Long Road Home

“Oh, right. No worries, Rod. With that face, I’ll bet you’re great at poker. We’ll play cards by candlelight.”

The dog whined again.

Olivia glanced up at him with a smile. “That’s enough of the stall tactics. You’ve stopped dripping, so it’s time to come inside and meet everyone. I told them how you rushed to my rescue, so I suspect you’re going to be the man of the hour.”

Wyatt groaned inwardly. Just what he didn’t want. He followed Olivia into the living room with Rodney trotting at his heels. Wyatt wasn’t sure of his welcome with Jack, but at least he’d scored with the dog.

3

OLIVIA GUESSED THAT WYATT had agreed to stay because he was unwilling to leave a group of ladies caught in a power outage. If chivalry kept him here, that was fine with her. She wouldn’t mention that these were resourceful ranch women who didn’t need a man to babysit them in an emergency.

But judging from what the women had said after she’d arrived, nobody should be out driving tonight, not even a can-do wilderness guide. Sarah’s battery-operated weather radio had predicted high winds and hail would follow on the heels of the heavy rain. She and Wyatt walked into the living room, where a fire burned in the large rock fireplace and candles positioned around the room illuminated a comfortable collection of brown leather furniture and sturdy wooden side tables.

Conversation stopped among the eight women gathered there. Eleven-month-old Sarah Bianca, Morgan Chance’s little girl who was known as “SB,” continued to babble to her stuffed dinosaur, and four-month-old Archie, Josie Chance’s son, slept peacefully in his carrier. All other eyes turned toward Wyatt.

Olivia understood why. Firelight and candlelight bronzed his wet T-shirt look with an erotic glow that was truly mesmerizing. The women had good reason to stare, especially after hearing Olivia’s tale of being carried through the rain by this fine specimen of manhood.

Sarah was the first to break the charged silence. “Good to see you again, Wyatt, but my goodness, you’re soaked!” She set down her wineglass and walked toward him, all smiles. “We need to do something about that before you settle in.”

Olivia swallowed a bubble of laughter. What Sarah really meant was that if she didn’t reduce the sexual wattage of that impressive physique by giving him something dry to wear, the women would be distracted the entire evening by the resident beefcake.

“I have some of my sons’ old clothes I was going to take to a rummage sale in town,” Sarah said. “Come on back to the laundry room with me. Something should fit you.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Wyatt set his lantern on a side table and followed her down the hallway to the left with Rodney close behind, his short legs moving rapidly to keep up.

“Whew.” Josie Chance, Jack’s wife, flipped her long, blond braid over her shoulder. “Don’t anybody tell Jack I said so, but that guy’s hot. I had no idea. Jack just said he was a typical hiker type with sandy-colored hair.”

Morgan Chance, Josie’s redheaded sister-in-law, laughed as she took the dinosaur her daughter handed her. “Of course he said that. You think he’s going to describe his half brother, or any guy, for that matter, as good-looking?”

“I wish I could have snapped off a couple of shots before Sarah dragged him away.” Nick Chance’s wife, Dominique, a tall brunette with short hair, was a professional photographer who always had her camera handy. “But that would have spooked him, I’ll bet.”

“Oh, you think?” Mary Lou, who’d been a cook at the ranch for years, shook her head and grinned. “You ladies better take it down a notch or he’s liable to spend the evening in a back room playing with the dog.”

“That would be a shame.” Olivia had returned to setting up her mani-pedi station in a corner, but she glanced over at Dominique. “Still, I would have loved a picture of him in that wet T-shirt. I can see it framed and hanging in your gallery. You’d sell a few prints of those, girlfriend.”

“But you and Dominique would be the only ones who could get away with having that picture,” said Tyler, Morgan’s dark-haired sister. “I don’t think Alex would take kindly to me pasting it up on the inside of my closet door. Those days are over for this married lady.”

Emily, a petite blonde, lifted her chin. “I don’t need a picture like that. I have Clay.”

“Spoken like a woman who’s only been a bride for two months.” Morgan winked at her. “Just because we ogle once in a while doesn’t mean we don’t adore our guys. There’s no harm in a little recreational voyeurism. Right, ladies?”

“Right!” everyone chorused, except for Emily.

“I can’t believe I didn’t recognize his name when he made his reservation at the Bunk and Grub.” Pam Mulholland, a curvy woman who counted on Olivia to keep her gray hair looking blond, sipped her wine. “Sarah told me about his visit last summer, and you’d think I’d have made the connection.”

“It’s probably just as well you didn’t.” Josie walked over to peek at a still-sleeping Archie before retrieving her glass of mineral water. “If Jack had known he was coming, that might have changed his plans for the Casper horse show.”

“True,” Morgan said. “And I think it’s great that they all went and took so many Last Chance horses. Gabe was looking forward to putting on a cutting horse demonstration.”

“And Jack didn’t have time to get all discombobulated at the idea of Wyatt returning,” Josie added. “So I’m glad it didn’t occur to you, Pam.”

