To Tempt a Cowgirl (6 page)

“Hey, this is Dani Brody,” she said when he answered. “Are you busy?”

“Not really.”

“Are you handy with plumbing tools?”

There was the briefest hesitation before he said, “I don’t think I have any lying around.”

“I have the tools. I just need some muscle and know-how.”

“Be right over.”

* * *

W
ATER WAS FLOWING
across the driveway when Gabe drove in.

“We need to shut off the main,” he said as soon as he got out of his car.

Dani gave him a frazzled look. “I’d love to do that, but I have no idea where this one is. I turned off the two I know about, but no luck, so I called Allie and she’s calling her ex-husband, and I should have an answer—”

The phone buzzed in her hand and she turned her back to Gabe as she answered.

“Thank goodness...yes, I’m sure he was happy you had to call him...” Dani started walking “Right...yeah, I know...he’s where? Well, at least that’s good to know.”

Gabe followed as she walked around the barn and kicked dirt off a round cover with one foot. He lifted it, revealing a couple of faucets a good arm’s length down the hole.

“I guess if we turn off both of them, it should handle everything,” Dani said to him, then into the phone she said, “My neighbor. Everyone I know is at work...of course it makes sense.”

Gabe lowered himself to the ground and shoved his hand into the pipe, gritting his teeth as he worked to turn the stubborn handles with little more than the tips of his fingers.

“Is there a key?” Dani asked into the phone. “Thanks. I’ll look.” Dani disappeared into the barn and came out with a long metal fork that she bent down to give him. “Use this.”

Gabe pushed himself to a sitting position, took the fork and shoved it down the hole, using the tines to twist off the faucet. The flow from the closest broken standpipe slowed to a trickle within a matter of seconds.

“Yes, it worked,” Dani said. “Thanks, Al. I know this wasn’t easy...yeah. I will. Promise. Drive safe.”

Dani clicked the phone off and dropped it into her pocket. “Thanks. I kind of panicked when I couldn’t find the main and Allie was out of cell range.”

“Sure thing,” he said, brushing the loose dirt off his side. “Let’s take a look at the problem.”

The problem was that the two standpipes had been snapped off at ground level.

“This is strange,” he muttered.

“Yeah,” Dani agreed.

“I’ll need a shovel.”

“You don’t have to fix them,” she said. “I just needed help shutting the damned water off.”

“And I don’t have a whole lot to do right now.” He gave her a long look and Dani finally nodded.

“I’ll get a shovel.”

A few minutes later he’d dug around the pipe to the point that they had something to work with. “Are all your standpipes PVC?” he asked.

“Only the ones that Kyle, my ex-brother-in-law, put in. He was all about saving a buck.”

Gabe surveyed the place for a moment, taking in the run-down appearance despite the fact that everything had been recently painted. It also appeared that Kyle wasn’t too deeply into working hard, either. No wonder rumor had it that he’d wanted to sell before Dani’s sister had filed for divorce. It was easier than maintaining the place. Now if he could just convince Dani that the property was better off in other hands...but no. Instead of doing that, he was helping her fix the place.

Neal would love it if he could see this. Gabe was going to keep this bit of information to himself.

The pipe hadn’t cracked below the surface as Gabe had feared. It was a somewhat clean break, one that could be sawed off and coupled to the original stand.

“All you need is an inch-and-a-half coupling, some PVC cement and a hacksaw.”

“I have a hacksaw and I’m pretty sure the hardware guy can talk me through the rest.”

And he was pretty certain he was going to do what he could to help her out—if she would let him. But there were things about his situation that bothered him. “I have to ask,” he said, leaning on the shovel, “is this the way your life always goes? Crisis to crisis?”

“Pretty much,” she said with a faint smile. “I think it’s my personality.”

“But this doesn’t seem like an accident. Not unless you have some pretty damned big gophers around here.”

An odd look crossed her face as she tilted up her chin. “It had to be. I mean...what else could it be?”

“Two snapped standpipes?”

