Her Lone Star Cowboy

by Debra Clopton

  “But then you probably know whose pie you’re eating right now.”

  A wide, closed-lipped smile spread across his lips.

  “It’s true!” Gabi leaned toward him and hissed, “Do they know you know whose pie you’re eating?”

  “Are you kidding? I’m not certain myself, because they’re always tweaking their recipes. Even if I was positive, it wouldn’t influence me. Besides, it takes two votes to pick a winner and there is usually someone new helping me every year. This year you’re in the hot seat.”

  “I didn’t expect it to be so hard.”

  “What’s hard about it? You get to eat pie and enjoy my great company.”

  This was impossible!

  He was too cute. The way he said it, the way he made a mocking face. He was just plain adorable—and she didn’t mean like a puppy! She’d started out with a major hiccup where Jess was concerned, keeping in perspective that any attraction between them could never go anywhere. She was glad she’d found out his history and views on alcohol. That helped her maintain perspective. If she hadn’t known it, she could be in real trouble.

  “Great company? Where?” She looked right then left and then back at him with an unimpressed expression.

  “Hey, even if you aren’t thinking I’m great company, I think you’re fantastic.”

  Gabi’s heart missed a beat. It was becoming a common occurance.

  “After all the time you spent taking blood samples and looking for poison plants, I’d be a fool not to think you were awesome.”

  Her heart dropped with surprising force. As if she’d been hoping he really, truly thought she was fantastic or awesome in a more personal way. “You sure would be, buster.” She managed a teasing quip. “Thank goodness I love my job.”

  Taking another bite of cobbler, he closed his eyes. “I love my job, too.”

  Gabi’s stomach felt weak. She swallowed hard and snagged a cup of her own. “But, um, seriously. You don’t hear grief when it’s all said and done from the ones who didn’t win?”

  “Nope. They just try harder next year.”

  “Meaning you get more pie.”

  His grin bloomed. “Oh, yeah. It’s a win-win situation.”

  “You are living the high life, aren’t you?”

  He scraped his spoon along the edge of the nearly empty container. “You bet. And luvin’ every minute of it.”

  Gabi couldn’t help it. She propped her elbow on the table, dropped her head into her hand and laughed so hard her shoulders shook. That cute smile and happy-go-lucky persona could only get him so far in life. It was the love of berry cobbler that was the secret to life. Or so it seemed for Jess.

  Then it hit her. She looked up, met his gaze and suddenly felt very sad. This was a guy whose mother ran out on him and his brothers at an early age. She bet he never got many homemade goodies during his childhood.

  All this berry attention probably filled a void in him…and he might not even realize it.

  An unexpected tug of emotion waylaid Gabi.

  How could a mother do that?

  Suddenly there was a yelling commotion from outside.

  From the edge of the pavilion, Norma Sue hollered. “Heads up, we got us a loose cannon!”

  Jess, as quick as lightning, was already moving, heading for the large opened doors. Gabi followed close at his heels.

  “It’s a runaway,” Esther Mae squealed, flapping her arms, pointing at the huge heifer charging up the hill.

  Kids scrambled like ants trying to get out of the way. Cowboys who could have tried to stop the animal were pulling children to safety instead. Obviously the heifer had knocked over some livestock pens, because chickens were everywhere, clambering underfoot and in the air among the plumes of dust stirred up by the excited heifer.

  Gabi jumped ahead of the women standing outside the doorway.

  “Move to the side of the building,” Jess hollered at everyone.

  Ignoring Jess’s warning and thinking of the older ladies hustling behind her toward safety, Gabi planted her feet, placing herself squarely between the ladies and the oncoming locomotive. What was wrong with this heifer?

  * * *

  Just when Jess thought he had things under control so he could catch frantic heifer, out of the corner of his eye he saw Gabi plant her feet beside him.

  “What are you doing? Get out of the way,” he yelled.

  “No way,” Gabi yelled back.

  “Woman!” he roared, distracted as he dove for the lead rope swinging from the heifer’s halter. The animal charged past him, straight toward the empty building.

  “Haya!” Gabi boomed, waving her arms. She ran diagonally behind him, placing herself between the open garage door of the pavilion and the heifer. “Get on outta here.”

  Jess saw disaster in the making.

  “That’s the way to do it, Gabi!” someone—Esther Mae it sounded like—yelled.

  Jess dove for Gabi, hooked one arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground as he spun them out of the heifer’s path.

  Nothing stopping it, the animal charged through the door and into the cobbler exhibition!

  Blood rushed to Jess’s head, he was so angry.

  “Woman, are you crazy?” he roared, over the sound of glass shattering, tables flying and metal chairs being stomped. “That could be you that animal is pulverizing.”

  “Me?” Gabi yelled back, struggling to free herself from his tight grasp. “Together, we could have stopped it from going in there, you big buffoon!”

  “Maybe I could have but I was too busy trying to save you.”

  Thankfully, some other cowboys had reached them and ran inside among the clanging and banging that was going on.

  “Put me down,” Gabi demanded.

