How to Wrangle a Cowboy (16 page)

“Um, play with it?”

Cody sounded doubtful, as if he thought he might be expected to say he planned to roast his new puppy with onions and sage. Fortunately, Ed entered at that moment with a basket of bright-eyed pups.

Shane nearly groaned aloud as Ed released the pups onto the floor. Not only were they small and fragile-looking; they were also filthy, and one or two were rheumy around the eyes. Another had hair matted around its hind end as if it had recently recovered from some ailment Shane didn’t want to think about.

“There you are, young man.” Ed’s heartiness was obviously false, but at least the couple was trying. “Why don’t you pick one out while we grown-ups talk business?”

Shane didn’t think he had any business with Ed beyond the price of a puppy, but evidently Ed thought otherwise.

“Sit down.” He settled into an easy chair as if they had all the time in the world for a neighborly chat. “Stay awhile.”

Since Cody was already on the floor squealing with pleasure over the antics of the pups, Shane didn’t have much choice.

“Some changes up at the Lazy Q, eh?” Ed asked.

Shane nodded, setting himself on the edge of a straight chair so he could make a quick getaway. He didn’t like discussing Bud’s business with Ed, who was the poorest excuse for a rancher he’d ever seen. Most of the man’s land was unfit for grazing, dotted with spiky yucca plants and noxious weeds that bled over onto the Lazy Q’s pristine pastures. He ran a few skinny cattle behind fences that were more often broken than sound. Shane suspected those busted fences were a sneaky way to get his heifers bred to Lazy Q bulls for free.

“Heard the old man left the spread to his granddaughter,” Ed said. “She was a pretty little thing. ’Bout twelve last time I saw her.” He smacked his lips and grinned. “Legs clear to paradise, if you know what I mean. Bet she’s grown up to be a beaut.”

Shane shuddered at the thought of Ed ogling the innocent, coltish tomboy Lindsey had been when they’d first met. Rather than respond, he pretended to be absorbed in his son’s antics with the puppies.

“You could do worse than marry her.”

Shane was getting tired of folks advising him to marry a woman he didn’t even like. Their most recent kiss flashed across his mind, bright and pure as the moment itself, and he admitted to himself they’d had some moments. And Ed had a point; she wasn’t just a beauty; she was something special, with an elegant figure that softened and swelled in all the right places and sleek, shining hair that spilled through his fingers like water. Cody said she looked like a princess in a storybook, but Shane knew fairy tales didn’t come true.

“You like her?” Ed prodded.

“Doesn’t matter,” Shane said. “She’s not sticking around for long.”

“So she’s selling?”

The man’s ferret-like face seemed to sharpen and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and pressing his hands together as if praying.

“Don’t know,” Shane lied.

There was no way he’d share Lindsey’s plans with Ed Brockman. Give Ed a mustache to twirl and he’d have been a perfect villain for a melodrama, although those were usually handsome men and Ed Brockman was not, by any stretch of the imagination, handsome.

“Well, let me know if she is. I’d be interested in that plot of land out by the highway. I’ve been thinking about adding it to my holdings.”

His
holdings
? Looking around the dirty kitchen with its mismatched furniture, Shane wasn’t sure Ed could afford to buy a new toaster. There was nothing wrong with honest poverty—Shane had experienced that himself—but humility was a virtue whether you were rich or poor. So was cleanliness.

“Always wanted that piece of land.” Ed settled back on the threadbare sofa with his arms spread across the back in a lord-of-the-manor sprawl. “Got big plans for it.
Big
plans.”

“The ranch can’t be subdivided,” Shane said. “It’s on the Register of Historic Places. Bud didn’t want it chopped up and developed, and he made sure it wouldn’t happen.”

Ed sneered, as if preserving a piece of history was foolish. “Not that piece. He bought that back in the seventies, from Earl Kovitch. It’s not part of the original ranch, so it could be sold.” The sneer intensified. “Shame about the rest of it. Probably his wife’s idea, all that stuff about history. Women like to brag about that kind of thing.”

Shane slowly clenched his right hand into a fist, then unclenched it. Grace had never bragged about a thing. She’d simply treasured the ranch’s history, and so had Bud.

He didn’t like Ed Brockman. Didn’t like him at all. But he needed to get along with him. Ed was their nearest neighbor, after all, and he held the key to Cody’s heart in the form of those hairy little yapper dogs.

