To Tempt a Cowgirl (14 page)

“They bite and kick when they play and can take the hide off each other.”

“They play rough.”

Dani laughed. “Yes. For us. Not for them.”

“If you think they’d do well together, I don’t care.”

“Horses are herd animals. They like to love on each other, scratch each other’s itches.”

“I’m kind of like that, too.”

“Aren’t we all,” she said lightly as she opened the gate and led Molly inside. Lacy started across the field, trotting when she realized she was about to have a friend with her. Dani slipped off the halter and stepped back outside the gate, which Gabe shut and latched.

The mares approached each other, touched noses, snorted, then Lacy started to run, circling the pasture, with Molly at her shoulder.

“Good. No kicking.”

“They like being together.”

“Horses aren’t meant to be alone.”

“Neither are people,” Gabe said in such a low voice that Dani wondered if she’d heard him right.

* * *

G
ABE STAYED AT
Dani’s place while she worked another horse. She had an appointment in town the next day and wanted to free up an hour, so he’d stayed. And she’d let him, which was an excellent step in the direction he wanted their relationship to go—toward trust.

When she was done and had released the horse, she asked him if he wanted a beer, but he declined. “I have a few things to get done.”

“I understand.” She smiled at him—he caught a hint of the dimple next to her mouth and thought to himself that this had been a well-spent afternoon. In many ways.

As she walked with him to his car, he said, “Before I ask, I want you to know that this isn’t a come-on. It’s just a question...what do you do with your evenings, Dani?”

Dani regarded him for a moment, her head slightly tilted. “Well, on Saturdays if I’m not unconscious by six o’clock, I might head out to a friend’s bar—McElroy’s—although I’ve only gone once since coming back.” Because Gina had only been able to talk her mother into sitting once and Dani did not go to bars alone—even those belonging to people she grew up with.

“Nice place?”

“Familiar place. It’s owned by the brother of one of my friends. Mac. The guy who helped me buy Lacy.”

“I remember him,” Gabe said. “About fourteen feet tall? Solidly built?”

“That’s him. His brother, Jim, looks the same.”

“I know the place,” he said. “Although I haven’t seen any giants in there. I did get a locals-only feeling in the place.” And he was damned glad he hadn’t asked questions about Dani if the brother of the blond giant who’d helped Dani win the horse at the auction was the owner. From the vibe he’d gotten that day, if he asked anything about Dani, the owner of the place would want to know who was asking and why.

“That’s kind of what it is.”

“Anyplace else?”

She thought for a moment. “There’s the Timberline. That new resort on the other side of the valley. I hear it’s really nice in an escargot kind of way.”

Gabe laughed. “A snail way?”

“A fancy schmancy snail way.”

“Ah. Have you been there?”

“I haven’t been back in town long enough to check it out. My friend Gina and I have talked about it. You know Gina—she works at the café?”

It was hard not to know Gina. She was, in a word, friendly. And if he wanted to use another word, it would be
sexy
. Friendly and sexy were a nice combination, but it also offered up complications he didn’t need, as did his gut-level attraction to Dani.

“I might check it out sometime,” he said. “But I like places that are smaller, more intimate. More, I don’t know...normal?”

Dani laughed. “I think I know what you mean. You can go to a fancy place and have someone park the car and take your coat and make you sniff a cork—”

“Force fancy snails upon you.”

“Yes!” Dani pointed at him as if he’d just made a profound statement. “But it doesn’t feel as good as a night out at the local steak house.”

“That,” Gabe said with a smile that threatened to become heartfelt, “is exactly what I mean. I love a good steak in an underwhelming environment. Bells and whistles put me off.”

“Then I guess you’re a cheap date.”

His eyebrows lifted a little. “I’m not going to ask you if you’d like to find out.”

“Because you know the answer?”

“Pretty much.”

Dani glanced down at the graveled path momentarily, then her eyes came back up. “The way things are—the way I am—it’s not because I don’t like you. I do.” A delicate rose color stained her cheeks, but her expression was very serious as she said, “And that’s kind of a problem.”

