Sweet-Talking Cowboy

by Vicki Lewis Thompson, Stephanie Bond

  “What an outstanding suggestion! Yes, please ask them.”

  After settling Lucy in her cabin and exchanging cell phone numbers, Matt drove over to the bunkhouse and parked in his usual spot next to Jake’s truck. It was almost identical to his except Jake had added a bumper sticker—ADMIT IT. Life would be boring without me.

  Very true. Jake had come onboard seven months after Matt, and once he’d dropped the attitude, his fun-loving side had emerged.

  And wow, was he observant. Nothing got past that cowboy. He’d figured out right away that Matt was sweet on Lucy. He and Seth were the only ones who knew about that fateful afternoon six years ago. Jake would be especially interested in this development.

  The rest of the guys likely would jump at the chance to celebrate with Lucy once they heard the story. Which was good, because a party around the bonfire was way safer than sipping champagne in the privacy of her one-room cabin.

  Opening the front door of the long, low bunkhouse, he stepped into the big room where the guys slept and played cards. A wood stove kept the place cozy if someone tended it. The bathroom was at the far end on the right, and the kitchen was located at the other end.

  Matt hung his coat and hat on hooks screwed into the wall next to his bed. He kept his clothes and his few possessions in two big drawers under his bed. Simple. Neat.

  The sweet aroma of onions, beef and various veggies simmering in the stew pot permeated the building. Matt headed toward the kitchen, where Jake and CJ were yukking it up. CJ, the only fair-haired guy on the ranch, had showed up eight years ago and had immediately appointed himself Jake’s sous chef.

  The man had knife skills. Nobody could slice and dice like CJ. Food came out faster, so the rest of them had taken extra duty in the barn so those two could make dinner every night. They tried some interesting dishes, but nothing was as popular as chuck-wagon stew.

  Jake glanced up, a large spoon in his hand. “How’s the happy couple?”

  “Not so happy.” He gave them a brief rundown.

  “That blows,” CJ said.

  “Sure does.” Jake shook his head. “Poor Lucy.”

  “She seemed nice, too,” CJ said. “I didn’t know her for as long as you two, but I feel bad for her.”

  Jake gazed at Matt, a gleam of fury in his dark eyes. “I wish that dude would follow her here. I’d like a piece of him.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  “So how is she?”

  “Better than when I picked her up. Remember how she always had a sketchpad with her?”

  Jake nodded. “That girl could draw.”

  “When we were in town I bought her a pad and some pencils. On the way here, she drew a picture of me. Took her about fifteen minutes.”

  “Cool.” CJ looked impressed. “Don’t know why she’d want to draw your ugly mug, though.”

  “I was handy.”

  Jake just smiled.

  Matt shot him a warning glance. “Anyway, she wants to celebrate dodging a bullet. What do you say to a bonfire out back?”

  “Great idea,” Jake said. “Leo’s on a date, but I’ll bet Rafe and Nick will want in. It’s not every day you get to toast a gutsy woman ditching her crappy groom.”

  Matt pulled out his phone. “I’ll text her and confirm it.”

  The answer came back immediately. Yay! Can’t wait to see the guys again!

  “She’s excited. Can’t wait to see everybody.”

  Jake nodded. “Good.”

  “I’m glad Lucy finally decided to pay us a visit again,” CJ said. “She’s fun.”

  “Yeah,” Matt avoided looking at Jake. “She’s great.”

  Chapter Six

  When the rumble of Henri’s truck sounded outside the cabin door, Lucy put on her borrowed coat and went outside.

  Henri shut off the engine and climbed down. “I forgot to give you a hat.” She held out a knit cap like the one she had on. “You can keep it if you like it. I have plenty.” Her breath clouded the air.

  “I will then.” Lucy tugged it over her ears, relishing the warmth.

  “I also brought gloves.” She pulled a pair out of her pocket. “You can keep them, too. A couple of the Babes are knitting fools. They keep me supplied.”

  “Thanks, Miss Henri.”

  She chuckled. “Ah, that takes me back. But I don’t think it fits anymore, do you?”

