by Leigh Riker
In the distance, the remaining coyotes disappeared into the night. They were sure wreaking havoc in the area if, in fact, there was only one pack, and he wished the posse had done more damage.
Cooper stepped around Nell. Despite her resistance, he managed to draw her away from the scene, but she gave him a glare that could kill. He didn’t care. He wouldn’t have her witness her own brother’s demise. Her horse and his were ground-tied nearby, but Cooper steered her toward Jesse’s mount.
“Go,” he said. “You can hate me later.”
“I hate you right now,” she said, but her tone didn’t have much heat.
Cooper knelt by Jesse. He assessed the other man’s arm, knowing it was broken. As a cop in Chicago, Cooper had assessed plenty of such injuries and figured it was a pretty bad break, though he was no doctor like Sawyer, who was now riding across the field to them.
Sawyer slid off his horse. “Is he breathing?”
“Yep, but still unconscious.”
Sawyer checked Jesse’s vital signs, then the arm as best he could in the middle of a darkened field with no medical supplies on hand. “Compound fracture,” he said.
Logan, Grey and Finn approached too, and Grey said, “Let’s get him to the house.”
Sawyer straightened. “I’d rather not move him. We need an ambulance. Hope they can reach us here.”
Finn had his cell phone out and was punching in the number.
Cooper glanced around. Nell was walking Jesse’s horse in a big circle, cooling him off and keeping him from eating more grass. The big tracks of tears on her cheeks that she wouldn’t want anyone to see appeared silver in the night. When she noticed him gazing at her, she turned aside, the horse’s swishing tail like a signal for him to keep back. Cooper went to her anyway.
She still wouldn’t look at him. “Is he...?”
“Sawyer’s got him. Jesse will be okay,” he assured her, hoping that was true. Whether or not she wanted him to, Cooper took the reins from her, handed them off to Logan, then put his arms around her. “I’ve got you,” he said.
* * *
NELL COULDN’T SLEEP. The house was too quiet with Jesse in the hospital. She worried about him. She hadn’t realized how much she welcomed even his company at night while PawPaw was gone.
And she kept hearing Cooper say I’ve got you. In Grey’s field, she’d wanted to preserve her pride and shove Cooper away, but she’d wanted even more to curl deeper into his embrace, to just...let go.
What a horrendous evening, and they hadn’t managed to drive off all the coyotes. Nell had no doubt the animals would be on Wilson Cattle land, the Circle H and the NLS again soon. On all three ranches, there’d be more of the herds lost, more of the unique animals Nell loved taken from her.
After leaving Farrier General, she’d spent part of the night in the barn, making sure her little calf was safe and well and still thriving. Counting heads to make sure the ranch dogs and the barn cats were accounted for. Nell hated feeling this...fragile.
Despite her differences with her brother, she loved Jesse too. What was it Cooper had once said? It’s okay to show your softer side, to just...be a woman. Tonight, she’d certainly done that.
At dawn, while Nell was brewing a pot of coffee in the hope of staying awake during the day, her parents phoned. She’d left them a reassuring voice mail on the way to the hospital last night but, of course, they wanted to hear the full story.
“Jesse will have surgery this morning,” she told them. They were already packing for the trip to Barren, and she heard tears in her mother’s voice.
“Chasing coyotes again? What was Jesse doing with a gun? He hasn’t gone hunting in years.”
Nell didn’t respond to that. “He’ll have the best orthopedic surgeon, Mom. The break is bad, but they can pin it. And his concussion is mild. I’ll be with him. Afterward, he’ll be fine here for a while.” Not that she looked forward to more of their quarrels.
Her father weighed in. “You should have brought Jesse to a hospital in Kansas City.”
“His doctor is from there,” she said. “He operates at Farrier General two days a week. Please don’t worry. Everything’s under control.”
