Her Last Secret Sweetheart: Christian Cowboy Romance (Last Chance Ranch Romance Book 5)

by Liz Isaacson

  The people coming for cuddling sessions would be a lot like her. Scared but excited. Impressed with a cow lying down. They’d definitely need rules for behavior and a sharp, trained eye, to make sure no one got hurt—bovines included.

  “Wait. Stay,” Karla said, but Cookie got right back up, completely ignoring her.

  “Cookie,” Cache said, facing her. “Down.”

  The cow went down again, and Cache gave her a carrot. “Stay.” He held his hand out to her, palm forward. “I’m working on hand signals too.” He surveyed his small herd in this pasture. “I think we’ll probably only do two cows per sessions. One you control and one I do. That’s four people.”

  “Six hundred bucks,” she said.

  “I could maybe do two or three cows,” he said, glancing around. “Morning Glory is a good cow. She stays. Cookie’s restless.” He stepped past them and approached Bluebell. “Down,” he commanded, and down she went.

  “Maybe if we put them in a formation, we can be in the center and have five or six. Twelve people.”

  “Let’s work on it,” Karla said, and Cache started moving the cows into a better position. After several tries and twenty minutes, he had five cows in a semi-circular pattern, with him and Karla standing in the middle of them.

  “Like that,” he said, pride seeping through him. Maybe this cow cuddling thing would work. Maybe it would provide him with the extra income he needed to provide a better life for himself—and for a future wife and family.

  For Karla? his mind whispered, and he couldn’t help but think, yes. For Karla.

  “Okay,” he said, smiling around at his cows. “Now we cuddle.”

  Chapter 8

  Karla giggled as she leaned her head against Cache’s bicep. A thrill ran down her spine as they held hands and laughed, all within the safety and secrecy of Cookie’s huge body. Karla had never been so glad to keep something a secret, and she liked that she could hold Cache’s hand in the dead of night or secluded behind a big dairy cow.

  And wow, she liked this man. It was amazing how much her perspective of him had shifted since he’d invited her to dinner.

  “You didn’t go to church today,” she said when she realized it.

  Cache lifted her wrist to his lips. “Mental health day.” He looked at her, sobering. “You never go to church.”

  Karla nodded, expecting this conversation. “I used to.”

  “And now?”

  “Now, I’m kind of in a slump,” she said. “Don’t you ever feel like that? Like sometimes things are going great and you’re happy and your life is exactly what you want?” She’d definitely had times like that in her life. Cache surely had too. “And sometimes, it’s…not.”

  “And you’re in a not section.”

  “I used to think I was,” Karla said. “I don’t know. I’ve been getting better—feeling better—since coming to Last Chance Ranch.” She didn’t know how to articulate it.

  “Best place to be to feel better is at church,” he said. “That’s what my mom used to say, at least.”

  “And yet you needed a mental health day,” she said, not quite understanding. “Was that from church, or something else?”

  “From everything,” he said, sounding tired. Karla understood that feeling too. “I mean, I always have chores. I’d have to be dead or on my way there not to go to the Canine Club to feed and water in the morning. But sometimes it’s nice to not have to do anything after that.” He took off his cowboy hat and closed his eyes. “Church included.”

  Karla watched him openly as he wasn’t looking at her. He was handsome and strong, with a gorgeous jawline and his light hair cropped close, close to his scalp. She wanted to run her fingers along his face and up through that hair, see what it felt like.

  Jackson had had such long hair.

  She reached out, pulling back when he said, “Church isn’t for the well. It’s for those who need help.”

  “So maybe we’ll go next week,” she said, and he smiled.

  “I’d like that.”

  Karla gathered her courage and reached out to him again. The first brush of her fingertips along his jaw made his eyes spring open. They met hers, and she smiled at him. He leaned into her touch, and the moment became tender and charged at the same time. Up her fingers went, and she ran them along his hair and down to the back of his neck.

  “You’re a great guy,” she said.

