He stopped suddenly, and silence pervaded the room.
“You should meet my half brother Tee-John,” Charmaine said with a laugh. “You would get along so well.”
“Why? Does he talk too much, too?”
She ruffled his hair. “Yeah, he talks a lot. He’s about the same age as you, and he’s always coming out with things that make adults blush.”
“Do I make y’all blush?” Jimmy asked with surprise.
“Oh, yeah,” Linc said. “Even a black guy like me.”
The conversation moved on to ranch stuff then, things like fence posts, tagging, breeding stock, and market prices, none of which Charmaine understood. She just kept the coffee coming.
“We’ll send all the bulls and steers to market next week, along with about half the cows,” Rusty concluded. “That’ll leave us with about three hundred cows. After we buy some new bulls, we should be set to start a new herd.”
“I don’t ‘spect you’ll make much on the sales,” Linc said. “Never saw a scrawnier bunch of animals, even during a drought one time down in Texas.”
“I know,” Rusty said grimly.
“Why do you have to sell them if you won’t make much profit?” Charmaine wanted to know.
“The bulls have got to go because no one has been tagging and keeping track of the stock for the past couple years. Without the tagging, you might have a bull mounting his sister.”
“Or his mother,” Jimmy offered.
“So inbreeding is bad in animals, too?” Charmaine asked.
“It can be.” Rusty rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I can’t imagine what my father was thinking to let things go so badly. His doctor tells me he wasn’t sick.”
“What’s the cause of death listed on the death certificate? I mean, at the funeral everyone said he had a heart attack. I assumed that was it.” Charmaine was as puzzled as Rusty by his father’s behavior. Charlie Lanier had loved this ranch and had been proud of carrying on the family tradition. Presumably, five generations of Laniers had held this land, since just after the Civil War.
“Cardiac arrest,” Rusty answered.
“Let me guess. His doctor says he had no history of heart disease?” Charmaine remarked.
“Bingo,” Rusty said. “But that’s a mystery left for later. Right now we have to work on the cattle. Do you want us to help clean up the dishes?”
“Good heavens, no! Go do your cow thing.”
They all laughed at her wording.
Linc and Jimmy thanked her once again for the meal and left for the bunkhouse. Rusty stayed behind. Of course he would. This was his home. Where he slept.
Oh, boy!
“Cleaning up keeps me busy. I have too much energy to just sit still. Can I do anything else for you?” Charmaine said nervously.
There was a long pause as Rusty seemed to be considering her offer. Her poorly worded offer.
“Well, we do have a big job tomorrow. Maybe you could help us with that.”
“Anything,” she said eagerly. “What’s the job?”
“Castrating cattle.”
“Oh, you!” She threw a wet dish towel at him.
He caught it with one hand and winked at her.
The image of that wink stayed with her long after he was gone.
In the still of the night…
Raoul tossed and turned for more than an hour before finally giving up the fight.
Glancing at the lighted dial of his bedside clock, he saw that it was midnight. Only five hours till he had to get up again, but it was useless trying to sleep when all he could think about was Charmaine next door.
He’d heard her shower. And smelled her shampoo even from that distance.
He’d heard her puttering around her bedroom and setting her alarm.
He’d heard her mattress shift when she’d gotten into bed.
He’d heard her flip the pages of a magazine.
He’d heard her flick off her lamp, finally.
And he could swear he heard her breathing now as she slept.
Did she wear a nightgown? Or nothing?
Did she dream about him? Ever?
Was she as hot and bothered by his proximity as he was by hers?
With a whooshy exhale of surrender, he got up and pulled a pair of jeans over his briefs. Barefooted and bare-chested, he padded through the hall down to his father’s old office—a small cubicle off the living room. His feet would probably be dirty once he returned to bed, but then again maybe not, depending on whether his very own Cajun cleaning maid had hit this area yet.