The Cowboy's Autumn Fall (Grass Valley Cowboys Book 4)

by Shanna Hatfield

  “Would you let it go if it was Tess?” Brice asked already knowing the answer. “Something happened between us, something I can’t even explain. I felt it, she felt it, and I think she’s using her job as an excuse to run away from the feelings she doesn’t know how to handle. I think what we shared scared her. Heck, it scared me.”

  “And when did you get your degree in psychology, Dr. Morgan?” Travis asked, teasing Brice. His laughter was cut short when Brice surged to his feet with a red face and clenched fists.

  “Laugh all you want, but I’m telling you, I’m going to marry that girl or die trying,” Brice said, snatching his hat from the counter, storming out of the house and slamming the door behind him.

  He was stomping toward his pickup when Sierra and Mary pulled up in Cady’s PT Cruiser.

  Jumping out of the car, Sierra waved at him and he stopped.

  “Brice, I’m so sorry,” Sierra said, grabbing his hand and looking at him with sympathy in her eyes. “Mom and I talked until we were blue in the face trying to get her to stay, but once Bailey makes up her mind, you might as well give up.”

  “Did she say why she had to leave in such an all-fired hurry?” Brice asked, trying to curb his anger.

  “She said something about an urgent need to return to her current dig site. She’s been in Las Vegas for the past several months,” Mary said, walking up to stand beside Sierra. “Don’t take it personally, Brice. This is what Bailey does. She gets all excited about a site, works on a dig for a while then moves on to the next one. She’s worked all over the country.”

  Brice didn’t know that. He just assumed she worked in Denver, near her family. Evidently it was just a place for her to go when she was between projects.

  “Would she talk to me if I called her?” Brice asked, not sure he really wanted to know the answer.

  “Maybe,” Sierra said with a hopeful lift of her eyebrow.

  “Look, Brice, you’re a wonderful young man and I appreciate you offering Bailey your friendship while she was here, but the fact of the matter is she’s just not good with people. As much as I love my daughter, relationships are definitely not her thing,” Mary said, giving Brice’s arm a pat. “You can certainly try giving her a call. I’ll give you her phone number, email address, you can even send her a note in care of our house, but just don’t get your hopes up.”

  Unable to speak, Brice nodded his head.

  “Brice, are you staying for dinner?” Cady called with a wave from the back step. “Tess will be here soon to give Travis his therapy. Why don’t you join us?”

  “Sure,” Brice said, following Mary and Sierra back in the house.

  Mary dug a business card out of her purse and wrote something on the back before handing it to Brice. It was a card for Bailey. Plain and simple - stating her name, with a title of paleontologist, a phone number and an email address, along with a web address. On the back Mary included their home address in Denver.

  “She didn’t give me many details, but I did get the impression she would be back in Denver in a few weeks. From there, goodness only knows what she has planned. She wouldn’t say whether her appointment today went well or not. With that girl, it’s so hard to tell if she’s excited because something good is happening or because she’s miffed about something not going like she planned.”

  “Thanks for this, Mary. I appreciate it,” Brice said, feeling his confidence in easily winning over Bailey slowly deflate.

  “You’re welcome,” Mary said, suddenly wishing Brice had taken an interest in Sierra instead of Bailey. The two of them were a lot alike with their fun, outgoing personalities, and he seemed like a genuinely nice young man.

  Mary hoped someday Bailey would meet a man who would capture her heart and shift her focus to family and home instead of always being so intent about her career. Her desire for grandchildren was strong and with the direction her oldest daughter was going, the responsibility for providing the grandkids was going to rest solely on Sierra’s slight shoulders.

  ><><

  Glancing out the plane window from her seat, Bailey let out a sigh. Fully admitting her reason for leaving today had nothing to do with her job and everything to do with Brice, she used her work as a convenient excuse to escape the tumultuous feelings he stirred inside her. Feelings that could be dangerous to keeping the focus on her career.

