Wrangling the Rancher

by Jeannie Watt

  “I remember her as being about four years old with the cutest blond curls all over her head.”

  Taylor laughed. “She’s changed. And I’m certain she’d do a good job for Culver’s.”

  “How’s your job search coming?”

  Taylor let out a sigh, and shifted so that her legs draped over the arm of the easy chair. “I interviewed in Bozeman today. I’m not certain how it went. I still want to go home.”

  “Home meaning Seattle.”

  “I like it here,” she said simply. “Things are...working out. But no one wants to hire a city girl who they know is going to jet back off to Seattle the first chance she gets.”

  “Maybe you should work on coming off as more homespun.”

  Taylor laughed at her grandfather’s choice of words. “I could. I’m driving the tractor again for Cole.”

  “Don’t tell your mother,” Karl said in a mock-serious tone. “Speaking of which, has Cecilia been nagging you about living the rural life?”

  “I think she knows that unless she makes room for me with her and Jess, that I’m here until I get hired.”

  “Not such a bad thing, is it?”

  A soft tap sounded on the door. Taylor smiled to herself. “No, Grandpa. I can honestly say it’s not all bad.”

  Cole let himself in as Taylor hung up. She stayed where she was, draped over the easy chair, smiling at him, feeling strangely at peace with herself and this...situation. It couldn’t last. She wasn’t going to live in a bunkhouse across the driveway from a hot rancher/farmer forever. But this was where she was, what she was doing, right now and she was good with it.

  “Thanks for giving Jancey the pep talk. She’s feeling a lot better.”

  “No problem. I called my grandfather.”

  “I kind of thought you would.” He cocked his head but didn’t move any closer, so she pushed herself to her feet and took a couple of lazy steps toward him, half smiling, holding his gaze. “I notice that I still have a small bed.”

  “Mmm.” A faint smile curved his lips. “My sister said you can sleep over if you want.”

  Taylor’s eyes widened. He wasn’t kidding. “That seems...”

  He reached out for her, took her by the shoulders and eased her against his hard body, wrapping his arms around her. “I like the way we do things now.” He found her lips, kissed her gently. “Even if the bed is narrow.”

  “Me, too,” Taylor murmured against his perfect mouth. “I like it a lot.” She kissed him back, a long, lingering kiss, more relaxed than the way they used to kiss, but just as hot. “I don’t want to change a thing.”

  A scuffling outside on the gravel brought their heads up, and then Jancey yelled, “Cole! A little help!”

  Cole hurried for the door at the sound of his sister’s oddly muffled voice, Taylor close on his heels. But when they got outside—no Jancey.

  “Cole!” Her voice sounded distant, muffled.

  Cole jerked his head. “Grain shed.” They rounded the corner of the bunkhouse, and then Cole skidded to a stop so fast that Taylor ran into his back. Jancey’s feet extended out from beneath the foundation where she’d apparently worked her way into Chucky’s hidey-hole. She was squirming but not really moving forward or back.

  “Are you stuck?” Cole demanded.

  “I’m not taking the air.”

  Taylor put a hand up to her mouth to stifle a laugh. Things like this never happened in her family.

  “I’ve got Chucky’s collar.”

  “Let go,” Cole said.

  “No. He almost got—” she squirmed again “—hit by a car. He might have gotten bumped. I want to—” she coughed as if she’d just inhaled some dirt “—make sure he’s okay.”

  Cole rolled his eyes heavenward, and Taylor pressed her lips together hard. It wasn’t funny—not if the little dog had gotten bumped, but if he was okay...

  Cole bent down and grabbed his sister’s ankles. “You know this isn’t going to feel good.”

  “Don’t. Care.”

  Cole shrugged, then started to work Jancey out from under the building. As soon as she was far enough out that she could get her knees underneath her, she scrambled the rest of the way by herself, pulling the shaking bundle of white fur with her. She flopped over into a sitting position, holding the little dog to her filthy chest.

