Boone’s Bounty Read online

“Yeah.” Sebastian set his beer mug on the mantel. “How do you figure, Boone?”

  Heat warmed his cheeks, and he couldn’t look at Shelby. He’d rather not admit this in front of her, but it needed to be said. “Because I’m the strongest, the only one she couldn’t have gotten away from, even if I was drunk.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Travis set his beer mug on a lamp table. “Maybe she didn’t want to get away from me. Maybe—”

  “Maybe we should have some dinner.” Matty stood. “Life always looks less complicated on a full stomach.”

  Shelby stood and gazed around at the three cowboys. “So you three are fighting about who gets to claim Elizabeth?”

  “You’ve got it,” Matty said.

  “Most men would be ducking out the back door in a case like this,” Shelby said.

  Gwen glanced at her. “If you stick around awhile, you’ll soon discover that these aren’t most men.”

  “I guess not,” Shelby said. She looked into Boone’s eyes. “No, I guess not.”

  He gazed back at her. He’d expected her to be disgusted with him for forcing a woman to have sex. Instead admiration shone from her blue eyes. Maybe she didn’t really believe that he was the one.

  “I am Elizabeth’s father,” he said quietly, looking into her eyes so she’d know he was telling the truth. He didn’t want her spinning any daydreams about him.

  “Like hell you are,” Sebastian grumbled.

  “Time to eat!” Matty said brightly, and led the way into the dining room.

  10

  SHELBY WAS SEATED next to Boone, which she suspected Matty had done on purpose. With all the people at the table, it was close quarters, and her knee was in constant contact with Boone’s thigh. They bumped elbows more times than she could count, and her shoulder brushed his if she moved even slightly in his direction. Once, as he reached for the dish she was passing him, his forearm grazed her breast. She felt it clear to her toes, and she knew from the flush on his cheeks that he was completely aware of the intimate contact.

  As if that weren’t enough to start her engine running, everyone at the table treated them as a couple. Their names were linked often in the course of the conversation, and everyone kept giving them knowing looks. Surely they wouldn’t do that if they knew Boone was in love with Jessica, Shelby thought. Maybe, just maybe, Jessica and the baby weren’t such an insurmountable obstacle after all.

  Holding Elizabeth during the meal was a privilege, apparently, and everyone vied for the chance to do it except Boone, Shelby noticed. He was the only one who held back, although she could plainly see that he wanted to. She’d decided the next time she had Elizabeth, she’d simply hand the baby over to Boone.

  Near the end of the meal she was about ready to ask Luann for a turn with the baby when Sebastian raised his glass. “I have a more schmaltzy speech planned for tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean we can’t toast the happy couple tonight. Long life and happiness, Travis and Gwen.”

  “Same here,” Boone said, raising his water glass. His arm brushed Shelby’s in the process, but it had happened so many times they’d both stopped apologizing for bumping each other.

  He’d still refused to have a drop of liquor. Later the men were planning a modified bachelor party at the Buckskin, a saloon in Huerfano, and Boone had vowed he’d stick to soft drinks there, too.

  Shelby raised her wineglass. “I’m thrilled to be here, tickled pink for you, and I have no idea what I’ll wear to the wedding.”

  Matty laughed. “I’ll loan you something.” She lifted her water glass. “Here’s to Travis and Gwen, the surprise match of the year.”

  “And a darn good one.” Luann touched her wineglass to Matty’s. “Right, Elizabeth?”

  From her perch on Luann’s lap, the baby chortled happily.

  Josh, who was sitting on two telephone books so he’d be the right height for the table, held up his milk glass in imitation of the grown-ups. “Yippee!” he said.

  “I think that sums it up,” Sebastian said with a smile. “Yippee, you two.”

  Everyone had clinked glasses and taken sips by the time Travis looked over at Matty. “What’s with the water, Matilda? I just now noticed you haven’t had any wine all night. Don’t tell me Boone’s new program is catching on?”

  “Oh, I felt like having water tonight,” Matty said a little too casually.

  “But this is a celebration!” Travis said. “You’ve always been a celebrating kind of gal, Matty.”

  Matty exchanged a quick glance with Sebastian. Even Shelby, who hadn’t been around long, could tell the two had a secret.

