Catching the Cowgirl (Cotton Creek Romance)

by Jennie Marts

  “It’s the kind of place where you’re supposed to forget about the real world and just enjoy being in the mountains, soaking up everything nature has to offer,” she replied, planting a hand on her hip.

  He arched an eyebrow at her. Unfortunately, he didn’t really do nature. He kept in shape by working out religiously at the gym, but other than that, he spent the majority of his time at his desk, either at home or at the office.

  She gave him a knowing smile. “But it’s also the kind of place that leaves freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in your room to enjoy when you arrive.” She pointed to the two doors. “Bedroom’s through there, and bathroom’s on the right.”

  A loud thud sounded in the bedroom she’d just indicated.

  Those assholes. They’d made it after all.

  “Nice try, you jerks,” he said, walking over and flinging open the door. “You really had me going.”

  But the room appeared to be empty.

  Adam’s gaze flicked around, noting everything at once.

  The room had the same log cabin decor as the rest of the cabin. A queen-size bed covered in a light-green and blue quilt sat against one wall, a matching oak night stand next to it, holding a pine cone–accented lamp and an old-fashioned alarm clock.

  A small framed picture lay broken on the floor, as if it had been knocked off the wall.

  Two large windows covered the top half of one wall, both open and offering a view of the mountains.

  He blinked, trying to figure out what had caused the picture to break. Then he heard a fluttery sound coming from across the room, almost like the wings of a bird. He looked at the windows again. A strange gray lump seemed to hang in the middle of the curtain.

  He squinted and moved toward the odd dark shape, then threw up his arms in defense as the gray lump shifted, then took off and flew right at him.

  Chapter Two

  What the hell?

  Skye jerked back as Adam let out a curse and slammed the door to the bedroom. “What’s wrong?”

  “Holy frickin’ crap.” He took two steps back and rubbed his hands through his hair. “I thought my friends were in there. But they’re not.” He spoke quickly, almost spitting the words out. “There’s a flipping bat in there.”

  “A bat? Oh shit.” She crossed the room and slowly opened the door to peer inside.

  A good-sized bat hung from the holes in the lace curtains. She pulled the door shut. “Yep. That’s a bat all right.” Great. Because Hillside was the largest cabin, she could charge more for it. The last thing she needed was for him to ask for his money back. Damn critter.

  “It’s okay. I’ve got this handled.” She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. “We’re used to wildlife around here.”

  “So how do we get that thing out of my room?”

  “It shouldn’t be too hard.” She crossed the room and propped the front door open with a chair from the dining room table. “We’ll open the place up, then wait a few minutes and see if he just flies out on his own. Easy.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Easy? What if it bites us? What if it has rabies or something?”

  “All right, settle down there, city boy. Bats aren’t mean, and they don’t bite.” She chuckled as she opened the front door, then crossed back to the bedroom. She sent up a silent prayer that this would work as easily as she’d tried to convince him that it would. “Stand back.”

  Adam held up his hands. “Wait.” He moved to stand behind her and the safety of the door. “Just in case.”

  She grinned, then opened the bedroom door.

  They waited.

  Nothing happened.

  Nothing except her pulse raced a little, standing this close to Adam.

  What’s that about?

  She’d been a single mom for so long, focusing all of her energy on raising her son, that she didn’t usually take notice of men. Especially ones that were guests…from California…who were only going to be there for one week.

  So why was the smell of Adam’s aftershave sending sparks of heat down her back? And why did she find so much about him appealing? Like how cute his smile was, how tall he was, and how muscled his forearms were. How he’d made her laugh.

  And especially, how her body was heating up just from being close to him.

  She looked up, surprised at how close she was actually standing to him, and even more surprised by the intense way he was looking back down at her.

  At her lips.

  She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry, but not able to tear her gaze away.

  His jaw was square and defined, and a light dusting of black whiskers covered his cheeks. A tiny white scar ran vertically next to his eyebrow, and she had the sudden urge to reach up and run her finger across it.

