Dearest Cowboys Box Set

by Mia Brown

  I could also see where Ace had gotten his devilishly handsome looks from. Jaclyn had the same dark hair and broody eyes and the same attractiveness that drew people to her. I’d liked her the moment I’d met her.

  She had also accepted her fate. She had told me right after we’d been introduced that she was sick—sick enough not have a lot of time left. When I’d mentioned that Ace hadn’t said it was why they needed help at the ranch, she’d smiled and said that the boys were still working on coping with her fate.

  She seemed to have accepted it, and I could only respect her for it. Being this positive about something so terrible was a gift not many people possessed.

  “How have you never eaten a persimmon?” Alana asked. We were talking about vegetables and gardening. I was here to help them with a few things, and there was nothing I had any experience with.

  I shrugged. “I guess it never came up in my life.”

  Alana shook her head. Her straight, shoulder length raven hair was contrasted by her gray eyes, and she was the type of girl I imagined most men would fawn over. She wasn’t high-maintenance or stylish or anything, but she was completely genuine. I was starting to realize how far that went.

  “Well, we have to educate you, then,” she said. “I’ll see if I can get my hands on one.”

  I chuckled. I liked Alana. When I’d arrived this morning, she had questioned me about Ace, asking me what my intentions were with him. It had been almost protective. But Jaclyn had told me she was like a sister to Ace, and after we’d sat down and chatted, I realized how much I liked her.

  I had only spent a few hours with them, but I already felt at home. They were the type of people that made me feel like I was a part of the loop. It was so different from my family. Everyone in my family judged everyone else, and the only way to be accepted was to be someone completely different then you were. It hadn’t seemed hard growing up, but now that I was learning there was better out there, I saw my past and my family through fresh eyes.

  And I was even happier that I’d decided to leave and work here, after all.

  “Let the poor girl settle in,” Jaclyn said to Alana. “She’ll have more than enough to learn as soon as we start with everything.”

  Alana shrugged. Someone cleared their throat at the door, and we all looked up. Ace stood in the doorway, shirtless and handsome. He looked like he was in a foul mood, and his eyes were on mine, dark and deep. The shirt he pressed against his side drew my attention. It was bloodied and dirty.

  “What happened?” I asked jumping up.

  “It’s nothing,” Ace said. “I’m just coming through to get the first aid kit.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not nothing. Let me help you.”

  Ace started to protest, but I pushed past him through the door and headed toward the bathroom. I had taken a first aid course at the start of college—you never knew when it would come in handy—and I wanted to take care of Ace’s wound.

  “Come on,” I said, looking over my shoulder. He was walking after me but seemed reluctant. I rolled my eyes and walked to him, taking his free hand and pulling him into the bathroom with me. I made him sit down on the wooden bench against the wall and retrieved the first aid kit.

  “Oh, ouch,” I said when he took away the shirt so I could look at the wound.

  “Feels worse than it looks,” Ace said. “It’s nothing. Stop fussing.”

  I shook my head. Ace sighed and stopped fighting me when I inspected the wound and announced that he wouldn’t need stitches.

  “How did it happen?” I asked.

  I opened the first aid kit and found swabs and the alcohol spray. I applied it to clean the wound, and Ace sucked in air through his teeth.

  “It burns,” he said when I looked up.

  I smiled. “Such a big, strong man like you, hissing about a little flesh wound.” I glanced up at him. He rolled his eyes at me, but a ghost of a smile played on his lips.

  “You learned first aid,” he said. “Not quite part of a business degree.”

  I shrugged. “You never know when it will come in handy. Like when a ranch owner has a wobble and needs a hero.”

  Ace snorted. “You’re funny,” he said. “Give that to me; I can do it myself.”

  I pulled the swab away, and Ace sighed.

  “Are you always this stubborn?” he asked.

  I nodded. “I’m told it’s one of my best qualities.”

  “Not everyone likes it, you know. I think it’s good to be able to give in sometimes.” He winked at me. He was flirting with me. My chest felt warm. Ace Roper—campus playboy turned hot cowboy—was flirting with me.

