by Vivian Arend
“Quiet?” Joel laughed. “Hell, what rock are you living under? The last family get-together the kids were loud enough to raise the dead.”
“My sweet angels? Nahh.” Blake dropped an arm around Joel’s shoulder as they walked to his truck. “It’s all Daniel’s boys. Bunch of hoodlums, just like their uncles.”
Blake left him with a hearty pat on the back, his big brother whistling as he headed into the trees and the short path that led to his house on the other side of the coulee. Joel paused in the middle of starting the engine, suddenly struck by something. Blake was marching home to his wife and two little girls.
His brother’s wife Jaxi had been one of Joel’s playmates growing up, and while having her in the family felt right, there were still times he had to flip his brain back into gear. It was proper to have her around, but she wasn’t just someone who’d always been there, she and Blake were married. Lovers. Now parents. They had a family of their own, and everything that went with it.
Maybe that was part of where this weird sensation was coming from. Jesse could protest until the cows came home he didn’t want to settle down yet. Joel was online with that sentiment as well.
Only having someone special to spend time with? It wasn’t an unwelcome idea. After years of casual dating and lots of fun, what was wrong with wanting to move to the next stage and have a steady girlfriend for a while?
It was damn crazy, though, how the first image in his brain was of Vicki Hansol. Not the wild child he’d heard gossiped about all over town for so long, but as he’d seen her the previous day after she’d been sacked.
Kind of lost and alone looking. Fragile, even. None of the tough girl left, just someone who needed a helping hand. And if his daddy had taught them anything in the Coleman clan? Taking care of women and helping them was important.
Joel parked outside the trailer he shared with Jesse, his brother’s truck already gone. He headed inside and laughed. Jesse had pulled a couple bottles from the case of beer and left them on the table along with a bag of potato chips and a note.
Here you go, you party animal.
He popped a cap and took a long drink on the way to his bedroom. Yeah, Jesse was still a great guy, even if they had a few moments of frustration between them at times. Typical family stuff—brothers being brothers.
Hell, he had an awesome family and tons to look forward to.
Life couldn’t get much better.
He was standing under the shower when the image of Vicki’s big sad eyes hit him again.
Come to think of it, he’d never heard much negative about Vicki other than her fighting. Chatter about her had usually been mushed in with the easy sexual habits of her older family members, but specific dirt-talk about Vicki?
He couldn’t think of anything past high school.
If he thought he had a task ahead of him to break free of the weird reputation he and Jesse had been labeled with, how much more of an issue would it be for someone like her to change people’s minds? With her sister and mom still adding to the rumour mill.
What would it take for a town bad girl to find redemption from a bunch of small-town attitudes?
The thought clung to him throughout the rest of his evening.
Chapter Three
Vicki pulled her motorbike to the side of the road and cursed her foolishness. She’d debated with herself until she was dizzy, always coming back to the same conclusion.
Fate was giving her a chance, but she still had to work for it.
She needed to get over her fear of horses without letting Karen discover her anxiety, because wouldn’t having a horse phobia go over like a ton of bricks? After wracking her brain, her possibilities had proven to be limited. The best person she could think of to help her was Joel Coleman, if his offer the other day had been sincere.
Oh God, let it have been sincere.
But having made that decision she was still lost. The worst part wasn’t wondering if she was making some huge mistake, it was logistics. How to get in touch with the man? With her new job, she’d be buried in the back room of the hardware shop. It wasn’t as if he’d stop by, and she could casually bring up the idea.
Calling him was out. Nope—this had to be done in person.
But her brilliant idea of taking a casual Saturday morning drive past his place and if she spotted him, stopping, had just fallen apart.
How was she supposed to know at a distance if it was him or Jesse?
She was such a twit.
She was still considering her options when the gods of karma must have decided she’d suffered enough. Joel’s truck appeared before her, coming to a stop beside the driveway leading to the trailer Jesse and Joel shared. The door opened and Joel stepped out.
“You need a hand?”
She shut down the engine and loosened off her helmet.
His eyes widened as he discovered who she was. “Well, now. Hi, Vicki. What brings you out my way?”
“I’d like to talk.”
He nodded, pointing toward his trailer. “Sure, come on in.”
“No.” The word jerked out far too quickly to be polite, and Vicki swore under her breath. “I mean, could we go somewhere else to chat? I don’t want…”
Even explaining she didn’t want her bike seen outside the twins’ place was a horrible way to start to ask for a favour.
Joel frowned. “Coffee shop?”
“The Tree?”
He snorted. “You want to talk down at the high school kids’ make-out field?”
Yeah, it wasn’t much better. Frustration tore at her. “Never mind. It was a stupid idea to begin with.”
He stopped her from putting on her helmet and racing off. “Slow down. If you want to talk without being interrupted, we can go to the river. Follow me.”
He didn’t give her an opportunity to protest, just got in his truck and pulled a U-turn, back toward the main highway. She did up her helmet and followed at a safe distance as he turned down a narrow gravel road leading into Coleman land.
