Star Valley Winter Read online

  Ellie jolted when Terry McKay passed her the napkin. Her gaze flew up and collided with his. Heat soaked her cheeks, then she quickly turned her attention to sopping up the spill.

  The only consolation Matt could find in the whole evening was that she seemed to feel just as out of place as he did, at least judging by her jumpy, distracted mood.

  He supposed it was pretty petty of him to feel such glee at her obvious discomfort. But he liked knowing he wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to be stuck here.

  Only half-listening to the conversation—centering on the crucial question of whether to sell tickets at the door or at each booth—he finally allowed himself the guilty pleasure of really looking at Ellie for the first time all evening.

  She looked bright and pretty with her hair in some kind of a twisty style and a subtle shade of lipstick defining her mouth.

  That mouth. Full and lush and enticing. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it for two frustrating weeks. The way it had softened under his. The way those lips had opened for him, welcoming him into the hot, slick depths of her mouth. The way her tongue had ventured out tentatively to greet his.

  Today it had been worse, much worse, knowing she would be coming to the ranch for this meeting. His concentration had been shot all to hell. In the middle of stringing a fence line, he’d let go of the barbed wire and ended up taking a nasty gash out of his cheek.

  Tonight wasn’t much better. He couldn’t concentrate on the meeting for the life of him. All he could think about was how she had felt in his arms. With an inward, resigned sigh, he tried to turn his attention to the conversation.

  “I hope I have this kid before the carnival so I can help,” Marni Clawson, wife of one of his high school buddies, was saying. “I would really hate to miss it.”

  “How much longer?” Sandy Nielson asked her with that goggly-eyed look women get when the talk centers on babies.

  Marni smiled softly. “Three weeks. I’ll tell you, I’m ready right now. I just want to get this over with. Speaking of which, you’re all going to have to excuse me for a minute. These days my bladder’s about the size of a teaspoon. I think I need to pee about every half hour.”

  Information he didn’t need to know, thanks very much. All the women except Ellie laughed in sympathy. As heat crawled over his face, Matt felt as out of place as the town drunk in the middle of a church picnic.

  Marni must have spotted his discomfort. She gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry, Matt.”

  “No problem,” he said gruffly, praying the night would end soon.

  As Marni slid back her chair, it squeaked loudly along the wood floor. Ellie jumped as if the sound had been a gunshot. She clutched the napkin in her hand so tightly her knuckles whitened.

  He straightened in his chair, his gaze sharpening. What the hell? He could see that what he had mistaken for simple restlessness was something more. Something edgier, darker.

  She looked frightened.

  Sensing his scrutiny again, she lifted her eyes from the papers in front of her. They stared at each other across the table for several seconds, his gaze probing and hers rimmed with more vulnerability than he’d ever seen there, then her lashes fluttered down and she veiled her green eyes from his view once more.

  What happened? Who hurt you?

  He almost blurted out the questions, then reined in the words. Not now, not here. He would wait until everyone else left, then force her to tell him what was going on.

  He spent the rest of the evening tense and worried, amazed and more disconcerted than he wanted to admit at the powerful need coursing through him to protect her. To take care of her.

  He didn’t like the feeling. Not one bit. It reminded him painfully of all the emotions Melanie had stirred up in him the first time he met her, when they’d bumped into each other at a dingy little diner.

  She’d had a black eye and had been running scared from a nasty boyfriend who had followed her to Denver from L.A. She’d needed rescuing and for some reason decided the hick cowboy from Wyoming was just the man to save her.

  Matt flinched when he thought about how eagerly he’d stepped forward to do it, sucked under by a beautiful woman with a hard-luck story and helplessness in her eyes.

  He didn’t know if there really had been a nasty boyfriend at all or if it had been another of her lies. But Melanie had needed rescuing anyway, from herself more than anything.

  Unfortunately, he’d failed, and his marriage had failed, too.

  He pushed the thought away and focused on Ellie and that stark fear in her eyes.

  Finally, when he wasn’t sure he could stand the tension another moment, the meeting began to wrap up, and one by one the committee members walked into the cold, clear night, leaving him and Ellie alone in the dining room.

  She rose and began clearing the napkins and glasses from the table with quick, jerky movements. “We’ve made a lot of headway tonight, don’t you agree? I don’t think we should have to meet again until February, right before the carnival.”

  She continued chattering about the meeting until he finally reached out and grabbed her arm. “Doc, stop.”

  She froze, and her gaze flashed to his once more. The raw emotions there made him swear.

  “What’s going on?”

  She looked at the table, but not before he saw her mouth wobble, then she compressed it into a tight, uncompromising line. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Come on, Ellie. Something’s wrong. I can see it in your eyes.”

  “It’s nothing. I’m just tired, that’s all. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks.” She pasted on a smile that fell miles short of being genuine. “Thank you, by the way. I don’t know how you did it, but you’ve single-handedly managed to convince people to give me a chance around here. I appreciate it, more than I can tell you.”

