Trusting The Cowboy

He brushed some hay off his shirt, beat his dusty cowboy hat against his leg and ran his fingers through his tangled hair. That was about as changed as he was getting.

A few moments later Lauren came down the walk and Vic felt even shabbier. She wore a blue-striped button-down shirt, narrow black skirt and white canvas shoes. Her hair was pulled back again into a ponytail and she had even put on some makeup.

In a mere ten minutes she had transformed from a country girl to a city slicker.

“We’ll bring your tires in first, then I’ll need to drop my part off at the machine shop, if that’s okay,” Vic said as they got into the truck.

“You’re doing me a huge favor. I can hardly dictate the terms of the arrangement,” Lauren said, setting her purse on her lap.

Vic acknowledged that with a nod, then headed down the driveway toward the gravel road and town.

“I noticed you were haying. How many acres of the ranch are in hay?” Lauren asked.

“About two hundred and fifty.” He wondered why she asked.

“Is that a lot?”

“It’s enough to keep my cows in feed. My dad and I turned our own hay fields on the ranch into pasture, because the land here is more fertile and gets me better yields.”

“But there is some pasture here?”

“Oh, yeah. I run some cows here, too. Mostly up in the high pasture behind the ranch and across the road.”

“I see.” Lauren folded her hands on her purse and gave him a quick glance. “Sounds kind of silly that I know so little about the ranch. I never paid much attention to it. Erin was the one who liked to help. She’d spend hours wandering the back fields and occasionally working with our father.”

“I remember Erin. She was a sweet girl.”

“Very sweet. Hard to believe we were twins. She always made me try to be a better person. Somehow, she was the only one of us girls who got along with our father when we came back here. She never resented leaving Knoxville like Jodie and I did.”

He kept his eyes on the road, but half of his attention was on Lauren.

“So you didn’t like it here?” he asked. “Coming every summer?”

“I missed my friends back home and I always felt bad leaving Gramma behind, but there were parts I liked.”

“I remember seeing you girls in church on Sunday.” Jodie had usually worn some goofy outfit that Vic was sure Keith had vetoed, Erin a ruffly dress and Lauren the same simple clothes she favored now.

“Part of the deal,” Lauren said, but a faint smile teased one corner of her mouth. “And I didn’t mind that part, either. I liked hearing Aunt Laura play, and the message was always good, once I started really listening. I can’t remember who the pastor was at that time, but much of what he said resonated with me.”

“Jodie and Erin would attend some of the youth events, didn’t they?”

“Erin more than any of us. Like I said, she was the good girl.”

“I remember my brother, Dean, talking about her,” Vic said, surprised to see her looking at him. “I think he had a secret crush on her.”

“He was impetuous, wasn’t he?”

“That’s being kind. He was out of control for a while. But he’s settled now.”

Vic thought of the journey Dean had made to get to where he was. Which brought up the same pressing problem that had brought him early to the ranch.

His deal with Keith.

“So, I hate to be a broken record,” he continued, “But it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I was wondering if I could come by the house then? To go through your father’s papers?”

Lauren’s sigh was eloquent as was the way her hands clasped each other tightly.

Vic tamped down his immediate apology. He had nothing to feel bad about. He was just doing what he’d promised himself he’d do after Dean’s accident. Looking out for his brother’s interests.

“Yes. Of course. Though—” She stopped herself there. “Sorry. You probably know better what you’re looking for.”

Vic shot her a glance across the cab of the truck. “I’m not trying to be ornery or selfish or jeopardize your deal. When I first leased the ranch from your father, it was so that my brother could have his own place. And I’m hoping to protect that promise I made him. Especially now. After his accident.”

Lauren’s features relaxed enough that he assumed he was getting through to her.

“I’m sorry. I understand,” she said, her smile apologetic. “I know what it’s like to protect siblings. I did plenty of that in my life.”

“Are you the oldest?”

“Erin and I are twins, but I’m older by twenty minutes. And you?”

“The same. So yeah, I hear you on the protecting the younger ones.”

Lauren smiled back at him. And as their eyes held, he felt it again. An unexpected and surprising rush of attraction. When her eyes grew ever so slightly wider and her head lowered just a fraction, he wondered if she felt it, too.

He dragged his attention back to the road and fought down the emotions.

You’re no judge of your feelings, he reminded himself, his hands tightening on the steering wheel as if reining in his attraction to this enigmatic woman.

He’d made mistakes in the past, falling for the wrong person. He couldn’t do it again. He couldn’t afford to.

Especially not with Lauren.

* * *

“You can still plant these this year, but you won’t see them flower fully until next season.”

The young girl wearing a green apron, a huge smile and a smudge of dirt on her neck held up the pot holding the spiky-leafed lily. She turned it as if checking it from all angles. “It’s a stargazer and they tend to bloom a little later in the season than the Asiatic does.”

The warm afternoon sun filtered through the greenhouse, creating a tropical warmth. Plants in full bloom filled most of the wooden benches with swaths of pink and yellow petunias, the delicate blue, lavender and white of the lobelia, the hard red, salmon, white and pink of geraniums. People filled the aisles, talking, comparing, and laughing. A few people had greeted Lauren, some she recognized, but she couldn’t pull their names out of her memory.

The atmosphere in this place was one of quiet and peace. As she drew in a deep breath of the peaty scent, a sense of expectation thrummed through her. Though it was getting close to the end of the planting season, the shop still had a lot of stock.

“Which color is this lily?”

“This is the deep pink one. The flowers are edged with white and the spots on them are a darker shade of pink. They smell heavenly, though some people find it strong.”

The young girl, Nadine, had been a veritable font of information. Lauren found herself wandering deeper and deeper into the greenhouse and buying far more plants than she had anticipated.