The Cowboy's Little Surprise

“There’s nothing you need to think about. This idea’s got some strong possibilities, too, and I’m just the man to put it in place.” He smiled. “Don’t you worry, Paz. None of these kids will have a clue as to what’s going on.”

Chapter One (#ulink_2e236c67-bcde-5c2d-8b1a-0d3e94eef4f2)

Two weeks later

To Cole Slater, walking into the Hitching Post Hotel felt like coming home...which probably didn’t mean much, considering he’d hated the home he had grown up in and hadn’t stayed in any one place since leaving it.

He stared around him in awe. Everything looked the same as it had the day he’d shown up here as a high-school senior, as raw as any wrangler could have been, to start a job on Garland Ranch. In those early days, he’d ridden the line between a determination to prove himself and the stomach-clenching certainty he was in way over his head.

Exactly the way he’d felt since his return to Cowboy Creek.

Pushing the thought aside, he turned to Jed, who hadn’t changed much, either. His white hair was combed neatly into place, as always, and he wore the same string tie and belt buckle Cole had never seen him without.

“Glad you could drop by,” his former boss said.

“I appreciate the invitation. As the saying goes, you’re not looking a day older, Jed. And things around here don’t seem to have changed a bit.”

Jed beamed. “We try to keep the place up.”

“You’ve done a good job of it.”

Years of polishing had buffed the hotel’s registration desk to a high sheen. The brass foot rail encircling it gleamed. Even the knotty-pine walls and flooring of the reception area gave off a soft glow, as if the candles in the wrought-iron holders on the wall had been set to flame.

In the sitting room off to one side of the entry, the same heavy, low-slung couches and chairs sported the same handmade afghans, and the chime clock on the wall still ticked the seconds away like a slow, steady heartbeat.

Or maybe that was his own heart, thumping so hard he could hear it.

No, the Hitching Post hadn’t changed. Neither had the old man in front of him. But he himself sure had, and the time had come for him to prove it.

“Paz and Tina will be sorry they missed you.”

At the statement, he froze. Jed couldn’t know just how wrong he’d been. Paz, yeah, maybe she would be happy to see him again, and he felt the same. But Tina...

He’d practically grown up with Jed’s granddaughter. They’d had the same teachers all through the lower grades and even shared some of the same classes in high school. But after what had happened between them senior year, Tina would never want to see him again.

“C’mon back.” Jed waved at him to follow and walked away.

Cole knew where they were headed. From his days of working here, he knew the ranch and the hotel well. Halfway along the hall, he stopped in the doorway of the small, overcrowded den where Jed would sit every Friday when his men came to collect their pay. On a good many of those Friday nights, Cole would hang around to talk to the boss long after the rest of the wranglers had left.

The old man probably still handled his payroll from here. He had always claimed the den was the only danged room in the hotel he could call his own.

Now his former boss took a seat in the leather chair behind the massive handmade desk. He rested his gnarled fists on its surface, looked at Cole and said not a word.

Cole stepped into the den and swung the door closed behind him.

Jed waved toward one of the guest chairs. “Never thought I’d see you sitting in front of me at this desk again.”

“Me, either. I owe you an apology, Jed.”

“Do you, now?”

“You know I do. For leaving here without letting you know I planned to quit.”

“That was a surprise, I’ll admit. Walking off without notice happens with cowhands who move around. I see that go on all the time. It’s not what I’d expect from a man I keep on the payroll. And then, never to hear a word...”

“Yeah.” He ran his thumb along the arm of the chair. “I’ve been on the move.”

“On the run.”

He froze.

“And, I take it,” Jed continued, “by nobody’s choice but your own.”

“It didn’t exactly happen like that.” He sighed. “I just wanted to get out of Cowboy Creek. You know once I was left as Layne’s legal guardian, our lives got a little crazy.”

“All the more reason to reach out to a friend.”

“I couldn’t do that. Not again.” He shrugged, as if he could dislodge the burden he’d carried since that time. He was just turned eighteen and caring for his younger sister on his own. Their mama had recently died and their dad had passed on a couple of years before that. His boss had known all this back then.

“I never wanted to ask you for those advances to my pay. But Layne was still trying to deal with losing Mama when her boyfriend dumped her—on her sixteenth birthday. She was a mess.” He shook his head. “I wanted to get her something special. Heck, I wanted to buy food to put in our fridge. But all my pay had already gone to the rent.”

Sitting back in his chair, Jed laced his fingers across his belly and squinted again. “At least you had your head on straight about your sister. I’ll give you that. Family’s important.” He sounded more sad than angry now. But he frowned. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me back then you still needed help, boy?”

Cole took a deep breath and gestured uselessly. What could he have said? That he wanted to keep Jed’s respect for stepping up and taking care of his own? That he hated the thought of admitting his helplessness to the man he looked up to more than he ever had to his own dad?

Instead, unable to say either of those things and worried nearly to death about Layne, he’d turned around and betrayed the one person who’d believed in him.

“Anyhow,” he said, “once she and her boyfriend made up, she wanted to get married. She was underage, and as her guardian, she needed me to sign the paperwork to give my okay. And I did.” He sighed. “I didn’t stop to think about much else. I was still just a kid myself, too dumb to know that walking away from a job without notice wasn’t the right thing to do. But all I could see was that getting Layne settled gave me my ticket out. So I grabbed it and never looked back. Now, she’s on her own again, only this time she’s got both a kid and one on the way. So here I am.” He took a deep breath. “I always intended to apologize to you. And to pay back the advances.”

The old man’s white eyebrows shot up. “It’s sure taken you a while to get around to it.”

“I know that, too. This is the first time I’ve come back to town since then.” For one reason or a dozen, none of which he wanted to think about. “It didn’t sit right for me to just mail you a check. When I paid my obligation, I wanted to make sure I was looking you in the eye.”

“Folks say a handshake between friends is worth its weight in gold.” Jed stood and reached across the desk. When they clasped hands, the old man’s grip was as strong and sure as it had ever been.

“And I need to take care of those advances.” He pulled out his wallet. “No haggling over this, Jed. I owe you.”

“Well, we can let that part go.”

Cole frowned. He didn’t want their conversation to end this way. After all this time, he wanted to pay his debt in full. To finally get rid of the burden. But Jed, jaw set stubbornly, had returned to his seat.

Instead of the redemption he’d hoped for, he would have to settle temporarily for that handshake and the knowledge he hadn’t lost a friend.

“I have got a proposition for you, though,” Jed said. “Now you’re back in town, you’ll need a job.”

“Yeah. I figure I’ll get picked up at one of the ranches around here, even if it’s just through the summer.”

“I want you on this ranch.”