by Karen Rock
“There’s a softer side to you, Jewel, no matter how many quills you cover yourself in.”
Jewel straightened her slouch when Heath sauntered into the kitchen, his brown hair wet and clinging to his high cheekbones, his blue eyes hazy until they landed on her. “I’m not prickly.”
Heath lifted a skeptical brow and strode to the coffee maker. The play of his muscles beneath his fitted gray shirt snared her attention and stole her breath.
“I’ve got a way for you to prove it.”
“How?” Jewel sneaked a glance at Heath’s broad back as he poured himself a cup, her eyes trailing over the worn Wranglers that hugged his long legs. Why did the most irritating man also have to be the most handsome one she’d ever seen?
“I need you to fill my spot on the Flower Gala planning board,” Ma said in a rush. “It helps raise thousands of dollars each year for animal and wildlife conservation.”
At Jewel’s coughing fit, Heath’s head whipped around. His deep blue eyes searched her flushed face until she subsided back in her chair. “I thought Sofia was taking your place.”
“We’d planned on it, but James called. Seems she’s having some troubles with her first trimester.”
Jewel’s heart clenched for her sister-in-law. “Is she okay?”
“Oh yes. The doctor just wants her to take it easy and spend as much time off her feet as possible. Jewel, I hate to ask you, but...”
Jewel sighed. Family. Equal parts love and suffering. “Of course, Ma. What do I need to do?”
A chair scraped against the tiled floor as Heath dragged it back and dropped into it. He hung his head over his coffee. With his eyes closed, he inhaled the curling steam rising off the surface before drinking the brew.
“Attend the weekly meetings, share your thoughts and offer to help make calls, organize, set up, tear down...there’s no end to the work that needs doing.”
“That’s work?” Jewel scoffed. She and Heath reached for bananas from the basket set in the center of the table. When their fingers touched, it was as if an electric spark shot up her wrist. Neither of them moved for a long moment and Jewel couldn’t feel her heart. She jerked her hand back as if she’d touched a live wire.
Her ma’s chuckle flowed through the phone. “Just wait and see.”
Jewel’s fingers stopped mid-peel as suspicion crackled inside her. “Am I going to have to wear a dress to this Flower Gala thing?”
“Sofia can lend you one. And your grandmother was petite like you. I have some of her gowns hanging in my old closet.”
Jewel savagely bit off one end of the banana and chewed. “But Grandma liked ruffles. Lace.” She swallowed hard. “Pink.”
“That’s a wonderful color for you. You’ll look pretty.”
“Pretty and me are two words that don’t go together.”
Heath leveled her with a speculative stare that curled her toes inside her boots.
“You have your own kind of beauty if you’d stop scowling once in a while.”
Jewel relaxed her pursed mouth and smoothed her pinched brow. “When do I scowl?”
When Heath guffawed, Jewel mouthed “shut it” at him, then continued, “Plus, you’re my mother. You have to say that.”
“It is part of the job description,” Ma said blithely. “But in your case, it also happens to be true.”
A tabby cat butted her ankle, then trotted to Heath, who scooped it up and stroked its arching back. “What if I’m on the range overnight and can’t get into town?”
Heath’s eyes clicked with hers and something dark in their sapphire depths stalled her breath.
“Boyd’s going to talk to Heath so he and Daryl can arrange to cover for you those nights. In fact, is Heath there?”
Jewel gulped down the last of her banana. “Yeah. Heath’s here.” And way too present for her liking. “Want me to put him on?”
Heath extended a hand.
“In a moment. Are you getting along okay with the Lovelands?”
Jewel shook her head at Heath, and he dropped his hand to his mug handle. “I kept the herd from getting poisoned yesterday.” She launched into the tale, relishing the way it made Heath’s mouth flatten and a muscle jump in his jaw. Why she enjoyed getting under his skin as much as she did was a mystery, but it was entertaining to see one of the tight-lipped Lovelands lose their precious self-control. She concluded her tale with, “A Cade saved the day.”
