by Karen Rock
“Why would you do that?” When she turned her head, he met her wary brown eyes straight on. “I’m a Cade, aren’t I?”
“I won’t hold that against you.” He mopped the back of his steaming neck with his kerchief. “Much.”
Her low belly laugh gave his heart legs; it leaped like a spring hare in his chest. “You’re admitting Cades know more than Lovelands,” she chortled.
“One does anyway.”
Jewel’s rose-colored mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut and lifted her chin. “Darn straight,” she vowed. “I’ll email you a copy.”
“All right then.”
“All right.”
A companionable silence descended as they rode. The steady clop of their horses’ hooves striking hard-packed soil, the lowing of the cattle and the panting, galloping dogs, tongues lolling, filled the quiet. Destiny picked her way across the rugged terrain. Loose rocks threatened to slide out from under her shoes if Heath didn’t keep a close eye on her footing. Some of the ravines were so steep, they never saw sunlight.
“Sierra said you left the Flower Gala meeting early the other night.”
Jewel guided Bear around a depression. “Couldn’t stand another minute of that hen party.”
“That bad?”
“They debated about rose versus blush-colored napkins for almost an hour.”
“Aren’t they both pink?”
Jewel let loose a long-suffering sigh. “Exactly. At least I got to see my family afterward.”
He didn’t respond immediately. Instead, his gaze drifted over her melancholy face and then down to her clenched hands. “You miss them.”
“Yes.”
“Sorry you’re stuck here.” He cleared his throat. “With me.”
“It’s—uh—not so bad,” she replied, her voice tight.
“How’s your family?”
“James said not to let you sweet-talk me.”
His nostrils flared with a heavy exhale. “What’s he worried about?”
“That you’ll persuade me to drive the Brahmans through our land.”
His shoulders stiffened. “I’m hoping you’ll come to that conclusion on your own. The herd’s growing frailer.”
Jewel’s teeth appeared on her bottom lip. “They’ll make it.”
“All of ’em?”
“All of them.”
“What if the next watering hole isn’t big enough? Or the one after that?” He tore off his hat and thrust his fingers through his damp hair. “How much longer can they go on? We’ve got weeks ahead of us without a drop of rain forecast.”
Jewel swiped her face with her kerchief. “Weathermen get it wrong.”
“Satellites don’t. Look. We could create a fenced area leading across Cade land for us to drive our cattle straight to the Crystal River. They won’t mingle with yours or cause any property damage.”
Jewel turned her head away, her jaw set. “It’d restrict our cattle’s movement.”
“Not much or at all, if we time it right.” In the distance, Heath watched Blue square off against a runaway Brahman. The cattle dog crouched, refusing to back down, until the large animal balked and rejoined the herd. Heath could relate. Going head-to-head with Jewel was a test of wills...one he was determined to win. “We could use temporary fencing and break it down as we leave.”
“No.”
“Why?” Frustration brewed deep inside. Jewel still clung to their old feud and the divisions he wished no longer divided them, especially when the cattle needed to reach the river soon.
“I can’t go against my family.”
His skin tingled, and the back of his throat burned. Whatever control he had snapped like a rubber band. “Because they’ve been so loyal to you?”
Jewel jerked back as if she’d been slapped, kicked Bear into a gallop and streaked off in a cloud of dust.
“Dang it!” He urged Destiny after her. “Jewel!” he shouted to be heard over the stomping, mooing cattle. “Hold up!”
“Leave me be!” she hollered over her shoulder.
He pulled Destiny up alongside her. “Listen to me!”
She averted her head and dashed away tears—tears he was furious at himself for putting there. “Why?”
“Because I’m sorry.”
Her eyes were shiny black as they locked onto his again. “What for exactly?”
“I shouldn’t have brought your family into it.”
She studied him, stone-faced. “And?”
“Plagued you about the Crystal River access.” He pulled his sticking shirt from his chest. “I won’t bring it up again.”
One eyebrow rose. “And?”
