Her Montana Cowboy

by Jeannie Watt

  “You’ve barely seen us at all.”

  “I’ve seen enough to recognize someone who’s getting in over his head.”

  An odd sensation curled through her midsection, part gratification, part red alert.

  “Lillie Jean, I very much doubt that Gus is going to want to leave Montana and settle in a nice little Texas town. And by your own admission, you can’t run your Texas business from Montana. So where does that leave the two of you?”

  On the brink of a situation that could only go downhill.

  “I like you, Lillie Jean, and despite what my grand-nephew thinks, it’s not because I’m...projecting, I think is the word...my feelings for Nita onto you. You’re a nice girl. And Gus is my only relative. I don’t want to see you hurting one another.”

  “You’re telling me to go home before trouble starts.”

  “I can make you a loan. Unsecured. It may not be enough to buy back your business, but it’ll be enough to get you started again.”

  Lillie Jean was clutching her hands together so tightly that one of them was going numb. “I—”

  “Do the right thing. For both of you.”

  “Think I might love him,” she said as if he hadn’t spoken.

  “Then don’t set up a situation where one of you ends up like me.” Thad let out breath that was close to a sigh. “After Lyle and Nita left for Texas—” he swallowed before continuing “—I could barely stand to be on the ranch. More than that, I could barely stand to be with myself.” He met Lillie Jean’s gaze. “It almost killed me in the beginning. It wasn’t until I had a real chance to die out on the trail after a horse accident, that I decided to live. But I left the ranch. It was the only way I could turn my life around.”

  “I don’t see Gus and me being at that point.”

  “Yet.”

  Now Lillie Jean sighed. His message was clear. Leave before it got to that point. And she was beginning to see how it could. Right now the thought of leaving ripped at her in such a way that it pretty much told her she had to leave. Before it was too late, as Thad had said.

  “If you want to loan me money, I’m not going to argue with you. But if your agricultural loan doesn’t pan out, I will sell my half of the ranch.”

  Thad gave a solemn nod. The situation was what it was, and he was accepting of that.

  “However, to avoid Carson Craig–type situations, I’m giving you 5 percent of my share before I sell.”

  Thad’s eyes widened in shock. “Why would you do that?”

  “So you can maintain control no matter what.” And to make up for what my grandparents did. She didn’t—couldn’t—say that part out loud, but she thought maybe Thad understood. “I made that offer to Carson. To sell 45 percent. He tried to threaten me, so no deal.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  Lillie Jean got to her feet and held out a hand. Thad also rose and took her fingers in his warm, leathery grip. “I’ll get with my accountant later today. Send the money to your grandfather’s accountant in Texas?”

  “Yes.” Lillie Jean felt oddly numb as the finality of what she was arranging hit home. “That would perfect.”

  * * *

  GUS GLANCED TOWARD Lillie Jean’s house as he headed to the barn to rub liniment on Red’s sore leg. Henry’s face appeared in the window, then disappeared again. Gus didn’t know where Lillie Jean had gone that day, but she’d been dressed nicely when she left the house and got into the Cadillac. His best guess was that she was visiting real estate agencies, getting ready in case his loan didn’t go through.

  Depressing thought.

  Red nickered a low greeting as Gus approached with the liniment in one hand, rag in the other. Gus set down his supplies and patted the horse on the neck. Red was glad for the company, but he’d also figured out that a visit meant grain to eat while Gus worked on him.

  It didn’t take long to treat the leg. He was done before the gelding was even half done with his grain, but he was loath to leave the quiet of the barn. Not that the house wasn’t quiet, but it was a different kind of quiet. A lonely quiet, which he’d never noticed before Lillie Jean had showed up on the ranch.

