Читать книгу The Cowboy Code - Christine Wenger - Страница 9

Joe felt the burn in his muscles from carrying Maggie’s suitcases up the hill to his house.

Good. It took his mind off her—a little.

She was a strikingly beautiful woman. Her hair shimmered like spun gold in the afternoon sun, and her green eyes were bright and sparkly. Even if he hadn’t already known from reading the probation department’s report, he could tell she was a dancer by the way she moved—graceful and light on her feet. She almost floated when she walked.

She didn’t seem to be the type who could handle mucking out stalls, grooming horses or several days on a cattle drive.

He opened the door to let her in. “Make yourself at home. My Aunt Betty is usually here in the office doing the record keeping and running my life, not necessarily in that order, but she’s visiting her sister in Tucson for a couple of months. So the place is all yours.”

“I can’t imagine having this whole house to myself. This is magnificent, Joe. My apartment in New York can fit into it about forty times!” Her excitement faded. “But if I wasn’t here, you could have stayed in your home instead of at the bunkhouse.”

“No, I always bunk with the kids during Cowboy Quest. So make yourself at home.”

The only other woman who had ever stayed at his ranch was Ellen Rogers. Ellen had stolen his heart when she kissed him on the playground in fourth grade, after he’d stopped some boys from teasing her.

That was about the time he learned that he didn’t have to start swinging his fists to get his point across. His size alone—even in grade school—made him seem formidable.

They’d become lifelong friends after that. Inseparable. Her parents had the neighboring ranch, about twenty miles away, and their spread was almost as big as the Silver River.

He’d asked Ellen to marry him when they graduated from college, and she’d agreed—but she didn’t seem as excited as he’d expected. Then she broke up with him four months later and moved to Los Angeles, where she’d taken a job with a software company. He couldn’t remember the details; all he heard was her voice saying, “I’m sorry, Joe. But I don’t want to live on a ranch. I want more.”

He still wondered if she’d ever truly loved him. If she had, then they could have worked something out. But instead, she’d picked concrete, high-rises and crowds over his Silver River Ranch.

And all his dreams went up in smoke.

He’d built up the Silver River Ranch in the hope he’d have a wife and kids to share it with, but obviously that wasn’t in the cards. At least the ranch was solid and dependable. Women were flighty and fickle—and he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

A crash brought him back to reality. It was Maggie, scared by Calico, his aunt’s cat.

Luckily, it was only a suitcase that she had kicked over—it had hit the wooden floor with a solid smack. As Maggie scrambled to right it, he noticed that her hands were shaking.

She was nervous, and he didn’t think that it was just the cat.

Was it him? Or the situation?

“Maggie, have you ever been on a ranch before?” he asked.

“No.”

“Have you ever ridden a horse?”

“No.”

“Are you scared to ride?” he asked. “Or just nervous?”

“A little of both.” She bit her lip—the simple gesture made his blood heat for some reason.

“Okay, I’m a lot scared and a lot nervous. I’m scared of losing Danny to the system. I’m scared of the whole cattle drive. But mostly, I’m scared that Cowboy Quest won’t be enough to help us fix what’s broken.”

Joe wanted to take Maggie’s hand and assure her that everything would be okay, that Cowboy Quest was all about improving communication skills and team building, but he didn’t dare touch her. Nor did he want to tell her that, from what he’d read, Maggie and Danny simply needed time together.

If she hadn’t already figured that out, she would.

“Please don’t worry, Maggie. Believe me, all your concerns will be addressed. If not, just come to me.”

She closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “Thank you. That makes me feel much better. And I’ll come to you for any help I may need. I really want to make the most out of your program.”

“Perfect. That’s just what I want to hear.”

Then it dawned on him.

Since she was the first adult that he had in his program, and a woman at that, he’d have to make some concessions for her, like separate facilities and her own tent for the cattle drive. But he couldn’t afford to make too many allowances for her lack of experience when he had a lot to accomplish before the cattle drive started.

Joe also knew that Maggie wasn’t likely to confide in him too much. But he was sympathetic to Maggie’s problems with Danny. He knew what was at stake for them both, and she had a darn good reason to worry.

Adding that to the fact that she needed to complete Cowboy Quest with Danny—and learn to ride, apparently—he definitely could empathize with what she was going through.

He’d do everything possible to help her.

He felt like he already knew her—at least, Maggie the performer. He knew she’d won a Tony award and had appeared in numerous musicals and even on TV.

He also knew things had been going fine with Danny up until his mother’s death two years ago. Then Danny started running with a bad bunch of kids. The probation officer who investigated the situation felt that Maggie’s rehearsal and performance schedule left Danny alone much too often, and that he needed more supervision.

