Once Upon a Cowboy

by Maggie McGinnis

  “He’s engaged. Wedding this weekend.”

  Marcy pouted prettily, her hand on Daniel’s elbow now. “You warning me off, Cole?”

  “Just saving you the trouble.”

  “Well, then.” She huffed as she turned back toward him, but it was all staged. “Looks like the selection of bachelors in Carefree is getting smaller, Cole. But you’re still single, right?”

  “Nope. Moving to a commune. Gonna have me six wives.” He took a slug of his beer.

  “Well”—she gave her tinkly little fake laugh as she ran her index finger down the buttons of his shirt—“maybe we can go out before you leave.”

  Cole almost choked on his drink. “I don’t think so, Marcy.”

  “Why not? You’re single, I’m single—”

  Um, let’s see. You’re crazy, I’m not.

  “Sorry. No can do. It’s a brother code thing.”

  “Oh, don’t be silly. Decker and I are old news. Call me, okay?”

  Cole raised his beer. No sense arguing with a slightly tipsy version of an egomaniac. “You bet. Good seeing you, Marcy.”

  She waved her fingers as she swayed her hips and boobs toward her friends at the other end of the bar, and Cole closed his eyes and shook his head as she went. She’d only been back in town for a month, but had wasted no time getting his number.

  “She’s just not getting the hint, is she?” Daniel said. “What is it about a woman that makes her think she can do a guy, then move on to his brother if it doesn’t work out?”

  “Not gonna happen.”

  “Y’know, it might be easier to get her off your scent if you did have a girlfriend.”

  “Doubt it. Knowing her, it’d just make her try harder.”

  “Maybe, but it’s something to think about. You know, at least for the wedding.” Daniel tipped his beer nonchalantly. “So you don’t end up getting mauled.”

  Cole felt his eyebrows furrow. “Please tell me she’s not on the guest list.”

  “Sorry.” Daniel cringed. “Couldn’t be avoided. Someday you’ll see how this works. It’s a whole dominoes game of if-you-invite-so-and-so-then-you-have-to-invite-so-and-so and it goes on and on until you want to just elope, and then suddenly, bam. You’ve got a guest list three hundred people long.”

  “I can’t believe you invited her. Decker’ll have your head.”

  “Decker needs her father’s vote at the council meeting.”

  “Shit.”

  “I tried to save you and leave her off, but Hayley overruled me. Apparently we’re the social event of the season, and it won’t do to alienate the locals.”

  Cole shook his head. “This is how it starts, Danny. First they overrule you on the guest list. Next, they’re painting the bathroom pink and kicking your stuff out of the bedroom closet. Slippery slope. Might want to get out while you can.”

  Daniel laughed as Salty delivered their burgers and fries with a clatter. He poured ketchup over his fries, popping one in his mouth. “Enough about me. How are things going with Jess?”

  “Fine.” Cole took a bite of his burger, mostly to avoid saying anything further.

  “You seeing much of her?”

  “More than I thought we would. Makes me suspicious.”

  “Of?” Daniel raised his eyebrows.

  “Don’t play innocent. I’m sure you’re in on it, too.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Cole took a swallow of his beer. “Fine. Then it’s probably my imagination that Kyla’s doing everything in her power to make sure Jess and I keep running into each other.”

  “Coincidence, I’m sure.” Daniel smiled, then shook his head. “Cole, you know these women. Once they get an idea in their heads—”

  “I know. They’re rabid. I liked it a lot better when you were the target of their efforts.”

  “Your fault for still being single.”

  Cole growled. “Being single shouldn’t be a liability.”

  “Right.” Daniel laughed out loud. “I’d think with all of the women you guys get staying at Whisper Creek, being single would be a distinct advantage.”

  “Definitely. It’s really too bad you let yourself get snagged by Hayley. Could’ve been fun this summer.”

  “I’m sure you can handle yourself without a wingman.”

  Cole shook his head, taking another drink. Yeah, he could handle himself just fine. Just seemed like this summer, handling himself had involved more evasive maneuvers than anything else.

