by Amanda Renee
Tori still knew how to tug at his heartstrings. The headache that had been brewing at the base of his skull had worked its way between his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose, willing himself not to cave in to her guilt trip.
“Besides, both Nate and I feel better having you on the ranch when he’s on the road. It allows him to take longer hauls without having to rush home every other day. He trusts me with you. And he trusts you with us. If you leave, you’ll be hurting my family. I need you to stand by your commitment.”
Guilt trip launched and on target. “Okay, I’ll stay...for now.”
“Good. Then get to work. I’m not paying you to sit and look pretty on a horse all day.”
She slapped Sadie’s rear, setting her off into a gallop. He tightened the reins and squeezed his thighs to regain control of the horse, bringing her to a canter. “Nice, Tori. Real nice,” he called over his shoulder. Her laughter ricocheted off the stables, mocking him. And he wouldn’t have it any other way. They may not be a family anymore, but they were friends. Both she and Nate were the only ones who treated him like a human instead of an inmate.
After he’d decided not to eat dinner with Tori and Missy last night, Ryder had headed into town for a bite. Alone. Those scenes in a movie where someone walks into a room and the whole place falls quiet...they were real. All eyes had been on him when he entered the Iron Horse Bar & Grill. He’d recognized just about everyone there, and except for a few nods and brim touches, they’d ignored him.
It would have been the perfect time to call Harlan, the only one of his four brothers who had visited him in prison. And while those visits had been few and far between, at least Harlan had tried. That was why it surprised him his brother hadn’t reached out to him since his release. The parole board had notified his family since they were victims of his crime. He’d been shocked when they hadn’t shown up for his parole hearing or provided impact statements to block his release. That led him to believe they had possibly forgiven him. But after a week, they still hadn’t contacted him, and he wasn’t about to force the issue. Tori had done her best to get them together. She told them where he was living, and she’d given him a phone, preprogrammed with his family’s numbers. If they were ready to talk to him, they would have contacted him...and vice versa. It wasn’t time yet.
He dug his phone out of his shirt pocket, tapped the web browser button and typed... Chelsea Logan Saddle Ridge, Montana. Within seconds, her photo and the law office where she worked appeared on the screen. He saved the photo and added her number to his contacts. His thumb hovered over the call button before clearing the screen and pocketing the phone. What he needed to say had to be said in person. And the thought of seeing Chelsea made his day all that much better. She may hate him now, but he’d find some way to change her mind...for Missy and Tori’s sake.
* * *
“Swipe right if you’re interested in the guy, swipe left to pass,” Jocelyn explained to Chelsea during lunch downtown. They had just finished setting up Chelsea’s profile on the dating app Jocelyn had talked her into downloading. “Eventually if you swipe right on enough people, you’ll get a match. Then you can send him a message and start a private chat. If you hit it off, you can make plans to meet...someplace public.”
Chelsea looked up from her phone. “I don’t know about this. I’m not ready to start seeing anyone yet.”
“No one says you have to. If the person is from Saddle Ridge, you may already know him.”
“Or represent him.” Chelsea swiped left on a newly divorced client of hers. Asking her friend about a dating app had gone way beyond answering a few questions. Now her face and dating must-haves were out there for the world to see. Another man appeared on the screen. Attractive. Professional. No kids. Never married. Similar interests. And the total opposite of Ryder Slade. She swiped left. Photo after photo of eligible men and none did it for her. If she could only define it, she’d be set. The perfect man didn’t exist. The wrong man did. She’d experienced the wrong one many times over. The bad boys with records. The ones she thought she could reform and turn into Mr. Perfect. Just as a leopard couldn’t change his spots, a bad boy couldn’t turn good. Instead of a rebel without a cause, she needed a Sheriff Andy Taylor. She swiped left again.
“Just choose one already.” Jocelyn nudged her arm. “This is why you’re still single. You’re too picky.”
