Читать книгу Winning The Cowboy's Heart - Karen Rock - Страница 11
ОглавлениеJEWEL TORE OFF her hat and swiped her damp brow. Overhead, the midafternoon sun beat down, unrelenting in a cloudless blue sky. She peered at the calves she and her brothers had isolated from the herd this morning. Panicked bleats filled the dry air and mingled with their mothers’ answering bellows. They hadn’t been separated since calving season three months ago. The sooner she got them through the pen system she’d designed to lessen their stress, the better.
“Next!” she hollered to her brother Justin. With a clang, he opened the metal latch and released the next calf from the holding pen. It raced forward, encountered a secured gate, and jerked to a stop in the extended neck chute she’d convinced her brother and ranch manager, James, to purchase. The calf tossed its head and rolled its eyes. Air huffed through its flaring nostrils.
“Easy, girl.” Jewel stroked the little one’s soft gray side. The scent of disinfectant soap stung her nostrils. Earlier, her brother Jared and nephew Javi had cleaned the calves to prevent infection. “Easy now.”
The calf settled as Jewel grabbed a syringe of Bovi-Shield while murmuring steadily, her tone soothing. She talked plenty tough to her rough-and-tumble older brothers, but when it came to animals, she took extra care to be gentle.
“Now you won’t get a respiratory infection,” she crooned, pinching the skin on the calf’s neck and pulling it away from the muscle to tent it. She slipped the eighteen-gauge needle into the subcutaneous space to prevent skin lesions.
“See. Not so bad.” She stroked the calf’s quivering neck after pushing in the vaccine, then hustled to its other side. “Now this booster will keep you from getting blackleg.” She delivered the second neck injection. “You’re doing great.”
The calf snorted but otherwise remained still in the narrow chute, absorbing Jewel’s voice, her calm as she circled back to the spot where she injected the third vaccine.
A large Brahman bellowed beyond the fence. Jewel compared the cow’s and the calf’s ear tags, noting their matching numbers.
“Almost done, Mama,” she called to the pacing cow.
“Hold up a minute, Jewel.” Her brother James sprayed the calf’s shaved hindquarter with 99 percent alcohol for adhesion, pulled a poker with a brass number three from the cooler and pressed its cold tip to the area, freeze-branding it.
The calf twitched for a few seconds as Jewel continued petting it, then calmed as the temperature numbed its skin. A couple of years ago, they’d switched to freeze-branding after Jewel attended a cattle conference. It was more time-consuming than regular branding and took practice, but it reduced the calves’ stress.
“Ready?” Jewel called once James grabbed the second poker.
“Go ahead.” James pressed the number five into the now-docile calf’s hip. Over the years, she and her brothers developed routines so ingrained they barely had to talk while performing them.
She tented the loose skin underneath the calf’s shoulder and delivered the last vaccine. “There you go, Sunrise, no BVD for you,” she murmured, low, so James didn’t overhear her ritual of secretly naming the calves. No matter how long they had on this earth, every living thing deserved a name, to have an identity, to be someone, although it made sending them off to the fall beef auctions even harder.
She grimaced. Jewel Cade, sentimental...no one would believe it. All her life, she’d acted tough, chasing after her father’s affection by trying to prove she was as good as his favored sons. That she could ride, shoot and brawl with the best of them. Yet he rarely paid her much mind except to complain she needed to wear dresses to Sunday services.
When he’d passed away, she doubled down on proving herself in the male-dominated ranching world, even if she ruffled a few feathers and agitated the status quo to do it. Her thick skin hid her sensitive side, a weakness counter to her goal to be Cade Ranch’s range boss. She wanted to oversee cattle herding and husbandry, calling the shots the way she preferred, a job where she wouldn’t be overruled or overlooked. James had yet to delegate the position, and she intended to convince him this summer to choose her over her brother Justin.
As for the Sunday dresses, she’d worn one to her father’s funeral, hoping he’d see her from above in a way he’d never noticed her on earth.