Her words reminded her of Cooper. Earlier, she hadn’t fired him when she should have, especially after that dare of his, and Nell worried that she’d lost her edge, weeping in his arms like a...like a woman who needed a man to shore up any weakness. Nell hadn’t resisted. Tonight, she’d let him take over. He’d seen her at her worst, helpless, and so had Grey, Logan and Sawyer and Finn.
“My children,” Mom went on. “I have one son and one daughter, Nell.”
“Yes. I realize that.”
“Why didn’t you leave those animals to Logan Hunter? It was his cattle that were killed.”
“This time Grey’s too,” Nell said. “They would both have helped me when we lost the cow and calves here. I didn’t know then that they were having trouble too.”
Her father broke in again. “Nell, this has gone far enough. Your mother’s right. I thought we’d left that miserable place behind.”
“The NLS to me is hardly miserable.” Nell, however, was becoming more upset by the second. Her dad was usually in her corner, his acceptance of her goal often laced with an indulgent smile. He’d never come out before in such solidarity with her mother. Had Nell made the wrong decision tonight? Taking Jesse with them had risked his safety and jeopardized her hopes to inherit the ranch.
Listening to the silence from the other end of the line, and the burble of the coffeemaker’s carafe filling up, Nell paced the kitchen.
This was the place where she’d grown up watching her grandmother and her mother cook for the family and the hands. As a baby, she’d sat in a high chair at this table, banged her spoon on the tray. When she fell off her first horse, she’d rushed in to have her scrapes tended and her pride soothed. After her high school prom, still in her gown, she’d shared a late night girls’ talk with her mom, the kind of conversation she might have with Olivia, Shadow or Annabelle and their other friend Blossom, who was married to Logan. She’d cried her eyes out here the day Cooper left town. “I’m happier on the NLS than I’d be anywhere else,” she said at last. “You might as well give up on the notion that I’ll become a city girl. No one was hurt tonight except Jesse, but he’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” She told herself the same thing.
Nell stalked across the room to pour a first mug of coffee before the beep sounded that it was ready. A flash of guilt ran through her. Nell could guess how concerned her mother was, how frightened for her children she must be, but without kids of her own, maybe Nell couldn’t truly understand.
“I’m sorry, Mom. Dad, tell her. I’m doing a good job. I don’t want to give up here. Yes, ranch life is tough, and Jesse’s accident isn’t the first. It won’t be the last. But talk about miserable,” she added. “You’d both feel even worse with me under your feet in that house in Mission Hills, mourning what I’d lost.”
Her dad’s voice gentled. “Nell, I can empathize, even when I never want to set foot on that ranch again. But aren’t you taking this too far? It’s time,” he said, “to let someone else take over the NLS when your grandfather’s gone.”
Her tone flattened. “You mean Jesse.”
“Well, yes. Of course, we worry about him too.”
“But you’re trying to protect me. Why?”
“Because as a woman you have to be safeguarded, Nell,” her dad said. “To be kept from danger more.”
Nell saw red. “You realize that’s a double standard. Don’t you?” She considered herself to be the better, more capable person than Jesse, at least on the ranch. She didn’t need protection, but her dad clearly disagreed.
Nell could hear him breathing into the phone.
“You too, Daddy? I thought you respected me. You’ve known since I was three yea
rs old, maybe even before, that I wanted to have the NLS. You know I’ll cherish this land, that I’ll do right by it. If Jesse wants his share in cash, he can have it. I’ll keep this ranch profitable, make it even more so—”
“And in the blink of an eye,” her mother said through obvious tears, “you’ll be over forty with no husband, no children, nothing to show for your life except that old ranch house and a bunch of smelly cows. Is that what you really want, Nell? To work yourself to death for that place and end up alone?”
“I wish you didn’t feel that way.”
“We both do, sweetheart,” her dad put in.
Fuming now, Nell gulped down a swallow of hot coffee. “You mean, let a man do the work. Because he’d obviously find a wife to support him, to bear his kids and raise them while he ran the NLS. No,” she said. “I hate to be such a constant disappointment to you. I realize you want grandkids to spoil, Mom. But there’s no reason you can’t have them.”
