Her Cowboy Dilemma

by C. J. Carmichael

  When she’d finished feeding Lucy the treat, she patted her on the rump, then headed back to her truck. It was past one in the afternoon now and she needed coffee.

  The Cinnamon Stick seemed like the logical place to go.

  * * *

  STRAWS MONAHAN WAS sitting in one of the booths, enjoying coffee and a sandwich. The gray-haired rancher was in his early fifties, a trim, kindly eyed man whose family roots in this area went back as far as the Lamberts and the Turners.

  “Thanks,” Cassidy said to Dawn, who was manning the café with Vince this afternoon. She picked up her coffee and sandwich. “How’s it going? Has it been busy?”

  “Steady, but not too bad. I hope Laurel manages to talk Winnie into coming back to Coffee Creek soon. I don’t mind working the extra hours, but I miss Winnie. We all do.”

  “Yes, that would be good,” Cassidy agreed. She hoped her mother’s note would be the first step in making Winnie want to come back to the town that she had once called home.

  Cassidy nodded hello to Straws, who’d been looking her way ever since she’d stepped into the café. She was heading outside, intending to sit on the bench in the sun to eat her meal, when he called her over.

  “Cassidy? Got a minute?”

  “Sure.” She settled herself into the bench seat opposite his. Back when the Monahans had been cattle ranchers, Straws had been a successful rodeo cowboy, as well. He’d retired when his wife had their first child, about twenty-five years ago, and opened the Monahan Rodeo Arena and Equestrian Center.

  Over the years he’d built amazing facilities, including an eighty-thousand-square-foot indoor arena and an outdoor stadium with seating for twenty thousand people. These were used for all sorts of rodeo, riding and equestrian clinics.

  Cassidy had a lot of time for Straws, who was widely known for his humane methods of training and working with horses. He was scrupulous in the people he hired and the Monahans’ full-service boarding was generally considered the best that money could buy for your horse.

  “Has your mother talked you into joining our committee yet?” he asked.

  It took her a moment to connect the dots. Then she laughed. She’d forgotten that Straws was on her mom’s Heritage Site Committee. “No, but she hasn’t given up trying.”

  “Olive never does,” Straws said mildly.

  Cassidy wondered if he was going to try to persuade her as well, but his next question took a different tack.

  “You were a barrel racer in high school, weren’t you?”

  “That was a while ago. But yes.”

  “You were very talented. I remember watching you when my own daughter was doing some competing. Ever consider going back to it?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I just lost one of my best riding and barrel racing instructors. She’s marrying a fellow from New Mexico, leaving in about a week. Any chance you want the job?”

  “Well—I’m flattered.” And she was. Straws only hired the best. “But I just graduated from college and I’m planning to move to Billings and work for an accounting firm.”

  “Really? Olive never said anything about that.”

  Cassidy rolled her eyes. “She isn’t exactly a fan of my plan.”

  He laughed. “She is skilled at ignoring facts that aren’t to her suiting, isn’t she? Well, if your plans change in the next few weeks, you let me know, okay? Even a few weeks of your time would tide me over until I found someone permanent.”

  “Thanks, Straws, I’ll give it some thought.”

  Straws rose to leave, then hesitated as he noticed someone else come into the café.

  Cassidy followed his gaze and was horrified to see Dan Farley at the entrance. He noticed her, too, but she couldn’t decipher the look in his dark eyes.

  “Hey, Farley. Come and join us.” Oblivious to the emotional undercurrents flowing between Cassidy and Farley, Straws made room for Farley to sit next to him. “I was just about to ask Cassidy here how their horses were making out. I heard you had some strangles to contend with?”

  Cassidy noticed how tired Farley looked. She hated that it was her fault. She wrapped her hands around her mug of coffee then turned to Straws. “Quarantine was just lifted today. Two of our horses recovered, but...” She steeled herself to say the rest. “We did lose one of our older horses.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it wasn’t that beautiful palomino who died?”