Jewel ignored the painful throb of her heart and cranked down the release lever. Sunrise rushed headlong from the chute. The calf slowed when she spied the barn wall, swerved, then trotted into the final pen where the vaccinated animals awaited Jewel’s final checkup.
“Good move in facing the exit to the barn.” James added more alcohol solution to the cooler holding the pokers.
Jewel pressed her lips flat to hide her pleasure at James’s rare praise. He needed to see her as a capable professional, not a little sister chasing her big brother’s approval. “I didn’t want them running for the gate and getting injured like last year. It’s all part of the herd health, value-added market report I gave you last month.”
James grunted, but otherwise didn’t answer as he checked the cooler’s temperature. For optimal freeze-branding, it had to be at minus 200 degrees.
Jewel hid her disappointment and grabbed her records book. Her stubby pencil flew as she jotted down the vaccines’ lot numbers, treatment date and withdrawal period, her name as the one who administered them, and the vaccination method used.
James retrieved a couple of iced teas from another cooler. When she set down her log book, he tossed her one. “The neck extender chute’s working out better, too. No bent needles or trapped fingers.”
Jewel sipped her tea, then pressed the cool plastic mini jug against her steaming cheeks. Even her freckles would be burned tomorrow. “That’s why you need to make me range boss.”
“Now’s not the time for that discussion.”
“Then when is the time?” she demanded.
Instead of answering, James gulped his drink. When he finished, he mopped his face with a red kerchief. “How come we’re not putting on nose flaps?” he asked, referring to the device used to wean calves.
She blew out a frustrated breath at his change of subject. Fine...she’d give him a little more rope, but not enough so he slipped away without giving her answers. “Weaning them after branding is stressful.”
“Corralling them again is more work for us,” he grumbled. “We should go back to separating them from their mothers.”
Jewel bristled. “The most stressful part of weaning is losing social interaction. The calves were calmer when we started using nose flaps a couple of years ago.”
James doffed his wide-brimmed rancher’s hat, scooped some ice from the cooler and dumped it over his head. “Should never have sent you to that conference. It gave you too many ideas.”
“Nothing wrong with new ideas,” she charged. “The herd health program’s been worth about three to six dollars per hundredweight over the past eighteen months. We’ve had less morbidity and behavioral stress—something you’d know if you bothered reading my report.”
“I’ll get to it. Next!” James called to Justin, and another calf barreled into the chute.
Jewel bit her lip and got back to work, ignoring the sting of being dismissed again. She had to convince James and wouldn’t quit until she did.
“How come you look so tired?” James pressed one of the frozen pokers into the calf’s side once it settled in the chute.
Jewel injected the blackleg booster. “Got in late.” Her cheeks heated as she recalled tall, gorgeous, commanding Heath Loveland performing “Folsom Prison Blues.” When he sang, his powerful voice carried her with him. It drummed inside her, beating her heart, stirring her blood. It was like he was made of music.
She concentrated on the calf’s next shot.
“What were you doing?” James exchanged the first poker for the second.
“Went out.” She gently pulled the needle from the calf’s skin. “Good job, MooShu,” she murmured near its ear.
“Where?”
“Silver Spurs.” She kept her voice even around the skittish animal, despite her rising irritation at nosy James. He had to know every detail about the ranch and those who lived on it.
“Wasn’t Heath Loveland’s band playing last night?”
Jewel’s hackles rose at the knowing sound in James’s voice. “I guess so.”
James narrowed his eyes at her. “Interesting...”
“What do you mean?” Her brothers loved tweaking her about her supposed crush on Heath Loveland, coming up with all kinds of crazy theories about her carrying a torch for him...when everyone knew she loved only three things in life: her enormous stallion, Bear; physically demanding ranch work; and her family.
James stowed the last poker in the cooler. “I don’t mean anything. Much.”
“I don’t like Heath Loveland.” She released the latch and the last calf of the day sprang away.
A groan built in the back of her throat. Last night, Heath saw her as weak, in need of help. Why hadn’t she pushed back as hard as she would have battled her brothers?
Because you don’t look at him like a brother...
