Romancing the Rancher (The Pirelli Brothers)

by Stacy Connelly

  “I already have a ton of pictures of the horses. You can look at them and pick the ones you want to use. And—you’re going to let me decorate the rest of the rooms? Yes! I cannot wait!”

  “Don’t get too excited. You’re gonna have to work with a serious budget because we’re using my money, not yours.”

  Summer didn’t let his warning dampen her enthusiasm. “You’ll be amazed with how much I can do. It’s all about making the most of what you have.”

  * * *

  Making the most of what you have.

  That was definitely Jarrett’s plan as he finished up in the stables and headed back to Theresa’s cabin. The sky was only now starting to lighten, faint streaks of color softening the night sky, the promise of an entire day still ahead, but he didn’t slow his pace over the muddy ground. He and Theresa might not have much time, but he was determined to make the most of it.

  Desperate to make the most of it, if he were honest with himself. Once Theresa left, all he would have were his memories. So sue him if he wanted to pack a lifetime’s worth into a two-week period.

  Unless there was a way to put that time to better use. To take those two weeks and try to convince Theresa to stay. Not forever. Just for a little longer.

  He nearly choked as he tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly bone-dry at the thought of asking her to stay. What had he told her as he pulled her onto the dance floor the night of the wedding?

  Some risks are worth taking...

  Yeah, big talk so long as he didn’t have to put his words into action.

  Would it really be so hard to ask? Just a few short words.

  Don’t go. Stay.

  They repeated on a loop—or like an echo—familiar and frightening as he opened the cabin’s door. Stay. Don’t go.

  But as he stepped inside, he froze for a moment as he heard Theresa’s voice from down the hall. Judging by the one-sided conversation, she was obviously on the phone, and Jarrett relaxed a little. No witnesses at least if he did decide to put himself out there.

  Don’t go. Stay.

  So focused on what he wanted to say, it took a moment for her words to register, for him to realize he didn’t have to ask the question when she’d already given him the answer.

  “No, Mom, nothing’s changed. I’m staying through the end of the month.”

  Nothing’s changed... Okay, so he couldn’t expect Theresa to go into detail with her mother about the night they’d shared, but to hear it dismissed as nothing...

  He sucked in a breath that seemed to sear his lungs. The shock of the words slammed him to the ground as hard as any bull ever had, and he fell back on old habits. Moving slowly, taking stock, trying to figure out just how badly he was hurt and whether or not he’d live... And like in those days as he’d push to his feet, spitting out dirt and blood, he’d grab his hat, shake off the dust and tell himself he was fine.

  So now he knew where he stood with Theresa, and that was a good thing. The only thing, he figured, that would keep him from falling.

  * * *

  “Thanks for helping me out with all of this,” Summer said to Theresa as the two of them, along with Sophia, carted their latest purchases from The Hope Chest to the back of the truck they’d borrowed from Jarrett. “I know I promised Jarrett I’d stay within budget, but it’d be all too easy for me to go overboard without ya’ll along.”

  “We can thank Sophia for that. I totally appreciate the ‘friends and family’ discount, but I think we can all agree that will be our secret.” Jarrett had turned his sister loose on the cabins, but he’d made his stance on who was paying very clear. Theresa didn’t want to do anything to rock the delicate balance between the siblings, but she couldn’t resist helping out a little.

  “My lips are sealed,” Sophia said with a conspirator’s smile as she placed a tightly bubble-wrapped-and-boxed lamp in the nearly full truck bed. “And I love the cross-promotion idea you came up with,” she told Summer, referring to the younger woman’s idea to have flyers for The Hope Chest on display at the ranch along with a link for the shop on the new website. “As soon as you have the new Rockin’ R brochures printed, let me know, and I’ll start passing them out to all our customers.”

  “I just have a few more changes to make before they go to the printer. I can’t wait for you to see them. And you’ll have to come out to the ranch, too, so you can see all this in one of the cabins instead of in the back of a truck,” she said with a laugh as she headed back inside.

  Summer’s enthusiasm was contagious, and Theresa couldn’t help smiling. But then again, she’d been doing a lot of that recently. Something her sharp-eyed cousin had certainly noticed.

  “I think I do need to take a trip out to the ranch. See for myself what’s put the spark back in your eyes,” she teased.

  “Must be all the fresh air,” Theresa said blandly.

  “Uh-huh. And Jarrett has nothing to do with it?”

  Theresa fought to keep her smile in place. Casual, friendly, no reason to break into a huge grin or worse, burst out in song, just because Sophia had said his name.

  Only a few hours away, and Theresa couldn’t wait to rush back into his arms. To see him smile and hear him laugh. To watch his eyes light up in greeting and darken with desire. To know all she had to do was walk by within arms’ length for him to reach out and pull her into his embrace.

  But she hadn’t lied to Sophia about the fresh air. Jarrett was in his element in the outdoors, and Theresa loved being part of his world. They’d gone horseback riding almost every day—sometimes riding double on Champ, other times leading trail rides on Duke and Molly. She’d been wrong when she thought riding the calm, gentle mare wouldn’t be enough. As it turned out, little could compare riding side by side with Jarrett at a pace slow and easy enough for them to hold hands and even share a stolen kiss or two.

