Wyoming Cowboy Protection

by Nicole Helm

  He tried to smile, though even if he’d accomplished it he knew it was hard to see beyond the beard. “We can do it in the morning.”

  She blinked at him, all wide blue-eyed innocence. “I’d like to do it now. This is a job, and I should be working it.”

  “It’s Sunday. Rule number one, you don’t work on Sunday.”

  “What do I do then?”

  “I don’t care, but I’ll cook my own meals and clean up after myself on Sundays. Understood?”

  She nodded. “What’s rule number two?”

  Timid. He did not know what to do with timid, but he was being forced. Well, maybe he needed to treat her like a skittish horse. Horse training wasn’t his expertise, but he understood enough about the animals to know they needed a clear leader, routine and the opportunity to build their confidence.

  Noah glanced at the hopeful young woman and tried not to grimace.

  “I have a checklist,” she blurted.

  “A checklist?”

  “Yes, of duties. Of things I do for people. When I’m housekeeping. I... You...”

  The sinking feeling that had been plaguing him since Grady announced his and Laurel’s little plan that morning sank deeper. “You haven’t done this before, have you?”

  “Oh.” She looked everywhere around the room except him. “Um. Well. Sort of.”

  “Sort of?”

  “I...I can cook, and clean. I just haven’t ever been on a ranch, or lived in someone else’s house as their employee. So that’s, um, well, it’s super weird.” She glanced at the kid in her arms. “And I have a baby. Which is weird.”

  “Super weird,” he intoned.

  She blinked up at him, some of that anxiety softening in her features. “If you tell me what you want me to do, I promise I can do it. I’m just not sure what you expect. Or want.”

  “I’ll make you up a checklist.”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “I’m sorry, was that a joke? I can’t exactly tell.”

  Noah’s mouth twitched of its own accord. “Settle in. Get the baby settled in. Tomorrow morning, six a.m., kitchen table. We’ll discuss your duties then.”

  “Okay.”

  He turned to go, but she stopped him with a hesitant “um.”

  He looked over his shoulder at her.

  “It’s just, could you give us something of a tour? A map? Smoke signals to the bathroom?”

  Noah was very bad at controlling his facial features, half of why he kept a beard, so the distaste must have been clear all over his face.

  “I’m sorry, I make jokes when I’m nervous.”

  “Funny, I just shut up.”

  Those big blue eyes blinked at him, not quite in horror, but not necessarily in understanding, either.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “That was a joke. I joke when I’m nervous, too.”

  “Really?”

  “No. Never,” he replied, chastising himself for being prickly, and then ignoring his own chastisement. “Follow me. I’ll show you around.”

  Chapter Two

  September

  Addie liked to use Seth’s afternoon nap for laundry folding and listening to an audiobook, then dinner prep. She’d been at the Carson Ranch for a full month now, and while she couldn’t claim comfort or the belief she was truly safe and settled, she’d developed a routine, and that was nice.

  She found she liked housekeeping, much to her surprise. As an administrative assistant in the family business—a franchise of furniture stores Grandpa had moved to Boston to run when his father-in-law had died suddenly back in the fifties—she’d hated waiting on people, keeping things and meetings organized. She’d taken the job because it had been expected of her, and she hadn’t known what else to do with her life.

  So, the fact keeping everything neat and organized at Noah’s house, making meals and helping the ranch run smoothly felt good was a surprise. Maybe it was the six months of being on the run and not having a house or anything to care for except Seth’s safety.

  Maybe it was simply that she felt, if not safe here, like she fit here.

  Addie worked on chopping vegetables for a salad, the baby monitor she’d bought with her first overly generous paycheck sitting on the sill of the window overlooking the vast Carson Ranch. She hadn’t needed a monitor in any of the previous places she’d been. They were all hotel rooms or little one-room apartments where she could hear Seth no matter where she went.

