In the Cowboy's Arms

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  So she’d gone into research mode. A friend had sent her the dailies from Preston’s Revenge. The scenes between Briana and Matt were off the charts, but did that mean he’d aggressively pursued her?

  She was less and less sure about that. Briana was married to a revered but aging Western movie star. What if she’d been captivated by Matt? He claimed that she’d initiated the kiss.

  And, unlike other clients, he seemed horrified by the drama that photo had created. Some stars were thrilled by any publicity at all, even if it was potentially negative. Not Matt. He’d chosen to hide out.

  It might have been a workable strategy except that Briana obviously planned to keep stirring the pot. Matt needed to fight back or he was liable to be forever labeled with Briana’s taunt of run, Forrest, run.

  No other celebrities were doing something stupid this week, so the gossip mags were hungry for anything Briana fed them. The situation reflected poorly on Geena’s firm, which she’d started only three years ago, but that wasn’t why she’d decided to make a trip to Sheridan. She couldn’t bear to stand by and watch Matt take a beating.

  So she’d booked her flights to Sheridan, a place that was not easy to get to. But she’d brave a puddle jumper if that’s what it took to talk to Matt face-to-face.

  He wouldn’t be happy to see his PR rep, though. She reminded herself of that as she drove her rented SUV down some of the darkest roads she’d ever seen. Thank God for her GPS or she’d surely have ended up in some pasture staring at an angry bull.

  She almost missed the turnoff to Thunder Mountain Ranch. At the last minute she saw it, thanks to a small spotlight trained on the carved wooden sign. A second sign hung below it proclaiming this the Home of Thunder Mountain Academy.

  She had no idea what that was about, but the ranch was listed as Matt’s home address so she’d forge on. Presumably his parents, Rosie and Herb Padgett, lived here. He’d probably changed his last name to something less jarring than Matt Padgett, which was smart marketing.

  The dirt road leading to the ranch was even darker than the highway. If she’d spent the night in Sheridan, she could have tackled this road first thing in the morning. But Matt would have an easier time turning her away in broad daylight. A gentleman didn’t send a lady back out into the night after she’d traveled all day to see him. And Matt Forrest was a gentleman.

  She’d allowed the turmoil Briana had created to obscure that basic fact. Briana might be irresistible to the majority of males out there, but despite her famous allure, Matt would never succumb to it in a public place. Such behavior would have violated his personal code of conduct, one that probably had its roots right here on this extremely authentic-looking ranch and in all the John Wayne movies he’d memorized.

  Arriving unannounced with a small overnight case in the passenger seat was cheeky. She planned to leave it there and see what happened after she knocked on the door, but in movies ranch houses always had spare bedrooms. Staying in the same house as Matt would help the cause, since she didn’t expect instant cooperation.

  The SUV’s tires crunched on a layer of thick gravel as she navigated the circular drive and parked by the front door. Hers was the only vehicle there, but several more were down by a large hip-roofed barn. The Adirondack chairs lined up on the long front porch were empty, but when she stepped out of the car, she heard country music coming from the house. And laughter, both male and female. It seemed she’d arrived in the middle of a party.

  Well, that made sense. His folks had probably decided to celebrate his success and ignore the scandal. No wonder he’d wanted to come back to that kind of love and support.

  She paused beside the SUV. Her arrival would be about as popular as Maleficent crashing a baby shower. On the other hand, having lots of people around might be a good thing. She was fine with crowds. Growing up with a Hollywood star for a mom, she’d learned to handle herself in any circumstance, no matter how bizarre or awkward.

  She was still debating what to do when the front door opened and a redheaded woman came out holding a baby who looked to be about five or six months old. A tall guy tugged on the brim of his cowboy hat as he followed her out and started to close the door.

  “I still say she said my name,” called someone from inside, someone who sounded a lot like Matt.

  Laughing, the cowboy swung the door open again. “You’re dreaming, bro!” he called back.

  “Aw, come on, Damon.” The redhead was busy fiddling with the baby’s blanket and obviously hadn’t spotted the SUV yet. “Let Uncle Matt have his little fantasy.”

  “You heard her,” the guy named Damon said as he closed the door. “She was saying ma-ma like she always does. She—hello, who’s this?” He put a protective hand on the woman’s shoulder and looked in Geena’s direction.

  She moved away from the vehicle and came toward them. “My name’s Geena Lysander and I’m here to see Matt Forrest, but apparently I’m interrupting a celebration.”

  “Geena Lysander,” the woman said. “Your name came up tonight. Aren’t you his PR rep?”

  “Yes, and I’m here to discuss—”

  “Let me stop you right there, ma’am.” The tall cowboy descended the steps. “From what I understand, he’s not interested in having any more discussions. He came here to get away from all that, so I’m afraid you’ve made a trip for nothing. My wife and I can lead you back into town and get you settled in a hotel room, though.”

  Despite Geena’s height, augmented by four-inch heels, she had to look up to meet his determined gaze. Judging from the set of his jaw, he planned to do whatever was necessary to keep her from going up to the front door. Clearly he intended to protect Matt from the likes of her.