  Ten years ago—hell, five years ago—he would have given anything to be in the position he was now, with a new batch of women rolling in every other Sunday hoping to be cowgirls by the time they left.

  Or if not that, hoping to bag a cowboy or two while they were here.

  But it had lost its appeal over the last year or so. Maybe things had started to go downhill the summer Jess, Hayley, and Kyla had come out for a vacation and ended up family of sorts. Maybe watching Decker and Kyla plan a future around each other had him spinning in a strange direction.

  And now Danny was getting married. To Hayley, of all women. If he’d asked either of them a year ago whether they’d ever be pledging their happily-ever-afters to each other—or anyone, for that matter—they never would have believed it.

  So his brother was married, his best friend was heading down the aisle in a matter of days, and that left Cole as the last single man standing. It shouldn’t bother him—wouldn’t have bothered him not long ago—but there was a feeling itching around in his gut that made him wonder why he was the last bachelor around.

  He had a strong suspicion it was because he was still around…and maybe here wasn’t where he was meant to be, in the end.

  When Decker had come back, Cole’d had his first spark of hope that maybe there were options for him beyond Whisper Creek’s borders. He’d spent ten years with the ranch firmly strapped to his back, but if his brother was home—and staying—maybe it was finally his chance to see what else might be out there for him.

  And if he was feeling this itchy to get out of town, then it wasn’t fair to pretend otherwise with any woman, most especially Jess.

  Daniel signaled for two more beers, then turned to lean back against the bar and survey the scene. Cole took the new bottle and turned as well. He took a swig, then almost choked on it when Daniel said, “So…you going to see if maybe there’s something there? Before she leaves again?”

  Cole shook his head. “I need a little brother. Then you bunch of busybodies could worry about him instead of me.”

  “Just want you to be happy, that’s all.”

  “Hayley still holding out on you?”

  Daniel put his bottle to his lips, not meeting Cole’s eyes. “Yup.”

  “You are so whipped, buddy.”

  “Yup again. And loving every minute of it.” He turned to Cole. “Listen, you’ve been lusting after that woman since you met her. I think it’s high time you found out if the feeling’s mutual, don’t you?”

  No. Yes. “No.”

  “Isn’t the wondering killing you?”

  Yes. God, yes. “No. I don’t want to rock the boat. Don’t want it to be awkward.”

  “You mean if she’s not interested? And then you’d have that whole I-told-you-I-liked-you-but-you-don’t-like-me-back thing going on?”

  “Yes.” Cole rolled his eyes. “Because we’re in seventh grade again.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah. I don’t know. It’s more that I don’t want to pretend I want something that I don’t. I’m not in it for the long haul here, and Jess is too nice a woman to mess around with if I’m not interested in more than a casual relationship.”

  “Because you’re a rolling stone and all that?”

  “Something like that.” Cole rolled his eyes.

  Daniel turned toward him, narrowing his eyes. “What’s up with you? Something going on?”

  “Nah. Not really. Maybe. I don’t know.”
/>   “It’s me who’s supposed to have the wedding jitters, you know. Not the best man.”

  Cole laughed. “I don’t think it’s wedding jitters. I think maybe it’s just—I don’t know—wondering what coulda been, you know? If I hadn’t had to stay.”

  “Ah.” Daniel nodded. “You ever think about how things might have been different if you’d gotten into Stanford?”

  Cole stared at his beer bottle, spinning it slowly. “I did get into Stanford.”

  Daniel twisted toward him. “What? How didn’t I know that?”

  “I never told anybody. That’s how.”

  “Shit.” Daniel took a slug of his beer. “Are you serious? I thought after your dad died—that you just didn’t apply, you know, since you were—here.”

  Cole shrugged. “I knew I couldn’t go, but I just had to know if I could have. It was a stupid waste of fifty bucks, but I had to know.”

  “Do you ever regret it? Not going?”

  “Course I do. I could have been Doctor Driscoll by now, right?”

  Daniel laughed. “That’s frightening, I don’t mind saying.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Ever resent Decker for getting the chance?”

