Rocky Mountain Cowboy (35 page)

“Hawk fired him?” Jenny thought she recalled him doing that, though she didn’t think it had been the wrangler’s fault.

“He had it comin’. Nobody liked him much. Hawk wanted to get rid of him a long time ago. He’ll probably just go back to his real boss anyway.” She gave Eli an uncomprehending look. “Brad Caldwell. We all think Steve was Brad’s boy— his plant,” he went on to explain. “‘Course nobody can ever prove nuthin’ around here.” Eli took the empty cup of soup from her and handed her the tea. “It’s that herbal stuff you like— chamo…chamo something.”

“You’re such a sweetie, Eli.” Jenny leaned over and kissed his whiskered cheek.

“Gotta take care of my girl, now don’t I?”

She patted his cheek and finished her tea, appreciating the fact that he’d laced it with honey. When she was finished, he told her to get some rest, picked up the tray with the empty dishes on it and left, turning out the light behind him.

“Hey.” Hawk called to her softly in the dark. His voice was heavy with sleep. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. Come get in bed. Get some better rest.” She lifted the covers back and invited him to join her. She heard him undressing, but could only see his dark shadow. Then he was slipping into bed beside her, warm and nearly naked. He still had his boxer shorts on. He was so welcome. He had come to her assistance today so fearlessly when neither Steve nor the younger wrangler had known what to do. She was certain Dark Shadow wouldn’t have hurt her, but Hawk had made sure the horse hadn’t. He was her hero, and she wanted to be his. She wanted so badly to come to his aid the way he always came to hers.

“The doctor said you’d be okay by tomorrow, just a bruised shoulder and maybe a headache,” he told her in the dark. “Shall I stay home?”

Yes, she wanted to say. “No. I’ll be fine with Eli here. But try not to be too late. Remember Becky and Steve are back, and have invited us over to dinner tomorrow night at seven.” She heard him groan.

“Hawk....”  She wanted to tell him what she was thinking of doing. He wasn’t going to be home much at all again this week and there were things they needed to address and resolve.

“Not tonight, honey,” he forestalled her, his voice heavy with exhaustion. “I’ve got to get to up in six hours, and I’m beat.”

“Okay.” He sounded so tired. “Maybe tomorrow when you get back from your flight.” Early in the morning, he had to fly someone to Santa Fe.

His snoring
was her answer. She curled up to his back, hooked her arm around his waist protectively and sighed. He was going to drive himself into the ground with all this extra work if she didn’t do something soon.

CHAPTER 21

“I can’t think of any better past time than shopping.”

“Well, I can think of one. And so should you— considering you’re newlywed.”

“Yeah,” Becky giggled. “There is one.”

The petite brunette searched through a rack of blouses, looking for one she liked. Jenny was beside her, doing the same. They were in the same western wear store Hawk had brought her to two months ago. Today she and Becky were looking for something to wear to the Winthrop rodeo that was going to be held in a week and a half. It was something the local ranchers put on as an end of season get together, for fun and a little prize money.

Hawk and Scott had talked about it all through dinner last night at the Richards’ house. They went to all of the local rodeos. There was usually three or four a year. Last night, Becky and Jenny had decided to go shopping for something new to wear, then to lunch. Hawk was up in the mountains again until Thursday, and Scott was busy catching up after their two week honeymoon.

Becky looked over the clothes rack at Jenny. “How is it going between you and our best man?”

“It’s been good.” Jenny couldn’t really call her relationship with Hawk great lately. They were apart too often, and with the barn burning and all the financial pressures, there seemed to be a perpetual dark cloud looming over them. She hated the damper it put on their relationship. She hated the physical and mental stress Hawk lived with.

Becky chose three blouses to try on. “You two sleeping together yet?”

Jenny made her own selections and felt herself blush. “Yes
, we are.”

Becky smiled at her over the clothes rack. “Good. It’s serious then.”

