Cowboy Confessions

by Gail MacMillan

  “Yes, well, maybe. Five years ago, he threw me flat on my backside the first time I tried to ride him.”

  “Brandy threw Daddy on his backside.” Katie Rose chuckled.

  “No need to repeat that to Mommy, baby.” Jake winked at Ross. “Now let’s go. Can’t let those women leave us too far in the dust.”

  They started at a walk up the beach. Ross, still holding the pony’s lead rope, sucked in a deep breath of the sea-spiced air. Damn, it felt good to be back on a horse, enjoying a fine morning in the saddle.

  “Great place, isn’t it?” Grinning over at him, Jake broke into his thoughts as the meadows that stretched down to the shore gradually gave way to rising cliffs that stood out thirty feet above them.

  “Sure is.”

  “The first year I worked for Shelby, there was a motor vehicle accident at the top of that cliff over there.” Jake pointed to a sharp promontory ahead of them. “Horse trailer rolled, and a mare spilled out and down the bank.”

  “Was she killed?”

  “No, just scared to death and cut up a bit. Shelby got the paramedics to lower her down to the shore, where she finally managed to settle the animal, and we eventually were able to lead her to a place down near your farm, beyond the cliffs.”

  “We?” Ross was quick to catch the change of pronoun.

  “I got lowered down to help her.”

  “Good for you, man. I’m guessing that back then you didn’t have a lot of horse savvy?”

  “Definitely not. Do you know, the first time I tried to put a bridle on Candy, I only got one ear through the strap? And I didn’t like to tighten a girth because I was afraid of hurting her. Great old girl, that Candy. Tolerated me no end.”

  “But you managed.”

  “Yes, I managed, but at that time, going out for a ride like this today would have scared the beejeebers out of me. Now, thanks to my wife, it’s pure pleasure.”

  “You couldn’t ride before you came here?” Ross looked over at him, surprised.

  “Definitely not. But Shel is one great teacher…and doctor. When I arrived here, my gut was so screwed up I was well on my way to serious ulcer troubles. She saved me from a major health issue. She’s one amazing woman.”

  He paused to look over at Ross before continuing more slowly, “And unless I’m a really poor judge of character, you’ve got the same kind of lady in Jessi.”

  “I don’t have Jessi.” The words broke out more harshly than he’d intended, and he hurried to make amends. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to snap. It’s just that Jess and I have been shoved together by my well-meaning mother. She thinks Jess can cure me the way she cures horses. In the process, I’m pretty sure she’s also hoping Jess will fall for her gimpy-legged son. It’s not going to happen.” Ready to change the subject, he turned to the child on the pony. “How about a little speed, Katie Rose?”

  “Go, go!” The little girl’s face lit up. “Go, Uncle Ross.”

  “Uncle?” Ross glanced at Jake.

  “She wanted to know what to call you and Jessi, so we told her ‘uncle’ and ‘aunt.’ Hope you don’t mind. Mr. and Miss seemed a bit formal.”

  “Don’t mind a bit.” Uncle Ross. Yeah. I like it.

  Ross felt a warm sense of belonging as he urged the gelding to a quick walk. The child squealed with delight when the pony broke into a slow, shambling trot to keep pace.

  “No need to tell your mom, though,” he cautioned.

  Jake winked and nodded.

  Ahead, Shelby and Jessi came back into view as they rounded a bend in the shoreline. They were coming at a dead run, apparently racing.

  Midnight Brandy snorted, half reared, and began to prance, tearing up the sand.

  “Whoa, whoa.” Jake kept his voice low, soft, and calming, but the excited animal backed and whirled, slamming into Pretty. The pony shrieked as a hoof hit her rump and projected her into the water.

  Later, Ross wouldn’t be quite sure how he managed it. All he remembered was his heels banging Silver’s sides. The big albino leaped forward, in time to allow Ross to scoop the child from the frightened pony’s back before she could be tossed into the bay.

  Only once the little girl was clutched in the saddle in front of him, did he realize what he’d done. Suddenly he was surrounded by Jessi, Shelby, and Jake, who’d dismounted and were holding their horses’ reins. Midnight Brandy still snorted and pawed, but Jake had the situation under control.

