Beneath Montana Skies

by Mia Ross

  When Sadie and Clyde reached the southern bank of the creek, Morgan finally stopped and turned to him. Her eyes held a resigned look that he tried not to take personally.

  Letting Sadie drop her head for a drink, Morgan said, “So, you wanted to talk.”

  “Can we get down first? My back’s not as limber as it used to be.” Plus, he didn’t want her taking off if she didn’t like something he said. Clyde was a gamer, but there was no way he could catch the half-mustang mare at a full run.

  “Fine.”

  Swinging down, she led Sadie to a nearby clump of elms and tied her reins to a branch to let her graze. Ty did the same and then joined Morgan on a fallen log near the creek.

  When he noticed her pained expression, he asked, “Something wrong?”

  “You weren’t exaggerating about your back, were you?”

  “Nope. I’ve got a bunch of fused vertebrae and a doctor’s warning to never get on another horse for the rest of my life.”

  “But you’re still riding?” Giving him a hard look, she shook her head. “That’s crazy.”

  “Maybe, but Clyde’s as safe as one of those carousel horses kids ride on at the fair. Besides, life’s too short to be afraid of things that might happen. When you’ve had the misfortunes I have, you learn to appreciate what’s left.”

  That got him a nod, which he took as a tacit sign of acceptance, if not understanding. They sat for a while, trading small talk while they admired the gradually sinking sun as it began its nightly descent over the mountains. He recognized that she had children to get home to, and he moved on to the subject he’d insisted they discuss.

  “Morgan.” When he had her attention, he summoned his courage and forged ahead. “I want to help out with Allie and Hannah. You’ve carried all the weight for long enough, and I’m ready to take on my share.”

  That got him a derisive snort. “I doubt it.”

  Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a folded paper and handed it to her. “I’m serious. Maybe this’ll convince you I mean what I’m saying.”

  She carefully took the certified check from him as if it was a rattlesnake coiled to strike and opened it with a wary expression. When she saw the amount, her mouth fell into a shocked O, and those gorgeous blue eyes met his in astonishment. “This is a lot of money.”

  “Delivered my truck to the new owner the other day,” he explained, feeling proud of himself for the first time in ages. “I found a used one cheaper than I expected, so the rest is for you and the girls. I talked to a lawyer buddy of mine and found out that six years of child support for two kids adds up to a lot. This is a down payment. Once I get myself sorted out, he’ll help us come up with a permanent arrangement so you won’t have to worry about money anymore.”

  “Thank you,” she murmured, clearly stunned by the offer. “I never would’ve expected this, Ty. It’s very generous of you.”

  It was, which was what he’d been counting on when he devised a plan for approaching this very independent woman about their daughters. Having offered his help, he now moved on to what he considered to be the more important element of his proposal.

  “It’s my responsibility, as their father,” he ventured cautiously, watching her for any sign of disagreement. When she didn’t show one, he decided it was safe for him to continue. “It’s also my responsibility to be a part of their lives. If they want me there.”

  “So this is a bribe?” she demanded, jamming the check into his chest with enough force to nearly knock him off the log. Shoving away from him, she jumped to her feet and scowled down at him. “Keep your money and your fake concern, Tyler Wilkins. My daughters and I have done just fine without you all these years, and we’ll keep going that way long after you’re gone.”

  This woman could still spike his temper into boiling range with a single look, but he summoned a calm tone as he got to his feet and matched her frosty look with one of his own. “I’m not going anywhere, MJ. First off, I’ve got nowhere else to go. And second—and more important—I intend to stick around so my daughters and I can get to know each other. I’ve missed the first six years of their lives, and I’m not gonna miss any more.”

  With that, he wheeled around and mounted Clyde as gracefully as he could. Reaching over, he tucked the check under the corner of Sadie’s saddle blanket and headed toward home without a look back.

  Let her stew over that one, he thought with a grin as he rode away. She wasn’t the only one with a stubborn streak.

  Chapter Three

  “Now, remember, Morgan,” Dad cautioned her as he pulled into the parking lot at the high school. “This is our first meeting with this energy company rep, and it’s bound to be a little nutsy. This is an important issue for everyone around here, not just us. You’re gonna have to be patient with folks when they’re trying to talk.”

  Morgan gave him the irritated look she reserved for people who had the gall to tell her how she was supposed to behave. “I know that, Dad. Please don’t speak to me like I’m ten years old.”

  “You’re real passionate about this, and I love that about you. But let’s be honest—you’ve got a knack for taking over a situation, convinced you’ve got the answer to the problem. This is bigger than one or two families, and it’s gonna take all of us to hammer out a solution everyone can live with.”

  “You know some of our neighbors are on the verge of selling out to that greedy shark, right?” He nodded, and she turned to face him squarely. “If they accept his offer, we might as well do the same thing, because in a couple years the Calico River will be liquid poison and our place will be downstream from an industrial complex that’ll be churning out pollutants and noise twenty-four/seven.”

  “We’re not gonna let that happen,” he assured her, patting her shoulder in a calming gesture. “But we won’t get anywhere by pressuring folks into seeing things our way. They’ve gotta come to the right decision on their own.”