  “I’m broke,” he whispered, anxiety entering those brilliant blue eyes.

  Karla didn’t know what to say. Cache had always been the cowboy with a quick smile, a fun joke, and something easy to talk about. She wasn’t used to this serious cowboy, who talked about being spiritually sick, and worrying about money.

  She didn’t know what to say. So she just snuggled into him further, glad when his hand against her shoulder tightened to hold her in place.

  “I’m getting Wendy,” Lisa said, and she was gone before Karla could protest. She sighed as she busied herself with the hot chocolate. Yes, it was summertime, and she shouldn’t be drinking something so warm. But her cabin had air conditioning, and she always made hot chocolate when she was stressed.

  When big decisions needed to be made.

  Her cow cuddling experience with Cache was twenty-four hours old now, and it had been wonderful. She’d spent the rest of the day in her cabin, looking up information on cow cuddling and visiting other ranch websites to see if they offered the service.

  It seemed like no one did, and Karla would have to come up with her own terms, rules, and design for the addition to the Last Chance Ranch website.

  Which was fine—if she could stop thinking about Cache. He hadn’t said anything else after admitting he was broke, and they’d finished their session with him teaching her how to get the cows back on their feet and out to pasture.

  He’d taken the dogs back to the Canine Club, and she’d gone home.

  Their dinner was that night, and Karla didn’t want to cancel. But she needed some reassurances from her sisters that she was doing the right thing.

  “Dating?” Wendy asked instead of saying hello. “Who is he?”

  Karla was glad Lisa hadn’t even asked one question before going to get Wendy, who happened to be with her as they made some early plans for Lisa’s wedding. The cooing of a baby came through the line, and Karla wished she could be with her sisters so badly in that moment.

  “He’s just a cowboy here at the ranch,” Karla said.

  “Just a cowboy,” Lisa said, almost scoffing. “Karla, you didn’t even say hello when you called. You said, ‘I’m dating a guy and I need help.’”

  “And you didn’t let me finish,” Karla said, smiling. “You ran off to get Wendy. And I do need help.”

  “Tell us about him,” Wendy said, always the sister who could get everyone at ease. Karla probably should’ve called her first, but she hadn’t wanted to disturb her sister and her one-month-old baby.

  The microwave beeped, and Karla reached to open it. “He’s handsome,” she said, going on to describe Cache, ending with, “And he plays in a band, and we’re going to dinner tonight, and I’m just worried I’m doing everything wrong.”

  “Honey,” Lisa said, but it was Wendy who said, “Karla, you deserve to be happy.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “I don’t think she does,” Wendy said, as if she were talking to Lisa and not Karla. “She let Jackson move her across the country when she didn’t want to go. She stayed with him for far too long, while he made her feel like the light turning red was her fault. She hasn’t dated in—”

  “Okay,” Karla practically yelled, still stirring the hot chocolate. Every organ inside her pinched, and she didn’t need her sister to detail every horrible thing that had happened over the years.

  “It sounds like you like him,” Lisa said. “And you’re a smart woman, Karla.”

  Karla had known calling her sisters would help. She had listened to Jackson when he’d blamed her for things she
couldn’t control, for not moving up fast enough in her firm, for not having the right education for a particular job.

  Sometimes she didn’t feel smart. She didn’t trust her own feelings, or what her gut said. “I didn’t move across the country when I didn’t want to,” she said. “I’ve stayed, because I like it here. I’m supposed to be here.”

  “Okay,” Wendy said. “I apologize for that.”

  Karla nodded to her hot chocolate. “I did stay with Jackson for too long.”

  “Mm,” both of her sisters said. She hated the sound, but it also made her smile. They were so predictable. So steady. She felt like the only one who’d built her life on a sandy foundation. And when the winds came and the storm howled, she felt like she was about to crumble and fall into the thrashing waves, never to be seen or heard from again.

  “So I’ll go out with him,” she said. “Because doing that makes me happy.”

