Only Hers (17 page)

Sleep would not come easy.

She couldn’t go down to breakfast, face Matt across the table and act as if he hadn’t touched her last night as no man ever had.

He scared her. He excited her.

Sitting on the bed, Shannon tucked her lower lip between her teeth. Matt disturbed her in ways she didn’t want and didn’t understand. She finally had to admit those feelings he drew from her had nothing to do with her instincts as a nurse, and everything as a woman.

Sixteen days remained of her vacation. Sixteen long days of pretending that Matt didn’t set her body afire with a look, make her want with a simple touch.

And he didn’t trust her as far as he could throw his horse.

Her stomach rumbled. A not-so-subtle reminder that she hadn’t eaten since her late lunch yesterday. After leaving Cleve and Matt last night, she hadn’t been hungry.

She glanced at her watch. Seven fifty-five. She stood. Matt should be finishing breakfast. She’d go down and get her assignment. Whatever detail around the ranch he put her on today she’d find time to grab a bite once he left. She knew she was being a coward, but at the moment being a coward was safer than being vulnerable.

Grabbing her straw hat, she went downstairs and into
the kitchen. Matt’s unreadable gaze touched her the instant she opened the swinging doors.

She smiled and spoke despite the familiar lurch in her stomach, the catch in her breath. “Good morning, Octavia, Matt.”

“Good morning, child. I was just going up to wake you for breakfast,” said the housekeeper, smiling.

“She doesn’t have time.” Matt sat his coffee cup down and stood. “Let’s go.”

She accepted the brisk command with relief. If she was having difficulties resisting a suspicious Matt, a tender, caring Matt would melt her like snow on a hot stove.

“She hasn’t eaten,” Octavia protested.

“Shannon knows what time work starts.” Setting his Stetson on his head, Matt headed for the door.

With a reassuring smile at the housekeeper, Shannon followed. Let him stay annoyed with her. That way, she’d keep out of trouble.

Halfway to the barn they were met by the three range hands, Jay, Elliott, and Griff. Five horses trailed behind them. Matt grabbed the reins of a huge black satin-skinned animal and swung up in the saddle in one graceful motion. Gazing down at her, he looked at once intimidating and compelling.

“You’ll be riding the fence line today with Griff,” he informed Shannon.

“Boss, you gave
me
that assignment,” said Jay, the youngest and best-looking of the two single ranch hands. His appreciative gaze on Shannon, he smiled. “I never thought I’d ever see the day I’d be looking forward to riding the fence line.”

“You’ll enjoy moving the cattle to the north pasture just as much.” Matt’s tone was curt, final. “Trade horses with Griff.”

His confusion obvious, the young cowboy’s brows bunched together in his rich mahogany face as he glanced over his shoulder at his boss. The implacable face wasn’t
reassuring. Jay hastened to do as he was told. Griff and Elliott wisely said nothing.

“The roan’s yours, Shannon,” Matt indicated with a curt jerk of his Stetson. “Mount up. We’re wasting time.”

Her eyes rounded. “I haven’t ridden for years.”

“Riding is something you never forget.” When his spirited horse sidestepped, Matt controlled the blaze-faced animal with effortless ease. “Give her the reins, Griff.”

“Morning, miss.” Griff, tall, homely, and happily married, tipped his hat and extended the reins.

Gripping the leather strips, she stared at Matt. He stared back, his face resolute, inflexible. Another challenge. Being on the Circle T made her remember something she had forgotten in the past months. Once you commit to something never give up until either the job is done or the last breath is gone from your body.

Looping the reins over the horse’s docile head, she put her left foot into the stirrup, grabbed the horn cap and swung into the saddle. She was certain she heard a sigh of relief from Griff.

Matt’s expression didn’t change as his encompassing gaze swept from her booted foot resting comfortably in the stirrup to her face. “What if I didn’t know how to ride?”

