A Rancher’s Song

by Vivian Arend

  Back at the barn, Dustin hurried through cleanup before racing away at a high speed.

  Caleb rolled his eyes.

  Walker didn’t bother to hide his amusement. “Dustin got a hot date?”

  Caleb sighed but offered a faint grin. “He’s heading out with Ashton to Uncle Frank’s. They’ll take the calves we don’t need.”

  “Seems pleased.” It looked as if Caleb’s idea was going to work.

  “He’s out of his mind with excitement. He’s off to tell Tamara and the girls.”

  Oh man. “Hang in there.” Walker offered.

  Caleb nodded. “Tamara’s aware of his…infatuation. She thinks it’s cute, but it’ll be good to not have him underfoot for a week.”

  “Are you and Tamara coming out tomorrow night?” Josiah called from across the barn. “Kelli mentioned this morning that the girls are having a sleepover with her.”

  Caleb raised a brow as he looked at his friend. “Think that one through a little harder. I’m going to have an empty house with my wife, and you want to know if we’re going to leave it?”

  Josiah snickered. “Sorry. Don’t know where my brain was.”

  Caleb took off. Luke, Walker, and Josiah continued to work with the horses. Luke guided the veterinarian through the animals that needed to be checked, and Walker joined in, trying to help where he could.

  “What’re you doing tomorrow?” Walker asked. “Sounded as if there’s something special going on.”

  “A new owner took over Rough Cut. Ryan set up a line dance night.”

  Walker laughed. “That’s a selling feature?”

  Josiah looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Seriously? I suppose, you being a rodeo star and all, you don’t have to know this, but women love line dancing. It’s like smorgasbord night.”

  Amusement danced in Luke’s eyes. “It’s not as if you have any trouble finding women either. When are you going to stop eating from the buffet table and make a selection?”

  “Who says I haven’t already?”

  “Bullshit,” Luke snapped. “You just told us you’re happy there’s a new hunting ground in town. You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d already picked a woman.”

  “If I haven’t claimed them, I’m still on the market.”

  “I take it you don’t like your balls too much, saying that when you’ve got your eye on a woman. Or you’re not too worried about it getting back to them.”

  Josiah shrugged. “I didn’t say I was through with the all-you-can-eat buffet, yet. And I don’t go through the entire buffet, I choose the best. I like to take one thing at a time and really enjoy it…”

  “…before moving on to the next?” Luke eyed him. “You’re lucky my sister isn’t around so I know you’re not talking about her, or I’d feel obligated to beat the crap out of you for making that kind of comment.”

  “You’re the one who talked about moving on to the next one. I didn’t say anything of the sort,” Josiah pointed out.

  “Oops,” Luke muttered.

  “Catch me up,” Walker said, trying to change the topic before Josiah dug himself into a grave. “I’ve been gone for long enough I don’t know who’s taken and who’s still single among the girls we went to school with.”

  “Why are you interested? I mean, you already laid claim to Ivy, considering that kiss the other day. Or was that all some kind of a show for the auction?” Josiah looked as if he really wanted to know the answer, but it was hard to tell with him because the man had the best poker face of anyone around.

  Walker forced himself to make it sound real. “Ivy and I were together in high school, but we’re not interested in each other like that now.”

  Liar.

  Luke was staring at him as if he were shocked by the admission. Then he went on to answer the question, although his answer was no better than another taunt, thankfully aimed at Josiah. “None of the Fields girls are married or dating, although Rose seems interested in Josiah,” Luke said.

  “Oh, bullshit.” Josiah didn’t even glance up from where he was working on a hoof. “She’s never looked at me twice, and I’ve certainly never given her any sign I wanted to get together with her.”

  “You’re the local vet, bro. You’re like all the shiny doctor stuff with ranch knowledge thrown in. I think Fern has a crush on you too.”

