Her Unforgettable Cowboy

by Debra Clopton

  Looking back over her shoulder, she was struck by the group. The picture they made reminded her of an old John Wayne movie, The Cowboys, about a bunch of ragtag boys who’d needed a gruff old cowboy to teach them life lessons. Although Morgan was far from an old cowboy, it was plain to see that these boys respected and admired him. And needed him.

  Smiling at them, she winked. “If y’all want to finish turning the desks and lining them up, that would be great.”

  They all chorused, “Yes, ma’am.”

  Smiling at their politeness, she followed Mr. Grizzly outside and then passed him, leading him out of earshot of the class. There was a large, gnarled oak tree still bent over as it had been all those years ago. She didn’t stop until she reached it, turning his way only after they were beneath the wide expanse of limbs.

  Morgan crossed his arms and studied the tree. “I remember having to climb up this tree and talk you down after you scrambled up to the top and froze.”

  She hadn’t expected him to bring up old memories—it caught her off guard. “I remember how mad you were at having to rescue the silly little new girl.” Mad? Actually, furious was more accurate.

  A hint of a smile teased his lips, fraying Jolie’s nerves at the edges. It had been a long, long time since she’d seen that smile.

  “I got used to it, though,” he said, his voice warming.

  She laughed, encouraged by his teasing. “You had no other choice! I guess if you hadn’t rescued me I’d never have made it to my teen years.” But she was grateful to Morgan for more than that. She’d grown into a teenager who could handle almost any situation, a girl confident in her own skin. She hadn’t been afraid to try anything because she’d been so crazy adventurous—and free to learn from her mistakes, thanks to Morgan and his brothers, Rowdy and Tucker, who had always been there to help her through. She’d idolized them, but at the same time, wanted them to stop babying her.

  Morgan especially.

  Of course it was Morgan who’d made her the angriest, and Morgan whom she’d fallen for. Their relationship had never been an easy one. The push and pull of attraction had started when she’d demanded independence, and then changed when she’d found herself desperate for his approval. But it became something incredibly complicated when she’d realized she wanted his love.

  And then the pull of competitive kayaking entered the equation when Morgan introduced her to it on a lazy summer afternoon and things grew more complicated. She’d been fifteen, and her instant infatuation with the sport had been too much to ignore. For a young woman who craved the adventure world-class competition offered, Sunrise Ranch suddenly seemed...small. When Morgan made it clear that he had no desire to leave the ranch, Jolie decided she had no choice but to walk away.

  Looking at him now, she was overcome by the memory of the internal war she’d lived through when she’d made the decision to leave.

  It had been six years, but it felt like twenty.

  They were standing beneath the shade of the old oak tree, electricity humming between them. When the smile left Morgan’s eyes, Jolie sucked in a wobbly breath, forcing herself to focus on the job she’d been hired to do. “I’m curious about Sammy. Has he been here long?”

  “Just a couple of weeks. He’s our newest rancher. He’s still having trouble emotionally, after his abandonment. It’s a tough situation.”

  “He seems fearful.”

  “He is, poor kid. He knows his dad has been gone from the picture for a long time. But his mother gave him up to the state and now he thinks his dad will find out and come for him. He’ll stretch the truth from here to Alaska, so you might want to tread lightly with everything he says until you give it a reality check.”

  “He lies?” she asked, a little more frankly than she’d intended. But she needed to know the truth if she was going to help him.

  Morgan grimaced. “Kinda. More like the boy who cried wolf.”

  “The stories don’t ever seem to change, do they, Morgan? I just can’t imagine how these boys handle their families not wanting them. Or not caring enough to make loving homes for them.”

  She’d been around kids like Sammy all the time growing up. Some handled the situation with anger, some with denial, but it was all about fear. She understood that on a personal level—three times this week she’d awakened in the middle of the night because of nightmares. She pushed the thoughts away, praying she was up for this job.

  “Sammy’s a good example of how bad these kids have been hurt. They need people around them who will care for them and stick with them.” The hardness of Morgan’s tone matched the accusation in his eyes. “What are you doing here, Jolie? Why aren’t you taming rapids in some far-off place?”

  “I...I’m—” She stumbled over her words, tongue-tied by his question. “I’m taking a leave from competition for a little while. I had a bad run in Virginia and I— It was bad.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that she’d almost died, that she was lucky to be standing there. “Anyway, your dad was kind enough to offer me this opportunity.”

  “I heard about the accident and I’m real sorry about that, Jolie. I really am. I wish you a speedy recovery so you can get back out there doing what you love. But why come here after all this time? We dropped off your radar a long time ago.”

  “This is my home. It has never been off my radar.” Jolie saw anger in Morgan’s eyes. Well, he had a right to it, and more than a right to point it straight at her. She’d just thought she was prepared for it.

  She was wrong.

  “Morgan,” Jolie said, almost as a whisper. “I’d hoped we could forget the past and move forward.”

  Heart pounding, she reached across the space between them and placed her hand on his arm. It was just a touch, but the feeling of connecting with Morgan McDermott again after so much time rocked her straight to the core and suddenly she wasn’t so sure coming home had been the right thing to do, after all.

