To Court a Cowgirl

by Jeannie Watt

  “Let’s straighten a few things out, Allie.”

  “What things?” She looked both wary and curious.

  “I don’t hold grudges. It’s a waste of energy.” He held her gaze to make his point, noting that Allie’s lips were pressed together, as if she were afraid of something slipping out. “I’m not the enemy, Allie. Never have been. Never will be.”

  “I never thought of you as an enemy.”

  “Or treated me like a friend.”

  She gave a slow nod, pressing her lips even more tightly together as she glanced down at the gravel between them. When she looked back up at him he was struck by the shift in her expression, as if she’d just made a momentous decision. She drew in a breath and said, “Would you like to come to the house for a cup of coffee?”

  A half smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Thank you, Allie. I’d like that.”

  * * *

  JASON FOLLOWED ALLIE into the house and sat down at the table after washing up. She poured him a cup of coffee from the stainless steel carafe she’d filled before going out to check on the cows that morning, her mind racing as she tried to get a handle on this situation. The one she’d taken pains not to think too much about, despite their previous conversation on the matter. As in how much her less-than-friendly attitude had to do with her preconceived notions about Jason, and how much it had to do with the fact that she found him ridiculously attractive.

  Definitely a mash-up of the two, but she was still trying to put her life back on track and it wasn’t fair that he should suddenly appear and introduce unwelcome thoughts and sensations.

  It also wasn’t fair for her to take her frustrations out on him...even if he did cause them.

  Jason took the cup she handed him and then waited until she’d sat down before taking a slow sip. Allie did the same, acutely aware that she was horrible at making small talk because she had no patience for small talk. But something needed to be said. The elephant in the room was growing larger.

  “Kind of reminds me of our chess matches,” he finally said.

  Allie choked a little and set her cup down. “You intimidated me.”

  “Right back at you.”

  “Bull.”

  He shrugged his big shoulders and settled back in his chair. “I’m not going to lie to you, Allie. Birthing that calf was gross.”

  “Birth is not gross.” And wasn’t she thankful for the sudden shift in topic?

  “Did you somehow miss that blue tongue? Or all the gunk that came out?” He spoke seriously, frowning a little for emphasis, but warmth lit his eyes and Allie found herself wanting to smile.

  Do not be charmed. Stop now. “All I saw was an addition to my herd instead of a loss.”

  “Do you have many losses?”

  “We used to have more until we started calving later in the season.”

  “It seems to me that you’d want to have them later. When it’s warm.”

  Allie smiled a little. “Not if you’re selling them. You want them to have as much growing time as possible before they go to market, which is why most ranchers calve in February. March at the latest. We’re missing out in some ways by calving in April and May, but making up for it in others.”

  Jason frowned at her. “It’s got to be nerve-racking, going to work and wondering if your cows might need a midwife.”

  “That’s just how it is for a part-time rancher.”

  “Do you think you’ll ever become a full-time rancher?”

  “No. As soon as one of my sisters comes home, I’ll move elsewhere.”

  “Out of the Eagle Valley?”

  “Maybe. But definitely off the ranch.”

  “You don’t like it here?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “No,” he agreed. “You didn’t.”

  But her tone and her body language had. After reminding herself that she didn’t need to protect herself from Jason, that he wasn’t the enemy, she said, “The ranch and I... We have our differences.”

  Jason took another slow sip of coffee and when Allie didn’t expand on her answer, he said, “My dad and I have our differences. I guess it happens to everyone.”

  Allie smiled in acknowledgment, glad for the shift of subject. She was the only Brody sister who had issues with the ranch, but she was also the only sister to suffer tragedy there twice. One quick and devastating and the other slow and torturous.

  “That’s life. So...how has the Eagle Valley changed since you left?”

  “I have been back a time or two.” He smiled ruefully. “But not that many. Mostly I was training or playing.” He stopped, as if analyzing his past, then his clear aqua gaze met hers. “A lot has changed. For one thing I miss the old movie theater. That new thing at the edge of town is ugly.”

  “Yes. I guess it was going to take too much money to bring the old theater up to code, so they shut it down.” Allie had also loved the historic brick theater with the balcony and classic early-twentieth-century woodwork. “You’re right. The new one isn’t the same.”

  They finished their coffee while discussing the safe topic of local changes, and Allie told herself more than once that since she wasn’t all that fascinated by hands, she could stop studying Jason’s—but it was better than looking at his face as they spoke and finding herself thinking that he was simply too damned good-looking for words.

  Finally Allie pushed back her chair and started tidying up the table, carrying the coffee cups to the counter. “I need to get going,” she said on an apologetic note. “I have to visit someone in the hospital.”

  “And I need to get to work.” He started for the door, then stopped. “Do you have many more pregnant cows?”

  “Fourteen.”

  “You know that you can call me anytime you need help.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled politely at him. What else could she do?