  Now she had a whole house to roam, and so did Seth. They had these beautiful views to take in. For as long as it lasted, this life was good.

  Some little voice in the back of her head warned her not to get too attached or settle in too deeply. Peter could always find her here, although it was unlikely. She hadn’t shared anything with her father since he’d cut off Kelly long before Seth, and she’d been on shaky ground for not cutting Kelly off as well.

  As for the rest of her friends and family, she’d sent a cheery email to them saying she’d gotten an amazing job teaching English in China and she’d send them contact information when she was settled.

  If anyone had been suspicious, she’d been long gone before she could see evidence of it.

  Addie didn’t miss Boston or her cold father or even the furniture store that was supposed to be her legacy. That was also a surprise. Boston and her family had always been home, though not exactly a warm one after Mom had died when Addie’d been a kid. Still, striking out and starting over as a faux single mom had been surprisingly fulfilling. If she discounted the terror and constant running.

  But she wasn’t running right now. More and more, she was thinking of the Carson Ranch as home.

  “You are a hopeless idiot, Addie Foster,” she muttered to herself.

  She startled as the door swung open, the knife she’d been using clattering to the cutting board from nerveless fingers.

  But it was only Noah who swept in, looking as he always did, like some mythical man from a Wild West time machine. Dirty old cowboy hat, scuffed and beaten-up cowboy boots. The jeans and heavy coat were modern enough, but Noah’s beard wasn’t like all the fashionable hipster ones she was used to. No, Noah’s beard was something of an old-fashioned shield.

  She found herself pondering a little too deeply what he might be shielding himself from. Snapping herself out of that wonder, she picked up the knife. “You’re early,” she offered, trying to sound cheerful. “Dinner isn’t ready yet.”

  It was another thing she’d surprisingly settled into with ease. They all three ate dinner together. Noah wasn’t exactly a talkative guy, but he listened. Sometimes he even entertained Seth while she cleaned up dinner.

  He grunted, as he was so often wont to do, and slid his coat and hat off before hanging them on the pegs. She watched it all through her peripheral vision, forcing herself not to linger on the outline of his muscles in the thermal shirt he wore.

  Yes, Noah had muscles, and they were not for her to ogle. Though she did on occasion. She was human, after all.

  “Just need to call the vet,” he said.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Horses aren’t right. Will there be enough for dinner if Ty comes over?”

  “Of course.” Addie had gotten used to random Carsons showing up at the house at any time of day or night, or for any meal. She always made a little extra for dinner, as leftovers could easily be made into a lunch the next day.

  Gotten used to. She smiled to herself as Noah grabbed the phone and punched in a number. It was almost unfathomable to have gotten used to a new life and think she might be able to stay in it.

  Noah spoke in low tones to the vet and Addie worked on adding more lettuce to the salad so there would be enough for Ty. She watched out the window at the fading twilight. The days were getting shorter and colder. It was early fall yet, but the
threat of snow seemed to be in the air.

  She loved it here. She couldn’t deny it. The mountains in the distance, the ramshackle stables and barns. The animals she didn’t trust to approach but loved to watch. The way the sun gilded everything gold in the mornings and fiery red in the evenings. The air, so clear and different from anything she’d ever known before.

  She felt at home here. More so than any point in her life. Maybe it was the circumstances, everything she was running from, how much she’d taken for granted before her sister had gotten mixed up with a mob boss. But she felt it, no matter how hard she tried to fight it.

  She could easily see Seth growing up in this amazing place with Noah as something like a role model. Oh, it almost hurt to think of. It was a pipe dream. She couldn’t allow herself to believe Peter could never find them here. Could she?

  Noah stopped talking and set the phone back in its cradle, looking far too grim. Addie’s stomach clenched. “Is everything okay?”

  “Vet said it sounded like horses got into something chemical. Poison even,” Noah said gruffly with no preamble.

  Any warmth or comfort or love of this place drained out of Addie in an instant. “Poison,” she repeated in a whisper.

