Jeb almost went to her when her face drained of all color. She was thinking something terrible. Was she worried they were thinking about leaving?
"What is it?" She"d closed down, sounding cold now.
"Um, earlier when we were having s.e.x..."
"Making love," Marshall interrupted him.
"Yeah?"
"Well, Marshall"s condom leaked, and mine broke. We felt like you needed to know." Jeb waited for her reaction.
"I see. And what are you suggesting?"
Marshall hurried in front of Jeb. "Just that we want you to know that we care about you more than anything, and no matter what happens, you"re who we want to spend the rest of our lives with."
Drew pulled in a deep breath and turned to Jeb. "And do you feel the same way?"
"Maybe even more so. I"ve wanted to say something for a long time but didn"t feel like you"d welcome it from a couple of ex-cons like us."
"I"ve never cared about your past, Jeb."
"Maybe not as ranch hands and maybe not as friends but as lovers? I didn"t dare hope."
Marshall took her hands in his. "What happened with the condoms isn"t why we"re confessing how we feel about you. It just pushed it up. We were sort of hoping to wait until we had some money to maybe put into the ranch ourselves."
"I-I don"t know what to think. I want to believe you. But why would you want to tie yourselves to me? This is what I want out of life. Just this ranch. I don"t have any grand plans of becoming a huge spread with a thousand head of cattle." She licked her lips. "Kenny and Robert may be moving here and building their house here to live."
"That doesn"t bother us at all," Jeb rushed to a.s.sure her. "We like them and think they"re great men.""
"It will mean a lot more speculation and outright hara.s.sment from the town folk."
"Had that already. It"s not going to bother us," Marshall a.s.sured her.
"I need to think about it. This is sort of sudden, and I can"t help but believe you only feel this way in case I get pregnant."
"I know you feel that way. But it isn"t true. We already feel that way about you. You"re everything we"ve ever wanted in a woman." Jeb walked over and pulled her to her feet to kiss her.
Marshall wrapped his arms around her from the back and kissed the back of her neck.
"Just think about it, okay? Nothing"s changed."
Drew smiled a tentative smile and wrapped her arms around both men before ushering them into the kitchen for supper.
Drew couldn"t believe her ears. They confessed they wanted her for more than a few months and then told her that she might be pregnant by one of them. She"d waited so long to hear those words from them. Well, that they loved her would have been better, but she figured men like them didn"t use words like that. Still, now she didn"t know if they were just saying that because of the d.a.m.n condom problems or because they really meant it.
She lay in her bubble bath in the spa tub and let the soothing water lull her into an uneasy s.p.a.ce between sleep and dozing. She wanted to believe them, G.o.d, how she wanted to. Should she take the chance and tell them that she loved them and wanted them to be a part of her life from now on?
Nothing came to her while she soaked, nothing but wrinkles from being in the water too long. She finally climbed out of the bath and dried off. She dried her hair with the blow dryer. Then she climbed into bed wondering if her men would come to her or stay away. She curled up in the middle of the bed and cried silent tears.
She wasn"t sure how long she stayed awake, but finally, they came to bed, being as quiet as they could, and got undressed. She smiled that they even tried. She sat up in bed and let them off the hook.
"I"m awake. You can turn on the light so you don"t break your necks."
"Sorry, baby. We thought if we waited you"d get some sleep." Jeb sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off his other boot.
"I couldn"t sleep."
"That"s our fault," Marshall said. "I"m sorry."
"It"s okay. We needed to talk about our feelings anyway. We"ve been sleeping together for two weeks now and hadn"t addressed it."
"You know men," Jeb began. "We"d go all our lives without addressing it if we could." He grinned a lopsided grin that always got to her.
"What can we do to help you fall asleep, baby?" Marshall asked. "Do you want us to help you sleep?"
She chuckled. Their answer to everything was s.e.x. And sometimes that was the answer, but not this time. This time she needed something more from them.
"I just want you to hold me. Hold me like you never want to let me go."
"We can do that, Drew, "cause we never want to let you go." Jeb wrapped his arms around her.
Marshall pulled her against his hard c.o.c.k and let her use his shoulder as a pillow. He smelled so good to her. Both of them did. She would miss their scent on the pillows next to her if they left. She would miss so much about them.
Jeb"s hand ma.s.saged her lower back while Marshall"s free hand ma.s.saged her shoulder. Always taking care of her, they had no idea how good that felt to her. No one had ever cared enough for her to do that. She"d been the caregiver to her late husband and then to the farm itself. To some extent, she"d watched out for Kenny.
She drifted off to sleep thinking about how good it felt to be cared for.
The next few days proved to be no different from the last few days. They worked the ranch and ate and made love and slept. The snow slowly melted until they could get the truck down the road to town. She and Jeb made ready to take the trip early on Friday morning. She had her list of supplies and goods they needed. Jeb would check in with the sheriff while they were there. She hoped he would have something about who"d tried to kidnap Kenny.
There were times she could almost forget that someone was after her or the farm, but then she"d try to go off and do something on her own, and one of the men would fuss at her. She chomped at the bit to be let free, yet she understood the need for no one to be alone.
They slipped and slid into town with a lot of luck. Jeb wanted to be loaded and gone before the crunchy melting snow and ice had time to refreeze. It would be treacherous to drive back under those conditions.
