The Last Cowboy Standing

by Barbara Dunlop

  “It’s a merlot,” said Caleb.

  “Huh?” She gave herself a mental shake.

  Caleb held up a bottle of red. “Merlot.”

  “Sounds great,” she managed.

  He snagged a wine glass from a shelf.

  Mandy caught sight of her.

  “Hey, Danielle,” she called, grinning as she waved the spatula.

  Travis swiveled his head, and their eyes met. A wave of energy passed through the air between them. Danielle felt it from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes.

  “Here you go,” said Caleb, holding out the glass of wine.

  “Thanks.” She accepted the glass and took a big swallow.

  “Thirsty?” asked Caleb.

  “Very.” She forcibly dragged her gaze from Travis.

  Caleb turned to round the kitchen’s island and head out the double doors.

  Danielle forced herself to follow, telling herself to be professional. She could do this.

  “Hello, Travis,” she offered brightly. “Nice to see you again.”

  There was a brief moment of confusion in his eyes. “Hello, Danielle.”

  “How are things at the ranch?” she asked, choosing a deck chair near the rail to get herself off her wobbly legs.

  “Same old, same old,” he answered, pulling a chair from the dining table to face her. “Cattle, horses, broken water pumps.”

  “Were you able to fix it?” she asked.

  “Ask him about the accounting software,” Mandy suggested.

  “The water pump was no problem,” Travis answered.

  “With Amanda gone, we tried to streamline the books,” Mandy put in. “The new computer system is going to be the death of him.”

  Travis turned to peer at his sister. “I didn’t sign up to do paperwork.”

  “Dail-E Entries?” asked Danielle.

  “That’s the one,” answered Mandy.

  “How did you know?” asked Travis.

  “It’s the most popular. If you take the tutorial, it’s pretty straightforward.”

  “Travis, follow the instructions?” Mandy mocked.

  Caleb laughed.

  Travis frowned. “I don’t have time to learn from a cartoon dog that talks to me like I’m a five-year-old. I’ve got real work to do.”

  “So, you tried the tutorial?” Danielle asked, struggling not to be amused by his obvious frustration.

  “I made it through lesson three. Then I went outside and branded some steers instead.”

  Danielle grinned, feeling more relaxed. She sipped at the tasty merlot.

  “You should go down give him a hand,” Mandy said to Danielle. “You could probably show him how to work the system in a fraction of the time it would take to do the tutorials.”

  So much for relaxed. The last thing she needed was to be alone with Travis. “I’m pretty busy with Pantara.”

  “I can spare you for a few hours,” Caleb offered easily.

  Danielle looked to Travis, meeting his deep blue eyes. The energy vortex was pulling her in again.

  “It’d be a big help,” he said, expression perfectly neutral.

  She had no idea whether he wanted to get her alone, or whether he truly wanted help with his accounting software. Either way, she’d look churlish if she refused.

  “Sure,” she offered, slugging back the last of her wine, kicking herself for having opened her mouth in the first place. “I can give him a hand.”

  * * *

  Travis wanted to get this right. He didn’t want to overstep, but he didn’t want to pretend nothing had happened in Vegas either. Last night, Danielle had been polite but distant. Sure, Mandy and Caleb had been there the whole time, but she hadn’t let on for a second that there’d ever been anything between them.

  This morning, she was coming down to the Jacobses’ ranch. He’d worked for a few hours, then he’d stopped to shower and shave, not wanting to offend her while they were working in close quarters. The ranch office was tiny, little more than a converted storage closet off the living room. It had a small desk and chair, a file cabinet and a computer. Travis had pulled in a stool for himself, so they’d both be able to sit down.

  There was a knock on the front door. His chest tightened, knowing it had to be Danielle. Nobody else would bother with that formality.

  He popped a mint in his mouth, reflexively straightened his shirt, glanced around the cluttered room, then headed across the living room to the entry foyer. Jackets, boots, hats and gloves littered a row of hooks and a bank of cubbyholes. He’d never given a moment’s thought to the mess, but now he wondered what the utilitarian house looked like to Danielle.

  She probably lived in a sleek, modern apartment. Maybe she had white, leather furniture and chrome fixtures. She probably had a cleaning lady who dusted her fine art and kept exotic plants looking lush and green. The only things Travis grew were oats and sweet grass.

  He swung open the door.

  “I’m only here to help with the software,” she announced, expression stern, her eyes dark and serious.

  She wore a pair of designer jeans, brown fashion boots and a dark blazer over a silver blouse. Her short hair had lifted in the breeze, but ended up chic rather than messy. She carried a big shoulder purse that was saddle bag brown. Somehow, she managed to look both city and country at the same time.

  “Software is my current problem,” he responded, stepping to one side and gesturing her in.

  Not that he didn’t plan to have other problems in the future—chief among them, an overpowering urge to pull her back into his arms. For now, he wished he could to erase this formality between them, get back to the intimacy they’d shared in Vegas. Those nights they were in his hotel suite, he’d felt closer to her than he’d ever been with a woman.

