“You familiar with the saying ‘going postal’?”
Lacy nodded.
“Well, much more of your singing and the sheriff would have done just that.” His husky laughter filled the barn.
Lacy reached out to give his arm a playful smack. “You’re so mean.”
He responded with a toothy grin. “And don’t you forget it.”
This had to be the side of Cade that Karen had fallen in love with. The playful, sexy, easygoing manner he was exuding now. If only he could stay that way for the next week or two. Pushing a strand of hair from her face, she tucked it behind her ear as she looked up at him. “What should I do now?”
“First...” he said, swiping the pad of his thumb slowly along her cheek.
She froze. Was he about to kiss her again? She closed her eyes and waited.
“You might want to wipe this streak of dirt from your face,” he said as his hand fell away.
Her eyes popped open. “What?”
“You had dirt on your cheek.”
“Oh.” And if it had been on her lips?
“Now that we’re done here, come with me. I’m going to teach you a thing or two about ranching.”
She followed him through the barn.
“We always keep our bulls separated from the cows.”
“Why?”
“Because if you put more than one bull in with a herd of cows the bulls will go at each other. If there are no cows in the pasture, the bulls can stay together.”
“I see.”
He walked her outside and pointed toward a group of animals gathered beneath a large cottonwood in a separate fenced off area. “Those are cows.”
“I think I know what a cow looks like,” she said, laughing.
He grinned. “Well, for future reference, they’re a lot friendlier than bulls.” He took her hand, much to Lacy’s surprise, and led her further down the fence line. “This time of year nearly all of them have calves. Can you see them over there?” he asked, still holding her hand.
She had the urge to look down at their twined fingers, but forced herself not to. If she did, Cade might realize that he was touching her and pull away. “They’re adorable.”
“For a cow.” Cade smiled. Releasing her hand, he stepped up to the fence and propped a booted foot atop the bottom rung.
Her cheeks warmed and it had nothing to do with what Cade had said. And everything to do with the sight of him standing there, tight jeans encasing long, muscular legs and a backside that would tempt even the stoutest of virgins.
She considered telling Cade he had no right to criticize her choice of clothes. Did he have any idea what seeing a man like him in tight fitting jeans did to a woman? And if they were snug on the backside, she could only imagine...
Cade chose that moment to turn around and she gasped, guiltily lowering her gaze to the ground at her feet.
“Something wrong?”
“No,” she blurted out a bit too quickly, forcing her gaze back up to his face. “I, uh...was just wondering if I could pet your calves.”
Cade raised a questioning brow, a grin splitting his face. “You want to pet my calves?”
“I’d like to.” Then it dawned on her why he was looking at her that way. “Those calves,” she clarified. “The ones out there with their mothers.” She pointed toward the field.
He chuckled. “I knew what you meant, Dalton. Just having a little fun with you. And I think it would be best for us to stay away from them. Their mommas can be sort of funny about that. Reckon you’ll have to settle for paying attention to Domino instead.”
“Domino?”
“Burk’s mutt,” he replied with a grin. “Homeliest thing I ever saw, but he grows on you.”
She smiled. “I think we’ve already met.”
“You can see to feeding him every day along with taking care of the horses.”
“I don’t think he likes me,” she said, recalling how the dog had nearly gone through the screen door to get to her when she first arrived.
He waved his hand. “He only acts tough to impress the ladies.”
“So he takes after you?” She couldn’t resist.
“Hardly. I’m not looking to impress any woman.”
Though his reply shouldn’t bother her, it did. “So where is he? I haven’t seen him since he tried to eat me alive yesterday.”
“Probably out hunting rabbits.”
“I think it would be best if you gave me something else to do. I’m not exactly comfortable around big dogs. Especially ones with teeth as large as Domino’s.”
He waved her concern off. “Stop worrying. That big, old, dumb dog like everyone, so he’s even bound to like you.”
