by Wendi Darlin
“So Mr. Harvard Cowboy, what did you study?” she asked taking him by the arm and moving again toward the big house.
“Marketing.”
“Oh.” She laughed. “The winking cowboy is yours then.”
The email response she’d gotten to her initial inquiry of the ranch had an animated cowboy winking as seductively as a computer-generated man could. “Hey darlin’, wanna come back to my place,” the cowboy drawled. The animation looped around again, wink after wink, invitation after invitation, and every time it dissolved Rebecca into a fit of laughter, much like the memory of it did now.
“Don’t laugh too hard.” He quieted her with a playful nudge. “He got you here.”
Harvard Cowboy did have a point. What did she know about marketing anyway? Gavin Carter was probably good at everything he did. He acted like a man most things came easily for, and if he was driven enough to take on Harvard, he wasn’t afraid of working either.
The dining hall in the big house was set up like a restaurant that only seated couples. The tables were draped in white. The lights and music were low. Candles flickered.
For the first time since she’d arrived and Marge’s cowboy met them at the limo, she saw the other men at the ranch. Incredible-looking cowboys were coupled with women of varying ages and physical descriptions. There wasn’t a man in the room whose looks didn’t rank well above average, but Rebecca was convinced beyond doubt she had scored the hottest one on the payroll. Last minute reservations were definitely the way to go.
“Are you hungry?” Gavin asked.
“Starved.”
“We could eat here,” he said in a voice low enough that no one else could hear, “or I know somewhere a little more romantic.”
“I like romantic.”
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand and leading her into the kitchen, past the brass plate that designated the area for employees only. On his way through the waiter’s station, he scooped up enough silverware for the two of them and rolled it into a couple of napkins. In the kitchen he grabbed two ready plates off the chef’s table, wrapped them in foil and balanced them on his arm. Just before they reached the back of the house, he stopped and motioned with his head for Rebecca to open a door off to the left.
“You mind grabbing a bottle? Anything on the right. And two glasses,” he whispered.
The wine cellar was cool and organized. It was easy to find what he’d asked for, and within a couple of minutes she was following him back out into the night.
“Here’s the tricky part.” He bent his head toward the house. “That window right there is the office. My workaholic brother is in there at his desk and we don’t want him to see us.”
“But you’re okay with this?” She raised her brows. His playfulness reminded her of Todd and her heart swelled. How could a man she just met, wreak such havoc on her?
“You want to eat in there with everybody else?” he asked.
She shook her head and followed him as he ducked beneath the window where Garrett sat with his back to them, a spreadsheet open on his computer.
Clear on the other side, Gavin stood up straight and led her to the barn. “Feels like high school doesn’t it?” he asked.
Her cheeks sang in the cool night air. He had been right about the temperature and she was more grateful than ever to be wearing his shirt. Even more like high school, all she needed now was his class ring and a window steaming make-out session in his truck.
“And exactly why do we have to hide from your brother?” she asked once they were inside the barn.
“Because he likes to make rules, and he likes for everybody else to follow them. If he doesn’t see me when I’m not, I don’t have to listen to him crap about it.”
Gavin’s boots thumped against the soft wood. The scent of leather, horses, and hay infused the air. The familiarity of the smells was comforting, just like the horse stables back home. Pitchforks hung in the corners, hay was stacked and strewn on the floor and dust danced in the moonlight that filtered through the open doors and down from the loft.
“Are barns romantic?” Rebecca asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Don’t you trust me?” He looked anything but wounded by her verbal jab.
“No.”
“Good answer. Now, we’re going to need to climb that ladder right there.”
She held out her hands, stemware hung from her fingers on one hand and her other hand was wrapped around a bottle of wine.
“I’ll go up first and you can pass me the rest of the stuff.” He balanced the silverware and napkins in the crook of her arm.
She had a great view of his ascent and balancing act with the plates. He was possibly built even better than Todd, and that was saying something.
Once everything was deposited in the loft he hung his head over the edge, his hair falling just as she had imagined it would. The muscles between her thighs tensed in response.
“All that’s missing is you,” he said. “Want to come up?”
In the loft, moonlight poured through the open shutters. She tucked her legs under and wrapped her skirt around them as a barrier against the spiny straws that scattered the floor, then leaned back against a stack of hay bales.
Gavin reached for the wine.
“Damn,” he muttered.
“You need one of these?” She pulled a corkscrew from the pocket of his sweatshirt.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Same place I got the wine.”
“Ah, a lady who thinks ahead. I’ll have to keep an eye on those sticky fingers though.” He opened the bottle, poured each of them a glass, then held his in the air. “To our first romantic dinner.”
Rebecca clinked her glass with his and sipped one of the best wines she’d ever tasted. She reached for the bottle to read the label.
“From Garrett’s personal collection,” he said. “And since you’re the one who pilfered it, you definitely don’t want him to catch us.”
