Winning Over the Rancher

by Mary Brady

  “Have any of you checked these references closely?” Baylor asked as he studied each member of his family again.

  Evvy extracted a folder from a stack of papers, spread out several glossy prints on the coffee table and handed him a list of names and contact information. “We called them all. They had nothing but praise.”

  Baylor examined the list and then each photo. They all were impressive. He had thought that the first time he went through them. There were individual homes, and two concept communities, but there was one problem. “You know there is a big gap in her work résumé.”

  “She apparently let the business slide early on in her marriage,” Seth said. “But before that…”

  “And she wants to relaunch with us?”

  “Baylor, worst case, what if she can’t do it?” Holly asked.

  “More of us leave the valley than just me, and soon.” Baylor’s blunt response made the group go quiet.

  With no one speaking, the children could be heard playing in the back of the house. His brothers had three children between them. The neighboring ranch had lent their housekeeper to see to the little ones so all the family members could be present for the meeting and not be distracted.

  His family was right about one thing. K. L. Morgan was the lowest bidder and that was another reason he wanted to eliminate her. You get what you pay for. Could they afford the lowest bidder? Would it all fall apart before it was completed or collapse in the middle of a stormy night?

  Yet she had covered as much and, in some cases, more than the other designers and contractors had covered in their proposals. As far as he could tell, her plans were impeccable.

  There was one thing about KayLee Morgan the others did not offer and Baylor was somewhat uncomfortable admitting it even to himself. The woman was hot, hotter than this valley had ever seen—and he suspected she was that way before pregnancy made her curves so seductive.

  “She is the most convincing candidate, Bay, and we need her.” Lance took his stand. “But, most of all, we need you on our side.”

  On their side. Ultimately, if Baylor fought hard enough, the decision would be entirely up to him. They had paid dearly in hard-earned cash they could have spent on themselves, but instead they gave him a university education. They sent him out to gather the collective know-how of ranchers and farmers all over the country and bring it back to the Shadow Range. Now their livelihood depended on his being good enough to make the right move.

  He helped his mother up from the couch, and she followed him as he left the room with the paperwork in his hand.

  “Did you find out anything about your sister?”

  Baylor felt the sharpness of the pain in his mother’s voice and shook his head.

  He stopped and hugged her. At times like this he wondered how she withstood the pressure of her life. He knew she’d take the blows for each of her children and grandchildren if she could.

  KAYLEE HAD TRULY BELIEVED she had a shot this time. When tears she couldn’t stop filled her eyes, she steered the car off the road and shut off the engine. Crying on mountain roads didn’t seem all that smart.

  The off-road parking spot had to have been put there for the view, so when the tears passed and since she had no idea what to do next, she viewed.

  She stared out at scenery so stunning it almost made her brain hurt. Mountain peaks soared in the distance. The midafternoon sun danced in sparkles off the melting snow around her car. The tops of tall pine trees peeked out from the deep canyon beside the road, and water burbled down from the rock face that shot straight up on the other side of the car.

  She shifted her gaze down to the lump where her lap used to be and put both hands on her swollen belly. “I am so sorry, my little peanut. Mommy had great hopes for this gig.”

  She’d spend the night at the Easy Breezy Inn because she’d already paid for and used the room at the only motel in town. Tomorrow, she could head for her mother’s home in Wisconsin. Her mother always said “Anything I can do to help, dear” and always found a reason not to. If KayLee showed up on her doorstep, even her mother might take her in for a week or two until KayLee got a job.

  And she’d get a job. She was actually a sane, competent person who was a bit emotional these days. She’d take a firm hold of herself and put things together so they made sense. She always had before and she’d do it again even if that meant leaning on her reluctant mother for a bit.

  If her mother wasn’t in a hut on Bali or sharing a rustic villa in the south of France with a couple dozen hippie wannabes, several dogs and maybe her ex-husband.