“And?”
Exasperating woman. What was she after now? Her fingers drummed on the rope she’d used to lasso calves earlier when she’d spied pink eye. His muscles clenched. Fine. He’d say it if only to make her smile again. “You’d make a good range boss.”
“Better than you.”
He choked on a laugh. “Don’t push it.”
“I’m not sure your fragile male ego could handle it.”
His shoulder lifted in a lopsided shrug. “If that lets you sleep at night.”
“Oh, it does, it does.” The mischief in her eyes twisted his lips into a wry smile.
Jewel was as entertaining as she was infuriating. And for all her bragging, she could put her money where her fast-talking mouth was, he thought as she cantered away to nip a breakaway pair back into the herd. He was starting to find more common ground with the unruly cowgirl than his perfect fiancée, which left him equal parts uncomfortable, guilty and exhilarated. She was his resourceful work partner, but that was as far as it could go.
Her continued attempts to outdo him were both annoying and humorous. Maybe she held her own with the Cade boys, but she was riding with a Loveland now. Big difference he’d say out loud if he didn’t think it’d be bragging. Nah. He let his actions speak for themselves and had found himself flaunting his skills, too. She brought out this unfamiliar tendency as well as the urge to bend her over his arm and kiss her.
What was it about the boastful cowgirl that set his thoughts in directions they had no right to go?
Once they reached the pasture, he paused to let his senses drink in the fresh mountain air, the sweet smell of wildflowers, the bellowing cattle. He wanted to imprint the moment in the folds of his memory, preserve it like one of his mother’s flowers between pages of her books. To remember: this is how it felt to be happy.
Free.
“Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam,” he sang once he dismounted and tied up Destiny, the words springing from him without conscious thought. “Where the deer and the antelope play...”
He heard Jewel approach on Bear and felt her eyes on him. As he launched into the chorus, a slightly flat alto joined him.
“Home, home on the range!” Jewel belted, singing with more enthusiasm than finesse, an amusing assault to his ear. She tethered Bear and then retrieved the camping gear stowed in her saddlebag.
Their voices mingled as they set up a makeshift camp, growing louder and twangier as he added extra country flourishes that got her giggling between words. When they finished with a rip roaring “Yee-haw!” they dissolved into laughter.
“Where’ve you been hiding all that talent?” he teased when they quieted again.
“Under a rock where it belongs.” Jewel handed him a pot for him to fill from the nearby creek and scratched her peeling nose. “Wish I had your gift.”
“It’s not doing me any good.” Her sharp glance made him wish back those telling words. He hurried to the thankfully flowing stream and dipped the kettle into it. The water level was the lowest he’d ever seen it for this time of year, he noted with a sinking heart. They wouldn’t have much time here. Maybe a week. Tops.
<
br /> “But you still like gigging, right?” Jewel asked when he returned.
“Yes.” While he could... He hooked the kettle onto a rod stretched across an old firepit and lit a pile of leftover logs from last season. “Got a show Friday night if you want to come,” he shouted as Jewel filled a coffeepot in the stream. “Daryl and Cole can take the night watch.”
Jewel returned, dumped pungent grounds into the pot, then hooked it beside the dangling kettle. “What about Cole’s arm?”
“As long as he’s just watching the cattle, he should be fine.” Heath dropped slices of bacon into a four-legged cast-iron skillet he planted on the edge of the fledgling fire. “He can drive up to the pasture on the ATV.”
“Okay,” she said after hauling out a bag of potatoes and placing it between them. Her paring knife neatly peeled off the skin. “I’ll go.”
A wave of pleasure rushed through him. He wanted Jewel at the show just as much as he wanted her riding beside him. No logic applied to any of it, yet it didn’t change those indisputable and darn inconvenient facts. He flipped open his utility knife and grabbed a potato.
“What about Kelsey? Is she going?”
Heath schooled his features into blankness and pinned his eyes on the potato he circled with his blade. “Nah. She never comes.”
