My One and Only Cowboy

by A. J. Pine

  She raised her brows. “That depends. Are you the owner of this place?”

  He nodded once, already getting a sinking feeling in his gut. “Sam Callahan. One of three.”

  She extended her hand, and he shook it without thinking because that was what you did.

  “Delaney Harper,” she said. “And you mean one of four. My ex-husband sold you this place by forging my name on the quitclaim deed, so the way I see it, this place is half mine.”

  Sam pulled his hand away and laughed. “Ben put you up to this, right?” His brother had been giving him shit all week about loosening up. He’d always been the jokester—spraying Sam with the hose when he was bathing the horses, pushing him off the pond bridge fully clothed. Come to think of it, Ben’s pranks usually occurred only when water was around. This was his most sophisticated one yet.

  “Who’s Ben?” Delaney asked.

  “It was Colt?” he said.

  But even as he tried to rationalize that it could have been his buddy, her name replayed in his head, and he knew it wasn’t a coincidence. The last name was all over the paperwork for the sale of the property—the land, the ramshackle little cottage, and the barn that was in disrepair. Neither structure had been good for anything other than tearing down and rebuilding.

  “Delaney Harper,” he said, emphasizing her last name.

  “That’s me,” she said with a wince. Then she cleared her throat and squared her shoulders. “All I took was the man’s name, and he went and took everything from me in return. That changes today.”

  “You’re either kin or you’re Wade Harper’s wife,” he said simply. Wade was the property’s former owner. “Either way, still not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “Ex-wife,” she explained. Her expression turned wistful as her green-eyed gaze traveled to the window that looked out on the stable. “You took down my barn. I know it wasn’t much, but I had a hand in building it. Wade and I were underwater when I left him, which was why we didn’t unload the property then. It’s spelled out in the divorce that when the place was fit to sell, we’d split any profit equally. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised he found a way to sell it out from under me before the divorce was even final, but here I am.” She sighed. “Glad you kept the English maple on the outskirts. Always did love that tree.”

  He followed her gaze. Either she was putting on one hell of an act, or she was who she said she was, because the first thing he and his crew did when they started work out here was tear down that barn and replace it with the stable. And no way was he tearing down any trees. The whole point of this place was to appreciate the outdoors. Not destroy it.

  “I had a real estate attorney go over everything,” he said, more to himself than to her.

  She turned her attention back to him, her expression hardening, and shrugged.

  “Yeah, well, I’d fire that lawyer, because either they didn’t spot the forgery, or they helped push it through. I’ll just need to get a copy of the quitclaim deed, give it to my lawyer, and then—I don’t know—see you in court to figure out which half of the land is mine.”

  “The quit what?” he asked. He knew a thing or two about buying and selling property, but she was speaking another language.

  She sighed. “Quit. Claim. Deed. When two people own a piece of land together, the only way one can sell it on their own is for the other to sign over ownership. Which I did not. Yet somehow Wade was able to sell you our property. I don’t suppose the forgery was included in your paperwork?”

  Sam laughed. He was never an asshole intentionally, but this woman sure had some nerve. “You waltz in here telling me what I own isn’t really mine, and now you want me to produce the paperwork to prove it?” He was certain her first name was nowhere to be found in his closing documents. Wade Harper was the only person listed as seller. “And why are you coming around now when I bought this place almost two years ago?”

  She crossed her arms. “So that’s a no to the paperwork?”

  He crossed his arms right back. “I’ll show you anything you want to see because I guarantee your name is nowhere to be found. Now it’s your turn to answer my question.”

  Her shoulders sagged. “I didn’t know he sold it,” she said, losing some of her steam. “Not until I couldn’t sleep last night and decided to google Meadow Valley.” She shrugged. “I do that every now and then. This was supposed to be my new home, you know? Guess I’m still not over it. And imagine my surprise when your ranch came up in my search—far, far down the page, by the way. You should work on your analytics.”

