A Husband Made In Texas

‘I’m not in the mood for guessing games,’ she said flatly.

‘Fine.’ Flynn’s tone was crisp. ‘In that case, I won’t keep you in suspense. I’m here to talk about Bill Seally and the mortgage over your ranch.’

Kaitlin’s eyes were troubled. ‘What about Bill?’

‘When was the last time you made a payment, Kaitlin?’

‘I don’t think that concerns you.’

‘Believe me, it does. When was it, Kaitlin?’

‘Two months ago.’ She hesitated. ‘Maybe three...’

‘A long time to be overdue in your obligations.’

Kaitlin pushed a hand through her hair. ‘Do you think I don’t know that? I try to pay Bill whenever I can. Fact is...’ She paused.

‘Go on.’

‘There’ve been problems,’ she said after a moment.

One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘What kind of problems?’

‘Since Dad died—’ Abruptly, Kaitlin stopped the flow of the sentence.

She didn’t owe it to Flynn to tell him how badly her father had mismanaged his affairs, so that after his death Kaitlin had become heir to a host of financial difficulties. In fact, why should Flynn know anything about a situation that was growing more serious every day?

‘Problems that should be of no interest to you,’ she said flatly.

But Flynn was undeterred. ‘I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t interested.’

Dodging the issue was getting her nowhere, Kaitlin realized. Flynn would simply continue to badger her until she gave him an answer for some reason, he seemed to feel he was entitled to one.

Even then she took her time about speaking. Looking around the room, she took in the small details of her surroundings which she was normally too busy to notice: a picture that hung crookedly on the wall, a cobweb in one corner of the ceiling, a vase in which the flowers were dying. Signs of neglect that would have been unthinkable when her mother was alive. If only these small lapses of efficiency were all Kaitlin had to deal with.

‘Bill isn’t too concerned about my problems, so why should you be?’ she asked at last. ‘Bill Seally has always been understanding. He’s never minded if a payment was late.’

‘Don’t be too sure of that.’

‘What are you trying to say?’

‘Even the most understanding of men get nervous about money.’

‘Bill told you that?’ Kaitlin demanded.

‘In slightly different words.’

‘He sent you here?’ Her lips were suddenly stiff. ‘Bill told you to come to the ranch and remind me about paying? It’s so unlike him.’ She stood up abruptly. ‘He needn’t have done that, Flynn. He could have called me, could have spoken to me. We’ve never needed to communicate through a third party. We’ll work things out.’

‘Sit down, Kaitlin,’ Flynn said, not unkindly.

‘No! I need to speak to Bill.’

She was moving towards the phone when a hand snaked around her wrist, the cool fingers like ice against her burning skin. ‘Wait, Kaitlin. There’s more.’

‘Don’t you understand? Whatever it is, I want to hear it from Bill, not from you. I’ve never liked messages.’ Something drove her to add, ‘Or, in this case, the messenger.’

Flynn did not rise to the insult. ‘Sit, Kaitlin.’

His tone held a sure authority that made her feel cold. Slowly, unwillingly, only because she realized that in the end she would have to hear him out, she eventually did as he asked. ‘Well?’

Flynn let her have it straight ‘I own the mortgage now, Kaitlin.’

Silence greeted the words. A shocked silence. A silence that lasted almost a minute. The blood drained from Kaitlin’s face, leaving her face ashen. Her body was so rigid that she could not have moved if her life had depended on it.

‘You had no idea?’ Flynn asked at last.

‘None,’ she whispered.

Once more there was silence.

This time Kaitlin spoke first ‘Why didn’t Bill tell me?’

‘For one thing, I asked him not to.’

‘Why? Why would you be so cruel?’

‘Cruel?’ The dark eyes glittered.

‘You must have known I’d be shocked.’

‘Would you have been less shocked if Bill had given you the news himself?’

‘I don’t know... Maybe... At least I’d have had time to think about it before...’ She stopped.

‘Before?’ he prompted.

‘Before seeing you.’

‘Do you really think it would have made a difference?’

Kaitlin’s face lifted to meet Flynn’s gaze. For one awful moment she wondered if she was going to cry: tears were gathering at the back of her eyes and a sob rose in her throat. But she managed to stop herself from weeping as anger stirred.

