by Jillian Hart
"Our boy," Aiden said with emphasis nodding once, but the worry pinching his eyes betrayed him. "Please, can we keep him, Pa? You're gonna let us, right?"
"Yeah, otherwise he'll be sent away to the glue factory because nobody wants him. He'll be dead." Austin tilted his head to the side, eyes full of standing tears, judge serious. "He's too good of a horse to die, Pa. I can't let that happen. It ain't right. It's like you upholding the law in the posse because it's the right thing to do."
"Yeah, Pa. Saving Chester is what's right. We always try to do what's right, just like you taught us."
"Why me?" Frisco glanced heavenward and then met Jada Shepherd's disapproving and suspicious blue eyes. Couldn't she see that he was outgunned here, outmanned and out-argued? "It's hard to tell with all that mud on the pony exactly what color he is."
"Gray. He's gray." Jada bit her cheek to keep from either exploding laughter, because the situation suddenly struck her as funny, or in anger at a man who was too daft or thick-headed or too lackadaisical to rectify the situation.
"Well, we can't have any of that." Why me? Frisco had that look on his face again. He definitely was outgunned here, he thought as he looked at the woman. At the gorgeous woman. Heat tingled in his veins. "Well, I suppose beneath all the mud on the pony and the tears on the boys I can figure out what to do. You are a good pony, I'm guessing, huh fella? You boys ride to your grandparent's house, have your grandmama clean up all three of you, and we'll see if we can find a spot for him at the livery stable."
"The livery stable?" Aiden was aghast.
"Why? He really is a good horse," Austin's voice cracked with protest and high, heart-breaking emotion. "It wasn't his fault he knew how to open the door with his mouth. He didn't mean to wreck up everything."
"Yeah, he's the best boy horse there is," Aiden chimed in with genuine tears in his eyes, too manly to let them fall much but unable to hold them back.
Sheesh. And all this emotion over the fact that poor Chester was a problem. It was a losing argument, he could see that. He shook his head. Now he had a better notion of why Miss Jada Shepherd glared at him like he was the most reprehensible man in existence. "Boys, just go on and do what I ask. I expect you to do the right thing and take care of that pony and do whatever it takes to make things good with Miss Shepherd here. Is that clear?"
"Yep, Pa," the twins chorused together, heads down. First Aiden looked up and then Austin. "We're sorry, Miss Shepherd."
With sighs of great regret, they ambled off down the intersecting street, leaving a muddy trail in the dirt. The pony's head hung down, as if he were all out of hope. And here he'd thought he'd been saved.
Well, at least I held my ground, Frisco thought. Maybe not successfully, but I'm going to call that a win. Now, to deal with the next problem, the woman. He knuckled back the brim of his hat to get a better look at Miss Jada Shepherd. Best to gather up his courage for that because no doubt about it, that woman didn't appear to like him at all, not even a little bit.
Which was too bad, because he felt drawn to her. Attracted. He bought a few moments of time by placing his hands on his hips and studying her, wishing he could figure out what to say. "I bet I have an apology to make."
"You bet you do, buddy." Her forehead furrowed and her eyebrows shot up. A muscle bunched up along her smooth, creamy, flawlessly dainty jawline, as if it took all of her composure not to start chewing him out. Boy, did she look upset. "Your children and their pony did damage, but that's not the worst part. And that part is you."
"Wait a minute, I'm not sure we should count the pony as being my responsibility yet. Is this a stray pony my sons came across? Did they get bamboozled into taking care of the old fellow? None of the truth has been established yet, so I'm not going to take any blame for that." He went to wink and realized his mistake and the gesture died in mid-wink. Now he just looked like he had a bug fly into his eye. Whoops. This was a mistake of gargantuan proportion when he'd meant to charm her with humor. He grimaced. This was not gonna go well.
"I should have known. I don't know why I had a wisp of hope." Her beautiful bow-shaped mouth gave a dismissive downward curl, making it clear she did not think well of him. "I should have expected this the moment my shop door flew open."
"How did Aiden get on the back of the pony? Did you have anything to do with that?"