  “No. You’ve seen Lucky Lucy?”

  He nodded. “I thought your mother was being a little foolhardy when she took her to Joe Purdy’s ranch on the other side of Lewistown. Sure, Joe knows what he’s doing when it comes to training barrel horses. But Purdy’s has been battling with the infection for over a year. Never properly isolated and contained the disease when it first showed up and now it’s spread pretty much through their entire herd.”

  Cassidy could see that Farley was as shocked to hear this as she was.

  “I hadn’t heard about that,” Farley said slowly. “Purdy’s ranch is well out of my district.”

  “When did Mom take Lucy to Joe Purdy’s ranch?”

  Straws wrinkled his brow. “Must have been mid-April.”

  Two weeks before Cassidy had come home from college. “Maybe she didn’t know about the strangles?”

  Straws shook his head. “I warned her myself.”

  A snippet of conversation came back to her then. “Farley, remember when you asked if any of our horses had left the property recently?”

  He nodded, but didn’t say anything. She knew he was recalling how Jackson had mentioned seeing Olive load Lucky Lucy into a trailer and she’d insisted he was mistaken.

  But this seemed to imply that Jackson had been telling the truth.

  It was her mother who had lied. But why?

  “Anyway, I’m glad it all worked out in the end.” Straws finished his coffee. “I should hit the road. Cassidy, you think about my offer, you hear?” He winked. “I pay real good, in case you haven’t heard.”

  Once the older rancher was gone, Farley lifted his brows. “Straws tried to hire you?”

  “He’s looking for a new riding teacher. Someone who knows how to barrel race.” But who cared about such details now? “Farley, can you believe Mom would have exposed Lucy to strangles on purpose? It doesn’t make sense. Everyone around knows that Straws has the best trainers in the area. And his operation is impeccable. If she wanted extra training for Lucy, why not take her to the Monahans’?”

  “It doesn’t make sense,” he agreed.

  Unless... “You don’t think she did it on purpose because of me? I hate to sound paranoid, but she might have figured that if a couple of our horses came down with strangles, I’d be home in a few weeks and I’d be the obvious person to look after them.”

  “That’s twisted. But there is a certain logic to it,” Farley said.

  Plus, Cassidy thought, not only had the strangles kept her on the ranch, it had forced her into spending time with Dan Farley—the man Olive thought she should marry.

  But that part was just too embarrassing to say out loud.

  “This is crazy, isn’t it? Mom can be manipulative, but she’d never go this far. She’s too good of a business person to risk spreading strangles over her entire herd.”

  Farley was quiet for a while. Then in a low voice he said, “Maybe she took a calculated risk. She knew the riding horses were separated from the breeding ones, and the chances of the quarter horses getting infected were slim. Plus, she probably knows that only ten percent of the horses who develop strangles ever develop complications. Maybe she hoped your horses would ride it out without any lasting problems.”

  “Or maybe she’d calculated all that and concluded that the loss of a horse or two would be worth it,” Cassidy concluded bitterly.

  Farley rubbed his forehead then sighed. “You know what? I think the drama of the past few days is catching up to us. There’s a much more likely scenario.”

  “Really? I’d
like to hear it.”

  “Your mother probably had her own reasons for wanting Purdy to work with her horse. She chose to ignore the possibility of getting strangles, figuring the chances were small. Then, when the infection did show up, she was too embarrassed to own up to her mistake.”

  His scenario was more likely, Cassidy had to agree. But it still put the responsibility for the outbreak all on her mother. And it didn’t change the fact that she had lied.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Farley left the café with Cassidy. Running into her this way had not been helpful to either the headache pounding behind his eyes or to his spirits, which felt as if they’d been dragged behind a herd of wild horses for a few days.

  He’d been up early, wanting to arrange for Finnegan’s burial as soon as possible. He’d also disinfected the barn so that Cassidy wouldn’t have to face the heartbreak of doing it herself. It had seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do.

  Out in the sunshine, standing beside the old truck that she was so ridiculously fond of, she thanked him.

