Her Rugged Rancher

“And you haven’t?”

That made her laugh. “Not yet. Of course, my sanity is subject to opinion,” she joked.

He didn’t smile. But then, she didn’t expect him to. She’d never seen a genuine smile on his face.

By now they’d reached the driver’s side of the truck. After he’d opened the door and climbed behind the wheel, he glanced at her briefly, then stared straight ahead at the windshield.

“You be careful when you ride in the canyon,” he said.

She wanted to believe his warning was out of concern for her safety. Not because he was a bossy male. “I will. And thank you again for your help.”

“No problem.”

He closed the door and started the engine, leaving Bella with little choice but to step back and out of the way.

“Goodbye,” she called to him. “And you don’t have to be a stranger, you know. The sky won’t fall in if you stop by once in a while and say hello.”

He lifted a hand in acknowledgement, then put the truck into gear. Bella remained where she stood and watched the truck follow the circle drive until it disappeared into the dense pine forest.

So much for making an impression on the man, she thought. Noah hadn’t even bothered to give her a proper goodbye. But then Noah Crawford wasn’t like any man she’d ever met before. And that was darned well why she was determined to see him again.

* * *

Later that night, as Noah sat on the front step of his little cabin, he was still cursing his unfortunate luck of running across Bella. If he’d stayed with the men a half hour longer before heading home, he might have missed her. Or if she’d still been down in the canyon, he would’ve never known she was there or that her mare had thrown a shoe.

But for some reason, fate had aligned everything just right to put them on the road at the same time. No, fate had situated everything all wrong, he thought dismally. Now he was going to have a hell of a time getting Bella off his mind. After this evening, each time he passed her fancy house, he would think about too many things. How the kitchen had smelled of her baking, the way she’d talked and smiled as they’d sat at the pine table, and last, but hardly least, the way his heart had thudded like the beat of a war drum each time he’d looked at her.

Through the years Noah had worked for Jett, the man had never warned him to steer clear of his sister. Why would he bother? Both of them knew that Bella would never give Noah a serious look, anyway.

No, early on Noah had made his own decision to avoid Bella. Because he’d instinctively understood she was the sort of woman who could cause him plenty of trouble. Certainly not the devastating kind that Camilla had brought him, but enough to cause havoc in his life.

The sky won’t fall in if you stop by once in a while and say hello.

Had she truly meant that as an invitation? he wondered. Or had she simply been mouthing a polite gesture?

What does it matter, Noah? Even if she meant it, you can’t strike up a friendship with Bella. Getting cozy with her would be pointless. She’s an educated lady, a lawyer with enough smarts to figure out a loser like you.

Shutting his mind to the mocking voice trailing through his head, he watched a small shadow creeping along the edge of the underbrush growing near the left wall of the cabin.

“Jack, if that’s you, come out of there.”

His order was countered with a loud meow and then a yellow tomcat sauntered out of the shadows and over to Noah. As the cat rubbed against the side of his leg, Noah stroked a hand over his back.

“Ashamed to show your face, aren’t you? You’ve been gone three days. Hanging out somewhere with a girl cat, letting me believe a coyote had gotten you. I ought to disown you,” he scolded the animal.

In truth, Noah was happy to have his buddy back. A few years ago, he’d found the yellow kitten all alone, on the side of the highway near the turnoff to the ranch. And though Noah had never owned a small pet before, he’d rescued the kitten and brought him home. Later on, when Jack had grown old enough to be considered an adult, the cat had made it clear to Noah that he was going to be an independent rascal. Whenever he got the urge, Jack would take off, then come home days later, expecting Noah to fuss over him as though nothing had happened.

“But I won’t disown you,” Noah said to the cat. “And you damned well know it.”

Rising from the step, he opened the heavy wooden door leading into the cabin and allowed Jack to rush in ahead of him. Inside, Noah went over to a small set of pine cabinets and retrieved a bowl.

