Buch lesen: «The Cowboy Meets His Match»

Chapter One

Stretching out her legs in the tall grass, with her eyes closed and her back against the rough bark of a tree, Erin Walker smiled at the sound of a fish breaking the surface of the water. Content, she pulled in a breath of warm, June afternoon air and started to toe off her boots. But the sound of a second, a third and then a fourth splash followed, all louder and each sounding closer than the one before.

That was no fish.

She sat up straight, her heart rate increasing as she looked out onto Lake Walker, the large pond on the ranch near Desperation, Oklahoma, where she’d grown up. That was when she spotted the naked man, standing not twenty yards away in the pond.

Erin felt an eerie flash of déjà vu but blamed it on the shock of the moment. Surely he hadn’t seen her. If he had, he would have left immediately. Instead, he stood hip deep in the water, his back to her, his arms stretched above his head, flexing muscles that would have caused a half-blind ninety-year-old spinster to suffer a case of the vapors.

If only he’d turn around.

Just as she finished the thought, he started to do exactly that. She quickly but carefully scooted down to lie on the ground, while praying he was too busy enjoying his skinny-dip to notice her. From her prone position, all she could see was the very top of his head—and that was only if she stretched her neck uncomfortably. She was also aware that if she moved, he might notice her. With a silent sigh, she lowered her head, settling in to wait him out.

Closing her eyes so she could concentrate on any sounds, she yawned, her previous late night catching up with her early morning. After a few minutes, she heard the sound of movement in the water. He was leaving. Or maybe coming closer. She couldn’t be certain, but the sound seemed to be getting farther and farther away, until it stopped. Straining to listen for confirmation, she thought she heard the soft whinny of a horse, but she couldn’t be certain.

More time passed, as she waited for some kind of indication that he was no longer in the area. When she heard nothing else, she finally felt relatively safe.

“Did you enjoy the view?”

She froze. She knew that voice, would never forget it and was trapped by the person it belonged to. She suspected he was waiting for an answer, but she needed time to settle the slamming of her heart and attend to her need to breathe. The first was impossible; the second was achieved by forcing air into her lungs.

She refused to open her eyes, her heart pounding in her ears as she struggled to gain control. When she finally opened them, there was no one there. No person, no horse, no evidence that what she’d heard had been real. For all she knew, she’d fallen asleep and dreamed it. If so, it had been her worst nightmare.

In spite of being fairly certain she’d imagined the whole thing, she remained cautious as she got to her feet. The first thing she did was check to make sure no one was lurking behind her in the bushes, but there was nobody there.

“No, it didn’t happen,” she muttered.

She used the walk back to her childhood home—now her brother’s house—to clear her head. She’d been dreaming. That had to be it. But why? It had been years since—

Unwilling to think about what had happened long ago, she forced her thoughts to something else. When she first decided to visit Lake Walker, she’d thought she would do some riding, but the idea of saddling and mounting the horse that had replaced Firewind only made her miss him that much more. Erin prided herself on not being particularly emotional, and she didn’t want to give herself any reason to get that way, so she’d chosen to walk instead. She welcomed the exercise. She hadn’t been sleeping well for weeks, and she’d been so tired lately—it made sense that she’d imagined someone had spoken to her, although the man in the pond had definitely been real.

Back at the house, she stepped inside the screened porch, then opened the door that led into the kitchen, where she found both of her brothers seated at the table. “I see you took—”

“It’s about time you got back here,” Luke, the youngest, announced.

She looked first at him and then at Dylan, who scowled at her. “What?” she asked. “I’m not allowed to get some exercise?”

Dylan leaned back in his chair, his scowl deepening. “We have somewhere to go. We meaning you, too.”

“Did you forget?” Luke asked.

She had forgotten, but they didn’t need to know that, now that they’d reminded her. “Of course not. We’re meeting up with the others at Lou’s Place.”

