Lone Star Daddy (McCabe Multiples)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Instead of stepping back as he expected, she came nearer, enticing him to inhale her sunny, citrus perfume. “Because this particular machine is a brand-new design, with very few willing to buy it thus far. Farmtech is hoping to change that via positive experience—especially here, because in Texas, most berries are still picked by hand.”

  It sounded simple enough, but his gut told him there was more to it. He stepped back and studied her, glad they were no longer within kissing distance. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  She shifted her glance to the left, suddenly looking a little nervous. “That’s pretty much it...”

  “But not all,” Clint surmised.

  She cleared her throat and turned her attention back to him. “They also want to come out to the Double Creek Ranch and film you using the product. Of course, you’ll get paid for your time and trouble at a rate commensurate with others working in the spokesperson industry.”

  No question, the additional money would help. But the thought of riding around on a berry picker in front of a camera bordered on the ridiculous. “You’re kidding.” Dread filtered through him. “You’re not kidding.”

  “Well—” Rose wrinkled her nose. “You are a former rodeo star. And, well, if not all that handsome, at least not all that ugly...”

  “Cute.”

  “And it wouldn’t be your first endorsement.”

  Aha. Here comes the sales pitch...

  Luckily this wasn’t the first time a beautiful woman had used her charm to try and wheedle him into agreeing to something he had no business doing.

  He rocked forward on the toes of his boots. She did the same on hers.

  Letting her know with a glance she wasn’t going to railroad him into anything, he said, “What few ad campaigns I’ve done have been for saddle soap and leather gloves. Nothing to write home about.”

  She aimed another sweet, tempting smile his way that had his lower half tightening, despite his vow to remain unaffected.

  “Well, maybe this will be,” she offered hopefully.

  Silence fell.

  Before the two of them could say anything more, Jeff strode toward them. He held a clipboard piled with papers in one hand, a pen in the other. “The film crew and publicity team will be here at some point during the next couple of weeks, provided we can get the papers signed and faxed back to Farmtech today.”

  Clint thought about the potential hassle and humiliation. He also thought about the income such a deal could bring in. And what that, in turn, could do for his plans for his ranch. Which was more important? His pride—or the future of the Double Creek?

  Clenching his jaw, he asked, “What about the berry picker?”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Rose was so excited she was practically bouncing up and down.

  “We can have it delivered to the McCulloch ranch by Wednesday,” Jeff promised.

  Two days from now. “And in the meantime...?”

  “The dealership will loan you a tractor and tiller.”

  Rose smiled gleefully. “By tomorrow morning?”

  Jeff nodded. “Just tell me what time you want it out there.”

  She turned to Clint. “9:00 a.m. okay with you?”

  In for a penny, in for a pound. And given the fact he’d wanted to mow down all those bushes anyway—and did not have a working tractor of his own—Clint figured this would give him a head start. “Sure, why not.” Jeff handed him a set of contracts that covered all manner of product endorsements and included an extensive general liability clause. Clint had expected it to be a generic fill-in-the-blank document. Instead, his name and address were preprinted on everything.

  He frowned suspiciously at the two people standing opposite him. “How the heck did the manufacturer know I would say yes?” The company’s legal department had set the first advertising component of the work to begin ten to fourteen days after signing. Which—he noted by the date on the documents—they had expected to be today?

  Rose flushed guiltily.

  It wasn’t hard for him to jump to the next assumption. “You said yes for me?” Clint asked in disbelief.

  Rose cleared her throat and made a dismissive gesture. “Tentatively. But only because I knew I could talk you into it.”

  Damn, but she had moxie.

  The prettiest sage-green eyes.

  And the softest, most kissable lips.

  Oblivious to the nature of his thoughts, she defiantly stood her ground. “With the crop ripening any day, there was no time to waste. And it wasn’t that big of a gamble. You’re a businessman as well as a rancher. I figured it wouldn’t take long for you to see the light. You’ll get sixty-five cents from my operation per pound of fruit.”