Heath pulled the kind of face that told her simultaneously that she was a show-off, and that this was no surprise to him whatsoever.
Joy laughed softly. “I’m sure they appreciate it.”
“Heath said just yesterday I was the better range boss.” Jewel tapped her chin and moved the phone away from her mouth. “Right, Heath?”
He glowered at her.
“Tell Boyd ‘hi’ for me,” Jewel added.
“I will,” Ma promised. “Love you, honey.”
Jewel reluctantly said goodbye, handed the phone to Heath and paced to the open window. Her eyes stung as she stared out at the pink-gray dawn and the brightening world of green hills rolling up Mount Sopris. This was the first time she’d ever been apart from her family. She’d never thought of herself as sentimental, had only ever cried once, at her brother Jesse’s funeral...yet the idea of her only parent being half a world away left her feeling as empty as a picnic basket after a church supper.
As Heath’s deep voice rose and fell behind her, she leaned her forehead against the warm window frame edged in gold light. All this upheaval was to blame. Last night, she’d lain awake in her attic room, thinking over the day’s events, replaying her tense exchanges with Heath on a continuous loop. Thoughts of him dining with Kelsey and her family earned her pillow a hard punch or two as she’d tossed and turned. It was none of her business who Heath spent his time with, but for some stupid reason she couldn’t fall asleep until his headlights swept up the drive and his boots thudded up the stairs.
A moment later, she sensed Heath behind her as he returned the receiver to its cradle. The warmth of his body seemed to steal into hers before he cleared his throat. His breath stirred the small hairs on the back of her neck that’d escaped her braid. “Looks like another hot one out there.”
Peering over her shoulder, she caught his eyes on her face and flushed. Up close, he smelled like Ivory soap and line-dried laundry. Just a couple of inches separated their mouths. If she stepped on his toes and rose on hers, then...
“We’d better get hustling if we’re going to make it to the spring before noon,” she blurted, her rapid-fire sentence full of air.
One side of Heath’s full mouth kicked up. “And it sounds like you’ve got to be back in time to give your expert opinion on flowers and galas.”
Jewel bristled. “What’s so funny about that?”
His eyes swept down the length of her faded shirt, rumpled jeans and worn boots. “Is that what you’re wearing?”
“So now you’re my stylist?”
His nose held a telltale ridge, and his eyes crinkled in a way that suggested there was almost no human behavior he had not seen and, perhaps, been slightly amused by—especially from her. “I’m just saying, you might want to do a little more than ‘dust off.’”
“I am who I am. I don’t care who likes it.”
“Suit yourself,” he said calmly, as infuriatingly unfazed as ever. Heath half turned, then stopped, the movement quick and efficient. Although he was tall and broad like his brothers, he moved with a kind of gentle economy, as if he had absorbed the effort of not damaging things just from his size. “Go saddle up the horses while I wake Daryl.” Without another word, he strode away.
She made a face at his retreating back. Fine. She would suit herself. What did it matter what anyone thought, least of all a Loveland?
Yet she wondered if she cared, just a tiny
bit, about one particular Loveland’s feelings toward her more than she should.
Six grueling hours later, Jewel plodded alongside the herd through a narrow chasm. The heat was in full bloom, her entire body sticky with sweat. Dust rose from the hard-packed ground. All around her the sounds of the herd spelled out the urgent quest for life-saving water, hooves striking bedrock, cattle bleating and the musky smells of sweat, livestock and dung. She scanned the vista for signs of the natural spring they sought.
As she brought Bear behind Heath’s Appaloosa, his rich, deep bass reached her ears. He sang something lilting and haunting, a tune about distant shores and long hard miles, all in search of true love. Despite the soaring temperature transforming her shirt into wet rag, goose bumps rose on her slick skin.
Every note Heath sang came from another place, another time. It moved through her powerfully, like the blast of wind before a storm, stirring her flagging spirit. Her fatigue fell away. Even the cattle seemed to pick up the pace. Their ears pricked forward, and their hooves lifted higher.