“You’re single, too.” Chelsea set down her phone. “Between my schedule and Peyton, I don’t have time to go out.”
“I may be single, but I have a date tomorrow night.” She grabbed Chelsea’s phone. “I’ll find you someone and we’ll make it a double. It’ll take the pressure off.”
“Give me that!” Chelsea reached across the table, almost spilling her glass of water. “Even if I wanted to, I don’t have a babysitter anymore.”
“What happened to Tori?” Jocelyn handed her the phone. “I thought she loved watching Peyton.”
“Yesterday I found out she has a freshly released ex-con working and living on her ranch.”
Jocelyn grinned. “Ah, Ryder.” She clucked her tongue. “What I wouldn’t give to swipe right on him.”
“Are you serious?” Jocelyn’s obvious attraction to the cowboy made her pulse accelerate...but only out of concern for her friend. Because what other reason could there be? “Have you seen his rap sheet?”
“I’ve heard about it. That whole thing with him had happened before I moved here, but my sister is close with his family and I’ve represented them before.”
“You’re a public defender. The only way you could have represented them was if one or more of them had been arrested.” Chelsea shook her head and sighed. “Is breaking the law a family trait?”
“It’s not like that. The Slades are good people with big hearts. If there is anything this job has taught us, it’s to always look beneath the surface.” Jocelyn reached for her bag and tossed a twenty on the table before rising. “I have fifteen minutes to get to court. And don’t worry. I won’t date your cowboy. I’ll leave him intact for you.”
“Oh, very funny.” Chelsea tugged a few bills from her wallet. “Thanks for meeting me for lunch.”
“Swipe right a few times and maybe we can do it again with dates.”
Chelsea threw her napkin across the table. “Get out of here before Judge Sanders holds you in contempt.”
“You know he’s related to the Slades, don’t you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Deputy Sheriff Harlan Slade is his son-in-law.” Jocelyn slung her bag over her shoulder. “Okay, I have to fly. Ciao.”
A judge, a sheriff, a jailbird and apparently someone else who’d been arrested. Definitely not a family she wanted to get involved with. Too much drama. She paid the bill and checked her watch. She had another hour before she met with her next client. A simple adoption case. The rest of her afternoon should be fairly low-key and that was just the way she liked it. Simple. Quiet.
Boring.
Okay, maybe Jocelyn was right. The most excitement she’d had lately had been buying the shoes she wore today. There was no harm in chatting with a guy or two. Chelsea reopened the dating app once she got outside the restaurant. After swiping left on the first four men, she hesitated on the fifth. “He looks nice.”
“Nah, too high maintenance. I’d swipe left,” a male said over her shoulder, his breath close enough to graze her cheek.
“What the—” Chelsea spun to face the man, almost twisting her ankle in the process. “Oh, ouch.”
His hands wrapped around her upper arms to steady her. Strong muscular hands that had no business being anywhere on her body. “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I’m fine.” She pushed away from him. “What do you want?” And damn, did he look fine.
“I was on my way to your office when I saw you.” His eyes traveled the leng
th of her, stopping on her new pair of scarlet pumps. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Chelsea had never felt more naked while fully dressed. Her legs, though covered almost to the knee, felt exceptionally bare. Her skin burned under his gaze as his eyes rose to meet hers.
“Yes, thank you.” She squared her shoulders. “What can I do for you, Mr. Slade?”
“For starters, please call me Ryder. Mr. Slade was my dad.”
“The man you killed.” For a woman who prided herself on remaining civilized no matter how audacious opposing counsel could sometimes be, she cringed at her own words. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”
“Yeah, it sure was.” Ryder took a step back. “Regardless, I’m not here for my benefit. I’m here for Tori and Missy. Missy especially. And no, they did not ask me to come see you.”
A smart retort threatened to break free, but she gnawed on the side of her cheek instead. What was it about Ryder that unsettled her so easily? “Go on.”