“I don’t know how Hawk feels, Becky, but I’m in love with him,” she confessed frankly because there was no point in hiding it from this woman who had become such a close and valued friend. “I haven’t told Hawk how I feel yet, so don’t say anything to Scott. He’s been so busy and had so much on his mind. We haven’t seen much of one another the past two and a half weeks.”

“He looked really exhausted last night. It’s awful about the barn.”

Jenny remembered how little Hawk had said to her last night. He’d talked to Scott, mostly about the upcoming rodeo and the events they wanted to enter, then about the cattle sale, which he had been happy about. He’d been angry with her, though. On the way over, she had approached him yet again about letting her invest her money in the partnership. She wanted to pay off the equipment loan, make the next several mortgage payments, and give him the cash he needed to build a new barn. She told him she had liquidated her stocks and bonds and put the cash in her bank account so she could have the money available to do all of that. His flat one word refusal had infuriated her. She’d been driven to argue. She’d told him how unreasonable he was being, especially now that their barn had burned and the insurance company was refusing to reimburse them until the arson investigation found out who had set the fire. Winter was coming. They needed shelter for the horses. The barn needed to be rebuilt. Hawk said he had the money for temporary shelters, lean-tos, until the insurance company came through.

All her reasoning fell on deaf ears. He didn’t want her “bailing him out,” period, end of discussion. So, they had arrived at Becky and Scott’s not speaking to one another. On the way home, that hadn’t changed much. Hawk had given her a few instructions for the week and told her to make an appointment with their attorney for Friday to sign the partnership papers.

That had further infuriated her.
Do this
,
do that
, but don’t act like a real partner. She was running out of patience with his stubborn unreasonable attitude. She decided it was nothing more than blind male ego. He was dead tired most of the time when he was home, which was hardly ever, and he was getting short tempered with everyone. He wasn’t like that normally. But he was trying to accomplish too much on his own. He wanted to fix all these problems by himself. It was insane!

And damn it, time was running out. The loan payments were due in three days, though they had a five day grace period before the penalty phase. Hawk hadn’t even had time to deposit the check for the sale of their cattle, and he wouldn’t let her take it to the bank. And they hadn’t signed the partnership papers the attorney had drawn up for them almost three weeks ago. In a little less than thirty days, the whole matter would end up resolved by the state, in the courtroom, if they didn’t make their agreement formal. The man had to be so stressed out, he wasn’t thinking straight. Jenny just couldn’t see any other reason for his behavior.

After they tried their clothing selections on and chose what they wanted, they paid for them and walked down Main Street to the restaurant Becky had chosen for lunch.

“I want to show you something,” she told Jenny excitedly, taking her by the wrist. She stopped in front of a vacant, empty shop.

Jenny stared through the big plate glass window, perplexed. “Okay— this is interesting. And we are looking at what?”

“I think it’s just the right size and location for a boutique,” Becky beamed. “You know, something along the line of Designs by Jennifer. What do you think? Does it have possibilities?”

Jenny cupped her hands around her face and looked in the window again, this time more carefully. It was small, but it had charm, inside and out, and it looked like there was working space in back for patterning, cutting, and sewing, maybe storage space for fabrics, a little nook for a designer’s table, a computer.

“It does have possibilities,” she agreed. “Got a pencil and paper.” When Becky handed both to her, she wrote down the name and number of the realtor handling the leasing information. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this yet, with all the trouble at the ranch, but it can’t hurt to look into it. I have given the whole idea of a boutique some consideration.”

“I can help,” Becky offered enthusiastically. “I have a business degree, and I love your clothes. I don’t know if I could afford them, but....”

“Designer clothes don’t have to be priced out of the reach of the average buyer. Most of what I design is not haute couture or real high fashion. A working woman can afford my clothes.”

“Well, if you decide to stay and do this, let me help. It’ll be fun.”