Pilfered wine had never tasted so good. But her throat closed tight around the chicken. This was the first meal she’d eaten alone with a man since she was married to Todd. She managed to swallow the food down, but her heart contracted. Strange how walking with Gavin earlier, arm in arm, hadn’t made her miss Todd as much as this simple act of dining.
She sipped the wine a little more steadily than usual, but managed to swallow enough food to keep it from going to her head. Eventually the wine settled where she needed it most, around the ache in her chest.
“So how come your brother gets to make the rules?” she asked.
“He’s older. He knows I’ll break them, and it gives him something to worry about.” He paused before adding, “I think he likes to worry.” His eyes reflected the moonlight, as if they needed an accessory, and the way he held her gaze told her there were plenty of rules he would probably break.
“You bring all your ladies up here?” she asked.
He pulled a piece of hay from her hair and didn’t so much as blink when he said, “Just you.”
“Why me?” She couldn’t wait to hear the next cheesy line that rolled off his silver tongue. It was a shame he hadn’t taken her seriously about telling the truth though.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged his shoulders in that easy way of his. “It just seemed like the thing to do. Honestly, I didn’t spend much time thinking about it.”
Not what she had expected. She opened her mouth to ask him something else.
“My turn.” He cut her off.
“Ask away.” Rebecca drained her glass.
“Why did you come here?” He lifted the bottle of wine from the hay and refilled her glass.
“Same reason everyone else comes,” she said automatically.
“You don’t seem like any of the other women we’ve had here.”
“What do mean?” Rebecca tried to gauge how different she could be. “My age?” Maybe she was younger than Marge and the other women she’d seen at dinner, but they seem
ed normal enough. She liked to think she was normal. If there is such an animal.
“That’s part of it, but…” He shook his head and studied her. “You’re different,” he finished. “Tell me what convinced you to come.”
“The cowboy love.” She closed one eye in an exaggerated, oversexed wink. “One whole week of it.” She tipped her glass to his. “I should give you more credit. You’re a marketing genius.”
“That’s what I get for sharing personal information with you. And now I know why the handbook says to keep my mouth shut. Garrett’s smarter than I give him credit for.” He drank to the toast and narrowed his eyes at her over the rim of his glass. “I’m letting you off the hook for now,” he said, “but before the week is up I’ll figure out what brought you here.”
His smile mixed with the wine and Rebecca grew warm from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. He stacked her plate with his and slid over to put his arm around her. Stars twinkled in the sky. Clouds sailed by and the loft grew dark when one crossed the moon. He was right. Barns could be romantic, a great stage for a fantasy.
“If this was a real date, what would you do right now?” she asked.
He bent his head close. “I’d kiss you.” His mouth was within inches of hers. She wondered how the wine would taste on his lips, his tongue. Would he take her mouth slowly, or be demanding, letting the passion that boiled beneath the surface lunge forward and consume them both? Would his lips demonstrate his strength or his gentleness, or a delicious blend of the two? How much more fire would his mouth pour into her than his hands already had? It would be so easy to eliminate the distance between them, to bring this fantasy to life, to know the answers to all those questions.
“Why do you and Garrett run the ranch the way you do, instead of the traditional way?” she asked, sitting back against the hay and bringing her glass to her lips. She hoped he couldn’t see how her hand was trembling.
“Daddy got sick and was too proud to let anybody know it. The property was on the verge of foreclosure, and we had to step in fast or let the bank take it.” He set his glass down and crossed one ankle over the other. “Neither of us wanted to spend our lives rounding up steer, but our father worked too hard for this land for us to just let it go.”
“But how did you come up with the fantasy idea?” She tried to maintain eye contact, hoping he’d never know how the hint of a kiss could shake her.
“Garrett came up with it,” Gavin said, easing back next to her. He seemed happy to change the subject himself. “He’s always understood women, what they really want.”
“What about you? Don’t you understand what women want?”
“I can usually keep them happy for a week.”
That sounded honest enough. She leaned into him and rested her head against his chest. The way his body felt against hers was worth every penny she had spent to be there. “A whole week, huh?”
“Usually. You’re not giving me much of a chance to work my magic though. We’re not supposed to be talking about other women, or my job, or my brother, or anything but you, and how beautiful you are, and how lucky I am to be right here with you right now.” He rested his chin on the top of her head and rubbed his hand along the sleeve of his shirt she was wearing.
Maybe it was because she was paying him to hold her, or maybe because she saw something she trusted in his eyes the minute she met him, whatever the reason, she was completely comfortable in his arms. And she really didn’t want to try and rationalize anything. She wanted to just live the fantasy, pretend to love the fantasy cowboy, play his game, and let a few more days of her life slip by.
“Are you cowboys required to cuddle?” she asked.
“Purely optional. We discourage it, actually. And trust me there are plenty of ways to avoid it.”
“You’re not avoiding it now,” she said.
“That’s the last thing on my mind.”
“What’s the first?” She tilted her head so she could see his reaction. His lips spread slowly across his face and lit his eyes. His hand cupped the side of her face and his thumb teased her bottom lip.
“Your body next to mine,” he said.
“I like the way you think,” she murmured into his shirt and closed her eyes.