  A jolt from a live wire couldn’t have burned Morgan more than the touch of Jolie’s hand. Shock waves coursed through him with a vengeance, his mouth went dry. There had been a time when he’d have done anything for her touch. He gulped hard and hardened his heart against a walk down memory lane.

  He wasn’t some kid anymore, holding his heart in his hands. He was a thirty-two-year-old adult male with a good brain between his ears. Or at least he’d thought he had a good brain.

  “I did forget the past. A long time ago,” he assured her, his skin burning where her hand still lay. He wondered if she felt the way his pulse had started galloping at her touch. They stared at each other as seconds slipped by.

  “Yes, of course you would have,” Jolie said at last, her hand squeezing his arm slightly before it slipped away. “But I was hoping there would be no hard feelings.”

  His jaw jerked in reflex.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said. “It really wasn’t personal.”

  “You broke our engagement, then headed off in search of better things. I think I had a right to take that personal.”

  “That is not fair.”

  Morgan was suddenly not at all comfortable with where this was heading.

  “I wasn’t searching for better,” she said. “I couldn’t stay. You know I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.”

  “Well,” he drawled icily, “that makes me feel a whole heap better.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes shadowing. “Morgan, I’m so sorry for the way it ended that day. I’m sorry for letting us go so far. I never meant to hurt you. I never should have accepted the ring in the first place knowing my heart was torn.”

  “On that we agree.” At least she hadn’t waited until the night before they were to walk down the aisle like Celia, the next woman he’d been fool enough to ask to marry him. Two in a row had made Morgan hang up any thoug
hts of ever popping the question again. Not that he ever should have started dating Celia in the first place.

  “Look, Jolie, that was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter anymore. Right now my concern is for those boys. They got hung out to dry by their parents and then their teacher left them for something better at the last minute. They don’t need another person leaving. They need someone they can count on to be here for them.”

  Slapping a hand on her hip, fire flashed in her eyes. “I intend to honor my contract for the semester, and I’m going to do my best to help each of the boys any way that I can.”

  Morgan met her gaze with fire of his own. “I don’t like your being here, but it doesn’t matter—you are. I’ll just have to hope and pray it all turns out okay.”

  Turning away he strode back toward the schoolhouse, leaving Jolie standing beneath the old oak. He used the walk to rein in his temper so he could finish setting up the classroom. The last thing he needed was for the boys to pick up on the bad vibes between him and Jolie—and if he wasn’t careful, they would, before he even made it in the door.

  How, he wanted to know as the schoolhouse got closer and his temper just got worse, was he ever going to make this work?

  * * *

  Infuriating man, Jolie thought, stalking after Morgan. “Stop right where you are, bucko,” she demanded, sounding as if she was calling him out to a gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He swung around at the entrance to the schoolhouse, clearly startled. She marched straight up to him.

  “You might not have any faith in me.” And my faith in myself might be shaken to the core. “But while I’m here, I’ll give these kids everything I have to give. No holding back.”

  For the first time since the accident Jolie felt a familiar strength ease through her, and she liked it. She’d had moments since nearly drowning when she’d felt as weak as a newborn, but she still counted herself a strong woman. She prayed that throwing herself into helping the boys of Sunrise Ranch would be a win-win situation for all of them.

  “Key words, Jolie—while you are here.”

  “It doesn’t matter to you if I can do a good job, does it, Morgan? This is personal on your part.”

  “You bet it’s personal. These boys are my personal responsibility.”

  Stung by his words and breathless with fury, she glared up at him, trying to ignore the fact that the man smelled of pine and leather. His scent played havoc with her senses. Her eyes, traitors that they were, slid down to rest on his lips. She inhaled, but all the air in the world seemed to have gone missing.

  Focus, Jolie. Focus.

  “Think the worst of me, Morgan McDermott. However,” she said, her conviction ringing true in her own ears, “I will give these boys everything I have to give them.”

  He stepped so close they were almost touching, and she had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. “That’s exactly what I expect,” he said. “They deserve it.” His gaze fell to her lips and lingered for only a brief instant before meeting hers. Jolie’s heart skipped a beat, and Morgan’s eyes were nearly black with dark emotion—yearning? Fury? Jolie was rendered speechless by his scowl. What was going on in that mind of his?

  He left her then, continuing toward the school.

  As she followed him toward the back door, she was sure of one thing and one thing only: for the first time in weeks she was filled with a great sense of purpose. What God had in store for her and Morgan, she didn’t have a clue. But God had plans for her at the Sunrise Ranch school and she was determined to prove herself to Him.

  It was probably going to be a lot easier than proving herself to Morgan.

  Chapter Three

  When Jolie reached the main classroom a few seconds after Morgan, she saw Joseph holding the front door open for Morgan’s grandmother, Ruby Ann “Nana” McDermott. Nana was the backbone of the ranch, a former barrel racer who ran the chow hall like a well-greased wagon wheel. Her vision had been essential in making Lydia McDermott’s dream come true, and her heart had been essential in making the place what it was today.

