An Unlikely Rancher

by Roz Denny Fox

  Can she save the ranch—and keep his love?

  Jenna Wood had her new start all planned out when she bought an ostrich ranch in New Mexico. But from day one, nothing is quite what she expected—especially her tenant, Flynn Sutton. Jenna’s daughter, Andee, adores Flynn and his sheepdog, Beezer, but Jenna’s not so sure. She feels a connection, but Flynn’s a pilot, just like her late husband, and his work brings up painful memories. Still, when someone in town seems to have a grudge against Jenna, Flynn is there to protect her and Andee. Together, they’ll find out who’s trying to intimidate Jenna, and why. And along the way, the three of them just might become a family...

  Their eyes met, and she ventured a smile.

  “I must admit, you have a nice way of making ordinary things special,” she said.

  The red on his cheeks got ruddier. “Uh, ordinary things like having supper together in town? It’s pot roast Monday at the diner. Their cook makes the best pot roast in the West. We’ve all had a trying day, so it’s my treat. Say, seven o’clock?”

  His offer surprised Jenna, but she only hesitated for a second. “Sounds terrific. I’m not sure how long my errands will take. How about if Andee and I meet you there?”

  “It’s a da—” He stopped short of saying date. Jenna could tell Flynn knew it, and so did she.

  Unwinding Andee’s arms, he chucked her under the chin and made good his escape, with his dog loping through the open screen door at his heels.

  Jenna gave a start when Andee piped up to say, “We love Flynn, don’t we, Mommy?”

  Dear Reader,

  Parts of this story have percolated in my mind for quite a while. There’s an ostrich ranch off the highway between Tucson and Phoenix. A few years ago the ranch was in the news. Hot air balloons taking off from an empty field frightened the birds, and many were hurt when they broke down fences. I wanted to feature an ostrich ranch in a story, but I didn’t want them hurt. I decided to set my story in a neighboring state. I wanted my main characters to love animals. And because An Unlikely Rancher is a love story, I decided my ranch owner, who isn’t looking for love, falls in love accidentally. I hope Jenna Woods and her daughter Andee’s second chance at happiness with ex-military flyer Flynn Sutton is a story that touches your heart.

  Sincerely,

  I love hearing from readers. Contact me via Facebook or my website, korynna.com/RozFox.

  An Unlikely Rancher

  Roz Denny Fox

  Roz Denny Fox’s first book was published by Harlequin in 1990. She writes for various Harlequin lines and for special projects. Her books are published worldwide and in a number of languages. She’s also written articles as well as online serials for Harlequin.com. Roz’s warm home-and-family-focused love stories have been nominated for various industry awards, including the Romance Writers of America’s RITA® Award, the Holt Medallion, the Golden Quill and others. Roz has been a member of the Romance Writers of America since 1987 and is currently a member of Tucson’s Saguaro Romance Writers, where she has received the Barbara Award for outstanding chapter service. She’s also a member of the Desert Rose RWA chapter in Phoenix, Midwest Fiction Writers of Minneapolis, San Angelo Texas Writers’ Club and Novelists, Inc. In 2013 Roz received her fifty-book pin from Harlequin. Readers can email her through Facebook or at rdfox@cox.net.

  Books by Roz Denny Fox

  HARLEQUIN HEARTWARMING

  Hearts Entwined

  The Western Dare

  The Boss Next Door

  The Hope Dress

  Annie’s Neighborhood

  HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

  Too Many Brothers

  The Secret Wedding Dress

  The Perfect Tree

  “Noelle and the Wise Man”

  The Maverick Returns

  Duke: Deputy Cowboy

  Texas Dad

  For more titles, visit Roz’s website at www.korynna.com/RozFox.

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  JENNA WOOD SAT at her sister’s dinner table and draped a napkin across her lap. “I have news. Today I finalized buying the ostrich ranch in New Mexico I told you about last month. Movers will collect our things from storage tomorrow. Andee and I will leave at the end of the week. Salad, anyone?” She forced herself not to wince as she passed the bowl across the table to her brother-in-law, but finally set it down when he didn’t take it.

  Jenna’s sister, Melody Carter, and her husband, Rob, both dropped the rolls they were buttering.

  “You can’t be serious,” Rob, a JAG attorney stationed nearby at the Pentagon, sputtered through a laugh.

  “I am. I know you guys thought it was a passing fancy.” Jenna picked up the salad dressing, bracing herself for the full onslaught of their reaction. “My funds were wired and I’ve received confirmation from the seller’s Realtor. I’m now the proud owner of 300 acres, 1,500 birds, a two-story home, plus a single-story, three-bedroom rental in a town near my ranch. Our ranch,” she stressed, smiling down at her serious-faced six-year-old daughter.

  Rob frowned at Jenna. “Look, Mel and I know it’s been rough on you to have the Air Force investigating Andrew’s collision with that Navy flyer. Thorough investigations take time. Especially when the planes had to be fished out of the ocean. I can get your contract voided on the basis of your being a grieving widow.”

  Jenna stiffened. “I don’t want out of the contract. I want a clean start for Andee and me before her school starts.” She glanced again at the girl, who’d been too quiet and withdrawn since her dad’s accident.