  “He should make you happy,” Wendy said. “But you can be happy without him too.”

  “I know,” Karla said, but she wasn’t sure she did. She hadn’t been terribly happy since things had started downhill with Jackson. She’d lost him, lost her marriage, lost her baby. Had she been happy since then?

  “Thanks, guys. Tell me how the wedding prep is going.”

  Lisa started talking then, and Karla sipped her hot chocolate while the three of them gabbed as if they were in the same room. As if Karla hadn’t left ten years ago and only came back a couple of times a year.

  It was a great conversation, and Karla said, “Tell me when to come in the fall so I can be the most helpful.”

  “Sometime in September,” Lisa said. “We’ll be doing the menu then.”

  “Oh, you had me at food.” Karla laughed and they said their good-byes. She stayed on the couch as the silence filled the space around her. She had had moments of happiness in the five years since her life had taken a new turn.

  She was getting happier by the day, she could feel that.

  And she suddenly knew why she wore her professional clothes to go across the hall to her office to work.

  They made her happy. She loved her yoga-slash-dress pants and her fun blouses. They made her feel feminine and cute, and she liked feeling that way. She couldn’t wait to tell Cache that night when they went to dinner.

  As she finished work, showered, and got dressed in her best-loved professional clothes, she felt a ray of happiness chase away some darkness in her soul.

  She put on black heels with her black slacks and a dark purple blouse that had ruffles on the sleeves. She carefully placed long, dark gray teardrop earrings in her ears, and swept just enough makeup on her face to show Cache she wanted to look good for him.

  And she did.

  Even if it was a secret between the two of them, she wanted him to know she liked him for real.

  Fifteen minutes before he was set to pick her up, someone knocked on her front door. Assuming Cache would come to the back, Karla frowned as she went to answer the door.

  Scarlett stood there, her hair in a messy bun and her face dirty. “Oh, hey,” she said, scanning Karla from head to toe. “Whoa. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Karla said, her voice a little too high. “What’s going on with you?”

  “I was wondering if we could use your dishwasher. Ours is blowing up.” She sighed like the weight of every dirty dish in the world rested on her shoulders.

  Which, of course, it did. Karla couldn’t even imagine what it took to manage and run this ranch, and Scarlett and Hudson did it all themselves.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, stepping back. “I’ll leave the door open. I’m headed out to a meeting.”

  “A meeting for what?” Scarlett asked.

  “The cow cuddling,” she said, instantly regretting it. Scarlett got that look in her eye—the one Karla had wanted to avoid. The one that said she knew this was more than a meeting, and everyone else on the ranch would know by nightfall.

  “With who?”

  “Cache,” Karla said, seeing no reason to lie about it now. “He’s asked me to work with him on it. Started teaching me the commands and stuff yesterday. We think we can get up to twelve people in per session. That’s eighteen hundred dollars in two hours.”

  Scarlett’s eyebrows stretched toward her messy hair as Hudson came across the back lawn, dishes piled in a laundry basket. “Wow.”

  “Right?” Karla asked. “So we’re going over human behaviors tonight. He’s very concerned about his cattle—and the people. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.” Karla stepped over to the built-in desk beside the hallway and picked up the folder she’d started for the cow cuddling. “I have to run,” she said, thinking she’d text Cache. “We’re meeting at six.”

  “Okay,” Scarlett said, distracted now by the arrival of her husband and the dishes.

  Karla escaped out the back door, her thumbs already flying over the screen of her phone. Had to dodge Scarlett. Pick me up by Prime?

  The thought of walking a half-mile on gravel roads in heels had her cringing. But she really didn’t want anyone to think she and Cache were dating. So she clutched her folder and put a smile on her face, each step toward the entrance of the ranch feeling like the journey of a lifetime.

  Chapter 9

  “Why does she care?” Cache wondered to himself after he got Karla’s text. So what if Scarlett knew they were going to dinner? Did it really matter?

