The Rancher and the Rich Girl

by Heather MacAllister

  “You’ve done this before,” she said to him.

  Matt overheard. “He used to make money dancing and collecting tickets for the sideshows.” He handed her some stamps, a couple of credit cards and the phone number of a woman interested in building a guest cottage on her property.

  Jessica sighed.

  “He likes quarters best.”

  “It appears he likes stealing best.” She arranged the contents of her wallet in a grubby wad.

  “Sorry about that,” Matt said, and Jessica had a terrible suspicion that he was finding it hard not to laugh.

  Once Caesar had scoured the grass and dirt for coins, he chattered—actually more of a gloating, Jessica thought—and scampered away with his ill-gotten gains.

  “Make him do it again!” Sam obviously thought the whole thing was wonderful.

  “You have to say ‘coin,’” Matt told him. “Then he’ll dance for you. You’ve got to give him a coin, though, or he’ll get pretty riled up.”

  “I never said ‘coin,’” Jessica pointed out.

  “I guess he was just showing you how the game worked.”

  “Does he treat all your visitors this way?”

  “We don’t get many visitors—”

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  “We don’t get many visitors who aren’t used to monkeys,” Matt continued heavily.

  And that pretty much said it all. Jessica stared at him, then looked up into the far reaches of the tree where her wallet was still snagged on a branch. It was so far out of reach even what’s-his-name, the Flying Francisco, couldn’t get to it.

  And she didn’t even care about the wallet that much. What she did care about was Sam. She’d promised him he was going to a ranch. Matt Winston knew this, yet he’d still allowed her to bring Sam to a place where there were rampaging elephants and thieving monkeys.

  Jessica’s ranch knowledge was limited, but she did know that elephants weren’t normal ranch animals.

  She looked around once more. No cattle. No horses—regular-size ones, anyway. No sign of ranch hands, unless she counted Frank.

  This place wasn’t a ranch, it was a zoo.

  For this she had defied her mother-in-law?

  Rachel. Jessica closed her eyes. If her mother-in-law ever found out...

  “Jessica, I’m sorry about Caesar,” Matt apologized. “Look, let’s get you settled, and I’ll saddle up Black Star and give Sam his first lesson. Everything will be okay.”

  She exhaled and opened her eyes. “Will it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You knew I wanted to give Sam a typical ranch experience.”

  “And he’ll get one.”

  “Oh, right. Rounding up elephants?”

  “There’s just the one.”

  She gave him a look. “This isn’t funny.”

  “I’m not laughing.”

  But he was. She could see it in his eyes.

  If the circumstances were different, she’d laugh, too. However... “You have no idea what I went through to get Sam here—how hard it was for me to defy my mother-in-law.”

  Glancing over at her son, she saw that he was back petting the little horse. Good. She really didn’t want him to overhear. She started walking toward the car and Matt fell into step beside her. “For nine years, I’ve gone along with Rachel’s way of doing things because I thought it was best for Sam. And then he gets on this cowboy kick and I thought he’d outgrow it. Hoped he’d outgrow it, because his grandmother is so against him having anything to do with horses. But he didn’t. And so I thought, fine, let him see what it’s really like to be a cowboy.”

  They’d reached Jessica’s car. “Sounds logical,” Matt said. “What’s the problem?”

  “Other than the fact that Sam’s grandmother was totally against the idea, well...” Wordlessly she gestured around them, then continued. “I’m not sure this is the right place for Sam to see what being a cowboy is like.”

  Matt stared at her, his eyes unreadable. Actually, right then, with his flint-colored hat, jeans, dusty boots and pale-blue shirt, and especially with that inscrutable expression, he looked every inch a cowboy.

  Jessica swallowed dryly. He looked every inch a man.

  A man who wasn’t real pleased with her at the moment.

  “I knew you should have gone to a dude ranch.” Matt’s expression hardened when Jessica didn’t think it could. “You’ve got this Hollywood idea of what ranches are. You expected cowboys in full leather chaps hanging around the corral practicing their roping. You thought you’d see bronc riding and branding, and then afterward, everybody would break out their guitars for a round of ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas.’ Well, lady, it’s just not like that.”

  “I know it’s not like that. But it’s not like this, either.”

  “It is exactly like this. It’s drought and the highway department building right through your grazing land. It’s trying to hang on to land that’s been in your family for three generations by letting movie studios film on it, or selling bits and pieces of it to housing developers, or raising llamas and ostriches. It’s doing anything you can to survive.”

  “Including letting a woman and her son come play rancher.”

  He inclined his head. “Including that.”

  He held her gaze, his own direct and unapologetic.

  This man was a survivor. Even if Jessica hadn’t known about his background, she’d have been able to tell. Maybe that’s what had initially attracted her to him. Maybe his persistence against the odds was the quality she’d wanted Sam to absorb.

  But as compelling as Matt was personally, she had to think of Sam and what he expected.

  Matt had been silent, letting her think. Now he offered a half smile. “You’ve come an awful long way just to turn tail and go back.”

