Wrangling the Cowboy's Heart

by Carolyne Aarsen

  “How did that happen?” When they were dating, the music scholarship was all she’d talked about. When she’d ditched him for a wild party that night and missed her audition the next day, he had been so utterly disappointed both in her and for her. The rest of the summer she’d avoided him and hung out with a bad group. The next summer she hadn’t shown up at all, and the only time Keith had mentioned her was to tell Finn about the irresponsible life his youngest daughter was leading.

  “Life happens,” she said wryly.

  Guess that was all he was going to get.

  He opened the door for her, but before she walked through, she gave him an enigmatic look. “Still a gentleman, I see.”

  “One of the few things my mother taught me,” he said, following her across the porch.

  “Where is she now?” Jodie continued.

  “Hopefully on her way to Saddlebank.” Finn pushed down the flicker of concern that his mother would flake out on him again. She’d sounded so sincere when she had called him a couple months ago. Maybe things had changed in her life. “She’s accompanying Mandie Parker for our church music festival.”

  “Mandie Parker. I’ve heard of her.”

  “Really? She sings Christian contemporary music,” Finn said.

  Jodie tossed him a wry look. “I’ll have you know I have a variety of musical tastes,” she stated.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  “That I only listen to blues in smoky bars or hip-hop in clubs. I get it.”

  A smile teased his mouth at her quip. “I stand corrected.”

  “As for Mandie, it’s amazing that you managed to get her. She’s very talented.”

  “The festival’s in a couple of weeks. If you’re staying here, you could come, if you’re interested.”

  “I just might.” Jodie shoved her hands into the back pockets of her blue jeans as she walked alongside him, past the dented and dusty car she had driven here. Clearly waitressing and playing in bars didn’t pay enough to buy decent transportation.

  “And how is your mother these days?”

  “She’s doing okay.”

  “I remember hearing her play at church sometimes when Aunt Laura couldn’t. She was so talented. I sometimes wished she could have given me lessons.”

  “Your grandmother in Knoxville taught you to play, didn’t she?”

  “She taught all three of us. There wasn’t much money for anything else, so she spent her days trying her best to keep us well-rounded and on the straight and narrow.”

  Finn was sure he didn’t imagine Jodie’s sardonic tone of voice. “How successful was she?” he couldn’t help but ask.

  “Well, you did catch me speeding,” Jodie replied with a saucy smirk.

  “It sounds as though you play as fast as you drive.”

  “Gramma never let us play outside until we finished the pieces of music she set out for us. I learned that the sooner I was done with what she wanted me to play, the sooner I could play the ones I wanted.”

  Finn laughed at the mental image of a young girl furiously pounding out the notes to sonatas. “I thought you enjoyed playing the piano? That it was a dream of yours.”

  Jodie simply shrugged. “I didn’t like what Gramma and my mother made me play. Those endless scales and all those boring pieces. Once I mastered them, I enjoyed it more.” Her melancholy tone made him wonder again what had happened that she had discarded that dream so callously. “Did your mother teach you, too?” she asked.

  “Off and on. I never got the benefit of regular lessons like you did.” Or parenting, for that matter.

  “Did your mother ever move back here?”

  Though she knew what had happened after his father died, Jodie’s current interest in his life surprised him. He didn’t think she had spared him more than a passing thought after that summer. But it had been another hard day at work, and the conversation was a pleasant antidote.

  As was Jodie’s company.

  “No. She’s all over the place right now.” And a constant reminder to him of the perils of an undisciplined life.

  “And you’re not.”

  “I like Saddlebank. Always have. My dad’s family has been here for generations. I want to settle down here.”

  “You always did like it more than I did.”

  “It’s a good place. And much of the reason I decided to stay had to do with your father. He was a mentor to me. He helped me find my place in the chaos that was my life.”

  Finn added a smile, hoping his words would give her some comfort. But she looked straight ahead, her hands shoved into the pockets of her jeans as they neared the corrals, the horses whinnying a greeting.

  “So what can I do to help you?” Jodie asked, clearly not ready to talk about her father yet.

  “Why don’t you catch the first horse and bring it out here, and I’ll get my trimming equipment,” he said.

  She nodded and strode over to the hip-roof barn beside the corrals where Keith kept his tack, disappearing inside. A few moments later she stepped into the corral, carrying a halter behind her back. Finn smiled at the old trick, curious to see if it would work.

  “Hey, Roany,” she said, her voice pitched low and quiet as she approached the large mare, who watched her with curiosity. “Come to Jodie. It’s time for your long-overdue pedicure, and if you behave, you might get a carrot when it’s over. I know it’s supposed to go the other way, first the carrot then the stick, but it’s how we like to roll at the Rocking M.”

  Finn chuckled at her chatter. Jodie could always make people laugh.

  He set the large wooden carrier holding his tools by the fence where it couldn’t get kicked, and buckled on his heavy leather chaps.

  To his surprise, Jodie convinced Roany to come and was already tying up the rope halter, her movements quick and sure.

  She petted the horse, mumbled a few more nonsense words to her, then led her out of the corral, quickly moving through the gate and closing it behind her.

