“When did you have a concussion?” Doc asked, probing her hip, making her wince. “Sorry ’bout that. Sore, huh?”
She nodded. “Just a little.”
“What about the concussion?” Jarrod asked.
“Oh, I hope she’s okay,” Clara Lyn added, worry in her voice.
Doc pulled a penlight from his pocket and shined it into her eyes. “Tell us about that.”
“I-I ran out in front of a car and was hit. I was—”
“You were hit by a car!” Clara Lyn exclaimed.
Cassidy did not want to talk about this.
“Hush, Clara Lyn. Now, go on,” Doc grunted, taking her chin in his hands and turning her head as he stared into her eyes.
“I was in a coma for a couple of days—”
“A coma!” Clara Lyn squealed. At least she thought it was Clara Lyn. It sounded very close to Clover’s squeal.
Cassidy closed her eyes and opened them to find Jarrod staring down at her with deep concern. Perfect. She did not want anyone asking any more questions about that accident. It was embarrassing enough.
“I woke up two days later, the doctors deemed me fine, and now, other than a headache when I’m stressed, there are no aftereffects.” Not any that anyone could see. Her being in Wishing Springs living at Roxie’s was one aftereffect that had come out of that whole fiasco. “And I’m fine now. I’m going to have a sore hip, but I’m fine.” She was tired of being coddled. She moved to rise up and Jarrod helped her to a sitting position.
“Okay, move your leg and let’s see,” Doc instructed. She complied. Pain shot through her, but she was able to move her leg fine.
“It’s good. Now, let me get up and let’s load up my babies. And how’s my dog?”
“Maybe you need to stay down and let’s get the ambulance out here and have that hip checked out,” Jarrod said. A deep scowl etched his face.
“No. Jarrod Monahan, I am fine.” Her words were clipped. She started to get up with or without his help.
“Stubborn woman. You could be seriously hurt.”
“And you could be seriously overreacting.” Pain shot through her lower back and down her leg, but she did her best to hide the wince.
“See there. You’re hurt.” He reached to assist her, his long fingers wrapping around her arm.
“I fell down,” she gritted through clenched teeth, fighting to ignore the feel of his hand on her skin. “I bruised my hip. Yes, I will be sore tomorrow. But I’m fine.”
Doc and Clara Lyn stood watching them and were unnaturally silent.
“See, my hip moves.” She lifted her leg, ignored the pain in her lower back, and smiled cheerily at Jarrod. “Stop being so protective. Thank you for your concern, but I am not a child.”
He opened his mouth to say something, then clamped it shut. She could just imagine what he was thinking.
“Doc, my lambs?”
“Oh, come right this way.” A sardonic expression twisted his features comically.
The old codger was laughing at her. She shot Clara Lyn a glance, hoping for some support, but there was worry in her eyes too.
“You’re limping. Jarrod, she’s limping.”
He wore a thunderous expression now. “Clara Lyn, does it look like I can do anything with her?”
“Ex-actly,” Cassidy enunciated. “I am not yours to ‘do anything with.’ ”
With that she followed Doc into the other room and down the hall.
“Goodness, she does have a temper,” she heard Clara Lyn declare. “At least with you, Jarrod.”
“Yeah, thanks for pointing that out, Clara Lyn.”
“Oh, look at the babies.” Abby cooed as she held Levi on her hip. Jarrod and Cassidy lifted the lambs from the backseat of the truck where Cassidy had ridden with them on the way home.
“Dog!” Levi exclaimed, jumping excitedly on his mother’s hip and reaching out toward the lambs.
Jarrod laughed with everyone at his nephew. “No, not a dog, lamb,” he said, enjoying the excitement on Levi’s face. “He’s going to have fun with these little fellas.”
He was glad for the little distraction the tot supplied. Maybe he had overreacted. But when he saw Cassidy hit that hard floor, he’d worried she had hit her head. They’d both cooled down some after getting the lambs loaded up. He’d backed off, given her room, and was biding his time.
“Are you limping?” Maggie asked the minute Cassidy took a few steps.
