Taming the Cowboy (Family Ties Book 3)

by Carolyne Aarsen

  She got her bearings then drove on, hoping her clothes would be dry by the time she got to the ranch.

  Fifteen minutes later she pulled up in front of a large ranch house with an impressive veranda that covered arched double doors leading inside. Stone pillars supported an entrance framed with heavy timbers. Brightly colored pots of flowers crowded against the pillars. Flowering shrubs nestled against the aged wood of the house, creating a welcoming appeal. A curved walkway led from the space she had parked in to the front door. This was also edged with flowering plants and shrubs.

  And behind all this rose the mountains, majestic and rugged, snow icing their peaks, white against the blue of the sky.

  What a setting for a wedding, Kinsley thought, getting out of her car, trying to take it all in.

  An open grove of trees stood to one side of the house. A path wound through it, edged with more flowering shrubs and flower beds. On the other side of the house an expanse of lawn stretched toward yet another grove of trees.

  Kinsley’s imagination went into overdrive. The ceremony could be to the left with an arch that framed the mountains. The house looked large enough to hold a post-ceremony tea if Faith and Kane were sticking to the number of guests on their list.

  Then Kinsley heard her name being called. Faith Howard, soon to be Faith Tye, came hurrying around the side of the house, her arms open wide, her smile as bright as the sun that streamed out of the sky.

  Kinsley came around the car to greet her old friend. “Hey, Faith.”

  Then Faith stopped, frowning at her. Kinsley realized how she must look. Her hair still wet but, thankfully, still up in a bun.

  “Don’t hug me,” she warned as Faith came close. “I’m soaking.”

  “I see that. You better come into the house and get changed.”

  “My suitcase is in the car.”

  “I’ll get it for you.”

  Kinsley waved off her offer and got it herself, then grabbed her camera and her laptop bag as well. She could only hope the pictures would be okay. She wasn’t sure about the camera.

  But despite her protestations, Faith took her camera and laptop.

  To her surprise they didn’t go through the front door. Instead they followed another sidewalk around to the side of the house, Kinsley dripping water as she went. Faith frowned at her. “So what happened?”

  “I fell in the river,” Kinsley said, her cheeks warming with embarrassment as Faith opened a set of French doors leading into an entrance. As Kinsley spoke she realized that there was a good chance the fence she had crossed was on Tye land. Faith’s future husband’s land.

  “The river? How? Are you okay? Did you hurt your leg again?”

  “I was taking pictures,” Kinsley said, ignoring the last question. Her hip was throbbing now and her leg was twitching. She prayed it wouldn’t start spasming again.

  “Pictures?”

  “The scenery here is gorgeous,” she said. “The fence I went through was broken, so I didn’t think there were any cows in that field. I mean, I might not have gone through if the fence wasn’t down—”

  Faith waved her hand back and forth as if erasing her concerns. “It’s okay. No one cares. You should get out of those wet clothes right away though. You can tell me the rest of the story when you’re dry. I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”

  “You know I could have stayed at a hotel in town.” Kinsley stopped in the entrance, set her suitcase down and tried to toe off her shoes. But her wet foot created suction, so she balanced on one foot, bracing herself with a hand on a wall to pull them off.

  “Let me help,” Faith said.

  “No. I’m fine.” Kinsley wiggled the first shoe off her foot then struggled with the second.

  “Seriously, girl. Stop being so stubborn.”

  “I’m not stubborn,” Kinsley grunted, still working on the unyielding shoe. “I’m just not letting any bride-to-be of mine help me pull off shoes.”

  Finally, with a squelch and a trickle of water dripping onto the tiled floor, Kinsley freed her foot.

  Faith grinned, and Kinsley could almost hear the question reverberating through Faith’s mind.

  “Leg is fine, by the way,” Kinsley said before her friend could ask too many questions.

  Fine was a broad term that, she hoped, would keep Faith off the topic for a little while.

