Slow Hand (Hot Cowboy Nights, #1)(27)

“And you’re only staying a few days?”

“Yes. That’s all I have time for. In fact, we really need to leave here soon.”

“Leave? But you just got here,” Donna protested.

“I’m sorry, Mama,” Wade replied, “but we really do need to head back to Sheridan. Nicole has a number of things to take care of.”

“Well, you can’t go on an empty stomach,” Donna insisted. “I’ve got some stew and biscuits here.”

“Just black coffee for me, please.” Nikki grimaced in an effort to suppress her queasiness while Wade filled up a big bowl from the pot on the stove.

“Sure thing.” Donna poured her a cup. “Are you coming back?” she asked Wade, who was already stuffing a biscuit into his mouth. “Dirk was counting on your help to move the strays off the mountain to the south pastures.”

“Was he? Funny he didn’t mention it just now.”

“You know he’d never ask, Wade, but I’m sure he expected it the minute he saw you.”

“He’ll manage without me. I’ve got other things to see to today.”

“Sure he’ll manage,” she scolded. “But that don’t mean he should. He’s killin’ himself to prove he doesn’t need your help and I don’t like it a bit.”

He groaned. “Look, Mama, if I go out there today it won’t be pretty, and I guarantee you’ll end up carrying one, if not both of us, to the hospital. Then who will move the damned cattle?”

“Well, I won’t see your father stepping in and having another heart attack over this. Even with the ATV, he can’t do like he used to.”

“All right. All right. I’ll drop Nicole at my office and then come back to round up strays. Does that satisfy you?” Wade sighed and then shoved another biscuit into his mouth.

“It would be a start.” Her smile held more than a hint of triumph. “You and Dirk need to work this out between you, you know.”

“Yeah. I intend to. And sooner rather than later. It might not be too late to salvage the deal. The buyer was pretty hot to have this place.”

“Did you ever find out who this anonymous buyer was?” she asked.

“Yeah. I met him.”

“And?” she prompted. “Who is he?”

“Brett Simmons.”

“You don’t mean the Brett Simmons? The quarterback?”

“One and the same. And he was really pissed when the deal fell through. I almost gave him Dirk’s number, in hope he’d pound some sense into him. He’s big enough.”

“Pshaw!” Donna waved a flour-coated hand. “I’d still put my money on Dirk—one leg and all.”

Watching the exchange between mother and son, Nikki marveled at the tightness of their bond. Internal squabbling and all, she could still feel the warmth and strength of their relationships. It was something she’d never had, but had always longed for. Her own family was a dysfunctional disaster.

After her parents divorced, Nikki had had three stepfathers—and just as many new siblings, although she hardly knew the younger ones. She’d hightailed it out of Toccoa as soon as she was old enough and never looked back.

She wondered what Wade’s father was like. If he was anything like his sons, Nikki could understand why the Texas rodeo queen had followed her cowboy from Amarillo to the wilds of Montana.

She sipped her coffee while Wade wolfed down his food and then set his bowl in the sink.

“Later, Mama.” He kissed his mother unabashedly on the cheek, then turned to Nikki. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” She swallowed down the rest of her cup. “Thank you, Donna.”

“You’re welcome anytime, sugar. I hope you’ll come back soon.”

“Thank you, but I don’t think that’s too likely. I’m leaving as soon as my father’s affairs are settled. Wade’s helping me with that.”

Donna smiled big and white. “If I know my son, I don’t think he’s gonna be in any big hurry to see you go.”

Wade looked embarrassed. “Like she said, Mama, this is just business.”

“Of course it is, sugar.” Donna winked. “You both just keep telling yourselves that.”

*

“Don’t mind her,” Wade said as they left the house. “She’s hankering for grandkids in the worst way and thinks I’m her best chance. She doesn’t place much hope in Dirk since he returned.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because he’s mean as hell and seems to have lost his sense of humor along with his leg.”

“Maybe he just needs the right woman to find it again—his humor I mean.”

“Maybe just getting laid would be a start for him, but he almost never leaves this place. Then again, what woman would be crazy enough to take him on?”

“Plenty of them, by the look of him.”

He scowled. “You’re not saying that you—”

“Found him attractive? Maybe,” she teased then laughed. “No, Wade. He’s a bit too intense for me. Genus broodus hulkus is definitely not my type, but I’d hazard Janice at the Pioneer would be willing to take him on. She seemed pretty interested in news about him.”