Wanted: Runaway Cowgirl (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Brynn Paulin

  But I knew I’d probably never consider something more than an hour or two away. I needed to stay near Gran, and that meant looking closer to home—my home here—and staying in Mason indefinitely.

  Since Gran wasn’t at the house, I spent a couple hours on my laptop, putting together my resume and scanning for hospitality jobs in Fredericksburg, Llano and surrounding areas. I even peeked at a couple in Austin, just to see what was there. The more I worked, the more excited I became at the prospect of being back home. I wouldn’t tell Gran yet. I didn’t want to get her hopes up before anything panned out—if anything panned out. I know she wanted me home and had for a while.

  I’d just closed my computer so I could do some housework when my phone rang. My eyes widened at the ID. Missy. That was fast.

  “What are you up to tomorrow?” she asked, once we’d passed greetings.

  “Just sending out resumes. I decided to look into some possible jobs in Texas.”

  “Can you come have lunch with me at the ranch? I have a doctor’s appointment in the morning then I need to get back here or I’d meet you somewhere in town.”

  “Doctor’s appointment? Everything okay?”

  “Depends on your definition.” She laughed, the sound almost bitter. “I’m healthy enough; just knocked up. Nash is pretty pissed about it. I do a lot of stuff around here that he’ll make me stop doing soon. I swear if he had his way he’d have me sitting in a cushy chair with my feet on a pillow while I direct traffic around the ranch.”

  Why would Nash…? Oh… He and Missy were a thing. Maybe more than a thing.

  I closed my eyes against the hurt that caused, my fist rubbing over my heart.

  “Jorie?”

  “Yeah,” I answered distantly, lost in my thoughts but realizing I’d been quiet too long.

  “So can you? I’ll show you all around the place.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a great idea. Are you sure we can’t meet in town?” I didn’t want to see Nash. I definitely didn’t want to see Missy and Nash together. I had no hold on him, no right to be jealous, but acid ate up my insides. I hated him, didn’t I? I didn’t care if he’d committed to her after he’d played me. Right?

  “I can’t get away that long. Please,” she wheedled. “Please come out and see me. I’ve missed you. I want to get caught up.”

  My head dropped forward, and I closed my eyes with a quiet sigh. I’d been friends with her almost as long as with Nash. I’d missed her, too, even though I’d tried to push away all my friends, packaging them with Nash as past history.

  “Jorie,” she said after a moment of silence. “I know something happened with you and Nash, though I don’t know what; he never told me. Just… Well, he’s not supposed to be around, okay? Max said they’re going out to check fences tomorrow. When that happens, they’re not back until supper. Some of the crew will be around, but mostly, it’ll just be me.”

  I nodded, though she couldn’t see me. “Okay. What time?

  * * * *

  ~ Nash ~

  “Nash!” Dustin called as I lugged some wire and a lumber cart of beams to the checkout at the Farm and Feed. I could have had them delivered, but since I only needed a few things, this was quicker. It was kind of an emergency—another caused by how busy I’d been. We had a broken fence and none of the supplies needed to fix it. I’d spent the morning wrangling the herd into a different area so we wouldn’t lose any onto the highway bisecting our spread. Then I’d needed to run into town.

  I looked up to see him heading for me. Dustin managed the store owned by his dad. One day, he’d own the place, so he’d worked through every position here until he’d made it to general manager over the day crew.

  “Dustin, what’s up? How are ya?”

  “Good. Didn’t think I’d see you today.”

  I grunted and indicated the load I was hauling up to the front.

  “You know we deliver?” he teased, full-well knowing why I was here and not vice versa.

  I grimaced. “Needed it three hours ago. I’ve gotta get my crap organized, so we can stop meeting like this.”

  Dustin laughed. “I was going to call you today anyway?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you hear Jorie’s back?”

  A scowl pulled at my face. Had I heard? Only from about twelve people…today alone. “I heard,” I grated.

  “Okay. Okay.” He held up his hands defensively, but still smiling. “Thought you’d want to know your girl was back.”

