Delfyne rushed to the plump woman and hugged her. “Never. Not till it’s a done deal.” Then she smiled up at Owen. “Let’s go.”
“You’re not going to tell me what that was about, are you?” Owen asked as he and Delfyne climbed in one of the ranch trucks and headed out.
“Absolutely not. I am a woman of my word, but I’m also a woman with plans, and I have to carry out all my plans before I leave here. Now, about your plans today, yours and mine…tell me all about ranching. Show me your stuff, cowboy.”
“My stuff?” Owen nearly choked. “Well…” He launched into the kind of talk he gave newspapers when they wanted to know about the man who could afford yachts but raised cattle, citing acreage, statistics about irrigation and new technologies he was putting to use. He was just launching into the part about land management when Delfyne touched his sleeve.
He turned, and she was giving him a strange look.
“I want to see things,” she said. “And do things. Helpful things.”
Owen stopped the vehicle. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Don’t women work on ranches?”
“Some women do. Some women own ranches.”
Her smile was glowing. “That’s wonderful. So…what could I do that wouldn’t inconvenience the ranch?”
“I’m not worried about you inconveniencing the ranch. I’m worried about you getting hurt. This can be a dangerous place.”
She nodded. “I believe you, but…well…you’re probably right. It would take you too long to teach me what I needed to know to be truly useful. All right, just a tour then.”
But he knew that wasn’t what she really wanted.
He laughed. “That’s very good of you to give in so easily.”
“Just trying to be a good guest.”
She was, too. He could see she was determined to curb her impetuous tendencies.
“Can you ride a horse?”
“I’ve done it.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“It won’t be a problem.”
Was she avoiding looking at him?
“Delfyne?”
“Don’t look at me that way. The day is getting away from us. I have to be back for…for things,” she said, obviously referring to the nebulous plans that she and Lydia had made. “And I intend to have my day on the ranch. My day as a cowgirl.”
He started to argue. Something wasn’t right here, but she looked at him so pleadingly that he turned the vehicle toward the barn and parked by the corrals.
After considering the available horses, he saddled up Doughnut and Kitty. “If you insist on being cowgirl of the day, I’ll take you around with me to check on the progress the men are making, and then you can feed and brush down the horses when we get back.”
She gave a quick nod. Was her face a bit pale? No, that was just his imagination. “Agreed,” she said. “That sounds fair.”
“So, you’re okay with that? I’m assuming a princess turns her horse over to a groom most of the time.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll do it right. In fact, I intend to do such a fantastic job that the horses will cry when I’m gone.”
Owen laughed. He had no doubt that she was right even if she was teasing. He also had the feeling that something wasn’t right when he brought around Kitty, a pretty palomino. Delfyne looked as if she were facing a lion.
“You’re sure you’ve ridden a horse?”
“I’m a princess,” she said, which of course wasn’t an answer. Kitty, on the other hand, was fine with Delfyne. But then, she was a very docile animal. On the rare occasions when there were children at the ranch, she was the horse of choice.
Nonetheless, despite Delfyne’s assurances, Owen helped her into the saddle instead of waiting for her to mount by herself. He mounted his own horse then watched Delfyne to make sure she was all right.
It was then that he realized that he had made a tactical mistake. In the truck, she’d been lovely yet subdued, but on a horse she looked beautiful and amazingly proud and happy. Her face was glowing.
“You do ride,” he said.
“Today I do,” she said. “Kitty’s not nearly as big as I remember horses being. And she’s a love. In spite of having taken lessons when I was a girl, I fell off a horse twice and got roughed up quite a bit with a broken arm, broken leg, mild concussion and all that. It was the same horse, too. My father sold it. He was worried that I would break my neck, so he refused to let me on a horse again until I was grown. Because of that, I’ve been rather skittish about riding, but Kitty’s very gentle.”
“What?” Owen practically roared. “You’re afraid of horses and you didn’t think to tell me?”
“It’s not that I’m afraid of them, exactly. I’m just not very sure of myself in the saddle. But, if I’d said that, you would have put me in the truck and given me the city-woman tour, wouldn’t you?”
He shook his head. “You absolutely do not have to do this. We could take ATVs.”
“No, I’m up here now. Besides, I know you wouldn’t put me on any animal that would hurt me intentionally. I just wasn’t sure about my own skill.”
“Delfyne,” he said gently.
“Yes?”
“If we weren’t on horseback and if you weren’t…um, nervous about riding a horse, I would cheerfully wring your neck, princess or no princess. Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”
He held her gaze and the last trace of nervousness vanished from her face. “Lots,” she said with a smile. “Seriously, though, Owen, I think I’ll be okay. Let’s just go slowly.”
“There’s no question about us doing anything other than that. If you even think you’re falling, you yell. Kitty has heard worse and I’ll catch you and take you up with me.” Where she would be pressed against him. Owen prayed that she wouldn’t need to ride with him.
But a part of him hoped that she would.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DELFYNE felt like an idiot for admitting her foolish fears to Owen of all people. She’d ridden horses after that fall even though she was nervous every time she was up so high off the ground. But Owen was so protective of her that she should have known her admission would make him feel guilty.
