The Ranch Solution

by Julianna Morris

  Jacob went to invite his daughter to dance with him, only to have a teenage boy beat him to it.

  “I’d love to,” Kittie said, smiling brilliantly. She took the boy’s hand and they joined a square that was forming with couples their age, including her friend, Shayla.

  “Right-o, Kittie,” Shayla said, giving her a thumbs-up.

  Jacob turned to Mariah, practically speechless. “She’s...”

  “Is awesome the word you’re searching for?”

  Awesome, one of Kittie’s favorite words—it was right up there with whatever and gross.

  “I suppose you’re going to dance with Branson,” he said.

  “Not right now.” Her expression was strained and Jacob wondered if she’d had a fight with the rancher. It was possible. Mariah seemed to treat her intended husband more as an easygoing pal than a lover, and it was plain that Luke Branson wanted a whole lot more.

  “This square needs a fourth couple,” called Burt from the platform where the Western band performed. He gestured to a spot in the middle of the dancers.

  “Shall we?” Jacob said.

  Mariah nodded after a brief hesitation and a few minutes later walked rapidly away when the set ended.

  The next hour was torture. Jacob could hardly get near his daughter; the boys who’d ignored her the week before were buzzing around her like bees that had discovered a field of flowers. She danced and smiled and flirted, and the only thing preventing him from going ballistic was Mariah’s cool stare, challenging him to let Kittie enjoy herself. She might be onto something. While Kittie resembled her mother, he was now well aware that she’d inherited his stubbornness. What was more, they had actually managed a few civil conversations since her shopping trip, and he didn’t want her to stop making progress out of mulish pride.

  Then there was Mariah...

  The easy camaraderie between her and Luke Branson was missing. They were polite to each other, but there were no kisses or private exchanges like they’d shared previously whenever Jacob had seen them together. Were those signs of an “amicable” breakup?

  His pulse quickened at the prospect—he would never have interfered in their relationship, but if it was over anyway...

  Mariah was pale when she slipped out of the barn, and Jacob couldn’t resist going after her. He was physically drawn to Mariah, but she also made him think about the man he used to be, before his wife’s illness and death.

  What had happened to his idealism? His sense of fun and adventure? Or the guts to love without reservation? What had happened to the man that Anna had married...and would she still love the person he’d become?

  He was afraid the answer might be no, but how could he go back and find the part of himself that he’d lost? Even his reasons for following Mariah weren’t altruistic—he desired her, but he wasn’t looking for happily ever after. He hadn’t changed his mind about not getting married again—there was too damned much possibility of getting hurt.

  Once he would have thought an affair with a woman living so far away was ideal, but now he realized it was risky, as well. You couldn’t prevent yourself from developing feelings for someone, and what would it be like to start caring for a woman living in Montana, while he was in Seattle? It was probably why he’d instinctively gone out with a certain kind of woman since Anna’s death...the kind who didn’t inspire profound attachments. Superficial and self-absorbed, his conscience added annoyingly.

  “Hey,” he said when he found Mariah by one of the paddocks, gazing at the horses in the moonlight.

  “What do you want, Jacob?” she demanded. “You gave me permission to take Caitlin shopping, and her dress is perfectly respectable for a girl her age. Sooner or later you’ll have to accept that she’s no longer a child.”

  “Whoa, I was just checking to see if you were all right. I noticed things were different between you and Branson.”

  Mariah didn’t say anything for a moment and he detected everything from irritation to regret in her face.

  * * *

  “I’M FINE, and Luke Branson is none of your concern,” Mariah lied. She hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to interact with Luke in front of everyone now that their relationship had changed. She’d needed a quiet moment to gather her thoughts, but it obviously wasn’t going to happen. You’d think that on a ranch the size of the U-2 she’d be able to get some privacy.

  “You aren’t fine.” Jacob stepped nearer. “Your family keeps watching you and they’re plainly worried. Haven’t you told them that you’ve broken up with him, or is it a secret?”

