“I’m probably speaking out of turn here,” Quick Draw said, “but I’m sure our producer won’t mind. Any chance I can get you to come by the station’s booth at the rodeo next week? We’d love to have you do a spot with us. Maybe give a little color commentary on the contestants.”
“Sure. Sounds like fun.”
Quick Draw beamed. “We’ll see you then.” Handing the microphone back to the techie, he said to Aaron, “Let’s talk after the dinner,” in a much more serious voice, then moved on to the next table.
Natalie tried to turn the stroller to the right, but the front wheel was caught on something and refused to budge. When jiggling the stroller didn’t free the wheel, she knelt for a closer look. Shiloh perked up and started gurgling.
“Hey, sweetie. How are you doing?”
The crowd moved ahead, leaving them behind. Natalie discovered a small rock wedged between the wheel and a bottom rod. It took several seconds to dislodge it.
“There.” She tossed it aside.
Shiloh’s gurgling grew louder, and her eyes widened.
“I’m happy, too.” Natalie stood…and discovered Aaron had come around from the table. She nearly knocked him over. “Oh!”
“Everything okay?”
“Just a rock caught in the wheel.” Her heart skipped. She hadn’t been this close to him since that day on the porch when he’d quieted Shiloh’s crying with a lullaby. “I, uh, got it.”
He tipped his head in the direction of Quick Draw. “Better hurry if you want to catch up.”
“Yeah.” Only she wasn’t hurrying. The sparks in his eyes interfered with her brain’s ability to control her limbs.
Sparks? Yes, definitely. And aimed at her.
Natalie let out a long, slow and quite uneven breath. What, if anything, should she do now?
THE HORSESHOE SAILED through the air and landed in the dirt with one prong touching the stake. Spectators whooped and clapped.
“Where’d you learn to pitch like that?” Aaron asked Skunk.
He shrugged and held up two fingers to the scorekeeper sitting in a lawn chair on the sidelines.
One thing about Skunk; he’d perfected the art of silent communication. Aaron couldn’t recall him saying one word in their entire three-week acquaintance.
They stepped back from the horseshoe pit and watched the first of their two opponents pitch. The horseshoe landed too far from the stake to count. Good. Aaron and Skunk were ahead but only by a point. They couldn’t make any mistakes in the next few pitches or they’d risk losing.
Aaron bent and retrieved the horseshoe from the ground in front of him. Hefting it in his hand until the weight felt comfortable, he took his position behind the line. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Natalie. She stood at the edge of the crowd, arms resting on the stroller handle and watching him. Just like she’d watched him during the chili cook-off. He’d watched her, too. Every second his mind wasn’t otherwise occupied. Which reminded him…
Swinging his arm back and forth, Aaron took careful aim. The horseshoe connected with the stake, spun twice and fell into the dirt. Aaron grinned. That was his best shot of the tournament, bar none.
“Foul,” Jake hollered from the sidelines and slashed the air with his hand. “You stepped outside the pitching pad.”
“No way!” It was one of the spectators who objected, not Aaron. The rowdy fan was joined by several of his buddies. “His feet never moved.”
“No score,” Jake reiterated.
Skunk’s angry scowl demanded to know if Aaron was going to take that bogus call lying down.
“He’s the judge.” Aaron learned long ago not to dispute officials no matter how angry he got. It hadn’t gained him anything in the rodeo ring and wouldn’t here today either. “We can still win this.”
Jake was judging the team horseshoe tournament only because he’d lost the singles one. The winner was a seventeen-year-old girl from Phoenix whose low-waisted shorts and skimpy top revealed a jeweled belly-button ring. Aaron didn’t blame Jake for taking the loss hard. He would have, too. But dang if the girl didn’t pitch a mean game of horseshoes.
Aaron and Skunk’s opponent took his turn. The crowd increased in size during the last minutes. With the score tied going into the final inning, tension mounted. Skunk threw a ringer just when he and Aaron needed it the most. Teresa called out to him, and Skunk surprised Aaron by smiling shyly.