Furiously, she said, ‘You could have given me some warning before flying in here like some feudal lord. Any decent person would have let me know in advance. And don’t give me any of that nonsense about Southern belles—you knew how shocked I’d be when I heard what you had to say. The least, the very least you could have done, Flynn, was to tell me why you were coming.’ Her eyes sparkled with outrage and defiance. ‘This is still my ranch, Flynn. Whatever piece of paper you may own, this ranch is mine, and you are not welcome here.’

His gaze flicked her face. ‘What’s your point, Kaitlin?’

‘Arriving here out of the blue. Ordering Bill not talk to me. Knowing how shocked I’d be when I found out what you’d been up to. My God, Flynn, you must have been laughing your head off at me!’

‘Is that what you think, Kaitlin?’

‘I think you could have found a less dramatic way of telling me my fate.’

‘Now who’s being dramatic? It’s not as if the idea of a mortgage is new to you. Only the identity of the person holding it has changed.’

On the face of it, what he was saying was perfectly true. The ranch was heavily mortgaged, a fact that was never very far from her mind. Why then did she have this dread feeling that her world would never be the same again?

All at once, Kaitlin felt as if she could take no more. She had managed, somehow, to endure the loss of her parents and the hardships of the ranch. And now here was Flynn. Tough, arrogant, unyielding Flynn. He would not be as understanding as Bill had always been: if anything, he would be ruthless. Unable to hold his cool-eyed gaze a second longer, she dropped her head and put her face in her hands.

She flinched when his arm went around her shoulders. She hadn’t realized that he had left his chair.

‘Kaitlin,’ he said softly. ‘Are you crying?’

She lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes were dazed and a little damp, but she was able to say, ‘I don’t cry that easily.’

‘You never did, that’s one of the things I remember about you. You always were a gutsy girl.’

Gutsy... At this moment, when she did not know how to defend the attack on her beloved home, Kaitlin felt anything but gutsy. She yearned to lean against the hard body, to bury herself in it, to seek warming comfort from the man who had meant so much to her once. Yearnings that were quite inappropriate, for as she looked into the rugged face she knew that Flynn had become her adversary.

She twisted away from him. ‘Bill should have told me.’ Her voice was low. ‘Why didn’t he tell me, Flynn?’

‘I told you—I asked him not to.’

There was an emptiness as he moved away from her and went back to his chair. a feeling of coldness, of loneliness. Kaitlin had to force herself to concentrate on the issue at hand.

‘Why do I get the feeling there’s also another reason why Bill didn’t talk to me himself?’

‘What do you think, Kaitlin?’

‘Am I right?’

‘Maybe.’

‘What was it?’ She threw the words at him. And when he remained silent, ‘I need to know—don’t you understand? ’

‘Bill Seally,’ Flynn said deliberately, ‘is a weak man.’

‘No! You’re wrong! Bill is sweet and gentle and kind.’

‘I’m sure he’s all of those things. Bill hates making waves, he has a great need to be liked. He shies away from conflict, especially where friends are involved. A good friend’s daughter, in your case.’

Kaitlin’s cheeks were flushed. ‘He would have got the money I owed him,’ she said unhappily. ‘I’ve always tried very hard to keep up my payments.’

‘Not hard enough. You’re in arrears.’

‘I know that. But in the end Bill wouldn’t have lost any money. I was always utterly determined to pay every cent, including interest on back payments.’

‘How did you plan to do that?’

‘Profits from the ranch. Things are starting to come right, Flynn. Slowly, I admit, but it’s happening. It’s been an uphill battle ever since Dad died, but I’m hoping my financial situation will improve.’

‘You can’t blame Bill for having some doubts.’

The flush in Kaitlin’s face deepened. ‘If he felt that way, why didn’t he say anything? We could have talked. Bill knew how things were at the ranch. Knew that Dad had...’ She bit her lip. ‘He understood that I needed time.’

‘How much time, Kaitlin?’

‘I don’t know exactly.’

‘Bill didn’t know either, and the situation was beginning to worry him.’

She shouldn’t be surprised, Kaitlin realized. The signs had been there for some time, only she had been too preoccupied to notice them. There had been a strange restlessness in Bill and Alice, his wife, when she did see them, a way they had of not meeting her eyes when they talked. Bill and her father had been boyhood friends, classmates, their friendship was one of the few constants in her life. When her parents had died, Bill and Alice had been there, phoning her, extending invitations. Yet now that she came to think of it, she could not remember the last invitation: she had been too busy to wonder about it.

Kaitlin looked at Flynn. ‘You may not believe me, but I didn’t know about the mortgage until after my father’s death.’

