His Outback Cowgirl (Wildflower Ranch Book 4)

by Callen, Alissa

  Their campfire dinner of nachos, followed by apple crisps, was soon eaten and to his relief, Bridie yawned and said she’d have an early night. He’d made sure their bedrolls were again a safe distance apart and as the firelight flickered and the stars blazed overhead, they turned in. The bug spray sounded, before Bridie slipped into her bedroll.

  Head pillowed by his arm, he stared at the inky sky. When silence stretched between them, he thought there’d be no conversation like there’d been the previous night. Then Bridie spoke. “I can’t believe you didn’t have a plan. That actually shocked me.”

  He chuckled. “I did. It was just one you wouldn’t have liked.”

  “Just as well. I guess it was one where I didn’t get to have any fun?”

  “That’s right. But you would have been safe while I distracted the bear.”

  “Sorry, but that’s a bad plan.” He could hear the frown in her voice. “I’m the risk taker, not you. Besides as if I would have let you leave me behind.”

  “That’s why I said I didn’t have a plan.”

  Bridie didn’t immediately reply. He sensed, like him, she was thinking about what happened after the bear left.

  “Ethan ...”

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, you know I more than liked kissing you ... but it can’t happen again.”

  “I know.” The darkness hid his grim expression but couldn’t conceal the regret underpinning his words.

  “You do?”

  “Yes. You’ve lost your father, the last thing you need is any ... complications.”

  “Ethan, you’re not a ... complication. What I was going to say was that I don’t know how long I’ll be around.”

  “Which is true for both us. I have to head back to my own ranch sometime.” He hesitated. “Then there’s the obvious reason, I’m not your type.”

  In the firelight, he could see her prop herself on her elbow and look across at him. “What do you mean?”

  Ethan turned to look at her. “Well, as you said I’m not a risk taker and you are. I like life simple, safe and conventional and you like a little more danger, spice and action.”

  He expected her to smile or laugh but expression serious, she stared at him. “We’re not that different, you know?”

  “Aren’t we?”

  This time a smile shaped her lips. “Oh, I know we’re not. No one sensible and conservative laughs or kisses the way you do. And as for my risk taking,” her voice lowered, “if I was such a risk taker I’d be over in that bedroll with you.”

  Ethan chuckled and rolled onto his bare back. It was either break eye contact or override his self-preservation’s decree to keep his hands off her.

  “Go to sleep. Any more talk like that and I’ll be the one over in your bedroll.”

  She laughed and from the rustle of canvas he knew she too now lay on her back.

  “Ethan?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Thanks. I’ve had a really nice time. I also feel a little ... better. Almost like I’m a different person to the one I’ve become since Dad ... died.”

  “That’s great. And you’re very welcome.”

  He too was a different person. A person who had to get them down off the mountain as quickly as possible tomorrow. Every hour he spent with Bridie only increased the risk he’d break their ‘no kissing’ agreement.

  Wide awake, chest tight, Ethan stared at the stars. A different person who would no longer be content with a predictable, safe and solitary life. A person who had to hide that he’d finally found the only woman he’d ever want.

  Chapter Seven

  “Hang on, Diablo. Give me another second. I just want to take a photo of the wild duck and her ducklings.”

  Bridie ignored the impatient palomino quarter horse to her right who pawed the ground beneath a cottonwood tree. Ethan thought she couldn’t sit still. He’d obviously not met her brother’s high-maintenance stallion. They’d only just stopped for a break at the creek that ran through Hollyhock Creek Ranch.

  Ever since she’d returned from the mountains five days ago she had an obsessive need to go riding and to feel the wind in her hair. The fact that she then spent her ride thinking about Ethan was just a coincidence. Even if kissing him had scrambled her brain and weakened her knees, she shouldn’t be so preoccupied. She was acting like a love struck teenager who’d been kissed for the first time.

  The stallion pawed the ground again.

  “Almost done, Diablo. We’ve got plenty of time. Mom’s birthday lunch doesn’t start until noon.”

