The Cowboy Meets His Match (Fatherhood)

by Roxann Delaney

  He dug in a little deeper. “And knowing you, you’d probably sue me.”

  She came to a halt. “And just why would I do that?”

  He stopped, too, and stared down at her. “Do you want the whole list or just the top five?” When she ducked her head, he guessed at her next move. “Are you going to quit now?”

  When she looked up, it was obvious he’d hit the mark. “Is that what you want me to do?”

  “No.” It was the last thing he wanted. “But I want you and all the others to be safe.”

  “It won’t happen again.”

  Surprised that she didn’t argue, he searched for something to say. “How’s Jonah doing?”

  Her eyes sparkled with her smile. “Good. He’s going to saddle a horse on his own. Want to watch?”

  “Sure,” he answered, blasted from being the recipient of a big smile.

  “Great! I’ll go get him. We’ll be in the south corral.”

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  As she hurried away in search of their newest and youngest ranch hand, he reminded himself that her joy had been about Jonah, not him. He would be wise to keep that in mind.

  Hoping the little exhibition would go well, he walked on to the corral. It wasn’t long before Erin arrived, leading one of the tamer horses, with Jonah behind her, lugging a saddle. Choking back a laugh, Jake settled back against the fence for the show.

  Erin ground-tied the mare, then stepped back several feet. “She’s all yours, Jonah. Show me your stuff.”

  Jake watched, impressed with Jonah’s new skills, but he watched Erin, too. Standing with her hands in her back pockets, she gave encouragement, but no instructions to the boy. It reminded him of the time she’d taught five-year-old Luke how to swing out on a rope tied to a tree branch and drop into the pond. Luke had been skeptical and made up excuses, but Erin’s patience and encouraging words had the little guy swinging, a little shaky, but exhilarated when he hit the water. She might be sassy and bossy at times, but she had the patience of a saint when needed.

  “How was that?” Jonah asked, stepping back from the saddled horse.

  Erin handed him the reins, then hugged him. “I told you that you could do it.”

  “I couldn’t have done it without you teaching me,” Jonah replied. “Can I ride now?”

  Jake laughed, proud of both of them. Although Erin hadn’t wanted him to hire Jonah, she’d obviously accepted it and had struck up a friendship with the boy. Jonah might not be familiar with horses and ranching, but he was proving he had not only the will, but the talent to learn.

  “Good job, both of you,” he called to them. “Take some time to enjoy the ride, Jonah.” With a wave, he left the corral and started for the barn, only to be joined by Gary.

  “Don’t you think you were a little hard on us?”

  Jake slid a look at him. “What makes you think so?”

  Gary rubbed the side of his nose with his finger. “Well, for one thing, you aren’t normally so grouchy.”

  “I’m not grouchy.”

  “Sure does look like it from here.”

  Looking at him full on, Jake said, “From here it doesn’t. So what’s your beef?”

  Shaking his head, Gary glanced over his shoulder. “Normally, you would’ve joined us, at least for a few minutes. What is it about her that sticks in your craw?”

  “Nothing.”

  Gary nailed him with a look that said he didn’t believe him, and suddenly smiled. “So that’s it.”

  “What?”

  “She’s the one.”

  Jake had a good mind to tell his friend to take a hike, but that would only add fuel to the fire. “What one? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you do. Those ten years we’ve known each other gives me a little insight into what I do believe is the problem. I remember you once talking about some little bit of a girl that you’d left behind.”

  “I never said that,” Jake argued, knowing full well he had. If he’d been able to see into the future, he never would have mentioned it. That’s what an evening of kicking up your heels and drinking too much would get a person.

  Putting a hand on his shoulder, Gary lowered his voice. “I won’t tell anybody, because I know how you’re feeling. It happens to all of us. So what are you going to do about it?”

  Jake had asked himself the same thing, over and over, and he’d never come up with an answer he could live with. He’d hired her because he needed another wrangler, and she could do the job. He’d also sensed she needed it. But he knew he’d used that as an excuse. He’d done it to be closer to her, to see if he could win her back. So far, nothing had worked.

  “I’m not going to do anything,” he answered.

  Gary gave his shoulder a pat. “A wise man never passes up a second chance.”

  Jake watched him walk away and thought about second chances. He’d been given one when his uncle left the ranch to him, and he intended to make it one of the best in the area. He had the know-how, and he had a crew that could help. And now he’d been given a second chance with Erin. He would be a fool to throw it away. He needed to do something.

  * * *

  ERIN TAPPED HER foot and looked around the approaching dark of late evening, wondering what might be keeping Jonah. All the other hay trailers had left the park, full of passengers. She’d left work early to help set up for the community event, but Jonah had told her he would be there. Had he forgotten and gone off with some of his new friends?

  Ready to give up and tell Jimmy Tartelli, one of the volunteer drivers, she saw Jonah hurrying toward the rig. But she hadn’t expected to see Jake with him or the girl who appeared to be around Jonah’s age.

  “Sorry we’re late,” Jake said, helping the other two onto the wagon.

  “You’re coming, too?” she asked.