  “Luckily, I don’t care what you think,” I said. Two could play this game. When I glanced up at Ace again, he smirked.

  “This might hurt,” I said when I reached for an antiseptic.

  “Yeah, because the rest has been a party.”

  I chuckled. “You’re not so scary,” I said. “You’re just a big baby.”

  Ace shook his head. I didn’t look up at him, but I had the feeling he was smiling.

  “So, you didn’t answer me,” I said. “How did it happen?”

  Ace shrugged. “I was fixing the fence, and I slipped with wire cutters.”

  “Fence one, Ace zero,” I said.

  “Hey, the fence is fixed.”

  “And you’re in my bathroom, bleeding.” I put gauze over the wound and taped it down. The wound wasn’t big enough to put a bandage around his whole waist. It would ruin his image, so it was a good thing.

  “You always have an answer, don’t you?” Ace said.

  I nodded. “Pretty much. When you don’t have anything nice to say, throw in a bitchy comment instead.”

  Ace chuckled. “You mutilated the saying.”

  I sat back on my heels. “There, all done.”

  Ace inspected my handiwork and nodded. “Thanks,” he said. “You know I could have done it myself, right?”

  I shrugged. I knew that, of course. This wasn’t his first rodeo, so to speak. He’d grown up on this ranch; I was sure this wasn’t his first scrape. But I had wanted to do it and not just to have some alone time with him. His naked torso was a sight to behold, and I hadn’t wanted to pass up an opportunity to get up close and personal with it.

  Of course, I wasn’t going to say that to him. I was being coy, hard to get, and that seemed to keep him on his toes without letting him come too close. He had to stay at arm’s length. Someone like Ace was nothing but trouble, and trouble was the last thing I needed in my life right now.

  Ace stood up and twisted his torso slowly from side to side with his arms lifted to the sides, bent at the elbows. He was testing how much the wound affected him. When he twisted to the left, he winced. I wanted to tell him not to do that, but I had to be honest—I loved watching him do it. He was built, his muscles defined from working so hard. I didn’t know how he’d maintained his body when he’d been away studying in Austin for four years, but whatever he’d done, it had worked.

  Muscles rippled beneath his skin as he moved, and I wondered what it would feel like under my fingertips. I pushed the thoughts away. I was not going to actively perv over someone that was essentially my boss. But I could totally get why the girls on campus had gone mad for him now. His muscles were lean and strong, not for show, and that was so much more attractive. Everything about him screamed sex appeal.

  Which was what made him so damn dangerous. God, I could fall for a man like him. Tall, dark, and smoldering.

  I turned away from him, forced myself not to keep staring. I was making it hard for myself.

  “I think your mom and Alana are still in the kitchenette. We were having pie and coffee. Join us before you head out again?” I asked.

  Ace hesitated a moment before nodding.

  “I guess I can sit down for a while.”

  We walked to the kitchenette. Jaclyn was still sitting at the Formica table, her fingers wrapped around a cup of coffee, but Alana’s seat was
vacant.

  “She had to run errands in town,” Jaclyn said when I asked. “But I would love the company again.”

  We sat down at the table. When Ace managed to reassure her that he was okay, that the wound was no big deal, Jaclyn seemed to relax a little.

  “Vanessa took care of it,” Ace added. “She has first aid skills, so I was in good hands.”

  Jaclyn looked at me. “That’s good to know. You can imagine with two boys how it can go around here.”

  I could, in fact, imagine. Ace didn’t look like the type of guy that would be careful enough not to get hurt. I didn’t know Andrew at all, but if they were brothers, it had to mean something.

  I made another cup of coffee for myself and Ace, and Jaclyn cut us each a slice of pie. It was the perfect country break, and I loved it. Everything out here was like a story from a book.

  “So, what did you ladies get up to this morning?” Ace asked.

  “Jaclyn is teaching me about canning vegetables,” I said. “It’s nothing I’ve ever done before, so I have a lot to learn.”

