The Cowboy Meets His Match

by Sarah Mayberry

  If he wanted to. If Jed caught him. If Jesse told him what he’d been carrying around with him all these years and Jed could convince him to let go of his guilt.

  CJ closed her eyes, feeling sick with worry—which was when she heard the faint sound of a car engine. She opened her eyes and stood, her gaze narrowed on the bend in the drive, trying not to hope too hard.

  Jed’s blue pickup appeared around the bend, and her heart sank when she saw Jesse wasn’t following him.

  Almost immediately she started making plans in her head. Jesse was heading for Great Falls. He’d mentioned Helena—maybe he’d still go there. If she hit the road now, maybe she’d be able to find him.

  Then Jesse’s truck rounded the bend, the trailer rocking as he navigated the rutted road, and relief rushed up inside her like a fountain, flooding every part of her.

  “Pretty sure he didn’t just forget his phone charger,” Sierra said.

  CJ smiled faintly, too busy trying to catch a glimpse of Jesse’s face through the windshield to respond.

  Jesse’s truck came to a halt and he climbed out at the same time Jed exited his pickup. Jed glanced at the trailer, then across to where CJ and Sierra were standing on the porch steps.

  “I’ll take care of Major,” he said.

  “Thanks, man,” Jesse said, and CJ bit her lip as the two men exchanged a quick man-hug.

  Then Jesse glanced across to where she was standing and started walking, and she saw he’d been crying, and that there was something different about the way he was holding himself as he approached her.

  He seemed…lighter. More at ease with himself.

  She was aware of Sierra slipping discreetly away as he stopped in front of her.

  “Before you say anything, I need to do this,” she said, and she put her arms around him and held him to her, trying to convey all her care and compassion in the wordless gesture.

  He looked so raw, like he’d been to hell and back.

  His arms came around her, and they simply stood quietly for several moments, giving and receiving comfort. After a beat she released him and he took a small step back.

  “Thanks for sending Jed after me,” he said.

  “Took some doing. You Carmodys are stubborn.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  CJ reached out and brushed the hair at his temples. “You talked?”

  She knew they had, could see the shift in him, but she wanted to have it confirmed.

  “Yeah.”

  “And?”

  “Turns out there were some things I didn’t know about that night.”

  CJ listened as he explained about the stop his parents had made on the way into town, and the recall notice Jed had found among their parents’ papers. She could see he was still feeling his way, getting his head around what he’d learned, but the fundamental message had sunk in: he wasn’t to blame. He could forgive himself. He could let himself be part of the family again.

  The thought made her well up again. When she’d first met him, Jesse Carmody had seemed cooler than Cool Hand Luke, rough and rugged. But there’d always been a gentleness in him, a generosity, an awareness of others, and the knowledge that he’d denied himself his family for so long, when they were so clearly important to him, was painful to her.

  She wanted him to be happy. She wanted him to be whole.

  And suddenly the words were in her mouth, unstoppable, necessary.

  “I love you,” she said.

  His eyes lit up, and her chest felt warm and tight with emotion.

  “I love you, too, Cassidy Jane,” he said.

  He kissed her, the full length of his body pressed to the full length of hers, a deep, soulful kiss that felt like a promise.

  When they drew apart she framed his face with her hands, gliding her thumbs gently over the lines beside his beautiful eyes, her touch tender and careful. This man had become incredibly precious to her in a very short time, but she didn’t have a single doubt about her feelings for him.

  “Thank you for trusting me,” she said. “I’m so glad you talked to your brother. I’m so glad you can let go of that terrible thing.”

  He pressed his cheek into her palm. “Thanks for not kicking me in the teeth after I was dumb enough to walk away from you.”

  She smiled. “Thanks for coming back. For wanting us enough to face your demons.”

  Because she understood now how terrifying that had been for him, and how far he’d had to travel to get to the place they were right now.

  “Demons, huh? Thought I was just a bit fucked up.”

  “No way. You’re perfect. The perfect, definitive Jesse Carmody. The man who made me love him, even though all I had in my head was saddle bronc and leaderboards.”

  “You make me sound pretty impressive,” Jesse said, pretending to give it some thought.

  “You are. In and out of bed.” She kissed him, savoring the taste of him, the feel of his lips against hers. His arms closed more tightly around her, and she let him take them deeper.