  He stopped her with an imperious lift of his palm. “Make it a dollar.”

  She scowled. “Now, wait just a red-hot minute, cowboy! I still have to clean, sort, package and market the berries for you.”

  “Not to mention pick up and deliver,” he added. “Since I don’t have a produce truck, either.”

  She stared at him. “Seventy-five cents, McCulloch. And that’s my ceiling.”

  He stared right back, then shrugged. “Done.” He extended a hand.

  Rose slid her palm into his. The sensation of her surprisingly soft and silky skin, coupled with the strength of her grip, sent heat pouring through his veins.

  He hadn’t been this aware of a woman in ages. If ever. And judging by the stunned look in her eyes, she was feeling the same.

  He thought about how long it had been since he’d been close to anyone and swore silently to himself. What had they gotten themselves into?

  Chapter Two

  “What’s wrong?” Rose demanded early the next morning.

  How about everything? Clint thought, directing his full attention to the woman striding toward him. Although it was due to heat up later in the day, right now it was damp and cool. Rose had hooked a pair of sunglasses into the neck of her bright-yellow T-shirt and thrown a denim jacket over her slender shoulders. Snug-fitting jeans and boots covered her lower half. Her straw hat hid her cloud of ash-blond curls.

  Not stopping until they stood toe-to-toe, she persisted, “Why do you have that look on your face?”

  Clint cut a glance at the long line of pickups and tractors driving onto the Double Creek Ranch, then turned back to her, keeping his temper in check. “You really have to ask?”

  She shrugged, her expression more innocent than the situation warranted. “I told you I’d get you a loaner tractor delivered today.” She waved a hand in the direction of the tractor dealership flatbed leading the way. “And I have.”

  It looked like a nice one, too. Brand spanking new. With an air-conditioned cab, a fact he was sure to appreciate as the sun rose higher in the sky.

  Clint jerked his head at the convoy. “And the rest of this?”

  “Oh.” Rose spared him a look. “I called in a few favors to get other farmers in the area to help us make the rows. This way we can get it done in one day.”

  He lifted his brows. “You didn’t think to ask me first?”

  Her pause went on a second too long.

  “Or you did think to ask and decided not to.”

  Another shrug and a small, mischievous smile. “I might have discovered—after I finished organizing everything last night—that it was too late to call you.”

  He narrowed his eyes, not buying that excuse for one hot second.

  “Or...I might have had a feeling that you’re one of those gotta-do-it-all-myself types.” She became serious. “With the first of the berries ready to be picked tomorrow, we really don’t have time to waste.”

  Uh-huh. Just as he had thought.

  “Deal or not, Ms. McCabe, this is still my ranch.”

 
; “Oh, I am aware.” Tossing her head, she lifted a lecturing finger his way. “But that doesn’t change the fact you have agreed to sell those blackberries to me, McCulloch! Or in any way alter the fact that I, in turn, have promised those same berries to a number of local stores, as well as the members of the Rose Hill Farm co-op! All of whom, as it happens, know the importance of bringing a crop in at just the right moment.”

  He couldn’t argue. Any berries left to fall on the ground were money down the drain. “You seem to have it all figured out.”

  A shadow fell over her face—as if he’d struck a nerve. “You’ll thank me when I cut your first check.”

  He supposed he would, at that.

  “In the meantime...how about getting off your high horse long enough to come and thank all the neighbors who have so kindly agreed to help us?”

  Clint fell into step beside her. “I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised,” he murmured, nodding at the farmers coming forward to greet him. “Laramie is a place where neighbors help each other out.”

  Rose smiled, sweetly this time. “You’re darn right about that, cowboy. That’s how we farmers and ranchers all survive.”

  * * *

  “LOOKING GOOD AROUND HERE,” Gannon Montgomery told Clint later that evening when the two met at the Double Creek to settle their monthly accounts.