  “They’re way too young for me,” Josiah said. “Luke, your friend Glenn is closer to them in age. You should toss him their direction. Since you’re already taken, I can’t suggest you try.”

  Walker considered. “Where is Penny these days?” He hadn’t seen her since the day he’d nearly interrupted them in the tack room.

  “On a trip to Europe with her dad.” Luke looked distracted. “She’s not back until late August.”

  “Bummer.”

  Luke made a face. “They offered for me to come along, but I figured I should stick around.”

  Josiah’s jaw dropped. “Seriously? You turned them down?”

  “I don’t have the money to pay my way, and I’m not going to bum a ride and expect Mr. Talisman to pay for everything. But I didn’t want Penny to miss out on the trip, so yeah, it sucks, but we’re keeping in touch.” He turned to Walker. “Speaking of which, Glenn is coming with us to bring horses to Red Deer, since you said you didn’t want to go.”

  It was one way to evade seeing anyone he knew at the rodeo that would be happening. “Glenn still lives in town?”

  “Three range roads to the east, yeah.”

  Glenn had never been one of Walker’s favourite people. He wasn’t sure why the thought struck, but it did with annoying intensity. Glenn was staying around the community—able and probably willing to get involved with Ivy.

  Frustration ran up one side of Walker and down the other, and he found himself saying a curt goodbye. He stomped his way to the bunkhouse and scrubbed up, the hot water pounding against him. Dirt and sweat swirled down the drain, but his black mood refused to wash away.

  And when he slipped back to his bunk and lay on the bed, the four walls closed in around him, thoughts of Ivy taunted him. Her asking if he was sticking around, her coming to save him…

  Her looking at him as if she wanted nothing more than to be swept into his arms and…

  Walker jerked upright and threw his pillow across the room in frustration. He had nothing to offer her; nothing to offer his family. Only a gut full of anger and frustration, and far too many unanswered questions.

  The world had carried on while he’d been farting away his time. Even their small town was changing and turning with the tide, yet here he was, frozen into immobility. No decisions made and no future until he did.

  He pulled out his phone and stared at the messages from Ivy. Don’t make a habit of it. Make a habit of what? Getting into disasters and hauling her after him? Thinking about her?

  Wanting her?

  This was bullshit on so many levels, and he’d fucking had enough. Screw this.

  Walker jerked on his clothes. Maybe it was wrong, but it was the right kind of wrong. He wanted to see her, and he wasn’t going to sit here doing nothing when that was the one thing that he knew for certain he did want.

  He jammed his feet back in his boots, slammed on his hat, and headed for his truck.

  * * *

  Ivy had turned her waking hours into a blur of work and family. She’d avoided any terrible repercussions from her dip into the Heart Falls pool. She’d been a bit shaky, but whether or not it was the miracle cure of Walker’s naked body pressed against hers—and she totally wasn’t ignoring the potential good in knowing that information—other than sleeping for nearly twelve hours then having to put up with her parents’ concerned questions the following day, she’d felt fine.

  But the momentary setback made her determined to get into her new home as quickly as possible.

  For the past week, everyone in the Fields family had been over at the tiny bungalow, scraping off old wallpaper, painting, and generally fixing things up
.

  Rose stepped back with a happy hum as she glanced around what Ivy had to admit was a tiny, but perfect, master bedroom. “I love it. There’s still not enough room to swing a cat, but it’s peaceful, and it’s pretty, and I’m totally jealous.”

  The walls were a faint dusty rose, the window trim white, and the overhead light had been covered with a soft, creamy light shade that bathed the entire room with a candlelight glow.

  “It’s the only room done in the entire house, but I think Tansy was right. The place has good bones.”

  Rose stepped around the edge of the bed, running a hand over the quilt that Grandma Sonora had given Ivy as a homecoming present. Pale squares in pastel colours matched perfectly with the old-fashioned feel of the room.

