Convincing the Rancher (11 page)

Slaid turned to go, but the day had lost its magic for him. Glancing back, he saw Tess still frozen in place, staring after him through the shifting crowd. For the briefest moment, he could swear she looked lost. But before he could even finish the thought, her shoulders were squared, her head was held high and she was sauntering back to her booth, the picture of confidence.

All around him in the growing crowd were happy families eating Renewable Reliance’s food, carrying their colorful information packets and listening to the music they’d provided. It would take even more work than he’d originally thought to keep Benson pristine and windmill-free. But he’d figure out a way to do it. He had to. Behind him, Danny
Click had the crowd on their feet. At the singer’s suggestion the audience shouted out another deafening “Hell yeah!” Slaid decided to take the cheer as his own much-needed message of encouragement. He would see his plan through. Somehow.
Hell yeah
.

CHAPTER NINE

T
HE VIDEO SHOOT
was not going well. First of all, it was freezing. Literally. And since Slaid, the ice-scraping fairy, had stopped coming by after learning that the windmills would be sited in his pasture, Tess had been forced to sacrifice another credit card to get the thick frost off her windshield this morning. Then she’d had to rush to pick up the CEO of Renewable Reliance, who obviously wasn’t impressed with her late arrival.

Second, the CEO, Allen Tate, proved to be an unhappy guy in general. As he rattled on to her and his unfortunate assistant, a fresh-faced young man named Ben, about the shortcomings of his hotel room and its minibar, Tess fought the urge to yell, “Get used to it!” After all, he and his company had chosen Benson for their project—Benson certainly had not chosen them.

But she had a job to do. A job that today would require all her patience and people skills. Somehow, by focusing on the road and the work ahead of her, Tess managed to hold her tongue and sound sympathetic about the CEO’s woes.

She made a mental note to find a decent bottle of wine or Scotch at the grocery store. She’d send it up to his room tonight to lessen his minibar troubles. For a moment she envied him—if only her troubles were that simple. Tomorrow he’d leave here and fly back to Chicago—and the comforts of his suburban mansion—while she would carry on in Benson, at odds with her best friend and the most attractive man she’d ever met, toiling on a project that she already knew the town didn’t want.

Tess pulled the car over to the gravel shoulder of the road, across from the gate leading into Slaid’s pasture.
The Bureau of Land Management’s
pasture, she reminded herself quickly.

There were no other cars, even though the camera crew had left the hotel well before she’d picked up Allen and Ben. She put the Jeep in Park and reached for her cell phone, but there was no signal. Of course.

“We’ll have to head back to town,” she told her passengers. “We’ll see if we can locate the camera crew, or at least a signal so we can call and find out what happened.” Allen sighed audibly and Tess sighed inwardly. This day wasn’t getting much better.

She U-turned back toward Benson and Ben held up her phone, waving it wildly around, searching for the elusive signal.

“Reception!” he crowed triumphantly.

They pulled over so she could call, but as she was dialing the camera crew zoomed by, heading in the direction of the video-shoot location. Either they’d been lost and now were found or they’d stopped for breakfast somewhere. Silently cursing them for making her look like an idiot, Tess pulled another U-turn and followed the crew back to mile marker twenty-three.

The coffee Tess served everyone from a thermos on her tailgate steamed furiously in the frigid morning air. Coffee she’d had to brew herself at four o’clock this morning and then pour into the giant thermos that Samantha’s friend Betty had borrowed from her church. There was no catering company to be found in Benson.

But thank goodness there was Betty, a woman who had been instrumental, apparently, in helping bring Samantha and Jack together. In addition to her matchmaking talents, Betty was an incredible baker, and Tess had paid her to make a few dozen of her locally famous blueberry muffins. They were a big hit with the crew. At least one thing had gone right this morning, even if it was Betty’s triumph, not her own.

Sugar and coffee distributed, Tess breathed in relief. Miraculously, the CEO was chatting happily with Ben while one of the crew members applied makeup to his aggressively preserved face. The camera crew was starting on the scenery footage, filming the road disappearing into the sky shining pink with the last smears of sunrise.