  Jolie knew that since Lydia’s death, Nana had been just as much a mother to Morgan as she had been to the countless young ranchers who’d needed her love. Jolie had loved and adored Nana and the feeling had been mutual. In her sixties, Nana had deep blue, wide-set eyes, high cheekbones and a square jaw, and there was no denying that her son Randolph and her three grandsons, Morgan, Rowdy and Tucker, were from her gene pool. Before her thick ponytail had turned the color of pale steel, it had been jet-black like Morgan’s and Randolph’s—a long-ago gift of the Cherokee blood of Nana’s ancestors.

  Yesterday Jolie had been welcomed by Nana with open arms—there was never any lack of hugs where Nana was concerned. Today Nana hustled into the room like a woman on a mission, her ponytail swinging as she brought cookies to her boys—and checked up on Morgan and “her girl,” as she always called Jolie.

  She set the large tray down on a worktable beside the computer as the tantalizing scent of chocolate and cinnamon filled the room. Nana’s smile was just as warm and sweet as the cookies nestled on the tray.

  “Y’all have sure been workin’ hard today, so I whipped up some of your favorite cookies.” The instant she stepped back, it was like a free-for-all—the boys dived for the chocolate chip cookies, attacking them as if they hadn’t eaten all morning.

  “Glad you came on out today, Jolie,” she said as Jolie gave her a hug.

  “I thought it would be best to come and, you know—” she faltered as she looked at Morgan, who frowned at her “—get acquainted, with the boys, I mean, and get prepared.”

  Morgan looked as if he’d just witnessed her robbing a bank or something, his eyes narrowing in distrust. Jolie gulped and looked back at Nana.

  “Thank you for the snacks. These boys deserve it—as you said, they’ve been working hard.”

  Nana waved off the comment. “These bottomless pits always need cookies.” She planted her fists on her hips, giving Jolie and Morgan the once-over. “When I was coming out of the chow hall I saw you two heading around the back of the building.”

  Nana looked at Morgan, and Jolie thought she saw worry in her eyes.

  “Um, we had things to discuss,” Jolie explained. What else could she say?

  “Morgan, how’s your day going?” Nana asked when it was obvious the boys were too engrossed in cookie devouring to eavesdrop on their conversation.

  Exasperation flashed in Morgan’s eyes. “How do you think, Nana? Started out with a real bang in Dad’s office this morning.”

  Nana blushed—surprising Jolie, since she wasn’t the blushing kind—and she leaned in close to Morgan. “If it makes you feel any better, I told Randolph he needed to warn you.”

  “And what about you?” he asked.

  “I— Well,” she said, patting his arm. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  Jolie wasn’t sure what was going on, but it sounded as if Morgan hadn’t known she was coming. Was that possible? The thought practically made her gasp. If that was the case, then no wonder he was so hostile. His dad had not only made the decision to hire her on his own, but had also kept it a secret—until today.

  “You didn’t know?” she whispered.

  His lips pressed into a tight line and his left eyebrow lifted ever so slightly.

  Jolie gasped, looking from Morgan to Nana. It was true—Randolph hadn’t told him!

  Nana turned to where the boys were scarfing down the cookies as if there was no tomorrow. “Did you fellas know Jolie is a world-class champion kayaker? She gets paid by sponsors to travel all over the world and compete using their gear. Isn’t that right, Jolie?”

  “Get outta here. For real?” Wes said, stepping away from the cookie fray.

  Jolie nodded and her stomach dropped to her feet as a sick feeling w
ashed over her in a wave. Please don’t go there. I can’t handle that right now on top of everything else.

  She’d known it was ridiculous to hope no one would mention her kayaking, yet she’d hoped exactly that. She gave a weak smile. “I’ve won a few competitions.”

  “Ha!” Nana hooted. “She’s top ten in the country.”

  Morgan crossed his arms, his expression stormy.

  “Top in the country!” Wes gushed, suddenly looking a lot younger than seventeen.

  “Really?” Tony joined in, his eyes lit with expectations.

  Alarms clanged inside of Jolie.

  “What’s kayaking?” Caleb asked as he and the other smaller fellas looked up from their cookies.

  “It’s like a plastic canoe that holds one person, and they compete on riding the rapids and stuff.” Joseph had come closer, as intent as Wes and Tony. “We have some rapids on the river at this place. Do you know that?”

  She knew what was coming next. She knew it and she wasn’t even sure she could speak. But she nodded and fought for words as acid churned in her stomach.

  “I—I started on those rapids when I was a kid. Morgan showed them to me.”

  That was all the encouragement the boys needed. They instantly erupted in excitement.

  “Cool! Can you teach us?” Joseph said over the others’ exclamations. Jolie silently prayed for God to help her.

  “I’ve always wanted to learn,” Wes gushed again, grinning like he’d just won the lottery. “Can you teach us?” he echoed as the others chimed in.

  Jolie’s vision blurred—where had all the air gone? She suddenly felt unbearably hot as every eye in the room stared at her. Her pulse pounded in her head like the roar of the white river rapids she now feared. Black spots began to spatter her vision like paint drops. She swayed, woozy, and her gaze swung to Morgan—for what? To ask for help?

  I can’t teach these boys to kayak!

  Breathe, she commanded herself, even as her knees turned to jelly....

  “Jolie!”