Raleigh And The Rancher (Wranglers & Lace #3)

by Laura Anthony

  Absentmindedly, he tapped his teeth with the end of a pencil and sighed. Try as he might, he could not reconcile the monthly expenses. The invoice for an enormous feed bill sat in front of him. Fidgeting, Dan got to his feet and went to stand at the window.

  His gaze traveled to the corral where Raleigh worked taming a skittish mare. Watching her, he marveled at her natural talents with the sturdy animals. Admiration for her brought a smile to his lips.

  In no time she had whipped his flagging stables into shape, shoeing all the horses, engaging them in daily workouts, doctoring their wounds, repairing the aging stalls. He was amazed at her rapid progress. No man could have made a better hand.

  Sliding off the back of the mare, Raleigh tied the horse to the gate, then stretched sexily in the sun. He stifled a groan. Keeping his desire under wraps proved to be a much tougher task than he’d imagined when he’d made his promise to her. How he longed to hold her, kiss her, make love to her, slow, sweet and easy.

  Tossing her braid over her shoulder, Raleigh looked up and caught him staring at her. Gulping, Dan stepped back from the window.

  For three weeks he’d managed to maintain his distance, but every day it became harder and harder to ignore the magnetic pull. Observing her, but unable to touch her, produced a profound sense of melancholy deep in his soul. Sooner or later, something had to give.

  When he realized she was coming up the walk toward the house, her fingertips tucked into her back pockets in that endearing gesture of hers, excitement surged through his veins like a strong tonic. Not once since she and Caleb had moved in had she been to the big house. What did this unexpected visit signify?

  Holding his breath, Dan stood motionless, waiting for her knock. When the sound came, he jumped, then hurried to throw open the door.

  “‘Morning, Raleigh,” he greeted her, hoping he appeared nonchalant. It wouldn’t do for her to guess the depth of his feelings. If she had any idea what he’d just been imagining, she’d pack up and be off the ranch by nightfall.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Her steady, gray-eyed stare blistered a trail to his heart. She was different from any woman he’d ever known—so strong, so independent, so self-reliant. How had she gotten that way? The mystery of her exceptional personality intrigued him to no end.

  “Sure, come on in.” Standing aside, he held out his arm. Her boots echoed on the parquet tile as she stepped over the threshold.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” he offered.

  “Glass of water would be nice,” she said, wiping her flushed face with a blue bandanna plucked from her pocket.

  “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

  When he returned to the den, he found her leaning over his desk studying the stack of bills.

  “You’re three thousand dollars in the hole,” she commented frankly.

  How had she figured that out in the short time he’d been in the kitchen? Dan scooped up the papers, clutching them in his hand. “It’s not your worry.”

  “Oh, no?” She raised both eyebrows.

  “Here’s your water.”

  She took the glass from him, seated herself on the edge of his desk and took a sip. Helplessly, his gaze strayed to survey the attractive way her jeans creased across her compact lap.

  “If the ranch goes bankrupt, Caleb and I will no longer have a place to stay, and remember, you promised me ten percent of the yearly profits. If there are no profits, I’m as broke as you. Now, I’d definitely say it’s my problem, too.”

  Sinking down in his overstuffed chair, Dan set the bills back on the desk and templed his fingers. “Fair enough. I’ll level with you. Yes, I’m experiencing a financial crunch I hadn’t anticipated.”

  She swung her leg, eyeing him thoughtfully. “Want to know what I think?”

  “Sure.”

  “You’re going about this business all wrong.”

  “Oh, yeah?” So she thought she was a business expert, did she?

  “Yep.”

  Dan cracked his knuckles. She was too darned distracting. He couldn’t help but notice the way her tank top strained across her pert breasts and flattered her waspish waist. He wished she wouldn’t wear those barely there shirts, but he knew it was simply a matter of comfort while she worked outside in the sweltering heat.

  “Dan?” She leaned forward and snapped her fingers in his face. He caught a whiff of her fresh, natural scent and immediately thought of haystacks, sunshine and wild horseback rides across sandy fields.

