To Tempt a Cowgirl (12 page)

“I handled a few of those issues myself,” her mother said with a touch of wryness that made the tense muscles in Dani’s neck start to relax. Her mother had put in enough worry time trying to raise the four of them on a ranch that was slowly sinking into the red during hard economic times. The sisters had tried to convince her innumerable times that they were as capable as she was, that she taught them well and she didn’t need to worry about them, but once a mother, always a mother. So she and her sisters did whatever was necessary to keep their mother from worrying.

“That you did. Remember the time the cows got out during that blizzard?”

“Which time?” her mother asked drily. “Why do you think I signed the ranch over to you girls? So I never had to deal with that stuff again.”

“Do you miss the ranch?” Dani asked. The sisters had debated that subject more than once. Had their mother signed over the ranch because she never wanted to see it again? Or was it because Richard had invested well and she didn’t need the income, so she’d given her daughters their inheritance early?

“I do,” she said slowly. “During the summers anyway.” There was a brief silence before she continued. “The ranch wasn’t easy—”

Dani gave a soft snort at the understatement and her mom laughed lowly.

“Okay, there were times when the ranch was brutal, back when we had all the cows and the hay contract fell through.” In other words, back when it was a working ranch that they depended on to pay their bills, not the fallow operation it was now. “But I always felt as if I could draw strength from the land, you know what I mean?”

“I do,” Dani said softly. Because she felt exactly the same.

“So, yes. I miss it, but that part of my life is over. I don’t care what you girls do with the place as long as you’re happy with your decision.”

“I’m happy living here,” Dani said. “I’m glad that I’m back and I don’t care if Chad is back, too. I’m tough enough to deal with it.”

“I know you are,” Anne said. “I just sometimes need to hear that.”

* * *

I
T SEEMED THAT
Gabe had barely put his head on the pillow when his buzzing phone jerked him awake again. Neal...who worked normal hours.

“Yeah?” he grumbled into the phone, fully expecting some kind of bad news.

“I didn’t realize you’d be in bed,” Neal said.

“Did you consider the time difference?” Gabe asked as he flopped onto his back.

“Since it’s nine o’clock there, no...but it is Sunday, so I’ll cut you some slack.”

Nine? Gabe squinted at the clock. “I got going on something last night and didn’t think to stop until four a.m.”

“I hope it wasn’t work.” Neal was altogether too chipper and Gabe was about to tell him so when he said, “I’m calling because I heard from Sam yesterday.”

Gabe propped himself up on his elbow. “What did he want?” He and Sam had parted ways shortly after Sam had gotten out of prison the first time, having served fifteen months of a three-year sentence for burglary. He’d wanted a place to live, help getting back on his feet. Gabe had complied and things had gone well for almost a month. Until Sam had needed more money than he was earning at his crappy job.

Gabe had told him he was tapped out, and he was. So Sam robbed the apartment. Not that he ever confessed, but Gabe wasn’t stupid, and shortly after that, Sam robbed a Pizza Hut and back into the slammer he went. Now apparently he was out again, only this time he’d contacted Neal for help instead of Gabe.

“Don’t give him any money,” Gabe growled.

“I don’t need to. He’s going back in. Third strike. He’d only been out for a month when he got arrested again and the conviction just came down.”

Gabe’s stomach knotted. “I had no idea.”

“Me, either.”

Third strike meant Sam wouldn’t see the light of day. Not for a long time anyway. “He brought it on himself,” Gabe muttered more to himself than to Neal.

“Agreed. He called because he wanted me to make sure his dog got a home. He didn’t trust his girlfriend.”

Gabe closed his eyes. That was the Sam he’d grown up with. The Sam who’d been his friend before drugs and street life had changed his priorities.

“I feel for him,” Neal said softly.

“Yeah.” Gabe swallowed. “Does the dog still need a home?”

“No. He’s going to one of the IT guys here. I just...I don’t know.”

Gabe knew.

After Neal hung up, Gabe got out of bed and wandered into the kitchen, where he turned on the coffeemaker. Then he turned it off again. The last thing he needed in his stomach was more acid.

You are not Sam’s keeper.