  As she debated her next move, the door opened again and Matt stepped out holding a pacifier. At first he looked confused by her presence, but gradually his expression hardened into a mask of anger.

  She despaired of getting through to him but she had to try. “I realize you’re not happy to see me.”

  “No, ma’am, I’m not.”

  “But we need to talk.”

  Instead of responding to her comment, he gestured to the SUV. “Is that your vehicle?”

  “Yes. I rented it.”

  “No worries, bro,” Damon said. “We’ll lead her back to town and help her find a hotel room.”

  Matt shook his head. “I appreciate the offer, but this is my deal and I’ll handle the problem.” He gave the pacifier to the redhead. “Found this on the sofa and thought you might need it. You two head on home with Sophie. I’ll grab the keys to the ranch truck and make sure Geena has a place for the night.” He glanced over at her. “And a plane reservation in the morning.”

  “We’re not in a rush,” Damon said. “We’ll hang out here until you fetch the truck keys.”

  “Listen, you don’t have to stand guard over me.” Geena glanced toward the baby, who was starting to fuss. “I promise to stay right here while Matt gets those keys. I’m sure you’d like to get home.”

  “We would. Sophie’s hungry.” The redhead jiggled the bundle in her arms. “I think you can stand down, cowboy. Geena doesn’t look dangerous.”

  “Okay.” Damon faced Geena and touched the brim of his hat in farewell. “Ma’am.”

  “Bye.” She felt wistful as she watched them walk toward the vehicles parked near the barn. She couldn’t remember a time when anyone had stood between her and a potential threat. Must be nice.

  Chapter Three

  Geena had solid brass ones. Matt would give her that much, but nothing else. She’d made it as far as the driveway, but she wasn’t coming any closer than that. Once he’d escorted her to a hotel in town, he’d fire her like he should have done yesterday. Then she’d have to fly home because she wouldn’t have any reason to hang around.

  He stepped inside the ho
use and paused to take a calming breath. Barreling in looking agitated would provoke a bunch of questions. He’d like to do this with as little discussion as possible. He’d already talked about the subject more than he wanted to.

  During dinner Phil had asked whether he had publicity folks doing damage control and he’d described his meeting with Geena. He wasn’t surprised that Damon had been ready to escort her straight back to town, but that wasn’t his responsibility or Phil’s.

  The living room furniture had been moved aside for dancing, and now that Damon and Phil had left, only four people occupied the floor. Cade and Lexi were teaching some elaborate new move to Herb and Rosie. Matt hated to break that up, but it couldn’t be helped.

  As he approached the group, Cade glanced at him. “How about you partner with Lexi? I know this already.”

  “I’d be glad to, but I have a little errand to run. Can I borrow the ranch truck for a couple of hours?”

  Herb looked puzzled. “Certainly, but I can’t imagine what sort of errand you’d have to run at this hour.”

  “Don’t pry,” Rosie said. “Maybe he’s heard from an old girlfriend.”

  Cade nudged back his hat. “That would be a trick, since he made such a huge deal about turning off his phone for the next week.” His voice softened. “What’s up, bro?”

  “We have an uninvited guest and I need to escort her back to town.”

  Rosie blinked. “A woman’s outside? Did some starstruck fan follow you here?”

  “No, she’s not a fan. Look, if it’s okay, I’ll just get the keys and take care of this.”

  “Hang on,” Cade said. “If it’s some damned reporter, let me go out there with you. I’m sure between the two of us we can convince her to get lost.”

  Matt sighed. He probably should have spit it out in the beginning. “She’s not a reporter, either. It’s Geena. If I can borrow the truck for a couple of hours, I’ll—”

  “Great.” Cade started for the door. “I’m delighted she’s here and she’s not going anywhere until I’ve told her exactly what I think of how she treated you.”

  “No!” Matt blocked Cade’s progress. “Nobody’s going out there except me. All I need is the keys to the truck. She doesn’t know the area so I feel an obligation to make sure she gets back to town okay and has a hotel room. Then I’ll make damn sure she knows that she has to leave in the morning.”

  “Matt.” Rosie sent him a look of reproach. “The woman traveled all the way from Los Angeles to see you. I realize you’re annoyed with her, but shooing her away after she’s made that kind of effort isn’t good manners.”

  He stared at his foster mother. “She showed up uninvited. That isn’t good manners, either.”

  “True, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Sending her back where she came from might give you temporary satisfaction, but it’s not the gracious thing to do.”

  “But—”

  “Is she an evil person?”

  “No.”

  “Has she deliberately harmed you in any way?”

  Matt sighed. He’d lived with Rosie long enough to know where this was going. “No.”

  “Then you need to take the high road, son. Invite her to join us and I’ll offer to put her up.”

  Every instinct told him that this was a bad idea. “I don’t want her here, Mom.” He clenched both fists. “Whatever nastiness happened in LA stays in LA. I don’t want you and Dad involved. Or anyone in my family, for that matter.”

  Rosie studied him for a moment. “I understand that and I appreciate your desire to protect us. That’s very gallant. I can tell you’re very angry that she’s come here, but let’s think about why she did. Her job is to make you look good, right?”