  He was beginning to understand why Thad stopped living on the ranch shortly after Gus had graduated high school and headed to college in Vegas. Lonely was more of a state of mind than a set of circumstances. When he let himself back out of the barn, Henry’s face once again appeared in the window and Gus decided to rescue the little guy—let him into the main house to spend time with him instead of the two of them rattling around in their respective dwellings. Tomorrow he was heading out again to tackle what was left of the boundary fence on his backup horse, Gabe. The snow was receding, and he’d probably have a shot of reaching the top fence.

  Henry’s head kept bobbing up in the window as Gus let himself in through the front gate. When he opened the front door of Lillie Jean’s house, the little guy was all over him, yipping and giving doggy kisses.

  “Yeah. We’ll go do guy stuff, but I need to leave a note.” After seeing Lillie Jean when she’d thought she’d lost Henry, he wasn’t taking any chances. There was a packet of sticky notes on top of her sketchbook, so Gus crossed the room and wrote a quick note, then peeled off the paper square. Yes, he was tempted to look at her sketchbook. No, he wouldn’t do it without an invitation. He had to admit, though, that she’d made the sad old manager’s house a lot more cheerful. He particularly liked the kitchen with the yellow walls and blue-and-yellow lemon-print curtains. The colors fit the place and made the old appliances take on a funky character they hadn’t had before.

  “Come on, Hank. Let’s head next door.”

  He popped the sticky note on the door and headed toward his own house, Henry trotting beside him.

  Less than an hour later, Henry raised his head from the bone he’d been gnawing on beneath the table and then Gus heard the Cadillac. Lillie Jean was home. Just knowing she was on the ranch made him feel better. He finished making the entries in his computer bookkeeping program, then closed the laptop lid just as Lillie Jean knocked on the door.

  “I got your note.” She held up the sticky on one finger.

  “You look nice,” Gus said, wondering how she’d come up with a dress—unless she’d packed one for her road trip.

  She looked down. “This was supposed to be a bathroom shower curtain, but I decided to wear it instead.”

  “It looks better on you than it would on a shower.”

  “Thank you.” Her expression went serious. “Gus... I’m going home.”

  The ground seemed to shift beneath him. Yeah, they had things to work out. A lot of things, really, but he wasn’t ready to see her leave.

  “Did you sell to Carson?” His voice sounded so very normal, when he felt anything but. And the stunning thing was that he was more concerned about Lillie Jean slipping away than having to deal with Carson Craig on a daily basis.

  “You were right about him. He’s a jerk. So, no.”

  The fact that he barely registered his near miss spoke volumes. “Lillie Jean—”

  She started shaking her head before her name had left his lips. “I have a chance to kick-start my business. Isabella, one of our more famous clients, wants me to outfit her for a tour, and that will help me get started again. Andrew essentially reneged on his contract with her, so she’s transferring her business to me.”

  “You have the means to buy your business back?”

  “I’m going to try, but Andrew will file for bankruptcy before I can come up with what I need. He’s peeved about Isabella—at least she thinks he is—which means he’s not going to cut me any deals.”

  “Which means starting fresh?”

  “With my Isabella contract. Yes.” She smiled a little. “It was good being here, on the ranch. I’m stronger. I got a new perspective. I designed part of a new collection.
”

  “And that’s all?”

  She slowly shook her head. “No,” she said quietly. “That’s not all. But I need to go, Gus. I need to resolve some issues in my old life before I can move into a new one.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow. Early.”

  He had about a thousand things to say, but words refused to form on his lips. Lillie Jean was running again, but what was she running from this time?

  “I’d kiss you goodbye,” she said in a voice so low it was hard to hear, “but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I might never stop.” She took a backward step, her gaze holding his. “Maybe there will be a better time in our lives, Gus. But this isn’t it.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  GUS HATED WALKING by Lillie Jean’s house, because every time he did so, he automatically checked to see if Henry’s little nose was pressed to the front window. Henry wasn’t looking out the window and Lillie Jean wasn’t coming down the walk, pulling on her gloves as she got ready to help him with chores.