  “I just can’t believe anyone who’s got half a brain would want to ruin all that,” she grumbled, staring out the dusty windshield of his truck at the expanse of the oddly named Crazy Mountains to the north. “That’s some of God’s best handiwork out there, and it’s up to us to keep it that way.”

  “Preaching to the choir.”

  “I know. I’m just more frustrated than usual, I guess.” She blew out an exasperated breath to cool her temper. It helped, but not enough. She recognized that was because she now had a new problem to contend with—namely Ty Wilkins—and she didn’t know what she was going to do about it.

  Heaving a sigh of his own, Dad got out and circled the old SUV to open her door for her the way he’d done since she was a child. “Stick with comments about God’s handiwork in there, and you’ll get a lot further than if you get into a shouting match with people who’re on the fence about land development.”

  “Okay,” she agreed grudgingly. “You make a good point.”

  “Flies and honey, sweetheart.”

  Diplomacy wasn’t exactly her strong point, Morgan groused silently as they went up the wide front steps into the school. But the Mustang Ridge Conservancy was fighting for the very existence that generations of Whittakers had worked so hard to create. She wanted Allie and Hannah to grow up surrounded by the same view she’d loved from the time she could appreciate it. If the only way to make that happen was muting her characteristic drive, she’d just have to figure out a way to do it.

  Inside, the auditorium was packed. Up on the stage that normally hosted student concerts and plays, there was a long table and several chairs. A man she didn’t recognize was talking with Kevin Carmichael, the town’s only dentist and their newly elected mayor. He was the developer everyone had been buzzing about the past few weeks, judging by his tailored suit and polished appearance.

  Her father had artfully intercepted the man when he visited their ranch, respectfully hearing him
out before sending him on his way. Mostly because he knew perfectly well that if the stranger had found Morgan first, she would have blown a gasket before throwing him off the property. Her beloved mustangs had nowhere else to go, and if the Whittakers lost their right to use the open rangeland where the wild ponies roamed, they’d be rounded up and sent to some random place where she wouldn’t be able to help them. The only way to save them was to get that land legally protected as wilderness forever. It was a tall order, even for a woman who’d never run from a challenge in her life.

  “Hey, Morgan.” Hearing her name, she turned to find Dave Farley sitting behind her. “Any of those mustang yearlings ready to go yet?”

  “A couple. What are you looking for?”

  “An Appaloosa. A friend of mine in Billings just lost her mare after twenty-plus years and is looking for a youngster to take in. I told her about your rescue outfit, and she’s interested in meeting you.”

  Finally, some good news, Morgan thought, smiling as she fished a card out of her purse. “Tell her she can call me anytime. I’ve got an App who should be green broke sometime this summer, if that works for her. If she sends me her info, I’ll take some pics and email them to her. He’s gorgeous, and the vet says he should top out around fifteen hands.”

  “That’s tall for a wild one.”

  “His daddy’s a big, strapping stallion,” she explained, feeling a jolt of pride that her small herd of wild horses and rescues was doing so well. “I’ll send your friend some photos of the sire and dam, too.”

  “Thanks. I’ll let her know.”

  He sat back, then stood and grinned at someone behind Morgan. “Hey, Ty,” he greeted their prodigal cowboy, offering his hand. “Welcome home.”

  “Thanks, Dave. It’s good to see you. How’re Bonnie and the boys?”

  “Good, busy. They’re both playing baseball this year, so she’s at their game tonight.” The proud father held up his phone. “She’s keeping me updated by text.”

  “Great idea. Tell her I said hi.”

  “Will do.”

  Dave sat and started typing on his phone while Ty looked down at Morgan. “Mind if I take this seat?”

  She shrugged. “It’s a free country.”

  The moron actually had the audacity to grin at that, and once he was settled, he leaned in to say, “I’m not the enemy, MJ.”

  “Y’know,” she shot back, her already unsettled nerves tightening like the overstretched strings of a fiddle. “No one calls me that anymore.”

  “Yeah?” The grin widened, and he draped a muscled forearm over the back of his chair. “Then I guess that makes me special.”

  Dad chuckled beside her, and she angled a look at him. “You think that’s funny?”

  “Yup. You two are as entertaining as ever.”

  “I’m so glad you’re amused by your daughter being harassed.”

  “How’s Clyde settling into your new place?” he asked, pointedly looking over her head at Ty.

  “Fine. He’s used to moving around, so being in a new barn doesn’t bother him a bit. The house, well, that’s a different story.”

  Dad chuckled again. “Oily rags and a match might be your best option.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  The two of them carried on that way, talking over the top of her as if she wasn’t even there, until Kevin called the meeting to order.

  “Okay, folks, let’s all take our seats.” Once everyone was settled, he gripped the lectern in both hands as if he was preparing for a long, difficult night. “Since we all know why we’re here tonight, I’d like to turn the stage over to Mr. Reynolds, a representative of Cartwright Energy. They’re the outfit from Utah that’s interested in prospecting for oil and natural gas on the wild lands north of town, and he’s here to make a presentation about their proposal. After that, he’ll answer any questions you might have about their operation.”

