Nobody was promising hearts and forever, but she wanted to get to know the man behind the casual smile that left her stomach in knots before she went back to Denver. Before she followed the rest of her well-designed plan to fruition.
The rumble of his truck sounded in her driveway and Sadie ran to the window and peeked out. She watched him slide from his seat, put his hat on, and saunter to the front door. In his worn jeans, checkered shirt, and boots, he looked every inch the confident cowboy, and her heart pounded. Heat pooled in her stomach. This was so not like her. She’d never reacted to a man like this before and in her mind that screamed danger!
Falling for someone here in Marietta wasn’t on the big whiteboard in her room. The magical wedding and ring didn’t appear on her to-do list until she’d made junior partner in one of the law firms of her choice. At least two or three years down the track, according to her calculations. And falling for a cowboy wasn’t what she’d planned. They were poles apart. Like a square peg in a round hole.
The man she imagined she was going to marry was savvy and smart, climbing the professional ladder just like she was. Keen to make the grade and senior partner before their first child was born. She’d take maternity leave and then go back to work determined to let nothing stand in her way of making full partner, preferably at the same time as her husband. Her future was board meetings and country clubs.
The knock on the door broke her out of her reminiscing. Sadie touched her fingers to her hair, smoothing down the damp curls that ran riot around her face, now flushed with imagination. She breathed in and out a couple of times before opening the door.
“Hi, Jethro.” Her voice sounded far too breathless for her own liking.
He gazed at her from under ridiculously long lashes and smiled, tentatively at first and then an all-out big, toothy grin that made her knees shake.
“Afternoon, Sadie. Don’t you look all summery and pretty?” His voice rolled over her skin like a soft summer breeze, doing nothing to fan the heat she couldn’t control.
“Thank you. Did you want to come in?” She held the door open wider and stepped back, leaving him no choice but to come inside. He took off his hat and stepped over the threshold.
“Sure is pretty in here.” He stood just inside the entry, staring into the living room, looking as though he was too scared to touch anything. The white walls and furnishings made the cottage look as though it’d come out of a home design magazine.
“It’s nice, isn’t it? Layla left quite a lot of her furniture here when she moved in with Tyson. Said she wanted more rustic country furniture for the ranch house. Since her lease hadn’t run out there was no hurry to move it. This suits me, and I appreciated the kindness.” She touched his sleeve. “Meant I didn’t have to bring all my furniture from Denver, which is great because my contract is only for three months unless something comes up. I don’t know how long I’m going to be here.”
A shadow flickered over his eyes, and he swallowed. “Well, best we make good the time we have, then. Should we head off now, do you think?” Jethro ran his fingers around the brim of his hat and looked everywhere but at her face.
He was nervous! Had she said the wrong thing? But it was important to be upfront and truthful with him. She was only here temporarily.
“I’ll get the picnic basket.” Sadie moved past him into the kitchen.
“I’ll take that.” Jethro reached past her and scooped the basket off the counter. “Feels like you’re feeding an army.”
“Not really. I was a little restrained, for me at least. I have this terrible habit of overfeeding people.” She was talking too much, but nerves had taken over and she couldn’t help it. “If it were up to me, I’d have added a cake, maybe a bottle of wine. Probably a pie as well. I can’t seem to help myself once I start.”
He turned and grinned at her. “Hey, I’m not complaining in the least. This cowboy hasn’t had a meal cooked by a pretty woman in years. I’m used to whatever me or the boys can rustle up, you know? We’re pretty basic when it comes to food. I have the feeling I’m going to enjoy whatever you have in here.”
Now she felt bad for restraining herself. “Oh dear, I didn’t think about that. Hang on.” Sadie turned back to the refrigerator and opened the door. She pulled out half a cherry pie and a bottle of wine, which she passed to Jethro. “Take these.” She then opened the cupboard and took out a container of peanut butter cookies she’d made the previous evening. Cooking helped her unwind and freed her mind from the legal jargon she soaked up during the day. It also helped keep the lust-filled dreams down a notch if she went to bed exhausted.
“Hey, didn’t mean for you to go all crazy on me.”
She raised her head and smiled at him, holding the container out as bait. “Are you telling me to put these back in the cupboard? Peanut butter cookies? Fresh baked by me last night.”
His mouth dropped open. “Heck, no. Don’t you dare leave them behind. Nobody makes me cookies. I’d have to be insane to even suggest it.”
Sadie laughed and slid her arm around his. “Let’s go before I add too much. I don’t want to overwhelm you with my secret talents.”
Jethro drove with one hand on the wheel and one out the window. “Thought we’d go and take a look at Miracle Lake. How’s that sound to you?”
“Wonderful. I haven’t had a chance to see much of the local sights at all.”
“Well, we can drive around and find our spot. There’s plenty of places to picnic, but I’ll let you choose, since it was your idea.”
Sadie opted for a quiet spot with trees for shade and grass to spread out the rug. She undid the laces and kicked off her shoes and stepped down to the lake’s edge, her feet sinking into the soft sand. When the water washed over her feet, she sighed, and all the tension of the previous weeks melted away.
