A Cowboy Worth Loving (Canton County Cowboys 1)

by Charlene Bright

  He grinned again, but thankfully, this time he kept his mouth shut. He laid his belly in the window and stretched his long arms down to where she sat. He had a knife in one hand and as he used one hand to lift the seatbelt off of her chest his fingers brushed across her breast and sent shivers down her spine.

  Damn it, Lucy! It wouldn’t do at all for this cocky cowboy to know he had any effect on you at all. Knock it off!

  He used the knife to cut the seatbelt. The blade sliced through it like butter, and she was free. She took a deep breath and said, “Thank you.”

  He smirked at her again and said, “I reckon you’re lucky the airbag didn’t deploy. I’m gonna jump down. You think you can stand up and climb out?”

  “Yeah, I think so,” she said.

  “All right get as far up as you can, then I’ll pull you the rest of the way out.” She would rather eat possum that had been lying in the road for a week, but she didn’t have any choice. She wiggled her legs out from under the steering wheel and pushed herself up. When she had her body about halfway out the window, without warning, he reached under her arms and lifted her out. It didn’t seem to take any effort on his part, but her whole body was tingling. When she was back on her feet, she smoothed down her blouse and absently ran her fingers through her long, curly ponytail.

  “Thanks again,” she said.

  “You okay?” he asked again.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Only my ego is bruised.”

  With a cocked eyebrow and a smile still playing on his lips, he said, “How’d you end up in a hole anyway?”

  “I guess I got too close to the edge and overcorrected,” she told him.

  “Probably shouldn’t a done that,” he offered.

  “You think?” She sighed heavily and then said, “Oh damn! My purse is still in there.”

  To his credit, he didn’t say anything else. He leaned back inside the window, and reaching into the back, pulled out her purse. “You need anything else?”

  “No, that’s it, thank you.”

  He pulled himself out and handed her the bag. He looked back at the car. “I don’t reckon your car is gonna be worth much after this, but I’ll come up later and pull her out.”

  “It’s not my car.”

  “Oh, well then I bet that makes this all that much worse, doesn’t it?”

  Lucy didn’t even dignify that with an answer. At that very moment, she realized the gravity of her predicament. They were at least five miles from the main house. Gavin was on horseback. How the hell was she going to get back? As if reading her mind, Gavin slid the knife he’d stuck into his pocket into one of the jet black horse’s saddle bags and climbed onto the horse. Then he reached a hand out to her. “Oh I don’t think so,” she said.

  He looked like holding back the laughter was killing him. “You gonna walk?”

  Lucy looked around. She knew it was a stupid thing to do. What was she looking for, a bus depot? She suddenly realized that the two dogs who sat patiently alongside Gavin and his horse had a friend with them that looked an awful lot like a goat.

  “Is that a goat?” she asked.

  “Shh,” Gavin said. “He doesn’t know he’s a goat. You’ll hurt his feelings. Bo, Sam, and Clarence, this is Lucy.”

  Bo and Sam came over as if to say hello. Lucy smiled and pet each one of them on their heads and scratched behind their ears. Then Clarence stepped up and she did the same to him. He followed his friends back over to where the horse stood and lay down next to them. Hopefully he never saw himself in a mirror. At least seeing him was enough to lighten Lucy’s mood a little.

  “I haven’t been on a horse in a while,” she finally told Gavin. It had been eighteen years to be exact since the bank repossessed everything her daddy had spent his life working for, including her horse, because of taxes he supposedly owed. That callous act by the government and the so-called justice system had completely ruined a good man, and it had led to his death a year later, she was sure.

  “That’s all right. Even if I didn’t know what I was doin’, Satan here’s an expert.”

  Lucy knew she didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t the horse she was uncomfortable with; it was the idea of sitting on that saddle so close to this man who, no matter how big of a pain in the butt he was, set her insides on fire.

  Chapter Five

  They rode in silence for the ten minutes it took to make it to the pretty little cottage she’d passed. She was surprised when Gavin led the horse up to a hitching post on the porch. “What are we doing here?” she asked.

  “I’m gonna get my truck and trailer and go get your car.”

  “This is your house?”

