The Rancher's Family Thanksgiving Read online

  “Why didn’t you tell me what we were looking for?” Susie went first, then cradled the knapsack of trembling kittens and mama cat while he followed.

  He offered an engaging half grin. “I wasn’t sure we’d find them, although I hoped we would, and I didn’t want you worrying. Second, I wanted our first date to be memorable.” They reached the ranch house once again.

  Tyler opened the door. He shut the door from the mudroom to the rest of the house and, stepping inside, put the kittens and the mama cat in the box of old towels.

  Smokey eyed them suspiciously as her four kittens cuddled close, eyes still closed. “Keep an eye on ’em for me,” he said.

  He disappeared into the main part of the house, then came back with a small bowl of milk and a bowl of kibble. He set them down beside the washer and dryer, then walked over to the laundry sink and washed his hands. Susie followed suit.

  He picked up his flashlight again. “So. Ready for our date?”

  Susie squinted at him. “I thought the snipe hunt was our date.”

  “That,” he said, taking her elbow and leading her out the door, “was only the preliminary.”

  Once again, Susie found herself briskly traversing the yard and tromping through the pasture grass. “So what are we looking for this time? Snakes?” she goaded, feeling warmth everywhere they touched, as well as where they didn’t.

  Tyler wrapped his arm around her waist, and with the other took her hand. Briefly, he two-stepped her around the pasture, before continuing on in the same matter-of-fact way toward some mysterious destination. “An oasis.”

  “Right. Of course.”

  Still moving, he cupped one of her hands in both of his. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

  She pivoted to face him. “I’m afraid not to believe you.”

  They walked in silence.

  Susie tried not to think how good it felt, how right, to be there with him like this. Instead, she focused on how he had maneuvered events to his advantage, all the while keeping her in the dark.

  “What if I’d said no to going out with you tonight?” she asked eventually, wishing she weren’t thinking about taking Tyler in her arms again and claiming him as hers and hers alone. She didn’t know how to deal with a relationship that had constantly expanding boundaries.

  Tyler lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the inside of her wrist. “You wouldn’t have.”

  Susie’s skin tingled at the brief, intimate contact. “How do you know?”

  He wrapped his arm around her waist, and brought her closer yet, so their hips and thighs brushed as they walked. “Because you said yes.”

  Aware how easy it would be to fall in love with him and want so much more than either of them were prepared to give, Susie drew an unsteady breath. “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “Sure of you.” He aimed a heart-stopping, sexy look her way.

  Susie swallowed.

  They came to another fence. Once again, Tyler gave her a boost up, one hand gripping hers, the other palming the back of her thigh and the underside of her bottom. His touch was practical, yet she felt the imprint of his touch long after he had pulled his hand away.

  Once again, they started to cross a meadow beneath the starry Texas sky. And then, around a bend of mesquite trees, she saw it. An old-fashioned campfire, two canvas-backed camp chairs, a cooler and two glass lanterns.

  He smiled at the stunned look on her face. “Welcome to dinner at Healing Meadow Ranch,” he said.

  “SO I’M EXPECTED TO cook my own meal?” Susie watched as he started the campfire, built into the dirt, with the expertise of a man who knew his way around the great outdoors.

  “An important factor in an interactive first date,” he declared with a rakish smile.

  Not just interactive, Susie thought. Memorable. As long as she lived, she would remember this night, and all the trouble he had gone to. “Good thing I love hot dogs barbecued on a stick, then.”

  He chuckled and handed her a long-handled fork, with a hot dog skewered on each prong. “I only brought a package of ten and eight buns, so pace yourself.”

  Good advice. If only she could adhere to it when it came to the inevitable good-night kiss at the end of the evening, Susie thought. Deciding it best to keep her mind out of the bedroom, she concentrated instead on the mundane. “Why do they do that? Package a different number of buns and weiners?”

