Wild West Fortune

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  “Long as it doesn’t taste left over from when your grandma did make it, we’re in for an improvement,” Jayden murmured. “Make as many pots as you want.”

  “You don’t like my coffee, you fix it,” Nathan said, looking annoyed.

  “I’ll fix it,” she said quickly. She’d never once made coffee without a coffeemaker, but she wasn’t going to let that stand in her way. She’d simply Google—

  The thought screeched to a halt.

  Without internet, she wouldn’t be looking up how to do anything at all. Not on Google or any other search engine. “Just go on and do your thing and I’ll bring it when it’s brewed.”

  Nathan immediately pushed open the screen door again. “Sounds good to me,” he said as he left. She heard his whistle and Sugar’s answering bark.

  Jayden didn’t go so quickly, though. “You sure you don’t mind—”

  “I’m not exactly a guest. If it weren’t for the weather, you wouldn’t be saddled with me at all.”

  “Don’t hear me complaining, do you?”

  She chewed the inside of her lip, wallowing a little in pleasure.

  “Seems to me my brother and I are the ones benefiting all around.” He peeled the plastic cover off the coffee can and the smell of ground coffee filled the room, tantalizing her taste buds. “But you’ve got a crunched car and nothing for that magazine article of yours.”

  At the reminder, her pleasure stepped right into a pothole, tripping all over itself.

  She set her insurance card on the counter. Until she had more information one way or the other about Jayden and his brothers’ “made up” Fortune name, she needed to focus on more immediate matters.

  Like coffee.

  “On the other hand, I wasn’t alone and out on the road when my car decided to tangle with the wind.” She had to wait out the sudden tightening in her chest. “And for that, I have you to thank,” she finished huskily. “Seriously, Jayden. Who knows what might have happened if you hadn’t stopped to check on me. Thank you.”

  He waited a beat. Then two. And when he spoke again, his voice was low and impossibly deep. “My pleasure.”

  She moistened her lips.

  Nathan’s impatient shout from outdoors felt like a bucket of cold water being thrown in her face.

  And judging by Jayden’s rueful expression, she was pretty sure he felt the same. He angled his head toward the screen door. “I’d better make sure he doesn’t tear down half the barn while he’s at it.”

  She nodded quickly. “Of course. I’m not a guest, remember?”

  His beautiful mouth twitched. “Maybe not. But you’re sure the prettiest thing the wind’s ever blown in.”

  “You’re the pretty one.” The words came out before she could stop them.

  His eyebrows shot up. He let out a short bark of laughter, and shaking his head, he followed his brother’s path out the screen door.

  The second it banged softly back in place, Ariana exhaled shakily and leaned back against the counter. “Not good, girl,” she whispered to herself. “Objectivity is key. So you can’t go falling for someone you’re writing about.”

  And if you’re not writing about him?

  She shook off the notion. The storm had complicated things for her, but she still had a book advance to earn. She’d do well to remember it.

  Then she turned and stuck the coffeepot under the sink faucet.

  She didn’t know how to make coffee in it, but she was pretty certain that she wanted the thing to at least be clean inside when she started. Then she’d just use the old-fashioned rotary-dial phone hanging on the wall to call and ask her mom what to do with it.

  * * *

  Her car didn’t need to be dragged by a rope behind Jayden’s truck after all.

  Turned out the brothers had a flatbed trailer on which they loaded her car later that day. And the trailer was hauled behind Jayden’s truck.

  When he’d asked if she wanted to accompany him for the drive into town, she’d eagerly agreed.

  Only because of her curiosity about Paseo in general, of course.

  Not because sitting beside him in the front of his pickup truck going anywhere at all was too tempting to pass up. No, not at all.

  Nor did she feel like a teenage girl on her first real car-date with the high-school quarterback, either.

  She could feel a wry smile determined to work its way loose and turned to look out the side window as they drove down the highway. Once again, all she could see for miles was grass, grass and more grass. It undulated this way and that in the breeze in a mesmerizing manner. One way, nearly golden. The other, nearly green. Then swoosh, back again.

  “What’re you thinking about over there?”

  Nothing that she felt compelled to admit. Yet she still couldn’t wipe off the smile that she knew was on her face as she looked back at him. He’d tossed his hat on the dashboard and his short hair was ruffling in the warm air blowing through his opened window. “Just thinking that there is sure a lot of open space.”

  “Yep.”

  Looking at him was too enjoyable to stop. “What made you decide to leave here and go into the army?”

  “The opportunity to leave.” He had a few laugh lines radiating from the corners of his eyes. She’d noticed the faint lines when his expression was serious because they were slightly lighter. Which made her think he spent a lot of time outdoors either laughing in the sun or squinting in it. Right now, his amusement evident from the glint in his eyes to the slant of his lips, she figured the odds were about even, either way. “Like you said. Lots of open space around here.”

  “Too much?”

  “For a restless eighteen-year-old kid, yeah.”

  “You enlisted right out of high school?”

  “I wanted to. My mom had a fit. She insisted on college first.”

  “Where’d you go?”

