Love Me Anyway: Tumbling Creek Ranch, #2

Chapter One

Melanie Trask stood beside Brett Wallis as the last of the wedding guests drove away with Brett’s seven-month-old herding dog, Kool, running alongside the vehicle. Kool stopped at the archway inscribed with the words TUMBLING CREEK RANCH. The wedding and reception had been bittersweet. Her heart ached knowing she could never marry the handsome man standing beside her. Over the last eighteen months, she’d fallen in love with her boss. If she didn’t need this job to support herself and remain hidden from her abusive husband, she would have moved on and tried to forget the caring cowboy.

What are you thinking? Brett asked, putting his arm around her shoulders. He’d started touching her more the last six months as they’d worked with his cousin Lacey, planning her wedding to Brett’s best friend, Jared. He’d even kissed her twice. Not the soft kiss of affection, but toe curling, set her body on fire kisses. Both times, it had taken her days to quiet the need in her body.

I’m happy for Lacey and Jared. Happy the wedding and reception went so well. She ducked out of his arm and headed toward the kitchen. I’ll start cleaning up the food while you direct the football team in cleaning up the barn.

After watching the wedding and seeing the longing in Brett’s eyes when he glanced her direction, she wished there was a way to get a divorce from Steve without him finding out where she lived. Once he had an address, her husband would arrive and break as many of her bones as he could and probably kill Brett for harboring her.  She’d been so starry eyed and ready to leave the small town she’d grown up in, that the telltale signs of Steve’s possessiveness and anger hadn’t registered until they were married, and he’d thrown her against a wall for laughing with a man at a bar. She’d tried to tell him the man had told a joke that was funny and wasn’t hitting on her, but Steve wouldn’t listen. The memory of that first glimpse of the man she’d married sent a flash of fear up her spine.

She shivered and hurried to the array of dishes on the work counter. Melanie had covered one bowl of salad when Brett’s determined strides echoed under his boot heels down the hall along with the click of Kool’s nails behind him as they entered the room.

You can’t get away from me that easy. Why didn’t you answer my question? He kept his distance, but his intense hazel gaze made her feel as if he were standing toe to toe with her. 

The football team... She tried once again to keep distance between them. To grow any closer would only end up with them both being physically and emotionally injured.

Knows what to do. This is the third wedding they’ve cleaned up after. Brett was always respectful of her space, moving slow and pensive around her.

He was also as tenacious as his bull-riding cousin, Lacey. She wouldn’t get him to leave her alone until she’d answered his question. I was thinking what a lovely wedding it was and hoping the chemistry those two have can outlast both their stubborn ways and Lacey’s quick temper.

Brett laughed, caught his breath, and said, Yeah. I’ve never seen a couple who are ripping each other’s clothes off one minute and fighting the next. He sobered. His eyes softened. You know I would never hurt you. I would always put you before myself.

She nodded, unsure what to say. They’d had long talks during the winter evenings when there were few guests at the ranch. The conversations were about their childhoods and the ranch. He’d never pushed to know more about her adult life other than she’d run from an abusive husband. Despite knowing her past and that she was married, he’d shown her every day how he cared about her. And that was what had been her undoing. She’d never had a man care for her with such kindness.

I know you’re married and you fear your husband finding you. Brett took a step closer and grasped her chin, tipping her face up, peering into her eyes. But I’m jealous of what my best friend and cousin have. He chuckled. Not the fighting but being there for each other and having that someone in their bed every night. Seeing the person you love in bed beside you every morning.

She gulped as her heart rampaged in her chest. Even though she and Brett spent many hours a day together, she was lonely. It was the type of lonely he was talking about. Wanting to be with the person who brought you the most happiness.  Melanie opened her mouth to say the opposite of what she was feeling.

Brett’s face swept down to hers and their lips met.

After all the wedding vows, family, and love radiating from the ranch today, she allowed herself to believe that she could marry Brett and be his wife. With that thought chasing away her fears, she fell into the kiss, allowing him access to her body, her soul, and her heart. 

She stood on her tiptoes and slipped her arms around his neck, pressing her body to his and feeling his long, lean torso.

He groaned and pulled out of the kiss but held her tight. I knew you were feeling the same thing I was. I could see it in your eyes. He dropped a kiss on her forehead, eyelids, cheeks, and recaptured her lips.

Denying his accusation was senseless. She had been dreaming of walking into the barn and seeing Brett at the makeshift altar when Lacey walked up the aisle to Jared. Even during the first dance, she’d wished she were in Brett’s arms.

This time, she eased out of the kiss. This type of behavior doesn’t get the work done, nor does it make it any easier to work for you.

He raised an eyebrow. You mean I have to fire you to be able to marry you?

She took a step back. We can’t marry, you know that.

We can if you’d allow me to have a solicitor in Billings handle the paperwork. He can be discrete. Your husband will never know where to find you. Brett put his hand out toward her.

Melanie retreated two more steps, bumping into the counter. You don’t know Steve. He’ll find me. He’ll ruin you, the ranch, and never let me go. She wrapped her arms around herself to stop the tremors she hadn’t had since landing the job of cook and housekeeper at Tumbling Creek Dude Ranch. The thought of Steve showing up here and ruining everything Brett had worked so hard to establish made her physically ill.

