The Cowboy's Promise

by Macie St James

  “The point is, she’s gone now,” Clay said. “Her choice. Now it’s time to get to work.”

  Clay moved to walk away, but Reilly wasn’t finished. “It’s no way to live, you know.”

  The words stopped him. What was Reilly getting at, exactly? Curiosity held him to the spot.

  “Sure, you’ll never get hurt, but you’ll also never live,” Reilly said. “Someone like Harley? She’s worth the fight.”

  Clay stared at his younger brother. “What exactly are you recommending?”

  “Go get her,” Reilly said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Colton and I have things handled around here. Take a weekend off and go to Seattle.”

  Clay laughed. That was the most preposterous thing he’d ever heard.

  Reilly gave him a pointed look. “We can handle things, you know. You seem to think this place is your personal battle or something. Colton and I, and Jared when he returns—we’re all in charge of this place along with you. It’s time you started looping us in on things.”

  All thoughts of getting to work fled as Clay looked at his brother. Really looked at him for the first time since his parents had left. He realized so much all of a sudden.

  Clay let out a long breath. “I felt like I had to take over for Dad. Like he was leaving me in charge.”

  “He didn’t,” Reilly said. “He explicitly stated we were all to run this place. But you have this chip on your shoulder about something that happened a full decade ago.”

  “More than a decade.”

  “Yeah, and Dad forgave you for all that. You think I haven’t messed up? And Jared had his share of wild times. Colton… Well, Colton’s always been a strict rule-follower, so he didn’t have that phase.”

  “I know. He said he forgave me on the phone recently. It’s just, I felt a pressure I shouldn’t have, I guess.”

  Reilly snorted. “Sure, he held you to a higher standard, but he knows that now. Does he have any idea you’ve taken this all on as some grand ‘prove myself to Dad’ scheme?”

  Somehow when Reilly put it like that, it seemed pretty silly. But it went deeper than that.

  “If this ranch falls through, I’ll feel one hundred percent responsible.” Clay sighed. “Yes, Dad left all of us equally in charge, but I’m the oldest brother. Who was the one he always counted on to take care of you guys when we were kids?”

  “We aren’t kids,” Reilly pointed out. “Did you know he calls me once a week to check in on how things are going around here? And Colton’s been working with him on the numbers for the past few weeks.”

  Wait, what?

  Blood rushed to Clay’s head. For several seconds, all he could hear was a whooshing sound as the words Reilly had just spoken sunk through.

  “Colton’s always been a numbers guy,” Reilly said.

  Yes, he had been. But that didn’t really matter. What mattered was that Clay had been twisting himself in knots, trying to figure out how to run this ranch to his dad’s satisfaction, and Colton had been working with him behind Clay’s back?

  “Where is he?” Clay asked.

  Reilly blinked, looking around. “Who?”

  “Who do you think? Colton. Where is he?” There was no keeping the anger out of his tone this time. It was coming through, loud and clear, as he could easily tell by the stunned expression on Reilly’s face.

  Reilly finally answered. “Cleaning out the barn. I was about to join him. You can ride with me.”

  “No, I’ve got it.” Clay was already heading toward his truck. The keys were in the house, he realized halfway there. The last thing he wanted to do was make another trip inside, he was in such a rage, but he figured a little cooling off would help him.

  Reilly was right behind him when he pulled up to the barn. No surprise. His brother probably sensed he might have to defuse the situation a little. Nothing to defuse, though. Clay just needed some answers, and he needed them now.

  Before Clay could even get out of his truck, Colton was on his way out of the barn and walking toward him. Reilly had briefed him, Clay figured, which was fine. It would save him some time catching Colton up on what he knew.

  “What the heck, man?” Clay slammed his truck door and walked toward his brother. “You’ve been working with Dad behind my back?”

  “It’s not what you think,” Colton said, holding his hands up. “I was going to tell you, but Dad said not to stress you out more than you already were. We’ve been trying to figure out a way to save this place.”

  “You’ve been going behind my back.” Clay stopped in front of his truck. His adrenaline was pumping so fast, he didn’t trust himself to get any closer. “Even when you saw me trying to make this place work, you knew.”

  “I’ve known all along,” Colton said. “Dad gave all of us access to the bank accounts. Do you think we weren’t logging in?”

  “Reilly, too?”

  “Nah,” Reilly yelled, coming up behind Clay. “I leave all that up to you guys. I’m just here to help where I’m needed.”

  Clay tossed a look toward Reilly before returning his attention to Colton. “So Dad knows the ranch is in trouble?”

  “And he knows you’re not to blame,” Colton added. “There’s a reason farms and ranches have found other ways to make money.”

  “So everyone keeps saying,” Clay forced out between clenched teeth.

  Reilly came around to stand next to Colton, as if to protect him somehow. “He knows all you’ve done to save it. He trusts us to figure it all out, but he wants to know what’s going on.”

  “Maybe you can call him later,” Colton suggested.

  Clay’s head was spinning. So much had changed in the past few minutes. All this time, he’d been stressing about keeping his father happy, and his brothers had been working in the background. He felt betrayed. He felt like a complete fool. He felt like he needed to get as far away from here as possible.