Tess sipped her own coffee, grateful for a couple seconds of calm. There’d been a few mishaps this morning, but maybe this day was getting a bit better. Her conscience pricked. As better as it could get, considering she was about to film a promotional spot for a wind farm on the land Slaid’s family had worked and loved for so long. What a mess.

“What were you thinking we should use for the backdrop of his little speech?” asked Will, the youngest and funniest member of the camera crew, as he poured himself more coffee.

“Those wild-looking cliffs,” Tess answered. “It doesn’t get more rugged than that, and the cows are all the way on the other side of the pasture.”

“Perfect,” Will said, giving her a glance that was full of admiration. “You look great in that color, by the way.”

A couple of weeks ago, she might have flirted back. Maybe even have met up with him tonight. But she was surprised to find that she didn’t have the heart for it. “Thanks,” she said shortly, and crossed the street to where the CEO and the rest of the camera crew were climbing the gate into the cow pasture. She pointed to where she thought they should set up, relieved to find that the head cameraman agreed with her.

She leaned on the rough wood and watched. The cameras were set up and Allen pulled off his parka, revealing a down vest and plaid shirt—a folksy outfit that Tess knew had been carefully chosen to help promote his pioneering image. Unfortunately, Allen hadn’t factored in the autumn cold. Rather than looking outdoorsy and confident, the CEO looked like someone who was freezing and trying not to show it.

Ben helped Allen position himself in front of the hills. “Action!” the lead cameraman called, and the CEO launched into his speech about the importance of the windmills. A speech Tess had written just for him.

He got about three sentences in before the first cow showed up. The big beige animal strolled calmly over to the camera and gave it a sniff. The cameraman yelped in surprise and tried to push the enormous beast away, but evidently Slaid’s cattle were curious creatures. A few more lumbered over to snuffle at the camera and introduce themselves to the video crew.

Tess heard a shrill “Shoo!” and looked over to see that one cow was nuzzling Allen, who was flapping at it with frantic arms. It all looked extremely surreal and if Tess wasn’t so horrified, she’d be laughing. She had no idea what to do—she knew nothing about cows. But when she saw Allen being chased by the large chocolate-colored animal, she figured it was time to intervene.

Wishing she’d put on her sturdy boots instead of her heels, Tess awkwardly scaled the fence and tottered across the rough grass. Pulling off her scarf, she approached the brown cow, who now had the CEO cornered against a rock as she lovingly blew her grassy breath in his ear.

“Hey, cow, go away!” she called, shaking the eggplant wool in the air. The big brown beast didn’t even look her way. She went closer, trying to put the scarf in between the cow and the CEO. “Get out of here. Go!” She snapped the scarf at its wet nose, sending silent apologies to the gods of cashmere when she realized she’d actually made contact and there was now cow drool on the beautiful fabric. “Go!” she shouted again.

She glanced at Allen. This was his company, and he’d chosen to site his project on land that he knew had been leased to a cattle ranch. Couldn’t he at least help her? But he seemed frozen in fear. A ghostly pale, geeky man-boy who had spent most of his life in front of a computer screen and couldn’t figure out what to do in the face of a real-world problem. Well, a cow-town problem. “Go away!” Tess commanded again.

And then she heard the laughter. Whirling around, she saw Slaid leaning on the gate, his truck parked haphazardly on the side of the road behind him. He’d clearly pulled over in a hurry to take in the disaster that was her video project. He was probably thrilled to watch it all fall apart after the way she’d given him such a hard time at the harvest festival.

“If you’re not here to help, go away!” she yelled to him. And then realized how bad that sounded. She looked back at Allen and saw the shocked expression on his face. Here she was, the public relations consultant they’d hired at considerable expense, orchestrating a video shoot overrun by curious cattle and screaming rudely at the locals. In that instant, she could see it all through his eyes and it did not look pretty.

Slaid was still laughing, but to his credit he swung a long denim-clad leg over the gate, then another, and jumped down into the pasture. Despite his football-player build, he moved quite gracefully. In his cowboy hat, shearling jacket and boots, he exuded a manly confidence that made the quivering CEO behind her seem even more like a frightened child.

Apparently the cow had lost interest in Allen because it was now investigating Tess’s hair. Slaid came up next to her and gently but firmly pushed the cow’s nose away.