  True. But would Matt’s ranching-reality lesson satisfy Sam? Would this ranch be so different from what he’d expected that he’d feel cheated? Jessica leaned against the car. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”

  “Well, I’m not going to stand here and argue with you. If you want to go, then go.” Matt strode off.

  Jessica hesitated. Why did she feel guilty? She couldn’t believe she felt guilty. She was the wronged party here—or Sam was.

  But watching Matt walk toward her son, she had a difficult time convincing herself anybody had been wronged.

  Stay? Or leave? Which? Groaning, she stuck her head in her car and sniffed. Fortunately, there was nothing but a dusty smell. Brushing off the car seat anyway, Jessica started the car and drove in a narrow arc to avoid coming too close to the tiger. The beast was still sunning herself and Jessica didn’t care how tame Matt said she was, a tiger was a tiger.

  She pulled the car beside the tree that still retained possession of her wallet.

  Frank limped toward her. “Do you need help with your luggage?”

  “Not yet,” Jessica answered quietly. “I’m not sure if we’re staying.”

  “Not staying? But I understood—”

  “Things have changed.”

  “What things? You’re angry because of the monkey?”

  “No...well, yes, but that’s not the reason.”

  “What is the reason?”

  Jessica really didn’t want to get into a discussion with him. “This isn’t what we expected.”

  “Is anything what we expect?” Frank leaned against the car. “Wouldn’t life be boring if we knew what to expect?”

  “True, but Sam expected a ranch and I don’t want him disappointed.”

  They both looked toward the tree. Matt was giving Sam some brown chunks, which the boy was feeding to the little horse.

  Sam laughed each time the horse nibbled from his palm.
Matt kept giving him the chunks until he finally shook his head.

  “All gone,” Sam said to the horse, and held out his hands palms up.

  The horse nuzzled him. He laughed again, then as Jessica watched, he dropped to his knees and hugged the little animal.

  His eyes were closed and his mouth was curved in a blissful smile. In that instant, Jessica knew her son had never been so happy.

  For his whole life, she’d made decisions that she thought would lead to his happiness—maintaining a home in a place where his family had deep roots, devoting herself to grafting them both onto the Fremont family tree.

  And she was going to have to make one now.

  “Your son does not appear to be disappointed.” Frank gave her a questioning look. “As they say, ‘Happiness is in the eye of the beholder.’”

  “I thought that was beauty.”

  “And is that not a beautiful sight?”

  He was right. For now, Sam was happy. But would he be when he realized there weren’t other cowboys around? Would he feel cheated?

  Torn, she met the dark eyes of the man standing next to her son.

  There hadn’t been many men in Sam’s life. A couple of teachers, the soccer coach and the cub scout leader, that was it. The rest of the time he lived with two women in a big old house set on a hill away from the rest of Lightning Creek.

  Matt Winston was the first man to pay any sort of one-on-one attention to him. Was it any wonder Sam had latched onto him?

  Was it any wonder she had?

  Why else would she have bid on him at the auction? The riding lessons had only been part of it, she admitted now. Matt had been the other part, and she couldn’t take Sam away from him yet.

  So, okay. They’d stay.

  Besides, her driver’s license was still in the wallet in the tree. It was illegal to drive without a driver’s license. And just think of the horrible publicity if a Fremont was issued a ticket for driving without a license.

  They’d have to stay until they could get her wallet out of the tree.

  She turned off the car and swallowed.

  Matt’s eyes flashed and he nodded imperceptibly. “Careful that you don’t put too much weight on Sally’s neck,” he cautioned Sam when the horse sidestepped.

  Sam released her, but continued to pet her and rub between her ears.

  “Sam, let’s unload our stuff,” Jessica called. “I hope I don’t regret this,” she said under her breath.

  Frank opened her door. “On the trapeze, there is a moment when the flyer must let go and trust that the catcher will be there. If you wait until you see that the catcher is in place before you let go, then it is too late and you will fall.” He eyed her approvingly. “You would have made a good trapeze artist. You have let go and now you must trust that Matthew will be there to catch you.”

  * * *

  JUDGING BY THE BUILDINGS in the ranch yard, Jessica didn’t have high hopes for the interior condition of the modest stone building, so she was pleasantly surprised to find it comfortably, if masculinely, decorated, with no sign of animals running loose inside.

  They got Sam settled in a small, plainly furnished room and Jessica told him he had to unpack and put away all his clothes before he could go back out and play with Sally.

  When she and Matt left him, he was already shoving his T-shirts into a battered dresser.

  “You’ll be staying in here.” At the opposite end of the hall, Matt indicated a room that was obviously the master suite.

  The furniture was a heavy dark wood echoed by the exposed beams in the ceiling. Nice architectural detailing, Jessica thought. An open door led to a bathroom. “This must be your room. You don’t have to give up your room for me.”

  “I’m not. My room is next to Sam’s.” Matt leaned against the doorjamb, filling the space. “This was Barnaby Schultz’s room. He owned Winter Ranch until he died about a year and a half ago, and I haven’t felt like moving in. Doesn’t seem right.”

  “I know what you mean.” Jessica felt him look down at her. “I was never able to move into the president’s office at Fremont Construction after my husband died. I gave it to the crew manager and took a different one.”

