Cherished by the Rancher: A Christian Cowboy Romance (Black Rock Ranch Book 1)

by Jen Peters

  “But there are three of us and only two beaters,” Adam said with a twinkle in his eye.

  By the time they had progressed from sharing out the beaters to possible bribery, Maddy was doubled over in laughter. I needed this, Lord—thank you! And then she sniffed. “The lasagne!” she gasped, leaping out of her chair.

  She dashed into the kitchen, remembered to grab pot holders, and slid the bubbly dish out of the oven. Not burnt, thank goodness.

  “Lasagne?” Adam said. “You mean there’s dinner after dessert?”

  Maddy grinned as she sprinkled the last mozzarella over the top. “In about fifteen minutes,” she said.

  Caleb brought plates in. “Too bad it’s time for evening chores,” he said. “But maybe we can do this again.”

  “Sure,” Maddy agreed. “Weekday or weekend?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Caleb said.

  “Weekend is better,” Adam said at the same time.

  Caleb grinned and shouldered his brother. “Some of us aren’t limited to Monday through Friday business.”

  Adam shouldered him back. “Some of us don’t have demanding evening chores,” he answered smugly.

  Caleb looked from Adam to Maddy and back again. “Right. You just want Maddy all to yourself.”

  Adam raised his eyebrows. “And if I do?”

  Maddy caught her breath.

  Caleb just shrugged. “Time to go, boys,” he said, leaving the cabin.

  “Hey, send Dad out if you see him,” Adam called after.

  Caleb lifted an arm in acknowledgement. Lacey caught Maddy’s eye and winked, touched a finger to Mia’s button nose, then left with the others.

  Maddy’s senses were on alert, supremely conscious of Adam beside her. His presence didn’t seem to bother Mia, but this was not what she’d expected when she’d invited Lacey to come cook with her.

  10

  Adam watched his brothers, his little sister, and his ranch hand walk away. Maddy stood just inside the cabin door, helping her daughter out of her jacket.

  He was physically aware of Maddy’s presence, even if her attention was elsewhere. He could smell her perfume or whatever it was giving her a slight floral scent. His nerve endings seemed jittery, probably because he had no clue how he’d ended up here.

  Sure, she was beautiful, and something inside him responded to her personality. And perhaps he had daydreamed a little the other day, but that was all. He really shouldn’t even be there now—he should be checking the state of the pastures, and making sure the youngest calves were doing well, and…

  His jobs seemed never-ending. They were never-ending, if he included checking on his father. That was something else he needed to think about more. But right now, he was standing next to a lovely woman who made him think of things he’d not allowed himself to think. Who made him feel strong and protective and butterfingers all at once. And who just happened to have a scrumptious dinner ready. If the Lord had set this up for him, maybe he shouldn’t argue.

  He wiped the table after Maddy put the last slice of cake away. She gave Mia silverware to put out.

  “What can I do?” he asked, then stopped, realizing how rude they’d all been. She hadn’t invited anyone over; they had each just stopped in and made themselves at home. Which was probably fine for cake, but what gave him the right to assume he was welcome for dinner?

  Adam looked at her, puttering in the kitchen, seeming as happy as could be. He didn’t know her well enough to read her moods, though. “Maddy? We sort of barged in on you, invited ourselves like you were…”

  “Family?” she finished, looking over at him. “It feels good, like I’m accepted.”

  “Of course you’re accepted. We all like having you around.” How could she think otherwise?

  She smiled softly. “I’ve been missing my own family, and having all of you here felt just right. And I would enjoy it if you stayed for dinner.”

  Their eyes met, and Adam felt like he was falling into them. Liquid chocolate, luminous warmth. Inviting, yet still reserved. He wanted to step forward, to kiss her, to see what those lush lips tasted like.

  Whoa, that was unexpected. He stepped back quickly. Even if a kiss were a possibility, it was too soon. Way too soon.

  “So, do you have an Italian family stashed back at home who taught you to cook? Or did you figure it out from YouTube like Lacey?”