  She took out her mobile phone to see if she could find her mother.

  “No bars.” She patted her belly. “It’s us two, baby, baby. As usual.”

  The warm sunshine bathed her and relaxed her. She had only driven a few hours this morning to get to St. Adelbert from Missoula for the early afternoon appointment with the Doyle family, but she was so tired. She felt as if she had driven the entire route from Southern California in one day, from the old motel in Ocean-side to be exact.

  The motel where she had taken refuge after losing her home was located right next to the junkyard, complete with rottweilers and across the street from the re-sale shop where she was lucky enough to find maternity clothes. She hadn’t been able to afford a motel in the fancy community of La Jolla, where she had shared a home with her husband.

  Chad. Handsome. Crazy in a fun wild way. A genius. And why did he have to die without meeting his child? He might have been able to love their baby someday, even if he hadn’t been able to love the baby’s mother for a long time.

  She leaned over the steering wheel, put her forehead on her clasped hands and closed her eyes against the hurt.

  BAYLOR MOUNTED BLUE MOON, his American Paint Horse, and rode past the barn and deeper into the ranch, down the half-rutted, half-muddy road into the pine forest. He had read all the information gathered on K. L. Morgan and carefully reread the proposal she had left behind. He had spoken with family members individually about what they thought and why. He still had no clear idea of what to do, but he’d always found the best place on the ranch to think was on horseback.

  He nudged Blue Moon forward and, when he came to the break in the trees, headed out onto the meadow and let his thoughts and the horse wander.

  The Paint chose to meander down toward the stream, and Baylor’s mind came up with full, rosy pink lips below a straight nose, flanked by flushing high cheekbones and long dark blond hair, begging to be picked up and rubbed between finger and thumb.

  Baylor fisted the hand that had started to act as if it were feeling her silky hair, and it would be silky.

  There was scant room for debate. K. L. Morgan was sexy. Her round curves pressing against the blue dress had captivated him.

  He did like the idea of having the buck-stops-here person in the valley overseeing the job full-time. If everything went well, she could have the project up and running in a couple of weeks and he could be gone from the valley sooner rather than later.

  The opportunity he’d been offered overseeing several ranches outside of Denver, and outside of this confining corner of Montana, wasn’t going to keep forever. He could live in Denver and keep his Paint at one of the ranches he was overseeing.

  He knew he never wanted to leave the ranch life completely behind. Ranching was what he lived and breathed. He couldn’t even imagine himself in a nine-to-five job, but the St. Adelbert Valley offered nothing new, nothing innovative, nothing to catch his interest. He’d wanted out for as long as he could remember.

  And he could, without alerting or in some cases alarming his family, try to find Crystal.

  J&J Holdings, LLC, had said they’d hold the position for him for sixty days. Nearly half of that time had already passed while they continued the search for someone willing and able to help them build the Shadow Range Eco Ranch at a price they might be able to afford.

  The person or persons hired would alter the family homestead
forever and ran the risk of destroying the way of life for many generations of Doyles. The decision of whom to hire could not be made on the basis of the looks or the need of the candidate.

  With a kernel of an idea, he headed his Paint back toward the barn.

  A SHARP RAP ON THE WINDOW beside KayLee’s head woke her, and—FCOL—she almost wet her pants. She snapped her head up to see a man in a sheriff’s uniform standing outside her car with one hand resting on his holstered gun.

  No…no crying out loud or crying at all because now she was going to be thrown out of the county at gun-point for loitering and maybe even all the way out of the state, if the size of the sheriff determined how far he’d toss her.

  Did they throw you out for loitering in Montana?

  She tried desperately to clear her brain of the sleep fog and lowered her window.

  “Ma’am. Are you okay?” The big man blocked the late afternoon sun so she didn’t have to squint at him.

  Late afternoon! No wonder she needed to find a restroom so badly.

  KayLee unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth. “I think I’m okay, Sheriff Potts,” she said, reading the name off his name tag.