  “I should just use Henri?”

  “Sounds right to me.”

  “Okay, then. I make no promises I’ll remember, but I’ll do my best.” Lucy pulled on the wool gloves. “These are amazing. I can imagine making a scarf, maybe even a cap, but gloves? How do you do the fingers?”

  “Don’t ask me. I’ve never had the patience to try it.” She gestured toward the lighted path to the dining hall. “Let’s go get some grub.”

  “Absolutely.” Lucy fell into step beside her. “This is a familiar routine, only we always had our favorite two-bedroom on the other side and it was daylight.” The cabins ringed the dining hall, each with a lighted private path leading there like spokes on a wheel. Ridges of snow bordered each one. “Who shovels the paths?”

  “The guys rotate.” Henri waved to a couple hurrying down a nearby path. “Hi, there, Suzie and Don!”

  “Hey, Henri!” Don called out. “You gonna chow down with us tonight?”

  “I am! Having dinner with an old friend, Lucy Patterson visiting from SoCal. Lucy, this is Don and Suzie Jefferson from Iowa.”

  “Happy to meet you both.” Lucy gave them a wave.

  “Same here, Lucy!” Suzie beamed at her. “Any friend of Henri’s is a friend of ours.”

  “Likewise!” Lucy lowered her voice. “Regulars?”

  “Yep. They’ve been coming here for years, but you wouldn’t have met them because they always book a cabin around Valentine’s Day.”

  “Sounds like they’ve kept the romantic spark alive.”

  “They’re two of the lucky ones.”

  Lucy glanced at her. “Do you think it’s luck?”

  “I do. Luck or Fate that you’re in the right place at the right time and you have the good sense to recognize the person who’s the one.”

  “When did you know Mister Charley, I mean Charley, was the one?”

  “Probably within the first hour. He admitted he did, too, but it took us forever to say so. He’d been married and divorced. I’d been engaged and then had broken it off. We were both super cautious.”

  “What was it about him in that first hour?”

  “His laugh. Nothing fake about it. And the way he looked straight at me as if we’d met before. I got a chill down my spine. I thought he was sexy as hell, of course, but somehow I also felt like I could trust him.”

  “In other words, instinct?”

  “I guess you could call it that. But I had to work up the courage to go with my gut.”

  “That’s not easy.” For weeks, her gut had been telling her something was off about Kurt’s behavior.

  “No, it’s not easy.” Henri stepped forward and ushered her into the rustic dining hall, a room filled with mouth-watering aromas of roast beef and sautéed onions.

  Lucy’s stomach rumbled. She’d fibbed to Matt about that sandwich in the airport. She’d taken one bite and thrown it away. She hadn’t eaten all day.

  The dining hall had been transformed from the venue she was used to. In the summer, warmth and light drifted in the open windows. Now they were closed tight, with drifts of snow on each pane. Lights from the windows of the cabins circling the dining hall made the snow sparkle

  In summer the tables sat end-to-end, creating a long family-style seating arrangement. Tonight they’d been separated and arranged in a cozy restaurant configuration. Place settings and cloth napkins had taken the place of a stack of plates and containers of silverware at the serve-yourself buffet.

  The wagon-wheel chandeliers hanging from the rafters bathed the room in soft light and frosted glass candle holders glowed on each table. Bu
d vases filled with red chrysanthemums added a touch of color.

  Lucy unbuttoned her borrowed fleece coat and took off her gloves. “Fancy.”

  “About as fancy as we get around here. This is the only night we do this.” Henri waved at several of the people already seated. Then she looked over Lucy’s shoulder.

  “Oh, and there’s Millie. Thank goodness for her. She agreed to waitress when our usual gal from the Choosy Moose came down with the flu and the Moose couldn’t spare anybody else.”

  Lucy turned and smiled as the curvy redhead walked toward them. A lighted novelty necklace of blinking red hearts rested on her ample bosom.

  “Lucy.” Millie held out both hands.

  “It’s good to see you, Millie.”

  “You, too, girlfriend. Henri told me about your—”

  “Heinous bridegroom?”

