To Tempt a Cowgirl

by Jeannie Watt

  So this is the brother-in-law.

  “Gabe Matthews.” Gabe automatically shook hands, wondering what the real purpose of this visit was, because the message he’d gotten from Dani the other night was that Kyle wasn’t particularly concerned about the welfare of either her or the ranch.

  “Not a problem.”

  Kyle glanced around the property, assessing, then brought his attention back to Gabe. “I’m just glad someone was close by. I read the report and, frankly, it’s probably just a string of coincidences—kids getting their kicks—but you never know.”

  “That’s why she made the report,” Gabe replied. “Just in case it wasn’t.” He shifted his weight slightly before saying, “You used to live there. On the ranch.”

  “Yeah.”

  “She mentioned that she’d tried to call you to find out where the water main was.”

  “I was out of town on my first ever vacation, so I didn’t get the call.” He smiled ruefully. “And don’t think her sister didn’t give me an earful over that.”

  “If you didn’t get the call, I don’t know how you can be blamed,” Gabe said smoothly.

  “Exactly.” Kyle smiled distantly. “I still care about Allie and her sisters, even if we couldn’t make things work. You can’t just shut off feelings like that.”

  “No doubt.”

  “So...I hear you’re leasing this place. Are you considering buying?”

  Gabe shook his head. “It’s not that kind of lease. It’s a vacation deal...and I’m not thinking that far ahead. I just needed some time away from the day job and this seemed like a good place to do that.”

  “Not many people can do that,” Kyle said. “Just...take an unlimited amount of time from the day job.”

  “I’m an independent contractor, so I’m still working, actually.”

  “I see.” But Gabe didn’t think he did. In fact, he couldn’t quite figure why the guy was there. It wasn’t to thank him for looking out for Dani. So...

  Whatever the deal was, Gabe didn’t want to alienate the guy. Not right now anyway. Unless he messed with Dani a little too much.

  The thought startled him. Not only was Dani probably more than capable of fighting her own battles, but her affairs were also none of his business. He found her attractive, yes, but in the end, he was moving on and she was getting a new ranch. He needed to remember that.

  “What exactly do you do?”

  “I design parks and landscapes. A lot of my business is a matter of drafting up plans after site visits. I can do that here. I also consult.”

  “You own your own business.”

  Gabe thought he’d just said that, but since Kyle seemed to need reiteration, he smiled and nodded. “Yes. Which makes it possible to make my return open-ended.”

  “Return to where?”

  “The Midwest.” He wasn’t about to say the Chicago area, on the off chance that Kyle or anyone else put two and two together. He was being paranoid, but since Widmeyer was located in Chicago, he wasn’t going to make any mention of the city. Hell, he didn’t think he was even going to return to the city. The solitude here certainly made it easier to work without distractions. Not that he planned to stay in this particular area, but he was seriously considering moving to a less urban, lower-rent locale.

  “No mountains there.”

  “You’ve been?”

  “I went to Des Moines for SWAT team training.” This guy was on the SWAT team? Somehow that seemed wrong. Then Kyle made things better by saying, “I’m not actually on the team, but went in case there was an opening.”

  “We may not have mountains, but we have lots of mosquitoes,” Gabe said.

  Kyle laughed. “We have a few of those here, too.” His expression sobered and Gabe wondered if the half-ass interrogation was almost over, because he had stuff to do. “Well, I gotta get going. I just wanted to stop and say thank you. Like I said, just because Allie and I couldn’t make things work, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped watching out for the Brodys.”

  “I don’t know Dani that well, but I’m sure she appreciates it.”

  Nothing like lying through your teeth with law enforcement. Kyle smiled as if he was pulling something over on Gabe.

  “If you hear of anything else happening, would you let me know? Dani tends to try to handle things on her own, which makes me surprised that she called Dispatch, which in turn makes me think she had to be spooked pretty badly.”

  “Or maybe I told her to call.”

  Kyle’s expression shifted, but Gabe couldn’t quite read where it had gone. “That was a wise thing to do. Thank you.”

