by Brynn Hale
COLE
Peacock Ridge Cowboys Book 1
Brynn Hale
Copyright © 2019 by Brynn Hale
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contact Brynn at [email protected] for more information.
Acknowledgment
Thank you to authors Tarin Lex, Mazzy King, Kali Hart, Kate Tilney, Krysta Fox, and Lana Dash (and so many more :-)) for making this story and this adventure amazing and inspiring. <3 Brynn
Contents
COLE
COLE
COLE
COLE
ELLIE
COLE
ELLIE
COLE
ELLIE
Epilogue
About the Author
COLE
“Morning, ladies.” I step into the dining room and grab a muffin off the buffet, offering the two late-twenty-something women a smile as I grab my Carhartt jacket off the coat rack by the door.
As one of the three owners of the Peacock Ridge Ranch and B&B, my brothers Breck and Luke being the other two, I’m encouraged to be friendly. Luke, the marketing manager, reminds us daily that these people—guests—pay a major portion of the bills, but some days I have to fight to find that smile and some days there just isn’t one. There’s just too much bullshit for every day to look anything near bright enough to smile at.
I open the front door and pause. Winter in Colorado has struck again. There’s a good three to five inches of new snow out there. I set the muffin down to put the coat on before heading through the screen door, forgetting the muffin and figuring it’ll still be there when I’m done with the veterinarian appointment.
Right on schedule, plowing its way through the snow, a silver pickup with black tinted windows pulls up next to the barn, Doc Roberts, local animal vet. The first part of December had been a dry winter in northern Colorado, but it seems the closer we get to the big holiday the more Mother Nature wants to see a white Christmas. And now that we’re only three days away, I’m hoping that the last of the guests will get to leave before the next big snowfall, so we can have our traditional family Christmas alone.
I shiver as the cold cuts into me and raise my collar to give me a little more protection. When it comes to raising cattle, the snow’s dangerous, but the cold even more so. Even with the herd staying close to the barn waiting for their next meal, one of the cows has come up lame from walking the fields.
Those damn pocket gopher holes strike again. If only we could control the populations of the vermin, but the local environmentalists—my best friend, Tilly Warren, being one of them—have made a request to treat all animals with respect for their part in the circle of life and we’re trying, impatiently and crankily. But if it costs the ranch hundreds of dollars in veterinary costs, those gophers will be gone tomorrow.
The door on Doc Roberts’ truck opens and my boots slide to a stop, hurling flakes of snow in all directions. That’s definitely not Doc Roberts. Well, it is, but not the 65-year-old man I was expecting.
“Elodie?” I will my legs to move toward the figure with curves that rival the roads that go around mountains in this state. “Elodie Roberts?”
Her long dark brown hair flips over her shoulder as she glances back at me while towing her vet bag from the back seat of the truck. “Dr. Roberts now, but it’s me. Hello, Cole.”
My chest burns at the deep roll of my name from her perfect red lips. It’s a feeling I haven’t felt since… maybe never.
“Don’t tell me that your father has finally retired?” I button up my coat.
“Dad’s slowing down, not quite done yet. I’ll be taking over in the next six months, give or take when my father believes I’m ready.” I could imagine my father would’ve been the same, if a freak accident hadn’t taken him from us two years ago.
I try to stop them, but my eyes keep roaming her body. Part of me can’t see her as anything but “Little Elodie Roberts.” The girl in high school who had her nose stuck in a book and followed me around like a puppy dog when her dad would bring her along on calls to the ranch. But the way her hips have rounded, how her perky and bountiful chest pulls at the buttons on her coat, and the slow flash of her long brown lashes make a part of me see her extremely differently. She’s changed.
This is no girl.
“I hear you have a lame heifer?” She adjusts her bag and I have the overwhelming urge to take it from her hand. She’s fully capable, but something inside of me is telling me she needs my help. But I’m thinking it isn’t with the bag.
“This way.” I motion my cowboy hat covered head for her to follow. “When did you come back to Peacock Ridge?”
“About three weeks ago. Dad just started letting me go out on my own.”
I chuckle. “You go to Colorado U or State?”
“State,” she mumbles.
I glance to her. “Why didn’t I see you there?” I’d completed a degree in animal science, taking five years to work my way through, but I couldn’t place her on campus. We should’ve both been there for at least one cross-over year or more. Although with over thirty thousand students, it isn’t totally surprising that our paths didn’t cross. Or I want to believe that because knowing she was right there all the time now hurts my chest.
A soft pink blush blooms over her cheeks. “Cole, I think we’ll agree that we weren’t in the same social circles in high school and definitely not in college either. You were Mr. Popular in high school and what, homecoming king at State? I was a freshman when you were a senior. I was nicknamed Elophant in high school and yours was The King. We weren’t meant to be friends. It just didn’t make sense.”
And that’s where she’s wrong. About a lot of things. We are meant to be, Elodie. Just not only friends.
That definitely makes sense.
