Fortune's Second-Chance Cowboy

by Marie Ferrarella

  A place filled with feelings.

  The very idea of having feelings for someone—those kinds of feelings—much less falling in love with that person, scared Chloe beyond words.

  And right now, she needed all her words in order to reach the four boys whose care she had been charged with. That left her no time for anything else, she silently lectured herself. No racing pulses, no pounding hearts. No sexy cowboy to cause her imagination to take flight.

  “Um, I’d better get ready for my next session,” she told Chance, backing away.

  “Who are you seeing?” he asked.

  Good. She could talk about work. There was safety in that. “Will Sherman. Hopefully, I’ll do better my first time out with him than I did with Brandon.”

  He’d asked her who she was seeing next for a reason. So he could offer her some help. It was obvious that she needed it.

  “That one’s got trust issues,” he told her. “Because his mother turned on him and beat him so badly, he’s closed down. But the good news is that he really doesn’t want to be like that. You can make a connection if you’re patient enough. Just go slow, and listen. He’ll open up eventually.”

  “Sounds like he already has,” Chloe said. “With you.”

  Chance didn’t want her thinking that he was treading on her toes. “No, I’m just good at reading signs,” he told her. And then, in an effort to make her understand, he reminded her, “I’m good with horses.” It wasn’t a boast, just a fact. “They don’t talk, either. But if you watch them closely, you get to understand what they want, what they need. Once you know that, gaining their trust is easy and inevitable. Same goes for people, too.”

  She smiled at him. He’d just summarized an entire year’s worth of studies in a few sentences. The man was a natural, she thought. He should probably be in her place.

  But there was no sense in talking herself out of a job she both wanted and needed, Chloe thought. So she simply said, “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind. Now I’d better get ready for my next session.”

  He nodded. “And that’s my cue to get out of here,” he said—just before he did.

  Chapter Seven

  The 747s in her stomach were finally down to the manageable size of normal butterflies. Maybe even small butterflies, Chloe thought.

  She’d been counseling the boys for a couple of weeks now and she was slowly getting used to it, to the routine that Sasha had instituted. After enduring rather tense initial sessions with each of the four boys, she knew what she was up against with them now. They were coming to the office for private sessions three, sometimes four times a week. More if any of them felt they needed it or if they sought a little extra guidance with something they were attempting to work out.

  Although conducting a one-on-one had been admittedly scary to her at first, Chloe decided that maybe Sasha was right after all. The four boys had plenty of time to interact with one another while they did their chores and when they spent time riding under Chance’s supervision, not to mention that they were always all together at mealtime.

  Going with the philosophy that everyone needed their own space and the idea that the boys might be more inclined to open up about something that was bothering them if they didn’t have to make a public declaration of it, Chloe continued to see each of them on an individual basis rather than meeting with them as a group.

  The two boys who had been at Peter’s Place longer were in a better place mentally than the two newer arrivals. Jonah and Ryan had had more time to work out their anger and the issues that had brought them here in the first place. Happily, they both seemed as if they had gotten back on track again after their emotional derailments had threatened to turn them into repeat offenders. Thanks in part to her and to Sasha’s joint efforts, both boys were learning how to cope with the curves that life had thrown at them and might very well throw at them again.

  None of the battles had been won yet, especially not in the individual cases of Brandon and Will, but Chloe felt that the latter two were definitely taking baby steps in the right direction. It made her proud that she could say that she was a part of their progress, slow though it might seem.

  Her own life might still need some work, Chloe thought, but at least she was helping four teens with their whole lives ahead of them work toward fulfilling their destinies. That was definitely something to be proud of, she told herself.

  * * *

  “You look pretty happy with yourself,” Chance observed the next time that their paths crossed—which unbeknownst to her was as often as Chance could make happen. Ordinarily, he would have kept to himself the way he usually did, but there was something about this woman that just seemed to burrow into him, to pull him out of the solitary state he’d learned to prefer. She made him remember another time when life hadn’t been so deadly serious. When sadness hadn’t been his constant companion.

  “Actually, I am—kind of,” she added, lest Chance think she had an ego problem, or that she was giving herself way too much credit.

  Chance read between the lines. “I take it that things are going well on your end with the boys,” he guessed. He leaned against the doorjamb to her office. “I don’t hear any of them grumbling in the corral anymore. Oh, Brandon still has a bit of an attitude problem when it comes to doing some of his chores, but even he’s toned down somewhat in the last week. So I guess whatever it is you’re doing here with them, you’re doing it right,” he told her with an encouraging grin. Then he summed it up simply. “It’s working.”

  He was being kind, she thought. This wasn’t just her doing. She really doubted that the tall, quiet cowboy was unaware of the effect that he had on the boys.

  “Thanks, but I realize that it’s a team effort. What you do with them when they’re with you is just as important when it comes to stabilizing their mental health and turning them into well-adjusted young men as what’s being said here in this room when the door’s closed.”

