The Rancher's Answered Prayer Page 13

  He stopped dead in his tracks, tugging her around to face him. “Overweight? Where’d you get that idiotic idea?”

  Blinking, Tina wished she hadn’t brought up the subject. She shook her head, but Wyatt pulled her closer, the dark slashes of his eyebrows drawing together.

  “I’m serious. I want to know where you got the ridiculous idea that you’re overweight.”

  Shrugging, Tina told him, “My mother for one. Layne for another.”

  “Your mother and your husband told you that you weigh too much? That’s insane.”

  Something inside Tina opened, lightened. She felt her bottom lip begin to tremble but refused to allow herself to shed a tear. She’d already cried rivers over this issue.

  Clearing her throat, she said, “My mother was tall and slender. I—I couldn’t measure up to her ideal. She was telling me that I was too heavy by the time I was ten. That’s why I so resented the nickname Tiny.” She looked down, adding, “Layne said I was fine until I got pregnant. Then he started saying I was too round. After Tyler was born, Layne complained that I was too curvy.”

  “Too curvy,” Wyatt echoed, rolling his eyes. “Curvy is not overweight. Your curves are perfect. I have no idea what you looked like at ten, but you’re certainly not overweight now. How can you look in a mirror and not see perfection?”

  Tina couldn’t quite accept that, but hearing him say it exhilarated her. Wyatt was very much a man’s man, and so handsome that he made female hearts flutter. No one’s compliment could have affected her more. Yes, he could be very commanding, but he was also caring, dependable, hardworking and considerate. She’d come to realize how much he carried on his broad shoulders, and no one could deny his fairness and generosity, least of all her.

  Stepping close, she confessed, “I misjudged you badly in the beginning, Wyatt, and I’m sorry for that. You’re really very—” wonderful, adorable, wildly attractive, but she settled on “—sweet.” He grimaced slightly, as if that wasn’t what he’d hoped to hear, so she stepped closer still and went up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Embarrassed by the impulse, she turned back to the path, only to find herself pulled around once more by the hand that Wyatt still clasped.

  His gaze capturing hers, he stepped into her, his free hand slipping about her waist. Then he simply dipped his head and kissed her. Tina felt small and delicate and treasured. Without even realizing what she was doing, she lifted her arms about his neck. Everything about the kiss felt genuine and cherished.

  This was real. This was true. This was what she’d wanted, needed, what she’d been searching for without even realizing it. How could she have settled for Layne’s shallow courtship? Hadn’t she learned anything from her mother?

  Her mother.

  She had become her mother, going from man to man.

  Appalled, Tina yanked away, stumbling backward. Wyatt stood there with his arms open, confusion all over his face. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

  “I—I’m not my mother,” she blurted. “I’m not marrying every man who shows interest in me!”

  Wyatt’s expression clouded, hardened, his arms slowly sinking to his sides. “Who said anything about marriage? I was only—”

  Stung, she declared, “Well, I’m certainly not the kind of woman to settle for anything less!”

  “I never implied that you were!”

  “Isn’t that what the mauling was all about?”

  “The mauling.” He scrubbed his face with his hand. “You are a beautiful woman. I like you. I more than like you. Of course I want to kiss you. That’s not mauling. And you started it!”

  “I did not! I only...” But she had started it. When she’d kissed his cheek, she’d hoped he would do exactly what he’d done. Swallowing the excuse on the tip of her tongue, she raised her chin.

  A rustling in the brush at the edge of the tree line caught their attention. Tina turned her head to see Tyler running toward them, a fish dangling at the end of a short length of line.

  “Mom! Mom! Look! I got a fish!”

  He’d obviously heard their raised voices and crashed through the brush in his excitement to show off his catch. Wyatt was the first to react. Smiling, he examined the fish still dangling from the hook.

  “That’s a nice catfish you’ve got there.”

  “Look at its long whiskers,” Tyler said proudly.

  Tina’s smile felt stiff, but she kept it in place. “Good job, son.”

  “You’d best get that into the keeper,” Wyatt counseled.