  Cole reached out to take Chucky. “Let’s get him in the house. Have a look.”

  “Yeah.” Jancey got to her feet, brushed herself off a few times then glanced over at Taylor. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. You?”

  Jancey lifted her shirt to inspect her stomach, which was red and scraped from where her shirt had ridden up while Cole dragged her backward through the sandy soil. “Nothing that won’t heal.” She jerked her head toward Cole, who was already halfway to the house. “He always pretends to be such a hard-ass. He isn’t.”

  “I know.”

  “Just making sure.”

  Which left Taylor to wonder why as she and Jancey trotted to catch up with him. Once inside, Jancey sat on one of the kitchen chairs and held Chucky while Cole looked him over. The pup had indeed been bumped by the car. He had a skinned leg and a sore spot on his hip.

  “Bruised, not broken,” he told Jancey.

  “That’s what I thought. I don’t think he needs a vet call. I’ll treat the scrapes myself.”

  “Maybe you should hand him over to Mrs. Clovendale.”

  “Tomorrow, on my way to the interview. I’ll call her right now and let her know I’m taking care of him until then.”

  She put the little white dog down on the floor. He looked at her sadly, and she gently scooped him back up. “Poor little guy. Come on. We’ll go fix that leg.”

  She carted the dog out of the room, and Cole and Taylor exchanged looks. Then the laugh that Taylor had been holding burst out. She clamped her hand over her mouth.

  “It’s okay,” Cole said drily. “We allow laughter in this house.”

  “I’m sorry that the little guy got hit, but since he’s okay...” Taylor pressed her hand to the side of her face. “Jancey getting stuck was pretty entertaining.”

  “Haven’t seen a lot of stuff like that?” he asked in an amused voice.

  “I was an only child and my mother was kind of prissy. I didn’t get moments like this.”

  “If you want to crawl under the grain shed, I’ll be happy to pull you out,” Cole offered. “Make up for what you lost out on growing up.”

  She took a step closer, biting her lip as she looked up at him. “Or I could pull you out.”

  He smiled. “Or...we could wait until Jancey and Chucky go to sleep and pick up where we left off...”

  She went on tiptoe to take his face and pull his lips to hers. “I like that option best of all.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “OKAY. THAT WAS stupid easy.” Jancey waltzed through the kitchen door and put Chucky down on the linoleum. Cole’s eyebrows came together as the poodle pranced around Jancey’s feet, but his sister didn’t seem to notice.

  “I got the job!”

  Cole jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around his little sister. “Way to go, kid.”

  “Congratulations!” Taylor dropped the spoon she’d been using to stir gravy and gave the girl a big hug as soon as Cole let her go.

  “Stupid easy, you say?” Cole’s tone was ultraserious, but amusement lit his eyes.

  Jancey gave him a nudge with her elbow. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do, and congratulations.” He cleared his throat and indicated the poodle with a quick tilt of his head. “And Chucky?”

  Jancey’s smile grew even wider. “He’s mine! Mrs. Clovendale can’t keep up with him, and apparently, her sister isn’t up to
keeping him.”

  “I don’t know if anyone is up to keeping him.”

  “I am.” Jancey went to the counter, where Taylor had laid out the pot roast, and picked up a plate. “I have a job and a dog. This is a great day.”

  “Super,” Cole muttered. Now Taylor gave him a nudge, and he winked at her.

  Jancey put her plate on the table and took a seat. Chucky jumped up onto the chair next to her, and Taylor was afraid that if she looked at Cole she’d start laughing. So she focused on Jancey.

  “Tell us about what happened. Every detail.” She took the chair across from Jancey and did her best to ignore Chucky who peered across the table with his soulful eyes.

  “I start on Monday. I was really nervous about not having any references from the ranch, but Jolie—she’s my new boss—told me that if I was your sister, that was enough for her.” She stabbed her fork into the pot roast. “Take that, Miranda.”