  Jake shrugged. “I stopped to talk to Dusty when I dropped Jonah off at the park. Jonah went to join a bunch of teenagers, and the next thing I knew, he asked me if I’d chaperone him and—”

  “Her?” Erin asked, watching Jonah and the girl find a spot in the hay.

  “Her name is Desiree,” he said. “She’s almost sixteen. Seems her parents wanted somebody to keep an eye on the two of them. Can’t say I blame them.”

  “He probably met her in town when one of the boys picked him up the other night.”

  “That was one of the boys he met at the elevator,” Jake said. “It’s good that he’s made some—”

  “Is this everybody?” came a shout from the front of the wagon.

  Erin looked around to make sure no one else might be coming their way. “I guess it is, Jimmy.”

  Jake helped her climb onto the wagon, and they sat down side by side. “Is this okay?” he asked.

  She nodded. “You hadn’t planned on coming?”

  “No. And in case you’re wondering, I didn’t know you’d be here.”

  “I never thought—” She bit her lip, wishing she hadn’t said it.

  “So this is why you left early today?”

  “I was roped into it,” she answered with a sigh.

  “You?” he asked as if it were the last thing that would ever happen.

  “Yes, me. Glory asked if I’d help round up the wagons and drivers, and that led to...” She shrugged. “So here I am.”

  For several seconds, neither of them spoke. “It’s a nice night for it,” he said, looking up at the sky. “Couldn’t ask for better weather.”

  Thinking he might believe she’d intentionally not told him about the hayrack ride, she leaned over to look at him. “I didn’t know you might want to come along. In fact, I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t had a hand in organizing it.”

  “No need to explain,” he said without bothering
to glance at her. “You don’t answer to me.”

  “Or you to me,” she added. But deep down she wished it could be different. She knew she should stay away from him, but working for him didn’t make that easy. And the more time she spent with him, the harder it became for her. But there were things that needed to remain unsaid to him. Her secret had died with her parents. It needed to stay that way.

  Jake cleared his throat. “How many trailers do we have?”

  “We?”

  “Okay, how many trailers do you have?”

  “Six,” Erin answered, “but we could have had more. Lots of people offered.”

  “Did you have any trouble finding drivers?” he asked her.

  The movement of the trailer calmed her. “Believe it or not, we didn’t. Once word went out, people were calling and volunteering.”

  “You’ve always been well liked in Desperation, so I’m not surprised.”

  She gave an unladylike snort. If the people in Desperation knew the truth about her... Unwed teen moms who went away and gave up their baby didn’t sit too well with a lot of people. But they would never know. None of them.

  The back wheel of the trailer hit a bump, knocking him closer. She didn’t move away.

  “Sorry about that, folks,” Jimmy said from the front of the trailer. “I thought I could miss that. Did we lose anybody?”

  On the other side of the trailer, Desiree giggled, then sneezed. “Gesundheit,” Jonah exclaimed.

  “We’re still here, too,” Jake said.

  As they drove on, quiet blanketed the countryside outside of Desperation and the passengers on the trailer. Bits and pieces of whispers drifted from Jonah and Desiree’s side, along with another sneeze.

  “How do the drivers know where to go?” Jake asked.

  As long as the conversation stayed neutral and on everyday things, Erin felt fine talking with him. “Believe it or not, I mapped a course for each one. We weren’t supposed to be the last, but...”

  “Plans don’t always work out,” Jake finished.

  Erin thought of all the plans she’d had when she was Desiree’s age and how some had worked out, but others hadn’t. “It all comes down to choices,” she whispered to herself.

  “That’s how we learn,” he answered.

  Turning to him, she saw him watching her, and her heart skipped a beat, as if it wanted her to hurry things along. “Sometimes the hard way.”

  “No kidding.”

  She yearned to know what had happened in his life, after he left his uncle’s ranch. She knew he’d left the next day, but she hadn’t seen or heard from him all these years. And even though she’d tried to forget him, she hadn’t. She’d only locked the memories away. Until now.

  “Why did you quit school?” she asked.

  He sat close enough to her that she felt his shrug. “Because I got bored and wanted to do something else.”

  “What did you want to do?”

  “Work on a ranch. Learn more about ranching. Maybe have my own someday.”

  And yet he still didn’t return to Desperation. The thought made her heart hurt. “And now you do. I’m thinking those college business classes probably helped.”

  “Maybe a little,” he admitted. “Those summers here were a big part of it. Uncle Carl taught me a lot, even though he wasn’t crazy about doing it. And I learned from your dad and your brothers. You, too.”

  She shook her head, remembering her parents and how they’d struggled. “Pop wasn’t the best at business,” she said, “but Luke and Dylan learned a lot from that, I guess. Look how successful they are now.”

  “They are, and they’re a gold mine of information.” He paused for a moment. “But you helped. You gave up two years of rodeo for them.”

  She hated when people pointed that out. “I didn’t really have a choice, did I?”

  “Sure you did, and you took on a responsibility you never expected to have.”

  Thinking back to those two years, she silently agreed. “They couldn’t go it alone. I’m the oldest. Dylan was so devastated by the accident that I worried about him. If I hadn’t stayed...”

