Rancher's Baby

Despite his pain and discomfort, anticipation rose within him. Dulcie was here, probably in the big house that sat off to one side of the barns and corrals. The Good Samaritan drove right up to the yard that fronted the house. A black-and-white dog that looked like a cross between a border collie and a shepherd exploded from under the front porch, barking furiously just as the front door opened.

“Corky, go lie down!” A woman with long, loose dark hair streaming down her back came down the steps. The dog retreated to his hideout with a last snarl, but Tye hardly noticed.

Dulcie. His eyes took in every detail of her appearance. She looked the same, yet not the same. Something in him still responded to the mere sight of her…. Simple chemistry, he told himself. Her hair was longer and her eyes looked tired, strained. He thought she’d gained a little weight, too, though the few extra pounds didn’t look bad. When he’d known her in Albuquerque, she’d been almost too slender. Almost. His gaze lingered on her breasts, and he remembered how beautiful they’d been in his palms the night she’d come to him. His memory hadn’t done them justice, by the look of the full, soft mounds beneath her loose shirt.

“Hey, Zed.” Dulcie greeted the rancher through the open window of the truck. “What brings you back this way?”

“Got a delivery for you,” the man drawled.

Dulcie’s eyebrows rose and she cocked her head in question. “A delivery…?”

Tye opened his door and swung his legs to the ground, shouldering the duffel bag that was his only luggage. The landscape swam in front of him for a moment. He took a deep breath and rose, looking across the bed of the truck at the woman he came to see. “Hello, Dulcie.”

Her face drained of color and she took a step backward. “Tye? What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit you.” He walked around the truck toward her but stopped when she took another step back. She clearly wasn’t pleased to see him, and he was surprised at how bad that made him feel. He hadn’t known until just now how much he had counted on her welcome, her smile. What was the matter with her?

The door opened again while Dulcie stood staring at him as if he had two heads. Tye glanced beyond her at the blond woman emerging from the house.

“Hey, Angel,” Zed said from behind him. “I brought you a guest.”

“A guest?” The blonde looked surprised, but her face lit in a gracious smile as she walked toward him and extended her hand. “Hello, I’m Angel Kincaid. Welcome to the Red Arrow.”

Tye shook her hand. “Thank you. I’m Tye Bradshaw, a friend of Dulcie’s.”

The blonde turned to look curiously at Dulcie. “You didn’t tell me you were expecting anyone.”

“I wasn’t.” Dulcie’s voice was low and expressionless.

What the hell was wrong with her? She knew as well as he did that it wasn’t his fault that they’d been out of touch for so long. The pounding in his head was growing more and more insistent, and he knew from the times he’d been thrown by a horse and landed on his head that he’d better find a place to sit down before he passed clean out. “I wanted to surprise her,” he said to Angel as he moved slowly around the truck. “We were next-door neighbors in Albuquerque.” He was sweating with the effort it took to concentrate.

Angel frowned. “Are you well, Mr. Bradshaw?”

He attempted a smile. “I’ve been better. My car was broadsided by a pickup in Deming.”

“Doctor wanted to keep him, but he wouldn’t stay,” said the helpful rancher from behind him. Zed extended a sheet of paper to Dulcie, who automatically reached for it. “Instructions,” he said succinctly.

Dulcie heaved a sigh, apparently coming to some decision. “I guess you’ll have to come in.” She turned and began to lead the way to the house.

Tye followed her. He felt too lousy to ask her what her problem was. Later, when he felt better, he would tackle Dulcie.

As the rancher drove away, Angel followed them into the coolness of the house. All Tye could see of Dulcie was her rigid back, but he was aware of her silent disapproval every step of the way. He wondered if she was angry with him for leaving so abruptly after they’d. gotten together. He had tried to call her. He couldn’t help it if she had never returned his messages. If she had—What in hell was that noise?

A baby. He’d spent enough time around his two cousins’ families to recognize the sound of a baby squalling in outrage. His head pounded with each fresh shriek, and he put a hand to the wall to steady himself.

Dulcie gave a squeak of dismay. But it was Angel who darted ahead into the first room to the left, off the foyer they’d entered. The howling sound stopped abruptly. Tye stepped into what was obviously a living room to see Angel cradling a very small baby in her arms, gently patting its bottom and cooing at it. In the corner of the room, next to a massive timber-andstone fireplace, was a bassinet in which the baby must have been sleeping.