"You haven't you been paying attention to your children, that's the real problem here. You are a derelict father. Entirely irresponsible." She threw her hands up in frustration while little droplets of mud flew off her slightly muddy fingers from the horse's rein. She spun around on her practical brown shoes and sensibly marched away from him instead of standing in the middle of the street.
"Problems, Frisco?" a gruff voice called out from behind him.
2
Frisco turned around to take in the amused middle-aged man perched on his teamster's wagon seat. "There are no problems that I can't handle, Gus."
"Excuse me, man, but I beg to disagree. That was one angry woman. Are you going to stand in the way all day? Or do you mind stepping aside? Have your liaisons in private, will you?"
"I don't even know the woman, Gus."
"Perhaps you should. A romantic attachment would do you good." Gus Gunderson grinned down at him and nodded at the picture the beautiful woman made as she stood on the edge of the boardwalk, brushing drying mud off her skirt with her hand.
She looked up to spot them spying on her, squared her dainty shoulders and, with an embarrassed look, blushed rosy red. Her mouth opened into a sweet, kissable O and his body responded, hardening slightly. She whirled around to hurry down the boardwalk with the hem of her blue skirt swirling. Her shoes tapped a quick rhythm echoing fast enough that a few folks turned their heads to look while he stood there looking worse than a fool. Not that that hadn't happened before.
"A romantic attachment?" he said to Gus. "That's nothing I need in my life. But I do need to talk to her."
And make things right.
"Good luck, Frisco!"
"Thanks, I'll need it." As he stalked after her, he had a bad feeling in his stomach, a real bad feeling, that the lovely and demure Miss Shepherd was not about to make his apology-giving an easy one. He quickened his pace, pursuing her, doing his best not to notice the graceful sway of her slim hips when she walked. Heat spilled into his blood watching her. She was a beauty from the behind view, too. She glanced over her shoulder, spotted him with wide, outraged eyes and walked faster.
He had to run to catch her. "Miss Shepherd?"
Her slender shoulders stiffened but she kept going, swishing away with dainty, poised steps. Huh, judging by how rigid her spine had gone, she was rightfully pretty mad at him. He caught sight of the big muddy puddle full of snowmelt, where the big pile of snow, one of the few left, that's how large it was, still melting off from their last round of fierce snowstorms.
Good thing May was counting down, he thought, not that it couldn't suddenly snow or blizzard in these parts in June. He eyed the muddy little boy prints, the sodden hat in the middle of the mud pond, it was too large to be rightfully called a puddle, and the pony hooves tracking right through the heart of it gave testimony that Miss Jada Shepherd hadn't.
Great. This was not gonna go well. And here he'd been just about to realize that he had hopes that he could make a fine enough impression on pretty, honey-brunette Jada Shepherd so that he could get in an opportunity to ask her out. But right now he didn't know how to change the look on her face, the one that kept getting worse over time, that made her look as if she wanted to smack him upside the head.
He suspected she didn't know how attractive she was. She was a real quality woman, that was clear enough, and he had high standards. He'd never been so tongue-tied around a woman, so he'd have to do a better job. He might want to win her good opinion. He hated to think, with the boys, pony and mud, that he destined to fail at that goal. So he hurried to catch up with her. "Miss Shepherd? Wait up, will you? Please listen
to me."
"No, thank you, sir. I'm afraid it will only make me madder." She skidded to a stop in front of her shop door and whipped around to face him. "I'm sure it's hard for you to see, but your twins are badly supervised. Everyone says so. Those boys are out of control."
"I wouldn't say it's serious, but they are rather spirited." He liked the way her tone softened with warmth, as if she thought his kids were good boys, and that mattered to him. "I know they are sorry for whatever they've done, and I'll have a talk with them."
Then his jaw dropped open. Right there, on the other side of the glistening-clean front windows, was the clear evidence of disaster. He blinked, not wanting to believe it. No way could his two little boys do all of that damage to a town store. He shook his head, not knowing what to say. He was befuddled. Flummoxed. Flabbergasted.
