A Cowboy Worth Loving (Canton County Cowboys 1)

by Charlene Bright

  “What are you doing?”

  “It looks like there are only four of them. I’m going to help.” He shook out of his sister’s grasp, and when he opened the door, a cloud of smoke that had caught on the wind swept into the truck. Mike opened the door on his side, and he and Clint both climbed out, too. “Take the truck back out to the path and wait for us.”

  Kayla knew that there was a time and a place for an argument with her brother, and this wasn’t it. She waited until the three men were out of the way and did as he asked. When she got back out to the trail, she turned off the engine and watched as the small plane swept over the top of the pickup again. It was so low this time that she actually ducked on instinct. She watched as it approached the fire again, this time dumping a basket of water on it.

  The smoke jumpers, her brother, and their ranch hands dug furiously; every five minutes or so the plane would drop more water, until at last the bulk of the fire was out. There were random spots burning here and there that the men eventually split up and took care of. The team also shoveled dirt onto any “hotspots” they saw where smoke was still rising from the ground. When the group looked to be breaking up, Kayla drove the truck over to pick up her brother and the rest of the men. The jumpers climbed in the back with Mike and Gavin, and Clint got in the front. They were sooty, sweaty, and they smelled like old, dirty ashtrays, but they were full of adrenaline and smiling ear to ear.

  “I think I missed my calling,” Gavin told her. “I could be one of them smoke jumpers.”

  Kayla just smiled at her brother and shook her head. Anything that didn’t involve at least a few hours on his horse a day wouldn’t ever be an option for him, and they both knew it.

  Chapter Two

  Kayla ended up feeding everyone breakfast before the group finally broke up. Gavin tried to leave when everyone else did, but his sister stopped him. “You and I need to talk.”

  “Come on, Kay. I’m tired--exhausted as a matter of fact--and I still have a day’s work to do. I have to go chase down a horse. And stop staring at my eye. I got in a scuffle in Dallas. Yes, I had too much to drink. Yes, it was about a woman. No, I don’t know when I’m going to grow up. Okay? Does that answer all of your questions?”

  Kayla gave him an irritated look and said, “I could have guessed all of that on my own. While when you are going to grow up is one of my favorite topics, today what we need to talk about is Tuck Stevenson.”

  “What did he do now?”

  “Gavin, that fire didn’t start itself out there this morning.”

  “I think we both know that, but you know as well as I do that we ain’t gonna prove it was Tuck, just like we ain’t gonna prove that he’s the one splittin’ open the fences and lettin’ the stock out.”

  “I realize that, but what we can do is fight this court battle. We aren’t gonna just sit back and let him take the land that our granddad and our daddy worked for their entire lives.”

  “We hired Henry James to handle that at the courthouse. What else can we do?”

  “Gavin, sit down, please.” He rolled his hazel eyes at her, but he sat. “Henry James is 104 years old…”

  “You’re exaggerating again, Kay; he’s seventy-four.”

  “Same difference. My point is, he’s a sweet old man, but he was Daddy’s tax attorney. He doesn’t know anything about land disputes, and he is in no way capable of fighting a battle this big.”

  “So what are you saying? I have a massive headache, and I’m not really up to trying to figure out what it is you’re trying to tell me. You’re the one that told me when all this started that Henry was the only attorney we could afford, which is just because he’s semi-retired and willing to do it for a side of beef during slaughter. We’re down to less than a hundred head of cattle; nobody is buying the horses we’re breeding. I know you’re working on that contract with the rodeo association, but if that goes through, it’ll be spring before we see any money from that. We’re in the middle of a drought, so we can’t even depend on grazing land to keep them alive, and I don’t know how we’re gonna pay for that hay I went to Dallas and bought yesterday.”

  “Take a breath, brother. I am well aware of our financial state. I got a phone call from a firm out of Houston a few days ago called Lancaster and Finch. I looked them up after I talked to the lady who called. They’re a really prestigious firm, and they’ve settled a lot of cases similar to ours.”