“I fell. It seems that Clover turns into a bowling ball on wet tiled floors. And I was the bowling pin.”
“Are you all right?” His sisters-in-law asked the question in unison.
Cassidy shot daggers at him, daring him to speak. “I’m fine. My hip hurts and is probably going to be the color of a cluster of grapes soon, but I’m fine.”
He set his lamb on the ground in the pen, then took hers out of her arms and lowered him over the fence into the soft hay. Almost instantly the two babies curled up together and went to sleep.
His phone rang and he was glad for the excuse to walk away. “Jarrod.”
Madge the 9–1–1 dispatcher’s nasal twang greeted him. “Chief, got a grass fire on Bert Tobias’s place.” She called out the address. “Number one is en route.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and looked at Cassidy. “No need me asking if you’ve got this. I’m sure you do. I’ve got a grass fire to tend to.”
“A fire?” Cassidy asked as he got into his truck with other questions from his sisters-in-law echoing behind him. He rattled off the info he had, cranked up the truck, and then drove away. A fire he could handle.
He was beginning to wonder if he could ever handle Cassidy Starr.
13
They made it through the rummage sale on Saturday. Cassidy watched people carting off their newfound treasures and she knew Aunt Roxie would be happy. Each of these people enjoyed the hunt as much as Roxie had, or if not, they truly had a need for what they bought.
Who knew, Antiques Roadside or whatever that TV show was called could come along one day and someone could have bought a treasure from her for a couple of dollars. She had no idea what she was selling. She was just pleasantly surprised by the end of the day that the two-day-long sale had left her with very little to get rid of. She had even made a small sum of money—not the mint that Rand had predicted, but for her it had mostly been about getting rid of stuff.
Toward the end of the day, a man had been trying to decide between a couple of knickknacks. She made him a deal he couldn’t refuse by selling him everything left on the shelf for the price of one—a whole dollar. If he’d wanted to haggle with her, he probably could have asked her to pay him a dollar to take them.
She did keep one Thomas Kincaid commemorative plate of a gazebo in the middle of a flowering garden. It had been Roxie’s favorite. “The Prayer Garden” was what she called it. It reminded her of Roxie’s peaceful spirit. Of course, her exterior was quite spunky, but it was that inner peace of hers that Cassidy was searching for.
And quick. She needed to tone down her tendency to jump into sparing matches with Jarrod. It was getting old and she had to fix that.
Though she hadn’t had to worry about it too much because she hadn’t seen Jarrod all weekend. He disappeared after their last confrontation, and it was bothering her.
“I’m tuckered out,” Pebble said, sinking into one of the chairs beside Cassidy.
“Me too.” Cassidy leaned back in the chair and smiled at the group. Clara Lyn, Reba, Pebble, Abby, and Maggie had all shown up both days, ready to help and give her support. She had enjoyed the companionship.
“Thank you all for helping. I don’t know if I’d have gotten it all done without you.”
“With that limp of yours, it’s a good thing we showed up.” Clara Lyn gave her a shrewd look. “I bet it’s giving you a bundle of pain right now.”
“I’m fine. Some people just overreact.”
Clara Lyn chuckled. “He certainly did.”
“That’s ju
st the thing,” Maggie said, leaning forward in her chair. “Jarrod is the levelheaded one. Well, all of the Monahan men are, but Jarrod has always been a bit aloof. Don’t y’all agree?”
“Most certainly. He’s all business since all that happened with his dad,” Reba said. “We’ve talked about it before, Clara and I, and it’s almost like he took what his dad did as a personal insult.”
Cassidy was lost now. “What exactly did his dad do?”
Clara Lyn’s eyes widened. “You don’t know? He gambled the ranch away. He had a horrible gambling addiction no one knew about, and he owed all kinds of loan sharks and banks money too. It was awful, and if he hadn’t died in that plane crash, he’d have lost the ranch before his sons even knew what was going on. Just gambled it right away. When Jarrod, Tru, and Bo started going over the books their dad always kept after the funeral, they were instantly alerted to the dire state of affairs.”
