The Cowboy Next Door--Includes a bonus novella

by R. C. Ryan

  Penny nodded. “Curtis. My youngest brother.”

  “I’m sure he’s learned a painful lesson.”

  “Oh, I hope so.”

  “Me too. Good night, honey. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Penny nodded and called good night to the others as they stepped into the mudroom.

  When everyone had gone inside, she remained on the porch, needing some quiet time to clear her mind.

  As she sat on the log swing, she was surprised to see Sam take a seat beside her.

  “You don’t need to stay, Sam.”

  “Yeah. I do. Especially tonight. I feel responsible. I was the one who took you there.”

  “This isn’t your fault. I’d rather be alone. I’m not very good company.”

  He set the swing into motion, and for long minutes they remained silent, content to let the night breeze offer comfort.

  Penny’s voice, when she finally spoke, was filled with pain. “I always knew my brothers resented the fact that I was constantly telling them what to do. They called me bossy when I lectured them, and stingy when they wanted money. And mean when I refused to let them drink with their buddies when they were too young. I guess they thought it was easy for me to be the enforcer. But I hated having that responsibility. I felt so alone. With Mom and Dad gone, and Aunt Lucy failing more every day, I was all my brothers had. And I was terrified it wouldn’t be enough.”

  “They were lucky to have you, Penny.”

  “Lucky.” She spoke the word on a huff of breath. “Sometimes, after they fell asleep, I’d sit at the table and cry, and wonder if I’d said one nice thing to them the whole day. I was so tired of constantly nagging and pushing and fighting. But they were just kids who wanted the moon, and all I had to give them were rules. And now, look at what Curtis did with the rules. He’s thrown them all away, and has turned into a drinker and a gambler.”

  “Curtis is young, Penny. He’s having his first taste of freedom. And like a kid in a candy store, he looks around and wants it all.”

  “That’s just it. He can’t have it all, Sam. And what he’s apt to find at the end of the day is nothing. Or worse, so much debt, he can’t ever climb out of it. Just like my…” She paused, swallowing back the rest of the words she’d almost blurted.

  Sam took her hand in his. When she didn’t resist, he closed it between both of his. His tone lowered. Softened. “I know you’re worried. You have a right to be. But as someone who’s broken most of the rules, I can tell you that each rule broken becomes a lesson learned.”

  She looked at their joined hands, and then up into his eyes. “You aren’t just saying that to make me feel better?”

  “I’m saying it because it’s true. You did the best you could for Curtis. Now it’s up to him to do the rest. Give him a chance to make some wise choices.”

  “Oh, Sam.”

  She got to her feet, and he stood up beside her.

  She looked so wounded. So vulnerable.

  Without thinking it through he gathered her against him and brushed his mouth over her temple.

  The flash of fire was instantaneous. One moment he was intent on comforting her. The next his hands were in her hair, though he couldn’t recall how they got there. His mouth was moving on hers with an urgency that had all his blood rushing to a single part of his anatomy.

  Her arms twined around his neck, and she returned his kiss with a passion that had him backing her across the porch until she was pressed to the door.

  The kiss spun on and on, with both of them practically crawling inside each other’s skin. And still it wasn’t enough to satisfy the sudden hunger that swamped them.

  Their mouths were greedy. Their breathing labored.

  It was Sam who finally managed to lift his head, though he couldn’t bring himself to break contact. With his hands on her shoulders he stood, taking in deep breaths while his heartbeat pumped furiously.

  “I want you to know I didn’t plan for this to happen.”

  She nodded, unable to find her voice.

  His tone was gruff with passion. “Go inside. I’ll stay out here awhile.”

  “You don’t have to…”

  “I do.” He stepped back, his eyes dark and dangerous. “You need to go. Now.”

  Without a word she turned away and stepped inside.

  Sam remained on the porch, listening to the receding footsteps as she made her way through the mudroom, the kitchen, the parlor, and up the stairs.

