Austin (New Horizon Ranch Book 8) (2 page)

If she believed in all that stuff, which she didn’t—so why in the world she’d had that thought had shocked her all the more. Now, looking at the ranch, that thought hit her again.

Maybe it was a smile from the good luck fairies or God. And if so, then maybe her luck was taking a turn for the good. One thing was for certain: it couldn’t have gotten much worse. Seein’ how she’d been forced to leave her dilapidated horse trailer on the side of the road somewhere between here and Oklahoma when the main axle had broken. That ugly, dilapidated junker with its living quarters had been her home for the last few months. But that was the beauty of this new gig…it came with room and board.

And maybe a change.

She pulled up to the barns instead of the house and then headed toward the round pens. She saw several cowboys watching a lanky cowboy in chaps riding a frisky chestnut colt. Ty Calder had always been a quiet, good-looking cowboy with a way with horses. She’d always respected the way he treated people. He was a fair man with a streak of honor in him and that, she hoped, would make him a good boss. Then again, he had a herd of partners on the ranch, five altogether, so she figured she was going to have more bosses than she knew what to do with. She just hoped all of them were as worthy of respect as she thought Ty was.

As she walked toward them, they turned and it was as though she stared at a wall of hunkiness. When God created cowboys, He’d gone all-out and this was a heck of a handsome representation. It was in their stance, in the way they looked like part of nature: earthy, tough, rugged.

“Afternoon,” she said. “I’m Jolene Bartee, the new hire.” She nodded toward Ty as he rode the colt toward them. “Ty hired me.”

“I’m Rafe Masterson.” The lean-faced, movie star-good looks cowboy held out his hand and she shook it. “Ty told us he’d hired a new firecracker horse woman to help break horses. We can use the help.”

“Hey, Jolene,” Ty said, in that quiet, low-keyed voice she remembered. He dismounted, tossed the leathers around the metal fence pipe and then let himself through the gate to shake her hand. “It’s good to see you. You caught us all here at the same time. These are my partners.”

He reintroduced Rafe Masterson, then Chase Hartley—a serious-looking dazzler with broad shoulders—and Dalton Borne, a Blake Shelton look-alike with a twinkle in his eyes and a crooked smile that probably drove the ladies wild. Then again, all four of the cowboys could do that. But she was used to it, having been around hunky wranglers most of her life. Her mind shifted to the irritating deputy and her pulse jumped like a jackrabbit with its tail on fire. Dousing that flame she she shook the cowboys’ hands with a quick, firm grip and then stuffed her hands on her hips and studied the colt.

“He looks like trouble.”

Ty chuckled. “Stubborn but coming around.”

“Hey there,” a female called, coming out of the barn. She was pretty and had a dark mass of long curls pulled into a ponytail. She wore a tank top, jeans, and boots and had long, lean arms as muscled and defined as Jolene’s. She also had the beginnings of a rounded tummy. This had to be Maddie, the fifth partner of the ranch. Ty had told her she was expecting a baby in a few months and they were fighting to keep her from working as hard as she usually worked.

“I’m Maddie,” she said, confirming Jolene’s assumptions. “You’re Jolene? Girl, it’s good to have you here. I see you’ve met my partners. They’re actually great hands on the ranch and not just a bunch of pretty faces, so don’t get scared that you’re going to be the only competent one here. You’ll have help.”

Jolene laughed, instantly liking Maddie. “That’s good to know,” she said, suddenly wanting more than she had before for this job to work out.

Chapter Two

“So, this is where you’ll bunk. I hope it’s okay,” Maddie Masterson said as they entered the apartment a few minutes later.

Jolene had believed the large bunkhouse would just be a regular bunkhouse with several beds and a shared kitchen area. Ty had told her she would have her own quarters but she’d thought maybe a single room and bath inside the regular bunkhouse. She had obviously been wrong.

“This is my space?”