  He needed to find out. Tonight. He was going to find out tonight.

  He also wanted to kiss Karla tonight, but he had a feeling it was too early for her. Heck, it was probably too early for him.

  He pulled out of his driveway a few minutes before six, and he saw Karla mincing her way along the road. Sort of. It was the side of the road, in the grass, as her heels dangled from her fingers.

  Cache pulled up alongside her and stopped so she could get in. “Thanks,” she said, wiping her forehead. “I should’ve just had you come pick me up. Phew.”

  “Yeah,” Cache said, going past Prime the welcoming robot to the ranch. “Why didn’t you?” He glanced at her. “What’s the big secret?”

  She lifted her shoulder in one sexy shrug. “I don’t know. I’m just…sensitive to people talking about me.”

  Cache wanted to believe her, but something didn’t feel quite right. “You sure that’s all it is?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I even told my sisters about you.” She looked at him, twisting fully toward him. She wore a pair of black slacks with a purple blouse with flowing sleeves. She wore more makeup than Cache had seen on her face, and she was downright beautiful.

  The truck started bumping unevenly, and Cache pulled it back onto the road as he put his eyes where they should be—on the road. He chuckled nervously, unsure of what they’d even been talking about.

  “They’re great,” Karla said. “I sort of wish I could be there to help with the wedding prep.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Cache asked. “You like that kind of stuff?”

  “I mean, yeah,” Karla said. “It’s frilly and fun, and I like dressing up as much as the next woman.”

  “You sure do look nice tonight,” Cache said.

  “Thank you.”

  “So tell me where we’re going,” he said, coming to the intersection down the bluff from the ranch.

  “There’s a great place down at the end of Market Street,” Karla said, a new twinkle in her eye that really got Cache’s blood humming through his system.

  “They have food?” he asked.

  “Yep,” she said. “Turn right here.”

  He eased the truck off the dirt road in the direction she’d said, smiling despite himself. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “This is an off-the-beaten-path type of place,” she said.

  “Expensive?” Cache asked, wishing he hadn’t asked. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking when he’d blurted out that he was broke. Thankfully, she hadn’t asked him any questions, and Cache had been abl
e to go home without explaining much more.

  “They don’t take money,” Karla said.

  “What?” Cache looked at her. “Is it a soup kitchen?”

  “No,” Karla said with a giggle. “It’s a progressive diner. It’s called Step It Up, and they don’t take money.”

  Cache had no idea what she was talking about. “I don’t understand most of what you just said,” he finally said. “I mean, it was English, but I can’t figure it out.”

  “You pay in steps,” she said. “New customers get twenty thousand steps, so you’ll be able to get something to eat.”

  “Pay in steps?” he repeated slowly, trying to make the words line up in his mind.

  “Yeah,” she said. “A cup of coffee is a thousand steps.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a watch with a large face. “I’ve been tracking my steps all day, and I think I have enough for the ham and cheese omelet.”

  “Ah, breakfast for dinner,” he said. “A woman after my heart.” They laughed together, and Cache wished she sat closer to him so he could hold her hand. Happiness pulled through him, and Cache hadn’t realized how not happy he’d been these past few years.

  And that wasn’t even right. He wasn’t unhappy. He struggled to identify what his life had been missing, but perhaps that was all it was. Something had been missing, and with Karla in the truck with him, that thing had been found.

  Companionship. Friendship. A beautiful woman with him.

  “What do you like?” she asked.

  “Chicken fried steak and eggs,” he said. “Do they have that?”

  “I’m sure they do,” she said.

  “You don’t like chicken fried steak?”

  She shrugged again, and Cache really liked the movement in her shoulders. “I don’t dislike it, but it’s not my first choice.”

  “Will I have enough points for that?” he asked. “And how do they pay for their food?”

  “They get grants from the city, state, and federal food programs,” she said. “And there’s a walking path that goes right behind it, so if you need more steps, you can get them easily.”