Rugged Cowboy

by Elana Johnson

  “What’s wrong with it?” he asked as he strode away from Jess still standing in the kitchen.

  “I can’t get it closed,” Thomas said. “I thought I wanted it open, but it’s still too hot.”

  Dallas followed his son into the bedroom and got the window closed. He tucked his son into bed and kissed his forehead. “See you in the morning, bud.”

  When he returned to the living room, Jess stood near the door, her purse over her shoulder. “You’re going?” he asked.

  “I think so,” Jess said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

  Dallas wanted to do that, but he approached with caution. “Tomorrow night is still good? We can just go straight from the ranch if that works for you. Whenever we’re all ready.”

  “Sure.” She looked up at him, something vulnerable and beautiful in her expression. “And you can use that label.” A smile touched that pretty mouth, and all Dallas could think about was kissing her again.

  Instead, he employed his Texas gentleman genes and reached to open the door behind her. “Great,” he said. “I’ll talk to the kids on the way to school in the morning.” How he would do that, and what he would say, he had no idea. He’d never had to do anything like this before, and he felt like he’d just boarded a boat with no bottom.

  “Great, see you tomorrow.” Jess stretched up and pressed her lips to his again, and Dallas growled deep in his throat, one hand sweeping around her and keeping her right where he wanted her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jess could kiss a man like Dallas all day and all night. He knew how to make a woman feel sexy and strong all at the same time. His body was warm against hers, and he tasted like the brownies he’d eaten as an appetizer and as a dessert.

  “You should definitely go,” he said, his voice ragged and hoarse.

  “Mm.” Jess drifted out the front door and down the steps. When she got to her car, her good sense returned, and she turned back to wave to Dallas. He stood in the doorway and watched her, lifting his own hand to say goodnight.

  Jess had known him for a week and a month, and while she wouldn’t classify their relationship as being that old, she felt like she knew him really well. He worked hard on the ranch, and everyone in the equipment shed respected him. He didn’t say anything that didn’t need to be said, and she’d never seen anyone as dedicated to their kids as he was.

  He really had a way with them, whether he knew it or not, and Jess loved working with them on their riding lessons and eating with them when they stayed for dinner in the West Wing.

  Remmy had warmed to her instantly and easily, but Thomas still hung back. She wasn’t sure what she expected from the ten-year-old, and she told herself that they didn’t have to be best friends instantly. He was a quiet, reserved boy who liked horses and dogs, being outside, and math and science. She’d listened to him talk about the genetics unit they were doing in school with excitement. So much excitement that she’d found herself smiling and wanting to be involved with the unit on cross-pollinating plants.

  She got up the next day and worked with her horses. She checked in with the kids after their horseback riding lessons, and Remmy didn’t come skipping over to her like usual. She did do that to her father, and Dallas scooped his daughter up into his arms, smiling as he said something to her.

  Remmy giggled and responded, then they both looked at Jess. Dallas kept his daughter on his hip as he came closer. “See? She’s not going to bite.”

  Remmy looked at Jess, and Jess just looked back. “Daddy says you’re his girlfriend now,” the little girl drawled.

  “Is that what he says?” Jess asked, grinning at her. “What do you think of that?”

  Remmy shrugged, and Dallas did the same. He set the girl down, and she ran toward Nate, who’d just arrived back with another group, including Thomas.

  “I told them this morning,” he said. “Remmy didn’t know what to think. She asked if she couldn’t hug you anymore or if you only liked me and not her now.”

  Jess didn’t know what to say. How could she explain what dating meant to a six-year-old? “And Thomas?”

  “He said, I knew you were kissing her last night, Dad.” Dallas chuckled. “I asked him what he thought about that, and he said kissing is gross.”

  “Oh, well, I disagree with him about that,” Jess said, watching the boy dismount. He took his horse’s reins and walked him back to the group, handing them to Spencer.

  “Me too,” Dallas murmured. “But I did tell him I wouldn’t kiss you in front of him again.”

