The Cowboy's Spring Romance

by Shanna Hatfield

  “Not that! What are you doing here so early this morning?” Lindsay asked, irritated at herself for enjoying his nearness as much as she did.

  “I came to run with you,” Trent said, stretching out his legs so she could see he had on sweats and running shoes. She didn’t know any of the Thompson men owned footwear other than boots.

  “But, I thought you said no running until you found the animal,” Lindsay said, standing up. “Did you find it?”

  “Not yet. We’re watching the herd in shifts, assuming it will come back to the place it drew blood the first time,” Trent said, getting to his feet. “If you really were going to listen to me, just exactly what were you doing out here?”

  “I was going to run up and down the driveway. That’s safe isn’t it?”

  “No. You really think the animal cares if you are here or five miles from here?”

  “Oh,” Lindsay said, noticing his pickup parked in her driveway. She hadn’t heard him pull up. Shaking her head, she decided she really needed to pay more attention.

  “How long have you been sitting out here? Aren’t you cold?” Lindsay asked, wondering just how long Trent had been camped out on her porch.

  “I got here about five minutes before you opened the door. I could hear you banging around inside and figured if you didn’t come out soon, I’d knock,” Trent said stretching his arms over his head and stifling a yawn. He’d been out riding around the herd from midnight until three in the morning. Getting home from his shift, he barely had time to crawl back in bed when the alarm went off to run with Lindsay.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked. Although Trent was in prime physical condition, running as fast and far as she was in the habit of doing wasn’t something you just jumped into our of the blue.

  “You bet,” Trent said. How hard could it be to keep up with a girl? His legs were longer and he did hard physical labor every single day. “You afraid I’ll run circles around you?”

  “Hardly,” she said, finishing her stretches. Trent stretched a little, expending most of his effort in watching her stretch. He hadn’t meant to startle her quite so badly when he saw her come out the door, but when she put that long leg up on the porch rail and leaned over it, his hand reached out to touch her before he was fully aware of what he was doing. That she fell into his lap was just an added bonus. Even this early in the day, her warm, woodsy scent hovered around him, tantalizing his senses.

  Standing up straight, Lindsay looked over her shoulder at him with an inviting smile. “Hope you can keep up, cowboy,” she said and trotted down the porch steps.

  Walking briskly down the driveway, they began jogging when they turned onto the highway.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were training for a marathon?”

  “Guess it slipped my mind,” she said. “I try and add a mile a week. This week I’m up to eleven.”

  “Miles?” Trent had no idea she ran so far every morning.

  “Well, it’s certainly not feet,” Lindsay said with a smile.

  “Right,” Trent said. “So when is the marathon and where?

  “May, in Portland. It’s actually a half-marathon, but I’ve always wanted to run one and I’ll be ready for it by then.”

  Trent nodded and kept moving. The pace Lindsay set was one he decided he’d have no problem keeping. They jogged along at an easy gait for about half a mile when Lindsay started speeding up. Gradually, she increased her stride until her long legs were eating up the ground and Trent was hard pressed to keep up with her. They ran past the turn to the Triple T and kept going.

  Another half-mile and Trent thought he might die right there on the side of the road. His lungs started to burn with an intensity that made it difficult to get a breath. A twisting pain in his side soon followed that horrible sensation. Trying to ignore it, he kept going but found himself lagging behind.

  Finally, he clasped a hand to his side and slowed to a staggering walk. Lindsay, who was yards ahead of him by now, looked back to see him weaving along the side of the road. Turning, she ran back to him, laughing.

  “You should see the look on your face. Oh, I wish I had my camera. Wait, I have my cell phone. Don’t move,” Lindsay said, digging in a zippered pocket.

  “If you take a picture, so help me, I will crush your phone with my bare hands,” Trent threatened between ragged breaths. He was leaning over with his hands on his knees, trying to regain the ability to draw air in and out of his lungs. Sweat poured off his head and he leaned to the right, trying to ease the cramp in his side.