“Never?” Jewel’s voice rose in disbelief. Water splashed when she dropped her potato into the kettle.
“She’s not a fan of the honky-tonk scene.” Heath’s knife slipped. He winced and brought his stinging thumb to his mouth.
Jewel’s hands flew over another potato, neatly divesting it of its skin in one, circular cut. “Has there ever been anyone else besides Kelsey?”
“Dating, you mean?” Heath flipped the sizzling bacon with the side of his knife and his stomach grumbled at the salty hickory-cured scent. When Jewel nodded, he said, “No.”
Jewel added three more potatoes to the now-steaming pot of water. “Ever been tempted to date anyone else?”
Heath cracked his tense neck side to side. “Nope.”
Jewel’s thick eyelashes fell to her cheeks, all her attention on the potato she peeled. “You must really love her, huh?”
A heavy, breathless feeling flooded Heath’s chest. “How about you?” he countered, sidestepping the question he still needed to answer. Understanding grew cloudier every minute he spent with Jewel. “Ever been in love?”
Jewel snorted as she passed over the last tuber. “Only with my four-legged partners.”
Heath stared into her gorgeous eyes. “But someday...”
“I’m never getting married.” As if to underscore the point, water from the boiling kettle struck the fire with a loud hiss.
One side of his mouth curled as he watched Jewel remove the kettle, raise the metal rod another notch and reattach the pan. Jewel might not consider herself domestic, but she sure knew her way around a campfire cookout. “Famous last words.”
“I mean it.” Jewel retrieved mugs from their packs, hollered to Daryl to join them, and poured out the fragrant coffee. “I won’t give up my independence for a man.”
“What if you met a man who didn’t want you to change?” His mind turned to Kelsey and all the changes she demanded: stop gigging, quit ranching, work in her family business. He hadn’t asked her to give up anything.
Not one thing.
The unfairness of it struck him, followed by equal parts resentment and guilt as he sipped the tongue-scorching brew Jewel passed him. Did he have a right to those feelings? Kelsey had always been generous with him and his family.
“You’re talking about a rainbow-colored unicorn right there.” Jewel tipped up the brim of her hat and perspiration glistened on her freckled brow. “He doesn’t exist.”
He swallowed the urge to declare himself that unicorn and gulped more coffee instead. Growing up with a mother who’d blamed her family for tying her down and crushing her dreams convinced him to never stand in the way of others’ choices.
“Besides,” Jewel continued, her eyes darting to watch an approaching Daryl, “even if he did exist, it wouldn’t make a difference. Like my Pa said, I’m not the girlie-wife type.”
“Not all men care about that.” Outrage—for Jewel—stung him, sharp as a wasp. He set down his coffee and stirred the browning bacon. The melting fat crackled and splatted. “And why let your father’s opinion define you?”
“It doesn’t.” Despite Jewel’s bluster, it was clear that she, like him, had been affected by a negative parent. Another line of connection tethered itself between them. “All I care about is being free.” She poked the tip of her knife into the boiling potatoes to test their softness.
“But you’ve gone on dates...you’re not against that, are you?” Strange how the thought of other men, teasing Jewel, holding her hand, kissing her, made his teeth clamp tight.
“I’ve never gone on a date or had a boyfriend,” Jewel blurted, red-faced.
“Have you ever been kissed?” He whisked the skillet from the fire’s edge to let it cool while they waited to slice the potatoes into it for frying. Surely Jewel wasn’t completely inexperienced...
He caught a glimpse of her tortured expression before she leaped to her feet and stalked off, hands balled at her sides.
“What set her off?” Daryl hopped off Smoke, grabbed up his coffee and closed his eyes with a blissful smile as he sipped.
“Ah, you know, women...” Heath responded vaguely. Craning his neck, he stared at Jewel’s retreating back, mentally berating himself. He knew better than to pry.
Why did he want to know the answer so badly?