  “You were about to get yourself killed, again,” Jess snapped, seeing red as he set Gabi down. Tempers flying, they glared at each other in an all-out standoff.

  * * *

  Men! Gabi’s adrenaline was flowing as she watched Jess in open-mouthed shock. How dare he?

  A huge crash reverberated through the building and several male voices could be heard yelling. Jess glanced over his shoulder at the pavilion then glared at her.

  “Stay put.” He pointed at the ground beneath her feet.

  She ignored him. “I can help. Would you get in there and stop worrying about me—” the words weren’t out of her mouth before the heifer charged back outside, covered in gooey cobbler!

  Jess lunged for the rope, snagged it. The hyped-up cow resisted and Gabi grabbed onto the rope with Jess. It was slick with sticky, slimy berry cobbler and hard to hold onto—obviously the reason the other cowboys couldn’t contain it. Together they held it while Jess snagged the halter and held on as the other cowboys came to help.

  They finally got the animal subdued and the other men led it off to its pen.

  “What were you doing?” Jess asked turning toward her the instant the heifer was gone.

  “Helping, that’s what.” Disgusted, Gabi strode up the slight hill away from him.

  “Gabi, you don’t go jumping in front of angry cattle like that. What were you thinking?”

  He sounded like a broken record! She spun on him. “The same thing you were thinking—stopping that heifer before it hurt someone.”

  “You could have been hurt!”

  “So could you. You jumped in front of it because you knew you could stop it or slow it down. I could have, too.”

  They stared at each other in yet another standoff.

  “Gabi,” Esther Mae gasped, coming up with Norma Sue, Adela and Rose. “I thought you were going to get ran over. Jess, you were so brave grabbing her up like that.”

&nb
sp; “I didn’t need rescuing, Esther Mae,” she ground out trying not to lose patience.

  “Looked like it from where we were standing,” Norma Sue drawled. Ranch woman that she was, Norma Sue lived in jeans or overalls, today it was overalls and as she spoke she looped her hands around the straps and rolled back on the heels of her boots.

  “Where were y’all standing?” Gabi asked, dryly. “I have legs. I have good reflexes.”

  Giving up, Gabi marched away to look at the damage inside the building. Tables and chairs were upturned about the room. Berry juice and cobbler was all over everything.

  “Yikes,” she said.

  “Whoa,” Jess whistled, coming to a halt beside her. Gasps rippled about the crowd gathering beside them.

  “Oh my,” Adela gasped from behind Gabi.

  It looked like the food fight of all food fights had taken place.

  “What a mess.” Norma Sue grimaced, clapping Jess on the back. “I don’t guess y’all got the winner of the contest decided before the world turned upside down, did y’all?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Jess had picked up feed at Pete’s Feed and Seed. Talk at the feed store was on the drought conditions, and the worry that his plant problem could spread across the county. Everyone was watching his situation with interest. Like Gabi had said, drought conditions caused odd situations with plants that normally would be stable. Prussic acid and nitrate poisoning of some kind was likely the cause. Just which plant or plants was it coming from?

  There was also talk of the crazy heifer that had crashed the cobbler contest, effectively canceling the competition—Jess had headed home on that note…he was still miffed at Gabi about her actions on that sticky situation.

  He was in his office after lunch when Gabi drove up to the small office outside the main barn of his ranch. He’d been on the phone with the last of two calls from cattle buyers arranging for him to transport cattle when he saw her car drive through the gate. Stubborn to the edge of irresponsible, Jess had been put out by Gabi’s careless risk. Yes, he reminded himself, she dealt with cattle all the time. Maybe he was feeling overprotective of her. And maybe not. One thing was certain—today was going to be interesting.

  The phone rang again as he was getting out of his chair. Grabbing it, he hoped it was a quick call.

  “H and H Ranch,” he said, distracted by watching Gabi close her truck door.

  “Hello, Jess. It…it’s your mother. Do you have a minute?”

  His hand tightened on the phone, the temptation to hang up strong. It bothered him that the anger he had for his mother still affected him this way. When she was around he managed to be cordial, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t glad she wasn’t around all that much.

  “Hello, Rhonda. I’m heading out the door,” he said, feeling a twinge of guilt. Why should he feel guilty when she’d been the one familiar with walking out the door? Raking his hand through his hair, he hung his head. “What do you need?”

  There was a long pause. “I don’t need anything, Jess. I called to—”

  Gabi knocked on the door. Since she could see him through the glass window, there was nothing for him to do but wave her inside.

  “—to see if you’re going to be in town in two weeks on Saturday,” Rhonda was saying as Gabi walked in. “I was hoping to spend some time with you. And, maybe talk before I come down the following week for the rodeo.”

  Talk. Spend time with me. His instinct was to say, “A little too late for that.” But for Luke and Colt’s sake, he didn’t. “I’ll be around.” The words were dry, terse, as he was waylaid by the memory of him as a kid, praying that “Rhonda” would come home. Spend time with him. Be what she was supposed to be to him. His mother.

  “Good. I’ll see you then.”

  “Yeah, okay, well, I need to go.” When she was around, he usually held his emotions in check. The unexpected call surprised him and had his feelings all roiled up.

