Josh (10 page)

Sierra gave a shake of her head. “That would be enough to cure most people of climbing alone.”

“Most people,” Quinn said with a laugh. “But not my crazy brother. Just weeks after Doc removed the cast from his arm, Josh was missing for hours, and returned to say he’d conquered a new peak of the Tetons.”

When Sierra sent him a surprised look, Josh grinned.
“I guess it’s like falling off a horse. All you can do is climb back in the saddle and give it another try.”

“Falling off a mountain isn’t quite the same as falling off a horse.”

Josh tugged on a lock of her hair. “That depends on where you land.”

“And my brother landed on his head, which is why he’s still crazy after all these years.” Quinn dropped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Come on. Let’s get the last of these troughs filled.”

Sierra paused in her work to snap off a couple of quick shots of Josh, as he pitched a load of straw and dung into the wagon.

He glanced over. “Quitting on me?”

“Not on your life. Just taking a short break.” She grinned. “I figured I’d take advantage of the opportunity to record the life of a real working cowboy.”

He winked. “I doubt you could sell many copies. Mucking stalls just isn’t pretty.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” She leaned her hands on the top rail of a stall and studied him. “Do you do this every morning?”

He shrugged. “Somebody has to do it. If I’m busy somewhere else, one of my brothers has to take up the slack. Or one of the wranglers.”

“How many do you employ?”

“Depends. We have the biggest crew in springtime, during calving. And again in fall, for roundup.”

“You actually round up your cattle?”

He laughed. “How else would we bring them down from the high country?”

“I don’t know. I never thought about it.” She suddenly became animated. “Will that happen soon?”

“You bet. With this early snow, we’ll be looking at bringing the herds down to the lower pastures right away. That’s why Jake was on the trail so early this morning.”

“So I might see some of the herds coming down from the hills before I leave?”

“Count on it.”

She touched a hand to the camera around her neck. “Oh, I can’t wait to get some shots of it.”

Josh couldn’t resist laughing at the look of ecstasy on her face. “The real West and the Old West coming together in your mind?”

She nodded. “Something like that.” She lay a hand on his. “Oh, Josh, I can’t wait to see them.”

She caught the sudden narrowing of his eyes and lifted her hand away before returning to her chore.

As she worked, she wondered at the heat she’d felt at that quick touch.

What would it be like to have those big, work-worn hands on her, touching her everywhere? To have that sexy, smiling mouth moving over hers?

The thought had her glancing sideways at the rugged man who was working beside her. At that very moment he looked up and caught her staring.

He smiled and winked, and she actually felt her heart do one of those crazy somersaults.

Damn him. He was too sexy for his own good. Or hers.

C
ole hauled a saddle into the barn and tossed it over the side of one of the stalls, before turning to his son. “Phoebe’s got lunch ready.”

“Thanks, Pa. It’s about time.” Josh hung his pitchfork on a peg along the wall. “I’ve worked up a powerful appetite.” He turned to Sierra, who was spreading fresh straw. Other than to take photos, she hadn’t stopped working since they’d first entered the barn. “Had enough of ranch chores?”

She straightened. “I wouldn’t mind a break.”

He shot her a teasing grin. “Admit it. You’re ready for a long rest on a white sandy beach.”

“Oh. Doesn’t that sound grand?” She pressed her hands to the small of her back and leaned to the left, then to the right, stretching her aching muscles, before walking toward him. “Which would you choose? Hawaii or the Virgin Islands?”

He led the way from the barn. “Right about now, I’d settle for any place where the sun was shining, and my only chore was choosing whether to have a cold beer or a hot babe.”

As he held open the door to the mudroom, she brushed past him and felt her body strain toward his. “I’m sure you could have both.”

He leaned close enough to whisper, “Since I’ve already got the hot babe right here, I don’t have any need for that beer.”

Her eyes went wide and she turned to find his mouth inches from hers, curved into that sexy smile she found so appealing.

