A Cowboy's Homecoming
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Leigh Riker
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18,6K
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21
CHAPTER ONE
“I MISSED MY own sister’s wedding.”
Scolding himself, Noah Bodine wheeled his roll-on suitcase down the Jetway into the terminal at Kansas City International Airport. Normally, he wasn’t one to engage in conversation at any stage of a trip, which provided a rare opportunity to decompress while in limbo, but he’d clearly been muttering on the plane, and the woman next to him had leaned closer to ask, “Did I hear you right?” So, out of politeness, he’d answered. Also, because she’d looked panic stricken during what had proved to be a rough flight.
After that, his seatmate hadn’t said another word, even as the weather continued to deteriorate en route. But then, his explanation hadn’t been pretty, or excusable. Instead of being there on Willow’s special day to walk her down the aisle, Noah had left their middle brother to do the honors alone—on Christmas, no less. Who, other than Noah, could overlook something like that? What was he going to say to her?
Little more than a week after the wedding, here he was, headed home on a Saturday, the only open slot in his January schedule, determined to apologize to his whole family.
No matter how guilty he felt, he dreaded this brief weekend homecoming, especially with his brother, who wasn’t the forgiving type.
Noah breezed through the terminal and out to the shuttle that served the car-rental agencies, suddenly wishing he’d stayed in his fifty-first-floor office overlooking Central Park. Or taken the company Gulfstream so he wouldn’t have needed to make idle conversation with a stranger, but the optics of using the plane for personal business weren’t any better than missing Willow’s big day. Besides, his VP of Marketing for J&B Cybersecurity had flown to London last night on their jet, getting a head start on the new year and the already-troubled branch office they were opening there.
Yeah, in some circles Noah was a big deal these days, but not on the WB Ranch near Barren, Kansas, where he’d grown up. Surrounded by tough men like his dad—king of the hill there, and one reason why Noah wasn’t running the spread that would have been his birthright. As the eldest son, he’d chosen the skyscrapers of New York and the career he really wanted instead. Now a driven CEO if there’d ever been one, Noah also wanted two other things—to become even more successful and, although he had a current girlfriend, to avoid any deeper romantic entanglement. He’d been in love once.
On the shuttle bus, he kept his eyes on his cell phone screen, scrolling for urgent messages. With his preferred status regarding the car, he wouldn’t have to wait in line. He would be on his way in minutes. Thankful for the valuable time this saved him on such a short trip, he hoped to get on the road before the weather really closed in. It was getting bad outside the bus windows, the snow coming down in large white flakes.
At the car-rental agency, he was passing the busy counter, headed straight for the parking lot, when he did a double take and his heart picked up speed. As if he’d conjured her up, Noah looked closer at the slender, dark-haired woman standing at the head of the line, having an intense conversation with the agent. It was Kate Lancaster, all right.
Of course, his chances of running into her closer to home were good—her ranch was next to the WB—but right here in the airport? He didn’t think she even traveled. Then Noah stopped thinking and came to a dead stop. He probably should have just kept walking, but he didn’t.
“BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND,” Kate said again. “I need to get home.”
Her voice had wobbled as she begged the agent at the counter. Always a poor traveler, she preferred staying home these days—to the point of being labeled neurotic by some—and now, after that harrowing flight from LaGuardia, her trip had gotten much worse. So had the weather. If only she hadn’t gone to her college roommate’s wedding in New York. Hadn’t abandoned her four-year-old son for a few days. Kate had felt guilty the entire time.
The huge city itself had been enough to make her pulse pound. So many people, so much noise when Kate craved the relative peace and quiet of Sweetheart Ranch. Her very own plot of paradise, an hour and a half’s drive at most from the spot where she was standing now.
The harried agent didn’t look that sympathetic, but he said, “Sorry, miss. An hour ago, we had plenty of cars available, but this storm hit earlier than expected. Now everything we had is already on the road. I’m flat out of inventory.”
Kate took another deep breath. She’d managed not to truly freak out in midair by envisioning home, counting the hours until she would be there again. The turbulence on the plane had never let up, the bar carts in the galley rattling with every pitch and roll of the airliner, and when they’d—finally!—descended through the heavy clouds that had turned from silver to lead to nearly black as the plane reached the Midwest and met the fast-moving storm, she’d prayed for a safe landing not to leave her little boy alone in the world. As they’d taxied to the terminal, Kate had watched the snow that began to fall, thick and heavy, from her window seat in coach. She gave thanks to be on firm ground again.
Through the glass sliding doors to the street now, she could see the snow-covered pavement. No wonder one of the ranch hands hadn’t shown up to meet her in baggage claim, but Kate had hoped to be able to tuck Teddie in tonight, to reassure him that she wouldn’t leave again—as he assumed his daddy had left him. Rob’s loss still seemed like yesterday to Kate as well. On their own, she and Teddie hadn’t been the same in the past year. How could they be? Widowed now, a single mom, her boy without his father...oh, and she couldn’t forget their financial situation, which on a ranch could be like feast or famine. Kate struggled against fresh panic as the overhead lights flickered. Great, a power outage would send her raw nerves over the edge for sure.