  Jancey’s joy was infectious, and Taylor found herself wishing that she could share a similar joy soon. Her gaze connected with Cole’s yet again, guessing he knew exactly what she was thinking—especially when his hand found her thigh under the table a few seconds later.

  “I have to get a bunch of stuff from the ranch tomorrow,” Jancey said to Cole. “Can I use your truck?”

  “The bed is filthy. You’d have to wash it out first.”

  “How about the SUV?” Taylor asked. “I can go with you. Help load.”

  Jancey considered. “If you don’t mind, that’d be great.”

  “Works for me,” Cole said, looking back at his plate. He gave Taylor’s thigh a gentle squeeze before pulling his hand away. “I have an appointment with my accountant in Missoula tomorrow or I’d go with you.”

  “I don’t need a bodyguard,” Jancey said darkly.

  “It wasn’t you I was worried about.”

  Jancey laughed. Landing the job at Culver Ranch and Feed had done wonders for her temperament. Or maybe it was breaking free from the family ranch, no longer having to deal with the stress there.

  “I’m going to use my first paycheck to buy a kennel for Chucky. Jolie will give me a discount on both the fencing and the boards I’m going to bury in the ground around it so that he can’t dig out.”

  “And then you’ll continue to save for college.”

  Jancey blinked at him. “Of course.”

  After the dishwasher was loaded, Cole walked Taylor to the bunkhouse while Jancey tapped out messages on her phone. “Thank you for offering to drive her. I don’t want her going to the ranch alone.”

  Taylor shifted her course toward the calves. The babies were growing fast, and she was almost as good at feeding them now as Jancey was. “Do you think there’ll be trouble?”

  He let out a snort. “I know there will be if Jancey goes to the main ranch and tells off Miranda.”

  “Ah. I’m supposed to keep that from happening?”

  He smiled down at her. “If you did, I’d be grateful.” He leaned his arms on the top rail of the calf pen. “Jancey has a lot of fight in her, and I think it would be best if she didn’t tangle with Miranda right now.”

  “Let things cool for a bit.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So that you can do the tangling?” He didn’t answer, and Taylor bumped her shoulder up against his.

  He turned and smiled down at her. “I plead the fifth.”

  “Yeah.” She captured his face between her hands and kissed him. This thing they shared...she liked it. She was comfortable with it, and after dissecting the matter late last night when the wind was leaking through the loose windows and the critters under the bunkhouse were particularly active, she decided that it was because they understood one another. He knew her goals, she knew his. They were comfortable with sharing the time they had. A rare thing and special thing, one she would treasure as life went on and their paths eventually diverged.

  * * *

  SHE AND JANCEY left for the ranch at the same time Cole headed off to Missoula. She followed his truck down the highway until he entered the freeway and she continued on to the Bryan Ranch. When they got to the place, Jancey’s friend Matt was there, throwing hay to the horses.

  “He’s taken over feeding for me,” Jancey explained to Taylor. “He has fence duty, so he can work it into his schedule without going out of his way.” She gave a small shrug. “I can pay him a little more than I thought I could, too, because I’ll make more working at Culver’s.”

  Jancey crossed the drive to speak with her friend while Taylor opened the SUV’s hatch and laid the back seat down to make more cargo space. Then she hauled the empty boxes they’d brought onto the porch. The house was locked, so she sat in one of the weathered rocking chairs and surveyed Cole’s beautiful property while she waited for Jancey to finish her conversation.

  Once Matt got on his ATV to head back to the guest ranch, she and Jancey got into the house, and Jancey started dumping the contents of her dresser into black trash bags. The clothes hanging in the closet were doubled over and also stuffed into bags, hangers and all. She cleaned out the small bathroom, loading the boxes, and then stacked the books on the shelf by her bed into the last box.

  “I think this is it for now.” She propped her hands on her hips and looked around the room. “I’ll get the rest later, if I need it.”

  Taylor gave her a sympathetic nod, then grabbed one of the heavy trash bags and headed for the SUV. They’d just finished loading when the sound of an engine brought their heads up.

