Her Montana Cowboy

by Jeannie Watt

  Or maybe it was the fact that she’d almost choked at the thought of that woman being with Gus. Was she jealous?

  It certainly felt like it.

  And that was a red flag of the highest order.

  * * *

  TYLER AND JESS were still at the ranch when Lillie Jean returned from her morning errands. She got out of her big sedan and opened the back door, allowing Henry to jump out before she reached in to pull out a large bag and a good-size package.

  “Need help?” Gus called.

  She barely glanced at him before shaking her head. “I’ve got it.”

  Gus started toward her and the twins fell into step. “Couple guys I’d like you to meet,” he said when they got closer. “Jess and Tyler Hayward. They’re here looking at bulls.”

  Lillie Jean looked from one twin to the other with surprise, then juggled her packages so that she could extend a hand. Gus automatically caught a box as it started to tumble.

  Tyler touched his hat. “I’m Ty. He’s Jess.”

  Lillie Jean smiled a little. “You should wear different colored hats.”

  “Oh, we’ve been through that,” Jess said with a laugh. “And different colored shirts—anything so Mom and Dad could tell us apart at a glance.” He looked over at Gus. “We need to get going. Maybe you could tell Lillie Jean about the spaghetti feed.”

  “I’ll tell her,” Tyler volunteered. “My wife is the chairman. All proceeds go to the drug-free graduation party.”

  “Good cause,” Jess added. “Gus always goes.”

  “I’ll try to be there,” Lillie Jean said.

  Tyler shook his head. “Don’t try. Just show up. It’ll be fun.”

  With a wink and a smile, he nudged his brother, who touched his hat, and then the two of them beat a retreat to the shiny blue pickup parked next to the tractor. Lillie Jean met Gus’s gaze briefly as she held out her hands for the box he still held, and there was something in her expression that he didn’t understand.

  He thought about saying they’d talk later, but instead relinquished the box and followed the twins. They arranged for the brothers to pick up the bull on Sunday, and when he looked back to the car, Lillie Jean was gone, leaving him with a sense of unfinished business. He had a feeling that something had happened in town.

  What were the chances that she’d cut loose with the information?

  Things had been strained between them since they’d negotiated at the kitchen table. Gus figured it had to do with Lillie Jean’s problem with mixing business with friendship, but since she’d agreed to give him some time, he followed her lead. Polite mornings in the tractor followed by Lillie Jean disappearing into her house for the day. But he had his guarantee of time, and that was all he wanted. Right?

  Of course.

  But he still found himself opening her gate after the twins left and heading up the walk to the manager’s house. It took two knocks before Lillie Jean opened the door. She lifted her eyebrows, waiting for him to state his business—which wasn’t exactly tripping off the end of his tongue. So Lillie Jean surprised him by taking the lead.

  “I met one of your friends today.”

  There was something in her tone that told him exactly who. “Madison?”

  “Got it in one.”

  He had a nasty feeling about this—especially when Lillie Jean was looking at him as if he’d purposely sicced Madison on her. “What did she do?”

  “She pled your case.”

  “What case?”

  “The ‘Gus needs his ranch’ case.”

  Gus rolled his eyes skyward before saying, “She hated the ranch.” It was one of the reasons they’d broken up. She’d wanted him to expand the bar into a bar-restaurant and focus his energies in that direction.

  “She might hate the ranch, but she likes you.”

  Gus brought one hand up to rest on the doorjamb. “What’d she do to make you think that?”

  Lillie Jean took a step closer. “She was marking territory.” She wrinkled her nose, a note of distaste in her voice as she asked, “Did you date that woman?”

  “We worked together. And...yeah. We went out for a while.”

  “And then?”

  “I broke it off and she quit the bar. Moved to Missoula.” He could see that Lillie Jean was drawing a parallel between her situation with her fiancé and his situation with Madison, but they were not alike in the least—except for the fact that Madison quit because she didn’t want to work with him any longer.

  Okay. Small parallel.

  “Good choice on your part,” Lillie Jean said darkly. Despite her carefully distant attitude, he could tell that Madison had upset her.

  “Agreed.” The look on her face was killing him. No one deserved a public Madison attack. He reached out to run his hand over her upper arm, squeezing lightly as he said, “Madison likes to stir up trouble.”

  Lillie Jean dropped her gaze, but she didn’t move away from his touch. When she looked up at him again, her expression was both troubled and determined. “It sounds like our business dealings are common knowledge.”

  “They’re not.”

  A touch of heat sparked in the depths of her blue-green eyes. “Then why did Madison say that you had a war council in the bar to brainstorm ideas to keep me from selling?”

  Gus abruptly dropped his hand.

  “The matter came up when I was discussing the bulls with the twins.”

  “Must have been some discussion if she called it a war council.”

  “No.” Which sounded blatantly untrue, but as he remembered it, they’d discussed things as he’d moved between patrons, and he hadn’t said anything that Lillie Jean wouldn’t have told the real estate agent today.

  “Then why did...” Her voice trailed off and she made a gesture of frustration. “Never mind.”

