Jared (Coyote Ridge) (Volume 2)

by Nicole Edwards

“But what if they are?” Mercy countered, looking a little panicked. “I mean, if they’ve got families of their own… Multiply that by three, on average… I don’t know if we’ve got room for that many people. How will we feed them all?”

  “We’ve got room,” Hope assured her. “And we’ll have plenty of food on hand. Plus, it’ll be good for business.”

  “How long’ll they be here?” Mercy inquired.

  Hope shrugged. “I’d guess a week.” She didn’t know for sure, but if there were that many family members, it only made sense.

  “If we even have a week we can squeeze them in,” Faith noted. “I assume we’re talkin’ around a hundred people or more. That’ll fill up most of our cabins and all of the main house.”

  “It’ll be tight,” Hope added, “but it’s not impossible.”

  Hope had come to the recreation center to check in with her sisters after she’d showered and grabbed a bite to eat. Gracie and Faith had somehow worked their magic and had a lot of Hope’s clothes transferred to the main house in one of the guest rooms that offered a little privacy. It actually wasn’t too bad, but Hope fully intended to get moved into another one of the cabins as soon as she possibly could. Unfortunately, the ones she had to choose from were all currently occupied, or reserved, so she would have to wait.

  Since her schedule had been opened wide thanks to her sisters’ good deeds, Hope had decided to seek out Grace and Faith to thank them. Unfortunately, she hadn’t found Grace, but she had run into Mercy and Faith. How they’d gotten on the topic of Jared Walker, she wasn’t quite sure, but now she couldn’t seem to change the subject no matter how hard she’d tried.

  And she had certainly tried.

  Shit, for the past few hours, Hope had done her level best not to think about the brooding cowboy with his devilish smirk and bedroom eyes. The same cowboy who had a little boy.

  Yep, that quickly put a damper on her libido. The thought of spending time with another kid only to have that kid ripped out of her life… Hope wasn’t interested, thank you very much.

  “Has he called you yet?” Mercy inquired, reaching for her beer and tilting the bottle to her lips.

  “No.” Hope reached for her own beer. “And I don’t expect him to. At least not for a few days. I gave him the information packet, so I’m sure he’ll have to talk to his family. And he’s not gonna call me. He’ll call the ranch office,” she added, glancing over at Faith. “I figure you can help him with anything he needs.”

  “Or he’ll call and say they want to book the first week of October,” Mercy grumbled. “We need more time than that to get things ready.”

  “And we won’t refuse his business,” Faith answered with a little impatience in her tone. “If we can accommodate a hundred people, we’ll make it happen. If not, we’ll suggest a different date. However”—her eyes locked on Hope’s face—“I don’t have time to handle that right now. I’m tryin’ to handle the insurance claim on the cabin.”

  “I’m sure he won’t call right away,” she countered. Hope wasn’t going to be placing any bets on Jared calling to set up that quickly. Although impatient, he didn’t seem like the type of guy to make decisions without knowing all the details. If she had to guess, he would be working through the logistics before he called back.

  Or he wouldn’t. She would have to wait and see.

  Hope took a sip of her beer. “You seen Gracie?”

  Faith nodded, then smiled. “She was headin’ out to the barn when I saw her about half an hour ago.”

  The barn? What would Gracie be doing—

  “With Grant and Lane,” Faith added helpfully.

  Hope shook her head. Of course her sister would be going to the barn with her men. Which meant no one else should be going out to the barn. No reason they should be subjected to … that. Hell, Hope remembered the day she’d accidentally rolled up on the three of them at Grace’s cabin. Needless to say, Hope had made a point to schedule her visits since that day.

  The thought made her laugh.

  “So, tell me about Jared Walker,” Faith prodded.

  “Nothin’ to tell.”

  “And that right there means there’s a lot to tell,” Mercy quipped. “Is he hot? I’ve seen Cheyenne’s fiancé and … holy hell. Did you know he’s got an identical twin? I mean, God was in a great mood that day.”

