“That you are,” he said in a broad, warm tone, taking off his hat again to smooth back his hair. “Think you could handle him at a trot?”
I nodded and clicked to the horse, who sped up. Trotting jolted me uncomfortably, but I wasn’t ready for a canter yet. I could already tell.
We were passing the cottonwoods when I heard the telltale buzz of a rattler. I froze; the horse shivered. Dallas lunged forward to grab the bridle and steer the horse away from the deadly reptile hiding in the shade of a nearby tree.
Unfortunately, he did it a second too late.
The horse reared up halfway, startling me badly. I hung on for dear life as he snorted and then dropped back down with a thud that nearly threw me off entirely.
“Oh, God!” I gasped as the horse finally responded to my desperate pulling and came to a stop.
The rattling was silent.
Dallas lunged forward and crouched at the horse’s feet as its trembling stilled. “Holy smoke,” he said. “Okay, I definitely do not want to get on this horse’s bad side.”
“What happened?” I said, having to hold very still. If I tried to dismount while I was this shocked, I knew I would fall off.
“Well, that’s one rattler that will never bite again,” Dallas said, holding up a limp, headless snake. “Looks like the horse stomped its head clean off!”
“Oh, thank God. Was he bitten?” The horse had stopped trembling, at least, and didn’t seem to be in any pain, but I couldn’t be sure.
“No sign of it. Helps that his lower legs are covered with hair. He’s not favoring a leg and nothing’s blowing up or bleeding. I’ll check it again in half an hour.”
Half an hour later, the Clydesdale was fine, and I breathed a big sigh of relief. I hated the idea of a horse getting poisoned because I’d been stupid enough to steer him too near a rattler’s den. All’s well that ends well, I guess. But I still reminded myself not to go too near those cottonwoods again, especially in the summer heat.
We spent the morning that way, until my legs were throbbing and so was my lower back. I was smiling the whole time, even when I had to limp away from dismounting. It took both of us to cool the horse down, get his tack dealt with, and get him curried and watered. He was just that enormous. Fortunately he stood still patiently for the whole thing.
“So what was it like, growing up on a ranch?” I asked Dallas as we worked.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, remembering. “Well, parts were probably about what you’d expect. Up early, lots of work, lots of fresh air, lots of horse poop. I had no siblings, so my cousins came over during the harvest season or when we needed help dealing with the animals. They were…cousins.” He winced slightly.
I laughed sympathetically. “Pains in the butt?”
“Absolutely. We would get into at least one fistfight every summer. Usually I ended up beating them, but sometimes the two of them would get into a fight all by themselves. I would end up just watching them roll around in the mud and poop like a couple of drunks getting into it over nothing. They didn’t even need the alcohol, though. They were just dumb kids.”
“Never underestimate the power of being inexperienced as hell. I’m guessing they don’t fight that much anymore.” I finished currying an acre of flank and bent down to look at the fringes of soiled hair around his hooves. “So what do we do with his bellbottoms?”
“Shampoo and brush, same as with his mane and tail. You didn’t actually think we were done, did you?” He winked at me teasingly.
Tired but game, I squared my shoulders. “I’ve never been afraid of hard work,” I said defiantly.
“So what about you?” he asked casually as we lathered hairy horse feet. “Any family?”
“I’m an only child, too, though I don’t have any cousins to fight with.” I smiled and his grin flashed again briefly. “Guess I had a boring childhood. Both my parents are in business. We’re all super busy all the time, but we all get along. Guess part of that is, we all know what it’s like to have too much to do, and we know that you have to make a certain amount of time to build and maintain a relationship anyway.”
“What kind of people are they?” He sounded intrigued.
“Besides busy? Kind. Mildly idealistic. Not perfect, but you know, who is?”
Some people would instinctively go after my parents for “neglect,” at least with me, but I had never felt neglected. There was lots of love in my family relationship…just not enough time. It did make me crave a slower-paced life, but not because of them.
“Well, mine were always busy too, but we were all on the same ranch together so I got to see them a lot more.”
I reined myself in immediately on asking about his parents. I had been curious…but him talking in the past tense like that probably meant he had lost them early.
“Any way I can talk you into spending the afternoon with me?” he asked as we headed back to my cabin.
I wanted to. But I had that second campaign to go through and it had to be presented in three days. “Rain check? I have to get some work done.”
“That’s fine. You want to come over for barbecue before we visit the spring?” His eyes twinkled.
“I’d love to,” I said at once, though I honestly didn’t know what kind of shape I would be in. My muscles had that slack, achy feel they always had when I had overexercised. “Can we do it once it cools off a bit?”
“Sundown’s around nine and the hot springs are always open. Let’s eat around eight.” He was entering something into his phone, a strangely urban gesture from a dyed-in-the-wool cowboy. But then again, these days everyone had a smartphone. “Steaks okay?”
I grinned. “Always.”
Chapter 8
Ruth
“The good news is that the death threats are dropping off,” Gregory told me a few days later. “We’re down to a few a day, and they’re declining in intensity. We also haven’t had any more ‘visitors.’”