  “I think you were smart to start with this room.” Rose lifted her eyes to smile at Ivy. “It means you can move out, right? You don’t have to stay with Mom and Dad anymore?”

  Ivy didn’t need to feel guilty for wanting to be out from under their roof. She was a grown woman, but it was good to know someone else understood her urgency. “I love them, and they’re wonderful, but it’s time be on my own.”

  Rose nodded. “Why do you think Tansy and I live over the shop? It’s a five-minute walk from Mom and Dad’s, and we could live there rent-free, but when it’s time to move on…we move on.”

  Still, it was good that her sisters had each other. Ivy looked at Rose and wondered if she knew how precious the relationship she had with Tansy was.

  Heck, the relationship they had between the four girls was something beautiful considering they’d all come from such different backgrounds. Choice had made them a family.

  “Definitely time to move on,” Ivy agreed. “Help bring in my things from the car? I didn’t let Mom see me pack them. I thought it would be easier if I got some of it out of the way without her knowing.”

  Because after her incident with Walker, it was even more important for Ivy to prove to her parents she could stand on her own two feet. She knew they understood she would always come to them for help, but it was her decision about how her life went.

  They’d moved in half of the boxes when, to her surprise, a far too familiar truck approached.

  Rose paused with her arms wrapped around a box of books, staring with disapproval at Walker’s truck. “What’s he doing?”

  “Driving past, I hope.” Ivy turned away as if that was the end of the conversation. She grabbed two suitcases from the trunk and marched toward the house. Working hard to act lighthearted and not at all curious.

  “Liar.” A soft snicker escaped her sister.

  “Shut up,” Ivy muttered.

  Along with everything else—frustrated at his first refusal, confused by his stupidity at the falls—Ivy was pissed off at Walker Stone. Not because of anything specific he’d done, but because trying to figure out how to approach him was tormenting her.

  Just the thought of him sent her system into hot flashes. She’d been dreaming about him. Sweet dreams where they’d be walking side by side in the park after school, their hands linked and shoulders bumping innocently. And then the dream would turn, and he’d be stripping her bare and covering her with his body and…

  In all the years she’d been gone, she’d never had a quarter this kind of reaction to any other man. She’d begun to think her entire libido was broken, but obviously not. She remembered distinctly that, even while shivering madly in her bed, some of the heat between them had not been generated because of the furnace beneath Walker’s skin.

  Nope. It seemed she was hotwired to the Stone frequency.

  And now, after a week of stewing herself into a tizzy, he was driving up like he didn’t have a care in the world? She didn’t know if she should jump up and down with excitement or scream in frustration.

  A hand landed softly on her shoulder, dragging her attention to her sister’s face. Rose’s dark-brown eyes had gone soft. “Sometimes people don’t know what they want. And sometimes people know what they want, but they’re not quite sure how to get it.”

  “Which camp am I in?”

  Her sister shrugged, dark hair falling around her shoulders as she moved. “I think you know what you want, but you’re not sure if it’s okay to take it.”

  “I don’t think Walker would like to be spoken about as an it.”

  “He’s not an it,” Rose said dryly. “But there’s something up with him and has been for a long time. We know he likes you. Honestly, the man has been panting after you for years.”

  “Oh, please.”

  Rose continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “We know this from how often he asked about you while pretending he wasn’t hanging on our every word. You said he didn’t want to get involved, but it doesn’t make sense.”

  Which was exactly the part that was bugging her. Ivy nodded as his truck slowly turned up her driveway, no longer uncertain of his destination.

  As confused and mixed-up as she was, Ivy knew her sister was right. Walker was confused and mixed-up about a lot of things as well.

  They had enough history, they had enough of them, there was no reason why she shouldn’t dig a little deeper and see if she could convince him to change his mind.

  Between the conversation with Rose, the one with Brad days ago, and the fact Walker was offering himself up to her doorstep like a special delivery package, it seemed fairly serendipitous. This was the opportunity she’d been looking for.