He didn’t intend on being Jewel’s first kiss, though he’d come close the other day. Still, the thought stayed with him as he began slicing the cooked potatoes, his mind returning to Jewel’s expressive, beautiful mouth as she laughed, sneered, teased. Did he want to be her first kiss...and her last? The idea brought him up short. This was uncharted territory, one he was in no position to explore with his future predetermined once he girded himself to accept it.
He dumped the potatoes into the skillet, added a chopped onion and returned it to the fire. Even if he was interested in Jewel—crazy as that’d be—she wanted to be independent, free. It wasn’t like she’d ever want to be tied to him...
Kelsey’s concerns about him spending time with Jewel returned to him. This forced proximity was messing with his head and confusing his already-cloudy heart. From now on, he needed to prioritize Kelsey and fight his unwelcome feelings for Jewel if he stood any chance of making up his mind by summer’s end.
* * *
“I LIKE YOUR hair down.”
At Sierra’s compliment, Jewel fingered the slightly damp waves skimming the off-the-shoulder blouse Sierra had lent her for Heath’s performance tonight. Not that Jewel had fussed with her appearance...much. She breathed in the fresh coconut-and-vanilla scent of her body wash (also borrowed) and eyed her pressed jeans and polished boots.
So much for just dusting off. This cowgirl had spiffed up for reasons she didn’t want to think about, since she suspected Heath was smack-dab in the middle of them.
“I—uh—didn’t have time to braid it.” Jewel winced slightly at the fib. It was partly true. She’d spent so long agonizing over what to wear, she’d barely had time to scoot out the door to claim her spot on the edge of Silver Spurs’s already-crowded dance floor. Her heart drummed, and her skin tingled with anticipation as she stared at the stage’s instruments, microphones and amplifiers awaiting Outlaw Cowboys.
When would Heath and the group begin playing? The familiar excitement to lose herself in their music thrummed inside her, harder than ever. She’d discovered more sides to Heath than just heartthrob singer. Sometimes he acted like one of her annoying older brothers, poking and needling her, showing off in the saddle and even prying into her love life. Why had he been so int
erested in her dating history or whom she’d kissed? Or more accurately...hadn’t.
On the other hand, he had a caring, protective side. He took pains to safeguard even the littlest members of the herd, like the injured calf. What’s more, he wanted to read her herd health report, which meant he didn’t dismiss her like her brothers. He respected her, which was all she ever wanted. Yet deep down she craved more than the sensitive cowboy’s respect.
When he’d asked her whether she’d change her mind about relationships if she met a man who valued her independence, she’d scoffed, then wondered. Could Heath be the unicorn she’d joked about?
An almost-married unicorn...
“You should leave your hair loose more often.” Jewel tuned back in to Sierra. “It frames your pretty face except...” A line appeared between Sierra’s delicate blond brows. “If these two strands were pulled back with a clip it’d really show off your eyes. Mind if I...?”
“Do I have a choice?” Jewel grumbled with more good nature than bite.
“No,” Sierra said through a smile.
Jewel sighed and subjected herself to Sierra’s fussing, enjoying it more than she’d imagined. Even her ma learned early on to hand Jewel a comb and back away fast. Sierra, on the other hand, seemed undaunted by recalcitrant subjects. Her unflappability must come from years working with the local wildlife population. If rattlers and raptors failed to fluster you, a curmudgeon of a cowgirl didn’t pose much of a challenge.
With quick, practiced moves, Sierra whisked back some of Jewel’s hair, secured the locks behind her ears and stepped back, lips pursed. “Perfect. You look like Karen Gillan.”
“Who?”
“She played Amy Pond in Doctor Who.” Sierra lifted her voice to be heard over a cheering group crowding a pool table while a Little Big Town song blared from wall-mounted speakers.
Jewel shrugged. “I don’t watch many movies.”
“It’s a TV show.” Sierra twined one of Jewel’s waves around her finger, then pulled it forward to dangle over Jewel’s collarbone. “Time-traveling Brits in space.”