  “Not my girl,” I snapped, my mind immediately going to the ring wrapped in soft cloth in the back of my dresser drawer. She’d more than proved she wasn’t mine. Leaving it. Leaving me. Running.

  “Right,” he said, his disagreement clear. So you weren’t best friends for like a million years.

  I shrugged. “She’s back. I’m here. Mason’s big enough we don’t have to see each other.”

  “Right,” he said, again disagreeing despite his word choice. “Like that’s going to happen. You ever going to tell me what happened between you two.”

  I sighed. Maybe if I knew. Fact was, I had no idea why my girl as he’d called her had left me and taken my pulverized heart with her.

  Chapter Three

  ~ Jorie ~

  This is a mistake. This is a mistake. This is a mistake.

  The mantra wouldn’t stop echoing through my head. Why was I going to the Lazy D? Why was I basically going into enemy territory? Why was I so melodramatic?

  Rolling my eyes at myself, I followed the road out of town to the Lazy D. I knew the path like the back of my hand. God knew, I’d taken it over and over for years. Gran had been great about bringing me out to the Davidson’s place before I could drive, and once I could, I headed over most days of the week.

  An odd mix of anticipation and dread knotted in my belly. I wanted to see the old place, see how it had changed, maybe say hi to Nash’s parents. But even though Missy had said Nash would be away, I worried over the possibility of seeing him. What would I say to him? How would things be?

  I couldn’t claim I hadn’t thought about that many times over the years. I’d had conversations and arguments with him in my head, but that didn’t mean I was ready. I was so, so far from ready for being face-to-face with him again.

  Before I was mentally prepared, I was turning down the gravel road that led to the ranch’s gate. Butterflies took off inside me at the sight of the large wooden arch emblazoned with an L and a slightly reclined D at the center of the gate’s upper beams. My car slowed as I took it in. Once a rustic, natural wood, the entry was now painted in shiny, white-and-red lacquer.

  “Fancy,” I murmured. What other changes would I find?

  Missy had told me to park near the house, and she’d meet me there to give me a tour before our lunch. She’d given me the code for the gate so I didn’t need to wait for someone to let me through. After pulling up to the keypad that hadn’t been around five years ago, I punched in the required numbers. Immediately, the iron gates swung open, an invitation into paradise—but what perils did that paradise hold?

  Strains of Hotel California ran through my head as I drove. It was an old song, but I knew it well since Ryder had been practicing the long guitar solo for years. What looked like paradise wasn’t always, and once there, you could never escape. Seemed like maybe that was Mason for me. I’d tried to leave, but even while physically in Michigan, I’d always been here. The Lazy D was only an extension of that, an even more perilous extension. Not physically of course, but certainly emotionally.

  The house was a couple miles in from the gate, and overall, everything looked the same as I remembered. Long stretches of lush pastures, divided periodically by split-rails and jack-fences. Mountains lay in the distance, adding to the picturesque landscape. Sunshine, green pastures, rolling hills and the bluest of skies for as far as the eye could see. If Missy hadn’t been waiting on me, I would have pulled over and gotten out of my little car just so I could soak it all in. There was
nowhere in the world as beautiful as here.

  I was tempted to slow for a whole other reason as I grew closer to the buildings, the big red horse barn, the sprawling brick building where they cared for sick livestock and heavily pregnant cattle, the main house, the blue equipment barn I’d rather forget and some other smaller ranch structures. The drive bisected the group, with the house to the left and the others to the right.

  Pulling through, I headed for the white, two-story with its wraparound porch. Not a moment later, I turned into the short, curved drive. That’s when I noticed the extension that had been added to one side. There was no mistaking what it was since a small sign with black letters said “OFFICE” beside the door.

  Missy had mentioned the office being over here. This was where she’d said to meet her. I’d thought she meant in the house, since that’s where Nash’s dad used to work. Apparently, the Lazy D had grown up some.

  I didn’t see her anywhere.