  Friends since childhood, both were back on the ranches where they had grown up. Clint paid Gannon a grazing and usage fee for running his cattle and cutting horses on Gannon’s ranch—the Bar M. In return, Gannon paid Clint to keep up the pastures on his land and exercise and take care of his family’s horses.

  Moreover, Gannon was a prominent local attorney who was married to Rose’s sister, Lily. So there was little about the McCabe women or Laramie County he did not know.

  Clint turned his gaze to the neatly plowed rows between the thick, plentiful six-foot-tall bushes. “More like a blackberry farm or something out of the Napa Valley.” Which was a far cry from the ranch he and his family had always intended it to be, before he and his siblings had been forced to sell during probate, after his parents’ death, years ago.

  He sighed. “But it will be easy to get the berry picker through.” Although he wasn’t looking forward to the tedious work of driving that tractor and hauling crates of produce around. He would be much happier on the back of a horse, or even out on the land repairing fence, than trying to care for the delicate fruit.

  Nodding in agreement, Gannon followed Clint inside. “Rose seems happy.”

  Pushing the image of the feisty woman with the delectable curves out of his mind, Clint cracked open two beers. “Tell me about it.”

  They toasted each other silently and then sat down at the kitchen island. “She’s wanted to get her hands on all those berries for years,” Gannon told him. “It was such a shame, seeing them all go to seed.”

  Clint snorted derisively, aware he’d been able to sidestep Rose’s requests the year before, after acquiring the property, simply by not being around during the harvest season. “Had the birds not been given free rein with them, they might not have spread to the degree they have.”

  “I sense you’re irritated with my sister-in-law?”

  Clint chose his words carefully. “Let’s just say I have never met a woman so determined to have her own way.”

  “Or as likely to get it by whatever means necessary,” Gannon deadpanned. “But, as Lily would say, that’s part of her sister’s charm. Or it has been since she was left with three kids to bring up entirely on her own.”

  Clint paused to take that in. “Rose’s ex-husband isn’t involved?”

  Gannon shook his head, his expression grim. “Barry walked away clean nearly three years ago, right after their divorce.”

  Clint exhaled. “That’s rough.”

  “So you can understand, then, why Rose is as single-minded as she is.”

  “Because she has to be.”

  Gannon nodded.

  Clint admired a woman who went all out to provide for her family. That didn’t mean, however, that he had to like the way Rose went about her dealings with him. He’d been down this road before. Almost married a woman who didn’t just love being in the midst of excitement and drama but created it wherever she went. No way was he getting involved with someone like that again. Even if it was a woman as beautiful and feisty as Rose.

  The two finished their beers and traded invoices.

  “When are you going to get your ranch up and running?” Gannon asked.

  “If it all turns out the way Rose is predicting—” Clint was holding his breath on that one “—and I get even half the cash she is promising...I’m hoping for early fall.”

  And then it would be bye-bye to the farming he had never wanted to do—and renting out his neighbor’s land—and hello to horse and cattle ranching on the Double Creek, the way it was meant to be.

  In the meantime, he had to deal with Rose McCabe.

  And the delivery of the berry picker from the tractor dealership the following day. It arrived, as promised, shortly after nine in the morning. Clint half expected Rose to be there, too.

  She wasn’t.

  While the sunny May morning was unexpectedly quiet, Swifty unloaded the big machine from the flatbed trailer, showed Clint how to use it and took off.

  Deciding maybe this wasn’t so bad after all, Clint loaded up the machine with heavy-duty plastic fruit crates, turned the engine on and headed for the field.

  He’d barely made it down one row when the next surprise came. And the quiet morning outdoors that he’d been looking forward to vanished. Just like that.

  * * *

  CLINT SUFFERED THROUGH the day only because he had promised Farmtech, the local dealership and the produce co-op that he would.

  As soon as the day’s activity concluded, however, he headed inside his ranch house to get cleaned up.