“Looks like you chose the right place, then.” His voice floated over her neck, and she turned, grinning like a fool.
“I did. I don’t know what it is about this place, but it’s like all the world’s problems couldn’t follow us here. It’s almost as though we passed over a timeline and we’re in a different world.”
“It does have that effect on you.” He rested his chin on her shoulder, and she leaned back into him, comfortable in his presence. “I don’t come here much, ’cause I don’t have any reason to, but my mom used to bring us here before she died. Said she liked the peaceful feeling she got here.”
“When did you lose her?”
Jethro slid his arms around her waist, and Sadie relaxed even more. “I was nine, just after my birthday. She died of cancer. Didn’t take long for it to ruin our lives, but now I think it was a good thing she didn’t linger. That would’ve been harder for everyone.”
“Still, must’ve been terrible for you boys to lose her when you were so young.”
“It was. We were lucky we had Grandpa. What we put him through. Feel so bad about it now, but we were terrible youngsters. Ran wild for the longest time. Caused him nothing but trouble.”
“But you turned it around, didn’t you? Made your peace with him before he died?”
He sighed, a sound of regret that made her turn around in his arms.
“Yeah, but I don’t think it was enough. He worked himself into an early grave, and all we did was give him a hard time. If we weren’t getting into fights, we were being lazy around the ranch. Hardly did a decent day’s work between us. Simple things like feeding the animals got forgotten because we were busy climbing trees, and during summer break, we’d disappear for weeks at a time, camping down by the river, leaving Grandpa to cope on his own.”
The sadness in his eyes pulled at her. “We all make mistakes, Jethro. At least you know what you have to do now and recognized that before he passed away.”
“Too little too late, if you ask me. But, it is what it is, and I’ll do everything I can to make a success of the ranch. I owe Grandpa that much, and damned if I’m gonna let him down any more than I already have.�
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“I’m sure you won’t. According to Layla, you’ve worked hard since he passed away, so I have great hopes that you’ll make a success of the ranch.” She stroked a finger down his jaw and lifted her face to kiss him. His eyes widened as Sadie placed her lips on his, and then he pulled her into his body and deepened the kiss.
“Get a room!” The thump of music almost drowned out the voices coming from the bright red truck that pulled in and parked next to them. Jethro broke the kiss and glared at them, giving them his middle finger to show them exactly what he thought about being interrupted.
“How about something to eat, Jethro?” Sadie broke out of his arms and walked back to their picnic spot.
That had escalated quickly, and boy, did it get the heart racing! She didn’t know if she was embarrassed or relieved that they were interrupted. “Could you start the grill, and I’ll get us something to drink?”
He gave her a smile that made her curse her heated cheeks. She was so readable it was ridiculous. Unless it came to the courtroom. There she was in charge of her emotions. Here, she was floundering with the feelings this man brought out in her.
“Sounds like a good idea. I’m starving.” Jethro started to build a fire while Sadie kept her motions slow and steady as she uncorked the wine, trying to dampen the fire heating up her body.
Chapter Eight
“That was good.” Jethro rubbed his belly, lay back on the rug beside her, and tucked his hands behind his head.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” He’d cleaned up everything she’d brought, including half of the cookies she’d threatened to leave behind as well as two burgers. “It’s been a while since I’ve had someone to cook for. Makes me feel good, useful.” And it did. Her parents didn’t appreciate her work in the kitchen when they had a perfectly good housekeeper and chef to do the job. A waste of time and her talents, her father said, and her mother didn’t want to put on weight and only ate chef-approved diet food. Heaven forbid she couldn’t fit into her designer suits when they were being photographed so often.
He turned to her with a look of amazement. “Appreciated? You’re amazing at what you do. Heck, you’re a top lawyer, a nice person, and you can cook up a storm. Who wouldn’t appreciate that kind of talent?”
“My parents think it’s a waste of my time. They feel I should concentrate more on the law and my goals than creating in the kitchen. The thing is, I have to de-stress somehow, and cooking does it for me.”
“And they don’t understand that?” He rolled over onto his side and leaned his head on his hand. “You’ve gotta eat too.”
“They’re very goal-focused when it comes to me. Not that I blame them, because I’m the same. In fact, it’s all my fault they’re like that but…”
“But?”
“Being out here in this town has opened my eyes to things I never considered before.”
“Like what?”
Sadie bit her lip. No good would come of her talking too much, but she needed a friend and Jethro seemed keen to hear what she had to say. Could she trust him to keep their conversations to himself, and did it really matter anyway? It wasn’t as though her prospective employers would be talking to him anytime soon, but he did know Layla, and Sadie didn’t want to show her hand too soon and risk being fired for looking ahead.
“Hey, I’m a good listener. Ask my horse.” He smiled when she laughed. “Honestly, you can talk to me and I won’t gossip. Promise.” He held his hand over his heart in true Boy Scout style.