  “No,” he repeated as he reached out, almost as if he couldn’t help himself, and gently lifted her chin with his thumb and forefinger so that she had to meet his eyes. She looked angry, hurt, conflicted. She also looked as if she’d very much like to shut the door in his face. “I wasn’t complaining or making you out to be the bad guy. I was discussing the situation with my friends. Maybe I shouldn’t have.”

  “I don’t care about that,” she said stiffly.

  “Yeah.” His voice was gentle. “I think you do.”

  She took a step back and he let his hand fall back to his side. “I care about not screwing things up,” she said in a low voice. “And I care about being called out in public by your girlfriend—”

  “Ex-girlfriend.”

  “Which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been discussing me in a bar. I don’t like kamikaze attacks.”

  “Like showing up on a ranch unannounced?” he asked mildly. Lillie Jean blushed, but before she could respond, he said, “That was a low blow.”

  “No. Maybe it was a necessary blow.”

  “How so?”

  “It helps remind me to keep my distance.”

  “Why do you need to be reminded, Lillie Jean?”

  Her eyes went wide as his meaning hit home. “This is why I don’t mix business with friendship. Things get out of hand.”

  He shifted his weight onto one hip, crossing his arms over his chest, wanting very much to ask what “things” she was referring to, but instead saying, “Madison called my discussion with the twins a war council because she’s possessive and she wants to stir up trouble. I didn’t discuss anything at the Shamrock that isn’t common knowledge now that you’ve spoken to the people in the real estate office.”

  Lillie Jean’s gaze shifted in an odd way.

  “Did you talk to the real estate people?” Because if she hadn’t...well, that would be a good sign, if he hadn’t mucked things up too badly.

  “I told you I’d give you time. And I will
.”

  “So that’s a no.”

  Her eyes flashed again, as if she was drawing strength from anger. “That’s a none of your business. Giving you time is not the same as giving you a blow by blow of what I’m doing and what I found out.”

  Of all the women to get under his skin, why did it have to be her? “Fine. But remember one thing... I’m not your enemy. And I’m not your jerky fiancé.”

  “Then what are you, Gus?”

  He let out a shaky breath, surprised at the question, which, if answered truthfully, might get him into a boatload of trouble. “Damned if I know, Lillie Jean. But apparently I’m nothing close to what you need.”

  * * *

  LILLIE JEAN CLOSED her eyes and leaned a palm against the front door, letting her head drop as Gus headed down the path from her house. She heard the gate creak open then closed and then...nothing.

  That was what she wanted from him. Nothing.

  She could not afford to get involved with this man. First, she didn’t want to get involved with anyone. She was still licking her wounds from Andrew, still not fully convinced that she could trust her own judgment. Then this guy shows up in her life.

  No—you showed up in his life.

  Details.

  Second, she was starting to think with her heart instead of her head. She worried about Thad. Her grandparents had caused him a lot of pain all those years ago, and now she might hurt him all over again. And, heaven help her, she hated stomping on Gus’s dreams of managing the H/H.

  But if it came down to his dreams or hers, she had to choose hers. Right?

  Or come up with a compromise, and right now, giving him time to secure a loan was her compromise. Admitting that she’d felt downright possessive about him today when Madison had done her number in the gift shop, or admitting how much it stung to think about him discussing her in a bar—not part of the deal.

  Admitting to herself that she had a problem where Gus was involved...yeah, she did need to do that. She grabbed her coat and let herself out of the house. There were noises coming from the barn and she followed them to where Gus was ripping into the engine of the four-wheeler.

  Confront the issue. Burying your head in the sand won’t solve anything. You need to create some real distance.

  Lillie Jean squared her shoulders and stepped into the barn. “Problem?”

  His head jerked around at the sound of her voice. He slowly straightened, a wrench in one hand. “Yeah. I’d say we have a problem.”

  “I meant with the four-wheeler.”

  “And I meant with us.”

  Now that was the way to address an issue. Lillie Jean swallowed her self-conscious reaction to his blunt words and said, “I owe you an apology.”

  He gave her a wary look as he cupped the wrench in his free hand. “For...”

  “Blaming you for my own insecurities.”

  Please don’t make me explain what I mean. Because she didn’t know if she could.

  He gave a silent nod, frowning down at the ground near her feet. “You know,” he said slowly, “there’s nothing wrong with feeling, and there’s nothing wrong with trusting. Just because you got it wrong once, it doesn’t mean you’ll get it wrong every time.”

  “There’s no guarantee I won’t, either.”

  “That what’s scaring you.” It was a statement rather than a question. And it was totally true.

  “I guess that with everything that’s happened lately, maybe I do need a guarantee.” Lillie Jean’s voice was a little too low. A little too husky. But she was afraid if she spoke louder, it might crack with emotions that she did not want to show. “Since that isn’t going to happen, maybe it’d be best if I keep to my own space.”

  “No more morning chores?”

  That hadn’t occurred to her, but now that he’d said it...

  “If you can manage alone, then yes.” If she didn’t share that small cab with him every single morning, making a show of earning her keep, then perhaps she could get a handle on this thing.

  One corner of his mouth tilted into a humorless half smile. “I’ll try to muddle through.”

