by Natalie Love
Against Her Odds
when dedication meets desire
NATALIE LOVE
Text Copyright © Natalie Love
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or sorted in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.
Legal & Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter One
“Another cutesy story?” Val groaned in frustration as Becky, who was a receptionist and her best friend at news channel seven, handed her an assignment. “I thought I was finally getting some respect after I got to cover that traffic snarl up on 85.”
“Everyone respects you,” Becky said with a grin. “But you’re cute and so are baby sheep so there you have it. Cason McDaniel isn’t that bad either if you ask me.”
“Cason McDaniel?” Val muttered. “With a name like that, how could he not own a ranch?”
“I don’t know why he wouldn’t,” Becky said reasonably. “Eden’s Edge has been in the McDaniel family for something like ten million generations.”
“Somehow I doubt that.” Val smiled at her friend, glad for a distraction from the frustration of doing yet another assignment that could in no way be considered ‘real’ news.
Becky could always be counted on for a laugh and she was the only real friend Val had at the news station. In fact, when Val was being honest with herself, she had to admit that Becky was her only friend, period. She just didn’t have time to make a lot of social connections when she was trying so hard to get her career going. She was twenty six, and she was still doing stories about cute little newborn sheep. She groaned internally as she realized that she was doing fluff in the most literal sense of the word.
“Okay, but you get my point. Get out there and get some cute into your system,” her friend ordered.
“Like I have a choice.” Val squared her shoulders and walked to the news van. It had been over a year since she’d moved in the hopes of securing a more important position. To make matters worse, this was actually the third move she’d made for that reason, but she just couldn’t seem to work her way up the ladder no matter what she did. It was insanely frustrating to be passed over for promotions again and again, especially when she knew that her work was good.
She hopped into the van and straightened the jacket of her charcoal gray pantsuit, flicking away a nearly invisible smudge of dust and then smoothing her fingers over the spot gently. It really was a very nice suit. Val hoped that she didn’t get anything on it out at the ranch. She swept her hair into a twist as she bounced along in the van. Ben wasn’t the most observant driver and she swore that he liked hitting potholes. He never missed one.
She’d barely finished arranging her hair and touching up her makeup when they pulled into the long driveway of Eden’s Edge. It was a nice looking place. There was no way to describe the farmland without using the words rolling green hills. The hills in question were dotted with little round balls of white that must be the sheep. That was unquestionably adorable, but what really got Val’s attention was the farmhouse.
It was everything that she thought a farmhouse should be. Painted a cheerful pale yellow, its two stories brightened up the whole landscape even more. The white shutters added another touch of charm to the wide front porch, perfect for sitting and watching the sun go down. She wondered if Cason McDaniel ever did that. Probably not. Who had the time?
Val didn’t remember the last time she’d paid attention to the sunset, or the sunrise for that matter. Maybe the last time she’d managed to sit down with her notebook and write something. So that would have been around middle school. She felt a pang in her stomach that had nothing to do with the slight nerves she always got before going on camera, but she squashed it down as Ben shoved the van into park and stomped on the emergency brake.
“Here we are,” he said unnecessarily. “Kind of a nice place, huh?”
“Sure,” Val said, making her voice dismissive. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
“Sure thing. I’ll get everything set up. You ought to go see if you can find McDaniel.”
“Did he say where he’d be?”
“My guess would be the barn. Ain’t that where farmers hang out?”
“How should I know where farmers hang out?” she asked in frustration, but Ben didn’t hear her. He was rummaging for his camera equipment. With a shrug, Val headed toward the barn. It was as good a place to start as any.
Chapter Two
Mitch pointed toward the lambing shed. “Think somebody’s looking for you, Case.”
“Yeah?” Cason didn’t look up from the fence post he was replacing. He was glad Mitch had noticed the sagging area. They didn’t use this part of the pasture much, but he expected more lambs this year since he’d increased his stock. All if would have taken was for one of them to lean against the post and he’d have had stock roaming all over the place. Wrangling lost sheep was about the farthest thing from fun that existed. They were cute, but they could be dumb and he’d hate for any of them to get hurt. He’d also hate to waste a day tracking them down.
“Yeah. Didn’t you say something about some reporters?”
“Damn.” Cason pushed his glove down and looked at his watch. “Why didn’t you tell me it was getting so late?”
“You can see the sun, same as I can,” Mitch replied with a grin. “I might be your second in command, but nobody ever said I had to babysit you.”
Cason laughed. “See you later on.”
“I don’t get to be on TV?”
Cason swung himself over the fence. “We both know I’m the pretty one.”
“You ain’t the smart one, that’s for sure,” Mitch returned. “We’re already replacing one post here, the last thing we need is to do another one.”