  He watched the light go on in her bedroom. Saw the shadows move and sway as she prepared for bed.

  Finally he saw the light go out, and darkness stole over the household.

  Knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he made his way to the barn and saddled his horse.

  A midnight ride across the hills might be enough to erase the wanting. But he knew in his heart that nothing would erase the taste of her from his lips. Or the need that was growing stronger, deeper, with every day she stayed here.

  Chapter Ten

  Penny woke to a chill wind rattling the windows. Her sleep had been disturbed by images of her brother talking tough and losing his entire paycheck to a shadowy figure. He took off across the vast hills without a job, without a future. What was worse, in her dream Curtis had morphed into Sam, who was sweet-talking her one minute, and then hustling a group of wranglers in a game of pool the next. She sat up feeling dazed and vaguely disoriented. Even though it had only been a dream, she felt a sense of doom. Her sweet, restless baby brother was now a drinker and pool hustler. And she was feeling things for a man who was the exact opposite of everything she’d ever stood for. Hard work. Discipline. Playing by the rules. None of those words could describe Sam Monroe. He was, by his own admission, much like Curtis. A man who enjoyed spending more time in a saloon than in his own home.

  None of this made any sense to her. Her world as she’d known it was upside down, not just in her dreams, but in real life as well.

  After years of hard work and study in preparation for the future she’d planned for herself, she was right back where she’d started—cooking and cleaning up for a bunch of men.

  Wasn’t life strange? Strange and…confusing.

  When she opened the shade, her windowpane was covered in frost. She could see the outline of snow in the distant hills. Hadn’t school just begun? Yet here it was, looking like winter outside her window.

  The sounds of doors opening and closing, and booted feet moving along the hallway, told her the household was already awake and ready for the day.

  She dressed quickly and hurried down the stairs to begin breakfast.

  Mary Pat stepped into the mudroom, her cheeks pink from the cold. “’Morning. My car’s all loaded.”

  “’Morning.” Penny looked up. “There’s coffee. I’ll have eggs and sausage in a few minutes.”

  “That’ll give me time to make one more sweep of the bedroom to see if I’ve forgotten anything.” Mary Pat left the room, her footsteps sounding on the stairs.

  One by one the others came in from the barns, pausing to wash at the big sink in the mudroom before stepping into the steamy kitchen. Minutes later Mary Pat joined them.

  As Penny passed around platters of toast and eggs and sausage, the conversation centered on the sudden change in the weather.

  Roscoe gave a shiver. “Barely September, and these old bones are aching like it’s January.”

  “Soon enough it will be.” Mac closed both hands around a mug of steaming coffee before turning to Mary Pat. “You might want to think about holding off your latest trek to the wilderness. There’s a lot of snow up in those hills, and it could be just the beginning of a really big storm sweeping though.”

  “I know.” She managed a smile. “But there are too many ranchers and their families counting on me. If I postpone this, the winter is bound to get even worse, and then I won’t get a chance to visit them until the spring thaw.”

  “Would that be so bad?”

  She smiled. “It wo
uld for some lonely rancher’s wife who is desperate for medical or emotional support. Or a scared and confused parent or child counting the days until I can help out.”

  Mac put a hand over hers. “When you say things like that, I understand.”

  He glanced at Sam. “You’ll need to take on a few extra hands so we can bring down the herds early.”

  “Otis and Roscoe and I can handle it.”

  “Of course you can. But only if you want to separate the herds and do it in dribs and drabs. If the snow increases, we’ll need to bring them down to the lower pasture as soon as possible, in case this is just a taste of what’s coming.”

  “You’re right. What was I thinking?” Sam nodded. “I’ll put in a call to Horton. He always knows which ranchers around here are in need of some extra money and willing to help out. And Ben will have a few leads of his own in town. I’ll go there this afternoon and finalize things.”