  “Yeah,” Tyler agreed authoritatively. “Mr. Pryor’s got a bucket of water special for it.”

  “Let’s go find it,” Wyatt suggested, patting the boy’s shoulder.

  They turned back down the path, leaving Tina to follow. The walk back to the picnic spot took far less time than their earlier stroll away from it, but with every step, Tina’s mood sank.

  She’d made a fool of herself. Again. What was wrong with her? Was there nothing she couldn’t ruin?

  * * *

  Wyatt couldn’t believe how foolishly he’d behaved. He relived that kiss and the following argument multiple times over the following days, castigating himself for leaping forward when Tina obviously wasn’t ready. He doubted that she ever would be ready, and frustration ate at him, so much so that he couldn’t seem to concentrate on any task for longer than a few minutes at a time. Not even the drive to and from a Tulsa-area sale barn and painstakingly culling half a dozen horses from the animals on sale there had kept his mind off her. Rex had asked him more than once what was eating him, but Wyatt had blamed his lack of attention on Dodd’s mysterious grass plots.

  At the moment, Wyatt was supposed to be helping unload the horses. He’d dropped Rex at the Straight Arrow Ranch and come home to meet Delgado, who had plowed and raked the ground inside the corral next to the barn during Wyatt’s absence. Dodd had built the corral of welded metal pipe years ago and it was still sound, so Wyatt and Delgado had merely painted it after readying the stalls in the barn for the horses. Now Delgado was preparing to back the cattle hauler into the corral, and Wyatt was supposed to guide him. Instead, he was staring at Tina, who stood with Frankie and Ty, an arm around each of them, as they clung to the corral railings.

  He kept thinking about the wedding invitation that Rex had hand delivered that morning. The moment Rex had mentioned his father’s upcoming wedding, Wyatt had thought of Tina.

  I’m not marrying every man who shows interest in me!

  Cut to the quick, he’d lashed out with a crack about no one mentioning marriage. The truth was that he had begun thinking along those very lines. What else could they have between them, after all, if not marriage?

  I’m certainly not the kind of woman to settle for anything less!

  He knew that, of course, and the implication that he would settle for anything less than marriage had wounded and infuriated him. He’d long ago determined not to even date any woman with whom he could not at least ponder marriage. Consequently, he hadn’t dated anyone in quite a while.

  Maybe that was the problem. He and Tina hadn’t been on an actual date. Sadly, he didn’t see that happening now. Oh, why had he kissed her again? But he knew the answer to that.

  He’d kissed her because he’d wanted to.

  He still did.

  His burgeoning feelings for her had taken over every part of his life. His prayers revolved around her and Ty. Her needs and schedule took precedence over his. He was even making business decisions based on emotion rather than sound financial planning. He had forked over money to refurbish the house when he should be concentrating on building up the ranch. The reality was that he’d bent over backward to please her, and what had it gotten him? Nothing but heartache.

  After the picnic, he’d told himself that he was going to ignore her, but it wasn’t possible to completely ignore someone living in
the same house, especially when she had to be consulted about so much. Wedding invitations, for instance. He’d told Rex that he’d have to check with the family before accepting for anyone but himself, and to Wyatt’s mind, Tina was part of his family.

  Delgado beeped the horn on the truck to get Wyatt’s attention. Snapping to, Wyatt waved his hand, signaling Delgado to continue backing the trailer toward the open corral gate. Once the trailer edged into the corral itself, Wyatt gave Delgado the signal to stop. Delgado killed the engine and came around to help Wyatt pull out the ramp and open the trailer gate. One of the horses, a silver gray roan that Wyatt fancied for himself, had gotten loose from his headstall and turned around inside the trailer, but the big bay gelding backed down the ramp as if he’d been trained to it before trotting around the corral.