  She had no illusions about what had happened today. She didn’t think Jesse was suddenly going to shed the pain and guilt he’d been carrying with him all of his adult life like a snake sheds its skin. But she could see the new lightness in him, and she’d seen the way he and Jed had hugged out in the yard, and she’d looked into his eyes as he told her his story, and she had great faith that he—they—were going to get there.

  They were going to make this work.

  So when he took her by the hand and led her toward the trailer, she went with him willingly, happily, eagerly, because this was the man who’d won her heart, and she was the woman who’d won his, and this was the start of their happy every after.

  *

  It was nearly seven by the time Jesse had finished hashing over the details of the ranch’s current financial situation with his siblings. They’d been sitting around the table for an hour and a half, looking at spreadsheets, discussing various issues, proposing changes and ideas.

  Getting Jed to agree to have a family conference had taken some work, but Jesse had finally made him see sense. His brother was used to doing things a certain way and to keeping his own counsel, but eventually he’d agreed to a sit-down meeting with Casey and Sierra.

  The last few hours hadn’t been fun, not by a long shot. But at least they now all understood the scope of the problem. A couple years ago, the ranch—Jed—had taken on more debt in order to increase the herd and replace the barn roof. It had seemed like a smart idea at the time. Then he’d been hit by low beef prices, a hike in interest rates, a couple of bad calving seasons, and the loss of winter feed to foraging deer and elk. And things had gotten tough.

  For months now Jed had been robbing Peter to pay Paul, juggling funds, scrimping where he could, cutting costs altogether where he had to—and none of them had had a clue.

  “I still can’t believe you haven’t paid yourself a wage for five months,” Sierra said, sitting back with her arms crossed over her chest.

  She’d surprised Jesse with her reaction to the revelation the ranch was in trouble. He’d expected her to be mouthy and upset, but she’d been quiet, taking notes, looking up things on her laptop, digesting everything. Then he’d remembered she was twenty-six now, and that she’d done better at school than any of them. He’d only been surprised because he didn’t know her very well anymore.

  That was something he planned to rectify, now that he and Jed had sorted themselves out. He had years to catch up on with his family. He wanted to watch Casey captivate the crowd again with his music, and he wanted to know more about Sierra’s flying, and most of all he wanted to give his older brother the room and space to have dreams of his own again.

  “It wasn’t a big deal,” Jed said. “It’s not like I don’t have everything I need here.”

  “Jesus, that’s the saddest thing I ever heard,” Casey said, and they all laughed.

  Jesse looked at the legal pad in front of him, deciding it was time to s
ummarize.

  “Okay, we’ve all agreed to tipping some of our individual savings into the pot. Sierra and Casey are going to take a wage cut, and no one gets any quarterly payments. And we’re going to take a look at all our processes to see where we can be more economical.”

  “I’m going to see if we can negotiate down our vet fees,” Sierra piped up. “Don’t forget that.”

  “And I’m taking over the accounting from Jed,” Casey said.

  They’d all agreed that Jed could no longer carry the administrative load of the ranch on his own. Jed kept twitching every time a task was farmed out to one of his siblings, but Jesse was pretty sure he wasn’t imagining the relief in his brother’s eyes.

  They had a long row to hoe, and more than a few hurdles to face, but Jesse was confident they could save the ranch if they all pulled together. Like their father always said, Carmodys were good improvisers.

  A noise on the porch made him look at his watch and he saw it was seven on the dot. The sound of the front door opening and closing echoed through the house, and seconds later CJ appeared in the kitchen doorway, a stack of pizza boxes in her arms. She looked beautiful, tall and strong, her dark hair flowing over her shoulders. Her eyes met his the moment she entered, and he saw the warmth and love and need in her.

  “Oh, man, I am so ready for this,” Casey said, rubbing his hands together.

  CJ slid the boxes onto the kitchen bench. “I forgot to ask what you all like, so I just got anchovies on everything.”

  She said it with an utterly straight face, and Jesse grinned as his siblings fought to hide their dismay.

  “Kidding, guys. I’m not a sadist,” CJ said.

  “Thank God,” Sierra said. “I would have tried to choke it down for you, CJ, but I wouldn’t have liked it.”

