The Rancher's Request

by Stella Bagwell

  The girl gave her a quick goodbye and as Juliet hung up the telephone she wondered what she could possibly take as a gift. What did you give a child that had been raised in a rich family? She didn’t appear to be spoiled. Rather, she seemed to simply want attention and affection. The same two things Juliet had always wanted while growing up.

  Since Gracia obviously liked horses, the next afternoon Juliet made a trip to a Western wear store in town and purchased the girl a fashion T-shirt with the head of a horse on the front and sequins adorning the neckline and the edge of the sleeves.

  After she’d wrapped it in colorful paper and signed a small card to go with it, she dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a thin white sweater. She brushed her blond hair smooth before pulling it into a ponytail and fastening it with a white silk scarf. As for makeup, she kept it light. If she were lucky while she was on the Sandbur, she wouldn’t meet up with Matt Sanchez. But if she did, she didn’t want to give the man any reason to think she’d taken pains to impress him.

  Gracia must have been watching for her arrival because as soon as she parked several yards from the house and climbed out of her car, the girl was already there to greet her with a tight hug.

  “I should’ve told you to drive down to the barn where we’re having the party,” she told Juliet. “I forgot. But we can walk.”

  Juliet reached back inside the car and pulled out the gift box. Handing it to Gracia, she said, “Happy birthday, sweetie.”

  Gracia looked at the box in complete wonder. “Gosh, I didn’t mean for you to get me a gift. I should have told you that the party wasn’t going to be a gift thing.”

  Smiling impishly, Juliet said, “Well, if you want me to I can take it back.”

  Gracia quickly shoved the package beneath her armpit and out of the way of Juliet’s extended hand. “Oh no! Since you’ve already bought it, the polite thing to do is keep it.” She rose on tiptoe and kissed Juliet’s cheek. “Thank you.”

  “You’re quite welcome.”

  Looping her arm through Juliet’s, she beamed up at her as they began to walk slowly toward the ranch yard and large group of barns and outbuildings.

  “Gosh, you look beautiful,” the girl told her. “More beautiful than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

  Juliet could actually feel herself blushing. “Not really, Gracia. But thank you for the compliment. You’re very pretty yourself. I’ll bet your mother was a beautiful woman and you took after her.”

  Gracia’s head tilted back and forth as she thought about Juliet’s comment. “I remember her being pretty, but I was so little back before she died that now her face just looks sorta blurry when I try to remember it in my mind. I keep a picture of her in my room, though. She had lots of red hair and her skin was really pale. I guess that’s why I’m not as dark as Daddy.”

  So Matt’s wife had apparently been white rather than Hispanic, Juliet thought. The fact surprised her a little. He seemed such a straight and narrow traditionalist.

  “Mommy was a model, did you know that? She worked in New York and Paris and all those places. But after I was born I think she quit all that.”

  Juliet was more than surprised by this revelation. She’d not known that Matt Sanchez had been married to a career woman. And she would have never guessed he’d marry a fragile model who made a living off her looks. But love was a strange thing. So far in her young life it had caused her to make several out-of-the-ordinary choices that ultimately turned disastrous.

  “She must have loved me, don’t you think?” Gracia interrupted Juliet’s thought with the question. “To give up a career like that.”

  Juliet’s heart squeezed with an odd little pain. “It sounds like she loved you very much. You should feel happy about that.”

  She looked up ahead of them to the barn where wide double doors were opened at one end and a stream of workers were coming and going. Juliet gestured toward it. “Is that the party barn?”

  Gracia giggled. “That’s it. And Daddy says after tonight’s loud music no cow will ever go into it.” She giggled again. “But he’s only teasing. That barn isn’t used for cows.”

  The man was capable of teasing, Juliet wondered with amazement. She couldn’t imagine it. But then maybe she’d only seen the worst in him. At least, she hoped it was the worst.

  Once they had walked a fair distance past the big barn, Gracia directed Juliet to a long row of horse stalls that opened beneath a covered walkway. At the third stall, the young girl stopped, then leaned over the half gate and called to the black horse munching alfalfa.