  Gwen must have caught the look, because she squealed and leaped up to run around the table. “You’re pregnant!” she cried, hugging Matty fiercely.

  “I didn’t want to steal your thunder.” Matty looked teary-eyed and happy. “This is supposed to be your time in the spotlight.”

  “Nonsense.” Gwen dabbed at her eyes. “Oh, Matty, this is wonderful.”

  Shelby felt a stab of envy. She’d loved being an aunt and stand-in mom for Josh. Having a baby of her own would be heaven, especially with the right sort of man…. She glanced sideways at Boone, who was looking a little wistful himself. Right sort of man, wrong sort of circumstances. Ah, but how his solid presence next to her made her ache with longing.

  “Preggers?” Travis drew everyone’s attention as he scowled at Sebastian. “You knew this outstanding fact and you didn’t tell Boone and me, your best friends in the whole world?”

  “Second best.” Sebastian smiled at his wife. “You’ve been downgraded. Matty’s my best friend now.”

  Travis clutched his breast. “I’m cut to the quick. How about you, Boone?”

  “We’ve been betrayed.” Boone barely contained a grin. “I think this calls for strong measures.”

  Watching him, Shelby felt warmth flood through her. Boone was sexier than any man had a right to be. Circumstances or no circumstances, she’d love to know what a kiss from Boone would feel like. She wondered what he’d do if she took the initiative, sometime when they were alone. In this house, that might be never.

  “Strong measures, indeed,” Travis agreed. He pushed back his chair.

  “Hold it, guys,” Sebastian said. “Matty made me promise not to tell anybody. It’s all her fault.”

  “Now he’s hiding behind a woman’s skirts,” Boone said. He pushed back his chair and stood, flexing his hands. “Can’t get much more cowardly than that, right, Travis?”

  “Not much, Boone.”

  Shelby couldn’t help but look at those strong fingers and remember how they’d felt cradling her breast.

  “Time to teach Sebastian a little lesson,” Boone said.

  Josh’s eyes grew round. “What’re you gonna do?” His voice trembled.

  Boone immediately turned and gave the little boy a smile of reassurance. “Nothing bad, Josh. Don’t be afraid. We’ll just roll him in a snowbank. I noticed there were still a couple down by the barn. It’s a tradition around here when a guy gets his wife pregnant.”

  “A tradition that’s about two minutes old.” Sebastian’s chair scraped on the wooden floor as he stood and faced his friends with a cocky grin. “If you can get it off the ground, which I doubt.”

  “If you break any dishes getting him outside,” Matty warned, “I’ll have all of your hides.”

  “You notice she didn’t beg for us to spare you,” Travis said, laughing. “So much for your best friend, Sebastian, old buddy. Loyalty ain’t what it used to be.”

  “You know I never allowed roughhousing indoors, Travis Edward!” Luann said.

  “Then I guess we’ll have to take him outside,” Travis said. “Ready, Boone?”

  “Ready when you are, studman.”

  “Then let’s get the new poppa.”

  Shelby was amazed that in the ensuing struggle only one glass was overturned and some silverware clattered to the floor. Travis and Boone managed to carry Sebastian out the back door without bre
aking a single dish.

  The physical struggle excited Shelby more than she cared to admit, though. She watched Boone wrestle with Sebastian and wanted that sort of contact for herself. Boy, did she want it.

  Matty was on her feet the minute they slammed out the back door. “We can watch from the kitchen window.”

  Shelby helped Josh out of his chair. “Do they do this kind of thing often?” she asked as she went with Matty, Gwen and Luann into the kitchen.

  Matty chuckled. “To be honest? Yes. At the slightest excuse.”

  “This is more than a slight excuse.” Gwen hugged Matty again. “How could you even think of keeping this a secret until after the wedding?”

  “I had my time to be fussed over,” Matty said. “I want this to be yours.”

  “Don’t worry. This news will only add to the celebration.”

  Whoops and shouts of laughter, sprinkled with a few rich curse words floated back up to the house from the area down by the barn where the men wrestled in a small patch of snow lit by a dusk-to-dawn light.

