Saving the White Cougar (Heart of the Cougar Book 9)

by Terry Spear

  He had sent the horse statue to her office so she could show off that she had a boyfriend who was really into this business of courtship big time.

  She called him right away. "Ohmigod, Ted, the horse is adorable. She is on permanent display on my desk. She's just adorable."

  He hoped she would be on permanent display on Stella's desk in Yuma Town before long. He wanted to ask if Larry had called her yet, but he stifled the urge. "You haven’t had any trouble with the hunters, have you?"

  "No, if they did, you would be the first to know. Well, after the police. Since they're closer. But you know what I mean."

  "Good. Anytime day or night, you let me know if you have any trouble with them."

  "I will."

  Then he had to let her go and he knew if she took the job here, he wouldn't be hassling her all the day long because he'd have her at home at night with him, if he could get her to agree and he could even have lunches with her and, well, hell, he was going to have to damn well mate her so he wouldn't feel driven to constantly text her and call on her to make sure she was all right.

  He was working hard at the ranch, so it wasn't like he didn't have important stuff to do, but as soon as he had a moment, he had his phone out and he was texting her again. Kolby was ribbing him about it mercilessly in the beginning, but by the end of the week, he'd given up on it. Tracey and Hal were just amused.

  By Friday, Ted had cleaned up his bedroom, getting it ready for her to stay, and he hoped she would spend the whole weekend with him. He also had bought some more roses for her that he had sitting on the dining room table.

  He'd spent tons of time working at his regular chores, but also on the Halloween party decorations, setting out tables for the food and for everyone to sit down and eat at. And tons of chairs. He'd helped to get the band stage set up, and the dance floor too. Yet his mind was still on seeing Stella and making her feel welcome in what he hoped would soon be her new home.

  He was even wearing his party Stetson and dance cowboy boots, new jeans and vest and western shirt just for her when she finally arrived.

  Chapter 11

  On Friday, Stella was excited for the week to finally end when she drove to the Havertons' ranch for the Halloween party, feeling both thrilled and apprehensive. She had left early from work so she could help with whatever needed doing.

  Even though she'd met some of the cougars of Yuma Town, she would meet so many more. Would the fun she'd had with Ted be the stuff of dreams or reality? She was afraid she'd built this all up in her mind so much, she hadn't really been seeing the truth of what she'd experienced. That everyone was so nice to her because she’d been wounded and after she was fine, everything would be different.

  That was the problem with the way she’d always been treated as a white cougar. She didn’t want to think that way about anyone in Yuma Town but that was always a concern for her.

  As soon as she'd gotten her dress in for the western-themed party, she'd tried it on and hoped that Ted loved her in it as much as she loved the dress. She was glad she did and planned to dress at the main house or bunkhouse when it was time for the party to start.

  All she could think of was seeing Ted again, but she hadn't made it very far down the road when she heard the telltale sound of one of her tires going flat, flapping, the drag on the pavement. Great, just great. At least she wasn't wearing her beautiful gown, just jeans, a warm, blue fleece jacket, and her brand-new cowgirl boots. She pulled the Jeep off the side of the road and got out her jack and the spare tire. She was glad she'd had a boyfriend a couple of years ago who had at least showed her how to change out a tire, though she supposed she could have called road service this time. Still, she was afraid it would take too long for someone to come and change her tire.

  She was starting to jack up her car when she saw a pickup slowing down and pull off on the shoulder of the road. She didn't like the look of this at all. It looked suspiciously like Sims driving the truck.

  And yeah, as soon as she removed the flat tire, Sims got out of the truck and sauntered over, in no hurry to help her, his buddies—the same ones with him when they shot her—came over too.

  Her skin prickled with unease, as if a million nettles suddenly had pricked her, the chilly breeze whipping her hair about and she tried to keep it out of her eyes while she put the spare tire on the Jeep.

  "Need some help, Miss White?" Sims said. "White, isn't it? One of the paralegals at Brown and Sons? You know, I figured Brown would be an old man, and his grown sons would be working there. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Mom was the lawyer, and the sons were her boys."

  Even though Sims had asked her if Stella needed help, he wasn't making any overture to step in and do anything and she figured he really hadn’t intended to help her.

  She wished they would just leave her in peace. She didn't have a good feeling about them approaching her here like this and she wondered if they had anything to do with her tire going flat in the first place. Or was she just being paranoid about them being anywhere near her right now?

  A couple of cars passed them by, shaking her vehicle, and she put the lug nuts on and tightened them.

  "You know those people out at the ranch said you were shot in that barn."

  She noticed he didn't say that he had done the shooting. Of course she didn't know whose bullets actually hit her either. Forensics would have to prove who had shot her. She'd been too busy trying to hide as a cougar at the time.

  "But we can't figure that out. We were shooting at a white cougar," Clayton said.

  "Yeah, it came at us. We had the right to defend ourselves," Sims said. "Your vehicle was parked near ours. So how in the hell did you end up in the barn where you were said to have been shot."

  "Allegedly, right, Sims?" Clayton asked.

