KIDNAPPED COWBOY

by Lindsey Brookes

  Had he lost his touch? This was worse than taking a fall just before the buzzer in a championship rodeo.

  The sound of stones crunching under tires distracted him from his troubled thoughts. The camp bus had arrived. He headed over to stand next to Caitlin.

  “You can finally stop your pacing. The troops have arrived.”

  “I wasn’t pacing,” she argued stubbornly as they walked out to meet the arriving bus.

  “Tell that to the trench you left in the road back there,” he muttered as his gaze slid along the windows lining the bus. The faces looking back were not ones of smiling, happy-go-lucky kids. They were hard, angry, hateful stares that seem to bore right into him and Caitlin. Not that she even noticed. She was a bundle of smiles and excitement. More than ready to get started helping these troubled kids work through their problems and learn to deal with life in a more positive manner.

  The bus shifted slightly to one side as several more kids gathered at the bus’s windows that faced the camp. Maybe he’d been wrong. A few of the teens looked genuinely excited to be there.

  That last thought lasted for about three seconds. Because when he looked again, he saw twenty some hands shooting him the ‘bird’.

  “Why those little…” With an angry growl, he started toward the closed doors of the bus.

  Caitlin grabbed onto his sleeve, stopping him. “Don’t,” she said, somehow without her mouth ever moving.

  “What do you mean don’t?”

  “They’re testing you,” she whispered, her eyes pinned on the kids peering out of the bus. “Just smile.”

  He turned to her in amazement. “We’re being flipped off by a couple dozen kids and you’re gonna let it ride?”

  Still smiling, she replied, “Yes.” Then stepped past him to the opening doors of the bus.

  He stared after her. Incredible. These kids were going to run all over her. It was a damn good thing he was there. If a bull couldn’t get the best of him, these snot-nosed kids sure as hell weren’t going to either.

  First off the bus were the four energetic, young, college students Caitlin had hired on to act as camp counselors. Two young men and two young women who, according to Caitlin, worked summers there to help pay for their tuition.

  The young counselors wore matching neon yellow Tshirts with the words CAMP STONEY BROOK COUNSELOR printed on the front, and their names on the back.

  Caitlin turned to him. “I’d like you to meet our summer counselors. This is Kelly, Zach, Leah, and Billy. They worked here last year. And this is Mr. Barnes,” she said with a smile as she introduced him. “He’s gonna be helping me run the retreat this summer.”

  “Dalton,” he corrected with a grin.

  “Barnes?” Leah replied, her eyes widening. “As in the Mr. Barnes who own this place?”

  He nodded. “Reckon you could say that.”

  There was no missing the tension that filled the air after his announcement. He looked questioningly to Caitlin.

  “He’s not ‘that’ Mr. Barnes. He’s Brandon Barnes’ brother,” she pointed out.

  Sighs of relief echoed all around him. Dalton had to wonder what his brother had done to make so many people cringe whenever they heard his name.

  “Nice to meet you all,” he told them, ending the momentary silence. “While my brother and I might own Stoney Brook, I want it made clear that Miss Myers is still the person in charge here.” The last thing he wanted to do was undermine Caitlin’s authority with the kids.

  They nodded in understanding.

  “So how was the trip here?” Caitlin asked with an anxious glance towards the bus.

  “Let me put it this way,” Zach replied. “It’s gonna be a long summer.”

  Tell me about it, Dalton thought. If he was supposed to keep his distance from Caitlin, it was going to be one very long, hot summer.

  “Why do you say that?” she replied.

  For a moment, he was afraid he’d spoken his thoughts aloud. But Leah’s reply assured him he hadn’t.

  “We’ve got a couple of real hotheads on our hands.”

  “Yeah,” Billy joined in. “We broke up two fights just on the ride here.”

  She gave her employees a reassuring smile. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I’ll have a talk with them once they’ve settled in.”

  Once introductions were complete, the counselors returned to the bus and began unloading the teens. The kids were instructed form a single line along the side of the bus where they were to wait for their bags to be unloaded.