  “Your first customer,” she announced, leading Roany toward him. She leaned her head against the mare’s neck, rubbing it on the other side. “And you don’t need to tip him,” she said to the animal.

  As he took the halter, their hands brushed. She jerked back, startling the horse.

  “Sorry, Roany. Just a bit jumpy around you yet,” she muttered.

  But from the way she avoided his gaze, he suspected it wasn’t Roany that made her jumpy.

  Finn pushed the thought aside, focusing on the hard work that lay ahead. He tied the mare to the hitching post, then ran his hands over her as he walked around her, getting her used to his presence.

  Finally he slid his palm up and down her front leg, catching hold of the hock. To his surprise, Roany lifted her hoof.

  “Looks as if she still knows her manners,” Jodie said.

  “Here’s hoping she’s like that for all her feet,” Finn grunted. He bent over, pulled Roany’s hoof between his legs and went to work with a pick.

  “So you manage to catch up with some old friends the past few days?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

  “I didn’t have that many close friends when I visited here. Most have left Saddlebank, though I hear Keira, Heather and Lee are all back at Refuge Ranch.”

  “Yeah. Most of them are married now. Lee and his fiancée, Abby, are tying the knot this summer.”

  “Good for him. He had a rough go of it, I heard. Went to jail for something he didn’t do.”

  “He’s managed to put it behind him, though I can’t imagine how.” Finn had a hard enough time forgiving his mother for her constant absences in his life. Especially after his father died and Finn had needed her the most.

  He returned his attention to Roany.

  “You’re well behaved,”
he said to the horse.

  “She always was,” Jodie agreed. “I loved riding her.”

  “She was your horse?”

  “We spent many hours in the hills together, didn’t we, Roany?”

  The wistfulness in her voice surprised him. Keith had always given him the impression that Jodie resented coming back here.

  “Well, hopefully you can get her settled down enough that you can go riding again.”

  “I hope so, but I’m not optimistic about her life after this.” Jodie’s deep sigh made him glance up at her.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You may as well know, I asked around and heard that you have a good reputation as a horse trainer and that you seem to have no problem selling the horses you’ve worked with.”

  “Thanks for that.” He glanced up at her as he lowered Roany’s other hoof, wondering where this was going, though he had a fair idea.

  “I can’t bear the thought of these horses going to the auction market for slaughter. Would you be willing to buy them from me?”

  “Sorry, but I don’t have room at my place for more horses,” he said giving her a look of regret. “And I can’t afford to pay what they’re worth.”

  At any other time he would have loved to pick up these animals. They had great bloodlines and would give him a solid foundation for the herd he hoped to build up himself.

  “Well, would you have time to train them? Get them into shape so I could sell them? You said it shouldn’t take more than a month or two to recondition them.”

  “No more than that,” Finn said, not answering her question, unsure he wanted to think about spending any more time with her.

  He recalled that moment yesterday when, for a moment, he’d held her in his arms. He knew the loneliness dogging him since Denise’s death was part of the reason he was drawn to Jodie.

  But he also knew she held an old attraction he had to avoid.

  “I don’t think I have time,” he said. Between his job, his own horse training and the music festival coming up, he was swamped.

  “No time at all?”

  He heard the plaintiveness in her voice, but steeled himself against it as he lifted Roany’s other front hoof. “Sorry, no. I can give you the name of a few other trainers. But if you and your sisters are selling the ranch, the new owner might want the herd.” He couldn’t help but think of Vic and his verbal agreement with Keith to eventually buy the ranch. Finn knew his friend had been counting on it, but how would that play out with the terms of Keith’s will?

  “Maybe, but I don’t want to run the risk of them selling the horses for meat. I’d like to know they’re going to a good home before I leave.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you,” Finn stated as he set Roany’s foot on the stand. He began filing the hoof down, the noise of his hasp the only sound in the peaceful quiet. Jodie climbed onto the fence, watching him.

  As Finn worked, he found himself overly aware of her scrutiny. Of her presence. When he was done, she jumped off the fence.

  “You can lead her back now,” he said, taking Roany’s foot off the stand, then arching his back to get the kink out.

  He straightened as Jodie came near and untied the mare from the hitching rail, ducking under her to get to the proper side. As she did, her arm brushed against Finn’s, and once again he felt a foolish uptick in his heartbeat as attraction sparked between them.

  And he knew she felt it, too, when she glanced away, a flush creeping up her cheeks.

  Warning bells sounded in his brain. This girl was a mistake. She would be gone in a couple months.

  And he had no desire to be the one left behind again.

  * * *

  Jodie pressed a button to end her most recent call, sighing as she got out of her car, now parked on Main Street.

  She had spent most of the day phoning horse trainers and buyers. But it had all been for nothing. She had just finished talking to a horse buyer in Cody passed on to her by another trainer in Billings, whose number Finn Hicks had given her. The buyer in Cody wasn’t available to help, nor was she optimistic that Jodie would find someone to purchase the horses if they weren’t properly trained.

  When her aunt Laura called and asked to meet her at the Grill and Chill for supper, Jodie readily accepted. She felt antsy. Needed to be off the ranch for a while.