  He shrugged. “It was my grandparents. Kayla and I need our own space. Go ahead and slide off.”

  As soon as Lucy’s feet hit the ground, a shirtless man stepped out of the little house and onto the porch. He was wearing a pair of well-worn Wranglers and pulling off the shirtless thing nicely.

  “Hey, look what you found. You think there’s any more of ‘em out there?”

  “You can look.” Gavin spoke with no inflection in his voice whatsoever as he got down off the horse. “Or you can just have this one.”

  Appalled, Lucy said, “I’d appreciate it if you two weren’t talking about me as if I’m not standing right here.”

  The sandy-haired, blue-eyed cowboy on the porch grinned and said, “Forgive us, ma’am. Brance Duncan at your service.”

  Lucy was as wary of the newcomer as she was Gavin, but the manners she was taught growing up were ingrained in her. “Lucy Lancaster,” she said. Brance stepped toward her and took her hand and placed a kiss on it. Gavin was pulling the saddle off of Satan and rolled his eyes at the display.

  “You know by this time of day most people have their shirts on,” he told his friend.

  Brance grinned again. Lucy couldn’t help but notice the deep dimples on either side of his face when he did that. “Forgive me,” he said to Lucy, “I’ve been on the road winning championships for a while now. I must have forgotten my manners.”

  “Go put your damned shirt on!” That time Gavin didn’t sound at all like he was kidding. Brance didn’t look concerned about it, but he did turn and go inside the house. Gavin looked at Lucy then as he laid the saddle across the hitching post. “Why were you out there snooping around by yourself? You decided to bypass Kayla and have a look around on your own?”

  “No. Kayla asked me to go on my own because she was tending to a horse that was giving birth.”

  “Giving birth? She said that, it was giving birth?”

  “Yeah, that’s what she said. I’m sure.”

  “Dang it! Get in the truck.”

  Brance was back, now wearing a blue t-shirt that made the blue of his eyes shine like gemstones. “She can stay here with me if she doesn’t want to go.”

  “Right,” Gavin replied. Then he looked at Lucy. “I have to go check on Kayla before I go get your vehicle. Do you want to stay here with him?”

  Lucy looked at Brance who was still grinning. Gavin definitely seemed like the lesser of the two evils. “Um no, thank you,” she said with a little nod in Brance’s direction. “I need to speak to Kayla, too.”

  “Well it sure was nice to meet you, Miss Lucy.”

  “You as well.”

  “Brance,” he said. Then with a wink he added, “Brance Duncan.”

  She resisted rolling her eyes. She turned to find that Gavin was already almost to the detached garage. When he opened it and she saw the truck, she knew she’d at least been half right. He did live in the pretty cottage, but the big, new, shiny truck had to belong to Brance. Gavin got into a nineteen-seventy-something Ford pickup that looked like it may have been green at some point in its life. It was hard to pin in down to one color now with the rust spots and primer patches.

  Again, they rode in silence until they pulled up in front of the main house. Gavin didn’t wait for her, and Lucy was beginning to wonder if he’d been raised by wolves. S
he got out and followed him. He went into the stables and let the door swing closed behind him.

  “Damned heathen,” she said before grabbing the door and letting herself inside. She couldn’t see him any longer, but she heard voices and followed them. She found them near the last stall where a beautiful chestnut mare lay in the hay and a skinny little chocolate brown colored foal stood next to her. The mare’s breathing was labored, and she was lathered in sweat. Kayla looked worried.

  “She was doing fine, but once the foal was out she just lay there. I let her rest for a bit, but the foal was trying to get up. I was afraid he’d pull that cord too hard, and they’d both go to bleeding, so I tried convincing her to get up.”

  “And that’s where you got the bruise?”

  Lucy hadn’t even noticed, but Kayla had a dark red mark on the side of her face that was beginning to turn purple.

  “Yeah, she didn’t take too kindly to my prodding. I know she’s been through a lot today, but I called her a name or two. I just can’t figure out why she won’t get up.”

  “You shoulda called me, Kay. She coulda killed you.”

  “I’m not inept when it comes to horses, dear brother.”

