The dog flopped down beside her and shut his eyes. She rested her hand on his big head and gently rubbed it with her fingertips as she enjoyed listening to tree frogs, crickets, and a lonesome old coyote howling in the distance.
She’d leaned over on the porch post and was completely lost in her own thoughts when Beau jerked his head up, stood to his feet, and shook from head to toe like he was wet. Then he bounded off the porch and ran off into the dark toward the house.
“Hey, old boy, where were you? Out chasing coyotes or rabbits?” Cade’s deep voice floated toward her on the night breezes.
With the light from the moon and stars, Retta could see his silhouette as he and Beau started toward the bunkhouses. His cowboy hat was practically touching the low hanging clouds, or so it seemed as she watched him slowly make his way toward her.
“Good evening,” he said when he reached the porch. “Mind if I sit a spell?”
“Not a bit.” She moved over to allow him to go past her, expecting that he’d sit in one of the two chairs on the other end.
But he sat down on the step beside her and stretched his long legs all the way to the ground. “Pretty pleasant evening.”
“Peaceful.” She wanted to ask why he was home before nine if he had a date at seven-thirty, but that wasn’t a bit of her business.
“When the kids get here, it’ll get a little bit noisier. Hey look, there’s a lightning bug. The city kids are usually intrigued by them as well as the sounds of the night. Some of them are a little spooked the first time they hear a coyote howling in the distance,” he said.
“The stars are never this bright in the city and all I hear when I used to sit on my balcony was sirens and traffic noises.”
“I sure missed the night noises of the ranch when I went to college. If it hadn’t been for sheer determination, I wouldn’t have lasted a month.” He shifted his position so he could brace his back on the porch post.
Something about his deep drawl in the semidarkness sent tingles up her spine. She needed to get out, go to dinner with friends or even on dates. She’d been cooped up on a ranch with no outlet except church on Sunday too long if a cowboy she’d only just met could affect her like this.
Beau had run on past the boys’ bunkhouse and returned with a rabbit hanging from his mouth. The sight jerked Retta out of her deep thoughts about dating, having fun, and men in general.
She gasped. “Did he kill it?”
Cade grinned. “You found him, old boy. Now it’s catch and release time.”
Beau gently dropped the cottontail on the ground and it raised up on its hind legs to touch noses with the dog.
“Meet Hopalong, another of Levi’s strays. Hopalong has been with us longer than Beau, who was a big baby and didn’t want to sleep by himself when we got him. So Hopalong crawled into his doghouse with him and they’ve been buddies ever since,” Cade explained.
“So there’s a cat, dog, turtle, and rabbit. Any more strays?” Retta asked.
“Not right now, but tomorrow is a brand-new day. Levi’s looking at a miniature donkey in Nocona. It was born with a weak leg so the owners can’t sell it and now they don’t want the little thing. It’s barely weaned so it could be coming to the ranch next week. The kids will probably spoil it rotten,” Cade answered.
Hopalong eased up onto the first step and then the second. He sniffed Retta’s hand when she held it out and then Cade picked him up.
“He likes this.” Using his knuckles, he rubbed the spot between the rabbit’s ears.
Retta could imagine those big hands working the knots from her neck and back, but it wasn’t just her imagination—or the lightning bugs—that caused the sparks to flash between them when she caught his gaze and held it for a few seconds before looking away.
“Guess I’d best get going.” He gently put the rabbit on the ground. “I thought I’d be out until bedtime, but I got a call before I left that my meeting was canceled. Now that I’ve got an hour or two of free time, I should spend it getting the tax papers together for the CPA.”
So his date stood him up, did she? And she lived in Nocona or in that area.
“See you tomorrow then,” she said.
He tipped his hat toward her. “Breakfast and then I’ll show you around the ranch.”
She watched those long legs stride away and felt a pang of something. It had to be regret at losing his and Beau’s company for the rest of the evening. She liked having them there with her. She reached down and rubbed Hopalong’s head like Cade had done, and the bunny snuggled down next to her.
“I wish you could talk and I’d ask you all kinds of questions about Cade. Like if he’s got a girlfriend. And why he’s such a flirt but I can see sadness in his eyes. I bet you could tell me all kinds of stories.”
Chapter Three
Cade hopped on the four-wheeler and patted the seat behind him. “Hope you don’t mind riding double. One of our machines is in the repair shop and Levi needed the other one for the day, so that just leaves one.”
“Not at all.” Retta settled down behind him but there was no way possible to keep her knees from touching his thighs. His expression showed no indication that he saw or felt the vibes that she did.
“The ranch is two square miles, a little over twelve hundred acres,” he said. We’ve got most of it cleared and it serves as pasture for our Angus herd. We’ll drive around the fence line first and kill two birds with one stone. You can get the lay of the land and I can make sure all the barbed wire is bull tight.”
A lump formed in her throat as she nodded. Strange how she could go along for several days and think that she was finished with the mourning process and then a phrase could bring back a visual of her father when he was strong and healthy. He used to say that his fences had to be bull tight, and even though their farm was barely a tenth the size of the Longhorn Canyon, he’d always kept things maintained.