  And then there was Gabi, standing just inside the door.

  “Hey,” he said, feeling irritable as he hung up. “I guess we’re ready then.”

  “I guess. Bad call?”

  Frowning, he snagged his Stetson from the hat rack beside the door.

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that.”

  He shrugged. “Not a problem. Let’s hit the trail. I’ve been cooped up in here for the last hour on the phone and need some fresh air.”

  “Well, as long as you like it hot, then you’re in luck.”

  “Right now,” he said, unable to curb his exasperation, “I’ll take fresh air and space any way I can get it.” He held the door for Gabi, the scent of her apple shampoo ratcheting up his exasperation.

  “You aren’t planning on throwing yourself in the path of my bulls today are you?” he drawled sarcastically, hiking a brow when she looked sharply at him.

  * * *

  “Funny,” Gabi huffed. “If I feel the urge, who knows what I’ll do.” Still ticked off by his attitude from the night before, she was more curious than she should be about what she’d walked in on just now.

  Jess didn’t bother to throw a comeback at her. Instead he grunted again and got in the truck.

  The man was clearly irritated—reminding her a little of herself last night after the very eventful day they’d been put through. Her emotions and her patience had been stretched to the limit by Jess’s overbearing behavior during the rampaging heifer fiasco.

  And now they were spending the afternoon together.

  Her first thought was that his bad mood was from the unsettled ‘thing’ happening between them, but her intuition told her that it was the call he’d been on when she had walked in. The expression on his face when she’d first looked through the window at him had been strained.

  She decided to get down to business and not get personal today. “The toxicology report came in this morning.”

  “And?”

  “It is nitrate poising, which we pretty much had already figured out. But the problem is we still don’t know which plant, the necropsy didn’t reveal that. But no worries, because we can find it. We just need to step-up our effort.”

  He slowed to a stop in the center of the pasture. Gabi wasn’t sure if the crunching sound beneath the tires was the gravel or the dry crackly grass. Even in the short time she’d been here, the grass had grown crisper and brown. The temperature had been over one hundred degrees for almost sixty days in a row. No wonder the cattle were eating things they weren’t supposed to.

  “So what’s the plan of action?”

  “Susan wants to send samples of your plants to Texas Diagnostic Laboratory in College Station. She’s afraid we’re about to have cattle dropping all over the county. So there’s even more urgency to this than for just your ranch.”

  Jess stared out over the pasture, as if envisioning the catastrophe. “Talk is that everyone is edgy with the drought conditions settling in like they are. And then that little teaser of rain we’ve been getting is only setting up perfect conditions for more toxicity levels to show up. Right?”

  “Exactly,” she answered. “So we’re going to gather more samples of the various plants we’ve already found and any others that we might find. Today I’m going to sketch out and label your land into quadrants. Then bright and early Monday morning I’ll begin to cut plants about four inches from the ground, bag them, put them on ice and by three in the afternoon have them in the overnight mail to the College Station lab. They’ll tell us specifically which plants in which quadrants have toxic nitrate levels.”

  “Then what?”

  “We can go from there.” Gabi thought Jess sounded distracted at first but now was coming around. She was glad. She wasn’t about to analyze him too closely. She was fairly certain that the ph
one conversation she’d walked in on had been strained. A girlfriend, maybe?

  One who was probably having trouble taking orders from him. Almost instantly Gabi rejected that idea. Jess didn’t act like a man who was tethered to anyone. But something was on his mind. Maybe it was worry about his cattle. Maybe he was mad at her still.

  “Are you okay?” The question came out before she could stop it. “I get the feeling something’s wrong. Are you aggravated at me still for trying to help corral that heifer?” She decided to be direct.

  “Are you kidding? You were right,” he drawled, sarcasm in his tone. “You work with animals all the time and are completely qualified to throw yourself in front of oncoming heifers all you want.”

  Gabi didn’t let him get to her. “I was fine.”

  “Look, Gabi. I’d tell you that I won’t do it again, but that’d be a lie. If I see you are about to step on a snake, or a fifteen-hundred-pound heifer is about to run over you, I’m going to pull you out of the danger zone. End of story.”

  Steam clouded Gabi’s vision but she exhaled to calm herself and spoke carefully. “As long as you don’t think I can’t take care of myself. I don’t mind letting a man sweep in and save the day. Just don’t go thinking I couldn’t have helped you out. And don’t go telling me when and what to do.”

  “You’ve got a hang-up where needing help is concerned.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “I didn’t need to be rescued. I don’t mind that you reacted like you did because you couldn’t help yourself. But I didn’t need you.” There was no talking to this man. According to him, she’d messed up and he’d been perfect. Uggg, it was enough to make a girl yank out her ponytail. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. The verse from her morning Bible reading sprang into her thoughts.

  “Fine, you didn’t need me,” Jess snapped, glaring at her.

  They stared at each other for a long moment. Gabi had a problem thinking straight while looking at the handsome, exasperating man. It wasn’t fair—the man was more attractive now than before! How was that possible?