On one of those nights when he’d snuck out of the apartment, Danny had been arrested.

In a phone call from his old college buddy, Judge Pat Cunningham in New York City, Joe had learned that Maggie had to give up rehearsals for a new show in order to participate in Cowboy Quest. Pat felt bad about that, but knew that it was important for Maggie to spend time with Danny, to bond and rebuild the stable home environment he so desperately needed.

Her intentions were admirable, but Joe hoped that it wasn’t too late. Why had she let things come to this?

“Look at all this counter space,” Maggie said, running her hand along the emerald-green granite. “I never have much time to cook, but I love it. I tape all the cooking shows and try different recipes whenever I can.”

Maggie suddenly froze in place, then slowly turned to him. “Whoa. Am I supposed to cook for everyone in the program?”

He stifled a smile. “Well, you said you liked to cook.”

When her eyebrows shot up in shock, he chuckled. “I was just kidding. The ranch has a cook, and he always loves the challenge of a dozen more mouths to feed—a baker’s dozen, counting you.”

“Joe, am I the only parent or guardian who’s participating?”

“Yes.”

She looked like she was about to hit the panic button. “Just me?”

“We have other counseling components for family members set up post-Cowboy Quest, but you are it as far as an adult and as a female who’s going to actually join the cattle drive.” He grinned. “Twelve teenage boys, six cowboy counselors and you.”

Maggie raised an eyebrow. “Why am I the only one?”

“Judge Cunningham asked me to make an exception for you, so I did. Now let me show you to your room.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

And it was. He could tell that Maggie appreciated the view of the mountains from the guest bedroom, the balcony off the room with several lawn chairs and a table, the big log bed and the brightly striped Hudson’s Bay blankets that he’d acquired over the years.

There were several items handed down from his grandparents—his mother’s parents—that impressed her. He’d carefully preserved them in shadow boxes that he’d made and displayed them throughout the house.

His grandmother’s baskets and several pieces of clothing with her original beadwork, medicine bags—none of it escaped Maggie’s attention.

“And these photographs…fabulous.” She seemed to be talking to herself, then she turned to him. “Who is the photographer?”

“My dad. My mother is a travel reporter, and my father was a rancher and a stock contractor. I learned the business from him. But on the day I graduated from college, he drove up the driveway with a mammoth motor home, handed me the keys to this house and said that all five thousand acres were mine—and he was going to see the world with my mom.”

“Five thousand acres?” Her eyes grew wide. “He just walked away from all of this?”

“After I tried to talk him out of it, he confessed that he liked being on the road and seeing the world with my mother, that he’d grown tired of the ranch. And of course my mother was thrilled.”

He’d thought three people loved the ranch as much as he did—Ellen and his parents.

Damn, had he been wrong!

And what was wrong with his judgment of people?

The ranch meant everything to him. It was the reason he woke up every morning and the reason he went to bed exhausted each night. He knew every blade of grass, every animal and every tree on the property. It was his life’s blood.

Someone like Maggie could never understand that, so he wouldn’t even try explaining it to her.

“I’ll let you get settled then,” Joe said, then eyed her fancy blouse, slacks and strappy shoes. “I hope you brought some work clothes. If you’d like to change into something warmer, I’ll give you a quick tour of the ranch before the sun sets.”

“I’d like that.”

“I’ll wait for you in the living room.”

He settled into his favorite overstuffed chair and prepared to wait a long while for Miss Broadway, but to his surprise she appeared just a handful of minutes later. Obviously she was used to quick costume changes.

And change she had. Her dark blue jeans fit her snugly in all the right places. A pastel plaid blouse and a sparkly belt topped off her outfit, and it looked like she had on brand-new black cowboy boots.

He gave a long whistle. “You look like you’re ready to go out on the town. You’re dressed a little too fancy for Cowboy Quest.”

“Oh.” She shook her head. “My whole wardrobe is like this. I bought out Bloomingdale’s.”

“Maybe you could go shopping.”

“There are department stores here?”

“Sure. The Mountain Springs Feed and Sundries has a whole bunch of clothes next to the fertilizer and tractor parts.” He winked.

She laughed. “Let’s go.”

“You think I’m kidding?”

“I hope you are.” She picked up Calico and rubbed his ears. The cat snuggled up against her neck, pushing and rubbing her head against Maggie. The pure pleasure on Maggie’s face tugged at his heart, yet it troubled him to see the sadness in her eyes.

“We’ll get to be good friends, Calico. Won’t we?” she asked.

Calico purred his agreement.

“I’ve always wanted a pet,” she said. “But my schedule just doesn’t…” She scratched the cat’s ears. “I can’t even take care of Danny.”

“Yes, you can,” Joe said. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve both been through a terrible loss—it takes time to adjust.”

