Morning happened.
At first, Jess thought that something was wrong. There was so much birdsong. It was as though every bird in creation had decided, just that morning, to sit outside her window and exercise its vocal chords. This couldn’t be normal. But then she had stuck her head out of her window and the world appeared to be working just fine, only with more music in it than she had heard before.
She crept downstairs and found a suitcase with some of her clothes in it. They were office attire, all pencil skirts and tailored suits. What had she brought them for? She was a ranch owner. Her life was one of jeans and T-shirts now. Rummaging in another bag produced a creased Tee with Hello Kitty on it, a joke present from her sister, and a pair of cut-off denims that were fraying their way into non-existence. The Tee was too small, stretching over her more than ample bosom. She sighed. Well maybe she could go into town and buy something more suitable, but for now…
Dressed, she walked into her new kitchen. It was huge and sadly empty. She would have to unpack, but first things first. There was a kettle and a stove so she managed to heat some water to make tea. This cup was infinitely better than the one from last night, and Jess was beginning to feel mostly human when there was a knock on her kitchen door.
It was a stable door, so she unlocked and opened the top half on the second try. “Yes?”
“Mornin’,” said Wyatt. He looked as fresh as a daisy, and smelled that fresh too. It was as though he’d had a bath in dew and rubbed himself dry with fresh green grass. Jess sighed.
“Early isn’t it?” she asked walking back into the kitchen leaving him waiting outside.
“Not really,” Wyatt said leaning on the door. “We generally start before dawn.”
“Is that a fact?” Jess was standing at the stove, contemplating what she could have for breakfast in a house with no groceries.
“May I come in?” Wyatt asked.
“If you must,” Jess said.
“Look, Ms. Lincoln, you need our help,” Wyatt said with no preamble at all. “I thought we’d settled this last night.” He was now standing in her kitchen and there were four other men behind him.
Jess bore down on him. “Look, Mr. Wade isn’t it? I just need to find some breakfast. So unless you have some crispy bacon and eggs sunny side up under that shirt-- I don’t need your help!”
Wyatt sighed, “Actually you do. These are my friends and we’re gonna look after your cattle for you, for a really reasonable price.”
“Now hold on just one moment,” she snapped raising a finger in the air. “How do I know you know what you’re doing? What if you’re nothing but a lying shark?”
Wyatt smiled at her. “You know I like you. You’re spikey. And those are really good questions, but I thought after I rode in on my charger last night and saved you, you’d be…”
“I’d be…?” Jess asked folding her arms across her chest. She eyed the other men. They were watching her and Wyatt with every indication of amusement. “I’d be what?”
“More grateful for one thing,” Wyatt said. “You didn’t lose one cow last night. Not one! And you could’ve lost the whole herd.”
“Well!” Jess yelled and then stopped. She stared into another world, another time and then deflated, her anger draining away. “I’m sorry. You’re right and I’m wrong. Everyone’s just been fighting with me at every turn lately and…”
“And you thought it would be fun to fight with a total stranger?” Wyatt asked grinning. “I can see the appeal.”
“So, what is this decent price you mentioned?” she asked dreading the figure.
Wyatt smiled then. “Consider today as us just being neighborly. We can talk about it, over dinner?”
Jess’s inner voice yelled at her to refuse. Hadn’t she learnt that all men were evil, cheating little liars? But her mouth was running on automatic and said “yes” before it could be stopped.
Wyatt’s smile was positively dreamy. It was intoxicating and probably infectious she thought, as he lined his friends up for her to meet them.
There was Kyle, blonde with dimples. Then came Ryan with hair as dark as hers and as quiet as a shadow. He was in stark contrast to the last two who were introduced as Tyler and Jesse Crowe. Brothers, one look told her that anyway. Tyler, the younger had a goatee, but other than that the two were very similar, with blonde hair and big broad shoulders.
“You all have the same color eyes,” Jess noted looking at them standing around her kitchen.
“We’re sort of related,” Jesse said smiling.
“That must be one heck of a strong gene for you all to get it,” she remarked. The men looked at each other and then Wyatt said “Well boys, time to go do some work.”
Hats were donned and they marched out into the clear, bright day. Jess watched them go and only then did she realize that she had a dinner date and no idea what to wear.
Jess found Old Charlie’s room after half an hour. He had his own little cottage on the property, tucked away behind the barn. It was a neat little place with a small patch of garden in front that was bursting with flowers. He seemed less than thrilled to see her but let her in anyway.