  Maddy grinned, her eyes lighting up. “Mom hates cooking, but my Nonna had me on a step stool beside her when I was little. You ought to see her—short and round with tight gray curls, waving a wooden spoon all over while she talks. And heaven forbid you show up and say you’re not hungry!”

  Adam laughed. He could picture Maddy looking just like that fifty years from now. “My grandma wasn’t so flamboyant. She was soft and round and gave the best hugs. And made the best oatmeal scotchies.”

  “Oatmeal scotchies?”

  “Oatmeal cookies with butterscotch chips. Everyone else liked chocolate chip cookies better, but those were my favorite. When she made them for me, I felt like I was her favorite grandson ever.” Funny, he hadn’t thought of that in a long time. Too long. He made a mental note to put some flowers on her grave in the family cemetery.

  “Did your mom take after her, or was she like mine—a total non-cook?”

  Adam paused. Mom wasn’t someone he talked about a lot, but it wasn’t like they kept her a secret. “She did like to cook. I was too young to care about dinner stuff, but she loved baking bread on Sunday afternoons. I’d come in from riding and slather butter all over. I think I usually ate a whole loaf by myself.”

  He hadn’t thought about Mom’s bread in a long time. He looked up at Maddy. “She died when I was seventeen. Killed by a drunk driver.”

  “Oh, Adam, I’m sorry. That’s—”

  There was a knock at the door. Maddy wiped her hands and opened it, and Adam’s father stepped in. He rotated his cowboy hat in his hands like he was nervous. “My boys told me to come on down,” he said, “that you had some scrumptious cooking going on.”

  “I’m happy to have you, but won’t Uncle Dirt mind?” Maddy said. She gave a quick glance at Adam, who smiled and shook his head. They’d talked enough about Mom, anyway.

  Dad’s shoulders relaxed at Maddy’s welcome, and he grinned. “Nah, he said it left more for him to eat. Sure does smell good in here.”

  Maddy took his hat and hung it on a hook. “If you two will fill the water glasses, Mia and I will finish the salad.”

  Adam pulled four glasses down from the cabinet Maddy had pointed to, handing them one by one to his father.

  Dad looked between him and Maddy with raised eyebrows.

  Adam elbowed him slightly. This sense, this electricity that he was feeling with Maddy—the last thing he needed was for his father to get in the middle of it.

  Maddy sprinkled sliced olives over the romaine and grated the parmesan, while Mia carefully placed cherry tomatoes around the edges. Adam and his dad set the water glasses around.

  Maddy pointed them to chairs and brought the lasagne to the table. Adam fidgeted through an awkward moment as they settled, and then even more when little Mia said grace.

  “Dear God, thank you for our food, and please bless that nobody will get mad. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” Mia lifted her head quickly. “Can I have an extra big piece?”

  Adam glanced at Maddy, whose face was flushed. What had they been through that Mia would pray for no one to get mad? Did Maddy have a hidden temper? Or was it her ex?

  “After all that cake you ate? I’ll be surprised if you manage a regular piece,” Maddy answered. She dished up a small square and passed it to her daughter, never lifting her eyes to the others.

  “I’ll take one of those big pieces, if it’s all right with you,” Dad said, sending his plate Maddy’s way. “This just like my Daisy used to make, although yours might be more authentic.”

  Good for Dad, changing the subject and easing the tension around the table, alth
ough Adam didn’t remember his mother ever making homemade lasagne. He carried the conversation on. “What else did your Nonna—is that your grandmother?—teach you to make?”

  Maddy relaxed some more as she described various Italian dishes. Adam took a bite and decided it was the best lasagne he’d ever had. More than that, his heart warmed to know that Maddy was no longer embarrassed.

  They told stories of silly things they’d done when they were young and laughed out loud at some of Dad’s antics as a teenager.

  “You picked up a whole car and turned it sideways?” Mia asked, eyes wide with awe.

  “Sure did, little one. Me and three other guys. The doofus couldn’t drive it out, not with it nose and tail against the other cars. We got in trouble later, of course, but it was worth it.”

  Maddy turned to her daughter. “But if you do anything like that, you’d be in so much trouble it wouldn’t be worth it, right?”