  Jarrett had given her a tour of the unfinished cabins and shared his vision for the ranch’s future. His hard work and determination amazed her, but she worried about him, too. He pushed himself so hard.

  She’d seen him start to relax, though, giving Summer this chance to decorate the cabins as well as work on the website. He’d come so far, opened up so much. With a little more time...

  What? Theresa demanded of herself, derailing that thought before the train could get rolling. They’d both known going in their relationship had a quickly approaching expiration date. She was going back to St. Louis, and Jarrett had asked nothing more of her than that they spend that time together.

  “He’s a great guy,” she told her cousin. “And we’re...having fun.”

  “Fun?” Sophia echoed dubiously.

  “Sure. What did Darcy call it? A whirlwind romance to give you married women a thrill.”

  “Theresa...I know you.”

  The words were an unspoken reminder of the conversation the two of them had had at Drew’s wedding. If you’re thinking about sleeping with Jarrett, you’re not falling. You’re already there.

  “Maybe you knew the old me,” she told her cousin. “But this is the new me. You said yourself that I’ve played things too safe in the past.”

  “I know.” Sympathy and understanding shone in her cousin’s dark eyes. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

  The shop door swung open again as Summer backed out onto the sidewalk, another box in hand. “We’re almost to the end of it!” she announced, and Theresa was glad to turn her attention away from her love life to finish loading the last of their purchases.

  They were down to the final boxes when a young mother and her son walked by the sidewalk outside the shop.

  “This is the coolest cast, doncha think, Mom?” The young boy, who Theresa guessed to be six or seven, held out the camouflaged cast encircling his wrist as if he’d just been given the best toy ever. Sig
ns from the tears he’d shed earlier still left tracks on his slightly dirty, freckled face, but he was smiling now.

  His harried-looking mother heaved a sigh as she kept a tight grip on his uninjured hand. “So cool, Bobby. About as cool as the heart attack you almost gave me jumping out of the swing like that. And do not get any ideas about a matching cast on the other wrist, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay. But I can’t wait for all my friends at school to see!”

  Theresa smiled a little at the exchange, even as her gaze moved down the street to the building the mother and son had exited. The small medical clinic where she, too, had had her arm set years ago. “Summer, can you handle the rest of this? There’s someone I’d like to go say hello to.”

  The younger woman waved her off, and Theresa made her way down the sidewalk. The midafternoon sunshine held a hint of warmth, promising that spring was on the way. Four months, she realized suddenly. It had been almost four months since the accident. The agonizing days in the hospital and rehab had seemed to last forever, and yet something as everyday as squealing tires could snap her back to the nightmare of the crash as if it had happened yesterday.

  Theresa took a deep breath before opening the door to the clinic. The ringing of a bell announced her arrival as she stepped inside. Warm earth tones decorated the waiting room, giving it almost a homey, more relaxed feel, unlike the various doctors’ offices she’d visited in St. Louis.

  “Good afternoon.” Marie Oliver’s eyes widened as she stepped out from the back office and saw her. “Theresa! I thought you’d gone back home with the rest of your family.”

  They’d bugged her about it—Alex more annoying than most of her family members—but she’d stuck with her original plan. Which was exactly what she’d told her mother when Donna called the other day to try to change her mind—again. “I’m staying through the end of the month,” she told the nurse. “I was in town and just thought I’d stop by.”

  She wasn’t sure what exactly had urged her to go to the clinic. Something about seeing that little boy. Judging by his mother’s comments, it likely wasn’t the first time he’d been a patient of Doc Crawford’s and probably wouldn’t be the last. There’d be typical injuries—scraped-up knees and palms from falling off a skateboard, maybe a busted chin. Then there would be cold and flu season throughout school years and a sports physical or two before little Bobby could play baseball or basketball. As a nurse here, Marie would be part of treating all those growing pains.

  “Well, I must say you look better than the last time I saw you.”

  Blinking away her thoughts, Theresa glanced down at her jeans and sweatshirt. Her slightly dusty jeans and sweatshirt, as she and Summer had dug through the back storage area when Summer couldn’t find just the right lamp. Unlike the cluttered but spotless front of the store, the back area was, well, even more cluttered, but not so clean. Comparing how she looked right then to the night of Debbie and Drew’s wedding—

  “I’m not talking about your clothes,” the nurse said, following Theresa’s thoughts with a smile. “I’m talking about you. You have more color in your cheeks, more spark in your eyes and even a bit of a spring in your step.”

  All signs of good health, Theresa thought, but also signs of great sex. She could feel a bit more color rise in her cheeks and knew she should be glad the nurse was attributing the transformation to her recovery rather than to anything else. “Well, um, thanks.”

  “At the wedding, your mother mentioned you’ll be heading back to school soon.”

  Theresa sighed. “She’s been encouraging me to look into hospital administration.”

  Marie studied her thoughtfully. “You don’t sound too happy with the idea.”