  She took inventory. She must have been asleep for at least a couple of hours.

  “Ms. Morgan, there are some people looking for you.”

  “You know who I am? Of course.” She at least still owned the car she drove.

  He waited politely for her to wake up some more.

  Wait… Some people? “Some people?” Oh, God. Chad’s creditors had found her. No. They had already taken everything they could. She was finished with them, at least that’s what her attorney had said. “Some people. Who?”

  He smiled in at her. A smile was good. A confident smile.

  “The Doyle family,” he said in a voice she figured could echo through the canyons if he wanted it to.

  “Oh, them.” Her shoulders sagged, followed by her whole body. At least with the bill collectors it hadn’t been personal. With the Doyles it seemed very much so.

  “Are you sure you’re all right, ma’am?”

  “I’m fine. I’m— I was resting.” And she’d been rebuffed enough for today.

  “Baylor Doyle asked me to keep an eye out for you. He thought you were headed for the Easy Breezy and when you didn’t show up, the Doyles got worried.”

  The Easy Breezy Inn, small and old, fit her budget and since her home was the pillow in her trunk…. The Doyles most likely wanted to tell her to keep on driving, don’t bother to stop in town. She’d get their message when she got bars.

  “Well, Sheriff, I thought I’d get to pretend for a while longer that they still wanted to hire me.” Why was she talking to this guy as if he were her best bud, her BFF in LaLa Land-speak? He wouldn’t care if she got a job in this valley or not. Ha, she might never see him again in her life. BFF.

  Tears spilled down her cheeks and she blubbered right there, sitting in her car, in front of Montana law, because she didn’t even have a best friend west of the Mississippi River, ’cause she was sure Addis Ababa, where her only friend was currently working on an indie film, was considered east.

  Oh, she loved these hormones. They gave her permission to feel anything she wanted to feel and right now she wanted to feel sorry for herself.

  The sheriff towered over her, arms folded over his chest, somehow seeming more friendly than threatening. It seemed they all did the arms-over-the-chest thing here in Montana. Well at least he’d let go of his gun.

  And he was patient enough to wait while she cried.

  “I’ll—I’ll move on in a few minutes, Sheriff. When the falling water is all on the outside of my car.” She pointed lamely at the water dribbling down the rocks.

  “Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “Got any job openings?” She rubbed her fingers across her wet cheeks.

  “You should give Baylor a call.”

  She pointed at her phone and made a zero with her fingers. “Nada.”

  “Go back to the ranch.”

  “I really have had enough rejection for the day.” Buddy. Pal. BFF. God save her, she was an idiot.

  “You might be done with that.”

  “What? What are you saying, and if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, how do you know?”

  He laughed at her. She’d laugh at her, too, if she still remembered how.

  “Baylor said he needed to talk to you before you got away. The Doyle family has apparently come to a decision.”

  “He told you that? Why? Is he your nephew or something, I mean why would he tell you?”

  “He’s a friend. Most people in the valley are.”

  “Wow. A valley full of friends. Just like California, huh. I’m sorry. That must have sounded sarcastic…mean.” But most of her friends in California had been like temporary tattoos. The one friend she had left was out of the country on a movie shoot and the rest had stuck around only as long as conditions were exactly right and then they quickly faded. “Wait! He wants me. I mean, do you think the Doyle family want to hire me to do the job?”

  The sheriff laughed again. “At least you’re not crying anymore.”

  She felt her cheeks. Dry. “Oh, thank God about that. I’m a bit pregnant and I— Wait. I’m a lot pregnant.” She patted her belly and he nodded. “And I’m a lot influenced by the hormones and nobody tells you the half of it. Sorry—again—to go on. See Baylor Doyle, you say.”

  “Yep.”

  “Should I be scared? Is there anything scary about that family? There are so many of them.”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “You have a good day now, ma’am.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff Potts. Potts, right?”