  “So you’ll be okay with sleeping upstairs? Tricia and the twins are staying in the house, but they’re downstairs—”

  Kinsley waved off her objections. “It’ll be fine. I don’t want you to change anything for me.”

  She could manage the stairs as long as she didn’t have an audience.

  “Okay then. I’ll take you upstairs so you can change. I’m curious how this trespassing story will unfold.” Faith ambled through a large kitchen, and Kinsley glimpsed warm oak cabinets, a large granite island and aluminum appliances, and then a small table with chairs snugged around it tucked into a bay window full of flowering plants. It looked welcoming and cozy, and for a moment Kinsley paused to take it in, missing her parents’ home back in Prince Edward Island. Their house was probably an eighth of the size of this place, but it also had a bay window with a table and chairs as well as the plants her mother loved.

  But Faith was already passing through the adjoining family room and into the main foyer. Kinsley quickened her awkward pace to catch up, thankful her fall hadn’t caused a flare-up of the muscle spasms that could debilitate her.

  “And here we have the great hall,” Faith said with a wave of her hand, indicating the huge entryway they were passing through. “Grace Tye had a vision of light and openness, and this huge entrance was her dream. Zach, of course, did whatever she wanted.”

  “It’s stunning.” Light spilled from the windows framing the heavy double doors as well as from the multiple windows in the vaulted ceiling above them.

  “Yeah, but the family seldom uses it. We always use the side door I brought you through.”

  Kinsley was looking at the play of light in the room but Faith was already headed up the stairs.

  She moved to catch up, wishing she had time to inspect the pictures hanging on the stairwell. She caught glimpses of pictures of a girl posed with a horse, another one of her riding that same horse, racing around a barrel, hair flying behind her, pink cowboy hat anchored on her head. Tricia, she guessed. There were others of three boys astride horses as well, another action photo of a cowboy on a bucking bronc. She would have liked to check out the family photos but Faith was well ahead of her, looking back to make sure she was okay.

  “I’m coming,” Kinsley said, shifting her weight as she worked her way up the stairs. Thankfully the pain was easing.

  She followed Faith down another long, wide hallway with doors leading off to other rooms.

  Faith stopped at the fourth door. “I put you up here,” she said, “so you could have your own space away from the noise of the house. Kane’s room is on the main floor. Elliot and Mason, Tricia’s fiancée, live in one of the cabins on the property. We’ve had to do all kinds of rearranging as people come and go.”

  In their many phone calls, Faith had mentioned her future sister-in-law, Tricia, and how she was training horses on the ranch with her fiancé, Mason.

  “There’s a desk in the room but you can also use this room for an office if you want,” Faith said, indicating another door beside the one she was opening. “And this is where you’ll be staying. It used to be Tricia’s room, so it’s a little girly.”

  Kinsley halted in the doorway.

  She could only stare at the large, light-filled room with its pink carpet, two bay windows draped with white gauze curtains, and four-poster bed covered with a white duvet, pink pillows scattered on its cover.

  “I can’t go in there,” Kinsley said, glancing down at her still-wet clothes.

  “Well, I can,” Faith said, walking into the room and dropping Kinsley’s laptop and camera bag on the desk situated in one corner of th
e large room. Then she came back for the suitcase, but Kinsley grabbed it before she could pick it up. “There’s an en suite bathroom, so you can change in there,” Faith said flicking a thumb over her shoulder at a door in one wall of the room.

  En suite bathroom? Just for her? How big was this house?

  “So go change, have a shower, and we can swap coming-to-the-Tye-ranch-soaking-wet stories,” Faith said with a smile.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Change first, Miss Janas,” Faith said, shaking her finger at her. “Stories later. I’ll be downstairs.”