“Yes,” Maggie added. “They bonded together and saved the ranch for Pops. For themselves and their children too.”
“It’s sad,” Pebble said. “Addiction is a horrible thing. I have a feeling Jarrod asks himself all the time if there was something he could have done. I know I ask myself that about Rand. And I know there wasn’t anything I could do. But I just think that because Jarrod is the oldest he shoulders that responsibility more than the others. Not that he should, but he is that type.”
Jarrod hadn’t told her this the other day. They’d gotten close to it maybe but, wow. The debt to lose a ranch that size had to be astronomical.
“Tru and I actually discussed this,” Maggie said. “But nothing he or Bo do can lift the weight from Jarrod’s shoulders. That’s why they are encouraging him to go out some. The man has no social life.”
He doesn’t date. Cassidy’s ears perked up at that despite the fact that she was not interested in a social life herself.
“And that’s why we find it so interesting that you are getting reactions out of him none of us have seen before, Cassidy.” Maggie was beaming at her. “Keep up the good work. He’s a great person.”
“Wait. I’m not looking to date anyone.” Especially not Jarrod.
Clara Lyn, Reba, and Pebble all gasped.
Reba got her voice first. “Well, why not? He’s a hunk and a half. Or two. And so sweet. All of them are. You’ve seen how they are with their pops. They are real men. And Jarrod, well, he’s got those brooding good looks going on.”
Cassidy did not want to sit around and talk about Jarrod’s good looks. She was more than aware of them.
Thankfully she made it through the next thirty minutes before everyone left. Much of the time was spent talking about the Fourth of July celebration. She had her week set, knowing there would be a lot of peach picking going on. And sometime during that time she would start tilling up the garden plot. July was not the month to plant anything in Texas because of the lack of rainfall and the heat, but she wanted to be ready for a fall garden. And from what she’d read, cultivating the soil was a good thing.
“So what do you think?” Jarrod was looking at Jake. For the last two days Jarrod had driven the perimeter of the ranch, trying to think like a cattle rustler. His men had been checking tags herd by herd, and the results were not making him happy. They were on the road to having the debt paid off and the ranch completely in the black again, but if theft like this continued he was going to be in trouble.
He’d found a pen made of portable panels on a corner of his property that didn’t belong to him.
“It’s evident that they’re being bold. I seriously doubt they’ll be back to this pen. It might even be here as a decoy to make you stake the place out while they rob you blind somewhere else. I’ll call Tom and let him know what you’ve found.”
The TSCRA agent assigned to the area had alerted them that this was going on in surrounding counties too. They also suspected it was someone living in the area, the area being a fairly large mile radius. He knew Tom and the other agents were overworked and understaffed right now. The year before had been a record-breaking year for cattle thieves in Texas, with over ten thousand head of cattle missing. He figured it hadn’t slowed down this year so far.
Jake scrubbed his jaw as he studied the tire tracks backed up to the pens. “The difference in a lot of those cattle and yours is that you keep excellent records.”
“I’m estimating that I’m missing thirty head so far. With the price of heifers right now, we’re looking at a loss in the sixty-to seventy-thousand-dollar range.” He didn’t need to tell Jake how much that kind of a hit was jeopardizing the survival of the Four of Hearts Ranch.
“Yeah, we’ve got to stop the bleeding. Okay, I’ll pull what evidence I can from the site and we’ll put out an alert with all auction barns. In the meantime, you keep alert. You find anything else, let me know.”
“You do the same. Jake, they’re not going to get away with this on my land.”
Jake squinted at him, probing. “Don’t do anything stupid. The law will handle this.”
“I’m not planning on hanging anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about. But I’m not planning on sitting back and letting this continue. You and I both know that with the way they’ve spread out, the law and the agents are spread thin.”
“That’s true. I’m just telling you to be careful.”
He and Jake went way back, and Jake knew he wasn’t one to take being pushed around lightly. “They’re messing with my family’s livelihood. Don’t be concerned about me.”