  Noah frowned at her, then softened that imperceptible amount she was beginning to recognize. “Carsons have some enemies in Bent. It isn’t unheard of.”

  It was certainly possible. The Carsons were a rough-and-tumble bunch. Noah’s brother, Ty, could be gruff and abrasive when he was irritated. Grady was certainly charming, but he ran a bar and though she’d never spent any time there since the ranch and Seth took up most of her time, Laurel often spoke disparagingly of the clientele there.

  Then there was Noah’s cousin Vanessa. Sharp, antagonistic Vanessa would likely have some enemies. Or Grady’s troublemaking stepbrother.

  The problem was none of them lived at the ranch full-time. They came and went. Noah could be grumpy, but she truly couldn’t imagine him having enemies.

  She, on the other hand, had a very real enemy.

  “Are you sure?” she asked tentatively.

  “Look, I know you’ve had some trouble in your past, but who would poison my horses to get at you?”

  He had a point. A good point, even if he didn’t know the whole story. Peter would want her and Seth, not Noah or his horses. He’d never do something so small and piddly that wouldn’t hurt her directly.

  “Trust me,” Noah said, dialing a new number into the phone. “This doesn’t have a thing to do with you, and the vet said if he gets over here soon and Ty helps out, we’ll be able to save them.” Noah turned away from her and started talking into the phone, presumably to his brother, without even a hi.

  Addie stared hard at her salad preparations, willing her heart to steady, willing herself to believe Noah’s words. What would poisoned horses have to do with her?

  Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She had to believe that, but everything that had felt like settling in and comfort and routine earlier now curdled in her gut.

  Don’t ever get too used to this place. It’s not yours, and it never will be.

  She’d do well to remember it.

  October

  NOAH FROWNED AT the fence. Someone had hacked it to pieces, and now half his herd was wandering the damn mountains as a winter storm threatened in the west.

  He immediately thought of last month and the surprise poison a few of his horses had ingested. The vet had saved the horses, but Noah and Ty had never found the culprits. Noah liked to blame Laurel and her precious sheriff’s department for the crime still being unsolved, even though it wasn’t fair.

  Whoever had poisoned the horses had done a well enough job being sneaky, but not in creating much damage. For all he knew it was some kids playing a dumb prank, or even an accident.

  This right here was no accident. It was strange. Maybe it could be chalked up to a teenage prank, but something about all this felt wrong, like an itch he couldn’t reach.

  But he had to fix the fence and get the cows before he could worry about wrong gut feelings. Noah mounted his horse and headed for the cabin. He’d have to start carrying his cell to call for help if these little problems kept cropping up.

  What would Addie be up to? She’d been his housekeeper for two months now, and he had to admit in the quiet of his own mind, he’d gotten used to her presence. So used to it, he relied on it. She kept the cabin neat and clean, her cooking was better and better, and she and the boy... Well, he didn’t mind them underfoot as much as he’d thought he was going to.

  Maybe, just maybe, he’d been a little lonely in that house by himself earlier in the summer, and maybe, just maybe, he appreciated some company. Because Addie didn’t intrude on his silence or poke at him for more. The boy was loud, and getting increasingly mobile, which sometimes meant he was crawling all over Noah if he tried to sit down, but that wasn’t the kind of intrusion that bothered him. He found he rather enjoyed the child’s drooly smiles and screeches of delight.

  “What has happened to you?” he muttered to himself. He looked at the gray sky. A winter storm had been threatening for days, but it hadn’t let down its wrath yet. Noah had no doubt it would choose the most inopportune time possible. As in, right now with his cows scattered this way and that.

  He urged his horse to go a little faster. He’d need Grady and Ty, or Vanessa and Ty if Grady couldn’t get away from the bar. Maybe even Clint could come over after school, assuming he’d gone today. This was an all-hands-on-deck situation.