  “Whatever.” Hope knew her sisters were teasing her. They always did. Good grief, when she’d been seeing Ben for that brief period of time, they’d given her endless shit about it. And Ben was a tried-and-true city boy. They’d had very little in common, but that didn’t stop them from talking for hours.

  “I heard he has a killer ass,” Faith stated.

  Hope felt her cheeks heat; the memory of getting caught staring at that killer ass beat against her brain. Yep, killer was a nice way to sum it up.

  Mercy chuckled. “Cheyenne said he’s single.”

  “And that means what to me?” Hope didn’t care if he was single, although she already knew he was thanks to her awkward questioning earlier. The guy probably thought she was sitting around lusting after him.

  She wasn’t.

  “Woman, your face is going to burst into flame at any moment,” Faith said with a giggle.

  Hope was surprised it hadn’t already.

  How the hell had she gotten to this point? Her day had started out simply enough, then Jared Walker had walked onto the ranch and…

  And what?

  He’d sparked the dry kindling of her libido?

  Okay, maybe a little.

  But she had a surefire way of putting that out. It required half an hour with her battery-operated boyfriend, and she’d be good for another year or two.

  “She’s smitten,” Faith whispered.

  “She is not smitten,” Hope denied.

  “Oh, you definitely are,” Mercy insisted. “And to think, if all goes well, this cowboy’s gonna be spendin’ a week right here on this ranch. What’re you gonna do then?”

  That was a question Hope had already asked herself. More than once.

  And she still didn’t have a damn answer.

  Not one that made sense anyway.

  Chapter Six

  “I WANNA HELP!”

  Jared grinned at Derrick, watching as his son picked up a screwdriver Jared had set on the ground near all the other tools he knew he needed.

  “Yeah?”

  Derrick nodded. “Yep. I can put the screw in.”

  “Come on, big man, let’s do this,” Jared said, swooping Derrick up in his arms and carrying him over to the two-by-fours he’d managed to connect.

  He dug an extra screw from his pocket, then plopped down into the grass with Derrick in his lap.

  “Wet’s do this!” Derrick squealed.

  Holding the sharp end of the screw against the wood, Jared sat patiently while Derrick stabbed the other end (along with Jared’s hand) numerous times as he attempted to complete his task. Since this particular screw didn’t matter, Jared didn’t worry about how well Derrick did, just that he enjoyed doing it.

  With a little help from Jared, Derrick managed to get the screw into the wood—or the tip of it anyway—which was all he seemed to care about. When he saw that the little silver piece was standing on its own, Derrick hopped out of Jared’s lap, dropped the screwdriver, and started dancing around.

  “Did it! I did it!”

  “You definitely did, big man. Now what d’ya say we grab some lunch?”

  “SkeddieOs! SkeddieOs!”

  “SpaghettiOs, huh?”

  Derrick nodded, grabbing Jared’s hand as he tugged him toward the house.

  With more patience than he ever thought he would have, Jared got Derrick settled at the table, pulled a can of SpaghettiOs out of the cabinet, and got to work heating them up.

  �
��Dad, can Mason come over?”

  Jared peered at Derrick over his shoulder. “I’ll have to call his dad to see,” he explained.

  “Where’s your phone? I wiw get it!”

  And off Derrick went to find Jared’s cell phone. He definitely didn’t mind the idea of Mason coming over, especially if that meant Kaleb would join him. Jared wouldn’t deny needing help to get the swing set put together. At this rate, if he had to do it by himself, Derrick’s little butt wouldn’t see a swing until he was five.

  “Here ya go, Dad! Your cew phone.”

  Jared took his phone and set it on the counter while he pulled the food from the microwave, stirred it, then set the bowl down, urging his son back up to the table.

  “Miwk, pwease,” Derrick called out as soon as Jared got back to the counter.

  Without hesitating, he grabbed a cup, filled it with milk, then delivered it back to the table.

  “Thanks, Dad!”

  “You’re welcome, big man.”

  It was a little awkward to hear Derrick call him Dad considering he’d been calling him Daddy for so long. Apparently, another kid at Derrick’s day care called his father Dad, and Derrick had taken to doing the same thing.

  “Caw Mason!”