She ran past Brett, down the hall, and into the guest bathroom. The hard tile floor hit her knees, chattering her teeth when she dropped down in front of the toilet and lost the wedding cake and punch she’d eaten during the reception.

Hey. I didn’t mean to upset you, Brett’s deep soft voice said, moments before water ran in the sink.

The clack of nails and a wet tongue on her arm didn’t stop the helplessness she felt. A cold cloth wrapped her forehead and Brett knelt beside her. Kool pushed his head under Brett’s arm, his brown eyes with small blue specks peered at her with more empathy than she’d ever seen in a person.

The two males giving her support made her want to cry. And wish she hadn’t forgotten to close and lock the door in her hurry to reach the toilet. Brett’s charm and quiet demeanor could make her believe that Steve would never find out where she lived and she’d be safe.

But she knew better.

Steve wanted more than having her back as a wife. He wanted the money she’d stolen to leave him. All ten thousand of it.

Chapter Two

Brett didn’t want to think about the violence Melanie’s husband must have treated her to, that would make her stomach toss up its contents at the mention of contacting him. But after watching the wedding between his best friend and cousin today, he wanted that union of a man and a woman. And he wanted it with the woman hanging her head over the toilet.

Hey, if it upsets you that bad, we don’t have to talk about it. Not now. But, Melanie, I will have you for my wife one day. I hope it’s before we both have gray hair.  He kissed the top of her head, drinking in the scent of her floral shampoo.

She grabbed the washcloth from her forehead and wiped it across her mouth. It was a good thing she’d wrapped her long brown hair up into a comely bun thing on her head today, otherwise she would have needed a shower.

Before she’d darted from the kitchen, her brown eyes had reminded him of a frightened calf.

Come on. He grasped her by her elbows and raised her to her feet. She stood a good six inches shorter than his six feet. Forget I said anything. I don’t like seeing you scared.

He released her elbows and waited for her to look at him or say something.

She only ducked her head and walked out of the bathroom, Kool at her heels. He hated how bringing up her husband turned the fun, warm woman into a scared rabbit.

If he ever met her husband, he’d knock him around and let him see how it felt. Brett slowly released his fisted hands and walked down the hall. He peeked in the kitchen, where Melanie moved about putting food away, and continued to the back porch. He pulled on a jacket and grabbed his work Stetson. Kool stared at the door, knowing when his master put on the work hat, they were going to do something fun. Brett smiled at the dog and opened the door. Kool shot toward the barn, where the Duncan High School football players were cleaning up.

Brett didn’t like seeing Melanie so frightened, but from previous conversations with her, he knew that it was best to leave her alone after bringing up her husband.  She listened better after working things out in her head first.

At the barn, he shook hands with the Duncan football coach, Mark Shaffer. Looks like you brought the whole team this time.

I did. We didn’t have a game this week, so I told them this was mandatory. Mark nodded toward the teenaged boys folding chairs and tables and stacking them in the small room used for such event items. And we appreciate the money you donate to athletics at Duncan High.

My pleasure. My brothers and cousins all benefited from participating in sports in school. Brett frowned. Though whoever talked my cousin Lacey into getting on bulls will never have my gratitude.

Mark laughed. That wasn’t a teacher. It was the boys, teasing her about being a tomboy. I guess she had to prove to them and everyone else that while she was a girl, she was more than a tomboy.

That sounds like Lacey. He glanced around the barn. It looks like you have this under control. I’m going to see what damage all those cars did to my pasture.

Brett left the cleaning of the barn in the football team’s capable hands and wandered to the front pasture that allowed guests arriving at the ranch to see cattle on one side as they drove in and horses on the other.  The publicity firm he’d used to get the ranch publicized in all the right places had suggested the visual as people drove up to the ranch. He had to admit, most people commented on the cattle and horses as soon as they stepped out of their vehicles.

He’d moved the heifers out of the field closest to the barn to allow parking for the wedding.  His brother Garth’s truck still sat at the far end. He’d been one of the first to arrive and had helped direct parking.

A quick glance around the horse pasture and he knew where his brother had gone. Garth’s favorite horse, Vortex, was missing from the pasture.

Brett walked over to the small shed off the side of the barn and fired up the four-wheeler. It would be quicker to catch up to his brother with this than to catch and saddle a horse. He twisted the throttle and headed through the meadow with Kool running between the ATV and Tumbling Creek, the meandering creek that the ranch was named after. As he’d presumed, Vortex, the blue roan Garth favored, was tied to a tree by the first small waterfall.

Garth stood up from the rock he sat on. Kool ran up to his brother, barking and acting tough.

Kool, you tough dog, it’s me.

Hearing his name, the dog stopped barking and trotted over for an ear scratching.

Brett cut the engine and sat astride the four-wheeler as Garth walked over to him.

Something wrong? he asked, stopping ten feet back.

You tell me? Everyone has left and you’re up here brooding at your favorite teenage hangout. Brett had found his brother here nearly every day as the teenager had tried to find his way in a world he didn’t feel he fit in. 

Just clearing my head. All that mushy wedding stuff had me thinking about the women I’ve dated and wondering if there’s something wrong that I’m twenty-seven and haven’t felt a need to drag a woman into matrimony.

Brett swung his leg over and sat sideways on the cushioned seat. "Nothing