“Right.” Dylan crossed his arms on his chest. “And we’re expected to be there in thirty minutes.”

“No problem,” she replied. “It won’t take me long to get cleaned up and—”

“Dean is expecting to meet you there.”

She stared at Luke, hoping her confusion appeared believable. “Dean? Dean who?”

“You know damn well who,” Dylan said. Pushing away from the table, he stood and walked over to her, his six-foot-plus body towering over her. “Dean Franklin. You remember him. We introduced you to him at the fall festival last October.”

“I have no idea who you’re talking about.” No way would she let herself be set up with another man her brothers had chosen for her. And if they insisted, she would pack up her motor home and leave. She had plenty of friends on the rodeo circuit who would be happy to give her a place to park until she found somewhere permanent to live. For that to happen, she needed money, and she refused to ask her brothers for it.

“You agreed to meet him,” Luke said.

Erin shook her head. “No. You—both of you—set it up and told him I’d be there. I never had a say in it or in the other men you’ve tried to marry me off to since the leaves started falling from the trees last October. Give it up, boys. I’ve had enough of your game. You act like I can’t get a man on my own. No, let me rephrase that. You act like I can’t even attract a man. Let me assure you right now, that isn’t the case.”

“Did I say it was?” Dylan asked.

“You didn’t have to. It’s as plain as the noses on your faces that you’re trying to fix me up with somebody. With anybody.”

“You’ve got this all wrong.”

“Do I? I think it’s you two who have it all wrong, and you need to butt out of my life.”

This time it was Luke who spoke. “We’re only trying to help, Erin.”

“Well, don’t,” she said. “If I decide I need a man—which I don’t—I can find one on my own. Understand?”

“We’re concerned. We want to make sure you have someone to take care of you.”

Her mouth opened and words came tumbling out. “Take care of me? You both seem to forget that I’ve been on my own for almost fourteen years. I’ve traveled the rodeo circuit across this whole country and even into Canada...by myself. Nobody was holding my hand. Nobody was keeping me company or taking care of me.”

Dylan nodded. “Which is all well and good. But you’re older now. Don’t you want a family?”

She felt the twinge of regret that always hit her when she thought of what she’d done, nearly seventeen years before. But they didn’t know, and she wasn’t about to tell them. Ever. She’d had her reasons for staying away from the ranch and for remaining single. And at the age of thirty-four, she wasn’t about to get tied down now.

“I have a family,” she replied. “I have you two. But if you don’t stop insisting that I marry the first yahoo that comes along, you’ll give me no choice but to leave. Do you understand that?”

Luke looked at Dylan, who shrugged. “You always were stubborn.”

“Bullheaded,” Luke added.

“No more than the two of you. Shall we talk about your lives before I stepped in to fix them? If it hadn’t been for me finding you the perfect women to marry, there’s no telling what would have happened to you.” She looked pointedly at Dylan, who had come close to losing his share of the ranch, barely a year earlier, until she’d devised a plan to set him up with a former classmate, which had ended in an engagement and an upcoming wedding.

He looked down at her, his green eyes full of a gratefulness she wished he would move beyond. “All right. You’ve made your point, Erin.” He looked at Luke, who nodded, then back at her. “We’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you want.”

She wasn’t sure if she should feel relieved. She knew better than to trust them, but they both appeared sincere. “Thank you.”

She turned to leave, hoping they wouldn’t have to revisit this topic again. The men her brothers had introduced her to had been good men, but she’d never met a man who didn’t try to run her life. She suspected she never would.

She didn’t mind her solitary life. It was what she’d chosen, and the idea of getting married or anything close to it was out of the question. She liked being single and had no reason to change.

“Fifteen minutes, Erin,” Dylan called to her as she started for the door. “No more.”

She swallowed her sigh. They weren’t going to let her off the hook.

The mere thought of the word hook caused her to nearly trip on the threshold. That word reminded her of fishing and ponds and a naked man. A shower was exactly what she needed.