  A shock of black hair fell across his forehead. His eyes were deep brown, like dark chocolate, and seemed to peer directly into her soul.

  Great, now she was turned on and hungry.

  He swallowed, then asked, his voice almost a whisper, “What happens now? Should we wait?”

  “Wait for what?” Her own voice was soft, breathy.

  “For the bat?”

  “The bat?” Reality crashed back into her.

  Holy crap. What the hell am I doing?

  She took a step back, shaking her head. “Yes. Of course, the bat. Where is it? Did it fly out?”

  What the heck was wrong with her? She never acted like this.

  They had seemed to hit it off, though, and she was sure he’d been flirting with her earlier. But just because he was cute and he’d made her laugh, that didn’t mean anything was going to happen between them. They were hiding out from a bat.

  For a moment there, she’d thought he was going to kiss her. He had been staring at her lips, looking at her mouth as if he’d wanted to consume her.

  Pull it together, girl.

  She peered cautiously around the edge of the door. “Shit.”

  “What? What’s wrong? What’s it doing?” Adam leaned over her shoulder, his chest practically touching her back as he tried to see around the door. “It’s just hanging there.”

  The bat hadn’t moved.

  “I think we’re going to need to persuade it to leave,” she said.

  “Like how?”

  “Go on. Git,” she hollered at the animal, waving her arms as if to guide him to the open front door.

  The bat continued to hang there, unfazed.

  She tried again, this time leaning forward in an aggressive stance and raising her voice even louder. “Git on outta here, now!”

  Her more assertive stance must have freaked the bat out, because it took off. She leaped back, trying to get out of its way.

  “I told you. Bats are crazy,” he yelled, pressing himself against the wall as the bat flew around the room.

  “Okay, calm down.” She tried for a teasing tone. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little bat?”

  “Not afraid, no. But icked out, yes.” He shivered. “They’re cool to study, but I don’t enjoy being in the room when one’s flying around. You know those little suckers can fly up to sixty miles an hour? They are so adept that they can make a right-hand turn the length of their own body at forty miles an hour.”

  “Yes, but they also use echo location, so they can fly through a forest in complete darkness. So you don’t have to worry. If they can miss a tree, they’re not going to fly into you.”

  “I’m not taking that chance.”

  She chuckled. “You know there’s a popular superhero who has a thing for bats. Imagine you’re him.”

  “That won’t work. The great parts about him are his suit and his car and his cool gravelly voice. Just because I like him, that doesn’t mean I like the creepy little beasts.”

  She grinned. “Bats are important because they’re pollinators and they eat insects, especially mosquitoes. They can actually eat like twelve hundred mosquitoes in an hour. And they can consume their body weight in insects every night.”
r />   “Okay, now you’re just showing off.” He let out a soft chuckle, and his shoulders relaxed a little.

  She laughed with him, thankful that his attention was focused on her and not the bat. “That, and I have a friend who’s a park ranger. He comes up every few weeks and does a great program on bats for our guests. I’ve heard it several times now, so I’ve picked up on a few things.”

  “Okay, then, Ms. Holder of Bat Wisdom. What do we do now?” he asked, his back still against the wall.

  “I don’t think he’ll leave on his own if we’re still in the room. We need to capture it and let it loose outside.”

  “Capture it? With what? Our hands?”

  “No.” She tried not to grin at his squeamish look. “We need to find a container of some type to put it in, so we can get it outside.”

  The bedroom held nothing of use, so Skye hurried back into the main area of the cabin, her gaze quickly scanning the room.

  Adam followed, running into the kitchen, yanking open cupboard doors and pulling out random drawers. “We got this. We’re two intelligent adults. We can handle one fairly small, albeit repulsive, winged creature.”

  “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

  He let out a nervous chuckle. “Both, I guess. I’ve never been in a situation like this. It’s not something I see in my line of work. Any obstacle I face is on a computer screen in a video game. I would normally just look in my weapons arsenal and pull out a two-handed axe to use. Or a rocket launcher.”

