Winning Over the Rancher

by Mary Brady

  Thanks a lot, Randolph.

  “Randolph.” She tugged on her hair and then brushed it back behind her ear. “Can he send it to me?”

  “He’s supposed to deliver it to you personally. When you come and collect it.”

  “I can’t do that. Not in the near future. I have six weeks, seven at the most, to get this project well-established and then I’ll be even busier for a while. It’ll have to wait.”

  “Well, the attorney said he could stretch things since Chad is…er…passed. He will have it delivered to me, if you sign a release form for me to represent you in this matter.”

  “Thanks, Randolph. Let’s do that.”

  “Do you have a fax or a printer available?” She thought of the office at the Doyle ranch, but decided it was way too personal. She couldn’t open up even more to people she didn’t know very well, especially since she would be working closely with them for the foreseeable future.

  “Drop the form in the mail.” But to where? General delivery to the post office in St. Adelbert? She hesitated and then gave him the address of the Easy Breezy Inn. She’d have to stay here until she found some place in town to live.

  Randolph said he would send the forms right away and then they rang off.

  She dropped her phone on the table and rested her head in her hands.

  She could take it if Chad blamed her. She really could. She could take a lot these days as long as it didn’t harm her baby.

  As for Farly Longwood’s accusations, she could drive herself crazy with such things. If she let herself.

  BAYLOR COAXED THE REST of the mud from the crevice in Blue’s left front hoof and pried at the stone jammed along the edge of the horse’s shoe. When the small pebble popped out, it clanked against the metal rail of the corral and dropped to the ground. For the second day in a row the brilliant blue of the sky was a boon to the livestock and the ranchers who tended them. He and Blue could be outside in the glorious sunshine because the eight to ten inches of snow that had been predicted for today had been delayed for a day or two.

  “That feel better, boy?” he asked as he patted the horse’s flank. Then he rotated to the next hoof to clean out the debris collected during the morning ride to check a problem spot in the fence where the cattle would soon be turned loose. Chances were, he’d not get back on the horse again today until much later. This was to be the first big planning day with KayLee.

  And she was supposed to be here bright and early.

  Since she had called to say she would be late, he’d gotten the day’s chores started with his brothers and was glad for the distraction while he waited.

  Every time he let his mind wander this morning, he found himself thinking about the woman from California. Thoughts of her had kept him from sleeping last night when he wasn’t on calving duty. This morning when she didn’t show up, he found himself unreasonably disappointed and not just because his planned departure from this valley might be put off. If she had changed her mind and had gone back to California, she was putting his family’s dreams on hold. And he found he anticipated seeing her.

  Not good.

  He went back to scraping the bottom of Blue’s hoof like he was supposed to be doing and not letting his mind gallivant off to think about a woman.

  “Come on, boy. You want some hay?” Baylor lowered the last hoof to the ground, happy they were all in good shape. A sore foot would put a horse out of commission and neither horse nor man needed that kind of trouble.

  “You about done babying that animal?” Seth stood several yards away, boots in a wide stance, arms folded over his chest.

  Baylor led Blue up to where his brother waited near the barn.

  “You come all the way out here to give me and Blue a hard time?”

  “That and there’s a car coming up the ranch road. A little blue one that looks like it could blow away in a mild breeze.”

  KayLee’s teensy Ford. And it was a small car. He had thought that last night as she was leaving in the dark. He was used to either being on a surefooted horse or having a substantial amount of metal wrapped around him. Either was safer than the car KayLee had driven all the way from California into the outback of Montana.

  Hands on his hips now, his brother made an exaggerated assessment of the sun’s high position in the sky. “She must still be on California time.”

  “She called. Said she had some unexpected business to deal with this morning.”

  Seth laughed. “You wanted life outside the valley. This one’ll give you a taste of that.”

  “Yeah, she might.” Dark-lashed green eyes had haunted his night and thoughts now of long dark blond hair tossed around by the wind made him feel things he didn’t need to feel right now.

  Seth laughed again and lightly punched Baylor on the arm. “She’s pretty easy on the eyes, Bay, and all the wives like her.”

  “She’s a good choice for the job.”

  Blue nudged him on the shoulder, impatient for the promised hay, no doubt, and Baylor rubbed the scuffed toe of one boot on the leg of his jeans.

  “Hey, she’s gotten to you, hasn’t she?” Seth asked.

  Baylor planted both boots firmly on the ground and before answering, reached around and rubbed Blue’s nose. Then he gave his brother an exasperated snort. “You’re having a good time with this, aren’t you?”

  “It’s a funny thing to see my calm-and-collected little brother lose his cool.”

  Baylor shook his head and purposefully examined his mud-caked hands. “Suppose I should wash up a bit, and I did promise Blue some hay.”

  “I’ll see to Blue. You go greet Ms. Morgan.”

  Baylor nodded and gave Blue a last pat. “How’s that heifer coming? She was getting awfully restless.”

  “Got her all safely tucked in the calving shed. We’ll soon know if she needs our help.”

  “Yeah, it might come to that.”

  “We’re ready if it does. Holly’s with her. Said she didn’t want her skills to get rusty.”