  After Jason had gone, Allie finished wiping the table, then rinsed the cups. She did everything she could to keep from slowing down long enough to acknowledge that being around him shook her. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about guys. She was recovering from a guy. She needed to be thinking about making a future and not letting the ranch disintegrate while she was in command, as it tended to do.

  After the kitchen was back in order, she grabbed her purse and went out to her car. She was going to see Kyle—and not because she felt guilty not doing it.

  As she drove to the hospital, she told herself that this was a good thing to do. A way to prove to herself that she was done with that chapter of her life. Because she really had to move on past this bitterness. It was going on two years and she still felt anger toward the man—both for the promises he hadn’t kept and for the crappy things he’d done after the divorce.

  Kyle, as it turned out, looked terrible. Two black eyes, a swollen lip, but no stitches that she could see. His other injuries, whatever they might be—bruised and broken ribs and sprains, according to Ray—were hidden by the sheet covering him.

  Allie took a few steps into the room, hating the smell, hating the circumstances that had her there. Hating that she’d come. And what did she say now that he’d focused on her? “How’re you feeling?” wasn’t appropriate.

  “I’m glad you’re okay. I mean, other than...” She gestured weakly.

  “Yeah.” He spoke softly, his words slightly slurred.

  Allie moved forward, but still kept her distance from the bed. She wished him no harm, but he had been so adversarial toward her and her sisters after he’d failed to get part of the Lightning Creek, that she was also having a hard time feeling anything other than regret that he’d been hurt. Seeing him like this did not stir any feelings of warmth or desire for a reunion. Was that why he’d wanted to see her? To rekindle something?

  If so, injured or not
, he was in for a rude awakening. Allie wasn’t about to complicate her life now that she was on the road to straightening it out.

  “I just wanted to stop by, let you know I was thinking about you.”

  “Appreciate that.”

  And then there wasn’t a whole lot to say. “Well, I don’t want to wear you out. I wish you a speedy recovery.”

  “Allie?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m going to have trouble covering my part of the medical bills because I’m between jobs.”

  Allie’s heart dropped. He’d wanted to see her to shake her down?

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Kyle.” She made a backward step toward the door. “I’m sure you know that I don’t have any money with all of my student loans. Maybe your dad could help you out.”

  “Yeah. Uh, he’s not in a position to do that.”

  And she was? Honest to Pete.

  “Sorry. I’m sure the hospital will take payments.”

  “I’ll need therapy afterward.”

  Allie’s patience was about to snap. “What do you want, Kyle?”

  “It’s what I don’t want. I don’t want to file medical bankruptcy.” His gaze held hers and she searched, trying to find a hint of the guy she’d fallen in love with. Had time changed him so much? Or had she fallen in love with an illusion?

  “And...”

  “Would you co-sign a loan for me?”

  “I’m up to my neck in student loans!”

  “If you used that eighty-acre parcel on the far side of the creek as collateral... Not that you’d need collateral. I have some savings to use to make payments until I land a job.”

  “Oooh, no...” Allie shook her head. “Uh-uh. I’m not attaching the ranch to a loan.” She’d taken great pains not to do that while funding her education.

  “Only part of—”

  “No.” At any minute she expected Kyle’s heart-rate monitor to top out. If she’d been attached to a monitor, it would already be there. “I’m sorry about your predicament.” But it was not her predicament, no matter how guilty she felt saying no. “The ranch belongs to all of us. I couldn’t make a decision like that alone if I wanted to.”

  “Will you talk to your sisters?”

  “I have to go, Kyle.”

  Allie turned and left the room, walking to her car in a haze of anger. She hated not helping people, but Kyle was asking too much.

  Yet, she still felt jabbing guilt beneath her anger. Why? What was wrong with her? She’d spent five years of her life supporting this guy, believing in him, and she’d been let down every single time. Wasn’t that enough?

  * * *

  AFTER ALLIE HAD driven away, Jason finished dismantling the roof and then took a break before starting on the main structure, which was going to take some time. A couple weeks, maybe, working by hand. He was glad. As Max got healthier, he got more cantankerous and controlling, reminding Jason of a little kid pushing boundaries.

  He sat on the tailgate of his truck, drinking from his water bottle and studying the barn wreckage, debating where to start. He honestly did need a hard hat for this part of the job. Part of the structure was still intact and several beams were attached to the top of a standing wall, although their opposite ends rested on the ground. Potential for trouble there. He had no idea how well the upper ends of the beams were attached, or what it would take to bring the standing wall down. He’d find out soon enough.

  After stowing his water bottle back in the cooler, he approached his project. In the rubble, he could see old hand tools and gardening implements that had been stored in the building. A beat-up saddle lay in the jumble between two wooden barrels, one of which was now smashed. Dismantling this part of the building was going to feel like a treasure hunt. He wondered how much of the stuff was useful and how much had been stored instead of being thrown away. That was how a lot of valuable antiques had survived until present day, but none of the stuff he could see looked particularly valuable...except for the old bit-and-brace drill sitting just under a fallen beam. He loved bit-and-brace drills—had spent a lot of time as a kid drilling holes in boards his grandfather had given him to keep him busy. Rather than wait the day or two until he’d got to that area by knocking things down, he carefully started picking his way across fallen boards.

