by Dawn Brower
Dallas had been working on the damned reports all weekend, making sure every aspect was completed. He believed he had managed to think of every possible detail that could arise. He had even considered Emma’s Cowgirl Yoga plan. He knew she had a lot cooking in that brain of hers. He wanted her to succeed, but he also knew a lot of business ventures failed. He would have to do what he could to help her plan be a success. It weighed on his mind that she could end up being upset if her idea failed. She already hurt too damn much in her short life.
Emma had told him she managed to nail down every last detail she could think of in planning for her program, including contacting Ginnifer Zeiss to attend her opening. He understood it would be beneficial to have her come but didn’t understand why they had to give her a free stay. Plus Emma had discounted her friend’s reservation to entice them both to come. He hoped they proved to be worth it.
Dallas also noted the social media sites had all been set up and were a huge hit. They already had several followers and a large interest in what Cowgirl Yoga had to offer. His little sister had even managed to catch the interest of a few bloggers. With the hype she was able to garner in a short time, she managed to completely book the entire two weeks at the beginning of September. There were several people that were only going to be there for one of the weeks, but that didn’t matter as long as both weeks were booked solid. He was in the process of looking over the final details when his brother Wesley walked into the kitchen.
“What’s up?”
“What? Nothing,” he said in a distracted voice.
Dallas continued to work on his lists, ignoring his brother’s presence. It wasn’t anything he did, but more that he was that wrapped into what he was trying to do. “Hello, Earth to Dallas. I asked you a question.”
Dallas looked up at Wes as if seeing him for the first time. He had gotten himself his own glass of iced tea and took a seat at the kitchen table next to him. His aquamarine eyes were glued on him, watching and waiting for him to reply to his question. Wes’s face was red and dripping with sweat. The white T-shirt he was wearing was glued to him and drenched down the front, outlining his lean muscular frame. His long buttery-blond hair was pulled into a short stubby ponytail at the nape of his neck. It was clear to Dallas that he had just come in from working hard around Novak Springs.
With a shrug Dallas said, “I’m sorry. I’m trying to iron out some last minute paperwork. Emma’s retreat is happening sooner than I realized. Everyone will be here in a week. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by.”
Wes took a drink of his tea before saying, “That happens. What can I do to help? I have a free afternoon if you need me. I’m finished working for the day. I was going to drive up to Seattle, but I can change my plans if you need me.”
“I don’t think there’s anything that you can do to help. Emma should be here shortly, though. She said she has something to discuss with me. You should stick around to find out what it is she wanted. Maybe it’s something you can help with as well.”
Wes looked at him with a small amount of fear in his eyes. “Why does that scare me?”
“Probably because our baby sister has a way of making us do things we don’t particularly like to do.”
“You’re not building a solid case here. Tell me something that might make me want to stick around,” Wes said.
“Don’t be an ass. You know you want to help.”
“You’re right,” he said with a sigh. “I will wait for her to turn up, then.”
Just as he said the words, Emma breezed into the kitchen carrying a couple of folders. “Oh good, you are both here. I can use both of your help. Now I know you’re going to try to find a way out of it, but I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
“What is it?” Wes asked.
Emma walked over to the table and set everything down. Walking over to one of the kitchen cupboards, she opened it and pulled out a tall clear glass. Next, she strolled over to the refrigerator and placed it under the ice cube dispenser and filled it. Picking up the pitcher of tea already located on the counter, she filled the glass to the brim and set it down on the table next to her various folders. She stood next to the table and gave Wes and Dallas her full attention.
“I have this idea for one of the weekends, and you two are essential to making it happen. It’s important that I keep them occupied as much as possible. I want them to have a full ranch experience and not have an opportunity to get bored.”
“Quit stalling and tell me what it is,” Dallas demanded.
“A scavenger hunt.”
“Okay I’m confused. Why would you need our help with a scavenger hunt?” Wes asked.
“I can’t let them all go around the ranch alone. I need someone that knows every inch of it with them to supervise, and well, we’re the only ones that truly do.”
Wes put both hands on his forehead, his fingers running up into his golden locks, pulling some of them loose from his ponytail, and looked down at the table. He shook his head from side to side without saying a word for several minutes.
“So let me see if I understand this. You want me and Dallas to escort a bunch of women around this ranch looking for certain items on a scavenger hunt?”
“Um, yes?” she said. “But I’ll have a group too.”
Wes shook his head. “Not a good idea, Em.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s a lot of women. Most of them don’t know a lick about anything to do with a ranch. They also tend to do whatever the hell they please. They only care about themselves, not how their actions will impact those around them,” Dallas said. He hated women. Okay, maybe hate was too strong of a word. He liked them fine enough for certain activities. He didn’t tolerate them all that much for anything other than extracurricular activities. The only woman he liked was his sister. He learned the hard way they were not to be trusted. He didn’t want any hands-on duty while they were traipsing around the ranch. He thought he had made that perfectly clear to Emma in an earlier discussion.
