Ranch at River’s End

by Brenda Mott

  “You’re right,” Darci said. “Sorry I snapped at you.” She hung the halters on a hook inside the tack room. “I’ll let Christopher know he can come pick one out.”

  “PICK OUT WHAT?” Christopher had just stepped into the barn in time to catch Darci’s comment.

  “A puppy,” she said, then laughed as her son jumped into the air, pumping his fist in victory.

  “Yes! When, Mom? Now?”

  “I don’t know. Whenever it’s a good time for Jordan.”

  “You can come now,” he said. “Mac and I are heading home anyway.”

  “All right!” Christopher did a victory dance, and from the corner of her eye, Darci saw Michaela, who’d been petting one of the horses, give him a dark look.

  “We’ll finish up here,” Darci said, “then I’ll run Chris over to look at the puppies. He has to pack a few things to come back here anyway.”

  “All right. We’ll see you in a few. Michaela, what do you say?”

  The girl brightened. “Thank you for the riding lesson, Darci. Mrs. Sanders. I had a lot of fun.”

  “Call me Stella,” Darci’s aunt said. “And I’m glad you had a good time. I hope your dad will bring you back.”

  Michaela looked questioningly at Jordan, and he gave her a crooked grin. “Yes. We’ll be back.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a checkbook. “I’d like to reserve Michaela a spot for riding lessons.”

  Now it was his daughter’s turn to be excited.

  “That’s not necessary,” Stella said. “You can pay at the time of the lessons. I’ll get the sign-up sheet.” She ducked into the stable office and returned carrying a clipboard. She conferred with Jordan, the two consulted a calendar, and a short time later Michaela was signed up for lessons.

  “Thank you, thank you,” she said to her dad and Stella.

  “You’re welcome,” Jordan said. “Now let’s get home.”

  “See you in a little while,” Darci said. “Bye, Michaela.”

  “Bye!”

  Darci watched them walk toward the parking area. Jordan’s backside was a pleasant sight in his faded Wranglers. I hate to see him go, but I love to watch him leave. Darci owned the T-shirt, purchased from a Denver Western store.

  Now all she had to do was get the words removed from her heart.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  DARCI WOKE UP THE NEXT morning bright and early. Chris had been so excited after their trip to pick out his puppy. Michaela had possessively clung to one particular puppy she was planning to keep, but Chris hadn’t cared. He’d chosen a little blue-speckled male and had already named it Sampson. He’d chatted endlessly with Darci once they’d gotten home, marking off the days on the calendar until the puppy would be old enough to leave its mother. He’d researched pet supplies on the Internet, eager to buy a collar and leash, bowls and chew toys.

  Darci had told him to slow down, and reassured him they’d start gathering items gradually—as her budget allowed—from the local pet shop and feed store while they waited for Sampson to be weaned. Chris solemnly promised to take care of the puppy’s every need, including house breaking.

  Darci only hoped her son would take his responsibility seriously.

  Jordan was right. The puppy would be good for Christopher.

  In the kitchen now, she fixed a light breakfast of yogurt and peanut butter and honey on toast, then prepared to go out on the boat. She stepped outside in her bathrobe to see what the weather was like. Sunny and fairly warm. Darci showered and dressed in capri pants, a tank top and a light sweater.

  As an afterthought, she took a jacket, as well, in case the fickle Indian summer turned chilly again. Tomorrow was the first day of autumn, and she could sense the crispness in the air and smell the leaves beginning to turn.

  Her favorite time of year.

  A short time later, Darci slipped on her tennis shoes and sunglasses, and walked down the street to Jordan’s.

  All Michaela could talk about on the ride to the reservoir were the horses at the Shadow S and her riding lesson. “Can Jenny come out to the ranch sometime?” she asked. “She rides really well.”

  “Of course,” Darci said. “You’re more than welcome, Jenny,” she added, turning in her seat to look at the girl. “Bring your horse if you’d like, and maybe after Mac gets a little more comfortable, you two can ride in the arena together.”

  “That would be awesome,” Mac said.

  “Thanks,” Jenny added.