"You seem to have lost your power of speech, Mr. Hayden." Jada arched a slender eyebrow, glaring at him as she reached for the door. He beat her to it, pulling it open for her, aware of the soft honey-brown curls that tumbled down from her chignon to frame her delicate heart-shaped face. She froze on the boardwalk, staring up at him instead of moving into the store. Hurt shadowed her periwinkle eyes and tugged down the corners of her kissable mouth.
He felt terrible, he really did. "They did all that? I just can't believe it."
"Well, seeing is believing, right? I know they didn't mean for it to happen. My sister and I will clean it up."
"Really, I'm very sorry, Jada." He swept off his hat, realizing too late he'd called her by her given name. Rather forward of him, but he was not prepared for this. "I don't know what to say. Look at what my boys did to your pretty shop. And with a strange pony. I'm speechless."
"That's about how I felt at the time when it happened. Who knew that a pony could open a door with his mouth?" She finally swished through the door he held, ignoring a strange heated shiver that raced through her like a chill. "Take a good look, sir. That is what your boys have done."
"I noticed the evidence and the muddy tracks from the mud pond all the way to your door. I can see why you are upset."
"And I had just cleaned." Her slender hands fisted into the fabric of her skirt and lifted, so her pretty ruffled hem cleared the trail of mud and lumps of wet dirt left behind by the twins and their illegal pony.
At least, that pony was about to get in big trouble. He glanced around. For a moment there, he worried she might smack him with the business end of that mop leaning against the wall within her reach.
He wouldn't blame her.
"Hey, don't hold this against me." He held up his hands, an innocent gesture.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm as shocked as you are. I'm absolutely disappointed in my boys. This is clearly not intentional at all. I don't think Aiden had good control of that pony. Although it doesn't excuse the harm they caused."
"No, I'm glad you see that." Jada Shepherd's voice dipped softly. She was a gentle sort of woman, as sweet as could be and pretty enough to make him seriously nervous and fear he might turn into a clod from the effect of it. Definitely, she was as lovely as a song. "I can see my sister started to pick up already."
"Already? Do you mean it was worse?"
"Indeed. We lost an entire platter of cookies, and that pony simply helped himself to them. I hope he doesn't get colic." She betrayed a flicker of amusement that lit her blue eyes up like a summer sky. "I'm really grateful that you see the problem here. Thank you for being so responsible and sympathetic."
"Sure, my pleasure, Miss." Pretty Miss, he didn't add but wanted to. What got to him was the wistfulness soft in her dulcet voice, as if finding a regular, good man, just like him, was a miracle. A real straw in the haystack kind of a thing. Interesting, because she seemed to have such a sunny disposition, and he wondered about her. She was, what, not past her beauty but no young girl either.
He wondered why she was unmarried at her age, because she clearly was a sweetheart, anybody would think so, and attractive. So easy to fall in like with. And she was a woman who liked kids. That was a bonus, always a plus, the one crucial item on his I'm-gonna-check-her-out list. Not that there had been anyone ever qualified to be on it. But there was a first for everything, right?
Not that this was gonna be easy. He blew out a heavy sigh. Worse, he felt awkward around her, because now that he was seeing her up close, he could see he'd been mistaken about her loveliness. She was even more pretty than he'd suspected. He thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever set eyes on. Absolutely.
And his body responded hard over that.
Her hair was like the color of honey in winter when only one lamp burned on low, the hue rich and rare. Her intelligent, heart-shaped face was carefully crafted, delicately beautiful the same way a fine sculpture was when created with love by a great master artist. He would never be able to look away from the dear curve of a dainty chin or her lush, full rose-petal pink cupid bow's mouth. She made the colors of the world around her drain away and the sunshine fade by comparison. She was that kind of beauty.
And she didn't like him. Apparently, at all.
What option did that leave him? He could only think of one possible solution.
"I'm going to go home and take care of a few things, my sons being one of them. I've got to make this right, as I've told you. As you've pointed out, I'd best be responsible and make sure my boys aren't out there running wild in the streets like they were."
"Are you kidding me? You're leaving?"
"Leaving? No, I'm going to solve your problem." He grinned at the amused, surprised and shocked look that shaped her lovely face, and his heart gave a loud thump.