  Tyler regarded her with mock soberness. “It’s an evil scam by the grocers. They want you to purchase four packages of hot dogs and five packages of buns so you’ll come out even.”

  Susie shook her head and matched his droll tone. “Well, I’m alerted to it now.”

  “I would say you are.” He handed her his fork to hold, and reached into the cooler.

  To her astonishment, out came two large glass mugs, a carton of vanilla ice cream and two familiar brown bottles. He poured, scooped and stuck in a straw. “Root beer float anyone?”

  They had to trade, his long-handled fork for her drink. Susie batted her eyelashes at him in a parody of a pampered Texas belle. “Why, Tyler, you do spoil me,” she declared.

  His lively gaze lingered on her lips before returning, ever so slowly, to her eyes. “That’s the general idea.”

  Basking in the carefree moment, Susie sipped with one hand, cooked with the other. “So, tell me, do you bring all your first dates out here?”

  His smile turned tender, his glance direct. “You’re the first,” he told her softly.

  Susie’s heart did a little flip in her chest. She had secretly hoped this evening was as special to him as it felt to her. “Good to know,” she said. She didn’t know why she suddenly felt like bursting into happy tears, she just did.

  Struggling to get her equilibrium back, Susie cleared her throat, sat back in her chair, and asked a great deal less sentimentally, “So what was your worst first date ever?”

  Tyler exhaled. “My very first.” He shook his head in disparagement. “I got a speeding ticket on the way to my date’s house, which unfortunately I left on top of the car instrument panel and my date’s father saw. He not only refused to let his daughter go out with me that evening, he called my dad.”

  Not fun. Susie made a face. “How old were you?”

  “Sixteen. And it gets better. My parents had warned me about speeding but I had a lead foot and wasn’t listening, so they grounded me and took away my truck keys, and it was another three months before I had another attempt.”

  Susie turned her fork, so the hot dog could cook on the other side. “What happened then?” she asked, sure from the look on Tyler’s face that the rest of the story was even more entertaining.

  “I hit another car when I was trying to parallel park at the movie theater.”

  Aware how cozy and intimate this all felt, she chuckled. “Yikes.”

  Tyler rolled his eyes in acknowledgment of his klutziness. “It wasn’t even my pickup. I had borrowed my mother’s very nice, very new SUV. I busted the other guy’s taillight and dented my fender.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him. “I don’t really recall much about the evening because I was so terrified I had to go home and tell my folks what I had done, so I dropped my date off early. Ten-fifteen, I think. She never went out with me again.”

  Susie sipped some of her root beer float and found it every bit as delicious as it looked. “And I thought I had it bad.”

  Tyler turned his fork. “Your first date was bad, too? “

  “Oh, yeah.” Susie sighed, remembering. “I was sixteen, too. I’d had a crush on this guy from another high school forever. He finally asks me out. I finally convince my parents to let me go on an actual car date with a guy, alone, no chaperone, and I threw up in his car.”

  “Oh wow.” Tyler looked stunned.

  “Yeah.” Susie turned quiet, reflecting. Surprising how she had forgotten this until now. “It was the first of a bad flu I couldn’t seem to shake. Only of course it wasn’t the flu. As we found out
a month later, it was leukemia.”

  Tyler put his drink down and reached over and squeezed her knee.

  Susie saw a wealth of compassion in his eyes.

  “But it didn’t end there,” Susie said, determined to get the conversation away from the illness in her past, and back to a lighter tone. “Oh, no. Undeterred, I accepted another date the following week with someone from my own high school.”

  Tyler picked up his drink once again, and took a long draught. “The center on the basketball team.”

  “You remember that?”

  Tyler shrugged. “He was a senior. So was I. Small town. Small school.”

  “Everybody knows everything about everybody else.”

  “Pretty much, yeah.” He studied her. “So how did that date go?”

  Susie tilted her head, curious. “You didn’t hear?” She knew guys talked a lot in the locker room, and Tyler had been on the basketball team, too.