  Kinsley waited until Faith left before dragging her suitcase to the bathroom, leaving damp, uneven footprints on the carpet. The bathroom was huge, and she had more than enough space to lay out her suitcase and find dry clothes. She wrapped a towel around her head hoping it would soak up some of the water while she changed. Though she had packed blue jeans, she preferred to keep up her professional image, so she changed into another suit. She would wait until tonight for a shower. She didn’t want to keep Faith waiting.

  As she shook out her wet clothes she looked around for a place to hang them. A claw-footed bathtub large enough to swim in seemed a likely place. So she draped the skirt and blazer over the edge thinking they might dry enough she could flip them over tonight. Hopefully the river water didn’t damage the wool and she could take them into town to get them dry-cleaned. She’d packed three other suits, so she should be okay for now.

  She eased out a cramp in her thigh, grimacing as she stretched. She held it until it released then pulled in a breath. Her physiotherapist kept promising the spasms would ease with steady therapy—something Kinsley never seemed to have time for.

  She walked into the bedroom and brought her camera back to the bathroom with her, turning it over in her hand, not sure what she was looking for or what she could do, struggling with a sense of dismay.

  She pulled the SD card out, grabbed a fluffy facecloth off the shelf piled high with white towels, and set it out on the counter beside the sink. Then she set the card on it, hoping and, yes, praying that it would be okay. She’d been so busy the past few weeks she hadn’t had time to download the multitude of pictures from it onto her computer. She’d hoped she could do some of that while she was here. Faith had assured her the wedding would be simple, so she wouldn’t be working on it twenty-four seven. She would have time to wander around and take pictures.

  Kinsley was excited about the idea. She so wanted to spend time working on her photography, a dream of hers since she picked up her first camera when she was ten. She had always hoped to make a career out of it. But it was difficult to get a foothold, and bills didn’t get paid on their own.

  She had to be practical, so she’d taken a job at a wedding shop. Her life took an interesting turn when she’d met Drake. He and his mother had a wedding planning business, and he asked her to come on board. To work her way into a partnership with him and his mother. They fell in love, got engaged, and she started planning her wedding. She also took a business degree to apply to the business. But Drake kept putting off the wedding, saying that he didn’t want to get married until they were full partners in the business, which wouldn’t happen until his mother quit.

  But his mother wouldn’t quit, and Drake couldn’t commit.

  When she overheard a painful conversation between Drake and his mother, Kinsley knew neither the wedding nor the partnership was happening. She gave Drake back his engagement ring and deleted her dream-wedding Pinterest board.

  She got a job working at a bank. Not optimal, but it paid the bills. And then she met Jill, a client of the bank, who was looking to expand her wedding planning business. She wanted to give Kinsley a chance, but she needed Kinsley to apprentice, so to speak. So when Kinsley was approached by Faith to plan her wedding, she jumped on it.

  This wedding was a chance to prove to her future partner what she was capable of.

  Kinsley wiped her camera down, slipped the lens off, and set everything on another towel hoping and praying that there had been no permanent damage. This was her backup camera, but still. It cost enough, and she didn’t want to have to replace it yet. There was no way she could afford to buy another camera, let alone the lenses she wanted.

  She toweled her hair, ran a brush through the tangled and wet strands, then pulled it all back in a tight bun, slipped her feet into a pair of flats, and avoided looking in the mirror. It was fine. It was all fine.

  She grabbed her laptop and made her way back down the stairs and through the hall to the kitchen.

  “You’re back quick,” Faith said as she added a plate of cookies to the tray she had put together.

  “Yes. The shower will have to wait till tonight.” She could see Faith’s frown as she looked at her suit.

  “Did you pack any casual clothes?” Faith asked.

  “Some, but I’m here on business so that’s how I want to dress.”

  Faith grinned. “Haven’t changed much, have you?”

  “As one of my favorite photographers said, ‘Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life’”

  Faith gave her a sympathetic look and Kinsley realized how her words sounded.

  “And how have you been doing since you broke up with Drake?” Faith asked, pouring boiling water into a coffee press.