Her old mixed-up feelings returned for the boy who’d once witnessed her most shameful moment. When her father had ignored her 4-H booth’s blue-ribbon win, she’d cried. Heath, who’d had a display beside hers, had shielded her, preventing others from knowing she’d been hurt. She clenched her back teeth. Why was he always around when she was at her most vulnerable?
Even if she might—might—have had any kind of softness for Heath, he was taken, about to walk down the aisle soon, rumor had it. She’d never be interested in a guy involved with someone else. And even if he were free, she had no use for a boyfriend and never intended on marrying, would never sacrifice her independence to a man no matter how kind and sensitive he seemed. What she wanted most was respect, something she’d have if she became range boss. It’d prove, once and for all, she was worthy—just as good as or better than her cowboy brothers.
James began packing up the branding equipment and his silence on her supposed feelings for Heath nettled her. She blocked his way into the nearby barn. “I don’t like Heath.”
James shrugged. “It’s your life. I’m not judging. Although, keep your distance until after the trial.”
“Why’s that?”
“You know how those Lovelands are.” He stepped around her and disappeared in the cool dim of their stable.
She gathered her vaccination equipment and followed. “How are they?”
“They know how to sweet-talk a lady.”
Her lungs expanded at the sweet aroma of freshly strewn hay. Bear, along with the other horses, picked up his head. He nickered a greeting. “I’m no—”
“You’re still a woman. Heath’s broken almost as many hearts in this county as Jared,” James said, referring to their lady-killer brother who’d given up professional football to manage his legally blind wife’s barrel-racing career.
Jewel dumped the syringes in a bucket full of sterilizing fluid. “He’s taken.”
James shrugged as he stowed the coolers inside the barn’s cabinet. “Like all Lovelands, he can charm the birds from the trees, as Grandma would have said.”
“Example?” Jewel challenged.
James opened his mouth, then shut it.
“Exactly. We can’t blame the Lovelands for causing our feud anymore. Clyde Farthington killed Maggie Cade for her brooch and his jealousy over her secret love affair with Everett Loveland. Our ancestors jumped to the wrong conclusions when they found Everett beside Maggie’s body and hanged him without giving him a trial.”
“Cora’s Tear was still found on their land,” James insisted, referring to the priceless fifty-carat sapphire their ancestor had mined from the Yugo Gulch along with enough silver to buy their land and establish their ranch.
“Because Maggie hid it at her and Everett’s meeting spot so Clyde wouldn’t get his greedy hands on it, remember?” Jewel pulled off her gloves and washed her hands in a small stainless sink. “Besides, after Cole and Katlynn found Cora’s Tear, they returned it to Ma.”
“Fine,” James grumbled. “But what about Boyd and Ma?”
Jewel recoiled, drying her hands on a stiff brown paper towel. “You think Boyd only wants Ma for her money? That she has nothing else to offer? You married Sofia, and she had nothing.”
James took Jewel’s place at the sink. “That’s different.”
“Yeah, because at least Ma and Boyd were childhood sweethearts until her parents broke them up.” Jewel lobbed the balled-up towel into a large plastic trash barrel.
“And who’s going to pay for their monthlong honeymoon to Europe?” Without waiting for an answer, James forged on, soaping up his hands. “Ma.”
“What if she is paying?” Jewel leaned over to scratch a barn cat’s ears and imagined her mother at Loveland Hills, packing, laughing and talking with her new husband about how excited she was to be taking this trip tomorrow, the one she had dreamed about for a lifetime. “A woman can spend her money how she pleases.” Though why waste it on a honeymoon? Jewel would never be as happy as her mother was being married; she just wasn’t the girlie-wife type, as her father put it.
“I’m just saying.” James paused to grab a paper towel. “Going to watch Heath Loveland perform is one thing. Just don’t get romantically entangled like Ma. He’ll try to persuade you to change your mind about the easement, convince you not to fight their court case when it was a fair judgment.” James tossed away the paper towel and peered down at her. At six feet two inches, he had her by over a foot. “We’re fighting this lawsuit, no matter how Ma feels. This is Cade land. Defend it.
