At least you’re not sleeping in your car, she thought as she searched for an outlet to plug in the vacuum. That night—though it had only been a single night—had been one of the worst of her life. Worse than the night she’d said no to her boyfriend’s proposal on live TV.
A chill ran down her back, and she lifted her hand in acknowledgement when Kenny said he was heading out. Relief spread through her when the front door banged closed behind him, and Taryn sank onto his bed. No tears came—she’d cried them all out in the first three months.
Just pure exhaustion. She needed to get out of Texas if she had any hope of living a normal life. But as it always did, the thought of returning home to South Dakota brought on a wave of nausea Taryn had learned to swallow down and breathe through. Her parents hadn’t seen the debacle—she doubted they had any idea that she’d left Corpus Christi six months ago—but she didn’t want to return to Bottle Hollow and explain why. After all, she’d vowed never to return when she’d left a decade ago.
She spoke to her mother from time to time, but her father still hadn’t opened the lines of communication. Some words took longer to fade to whispers, Taryn supposed. Or perhaps her father was as stubborn as her mother always said he was.
She inhaled deeply to inflate her chest and focused on the closet in front of her. A gray camouflage hint of fabric caught her eye, and she sprang to her feet and shoved the clothes which concealed the uniform to the left.
U.S. Marines.
Her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. Stockton sat above the right breast pocket, and Taryn wondered where he’d been stationed, how he’d gotten out of the marines, and why he’d chosen ranching instead of something like law enforcement the way her brother had.
She took a deep drag of air, expecting to find the woodsy, spicy scent of Collin. She didn’t. She hadn’t since his death three years ago. Still, something about this desert cammie called to her.
Another breath revealed a new scent, one that wrapped through her soul and wound around her toes. This one smelled like fresh cotton, and outdoorsy dryer sheets, and something deeply masculine.
Kenny’s scent.
Taryn closed her eyes and reveled in it, a fistful of his uniform clutched in her fingers. Something beyond the house snapped, and her eyes snapped open. She stumbled away from his personal belongings. Embarrassment flooded her.
“Get a grip,” she muttered to herself as she started the vacuum. She attacked the clutter and dust in Kenny’s cabin with vigor. After all, she wasn’t in town to get involved with another marine, even if he smelled as wonderful as she imagined heaven to be. Even if his eyes carried a twinkle and his deep voice sang to her soul and his muscles testified of his impressive physique.
No, she’d had enough of cops and servicemen. Enough of watching them die, the way her brother had. Enough of dating them and then humiliating them when they proposed to her.
Familiar remorse combined with an inexplicable rage hit her right behind the breastbone. Chris should’ve known not to surprise her like that. Nothing about their year-long relationship had suggested she’d enjoy an on-air proposal.
Her refusal was his fault, and yet she’d lost everything because of it. Taryn left Kenny’s cabin in tip-top shape, determined not to let her ex-boyfriend into her thoughts, her decision-making, her life. Not anymore.
As she entered the next cabin, she looked up into the rafters of the porch as if gazing toward heaven. Help me find what I need here, she prayed. If only she knew what that was and how to get it.
“What’s your deal today?”
Kenny looked up at Lawrence’s question, his mind still trying to focus on organizing the words into a sentence that made sense. He blinked and looked at the horse he’d been brushing. “No deal.”
“I’ve been talking to you, and you don’t respond.” Lawrence led his horse into the stall and latched it. “It’s like you’ve got a lot on your mind.” He leaned against the fence and grinned. “But you’re Kenny, so that can’t be true.”
Kenny chuckled with his friend. “I suppose I’ve been distracted today.” Distracted by a gorgeous pair of brown eyes and hair he’d been speculating on its true color for most of the day. The black on Taryn obviously came from a bottle.
“You been lookin’ at a new horse?”
A twinge of disdain pinched behind Kenny’s eyes. But Lawrence wouldn’t automatically assume Kenny had been distracted by a woman. He rarely made it past the third date, and the last woman he’d been out with declined his dinner invitation, claiming he was “too happy.”