Yorkies.
They were even worse than he’d envisioned, with stubby legs that would never be able to evade the heedless hooves of a shying horse.

“You find one you want yet, Cody?” Shane hoped a reminder of the reason they’d come would make Ed stop his weird charade.

“I got it narrowed down to three.” Cody held up one puppy. “This one’s got a dirty bum.” He set the rejected dog in the basket. “This one shakes a lot.” The shaky pup joined Dirty Bum in the basket, where they trembled together.

Scooping the other three into his arms, Cody grinned. “But these guys like me a
lot
!” He punctuated that observation by falling over backward, delighting the rambunctious puppies. They swarmed all over him, yipping in concert to his happy laughter.

Ed leaned forward. “You talk to little Miss Ward for me about that land, there’s a job in it for you. Once that piece of land is mine, we’ll be minting money.”

“Sure, yeah.” Shane spoke carelessly as Cody sat up, shedding puppies along with his smile.

“A
good
job.” Ed didn’t seem to notice the boy was listening. “But only if you get me a deal. I’m thinking she doesn’t know much about ranching, am I right? She’d probably believe about anything you told her. Like if you said the grazing was poor or there was water issues.”

“I like this one, Dad.” Shane was relieved to see his son holding up the biggest, most bright-eyed puppy of the bunch. It would have been his choice too.

“Pick of the litter,” Ed said. “Young man’s got his daddy’s eye for stock.”

“How much?” Shane wanted to get this painful encounter over with.

“Five hundred dollars.”

The noise that came from Shane’s throat was an involuntary combination of a gasp and a gag.

“Five hundred? For
that
?”

He saw Cody’s face fall and rushed to fix his error.

“I mean, he’s a good pup as Yorkies go, but he’s not going to be earning his keep.”

“Pick of the litter,” Ed said stubbornly.

“I could probably pick another one, Dad.” Cody reluctantly set the puppy down. “Stormy doesn’t have to be my dog.”

“Named it already? Good boy!” Ed said.

“I named him Storm Tempest Rainbow Lockhart,” Cody said proudly.

Shane wanted to groan aloud. He didn’t want to disappoint his son, but he sure wished they’d had a talk about bargaining tactics before they’d come in.

“Two hundred,” he said.

“Three fifty,” Ed responded, a glint in his eye.

“Three hundred. And that’s it.” Shane rose as if to go, doing his best to ignore Cody’s big, tear-filled eyes.

“Only if you talk to Miss Ward for me. Work with me on this.”

“I’ll talk to her.” Shane pulled out his checkbook and wrote out the amount. Once he’d put Ed’s name in and the date, he smiled to himself and wrote on the “memo” line,
Stormy.

Ed reached for the check, but his wife was faster, rising with surprising speed and snatching it from Shane’s fingers.

Shane put on his own burst of speed, bundling Cody and his new best friend out of the house as fast as he could.

“Don’t forget our deal,” Ed called after him. “You work with me, you’ll be glad you did.”

Once they were in the pickup, Cody looked up at Shane with worried eyes. “You didn’t have to do that, Dad.”

This, from the kid who’d talked about nothing but Yorkies for six weeks straight. Buying the puppy was the only way Shane could hold on to his sanity.

“It wasn’t that much, Son.”

The dog squirmed and licked Cody’s chin, making the boy laugh, which made Shane realize how unaccustomed he was to the sound of his own child’s laughter. Cody had seemed to take his mother’s desertion in stride, but he was more serious than a six-year-old should be.

Shane reached down and ruffled the boy’s hair. “No, I did have to do it, Son.” He smiled ruefully at the tiny dog that held the key to his son’s joy. “I surely did.”

Chapter 20

Lindsey lay on her bed in a slant of sunshine, watching the sheer white curtains waft from the window like ghostly arms waving in the breeze. She’d rolled up her jeans to paint her toenails earlier, and she admired her homespun manicure as she waited for Ashley Wilde to answer the phone. Ashley was more than a friend; she was Lindsey’s partner in the Wilde/Ward Veterinary Hospital back in Charleston. She was also the owner of the fabulous shoes that had tried so hard to kill Lindsey on the way to the funeral.