  “Huh?” He blinked.

  “Did you hear me?”

  “I’m sorry, what were you saying?” He shook his head to dispel the erotic fantasies his mind had conjured up. He had to stop thinking like this, no point in torturing himself.

  “I said, you’re going about this business all wrong.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You need to be more practical. I realize you’ve got this grand dream for the future, but the fact remains, you need money today.”

  “Go on.” What would it hurt to listen to her suggestions? Dan picked up his pencil and tapped it restlessly against the desk.

  “In fact, I came in to bring you a list of stable supplies you’ve got to purchase.” She removed a folded piece of notepaper from her hip pocket and handed it to him. “First, you should utilize the horses now instead of waiting for the dude ranch to open. Make them earn their keep.”

  The paper was still warm from her body heat. It rested in his palm like melted butter. She had tight, controlled handwriting. The signature of a perfectionist. Dan swallowed back stark desire and glanced over the list, tapping his pencil faster, harder, against the desk.

  “The total price will run you about a thousand dollars. But you’ll have to have everything on the list if you intend on running a top-notch dude ranch.”

  “We do want McClintock’s Dude Ranch to offer the very best.”

  “Then it’ll cost you.”

  “I’ve discovered everything in life has a price,” he said, drumming the pencil at a frantic pace.

  She reached out and touched his hand. “Could you stop? That’s driving me crazy.”

  The feel of her skin against his caused his throat to constrict. Soft sprouts of hair framed her face, tempting him to brush them away. Her full lips lay far too close. Grasping the pencil firmly in his hand, he heard the crack of wood as it snapped between his fingers.

  “Your wish is my command,” he croaked.

  She slid off the edge of his desk, oblivious to her effect on him. “You know,” she said, “I do have a few ideas for bringing in more money.”

  “Bounce ‘em off me.” Dan tossed the pencil pieces into the wastebasket, dusted his hands together and sat up straighter in his chair.

  “We could get people to board their horses with us. I’m a trained farrier, so you can include my services along with the boarding fees, and Caleb can help with the grooming. I know of at least three people looking for a place to stable their horses.”

  Dan nodded. “We could advertise. Marketing, that’s the key. Why don’t you call those folks you know and offer our stable services for whatever fee you think they’ll be willing to pay.”

  “You don’t mind?”

  “Good grief, why should I?”

  Raleigh shrugged. “I didn’t want to overstep my bounds.”

  “Hey, like you said, it’s your worry, too.”

  “I thought of another way to bring in money this fall and winter,” Raleigh continued, ticking off the options on her fingers.

  “Spill it, Travers.” Heck, how could the dude ranch fail with someone as bright and hardworking as Raleigh on his team?

  “We’d have to get a few rooms ready fast,” she mused.

  “What? You’ve piqued my interest. Don’t keep me in suspense.”

  “Hunters.”

  “Hunters,” he repeated, the concept appealing to him. Why hadn’t he thought of it?

  “Sure. There’s plenty of city men
looking for a place to get away from it all—the job, the rat race, the wife and kids. What better place than here?”

  “You think it would work?”

  “Sure. Pete and I both know how to dress game. We could offer a ‘you kill it, we clean it’ proposition. It would be fairly cheap to have flyers printed up and we could take out ads in sports magazines and daily newspapers around the state. ‘Course, we better hurry, hunting season opens soon.”

  “We could advertise in gun shops and on the local radio station,” Dan suggested, getting into the swing of things.

  “Now you’re cooking.” Raleigh grinned and Dan realized just how infrequently she smiled. The disarming sight delighted him all the way to his toes.

  “We’d have to build some deer blinds. Two or three ought to do. If you and me and Pete got right on it, we could erect them in a few days.”

  Excitement bubbled up inside Dan. He’d certainly hired himself a ringer, smart and pretty, to boot.

  “Any other suggestions?”

  “I could give riding lessons to kids and saddle-train horses.”

  “Excellent ideas.”

  “You really think so?” She beamed.

