by B. J Daniels
As he started toward his cabin, he saw a dark figure come out the back of the lodge. It was too dark to tell who, but whoever it was wore the navy On the Fly coat. Apparently someone else had ducked out, as well. He wondered who was brave enough to incur his father’s wrath. The figure disappeared around the other side of the lodge.
It wasn’t until he’d gone into his own cabin, turned on a light and pulled out the paperwork he’d brought and had begun to go through it that he saw something move in front of his window. He quickly got up to look out as Ruby rushed past, headed back in the direction of the lodge. He realized that must have been her that he saw earlier as she left and was now sneaking back into the dance.
He wondered what she might have been up to, but quickly put it out of his mind as he turned his attention to more important things.
* * *
WILL HAD NEVER been impulsive. Far from it. His brothers kidded him about being as solid as the old pine tree next to the lodge and just as exciting.
“You both should thank your lucky stars that I’m so solid,” he’d told them. “You want to run the guest ranch? I didn’t think so. Then be glad I’m content to spend my off-season kicking up my heels and the rest of the time right here being solid as an old pine tree running the guest ranch.”
That’s why it was so out of character when he saw Poppy standing in the doorway; he’d rushed to her and drawn her out on the dance floor. She’d balked for a moment, stopped to take off her apron and, taking his hand, had let him tempt her. In her T-shirt, jeans and boots, she couldn’t have looked more sexy and cute.
And she’d turned out to be a great line dancer.
While getting her out on the dance floor had been impulsive, he’d told himself it was about keeping her close so there wouldn’t be any surprises. But as they danced, he realized it had more to do with a painful pinch of his conscience. When he saw her standing there, he’d remembered her as a girl watching the ranch’s guests from the sidelines. He hated the memory of the yearning on her young face. She’d wanted to join them so badly, but Will’s father had said not to encourage her.
“She has a crush on you, son,” Wyatt had told him. Apparently everyone was aware of it. “I won’t have you leading her on.”
He’d argued that he wasn’t.
“Let her down easy. Your job is to make sure the guests have fun.”
He’d felt so torn. When guests weren’t around, he spent time with Poppy. She was enough of a tomboy that it felt like they were buddies. But when guests were around, especially the cute girls closer to his age or older with their families, he’d done his job. Not that he’d minded it. But Poppy had rightfully been confused by him running hot and cold. Worse, he’d been embarrassed when there were guests around to have a twelve-year-old kid following him around like a puppy dog. It was worse when she’d look at him with those big green eyes...
Now, as he danced next to her, he looked into those beautiful green eyes and felt something entirely different. Attraction. He told himself it was a normal male reaction. She was beautiful, especially with her cheeks flushed, her eyes bright. She was smiling, clearly enjoying herself, and he thought this was how she would look after making love.
That thought made him misstep and crash into her. She caught him, laughing, and at that moment he couldn’t help himself. He looked at that luscious mouth of hers and it had taken all of his common sense not to kiss her. But he knew she’d seen the need in his expression. He’d never felt more vulnerable. She was determined to seduce him with her cooking, when he was already feeling hopelessly smitten with more than her cuisine. But he wasn’t about to do what he’d done to her twenty years ago. He couldn’t leave her on the sidelines, not ever again. Nor could he hurt her again.
Which meant he had to keep her at arm’s length while defusing this situation between them. Smitten or not, he wasn’t the marrying kind. Women didn’t believe that. They thought they could rope him, hog-tie him and change his mind. None ever had. Poppy would be no different.
When the song ended and another began, he said, “I need to see to something in the barn. Stay and dance. Enjoy yourself.”
Poppy looked surprised and disappointed, but she hid it quickly. She followed him out of the dance floor to the quiet of the lodge. “Thank you, but I have an early morning. Thanks for the dance.” Her gaze locked with his.
He was the first to pull away. Just standing this close to her was torture. “I’m going to turn in early.” Dorothea had put her in a room next to hers—on the opposite end of the hallway from his apartment.
“You’re doing an amazing job,” Will said, reminding himself and her that she was here to cook.
“I’m glad you think so. It’s nice to be back here. Even for a short while. I’m glad you called me.”
He thought he saw a flicker of something in her eyes, a reminder of how he’d treated her back then, but it was gone so quickly he thought his conscience had only imagined it.
* * *
POPPY COULDN’T BELIEVE Will had pulled her out on the ranch dance hall floor tonight. Just like earlier when he’d asked her to have dinner with him and the guests. He’d caught her off guard. He was being so nice to her... Was it possible he suspected what she was up to?
As she got ready for bed, she couldn’t help smiling at the memory of finally being out on the guest ranch dance floor. It had been her twelve-year-old girl’s heart’s desire. From the sidelines, she’d watched the other kids dancing and having fun. Not that she’d known how to dance at that age. Back then it had been square dancing, but she’d dreamed of dancing with Will and having him look at her the way he did the older girls.