  "Yeah, allegedly. And the cougar we shot was not on the Haverton's property either," Clayton said. "It jumped the fence."

  "So it was just chasing you on the other side of the fence," Stella said, knowing she should have just kept her mouth shut.

  "Yeah, that was the thing of it," Sims said.

  She finished with the spare tire and carried the flat tire to the trunk of the Jeep, lifted it and dropped it inside, then shut the door.

  "So how did you manage to get from your Jeep all the way to the barn?" Sims asked.

  She smiled at them and then climbed into her Jeep and drove off. She could have made up a story, but she didn't need to, and she hadn't been about to and then have some lawyer question her about it. All that mattered when it went to trial was that she had been in the barn and they had shot her. And for now, she was going to a Halloween party with a bunch of cougars. Yet she couldn't help but watch the men driving behind her, not speeding up to pass her, or slowing down, but staying right behind her.

  Trying to intimidate her? She wasn't easily intimidated unless she was being shot at when she was a cougar.

  She still wondered if they had done something to her tire when she was parked at work or her apartment, though she hadn't remembered smelling their scent around her car. She figured if she had gotten a whiff of them, she would have been wary all at once. That was one thing about being a cougar. Her sense of smell was good enough that even after a rain, she could follow someone's scent trail.

  She thought about calling Ted concerning the men following her, but she didn't want to ruin the party when she was sure he was busy helping out and as long as she didn't have any trouble with the men, there was no sense in creating a scene. Every mile she drove, she was getting closer to the ranch anyway.

  She could just imagine Ted getting into a confrontation with the men and then real trouble starting. Forget about having a good time for either of them at the party then.

  Though she felt uncomfortable with Sims following so close behind her. When she finally turned off on the road to the ranch, the men stopped following her, as if they knew they would face a bunch of guns again if they pulled anything around there. She needed to have
her tire fixed too before she returned home. She had brought an overnight bag with some items for the weekend and another pair of shoes with her—really comfortable shoes, knowing she'd have to break in her cowgirl boots—if she wasn't being too forward and Ted wanted her to stay. Or she hadn't changed her mind about him either. Not that she thought she would. All she’d thought about was being with him again.

  She was glad when the men headed back the way they had come and she knew then they were hassling her, certainly not giving her a safe escort to the ranch. She thought maybe she ought to come up with a story of why her Jeep was parked off the ranch property and she had been so far from there when she was in the barn. She would see what Ted thought might make a reasonable story that all parties could agree to. She certainly didn't want to get caught up in a lie.

  Then she pulled onto the ranch and parked near some other cars where people had gathered for the party. She saw Ted right away, watching her, as if he had been doing nothing all this time but waiting for her.

  She smiled at him, soured about the men hassling her, but thrilled to see Ted again, who brightened her spirits all at once.

  Ted whooped when he saw her arrive, grinning from ear to ear, and hurried to open her Jeep door for her. She smiled at him, glad he was so enthusiastic about her coming. He carried her gown and instead of giving her a choice, he took her hand and walked her straight to the bunkhouse as if that's where she was supposed to go. "You can change in here," he said, putting it in his bedroom.

  But once he had set the gown on the bed, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her like he thought he would never see her again and had to make sure she knew just how much it meant to him that she was there.

  She wrapped her arms around Ted's neck and pressed her body against his body, eager to feel his hotness nice and close. "I missed you."

  "Hell, I was ready to rope you and bring you home, if you had been having second thoughts about coming to the party."

  "On your horse? That would have been interesting."

  He laughed. "My pickup. Man, am I glad to see you. Everyone's given me such a hard time all week about chasing you off."

  "I had a job to do." She sighed and told him about her flat tire. "I need to have it fixed before I return home. I wouldn't want to get a second flat and not have a spare."

  "We'll take care of it."

  "Thanks, Ted." She had hoped he would say they would and that would be taken care of. Then she told him about Sims and his buddies.

  Ted's face turned a little red and he frowned deeply at her. "Why didn't you call me?"

  "I didn't want to ruin the party."

  He grunted. "Your safety is more important to us than a party. Besides, we live to rescue damsels in distress."

  She smiled.

  "Seriously—"

  "Seriously, nothing happened. They made me nervous when they followed me. They turned around when I drove down the road to the ranch."

  "They followed you."

  "Yeah, and I did think they might have had something to do with my flat tire, but maybe not."

  "Except they just happened to have been following you for no reason, not heading in that direction, but following you."

  "Right."

  "So, it sounds suspicious to me since they turned around at the ranch road and didn't continue on their way."

  "I didn't think they'd come out to the ranch, too many people with guns. But it would have been bad too, if they'd begun shooting up the place.”

  "I doubt they would have done that with all the people here. Their focus had been on going after the white cougar they'd shot the last time."

  "I was thinking we might need to come up with a story about why my Jeep was parked where their truck was, beyond the Havertons fenced-off land on the old wagon road."

  "We'll work on that too so we can all get our stories straight."

  "Sims brought it up."

  "What did you say?" Ted sounded worried.