‘I see.’

‘Until then I’d had almost nothing to do with the running of the ranch’

‘No part in the finances?’

‘None,’ she admitted.

She would not tell Flynn, who seemed to be holding her destiny in those very competent-looking hands, of her dismay when she had sat in the office of her father’s lawyer and learned that she had inherited the ranch. A hollow inheritance, for the ranch was so heavily in debt that it didn’t belong to her in the true sense of the word. Apart from the ranch, there had been nothing else.

Helplessly she had looked across the desk at the lawyer. ‘I don’t understand... It seems impossible...’

‘It’s the way it is, Miss Mullins. I’m sorry.’

‘I always thought we were secure. We lived well. There was money for parties and travelling and for college.’

‘There was money once,’ the lawyer agreed, ‘but much of it was used for the wrong purposes. There was also a lot of debt.’

‘What are you saying, Mr. Barclay? I need the truth.’

‘Your parents were living way beyond their means. I often warned your father to be more careful, but he kept insisting that things were fine. The mortgage was never meant to be more than short-term assistance, he was certain things would come right.’

But her father had been killed when he had skidded off the road on his way back to the ranch one stormy night. His truck had been found in a ditch. Witnesses said the vehicle seemed to veer suddenly on a slippery section of the road, before rolling over onto its side. Kaitlin had pretended to accept the explanation, but privately she had wondered if grief over her mother’s death had made her father careless. He had had no time to put his affairs in order.

Kaitlin looked at Flynn, shivering when she saw the enigmatic expression in his eyes, the implacability in the firm jaw. ‘You’re saying that Bill was eager to rid himself of the mortgage.’

‘Correct.’

‘That’s when you appeared on the scene. Flynn Henderson to the rescue.’

Flynn shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by her sarcasm.

‘Some coincidence that you just happened to come along at the right time,’ Kaitlin went on grimly. ‘Why don’t I think that’s the way it was?’

‘Because you’re too intelligent to believe it.’

He grinned at her, a grin that warmed his eyes and deepened the lines around them. If only, Kaitlin thought, he didn’t have the ability to send her heart somersaulting in her chest.

‘Then it wasn’t coincidence.’

‘Of course not. I’ve kept my eyes on the ranch ever since I left. I knew about the mortgage.’

‘How did you know?’

‘Wasn’t difficult, Kaitlin. A person can make a point of knowing certain things. Besides, word gets around. When I thought Bill Seally was getting nervous I went to talk to him. To his credit, I had to speak to him several times before he made his decision.’

Despite the heat of the day, Kaitlin was feeling colder by the minute. ‘Five years, and all that time you were just biding your time to take over here.’

That grin again. ‘Five years ago all I had was a burning ambition. I knew what I wanted, but I couldn’t afford to pay for a corner of one barn let alone the whole ranch.’

That was one thing that puzzled her: how on earth had Flynn managed to acquire what must surely be a small fortune?

Before she could ask the question, he said, ‘Do you remember what I told you the last time we were together?’

‘In the bar? You were with that red-haired woman. I think her name was Marietta.’

‘So you remember that.’ The eyes that held hers were unreadable.

‘Sure, why not?’ She strove to make her tone as casual and matter-of-fact as she could. Flynn did not have to know about the pain that knifed her at the very mention of the other woman’s name.

‘I think it’s interesting that you would remember Marietta in such detail.’ Still he held her gaze. ‘But I wasn’t referring to her. Kaitlin, do you remember what I said?’

‘Why don’t you jog my memory?’

‘I promised you I’d be back for the ranch five years later. Five years to the day. I kept my promise, Kaitlin. Looking at your face, I know you never thought I would.’

Kaitlin. felt the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared at the tall cowboy.

‘So that’s why you’re here,’ she said, when she could speak.

‘Right.’

‘You could have written. Or phoned.’

‘I could have, I guess, but I decided to break it to you in person.’

‘Without a thought to my feelings,’ she accused unsteadily.

Flynn didn’t answer, but there was an odd expression in the eyes that watched her.

Over the emotions that raged inside her, Kaitlin said, ‘You knew I’d be shocked, but you wanted to see my face when you told me. What are you, Flynn—some kind of sadist?’

Flynn only shrugged.

Kaitlin’s hands curled tightly against her sides. ‘Anyway, now you’ve told me, you can go.’

‘We have to talk, Kaitlin.’

‘Not today, Flynn. Definitely not today. You have to give me time to think.’

