Hitched to the Horseman

“The Sandbur has always had an excellent remuda,” Mercedes remarked. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy working with them. And Uncle Mingo is a legend in the cutting-horse business.”

“Your uncle is a very special man,” he agreed.

Her fingers were beginning to sweat against his, forcing Mercedes to drop his hand. As Mercedes shifted her weight on high-heeled sandals, Geraldine began to speak.

“Gabe has worked for years with problematic horses,” she proudly explained. “He gets them over difficult issues and teaches them to bond with man rather than fight him. We’re very lucky to have Gabe with us.”

So the man could tame a wounded beast. Wonder what he did for women, Mercedes asked herself as her gaze slid to his ring finger. Empty. No surprise there. Obviously there wasn’t a woman in the background to smooth out his rough edges. He looked as tough as nails and as wild as a rangy mustang.

“That must be challenging,” she said to Gabe.

A faint smile curved the corners of his rough-hewn lips, and Mercedes was both ashamed and shocked at the little thrill of attraction that suddenly zipped through her. He was pure male animal. Any woman would be attracted, she tried to reason with herself. But it had been years since any man had stirred her with a prickle of sexual interest. So why was this one stirring up cold ashes?

“That’s why I do it,” he told her.

Mercedes was studying his face, trying to read beneath the surface of his words when Lex suddenly called to her from across the lawn.

“Hey, Mercedes, come here! A long lost stranger has arrived!”

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Lex standing with an old classmate of hers. Vernon Sweeney, the nerd of St. Mary’s High School. He was sweet and not nearly as exciting as the man standing in front of her. But he was safe. And right now safe was far easier to handle.

Turning back to Gabe, she swiftly explained, “An old friend calls. Will you excuse me?”

His stoic expression didn’t falter. “Certainly, Ms. Saddler.”

For the next hour, Mercedes mingled, talked, laughed and danced with the endless guests that spilled across the two hundred feet of lawn separating the big house from the old bunkhouse.

She’d been home for just a little over a week and truthfully hadn’t had time to get her feet firmly planted back on Sandbur soil when her mother had started planning tonight’s event. Mercedes hadn’t really been up to this much socializing so soon. She would have preferred to get back in the groove of civilian life before being tossed into a crowd. But this homecoming was important to her mother and she’d not wanted to hurt her feelings for any reason. And these were her friends, she reminded herself. All of them except Gabe Trevino.

In spite of the evening’s distractions of dancing, eating and reacquainting herself with old friends, she’d not been able to get the dark horseman off her mind. Which was really very foolish of her. They’d not exchanged more than a handful of sentences, and the few words he’d directed at her had been polite—nothing out of line. Yet she thought there had been an underlying condescension in his attitude, as though he found her boring or, even worse, a spoiled brat. She continued to bristle at the idea as her brother whirled her around the dance floor.

“Still as light on your feet as ever,” Lex said with a grin. “Guess all those ballet lessons you took as a child are still paying off.”

She laughed. “Poor Mother. I don’t think I ever quit fighting her about those.”

“You wanted to wear chaps instead of a frilly tutu.”

Mercedes sighed. It seemed so long ago since she’d been that innocent age. If only her life had remained that simple and sheltered. “I was a tomboy. She wanted me to be more refined, like Nicci. So did Daddy.”

“Nah. Dad loved you any way you wanted to be,” he said.

She couldn’t help but notice a tiny shadow crossing her brother’s handsome face. He still missed their father desperately. Mercedes missed him, too. She’d give anything to have him here with them. But back in 1996, Paul Saddler had died in what the police had called a boating accident. To this day, Lex didn’t like to discuss the tragedy or say one way or the other what he believed happened that fateful day on the Gulf. All Mercedes knew was that her father was gone and their lives were far lesser because of it.

“Enjoying yourself, sis?”

She smiled up at him. “Certainly. It’s a very nice party. Mother has outdone herself. And Cook still has her special touch, doesn’t she? The brisket melted in my mouth.”

“Bet you didn’t have anything like that over on Diego Garcia.”