  “Good plan.”

  Thomas approached, and Jess asked, “How was it, Thomas? You’re on week four, right? Did you get to go up the hill?”

  The boy’s face lit up and he nodded. “Yeah, and I got Ginger to do it before any of the other riders.”

  “You did?” Jess looked over to the tawny horse named Gingerbread Castle. “That’s amazing. Ginger is kind of a softie, so I’m surprised she went first.”

  Thomas looked at where Dallas held Jess’s hand. Instinctively, she tightened her fingers in his, and he squeezed back. “What time are we going to dinner?” he asked.

  “Six-thirty,” Dallas said. “I have to get back to work for minute, and I’ll come find you.”

  “I’m going to go ask Missy about her oral report,” Thomas said, walking away. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” Dallas called after his son, and they stood there and watched for a few more seconds.

  “I think that could’ve gone better,” Jess said.

  “He just doesn’t know what to think,” Dallas said. “And he’s not happy he has to stay with his aunt and uncle this weekend instead of coming out here.”

  “We’d take them,” Jess said. “Me and Emma and Hannah.”

  “I know,” Dallas said, and that was all. His ex-wife’s sister was coming, though, with her husband, and Dallas’s stance on that hadn’t been swayed no matter how many people offered to help him with his kids this weekend.

  “I do have to get back to work,” he said. “I’ll see you in a bit, okay?” He swept his lips across her forehead, and Jess nodded as he walked away from the corrals and toward the equipment shed. When she turned back to the mass of horses and all the kids who’d arrived for the next riding session, she caught Spencer staring at her.

  He looked like a combination of Thomas and Remmy—partially indifferent and partially like he was afraid to come talk to Jess. Her heart sent out a couple of extra beats, and she turned away from his curious stare. She didn’t have to explain anything to anyone, least of all him.

  He’d asked why she’d needed a ride home the first time she and Dallas had gone out, and she’d given him an excuse about not having a reliable ride. Was it her fault if he assumed her truck had broken down again?

  Guilt dug at her though, all the way back to the West Wing. She showered quickly, because she didn’t want the scent of horseflesh to go on her date with her that night. Dallas would likely carry the hint of grease with him, as he didn’t have the luxury of showering before dinner. She didn’t mind; she simply wanted to look and smell her best.

  She put on a pair of long, white pants that flowed around her legs as they were wide. She imagined herself a beachcomber, and she’d paired the pants with a pale pink blouse that left her shoulders bare and accented the darkness in her hair and eyelashes.

  She’d put her semi-permanent lip stain on last night after she’d gotten home from Dallas’s new rental, and that meant her lips were the perfect shade of pink for tonight. She evened out her skin tone with a few brushes of foundation, added some color back to her face with some blush, and looked at her hair.

  “What do I do with this?” she asked. She had half a mind to cut it all off, because then she could style it with a blow dryer and call it good the way Jill did. As it was, she spent the next twenty minutes taming her thick hair with a round brush and a hair dryer.

  Hannah came down the hall just as Jess finished. “Going out with Dallas?” she ask
ed, taking in Jess and her fancy, non-ranch clothes, her shiny hair, and the makeup.

  “Yes,” Jess said. “With his kids.”

  “Oh, wow,” Hannah said, her eyebrows going up. “That’s a big step.”

  “Yes,” Jess said. “It is.”

  “Wear my silver flats,” Hannah said. “They’ll look amazing with those pants.” She went to get them, and Jess slipped them on. They were perfect, and she thanked Hannah.

  “What about you and Bill?” she asked. Their plan of attack had worked, and he’d asked her out last week.

  “First date is Saturday night,” Hannah said. “You’ll be doing my hair, so don’t forget.”

  They laughed together, and Jess promised she had not forgotten about doing Hannah’s hair for her first date with Bill.

  At precisely six-thirty, she went outside to find Dallas and his kids. They came walking down the road from Ted’s, and Jess watched them talk to each other. Remmy looked up and caught sight of Jess. In the next moment, she started skipping toward her, a huge smile on her face.