They’d only gone a short distance when the vehicle wheel ran over a rock and she instinctively wrapped her arms around Cade to keep from being bounced out into the knee-high pasture grass. With her hands splayed out on his rock hard chest and her breasts smashed against his back, it was no wonder she was instantly breathing hard.
“Better hang on. There’s lots more rough riding,” he yelled over his shoulder.
She’d braided her hair that morning and worn jeans and a soft chambray shirt over a tank top. Now she wished she’d brought her cowboy hat with her. Cade’s sweat-stained hat looked just like the one she’d tossed in the trash when she’d left the farm. She hadn’t thought her job description would involve riding on a four-wheeler for hours with the sun broiling her brains. Or that she’d enjoy hugging up to a cowboy’s back as much as she did.
Several times he had to stop the vehicle to open a gate to a new pasture during the trip around most of the property. When they got to what she assumed would be the back corner, instead of following the fence line he made a turn down a rarely used path. Ruts showed where a four-wheeler had been.
He finally came to a stop at an old log cabin set back in a copse of mesquite trees. “Thought we might sit on the porch and rest a little while.” He crawled off the machine and she followed him, glad to stretch her legs and even more so to get a little distance between them. The thoughts that flooded her mind as she was pressed against his back even made her blush a couple of times.
“This is about the halfway mark around the ranch. You want a drink? I’ve got water and a thermos of coffee in the saddlebags. There might be a leftover soft drink in the refrigerator inside the cabin,” he said.
“Water would be good.” She bent forward to stretch out her back.
He slid off to the other side. “Nowadays we use this place for a huntin’ cabin. Sometimes we rent it out to guys who are avid deer hunters.” He took two bottles of water from the saddlebags and handed one to her. “Looks like it’s going to be another hot one today. I’m glad we’re doing this in the morning instead of the afternoon. So if a
kid got lost or ran away, do you think you could figure out where to look?”
She took a long drink of the water as she headed toward the porch. “I think so. You ever had that happen? A kid getting lost?”
“Not yet, but you never know, and I like to be prepared,” he said.
She sat down on an old ladder-back chair on the porch without even brushing the dust from the seat. “Who lived in this cabin? Why is it here?”
“My great-grandparents lived here when they bought the original part of the ranch.”
“Oh, I thought maybe it was the foreman’s house at one time.” She took a long drink from the water bottle.
“No, but when they built the house we live in now, they kept this in good shape. The story is that my great-grandma made my great-grandpa bring her back here every year for a week at their anniversary time.”
“That is so sweet,” she said. “So where did Mavis and Skip live?”
“We wanted to build a house for them on the ranch when he was foreman, but Mavis had inherited her aunt’s house in town and didn’t want to move,” he said. “Levi is biologically Skip’s great-nephew.”
“Where is his mother? Does she ever come to see him?”
Cade shook his head. “Levi’s mama was Skip’s niece and she was real young so Skip and Mavis took her in when she got pregnant in high school. It’s complicated, but somewhere along the line, his mama remarried and let them keep him rather than moving him away from this area. She lives out in a little town in Pennsylvania called Green Castle. At first she came about once a year, but she hasn’t been back since he graduated from high school. They’d become more like strangers or maybe distant friends instead of family.”
“Most of life is complicated.” She nodded.
“Ain’t that the truth. You must still miss your dad something terrible. I can’t imagine the hole that it would leave in my life and heart to give up my parents.” Cade sat down in the other old wooden chair and propped his long legs on the porch railing.
“The grieving process is kind of strange. I thought I was over it already when my dad finally passed away. I’d witnessed all his pain and suffering, and when it was finished, I thought I’d hit the acceptance stage of grieving but I was wrong.” She took another sip of water. “There’s a line in a song that says something like the new life begins with death. My dad was a good Christian man, went to church every Sunday and most Wednesday nights when he wasn’t too busy with the farm. But he was so ready to leave this life after three years of chemo and trial tests that I couldn’t wish him back. But sometimes I get a flash of a memory that makes me miss him so much. To say that grieving is complicated is an understatement.”
“And your mama?” he asked.
“Died in a car accident when I was eighteen. I got the news the first month I was in college. Almost quit and went home to help him then, but Daddy wouldn’t have it,” she answered.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Want to sell this cabin?” She abruptly changed the subject.
“I thought you couldn’t wait to get back to the city.”
She raised a shoulder in half a shrug. “I can’t, but it would be nice to have a little country place like this for vacation times.”
“Can’t sell it, but I might rent it out to you if you ever want to come back to the ranch.” He removed his hat and fanned with it. “So you can take the girl out of the country but you can’t remove every tiny bit of the country from the girl?”
“I’m not so sure of that. Even city girls like a little peace and quiet at times. I bet the stars are even more beautiful here than at the bunkhouses. Can we look inside?”
The chair fell forward with a bang and Cade was on his feet. “Sure we can. I need to check on things anyway. No one’s been back here since last fall.”
