Rugged Cowboy

by Elana Johnson

  A cowboy walked toward him, and Dallas dang near tripped over his own feet when he recognized Spencer. The other man slowed and said, “You’re looking for Jess,” easily. “She’s out in the paddock with Diamond and Bumblebee.”

  “The paddock?” Dallas asked, wondering what Jess had said to Spencer. The other man wasn’t looking at Dallas funny, nor did he seem like he’d found Jess in a bad state.

  “Yeah, just go straight and back outside.” Spencer turned and pointed to the big double doors on the other side of the stable. “Then turn left and go all the way to the end of the building. You can’t miss ‘er.”

  “Thanks.” Dallas got himself moving, hearing the other man’s footsteps recede in the other direction. He turned and looked over his shoulder to catch Spencer leaving the stables and turning toward the homestead. He seemed like a nice guy, and Dallas knew both Ted and Nate liked Spencer a lot. Connor especially liked him, and he was good with kids.

  Jess had said he was like her brother, so maybe Spencer hadn’t asked any questions. But if he really was like her brother, shouldn’t he be overprotective of her, not showing Dallas exactly where to go?

  He shook his head, trying to get the thoughts to leave. He didn’t care what was going on with Jess and Spencer. She’d said they weren’t seeing each other, and he either believed her or he didn’t. He wanted to believe her, so he didn’t need to spend any more time thinking about it.

  He found her right where Spencer said she’d be too, her right hand stroking the side of a beautiful horse’s face. She had one foot up on the bottom rung of the fence as she leaned close to the horse as if she were whispering secrets in its ear.

  “Hey,” Dallas said as he approached, and Jess lowered her hand as she looked his way. She wore a somber look, and she was beautiful in a way that made Dallas’s tongue too thick for his mouth.

  He knew she loved horses, and she was very good at her job. Maybe she didn’t get along with everyone, but he’d never seen her treat anyone unkindly, even his mechanics who clearly didn’t like her much.

  “I’m sorry,” he said again, lifting the oversized paper back he carried. “I got dessert.”

  She looked from him to the bag and back. “You thought you could bribe me with desserts?”

  “Yes,” he said simply, letting a smile touch the corners of his mouth. “Would that work?”

  Jess stepped off the bottom rung and tucked her hands in her back pockets. “Depends.”

  “On what?”

  “What kind of dessert?”

  Dallas let the smile spread across his face then. “Well, Miss Jessica Morales. I think I’m in luck, because I got one of everything. There’s bound to be something you like in here.”

  What he really wanted was something that would help her forgive him, and as he pulled out the seven-layer chocolate mousse cake, he watched her eyes light up.

  Bingo.

  Chapter Ten

  “I want another bite of that cream cheese square,” she said, waiting for Dallas to lift the plastic container and hand it to her.

  He’d been talking for twenty minutes while they sampled all eight desserts he’d brought back to the ranch. She’d taken him into the office in the barn, where Hannah did a lot of her work. Jess would have to make sure she swept all the crumbs and powdered sugar from the desk, or Hannah would be dealing with ants, and then Jess would have to deal with Hannah’s wrath.

  “I’m sorry,” Dallas said for probably the sixth or seventh time. “I thought it must be something I needed to know, because Martha never calls me.” He ducked his head and took another bite of the white chocolate raspberry cookie. Jess hadn’t liked that much, but Dallas sure seemed to.

  “And to be completely transparent, Jess, I thought that, because I’m the one who’s been calling Martha.”

  “You have?” Jess reached her fork toward the cream cheese square again. The crust was part blondie, part cookie, and part nutty, and utterly fantastic. A layer of vanilla cake sat on that, with a layer of cream cheese that wasn’t quite cheesecake texture. It was sweet and savory and salty, and her favorite thing he’d brought.

  Or maybe she’d liked the chocolate cake the best. It was hard to pick something with no chocolate over something practically oozing hot fudge, but Jess was seriously considering it a toss-up at the moment.

