Her Rodeo Rancher

by M. K. Stelmack

  “We know who the big bad wolf is,” Mara said. “To mash up the fairy tales.”

  Krista hated to do this, but... “I should make a second call.”

  After she and Mara had brainstormed several pages of notes, Krista made the call, her fingers shaking. Not unexpectedly it went to voice mail. She left a long, winding message that was cut off by the tone. She waited a half hour and called again, leaving a simple message to call her.

  “So much for that,” Krista said. “Phillip won’t call. Why would he?”

  “Why would he not? Murderers return to the scene of their crime, don’t they?” her mild-mannered sister replied.

  Her sister’s uncharacteristic venom cheered Krista somewhat as she drove out to see Will in the late afternoon. She’d left a few items at the Claverley house and had thought to bring lotion samples out to Janet and Laura. At the ranch driveway, her phone rang. Phillip. She parked her car halfway off the shoulder and was connected by the third ring.

  “Thanks for calling back,” Krista said right off the top. She wished she had Mara’s notes in front of her.

  “I was a little surprised you called at all,” he said. She could tell he had her on speakerphone. Was someone else listening in?

  “I wouldn’t normally but as you heard on my message, I thought it best.”

  “I couldn’t follow what you were saying. What’s your problem?” She could hear the smile in his voice.

  He knew exactly what her problem was, but he was going to make her repeat it for the sake of his audience. Krista bit back her anger and said, “I am sorry I hurt you, Phillip. I didn’t realize how much I had until your reaction on Facebook...and again now.”

  There was a fraction of a pause. “Don’t assume you have that kind of power over me, Krista.”

  “It’s not power, Phil,” Krista said. “I mean, it’s the kind of power we give anyone when we enter into a relationship with them.”

  “Been talking to your psycho sister lately?”

  “My psychologist sister,” Krista clarified, not able to keep the sharpness from her voice. “I am sorry for not discussing our relationship sooner with you, and breaking up with you over the phone was not...kind.”

  “Nearly a year of my life flushed away with one phone call.”

  “I’m sorry.” It wouldn’t do to point out that it had also been a year of her life.

  “You tried to make a fool out of me.”

  “That wasn’t it.”

  “Of course it was. Run across the country to your family, drop me and never have to face our friends, our coworkers. Leave me hanging. You humiliated me, Krista.”

  He was alone. No way would he allow anyone to hear that confession. “So...the doll...the posts...the comments, it was all because you wanted to get back at me for making you look bad?”

  “What did you think it was about?”

  “I thought it was because I made you feel bad.”

  “I could’ve dealt with that at home with a few bottles. But this was about my reputation and you knew it. If you didn’t, Krista, that’s almost worse because it shows how clueless you were.

  “We were in the business of appearances. Makeup, costumes, sets. The way things look is all we have between us and the rest of the world. Tear that down and the world attacks.”

  Krista gazed out her side window at the Claverley Ranch. There were still a few horse trailers, but largely the place had returned to its usual quietness.

  “So you tried to tear down my world, the way you thought I’d torn down yours.”

  “Thought? I didn’t dream up the stares of pity, the drop in invites to parties, the drying up of gigs. No one wanted me without you. They seemed to believe you were the better one.”

  “I had no idea,” Krista murmured. “I always assumed you sort of...let me tag along. Cut me in for a share as a favor.”

  “You had a whole lot of wrong assumptions.”

  “But the doll, that’s wrong, too.”

  “That doll was a brilliant stroke of genius on my part.”

  “Why did you stop? No, I only need to know why you started again. This guy, Will, he has nothing to do with us.”

  “He has everything to do with it. Believe it or not, I’m doing you a favor so you’re not wasting ten months of your life like I did.”

  Leave it to Phillip to paint himself as a paragon of virtue. He should have his own superhero movie. Hypocrisy would be his superpower. “How’s that?”

  “This cowboy of yours is no different. Appearances matter to him, too.”

  “He’s not like that,” she said but as soon as the words left her mouth, she remembered how much value he placed on the Claverley name, the ranching tradition.

  “Has he seen the posts?”

  “No.”

  “Because you know what his reaction will be. Once he realizes that being with you is a liability, he’ll drop you faster than hot crap. Nobody likes to be made a fool of, Krista.”

  Phillip was wrong. She’d been totally honest with Will about their chances, and he’d still wanted her. If anyone was under the microscope, it was her. She would stick by Will and see this through. “That’s what you want, right? For me to be humiliated the way you believe you were?”

  “I don’t believe it. I lived it. Yes, I want you to be humiliated. Your business destroyed and more than anything, your love life ripped apart. Just as you did to me.”

  Beneath his scorn, she could hear his pain, still raw after eight months. They’d almost been broken up for as long as they were together, and he still hadn’t let go. And even though she had shed relationships and jobs like muddy clothes, she had no idea how to make him let go of her. No experience in how to make a heart no longer want, to change it into a forgiving heart.

  Still, for the sake of Will and Alyssa and the charity ride itself, and for the sake of all she’d built at her salon, she tried one more time to reach Phillip. “Could I ask you to at least remove the posts and not put up any more?”