“Gee, thanks. In other words, just because you don’t like me doesn’t mean the dog won’t.”
“Hell, Dalton, that’s not what I meant.”
“Save it,” she replied, unable to keep the hurt from her voice. “I’m here to write your story. That doesn’t mean we have to like each other. It’s a simple business arrangement.” Only problem was, things weren’t so simple anymore.
Cade dropped his boot to the ground and stepped away from the fence. “I have work to do. Burk can take you out riding later if you want. You can ride Ace. Just stay away from Loco. And unless you’ve got money to bribe Burk with, don’t ask to ride Sunny. He doesn’t let anyone ride his horse.” He turned away.
“What about Dakota?”
He stopped, his stance instantly rigid. Slowly, he pivoted on booted heel to face her, his expression hard. “He’s off-limits. Don’t even think about riding him.” That said, he turned and strode away.
* * *
“Howdy, boys,” Katie O’Brien chirped from the far end of the smoky bar the second Cade and Burk walked in.
Burk broke into an all-out ear to ear grin as he swept the hat from his head. “Katie.”
Cade chuckled at Burk’s near sprint to the bar Katie O’Brien stood behind. “Evening, Katie.”
She served them both their usual frosted mugs of beer straight from the tap. “So what’s the occasion?”
Cade settled onto an empty bar stool. “Occasion?”
“Your being here.” She smiled as she pushed several strands of fiery red hair from her face. “Not that I’m complaining, but you boys usually only stop in on the weekends. With the exception of the other day.” Her gaze shifted to Cade. “This have something to do with that reporter lady.”
“Her name’s Lacy,” Cade muttered. “And no, it doesn’t.”
Burk lowered himself onto the stool next to Cade’s and helped himself to a handful of popcorn from the napkin-lined basket in front of him. “He’s lying. He’s avoiding her.”
Cade slapped his hat down onto the polished wood surface of the bar top. “Like hell I am. Can’t a man just go out for a drink when he feels like it?”
Burk turned to Katie with a shrug. “You’ll have to excuse him. He’s a little cranky tonight.”
Smiling, she leaned over, resting her folded arms atop the bar. “Well, we’ll just have to fix that, now won’t we? Your drinks are on me tonight, Cade.”
“Hey,” Burk whined in what Cade considered a pathetic plea for Katie’s attention. “I’m feeling a little cranky here, too.”
She turned to him. “You’re always cranky.”
“Only when I’m around you.” Burk grabbed for his beer, mumbling something about sassy mouths and downright stubborn Irish women that had Katie’s green eyes narrowing.
It was at that point Cade considered snatching up his hat and ducking under the bar’s overhang, before all hell broke loose. The last time Katie and Burk went at it in a battle of words, every man within a three bar stool radius got doused in beer and popcorn. All because Burk didn’t know when to shut his damn mouth. Or at least how to use it in the way Cade suspected Katie O’Brien wanted him to.
“Is that so?” she said, planting her hands on her jean-clad hips.
Burk nodded. “That’s so
.”
“If you two don’t mind, I’d like to sit here and relax while I drink my beer.” If he wanted arguing he could go back to the ranch with Lacy. And he wasn’t hiding!
“Sorry, Cade.” Her green eyes zeroed in on Burk. “Certain people just rub me the wrong way sometimes.”
“Well, that’s gotta be the eighth wonder of the world,” Burk said as he reached for his mug of beer. “Being able to get past all those thorns to rub you at all.”
Oh, hell. Reacting with lightning speed, Cade caught Katie’s hand before she could lift the mug of beer and toss its contents at the big mouth beside him. “No sense wasting good beer, Katie. Maybe you two should take this to the bull.”
Katie had recently purchased a top of the line, state of the art, mechanical bull for her patron’s entertainment. And she knew how to ride it.
She busied herself with wiping the counter. “I doubt there’s room on it for both Burk and his big mouth.”
Burk arched a brow. “That so?”