  Jaclyn nodded. “You do, but you’ll pick it up quickly,” she said.

  “I haven’t done anything with gardening, either. The closest I got as a kid was when we had to plant kidney beans at school when we did the cycle of a plant.”

  Ace grinned. “Aren’t you a princess,” he said. “Such a hard life.”

  I laughed. “We all have our battles, Mr. Wire Cutter.”

  He made a face.

  Jaclyn laughed. “It’s good to see there’s someone who can put you in your place,” she said. “Ace has always been a handful.”

  “Meek as a lamb, Mom,” he said.

  We laughed.

  “I think to really be able to do this job I would have had to study agriculture,” I said, getting back to the point. “I feel completely out of my league. Why didn’t you study something like that?” I asked Ace.

  He opened his mouth to answer, but his mom spoke first.

  “Ace didn’t want to come back to the ranch. The last couple of years he wanted to leave.”

  “Mom,” Ace said, unhappy about her input. I wanted to ask why he would want to leave. How could you turn your back on a place this beautiful, this relaxing? How could you leave a place behind that felt this much like home?

  “What, sweetheart? It’s true,” she said.

  “We all have our battles,” he said tightly, using the words I’d said. Jaclyn nodded, looking down. I felt like I was in the middle of a conversation that had nothing to do with me, so I kept out of it.

  We changed topics to something lighter, and before long, we were laughing and joking again. When the coffee was gone, Ace got up.

  “I have a few things to take care of before lunch,” he said.

  Jaclyn nodded, getting up. “And I must make said lunch,” she said. “I’ll see you up there in a bit,” she said to Ace, who walked out of the kitchenette. I watched him leave. His ass was just as good as the rest of him, his faded jeans hanging from his hips like he was doing them a favor. When he left, I glanced at Jaclyn. I didn’t want her to know that I’d been staring at her son. But she was deep in thought, and I had a feeling she hadn’t noticed.

  Seven

  Ace

  I loved ranching, but there were some things I couldn’t stand. Like how calves could come anytime, day or night.

  It was 2 in the morning, and I was in the stables, my arms full of amniotic fluid up to my elbows, and the heifer on the ground bleating like I personally offended her.

  “It’s not my fault the calf is backward,” I snapped at her as if she could understand me. I was tired and irritated. It had been a long week, the wound on my hip hurt, and I hadn’t slept a lot the past couple of nights.

  And I was worried about my mom, which was why I was the only one out here tonight, even though she’d always been with us when the calves were born. The babies on the ranch had always been her thing.

  “Come on, one more push,” I said, and then the calf slipped out. It was a fight to get it out—a backward birth was never easy—but now it lay on the hay, breathing hard, as if it had been difficult.

  “You’re telling me,” I said. I slapped the heifer on her haunches. “Come on, Mom, feed your baby.”

  The heifer got up, and the calf wobbled on unstable legs toward her. But then the heifer backed away.

  “Come on,” I coaxed. The baby needed its mom. She was rejecting it. Shit.

  After a couple of tries, the newborn calf stood in the middle of the large stall, lost and alone. I sighed and pulled the calf against me.

  “Bitch.” I sneered at the heifer. Now I would have to feed this calf. I couldn’t leave it to its mom and go to bed.

  I was suddenly furious. Why the hell was I here when everyone else was fast asleep in their warm beds? I wasn’t the only one working on this ranch.

  I left the stall with the calf crying again and stomped to the bunkhouse. I wasn’t going to wake my mom, obviously, and Andrew and I would just end up fighting. Everyone else was in town. Vanessa was the only one left. I marched to her bed and shook her by the shoulder.

  “Get up,” I said. “Duty calls.”

  She blinked through sleepy eyes at me. “Ace?”

  “Yeah. Get up. Get dressed. You’re on calf duty.”

  She rubbed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

  I sighed. “Get dressed, and get to the barn,” I snapped and stormed away. She had better follow me, or I was going to lose my shit.