  He touched his index finger to the brim of his cowboy sheriff’s hat.

  “Goodbye. I hope you have a great day, Sheriff.”

  “You, too, ma’am.” He nodded this time and turned away.

  The sheriff got in his car and sped away. He most likely had cattle rustlers and varmints to catch. Did they still rustle cattle? The world was full of varmints, she could attest to that. Though in Southern California they called them celebrities and star-makers, and even producers if overborrowing, then dying and leaving your wife with the bills and a baby on the way makes you a varmint.

  She leaned back against the headrest, but her head popped up immediately. She really did need to find a bathroom.

  Which way? Town or the ranch?

  Breathe deeply.

  Think kind and peaceful thoughts. She was a sane, competent person. She rested her head back and took several long breaths. And all that did was make her have to pee more.

  Oh, hell, what did she have to lose?

  She started her car and headed back the way she had come a couple hours ago. The ranch had to be closer. Funny, her poor squashed bladder was going to determine her future.

  Go. Go. Speed limit. Okay, maybe a bit faster than the speed limit. Besides the sheriff had gone the other way.

  She sped down the highway and then up the lane to the Shadow Range ranch house with, she was sure, streaks of mud spraying out from behind her rear tires. Then she leaped out of the car as fluidly as a seven-months-pregnant woman who badly needed a powder-room fix could leap.

  “Please, please, please, let me make it,” she prayed as she hugged her coat around her, covered the ground from her car quickly and hobbled up the steps.

  Rap. Rap. Rap.

  The door popped open and Baylor Doyle stood there holding a stack of papers. He gaped at her.

  “Let me in.” She barged past him. “Which way? Which way?”

  Was the man really as dull as his expression?

  Holly appeared, glanced at her for a half a second. “That way. First door on your left.”

  Gales of Holly’s laughter followed her down the hallway, and she soon heard Amy join in, too. She knew, given half a chance, she could love those women dearly.

  She flipped on the powder-room light
and found porcelain bliss.

  BAYLOR EYED HIS GIGGLING sisters-in-law. “I don’t stand a chance, do I?”

  “No,” they howled together and then mercifully stumbled off down the hallway, holding each other upright as best they could.

  Baylor shook his head and continued to the office, where he had been headed before the person who might be occupying his short-term future pounded on the door and, wild-eyed and sexy, ran on in.

  In the office, he found Lance sitting on the edge of the desk waiting for him. His oldest brother shifted to the “visitor” chair as Baylor dropped the stack of papers in the middle of the blotter and sat down in the chair behind the desk.

  “Have you decided our fate yet?” Lance asked when Baylor laced his fingers together, rested his hands on the stack of papers and leaned in to study his dark-haired brother.

  CHAPTER THREE

  BAYLOR GAVE HIS BROTHER a long stare. “We can’t hire her because she needs a job,” he said. Or because she’s good-looking, he thought.

  “We can’t afford to turn a good option down for the same reason,” Lance drawled.

  Baylor nodded and wondered if his brother knew the rest of his thoughts on KayLee Morgan.

  “Two weeks,” Baylor said. “We’ll give her two weeks. That should be enough time to make a final decision.”

  Seth approached, leaned on the doorjamb and gazed between Baylor and Lance. “She was good at facing us all like that and holding her own, answering all our questions.”

  Lance snorted softly. “She seemed to look forward to the next question, like she’d be easy to work with.”

  “Eager at least,” Seth added.

  “Eager’s a great quality,” Baylor acknowledged to his brothers. “But it’s not enough. The first guy we interviewed was eager, and we know how that ended.”

  “It wasn’t hard to figure out he was a crook, but you’re not putting KayLee in the crook category.”

  “No, but I’m the one who’s going to be doing most of the work with her.”

  “And you’ll be able to keep a close eye on her.” Seth flicked his eyebrows at Baylor and smirked toward Lance.