  Bailey knew before she ever graduated from high school she was going to spend her days married to her career. She had to be. Her work took intense focus and the ability to pack up and move at a moment’s notice. What kind of family life could she have when she was off on some new dig for months at a time? It wasn’t fair to expect a spouse to go with her or to wait for her while she was gone. Children were out of the question. In addition, Bailey didn’t want the distractions of a family.

  Her sites were set on being one of the top ten paleontologists of her time and the only way to make that happen was to block out everything else except her work.

  Paleontology was her life.

  At least that’s what she wanted to believe, even though every time Bailey closed her eyes she saw a pair of root-beer brown eyes staring back at her. She could hear Brice’s laugh, and see his warm smile with that incredibly enticing mole at the bottom of his lip. Thinking about his mole brought to mind the heated kisses they’d shared and caused her mouth to water with the desire to feel his lips moving on hers again.

  Yesterday, when they’d shared the passionate encounter beneath the willow tree, Bailey was hoping it would prove her fascination with Brice was a lingering effect from her inebriation. But it wasn’t.

  He was even more handsome, more charming, more…everything than her dreams. If Bailey would allow herself to fall in love, the one guy who had a remote chance of winning her heart was Brice. He was the only man she had ever let close enough to kiss her like he had. The only man she’d wanted to kiss in return. He tasted like the most delectable delicacy she’d ever eaten and smelled even better.

  Breathing deep, she could almost smell his scent and it made her heart ache.

  Straightening in her seat, Bailey also straightened her resolve. She had no business getting involved in a relationship with any man and, in particular, that handsome fun-loving cowboy.

  Brice could derail her career plans faster than anyone else she’d ever met and she wasn’t about to let that happen. She’d worked too long and too hard to get where she was and she wasn’t going to let a silly little thing like love get in the way.

  “Love?” Bailey said, whipping up her head and startling the man sitting next to her. He gave her a disgruntled look and returned to reading a magazine.

  Love? Where had that thought come from? There was no reasonable explanation for the emotions bringing threatening tears to her eyes or the ache to her stomach. What Bailey failed to take into account was that love has a way of being completely unreasonable.

  Trying to analyze her feelings and thoughts, Bailey acknowledged she was attracted to Brice. Extremely attracted. He was everything she wasn’t - outgoing, charming, spontaneous, fun, exciting. It also didn’t hurt that his eyes sparkled with life and mischief, or his teeth gleamed white against his tan face. She tried to block out the vision of his hard, tight muscles and strong chin. Brice was tall, virile, and hands-down, the most delicious smelling male she’d ever encountered.

  Letting thoughts roll around in her mind, Bailey came to the conclusion that her feelings were the culmination of too much stimulus from the weekend. Between the fairy-tale wedding, accidentally getting drunk, and the atmosphere of the ranch that seemed to ooze romance, she allowed herself to get caught up in the moment.

  It had nothing to do with being swept into Brice’s strong arms. Nothing at all.

  Leaning back against the seat and relaxing, Bailey decided if she continually reminded herself it was the circumstances and not the man causing her to have romantic notions maybe she’d be able to convince herself it was true.

  Reflecting over her day,
Bailey arose that morning determined to get away from Brice as fast as possible. After their kisses by the pond yesterday afternoon, she knew the more time she spent with the man, the harder it was going to be to push him away.

  Borrowing Cady’s car, she drove to her meeting with the director of the John Day Fossil Beds. The appointment went very well. So well, in fact, Bailey was offered the opportunity to come join the team.

  Looking over the samples they collected, touring through their museum and lab, as well as visiting a few of the areas where they were working, Bailey knew she wanted to take the position.

  Forcing herself not to clap her hands with excitement, she was giddy thinking about the work she could accomplish in Oregon. Comprised of three separate units, there were more than 700 fossil localities in the John Day Fossil Beds. Work was ongoing with the plant and animal fossils as well as the ancient soil and rock samples.