  “That wasn’t how I meant it,” she said.

  “Yeah. I know. You were being polite.” He dropped the hand holding the wrench to his side. “Whatever works for you, Lillie Jean. I guess all I want is for us to live in peace until this ranch deal is settled.”

  “Then I think it’s best if we keep to ourselves.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  GUS MADE A conscious effort to relax his jaw muscles as he headed back to the four-wheeler. He worked until dinner figuring out the issue with engine, glad to have something to focus on other than the situation with Lillie Jean. He was more than capable of feeding the cattle on his own, but he’d liked having her along in the morning. Had kind of looked forward to it—the way she’d climb up into the cab and shoot him that sleepy-eyed, half-smiling look that said she was out of bed way too early. And how sometimes he’d catch her studying him only to have her pretend she wasn’t. She was. And he spent his fair share of time studying her. Wishing. Wanting. Wondering.

  They had a problem, all right, and Lillie Jean wasn’t interested in finding a solution. Her solution was to sell and go back to Texas. Except she could go back to Texas now, and she wasn’t. Why? Finances? Jerky ex-fiancé? A combination of factors?

  He could take solace in the fact that staying at the ranch was the lesser of the evils in her life.

  Chores the next morning were...chore-like. He not only missed the convenience of having the gates opened and the cows shooed away—he missed Lillie Jean.

  Man up. This is your reality.

  If she wanted space, she was getting space. The best way to avoid a ranch mate was to leave the ranch proper, so Gus decided to use the four-wheeler to check the remainder of the boundary fences. Once those were mended, he’d check the fences in the high country—the federal allotment where he turned the cows out after calving—on horseback. The snow line was receding, and he wanted to get a start on the repairs as soon as he could.

  It was sobering to think that if he and Thad didn’t get their loan, this might be the last year he’d make these kinds of decisions on his own. Depending on how things turned out, it might be the last time he made repairs at all. The thought was downright depressing and when he arrived at the last brace that needed work, he slammed the posthole diggers into the ground so hard that he was winded afterward. Maybe the Ag loan guy was wrong. Maybe the process wouldn’t move at a snail’s pace.

  And maybe Henry would grow some legs.

  Gus smiled a little as he took off his hat and wiped his forehead with his jacket sleeve. He liked the low-rider dog.

  When he’d driven by Lillie Jean’s house that morning, Henry was furiously digging at the fence while the cat taunted him from the other side. Henry would be well off to stay on the safe side, but as near as Gus could tell, the dog had no idea that the cat was nearly twice his size and could outrun him, outfight him.

  Gus picked up the post he’d dropped off a couple days ago as he and Lillie Jean had driven the perimeter and plunked it into the hole. He’d do well to focus on what he was doing, rather than what-ifs. But the what-ifs were hard to push aside.

  Once the brace was rebuilt, Gus got on the four-wheeler and continued along the fence line for one final check. Good thing, too, because Carson Craig’s cattle had punched another hole through the boundary fence and there was fresh poop on his side. Great.

  When he found the cattle, if they hadn’t crossed back over, he’d call Carson to come get them—although he was fairly certain that his neighbor would demand that Gus drive them to the Craig spread. The ironic thing was that the hole was on Gus’s half of the boundary fence. If he went by Craig law instead of Montana law, then Carson would be fixing the fence, since his cows had busted through.

>   Although he’d probably argue that Gus’s cows had made the hole and his cows had simply taken advantage. There really was no winning with the guy.

  The sun was low and the temperatures dipping by the time Gus finished patching the fence. He shrugged into his heavy coat, climbed on the four-wheeler and headed back to the ranch without seeing any Craig cattle, which meant he wasn’t going to call the guy. The less contact the better.

  As he approached the ranch, he saw Lillie Jean come out of the barn and then circle around behind one of the sheds. Huh. Maybe she needed to scrounge something for her painting project, although he couldn’t imagine what. She came around the shed when he approached the barn and he could see from the way she held herself that something was wrong. Way wrong.

  Instead of driving into the barn, he pulled up next to her and cut the engine.

  “Henry’s gone.”

  “He was in the yard when I left.”

  “Yeah.” Her face was pale, her eyes wide. “That’s where I left him. When I came out to call him in, I found the place where he’d burrowed under the fence.” She hunched her shoulders as a gust of wind hit her from behind. “He’s never dug out before and he’s never ever not come when I called.” She blinked rapidly. “What if...”

  She couldn’t finish the sentence, but Gus did, mentally. What if something had got Henry? He was a little guy and there were predators that weren’t afraid to sneak close to a ranch in search of prey.

  Gus got off the four-wheeler, his gaze sweeping over the ranch yard. “How long have you been looking?”

  “Not long. Maybe five minutes.” Her mouth trembled slightly as she said, “He always comes when I call.”

  It took everything Gus had not to reach out and pull her into his arms, hold her, tell her he’d find her dog. Instead he dropped his chin so he could look Lillie Jean in the eye. “He might be holed up somewhere, scared. You look in and under the buildings, I’ll check out the orchard and the area around where the equipment is parked.”

  “Right.” Lillie Jean started back toward the barn.