  “Ana—what?” he asked, but she waved him off.

  “I saw my maple tree in your website photo and figured out what Wade did. Hopped right in my car. Made the drive from Vegas in eight hours flat,” she added proudly. “No stopping.” She cleared her throat. “Who built your website, anyway? Could use some work if you want to get folks through the door.”

  Maybe he wasn’t a graphic design whiz, but he bought the domain and got some good pictures up there. What else did she expect? He wasn’t trying to sell the site. And why was he getting so defensive anyway? The ranch was what mattered, and he was proud of what he, his brother, and Colt had built.

  “You drove here in the middle of the night?” Sam’s brows drew together. “After you happened upon our website?”

  Delaney groaned. “You ever have your life all planned out and then have it ripped out from under you? As long as we still owned this land, there was a chance I could get back what I lost. Instead he sold that chance. And do you want to know the worst part?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “He assumed I wouldn’t come back to fight for it because what does Delaney do when she can’t fix a problem? She runs as far from it as she can get.” She mumbled that last part, and he realized she was talking more to herself than to him.

  Sam gritted his teeth. “Look. I’m sure you want out of this mess as much as I do. If what you’re saying is true, can’t we figure out a fair price for me to buy you out?” He didn’t know yet where he’d get the money. Maybe the bank would give him an equity loan. He’d cross that bridge when the time came. Hell, he’d move heaven and earth to keep his land and his business intact, not just for himself but for Colt and Ben. For his father too.

  “Sorry,” she said. “But I want my land back. If you don’t have the paperwork for me, I guess that means I’ll be heading down to the county courthouse to grab a copy of the forged deed I plan to contest. Sorry to bother you, Mr. Callahan.”

  She turned on her heel and strode toward the cabin door.

  “Whole town’s shut down for the week. Autumn festival and all.”

  “Autumn festival?” she repeated, her brow furrowed.

  He nodded, then scratched the back of his neck. “Meadow Valley Harvest Fest. Gourds. Corn maze. Bounce house for the kids. Any of it ringing a bell? You did live here at one point, right?”

  Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “Didn’t make it past six weeks before—before I left.”

  Her eyes flashed with something that looked like fear, but when he blinked, her gaze was nothing more than focused and intent. For a second, though, he saw. He saw that there was more to her story, and he found himself wanting to ask what it was or why she’d gone so soon after arriving.

  She spun to face him. “What kind of town closes down for an entire week for pumpkins and bounce houses?”

  “Don’t forget the corn maze and bobbing for apples,” he said with a wink. “We go all out.”

  She gritted her teeth and let out an exasperated groan. “Very well,” she said, chin held high. “Then I guess you’ll be hearing from my lawyer when the town is back in business.”

  He fought the urge to follow her to the door, some inexplicable need rising—a need to stop her from leaving, especially in her state of distress.

  “Why not just take this up with your ex-husband?” he asked. “Doesn’t that make the most sense?”

  Her shoulders sagged as he watched her bravad
o deflate. “Because I don’t know where he is. I tried calling the only number I had for him, but it rang and rang until it finally went to a generic voicemail. Not sure the phone is even still his.”

  “You leave a message?” Sam asked.

  She shook her head. “Didn’t see the point since I wasn’t sure who I was leaving it for.” She paused. “I thought if we fixed this place up together and made something out of it that I could somehow fix him. But I learned my lesson.”

  This mess wasn’t her fault. She was just as blindsided as he was, and it wasn’t fair to put the blame on her.

  “Let me get you a cold drink, maybe something to eat?” he said. “You have to be starving after driving all night and into the morning.”

  She pressed her full pink lips together, and he couldn’t tell if she was considering his offer or trying to keep herself from yelling at him. Wade Harper was the one to blame. Not either of them. But Wade wasn’t here, so it was up to the two of them to figure it out, which meant he had to ignore the lips he realized he’d been staring at.