Their opponents crumbled under the pressure. One overshot his pitch, the other undershot his. Which was fortunate because Aaron didn’t pitch so well himself. It was enough, however, to win them the tournament. Their opponents came over to offer their congratulations.
Jake slipped away. It was then Aaron happened to notice Jake’s former wife, Ellen, among the crowd. She clung to the arm of a man Aaron didn’t recognize. For the first time ever, he felt a little sorry for Jake.
Teresa burst through the cheering crowd and charged them, shouting, “You won, you won.” At nearly six feet tall, she was a sight to behold and not a little intimidating. Reaching them, she picked up Skunk, who weighed a good thirty pounds less than her, and squeezed him to her. “Boy, you were seriously hot out there.”
“Wanna have supper with me?” he asked when she put him down.
“Hell, yes!”
Aaron stared in amazement, not sure which stunned him more. Skunk uttering an entire sentence or his and Teresa’s apparent budding romance.
“Congratulations.” Natalie stood behind him. He’d been too preoccupied to noticed her approach.
“Thanks,” he murmured, momentarily at a loss for words. Late-afternoon sunlight glinted off her blond curls and turned her blue eyes a striking shade of aqua. Perhaps because of the guests visiting the ranch, she’d dressed up. Slim-fitting black pants took the place of baggy blue jeans, and the rounded neckline of her embroidered blouse revealed a smooth expanse of freckle-kissed skin.
“Want to have dinner with me?” He spoke without thinking. Well, the line had worked for Skunk.
“I…um…can’t.” She hesitated then admitted, “Jake invited me to sit with him and Quick Draw McGraw. And since I’m handing out the plaques…” She didn’t finish her sentence.
“Another time maybe?”
“Absolutely.” She pushed the stroller ahead a couple of feet then stopped. “I’ll see you at the awards ceremony.” The smile she flashed him was warm and bright and so incredibly sweet. Not the one she reserved for guests.
Aaron felt a sharp pain in his chest. He didn’t worry, for he knew what caused it. After two years of near inactivity, his damaged heart was beating strong again.
EVEN THOUGH NATALIE declined Aaron’s dinner invitation, he wound up eating with her after all. It was Quick Draw who’d insisted and then monopolized most of the conversation. He was apparently quite serious about Aaron joining the KRDS Radio team during their three-day live broadcast from the Payson Rodeo. And Aaron was apparently quite serious about joining them.
Jake sat quietly during most of dinner. Natalie was probably the only one at the table who knew the real reason for his silence, which had nothing to do with Aaron, a slip of a girl breaking his four-year winning streak at horseshoes, or the ranch. His ex-wife had unexpectedly shown up at the opening-day celebration with her new boyfriend. And though Jake pretended differently, he was suffering.
He and Natalie excused themselves before dessert was served in order to get ready for the awards ceremony. Alice helped Natalie set up the podium and microphone. Within minutes, they were ready. While Jake gave a small speech, Natalie conducted a last-minute check on the plaques she and her mother had made.
Her hand paused briefly on the one for Aaron. She was glad he’d won the team-horseshoe tournament. Jake had been wrong to call that one shot of Aaron’s a foul. Wrong to take his anger at his ex-wife, understandable as it may be, out on Aaron.
At the end of his short speech, Jake motioned for Natalie to bring the plaques and called Quick Draw up to the podium
to announce the winner of the chili cook-off.
“Whooo, wheee,” Quick Draw said into the microphone, his clownish grin stretching from ear to ear. “We sure have tasted some mighty fine chili today. Haven’t we, folks?”
Applause for the contestants followed.
While the DJ joked for several minutes, imparting some of the more amusing anecdotes from the taste testing that afternoon, Carolina snapped pictures. One or two were bound to wind up in the photo albums kept at Founders Cabin.
“Well, let’s end the suspense, shall we?” Quick Draw said. “And announce the winner.” He pulled a tiny slip of paper from his shirt pocket and unfolded it. “I’m probably going to butcher this name so please excuse me.”
