Cowboy Strong - Includes a bonus novella

by Carolyn Brown

  Guess who was wrong, he thought as he crawled up into the tractor, ate his peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, and waited for good daylight to begin his day.

  * * *

  Bonnie planned on keeping her word and sleeping until noon, but she had a restless night and was more than ready to crawl out of bed at five o’clock that morning. She ate a bowl of cereal and two muffins, then packed a lunch to take to the field. If she was honest, she missed Rusty coming in to eat with her that morning, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still mad at him for his arrogance the night before.

  What about your stubborn pride? Shiloh’s voice whispered in her head. Y’all are just alike. Neither one of you will give an inch.

  “I’m up, and I’m going to the field. That’s giving a mile, not an inch,” Bonnie said as she grabbed her sack and jug of sweet tea. “Stay on your side of the barbed wire, sister. I don’t need your advice. I can take care of myself.”

  From day one, Bonnie had never given a damn what Ezra wanted done. He hadn’t even cared enough to take a look at her when she was born her mother had told her, and he hadn’t been around to see one single solitary accomplishment in her life, so he didn’t deserve the right to call her daughter after he was dead.

  As she crawled up into the driver’s seat of the tractor that she usually drove, she remembered that Loretta, Jackson Bailey’s wife from the adjoining ranch to the north, had welcomed them to the canyon, and said, “It’s kind of bare right now, but in a few weeks, when the wildflowers pop up, it will be lovely. Bluebonnets, wild daisies, coreopsis, and flowering cactus sure give it a different look. And trust me when I say it grows on you. The sunsets and sunrises are beautiful, and pretty soon, you’ll wonder why you ever wanted to live anywhere else.”

  Bonnie had admired Loretta’s flaming red hair and her sweet smile, but she’d thought that the woman had rocks for brains. There was no way this barren place would ever grow on her. She would stick around for a year just to prove those two bitchy half-sisters who were looking down on her that she could hold her own. But Loretta had been right. The place might not have grown on her, but it did have a kind of beauty in the spring and early summer, and she’d come to love her sisters.

  “Damn it to hell!” She slapped the steering wheel and then started up the tractor’s engine. “I promised myself that I wouldn’t stay six months ago, and I never go back on a promise I make to myself, but now a part of me wants to stay here, and that would mean being tied down.”

  Her mind went back to that first day she’d been in the canyon. Ezra’s funeral was over and the neighbor, Jackson, had brought a copy of Ezra’s will for each of the sisters to keep, and one for Rusty. He had cut past the legal jargon and told them that Rusty would pay each of them on Friday evening for forty hours of work at minimum wage. Room and board would be provided free of charge. Rusty would bring in staples once a week, but if they wanted anything other than what he had bought, they would have to buy it themselves.

  Bonnie hadn’t been expecting a salary, so that had made her happy. No way would she ever let either of her sisters know that she’d spent her last dollar on enough gas to get her to the funeral. She kept her mouth shut and listened as Jackson went on to tell them that they would get their salary whether they sat on the porch and did nothing or whether they pitched in and learned the business of ranching. It made no difference and was their decision.

  “I should be doing that today just to prove to Rusty that I can,” she muttered, “but it sounded too boring, and besides if I’m going to get a good price for this place, it should be kept up. God only knows that Rusty can’t do it by himself.”

  Jackson had said that Rusty would teach them the ranching business, if they had a mind to learn. Then he’d told them that whichever daughter was still on the ranch one year from that day would inherit the whole place. If anyone left before the year was up, they got a one-time, lump sum payment from Ezra’s estate, but they would relinquish any and all rights to the ranch. Abby Joy and Shiloh hadn’t been allowed to disclose what their inheritance was when they’d left. For all Bonnie knew, it was anywhere from $500 to $50,000.

  At noon she parked the tractor and got out of the cab. After doing a few stretching exercises and rolling the kinks out of her neck, she picked up her sack lunch and sat down under a shade tree. She’d only taken the first bite when Rusty joined her.