  “I didn’t say you were, but you and I both know the wild ones are different. You did a good job, though.”

  Kayla nodded and looked at Lucy. “I’m so sorry about all this.”

  Lucy smiled. “I think it’s the most exciting thing I’ve seen in a long time. Don’t be sorry. What can I do to help?”

  Kayla smiled back. “Thanks. Let’s see if we can get the foal over to the next stall while Gavin tries to get Chestnut standing again. You know horses generally birth standing, but if there’s a problem they’ll lie down. That’s when it can become a real concern if we can’t get her back up again.”

  Lucy helped Kayla nudge the baby into the next stall. She glanced back at Gavin before Kayla closed her brother and the big, wild horse in the stall together. He had his face down close to the horse and was whispering something to her that Lucy couldn’t hear, but it looked intense.

  “My dad used to raise horses,” Lucy told her.

  “Really? Did y’all have a ranch?”

  “Yeah, in San Antonio,” she said. “He died when I was eleven years old, though.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s tough to lose your folks no matter what age you are, but I can’t even imagine it at eleven. What about your mom?”

  “She was never around, at least as far as I can remember. My dad was raising me on his own. After he died, I went to live with my grandparents in Houston.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kayla said again. “Gavin and I were lucky, I guess. We at least got to keep both of ours until we were grown.”

  “How did they die?”

  “They were killed in a car accident. They’d gone to Dallas for a romantic weekend for their thirtieth anniversary. On their way back they were hit by a truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Me too,” Kayla told her. “I think Gavin and I imagined our lives very differently than they are, but maybe everyone does.”

  Lucy smiled. “Yes, I think that’s true for most of us.”

  About that time they heard a scuffle in the stall next to him. Gavin was cursing, and it sounded like the horse was kicking the side of the stall. All of a sudden, they could see her head. She was standing up. Her nostrils were flared wide open, and she was still covered in sweat. Gavin’s head appeared next and Kayla said, “You did it! You think she’ll be okay?”

  “I think she’s fine. She was just being lazy, weren’t you girl?” The horse snorted at him and looked like she was going to rear up. Gavin opened the stall door and ducked out quickly. “She’s a temperamental thing, though. Let’s give her a bit to settle down, and then I’ll try putting the foal in with her to see how they do.”

  Lucy and Kayla went into the house. Gavin stayed back. Lucy was relieved that she wasn’t going to have to make conversation with him. Instead, she sat at the dining room table and looked over some of the property documents Kayla had rounded up for her while Kayla showered. When Kayla finished up and came back out, she started making sandwiches for the ranch hands. A man named Mike stopped by, and Kayla sent the food with him along with a big thermos of sweet tea. Then she went back into the kitchen and reappeared a few minutes later with a sandwich and chips for Lucy, one for herself, and two glasses of sweet tea.

  “Oh Kayla, you didn’t have to make me lunch. You work so hard around here; I came here to help you, not add to your load.”

  Kayla waved a hand at her and took a drink of her tea. “I’d rather do any of my other chores than deal with the legal stuff. I’m so happy you’re here.”

  “I’m glad,” Lucy said. “Unfortunately I didn’t get off to a great start, wrecking my car and adding to Gavin’s load as well. He already doesn’t care for me.”

  “Oh don’t think that. It’s just the way he is. He’s just suspicious of anybody who didn’t grow up in this dinky little county. Gavin left home for a while when he was eighteen. He was thinking he wanted to be a veterinarian, so he went off to school at Texas A&M in Corpus Christie. I don’t know to this day what happened there, but he was gone for over five years. I was just a kid when he left, only eleven or twelve, so my parents wouldn’t talk to me about what was going on either. I honestly thought he’d died for a while. I had myself convinced of it. When I was about seventeen, he showed up again. He and Daddy barely spoke, and Mama seemed like she had tears in her eyes every time she looked at him. Gavin wasn’t a veterinarian, and to this day I have no idea if he ever finished his program or not. He’s not much of a talker. He just threw himself into working the ranch, and eventually he seemed to get past most of the sadness he was carrying around, but the being suspicious and wary of strangers stuck with him. Then Daddy and Mama died, and Tuck moved in and started filing motions to take our land away.”