  “I slept in until noon. I can’t remember the last time I did that. And when I finally made it down to the home barn, you’d taken care of everything. Thank you, Farley.”

  He had to look away, unable to bear how pretty she looked with the sunshine glinting like gold in her hair. She’d run out on him twice now. Only a fool would risk that kind of humiliation a third time.

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s part of the job when you’re a vet.”

  He saw that his comment wounded her, but hell, what did she expect from him?

  “Look—I’m sorry about running out last night. You must have thought I was crazy.”

  “You’d had a rough night. And for the record—I wasn’t trying to take advantage of that.”

  “Of course you weren’t...”

  “Good. I’m glad that’s clear.” His anger was coming through in his voice. He didn’t intend it, but couldn’t seem to stop it, either.

  “It is,” she said softly.

  “Well, I’d better get going. I have a busy day.”

  She nodded.

  He hesitated. “I hope you get that job, Cass. To hell with what your family thinks. You have to go after what you want in life.”

  Last night he’d been crazy enough to think that what he wanted was her.

  But he needed a woman with a little more staying power.

  * * *

  ON THE DRIVE home from town Cassidy noticed something strange. The flowers on Brock’s roadside marker were brown and neglected. This was the first time, in her knowledge, that they’d been left to molder. She parked on the side of the road and waded through the grass. When she arrived, she paused for a moment, with her head lowered and her heart aching.

  Brock. We miss you.

  Then she lifted the wreath off the marker. Immediately the dead blossoms began to disintegrate, scattering in the breeze, until Cassidy was left with only a few dried stems in her hand. She brushed them off into the grass, then went back to her truck.

  Obviously Maddie had stopped tending her roadside tribute. But why?

  * * *

  HER FAMILY DIDN’T return from moving the cattle until it was almost dark that evening. Cassidy was waiting outside the barn. For some reason her mother had left Lucy behind and Cassidy had passed the time by setting up a barrel racing course and running Lucy through it.

  No wonder the palomino had taken to the sport so quickly. Cassidy laughed at herself now, how she’d congratulated herself for being such a great teacher.

  But she hadn’t been the first to introduce Lucy to a barrel racing course. That would have been Joe Purdy.

  Once the initial shock of discovering that her mother had purposefully exposed their horse to strangles had passed, Cassidy had started to wonder about why her mother would want Lucy trained in barrel racing in the first place.

  Once again the puzzle pieces came together too easily.

  Probably Olive hoped that barrel racing was another lure she could use to reel her daughter back in to Coffee Creek. A beautiful horse like Lucy—practically ideal for barrel racing? What horse-loving woman could resist?

  Really, Olive had played all her cards, not leaving anything to chance. She wouldn’t be pleased to find out that she had lost anyway.

  Around five o’clock Cassidy groomed Lucy and let her out with the other horses, then she cleaned the arena, and finally she and Sky sat down to wait.

  At quarter to six the posse of riders was visible coming down from the north. Cassidy watched until the moving blob turned into individual riders, then identifiable faces. When they finally came up to the barn, she could tell they were all exhausted.

  Still, she showed no mercy.

  “Finnegan died.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment, then Corb shook his head. “I’m sorry to hear that. When did it happen?”

  “Last night. Farley’s already had him buried. The barn’s been disinfected and our quarantine is lifted.”

  “Finn was a good horse, but he was old,” Olive said. “I know you did everything you could for him. At least this ordeal is behind us now.”

  “And who should we thank for that, Mother?”

  Olive swung out of her saddle and handed the reins to Dave, who’d come out to help with the horses. Dave led the tired horse into the barn for grooming.

  The other two wranglers, Eric and Jay, followed.

  That left Corb, Jackson and Olive. Her brother and her mother were gaping at her with surprise. Jackson just looked as though he wanted to escape. When he tried to leave with the other cowboys, Cassidy stopped him by grabbing his arm.