Natalie knew then Aaron hadn’t won, and her eyes sought his. He obviously knew, too, from the look on his face, though he didn’t appear upset or disappointed. He clapped enthusiastically when Quick Draw called the winner’s name. As promised, he butchered it.
The woman who won gave a little gasp when she leaped from her seat and dashed up the center aisle to collect her plaque. She hugged Quick Draw and Natalie and gushed when she shared the secret of her recipe with the audience.
Quick Draw resumed his seat, and Jake took over. There were eight awards in total, and the presentations went quickly. Jake was decent to the young girl who bested him at horseshoes, shaking her hand and complimenting her on her game. But when someone from the back of the room ribbed him, his smiled thinned.
The last award was for team horseshoes.
“And the winners are Skunk Studemeyer and Aaron Reyes.”
“Yeah, baby.” Teresa cheered wildly from her table. “You rock.”
Natalie had seen some interesting romances between coworkers during her years at the ranch. Skunk and Teresa’s rated as one of the more unexpected ones.
He collected his plaque first. “Good going, Skunk,” Natalie told him.
A grunt and curt nod were his only reply. He didn’t appear to want a hug, so she didn’t offer him one.
Aaron was a different matter. She no sooner handed him his plaque than he swooped her up in his arms.
Natalie’s breath caught. Held.
Lack of oxygen must have affected her brain, for she did the unthinkable. She looped her arms around his neck. His hold tightened ever so slightly. One hand came to rest on the small of her back.
“Let go of her,” Jake said, his voice low and lethal.
Natalie instantly stiffened and tried to pull away.
Aaron wouldn’t let her go.
“Reyes,” Jake warned, his tone forceful. He’d stepped away from the podium and had his back to the tables.
She withdrew far enough to look into Aaron’s face. His eyes were so dark they appeared almost black. Another time, under different circumstances, she’d have gotten lost in their depths. “Please.”
“For you,” he whispered and released her. “Not him.”
Natalie was glad he cooperated. She didn’t want to give Jake another reason to dislike Aaron.
Though it seemed much longer, the whole incident had probably taken a mere ten or fifteen seconds. Mustering her courage, she glanced at the audience. A few people stared at them with any curiosity. Among them were her father, Millie, Carolina and Skunk, who still stood to the side of the podium.
Great.
Aaron and Skunk returned to their seats. Jake closed the awards ceremony with an invitation for everyone to return to the ranch another day and enjoy the new amenities. He wore his game face and acted as if nothing was the matter. Not that she’d have expected anything else from him.
“Everyone stay. There’s plenty of dessert and coffee left over,” he announced before leaving the podium to visit with the remaining guests.
Natalie avoided Aaron. If her presence weren’t mandatory, she’d collect Shiloh from her mother and go home. She also avoided Jake. Not because she feared talking to him. If he did say anything to her about Aaron’s hug, it wouldn’t be here or tonight. But he had a way of making a person feel three inches tall with just a look, and she had no wish to be on the receiving end of that look. Not until she had a chance to figure out what exactly transpired between her and Aaron and what she intended to do about it.
Nightfall had come and gone by the time the last guest left the dining hall. The kitchen crew emerged in full force to finish cleaning and rearrange the tables. Natalie’s parents helped pack away the few items remaining from the awards ceremony then decided to head home with Shiloh. Jake had also left sometime earlier. Aaron before him.
Alice said little while she worked. She either hadn’t observed the subtle goings between Natalie and Aaron or was too tired to care.
“You did a good job,” Natalie told her when they were done with everything. “The chili cook-off was a real success.”
“Thanks.” Alice’s smile, though weary, was friendly.
Natalie decided her coworker wasn’t so bad after all. “I’ll finish up. Why don’t you call it quits.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Get out of here.”
A minute later, Natalie was alone. Ten minutes later, she’d carted the last box to the storage closet and was heading out the door. Cool, crisp air greeted her as she walked onto the porch, and she fastened the top button on her jacket. At the top of the steps, a voice stopped her.