  Oh, yeah. He bent and picked up the drill. He’d never worked in the construction trade, but his dad collected old tools and he knew a good one when he saw it. The knob at the top was black walnut if he wasn’t mistaken. He started back toward safety, the drill in one hand. He’d ask Allie if she wanted to sell it and he’d also let her know that it was worth something before she made the decision.

  He was just about to step off the two-by-six he’d been using as a balance beam onto a sturdier-looking fallen beam when he heard an ominous crack. Before he could save himself, the board snapped and his leg plunged down into the jumble of debris, shoving up his pant leg as his shin skidded down the rough surface of a broken board. Shit.

  He grimaced as he pulled his leg out of the hole. It stung. Gingerly he made his way to his truck, trying to remember the last time he’d skinned himself up good. When he was a kid on his bike maybe?

  Blood had seeped through his jeans by the time he got there. He’d had a lot of injuries over the years, but few of them bled much, if you didn’t count getting cleated, or that one time his nose had gotten broken. He was just working his pant leg up over the scrape when he heard the car coming down the road.

  Allie. He pushed the pant leg back into place and stood next to his truck, hoping she’d keep going past him. No such luck. She pulled up beside him and rolled down her window.

  “Done with the roof I see.”

  “Just finished.” He picked up the drill, noticed the blood on his fingers and hoped she didn’t. “I found this in the main part of the building.”

  “How?”

  “Wasn’t easy.” Not only that, it’d hurt. He nodded at the tool. “It’s got some value to it and I was wondering, if you don’t have a sentimental attachment because it was your dad’s or something, if I could buy it for my old man.”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  He started to smile, but it stalled out as her gaze dropped and then fixed on his lower leg, where the blood was gluing his pants to his skin. When she brought her gaze back up to his, there was a question in it, and he could see that she didn’t expect to have to ask that question out loud.

  “I had a mishap while getting the drill.”

  “You’re the second beat-up guy I’ve dealt with today.”

  “Who was the other?” And were you responsible?

  “My ex. He got into a car wreck.”

  “Nothing too serious, I hope.”

  “Broken ribs, black eyes. He’s hurting, but nothing life-threatening. He was lucky.” She said the words in a way that did not invite further comment. “Do you want to go to the house and clean up your leg, or what?”

  Well, yeah, he did. “I don’t want to bleed all over your place.”

  “Won’t be the first time,” she said. She jerked her head toward the passenger side of her car, but he shook his head.

  “I can walk a hundred yards.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  “Walking is easier than getting into your car.”

  “Oh.” Her eyebrows lifted as she considered his size compared to the space available in her tiny passenger seat. “I guess so. And here I thought that you were going all macho on me.”

  “I know,” he said with a half smile. She did tend to think the worst of him and he might have to do something about that.

  She waited for him at the gate and then he followed her into the house. She gestured for him to wait in the living room and then walked through the kitchen into the adjoining mudroom. She ca
me back with a plastic bucket of neatly folded terry-cloth towels with gauze pads and athletic tape resting on top. She held out the pail with a small shrug. “Vet bucket. All the towels are clean and bleached. You can get them as bloody as you want.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I hope you don’t mind using the same towels used for animal emergencies, but like I said, they’re clean.”

  He raised his hand. “No. Honest. I’m good with it. Glad I don’t have to make do with wet paper towels.”

  ‘That was kind of what I was thinking. I usually use duct tape with the animals, but I thought you might be more comfortable with athletic tape.”

  A joke. Cool.

  She pointed the way to the bathroom and Jason headed down the hall, bucket in hand. He casually glanced back before he opened the door. Allie hadn’t moved, but her chin jerked up as he met her gaze. He lifted an eyebrow and then walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

  Allie Brody had been staring at his ass.

  CHAPTER SIX

  WELL, THAT WAS the very first time ever she’d been caught ogling a guy’s ass and it had happened in her living room.

  Allie scrubbed her hands over her cheeks. That’s what she got for giving in to temptation. What was it with this guy? Why was he her Kryptonite?

  Okay. No big deal. Surely she wasn’t the only woman he’d ever caught staring at him, but...this was different. She was his employer. He was her employee. Temporarily, but all the same.

  But what it really came down to was that it was Jason Hudson, whom she’d thought of as an arrogant jock and who was turning out to be much more together and pleasant than she’d ever expected.

  And attractive. Don’t forget attractive.

  How could she? He was right there. Being attractive.

  She wasn’t comfortable being attracted to him because that wasn’t part of her go-it-alone-and-be-secure plan. She’d had enough heartache over the past several years. Being alone equaled no more heartache.

  Being attracted meant being tempted to not be alone, which in turn tempted heartache.