  “I’m doing just fine. Forging ahead and putting all my energy into my potential career. And speaking of, I know you’ll probably want to get to work as soon as possible.”

  “First some coffee and catch up. Then wedding plans.”

  Kinsley knew her friend wouldn’t let her off the hook, so with a sigh she followed Faith past the cozy little table and chairs through a set of sliding glass doors and out onto a veranda covered with a pergola. Pots of bright petunias and lobelia hung from the upper railing, and huge planters spilling with other flowers Kinsley didn’t recognize filled the corners of the veranda.

  “Just sit here,” Faith said, indicating a large wicker chair filled with cushions. She set the tray on a glass-covered table and pulled it closer to her own chair. She handed Kinsley a mug then sat down with a satisfied sigh. “So. How did you get so wet?”

  “Nothing like getting directly to the point.” Kinsley chuckled, setting her laptop on the table. She took a sip of the delightfully hot coffee. “You said something about sharing stories about coming to the Tye ranch wet. Why don’t you start, since you got here first.”

  Faith laughed and tossed her brown hair back. “I was hitchhiking with my guitar in the rain. Sick as a dog with food poisoning. Kane and his dad became my own personal heroes, picked me up, and I ended up here.” She shrugged one slender shoulder. “And the rest is, as you might say, history, or the reason we are getting married now.”

  Kinsley couldn’t help a touch of envy despite being gratified her friend had found happiness. During the year they lived together while Faith studied law, pursuing her music on the side, and Kinsley studied for her business admin degree, they’d shared everything. Kinsley found out that Faith loved Kane to distraction, but she didn’t want to become a lawyer as her grandfather and Kane, her then fiancé, wanted her to. Faith found out that Kinsley was struggling with her own fiancé’s lack of commitment. Kinsley encouraged Faith to follow her heart and Faith told Kinsley to follow her head.

  And now Faith had found her place in life while Kinsley was still trying to get her feet under her. In more ways than one.

  “I’m glad you followed my advice,” Kinsley said with a grin.

  “And you followed mine?” Faith prodded.

  Kinsley stared down at her bare hand. It had been over a year since she broke up with Drake and it still felt strange, to not be wearing the square-cut diamond that had graced her finger for six years. “It was good advice. It just took me longer to figure it out, that’s all.”

  “I know it sounds cliché, but better to be single and content than miserable and married.”

  “That’s what my mom told me t
oo,” Kinsley said with a melancholy smile. “Which is funny, because she doesn’t know the first thing about being married and miserable. She and Dad are the happiest married couple I know.”

  “You’re blessed to have that legacy,” Faith said.

  “And speaking of family, how are you and your grandfather getting along?”

  “We still have our moments, but he’s coming around. I’ve been helping him out with clerical work at his office, so that has made it easier. He’s glad I’ve got a job working as a teacher this fall.” Faith took a sip of her coffee. “So tell me how you came to the Tye ranch soaking wet.”

  “My story has more to do with geography than meteorology.”

  Faith frowned.

  “Wrong place. Wrong time,” Kinsley said, settling back in the chair. “I’d been driving through this amazing country and I desperately wanted to capture it. I had driven across this river a couple of times, so when I got close again, I stopped and walked out to take pictures. The water wasn’t super deep close to the bank and I saw a perfect shot I wanted to capture, so I took my shoes off and walked over to the river to take a picture. Or more precisely, into the river to get the shot I wanted.”

  “And you fell?” Faith sounded skeptical. “’Cause of your leg?”

  “Not at all, which is ironic. I got the living daylights scared out of me by some idiot who came charging down the opposite river bank on a horse and almost bowled me over. Completely irresponsible.”

  “No way.” Faith shook her head. “Do you know who it was?”

  “Actually, that idiot would be me.”

  Chapter 2

  “So this is where you ended up,” Elliot said, trying to mask his surprise and shock at discovering that the woman he had frightened was now having coffee with his future sister-in-law.

  And not only that, was complaining to her about him.