Bret knew this wouldn't be easy. Still, he had no intention of letting Mindy drive out of his life. If keeping her in Texas meant taking apart her car piece by piece, he would do so enthusiastically.
"I thought it might come in handy," he told her.
"You thought wrong," she fired back. "Give it to me."
"I brought some coolant too," he added as if she hadn't said a word.
Mindy glared at him for a moment, then her face deflated and a huge tear trickled from each eye. "I'm trying to take care of myself," she explained over heaving sobs. "Just go talk to Sharon."
"I talked to her by radio."
"So why are you here?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Bret said. He tried to put a note of levity into his voice, although he certainly had nothing to celebrate at the moment.
"Go ahead."
"First I want to understand why you ran away. I thought you were going to think about my offer and we'd talk about it."
"I couldn't do that to you."
"Couldn't do what to me?" Since Mindy had arrived, he'd spent half his time trying to figure out where she was coming from and the other half trying to figure out what to do about his cock-eyed reactions.
"The ranch should have been yours. Lucy was too sick to change her will, but I saw the financials. Not only did you pay yourself less than half the going wage, you also plowed your savings into Lucy's surgery."
"I already told you that doesn't matter to me."
"Isn't that just too noble. Well, it matters a lot to me. I spent all this time accusing you of cheating my Aunt Lucy out of her money and you were the one who was getting cheated."
Bret shook his head, then dismounted from his horse. "That's ancient history. I was talking about you and me."
"There isn't any you and me, Bret. You've still got Lucy on your mind."
"Lucy?" He'd been confused before--now he was completely mystified. "What does she have to do with it?"
"I saw through that gigolo front days ago. I don't think you're the kind of man who would sleep with a woman for her money. Well, you don't have to sleep with me to get your ranch."
"You saw through my gigolo act? I told you I wasn't a gigolo when we went to Henry's office. It was just a rumor Andresson and Henry started. We didn't argue too much because it offered Lucy some degree of protection from the crooks who preyed on her."
"I assumed you were lying. That's before I knew you were in love with Lucy."
Bret couldn't help himself. He dropped the antifreeze, stepped next to her and grasped both of her arms, swinging her around so she faced him. "So far, you've been right about only one thing. I don't sleep with women for money."
"Look at me and tell me you don't still love Lucy."
"I ... I guess I did love her in a--
"That's what I meant. You were in love with her and your feelings haven't changed. And Lucy obviously returned those feelings. If she hadn't been so sick, she'd have changed her will and given it all to you. Don't you see? I'm giving you the ranch, and you don't have to sleep with me or marry me to get it. Now I'm going to get on with my life."
They were talking in circles. "If you know I'm not a gigolo, why do you think I would sleep with you to get the ranch?"
A confused look crossed her blue eyes. "But you said you wanted to go to bed with me."
He ran a finger along the line of her cheek. "It took me a while to figure this out, Mindy, so I don't blame you for being mistaken. I thought the ranch was what I wanted. I thought I needed the security of owning a place of my own more than anything in the world. But I was wrong."
She said nothing.
He wondered if she was listening. Had he blown it so completely she would tune him out? "Why don't you ask me how I felt when I heard the truck start?"
She seized his hand and pulled it away from her cheek. She did not, he noticed, seem in a hurry to let it go, though. "You were probably afraid I was running off to sell my half--"
He shook his head, stopping her. She still didn't get it. It was like he was missing the code he needed to communicate with her.
Rather than try to argue with her, he waited. She hadn't gotten what he'd said yet and repeating it wouldn't help.
She must have realized that he didn't intend to say anything until she asked, because she took a deep breath.
"All right, how did you feel when you heard the truck start?"
"I felt like a horse had kicked me in the ribs. And not because I thought I was losing the damned ranch. Get it through your head. I'm talking about us."
****
"You're not making sense." Mindy hadn't understood anything since Bret arrived with the radiator cap. He had his papers. He should be happy. Everything he said simply left her more confused.
"That's because you already have your mind made up that you understand everything that's going on. You don't."
She started to cross her arms in front of her chest, then noticed, at the last second, that she still clung to one of Bret's hands as if it were a life preserver. She dropped it like a lit firecracker, then hugged herself tightly. "Give me your best shot."
"I've never been to Omaha, but I'm willing to guess that it's a lot like every other city. There's bound to be work for people who make things happen."
"Now what are you talking about?" She knew she sounded like a broken record but she didn't know what else to say.
"I'm saying we'll dump the ranch and I'll move to Omaha with you. Or wherever you want to go to school. The most important thing in the world is that I be with you. Haven't I been saying that for the last twenty-four hours?"
"No." Did she dare hope? Surely she hadn't heard right. She trembled at the possibility. "What you've been saying is that you're willing to marry me because you don't trust me. That's not the same."
Bret waved away this fine distinction. "I was stupid. That was the lie I was telling myself. I didn't want to admit what a hold you have on me. When I heard you drive away, I realized how wrong I had been. I can't have security without you. I can't have anything without you. The truth was, I wanted to marry you, period. I still do."
"But what about Lucy?" she asked, almost desperately. Her whole world was spinning. "You said you loved her, and you can't have gotten over her that quickly."