Jake looked skeptical, but Jarrod couldn’t worry about that. This was his land, his cattle, and he’d take care of what was his. But more important, what belonged to his family. He’d let his family down once. That wasn’t happening again.
14
Cassidy went to church on Sunday. Everyone had invited her, and after a little bit of thought she decided to go. Through her divorce and the last couple of years when things had been so bad, she’d stopped going. It had just seemed pointless. Sitting there listening to the preacher talk about hope and that God loved her and . . . Okay, so, she knew he did. And she believed, but she’d still felt like she was out here doing everything herself. And she’d drifted away.
But maybe her heart hadn’t been in a place where she was letting God speak to her, so maybe she should try to listen now.
It was a cowboy church, and Cassidy was a little unsure about that. She’d heard of them but wasn’t real certain what they were. Clara Lyn explained it was simply a place that celebrated the cowboy culture, though everyone was welcome.
There were cattle trailers in the parking lot and plain uncovered concrete floors inside. Not all of the men, but many of them, had on their cowboy hats and boots and jeans. She instantly thought of Jarrod, that he would fit here, and wondered if he attended. When she saw Tru in a group of men drinking coffee and talking, she felt fairly certain that he did.
People began greeting her and her thoughts were pulled in other directions. She settled in beside Clara Lyn for the service and found herself listening as the preacher in his Stetson talked about a calf with its legs bound. It was like people being tied down by the sins, the hurts, and mistakes of their past. And that trusting in the Lord was letting God remove the rope and set them free.
So the sermon had been a little different, but it stuck with her as she walked out onto the lawn after the service. Everyone was talking excitedly about the upcoming weekend, and now that she had the rummage sale off her mind, she could focus on that too.
She spent the rest of the day in her peach orchard. Climbing up and down a ladder picking peaches did not feel good on her hip, so she stuck to picking the lower limbs first. There were a lot of peaches, and some were not as ripe as others. But she was pleased that she would have a decent crop to sell at her booth at the celebration.
Monday morning she’d planned to go check on her dog and see if he could come home. She’d fixed him up a bed in the utility room. She had no idea if he was in any way house-tr
ained, but he would need a place to recuperate. She was washing the lambs’ bottles and getting ready to go outside and feed them when she heard a truck drive up.
She opened the door and found Jarrod walking up the sidewalk. Her pulse zipped into a free fall.
“Good morning,” she said as she pushed the screen door open. “What are you doing here?” That sounded less than welcoming, she realized too late. As aggravating as it was to have him come over, she was glad to see him.
His lip hitched up into a one-sided smile that made her toes tingle. Oh dear.
“I’m doing a friend a favor. I brought your dog to you. I was at the clinic when Doc was about to call you to come get him, but I thought I’d save you the trip into town since I was coming this way.”
“Well, thank you. I was going to go check on him as soon as I fed the babies.” She walked out onto the porch. “I’m excited. I have a place ready for Duce.”
“Duce?” Jarrod opened the back door of his truck.
“Yes. He’s got a second chance at life, so I thought it would be appropriate. Second Chance didn’t sound as good, so I went with Duce.”
He chuckled. “I agree.” He carefully lifted Duce out of the truck, and to her surprise the animal held up his head and studied her as Jarrod carried him past her.
“He’s a good dog. He’s not overly energetic because his injuries were so bad, but Doc says he gave him a sedative and you’ll need to do that for a couple more days. And then I’ll take the stitches out.”
“You’ll take them out?” She paused mid-step and so did he.
“Yes. I do that on most of my animals. Doc gets busy sometimes so there’s no need to bother him.”
“Oh, okay. Do you put stitches in sometimes too?”
He laughed. “Well, yes. My truck’s got a first-aid kit in it that includes supplies to sew up a cow or a calf if I need to.”
“I’m impressed.” He looked a little embarrassed that she would be impressed.
“Most cowboys know how to do that. Many times a cowboy on a forty-thousand-acre ranch in Montana has no backup in the winter. It’s just them and the cattle when they’re snowed in.”
Kissed by a Cowboy Page 11