  “Lance isn’t back from town yet?”

  Seth shook his head and took Blue’s reins.

  “That isn’t the kind of…”

  “It’s risky? I got it, Bay. I’ll go back when I’m finished here.” Seth patted Blue and held up a carrot. The horse abandoned Baylor for his brother.

  Seth smirked.

  Baylor left his brother and the horse behind and headed into the barn, where there was a sink to wash his hands. If it was obvious to his brother that K. L. Morgan affected him, he might want to soak his head, too. See if he could get some clarity.

  After he’d washed his hands without sticking his head under the faucet, he cleaned his boots from top and bottom. Then from the barn, he watched KayLee get out of her car and walk slowly up to the house.

  Today she wore well-fitting jeans with the brown jacket he had lent her and a bright green scarf around her neck. She looked like every dream that had awakened him last night.

  If a woman’s physical attributes were all that mattered to him—he’d met plenty of great-looking ones inside and outside the valley, and enjoyed their company—he hadn’t found one who made him restless. KayLee made him restless.

  He was going to have to get over that. She was here to do a job and she was going to have a baby. The first would help him and he didn’t hold the second against her. A woman and a baby didn’t fit into his life right now. He had too much to do, too much uncertainty. Let her stay in this safe valley after he was gone. His family would love to take care of her.

  Someone answered the door and an arm came out and pointed directly at him. KayLee swung toward him and waved.

  He waved back and headed toward the house. Might as well get started. His parents would be there to sign papers and then he and KayLee would be left alone to put their heads together and get to work on the details.

  As she waited on the porch for him, the wind lifted her hair and laid it back down so it flowed over one shoulder. The same feeling of heat shot thr
ough him as it had last night in the dark.

  If you’d have asked him yesterday morning, he’d have said there was nothing about a pregnant woman he’d find sexy. That had been before he met K. L. Morgan.

  When he realized he was staring directly into her eyes, he dipped his chin and removed his cap. Hats came in handy sometimes.

  “I’ll leave you two to get to it.” From the doorway Amy watched him closely, a small, knowing smile on her face. God, he hated that smile.

  “Thanks, Amy,” he said. She nodded once and retreated. He then said to KayLee. “Good morning. I trust you had a good night’s sleep.”

  “It did the job well enough.” She waited a beat and then continued. “So tell me, are you glad I came back?”

  There was the real question, and it had only one answer.

  “Well, I can tell you, you made a whole houseful of people happy by coming back.” He held the door open so she could enter the foyer. The smell of her, suggesting a gentle herbal shampoo, floated up at him and had his nose wanting more.

  He slowed and let her get farther ahead of him. For a house that was supposed to be full of people, this one seemed deserted.

  “And you? Did it make you happy?” KayLee asked as she walked into the living room.

  She stopped short when a small head, face half-covered by a blue kerchief, popped out from behind one of the large wood-trimmed leather sofas.

  “Hey! We’ve got a bandit of some kind holed up here,” Baylor said as he stopped beside KayLee.

  She smiled at the boy and the little head ducked out of sight.

  “Matthew, are you in the living room?” Amy called from the direction of the kitchen.

  The head popped out again, handkerchief sagging down under his chin and with a finger to his lips.

  “Don’t tell, Uncle Baylor. Aunt Amy wants me to help make the beds,” the child whispered.

  “I bet she thinks you’re great when you help her.”

  The features in the boy’s face drooped comically and he lowered his chin to his chest. “Yeah. She does.”

  Baylor knew how he felt. Do it because it was the right thing to do. “And she means it. And I think so, too.”

  The boy smiled from ear to ear, then he got up and ran from the room. “Here I am, Aunt Amy.”

  Baylor chuckled. “Gotta hand it to him. He does a good job of figuring things out.”

  “Like his uncle?” She studied him with a deeply probing gaze, her lips parted slightly, and Baylor found himself wanting to dip his head and take a taste of her mouth. Her soft pink lips would be…

  He forced the image from his head and gave her what he hoped was a benign smile. “Everything is in the office. My parents should be there by now.”

  “I’m here bright and early after all.”

  The grin hit him as a hard smack and sent every sense he had rushing downward.

  Damn.

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. How early you got here. It’s barely noon.”

  “Sure you were.”

  The office was empty when they arrived. No parents. If he let his natural instinct rule, he’d take her in and lock the door.

  CHAPTER SIX

  KAYLEE FOLLOWED the invitation of Baylor’s outstretched hand and stepped inside the brightly lit office. The anticipation of starting the job warmed her, as did the sight of the sunlight streaming in by way of the generous casement windows.

  “I’ll go find my parents,” Baylor said and then he disappeared down the hallway. She stepped into the warm rays of sunshine as the sound of his boot heels faded.

  More of the brown grass and rocky ground showed through the snow today and the vision of what she could build for the Doyle family became clearer. She envisioned the cabins off in the distance sprouting from the ground, settling mostly in the open spaces surrounded by trees. The first and last to be built sprang up fully dimensional in her mind amid the trees where quiet night would offer the whispers of the larch, the lodge pole and ponderosa pines, the smell of wood smoke and earth, and the soft laughter of lovers.

