The Rancher and the Rich Girl

by Heather MacAllister

  She was being polite, that was it. Jessica Fremont seriously bidding on Matt Winston? Come on.

  And yet he couldn’t stop himself from imagining taking Jessica on the picnic he’d planned. They’d ride and he’d show her all the places he remembered from his years here, including the massive tree that had bent down and formed a leafy cave. When he’d been young, he and the other boys had pretended it was a fort, but the adult Matt knew it would make a perfect picnic spot.

  He’d brought a huge soft quilt with him and suddenly found himself looking forward to an event he’d previously dreaded—but only if Jessica made the winning bid.

  Two more bids rang out and she and Sam topped them, ensuring that Matt wouldn’t be sold for the least amount of money.

  Pleased, he made Black Star bow in their direction again.

  He should be riding him instead of just sitting, anyway. Holding the reins tightly again, he gently nudged Black Star, who raised his tail and walked off the stage to high step his way around the ring.

  Sam cheered and clapped with the rest of the crowd.

  “Thirty-five hundred,” the auctioneer cried, and Matt nearly fell off his horse.

  Yeah, some of the amounts paid for the men had been much higher, but he didn’t think there was such a thing as a thirty-five-hundred-dollar picnic.

  * * *

  JESSICA’S ARM WAS getting tired, and so was her face. Keeping the Fremont mask in place at all times was a harder habit to break than she’d thought it would be.

  “Look!” Sam pointed and clapped as Matt made his horse prance around the ring.

  Jessica was afraid to look. She’d already looked once and hadn’t been prepared for the striking picture the man and his horse made.

  Matt wore black jeans and had added a black leather vest over his blinding white shirt. Together with the gleaming black horse, he looked...good. Really good. Jessica wasn’t prepared for more intense descriptions just now. “Four thousand!” The bid sounded right in her ear.

  Liz.

  Jessica raised her hand.

  “Forty-five hundred?” the auctioneer asked.

  Jessica nodded.

  “Who’ll give—and we have five thousand.”

  A group of women had huddled together on the bleachers across from them. “Six!” one of them shouted triumphantly.

  Jessica waved again.

  Someone else did, too.

  “Oh, forever more. Seven!” Liz again.

  “Hey, Liz...” Tara had stopped whistling back at five thousand. “What are you doing?”

  “Bidding.”

  “And we have seven thousand from the pretty lady in the front,” cried the auctioneer.

  “Is that you, Mom?”

  “It will be.” Jessica nudged him. “Wave your arm, Sam.”

  “Mr. Auction Man!” Sam jumped up and down to get his attention.

  “And the bid would be for...?”

  Jessica held up both hands, her fingers splayed.

  “We have ten thou-ou-ou-sand dollars!”

  Applause broke out.

  “Ten-five,” Liz called out. “I want that cowboy. I find myself suddenly drawn to all that power between his—”

  “Hush!” Tara muzzled her sister.

  Jessica raised the bid to eleven. It was much easier to bid with the zeros removed in her mind.

  “Eleven-five,” Liz bid promptly.

  “Hey, Liz. Cut it out,” Tara said.

  “Why?”

  “Jessica is bidding against you.”

  “So?” Liz looked determined.

  Jessica nodded to Sam, who, in his excitement, had climbed onto the bleachers next to her. He jumped and waved, making them all shake.

  Jessica felt Tara look at her. She turned and smiled blandly.

  Tara stared at her, then poked Liz. “Jessica, who hasn’t shown an interest in any man since her husband died, is prepared to fork over at least twelve thousand dollars for this one. Let her have him.”

  Liz licked her lips. “She’s not ready for a man like that yet.” She made a kissing motion and signaled the auctioneer. “Thirteen’s always been my lucky number, anyway.”

  Now that Jessica thought about it, had she and Liz ever really been close? “Go, Sam,” she said.

  The catcalls had stopped and so had most of the talking. An unnatural hush descended over the crowd as people waited for the outcome.

  “I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing,” Tara said to Jessica in a low voice.

  “Making it very difficult for me to explain this to my mother-in-law, that’s what.”

  Sam overheard them. “How much money can we spend?” His voice carried.

  Jessica raised hers. “As much as we need to, sweetie. Mommy’s been saving her allowance.”

  Liz leaned forward. “Now, Jessica, honey, let’s not lose our friendship over this.”

  “I agree. Stop bidding against me.”

  “No.” She raised her hand but Tara yanked it down.

  “We have fourteen thousand going once...”

  “Fif—” Tara held her hand over Liz’s mouth.

  “Do I hear fifteen?” The auctioneer clearly didn’t know what to do.

  Tara managed to keep her hand over her sister’s mouth and climbed onto her lap.

  “...going twice...”

  “Will you just call it sold already!” she yelled.

  “Sold to Jessica Fremont for fourteen thousand dollars!”

  “Yea! I’m going to tell Matt.” Sam jumped off the bleachers and headed toward Matt, who’d swung off the horse. “Hey, Matt, we bought you!” Jessica heard him yell.

  She’d done it. Now what?