  “Shit.”

  A small open Jeep rounded the corner, an auburn-haired woman at the wheel. She pulled to a stop in front of the SUV, as if to block its exit. Fine. Taylor would back the vehicle onto the lawn if she had to.

  Miranda got out and pulled off a pair of driving gloves as she walked toward them. “Moving out?”

  “I am,” Jancey said with an upward tilt of her chin. “I got a job. It pays more than the job you messed up for me, and I’m working for people who know exactly what kind of a person you are, because I told them.”

  Taylor sucked in a breath, but before she could intercede, Miranda asked, “What about your horses and cattle?”

  “I’ve hired someone to feed them.”

  “Ah. Of course. Well.” Miranda smiled a bone-chilling smile. “Good luck with the future, Jancey. I’m sure it’ll be bright.”

  “No thanks to you.” Jancey gave Miranda a cool look. “Have you heard the term ‘cut off your nose to spite your face’?”

  Taylor frowned at Jancey’s use of a phrase that she hadn’t heard since her grandmother had died. Miranda didn’t seem to notice. She merely lifted her eyebrows in a silent invitation to continue.

  “That’s what I’m going to do. I’ll tell anyone who will listen not to stay at this place. It might hurt me, but I hope it hurts you more. Social media is a wonderful thing, Aunt Miranda.”

  The woman’s face turned to ice, and Taylor took hold of Jancey’s arm, intent on getting her out of there before more damage was done.

  “We’re leaving,” she said to Miranda. “Cole wanted me to tell you to stay out of his house. He means it.”

  She got Jancey into the SUV without any more salvos being fired.

  “Mission so not accomplished.” She gave Jancey a dark sidelong look. “What you just did was what I was supposed to prevent.”

  “Sorry,” Jancey said, but it was obvious she was not.

  “I understand why you did it.” The woman had screwed with Jancey’s life and Jancey very much wanted to do the same to her. “But maybe pouring gas on the matter isn’t the best solution.”

  Jancey let out a huff of air. “There is no solution, so I settled for a moment of satisfaction.”

  Taylor slowed as she crossed the cattle guard, then gave Jancey a quick
glance. “Cut off your nose to spite your face?”

  “We had to do an English paper on idioms,” Jancey said on a sigh. “Damn it. That woman...”

  Her voice trailed off, and Taylor hoped Jancey standing up to Miranda wouldn’t cause that woman to seek yet another path of petty revenge.

  Later that evening, when Cole got back from Missoula, they walked the perimeter of the smallest field and Taylor told him about the confrontation.

  “No way to keep it from happening,” she said in conclusion.

  “Yeah. I get it.” Cole pulled a long weed as they walked and tossed it aside. “I just wanted you to keep her from going to the main office and telling off Miranda. Nothing you could do about Miranda showing up.” He gave a small snort. “Which she did just to upset Jancey.”

  “The woman is a classic bully,” Taylor mused. “You can’t reason with bullies.”

  “No kidding,” Cole muttered.

  “Have you ever considered selling the place?” The thought had worked its way into her head a number of times that day. Cole’s expression darkened. “Okay. No.”

  He shook his head, his mouth flattening. “I won’t sell. She won’t win.”

  “Sometimes winning isn’t all that great if it eats your soul in the process.” He looked down at her and she said, “Borrowing my mother’s dramatic term.” She frowned up at him. “It’s appropriate to the situation, though. That woman will suck the life out of you.”

  “Jordan won.”

  “How much did he suffer in the process?”

  “He’s happy now.”

  She turned and put her hands on his biceps, stopping him. “You belong on the land, but does it have to be that land?”

  “My great-great-grandfather homesteaded that place. Miranda’s great-great-grandfather did not. Why should she get what my family worked so hard for? Why should she be rewarded for psycho behavior?”

  “Why should you suffer when you don’t have to?”

  Cole brought his hands up to thread through her hair. “Because I want my ranch. I don’t want her or anyone else to have it.”