  Matty, Gwen, Luann and Shelby crowded around the window over the kitchen sink, each of them trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. Shelby lifted Josh up so he could see, and Luann held Elizabeth.

  “Look at those crazy idiots,” Gwen said with a chuckle. “You’d think they were all about five years old.”

  “I’m three years old,” Josh announced proudly. “I builded a snowman. He’s comin’ alive. Can I build another one, Shebby? They gots some snow here.”

  “Maybe tomorrow,” Shelby said. Then she remembered the wedding. “If there’s time. When’s the ceremony, Gwen?”

  “Not until seven,” Gwen said. “That’ll give my brother time to fly in from Boston, and then, too, we wanted to have candlelight.”

  “I’ll bet it’ll be beautiful.”

  “It will,” Matty said, “as long as all the guys don’t end up with black eyes and broken noses. I wonder if we should break up the happy party down there before that happens. When they horse around like this, they sometimes forget and actually do damage to each other by mistake.”

  “Horsies!” Josh said, latching onto Matty’s statement. “I wanna see the horsies sleepin’!”

  “That’s right,” Shelby said. “Boone did promise to take Josh down to the barn before bedtime so he could at least look at the horses.”

  “I wanna go,” Josh said. “And Bob, he does, too.”

  “We’re not going to disappoint Josh or Bob,” Luann said. “Gwen, if you’ll take Elizabeth, I’ll go with Josh down to the barn and on the way I’ll tell those big lugs to knock it off before they end up looking like prizefighters in the wedding pictures tomorrow.”

  “I’d like to go, too,” Shelby said eagerly before she stopped to think. Then she glanced at the pots and pans on the stove and remembered there were a ton of dishes to do. “On second thought, never mind. I can see the horses tomorrow.”

  “Spoken like a typical woman,” Matty said with a chuckle. “Go on down to the barn, Shelby. Gwen and I can handle this mess in no time flat.”

  Shelby shook her head. “Nope. That’s not fair. A bride-to-be shouldn’t be ruining her nails with dishes, and then there’s the baby to worry about, too. Let me either take care of her or do some dishes. I want to repay a little of your generosity in having me stay with you.”

  Gwen laughed. “You want to do something? You can help us make the table favors for the reception after the guys head for the Buckskin. That should be tedious enough to drive us all crazy. Now get going, all three—excuse me, I mean all four of you, before Travis busts his nose and has to breathe through his mouth while he’s saying his vows.”

  Shelby tried to stick to her guns, but Matty and Gwen were formidable when they joined forces. Moments later Shelby, Josh and Luann had bundled up against the cold and were headed down toward the barn. Shelby held one of Josh’s hands and Luann held the other while Josh chattered away. Luann had agreed to hold Bob’s hand, and she promised Josh that Bob was keeping up just fine.

  Ahead of them the three men rolled on the cold ground in a tangle of arms and legs, their laughter punctuated with colorful swearing as their breath clouded the cold air.

  “You boys watch your language, now,” Luann called out. “I don’t want this child picking up any of those words.”

  “What child?” Boone asked, glancing up. Then he grunted as Sebastian used the moment to ram an elbow into his ribs.

  “You three stop this nonsense immediately,” Luann said, her voice ringing with authority. “You should all know better. Look at you. Half-frozen and your clothes a sight.”

  The men all stopped wrestling and looked shamefacedly at Luann. Shelby had to press her lips together to keep from laughing. They’d all been acting like five-year-olds, and now they even wore the expression of five-year-olds caught being naughty. Each of them would make about two of Luann, but she was obviously the one in charge at the moment.

  “I guess you got a point, Mom.” Travis stood slowly and began brushing himself off as he surveyed his two partners in crime. “Looks like we ripped your sleeve, there, Sebastian.”

  “Yep.” Sebastian sat up and glanced at it. “Matty’ll have a fit.”

  Boone got up and held out a hand to help Sebastian to his feet. “Blame it on me, buddy. She’ll probably go easier on me than she would on you.” He glanced sheepishly at Josh. “How’re you doin’, Josh?”

  “Shebby says I’m not s’posed to fight.”

  “And she’s absolutely right,” Boone said as he tucked his damp shirttail into his mud-smeared jeans. “We weren’t really fighting. Just funnin’.”