  She’d spent the morning helping Trinity and Zane prepare for Clara’s birthday. She’d polished wine glasses, arranged cheese and fruit platters and eaten chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven with Finn and Bug. While the others had showers and changed out of their ranch clothes, she’d snuck off for some time alone.

  Bridie glanced at her watch and stiffened. Where had the hour gone? She snapped a quick photo of the shy mother duck and retraced her steps to Diablo.

  “I know.” She stroked his golden nose as he nudged her. “I should have listened to you.” She swung into the saddle and gathered her reins. “But the upside is we can go home ... fast.”

  She leaned low over his neck and gave the stallion his head. His hooves pounded on the meadow as they followed the creek to the ranch house. The rhythm within her chest wasn’t much different. The thought that Ethan would be at lunch had started off as a sedate whisper but now pulsed through her like a drum beat. She’d soon see him and when she did she had to hide how much she’d missed him. She couldn’t explain what she felt for him to herself, let alone to others. Just as well she’d had a chance to edit her photographs before she’d shown them to her mother and Zane, for there were almost as many photos of Ethan as there were of wildlife.

  When the pitched roof of the stone and wooden stables came into view, Bridie slowed Diablo. The quarter horse was smart and would be quick to learn such bad habits as galloping home. He remained a perfect gentleman until almost at the stables. Then he let her know with some sidestepping that he wasn’t pleased for their ride to end.

  Bridie sat relaxed in the saddle. She’d ridden far more spirited horses than pretty-boy Diablo. “Settle. Don’t let Zane see you do that or he’ll never let me take you out again.”

  “And I won’t either.”

  Bridie blinked. She hadn’t seen Ethan leaning against the stable door. He grinned, unfolded his arms and walked over. “Mind you, not that you’d listen to either of us.”

  She returned his smile and hoped it didn’t appear as giddy as she felt. It shouldn’t feel this good to see him again.

  “True. But there’s no need for either of you to worry. Diablo and I have an ‘understanding’, so despite him looking like he’s forgotten his manners, he’s a pleasure to ride.”

  “If you say so.” Ethan ran a hand down Diablo’s glossy neck to calm him. “I thought Zane was having trouble with him?”

  “He was earlier in the summer but now’s he’s fine. Not that I’d tell Zane, but I think he prefers a woman’s touch.”

  She slipped from the saddle and with Ethan’s help soon had Diablo unsaddled, brushed and back in his corral.

  All the while they worked she snuck glances at Ethan from under her lashes. Today he still smelled clean and fresh but also of spice and wood. She smothered the impulse to bury her head against his neck to smell his cologne. His turquoise plaid Western shirt stretched over his wide shoulders and the dark denim of his Wranglers hugged his lean hips. What was her reason for not kissing him again?

  As if sharing her thoughts, Ethan’s eyes touched her mouth before he jammed his hands in his jeans pockets. “Zane sent me to find you.”

  Bridie fell into step beside Ethan as they left the corral. “Thanks.”

  “So ... how have you been?”

  It wasn’t a long walk past the stables to the ranch house but somehow their pace had slowed to an amble. “Better. I do
n’t feel as ... sad but something will remind me of Dad and then I go two steps back.”

  Ethan nodded, smile gentle. “That’s only natural.”

  “I hope so. So how are those crosswords going?”

  “They’re ... going.”

  She grinned at the resignation in his voice. “That bad.”

  “Yep. Actually you don’t happen to know what a switched-on statue is?”

  By now they were barely walking.

  “What does it start with?”

  “A and it has six letters.”

  She stopped and faced him. “What’s my reward if I know the answer?”

  “My undying gratitude because then Henry can move on to the last puzzle in his book.”

  She pursued her lips. “I’ll settle for this.”

  She stood on tiptoe and before Ethan could move away, she ruffled her fingers through the front of his too-neat hair.

  He kinked a brow. “So how does that work? You get a reward without solving the crossword clue?”

  “That’s very ... astute ... of you.”

  He shook his head, blue gaze alight with laughter. “Okay, Miss Outback Cowgirl, you’re too clever for your fancy boots. Guess who’ll be sitting with Henry and doing crosswords from now on?”