  Sierra jumped up to grab plates and napkins while Casey sorted out beers and Jed cleared the table. Jesse took advantage of their distraction to slip an arm around CJ’s waist and pull her close. She smiled, her gaze soft on him, and he felt the twin pull of his love and lust for her. He was the luckiest man on earth, and he knew it. Hopefully that awareness would go some way to making him worthy of CJ at some point in the future, but for now he would just live with the knowledge that he’d lucked out big-time when he managed to convince her to fall in love with him.

  “People are about to eat, if you don’t mind,” Sierra said, nudging them out of the way before flipping the lid open on a pizza box. “Save the public displays of affection for when we don’t need to digest.”

  Her brow furrowed in concentration, she picked out the perfect slice.

  “Sorry, Squirrel. Didn’t mean to ruin your appetite,” Jesse said, then he swiped the slice from his sister’s hand and took a big bite.

  “Hey. You rat,” she said.

  “What can I say? Snoozers are losers,” he said.

  “So true,” CJ said, swiping the slice from him and taking a huge bite herself.

  Sierra cackled with laughter. “I love you, CJ.”

  “Me, too,” Casey said, hands full with his own mammoth slice. “This pizza is amazing.”

  “I love you, too, CJ, because you’re the best fence builder I know,” Jed chimed in.

  CJ was laughing, utterly in her element. Jesse held up both hands in protest.

  “Hang on a minute. I’m the one who loves CJ. She’s all mine, and the rest of you can back the hell off.”

  The rest of the meal proceeded in much the same vein, and once the pizza boxes had been crushed and the table cleared, he and CJ went to sit on the porch to watch the stars.

  They each nursed a beer, and he tucked her under his arm as they sat in silence, soaking in the clear, cool air and gazing at the night sky.

  “How did it go with you guys? Did you work out a plan of attack?” CJ asked after a while.

  “Yeah, we hammered something out.” He’d filled CJ in on the details of the ranch’s problems before the family meeting, and she’d volunteered to go into town to get dinner for them and leave them to talk in private.

  “You think it’s going to be okay?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. Nothing’s guaranteed, right? But we’ve got some ideas. I think we’re in with a strong chance.”

  “Come on, all you stubborn Carmodys pulling in the same direction? Pfft,” CJ said, waving a hand dismissively. “You’ve totally got this.”

  “You happy to keep coming back here when we can to pitch in? Won’t be a lot of wages to throw around until we’re more solvent, but we’ll have food and lodging taken care of.”

  “Baby, we won’t need wages, we’ll have prize money. We’ll be rolling in it.”

  He knew her bravado was for comic effect, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that CJ was going to make her mark in the world of pro rodeo.

  He was going to enjoy the hell out of going along for the ride, too. Maybe he’d even give her a run for her money every now and then, steal a few prizes out from under her nose.

  “What?” she said, giving him a look. “Why are you staring at me like that? Have I got a beer moustache?”

  “Yes,” he lied. “Let me take care of it.”

  He kissed her, loving the small happy sound she made and the way her body melted against his. After a moment they pulled apart, sharing a smile before they resumed their star watching.

  Sitting on the porch steps, the love of his life against his side, Jesse realized he was experiencing a perfect moment. He tried to catalog it all so he could capture the memory perfectly—the taste of beer, the warmth of her body, the brilliant blue-black of the night sky. Then it hit him that this was just the beginning for them, that there would be hundreds, thousands of moments like this in their life together. If they were lucky.

  He smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of CJ’s head. He had the feeling they were going to be very lucky. After all, they’d found each other, hadn’t they?

  Raising his beer to his mouth, he swallowed a mouthful and went back to watching the heavens above with the woman he loved.

  The End

  The 79th Copper Mountain Rodeo

  Book 1: The Cowboy Meets His Match by Sarah Mayberry

  View the series here!

  Book 2: The Bull Rider’s Return by Joan Kilby

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  Book 3: Cowboy Come Home by Sinclair Jayne

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  Book 4: The Cowboy’s Last Rodeo by Jeannie Watt

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  Book 5: The Rodeo Cowboy’s Baby by Heidi Rice

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  About the Author

  Sarah Mayberry is the award winning, best selling author of more than 30 books. She lives by the bay in Melbourne with her husband and a small, furry Cavoodle called Max. When she isn’t writing romance, Sarah writes scripts for television as well as working on other film and TV projects. She loves to cook, knows she should tend to her garden more, and considers curling up with a good book the height of luxury.

  Visit her website at www.sarahmayberry.com

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