  “No.” Cole shook his head. “Not the way he had to go.”

  “I know, but you know what I mean. Maybe he didn’t choose to leave, but at least he got the opportunity to see what else was out there. You kind of—didn’t.”

  “There’s no kind of about it.” Cole took a drink, set it down slowly. “But I’m not dead yet, right? I could still take off and see the world.” He rolled his eyes like he found the idea ludicrous, because he knew that’s what people expected.

  “You tempted to?”

  “To leave? I don’t know. Maybe? Once Decker came back, it seemed like maybe I actually could, you know? Leave him to do the ranch thing instead of me. I don’t know.”

  “Wow. I had no idea.”

  Cole shrugged. “I don’t exactly advertise it.”

  “This why you haven’t had a serious girlfriend—like—in forever? You’ve got one proverbial foot out the door?”

  “Well, that—and the fact that most of the girlfriend candidates out here are like—her.” He tipped his chin toward Marcy. “I don’t know, Danny. I just can’t get this feeling out of my gut that maybe there’s something else out there.”

  Daniel took another drink, thoughtful. “Maybe it’s me, but I’ve always thought you lived and breathed that ranch, and not because you had to.”

  “I did. I do. But Whisper Creek isn’t what it used to be. I miss the days when it was just us and the horses. I even miss the damn cows, because it was simpler then. Fewer humans in the mix. Now the damn place looks like a ranch version of a spa, and that is something I thought I’d never see.”

  “Maybe you just need to step back a little and find the parts of it you still love. Thought of that?”

  “No, Doctor Phil. Haven’t thought of that. No frigging time to think of that, with all the work we’ve got. I love Kyla like my own sister, but if that woman comes up with one more idea, I might have to lock up her damn notebook and pens.”

  “Might help if Decker wasn’t so busy with the development.”

  “It would definitely help. Kind of hard for me to think about leaving when he can barely step foot out on the trail without getting a phone call.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know, Cole. Hard to imagine Whisper Creek without you in the equation. And maybe I’m wrong, but I think your roots are firmly planted here, whether you believe it or not right now. I cannot see you walking around some sidewalk in some city, or living in a cookie-cutter suburban development somewhere in Ohio. Sorry. Does not compute.”

  Cole laughed. “Not going to Ohio.”

  “You’d miss it here. You’d miss us. You’d be calling home begging for a care package of Jenny’s cookies in two weeks, guaranteed.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Cole rolled his eyes.

  “Well, in the meantime, since it looks like you’re stuck for at least a while longer, I think you should take the risk and see what could happen with Jess.”

  “And here we are, back to Jess.”

  Daniel shrugged. “Just saying. Maybe your destiny’s here, knocking on the door for the third damn time. Maybe you’d better listen this time.”

  Chapter 10

  Later that night, Jess lit the candles she’d brought up from her cabin, placing them in the windowsills of the spa. Her bare feet slid across the polished hardwood, and she itched to dance across the big, empty space. She glanced out the open window, comforted by the nighttime sounds of the ranch. She could hear crickets and peepers in the meadow, and an owl called from somewhere not far away.

  She’d been trying to put her aunt’s phone call out of her mind all day, and staying busy with Cole and the kids had definitely helped. Once the sun had gone down, though, it’d been just her and the crickets—and the memories.

  The stables glowed in the darkness, the nighttime lights soft and inviting. For a brief moment she was tempted to stroll down and just find a quiet corner where she could sit and breathe in the goodness of hay and horses and grain, but heading down there meant possibly running into Cole on his nighttime rounds.

  Since seeing him this afternoon laughing with the kids, soaked to the skin, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her brain. The way his T-shirt had clung to his abs, the way he’d thrown his head back with that laugh that was straight from the belly, the way he’d murmured revenge in her ear—all of it had kept her even more on edge all evening. The sensations in her gut were unfamiliar and completely unsettling, and she had no idea what to do about them.

  But until she did, avoidance seemed like a pretty good strategy.