* * *

WITHOUT LOOKING, JAKE CANFIELD knew Erin had walked into Lou’s Place, Desperation’s local tavern. All he’d needed was to hear her voice.

He’d been surprised—no, make that shocked—when he’d spied her lying in the grass near the pond. If he’d known she’d come home, he never would have gone there. Two things had drawn him back. He’d inherited his uncle’s ranch, and he’d thought Erin was still on the rodeo circuit. At least he knew now that she wasn’t riding. And he was curious to know why. Becoming a barrel racer had always been her dream, much like his own dream of being a rancher. Hers had come true early, and from what he’d heard, she’d done well. Very well. He’d had to wait a while for his, but it had been worth it.

He shouldn’t have been surprised to see her at Lou’s. After all, she was a grown woman now, not the girl he’d known since he was eight and who’d stolen his heart when he was fifteen.

Had she known it was him at the pond? He hadn’t gotten a reply to his question, so he couldn’t be sure. He would solve that, though, soon enough.

Turning around, he saw her with her brothers and another man, who at that moment had her hand in his. A pang of jealousy shot through him, and he immediately shook it off. He had no claim on her. All they shared was their childhoods and a night he’d never forgotten. It still hurt to think about it.

He knew the minute she spotted him. Her eyes grew wide, and she took a small, stuttering step back, then quickly regained her composure and nodded in his direction. In reply, he touched the brim of his Stetson. She eased away from her brothers and the man with them, and walked toward him.

She stopped in front of him, and he couldn’t hide his smile when she had to tip back her head to look up at him. “I suppose I should have known,” she said.

“Good to see you again, too, Erin,” he replied. Her hello wasn’t as bad as he’d expected.

“Erin?” a woman said from the table behind him.

Erin raised her hand in a wave, but didn’t break the gaze that held her to him. “Apparently you’ve forgotten that Lake Walker is private property. Walker property.”

“So you did know it was me.”

“Not until a minute ago—”

“And you didn’t answer my question.”

She hesitated for a split second. “What question is that?”

“Did you enjoy the view?”

Her chest rose with a deep breath before she answered, “What little I saw wasn’t bad.”

He had to grit his teeth to keep from laughing. Same old Erin. “I wouldn’t use that word, if I were you.”

Her eyes narrowed, but the twinkle in them made a lie of it. “What word? Little?”

“That would be it. Have you even grown an inch since the last time I saw you?”

She opened her mouth, only to close it. Looking past him, she jerked her thumb in his direction. “You all may have met Jake Canfield, ne’er-do-well, years ago but completely forgot him. It happens a lot.”

She’d made her point, and he wished he hadn’t mentioned the past. She obviously didn’t want to revisit it. Had he hurt her that much?

She flashed him a triumphant smile, and he thought he saw a wink as she walked past him. With a shake of his head and a chuckle, he turned around to see a table where several women were sitting and instantly recognized them from his summers in Desperation.

“That name sounds familiar,” one of them said with a grin, as she offered Jake her hand. “I’m Kate—”

“Mrs. Dusty McPherson,” Erin finished for her, and looked pointedly at Jake. “You might remember Dusty.”

He responded with a smile and took Kate’s hand in his. He would play along, if that’s what Erin wanted. “I do remember your husband, Mrs. McPherson. Quite a bull rider, not long ago. I was sorry to hear he’d retired.”

“It’s Kate,” the woman said, frowning at Erin.

One of the other women from the table leaned in front of Erin, a confused look on her face. “I’m Trish, Kate’s sister. Trish Rule.”

He released Kate’s hand to take Trish’s outstretched one. “Sisters, huh?”

“Better behave, Jake. Her husband is the sheriff,” Erin announced.

“Is that so? He didn’t mention that he had such a pretty wife when I stopped in at his office the other day.”