  “Where’d you find the cowboy wannabe?” one kid called out from the back of the line. “Toy Story?”

  Dalton stiffened. He’d show the kid just how ‘cowboy’ he was!

  “Almost,” Caitlin replied without breaking her smile.

  He swung round her way and mouthed, “Almost?”

  “I kidnapped him.”

  The kids laughed, not believing a word of it, but it had certainly broken the ice.

  “Kids,” she went on, “this is Dalton Barnes. He’s a professional rodeo rider and a real cowboy.”

  “No way,” one kid said.

  “For real?” another joined in.

  The murmurs grew louder and the questions shot at him faster than Dalton could answer them.

  “There’ll be time to get to know Mr. Barnes once you’ve all settled into your cabins,” Caitlin announced. “Girls, you’re to go with Kelly and Leah to your assigned cabins. You’ll find your names posted on outside of the cabin doors. Same goes for the boys. Just follow Billy and Zach through those trees over there to your cabins.”

  Dalton watched them go. “Sure, send them away just when they were talking about something I really like to talk about. The rodeo.”

  She laughed. “You’ll have all summer to share your rodeo circuit stories.”

  “Great. I’ve got this buckle bunny story─” His words were cut off by an elbow to his stomach. Caitlin’s.

  “No buckle bunny stories allowed,” she warned with a not-so-threatening grin. “Got that?”

  He nodded. “Got it. So now what?”

  “Now we batten down the hatches.” With a quick wink, she started off toward her cabin.

  He lengthened his stride to catch up to her. “Excuse me?”

  She kept right on walking. “Your being a rodeo star will only distract them for so long before they lose interest and rebel again.”

  He couldn’t help himself. “Is that what happened to you?”

  She looked over at him in confusion. “What?”

  “I was a momentary distraction for you and now I’m old news?” The words had barely left his mouth before he regretted having said them. Hell, he sounded just like one of those one-night-stand buckle bunnies Caitlin was always bringing up. Odd, how it felt to have the shoe on the other foot.

  She stopped and turned to him, her smile gone. “Please don’t do this. I’ve explained why we can’t get involved.”

  “I know what you’ve said. You think it’s for the best to put any kind of relationship between us on hold until the summer ends because of how my brother might react. Well, I don’t give a damn what he─” before he could finish what he had to say, they were interrupted by the high pitch shrill of a whistle coming from the direction of the boys’ cabins.

  “Uh-oh. Trouble.” Caitlin took off running.

  He sprinted after her, catching up to her in a few long strides. Together they ran to the number two cabin where a cloud of dust billowed into the air, stirred up by the boys rolling around the ground in front of the cabin.

  She let out a fretful groan. “Oh, shoot.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” Dalton muttered with a slight grin as he stared at the tangle of boys. He wasn’t in the best mood to start with, thanks to his unresolved feelings for her and their impossible situation. And these hotheaded little snots weren’t helping matters!

  “Keep your guns in their holsters, cowboy,” she said with a tight smile.

  �
�They haven’t even been here five minutes,” he said, shaking his head.

  Without another moment’s hesitation, she moved toward the scuffle-in-progress. “That’s enough!” she said firmly. “You boys need to stop fighting and talk it out. You aren’t accomplishing anything this way.”

  Just as Dalton suspected, her command only served to stir things up more. He shook his head again. Didn’t she realize that this wasn’t exactly one of those talk-it-out kind of times. Not when you had a bunch of juvenile delinquent hot heads going at each other.

  With an exasperated groan, Caitlin reached toward the tangle of dust-stirring limbs, no doubt determined to pull the kids apart.

  Angry teenage boys had a tendency to throw punches first and ask questions later and he wasn’t about to take any chances where her safety was concerned.

  He caught her by the arm and moved her away from the fight. “Let me handle this.”

  “But they’re my responsibility.”

  “They’re our responsibility.”

  She relented with a nod. “Well, do something fast before they kill each other.”