With another laugh, Cason headed for the shed. When he got there, he saw the woman in question trying to light a cigarette and having no luck in the stiff wind.
He came to a stop on her left, blocking the wind for her. “Can I help you with that?”
“Thanks,” she said, her cheeks coloring a little in embarrassment. “I’m trying to quit you know. I swear it.”
“Yeah, me too,” he admitted as he pulled his own pack from his jeans pocket. “Down to three a day, but I’ll make an exception so you don’t have to smoke alone.”
She handed him her lighter with a grin and he took it, glancing down at it appraisingly. It was a good lighter, heavy and encased in silver that was engraved with her initials. It looked to him like everything about her was elegant.
“V. M. T,” he said. “I’m gonna guess Veronica Morgan Taylor.”
“Not even close. But good try. Valerie Michelle Turner.” She held out her hand and he took it.
He discovered that he really liked her smile. She had full lips and there was a very slight gap between her front teeth, which were otherwise straight and perfect. He also liked her blonde hai
r which, unless she dyed her eyebrows too, was natural. A person didn’t see too many women with that pretty straw blonde unless it came from a bottle. Her dark brown eyes made it even more interesting. She was a little overdressed for a sheep farm in that tailored to fit suit, but it sure did show off her curves. All in all, Valerie Michelle Turner was a very beautiful woman.
He would have been surprised to know that she was appraising him in much the same way. Becky had said he was cute. She hadn’t said was that he was close to six and a half feet of sexy cowboy. He wore a dark brown Stetson to shade his eyes from the sun, but she could see that his hair was light brown underneath it. He had startlingly bright green eyes and a dimple flashed in his left cheek when he smiled. His red and black work shirt hugged his broad shoulders and his low riding work worn jeans looked great on him as well.
A tingle ran down her spine as his hand gripped hers. She considered herself pretty experienced with men and she certainly wasn’t the swooning type, but he made her wish she was. She indulged in a brief fantasy about him crushing her to his chest, romance novel style, and then snapped herself out of it.
“I’m going to assume that you’re Cason McDaniel,” she said, taking a quick puff of her cigarette to get herself together.
Cason nodded. “Guilty as charged. I was kind of surprised about the news wanting to come out here. It’s just a regular old spring. Lambs get born in every one of ‘em. At least I always hope that they do,” he corrected himself with a small chuckle.
“Well...” Val wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t really see the point of the story either, to be honest, but it wasn’t as if she could say that to him. “People love a feel good story.”
“Guess that’s true,” he admitted. “But I would have thought you’d have something more important to cover.”
“Not me,” she said, concealing her sudden turn toward bitterness with a quick, fake laugh. “I guess we’d better get started though. My camera crew is probably all set up.”
“Sure thing.” Cason flicked away his cigarette, pleased that he’d smoked less than half, and popped a few breath mints. She held out her hand with a raised eyebrow and he handed her a few as well. She chewed them quickly as they walked back up to where the crew had set up the cameras. He figured he’d better do the same. People on TV probably didn’t want to see him sucking on breath mints. And if they did, someone would probably call him on the fact that he still hadn’t exactly quit smoking.
He felt more nervous to be on camera than he’d thought he would, but it was a short segment and he just followed Valerie’s lead for most of it. It wasn’t hard to do. She was perfectly at ease, both in front of the camera and around the newborn sheep. He hadn’t expected that from a woman wearing an obviously tailored to fit pantsuit with a crisp pink shirt. He could tell that she loved her job. She was clearly enjoying herself and she had a warmth that really shone through as she spoke.
When the story wrapped, he put the lamb down and turned to her, but someone on the crew was asking her a question. He waited patiently, watching the way she moved her hands when she spoke. She didn’t do that on camera. Cason wondered idly if he had and then decided that it didn’t really matter. He wouldn’t care one way or the other if he’d come off looking like a total idiot if it would get him a date with Valerie Turner.
As if she’d heard him thinking, she turned back and glanced at him. He gave her a smile and waved her over. She walked toward him, but then her cell phone rang. She held up one finger apologetically and answered the phone.
“This is Val.” She paused and then he saw her eyebrows shoot up. “Really? Are you sure? I’ll be right there! Oh, hang on, Becky.” She lowered the phone slightly and called. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. McDaniel. Thanks for the interview! Watch the six o’clock news and you’ll catch me on the desk!”
“Okay,” he answered, disappointed that she was heading out so quickly. “But I--”
She didn’t hear him. She’d raised her phone to her ear again and was talking away rapidly to whoever the heck Becky was. With a sigh, Cason turned to get back to fence mending.
She sure had seemed happy to be on the desk for the six o’clock news. He wondered why that was such a big deal. He hadn’t had the heart to tell her that he never watched the news, local or otherwise. He read the paper in the morning and that was enough news for him. He preferred to spend his evening relaxing in front of an old movie.
