Jenna's Cowboy Hero

And the dog was growling now.

“Your dog was in the road, and the boys were pretty d—”

She raised a hand and her eyes flashed fire. “Watch it.”

“Your boys were close to getting run over, and you’re worried about my language?”

“Yes, sir, I am.”

“Great, total insanity.”

“Only partial.” She smiled. Huge brown eyes lit with golden flecks caught and held his gaze. She took a few more careful steps and he realized that she wasn’t much bigger than her two boys. Five feet nothing, and he felt like a giant towering over her.

Adam stamped down the desire to ask her name. He pushed aside old habits that had gotten him into more trouble than he could handle. More gossip than real trouble, but to the world, it might as well be true.

“I’m really sorry about the boys, and the dog.” She had rounded up all three and they gathered close, in a tight-knit huddle at the side of the road.

“It’s okay. I just wouldn’t want them to get hurt.”

“You’re right, of course. I’m Jenna Cameron.” She held out a small hand with pink-painted nails. “Welcome to Dawson.”

“Yeah, thank you. I’m looking for a half-finished summer camp.”

“You sound happy about that.”

“Real happy.” Because he never expected to lose his cousin, and he hadn’t expected the camp to be unfinished. He pulled the directions out of his pocket and read them off to her. “Do you have any idea where that is?”

She stepped to the edge of the road and pointed. Three hundred feet ahead, on the other side of the road and barely visible due to shrubs and grass, was a gravel drive. “That’s your place.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.” He took a step closer to her and the dog snarled, raising an upper lip in a pretty convincing warning. Adam backed away.

“Sorry, he’s my guard dog.” Her hand rested on the dog’s head. “I’m afraid I don’t reprimand him for doing his job.”

“No need, as long as he doesn’t bite me.” He didn’t want to add dog bite to the things that had gone wrong today. He looked at the overgrown drive and the address on the crumpled paper in his hand. “Are you sure that’s it?”

It was a cow pasture dotted with trees. He couldn’t see much of the property because trees lined the fence row that ran parallel to the road.

“That’s it. Earlier this summer they were working up there, until…well, anyway, they built a barn and a dorm. They even hauled in a single-wide mobile home.”

“At least he did that.”

“So, you’re the owner.”

“I’m the lucky guy.” He shoved the paper back into his pocket and walked back to his car. She followed, slower, taking it easy over the rocks. The boys and the dog remained at the edge of the road, all three looking at him like he might be public enemy number one.

He was used to that look, more used to the look than to kids. He had made a careful choice not to date women with kids. Or at least he’d had that policy since Morgan.

“You’re probably going to need help getting your car out of that ditch.” She walked closer, eyeing the car. She smelled like soap and peaches, not Chanel.

“I don’t think this car is going anywhere anytime soon.”

“I can give you the number of the local garage,” she offered, looking up at him. “They can tow it for you.”

“Are you going to pay the tow bill, seeing as it was your kids who caused the wreck?”

“If you insist.”

“No, I don’t insist. Forget it.” He glanced back at the boys and the dog. “They’re cute.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mackenzie, and I really am sorry.” She bit down on her bottom lip and averted her gaze back to his car.

He didn’t know what to say. She knew him, which meant that even here he couldn’t find anonymity. And it wouldn’t be long before his family knew that he was back in Oklahoma.

Jenna looked away from the pale blue eyes of the man towering over her. She’d get a crick in her neck if she kept looking up at the six-and-a-half-foot giant, whom she knew well from watching football with the guys in her unit. His face was all smooth planes beneath a sandy-brown goatee, and when he smiled, there was something about it that changed his eyes, making her think a light was hiding inside his heart. It was a kind of shy smile, almost humble, but powerful.

Maybe it wasn’t real. It could be a part of his lady-killer image. As an optimist she liked to think that it was something else. It was the real person hiding inside the public image, hidden by tabloid stories of models and actresses.

She’d like to know the real Big Mac Mackenzie.

But of course, she wouldn’t. Getting to know a man wasn’t on her five-year plan. Or her fifteen-year plan. She would get her boys and walk back up the drive to her house, away from the temptation to ask him questions about his life and why he was here now.

He had finished checking out the wrecked car and walked back to her, shaking his head.

“Is it bad?” She was mentally calculating what a car like that would cost, and how much the repairs would cost her.

“No, I don’t think so. Two tires are blown, and there’s a good dent in the driver’s side door.”

“Do you want the number for the garage?”

“I guess I have to.” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket.

“Sorry, you’ll have to come up to the house for the number.” Jenna gathered the boys and looked back over her shoulder.

He was standing in the road, looking unsure, like this was all some malicious trap on her part. He looked like a giant, but he looked lost and a little vulnerable. She shook off the thought that compared him with David, her smallest twin, after he’d had a bad dream.

Big Mac Mackenzie wasn’t a lost child. He was a grown man standing in the road wearing faded jeans, a loose white shirt with the top three buttons undone and a black cowboy hat firmly in place.

“Are you coming?” She waited. “I’ll get you a Band-Aid for the cut on your head.”

He finally nodded, let out a sigh and took long-legged strides that soon put him next to them. And then he walked slower, keeping pace with them as they made their way up the drive to the house.

Horses whinnied from the barn, reminding Jenna that it was feeding time. She glanced in that direction, thinking of work that needed to be done, and how she’d rather be sitting on the front porch with her leg up and a glass of iced tea on the table next to her.

She loved her front porch with the ivy and clematis vines climbing the posts, drawing in bees and butterflies. She loved the scent of wild roses in the spring. Like now, caught on the breeze, the scent was sweet and brought back memories.

Some good, some bad.

“What are your names?” Adam Mackenzie asked the boys, his deep voice a little scary. Jenna gave a light squeeze to their hands to encourage them.