Now after all these years, her dream had come true. Somewhat, she reminded herself. She at least had his attention. She thought about the way he’d smiled at her as they were dancing. He looked as if he was having fun. And when he’d stumbled and bumped into her? He’d almost kissed her. She was sure of it. The way his gaze had settled on her mouth with a longing that she knew only too well. So why did she feel guilty?
Because her motives for coming here were less than honorable. She hadn’t broken Buckshot’s leg, but she’d wished something would happen so she could return to the ranch one last time and make Will Sterling hurt the way she had all those years ago. It was a silly, spiteful wish. A girl’s fantasy that had made her feel better on those lonely nights years ago when she couldn’t sleep after moving away from him.
Not that she could discount those hurt feelings at twelve or now. She just wanted Will to know how it felt. The feelings had been so real that she’d never been able to forget him. When she’d gotten the opportunity to move back to Whitefish, and be near the Sterling ranch, she’d jumped at it.
Just as she’d jumped at taking this temporary cooking job. She had only three more days to get him to fall in love with her and break his heart. The whole plan seemed foolish now, a child’s dream of reckoning. She had been wishing that she could let go of that old hurt earlier when she’d looked in on the dance and Will had reached for her—instead of pushing her away as he’d done all those years ago.
Now she was where she had longed to be. Will was finally seeing her, Poppy Carmichael, all grown up and a woman to be reckoned with. Poppy smiled and told herself everything was going as planned...so why did it feel so bittersweet?
CHAPTER SEVEN
POPPY COOKED BREAKFAST early Monday morning in a daze. She’d had a terrible time getting to sleep last night. The dancing had been fun and she’d realized that she hadn’t had fun in a very long time. She’d been so focused on starting her catering business, on succeeding and on somehow getting back at Will Sterling that fun had been out of the question.
This morning, she’d run into Will on the way to the kitchen. She hadn’t thought anyone else was up since it wasn’t even light out.
“Good morning,” he said, seeming as surprised to see her
as she was him.
“I was just going to slip a note under your door.” He wadded up the paper in his hand and tossed it in the wastebasket by the desk in the lounge. “Big Jack said a continental-type breakfast would be fine. He wants his team to have some free time until noon. So I see no reason we can’t go for that horseback ride this morning like we talked about. Unless you don’t want—”
“I do,” she said quickly.
“Great. Meet you at 8:00 a.m.?” he asked, all business.
“Perfect. I’ll be ready.” She watched him leave, and when she was sure he wasn’t looking, she retrieved his note from the trash. Smoothing it out, she saw that it said pretty much what he’d told her. It was signed only Will.
She felt foolish for retrieving it, but still she put it in her pocket and headed for the kitchen. Even with Will being all business this morning, she couldn’t help feeling pleased and guilty and excited and maybe too happy about getting on horseback again. The last thing she needed to do was lose focus. And there were times last night dancing next to Will that she had lost more than focus.
Maybe it was from being close to him on the dance floor, having him be so nice and caring about getting her back on a horse, but she’d had to remind herself that the plan was to pay Will back, not fall for the handsome cowboy all over again. She’d assured herself that that wasn’t what was happening.
In the kitchen, she ignored Buckshot’s menu of store-bought sweet rolls, cereal and fruit, and made two large Dutch baby soufflé pancakes with brandied apples and a dozen miniature Brie and chive omelets, along with a fresh fruit salad.
Then she changed and headed for the corrals where she found Will saddling up their horses. The morning was bright and crisp, the needles on the towering pines glistening in the sunlight. She breathed in the day, remembering the smell and the feeling of being completely in love with all of it—including Will Sterling.
The Will she found at the corrals was much more relaxed than the one she’d run into this morning in the lodge. She knew it had something to do with the horses and his love for them. He was a man at home in the saddle.
He looked happy to see her as she walked up. “You remember how to ride?” he asked and grinned over at her.
“It’s been a while, but isn’t it like falling off a bike?”
He laughed. He had a nice laugh and a great smile and both made her heart flutter more than they should have. She reminded herself of the day she’d decided to show Will what an amazing girl she was. When she rode Lightning, the wild horse his father had brought to the ranch to break.
“I’m afraid I don’t have a wild stallion for you to ride today,” Will said as if also remembering that calamitous day. “Hope you don’t mind.”
She had to laugh. Her plan had gone awry that day. If she’d proved anything to Will it was that she didn’t have a lick of good sense. She wondered about her current plan as he handed her the reins to her horse and she swung up into the saddle.
They rode out on a different trail than the one he’d taken the guests on yesterday, avoiding the cabins and riding west through the mountains. She was surprised how comfortable she felt in the saddle, always had. Another reason she’d thought that she and Will had been perfect for each other, if the foolish boy would have just realized it. That summer, she’d believed that she’d end up on this guest ranch with the cowboy she loved—if she could only find a way into his fifteen-year-old heart.
“I’m glad you agreed to this,” Will said after they’d ridden for a few minutes without speaking. He brought his horse alongside hers and looked over at her. “It’s been good to see you. I’m glad we could reconnect. But more than that I’ve had a chance to think about...my behavior... And I—aw, hell...” he stammered. “I want to apologize for the way I acted toward you all those years ago. I was rude and disrespectful and a stupid, cocky kid.” He met her gaze. “I hated the way we left things that day when you moved away. I hope you don’t hold it against me.”