  “You bet.” Gabe took a step back, indicating that he was done chatting, and Kyle took the hint, touching his hat before he started back for his vehicle. “Nice talking to you.”

  “Same here,” Gabe said and Kyle gave a quick satisfied smile, looking as if he truly believed he was the one in control of the situation.

  Which told Gabe that he hadn’t lost his touch.

  * * *

  ONE OF THE laws of nature was that people needed to eat, and early Saturday morning Dani come to the conclusion that she’d better go shopping or she was going to be pretty damned hungry for the remainder of the day.

  The cupboards were empty—and not because it was hard to afford groceries, but because it was hard to find the time to go to town. Today was the day, and after she’d worked her horses, she showered, put on her last clean pair of jeans—laundry would commence the next day—and drove to the local supermarket.

  Her needs were simple—coffee, bread, butter, cold cuts, cereal, milk, a bunch of fruit, a bunch of salad stuff and a big stack of frozen dinners. After tossing a family-size container of Oreo cookies on top of her load, she headed for the checkout only to stop as Marti wheeled a cart around the corner. Great.

  The aisle had a column in the center, which meant that one of them had to wait while the other wheeled past it. Dani did the honors, hoping Marti would walk on by. No such luck.

  “Hey, I just wanted to say sorry about our last meeting,” Marti said after rolling to a stop.

  “Well, it’s over and we can just move on.”

  “That’s what I’d like.” She smiled a little. “Have you seen Chad yet?”

  Dani frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”

  Marti looked genuinely surprised. “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?”

  “Chad just took the job as branch manager of the local US Western bank.”

  “Oh.” Somehow her lips stretched into something that might have been a smile. “I didn’t know.” And all she could think was thank goodness US Western wasn’t her bank, although that was a small consolation.

  Marti gave a little shrug. “He and his new wife just bought that house on the corner of Barnes and Fifth Street. You know the one?”

  Oh, yeah. She knew that house—more of a mansion, really—but the part that had caught her attention was the reference to his wife. Chad had married Megan Branson?

  The day just kept getting better.

  Dani forced a mock sweet smile, very similar to the one Marti was now wearing. She was going to be civil, take the high road, then go home and have a stiff belt.

  “I really need to go. Nice talking with you.” With that, she wheeled the heavy cart down the aisle and past the column, toward the checkout stand and freedom.

  Chad. Back.

  Mental note—stay away from the US Western bank. She was so not ready to bump into her ex. This truly sucked. She’d come back to the Eagle Valley to start fresh, remove herself from Chad’s sphere, and now he was here, too. With his new wife.

  That was a slap in the face she didn’t need. They’d been engaged for over a year and now he’d married the woman he’d cheated with less than two months after they’d broken up?

  That sucked. Pure and simple.

  Saturday was officially Dani’s half day and even though she’d already worked the horses scheduled for that day, sh
e went out to the corrals after returning home from the grocery store and caught Johnny, her first horse scheduled for Sunday. She worked him on the ground for well over an hour before turning him loose, then she did the same thing with Sarge, a rangy palomino gelding that she’d developed a soft spot for. He was a grudging performer, but loved his daily grooming sessions, stretching his neck and sticking out his lip when she hit the itchy spots.

  He did a lot of neck stretching that day, since Dani brushed him for twice as long as usual, doing her best to distract herself from obsessing about Chad’s return.

  She was not successful.

  No matter how many times she assured herself that she didn’t care if he was in town, that what he did was none of her business, the sad fact was that she did care. She’d never been a person who spent much time worrying about what people thought of her, even as a teen, but now she felt as if everyone would be watching her, commenting on her broken relationship.

  Self-centered? Yes. Paranoid? Probably.

  But the town was small and it was a certainty that she would bump into him and the new missus—which was totally unfair, given the amount of times he’d mentioned how much he liked living in Missoula, how he’d never move back to the Eagle Valley. Now here he was. Back in her territory. When they did meet, there would no doubt be witnesses and it would not doubt be uncomfortable, since the last time she’d seen him had been the day she’d kicked him out of her apartment after throwing his girlfriend’s panties at him.