  “Good.” Mac set aside his coffee and began to eat. “I’ll want to get started as soon as we have enough hands. I’ve already asked Clive if he can stop over and handle the barn chores.” He turned to Penny. “Clive Hughes is our closest neighbor. He owns the ranch to our north. You probably won’t even see him. He’ll just muck the stalls and head back home. Once we have a crew, we’ll be up in the hills for the next week or so, rounding up strays before bringing down the herd. Think you can cook and haul enough food in a truck to feed an army of wranglers?”

  She circled the table, topping off their mugs of coffee. “You tell me how many you hire, and I’ll make it happen.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Good girl. Sam will have a number for you by the end of the day. If you need to take on extra supplies, give your list to Sam after breakfast. He can fill it while he’s in Haller Creek.”

  Penny nodded, her mind already racing ahead to all the things she would have to cook and bake and pack. A daunting task. But at least, she thought, it would keep her mind off Curtis and the mess he was making of his life. And with Sam in the hills, she would have one less temptation to deal with while she struggled to set her own life back on course.

  Sam walked into a kitchen and gave a smile of pleasure. “Something smells amazing.” He glanced around. “You’re baking bread?”

  Penny straightened from the oven. She wore a stained apron over her jeans, her hair tied back in a knot, her face dusted with flour. “I will be, when all that dough finishes rising.”

  A dozen loaves of bread were swelling under linen towels on a sideboard, giving off their yeasty scent. A giant pot of chili was simmering on the stove, sending up a rich cloud of steam. A huge tenderloin was roasting in the oven, adding to the mouthwatering fragrances that filled the house.

  “It looks like you took Dad at his word. You really are cooking for an army.”

  “Maybe a small army. How many wranglers were you able to hire?”

  “A dozen. A couple of cowboys migrate from ranch to ranch each season. The rest are ranchers who live around these parts and need an extra income. All of them are good workers, so we’ll get the job done.”

  “I’ve no doubt of it.” She smiled. “From what I’ve seen, you and your family know how to work together.”

  “On a ranch of this size, we have no choice. If we don’t pull together, it could all fall apart.” He glanced around. “I thought Zachariah would be helping out in the kitchen.”

  “He’d planned on it. But Finn called and asked him to drive into town and lend a hand with his latest court case. Because of the fickle weather, the two of them plan on staying in town until the case is resolved.”

  Sam frowned. “Finn’s timing couldn’t be worse.”

  She gave a shake of her head. “That’s what Zachariah said, but I assured him I could handle things here without him. I don’t think a lawyer ought to be spending his valuable time in the kitchen when he’s needed in court.”

  “So he left a teacher in charge?”

  At Sam’s grin she couldn’t help laughing. “I never thought of it like that. But yeah, it looks like I’m the last recruit.”

  “And the best.”

  Penny turned away so Sam wouldn’t see the heat that rose to her cheeks. All he had to do was pay her a single compliment and her silly heart betrayed her. She needed to remember that compliments were easy for a charmer like Sam Monroe. All those sweet words just rolled off his tongue like honey.

  His cell phone rang, and he answered with a curt word before saying, “I’ll be right there, Dad.”

  When he was gone, Penny removed the roasting pans from the oven, placed the first half-dozen loaves inside, and set the timer. She was grateful for all the hard work ahead of her. It would leave her no time to think. After last night her brain felt scrambled, and she kept replaying that scene in her mind. One minute she was being consoled by Sam, and the next they were practically tearing off each other’s clothes.

  She couldn’t help wondering if those kisses had meant nothing more to Sam than the peck on the cheek he’d given Mary Pat when she’d taken her leave this morning.

  Penny paused to touch a finger to her lips.

  Maybe it was no big deal to Sam, but it shamed her to admit that his kiss last night had rocked her world.

