by Kadie Scott
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” he murmured in her ear.
A slightly hysterical giggle escaped her. “Maybe not.”
*
He couldn’t even dance with the woman without wanting to wrap her up in his arms. The cattle they’d rounded up today had more brains. As his dad used to say, if brains were leather, he wouldn’t have enough to saddle a June bug.
The memory tugged a smile from him.
He’d forgotten all the colloquialisms his dad used to spout. Logan frowned as his realization struck. He’d never wanted to return to a ranch, or even a small town like this, because he had thought the memories would be too hard to take. Hell, after the funerals and finalizing the sale of the ranch, he’d shot out of there as fast as his beat-up pickup truck could drive him. But since he’d been on High Hill Ranch and in La Colina, most of the memories pulled from his mind had been good ones.
Ones that didn’t make his heart hurt.
Everyone else arrived back at the table about the same time, pulling him out of his head.
“It is so nice to get out for an adult night once in a while,” Holly said smiling and lifting her long hair off her neck to cool off. “We need to do this more often.”
Before anybody could respond, a tall man who looked too much like Cash not to be related stepped up to the table, his arm around a petite woman with deep red hair. “Somebody told us we’d find you here, but I didn’t believe it till I saw it with my own two eyes.”
All the Hill siblings started talking at once, even as they all got up from their seats to give the newcomers hugs.
“I didn’t know you were coming home,” Carter commented.
The man, who Logan had figured out was Will, the oldest of the five Hills, gave Carter a concerted frown. “Mama totaled her car. Of course we would come home.”
“And everything’s okay at your ranch, Rusty?” Carter asked the woman Logan assumed was Will’s wife.
For her part, Rusty waved a hand and smiled. “My guys have everything well in hand. And, luckily, I’m between horses for my training schedule at the moment, so it made the journey go a little faster to get here.” She flicked wide, dark eyes Logan’s direction. “Who’s your friend?”
Carter gave a little gasp. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” She quickly made the necessary introductions and Logan shook hands with both the newcomers.
Unlike his brother, Cash, Will didn’t try to strong-arm the shake or start making threats. And unlike the younger brothers, Autry and Jennings, he also didn’t immediately start in with the jokes or the questions.
Instead he regarded Logan thoughtfully from the same blue eyes all the siblings had except Autry. “So you’re the guy that got Carter through her breakup with Brian.”
“Sorry?” Logan asked.
He glanced at Carter who was rolling her eyes behind Will’s back and shaking her head.
“That breakup was hard for her, because she had to choose between two futures, and she loves both.”
Carter flicked Will in the back of the neck with her fingers, and he winced as he turned to face her, one hand going up to cover the spot. “Hey,” he protested. “You know it’s true. You love ranching.”
Carter shrugged. “Yeah, but between Autry and Jennings running High Hill and you with your horses, even with Rusty’s ranch in Wyoming, I was never going to have a place here.”
“But you could have with Brian?” Logan asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
Brother and sister both faced him, but it was Will who answered. “Not exactly. Brian is one of three brothers and they split up the work fairly well.”
“Every hand helps,” Logan said. “That’s what Dad always said.”
Another memory of his father not tied to the accident, the drought, or losing the ranch.
Will nodded as he dragged another pair of chairs over and settled his wife on one. “But Brian’s family made it pretty clear that Carter’s help would be more valued in the household side of things.”
Given the fine mind she had, not to mention the expensive degrees—plus, he’d tasted her cooking and seen the state of her apartment—no way would Carter’s interests and inclinations lend to her being happy as a housewife. Even on a ranch with all its added needs.
Logan glanced at Carter who was glaring a hole in the back of her oblivious brother’s head. She’d never said much about the breakup and he’d never asked. Too personal. Now he regretted that set of circumstances.
“I see you get the point,” Will commented. “But she loves the work, and especially working with you, I think. Ultimately, that proved that she’d made the right choice. She’s happy.”
“Enough of that.” Carter shoved Will unceremoniously onto his chair.
All seated, Logan was now practically pressed up against Carter’s side in order to squeeze more people around the table, the sweet scent of her shampoo winding around him. And Will’s words stuck in his brain. Carter laughed at something and his body immediately kicked with a response.
But she wasn’t looking at him, she was looking around the table. “I think this is the first time we’ve all been together since Ashley had the baby.”
All the others nodded and smiled enthusiastically obviously happy to be reunited. Logan was still pondering what the oldest Hill had said. Of her family, Carter was the only one not married, and soon to be the only one without kids. Obviously, she had made that choice, she’d walked away from the opportunity to live in the area, and have a life she obviously loved, and settle down with the whole white picket fence thing.
They’d never discussed it, but now Logan wanted to know how she’d been able to make that decision to be herself and follow her career. The woman practically sparkled as she laughed and joked.
As if she’d read his mind, amidst the conversation she glanced his way and raised her eyebrows in question. “What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Just nice to see you so happy.”