“You don’t have all the time in the world, Nell,” her mother said.
“But I do have some. One day, I’ll meet someone, marry him. Then you can throw the biggest wedding, the most lavish reception. I won’t say a word about the engraved invitations or the party being held at your country club. If Jesse—or any man—can have it all and still do work that makes him happy, why can’t I?”
“It’s not the same,” her mom insisted. “What if you were pregnant and trying to ride all over that godforsaken ranch as if you were still a ten-year-old girl? There are all kinds of accidents that can happen, Nell. It could be you in the hospital just as easily.”
Her mom had returned to the topic of losing her children, a hard thing to argue against. It wasn’t as if her mother, and her dad, didn’t want her to be happy. They just wanted her to be happy according to their view of what that meant. For a moment, she nearly weakened, but there was no way she’d knuckle under.
“I have to go,” she said. “Jesse’s surgery is scheduled for 9:00 a.m.”
“We’ll be at the hospital by noon,” her father said, a familiar note in his voice. He was going to play the dad card, appealing to her in that affectionate way of his to change her mind. She felt betrayed by his lack of support. He’d been the one member of the family to think she could do the job. “Nell...”
“See you then,” she said, and ended the call.
They’d never been this adamant before, but Jesse’s broken arm had made their objections worse. Nell couldn’t blame them for being troubled about their kids. She had no doubt their next call would be to PawPaw—if they could reach him.
She felt suddenly alone and incompetent. Too bad she didn’t have it all right now. A darling family of her own, a man who loved her with all his heart and the NLS too. For an instant, an image of Cooper ran through her mind. Tall, handsome, strong again after his injuries in Chicago, a man, she’d learned, who could do the job. At least she had his support, his belief in her. Or was she paying too high a price for her dream? What if she could have what she wanted and her family’s support too?
Clearly, considering their antiquated views, most of all PawPaw’s, she needed a husband. How would she ever inherit the NLS unless...? What if she beat them at their own game?
The idea began to grow roots in her mind.
Of course, there was one hitch. She wasn’t seeing anyone.
And then Nell thought, I’ve got you.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“YESTERDAY YOU WANTED to fire me. Now you want to get married?”
“Why not?” Nell asked, hands on her hips.
“A hundred reasons!” Cooper replied, fumbling around for one of them. Her awkward proposal had blindsided him.
She’d knocked on the door just a few minutes ago, and they were still standing on his porch. “Where did you get such a cockeyed notion?”
“It would only be a temporary arrangement.”
“No dice,” he said, his heart skipping a beat. What did she take him for? A fool? A patsy? “This is quite a switch. In fact, it’s crazy, Nell.”
Although, he had to admit, the idea held more than a little appeal. He’d once been in love with her, ready to do just what she was proposing—hunt down a justice of the peace, then slip a ring on her finger. Make a forever commitment because he couldn’t imagine being bound to anyone else. He’d settled for giving her an emerald chip necklace, which she’d thrown in his face. Their recent kisses showed they both still had feelings for each other, but...
“A few kisses and you decide now we should tie the knot?” He’d more than enjoyed those stolen moments with her, but he shook his head. “One of us has to be clear minded. Obviously, at the moment, that’s not you.”
Nell’s mouth firmed. “Thank you so much. First, my family all but threatens to show up and haul me off the NLS. Then you decide to make light of a very serious proposal.”
“Serious? You’ve got to be kidding. Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “I like kissing you. I wouldn’t object to more of them. But marriage? That’s not something you enter into as if it were a fun night at the county fair. I’m talking a lifetime here, not a quick trip to Vegas with some Elvis impersonator to perform a five-minute ceremony.”
“I said temporary. Why is that crazy? I didn’t mean the whole white-dress thing, flowers, and toasts from Jesse and my father, and maybe PawPaw. This would be quick, private...no horde of guests, no fairy lights strung around the yard like when Blossom and Logan got married. No...” she trailed off, her cheeks flushed. “...honeymoon,” she finished.