  But as he approached the cabin, he frowned at a set of footprints in the faint dusting of snow that had fallen this morning. The footprints didn’t go from where visitors usually parked to the door, but instead followed the fence line before clearly hopping the fence, then went up to the front window.

  A hot bolt of rage went through Noah. Someone had been at that window watching Addie. He jumped from the horse and rushed into the house. Only when he flung open the door and stormed inside did he realize how stupid he looked.

  Addie jumped a foot at her seat on the couch, where she was folding clothes. “What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked, clutching one of his shirts to her chest. It was an odd thing to see, her delicate hands holding the fabric of something he wore on his body.

  He shook that thought away and focused on thinking clearly. On being calm. He didn’t want to scare her. “Somebody broke the fence and the cows got out.”

  Addie stared at him, blue eyes wide, the color draining from her dainty face as it had the day of the poisoning. He’d assured her that had nothing to do with her, and he believed it. He believed this had nothing to do with her, too, but those footsteps and her reaction to anything wrong or sudden...

  He wondered about that. She never spoke of Seth’s father or what she might be fleeing, and her actions always seemed to back up Laurel’s theory about being on the run from an abusive husband. Especially as she now glanced worriedly at Seth’s baby monitor, as if she could see him napping in his room through it.

  Noah shook his head. He was being paranoid. Letting her fear outweigh his rational mind. He might have a bit of a soft spot for Addie and her boy, which he’d admit to no one ever, but he couldn’t let her fears become his own.

  She was his employee. If he sometimes caught himself watching her work in his kitchen... A housekeeper was all he needed. Less complicated than some of the other things his mind drifted to when he wasn’t careful.

  Luckily, Noah was exceedingly careful.

  “Going to call in some backup to help me round them up.”

  “Shouldn’t you call Laurel?” She paused when he scowled, but then continued. “Or anyone at the sheriff’s department?”

  She had a point, but he didn’t want to draw attention to repeated issues at his ranch. Didn’t want to draw the town’s attention to Addie and that something might be going on, if i
t did in fact connect to her.

  Maybe the smarter thing to do would be keep it all under wraps and then be more diligent, more watchful, and find whoever was pulling these little pranks himself. Mete out some Carson justice.

  Yeah, he liked that idea a lot better.

  “I’ll handle it. Don’t worry.”

  “Does this have to do with the poisoning? Do you think—”

  Noah sent her a silencing look, trying not to feel guilty when she shrank back into the couch. “I’ll handle it. Don’t worry,” he repeated.

  She muttered something that sounded surprisingly sarcastic though he didn’t catch the words, but she went back to folding the laundry and Noah crossed to the phone.

  He called Ty first, then let Ty handle rounding up whatever Carsons could be of help. He didn’t tell Ty about the footsteps, but a bit later when Ty, Grady and Clint showed up and Noah left the cabin with them, he held Grady back while Ty and Clint went to saddle their horses.

  “What’s up?” Grady asked. “You think this is connected to the poison?”

  “I think I can’t rule it out. I don’t have a clue who’s doing it, but part of me thinks it’s some dumb kid trying to poke at a Carson to see what he’ll do.”

  Grady laughed. “He’d have to be pretty dumb.”

  “Yeah. I don’t want Addie to know, but...” He sighed. He needed someone besides him to know. Someone besides him on the watch, and Grady ran the one bar in town. He saw and heard things few other people in Bent did. “There were footprints at the window, as if someone had been watching her.”

  Grady’s jaw tightened. “You think it’s the ex?”

  “I don’t know what it is, but we need to keep an eye out.”

  Grady nodded. “I’ll tell Laurel.”

  “No. She’ll tell Addie. She’s just calmed down from the poisoning—now this. I don’t want to rile her more.”

  “Laurel will only do what’s best. You know that.”

  Noah puffed out a breath. “Addie’s settled from that skittish thing she was before. Hate to see her go back.”