She dropped Jeb at the sheriff"s and headed to the feed store for her order of sweet feed and more rope. She greeted Ricky and gave him her order. He sent the boys out to load her truck.
"About that rope," he began. "Do you want something soft that won"t chafe the skin? Like when you might tie someone up?" He had a smirk on his face.
"Hmm, Ricky, I didn"t know you were into that sort of stuff."
"I"m not. I just, um, thought you might oh, um, never mind." He huffed and puffed then walked back to the rope.
"You pick out what you want, and I"ll cut it for you."
"Just give me a roll of the hemp. It will do just fine." She smiled and couldn"t resist. "Oh and, Ricky?"
"Yeah?"
"Scarves work best for that sort of thing."
She signed her bill and walked out carrying the rope with a big smile on her face. So the entire town thought they were having all sorts of weird kinky s.e.x. She chuckled out loud. Well, she guessed they were.
"What are you looking so smug about?" Jeb asked a few seconds later when he joined her outside the grocery store.
"Oh, I"ll tell you about it in the truck on the way back. Any word on the kidnapper?"
"No, nothing. The sheriff is trying to figure out who would have enough of a grudge to do something like that. So far, he has two main contenders. Brett and the old foreman."
"I don"t even know that he"s still around here."
"Oh, there"s where it gets fishier. He works for Brett."
"You"re kidding."
"Nope." Jeb pushed open the store"s door for her.
"So, has he talked to them at all?"
"Yep, he"s been out there stirring them up some. Don"t know what good that will do except make Brett madder than he already is."
"Well, so far everything has calmed down. Let"s hope it stays that way." Drew grabbed a cart.
"I"ll take half the list if you want me to," Jeb offered.
"Great, will take less time." She tore the list in half and handed him part of it.
They took their lists and separated at the front of the store. Since she"d made the list according to the store"s order, it would have them meeting in the middle.
Thirty minutes later, she was waiting with her buggy at the front of the store when Jeb rolled up with a frown on his face.
"What is it?"
"I couldn"t find these two things."
She laughed and told him to watch her cart while she went after them. A few minutes later, she returned with a tub of lard and cranberries. He just shook his head and added them to his cart since hers was so full.
They rolled up to the cash register and proceeded to unload the carts. The cashier rolled her eyes but dutifully checked her out. Drew watched her closely to be sure she didn"t overcharge her for anything. She knew Sandy. The girl hated her for some weird reason. She didn"t have a clue as to why.
Once they"d finished at the grocery store, she directed Jeb to the bank.
"I"ll just be a minute."
She climbed out of the truck and walked into the bank looking for Clara, her usual teller. Clara had two customers in front of her, but she waited for her. When it came her turn, she saw Clara blanch. What was up with that?
"Um, I"m about to take my break, Drew. Miranda will help you." She started to walk off, but Drew stopped her with a look.
"I think not. We have business to discuss. I"m missing a deposit from my last one. I have the deposit slip, but it wasn"t on my bank statement. Do you know anything about it?"
"Please, not here." She began to shiver.
"I want my money in my account right now."
"Is there a problem here, Clara?" The vice president of the bank walked up.
"No," Clara said.
"Yes, there is. I"m missing my last deposit off my bank statement. I have the receipt that Clara gave me."
"Let"s settle this in my office." He ushered them into his office and closed the door.
"May I see your statement and the receipt?" he asked.
Drew handed him both. He studied them both then pulled something up on his computer. He played around on some keys and then turned back to Drew.
"I"m very sorry this occurred, but there seems to have been a glitch, and your statement will reflect it next month. I"m printing out a new statement with the deposit on it."
"Thank you. I appreciate it. I figured it was just an error on the part of the computer." Drew took the proffered statement and her papers back and turned to leave. She heard the man tell Clara they needed to have a talk.
When she walked out of the bank, Jeb sat in the truck waiting on her. He smiled when he saw her and cranked the truck up.
"Get everything taken care of?"
"It"s all straightened out."
Jeb frowned, but to his credit, he didn"t say anything. Drew smiled and figured Clara might have lost her job. She hated it, but she knew Clara was good friends with Brett"s family. She should have realized there was no way to get away with doing that.
They began the long drive back to the ranch. Several times, Jeb nearly lost traction, even with the snow tires on. Then there were the areas where the snow had made mud puddles that hadn"t refrozen yet.
After several close calls, they finally made it to the ranch, and Drew let out a breath in relief.
"I"d feel offended that you didn"t trust my driving, but I"m d.a.m.n happy to be home, too."
Drew laughed and climbed out of the truck after he backed it up to the back porch so they could get the groceries out. Kenny and Robert helped, and soon it was all put away.
Then, while the men moved the truck to unload the feed, Drew reworked her books with the deposit back where it belonged. She couldn"t believe that Brett had talked that poor girl into doing that. The man was a menace to society.
"According to the weatherman, tomorrow is supposed to be a good day, and warmer. We"re thinking it would be a good day to go out and look for the missing cattle," Marshall told her.
"Great. I"m going with you. Kenny can stay with Robert here at the house. I want to show you all the government land."
"Doesn"t Kenny know where it all is?" Marshall asked.
"Not like I do. I"ve been riding this land for about five years. He"s only been here four."
"You know Jeb isn"t going to like it."