  “I can’t deal with this right now.” He backtracked toward the driver’s side door of his truck. “I’ll see you guys later.”

  Clay climbed in his truck, fired it up, and sped away, blowing dust back up at his brothers as he went. Served them right for going behind his back. Maybe they’d think twice about that next time.

  19

  Harley had never minded having a roommate, mostly because that roommate was never home. She was a flight attendant, which meant between her travel schedule and Harley’s long hours at work, most of the time the condo was unoccupied.

  But the condo had never felt emptier than it did upon Harley’s return from Montana. As she’d entered her home and set her overnight bag down, she’d let out a big sigh of relief. Finally, silence.

  Three hours later, she sat on the sofa, the now-empty containers from her food delivery order on the coffee table in front of her. Having someone to hang out with would be nice right about now. She could dump all her worries on someone else and maybe commiserate over a pint of ridiculously high-calorie ice cream.

  She missed Cedar Tree Ranch.

  It seemed odd, considering she’d been there less than two days. There had been something about the beautiful scenery, not to mention the peace and quiet, that had been intoxicating.

  As she sat there, she heard the distant sound of sirens, along with the whir of vehicles passing by her window. Occasionally, there would be laughter as someone passed by on the sidewalk just on the other side of the window behind her. In other words, not Cedar Tree Ranch sounds.

  But no matter how much time she spent waxing poetic about the beauty of the land itself, it was really Clay she missed. That was the thing she didn’t want to admit to herself.

  She glanced at her phone. It had been more than ten hours since she’d handed over her business card to Clay and invited him to text her so she’d have his number. Her phone had been eerily silent aside from a call from her mom. Besides missing Clay, though, the silent phone was a blessing. It served as an ongoing reminder that she was done with Mr. Cutler. Fo
r good.

  Being fired was a blessing. She couldn’t have gone back anyway. Not after spending time on that ranch. Not after seeing what it was like to have her ideas respected. Not after witnessing how little regard Mr. Cutler had for home and family values and just about anything but money.

  She’d start worrying about finding a job tomorrow. Tonight, she was going to settle in with a cheesy movie and maybe that pint of ice cream in the freezer. She didn’t need a roommate to indulge her sorrows.

  Just as she was thinking about how horrible she must look in her PJs and fuzzy socks, there was a knock on the door. It happened so rarely around here, she thought it was probably on one of the neighbor’s doors at this hour of the night. But it was definitely too loud to be a neighbor.

  Tossing the remote aside, Harley stood and shuffled toward the knock. It was probably just a misdelivered pizza or someone trying to find one of her neighbors. Everyone around here seemed to have a busier social life than she did.

  She lifted up on tiptoes and peered out the peephole. If she owned this place, she would have insisted on the peephole being lowered to her own height. But this was just a rental—

  Her thoughts cut off abruptly when she saw who was on the other side of her door, standing awkwardly on her porch. Sure she’d hallucinated it, she tiptoed and looked out again.

  Clay Briscoe was standing on her front stoop.

  Feeling lightheaded, she reached for the deadbolt and unlocked the door. Her heart felt like it might pound out of her chest. What was he doing here? It made no sense whatsoever.

  Holding her breath, she pulled the door open and faced him. As always, her gaze landed on his face and she felt all mushy inside. They couldn’t work together if she couldn’t even look at him without turning to a puddle of goo.

  “Hi,” she said, trying to keep her voice as even and devoid as emotion as she could. She still heard a little shakiness.

  “Hi,” he said.

  Silence. Awkwardness. Oh. She should probably invite him in.

  Stepping back, she gestured for him to enter, just the way he tended to do when she was at his house. If he noticed the imitation of his own movements, he didn’t let it show. His expression was one hundred percent serious.

  He spoke before she even had the door shut. “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

  In that moment, any hope she had that he was here to profess his undying love for her deflated. Like a big balloon. She hadn’t even realized she had that hope until it was gone.

  “My brothers… Well, they’ve gone off the rails. They’ve been talking to Dad and he knows about all our money troubles now. I’ve been running in circles to keep it from him and all this time—”

  “Why don’t you sit down?” she asked, gesturing toward the sofa. He was pacing manically, and already it was stressing her out.

  Clay looked at the sofa and then at her as though just noticing she was standing there. He was in her condo. Had he really not noticed her?

  “Sorry. I thought I’d cooled down. I tried to cool down before coming over.”

  Harley shook her head. So many questions, such as: “How did you find me?”

  “Jared had your address. He wanted you to know none of this was his idea, by the way. My mom and brothers talked him into giving you the old key. They were matchmaking.”

  He said ‘matchmaking’ like it was a bad word. She felt like she should apologize for getting him into that situation, but there was no way she could take the blame for that. She’d reserved a rental on his property so she could get to know the land. Even being there in the first place was under strict orders from her boss. If anything, she was a second victim of his family’s matchmaking efforts.

  “I’m sure they meant well,” she said, walking around him toward the kitchen.

  She was suddenly aware of how sparsely furnished and messy the condo was. She and her roommate were hardly ever here, so what was the point of making it like a home?