  “Come here, Traveler. Come here, boy, and meet my friend.”

  The black horse seemed to know exactly what Gracia was saying. He walked over to the gate and eagerly thrust his nose at the girl. She pulled two objects that resembled thick, hard cookies from the front pocket on her jeans and allowed the horse to eat them from her palm.

  “He goes after those things like I do a chocolate bar,” Juliet commented with a soft laugh.

  Gracia smiled with deep affection as she stroked the animal’s face that had a white streak from his forehead down to his nose. “Cook makes them out of apples and carrots and oats. All the horses love them, so she makes a whole sackful at a time.”

  Here on the Sandbur even the animals had a chef, Juliet thought. And Matt Sanchez thought she was spoiled. He didn’t have a clue to what her life had really been like. Certainly, it had been nothing like this.

  “Traveler’s beautiful,” Juliet told the girl. “Have you had him for very long?”

  Gracia nodded. “He was born here on the ranch. When Traveler was two, Grandpa broke him to ride and, a few months later after he’d learned to rein, he started putting him on cattle. He was learning how to cut real fast. And Grandpa said I was a natural-born rider.” Her face grew solemn as she pressed her cheek against the horse’s nose. “But then Grandpa got hurt and everything stopped.”

  Juliet was suddenly remembering the man in the Sunset Manor. One look in his eyes and she’d gotten the impression that he was still a vibrant man trapped inside a useless body. And there was certainly no doubt about the way Gracia felt about him. In fact, it seemed as though she was closer to her grandfather than she was her own father.

  “Do you still ride Traveler?” Juliet asked.

  Gracia nodded. “Yes. But I just ride him out in the pastures along the cattle trails. I don’t try to work with him in the pens.”

  Juliet didn’t know that much about horses or cutting horses for that matter, but she figured when it came to athletic ability they were the same as humans. They needed to learn while they were still young.

  “I understand that you want your grandfather to train him,” Juliet said tactfully, “but what about your father? Couldn’t he work with your horse?”

  Frowning, Gracia released her hold on the horse and he moved to the other side of the pen where a few blocks of alfalfa hung in a red, nylon net.

  “I wouldn’t ask him,” she mumbled. “And he wouldn’t do it anyway.”

  Juliet wasn’t sure she should ask more. From Gracia’s sudden change in attitude, it was obvious she had touched a raw nerve. But she’d gone too far. She had to know why the man with the chiseled face and hard lips would ignore such an important part of his daughter’s life.

  “Why not?” she asked.

  Gracia’s chin dipped down to her chest. “’Cause he doesn’t like for me to ride. If he had his way, he’d sell Traveler and never let me have another horse. But Uncle Cordero won’t let him. He says Daddy is actin’ stupid and that someday Grandpa will get well and he’d be mad as hell if he came back home and found Traveler gone.”

  No doubt, Juliet thought. And it sounded as though Cordero had a totally different outlook on life than his brother’s dour, gloom-and-doom attitude.

  “Oh. Well, maybe your father will change his mind,” Juliet said in the most hopeful way she could manage. “People do have a change of heart sometimes, you know. And besides, it might
just be that your grandfather will get his health back one of these days.”

  A smile slowly spread across Gracia’s face and then she took a step over and squeezed her arms around Juliet’s waist.

  “You’re so nice to say that, Juliet. It makes me feel so much better to hear you say it.”

  Juliet patted Gracia’s slender shoulders. “Come on, now. It’s your birthday and you’re supposed to be celebrating. Let’s go over to the barn and we’ll look the party scene over before everyone arrives.”

  Nodding, she grabbed Juliet’s hand and led her away from the stables. All the while the two of them walked toward the barn, Juliet found herself glancing around the ranch yard, looking for any glimpse of Matt. But the only men she saw were several cowboys gathered around the tailgate of a pickup truck.

  Which was good, she told herself. She’d not come to the party tonight to see the man who’d haunted her thoughts these past several days. She was here for Gracia’s sake.