  “Honey, you’re an answer to my prayers.” Belatedly he realized he’d called her “honey.” Cringing, he glanced sideways at her to see how she would react.

  An enigmatic look crossed her face, but she said nothing.

  “Anything else?” he asked.

  “We could host a hayride, barbecue, barn dance. Have contests and games. Charge a flat fee for large groups like the high school or local churches. Believe me, there’s not much for kids to do in this town. The community would support it. I know they would.” Raleigh rubbed her palms together.

  “What kind of money do you think these projects might net us?”

  “Depends. Maybe fifteen hundred a month, but at least we’d have a steady income while we readied the dude ranch for opening in the spring.”

  “Travers,” he said with heartfelt enthusiasm, “you’re magnificent.”

  And she was. While he was a head-in-the-clouds dreamer, cooking up grand schemes, she was a nuts-and-bolts, hands-on pragmatist. Together they made a terrific pair. Two halves of a whole. He thought of his skeptical father and smiled. Success, after all, was the best revenge.

  Euphoria dissipated his earlier pessimism. Without thinking, he pulled Raleigh into his arms and spun her around the room. He didn’t realize his mistake until he felt her stiffen against him.

  Looking down, he saw her gray eyes had clouded like a pewter mist. Once more, she’d erected that blamed wall around herself. A wall that confused and disturbed him. One minute she was laughing and carefree, the next, serious and distant. He promptly set her on the floor and stepped back.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to manhandle you like that.”

  “It’s okay,” she mumbled.

  An awkward silence descended over them. “I better get back to work. I only came in to give you that list.” She indicated the desk with a wave. He noticed her chest rose and fell in a sharp, rapid rhythm.

  “Thanks for the ideas. I really appreciate your input.”

  She studied her boots. “Just protecting my own interests.”

  He wanted to tell her not to be afraid of him. To allow the attraction stirring between them to simply happen, yet he sensed she wasn’t ready.

  Considering his own track record when it came to romance, he should be the one drawing away, but somehow he couldn’t let pain and loss stop him from pursuing something special. If she would only let him in, tell him her secrets. He longed to recapture the instant joy of the moment just past.

  “Raleigh?”

  “Yes?” She raised her head to face him.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Then she was out the door, leaving Dan alone with his dangerous thoughts.

  * * *

  Raleigh, Pete and Dan spent the next two days building deer blinds. Personally, Raleigh despised hunting, but it was the fastest way to earn ready cash. And that was her ultimate goal—help Dan turn a profit as quickly as possible, collect her share of the earnings and clear out of here before she got any more involved than she already was.

  Then she would have enough funds to start rebuilding her father’s farrier business. Which was all she’d ever wanted in the first place.

  They worked side by side for hours, stopping only for a sack lunch and occasional water breaks. To Raleigh’s dismay, Dan had removed his shirt early on and she’d spent the better part of the afternoon trying to avoid staring at his superb form. Several times she caught herself studying his glistening torso and the seductive way his muscles moved in concert as he busily hammered the wooden structure. Forcibly, she returned her attention to her work, only to find her gaze straying back to his body a few minutes later.

  They finished before sunset, all three stepping back to admire their handiwork.

  “I think we should establish a seasonal schedule of events, what do you think?” she asked Dan, placing her hands to the small of her back and stretching out the kinks.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Dan?”

  “Huh?” He snapped to attention, that dreamy, faraway look in his eyes.

  “Earth to McClintock. Come in McClintock.”

  “Sorry,” he apologized. “My mind wandered.”

  “Well, herd it back to the present decade, okay?”

  Pete chuckled. “Keeping Dan’s head out of the clouds is an uphill battle.”

  “I prefer to think of it as brainstorming.” Dan grinned. “Suppose we bought a chuckwagon. A lot of ranches are starting to have old-fashioned cattle drives. You know, like in that movie City Slickers,” Dan mused, stroking his chin.

  “You don’t have any cattle,” Raleigh observed wryly.