“Tori did me a huge favor by giving me a job and a place to stay. Especially after she informed me no one else around was willing to hire me.” Ryder tilted his hat, exposing more of his face. A hint of pain and regret reflected in his eyes. “I’m grateful for their help but it’s far from ideal. You have every right not to want your daughter around someone like me. I don’t want my presence to come between you and Tori or Missy and Peyton.”
“I’m sure you didn’t, but—”
“Please allow me to finish. I offered to leave the ranch after I found out about the argument you two had.”
“Leave as in quit and move out?” A change like that would surely affect his parole. As an attorney, she couldn’t allow him to jeopardize his freedom that way. “Wasn’t that job a condition of your release?”
“Yes, and Tori’s already threatened to turn me in to my parole officer if I do, so please don’t join that club.”
“I would never tell you to do that. I mean, yes, I said some things to Tori last night that I probably shouldn’t have said. And I won’t pretend that I haven’t read your police record or researched your plea deal.” She lifted her eyes to his, almost afraid to see him for who he was today, not the impersonal man she’d read about. He may have been guilty as sin, but a lot could be said about someone who faced their crimes head-on. “I respect the decisions you’ve made regarding your case and I wouldn’t want you to return to prison. But that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with you being around my daughter. I’ll talk to Tori. If she’ll forgive me for the way I treated her, maybe the girls can see each other outside the ranch.”
“I appreciate that, but I had something else in mind. Until I find another job, and someone more suited to take my place at Free Rein, I thought you and I could come to a compromise. I’ll make myself scarce whenever Peyton’s around. You won’t have to worry about me anymore.”
Ryder’s willingness to bend for her benefit was slightly annoying...and sweet. “Why does it matter to you?”
“I’m not sure how much Tori told you about our marriage, but I raised Missy as my own until the divorce. Yes, I’ve made more than my share of mistakes, but I’ve also worked hard to change. My life wasn’t always a mess. I had a successful business training horses until the night...the night my dad...died.” The last word was barely a whisper as his eyes shimmered with wetness. “It was an accident. My dad fell behind the truck. There was no way to see him from the driver’s seat. An—and then it was too late.”
His admission, given so openly, settled over her, and compassion for him bloomed. “Ryder, I’m so sorry.” Chelsea reached for him, wanting to comfort him. Her hand rested against his chest and he covered it with his own. His heart pounded beneath her fingertips and she pressed her palm harder against him to feel its power. She cleared her throat and slid from his grasp, determined to maintain control. “Your confession hadn’t conveyed your anguish, and I hadn’t even thought to take it into consideration until now. That must have been the worst night of your life.”
“That night not only destroyed my family, it turned Missy’s world upside down.” Ryder exhaled slowly and rubbed the back of his neck as if trying to regain his own control. “The divorce was bad enough, but no four-year-old should ever have to visit the only father she’s ever known behind bars. I told Tori to keep her away. She deserved better. I love that kid with all I am. It kills me to know she’s hurting because of something I’ve done. She’s had to make too many adjustments in her life, she doesn’t need to make one more where Peyton is concerned.”
Okay, he made a compelling argument. His priors had only been misdemeanors from his late teens and early twenties, and she found his love for Missy endearing. Tori hadn’t gone into detail about Missy’s biological father, except he’d left right after the baby had been born. That was more than she could say for Peyton’s father. He left the day after she told him she was pregnant. It took a big man to step into the role of baby daddy.
“I’ll take everything you’ve said into consideration and I’ll give Tori a call, too. Maybe we can work something out.” Deep down, though, she knew she’d need time to think all this over. She wasn’t completely unsympathetic toward his situation, but at the end of the day she was a mom, and her daughter’s well-being would always come first.
“That’s all I ask.” Ryder tugged his hat down low. “Enjoy the rest of your day and stay off those dating sites. I did time with some bad people who found their victims on those places. I’m not saying there aren’t good guys out there, it’s just safer dating a friend of a friend instead.”