It would have been so easy to lean in and touch her lips to his. With anyone else, she would have followed the urge without giving it a thought. But she wouldn’t let herself do that with Josh. He was different. So very different from any man she’d ever met. Cool. Reserved. Even though the temptation was great, she went perfectly still, hoping this time he would make the first move.

She saw the way his gaze was drawn to her lips. Her heartbeat started to race in anticipation.

Just then Quinn and Cheyenne burst into the room, laughing together in the way of two lovers completely comfortable with each other.

Their two heads came up sharply, and Sierra and Josh stepped apart, taking great pains to look busy removing their boots, hanging their parkas, and washing their hands at the big sink.

When they walked into the kitchen, Quinn and Cheyenne followed.

Sierra stopped in her tracks and breathed in the heavenly scents that filled the room. “What do I smell?”

Phoebe looked up from the oven. “Bread baking.”

“Not corn bread. This smells like hot crusty bread.”

“That’s it,” Phoebe said with a laugh.

“You actually bake your own bread?”

Phoebe exchanged a smile with Ela.

“Bread. Rolls.” Ela stirred a pot of chili simmering on the stove. “If our men like eating it, we enjoy making it.”

“I think you spoil them.” Sierra couldn’t help smiling as she watched Josh reach over Phoebe’s shoulder to break off a steaming hunk of bread.

“You bet they do.” Josh popped the hot morsel in his mouth. “And we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Phoebe set the warm, sliced loaf on a platter in the center of the big table, while Ela ladled chili into bowls. Within minutes Big Jim and Cole came sauntering in from the mudroom, their sleeves rolled to the elbows, their hair wet and slicked back.

Big Jim gave a deep sigh. “Nothing quite like bread hot from the oven, and even hotter chili.”

Josh settled himself at the table beside Sierra. “A certain guest of ours, who shall remain nameless, thinks we’re all spoiled.”

“You’re absolutely right about that.” Big Jim winked at Sierra as Ela set a steaming bowl in front of him. “This woman’s been spoiling us since Cole was a pup.” He tucked into his meal. “How about you, Sierra? Did you have a grandma who loved to spoil you?”

Sierra shook her head and saw Ela turn to watch and listen. “Neither of my parents had family. Maybe that explains why they had no desire to settle down and have a real home.”

“Did your mom ever bake bread?” Phoebe asked.

“Cooking, baking, homemaking, aren’t even on my mother’s radar,” Sierra said with a laugh. “I don’t recall ever eating a home-cooked meal. We ate in fast-food places traveling from one town to the next. The closest thing I ever had to a normal home life was in boarding school, where there were rules, like when to eat and when to turn out the lights.”

Big Jim arched a brow. “I’m curious about your life in a boarding school in England. It had to be a shock after a life with no rules whatever. Tell us what it was like.”

Sierra tasted the chili and gave a sigh of pleasure. “Well, I can tell you that the food was never like this.”

That had everyone laughing.

“Did you have a private room?” Cheyenne was clearly intrigued. “Or did you have roommates?”

“There’s no such thing as a private room in an English boarding school. We shared everything. Dorm rooms. Bathrooms. Study rooms. Dining halls. There was absolutely no privacy in my growing-up years.”

“Sounds like growing up on this ranch.” Quinn stared pointedly at Josh. “Everywhere I looked, I had a younger brother shadowing me.”

“Me, too,” Josh said dryly. “Which is why I took to climbing mountains. I figured out early on that nobody wanted to shadow me a few thousand feet straight up.”

“You got that right, bro.” Quinn nudged his wife beside him. “And none of us wanted to shadow you when you took those thousand-foot falls.”

Everyone joined in the laughter.

Cheyenne turned to her husband. “Is that why you started following your wolf pack? To get away from the others?”

“Quinn never had to worry about that,” Josh said with a laugh. “We were all too smart to spend our winters sleeping out in the wilderness just to record the life cycle of a wolf.”

“You slept in the wilderness?” Sierra’s lunch was forgotten as she studied Quinn across the table. “To follow a wolf pack?”