“Move along there,” he ordered quietly, and the cow obediently walked a few paces from Tess and then glanced back. “Go on, get going now.” Slaid gave it a friendly swat on its rump and the cow hustled off. Then he quietly and confidently dispatched its curious buddies before walking back to Tess. He wasn’t laughing out loud anymore, but the humor was still there, gleaming in his gray eyes. “Anything else I can do for you?”

Allen pushed himself off the rock. “Thank you, man,” he said, reaching up to give Slaid a high five that the mayor good-naturedly returned. “Good thing you came along. I’m afraid my public relations gal here wasn’t really prepared for cows.”

Gal? He’d really just called her a gal? Ed would rue the day he sent her out here.

Slaid moved past the CEO and came to stand before Tess, tipping his hat. “Ms. Cole. I’m really sorry I was late getting out here today. I know we agreed I’d be here an hour ago.”

Tess studied his face, confusion swirling. He was either trying to help her out or dig her deeper into this awkward hole—she wasn’t sure which. And then she understood. He was trying to help her out—taking the blame for this fiasco by pretending he was some ranch hand she’d hired.

Gratitude and guilt were an odd mix. She didn’t deserve his kindness. She hadn’t been kind when she’d mocked his homemade flyer at the fair. “I understand, Mr. Jacobs. Although
you
understand—” she couldn’t keep the saucy tone from her voice “—I will have to dock your pay?”

“Of course, ma’am.” He was all contrition, except for the muscle in his cheek that twitched from trying not to laugh.

“Could you please stick around during the rest of the shoot to help manage the cattle?”

“Certainly, ma’am,” he answered, and delivered a very sexy wink before walking away with an exaggerated, bowlegged swagger. She bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. Slaid put himself in between the camera crew and the cows, and she hoped the smile she gave him expressed the appreciation she felt.

Allen turned toward her.

“So let’s try this again. Are you ready for your close-up?” she said brightly, making sure she kept the upper hand.
Gal
, indeed.

“That was really farsighted of you to hire a wrangler,” he told her, maybe hoping to redeem himself after his
gal
comment.

“Thank you. Unfortunately he was running late this morning. I’m just glad he finally made it.” She could see Slaid over the CEO’s shoulder, and when their eyes met he quickly looked away, but not before his grin melted her knees a little.

Fortunately, the rest of the shoot went smoothly. The cows stayed where Slaid told them to and they got Allen’s speech in just two takes. Then the camera crew went off to get more footage of the hills and Tess walked over to where Slaid stood. “Thank you for taking care of the cows.”

“Yes, thank you!” Allen appeared by her side. “Hey, would you mind if we took a picture together?” At Slaid’s look of surprise he added, “The wife and kids would get a kick out of seeing that I was hanging out with a real cowboy.”

“Um, sure?” The look he shot at Tess over Allen’s head was full of disbelief and delight at the absurdity of this man. He gamely stood there as Allen posed next to him and Tess took the photo on the CEO’s phone.

“And now I’ve got to get back to town. If you don’t mind, Tess? I’ve got a meeting scheduled with the mayor.”

Tess looked at Slaid, horrified, and he met her glance with his own expression of alarm. Had he not checked his calendar today? He seemed to understand the question in her eyes because he shrugged sheepishly and then turned to the CEO. “How about I give you a ride back to town? There are a few things I think I need to explain. Do you mind waiting by my truck over there while I square things away with Ms. Cole here?”

He spoke with authority, and the CEO went willingly. After he’d left, Slaid grinned at Tess. “I’ve got us in a real mess now.”

“It’s my fault, too. I shouldn’t have played along. What are we going to do?”

“I’ll explain what happened and take the blame. I don’t care what he thinks of me.”

“Well, maybe if he gets mad, he’ll fire me and I can go home,” Tess mused. “I’m not sure that would be a bad thing.”

“Depends on your perspective, I guess.”

She didn’t understand that and wasn’t sure she wanted to. “Look, no matter what happens, I appreciate the rescue today.”

“So when can I pick up my paycheck for my cattle-wrangling services?”

“You weren’t working out of the goodness of your heart?” It was impossible not to joke with him a little. It felt good after all the tension that had been between them. Plus, he was giving her his half smile that just made her want to see more of it.