  And if this is your biggest problem in life—that your ex married his girlfriend and moved back to town, your life is pretty damned good.

  Dani rolled her stiff shoulders after she finished grooming the big horse and then turned him into his pen.

  That was true, but she still wished Chad had kept his ass up north.

  Dani heard the landline ringing as she mounted the porch steps. Only one person called the landline—her mother, Anne. And if Dani didn’t answer, then she’d call until she did.

  “Hey, Mom,” Dani said, forcing a smile and hoping that made her sound upbeat when she was actually feeling beat down. “How are you?”

  “I was about to give up on you,” Anne said. “This is my third call.”

  “I was just finishing up on the last horse.”

  “It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?”

  “I went to town today, so had to play catch-up. How was fishing?” There was a brief pause as if her mother sensed she was being sidetracked, so Dani added, “Did you get a chance to use the new tackle we got you for Christmas?”

  “I did and it brought me better luck than Richard had with his lucky lures.”

  “Excellent,” Dani said. “When’s the next trip?”

  “We haven’t decided,” her mother said before abruptly saying, “I heard a rumor that Chad moved to the Eagle Valley.”

  So much for sidetracking. “I take it Gloria called.” Her mother’s husband, Richard, had a snowbird sister who spent part of the year in the Eagle Valley. Unfortunately, she hadn’t yet flown south for the winter.

  “She did.”

  “Apparently that rumor is true.”

  “And...”

  “That’s life, Mom. I’m pretty sure he didn’t move back here to make me feel bad. He probably doesn’t want to see me any more than I want to see him.”

  “Just checking.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Nothing odd going on at the ranch?”

  Damn. Gloria had been a busy little bee. “Odd?” Dani asked smoothly, hoping she didn’t trigger mother radar. “A plumbing emergency and a horse got out, but, no, nothing odd. Just ranch stuff, you know? The kind of stuff Allie used to deal with on a daily basis.”

  “I handled a few of those issues myself,” her mother said with a touch of wryness that made the tense muscles in Dani’s neck start to relax. Her mother had put in enough worry time trying to raise the four of them on a ranch that was slowly sinking into the red during hard economic times. The sisters had tried to convince her innumerable times that they were as capable as she was, that she taught them well and she didn’t need to worry about them, but once a mother, always a mother. So she and her sisters did whatever was necessary to keep their mother from worrying.

  “That you did. Remember the time the cows got out during that blizzard?”

  “Which time?” her mother asked drily. “Why do you think I signed the ranch over to you girls? So I never had to deal with that stuff again.”

  “Do you miss the ranch?” Dani asked. The sisters had debated that subject more than once. Had their mother signed over the ranch because she never wanted to see it again? Or was it because Richard had invested well and she didn’t need the income, so she’d given her daughters their inheritance early?

  “I do,” she said slowly. “During the summers anyway.” There was a brief silence before she continued. “The ranch wasn’t easy—”

  Dani gave a soft snort at the understatement and her mom laughed lowly.

  “Okay, there were times when the ranch was brutal, back when we had all the cows and the hay contract fell through.” In other words, back when it was a working ranch that they depended on to pay their bills, not the fallow operation it was now. “But I always felt as if I could draw strength from the land, you know what I mean?”

  “I do,” Dani said softly. Because she felt exactly the same.

  “So, yes. I miss it, but that part of my life is over. I don’t care what you girls do with the place as long as you’re happy with your decision.”

  “I’m happy living here,” Dani said. “I’m glad that I’m back and I don’t care if Chad is back, too. I’m tough enough to deal with it.”

  “I know you are,” Anne said. “I just sometimes need to hear that.”

  * * *

  IT SEEMED THAT Gabe had barely put his head on the pillow when his buzzing phone jerked him awake again. Neal...who worked normal hours.

  “Yeah?” he grumbled into the phone, fully expecting some kind of bad news.

