The Cowboy Meets His Match

“And you didn’t answer my question.”

She hesitated for a split second. “What question is that?”

“Did you enjoy the view?”

Her chest rose with a deep breath before she answered, “What little I saw wasn’t bad.”

He had to grit his teeth to keep from laughing. Same old Erin. “I wouldn’t use that word, if I were you.”

Her eyes narrowed, but the twinkle in them made a lie of it. “What word? Little?”

“That would be it. Have you even grown an inch since the last time I saw you?”

She opened her mouth, only to close it. Looking past him, she jerked her thumb in his direction. “You all may have met Jake Canfield, ne’er-do-well, years ago but completely forgot him. It happens a lot.”

She’d made her point, and he wished he hadn’t mentioned the past. She obviously didn’t want to revisit it. Had he hurt her that much?

She flashed him a triumphant smile, and he thought he saw a wink as she walked past him. With a shake of his head and a chuckle, he turned around to see a table where several women were sitting and instantly recognized them from his summers in Desperation.

“That name sounds familiar,” one of them said with a grin, as she offered Jake her hand. “I’m Kate—”

“Mrs. Dusty McPherson,” Erin finished for her, and looked pointedly at Jake. “You might remember Dusty.”

He responded with a smile and took Kate’s hand in his. He would play along, if that’s what Erin wanted. “I do remember your husband, Mrs. McPherson. Quite a bull rider, not long ago. I was sorry to hear he’d retired.”

“It’s Kate,” the woman said, frowning at Erin.

One of the other women from the table leaned in front of Erin, a confused look on her face. “I’m Trish, Kate’s sister. Trish Rule.”

He released Kate’s hand to take Trish’s outstretched one. “Sisters, huh?”

“Better behave, Jake. Her husband is the sheriff,” Erin announced.

“Is that so? He didn’t mention that he had such a pretty wife when I stopped in at his office the other day.”

Erin closed her eyes and shook her head, then moved away. Score one for him. They’d battled on a daily basis, all summer long, every summer he spent at his uncle’s ranch. Verbal sparring, he’d called it, and she’d been an expert at it. He learned from her and had gotten pretty good at him himself—until he’d realized she wasn’t a little girl anymore and lost his heart to her.

He felt a hand on his back and heard, “Good to see you again, Jake.”

Jake turned his head to see Erin’s youngest brother. “Luke, it’s been a long time. Thanks for returning my dog the other day.”

They shook hands as Dylan, the older of the Walker brothers, joined them. “We thought it might be yours, and sorry we missed seeing you. We’d been watching all the building going on at your uncle’s place and hoped you had something to do with it.”

Jake released Luke’s hand to shake his brother’s. “Everything to do with it, you could say.”

“We were sorry to hear about your uncle,” Luke said. “What’s it been? Two years?”

Jake nodded. “Close to it. Probate took longer than expected. Seems Uncle Carl owned more than we knew about, most of it on the other side of town. Some in the next county.”

“Yeah? I didn’t know.”

“Neither did I.” Jake’s mind flashed back to the day he’d received the news that his uncle had died and left the ranch to him, the only nephew. He’d inherited more than he’d ever thought possible and was excited to own his own spread. After turning his back on what his father had wanted him to do, he’d struck out on his own, working for others and learning the ranching business from the bottom up.

“I noticed you and Erin have reconnected,” Dylan said, glancing in the direction of his sister, who had taken a seat at the table with Trish and Kate.

“Reconnected?” Jake asked, and chuckled. “More like she was as surprised to see me as I was to see her. I thought she’d still be barrel racing on the rodeo circuit. Last I knew, she was.”

Luke shrugged. “We finally talked her into visiting more often, but never for very long. Then this past February, she pulled in with her motor home and horse trailer, saying she needed a rest.”

“With no warning?” Jake asked.

“Not a word,” Dylan answered.

“And she’s driving us crazy,” Luke added. “We’re beginning to wish we hadn’t encouraged her to come home.”

Shaking his head, he smiled. “Sounds like Erin. She still have her horse? Firewind?”

“He’s gone. That’s all we know,” Luke answered. “She has a new one, though. She set up barrels in the spare corral and runs them almost every day.”

“But she isn’t happy,” Dylan said. “She needs something more to do to keep her busy.”

Jake didn’t doubt he could keep her busy, but not in the way they were thinking. He hoped her brothers had never learned of what happened that Thanksgiving weekend of his first year in college, when he’d come back to visit. They didn’t need to know just how close he and their sister had once been, not to mention how he’d ended it without warning and taken off, never planning to return again.

He shook his head and smiled. “I don’t see her taking up knitting any day soon.”

Luke laughed. “No kidding.”

Dylan glanced at Luke, before saying, “She could use a job.”

“Job?”

Luke nodded.

With a glimmer of an idea that might or might not work, he asked, “What kind of job?”

Dylan shrugged. “You know her. When it comes to horses and cattle, there’s not much she doesn’t know or can’t do.”

Jake nodded and hoped they’d never know about the things he knew Erin could do.

“From what she’s said,” Luke continued, “she’s spent some of her downtime on her friends’ ranches, helping out when needed. She’s even worked with some of the ropers, ‘refining their skills,’ she calls it.”

Dylan leaned closer. “Why are you asking?”

It was Jake’s turn to shrug. “I just wondered.”

“Are you looking for some ranch hands?”

Jake didn’t want to commit to anything. The chances of Erin accepting a job from him were slim, at best. Then there was the question of whether he wanted her working for him. There’d be battles. She was strong-minded and could be as stubborn as the day was long. But he couldn’t deny that she knew her way around livestock. She would be an asset.