  “TJC.”

  Tyler Junior College, she deciphered.

  “You?”

  “University of Texas.”

  “Journalism, I’m guessing.”

  She shook her head. “Advertising at first, actually. Only I never quite fit.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t comfortable enticing people to want what you’re selling even if you don’t happen to believe in it yourself.”

  “And you think journalism is more ethical?”

  “I don’t think there’s anything unethical about either. As long as it’s done with integrity. Advertising is an interesting mix of science and art. But the further along I got in school, the less satisfying it felt.”

  “Journalism satisfies you?”

  “It’s getting there.” Her book deal certainly didn’t hurt on that score. “I like writing,” she said honestly. “I like people. I like learning about their lives and interests and understanding what makes them tick.”

  “Surprised you didn’t switch to psychology, then.”

  She chuckled. “I minored in sociology. That’s close enough for me. What’d you study in Tyler?”

  His smile widened. “Girls.” He shrugged. “Criminal justice. But only because I had to pick something.”

  She was surprised, though she probably shouldn’t have been. He’d told her already that he’d been an MP in the army. But she had no idea if that was something a person sought out or if it was assigned. “Did you want to be a cop?”

  “No. I just wanted out of Paseo. TJC was as good as any other place and it was affordable. It was far enough from home that I finally got the dirt out from under my nails and the smell of hay off my skin. And the second I graduated with an associate degree, I trucked on down to see the recruiter. Two years later than I’d originally wanted.”

  “Do you feel like yo
ur time at Tyler was wasted?”

  His smile kicked up again. “Nah. There were the girls, after all.”

  She laughed and realized they were slowing. Since they’d gotten on the highway, they hadn’t passed a single other car. “Was there anyone serious?”

  “Not serious enough to keep me from enlisting.”

  “And after that? You were in the army for fifteen years.” She caught the look he gave her. “What?”

  “Good memory.”

  “I like to think so, but you told me that just yesterday when we were in the storm cellar.”

  “Yeah, but a lot’s happened since then. Seems longer than just a day.”

  Heat flowed swiftly in her veins from thinking about how much had happened. It wasn’t just the storm. It was him.

  “Well, I don’t worry that you’re an ax murderer anymore,” she admitted.

  His concentration was forward as he turned off the highway onto a narrow paved road, but he shot her a quick look. “Ax murderer?”

  “You never know.” She raised her eyebrows right back at him. “A complete stranger on a remote Texas road? Blockbuster slasher movies have been made on less.” When her mother had heard about the situation, she had been nearly apoplectic until Ariana told her that Jayden and his brother were The Grayson’s brothers.

  Evidently the fact that Karen had heard of the rodeo rider lent some legitimacy to Ariana’s situation.

  “Maybe I figured you were an ax murderer,” Jayden countered.

  She shook her head immediately. “Statistics are all wrong. Eighty-seven percent of murders are committed by men.”

  “Should I be alarmed that you can pull that stat out of your head?” He shot her an amused look. “You don’t have to tell me what men are more capable of doing. But trust me. Women don’t get a pass, either.”

  “Didn’t say that they did.”

  “So if you were so worried I was the next character out of a horror flick, why go with me at all?”

  “Sugar. What can I say?” she added at the expression that earned from him. “You’d tied a bandanna around her neck for a collar.”

  “Because crazed people never have dogs?” His tone was dry. “Frankly, I was glad that you had the sense to show some caution.” He’d reached a run-down-looking house. He propped his arm over the top of the steering wheel and peered through the windshield. “Should have shown more, probably.”

  She looked skeptically from him toward the house. It was surrounded by a chain-link fence behind which a growling white pit bull was racing back and forth along the rut it had worn among the weeds. “Where you’re concerned or where this place is concerned?”

  Unlike Jayden’s stone-fronted home, which had a comfortable and welcoming demeanor, this place practically shouted “stay away.”

  “If I had a sister, I’d want her to assume every man wanted something from her they shouldn’t.”

  “I’m not your sister.”

  His gaze dropped to her mouth for a moment. Then he grabbed his hat off the dash and planted it low over his forehead and pushed open the truck door. “Thank God for that,” he said as he climbed out.

  She started to open her own door but stopped when she realized he was coming around to open it for her. “The only man who always opens my door for me is my father,” she said as she hopped out.

  “I’m not your father.”

  She couldn’t stop her smile. “Thank God for that.”

  The frenzied dog’s growling had graduated to barking, and the racket drew a short, skinny man wearing denim overalls and a stained ball cap from around the side of the house. “Betsy, shut up,” he yelled and the dog’s barking immediately subsided to a yip. She reared up on her hind legs and hung her front paws over the top of the fence.

  Ariana almost wished she’d stayed inside the truck. “She’s not going to jump the fence, is she?”

  The man in the overalls had reached them. “Nah,” he drawled. “Less’n you give her a reason to.” He stuck out a hand that was missing half a forefinger toward Jayden and grinned as they shook briefly. He had a lined, weathered face that could have put him anywhere between fifty and eighty. “She’s got a real soft spot for Sugar.”