As Lindsey listened to the dull ringing of the office phone at the clinic, she pictured her friend clad in her white lab coat, a pencil holding a complicated knot of blond hair off the nape of her neck while pockets bristled with everything from rectal thermometers to doggie treats. Since Lindsey had left Rodger, there was no money for a receptionist, so she’d have to rush for the phone herself. Ashley, friend that she was, had taken their new circumstances in stride.

She sounded harried when she answered, and her muffled “hello” was accompanied by the sound of something falling on the floor. But Lindsey could almost hear her friend’s smile when she realized who it was.

“Lindsey! I miss you! How’s Wyoming?”

“It’s fine. But how are you?” Without waiting for an answer, Lindsey rushed into an apology. “I feel so bad that I haven’t called. It’s been so busy here.” As she made the excuse, Lindsey tried to think what she’d been so busy with. Somehow, time flew far too fast at the Lazy Q, even when she wasn’t doing anything in particular.

Especially when she wasn’t doing anything in particular.

“Don’t feel bad.” Lindsey was relieved to hear the smile still glowing in her friend’s voice. “Things are going fine.”

That was obviously a relief, but Lindsey couldn’t help feeling a quick stab of jealousy. She wanted the practice to run well without her—she
needed
it to run well—but she also liked to think she was important enough that it would be a challenge for Ashley to run it by herself. That’s why she’d talked another local vet into helping out. Two days a week, Vic Walters cleared his own calendar to help out at Wilde/Ward. Lindsey had promised to do the same for him once she returned.

“I didn’t mean to be gone this long. I figured I’d go to the funeral, mend some fences, and leave.”

“And instead you found yourself saddled with the whole ranch.” Ashley chuckled. “
Saddled
, get it? With the ranch?”

She laughed, snorting slightly as she always did, and Lindsey had to laugh with her. Ashley was humor challenged, and her efforts at joking usually fell so flat, their very failure made them funny.

“I’m not complaining,” Lindsey said. “It’s a big responsibility, but it’s also a dream come true. And I love spending time with my grandma.” She liked fighting with the foreman too, but if she told Ashley about her love/hate relationship with Shane Lockhart—well, lust/hate, anyway—she’d never hear the end of it. “It’s going to take me a while to figure things out, though. You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m more than okay.” Ashley’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “Your replacement? He’s great. Well, I don’t mean he’s your replacement. I mean, I know you’re coming back. But Vic—Dr. Walters—is great. Really great.”

Ashley giggled, and Lindsey felt a slow smile creeping across her face. Ashley never giggled. And it didn’t sound like she was talking about Dr. Walters’s professional credentials.

Everything was going as planned. Lindsey had been guilty of a bit of matchmaking when she talked Vic Walters into spending some time with Ashley, whose skills at romance were about even with her joke-telling skills. He and Ashley were both gentle people, quiet and socially awkward, more comfortable with animals than people.

“I was worried he wouldn’t be able to put much time in,” she said.

“Oh, no, he’s moved some of his own clients over here, even. It’s working out great. How about you? Meet any hot-cha cowboys?”

“Nope.” Lindsey licked her lips. “Right now’s the slow season for cowboying. The only one around is my grandpa’s foreman, and he’s a grouch. Which makes things difficult, because he runs the place and knows more about cattle than I’ll ever learn.”

She thought of Shane’s work-roughened hand brushing her face, his dark eyes staring into hers. The heat in his gaze. The warmth of his lips. That kiss…

“Doesn’t that worry you?” Ashley asked. “I mean, your grandmother’s quite elderly, right? Aren’t you afraid this guy might be taking advantage of her?”

Lindsey’s knuckles whitened on her phone. How could she be so distracted by a couple of kisses? Even Ashley, who knew nothing about the situation, could see the potential for problems with Lockhart.

“I
am
worried,” she said. “That’s why I’d like to stay a little longer.”

“Stay a
lot
longer,” Ashley said. “Like I said, Vic’s been great. Plus, the clients love him. You know Mrs. Emmerling?”

“The one with the Maltese?”

“Yeah, her. She’s been in here every day this week. First Buffy was having tummy trouble. Then she was shaking her head too much. Then Mrs. E thought she was limping, and today it’s more tummy trouble.”

“Just between you and me, that dog’s not nearly as bad off as she makes out,” Lindsey said. “I think she’s lonely, and she likes the attention she gets from us.”

“Well, she
loves
the attention she gets from Vic.” Ashley laughed. “That dog’s had all kinds of ailments this week.”