Rancher's Deadly Reunion

by Beth Cornelison

  “Welp,” his dad said, pausing to take another sip, “best get yourself pulled together before this evening. Zane stopped me on the way in from the stable to ask us to join the family at the main house tonight for some kind of meeting.”

  Brady faced his father and narrowed a dubious look at him. “A meeting? About what? Why does he want us there?”

  “He didn’t say. Just that he’d like us to come. He wanted our input on some business or other about the ranch.”

  Brady scratched his cheek while a wary curiosity warred with the logistics of attending the mysterious summit. “What do I do with Connor?”

  His question earned a slight hitch of his father’s shoulder as Roy settled in his favorite living room chair. “Don’t know. Bring him. Or ask Helen if she’ll keep an eye on him for a bit.”

  Helen Shaw had been a cook at the ranch for the last five years and the girlfriend of ranch hand Dave Giblan for the last two years. She’d flirted with Brady when she first arrived, but he’d let her know, as kindly as he could, that his heart belonged to someone else. Maybe that had been a mistake. Helen was great. She was everything you could want in a girlfriend and potential spouse. Except that she wasn’t Piper.

  At the time, he’d still hoped that Piper would come around and realize they were meant to be together. But in every subsequent visit from Boston, Piper had been increasingly distant, more evasive, more guarded around him. Brady knew he should move on, find someone else to build a life with, but his heart was stubborn. Setting aside his feelings for Piper wasn’t easy, and just a glimpse of her when she was home for the holidays or stilted pleasantries when they crossed paths in the stable or ranch yard was enough to rekindle his hope.

  And then Zane had agreed when Brady volunteered to pick Piper up from the airport today. He’d spent more time with her this afternoon than in all the years since their breakup combined. When she’d stumbled into his arms at the luggage carousel, the urge to kiss her had smacked him hard, shaken him to the marrow. If she hadn’t pulled away when she did, he’d have given the kiss her eyes had asked for...because her face had said she still wanted him. The sexy catch in her breath had been the same telltale signal of her desire that he’d learned when they made out in high school.

  But then, damn it, she’d raised the shield she’d used for the last seven years to keep him at bay. The shift in her body language had said clearly that nothing had changed for her. She had closed the book on him and moved on.

  Fine, he told himself, pulling out his cell phone to text Helen about babysitting. Message received, Piper. He was no glutton for punishment.

  And yet... Brady knew he was sitting on a landmine. He had a moral responsibility to deal with the situation and correct all the wrongs that had been done in the past. He gritted his back teeth as resentment curled through him. All of his life he tried to do the right thing—for his father, for Piper and now for Connor. For all his best efforts, he’d gotten nothing but heartache, frustration and the burden of untangling the messes other people dropped in his lap.

  He sent his text to Helen, and as he stashed his phone in his back pocket again, he hitched his chin toward his father’s beer. “If we’re meeting with the family tonight on ranch business, then maybe you should lay off the booze. At least until after the meeting.”

  His father responded with a surly look and another pull of his beer. Then with a grunt of fatigue, his father shoved himself off the stuffed chair and carried his can to the sink. After pouring the rest of the beer down the sink, he sent a dark look to Brady. “There. Happy?”

  Brady swallowed the bitter retort that rose on his tongue. He’d only be happy when he no longer had to retrieve his old man from bars where he’d gotten too drunk to drive home. And when he no longer had to cover for his father around the ranch on mornings when Roy was sleeping off a bender. His father had always been a heavy drinker, but this year, since Scott and Pam’s deaths, Roy had crawled deeper into the bottle.

  Roy moved to the refrigerator and sent Brady a hooded glare over the open door. “What’s for supper?”

  Brady scrubbed his hands on his face and shook his head. “Hadn’t gotten that far. There’s leftover soup. Guess I’ll make Connor a sandwich to go with that. What time is this meeting we’ve been asked to attend?”

