by Amy Vastine
“I already know what she wants. She asked me for that job months ago. I listened to you and let you hire Eric instead. I was wrong. I should have fought for her to get that position.”
Kellen let out an exasperated sigh. “Look at what he did on the Kingman account and tell me he’s not qualified to do the job. If you see what he put together and still think we should give the job to Hadley instead, I’ll consider it in title only. We can’t afford to pay her more.”
Would that be good enough? Hadley hadn’t asked for a raise, but surely she assumed the money would come with the title. Tyler didn’t have any other options at this point. He would find fault with Eric’s research report if it killed him. Tyler ended his call with Kellen and realized he had walked all the way to the barn.
“Look who has finally emerged from his cabin in the woods,” Ethan said as Tyler approached the petting zoo.
His brother patted one of the baby goats on the head. The kid was desperate for some food and when it realized Ethan had none, it moved on to a little boy with a cup filled with feed pellets. A sheep and the llama also took note of the boy’s cup. He was surrounded. Joy turned to fear in an instant. He threw the cup on the ground and cried for his mom, who was quick to swoop in with a reassuring smile. He was fine. The animals wouldn’t hurt him.
It made Tyler remember his own mother introducing him to the animals on the ranch when he was small. She always emphasized that if he treated the animals with kindness, they would respond without fear. Fear was what made animals attack. Watching the animals grow up on the ranch was one of the few things that he remembered fondly.
“Did you come to cuddle with the llama?” Ethan asked.
“I came to tell you I have a potential buyer coming on Wednesday to look at the facilities. We need to make any ongoing repairs a priority the next couple days. I understand that there’ll always be something to fix, but the more we get finished, the better.”
Ethan looked crestfallen. “A buyer? Already?”
“That’s why you guys asked me to come out here, wasn’t it?”
“I thought the focus would be to book new guests. A profitable ranch is a more appealing sell.”
“We’re concentrating on that, too. Hadley already connected with a guest wanting to do a corporate retreat here next summer. We’re doing everything we can.”
“She’s really good at this kind of stuff. Grace told me Hadley had some fun ideas for some Kids’ Club programs. I think she likes this place more than she’s letting on.”
Tyler knew where he was going with this. Hadley was never going to be part of the family, therefore it didn’t matter if she loved this place or not. Tyler was not staying. Period.
“I’m going to do my best to sell this place before I leave. Hadley and I can’t wait to get home.”
“You sure you and Hadley are on the same page about that?” Ethan challenged.
“Of course we are.” Tyler didn’t appreciate his tone. “We’re on the same page about everything.”
Ethan lifted his chin. “If you say so, little brother.”
Tyler didn’t have time to fight with him about the strength of his fake relationship. If there was one thing he knew for sure, it was that Hadley and Tyler were the only ones crystal clear about how things were going to play out.
* * *
“SO DID YOU have a favorite horse when you lived here?” Hadley asked as they walked through the horse barn to the tack room.
“You know how I feel about favorites.”
Oh, she hadn’t forgotten. Everyone had favorites except for Tyler. The man was so stubborn.
“Well, was there one that you liked to ride more than the others?”
He stopped in front of one of the stalls and tapped on the nameplate. “I did help name Butterscotch. She was always such a sweet horse. I’d say we should take her out today, but she’s got a foal to care for.”
“Oh, I met the baby horse that first full day we were here. It was so adorable.”
“Foal,” Tyler corrected her. “They’re called foals. No one calls them baby horses.”
“Not true. I call them baby horses, so someone does.”
Tyler laughed through his nose and shook his head. At least she entertained him from time to time. It was no easy feat either, so she felt quite proud of herself when it happened.
Conner, the ubertalkative wrangler she had met the other day, helped get two trail horses saddled up. He offered her a hand in getting up on Geronimo. The chocolate Rocky Mountain horse had a flaxen mane and a sweet disposition.
“I see you got yourself a hat,” Conner said once she was situated in the saddle.
Last night during their snacking spree, Tyler bought Hadley her very first straw cowboy hat. It had a sparkly rhinestone heart and chain embellishment to play up her city-style but still managed to make her feel like a real cowgirl.
“My fiancé knows how to spoil me.”
“Well, it looks good on you.”
“Everything looks good on her. That’s one of the many reason why I’m marrying her,” Tyler said after he mounted his horse. “Thanks for the help, but I’ve got it from here.” Conner stepped away and wished them a good ride. Hadley made a kissing noise and gave Geronimo a squeeze with her legs to get him moving. He followed Tyler’s horse, Goliath, down the trail.
“You play the jealous boyfriend real well. Does that come naturally or do you have to think about it?” she said, goading him.
“I wasn’t acting like a jealous boyfriend.”
“You do every time Conner looks at me. You even snapped at him a couple days ago when he offered to give me a private cattle clinic. And you love to point out that we’re attached like he might be trying to get in between us.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Tyler insisted. She couldn’t see his face as he was in front of her, but she could imagine the guilty look that had to be there.