  Logic. Not whatever it was that drove Luis’s decisions. Lo-gic. Yet he found himself gritting his teeth, waiting for her reply. Did he want her to say yes? No? Why couldn’t he reconcile the thoughts swirling around his head?

  “I can’t,” she finally said.

  And with that she stepped through the door, letting it slam behind her, the sound jolting him back to reality.

  He breathed a sigh of relief, yet every muscle in his body was still as tense as the day his mother walked out on their father.

  It was only then that Sam realized the white-knuckle grip he had on the reception desk’s wood trim—and that he had torn it free from its nails.

  Luis, Anna, and the so-called kitchen emergency were already a distant memory. His stupid inkling had nothing to do with them. No, sir. It was all about Delaney Harper—the woman who would be his undoing.

  This wasn’t the other shoe dropping. It was a steel-toed boot pummeling him into the dirt. He had to figure out how to fix this before Colt and Ben found out—before all three of them lost everything they’d given up to build their dream.

  Chapter Two

  Delaney slammed the key into the ignition and peeled off of the ranch property in a matter of seconds, her heart thudding against her chest, her eyes burning with the threat of tears.

  Her lawyer—a.k.a. her aunt Debra—said she couldn’t promise anything without seeing the forged deed. What was she thinking waltzing onto someone else’s property and thinking he’d just hand it over? And what kind of town closed down for an entire week when the rest of the world kept on keeping on?

  Meadow Valley, California.

  It had been over two years since she left. She’d loved the small town when she and Wade were newlyweds—and when she’d been so close to getting the animal shelter up and running. Now, though, when she needed the town to behave for her, it left her in the dust.

  A stop sign loomed ahead, so she pressed her foot to the brake. Something popped. She yelped as the car lurched. Then instinct took over and she steered the vehicle into the grass before it came to a complete halt, smoke pouring up from the hood.

  “No, no, no, no, no!” she growled at the traitor of a vehicle.

  She sat there for several long minutes, half hoping that whatever happened to the car would right itself if she just waited it out. When that didn’t seem to fix it, she pulled out her phone and googled the number for the town’s auto repair shop. It rang four times before the voicemail picked up.

  “Welcome to Meadow Valley Motors. Just like the rest of the town, we’re closing shop until after the festival. Leave a message, and we’ll return your call in about a week.”

  She tossed the phone onto the passenger seat and groaned, whacking her head against her seat back.

  “A week? I’m stuck like this until Monday of the following week? That’s—that’s ten days!” Her voice rose both in volume and pitch.

  She looked down at her phone and saw the seconds still ticking by on the timer.

  Great, she hadn’t ended the call, which meant her building tantrum was recorded for posterity. She vigorously pressed her index finger again and again over the red icon on the screen, just in case the first try didn’t take.

  This wasn’t the plan. She was supposed to breeze into town, get a copy of Wade’s forged deed, and get the ball rolling on reclaiming her land. Now she was stuck in her busted-up car with a busted-up plan on an October morning that felt like the middle of July.

  A hand rapped against the driver’s side window, and Delaney yelped for the second time in ten minutes. She looked out to see Sam Callahan standing on the road next to her, his arms crossed and a cowboy hat casting a shadow over his eyes.

  He seemed to tower over the vehicle like a movie villain ready to take down his rival.

  She tried to open the window so she could talk to him from the relative safety of the car but realized that a car that wouldn’t move was also a car whose windows wouldn’t open. It was also growing hotter by the second. For all intents and purposes, Delaney was sitting inside a slowly heating oven, which meant she had no choice but to open the door and get out.

  She stood, brushing nonexistent dust off her jeans, then mirrored Sam Callahan’s stance, arms crossed and everything.

  “Ms. Harper,” he said with a nod.

  “Mr. Callahan,” she said coolly, nodding back. “How’d you know I was here?”

  He glanced back toward the guest quarters, which were easily visible from the road.