  “Seven.” His dad, the foreman at the Double M for the last twenty-eight years and a hand before that, bore all the signs of a life in the sun, a career of hard work and heavy drinking. Tanned, leathery skin with heavy creases around the eyes made him look older than he was, and his thinning brown hair bore a permanent crease from his sweat-stained Stetson.

  Was that what he had in store? Brady wondered. Aging prematurely and finding his only solace to a lonely life in the bottom of a bottle? He loved ranching, loved fresh air and the wind in his face. He even loved the Double M as if it belonged to his own family. He appreciated and respected the McCalls, but he dreamed, too, of having his own place someday. He wanted to build a prosperous cattle ranch that he could leave to Connor. Maybe there was still a chance he’d find a way to go to veterinary school. He supposed it was getting time to make some decisions. Some hard choices. Having Connor in the mix now, along with his concerns about his father’s drinking, complicated things. He needed a steady income, a place for Connor to feel he had roots and stability for a while longer.

  Of course, he’d also always thought he’d settle down and raise a family with a woman who shared his passion for the outdoors, animals and hard work. In his mind’s eye, ever since he’d stolen his first kiss from her behind the bunkhouse when they were twelve years old, that woman had always had Piper’s glossy dark hair and gray eyes. Her willowy body and full lips. Her sunny smile and contagious laugh.

  After the last seven years of receiving the cold shoulder and distance from her, he really needed to let that vision go. Folding his cards and moving on was the smart thing to do. He knew that. But how did he walk away when he’d so recently been dealt the ace he now held?

  No, he’d keep his seat awhile longer and play out the hand. Piper was worth one last chance.

  Chapter 3

  That evening after dinner, Piper walked into the den with Josh and eyed the available seats for the family meeting. Spying her father’s big, comfy recliner, she headed for it. As did Josh. Realizing his destination, she quickened her step, as did he, until they were racing for the prized seat. They arrived from opposite angles at the same time and end up in a tangled, laughing pile that made the chair rock and creak.

  Their father came in carrying a glass of lemonade and sized up the situation with a wry grin. “Joshua,” he said, lifting Zeke the cat off the couch and patting the cushion, “I’ve got a place saved for you right here.” Michael waved a hand, telling him to vacate the recliner. “Vamoose.”

  Josh feigned affront. “Why me?”

  “’Cause she’s prettier, and I like her more,” their dad deadpanned.

  “Ha!” she gloated and shoved at her brother’s shoulder. “You heard him, Doofus. Move it!”

  As Josh shoved to his feet, two new arrivals to the den caught her attention. Brady and his father. Piper’s heart slammed against her ribs, and she grabbed the back of Josh’s shirt, tugging him close enough to whisper in his ear. “What are they doing here? I thought this was a family meeting.”

  “It is,” he said, straightening his shirt where she’d mussed it up. “But since they are key to the running of the ranch, we thought they would give us useful input.”

  “Roy, Brady, thanks for coming,” her father said, offering his hand to their foreman to shake. “Come in. Have a seat.”

  Piper avoided eye contact with Brady as he walked past her, sidestepping Zeke, who’d flopped on the floor and rolled on his back to stretch. Brady took the love seat across from her. But Roy Summers stopped in front of her with a lopsided smile. “Piper, it’s good to see you, darlin’.”<
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  She stood and gave Brady’s father a hug. “You, too, Roy. How have you been?”

  He heaved a sigh that smelled of beer. “Honestly? Not so good. It’s been a hard year.”

  She bit her bottom lip and tightened her hug. “I bet it has. I’m so sorry about Scott and Pam.”

  He pulled free of her embrace with a stiff nod. “Thanks.”

  Pausing to rub Zeke’s belly, Roy moved to take his seat on the sofa next to Josh and Zane, and when Piper turned to reclaim the recliner, she found her father had stolen it. Her father gave her an unrepentant grin, and she grunted her protest. “Dad!”

  Josh chortled as she searched the remaining seats for an empty spot. Her mother was in her favorite armchair, which meant the last seat left was the other half of the narrow love seat. Next to Brady. Schooling her expression to hide her dismay, she sank onto the cushions, trying not to brush against Brady.