He stabbed the shovel into the ground and crossed the distance between them, stopping short when her gaze shot up warily. “Maybe you should report this to the authorities. The mare, the standpipes—it just seems odd.”

“Yeah. Maybe so.”

“No maybes, Dani. It’s odd.”

“This isn’t exactly something I want to report to the authorities.”

“Why not?”

“Because Kyle is a deputy sheriff.”

“All the more reason to report it. Especially if you think he might be involved.”

“He’s on vacation right now.”

“But where was he when these pipes got snapped? Call.”

She held his eyes for a moment, her troubled hazel gaze meeting his no-nonsense expression dead-on. Then she said, “You’re right. You want to come in while I look up the number?”

A break. She trusted him—at least enough to let him in her house.

CHAPTER FOUR

G
ABE FOLLOWED
D
ANI
through the front gate and up the walk to the two-story house. It was sturdily built, with classic Victorian lines, and he wondered if it would be possible to move it to a different location on the property. In the rough plans he’d drawn up, the main lodge would stand where the house was now. The fields beyond would become the golf course. The barns, fences and outbuildings would have to go.

Dani opened the door and then glanced back over her shoulder at him before walking inside. Her footsteps echoed, rousing the big dog enough for him to raise his head.

“You, uh, seem to be lacking furniture.” There was a recliner with a small folding table at one side, a ladder-back chair pushed against the wall with horse tack hanging from it and not much else. From what he could see, the dining room was empty except for a large carved armoire.

She looked around. “Yes.”

He frowned at her as she walked to the armoire and pulled open a drawer. After digging out a phone book, she riffled through it then punched the number into her phone. Tipping the receiver away from her mouth, she said, “The divorce wasn’t pretty. The only furniture that stayed are the things that Jolie and I—” She suddenly brought the phone back to her mouth and said, “Yes, hi, this is Dani Brody. I need to report an...incident, I guess.”

Gabe listened as she described what happened, idly surveying the tangle of leather straps hanging from the ladder-back. He doubted that the authorities were going to take her report too seriously, because the tone of Dani’s voice made it clear that she wasn’t convinced it was anything to worry about. But having her call the sheriff made him feel better. She was pretty damned isolated, living alone, and if someone wanted to screw with her, all she had for protection was that giant mutt, who appeared to be semi-narcoleptic now that he’d given Gabe the canine all-clear.

Dani hung up the phone and turned back to him with a small shrug. “They told me to report anything else suspicious.”

“Good. Now they have a record.”

“Yeah,” she said. For a moment they stood on opposite sides of the room. The awkwardness was becoming palpable and Gabe realized that she didn’t know what to do with him now that he was in her house. That deal about making friends slowly, no doubt. The last thing he wanted was her to feel self-conscious around him, so he smiled and said, “I’m glad you called. If everything’s okay now, I’d better get back to what I was doing. I have a deadline.”

“You need to work on your vacation skills.”

“I’ll make a note.”

“With an alert?” she asked mildly. “Practice vacation skills from nine a.m. to ten a.m.?”

“Something like that.” He paused at the door, debating for a split second before he said, “Call if you have other issues, okay?” When her expression started to close off, as if he was getting too familiar too fast, he added, “I’d jump at any chance to procrastinate from my project.”

He reached for the doorknob and her features relaxed—because of what he said, or because he was almost out the door?—and she took a few slow steps toward him as he walked out onto the porch. She stopped at the door, putting a hand on the frame. “I appreciate you coming. Sorry if my hostess skills are rusty.” She gave a soft snort, then smiled at him. “Who am I kidding? I was never a good hostess. That was for my sisters to handle.”

“Well, I’ve never been a big fan of anything fancy.”

“Your car says otherwise.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Touché. But there’s no getting around the needs of the Y chromosome.”

She laughed at that, a dimple appearing in one cheek close to the edge of her mouth, charming the hell out him. And making him very aware that he needed to get out of there a winner. “Good night, Dani Brody,” he said in a low voice before forcing himself to step outside. He needed to leave because it would have been too easy to stay and he was not going to blow this by overstaying his welcome—even if she had called him.