  “It’s an important job. I’m not saying otherwise, but to me, it all seems more about paperwork than patients. And it’s certainly not why I became a nurse in the first place.”

  I want to help people. I miss helping people.

  The longing had been growing steadily over the past week or so. Maybe longer than that, even as she’d disguised the need while helping out with the horses and doing a small part to help heal the rift between Jarrett and his sister. And it was something, but it wasn’t enough.

  Caring about people isn’t something you do, it’s who you are.

  “But when I think of going back to the ER—the fast pace, the long hours—I just don’t know if I can do it.”

  “It’s a tough job, and I have plenty of friends who burned out working in the ER after only a few years without the injuries you sustained in the accident. How is your recovery coming?”

  Talking with a fellow nurse, Theresa explained her prognosis using the medical terms she generally avoided when talking to friends and family. Naturally, she’d spoken with her own doctors and therapists, but she’d hated the role reversal of being treated like a patient. With Marie, though, she knew she was talking with an old friend and a medical professional.

  “Do you mind if I take a look?” the nurse asked after Theresa explained the nerve damage she’d suffered.

  “Um, no,” she said, slightly surprised by the request. Holding out her arm, she allowed the nurse to check her range of motion and test her strength and flexibility. As she squeezed, she could feel the resistance of muscle and bone as her fingers closed all the way around the other woman’s hand. But more than that, she could feel a returning strength in her own hand that hadn’t been there weeks—even days—ago.

  “Judging by the smile on your face, that’s an improvement?” Marie asked as she gave a nonmedical squeeze in return.

  A huge smile trembled on her lips, even as the sting of tears burned her eyes. “I’ve been keeping up with my exercises, but most days, I questioned whether they were even helping. I really didn’t think I was getting any better.”

  “Healing can be funny that way. Sometimes the steps are so small, you aren’t even aware that you’re taking them. But then one day, you wake up and realize just how far you’ve come.

  “Look, I know your family is pushing you in one direction, and I don’t want to pull you in another, but I’m going to say this anyway. I’m planning to retire within the next few months if not sooner. My husband took his pension last year, and the two of us want to start traveling while we’re still in good enough health to do so. I’ve been warning Doc that he’s going to have to find a replacement, but like most men, he doesn’t listen to things he doesn’t want to hear. But he’s a good boss and great friend, so I can’t just up and leave without knowing that he and all our patients are in good hands.”

  Opening her mouth, Theresa realized she didn’t know what to say. Her first instinct was to thank the other woman for thinking of her, but as an ER nurse, she wasn’t interested in working in a small-town clinic. But before she could form the words, those images of little Bobby were back and stronger than ever as she realized what working in Clearville would mean. Following patients not just through injury or illness but through their lives. Seeing them grow from an infant to a child to a teenager. Years and years from now, treating their children as Marie had had the chance to do with her cousins’ families. “I—I’m sorry, but you’ve caught me totally off guard. I wasn’t expecting this.”

  “Just think about it,” the nurse encouraged her. “And don’t worry. I won’t bring it up to your family. This has to be your decision, and only you know if it’s right for you to stay.”

  The possibilities had her head spinning as she walked out of the doctor’s office. Staying in Clearville.

  Staying...with Jarrett.

  * * *

  By the time she and Summer returned to the ranch, Theresa’s head was still spinning. Was she seriously thinking about staying? What about her life in St. Louis? Her job? Her friends? She gave a small laugh at the thought. So much of her life had revolved around her job—the majority of her acquaintances centered
around the ER. Not to mention her relationship with Michael.

  Oh, sure, she’d had plenty of visitors while she was still in the hospital. But once she and Michael broke up, once she went home, those visits had slowed to a trickle. And she’d told herself she understood. People were busy with their own lives, but in truth, the hospital was the connection and without it, she had little else in common with her work friends.

  There was Caitlyn, of course, and leaving her best friend would be hard. But with her hectic schedule at the ER, they’d already gotten used to spending more time texting and playing phone tag than seeing each other in person. Her friend would understand. Her family? Theresa sighed. She wasn’t so sure how they would feel. Her mother had her heart set on Theresa going back to school, and Alex would be instantly suspicious that Theresa was changing her life for a man.

  For Jarrett.

  She’d tried to keep him out of the equation. She honestly did. Would she still want to move to Clearville if the two of them weren’t involved? But somehow the question kept getting painfully jumbled up in her head and her heart.

  Would Jarrett still want to be involved if she moved to Clearville?

  They hadn’t talked about the future because, up until twenty minutes ago, she wouldn’t have thought they could have one. And she couldn’t let it be the reason she moved halfway across the country. This kind of a life-changing decision had to be right on more levels than just their relationship alone. But that didn’t mean she didn’t want some sign, some reassurance, that the idea of her staying in Clearville—staying with him—would fill him with the same hope, the same sense of possibility tripping through her veins.

  As Summer turned the truck onto the ranch property, Theresa asked, “Can you drop me at the stables? I’ll come down to the cabin in a few minutes, but I need to talk to Jarrett first.”

  “Sure thing. Tell him we need his big, strong muscles for the heavy lifting if he has time.”