“Heath is nothing to me.” Though no denying, the deep blue of his eyes had rattled her last night. “And I’ve always defended our family and this ranch, which is why it’s time you made me range boss.”
“When I feel one of you has proven yourself, I’ll make the call.” James cranked the barn fans’ lever. They blew with a loud, buzzing roar. “Until then—”
“You’ll continue being a control freak who should delegate tasks to spend more time with your growing family?” Jewel’s balled hands landed on her hips.
James stared at her for a moment, then shook his head, smiling. “Now you sound like Sofia.”
She snorted. “Another woman you need to listen to more.”
James laughed. “You do beat all.”
“Just as long as I beat Justin.” Jewel crossed to pet her stallion’s broad black nose. “It’s still between us, right?”
James nodded.
“He’s already got extra work teaching ranching skills at Fresh Start,” Jewel said, mentioning the rehab facility run by Justin’s fiancée, former army chaplain Brielle Thompson. “But Cade Ranch...” She pointed at the rolling slopes leading up to Mount Sopris’s peak. “It’s all I have.”
James squinted at her. “Maybe that’s not a good thing.”
“I’m not cut out for marriage or a family like the rest of you.” Jewel buried her head in Bear’s warm, velvety neck.
“How do you know?”
She closed her eyes, shutting out the rising memories of her father’s criticism and dismissal. She didn’t measure up to what women...wives...mothers were supposed to be. “Promise you’ll decide who’s range boss by summer’s end.”
James considered her, then nodded slowly. “I can live with that.”
She blew out a relieved breath, pressed a quick kiss on Bear’s nose and headed for the calves. A sense of contentment stole through her as she assessed the injection and branding sites for irritation. This was her world...and for her, there was nothing else.
Now she only had to convince James by the end of the summer, and she’d have everything she ever wanted.
* * *
“GOOD EVENING, CARBONDALE. Temperatures today peaked at ninety-eight degrees with humidity at twelve percent. Severe drought conditions continue to expand across Colorado, and that means an elevated fire danger just about statewide,” announced a local weatherman.
Heath dropped the ice cream scooper in the carton to crank up the radio’s volume.
“A T-shaped swath of northern and central Colorado is listed as abnormally dry with record-breaking temperatures continuing into next week.”
Heath swore under his breath and his sister, Sierra, groaned. She finger-combed her long blond hair into a ponytail and secured it with an elastic band. “We’ll be lucky if we get through this summer without a major forest fire.” As a wildlife veterinarian, weather extremes were her greatest fear.
“And without losing any cattle.” Heath plopped vanilla ice cream into a bowl and passed it to his adopted brother, Daryl, who drizzled fudge topping on it.
“We’ve got to keep the herd intact.” Daryl’s light blue eyes gleamed beneath black brows.
“How come, Pa?” Daryl’s eight-year-old daughter, Emma, twirled on the ranch house’s bare wood floor in stocking feet.
“Nothing for you to worry about, darlin’.” Daryl ruffled Emma’s fine blond hair. He, Sierra and Heath exchanged silent, anxious glances. Any cattle loss put them closer to foreclosure. “Want sprinkles?”
Emma jumped. “Yes! Can I have a lot?”
“You got it, honey.” Sierra held up two containers. “Chocolate or rainbow?”
“Rainbow.” Emma pointed to the colorful bow around the bun she’d worn to dance class. “I want to match like Grandma Joy.”
“Can I have chocolate?” Daryl’s six-year-old son, Noah, scooted onto Sierra’s lap. His thick black hair, exactly like his father’s, swished across his round face. “And rainbow?”
“Anything you want,” Sierra vowed.
“Don’t spoil him,” Daryl warned, all while pouring on heaps of fudge. The hypocrite.
“These are my only nieces and nephews so I’m spoiling them rotten.” Noah giggled when Sierra tickled his side. “Maybe Heath and Kelsey will have babies soon, so I’ll have more to spoil...”