  After she’d driven away two weeks ago, with a promise to text when she stopped for the night, wherever that might be, the ranch had taken on a whole new feel. One that Gus didn’t like, one he was certain his uncle Thad understood all too well.

  What was it with these Hardaway women?

  Grandmother. Granddaughter. They’d both left the ranch feeling empty.

  He was mixing fertilizer when he heard the distinctive roar of Thad’s old truck. His uncle didn’t normally drop by the ranch just because. Either there was a chore to attend to, or he had to pick up or drop off something one of them needed.

  Gus pulled the brim of his cap back down and finished filling the tank. By the time he was done, Thad had parked next to Lillie Jean’s house. He got out of the truck, wincing a little as his feet hit gravel.

  “What?” Gus instantly asked from several yards away.

  Thad waited until he got closer before saying, “Got a call from the Ag guy today.”

  Gus’s stomach twisted, but then his uncle broke loose with a wide smile. “Our loan application got approved pending the appraisal, which might take a while, but one step forward.”

  Gus felt his cheeks creasing into a broad smile as he let out a long breath. “Good to hear.”

  “And we got to hope against hope that the appraisal matches the amount of money we need. If it doesn’t, then we’re back where we started.”

  Like Gus didn’t know that. He shoved his thumbs into his front pockets. “Lillie Jean could still sell.” She needed the cash and when she left there’d been no renewed promise of her giving them the time they needed to officially nail down the loan. “We could still be dealing with some kind of a jerk partner.”

  Thad’s expression shifted, and again Gus asked, “What?” His uncle looked almost...guilty.

  Thad cleared his throat the way he did when he felt self-conscious. “Even if she sells, we’ll maintain control.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Thad looked over Gus’s shoulder toward the house where Lillie Jean had lived until a few weeks ago. “Carson offered to buy her out and she told him she’d only sell 45 percent. The other 5 percent she’s giving to me.”

  Gus’s jaw dropped. “Giving?”

  “Yeah. Giving. So we can control the decisions made on the property.”

  Gus sat on the bottom step of the tractor., then shot his uncle a hard look. He was getting tired of secrets. “Why is this the first I’m hearing about this?”

  “I thought I’d wait until she was gone to tell you.”

  Gus tried to tamp down his flaring anger. It wasn’t all that easy, but his voice was fairly even as he said, “It’s been two weeks. Were you waiting until she was good and gone? And what did her being gone have to do with your telling me?”

  “I saw you getting twisted up in knots over her. I recognized the symptoms.” Thad sent him a speaking look. “She needed to go back home before it was too late. For both your sakes.”

  “Too late?” Gus gave his uncle an incredulous stare. “I’m a grown man, Thad. I can deal with knots.”

  “And I’m a protective uncle who’s felt those knots.” He cleared his throat. “Still kind of feel them.”

  Gus got back to his feet, clapped a hand on his forehead. “I don’t... You...” He muttered a curse under his breath. “How?”

  “She came to see me. I think she came to understand just how low I was after losing Nita. And I don’t think she wanted to do that to you.” Thad shifted his weight. “So I loaned her this year’s cow money. It’s not enough to do what she wanted to do, but it’s seed to get her started.”

  “You paid her to leave?” Gus paced a couple of steps, then turned back, trying, really trying to keep himself under control.

  “No. But she had things she needed to do and, Gus? You were tying her up in knots, too.”

  “Yeah?” Gus got to his feet. “Well, good. And you know what? I still have a few more knots to tie.”

  “Don’t go doing anything stupid.”

  Gus rounded on his uncle. “Like avoiding a ranch for thirty years because it had bad feelings? Like never buying out the guy who ran off with your wife?”

  “I loved her.” Thad ground the words out, his face red.

  “Then you’ll understand why I’m going to do what I’m about to do.”

