Kissed by a Rancher Read online

  The next night, when he picked Emma up, he tried to focus on her, but all he could do was think about Abby. Making another effort, he gazed at Emma Picket, a statuesque blonde, striking, between husbands at the moment. She was fun to be with, and occasionally he took her out. He hoped tonight she would take his mind off Abby. He thought of the brief relationship he’d had so long ago with Emma. It finally ended in a mutual agreement because she wanted to get married, so she moved on, but they stayed friends through her two marriages and divorces.

  As she climbed into his car, his gaze swept over her dark blue sleeveless dress with a low V-neck that revealed a lush figure. She had long, shapely legs and he wondered why she wasn’t out with a prospect for husband number three. In spite of her stunning looks, his pulse didn’t speed or his breath catch. No response occurred that Abby could stir with her ponytail and no makeup. What was the magic Abby held that attracted him?

  He took Emma to dinner, and they ate outside because the evening was perfect. She smiled at him and reached across the table to take his hand. “Now whom are you trying to get out of your life, or what knotty business problem do you have?”

  “What makes you think I have a problem?”

  “You look totally preoccupied, and you call me when you do.”

  He laughed and rubbed her soft hand, lifting it to his lips to brush a kiss across her knuckles. “You know me too well, but I know you just as well. Why are you out with me? Trying to forget husband number two or trying to make prospective husband number three jealous?”

  She laughed. “Touché. The latter, Josh. And you?”

  “You were right the first time,” he said. “Trying to get someone out of my life, sort of,” he added. He was trying to get her out of his thoughts.

  “Ah.” Emma glanced around the restaurant’s patio at other couples. “Is she supposed to be here tonight and see us together?”

  “No, I just wanted you to take my mind off her. She—” he paused “—worries me a little.”

  “Worries you? You never worry about a woman. Is she stalking you?”

  “Oh, no.”

  Emma smiled. “Whatever’s going on, I’m delighted because I didn’t want to stay home tonight, and the man I need to make jealous eats here often enough that he might even show up. I’ve already said hello to two of his friends as we came in. Word should get back to him that I was here with you. Just excellent, Josh.”

  He smiled. “You make me feel better. When the dancing starts, we’ll dance and I’ll give them reason to tell him we were here together.”

  She laughed with him and her eyes sparkled. “Wonderful, darling.”

  Their waiter came and they ordered. Josh felt better because he could help Emma with her problem, and maybe his would diminish slightly. As he talked with Emma and their dinner came and they ate, his expectations of getting Abby out of his thoughts faded. He missed her, and even a good friend who was a fun person could not take his mind off her. He had the best time with Abby, and no one was going to get her out of his thoughts.

  “Josh?” He realized Emma had said his name and was staring intently at him.

  “I’m sorry. I had a business deal today that is hanging fire,” he said to cover whatever made her stare at him.

  “You haven’t heard me. This isn’t like you,” she said, cocking her head to one side while she looked intently at him.

  “Don’t make too much of it. I’m just preoccupied.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What’s her name?”

  “Whose name?” he asked.

  “Josh, your mind is far away. You asked me out to help you forget someone.” Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “It’s finally happened. You’re the one who got left behind, and she walked out.”

  “Don’t make a big deal of it, because it isn’t a big deal.”

  “When did you break up?”

  “Never. There was nothing to break up,” he said, aware from Emma’s expression that she didn’t believe him.

  “You’re in love,” she said, sounding shocked.

  “No, I’m not in love,” he said. “I’ve never told her I love her. I haven’t known her long enough or well enough to be in love.”

  She laughed. “I never thought I would see the day. You’re so in love and you don’t even know it.” She giggled.

  He stood. “C’mon, let’s dance,” he said, taking her hand.

  On the dance floor, he held her close. She was soft, voluptuous, her perfume enticing, and she simply made him miss Abby more than ever. What kind of spell had Abby woven? Maybe he had tempted fate when he kissed her in the shadow caused by the full moon. That was a better explanation than any other he could come up with.

  He had wanted Emma to make him forget Abby, but that wasn’t going to happen. But in spite of his dilemma, he could help Emma. “Are the friends still here?”

  “Oh, yes. I just smiled at one of them.”

  Josh dipped low, and her hands tightened on his shoulders as she clung to him. He swung her up and kissed her, wanting her to kiss him and make him forget everything else, to put an end to this constant need to want to be with Abby.

  Instead, he just wanted Abby in his arms. He wanted to kiss her. Emma’s kiss was meaningless and did nothing to stir him. He released her to continue dancing, but he wanted the evening to end so he could take Emma home.

  “I have a long day tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll take you home.”

  “That’s fine, but you don’t have to lie about the long day. You’re trying to get over someone, and I didn’t help.” She patted his hand. “I have no doubt you’ll get over her eventually, but Josh, this was bound to happen at some point in your charmed life. She must be quite a woman.”

  “Emma, don’t—”

  “Shh. Don’t worry. I understand, and since you’ve never been through this, it has probably hit you like a meteorite zooming to your little patch of earth. You’ll live, Josh. Maybe you’ll even have to think about marriage. If you do,” she said, laughter in her voice, “please be sure to send me an invitation to the wedding, because I want to meet her.”