“Good night.” The door was closed before he looked back, but he’d definitely heard a husky note in her voice.

All in all he’d made some decent progress...but truthfully, he was glad she’d called for other reasons. The standpipes and the horse concerned him.

* * *

D
ANI STOOD BY
the door, waiting until she heard the fancy car roar to life. Then she wrapped her arms around herself and took a few slow paces through her empty living room as the low rumbling purr disappeared into the distance. She shook her head.
Dani, Dani, Dani. Get a grip
.

This was the time to focus her energy on building and establishing her business, not being distracted by the hot vacationing guy next door.

You called him.

Indeed. And he’d been nice enough to come over and lend a hand. And that was where it stopped. A little neighborly help.

She still had mixed feelings about calling dispatch. Maybe this did need to be reported, but now Kyle would know something was up. Kyle, who had nothing to gain by sabotaging the place. So if it wasn’t Kyle, the only person who had anything even resembling a reason to vandalize the place, then...

Then it had to be a fluke.

She just wished she could still the small voice echoing what Gabe had said—
two
snapped standpipes?

* * *

E
ARLY THE NEXT MORNING
, Dani went to Lacy’s pen, feeling ridiculously relieved to find the gate closed and the horse still there. During the long night, she’d let paranoia get the better of her, wondering if someone
was
sneaking around her place causing mischief, but now, standing in the warm sunshine, her fears felt overblown.

Lacy stood stock-still while Dani approached and crooned soft words as she moved closer, but when she raised her hand to pet the mare, the horse jerked her head back.

“It’s okay,” Dani murmured, leaving her arm outstretched until Lacy finally moved forward to touch the back of Dani’s hand with her nose. When she thought of what a trusting, confident animal Lacy had once been when she sold her, it was difficult to tamp down the anger. People like Len Olsen shouldn’t be allowed to own animals. But they did and there was nothing she could do about it, except try to rescue Lacy, bring her back to where she’d been.

“Ah, Dad,” she muttered. It would have hurt him as much as it did her, to see the only offspring of his favorite mare in this condition.

* * *

“
I
MADE CONTACT
,” Gabe told Stewart during their first touch-base call early the morning after Dani had called him about the standpipes.

“It went well?”

“Yeah.” Not entirely according to plan, but he wasn’t going to argue with success. He also wasn’t going to tell Stewart that his car had almost gotten totaled by a horse or that he was making repairs on the Lightning Creek Ranch.

“What’s your read?”

“That this will take time.”

“How much time?”

“If I act too soon, my gut tells me the deal isn’t going to fly. Ms. Brody is...not quick to trust.” To put it mildly. “I can’t slap money on the table and be assured the Brodys will take it.” And if he made his move too soon, there was a good possibility that he wouldn’t get a second chance.

“I want this done soon,” Stewart said before coughing and then clearing his throat for the second time in their short conversation. “I need it done soon.”

Which concerned Gabe. He’d worked with Stewart for several years and had never seen the man impatient, which in turn made him feel edgy. “I’m confident that I can bring Ms. Brody around to our point of view.”

“The sooner you do, the sooner I’ll sleep at night.” A rare admission from a guy who made it a point to never show weakness. “But no pressure,” he added in a way that made Gabe feel like the vise had just been cranked another notch.

“Right,” Gabe said drily. “I’ll be in touch.”

No pressure. Gabe ended the call, then walked to the window and clasped his hands at the back of his neck as he stared out across the fields at his target.

Were the standpipes still standing? The horses in their pens?

Was Dani all right?

She was playing at the edge of his thoughts in ways that weren’t associated with property procurement. She was attractive and he sensed she’d be fun once she let her guard down. He liked her and that made him want to make certain that she felt as if she was making the right move when she decided to sell to him. He had no doubt it was the right move. Granted, she currently had a property she could live on rent-free while she started her business, however, that place needed a lot of work. If she sold, she could buy a smaller, nicer property with her share of the proceeds. A place that didn’t need work and would allow her to funnel all of her money toward her business and herself. Hell, she could probably even afford some furniture.