  She laughed. “A rocket launcher might be a little over the top.”

  “Well, I’m not having any better luck in here.” He shuffled through the utensil drawer and held up a spatula. “Not unless this would work.”

  She couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. “For what? He’s not a pancake.”

  “Right. I know that.” He dropped the utensil back in the drawer and opened the utility closet. “How about a fire extinguisher? We could squirt him out of there.”

  “I applaud your inventiveness, but I don’t think that’s our best option.”

  “No? Okay, we’ll keep it on the back burner for now. But it’s an idea.”

  “Noted,” she said, her head buried in the pantry as she rummaged through the scant offering of dishes. Spying a disposable clear plastic bowl, she grabbed it and held it up. “Found something.”

  “Yes, perfect,” he declared, holding his arm out to let her walk ahead of him. “But I’m going to be a gentleman and let you try it first.”

  “Thanks. How chivalrous.” She grabbed a magazine off the coffee table then crossed back to the bedroom, scanning the drapes first to make sure the bat hadn’t already come out on its own.

  “Is it still there?”

  She jumped as Adam whispered close to her ear. She hadn’t felt him come up behind her. “Holy crickets. You scared me.” She arched an eyebrow at the spatula he must have grabbed back out of the drawer.

  He offered her a sheepish grin. “Just in case.”

  “It’s still there.” She slowly approached the curtain, with the plastic bowl held out in front of her. She looked up at Adam. “You ready?”

  “To get rabies? No.”

  “To capture it in this bowl.”

  “Will I have to turn in my man-card if I say no?”

  A loud laugh burst from her, startling the bat. It spread its wings, flapping them a couple times before settling back. “No, you can keep your man-card. But don’t worry. It’s more scared of you than you are of it.”

  “That’s what they always say about rattlesnakes, right before they bite you.”

  “It’s not a rattler. I’d be a lot more nervous if we were trying to get a rattlesnake out of your bedroom.”

  His face paled. “Is that a possibility?” His voice carried a note of panic.

  “No. I’ve never had to clear a rattlesnake from a guest cabin.” She laughed again. “For the record, this is my first bat eradication, as well.”

  “You’re not instilling me with a lot of confidence. I’m counting on you to be the wildlife expert here.”

  “All right, then, let’s do this. You got your spatula ready?”

  He held the pancake turner up like a sword, smiling. “Ready.”

  “That might actually be helpful. Once I get the bowl on it, you can use the spatula to scoop it in. I’ll cover the bowl with this magazine.”

  “I’m with you.”

  She gripped the bowl but was surprised when he put his hand down on top of hers. “Be gentle,” he said. “And go slow. Bats are pretty fragile, and we don’t want to hurt it.”

  A feeling of warmth flowed through her, both from the heat of his hand and his thoughtfulness. He’d spent the last five minutes telling her how grossed out he was by the bat, but he was still worried about the animal getting hurt.

  She took a deep breath then pressed the bowl to the curtain, trapping the bat inside. Holding the magazine ready, she nodded at Adam. “Okay, slide the spatula behind the bowl. Just keep it in there while I cover it.”

  He followed her instructions, grimacing as he gently slid the pancake turner between the curtain and the bowl. She pulled the bowl back slightly and pushed the magazine in from the other side.

  The whole operation took about four seconds. Holding her hand over the magazine, she carried it outside, walking several yards into the forested hillside behind the cabin. “Bats have a hard time flying from the ground, so I’m going to put it on a tree.”

  “Good plan,” he said, following a few steps behind her.

  Finding a suitable tree, she pressed the bowl against the side then carefully pulled the magazine free. The bat inched forward then clung to the bark. She pulled the bowl away and took a step back. “The poor thing is probably traumatized.”

  Adam narrowed his eyes as he studied the bat clinging to the tree. “It’s really not very big. You know the world’s largest bat has a wingspan of up to six feet.”