  “Heard your car give up on you. Heck, everyone did. All that sputtering spooked the horses. It’s lucky Ben was done giving his lesson or we mighta had an emergency on our hands.”

  Delaney threw her hands in the air. “Does this not look like an emergency? Not that it matters because Meadow Valley is not dealing with any emergencies until sometime by the end of the day a week from Monday. Monday!”

  Sam cleared his throat. “County sheriff and deputies are on call the whole time. So’s the fire department. All our firefighters are trained EMTs. You got an emergency that needs policing or medical attention?”

  She squinted into the sun, trying to gauge his shuttered expression. But it looked like he was biting back a grin.

  “I suppose you think this is funny? The big bad landowner comes back to claim what’s hers and gets stranded on the side of the road in an October heat wave.”

  He scratched the back of his neck. “It’s not unfunny.”

  She gritted her teeth and fought the urge to scream.

  “Look,” he said, “I got a towing hitch and trailer I can put on the back of my truck. I can take you and your car to Pearl’s inn—I’m assuming you have a reservation at the most popular and only place to stay in the center of town—and someone from the shop will come grab it next Monday morning.”

  Delaney winced. “Reservation?”

  Sam nodded. “Meadow Valley Harvest Festival, remember? It’s the biggest thing next to the Fourth of July. Lots of family reunions. Inn fills up real fast. We got a little bit of their overflow, but most people here for the festival like to stay in town. We’re a bit off the beaten path.”

  She glanced back at the car, then at Sam again. “It cools off at night, doesn’t it? I can just recline the seat and—”

  “You’re kidding, right?” he interrupted. “You’re not actually considering sleeping in your car.”

  She shrugged. “Look, I wasn’t planning on being in town overnight. So, no, I didn’t make any sort of reservation. Not like I can really afford it anyway, so if you don’t mind, the car will suit me just fine.”

  Sam rolled his eyes. “Will you just get in the truck?”

  “Where are you taking me?” She didn’t like being at this guy’s mercy. She didn’t like being at anyone’s mercy. All she wanted was to stand on her own two feet, and she’d been trying to do that for years now. She thought coming back to Meadow Valley was the answer, but it wasn’t
that easy. Now here was this big bad cowboy who’d built his business on her land thinking he could swoop in and save the day.

  “I’ve got an empty room in the guest quarters,” he said. “You can stay there until next week when you either get this thing fixed or put it to rest for good.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off.

  “No charge, of course. Think what you want of me, Vegas, but I’m not leaving you stranded. Especially if that land is half yours like you say it is.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “It is.”

  He shrugged. “Well then, looks like I have some time to convince you to let me buy you out. Seeing as how you’re in financial straits, it seems to be a win-win for both of us.”

  Delaney jutted out her chin. “Thank you, but I don’t take handouts. I’ll stay at the ranch, but you’ll let me earn my keep. Whatever needs doing, I’ll do it. And my financial straits are none of your business. Once my land is officially my land again, I’ll get back on my feet. So there will be no need to convince me of anything. I’m sure your little business can survive on half the land.”

  She grabbed her phone, purse, and keys from the car and sauntered off toward his truck, not waiting for a response. Sam seemed like a nice enough guy. But they were on opposite sides of the property line, so to speak. She didn’t want to argue with him, especially since he wasn’t the one she was angry with.

  Only when she was sure he couldn’t see her face anymore did she blow out a long, shaky breath.

  She could do this. It wasn’t like she was looking to steal Sam’s business from him. She was just looking to get hers back.

  She yanked on the door handle and hopped inside the silver Ford truck. It was still running, and the air conditioner poured out from the vents in heavenly gusts. She couldn’t help the small moan that escaped her lips or the smile that spread across her face. Growing up in the desert, she was no stranger to the heat. But she’d always hated it. She’d begged her parents year after year to take her and her sister somewhere cold for a family vacation. But it was always the same excuse.