She encouraged Geronimo to catch up and walk beside Goliath instead of behind. “So, where are we headed this fine afternoon?”
Tyler wouldn’t look at her. “There are a few secret spots I’d like to show you that people like Conner have no idea even exist on this ranch.”
“I promise that I am a one-fake-relationship-at-a-time kind of girl. You do not need to worry about me running off with the horse wrangler anytime soon.”
He gave her a sideways glance. “Good to know. Not that I’d care what you did with Conner if you wanted to do something with Conner. I just think it’s ridiculous that the guy flirts with a woman who is engaged to someone else.”
“We aren’t really engaged.”
“I know that, but he doesn’t. What if he hit on a married guest?”
“He’s harmless. He paid me a compliment. He was being nice, not flirtatious.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.”
Could Tyler truly be jealous? There was no way. Hadley was overthinking it. He most likely thought about it only from a business perspective. It wasn’t as if they had a real emotional connection.
Hadley needed to focus on something else, which wasn’t hard given the sweeping mountain vistas along the trail. Acres of prairie grass and wildflowers covered the landscape ahead of them. She could understand why Montana was referred to as the Last Best Place by the people who lived here.
Tyler led them off trail and up into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. He pulled on Goliath’s reins and brought them both to a stop by a small turquoise-blue pond.
Hadley dismounted. “This isn’t on the map of the property.”
“Too small for anyone to care about, but this is where I would come and skip rocks when I was little. I felt like because of its size, I had the best chance of getting one to skip all the way across.”
“Did you ever do it?”
“Nah
.” Tyler tipped his hat up. “I read somewhere that the world record was eighty-eight skips across a lake. I never made it more than six. And even on this small pond, it wasn’t far enough.”
“Let’s see if you can do it now that you’re older,” Hadley said, tugging him down off his horse.
They walked down to the water’s edge and searched for the perfect skipping stones. The sound of the occasional frog croaking and chirping mixed with the buzzing of bees and dragonflies. Hadley noticed a red-tailed hawk soaring up above them. This place was so different from Portland’s quirkiness.
“You want one that’s flat. Flat ones go the farthest,” Tyler said, crouched down, picking up rocks and tossing them aside when he deemed them unworthy.
“How about this one?” Hadley held up a smooth, flat stone that fit perfectly in the center of her palm.
“That’s about as perfect as you’re going to find,” he said, seeming pleased.
Hadley slipped the stone into her pocket for safekeeping. She didn’t want to lose it while she continued her search. After gathering half a dozen stones each, Tyler gave her a quick lesson on how to skip rocks.
“You want to hold it like this,” he explained. “Put your thumb and your middle finger on either side and wrap your index finger around the edge.”
Hadley did her best to copy him even though her hands weren’t as big as his, making it a bit more difficult.
“Now, the whole idea is to throw the rock at a twenty-degree angle and make it hit the water without breaking the surface.”
“Well, Professor Blackwell, I didn’t realize there was so much science and math required in this class. I thought we were trying to have fun,” Hadley teased.
Tyler turned away from her. “If you don’t want to learn, I won’t teach. We’ll see who skips the rocks the farthest.”
She grabbed him and spun him around. “Teach me.”
He stared at her for a beat longer than she expected. Whenever she touched him, he froze. She couldn’t read him, though. Did he hate it when she did that? All she knew was that the physical contact made her feel like someone set fireworks off in her belly. She let go and they both snapped out of it.
“Make sure to bend your wrist all the way back and flick the rock against the surface. I’ll show you.” Tyler wound up like a baseball pitcher and threw his first stone sidearm. It skipped six times before sinking into the water. He was still a good distance from the other side of the pond.
“Six hops. Very impressive,” she said, knowing he wasn’t happy it didn’t make it across by the look of disappointment on his face. “My turn.”
Hadley tried to hold the stone the way Tyler had shown her. She wound up and let it go. It hit the surface hard and bounced up high and then right back down into the water. She cringed at her complete fail.
Tyler came up behind her and put a hand around her throwing wrist. “You’re throwing it down too close to yourself. Try making a wide angle and throw it farther away.”
He guided her through the motion, which would have been helpful if she could focus on his instructions instead of his touch. Those earlier fireworks were now in the grand finale phase, hundreds of rockets exploding at the same time.
“Okay, give it another try,” he encouraged.
Hadley took her second rock and gave it a flick. This time, she managed three skips before it sank to the bottom.
“Better.” Tyler was being generous. “Just remember to follow through with your arm after you release. Like this.” He threw his second one and it skipped across the pond almost to the other side.
“Nine!” Hadley clapped. “You almost got over there.”
They took turns tossing the rocks they had left. Hadley managed to get four skips and about halfway across the pond. Tyler skipped two more near the edge of the opposite side. Hadley pulled the perfect rock from her pocket.
