Cameron Enterprises.
The new building looked even better than the brochures promised. That day in the coffee shop, when Bentley had handed her a sealed envelope, she couldn’t have imagined that the advertisement inside would become such a beautiful reality.
Stepping inside the door and feeling a breath of cold, comfortable air, she realized that she didn’t miss the shriek of metal grating the lumpy sidewalk. She didn’t miss the musty scents of decades of disrepair. She didn’t miss the dark, dank entryway.
It was all gone now, replaced with an elegant, comfortable, and gracious space, filled with small resident apartments for those who were fairly independent; the other wing held wide, bright patient rooms for those who needed more specialized care.
Ivy walked past the recreation room, currently hosting an art lesson with the best supplies Titus Cameron could buy. Lucille caught her eye and winked in the most unsubtle Lucille way. She waved her paintbrush and turned back to her canvas. Ivy had made sure that the small things would never again be overlooked.
Bentley had agreed completely. He had a tendency to do that, lately.
She grinned as she thought of it and made her way to the front desk. She set the tea next to Roxie’s fancy new monitor.
“Morning, Ivy. Good luck with the new store today,” Roxie said without looking up from her game.
“Thanks.” There was something comfortable about knowing that some things never change. “Come by when your shift is over and check it out.”
“Count on it,” Roxie said, her fingers clicking on her mouse at light speed, her eyes never leaving her monitor. “Looks like someone’s here for you.”
How did she do that?
Ivy turned to see Bentley walking in the front door. His smile widened when she met his eyes.
He stepped close and kissed her cheek. “I figured when I didn’t see you in the shop, you’d be here.”
“Don’t worry, boss. I’ll be there when it’s time to open the doors.”
“I’m not worried,” he said. “I just like to know where you are.” He smiled at her.
She reached for his arms and wrapped them around herself. “I’m here,” she said, snuggling against him. “Right where I belong.”
She looked up at him, saw the adoration in his gaze. “Know what you want?” she asked, a teasing lilt in her voice.
He leaned down and kissed her mouth, an expression of love still as beautiful as it was the first time.
“Finally,” he said, “I can say that I know exactly what I want,” he said. “It’s you. Forever.”
<<<<>>>>
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a sweet romantic comedy
Chapter One
For the second time in two days, Cash gassed up his truck to make the trip from Spring Creek to Bozeman. The thing tourists like these LA girls didn’t—no, couldn’t—understand was just how big Montana was. There was no such thing as a “quick trip” from Spring Creek to anywhere, let alone an airport. But the tourists who came to Rocking M to escape the big city for a week or two had no concept of what the word “remote” meant until the lights of Bozeman were in the rear-view mirror and there weren’t any more lights ahead for as far as the eye could see.
And no Targets either. That was always the real shocker for them.
“Madison Keller,” he said under his breath, not for the first time. She’d be blonde. Tan, of course. Perfect teeth and hair. And she’d be wearing some wannabe cowgirl get up. He’d met more than his fair share of California girls since a developer had bought their family ranch and turned it into a resort for rich city folks looking to play cowboy.
Cash topped off his gas, then climbed back into the cab of his truck and adjusted his hat. He had a three-hour trip ahead of him, but at least he had the latest Nicholas Sparks book to keep him company. The other guys at the ranch gave him a hard time for listening to “girly” books, but he didn’t care. A good story was a good story, no matter who wrote it.
Usually a good story would make the drive go faster, but not when he had to miss out on breaking new horses in order to pick up some ditzy blonde who’d somehow missed her connection in Salt Lake City, landing her in Bozeman the day after he’d picked up the rest of the guests coming into the resort. By the time he pulled into the airport parking lot, all he wanted was a good stretch and a nap. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time for a nap, but he would get in a leg-stretching since he’d have to meet Miss Keller in baggage.