  Penny loaded the back of the ranch truck with supplies. A huge pot of chili. Several prime cuts of beef, roasted to perfection and sliced so that they were ready to eat with the mashed potatoes that filled two foil pans, as well as a green bean casserole. The leftovers would be made into sandwiches, easy to carry on the trail. There were a dozen loaves of sourdough bread, eggs to go with their breakfast, gallons of coffee, and cases of bottled water in coolers.

  The past few days had been filled with dawn-to-dusk work, keeping her so busy she had no time to think about Curtis and his problems or to dwell on her feelings for Sam.

  When she wasn’t cooking and baking, often starting at dawn, she was loading up the truck and driving into the hills with a hot supper.

  There were two range shacks spread across the hills. One offered emergency dried food and shelter, with a wood-burning fireplace and outhouse. The second, larger one had bunks for two dozen wranglers, as well as a small bathroom and a galley kitchen stocked with dried and canned foods for emergencies. Several groups of wranglers had been assigned a specific area to hunt strays, which were rounded up and driven to a holding corral until it was time to drive the entire herd to the lower elevations for the winter.

  Penny planned to set up a hot meal for the cold, hungry wranglers, with enough left over for breakfast and a cold meal along the trail the next day. Then she would drive back to the ranch and fall into bed before starting over the next morning.

  At night she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She’d never worked as hard or as long, and yet she found the entire process exhilarating.

  Each morning, as she began the day, she felt a thrill of anticipation, knowing she was playing a small part in the success of the Monroe ranch.

  Today, on her drive into the hills, the snow began falling. At first it was a gentle sifting of white through the clouds. Within an hour, just as she reached her destination, the snow had become a curtain of white, nearly obliterating the trees on either side of the trail.

  Zipping up her heavy parka, she strained to see, off in the distance, the wranglers scouring the brush, chasing up strays and herding them toward the corral.

  The sound of horses and all-terrain vehicles approaching alerted Penny to the arrival of the wranglers after another day of chasing after strays.

  There was no time to think about the snow as she began carrying the prepared food from the truck.

  Otis had arrived in time to help her set up a long table on the covered porch of the little cabin. The men, fresh from the trail, didn’t bother with formalities as they filled their plates and sat wherever they could find a dry spot. Some sat with their backs to the cabin wall. Others settled under a towering evergreen that offered shelter from the wind and snow. A few went inside t
o eat in front of the fireplace.

  Mac loaded his plate with slabs of roast beef and potatoes before sitting on the porch next to Otis and Roscoe.

  Sam walked from the corral, slapping his wide-brimmed hat against his leg, sending up a cloud of snow. Despite the cold, he looked hot and sweaty from his hours chasing strays.

  He shot her a grin. “I don’t know what looks better—you, all cool and composed, or this amazing meal.”

  Her heart did a quick somersault, and she itched to brush the damp hair from his forehead. Instead, she dug her fingers into the pocket of her jeans. “I’d go with the food if I were you, cowboy.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.” His smile deepened. “Looks like you’ve been working overtime.”

  “No harder than you and the others.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t look as fresh as a daisy.”

  “You don’t smell like one, either.”

  That had him throwing back his head and giving a roar of laughter. “Just stay upwind of me, ma’am, so you’re not offended.”

  “Don’t you worry. I’ll keep my distance, cowboy.”

  He shot her a long, level look that had her blush deepening before he filled his plate and strolled over to sit beside his father and the others.

  Penny finished loading the empty pans into the back of the truck. She’d used the leftovers to prepare dozens of roast beef sandwiches, which she stored in a cooler. The men who rode the perimeter of the herd during the night hours knew they could always stop by the range shack and help themselves.

  The others were heading inside, where bunks lined the walls. They were grateful for the warmth of the log fire blazing on the hearth.

  Penny dug the keys out of her pocket and opened the driver’s-side door. Before she could climb inside, Sam stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  She turned with an arched look. “Did I forget something?”

  He motioned over his shoulder to where Mac was standing in the shelter of the porch. “Dad and I were talking. We don’t like the look of this storm.”