Kitabı oku: «The Baby In The Back Seat», sayfa 3

Chapter Three

In the morning Sam had just polished off the last bit of French toast when he heard a car drive up to the back door of the house, skid to a stop, and a car door slam. To his surprise, Laura glanced out the window and reached for the rifle that hung on a wall.

“Hold on a minute!” Sam jumped to his feet and made for the door. “Take it easy before that thing goes off and you shoot someone.”

“You got it right, Sam. That’s the idea here.” Laura tried to stare him down. “Now get out of my way before the someone turns out to be you.”

Sam swallowed hard and took a firm grip of Laura’s shooting arm. With Annie asleep in a nest of blankets in the next room, he wasn’t about to let the rifle go off. “Not before you tell me what’s going on.”

“I intend to run an unwanted rat off my property, that’s what,” she answered with a hot glance over Sam’s shoulder. “Remove your hand and get out of the way.”

Sam froze. If it was going to be a question of who was the stronger of the two, he was—hands down. Even though the fire in Laura’s eyes told him she wasn’t going to give up easily, he didn’t intend to move.

A hard impatient knock sounded at the door.

Sam took a firmer grip on the rifle. “At least tell me who’s out there, what they want, and why you want to shoot him!”

“Harry Magraw, that’s who. And my land, that’s what,” she answered with a tug on the rifle. “This isn’t the first time Magraw has been here uninvited trying to persuade me to sell the ranch. I told him never to show up at the front door again, so this time he’s come around to the back door. The fool just doesn’t seem to understand the word no.”

Sam recalled his first impression of the ranch—bare land, a few sheep and no sign of any real activity. The ranch didn’t appear productive, let alone valuable. A losing proposition, sure, although he hadn’t noticed a FOR SALE sign. “Buy your ranch? Why, is it for sale?”

“No, it’s not,” she answered. “Even if it were, the last person I would sell it to was someone who wants to turn it into a waste-dump site! My folks loved this ranch, every inch of it, and so do I. Now let go!”

“Okay, but promise me you won’t shoot anyone.” At her reluctant nod, Sam let go of her arm. “Go ahead, open the door. I’ll be right behind you in case there’s a problem.”

Laura snorted. “Nothing I can’t handle.” She flung the door open and stepped out onto the porch.

When he spotted Laura’s rifle, the short rotund man dressed in an ill-fitting white linen suit took a step backward. “Now see here, Ms. Evans, take it easy. I came here to up my previous offer. No need for a weapon.”

Laura glowered at Magraw. “I told you before my ranch isn’t for sale. Not under any circumstances, and especially not to you. What part of no don’t you understand?”

Magraw held up a pudgy hand. “Now see here, Ms. Evans. You and I know you don’t have the money to hire hands to maintain this property, even if you do manage to hold on to it. You can’t take care of the livestock, either.”

Laura shifted the rifle. “I’m warning you. Get off my property!”

Magraw eyed the rifle warily but held his ground. “Do yourself a favor and accept my client’s latest offer. With that kind of money, you’d be able to go off and live like a queen anywhere you like.”

Laura snorted. “My finances are none of your business, Mr. Magraw. As for living like a queen, I’m doing it right here without your help. You’re trespassing. I’m warning you for the last time, get off my property, and don’t come back!”

To Sam’s surprise, Magraw kept talking. “From what I hear, you’re going to lose the property one way or another. Think about it. If you don’t accept my client’s offer, you won’t come out of this with a cent to call your own.”

Before Laura could raise the rifle, Sam stepped in front of her. “You heard Ms. Evans. Why don’t you leave before someone gets hurt?”

“Who are you?” Magraw demanded with a scowl. “Ain’t seen you around these parts.”

“No one you need to know,” Sam answered. He reached behind him, grasped the handle of the rifle praying it wouldn’t go off and shoot him in the foot. Just to make sure, he held the muzzle away from him. “Now, do yourself a favor and leave quietly.”

Magraw thrust out his jaw. “Seems to me you don’t have a say in what happens to the ranch. Unless—” he smirked “—you and the lady are some kind of kissin’ kin.”

Laura gasped and tried to push her way in front of Sam. Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw Hank coming around the house and starting for the porch. Sam caught his eye and shook his head. The last thing he wanted was an all-out free-for-all, let alone a shooting. He wasn’t that anxious to die. “I think you’ve said enough. Get out of here. Now!”

When Magraw hesitated, Sam shifted the rifle and raised a questioning eyebrow. With a final look at the weapon, Magraw cursed and took off for his car.