Crinkles developed around Emma’s eyes as her lips formed her favorite pout. “I need this. You have to help. I know that you have your reasons for not wanting to help, Dallas. But it’s dumb. It’s not my fault some stupid woman broke your heart. You won’t even tell me her name so I can hate her properly. The point is, though, you need to let it go and help me make this work. Not all women are your ex-fiancée.”
Wes raised his hands up in frustration. “All right, I can help. I don’t like it, but I’m more likely to get along with the women than Dallas, anyway.”
“Bullshit. I’m capable of charming a woman if I feel like it. I don’t want to. You know why I’d be so adamantly against doing this.”
“I thought you were on board to help with whatever’s necessary to get this project of hers going. What am I missing?” Wes asked.
“It requires more hands-on activities than I planned on helping with,” Dallas shot back.
“Bullshit. What is the real reason you don’t wanna help?” Wes turned toward Emma and said, “I’m sorry he’s being a jerk, but you can count me in.”
“It is nothing really, Dallas, just a game. Surely you can take time out of your day to help with it,” Emma pleaded.
Wes looked at Dallas with an evil gleam in his eye. “It’s a wittle, wittle game, Dallas, can you come out and play with us?”
Dallas shook his head as he said, “No, I didn’t agree to any of this. I don’t want any hands-on duties with your Cowgirl Yoga program. Count me out.”
“There’s that. The big question really is, why are you afraid of a little game? Is losing money worth a little bit of your time to help your baby sister out?”
“That’s enough,” Emma told her two brothers. “If you’re not willing to help me out, I’ll plan something else. I don’t need you two if you’re going to whine about participating in a freaking game.”
The two brothers looked at their sister with guilt shining from their eyes. Dalla
s began to shuffle his feet from side to side, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. He hadn’t meant to disappoint her, but she didn’t understand why he felt the way he did. That was his fault. He could explain what had happened with Melody. It had been a really hard time for him, and he didn’t like to discuss it.
Wes sat quietly at the table, his hands folded in front of him, waiting for his older brother to find the words he was searching for. No doubt, Dallas thought, if they were not her only family, she would never speak to them again. Emma stood up and began to gather her papers to leave the room. Her frustration showed as her mouth pursed up in displeasure, and she shut each folder harder than necessary. She gathered her paperwork into her arms and started to storm out of the kitchen.
“Emma wait,” Dallas pleaded.
Emma turned around and looked at her brother. Her anger was palpable, face flushed red and her breaths coming out in heavy pants. “You wanna know what pisses me off the most? That you didn’t even bother to ask why it was so important to me. Oh no, the great Dallas help? Pfft, as if. What the hell is wrong with you? Can’t get off that high horse long enough to join the rest of us minions? Don’t worry, I will find someone else to help me. I don’t need you.”
Dallas wasn’t able to get another word out as she breezed out of the room faster than he could blink. Apparently Emma believed the conversation was over. Nothing else needed to be discussed. He knew he was acting like an asshole, but sometimes he couldn’t help himself. It was his go-to attitude.
“Fuck,” Dallas said under his breath.
Wesley slowly clapped his hands as he watched his brother stalk toward the kitchen door after their sister. Dallas turned around and gave him a look that would have withered a lesser man, but Wes was used to dealing with his brother’s ornery side and laughed at his attempts of putting him in his place. “Nice try, but I think you’ve bigger things to worry about now.”
Dallas was stunned. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“You pissed Emma off. Now what are you going to to do to fix it?”
“What the fuck do you mean, what am I going to do to fix it? Seems to me you were clearly a part of that discussion. You’ve an equal part in fixing it.”
“Oh no, that’s totally about you. You forget I told her I’d help.” He looked Dallas directly in the eyes. “I didn’t think you would give in and help, though. You proved me right. If she means anything to you, then yes, you will make this right. If I find what you do to make it better agreeable, I might still go along with what you decide.”
Dallas ran his hands through his short chestnut hair and rumpled the strands out of their normally well-groomed existence. He sighed in frustration and rambled aimlessly around the kitchen lost in thought. When an idea came to him, he stopped and turned toward his brother and then slowly walked over and pulled out a chair to sit down at the kitchen table. The iced tea that Emma had abandoned was still sitting on the table directly in front of him. He watched as tiny droplets of water trailed down the side of the glass from the condensation. With each drop of water, he felt his insides turn to mush at the idea that he had hurt his baby sister in any way. She was the only woman that mattered to him, and he did something that made her feel like he didn’t care about her.
Resigned to helping her out, Dallas said, “Okay, I will help. I need more information. Do you have any idea what this scavenger hunt involves? I know I didn’t give her much of a chance to explain it, but maybe you saw it when you were helping her out.”
“Well I don’t have the complete details. She didn’t get past the fact that she needed both of us to help with it.”
“Okay what does she need help with?” Dallas asked.
