To Tempt a Cowgirl

by Jeannie Watt

  * * *

  THE POWER WAS still off when they got to the house, but there was enough water in the hot-water tank to fill the tub. Dani practically shoved Gabe into the guest bathroom before tossing his small suitcase in after him. She didn’t want to talk. Not yet, but he stopped her before she closed the door.

  “Are you going out after Lacy?” He was shivering again, but his expression was serious as he added, “Don’t go out there alone.”

  “Lacy’s fine. She’ll get back on her own.” The only reason the mare had been in the field, instead of behind the windbreak with the other horses, was because of Gus, and Dani had seen her heading back across the drifted pasture toward the barn as they’d climbed through the fence. “I’ll check her in a bit.”

  “Not without me.”

  “Fine.”

  Gabe studied her for a moment as if ascertaining whether or not she was humoring him, so she put a hand on his chest and pushed him into the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

  And then she paced. Through the living room, over to the window, then back to the hall leading to the bathroom and the staircase. Gus was lying on his rug, damp but not injured, his heavy head on his paws, looking as shaken and exhausted as Dani felt. She closed her eyes, holding back tears of relief, anger, frustration...especially frustration.

  Gabe wasn’t supposed to be back.

  She didn’t know how to handle him being back.

  Once he warmed up, once she was certain he wasn’t going to keel over from hypothermia, he was getting into his rental and bucking drifts to his house. His cold house with no electrical power to run the furnace.

  She didn’t care. Once he warmed up, it was not her affair. She owed him for saving Gus, and saving her from a dunk in the icy creek, yes. But she couldn’t have him here. Not now. Not until she got her sense of emotional equilibrium back. Chad had hurt her, but Gabe had crushed her. A knockout punch skillfully delivered after Chad’s quick jab.

  Dani shrugged off the thought and stoked the fire. The wood was low so she went out for more, dropping a load into the wrought-iron log rest next to the fire. Gabe was here. In her house. He’d appeared out of nowhere, helped her save Gus.

  Too. Much.

  She pressed her fingers to her forehead just as the bathroom door opened. She looked up to see him appear at the end of the hall, hair damp, glasses on, carrying his suitcase in one hand, his wet clothing in the other.

  “Are you warm?” There was a sharp edge to her voice.

  “Warm enough.” His teeth didn’t rattle, so maybe he was telling the truth.

  Dani nodded, telling herself that it didn’t matter if his face seemed more gaunt, or that his expression seemed almost haunted.

  “I should go.”

  She didn’t argue with him, even though part of her wanted to—the part that wanted to lambaste him for not being the man she’d thought he was.

  “I see that Gus is okay. Is Lacy back?”

  “She is.” She’d checked when she’d gone for wood.

  He gave a slow nod, then started toward the door, putting down his suitcase just long enough to shrug into his damp coat that had been spread over Dani’s chair. He had his hand on the doorknob when she blurted out, “Your tactics suck.”

  Had she really said that? Had she really just stopped him when he was on the way out her door? Having him there, so close, so damned close...she wanted to rage at him, beat on him, but instead, to her horror, she felt the angry tears coming.

  She dropped her gaze, turned away from him, hugging her arms around herself as she fought for control in a way she’d never fought before. Son of a bitch. She would not cry.

  “They did.”

  Past tense? She jerked her gaze up. “Why are you back?”

  “Why do you think I’ve come back, Dani? In a snowstorm? To lie to you some more?”

  “I thought you didn’t lie to me,” she said, hating the tone of her voice, but needing to say the words.

  “I lied through omission. I’m not going to argue that point. I came here on a mission, to help a guy who’d helped me...a guy who helped me stop destroying my life.” He cleared his throat. “As you know, that didn’t work out.”

  What didn’t work out? The job or the destroying-his-life part?

  Let him go.

  “Destroy your life how?” she asked in a low voice.

  “A long story, Dani. One I should have told you long ago.” He exhaled deeply, his hand still on the doorknob. “I need to go.” He meant it. She could see it in the set of his features, the finality in his voice. He needed to get out of there. And she wanted him gone, but...

  “You show up out of nowhere, rescue my dog, then disappear into the night.” It was both an accusation and a statement of fact, as if she needed to get a handle on everything that had just happened in too short of a period of time.

  “Would you have it any other way?”

  “I don’t know.”

  His hand fell away from the doorknob, but he stayed where he was, waiting for her to make a final decision.

  She swallowed hard, then forced a few more words out. “Did you come back here because of me?”

  “Yes.”

  She took a few paces away from him, toward the stove, feeling the need for warmth, comfort. “I want to hear your story.” When he didn’t move, she gave him a sharp look over her shoulder. “I think you owe me that. I want to know the motivation behind your actions.”

  “Would it matter?”

  She looked back at the stove, afraid to answer. Afraid the truth might pop out—yes, it might matter. Her heart gave a few quick, stuttering beats when he started walking slowly toward her, his steps echoing on the old flooring. His hand settled on her shoulder and although she stiffened, she didn’t shake it off as she might have done only a few minutes before. If anything, she savored the contact for a moment, hating that it felt so right. “I want you to have a reason for what you did, Gabe. A good one.”