  She let out a laugh and shook her head. “All right, Einstein. Let’s leave this little bat alone and go back into the cabin.”

  Skye followed him back inside, then dropped onto the sofa in the main room. She offered Adam a weak grin. “Welcome to Hawk’s Ridge Ranch.”

  He fell into the chair across from her. “Thanks. Do all of your guests get a wildlife adventure on their arrival?”

  “Only the special ones.” Her smile turned shy, and she could feel heat warming her neck. The special ones? “We usually charge extra for it, though.”

  He chuckled. “Put it on my tab. Or better yet, put it on Brandon’s.”

  “The ranch will be picking up the tab for this one. Don’t worry. I’ll move you up to the lodge while we get the cabin cleaned up. It’s almost a good thing that your friends didn’t show up. I wouldn’t know where to put all of you. I’ve only got one room left.”

  “Is the ranch full this week?”

  “No. We’re actually under capacity. But your group paid extra for some private excursions, so I didn’t have to book as many people this week. That’s giving me the chance to get some much needed repairs done on a few of the older cabins.”

  “I’m glad we could help, but I’m a little nervous about what kind of private excursions Brandon booked. Was this one of them? Did he pay extra to be met by a wild animal on our arrival?”

  She arched an eyebrow at him. “If he did, he’d probably want his money back. That little guy wasn’t much of a wild animal. But don’t worry—we threw that one in for free.”

  He laughed, and the sound warmed her. She liked his laugh—liked him.

  He was different than most of the men she knew. The guys around here were mostly country boys. They drove trucks and wore work boots and spent their days outdoors.

  Adam didn’t appear to have ever even been out in the country before, and whoever sold him those fancy snakeskin boots should be shot.

  Maybe she was just lonely. Hawk’s Ridge was set up in the mountains above the small town
of Cotton Creek. Living on the ranch made for a fairly solitary life. Sure, she had a few friends in town, and she had Cody and Cal, and Clint, her neighbor to the south, but most of the people she saw were guests that popped in and out of her life for only one week.

  But she didn’t think loneliness was the problem. She was too busy to be lonely.

  Besides, plenty of men had shown up at the ranch from time to time, plenty of good-looking single men. But none of them had made her face flush and her stomach do funny little flips when they laughed at one of her dumb jokes.

  No, there was something about Adam. Something different.

  He’s still a guest, she reminded herself. And he was still going to leave in a week. So it didn’t matter how cute he was or how his smile sent little shivers of heat coursing down her spine. She didn’t do flings—she couldn’t afford to. She didn’t have the time or the energy to waste on trivial liaisons.

  Speaking of affording, she’d been counting on the cost of those private excursions to help cover a few of her outstanding debts. She couldn’t let Adam cancel them.

  “The excursions are actually a lot of fun. You won’t want to miss them. Brandon signed you up for the works: a cattle drive, an overnight camping trip on the ridge, as well as private horseback riding and lasso-throwing lessons. You should still do them. I was scheduled to be the instructor. With Brandon and Ryan not here, it looks like you’ll get me all to yourself.”

  She cut her eyes to the fireplace, avoiding his gaze. All to yourself? What was wrong with her? Had she really just said that?

  “I can’t wait,” he said, grinning.

  Chapter Three

  This is shaping up to be an interesting week.

  “We should probably get your stuff and get you moved up to the lodge.” Skye pushed off the sofa and reached for his bag.

  “I’ve got it.” Adam picked up his things and followed her from the cabin.

  They chatted easily as they walked toward the lodge. “So, do you and your friends often go on vacation together?” she asked.

  “Yes. No. Well, not really. We work together, and we’ve been friends since college, so we often travel together. But mostly it’s for business—like scouting out locations for research. Still, we have a lot of fun. We met in college and went into business together in the field of computer engineering. They’re great guys, my best friends. And the stuff we do in our business is super cool. I love going to work. Sometimes I can’t believe I get paid to just hang out with my friends and do what I love.”