“How’d it go?” Mitchell asked.
“I guess it went okay. I won’t know whether I looked like an idiot or not till the news tonight.”
“You gonna watch it?” his ranch hand asked him in surprise.
“Yeah,” Cason answered with a glance down to where the news van was pulling out of his long, winding driveway. “I think I might as well.”
“You gonna run off for a career in showbiz if you decide you look pretty on the camera?” Mitch asked, hefting a new fence post with a grin.
Cason plunked his Stetson down so that it angled slightly over the left side of his face. “It just wouldn’t be fair to keep all these good looks to myself.”
Later that night, Cason wolfed down his supper of canned soup and the cornbread Mitchell’s wife sent over twice a week. He didn’t want to take a chance on missing the news.
He discovered didn’t look too bad on camera. A little more awkward than he would have thought, but not awful. That was reassuring. If the sheep ranching went under maybe he could just move on out to Hollywood and start over, he thought with a quick grin.
Even though he watched the news from start to finish, he was surprised to see the regular anchors on the desk. The only glimpse he caught of Valerie was during her interview with him. She looked a lot better on camera than he did.
Cason really wished that he’d gotten her phone number. He didn’t exactly consider himself a smooth operator when it came to women, but first contact usually went much better for him. He leaned back on the couch and switched the station from the news to try and find a decent movie.
He could consider it a sign that he wasn’t meant to ask her out since she’d left so fast. Or he could consider it a challenge. He knew which one it was more likely to be.
Chapter Three
“Phone call, Val!”
Val snatched the phone up and snapped, “Valerie here.”
“Hey there.”
The long slow drawl penetrated her annoyance as effectively as an hour of yoga. Not that she ever took the time for yoga anymore.
“Cason?” she blurted out.
“Yep,” he confirmed, pleased that she remembered him so easily. He’d had a whole introduction planned, but he was happy that he hadn’t had to use it. It meant that maybe she’d paid him a little more attention than he’d thought, and that was a very good sign. “I’m glad you remembered me, but you don’t sound like you’re having a real good day, darlin’.”
“You could say that,” she admitted, thinking back to how her less than stellar mood had stretched out over the whole morning. “But I’m sure you didn’t call to ask about that. What can I do for you?”
“You can have dinner with me,” he said, still in that lazy drawl.
“Could I really?” she asked, slightly surprised by the sudden invitation, but feeling herself grinning at his confidence.
“If you were feeling like being nice to a hardworking cowboy, that is,” Cason answered back, pleased at hearing the smile in her voice.
“Do you still count as a cowboy if you have sheep?” Val teased.
“I like to think so. Otherwise, my feelings get real hurt and I start having a lot of self doubt.”
“I’m sure you have a great deal of trouble with self actualization.”
“You just wouldn’t believe it. So what do you say? Want to have dinner tonight?” He chewed his lower lip, waiting for her to answer. The conversation seemed like it was headed in a good direction, but you just never knew. She might be seeing someone already. He hadn’t thought of
that before.
“Sure,” she said with a shrug. “You can pick me up at six.”
After she’d given him her address, she turned back to her laptop to find that Becky had been eavesdropping shamelessly.
“Was that the hot cowboy you interviewed yesterday?”
“Yes,” Val answered.
“And he asked you out?” Becky went on, narrowing her light blue eyes.
“Yes,” Val confirmed again.
Becky collapsed into her desk chair and shook her head. “If you weren’t my best friend, I’d have to go ahead and hate you.”
“You would not. I’m insanely charming.”
“Okay, I guess that’s true. But I fell in love with Cason McDaniel on the news last night. I’ve decided we’d have a short engagement and a destination wedding and I’d spend the rest of my life having his babies and baking apple pies. Not at the same time, obviously.”
Valerie laughed. “That settles it. I’m insanely charming and you’re just insane.”
“What? Do you want something other than hot sex and homemade pie?”
Val glanced around to make sure that none of the anchors could hear her. “I’m not discounting the wonders of sex or pie. But you know how I feel about relationships.”
“You’re going to give Cason McDaniel the talk? Don’t you ever learn?”
“Hey,” Valerie said indignantly. “If they run at the talk, then they aren’t worth my time anyway.”
“So, what are you going to wear?” Becky asked, leaning forward eagerly. “You gonna let me fix up your hair for you?”
Val raised a hand to her fine blonde hair. “When are you going to realize that nothing works? You curled it for my date with Jim a few months ago and my hair was straight as a stick before dessert. I felt like an idiot.”
“Yeah, but I got this new ceramic curling iron. It’s got some kind of ionic technology.” Becky gestured at her long locks. “The proof is right here.”