  He took Emma home and for a moment they sat in his car. “You’re just blowing this all out of proportion.”

  “I don’t think so.” She kissed his cheek. “I definitely think you’re in love, and you never have been in your life, so you can’t even recognize the signs. I had a good time, had a good dinner and accomplished my purpose tonight. I’m sorry I couldn’t make you forget her, but if you’re in love, no one and nothing short of a total disaster will make you forget her. Knowing you, you’ll win over your fair maiden. She must really be something to tie you in knots.”

  “She is, Emma,” he said, thinking he could see Emma as a beautiful woman, a friend, but nothing more. Abby dazzled him, took his breath, and he couldn’t ever view her in an ordinary way.

  Emma looked intently at him and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re really in love. Don’t forget to invite me to the wedding.”

  He got out of the car and opened her door for her. “Don’t hold your breath. She won’t even answer my phone calls. I’m not her type.”

  Emma looked as if she might be biting her lip as Josh walked her to her front door. She turned to face him and once again was composed as she smiled. “Thanks for tonight.”

  “You’re a real friend, Emma. Good luck with your latest guy. I hope he’s a good one. You deserve it.”

  “Thanks.” She blew him a kiss as she stepped farther inside and closed her door.

  He walked back to his car, already forgetting Emma and thinking about Abby. Was he in love and didn’t even know it? He didn’t think such a thing was possible. Should he look at engagement rings? The notion was so foreign to him, he shook his head. They didn’t know each other well enough to get married. She would re
ject that as swiftly as she had his proposition.

  If she wouldn’t answer his calls, the only thing he could think to do was to go see her. He had to get her out of his system, but at the moment he wanted some more time with her. If an affair with her was impossible, he’d just take her out. He thought about getting her a gift and vetoed it. Abby had some very old-fashioned and strong ideas about what she thought appropriate and wanted and what she didn’t. How in hell had he gotten attracted to her?

  As swiftly as the question came, the answer came—he had the best time with her he had ever had with any woman. How could he have ruined that wonderful weekend so completely that she wouldn’t even talk to him? He knew exactly how, and he wished he had given more thought to asking her to move in with him.

  He focused on going to see her. He wished he had met her mother and made friends with her. Instead, he called Edwin Hickman. He needed to find out when he could catch Abby where she had to talk to him and wouldn’t slam a door in his face.

  His usual self-assurance with a woman was leaving him fast. He was lost with Abby, unable to figure her out and hoping he would do the right thing. If this failed, he didn’t see any hope of another chance.

  He thought about his situation all the way to his house. Once inside, he sat in a darkened bedroom that had light only from the hall, staring into space, still lost in thought.

  He thought about Emma laughing at him. Was he in love with Abby? Really in love? If he was, he sure as hell hadn’t followed logic in falling in love. Abby didn’t like his lifestyle—there were a million problems. He raked his fingers through his hair. Did he love her? Really love her in a lifetime-with-someone kind of way? And even if he did, how could he ever get her to accept a marriage proposal since she didn’t like his lifestyle, didn’t trust him to ever settle and didn’t want a husband who traveled? He had to think this through before he botched it.

  “Dammit to hell, Abby.” That night of the blizzard he should have gone home with Benny and slept on the floor with the in-laws and the kids and the baby. He wasn’t ready for marriage. He wasn’t ready to lose Abby, either. And if he proposed marriage, she would turn him down. That thought tied him in knots.

  For the first time in his life, he was in love, and she didn’t love him back. And she had enough backbone, no matter how irresistible she found him physically, to resist him totally.

  A lifetime with Abby—right now that looked like a really good future, but an impossible one. He couldn’t even get her to talk to him. How would he get her to marry him?

  He had to admit that he must be in love. He would have laughed at himself and the situation if he hadn’t hurt so badly. His brothers and Lindsay would laugh at him and probably say he deserved this. Maybe Mike wouldn’t, since he’d fallen in love recently, but Jake and Lindsay would.

  He was in love with Abby, and he hadn’t even known the extent of his feelings for her until everything blew up in his face. He wanted to get her an engagement ring, something old-fashioned and sentimental, if diamonds could ever be old-fashioned and sentimental.

  He needed to start figuring out what he would have to do to convince her to marry him. She wasn’t even talking to him. It seemed the most daunting task he had ever faced. He got up and went to his desk to switch on a light. He grabbed a sheet of paper and jotted down the arguments she would throw at him for reasons she could not marry him. He numbered them, writing carefully and then staring into space, thinking about all the things she had said to him.

  The moment the decision was made, he started planning. He felt better except that for the first time in his life, he had a running current of worry that she wouldn’t even talk to him in person and give him a chance to propose.

  Ten

  Abby had just checked in two guests, and Justin was helping so she didn’t have to show the couple to their room. She left the desk. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was almost seven.