  Tyler shook his head. “He was pretty close-mouth about it. You weren’t talking, either, as I recall.”

  Susie flushed. “I was embarrassed.”

  Tyler’s eyes narrowed in concern. “Why?”

  Susie dragged the toe of her boot across the grass. She had gone this far, she might as well reveal the rest. “Because he drove us out to Lake Laramie to see the view, instead of where we were supposed to go that evening. He didn’t want to take no for an answer, so he got one elbow in the chest, and a fist where it really hurts. And that was the end of that. He never spoke to me again, and I never spoke to him.”

  Tyler’s jaw hardened. “Did you tell your parents?”

  “Are you kidding? My mother and father would have killed him. Besides, I knew he’d never come near me again and he didn’t and that suited me just fine.”

  Tyler scowled. “It’s a good thing he lives in Alaska now. ’Cause if he were here, I’d have to hunt him down and settle an old score.”

  His irritated tone brought a smile to her lips. “You’d really do that for me?”

  “Defend your honor? Without question,” he said firmly.

  The warmth was back, spiraling up inside her.

  Making her want so many things. So many, in fact, she barely noticed the smoke spiraling up from the fire.

  Tyler stopped holding her eyes long enough to nod in the direction of the campfire. “Darlin’, I hate to tell you but I think your dinner’s on fire.”

  Susie jumped up with an oath and blew out the flaming end.

  “Good thing I brought a whole package,” he drawled.

  None of the rest of which either of them burned, although they did have a good time, talking and laughing and sharing confidences and stories about their youths that neither had heard before.

  Not surprisingly, the evening was over all too soon.

  Susie couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed as Tyler put out the campfire, packed up the remains of their dinner and drove Susie home.

  Every bit the gentleman, he came around to open her door, then escorted her up onto the front porch of her house.

  For once, Susie was very glad her residence was not visible from the street. At this moment, she longed for privacy.

  Tyler stood in front of her, weight rolled forward on his toes, hands in the back pockets of his jeans. He mugged at her in comic seriousness. “I hope you’re not expecting me to haul you against me and put the moves on you because I am not—I repeat not—the kind of person who kisses on the first date.”

  Susie couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, lucky for you, cowboy, I am.”

  Chapter Nine

  Live. Laugh. Love.

  One kiss turned into two, then three, then four. By the time they reached five, they were inside the door.

  “I thought we weren’t going to rush things,” he murmured.

  Susie dropped her bag, every inch of her trembling with anticipation. She shrugged out of her coat. “Who agreed on that?” she teased, knowing what she’d thought she wanted wasn’t what she yearned for at all.

  “Life’s short, Tyler,” she continued, more seriously now, giving him a look that brooked no argument.

  “Too short sometimes.”

  She helped him peel off his denim jacket, and went up on tiptoe. The tantalizing traces of his aftershave mingled with the clean scent of soap and the masculine fragrance of his skin.

  Needing, wanting him as never before, she tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer yet. “And we’ve waited too long.”

  His hazel eyes darkened and he flashed her a dangerous smile. “Way too long,” Tyler agreed.

  And then his lips were on hers, possessing her in a way she had always yearned for, making her heart pound, her senses swim and her feelings soar.

  Susie moaned in surrender, allowing Tyler to consume her with his mouth. He used his lips, teeth and tongue until desire swept through her. Tenderness consumed her heart and the world narrowed to just the two of them.

  He continued to hold and caress her, until all the layers of restraint fell away. She felt loved and protected, treasured in a way she had never been before.

  Finally, he lifted his lips from hers and rested his forehead against hers while they both caught their breath.

  “At this rate, I’m not sure we’re going to make it to your bed,” he whispered raggedly.

  Merriment bubbled up inside her. She winked at him. “Then let’s not.” She captured his hand and led him only as far as her sofa. “I’ve always wanted to christen this.”