  “And how much does a ‘really prestigious’ firm charge for something like this?”

  “I’m sure they normally charge a lot. But the lady who called said that her attorneys are willing to do this for us pro bono.”

  Gavin cocked an eyebrow at her and said, “Why would an attorney from a ‘prestigious’ law firm want to travel almost three hundred miles to the heart of Texas cattle land and offer their services for free?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask the attorney when we meet with him this afternoon.”

  Gavin stood up out of his chair. “This afternoon? Us? My morning has already gone to hell in a handbasket. I’m not about to drive to Houston.”

  “The attorney is coming here,” she said.

  “Here? This lawyer is traveling all the way to Collinswood to talk to us about taking a case for free? Cool, huh?”

  “No, not cool. Nobody, especially some big city, fancy attorney, is gonna do all that for free for people they’ve never even met.”

  Kayla pulled her eyebrows together and said, “You’re always so suspicious. Just because somebody didn’t grow up out in the sticks like we did doesn’t mean they’ve got bad intentions.”

  “It doesn’t mean they got good ones either. I’m suspicious, little sister, but sometimes you can be a little bit naïve. We need to just let Henry handle this. I’ll go over and have a talk with Tuck.”

  “No. We’re gonna talk to this lawyer, and you’re not talking to Tuck. The last time you and Tuck “talked” the man ended up with a broken jaw and you almost went to jail.”

  “He fell.”

  “So you said. Thank goodness you were out near the ropin’ pen and had all those cowboys around to witness it, and you happen to be very good friends with the deputy in this town. Gavin, this isn’t the Old West. Tuck Stevenson and this great state we live in are going to take everything we ever owned away from us. You can’t go over there and have a gunfight with him to settle it. It has to be settled in a court, and in order to do that, we have to have someone on our side who knows what they’re doing. The lawyer will be here at three o’clock, I expect you to be here.”

  “Kayla…”

  She headed for the bathroom. It was finally time for her to take her own shower. “Don’t be late!” she sang over her shoulder. Gavin stormed out. He had half a mind to let her deal with this on her own.

  ***

  After Gavin went home and showered, he rode back out to the back pasture. He and Satan rode the fence line for a couple of hours, looking for breaks. The only one he found was the one he’d made himself this morning. The pasture smelled like old smoke and rancid water, and everything was either black or covered in a fine coating of orange mist. He slid down off of Satan and walked around, not sure what he was looking for, but knowing that his sister was right; this fire didn’t start itself. As he crunched through the charred brush, he thought about what they were up against with Tuck. The man had bought out the McGabe’s ranch next door to them a little over a year ago. At first, they had all been friendly. Gavin and the ranch hands had even gone over a few times and helped Tuck with repairs on his barn and digging a deeper well. Then, all of a sudden, Tuck revealed his true colors.

  Their new neighbor either found out or bought the land next door knowing that there was a “vacancy” or a “gap” between surveyed tracts of land separating the main house of their ranch and where Tuck’s land began. What that meant was that about four thousand acres of their land actually still belonged to the state of Texas due to a surveyor error. He filed an application with
the Texas General Land office alleging a 3,992 acre vacancy. The lawsuit contended that the land was incorrectly surveyed and should be returned to the state.

  The whole thing confused the hell out of Kayla and Gavin at first. They couldn’t figure out why the hell this guy would care so much about land that wasn’t his and wouldn’t be his even if he won the lawsuit. If he won, the land would revert back to state land. Kayla had done a lot of research on the subject and her theory was, because of the way Texas law is written, a person who finds unclaimed state lands are rewarded by being given a fraction of the mineral production values in a vacancy. Depending on the minerals, that finder’s fee could end up being worth millions. The plaintiff would not just be entitled to what the minerals were worth when they claimed them, and in the future, the claim would date back to the original surveyor’s field notes, which in the case of their family’s land, would be 1909.