When he finished, she sneaked a glance at his profile. Like his brothers, he was otherworldly handsome, but his nose was a bit shorter and straighter, his smile more boyish.
“Did you like it?” he asked without taking his eyes off the herd. His back swayed, his athletic body one with Destiny.
“Like what?”
“The song.”
She pushed a strand of hair back from her face “Oh—I—uh...wasn’t paying it much mind.”
He slid her a quick “gotcha” side-eye, his gorgeous mouth twitching, and all her thoughts evaporated. In the silence her heart drummed in her chest, and stifling air curled, damp and sticky, beneath her shirt collar. It took her a moment to find her voice. “What kind of song was it?”
“Thought you weren’t listening.”
“Forget it.” She was about to urge Bear forward, but Heath held up a hand.
“It’s an Irish folk song. My mother taught it to me.” His voice broke on the word mother and his jaw grew taut.
The words settled in the air between them, heavy as the oppressive heat.
“Cows like Irish ballads?” she teased, hoping to dispel the strange sense of intimacy building between them.
“They soothe the savage beast.” He yanked his hat low against the slanting rays.
Was he talking about the Brahmans or his ma? Jewel knew the tragic story about his mother’s suicide and the whispers of her alcoholism and mental illness. The Cades had their share of tragedy, but the Lovelands had suffered, too.
A different image of Heath Loveland, country musician/cowboy heartthrob, appeared in her mind—a boy who’d grown up singing to quiet his troubled parent’s heart. His music was a gift, not just a talent. It’d helped Jewel escape her pain, too, when she’d sought out his gigs following Jesse’s death.
A breathless quiet descended as they rode until a flash of blue water caught her eye. Her chest expanded with relief. “There it is!” she called.
Heath’s head snapped her way, and he met her wide smile. The light in his eyes turned them a brilliant cerulean blue. It sent her heart tumbling straight down into her belly. “You never should have doubted it.”
“I—I—”
“Was wrong?” Heath’s smug expression, his slightly sardonic smile and his direct gaze left her, briefly, winded.
“Was being realistic.” She lifted her braid off the back of her steaming neck. “Between the temperatures and lack of rain, I would have sworn it’d be dried up...but...”
“You were wrong.”
The Brahmans streamed around them in their haste to get to the water. Daryl rode up from the back to keep the front edge moving straight.
She glared at Heath, her hand tight around the reins. “Fine.”
“Say it.”
“Say what?”
A mischievous tilt to his upper lip appeared. “Say you were wrong.”
“Don’t be childish.”
He pulled his sweat-soaked T-shirt away from his chest. “You made the rules of the game, darlin’, not me.”
“I thought you weren’t playing.”
Heath’s slow grin sent fire across her cheeks as he cast a long glance in her direction. “Let’s just say it’s grown more appealing of late.”
“Now that you’ve scored a point?” Jewel waved a sarcastic hand, then swiped at the perspiration dripping in her eyes.
“So, you admit this round goes to the Lovelands?”
Before she nodded, a squeal erupted from the back of the herd. She and Heath wheeled their mounts around and spied a pair of wolves leaping at a straggling calf. A chill blew through her.
Heath swore a blue streak and tore off, riding fast and low over Destiny’s neck. Jewel squeezed Bear’s sides and flicked open the clasp holding her long rifle in place. As her horse thundered beneath her, she dropped the reins, hauled out her firearm, chambered the bullet and sighted the attacking predators down her scope. Before she could squeeze off a shot, Heath vaulted from his saddle into the melee. She lowered her gun.
Was he crazy?
Three cattle dogs appeared beside him. They flew at the wolves, snarling and biting as Heath scooped up the injured calf, laid it across his saddle and leaped up beside it.
“Don’t shoot!” he called to Jewel when he spied her gun. “Blue and the gang will handle them.”
Heath’s faith in his cattle dogs quickly proved true. Within minutes they’d chased off the predators, then loped back, thankfully uninjured.