  “I didn’t realize you’d be in bed,” Neal said.

  “Did you consider the time difference?” Gabe asked as he flopped onto his back.

  “Since it’s nine o’clock there, no...but it is Sunday, so I’ll cut you some slack.”

  Nine? Gabe squinted at the clock. “I got going on something last night and didn’t think to stop until four a.m.”

  “I hope it wasn’t work.” Neal was altogether too chipper and Gabe was about to tell him so when he said, “I’m calling because I heard from Sam yesterday.”

  Gabe propped himself up on his elbow. “What did he want?” He and Sam had parted ways shortly after Sam had gotten out of prison the first time, having served fifteen months of a three-year sentence for burglary. He’d wanted a place to live, help getting back on his feet. Gabe had complied and things had gone well for almost a month. Until Sam had needed more money than he was earning at his crappy job.

  Gabe had told him he was tapped out, and he was. So Sam robbed the apartment. Not that he ever confessed, but Gabe wasn’t stupid, and shortly after that, Sam robbed a Pizza Hut and back into the slammer he went. Now apparently he was out again, only this time he’d contacted Neal for help instead of Gabe.

  “Don’t give him any money,” Gabe growled.

  “I don’t need to. He’s going back in. Third strike. He’d only been out for a month when he got arrested again and the conviction just came down.”

  Gabe’s stomach knotted. “I had no idea.”

  “Me, either.”

  Third strike meant Sam wouldn’t see the light of day. Not for a long time anyway. “He brought it on himself,” Gabe muttered more to himself than to Neal.

  “Agreed. He called because he wanted me to make sure his dog got a home. He didn’t trust his girlfriend.”

  Gabe closed his eyes. That was the Sam he’d grown up with. The Sam who’d been his friend before drugs and street life had changed his priorities.


  “I feel for him,” Neal said softly.

  “Yeah.” Gabe swallowed. “Does the dog still need a home?”

  “No. He’s going to one of the IT guys here. I just...I don’t know.”

  Gabe knew.

  After Neal hung up, Gabe got out of bed and wandered into the kitchen, where he turned on the coffeemaker. Then he turned it off again. The last thing he needed in his stomach was more acid.

  You are not Sam’s keeper.

  But they’d been like brothers once and Gabe wondered, as he always did, what would have happened to him if Stewart had not tossed him that lifeline the night he’d gotten into trouble. Would he be like Sam? In and out of prison? Looking for the easy bucks because he lacked the training to earn a decent living legitimately? His decisions and Sam’s hadn’t differed all that much until the night he’d been arrested for selling weed just days after his eighteenth birthday. Seeing no other choice, he’d called Neal to beg for bail money. Instead Stewart had showed up at the jail.

  Gabe could still recall the utter shock he’d felt when he’d come face-to-face with Neal’s grim-faced father. Shock, anger, shame at getting caught when he should have been better than that. He’d expected threats, but instead of warning him away from his son, Stewart had offered a second chance.

  Why? Gabe still had no idea. And no matter how many times he told himself he would have eventually pulled his head out of his ass even without Stewart’s help, he didn’t know that for a fact.

  Gabe pushed off the counter and paced through the house, then went into the bedroom and shoved his legs into his jeans.

  He needed to move. Clear his head. Get out of this stone-and-glass box.

  * * *

  ON SUNDAY, DANI woke to a cloudless sky, and after toast and coffee worked the two horses remaining on her schedule. Once that was done, she went back to the house and, having nothing better to do, cleaned the floors before putting in a few hours on her marketing and business plan. She researched canvas-covered arenas, made a casserole for dinner, then went back out to the corrals to give Lacy some one-on-one.

  She’d promised both Allie and Kelly that she wouldn’t get on the mare unless someone was there, but she hadn’t promised not to saddle her. She caught the mare and tied her to the hitching rail, then disappeared into the tack room. The mare’s ears went back as soon as Dani reappeared in her vision with the saddle in one hand, the pad in the other.