  Gavin thought that sounded like a pretty good theory if there were any minerals there. They had always been a ranching family, and they were happy with that. None of them had ever considered whether or not the land they loved so much--the land that was in their blood--even had another liquid or solid running through it that would make it that valuable to anyone else. But that was what Kayla assumed Tuck was banking on. Gavin had a hard time buying that the man, who seemed to have a good head for business on his shoulders, hadn’t had more than an inkling before he moved forward with the suit. Even growing up in Texas, Gavin knew next to nothing about oil or any other minerals that might be in the ground. What he did know was that it generally took a lot of money and a lot of manpower to even discover it, so what would make Tuck Stevenson think that all that was worth it? As he pondered it, he looked up and saw the sheriff’s car coming up the trail in a cloud of dust. He stayed where he was and watched Colt, the deputy of Collinswood and someone Gavin had started kindergarten and graduated high school with, park and step out of his car. Gavin walked back over to where the deputy stood and asked, “Hey Colt, what brings you out?”

  “Wes Granger told me y’all had a suspicious fire out here this morning. Imagine my surprise when I hadn’t heard a thing about it. I stopped at the house, but it looked like Kayla had some company, so I thought I’d come up here and see for myself what things looked like.”

  Gavin shrugged. “I guess I thought Kayla called you earlier. It’s been one of those days.”

  “Or you just weren’t going to report it.”

  “Or that,” Gavin said.

  “Why not, Gavin? If Tuck Stevenson is running around starting fires now…”

  “First of all, we’re not gonna be able to prove he did anything, and second of all, every time you come out here there’s more gossip and speculation in town about what’s going on. I can barely sell my horses as it is. I don’t need people thinking we’re having one problem out here after another or my sales will stop all together. Tuck Stevenson ain’t runnin’ us off our land.”

  “And what about the lawsuit? You think you can beat that?”

  “Kayla thinks we can. I don’t know. Tell me--why do you think Tuck Stevenson would drop a bucket full of money on a ranch he doesn’t even seem to want and then try and help the state of Texas take away my land?”

  “I’d say there had to be something in it for Tuck.”

  “I’d say a lot of somethings. I think that’s the key to figuring this all out and keeping our land. Kayla and this lawyer she’s talking to seem to think we can fight it in court and win. I don’t have much faith in that.”

  “Does Kayla know why?”

  Gavin squinted his eyes at the deputy and said, “Nope, and she’s never gonna know, either. I’ve got a meeting I need to get to. Feel free to look around all you want, but unless you got x-ray vision, I don’t think you’ll find anything.”

  He turned to head back over to where Satan was waiting and felt his phone buzz in his pocket. When he took it back out, he saw the time and his sister’s number. It was three-fifteen. He knew he was in for it, but he’d rather just wait and face her wrath in person. He pushed ignore and stuck the phone back down in his pocket.

  ***

  Lucy Lancaster sat in the big, comfortable chair in the cozy country house, sipping her tea and listening as her nervous new client left a message for her brother. “Gavin,” she said through gritted teeth, “it’s three-fifteen. Our guest has been here for fifteen minutes. She was right on time. Where are you?” She disconnected the call, and Lucy saw her take a deep breath before plastering a smile on her pretty face and saying, “He should be here any minute.”

  Lucy wiped a curly auburn lock off of her forehead and smiled back. “Don’t worry about it. If I’m going to be working with you, I’ll be staying in town anyway. It’s not like I have anywhere to hurry off to.”

  Kayla Walker sat down in the chair across from Lucy and ran a hand through her long, dark hair. “Miss Lancaster…”

  “Please, call me Lucy.”

  Kayla smiled again. It was a nervous smile. “Lucy. Do you know much about what it is that Tuck is trying to do here? Have you represented a case like ours before?”