  “Oh, God!” Shelby’s face had paled under its tan. “Oh, God! Thank you, Ross, thank you.” She held up her arms for her child.

  “Fun.” Grinning, Katie Rose looked down at her mother. “Uncle Ross, wasn’t that fun?” She turned against his chest to look up at him with delighted blue eyes.

  “Yeah, yeah, fun.” Good God, am I shaking? I hope she can’t hear my heart pounding.

  “Katie Rose, come.” Shelby was still holding up her arms for the child.

  “No.” She settled herself into the saddle. “I want to ride home on Silver with Uncle Ross.”

  “Katie Rose…” Shelby began to protest, but Ross heard himself stopping her.

  “It’s fine, Shelby. I’ll take her home…or at least as far as my farm.”

  “Shel, I think that would be a good idea.” Jake joined the discussion. “She’s had an experience, and Ross stepped in to settle it. She’ll feel better with him.”

  “Okay.” Doubt coloring her tone, Shelby caught up Fancy’s reins. “Katie Rose, be good for Ross.”

  “Mommy, look!” The child pointed to her pony standing by the water’s edge. “Pretty is bleeding! Brandy kicked her!”

  “Oh, God…” The exclamation was a mutter from Shelby as she handed her reins to Jake and strode across the sand toward the little animal.

  “Is Pretty going to die, Daddy?” Wide, frightened blue eyes looked down at her father.

  “No, of course not, baby. Your mom’s the best vet in the world, we both know that, right?”

  “Right…I guess.” A frown puckering her face, Katie Rose watched her mother examining the pony.

  “Just a cut. Pretty will be fine.” She turned back to her daughter and smiled. Taking up the pony’s reins, she walked back to join the group.

  “Good.” In his arms, Ross felt the child heave a sigh of relief. “Let’s go, Uncle Ross.”

  “Uncle?” Jessi turned a quizzical look up at him.

  “Yeah.” Ross gave a smirk. “While you were off racing, Katie Rose gave me the title. Oh, and by the way, you’re now Aunt Jessi.”

  “So let’s go, Uncle Ross.” The child bounced impatiently. “I want to go fast. Can you make Silver run?”

  “Probably.” Ross fought to quell the shakes. “But I don’t think your parents would approve.”

  “Okay.” The word came out slowly, tinged with disappointment.

  “Nerves of steel…just like her mother,” Ross heard Jake mutter as he remounted Midnight Brandy. He looked over at Ross. “I’m never sure if that’s good or bad.”

  “Come on, Uncle Ross.” Katie Rose wiggled in the saddle. “Let’s get the show on the road.”

  “Jake, we really have to speak to Grady about how he talks in front of her.” Shelby spoke to her husband.

  “Yes, definitely.”

  The group started off, Ross leading the way with the little girl.

  “Let me have the reins, Uncle Ross.” She looked up at him with those resolve-melting sapphire eyes. “I know how to steer.”

  “Not just yet.” A contented feeling settled over him as he kept his arms around her, holding Silver to a sedate walk. “You still have a lot to learn. Jumping ahead too fast isn’t a good idea.”

  “I suppose.” She sighed. “But you’ll teach me, won’t you, Uncle Ross?” She glanced up at him again. “Mommy and Daddy and Grady are so busy all the time…”

  “We’ll see what your parents think.”

  Apparently satisfied with his answer, she settled comfortably into the saddle in front of him.
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br />   A sudden, unexpected thought enveloped him. What would it be like to have his own child riding with him, asking him to teach her to ride, giving him those cute grins?

  Where in hell did that come from? I’m not the father type. I’m not Chase.

  But the thought didn’t leave as easily as he’d imagined. He glanced over at Jessi. She smiled.

  ****

  “Look, a bunny!” As they arrived on the beach in front of the Turner Farm, Katie Rose pointed at the small, brown animal sitting up on its haunches in the overgrown lawn a few feet away. “Let me down, Uncle Ross, let me down!” She began to squirm.

  “Go ahead.” When Ross shot a questioning glance at the child’s father, Jake responded with a resigned grin. “You won’t get any peace until you do. And I’m pretty sure the rabbit is in no danger of capture.”

  Ross dismounted and reached up for the little girl. She slid from the saddle into his arms and gave him a quick hug.