“The fence in the south pasture needs checking. You’re assigned to do it. One way or another, you would have gotten the job done.” The heel of his dusty brown boot touched the horse’s flank. Instantly, the black animal sprang forward. The ranch hands took off after them.

After one longing look toward the back door of the kitchen, Shannon urged her horse to follow. This wasn’t exactly the way she had planned her morning. Matt had outwitted her.

She just wished she knew if it was because of the incident with Cleve or he had decided to turn up the pressure and make her quit. Either way she hoped her gluteus maximus didn’t give out before Matt gave in.

In ICCU when she had been too busy to take a break let alone eat lunch, she had worked through hunger and thirst. There was no reason for her not to do so today. It was after ten and Griff said they’d head back for lunch around twelve. She could make it until then. As when she was on the hospital floor, she just needed to focus on getting the job done.

After giving herself the pep talk, Shannon gazed dispassionately at the meandering line of fence stretched out before her. She sighed. Getting excited about barbless wire was simply beyond her capability.

Now she understood Jay’s earlier comment. This had to be the most boring and monotonous job on the ranch. If it wasn’t for the beautiful countryside and the lanky cowboy beside her, she would have had a hard time continuing.

Griff Walker was forty-something, balding, and as thin as the proverbial rail. He was also soft-spoken, kind, and loved his family. She knew all about his three sons ranging in age from four to nine, his wife who worked at the hardware store, his hope of buying a place of their own one day. He was a talker and good company.

“You wanna get down and rest a minute under one of those oak trees, ma’am?” Griff asked, looking sideways at the stooped shoulders of the slender woman riding beside him.

Shannon wiped her shirtsleeve across her perspiration-damp forehead before answering. “If I get off this horse, I may not get back on.”

“You’re doing fine, ma’am. The boss will be real proud of you.”

“Somehow that doesn’t inspire me at the moment.” She shifted from one hip to the other. Thank goodness she was in pretty good shape.

“The boss might work you hard sometimes, but
he
works just as hard,” the tall cowboy said with conviction. “Ain’t nothing he asked you to do, he won’t do himself.”

She wasn’t surprised Matt had the loyalty of his men. He certainly had jumped to defend Cleve and reassure the elderly hand. It was
women
Matt didn’t trust. “I’m sure he treats his
men
fairly.”

Leather creaked as Griff shifted in his saddle. “That he does. Never looks down on us or treats us different because he’s the boss. If we’re running a little short until payday and need money and have a good reason, he’ll advance us the cash without interest. Ain’t many a worker who can say the same thing.”

From personal knowledge, she knew he was right. Although the hospital frowned upon loan transactions between employees during working hours, it was common practice. Sometimes the borrower just signed over their paycheck to the lender.

Wade also had been right. Matt wasn’t as hard as he pretended. “He doesn’t sound like Hardcase to me.”

“The boss don’t deserve that name,” Griff said with heat. “Without him my youngest wouldn’t be alive.”

Slender hands clenched on the reins. “What happened?”

The cowhand looked embarrassed he had blurted out the information. “He don’t want me telling folks, but I don’t like hearing things ’bout a man who helped Clint when no one else could or would.”

“I understand, it’s just that I’m having difficulty understanding Matt,” Shannon told him.

“No wonder since you two are partners and all. Must be hard for him to get used to.” Griff shook his head. “I’ve lived in Jackson Falls all my life. Never thought anyone but a Taggart would own Taggart land.”

“I’m only a temporary owner,” Shannon confessed, holding her hat against the sudden gust of wind that tried to blow it off. “I’m leaving in a couple of weeks, but before I go, I’m signing the land back over to Matt.”

“I’ll be.” Griff grinned and guided his horse around a clump of stunt cedar. “The boss will be happy to hear that.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather you not mention it to him or anyone else.” Matt wouldn’t believe Griff any more than he believed her.

