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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] hired on she'd slept with every cowhand on the ranch. She was a couple of years older than me, but she told me early on that she'd make a man of me, show me more ways to use what I had tucked between my legs than I knew existed. And she did." "When you met her didn't it bother you that she had been with other men?" Ruth asked. Matt gave a kind of grudging laugh. "She told me early on that I had the biggest you-know-what that she'd ever seen. You can imagine what that did for a sixteen-year-old s ego. I felt like the ranch stud. And she treated me like it too. I was obsessed with her, having her on my mind day and night. Do you have any idea what it's like for a guy to ride all day with sex on his mind? By the time I'd get back to the barn at night, I felt like I had a corncob shoved down my pants. But she'd be there to tell me she'd kiss it and make it all better. And when she did, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven." Ruth tried not to focus on Matt's virility, or his sexual obsession with his wife, but the images of Matt with his wife could not be dismissed. Nor could she understand why she found them so disturbing. Matt and his wife had been hot-blooded teenagers with raging hormones. Of course it would have been that way. And now she was acting like a teenager with raging hormones. It was unseemly behavior for a woman past thirty. It was also getting her off track, and there were still unanswered questions that needed to be asked. "How did you happen to end up with Annie and the ranch?" There, it was out. She hadn't intended to be so blunt, but she couldn't take back the words. "Jody's father thought I could tame some of that wild spirit of hers," Matt said, "but in the twelve years we were married, I never did. Jody left Annie and me when Annie was two-and-a-half to run off with that bastard, Wayne. He was lead guitar in an up-and-coming country and western band. Divorce papers followed." "And you're still angry about it." Matt let out a short guffaw. "No, I understand it now. But at the time, I was too caught up with my own bruised pride, wondering why I couldn't satisfy my own wife, that I failed to see that all along she'd been searching for something I couldn't give her. And I should have known. Many nights I'd wake up and reach for her, only to find an empty bed. But she wasn't with a man. She'd be sitting on the porch with her guitar, working out a song, always a song about searching for something. And in the end she got what she wanted, and so did I." Ruth looked at him, puzzled. "I don't understand." He shrugged. "Jody never liked the ranch, and her father never got over her walking out on Annie and me. He changed his will shortly after she ran off. When he died two years later, I learned that he d left the ranch to me to pass on to Annie. It wasn't much of a place when I first married Jody though, and her father s method of keeping records was to shove everything into as many shoeboxes as it took, but I worked my butt off, and by the time her father passed away, I don't mind saying, it was a pretty respectable spread." I take it Jody has no siblings. No. She s an only child. She gave her father hell when she was growing up. But where Jody fell short as a daughter, Annie filled in. He adored her, and she adored him. She misses him yet and so do I. He was more like a father to me than my own. Ruth contemplated everything Matt told her. It all connected. After a few moments, she said, "What I don't understand is how you could marry a woman who d slept with every cowboy on the ranch and not care if Annie and your men swim nude together. You're teaching Annie a total disregard for modesty, which can end up as an excuse for casual sex when she reaches puberty." Matt looked at her, contrite. "Yeah, well, I've been thinking about that too," he conceded. "I guess I never gave it much thought because Annie's still so young, but seeing her in that dress, looking so pretty and grown up... Well I got to thinking that maybe what you said... That is, what I'm trying to say is " he stopped short and looked at her. Ruth waited, and after a stretch of silence, she said, "Is it so hard to admit you're wrong? Everyone makes mistakes. No one's infallible." Matt heaved a sigh. "Okay. You win. You're right. Annie won't be swimming with the men again. Are you satisfied?" "Yes." Ruth smiled. She had no idea why his admission pleased her so, but it made her want to throw her arms around him and kiss him all the more. Instead, she said, "Was that so hard?" The way he was looking at her made her breath catch. "No," he replied. "What's hard is seeing you smiling at me like that and wanting to take you in my arms and kiss you senseless and... Hell, I think I will anyway." He dragged her to him, but when he [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |