Her Cowboy Dilemma

by C. J. Carmichael

  Maybe she’d find out more about the past tonight.

  But when she opened the door it wasn’t Vince Butterfield standing on the porch.

  Words deserted her.

  Finally Farley said, “I guess your mother didn’t tell you she’d invited me?”

  She shook her head no. Three days had passed since she’d seen him last. But had she thought about him?

  Oh, yeah.

  “How’s Sky doing?”

  “So much better. And Finnegan is, too. He’s been eating a little more, every day.” And then she blurted, “You look good.”

  He’d dressed up in dark jeans and a Western-style dark shirt, and she thought it would be fair to say she’d never seen a man who looked better in black.

  Or sexier.

  “You look nice, too. Even combed your hair, I see.” He took a strand and let it slide between his fingers, then bent in closer for a look at the baby.

  She could smell the botanical mint of his shampoo, and also feel the heat of his body. He touched a finger to Stephanie’s cheek and she found herself wishing he would touch her, too.

  Heck and darn. Get a grip on yourself.

  “Isn’t she the sweetest baby?”

  “Sure is.” But Farley was looking at her as he said this.

  Gosh, she felt like such a fool. She could feel a flush gathering on her cheeks and she wished her mother had given her some warning.

  Though Olive’s comment about making an effort with her hair and makeup for a change should have tipped her off.

  Farley straightened, and his voice deepened as he said he was glad to hear that Finnegan was eating again. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure Finn would be strong enough to beat this thing. I’ll come by tomorrow and draw a sample for testing. The sooner we can clear your ranch of the quarantine, the better.”

  “That would be great.” She led the way to the combined kitchen/family room, where Farley was given a warm welcome. His friendship with her brothers was reason enough for him to be here tonight, but Olive’s smug smile told Cassidy everything she needed to know about her motives for inviting the vet.

  On the pretence of helping her mother with the potatoes, Cassidy passed the baby to Laurel, then went to the stove and murmured, “You can stop with the matchmaking, okay? It isn’t going to work.”

  “Don’t be silly. I just wanted to thank Farley for all the extra work he’s been doing for us. I’m so glad that darn strangles didn’t spread any further than it did. I have you to thank as well, Cassidy. You did a wonderful job keeping it contained.”

  Cassidy waited. There was usually a “but” or an “if only” attached to one of her mother’s compliments.

  “If only you weren’t so set on working in the city. You have such a knack with animals.”

  “I have a knack with numbers, too, Mom. And a good brain. Is it such a crime that I want to use it?”

  “Are you saying we don’t have to think because we work on a ranch? That we’re somehow inferior to people who work in offices and ivory towers?”

  “Of course that’s not what I mean.” Cassidy blew out an exasperated breath. Her mother was unbelievably obdurate. How was she ever going to get the message across that she was not going to put up with her mother nosing in on her love life?

  When it came time to sit at the table, certain that her mother was going to connive to sit her next to Farley, Cassidy wiggled in for the chair between Jackson and Corb. But in a move worthy of a choreographed ballet, somehow Corb got diverted, Laurel moved over a space, and Farley ended up on her right-hand side after all.

  He raised his eyebrows at her and shrugged, as if to say he wasn’t sure how it had happened, either.

  Cassidy fumed.

  It wasn’t just her mother. Her whole family was behind this scheme. And she was fed up.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to sit by Farley. But they made it happen so obviously, it was embarrassing.

  Besides, what was Farley to think? That her family thought she was so unappealing they had to find her a man—since she couldn’t do it on her own.

  Cassidy ate very little of the meal, and added even less to the conversation.

  Olive focused most of her efforts on Farley.

  “Tell me—you don’t have plans to sell any more of your land, do you?”

  “No. When Dad retired we let a section go to Cooper Madison. He’d been renting it from us for years and was anxious to own it outright. But we’re keeping the rest.”

  “That’s good. You know a corner of your land to the west butts right up to Coffee Creek. It’s good grazing.”

  “I know. Why? Were you interested in renting it?”

  Olive laughed. “Oh, we’ve plenty of land for our own needs, Farley. I just thought it was an interesting tidbit.”

  “Really? An interesting tidbit?”

  In the back of her mind, Cassidy heard the percolating rumbles of the approaching thunderstorm. But she had nothing to fear from thunder and lightning. It was her mother who had her all riled up.

  And she just couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Go on, Mom, why don’t you connect all the dots for Farley? In case he’s so stupid he can’t see that if he and I marry it will be so wonderful that our land is connected.”

  “Whoa, Cass. You’re getting a little crazy here,” Corb said.

  “Am I? It isn’t just Mother behind this. You think I didn’t notice the way all of you herded Farley and me into these two back seats—like we were cattle going up the ramp to the loading chute.”

  “Cassidy!” Olive threw down her napkin.

  An eerie silence fell over the table. It was as though the entire ranch was holding its breath.

  Then, in the next second, came a crash of thunder that had the dishes dancing on the table. Cassidy was already standing by then.

  “I think it would be a good idea if I went to the barn and checked on the horses.”

  No one said a word to her as she left the room.

  * * *

  FARLEY WANTED TO laugh. Or maybe cheer. But he didn’t think either reaction would sit well with the Lamberts. And though they were friends, Coffee Creek Ranch was also his biggest client.

  So he held his tongue and just listened as Olive apologized for the rudeness of her daughter.

  “I didn’t think she was all that rude,” he said calmly. “You gotta admit she was provoked.” He glanced around the table. Olive had an expression of wide-eyed innocence, but no one else would meet his gaze. “You all were a little obvious,” he added.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dan Farley.” Olive started gathering plates, even though most of them hadn’t finished eating. “Cassidy thinks everything is all about her. It never occurred to her that maybe Laurel wanted to sit by Corb and that’s why— Oh, bother. It’s just too silly to put into words.”

  Olive was doing a good job of obfuscating, but Corb, Laurel and Jackson were smirking. They knew a con job when they heard one.

  “Guilty as charged,” said Corb, shaking his head. “Sorry, buddy. Seems real stupid now, but we did kind of arrange things so you two sat together.”

  “Corb!”

  “Cassidy does take a lot of wisecracks from her brothers,” Laurel said diplomatically.

  “Come on, honey. We’re just having fun. It’s no big deal.”

  “Well, it is to your sister,” Farley pointed out. “She feels like she’s being railroaded.” And not for the first time, he guessed. It couldn’t be easy being the youngest, and the only girl, in a family as strong-willed as this one.

  They didn’t mean to run roughshod over her. But what none of them seemed to understand was that beneath her tough, spunky attitude, she was soft and vulnerable.

  A side she tended to only reveal when she was around the animals she loved. Sky, Lucy...Finnegan.

  He understood better now why she was so determined to start a new life for herself in Billings.

  Chapter Eleven

 
; On Monday the phone rang while Cassidy was having breakfast with her mother. Olive was preparing to give a tour to some buyers who were driving up from Bozeman in about an hour, while Cassidy was waiting for Farley to come by and grab a mucus sample from Finn.

  Her mustang had showed a bit more appetite again this morning, and Cassidy was really hopeful that the test would be clear of the strangles bacteria.

  Her mother wasn’t talking to her much today. She was still wounded by the scene Cassidy had made at last night’s dinner.

  Cassidy figured she should be the one who was wounded. But as time went by she felt more and more guilty. She hated discord and her mother’s silent treatment was the worst.

  “It’s for you.”

  Those were the first words her mother had said to her all morning. “Thanks, Mom.” Cassidy took the receiver, resisting the urge to move to another room.

  “Hello, this is Cassidy Lambert.”

  “Nice to speak to you, Ms. Lambert. This is Pamela Oswald from Cushman and Green.”

  Cassidy froze. Finally they were getting back to her. But she’d checked on Facebook last night and several more of her classmates had reported being given second interviews last week.

  So maybe now they were calling the rejects?

  She tried to prepare herself for disappointment. She didn’t want to fall apart. Not in front of her mother.

  “I’ve been looking forward to hearing from you, too,” she replied.

  “I’m glad. Because we were hoping you would come to our offices for a second interview. We’d like you to meet a few more people in our organization and give them a chance to get to know you, as well.”

  Cassidy pumped her arm. Yes! “That would be great.” Was that too colloquial? “I mean, I’d be happy to come to Billings.”

  “Would Thursday suit you? Say at nine?”

  “That sounds perfect.”

  “Great. Just go to the main reception desk and ask for me. I’ll send you an email confirming the details, in case you don’t have a pen and paper handy right now.”

  “Thanks so much, Ms. Cushman. I mean Oswald.” Cassidy’s insides cringed at the mistake, but the woman on the phone didn’t even seem to notice as she thanked her again, then said goodbye.

  Cassidy replaced the phone. Her mother had been watching her, but now she seemed busy stacking the dishwasher. When she was done, she washed her hands, then finally looked at her daughter.

  “I suppose that was the accounting firm you’ve been waiting to hear from?”

  Heck and darn. She wanted to be happy about this. Instead, she felt almost guilty. “They’ve invited me for a second interview on Thursday.”

  “So soon?”

  Three days’ notice didn’t seem unreasonable to Cassidy, but she nodded.

  “Well, I guess we’ll all just chip in and work a little harder around here.”

  There were actual tears in Olive’s eyes as she said this. Tears that Cassidy knew would have any one of her brothers jumping hoops to try to clear away.

  But Cassidy knew there was no way to do that. She’d told her mom that she wasn’t going to be a regular part of the team that ran Coffee Creek Ranch. No matter how many times she said it, her mother never seemed to hear.

  Her mother didn’t want to hear. Maybe a good daughter would behave different. Cassidy knew she couldn’t.

  She would go on that interview.

  And, if she was offered the job, she would take it.

  * * *

  MONDAY MORNING FARLEY took a few hours at his desk to catch up on paperwork and follow through with test results. He was pleased to see that the cultures for both Lucy and Chickweed from Coffee Creek Ranch were negative for S. equi.

  Finnegan’s, however, was still positive. But this was the sample he’d taken last week. He’d get another today and hopefully that one would reveal better news.

  He pulled up his sheet with the calls he needed to make today. Liz always prepared this for him, right after she made their morning coffee.

  Looked like he had another long day to put in, but that was springtime in ranch country for you. Frankly, Coffee Creek Ranch was getting big enough that they could almost use a full-time vet. Monahan’s equine center—a horse training and boarding facility on the other side of town—was his other major client. They employed a full-time farrier, but he was often called out to help there, as well.

  And he was still trying to service the other thirty or so ranchers in the area. Thankfully, most of them were a hell of a lot smaller, many more like acreages than real farms or ranches.

  Still they all had animals. And most anyone who had domesticated animals, whether cows, horses, dogs, cats, or even—as in the case of the Bernhard family—lizards, eventually needed a vet.

  “So.”

  He heard Liz enter his office and plant herself in the vacant chair.

  When she didn’t say anything further, he looked up from his papers. Normally Liz was a pretty upbeat person. Today she didn’t seem that happy. “Yes, Liz?”

  “I have a friend whose son just graduated from vet school in Washington. He met a girl from Lewiston while he was there. She also graduated from vet school, by the way. They’re planning on getting married and moving to the area. You could either sit back and let them become your competition. Or you could hire them and train them so they actually learn to become decent veterinarians.”

  “It’s not enough that you arrange my dates. Now you’re hiring the staff, too?”

  “Look, it’s a lead, okay? Would it hurt to interview them?” She set two résumés on his desk. “Don’t know why I bother. I give you the best advice in the world and you never follow it.”

  He sighed. “I take it you spoke to Amber this weekend?”

  “You mean the prettiest, nicest and most eligible woman in the county? Yes, I did.”

  Prettiest? No.

  Nicest? Maybe. If by nice you meant bland.

  And he could name one other woman who was just as eligible as Amber Ellis. Not that it made any difference to him. He was pretty sure after Sunday dinner he’d made it to Cassidy’s “no fly” list.

  “Liz, you know chemistry is a big X factor. You can take a man and a woman that you think would make a perfect couple and it just doesn’t work out that way.”

  “Yeah. Maybe that was the problem. Or maybe Cassidy Lambert came back to town and—”

  “Liz.” He used her name like a big, forceful stop sign. “Off-limits, Liz.”

  She looked startled. And well she might. He’d never said that to her before.

  But no way, no how, was he discussing Cassidy with her.

  Silently, she gave him a resentful look, then left the room. He waited until she’d closed the door before he checked his list again.

  How about that? First stop: Coffee Creek Ranch.

  * * *

  FARLEY DROVE UP to the Lamberts’ home barn about fifteen minutes later. Today he was just making a quick trip, to get a sample from Finnegan, then he was off to the other side of the county for a long day of preg-testing on the Double D.

  He slipped on his stethoscope and a pair of gloves before stepping into the quarantine area. He found Cassidy giving her mustang a gentle rubdown.

  Lucky horse.

  She was in those jeans she always wore. He’d noticed the label when he’d washed them. Tuff, they were called. Sexy, was what he called them. They made her legs look long and slender and her rear end unbelievably cute.

  She had on an old T-shirt today, only partially tucked in, but he didn’t mind that. Cassidy was at her best when she looked disheveled.

  “Hey, Farley.” She kept brushing her horse, but he could see a flush working its way up her neck to her fair cheeks. “I’m sorry about last night. I hope I didn’t embarrass you too much.”

  “It’d take a lot more than that to get me embarrassed. I thought it was kind of funny to tell you the truth.” He went on the other side of Finnegan, listened to his heart and lungs and frowne
d. Not what he’d been hoping for. “How’s our boy doing today?”

  “He ate a little. Not as much as I’d like.” Cassidy paused. “I wish I could find those scenes with my mother funny. I try to let it all slide off me, the way Corb does. But she gets to me. She really does.”

  “They say mother-daughter relationships can be tricky. Not that I know firsthand.” He pulled a swab kit out of his case and quickly took another sample.

  Then he checked Finn’s temperature, frowning again when he saw it was thirty-nine degrees. He said nothing to Cassidy, though, not wanting to worry her.

  “I’ll get back to you on the test. But I have a feeling it may be a while before we get this bug completely out of his system. In the meantime, you can let Lucy and Chickweed rejoin the herd. Their tests came out negative again.”

  “They’ll be so glad about that. And so will I. They’ve been so frisky lately I can’t seem to give them enough exercise.”

  “Been barrel racing with Lucy again?” He hoped so. He’d loved watching Cassidy on the palomino. The golden girl and her golden horse. Even more appealing than the picture they’d made, however, had been the way they worked together as a unit.

  “Maybe I will this afternoon.” Cassidy put down the curry brush, then hitched her thumbs in her belt loops and followed him out of the stall. “It’s fun for both of us, though I suspect Mom and Corb would prefer I got some more work done.”

  “Exercising horses is work,” Farley insisted. “I still think you should give some thought to registering at Rogue River.”

  Cassidy laughed. “And give my mother something else to complain about? Believe me, one rodeo cowboy is enough for this family. Besides, if things go my way on Thursday, I won’t have much opportunity for that sort of thing anymore.”

  Her eyes were sparkling, as if she was sitting on some sort of secret. Though he had a sense he wasn’t going to like it, he asked anyway.

  “What’s happening Thursday?”

  “I got a call for a second interview with Cushman and Green!”

  He forced a smile. “Congratulations. That’s the accounting firm, right?”

  With her hands pressed together under her chin, she nodded. “Most of my friends had already heard from them. I’d lost all hope that I would be chosen. And then this morning, they phoned.”