Her Rodeo Rancher

by M. K. Stelmack

  “And you won’t,” he said. “Not tonight, not ever if you don’t want to. But I think you’ll enjoy this.”

  “You’re not going off riding either, are you?”

  “Not tonight, but I’ve been riding since the rodeo, yeah.”

  “I meant in another rodeo.”

  “Those days are over. Officially retired.”

  “No matter if Alyssa—or anybody for that matter—comes to you with another request for a charity ride?”

  “Yes, we’re done. After seeing you in that rodeo arena, I know the taste of heart-in-mouth. I won’t put either of us through the wringer again.”

  Her blue eyes shone, and he slid his arm around her waist, pulled her close, leaned in for—

  Her phone chimed and she gave it a peek. “Phillip.”

  Trust the jerk to cut into his evening alone with Krista.

  “I’ll deal with him some other time,” she said.

  Another time Will might not be around to help her through it. He released his hold on her waist. “Take it.”

  Krista tapped her phone. “Hey, Phillip. You’re on speaker, so Will can hear you, too.”

  “Hey,” he said, and added, “okay.”

  Krista said nothing, and Will didn’t care to make it easy for the guy who’d spent the last couple of months interfering in their lives. Phillip cleared his throat. “I was calling to say that I saw the video of you down at the rodeo.”

  Who hadn’t? Alyssa’s camera had been rolling. It showed his confused expression as he’d quickly rebounded to his feet after the fall and wondered why the crowd wasn’t applauding. Then he’d seen Krista, flat on the ground, and Tosser charging. He didn’t remember running but the video proved it. It had tracked his run across the arena, him kneeling at her side, calling her name, while Tosser was finally herded through the gate.

  The camera didn’t catch her answer but he’d remember it until the day he died. She’d blinked up at him, her face twisted in pain, and said, “Are you okay?”

  He’d managed a choked “Yeah” before the paramedics swept in. The video had gone viral—a quarter million views in five days and still curving upward. Some comments had whole lines of heart emojis. And diamond rings. And requests for a follow-up wedding video.

  “In our earlier conversation,” Phillip continued, “I said it would be me who’d decide when you and I were finished.”

  What an arrogant piece of—

  “I remember that,” Krista said, shooting Will a cautionary look.

  “Well, after watching that video, I’m saying it’s over now.”

  As if it wasn’t already. Will fought the urge to rip the phone from Krista and lay into him. Krista seemed to sense his intent and angled the phone away. “By ‘over,’ do you mean you’re going to stop with the dolls and any other trolling?”

  “Have you seen anything since the rodeo?”

  “I haven’t, but that doesn’t quite answer my question.”

  “It’s over.”

  “Good to hear.” She paused. “You take care, Phillip.”

  “Yeah, you too. Hey, Will. You still there?”

  He’d always be with Krista. “Yep.”

  “Just wanted to say...don’t let her take any long-distance trips without you.”

  Krista had risked a charging horse to get to him. “She can travel to the moon. She’ll always come back to me.”

  After disconnecting the call, Krista poked his chest. “You think you got me all figured out.”

  For the next part of their evening, he hoped so. He brought her around to the side of the barn where he’d put cross ties on Silver. Krista’s hand jerked in his.

  “If there’s no riding, why do I see a mounting block beside her?”

  “Because it has all kinds of uses.” He handed her a currycomb. “Like for brushing her back.”

  Krista tapped the hard bristles with the fingers of her casted hand. “You want me to brush down Silver?”

  “Mom rode her hard today and she only got a roll in the pasture afterward. So, yeah. A horse deserves a brush down after their rides.”

  “Every time?”

  “Before the saddle goes on, for sure. To check for burrs or cuts or bite marks. After you ride the horse, it’s also good practice.”

  Krista regarded Silver. She picked off a fleck on the horse’s withers. “All right, what do I do?”

  He took up another currycomb for Silver’s other side and gave her pointers as they worked together. Not that he really had to. Krista had the touch. Silver’s muscles relaxed; her neck lost its archness; her head went down. She made a rumbly snort. As close as a horse ever comes to purring.

  The mare had never done that for him. And rarely for Janet.

  Krista traced the fingers of her broken hand along Silver’s spine. The horse quivered in response. “I could do this all day. This is totally therapeutic. For me.”

  Should he push it? “If you’re up to it, there’s another part to the grooming.”

  He crossed behind Silver to come up beside Krista. “Do you want to try giving Silver a pedicure?”

  Krista’s eyes widened.

  “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said. “I get that. But I’m also sure that Silver doesn’t have an aggressive bone in her body. And even if she did, you have melted them all.”

  She smiled. Touched his jaw with the fingers that had just run along Silver. He nearly let go with a quiver himself.

  “You know I always wanted to meet you halfway on ranch life,” Krista said softly. “I’d given up but this...this I could do. No. This I want to do. You and me, being together like we are now, talking, working together. I could really, really get into this. So yeah, let’s do this.”

  He demonstrated the “pedicure” on Silver’s back left hoof, carving out the dirt from her shoe, pointing out the tender triangle to avoid.