ELLIE
What the hell has my father gotten me into? And how the hell am I going to get out of it?
This is Cole Reeves. Cole. Fucking. Reeves. The hottest, most wanted guy in the Peacock Ridge High School and still the hottest guy thirteen years later. The way my face heats tells me everything. He still has all the power to make me a wet-panty, heavy-breathing, timid mouse.
But now I might really like it.
Before I can enjoy the high of the moment, high school memories place a flash burn on my delight. Cole and his brothers were never mean to me, their father would’ve had them slinging cow pies for days…with their hands, probably. But there were other assholes who’d permanently changed the way I look at hetero males. Including the nice ones.
As soon as I hit that stage with the graduation diploma in my hand, I concentrated on getting out of Peacock Ridge. I never considered I’d be coming back. When my father offered up the Roberts Animal Clinic to me, and for a reasonable price, like zero, I really couldn’t turn it down. But with it came the knowledge I’d be visiting some of the guys who made my life hell. That was the way around here. The next generation took over for the older one in a cycle that made this town both special and unfortunately, predictable.
We’re all close and sometimes that proximity and first-hand knowledge is good and sometimes it is bad. Like right now, walking with Cole on my left side, his woodsy cologne wafts on the winter breeze, complementing the crispness of the snow-filled air. This is bad. Very bad.
My nipples peak under my flannel shirt and press like tiny mountains against the multiple layers of fabric. I grip my vet bag tighter in my hand and yank it toward my chest to block him from seeing anything. It feels like I have nothing on, but with the tank top, flannel shirt,
vest and jacket I have on, I’m sure I’m safe.
I don’t need it getting back to Dad that his new vet is giving a peep show to single ranchers. That’s not what I want to be known for. It’s hard enough as a woman veterinarian to be accepted by the local ranchers. I don’t need to be known as the town call girl, too.
But when it comes to Cole Reeves, something other than my professional veneer stands between us. The past. Shana and my deep crush. He doesn’t know about that last part. That is my secret that only Shana knew about.
“I was sorry to hear about you and…” I can’t say her name. She isn’t dead, but she’s dead to me.
“Thanks. She’s definitely better off with Nolan than with me. They both need the finer things in life and I only want a good beer at the end of the day and my family to be happy.”
And that is Cole. Everything he is, right there. Simple. Honest. Genuine.
Shana on the other hand is self-centered. Complicated in ways people don’t ever expect. And a… backstabber. Definitely isn’t my favorite person. Top Ten Worst Humans Ever.
“You need someone more down-to-earth, Cole.”
He stills and looks me in the eye. My stomach flutters, reminding me of a girl I once was. “I completely agree, Elodie.” Most people call me “Ellie” but I like how my birthname rolls off of his tongue slow and drawn out. His piercing gaze trails through me, the heat moving down my body landing between my legs with a strong pulsing sensation.
“So where’s this lame heifer?” I need to get the conversation back to why I’m here, only professional and non-personal. As I walk, my body sends zings out from my pussy and I almost moan. The man could send me into an orgasmic bliss with only a touch, I’m sure of it.
“She’s in the last pen. I took a look but couldn’t find anything.”
I consider all the possibilities in my head to be prepared, but when I see the cow I instantly know, and I wonder what’s going on because this isn’t normal. “You let a bull out in the field in the spring?”
Cole shakes his head and then kicks the corner post on the pen. “Dammit. I told Breck that fence was down for longer than a couple hours and that Nolan was lying about that bull being a dud.”
“Yeah, she’s not lame.” I grab his shoulder; the muscles harden under my touch. “She’s gonna be a mommy.”
COLE
“Shit! I don’t know how I missed that glow she has. I bet she’s going to be offended to hear that, right?” I nudge her shoulder with mine.
Elodie laughs and shakes her head. “Not sure about any glow and don’t feel bad, plenty of horses and cows have dropped foals and calves when least expected. It’s always a story I hear at the coffeeshop.”
“That stud bull chased off the other cows with his blatant moves, but this heifer followed him into Church’s field. She liked his crass ways, I guess. Seems that’s that family’s M.O. It took Church about ten days to return her, too. He’s gonna pay for this visit, one way or another.”
She shakes her head. “I think her off gait is definitely from the pregnancy. That’s going to be a big calf. I’m assuming Angus.” I nod. She continues looking over the heifer. “And I’m not going to charge you, Cole.”
I rub the back of my neck. “Then it looks like I brought you out here for nothing.”
Her smile warms the cold Friday morning. “I’m glad I came out. I need all the experience I can get.”
“You going to the Snow Ball tomorrow night?”
She pats the cow’s back before climbing out of the pen. “Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it.”
“Then you’ll be my date. Drinks on me and a few spins around the dance floor? It’s the least I can do.”
Elodie stills as she’s bent over, putting away her medical implements as her bag rests on a bench. The sight makes my cock jump in my jeans. I imagine bending her over the hay bales in the corner of the barn, grabbing those generous hips and sliding into her from behind like a hot knife into butter.