“How so?” He asked the question, then held himself very still, not wanting to put her under any kind of pressure to answer before she was ready.

She dropped the hand that had been resting casually on the side mirror of his car and met his eyes, her expression candid as she said, “I’ve been burned recently. In a bad way.”

“Is there any other way to get burned?” he asked.

“There are degrees.”

“Agreed.” He shoved his hands in his back pockets, met her honesty with some of his own. “I want to be friends, Dani.”

“
Just
friends?” she asked with an arch of her eyebrows.

“For now.”

“For now.” She glanced down at the ground again, scraped a pebble aside with her shoe.

“I’m not going to lie and say that there’s no possibility of anything else, ever. Not when...” His words trailed off before he stated the obvious—not when there was such a healthy buzz of awareness between them.

One corner of her mouth quirked up, telling him that she knew exactly what he’d been about to say. “Well, I appreciate the no-lying part, given my recent past.” Once again she took hold of the mirror. “I have things to work through and I want to be fair. To both of us.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t be a very nice person, would I?”

He moved closer, but resisted the urge to reach out and touch her, trace his fingers over the smooth curve of her cheek. “I won’t burn you,” he said in a low voice.

“I won’t give you a chance.”

“Then we should be fine.”

“Agreed,” she said, matching his tone, but she still had a wary look about her.

Don’t push things.

He pushed. “Now that we understand each other, I’m going to take a chance and ask if you want to come over to my place tonight when you get done with all your horse stuff. Because if I spend another evening alone, my head is going to explode.”

Dani’s lips twitched, which he took as a good sign. “I’ll barbecue steaks. You can bring your giant blond friend if you want, or Gina, or both...”

“I’ll be fine on my own,” she said drily. “Since we understand each other.”

“You’ll come?”

“I will, but I have plans for tonight, so how about tomorrow?”

“Maybe the night after?” He had a conference call lined up with Stewart and Neal in the late afternoon about an unrelated project and had no idea how long it would last.

“Sounds good. Should I bring something?”

“No. I’ll be happy just to have some company.”

CHAPTER NINE

C
ONVERSATION.
B
ARBECUED STEAKS.
Just friends. For now. She’d made that clear. He’d agreed.

Then why did it feel kind of like a first-date thing?

Because she wanted him. She felt the urge to engage, touch, move closer. Yet, she was afraid, thanks to that asshole Chad.

Dani closed the tack-room door and whistled for Gus, who was out romping with Lacy, before letting herself through the pasture gate. Chad had turned out to be a cheating jerk. That didn’t mean there weren’t a lot of guys out there who had integrity, believed in honesty. The only problem was that she’d thought Chad had integrity, which meant that her integrity radar wasn’t the best and that was the source of her concern.

Dani started across the pasture toward the river with Gus trotting along behind her, heading to the swimming hole. Her thinking place. Now that she had the house to herself, having a dedicated getaway was unnecessary, but there was something about flowing water that calmed the soul, put out small fires that threatened to burst into flames.

Was she getting to close to a flame by going to Gabe’s place the next night? Probably. And maybe a few flames wouldn’t be a bad thing. She could ease back into social waters with a guy who had no agenda. A guy who was going to go back to his real life. He might have extended his stay, but he was admittedly lonely and Dani couldn’t see him lasting in the Eagle Valley for any length of time...and she wanted to know more about him. She’d risk being burned—she just wouldn’t get so close to the flames that she got incinerated.

On the way to the river they encountered a couple of rabbits who had the audacity to eat clover in Gus’s field. The big dog let out a low booming bark and the chase was on—kind of. The rabbits disappeared into the brush by the river long before Gus got anywhere near them and that was when Dani noticed that Lacy had followed them more than halfway across the field, stopping at the point where Gus had taken off after the rabbits. As Dani watched, the mare turned around and ambled back toward the other horses.