  “What are you thinkin’ about?” he asked. “You look like you’re ready to fight a wild bull with nothing but a willow switch.”

  “Just going over in my mind what Jackson told us that first day I was here,” she said honestly, but she didn’t tell Rusty that she’d fought against an attraction for him since day one. No way was she going to admit that, not when they had crossed horns over the ranch like a couple of rangy old bulls. She admired his work ethic—getting up at the crack of dawn seven days a week to take care of things—but she also liked his kindness. Add that to his eyes and the way he filled out his jeans, and it was dang hard to fight the feelings that had grown for him.

  “That was a strange time for sure,” Rusty said.

  “You didn’t like any of us so well, did you?” she asked.

  “I didn’t figure any of you would last a week. Abby Joy would get tired of it, and Shiloh was way too prissy for ranchin’. I was wrong about all of you. I figured you’d sit on the porch and draw your pay. Never figured you’d pitch in and learn a damned thing, but y’all got out there doing your best,” he chuckled. “But I could also see that the other two were determined to learn, and you were just passing time. You don’t give a damn about this place.”

  “Nope, I don’t,” she admitted. “Only reason I learned anything at all was out of sheer boredom and to show my sisters that they weren’t better than me. Why’d you come over here anyway? I thought we were mad at each other.”

  “Only shade tree around here,” he replied.

  “I was here first,” she protested.

  “Too bad.” He shrugged.

  She tipped up her chin and looked down her nose at him. “I’m going to take a lot of pleasure in getting out of this place.”

  “Then I’ll get the whole shade tree to myself,” he smarted off.

  There weren’t many times she’d been alone with Rusty. She stole a glance over at him. Bulging biceps, a flat tummy under a chambray work shirt that was wet with sweat. That some woman hadn’t snatched him up already was a miracle. She’d have to be very careful in the next months to not let anyone know about the little flutters in her heart whenever he was around.

  “You’ve gone all quiet again,” Rusty said.

  “Was Ezra a controlling person?” she asked.

  “Where’d that question come from?”

  “You probably knew him better than anyone, so tell me more about him?” she said.

  “Oh, hell, yeah, and mean as a rattlesnake,” Rusty said. “I mean, he named the dogs after your mothers, so that ought to tell you something. He always told me he was leaving the ranch to me. Then a week before he died, he called the lawyer and changed his will.”

  “He called you the son he never had,” Bonnie said. “Was that to make us feel less worthy of the Malloy name? I just can’t wrap my mind around why he changed his will and brought us here. If I could figure out why, then maybe I’d find some peace before I leave Texas. Seems like every time I think of him, all I feel is anger, and a little bit of fear that I might be like him in some way. Most of the time I don’t even like my mother, but I love her. I can’t imagine even liking Ezra.”

  Rusty shrugged. “That old fart had his own ways. He was good to me, and for that I loved him, but what he did to you girls was wrong. I’m mad at him this morning, so I don’t want to talk about him.”

  “Why?” Bonnie was stunned.

  Rusty never had anything but praise for Ezra.

  “He popped into my head and fussed at me when I said I might change the name of the ranch, and it made me even madder when he changed his will,
” Rusty said.

  “What were you going to change the name to?” she asked, “And how would Ezra feel about that? I thought y’all were best buddies.”

  “Sunrise Ranch,” Rusty answered. “I love the way the sun comes up over the crest of the canyon every morning.” Rusty paused. “Sometimes I can hear his voice in my head, and it’s good advice, but he was on one of his mean streaks this morning.”

  Bonnie pulled a banana from her sack and peeled it. “My mama does that all the time. Out of nowhere, she pops into my head and has something to say about what I’m doin’. Most of the time it’s to tell me that I’m not smart enough to do something. It makes me so mad that I make it my mission to prove her wrong. I’m glad you stood up to him, even if he’s dead and just a voice in your head. Sunrise Ranch has a nice sound to it. Maybe you’ll come up with the highest bid after all, since you said you’d change the name to something nice.”