She looked into his eyes. “I have this plan for my future. Ever since I was a little girl, I saw myself as this big corporate lawyer, and my whole life has been geared in that direction. The right schools, mixing with the right people. Studying harder than anyone else. You get the picture? Anyway, nowhere in that plan was there a period of time spent in a little country town like Marietta.”
“Don’t tell me—it’s getting under your skin and you don’t know what to do about it because your big plan is everything. At least it was until now.”
How could someone who didn’t know her nail it so spot on? “Yes. Exactly.”
“So tell me more about this plan of yours.”
Sadie reached out and ran a finger over his hand. She squeezed when his fingers interlocked with hers. “I was going to a top law school, which I did, pass the bar with perfect results, which I also did. Then I was going to get a job with a good firm, which I have. Once I found my feet, I was going to decide which firm I wanted to be a partner in and talk my way in the door. That’s taking some time because there are so many good firms out there that’re growing fast, and I haven’t been able to decide on just one.”
“Layla’s old firm isn’t in the running?”
“Not really. Initially, yes, but she left and she was the reason I went to them in the first place. I guess you wouldn’t know it now, but that woman is a demon in the courtroom. I wanted to be like her so badly.”
“Has she really changed that much that you no longer want to work for her?”
Sadie chose her words carefully. “Not as a person, but she no longer works for a large firm and that was what I was after.”
“You say was. Is this what you’re having issues with? Have your ideas of what you want changed?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Frustration welled in her voice, and she sat up. “I like Layla a lot. She’s a great boss, and I’ve learned a lot from her. I hate the thought of letting her down when she’s put so much effort into teaching me. But this isn’t what I wanted, Jethro, when I arrived. I never saw myself as a small-town lawyer doing more wills and minor misdemeanors than anything else.” She looked over the lake. “I saw myself standing in front of the judge, tearing strips off the wrongdoers for my ultra-important rich clients, making sure I upheld the law and got them the best deal possible. Clients who had serious billable hours that I’d bring to the firm and personally take care of. I wanted so badly to be someone.”
“People’s wants change, Sadie. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“No, I know, but it’s not how I work. I’m analytical. Everything is done to a plan with me. I don’t do anything without thinking it through and plotting the best way to tackle it.” She paused for breath. “Something about Marietta is making me think differently, and I don’t understand it. The people here are getting under my skin, and I never change plans without overthinking it.”
“Does that include relationships?”
“Serious ones?” She thought about it before answering him. “Yes, I suppose it does, but I haven’t really had time for that kind of relationship yet.”
He let go of her hand and picked up a round pebble from the ground beside them and rolled it over in his hand. “So what’s the problem, then? Sounds like you have it all worked out to me.”
“I don’t know if my plan is what I want anymore.” Sadie wound her fingers through his. “I was used to getting my coffee with a quick hello, nothing more. People are too busy for anything more. Here, I get a quick hello, a free cookie to sample because they’re trying a new flavor, and someone who seems to genuinely want to know me and ask my opinion. Get to know what brought me to this town. And the other day, I was offered a gift jar of fresh honey because I’d helped someone get out of a fine they didn’t deserve nor could they afford. People are different here, friendlier and neighborly, and it’s making me rethink everything I thought I wanted.”
*
Jethro wanted to fist pump the air, but that would be crass when he was trying to be adult and impress Sadie with his good listening skills and fine company. He’d never met anyone like her before, and he needed to focus on being the best he could be. “Easy to understand. As I said, plans change, and sometimes you just have to roll with it.”
“I don’t know if I can. I’ve never gone off track before. I don’t know where to go from here, and that makes me uncomfortable.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, and he wanted to take her in his arms, kiss away the wor
ry lines that marred her forehead. Last thing he wanted to do was scare her off, and he’d already kissed her once today. The feel of her lips was still foremost in his mind.
“Well, maybe you should just go with the flow for now and try to get used to not being in charge of your future. Let the idea sink in and see how it feels. How long is Layla going to be on maternity leave?”
“About three months.”
“Okay. How about this, then? Forget focusing on the plan. Try to enjoy what you’re doing here instead. You said this town has opened your eyes to other things. How about exploring that more? Get invested in the things that’re making you think twice. Nobody said you have to make a decision and stick to it. Heck, we change our minds all the time.”
“But I don’t.”
“Never?”
She shook her head, a frown creasing the bridge of her nose.
“Doesn’t that ever come back and bite you in the ass?” He coughed. “Sorry, bad choice of words.”
“Don’t ever be sorry for being you, Jethro. I like you just as you are. No need to put on airs for me, okay?”
“Okay.”
She held up her finger. “I almost forgot. I spoke to Chance Watson yesterday and told him you were on the lookout for a young bull. I hope you don’t mind, but I did mention that money could be a deal breaker.”
“Well, it’s the truth. I don’t have much money to play around with. What we do have has to go on fencing to keep the measly bunch of stock we do have on our property.”
Cowboy to the Rescue Page 6