Erin closed her eyes and shook her head, then moved away. Score one for him. They’d battled on a daily basis, all summer long, every summer he spent at his uncle’s ranch. Verbal sparring, he’d called it, and she’d been an expert at it. He learned from her and had gotten pretty good at him himself—until he’d realized she wasn’t a little girl anymore and lost his heart to her.

He felt a hand on his back and heard, “Good to see you again, Jake.”

Jake turned his head to see Erin’s youngest brother. “Luke, it’s been a long time. Thanks for returning my dog the other day.”

They shook hands as Dylan, the older of the Walker brothers, joined them. “We thought it might be yours, and sorry we missed seeing you. We’d been watching all the building going on at your uncle’s place and hoped you had something to do with it.”

Jake released Luke’s hand to shake his brother’s. “Everything to do with it, you could say.”

“We were sorry to hear about your uncle,” Luke said. “What’s it been? Two years?”

Jake nodded. “Close to it. Probate took longer than expected. Seems Uncle Carl owned more than we knew about, most of it on the other side of town. Some in the next county.”

“Yeah? I didn’t know.”

“Neither did I.” Jake’s mind flashed back to the day he’d received the news that his uncle had died and left the ranch to him, the only nephew. He’d inherited more than he’d ever thought possible and was excited to own his own spread. After turning his back on what his father had wanted him to do, he’d struck out on his own, working for others and learning the ranching business from the bottom up.

“I noticed you and Erin have reconnected,” Dylan said, glancing in the direction of his sister, who had taken a seat at the table with Trish and Kate.

“Reconnected?” Jake asked, and chuckled. “More like she was as surprised to see me as I was to see her. I thought she’d still be barrel racing on the rodeo circuit. Last I knew, she was.”

Luke shrugged. “We finally talked her into visiting more often, but never for very long. Then this past February, she pulled in with her motor home and horse trailer, saying she needed a rest.”

“With no warning?” Jake asked.

“Not a word,” Dylan answered.

“And she’s driving us crazy,” Luke added. “We’re beginning to wish we hadn’t encouraged her to come home.”

Shaking his head, he smiled. “Sounds like Erin. She still have her horse? Firewind?”

“He’s gone. That’s all we know,” Luke answered. “She has a new one, though. She set up barrels in the spare corral and runs them almost every day.”

“But she isn’t happy,” Dylan said. “She needs something more to do to keep her busy.”

Jake didn’t doubt he could keep her busy, but not in the way they were thinking. He hoped her brothers had never learned of what happened that Thanksgiving weekend of his first year in college, when he’d come back to visit. They didn’t need to know just how close he and their sister had once been, not to mention how he’d ended it without warning and taken off, never planning to return again.

He shook his head and smiled. “I don’t see her taking up knitting any day soon.”

Luke laughed. “No kidding.”

Dylan glanced at Luke, before saying, “She could use a job.”

“Job?”

Luke nodded.

With a glimmer of an idea that might or might not work, he asked, “What kind of job?”

Dylan shrugged. “You know her. When it comes to horses and cattle, there’s not much she doesn’t know or can’t do.”

Jake nodded and hoped they’d never know about the things he knew Erin could do.

“From what she’s said,” Luke continued, “she’s spent some of her downtime on her friends’ ranches, helping out when needed. She’s even worked with some of the ropers, ‘refining their skills,’ she calls it.”

Dylan leaned closer. “Why are you asking?”

It was Jake’s turn to shrug. “I just wondered.”

“Are you looking for some ranch hands?”

Jake didn’t want to commit to anything. The chances of Erin accepting a job from him were slim, at best. Then there was the question of whether he wanted her working for him. There’d be battles. She was strong-minded and could be as stubborn as the day was long. But he couldn’t deny that she knew her way around livestock. She would be an asset.

“Maybe,” he answered. “Not that she’d take a job on my ranch.”

Luke and Dylan looked at each other, and Dylan said, “She might.”

Jake was still skeptical.