  Great. Grams and the others had been casting puzzled glances at her the whole evening and it seemed that even a guest recognized that things had changed between her and Luke. Except Jacob was no longer just a guest, and that was infuriating.

  “It isn’t a secret. I just haven’t told anybody. And it’s none of your business.”

  “It is if I want to do this.”

  Mariah gasped as he caught her close in a deep, soul-searing kiss. The thin cotton of her skirt and top was little defense against the bulge in his pants or the hard length of his body from thigh to shoulder. She would have put a well-placed knee in his groin, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so much...pure sensation.

  Jacob slid his hand under the hem of her camisole blouse and splayed his fingers across her bare skin. Streamers of edgy heat shot through her abdomen and for an instant all she could think of was wanting more.

  Reality abruptly set in and Mariah pulled away, staring at him in shock. She’d promised...she had absolutely promised herself that she’d never let an outsider get to her again, and Jacob had done it with ridiculous ease.

  Without a word she spun and hurried back to the Big Barn.

  * * *

  “DO-SI-DO AND ALLEMANDE right,” called the wrangler in rhythm to the music.

  Reid wasn’t dancing the set. He kept looking at Kittie, barely recognizing her duded-up in a dress, without a smidgen of black in sight. He liked girls with long hair, but he had to admit that her short, blond curls were cute. His buddies thought so, too. He hadn’t even needed to say something to them or dance with Kittie himself to get them going.

  As a matter of fact, now that she didn’t look so awful, getting a minute with her might be tough the way the other guys were jostling for her attention.

  “Reid, aren’t we going to have some dessert?” Laura asked, tugging at his arm.

  “Uh...oh, sure.”

  She snuggled closer to him. “I brought more of the chocolate-chip cookies you like, and I also baked a chocolate-pecan-nut pie. You’d better get a piece before it’s all gone.”

  “I don’t care much for nut pie,” he said without thinking.

  Laura blinked a bunch. “I would have brought something else if I’d known.”

  “Uh...I’m sure other people will like it.”

  “But I didn’t bake it for them.”

  Crud. She was all weepy-looking and upset. Why were girls so illogical? A guy didn’t have to like everything they baked, did he?

  “Uh, I’ll go ahead and try some anyway, seeing as you made it.”

  She hugged him. “That’s sweet of you, Reid. I made homemade whipped cream for the pie, too—I’m sure you’ll love it.”

  The pie was too sugary, along with the whipped cream, but Reid pretended that it was the best he’d ever eaten. Laura didn’t have any; she just nibbled pieces of cut-up fruit from a tray. It was dumb; he knew she ate dessert.

  Reid turned to watch the dancers again. He couldn’t believe he wanted to dance with Kittie. Art Blanco was her partner in the current set—he was probably bragging about his dirt bike as he do-si-doed around her. Art was a town kid. His dad owned one of the gas stations in Buckeye, so he didn’t have any use for horses. And becau
se Kittie had gone horse crazy since getting to Montana, he couldn’t imagine they had anything to talk about.

  “Huh?” he murmured, realizing Laura had said something.

  “I asked if you’d like more pie.” But she wasn’t looking at him—she was glaring across the barn at Kittie.

  “No, I had a big dinner.”

  She cuddled up to him again and Reid frowned. Laura had been acting as if he was her personal property the entire evening—they might have dated occasionally, but that was all. She wasn’t his girlfriend or anything.

  “Excuse me,” he said as the music ended, pulling free and heading toward Kittie.

  “Reid, where are you going?” Laura sounded furious, but he kept walking. Kittie was laughing at something Art had said. He had to move fast, or one of his buddies would beat him to it.

  “Evening, Kittie. May I have the next dance?”

  She smiled shyly. “I’d love to.”

  The cowboy callers kept up a fast pace, but Reid was familiar with the moves and spotted his sister coming into the barn as he swung Kittie around for the third time.