Bret's face slowly crumpling into out-and-out laughter. The rich tone of his laugh made her want to join him, but the joke seemed to be on her.
"I don't have to get over Lucy," he explained. "I felt great affection for her--like I would for an older sister. We were never in love."
"I don't believe that you spent ten years sleeping with her and never loved her. That isn't in you, Bret, and you know it."
He sighed impatiently. "One more time, and read my lips. I-never-went-to-bed-with-Lucy. Not for money, love, or lust."
Mindy had thought herself beyond surprise. She wasn't. She needed to go away and digest this new information. Bret looked so serious that she couldn't believe that he was lying. Still, why hadn't he told her earlier?
"So why did you let me go on all this time, thinking the worst?"
"Back then, you weren't listening. You had your mind made up, already knew everything you needed to know. You were intent on finding out how I'd stolen Lucy's money. My denial was just proof to you that I was the type of pond scum you thought I was. I think your words were 'walks like a duck.'"
She felt herself nod. She had been more than harsh with him, never asking for his side of the story and slapping him in the face when he tried to explain.
"And then later?"
"You stopped calling me a gigolo. I thought you'd figured things out. I had no idea you'd decided Lucy was the great love of my life. Frankly, I had no idea what love was. Not then."
The sun beat down on both of them, yet when he turned away, she felt as if a sudden darkness had descended.
As she watched, Bret unsaddled his horse, then swatted it on the rear to send it home. He turned back and dumped the saddle next to George in the back seat of her car.
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like? I'm going with you."
"But ..." His eyes were telling her something, but her mind wouldn't let her believe.
"I didn't sleep last night. In fact, all of the guys were up. We'd set a trap for whoever's been rustling our cattle. When I heard the truck, I figured you were trying to get away. I radioed Sharon and had her steal your radiator cap. Then I picked it up when I swung by the ranchhouse. I knew that it was my only chance to catch up."
"Did you catch the rustlers?"
He shrugged. "Who cares? I caught you."
"I care. I don't want anyone stealing your property. You've worked hard for it and you've earned it."
"All right. Yes, we caught a couple of Andresson's hands. He'll leave the Grease Spot Ranch alone for a while, at least."
"All right, now that's settled. So tell me why you came after me." She had to strain against her instinctive desire to hurl herself into his arms, to stop asking questions, and to take whatever she could get. If she did, though, she knew that she'd regret it forever.
"I'm explaining." For the first time since she'd known him, Bret actually looked less than in total control. "I don't know how it happened. But I fell in love with you."
For an instant, Mindy's knees buckled under her and she grasped Bret's arm to steady herself.
"I didn't want to admit it, even to myself," Bret continued. "I was fixated on getting my life under control. Falling for you wasn't the most controlled thing I've ever done. You're a crazy woman with a spoiled cat and a knack for arguing with me. But I'm hoping you'll give me a second chance. You won't admit it now, but I think that you're falling in love with me as well."
The totally confident Bret was back. His only mistake was underestimating the power he had over her.
"I love you already, that's why I had to leave." She hadn't meant to tell him that, but somehow the words escaped. "I was being such a damned martyr, and look what I almost walked away from." She gave him a light thump on the chest. "Why didn't you set me straight on this stuff earlier? Would have saved us a lot of trouble."
He tried for a smug smile but it transformed into an ear-to- ear grin. Then it vanished, and he kissed her tenderly, stealing her breath away.
When the kiss finally ended, he turned away from her and pulled a large plastic bottle of anti-freeze from his saddle bag. He filled her radiator, then tightly screwed on the radiator cap. "We can fill up the rest of the way when we make it to town. So what are we waiting for? Let's go to Omaha."
Mindy stepped around her car to the passenger side and got in. She'd never let anyone drive her car before, but that one ride through the dust storm was as much as she intended to drive Bret.
"Bret?"
"Hum?" He slammed shut the hood. He looked puzzled at her decision to sit in the passenger seat, but he walked around and slid behind the wheel. His eyes locked on the controls but one of his hands, acting as if under its own volition, explored her arm, reaching for more.
"I don't want to go to Omaha. That stupid ranch has gotten under my skin almost as much as you have. Let's get back to the cattle. I'm sure the guys are dying of curiosity by now."
"On one condition." His voice sounded almost dangerous.
"What's that?" Could a sudden problem have emerged just when she thought everything was perfect?
He took a document from inside his denim shirt and handed it to her. It was her quit-claim deed. "Tear it up."
She looked at him to make sure she had heard him properly.
"You heard me. From now on, we're partners. As far as I'm concerned, Lucy did me the biggest favor anyone ever did by giving you half the ranch and bringing you to me. I'm certainly not going against fate."
Mindy took the deed then slowly ripped it up. "About the ranch," she told him.
"What about it?"
"I've grown to love it, both halves, but do you think that we could leave it for a little while?"
"Sure. Why?"
"I'm not positive I want to spend my honeymoon surrounded by a dozen cowboys."
Bret laughed. "Honey, you're going to spend your honeymoon surrounded by nobody but me. Let's go."
Other books by Robyn Anders
Blind Date
The CEO’s S.O.S.
Counterfeit Cowboy
Dynamiting Daddy’s Dream House
Hometown Hero
The Truth About Cats