She set her water bottle on the porch rail and followed him. The place was bigger than it appeared from the outside. Two sets of bunk beds were set up on each wall with enough space in between for a sofa, a couple of rocking chairs, and a table with four chairs around it. She could see through a door into a bathroom with a shower and a vanity.
“This was the original cabin right here.” He waved a hand around the single room. “They put in the plumbing later and added the bathroom after they’d had their first child—my grandfather.”
“Cozy. How long did they live here?” She glanced over at a two-burner stove, small refrigerator, microwave, and a wall-hung sink.
“Just a couple of years. My grandpa was about two years old when they built the new house. Great Granny had a wood-burning stove in here and a couple of what Mama called worktables to hold her skillets and stuff. They hauled their water up from Canyon Creek, which is about twenty yards behind us. It was pretty basic back then,” Cade said.
She could hear the wistfulness in his voice. “You ever think maybe you were born in the wrong century?”
“All the time.” He sighed. “How about you?”
“Well, I think I’d like a little bit bigger kitchen and bedroom with a door on it and I do like indoor plumbing,” she answered.
“Folks who stay here aren’t interested in making gourmet meals, so this works fairly well. Ready to go?”
She nodded. “Thanks for letting me take a peek at it.”
“Anytime.”
“Aren’t you going to lock the door?” she asked when they were on the porch. “There’s a road right out there.” She pointed to a dirt road showing through the trees on the other side of the fence. “Aren’t you afraid of vandalism?”
“Nope,” he answered. “Never had a problem before. Don’t expect one anytime soon. Mavis will have dinner on the table at noon and she’s fryin’ chicken so we don’t want to be late.”
“With mashed potatoes and gravy and hot biscuits?” Retta asked.
He nodded.
“How fast can you make that four-wheeler run?”
Cade hoped that Retta couldn’t hear his sudden intake of breath earlier when she bent over to work the kinks from her back. Or feel how hard his heart was pounding when she wrapped her arms around him on the four-wheeler. Or if she did notice, that she would think it was due to the fast ride back to the ranch house and not because her hands splayed out on his chest were causing all kinds of electricity. It was perfectly normal and didn’t mean jack crap. Any woman who pressed her body up to his would cause that kind of reaction.
When they made it back to the house, she continued to sit on the four-wheeler after he was off and headed toward the porch. He turned and asked, “You comin’ in to eat, right?”
“Yes, of course, but I’ve got a question. Is Mavis one of those stay-out-of-my-kitchen women?”
“I don’t think so. Why?” He leaned against a post.
“You mentioned all kinds of activities for the kids, but maybe we should teach them a little responsibility to go with that fun stuff. I’d like for my girls to learn their way around the kitchen. They could use those skills when they get home. Maybe they could set the table and even make a dessert, nothing too fancy, once a week.”
“Fantastic idea.” Cade grinned. “But not only the girls, the boys too. They can switch off days and maybe help with one meal that day. Mavis loves kids but I’ll ask before we put the plan into action. Don’t want her to think we’re stepping on her toes. Got any more ideas?”
“Well”—she inhaled deeply—“I noticed that the chairs and porch railing at the cabin could use a coat of paint. What if we let the girls do part of it and for their treat they get to camp out one evening? We could roast marshmallows and hot dogs for supper, and that would let the boys have a time away from the girls.”
“And”—he picked up on the idea—“the boys could go to the cabin the next night and paint their portion. I love those ideas. It would teach them teamwork. Anything else?”
“Not right now,” she said.
“Well, if you think of anything, just spit it out and we’ll discuss it. For now we need to get wa
shed up for dinner. We’ve only got ten minutes and I really don’t like cold mashed potatoes.” He grinned.
Yep, hiring her was going to be a good thing even if he would have to battle with the chemistry between them. She was innovative, and her ideas would be a nice addition to the things they’d already implemented in the program. Why couldn’t she have been all that and not been so damned attractive? When she’d put her arms around him, he’d felt the sparks dancing all around them.
She threw a leg over the side and hopped off, started up the stairs beside him, and caught the toe of her boot on the second step. One minute she was going up and the next she was falling backward.
“Whoa!” he said loudly as he pulled her to his chest.
Her hands quickly circled his neck and she hung on to him until she got her balance. “Whew. I thought I was hitting the dirt for sure.”
He looked down into her chocolate brown eyes and their gazes locked. She moistened her lips and he bent slightly. She rolled up on her toes and her eyes fluttered shut. Then Beau bounded around the side of the house and wiggled his way between them, and Justin stepped out on the porch.
“I heard the four-wheeler and figured y’all were home. Dinner is ready,” he said.
Cade took a step back and rubbed Beau’s ears. “Just got here and we were talking about some new things to teach the kids.”
“If you’ll show me which way the bathroom is, I’ll get washed up,” Retta said.
“First door at the end of the foyer to your right,” Justin said. “We’ll be in right quick.”
Cowboy Bold Page 4