She tried again to get through to the agent. “Please. There must be some car. I don’t care if it’s on its last tire. If it has a million miles on it and was headed for the scrapyard. As long as it gets me where I need to go... Would you just check again?”
She heard impatient sighs behind her in the line, the shuffling of feet, voices muttering on their cell phones, everyone apparently faced with the same problem she had. At least she stood at the front of this line. If she had any chance at all, it was here.
She was about to make a last desperate plea when, out of the corner of her eye, she spied a man nearby, openly staring at her. Kate blinked. Twice. It couldn’t be. She hadn’t seen Noah Bodine in years and didn’t want to see him now. Or, preferably, ever. Too late, though.
“Trouble?” he asked.
She felt the burn of heat—and sudden anger—in her face. She stared up at him, which was never hard to do with any man and many women. Kate stood a mere five feet three inches tall, one of the vertically challenged in this world, and had a slight build, having inherited her mother’s fine bones. Which didn’t mean she was a pushover. She prided herself on being capable in her own right. Ordinarily, she had to be now, but needing assistance always felt to Kate like a failure on her part. Noah was the last man she would ask for help.
She didn’t like anything about her former neighbor from the WB Ranch. Not his dark blond hair, smoky hazel eyes or classically handsome face. Tall, broad-shouldered and wearing an obviously expensive three-piece suit, carrying a black overcoat, he exuded confidence, and she knew all about his high-tech cybersecurity firm. Noah must be here to attend some business meeting or conference in downtown KC, and her problems weren’t his. Yet, while knowing how she must feel about him, he’d paused like some knight in shining armor to see what was wrong. Hardly her savior. Because of him, Kate had lost her husband, and Teddie had lost his dad.
“No cars available,” she told him. And Kate hadn’t made a reservation in advance, not expecting to need one if someone from the ranch came to meet her.
“Where are you headed?” As if Noah couldn’t guess.
“To Barren, of course.”
“That’s where I’m going too,” he said.
After that there was silence, as if they’d stepped into some airlock together, shutting out the increasingly irritated voices around them. The rental agent was still clicking keys on his computer, staring at his screen. Shaking his head.
She’d apparently been wrong about some meeting. But she wasn’t wrong about Noah. Eighteen months ago, his scheme to hire her husband away from Sweetheart Ranch had thrown a wrench into her life and Teddie’s, put a terrible strain on Kate’s marriage—live in Manhattan? No way—and for another long moment, she willed herself to turn away.
“Lady,” someone said, “you’re holding people up. Just take the car you reserved—”
“Hey, man,” Noah chimed in as if it was his job to protect her.
Kate turned her shoulder to him. “I’ll handle this.” More rumblings broke out down the line, and the agent stopped studying his screen. He spoke over Kate’s head, saving her the trouble of making a reply to the person behind her. “Sorry, folks. We have to close.”
She glanced around, but the other agencies were going dark, too, shutting off lights and setting signs on the counters. A fresh pang of alarm ran through her. What could she do now? If she took the shuttle back to the airport, assuming it was still running, that might well be closed too. She hadn’t heard a plane overhead in all the time she’d been here.
His mouth tight, Noah bent down to straighten the frequent-flier tag on his roll-on bag. Platinum level, of course. “I’m going your way,” he pointed out, prompting Kate to face him. “I’ve got a car. I can give you a ride if you want?”
His tone had sounded hesitant. At least he must feel some shame, but she would rather hitch a ride with a stranger than get in a car with Noah Bodine.
Turn your back again. Tell him to go to—
But aching to be home, yearning with all her heart to see Teddie, to hold him in her arms and feel safe again, too, she had no other choice. She needed to get to her ranch, her refuge. Today. For her own safety, she couldn’t actually flag down a stranger or walk all the way home even if she wanted to rather than occupy the same space with Noah for a single minute. The airport shuttle to outlying communities, which only went as far as Farrier, had already stopped running. Kate had checked while still in the airport. The only car available to her, it seemed, was Noah’s.
“I guess I can do that,” she said at last, not caring that she didn’t sound gracious or grateful. I’ll have to. In the past year, she’d learned to do whatever was necessary for her and Teddie, who needed his mother more than Kate needed to save her pride.
She just hoped that this time—unlike her husband—in the company of Noah Bodine, she would get home alive.
“YOU REALLY WANT to know why I’m here?” Noah glanced at Kate again, seated on the passenger side of his rental car, at her glossy dark hair and accusing gray eyes. Clearly, she despised him. He took a breath before he answered her question. Kate would love this explanation. “I’m in the family doghouse again. I missed my sister’s wedding.”
“So everyone else must have noticed,” Kate said. She obviously had. Certainly, she would have been invited too. “How was that even possible?”