No. The military air base located on the tiny island in the Indian Ocean didn’t cater to parties or home-cooked Texas meals. She’d spent the last two years of her eight-year stint in the Air Force on the isolated island and had to admit that she’d forgotten just what a spoiled, luxurious life she’d once had here on the Sandbur.

“We had turkey and pecan pie on Thanksgiving,” she said, then laughed. “‘Course, it had to be flown in—just like everything else.”

Lex’s smile was full of affection. “We’ve missed you, honey. Everyone is so glad to have you back home. We’re all going to give you hell if you try to leave again. Just keep that in mind if you get the urge to travel.”

Her brother’s words made her feel wanted, yet at the same time uncomfortable. He and the rest of the family had simply taken it for granted that she was home to stay. But Mercedes wasn’t at all sure that her life was meant to be spent on the ranch. Not when old memories and past mistakes continued to haunt her at every turn.

She was trying to push the unsettling issue of her future out of her mind when her gaze slipped past Lex’s shoulder to another couple circling the dance floor. So far this evening, she’d not spotted the horse trainer taking a turn to the music. She’d already decided the man wasn’t into dancing, but it looked as if she was wrong.

Alice Woodson, an old classmate of Mercedes’s, was snuggled up to him, looking as though she was enjoying every second of being in his arms. She would, Mercedes thought with a measure of sarcasm. The woman was man-crazy and had been since junior high.

“Yoo-hoo, sis! The song is over. Want to go another round?”

Realizing the music and her brother’s feet had both stopped, Mercedes looked up at him and hoped her wandering thoughts didn’t show. “I think I’ll sit this one out, Lex. I’m ready to get something to drink.”

Looping his arm around her waist, Lex ushered Mercedes off the dance floor. As the two of them walked to the nearest galvanized tub of iced drinks, Mercedes couldn’t help but ask, “Do you know why Mother invited Alice?”

Lex frowned. “She’s one of your old classmates, isn’t she?”

“Yes. But I never cared for her,” Mercedes muttered. “Although it seems that someone around here does.”

Lex followed Mercedes’s gaze as she watched Gabe escort Alice off the dance floor and over to a nearby table.

“Gabe and Alice?” Lex laughed. “He’s just being gentlemanly. I don’t think Gabe is much into women.”

Mercedes frowned as she reached down and plucked a diet soda from among the assortment of drinks. “What do you mean?”

Lex shrugged as though he didn’t much want to elaborate, which only made Mercedes even more curious.

Lex finally said, “I think he’s had a bad experience and doesn’t care to repeat it.”

Mercedes could certainly understand that. She’d spent the past eight years dodging men, telling herself that being alone was much better than having her heart ripped out, her trust shattered again.

Popping open the can, she took a sip as she covertly studied the horseman out of the corner of her eye. He was a tall devil, shaped like a wedge with strong broad shoulders and narrow hips. His jeans and Western shirt were probably pieces of clothing that he wore to work every day. Yet he wore the casual garments with so much class that he made all the other men seem ridiculously overdressed.

Mercedes’s lips pressed together as she watched Alice place a hand on Gabe’s arm. “Then he’d better stay away from Alice. She’ll try to devour him.”

Lex chuckled. “If you’re so worried about the man, why don’t you go to the rescue and ask him for a dance?”

Mercedes stared in thoughtful surprise at her brother. Back in high school, she’d been bold enough to ask a guy for a dance, or even a date. But once she’d grown older, once she’d loved and lost, her courage with men had faltered. Then later, when she’d learned the hard way that trusting a man was equal to rolling a dice, her desire to be close to one in any circumstance had dwindled down to nothing.

“Me?” she asked. “No. I’m not the type to ask a man to do anything.”

“Getting a little haughty, are we?”

Haughty? If she told her brother how insecure she really felt, he’d be shocked. But she didn’t want him to know that his once fearless sister had changed to a cautious soul, that she saw men as things that could hurt her rather than give her pleasure and companionship. “No,” she said curtly. “More like getting smart.”

With a roll of his eyes, Lex shook his head at her. “Coward.”