  “Supposedly, but I don’t like her plan or the fact she came to my home uninvited. I’m going to fire her.”

  “Do you have a replacement lined up?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Considering you need a PR person to guide you through this incident, you might want to hold off ditching the one you have. I agree that you shouldn’t apologize for something you didn’t do, but she’s on your turf now.” Rosie smiled. “You don’t agree with her plan for handling things, but now you have a golden opportunity to change her mind.”

  Cade nodded, a gleam in his eyes. “And I have a golden opportunity to give her a piece of mine. Yeah, let’s invite her in. Can’t wait.”

  “Cade Gallagher.” Rosie pinned him with her gaze. “You will not ambush someone who’s a guest in this house. In fact, I’m going out there to issue the invitation myself. You boys stay right here. And once she walks through that door, you’ll be on your best behavior with her at all times. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Matt and Cade said in unison.

  Lexi’s muffled snort was the only sound in the room as Rosie turned and left.

  * * *

  Geena reasoned that she hadn’t completely lost out. Matt was enough of a gentleman to make sure she found her way back to Sheridan and that she had a place to stay. While she could handle everything herself, she’d accept his help because it would give her a chance to accomplish what she’d come for.

  Sometime during their interaction she’d apologize for assuming he’d accosted Briana. Then she’d make her case for having him come back to repair the damage to his reputation. Grabbing a few moments on the fly wasn’t ideal, but at least her trip wouldn’t be completely wasted.

  God, he’d been angry, so angry that his blue eyes had glittered like a pair of Fourth of July sparklers. The effect had been thrilling, actually, seeing him go into protector mode concerning his home and family. Now wasn’t a good time to think about it, but that cowboy turned her on.

  When the front door opened she expected him to come out bringing all his Matt Forrestness with him.

  Instead, a plump woman with blond hair walked out on the porch and down the steps. She approached and held out her hand. “Hello, Geena. I’m Rosie Padgett, Matt’s foster mom.”

  “Foster mom?” Geena heard herself and cringed. “Sorry, that was rude.” She accepted Rosie’s firm handshake. “It’s just that from the way Matt talked about you, I thought he was your son.”

  “He is. They all are. Many years ago Herb and I started taking in boys with nowhere else to go. Most of them ended up calling us Mom and Dad, which pleases us no end. We couldn’t have kids of our own and now we’re blessed with a huge family. We love it.”

  “Wow. So this ranch used to be a foster home?”

  “Sure did, although once again, the boys usually dropped the word foster after they’d been here awhile. The ranch was just home.”

  “That’s wonderful.” She was beginning to realize how little she knew about Matt. But she doubted Rosie had walked out here to give her a quick history lesson.

  “It has been. Listen, I know you’ve had a long trip. I’ll bet you could use some food and something to drink. Why don’t you come in?”

  Whoa. Talk about falling down the rabbit hole. “Uh, because Matt doesn’t want me to?”

  “You’re right, he doesn’t. He’s embarrassed about the mess with Briana Danvers and hates how it’s affected his life. He made the trip without going back to his apartment because he didn’t want to be waylaid. He asked me to shop for him today so he’d have a few clothes and some toiletries.”

  “Poor guy.”

  “He’s hurting, that’s for sure. And he doesn’t want any of it touching his family.” Rosie paused. “But unless you have paparazzi hiding in your SUV, I can’t imagine how bringing you inside would involve us in the scandal.”

  “I promise I’m not dragging a gaggle of reporters behind me. Sheridan isn’t the easiest place in the world to access by air. Matt’s not a big enough story to warrant suffering through long layovers and tiny planes.” />
  Rosie laughed. “I love that about this town. But in spite of the inconvenience, here you are.”

  “Because I really have to talk to him.”

  “I’m sure you do. Just because Matt doesn’t go online doesn’t mean I haven’t. I’ve sent that woman an email letting her know what I think of her shenanigans, not that she’ll ever see it.”

  “No, she probably won’t. I’m sure her PR people filter out the negative ones. I do the same for my clients. If I thought this would go away I’d ignore her, but she’s escalated the attack. That’s why I need to discuss it with Matt.”

  “Then let’s make that happen. You’re lucky we were having a party or we all might have been in bed.”

  “Oh! I didn’t think of that!”

  “I’ll bet nobody goes to bed at ten in Los Angeles.”

  “Not anyone I know. Plus it’s an hour earlier there. I forgot about the time change, which isn’t like me. I apologize.”

  “As it turns out, it doesn’t matter. But I should warn you that ranch folks get up at dawn so we don’t tend to be night owls unless it’s a special occasion.”

  “Then I won’t stay long. And I really don’t need someone to lead me back to town and find me a hotel. I can manage.”

  “No reason for you to do that. We have plenty of room.”

  Geena was stunned. “You’re suggesting I stay here?”

  “I am.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Actually, it’s a fine idea. I assume you have a bag with you?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Then let’s get it.” Rosie started toward the SUV.

  “Wait a minute. Matt will hit the roof. I knew he’d be upset but I had no idea how upset. After I talk with him I’ll drive into town like he suggested. I don’t want to cause problems.”

  “Trust me, there will be no problems.”

  “You’re sure?”