  She stepped over the threshold. “Point me to your office.”

  He did. “Through that door.”

  She gave a nod and started walking.

  “Can I get you anything?” he called to her back. “Coffee? Juice?”

  She didn’t bother turning as she answered. “Coffee would be good. Does your computer have a password?”

  “Wrangler.”

  That time, she turned. “Seriously?”

  He shrugged. “It seemed appropriate, easy for everyone to remember.”

  “We should talk security sometime.”

  “Sure. What do you want in your coffee?”

  “Black,” she responded.

  He couldn’t help but grin.

  “What?”

  “I was just trying to decide if you were more city or country. Black coffee is a good start.”

  Her gaze narrowed. “Is black coffee city or country?”

  “Country, ma’am.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “If you’d asked for a caramel, chocolate mocha with whipped cream, I’d have gone the other way.”

  “Aren’t you the biased, judgmental cowboy?”

  He just grinned, turning for the kitchen. “Log-on name is Jacobs,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Of course it is. You probably also have a welcome mat for hackers.”

  There was a pot of hot coffee in the kitchen, so Travis was quickly back in the office with a stoneware mug in each hand. Danielle had taken the chair, and he set the blue mug down on the desk beside her. Then he perched himself on the stool over her left shoulder.

  “This is the main menu.” She pointed with her mouse.

  “I got that much,” he responded, taking a sip of the hot brew.

  “On a daily basis, you’ll need the top three items, entering payable, entering receivables, and printing checks. These next three are reports, including a balance sheet. And t
he rest are for setting up master files, doing audits and occasional trouble shooting.”

  She turned to look up at him. “So far, so good?”

  “I understand the main menu,” he responded, thinking she was beautiful. She smelled amazing. He could only hope he’d be able to drag his attention from her long enough to learn the other elements of the software.

  “Glad to hear it.” She turned back.

  “Double click on payables, and it opens up a date entry screen.” She demonstrated as she spoke.

  The screen that came up in front of them showed about twenty fields, everything from vendor name to shipping date.

  “Do you have a vendor master file set up?”

  “No.”

  “Seriously?” She closed the screen.

  “Sorry,” he felt compelled to offer.

  She heaved a sigh. “This is going to take longer than I thought.”

  As far as Travis was concerned, that was good news. He liked having her here. The longer it took, the better his chances of—

  He stopped himself. His chances of what? He didn’t want to seduce her. Not that he wouldn’t give his eye teeth to sleep with her again, but that wasn’t why he wanted her to stay.

  He just wanted to be with her, he realized. Hear her voice, talk with her, joke with her, argue with her, find out what she was thinking about the D.C. job and about a hundred other things.

  “Travis?” Her tone was sharp, and she smacked him on the knee.

  He realized she’d been talking just then, and he hadn’t heard a word. “What?”

  “I said I’m going to show you how to create a vendor master file. You build it tonight, and I’ll come back in the morning.”

  Oh, that didn’t sound good. “How does that work?” he asked, mind searching for a way to make her stay. Ten minutes in her company simply wasn’t going to do it for him. He’d been looking forward to seeing her all night long.

  “Here.” She clicked the mouse through a couple of menus. “You need to enter all of your supplier’s tombstone information, and the system will assign them a five-digit number. That’s your vendor ID.”

  “I type with two fingers,” he lied. “There’s no way I can enter all that stuff tonight.”

  She closed her eyes for a long moment. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “You do realize I have a whole other job.”

  “Yes, I do.” But he couldn’t seem to bring himself to care about that at the moment.

  “And you do realize your brother-in-law is paying several hundred dollars an hour for me to type for you?”

  “He offered,” Travis defended, silently thanking Caleb for setting this whole thing up.

  “So, I have to type in all of your vendors before we can even start.”

  Travis gave a shrug of innocence.

  “Do you at least have a list of their names and contact information?”

  “Maybe.” He stood up and maneuvered his way to the cabinet. “I know they each have their own file folder.”

  “Give me strength,” Danielle breathed from behind him.

  Travis opened the drawer, pulling the first file. “Should I read them out to you?”

  “If that’s the best we can do, that’s the best we can do.”

  “Acme Feed and Supply,” he began. “Seventeen twenty-two, Rosedale Road.”

  Danielle’s fingers clicked on the computer keys while Travis worked his way through the files.

  At Streamline Irrigation Equipment, she finally agreed to break for lunch.

  They left the office and worked together in the kitchen, making stacked sandwiches on rye bread, with turkey, cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers. Travis retrieved a pitcher of iced tea from the fridge, and they perched on stools around the island breakfast bar.

  “This is a big job for one person, isn’t it?” she opened before biting down on her sandwich.

  “Running the ranch?” he asked, surprised that her mind might have gone to that.

  She nodded.