  Shelby took in the heaving chest, the tousled hair, the mangled clothes, and it was all she could do not to sigh with longing. He was so damned earthy, so completely physical. She could eat him up with a spoon.

  “But you ripped his shirt.” Josh mimicked Luann’s indignation perfectly. “And you gots mud all over.”

  “Yeah, and I’ll probably need to buy him a new shirt and help Matty with the laundry,” Boone said, looking guilty. “See, that’s what I get.”

  “Yep,” Josh said as if satisfied that Boone understood his transgressions. “That’s what you get. We’re gonna see the horsies sleepin’.”

  Boone looked even more guilty. “Oh, yeah. I said I’d take you, didn’t I?”

  “You’re welcome to come along,” Luann said crisply. “If you can behave yourself.”

  “Yeah, come along!” Josh let go of Shelby and Luann and ran over to gaze up at Boone. “Please?”

  “Uh, okay.” He glanced warily at Luann. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure,” Luann said, her voice softening a little.

  “Okay.” Josh held out his hand. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait a sec. I need to clean off my hand.” Boone searched for a place on his jeans that wasn’t covered with mud and finally found one large enough to wipe his hand on. “My hand’s going to be cold, now,” he warned as he leaned down to take Josh’s.

  “Then Bob and me, we’ll warm you up! Like last night.”

  Shelby glanced at Luann with an apologetic smile. “I think we’ve been replaced,” she said in a low voice.

  Josh looked over his shoulder. “Come on, Gramma Luann. Come on, Shebby. Let’s go see the horsies!”

  “Not replaced,” Luann said. “Included. That boy needs Boone like a plant needs sunlight.”

  “I know. I’m just worried—”

  “My advice is to let him soak it up while he can,” Luann said. “Now let’s go see the horses.”

  Boone hadn’t figured on Shelby and Josh coming down to the barn and catching him making a fool of himself wrestling with Sebastian. Had he known that would happen, he probably would have thought twice. He could see how Josh looked up to him, and he took that responsibility seriously.

  He also didn’t relish looking like a fool in front of Shelby. But she was part of the reason he’d gone along with Tra
vis’s idea to roll Sebastian in the snowbank. Sitting next to her at dinner and rubbing up against her every five seconds had worked him into quite a state. Wrestling with the guys was a good way to work off some steam, before he lost control and did something stupid with Shelby.

  “Hey, Boone!” Travis called after them. “All three of us may be sleeping in the barn tonight, so throw some clean hay into a stall while you’re at it, buddy.”

  “Uh-huh,” Boone called back. “I suppose you’d like a mint on your pillow, too, hotshot?”

  Travis laughed as he started up to the house beside Sebastian, who was limping slightly. “Fresh flowers would be a nice touch,” he bellowed over his shoulder.

  “You gots flowers?” Josh asked as Boone let go of his hand to slide the bolt open on the barn door. “Shebby loves flowers.”

  “Then maybe we should get her some pretty soon,” Boone said. He wondered when Shelby had last had somebody bring her flowers. And she deserved them, for all she’d been through. He mentally added another item to his shopping list for the time when he took Josh into town for a hat and boots. Probably the day after the wedding.

  Getting Shelby flowers might not be the wisest thing to do, because he wasn’t in a position to ask her out or anything, but still, he’d love seeing the look on her face when he gave them to her. And she really did deserve some.

  Boone led the way into the warmth and darkness of the barn and felt a thrill of sexual awareness, knowing Shelby was close behind him. City kids made out in the back seats of cars, but country kids, which Boone had been, usually learned about sex in the privacy of a barn. He’d lost his virginity to Darlene in a soft bed of hay.

  “Smells good in here,” Josh whispered, his voice trembling with excitement.

  “Yep. I think so, too.” Boone turned on a small battery-operated light Sebastian had mounted on the wall inside the door. It would allow them to see, just barely, without exciting the horses and making them think it was feeding time.

  Boone glanced back at Luann and Shelby. “Can you two see okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Shelby said.

  “Me, too,” Luann added. “Come here, Josh. Let me hold you up so you can look over the stall doors.”