  “One more cup of tea, and then I’m going to work. You have a choice in what you do. I don’t,” he said.

  “You could move off the ranch. I bet I could kick any mesquite bush between here and Silverton and a dozen foremen would come running out lookin’ for a job,” she said.

  “And wouldn’t a one of them be as good as I am.” He settled his dusty old straw hat on his head and left without even looking back.

  “Little egotistical there,” she called out.

  He waved over his shoulder but still didn’t turn around.

  You’ve met your match. Her mother was in her head again, and this time she was laughing out loud. Bonnie heaved a long sigh and wondered if he’d felt the same attraction and little shocks of desire that she did when they were together. If so, why was he holding back? Should she talk to her sisters about the way she felt?

  She shook her head as she finished off the last sip of her tea. No, she wouldn’t talk to anyone about anything until she sorted it all out herself. She might find that the old saying about being out of sight, out of mind worked in this instance.

  Chapter Three

  Rusty had no intentions of going to the Sugar Shack on Saturday night, not after spending the whole day sitting in a tractor seat. He was dog-tired and ready to throw back in Ezra’s old recliner and watch Longmire on television. Ezra had bought the DVDs of both that and Justified, and Rusty had watched them many times. But neither show held his attention, and he was bored. He’d gotten soft in the past six months. Any old time he wanted company he could go up to the ranch house and visit with the sisters.

  He went into the bathroom where he stared at his reflection in the mirror. Light brown hair that needed cutting, a couple of days’ worth of scruff on his face. “I am a loner,” he whispered. “I don’t need a gaggle of women around me to keep me company.”

  He picked up his razor and shaved, then took a shower and put on a pair of pajama pants. He opened a can of chili, poured it into a bowl, and warmed it in the microwave. Once that was done, he poured himself a glass of sweet tea, and carried both to the living room. He set it on the end table beside his recliner and settled in to watch something on Netflix. At the end of the first episode of The Ranch, he realized he hadn’t been paying enough attention to it to even know what had happened, so he got up and turned off the television.

  Feeling cooped up, he went outside to sit on the porch and pet the dogs, but they weren’t anywhere to be found. “Probably at the ranch house,” he muttered. “Since women came onto the ranch, they’re gettin’ plumb spoiled.”

  So are you. Ezra’s voice was back in his head. Since them girls came around, you’ve gotten spoiled to having company all the time.

  “Maybe so,” Rusty agreed. “So what?”

  Ezra didn’t have an answer for that.

  Rusty walked from the bunkhouse to the ranch house and found the dogs lyin’ on the porch—right where he figured they would be. Martha opened one eye and yipped one time. Vivien and Polly didn’t even bother to do that much.

  “I’m going to the Sugar Shack,” he announced and headed back to the bunkhouse to get dressed. “Maybe I’ll feel better after a few beers and when I dance some leather off of my boots.”

  * * *

  Bonnie’s thoughts all through the day had been constantly on the ranch and the insane attraction she’d felt for Rusty. It seemed even stronger since they were the only ones left on the ranch. She had no intentions of ever doing anything about it, so why wouldn’t it just disappear? Too bad there wasn’t a delete button for times like this, or for just time in general. Push the button and the chemistry she felt for her foreman would disappear. Push it again, and a whole year would disappear. She’d be on a beach somewhere in a cute little bar—hell, she might even own the bar—drinking a margarita and dancing with handsome beach boys.

  She’d been restless after she finished cutting hay all day, so she’d gone to the grocery store in Claude to buy food for the week. She was pushing her cart toward the checkout counter when the message came over the PA system saying that the store would be closing in fifteen minutes. “Bring your purchases to the front of the store, please.”

  Evidently she was the last remaining person in the store, because no one else was pushing a cart toward one of the three cashiers. Bonnie unloaded her cart onto the conveyor belt and then stuck the ranch credit card into the machine to pay for everything.