He was washing his dishes, a pan and one plate in a small sink. The house smelt of recently cooked bacon and eggs. Jess was ravenous. She hadn’t eaten a thing since her flight yesterday. She had meant to visit a grocery store before driving out to the farm, but the call about the cattle had ended that plan.
“So what can I do for you?” Old Charlie asked his back to her as he continued washing up.
“Um, well I wanted to apologize for my behavior last night. This whole lifestyle is new to me and I’m sorely unprepared for it.” She stood in the middle of his tiny living room floor with its sparse furniture and watched him busy in his kitchenette.
After an age, Old Charlie turned around and smiled. “Well that took guts,” he said. “Apology accepted.”
Jess smiled and nodded nervously.
“Was there something else?” he asked as he scrubbed down his kitchen counter.
“Yes actually, I need to go to town urgently and I was wondering if you would consider coming with me?” There she’d asked.
Old Charlie put down his sponge and looked at her properly for the first time since letting her in. “Yeah I can see why, you can’t run a ranch looking like one of those Playboy Bunnies. You gonna need good boots and jeans and maybe a shirt that fits.”
Jess folded her arms across her chest. This just made her breasts bunch together and seem even more likely to break out of the Tee. So she settled for placing her hands on her hips instead. Well he wasn’t wrong.
It was an hour’s drive to the nearest store. This town, Jess missed the name, was so small she would have called it a Hamlet back home. The general store was nestled between a post office and a diner along with what passed for a main street. Too early for the general store, the sign in the front window indicating that they only opened at eight thirty, Jess took them to the diner.
As she found a seat in a booth, and Old Charlie slipped in opposite her, Jess couldn’t help but smile. She had changed out of the silly Tee and decaying jeans, settling for pale blue slacks and a delicate cream blouse. At least now she felt more like herself.
She ordered coffee for them both, and seeing as how the least fattening thing on the menu was toast with a poached egg, she ordered that. She asked Charlie if he wanted anything but he refused. Then, hearing her order, Old Charlie shook his head. “No reason to watch your figure out here,” he said. “You gonna be working too hard for fat to cling to you.”
“Oh, but I hired Wyatt and his friends for the hard labor,” Jess said meaning it as a bit of a joke.
Charlie obviously didn’t get it and she had to admit it was at the bottom end of the humor barrel. So she sipped her coffee and ate her toast in silence. From their booth, she had an excellent view out of the window. The main street was coming to life. She watched people, mostly in jeans, moving to and fro going about th
eir business. Next door the general store opened. Jess only realizing this as a line of people entered it. And then suddenly her breath caught in her throat. Across the street was a hotel. It was a quaint building with a small turret and a bay window, a flower filled garden and the name, “Grandma’s Inn,” displayed with great pride on the gate.
In front of the gate stood a man. He wasn’t particularly tall, or short but somewhere in between. He was muscular, that was obvious under his jeans and red check shirt. His hair looked greyish in the light.
Jess almost dropped her coffee mug, sloshing liquid over the table.
“Hey! What’s wrong?” Old Charlie exclaimed grabbing a handful of napkins to wipe up the mess.
“He’s here,” Jess said starting to shake. “That lying a-hole is here!”
A waitress appeared with a cloth and in the turmoil of cleaning her mess, Jess lost sight of the man and swore.
Old Charlie grinned. “I knew we’d manage to dislodge that bug up your butt eventually.”
But Jess wasn’t listening. How could he be here? How could he find her?
“So who was that?” Charlie asked. “You look like you seen a ghost.”
“I thought I saw my ex. But Conrad can’t be here. I mean I left him in New York with his stupid physiotherapist. He can’t have found me can he?” Jess knew she was rambling but she was scared now. Conrad Petersen was a mean piece of work. Oh, at first he’d be charming, suave and you let things slide. Little cruelties, wrapped in a sick sense of humor, and fancy words would be dealt out on a daily basis. Eventually you would take his obsessive narcissism to just be his way of joking with you. But that was before you saw him in the light of day, before you realized that he was mean through and through. Jess had found out about Conrad’s temper, his nastiness and something even more horrible.
“Bad guy,” Charlie said.
Jess hadn’t realized she’d been speaking aloud.
“Well look, it’s probably not him,” Charlie said. “I read somewhere that everyone’s got a double somewhere in the world, so maybe that poor feller has the rotten luck of looking like…what was his name again?”