  “Sorry. Not me. You know I can’t sit still.”

  His gaze dipped to her mouth. “Not true. I happen to know of one thing that keeps you still.”

  For a heady moment, she thought he was going to kiss her but then he glanced over her shoulder and the intensity of his gaze ebbed. He lifted a hand in a wave. She turned to see a black pickup driving into the ranch, Cordell behind the wheel and a dark-haired and pretty, Payton beside him.

  Bridie searched Ethan’s face. Even though they were beside the stables and hidden from the ranch house, they were in clear view of the road. If Ethan was concerned his twin had seen them standing close together he didn’t show it.

  “We’d better head in,” he said, walking again, “before Zane sends out a search party for both of us.”

  Hair still warm from the blow-dryer, Bridie sectioned off two long curls from the front and twisted them together at the back of her head. She secured them with bobby pins and then slid a white silk flower over the pins. Thoughtful Trinity had left the flower plus pretty floral dress laid out on her bed while she’d been riding. The white dress splashed with sprays of blue flowers was simple and perfect. Trinity had known exactly what style would appeal to Bridie.

  She’d applied make up with a light touch and now added a last layer of gloss over her pink lipstick. Her mother had been through so much, not only in the past six months, and she wanted to make an effort for her birthday. Her hair was done, boots wiped free from dust, and she was good to go downstairs to the party.

  A knock sounded at her door before Trinity’s soft voice sounded. “Bridie, does the dress fit okay?”

  “Yes, it’s perfect.”

  Bridie opened the door to see Trinity dressed in a red and white polka-dot sun dress. Bridie could understand why Zane had fallen for the speech therapist. Not only was she beautiful, with her green eyes and glossy brown hair, she also possessed a warm integrity that inspired both trust and confidence.

  “Thanks for finding it when you picked up Mom’s cake in town. I should have realized earlier I’d need something to wear other than jeans.”

  “Zane will tell you I don’t need any excuse to go shopping. Which is just as well because I don’t think that brother of yours has bought any new clothes for at least a decade.”

  Bridie chuckled. “Finn’s told me that you bought Zane a pink shirt and even though he grumbles every time he wears it, now it’s his favorite.”

  Trinity’s stunning smile showed why she’d been the one to thaw Zane’s untrusting heart. “And if I do say so myself, he does look good in pink.” She slipped her arm through Bridie’s. “Let’s go and see if he’s wearing it now because twenty minutes ago he still had his ripped grey one on.”

  Arm in arm they went downstairs and into the kitchen.

  Zane was wearing his pink shirt and as they entered the large open plan room, the tender look he sent Trinity, caused Bridie’s eyes to mist. He’d been alone for so long and to know that he and Finn had found happiness with Trinity made Bridie’s heart melt. She might have just met her strong and silent brother but she felt like she’d known him all her life. They’d bonded over a mutual interest in horses and cattle and a deep love for their mother.

  Zane grinned at her, a smile almost identical to her own, as he opened a bottle of red wine. “Perfect timing. Mom needs help finding a recipe. She’s disappeared into the library.”

  “Okay. I’ll go and find her.”

  Bridie made her way to the library her mom had started when Zane was a baby and which now was a room of wall-to-wall books. She still found it hard to believe her mother had had another life before she’d married her father. A life she only talked about to her husband and not her daughter because it had caused so much heartache. Naïve and young, she’d married an older man to please her family. Her cold and powerful husband soon became abusive and once he had the sons he’d wanted, he’d used her postnatal depression to force her away from her home and her children.

  Bridie walked into the room that had been her mother’s sanctuary and that she no longer needed with her ex-husband now long gone. Sadness filtered through Bridie. Even though her gentle mother never had the chance to reconnect with her youngest son, Russ, who’d died in a light plane crash, she was finally reunited with Zane and had met her grandson.

  Her mother stood beside a small table, a pile of books beside her. Dressed in an elegant pale blue dress, she barely resembled the wan and rail-thin woman Bridie had put on a plane to Montana six weeks ago. Her grey hair was coiled into a neat bun, her frail limbs were now fuller and stronger, but most of all the light had returned to her blue eyes.

