Cowboy Bold

by Carolyn Brown

  If he’d shown her the tub first thing, she would have already been in her old truck and driving back across the Red River to get her things. She envisioned bubbles and bath salts and reading a thick book every single evening that she was there.

  “You haven’t asked about a salary.” He leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb and quoted a figure higher than she’d expected. “And in addition to that, you get room and board, which includes three meals in the big house.”

  The money was excellent. Benefits fabulous. And she got to work as a team. There were no cons—only pros.

  “That sounds more than fair,” she said.

  “Contract is on the computer. I’ll make a couple of adjustments and if you’ve seen enough we’ll go back down to the boys’ place and get it signed.” He crossed the floor and held the door open for her.

  If something sounded too good, then there had to be something wrong somewhere, right? Thinking about it overnight wouldn’t hurt, but if she didn’t take it now, then he might change his mind about her commitment and bring in one of the other candidates. “Why did you wait so late to hire someone?” She fell into step with him going from one bunkhouse to the next.

  “The same lady who’s always taken care of the girls had to back out last week. Her daughter had triplets and she had to go to Virginia to help out,” he said.

  Once inside, he went straight to the computer, hit a few keys, and then whipped the screen around to her. She read through the one-page contract. Payment upon completion of the program and would be forfeited if she left before the last day. Any accidents happening during the program would be covered by the ranch insurance. Pretty basic stuff really. She hit the sign here key and it was done.

  “That does it. I’ll print out a copy for you and give it to you when you return. Call me when you get back and I’ll send some hired hands to help you unload.” He rattled off a phone number and she plugged it into her phone.

  He walked out with her and frowned at her truck. It had probably been bright red at one time, but it definitely showed signs of being left out in the weather instead of in a garage.

  Her dark brows drew down over brown eyes. “What? Are you regretting hiring me already?”

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “Your expression said you were having second thoughts,” she answered. “I would love to have this job but if you’ve changed your mind…” She didn’t finish the sentence.

  “You are pretty good at reading people. I’m surely not having second thoughts. I wasn’t expecting you to be driving a truck. With a résumé like yours I expected something different.”

  “I told you that I’ve been a rancher for three years,” she said as she slung open the door and crawled inside the old truck. “What did you think I’d be driving?”

  “Maybe a sports car,” he answered.

  “My cute little yellow Camaro went the same way as the farm—to pay off my father’s medical bills, but I’m debt free and this old girl has a lot of miles left in her.” Retta patted the steering wheel.

  Cade held up his palms. “Hey, I like trucks. I drive one, and if you’ll look up toward the house, you’ll see three parked out front.”

  “Saw them when I drove in. They’re nice.” She fastened the seat belt and started the engine.

  “Sounds like a new vehicle,” he said.

  “I keep her in good runnin’ order. See you in a few hours,” she said as she drove away.

  With his long strides it only took a few minutes to get to the big house located about a hundred yards away. He circled around and went in through the back door, kicked off his good boots, and shoved his feet down into a pair of scuffed-up work boots and then headed to the refrigerator for a quart jar of sweet tea to take to the field for his brother, Justin.

  “Did you hire her?” Mavis took a blackberry cobbler from the stove.

  A short woman with kinky curly hair that went from brown to blond, depending on how long it had been since her last visit to the beauty parlor, Mavis had bright green eyes and loved gossip.

  “I did,” Cade answered. “And she’ll be joining us for supper tonight.”

  Mavis lowered her chin and narrowed her eyes. “Not that I’m one to meddle, but—you better be careful, Cade Maguire. Those big brown eyes get you every time.”

  Mavis had been the cook at the ranch since before Cade and Justin were born and even though she was near seventy, she swore they’d take her out of the kitchen feet first. Her husband, Skip, had already retired as ranch foreman, but Mavis said there was no way she was staying home with him twenty-four/seven.

