The Cowboy's Claim
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Carla Cassidy
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Chapter 1
Nick Benson tightened his grip on the steering wheel and fought against a press of anxiety as the road sign ahead read: Grady Gulch—5 Miles.
A man wasn’t supposed to feel this way when he was returning home after a two-year absence. He should be excited to connect with old friends and family, but instead each mile that took him closer to his hometown knotted the ball of anxiety in his belly tighter.
He hadn’t wanted to come back to Grady Gulch, Oklahoma. In the past two years, he’d begun to slowly build a new life working as a ranch hand on an old friend’s place in Texas.
Home had once been a happy place. Even though the Benson siblings had lost their parents at an early age, Nick’s eldest brother, Sam, had managed not only to keep the family ranch prosperous, but he’d also kept them together as a unit. Now all of that had changed. His sister was dead, his oldest brother was in jail and his other brother had fallen into the bottom of a bottle of booze.
His hands slowly unclenched from the steering wheel as in the distance he saw the massive billboard cowboy that topped the low, flat building of the Cowboy Café.
The café had been as much a part of Nick’s life as his brothers and sister had been. On impulse, as he reached the eating establishment he pulled into the parking lot, deciding that at least he could enjoy a home-cooked meal before driving on to the family ranch and beginning to deal with the difficult issues that awaited him there.
It was just after one in the afternoon, and he’d been on the road since early morning. He’d stopped at a convenience store along the way for soda and a bag of chips, but that was all he’d eaten since leaving Texas just after dawn that morning. As he found a parking space in the lot, his stomach gave a loud rumble of anticipation.
He turned off his engine and looked at the building for a moment, remembering all the good times he and his sister and brothers had shared here. It wasn’t unusual for the four of them to eat dinner together here at least twice a week.
Sam, the eldest and the most serious, played the role of parent, insisting that each of them order a side of vegetables to go with whatever else they had ordered. Adam emulated Sam, wanting to be just like the brother who was two years older than him. Meanwhile, Cherry was the one who would unscrew the top of the salt shaker just before Nick would salt his fries. She would sneak pickles off her brothers’ plates and flirt shamelessly with any cowboy who walked in. By the time the meal was over, they were all laughing together. Then had come the car accident, and the laughter had died.
He shook his head as if he could dispel the very thought of the sister he had loved, the sister he had lost. There had been only two women in Nick’s life who’d owned pieces of his heart, one was the sister he’d lost to death. The other he’d left behind in a fog of grief and despair.
Cherry was gone forever, but Nick had spent the past two years of his life trying to forget the other woman, and there were times in those two years he’d actually thought he’d been successful.
He finally got out of the truck and stretched with arms overhead to unkink the muscle knots that had claimed his body from hours behind the wheel. The scent of onions frying, potatoes and savory sauces filled the air, and his stomach rumbled with a new pang of hunger. Definitely time to fuel up. He had a feeling he was going to need all the strength he could muster to deal with whatever awaited him at the family ranch.
He knew that by walking into the café he’d probably be feeding the gossipmongers, but it wouldn’t be the first time and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Besides, might as well get it over with now, let people know he was back in town. By going inside the Cowboy Café, the word would shoot around Grady Gulch with the speed of a bullet.
As he walked into the restaurant, a little bell tinkled and he swept his black cowboy hat off his head, assuming the owner, Mary Mathis, still had her no-hats-while-eating rule in place.
Sure enough, as he looked at the wall next to the door, he saw an array of cowboy hats hanging from hooks, and he added his own to the unusual décor.
It was just late enough that the lunch rush was gone and there were only half a dozen people lingering either at the tables or at the long, polished counter.
As he made his way across the room to a booth on the other side, he was aware of several gazes following his progress. He slid into the booth and looked at the counter, where a waitress he’d never seen before poured coffee for one of the two men seated there.
He recognized one of the older men as George Wilton, the town’s resident curmudgeon. George had probably been sitting at the counter since early morning, drinking coffee and complaining about anything and everything that crossed his mind. Some things never changed.
He smiled as he saw a familiar pretty blonde hurrying toward him. “Nick Benson! Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” Mary Mathis exclaimed.
Nick smiled at the woman who had owned the café for the past five years. “Yeah, I figured it was time I get back here and take care of some business. But before heading to the ranch, I thought I’d fill my belly with some of your food and maybe a piece of your famous pie. Sounds like I’m going to need all the strength I can muster,” he said.
Mary’s smile turned sympathetic. “I’m so sorry for your troubles, Nick. But, there’s no question that Adam needs your help right now. The whole incident with Sam has nearly destroyed him. Rumor has it Adam is spending most of his time at The Corral, drinking himself into oblivion each night. He comes in here every once in a while looking like a broken, very hungover man.”