Any woman who couldn’t find her way onto a plane before it took off might not be able to make it out of the airport on her own. At least that’s what Mr. Early told him. Cash knew the truth though. Whenever a really wealthy client showed up, Mr. Early liked to give them the “special treatment,” which meant sending a member of the original ranch family to the airport for pickup. People liked to hear the story of how Cash’s family settled the remote area way back in the 1890s and grew the ranch into one of the biggest around with generations of the Murdocks living nearby or working on the ranch.
He always left out the part about his dad selling it to get back at Cash for leaving. And the part about how he was only biding his time because Mr. Early was paying him enough that he’d be able to buy his own place within the next year. Mr. Early didn’t know that was Cash’s plan, but Cash didn’t care. He was socking away every penny he could to start a new life on a place of his own. He didn’t care where that place was as long as it was somewhere in Montana.
Luckily, there was still plenty of Montana to go around. Just as long as all the Californians only came to visit, not to stay.
Cash crossed the street from the parking lot to baggage claim, tipping his hat to the woman in the truck who’d stopped for him. According to Miss Keller’s flight info, her plane had landed a few minutes before. He picked up his pace in order to make it to the bottom of the escalator before she did. She was expecting to meet him, and while he didn’t think she’d be there right away—given her track record with timeliness—he didn’t want to take a chance that he’d miss her.
He got to their planned meeting spot just as a group of people came down the escalator. Most of them were wearing cowboy hats, but Cash nodded to the one guy wearing a cowboy’s hat. It looked like it had been stomped by more than one bronc, and the cowboy did too. Every time Cash saw a bow-legged cowboy with a smashed-up nose or a scar running like barbed wire across his face, he had to laugh at the romantic notion some women had of what cowboys looked like.
He sometimes wished his own jagged scar was on his face instead of his thigh. Too many of the women who paid big money to play cowgirl for the week took one look at him and decided his dark hair, blue eyes and three-day stubble fit their cowboy fantasy. But he’d made the mistake of getting involved with a city girl once before. He wasn’t making that mistake again.
At the top of the escalator, Cash saw a woman blocking the way, her thumbs frantically punching her phone as people stepped around her to get on the escalator. She wore a pair of shorts so short he wasn’t sure they could be called shorts anymore. Her cowboy boots looked like they’d just come out of the box—one with a big price tag—and her flannel had so many buttons undone, he wondered if they were missing. Maybe they’d spontaneously popped off on the plane.
Two long, blonde braids hung across her shoulders, and perched atop her head was a bright pink cowboy hat. Cash was one hundred percent sure it adorned the head of the exact woman he was looking for: Madison Keller. He’d seen rodeo queens with more subtle hats than what this girl was wearing.
She stepped on the escalator, her eyes still on her phone, and swung her big bag across her body, nearly knocking down the poor guy in front of her. It was one of those bags with the LV’s all over it. Rich ladies always seemed to like those ugly bags.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Her voice carried across the high lodge-pole pine ceiling. “Are you okay?”
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The guy looked ready to tear into her, especially after she put her hand on his shoulder, but then he looked back at her. Cash couldn’t see the guy’s reaction, but he could see his head move from the woman’s face down to her . . . everything else.
“I’m such a klutz. Every time I take this bag anywhere, I nearly knock someone down with it. I don’t know why I even carry it around. I call it my VBP—Very Big Purse.” She was close enough now that Cash could see her eyelashes hit her cheeks as she fluttered them. Why was it California girls were able to grow their eyelashes so long? Something in the water?
“That’s all right, ma’am,” the man replied and touched his well-worn hat. “Looks like it holds a lot of stuff.”
“Too much stuff.” She dropped her phone in the bag and held it open just long enough for the guy to get a look. “Who needs all this junk? Nobody, that’s who.” She flashed him a perfectly white smile before stepping off the escalator behind him.
“Nice meeting you,” she said to him, sticking out her hand for him to shake. “I guess I’d better find my ride.”