  “But you did.”

  “Do you know that it wasn’t until about a year ago, when Glory returned, that he finally pulled himself together and out of the past? And now he’s living in the here and now, and looking forward to the future. There’s no way I can ever thank her for that.” Laughing softly at her own role in that little scheme, she added, “But then if it hadn’t been for me sticking my nose into his business, they might never have gotten together.”

  “So you’re a matchmaker now?”

  Before she could answer, she heard noises and looked behind her to see Jonah crawling across the hay toward her.

  “I guess Desiree is allergic to the hay,” he said, obviously disappointed. “Would it be okay if we walk back to her place?” He turned to Jake. “I don’t think her mom would mind, considering, and I promise to be a gentleman.”

  Erin watched Jake’s face in the moonlight. His mouth tightened, and she wondered if he might be thinking the same thing she was. Even a gentleman could lose control with the right woman.

  “Erin?” Jake asked.

  “It’s all right with me,” she answered, surprising herself. “Do you know the way?” she asked Jonah.

  “Two miles over that way.” He pointed to the east.

  “Jimmy?” Jake called out. “Do you know where Desiree lives?”

  “Sure do,” Jimmy answered. “Just down the road apiece. They’ll be safe. My place is a quarter of a mile from her folks’.”

  “All right,” Jake told Jonah. “But if you have any trouble, just yell.”

  “The only trouble will be when her mom finds out she didn’t take her allergy medicine. All that sneezing and itching.” He shook his head.

  Concerned, Erin asked, “Itching? Good grief, you need to get her home as soon as possible.”

  “That’s what I plan to do.”

  “I’ll swing by and pick you up when this is over,” Jake said.

  Jimmy slowed the trailer and waited for Jonah and Desiree to jump off. With a promise from Jonah to get her home safely and quickly, the two were on their way.

  Feeling suddenly very tired, Erin fell back in the straw. “What a day,” she said with a sigh.

  “And what a night,” Jake whispered. Moving to lie beside her, he propped his head on his hand. “Now what?”

  “Sleep,” she answered, followed by a yawn.

  “You can’t go to sleep,” he told her.

  Turning her head to look at him, she asked, “Why not?”

  His smile was slow and easy as he leaned closer. “Because if you do, you’ll miss this.”

  Closing her eyes, she held her breath and then felt his soft, warm breath on her face a second before his lips were on hers. She knew she shouldn’t, but she enjoyed it. She always had and probably always would. That could only mean trouble.

  Chapter Five

  The sun had already set when Jake pulled into his driveway, a week after the hayrack ride. Exhausted from the over twelve-hour drive from Flagstaff, Arizona, his bed and a late morning were the only things on his mind. How had Erin done it for so many years on the circuit?

  Before he made it into the house with his traveling bag and a backside that ached from riding in his truck for half a day, Jonah appeared.

  “How did you all do this week while I was gone?” Jake asked the boy, who followed him to the porch.

  “As a whole, pretty good.”

  “No problems?”

  “None with the ranch that I know of, but...”

  With his hand on the doorknob, Jake stopped and turned his head to look at him. “But what?”

  Jonah took a step ba
ck. “You look kind of tired. I’ll tell you in the morning.”

  Frustrated and bone weary after spending a week away from home, Jake shook his head and opened the door. “No, tell me now, or I won’t get any sleep, wondering what it is.”

  “Why don’t I put your pickup in the garage?”

  “Now, Jonah. No more excuses.” The boy silently followed him into the kitchen, where Jake pointed to the refrigerator. “There’s a can of frozen orange juice in the freezer. Get it out, and I’ll fix a pitcher of it for us. Coffee will just mess me up.”

  Nodding, Jonah went to the freezer without a word.

  Wishing for hours and hours of sleep, Jake pulled two tall glasses from the cabinet. “And put some ice in these.”

  Jonah took them from him, while he found a pitcher and started running cold water from the faucet. That was what he needed to stay awake long enough to hear what Jonah had to tell him.

  After taking the frozen juice and ice-filled glasses from Jonah, he finished the task and pointed to the stools on the other side of the breakfast bar. “Have a seat.”

  Jonah glanced in the direction of the door. “Don’t you want to sit down?”

  Tired but still keyed up after the long drive, Jake took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’ve been sitting in a pickup for over twelve hours, hoping to make good time. The scenery on the drive was beautiful, but at this point, all I want to do is stand. Besides, I’d probably fall asleep the second my butt hit a chair.”

  “That might be a good thing,” Jonah muttered.

  Jake ignored him. “Now, what kind of nonranch-related problem are we talking about?”

  Jonah stared into his glass of orange juice. “I’ll give you one guess.”

  Finishing off a gulp of juice with a sigh, Jake set his glass down. “I’m guessing this has something to do with a young lady who’s employed here?”

  Nodding, Jonah still didn’t look up.

  “Why am I not surprised?” Jake asked no one before focusing on Jonah. “What is it this time?”

  “You didn’t tell her you’d be gone.”

  “Sure I did. I told all of you that I’d be going to the sale in Wichita Falls and— Has that bull been delivered yet?”