Cowboy Up

by Stacy Finz

  She polished the fruit with her shirt and took a bite. The juice dribbled down her chin, and Cash wiped it away with his thumb. For a while, they just sat there, taking advantage of the slight breeze and watching the horses graze on patches of dandelions.

  “I used to sit here sometimes when I was a boy and talk to the horses. See that tree over there?” He pointed out a valley oak that had to be at least a hundred years old. “Grandpa Dalton hung a rope swing for us there. Jace, Sawyer, Angie, and I used to take turns swinging on that thing.”

  “How come it’s not there anymore?” Ellie wiped her mouth with her shirtsleeve.

  “Good question.” He’d have to ask Jace. It seemed to him that Travis and Grady would’ve made fine use of that swing. “That was some twenty years ago.”

  “We couldn’t have a swing set at the condo, but my mom used to take me to the park.”

  “That’s nice too.” He tilted his head so they could be at eye level. “Don’t you like your new room, Ellie?”

  “I like it,” she said, and stared down at the dirt where she tried to get a ladybug to crawl on her finger. Cash thought it was odd given her aversion to spiders.

  “But?” he asked.

  “But what if I don’t stay?”

  His MO would’ve been to give her the cold hard facts. This is it, kid; you’re stuck with me until you’re eighteen. But something told him that wasn’t a good way to handle the situation. A twelve-year-old thrust into a completely new—and probably scary—situation wanted to feel like she had some modicum of control. Some power.

  “I was really hoping you’d want to stay,” he said, careful about the wording. While he didn’t want to come off as a dictator, he also didn’t want to give her the false impression that the choice was completely up to her.

  She didn’t say anything and he didn’t push. He was betting on Aubrey’s read of Ellie’s mind-set. She was experiencing a mixture of grief and guilt.

  “I do think your lack of enthusiasm may have hurt Aubrey’s feelings. She worked hard to make the room special for you.”

  Her head jerked up. “I didn’t mean to. Aubrey’s super nice.”

  “She feels the same way about you. So maybe when we get home, you could go over to her cabin and tell her how much you appreciate everything she did.” He lifted her chin when she lowered her eyes. “Ellie, what’s bothering you, honey?” He hoped she might open up and they could have an actual conversation.

  “Nothing.”

  “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

  She nodded, but it was a tentative sort of nod. A nod that said, Not really.

  They needed more time, he told himself. More time, and then she would open up.

  “So what did you and Aubrey do all morning besides decorate your room?” He was going for a neutral topic.

  “Did she tell you about the man who came over, and how he was yelling at her?”

  “No.” Aubrey hadn’t told him any such thing and he wasn’t too happy about it. “What happened?”

  Ellie dried her eyes with the palm of her hand. “I couldn’t hear a lot of it because Aubrey made me go in the house. But I peeked through the window and he was all like up in her face. I almost called 9-1-1. Do you think I should’ve?”

  It was a tricky question because hell yeah. He wished she would’ve called him or, at the very least, Jace. But he also didn’t want to put that kind of responsibility on the shoulders of a child. “It sounds to me like you read the situation and didn’t feel like it warranted the police. You went with your gut, right?”

  “I wanted to go outside and tell him to leave, but I was afraid Aubrey would be angry.”

  “Nope. You did the right thing. But next time, El, call me. Okay?”

  She nodded. “Who do you think he was?”

  “The man talking to Aubrey?” He didn’t know for sure, but he was betting Mitch. He planned to broach the subject with Aubrey later but assumed it had something to do with her breakup, the secret she was keeping, and the absurd notion that she was protecting Brett. “I don’t know, honey, but I’ll ask her about it.”

  “You should tell him off. He was a big guy with a bad attitude, but he’ll be afraid of you,” Ellie said.

  A smile spread through his chest. His daughter thought he was formidable. On second thought, maybe she just thought he was terrifying, which wasn’t exactly a compliment.

  He draped his arm over her shoulders and pulled her in for a squeeze. She was letting him do that more and more, which he considered progress. “What do say we go home, huh, kiddo?”