  Releasing his hold on her, he swiped the hat from his head and handed it to Caitlin. Then he charged right into the middle of the dust-shrouded melee and began yanking boys off the pile. The years he had spent on the circuit had given him plenty of practice at breaking up fights. And those rodeo boys fought hard.

  “Dalton, I don’t think——”

  He cut her off, calling out over the grunts and curses around him, “Don’t worry, Caitlin. I’m well aware of who the adult is here.”

  Zach and Billy moved in to help, herding the other boys away from Dalton and the two remaining brawlers.

  He went after the two boys, determined to put an end to their violent tussle. “Playtime’s over!” he growled in warning. “Now, break it up you two!”

  The teens ignored him and kept at it like a couple of crazed Energizer bunnies. Time for reasoning was over. Turning to the method his father used to use on he and Brandon when they got into fistfights as teens, Dalton latched onto an ear of each of the two boys and tugged upward. Hard.

  “Ow! Ow! Damn! Ow!” One of the boys wailed as he shot to his feet. “All right, all right, I quit!”

  Apparently having learned his lesson, Dalton released his hold on that boy. The other, not quite as smart, let out a curse and then drew back to take a swing at him.

  Caitlin cried out a warning.

  Fortunately, the years he’d spent riding the circuit had honed his ability to react. He did a quick sidestep, dodging the intended blow.

  “You wanna play?” he asked, twisting the hotheaded kid’s ear a little harder.

  “Yeow!” The kid went to his knees, cursing Dalton some more.

  “What’s your name?” Dalton demanded angrily.

  “Jimmy!”

  “And yours?” he asked the other boy who stood huffing and puffing a few feet away.

  “Clayton.”

  “There is no fighting at Miss Myers’ retreat,” Dalton told them. “Do I make myself clear?”

  The boy he had pinned down he made the mistake of hurling an insult at Caitlin. “I’m not gonna stay at any camp run by some do-gooder bitch!”

  She gasped at the cruelty of his words.

  “That’s it!” Dalton barked, keeping a firm grip on the boy’s ear. “Caitlin, get me some soap.”

  “Soap?”

  “I’ve got some,” Kelly said. She grabbed a bar from her pack and ran it over to him.

  “Thanks.” He took the soap and turned his attention back to the boy at his feet. “You ever hear of the word respect? Now, I’m gonna give you one chance to apologize to Miss Myers before you eat this soap.”

  “Go to hell!” Jimmy spat between angry, labored breaths.

  “Been there, done that.” Then, as if wrangling a steer, Dalton pinned the out-of-control boy to the ground and stuck the bar of soap into his mouth.

  It didn’t take long before the kid was singing a different tune. “I’m s…orry,” he muttered through a mouthful of soapy spit.

  “That’s better.” Tossing the bar aside, Dalton got up and released his hold on the boy. Then he turned to the others. “Anyone else?”

  Heads shook in reply.

  “Good.” He took his hat back from Caitlin. “Now you kids get to your assigned cabins and unpack. There’ll be a meeting in the cafeteria in one hour to go over the rules.”

  Never in all her years as camp director at Stoney Brook had Caitlin ever seen the kids move so fast to an order. For once, the counselors were the ones doing the following as the dispersing teens raced to their cabins. It was all she could do not to laugh.

  She turned to Dalton. “How did you do that?”

  He slapped his hat back onto his head with a smile. “It was nothing. Just a little friendly persuasion. Come on.” Placing a hand at the small of her back, they started off towards the cafeteria.

  “Now I have to decide what action to take against those boys,” she told him with a frown. “No fighting is the number one rule here.”

  “Action?”

  “Whether or not to send them home.” Something she really hated to do. But the safety of these kids was her responsibility and she knew all too well what one bad apple could do to the group. And this was only the first day.

  He reached out to open the cafeteria screen door, motioning her inside. “You know, sometimes guys just have to get it out of their system. Let’s face it, we’re more physical.”