“What does this mean for your theory that someone was stirring those creeps up?” I asked, itching absently at a patch of calamine on my wrist. I was doing pretty well out in the wilds, but the river bottom near the hot springs had clouds of big Texas mosquitoes.
“It corroborates it. Normally, if a group like this is stirring itself up, the problems will end up going on for a lot longer. On the other hand, if this wasn’t actually their idea, and someone was inciting them into getting off their asses and threatening you, they’ll be more likely to lose interest once their agent provocateur goes radio silent.”
“So you think they went back to their porn and video games, huh?” I immediately felt torn. On the one hand, I wanted very badly to safely go back to my life and my work. On the other…
I will really miss the hell out of Dallas. And when will I have time to get back down here again? Months? Seasons? Ugh.
The mosquitoes had conspired to drive us away from the hot springs twice so far. It had robbed me of the chance to see him in nothing but a pair of swim trunks, but it had also saved me from unexpected self-consciousness about him seeing me in a bikini. I had worked hard to keep in shape, but I already knew that any rejection from him would hurt twice as bad as it would from any other guy.
Not even a week, and I was already smitten. It was fast; it was risky. It felt like clinging to the back of a runaway horse that was somehow headed exactly where I really wanted to go—but without any thought to the risks along the way.
“Did you hear what I just said?” Gregory was peering at me as he checked in, and I blushed.
“I’m sorry, I got distracted.”
He rolled his eyes and I stifled a laugh. He knew what was up, and though he had chided me very gently at first, he hadn’t been able to find anything remotely suspicious about Dallas. Which was a huge relief…but didn’t make me feel that much more in control.
I had confided in Bella once that I really wished someone would come along and sweep me off my feet. A man who was strong and kind, and dazzling enough th
at I couldn’t help but swoon and let him take charge. Someone I could trust. Had I found him? It sure felt like it. I couldn’t wait to gush to her about it…but I had to wait.
It was just too early to see how lucky I had gotten with Dallas. Or will get with Dallas, I thought, feeling my cheeks prickle again.
“You know, I get that you’re enjoying your time with this Dallas guy, but I need you here with me right now.” When Gregory used that gentle tone, I immediately paid more attention than usual. He had an almost endless well of patience, tested by ten-year-old triplets, but I was pushing it.
“I’m sorry. I think I’m too much in vacation mode,” I said.
He smiled a little, surprising me. “That’s good to see. You’ve needed a vacation for a long time, Ruth. Nobody knows that more than your team.”
“But…” I protested. “If I stay here longer than is needed for security or to close on the new house, that’s taking you away from your family for even longer.”
He held up a huge palm. “That is why I need you to not waste my time. I have no problem staying here and helping keep you safe, but don’t treat my efforts as valueless.”
“I don’t mean to give that impression at all,” I apologized at once. “I’m just not used to being quite this…preoccupied.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Yeah, I noticed. You’re twitterpated over this guy. And as long as he treats you right, I’m all for it.” He didn’t have to bring up again what his response would be if Dallas didn’t treat me right, of course.
I just really, really didn’t think it would come to that. Dallas was too…amazing…to be a bad person. I just couldn’t see any evidence of that in him. He wasn’t perfect. For one thing, he lived all the way out here. But I was wealthy enough to get around that, if things really worked out. And every other potential problem that surfaced in my mind just didn’t seem like that much of a threat.
“Okay.” I tilted my head and tried to focus. “So what were you saying?”
“I was saying that we need to give it another week or two before I can say the coast is clear for you to return to town. But the fact that this has dropped off so rapidly really makes me wonder about the motives of the person or people behind goading these crazies. Like I said before, these aren’t men who let go of their hate-on for a woman easily—unless they came to realize that the people goading them were full of garbage. Which they would do quickly if, for example, their ‘source’ suddenly disappeared or was exposed as, say, a corporate operant.”
That really caught my attention. “You think one of my competitors is behind all of this?”
He nodded gravely. “Think about it. It makes too damn much sense. Who else would want to give you a good scare, maybe drive you out of the public eye, after you enjoyed some very public success? Someone who wanted to ruin and undermine that success.”
My eyes narrowed. It made sense…and it really, really pissed me off. How dare they! I lost a ton of sleep over those threats. That goddamned nut could have shot Carl down.
“This is seriously messed up,” I said. “Please look further into it.”
Gregory nodded. “I’ll update you as soon as we find anything.”
I was pretty damn steamed by what he’d told me. Was a competitor trying to scare me out of business? Were they just lashing out like big children over my well-received conference speech? Or did they have some other messed-up reason to do all of this?
No way of knowing yet. Gregory would probably find something out soon enough, but in the meantime, I had to be patient, and stay focused. I already knew that whoever was behind this wanted me upset, scattered, in permanent retreat. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of giving in to my fears.
Instead, I took my third shower of the day, changed into a comfy pair of jeans and a white tank top that popped against my brand new—if slightly freckled—tan. I distracted myself for a while walking around sending photos to my parents.