“That’s why I decided it was time to come home,” Nick replied. “I could tell by the phone calls I was getting from him that things were definitely reaching a crisis point.” He frowned as he thought of his older brother, who had in the past couple of weeks called him day and night, drunker than a skunk and begging him to come home.
“He needs you, Nick,” Mary said, and then looked back toward the kitchen area behind the counter. “I’ve got to get back there. I’m teaching Junior how to make an apple pie, and if I’m not there watching his every move he’ll have that pie crust turned into a smiley face. I’ll send a waitress right out to take care of you.”
“Thanks,” Nick replied. He smiled as he thought of Junior Lempke. The shy, mentally challenged man in his mid-thirties had worked for Mary since she’d bought the place. He’d started as a busboy, with the simple task of clearing tables after diners left. It hadn’t taken long for Mary to recognize that he was capable of doing more under close supervision.
It was nice to think Mary was now working with Junior to do some of the cooking. Although extremely shy and withdrawn with most people, Junior appeared not to have a mean bone in his big body.
Nick pulled the menu from where it stood between the salt and pepper shakers and opened it, although he already knew that his stomach was crying out for one of Mary’s famous burgers and a side of her thick-cut, deep-fried onion rings.
What he didn’t want to think about was the mess that had once been his family. Sam was in jail for attempted murder, Cherry was dead from a car accident and Adam was on an alcoholic downward spiral to disaster. Welcome home, he thought ruefully.
He sensed somebody moving to his side and looked up. He wasn’t sure who radiated more stunned surprise, him or the woman clad in the black Cowboy Café T-shirt and tight jeans, the dark-haired woman he’d spent the past two years trying to forget.
“Courtney...” Her name fell from his lips in utter shock. “Wha...what are you doing here?”
The surprise that had momentarily flittered across her pretty features was usurped by a black stare that displayed no emotion whatsoever. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m working. Now, what can I get for you?”
Her features might not show any emotion, but he couldn’t help but notice the slight tremble of her hands as she clutched an order pad and pencil.
“But why aren’t you in Evanston?” he asked. Evanston was a small town almost thirty miles away where she had lived with her parents when he’d left town. He’d just assumed by now she’d be married to one of the respectable, financially well-off suitors her parents had paraded before her as potential husband material.
“I’m not in Evanston because I’m here,” she replied tersely. “Are you ready to order or not?”
She was lovelier now than she’d been when they’d dated, before he’d blown out of town on a wild wind of grief. Her dark hair was longer and her features had matured from pretty to almost beautiful. She’d always been slender, but now there was a little more curve to her body.
Why was she waitressing in Grady Gulch when she could be in Evanston, where her father was the mayor and her mother ruled the social scene?
“You know, I’ve never stopped thinking about you,” he said softly. He’d tried. God, he’d tried to forget her.
“You want a cup of coffee to go with that plate of crap?”
He sat back in the booth, as if physically thrown there by both the vitriol in her voice and the hardness that gleamed in her emerald-green eyes. For a long moment he was speechless.
“Order up or move along,” she said. “I’ve got other customers and things to deal with.”
He frowned. “I’ll have a cheeseburger and onion rings and a tall glass of milk.”
“Got it,” she replied and then whirled away to leave the booth as if chased by the very devil himself.
Nick stared after her and wondered what had happened in the past two years that had brought her to this place in time, working as a waitress thirty miles from her hometown.
In the two years that he’d been gone, had the world gone crazy? George Wilton looked perfectly content at the counter as he finished his meal. Adam had become a drunken shadow of the man he’d once been, and the woman he’d once loved with all his heart was in a place where she didn’t belong.
The worst part was he had a dreadful feeling this was just the beginning, that things were going to get crazier before they got better. He’d better prepare himself for more surprises that lie ahead.
* * *
Courtney Chambers placed Nick’s order with Rusty the cook and then sank down in a chair in the kitchen area, her legs shaking so hard she might never walk again.
She should have expected that he’d eventually come back home, especially after Sam and Adam’s recurrent plunge into despair. And she should have expected that if he did come back to Grady Gulch, he’d eventually make his way back into the Cowboy Café.
But she hadn’t been expecting it to be today, and in the very depths of her heart she’d hoped she’d never see him again. Just looking into the brightness of his blue eyes had brought back all the heartbreak, all the anguish he’d left behind when he’d disappeared from Grady Gulch without a word on the day that his sister had been buried.