Katie nodded. “So.”
“You’re on. I’ll even ride no handed to make things fair.”
“I wouldn’t get too carried away,” Cade warned. “Katie’s pretty damn good on that thing.” He pointed to the bull that sat in the center of a smaller room just off the bar area. And he couldn’t resist adding, “And let’s face it, Burk, you’re not as young as you used to be.”
Burk glowered at his friend. “I’m thirty-seven. That hardly qualifies me as a candidate for the old folk’s home.”
“Seems pretty old to me,” Katie muttered as she reached for Cade’s empty mug and held it under the tap. Cade guessed her to be somewhere close to Lacy in age, about twenty-seven, twenty-eight.
“I’ll show you old,” his friend snapped back at her as he shot up from his bar stool. “Let’s go.”
“Need any help getting to the bull?” she called after him. “I think I have a spare walker in the back.”
Burk stomped off, cursing as he went.
Katie handed Cade his beer, pulled off her apron and dropped it onto the counter before hurrying off after Burk.
“Give him hell, Katie,” Cade called after them with a chuckle.
By now most everyone in the bar had gathered to watch the ‘ride off’.
Everyone but Cade.
He had seen them both ride the bull before. And with Burk as flustered as he was, his money, what little he had of it, was on Katie O’Brien.
Grinning, Cade reached for his beer, wondering if he and Lacy sounded that ridiculous when they argued. A thought he immediately pushed aside. The main reason he had come into town after supper was to get his mind off of eyes the color of warm honey and lips just as sweet.
As for Burk and Katie, they didn’t always fight that way. Most of the time Burk would just sit there all pathetically cow-eyed watching her work. And she would flash an occasional toothy smile his way when she thought no one else was looking. But there wasn’t a soul in Deep Creep who frequented Katie’s bar that didn’t know there was something going on between those two.
Cade raised his beer in a mock toast. “To best friends and sassy women.” But it wasn’t Katie he was thinking of. It was Lacy. Why did it always come back to her?
She was a reporter.
He hated reporters.
She was pushy.
He hated pushy.
She was sexy.
He...well, he just wouldn’t let himself think of her that way. A feat seemingly easier said than done.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lacy stirred with a sleepy groan as the alarm next to the bed signaled morning’s arrival. Not her idea of morning, but Cade’s. But she’d committed herself to this story and doing whatever it took to get it done. Even if that meant waking up before the sun.
Yawning, she reached out to shut off the blaring music. Then she stretched out across the bed. She had spent a very long, restless night thinking about her assignment. Cade had barely said two words to her at dinner the night before. Then he and Burk left to go into town for the evening and she wasn’t invited to join them.
It was clear he was still avoiding her today, seeing as how she’d had no wake up visit. In fact, there wasn’t any sound coming from the kitchen, meaning the men had already gone out to the barn. She sighed, her disappointment echoing in the darkened room.
Forcing herself to leave the cozy warmth of the bed, she dressed for another day of performing ranch duties. Oddly enough, she found herself enjoying working with the animals. And she was learning a great deal about what it took to run a ranch.
Trudging tiredly out to the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of juice and then fixed herself two slices of buttered toast.
Glancing out the kitchen window, she caught sight of Cade standing in the corral. She stood there, mesmerized by his every move. But the moment he noticed her watching him, she turned and walked away.
Out of sight, in this instance, didn’t necessarily mean out of mind.
When she had finished eating, Lacy stepped out onto the back porch to get Domino’s food and water bowls. After filling one with fresh water and the other with a large scoopful of food, she carried them back out to the porch.
Still no sign of Domino, but at least she had managed to do one of the jobs Cade had given her without screwing it up. Now for the real work. She headed for the barn.
“Hello?” she called out as she stepped inside. “Anyone in here?”
“Mornin’.” Burk’s head appeared over the edge of the loft above her. “How’s it going?”
“Okay, I guess.”