  Bailey knew researchers from around the world worked with the paleontology staff there because the fossil plant resources of eastern Oregon were some of the most abundant and diverse to be found anywhere.

  This was an opportunity her career couldn’t afford to miss. She’d just have to figure out a way to stay far away from Brice.

  Telling herself again that her feelings for the engaging man were a temporary loss of common sense, she knew by the time she returned to Grass Valley in a month he’d have long forgotten about her. That would make it much easier for her to avoid falling into the temptation that was Brice Morgan.

  Instead of going home with her family to Denver Thursday then heading back to Las Vegas to work next week, Bailey switched her ticket to fly directly into Las Vegas that afternoon.

  As the plane landed, Bailey had everything planned out. Taking a taxi to the room she was renting, she changed her clothes, gathered her work gear, and drove north to the fossil site where she’d spent the past several months working. The last thing she needed was to spend time alone with her thoughts, so she jumped back into work full force.

  She spoke with the project director and let him know she planned to leave in two weeks. Bailey would drive to Denver, spend time with her family before Sierra went back to school to finish her master’s degree, then drive on to Oregon.

  What Bailey failed to take into account as she completed her work in Las Vegas was Brice’s persistent pursuit of her. It was bad enough she couldn’t get him out of her thoughts during the day, but at night she was in misery. She could smell his scent and hear his voice, longing for his presence.

  The first week she returned to Las Vegas he left her a voice message every single day. He also sent her multiple texts and emails, none of which she returned.

  Her resistance began to wane during the second week and by the time she arrived in Denver, she was desperate to see him. Pulling up at her parent’s home in a secluded neighborhood, she parked her Jeep around back and snuck in the patio door. The house was cool and welcoming and smelled like pumpkin pie, her favorite.

  Following the sound of voices in the kitchen, she walked in and surprised both her mom and Sierra.

  “Hey, did you bake that for me?” Bailey asked, draping her arm around her mother’s shoulders.

  “Bailey, honey!” Mary said, hugging her daughter to her flour-coated apron.

  Sierra gave her an exuberant hug and grin. “We figured you’d show up at some point today and Mom wanted to make sure you knew we were glad to have you home.”

  “Thanks, I can’t wait to have a piece,” Bailey said, inhaling the scent of pumpkin as she leaned over the pie cooling on the counter. Going to the refrigerator, she poured herself a glass of juice and sat down at the table in the breakfast nook where a pile of open catalogs with marked pages alluded to the fact her mom and sister had been discussing fashion, hairstyles and all things feminine. Bailey enjoyed those conversations on occasion. Smiling, she picked up a catalog and was surprised by the number of things that caught her eye.

  “We knew you’d like that one,” Sierra said, flipping ahead a few pages and pointing to a dress that Bailey knew she had to have.

  “I love it,” Bailey said, devouring the rest of the catalog then starting at the cover again.

  “I think we’ve lost her, Sie,” Mary said, shaking her head although she was smiling at both her girls.

  Bailey looked up and grinned, noticing not for the first time how much her mom and sister looked alike. She sometimes thought they seemed much more like sisters than mother and daughter. They were petite, vivacious and fun. Although Mary wore her hair in a very short style, she and Sierra shared the same shade of blue eyes, the same little dimple in their cheek when they smiled, the same ability to charm anyone.

  Tall and strong, Bailey took after her dad, a professor at the University of Denver in the mathematics department. She knew her analytical way of looking at life came directly from him. Right now, she was calculating how long it would be before Sierra wanted to go out shopping, her mother offered to take her for a manicure, or they both started questioning the last time she went on a date.

  “Something came for you,” Sierra said, handing Bailey a small box. Sierra barely restrained herself from tearing it open, wanting to know what was in the box she was sure Brice sent to Bailey.

  Reading a Grass Valley postmark, Bailey assumed it was from one of the Thompson cousins. She didn’t know why they’d mail her something when she’d be seeing them in another week. Trey and Cady, along with Travis, invited her to stay with them at the ranch house for as long as she wanted. Since the area where she’d be starting her work with the fossil beds was less than an hour from their house, she liked the idea.