Once they’d crested the hill and disappeared on the other side, she relaxed. Out of sight of curious onlookers was good. She backed off to allow the dust to settle and stop choking her vision. Instead, she admired the rolling fields around them, clear signs of fall displayed everywhere. Hay cut to short stubble, bales neatly stacked along the sides of the field. As far as she could see was Coleman land, and something inside twisted as she considered her tiny rented apartment.
He was so out of her league.
A pounding rang through her brain. Didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. The differences in their status had to be ignored. He had something she desperately needed, and she would damn well put her pride on hold and ask for help.
She parked on the inside of his truck, an instinct for secrecy still riding her even this far into the backcountry. Vicki slipped her leg over the bike seat and pulled off her helmet, hanging it from the handlebars.
Joel had found a spot on the fading grass beside a sturdy bench, his position allowing both of them to overlook a section of a slow-moving waterway.
She ignored the long line of his body as he stretched out his legs, instead dropping onto the bench and breathing deeply. “Pretty. I didn’t know this was here. Is that Whiskey Creek down below?”
“Yeah.” He plucked a stalk of tall grass and nibbled on the end as he pointed. “The Whiskey Creek Colemans’ land is straight to the west of here, Angel land beyond that. Moonshine clan owns the spread to the south.”
“And this section is Six Pack.” She twisted to look back at the road they’d traveled, amazed at the extent of it all. “Seems so big. Kind of endless.”
He laughed. “Especially when you’re on a tractor and have to cover another section before dark. Endless is right.”
They sat in silence for a minute, no words, just the rush of the water below them bubbling over the rocks and past branches that leaned into the water. Vicki pulled her gaze away from the pretty place and focused on Joel.
He’d lain back on the ground and tipped his hat over his face to block the sun. The rest of him relaxed and delicious looking.
All her tightly wound secrets and desires were going to kill her, bundled up and hidden from everyone. The moment to share most of them was not here, and definitely not with Joel.
Focus. She had to focus.
If he’d asked her right away what was up, it would have made it easier, but the silence stretched between them until it was in her face, tension rising. The peacefulness of the spot vanished under her hopelessness.
If she wasn’t brave enough to ask a simple favour, how on earth was she going to face the damn horses?
She loosened off her white-knuckled grip from the edge of the seat and forced herself to lean forward. “How good are you at keeping secrets?”
He leaned up on an elbow, adjusted his hat back into position and seemed to really consider his answer. “Depends what the secret is and why it’s a secret. My mama got that foolishness of keeping secrets just to keep secrets out of me when Jesse and me were in grade school. Secrets that hurt someone, don’t tell me, because I’ll be bound to try to fix it. Secrets that can make a person happy, like surprise parties and such? I’m good at.”
Fair enough. “I have a secret, and it’s not hurting anyone but me.”
“You want to tell me?” He glanced around them. “Is that why the hush-hush meeting and all?”
Vicki opened her mouth to answer then paused. Shit. Should she tell him? Did she hope he’d understand and give her a break, even if he didn’t want to help?
She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If she didn’t get his help, Karen would eventually find out about her issue. If he didn’t prove trustworthy, Karen would find out sooner and the job offer would be pulled. Simple enough.
Something tugged on her wrist, and Vicki blinked in surprise to discover Joel was no longer sprawled a few feet away on the ground, but beside her on the bench, lowering her hand to her thigh.
“You were biting your nails,” he pointed out.
She looked up at him, their difference in size more obvious than ever at close range. “Shit, you’re big.”
A huge grin burst out for a second before being wrangled into a more controlled expression. He cleared his throat as he leaned on the seat back, opening space between them. “What’s got you chomping on your fingers?”
Resignation set in. Either sharing worked, or it didn’t. “I got a job offer for next summer I’d like to take, only there’s a problem.”
“And your secret is involved in this job offer?”
Vicki nodded. “Your cousin Karen is setting up trail rides, and I can go along as cook, only…”
He waited, and she debated getting up and pacing because the longer she sat there, the bigger he seemed to get. The size of his arms, the mass of his body. The fresh clean scent of him—and wasn’t that fucked up? She was trying to get her life set on a new path, and all she could think about was how good he smelt.
Stupid mucked-up hormones.
Anger at herself rose. Bullshit on this farting around. “I’m afraid of horses. The last time I worked at a camp I had limited interaction with the brutes, and I still was too sick to work a couple times. Just from having to walk past their corral.”
Concern and confusion showed in his eyes. No pity at least, that was good. “Did you have a bad experience with a horse?”
Blurred images flashed in her brain. “I remember only bits and pieces, but yeah. It was before we came to Rocky, so I might have been about six. I think we were at a fair. My sister and I wanted to pet them, but while we were in the yard one of them acted up. Someone got kicked—not us, we got hauled out right away—but now even the idea of getting close makes me nauseous.”
Joel nodded slowly. “Which is why they say to get back up on the horse right away. Your fears make sense—it’s not uncommon.”
That made her feel a little better, but still. “They’re just so bloody big, and unpredictable. And they smell.”
His lips twitched.
“What?” she demanded.