Maddie nodded and placed her hands on her hips as she looked around the room. “Yes, this is where Treb, our foreman, was living. He recently married and so it worked out perfect for you to have. Ty said you’re one of the best he’s seen with horses so we’re glad to have you.”

“I’m glad to be here. And this is great. More than I expected. I’ve been living in the tiny quarters of my horse trailer for a while now. This is a palace.” Maybe she shouldn’t share so much but Maddie seemed like a fair person.

“We’re glad to have you. Settle in, then Ty will fill you in on what he needs from you. We’re doing a major roundup tomorrow so it’ll be all hands involved. I’ve got to get. I have a baby checkup. My husband, Cliff—who is Rafe’s twin, just to let you know why I share the same last name as that good-looking heartbreaker—anyway, my Cliff is about to drive himself to an early grave worrying about me on a horse. I have to get my checkups so the doc will tell him to back off. Riding is good exercise for a pregnant woman.” She laughed. “Thank goodness because I’d go crazy trying to herd cows on foot.”

Jolene watched her stride back out onto the porch and felt a wave of longing. She loved babies and hoped maybe one day she could be so lucky. Moving to her truck that she’d moved to the bunkhouse, she grabbed her gear, which consisted of a couple of duffel bags, a saddle, and a bucket that held her chaps, spurs, bull whip, and an assortment of other tools of her trade. It didn’t take long for her to get the items into the apartment and then she checked the place out.

There was the tiny kitchen area with oak cabinets, a coffee maker, and even a dishwasher. She hadn’t had a dishwasher other than herself in a very long time. The bedroom wasn’t small and it wasn’t huge but it had a queen-sized bed with a wooden headboard and a matching dresser and side table. There was a handmade quilt on it and thick pillows. It looked like heaven. She’d been sleeping on a lumpy, thin mattress in the overhead space of the trailer. It was stuffy and cramped.

She strode into the bathroom and stopped. Instead of the serviceable single-stalled shower, she found a tiled shower with ample room to accommodate a tall, large built man—which meant there was more than enough room for a small-framed gal like herself. She couldn’t wait to get into it later that night. She just might stay under the hot spray of water all night.

Walking back into the bedroom, she was tempted to fall out on the bed and just test out that big mattress but she didn’t. Tonight would be soon enough. Right now she had work to do. Because she wanted more than anything for this job to work out.

Austin walked into the small sheriff’s office in town and went straight for the coffee pot.

“Everything okay?” Brady Cannon, the sheriff, looked up from the papers he was reading.

“Yeah, quiet day in the neighborhood.” Austin poured his coffee and took a sip. “Had one runaway cow, a traffic stop, and a flat tire today.”

Brady picked up his pen and tapped it on his desk. “It’s different being a cop in a rural area like this than on the streets of a bigger town or city. Don’t get it in your head that it’s just about herding cows and fixing flats. These folks rely on you, on me, and the other officers to keep it safe.”

“Oh, I’m not taking it for granted. Just telling you how the day went.” He liked his job here in the quiet community, though he sometimes felt guilty about his fellow officers in the cities and the heavy burdens they carried to keep citizens safe. He liked being part of the law enforcement community and being able to ride his horse when he felt like it.

“You’ve got the weekend off—you working at New Horizon Ranch tomorrow? Or are you going to actually have a day off for a change?”

“I’m working. This is a big roundup for them.”

“Okay. I know you have a lot on your plate with your sister and all, but Austin, you might think about getting a little rest every once in a while.”

“I’m fine.”

“If you say so. Go on home now and get some sleep. Or at least eat a decent meal and sit on your porch.”

“But I still have an hour on my shift.”

“Go home. That’s an order. You worked your shift and Caleb’s last night. This may be a laid-back job most of the time but I still need you to be somewhat alert.”

Austin took a draw of coffee and then set it on the counter. “Fine, boss. I’ll go.”

Brady looked at him firmly. “And don’t find something else to do in between your place and here unless you’re getting dinner at Sam’s then hitting the hay.”

Austin just laughed. “Okay, papa bear. Geesh, you’d think I didn’t know how to take care of myself.”