  “Yes,” Dallas said. “To keep her updated about the kids. That I got them in school. That Remmy had grown three inches in the past few months. That sort of thing.” He looked away and dusted off his hands. “She obviously doesn’t care, but I thought she did.”

  Jess nodded. “I’m sorry she doesn’t care.”

  Dallas met her eye again, and that same electric pulse that had always existed between them zinged through her bones. She’d been hurt and angry an hour ago. Spencer had wondered why she needed a ride, and she’d simply said her ride wasn’t reliable. Jess hadn’t volunteered any further information, and Spencer hadn’t asked. He’d already been in town, which had allowed her to get back to the ranch in record time.

  She’d gone immediately to her horses, as the equines always made her feel better about herself, even when she made rash and irrational decisions. He’d told her a couple of weeks ago he wasn’t over his wife, and now he was saying he was. She’d been whispering about it to Diamond when he’d arrived, and Jess really wanted to believe his feelings had changed in the past fourteen days.

  “I think she’s mixed up in something,” Dallas said, his voice almost a whisper. “She wanted money, from the sale of the house.”

  Jess cocked her eyebrows. “How did she know about the house?”

  “Someone named Josh.” Dallas shook his head, clearly in pain. Jess had never been married, so she couldn’t even pretend understand all the emotions of a divorce. She knew she saw a good-hearted man in front of her, one who was just trying to do the right thing.

  “Dallas,” she said gently. “I’m sorry about Martha.”

  He looked up, his eyes wide, hopeful, and filled with vulnerability. “Thank you.”

  “I also need to apologize,” Jess said, looking down at her cream cheese square again. “I shouldn’t have assumed the worst and ran out. That wasn’t very nice of me.”

  “You don’t need to apologize.”

  “I think I just sort of…I don’t know.” Jess could see herself sitting in the booth alone after hearing Dallas answer the phone with the word “sweetheart.” She floated above the situation, watching herself sit there and talk to herself, then call Spencer, pay the bill, and leave the restaurant.

  She hadn’t looked for Dallas at all, and she’d gone down the street to the corner, where Spencer had picked her up only a few minutes later. They’d gone back to the ranch, and he’d said nothing to her. She obviously wasn’t very distressed on the outside, though Jess felt like she’d messed up once again. She’d somehow miscommunicated to Dallas that she wasn’t interested. Or that she wasn’t patient. Or forgiving.

  She wanted to be all of those things, and though they’d just had a good talk, she still felt like she was operating from a completely different book than he was.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You really don’t need to apologize to me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I did, though,” she insisted. “I judged you, and I shouldn’t have. I left, when I should’ve stayed to have this exact conversation.” She shook her head. “You said you weren’t ready to go out with me a couple of weeks ago, and then you asked tonight, and I should’ve known that meant you were over your wife. I’m sorry too, Dallas. Will you forgive me?”

  “Of course,” he said. “Does that mean you forgive me?”

  “Yes,” she said, feeling them both take one giant step toward one another. For her, though, there was still a massive barrier keeping them on opposite ends of the spectrum.

  “Dallas,” she said slowly. She was full and starting to get a buzz from the high sugar consumption, so she didn’t dare take another bite of any desse
rt. “I think I need to know about prison.”

  He nodded. “I’ve told you why I was there and what happened with Martha.”

  “I think I got three or four sentences,” she said. “I need more.”

  “More of what?” he asked.

  “You were a surgeon, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “What kind?”

  “Heart surgeon,” he said.

  “Someone died?”

  His jaw clenched, and he nodded. “Some of my patients died, despite my best efforts. It’s the worst feeling in the world to know you’re not good enough when so many people are counting on you.”

  Jess didn’t know what that kind of pressure felt like either. She’d always been accepted in her family, and she’d been good with horses for her whole life. Her father said it was a gift she’d been born with, and she’d never doubted him.