The lost look in her eyes made him want to take her into his arms, but Joe forced himself to get back to business.

“We’ll use the golf cart and follow the Silver River,” Joe said.

“Sounds good to me.”

A few minutes later, when she settled in next to him in the golf cart, he caught the scent of some floral perfume that suited her perfectly. The light breeze tossed her blond hair around her face, and he liked it when it brushed his shoulder. Too soon, she restrained it with some kind of clip.

He reminded himself again that this was business, not pleasure and that thinking about her perfume and hair wasn’t appropriate.

To make matters worse, the ground wasn’t level here—it was a jarring ride. Maggie kept bumping into him, not that he minded, and every now and then she’d shoot him an embarrassed glance.

Joe pulled up alongside of the river and drove slower. “Do you have any questions about the program?”

She looked straight ahead and he heard her inhale. “My only priority is making sure that Danny is okay. The other thing I need to do is to help him satisfactorily complete your program or he’s headed for placement in a juvenile facility, and I don’t want that.” She took a deep breath, and bit down on her bottom lip. “And I’m supposed to come up with some kind of plan for better supervision of Danny when we get back home and a way to spend more time with him. That’ll be a challenge. If I could have found a better plan, I would have instituted it.”

That lost look crept into her eyes again. “You’ll come up with something, Maggie. Maybe I can help.”

Joe knew that he had been given a lot of power over her and her relationship with Danny, and if he were Maggie, he wouldn’t like it either.

“It’s going to be hard trusting anyone with Danny,” she continued. “You see, I’ve had custody of him for the past two years. You’ve known him for—what?—twelve seconds?”

“I understand your concern. I do. But Cowboy Quest met with one hundred percent success the first time. This is our second run.”

“Define success,” she said, suddenly cooler.

“On paper, I’d say success would be all the boys completing all the requirements. But what I’d really want would be for them to use the components of it—the practical and character lessons—for a lifetime.”

She crossed her fingers. “I really hope that happens.”

“Me, too.”

“I read in your pamphlet that you have a master’s degree in special education,” she said.

“With a minor in psychology.”

She folded her arms in front of her. “And those cowboys in the bunkhouse? What are their credentials?”

“Believe it or not, a couple of them have graduate degrees, most have bachelor degrees, but more importantly, they are good men and good role models. And they care about each and every kid.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said. “How did you get into this, Joe?”

He rubbed his chin. Where to start? “My own father wasn’t around much when I was growing up. Either he was busy hauling livestock around the country, or he was traveling with my mother, taking photos for travel books. If it weren’t for Mr. Dixon—my pal Jake’s dad—I would have been placed in a juvenile correctional facility and never let out. He helped me in more ways than one. I guess I’m paying that back.”

He was worried about his program this time around. He had shared with his staff that the twelve boys they were getting seemed more difficult than the first group, and they all had a history of running away, including Danny. They’d all have to be extra vigilant.

But he was going to think positively. He had a good team.

“And if someone fails to complete the program?”

“No one has yet.” Joe studied her. Her brows were almost touching, and her hands were clasped tightly on her lap.

“But you’ve only had one run of Cowboy Quest so far. Danny’s future hinges on an almost untested program.”

“I suppose you could put it that way.” He met her worried look. “But Cowboy Quest has been under a lot of scrutiny from the state and county. It’s being studied as a model for other, similar programs.”

Her lips were pinched now, and she was looking away from him. She was definitely anxious.

“Maggie, don’t worry. Cowboy Quest is not about the riding or the livestock. It’s about problem solving, maturing and working as a team. We use the Cowboy Code as a guide for basic rules of living. So don’t worry. The boys and I will do everything possible to get everyone through the program with flying colors.”

Her grass-green eyes pooled with unshed tears and once again he felt the urge to comfort her.

The only reason he’d send in a negative report to Judge Cunningham on Maggie and Danny was if they didn’t make some attempt to resolve their issues, but he wasn’t going to tell her that yet. He needed to wait and see just how things played out, and just how hard Danny and Maggie worked on their relationship and solving the problems between them, logistical and otherwise.

From what he could see, Danny was a thirteen-year-old who couldn’t be trusted to attend school and not run the street.

Maggie was trying to work and support the two of them, in a job with horrible hours, and in his current state, Danny needed more—if not constant—supervision. He needed a parent.

Somehow in all that there needed to be a plan for their future together, or they would spend their future apart.

“Remember, Maggie, I have a vested interest in making sure that all the participants are successful. We have a good program here—but we’re under a lot of scrutiny from the state. I don’t want to give them any excuses to shut us down.”

“So you might lose your program, and I might lose custody of Danny.” Maggie took a deep breath. “Then we’d both better make Cowboy Quest a success.”