  “Just adding to his suspicions about folks, I guess?”

  “Yeah, so I’m sorry for the way he acts toward you. I don’t think he really means to be a horse’s behind.”

  “It just comes natural?” Lucy said with a grin. The grin held until she realized Gavin had come in the back way and was standing there staring at her with those eyes once again.

  “I brought your car down, but you aren’t gonna be able to drive it. Let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll take you back to town.”

  Lucy felt her face color. She found herself hoping that he didn’t hear her comment, or at least he didn’t know what she was talking about. But then she told herself that if he didn’t act like a butt, she wouldn’t think to compare him to one.

  “Thank you for doing that, Gavin. I called the rental company. They said they’d send a tow truck for it. You don’t have to take me back to town, though; I can call a cab.”

  Gavin looked at her like she was an idiot, and Kayla laughed. “Lucy, honey there hasn’t been a cab in Collinswood since, well, ever.”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, embarrassed. She knew she sounded like a snob when she said things like that. It wasn’t her intention; sometimes she just forgot. Lucy knew that Collinswood was a small town. She used to live in one just like it before she moved to Houston with her grandparents.

  “That’s okay though,” Kayla said. “Tonight is the parade and the festival in town. It’s the beginning of the harvest season. We go every year, so we were going to town anyway. Why don’t you go with us?”

  Lucy looked at Gavin, who sneered at that idea. She wondered if it was because he couldn’t stand the thought of spending more time with her or because he thought she wasn’t going to fit in. She found herself agreeing to go, just because she got the feeling that it annoyed him.

  Chapter Six

  Gavin was more than annoyed, he was livid. First of all, his sister invited Lucy to the festival, and second, his best friend insisted they take his double cab pickup and Gavin got stuck in the back seat with her. Thi
s woman didn’t belong here. She wouldn’t fit in with the townsfolk, and besides that, she came here to work for them, not be their friend. Brance seemed happy as a clam up front alone with Kayla. She was chatting nonstop, and Gavin could see her tossing her hair and batting her eyes at him. He and Brance were going to have to have a really serious talk about his boundaries. He knew if he said anything to Kayla, she’d sleep with him just to prove Gavin wasn’t her father and couldn’t tell her what to do. But he knew his sister, and he knew Brance. Brance wouldn’t be looking for anything more than a fun diversion while he was in town. Kayla didn’t do anything without putting her whole heart into it, and best friend or not, Gavin would have to kick Brance’s butt if he broke it.

  Then there was the way his sister was already treating this lawyer woman like she was a friend. Gavin glanced sideways at her. She was staring out the window on her side, and all he could see were masses of long, curly auburn hair. He wished that he didn’t have an urge to wrap his fingers up in it, but the difference between him and Kayla was that he knew better than to trust so quickly. Poor Kayla was still so naïve. Gavin had been like Kayla once, a long time ago. He’d found out the hard way how easy it was to be taken in by people who come off as so well meaning. A woman who looked like Lucy and had a career in a big city making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year had no interest in being friends with people like them. Yet, for some reason, this one seemed to be going right along with it. She spent half an hour giggling in the bathroom while she and Kayla did their hair, and then they tried on clothes in his sister’s room for another half hour like two teenaged girls getting ready for the prom. Gavin wasn’t buying for a minute that she was having that much fun. For some reason, she was going out of her way to get close to them pretending she wanted to help and pretending she wanted to be his sister’s friend. He wasn’t buying the act, but he hadn’t figured out her angle yet.

  He looked out his window. Canton County’s annual harvest festival used to be a favorite of his when he was a kid. Back then it was held in late October at actual harvest time. Then it would be a bunch of kids and their mothers with nary a man in sight. The men were either working or sleeping from the exhaustion that was brought about by sixteen hour days. The festival’s attendance had begun to wane significantly by the time he was in high school, and that was when the head of the town council, Miss Elaina Stark, had proposed they hold the festival early in September. She said they could call it a portal entering into the season of the harvest. Miss Elaina was always fond of science fiction books. The Season of the Harvest stuck. The Portal was a little too abstract for small town Texas, so that went by the wayside.