“Not
a
wolf pack.
My
wolf pack,” Quinn corrected.

Cheyenne added proudly, “Quinn is considered one of the leading authorities on wolves in Wyoming. He’s made a name for himself studying their life cycle in their natural habitat.”

Quinn closed a hand over Cheyenne’s and smiled into her eyes. “I’m afraid my wife tends to brag about me.”

“I’d say she has a right to.” Sierra glanced at Josh. “You never told me.”

He gave a quick laugh. “I figured Cheyenne would get around to bragging about it sooner or later.”

Sierra turned to Quinn. “That’s impressive. While you’re studying your wolves, how long are you usually gone from home?”

Quinn shrugged. “It could be weeks. Could be months.”

“Months?” She couldn’t hide her surprise. She turned to Cheyenne. “I guess my parents aren’t the only ones who are footloose. Don’t you get lonely?”

“Hardly. Since I get to go along.” Cheyenne shared a long, simmering look with her husband. “We just recently got back from weeks in the wilderness.”

“Oh.” Sierra sat back with a smile. “Now that’s more like it. I guess as long as the two of you are together, it could be fun.”

“Fun?” Josh cast her a sideways glance. “We’re talking
about moving out every time Quinn’s wolf pack decides to go hunting for food. And sleeping in snowdrifts in the high country if the pack decides to take shelter during a blizzard.”

Sierra chuckled. “How is that different from climbing a mountain during a snowstorm, just because some careless hiker doesn’t report in to the rangers’ station when she’s supposed to?”

Big Jim winked. “I think she’s got you there, boyo.”

Josh gave a grudging nod. “Yeah. I guess you do have a point. Still, I’d much rather climb a mountain and gaze down on some magnificent views than trudge through waist-high snow just to watch a wolf pack take down some poor unsuspecting deer.”

“That’s just a small part of what we saw.” Quinn smiled at his bride. “How about that litter of pups?”

“The cutest things I ever saw,” Cheyenne said with a sigh.

Cole helped himself to a thick slice of bread slathered with melting butter. “I’m glad to know my sons have found some noble ambitions, but personally, I’ll take good old bone-jarring ranch chores any day, as long as I can be rewarded with a meal like this.”

Big Jim nodded in agreement. “There’s nothing quite as satisfying as mentally crossing off a list of ranch chores, and knowing at the end of the day that everything’s done.”

Sierra gave a shake of her head. “I think that’s called being obsessive-compulsive.”

“That would describe my entire family,” Josh said with a smile. “We’re never happier than when we’re knee-deep in work.”

“Or manure,” Cole added.

Big Jim joined in the laughter. “We’ve all been there a million times or more.”

“Speaking of which…” Big Jim turned to Sierra. “How’d you do with those barn chores?”

“She held her own,” Josh remarked.

“Wrong. I believe what I was holding belonged to the horses.” She wrinkled her nose. “And it wasn’t pretty.”

That had everyone around the table howling.

“I guess the first thing every tenderfoot notices on a ranch is the smell.” Cole winked at Sierra. “If you stayed here long enough, you wouldn’t even notice it.”

“Just how long does that take?” She helped herself to another slice of warm-from-the-oven bread.

“Oh, I guess a couple of years,” Cole remarked.

“Don’t let him kid you.” Cheyenne sipped a tall glass of lemonade. “I’ve spent my entire life on a ranch, and there are times, especially in the heat of summer, when the last place I want to be is in the barn, mucking stalls.”

“See,” Josh said, pointing a finger at his brother, “this is the problem with bringing a woman into our family. Women stick together. The minute we tell a little white lie, even though one of them”—he wiggled his brows at Cheyenne like a mock villain—“is supposed to be a member of our family now, she just can’t help spoiling our fun by telling the truth.”

“You call that the truth?” Quinn nudged his wife with his elbow. “Are you saying the barns actually smell in summer?”

“If it’s possible for them to smell worse than now,” Sierra said with a straight face, “then I have to believe that all of you have lost your senses. Or at least your sense of smell.”