  And then, determined to get a few things straight before anything else unexpected happened, he made his way to Rose Hill Farm.

  Until now, he had seen Rose’s seventy-five-acre property only from a distance. As he passed beneath the wrought-iron archway, he could not help but be impressed. The rolling green pastureland was surrounded by neat white fence. Stately oak trees lined the drive that led to a small white Cape Cod–style bungalow with a dark-gray roof, cranberry-red shutters and a pine door. A huge new red barn, emblazoned with the Rose Hill Farm logo, sat behind that.

  Rosebushes bloomed on either side of the front walk.

  Bracing himself for whatever came next, he moved up the broad stone steps leading to the house and rang the bell.

  There was a struggle with the lock on the other side. Then the front door swung open. The smell of something incredibly delicious—cornbread maybe—wafted out. A tyke-size McCabe stared up at him.

  “Mommy!” the preschooler bellowed at the top of his lungs. “It’s a man!” He craned his little head back as far as it would go. “And he’s real big!”

  Compared to the little one, Clint felt big. Although, at six foot four, he felt that way often.

  Something clattered loudly—like a dropped metal pan in the kitchen. “Stephen!” Rose called out, sounding upset. She rushed around the corner, her hands buried in a dish towel. “I told you not to answer the...” She skidded to a halt midfoyer. Swallowed, cheeks pink. “Clint.”

  Aware he had never seen her—or imagined her—quite so harried, he moved his gaze over her cloud of chin-length dark-blond curls. She wore no makeup that he could see but was absolutely gorgeous just the same. She had on jeans, sneakers, a flattering peach button-up blouse and a ridiculously frilly and flowery apron over that.

  He resisted the urge to tell her about the smudge of flour on one cheek. He was here on business, he reminded himself sternly. “Got a minute? I
need to talk to you.”

  She crumpled the dish towel in her hand. “Ah...”

  Two little girls appeared at her side. “Mommy, I’m hungry!” said the first.

  The other complained, “You said dinner was ready.”

  Rose assured them with a smile, “It is.”

  The children’s anxiety allayed, she turned back to Clint and waved him forward. “Come on in. I don’t think you’ve ever met my triplets,” she said, shutting the door behind him.

  “Kids, this is Mr. McCulloch. Clint, this is Stephen.” Rose pointed to her son. Clearly all boy, with short brown hair and dark eyes, he was clad in jeans and a Longhorns football T-shirt. He was busy trying to climb up the stairs from the wrong side of the railing.

  Rose plucked him off the risers and set him back on the foyer floor. A prodding lift of Rose’s brow had Stephen obediently extending his hand. “Hello.”

  “Hi.” Clint noted the boy had a surprisingly strong and confident grip.

  Continuing her introduction, Rose pointed to the daughter clad in a denim dress and deep purple cowgirl boots. “Scarlet.”

  The little girl holding an open storybook had long, curly, strawberry-blond hair, green eyes and glasses.

  Scarlet smiled at Clint sincerely. “Hello.”

  Clint grinned back. “Good to meet you, Scarlet.”

  “And Sophia,” Rose concluded, gently guiding the shyest of the three children forward. Clad in a ruffled skirt, matching knit shirt and ballet slippers, the little girl had long, dark-brown hair that was straight and silky, and clear blue eyes.

  She shook Clint’s hand mutely.

  “Nice to meet you-all,” he said.

  Stephen muscled his way to the front. Unable to stand still, he put his weight on one leg, then the other, peering up at Clint curiously all the while. “We’re three and a half.” He gestured importantly at himself and his two siblings. “How old are you?”

  Rose jerked in a breath and lifted a chastising palm. “That’s not a question we ask grown-ups. Not ever. Remember?”

  If there was one thing Clint remembered, it was how insatiably curious he had been at the same age. “I don’t mind.” He looked back at the kids. “I’m thirty-three.”