“With the way you’ve been working, I sometimes don’t think you do. Now go on.”

Austin exited the building and passed up the department SUV and headed to his black Chevy. In minutes, he was leaving the colorful town behind him and driving the short distance to the rental he’d moved into three months ago when he’d arrived. He’d taken the job to be closer to Sydney after her husband had been killed. She and Julie lived about two hours away but this was the closest opening he could find on short notice and he’d grabbed it.

He was tired but too wound up to sleep, so when he got home, he worked out with the free weights he had set up in the stable stall next to his horse. His mind was stuck on the blonde in the traffic stop. She’d been something. He’d told himself it was a normal traffic stop, just like the hundreds he’d made before, but he knew he hadn’t ever made a traffic stop like that one.

Something about Jolene Bartee had his attention. Her sassiness and her big, blue eyes were part of it but something kept telling him that meeting her was an important moment in his life.

And that was an odd feeling to have.

His muscles burned and sweat dripped down his back when he set the weights down after an hour of hard lifting. He wiped his face with the towel, slung it over his shoulder, and then stretched his shoulder. The old wound always screamed a little louder than his other muscles after a workout. That was all the more reason to keep the shoulder loose. He felt restless tonight. More so than he had in a long time. Deciding against going for a ride, he headed inside and took a shower and then stretched out on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He had so much on his mind these days, sleep was as elusive as the bobcats he knew roamed the woods.

He closed his eyes and immediately saw pretty blue eyes and a pair of sassy full lips.

She’d been something. And he would see her in the morning on the roundup at New Horizon Ranch… He drifted off to sleep with images of her on his mind.

Chapter Three

The sun came up early and Jolene had been up long before it peeked over the horizon. Saddled and ready before everyone else, she felt a sense of anticipation as she headed to breakfast with the other hands. They were a great group. There were four of them that were mid-twenties and one who was almost thirty. Derek Bravo had recently taken the job after he was released from the military. Turned out that Treb, whose apartment she’d taken, was ex-military and Derek was part of his combat patrol.

Quiet and with eyes that seemed to see everything, he kept his back turned to the wall and his face turned to everything else. He had arms the size of tree trunks and a chest the size of a redwood, tapering down to a waist with washboard abs most men would give an arm for. She couldn’t help wondering what his story was.

Ty met her at the steps of the bunkhouse. “Mornin’, Jolene. You make it okay last night?”

“Are you kidding me? That bed was like a feather. I slept like I’d been drugged.”

He grinned. “CC, our boss who built this place, believed in good beds for his hands. He said if his hands gave a hard day of work, they deserved for him to provide them with a top-notch mattress.”

“He did right by me, that’s for certain.”

“Good. Let’s head down here, to the chow hall. We haven’t used it that much until recently when we finally hired George. He’s a retired rodeo clown with a way with a skillet. Works great for the ranch. Rafe’s wife Sadie filled in for a while till we found a real cook.” Ty paused and a deep burgundy stained his neck. “I didn’t mean that to be disrespectful. Sadie tried really hard but George can cook without having to try.”

She found out what Ty was talking about soon enough. George was stocky, with a grizzly beard and a big barrel chest that was covered with a red apron and the slogan Chow’s Ready.

The man made biscuits so fluffy she thought they might be marshmallows. And homemade grape jelly. The eggs and thick slabs of bacon were delicious too but Jolene was in love with the biscuits.

She was tossing her cleaned plate in the trash when the door opened and the deputy she’d met yesterday strode into the building. She almost didn’t recognize him because he wore a faded red chambray shirt with long sleeves and a pair a well-worn chaps the soft, buttery tone of the golden edges of George’s biscuits. The combination was mouthwatering. Darn it, she had thought about that lawman all night and it hadn’t made her a happy camper. And now, here he was, looking better than breakfast.

His green eyes caught hold of hers the moment he walked in, almost as if drawn to her like a moth to a flame.
Or was that how she felt toward him
? It was ridiculous.