  While the roan helped himself to a drink of water, Wyatt and Delgado freed and brought out the other four horses, starting with a handsome red dun with a white blaze and then two more bays, one of them an unusual mouse brown with the requisite black mane, tail and stockings. Just a little darker than a buckskin, the mouse lacked the dorsal stripe that marked buckskins. The final animal was a beautiful copper perlino mare. A very pale gold with a coppery mane and tail, the mare wasn’t a small horse, but something about her seemed dainty and feminine. Wyatt had imagined Tina on that horse from the moment he’d first seen it. The perlino was an affectionate thing and nuzzled Wyatt’s chest as if looking for pockets that might hide treats. The boys seemed taken with her.

  “Ooh, pretty horsie,” Frankie crooned, holding out his hand. The mare ambled over and sniffed his fingers, making him giggle.

  “What’s his name?” Tyler wanted to know.

  “She doesn’t have one that I know of. The big grayish one is called Blue Moon, and the red one over there—” he pointed at the dun “—answers to Handy.” The dun picked up his beautiful red-brown head, ears perking. “But none of the others have names yet.” He pointed to the light brown bay. “I think we should call that one Mouse because he’s a mouse brown.”

  The boys laughed at that and started debating names for the other bays. They decided on King and Lucky—not very original names, but acceptable. When it came to the mare, however, they were way off base with names such as Whitey and Fizzle. Wyatt pointed out that the horse was pale blonde rather than white and that Fizzle was somewhat derogatory. He suggested Blondie, but Tina nixed that.

  “Pearl,” she stated firmly. “Just look at her. What other name could you give her?”

  “Pearl it is,” Wyatt decreed abruptly. Then he silently rebuked himself for catering to the woman’s every whim. Yet, he knew that he’d do that and more to get back into her good graces. The problem was he didn’t think that possible.

  Stark Burns arrived, as previously arranged, to look over the new mounts. A brother-in-law of Rex’s, the busy veterinarian had been a great help to Wyatt. Stark had recommended that Wyatt buy Loco Man’s starter herd from a single source, then augment with a good bull and sale-barn cows as needed. After much research, Wyatt had purchased one hundred head of Black Angus heifers and calves from a rancher in the northwest part of the state. Delivery would be made in a few weeks.

  Parking his truck next to the corral fence, Stark eased his tall, lean body from the cab. He fit his sweat-stained straw hat to his head while shaking out his long legs in great ground-eating strides. It occurred to Wyatt that he was about to lose his best opportunity to speak to Tina about the wedding, so he quickly plucked up his courage and got to it.

  “By the way, Rex gave me an invitation to his father’s wedding next week. I thought I should talk to...everyone...before I accepted.”

  She met his gaze for the first time in days. “Ann and Meredith invited me a while ago. I’ve already agreed to contribute to the wedding feast and decided what to wear.”

  Of course. Just because he thought of her as family didn’t mean she thought of him the same way.

  “I see. Well, I’ll discuss it with my brothers then.”

  Nodding, she turned to look at the tall, dark veterinarian. Wyatt made the introductions. Tina couldn’t have been more gracious.

  “I’ve so enjoyed getting to know your wife. Can I offer you a cold drink, Dr. Burns?”

  “My wife’s friends don’t call me Doctor,” he replied with a smile. “It’s Stark. And yes, ma’am, you surely can. I’d roll in the dirt for a drink of cold water.”

  “We can’t have that,” Tina said with a chuckle. “And you can forget the ma’am. I’m just Tina.”

  “Thank you, Tina.”

  As if an afterthought, she turned her head slightly and asked, “Wyatt? Would you like a drink, too?”

  “That would be great. But please include Delgado.”

  “I’ll send out three bottles of cold water,” she said, starting for the house. “Come on, boys.”

  Wyatt helped Frankie to the ground while Tyler hesitated, his gaze locked on the horses milling in the corral. “Go on,” Wyatt encouraged lightly. “You can stay and watch after you bring out the water.”

  Ty shot him a smile and jumped backward, sending up puffs of reddish dust. The boy ran to catch up with Tina and Frankie.

  “Frosty,” Stark said matter-of-factly.

  “What?”