“I’m certainly not complaining, either.” Olivia pulled her stainless-steel footbath out of one of her zippered totes. She’d organized the area with a comfy chair and a small desk for manicures and a second cozy chair for pedicures. She’d roll back and forth on the office chair Sarah had brought out.

“I’ll bet you’re not complaining,” Morgan said.

“He seems really nice.” As Olivia took inventory of the stack of towels Sarah had provided, she almost mentioned that Wyatt might move his business here, but she thought better of it. He wanted to relocate, but he might not appreciate having her give out that information prematurely.

“Yes, he does seem nice,” Josie said. “I hope that everything—well, never mind. I hear them coming back down the hall.”

“So!” Sarah clapped her hands together as she walked into the living room with Wyatt and the ever-present Rodney Dangerfield. “Let’s get this party started!”

Olivia straightened and turned toward Sarah and Wyatt. Whoa. She was more than ready to party, all right, but she wished it could be a private one featuring her and the hunk of burning love who’d just walked in. The wet T-shirt had showcased Wyatt’s glorious muscles beautifully, and she hadn’t thought Sarah could improve on that.

Oh, but she had. The yoked gray Western shirt was a smidgen too tight and tucked into worn jeans that fit like a second skin … ooo, baby. Olivia licked her suddenly dry lips.

A scuffed but serviceable tooled leather belt with a plain silver buckle brought her attention to the fly of his jeans, and she looked away quickly before she could be caught staring. A pair of Western boots that showed some wear completed the outfit. He’d left the room a wilderness guide. He’d returned a cowboy.

SARAH INTRODUCED WYATT to everyone and he did his level best to keep them all straight. Josie, Jack’s wife, would be important to remember. She was the one with the long blond braid. Their baby, Wyatt’s new nephew, was named Archie, after Jack’s grandfather. Archie was asleep in his carrier, so despite Wyatt’s curiosity, he kept his distance, not wanting to wake him.

Morgan, a busty redhead, was obviously the mother of a little redheaded tot named Sarah Bianca, SB for short. Morgan’s dark-haired sister, Tyler, had married Alex Keller, Josie’s brother. Wyatt decided when he had access to paper and pencil he’d write some of this down.

Then he met Dominique, a tall brunette who was the third daughter-in-law, and Emily, a petite blonde who had just married the guy who ran the stud program. That took care of the women in his generation.

He recognized Pam, a blonde in her fifties, from hearing her voice on the phone when he’d registered at the Bunk and Grub. By process of elimination he knew that the gray-haired woman with the jolly smile had to be Mary Lou, the cook. Yes, he would definitely write all this down before he went to sleep tonight.

But he should be okay for the evening while the introductions were fresh in his mind. Maybe this wouldn’t be so awkward after all. He’d thought he’d be uncomfortable wearing somebody else’s clothes but he’d been wrong. These cowboy duds felt great.

Sarah had offered him several shirts and pairs of jeans along with clean underwear. Neither of them had talked about the need for underwear, but he was soaked through.

Once Sarah had handed over the clothes, she’d waited outside the laundry room while he tried them on. He’d chosen the first things he’d put on for expediency’s sake. But the longer he wore them, the more right they seemed.

When he’d asked her who the clothes had belonged to, she’d confided that they’d all been Jack’s. Now that Jack was relaxed, happy and enjoying married life, he’d put on a little weight and couldn’t wear them anymore without straining the seams. She’d made Wyatt promise not to mention the weight gain to Jack, because he swore the clothes had shrunk in the wash.

Apparently Wyatt was about the size that Jack had been a year ago, before he’d married Josie. Knowing they were so alike in build, if not in coloring, had pleased Wyatt. But meeting Jack while wearing his old clothes might be weird. Wyatt planned to drive back to the Bunk and Grub and change into his own stuff before Jack came home.

In the meantime, he liked the way Olivia had looked at him when he’d first come into the room. He hadn’t thought about whether she had a soft spot in her heart for cowboys, and if so, he might decide to brush up on his riding skills and pick up some Western wear of his own. Re-creating that sparkle in her blue eyes would be worth the effort.

Sarah finished the introductions and turned to Olivia. “So who would you like to do first?”

In what looked like a purely unconscious move, Olivia glanced at Wyatt, and he swore he could read her X-rated response. Heat rocketed through him. Wow. He was definitely buying Western clothes before he left town.

She turned bright red before she looked away. “Why don’t I start on Josie’s nails while little Archie is asleep?”

“That’s fine with me, but he sleeps through anything,” Josie said. “But I guess if you do my nails first, they’ll be dry in case he does wake up.”

“I just thought of something.” Sarah looked worried as she glanced at Olivia. “You’ll want warm water for your finger bowl and the foot bath. The hot water heater’s electric, so we have hot water now, but we won’t for the rest of the evening.”

“We can hang a kettle over the fire like people did in the old days,” Mary Lou said.