  “But someone died, and someone thought it was your fault,” she said.

  “Yes,” he said. “I got sued; the hospital where I worked did too. There was a malpractice issue, and then the sister of the woman who died filed with the insurance company too. I guess I signed the papers, because I was desperate to help the family. I wanted them to know I still cared, that I hadn’t done anything wrong on the operating table.” He shook his head. “Always read what you’re signing, Jess. By me signing that paperwork, I was essentially saying that the insurance should pay for this woman’s death, and that was fraud. I thought I was signing a form for her medical care, not her death benefit.”

  “That’s not your fault.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Dallas said, his voice low. “I signed the paperwork. It’s amazing how quickly fires can start, by seemingly simple decisions.”

  Jess could only nod, though she didn’t have the personal experience Dallas did.

  “I didn’t go to court,” he said. “I couldn’t put the family through it. So I signed the medical malpractice admittance, got fired to save the hospital, and agreed to sign for insurance fraud if the same charges were brought against the sister and they dropped the wrongful death suit. Otherwise, I said I would take them to court over the insurance issue.”

  Jess didn’t know what to think. She didn’t understand the ins and outs of the law. She didn’t even know any lawyers besides the ones that Ginger had to deal with on occasion as she took men for the Residential Reentry Program.

  “They must’ve agreed,” she said.

  “They did,” he said. “I got thirty months for the two charges. The sister got fifteen for her role in the insurance fraud.”

  “Wow,” Jess said, noting that he’d stopped eating too. “And what about your limp? Did that come from prison or before?” She watched the surprise roll across his face, followed quickly by a dark look that only stayed for half a breath.

  “I limp?”

  “Only a little,” she said. “Only when you get up after sitting for a while.” She shrugged to try to downplay it, as Dallas was obviously sensitive about it. “I’ve seen it once or twice.”

  A frown had gathered between his eyebrows, and he studied the desktop for several long seconds. “I got beaten my first night in prison,” he said. “River Bay is a low security facility. Most of the guys there are like me—white collar criminals caught up in something illegal, but not violent. Not a lot of drug charges. Hardly any weapons. No sexual assaults. It’s mostly businessmen, guys who used to own businesses, or someone who made a couple of bad decisions that were bad enough to put them in prison for a while.”

  “It’s still prison,” Jess said, mostly to prompt him when he didn’t go on.

  “That it is,” Dallas said. “And there are still gangs in River Bay, and a man still needs to watch his back.” His facial features had hardened, but he didn’t back down from this conversation the way he had previously. “I didn’t know all of that, and I got jumped my first night there. The leader of the gang at the time wasn’t happy that I’d put his sister in jail. I was nearly unconscious by the time Nate got there.”

  “Nate? Ginger’s Nate?”

  Dallas nodded, everything on his face softening. “He came, and he got the others to leave me alone. I’m not even sure how, and every time I ask him, he just says it doesn’t matter. He and Ted took me to the infirmary and patched me up the best they could. I saw the doctor the next day, and I had a broken finger and two fractured ribs. Everything else was muscle and skin pain. Lots of cuts and bruises. It took me a long time to heal, because of the ribs, mostly. My back has been messed up since, and I suppose it does cause me to limp a little bit when I get stiff.”

  Jess reached across the corner of the desk and put her hand over his. “I’m sorry, Dallas.”

  “Nate watched out for me after that. I watched out for him and Ted. There are a couple of other guys in our band of brothers—Slate and Luke—and I worry about them. Luke especially. He’ll be alone in River Bay for three months after Slate gets out.”

  “Do you still talk to them?”

  “Inmates only get fifteen minutes for a phone call,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Slate once, and he said Luke hasn’t said anything, but Slate’s worried about him in there alone.”

  “Why are they in there?”

  “Slate ran a bank in San Antonio. A huge branch, and he processed fraudulent transactions over Christmas for an organized crime family.”

  “What?” Jess asked.