  The restaurant buzzed with conversations of the late-afternoon crowd as she stepped inside.

  “Your aunt is by the windows,” Allison Bamford, the café’s waitress, called out as she set an empty pot on the coffee machine, then grabbed an order from the kitchen and bustled away with it. Jodie shouldn’t be surprised that Allison knew who she was looking for. This was Saddlebank, the place with no secrets.

  She made her way to the table, smiling at the few people who greeted her. She got a few frowns, though, from parents of kids she used to be friends with.

  My reputation precedes me, she thought with a pang.

  It shouldn’t matter to her what the people of Saddlebank thought of her. But the unspoken censure still galled.

  “Hello, my dear,” Aunt Laura said, getting up from the table. Laura wore her usual sedate shirt, tucked into blue jeans and sensible shoes. “I’m so glad you came to town,” she added, hugging her. “I’ve been so wanting to sit and chat with you.”

  Jodie returned her hug, holding on a moment longer than necessary, overcome by a peculiar sense of homesickness. After her mother died, living with Gramma had been an exercise in tolerance on both their parts, and staying at the ranch with her father was difficult.

  But the occasional stays at Aunt Laura’s home in Saddlebank were like an oasis of homemade cookies and hot chocolate and unconditional love. Though she had no children of her own, the woman embraced her nieces and lavished on them the love they’d lost when their mother died.

  Aunt Laura pulled away, puzzlement etched on her features. “Is everything okay, sweetie?”

  “It is now,” Jodie said, waiting for her aunt to sit down before she did.

  Allison came by with coffee and menus, but Jodie knew what she wanted. “I’ll have Gord’s loaded burger with a side of onion rings,” she said.

  “You still eating that unhealthy food?” Aunt Laura said with a grimace.

  “Only when I’m in Saddlebank,” she replied. “It’s the mountain air that gives me the appetite for trans fats.”

  Laura ordered fish and vegetables, slanting Jodie a questioning look as if giving her an opportunity to change her mind.

  “I’ll stick with the fried stuff,” she said to Allison.

  “So how does it feel to be back here?” her aunt asked, leaning forward on the table when the waitress left. “Not too many bad memories?”

  “Some.” She didn’t say more than that. “But it’s over now.”

  “Now that your father is dead.” Laura sighed, then took Jodie’s hands in hers. “I know he wasn’t the best man in the world, but he was still your father.”

  “I know that,” Jodie said, interrupting her. “And that’s the thing I struggle with. How I feel about a man who was my father. I should feel sadder that he’s gone, but the truth is, I didn’t see him much after I left.”

  “I wish you could have talked to him before he died. Might have given you some closure. He spent a lot of time here toward the end, sitting at his usual table by the door, scribbling on pieces of paper.” Laura smiled at her. “Not sure what he was working on, but it kept him busy.”

  Probably various versions of the addendum to the will, Jodie thought. “It might have helped. Dad and I had a complicated relationship.”

  “I know. And I know he struggled with it.”

  Jodie bit back a response to that. “Anyhow, thanks to Dad’s will, each of us girls has to stay at the ranch two mont
hs before we can sell it,” she explained.

  “Sell?” The horrified look on her aunt’s face made her realize how blunt her words sounded. “You want to sell the ranch? It’s been in McCauley hands for two generations, and Bannisters before that. You can’t sell...” Her aunt’s voice faded away and regret lanced Jodie.

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Laura,” she said, still clinging to her hands. “But I can’t stay here forever. There’s nothing here for me. Except you, but I can still come and visit. Besides, the decision isn’t only mine. Erin and Lauren both agree.”

  “How is Erin? She didn’t come to the funeral.”

  “I’m worried about her, but she told Lauren that she’ll come when it works for her.”

  “She’s always been such a sweet, tenderhearted girl. I sure hope she’s okay.”

  So do I, thought Jodie.

  “So what has been keeping you busy at the ranch the past few days?” her aunt asked.

  Jodie quickly latched on to the change in topic. “I’ve been trying to find someone to train the animals so I can sell them as riding horses instead of them going for slaughter. I asked Finn if he could, but he said he’s busy.”

  “Really?” Her aunt tilted her head to one side. “That’s too bad. I heard he’s a good horse trainer, as well as being a good deputy. A multitalented man. Your father liked him. Didn’t you two date at one time?”

  Jodie ignored the question, choosing to concentrate on getting the perfect amount of sugar into her coffee. Finn had been the one bright spot in that horrible summer. Now they were so far apart in their individual journeys there was no way they’d have anything in common anymore.

  “Well, well, speaking of...” Aunt Laura said, looking past Jodie, her smile widening.

  “Good afternoon, Miss McCauley. Jodie.” The deep voice beside their table made Jodie jump. Her gaze tangled with a pair of hazel eyes. Finn Hicks stood by their table, still in uniform, one hand resting on a belt weighed down by hardware, the other holding his hat. The hint of a smile on his face created a silly flutter in her heart.

  Plus it didn’t hurt that the stubble shadowing his cheeks emphasized his cheekbones and the dent in his strong chin.