  Melody reached across the table and squeezed Jenna’s hand. “I assumed we’d talked you out of this folly. You’ve always lived on a military base. What do you know about ranching?”

  “I’ll learn, Mel.”

  Rob finally slid the salad bowl over. He gestured with the tongs. “Mel’s right. I hate to say it, Jenna, but you aren’t thinking straight.”

  “Mom thinks it’s a good idea. It’s why she stayed on after the funeral, so I could visit a local ostrich ranch. Get a sense of what I’ve got ahead of me.” Jenna poured the salad dressing.

  “How reliable is Mom or Dad? They moved lock, stock and barrel to Costa Rica weeks after Dad retired,” Melody argued.

  “That’s exactly right. That’s why they’re reliable in this—they’re proof that you can make a dramatic new start at any age. They researched and chose a place where their money will last. And they’re the ones who recommended this place in New Mexico.”

  She stopped to study them, acknowledging their concern. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—listen to her own self-doubt. “Look, I can’t thank you guys enough for helping move us off the Florida base and for letting us stay here temporarily. But even here—”

  Jenna had to break off, catch her breath, before she said slowly, “Everywhere I turn I see men and women in uniform. We’ve been here ten months.” She lowered her voice, looking hesitantly at Andee. “I think the commission is bent on proving pilot error. They’re disc
ounting Andrew’s countless missions in war zones.” Jenna idly split her roll, barely murmuring, “You know about the reports saying he and the Navy pilot argued. Should that destroy his career?”

  “War can mess with a man’s head,” Rob said.

  Melody nodded. “Yes, we all saw a marked change in Andrew after his last tour in Afghanistan. You said he refused to go for a physical. Whether or not the commission finds him at fault, you need family now, Jenna.”

  She tensed. No one knew how strained her marriage had been at the end.

  “Andee, honey, I forgot your milk. Will you go to the kitchen and bring the carton from the fridge?”

  Jenna waited until after she’d gone to put a finger to her lips.

  Oblivious, Rob continued, “Some chest thumping goes with being a fighter pilot. And rumors always circulate after a non-combat accident. They fade away, so it’s no reason to uproot Andee. Let the commission finish its work.”

  Jenna added a dollop of dressing to Andee’s salad. “He was three short years from retirement, Rob. We discussed leaving the East Coast. I’ve always wanted land where I could have animals and plant a garden. Mel, you know how much I loved the Army base in Germany when we were kids and Mom raised chickens.”

  Rob ate his salad as Andee scampered back with the milk. “Ostriches aren’t chickens,” he said. “They’re big, powerful birds. They kick and bite.”

  After pouring Andee’s milk, Jenna set the carton aside. “Ostriches only act out if they’re frightened, according to the American Ostrich Association website. They’re curious creatures who like shiny objects. The people I bought from advised against wearing jewelry when I work with them. Plus, the couple who owned the farm I toured in Georgia has raised birds for ten years and they’re doing really well.”

  “Even so, New Mexico is still the Wild West,” Rob said.

  “Please be happy for us,” Jenna begged, suddenly blinking away tears.

  Pretending to fuss with Andee’s hair, she gently cupped the girl’s ears and said quietly, “Mel...if we stay here, there are bound to be negative comments about Andrew.” Jenna dropped a kiss on the child’s forehead and smiled because Andee had clearly taken an interest in their conversation.

  Melody and her husband exchanged guilty glances.

  “Of course.” Melody hastily passed Jenna the meat platter. “But you call us the minute you get there. And if... Well...our door is always open if you want to return.”

  * * *

  FLYNN SUTTON WATCHED his newest customer jockey a four-passenger Cessna Skylark into the hangar he’d just rented out. It was Flynn’s third rental since he’d finished clearing the runways of the old airpark he’d bought while serving in the Air Force.

  That had been before he’d been shot up and landed in the military hospital with a new knee and shrapnel wounds in his hip and thigh.

  The cloudless blue sky and shimmering heat of his native New Mexico helped to cleanse the stench of war and dull the painful loss of his best friend.

  Chip Talbot had flown the search-and-rescue mission that bitterly cold afternoon when their chopper had been shot down in Kandahar province. Only dumb luck had let Flynn crawl out of the wreckage alive.

  He counted himself lucky again that he’d invested in this airpark over the twelve years he’d served Uncle Sam. It gave him the fallback he’d needed when his career with the Air Force was over.

  In the beginning it had been his intention to stay in for twenty, retire with a good pension, come here and teach flying in his golden years. He’d had to cut those plans short—or move them up, depending on one’s view of his current situation.

  Disability pay covered the cost of his renting the house in town. He’d have money enough to keep his dream alive, providing he filled his hangars and lowered his blood pressure so he could pass his next physical.

  Imperative if he hoped to teach flying.

  But maybe he was asking for too much. Unlike Chip, he had his life and a future.

  Shading his eyes, Flynn tossed a wave to the pilot of a red-and-white, single-engine Piper Cub taxiing to the caliche runway from another stall.