She raised a beer and tipped in his direction. “Thanks, but I’m always happy.” She smirked and he knew what was coming next. “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”
Logan cocked his head and pretended not to know who she was quoting. “Is that from a song?”
She studied him with narrowed eyes. “By now, you should recognize Mae.”
He shrugged. “I must’ve been busy with winning cases.”
“Are you still quoting Mae West?” Cash asked on a groan.
“When was she making movies anyways?” Autry asked. “The dark ages?”
“Mostly the 1930s,” Carter answered. She tipped up her chin, eyeing them with disdain. “She’s a classic. And worth being quoted.”
“Obviously she’s been quoting her to you,” Will said to Logan.
Before he could comment, Carter dropped her voice and vamped it up with a single shoulder roll. “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.”
Everyone around the table chuckled through groans. But it was Carter’s laugh, completely lighthearted, and somehow damn sexy, that had Logan laughing, too.
Even while a lasso tightened around his heart.
He was headed back to Austin tomorrow, and Carter going out to the Owenses for her tests. After that, depending on her mother’s progress, she’d also be back, and they’d get back to normal. And then he’d see…
A sinking feeling threatening to pull him under like quicksand said walking away was the wrong choice.
His phone buzzed and he pulled it out to check the screen. A text from Angela appeared.
“Lunch next week?”
What did Angela think was going to happen here? The things he couldn’t give her when they were together—marriage, baby, house in the burbs—were even more off the table now. Guilt at his part in their relationship had eaten at him for years, but she was the one who ended things by sleeping with another man. A friend of Logan’s. Friends would never be an option.
“Wow.”
&nb
sp; Logan raised his head at the sound of Carter’s voice to find her reading his screen.
“We’re not friends,” he said. Even he wasn’t stupid enough not to realize how this would look to Carter.
She looked away. “You and Angela? Or you and me?”
Chapter Twelve
“Freaking broken bones,” Carter muttered to herself as she went about the work of finalizing the pump test for the Owens’s well. A call this morning alerted her to the fact that Noah had fallen down his stairs and broken his ankle. Which meant he couldn’t come help.
Luckily, the company she worked for had helpers to set up the pump and lines. She was satisfied that everything looked correct. The pumped water would go into a pond that didn’t feed back into the wells being tested. Both properties were notified what water they could and couldn’t use for the next thirty hours so that their use didn’t impact her data. The equipment was all checked and double-checked.
Happy with things and done with her baseline data for comparison during and afterward, she set the pump running. Then turned, hands on her hips, to survey the rest of her “camp.” A single two-person tent now, instead of two tents. No one else was available, which meant she was about to pull an all-nighter by herself.
“Fantastic,” she muttered.
Noah was in Austin. Her siblings were looking after her banged-up mother. And Logan was going to lunch with Angela, who might or might not be just a friend. He’d insisted he wasn’t encouraging his ex, but why did she keep texting him with the clear assumption his answer would be yes?
“Get over your pity party,” she muttered to herself.
Then she set about getting her tent organized, along with her equipment for measurement, not to mention proper storage of food for while she was here. Texas didn’t really have bears, but they did have the stray wolf or mountain lion, as well as packs of coyotes. Couldn’t be too careful. It had taken hours to lug all this out using one of the Owens’s four-wheelers and a small trailer.
Already tired after a night wide awake thinking about the man in the room next door, she’d need coffee on the hour to keep awake for this. She’d been up at the butt crack of dawn, but evening had started to dim the sunlight, casting navy shadows over the land before she finished organizing everything to her satisfaction. With a satisfied, though exhausted, sigh, she sank down into one of the camp chairs she’d brought and tipped her head back.
“Carter?” a woman’s voice sounded.
After startling, her heart getting all fired up, Carter relaxed. She knew that voice.
“Over here, Emma,” she called.
The clop of a horse’s hooves sounded, followed by the rustle of leaves, until finally both Owenses appeared around a nearby oak tree. And then Logan behind them.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, not bothering to hide her surprise.
“Helping.” The grim tone to his voice, in combination with a hard stare, had Carter bottling up the rest of her questions. It would have to wait until the Owenses left, because no doubt in her mind, Logan was pissed about something.
Why he had the right to be—because he didn’t—made her pissed in return, irritation roiling though her blood. “Huh. Just don’t get in my way.” In other words, bring it, Mr. Cartez.
“We thought you could use some fresh coffee,” Emma said as she dismounted.
“How thoughtful.” Carter smiled at the older couple. “I was just about to start a fire and put a pot on. It’s going to be a long night.”
“Very long, trying to do this on your own,” Logan said.
The Owenses obviously didn’t catch the snap in his voice, but Carter did.
Behind their backs she mouthed, “What’s your problem?”
He just shook his head then nodded at the older couple, a clear sign that whatever was in his craw, they’d discuss it later.
After looking around the pump in the temporary piping to a nearby pond, as well as the camp, and Carter explaining the data and how everything worked, the Owenses poured each of them a cup of coffee and they stood around a campfire that Jed got started.
