The Convenient Cowboy

by Ann B. Harrison

  “Which was?”

  “That he was taking the ranch off her. He threw a will on the table that apparently leaves it to him.”

  “What!” Jethro jumped up from his perch, spilling his beer, and stared at him. “How the heck did that happen? I thought Sadie wrote up that will.”

  “She did, but this one was from Bradley’s grandmother who left him the place. It was dated a month after the original and it leaves it all to her son-in-law, which is Bradley’s father, not Bradley. So technically, according to him, Joy doesn’t own the ranch and she didn’t need to marry me.”

  And that should give his brother more to think about than how he wronged the poor girl.

  “Still.” Crease rubbed his hand over his chin. “Kind of comes across as you being a bit of a gold digger, least ways, that’s what they’ll say in town. Folks won’t think you’ve changed at all. Still the same old player out for what you can get.”

  “Who cares what the gossipmongers say? This is about me and Joy and what’s best for us.” How could Crease even think like that? Sure, he was pissed because he wasn’t told before the wedding, but heck, some support would be nice. “Thought you would’ve been on my side.”

  “It’s not about sides, Nate. It’s about what’s right and wrong. You’re too damned stubborn once you get your mind set on something. Reckon there’d be a better way than this.”

  “Well, if there was, I couldn’t see it. Nor could Joy, otherwise she would’ve done it by now.” He took a slug of beer. “What I did think though was that I’d get better support from my family. If I can’t count on you guys to support me, who can I count on?”

  “Don’t go getting all dramatic on me. You can count on us. Just not sure I like what you’re doing. Doesn’t feel right.”

  *

  “What did you say to Crease to make him calm down?” Nate and Joy lay together in their bed, discussing their visit with the family.

  “The truth. He’s a romantic at heart. The kind of guy who’ll bring you flowers every day and love you to death.” He folded his arms behind his head and smiled, showing the dimples that made her weak at the knees. “Bit much for some, I guess, but I’m pretty sure he’ll find the ‘one’ sooner or later.”

  “I think he’s sweet. Sadie told me a little bit about him too. Nothing wrong with a quiet, sensitive man.”

  Nate laughed. “We used to tease him mercilessly when he was growing up. Bit mean, but that’s what brothers do.”

  Joy looked at the cracks in the painted ceiling. If her sister was as loving, she’d be more than happy. But Cassie had always had a chip on her shoulder. Decided the world owed her a living from the minute she took her first breath. Even though she was the younger of the two girls, she had to be the first one to have a new dress, a bicycle, and as she grew older, the cutest boyfriend, the wildest friends.

  When their parents died, Joy had tried her best to talk sense into Cassie, but it didn’t seem to work. Regardless of being the younger sister, she was bitter that Joy had married first, fallen pregnant first, and nothing Joy said could change her ways. Cassie always had to be first in everything.

  “You’re so lucky to have brothers you can talk to.”

  “I am. They used to annoy the living heck out of me, but we always had each other’s backs. Fought like crazy, but if anyone got in between us or caused a ruckus, we’d band together.”

  “Tell me more about Crease.”

  The smile deepened and a small dimple appeared on his cheek. Joy itched to run her finger over it, test out her reaction to Nate.

  “Mom named him after one of her favorite characters, Sir Crease Knightly or some such weird name. It was so long ago I don’t rightly remember. Mom was an avid reader, loved her Regency romance books. I guess if it made her forget her own crappy marriage, it did the job. Right?”

  “Yeah.” Joy reached out and swept a strand of dark hair from his face, noticed the flicker of his eyelashes.

  Nate turned and smiled at her. “She was happy anyway. Had us boys, and Grandpa took us all in. Me and Jethro gave him hell, and he had no idea what to do with a toddler. But we all managed to get along as best we could.”

  “You did, and you’ve all turned out to be great men from what I can see. I bet your mom would be proud of you, Nate. Not many men are willing to take on another man’s child like you did. Regardless of what you may gain in the process.”