  Once they reached the barn, the teenager guided her over to a set of long wooden steps.

  “The party is up there?” Juliet asked with surprise as she glanced upward to a square hole in the barn loft floor.

  Gracia giggled. “It’s got the biggest, nicest floor for dancing. And all the hay has been used—except for a few bales to sit on. Climb on up and I’ll follow.”

  Juliet did as the girl suggested and eventually found herself standing in a long, wide room with open doors on both ends. The wooden planked floor had been swept clean and in one corner tables of food and drink had been set up. Not far away a young man was busy putting together a stereo system. Along with the hay bales, several folding chairs were also positioned around the edges of the room for additional seating. Twisted crepe paper was draped in scallops across the ceiling, while floating balloons were tied to every available post and rafter.

  “This is really neat, Gracia. Your friends are going to enjoy themselves tonight.”

  “I invited some old people, too,” she quickly informed Juliet. “Since Daddy said I had to have chaperones, I thought it would be better to have a bunch of them than just one or two. That way they wouldn’t get bored.”

  Juliet laughed. “And just what are you calling old?”

  Gracia wrinkled her nose. “Oh, you know. Like Daddy. He’s thirty-nine. He’s gettin’ on up there.”

  Doing her best not to laugh again, Juliet said, “I wouldn’t call him old just yet.”

  “Well, I’m gonna have the DJ play some country music with the pop, too. That way the ol—uh, the adults might want to dance.”

  “That’s very thoughtful of you, Gracia.”

  The compliment put a broad smile on the teenager’s face and she looped her arm through Juliet’s and urged her toward the tables of food. “Come on, I want to show you the neat cake Cook made for me. It’s scrumptious!”

  While they were looking over the giant chocolate confection, the guests began to arrive and like a good hostess, Gracia excused herself to greet them. Before long, the music was playing and laughter from the young people was filling the loft.

  While Gracia enjoyed herself dancing with a young boy dressed in cowboy gear, Juliet retrieved a glass of punch from the refreshment table and took a seat on an out-of-the-way hay bale. She was sipping, tapping her toe to the fast beat of the music when a tall, slender woman with long, brown hair approached her.

  “Mind if I share your seat?” she asked.

  Juliet recognized her as being the daughter of Geraldine Saddler, but she couldn’t remember her first name. She appeared to be somewhere in her thirties and was extremely attractive, even in casual clothing.

  “Please do,” Juliet told her.

  “In case you don’t know, I’m Nicolette Saddler, Gracia’s aunt,” she introduced herself.

  Juliet smiled at the other woman. “I remembered you from the wedding the other day being Geraldine’s daughter. I’m Juliet Madsen. I write for the Fannin Review.”

  Nicolette smiled broadly. “Yes. I know. Gracia’s announced to everyone that you were coming tonight. You couldn’t be mistaken among this crowd,” she said with a laugh as she motioned out to the thick crowd of teenagers. She looked at Juliet with a warm expression. “My niece is obviously very taken with you. I’m glad. She needs an adult friend outside of the family. I just hope she isn’t pushing unwanted attention on to you.”

  “Gosh, no. It’s nice to have a young person around. Keeps you from being stodgy.”

  Nicolette smiled again but this time Juliet could see the expression was a sad one. “You’re so right. Children keep our hearts young.”

  “Uh—do you live here on the ranch?” Juliet asked.

  The other woman nodded. “With Mother. I moved back about three years ago after my divorce. The house is so big that my brother, Lex, and I never see each other, or our mother, unless we want to. And my younger sister, Mercedes, is away in the air force now, so she’s just in and out on rare visits.”

  Juliet couldn’t imagine living such a lifestyle as the Saddlers. She’d been raised in one-and two-bedroom apartments and all of them furnished from resale shops. Her family home had been far from anything to brag about, but while her mother had been alive, the rooms had been full of love. And to Juliet that was all that had mattered. It was later, after her mother was gone, that home had turned into a cluster of cold, empty rooms.

  “You have children?” Juliet asked casually.

