Trusting The Cowboy

She lifted her chin, her hands folded primly on her laptop. “Jodie mentioned your situation to me, but we could find no paperwork substantiating your claim.”

“Your father told me he’d taken care of it.” Vic remembered discussing this with Keith after his cancer diagnosis, knowing that they needed to get something in writing to protect their agreement. Keith had promised him he was putting his affairs in order. That he’d written something out for him and signed it.

“As I said, we didn’t find anything. But if you’re interested in purchasing the ranch, you’ll have an opportunity to counteroffer.”

Vic stared at her, doubts dogging him. Keith had given him a deal on the price and Vic knew it. He doubted Lauren would do the same for the future buyer or for him.

Fury at Keith’s failure to keep his promise surged through him.

The intercom beeped. Jane answered it, then she looked at Lauren.

“Drake will see you now,” she said, her eyes darting from Lauren to Vic and back again.

Vic pressed his lips together as Lauren slipped her laptop in her leather briefcase, picked it up and stood all in one smooth motion.

But as she took a step, her purse strap caught on the chair. She stumbled and Vic jumped up to help her, catching her by the elbow, which made her totter. Her briefcase fell. She jerked her arm away. “I’m okay. I don’t need your help.”

He didn’t say anything but bent down to pick up her briefcase. But she moved too quickly and snatched it off the floor.

She spared him a glance as she straightened. Then she strode across the carpet in her towering heels, shoulders straight, head high.

And as the door closed behind her, Vic slumped back in his chair, dragging his hand over his face, feeling stupid and scared.

He’d just about made a fool of himself in front of this woman.

Lauren had a buyer for the ranch.

And there was no paper from her father.

He had promised his younger brother, Dean, that they were getting the ranch. Guaranteed it. Now they might lose it.

If that happened, how was he supposed to help his brother?

* * *

“Lauren, how lovely to see you,” Drake Neubauer said, getting up from behind his desk.

Outwardly Lauren was smiling but her insides still shook and her hands still trembled.

Mr. Vic Moore had looked so angry when she told him about the buyer for the ranch.

You did nothing wrong, she told herself, taking a deep breath as Drake walked toward her outstretched hand. He has no claim.

You could have let him help you.

She dismissed that voice as quickly as it slid into her brain. She’d been doing fine until he’d interfered and almost made her fall.

And wouldn’t that have come across all dignified?

“So glad you could make it here,” Drake said as he shook her hand, his other hand covering it, squeezing lightly. “Goodness, girl, your hands are like ice.”

“I’m just cold-blooded,” she joked as she returned his warm handshake.

Harvey had always accused her of that. At least that was the excuse he gave her when he dumped her a few days before their wedding.

“It’s good to be back,” she said, relegating those shameful memories to where they belonged. The past.

“I’m sure you missed all this,” Drake said, waving one hand at the window behind them.

Drake’s offices were situated above the hardware store, and through the window Lauren saw the valley the Saddlebank River snaked through. Her eyes shifted to the mountains, snow frosted and craggy, cradling the basin, and her mind slowed. Though she and her sisters had resented coming here every summer, when they were back home in Knoxville she’d found herself missing these very mountains.

“It was a part of my life,” she said, her voice quiet.

“Does it feel good to be back?” Drake asked.

Lauren gave him a brief smile as she lowered herself to the chair, setting her briefcase on the floor and tucking her skirt under her legs. “Yes, it does.” Though the restless part of her wasn’t sure how she would stay busy on the ranch, the weary part longed for a reprieve from the stress and tension of the last year and a half.

And a break from the pitying stares of friends each time they met. Harvey hadn’t only taken a wedding away from her, he’d also robbed her of her money, her dignity and her self-esteem. She had been scrambling to show to the world that he hadn’t won.

“And how are you doing since your father’s passing? Ironic that it wasn’t the cancer that killed him but a truck accident.” Drake sat down, opened the file lying on his desk and flipped through it.

She wasn’t sure how to respond, so she said nothing.

Though losing her father had bothered her more than she’d thought it would, the true reality was neither Lauren nor her sisters had ever been close with Keith McCauley.

“Has the accident been cleared with the insurance company yet?” Lauren asked as Drake made a few notes on a piece of paper in the file. “Jodie had said there were some difficulties?”

“They’re still dealing with it, but last I heard, it should be finalized in the next few weeks.”

“Where is the truck?”

“At Vic Moore’s. The accident happened as your father was going down his driveway.”

“Any liability at play?”

“No. That much has been determined already. The truck was in perfect working order.”

“And Vic’s driveway?”

“Your father hit a deer, then lost control and rolled the vehicle. Neither Vic nor the Rocking M were at fault.”

“I wasn’t thinking of filing a lawsuit, if that’s what you were worried about,” Lauren said, her mind ticking back to the tall man still sitting in the waiting room. With his dark eyebrows, firm chin and square jaw, he commanded attention. When he had stridden into the office, she had been unable to look away.

But all it took was a glance at her bare ring finger and her father’s will to remind her of the hard lessons life had taught her about men. Men were selfish and undependable. Between her father, Harvey and her now-former boss, she should be crystal clear on that point.

In Christ alone...

The words of a song she had been singing lately slipped into her mind, and she latched on to them. Men might not be able to give anything up for loved ones, but Christ had.