Sweet Talking Rancher

by Kate Pearce

  “Oh shit!” Faith squeaked. “That’s probably Dave!”

  Danny hastily removed his hands and groaned as she climbed off his lap, her knee almost catching him right in the nuts. Footsteps crunched on the gravel as they scrambled to their feet.

  “What the hell are you two doing?” Dave asked.

  “Uh . . .” Danny looked at Faith and she looked back at him. “Searching for my contact lens?”

  “Yeah, right.” Dave didn’t look convinced. “I hope you’re not messing around with my sister, Miller. You know what happened last time.”

  “Dave, why don’t you go inside, and Danny and I will follow you in,” Faith said. “There’s still stuff we need to talk about.”

  “Outside against the wall?” Dave asked. “Looking like you’ve been making out?”

  As they walked toward the house, Faith self-consciously patted her hair, which was sticking up on end, and Danny did up a couple of buttons on his shirt that had somehow come undone.

  “Hey.” Danny caught her elbow. “I can just go if you’d rather.”

  She glared at him. “No, you damn well will not go! I haven’t finished talking to you yet.”

  He smiled slowly. “Talking? That’s what the kids are calling it now?”

  “Yes.” She gestured at the door and shoved him toward it. “Go in.”

  The first thing Danny saw when he reentered the kitchen were the photos spread out on the countertop. Unfortunately, Dave had already seen them too and stopped to check them out.

  “Is this your kid?” Dave swung around toward Faith.

  “Yes,” Faith said. “I talked to Dad earlier. He told me to go and look for this folder in his desk. I was just sharing the pictures with Danny.”

  Dave frowned, his gaze drifting back to the photos. “Dad didn’t give them to you at the time? That’s kind of mean. I can see why you and lover boy might have gotten upset about that.”

  “It was a little overwhelming,” Danny spoke up, and came to stand beside Faith. “We had no idea his adopted parents had kept in touch.”

  “I thought California adoptions were all closed back then,” Dave said as he helped himself to coffee.

  “I’m not sure,” Faith said. “I wasn’t in any fit state to ask about the technical details at the time. I wish I had.”

  “Your parents probably know. Maybe you could take it up with them,” Danny suggested.

  “Yeah, because that kid is going to be eighteen soon, and he might want to find out who his real parents are.” Dave sipped his coffee. “I know I’d want to find them.”

  Danny and Faith stared at Dave in mutual horror.

  “I never thought of that,” Danny said. “I suppose it depends on whether the adoption records are sealed or not.” He gestured at the photos. “I mean, it looks like he’s having an amazing life, why would he care where he came from?”

  And what would he think when he found out that his parents had been two seventeen-year-old kids from some Podunk town in Northern California and that his father still lived at home and had only just got his degree?

  “I definitely need to talk to Dad again.” Faith gathered up the photos and placed them in the file.

  Dave refilled his coffee and ambled toward the door. “I’ll be in my room if you need me to get rid of Miller at any point, Sis.”

  Danny barely managed not to roll his eyes as Dave left. Somehow, being left alone with Faith after everything that had just gone down was kind of scary. He’d kissed her, she’d kissed him back, and if Dave hadn’t arrived, he wouldn’t have stopped before he’d gotten her into bed. He glanced over, noting the red patch on her throat where his teeth had grazed her skin, and got hard all over again.

  “Should I be apologizing?” The words came out of his mouth before he could stop them.

  “For kissing me?” She was nothing if not direct. “I kissed you back.”

  “We were both . . . somewhat emotional.”

  “We’ve still got a lot going on between us.” Faith smoothed a hand over the folder. “It’s hardly surprising if we find comfort in each other while we’re working through all this stuff.”

  “Comfort.” Danny considered that word. It definitely sounded like she was relegating their kisses to the past. But she had a date coming up with Red Ramirez so maybe she was simply making her priorities clear. “Yeah, nothing to worry about then.”