“Conrad,” Jess said flatly.
“Right, so chin up girl. You’re gonna be fine.” And Charlie placed an old veined hand on hers and patted it.
Jess thanked him.
Then she paid the bill. And they set about doing the shopping. Jess bought a range of jeans, shirts and boots that Old Charlie approved of. “Now you look the part.” She even got herself a wide brimmed hat. Then they bought groceries and a few odds and ends that Charlie said they needed for the farm. Heavily laden with a much lighter bank account, Jess packed them and their shopping into the SUV and drove them back to the ranch.
On the way she and Charlie spoke about light things, joking and getting to know one another better. If they were going to be very close neighbors Jess figured it was a good Idea to get to know each other. She told him about New York and her family. How they had never been close and her little sister now lived in New Zealand, and never even sent a mail.
Charlie was less forthcoming with his life story except to say that the flowers outside his cabin, not cottage thank you, were for his late wife Gloria. He had a son, Chester, who was a chartered accountant in San Diego.
As Jess listened she found her mood improving even though she still couldn’t shake the feeling that Conrad was standing behind her.
Chapter 5
Back at the ranch she found her newly hired hands out in a field mending a fence. Jesse and Wyatt were taking turns to hammer an upright into the ground. It was hard going and they had taken their shirts off. Never before had Jess seen so many rippling, sweat gleaming muscles in real life. For a moment she didn’t know where to look and so settled on the post.
“Well don’t you look the part?” Wyatt said with approval in his voice.
Jess was mystified.
“The duds,” he said. “Your clothes! You went shopping.”
“Oh yes, well the Hello Kitty top was a little…teen I suppose,” she said.
“Oh I don’t know, I kinda liked it,” Jesse piped up wiping the sweat from his brow. Wyatt slapped the back of his head. “What?” Jesse asked. “The lady is pretty and she ought to be told.”
“Well thank you Jesse,” Jess said taking it all in her newly acquired stride. “So how are things. Charlie had me buy some stuff for the farm, but I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him what exactly the things are.” She looked lost for a moment.
Wyatt nodded. “Okay,” he said. “But we need to discuss something. The grazing here isn’t that good, that’s why the cattle broke through. See we’re having a dry spell so I think we’re gonna have to supplement their feed more than usual.”
“Hang on,” Jess said, “The estate agent said something about a hay field on the property. Where’s that?”
“I think that’s it over there,” he indicated the opposite direction. “But it’s full of weeds and there’s almost nothing of use.”
Jess sighed. “But of course. So what does that mean?” she asked.
“It means we have to go buy feed,” Jesse said. Wyatt nodded sagely.
“Oh,” Jess said, “Right. Well. Let’s go then.” She looked pointedly at Wyatt.
“Me?” he asked.
“Well I’m certainly not going on my own. Can you imagine what I’ll come back with?”
“Take Charlie,” Jesse suggested.
Jess laughed, “I think he has had enough of my company for one day.” She smiled at Wyatt. “Oh come on, I don’t bite. You can ask Charlie.” And she smiled as sweetly as possible.
The drive out to the depot was short. Wyatt was driving, not trusting a British female to negotiate rural American roads as he put it. Jess let him. It was a relief to have someone else be in charge for a while.
“So are you from here?” Jess asked.
“Yup,” Wyatt said never taking his eyes off the road. “Born in the house I live in, actually.”
“Oh really? And where is that?” Jess asked.
“Next valley over from your farm,” Wyatt replied. “We’re practically neighbors.” Then he added as an afterthought. “Watch out for your other neighbors though, they can be downright mean and unpleasant.”
“Which neighbors?” she asked now worried.
Wyatt began to explain. It turned out that she was on a farm that bordered two small outlying settlements. The one was called Sun Valley and the other Pritchard’s Corral.
“Stay away from Pritchard’s. Folks that side can be less than friendly,” Wyatt said.
“And people in Sun Valley?” asked Jess.
“Well since I live there, it’s a fabulous place,” he grinned.
“I’ll bet.”
“You can see tonight,” Wyatt said as they pulled up at the depot. “I thought I’d take you to a great little local spot. It’s called Honey’s and the food is really great.”
Jess was stunned for a moment. So he had meant the invitation. But now was this a date or a business dinner? One part of her hoped for the latter, while the other was praying for the former. Damn these cowboys and their muscles, and chiseled jaws. And their tight buns.
Knox (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey) Page 73
