Winning the Cowboy's Heart

by Karen Rock

  Heath poured them some milk and touched the cold glass to his burning forehead. “She’s got a bee in her bonnet that there’s something going on between me and Jewel.” He tried to laugh, but the sound emerged like a gasping croak.

  Daryl passed Heath a fork. “Is there?”

  “No!”

  “That was quick.” Daryl pulled out a chair and dropped into it, as if he’d been standing all day by sheer willpower alone.

  Heath speared a bite and lifted it to his mouth. “I don’t have to think about the answer.”

  One of Daryl’s shoulders lifted and fell as he chewed. “Maybe you should.”

  When Heath opened his mouth to insist the opposite, Daryl lifted a hand to silence him. “Can’t thank you and Jewel enough for making Emma’s birthday special. You make a good team. And I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. There’s something there.”

  Under Daryl’s piercing stare, Heath’s bluster faded. “If there is, I can’t do anything about it.”

  “Why’s that?” Daryl slid the side of his fork into the cake and scooped up another bite. “Jewel’s good people.”

  “It’d kill Kelsey.”

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Do you love Kelsey?”

  Heath gulped his milk, probing his heart. “We’ve been together so long, I must.”

  “That doesn’t mean you’re in love with each other.” Daryl turned his face to stare out the window at the distant lights of his cabin.

  Was he thinking of LeAnne?

  “You’ve always tried to please women who can’t be pleased, like Ma.”

  Heath gaped at Daryl. “I was the only one who could, except the night of Cole’s party.” His voice cracked.

  Daryl reached across the table and wrapped his large hand around Heath’s wrist, squeezing it. “It wasn’t your responsibility. You were a kid who deserved a happy childhood, and she took it from you. From all of us.” Daryl released him and scooped up a pink frosting rose with his fork. “Don’t waste your future, too. Maybe the person you need to choose is you.”

  Heath pressed his fork into the cake crumbs, mashing them. Was Daryl right...could he put himself, and his wants, ahead of everyone else?

  “I haven’t talked much about what happened between me, LeAnne and Cassidy,” Daryl said, naming the sisters who’d been estranged after he’d dated one, then married the other.

  “You don’t have to,” Heath rushed to say.

  “If it’ll help you avoid the same mistakes I made, then I’d be wrong to stay silent.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Daryl spoke without lifting his eyes from his plate. “I married LeAnne because I had to.”

  “But you loved her...”

  With a heavy sigh, Daryl said, “She’s my wife now, and she has my loyalty. But I’ve never been able to make her happy, no matter how hard I’ve tried, and for that, I’ll never forgive myself.”

  “Because you don’t love her?”

  Daryl pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because I loved someone else more.”

  Heath thought of Cassidy, how happy she and Daryl had been when they’d visited the ranch on college breaks. If he’d loved Cassidy, why had he turned to LeAnne?

  Daryl shoved back his chair and stood, his shoulders tense, as he strode across the kitchen. At the archway, he turned. The raw pain in his eyes darkened them to black. “Two things about Lovelands. When we love, we love forever. And when we commit, it’s forever, too. There are no takebacks for us. Go after what you want and get it right the first time. It’s the most unselfish thing you could do.”

  Heath collected the dishes, cranked on the faucet and scrubbed them, his gaze drifting to the brilliant moon.

  Was it unselfish to please himself? And if he could choose any path he wanted to, where would it lead? Kelsey insisted Jewel had feelings for him, and he suspected he returned them. Seeing her with the children, he’d glimpsed a softer side that called to his heart. Plus, he couldn’t stop thinking about her never being kissed. But if he opened himself up to Jewel, he’d let everyone down and his family might lose the ranch without his financial help. He wouldn’t accept Kelsey’s generous offer to pay down their mortgage with her trust fund, but he wouldn’t have a problem funneling his salary from her father’s company to keep them afloat until the drought ended, or the easement was returned.

