Winning Over the Rancher

by Mary Brady

  Blocks from the school, Clem from the post office was out delivering mail and looking as if he enjoyed it. He waved to her and gave her a shrug, which she took to mean not to bother looking in her mailbox today.

  No surprise. She hadn’t gotten anything yet, not even junk.

  As she arrived at the school, Vala, the dark-haired waitress from the diner, waved to her from the other side of the street. Vala must be going home from an early shift. She often left and came back at lunchtime.

  As she neared the school, pounding footsteps came charging up behind her.

  “Ms. Morgan,” a breathless voice called.

  Lexie, Becca and Samantha each carried a bundle of what she supposed were the costumes they had been collecting. The play didn’t require anything special, but KayLee had no intention of squashing the enthusiasm of the teenage thespians. They had decided the plane from Cut-Rate Airlines was going to the island of Cozumel and they all needed appropriate clothing.

  “You ladies look as if you’ve been busy.”

  Lexie pulled a bright aqua-and-pink-flowered shirt from her bundle. “I thought we should wear bikinis, but Uncle Guy said this would be more appropriate.” She made a face, and the other two giggled.

  KayLee laughed. The shirt was much better than the scandalous reaction teens in bikinis would cause, though she was sure the shirts would end up with their tails tied in knots just above the girls’ navels. “I think your uncle is right. Remember, we want the audience concentrating on how cleverly you deliver your lines.”

  Samantha gave Becca a poke. “Yeah, not on how good our lines are.”

  Becca outlined with her hands the form she probably hoped to have someday and wiggled her hips. “Too bad.”

  KayLee was sure their overseer from the school, Mrs. Pierre, would have seen to it that there was no play this year or any other if she had said yes to the scantily clad version of the show.

  Although more boys might join the cast and crew.

  They hustled her into the building where several more teens had gathered.

  Some of the actors had arranged themselves onstage in folding chairs as a mockup of an old, beaten-up airplane cabin and cockpit they would use for the play. Others were arranging the characters so everyone could be seen and some with artistic and carpentry talent worked offstage on the actual scenery for the play.

  As the work progressed, they read lines or recited them from memory. She was proud of them all.

  More than once during the morning KayLee looked up to the back of the gymnasium and then made herself look away. He wouldn’t be there. She shouldn’t want him to be. Baylor Doyle had been as honest as he was sexy. The only harm he could cause her is if she let him, if she had expectations that he could not fulfill.

  Ha. That was a lesson she had already learned well. Her expectations were her own and others got to choose to comply or not. Even her own heart didn’t do a very good job of falling into line.

  “Ms. Morgan?”

  Becca motioned her up on stage to the cockpit.

  “Don’t you think Peter should be the pilot instead of me?”

  “Because?” KayLee didn’t want the girls here in St. Adelbert to think of themselves as less than the boys and thought quickly to find a way to say that without seeming preachy.

  “Because he’s taller than me and if he sits in the copilot’s seat, I’ll have to lean forward, and I look better like this.” She drew herself up and thrust her chest out just enough, but not too much.

  “Becca, you are so right. Peter, what do you think? Can you do the pilot’s lines?”

  Peter shrugged. As he glanced at Becca his face turned pink. “Guess so.”

  Becca elbowed him and he got red, but popped out of his seat closer to the audience and let Becca have it.

  “All right, then the two of you work the lines while I get Grandma to stop fixing her mascara and the movie star to stop trying to make his hair stick up.”

  The buzz of laughter and talking filled the gymnasium. Three more boys had joined them and they now had twenty-three actors, as well as a stage crew.

  They were so much fun. A few spats, but only a single tantrum.

  She turned away from the activity on stage. At the back of the gymnasium, he was leaning against the wall the way he had been the first time.

  “Baylor,” escaped softly from her lips almost as an explanation of surprise.

  She had taken one step in his direction when Samantha whipped past her.

  “Daddy,” the girl cried excitedly. “You came.”