  “I reckon they would.” He seemed embarrassed by her praise.

  “No, they wouldn’t. Maybe marry me and put up with Toby, but you’ve fallen in love with him. You know you have.” And for Joy, that was the best thing to come out of this marriage so far. Toby had a man who cared for him at last.

  She ran her finger along his jawline, determined to find out if she could move on from the guilt she felt taking another man into her husband’s bed.

  “You’re playing with fire, Joy.” Nate blinked, his pupils darkening as she slid closer.

  Her pulse jumped and she swallowed. “I know.” She rose up on her elbows and leaned over Nate. He closed his eyes as she lowered her lips to his. Arms held her to his chest, and he spread his legs to settle her between them, his boxer shorts and her sleepwear the only thing between them.

  Nate’s fingers wound into her hair, holding her face still while he devoured her lips. His tongue slid between her teeth, tasted and danced with hers. Heat rose in her belly and Joy sighed, sinking into the moment. This is what she’d wanted from the moment she opened the door to him. What she craved, almost as much as saving the ranch.

  Nate slid one hand down her back and under her top, brushing her breast. Her body reacted, nipples standing to attention.

  “Joy, are you sure?”

  “Yes.” The word sounded raspy to her ears. Maybe it was the heat of the moment or the passion that made her answer sound far away.

  Nate slid his hand down the side of her belly, sending shivers to her toes. His fingers found the elastic of her shorts and brushed past it, cupping her butt and holding her firm against him. His cock twitched against her stomach, and Joy panicked.

  “No. Don’t.” She rolled off Nate, staggered to her feet, and pushed herself against the bedroom wall. “Oh, my God. Nate, I’m sorry.” How could she want another man already? Hadn’t she told him only days ago that she didn’t trust him? Nate was a player, a ladies’ man.

  He sat up, reached for her. “What is it? Tell me what’s wrong.”

  She held her hand to her throat, trying to untangle her emotions.

  Nate crouched on the bed, hand held out to her. “You’ve got cold feet, Joy. Nothing more and it’s understandable.” He wiggled his fingers. “Come here. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want. Just lay here with me and talk, okay?” The come-to-bed grin belied his words. She was playing with fire.

  “It’s not fair to you. I’m leading you on in more ways than one.”

  “Stop beating yourself up. You’ve been through hell lately and it’s bound to leave you a mess emotionally. I get it, honestly, I do.” He sat back, dropped his hand, and gave her a soft smile that almost made her believe him. “I might look like I don’t understand how a woman’s emotions work, but I watched what my mom went through. And goodness knows, Grandpa talked about her troubles enough in the hopes that we’d be more understanding. Guess it didn’t really make sense back then but now I get it.”

  “Really?” This guy became more and more worthy every day in her book.

  “Yeah. So if you want to come back to bed and pretend that never happened, it’s cool with me. We don’t have to do anything until you’re ready.”

  “But don’t you want to, you know, have sex with me?” What a fool question to ask. With the way his shorts tented out still that was the stupidest thing she could’ve said.

  “Of course I do, but I’m not going to force myself on you. When you’re ready, we can try again, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll wait a bit longer.”

  Joy crawled back on the b
ed and lay down beside Nate. She’d made Nate a promise after all. And she never went back on a promise. It was up to her to follow through.

  And so this weekend, when she would finally look at him and not see Bradley’s head laying on the pillow, Joy would have sex with Nate.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Word has it that Ryan pressured his mother-in-law to change her will in his favor.”

  Joy held the phone to her ear, her mouth open as Sadie relayed what she’d heard. “But that’s despicable. How can anyone get away with that kind of behavior?”

  “That’s not going to happen here if I have anything to do with it. Emily backs up that behavior too. Remember she said he was the schoolyard bully? She’s not the only one saying that. The problem we have now is, do we have to prove it? I don’t like it. The will you have was legally executed at the time, and nobody came up with anything then, so I don’t really understand what his game is. But if that will is legit, and it looks like it is, we have a fight on our hands.”