  “All right, boys,” her father said, turning up his palms as he divided a glance between Zane and Josh. “We’re all here. What is this about?”

  “Yeah, um...” Josh rubbed his hands on his thighs as his eyes met his twin’s gaze. “Zane and I have come up with an idea for the ranch that we think will add enough revenue to help pull us out of the financial crunch we’re feeling.”

  Piper’s stomach clenched anew at the idea that the family business—their home and way of life—could be facing a crisis large enough to threaten their future. Beside her, Brady settled back on the love seat, adjusting his position in such a way that his elbow poked her upper arm. She tried to ignore the casual contact. She needed to focus on what her brothers were saying and not on her seatmate. She bent over and snapped her fingers near her ankles, hoping to entice Zeke to come to her. The cat raised his head and looked her way but refused to answer her summons. She’d have to find another distraction from Brady’s proximity. Sending the Maine coon a thanks-for-nothing glare, she readjusted her position, trying to appear relaxed while staying as far to her side of the seat as possible.

  “In looking for new sources of income, we knew that in order to make any new ventures a success, we needed to look at areas we were already skilled in,” Zane added.

  “Besides the cattle business, the thing Zane and I know best is adventure sports. Rock climbing, white water rafting, rappelling and the like.” Josh’s expression grew animated as he named the high-adrenaline activities he and Zane had mastered in the nearby Rocky Mountains.

  “So we thought we could share that knowledge, that love of adrenaline, with others,” Zane said, picking up the explanation in a seamless back and forth of input, the twins practically finishing each other’s sentences.

  Brady shifted his position on the love seat, resting his arm along the back. Piper sensed more than saw the move, and her skin prickled with an awareness of his arm so near her shoulders. She could tell he’d recently showered. The crisp scent of his soap mingled with a more woodsy aroma of deodorant or other body product, teasing her nose...and her imagination. She struggled to focus on what her brothers were saying instead of the body heat and sultry scents that radiated from her seatmate. She sat taller, keeping her back stiff as she perched at the front of the cushion in order to avoid touching him. Even the thought of his arm brushing the back of her neck sent distracting ripples of disquiet dancing along her nerves.

  “We can renovate the bunkhouse to lodge paying guests,” Zane continued, “and take people out to Grandpa’s tract of land on hiking, camping and adventure-sports outings.”

  “Sorta like a dude ranch but with the focus being the sports and extra activities. An adventure ranch.” Josh paused briefly, casting his gaze around the room, clearly gauging his family’s reaction. “We’ll show people stuff about the ranch, riding horses and working with the cattle, but the highlight will be a camping and hiking trip where we rock climb, raft, zip-line...whatever.”

  Zane picked up the thread, his eyes alight with a fiery passion for the idea. “The point being to give adventure seekers the chance to do the kind of stuff they come to the mountains to do in combination with the ranch experience.”

  Piper caught her brothers’ excitement, knowing they wouldn’t have brought this idea to the family without having a plan to make it work. Zane, the workhorse and responsible one of the triplets, would have addressed the details, at least.

  Their father knitted his brow. “Have you looked into the cost of liability insurance for something like this? Start-up costs? The advertising expense to get people to come?”

  “We’ve done preliminary inquiries with a few insurance companies and have drawn up a list of start-up costs.” Zane paused for a beat, leaning down to idly scratch Zeke’s ears as the cat rubbed against his legs. Glancing up from the cat, Piper’s brother pulled his mouth into a moue of regret. “Getting the ball rolling will be costly, but Josh and I can take out a business loan—”

  Their mother made a soft sound of displeasure.

  Zane gave their mother a quick, we’ll-be-okay grin and continued, “And we’ll do the lion’s share of the work in order to keep the cost of salaries to a minimum.”

  “Our plan is not to go full-scale right off the bat,” Josh jumped in. “We’ll do smaller, more manageable trips at first while we figure out what works and where we need to make changes.” He faced their father and included Roy with a glance and a nod. “We don’t want to cause any trouble with the cattle operations or burden anyone with unmanageable workloads.”