Luke shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. We understand what a pain she can be.”

Jake didn’t even try to curb his smile. “I guess she never grew out of that.” He was glad she still had the spunk she’d had when they were young. And although he suspected she’d never forgiven him for ending what had barely started, it obviously hadn’t kept her down.

“She has a good heart, though,” Dylan said. “After Pop and Mama died—”

“We appreciated the check you sent to the memorial fund, Jake,” Luke told him. “Your uncle, too.”

Jake nodded. “It was the least we could do. I remember when Uncle Carl called to tell me. I—” He swallowed hard at the memory and how he’d wished he could do something to comfort all of them. David and Ann Walker had treated him like one of their own. “I couldn’t imagine what you all were going through. They were great people.”

Both brothers nodded and were silent for a moment, and a shadow crossed Dylan’s face, before he spoke. “Did you know Erin postponed her rodeo career to stay home with us, until Luke graduated from high school?”

Jake shook his head but wasn’t surprised. She’d always been fiercely protective of the two of them. “I didn’t know, but that sounds just like her.”

“There’s nobody like Erin,” Dylan said.

After another brief pause, Luke put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “It really is good to see you. We all need to get together again.”

“Soon,” Jake answered.

“We’ll do that. And if you hear anything about a job for someone with Erin’s qualifications...”

“I’ll pass it on,” Jake promised.

As they moved away, he noticed that Erin had left the table where she’d been sitting with the others. After a quick glance around the tavern, he saw her. On the far side of the room, she stood with her hands braced on the old jukebox as she leaned forward to read the list of song titles. He felt a surge of heat shoot through his body but did his best to ignore it. He suspected she wouldn’t accept if he approached her about a job. She had a lot of pride, but she had a lot of talent, too. If he hired her it wouldn’t be because he wanted to try to repeat the past.

Or did he? He’d never forgotten her. Hardly a day had gone by that he hadn’t thought of her. Would it hurt to see if she would take the job? What did he have to lose? He’d already lost her, but maybe he could change that.

* * *

ERIN TOOK HER time at the jukebox. She needed to pull herself together. She’d never expected to see Jake Canfield again and wondered if he’d thought the same about her. When she saw him talking with Dusty McPherson and Morgan Rule, she made her way back to the table where Kate and Trish were sitting. She felt light-headed, weak at the knees. She had to stay as far away from Jake as possible until she could regain her equilibrium. Seeing him again had been a shock, and she hadn’t felt this vulnerable for a long time. She knew she could handle it, but she wished she didn’t have to. She had enough to deal with already.

“You always pick the best music, Erin,” Trish said, as she approached the table.

Pulling out the empty chair across from them, Erin settled on it. “There’s not a lot to do when you’re driving around the country from one place to another.”

“And we’re so glad you’re not doing that anymore and have come home,” Kate said.

Even though she’d been home for several months, Erin felt overwhelmed by all the things she still needed to catch up on. “I’ve missed so much. I guess that’s one of the drawbacks of having only brothers. They can rattle off every statistic to do with cattle and crops, but anything else must instantly vaporize in their brains.”

“Typical men, then,” Trish said, laughing.

“I heard that.”

Erin turned and looked up to see Jake, whose frown made deep lines between his gray eyes. In an instant, he revealed the matched set of deep dimples she remembered so well that bracketed his smile. It was that smile and the look in his eyes that could turn her inside out.

She dipped her head to avoid him. She’d known him since she was almost six years old. They’d grown up together. He’d spent summers at his uncle’s ranch, and she and her brothers had become friends with him. He’d been tall and thin, a bit gangly and a little on the quiet side. She’d found a hundred ways to make his life hell because of it, and he’d done the same to her.

But the Jake Canfield standing by her now was far from a thin, quiet boy. The image of him in the pond had been burned into her memory as permanently as another memory of him. If she’d known it was him she was watching from the tall grass... She shook her head. She should have known, instead of convincing herself she’d dreamed that he’d spoken to her.