  “Yeah, it sounds bad,” Dallas said. “But it’s not. He just didn’t know what he was dealing with. He got a list of transactions to be completed from what he thought was a reputable company. He processed them. Later, he found out that he’d stolen over a million dollars from seventeen businesses in some mall in the city. He got four years. He’ll be out in seven or eight months.”

  “Wow.” There was so much Jess didn’t know.

  “Luke is a boxer,” he said. “A good one too. He was working his way up through the ranks to becoming pro, when someone he knocked out sued him for excessive violence. I guess the guy had suffered permanent brain damage. He sued Luke and the referee who didn’t call the match before this guy got pulverized. He’s only been in a year or so. Has another year to go, I believe.”

  Jess couldn’t even imagine being in jail for fifteen minutes, let alone fifteen months. Everything was easier for someone not living through it, and she wished she had more life experience so she could relate to Dallas a little easier.

  She couldn’t help feeling like she’d put more distance between them because of her behavior that night. The last thing he needed was someone running out on him, especially someone who should’ve stayed to get his perspective on the situation.

  “I’ve got to get my kids,” he said, starting to clean up. Jess helped, snapping lids closed and loading the leftover treats into the paper bag.

  “Will they eat these?” she asked.

  “Yeah, sure,” he said. “Kids love sugar.” He grinned at her, the moment starting out flirty and fun and quickly sobering. “Jess, would you like to maybe start spending some time with me and my kids?”

  “Yes,” she blurted, before her mind could truly latch on to what he was asking. “I’d like that.”

  He nodded, his smile plain on his face. “Okay. I’ll ask them what they want to do, and if it’s okay if you come along.”

  “Oh, so I’m going to be the tagalong. Is that it?” She picked up the bag. “If that’s the case, I get to tell them about these treats.”

  He laughed and took the bag from her. “That’s not the case at all.” He slipped his hand into hers next, and they started the walk back to the homestead. The night had darkened while they’d been inside the barn eating too much sugar, and Jess sighed as she looked up into the sky. It was deep purple and blue and black, and she found it absolutely wonderful.

  “The sky in Montana is twice as big as this one,” she said.

  “Is that so?” he asked, and he sounded so Texan. “I thought everything was bigger in Texas.”

  Jess gi
ggled and kept her eyes on the skies, looking for the first twinklings of the stars. “Everything but the sky, Mister.”

  “I suppose that’s why they call it Big Sky country.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Did you like living in Montana?”

  “Sure,” she said. “My dad has a small ranch there. We all worked it.”

  “You just have sisters, right?”

  “Two sisters, yes,” she said. “I’m the oldest.”

  “I think I could’ve guessed that,” he teased, and Jess laughed again. “You didn’t want his ranch?” he asked. “Or would he not pass it down?”

  “He would,” Jess said, suddenly thoughtful again. “But no, I don’t want it. I left Montana to work in Calgary with the rodeo horses for a while. Then I came here. I love it here. I love training horses. My dad’s ranch is more of a cattle operation, and my sister has taken it over for my parents.”

  “That’s Abi, right?” Dallas asked.

  “Yes, Abi,” Jess said, thinking of her younger sister. “She’s just a few years younger than me. Almost engaged to a guy name Huey.”

  “Ah, right,” Dallas said. “I think you mentioned the almost-engagement in a text. Still not a thing?”

  “Not yet,” Jess said with a smile. “But Nia is convinced it’ll be soon, and she said I’ll be the first to know.” She wouldn’t really be the first to know. Abi would obviously know, and Nia, and their parents. It was only Jess who wasn’t in Bozeman anymore. For a moment, homesickness descended on her, and she let it flow through her while she and Dallas walked through the stunning night.

  “At least you talk to your sisters,” he said, breaking the enchanting moment.

  “You don’t?” she asked. He’d said little about his family, the same way he’d said little about his time in prison.

  “I talk to my sisters,” he said. “And my brother. And my mother. But not my dad.”