Sons Of Chance: Ambushed! Part 11

Unlike when he was seventeen, Gabe didn't blush when he answered. "Probably into the meadow a ways. The wildflowers are pretty out there and the view's nice. After that we'll see how much time we have."

Mary Lou nodded. Gabe was sure she knew exactly what he had in mind. Although she'd settled into plump middle age and no longer cared about styling her gray, flyaway hair, Gabe had a vivid picture of Mary Lou down by the creek in a red bathing suit years ago.

Even though he'd been a kid, maybe eight or so, he'd recognized that Mary Lou looked good in that red suit. No doubt she'd had her share of lovers, but she'd never married. She'd claimed that because she wasn't able to have kids and always intended to support herself, she couldn't see the point in a legal contract.

His mother sipped her coffee. "Are you putting Morgan on Top Drawer or Finicky?"

Another loaded question. He knew now that his mother thought the whole horse thing was a signal that he would soon drop to one knee and propose to the bodacious Miss O'Connelli. "Morgan's used to Top Drawer, so I thought she should stick with the horse she already knows."

Smiling benevolently, Sarah gestured to the hat Morgan held in one hand. "I see you're loaning her one of Roni's hats."

"Yeah, one of her old ones. I didn't think she'd mind if I borrowed it."

Morgan turned to him. "Roni? Do you have a sister I don't know about?"

"Not exactly. She showed up as a runaway teen a few years ago."

His mother put down her mug. "My husband was such a softy. That girl hot-wired one of our trucks and was going to make off with it. Jonathan caught her, and instead of turning her over to the sheriff, he promised her room and board if she'd keep our vehicles running."

Mary Lou poured herself more coffee. "Roni's good people. I miss her now that she's gone off to work on the NASCAR circuit. I was hoping she'd stick around."

"Nah, she's all about pistons and gears, not saddles and reins." Gabe thought about Roni's determination to be a NASCAR mechanic, no matter what she had to do to make that happen. He loved cutting-horse compet.i.tion, but he wondered if he loved it the way Roni loved racing.

Morgan held up the hat. "I'm glad she left this behind. I appreciate the loan."

"And we have to get going." Gabe figured the barn tour was getting shorter by the minute. He needed at least an hour for his other plans, and the clock was ticking its way toward dinner.

"You got anything for the mosquitoes?" Mary Lou asked.

"No." Gabe realized that might be an oversight.

"I can't imagine we'll need mosquito repellent in broad daylight," Morgan said.

"Depends." Mary Lou reached into a cupboard and pulled out a metal spray can. "This is environmentally friendly stuff and doesn't stink too bad. I've never given it a true test, but it'll be better than nothing. If you spend any time down by the creek, you'll need it." She handed the can to Morgan, but she turned and winked at Gabe.

Oh, yeah. Mary Lou knew exactly what was going on. Gabe's special makeout spot was down by the creek. Each of the boys had staked out their own area for getting it on with a girl. Nick's was in a little forest clearing and Gabe's was a sandy spot next to the creek. Jack had a place, too, but he'd never revealed where it was except to say that his brothers would never find it.

"Are you going to show her the Shoshone sacred site?" his mother asked.

"Maybe not this trip." Gabe didn't want to load the excursion with any more significance than it al ready had.

Morgan glanced up at him. "What's that?"

"I'll tell you on the way. Let's go." He flashed his mother and Mary Lou a smile. "Thanks for the coffee and brownies."

"Nice meeting you, Mary Lou," Morgan said over her shoulder as Gabe grabbed her hand and hustled her out of the kitchen. "Thanks for the tour, Mrs. Chance!"

"Call me Sarah!" his mother shouted back from the kitchen. "Oh, wait a minute!" She appeared in the doorway. "This is Dominique's last night before she flies back to Indiana, so we're having a nice dinner for her here. Gabe, you should bring Morgan."

He was caught. "Well, the thing is, I-"

"I'm sure you can manage it, Gabe," his mother said. "Pam will be here." She turned to Morgan. "Have you met Pam Mulholland?"

"Not yet. But I know she owns the Bunk and Grub B and B right outside of town."

"That's Pam, and she's around here all the time. She's like family. Well, technically, she is family, but that's a long story."

"And we should get going," Gabe said.

"I know, I know. What's that western cliche? You're burning daylight. But Morgan, you should meet Pam. A number of her guests have ended up moving here. You could leave some of your cards with her."

"That would be wonderful," Morgan said.

"So you two will be here for dinner, then?"

Gabe knew when he was beat. "Sure, Mom. We'll be here. See you!" He steered Morgan through the large dining room with its four round wooden tables that could seat thirty-two if necessary. The family dinner tonight would be in the more intimate dining room adjacent to this one.

"Have fun!" his mother called after them.

Finally they reached the hallway. "My G.o.d, what have I done?" Gabe kept up a brisk pace on the off chance his mother would come up with some other critical message she had to deliver immediately. "You're her new best friend."

"Apparently I've pa.s.sed muster, so she wants to convince me that you're a great catch."

"And here I thought I might have to protect you from her."

"You still do, in a way. You'll have to gently tell her that I'm not ready to settle down and breast-feed your children, aka her grandchildren."

Gabe screeched to a halt and stared at her. "What did you say?"

"I could be wrong, but unconsciously she might see me as nourishing a whole brood of babies."

"That's crazy." But now that she'd mentioned it, the mental image of her cradling a baby who nursed happily at her breast was stuck in his brain.

He had no intention of getting married right now, let alone fathering children, but if he'd planned to do either, he'd want a woman like Morgan. Morgan would do nicely. Except he wasn't in the market.