Now he was getting angry. Half the time, she appeared to barely tolerate him. Of course, there were the other times, like when Nell had melted into his arms the night before.
Was this about her sheer worry over Jesse and the ranch? Her brother’s surgery had gone well and he was at Farrier General with Nell’s parents tonight. Or did this mean, because of their kisses, that she could rely on Cooper? Trust him as she’d begun to trust him as her foreman? “Are you talking a marriage of convenience here?”
Nell’s glance fell away. “There’d be no reason for us to share a room. This would be a business arrangement.” A few spring peepers were chirping down at the creek and overhead the stars were out. “I’ve told you what my parents said. Jesse has the same opinion and so does PawPaw. I used to have my dad with me, but he’s gone over to the dark side and I—”
“What’s in this for me?” Which he knew sounded crass, but he was hurt.
For a moment, she didn’t answer. Nell blinked. “You get to keep your job,” she finally said.
“Lucky me.” The scent of hay from the barn mingled with the sweet night air. Soft light filtered through the bungalow’s front window to illuminate Nell’s face. “Maybe instead I’ll take your advice—go somewhere else in the county and buy acreage there, or even leave the state again. Maybe move to Texas. There’s plenty of land there. Buy some longhorns instead of Angus, build a big log house for the wife I get to pick out for myself. It will have antler chandeliers and a master suite, plus six bedrooms for all the kids we’ll have.”
“Now you’re being sarcastic.”
“No, seems like a pretty good idea to me.”
Her eyes brightened. “But that isn’t what you really want.”
Ow, Cooper thought, feeling as if she’d torn a piece off his hide. For a second, the scar on his stomach hurt again. She had him there. No one else’s land was the land where his soul still resided, the land he’d dreamed about for fourteen years, and she knew it. He’d told her so his first day back, which maybe hadn’t been the wisest choice after all. It gave Nell too much power.
He turned away, then back again to face her. Once, he’d thought that if they could only reach some kind of détente their problems would be over. “Nell, let’s be straight here. Keeping my job isn’t all I have in mind. And why should this be temporary?”
; “Because. I need to...appease my parents, my family. What is it they want? To see me safely married, thinking about children and, above all, having a strong man’s support here on the NLS.”
“I can’t imagine they’ll be wild about the divorce then—the one you must be planning.” He paused. “Plus, they’re not crazy about me in the first place. Or have you forgotten my fight with Ned—my promise to take back my family’s land one day? And his threat to run me off if he ever saw me again?”
“I didn’t forget. He’ll change his mind,” she insisted. “Once we’re married, he’ll have to accept you, especially if we can’t reach him before the, uh, ceremony. He’ll come to see it was the best course of action. He’ll view us as the team we are, a team with the ranch’s success uppermost in our minds.”
“And he’ll leave the NLS to you.” Which was her real plan all along. She must be mentally crossing her fingers. “I don’t want any part of this. Marry you just so you can get the ranch? What is this, some grade C Western movie in which the gullible cowboy wants land so bad he enters into a loveless marriage?”
“Well, not exactly... Of course not.”
“Yeah? Then what is it? Because I’m perfectly happy to support you as your foreman, but I already said I see marriage as a lifetime thing, a partnership of equals.”
With his last words, Nell’s expression changed, melted in fact, and Cooper took a slow step toward her, then another until he and Nell stood mere inches apart. The light through the window gilded her cheeks. He noted the fresh uncertainty in her gaze and the dilation of her pupils. She wasn’t immune to him. She’d liked their kisses too, though he hesitated to use that to his advantage.
He bent to kiss her but she put a hand against his chest.
“Don’t,” she said. “We’re trying to have a rational discussion.”
“I don’t feel so rational,” he told her.
“Cooper,” she began. “This is a business agreement. And I can understand that you might want something out of it for yourself. But not more kisses! Strictly business.”