My mother went gaga over my new sun-kissed look, the relaxed smile on my face, the endless sky over the ranch, and of course, the horses. She was pushing Dad for a visit to the ranch now. Which was fine with me, even if it meant that I ended up telling her and Dad about Dallas a lot sooner than I had planned to. I didn’t know what exactly was going on between the two of us, but it made me warm all over, and made it a lot easier to forget my problems for a while.
That night, like every night before, I had just finished up the day’s work and was thinking about food when Dallas came knocking on the door with a six-pack and a picnic basket in hand. As usual, I was delighted to see him. We ate giant deli sandwiches on my screened-in porch and watched fireflies dance out in the fields.
“Thanks for this,” I said, and he just smiled at me. “It’s really been too hot for hot food. I skipped dinner at the main house again because of it.”
“Don’t skip your meals, darlin’, you need to keep that cute figure of yours.” He winked.
“Are you saying you like me on the rounder side?” That was a surprise. I wasn’t that curvy a woman, at least by my standards, but I sure wasn’t used to being encouraged to eat.
“Aw, come on. Not like you’re gonna gain much weight on a sandwich.”
“Not with all the exercise I’ve been getting keeping up with you.” I laughed. I’d exercised more in the last few days than I had in the entire month before I got here. Hiking, riding, heading into the nearest village to pick up snacks and drinks and flirt over milkshakes after wandering the sprawling town in the stifling heat. Aside from the weather and aches in unfamiliar places, it had been wonderful so far.
It wasn’t just about what we did together, however. It was also about how he treated me. He took a real interest in me, in my work, in my longing to just pack it all in and go off to run a little ranch somewhere.
“So how was work today?” he asked even as I was thinking about it.
“A little crazy,” I said. “After the teleconference, I had to connect with the Japanese clients again about their transit campaign. There was a communications problem and I needed to handle the situation personally.” Fortunately my Japanese was pretty respectable—or at least understandable.
“So do you usually handle this kind of stuff personally?” he asked before taking another giant bite of his sandwich.
“With major clients, or when there’s any hint of a problem, absolutely. Showing clients that I’m willing to work personally to ensure they are satisfied does a lot for client relations.”
His eyebrows went up as he chewed and swallowed. “You don’t mind putting in the extra work?”
“No, I consider it to be worth it.”
He turned toward me more fully. “What if a client’s being unreasonable? You can’t expect them to respond to the personal touch.”
“If a client is abusing my workers in some way, then it’s even more important than I step in. I need to have my employees’ backs as well. They need to know that I won’t let them be bullied because some guy thinks his money is an excuse for bad behavior.” I kept my voice firm on that point. I was proud of being willing and able to draw a line in the sand with clients who pushed too far or in the wrong ways.
“Even if it means losing the client?” He sounded intrigued. I briefly wondered why, but it was so different from what he was used to that I guessed that the ins and outs of my business seemed…exotic enough to be fascinating. If he was just humoring me, he was being very subtle about it. And I appreciated that. I liked talking about my work with someone who wasn’t actually mired in the middle of it.
“Some clients just aren’t worth keeping.” I shrugged.
“So you’d give up a high-dollar contract just to keep your employees happy?”
“If needed, yes. I’ve had to fire clients before.” I bit into the million layers of deli meats and veggies on that hoagie roll and chewed thoughtfully. Some of those clients had been real prizes, too.
“So…what you’re saying to me is that the secret to
your success is that you work your ass off, get involved personally a lot, do your best to make clients happy, and take care of your employees?” He seemed almost shocked.
I shrugged and nodded. “To me it’s all just common sense. But for some reason a lot of people don’t do these things.”
“No, they don’t.” He seemed surprised, and weirdly, a little troubled. But then he flashed that dazzling grin again.
“But…circling back to those ‘problem clients.’ Bet you’ve got some stories,” he challenged, lifting one coal-black eyebrow.
I snorted, wondering if he could read minds or if some of my experiences had shown on my face. “Yes, I do. See, I didn’t get taken very seriously as an up-and-comer. I had the education, the capital, the investors, and the reputation for competence as a junior at another firm. But I was also the youngest woman in Texas to ever open her own advertising firm.”
His expression was wry. “The big boys try to muscle you out?”
I nodded. “Exactly. A weird number of them took it really, really personally that a woman under thirty was stepping onto their playing field. And then I started beating them. It made them crazy. So crazy, in fact, that one guy decided to start steering all his worst problem clients my way.”
He laughed. “Holy shit, do you know which one?”
“Oh, he’s no longer in business,” I said mildly.
Dallas sat back in his chair. “Damn.”
“I made a point of specifically targeting his market share. But in the meantime, I learned a lot from those ‘problem clients’ he sent me.” I set my sandwich down, remembering. “Not just how to stand up to them, but what he actually thought of as a ‘problem client.’ Three-quarters of them weren’t even problem clients in the first place. He just labeled them that because they were disgruntled over his bad service. I was able to win those ones over just by taking care of their problems.”
“What about the ones who really were trouble?” He had set his sandwich down too and was watching me almost avidly, his eyes dilated in the dark.
Taming The Cowboy (She's in Charge Book 4) Page 5