  “Thanks for the ride, Uncle Ross.” She planted a kiss on his cheek before wriggling in his grip. “Put me down, please. I have to catch that bunny.”

  He placed her on the ground, and she darted off after the rabbit. The little animal bounded off toward the house with Katie Rose in pursuit.

  “Sorry I didn’t control Brandy better back there, Shel.” Jake took the opportunity to apologize to his wife as the rest of the riders dismounted.

  “No, it was my fault.” Shelby touched his arm. “I know better than to do anything that even remotely resembles racing within his sight. It was just that it was such fun to have an all-out gallop with someone who…”

  “Can ride well enough to keep pace with you?” Jake grinned and put his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t be afraid to say it. I wasn’t born to the saddle like you and your brother. I know I’ll never be able to give you competition…on a horse.”

  “Jake!” She gave him a light punch in the shoulder.

  “Look.” Jessi laughed. The rabbit had vanished under the verandah. Katie Rose’s bottom stuck out as she tried to continue her pursuit.

  “Oh, Jake, go get her before she gets herself stuck and we have to dismantle Ross’s front steps to rescue her.”

  “Wouldn’t make much difference,” Ross remarked as Jake set off. “A few more bits broken off won’t make it much worse.”

  “Can you come in for coffee…or a beer?” Jessi invited. “Not sure what the rule is about offering a guest alcohol before riding home on horseback, but if it’s permitted in New Brunswick…”

  “I don’t think there are any Royal Canadian Mounted Police waiting along the shore to check our alcohol consumption level, but we should be heading home.” Shelby glanced at Pretty’s shoulder. “Contrary to what I told Katie Rose about the pony being fine, I really need to get antiseptic on that wound. Another time?”

  “Definitely.”

  Jake returned with the little girl by the hand, her face contorted with discontent.

  “But, Daddy, if you’d just let me wiggle a bit more, I could have caught him.”

  “Yes, and maybe broken some boards on Uncle Ross’s steps. You wouldn’t want either him or Aunt Jessi to fall because you’d made a hole, would you?”

  “No-oo, but I was this close to his tail.” She held her fingers a couple of inches apart.

  “Come on, enough rabbit talk.” Shelby swung onto Fancy and held out her arms. “Up you come, Great Bunny Hunter. Jake, I’ll lead Silver and Brandy. You can ride Candy and lead Pretty.”

  “Back in the beginners’ circle.” Jake cast a rueful glance at Ross and Jessi. “How ignominious.”

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and enjoy an easy trip home.” Shelby turned the horses up the beach. “Wave good-bye, Katie Rose.”

  “Bye, Uncle Ross, Aunt Jessi. Come see me soon.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Hello.” Jessi answered Ross’s cell. He’d left it lying on the counter while he went outside to check the gas gauge in his truck.

  “Good morning…or afternoon…whatever in the hell time it is there.” The male voice was gruff but not unfriendly. “Ross around? It’s Simon Shoeman.”

  What does he want? Jessi recognized the name of one of Alberta’s most prominent rodeo organizers. Suspicious, she fought down the impulse to say Ross wasn’t available, but knowing the man’s reputation, she knew he wouldn’t give up until he’d accomplished whatever he was after.

  “He’s in the yard. If you’ll hold, I’ll get him for you.”

  “’Preciate it.”

  Carrying the phone, Jessi walked out onto the veranda and handed it to Ross as he came up the steps.

  “It’s for you. Simon Shoeman.”

  Ross’s eyes narrowed as he squinted up at her in the sunlight, his features hardening as he took the phone.

  “Simon?” His tone was neither friendly nor welcoming. “What’s up?”

  Jessi turned away and headed back into the house. Ross should be left to handle the call in privacy.

  Once inside, she couldn’t resist peeking out a window. Ross was limping back and forth on the lawn, still talking into the phone, his scowl indicating his attitude hadn’t mellowed.

  When Ross took the phone away from his ear, he punched off hard and fast. As he headed toward the house, she scuttled into the kitchen, opened a cupboard door, and pretended to be perusing its contents. When he stepped inside, she turned innocently toward him.

  “An old friend?” she asked.