“We should switch. You take this one. You said it was almost perfect. I feel like it’s destined to be the one you get across.” She kissed it for good luck and handed it to him. “Take it.”
Tyler switched stones with her and watched as she threw hers, managing only two skips. He stared down at the rock she had given him and rubbed his thumb over the side she had kissed. He glanced over at her.
“Here goes nothing.”
He wound up and let it go. Ten skips across the water. Ten rippling circles left in its wake. The stone came to stop in the grass along the edge of the other side. Both Tyler and Hadley threw their arms in the air and screamed.
Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around him in congratulations. For the first time, he didn’t seem to mind the contact, returning the embrace. She pressed the side of her face against his solid chest. He smelled like expensive cologne even though he was dressed like a down-to-earth cowboy. Both suited him just fine.
“Looks like you might be my lucky charm.”
Hadley stared out over that turquoise water that had gone back to being as smooth as glass. It was like a mirror, reflecting the trees and mountains around it. It immediately became her favorite pond in the world.
She lifted her head and looked up at him. Tyler’s chiseled jaw had a day’s worth of stubble, making his jawline even more pronounced. He was so handsome. He was also more fun to be around than she’d expected. There was a sweet guy hiding under all that intense work ethic.
His hand cradled her cheek and her insides turned to mush. She had been adamant about the no-kissing rule, but this was different. This wasn’t for show or to convince someone else they were in love. This was...real.
Kiss me, she begged with her eyes. For a second, she was sure he would, but Tyler took a step back and broke their embrace.
He cleared his throat and made toward the horses. “We should finish our ride, so we can get back to work.”
All business, all the time. Hadley was foolish for thinking he’d be anything else.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KISS ME. That was what Tyler could have sworn her eyes were asking him to do back there by the pond, but he must have misread the situation. She was happy for him, not in love with him.
He didn’t understand why he let himself get so mixed up when they were together, especially when they were alone. With no one else around, they didn’t have to pretend to have feelings for one another, but somehow, that was when he was the most confused about how they felt.
“Where to next, boss?”
That was more like it. Boss and employee. Clear lines. No confusion.
“We’re going to head down to where Falcon Creek crosses the property and then we’ll follow it back up and around to the main lodge.”
It had been years since Tyler roamed these parts of the ranch. It was bittersweet being back, knowing this would be the final time.
“Tell me the wildest thing you and your brothers ever did out here on the ranch,” Hadley asked, breaking the silence.
“Wildest?”
“I’m sure you five boys have a million stories, but what’s the one you’d all agree was the wildest?”
“That’s harder to answer than you think.” Tyler and his brothers were pretty wild growing up. There was always some mischief to get into on a ranch like this. “I’m sure Judge Edwards would say it was when we managed to run her off the ranch in five days. Each day was pretty off the charts.”
“Judge Edwards?”
“Our very first ex-stepgrandma. You met her at the Clearwater Café on our first day.”
“Ah,” Hadley said with a giggle. “The lady who hates you.”
“That’s her. We tortured her until she couldn’t take any more. We all did something horrible to her. I was responsible for leaving a cow pie next to her side of the bed that she just happened to step in when she got up on the morning of day four.”
“Hence your nickname.”
Tyler no
dded. “We have done a lot of things, but what we did to Myrna was probably the worst. The only other real screwy thing we did involved some BB guns and a bet that no one could hit someone’s bare butt from a hundred feet away.”
“Oh, no. That doesn’t sound like a smart bet.”
“Ethan will attest to the fact that Chance could be a military sharpshooter.”
Hadley winced. “Poor Ethan. I imagine you also got in a lot of trouble in this creek.”
Falcon Creek ran across the ranch east to west, separating the grazing pasture from the neighboring property. The banks were lined with elm trees. Late in the summer when the creek was slow-moving, Tyler and his brothers used to try to cross it by jumping from rock to rock before the accident. In the spring, when all the melting snow flowed down from the mountains, a little bit of rain could make it more like a raging river.
Tyler felt a sharp pang in his chest. He knew all too well how the creek could turn into a monster.
“Maybe when we were really little. The creek wasn’t a place we liked hanging out.”
“It’s beautiful out here,” Hadley said from behind him.
Beautiful wasn’t the word he would use. Not unless beauty evoked pain. The remnants of the bridge still remained down on the southeast corner of the property. He hadn’t gone there since the accident. He used to avoid it at all costs. If this was the last time he was ever going to be here, he wanted to see it.
“I love the sound of the water. It’s too bad they didn’t build some guest cabins out this way to take advantage of this view.”
To the Blackwells, the creek was basically a grave site. There was no chance Big E would let anyone back here. It was too close to where the accident had happened.
He could see the road up ahead and his throat tightened. He used to roam the ranch so often but never here. He would climb the mountains before he’d get close to the spot where his parents lost their lives.