  Mariah appeared uptight. Was it because of Luke? They’d barely spoken all evening, and he knew something had gone wrong between them.

  A couple of minutes later, Jacob O’Donnell came in from the same door Mariah had used and Reid nearly missed a step. They were deliberately not looking at each other.... Was it possible they’d gone outside together?

  Surely not. His sister was too smart to get involved with one of the guests. She was the one who’d warned him that vacation romances usually didn’t work out and that they were much tougher on the person left behind.

  Granddad came over as the dance was ending and asked Kittie to be his partner for the upcoming polka.

  “I thought she’d dance it with me,” Reid said quickly.

  Kittie seemed surprised. “Oh, I’d like to. How about the dance after that, Mr. Weston?”

  “Dee-lighted. I’ll just find my wife and do the polka with her.” He winked and trotted off to where Grams was putting out more cups for the punch.

  The music started and Reid put his hand on Kittie’s waist. “Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  * * *

  JACOB DIDN’T CONSIDER working on his contracts or the computer once the U-2 had settled into quiet that night. He switched off the lantern and lay on the mattress, staring into the dark. He’d been with women since Anna’s death—casual, easygoing lovers. Sex was something pleasant he’d pursued when his body demanded it, but a single kiss with Mariah had taken his breath away, leaving him in so much need it was hard to walk afterward.

  He would have sworn it was impossible that another woman could affect him as deeply as Anna had. Yet here he was losing sleep over a stubborn redhead with a lifestyle that not only conflicted with his, but was permanently planted in another state. Two weeks ago he would have written off that lifestyle.... Now he was beginning to see why it was important to Mariah.

  Jacob punched his pillow. Getting close to her was hazardous to his peace of mind as well as his body. She was making him examine his choices for the past twelve years and he wasn’t sure he liked what he saw. He had always believed family was his first priority, yet he might have lost sight of that. He’d built his business so he would have the resources to protect Kittie, but he maight have missed out on her childhood in the process.

  He’d told himself that now he had the money to properly care for Kittie and repay his in-laws. But while he might have kept his daughter from physical harm, she was still in trouble.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  JACOB’S DILEMMA WASN’T RESOLVED come morning, but he hadn’t expected it to be. There was nothing easy about parenting or relations between men and women. The way things were going, Kittie would probably ask Mariah to adopt her so she could stay in Montana. Mariah might even agree...and then get a shotgun to run him off the place.

  Mariah was talking to one of the wranglers when he got to the mess tent. He stopped in front of them and waited.

  “Yes, Jacob?” she asked finally, her face expressionless.

  “I wondered if you’d like to eat breakfast with me.”

  Though he was the one who’d posed the question, a part of him was astonished. He was setting himself up for the kind of situation he usually avoided—an opportunity to discuss the “morning after.” In this case, not the morning after sex, but the morning after a hot kiss.

  “Thank you. However, I ate with my family earlier,” Mariah replied with a pleasant smile. She all but added “sir” or “Mr. O’Donnell” to the response. “As you know, we don’t assign heavy work on Sundays, but Burt said he’d be happy to take you and Caitlin out on the horses. You can move one of the herds to fresh pasture or simply ride. Just let him know. Or, if you’d prefer, you can relax today—it’s your choice.”

  She nodded and went to talk with Reggie while Jacob digested the fact that she was definitely not interested in talking to him. Normally he would have been relieved, but things with Mariah were far from normal.

  So he followed and stood at her elbow.

  “Is there something else you need?” she said after a moment, her body language screaming Back off. The barriers she’d thrown up were clear...and a challenge he had trouble resisting.

  “Why don’t we walk down to the calf barn and see how Kittie is doing with Emily?”

  “I have work to take care of, but go ahead, by all means.”

  “Anything I can do to help out?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Thanks, I can handle it.”

  This time she left the mess tent altogether.