  “You could always ask.”

  She thought of another idea. “Phil, if I were to come to Toronto and talk to you in person instead of over the phone, would you then?”

  “If you got down on bended knee and begged?”

  Krista swallowed. “Yes.”

  “Could I post the video of you doing it?”

  “No!”

  “Then no deal.”

  “You don’t want this to end, do you?”

  “Sure I do, Krista. Only I’m the one who gets to say when it will.”

  * * *

  WILL TOSSED DOWN two anti-inflammatories, lowered himself onto his bed, positioning his right shoulder on its own pillow. He wrapped two ice packs around it like saddlebags. At the first prickle of cold, he closed his eyes in anticipation of cool peace.

  Then came a rap on his door he didn’t recognize. Alyssa, probably. “Come in.”

  Hinges squeaked and footsteps lightly followed. “Hello?”

  Krista, cuddable in shorts and a T-shirt with threads of every color running every which way across the front. He scrambled up but it was too late. She spotted him, his pill bottle and the ice packs. He braced for her to let loose on him. Instead she sighed. “Oh, Will. Glory wounds of the firstborn, is it?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it sounds better than a screaming bunch of busted muscles.”

  She came over and dropped a kiss on his forehead. He would’ve preferred one on his mouth but he’d take it. “Go on, lie down.”

  “I’m good—”

  “Lie down.” And he did. She knelt on the mattress beside him, beefed up his shoulder pillow and squared his ice packs into place. She really did know how to make a guy feel comfortable.

  She gave her tanned legs a satisfied slap. “There. Now, did Alyssa talk to you today?�
�

  Will blinked at the sudden change in topic. “Briefly. About the ride. That she’d be in touch if I needed to make any appearances.” Krista cringed at the word. “Why?”

  “She didn’t mention the post of you and me on Facebook?”

  His free hand reached for his phone kept in a leather holder on his belt. “No, but I take it she should have.”

  She put her hand on his, her touch cool and solid, its own kind of ice pack. “Too late. It’s been deleted. There’s another one. A far worse one.”

  She unrolled the whole story, showing him pictures of the Krista and Will dolls, the rude comments and the upshot of her phone call with her ex. She plucked at the fringe on her shorts. “I’m so sorry about all of this.”

  Will silently cursed the ex for crushing his bright, fun-loving, Krista. “It’s not you who should be sorry.” He drew her hand onto his stomach and covered both of her hands with his. He meant to offer comfort but could feel her touch seeping its own healing strength across his belly. “You really do have talented hands.” He intended to sound lighthearted, flirtatious. Instead it came out like a vow.

  She gave a faint smile. “So I’ve been told.” She frowned. “I guess we should develop a plan.”

  They should, but not until he’d gotten his old Krista back. He stroked her hand with his thumb. “Who was the first to tell you?”

  This time Krista’s smile didn’t seem forced. “An actor.

  “There came a point when I knew that I wanted something Phillip couldn’t ever give me. She was having a hard day. A bunch of retakes was pushing back the schedule, she was distracted by her sick toddler at home. The director called a break for her to get a makeup change. She was in tears when she hit my chair, which isn’t great for makeup. She said, ‘My feet hurt.’ She’d been all day in these four-inch stiletto boots, a size too small. I helped her out of her boots and I gave her a massage. By the end, she said, ‘You’ve got the hands of an angel, Krista.’ And that’s when I realized my calling.”

  “It worked on me. It worked on my mother.” Will lifted her hand in his. “It’s working on me right now.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Phillip did not want me pursuing that dream, and I was almost giving up on it when I came out for my aunt’s funeral, and she’d given Mara and me a place to set up. It was an opportunity I couldn’t walk away from.”

  “I see.” Her motto, “The heart wants what the heart wants,” was her declaration to the world, then, that her spa was her dream. But if she’d left one guy to pursue it, would she leave him, too, if she had to make a choice?

  And since he was dead set on living here on the ranch, could he blame her for that choice? We aren’t built to last.

  Except he could learn from where Phillip had failed Krista. He could find a way to let Krista have her dream and a life with him, too. He wouldn’t make her choose, because, well, he didn’t want to have to choose between her and his life, either.

  “Listen,” he said, “about Phillip, I’m not sure we should do anything further.”

  “Did you not hear a word I said? Phillip has me in his social media crosshairs and now that we’re together, you are, too.”

  “It’ll blow over like it did before.” Blow all away, so he and Krista could have a decent start together.

  “Yes, it will. Eventually. All things come to an end, but not before serious damage is done. The Celebrity Ride is a full two months away. People have lost their reputations and jobs after twenty-four hours of Twitter storms. Look, you have done absolutely nothing wrong, but, thanks to Phillip, there’s a sector of social media who thinks you only date dumb blondes. How is that going to look to your sponsors? Forget that, how badly is that going to blacken the Claverley name?”

  “The Claverley name can weather a little bad publicity. We’ve been around a long time.”

  “And you’re always going to have loyal customers that know you and the rest of your family personally. And your cattle and horses don’t care about social media, either. I get all that. But going forward, you said you want to get more into breeding horses. Won’t you have to increase your social media presence for that? All this stuff will follow you, Will. What happens on the web, stays on the web.”