  Jordan parked in the dirt and gravel lot near the boat dock. He’d brought fishing poles, but Darci shook her head. “I don’t have a license yet. Sorry. I’ll have to sit this one out.”

  “It’s okay,” he joked. “We’ll catch ’em, you clean ’em.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said, laughing. “I will, however, help eat them. And I’d be glad to cook them.”

  Now Jordan laughed. “I like a woman who knows her own mind. We can work out something.”

  On the boat, Jordan made sure everyone was wearing life vests, then headed out into the water. The lake was fairly crowded, and he took them across to the opposite shore.

  Darci relished the breeze on her face, and the scent of the water—slightly mossy and fishy, but clean—as they made their way over. Belatedly she realized she hadn’t worn any sort of hat or scarf. Her hair would be a mess.

  Oh, well.

  She was here to have fun, not to win any beauty pageants.

  JORDAN STOLE A GLIMPSE at Darci as he steered the boat. She looked gorgeous—a natural beauty—with her light blond hair blowing in the wind. He only wished her pretty blue eyes weren’t covered by sunglasses.

  He dropped the fore and aft anchors once they reached their fishing spot, letting them drag and catch before cutting the boat’s motor. “Here we are,” he said. “This area is a good spot for catching trout and northern pike. Sometimes we even get a few bass. Mac and I come here often.”

  “All fish look the same to me,” Darci said. “Slimy and stinky, but good to eat.”

  Jordan chuckled. “Well, hopefully we’ll catch some dinner today.” He helped the girls bait their hooks with salmon eggs, then got his own pole ready and dropped his line into the water.

  A couple of hours later, he’d managed to catch three trout. Jenny hooked a bass, and Mac caught a trout and a northern pike. “Way to go,” Darci said. “You girls are quite the fisherwomen.”

  Michaela and Jenny grinned. “I just don’t like to take them off the hook,” Jenny said, wrinkling her nose. That job had fallen to Jordan.

  “I believe,” he said, holding the fish up by a stringer, “that someone here offered to cook and help eat these if we caught and cleaned them.”

  “You got me,” Darci said, holding up her hands in surrender. “Looks like I’m your girl.”

  He wished.

  Jordan kicked the wayward thought right out of his mind. “The galley’s all yours then,” he said.

  Darci baked the trout in the oven, wrapping them in aluminum foil along with chopped onions, bacon slices, lemon wedges and sweet basil. It took only a fork to flake the fish off the bones in juicy bites.

  Jordan had cooked fried potatoes and onions and fresh green beans with dill to go along with the trout.

  “Man, that’s good,” he said, savoring a bite of fish.

  “Your potatoes and green beans are pretty tasty, too,” Darci said.

  The girls cleaned up the galley afterward, chattering away about horses. Jordan poured iced tea for himself and Darci, and they carried their drinks up top to enjoy the view from the deck. The afternoon sun was slanting across the water, and the breeze had all but disappeared, leaving the day warm enough.

  Jordan stood with Darci at the boat’s rail, looking out over the water. “It’s been a lovely day,” she said. “I had a lot of fun.”

  “Even if you didn’t get to fish?”

  “Hey, I got to eat, and that’s half the fun right there.”

  “Only half, though. You’ll ha
ve to get a license and come out with us again.”

  What was he doing making plans with her for a future outing? He wasn’t even sure if this one had been wise. Jordan couldn’t deny the attraction he felt toward Darci, but his heart still belonged to Sandra. It probably wasn’t fair to keep seeing Darci without being up front with her about his feelings.

  “Darci, I—”

  “Jordan—”

  “You go first,” they said in unison, then laughed.

  “I wanted to thank you for inviting me here today,” Darci said. “But I can’t make a habit of it.”

  He nearly choked on his tea. Here he’d worried for nothing. “Hey, it’s no big deal,” he said. “Just two friends having a good time. Enjoying each other’s company. Nothing wrong with that, is there?”

  Was he trying to convince her, or himself?

  Damn, but he wanted to kiss her again.

  “What were you going to say?”

  “Nothing really. Just something along those same lines. That we need to draw a boundary where our relationship—friendship—is concerned.”

