The Rancher's Surrender

They were still watching each other, so that there was no hiding what flickered between them. Honesty, fear. Need. Startling need. “I’m going to stick, no matter what,” he said.

He saw the moment his response registered. The promise he was making. Saw, too, her fierce disbelief, and he experienced a strange urge to pound whoever had hurt her so badly in her past, whoever had caused Zoe to accept a promise, any promise, with such mistrust.

“Well, I think you’d make a good partner,” Maddie said softly, with a shy smile. “But only if Delia and Zoe agree.”

Delia’s wide gaze whipped to Maddie. She was so uncustomarily ruffled she forgot to pretend she wasn’t.

“I promise to make sure all the amenities run smoothly,” Ty said seriously, though he wanted to sigh in relief. They’d never stay long, and while he might actually miss them, he convinced himself he was doing them a favor. “I’ll even build a Jacuzzi, Delia. Just for you.”

“Oh, really?” She beamed. “You really will?”

“Promise.”

“Okay, but I won’t raise pigs. Or kill anything that makes red meat,” Delia said firmly.

“No problem. We can start with horses if you’d like.”

Delia flipped back her hair and took a deep, calming breath. “Oh God. Okay. I’m in, too. Maddie’s right. You’d be a great partner. Zoe?”

All eyes flew to Zoe, including Ty’s. She looked at him, unusually intense.

And again that strange, inexplicable communication happened between them. She was looking for honesty and he’d claimed to have given it, but he hadn’t, not fully.

He was counting on them leaving and guilt hit hard.

She deserved more, but unfortunately he couldn’t give it.

The room was thick with unspoken hopes and dreams. Ty watched Zoe, waited while that current tugged between them.

Stubbornness set her jaw, and he knew from the sudden disappointment filling him what her answer would be before she even spoke.

“You know what?” she said softly. “We’ll do this, we’ll manage to get this ranch running, but we can do it on our own. We won’t be a burden to anyone.”

“I never said you’d be a burden,” he said carefully. What had given him away? Had she read his guilt for what it was? “I offered.”

“Zoe, I—” Delia pinched her mouth closed at the look of determination on Zoe’s face. “Never mind. You’re right.”

Maddie sighed, then smiled and took Zoe’s hand, effectively disarming the tension. “Thanks, Ty, for offering.” She spoke softly but firmly, sparing one last glance for her still-silent and brooding sister. “But we’ll be fine.”

They were united, together. Reluctant admiration shot through Ty. Seems they had grit after all.

Then he looked at Zoe, who was looking at him with a definite challenging light. He felt his blood stir to meet that challenge. They would still work together. After all, he was manager of their property for the next year whether they liked it or not. It would be interesting, to say the least, considering she was stubborn to the last drop.

So was he.

“But Ty, honey?” Delia smiled beguilingly. “Think I could still have that Jacuzzi?”

* * *

Zoe took a walk after dinner in the cold night, desperately in need of some perspective, which she couldn’t get being in the same room with the enigmatic, sexy Ty Jackson.

Leaving Ty happily and easily charming Maddie and Delia, she stomped along. Why did he do that? she wondered. He certainly didn’t bother with any charm when it came to her, yet with her sisters, he poured it on. It wasn’t fake, either, which also confused her. No, when he spoke to Maddie or Delia his eyes were warm and relaxed, his manner genuine and easygoing yet somehow protective.

But she wasn’t fooled.

Letting her pent-up energy take her where it would, she roamed. In daylight, Triple M was too gorgeous to believe. Behind the house, there were the three peaks, behind them more mountains for as far as the eye could see. The fertile black soil was covered with lush growth. Tall green grass, myriad colors of wildflowers, the azure-blue sky, the deeper blue of the raging river, and interspersed among it all were the two rustic red barns, the ranch house and a series of run-down cottages.

A picture-perfect scene.

Except that the barns were empty and in desperate need of repair. So was the house. Brightly colored wildflowers grew like weeds in the empty pastures.

At night, though, like now, Zoe could walk through and imagine it how it should be.

She gave in to the panic gnawing at her belly. They had savings, but they were small. Too small. God, she thought, leaning against a wooden railing. What would they do? They couldn’t go back, there was nothing for them in L.A.

This was where they belonged, she could feel it, but she was deeply afraid about their future.

For whatever reason, Ty wanted this place, too. But she was every bit as rough and tough as he, and utterly indestructible, despite the broken promises in her past.

She told herself she hardly ever thought about that anymore, her mother’s hastily whispered vow to return as she dumped a terrified three-year-old Zoe in the group foster home.

Good thing for Zoe that home had been so strong, so supportive. There had been some rough kids she’d had to fend off occasionally, but the owners of the house, the Fontaines, had been kind, loving and very warm. Without that base in her life, who knows how or where she would have ended up.

Yet she wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the fact that she had indeed been perversely affected by her beginnings, no matter how much she shoved those beginnings away. She knew she didn’t trust well. She knew she used gruffness and irritability as a shield to keep others at bay. And she protected her wary heart with a grid of iron, never allowing anyone but her sisters too close. Even then, she’d held back a good part of herself, though it shamed her to admit it, for in return they had given her everything.

Fact was, Zoe liked control. A lot. And she went out of her way to ensure she always had it, which included holding tight reins on her feelings. But she didn’t have it here and she didn’t have it with Ty. One look into those sharp, knowing eyes and she knew the truth. Ty Jackson wasn’t the type to be controlled, which was reason enough to steer clear of the man. Not a problem, even if he had the best butt in Idaho and a smile that made her heart stutter. She’d steer clear.

She didn’t need the heartache.

What she did need was to survive, and she was a master at that. All she had to do was turn this ranch around, and fast. As in yesterday.

She could do it. They could do it.

But the little flutter of nerves had her pushing on. She drew in a deep breath of night. Dark in Idaho was unlike anything she’d ever seen in Los Angeles. It was...black. And complete. The sky was littered with stars, the air cold and crisp. It smelled like...camping.

And now it was home. Home.

God, what was she thinking? They were out of her element, there wasn’t a Taco Bell within a hundred miles! There wasn’t even a major city within a hundred miles.

But deep down she knew she wasn’t worried about Boise. Shooting the house a disgusted look over her shoulder, she kicked at some dirt and walked into the night, her inefficient tennis shoes sticking in the mud.

She was worried about her sisters.

And, if she were being honest, she was worried about Ty.

One of them was bound to fall for him. Delia loved a man with a sense of humor hidden behind the body of a Greek god, and Ty definitely fit the bill. And Maddie, she seemed to be such an easy mark for any man, with her low self-esteem and constant need to be...well, needed. Someone like Ty could take advantage of a woman like her in less than two minutes.

Only one problem with the theory of Ty hurting one of her sisters—he wasn’t looking at either Maddie or Delia with that fiery passion hidden behind sleepy bedroom eyes. He was looking at her.