  “What’s wrong? Is the big, tough, cowboy not quite the manly-man he thought he was?” Lindsay badgered him.

  Trent looked up long enough to give her a seething glare.

  “You made it farther than I thought you would, though,” she said, still laughing. “I figured you’d be passed out by the time we ran past the Triple T. That’s almost four miles. You really should see your face. This is just priceless.”

  “Would you stop that cackling,” Trent grumbled. “It isn’t funny. I could have a heart attack and you’d stand there and laugh.”

  “No, I wouldn’t. First, I’d take your photo then I’d laugh,” she said, still giggling. Cars were starting to zoom by, since they were out on the side of the highway. Lindsay decided they had better head back for home, if Trent could make it that far. “Do you want me to go get my car and come back to get you?”

  Trent didn’t answer. His eyes pierced into hers, expressing how much he did not appreciate her humor about the situation.

  Putting her arm around his waist, she turned him back toward home. “Poor widdle Twent. Did the big, bad girl make you eat her dust?” She cooed at him as if she was talking to a toddler, making Trent even more perturbed.

  “Just leave me here,” Trent said, pushing her away. “I’ll be fine.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” Lindsay said through another fit of giggles. “In the shape you’re in, you’d need me to fend off a kitten let alone a wild animal.”

  “Could you just stop talking? And giggling?” Trent snapped.

  “Sure,” Lindsay said as they slowly worked their way back toward her house. At this rate, it would be noon before she arrived home. It would be hard to explain to the school, showing up half a day late because the stubborn man who thought he was protecting her couldn’t get himself home and she couldn’t leave him alone.

  “Good,” Trent said, letting out a pained breath, which caused her to erupt into more giggles. Every time she tried to stop, she’d look at Trent and start all over again. If he could stand up straight and walk, she might have been able to quit. With him hunched over, still holding his side, it was all she could do to keep from sitting down on the edge of the road and rolling with laughter. She wasn’t even sure why the whole thing struck her as so amusing, but it did. Maybe it was the fact that Trent came out to protect her and he couldn’t even stand up by himself. She knew he prided himself in his strength and toughness. This had to be ripping holes in his male ego.

  As another round of giggles flew from her lips, she tried to keep them subdued without much success. Thunder had settled on Trent’s brow and the vein in his neck throbbed. If he had regained the ability to breathe normally, she was sure his nostrils would have been flaring as well.

  When they reached the Triple T driveway, she told Trent to stay there. Leaning against a fence post, he watched her kick it in high gear and take off like a professional runner toward her house. He considered walking up the long driveway, but it was nearly as far to his house as it was to hers. The thought of walking up the rolling hills to the ranch house made him wince in pain. Trent didn’t have to wait long until Lindsay’s headlights came into view and she pulled up near him.

  “Come on, marathon man, get in,” she said, trying very hard not to laugh.

  Scowling, Trent crawled in the car.

  Lindsay drove home and invited him in. He refused, deciding to take his wounded pride and go back to the Trip
le T. Walking him to his pickup, she the only way to stop herself from helping him climb in was to clasp her hands behind her back. Once he was settled, she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

  “I do appreciate your thoughtfulness, Trent,” she said with a warm smile that quickly turned into a teasing grin. “And the entertainment. I haven’t laughed this much for a long while.”

  “Glad to be of service,” he said, before starting the truck and closing the door. He didn’t even wave goodbye, just turned down the driveway.

  Lindsay thought the saying “tail between his legs” had a whole new meaning after watching Trent go home in shamed defeat.

  Although he was probably humiliated beyond belief, she thought he was sweet for being willing to run with her. Even though he couldn’t have fended off a swarm of gnats this morning the way he was doubled over, gasping for breath, he was her hero. Lindsay found herself laughing again as she went in the house and got ready for the day ahead.

  ><><

  “She wouldn’t stop laughing at me,” Trent said, in misery. Arriving home, he made it as far as the couch in the great room before he collapsed, unable to move. His leg muscles were twitching, his lungs still burned and the cramp in his side was now a throbbing ache.

