How to Catch a Cowboy

by Tia Souders

  “Who’s that, over there?” Danny asked, motioning toward the woman who was now cheering for one of the teams.

  “Eh, that’s April, Houston’s girlfriend.”

  “You don’t like her?”

  Tess shrugged as if she hadn’t given it much thought, but Danny had a feeling it was quite the opposite. It seemed Tess never stops thinking, and meddling in her brother’s lives was one of her many talents. “She’s okay, I guess.”

  Danny filed this information away as Rhett emerged from around the side of the house with Noah, carrying an extra picnic table that they set down next to the grill.

  At the sight of the men, Tess turned to Danny with an evil grin. “But she’s not you. You, my dear, are a miracle worker. I swear, I haven’t seen Rhett this happy in a long time.”

  Danny’s eyes slid toward Rhett again.

  He stood next to Noah and his father, talking animatedly when he tipped his head back and laughed at something Noah said, then accepted an offered beer from his father.

  He certainly did seem different than the moody man she first met, and when he caught Danny watching, he winked.

  “I don’t know about that,” Danny said, glancing back to Tess, unable to hide her smile.

  “Oh, I do.”

  “Was he really that unhappy?”

  Danny had seen glimpses of how short-tempered he’d been, but she always attributed the brunt of his broodish behavior as some kind of aversion to her.

  Tess scoffed. “It was bad. I mean, afterward, he was inconsolable, which was understandable. But everyone kept thinking that if we’d just give him time and space, he’d snap out of it, but he didn’t. He only withdrew further. And instead of being sad all the time, he got short with everyone. He stopped coming to family functions. Take this for example”—she waved her soda can around—“a month ago, he would’ve made up some excuse about how he couldn’t leave the ranch. There would suddenly be some job he needed to do immediately that no one could do but him.”

  She paused for a moment, pursing her lips. “And, man, it’s nice to have him back.” She glanced at Danny. “I’m thinking we have you to thank for that.”

  “Hey, you ladies, gonna sit and gab all day or do you wanna play a friendly game of croquet?” Chase, the middle brother, hollered between cupped hands.

  “Croquet? How manly,” Tess yelled back.

  Chase snickered and made his way onto the patio where he promptly grabbed Tess into a headlock and gave her a noogie.

  “Stop that!” Tess swatted at his arms.

  “Afraid to get your dress dirty, princess?”

  He released Tess and jumped out of the way, barely missing her fist.

  Tess sneered and turned to Danny. “How good are you at croquet?”

  “I’ve never played,” Danny said, slightly frightened at the level sibling rivalry.

  Tess groaned. “Well, there’s a first time for everything. Let’s go kick some butt.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Chase cheered, then added, “But you’re going down.”

  “We’ll see about that, bro.”

  Thirty minutes later, the game was almost finished and Danny was in the lead.

  Rhett sidled up next to her and ran a hand down her bare arm. “Who knew I was dating a croquet champion?” he crooned with pride.

  Danny nearly knocked the ball completely off course. It had been the first time he’d said they were dating out loud, and though it wasn’t exactly news to her, it was good to hear him confirm it.

  “Yeah,” Chase said, eyeing her like she was suspect, “how’d you get so good if you’ve ‘never played before’,” he said, making air quotes.

  By this time, everyone had joined them to watch—Mrs. Montgomery, Houston, Noah, Colton, Silas, and even April. The only one not present was Mr. Montgomery, who insisted on updates as he manned the grill.

  “I have a lot of experience playing golf.” Danny shrugged, and everyone around them laughed. “Same concept. Sort of.”

  It was true. She’d spent countless hours on the golf course with Neil, which she secretly hated. Who wanted to stand in the blazing sun and hit balls into little holes only to jump on a cart and do it all over again?

  She never saw the appeal.

  But croquet actually wasn’t too bad, or maybe it was the company that made the difference, she thought, catching a glimpse of Rhett grinning beside her while Tess hooted and rubbed the fact that he was losing in Chase’s face.