  “You’re so pretty,” Remmy said, and she came right over to Jess and hugged her, the way she had after riding lessons.

  “Thank you,” Jess said. “You’re beautiful too.” She peered down at the little girl, seeing only pieces of Dallas in the child.

  “Good evening,” Dallas said, his voice deep and welcome in Jess’s ears. He looked at Thomas, who rolled his eyes.

  “You look nice, Jess,” Thomas said in a deadpan.

  “Thank you,” Jess said, finding something so funny about this exchange. She tried to smother her laughter, but it came bubbling out anyway. Dallas joined in, but Thomas obviously didn’t get the joke. Remmy just looked back and forth between her father and Jess.

  Dallas embraced her and whispered, “You don’t look nice, Jess. You look like a million bucks.”

  She giggled and ducked her head, feeling warm from head to toe with his compliment. In that moment, she knew dinner with his children would go just fine and that she would have more than this one opportunity to get to know his children and allow them to get to know her.

  The weekend passed in an unbearably slow way without Dallas around. Jess spent Friday night with the women in the West Wing, and it almost felt like old times. Ginger made her famous cowboy caviar dip, and Emma pulled out all the stops with a smoked beef brisket. Her daughter made cookies, and as they played card games and talked, Jess told about her date with Dallas and his kids.

  Everyone listened and supported her, and while Jess sometimes felt on the outside of the women at the ranch because she’d rather spend time with horses, that night, she didn’t. She felt loved and accepted.

  Saturday passed in a blazing haze of horseback riding lessons that seemed to go on and on, and then flat ironing Hannah’s hair until she wanted to scream. Sunday morning dawned early for Jess. She had a buyer coming to look at two of her horses, and she wanted to get them cleaned up, fresh on all the commands, and ready for the ten o’clock appointment.

  “All right,” she said to Prancer and Buttercup. “He’s coming to see you today. You have to show him how good you are.” She put them both in the ring and walked them around and around. She startled them with plastic bags and a slamming door, and they both barely looked up.

  They were two of her best riding horses, and the man coming to see them that day wanted them for tourist riding. They had to be calm and gentle. They had to be patient. They had to be perfect.

  She put them in the wash bay and gave them each a bath, combing the water from their hair and then drying them completely in the air walkway. She put a bow in Buttercup’s hair and told Prancer how handsome he was.

  She’d just put them in the pasture and run back to the homestead to greet Bruce Washburn when she saw a truck pull into the gravel lot in front of the house. Trepidation moved through her, because she hated being late.

  Jess increased her pace, though she still had a least a couple hundred yards before she’d reach the far lawn surrounding the house.

  A man got out of the car, but it wasn’t Bruce. She’d sold horses to him before, and Hope Eternal had bought some from him too. He ran a horseback riding tour of the Texas Hill Country, and though it was a few hours away, most people in the horse business knew one another.

  Jess frowned as she realized she should’ve known the truck didn’t belong to Bruce. There was no horse trailer attached, and he always came prepared to purchase.

  This man had a head full of dark hair, and he wandered to the fence that separated the gravel lot from the grass and put one foot on the bottom rung. He watched the house for a moment, then pulled his phone out and looked at it. He tapped and swiped and tapped some more, finally sending something. He lifted the phone and took a picture of it.

  Jess’s feet finally touched the lawn. Over the summer, Emma had had some trouble with one of her ex-boyfriends, and Jess’s face grew hotter with every step she took. “Can I help you?” she asked.

  The man finally looked her way, and he clearly didn’t mind being seen. “This is Hope Eternal Ranch, right?”

  “Yes,” she said. “We don’t have any programs running on Sundays right now.”

  “I’m looking for someone,” he said. “I heard he works here.”

  “We have a lot of men who work here.” Jess stopped several paces away and folded her arms. “Who is it?”

  “Dallas Dreyer,” the man said, and Jess’s heart somersaulted in her chest.