  Chloe couldn’t help thinking that Chance was the epitome of the strong silent type, enduring things without complaint, and that had to make a real impression on these boys, all of whom were in need of a strong father figure they could look up to and use as a role model. Even if they didn’t consciously realize it.

  Chance merely nodded, not about to argue with her about it. Arguing had always seemed like a waste of time to him.

  “If you say so. Say, are you free now?” he asked suddenly. “I don’t know what Sasha’s got you doing when you’re not counseling the boys, but I’m going to have them out in the corral, exercising their horses in a few minutes, and you’re welcomed to come out and watch. Maybe it’ll help you with their sessions later on,” he speculated. Then a rather infectious smile split his lips. “Who knows, you might even enjoy getting a little fresh air. It might get to be habit-forming,” Chance teased.

  “Are you hinting that I’m some kind of a hermit?” Chloe retorted. Was that how he saw her? The idea bothered her more than she was willing to admit.

  Chance looked perfectly serious as he elaborated. “Not a hermit, exactly. Hermits don’t interact with people. But what are those people called? You know the ones I mean,” he said, as if hunting for the correct word. “The ones who don’t go out in daylight?”

  Her eyebrows rose up so high that they all but disappeared beneath her bangs. “Vampires?” she guessed, stunned. “Are you saying I’m a vampire?”

  “Well, no, not exactly,” he said, backtracking just a little. “You definitely don’t suck blood or anything like that, but those vampires you mentioned, they’re supposed to have a thing about not going out into the daylight, don’t they?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” she informed him a little stiffly.

  “Well, I’ve heard talk,” Chance allowed, completely deadpan. But then a smile teased the corners of his mouth, bringing out the same sexy dimples i
n his cheeks, the ones that made her stare at him, dream about him, even though she told herself not to. “I’m just messing with you,” he admitted with a laugh that backed up his words. “But you are kind of pale,” he pointed out a little more seriously.

  Chloe wanted to protest, but in good conscience, she couldn’t. She knew she really was pale, especially in comparison with Chance.

  So instead, she inclined her head, conceding the point. “I guess I do stay indoors a lot.”

  “Well, there’s one way to fix that,” Chance said, reminding her of the invitation he’d just extended to her a couple of minutes ago. “Come outside to the corral and watch the boys put their horses through their paces. You might even find that you enjoy it. I kind of suspect that the boys will enjoy showing you what they’ve learned when it comes to handling horses, seeing as all of them were city kids when they came here.”

  Initially, she’d thought of Chance as being exceptionally closed-mouthed. She was going to have to reassess her original impression of the man.

  “You know, for a man who claims not to be much of a talker, you certainly do know how to sell something,” she told him with genuine admiration.

  He looked at her in all innocence, as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

  “I’m not selling anything,” he told her. “I’m just telling you the way things are. Nothing more, nothing less. If you’re interested in really joining in,” he went on, “we’ve got a real gentle mare in the stable named Mirabel. Mirabel wouldn’t hurt a fly. You can saddle her up and ride her along with the boys if you want.”

  Chloe was already vigorously shaking her head. “No, that’s okay. No riding. I’ll come out to watch the boys, but I’m just coming along as a spectator, not as a rider,” she told Chance emphatically.

  She’d succeeded in arousing his curiosity. “You ever been on a horse?”

  “This is Texas,” Chloe told him, as if that fact should be enough of an answer for him.

  But he saw what she was trying to do. Chloe was being evasive, trying to use a diversion rather than answering his question outright.

  Chance smiled at her. “I know where we are. I didn’t ask you that. I asked if you’ve ever been on a horse. A moving horse,” he specified in case she was going to pretend that she thought he meant a merry-go-round or a hobby horse of some sort.

  Chloe bristled for a moment. She didn’t like being cornered. She also didn’t like admitting to any shortcomings, and as she’d already said, this was Texas, where everyone was thought to be born on the back of a horse, or at least knowing how to ride one.

  For a second, she thought of bluffing her way through this, but then she decided that he was undoubtedly going to find out sooner or later. Better to tell Chance the truth, embarrassing though she felt it was, than be caught in a lie, which, when she came right down to it, was even more embarrassing to her.

  “My whole childhood was a hand-to-mouth existence for my late mother and me. Horseback riding was a luxury we couldn’t afford—or even have time for, actually,” Chloe told him honestly, a solemn look on her face. “I grew up in a run-down section of the city. There was no ‘horse next door,’” she quipped.

  Chance nodded, straightening. His relaxed stance was gone as his eyes met hers and he looked at her intently. For a moment, she couldn’t read his expression.

  “So then you don’t know how to ride a horse,” he concluded.

  “I thought that was what I was telling you,” she said with a touch of impatience.

  He nodded, as if he had just been given a problem to work with. Taking her elbow as he spoke, he carefully urged her toward the doorway, and then guided her out. “We’re going to have to take care of that little oversight first chance we get.”

  The last thing she wanted was to have him see her being inept at something. “I think we both have a lot more pressing things to concern ourselves with than my lack of riding skills,” she told him. They were being paid to work with the boys, not to broaden their own skills.