“How’s the calf?” she called to Heath.
“I’m taking it to the stream to see how bad its leg is.”
A moment later she joined him by the water. Pink tinged the crystal flow streaming from the natural spring as he carefully washed the calf’s leg. Its mother bellowed nearby. In the distance, she spied Daryl weaving in and out of the herd, now drinking and grazing, his eyes scanning the tree line for more predators.
“This little guy got lucky,” Jewel observed, absently petting a hovering black-and-white cattle dog as her eyes traveled over the scrapes on the calf’s rear leg.
Heath dried the appendage, applied antibiotic cream, then swatted its rump. In a flash, it scampered to its mother and nudged beneath her stomach to nurse. “He’s going to be okay.”
She rolled her eyes up to the sky and blinked fast, relieved.
“You’re not getting soft on me, cowgirl, are you?”
She was conscious of the sudden lump in her throat. No one saw that side of her—or bothered to notice. “Nah. Just got something in my eye.”
His eyebrows raised as if to say really?
“Does that happen a lot up here?” She tried to swipe the dirt clinging to her neck with fingers that were still stiff from gripping the reins all day.
“What?”
“Predator attacks. We don’t see them often on Cade land.”
“That’s because you don’t have to drive them this far into the mountains to find water.” He shot her a significant look.
She bristled at the accusation in his voice. “That’s how the maps are drawn.”
“You could change that.”
“I’m no surveyor.”
“No, but you could convince your brothers not to fight our case and reinstate the easement.”
“I’d have a better chance of talking that sun into not setting.” She nodded to the yellow blaze of light beaming from the cloudless sky. “Besides, where would we get the five million to pay the settlement?”
“What about Cora’s Tear?” he asked, referring to the fifty-carat sapphire brooch and family heirloom that’d started the feud between the families over 130 years ago.
“That’s part of my trousseau,” she said automatically, waving off a nagging fly.
“Your what?” Heath crouched down to th
e stream and splashed his face with water.
“It’s a thing for brides—in case I get married.” Not that it’d ever happen, but Cora’s Tear always went to the oldest girl in the family, so right now, the jewel was hers until she passed it on.
Water beaded on the ends of Heath’s long lashes as his eyes crinkled in amusement. “You?” he snickered. “Getting married?”
She jerked back, his words echoing—no, actually taunting her. Anger rose in her swiftly. “Why’s that so funny?”
Shaking his head, Heath straightened slowly. “Just can’t imagine it...”
“I don’t see you getting hitched any time soon,” she accused. “Shouldn’t you have a wedding date by now?”
His mouth opened and closed and the flash of vulnerability in his eyes pricked her ballooning anger...and left her wondering. Didn’t he want to marry Kelsey Timmons, the prettiest, richest gal in Carbondale?
“Not that it’s any of my business.” She crushed her hat between her hands.
“It’s not,” he said curtly.
“Good.”
“Fine.”
She slammed her hat over her head, his irritation feeding hers. “All right then.”
“Since when does Jewel Cade ask for permission anyway?” Heath drawled.
His words stopped her from the glorious stomp-off she’d planned. “What do you mean?”
“Can’t imagine you doing anything just because it’s what others want, like getting married or risking the cattle. You proved that yesterday. You don’t see these animals as just a dollar sign.” He slid calloused fingers through her cowlicks. “See. Even your hair won’t bend.”
A pulse of pleasure bubbled in her veins. No one had ever noticed how hard she worked to reduce the cattle’s stress or took her attempts seriously. Not her father or even her brothers. Yet Heath gave her much-appreciated respect. It made her feel warm and liquid-filled, as though all her tension with him had been a solid thing and now was not.
“This spring isn’t enough to hold the herd for more than a day or two.” Heath dropped his hand and continued when she didn’t speak. “Defy your brothers and let’s drive them to the Crystal River when your family’s longhorns aren’t around for our Brahmans to bother. No harm, no foul.”