  “What d’ya say?” Jared replied.

  “Pwease!”

  Grabbing his phone, he pulled up Kaleb’s number and hit the call button.

  “If you’re askin’ for me to bring this crazy, rotten kid over, I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

  Jared laughed at Kaleb’s greeting. “He drivin’ you nuts?”

  “Good grief,” Kaleb said on a sharp exhale. “The boy won’t sit still.”

  “Well, if you’re up for it, I could use some extra hands to help with the swing set.”

  “That works perfect. Zoey took Kellan over to V’s, so it’s just me and Mason. Lemme get some shorts on the kid and we’ll be right over.”

  “See ya in a few.”

  “Is he comin’?” Derrick hollered as soon as Jared put the phone down.

  “He’s comin’,” he assured his son.

  “Yay!” Derrick fist pumped the air. “Wiw you have the swing set finished? We wanna swing.”

  “It’ll be a while, but I’ll get it done.” Jared leaned over, putting his elbows on the counter while he watched Derrick shovel SpaghettiOs into his mouth—the Os usually made it, but the rest was dribbling down Derrick’s chin.

  Derrick turned serious eyes on Jared. “Well,” he said, struggling to get his tongue around the L sound, “if you need help, Dad, just wemme know. I’m the big man now, so I can get it done.”

  Jared chuckled, his heart swelling at least three sizes as he stared at the greatest gift he’d ever received. “I’ll remember that.”

  Four hours later, with the boys safely watching Paw Patrol in the living room, Jared hooked the last swing.

  “You think it’ll hold?” Kaleb asked, a smirk hidden behind the lip of his beer bottle.

  “Since you were the one doin’ most of the work, I’m kinda leery about it, too,” Jared deadpanned.

  “Well, why don’t you sit your happy ass down there and test it out?” Kaleb taunted, still grinning.

  Jared pretended to think about it but then turned and headed to the back door. He stuck his face up to the screen and whistled.

  Within a second, two munchkins came barreling toward him, barely giving him enough time to pull the screen open.

  “Is it done? Is it done? Can we swing?” Derrick hollered.

  “Can we swing?” Mason echoed, mimicking Derrick.

  “Y’all can swing,” Jared confirmed.

  Kaleb set his beer on the platform by the slide, then helped Mason and then Derrick into the swings. Jared chuckled when Mason began violently kicking his legs in an attempt to make it move with no luck.

  With beer in hand, Jared moved around behind the boys while Kaleb did the same. They proceeded to pull the swings back, then gave them a gentle nudge forward. Mason and Derrick squealed with excitement.

  “So, you get any more details on this ranch idea for the reunion?”

  Jared took a swig of his beer, gave Derrick another push, and glanced over at his cousin. “I checked it out yesterday. Nice place.”

  “Cheyenne was tellin’ Zoey about it a while back. She also happened to mention she had five cousins.”

  Jared heard the amusement in Kaleb’s tone.

  “Female cousins,” Kaleb added.

  “Yep, that’s what they say.” Jared feigned disinterest. Truth was, he’d spent far too much time already thinking about one of Cheyenne’s female cousins ever since he laid eyes on her yesterday.

  Hope Lambert was a woman that no red-blooded man would forget after meeting her.

  “I know that look.”

  Jared snapped his eyes over to Kaleb. “What look?”

  “That look.” Kaleb pointed with his beer bottle.

  “Man, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

  “You forget I’ve got six brothers. Every last one of ’em fell in love after I did. I watched it happen.” Kaleb was grinning from ear to ear. “I know the first signs when I see ’em.”

  Jared snorted. “You’re outta your mind.”

  Derrick snorted, copying Jared. “Yeah! You’re outta your mind!”

  Mason followed suit. “Outta mind!”

  Kaleb shook his head because he knew as well as Jared that they’d be listening to that for hours to come. But the grin never left his face.

  Jared could’ve told him there was no way in hell he would ever fall in love with a woman again. He’d been burned too badly. Not interested.

  He didn’t give a good goddamn how fucking hot Hope Lambert was. Falling in love with a woman wasn’t in his life plan.