  Travis Hines, the twenty-year-old son of a local land developer, was a bit of a grandstander. Or maybe the kid just made him feel old at thirty-three.

  Still watching the plane, Flynn idly wiped his greasy hands on a rag. He grimaced as the Piper lifted off in a wobble of wings and a full-throated growl.

  Dropping his mirrored sunglasses over his eyes, Flynn dismissed the show-off and limped into his makeshift office. He tucked his client’s check into the bank deposit bag for when he and his dog went home at lunch.

  * * *

  JENNA TIMED THEIR arrival in Deming, New Mexico, to coincide with the moving van hauling their worldly possessions. Over her sister’s continued grumbling, Jenna had traded her compact car for a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The purchase had seriously depleted what was left of her savings, but as she pulled up outside the realty office, she felt a renewal of hope.

  Hope had been missing from her life for longer than she had admitted to anyone.

  The office looked like so many other buildings she’d seen in the virtual tour. It was flat-roofed, beige stucco and blended with the sandy landscape.

  Taking Andee’s hand, Jenna stepped inside.

  The only person in the room was an older man seated at a messy desk. Without hesitation, she introduced herself to him.

  “I see, Mrs. Wood. Welcome. I’m Bud Rhodes. Oscar left you an envelope along with the house keys. He said he included notes about his ostrich operation.” Bud pawed through a pile on his desk, found the envelope and handed it to her across the counter.

  She stared at it for a moment. “I assumed Mr. Martin would walk me through everything,” she said slowly.

  “Sorry. I thought you knew he’d moved to Hawaii.” The Realtor laughed at the oversight. “Oscar employed a local man by the name of Don Winkleman to help with the birds. I reckon he’s been handling things since Oscar skedaddled.”

  “I see. I hope his notes are detailed...” She opened the envelope but couldn’t focus on all the paperwork she was seeing. “This business is all new to me. Everything here is new to me.”

  “Well, now, we’ve got a right, nice little town. What you see here is our commercial district. You and the little lady,” he said, smiling down at Andee, “need to visit our museum. It dates back to the 1916 raid by Pancho Villa. We’ve even got artifacts from one of the original Harvey Houses that catered to transcontinental railway travelers. It’s open now, if you’d like to take a tour.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t.” Jenna glanced at her watch. “I’m to meet our moving van at the house right about now.”

  She was exhausted from the long drive and the heat. And admittedly unsettled by the news that Oscar Martin was gone and hadn’t told her he’d be leaving and she’d be plunged into ranching straightaway. Thank heaven, he’d left her with someone to help.

  “No problem. I’ll mark where you’re going on this map. Your property isn’t too far off the main highway. It’s about four miles out of town.”

  “And there’s a rental home?” she suddenly thought to ask. If Oscar Martin hadn’t told her he was leaving, what else hadn’t he told her? “Here in town, correct? And it’s occupied?”

  “Yes.”

  Well, that was a relief, anyway.

  “Belonged to Oscar’s great-aunt,” Bud continued. “When she passed on, he elected to keep it for added income. The house sits about here.” He pointed to a square on the map. “The address is on the deeds in your packet.” He drew an X approximately two blocks into the square. “It’s currently rented by a nice young fella who lived here as a boy. He returned a few months ago to open a business.”

  Bud stood and went to the window to peer out.

&
nbsp; “I ’spect you just missed him. Before you came in, I saw his pickup parked outside the bank.”

  Relieved to hear that her renter was nice, Jenna thanked the Realtor for his help and guided Andee out.

  “Mommy, I’m hot,” Andee complained as Jenna unlocked the SUV.

  It was a good thing Jenna had stocked a cooler with ice and water at the motel that morning. She opened a bottle and passed it to the girl. “We need to remember to drink more, sweetie. It’s much drier here.”

  “Why?”

  “I suppose because there’s no ocean nearby.”

  Andee accepted that answer and buckled herself into her kid seat in the back.

  After a brief check of the map, Jenna set out.

  It took her less than fifteen minutes to find the rutted lane leading to the ranch.

  Her first glimpse of the rambling two-story house was a letdown. It wasn’t as white as it had looked in the photos. The porch didn’t run all the way across the front. And the evergreens, maybe spruce, which she had thought shaded the house, were brown. Covered in dust, she guessed, squinting against the hot wind blowing the dust through her open window.

  She shut the window and climbed out of the SUV, taking in the tufts of grass in the yard as she opened Andee’s door. She couldn’t really call the grass a lawn.

  She had wanted so much for this life-changing move to New Mexico to be exactly what she and her daughter needed. Her family had told her that she didn’t know what she was doing. And she’d blithely argued that she’d done her research.

  Nothing in her research had prepared her for what she was seeing now. And maybe that was why the previous owner had left town on the quiet.

  There was more “lawn” evident in some of the pens that ran parallel to the highway, which was separated from her property by a strip of land and a perimeter road Jenna hoped didn’t get much traffic.

  Groups of gangly birds were huddled under canvas-topped awnings. Since the dry breeze took her breath away, Jenna didn’t blame the ostriches for seeking the least little bit of shade. If Oscar Martin had a manager, there was no sign of him—or any living human being, for that matter.