  When she arrived, it was only five minutes later. Good for her. I had already moved the heifer into a stall of her own. It was pointless keeping the calf around her only to be rejected again and again.

  “Her mom doesn’t want her. She needs milk. Here.”

  I pushed a bottle of milk into her hands. She looked bewildered.

  “I’ve never done this,” she said.

  “So? Figure it out.”

  I wasn’t going to sit here and show her what to do, too. I left the barn and walked to the main house to my bedroom. I locked my door and got into bed, going right to sleep.

  She was everywhere in my dreams—a slender woman with a sweet smile, long hair, and beautiful violet eyes. We were riding out together, and she was on one of the young mares. I doubted she could ride, but there she was, wielding the mare with ease. The wind whipped her blonde hair around her face, and when she looked at me and smiled, my stomach flipped.

  We were in the barn, her back to the wood siding, and I was right in front of her, so close that a sigh would push us together. Those eyes drew me in, and her lips were kissable—full and smooth. I touched her silky hair, ran a strand through my fingers.

  “What are you waiting for?” she asked, but I didn’t kiss her. No matter how badly I wanted to, I didn’t close that gap and press my lips to hers. I didn’t push my tongue into her mouth and taste her.

  We were at the lake where I’d spent my youth with Andrew. She wore short shorts that made her legs look so long I could get lost staring at them all day. She waded into the lake, the water lapping around her ankles, then her knees, and then her thighs. She was telling me something I didn’t quite catch when she slipped and fell into the water.

  When she pushed up again her clothes were wet, clinging to her body, tracing her perfect figure. Her breasts were perky—not too big and not too small—her stomach almost flat and her waist tiny. She was a sight to behold, and I just stared.

  “Come on in, the water is great,” she said and beckoned to me. I got up and went to her, walking into the water. I pulled off my shirt and came to stand almost right up against her. I put my arms around her, and I could have pulled her against me. But I didn’t. No matter what we did, she was a few inches away from me, unreachable, untouchable.

  What the hell was I doing? Sleep with her! I shouted at myself, the little voice at the back of my mind going crazy. But she wasn’t like the other women I’d fucked. Vanessa was different, and it made me feel like I
had to be different.

  I opened my eyes and darkness folded around me. I was in my room, lying in my bed. The covers were twisted and tangled around my feet, and I was sweating. My dick was hard in my pants, craving attention. Vanessa would be the end of me if this kept happening. I was dreaming about her, staring at her, and if nothing had changed, I would have fucked her already.

  At least in my dreams.

  But everything was different now, and I couldn’t keep going the way I’d done it before. I couldn’t screw every girl and move on with my life. I would end up alone, and with my mom dying and Andrew being far from a best friend, I wanted someone I could share my life with instead of someone that would end up being a wet dream and a distant memory.

  And Vanessa wasn’t quite the person I could settle down with, I didn’t think. We were too different. She was a city girl that needed expensive clothes and air-conditioned rooms to make her happy. And I was a rancher with peeling skin after days of sunburn, calloused hands, and a bad mood.

  I closed my eyes and let sleep pull me under again, sure that whatever my imagination was doing with Vanessa was all it would be.

  When I finally woke up again, the sun fell through my window at the wrong angle. It was later than usual. I got out of bed and opened my curtains, looking out.

  I had left Vanessa in the barn with the calf last night. I wondered how she’d gotten on. I had been such a dick to her.

  Now that I’d gotten some sleep, and I wasn’t in a foul mood anymore, I felt bad. I had to go out there and find her, apologize for my behavior. She hadn’t deserved me treating her like that, even if she worked here.

  I jumped into the shower, scrubbing as fast as I could before throwing on jeans and a shirt and heading out to the barn.

  When I reached the stall, I stopped. Vanessa was asleep, propped up against a bale of hay with the calf in her lap as much as she could get it. It was sucking on the bottle she held loosely in her hands. Judging by the amount of milk left in the bottle, she had been fighting all night only for the calf to start drinking now.