She’d loved him as she’d never loved another man, had given herself to him and only him with the notion that eventually they’d get married and raise a family together. And then he’d disappeared and she’d never heard from him again.
She straightened in her chair as Mary touched her shoulder. “Are you okay?” Mary looked at her worriedly.
“I’m fine,” Courtney said with forced reassurance. The last thing she wanted to do was bother her boss, the woman who had been equal parts employer and surrogate mother to her for the past two years.
“Are you sure?” Mary raised a pale blond eyebrow.
“I’m good. Just resting my feet for a minute or two while Rusty gets my order ready,” she replied, knowing that it was very rare she simply sat to wait for an order.
Mary eyed her skeptically for a long moment and then nodded and moved back to where she had been working with Junior. Courtney sighed in relief. She didn’t want to lie to Mary, who had been so good to her, but she also didn’t want anyone to know how badly seeing Nick again had affected her. She’d thought she was emotionally dead where he was concerned, but she was apparently wrong.
“Order up,” Rusty said, and Courtney reluctantly got to her feet, knowing she’d have to look at him again. She filled a big glass with milk and then grabbed the plate from the pass window and headed back to the booth where Nick sat.
Why hadn’t he gotten obese in the two years since she’d last seen him? Why hadn’t he grown a beer belly and jowls? Why hadn’t that charming cleft in his chin fallen off his handsome face? Or his broad shoulders turned to toothpicks?
Why, oh why, after everything that had happened, did her heart still lurch more than a little bit at the sight of his thick dark hair, his chiseled features and those amazing blue eyes?
She was so over him. She’d moved on, and he had no place in her heart, in her life. He deserved nothing from her but the plate of food she slid down in front of him along with the glass of milk and the edge of contempt that welled up inside her.
She started to leave the table but gasped in surprise as he grabbed her by the wrist to stop her escape. “It isn’t that busy,” he said. “Why don’t you sit with me for a minute or two?”
“Why would I want to do that?” she replied as she pulled her wrist from his grasp. Her need to escape was overwhelming, but she didn’t want him to see that he bothered her in any way, that he still had any power at all over her.
“I don’t know. I thought maybe we could catch up a little bit.”
“Why?” She forced a light laugh. “I mean honestly, Nick, what on earth would we have to talk about? You’ve been gone for two years. We’ve both moved on with our lives.”
He studied her intently, and she kept her features carefully schooled so as not to display any of the turmoil that twirled around in her stomach. “I should have called you,” he finally said.
Her stomach clenched. “Yes, you should have,” she agreed. “But, you didn’t, and time went by and life went on. It’s all water under the bridge. Now, is there anything else I can get for you?”
“Not at the moment,” he replied after a long hesitation.
She turned and left the booth, but she was aware of his gaze lingering on her, heating the center of her back. She escaped back to the safety of the kitchen and once again pasted a smile on her lips.
Instead of keeping Nick Benson in her mind, she thought of Grant Hubert, the man she’d been dating for the past two months.
Grant was everything Nick hadn’t been...dependable and mature. He was thirty-five, the vice president of the local bank, and he’d been the first man she’d allowed into her life in any way since Nick.
Grant didn’t stir in her the same crazy emotions that Nick had once evoked. Instead he felt solid and predictable, and that was exactly what she needed in her life at this moment.
She knew what had brought Nick back to town, but the Bensons weren’t the only ones who had gone through trauma in the past couple of months.
Certainly everyone had been shocked when Sam Benson had tried to kill Courtney’s friend and fellow waitress, Lizzy Wiles, but before that the entire town had been equally shocked when another waitress from the café had been brutally murdered.
That murder had not yet been solved and hadn’t been related to Sam’s attack on Lizzy. At the time, Courtney, Lizzy and Candy, the murdered young woman, had been living in three of the four little cottages just behind the café.
It had been Candy’s murder and the attack on Lizzy that had prompted Sheriff Cameron Evans to arrange for Courtney to move from the cottage to a nearby motel. In the past two months the motel room, with its kitchenette, had finally begun to feel like home.
Thankfully, when she returned to the booth where Nick had sat enough money to pay his tab and a generous tip for her was all that remained.
She rang up his order, pocketed her tip and told herself she absolutely refused to spend another minute of her time thinking about Nick Benson. Besides, there was plenty to do to prepare for the evening dinner rush. That would keep her mind sufficiently occupied.
Since the time she’d moved to Grady Gulch, she’d come to love the people of the small town. Even George Wilton, who complained about the bitterness of the coffee, the dryness of the meat loaf and the laziness of today’s youth, held a certain charm all his own.