  “Right, Mama,” Mia sighed. “Can I be excused now?”

  Mia went off to read, and the talk shifted to the long-term aspects of the ranch—calves, pastures, markets. And ranch hands.

  Wes was reliable in anything they set him to. Jesse was revealing himself to be a whiz with the horses, and Caleb would like to pull him to the stables permanently.

  “Don’t know if I want to give him up,” Adam said. “We’d have to find someone to replace him with the cattle.”

  “Give Ty a little more responsibility?”

  Adam frowned. “I wouldn’t trust Ty as far as I could throw him.”

  Dad shook his head. “He just needs to come into his own, son. People will live up to your expectations, you know.”

  Adam threw his napkin onto his now-empty plate and shook his head violently. “Ty will never make a good ranch hand. He’s lazy, he drinks, and he vanishes anytime he can.”

  He knew his voice was caustic, but he hadn’t expected Maddy to startle and draw back. “Sorry,” he said in a softer voice. “Ty just pushes all my buttons.”

  “You don’t give him much chance to do anything else,” Dad pointed out. “Besides, we don’t want to bore Missy here with talk about employees.”

  Adam glanced at Maddy’s confused face. He must seem like two different people to her. But she was almost two people to him.

  There was Maddy, the detailed accountant and loving mother. And there was the Maddy who cringed at displays of temper and protected her daughter. Her ex-husband must have been pretty bad.

  Samuel put his napkin on his plate and stood. “It’s been a fine evening, Missy. Thank you.”

  “I enjoyed it very much,” Maddy said. She began to pick up plates, and Adam hurried to help.

  “Are you a church-goer?” he asked. “Would you like a ride tomorrow?”

  She paused and then looked up. “Sure, thanks. I’ve missed for a couple weeks now, and it feels weird.”

  Adam’s hand brushed hers as they put plates in the sink at the same time. He heard her quick intake of breath at the same time a feeling of excitement ran through him. Maybe there was something here, something that might grow. Did he want it to? “Tomorrow morning, then.”

  Maddy nodded, but didn’t look up.

  The stars were brilliant and the air chill as Adam and his father walked silently home, wrapped in their own thoughts.

  11

  The Three Ms, Maddy thought, sitting in the back seat of the truck’s club cab Sunday morning. Her, Mia and Micah. Too bad it was Samuel sitting up front with Adam.

  Not really—it was probably a good thing she was back here. She kept being wishy-washy with her feelings about Adam. The attraction was getting stronger, even if neither of them had actually said anything out loud, but the complications in her life weren’t going to go away. They did, however, seem to be settling down. It had been more than two weeks since she’d left Denver, and the ranch itself felt protective, like it had folded her into its life and wouldn’t let any harm come to her.

  She sat silently for the first few minutes, not trying to be nervous around him, just soaking in his closeness and considering the possibilities. Adam was the perfect example of a girl’s dream cowboy—rugged and worn but still as handsome as ever. He wasn’t conceited, just sure of himself, confident in his abilities and his place in the world. It showed in his walk and his speech and was one of the things that made her heart beat faster.

  There were times, though, that his grumpiness at something verged on temper and put her on edge. It wasn’t like when she was married to Brock—Adam was only her boss, after all—but she didn’t like feeling hesitant around him.

  And then Micah spoke. “I’ll bet this is nothing like your California cities, is it?”

  “Uh, no. Very different,” she agreed cautiously. She hadn’t wanted any connection back to Denver, so she’d asked Samuel to say she was from southern California. Now, looking out the window for something to comment on, she hoped it wouldn’t come back to bite her. “We sure don’t have mountains like these.”

  Adam glanced at her. “Isn’t Los Angeles right up against the mountains?”

  Was it? Maddy’s tongue grew thick. “Um, yeah, but they aren’t as big as these. And you can hardly see them for the smog.”

  “Did you spend a lot of time at the beach? Sometimes I wish I had an endless ocean instead of the mountains,” Micah said.

  “We’ve never been to the beach,” Mia piped up.