  Still, Daryl had a point. Lovelands were loyal. Whatever road he chose, he’d travel forever. Was two weeks enough time to decide on the rest of your life?

  CHAPTER TEN

  JEWEL CANTERED BEAR down an old, dried-up riverbed a few days later, her skin sticky with sweat, her breath a harsh rasp in her throat. As she rode, she kept a wary eye on the herd, the other on the sky. Without warning, storm clouds had rolled in, and it was no longer the guileless blue it had been when she and Heath set out. It matched her dark mood.

  Kelsey’s surprise visit the other night had Jewel’s tail up. Fancy Pants had practically planted a flag in Heath’s heart to claim him. Worse, he hadn’t seemed to mind. He’d even told Kelsey she was pretty. Jewel groaned. She’d never received such a compliment from a man—probably never would. Who’d be attracted to a freckled, cowlicked cowgirl like her? She’d never given her appearance much thought before. Now she spent more time at the mirror than her pretty-boy brother Jared. And for no good reason. Heath wouldn’t pay her any notice if not for her ability to help his failing ranch.

  Why moon over him?

  She glowered at Heath’s broad back as he wheeled Destiny around in an effortless pivot to chase after a runaway.

  Making a fool of herself, that’s what.

  Heath’s off-limits status should make Jewel glad. She needed to focus on her job and impress James enough to be named range boss. Yet seeing Heath with Kelsey left Jewel hopeless. It was a darned unfamiliar feeling for a gal who’d always believed hard work would earn her what she wanted in life.

  And what she wanted was Heath.

  She heaved out an aggravated sigh.

  No denying it; she was falling for him.

  Wind blasted from the west, whirling dust. The tips of trees were getting pushed and pulled in all directions, and in the distance, thunder rumbled. How much closer was the storm? She studied the racing purple-bellied clouds and a jittery feeling settled in her bones.

  “Yaw!” Jewel squeezed Bear’s sides, galloping full out as she raced alongside the cantering herd, guiding them as fast as she dared to a sheltered pasture on the mountainside opposite the approaching storm. With rain threatening, thunder growling, they needed to get the cattle to higher ground and out of flash-flood danger. The hard-packed, dry ground wouldn’t absorb a sudden rainfall. It’d create a torrent strong enough to sweep a hundred head to their deaths if she and Heath didn’t hustle them to safety.

  “Yip! Yip! Yip!” called Heath, signaling the cattle dogs. They streaked in a black-and-white blur to keep the frightened animals together. His expression was hard, his body rising in the saddle as he craned his neck to check for stragglers. With Daryl back home tending to a sick LeAnne today, it was just them against the elements.

  Rain was coming, Jewel could practically smell it now, but the air was still stifling and oppressive. She twisted around and peered behind her. The riverbed was the quickest route to the sheltered spot. If they didn’t make it in time, though, they’d be swept right off the mountain.

  Thunder belched through the sky once more. This time, it wasn’t nearly as polite and distant as it had been before. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. A branch snapped. A bird called, a high-pitched sound, like a yelp, and another answered.

  “It’s moving fast,” shouted Heath, pulling alongside her. His shirt clung to his muscular frame. Beads of sweat ran down his handsome, angular face.

 
“Weather report said only a twenty percent chance of rain,” she hollered back. Her eyes swept over the bellowing, tramping herd. Leaves gusted around her like green confetti as the wind began to build, and masses of foliage shuddered and bent as it whipped through a tree line.

  “We’ve got to drive them quicker.” He pulled Destiny around and charged to the back of the herd.

  Jewel galloped after him. “If we leave the riverbed, we can take a shortcut through that underpass.” She pointed to a jagged arch of rocks in the distance.

  Heath leaned low over Destiny’s lathered neck as they pressured the cattle from behind. “Footing isn’t sound there.”

  “It’s less likely to get hit with a flash flood. Better to lose one or two than a hundred.”

  Lightning cracked and Destiny broke stride, briefly, before Heath gathered her again. “I don’t want to lose any!” he hollered.