Sam waited until the car disappeared down the road before he waved off Hank, turned and led the way into the kitchen.

“Somehow I don’t think you’ve seen the last of Magraw.” Sam gingerly put the gun down on the table, stood back and eyed it warily. “Sounds to me as if someone wants to get their hands on your ranch pretty bad. I don’t think they’ll stop with Magraw.”

Laura stomped her way into the kitchen. “I can take care of them, too.”

Sam shuddered at the thought of Laura defending her territory with the rifle. “Maybe, maybe not. Now unload that damn thing and put it back where it came from.”

“It’s not loaded,” Laura said with an icy look. “You didn’t think I’d keep a loaded rifle around, did you? It’s not safe.”

“You could have fooled me,” Sam answered with an anxious glance at the rifle. “Loaded or not, get rid of it, please.”

Laura picked up the gun and stored it in the broom closet. “You act as if you’ve never handled a weapon before.”

Sam reached for his cold cup of coffee, took a deep swallow and grimaced. “Never before, and never again,” he said fervently. He strode to the door leading to the living room to check on Annie. The baby was fast asleep on a nest of blankets on the floor. The dog lay stretched out beside her, his nose between his paws, his unblinking eyes watching Sam.

Sam muttered a prayer of thanks at the way Laura’s pet had bonded with the baby. He turned back to the kitchen and to Laura. “Now please sit down and give me the details while my heart slows down to normal.”

“What details?”

The way Laura asked the question told Sam she thought it was none of his business. Except now that he’d seen the lengths Laura intended to go, he was making it his business. “Magraw said you’re on the verge of losing the ranch. True?”

Normally a private person used to taking care of herself, Laura considered the question. Sam Harrison may be a man she’d only met yesterday, yet there was something about him that made her feel she could trust him.

“Here, let me warm that coffee for you. But first have some of this.” Laura reached into the refrigerator, took out the remains of a chocolate cake and set it on the table. “Hank tells me chocolate cake always gives him a shot in the arm. You look like you need it.”

Sam regarded the three-tiered chocolate cake and enviously thought of the way the old ranch hand must enjoy Laura’s tender loving care. “You bake cakes for the help?”

“Hank’s more than help,” she said simply. “He’s family.”

Sam was ready to believe it. From the way she’d taken to Annie, it was too bad she didn’t have children of her own. He owed her. “Anything I can do around here while I wait for the replacement car?”

“No, thanks.” She poured Sam a fresh cup of black coffee and another for herself. “I’m used to making do on my own.”

Sam glanced at the broom closet. “Without the gun, I hope. So, how about telling me what the problem is. Money?”

Laura shrugged helplessly. “Magraw was right. I don’t have enough funds to increase the herd or to hire men to take care of the small amount of stock I do have. Hank does the best he can, but that’s not the only problem. There’s…” Her voice trailed off as she moved to gaze out the window.

Sam rose and went to stand beside her. The sadness in her voice, the anxious look in her eyes troubled him. As far as he could tell, she was alone in the fight to keep her heritage.

He knew from being alone. It was a cold place no one, especially a caring woman like Laura, should have to experience. She needed a sympathetic ear, and he was ready and willing to listen. It was the least he could do for her in exchange for all she’d done for Annie and for him. “There’s what?”

“Taxes,” she said succinctly. “I’m about to open a camp for young children in order to make enough money to pay the next installment, due next month.”

Sam nodded. “Do you really think boarding six kids for the summer is going to be enough to keep the ranch going?”

“It’s a start. If all goes well, we’ll advertise for more campers.”

“Who’s we?”

“Katy O’Donnell. Katy’s been a friend of mine since we worked at the hospital. She’s planning on coming here to help out.”

Now Sam was really interested. Instead of the camp being a pipe dream, the idea was sounding better by the minute. “Another nurse?” Laura nodded. “Seems to me you’re right. The camp is a good place to start. Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to help?”

Laura shook her head. “No, thanks. You have your own life to take care of. I need to take care of mine. Not that I don’t appreciate your offer,” she hurried to add, “but this is something I have to do myself.”

Sam glanced out the window to where Hank was entering the barn. “How does Hank enter the picture?”

“Like I said, he’s family.”

Lucky Hank. Lucky Annie. Lucky him, Sam mused. Lucky to have found a woman as strong and big-hearted as Laura Evans. After the way he’d trashed her ranch, any other woman would have sent him packing. “Where are you going to find the campers?”