  “Don’t be fussin’ at him, woman.” Skip came through the kitchen. “He’s a grown man and knows not to mix business and pleasure. If he’s hired her, then he ain’t goin’ to get all involved with her.”

  Skip was talk and lanky and favored bibbed overalls. His gray hair had been nothing but a rim around his bald head ever since Cade had known him. He might look like a gentle breeze could blow him away, but he was as strong as an ox and could do the work of three men on the ranch.

  “He’s a man and she’s a woman. Business ain’t got a thing to do with what happens between two people when they…” She stopped.

  “What happens? Tell me,” Cade teased.

  Skip chuckled. “I’m listenin’ and since we’re both just men and don’t understand anything, we’d like some details.”

  Mavis pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and narrowed her eyes. “Y’all ain’t crazy. You both know what I’m talkin’ about. Now, Cade, you take that tea to Justin and y’all get yourselves on back here by noon. And Skip Roberts, you get on back down to the boys’ bunkhouse and fix that water leak.”

  “Better listen to her. She’s the one doin’ the cookin’.” Skip bent to kiss her on the forehead.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Cade grinned.

  “And if you can’t be careful, then be sure you got some protection in your hip pocket.” Skip chuckled again.

  “I swear to God, you embarrass me every time you turn around,” Mavis snapped at her husband and then turned back to Cade. “Boy, you watch that heart of yours. It’s got a thing for brown eyes.”

  “Not a single thing for you to worry about, Miz Mavis.” He stopped and bent down to hug her.

  “Okay then, I’ll set another plate for supper. I hope she likes pot roast,” Mavis said.

  “Me too, but she’s a devout OU fan, so one never knows,” Cade said in mock seriousness.

  “Sweet Jesus.” Skip crossed himself. “An Oklahoma fan in this house. God might shoot lightning right through the roof and zap us all.”

  Mavis shoved a finger up under his nose and started to say something, but Cade grabbed it and twirled her around in a swing dance movement. “You don’t worry about me. I would never get involved with someone who’s a Sooner fan.”

  “You rascal, you’ve messed up my hair.” She patted at her short hair.

  “You still got spring in your step. You and Skip should go with me and the boys out dancing some Saturday night,” he said.

  “Did that woman’s brown eyes make you crazy? I’m too old for shenanigans like that. Lord have mercy! I’ll be seventy in the fall.”

  “Don’t you lie to me. You’re not a day over fifty, and Skip can still two-step. I saw y’all at the last weddin’ we went to. Put us young folks plumb to shame.” He gave her another quick hug and headed out the back door.

  “You are full of horse crap and you’re forgetting your tea,” Mavis yelled.

  He came back, picked up the jar, and blew a kiss toward them on his way out that time.

  But his step slowed as he thought about Mavis’s warning. She wouldn’t say Julie’s name, but that’s clearly who she meant. On the night before their wedding, he’d blown Julie a kiss when he walked off her porch at ten minutes until midnight. And the next morning she’d sent the engagement ring back with a note saying that she couldn’t go through with it. Folks said that time would heal his shatte
red heart, but it had already been two years and he still felt the ache.

  He got into the old work truck that didn’t look a bit better than Retta’s. He set the tea on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat and shifted into low gear. He turned on the radio to take his mind somewhere else but that didn’t help when “Deja Vu” started playing. Like Lauren Duski sang about, there were weeks when he didn’t even think of Julie—and then it would all come back in a flash, especially when he saw a woman with beautiful brown eyes—like Retta’s.

  He parked the truck and picked up the quart of tea. A trail of dust floated out behind the green tractor coming toward him. The smell of freshly plowed dirt and hot sun rays beating down from a cloudless sky—this all came at the price of his heart, but he’d do it again without a doubt or regrets.

  The tractor came to a stop a few feet in front of the truck and Justin hopped out of it. “I hope that tea is for me. I’m spittin’ dust. Did you hire the woman?”