  “I didn’t do anything other than let a few people know I’m now using you to treat my horses.”

  “You obviously have enough influence to make people think that what’s okay for the Diamond Harte is okay for them.”

  He was arrogant enough to know what she said was true. That’s why he’d tried to spread the word, whenever he had the chance, that he had contracted for Ellie’s veterinary services, so business would pick up for her. It sounded like it had worked.

  She picked up the dishes and headed for the kitchen with them, and he followed a moment after her.

  “Shall I wash these?” she asked.

  “No. I’ll throw them in the dishwasher in a while.”

  “Okay. In that case, I’d better grab Dylan and head home.” She looked about as thrilled by the idea as a calf on its way to be castrated.

  “You could stay.” His offer seemed to shock her as much as it did him. On reflection, though, he warmed to the idea. He didn’t like thinking about her going home to her empty house, especially not when she was so obviously upset about something.

  “It’s late and bound to be icy out there,” he said gruffly. “We have plenty of room—you and Dylan could both stay the night in one of the guest rooms and go home in the morning.”

  * * *

  How could he have known that the idea of walking into her dark, empty house had been filling her with dread all night? What if she found another charming little warning there, as well? It would be so much worse with Dylan along when she discovered it.

  Matt couldn’t possibly know what was going on. He was picking up on her nervousness, on the anxiety she knew she had been unable to conceal.

  For a moment she was tempted to confide in him. He knew the valley and its inhabitants far better than she did. Maybe he would know who might be capable of delivering such a macabre message.

  It would be such a relief to share the burden with someone else, especially someone solid and reassuring like Matt, to let those strong shoul
ders take the weight of her worry…

  She reined in the thought. She wasn’t her mother. She wasn’t the kind of woman to fall apart at the first hint of crisis, to act helpless and weak so that everyone else would have to take care of her. This was her problem, and she would deal with it.

  “I appreciate the offer,” she said abruptly, “but we’ll be fine. My truck has four-wheel drive.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  He sighed heavily. “You are one stubborn woman. Did anybody ever tell you that?”

  “A few times.” She forced a smile.

  “More than a few, I’d bet,” he grumbled under his breath. “Since you’re not going to budge, I guess we’d better round up Dylan so you two can hit the road.”

  He led the way up the stairs, then rapped softly on the door of Lucy’s bedroom. Ellie couldn’t hear any sound from inside. After a moment, Matt swung open the door. They found both girls tucked under a quilt at opposite ends of Lucy’s ruffly pink bed, with their eyes closed and their breathing slow and even, apparently sound asleep.

  It was oddly intimate standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the doorway watching over their respective children. She’d never done this with a man before and she found it enormously disconcerting.

  She could feel the heat emanating from him and smell the leathery scent of his aftershave, and it made her more nervous than a hundred threatening letters.

  “Do you think they’re faking it?” Matt whispered.

  “I wouldn’t put it past them,” she whispered back, trying to ignore the way his low voice set her stomach quivering. “I think they’d try anything for an extra sleepover.”

  She stepped forward, grateful for even that foot of space between them. “Dylan?” she called softly. “Come on, bug. Time to go home.”

  Neither girl so much as twitched an eyelid.

  “At least let Dylan stay the night,” Matt murmured. “It seems like a pretty dirty trick to wake the kid out of a good sleep just to drag her out in the cold.”

  “She’s always sleeping over. I swear, she spends more time here than she does in her own bed.”

  “We don’t mind. She’s good for Lucy. I’ve got to run into town in the morning, and it would be no big deal for me to drop her back home on the way.”

  If she hadn’t been so nervous about Dylan stumbling onto another grisly discovery like the one she had found in the truck earlier, she would have argued with him. She was dreading the idea of going home alone, but at least this way she wouldn’t have to worry about Dylan, too.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Doc. She’ll be fine.”

  With one more suspicious look to see if any fingers twitched or eyelids peeked open, Ellie backed out of the room and joined him in the hall.

  “I can’t shake the feeling that we’re being conned,” she said.

  “So what? If this is an act, they’re pretty good at it and deserve a reward. Wouldn’t hurt them to have a sleepover.”

  “So you want to encourage your daughter’s fraudulence?”

  He smiled. “I’m just glad to see her doing normal kid things for a change. Lucy’s always been too serious for her own good. Dylan’s done wonders for her. She’s a great kid.”

  She smiled, genuinely this time. “What mother doesn’t want to hear that her child is great? I think she’s pretty cool, too.”

  Their gazes locked, and suddenly his eyes kindled with something deeper that she didn’t dare analyze. She dropped her gaze and felt her cheeks heat as she vividly remembered those stolen moments in his horse barn.

  “I should be going,” she said, her voice hoarse.

  “I’ll walk you out.”

  “That’s not necessary,” she began.

  “I know. But I’m going to do it anyway.”

  How did a woman go up against a man who was about as intractable as the Salt River Range? With a sigh, she followed him down the stairs and to the great room for her coat.