By the time Dani reached the river, Gus had eased into the slow current and was paddling across the broad stretch of not very deep water, his nose held high. He reached the other side and shook. Dani hesitated for a moment, then slipped out of her shirt and shorts and waded up to her thighs. Heavenly. She pushed off into the water and swam over to where Gus was pawing at a stick at the edge of the shore. Brushing her hair back from her eyes, she sat on the warm rocks and tilted her chin up to the sky...and thought about Gabe.

It was nearly dark when Dani returned home. She checked the horses, checked the standpipes, because she always did that now, made certain that the tack shed was locked. Once upon a time that hadn’t been necessary, but with the price of saddles rising and the possibility of someone meaning her mischief, she wasn’t taking chances.

Gabe’s lights were on, but instead of the large windows being lit up, there was one lone light shining through the darkness. Maybe he really was giving up his late-night working hours. In preparation for returning to his old life?

Dani idly ran a hand over her arm as she studied the light. Maybe that was all the more reason to take advantage of this opportunity to get to know him better. They were talking to one another. Laying things out. Being honest. He wasn’t a guy who would promise to stay by her and then make a fool of her, because he wasn’t going to get the chance to make any promises.

So maybe there was no harm in enjoying each other’s company.

Maybe she was ready to loosen up and see how things played out. Risk a small burn. As long as it was on her terms.

* * *

D
ANI STARTED WORKING
horses an hour earlier than usual on the day she was slated to have dinner with Gabe, so that she could be free to attend the Eagle Valley Days fund-raising meeting with Gina that afternoon—a meeting Gina assured her didn’t involve Chad’s family. As it turned out, however, it did involve Chad.

She’d barely parked in front of the café, where the meeting was being held in the banquet room, when a very familiar Lexus pulled into the lot and parked a few spaces away. Chad got out of the car without even glancing her way and swaggered into the café. Moments later Dani watched through the oversize picture windows that made up the front of the building as he shook hands and slapped back.

The hero returns.

And she wasn’t going in there.

For a moment, Dani simply sat and tried to draw the courage to get out of her car and walk inside. She wasn’t one to back down—never had been. When she encountered trouble she faced it head-on, but she couldn’t face this. Not yet. The pain was still too damned raw, and how awkward was it going to be for everyone in the meeting to have to sit with the formerly engaged couple pointedly ignoring each other? Because right now Dani couldn’t fake friendliness. Not after what he’d done.

Reaching down and turning the key in the ignition, starting the car and thus giving in to cowardliness made her feel like crap, but some primitive emotional survival instinct had kicked in and Dani didn’t fight it. She put the car in gear, drove out of the lot, then stopped a few blocks away and sent Gina a text that simply said,
Sorry, can’t make it to meeting.
Her friend would understand. She’d probably think Dani needed to suck it up, as did Dani herself, but she’d understand.

You’re going to have to meet him sooner or later.

But it didn’t have to be in front of an audience.

On the way home she debated about how she wanted to handle this Chad situation. She wasn’t going to spend her life avoiding her ex-fiancé. It wasn’t worth the effort, so maybe she should go to the bank where he worked, have a talk, get the first “bump into” over with.

She hated that idea.

On second thought, maybe she should keep her wits about her and avoid him and his wife as much as possible.

All she wanted—really, really wanted—was to feel like her old self again. To go after what she desired without fear of being hurt. Walk around her hometown without worrying about who she was going to run across. Was that too much to ask?

After returning home, Dani fed the cattle, then went in the house to shower and see what she had that was both clean and acceptable to wear to a neighborly barbecue. She had no idea how this was going to play out, but after the events of the day, a distraction was in order and Gabe could distract her like no other.

Finally, dressed in a simple blue scoop-neck T-shirt and her jeans with the bling on the back pockets, she slipped her feet into sandals, slapped on a couple of silver bangles and headed out the door. This was just going be an evening of shared conversation and food. Nothing else, so there was no need for butterflies.

The butterflies weren’t listening—probably because she was lying to herself. This was not about just food and conversation. This was about two people deciding what their next move would be—and the fluttering intensified as she parked her car, then crossed the neat lawn to the redwood deck, where Gabe was tending the coals in a barbecue.