“I advertised in a parents magazine. So far I have five positive replies and one maybe.”

“Are five kids enough to make the difference?”

“Not really,” she replied with a wry smile. “I’m taking one day at a time.”

Sam looked back at the chocolate cake. “If word gets out about what a great cook you are, you’ll probably have more campers than you can handle.”

“I wish.” She laughed. “Are ham and eggs and chocolate cake enough to impress you?”

“You bet. Some people, myself included, can’t boil water.” He went back, sat down at the kitchen table and dug into the cake. “You can cook for me anytime.”

She laughed again and cut him another piece of cake.

Sam liked the sound of Laura’s laugh. He liked a lot more about her, too, and not only her cooking. The way a dimple danced across her cheek when she smiled. The way she smiled at him. Her open heart, her courage when faced with a situation that would have sent most women running.

Laura felt herself blush when she saw admiration shining in Sam’s eyes. It was a good thing he was leaving in a few days, she thought. She couldn’t take being around him without thinking the impossible. Sam and his infant daughter reminded her of her dream of a family of her own. An unlikely dream at best.

She was saved from her thoughts by a knock on the front door.

“Laura? Laura, are you in there?”

Relieved, Laura made for the front door with Sam hard on her heels. “It’s Pete Dolan, the county sheriff,” she said over her shoulder, and opened the door. “Hi, Pete. Come on in. What’s up?”

Pete opened the screen door, came into the living room and eyed Sam. “Heard you had company.”

“News travels fast around here, but not that fast.” Her eyes narrowed. “Who have you been talking to—Magraw?”

“Yep. He stopped in the office and told me your friend here threatened him with a rifle.”

“I was the one who threatened him with the rifle, but it wasn’t loaded,” she answered heatedly. “I don’t even own any ammunition. It was dad’s old hunting rifle, and you know full well it’s not operable.”

Pete raised an eyebrow. “So your friend here had nothing to do with the confrontation?”

“Not really,” she said. “Well, maybe. If Magraw wasn’t such a jerk, he’d have noticed that when Sam took hold of the gun, he had the muzzle pointed at the floor.”

Sam stepped forward and held out his hand. “The name’s Sam Harrison. I’m not exactly a friend of Ms. Evans’s. The truth is, I ran off the road yesterday and banged up my car.”

Pete nodded as he shook Sam’s hand. “Noticed the busted fence and the remains of the water tower as I drove in. You responsible?”

“Sorry to say, I am.” Sam managed a grin, but he wasn’t too happy about the grim look on the sheriff’s face. With the accident and the rifle business, he sensed he already had two strikes against him. It wouldn’t take much to reach three. “Ms. Evans was kind enough to offer me a place to stay until the rental agency in Grand Junction sends down a replacement vehicle. Seems there’s a holiday getting in the way.”

Annie began to cry.

Dolan looked over at the baby and back at Sam. “Yours?”

“Mine.” Sam strode over to pick up the baby, then held her to his shoulder and patted her on her back to comfort her. The mutt took a stand at his feet.

“Is there a Mrs. Harrison around here?”

Sam shook his head. “The ex-Mrs. Harrison is somewhere over the skies of France. Annie and I are on our own.”

Laura stepped into the conversation. “Come on, Pete. Magraw was out of line by coming back here after I’d already ordered him off the property, and you know it. Sam was only trying to help me get rid of the jerk.”

Dolan regarded Sam with a calculating look. “Got any identification? Driver’s license? Car-rental agreement?”

Sam handed Annie to Laura, dug into his back pocket and took out his wallet. Under the sheriff’s watchful gaze, he handed over his worn driver’s license.

“Move around a lot, do you?”

Sam took out his business card and car-rental agreement and handed them to Dolan. “I’m a photojournalist. It’s a profession that keeps me on the move.”

“Don’t own a car?”

“No. Like you said, I move around a lot. It’s actually cheaper for me to rent a car than to own one.”

Dolan studied the license, the business card and the auto-rental agreement long enough to raise the hair on the back of Sam’s neck. When Dolan handed back the papers, the look in his eyes told Sam he wasn’t welcome around here.

“How long did you say you intended to stick around?”

“I didn’t.” The narrowing of the sheriff’s eyes told Sam his instincts had been right. Dolan wasn’t too happy to have him here, let alone staying in the same house as Laura. “Until the rental agency gets me a replacement vehicle,” Sam repeated. “Maybe a few days, a week, tops.”