  “He’s not here today,” Jess said, because she couldn’t deny that Dallas worked there. She hadn’t lied; Dallas wasn’t at the ranch today. He wouldn’t be tomorrow either. He’d told her about the phone calls with his ex-wife, and Jess narrowed her eyes at the man.

  “If I can get your name and number, I’ll pass it along to him.”

  “I don’t need you to do that,” he said. “When will he be back? Tomorrow?”

  “He’s out of town for a day or two,” Jess said, evading the question. He was. He had been. He, Ted, and Nate were driving back to Sweet Water Falls tomorrow, and then Dallas had taken Tuesday off as well so he could manage whatever he might bring back from Houston.

  The man nodded. “Well, then, I suppose you can tell him that Josh came to see him.”

  “Will he know who you are?” she asked. “Were you in River Bay with him?”

  The man’s eyebrows went up, and he cocked his head at Jess. An icy sensation flowed over her, and she suddenly had a bad feeling about this guy.

  “No,” he said. “I’m a mutual friend of his wife’s.”

  “Ex-wife,” Jess said automatically. “Dallas is divorced.” She realized how she sounded, so she quickly shrugged one shoulder. “At least that’s what he says.”

  “She is his ex,” Josh said. “We just need to meet to settle a debt.”

  Jess didn’t know what to say to that. Nate had had debts he’d had to take care of once he’d been released from prison too. Maybe Dallas had a similar situation. “I’ll tell him,” she said. “He has your number?”

  “No, but I’ll get in touch with him.” Josh nodded and turned back to his truck. Jess watched as he got behind the wheel and backed away. He seemed perfectly at-ease, but something about him made Jess’s skin crawl. Maybe the way he was so in control of the situation, like nothing could ruffle him though he was the outsider here.

  Dallas claimed to not know where his wife was, and yet Josh had showed up here, looking for him? Something wasn’t right here.

  Jess had vowed not to text or call Dallas incessantly while he was out of town, dealing with something huge that he didn’t want to deal with. But she pulled out her phone and dialed him, thinking he needed to know about Josh as soon as possible.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dallas had no idea how he and Martha had accumulated so much stuff. Why did they need three living rooms full of furniture? Couches, loveseats, armchairs, ottomans, rugs, lamps, entertainment centers, and decorations. Holy cow, the decor
ations.

  Dallas hadn’t even realized how many Martha put out. She had little pillows for the Fourth of July, and rabbit figurines for Easter. The Christmas decorations took up an entire closet under the staircase, and with every door Dallas opened, he found more stuff he didn’t want.

  He and the kids had been getting by for just over a month now, without any of this stuff. He didn’t need it. He didn’t want it.

  Unfortunately, the house had to be cleaned out. Dallas was making quite a bit with the sale of the house, but his credit cards groaned at him every time he even took out his wallet. He needed to pay all of those down. He needed to get a new car. He needed to have some savings so he wasn’t living hand-to-mouth every two weeks.

  Part of him wanted to throw everything away. Call a truck and have someone come pick it all up. But Dallas saw dollar signs everywhere in the house, and he knew the job he’d brought Ted and Nate to do was suddenly much different than boxing up everything he owned and trucking it south to Sweet Water Falls.

  He’d make more money selling it here in the city, and Dallas needed the money. When they’d arrived on Friday afternoon, he, Ted, and Nate had decided quickly to host a weekend sale that was really an open house. People could come see the furniture, the decorations, the dishes, any of it. If they wanted it, all they had to do was name a price.

  Dallas had taken a ton of pictures and he’d posted them everywhere online that he could think of. The online classifieds. The yard sale pages on social media. The estate sale sites for the City of Houston.

  Nate had a realtor friend in the area, and he’d called to let him know about the big sale. Hans had used his network to get the word out, so come Sunday morning, when Dallas opened the front door, he found a line of people.

  “Oh,” he said, and he called over his shoulder. “Ted, Nate, it’s game time.”