  “Oh, get off me,” grumbled Liz to her sister. “I’m tuned in now.” She straightened her blouse then blew Matt a kiss. “Bye-bye, cowboy.” Sighing, she faced Jessica. “Why didn’t you tell me you were buying him for the kid?”

  Jessica was still miffed with her. Standing on shaky legs, she smiled. “Because only the horse was for Sam.”

  * * *

  MATT WAS NUMB. She’d just bid...just bid... He couldn’t even wrap his mind around a figure that big.

  And for him. Why did she do it?

  When a woman made a gesture like that, charity or not, it meant something. Matt had no idea what. He sure hoped she’d tell him. There were bound to be certain expectations on her part, and he would do his best to live up to them, whatever they were.

  Talk about pressure.

  Matt nodded to Sam, who was jumping all around, caught up in the excitement, and led him out of the auction area.

  “Where’s your mama?” he asked.

  “With her friends. I told her I was going to find you. Watch what I can do. Tara was teaching me to whistle.” He put two fingers in his mouth and blew.

  Nothing much but air and spit came out.

  Matt laughed. “Either she’s not much of a teacher, or you’re going to have to work on that.”

  “She whistles real good. Didn’t you hear her?”

  To tell the truth, and he didn’t plan to, Matt had been so shocked at seeing Jessica bidding for him, he hadn’t heard much of anything. He’d forgotten all Frank’s advice about soulful looks and had stared blindly into the crowd.

  Was this what Frank and the others felt during their performances? If so, Matt was perfectly happy staying in the background.

  And he’d once wanted to be a rodeo champion.

  Well, now what? He sure could use some of that ice-cold lemonade.

  People, mostly women, were standing around watching. Jessica wasn’t one of them. She might be in the crowd by the bleachers, but he couldn’t tell.

  “Come on, Sam. Let
’s take Black Star for a little walk.” He bent and laced his fingers together.

  “You mean...you mean I can ride him?”

  “Sure. Put your foot here, and when I give you a boost, grab the saddle horn and pull yourself up.”

  Sam put a sneaker-clad foot in his hands and Matt helped him into the saddle. When he straightened, Sam was white-knuckling the saddle horn as Black Star sidestepped.

  “First time on a horse?” Matt asked.

  Sam gave a jerky nod. “He’s big.”

  “That he is.” Matt gathered the reins and slowly walked Black Star farther away from the arena.

  Sam’s eyes were round and he wasn’t smiling much. Matt couldn’t tell whether he was happy about being on Black Star or not.

  “You’re not going to let go of the reins, are you?”

  Matt smiled up at him. “Nope.”

  “Good.” He relaxed a little, but still clutched the saddle horn.

  Continuing to walk slowly, Matt headed toward the stables. He figured Jessica would eventually find them. “You know, right around here is where I first rode a horse.”

  “Here, at Lost Springs?”

  Matt nodded.

  “You mean you lived here?”

  “Yeah.”

  Sam thought about that for a moment. “Was it fun?”

  Fun. He’d never thought of Lost Springs as a fun place. But... “I had some good times. I missed my mother, so I wasn’t too happy to be here. But if I couldn’t be with her, Lost Springs was a pretty good place.”

  “Why couldn’t you live with your mother?”

  The memory of the last time he saw his mother was as clear as the day she left. They’d been living in Amarillo only a few weeks, not long enough for the landlord to evict them yet. He’d come home from school and she’d been all excited—and sober for once. Buddy, a trucker she’d been dating, was going to take her with him on a run from Amarillo to Kansas City. She’d promised she’d be back in a few days. She’d left Matt milk, three boxes of his favorite cereal and five cans of chicken noodle soup.

  Even today he couldn’t stomach sugary cereal or canned chicken noodle soup.

  But Sam didn’t need to know about such things, so Matt said only, “She couldn’t take care of me and there was a judge who thought I’d be better off here for a while.”

  And he had been. But it had taken a long time for him to realize it.

  “How long did you live here?”

  “Seven years.”

  “Wow.”

  Footsteps crunched behind them. Matt looked over his shoulder and saw Jessica hurrying toward them. He stopped walking until she caught up.

  “Mom, look at me!” Sam cried before they could say anything to each other.

  “I see you!” Her smile was strained, or maybe that was Matt’s imagination. “Do you like it up there?”

  Sam nodded.

  “Are you going to the stables?” she asked Matt.

  “Yeah. Thought I’d get Black Star away from the crowd.”

  “Good idea. I don’t want to get caught by another reporter. He had a photographer with him, and they wanted a picture of us together.” She made a face.

  Matt didn’t particularly care if he had his picture taken or not, but Jessica seemed upset by the idea.

  He continued toward the stables and she fell into step with him.

  “About the auction...I don’t know what to say,” Matt admitted. “Thanks doesn’t seem right for the amount of money you just spent. I know it means the world to Lindsay.”

  “The money’s not important,” Jessica said, brushing her hair back from her face.

  To Matt, the money was always important. In that one careless comment, Jessica Fremont turned a spotlight on the gulf between them, and no picnic was going to bridge it.

  “They didn’t tell us what we were supposed to do after the auction was over,” he said. “So I’m winging it here.” He glanced down at her. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to give you the date of your dreams, but I intend to do my best.”