  “Hi, sweetheart.” Her smile widened. “Don’t you look nice?”

  “Thanks.” Bridie kissed her cheek and breathed in her familiar lavender scent. “You do too.”

  Emotion thickened her words. She’d come so close to losing her. Before her father had fallen ill, her mother had fought long and hard to survive breast cancer.

  “Can I please have your pavlova recipe to share with Payton? I’m also trying to find an old-fashioned lime cake recipe my mother used to bake. I know I once had a cookbook with it in it.”

  “No worries.” Bridie walked toward the door. “I’ll write it down for Payton after I’ve helped with lunch.”

  On her first visit to the long table Zane had placed in the shade of an old cottonwood tree, Bridie sat two pitchers of water. She waved to Henry who sat in a comfortable chair across the lawn, talking to Lesley, the bookstore owner, and Hank, the Hollyhock Creek ranch foreman.

  On her second visit she set a vase of sweet-smelling pink roses in the middle of the elegant table. She stepped back to check the table settings were complete. Her grief stirred. If only she could have set a place for her father and he could have shared in her mother’s special day, a day they’d once celebrated as though it could be her mother’s last. Bridie’s walk back to the kitchen wasn’t quite so fast.

  On her third trip Bridie placed a basket of fresh bread rolls on the table. She looked up and her eyes met Ethan’s. He smiled and she forced a smile in return. Finn left the sandpit and walked over to where Ethan stood with Cordell and fellow rancher, Rhett, and slipped his small hand into Ethan’s. This time the emotion that lanced through her wasn’t only grief. Being around Finn these past weeks had awakened her deep yearning to have a family of her own. And being around Ethan had unlocked feelings she wasn’t ready to examine.

  Throat tight and desperate for air, she swung away. She couldn’t wait until her next mountain trip to be alone. She needed space ... now.

  When Bridie again went through the kitchen door, instinct told Ethan she wouldn’t appear again. With every trip to the table her shoulde
rs were a little more stiff and her smile more brittle. She might look picture-perfect in her summer dress that clung to her curves and revealed the shapely length of her legs, but he knew better. She’d perfected the art of presenting a brave façade to the world when inside her heart bled.

  He glanced at Cordell, who gave him a nod. His twin hadn’t missed how close he and Bridie had stood together near the stables or how Ethan had then watched her.

  Cordell bent to talk to Finn. “Hey, buddy, I’d love to see how much Bug has grown. Can you take me and Rhett to see him?”

  “Yep.” Finn slipped his hand from Ethan’s and took hold of Cordell’s. “He’s in his kennel that Trinity and I painted.”

  Ethan waited a moment while the trio walked around to where Bug’s brightly colored kennel sat at the back of the ranch house, and then headed for the kitchen door. Henry glanced at him as he passed. In his faded blue gaze Ethan glimpsed concern. Ethan wasn’t the only person keeping an eye on Bridie.

  Ethan entered the kitchen and saw Trinity and Rhett’s tiny but strong-willed fiancée, Ivy, chatting as they prepared fresh salads. As he’d predicted, there was no sign of Bridie.

  Trinity gave him a knowing grin. “If you’re looking for Bridie she headed down the hallway. Clara’s still in the library so I think she was going to see her again.”

  “Thanks.”

  But when Ethan entered the hallway he paused. Bridie wouldn’t have gone to the library. She’d not want her mother to see her upset and then worry. She also wouldn’t go to her room, she’d want to do something physical. Riding was out of the question, which only left pool. He turned left to head downstairs to the games room. At Grey’s Saloon she’d played for hours.

  He pushed open the games room door and heard the unmistakable clunk of pool balls connecting. Pool cue in her hand, Bridie straightened and stared at him. Her eyes were huge and dark in her pinched face but her lips curved. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” He stepped forward, took a pool cue from off the rack and chalked the end. “So this is why you didn’t need any help from Nick Ryan?”