  He grinned, sinking down onto the couch, and shifting her onto his lap. She felt the proof of his desire for her, saw the ardent light glittering in his eyes.

  Thrilling tension and unbearable anticipation swept through her. And still he was content to take things slow, make every second last.

  Which wasn’t a bad idea, she thought, as she removed his shirt. He took off her sweater, and they resumed kissing again in a way that felt incredibly right.

  Had she ever felt this happy or alive? Had she ever felt so womanly and sensual and free?

  All Susie knew for sure was that being with Tyler this way, making love to him in the heat of the moment, was no longer enough.

  She wanted more. Much more. She wanted a future that included him. She wanted to grow old with him. Do the impossible. Have a life…and a family…with him….

  Tyler had planned a romantic evening for them. He had intended for them to have fun. He had wanted Susie to see at long last what he had realized, that the two of them had something special, something that would never be duplicated with anyone else. He wanted to show her that both of them still had a lot more loving and living to do. And he meant to do all that without taking her to bed.

  But the moment she wrapped her arms around him and offered her lips up to his, all his gentlemanly instincts faded.

  Need raced through him. Everything in him transmitted the strength of his yearning. Drunk with pleasure, he undressed her and found her soft curves.

  She was incredibly beautiful. Her breasts nestled against the hard wall of his chest as his hands explored the silky smoothness of her inner thighs, the rounded curves of her buttocks.

  He kissed her deeply, tasting the unique sweetness of her mouth. He flattened a hand over her spine and guided her even closer, reveling in her welcoming softness.

  She rocked against him, leaving him with absolutely no doubt about what she wanted—what they both wanted now.

  He set her aside, preparing to claim her as his.

  Reclaiming control, she dropped her hands to his fly. “Let me help you with this,” she murmured playfully, locking eyes with him.

  He grinned, finding her passionate insistence as much a turn-on as the dampness between her thighs. “If you insist.”

  His jeans came down, shirt, shorts off.

  She knelt between his legs, running her hands over the bunched muscles of his thighs, the flatness of his abdomen, the sensitive area beneath his sex.

  He hardened even more. W
orried it would be over all too soon, he cautioned, “Suze…”

  “Let me,” she whispered, lips and hands moving over him with utmost care. “Just…let…me…”

  He let her call the shots, let her take him where she wanted him to go, until they were almost there.

  Then his hands were on her shoulders, she was on her back, and he was stretched out over top of her.

  She started to protest she wasn’t finished loving him yet but the passion in his kiss soon had her surrendering to his will.

  His gaze locked with hers, he pulled her legs to his waist, and slid between her thighs.

  Her leg muscles tensed as he used his fingers to ease the way, and then they were together again, powerful sensations layered one over another.

  He lay claim to her lips and body as he wanted to lay claim to her soul, giving her everything in return until she moaned softly.

  Heart pounding, he slowed it down again, pausing, withdrawing and entering again, until she was kissing him back more passionately than ever before, arching her back and rocking up against him, clinging, holding, shaking with sensation.

  And this time, when they came together in shattering sensation, he knew, there was no going back, not for either of them.

  She belonged to him, and he to her. And that was the way it was always going to be.

  THE NEXT MORNING, WHILE snuggling in the warm cradle of Tyler’s arms, still trying to fully wake, Susie could not keep kidding herself.

  She could soooo get used to this.

  Like a fool, she’d told herself it would be enough to be friends.

  Then lovers who were also dating.

  Too late, she realized she had done the unthinkable.

  She had fallen in love with Tyler McCabe. Not the kind of love you had for someone you’d known a long time, or relied on in times of need. The kind you had for a person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, the kind you had for the person you wanted to marry.

  Only they had agreed marriage wasn’t in the cards for either of them. Tyler, because he either ran from or distanced himself in situations that were too tough to handle, emotionally. She, because of the possibility her leukemia might someday return and she didn’t want to burden a spouse—or child—with having to see her through yet another potentially fatal illness.