  Getting out of my car, I looked around. Several men on horses were silhouetted in the distance, too far away for me to make them out. They clearly weren’t fixing fences, though, as they galloped around, so I figured Nash wasn’t with them. Still, I couldn’t figure out what they were doing. It didn’t look like any ranching I’d ever witnessed. They looked like they were just horsing around. I’d seen and done plenty of chores here when I was younger. Nash’s dad had often put us both to work. If you practically live here, you get to work like everyone else, he used to joke. I’d loved it, learning all I could so I’d know what to do when I lived here when I grew up.

  Shaking my head, I shut my car door, ready to track down Missy. I headed for the office, thinking maybe she was inside. Before I made it more than a few yards, a hard voice from behind me stopped me in my tracks.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  I froze, that voice sinking straight to my core, angry or not. Slowly, I turned. Nash…

  I couldn’t stop from taking in all the changes five years had wrought. His stormy grew eyes glared at me, but I didn’t hold his gaze. Immediately, I scanned a glance over him. The brim of his hat was fisted in his large hand, revealing the same dark-brown, sun-streaked hair. Taller and broader, he’d gone from boy to solidly muscled man. Dressed in jeans and a red thermal with the sleeves pushed up, he had a hardness to him now that had been absent in high school even when he’d played football for Mason. And God…he was more handsome than ever, just as handsome as I’d always remembered when I’d imagined my life with him.

  But I couldn’t have a life with him, could I? He’d betrayed me. Played me. Used me.

  I was nothing to him.

  That was more than obvious from his less than happy greeting.

  Besides, he belonged to Missy now. I glanced at his bare ring finger. That didn’t mean anything. They still might be married. He might not wear a ring because of his ranch work. Some didn’t. Or they might be together and not married.

  Didn’t matter. I shouldn’t be here.

  I steeled myself, hiding my hurt. “Obviously, I was making a big mistake.” Turning on my heel, I marched back toward the safety of my little Kia that suddenly seemed a million miles away. “Tell Missy I’ll call her,” I gritted out.

  I was so out of here.

  * * * *

  ~ Nash ~

  Fuck. The first time I see her in five years, and I’m an ass. Great.

  I’d just gotten back from town again where at least eight more people had needed to “run into me,” just so they could tell me Jorie was back. As if I didn’t know? A few of the older ladies had even given me messages for Jorie to the tune of come over and visit. As if Magnolia couldn’t tell her that? I knew for a fact Jorie’s grandma was friends with each of the women. I’d tried to tell them I didn’t even know if I’d see Jorie, and they’d just patted me on the shoulder and told me not to forget to relay what they’d said. It was as if they were all reading the same script!

  What was this? A man couldn’t go into town for a French toast breakfast at Miss Maye’s and to pick up a few things at the grocery in peace? I just wanted peace and to forget Jorie.

  After I’d gotten back, I’d needed to check on one of the mares. When I’d come out of the horse barn and headed for the house, my dream—my nightmare—had come true. Jorie. On my ranch. Right here before me.

  And the first words from my mouth: What the fuck are you doing here?

  That was the nightmare.

  For a moment, I stood frozen, watching Jorie storm toward her flimsy little vehicle that wouldn’t last a year on a ranch. As she fled, I felt strangely as if my world were washing away like sand through my fingers. Again. Screw that noise. I rushed after her, dodging right around her then plopping my hat on my head and leaning against her door before she could get there.

  “Move,” she growled.

  “No.”

  “Nash, this isn’t funny.”

  “Neither was you taking off with no word five years ago. Now, you’re here. Now, we’ll talk.”

  She stared at me in scornful disbelief. “I don’t think so. I don’t know what you could possibly imagine there is to talk about?”

  “Oh, I don’t know… How about…that I left you alone in bed for a few minutes only to have you take off? That not only did you run away, but I don’t see you again for five fucking years? I think that’s a good place to start.”

  She glared at me and her arms crossed as she put up a defensive wall with which I was all-too-familiar. Until today, she’d never used it on me, but I knew it was her first protection against anyone who’d hurt her.