Her eyes landed on Cash standing less than ten feet away. She flashed her smile again, and Cash had a momentary lapse in judgment. He smiled back without thinking. Not his you-can-look-but-don’t-touch smile. His real smile. “Are you looking for me?” she asked him, but without waiting for an answer, she stuck out her hand like she had with the guy who was currently waving good-bye to her. “I’m Madison Keller. You’re a superhero to come all the way back here to pick me up.”
“Wasn’t a problem.” He shook her hand, making sure to keep his eyes up, despite the open buttons just below his line of sight. He wasn’t that kind of guy, he reminded himself before taking a step back and moving his eyes to anything above her neck he could find to look at, which happened to be her obnoxious hat, so he stared at that.
“This is the absolute cutest airport I have ever seen.” Madison stared at the ceiling while walking toward the baggage carousels, forcing people to make a wide berth for her. She would have walked right into a post if he hadn’t steered her around it. “I just love all this pine. It’s like I’ve flown right into an actual lodge. I could just stay right here for two weeks.”
“Except there’s no horses here.” Cash cleared his throat and pointed to the last carousel where luggage was dropping. One oversized bright pink suitcase went down the ramp followed by a matching one, only smaller, then an even smaller one.
He pointed at them as they circled to the other side of the carousel. “Those your bags?” He’d bet the ranch they were.
“Yeah. How’d you know?” Madison didn’t wait for an answer but took the lead and walked toward the carousel. “I’m sorry there’s so many of them. I always pack too much.”
“It’s no problem, ma’am.” He hoped she’d saved room in one of her suitcases for some real pants, otherwise she was in for one hell of a rash if she planned on participating in any of the promised Adventures on Horseback.
Madison skirted between two men to stand in front of the carousel, breathing a “pardon me” so sweet they couldn’t help but clear a path for her.
She reached for a bag, but before she touched it, one of the men stepped up. “Let me get that for you, sweetheart.” Cash didn’t trust the guy’s wandering eyes, and the sudden stiffening of Madison’s spine told Cash she didn’t much care for the path the man’s eyes were taking either.
“That’s o—”
“—I’ve got them. She’s with me.” Cash slipped between the man and Madison, and the man let go of the bag before pulling it off the conveyor belt.
Unfortunately, Cash wasn’t quick enough to grab it, so Madison did, yanking so hard she nearly fell over before dropping it on his foot.
His boots should have protected him. The suitcase was large, but how heavy could booty shorts and flannels be?
Really heavy. That’s how heavy.
He’d once dropped a brick on his bare big toe. That had hurt less than Madison’s bag did.
“Ouch!” he yelped, then hopped up and down on his remaining good foot. “What have you got in that thing?”
“Oh! I’m so sorry!” She rushed to him but tripped over her smallest suitcase and knocked him backward.
For a millisecond he didn’t know what had hit him. He saw arms flailing, then realized they were his own. He bounced off the suitcases behind him and landed on his back before Madison toppled onto him.
Her eyes were a blue that reminded him of some of the hot springs in Yellowstone. He’d stood on the banks a million times, tempted every time to jump in even knowing they could cook a man.
“I am so sorry.” Madison’s red cheeks made her eyes even bluer. She pushed herself off Cash and stood. “Are you okay?” she asked, holding her hand out to help him.
He was definitely not okay as long as she was leaning over him with just about all her buttons undone. “I’m fine.” He looked away from her and pushed himself up. “I’ve taken harder falls than that.”
“I’m so embarrassed!”
The man who’d helped her up grabbed one of her pink bags and moved a little too close to her.
“I got it, thanks.” Cash scooted between the man and Madison, ready to grab the bag.
“Okay, I’ll leave you to it,” the man said with more bite than a half-broke horse. He bumped Cash with his bag as Cash leaned forward to grab Madison’s suitcase. The bump was just enough to nearly knock him onto the carousel.
He knew bucking broncs that’d caused fewer bruises than this girl had in the five minutes he’d known her. Cash guessed she’d also broken more than a few hearts.