Well, Kenny didn’t know how to be unhappy. Didn’t really seem to be in his nature, and he certainly wasn’t going to apologize about his glass-half-full attitude. His time in the Marines had taught him to see the darkness, the evil, the horrors of this world. He didn’t want to exist there all the time.
He thanked God everyday that he’d been able to serve his country without losing his life. So many others didn’t. He’d served two four-year terms of active service before leaving the Marines, before wandering the country in search of what to do next, before he’d found Three Rivers Ranch. His father had known Garth Ahlstrom in Montana, and Kenny had come to Texas a few years ago looking for a job. Garth hired him the same day. Another blessing.
“Hello?” Lawrence waved his hand in front of Kenny’s eyes. “Must be a beautiful horse.”
“Hm.” Kenny didn’t correct him. So he’d thought Taryn was pretty. Every man who looked at her surely thought that too. She was petite and polite, which led Kenny to believe she’d been raised in the South.
The heat from her hand still burned in his, and he fisted his fingers as he finished his last chore before heading back to his cabin. For one small moment, he fantasized about walking in on Taryn. But the idea was ridiculous. Squire had hired her to clean all the cabins, as well as the administration building. It wouldn’t take her all day to clean his cabin, though it was a bit of a pig sty.
Sure enough, when he tried to enter his cabin, the door was locked. He fished his keys from his pocket and entered the quiet cabin. His roommate, Charlie, would be home in a few minutes, and Kenny took the opportunity while he was alone to admire the freshly vacuumed rugs, the straight pillows on the couch, and his crisply made bed.
Kenny wondered where Taryn had come from. He hadn’t seen her at church previously, but that was his only interaction with anyone off the ranch. Maybe she didn’t go to church. And it wasn’t like he went every single week either.
“Wow, this place looks great.” Charlie entered the cabin and kicked his dirty boots onto the clean rug. “What’re you thinkin’ for dinner?”
Kenny hadn’t thought of anything but Taryn for hours. He hadn’t discovered how to get her number, or what her schedule at the ranch would be, or anything. He didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want anyone to know of his interest.
The wind shook the windows as Kenny said, “Pizza or spaghetti.”
“You cooking?”
“Sure.” He stepped into the kitchen and pulled out a stock pot.
“This place smells like lilacs,” Charlie commented, and Kenny smiled as he salted the pasta water.
The next morning, Kenny didn’t see Taryn on his way to the administration building. Garth had messaged all the cowhands about a mandatory meeting that morning, instead of just heading out to their usual chores.
“Maybe we’ll get our new assignments,” Charlie commented.
“Nah.” Kenny grinned at him as they climbed the steps to the building. “We just got new ones last month.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Charlie lowered his head against the wind, his tone resigned. Kenny didn’t much care what his chore was, though there were definitely less desirable jobs around the ranch. Kenny was just glad to be out of a uniform, working the hours of the day away, and living a carefree life.
A flash of black hair caught his attention, but he didn’t truly have a chance to see if it was Taryn or not before Charlie opened
the door and ushered Kenny into the admin building. They took seats and waited for Garth to appear. By the time he finally did, Kenny had listened to Lawrence and Charlie bicker good-naturedly about whose dog was smarter and why.
“Storm comin’ in,” Garth said as a way to call the cowboys to order. It worked. “I reckon we have today to get the animals secure, get the barns all closed up, and the rest of the week, we’ll be working on indoor improvements.”
Some of the cowboys shuffled their feet, but not Kenny. He didn’t mind working inside any more than he did outside. Someone asked what kind of indoor improvements, and Garth mentioned painting and appliance repair in some of the cabins, maybe laying new flooring in a couple of them, and other home improvement items Kenny had never done. But he could wipe a brush up and down and follow written directions.