  “Do you want anything to drink?” she called back to him.

  “Sure. Do you have coffee?”

  Harley stopped and turned to face him, one hand on the counter that was supposed to divide the kitchen from the living room. “You drink coffee this late?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah.”

  Like it was nothing unusual to drink coffee a couple of hours before bedtime. Shrugging, she walked into the kitchen and pressed the button to fire up the one-cup coffeemaker.

  “Meant well with matchmaking? Or are you saying they meant well with talking to Dad behind my back.” He’d crossed to that dividing counter and was now standing there, his hands, palm down, on the surface. He wasn’t looking at her. He was staring straight ahead as though still trying to process everything that had happened.

  “All of the above,” she said. “Your brothers seem to really love you. It was pretty easy to see you’ve been having a rough time with everything lately.”

  Opening the cabinet, she looked at their sparse collection of coffee mugs. She pulled out her favorite—a huge, thick, decorative one that had been part of last year’s Christmas gifts—and inserted it into the coffeemaker.

  “I was figuring it out.” He sounded more than a little defensive.

  “True,” she said. “But your brothers wanted to help with that.”

  It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that much out. Clay had thought he shouldered this burden alone. He was far from alone.

  “I’ve been a jerk.” He rubbed his right eye.

  His bloodshot eyes and slumped posture gave away the fact that he was likely exhausted. Not only did he look sleep deprived, but he also seemed like he was coming off multiple hours of running on adrenaline and stress. It was the same look she’d had after so many nights returning home from work.

  “I wouldn’t say that,” she said.

  His coffee finished up and she carried the mug over to him, setting it gently on the countertop in front of him. Her next move was to ask if he wanted sugar or creamer, but he picked up the coffee mug and took a generous gulp before she could get the question out.

  “I would,” he said. “Selfish jerk. Blind determination is what’s been fueling me. I didn’t see I was bulldozing right over my brothers. I didn’t even see you. Not the way I should have.”

  All the breath whooshed out of her. He didn’t see her? Was that a good or bad thing?

  “How should you have seen me?” a voice that didn’t even sound like her own asked.

  “As the best thing that’s walked into my life in years.”

  Okay. Breathe. Just breathe in slowly, then exhale it. Don’t hyperventilate while you’re doing it.

  Harley knew she had to speak. Soon. He was waiting for a response to the bomb he’d just dropped. How she’d ever get any words out was beyond her, but she had to try.

  “Umm.”

  Yes, that was all that came out when she opened her mouth. He’d just called her the best thing that had walked into his life in years, and all she had to say in response was ‘umm?’

  “I know we still need to get to know each other,” he said. “But I’d like to get started on that.”

  His coffee sat, seemingly unforgotten, in front of him as he stared at her. The silence stretched between them, but the tension was heavy. When he was looking at her with that much intensity in his eyes, how could she be expected to form actual sentences?

  She somehow managed to speak. “I’d like that.”

  He looked her in the eye, making her heart skip a beat. “I know we’re separated by some distance. But if you don’t have immediate plans, I’d love for you to stay at the ranch for a while. You could work on getting things up and going and we could get to know each other.”

  Whoa. Way too much at once. She was developing feelings for him, but she couldn’t live with him, not even temporarily. She had to get to know him with the space couples normally had at first.

  “My brother’s rental sits empty most of the time. That’s why I called h
im. The next renter is a couple of weeks away, so you’d have the place to yourself. If you want to come back here at the end of the two weeks…” He let his voice drift off.

  She thought about his offer. It was sudden. It was unexpected. But it was everything she wanted right now.

  Plus, she could leave this condo for a couple of weeks. If they could get some revenue coming in on the ranch fairly quickly, it might even be a way for her to make some money. Her last paycheck from Mr. Cutler would only pay her bills a little longer.

  But moving to Canyon Falls was risky. Not on the surface, of course. On the surface, she was making no commitment, and neither was Clay. That was the problem. She could seriously get hurt here, especially if he shut down again like he had after their kiss. The more kisses like they shared, the harder she’d fall…and the more it would hurt if it didn’t work out.

  Harley looked at him. It was scary for him, too. He’d been hurt, and it wasn’t that far in his past. He was taking a risk just by asking her to stay at the ranch while they got to know each other. He had no guarantees she wouldn’t hurt him.

  She swallowed. “I have to stay until Monday. I need to get my last paycheck and work things out with my roommate and landlord. Can I think about it over the weekend and give you my answer on Monday?”

  Instantly, the look on his face changed. That wall went back up faster than she could have imagined possible.

  She thought about rushing to correct whatever damage she’d done. Then she realized how unfair it was of him to assume he could just come here, say he’d been a jerk, and ask her to come stay at his ranch. He could ask those things, of course, but he shouldn’t be hurt or disappointed when she needed some time to process.

  “Sure,” he said, standing. “Just let me know. Thanks for the coffee.”

  He was on his way out the door. Harley rushed around the counter. Should she stop him? Apologize? Explain more about why she needed time?

  Before she could pull herself out of her frozen state, he was on the other side of her slammed condo door. She was alone again, wondering what had gone wrong.