on.”
“Well, anyway, I thought it might even be better if Taylor talked to you when I wasn’t around, so I suggested she take the truck and—”
“How’d you know where I was?” Russ asked his sister, clearly confused.
“I heard you speaking to Slim this morning about checking the south fence lines. I just headed Taylor in that direction. I knew she’d find you sooner or later.”
Russ’s gaze shot to Taylor. “She found me all right. Now tell me what you were going to talk to me about.” The tone of Russ’s voice suggested he was fast losing patience.
“Mandy, I’m holding him down, so you do the talking,” Taylor said, smiling at Russ.
“You ask him, Taylor. Oh, please…” the girl begged.
“Nope, you’re on your own, kiddo.”
“Will the two of you stop playing games and tell me what’s going on here?”
“Okay,” Mandy said, elevating her shoulders as she released a deep breath. She pushed up the sleeves of her sweater, not looking at her brother, and launched into her request. “You know Travis Wells, don’t you?” She didn’t give Russ time to respond. “His son Eddie goes to school with me.”
“Eddie’s older than you.”
“He’s sixteen,” Mandy returned quickly. “Actually he’s only twenty-two months and five days older than I am. If he’d been born in October and I’d been born in August we might even have been in the same class together, so there’s really not that big a difference in our ages.” She paused as though waiting for Russ to comment or agree.
“All right,” he said after an uncomfortable moment.
Mandy looked at Taylor pleadingly, silently asking her to explain the rest. Taylor shook her head.
“Eddie’s been talking to me lately…in the halls and sometimes at lunch. Yesterday he sat with me on the bus.” This was clearly of monumental significance. “Eddie was the one who encouraged me to try out for the drill team, and when I made it, he said he knew I would.”
“That was him on the phone earlier, wasn’t it?”
A happy grin touched the girl’s mouth. “Yes—he wanted to know if I’d talked to you yet.”
“About what?” Russ asked, then stiffened. His eyes narrowed. “You’re not going out with that young man, Amanda, and that’s the end of it. Fourteen is too young to date, and I don’t care what Taylor says!”
If she hadn’t been sitting on his lap, Taylor was sure Russ would have jumped to his feet. Framing his face with her hands, she stroked the rigid muscles of his jaw. “There’s no need to yell. As it happens, I agree with you.”
“You do?”
“Don’t look so shocked.”
“Then why were you coming to talk to me about it? Because I’ll tell you right now, I’m not changing my mind.”
“I’m not, either,” she said softly, “so relax.”
“Mandy?” Russ turned to his sister, his frown threatening.
“Well…as you’ve already guessed, Eddie asked me out on a date. Actually he just wanted me to go to the movies with him.”
“No way,” Russ said without so much as a pause.
Mandy’s teeth bit her trembling bottom lip. “I thought you’d feel that way. That’s the reason I went to Taylor, but she said she agreed with you that fourteen’s too young to date. But while we were talking she came up with a…compromise. That is, if you’ll agree.”
“I said no,” Russ returned resolutely.
Taylor felt she should explain. “When I was fourteen, my father—”
“You’re from the city,” he said in a way that denigrated anyone who lived in a town with a population over five hundred. “Folks from the country think differently. I don’t expect you to understand.”
His harsh words were like a slap in the face to Taylor. She blinked back the sharp pain, astonished that he would offend her so easily.
“Russ,” Mandy whispered, “that was a terrible thing to say.”
“What? That Taylor’s from the city? It’s true.”
“You’re right, of course.” She slipped off his lap and looked at Mandy. “Are my clothes in your room?”
The girl nodded. “I hung them in my closet.”
Drawing in a deep breath, Taylor looked at Russ. “I apologize. I should never have involved myself in something that wasn’t my affair. I went against my better judgment and I was wrong. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll change clothes and get out of here.” The way she felt at the moment, she never intended to come back. What Russ had said was true; he was only repeating what she’d been saying to him from the first. They were fooling themselves if they believed there was any future in their relationship.
Mandy’s bedroom was on the main floor, next to the bathroom. Taylor shut the door and walked over to sit on the bed. Her hands were trembling, and she felt close to tears. Raised voices came from the kitchen, but Taylor couldn’t make out the words and had no intention of even trying. If anything, she was regretful that she’d become yet another source of discord between brother and sister.