  “Okay.” She got up, took one look at her white pants, and grimaced. “I guess I can’t wear these to the party tomorrow.”

  “I’ll wash ’em for you.” Laundry had become his new life’s work.

  They walked back to the cabin, her short legs trying to keep up with his. They were halfway home when Jace drew up next to them.

  “Want a lift?”

  “It’s a five-minute walk.” And it would mean Jace would have to double back. “You done for the day?”

  “Yep. I did a little more digging on our cattle case.” Our? It was Jace’s case, not Cash’s. He was only helping his cousin. “I want to run a few things by you, but the boys will be home any second.”

  “Call me later, then,” Cash said, and told himself he was only doing it to help Jace. Jace, who needed job security.

  “Ellie, you want to hop in the truck and have dinner with us? It’s chicken strips and tater tots tonight.”

  Cash cringed. He doubted there was even any actual chicken in those processed strips Jace liked to buy. And tater tots had absolutely no food value. But Ellie stared up at him imploringly.

  “Can I go?” She was either jonesing for kids her own age or junk food.

  “Sure, but eat something green.” He poked his head in Jace’s window. “Make sure she eats vegetables.”

  He gave Ellie a conspiratorial wink and told Cash, “Roger that.”

  Ellie hopped in the truck, and Cash walked the rest of the way home lost in his own thoughts. Despite Ellie’s words to the contrary, she appeared to like the ranch, especially the horses. He’d known all along that the barn was where she’d go. Somehow, he’d also known that she’d pick the blue oak tree. It had been his spot of choice as a child and the kid had his DNA. Their similarities didn’t stop there. Her consternation over whether she should’ve called for backup when Aubrey’s visitor had worn out his welcome…well, she was a chip off the old block.

  Aubrey should’ve told him about the confrontation if, indeed, it was a confrontation. Ellie might’ve read it wrong, though he didn’t think so. Not if Aubrey had sent Ellie inside the house. Perhaps it had been Brett and the cat was out of the bag. But Brett was in a wheelchair, and that was something Ellie would’ve been likely to notice and mention.

  At his cabin, he took a detour across the footbridge and knocked on Aubrey’s door. She answered in a pair of cutoffs and a white tank top. No bra, which threw him off his real purpose for coming.

  He went inside, pressed her against the wall, and kissed her neck. “I came to talk, but I don’t see that happening now.”

  “Is Ellie okay?” She stroked his arm.

  “Ellie’s fine. She went over to Jace’s for dinner.”

  “Ah,” she said and went up on tiptoes to kiss him on the lips, then fisted his shirt in her hand and dragged him into the bedroom. “Want to make out for a while?”

  “I do. But first I want to know who came over this morning. Ellie said he gave you a hard time.”

  She let go of his shirt and plopped down on the side of her bed. “Way to be a buzzkill. It was Mitch. He doesn’t want me to go to Jill’s birthday party, the one I was roped into helping plan.”

  “That’s what happens when you keep secrets.” He pulled her up and led he
r to the living room. It was too hard to concentrate with Aubrey on a bed, and he wanted to have a discussion. “What do you mean, Mitch doesn’t want you to go? Did he threaten you? Ellie said it got heated.”

  “It was nothing I couldn’t handle. Remember, I have the upper hand in this situation.” She smirked.

  “You only have the upper hand if you’re willing to rat Mitch out. Somehow, I think he knows you won’t or else you would’ve done it by now.” She should’ve done it the first time her car was vandalized.

  “I don’t know what he knows and frankly, he’s not worth thinking about. I’m going to the party…with my date and his little girl. I’m going to stick a fork in these rumors once and for all.”

  “Tell me exactly what he said to you.” Cash knew she was downplaying whatever had happened between them this morning. It wasn’t as innocent as Aubrey was making it out to be or else Ellie wouldn’t have been so rattled.

  “I don’t even remember, it was so insignificant. Something like, ‘Aubrey, you better not go to that party.’ And, ‘Aubrey, you and Jace better keep your mouths shut,’” she said, mimicking Mitch. “I don’t know what he was hoping to accomplish other than to be ridiculous.”