  “Five years ago doesn’t matter now,” she replied, her voice unnaturally calm…flat…no, more like dead. I hated it. Her tone just raised my hackles higher.

  “The hell it doesn’t! It matters, Jorie. It matters a hell of a lot.”

  “Nash—”

  We both looked up as a truck barreled in then barely skidded to a stop before Missy leapt out. “Jorie, hey, I’m sorry I got—oh shit,” she said as she realized I was there between Jorie and her car. “Nash. What are you doing here?”

  “My ranch. I live here. I’m the one who’s supposed to be here.” So was Jorie—once upon a time, anyway.

  Still is, my inner voice chided. She’s still supposed to be right here with you.

  One look at her, and I’d been fucked all over again. That girl owned me. Always had and probably always would.

  “No, I mean here,” Missy asserted her finger jabbing toward the ground. “I promised Jorie you’d be out fixing fences until tonight. That’s why I invited her. I wanted to show her the new operation without you around.”

  Promised I’d be away…? Because she hadn’t wanted to see me? That pissed me off even more. My arms crossed over my broad chest, and I couldn’t help noticing Jorie’s glance at my thick biceps and bulging pecs before she quickly averted her eyes.

  “I think that’s a bad idea,” I growled.

  Jorie flinched, and I tried to ignore it. I wanted to be the one to show her around. I should be the one showing Jorie everything I’d done, not Missy. At the same time, I wasn’t so sure I could handle spending time with Jorie with no forewarning. Still, if anyone was showing her my place, it was me.

  Missy huffed. “Well, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. We need help. She has a hospitality degree, you know? Did you know that? And guess what she was doing yesterday? Sending out resumes. To places around here. It’s perfect!”

  “Missy…” Jorie quietly admonished, slowly shaking her head. “No…”

  “No, I didn’t know,” I replied. Jorie had always planned to major in journalism, so she could write about travel to Texas. She’d thought everyone should visit all the special, unknown places here. She’d called them Texas Treasures.

  “And if nothing else, maybe, she can give us some advice on how to streamline things around here,” Missy went on as if neither of us hadn’t spoken. Jorie and I both stared at her, and I got the feeling Jorie was a
s taken by surprise by Missy’s plan as I was.

  “Yeah, that’s a really bad idea,” she murmured, echoing what I’d said earlier.

  Missy shook her head. “Why? Because there’s some mysterious disagreement between you two? If nothing else, it’ll be work experience to put on your resume. I’ll even write a letter of recommendation for you, put it on ranch letterhead. And you know what? Both of you need to grow up. Nash, you need help. Jorie, what exactly are you doing right now? Lying around Magnolia’s? Weeding her flowerbeds? I know for a fact Max does her yardwork every week.”

  “I’m on vacation,” Jorie defended.

  Missy lifted a brow at that. “On vacation? In Mason? Right.”

  Jorie didn’t answer, and Missy looked between the two of us as our silence prolonged.

  “Oh my God! You two! You’re so infuriating!” She threw her hands into the air. “You need to figure this out!” She turned and stormed back to her truck then took off.

  When I looked over at Jorie, she had her lips pressed together, obviously trying not to laugh at Missy’s tantrum. “So…I guess we’re not having lunch,” she deadpanned.

  “She’s been a little…hormonal.”

  “I’ve heard that can happen with pregnant women.”

  “She told you?” I asked in surprise. It wasn’t news Missy had been freely spreading around.

  “Yeah, told me she had an appointment this morning. You didn’t go?”

  “Why would I?”

  “Oh…I don’t know…” She trailed off and shrugged, her raised brows suggesting I should know exactly what she was talking about. Nope. Not a clue.

  “How about I give you a tour?” I offered, changing the subject. “You can look at my disaster in the office, I’ll show all the new stuff we’ve put into operation, then I’ll make you some lunch since I guess I messed up your plans with Missy.”

  She looked around. I was sure she was about to decline, instead she said, “Sure.”