  He found his keys, which he’d somehow left on the countertop. “I should go.”

  “Okay.” She definitely wasn’t meeting his eyes right now, which told him everything he needed to know. “I really appreciate you coming by.”

  “Sure.” He found a smile somewhere. Wasn’t this always how it had been between him and Faith? Her giving the orders and him going tamely home to his dad? She was on the verge of a new relationship. The last thing she needed was her old boyfriend messing things up for her, or thinking he was somehow important. “Thanks for sharing the pictures. That meant a lot.”

  “Oh!” She finally looked up at him. “You should take some.”

  Danny stared at the red folder. “How about you pick me out a couple that you don’t want and hand them over when you’re good and ready?”

  “Danny . . .”

  He couldn’t look at their son again. He just couldn’t. He set his Stetson on his head and turned toward the door. “Good night, Faith. Thanks for everything.”

  * * *

  Even after the drive home where he’d at least gotten control of his unruly body he was still unsettled. He walked into the kitchen to find Evan and his father sitting at the table.

  “Where did you go?” his father demanded.

  “Out.” Danny noticed the hot chocolate jar was on the counter and started making himself a drink.

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “I’m almost thirty-five, Dad. I think that’s all the answer you should get.”

  “You still live in my house, Son, and while you do, I have a perfect right to your time. If I don’t know where you are, you aren’t working.”

  “I do my work.” Danny met his father’s gaze. “My evenings are my own.”

  “Not when we have sick calves.”

  Danny looked at Evan. “We have more?”

  “Nah, Dad’s just scaremongering to make you feel guilty. You know how he is.” Evan set his mug down on the table. “Everything’s fine. The calves are all getting stronger and we have no new cases of scours.”

  “No thanks to you,” his father muttered.

  “I did my part.” Danny leaned back against the countertop and stared at his father. “We all did.”

  “Mom called. She’ll be back with Ellie three days before the wedding.” Evan made a valiant effort to change the subject, which for once, Danny appreciated. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “Yeah, that’s going to be wild.” Danny took his lead. “From the photos she looks like a taller version of Mom and Daisy.”

  “I can’t believe your mother went and had a child with that man,” their father muttered.

  “What business is it of yours?” Danny asked. “You divorced her, she married him, and from what she says he made her very happy.”

  “She should’ve been here.”

  “Except you ran her off.” After talking to Daisy earlier, Danny wasn’t having his father’s revisionist version of history. “You had a fricking bonfire in the yard of all her stuff.”

  “That might have been a mistake.”

  “Yah think?” Evan asked, and rolled his eyes. “You left your kids without a mother because you’ve got a terrible temper and an inability to forgive.”

  “I’ve forgiven her now!” his father protested.

  “No, she forgave you and you should be groveling at her feet in thanks,” Evan said. “She’s a goddammed saint to even put up with you.”

  “That’s true. She is.” Jeff nodded.

  Danny and Evan stared at their father until he frowned. “What?”

  “He just
admitted it,” Evan said to Danny in awed tones. “Like right out in the open and I didn’t have my phone to record this monumental moment and send it to Mom.”

  “I’ve been thinking about a lot of things since my heart attack,” Jeff said. “There’s nothing quite like the imminent ending of your life to shake you up.”

  “Next he’ll be apologizing to his kids,” Evan said to Danny in awed tones. “For working us like dogs.”

  “Not happening.” Their dad shook his head. “Hard work never hurt anyone, but I did make some terrible mistakes with your mother.”

  Evan stood and patted his father on the shoulder. “It’s good you’re thinking like this, Dad. It shows that growth is possible even when you’re old and crabby as hell. I’m proud of you.”

  Even as Jeff growled something uncomplimentary under his breath, Evan winked at Danny and walked out of the kitchen.

  “It’s okay, Dad. Evan’s always super annoying.”