  “You...go to work there?” Matt carried in her suitcases and set one on the trunk at the foot of the bed.

  “I sure do. Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?”

  “I apologize for saying so, but yes.” His gaze swept over her. “You don’t seem the type.”

  Jessica wasn’t offended. “Fremont Construction is Sam’s legacy. Rachel and I wanted to keep it going for him.” And working there had given her something to fill the lonely hours. She laughed. “I never expected to enjoy it, but I do. Speaking of which, is there a phone jack in here?”

  Matt gestured. “Over by the night table.”

  When she got farther into the room, Jessica saw the basic black dial phone. “Will my modem work out here?” she asked.

  “Set your modem software for pulse instead of tone. That’s what I had to do.”

  “You’ve got a computer?” That was unexpected.

  “Not the latest with all the bells and whistles, but yes. I use it to track cattle.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  Matt shook his head. “I have a list of my cattle with the calves I’ve had from each and their birth weight and so on. When I have to cull the herd, I can look up their stats and get rid of the least profitable ones.”

  “So you do have cows around here somewhere.”

  “Not as big a herd as we had a few years ago, but I can manage to scrounge up a few for Sam.”

  “Listen.” Jessica set her laptop and purse on the bed and turned to face Matt. She caught the full force of his gaze and was momentarily distracted. When a person had this man’s attention, she had all his attention.

  Jessica made herself say what had to be said. “Right now, Sam is happy and that’s the most important thing. I think we got off to a bad start and I’d like to start over.”

  “Fine with me.” Matt gave her a half smile that slid into a full one.

  His face, which wasn’t exactly cracking mirrors to begin with, ratcheted up another couple of levels on the attractiveness scale. Jessica felt the bed against her calves and clutched at the brown-and-cream quilt to steady herself.

  Her reaction was ridiculous. Anyone would think a handsome man had never smiled at her before.

  “So tell me why you’ve got almost every kind of animal but ranch horses in your barn,” Jessica asked, trying to regain control.

  “I borrowed Sally from her owners for Sam,” Matt explained. “I noticed that he was nervous when he rode Black Star, and then after you told me what had happened to his dad, I thought maybe Sally would let him get used to horses gradually.”

  “It was a good idea,” Jessica managed to reply. Her voice almost sounded normal.

  “I thought so,” he admitted. “Then there’s this zebra in love with my mule. She keeps sneaking over here. And you met Caesar and Sheba.”

  Jessica nodded.

  “Well, Scheherazade—that’s the elephant—missed her friends and came over here to visit.”

  “And that’s when I arrived?”

  Matt exhaled. “No, you got here after she tried to get into the barn by making her own entrance. She knocked a hole large enough for Shelby—”

  “Shelby?”

  “The zebra. The hole was big enough so Shelby could get inside with Tobias.”

  “The...mule?”

  Matt nodded. “Black Star doesn’t get along with Shelby, so I was trying to get her out of the barn, and that’s when you got here.”

  “And honked the car horn.”

  “Yeah.” He stared into the distance and Jessica could tell he was thinking abou
t the ruined paddock. “Scheherazade was in two circus fires and unfortunately associates horns with the fire alarms,” he explained.

  “I am so sorry.”

  He shook his head and gave her another quick smile. “You couldn’t have known.” He gazed at her a moment—long enough for her heart to pick up speed—then said, “You need to unpack, and I need to see what it’s going to take to repair the barn and fence.”

  He was all the way to the door before Jessica found her voice. “Wait. I can help you.”

  Matt looked doubtful.

  “Job estimates. It’s what I do.” She picked up her laptop. “I don’t know the local supply costs, but I’ll be able to tell you what you need and the man-hours required to make repairs.”

  Her offer earned her another smile. “Okay.”

  She was becoming addicted to Matt’s smiles.

  Together, they walked out of the house to find that Sam had somehow sneaked past them and was playing with Sally.

  Frank sat on the ground, his back leaning against the tree, his hat low over his eyes.

  Caesar ran back and forth, exhibiting the classic signs of jealousy.

  “Coin,” they heard Sam say.

  Caesar crept closer.

  “Coin,” Sam repeated.

  Caesar gave a funny hop, then twirled around before approaching Sam with his hand outstretched. Sam got to his feet, dug in his pocket and handed Caesar money.

  Caesar bit it, then chattered and ran away.

  Sam went back to playing with Sally.

  “Interesting place you’ve got here, Matt,” Jessica said.

  “It’s home,” he replied.

  And for the next two weeks it would be her home, as well.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THEY NEVER MADE IT to the barn. Word of Jessica’s arrival must have spread because an ancient black pickup truck chugged noisily down the dirt road toward them. Following it was an old wood-paneled station wagon that still had racks for surfboards on its roof.

  Lita was back and...good Lord A’mighty, Carmen and Katya were in the truck. Together. And both were still breathing.

  So much for Matt’s truce with Jessica. A little while ago, she’d been seconds away from driving off. He wasn’t sure what had changed her mind, but was glad she’d decided to stay.