The dinner rush that evening seemed busier than usual, and despite her desire not to think about Nick Benson, he seemed to be the topic of conversation on everyone’s lips.
“They’ve all come to bad ends,” Susan Walker said to her husband as Courtney served them the nightly special. “One dead, one a convict, one a drunk, and Nick always was a bit of a hellion.” She shook her head ruefully. “Guess that’s what happens to kids when their parents die too young.”
“All of them spent too much time down at The Corral,” David Bentz said to his wife as Courtney delivered their drinks to their table. “I heard through the grapevine that Nick has come back to somehow save Adam from himself.” David snorted. “That’s kind of like the pot calling the kettle to ask for advice.”
Courtney grimaced, fighting the impulse to say something in defense of all the Bensons. She’d never liked David Bentz much anyway. He always smelled just a little bit like cow manure.
“How are you doing tonight, Courtney?” Abigail Swisher asked as Courtney stopped at her table.
“Good. And where’s that handsome husband of yours?” she asked. It was unusual for Abigail to show up at the café without her husband, Fred.
“He’s on a business trip, and I decided I didn’t feel like cooking tonight. The house was just too darned quiet.” Abigail gave her a sweet smile and swept a strand of her light brown hair behind an ear. Courtney caught a pleasant scent of spring flowers wafting from the woman.
“Good for you,” Courtney replied. She knew the couple didn’t have children. Abigail had suffered a miscarriage, but rumor had it they were trying desperately for another child.
She took Abigail’s order, and by the time the dinner rush was over Courtney was sick of hearing all the negative stories about Nick—and even more sick that in each case she’d wanted to somehow jump to his defense.
It was after eight when Courtney finally sat down to take a break with fellow waitress Lynette Shiver. Lynette was twenty-three and had been working at the café for only about a month.
She’d been hired when Lizzy had quit her job as a waitress to move in with her future husband, Daniel Jefferson. Lizzy seemed perfectly content helping Daniel around the ranch and planning a wedding for the near future.
“Would you please tell me about the Benson family?” Lynette exclaimed. “That’s all I’ve heard about all night, and I didn’t know what anyone was talking about. Sounds like a nice plate of juicy gossip.”
“It’s actually a tragic story on several levels,” Courtney replied with a sigh of resignation. As much as she hadn’t wanted to talk about Nick, she knew there was no way she could avoid the topic while explaining to Lynette what had happened before she’d come to the small town.
“The Benson family consisted of Sam, who was the eldest, Adam, Cherry and Nick. Their parents died years ago, and Sam took the reins of the family ranch and worked hard to keep them all together. Then two years ago Cherry was killed in a car accident.”
Courtney took a sip of her iced tea and tried not to remember that night. She’d been in her bedroom in her parents’ house and had gotten a text from Nick to meet him at the place where they always rendezvoused away from prying eyes.
When she’d finally gotten to the old Yates place, she’d driven past the old house that had been foreclosed on years ago and never resold and drove straight down the lane that took her to the old barn.
Nick’s pickup was already there, and when she entered the horse stall that had been their special place for the past seven months, he’d grabbed her and pulled her to him as he wept.
They’d made love, silently, emotionally, and then he’d left the barn without saying a word. She’d known his grief was too great for words, and she’d let him go that night assuming they’d have time together the next day or the day after that. And then he was gone from Grady Gulch, from her.
“Earth to Courtney.” Lynette’s voice pulled her away from the painful memories.
“Sorry. Anyway, Cherry was killed, along with Daniel Jefferson’s wife, Janice. Rumor had it that Daniel and Janice had a fight and Janice called Cherry to pick her up. The two left the Jefferson place, it was snowing and Cherry was driving way too fast. They crashed, and both women were killed.”
“That’s definitely tragic,” Lynette said as she raised her coffee cup to her lips.
Courtney nodded. “Daniel was real torn up about it, and so was Sam. But what nobody knew was that Sam blamed Daniel for his sister’s death. Daniel was a broken man, but then he met Lizzy, who was working as a waitress here, and the two of them fell in love. Sam went crazy and tried to kill Lizzy because she made Daniel happy, and in Sam’s distraught mind Daniel wasn’t allowed to ever be happy again as long as Cherry was gone.”
“So, Sam was caught and arrested and Adam’s acting like the town drunk, and now it sounds like Nick has ridden to the rescue, coming home to take care of things.”
“Something like that,” Courtney replied, tired of the Benson family drama and still reeling from the fact that Nick was back in town.
Minutes later, Mary walked over to where the two of them sat. “Thursday nights are usually slow. Is one of you up for going home early?”
Lynette waved her hand to Courtney. “Go on. I know you have important places to be and people to see. I’ll close it up tonight.”