  “Breakfast, Mr. Weston?” asked a woman at the nearby serving table. She was one of the newer guests, and Jacob searched his memory for her name.

  “Uh...thanks, Delores, but I’m waiting until my daughter gets here,” he said. “And call me Jacob. This isn’t the place for formality.”

  “Okay, Jacob.”

  He filled a blue enamel cup with coffee and sat at a table, waiting for Kittie to return from the calf barn. It had surprised him to see his daughter taking her responsibility for the orphan calves so seriously. Of course, baby animals were appealing and visitors often showed up at the afternoon feeding, but Kittie had proved extremely faithful, and she even got up every morning to do the early feeding. He would have to consider getting her a cat or dog once they got back to Seattle.

  He glanced at the serving table where Delores and her husband were working. They were a friendly, gregarious couple, like so many of the people who visited the U-2. He ought to have known her name without a second thought, and it made him uncomfortable. More than once Mariah had implied he didn’t care enough about people, and while it had offended him, maybe it was partially true.

  Shayla and Kittie bounced in twenty minutes later. They were chattering and giggling as if they’d known each other for a lifetime instead of a week. Shayla whispered something to Kittie, who looked in his direction and whispered something back.

  His daughter picked up a coffeepot and walked over. “Do you need a refill, Dad?”

  He was immediately wary—she wanted something or had committed an act of wholesale destruction.

  “Sure. Thanks.”

  Kittie topped off his cup. “Shayla and her parents are going for a drive this morning to see a historic site mentioned in a Western biography that Mrs. McFee is reading.”

  “Oh. That’s nice.” Jacob hoped she wouldn’t want to go with the other family.

  “Anyhow, I thought it would be a good...that is, I thought that Mariah might be willing to go on a picnic with us. If it’s okay with you, and all. Since we’re not really doing anything else.”

  A grim amusement swept through Jacob. Mariah was pretending nothing had happened between them, but if
she agreed to a picnic, she’d have to talk to him, if only to be polite in front of Kittie.

  “That’s a great idea,” he said. “Mariah told me we can do as we please—it’s sort of a day off. I can ask Reggie for three sack lunches and see if he’ll throw in something extra. Provided Mariah’s able to go. If not, it can be just the two of us with Burt.”

  Kittie threw her arms around his neck and gave him a smacking kiss. “Awesome. I’ll talk to Mariah after breakfast.”

  Warmth crept through Jacob’s chest. That was his little girl, happy and impulsive, wearing her new cowgirl clothes and hat. He didn’t know if she was here for good or temporarily visiting, but he was elated to see her again.

  * * *

  IDIOT, MARIAH FUMED silently as she leaned against a fence and watched the Sallengers saying goodbye to their wrangler.

  She should have gone with her first instinct last night and put a knee in Jacob’s groin. That would have hurt him where he lived; he might be a business mogul, but he was still a man.

  With a sigh, Mariah headed for their departing visitors and chatted with them for a few minutes.

  “We’ll be back,” Edna promised. “As neighbors. We talked and decided to spend summer and fall in Montana, and winters in Connecticut so we can see more of the grandchildren. We’re hoping they’ll come here for vacations.”

  “I’m not sure what homes are available in Buckeye,” Mariah warned. “You should check it out before you get too committed.”

  “We may build our own place outside of town if we can’t find a small ranch,” Carl explained. “The local real-estate office says there’s a stack of current listings. We want enough space for five or six horses and will board them during the winter. We’ve already spoken to Mr. Branson and he’s willing to help us out with boarding if we can’t find anyone else.”

  Apparently they were serious, though they’d modified their plans. It made more sense, yet Mariah found it hard to believe the urbanites would last in Buckeye. She loved her hometown, but it was a long way from, well, everything. Their home, Hartford, Connecticut, was the state capital and teemed with activity. Several months was a long time for people accustomed to the amenities that cities offered.