The meeting ended with assignments to get the livestock on the ranch secured, and Kenny got assigned along with a half-dozen cowhands to ride out and check on the herd. They’d hunker down next to the tree line for some security, and Kenny labored with the other men to make the field smaller. Keeping the cattle in a group would help them stay calm, and it was only supposed to rain. Buckets, but just rain.
Kenny drove another nail into the plywood back Garth had instructed they build on the existing roof structure that protected the feeding troughs. The cattle wouldn’t be able to access the hay from both sides, but the chances of their feed lasting through the storm increased with the additional wall.
“Roof’s secure,” Lawrence said from the other side of the structure. “This is almost done.”
“Great work,” Garth said. “The hay’ll be here in a few minutes. We’ll get that out, and we’ll head home.”
Kenny nailed faster, swinging the hammer with near lightning speed. He’d had enough of the wind pulling at his hat and whipping through his ears. He wasn’t sure Texas ever got truly cold, but with this wind and the threatening gray sky, a chill skated over his arms.
The trucks arrived and the men set to work filling the troughs. Grass still grew in this field too, but no one would be out to check the herd for three days, and Garth wasn’t the kind of foreman who took chances. Kenny knew he’d come out in a hailstorm to check on the cattle if he was concerned about them.
He finished up his job and helped get the last of the hay out. With fresh water in the lower trough, Garth called, “Let’s get outta here, boys!” He flattened his hand against his head as the wind kicked up, and Kenny started toward his horse. He led two along behind him as a couple of the boys got a ride in the back of the truck.
“You okay there, Kenny?” Garth asked as he leaned out the window of the truck.
“Just fine, boss.”
“It’s just you and Aaron. Keep an eye on each other.”
“Sure thing, boss.” But Kenny didn’t look up. The weather threw dust and dirt and debris into his face, and he used his cowboy hat to keep himself protected. At one point, he spotted Aaron ahead of him on the horizon, also leading two horses. Kenny whistled a tune he’d learned in the marines as Orion, his faithful black-and-white horse, plodded on home.
He’d just passed the cabin in section twelve when something floated to him on the wind. He jerked his head up, searching for the source of the cry. Maybe it was an animal—the prairie played home to more than just cattle, he knew.
His pulse pounding and his blood beating through his veins, he scanned the horizon. Nothing.
The cry came again, a high-pitched noise without shape or meaning. He whipped his head left, and there, so far out where the land met the angry sky, he spotted a dark figure.
A human figure.
Taryn wasn’t sure if the water on her face came from her eyes or from the sky. All she knew was that the thunderous gallop of three horses was bearing down on her. An impressive man rode one of the beasts, like a Greek god from the movies she’d loved in college.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, and her brain registered his voice as familiar.
“Kenny?”
“Taryn?” He swung out of the saddle and hurried toward her. “Why are you out this far?”
“I may have decided to take a walk during lunch and got turned around.” She glanced in a near three-sixty-degree circle. “Everything out here looks the same.”
He swept an arm around her shoulders and drew her into his wall of a body. The wind chill factor dropped. In fact, the temperature on the plains suddenly rose ten degrees. “You’re an hour from the homestead. How long have you been out here?”
“A while,” she admitted. She didn’t necessarily want to wilt into his arms, but her body acted of its own accord. She gripped the front of his shirt and sampled a breath of his musky, masculine scent. “I’m glad you spotted me.”
“I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t been yelling.”
She gazed up at him and locked onto his stormy eyes. She nearly fell at that moment, but managed to keep herself upright with only a slight stumble. “I wasn’t yelling.”
Concern flashed in his eyes at the same time lightning split the sky. He looked to his right, then his left. “Come on.” He secured her hand in one of his and kept his grip on the reins of three horses in the other. “We’ll never make it back to the ranch before the rain hits.” Even as he spoke, the first drops peppered Taryn’s forearm.
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a cabin about two hundred yards back this way.”
Taryn peered into the murky sky but couldn’t see much more than gray soup. “You sure?”