  He loved the way the sun played off her hair, making it look like liquid white-gold. Loved the way her nose had freckled a bit beneath the sun’s rays, since she hadn’t worn a hat. And he loved the way her eyes looked without those damned sunglasses. She’d taken them off to eat lunch, but now they were back. Hiding her blue eyes.

  “On the other hand, friends can share certain things with one another,” he said, stepping closer to her. He set his tea glass down.

  “Like what?” she asked. He couldn’t see her expression behind the glasses.

  “Like a glass of tea, or maybe some wine sometime…or maybe…” he removed her sunglasses, then took the tea from her hand and set it on the table with his own “—a kiss. What’s a kiss between friends, Darci?”

  Without giving her a chance to answer, or allowing himself to think about what he was doing, Jordan closed the short distance between them and pulled her into his arms. Reminding himself the girls were below deck, he told himself it was only a little kiss he wanted. Just a taste of those luscious lips that had been tantalizing him ever since dinner when she’d licked lemon juice off them while eating her fish.

  A kiss between friends…

  Who was he kidding?

  DARCI SUCKED IN HER BREATH and held it. Surely Jordan wasn’t going to kiss her? Not after what he’d just said about maintaining boundaries. But the minute he set down his glass of tea, she knew. And by the time he had her sunglasses off, she was beyond trying to stop him.

  She’d tried to tell herself that she wanted only friendship from this man, but the lie wasn’t working. She wanted more than that, and had ever since their first kiss. But she couldn’t because men couldn’t be trusted, not even kind, loving single fathers.

  Her own father had left her mother when Darci was only four. She could barely remember him. Then Ron had pulled his stunt, remarrying and becoming the happy-go-lucky father of twins. No, she knew better than to trust a man. And still, she let Jordan kiss her.

  He pulled her into his arms, and Darci willingly slipped her own around his neck. She groaned as he parted her lips with his tongue, tracing the line of her mouth. Slowly letting his tongue dip in to taste and tease, then dart out again as he covered her mouth completely with his. She let herself sink fully into the kiss, loving the taste of him. He tasted like sweet basil and lemon, and smelled like sunshine, warmth. He was all husky male.

  She could stay like this forever.

  “Dad, look at this saddle we found in the catalog—Dad!”

  Darci broke off the kiss as abruptly as Jordan did, her eyes snapping open to see Michaela standing before them on the deck with Jenny, holding a Western tack catalog. Both girls stared wide-eyed at them, Michaela’s gaze accusing.

  “How could you kiss her?” she shrieked. Then she turned and fled down the steps below deck.

  The look she’d given Darci could’ve melted the anchor and left them all to drift across the reservoir. Darci was pretty sure Michaela would have run much farther than below deck if there had been anywhere else for her to go. Jenny trailed after her, looking embarrassed.

  “Oh, God,” Darci said. “Jordan, I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m the one who kissed you,” he said, then headed after his daughter.

  Darci folded her arms and paced the length of the deck, half contemplating swimming to shore and hitchhiking home.

  Jenny came back up on deck, making Darci squirm even more.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Jordan wanted to talk to Mac.”

  “No problem,” Darci said. “Um. How about showing me that catalog?”

  They killed time looking through the book and making small talk while they waited for what felt like forever until Jordan finished his discussion with Michaela. When the two came back up on deck, Michaela wouldn’t even look Darci in the eye. She wondered what exactly Jordan had said to his daughter.

  “I think it’s time we call it a day.” Jordan pulled up the anchors and started the boat’s engine.

  They headed back across the reservoir in silence, and Darci felt sorry that she’d allowed Jordan to kiss her and spoil their good time. Or at least, in Mac’s eyes it was spoiled.

  Darci hated to admit it, but she had liked Jordan’s kiss—maybe a little too much. She was only sorry that it had upset the little girl.

  Back at the boat dock, Jordan secured the cabin cruiser, helped Darci and the girls gather their stuff, and loaded everything up into the SUV. He made small talk on the drive home, and Darci helped him out, trying her best to carry on a normal conversation, knowing all the while Michaela was seething in the backseat.