  “I had a reason.” She turned to look at him then, drawn by the intensity in his voice. “I thought it was a good one. I thought I was creating a win-win situation for everyone. Or rather, I was doing my best to convince myself of that.” Dani had no words; they’d been over this ground. “Stewart Widmeyer kind of saved my life,” he said abruptly.

  That caught her off guard. “Kind of?” she asked with a frown.

  “I’d probably still be alive,” he admitted, “but...my life wouldn’t be anything like it is today.” He let his hand fall away from her shoulder, breaking the connection, making her feel as if he’d just put a couple of miles between them. “I definitely would have spent time in jail.”

  Dani just barely kept from gaping at his admission. “Jail?”

  “I’d dropped out of school, my foster family had kicked me out and I was supporting myself selling weed. Small-time stuff, but I got caught with enough to get me into some serious trouble. Neal Widmeyer was a friend, so I called him for bail money. Stewart came instead.”

  “You were a small-time hood?” Dani could see it. He had a tough edge under the buttoned-up, logical front he put forth to the world. She walked over to her new sofa and slowly sat down, staring across the room.

  “I’m not proud of what I did.”

  “I’m not judging you.” But she was working over this new information, making sense of it.

  He looked less than convinced. “Stewart laid things out clearly. He’d bail me out. Hire a lawyer to plead down the offense and eventually get it expunged from my record.”

  “Generous.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why did he do that? Because you were friends with his son?”

  “I don’t think so... I don’t know.” The look on his face, the intensity of his voice as he spoke, ripped at her. She could see that he honestly didn’t understand the whys of the situation, didn’t know why Widmeyer had helped him. “And there was more to the deal...”

  He went on to explain that Stewart had offere
d to pay tuition for two years of technical school if Gabe managed to finish his GED, and in return, Gabe had to clean up his act. See a counselor. Attend AA. And not associate with Neal until he was clean.

  “That part was easy since Neal was starting school at Cornell, but the rest... I had a hell of a time getting myself straight. But I did it because I thought Stewart expected me to fail. Twice I tried to back out of the deal. He called me ball-less. Goaded me into forging on.”

  “He was playing you?” Dani asked softly.

  Gabe gave a slow nod. “I’d say yes to that. So I finished my two-year degree, went on to get a degree in landscape architecture and then an MBA.”

  “You’re a success today because of Widmeyer.”

  His mouth tightened. “Yes.”

  “This is a lot to process,” she said. And she wished she’d known this earlier. It might have helped her piece things together.

  Gabe seemed to follow the direction of her thoughts. “I have a hard time—”

  “Talking about your past. I know.” She shook her hair back as she looked up at him. “But your past is not you.”

  “It is now,” he said simply and she understood it was because she wasn’t going to let go of what he had done in the recent past. “I bought the Staley place to square things with you,” he continued. “I thought I could do that and then let things be, but I can’t. I miss you in my life. I screwed up the best thing I’ve ever had by trying not to screw up the other best thing I ever had.” He turned his palms out in a resigned gesture. “I don’t know what else to say.”

  Neither did Dani.

  Gabe picked up his suitcase, tucked the wet clothing under his arm. “I have to get to my house before it gets dark,” he said. “No power, you know.”

  Dani rose to her feet. “Why didn’t you tell me about Widmeyer earlier? After I found out about the land deal?”

  “Would you have believed me at that point?” he asked grimly.

  “I don’t know,” Dani said in a low voice.

  “Yes, you do.”

  For one long moment, their gazes held, as if he was waiting for Dani to deny his claim, then when she said nothing—what could she say when he’d spoken the utter truth?—he opened the door and disappeared out into the winter twilight. And all Dani could think as she stared at the beat-up oak door was that it didn’t matter if he’d retreated, it didn’t matter if she’d been burned—like it or not, this was not over yet.

  The big question was how would they find a middle ground? A place of trust after everything that had happened?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  GABE’S SUV DIDN’T make it to his house, but Dani didn’t know that until the next morning when she stopped in front of her bedroom window and stared out across the snowy landscape toward the Staley house. When she saw the bright blue vehicle sitting catawampus in the ditch, midway between his place and hers, her heart all but stopped.

  If that damned man had frozen to death...

  She raced downstairs and found her phone, which was nearly dead thanks to the power outage. Praying that she had enough juice to make a connection, she searched through her previous calls for Gabe’s cell number, then tapped the screen. It rang four times and she was already shoving her feet into her boots when he answered.

  “You’re alive,” she blurted.

  “What?”

  “Your SUV—it’s in the ditch.”

  “Yeah. One drift too many.” He sounded drained—like a guy who’d flown from Chicago, driven through a blizzard, rescued a dog from icy waters, then spilled his guts to a woman he professed to care about.

  “So...you’re okay.”

  “Pretty much.”

  Dani exhaled deeply and sank down into a kitchen chair, one boot on, one off, resting her forehead against her palm. “You are ripping me apart,” she muttered.

  “Dani...”

  “I’m coming over.” She hung up before he could answer and when her phone rang, she ignored it.

  The overhead light came on as she started up the staircase and after a deep groan the furnace roared to life. A sign?