  Cade held out the jar. “I figured you’d be ready for something to drink. And yes, I hired her. Her résumé says she’s a city girl but she was wearing boots and jeans.”

  “Thanks. What’s she look like?” Justin took the tea and had a long drink.

  “Tall. Not skinny but curvy. Dark brown hair but I noticed some red in it when she was in the sun. Big brown eyes,” Cade answered.

  “Like Julie brown eyes?” Justin handed the jar back to Cade.

  “Not the same,” Cade answered. “Retta’s are lighter, the color of a Yoo-hoo.”

  “Brown all the same.” Justin slapped a hand on his shoulder. “Be careful, brother.”

  “She’s an employee, for God’s sake,” Cade snapped. “Five weeks and she’s gone. She’s not Julie or anything like her.”

  Justin’s shoulders shot up in a shrug. “Hey, I didn’t mean to step on sore toes. I’m just sayin’ to be careful. Tall, curvy, brown eyes. Hell, you’d have to be half dead not to flirt with that.”

  “I don’t flirt,” Cade said.

  Justin laughed out loud. “Yeah, and the sun will come up in the west tomorrow mornin’. We are both Maguires. We flirt. It’s in our DNA. You can have the tractor now. My butt was beginning to feel like it was grown to the seat. I’m going to go help Levi fix fence the rest of the day so I can stand up.”

  “I’ll gladly plow a field or even string barbed wire not to have to listen to everyone on the ranch givin’ me advice. You want to show Retta around the ranch tomorrow?” Cade removed his hat and used it for a fan.

  “Nope. I’m working with Levi for the next three days. We want to get as much of the pasture roped off as we can. It’s up to you—but since you don’t flirt, we won’t need to give you any advice.”

  Cade frowned. “Mavis has already been on my case. I don’t need your smart-ass remarks.”

  Justin removed his hat and raked his fingers through his hair. His dimples deepened when he grinned. “We’re just all lookin’ after you. It’s taken two long years for you to get over Julie, and you still go for the brown-eyed beauties when we go dancin’ on the weekends. This isn’t a one-night stand or even a weekend romp. She’s goin’ to be here for five long weeks.”

  “Holy hell, Justin! I just met the woman and hired her. I’m not going to sleep with her.”

  “Well, I hope not.” Justin laughed. “See you at supper. Here, you take the rest of this tea. Mad as you are, you might need it to cool you down.”

  “Dammit!” he muttered as he got into the tractor cab and fired up the engine.

  He’d barely gotten the tractor turned around when his bluetick hound, Beau, ran up beside him and barked loudly several times. He braked and slung open the door, and the dog scrambled up across him and took his place in the passenger’s seat.

  “Needin’ a little air-conditioning are you? Let me tell you about this woman who’s goin’ to be with us on the ranch for the next five weeks. I think you’ll like her, Beau, old buddy.” He reached across and scratched the dog’s ears with his free hand. “But don’t get too attached. She’s a city gal and she won’t be stayin’ with us.”

  Chapter Two

  Retta had lived in two places her entire life—the farmhouse and the fifth-floor apartment that she rented in Dallas when she landed the job with Arlington Bank. Standing in the middle of the living room floor after she’d put her things in the truck bed, she didn’t even try to hold back the tears. Slowly she’d walked through the whole house—the bedroom where she’d gone from a baby to a little girl to a teenager, where she’d leaned out the window and kissed her first boyfriend. The dining room where the family had always, always had supper together and discussed the day—and where she’d probably snapped a thousand bushels of green beans while she and her mother talked about everything. The master bedroom where her father had died surrounded by his memories of their family. And now the living room, which had been filled with laughter and love.

  “It’s time to move on,” she whispered. “You told me to do this, Daddy, but you didn’t tell me it would be so painful.”

  She wiped tears all the way to Nocona and with a deep breath told herself that life was going to go on and she had to move with it. She stopped at the Dairy Queen for an ice-cream cone, but a mile down the road she still couldn’t swallow past the lump in her throat so she tossed it out the window.