“She needs us each to lead a team. From what I gather, there’ll be three groups total, and she doesn’t want her guests to wander aimlessly around the ranch. She said we knew the ranch best, so she wanted each of us to head a set of players.”
“I still can’t believe she wants me to take time away from the ranch to lead a fucking bunch of women around for a damn scavenger hunt. Has she lost her mind?” Dallas didn’t want Emma to be upset, but the more he thought about it, the more he hated this idea of hers. She knew how busy he was around the ranch. Did she really think taking time away from his many duties was such a good idea?
“That is the problem right there. You’re just seeing how much this is going to be a nuisance for you. Why don’t you look at this from Emma’s point of view? She needs us to help with this venture so that she is successful, or have you forgotten why we thought this idea of hers was good for her?”
Dallas let out a breath and once again started to push his fingers through his hair. At this rate he was going to pull out some of the strands and eventually go bald. Maybe the women wouldn’t try to fawn all over him if he didn’t have any hair on his head. He shook that thought out of his head. Only one problem at a time, and the current dilemma was how to make his baby sister happy again. Damn harpies would still think he was a good catch regardless of the state of his hair, bald or not. If they didn’t have the idea of getting him to settle down and marry them, it wouldn’t bother him so much. He wasn’t a long-term kind of guy. He could deal with some women trying to get close to him for a short time if it helped Emma out.
“No, I haven’t forgotten. I know that she needs to get her head wrapped around something other than the guy who broke her heart. I’ll make it up to her,” Dallas said.
Wes nodded his head in agreement. “Good, we can both talk to her and tell her we are willing to help with the scavenger hunt.”
“Yes, damn it. I’ll help lead one of the teams on her scavenger hunt,” Dallas grudgingly agreed.
“Fine. Then we should go look for her to make her realize we’re willing to help her in any way possible to make sure this goes off without a hitch.”
Dallas sighed and got up to stroll out of the kitchen. He turned and looked at Wes. “Are you coming?”
“Right behind you,” Wes said as he got up to follow him.
As they left the kitchen, Dallas thought it was going to take a lot of groveling to get Emma to forgive them. She could hold a grudge longer than anyone he knew. He would have to promise damn near anything to get back in her good graces. Dallas had forgotten why they had really decided it was a good idea for her to start her Cowgirl Yoga program. She wasn’t that happy girl they all knew anymore. The goal had been to try to get her to a place where her smiles were not forced but the bright sunshine they were used to seeing on her face. They went through a small kind of hell after their parents died, and they worked hard to get her to a good place. Dallas didn’t want to lose her to that kind of depression ever again. He grimaced at the idea of what was going to have to happen to make that smile shine on her face again. The only hope he had was that it would be worth it if at least one of them found some kind of happiness.
Chapter Four
Ginnifer was packed and getting ready to go to the airport when her phone started to blare the words of “I Like It, I Love It” by Tim McGraw. She looked down and saw a picture of Tori coming across her screen. She pressed the button to accept the call and raised it up to her ear, saying hello.
“Good. I caught you before you left for the airport,” Tori said breathlessly on the other end.
“What do you mean before I left for the airport? I thought you were meeting me here and we were going over together,” Ginnifer replied. Her anger could be heard in every word she said. Her mouth crunched up in displeasure, and she held her phone tight in her hand.
“Damn, I forgot we were going to do that. Please don’t be mad at me,” Tori begged.
Ginnifer sighed in frustration. What the hell did Tori do now? She was always changing plans last minute. It was one of the few things that irritated her about her best friend. She always had some last minute emergency and forgot to let the people around her know her plans had changed.
“Well, I hit a snag with my latest client. I
finally was able to get him to agree to do that interview with you, but I had to fly to Seattle last night. So, um, yeah I am already in Washington. I was wondering if you could delay going to the ranch and do the interview with him first.”
“No,” Ginnifer told her. “I’m going to the ranch. If he is willing to do the interview, tell him to come out to the ranch and I can make time for him there. He’s been hem-hawing around about doing it. Tell him to man up and take a stand. I’m not going to cater to him when this is a favor I’m doing for him.” The damn idiot had been putting the interview off for weeks. She was not going to go out of her way to cater to him when it was her vacation he was getting ready to interrupt. What kind of entitled asshole did he think he was?
“Fine. I think I can make that work. I could have him drive me out to the ranch tomorrow. I’m going to be a day late. Please let our host know that I will be there tomorrow,” Tori said. “I wish you’d take care of it in Seattle, though.”
“Sorry, no can do. If he wanted me to come to him, he should have agreed a lot sooner. You know how I feel about people that do that. I don’t do last minute crap without a damn good reason. My time is too valuable for that.”
Tori sighed on the other end of the call. “Okay. I’ll text you when we leave Seattle. Don’t grab all the hot cowboys for yourself before I get there.”
Ginnifer chuckled to herself. Tori always did have certain priorities. “I’ll try to save you at least one. I’m generous, after all.”