An expectant silence fell as Heath wordlessly passed over another bowl. He still hadn’t told Kelsey, or his family, about his Nashville tryout. When Pa and Cole finally got in from their fence inspection, he’d quit stalling and share his plans to drive to Tennessee next week. His stomach twisted. Would they be happy for him? Would Kelsey? Anticipation kept him up last night, imagining a future he’d never dared dream before, along with his fiery exchange with a certain redheaded cowgirl.
An ungrateful cowgirl.
“Can I be your flower girl when you get married this year, Uncle Heath? Huh? Can I?” Emma asked around a mouthful of ice cream.
Heath swallowed hard as he met Emma’s expectant blue eyes. “If I do, you’re the only flower girl I’d want.”
“If?” Emma angled her face up to her father. “I thought Mama said you were setting a date or something...”
“Hush now and eat your dessert,” Daryl urged, his tone gentle but firm.
“Is Mama coming?” Noah asked, his lips rimmed in sprinkles and chocolate.
A shadow darkened Daryl’s eyes. “No. She’s got another headache.”
“She always says that.” Emma dropped her cheek into her palm and sighed. “And she never wants to do anything except type on the computer. How come you don’t sleep at home anymore, Pa?”
Daryl’s face flushed, and concern for his brother spiked inside Heath. Daryl and LeAnne’s nine-year marriage had problems from the start. Lately, Heath woke to find Daryl sleeping on the ranch’s sofa rather than in his family’s cabin. They hadn’t spoken about it since Daryl, like all Lovelands, valued his privacy, but his suffering was clear.
“The drought has dramatically expanded recently,” the weather reporter droned on. “Thursday’s drought monitor indicates that more than ninety-eight percent of the state is in a drought, up from only ten percent at the start of the year. That’s a dramatic increase from just three months ago.”
“How come it never rains?” Noah scooped the fudge circling his melting ice cream and dumped it back over the top.
“And it didn’t snow at Christmas, either.” Emma’s face pinched. “Are we going to die like the polar bears? That’s what Jenny says.”
“Don’t listen to foolish talk.” Daryl accepted the bowl Heath passed him and dug in.
Heath eyed his niece’s and nephew’s wide, fearful eyes, clicked off the radio and slid a sundae toward Sierra. “We need to do a rain dance.”
“I want to do a rain dance!” Noah hopped off Sierra’s lap and clapped his hands. “What’s a rain dance?”
Heath stowed away the ice cream carton. “It’s a sacred ritual Native Americans do to ask for rain.”
Noah’s body practically vibrated with excitement. “Can we try?”
Heath shook his head. “Well, we can’t do a real Native American rain dance, but we can do our own.” He grabbed a small pot and a spoon and handed it to Emma, then passed over two boxes of elbow macaroni to Noah. “Line up behind me.”
“She just pushed me!” Noah complained when the kids jostled for the spot directly behind Heath.
“Did not!” Emma cried.
“Did, too!”
“Enough!” barked Daryl, a hint of a humor lightening his tone. “Or the rain dance is canceled due to bad behavior.”
“Sorry!” Emma and Noah squeaked.
“What do I do with these?” Noah held up the boxes. “They’re heavy!”
“You shake them.” Heath demonstrated, then handed a box back. “They’ll make a rain sound to call the clouds.”
“I’ll take one.” Daryl dropped his spoon in his bowl, snagged the box and lined up behind his son.
“What’s mine do?” Emma gestured with her spoon.
“My guess is you’re going to bang the pan so it makes a thunder sound to call to the sky.” Travis, their brother and the local sheriff, stomped into the kitchen, doffing his tan hat.
Noah shivered. “I like thunderstorms, but only when Pa cuddles us.”
“Hey, Ginger and I want in on this.” Sierra joined the lineup behind Heath, their tabby curled in her arms.
“The more the merrier. Ready for the rain dance?” Heath glanced back and grinned at the sight of his niece’s and nephew’s expectant faces. What was so bad about pleasing people? A moment ago, they’d been scared, and he’d made them forget those fears.
“Ready!” Emma and Noah shouted.