  Her stomach dropped. “I don’t know what to say. I have no idea what he has on me.”

  “I know this is a shock to you and I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t let you have the facts.”

  “I understand. I don’t know how to fix this, Sadie. Can he really take everything away from us?”

  “I don’t know. The judge may even refuse to hear a case from us if it doesn’t have any merit. Mr. Mitchell contesting the will might well be an open and shut case. What we need is someone who actually saw him bullying Bradley’s grandmother. Someone with credence like a doctor or her pastor. Someone with standing in the community and not attached to you who can tell the judge how he pressured her to leave the ranch to him. Her own words would be perfect, but unless she left something in writing, I don’t know what our chances are yet.”

  “I don’t know what to do.”

  “I want you to think, Joy. Does Bradley have any old letters from his grandmother telling him she was leaving him the ranch? Anything you can get your hands on that shows it was always her intention to leave the ranch to Bradley will help. Birthday cards, Christmas cards. Anything that mentions her motivation to not leave the place to Ryan. To give you a chance of holding on to your ranch, we need to prove that this new will was coerced.”

  “I’ll have a look, but I don’t recall seeing anything. I mean, Bradley was always talking about it in high school, how the ranch was going to be his because his grandmother wasn’t going to leave it to his father. He never actually said why though. Least not to me.”

  “Did he keep a journal?”

  “No. Nothing like that.” It would make things so much easier if he had, but Bradley had never been one to write down his thoughts unless it was something to do with the way he wanted to run the ranch. His ranching magazines were filled with notes. She hadn’t the heart to throw them away.

  “Oh, well, we can only hope that someone can corroborate what Emily said. Someone the judge will believe. But I have to warn you, Joy, things are going to get nasty. Everything you’ve ever done could go under the microscope.”

  “I’ve got nothing to hide.” Being poor didn’t count as points against someone in a court of law.

  “And I wouldn’t be surprised if they dig into Nate’s affairs either. Anything to make the pair of you look as though you’re the type to rob a man of his mother-in-law’s property.”

  Surely there was nothing in Nate’s past that would make the judge look at them the wrong way. His bad reputation wasn’t that bad, not really. He never robbed anyone or caused serious damage to property. Anyone he got in a fight with gave as good as they got from what she understood.

  “Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do.” She’d tear apart the house if it was going to save the ranch Bradley intended her and Toby to have. “Thanks, Sadie. I’ll get back to you.” Joy hung up the phone.

  *

  Nate heaved a sack of feed onto his shoulder and headed toward his truck to throw it in with the rest of his purchases.

  “Must be nice marrying into something like you got.”

  Nate dumped the feed and turned to the voice. A cowboy stood watching him, hands on hips and a belligerent glare in his eyes. He was going to meet up with one of the Mitchell boys sooner or later. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why they were so different from their brother, Bradley.

  “Leroy.”

  “Pa told me what you done. Marrying Joy wasn’t the smartest move, but then”—he spat on the ground—“didn’t expect nothing more from one of you Hansens.”

  Nate counted to ten and plastered a smile on his face. “What Joy and I did is no concern of yours. Now if there’s nothing else, I have places to be.”

  Leroy shook out his hands, flexed his fingers. “Don’t think you’re gonna step away from me, Nate. You’ve teamed up with my sister-in-law hoping to get your grubby little hands on something that rightly belongs to my pa. Never should’ve gone to Bradley, rest his soul, in the first place. Ain’t how it works. Belonged to my ma’s mom, so it shoulda come to Pa when she died.”

  Nate sighed. “Leroy, I wasn’t privy to the workings of your grandmother’s mind, and I don’t really care how your family dynamics work. It’s not my business, but what happened, happened. Let the lawyers sort it out. That’s what they’re there for.”