"You know what we need?" He wrenched open the front door. "We need fresh air. We can tour the barn when we get back."

"Whatever you say. You're the tour guide."

"d.a.m.n straight. And I say let's ride."

She held out the spray can of mosquito repellent. "Want to tuck this in your saddle bag?"

"Yeah." He took it from her as they crossed the yard to the saddled horses. "It might come in handy."

"If the creek attracts mosquitoes, we could avoid that area."

"No, we couldn't. You'll like it there."

"Is that where you're going to show me something special?"

He glanced into her laughing eyes. "Exactly."

MORGAN FELT as if she'd stepped into a Wyoming publicity shoot-snow-tipped mountains, flower-strewn meadow and a cowboy and cowgirl riding high-stepping paints through the landscape. She was becoming attached to Gabe's roan paint and had the vain thought that Top Drawer probably looked good with her hair, too.

Next to her, Gabe made a striking picture mounted on his other cutting horse. Finicky was a chocolate-and-white paint who picked his way carefully around mud puddles. Thus his name, according to Gabe.

Morgan tried not to spend too much time noticing the way Gabe's tight buns fit into that leather saddle. Sitting astride her own saddle with its gentle rocking motion naturally made her think of s.e.x, especially when she focused on the fit of Gabe's jeans.

Conversation might be the answer to her problem, and Sarah had brought up a couple of topics Morgan was curious about. "So what's this sacred site I'm not going to see today?"

"It's a flat granite rock with veins of white quartz running through it."

"That's it? Just a rock?"

"A big rock. You could dance the two-step on it."

"Have you?" Morgan had been treated to Gabe's two-stepping skills during the street dance.

"No, but it would be fun. We'll have to try it sometime. I think the Shoshones used to dance on it back in the day, but I don't think many members of the tribe go out there anymore."

"But they could? They're allowed access?"

"Absolutely. Once Grandpa Archie figured out that the ranch included an area the Shoshones considered sacred, he encouraged them to visit whenever they felt like it. For a while they did, but not so much these days."

Now Morgan really wanted to see this rock. "How close are we?"

"We're headed in the opposite direction."

"Oh."

"Hey, it's just a rock. Nick will tell you it has mystical powers, but I think that's BS."

Morgan smiled to herself. Gabe was the same guy who'd freaked out when she'd reported seeing a ghost. Apparently the idea of paranormal events scared the pants off him.

She wouldn't push it. But the lazy gait of her horse was still working on her, and she couldn't hear the sound of a creek yet, so they weren't close to the place where Gabe would show her something special.

She was more than ready for that something special, but they couldn't very well get it on in the middle of an open meadow. So they could talk. "Your mom mentioned something about Pam connected with a long story. What's that about?"

"You don't really want to hear all this family history, do you?"

"How close are we to the creek?"

"Another fifteen or twenty minutes."

"Then tell me a story. Otherwise I'm liable to jump your bones right here."

He laughed and allowed his gaze to take a leisurely trip over her warm and achy body. "Good to know."

"Stop teasing me. Talk."

He smiled. "I hate to douse the flames. The more worked up you are, the better-"

"Talk, d.a.m.n it!"

"Okay, okay. I'll give you the abbreviated version. Have you figured out Jack is my mom's stepson?"

"I thought so. He calls her Sarah."

"Which pains her no end. His mother left when he was a toddler and n.o.body knows where she is. But Nick and I grew up thinking that Sarah was our mom."

"She's not?" Now there was a shocker. "But you two look so much alike!"

"That's because she is my mom, but not Nick's. Nick just recently found out his mother was someone my dad had a brief affair with, before he met Sarah. Nick's mom left town and never contacted Dad about the pregnancy."

Morgan had to readjust her thinking quickly. She'd pictured the Chance family as perfect in every way, but apparently they had secrets like everyone else. "So where is his mother now? It's not Pam, is it?"

"No, Pam's his aunt, something we also just found out. His mother, Nicole, died when Nick was a few months old. She'd left instructions that if anything happened to her, Nick should be taken to my dad, so suddenly here was this baby on the doorstep when Sarah was pregnant with me. So they raised Nick to think Sarah was his mom, too."

"How does Pam figure in?"

"She kept track of Nick, her nephew, without him knowing she was doing it. She never had kids, so after her divorce she moved here to be close to him, but she kept quiet until all this came out last month."

"Wow."

"Yeah, it sucks. Supposedly my dad thought it would be better for Nick to think Sarah was his biological mother. Personally, I think he was covering his a.s.s. He didn't like to admit he'd had unprotected s.e.x and made some woman he barely knew pregnant."

"Your father was a complicated man, wasn't he?"

Gabe nodded. "That he was. And here we are at the edge of the trees. Just a little ways in and you should start hearing the creek."

But the first thing Morgan heard was the whine of a mosquito. She swatted at it and missed. "Should we haul that repellent out of your saddle bag?"

"Let's get there first. I have a plan." He slapped his cheek where a mosquito had landed.

"Your plan better be good." She smacked another one. "They're eating me alive."

"It's because we're in the forest. It's their hangout."

Morgan smacked her ear when she heard the tell-tale whine and now her ears were ringing. "So I've noticed."

But discounting the mosquitoes, which was tough to do, the forest was breathtaking. She spotted a rainbow of wildflowers scattered among ferns and vines. Lemon-yellow b.u.t.terflies danced through the trees, and dragonflies fluttered their translucent wings as they buzzed past her.

"Do dragonflies eat mosquitoes?" she asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact."

"Then we could use a squadron of them ASAP."