For a long moment he looked down at her. Then, to her relief, he picked up his Stetson.

At the door of the house he turned. ‘I’ll be back.’

CHAPTER THREE

‘HI, COWGIRL.’

Paintbrush in hand, the jeans-clad figure turned from the fence of the corral. ‘Hi, yourself, cowboy.’

A week had passed since the last time he had seen her. ‘You look busy, Kaitlin.’

Beneath the broad-brimmed Stetson, her eyes were intensely green, almost jade. ‘You could say that. I didn’t hear the plane this time, Flynn. Unless, of course, you reverted to your original mode of transport and arrived on horseback.’

He laughed. ‘All the way from Austin? Hardly.’ He glanced at the radio perched on a tree-stump beside the can of paint ‘Can’t say I’m surprised you didn’t hear the plane above the din.’

Kaitlin touched a dial and lowered the decibels. ‘Not surprising at all,’ she conceded as the throbbing beat of saxophone and drums faded into background music.

‘You used to be a country and western fan, Kaitlin.’

‘I still am, but there’s nothing like variety. Been here long, Flynn?’

‘A while.’

‘I believe you’ve been watching me, cowboy.’

‘You believe right.’

A few drops of white dropped from Kaitlin’s brush as she leaned it across the rim of her bucket. As she came to Flynn, he was struck anew by her extreme slenderness and the gracefulness of her movements. Tendrils of hair escaped from beneath her Stetson to curl on her forehead, giving her a waiflike appearance that tugged at his heartstrings, and made his expression darken. The last thing Flynn wanted was for Kaitlin to touch his emotions.

‘Why are you here?’ she asked.

‘To see you?’ he suggested.

‘Obviously—but not for friendly reasons. Whatever it is, it’ll concern the ranch and the mortgage.’

‘Does it have to be the reason? Men must come here all the time to woo the lovely Kaitlin Mullins.’

There was a sudden tightness around her lips. ‘I don’t have time for sarcasm, Flynn. Tell me why you’re here, let’s deal with it, whatever it is—and then I’ll ask you to leave.’

A dark eyebrow lifted. ‘Was I being sarcastic?’

‘What do you call it?’

‘I thought I was being complimentary. An invitation to one of your parties used to be quite an honour.’

A shadow seemed to pass briefly before Kaitlin’s eyes. ‘Is that what it was, Flynn?’ Tension in her tone. ‘Don’t bother answering, because I don’t want to hear it: not when what you call a compliment is really an insult.’

His eyes gleamed. ‘Is that the way you feel about it? Had any parties lately?’

‘No,’ she said shortly.

‘Really? You haven’t told me about the men who visit you here.’

‘There aren’t any men.’

‘I find that very hard to believe.’

‘Believe whatever you like, Flynn.’ Kaitlin pushed a hand through her hair, the gesture heavy with weariness. ‘The truth is, I don’t have time in my life for men. Just as I don’t have time for wisecracks and insults and sarcasm.’

Flynn reached out and touched her left cheek, dabbing at it with his forefinger. As Kaitlin stepped abruptly back wards, he said mildly, ‘Just removing some paint.’

‘I’ll wash it off at the house.’

He eyed her quizzically. ‘When did you become so prickly, Kaitlin?’

‘When did you become so overbearing and arrogant?’ she countered.

For a long moment Flynn was silent, struck by the strain he saw in the delicate-featured face. Kaitlin looked ready to drop with fatigue, he thought.

Softly, he said, ‘This kind of talk isn’t really getting us anywhere, is it?’

‘No... Which is why I wish you’d leave.’

‘Not just yet,’ he said evenly. ‘For one thing, I want to know why you’re out here slaving in this devilish heat.’

‘Slaving? I’m just painting a fence, Flynn.’

‘In this scorcher? You’ll be telling me next that you enjoy working so hard when you could be somewhere cooler.’

Her lips quivered slightly. ‘I do like painting.’

‘You could be paying a man to do it for you.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Flynn, I can’t believe you’d say anything so silly this close to the end of the twentieth century! Don’t you know yet that a woman can do anything she puts her mind to?’

‘Sure I do—but at risk of being labelled a chauvinist, I don’t believe you took on this task just for the fun of it. So maybe you’d like to tell me why you’re doing it?’

‘Flynn—’

‘And why you’re working alone at it.’

Kaitlin took a shuddering breath. Hearing it, Flynn was overcome by a desire—an utterly insane desire—to rescue her from her drudgery, to protect her.