“Dead certain.”
Kenny moved with the liquid grace of an athlete, of a man who knew how to keep his body in peak operating condition—and had done so for a while. Taryn had to practically run to keep up with his long strides, a fact she became grateful for when the rain really started falling in earnest.
“Here.” He all but shoved her into the cabin before ducking back into the storm to secure the horses. She heard him around the back of the structure, and she hoped the horses at least had some sort of shed to protect them from the weather.
The cabin consisted of one room, with the capability to curtain it into two. A stove sat against the back wall, and Taryn wondered if there was any dry wood to be had. A long counter ran along the wall to her right, and she wandered that way, the single cot on the opposite side of the cabin too dangerous to approach.
Kenny burst into the cabin a few minutes later, water dripping from his cowboy hat. He slammed the door behind him and secured it with two sliding locks, as well as a chain. “Wow! It’s comin’ down hard out there.” He shook his hat off in time to the rhythm of the rain pelting the roof.
Taryn rubbed her arms and pressed herself against the back wall where the counter met wood. “So we’re going to just…stay here until the storm settles, right?”
The cabin had two windows in the front, and one on each end, but nothing in the back. Kenny peered out one of the front panes. “Could be a long time.” He checked his watch. “It’s almost dark as it is.”
He turned back to her, a half-smile on his face. “I think we’ll probably be here all night.”
Taryn’s throat turned to dust. “All night?” she managed to choke out. She glanced around wildly, like the cabin would suddenly transform and provide her with a hot bath, a private bedroom, and silk pajamas. “How is that possible?”
Kenny chuckled as he stepped to a wardrobe in the opposite corner that Taryn hadn’t seen. “We’ve got blankets here. Some emergency food. A radio. I’ll call in and let Garth know where I am. We’ll be fine until morning.”
“I can’t stay out here all night.” She eyed the single cot like it had done her wrong.
Kenny tossed two blankets onto the cot and raised his eyes to hers. “Why not?”
Did he really not get it? There was one bed. Two of them. Emergency food—surely that tasted about as good as it sounded. No wood.
“Can we light that stove?” she asked.
“Dema
nding little thing, aren’t you?” He added a genuine laugh to the end of his statement, and Taryn got caught up in the warmth of it. How could he be so cavalier about this? Was he always so good-natured?
“There’s wood in the shed out back,” he said. “I shoved the horses in there too.” He rooted around in the closet. “But here’s some pellets for them. I’ll go feed ‘em, and bring in the wood.” He grinned at her. “You can make your bed.” He produced a sleeping bag, and Taryn was beginning to think that wardrobe was a cousin of Mary Poppins’s tote bag. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
He zipped over to the front door, unchained it, and darted into the storm before Taryn could put two words together. The man’s energy almost unnerved her. She’d cleaned two cabins today before getting lost, and the weight of her exhaustion had her crossing the room and flopping onto the unmade cot without another thought.
Kenny found her there, and he stopped by the wardrobe before approaching her. “You should eat something.” He held out a silver package.
She took it, but the thought of putting whatever it held in her mouth made her stomach revolt.
“You’re not goin’ into shock, are you?” Kenny crouched in front of her and examined her face. “I totally think you are. You look pale.” He reached up and brushed her hair from the side of her face. “You need to eat and drink. And get up. Come help me start this fire.” He gently placed his hand in hers, and she let him lead her to the pot-bellied stove. In fact, she would’ve gone anywhere with him at that moment. Strong, and sure, and smelling so good, Kenny seemed like the knight in shining armor Taryn needed in her life.
She listened to the bass timbre of his voice as he instructed her to place the wood just so, to crumple up the newspaper they kept stored at the cabin, to strike the match. She moved in a methodical way to match his voice, and before she knew it, the heat of the flames licked her face. She grinned and tipped her head toward Kenny’s.
Christmas in Three Rivers: Three Rivers Ranch Romance Novella Collection Page 20