  * * *

  LILLIE JEAN, KATE and Julie had accomplished a lot in four weeks. Thanks to the loan from Thad, and a healthy deposit from Isabella, she was able to buy what she needed to make the tour garments, colorful retro Western looks that perfectly complemented Isabella’s songs and personality. She’d reverted to her old sleep cycle, staying awake long into the night, sewing garments in Kate’s tiny basement under a tight schedule before falling asleep on a futon jammed between piles of storage boxes. Only now she also got up early to sew some more. She’d met the impossible deadline and already had a handful of orders and had been able to swing a lease on a workspace. Thank you, Isabella. And Thad.

  If things continued as they were, she’d be able to pay back his cow money before he needed it. He’d taken a gamble on her and it’d paid off. The only part of the whole thing that wasn’t so great was the part where she missed Gus so very much.

  It’d been so hard not to contact him, but the last thing she wanted was to make this separation more difficult than it already was. Hearing his voice...no, she couldn’t handle it.

  Her new workspace wasn’t as large as A Thread in Time, which was now officially defunct, but could eventually become a showroom/store, and there was a small living space upstairs—or there would be once she got it cleaned and painted. It was all rather cozy and Lillie Jean should have been enjoying it more than she was.

  She should have been enjoying everything more than she was. But there was this empty space in her heart...

  An empty space that Julie addressed one day while she and Lillie Jean watched the twins and Kate took a well-deserved nap.

  “Lillie Jean, I know you’ve taken some hits,” Julie said in her soft drawl, “but you’re winning again.”

  Lillie Jean frowned at Julie, wondering what her point was. Julie reached out and patted Lillie Jean’s arm. “Honey, you’re down. Further down than you should be after doing what you just did. My goodness. You’ve outfitted a tour from a dinky little basement sewing room.”

  Lillie Jean pressed her lips together, stunned to feel a rush of emotion at Julie’s empathetic tone. She missed her mother. Missed her grandfather. And she missed Gus.

  “I know it stings not to have your old business back. To see Andrew and Whatever-Her-Name-Was stomp the reputation into the ground, but you’ve got a good start on business number two. And you have us.”

  “I do. And thank you.”

 
“I should be thanking you,” Julie said. “I love what we’re doing. Who knew all that sewing I’d done for Kate back in the day would serve me so well?”

  Indeed, Julie had been a godsend when it came to the foundation work for the garments, cutting Lillie Jean’s time at the machine by at least a third and making it possible for her to meet the deadlines.

  Julie smiled a warm motherly smile that shifted toward no-nonsense as she lifted her eyebrows and said, “What’s bothering you, Lillie Jean?”

  Lillie Jean’s eyes went wide. “I...uh...”

  “Something to do with the ranch?”

  Julie studied Lillie Jean like she was a little girl in trouble for something, making her feel as if she may as well stop hedging. Julie had her “get to the bottom of this” look on her face. “I’m guessing that maybe it’s a guy up north. Am I right?”

  Lillie Jean hadn’t said one word to Kate about Gus except for telling her that he was her type shortly after arriving on the ranch, so she scowled at Julie as if she was speaking nonsense. “It wasn’t that long ago that I was engaged to be married.”

  The scowl didn’t work. Nor did her excuse.

  “Then he must be something if you fell this hard this fast.”

  Lillie Jean started shaking her head. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about. She hadn’t meant to fall in love with him. Had convinced herself that Thad was right and that they hadn’t spent enough time together and that their worlds were two different to mesh effectively. She’d believed they were setting themselves up for a fall.

  “Are you in contact?”

  “That would be a mistake.”

  “Why?” Julie ran a comforting hand over Lillie Jean’s shoulder, and Lillie Jean flashed back on her own mother doing the same thing. She opened her mouth, meaning to say that they needed to drop the subject, but instead she said, “We never even went on a date. We went to a spaghetti feed, but so did everyone else in town. We just rode in a tractor and talked and fixed fence.” She looked down at her hands. Her fingernails were just starting to recover. Despite wearing gloves, ranch work had decimated them. She pointed to the scar on her forehead. “He did this to me.”