  She ran to the man leaning against the wall who bent forward and scooped his daughter into his arms. Not Baylor.

  She wasn’t doing very well at all in complying with her expectations that Baylor Doyle would not play a big part in her life. Yet, he didn’t have to invite her to the celebration of Trey’s homecoming and the signing of the contracts. That the Doyles expanded it to include her at all was so nice, but a phone call would have been sufficient. Holly could have stopped in after she got off work at the law office.

  KayLee shook her head. Since she’d be seeing Baylor tomorrow, she had better study her part of designer, general contractor, vendor and possibly friend, but nothing more.

  ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON, Baylor let himself into the barn and Blue Moon nickered a greeting. The day had rolled in warm and sunny at the ranch. May Day, appropriate for a celebration for the homecoming of a boy who was lucky to be alive.

  The dregs of snow from the storm a week and a half ago were in the process of melting away quickly. The snow here didn’t get gray and dirty the way it did in Denver. Most of it was still icy, glistening and clean, or else it was trampled mud.

  Baylor snipped the wire on a bale and shook the hay out so Blue could get at the fodder more easily. When he patted the horse’s neck, Blue twitched his ears in anticipation and dipped his head to grab a mouthful.

  “Glad your life is so easy, boy.”

  It was good see Seth and Amy’s two-year-old begin to perk up. The boy got tired easily, but Baylor was willing to bet if any of the adults around him had a surgery as invasive as Trey had, the adults would be dragging their butts around looking for someone to help them blow their nose. This boy plopped down with the other kids to build a castle of large, pegged blocks or giggle at some funny kid movie.

  Baylor gave the horse another pat and left the barn to check the fence section that would isolate the new livestock when it arrived.

  Then he went to see the hangers-on in the birthing shed. There was another pair having trouble bonding and one of the last dams still heavy with calf.

  He checked the cow and calf and it seemed as if their issues were over. They’d be put with the rest of the pairs tomorrow. The cow in waiting was still not in labor. He made sure the water was working and grabbed the bucket of towels soaking in disinfectant and in need of laundering.

  He was heading past the barn toward the house to get cleaned up for the party when the ranch’s SUV pulled into the yard. Lance had been elected to go fetch KayLee. His folks had delegated that kind of running around to their sons a long time ago. The women had been too busy with the preparations, Seth was with his son and wife every minute he could be and Baylor had made the animals a top priority when the choosing was done after lunch.

  The passenger door opened and when KayLee stepped out, he was not prepared for the sock-in-the-jaw feeling at seeing her. Hair blowing in the wind, smile making her glow from the inside. She laughed at something Lance said, or knowing Lance, had not said. In one arm she clutched brightly wrapped presents.

  Neither saw him as Lance held her elbow as they climbed up the steps and entered the house. It was the first time in a very long time he’d been jealous of his brother.

  Maybe he could go back out to the birthing shed and induce that cow into labor. He’d happily spend two minutes in the house making nice and the rest of the party tugging on the hind feet of a calf.

  It wasn’t fair to KayLee. Hell, it was
n’t fair to him. The more time they spent together, the more chance he had of breaking her heart and his, too. This coming week of a million decisions was going to be hell. If he felt he could, he’d delegate choosing the details to KayLee, but his family’s livelihood depended on this project, and he had pledged to make sure it would be the best it could be.

  He cleaned his boots and let himself into the mudroom where his mother waited with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. She wore her bronze-colored dress, belted at her ample waist and the turquoise necklace and earrings he knew had been handed down from her mother’s mother.

  “I was about to send the cavalry out after you, Bay, dear.”

  “Don’t you look pretty. Something special going on today?”

  His mother’s expression didn’t change. “KayLee’s here.”

  “I’ll be in as soon as I’m cleaned up.”

  “Did that man from Denver call you again?”

  Baylor stopped for a moment. His mother couldn’t possibly know about the investigator looking for Crystal; she must mean from J&J Holdings about starting the job.

  “Not yet. I expect he’ll call soon.”

  “I worry about you, Bay.”