  She hadn’t been able to settle down in her cabin, hadn’t been able to fall into that soft bed and sleep, so at midnight, she’d walked up to the spa. This space, with its polished floor and scent of fresh lumber, brought a sense of peace she desperately needed right now. In this space, she felt at home. In this space, she could throw her arms out, spin for hours, and try to forget about manila envelopes and Breezy Meadow and a huge check eating a hole in her suitcase.

  And sexy cowboys.

  She queued up a playlist on her phone, then set it on a pile of lumber as she moved to the center of the room and stretched. It was a list she’d used for months, with a series of moves she’d perfected to a point where she didn’t even have to think while she did them.

  This was what she needed right now. She needed to lose herself in this music, lose herself in the movements of her body, feel nothing but tendons and ligaments and the beautiful stretch of muscles. If she could get to that place, she could leave everything else behind.

  She spun and leaped across the floor, doing moves she’d invented herself—moves that were neither yoga nor dance, but a combination of the two. As the music got faster, so did her spins. The leaps got higher, the stretches bigger, and she closed her eyes, lost in the beauty of losing herself.

  Fifteen minutes later, as the music finally slowed, she moved through a series of long stretches in the middle of the floor. Her eyes were closed, her muscles were burning, and she was tempted to lie down right on this floor and fall asleep until morning.

  But a sound from the doorway had her eyes popping open, and the sight of a familiar Stetson had her grabbing her T-shirt and whipping it over her leotard.

  “You here to retaliate for the water balloons, cowboy?” Jess tried to keep the shake out of her voice.

  Cole stepped through the open door, hands in the air. “I don’t retaliate so quickly. You’ll never see it coming when I do.”

  “Ooh. Shivers.” Jess pretended to quiver.

  He motioned toward her phone. “You thinking about adding dance lessons to the Whisper Creek menu?”

  She laughed. “Um, no. Definitely not. I have no training.”

  “Where’d you learn how to do—all that, then?”

  “
I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I just—feel it, I guess. So sometimes I dance.”

  “It was beautiful.” He cleared his throat after the words came out all husky, and Jess felt color rise in her cheeks.

  “Thank you.”

  Cole laughed softly. “You always dance in the dark?”

  “No. I actually was headed to bed, but I just can’t seem to stay away from this space.” Jess fluttered her arms around. “I could live here.”

  She saw him shift his feet. “Seems to be a common problem for you Boston gals. One whiff of Whisper Creek air, and you’re all packing your bags to move out here.”

  “Oh, I’m not moving. I didn’t really mean that. But I do love it…here.”

  There went her voice again, getting all breathy and strange, just because Cole happened to be within ten feet of her.

  He took a step backward, like he was trying to snap an invisible thread pulling them together. “So…you like dancing at night. How about riding? Ever ridden under a full moon?”

  Oh, sweet honey. Just what she needed right now was an offer like this—a moonlit ride, a hot summer night, a steamy cowboy.

  “Don’t you have to be up early in the morning?”

  “Nope. Come on. Let’s go for a ride. I’ll show you one of my favorite spots.”

  “I don’t know—”

  He raised an eyebrow. “What’s the matter? Afraid this is all part of my hot-charming-cowboy routine?”

  Jess choked on the water bottle she’d raised to her lips. “Maybe?”

  “Just a ride, Jess. Just a ride.” He motioned to her. “Come on. Trust me.”

  Half an hour later, Jess’s horse crested a hill behind Cole’s, and the sight took her breath away. “Oh!” was all she could say.

  He smiled back at her, then reined Scooby to a stop so she could pull abreast. “Not bad, eh?”

  “Oh my gosh. It’s—wow.”

  She’d heard a growing rush of water over the past ten minutes, and now that they’d reached the top of a hill, she could finally see where it was coming from. Like something out of a movie, a moonlit clearing stretched before them—a small grassy meadow surrounded by tall pines. On the far side of the clearing was a sheer cliff that stretched upward at least three stories, and over the top of the cliff came a cascade of water that sparkled under the full moon.