  Chase smashed his lips into a thin line and grumbled under his breath as he took his turn when Mr. Montgomery finally made his way over and announced it was time to eat.

  Turning to everyone, Colton raised his arms out like a conductor and said, “In honor of our new guest and the croquet champion, Mae gets first plate.”

  Danny froze, eyes widening while the name sunk into her bones.

  Colton’s entire face turned tomato red and his mouth opened and closed like a fish as if he could somehow recapture his words and reel them back in. Simultaneously, all eyes shifted to Rhett, and Danny watched as all the color drained from his face until he was white as a sheet.

  Beside him, Tess moved to place her arm over his shoulder, but he shrugged her away. Then, just as suddenly as the words escaped Colton’s lips, Rhett turned and left, escaping to the house.

  Several minutes of tense silence passed before Colton reached out to Danny and apologized for the slip of the tongue to which she shrugged off. Meanwhile, Mrs. Montgomery clapped her hands and ushered everyone toward the tables, now heaped with food, awkwardly trying her best to rally the previous excitement.

  More than an hour later, Rhett returned from wherever he’d gone. As he approached Danny and took the empty spot next to her, she was afraid of what he might say. But then he flashed her a small smile and asked if there were any burgers left or if Tess ate them all, to which Tess snorted like a pig, making everyone laugh. And just like that, the tension was broken.

  Day slowly slipped into night, and Danny couldn’t help the niggling worry in the back of her mind. All day, everyone eyed them like they were an amusement park attraction. When Rhett insisted on grabbing her another drink or getting her a chair. Or when Chase made his birthday wish and blew out the candles with a pointed look in their direction. And though Danny loved how happy Rhett seemed throughout the day, a part of her was so afraid it was too good to be true. The mention of Mae had brought her back to reality. And now she feared that something—or someone—was bound to sweep the rug out from under her feet.

  When they left the party, Mrs. Montgomery took her into her arms in a giant hug as they bid their goodbyes, insisting she call her by her first name, Lynn. Even Mr. Montgomery, for all intents and purposes, who seemed to be a rather reserved man, had tears in his eyes as he told Rhett to bring her by again, that it was good to see him. It was a lot of pressure, she realized, for a man who’d just barely begun to truly heal.

  “You’re unusually quiet,” Rhett said into the silence of his truck.

  Danny turned from the window where she had been watching the earth pass her by. “Is that a nice way of saying I usually talk too much?” She smiled.

  “You could never talk too much.” He reached out and clasped her hand with his free one, then brought it up to his lips, where he pressed a gentle kiss onto her knuckles. “I had fun today. Did you?”

  “I did.”

  Rhett sighed as if this pleased him. “Good. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to one of our family get-togethers. It was nice, seeing everyone in one place.”

  “When was the last time you were there?”

  “Christmas,” Rhett lifted a shoulder, then dropped it. “Then the Christmas before that.”

  “Wow.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been, uh, a little absent.”

  He grew quiet as he drove, both of them lost in their thoughts when he said, “Hey, listen, about when Colton called you Mae—”

  “It’s okay.” Danny squeezed her
eyes closed and forced a smile before she blinked them back open. She’d like to forget that particular memory. It had been uncomfortable and embarrassing for all of them, especially Colton. Danny had never seen a person turn so red before.

  “It was an accident.” She shrugged.

  “Yeah, but how I left after . . . I’m sorry. I just . . .”

  “You don’t need to explain.”

  “No, I do.” He paused and let go of her hand, clenching the steering wheel with a sigh a frustration. “I want to. It took me by surprise. And I just needed a minute. Sometimes it’s like that, especially this past week. I’ll be chugging along doing fine, or you and I will be together, and I’ll be so happy and then something happens that reminds me of her or makes me remember, and I feel this stab of pain again. It’s fresh and sharp, and today, it took a moment to pass. That’s all.”

  “I get it,” she said, though her throat felt tight.