  She gave him a long look that he knew meant she wanted to ask him to stay in St. Adelbert. If the only thing at stake was his desire to get out of the valley, he could reconsider leaving, but he couldn’t tell her that. The family would feel even more broken without him there, but somebody had to find Crystal and somebody needed to bring money in from outside the ranch. He was the only logical candidate.

  He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “See you in there.”

  Baylor headed toward the rooms beyond the kitchen that he assumed had at one time been set up as the housekeeper’s quarters, but the rooms had been given to him when his brothers married and built their own houses on the property.

  It had all seemed so simple. Go to college and move on, leave St. Adelbert and the Shadow Range behind. It hadn’t taken him long to grow up and realize there was no leaving family behind no matter where you went or how educated you got.

  He stood under the shower until he was sure all cow and horse was washed away and then some. By the time he was finished dressing he had on clean jeans and a plain white shirt. He snugged the dark blue stone of his bolo tie up under his collar and pulled on his black boots. Because his mother had been wearing a dress, he put on the leather sport coat that always made him feel like a bit of a dandy.

  What else could he do to stall?

  THE FIRST THING KayLee noticed about the comfortable den the Doyles had collected in to celebrate Trey’s homecoming—and Evvy still insisted in spite of KayLee’s protests, the signing of the contract—was Baylor’s absence.

  “Are those for us?” five-year-old Matt asked as he ran a finger over one of the wrapped gifts KayLee had placed on the small table beside the chair where she sat. Katie, his younger sister, stood at his elbow looking eager for KayLee’s answer.

  She wasn’t sure what protocol should be and looked up at Holly for help.

  “Matt, Katie, come over here. If KayLee has gifts she gets to give them to whoever she wants.”

  “Me?” Matt asked as he pointed to himself.

  “Come here, you guys.” Lance swept up a child in each arm and giggles prevailed. “You don’t want to send KayLee running to the hills, do you?”

  “Want presents.” Katie kicked her feet and Holly grabbed for the little girl’s hat as it flipped off her head.

  Everyone was dressed up today. The children each wore a pint-size version of a cowboy hat. The stone in Curtis’s tie matched the color of Evvy’s dress. Lance and Seth wore Western-style string ties and sports coats, and Holly and Amy wore dresses that made them look more like California women than ranchers. It was easy to see they did get farther away than Kalispell once in a while, whether in person or via catalogues, she wasn’t sure. She realized she didn’t even know if Holly and Amy were from the St. Adelbert area or outside.

  Trey seemed so small, so young to have been through surgery. On the nearby couch, he sat on his dad’s lap and eyed the bright packages beside KayLee. She caught his gaze and smiled at him and he dimpled back.

  “Uncle Baylor,” Matt cried, pushed down from his father’s arm and raced toward the doorway.

  Baylor looked so good KayLee wondered if anybody heard her draw in a quick breath of amazement.

  How was it possible he was better-looking? Blond hair darkened with moisture and slicked back made the planes of his face more distinct. The dark leather jacket hugged his broad shoulders, and the blue stone at his color almost matched the blue of his eyes. When he smiled, she admitted if he had been in a tuxedo it might actually have knocked her unconscious.

  She felt a hand pat her arm. Amy was smiling at her.

  Amy knew. They probably all did, but at least they were polite enough not to show it as the rest watched Matt try to bowl Baylor over.

  Baylor snatched the boy up just before the crash and lifted him to eye level. “Grandma tell you there’d be no cake until I got here?”

  Matt put a finger in his mouth and nodded.

  “Or presents,” the boy said around the finger.

  “Presents. Somebody got presents for me,” Baylor teased.

  Matt turned and looked at KayLee pleadingly.

  She shook her head and he turned back to Baylor. “No, for us kids.”

  Baylor quickly lowered Matt to the floor. “I guess we’d better start this party.”

  “Yippee!” Matt cried.

  “Yippee!” Katie echoed.

  Yippee, KayLee thought. She wondered how much yearning after one rancher one heart could take until it just refused to beat anymore.