She had every right to judge him—for reasons of her own. Maybe he should have kept walking when he saw her at the rental counter. Five minutes after they’d left the airport, he knew this drive would prove an even bigger challenge than his vague plan to somehow make up for what he’d done. This was his first trip home in a year...showing up at last. He could almost hear his brother say those words.
Yet despite his jet-setting lifestyle, Noah had been raised like any other western male to take care of a woman. His protective instinct was as strong as ever, but considering the rapidly worsening road conditions, maybe Kate should have refused the ride he’d offered.
He peered through the windshield. The Kansas Plains were no destination for a fun winter vacation, much less a personal guilt trip, and he’d been dead wrong about the storm. According to the weather report on his cell phone earlier in the airport’s sky club, he’d hoped to be at the ranch before this blizzard arrived. It had come early. The wind howled, rocking the car from side to side, and Noah had to fight the wheel. He’d half forgotten how bad it could snow here, coming down horizontally like a train rushing straight at them, disorienting him and obliterating the landscape all around.
The wipers were having a hard time keeping up, and Kate’s knuckles, hands clenched around the passenger seat cushion, were as white as the falling snow. He knew she blamed him for Rob’s death, but Noah wasn’t about to broach that topic. He couldn’t imagine a worse scenario than getting into an argument with her—except making her cry. He had to give her credit, though, for not saying a word.
More likely, she was speechless, terrified that he might run off the road. Angry to even be in the same car with him. But Kate had seemed so determined to reach home that she’d agreed to ride with him. Go figure.
“Sorry,” he muttered as the sedan slewed again to the left. “Would have been nice if they’d put snow tires on this thing. Chains would be even better.”
The words weren’t out of his mouth before a semi roared past them, flinging icy slush against the driver’s-side door of the sedan. Kate gave a strangled moan. Noah could barely tell where the road was in front of them now, and he’d leaned closer to the glass, trying to focus his already-burning eyes, but to avoid the big truck, he was forced to oversteer.
Just when he thought they’d made it, the car slid, and a snowdrift at the side of the four-lane highway loomed up a second before they plowed into it. The sedan shuddered to a halt, throwing Noah and Kate forward against a wall of white, but thankfully not hard enough for the air bags to deploy. Now they were stuck, other vehicles passing by too fast, someone blowing their horn as if to say Out of the way, you fool. Noah tried a few times to rock the car out of the drift, but the ditch he hadn’t seen before he lost control kept it trapped and at a slight downward angle.
“You okay?” he asked Kate, who had flung out a hand against the dashboard and was now rubbing her wrist.
She only nodded, biting her lower lip.
“Well, we can’t stay here. We could get rear-ended or sideswiped,” he said. “Let’s get out of the car. I’ll have to call for a tow truck.”
He hadn’t finished before someone tapped on his frosted window. Noah turned his head and saw an older man bundled in a heavy parka with its fur-trimmed hood pulled low over his face, his beard encrusted with ice. Noah rolled down the window. “Saw you hit this bank of snow,” the man said, then pointed off into the distance where Noah saw nothing but pearly white. “I live up that hill. Let me see if my truck winch can help.”
“Bless you,” Kate murmured.
And miracle of miracles, within minutes, the farmer had managed to free them from their prison of snow. They’d been his third rescue, he said. Noah thanked him profusely and, when the man refused payment, took his contact information. He’d send something nice to show his gratitude. He didn’t want to say so to Kate, but they’d been lucky not to be killed by some passing car or truck with poor visibility too.
A few miles down the road, Noah revised his opinion. Their good fortune had run out. The road had gotten even more slippery, and as they neared a highway exit, an overhead sign flashed. Road Closed Ahead. Please exit here. Noah eased off the gas, then managed to coast to the bottom of the exit ramp, which they’d nearly passed. He hadn’t dared to slam on the brakes, or he would have lost control again. He began shaking inside.
The interstate had been rough, and he could imagine what the narrower two-lane side roads would be like.
“How are we going to get home?” Kate asked his own silent question.
Noah hated to tell her but reaching both ranches by some alternate route would be impossible. Clearly, they weren’t going much farther.
“Guess we’re not.” At the top of the ramp, having kept his speed steady on the slight incline to not get stuck, he made a creeping turn, but the lone gas station to his right had no lights on. The small convenience store across the road looked dark too. The only glimmer in the distance on his left was a flickering neon sign that Noah struggled to read. Several letters were missing. “Let’s try the Bluebird Motel over there.”
Kate followed his gaze. “You mean stay the night?” she said, her tone taut. “Pull over. I’ll call the ranch again. Maybe someone there can come for us in one of the trucks.”
He hated to point out that no one had shown up earlier, which she’d explained to him as they walked to his car in the agency’s parking lot, and no one would be using the highway now except for people like Noah and Kate still trying to get somewhere.
To ease her mind, he tried the WB, too, just in case, but his call wouldn’t go through.
Kate clicked off her phone. “I can’t get a signal. I was worried when no one met me at the airport, as we’d planned.”
“Now we know why,” he said. “Looks like we’re snowbound.”