“Let me grab something!” Travis scrounged in the utensil drawer and grabbed a cheese grater and a butter knife. He sawed the flat end of the blade against the jagged holes. “All set.”
Heath sang Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” as they marched around the long, dark pine kitchen table dominating the cozy space. Macaroni rattled inside the boxes Noah and Daryl shook while Emma banged her pan and Travis sawed on his grate. Sierra added a meow here and there. All in all, not half bad for a family band. One side of Heath’s mouth kicked up.
“Hey, what’s this?” asked Pa as he entered the front door.
“We’re making it rain!” shouted Noah, blasting across the open living space to throw his arms around his grandpa’s legs.
“And thunder.” Emma clanged her spoon against the pan for emphasis.
Pa hung his hat. “Well now. We sure could use it.”
A wire tightened across Heath’s chest, constricting his breath. Time to tell Pa about his Nashville tryout before he bailed like Clint predicted. “There’s something important I need to talk to you about, Pa.”
Pa nodded. “Let me just get a cup of joe first.” His normally broad shoulders drooped, and the grooves of his weathered face appeared deeper, his skin slightly gray.
“What’s wrong, Pa?” Sierra set down Ginger and hurried to their father. “You don’t look good.”
Pa ran a hand over his brush of silver hair, then jerked a thumb at the screen door. “Cole’s the one who’s not doing good.”
Travis ducked outside.
“What happened?” Heath measured out coffee grounds and dumped them in the coffee maker. Since his brother Cole’s ex, Katlynn Brennan, left after taping a segment for her cable show about the Loveland-Cade family feud, he’d been even more withdrawn than usual.
“Hurt his arm.” Pa opened the door and ushered in a hunched Cole, his left arm in a sling, followed by Joy and Travis.
Air whooshed out of Heath’s lungs as if someone had just drop-kicked him in the chest. If Cole was laid up, their make-or-break herding season went from daunting to near impossible.
“Are you okay, Uncle Cole?” Emma tugged on his plaid shirt.
Pain edged Cole’s smile, and dark unease filled Heath. “I’ve had better days, but your pretty smile sure makes things better. That and some Percocet.”
The unease turned into balls of dread, settling heavily in Heath’s stomach. Cole never took pain medication. His arm must be seriously injured. Water overflowed the coffeepot Heath held beneath the faucet before he switched it off.
Emma giggled. “You always say that, Uncle Cole.”
He lightly tapped the tip of Emma’s nose. “That’s because it’s always true.”
“Can I draw on your cast?” Noah tugged Cole’s sling. The dread exploded in Heath’s gut like buckshot, and his gaze dropped to the white plaster encasing Cole’s left arm. He’d broken it. “Josh has one and he let everyone sign it but me.”
“He’s mean,” Emma griped. “Who wants to sign stupid-head’s stupid old cast anyway?”
“Be nice,” Sierra chided, her raised hand hiding her smile.
As Heath stared at Cole, his heart cracked open. What did this mean to his Nashville tryout? He poured the measured water into the back of the coffee maker and flicked on the machine.
It was a selfish thought. Shameful...considering his brother was hurt. Heath breathed in the brewing coffee’s rich roasted aroma and strove to settle his racing pulse. He opened the fridge and paused before pulling out the milk, letting the cool air wash over his flushed face.
“What happened?” Sierra retrieved mugs. When the gurgling coffee maker quieted, she filled them and added milk.
Cole’s stance appeared casual, but he was coiled tight, hiding the pain. “Wasn’t paying close enough attention while fixing the bull pen fence. I got pinned when Diesel charged.”
Heath winced. Few survived the force of a two-ton raging bull. With a grateful nod, Pa curled his fingers around the warm mug Heath passed him.
Daryl whistled. “Could have been a heck of a lot worse.”
Cole accepted Sierra’s coffee and dropped into a seat. “Pa pulled me out.”
“Why were you in there, anyway?” Travis clasped his hands behind his back and frowned.
“Thought Diesel was secured in his pen. Must not have latched the gate last night.” Cole dropped his head in his hand.