  “Don’t play dumb. Anyone around the rodeo circuit knows who Simon Shoeman is,” he snapped, dropping the phone onto the table. “And you can make a damned good guess at what he wanted me for.” He hobbled to the sink, took a glass from the cupboard beside it, and turned on the tap. He filled it and took a long drink.

  “Why don’t you tell me?”

  “He wanted to know when I’d be ready for the circuit…rodeos south of the border this winter.”

  “Oh.” Jessi quietly closed the cupboard door and waited for him to continue.

  “Is that all you’ve got to say?” Annoyance filled his voice as he turned off the tap. “Isn’t this where you’re supposed to become my mother’s advocate and warn, beg, threaten, or cajole me into staying put?”

  “Would any of those tactics work?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, so I’d be wasting my breath. Consequently, you can stop huffing and puffing. You don’t have to blow over any buildings to convince me.”

  “You have to be the most irritating woman I’ve ever met!”

  “That translates as persistent.” She put her hands on her hips and grinned at him. “Thank you. I’ve always been proud of that quality.”

  “Ah, man!” He headed for the front door. The abrupt squeal from the porch swing told her he’d flung himself into it.

  Jessi smiled. Later she could tell Laura that as least for the immediate future Ross wasn’t planning to return to work.

  ****

  “Sure, be glad to help.” Jessi punched End on her phone and turned to face Ross as he sat slouched in a chair at the kitchen table the following morning. “Shelby needs someone to watch the farm for a few hours this afternoon. She has to take Katie Rose to the pediatrician, Jake is busy at the school, and Grady has to deliver a mare to a client. I said we’d be glad to.”

  “Nothing serious wrong with the little girl? I didn’t hurt her when I pulled her off that pony, did I?” The thought jolted him alert.

  “No, nothing like that. Just a regular checkup.” Jessi returned to putting their breakfast dishes into the dishwasher. “We have nothing pressing to do, so we may as well farm-sit.”

  “No need for us both to go.” An idea forming in his mind, Ross stood and went to get another cup of coffee. “I think I’m capable of sitting alone on their porch steps for a few hours and keeping rustlers at bay.”

  “Now you’re being a smart-ass.” Shelby closed the door of the machine with a bump. “But okay. If you feel you need a few hours away from m
e, fine. Give Fox a hug for me.”

  She poured herself another cup of coffee, and sauntered toward the front of the house. “I’m going down to the beach to enjoy this great morning.”

  Damn, this is going better than I’d hoped. Not a single word of protest. He grabbed his cane and followed her, a sly grin quirking one corner of his mouth.

  ****

  “Grady has all the barn work done.” Shelby hoisted Katie Rose into her safety seat of their king-cab truck. “You might check on Fox once in a while, but try to keep her quiet. Now are you sure you’ll be okay watching the place?”

  “I’m pretty sure.” Ross leaned on his cane and watched as Shelby fastened her daughter in place. “I don’t expect I’ll have to fend off too many rustlers in this quiet place.”

  “You wouldn’t think so, but several years back, someone stole Midnight Black.”

  Shelby climbed into the driver’s seat and fastened her seatbelt.

  “You’re putting me on. Around here?”

  “Not here on the farm but at a show we were attending. Luckily we got him back unharmed.”

  “Must have been an experienced wrangler to get that big guy to go along with him.”

  “It was a woman.” Shelby turned the key in the ignition. “Long story. There’s fresh coffee in the pot and lots of cookies in the jar on the counter. Enjoy. Oh, by the way”—she paused as she reached to shift into drive—“you can take Fox home when you leave.”

  “Great! See you.” Ross stepped back and waved as Shelby turned the truck toward the road.

  He watched until they were out of sight, then turned to the house.

  First, a visit to Fox. Poor little bugger. Left with a probable permanent limp. Well, at least she has three other good legs and won’t have to use a cane.

  ****

  “Easy, big guy.” Ross stopped outside Midnight Black’s steel-barred stall and spoke softly.

  The stallion snorted, half reared, then settled down to pawing at a horse toy the shape and size of a large beachball.

  “How about a little music?” Remembering the calming result of Grady’s snapping on the old CD player, Ross pushed a button. As an old Jordan Brooks hit filled the air, Midnight Black paused, gave his head a final shake, then settled, apparently listening.