Chelsea swallowed hard. A friend of a friend? No, he couldn’t possibly mean... “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I hope you do.” He winked and turned to walk away, once again giving her a view she didn’t need. Or want. She equated Ryder Slade to a campfire. They were both fun to look at and could even keep her warm for an hour or two. But she wouldn’t want to touch one. Nope. The sooner she extinguished Ryder the less likely she was to get burned.
Chapter 3
It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since he’d seen Chelsea and he was already trying to come up with a casual way to run into her. If only to make sure she hadn’t swiped right on any strange men. Not that he should care. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He cared from a protective standpoint. No one should endure the horrible treatment some of his former fellow inmates had inflicted on women. Other than that, her personal life was her business. He was only watching out for her considering she was Tori’s friend...again.
Yesterday, Tori had briefly mentioned Chelsea had called, but she hadn’t elaborated further. She’d been in a dark mood ever since Nate hadn’t made it home last night. As of this morning, she still hadn’t heard from him. Now almost lunchtime, she hadn’t returned to the ranch after she’d dropped Missy off at school. It wasn’t like her to blow off her morning routine. He hoped nothing had happened, although he assumed she’d call him if it had. At least it was Friday, and he had help from the sanctuary volunteers that came in and worked every weekend.
The rumble of a big rig on the main road jarred Ryder from Free Rein’s usual serenity. Nate’s sleeper-cab semi pulled into the ranch followed by a dually pickup towing what he figured had to be a forty-foot-long livestock trailer. Nate parked in front of the house and hopped out the driver’s side, the diesel idling behind him as he motioned for the dually to continue along the fence line to the next pasture.
Nate waved Ryder over. Judging by the dark shadows under his eyes, he needed some serious sleep. “We have eighty-two mustangs coming in from a Nevada wild horse roundup. I got them before they were sold for slaughter.” Nate glanced around at the empty stalls. “Bring in Chief and Sadie. We need to clear out the south pasture so we can quarantine the incoming horses. There are three more trailers on the way.”
“You got it.” Ryder snatched a bag of horse treats from the feed room and sprinted
toward the main corral. He stopped long enough at the gate to grab a couple lead ropes and then climbed onto the fence rails. Jamming two fingers in his mouth, he whistled loudly. Sadie and Chief lifted their heads from the hay feeder and continued munching, unaware of the job they were about to do. As cutting horses, they’d round up and move the herds out into the north pasture, giving the rescues their freedom. At least as much freedom as they could have on an enclosed sanctuary. He shook the bag and yelled, “cookie, cookie, cookie” just as Tori had shown him to do when it was time for them to come in for dinner. Only they didn’t respond to him with the same eagerness. Where was Tori, anyway?
Behind him, another trailer pulled onto the ranch, while Sadie and Chief sauntered toward him. Nothing like a snail’s pace when you’re in a hurry. Ryder mentally totaled the added feed and hay they would need for the rescues on top of any emergency vet fees. He couldn’t even begin to calculate the transportation costs. If the horses had come from the northern Nevada roundups, they’d traveled at least twelve hours to get here.
Ryder whistled again and this time the horses increased their pace. “That’s it. Get your cookies.” He jumped into the corral and held out the treats. They greedily ate them, allowing him to attach lead ropes to their halters. Nate met him at the fence where they tacked up both horses. “Where’s your wife?”
“At the bank trying to get an emergency line of credit,” Nate said as he swung into the saddle. “I had to put up my trailer for collateral to get these horses here. If she can’t get that loan, I can’t get my trailer back. This is the make-or-break point, my friend.”
The men rode into the south pasture, quickly moving the existing mustang herds. Normally a herd is comprised of one stallion and eight or so females and their young, but when they sense danger, they form one larger herd for safety. Once Nate and Ryder were confident the pasture was clear, they made a quick perimeter check to ensure there weren’t any gaps in the fencing given that a wild horse in a strange environment would look for an escape.