  “I’m well aware of that.” Jeff was still glaring after his son. “That boy has no respect for anyone.”

  Danny went to sit in the chair Evan had vacated.

  “Did Adam tell you about Daisy’s wedding being moved to town?”

  “Yup, he mentioned it. I can see the need, but I still don’t like it.”

  “Daisy texted me to say that she and Jackson talked to Tom Hayes at the hotel. He thinks he can help them out, which is great.”

  “Tom’s a good guy.” His father finished his drink. “I’m off to bed. Will you lock up? Kaiden’s staying at the Garcias’ and everyone else is already in.”

  “Will do.” Danny hesitated. “There is just one more thing. . . .”

  “What now?”

  “How would you feel if I built myself a place to live up here?” Danny asked.

  “Like your own house?”

  “Yeah.” Danny waited for the explosion, but it didn’t come.

  “It’s far cheaper for you to live in this house, but if you’re determined to do it, I’d rather you stayed on our land than rush off somewhere else.”

  “Okay, then.”

  His father picked up his mug. “Talk to Adam and your mother about it.”

  “Will do. Thanks.”

  Jeff got slowly to his feet, making Danny aware of just how frail he was, and then hesitated. “You thinking about getting hitched?”

  “Why would you say that?”

  Jeff shrugged. “Seems as good a reason as any to move out.”

  “Like who would marry me?” Danny chuckled.

  “Faith McDonald?”

  Danny blinked at him. “Come again?”

  “Son, I’ve known you all your life and the last time you looked this happy was when you were with Faith. I’m guessing that even after all this time she’s still the one for you.”

  “Bull crap,” Danny said firmly. “I just want my own space.”

  “Sure, you keep telling yourself that.” Jeff went toward the door. “Sleep tight.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Thanks for coming, everyone.” Faith smiled brightly at the ranchers who had assembled in the town community hall. They were a rowdy bunch and it had taken her fifteen minutes to get them to all stop talking long enough to let her speak. “Dave and I really appreciate it.”

  When the clinic phones had rung off the hook as rumors spread about the scours outbreak, she and Dave had decided to hold a meeting to address the problem and reassure the rest of the local ranchers. From what she could tell, almost everyone had turned up, which was encouraging.

  “We wanted to keep you up-to-date about the current scours outbreak. So far, we’ve seen the same symptoms on the Miller and Ramirez Ranches. State testing discovered both E. coli and cryptosporidium.” She checked her notes. “Two calves have died and around eight were infected. Neither ranch has had any further incidences and both of them are following all the necessary health regulations and restrictions to keep the infections contained.”

  Jackson Lymond raised his hand. “That’s it?”

  Faith frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “With all due respect, and apologies to the Millers and Ramirezes, but that’s not a huge outbreak.”

  “It’s not huge because both ranches acted responsibly, contained the problem, and contacted us for help,” Faith countered.

  “I think what Jackson’s trying to say is are you sure that’s it?” Cauy, Jackson’s much quieter brother, spoke up. “Can you connect the two outbreaks and the source?”

  “We can definitely connect the two outbreaks through a shared cattle trailer.” Faith hesitated. “We’re still not sure we’ve found the source of the problem, which is why we’re reaching out to you guys.”

  Dave came to stand beside her. “We’d like you to keep an eye out in the valley.” He looked around the hall. “There are a few ranches not represented here: Rio Martinez’s, Doug Bryson’s, and the Perez place, to name a few. Is anyone willing to let them know what’s going on?”

  Adam Miller raised his hand. “I can talk to Ben at the Perez Ranch.”

  “I’ll speak to Rio,” Ry Morgan added.

  “And I suppose I can go speak to the Brysons.” Danny made a face.

  “Doug’s been sick,” Ry said. “I saw him at the pharmacy when I went to get Avery’s meds. He said he and Sue Ellen had some kind of stomach bug.”