  “Last time I brought her with me to see Charlie, it took us a whole day to track them down,” Jayden said. “Learned the hard way that I had to leave her at home whenever I come here.” He introduced her. “Ariana Lamonte, meet Charlie Esparza.”

  “Fool pooches were halfway to the next county.” Charlie doffed his cap, revealing a shock of white hair that he dipped in her direction in a vaguely quaint, courtly manner, even though he was a good head shorter than she was. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, miss. Sorry it’s because of that tornado.” He looked back at Jayden. “Glad to hear things weren’t torn up too bad over at your place.”

  “Nothing we can’t put back together again with a few days’ time. Unlike the Ybarras’ house. Figured we’d stop by there on our way back home,” Jayden told him. “See how they’re doing.”

  That was news to Ariana, but obviously not surprising to Charlie, who nodded. “’Spect they’ll have a lot of people callin’. Damn shame about their farmhouse.” He gave Ariana an apologetic look. “Pardon my French, miss.”

  She couldn’t help her bemusement. “Ariana, please.”

  “That’s a real pretty name, miss.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Watch out for Charlie here.” Jayden clapped the man on the shoulder. “Besides his considerable skill at flirting, he’s been fixing up everything on wheels around these parts ever since I was a kid.”

  “Since before you wrecked your first car, that’s for sure.” He replaced his ball cap and walked to the trailer and her car. “Looked a lot worse than this little doll, if I remember rightly.”

  “And I was driving that old Mustang for another couple years.”

  “Until he wrecked it again,” Charlie told Ariana in an aside.

  “I’ve never even had a fender bender,” Ariana admitted. “What caused your accidents?”

  “Fool-headedness,” Charlie said before Jayden could.

  She looked from the older man to Jayden. He’d reached one hand over the fence to pet Betsy’s head. Gone were the ferocious teeth she’d been baring, and instead, her long tongue hung out of her triangular face as she panted. It almost looked like the dog was smiling.

  “Racing a friend out on the highway.” He rubbed the dog’s floppy ears and Betsy’s eyes rolled in pleasure. “Fool-headedness, just like Charlie said.”

  “The first wreck or the second?”

  Jayden’s lips twisted wryly. “Both.” He gave the dog a final pat, much to Betsy’s obvious dismay, and moved over to the car as well. He propped his hands on his lean hips. “So what do you think, Charlie?”

  In answer, the man nimbly climbed up on the trailer, working his way around the car. “Gonna take some time. Parts for these hybrids are harder to come by than some.”

  She may not have had experience with vehicular accidents, but she did have some dealing with auto repair shops since the car she’d owned before this one had broken down more often than it had run. “Where do you do the work, Mr. Esparza?”

  “Charlie,” the man corrected her, hopping down to the ground next to her. “Back in the garage.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of the house. “Drive ’er on back,” he told Jayden. “We’ll get ’er unloaded.”

  “I have insurance,” she said quickly. “They’ll want an estimate before they’ll pay for work. And I don’t know if Jayden told you, but I can’t find the key—”

  Charlie waved off her words. “Sure ’nough, miss. We’ll get all that official stuff taken care of. And I can get a replacement key just like the rest of the parts, no problem. Just takes time, like I said. Don�
��t worry yourself none. Everything’ll be fine.” He looked at Jayden. “Pull up by the back bay,” he said and started walking away.

  Jayden opened Ariana’s door again and she climbed in.

  Then he drove around the run-down-looking house and she spotted the garage. It was easily four times the size of the house and not run-down in the least. “Wow.”

  “Yeah.” Jayden clearly understood her surprise. “What Charlie doesn’t put into his house, he puts into the garage. It’s his one true love. Guy does everything from bodywork to building cars from the ground up.”

  He backed the trailer up to one of the several oversized garage doors. They were all closed, but as Charlie neared, the one behind them began opening and Ariana could see inside the cavernous space that already housed a sports car with its hood up, a fancy-looking boat on a trailer and a half-dozen motorcycles in various stages of assembly.

  “Looks like he does more than just cars. There’s enough water around here for a boat?”

  “If you don’t mind a bit of a drive.” He got out of the truck. “Charlie’s got an office inside on the other side of that tire rack if you want to go over and wait while we get your car unloaded.”

  She’d already taken her insurance information out of the glove box. Aside from the clothes on her back, at the moment, the insurance information and her still-inoperable cell phone comprised all of her personal effects. With both in hand, she walked through the spotless garage into the office. It had a glass door and she could see Jayden and Charlie make quick work of unloading her small car. Then the two men started toward the office, stopping along the way to check out one of the motorcycles.

  Ariana couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight they made. Physically, the two men couldn’t be more different. But their expressions as they lovingly examined the bike were exactly the same.

  She was still smiling when they pushed through the glass door. Charlie shuffled around to sit behind a metal desk that had only a single in-box sitting on its surface, squarely aligned in one corner, while Jayden sauntered to where Ariana was sitting in one of the black-and-white-checked chairs lined against the wall beside a small, also spotless, restroom.