The sheriff nodded, but to Sam’s discomfiture, didn’t smile before he spoke to Laura. “I’ll talk to Magraw and see to it he gets the message he’s not wanted around here. Do yourself a favor, Laura. Put the rifle away and don’t bring it out again.” He started out the door, then glanced over his shoulder at Sam. “I’ll be back later.”

Sam let out his breath when the door closed behind Dolan. “Somehow that sounds like a threat, not a promise. I don’t blame the sheriff, though. Magraw must have really filled his ear.”

“Pete’s an old friend of my father’s. He drops in regularly to check on me,” Laura explained with a weak grin. “I guess I’d better put the rifle in the barn. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Sam watched her go. He wasn’t happy about Dolan’s attitude, but at least someone was going to keep an eye on Laura after his car arrived and he moved on.

He watched Laura head across the yard and disappear into the barn. She was an interesting mix, he mused admiringly. Brave, hot-tempered, and yet there was something vulnerable about her. How could he think of walking away from her without trying to help?

He parked himself on the couch and propped a drooling Annie on his knees. “Between you and me, sweetheart, maybe I should have my head examined, but I’m thinking of getting involved here. What do you say?”

Annie smiled, blew a drool bubble and waved her arms. The mutt, who’d obviously decided Annie belonged to him, barked. Sam took these as signs of approval.

“Glad you both feel that way,” Sam went on. “I intended to move on as soon as I got a replacement car, but something tells me Laura could use another friend.”

Annie bobbed her head and reached for Sam’s nose. “Right,” he said, grabbing her little hand in his and rubbing it against his cheek. “So this is my game plan, guys. I’m going to tell Laura I need to stick around long enough to take a few more lessons on the care and feeding of infants. Seeing how she takes to you, sweetheart, I figure I have it made.”

“Got what made?” Laura stood in the doorway with Hank at her back.

Sam felt like a fool, but the damage was done. He thought fast. “It looks as if Annie’s running out of diapers, so I figured I’d ask you for a lift into town to buy fresh supplies. You do have some sort of vehicle around here, don’t you?”

Laura looked doubtful, probably because his explanation didn’t compute with what she’d overheard.

Lucky for him, Laura smiled her agreement. If all he needed was to draw Annie into the equation to make Laura smile, he was home free.

“That’s a good idea,” Laura answered. “I’ve made a list of a few items Annie will need. It’s in the kitchen. Here, let me take Annie while you meet Hank.”

“Hank Dooley’s the name.” The elderly man thrust out his hand. “Wanted to thank you for sticking up for Laura back there.”

“My pleasure.” Sam’s hand was swallowed by Hank’s. “I didn’t want to see Laura get hurt. Or,” he added with a wry grin, “hurt someone else.”

“Nah, that old rifle ain’t worth a damn. Hasn’t been shot for years. Laura keeps it to remind her of Jonah, or I’d get rid of it.”

“Jonah?”

“Her late father.” Hank cocked his head. “Maybe I ought to let Laura tell you about him and Elsie. Nice kid you’ve got there,” he added. “Well, got to go and start putting that fence back together.”

“Need any help?”

“No thanks,” Hank said with a grin and a pointed glance at Sam’s callus-free hands. “If you don’t mind my saying so, I don’t think you’re the guy to do it.”

Sam sensed there was a story behind Jonah and Elsie, but thought it best to let Laura tell it herself. From the sound of Hank’s voice, it wasn’t going to be an ordinary story, either. But then, neither was his.

“Here you are.” Laura handed Sam the list. “This ought to hold you for a few days. At least until you get to where you’re going.”

Sam felt guilty. As far as he was concerned, he was where he intended to be, at least for now. It was just a matter of convincing Laura.

Laura handed Annie back when Laura’s telephone rang. “You’re a regular bouncing ball, aren’t you, pumpkin?” Sam said to the baby. “Good thing you’re so good-natured about it.”

It was true, thank God. Considering the events of the past two days, it was a miracle the only things that seemed to bother Annie were wet diapers and an empty stomach. Changes in her surroundings and people seemed to fascinate her. Even the mutt, back to parking himself at Sam’s feet, didn’t scare the baby. She was one tough little cookie.

“Great!” Laura said happily in the background. “Come on over—I’ve been waiting for you! That was Katy,” she explained as she hung up. “You know, the friend who’s going to help me get the camp started. Pete’s bringing her over.”

Sam was pleased with the news about Katy. But not about Dolan coming back so soon to muddy the waters. From the way the ranch looked, Laura needed all the friends she could find. Even though she didn’t know it yet, that included him.