  “Then we won’t.” She met Heath’s eyes briefly and he nodded.

  “Bend them left.”

  Satisfaction flooded Jewel at Heath’s faith as she and Bear tore off down the right flank. They began pressuring the cattle to turn. A raindrop fell on her nose, then her cheek. Her heart raced. No! They had to escape the riverbed before the real weather hit. Hustling the cattle up a rocky slope was risky, too, but staying in a flash flood zone was suicide. The Brahmans bellowed, the whites of their eyes showing, as they picked up their hooves and trotted faster still, sensing the imminent danger.

  Getting them out of the riverbed, however, meant driving them up and over its steep bank. As they neared the spot, the lead cattle slowed and balked. A sickening feeling in Jewel’s gut pinched harder as each second passed.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Heath whistled to the dogs. Dodging the Brahmans’ kicking legs while lunging at their heels, they pressured them to keep moving, avoiding a pileup at the last possible moment.

  Relief surged as the livestock followed their leaders, scrambling up the pebbled soil. Their hooves sought purchase to heave themselves up and over the sides. They began crossing beneath the underpass.

  The wind picked up and tore Jewel’s Stetson from her head. Her braids whipped around her cheeks. With a solid crack, the swollen skies suddenly split above them. Rain peppered the hard-packed soil and rivulets of water rolled down the riverbed. Within minutes they were wet through.

  By now only half the herd had clambered up the bank, the rest splashing in water rapidly rising over their hooves.

  “Heeeee-yaaaaa!” She yelled so loudly that it felt as if the humid air was scorching her throat when she drew breath. Waving her red kerchief at a pair of hesitating Brahmans, she spooked them in the right direction.

  She squinted at Heath through the now-pelting rain. He rode like the devil himself, flashing back and forth as fast as the lightning, urging the cattle forward and left without making them panic. Like her, he knew one breakaway animal could lead an entire group to their doom.

  Bear splashed through the rising water. She couldn’t judge the terrain beneath them, couldn’t predict where a treacherous depression might turn his fetlock or worse. Compartmentalize. Focus on herding the animals from the imminent threat at hand.

  Swiping the dripping water in front of her eyes, she zipped alongside the cattle, blocking their way when they tried to outrun the rushing water. It now swelled around their knees. The cattle dogs paddled beside them, fighting the current. Thunder rumbled, low and deep, and a lightning bolt hit a nearby tree and sent a limb crashing down.

  As each second passed and the weather pressed in around them, her fear built into a hot, urgent creature. It threatened to explode inside her. By now, most of the cattle had made it up the embankment. The remaining Brahmans reared back at the smoking tree limb. Heath, grim-faced and bold, drove straight at them, and they scrambled over the branch to safety.

  “Come on!” Heath made a sweeping gesture with his hand from the top of the riverbank.

  Jewel eyed the raging water. Just before she urged Bear onto drier land, she spotted a floundering calf, caught in the current. Fear melted her insides. It bawled before its little head disappeared under the raging water. From the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of color just before Heath dived in after it.

  Her lungs quit working. With the water moving that fast, Heath might die right along with the helpless animal. She squeezed Bear’s sides and sent him sprinting up the embankment. They thundered alongside the now-raging river. Without taking her eyes off Heath or the calf, she uncoiled her rope and began twirling it overhead. Meanwhile, Heath kicked his legs and swung his arms like mad, battling to reach the calf without getting pulled under and pinned beneath the current.

  Keep a cool head.

  Jewel eyed a piece of deadwood jutting out of the water downstream.

  “Grab the log!” she screamed, galloping along the river’s edge. If Heath missed it, he’d be lost in the water, drowned.

  Fighting back tears, she continued to lasso the rope through the pounding rain.

  Please. Please. Please.

  Spare them.

  Just as the calf’s head disappeared once more, Heath grasped it, pulling the animal above the surface and clutching it to his chest.

  “Grab the wood!” she screeched, pointing with her free hand at the downed tree several yards ahead of Heath.