After filling it with canned food, he set it on the floor in a spot Jack considered his dining area. With the cat satisfied, he walked over and sank into a stuffed armchair. To the left of it, a small table held a lamp and a stack of books and magazines. Noah didn’t own a television. Something that Jett often nagged him about. But Noah had no desire to stare at a screen, watching things that would bore him silly. Instead, he’d rather use his small amount of time at home to read or listen to music.

Home. Most folks wouldn’t call his cabin much of a home. Basically it was a two-room structure, with the back lean-to serving as a bedroom, while the larger front area functioned as a living room and kitchen. The log structure had been erected many years before, when Jett’s maternal grandparents, the Whitfields, had owned the property. According to Jett, as the ranch had prospered, his grandfather, Melvin, had needed a line-shack and had built the cabin and its little native rock fireplace with his own hands. After a while, he’d upgraded the dirt floor to wooden planks and built on the extra room at the back. To Bella this cabin would be crude living, but to Noah, the simple space was all he needed. That and his privacy.

He was thumbing through a ranching magazine trying to get his mind on anything other than Bella, when his cell phone broke the silence. As he picked it up, he noted the caller was Jett.

“Did I wake you?” he asked Noah.

Noah rolled his eyes. “I’m not getting so old that I fall asleep in my chair before nine o’clock.”

Jett chuckled. “I thought you might be tired after branding today. That’s why I’m calling. Just checking to see how everything went.”

Jett wasn’t one of those bosses that called daily to line out the next day’s work. Ever since Noah had taken this job, Jett had been content to let him run things his way and at his own pace. That was just one of the reasons Noah wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

“No problems,” he told him. “One more small herd to go—the one over on the western slope and we’ll have them all branded. Can’t do it tomorrow, though.”

“Why not?”

“Used up all the vaccine we had. Me or one of the boys will have to go into town tomorrow for more.”

“After I sent Bella home, I ended up being swamped with work today, but I would’ve found a way to go by the feed store and picked up the vaccine for you,” Jett insisted.

“I thought about calling you. But we need a roll of barbed wire and a few more things anyway. Better to get it all at one time.”

Besides working on selected days at his law office in town, Jett also acted as the lawyer for the Silver Horn Ranch, a position he’d held for years. Since his wife Sassy was a member of the Calhoun family, who owned and operated the notable ranch, Noah figured Jett would keep the job from now on.

“Well, there’s no urgency about the branding. Whenever you and the boys can get to it will be soon enough. I don’t plan to sell any of the calf crop on the western slope, anyway. I’ve given them to Sassy.”

It wasn’t surprising to hear Jett had given the calves to his wife. The man was always giving or doing something for her. On the other hand, Sassy deserved her husband’s generosity. She’d given him three beautiful children, worked hard to make the ranch a success, and most of all she adored him. Jett was a lucky man and he knew it.

“I—uh, ran across your sister today,” Noah said as casually as he could. “She’d gone riding and her mare had thrown a shoe.”

“Yes. I spoke with her earlier over the phone. She was very grateful for your help. Thanks for lending her a hand, Noah. You know, she’s very independent. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you she’d take care of the mare’s shoe herself.”

Noah rose from the chair and walked over to the open door. If he looked to the southwest, he could see the lights from Bella’s house, twinkling faintly through the stand of pines. Now that he’d been inside her home, it was much too easy to picture her there.

“She didn’t put up a fuss,” he replied.

Had Bella told her brother that she’d invited him inside for pie and coffee? Noah wondered. The memory of his brief visit with her still had the power to redden his face. Looking back on it, Bella had probably thought he was a big lug without enough sense to paste two sentences together. Even now in the quiet of his cabin, he couldn’t remember half of what he’d said to her.

“Speaking of fussy, I wish you’d stop being so damn hard to please and try to find yourself a woman,” Jett said.

“That isn’t going to happen,” Noah muttered. “Not ever.”

“Never say never, Noah. You don’t know what the future holds for you.”

“My future damned sure won’t have a wife in it!”