  “I can’t see what she found so funny,” Cady said, trying to hide her smirk behind her hand. “That doesn’t sound like Lindsay at all.”

  Trent pried open one eye to glare at his sister-in-law. “Not you, too.”

  “Sorry, Trent, but it is kind of amusing.”

  “I don’t see anything funny about it at all.”

  “You’re right. Not funny in the least,” Cady said, taking a throw off the back of the big couch and tugging it over Trent. “Why don’t you rest and after breakfast, we’ll see about getting you up and moving.”

  “Fine,” Trent grumbled. “Just don’t tell the guys I’m stretched out here like a useless lump. I’d never hear the end of it.”

  “You’re secret is safe with me,” she said, still trying not to giggle as she returned to the kitchen.

  Trent heard the phone jingle and Cady’s laughter ringing through the house. He could only assume it was Lindsay, especially when he heard Cady say, “He’s on the couch. Yes, completely pathetic.”

  He might as well have Travis and Trey drag him out in the hills and leave him to die. It would be better than the slow and painful tortured demise he was going to face living down this morning’s running episode. Not only was his girlfriend laughing at him, his sister-in-law had joined the fray.

  If he could get up and stomp off, Cady would have heard a slamming door.

  By the time the crew finished breakfast, Trent was beginning to feel a little better. Cady didn’t give him away when Trey asked where he was. Her vague answer seemed to stem his brother’s questioning for the time being.

  Now, if everyone would clear out of the house, he could crawl to his room and nurse his badly damaged dignity.

  When the kitchen grew quiet, except for the clatter of dishes, he sat up and looked over the back of the couch. Cady was cleaning up the last of the breakfast dishes. Turning, she caught him scoping out the room.

  “You can come out of hiding,” she said with a smile. “Have some breakfast. Maybe you’ll feel better with something in your stomach.”

  “Thanks, Cady. I appreciate you not saying anything to the guys. They’d never let me hear the end of it.”

  Trent made his way to the table and sank onto a chair. Cady brought him a warm plate of food and a cup of steaming coffee.

  Making a cup of tea, she sat down across from him, still grinning.

  “Please tell me you aren’t going to start giggling uncontrollably like Lindsay,” Trent said, biting into a strip of crispy bacon.

  “I won’t giggle uncontrollably,” Cady said. “I may giggle, just not uncontrollably.”

  “Where’s Cass?” he asked, noticing for the first time how quiet the house seemed.

  “Trey took her to school,” Cady said, sipping her tea. “He had to run to Moro anyway, so he dropped her off. She thinks it is a big treat to have her daddy take her to school. Almost as good as having her uncle drive her.”

  Trent offered the barest hint of a smile.

  Cady enjoyed her cup of tea while Trent ate in silence. He looked awful and probably felt worse, but she thought he was making the situation much more dramatic than it was. The whole thing entertained both her and Lindsay.

  When he continued to sit at the table with a dark scowl on his face, Cady couldn’t hold her tongue any longer.

  “Trent, I’ve never seen you sulk and pout like this. It’s completely unlike you. What’s really the problem?”

  “Nothing,” Trent grumbled.

  “Really? Nothing? You may be my husband’s brother, but I also thought we were friends,” Cady said, lifting an eyebrow at Trent, daring him to disagree.

  He nodded his head, letting out a long breath. “We are. You know we are.”

  “Then tell me what’s got you all worked up. Maybe I can help.”

  “Lindsay’s going to think I’m a pathetic wimp, a big-mouthed blowhard, and a complete loser, that’s all,” Trent said, tracing his finger over a pattern in the tablecloth.

  “Good gracious, you dork,” Cady said, exasperated. “What makes you say that?”

  Trent studied her a moment. “If Trey gave you a big lecture about not running by yourself and personal safety and how he could protect you, and then ended up nearly collapsing on the side of the road while you ran circles around him, what would you think?”