“I’m sorry you got scared when you were little, but they smell?” The words squeezed out through tight lips.
Dammit, he was trying not to laugh. “They do,” she insisted.
“Chickens smell. Are you afraid of chickens?”
Her frustration would have been higher if he hadn’t said it so deadpan. As it was, her sense of humour snuck in to point out that part of her complaint was a little on the stupid side. She bounced to her feet and planted her fists on her hips, staring him down as straight-faced as she could. “Only when I have to ride them.”
Joel let his grin escape. “Sorry. I shouldn’t tease, and I am taking this seriously. So what are you going to do about it?”
“The job?”
“The horses. I take it you’d like the position.”
“God, yes.” She jiggled in place. “If I wasn’t worried about puking my guts out while on the trail with Mister Ed, I’d be pleased as punch.”
Vicki absently noted their eyes were at nearly the same level with him seated on the bench. Talk about big beasts.
“That’s the answer then. You need to get over your fear of horses. How long you got?” Joel stretched one leg to the side, still sprawled on the bench, his arm along the seatback.
“Until May.” She eyed him cautiously. “You’re not going to tell Karen, are you?”
“Don’t see anything to tell. If you were offered a job that required you learn to rope between now and May, I think you could do it. I don’t know all the mental stuff involved in dealing with your fear, but—”
“I need you to help me get over it.”
He stopped. “I’m a rancher, Vicki, not a shrink.”
“But you have horses.”
Laughter broke out before he calmed himself. “Sorry, not laughing at you but, darling, what are you thinking? That I can help you get over your fears? I don’t have a clue where to start.”
Shit. Options were fading fast. “But…you’re not afraid of them, right?”
“Of course not.”
“That’s all we need.” It had to be enough. She faced him square on, arms crossed, daring him to turn her away. “Teach me what you know.”
The earnest hope on her face was hard to resist, as was the rest of the package bouncing on her heels in front of him. High strung, high energy—hell, maybe he’d lied when he’d said he didn’t know the first place to start. If this was how she acted around horses, no wonder they freaked her out. The animals would pick up on all her tension and react. Nothing more temperamental than an edgy horse.
The desire to scoop Vicki into his arms and teach her how to relax grew by the minute, but Joel needed to keep this under control. No matter how much her bossy attitude turned him on. “Fine. Let’s teach you to like horses.”
Her eyes widened. “Seriously?”
He caught hold of her wrists to stop her from rebounding away from him. “First off, you need to slow down. If you want, we can go over to the barns—”
She froze, face going white. “Shit.”
Panic setting in already? He rocked forward to reassure her. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on throwing you up on one right off the bat.”
She shook her head. “It’s just…” She twisted away and stomped along the top of the lookout, curses rising the entire time she paced. Joel hid his smile at a few of the racier terms. Not often he heard that kind of language from the ladies—although he’d been impressed with how raunchy his sister-in-law Jaxi could get.
Vicki had a far more extensive vocabulary.
She pivoted on the spot and glared. “Here’s the issue. If I start showing up at the ranch, people are going to notice. Either we tell them what we’re doing, which doesn’t work to keep Karen in the dark, or we tell them something else.”
He shrugged. “Not like we have to tell them anything, really.”
“They’re going to assume we’re s
eeing each other.”
Oh hell. She was right.
The initial dismay that struck faded far too quickly. Only two days earlier Jesse’s suggestion he had the hots for the woman had made him squirm.
Why wasn’t he nearly so upset with the idea anymore?
He kept their gazes locked together, refusing to look her over, no matter how much he wanted to. “So what?”
“So…it’s not true. We’re not dating. I’m not going out with you, because if I did, people will then assume I’m also fooling around with Jesse. I’m not a slut.”
He could have sworn his jaw hit his chest. He’d never expected to hear those words pop out of her mouth. “I never said you were.”
Her chin rose a fraction of an inch. “Plenty of others have said it.”
She was right about that.
His brain whirled with ideas. He wasn’t sure why this woman had gotten under his skin, but damn if he didn’t suddenly want to toss everything to the side and help Vicki make a change. He had a feeling an even break wasn’t something that came her way very often.
No matter how much trouble it was, he made a decision. He was in. One hundred percent. If the town rebel wanted to clean up her act, he was game.
“You’re planning on moving out of town, if all this works out?” Joel asked.
Vicki nodded.
“If I promise there will be no games with Jesse involved, will you go out with me?”
Her righteous anger blurred into confusion. “Go out—? Joel, I want to learn to ride.”
He tried, he really tried, but he couldn’t stop his lips from twitching, even though he buried the full-out grin.
She swung a fist into her thigh hard enough it had to hurt. “A horse, you ass. Yes, I know the goddamn song, but I want to ride a horse without freaking out.”
“And I promise we’ll work at that as well. But maybe diving in at the deep end would help deal with the idiots. I’m not saying I won’t try to help if you don’t date me. But if you and I are hanging out together for a long, steady time, that could go a long way to killing some of the…”
Shit. How much did he want to admit about the talk of the town?