  “I haven’t represented anyone in a case exactly like this, no. But I have represented over twenty-five clients in my career, and I have a ninety-eight percent win ratio. I only take cases when I believe someone has been wronged or is being pushed around by big business or, worse yet, the government. In your case, Tuck Stevenson might have been the catalyst, but the bottom line here is that the government of the state of Texas has laws like this for their own personal gain. They give no consideration to the fact that your family has worked this land for… what did you say? Eighty-four years? They could care less if a win for the plaintiff would result in the displacement or financial ruin of your family. All they are interested in is their own financial gain, and that infuriates me.”

  This time Kayla’s smile seemed much less anxious and much more genuine. “It makes me furious, too,” she said.

  “What is it that makes us furious?”

  Lucy looked toward the voice. It was a distinctly masculine voice, and when her eyes fell on the man who’d spoken, it seemed that every nerve ending in her body was aware of how distinctly masculine all of him was. He looked at her with a pair of intense hazel eyes, one of which was sporting a shiner. The eyes were hard to look away from, even though they neither looked friendly nor unfriendly. They held a neutral expression, as if reserving judgment for now. Kayla jumped up and glared at the man in the doorway. Then she looked back at Lucy and said, “Lucy Lancaster, this is my tardy brother, Gavin Walker.”

  Lucy stood up smiling and held her hand out to Gavin. He came closer and took it. She was aware of the feel of his rough palm against her soft one and the manly, woodsy scent of his skin. He shook her hand and then let it drop. Looking around the room he said, “Did you come with the lawyer or...?”

  Lucy raised an eyebrow and said, “I am the lawyer.” The look on Gavin’s face gave away everything he was thinking. She was obviously not what he was expecting. Was he going to have a problem with her because she was female? Exactly what century was this cowboy living in?

  Chapter Three

  The cowboy didn’t apologize for insinuating that she didn’t look like a lawyer, for whatever reason, but when he went into the kitchen, his sister did. “I’m sorry about Gavin. He’s… well, he’s just country, and I don’t know what else to say about him other than that.”

  Lucy forced a smile and said, “That’s fine. It’s not the first time a man assumed I was the legal secretary.”

  “Gavin, come on! We’re wasting this lady’s time,” Kayla hollered into the other room at her brother.

  The big, hunky cowboy with the attitude to match came back into the living room holding a beer. He sat down next to his sister. Without preamble, he looked at Lucy and said, “Why would you want to do this for free? What’s in it for you?”

  Lucy was taken aback by his bluntness, but she tried not to show it as she
said, “I like helping people. I especially like helping people that I feel the government is taking advantage of.”

  “Saving the world one poor country folk at a time, huh?” Kayla elbowed him in the ribs. He seemed unaffected by it and went on to say, “You don’t look that old. Are you a new lawyer?”

  His sister tried to elbow him again, but he casually moved out of her range without ever taking those intense eyes off of Lucy’s face. It was unnerving, but she was determined not to let him see that he was making her feel anxious. “I’m twenty-nine,” she said. “I’ve been an attorney for five years now. I work for a very old firm, and trust me, in five years I’ve gotten more experience than a lot of seasoned attorneys.”

  Gavin took a long swig off of his beer, and while he was occupied with that, his sister said, “Lucy, you said you’ve already gone over the court documents. Maybe you can tell us what kind of chance we have here?”

  Lucy glanced at Gavin. He was still watching her. She moved her green eyes back over to his sister’s face. Their faces looked a lot alike, but she had an easier time keeping her thoughts in order when she looked at Kayla.

  “Well, I went over all the surveyors’ records from back when this land was first bought by your kin. Unfortunately, Stevenson is right and the survey wasn’t done correctly. Around that time, this seemed to happen a lot. I’m not sure why, but my guess would be that there were some politics and money involved. But, Texas has other laws in effect that will help us fight that. One of those is an Adverse Possession Law.”

  “Adverse Possession? That’s like squatters rights?” Gavin asked.

  “Kind of, the law says that if a trespasser comes onto the land and occupies it for a certain number of years without the owner’s permission, and it is in an ‘open and notorious’ way, meaning--”