“I really am so sorry,” she said again as he set her last bag next to her. This one wasn’t as heavy as the first, but his toe hurt just looking at it.
With the bags all retrieved, she decided she needed to use the ladies’ room, of course. While she was doing whatever it was that took her at least ten minutes, he pulled off his boot and peeled back his sock to see how bad his toe was. It didn’t look broken, but it was already bruising up nicely.
He’d just put his boot back on when she reappeared. “We better get on our way if we’re going to make it before sundown,” he told her.
The terminal’s giant windows looked out on the Bridger Range of the Rockies which were already casting shadows across the valley. He didn’t mind driving in the dark, but Mr. Early liked his clients to see the ranch in the light of day. Cash had always preferred it at sunset, and if they hurried, they would hit the ranch road just as the sun’s pink-orange arms wrapped around Rocking M.
“Do you mind if we make one stop?” she asked as they wheeled her luggage out of the baggage claim area.
One stop? She showed up a day late and wanted to make a stop? “No problem,” he said through gritted teeth.
We’re here to serve. That’s what the ranch’s motto was, according to Mr. Early. It used to be “time to break in your gloves” when it was still in his family. Gloves that looked new meant you weren’t working hard enough. You ought to look like you needed a new pair at the end of every day. At least that’s what his grandfather had always said.
His father had hated working that hard—Cash had felt the same way for a while—which is why the Rocking M wasn’t in the Murdock family anymore.
“It’s a little school in Hamilton,” Madison said, bringing him back to the present.
“What is?” he asked her.
“My stop.”
“Your stop is in Hamilton?” He wanted to make sure he’d heard her right. “That’s more than a little stop. It’ll add another couple hours to our trip.” It also meant the responsibilities he still had to take care of at the ranch would have to wait. So would the beer he was going to have with the guys. And the book. Most importantly, the book. Typical LA girl, thinking the world revolved around her.
“There’s a school there that needs books.” Madison fluttered her eyelashes.
Cash stopped. “Is that what’s in here?
” He tipped his chin toward the bag that had nearly broken his toe.
“Of course.” Madison flashed her perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth. She’d probably never broken any of them. “What did you think was in there? Seventy pounds of shorts?”
Dimples were his weakness, and Madison had those in spades, but they weren’t the reason he knew he wouldn’t be getting back to his book anytime soon.
Madison Keller had enough kindness to match her dimples.
Chapter Two
Madison had booked her two week “vacation” to the Rocking M on a whim.
No, on a dare. She’d booked it on a dare.
That is, if you could call Vance telling her “you wouldn’t last two weeks without me or a hipster coffee shop on every corner” a dare.
It was more like a challenge. Her boyfriend—now ex-boyfriend—didn’t think she could live without him. And he hadn’t said it in a nice way, so she’d decided to prove him wrong by following her own Rules of Positivity. Rule Number Five: Trust Your Instincts. When an ad popped up in her Insta feed for a working ranch in Montana, her instinct told her that was the exact place she needed to go to prove herself. Plus, even Montana had Starbucks. It wasn’t her first coffee choice, or even her second or third, but it’s not like she’d have to go completely without coffee.
She hadn’t second guessed her decision until she’d stepped off the plane into the smallest terminal she’d ever seen. Not that she didn’t appreciate the lodge-like design and all the Western decor, but she could see from one end of the terminal to the other, and there wasn’t a Starbucks in sight. She was so upset by the lack of a good coffee place that she completely forgot to take pics of the cute airport to post on Instagram.
But if there was one thing Madi Keller could describe herself as, it was a trooper. By the time she stepped onto the escalator to meet—what was his name? Cash something?—she had pumped herself back up. She’d not only forget about Vance, but also prove she could be alone and coffee-less and still be happy. She didn’t need caffeine or a man.
Always & Forever: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (ABCs of Love Collection, Books 1 - 4) Page 33