  “And if you think I’m cooking on a chuckwagon, you’re sadly mistaken,” Pete assured him.

  Dan waved a hand. “I’m thinking about future projects. We’d hire a cook, of course. We’re going to have to do that, anyway.”

  “I hate to be the voice of reality,” Raleigh said. “But if we don’t get something going soon, there won’t be a future.”

  “Trust you to bring me down to earth,” Dan said, and the look he gave her zinged hot flashes straight to her stomach.

  “Yeah, at this rate I’ll be living on the ranch all my life.” She shook her head ruefully.

  “Sounds like heaven to me,” Dan teased.

  “Well,” she said, purposefully ignoring his last remark and the sudden acceleration of her pulse. “We’re through here. How about we get started repairing the plumbing in the downstairs bathroom at the farmhouse?”

  Dan consulted his watch. “It’s almost four o’clock. I vote we forget the plumbing and call it a day. We’ve been at this since dawn.”

  “You sure? I wouldn’t mind working for a couple more hours,” Raleigh said.

  “Well, actually...” Dan confessed, “I’ve got a surprise.”

  “Oh?” Pete and Raleigh looked at him expectantly.

  Dan plucked his shirt from a nearby fence post and fished in the pocket for an envelope. “Guess what came in the mail today.”

  Raleigh shook her head.

  “Reservations from a group of four hunters and a check for six hundred dollars. They saw the ad in the Abilene newspaper.” He grinned big as Texas. “I was hoping somebody might feel up to a celebration.”

  “Sorry, boss, Friday night is my poker night,” Pete said. “But you two go right ahead.”

  Dan wriggled his eyebrows at Raleigh. “What do you say?”

  “I don’t think so,” she hedged.

  “Dinner at a swanky restaurant in Abilene? Come on,” he wheedled. “I want to do something special for you. You’ve been working so hard, you deserve a treat.”

  Raleigh hesitated. It would be nice to go out for once, but did she dare risk it, considering the way Daniel McC
lintock made her feel?

  “What about Caleb?” Raleigh asked. “Can he come, too?”

  “Isn’t this the night he’s supposed to sleep over at a friend’s house?”

  Shoot, she’d forgotten about that. “Yeah, it is,” she reluctantly admitted. With Caleb away, she had no ready excuse to hide behind.

  “So?” Dan waited. “You’re not going to make me celebrate by myself, are you?”

  Since the day she’d issued her ultimatum to him, Dan had managed to keep a respectful distance, not once stepping out of line or misbehaving. Maybe she could trust him, after all.

  “I’ll let you pick the restaurant,” he cajoled.

  “Go on, Raleigh,” Pete encouraged. “You need to have a little fun.”

  “All work and no play...” Dan said.

  “I’ve got laundry to do tonight,” she evaded.

  “I promise not to bite. But if you’re too scared of being alone with me, I understand.”

  “Oh, all right,” she acquiesced. She didn’t want Dan to think she was afraid of him. “But only dinner.”

  “Perfect.” Dan smiled. “I’ll give you a ride back to the cabin so you can get changed, then I’ll pick you up in an hour.” He winked.

  The conspiratorial action blasted a jolt of pleasure up from the bottom of her feet. The man possessed enough charisma to dissolve forged steel. Her heart did flip-flops as a shiver of apprehension shot through her.

  By agreeing to have dinner with him, had she just committed a fatal error?

  Chapter Six

  What on earth was she going to wear?

  Fresh from the shower, a fluffy bath towel wrapped around her waist, Raleigh inventoried her closet with abject despair. Groaning, she sank her face into her palms. How had she let herself get roped into this? She’d meant to turn Dan down, but he’d looked so happy about the hunters, she hadn’t had the heart to refuse him.

  Now she was paying the price.

  Her wardrobe consisted almost entirely of blue jeans and tank tops. She sighed heavily and slipped into her cotton bra and panties. Opening her closet, she realized that the few dresses she did own were hopelessly inappropriate. Raleigh tugged the despondent garments off the clothes rack and discarded one after the other onto her unmade bed.