  “I would think he was trying to push himself beyond his physical limits to try and follow through with what he said he would do,” Cady said, reaching across the table and putting her hand on his. “Lindsay doesn’t think you are a pathetic loser or any less of a man. She has been running for years. Her body is conditioned to it, yours isn’t. You wouldn’t expect her to get on a horse and be able to ride it all day like you do and not be sore, would you?”

  “No, of course not. You know it takes time to build up the muscles to do that,” Trent said.

  “Exactly. Just because you are in great physical shape, doesn’t mean your lungs or leg muscles were up to the challenge when the farthest you’ve probably run lately is a few hundred yards. Cut yourself a little slack. You should really talk to Lindsay. She doesn’t think any less of you for not being able to keep up with her, but she might if you keep acting like an overgrown baby.”

  Trent looked up and saw the teasing grin on Cady’s face.

  Getting up from the table, she patted his shoulder as she picked up his empty plate. “Go take a hot bath in our big tub with some of those Epsom salts Trey hides in the cupboard under the bathroom sink. They’ll take out the soreness and you’ll be good as new by lunch.”

  “Thanks, Cady,” Trent said, standing up and kissing her cheek. “You’re the best.”

  “You’re not so bad yourself, for a pigheaded Thompson.”

  Trent took a long, hot bath, allowing the heat and the salts to soothe his muscles. After getting dressed, he felt much more like himself, although still humiliated. Not quite ready to face Lindsay, he went out and worked in the machine shed, tuning up equipment for the spring farm work that would soon begin.

  When he went in for lunch, Cady gave him a questioning look and he shook his head. So far, Trey and Travis hadn’t caught on that there was anything amiss and he wanted to keep it that way.

  After riding through the south herd all afternoon, Trent wasn’t sure he could walk back to the house when he stepped out of the saddle. Muscles he thought were well toned were screaming in protest.

  His admiration for Lindsay went up several notches, knowing how effortlessly she ran back to the house to get her car this morning.

  He should have just crawled home and saved himself the embarrassment of being rescued by the girlfriend he was trying to protect.

  As much as he cared for Lindsay, he didn’t know how he could face
her again. He had purposely left his phone turned off all day, so she couldn’t text or call him. Turning it back on, he had several messages he chose to ignore.

  Going in for dinner, he tried to walk as normally as possible and turned from washing up to find everyone already at the table. Swaggering to try to hide his painful gait, he took a seat and glanced around to see every set of eyes on him with big grins on their faces.

  After Travis asked the blessing and food started being passed around the table, Trey settled his gaze on Trent in a way that made him want to disappear.

  “So, Trent, I ran into Mike Morgan this afternoon. He said he shot at a wild dog last night that was chasing his cows,” Trey said, passing around a bowl of creamed corn.

  “Did he kill it?” Trent asked, surprised at the topic, having expected Trey to be goading him about his morning excursion.

  “No, it ran off and he didn’t want to track it in the dark. I’m guessing it is the same animal that tried to take down our calf. Hopefully, we won’t be having any more problems, but I think we should still keep watch tonight.”

  “Agreed,” Trent said, taking a bite of fork-tender chicken-fried steak smothered in country gravy. If he didn’t already think Cady was about the best thing that ever happened to the Triple T, he would proclaim it was true just on her cooking talents alone.

  “Mike also told me the funniest story,” Trey said, clearly anticipating the reaction to the news he was about to share. “He said he was driving on the highway real early this morning and saw a man clenching his side and weaving along like he could barely move trying to catch up to a pretty blond girl who was running circles around him. He swears up and down that it looked just like you. Isn’t that a funny story?”

  “Hilarious,” Trent said, his lips settling into a thin line while everyone else laughed.

  “Why aren’t you laughing, Uncle Trent?” Cass asked innocently.

  “Leave Trent alone, all of you,” Cady said, waving her hand down the table at the men, including her ornery husband. “Don’t you think he’s suffered enough?”