“Cole?” She waves in my face. “Cole!”
I drag myself from the daydream. If she looks below my belt buckle, she’s going to know what’s on my mind. “Yeah, yeah. So, what do you say?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
I step closer. “Sometimes bad ideas are the ones that make for good stories, Elodie.”
She lifts the bag and I reach for it, covering her hand. We hold on together and I swear she trembles.
“Cole…” Her chest rises and falls quickly. I lean in as she licks those pillowy lips. She bends away from me. “No. I can’t.” Her eyes dart all over my face. “It took me too long to get over you the first time. I don’t think I could do it again.”
I release my grip and watch her walk away. Get over me? That’s news to me.
She jumps in her truck, and before I can say “What the…?” she’s gone.
I reach down and grab the stethoscope that she left on the bench. I stride toward the main house. Ignoring the two ladies wrapped up in Mom’s quilts sitting on the porch this time as they call out to me.
Well, Ms. Elodie, you’re going to get under me very soon. That I can guarantee.
And it will be a fantastic story that we’ll both never forget.
ELLIE
I jump into the truck and blow out of the driveway like the devil himself is chasing me. Maybe he is. I feel tortured. I’ve let go of the one thing that’s been a weight on me for so long. There was only one other person who ever knew how I felt about Cole and what she did with the information made me understand that I couldn’t trust anyone with secrets ever again. It’s better this way. He and I are… different. He’s Mr. Homecoming King and I’m a peasant on the sidelines.
Back in high school, our social and friend circles rarely tangled unless I was being dragged along with Shana as a third wheel to a party. Thankfully, I finally saw her for who and what she was.
Parking at the Featherbone BBQ shop, I head inside the restaurant that has a surplus of names and a merry-go-round of owners and cuisines. But I heard from Dad that they have the best biscuits and gravy in a forty-mile radius, so I’m in for that. And my dad knows good biscuits, my mother made the best. God rest her soul.
I’ve been working overtime trying to get caught up on how the business works and how Dad really does his appointments. Little talking, little diagnosing, little coffee and cake. No wonder he’s gone all the time and no wonder why I’m exhausted. I do more people counseling most days than diagnosing animals, but I knew that was coming, especially in a small town.
I flop down on a bar stool and the person who spins to me after closing the register makes me swallow hard. “Grace?”
“Oh, my God! Ellie!” Her voice is like an angel, light and airy and soothing. She runs around the end of the counter. She hugs like she’s been in witness protection. “I missed you so much.”
“Um… where have you been?”
Her lithe body sinks into me. “Finding myself and losing my mind.”
“And did you do the first and hopefully not the latter?”
She backs away, raising and lowering her shoulders quickly. “Well, I’m back here, so I guess I found out that I need to come…”
“Home?” I ask as she purses her lips.
She nods without saying anything.
I’m sure she sees the question coming from a mile away. “Have you seen—”
“Not yet.” She slides back and collects herself. Returning to the strong woman I know from high school. “I know he’s going to come in here and I’m going to crumble.”
I doubt that, but her previous relationship was something that not many people get. The two of them used to make me a hundred percent, plus a dash, jealous. But then she left Peacock Ridge a year ago and I’m still confused as to what happened. But taking a look at her, I can see she’s both the same Grace and in some ways she’s changed. That’s not important. The fact that she’s here is.
“You haven’t even texted him?” I ask,
eyeing up the menu.
“Hi, Mr. Witka. Your regular?” She slides backwards. “Sorry, duty calls.” Saved by the bell that she rang for herself.
I know Grace Quinn, and this isn’t her. There’s something she’s hiding, but right now my stomach is making obscene noises.
I’ll get to the bottom of her issues soon enough, but it’s not like I don’t have enough of my own.
She returns to me with the pot of coffee. I flip over a cup on the saucer and she pours it. It’s ink black and flows like molasses. Rancher coffee. I forget how this town doesn’t change.
“You going to the Snow Ball tomorrow night?” I ask. Having a bodyguard might be necessary.
“Nah, I’m not really in the ball mood.”
“Because Luke will be there?”
She juts out a hip. We’re about the same size so the protruding hip is nice and sassy. I know because I used the same move on Cole when he got all up in my face. The attitude matches her swinging chestnut ponytail and rosy red lips.
“And you had to go and say his name.”
I see the quiver in her lip. I reach across the counter and grab her hand that’s gripping the hot coffeepot. “Hey, put it down, Grace. We don’t need you getting a burn.”
“Do you think I should go?”
I can’t answer that for her. Heck, I can’t answer it for myself. I want to go. And I want to go with Cole. But there’s reasons I shouldn’t.
I inhale. “Cole Reeves asked me to go with him…”
She giggles. “You make it sound like we’re in high school.”
I pause and a big smile comes over me. “You’re right. Am I a teenager or a grown woman?” I squeeze her hand. “I can’t tell you how much I love having you back here.”
“And you being back here, too. I never thought I’d be back.”