The cowhand nodded. “You’re good people, ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

“The boss is the same way.” Griff looked away for a long moment. “Clint was stung by a bee. I didn’t think much ’bout it. I been stung lots of times and so had my other two boys. Told him he’d be all right.” The cowboy swallowed. “I left him in the truck while I went in the hardware store to pick up my Millie from work. By the time we came out, Clint was having trouble breathing. The boss had walked outside with me.

“He took one look at Clint, grabbed him from me and ran back in the store giving instructions for the other clerk to call 911 and Dr. Carter. Then my boy stopped breathing. My wife started screaming. I was shaking so bad I didn’t know what to do. Everyone stood back, not knowing what to do. The boss bent over Clint and breathed for him.”

The cowhand looked at her with eyes that unashamedly shone with tears. “He saved my Clint’s life. Every day I thank him and thank God for giving me another chance.”

“Not many people know what to do with a second chance.”

“I know. Come on, we better get to checking this fence.” He urged his horse from a walk to a canter. “The boss don’t give second chances.”

She grunted. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

He had been right to send Shannon off without breakfast. She hadn’t overslept as Octavia suspected, she had stayed in her room to avoid him. When he didn’t see her in the kitchen when he first went down, he had gone upstairs to check on her. Outside her door, he had heard her pacing the floor, yet when he knocked, there had been no answer.

Maybe she regretted last night’s encounter in the hall
as much as he did. He had spent a miserable night, and when he did fall asleep, it had been to dream of Shannon as a living flame in his bed.

His gritted his teeth at the memory. No breakfast was her choice. Yet he couldn’t get out of his mind the sound of her stomach rumbling as they crossed the yard. It was too much of a reminder of when they first met and how exhausted she was and how stubborn.

His horse jumped a small ditch, and the canvas bag on his saddle horn bumped against his knee. He wasn’t taking her food because he cared. Shannon had to learn that she didn’t have the stamina it took to help run a ranch, but at the same time he didn’t want her fainting from lack of nourishment and falling off her horse. He had enough on his mind without dealing with an injured woman.

Matt came over the slight rise and saw Griff and Shannon standing by the fence. Shannon was gesturing toward the fence with something in her hand. Griff was shaking his head. Matt urged his horse toward them.

They turned to him when Matt was several yards away. Stopping in front of them, he saw a break in the barbless wire fence. Shannon had a wire stretcher in her hands. A hammer lay on the ground.

“Is there a problem?”

Shannon shot a look at Griff. Her chin lifted. “No.”

Matt leaned over and crossed one arm over the horn, then propped the other arm on top. Griff looked uncomfortable. He wasn’t going to get his range-riding partner in trouble. Score another conquest for Shannon. Matt had known the impressionable and unmarried Jay would be easy prey for a captivating woman like Shannon, but Matt figured a happily married man like Griff would be a little stronger.

Hell. He had a hard time not being suckered in by her beauty and her spirit, and he knew she was after his land. He couldn’t expect a good-hearted man like Griff to resist falling under her spell. But as boss, Matt expected the hands’ first loyalty to be to him.

“Griff, if there’s a problem I want to know about it. Now.”

The cowhand ignored the plea in Shannon’s eyes. Matt wasn’t known for his patience. “Miss Shannon wants to help.”

Matt straightened. “Then let her help. That’s what she’s here for.”

“She don’t have any gloves.”

Matt looked at Shannon’s delicate hands. In spite of himself he recalled their softness. Without gloves, the firm grip needed to use the wire stretcher would blister her hands in no time.

“Why didn’t you say something before we left the ranch?”

The impertinent chin went higher. “How would I know I needed gloves? You said check the fence, you didn’t say anything about repairing it. Besides, if you’ll remember, you were in a hurry.”

Matt barely bit back an expletive. “Let her nail in the staples.”

Griff appeared even more uncomfortable. “We, er . . . already tried that.”

When Matt’s probing gaze went to Shannon, she stuck her hand behind her back. He swung out of the saddle. In the two strides it took to reach her, he removed his gloves.