  Maybe.

  She dressed in jeans and a sweater, jammed her feet back into her snow boots. She started to braid her hair, then abandoned the process after screwing it up twice.

  Damn it, her hands were shaking. And she felt close to tears. If he had frozen to death...

  She pulled her wool cap on, grabbed her gloves and headed out the door. It took a few tries to get the tractor started, and then she let it warm up for several minutes before putting it in gear and driving it out of the barn. She got off to close the door, then once again started chugging toward the Staley house and...she didn’t know what.

  The only plus was she was remarkably well rested—after resigning herself to a long night staring at the ceiling and thinking deep thoughts, she’d fallen into an exhausted sleep almost as soon as she’d crawled into her chilly bed. The knowledge that Gabe had had a reason for his actions had given her a sense of peace she hadn’t expected. A sense of hope. He’d had a reason that went deeper than simply doing his job. A reason that had probably tied him in knots as his relationship with her had progressed.

  Yes, he could have told her, but he hadn’t and she understood him well enough now to know it was more than because she wouldn’t have believed him. He was still ashamed of his life before Stewart Widmeyer had thrown him a lifeline, despite being the guy he was now—the guy she’d fallen in love with. They’d work on that.

  As she approached his vehicle, she saw him heading down the road toward her, hands shoved deeply into his pockets, head down against the cold. He looked up as she maneuvered the tractor around the Toyota and stopped in front of it and she thought she may have caught a hint of a smile.

  She wasn’t certain, though.

  And, yes, her hands were still shaking a little.

  She climbed down off the tractor and started toward him through the snow, stopping when he was still a few feet away. She must have imagined the smile, because he was once again walled off.

  “You are not going to rest until you pull a bumper off one of my vehicles, are you?” He spoke matter-of-factly, but she could read the uncertainty in his eyes. He was playing this cool, as was she, neither certain of the other.

  She shrugged. “I was thinking more like the axle.”

  “I bought the insurance,” he said. “It seemed like a good move with the blizzard and all, but again, I don’t think I’m covered for this.”

  “You might have a little faith in me,” she said, waiting a beat before she added, “Just as I’m going to have some faith in you.”

  “Dani...”

  “I never properly thanked you for saving Gus.”

  “No need.” He shoved his hands more deeply in his pockets, but his eyes never left her face.

  Silence fell between them, making Dani all the more aware of the bitter cold biting at her cheeks. Finally she said, “I’m scared to death, Gabe.”

  “You, too?” She nodded. “What are you afraid of?” His voice was low, almost a growl.

  “Losing a chance to start over. With you.”

  He frowned at her, as if wondering if he’d heard her correctly. She tilted her chin sideways as a look of dawning hope flashed in his gray eyes. And then he was moving toward her. Dani did not hesitate, did not analyze, did not fear. Her guy was alive. He was with her. She threw herself into his embrace and he closed his arms around her, holding her tightly against his chest, pressing his cheek against the top of her head as she inhaled deeply, drawing in his scent. Home. She was home.

  “I just want a chance to be the guy you thought I was.” He murmured the words against her temple, his breath warm on her face, and Dani realized she was still shaking and it wasn’t from cold. He held her for a few more seconds, then leaned back to tip up her chin to take her lips in a heartbreakingly sweet kiss.

  Dani slid her hands up around his neck, pushing aside the thick collar of his coat, needing
to be closer to him. This was the guy she loved. This was the real Gabe.

  When he finally lifted his head, he took her face between his gloved palms and said, “No more secrets, Dani. No more omissions. Ever. We start fresh here. Now. And we will build something strong between us.”

  Dani raised her lips to touch his once again.

  She believed him.

  Five months later

  “I DON’T KNOW that breeding Lacy makes sense.” Gabe put down the pen he’d been holding and settled his forearms on the kitchen table.

  “There are a lot of things in this life that don’t make sense,” Dani replied with a half smile, “but we do them anyway.” She leaned across the table toward him, watched the shift in his expression as his gaze dropped to her lips. “But in this case, it makes sense. She has excellent breeding. She shouldn’t pass her issues along to her get...she had a sweet personality before Len Olsen had his way with her.”

  “Are you going to be able to sell a baby after what happened to Lacy?”

  “You can’t let one incident color your life,” she said. “I’d have concerns, but there are lots of people out there who give their horses wonderful lives. Look at how well Molly landed.”

  “I have to admit that was the first time I’ve ever received holiday greetings from a horse.” The Christmas card was still attached to his refrigerator with a magnet three months later.

  Dani reached for his hand. He threaded his fingers through hers. “I think it’s a good idea.”

  She smiled and squeezed his fingers. It was her decision, but she liked bouncing things off him, talking through her concerns and he had started doing the same, albeit slowly. He’d even asked for her input on making a final decision before taking a bury-the-hatchet contract from Stewart, wanting to make certain it didn’t bother her if he worked for the guy who’d threatened her with a water park. Dani didn’t know that she would ever warm up to Stewart and Serena, but she loved Neal and understood that Stewart was the closest thing to a father that Gabe had ever had.

  He’d therefore be the closest thing to a father-in-law that she would have.