Amazingly enough, she did feel safe riding this sweet horse he had chosen for her with him by her side. And she felt something else, too. Attraction. Heat. Longing. He was so masculine, so tall in the saddle, so utterly right for this land. How could any woman not want to get close to him? How could any woman who had been kissed by him not think about wanting his hands and his mouth on her?
Delfyne lurched and Kitty shied, then relaxed back into her gentle walk.
Immediately Owen turned to her. She held up her hand. “I’m fine,” she assured him. But she had better stop letting her mind wander down forbidden paths.
“Tell me about what we’re seeing,” she urged.
He shrugged, and even that was sexy. “The Second Chance is large by Montana ranch standards, so we’re just going to hit a few places today. I’ll show you what some of the men are doing. I have to warn you though, it’s not nearly as exciting as what you read in books or see in the movies.”
“I know, but still…show me. Tell me.”
“I will. It’s a year-round job, seven days a week. A lot of it is dirty—beyond dirty. There are smells and bad weather and uncooperative animals.”
She laughed.
“What?” he asked.
“It sounds as if you hate it, and I know that’s not true,” she said.
“It’s right for me, but most people…a few weeks of ranching would be enough for a lifetime. Cows spend a whole heck of a lot of their time eating, and there are significant parts of the year when there’s no grass available and we have to supply them with food. It’s heavy, never-ending work muscling bales of hay. In the winter the weather is sometimes dangerously cold, but the job still has to be done every day, and cutting and baling hay to maintain that supply is a major summer task. Even when
there’s grass available for them in the summer and they can be turned out to pasture, we have to make sure that they don’t have access to any poisonous weeds, so we have to eliminate those.” He went on to explain briefly about keeping the equipment in good shape, calving and branding and moving cows from pasture to pasture and doing all that was involved to keep the animals healthy.
“But you do it all.”
“It’s my job, same as visiting hospitals and so on is yours,” he said.
“And you love it,” she prompted.
Owen laughed. “You sound pretty sure about that.”
“Of course. You’re here, aren’t you?”
He sobered. “I’ll always be here. That’s the way it is.” Because he had to stay. His heart was here. His child was buried here.
She obviously knew what he was talking about because she sidled Kitty over and touched his arm, not even thinking about the horses. “I hope you’re not apologizing for being who you are.”
“Stubborn?” he asked, trying to bring a teasing tone to the conversation.
She laughed, but she didn’t contradict him.
He took her to where Nicholas was baling hay and where Theron was cleaning out an irrigation ditch. He pointed out a distant pasture where some of the men were moving cows using dirt bikes. Soon Owen was leading her past a pretty little creek with a surprisingly old and tiny house sitting next to it.
“What a lovely area for a house. Does someone live here?” she asked.
Owen dismounted and came over, helping her from her horse. She slid down his body, and for a moment they stared at each other, his hands on her as her heart slammed around inside her chest. She wanted nothing more than to lean forward and connect with him and because she wanted him so badly, this man she couldn’t have, she had to break the spell that was threatening to overtake her. One kiss, just one kiss, she thought.
It won’t be enough, was her next thought. Not nearly.
With a Herculean effort she placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed back. He lowered her to the ground.
“No one has lived here for a long, long time,” he told her. “This was the original homestead. Jenny Milner came here with her husband and they had three children together. When he was gored by a bull and died, she tried to go on alone but with three children under age five it was very difficult and they were barely surviving. Then one day a young soldier who was headed west after the Civil War passed by and saw her. She was five years older than him, but he didn’t care. Three weeks later he asked to marry her despite the fact that she told him that she would never stop loving her husband. He told her that he still wanted her and he was willing to marry her and raise her children as his own as long as they could build a new house so that her husband wouldn’t be there between them all the time. She could visit the old house as often as she liked.”
“That’s sad,” Delfyne said.
“It was part of the harsh realities of the west. Survival was very difficult. And in the end, she fell in love with him anyway. But she still came here every year and planted flowers on her husband’s grave. Her new husband put up a headstone to replace the wooden cross that was disintegrating.”
“Was that soldier one of your relatives?”
“He was the one who named the ranch. She was his second chance after losing everything in the war, and he was hers.”
“You have deep roots here,” she said. “This is your history.”
“This is my everything,” he agreed.
She knew that he didn’t lie. This ranch was like a loved one to Owen. He was married to the Second Chance, committed totally and forever. How could his wife not have realized that?
But maybe she had. Maybe Faye couldn’t stand knowing that Owen would always love the Second Chance best. And maybe she had been a fool to ask for more.
“We’d better go back,” he said. “You have an appointment.”
“Yes. I need to be there. Thank you for bringing me out here. Your ranch is beautiful, Owen, what I’ve seen of it. It must have been wonderful back in the days when people slept out under the stars. I guess they don’t do that anymore. Before I leave I would like to see more of it.”
“More?”
“Everything.”
He smiled at her. “You use that word a lot.”