“I’m just so thankful you’re both okay.” Joy reached across the table and managed to pat both Cole and their pa. Despite the late hour, their new stepmother looked stylish—and matching—as always in a blue polka-dot blouse tucked into a blue skirt that complemented her silver bob and hazel eyes.
“How long do you have to wear the cast?” Heath’s temples were starting to ache. The scalding coffee burned his tongue, but he kept sipping anyway.
“Six weeks.” Pa’s expression was pale and strained.
“Which is why Joy and I are canceling our honeymoon.”
Heath’s jaw hit the floor. Coffee splashed over the rim of his mug when he set it down. They needed every hand, but Pa couldn’t cancel his special trip with the woman he’d waited for all his life. They had to figure out a way to make this work. “Daryl and I can handle things, Pa.”
Pa shook his head, lacing his fingers with Joy’s. “We need at least three full-timers. Maverick’s on his bull-riding tour. Travis used up his vacation last week for the wedding, Sierra’s running her practice, and we can’t afford to hire another hand.”
A weight landed on Heath’s shoulders as he rubbed his fingers along his temples. He couldn’t leave his family ranch when they needed him. Couldn’t try for the record deal after all. The feeling that his dreams were slipping through his fingers cut deep into him, making misery of his bone and tissue.
Heath clenched his jaw and dragged in a deep breath. The contract was a long shot anyway. No sense pining for it. Instead, he’d work around the clock to ensure things ran smoothly during their cattle drive while his father honeymooned. Staving off foreclosure mattered most. Heath’s life had never belonged to him anyway; it’d been stupid to think otherwise, even for one night.
Cole lifted his head slowly. “Sorry, Pa.”
“Stop me if I’m overstepping, but...” Joy’s mouth pursed. “Maybe one of my kids could lend a hand? We have plenty of help with my nephews visiting this summer. We could spare someone experienced.”
Everyone sat perfectly still. No one spoke or even appeared to breathe. A Cade working Loveland ranch? Unthinkable...yet they had to consider it.
“Forget it.” Joy pulled off her frameless glasses and cleared the fogged lens with a napkin. “I shouldn’t have interfered.”
“You’re part of the family, darlin’.” Pa smiled tenderly. “It says Joy Loveland on our marriage certificate, don’t it?”
“Yeah.” Sierra threw an arm around Joy. “You’re one of us. I’m proud you’re my stepmother.”
“Me, too,” Heath, Daryl, Travis and Cole chorused.
“And our grandma!” shouted Emma and Noah, whose simultaneous attempts to climb on Joy’s lap went from shoving to a WWE match before Daryl banished them to opposite sides of the table.
“Sorry, Joy.” Daryl stared down his kids until they apologized, as well.
“After raising six kids, five of them boys, I don’t break easy.” Joy’s hands shook as she wiped beneath her eyes. “I couldn’t be prouder to call you my stepchildren and grandchildren. Hopefully, once the trial’s over, we’ll all become a real family, too. I want that more than anything.”
Heath spied his doubt in his siblings’ eyes. They’d never get along with the Cades, not with so many years of bad blood between them, no matter how the feud started, especially with their face-off in court next month. Joy was the exception.
In the week since she’d moved in, Heath had noticed subtle improvements. Family dinners happened every night. Baskets of freshly laundered clothes appeared on their beds daily. And the moment anyone mentioned a food preference, the item materialized in the fridge the following day.
Is this what having a mother is like? Heath had caught himself wondering since the wedding. He’d devoted his childhood to pleasing his real mother, to smoothing things over and making others happy. Having someone else take care of him and his family left him unsettled...and feeling almost unneeded, if that made any good sense.
“Let’s not talk about the trial for now,” Pa said, gruff. “Joy, who should we ask to help?”
She tapped her chin. “Jack’s working across the state as a sheriff’s deputy. James is ranch manager, so we can’t spare him. My nephews are learning the ropes and don’t have enough experience. Jared’s touring with Amberley so that leaves either Justin or Jewel.” No mention of Jesse, of course, the son she’d lost to violence related to his opioid addiction.