  For a ridiculous person, Mitch had caused Aubrey and Jace no end of problems.

  “I hope it didn’t scare Ellie, but it was really nothing.”

  “I just wished you would’ve told me about it,” he said, trying not to sound like one of those guys who thought he had to go around protecting the fairer sex, even though he probably was one of those guys.

  “What for?” She shrugged. “Between Ellie and the trial, you’ve got enough on your plate, Cash. I don’t need you or Jace fighting my battles.”

  Jace? Wow, she was lumping him in with Jace? That kind of put him in his place.

  What do you expect, asshole; you’re not her man. She’s moving to Vegas.

  “Oh, but while he was here, I found out something interesting. He’s planning to develop Beals Ranch. I didn’t know they were selling, did you?”

  “What?” Cash wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “Beals Ranch? Are you sure?” The Bealses hadn’t told Jace anything about a development. It seemed to Cash that something like that would’ve come up either during the course of the cattle-rustling investigation or in general. Dry Creek Ranch was their neighbor after all, and the real estate implications of a development would be significant.

  “I saw a plat map in the front of his truck. When I asked about it, he got pissy and told me to mind my own business. I never thought they’d sell. The land has been in Jill’s family for ages. In fact, Pete was just up from San Jose to help his parents sort out the financial mess of losing all that cattle.”

  Cash vaguely remembered Pete from when they were kids. He was a year or two younger than him and Jace. About the same age as Sawyer.

  “Are you sure the map was for a development? Is there a chance you misunderstood?”

  She shot him a look. “Cash, I worked for Reynolds Construction long enough to learn to read a plat. There’s no question in my mind that Mitch is planning a development. He didn’t give me a chance to study it, so I can’t tell you what kind of development, but I know what I saw.”

  “And he got flustered when you saw the map?” Cash was trying to parse the information.

  The idea of a planned development next to Dry Creek Ranch, his family’s legacy, made him queasy. Then again, he wanted to sell the ranch, and who the hell did he think would buy the land? A Buddhist monastery? Get real. The Bealses were doing exactly what he’d been advocating: taking the money and running.

  Besides the personal consequences, as an investigator—or rather a former investigator—he had to believe this new revelation somehow fit into the cattle-rustling case. Because in his experience there were no coincidences.

  “I wouldn’t say flustered exactly. But there was no question he didn’t want me to know about it.”

  Cash didn’t want to read too much into that. There could be a lot of reasons for secrecy, including the fact that he and Aubrey had become opponents of sorts. More realistically, Mitch was a good businessman and wanted to keep plans for a major development—because a thousand acres was definitely major—proprietary until the city signed off on it. Cash more than likely would’ve done the same. But the Bealses, on the other hand, should’ve shared the information with their closest neighbors.

  It was a chickenshit move to keep it a secret, and Cash planned to raise hell over it as soon as he got Aubrey naked.

  Chapter 19

  “Ooh,” Aubrey cooed. That thing he was doing with his fingers was…“Cash, no more. I can’t take…I want…please.”

  He managed to shed his boots this time, and lose his pants in a quarter of a second flat. And when she thought she couldn’t wait any longer without jumping out of her skin, he was deep inside her, thrusting in and out until she thought she’d lose her mind.

  How had she let this become more than it could be? She was falling for a single father who was currently unemployed. And just a few weeks ago, she was engaged to be married. This wasn’t supposed to be happening, but as much as Aubrey wanted to deny it, she was crazy about Cash. Crazy about his daughter. And pretty soon she’d have to leave them both, as well as the ranch, which she’d also grown crazy about, for a job. Because she certainly couldn’t work here.

  She rolled on top of him, gripping his shoulders to stay up as she rocked back and forth. The way he filled her was so overwhelming, she thought she’d die from the sheer exquisiteness of it. He stared up at her, his blue eyes clouded with desire. Seeing him that way, knowing how much he wanted her, only heightened the experience. She didn’t think anyone had ever looked at her that way, like they wanted to protect and devour her both at the same time.