She tried to swallow around the lump in her throat. She hadn’t expected this. Instead, she’d always told herself that he probably hadn’t even understood how heartbroken she’d been that day. She was leaving Montana, leaving the ranch, leaving the boy who she loved to distraction.
Poppy had always figured that if he’d understood, he hadn’t cared. She’d thought he didn’t even remember that day that had been so painful to her. Now she realized that she’d wanted to believe he was callous and unfeeling, she’d wanted to believe the worst, because it made her feel better about her revenge plot. Just as she’d needed to believe he hadn’t changed, that he was that same arrogant, cocky cowboy who broke hearts willy-nilly without even a pang of remorse.
“I don’t know what to say.” She really didn’t. He was messing up her plan by not being the cowboy she wanted to believe he still was. He kept doing kind things and now he was apologizing? She felt her eyes burn with tears.
“You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was a jerk and I deeply regret it.” With that he gave her a sad smile. “I hope I haven’t spoiled your ride. That certainly wasn’t my intention. Maybe with luck, we can be friends.” With that he gave his horse a nudge and headed up the trail.
Friends? With luck? She rode after him, still choked up and hastily wiping at her foolish tears over his apology and the hurt of his last words. Friends. He couldn’t have made it any clearer. Her attempts at seduction now felt laughable. He’d seen right through her and was trying to let her down easy.
She groaned to herself. Scratch that plan. She’d failed miserably. What had made her think she could be a seductress to begin with? A cowboy with Will’s experience with women? Of course he’d seen what she was up to.
Poppy told herself to just be happy that he’d apologized. In truth, it had touched her deeply—before he’d said maybe with luck they could be friends. She wasn’t even sure he wanted that!
Ahead he had reined in his horse and was waiting for her. As she rode over the rise and brought her horse to a stop beside him, she saw the cabin where she and her father had lived for that life-changing summer. He’d brought her here? To remind her of the past?
“This is what I wanted to show you,” he said. “I heard it’s going up for sale. I’ve made an offer on it.”
“What?”
“I’m thinking about restoring it.” He shrugged, looking embarrassed. “I thought it would be a nice extra cabin for guests who wanted their privacy or that I might even live here one day.” He ducked his head shyly. “You probably think it’s silly, but I was feeling nostalgic when I made the offer. There was talk that the cabin might be torn down.” He looked over at her. Their gazes locked. “I didn’t want to see that happen. Remember the good times we had there? I never forgot you, Poppy.” He laughed. “How could I? I’d never met anyone like you. Still haven’t.”
She was too shocked to speak. This man was killing her. She’d spent all these years plotting her revenge, determined to pay him back for hurting her while he’d...
He saw her discomfort and suggested they ride a little farther up the trail before they had to turn back.
“You remember the waterfalls?” he said over his shoulder. “I thought you might want to see them again.”
* * *
WILL FELT LIKE a heel. He’d made it clear that he and Poppy could never be anything but friends—just as he had when she was twelve. She’d taken it better twenty years later. But still he was mentally kicking himself. In his attempt not to hurt her again, he feared he’d done just that.
She’d seemed surprised by his apology for the past. But even more surprised by the part about them possibly being friends someday. He thought that she’d like that he was trying to save the house she’d lived in that summer. Instead, she’d seemed even more upset.
He told himself still it was better to sto
p this foolishness now before either of them got in any deeper. She hadn’t said two words on the way back to the ranch.
To fill the quiet he was tempted to remind her that it was her own fault, her and her plan to extract her revenge—if that’s what it was. While he loved her food, he was determined not to hurt her. Which meant he couldn’t let her keep trying to seduce him. It wasn’t going to happen, so better to nip it in the bud quickly.
He had wanted her to see that he wasn’t that cocky kid he’d been. She had cried that day twenty years ago and she had looked like she could do it again today as they reached the guest ranch. He hoped she would now let go of her revenge scheme because he had a challenging group of guests for the next two days that he needed to deal with. Besides, she was wasting her time trying to corral him. He thought of the other women who had tried and failed. Then again, none of them had been Poppy.
He shook his head at the thought. No, not even Poppy could lasso him. Did she really think he would fall for her teaspoons of love potion? No matter how enticing, he wasn’t that easy.
When they reached the corral, he said he would take care of the horses. She gave him a quick “Thank you for the ride,” and hurried up to the kitchen, saying she needed to make preparations for lunch.
As he unsaddled their horses, his mood worsened. He told himself that he’d rather cut off his right arm than hurt Poppy. The woman had him where he didn’t know which end was up. He’d handled it all badly and wished they could start over. But there was too much water under the bridge. Anything he did now to try to fix things between them would only make it worse.
He thought about last night at the dance. Had he been trying to make up for the past? Or had he just wanted to see her smile? Either way, it had been a mistake. Maybe his best bet was just to stay clear of her as much as he could. Distance, he reminded himself, since they only had two more days here at the ranch.