“You guess?” He swung his leg over the top rung of the ladder and started down.
“It could be better.”
She noticed him limping as he walked toward her. “Are you hurt?”
He rubbed his backside with a grin. “Nah, just a little tender. I locked horns with a mechanical bull last night and lost. I’m not sure what hurts more, my head, my ass or my pride.”
“You landed on your head? Did you go get checked?” He could have a concussion or worse.
He chuckled. “No, I landed on my backside after Katie challenged me to a ride off.”
So that was where they had gone. “I take it you lost?”
He nodded.
That explained the hurt pride. Though Burk might have been considered the all-out favorite with his rodeo past, it didn’t surprise her in the least that Katie O’Brien had outridden him. First of all, his attraction to Katie put him at a disadvantage in the concentration department. And then there was Katie. She seemed like the kind of woman who didn’t back down from a challenge, one who put her heart and soul into everything she did.
Lacy looked up at him with a grin. “Okay, Burk. That covers your tender rear and your pride. What’s wrong with your head?”
“Let’s just say I had one to many drinks last night to ease the pain.”
“And Cade?”
“No. He had a couple, but that was it. And it was a damn good thing. He had to drive me home.”
At least she knew Cade had come home with Burk instead of going home with another woman. Not that she really cared what he did. She settled onto a crude wooden bench by the door with a sigh.
Burk sat next to her. “What’s with the big sigh?”
“I was just wondering. Has Cade always been so distant? Or is it just me he acts that way around?”
He shook his head. “Not always.” He offered an empathetic smile. “I know he’s trying real hard to be nice to you, but I don’t guess that comes easy to man who’s shut himself off from feeling things.”
She frowned. “I suppose it doesn’t help matters that I’m a journalist.”
“Afraid not.” Burk snatched a piece of straw up from the floor and stuck it between his teeth, muttering past it, “You know this whole thing is my fault. The way he’s treating you.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Cade might have been nicer to you if I hadn’t of pretended to
be him to get you here. You know how he feels about reporters.”
She nodded.
“He’ll get over it,” he assured her. “Especially when he sees how hard you’re working to hold up your end of the bargain. You did a real good job with the horses yesterday. By the time your stay here is over you’ll be a regular cowhand.”
“I won’t hold my breath, but thanks.” She stood and crossed the straw littered barn floor to Dakota’s stall. “Cade loved his wife a lot, didn’t he?” It was more a statement than a question.
“That goes without saying. He’s the kind of man who once he gives his heart away, it’s forever. Unfortunately, forever was too damn short.”
She nodded in understanding.
He stood and joined her in front of Dakota’s stall. “After Karen died, Cade let everything go to the wayside. He didn’t care anymore. That’s why he was forced to sell several of his best bulls. Had to pay the bills and keep the remaining livestock fed. Doc Andrews, Karen’s father and the local vet, offered his services back then at no charge until Cade got himself turned around.”
“That had to be hard for a man like Cade.”
“His pride took a real beating.”
“Doc Andrews sounds like a good man.”
“He is. To this day he still cuts Cade a break on his fees.”
“I hope I have the chance to meet him before I go back to Denver.”
“We don’t see him around much unless one of the animals is sick.”
“I can’t imagine what Cade and Doc Andrews went through back then, losing someone they both loved so tragically. And then for Cade to have to sell some of his bulls...” She shook her head sadly.
“You have no idea.” He reached out to rub Dakota’s nose. “All the hands quit because Cade got so temperamental, going off at every little thing.” He shrugged. “Guess it was just as well. He couldn’t afford to pay them anyway.”
Her heart ached for Cade. “Sounds like he had a lot of demons to fight back then.”
“Still does. I have to admit I was pretty damn scared for him for a while.”
She leaned back against the stall. “Scared for him? Why?”
“Because he always had this look in his eyes. Like he was wishing he’d been in that car that day, too. But I put an end to that.”
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