  “Yes, well, about that...” She cleared her throat.

  Matt could swear she was nervous.

  “Sam, some of the boys are over at the playground. Why don’t you go over there while I talk with Matt?”

  Sam’s face turned mutinous. “I want to ride Black Star.”

  “I’m going to take the saddle off him when we get to the stables anyway,” Matt said. “If your mom says it’s okay, you can stay on until then.” It was only a couple hundred more feet.

  Jessica obviously knew it wasn’t a battle worth fighting and nodded her agreement.

  In a few minutes, they’d reached Black Star’s stall and Matt had helped Sam slide down. He lingered until Matt hooked a thumb toward the playground. “Scoot.”

  Though he obviously didn’t want to, Sam scooted.

  They watched until he was out of earshot.

  “I guess you want to—”

  “I suppose you’re wondering why—”

  They both spoke at the same time, then laughed. The tension broke.

  “I realize you were donating to charity and all, but good grief, woman,” Matt said.

  “Yeah.” Jessica looked a little shell-shocked herself. “Listen, you haven’t sold your horse yet, have you?”

  Matt uncinched Black Star. “I’m about to, I think.”

  “Please don’t. At least not until Sam has the opportunity to learn to ride him.”

  Matt glanced at her. “You could buy him yourself and then Sam could ride him all he wanted.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not? You just dropped a chunk of change at the auction.”

  “It’s complicated.” She ran both hands through her hair. He liked the way it swung back into place and caught the late afternoon sunlight.

  Matt slid the saddle off Black Star. “I’m listening.”

  “You need to know that Sam’s father was killed on a horse.”

  That caught him off guard. No wonder they were both antsy around Black Star. “I’m sorry,” he said, and propped the saddle across the stall railing. “What happened?”

  “He was posing for pictures next to a fence and a photographer’s flash startled the horse. Samuel fell off and hit his head. Broke his neck. His father saw the whole thing and had a heart attack. Three days later, he was dead, too.”

  It was a story worn smooth by repeated telling. She’d distilled it down to bare, unemotional facts, the way the boys at Lost Springs all learned to tell their various stories.

  No wonder she hadn’t wanted to have her picture taken with a horse. “I’m sorry, Jessica,” he repeated. “It must have been awful for you.”

  “Yes, it was.” She drew a deep breath. “The thing is, Sam was just a baby when it happened, and the only way he knows his father and grandfather is through these pictures of them dressed for Frontier Days. He thinks they were great cowboys and I didn’t see the harm in letting him believe that. Only now Sam is convinced he wants to be a cowboy, too.”

  “And you don’t like the idea.”

  “Ohhh...” She rubbed her forehead and sighed. “I would prefer that he was interested in something else, but if this is what he wants, then so be it. But first, he’s got to see what it’s like.”

  “A cowboy needs a horse.”

  She gave him a look. “Sam has been telling me that for months. My mother-in-law is horrified. She doesn’t want him anywhere near a horse.”

  “How are you with horses?” he asked, though he’d already figured out the answer.

  She was standing a good distance away from Black Star. “I was never a horsewoman to begin with. I know the accident wasn’t the horse’s fault, but...” She trailed off and stared at
Black Star. “Being around him is harder than I thought.”

  “But not as hard as seeing Sam riding him, I’ll bet.”

  She gave him a grateful look. “He wants to learn to ride so much, and with his grandmother so opposed, it’s caused problems. That’s why for our date, I want you to let us come to your ranch for two weeks.”

  Two weeks at his ranch? Matt blinked. He’d figured she was leading up to a couple of afternoons of lessons. “Dates must last a lot longer than I remember.”

  “I know it’s not what you expected,” Jessica went on, “but I want Sam to see what it’s like to be a cowboy. I want you to teach him to ride horses and...and do whatever ranchy things there are to do.”

  “’Ranchy’ things?”

  “You know...with ropes and horses and cows. Whatever you do all day.”

  Matt spent a considerable amount of his time repairing stuff that was broken or figuring out how to feed animals that weren’t exactly native to Texas. “Jessica—”

  “I’ll pay you.”

  “You’ve already forked over enough cash. I’ll be happy to give Sam a couple of riding lessons. No problem.”

  “You don’t understand.” She gestured with her hands. “I don’t want a couple of lessons, I want the whole ranching experience. He should milk cows and...and go on roundup—”

  “Roundup is in the spring.”

  “Well, then, fake one. He won’t know the difference.”

  “He’ll know when we don’t find any calves.”

  “Then tell him you’re taking inventory. Just go out with him and let him sleep under the stars, have a campfire, eat beans and—”

  “Jessica—”

  “I’ll pay you.”

  “So you’ve said.” Matt didn’t like her waving money around.

  “Five thousand dollars.”

  He couldn’t take her five thousand dollars. “Sorry.”

  “Then I’ll buy your horse and board him at your ranch. Sam and I’ll come visit him.”

  Matt shook his head.

  “Why not? You’ll get to keep the money and the horse. We’ll just have visiting privileges, and since you’re in Texas and we’re in Wyoming, we won’t visit often.”