  “Of course, we’d love to have any help or expertise you want to offer,” Zane said, “and we’ll pay any ranch staff that contributes time and skills to the effort.”

  “What time frame are you looking at? When do you hope to have your first guests take one of these trips?” Roy asked.

  Her brothers exchanged a look, and Josh said, “We’d love to get this off the ground as soon as possible. We’ll start the renovation work on the bunkhouse this month and shoot for our first trip in the spring. Around April?”

  A meditative silence fell over the group as their parents and Roy, judging by their expressions, mulled over the idea and formulated more questions. Piper hazarded a quick side-glance to Brady, and as if he felt her gaze, he angled his head to meet her eyes. Her pulse stuttered, and a warmth stole through her. To hide her reaction to him, which she feared showed on her face, she pasted on a grin and turned to her brothers.

  “I love the idea! It makes sense, considering we aren’t using the bunkhouse now. It uses your talents and passion for outdoor recreation in a profitable way. And vacation ranches are very popular. I read an article in the airline magazine—not this trip but one I took for business a couple months ago—that talked about how popular adventure sports are becoming.” She knew she was prattling, filling the silence and hoping everyone would credit the flush in her cheeks and at her neck to excitement for the plan rather than Brady’s unsettling proximity.

  Zane and Josh beamed, and after exchanging a brief but meaningful look, Josh said, “I’m glad you think so, because we have a proposal for you.”

  Piper blinked her surprise. “For me?”

  Zane nodded and scooted to the edge of the sofa as he leaned toward her, hands on his knees. “We want you on our team.”

  She chuckled warily. “I am. I just said I was behind you, that I liked the idea.”

  “No, not behind us. Beside us. A joint effort,” Zane clarified.

  She tipped her head in query. “You want me to invest in the start-up? I...guess I could give you—”

  “Not your money,” Josh interrupted, then flipping up a palm, “Well, maybe some money. Down the road. But right now what we are asking is for you to work with us. To be part of this.”

  Piper’s heartbeat thundered against her ribs. “I don’t unders—”

  “Move back home, Piper. Be our accountant, our bookkeeper, office manager...”

  When J
osh paused, Zane added, “Be our partner. We want you to do this thing with us. You’re the third part of the McCall Trouble Trio. And we want you to be one third of the whole venture, expenses, profits, duties. We want your talent, your education, your experience with finance. Not just for the adventure ranch but to help save the Double M.”

  Her heart swelled hearing her brothers ask her to join them. To be included. To be wanted and needed by them. Her throat tightened with the same damn emotions that had ambushed her earlier in her bedroom.

  Josh reached for her hand and squeezed it. “You belong here, Piper. Not in Boston.”

  Frowning, she pulled her hand back. “Excuse me! I like my life in Boston. I have a good job and friends and—” She cut herself off with a disgruntled huff.

  Stunned by her brothers’ request, she flopped back on the love seat, heedless of how doing so meant Brady’s arm was now draped close to her shoulders, his warm forearm pressed to her nape. Flattered as she was by their proposal—Josh’s Boston comment aside—the notion of leaving Boston and moving back to the ranch was daunting. Giving up her income, giving up the little apartment that she’d decorated to fit her style, giving up her friends...could she do that?

  But coming back to the Double M would mean being near her roots, her family.

  And being near Brady, she realized, her heart shuddering to a stop. She sucked in a sharp breath as her pulse now lurched to a gallop, and she became acutely aware of the heat of Brady’s arm against her neck, the weight of his penetrating gaze. The sensation of a thousand champagne bubbles bursting tingled in her belly and skittered from her neck to her fingertips. She swallowed hard and, knowing all eyes were on her, waiting for her response, she forced her tongue to work.

  “I...don’t know. I’m honored that you asked. Truly, it means a lot to me that you want me to be part of this...”

  “Of course we want you, Pipsqueak. You’re a McCall. This ranch is as much your legacy as ours.” Zane flashed her a gentle smile. “In fact, you could say it’s your duty, your family obligation to help save the ranch.”