  They dropped Darci off at her house, and she thanked Jordan and said goodbye to the girls. Michaela barely mumbled a begrudging goodbye. Darci mouthed “I’m sorry” to Jordan before heading into her house. Inside, she went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face, then brushed her hair. The wind had snarled it into a nest of tumbled waves, and she tugged viciously at them, muttering to herself.

  “Why, why did you let him kiss you? And why did you have to like it so much?” The last thing she’d wanted to do was hurt Michaela. The death of her mother was no doubt still fresh in Michaela’s mind.

  Darci changed into jeans, traded her tennis shoes for cowboy boots and put on her hat. She needed to go for a ride to clear her head.

  “Looks like you got some sun,” Stella said as Darci entered the stables a short time later.

  “I went fishing with Jordan. Well, sort of. He and Michaela and Jenny fished. I cooked and ate.”

  “Sounds like a deal to me.”

  “You went out on their boat?” Chris asked.

  “Yep. Say, Chris, do you mind helping Uncle Leon with the evening chores? I need to talk to Aunt Stella for a minute, and then I’m going to take a short ride before we go home.”

  “Sure.” He shrugged.

  Stella waited until he was out of earshot, then sat down on the bench outside the stables. “Sounds serious. What’s up, kiddo?”

  Darci told her what had happened. “I feel so bad about upsetting Michaela,” she finished. “I can tell she’s far from ready to have someone stepping into her mother’s place.”

  “She’ll get over it,” Stella said sensibly. “She’s a kid. No kid wants their parent dating someone else. And it’s not as if you two are planning on trotting down the aisle anytime soon, are you?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Well, then let her stew. She’s not that fragile. I saw what a tough kid she is yesterday. I’m telling you, she’ll get over it. Best thing to do is ignore it and act like nothing happened.”

  “You think? I shouldn’t apologize to her?”

  “Heck no. What is it with kids today? I mean, I’m sorry for what Mac’s been through, I really am. Losing her mother and all that. But in my day, kids weren’t the bossy little mini-adults they are today. They didn’t rule the roost, the gro
wn-ups did. I think it still ought to be that way, and if you want to kiss Jordan, well, that’s your right.”

  “Wow, remind me to never tick you off.”

  “Oh, pooh, I’m not that tough. Just practical.” Stella gave Darci’s knee a firm pat. “Now come on. Get saddled up. You can take the black mare out—I call her Soot—and let me know what you think of her.”

  “She’s not spooky?”

  “A bit, but there isn’t a mean bone in her body, and she rides like a dream. Got a lope on her to die for.”

  “All right,” Darci said. “I’d love to.”

  She saddled the black quarter horse they’d bought at the horse auction, speaking soothingly to her as she tacked her up. The mare shied a little when Darci brought up the saddle, stepping sideways, but calmed when Darci soothed her with a word and a touch, lowering the saddle gently onto her back. Soot stood, blinking her eyes in relaxed contentment as Darci cinched the saddle up.

  She had a little trouble with the bridle since Soot didn’t want to take the bit. The mare was ear shy, too. Guaranteed, some idiot—namely the one who’d abused her—had twitched her ears more than once, a method of controlling a horse that Darci despised. A person would grab the horse’s ear and twist it, forcing the horse into submission. It made the animal head shy, and the mare was no exception.

  Darci took her time, slipping the headstall on as gently as she could. Once she was in the saddle and headed down the trail, Soot relaxed and eased into a trot and then a gentle lope. Stella was right—the mare’s lope was like sitting in a rocking chair. Darci let the mare lope for some distance, then walked her, enjoying the last of the fading sunlight.

  By the time she got back to the ranch an hour later, she felt much better, her mind cleared, her body relaxed. Stella was right. Michaela had overreacted to the kiss, and so had Darci. Like Jordan said, what was a kiss between friends?

  Uh-huh.

  JORDAN FELT LIKE HELL for upsetting his daughter. But at the same time, he wasn’t sorry he’d kissed Darci. Now that things were out in the open and he’d been up front with her, he was prepared to simply enjoy her company. And Michaela was going to have to accept that.