  Rather than trying to find somewhere to rent or staying in a tent, she’d have a lovely room and private bath all to herself. Bailey also liked the idea of getting to know her Grass Valley family better.

  Pulling a knife from her pocket, making Sierra roll her eyes, she cut the tape on the box edges and opened it to find a narrow box about four inches long. Opening the lid, she took out a beautifully carved needle case. Acorns adorned both ends while the center was smooth and tapered. Unscrewing an acorn, she opened the case to find a piece of paper tucked inside. Tipping it up, she finally caught the edge of the paper and tugged it out.

  Unrolling the small sheet on the table, she was surprised to see the words were brief:

  Bailey,

  Thought this would give you some place to keep the needles you use for your wicked stitchery. Miss you.

  Your friend,

  Brice

  Bailey felt heat flame into her cheeks and she quickly folded the note, shoving it in her pocket.

  “Who’s it from?” her mother asked, picking up an acorn and examining the fine craftsmanship and detail.

  “Brice,” Bailey said, picking up the needle case and admiring the work. Turning it around and around in her hand, she noticed a tiny “BM” that could only mean Brice made it. She had no idea he could work with wood, let alone create something so delicately perfect. If this was an example of his work, he was an extremely talented artist.

  Feeling guilty for not returning any of his messages and ignoring him the last few weeks, she assumed he’d given up because she hadn’t received a single text, email or call for the last three days.

  Loathe to admit it, she looked forward to his texts, which usually were witty one-liners, and his emails that shared a line or two about his day and asked about hers. What she liked the most were the voice mails he left. She could sit and listen to his voice all day and never get tired of hearing it. As much as she knew she shouldn’t, she saved every one of his calls and listened to them over and over again.

  “When did this come?” Bailey finally asked, holding the needle case reverently in her hand with a look on her face that had both her mom and sister sending each other knowing glances.

  “Today,” Sierra said, wondering how Brice knew Bailey’s one seemingly normal activity was needlework. She embroidered beautiful pillow cases, table cloths and cu
rtains that left Mary and Sierra wondering how a girl who dug in rocks and dirt for a living could create such delicate, dainty stitches. One year for Christmas, she’d made them both embroidered duvets with matching shams. If Bailey’s head wasn’t buried in a book about people who’d died thousands of years ago, she could often be found stitching on some project.

  “Today?” Bailey asked, her voice high pitched and wavering. Unless it had been lost in the mail, Brice must have just sent it. Grabbing the box, she checked the postmark. Three days. He mailed it three days ago. Maybe he hadn’t given up on her yet. “Does he know I’m going to be in Grass Valley?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Mary said, frowning at Bailey. “You yourself begged Trey and Travis to keep it a secret. I don’t know why you think that’s necessary. He’ll find out you’re there soon enough. Good gracious, between his sister dating Travis and his friendship with your cousins, he’s at the house a good deal of the time. Why is it you’re so set on avoiding him?”

  “I’m not trying to avoid him,” Bailey said, refusing to make eye contact with her mom. “Brice creates an unnecessary divergence from the diligent attention essential in furthering my paleontology endeavors.”

  “So you can’t keep your mind on your work with the cute cowboy in your thoughts. Is it his smile, that luscious scent or the way he looks in Wranglers that has you so distracted?” Sierra teased with a sassy tilt of her head. Turning to her mother, she grinned. “Told you, Mom.”

  “Told Mom what?” Bailey asked, clearly annoyed with her sister.

  “That you have a thing for Brice,” Sierra said in a sing song voice as she jumped away from Bailey’s swatting hand.

  “That’s positively ludicrous.”

  “Positively,” Sierra grinned, sitting back down at the table. “Why don’t you just admit you’re as attracted to him as he apparently is to you. There could be worse things in the world than having a really nice, unbelievably good-looking guy want to spend time with you.”