  “Now?” Matt had climbed up on the arm of the chair and almost pressed his nose to KayLee’s when she turned to face him.

  “I think we should let your grandmother call the shots.”

  Evvy nodded approvingly, and Matt settled back against the chair and folded his arms. Evidently, he wasn’t going anywhere as long as there were presents to be had.

  KayLee liked the warmth of the little shoulder pressed against hers. She was going to love holding a bundle of baby in her arms. She was sure holding her own child would make up for whatever else she didn’t have in her life.

  Baylor took a seat on the couch directly across from her, and watched her as if he knew what she was thinking.

  For distraction, KayLee picked up a present and whispered in Matt’s ear.

  He jumped off the arm of the chair and grabbed the package and lunged at Trey with it. Amy caught him and placed him on Seth’s other knee.

  “Gently, now,” Seth said to his nephew.

  “This is for you, Trey,” Matt whispered loudly and gave the package to his cousin.

  Trey held it but didn’t open it.

  Matt eyed Trey’s present and then the others on the table. He wanted a present so badly he nearly wiggled himself to death.

  KayLee was sure she knew how he felt.

  “Would you like Matt to open your present, Trey?” Amy asked her son.

  Trey handed the present to Matt, who tore off the paper. KayLee had no idea what to get a child who had just come home from the hospital. A soft brown bear was apparently a good choice as Trey hugged it when Matt handed it to him, and he didn’t look as if he intended to let it go for a long time.

  As soon as he handed the toy off, Matt came charging back. She handed him another package, and he gave it to Katie, who ripped the paper off the dolly and grinned a two-year-old toothy grin.

  “Katie?” Holly said.

  “Thank you,” came Katie’s auto-response.

  Matt returned and sighed comically when KayLee handed him his package.

  “You are such a gentleman, Matt,” KayLee said to him as he ripped and tore. While the dump truck inside wasn’t as big as Abby’s nephew Kyle had, Matt seemed to like it.

  Baylor smiled at her and mouthed his o
wn thank-you. He had told her not to bring anything, but KayLee’s reasoning had been that even the fiercest hostess wouldn’t begrudge a few toys for the children.

  After the cake was served, the congratulations, the thanks and well wishes were passed around again and again, it was time for KayLee to leave. She was prepared for an excruciating trip back to town with Baylor, but Lance smiled at her as he brought her jacket.

  “Go with your husband, Holly,” Evvy said. “Even a man can clean up after a party.”

  Curtis smiled as if he’d been there, done that before.

  KayLee, Lance and Holly were headed to the door when Baylor stopped them. “I need to borrow KayLee for a second.”

  “Anytime, Bay,” Holly said.

  Baylor led her into the office, stepped a safe distance behind the desk and moved the mouse for the computer screen to pop to life.

  “I looked over the list of things you need opinions on, but most of them are areas where it would be best if we did them together. I’m available every day this week—”

  Oh, no! He wanted her to sit by his side and stare a computer screen and not have her hand wander to his thigh or into his hair even once. He gave her so much more credit than was humanly possible.

  “—and there is the one supplier in Missoula we might need to meet with about the flooring.”

  Missoula: that was hours away from St. Adelbert. He was going to have to handcuff her to her side of the truck.

  If he heard her thoughts it might not be too late to toss her off the ranch once and for all.

  “KayLee, do you want to do this out here, or do you want me to come into town? We can do whatever’s best for you.”

  “Best for me would be for me to—” run away “—come out here. It’s easier if we need to go visualize one of the locations. And for heaven’s sake, I can drive myself. Today was special. It was Evvy’s party and I let her be the boss.”

  Trey came running into the office with his bear. “Thank you, KayWee. I wuv him.”

  Yeah, me too. Oh no, that could not possibly be true.

  Baylor thanked her again for coming and for the toys for the children. With every word he spoke, she had wanted to pull his mouth down to hers and kiss him, to hold him close. To boot herself out of the county.