  “It is,” he agreed.

  He knew he’d have to find himself some additional help of some kind. But he hadn’t quite wrapped his head around what that might be. The place had gone from a family of six, excluding Katrina, with a wide variety of skill sets, down to only him in less than two years.

  “Do you think Seth might come back and help you?”

  “Not anytime soon. The railway project is going to take at least a couple of years.”

  “Maybe you should find yourself a wife,” she suggested.

  He frowned as he bit into his own sandwich. If he had a wife, he couldn’t sleep with Danielle anymore.

  “Someone who can rope and ride and cook and type,” she continued. “I’m sure there are plenty of nice ranch girls in Colorado who know their way around a personal computer.”

  “Maybe I can take out an ad and collect resumes,” he offered dryly.

  “You could fill out an online dating profile. Just be specific about what you want.”

  “Is that how you’re planning to do it?”

  She sucked something from the tip of her thumb. “I don’t need a man.”

  “Right, I forgot. Self-sufficiency is your mantra.”

  He didn’t know why he was getting annoyed, but he was. He should be happy that she wasn’t interested in a serious relationship. That should leave Randal out in the cold.

  “It is,” she agreed. “And I don’t have a ranch to run. My condo is pretty low maintenance. No livestock or irrigation equipment.” She grinned into her sandwich. “Good thing. It’s probably against the zoning bylaws anyway.”

  “What makes you so cheerful?” he couldn’t help asking.

  A few minutes ago, she’d been clearly frustrated at having to spend so much time helping him. Now, talking about marrying him off, all of a sudden she was bubbly and joking.

  “You’re complaining because I’m too happy?”

  “I don’t know why you want to see me married in such a hurry.”

  “I was only suggesting it as a means to divide the workload.”

  “Yeah, well if I marry some Colorado ranch girl, I’m going to have to sleep with her.”

  “That’s the generally accepted convention. Though, legally speaking, it doesn’t necessarily nullify the marriage if you don’t.”

  He couldn’t seem to help the annoyance churning its way through his stomach. “Legally speaking?”

  “Yes.”

  Their gazes met and held.

  “I’m guessing she’ll expect it,” he noted.

  “I’m guessing she will.”

  “And if I don’t want to?” he asked softly.

  “Then, you’ll probably have some explaining to do.”

  The room went silent between them. The only woman he wanted to sleep with was Danielle. Did she know that? Could she guess that?

  “I’ve missed you,” he told her.

  “Don’t.”

  He reached for her hand, taking it in his own. “You want me to pretend I didn’t miss you?” He was tired of tiptoeing around his feelings, of measuring his every word.

  She looked him straight in the eyes. “Yes.”

  For some reason, her answer amused him. “Do you also want me to pretend I’m not attracted to you?”

  “That would be helpful.”

  “Why?”

  “All the regular reasons.”

  “There are regular reasons? What are the regular reasons?”

  She thought about it for a moment. “For starters, because I’m me, and you’re you.” She stretched her arm around the kitchen. “You have to take care of all this. Which is good, which is great. But I’m only going to be her
e for a couple more days. After that...” She paused. “After that, I have to...” She pulled her hand from his.

  Travis’s chest tightened. “You’re going to take it aren’t you.”

  At first she didn’t answer.

  A cold feeling of dread moved through his stomach. “Danielle?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I’m going to take it. I have to take it.” Her voice grew stronger. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do exactly what I want to do with my career.”

  “And Randal?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What about Randal?”

  “He’s going to be there.”

  Her tone went tight. “And?”

  Travis couldn’t seem to stop himself. “And, you know he wants you. He’s not going to give up.”

  The thought of Randal seeing her every day, having an open field to charm her and convince her. It might take him weeks or months, but eventually, he might succeed. They’d been an item once before.

  “I can handle Randal,” said Danielle.

  “Can you?” Travis demanded. “Can you really?

  Her face flushed. “What kind of a question is that?”

  “You didn’t do so well handling him in Vegas. You didn’t see it coming. You wouldn’t even believe me until it was almost too late.”

  “Almost too late for what?”

  “He tried to kiss you.”

  She came to her feet. “And I stopped him.”

  “Do you think that settles it?”

  “It settles it in my mind.”

  “Not in his. He’s regrouping, re-strategizing. He’s going to come at you all over again with a new game plan.” Travis couldn’t let this happen. With every fiber of his being, he knew he couldn’t let this happen.

  Her eyes went dark with anger, and her jaw clenched down tight. “That’s got nothing to do with you.”

  He knew that was true, but he didn’t care. “You can’t go to D.C.”

  She was silent for a long while. Then she shook her head. “Watch me.” She turned on her heel and walked out.

  * * *

  Danielle’s heart was pounding and her hands were still shaking as she brought the car to a halt in front of the Terrell ranch house. Travis’s questions had made her angry. His demands had infuriated her. Her career was none of his business. Randal was none of his business. None of this was any of his business.