  "Nothing. I figured they would have told their lawyer what I said when I should have kept my mouth shut, which I did. No telling how a lawyer defending them could twist what I said."

  "Right. Good thing you didn't say anything. Are you staying the weekend? You're already here and if they are waiting for you to return home, they'll have a long wait."

  She smiled at Ted. "Oh, yes I'd love to see them sitting in wait, watching for my return, but I suspect they might think I'm staying for the weekend."

  "I hope you're staying. We would have escorted you home tonight, though, if you had wanted to return there. I have half a mind to take your Jeep back to Grand Junction to see if they'll harass me while I'm driving it. And have Dan and some of his men as backup, of course."

  "Yeah, well, I don't want to see any of you hurt for no good reason."

  "They just need to learn you're not on your own and to quit trying to intimidate you."

  “Well, I brought a bag just in case you asked me to stay. Besides, now I need to have my tire repaired and that will take a little time."

  "Yeah, you know it. Everyone wants you to live permanently in Yuma Town so you can have more fun with a bunch of fun-loving cougars. Me especially. The ladies have a ladies’ night out. We have barbecues, holiday celebrations. You would not believe all the stuff we do to celebrate being cougars here in Yuma Town."

  "Larry Pierce hired me."

  Ted smiled. "You gave notice at work already?"

  "Uh, no. I'll do that on Monday. But where will I be staying once I move here?" She didn’t want to presume that she would live at the bunkhouse with Ted when it was a ranch-hand house, not a place for permanent residents who didn't work out at the ranch.

  "Here with me, if you don't feel it's too much of a commute for you. I wouldn't want it any other way."

  She smiled, thinking that not only would she be with her hunky boyfriend nights too, she wouldn't even have to pay anything for housing right away. “I'm going to really like staying here with you just fine—as long as Kolby and the two new ranch hands are good with it."

  "Yeah, they will be. They know that if the situation was reversed, I would be fine with it. And when Ricky was still living with us, Mandy and he hooked up and Kolby and I were both happy for them."

  Still, she wanted to make sure because she knew Kolby wouldn't want to always feel he had to go off somewhere else to stay so she and Ted could have some alone time, not to mention the two new ranch hands either. They’d been staying somewhere else before they moved into the bunkhouse apparently.

  Chapter 12

  Stella was really excited about the prospect of working and living in Yuma Town. She couldn't believe how much her life had changed with that one little run as a cougar on private property. She had driven by the area numerous times before she'd finally made the decision to take the chance to run there. And it was the best thing she'd ever done. Of course, that was if she had a job here that she really loved. But everyone was so warm and welcoming before the party got started and she couldn’t help but love it.

  She needed to see Larry in person too, but Ted got an apple out of the fridge and took her to see Celestina in the barn first.

  The horse immediately recognized Stella, her warm brown eyes focused on her. Stella stroked her nose, then fed her the apple and figured they would be friends for life. Stella was glad to see her again and couldn’t wait to ride her.

  After they left the stable, Stella saw all the women dressed in their western ballroom dresses, the guys decked out in their best western gear. And even Ted had put on a Stetson he only wore for social occasions. She had bought her first pair of cowgirl boots and thought these would be much better for riding horses in. Though not dressed in full, lacy petticoats. She couldn't imagine how woman could have ridden in those full skirts.

  The kids were dressed in all kinds of costumes from pirates to vampires, to princesses and superheroes, black cats and even a mummy. Apparently, the western theme didn't appeal to them, but they were cute. The Haverton kids
did wear a lot of western wear on a daily basis, so that was understandable. And the kids carried sacks for their goodies that they picked up from adults all over the place who were carrying candy with them to hand out, instead of doing a door-to-door affair.

  The kids were running all over the place, but their parents, or others, were keeping track of them too. They didn't want to lose any of them during all the fun happenings.

  She saw a Darth Vader in a helmet/mask, black clothes and a black cape and smiled. But because it was a western-themed event, at least for the adults, he was wearing black cowboy boots and a black and red bandana.

  "That's Chuck Warner. He's in charge of the CSF in this region," Ted said.

  "Too funny. I love how he added some western items to his wardrobe." She noticed when he walked and his black cloak billowed out, he not only had a lightsaber, but he also had a pistol at his hip. The kids all ran toward him to give him hugs. He was supposed to be the villain! At least in Star Wars.

  "He's big into Star Wars and he loves the new Mandalorian series."

  "With the baby Yoda? Me too!"

  Ted smiled at her. "Then I'll have to watch them with you. I'm behind on the series."

  Sacks containing battery-operated candles lighted the way to the haunted house and the corn maze. That was the good thing about their cougar eyesight though. They could see well as the sun set and it seemed like it was more beautiful all the time. Though she suspected she noticed it more now that Ted was sharing them with her.

  "The kids are adorable," she said. "I'm not surprised they didn't want to wear western clothes. They probably thought it wasn't Halloween enough."

  "Yeah. Next year, they'll come up with something else. Who knows what though? But it's always fun to see what folks come up with. Some of the kids want to talk to you,” Ted said.

  She suspected they wanted to see her as a white cougar.