They walked down the street a few more doors to an historic old hotel that had been restored into a restaurant and bar downstairs and offices upstairs. The decor was nineteenth century Victorian, done in pastel colors and lace, with lots of green indoor plants everywhere. Jenny and Becky were ushered to a corner table near a set of French doors that were open to the sunshine and gentle breeze of the late autumn afternoon. Over wine and large Caesar salads, they continued their conversation about the potential of opening a boutique and design studio. Eventually, then got around to discussing Jenny and Hawk’s relationship again.

“So you haven’t told Hawk how you feel about him?” Becky asked over a fork full of lettuce.

“I guess I’m a little afraid to, especially now,” Jenny admitted. “I’ve never said ‘I love you’ to any man, but my dad. It’s frightening enough to admit it to yourself, let alone to the person you love.”

“It is scary, especially if you’re the first to say it. I was afraid Scott wasn’t ready for that kind of emotional commitment; that maybe he’d run from it. But he didn’t. He told me he felt the same way, but was too afraid himself to tell me.”

“That’s sweet.” Jenny smiled wistfully, imagining the romantic scene between the two. “But I have no clue how Hawk feels about emotional commitment.”

“I think he’s capable of it,” Becky said thoughtfully. “He was devoted to your dad, and he and Scott have been close friends since high school.”

“Well, that’s different— male bonding and all. He never made a commitment to Cindy Caldwell.”

“She isn’t the kind of woman to keep a commitment. Hawk was smart enough to see that.”

“She cheated on him?”

“Whenever the mood struck her.”

“It’s hard to imagine a woman being stupid enough to do that to a guy like Hawk.”

“Yeah, it is.” Becky gave her knowing little grin. “He’s pretty damn good looking, and he’s a decent man. He’s not just a pretty face.”

Jenny laughed because the one thing Hawk was not was pretty. “He’s had other girlfriends, though, hasn’t he?”

“Yes, but no one serious.” Becky gave her another thoughtful stare. “I think you’re serious for him. Scott and I have seen him with other women, and we’ve seen him with you. You’re different. He treats you different. He’s very protective of you.”

Jenny shook her head. “I don’t know, Becky. I think he’s protective because of my dad. He was pretty upset with me before he left today. We had an argument on the way over to your place last night. I want to help him out of all this trouble. I have the ability to do it, but he won’t let me. He says he doesn’t want me to bail him out.” Her expression mirrored her bewilderment. “
For heaven’s sake, did he tell you and Scott that someone tried to shoot him on his first hunting trip, and that someone tried the other day to break into the hangar at the airport where he keeps his airplane? Luckily, the man in the tower saw someone loitering around and called security. But if something happened to Hawk’s plane....” Jenny couldn’t imagine how upset Hawk would be. “The barn was bad enough.”

“And you haven’t got any evidence of who is doing all of this?”

“No,” Jenny said in frustration. “There’s never any evidence or witnesses. I feel like I have to do something. We can’t afford any more losses, and I can’t let Brad or the bank foreclose on my dad’s ranch. I can’t let Hawk keep driving himself into the ground like this, not when I am capable of doing something. It’s my home, too.”

Becky reached across the table and patted her hand sympathetically. “The male mind can be unfathomable sometimes.”

“Is that a nice way of saying men can be pigheaded and unreasonable?”

“Yes, definitely.” Becky laughed. “But women have always been wiser and stronger, especially when it comes to protecting their homes and those they love.”

Absorbed in that indirect advice as she sipped her wine, Jenny failed to see Brad Caldwell enter the restaurant.

“Speaking of jerks....” Becky alerted her.
She looked up and groaned. Brad had spotted them and was headed their way. “Looks like he’s going to join us. Damn.”

Handsomely dressed in a three piece black suit that made his light blonde hair and dark blue eyes more striking, he stopped before the empty chair at the table. “Ladies,” he greeted them with a charming smile. “May I join you for a bit?”

Becky raised her hand in a reluctant invitation. “Suit yourself, Brad. We’ve just finished lunch, though.” She lifted her wrist and checked her watch conspicuously. “Can’t stay too much longer.”