“Justin?” Cole exclaimed. “Heck no, not unless you want the place burned down. Remember the Fourth of July when he decided to light fireworks from the church steeple and set the roof ablaze?”
Joy smiled widely at that, and Heath’s stomach plummeted. If not Justin, then the rancher assisting him would have to be...
“Who would you pick, Pa?” Daryl wiped fudge from Noah’s chin.
“I’ll let our range boss decide. He’s in charge of ranch operations while I’m away.” All eyes turned Heath’s way.
Heath’s stomach twisted something awful, and he opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say. Jewel’s dogged determination to free the spare, her no-nonsense efficiency in mounting the new tire and her dry, quick wit had impressed him.
Her challenging, irritating and obnoxious personality, not so much. She was a tough, experienced, capable cowgirl, whose mouth would be a constant source of aggravation. Kelsey had given him until summer’s end to agree to a wedding date, and he needed time, space and peace on the open range to stop bucking his future...something he’d never get riding alongside the brash redhead.
Worse, the connection he’d felt with Jewel last night, the way his thoughts kept straying to her today, warned him of trouble ahead if they spent too much time together.
“Heath?” Pa prompted.
Time to pry his tongue off the roof of his mouth. There was nothing for it. “Jewel.” Heath scraped back his chair. “If you’ll excuse me?”
He trudged to the porch and leaned over the railing, soaking up the fresh air. Twilight was still at the stage where it was more lavender than onyx, with the fireflies just beginning to turn on and off in the yard. Standing there with the birds chirping in the trees, the crosscut-sawing of the crickets and a cattle dog snoring at the top of the stairs, was usually restful.
Heath shoved his hands in his pockets, yanked them out again, then laced them tightly behind his back, unable to settle his mind. Spirit. Heart. All around him, broad-shouldered mountains rose, penning him in, pinning him down.
Goodbye, Nashville.
He squeezed his eyes shut as a burning knot of emotion formed in the back of his throat. Without other prospects, he’d have to accept Kelsey’s father’s offer to become a partner in the supply business.
He’d have to set a wedding date.
Give up gigging.
Music.
He sucked in a sharp, stinging breath, then blew it out. He heard a fluttering overhead and then the hoot of an owl, which for some reason struck him as menacing.
At least his new, lucrative job meant he could help keep Loveland Hills on secure financial footing. It wasn’t the life he’d dreamed of, but it was the one he’d been dealt.
Best he accepted it.
Besides, he loved Kelsey...didn’t he? They’d been together for so long he wasn’t always sure. Their relationship was comfortable, like a pair of worn slippers...and just as boring. But that was typical of people who’d been together as long as he and Kelsey had, he’d heard.
The door banged open behind him, and Pa clapped him on the back. “Jewel will be a whole lot easier on the eye than Justin.”
Heath shifted from foot to foot and swatted away something feathery, a moth. Looks weren’t everything. He’d watched Jewel at local rodeos through the years; she was a talented roper and rode as well as any man. The question was: Would she listen to him and take orders? Between her and Justin, he’d wager her daredevil brother would be easier to handle, despite what Cole said. This year’s herding had to go off without a hitch. The stakes were too high for mistakes.
“You sure you’ll be okay handling the cattle drive while I’m away?” Pa asked. “Joy’s fine canceling the trip.”
Heath jerked his lips into a smile big enough to ease his father’s concerns. Pa deserved to be happy. “You bet, Pa.”
His father’s tense expression softened. “Never thought I’d have this second chance with Joy. I appreciate it, son.”
“No thanks needed. It’s what family does. We’re always here for each other.”
Pa nodded. “So, what was the important thing you wanted to tell me?”
Gnats whined in Heath’s ears and tree frogs piped. He stared at the distant moon and shook his head. “It wasn’t that important.”
Which was true.
Nothing was as important as keeping his family happy and at peace. Now he just needed to make peace with it himself...
And manage antagonistic Jewel Cade while driving cattle through one of the worst droughts in his state’s history.
His fingers clenched around the rail once his father strode back inside. What had he just signed up for?