  “No law that says we can’t do more than just one thing,” he replied. Long ago, Chance had learned when to retreat, so for now, he did. “For starters, just come with me to watch the boys. You’ll see there’s nothing to be afraid of.” The easy smile was back as Chance told her, “Think of it as getting two birds with one stone.”

  She was keenly aware that he’d used the word afraid. Was that what he thought? That she was afraid of horses? Afraid of riding?

  “I’m not afraid of riding a horse,” she protested. “I told you, it’s just something I never got around to.”

  “If you’re not afraid, that’s good,” he pronounced. “That’s one less thing for you to overcome.”

  She’d been so focused on what he was saying—and on trying to dispel this afraid-of-her-own-shadow image he seemed to have of her—that she didn’t realize he had brought her out behind the back of the house. They’d gone past the guesthouse, where she was staying, and over to the corral.

  All four boys were already there, along with the horses whose grooming and feeding they were each charged with. Five horses were saddled and ready to be ridden, even though the boys still had their feet firmly planted on the ground.

  Jonah, who’d been there the longest and in everyone’s estimation had come along the furthest, was standing between two horses, the one he had been caring for the last few months and the one that Chance rode when he was out riding with them.

  Chance nodded at Jonah in acknowledgment, but before taking his stallion’s reins from him, he turned toward Chloe first.

  “You’ll be all right here?”

  She was surprised that he took the time to take her into consideration. “You asking me or telling me?” She couldn’t tell from his tone.

  That small smile she was growing so familiar with curved just the corners of his mouth. “Asking, mostly,” he replied.

  She didn’t see why he was concerned. For the most part, she was out of the way here. “Sure—unless you suddenly decide to all ride toward me, at which point I’ll probably be flattened.”

  Chance suppressed a wider smile as he shook his head. “Nope, no flattening. Not on the agenda today,” he told her. And then he nodded toward the fence directly behind her. “If you want, you can climb up on the fence and straddle it. You’ll get a better view that way,” he told her.

  Chloe looked over her shoulder, glancing at the fence a little uncertainly, even though she told him, “Maybe I will.”

  He caught the hesitancy and recognized it for what it was. Chloe wasn’t one for climbing, he guessed. “Need a boost?” he asked.

  Just because he asked, she was determined not to accept it. She tossed her head, sending her blond hair flying over her shoulders. “No, I can manage,” she informed him.

  But she actually couldn’t, she discovered as she attempted to climb up the fence’s slats.

  Just as she realized she was in serious danger of falling backward and not just embarrassing herself but possibly hurting herself as well, she felt a very firm hand on her backside.

  Sucking in her breath, she tried to look over her shoulder only to have Chance chide, “Steady or you’re liable to fall. I’m not getting fresh here, I’m just trying to keep you from breaking anything fairly important,” he told her. And then the next second, as he helped get her to the top, he declared with a note of triumph, “There you go. Now you’ve got a better view. Just don’t get it into your head to leave before I get back to help you down,” he warned.

  And with that, Chance headed over to the cluster of boys.

  He nodded at Jonah. “Thank you,” he said as he took the reins from the group’s oldest member. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves an audience today, boys. Show her what you’ve learned—and remember, don’t embarrass me or yourselves,” he reminded them as if that was o
ne of the rules of procedure instead of something he was just now telling them.

  “Is she going to be riding with us?” Ryan wanted to know.

  “No, Ms. Elliott’s strictly here as an observer,” Chance answered. “So, no fancy stuff—and no slacking off, either,” he told the boys. “Just nice and easy, like I showed you.” He glanced toward Brandon, who looked as if he was ready to kick the horse’s flanks and lead the others in a gallop around the corral. “Nice and easy, Brandon,” he repeated with emphasis. “This isn’t the preliminary trial for the Kentucky Derby. Remember, these are horses, not your personal toys,” he warned them. “You push your horse too hard and you’re back on stable duty—full-time. Are we clear?” he asked, looking around at the four faces before him.

  “Clear,” they all responded, their young voices blending together.

  Chance nodded. “Okay then, let’s show Ms. Elliott what you’ve learned.”

  Delighted, Chloe watched as the boys put the horses through their paces. The gaits varied from simply walking along the perimeter of the corral, to trotting to finally galloping at a moderate pace. She thought that was the end of it, but then she saw that the boys began leading their horses through several other exercises, one of which involved weaving in and out as if they were following the beat of a song that only they could hear.

  When they were finally finished, the four riders lined up next to each other and then, almost in unison, turned toward her to see if she had enjoyed the show they had put on for her.

  Chloe applauded enthusiastically. “That’s wonderful,” she told the boys.

  “I wouldn’t exactly say wonderful,” Chance told her, bringing his own horse up to where she was perched on the fence. “But at least they’ve learned to follow the rules.” He paused, looking at the four boys, who brought their mounts closer to where Chloe was sitting. “I’m talking about the boys, not the horses. The horses already knew how to follow the rules. All they needed was to have someone issue them.”