  Morgan had read the prospectus cover to cover—three times—so she knew what it contained. After several hours of discouraging research, she had a pretty good idea what they were up against. While she half listened to the slick performance unfolding up on stage, she kept a roving eye on the assembly to gauge their neighbors’ reactions to what they were hearing. Some looked intrigued, others were obviously fuming, but most seemed to be neutral.

  At least for now.

  Those who hadn’t yet made up their minds were the ones who gave her hope that their efforts to protect the ridge from development might actually have a chance at succeeding. When the man was finished, several people asked the usual questions about land values and potential for damaging the local environment. All of them were deftly handled by their guest, who clearly had a lot of practice dealing with local residents’ apprehension about his company’s activities.

  When the comments dwindled into silence, Kevin stood to take his place at the lectern. “Thank you for coming, Mr. Reynolds. I’m sure we’ll be talking to each other again real soon.”

  Their polite handshake was punctuated by equally polite applause, and the executive gathered up his materials and his designer briefcase and strolled out. His confident gait suggested to Morgan that he thought the presentation had gone well.

  “He thinks we’re a bunch of uneducated hicks,” Ty muttered in unbridled disgust. “Just ’cause you’ve got graphs and stuff on a fancy laptop don’t mean that what you’re planning to do is okay. Anyone with half a brain can see that what they’re proposing is gonna destroy everything within thirty miles of that installation.”

  Stunned by his quick—and very accurate—assessment, she stared at him in disbelief. “You really think that?”

  “I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know a song and dance when I see one. The front office executives sent this guy to pull the wool over our eyes, but I got news for him. We ain’t sheep.”

  “All right, folks,” the mayor announced, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “What do we think?”

  That was a mistake, Morgan thought wryly, as the general hum of comments escalated into a chaotic mess. After waiting a couple of minutes for the hubbub to die down, Kevin apparently decided it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Pleading for cooperation, he managed to regain control of the restless crowd and plucked his microphone from its stand. Handing it off to the town clerk, he said, “Polly, take this around to people who’ve got something to say. That way, we can all hear what’s going on for ourselves.”

  “My place isn’t big, but it’s up near the ridge,” one elderly man said, “and they’re offering us triple what it was assessed for last fall. My wife and I are barely scraping by on our fixed income, and we can’t hardly afford the taxes anymore. We’ve got no choice but to sell.”

  Unable to sit still any longer, Morgan jumped to her feet. “Anyone who’s got land to sell, the Mustang Ridge Conservancy is interested in buying. We don’t have the kind of money Cartwright does, but we’ll work with you to find an arrangement that suits all of us. We can’t just let them stroll through here and destroy anything that’s in the way of profits that may or may not be buried under our land.”

  Her offer got everyone buzzing again, and Kevin had a tough time getting the meeting back under control. Several people voiced their support of the conservancy, while others scoffed at it as a waste of time and effort.

  “Standing in the way of progress is pointless,” one woman insisted. “If it doesn’t happen now, sometime in the future it will.”

  “Not while I’m around and still breathing,” Dad assured her in his booming, listen-to-me voice as he got to his feet beside Morgan. “My family dug our homestead outta the dirt with their bare hands back in 1882, and we’ve got no intention of letting it go now. Or ever.”

  Many sitting around them voiced their agreement, and the public debate got sidetracked into a multitude of conversations between fr
iends and neighbors over what to do and the best way to go about getting it done.

  In the middle of it all, Ty leaned in close and said, “Way to go, cowgirl.”

  When she looked at him, he grinned and gave her the same wink he’d used when they were kids planning some kind of mischief. And for the first time since he’d so unexpectedly strolled back into her life, she felt herself wanting to smile back. But that would only encourage him, so she stemmed the impulse and returned her attention to the meeting. There was the expected back-and-forth, and at the end the only thing that had changed was that they were all an hour older.

  She was by nature a decisive person, so the hemming and hawing grated on her nerves. Her father, on the other hand, seemed to take it all in stride, even hanging back to chat with people when the official gathering had been called to a close. Long past the end of her patience already, she opted to scoot out a side door and wait for him outside.

  To her annoyance, Ty trailed after her. He didn’t say anything, but just having him next to her was both a distraction and an annoyance. He’d picked up a new cologne, she noticed even though she was supposed to be beyond registering that kind of thing about the man she’d come to think of as the runaway cowboy. The scent had a campfire, leathery quality to it, and she grudgingly admitted that it suited him well.

  But there was no way she was telling him that. Instead, she folded her arms and scowled up at him. “What do you want?”

  He grinned back, and she braced herself for what was coming next. In a million years, she never could have predicted what she heard.

  * * *

  “Y’know, I always did admire your spunk.” Leaning back against the tree behind him, he went on. “I also admire the way you have with animals. Instinctive, like you know what they’re thinking. Whether it’s training a new horse or herding calves, you’re always a step or two ahead of ’em so you can head ’em off before they get into trouble.”