But they’d been like brothers once and Gabe wondered, as he always did, what would have happened to him if Stewart had not tossed him that lifeline the night he’d gotten into trouble. Would he be like Sam? In and out of prison? Looking for the easy bucks because he lacked the training to earn a decent living legitimately? His decisions and Sam’s hadn’t differed all that much until the night he’d been arrested for selling weed just days after his eighteenth birthday. Seeing no other choice, he’d called Neal to beg for bail money. Instead Stewart had showed up at the jail.

Gabe could still recall the utter shock he’d felt when he’d come face-to-face with Neal’s grim-faced father. Shock, anger, shame at getting caught when he should have been better than that. He’d expected threats, but instead of warning him away from his son, Stewart had offered a second chance.

Why? Gabe still had no idea. And no matter how many times he told himself he would have eventually pulled his head out of his ass even without Stewart’s help, he didn’t know that for a fact.

Gabe pushed off the counter and paced through the house, then went into the bedroom and shoved his legs into his jeans.

He needed to move. Clear his head. Get out of this stone-and-glass box.

* * *

O
N
S
UNDAY,
D
ANI
woke to a cloudless sky, and after toast and coffee worked the two horses remaining on her schedule. Once that was done, she went back to the house and, having nothing better to do, cleaned the floors before putting in a few hours on her marketing and business plan. She researched canvas-covered arenas, made a casserole for dinner, then went back out to the corrals to give Lacy some one-on-one.

She’d promised both Allie and Kelly that she wouldn’t get on the mare unless someone was there, but she hadn’t promised not to saddle her. She caught the mare and tied her to the hitching rail, then disappeared into the tack room. The mare’s ears went back as soon as Dani reappeared in her vision with the saddle in one hand, the pad in the other.

Dani stopped, waiting for Lacy to relax, and then when the horse’s ears went forward again, she approached the mare. There was a slight quiver when she placed the pad on the horse’s back, a bunching of muscles when she settled the saddle, not out of the ordinary for the first tack-up—but nothing to prepare her for the explosion that occurred when the cinch touched the horse’s belly.

Lacy threw herself backward while twisting sideways, lost her footing and landed on her side as Dani scrambled out of the way. For a moment she lay there, the saddle half under her, nose in the air, held in place by the taut halter rope. Dani dashed forward and yanked the rope, tied in a quick release knot that had nevertheless tightened when the mare fell. She yanked again and the rope came free, allowing Lacy control of her head. The mare let out a groan, then heaved herself up to her feet. Dani caught the rope before Lacy took off, and for a moment they stood facing one another. Both of them were shaking. Gus hovered nearby, whining his distress until Dani shushed him.

She took a slow step forward and Lacy snorted and tossed her head. Dani stopped and waited for the mare to lower her head again. Lacy had reacted, as horses would, to a stimulus, but now she needed reassurance, so Dani moved forward to slowly touch the lower part of the mare’s neck. Lacy quivered but stayed put, allowing Dani to stroke her. Dani continued to rub the mare’s body, working her way over the taut muscles, still holding the lead rope in one hand, not wanting to risk tying her up again.

After fifteen minutes of slow massage, Dani released Lacy, who shook her head and started toward the water trough, Gus ambling along by her side as if offering his own brand of reassurance. Dani leaned her forearms on the fence, then slowly lowered her forehead to rest on her arms. She didn’t know what to do. As a trainer, she was facing a problem that should be dealt with. As the guilty owner of a horse that wouldn’t have been abused if she hadn’t sold her, part of her just wanted to let the mare live in peace.

She’d bought Lacy to give her a home, not to ride her, although a small part of her had hoped that would be possible, despite what had happened to the last owner. What was the best thing to do here? Attempt to rehabilitate a fifteen-year-old mare, or just let her live out her life grazing with the other horses and playing field tag with Gus? If she chose to let the mare be, she had to commit to keeping her forever—but that had been her plan anyway.

What a week. Chad, Marti, Lacy—by themselves not all that significant, but added together...yeah.

Dani raised her head, staring out over the field, thinking it was time to count her blessings instead of her crosses. The problem with living alone was that there was no one to distract her from the things weighing on her mind. No one to unload a few problems of their own, make her feel as if she wasn’t the only one carrying a bit of a burden.