Clouds rolling in with wind meant a storm was coming. One of those May cold fronts that dropped temperatures from the eighties and nineties during the day to more like sixties in the day and even as low as the forties at night. Hopefully, the forecast was right, and she wouldn’t have to worry about lightning or getting dumped on with rain until long after she’d cleared out of here.
“Judge would’ve found this fascinating. Don’t you think?” Emma said to her husband.
For his part, Jed just gave a grunt that Carter assumed was agreement.
“Who is Judge?” she asked.
“Our son. He was killed in a tractor accident about five years ago.” Emma looked off into the distance, a wistful smile playing about her mouth.
“I am so sorry to hear that,” Logan said.
Carter reached over to squeeze Emma’s arm even as she cast Logan a searching glance. Not that the tractor accident was anything related to what happened to his parents, but was he thinking about them now?
“It was just one of those freak things.” Jed spit on the ground. “He was using the tractor to clear some land close to the house. I don’t know how he used to do it, but he could make this kind of roll with what he was clearing. It looked like a tree got bent back as he went up over a rise and then came out from under the tractor down on top of Judge, right on the back of his neck. Pinned him between the steering wheel and the tree.”
“It happened right outside the house. Right where I could see him,” Emma said. Carter could see the guilt of the self-blame in the older woman’s eyes as she spoke. “We didn’t know until I went out to call him in for lunch. By then it was too late, he was already gone.”
“At least we know he went quick.” Jed put a hand on his wife’s shoulder, and she covered his with one of her own as they shared a quiet moment.
“It’s easy to forget how dangerous ranching life can be, no matter how careful you are,” Carter said softly. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine.”
Jed nodded to her with the closest thing to a smile the man seemed to show.
For her part, Emma took a deep breath around the memories. “Well, anyway, Judge would’ve liked this.” She directed her gaze to Logan. “When do you think this will go to trial, Logan?”
Carter wondered if Logan caught the byplay of glances between husband and wife at that question.
“Going into the summer, with the heat and everything, I would prefer to get you sorted out sooner rather than later,” he said. “You need the water. But it will depend on Carter’s findings.”
“Is there any reason you’re asking?” Carter asked.
Again the couple exchanged a series of nonverbal communications that only people who’d spent a lifetime together could interpret correctly. “We’re getting close to having to sell,” Jed said in that no-guff way of his.
Carter managed to school her features not to show her dismay. After all, she and Logan were here in a professional capacity. But she liked the Owenses. One only had to spend five minutes in their company to know these were good people—honest, hard-working—and they’d had more than their fair share of hard times. Now they were looking at losing their ranch?
Life certainly wasn’t fair.
“We’ll do our best to put a rush on it,” Logan assured them.
“All we can ask,” Jed said. “Come on, Em, old girl. Past my bedtime.”
The Owenses moved to their horses, but Logan didn’t follow them.
Carter raised her eyebrows. “Are you going with them?”
He shook his head. “I’m your help.”
*
Going back to Austin had been a dumb decision, but coming here, might turn out to be an even bigger one. Because logic was the last thing on his mind.
After a stilted goodbye over breakfast with most of her family watching, he’d known even as he’d gotten in his car tha
t friendship was the last thing he wanted with Carter. He’d just been too damn stubborn to figure that out before now.
He hadn’t counted on finding a woman whose career and passions followed his own. One who was already deeply ingrained in his life without his realizing she had become so important to him.
Carter Hill had snuck up on him, somehow.
“I got all the way back to Austin when I received a call informing me that you’re doing this alone. Only I didn’t get that call from the one person who should’ve made it.” He leveled a stare on her that usually had witnesses cowering on the stand.
Carter didn’t even grimace. Instead he got an eye roll for all his trouble. “I’m fine. I could’ve handled this.”
Logan crossed his arms and increased his glare from intimidating to downright angry. “Putting aside the fact that you would have to stay up for twenty-four hours without someone here to give you a break, you’re working with heavy equipment, water being pumped under pressure, and running a test that is going to have to stand up in a court of law.”
Hands plunked down on slim hips. “I’m well aware.”
Logan narrowed his eyes, irritation with her cavalier attitude rising up like the water in that well. “Maybe you’re distracted right now.”
Carter’s lips went flat in a way he didn’t think possible. “Excuse me?”
Dangerous ground, but he wasn’t in the mood to tread carefully. “You’re worried about your mother, and organizing things between you and your siblings, plus the case.” And the thing between us.
“Are you questioning my abilities?” she asked in a silky voice.
“Of course not.” Where had this conversation gone off the tracks?
“No. Just my ability to multitask, I guess.”
“Family is important. You wouldn’t look bad if you were distracted. Everyone would understand.” Why wasn’t she getting this?
“Everyone except you.” There was an accusation deeper in her tone than even the words suggested. An accusation he had no intention of engaging.
“You heard the Owenses. Their ranch is on the line now. This is too important to not have your full focus.”