  “Ah, Abby,” Mr. Hickman said, coming into the lobby. “It is a lovely evening, and I hope I can interest you in sitting with me on the front porch.”

  She smiled and linked her arm with his. “Of course you can. I would love to sit in the swing and do nothing but talk to you and enjoy the evening. It’s hard to believe that recently we had snow.”

  “That was a freak, late snowstorm, although they do happen. Mother Nature is trying to make up for it tonight.”

  Mr. Hickman sat in a rocker. Abby sat on the porch swing and began to swing slowly. “This is wonderful,” she said. “There is something soothing about a porch swing.”

  “I hope you are feeling patient, my dear. Your friend called me and is coming to see you.”

  Startled, she turned to look at him. Just then a car entered the parking lot at the side of the front yard. She watched the black sports car whip into a space. When Josh stepped out, her heart thudded. He wore his white Stetson, a white dress shirt open at the throat, jeans and his boots, and he looked even more breathtaking to her than before. She curbed an impulse to run and throw herself into his arms. Instead, she sat very still, certain this visit would be a deeper hurt.

  “Here he is, Mr. Hickman.”

  “Yes, indeed. You’re so kind to me, Abby. Be kind to him tonight.”

  Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded. If she hadn’t been hurting so badly, she would have laughed over Mr. Hickman’s ridiculous request.

  She wasn’t even aware when Mr. Hickman left. Her heart pounded and a mixture of feelings tore at her, but excitement dominated. As Josh bounded to the porch, he looked filled with vitality.

  She reminded herself that whatever he wanted to do, she had to say no. She couldn’t go out with him again. She definitely would not take a trip again with him.

  She clamped her mouth closed and clenched her fists, jamming them into her pockets to hide them. She wished she had changed. She had on the same pink knit shirt and jeans she had put on when she got up this morning. Her hair probably needed to be combed and her ponytail redone. She shouldn’t even care, but she felt self-conscious in spite of knowing she should send him on his way.

  When he walked up to her to stand close, her heart pounded.

  “Hi. I saw Edwin when I turned into the lot, so he must have told you I called him.”

  “Yes. Until then I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “You wouldn’t answer your phone.”

  “No, we really don’t have anything more to say to each other. I don’t know why you came all the way to Beckett.”

  “I want to talk to you. Can we go to your suite?”

  She started to say no, looked into his dark eyes and nodded in spite of wary feelings.

  “Good. You won’t be sorry,” he said with his usual take-charge self-assurance.

  Holding the door for her, he walked beside her. Intensely aware of him so close, she felt their shoulders lightly brush as they walked, and a tingle slithered down her arm from the faintest contact. In her suite, she closed the door behind her.

  “Would you like to sit?” she asked.

  “If you will,” he said. She moved to a wingback chair so he couldn’t sit beside her.

  He pulled another chair close. “I’ve missed you, and I wanted to talk to you. Abby, I shouldn’t have asked you to move in with me or travel with me.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have. You know I’m old-fashioned, tied to the B and B, very close to my family. Under those circumstances, your invitation indicated to me that you really don’t know me and you don’t care a lot about me. I understand that part, Josh. I never expected you to fall in love. Frankly, I never expected to, either.”

  “I should have thought that one through, and I didn’t. It was a spur-of-the-moment impulse because I didn’t want to tell you goodbye or have you fly out of my life. I’ve thought things through this time, and I have definitely fallen in lo
ve with you.”

  His words stunned her, and her heart thudded.

  Standing, he stepped in front of her, took her hand and knelt on one knee. “Abby, I love you.”

  With those four words, her heart began to pound as she stared at him in shock.

  “Will you marry me?”

  “Josh—” she whispered, even more stunned and barely able to get her breath or voice. He held up a hand as if motioning her to wait.

  She wanted to stop him, yet she couldn’t. She had never thought about the possibility of a marriage proposal. I love you. The words echoed in her mind. “You can’t love me,” she said, barely able to get out the words. “You don’t know me that well.”

  “Yes, I do love you. We had that weekend. We’ve worked together, laughed together, danced, kissed, made love. I just know that I don’t want to go through life without you,” he said. “Please listen,” he added quickly. “I’ve thought about this. You object to several things about my lifestyle, my traveling and my cosmopolitan life. I can change that. I can turn my business over to very competent people and retire now to the ranch. I have enough money that I don’t need to step into my office ever again if I don’t want to.”

  As he talked, her heart raced. She had turned to ice, but now she warmed. Feeling dazed, she listened to him while all she could think was that he loved her and he indicated he would change his life for her.

  “Josh, I’m shocked. I can’t believe you mean this or know what you’re doing.”

  “I usually do know what I’m doing, and I’m sure I know this time. It’s been hell without you in my life. Abby, marry me. I love you,” he said.

  Her heart pounded. “You would move to the ranch permanently?”

  “Yes, whatever you want. You don’t know how I love you. I’ll be happy on the ranch. I was going to live there anyway. This way, I’m just moving there sooner, and I’d have you with me.”

  “Josh, you’re not thinking. I have this bed-and-breakfast. I can’t just walk out and leave the inn.”