No way could he deny that he needed a wife and his twins could benefit from a mother's watchful eye and guidance. Everyone knew his ma needed help. If he could have found a woman who'd touched his heart, fired his physical responses and fueled his interest, then he would have married her and he wouldn't be looking at Miss Jada Shepherd and listening to his heart thud in his ears. His groin kicked, proof that he was terribly attracted to her.
"Don't worry about a thing. I'll be back, I promise." He tipped his hat, straightening the brim so he could see her all the better. Especially the hurt in her big blue-as-the-sky eyes.
"You're leaving?" Her eyebrows arched, rising so far up on her forehead that they were lost beneath her bangs. It wasn't easy to see her distress that he'd caused, but she took a little hiccup of a breath.
He had to fix that. "Don't you worry. If you touch any of that mud, I'll be mad. I'm coming back to clean this whole thing up."
"You? I don't believe it."
"Why not? Don't I look qualified? Or do I look like I lack enough know-how to get the job done?"
"Well, don't think I haven't noticed you around town, Frisco Hayden, and, frankly, no, I don't."
That amused him. "Then let me prove you wrong."
"I really am going to need proof. You don't look like a man who knows which is the business end of a broom."
"Brace yourself, because I happen to excel at sweeping and mopping. You've met my boys, so you can see why." He glanced around at the muddy mess and sighed, resolved. He may as well tell her the whole truth. "I'm far from perfect at the home arts, but I try. And I won't say I don't have my faults, as you can see."
"Faults? Perhaps I can't see any to speak of. You're a better man in my estimation now."
There it was, the softness he knew was in her and had noticed from a distance. It was hard to miss. Her big blue eyes gentled with more sympathy, and he had a hunch that loneliness and past heartache was something Jada Shepherd knew very well. Interesting that they had this in common.
He nodded a farewell before he headed into the bite of the cold wind. Summer may have given them a reprieve with these wild temperatures, but the wind had a bite to it that said the bad storms were not done with the them yet.
"I'll be back, Miss Jada Shepherd," he called over his shoulder, adding a dash of charm and giving her just
enough of a smile that dimples bracketed the hooked up corners of his mouth. "Don't look at me with suspicion."
"Trust me, it's hard not to." She couldn't stop the smile tugging at her lips or the spark of a feeling, which could not possibly be the closest hint to like at all. Not at all. "What do I do if you don't come back? Let the mud dry and flake away?"
"Funny. I like your sense of humor, Miss Shepherd. I didn't know you had one." He stopped in the middle of the muddy boardwalk, leaving her with a strange and unsettled feeling. "If I don't come back, contact local law enforcement and file charges. Don't let that me get away with breaking the law."
"Technically your boys did it."
"Yes, but I'm responsible. I've taught them everything they know. Think of that, huh?"
"Well, that explains everything." Jada closed the shop door with a click, the sound echoing in the empty-feeling room, and watched the handsome, sexy cowboy mosey away.
Did she feel sorry for the man? Well, that wasn't bright, not at all. A smart woman would carry a grudge, at least. Too bad, huh? She'd never been good at holding grudges, although she was one to show the inordinate weakness of being a little judgmental. And, eyeing the man's strong straight back, squared shoulders and easy-going step, she wasn't ready to stop yet.
Footsteps tapped on the floor behind her. Stella bounded in from the kitchen, empty garbage pail in hand. "Where did the handsome man go?"
"Away. He just left." If she leaned a little to the left, she could still see him moseying down the side of the street. She took in the sight of him from tilted Stetson to expensive leather boots before his next step took him from her sight.
Stella cleared her throat. "Are you smiling?"
"What do you mean? I doubt I'm smiling at all."
"No, that's definitely a smile on your face. It's because of him, isn't it? I should never have left you alone with a handsome bachelor. Look at what happened."
"You have it all wrong, sister dear. What this is, this look on my face, is annoyance. I'm annoyed by men who don't take life seriously, who aren't responsible." She attempted to frown, but the corners of her mouth refused to cooperate. Instead of tugging downward, they went the other way, staying up because she'd thought of him again, remembering him standing there with the door handle in his big, capable hand, with his chiseled good looks and the easy going humor she had to keep telling herself she disapproved of, but my, how attractive it was.