  Krista positioned herself at the second hoof and gave Silver the command Will had taught her. Silver’s hoof came up easily and Krista caught it in her good hand and tucked it between her knees. Seconds later, the hoof was on the ground once more, clean.

  Will grinned, ready to finish up. She straightened. “Next,” she whispered. She did the last two as easily as the first. He passed her a rubbing cloth to wipe her hands with, and when she returned it, he slipped his arms loosely around her waist. No more putting it off. “You know,” he said softly as if speaking to an edgy horse, “a good groomer is pretty important to have around a horse. If you have the right touch with a horse, she’s yours.”

  Krista lifted off his hat, and ran her fingers through his hair. She might as well have caressed him from head to toe for the sensation that crackled through him. “That only apply to horses?”

  “You know the answer to that.” He kissed her, long and slow, her body molding against his. Yep, he, too, might have some talent for softening up a person. The only one he cared to, anyway.

  “I don’t care if you never touch a horse again, or if you don’t want to bring me another supper in the field. You can spend all your days at your spa, doing what you do best. As long as at the end of the day, you’re with me. I love you,” he whispered. “And I intend to marry you.”

  “I love you, too, but—” she pursed her lips and gave him the same mischievous look from the day he’d first walked into her spa “—I’m dealing with my fear of horses. What about yours and water?”

  “If you marry me, I’ll leave it in your hands.”

  “Deal.” And she closed it in a way that had him near to purring.

  EPILOGUE

  “THAT GIRL WAS born under a lucky star to get this kind of weather in October,” Janet whispered to Dave as they took their place in the first row of seats at the Spirit Lake pier.

  “And to marry Will to boot,” Dave said.

 
His wife sighed sharply. “All three in one year!”

  “At least Keith and Dana saved you the trouble of a wedding.” Keith had called them up one Saturday morning last month to say that he and Dana were having a few friends and family over to her place and would they like to come?

  He and Janet had arrived to a surprise wedding. There on the porch with everyone in sweaters or jeans, Keith and Dana were married before a justice of the peace. And it was back to combining the next day.

  Today, Dana had taken a seat at the far end, so she could scram with Austin in case he acted up. She was talking quietly with Alyssa and Caris seated behind her. Across the aisle, Krista’s family was lined up. Deidre leaned forward and waved. Janet waved in response.

  “She’s probably happy that if she couldn’t be a Claverley,” Janet said through her smile, “at least her daughter will be.”

  Dave turned in surprise to his wife. She rolled her eyes. “As if I didn’t know she’d come on to you.”

  He scrolled back through their thirty-six years together to the courtship. “So that’s why you suddenly stopped putting me off?”

  “I wasn’t putting you off. I was seriously considering you, and I couldn’t get over how entirely unsuitable she was. She was always flitting off.”

  “I dunno,” Dave said, suppressing a smile. “You know about Claverleys and unsuitable women.”

  “Yes, but if you were to have an unsuitable woman, I decided it was going to be me.”

  He took her hand. “I’ve never regretted your decision.”

  The look she returned might’ve landed him a kiss, except that their eldest son, in the company of Keith, Brock and Laura’s Ryan, filed in. Beside him, Janet gave a tiny gasp. The same gasp as when she pored over the photo album after a couple glasses of wine. He didn’t mind her getting emotional. It kept the attention off him when he had to swallow hard.

  Then, the bridal party and the guests rose as one. There was no music, only the slap of water and the occasional cry of seagulls. Laura and Krista’s sisters came down first and then Krista herself on the arm of Jack, her cousin.

  She was a bright, lively thing, all right. Just what Will needed. She waggled her fingers at him and Janet, and Dave grinned. “It’ll be good to have her around more often now,” he said to Janet.

  “She’ll be able to practice her auntie skills on Austin,” she whispered back.

  “There’ll be time for that.”

  “The next is coming in seven or so months.”

  Wha...? He stared at his little daughter. Soon a mother. “All this because you kicked over a bucket of milk.”

  Janet patted his arm. “Shush.”

  * * *

  THE WEDDING CEREMONY went along much like all the others Dana had attended this summer, including her own. She and Keith had aimed for spontaneity, simplicity...and speed. He and Austin had taken up residence that night in her home, and she’d woken the next morning married and a mother.

  She tightened her arms around the soft sturdiness of her son. Her son. Austin gave a huffed squeak, and Keith slid them a questioning look. As Will and Krista were pronounced married, their eyes met, and she mouthed what for years she’d denied herself: I love you. He smiled and blushed, like a bride.

  Like a typical bride, anyway. Not like Krista. She and Will were stripping.

  Dana turned to Janet and Dave, who seemed as confused as her. Guests laughed, hooted. Camera phones came out like umbrellas in a downpour.

  Krista’s dress fell away to reveal a tiny one-piece swimsuit at the same time that Will, already in bare feet, shimmied out of his pants. He wore a pair of black swimming shorts. Together, they turned away from the audience.

  The black lettering on Krista’s backside and the white lettering stenciled on Will’s shorts read Just Married.