  The sad look returned to the woman’s face, making Juliet wish she’d kept her question to herself. Apparently having money hadn’t necessarily kept the Saddler or Sanchez families happy.

  “No. I haven’t been that blessed. What about you?”

  Juliet laughed to cover the hollow feeling inside her. “Me? Children? I wouldn’t know what to do with them.”

  Nicolette smiled with disbelief. “You must be doing something right with Gracia.”

  Shrugging, Juliet said, “That’s because she’s a special girl.”

  The other woman sighed. “I’m glad you realize that. She’s had too many hurts thrown at her for such a young age. Sometimes I really worry about her.”

  Juliet would have liked to ask the woman more questions about her niece, but a tall cowboy with blond hair and a toothy grin came up and asked Nicolette to dance, putting an end to the conversation.

  Across the room, Matt poured himself a foam cup full of coffee and from a tray of hors d’ oeuvres gathered up several fried oysters. He was munching the delicacies, scanning the crowd when he spotted her.

  He’d known she was going to be here tonight. Still, the sight of her sitting on the hay bale, her blond hair pulled into an innocent ponytail, her unguarded expression strangely vulnerable, was enough to leave him feeling kicked in the gut.

  When Gracia had approached him about inviting Juliet Madsen to her birthday party, he’d secretly been shocked. He realized his daughter regarded the woman as a friend, but he’d not realized her feelings toward Juliet had run deep enough to want her at a family gathering.

  And that had irked him to the point that he’d had to fight the urge to give Gracia a loud and definite no. He didn’t want the Dallas woman to insert herself into his daughter’s life. As far as he was concerned, she could be nothing but a bad influence for a young, impressionable girl. Yet the pleading look in Gracia’s eyes had stopped him from expressing his disapproval. At least, that’s what he’d been telling himself. He’d allowed Gracia to invite the woman because he’d not wanted to make a big issue of the matter. It was usually true that the more you tried to restrain a child from something or someone, the closer you pushed them toward the taboo.

  Maybe that same adage worked with adults, he thought grimly. Maybe if he allowed himself a few minutes with the woman, he’d see for himself that her hair really wasn’t as blond and silky, her lips as soft and full, her scent as sweetly seductive as he remembered.

  Carrying his food and drink, he slipped around the group of noisy young people and wal
ked up behind her.

  “Good evening, Ms. Madsen.”

  She glanced over her shoulder and he watched her brows lift slightly, her lips part.

  “Good evening,” she replied.

  “Mind if I sit down?”

  Her expression skeptical, she regarded him for long moments before she finally said, “Sure. There’s enough room here for the two of us.”

  Matt wasn’t exactly sure there was enough room for safety. Yet he couldn’t have kept his distance from the woman even if she’d been pointing a gun straight at him.

  Walking around to the front of the hay bale, he took a seat a few inches away from her. After placing his nearly empty plate on the floor by his boot, he took a sip of coffee and darted a glance her way. She was staring back at him, her expression faintly questioning.

  His gaze fell to her lips and hunger stirred deep in his stomach.

  “Uh—I saw the piece in the paper about the Sunset Manor patient,” he told her.

  A quirk of her lips hinted at sarcasm. “Is that some sort of apology?”

  He crossed his legs out in front of him and directed his gaze toward the dusty toes of his black boots. “I wouldn’t go that far. It just means I saw the piece and that you were obviously there working.”

  “Very generous of you.”

  Normally he would have bristled at such a terse comment, but tonight he let it slide. There were other things on his mind besides putting this woman in her place.

  “I’m a little surprised that you came tonight.”

  She stared at him, mistrust written all over her face. “Why? I wouldn’t hurt Gracia by turning down her invitation.”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “I figured you’re a busy woman. And a kid’s birthday party wouldn’t be your type of thing.”

  She breathed in deeply, then released it in one heavy rush. “What do you think my type of thing is?”

  His gaze skittered over her face, then up and down her white sweater. The V-neck teased him with a hint of cleavage and he wondered with a shock what she might do if he reached over and traced his finger under the ribbed edge of fabric until he was touching a breast.