Courtney breathed a deep sigh. “Thanks, Lynette. I wouldn’t mind getting off a little early this evening.”
“Then go, get on out of here,” Mary said. “Lynette and I can handle things for the rest of the night.”
Courtney didn’t wait for Mary to change her mind. She quickly got up from her chair and carried her cup to the counter. “I’m out of here,” she said as she headed toward the front door. “I’ll see you at noon tomorrow.”
She caught her breath as she stepped out into the hot July night. As she walked to her car, the heat that had been trapped in the asphalt all day long radiated up to her tired feet. She couldn’t wait to get home to the motel, kick off her shoes and just relax. But she had one more important stop to make.
She always sent up a silent prayer when she got behind the wheel of her car and turned the key. Thankfully her prayer was answered and the engine turned over. She’d bought the car dirt cheap because she had more important things to spend her money on than transportation.
She sat for a minute, allowing the interior of the car to begin to cool from the air conditioner, before heading to Sophie Martinez’s home.
She consciously tried to keep her mind blank as she drove the distance to the attractive little ranch house situated on several acres just outside the city limits. She was tired of thinking of the past and wanted only to focus on the future.
Tomorrow night she had a dinner date with Grant, and she was off work all day Saturday and Sunday. She always looked forward to spending time with Grant and some downtime on the weekends.
At the moment she didn’t feel the anticipation that a date with Grant usually brought, and she hated the fact that a simple interaction with Nick had somehow managed to throw her off.
She shoved every thought in her head away as she pulled down the long lane that led to Sophie’s ranch house. This was the moment each day that she looked forward to most, arriving here after hours of being separated from the most important person in her life.
Her tired feet nearly danced to the front door, where she knocked softly. The door opened and Sophie greeted her with a surprised smile. “Courtney, you’re a bit early tonight.”
“We weren’t too busy so Mary let me go for the night.”
Sophie opened the door to allow her into the neat living room with modest furnishings. Sophie was a young widow with two small children. Thankfully there had been enough insurance money to allow her not only to keep her house and the surrounding land but also stay at home with her two little daughters for the next couple of years.
For extra money she had become a licensed day care provider, and her family room off the kitchen had been turned into a kid’s playland.
From that room a cacophony of sound escaped. It was the happy chaos of children at play... The squeals of little girls, the laughter of little boys and the squawk of the cockatiel that hung in a cage on a large stand near the window.
“Sounds like you have a full house this evening,” Courtney said as they headed toward the family room. Usually by the time Courtney arrived there was only one or two extra children.
“The Morrises asked if I could keep the twins late tonight. It’s their anniversary and they wanted to have a nice romantic evening together without the boys,” Sophie explained.
As they entered the family room, Courtney’s gaze automatically darted around the room for the fifteen-month-old dark-haired, blue-eyed little boy who owned her heart and soul.
Garrett. He was clad in a pair of cowboy-printed pajamas and sat on the floor playing with a stack of colorful wooden blocks. When Courtney drew closer, he looked up and his face was wreathed in smiles.
“Ma-Ma!” He raised his chubby little arms toward her.
As she picked him up, her heart swelled full in her chest. “Hi, baby. Hi, Garrett,” she said as she kissed the side of his face. “Were you a good boy today for Sophie?”
“Sophie,” he echoed and pointed to his daily caretaker.
“He’s always a good boy when he’s here. He’s the most laid-back toddler I’ve ever met. He’s freshly changed and ready for bed.”
Courtney smiled and gave Garrett a hug. “Thanks, Sophie. We’ll get out of your hair, and I’ll see you tomorrow around eleven-thirty.”
Sophie walked with her to the door, and a minute later Courtney had Garrett in his car seat in the back of the car. By the time she arrived at the motel, he was fast asleep.
She gently lifted him from the seat and carried him into the motel room they called home. Next to her bed was the crib, where she gently placed the sleeping boy and covered him with a light blanket. She laid her finger lightly on his little cleft chin, as if wanting to hide the characteristic that marked his paternity.
For several long moments she gazed at the son who had been conceived the night of Cherry Benson’s death. That night, as Nick had come at her with silent, horrible grief and she’d embraced him, needing to somehow ease his pain, neither of them had thought about birth control.
And when Nick had blown out of town, he’d had no idea that he’d left her with a piece of him that would change her life forever.
He hadn’t called. He’d offered no explanation. He’d just disappeared. And now it was too late. He had left her without a word, broken all the promises they’d made to each other. He didn’t deserve to have a son, and she had no intention of ever telling him of Garrett’s existence.