  “Do you?” He glanced over at her, his expression earnest.

  “Yeah. I mean, I can’t pretend to know what you went through, what you’re still going through, but I can’t imagine any of this is easy.”

  Rhett exhaled as they pulled into the Montana Wild parking lot. “So you’re sure that you’re okay? You don’t wanna talk about anything?”

  Or course she did. She wanted to talk about everything. She wanted to know if he could ever truly love anyone else. She wanted to know how he felt about her. If his feelings for her were even close to what she felt for him. If it was like standing on the edge of a cliff with his toes dangling off the edge, ready to fall. She wanted to ask him if he was scared or felt pressured or . . .

  There were a million questions in her head, but she was scared of all of them, so instead of asking, she simply reached out and traced the shadow of stubble over his jaw and said, “No, none at all.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Danny marched over the lush green grass on her way to Rhett’s house. Clouds blanketed the sky above, threatening rain and slightly dulling the rising heat, which only made her walk faster.

  The last thing she wanted was to get caught in the rain.

  She wrung her hands in front of her chest as she walked. Yesterday was quite busy on the ranch, giving new meaning to the expression when it rained it poured. They had an influx of new guests, Houston delivered two new trail horses, they had a pipe break in the restaurant kitchen, and one of the older mares slipped and hurt her knee, so after all the craziness of the earlier part of the day had been taken care of, Rhett had spent the better part of his afternoon in the stables, waiting on the vet.

  All of this meant Danny had limited time with him. She had been nervous following the barbeque at his parent’s house that once he had time away from her to think, things would become awkward, or he might transform back into the brusque man he’d been when they first met, but he hadn’t. In fact, even with all the chaos, after her shift ended, he took the few minutes he had to spare and walked her back to her cabin for the night and mentioned maybe heading out to Flathead Lake for the weekend.

  Still, her stomach twisted in knots at the thought of confronting Rhett today. Danny had never been particularly bold when it came to men. She’d never been one to make the first move, but even if she were, Rhett was different. He’d been through a lot, and she needed to tread lightly, if not for his sake, for her own. Because she had no idea the depth of Rhett’s feelings. All she knew was that she felt far more for him in such a short amount of time than was probably wise.

  “Hi, Rhett,” she rehearsed, picturing his face. “Hey, I just wanted to talk about our relationship and what we are exactly. Or, not so much what we are but where we’re headed.”

  She groaned and shook her head, clearing away the faux conversation.

  She sounded ridiculous. This wasn’t high school. She was an adult. She should be able to just talk about this without feeling stupid.

  If she stormed up to him and told him she liked him—a lot, a lot more than was probably smart—and asked if he liked her too, she’d sound equally as juvenile and maybe even a touch desperate.

  Ugh. When did dating become so complicated? Love she could understand, but they—whatever they were—were so new. She should be carefree and going with the flow, but her heart said otherwise. She liked him too much.

  As Rhett’s home came into view, she caught the sound of someone’s voice and glanced around her, sure she was imagining things.

  But there he was, bent over a bed of lilies at the very flower bed where she first laid eyes on him.

  She watched him a moment, hesitating, and unsure of whether she should stay or go. But if she left now, she’d lose her nerve, so she inched closer.

  And just as she was about to call out his name, his voice drifted on a breeze.

  “. . . I’m not capable of loving anyone like I love you . . .”

  Danny froze as his words sunk in.

  He must be talking to Mae Beth. Of course he was. These were her flowers.

  Danny swallowed, taking a step back and trying to block out the sound of his voice. She didn’t want to hear this, but bits and pieces still reached her ears.

  “. . . I will always love you . . . It’s killing me. . . I can’t move forward . . .”

  His voice was so raw, so anguished, Danny covered her ears to drown out the sound. A lump formed in the back of her throat as she turned and took off in a sprint back to her cabin.

  But no matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t escape her thoughts, which were louder than Rhett’s voice.