  “Here. Let me carry that for you,” he said gruffly, and pointed to her bulky leather backpack that held everything from her planner to basic medical supplies.

  She opened her mouth to argue that she carried it around by herself all the time, but she closed it at the defiant look on his face, like he was daring her to say something about it.

  “Thank you,” she murmured instead, handing it to him. She had to admit she found it kind of sweet, actually. Like when Joey Spiloza offered to carry her books home from school in the first grade.

  She hadn’t let him, of course, completely panicked at the idea of anyone at school knowing what a trash heap she lived in. Or worse, what if her mom wandered out to the sagging porch in her bathrobe, bleary-eyed and stinking like gin?

  She pushed the memory away and walked into the cold, clear Wyoming night with Matt. He was silent and seemed distracted as they crunched through the snow, even after his little brindle Australian shepherd sidled up to him for some attention.

  At her truck, he opened the door and she climbed inside.

  “Well, thanks for everything,” she said. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow when you drop off Dylan.”

  “Right. Be careful on the roads.” He stood at the open truck door studying her out of those blue eyes that seemed to glow in the moonlight. His shoulders leaned forward slightly, and for one crazy moment, she thought he would kiss her again.

  At the last moment, he jerked back. “Oh. Don’t forget your bag.”

  She stopped breathing completely when he reached across her to set the backpack on the passenger side, and his arm brushed the curve of her breast. He probably didn’t realize it since she was swaddled in a thick winter coat, but she did, in every single cell. To her horror, she could feel her hormones immediately snap to attention and her nipple bud to life.

  Even leaning back until her spine pressed against the seat wasn’t enough to escape him or the first physical contact between them since that heated kiss on Thanksgiving.

  She could vaguely hear the crackling of paper under the backpack as he set it down on the seat. “Sorry. I set it on something.” He shoved the pack toward the other door, leaning into her even more. “Is it important?”

  She blinked, feeling slightly feverish. “What?”

  “Whatever I tossed this onto. Here. Let me see.”

  She looked down and saw what he was reaching for, that damned note with the needle still stuck through it.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s nothing.” She made a futile grab for it, but he held it out of her reach and up to the dome light. When he lowered the note, his expression burned with anger.

  “Where did you find this?”

  “I told you, it’s nothing.”

  “Dammit, Doc. Where did this come from?”

  She took one more look at his face, then blew out a breath. Somehow she didn’t think he was going to rest until he bullied the truth out of her. “Someone left it in my truck. I found it when I left the office before driving out here tonight. It was, um, impaled in the carcass of a cat.”

  His expression darkened even more, and he let out a long string of swearwords. “Who would do such a thing?”

  “Obviously not the Salt River Welcome Wagon.”

  “Did you call Jess to report it?”

  She shook her head. “It’s just a stupid prank, Matt. I didn’t see the need to call in the police.”

  “This is more than a prank. Anybody who would leave this for you to find must have a sick and twisted mind. I’ll call Jesse and have him come out to the ranch to get the details from you. There’s no question now of you going home. You’ll stay the night.”

  She bristled at his high-handedness. “That’s not necessary. I appreciate your concern but I’m fine. Honestly. I was a little shaky before but now I�
��m just mad. I’ll call the police in the morning and deal with it then.”

  “Doc, I’m not letting you go home alone tonight. Not after this. A person sick enough to torment you with something as warped as this could be capable of anything. Think about what’s best for Dylan if you won’t think about yourself.”

  He picked up her backpack as if the matter were settled, and Ellie pursed her lips. She had two choices, as she saw it. She could start the truck and make a run for it or she could follow him inside the house.

  After his brother arrived, she would have backup. He’d have a tough time keeping her there against her will with a cop on the premises, even if the cop happened to be his brother.

  Inside, he took off her coat and settled her into a chair as if she were too fragile to take care of herself.

  “Tell me what happened. Could you tell if your truck had been broken into?”

  She flinched. In the city this never would have happened. This is what she deserved for trying so hard to fit in. “No,” she mumbled. “I left it unlocked.”

  “And you saw the dead cat when you opened the door?”

  She nodded. “It was a little hard to miss there on the passenger’s seat, with the note pinned between the third and forth ribs on the left side.”

  Storm clouds gathered on his features again, making him look hard and mad and dangerous. “Where’s the cat now?”

  “I took it inside the clinic. I’ll autopsy it in the morning to try to figure out cause of death. From an initial exam, it looked like it was a feral cat that died of natural causes, but I’ll know more tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to take a closer look.”

  He took a moment to digest the information, then frowned again. “Who would do this? Do you have any enemies?”

  “Believe me, I’ve racked my brain all evening trying to figure it out. I honestly don’t know.”

  “You been in any fights lately?”

  “Yeah,” she said dryly. “Didn’t you hear? I went four rounds with Stone Cold Steve Austin in the produce aisle of the supermarket just last week.”