  “I have much more specific words for him, ones best not repeated in public.” She scowled. “I’m ready to roast his chestnuts on an open fire.”

  “Thanks, Millie. Great necklace, by the way.”

  “I wanted the diners to be able to spot me in case they needed anything. The light’s dim and I—oh, Lucy. I wasn’t thinking.” She reached behind her neck and the lights went out. “You don’t need to see blinking hearts when yours has been broken.” She lifted it over her head and tucked it behind her back.

  “No, no, please don’t ditch it on my account.” Lucy put a hand on her arm. “It’s a brilliant idea. Besides… now that you mention it, I don’t think my heart’s broken. It’s filled with rage, though. Your necklace works for that emotion, too.”

  “You think?” Millie looked unsure.

  “I do. Think of each blink as a kick to his privates.”

  “Ooo, I like that.” Millie shook the kinks from her necklace, put it over her head and switched it on.

  “Also, if I leave my wedding dress on a chair in the cabin in the morning, will you get rid of it for me?”

  “Sure. Is it okay if I donate it to a charity?”

  “Absolutely, but it’ll need to be cleaned. I’ll gladly pay for that.”

  Millie beamed at her. “You’ll make some cash-strapped bride a happy woman.”

  “See? Good’s already coming from this mess. Oh, and the guys want to throw a bonfire party to celebrate my narrow escape. You and Kate are invited.” She turned to Henri. “And you, too. I forgot to mention it.”

  “Sounds fun, but this party may well go long into the night and I can’t afford two of those in a row.”

  “Understood.”

  “Count me in,” Millie said. “And I’m sure Kate will want to come. If you can make it late enough that we’re finished with cleanup, then—”

  “We can.”

  “Excellent. Let me get you seated. Your table’s right over here.” She led them to one by a window. “What can I bring each of you to drink?”

  “Red wine for me, please,” Henri said.

  Lucy nodded. “The same, please.”

  “Oh! That’s right, you’re of age, now. Duh. Two red wines, coming up.” She hustled back to the kitchen, heart necklace blinking.

  Lucy tucked her knit hat in the pocket she wasn’t using for the gloves, slipped out of her coat and let it hang on the back of her chair. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the bonfire? Maybe we could reschedule for tomorrow.”

  “Nope, nope. The sooner you administer the last rites to this relationship, the better. That chapter of your life is behind you.”

  “Sort of. Kurt works for the same ad agency I do.”

  “That’s unfortunate.”

  “It’s how we met.”

  “Any chance he’ll get the boot for being a cheating jackass?”

  Lucy shook her head. “He’s good at his job. Personable and convincing.” She paused. “Which is probably why he was able to fool me for so long. I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “If you think the agency will want to keep him on, then you might have to quit.”

  “I agree.”

  “You’ll get something better. Way better.”

  She smiled. “You’re prejudiced.”

  “You will! You have talent coming out of your ears. Or more accurately, out of your fingertips. Put yourself out there, and offers will flood in.”

  “That would be terrific.” She sighed. “Everyone’s being so nice. I wish I hadn’t stayed away so long.”

  Henri shrugged. “It happens. You were in school and then you were starting a new job.”

  “Yes, but this place is my only…” She paused. Home? That didn’t sound right. “I guess you know my folks downsized.”

  “Yep. Didn’t want the yard to mow and the gutters to clean.”

  “That leaves the Buckskin as the one place in my life that hasn’t changed. It’s…it’s a touchstone for me. I’ll see where I end up jobwise, but I’d love to join my folks for part of their vacation this summer, even if it’s only for a few days.”

  “I hope you can. People come and go, but some of them remain in your heart. You’re one of those. I’ve missed you. We all have.”

  “That means a lot.”

  “I’m not quite old enough to be your grandmother, but I guess you could think of me as your younger great-aunt, the cool one.”

  She grinned. “You definitely qualify as cool. You founded Babes on Buckskins.”

  “I’m proud of that. Especially now that we’re into doing good as well as raising hell.”

  “You’ve taken up causes?”