  “I can do things they can’t. Like take you out back and give you a hiding.” Leroy adjusted his hat and nodded to the back of the feed barn. “Unless I can convince you to walk away and end this sham of a marriage?”

  “Not gonna happen, Leroy. I married Joy for a reason, and I’m going to stick by her side. A deal is a deal and it’ll take more than a little pissant like you to change my mind.”

  “Things would’ve gone a lot better for her if’n you’d stayed outta the way. You know that, right?”

  “And you thought it was funny sending me there in the first place?” Nate shook his head. “Like your father trying to force her off the farm with insults and stealing her ranch hands. Don’t you think it’s wrong to harass your sister-in-law like this? Man, she’s your brother’s wife, the mother of your nephew. Even if you don’t get along with her, how can you condone the treatment she’s been getting?”

  “We get on just fine, but that’s not what’s at stake here. That ranch rightly belongs to my pa, and if he wanted to leave it to Bradley when he passed on, that’s his business. Far as we’re concerned, Joy has no call on it. Least ways, not yet.”

  Nate wiped a hand over his face. Last thing he wanted to do was get into a fight, but Leroy wasn’t looking like he was going to back down. “Leave it to the courts. They can decide if that will is genuine and who should have the ranch. No need for you and me to go head-to-head. Joy needs me back at the ranch, so if you don’t mind.”

  Leroy made a threatening step toward him. “Genuine? Are you calling my father a liar?”

  Nate planted his feet and stared. “Seems strange to me this will suddenly turned up after your pa chased away the ranch hands and Joy married me as a last resort, don’t you think? Kind of smacks of underhand dealings in my book.”

  “That’s not the case. That will is the real deal. Pa tried to let Joy be and grieve my brother’s passing. Even tried to help her out, but, oh no. She didn’t want no help from him. Wanted to do everything on her own when she could’ve had us to help her. That’s what family is for, don’t you think? Kept hiring the dumbest hands that didn’t know a cow from a steer and messing up what Bradley worked so hard for. Woman was just plain stubborn.”

  “Not what I heard. Said he stole her workers so she wouldn’t have any choice but to let him take over. Doesn’t sound like helping to me. Sounds like he was trying to force her off the ranch so he could take it, and when that didn’t work, he suddenly comes up with a new will. Who would you believe?” His anger choked his words.

  “Out back, now, or I’ll take you on where you stand!”

  Nate brushed by Leroy
and stormed out the back of the feed store, ready to stand up for his wife and her son. He walked straight into a flying fist that hooked him as soon as he made it around the corner. The dirty cheat had someone else waiting to help him.

  Nate went into fighting mode.

  Punches flew with the curses as frustration, foul play, and the fight to save his new life ruled Nate Hansen’s fists.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Joy, this is Sheriff Watson. I think you should come into town. You and I need to have a talk.”

  Her heart almost stopped. “What’s happened? Is it Cassie, is my sister okay?”

  “She’s not the reason I’m calling. I have your husband here. Busted up a fight between him and your brothers-in-law at the feed barn. They claim he started into them for no reason and want to press charges. He’s not saying anything, so I haven’t charged anyone yet. Want to give them all a chance to come up with the truth, if that’s even possible.”

  Apprehension rolled down her back. Leroy and Nash had never been anything but nice to her, if not a little standoffish, even with the way their father treated her. Why would they take on Nate when he hadn’t done anything to them? This wasn’t good if Nate had gone back to his old ways already.

  “I’ll be there soon, Sheriff.”

  Joy collected Toby and headed into town to make sense of what was fast turning into a rotten day. When she asked for Sheriff Watson, she was told to sit and wait while he was on a call.

  Moments later, Ryan stormed into the sheriff’s office and demanded to see whoever was in charge. With a whimper, Toby tucked his face into her body, his fear of his grandfather in this mood palpable. How had things gotten to the stage where a little boy was scared of the man he should’ve looked up to? Her world was a mess and Joy had no idea how to repair it.