  She screwed up her courage and turned to Rose as Walker’s boots hit the ground. “You should head out.”

  Rose’s lips curled into a smile as she raised a brow, the delicate arch oh-so-meaningful. “Call me later.”

  She pulled on her jacket and headed down the porch steps, passing Walker with no more than a quick wave as if she had urgent business elsewhere.

  Walker seemed to have an urgent target as well, at least until his boots landed on her stairs.

  The first step creaked ominously under him, and he glanced down, his face transforming with a frown. “Need a hand fixing that?”

  “Maybe.” Only this wasn’t the time to discuss home repair. Not when she had more important plans.

  She gave herself a firm pep talk. Just because she was shy didn’t mean she was a pushover. It also didn’t mean she had to let all of her goals go by the wayside. If Walker didn’t know exactly what he wanted, maybe she could help him figure it out. He’d said he had nothing to offer her, but he was wrong. He had exactly what she needed, but for some reason he wasn’t able to see it.

  So she’d get around his reluctance by wording it in a way he couldn’t resist.

  Walker pulled to a stop in front of her, all long limbs and delicious cowboy, denim and plaid, sturdy stance and intense eyes. “We need to talk.”

  Oh boy, did they ever. “Come in.”

  9

  Walker was going with his gut, because the only thing that had gotten him to Ivy’s place was the sense that not being there was wrong.

  “Leave your boots on,” Ivy ordered as she pushed the door open. “Everything needs to be redone, so unless you’ve been mucking out stalls…”

  A soft chuckle escaped him, surprising him with how easy it felt. “I know better than to show up with shit on my boots.”

  She glanced at him, amusement on her face. “I can’t help that I have a strong sense of smell.”

  The words came out softer than he’d heard recently. Not that he blamed her, considering he’d been a bastard and then a fool the last two times they connected.

  She led him into the kitchen area, which was a bit of a shambles but at least had a sturdy table with a couple of chairs that were clearly to sit on.

  Ivy gestured him at one before turning to the counter and moving boxes out of the way so she could plug in a kettle. The fronts were off all of the cabinets, the empty shells a bright purple colour which contrasted hideously with the orange countertops and oven and the brown backsplash tile.

  “Interesting colour choices,�
�� he drawled.

  The only normal things in the room were the white fridge and the stainless-steel sink, although that looked as if it had seen better days.

  “I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling the previous owners were either a little bohemian or colour-blind.” Ivy turned to face him, leaning back on the orange countertop and folding her arms over her chest.

  He let his gaze drift. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail, a few fine wisps falling around her face, the strands shimmering in the sunlight coming in the window. A hint of red on her lips with a bit of shine, and as he took a deep breath, the scent of cherries lingered on the air.

  Now that was just cruel. Cherry lip gloss he wasn’t allowed to nibble off?

  Just as tempting were the curves behind her sturdy cotton shirt, her waist dipping in before flaring out to hips that were oh so touchable. He knew, from far-too-intimate recent history, every inch of Ivy was covered with soft skin he wanted to stroke.

  He pulled his gaze upward, sure he would find either an amused look or a censorious one for being caught leering. But instead, to his delight, Ivy was checking him over.

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, a smile slowly rising as her gaze settled on his forearms and hands. Walker glanced down to make sure he didn’t have anything unusual stuck to him, but they seemed like a normal set of hands to him. He’d rolled up his sleeves, and while he had a few scars on his knuckles, his short-clipped nails were clean.

  They were just hands, but from the way she was looking at them, Ivy thought they were a bowl full of candy.

  Her lashes fluttered upward, and she lifted her gaze, a flush of red flashing across her cheeks and making her look like summertime.

  He picked a safe topic. “You’ve got your hands full, renovating this place.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

  She wanted to say something else but caught herself. Walker found himself itching to know the next thing, wanting to hear deeper thoughts than the surface Ivy, and to wipe away this polite façade between them.