Taylor was dressing when someone tapped politely on the door. “I’ll just be a minute,” she said, forcing a cheerful note into her voice.
Slipping the dress over her head, Taylor walked barefoot across the room and opened the door. Mandy came inside, her face red and stained with tears. Sobbing, she threw both arms around Taylor’s waist.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m really sorry…it was so selfish of me to involve you in this. Look what happened. First you fell in that terrible mud—”
“But, remember, I was wearing your clothes.”
“I don’t care about that.” She lifted her head to wipe the tears from her face. “You could take all my clothes and put them in a mud hole if you wanted.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to avoid any and all mud holes from now on.”
Mandy’s responding chuckle sounded more like another sob. “Russ should never have said what he did.”
“But it’s true,” Taylor said lightly, pretending to dismiss the entire incident.
“Maybe so, but it was the way he said it—as if you’re not to be trusted or something. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to my brother—and to me. All the kids in school are crazy about you and…and for Russ to say what he did was an insult.”
“Don’t be so hard on him. You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl,” she joked.
“He’ll be sorry in a little bit,” Mandy assured her. “He always is. He’s the only man I know who slits his own throat with his tongue.”
“There’s no need for him to apologize,” Taylor said, hugging the teenager close. She broke away, slipped on her shoes and reached for her jacket. She draped her purse over her shoulder. “Chin up, kiddo. Everything’s going to work out for the best.”
Mandy bobbed her head several times.
Russ wasn’t around when Taylor walked through the kitchen and out the back door. For that she was grateful. She opened her car door, but didn’t get inside. Instead she found herself studying the house and the outbuildings that comprised the Lazy P, giving it a final look. Sadness settled over her and she exhaled slowly.
This was her farewell to Russ and to his ranch.
If the day Taylor fell in the mud hole had been full of problems, Russ decided, the ensuing ones were just as impossible. Only now the difficulties he faced were of his own making.
Taylor had been on his mind for the past three days. Not that thinking about her constantly was anything new, but now, every time he did, all he could see were her big blue eyes meeting his, trying so hard to disguise the pain his words had inflicted. He’d been angry with Mandy for going to Taylor, and angry with Taylor for listening.
U
nfortunately Russ didn’t have time to make the necessary amends. Not yet, anyway. Slim and Roy had set up cow camp in the foothills, and Russ and two of his other hands were joining them. They were running cattle, branding the calves born on the range, vaccinating and dehorning them. It would be necessary to trim hoofs, too; otherwise the snow, which was sure to arrive sometime soon, would clump in their feet.
There’d been snow in the mountains overnight, and there was nothing to say the first snowfall of the season couldn’t happen any day. With so much to do, he didn’t have time for anything but work. The cattle buyers would show up right after that, and Russ would be occupied with them, wheeling and dealing to get the best price he could for his beef.
He’d contact Taylor later and apologize.
When Russ returned to the house, it was after seven and he was exhausted. Mandy was sitting at the kitchen table, doing her homework.
“Any calls?” he asked hopefully. Maybe Taylor had finally decided to forgive him, although he doubted it.
“None.”
Russ frowned. That woman was too stubborn for her own good—or his.
“Dinner’s in the oven,” Mandy said, not looking at him. She closed her book and inserted pages into her binder.
Russ took the plate from the oven with a pot holder, then set it on the table. “I’ve been thinking over what you suggested about this thing with Eddie,” he said while he took a glass from the cupboard and poured himself some milk.
Mandy’s eyes rose to search his. “It wouldn’t be like a real date. I’d be paying for my own ticket and all Eddie and I would be doing is sitting together. It’d be just as if we’d accidentally met there. If Eddie wants, I’d let him buy me some popcorn—but only if you think it would be all right.”
“I’d drop you off and pick you up at the theater?”
“Right.”
Russ pulled out a chair and sat down. “This is a sensible compromise,” he said as he spread the paper napkin across his lap. “This idea shows maturity and insight on your part, and I’m proud of you for coming up with it.”
“I didn’t.”
Russ finished his first bite and studied his sister, who was standing across the table, her hand resting on the back of the chair. “Taylor’s the one who suggested it first. She tried to explain it to you…. Actually, we both did, but you wouldn’t listen.”