After a few minutes, she relaxed, almost completely. In the calm, she thought about his question. Why was she here? She told Melinda the fantasy cowboy game was a step toward dating, that she was ready to move on. But even now that Gavin had proven a man’s touch wouldn’t send her over the nearest cliff, moving on was a theory, something she agreed to so people wouldn’t worry about her, not something she was convinced could actually be done. Finding physical relief again would be enough. Maybe friendship. Friendship with benefits. More than that was out of the realm of possibility. There was only room for one man in her heart, and he’d live there forever.
“Hey,” Gavin said, his voice soft. “You asleep?”
“Uh uh.”
“I better get you back to your room.” He pulled her to her feet and started toward the ladder.
“What about the mess?” she asked.
“I’ll come back for it. We’ll go by the office first to see if your luggage made it in.”
He held her close as they walked to the big house. Garrett looked up from his computer as they stood in the doorway of the office.
“Garrett, this is Rebecca. Rebecca, Garrett.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said. “Has my luggage arrived?”
Garrett’s eyes flickered to Gavin’s arm around her, or maybe his shirt that she was wearing, and then to Gavin. Something passed between them, but the exchange was too brief for Rebecca to grasp what it might be.
“I’m sorry Ms. Ryder. It hasn’t. I did call about an hour ago, and they said the next flight we could expect it on won’t arrive until tomorrow morning. Of course, if you need anything at all before then, we’ll continue to do our best to accommodate you.”
Outside again, Rebecca asked, “Is lending your clothes against the rules?”
“Garrett’s not very subtle sometimes,” Gavin said apologetically. “We usually keep a strict division between business and personal matters.”
“This is kind of a personal business isn’t it?”
“Less than you’d think. But we’re not going to talk about that are we?”
At her cabin, he waited while she slipped her key in the door. “You have anything to sleep in?” he asked.
“Your shirt if that’s okay.”
“Keep it, it’s yours.” He reached for her waist and held it long enough to make her forget for a minute that what they’d shared wasn’t real. “Sweet dreams,” he said.
“You’ll be in them.” She winked and backed inside.
“Gavin?” she called out to him as he walked away. “Is it against the rules for me to leave my room? To use the hot tub while everyone else is asleep.”
“I won’t tell Garrett if you don’t.”
* * * *
Marge stretched her legs, sending the porch rocker back toward the cabin wall. Clayton had draped himself over the steps and tilted his hat low on the back of his head.
“I know how we can help you over your fear of horses,” he said.
She laughed. “Sweet thought, but I couldn’t even read Black Beauty without having nightmares.”
He sat up straighter. “We’ve got a foal. They’re like puppies and kittens, you can’t help but love them.”
Marge patted her chest where her heart was pounding. “I don’t know.”
“Big brown eyes. Little bitty body.” He laughed. “We’ll keep a fence between him and us. What do you say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Alright. You sleep on it and you can let me know tomorrow.” Clayton stood to take his leave as Gavin walked by and lifted his hand in a wave.
“Good evening, Ms. Owen,” Gavin said.
Marge returned the pleasantries and headed inside. She was ready for bed, but she had to c
all her nephew first.
“What have you got?” Chet said. “I’m ready to nail these scumbags once and for all.”
He was just like his father, more ambitious than he had a right to be. And the only route he could find to the top had him stepping on people along the way. He was her sister’s son though, the only family she had left.
“I haven’t got anything yet. My cowboy is a nice young man. He tells me every pretty word he can think of, but he hasn’t tried to lay a hand on me.”
“What does he say? Does he make any invitations, offer himself in anyway? He doesn’t have to touch you. An attempt to solicit is all we need.”
“I don’t think this is going to work. I’m old enough to be his mother.”
Chet snorted. “You think that matters?”
“They seem nice. Maybe it’s not what you think here.”
“It’s exactly what I think, and I’m going to prove it. Call me tomorrow night, and keep your eyes open. I want to know everything you see.”
* * * *
Rebecca curled up on the bed, dialed Melinda’s cell phone for the third time in less than twenty minutes, and wrapped her arms around herself. Tonight was no different than when she was younger and went out with some boy she really liked for the first time. Her body was alive and tingling everywhere he’d touched her and soon it would start tingling everywhere he hadn’t. Maybe the dating game wouldn’t be as hard to get back into as she had thought. As long as she could meet more men like Gavin.
Five rings and no answer. She resigned to hang up when Melinda picked up the phone without saying hello.
“Go ahead, tell me how hot he is.” Melinda sounded tired. It figures, tonight would be the one night Melinda had gone to bed at a decent hour.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but if you were asleep I can give you all the juicy details tomorrow.”
“I wasn’t asleep.”
Rebecca recognized the lack of energy in her sister’s voice for what it was. Melinda had been crying. The hot cowboy stories would have to wait.
“Are you okay?”
Melinda was slow to answer. “I should have come with you.”
“Call them up. See if you can still get a reservation. Have I mentioned they really are hot? And the ranch is amazing.”