“Right, Erin?”

Lost in thought, she glanced up at him. “Hmm?”

“We were just talking about what a scrawny, ornery tomboy you were when we were growing up.”

“No more scrawny than you,” she said, but her reply lacked the bite it needed. She had to be careful. If she let him, he would tear her heart out. Again.

But when she saw his steel-colored gaze moving over her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking about, she resolved not to let him break her a second time. Still, it didn’t stop the flip-flopping of her heart.

Dusty and Morgan joined them, taking the seats on either side of their wives, and Erin decided it was time to escape. “I think I’ll get a snack. Anybody else want something?”

As she started to push her chair back, she felt Jake’s hands on the back of it. “A snack sounds good. I’ll go with you.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” she said, standing. “Just tell me what you want, and I’ll get it.”

His eyebrows shot up, accompanied by a killer smile. “No, that’s okay. I don’t mind.”

Not seeing a graceful way out of it, she nodded. But as soon as they were out of earshot of their friends, she stopped and turned to him. “Are you following me?”

“Could be,” he answered, that devilish smile of his reappearing.

“Well, don’t.”

When she started to walk away, he took her arm and stopped her. “If you’d give me a minute—”

The quick skip of her heart set off warning bells, and her old habits came back. “I think you’ve had more than a minute with me before.” She felt her face grow hot with embarrassment and ducked her head, hoping he didn’t notice.

“Can we put the past behind us?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

Hesitating for a moment, unsure of how to answer, she nodded, took a deep breath and looked up. Keep it friendly, she told herself. Pretend none of it happened. “How is the ranching business, Jake?”

“Good. That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

“Yeah?” She gathered her strength and asked, “Why are you here? You said you weren’t coming back. That’s what you told me—”

His expression revealed nothing. “I didn’t plan to, but Uncle Carl died and left me his ranch.”

“Lucky you. Not so lucky for me.”

He frowned. “I should’ve known that’s how you’d feel.”

The last words he’d said to her, almost eighteen years before, echoed in her mind. “You made your choice.”

“I didn’t—” He blew out a breath and glanced away. “I had other plans. You knew that.”

It hurt, and she didn’t want it to. “Not until you told me you were leaving. Not until after we—”

“Erin, it was a long time ago. We were young.”

He might as well have stuck a knife in her. “Right. I’d forgotten.” She hadn’t but wished she could. “Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? Because if it is—”

“No, it isn’t. I wanted to talk to you about ranch business.” He hesitated and then asked, “How much do you know about cutting horses?”

Taken off guard, she stared at him. “As much if not more than you do. I can rope with the best cowboys around, too. Why?”

Clearing his throat, he glanced around the tavern, then back at her. “I’m looking for somebody to fill an opening at the ranch.”

She peered at him through narrowed eyes. “Like who?”

He didn’t bother to beat around the bush. “Like you.”

Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him. “Me?”

He shrugged. “If you’re as good as I suspect you are, yes. I’d like to hire you.”

She didn’t want to believe him. Work for Jake? Impossible. “Have you suffered some kind of head injury?”

He smiled. “Not recently.”

She laughed. “You must be hard up to be offering me a job. If that’s what you’re doing.”

“It’s exactly what I’m doing.”

She shook her head. “I’m not interested.”

She moved away but not far enough to keep from hearing his reply. “Maybe you should think about it.”

“Nothing to think about,” she answered over her shoulder.

“If you change your mind—”

That stopped her. She took a deep breath and blew it out. Emotions tumbled through her. She needed a job. Money would allow her to get back to barrel racing, where she belonged. But working for Jake? She couldn’t.

The last person she wanted to be beholden to—no matter how broke she was, and she was pretty darned broke—was Jake Canfield. Turning to face him, she answered. “Thanks, but—” she broadened her smile and tried for indifference “—I have other plans.”