  That stopped him. He didn’t want some knothead in Toronto trying to ruin his family and his future. “I take it you have a suggestion?”

  Krista met his gaze squarely. “It might make sense if we maintained a...distance.”

  Will sat up in one motion, ice packs tumbling off. “Not happening. That’s giving in to that mob. That’s letting them rule our lives, get between you and me here on my bed, on this ranch, on this Sunday afternoon. No way.”

  She sighed. “You’re making it very hard for me to take the high road, here. I don’t want to cause trouble for you, Will.”

  If he could stand the pain in his shoulder, then he could stand anything she dished out. Especially if it came with her.

  “There may be some very good reasons why we don’t belong together, Krista. But what the world out there throws our way isn’t one of them.”

  Alyssa’s warning popped into his mind. She’ll build you up and make you feel as if you two can take on the world. And then she’ll move on.

  “Hard,” she whispered. “Impossibly hard.”

  No. Alyssa and Phillip were wrong. They’d make this work. He swooped in for a kiss on her soft lips. “Now that’s a message I’d like to get out there.”

  * * *

  JANET LISTENED TO Dave making small talk on their evening horse ride. It wasn’t like him, but neither was her silence. She usually chatted nonstop, and it suited them both. She had never been good at holding out with Dave, and she’d held her tongue for nearly a week now. It was killing her.

  Dave rambled to a stop, and they finally rode together in silence. Janet took in the clop of the horses and the throaty calls of frogs from a slough, the beat of the lowering sun on her cheek and the breezes carrying the herby scent of hay and grass. Two calves were tucked together in the tall grass and with a slight press of her knee, Silver adjusted her course to skirt them.

  “Now that is what Silver deserves,” Janet burst out, patting her horse on the neck. “Someone who trusts her.”

  “All right,” Dave said.

  “I was almost glad when she made a fool of herself on Silver at Laura’s wedding. I thought, ‘Good, now Will can see for himself just how preposterous the chances of their relationship are. It will never go beyond fakery.’”

  “We’re talking about Krista,” Dave deduced.

  “Yes. Her.” Janet sat even straighter in her saddle, if that was possible. “She has her hooks in Will.”

  Dave didn’t answer right away. He stared out at a bunch of cows grazing together. She expected he was looking for Maude and her calf. They’d noticed the cow had what appeared to be a light sprain last night.

  Janet gave her prognosis to steer him back to the issue of their son’s choice of a possible wife. “She seems better. No worse.”

  “Better check on her.” Dave slipped from his horse and handed Janet the reins. Not that it mattered with Goldie. She’d not go far without Dave. He pushed on Maude’s haunches to get her walking, his eye on her front hoof. From where she sat, Janet judged her prognosis to be dead-on.

  “Swelling’s down,” Dave said as he swung into the saddle again. “Problem’s fixing itself for a change.”

  “I caught them together in Harry’s House, kissing.”

  Dave pushed back on his cowboy hat and gave her a reproachful frown.

  “I didn’t realize she was there! I saw her car parked next to Alyssa’s, so I assumed Krista was with her at the arena. I’d gone down to ask Will about bringing the lawn chairs back down from the gazebo. I knocked, opened the door and wham!

  “She scuttled off and Will denied nothing. He said that they’d d
ecided to take their relationship to the next level.”

  “Well,” Dave said, “he’s done this before. With other girls.”

  “Not with Krista!”

  “What’s your problem with her in particular?”

  “Have you heard about what happened with that man she was with Down East?”

  “Sounded to me as if he was the problem.”

  “That only proves she makes bad decisions when it comes to men.”

  “Are you saying our son is a bad decision?”

  “In this case, yes. As she is for him. What can Will possibly be thinking?”

  “Maybe he’s not,” Dave said, turning his horse for home. Silver followed without a cue from her. Smart horse.

  “That’s what I’m worried about. I don’t understand her appeal when he has other obvious options. I asked him about Dana and he said she’s already interested in someone else.”

  “Hard to believe that there’s a better choice than Will out there.”

  “I agree, but he refused to reveal who it was. And he made it quite clear that he and Alyssa didn’t have a future.”

  “You’re worried that he’ll end up in the same situation as Keith,” Dave said.

  “How can I not worry? Krista is not as shallow as Macey, I’ll give her that, but Will and Krista, they are oil and water, fire and water.”

  “And yet Will’s got his heart set on our little Krista,” Dave said with a smile.

  “She’s not ‘our little Krista.’ She has her own mother and sisters, a cousin and nieces.”

  “Yeah,” Dave said equably, “but after all these years of her eating at our table and sleeping over with Laura a piece of her is still ours.”

  Janet twisted in her saddle to get a better look at the man she thought she knew inside and out. “You don’t mind that they’re together. You actually like the idea.”

  “She’s different,” Dave said, “and different is good.”

  “Different? From the man who refuses his steak if it’s not medium well and served with homemade barbecue sauce. When we went to Mexico, you couldn’t sleep on the plane because you were seated to the right of me instead of to the left like in our bed.”