“That’s my little man. Did we go out and leave you all alone? You didn’t like that one bit, did you?” As Angel spoke, the baby gradually quieted.

“Sit down.” Dulcie pointed to a chair. Her voice was dull and devoid of warmth, her soft brown eyes unreadable.

He hesitated. He desperately wanted to talk to her, but the room was spinning around him and he couldn’t quite focus on her face.

When he didn’t immediately comply, she frowned. “You look like you’re about to keel over. Will you please sit down?”

He sat. She was right. But he had to get her alone. Before he could say anything, though, she lifted her head from the doctor’s instructions. “You have a concussion but you wouldn’t stay for observation?”

“No way.” He gingerly rolled his head in a negative motion against the high back of the chair where he’d collapsed. “I’ve had a concussion before. It’ll pass. If I could just lie down…?”

“In a minute,” she said. “You also broke your finger. Did you at least let them treat that?”

Well, she wasn’t fussing over him in quite the sympathetic way he’d imagined she might, but the note of concern in her voice could be taken as a positive sign. He hoped. “Yeah.” He held up the splinted digit for her inspection. “They can’t do much except straighten it out and wait for the bones to knit.”

Dulcie nodded. Then she asked, “Can your car be repaired?”

“I think so. They said something about the frame probably being…” He just couldn’t seem to retrieve the memory and instead fished a note out of his pocket, grimacing as the movement jarred his head. “They took it to this body shop and told me to call them tomorrow to see how long it will be.”

Dulcie took the note and scanned it. “I’ll call them later and tell them to put a rush on it. I guess you can stay here for a day or so until it’s done.”

So much for positive thinking.

“Dulcie!” Angel sounded rather startled, though she laughed to cover it. “We’ll extend our hospitality as long as you need it, Mr. Bradshaw. By the way. I’m Dulcie’s sister-in-law.”

“Thank you. And make it Tye.”

Angel had her hands full with the baby—it was squirming and squealing, banging its head against her chest repeatedly. “Are you getting hungry?” she said to the little one. “I’ll give you to—”

“Why don’t you change him before he eats?” Dulcie interrupted. “I’ll show Tye to a room and get him an ice pack for that finger.” To him, she said, “Follow me.” And before he could protest, she swung his duffel bag across her shoulder and marched out of the room.

He thought Angel looked a bit confused, but the expression passed so quickly that he couldn’t be sure. And the pounding in his head was growing worse by the second. Turning, he followed Dulcie up a staircase of pine and down a long, wide hallway flanked by at least half a dozen bedrooms. When she opened the door into a spacious guest room, he sank down immediately onto the handmade quilt that covered the big bed, with his booted feet dangling down over the edge.

With the same brisk efficiency the nurses at the hospital had shown earlier, she removed his boots and lifted his feet to the bed, all without uttering a word. Then she left him, to return a few moments later with an ice pack that he placed over his broken finger. It was swollen and rapidly turning an incredible shade of plum, but his head hurt too badly for it to bother him much.

“Get some rest,” she said, and in her voice he heard the first note of compassion he’d noticed yet. He tried to take her hand, but she placed herself out of reach in a too-casual movement that briefly infuriated him.

“I will,” he said, “and later we’re going to talk.”

She didn’t answer, just slipped from the room and left him alone.

Tye closed his eyes and drifted, finally sleeping for a while. At one point, Angel came in and roused him briefly, checking his pupils and then leaving him to sleep some more.

Sometime later, he awoke again. He started to lever himself upright, but a sharp wave of pain in his hand left him gasping for a moment. When his disorientation had subsided, he remembered where he was—and why. With interest, he looked around the room. For all he knew, Dulcie could have decorated this.

The room was sparsely but attractively furnished, with a large, double-door wardrobe and a comfort-able-looking chair made of pine the only furnishings other than the bed and adjacent table. A tall cactus in a ceramic pot stood in one corner, and painted deerskin pillows were piled on both the bed and the chair. On the bedside table was a stocky candle in a copper holder, and near it was a round clock face set into the carved shape of a buffalo. The clock read 5:12, so he figured he’d been resting for about two and a half hours.

His stomach growled loudly. Dinnertime would be soon and he realized he’d missed lunch completely. He’d probably been in X ray through the noon hour, though he hadn’t been aware of it at the time.

Thinking of the hospital reminded him of his physical state. He raised his hand and inspected the broken finger. Other than looking like a purple hot dog, it was fine. At least it didn’t hurt as much anymore. If he didn’t try to use it for anything.