  Stark hung his forearms on the top rung of the fence. “The lovely Tina Kemp. According to my wife, you are in hot pursuit, but I detected a chilly breeze in your direction just now. So, what’s the deal with you two?”

  Wyatt stalled, refitting his hat to his head. He was somewhat shocked that anyone outside the family had put him and Tina together as a couple. Sighing, he wasn’t sure how to answer. In the end, however, he gave the other man the truth.

  “She’s got some issues about her past.”

  “Ah. Who doesn’t?” Stark slipped off his sunglasses and looked Wyatt straight in the eye. “You’re looking at the king of baggage right here.”

  “Oh?”

  Stark nodded. “I was married before, you know. My wife and daughter died in a car crash. I felt...responsible, I guess. Because I survived.”

  “Man, I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Took years for me to get past it. If you can get past such a thing. Actually, I didn’t move past it at all until Meri showed up. Then it was just a matter of time.” Grinning, he slipped his shades back into place and shook his head. “She and Ann say it’s just a matter of time for the two of you.”

  Wyatt looked at the horses. “I’m not sure it’s that simple.”

  “But you wish it was,” Stark stated bluntly.

  Wyatt made no comment, just dropped his gaze to the ground.

  “I’ll say a prayer for y’all,” Stark said, pushing away from the fence. “If it’s meant to be, it’ll come right.”

  Wyatt could only hope, muttering, “Thanks.”

  “I’ll get my gear, and we’ll look over these horses. Good-looking animals.”

  “I’ll get the paperwork out of the truck cab,” Wyatt answered, turning in that direction. “I’ve got vaccination records and all that.” But his mind wasn’t on the horses. All he could think about was Tina.

  Together, they could really build something here. If she could trust him enough to give him her heart.

  He was very much afraid that she already owned his. Whether she even wanted it was another matter entirely.

  Chapter Thirteen

  On the morning of the wedding, Tina dressed with care. The Billings family in general seemed a relaxed, informal bunch, but weddings were important events. She should know; she’d attended enough of them.

  Her mother had insisted on traditional weddings with all her husbands except Dodd. Gina had later cited their elopement, rather than her own addiction to the trappings of romance, for the failure of the marriage.

  Tina herself would have been happy with a sm
all, informal affair when she’d married Layne, but his parents had insisted on a huge, expensive wedding that had left Tina feeling like a performer in a play rather than a happy bride. Looking back now, she knew that the wedding should have served as a warning about the life she would live with Layne. Everything was more image than reality with him.

  She silently prayed that Wes Billings and his bride would have more success building a life together than either she or her mother had ever enjoyed. Wes and Alice were an older couple, and both had been married before and widowed. The idea that they would marry again at this point in their lives puzzled Tina, but she liked Ann Billings Pryor and Meredith Billings Burns, and she wanted to cement her friendships with the sisters, so she’d allowed herself to be drawn into the preparations. Now that the day of the wedding had arrived, however, Tina wished heartily that she could just stay home.

  Knowing that she couldn’t be that rude, she checked the fit of her bright coral knee-length sheath once more. The snug dress didn’t exactly hide her curves, but she felt that the sleeves distracted the eyes enough that she could get away with the fit. Ending at her elbows with a double row of wide ruffles, the sleeves brought a chic accent to an otherwise very simple outfit. Foregoing stockings, she stepped into matching heels before slipping the hooks of coral-and-turquoise drop earrings into the tiny holes in her earlobes. Finally, she fluffed her hair to add fullness, then left the room to help Tyler dress.

  Before she reached the door of her son’s bedroom, another door farther along the hallway opened and Wyatt stepped out, tugging at his cuffs. He wore a somewhat longer-than-normal black jacket over dark navy jeans and a bright white shirt, as well as a high-crowned black straw cowboy hat.

  Dumbstruck, Tina stopped, taking in the handsome man before her. She’d never seen a better looking man. He exuded such masculinity that she felt a quivering of something elementally feminine in her chest. Just as she stared at him, he blatantly looked her over before lifting off his hat and strolling forward. She couldn’t make her feet move for the life of her.