  Maddy managed not to put her hand over her eyes at her daughter’s innocent words. “Not much, anyway,” she said. “It still takes a long time to get there, and we were always too busy.”

  “Son, you don’t need to ask a billion questions,” Samuel said. “It’s not like you’re going to see the beach anytime soon, anyhow.”

  She caught Adam’s eyes in the rearview mirror, but she couldn’t read his expression.

  “What happened to that tree?” she asked, glad to find something different to comment on. The trunk was split, but both sections had green leaves.

  “Lightning-struck,” Samuel said. “Long time ago, from the look of it.”

  “Good thing it wasn’t last year,” Adam said. “Last summer was way too dry, and lightning could send a fire our way real fast.”

  With that, the men’s talk shifted to past fires, helping fight them, how close they got, whether the planes should drop water or fire retardant. Relief coursed through Maddy’s body as she sat back and listened. If she’d had to go on about California…Adam wasn’t one to forgive a lie easily, and she didn’t want to lose his respect.

  She watched him through the mirror, his eyes on the road, his face animated as he talked. With time to actually look, she noticed smaller things. He had a scar running through one eyebrow—what had caused that? Had he come close to losing his eye? And another scar just below the brim of his hat. She couldn’t see his mouth, but—

  Adam’s eyes met hers in the mirror. She dropped her gaze immediately, fighting the heat that quickly engulfed her face. Caught drooling over a handsome man. She didn’t think she’d raise her eyes to him the rest of the day.

  He finally pulled into a gravel parking lot next to a quaint white church with a tall steeple and a few stained glass windows. Maddy’s soul sighed in recognition, and even with missing her first Sunday through moving exhaustion, she wondered why she hadn’t made the trip down on her own last week. The men stomped and brushed any remaining dust off their clothes before escorting her to the door.

  “Howdy, Pastor Rich,” Samuel said, taking his cowboy hat off and extending his hand. “Fine morning, isn’t it?”

  Pastor Rich, dressed in boots and new jeans like the Blacks but with a light blue shirt and a preacher’s white collar, shook hands. “Looks like you’ve gained a couple, Samuel.”

  Samuel grinned. “This is Maddy Ricci—” He turned back to her in consternation. “How do you say your name, again?”

  “Maddy Ricciolino,” she said, stepping up to shake the pastor’s hand. “I’m the new accountant at the ran
ch. And this is my daughter, Mia.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Maddy, Mia. I look forward to seeing you here often.”

  The men traipsed into the church and settled into a pew that seemed to be their regular one. Maddy sent Mia in first, then followed. Fitting together on one bench only worked if they squeezed, and she wouldn’t have survived being scrunched next to the guy who’d caught her watching him.

  Still, it looked like Adam had hung back so they could sit next to each other, which should make her feel better, but still…how embarrassing! She squeezed Mia’s hand and focused on the service instead.

  The hymns were new to Maddy, but she enjoyed the traditional feel of the service. She soaked in the organ music, but Pastor Rich’s sermon about integrity made her squirm. Hiding her background and her real name wasn’t being honest and upright in all things, now, was it? But what else was she supposed to do?

  In the rec room for refreshments afterwards, the guys scarfed up donuts and coffee cake. Maddy was pouring a glass of punch when Pastor Rich approached.

  “How are you doing out there with all the Blacks?” he asked, his eyes warm with humor.

  “They’re good guys,” she said. “Caleb reminds me of my brother. And Samuel is great.” Great at keeping her secret, but she didn’t need to mention that, especially after the pastor’s sermon.

  “And Adam and Micah?”

  “Micah is quieter than the others, I think, but Adam…” Maddy paused, not sure how much to say. “Let’s just say we started out with my daughter getting into the bull pasture by mistake.”

  Pastor Rich roared. Heads turned, and he lowered his voice. “I’ll bet that didn’t go over so well.”

  “No, it didn’t.” Maddy smiled. “He’s a nice guy in a lot of ways, but it left me a little wary of him, to be honest.”

  But Pastor Rich shook his head. “Adam cares greatly, takes responsibility for everyone around him. And if something is outside his control, he’ll worry that he can’t fix anything bad that happens.”