  He reached up and brushed her hair away from her face, then fondled her breasts, holding each one in his large hands. She closed her eyes, letting the sensation of his touch wash over her. Leaning up, he kissed her over and over again, the warm pull of his mouth first on her lips, then her nipples. Cash sucked and laved until she couldn’t take it anymore. She let go in an earth-shattering crescendo and collapsed on his chest.

  He rolled her over, spread her legs wide and thrust into her with such utter desperation that it made her realize how much control he must’ve exercised to maximize her pleasure.

  She wanted to give him everything he’d given her and more. Hooking her ankles around his hips, she ran her hands up and down his back, pressing his butt, urging him to go deeper. He pumped into her three times before throwing his head back, the muscles in his neck taut, and shouting out her name.

  For a minute, they lay there, absolutely still, except for the beat of their hearts. In that moment, she wondered if he had fallen for her as hard as she had for him.

  “I should check on Ellie, see if she needs me to pick her up.”

  “Okay.” But she wanted him to stay in bed with her.

  He hovered over her mouth, swooped down and kissed her, long and passionately. Then he rolled off her and searched the floor for his jeans. In a soft voice, he said, “We didn’t use anything,” and slipped on his boxer shorts.

  She shrugged. “I told you, I’m on the pill.”

  He didn’t say anything, but she could tell he was silently chastising himself.

  When Cash was completely dressed, he leaned over the bed and planted another kiss on her forehead. “I’ll pick you up for the party tomorrow.”

  She took a handful of his shirt, pulled his face back down, and sat up to give him a real kiss. “See you tomorrow.”

  When she heard the door click behind him, she got up and got dressed. It was only five and she thought about how she could spend the rest of the evening. Friday night and nowhere to go. Or, if she wanted to see her cup as half full, she could remind herself that it wasn’t even dark outside and she’d alr
eady gotten laid.

  “That’s right, missy, and it was a US prime lay. Not your garden variety lay,” she said aloud and went into the kitchen to fix dinner, trying not to think about her upcoming interview 526 miles away.

  * * * *

  Cash walked to Jace’s.

  Temperatures had cooled to a balmy eighty-five degrees. And the short hike would give him time to think.

  He and Aubrey were getting involved deeper than he wanted to, and yet he couldn’t seem to stop it. He was forever looking for excuses to spend time with her when he should be dedicating all his energy to Ellie and to finding a job, like Aubrey had done.

  Cash crossed through the trees, shunning the well-traveled trail that cut across the field from the cabin to Jace’s place. Even in July, the pine trees reminded him of Christmas. And the towering oaks, heavy with leaves, formed a thick canopy that kept the late afternoon sun from beating down on the brim of his hat. He interrupted two deer foraging for acorns. As soon as they felt his presence, they pounded past him, vaulting over a broken split-rail fence.

  On the other side of the trees, he heard the rush of Dry Creek. The smell of wet soil, fish, and vegetation swamped him with so many boyhood memories that for a minute he was lost in time. The screech of a nighthawk pulled him back, and he quickened his pace.

  He got to Jace’s just in time to help clean up the dessert dishes. Sawyer being Sawyer had brought artisan ice cream from a sweetshop in Nevada City.

  “What’s the difference between artisan ice cream and the stuff they sell at Safeway? It all tastes the same to me.” Jace put the carton in the freezer.

  “That’s because you’re a cretin and think Arby’s is haute cuisine.”

  Sawyer was a snob, yet here he was, living in a barn on an old cattle ranch in Timbuktu.

  “Don’t you have a book to write?” Jace shoulder-checked him.

  “I’m taking a break and giving the creative juices time to catch up.”

  “Is that a fancy way of saying you have writer’s block?” Cash tossed a dish towel at him so he could help dry the stuff that wasn’t dishwasher safe. Sawyer had a funny way of making himself scarce during KP duty. Cash chalked it up to the fact that he’d grown up with maids and cooks and chauffeurs and enough hired help to fill AT&T Park. But on the ranch they all pitched in. It was Grandpa Dalton’s rule.