His Texas Runaway. Stella Bagwell
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feeling ill and need help. Trust me, we have plenty of spare rooms in the ranch house. Along with a cook and a housekeeper. You won’t be an intrusion. Far from it. Mom loves company. We all do.”
She didn’t reply and Chandler could see she was softening to the idea.
“I’m a stranger to you,” she argued, but with far less enthusiasm. “For all you know I could be dishonest. A con woman or some evil person out to steal you blind.”
Long years of working with the public had taught Chandler all about people. Sometimes it wasn’t easy to see a person’s true character. Other times all it took was a look into their eyes. He’d spotted plenty of emotions in Roslyn’s brown eyes, but none of them had been close to sinister.
“You’re not a con woman. You’re alone and driving cross country, when you really should be home with your feet up,” he added pointedly.
She winced at his last remark and Chandler decided then and there that she was most likely running from someone. If it wasn’t the baby’s father, then it had to be someone who’d been putting pressure on her. He hated to think a lovely girl like her had reached such a point in her life. Moreover, if he was smart, he wouldn’t get involved with her, even for one or two nights. But Trey had hit the mark when he’d said that Roslyn seemed “kinda lost.” And Chandler was a sucker for any animal or person who needed to find their way back home.
“Okay,” she said, relenting. “I can see you’re a gentleman. And it would be nice to really rest for a night.”
Chandler was more than pleased at her answer. He was downright joyous. It was a reaction that had the sensible side of him silently cursing. What the hell was he thinking? He didn’t have time to concern himself with the welfare of a pregnant runaway.
Still, Chandler couldn’t keep a grin off his face. “Great. I’ll get busy locking up the clinic and then we’ll head on out to Three Rivers. While I take care of things you might want to visit the ladies’ room. It’s a long, bumpy ride to the ranch.”
“Thank you. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”
He rose from the couch and offered her his hand. “Let me help you down the hall. I want to make sure you’re steady on your feet before I leave you on your own.”
She laughed. “If you’re this attentive to your animal patients, you must have a whopping business.”
The sound of her laughter was genuine and sweet, and eased some of the fatigue from Chandler’s weary body. “Let’s just say I can’t remember a day when my schedule wasn’t booked solid.”
With her little hand wrapped around his, he helped her from the couch and purposely kept a steadying hold on her elbow.
“Are you dizzy?” he asked. “Do your legs feel sturdy enough to support you?”
“Oh, yes. I’m feeling much stronger now. I can make it on my own.”
In spite of her insistence, he held on to her until they reached the door to the restroom. “Take your time,” he told her. “And when you’re finished, just wait for me up front in the waiting area.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Roslyn was sitting in the passenger seat of Chandler’s truck. Her overnight case, filled with everything she needed for a night’s stay, was sitting behind her, on the back seat.
“Sorry about having to leave your car, Roslyn, but part of the road to Three Rivers is rather rough. I promise it will be safe parked behind the clinic. There are security cameras all around the property and I’ve never had anything vandalized or stolen. Besides, I really don’t think you’re up to driving another twenty or so minutes.”
Sighing, she rested her head on the back of the seat, while thinking how nice it felt to have this big, strong man handling everything for her. Even if it was just for this short evening.
“I’m not worried about my car. It’s covered with tons of insurance. Besides, once I get to where I’m going I plan to trade it in for something more practical.”
Roslyn had never wanted the Jaguar to begin with, but Martin, her father, had always insisted she had to drive a luxury car, not some cheap, middle-of-the-road compact. Otherwise, everyone would get the idea that the law offices of DuBose, Walker and Finley were going broke.
The idea had her silently snorting. If her father never earned another penny in his life, he’d still have an obscene amount of money stashed away in several banks. At the age of seventy he was still driven by his work, still obsessed with adding more power behind his name and seeing his fortune grow. But all the wealth or notoriety of Martin DuBose hadn’t been able to buy his wife’s health or to keep her from dying. Maybe someday he would realize that, she thought sadly. Perhaps one day he might regret the time he could’ve been spending with his wife and daughter, instead of in a courtroom.
Chandler said, “Everyone on Three Rivers has to be practical and drive a truck. After a while the rough road would shake a car to pieces.”
“Is your home that remote?” she asked.
“We have a few neighbors, but there are miles in between all of us.”
“I’ve always lived in the city.” She peered out at what little she could see from the path of the headlights. Now and then they passed groups of mesquite trees, or a ragged patch of prickly pear. Otherwise the countryside appeared open and bare. “I do wish it was daylight so I could see everything. This is the first time I’ve been in Arizona.”
“What do you think so far?”
“It’s beautiful. And rugged. And wild.”
He tossed a grin in her direction. “You left out hot. It gets as hot as hell here.”
“Well, Fort Worth isn’t exactly cool in the summer months.” She’d not meant to come out with that, but what the heck. It didn’t matter if Chandler knew where she was from. He wasn’t going to broadcast the information.
“I noticed the Texas plates on your car. I’ve been trying to figure out what part of the state you might be from. I know it’s so big that it’s referred to in regions. North, south, east and west. I know some folks from South Texas, but they don’t sound like you.”
“That’s right. I was born and raised in North Texas.”
“But now you’ve left. Any regrets?”
“There will be places and people I’ll miss,” she confessed. “But no. No regrets.”
“The Hollister family has been rooted here for so long I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
“Your sisters must feel differently about that,” she said thoughtfully.
“Well, love changes some people. Vivian is happy to live on the reservation with her husband. Now Camille is just the opposite. She’s avoiding Three Rivers and Wickenburg because of a lost love. Or so she thinks.”
A lost love. After Erich gave her an engagement ring and vowed his undying devotion, Roslyn had discovered he’d had been seeing other women. And with that shocking discovery, she’d believed she’d lost the one love of her life. But soon afterward, she’d realized she’d not lost anything. Rather, she’d escaped making a giant mistake with a man who knew nothing about real love.
“Men think with their heads. Not their hearts,” she murmured more to herself than to him.
“Not always.”
That brought her head around, and as she studied his profile, which was illuminated by the dash panel lights, she wondered if he’d ever trusted his heart to a woman and had it broken. She couldn’t imagine him grieving over a broken romance. She could, however, imagine him having passionate sex without promises or strings attached.
“Are you married, Dr. Hollister?”
His