“I guess I do. I want a lot out of life.”
He came closer. “You should have a lot. You should have…everything. You constantly amaze me. Why would a woman like you want to sleep outside when you can sleep anywhere you like?”
Except with him, she reasoned. She couldn’t sleep with him.
“I’m a romantic, I guess,” she said. “It would be romantic.”
“You’d hate it,” he said with a grimace. “Have you ever slept outside?”
“No, but I’ve imagined it.”
“Imaginations lie. There are bugs. No soft mattresses, no plumbing. A lot of people can’t deal with that.”
She knew he was thinking of Faye, imagining what his mother and his wife had thought their married lives would be like and what reality had turned out to be. And she knew she couldn’t win this argument. “But I don’t lie about important things,” she said, “and I told Lydia I’d be back in time to make dinner. That’s important, so we need to get back. I’ll need time to curry the horse first.”
He helped her back on her horse and they rode home in silence.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said when she asked him to show her what to do with Kitty. “You have things to do and horses aren’t your favorite animals.”
“Kitty is my new favorite creature next to Timbelina. She was very sweet with me, not like that big dark beast my trainer insisted that I ride.”
So Owen showed her how to brush Kitty. He placed his hand over hers on the curry comb and they made circles on the horse’s coat until Delfyne didn’t think she could stand his touch anymore.
“You can go,” Owen finally told her through gritted teeth.
“You can’t run me off just because we both know this electricity arcing between us is wrong,” she said. “Tell me how to take care of Kitty, but don’t touch me. I—please.”
He stepped back as if she were a hot coal. “You’re right. I was wrong to touch you.”
Without thinking, Delfyne turned to him. “Do not make the mistake of throwing yourself in the same category as those other men, the ones I didn’t want to touch me. With you, I do. I just know I shouldn’t.”
So he showed her how to make Kitty comfortable. She did her best to follow his instructions. Sometimes, their hands would touch, and Delfyne’s breath would catch in her throat. When they finished and she handed him the curry comb, her fingertips brushed against his. Desire rushed through her, and she wanted to hide her hot face against Kitty’s coat. But that would have told him just how much she wanted him. Because it was beyond desire, she knew. Her emotions ran much deeper, and stronger, and that was something she couldn’t let him know.
So she squared her shoulders and forced a smile. “I’d better wash up and help Lydia.”
As if on cue, the phone rang. The stable phone was connected to the house line. Delfyne jumped, and the phone stopped ringing. Someone had answered it inside the house.
“Delfyne, what’s going on? Why are you so nervous?”
“Oh my goodness, Delfyne help me.” Lydia suddenly called out from the house. “I’m not even close to being ready and he’s coming. For real. I didn’t get started getting dressed, because I didn’t think it was really going to happen.”
Delfyne started toward the house at a clip. “Lydia is going on a date.”
“With who?”
“Ben Whitcliff.”
“That old coot?”
Delfyne whirled. “He’s a very nice man, and he likes Lydia. And…” She lowered her voice. “Didn’t you hear how she sounded? She likes him, too.”
“But…Lydia? She’s never even—”
“Done anything, because she was too busy
taking care of this house and you.”
She continued hurrying to the house. When she reached the kitchen door she turned to look at Owen, who’d stopped a few feet back. He was staring at her and at the house as if his entire world had suddenly turned into a giant pumpkin.
“You did this,” he said softly.
“Well…not really.”
His smile was slow. “Yes, really. You put it into Ben’s head at the Hall, I’ll bet. You encouraged him.”
“Didn’t you see him that day at Molly’s? He didn’t need very much encouragement at all,” she retorted.
Suddenly Owen tipped back his head and laughed.
“Shh, Lydia will hear you,” Delfyne whispered, although if she hadn’t heard already it would be a miracle.
“I’m not laughing at Lydia, Delfyne. It’s you. All you. I’ll bet you just jumped in feetfirst and dropped blatant hints in Ben’s ear, didn’t you? You are a constant surprise.”
“Yes, well, I’ve heard that before. Too many times.”
And with that, she went inside. Owen shook his head as she went upstairs. Now he was probably thinking about her the way her family did. She needed a keeper. And he was right, in a way. This could all have gone so very wrong. Lydia could have been hurt. Lydia could still be hurt if this date didn’t work out.
Delfyne tried not to think about that. She helped Lydia choose clothing, makeup and jewelry. Then she walked her downstairs to where Ben was now waiting.
“You have a good evening, Lydia,” Delfyne said and kissed the older woman’s cheek. “I mean that. It’s a command.”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right, hon?” Lydia asked.
“I’ll be perfect. I’ll be very careful and I’ll clean up your kitchen when I’m done. You just go have a good time with Ben,” she said, eyeing the man who was looking at Lydia as if she were an apple pie and he wanted more than a slice.
Lydia was turning toward the door when Owen came downstairs. “Hello, Ben,” he said. “Lydia?” The woman who had raised him looked at him very sternly.
“Owen, you be nice to Delfyne and don’t demand too much. This is her first full meal with no help,” Lydia told him.
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