  “Please stay a minute. I’d like to get your input on something.”

  “Sure,” he said cautiously. “I’m sorry about your horse. I know how much you loved Finnegan.”

  “Thanks, Jackson.” She blinked away tears. This wasn’t the time to be soft.

  Speaking slowly and careful not to raise her voice, Cassidy recounted the information Straws had passed on to her at the Cinnamon Stick Café.

  “Is it true, Mom? Did you know Joe Purdy had strangles on his ranch when you took Lucy to him for training?”

  Olive’s face had been growing progressively paler. Her eyes darted from her daughter’s face, to her son’s. Then finally to Jackson’s.

  Undoubtedly she was remembering his earlier assertion that he’d seen her loading Lucy into a trailer. She’d managed to discredit him the first time he’d said it. But this time it wouldn’t be so easy.

  After almost a minute of silence, she drew her breath.

  “You’re right. I took a risk that I shouldn’t have. It was supposed to be a surprise for you, Cassidy. I originally bought Lucy to give to you as a graduation gift. Remembering how much you loved barrel racing I thought it would be fun to get her a little up-front training.”

  Despite her resolve to be firm and unyielding, Cassidy felt a little piece of her heart soften at this. Her mom had been right about one thing. She loved Lucy and couldn’t have selected a more perfect horse for herself.

  “But why risk her getting strangles? You could have taken her to Straws if getting her some training was so important to you.”

  “I wanted this to be a secret and I was worried someone at Monahan’s would blab. You know how fast news travels in Coffee Creek.”

  The first part of her mother’s explanation had tweaked her heart strings. But this—it just didn’t make sense. Again, the risk, for a smart business person like her mother, just wouldn’t have been worth it.

  Unless it had been a calculated risk.

  “You knew that a young, healthy horse like Lucy would almost certainly recover completely from a bout of strangles, didn’t you?”

  “Cassidy! Are you suggesting I wanted Lucy to get sick?”

  Corb looked as shocked as Olive sounded. But Jackson, Cassidy noticed, didn’t seem surprised at all by the suggestion.

  She met her mother’s gaze again, and
in that instant, she knew that she had to stop here. Spelling out the reasons why her mother might have done such a thing would not give her any satisfaction, and would undoubtedly create wounds that would take a long time to heal.

  “Only you know the answer to that question, Mom.”

  Then she asked Jackson if they could talk for a few minutes.

  * * *

  CASSIDY AND JACKSON headed to the office at the front of the barn. Cassidy sank into the upholstered chair, leaving the one behind the desk for her foster brother.

  “I was wondering if you knew what was up with Maddie Turner? She’s stopped tending the flowers on Brock’s wreath. I’d assume she figured it was time to let it go, except she left the dead ones in place and that just doesn’t seem like something she would do.”

  Jackson rubbed the back of his head. He had to be tired, hungry and longing for a good shower. She appreciated that he had taken a few minutes to talk to her about this.

  “Well, you’re right,” he finally said. “It isn’t something Maddie would do. Not if she had a choice. But she’s in the hospital in Great Falls. I drove her there myself the day before we left on the cattle drive.”

  “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Not likely. It’s lung cancer and they didn’t catch it early.”

  “Oh, dear. Does Mother know?”

  “Do you think she would care?”

  Cassidy couldn’t answer that question. After today she could only conclude that she didn’t know her mother nearly as well as she’d thought.

  “Who’s looking after her animals?”

  He hesitated. “Vince Butterfield.”

  “The baker?” This just got stranger and stranger.

  Jackson nodded again. “I don’t know how he found out she was sick, but he’s the one who asked me to drive her to the hospital. Apparently she wouldn’t let him do it. But while she’s gone, he plans to finish her roof and take care of the animals. She doesn’t have a lot left. Mostly pets and about a dozen cattle.”

  Cassidy remembered how hard her mother had worked to convince Vince to come to their family dinner. He’d turned her down flat. And yet he’d rearranged his entire life in order to help Olive’s sister.