  She had turned off the highway onto a farm road when she realized that someone was behind her. They stayed with her when she drove under the big wooden sign above the cattle guard proclaiming that from there on they were on Longhorn Canyon Ranch. When she parked in front of the bunkhouse, the other truck pulled in right beside her.

  “Dammit!” she muttered. “My eyes are a mess and I’m not ready to talk to anyone.”

  Cade swung his long legs out of the truck and waved. “I’ll help you get unloaded.”

  “Thanks, but I can take care of it,” she told him.

  He peered into the bed of the truck and asked, “Is this all? I thought you might be returning with a cattle trailer full of stuff. I was going to offer some empty space in the barn to store your things.”

  “Like I said, the medical bills are paid.” She shrugged.

  He hoisted two boxes onto his shoulders.

  Now that’s one strong cowboy. The voice in her head was Tina’s.

  She couldn’t argue. The boxes that he carried were the ones that had taken all her strength to get up into the bed of the truck. She hurried ahead of him, set a couple of suitcases on the porch, and held the door for him. “Just put them in my room and I’ll take care of getting the rest of it inside.”

  “I might be a grown man, but my mama would tack my hide to the smokehouse door if I let a lady carry stuff. I’m already in hot water with her if she finds out that you opened the door for me.” He grinned.

  “Does she live on the ranch too?”

  “No, ma’am. She and Dad moved out around Sweetwater three years ago, but they come home for Christmas and the whole family always meets in Dallas for the Texas-Oklahoma game every year.” He set the boxes in the corner of the living area.

  “I’ve missed the last three games. Watched them on television, but it wasn’t the same. Oklahoma is good enough to whip Texas’s butt this year. I’ll be right there in the stands again to celebrate when we do.” She wheeled the suitcases into the bedroom.

  “In your dreams.” He chuckled as he started back out for more boxes.

  “Hey, now, this is serious business,” she called after him.

  “Don’t I know it, and I’ll be on the winning side,” he yelled.

  “And that, Mr. Maguire, is dreaming big,” she hollered.

  “Dreams do come true,” he said as he made another trip inside. “What did you pack in these things, rocks?”

  “Had to have something to remind me of the farm,” she shot back.

  “Are you serious?” He wiped sweat from his forehead.

  “No, but if I’d thought of it, I would have gone down to the
creek and gathered a few to keep as memories,” she answered.

  After another trip, he removed his hat and fanned with it. “We have supper at six o’clock. I’ll be here about five-thirty to take you up to the house.”

  “You don’t need to do that,” she said. “I can find my way.”

  “Not saying you couldn’t. I just wanted to be gentlemanly.” He settled the well-worn straw hat on his head and then tipped it toward her. “See you there between five-thirty and six. The boys and I like a good cold beer before supper, but we can make you a drink if you want something different.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll be there.” The way she was flushing made her think that a cold drink would have been pretty good right then.

  A sweet southerly wind fluffed Retta’s hair as she walked toward the house that evening. Her soft maxiskirt swished around her legs, making her feel all kinds of feminine. She’d paired the brightly colored skirt with an orange tank top and a pair of sandals, and even taken time to do her toenails in bright orange to match.

  A big fluffy yellow cat met her at the yard fence, meowed a few times until she stopped to pet it and then followed her up on the porch. She wasn’t sure whether to knock or just walk right in. Better to be safe than sorry, she thought. She raised her knuckles, but before she could rap on the door, Cade opened it.

  “Good timin’. I was about to call the bunkhouse.” He stepped to the side and his gaze raked her up and down, and he raised an eyebrow. “Orange like Texas colors?”

  Her gaze dropped to his belt buckle embossed with a longhorn and slowly made its way up to his fitted T-shirt. “Hmmm…looks like you’re in Sooner red to me. Did you change your mind and decide to go with a winning team?”

  “Maybe we should change shirts,” he said.

  “Right here?”