  “Been a long day,” she said in way of conversation.

  “Yep, and I can’t wait to get home, get my boots on, and go to the Sugar Shack for some excitement,” the woman said. “The place don’t get hoppin’ until about nine, so I’ll get there at just about the right time.”

  Bonnie just nodded. No way did she have enough energy to go to the Sugar Shack this evening, and besides, the last time she had gone there, she had had Shiloh with her. Going alone just didn’t sound like much fun.

  On the trip back down into the canyon, her thoughts went back to the Malloy Ranch again. “I’ve got to get away from the forest so I can see the trees, as Mama used to tell me when I was fretting about something. Maybe I will go to the Sugar Shack, have a beer, do a little line dancing, and not think about anything but having a good time.”

  Now that’s my girl. That pesky voice that sounded like her mother’s was back.

  “You’ve always put having a good time ahead of everything else,” Bonnie muttered as she turned off the highway and down the lane to the ranch. She just shook her head when she passed the cemetery where Ezra was buried. “How on earth the two of you ever got together is a mystery that I’ll probably never understand.”

  She parked her truck and unloaded the groceries. The dogs were all waiting on the front porch, so she promised them that she’d bring out a surprise in a few minutes as she headed into the house. She put away the perishables, kicked off her shoes, and put on her only pair of cowboy boots. When she’d tucked the legs of her jeans down into them, she picked up a package wrapped in white butcher paper and took three big soup bones out to the dogs.

  “See, I didn’t forget you ladies,” she said. “Y’all are welcome to carry these back to the bunkhouse. Rusty might even let you bring them inside if you promise to keep them on the floor.”

  She balled up the butcher paper and threw it into the bed of her beat-up truck. Then she got behind the wheel and headed back down the lane, made a right-hand turn out onto the highway, and traveled a few miles before making another turn. The Sugar Shack was in an old wooden building with a wide front porch, and the whole place looked like it had been sprayed down with that pink medicine Bonnie’s mama had given her for a stomachache when she was a little girl. She could hear the jukebox music blasting away before she even got out of her vehicle. Tips of cigarettes flared red as a row of cowboys leaned against the front of the building and sucked in a drag.

  She walked through a haze of smoke on the way into the bar and got a few catcalls and offers from guys who were willing to put out their cigarettes if she’d dance with them. She’d grown up around folks a lot rougher than
these cowboys, so she just ignored them, paid her cover fee, and went inside. Most of the place was dimly lit, but the bar area was at least semibright. She located an empty barstool and slid onto it, not paying a bit of attention to who was sitting in the one right next to her.

  “What are you doin’ here?” Rusty asked.

  “I decided that I’ve been thinkin’ about serious things way too much. I just need to have some fun, so here I am.” She motioned for the bartender to bring her a beer. “What about you? You lookin’ to get lucky tonight?” Saying the words caused a shot of jealousy to shoot through her heart.

  “Maybe,” he answered. “Are you?”

  “Never know what beer and dancing might cause,” she answered with a shrug.

  The bartender brought her beer, and she tipped up the bottle and took a long drink.

  A good-looking dark-haired cowboy tapped her on the shoulder. When she looked up, she recognized him as one of the guys who worked over on her brother-in-law’s ranch.

  “Want to dance?” he asked as Jason Aldean’s “She’s Counry” came on the jukebox.

  “Sure!” She handed her beer to Rusty. “Finish it before it gets warm.”

  “Don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Lake, and I work for Cooper.” He took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor. He swung her out a way, then brought her back to his chest and began a fast two-step and swing dance combination. “This song sounds like it’s about you,” he said. “You ain’t afraid to stay country like you was born and raised.”

  “I’m glad you noticed,” she teased with a hip wiggle when he spun her out the next time. She glanced over at the bar to see if Rusty was even watching, only to see nothing but empty barstools. With a quick glance over Lake’s shoulder, she saw that Rusty was on the floor hugged up to a cute little brunette so tight that air couldn’t get between them.