  “Environmental, mostly. Charley and I were big on taking care of the planet so I’m all over that issue. Last year the Babes planted five hundred trees. This year we’re going for a thousand. We have to wait until the ground unfreezes and then we’re on it.”

  “That’s terrific.”

  “Then there’s the raptor rescue thing. Seth mentioned that last time he was here.”

  “Matt told me he’d relocated to Eagles Nest.”

  “Which is the home base for Raptors Rise, founded by Seth’s cousin Zane McGavin. He’s looking to create a second location and Apple Grove might be perfect.”

  “How exciting!”

  “I think so, too. I have some unused acreage that might work for it. Can you imagine how enthusiastic Charley would have been about a project like that?”

  “He would have been over the moon.” She hesitated. “I sent you a note about him, but let me just say in person that I—”

  “I know, sweetheart. I know.” Henri’s gaze reflected sadness, but acceptance, too. “We all miss him. If this raptor rescue thing materializes, I’m putting Charley’s name on it, somehow. I’ve been looking for a fitting tribute and this could be it.”

  “Your wine, ladies.” Millie arrived and set a goblet in front of each of them. “The meal will be served shortly.”

  Henri glanced around the room. “Are you okay handling all ten tables by yourself?”

  “Ten tables with a fixed menu and no checks to total is nothing. When I was a teenager, I waitressed at a coffee shop with a gazillian choices of food and coffee drinks.”

  Henri blinked. “I had no idea you had prior experience.”

  “I didn’t say so because I wondered if I remembered those skills. I do, and this is a piece of cake. Back soon with your meal.” She whisked off.

  “Millie’s so getting a bonus next paycheck.” Henri picked up her wine glass. She started to take a sip and paused. “We should toast. To new beginnings.”

  “To new beginnings.” Lucy touched the rim of her glass to Henri’s. “Thank you for giving me a soft place to land.”

  “You’re welcome.” She took a long sip of her wine. “Ah. Good stuff. I like beer, but this suits me better.” She put down her glass. “As your newly appointed great-aunt, it’s my duty to ask if you’ve called your parents since you arrived.”

  “As soon as I got to the cabin.”

  “Good. How are they taking this?”

  “Naturally they’re furious w
ith Kurt, but also worried about me. I told them that the Buckskin is just what I needed. They said to thank you for giving me a safe haven.”

  “My pleasure.”

  “You mentioned instinct earlier. I’ll probably spend months analyzing how I could have chosen someone who would betray me.”

  “Or you could focus all that mental energy on sketching.”

  “Yeah, I could. Matt is such a good guy to buy me that sketchpad and pencils.”

  “He’s always been fond of you.”

  Lucy stifled a groan. Fondness wasn’t the emotion she’d longed to generate in Matt. It applied to children and pets, a considerate neighbor, a kind checker at her favorite grocery store.

  But Henri didn’t know the description grated on her nerves. Too bad it was accurate.

  Chapter Seven

  Hanging out with the guys and eating chuck wagon stew on Friday night had been a highlight of Matt’s week at the Buckskin for years. But tonight he couldn’t relax and enjoy it. Lucy was coming to the bunkhouse for the first time ever. He wanted it to go well.

  After polishing off his stew, he chugged the rest of his beer. “Is everybody coming to Lucy’s celebration?”

  Nick paused, his spoon halfway to his mouth. “I wouldn’t miss it.” Then he shoveled in some stew. The guy could eat. He was on his second bowl.

  “Me, either.” Rafe scooted back his chair to stretch his long legs. At six-eight he was the tallest of the bunch.

  “It’s a big deal for her.” Matt surveyed the men at the table. “She should set the tone. You might feel like cussing out that a-hole she almost married. For sure I do, but we should be—”

  “Hey,” Nick said. “This is the Brotherhood you’re talking about. We know how to behave in a situation like this.”

  CJ put down his beer bottle. “We’ve never had a situation like this.”

  Nick rolled his eyes. “Maybe not exactly. But we know how to act when a lady’s been disrespected. You don’t make it worse by letting out a string of cuss words. Charley wouldn’t have done that.”

  “Excellent point.” Rafe crossed his arms and gazed at Matt.