It was Aaron’s. He stood by a wicker rocker. “Can I walk you home?”
“Ah…that’s all right. I have the golf cart. But thank you anyway.”
He took a step toward her. “Then maybe you can give me a ride home.”
Natalie’s gaze traveled to his arms. She remembered the sensation of them closing around her, how strong they were, how nice they felt.
“I…um…” When had she become a tongue-tied teenager? Pulling herself together, she said, “Sure,” with only a faint trace of breathlessness. She could hardly say no. He was one of the owners.
“Leave her the hell alone!”
Natalie spun around at the unexpected intrusion.
Jake stood at the foot of the porch steps, his form a black silhouette against the distant glow from the parking-lot lights.
Chapter Eight
“You heard me, Reyes,” Jake said, climbing the porch steps two at a time. “Leave Natalie alone.”
“In the first place, I’m not bothering her.” Aaron emerged from beneath the shadows cast by the overhanging eaves. “In the second place, you’re not in charge of her. Not where I’m concerned.”
Natalie felt as if she were standing in the middle of a lonely railroad track with two locomotives approaching from opposite directions. A crash was inevitable and if she didn’t do something quickly, she’d be at the center of it.
“Why don’t I drop the both of you off.” Wrong thing to say. The instant the words were out, Natalie wished she could retract them. Jake had stopped living on the ranch a while ago, something she frequently forgot. He obviously didn’t appreciate the reminder. “At your car,” she amended.
“No, thanks.” He came onto the porch and into the light. Gone was the game face from earlier. He was furious and anyone looking at him would know it. “I’ll take you home. Reyes can walk.”
“And leave her without transportation in the morning?” Aaron reclined against the porch railing and hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “That’s not very fair of you.” His casual stance fooled no one. Beneath his calm exterior, a raging storm brewed.
“Jake, I’m sorry,” Natalie said. The locomotives were gaining speed, and she had yet to get off the tracks. “It was my fault. I gave all the win—”
“Why are you apologizing?” Aaron demanded. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No, you did.” Jake leveled a finger at him.
Natalie supposed she should be grateful it wasn’t a fist.
“Exactly what did I do?” Aaron unhooked his thumbs. His eyes never left Jake.
“You had your hands all over her.�
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“I hugged her.”
“You practically molested her in front of everyone there.” Jake advanced.
“He didn’t,” Natalie pleaded. “Really.”
Jake stopped short, shook his head and laughed bitterly. “I can’t believe you’re defending him.”
“Nothing happened.” And nothing had. Except in her overactive imagination.
“If I didn’t know better,” Aaron said, “I’d think you were jealous.”
Jake’s stare went from ice cold to red hot. “Natalie is an employee of this ranch. I don’t have personal relationships with the employees. I recommend you adhere to the same practice.”
She shouldn’t let what he said hurt her. But it did. She’d always considered herself a friend. Not just another one of the workers, the majority of whom came and went with each new season.
She caught Aaron studying her and quickly turned away.
“You’re an even bigger fool than I thought,” he told Jake. “Hailey was right about you.”
Jake let loose a ripe expletive and started toward Aaron. “Don’t you dare bring my sister into this!”
In response, Aaron pushed off the column and came at Jake. “I’ll bring my wife into it any damn time I please.”
Scant seconds separated the locomotives from their impending collision. Natalie had only one chance to avert certain disaster. Putting herself directly between the two men, she held up her hands and shouted, “Enough!”
They obediently halted. Surprise showed in Jake’s eyes. Respect in Aaron’s.
She released the breath that had lodged in her throat. Raising her voice wasn’t something Natalie did and certainly not to her boss.
“I have never had an inappropriate relationship with anyone on this ranch,” she said, feeling less in control than she sounded. “Family members or otherwise. And just to set the record straight—” her gaze alternated between Aaron and Jake “—I don’t intend to.”
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