No one to keep her from noticing Gabe striding purposefully along the path that led from his house, across her property, to the river. She climbed down off the fence and went back into the house, paced a few times, then decided it was a great time to tackle the upstairs floors. But instead of sweeping she stopped at her bedroom window, broom in hand, and stared out toward the river, where Gabe had disappeared in the willows.

“Gus,” she called a few minutes later as she trotted downstairs. The big dog lifted his head then slowly hefted himself to his feet as she said, “Let’s go for a walk.”

Time for a little distraction.

CHAPTER EIGHT

G
ABE HAD KNOWN
that something was coming through the brush long before Dani emerged from the thick willows that edged the river. He’d hoped it was a deer or cow and not a bear. Having that something turn out to be Dani was a pleasant surprise.

“You found the swimming hole,” she said as she walked toward him, dressed in cutoff jeans and a loose tank top that seemed to emphasize her breasts rather than conceal them.

“I guess so.” He smiled at her, noticing that there were faint circles under her eyes and her mouth tipped down at the corners. Stress? Exhaustion? “I followed the path from the house across your fields. It’s kind of narrow, but well used.”

“It’s a deer and coyote path,” she said moving a few steps closer. “I don’t think the Staleys ever used the swimming hole. They weren’t swimming-hole kind of people.”

“I’ve seen the deer,” he said. “But no coyotes.”

“They’re a little shyer, but they’re around.”

“Guess I’ll take your word for that.” He nodded at the towel she held. “You really are going swimming.”

“I’m thinking about it.” She shrugged. “Or it might have just been an excuse to have someone to talk to. I saw you walking this way.”

“Spying on me?” His tone took on an amused note—he knew she was probably the last person who’d take up spying on him.

She shrugged again. “I was sitting on the fence and saw you head toward the river. I decided I’d see if you found the swimming hole or were just wandering the banks.”

“I might wander later.” He sat down on a bleached log, but Dani remained standing where she was.

“Rough day?” he finally asked.

She shrugged carelessly. “I’ve had better.” She glanced over at the opposite bank, then back at him. “I had kind of an incident with Lacy. I decided to saddle her and, well, it didn’t go well.”

“What happened?”

“She exploded when the cinch touched her belly. She was tied to the rail and went down and I was lucky to get the rope loose before she choked herself.” She rubbed her fingers over her forehead. “I shouldn’t have had her tied when I saddled. I just hadn’t expected...” She exhaled “But I guess I should have, knowing she’d been abused.”

“How close did you come to being hurt?” he asked gruffly.

She looked at him as if surprised that was a concern. “I was out of range when it happened.”

“Out of range.” Now it was his turn to let out a long breath. “What now?”

“That’s what I’ve been wondering. Do I rehabilitate or just let her be?”

“Keep her as a pet?”

“Yeah.”

“Kind of an expensive pet.”

She cocked her head and her hair spilled over her shoulder. “Not logical?” she asked in an I-dare-you-to-say-yes voice.

“I’m not touching that one.”

She gave a small snort. “Don’t worry. My sister Allie agrees with you.”

“Why’d you sell her in the first place?”

Dani sighed. “It was part of the pay-for-college plan. My dad was a fantastic rope horse trainer. Lacy was out of his favorite mare. We planned to train her, sell her, help pay for college.”

“A rope horse brings that much money?”

“A good one. One of Dad’s friends used her for a year on the rodeo circuit, won some good money on her. I used her in high school the one year we could afford to rodeo.” Dani leaned back and looked up at the sky. “I sold her because it was part of the plan my dad and I made before he died. He said rope horses of her caliber only went to people who cared for them.” She continued to stare up at the sky for another moment, then dropped her chin. “It was a good fairy tale.”

An awkward silence followed, which Gabe eventually filled by asking, “How’s Molly coming along?”

Dani glanced at him with a half smile, as if glad he’d offered up a friendlier subject. “She’s smart and quiet. She’ll be a good present for whomever she’s going to.”

“My best friend’s ex-wife.”

Dani gave him an uncertain smile. “I probably won’t ask any more questions.”