  He glanced up and briefly met her eyes. The determination she glimpsed heartened her. He wasn’t giving up, and neither was she. Just as the water tore him toward its deadly center, Heath managed to hook an arm around the end of the limb, the other anchoring the calf to his chest.

  “Hold on!” she hollered.

  Heath’s feet appeared, dragged off the bottom. The only thing holding him in place was his strong one-handed grip. How long could he withstand the flash flood’s punishing pressure?

  Jewel gritted her teeth and eyed the distance between her and Heath. She wasn’t going to wait around to find out. Timing the moment, she released the lasso and the rope dropped in the water, inches from Heath.

  He stared at it, then back up at her, the tendons in his neck taut. To grab it, he’d have to let go of the calf. Jewel hauled back the rope. She knew his choice. She’d make it herself.

  Another toss and the rope hit his shoulder. Heath lost his grip reaching for it, and she screamed when he went under. A second later, he popped back up with the calf on the other side of the log, barely holding on. The rain was relentless still, heavy and driving.

  Beneath her, Bear shifted back and forth when another bolt of lightning lit up the sky. It illuminated Heath’s white face, his blue lips. She had to get him out of there. Now.

  Swinging hard, her eyes never leaving Heath’s, she circled the rope once, twice, three times, then tossed it, watching as it slithered through the water-logged air to drop over Heath’s shoulders. Relief swept through her with tidal force as he shifted his body to ease it down over his torso. She stepped Bear backward to tighten the line. On the other end, the relentless pull of the gushing water worked in opposition.

  “Hold on!” she yelled.

  He nodded and, to her amazement, began to edge his way along the log toward the shore his arms still wrapped around the calf with only the lasso around him to keep him upright. What incredible strength and balance, she marveled, watching him, as she held the line steady. If he stumbled, he might pull her, and Bear, into the water, too, but she believed in him too much to fear the possibility.

  At last, he stumbled up the embankment and set down the calf. It wobbled forward a few steps, caught sight of its mother, and scampered her way to join the rest of the herd now milling in the sheltered area beyond the underpass. Jewel flung herself from her saddle, rushed to Heath and threw her arms around him.

  “I thought you were going to drown.”

  “Not a chance.” Despite his brave words, his teeth chattered. Another lightning bolt smacked
against the mountainside. “Let’s take shelter.”

  They secured their horses beneath a rocky outcropping then, hand in hand, they struggled across the drenched field toward an old shack sitting inside a copse of trees. The lock was broken, and the shack abandoned, though an old leather harness and empty feed bags remained among the dust and cobwebs.

  Clothes clung to limbs, hair to burnished cheeks, and they tumbled, panting, into the shack. The damp walls and earthy darkness made the space feel more like a dungeon than a respite from the storm.

  Heath grabbed a burlap cloth and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her close. A sneeze ripped from her. His gaze roamed from the top of her soaked head to her squelching boots. “You’re soaked.”

  “So are you.”

  He shrugged. “I’m waterproof.”

  “You shouldn’t have jumped in after that calf.”

  “Why? Because you were going to?” When she nodded, he chuckled. “Guess that makes us a pair.”

  “Does it?”

  The smile faded from his face and warmth spiraled in his eyes. His rough hand cupped her cheek. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”

  She held up four fingers on her left hand and three on her right. “Cades ahead by one.”

  He caught her hand and brought it to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the center of her palm.

  “Heath,” she groaned, turning away, but he tugged her back to his chest, his forearm resting firmly across her rib cage, one large hand wrapped around her waist.

  “Jewel,” he murmured in her ear, the husky bass sending shivers dancing down her spine.

  His body hugged hers from his chest to his thighs, her hair brushed his face, his masculine scent tickled her nose, and his mouth was poised at the sensitive lobe of her ear, as if ready to demand surrender.

  Should she give in to her feelings at last?

  Heath was promised to another...

  But right now, after saving him from drowning, didn’t a bit of his life, even if it was just this moment, belong to her?