  He didn’t have to tell her that. But what she was thinking and what he was referring to were two different things. “But I can’t have those boys taking out their aggressions on each other like that,” she said as she stepped inside. “Someone’s bound to get hurt.”

  “What if I can help them release their anger and frustration under more monitored conditions?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think it’s a very good idea. This camp’s purpose is to redirect these kids away from acting out in ways that aren’t appropriate. Fighting is never a good thing.”

  He shrugged. “Fighting isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but you’re the boss.”

  His words gave her pause. In all truth, she wasn’t the boss. He was. Brandon had given his brother total control, not her. Granted there were certain stipulations they both had to follow.

  She settled onto one of the long wooden benches that ran along the row of cafeteria tables. Sighing, she ran her hands over her face and then looked up at him. “I’m sorry. Things just aren’t starting off as well as I had hoped they would.”

  He moved to straddle the bench beside her. Reaching out, he gently cupped her chin and lifted her face to his.

  The frustration she’d felt slipped away with his touch.

  “Come on,” he coaxed with a grin. “Aren’t you the one who told me this wasn’t gonna be easy? In fact, I remember you telling me that these kids are worth the effort?” He arched a questioning brow. “Have you changed your mind?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. She still felt that way. That hadn’t changed.

  “Good.” His hand fell away.

  She looked up, meeting his gaze. “Did you mean what you said back there about my being in charge?”

  “You betcha I meant it. You’re the boss. I’m just here to help out.”

  “And because your brother blackmailed you into it,” she added with a frown.

  “I told you before Brandon can’t make me do anything I don’t wanna do. I’m here because I wanna be.”

  “For the kids?”

  He covered her hand with his. “For you. Let me help you make this work.”

  Hearing him say he was doing this for her sent Caitlin into a panic. She jumped up from the table, nearly toppling Dalton off the bench in the process.

  “What the-?” he muttered as he righted himself.

  She moved to stand beside one of the screened windows that lined the front wall of the cafeteria.


  “Caitlin?”

  Her heart picked up its pace when she heard the bench Dalton was sitting on creak as his weight shifted. Then booted footsteps sounded behind her. She forced herself to turn and face him. “I’m not used to counting on anyone,” she admitted.

  “Maybe it’s time you start.” He reached out, twining a finger through her hair. “We’re gonna make this work, Caitlin. I promise.”

  He sounded so confident. She leaned back against the wall, looking up at him. “Earlier, when you said you knew a way to help these kids with their anger, what were you gonna suggest?”

  “I can’t say right now.”

  “W…what do you mean you can’t say right now? I’m camp director. I can’t give approval for whatever you have planned unless I know what it is.”

  He caught her upturned face between his hands and smiled. I need you to trust me, Caitlin.”

  He had no idea what he was asking of her. Trust was something she had issues with. So many people in her past had let her down. Yet, the words that came out when she opened her mouth to reply were, “I do.”

  *

  A rocky start would be putting it mildly, Caitlin thought as she recollected the first week of camp. There had been several more fistfights between the boys that Dalton or the male counselors had quickly broken up. Thankfully, the girls weren’t as physical. Their arguments consisted mostly of verbal shrieking.

  Then there were the pranks. These kids were good. She had to give them that. And not behavior-wise. They were just plain good at being bad.

  She had to give Dalton credit for sticking it out this long. If she were in his place, she might have high-tailed it out of there and never looked back. But he hadn’t. He was still there. No matter what stunts the teens had pulled on him that week. Like swiping his favorite hat while he was swimming and tossing it up onto a branch in a nearby pine tree. Instead of yelling as she might have expected, he remained calm and went and got a rope from his truck. Then he lassoed the branch, tugging it toward the ground until the hat tumbled down to him. The kids were impressed, even cheering him on.

  Then there were the rather graphic images of male appendages the kids had drawn in the dust that coated Dalton’s truck. Not even a scowl. Okay, maybe she had seen a slight twitch of his mouth when he saw their artwork. But it appeared to be more of a struggle not to smile. And, since no one would confess to being the artist, all the kids had to wash his truck while he supervised.