  HOPE MADE HER way to the dining room for dinner. She’d managed to sneak in a shower, pull on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, pile her wet hair up on her head, and decided she was done for the day. Sure, she’d gotten her chores completed, but when she said done, she meant done. Anything else that came up tonight was going to be Grant’s problem.

  “There’s still some left,” Jennifer called from the kitchen. “But you better hurry.”

  Hope mussed Joey’s hair as she passed the little boy on her way to get the leftovers. “What’s up, shorty?”

  “Hi, Hope,” he said, never taking his attention off the macaroni and cheese on his plate.

  Stepping into the kitchen, Hope inhaled the incredible smell.

  “Chicken-fried chicken and cream gravy. Probably some mashed potatoes left, too.”

  “You know, Jen, I think you’re spoilin’ these boys. You surprise them with this all the time, and they’ll start refusin’ to eat the bird food.”

  Jennifer laughed. “It’s not bird food.”

  “Coulda fooled me.”

  “Well, if you wanna know the truth, I only keep making it ’cause you’re lookin’ a little skinny.”

  Instinctively, Hope glanced down at her body. Her clothes were a little big, but not too bad. She’d probably lost three, maybe five pounds recently. Far more than she should have, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to keep the weight on. Some people didn’t understand how that could be a problem, but Hope felt it when she lost too much weight. She never felt good; she was always tired. It was a vicious cycle she seemed to be caught up in.

  “Oh, and I saw that handsome cowboy you were chattin’ with yesterday.”

  Hope shook her head as she spooned potatoes onto her plate. “He’s lookin’ to host a family reunion here on the ranch.”

  “Mm-hmm. I saw the way he was checkin’ you out.”

  Swinging around to face her friend, Hope snorted a laugh. Very unladylike, but she couldn’t help herself. “He was not.�
�

  “Oh, he most definitely was,” Jennifer told her, extremely serious.

  “Whatever.” Hope grabbed a fork and took a bite. She was too hungry to wait until she sat down.

  “So, who is he?”

  “Jared Walker. My cousin Cheyenne’s engaged to his cousin Brendon.”

  “Sounds to me like maybe good ol’ Chey sent Jared your way for a reason.”

  Hope hadn’t thought of that, but she seriously doubted it. Then again, Jared did seem completely beside himself when it came to getting this reunion nailed down.

  Not that any of it mattered. She needed to get her mind off the man, and Jennifer certainly wasn’t helping matters. Which was why Hope decided to change the subject.

  “What about you?” Hope pointed with her fork. “I saw you and Zach talking the other night.”

  Zach McCallum was the ranch’s on-hand medic. From what Hope could tell, the man did not try to hide the fact that he had a crush on the sweet chef.

  As she expected, Jennifer blushed but quickly turned away. “We’re friends.”

  Right. Friends. Because friends made you blush like a virgin. Uh-huh.

  Hope chuckled. “I’ll catch you later. Come out there if you can take a break in here.”

  “I gotta get breakfast started. I like to be prepared when I get up in the morning. That way I can serve any early risers.”

  “No worries. Talk to you later,” she said as she carried her plate of food into the dining room.

  Since it was late, the dinner rush had long since faded, and there were only a few guests sitting at the tables—a couple of guys playing checkers, two women drinking coffee and talking animatedly. Hope didn’t want to interrupt or look as though she was eavesdropping, so she stepped out on the back porch to finish her food.

  Leaning against the rail, she peered into the twilight. Since it was only September, the sun was still lingering a little longer in the evening than it would in the coming weeks. Hope liked that part of the year, when the days didn’t feel quite as never-ending. Since she worked such long hours, she generally forced herself to quit early when it got dark.

  She hopped up on the rail and continued to eat, catching a glimpse of the few people who were still wandering about. Most of them were wranglers who were heading to the bunkhouse for the night, some probably heading to the bar in town. Even with those people, it was peaceful out here. She could hear the crickets chirping, a few birds that were up past their bedtime singing in the trees surrounding the house. Every now and then, she could hear the click of a bat as it swooped past.