  * * *

  KRISTA AND WILL, holding hands, walked to the edge of the pier. “You are fine,” Krista whispered, “with not wearing a life jacket?”

  “I’m good. We’ve practiced. Besides, my wife’s within arm’s length.”

  “Ready?” Krista whispered, hardly believing that the man, the life she’d always wanted was hers from this day forward.

  Will peeked down into the dark, cold waters. He’d surface. With Krista beside him, he always would. “I am.”

  And together, hand in hand, they took the plunge.

  * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Rocky Mountain Baby by Patricia Johns.

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  Rocky Mountain Baby

  by Patricia Johns

  CHAPTER ONE

  THIS BABY WAS A MIRACLE.

  Taryn Cook had heard women describe their unplanned babies as an oops, a surprise, an accident...and this baby was definitely all of those things. Getting pregnant after her divorce at the age of thirty-nine, after ten years of struggling with infertility, having given up on a child of her own... This baby was a shock. But sometime in the future, when he got old enough to ask about how he came along, she was going to tell him that he was her miracle.

  Taryn smoothed a hand over her domed belly and the baby stretched inside of her. She was only seven months pregnant, but even her maternity clothes felt snug. Maternity business casual was not an easy look to pull off, and anything Taryn wore lately made her feel rumpled. But today mattered—this was her first day of a new marketing project for Mountain Springs Resort, and this job was going to help her fund at least a few weeks of maternity leave. She hadn’t had much time to plan. She had health insurance to pay for the delivery, but if she was going to get any time off after her son was born, her personal savings would have to cover it. So this job mattered—as did every other client she’d managed to squeeze in before the baby was due.

  But taking this job in Mountain Springs wasn’t only about the income. It was about spending time with her grandmother. Granny had been giving the family a hard time. She wouldn’t accept help from anyone, and some of the family wanted to have her declared unfit to care for herself and put in a home. That felt heavy-handed to Taryn, and when she saw the posting for a marketing campaign in Granny’s town, she bid on it, hoping it would give her some time with Granny. Maybe she could convince her grandmother that she needed more help than she realized. The problem being, Granny knew about Taryn’s divorce, and about her struggles with infertility, but Taryn hadn’t officially told her about her pregnancy. As old-fashioned as Granny was, Taryn wasn’t sure that Granny would see the same joy in the situation that Taryn did, and she was in no mood to face anything less than sincere happiness at the prospect of her son’s arrival.

  The one thing that Taryn was particularly grateful for—and the thing that would likely scandalize Granny—was the fact that Taryn didn’t know who the father was. He’d been a comfort on a very hard evening, and they’d both gone their separate ways afterward. She wasn’t proud of that, but it did make things simpler now. The father was not her ex-husband, so she had no more ties to Glen, who was welcome to carry on with his new girlfriend without further complication. And the father wouldn’t be asking for anything—a relationship, or joint custody—because she didn’t know anything more than a first name...unless he’d been lying about his first name, as she had about hers.

  Taryn was going to be a single mother, and at this age, after all she’d been through, she was glad of it. However, Granny wasn’t going to be able to appreciate any of that.

  Taryn sat in a visitor’s chair in the office for the Mountain Springs Resort owner on the main floor, waiting for Angelina Cunningham to arrive. Angelina’s corner office sported tall windows banking two sides of the room, giving a view
of the pebbly beach and the sparkling water of Blue Lake. It was a stunning vista.

  “Good morning!”

  Taryn turned to see Angelina striding into the office with a bright smile. Taryn recognized her from a video chat they’d had a couple of weeks earlier. She was a tall woman with glossy blond hair tied up into a twist at the back of her head, and she was about Taryn’s age, if not a couple of years older. She wore a linen pantsuit today, the sleeves rolled up to her forearms, and Taryn noticed her impeccable nude manicure.

  “Good morning,” Taryn said, and she half rose to shake hands before settling herself again. “It’s nice to meet you in person.”

  “Likewise.” Angelina circled around the broad white desk and sat down. “I’m sorry I’m late. There was a situation in housekeeping—one of my supervisors needed a hand with a guest who was upset that she emptied the garbage in his suite... It’s taken care of, but there are times that some authority makes a difference.”

  “I can imagine,” Taryn said with a nod. “Who did you side with?”

  “With housekeeping, of course,” Angelina replied, and they shared a smile. Angelina leaned forward. “But you aren’t here to talk about difficult customers. I’m just glad to have booked you. I’m excited to see what you can do for an ad campaign. This lodge has boomed since I renovated and took over, but I feel like I’ve gotten as far as I can on my own, and I need some strategy here.”

  “That’s where I come in,” Taryn replied. “And you’ve done an amazing job with the place, I have to say. As we discussed over the phone, marketing has a lot to do with spinning a narrative that your guests will both connect with on an emotional level and want to share in. We just need to find the right story to tell.”

  “Do you have any ideas coming in?” Angelina asked.

  “A few,” Taryn admitted. “But I don’t want to say anything until I’ve had a chance to look around and experience the lodge. Just because one narrative worked for another client doesn’t mean it will work for you. What I need to find is your business’s heartbeat, so to speak.”