  Her breath caught in her chest. Lovers. She wondered if she and Chad had ever really been lovers, if they had ever been more than humans suffering the urges of survival of the species and tricking themselves into thinking they were in love.

  Chad, what did we do?

  The click of the outside door interrupted her thoughts and Holly stopped in the office dressed in work clothes.

  “Hey, KayLee. Glad we didn’t scare you off,” she said with a big smile.

  Holly’s welcome gave KayLee a boost of courage and she laughed. “I’m looking forward to getting things started.”

  “Bay will be a lot of help. He’s pushy sometimes, but it’s just his way, so don’t let it get to you.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Holly?” Evvy called from a distance.

  “Sorry, gotta go.” Holly waved and disappeared down the hallway in the direction Baylor had gone.

  KayLee walked away from the window and sat down in one of the three chairs arranged in front of the desk. She forced away thoughts and feelings of precious lost chances. For better or worse…she and Chad had at least stayed together.

  She dug in her briefcase and extracted her glasses and her copy of the contract. Regardless of her promises to fulfill the Doyles’ dreams, she found she wanted more than ever to work for them, to be a part of something solid with roots and history.

  She put the documents on her lap and twirled her glasses by one stem.

  And then there was Baylor.

  He smelled good this morning, like fresh air and horses.

  Wildly handsome, smirky and good with kids? Too good to be true. There must be something about him that made him off-limits. Maybe it was the pushiness Holly had mentioned. She didn’t need pushy. She needed to be the balanced foundation her baby’s life could be built on.

  She slipped her glasses on with a bit more force than necessary and opened her copy of the contract. She knew it by heart, knew the estimated time frame. She also knew, no matter what it said, she’d get people started as soon as the ground could be worked and in the meantime, she’d make arrangements for the ma terials to be brought into the valley and ready to be delivered to the site when needed.

  The cabins would be a dream for city dwellers who wanted to “rough it.” To recline in front of the fireplace, covered with a wooly blanket, letting the ambiance soothe her as she sketched her next project, the smell of the pines, the singing of the birds, the crackling of the fire in the stone fireplace…

  Her head bobbed.

  She snapped her eyes open, sat up straight and cleared her head with a couple of deep breaths.

  The clock on the wall said she’d been alone for over twenty minutes. She couldn’t think of a reason that could be good.

  Footsteps thudded down the stairs and hurried toward the office. A moment later, Holly flew past and a blink later, the door leading outside slammed shut. There were undoubtedly many ranch emergencies that required hurrying. KayLee assumed she’d see much hustle here, a totally different kind of hustle than she was used to in Southern California.

  She picked up the contract again and checked to see that it was in order. She had left behind copies yesterday so the Doyles could review them, run them by their attorneys again if they wanted to.

  Everything appeared to be in order and ready to sign.

  The outside door slammed again and this time Seth passed the office alone, striding purposefully, toward the family living area and then she heard boots thumping up the stairs. She wondered if Holly carried out a message to him, an urgent one.

  She smoothed her hair with her hands. No matter what, she intended to present a normal face to the Doyles today, engender confidence, promote feelings of reliability.

  Faint voices speaking soothingly carried in from the living area and then stopped abruptly with the closing of a door. Someone had left the house. The crisis, what
ever it was, might have passed. At least she hoped it had.

  She’d been planning, designing and wishing for so long, putting most of her eggs in this particular basket—mostly because it was the only basket she could find—that it seemed as if moving to the next stage would never come. Thinking about the Doyles signing the contracts and the job getting started had still been a bit surreal.

  Footsteps again.

  Evvy and Curtis Doyle entered the office, followed by Baylor.

  KayLee rose, letting a smile slip across her face, but Curtis wore a grim expression and the corners of Evvy’s mouth were turned down. KayLee dropped the cheerfulness and swallowed the quickly rising fear that her dreams were about to be dashed.

  “It’s good to see you.” Curtis took her offered hand and shook twice, firmly, but his words sounded more like an auto response than a greeting.

  Okay. Whatever this was, she could deal with it. She had an answer, she had to have one.

  “Welcome, KayLee.” Evvy held KayLee’s hand longer than might have been necessary and a small tear leaked from the corner of her eye.

  If she had to walk away today, she’d go. A flash of a baby in her arms crossed her mind. And she’d do whatever she had to do to make things work for her child. Evvy was so sweet to feel sad for her.

  She sat because she knew Curtis and Baylor wouldn’t sit until she and Evvy did.

  Maybe it wasn’t her at all. Maybe there was trouble in the Doyle clan. She realized she cared about these people already, and for more than just the work. It was as if deep feelings had lain hidden within her and were waiting for a reason to spring forth. She cared for her own sake, and she cared for theirs.

  Evvy settled solemnly in her seat and Curtis followed her lead. Neither spoke. She looked to Baylor, but he offered no relief as he sat down in the chair behind the desk.

  “Let’s get the papers signed and get things under way,” Curtis said firmly.

  It wasn’t me, KayLee thought. Or at least she hadn’t done enough damage for them to put off the job.