Protect her, indeed! Since when had spoiled Kaitlin Mullins—doted on by her parents, given everything she ever wanted—needed protection?

‘Last time I was here, you told me you were shorthanded. Now I want to know whether you’re trying to run the ranch on your own. The truth, Kaitlin.’

The look she threw him was part withering outrage, part assumed wide-eyed innocence. ‘On my own? Of course not! How could I possibly cope?’

‘You couldn’t,’ Flynn acknowledged abruptly.

‘There’s your answer then.’

‘No, because whatever you say, there don’t seem to be many cowboys on this ranch.’

‘Didn’t we talk about that last time? There are cowboys—not many, but enough. If you haven’t seen them ‘it’s because they’re out on the range, roping and branding. So you see, Flynn, your concerns are unwarranted.’

Kaitlin accompanied the words with a grin which, if she hadn’t looked quite so tired, might have succeeded in being provocative. As it was, it made her look more vulnerable than ever.

Flynn swallowed down hard over the unwelcome and unexpected lump in his throat. ‘All the same,’ he said after a moment, ‘I still wonder how you’re managing.’

‘Isn’t it enough that I’m doing it?’

‘How, Kaitlin?’

‘I don’t owe you any answers, Flynn.’

‘I think you’re forgetting something.’

‘The mortgage.’ Her eyes clouded. ‘I haven’t forgotten it. It haunts me day and night, I haven’t stopped thinking about it since you told me about it. I know I have to make regular payments, and I will.’

‘Glad to hear it.’

‘Of course, I realize that with Bill out of the picture the whole scenario has changed. No matter what you say about Bill—and I keep wishing he’d had the courage to tell me the truth—he was never unkind.’

‘Whereas you see me—’Flynn’s grin was wicked ‘—as some kind of monster?’

‘I get the feeling you’ve turned into an unforgiving sort of man.’

Flynn’s grin vanished. Didn’t Kaitlin understand that some things were impossible to forgive?

After a moment he said, ‘I’m a businessman, Kaitlin. Unlike your good buddy Bill, I don’t let friendship or personalities get in the way of my business arrangements. If that makes me unkind and a monster, then maybe that’s what I am—at least in your eyes. Now, Kaitlin, suppose you tell me, honestly, why there are so few cowboys at the ranch.’

‘I still say I don’t have to give you any answers. As long as you get your payments, that’s all that should interest you.’

‘But I am interested.’

‘Flynn...’

‘Why, Kaitlin?’

‘I don’t know why you’re pressing this when you know the answer already.’ Her voice was flat. ‘Money—or the lack of it, Flynn. It’s as simple as that.’

‘You can’t afford any cowboys?’

‘I keep telling you there are some. Just not as many as there should be.’

‘Which is why you’re working flat-out yourself. A slip of a girl, taking on the work of a bunch of men.’

Two bright spots of red burned in Kaitlin’s cheeks, and her eyes sparkled with anger. ‘Is that pity I hear in your voice, Flynn Henderson? If it is, save it for someone else. The ranch is my life. I am where I want to be. Living the way I want to live. Sure, I admit things could be better, but they could be a lot worse, too. I’m coping. And if there’s one thing I can’t bear, it’s pity. I’ll manage, Flynn, somehow I’ll manage.’

Flynn thought admiringly, and not for the first time, that Kaitlin had more guts and drive and independence than both her parents had possessed together.

He asked, ‘What happened to the girl whose life was one mad whirl of fun? Horses, swimming, picnics, parties? What happened to her, Kaitlin?’

‘Did she exist?’ Kaitlin’s tone was brittle.

‘Don’t you remember?’

‘Dimly.’

‘Whereas I remember her vividly. She was lovely, Kaitlin. Pretty beyond belief, with skin like roses just out of the bud. Vibrant, and so full of fun that you couldn’t help being happy, too, when you were with her. And sexy, Kaitlin. So sexy that a man thought he’d go crazy if he couldn’t make love to her.’

Kaitlin looked away from him, and then back. ‘Are you sure she was real, Flynn?’

‘Flesh and blood down to the last dainty toe. What happened to her?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘Think you could find her?’

‘How can I, when she’s gone?’

‘Has she really gone, Kaitlin?’

‘Forever. Never to return.’ A small smile of wry amusement touched her lips. ‘And maybe it’s all for the best, Flynn—she sounds revolting.’