  “Which explains why he isn’t here,” Danny commented before returning his gaze to Faith’s. “I’ll check up on him first thing tomorrow.”

  She smiled, aware that he was looking his usual calm self and not like a man who had kissed her like a fool a few nights ago. But he’d made it clear that his reactions were ignited by their shared past and had nothing to do with the present. And she agreed with that. They needed each other’s help through their emotional journey. She wasn’t going to spoil it by overanalyzing everything, which was hard because that was part of her DNA, and one of the reasons she’d become a vet.

  “And, if you think of anyone we’ve missed, and can let them know what’s going on, that would be great.” Faith pointed at the table in front of her. “If you’re interested in the latest research about managing a scours outbreak, I printed out some copies to share. Please help yourselves. And if you have other questions please come up and ask.”

  By the time the hall cleared out, Faith had repeated herself at least twenty times, promised more copies of the research, and managed not to get offended by some of the older ranchers patting her on the head and then repeating their questions to Dave. Her cell buzzed and she took it out of her pocket.

  “Hey, Brandon! How’s things?”

  “Good this end. I’m just checking in. You’ve been gone a month and you haven’t called. Callie and I were getting worried.”

  Faith sat on the corner of the table. “I’m sorry, I’ve been so busy settling in I forgot to call.”

  “I suppose that’s good.” Brandon chuckled. “Business must be booming out there in the sticks.”

  “We’re the only veterinarians in the valley, so yeah.” A movement behind her brought her attention back to the hall. “Can I call you back? I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Sure!”

  “Thanks, Brandon.” Faith was still smiling as she finished the call and looked up to see Danny standing beside her.

  “Sorry, did you want something, Danny? I was just talking to one of my old partners in Humboldt.”

  “Another vet?” Danny asked.

  “Yup, we set up the practice together when we got married.”

  “You were married?” He went still.

  “Yes, but not for long. Two years after we opened, we added a third vet to our staff and Brandon fell in love with her,” Faith said lightly. “Things were a bit intense for a while, but we all get on great now.”

  “Wait—he cheated on you with another employee?” Danny frowned.

  “Trust me, our marriage was already in big trouble before she came on board. Callie’s arrival just confi
rmed we’d made a mistake.”

  “You sure she didn’t make it worse?”

  “No, because if we’d truly been in love, I don’t believe anyone would have been able to come between us.” She met his gaze. “I married Brandon for all the wrong reasons and working together, when I was in charge of all the financial decisions, just exacerbated our fundamentally different approaches to life. We argued all the time, we could hardly bear to be in the same space, and that made conditions at work untenable. He got together with Callie after our divorce and I was really okay with that.”

  “Is that why you finally decided to come home?” Danny asked.

  “It might have been part of the reason, but it certainly wasn’t the deciding factor.” Faith picked up her tablet and empty paper file. She certainly wasn’t going to get into the rest of it with Danny of all people. “Brandon and I divorced three years ago. He’s been married to Callie for the last two and a half. I even went to their wedding.”

  She headed toward the door, wondering where Dave had gone.

  “I can’t believe you’re okay about all that.” Danny followed her.

  She shrugged. “Not much I can do about it now, is there?”

  “I suppose not.”

  “You sound almost disappointed.” Faith looked over her shoulder at him.

  He shrugged. “Not disappointed, just surprised.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the Faith I knew was incredibly loyal and valued her friendships deeply, and would’ve been really hurt by that kind of betrayal.”

  “Maybe that Faith didn’t exist after what happened between us.”

  “So, it’s my fault?”

  “That’s some giant leap.” Faith stopped walking. “Maybe everything isn’t about you, Danny. What would you like me to say? That I was devastated? That I thought I’d failed at life?” Faith held his gaze. “I had to move forward. I had to make the best of a bad situation.”

  “Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt you, though.”

  She raised her chin. “I can assure you that I’m completely over it.”

  He sighed. “You’re way better at this stuff than I’ll ever be.”