  He’s still grieving for Mae Beth, and maybe he always will be. He’s emotionally unavailable. He’d never love anyone again—he’ll never love you. Not while he’s in love with someone else.

  Disjointed or not, she’d heard him loud and clear. And though it shouldn’t be a surprise, it still hurt. Only a fool would fall for a man still in love with another woman, even if she was gone.

  Danny scolded herself as her cabin came into view. She had wanted to talk about their relationship status, to gauge where he was at. And boy did she get the clarity she wanted. No point in being bitter because it hadn’t gone the way she’d hoped.

  She paused in front of her little cabin, trying to calm herself before going inside.

  She survived Neil. Surely, she’d survive this minor heartbreak too. After all, they’d never really even had a chance. They hadn’t even gone out on a date. So what if the past couple weeks had gone well? It meant nothing.

  Wiping the moisture from her eyes, she swallowed over the lump in her throat.

  She’d meet Tess for dinner, enjoy a girl’s night out, and the next time she saw Rhett, she’d be immune.

  She drew in a shaky breath and lifted her head at the same time someone appeared out of the corner of her eye. Startled, she turned toward the figure and her eyes widened in recognition. “Greg?”

  The older man smiled and tucked his hands into the pockets of his dark slacks. “Danny, you’re a hard girl to track down.”

  “Maybe that’s because I don’t want to be found,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Listen, if you’re here for Neil, you may as well leave now. I want nothing to do with him.”

  Greg shook his head and moved closer. “Neil is no longer with the company.”

  Danny gasped. Neil had worked hard for his slice of the law firm. When he’d been offered to buy into a third of the company, he’d been thrilled. “He’s not with Lewis & Lee? What happened?”

  “No. We let him go last week.”

  “Why?” Although she’d love for it to be on account of her, she knew it couldn’t be. Cheating on your wife and a fellow employee was slimy but not grounds for firing.

  Greg scrubbed a hand over his face. It was one of the only times Danny could recall him looking flustered.

  “There’s a lot to it, but for the sake of being brief, let’s just say, not only did we discover his indiscretion was the reason for your leaving so abruptly, but as it turns out, he was ille
gally billing clients and padding hours. When one of our biggest clients found out, they were not happy and threatened litigation.”

  Danny covered her mouth with her hands. She could only imagine how Neil was handling this. Not well, she presumed, and she’d be lying if the thought of it didn’t please her just the slightest.

  But that still didn’t explain why one of the partners was here at Montana Wilds.

  “Okay, but that still doesn’t explain why you’re here?”

  “As you know, Neil owned a portion of the company. We offered to buy him out at a fair price if he left quietly. In exchange, we wouldn’t press charges. But, seeing as how you guys were married while he owned a portion of Lee & Lewis, we thought it only fair to inform you that one half of his third of the company is rightfully yours, if you want it. It was one of our stipulations. Or we could give you half of the money we offered him. The choice is yours.”

  Stunned, Danny wasn’t sure what to say. “And he’d be okay with that?”

  “That’s the thing about leverage,” Greg grinned, “he doesn’t have much of a choice.”

  Danny hadn’t asked for anything from Neil after the divorce. She hadn’t wanted it, but this . . . this felt different.

  “And we also wanted to let you know that your old job is yours if you want it,” he said, interrupting his thoughts. “To be honest, the office has been a mess since you left. I don’t think any of us realized how much of our operation you were holding together.”

  Danny ran a hand through her hair, dazed as she stumbled back and put a hand on the railing of the porch behind her for support. So she could keep one-sixth of the company or cash it in, and she could have her job back if she wanted it, sans Neil.

  “You came all the way out here to tell me all of this? You could’ve called.”

  Greg shrugged. “I always liked you, Danny, and truth be told, I couldn’t stand Neil. He was a snake in the weeds from the start. And besides,” he said, glancing around him, “I’ve been needing a vacation. My wife has been bugging me about taking off time for years. I thought a couple days out west might do us some good.”