Have a Little Faith (4 page)

It was only Tuesday,
s
he thought dismally. She would have to go grocery shopping Saturday after work in order to accommodate for an extra mouth to feed. A city mouth, Alex smirked.

What urban cowboy didn’t dream of owning a ranch and running it? Well, she thought smugly, she would show him just how tough running a ranch could be. Sh
e’d bet he woul
d leave before Saturday. She prayed that he would.

Alex slipped around back with the thought of sneaking through the kitchen to go upstairs. Her mother would be entertaining their guest in the den, more than likely. She could slip right by without being noticed. But when she opened the door, she saw that her mother
had
decided to
conveniently entertain their guest in the kitchen.

They were sitting at the kitchen table. Her mother was laughing.

She took her stunned eyes from her mother and considered the man in the opposite chair.  He was
tall
, even though he was sitting and currently slumped forward, Alex could tell he was long and lean. His black hair was a little too long and curled at the ends. He wore a suit, she noticed with an inner sneer.

She couldn’t see his eyes. He was facing her mother and they had papers sitting on the table between them.
Straight to the point.

“I could even se
t you up to where you own stock,” t
he man was saying in a deep baritone voice that sent chills down Alex’s spine. She stiffened it automatically. 

Her slight movement caused Lane to stop abruptly in the middle of his sent
ence. His gaze whipped to Alex and what he saw gave his heart rate a need to increase in order to keep the blood running to his brain.
Her hair was still down and was still windblown from her ride—making her
look
like she’d just taken a roll in the hay.

She wasn’t tall, Lane realized.
Maybe five
feet
, three.
She had a small, compact body with subtle curves and an almost boyish waste. Her skin was a contrast of pale gold. He wondered if the color on her face was from the wind or from his unrelenting stare.

Very deliberately, Lane rose from the table and stepped forward. Her eyes were crystal blue, the clearest he’d ever seen and they went from critical to wary in an instant. Interesting,
he thought as his lips curved.
Alex
Morgan was v
ery interesting.

“Alex.” Linda wheeled herself closer and stopped at Lane’s side. “This is Mr. Tanner.”
Linda’s tone had gone from warm and friendly to cool and dispassionate within the same instant. Lane wondered about that too. “This is my daughter, Alexandra.”

Lane offered his hand and lifted a brow at her hesitation. When Alex took his hand, she found it surprisingly strong and firm. She would
have
assume
d he’d have
office hands.
Especially since he was Mr. Tanner of Tanner Enterprises.

“Nice to meet you, Alex.” His voice was low and smooth. He had yet to release her hand even when she made hers go limp.

“Likewise.”
She noted his eyes were green. Not just any green
,
but the color of leaves in sunlight.
They were heavily lashed beneath dark brows.
Beautiful eyes, but dangerous, she decided.
She gave her hand a little tug and was relieved when he released it.

“I saw you
riding in the field by the road,
” Lane mentioned sliding his hands in the pockets of his slacks.

Her eyes widened and her mouth clamped shut. That was her time, she wanted to say and he had no business in it. Not when he came here to take everything. Why couldn’t anyone understand? She wanted to scream.

“What kind of horse were you riding?”

Alex wanted to be kind. Her nature called for it. But in her mind, she k
new that this man was the enemy.

“Arabian.
I’m going up to shower. I’ll see you in the morning, Mother. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Tanner.” Alex turned to leave but Linda spoke up.

“You haven’t had dinner, Alex. And you never came in for lunch. You should eat something.”

Alex’s gaze whipped to her mother’s. She had never questioned anything Alex did. It was always as if she couldn’t care less. A little unnerved by the sudden show of interest, Alex shrugged.

“I’m tired
,
but thanks anyway.” With a final nod to Lane, Alex turned and walked up the stairs.

She stripped quickly and stepped into the steamy shower. Dirt was washed off and pooled at her feet. Alex scrubbed her hair and body until it ached
,
then
climbed out to dress in her thin, cotton t-shirt and shorts.

After braiding her hair in two braids,
she
slipped out of the bathroom and walked quietly down the hall into her bedroom
ruthlessly keeping her mind blank
.

Chapter Four

“Shut up, Jerk,
” Alex mumbled as she burrowed deeper down into the sheets. “It can’t be five yet.”

Jerk let out another screech much louder than usu
al and
Alex bolted
up
in
bed. She then realized
she was in the barn. On a
muttered oath, Alex
swung
off
the cot and
rushed out
into the morning.

She was supposed to have gotten up early and changed before Jerk had the chance to wake anyone.
She
’
d moved to her room in the barn when a nightmare wo
ke her a quarter after one. She’d been
gasping and shivering so badly, she was afraid she would wake up their guest in the room next to hers.
The dream itself was foggy and distant now, but it still left her chilled.

She tiptoed through the house and into her bedroom and changed for the day.

She took down her braids
that had
become
tangled
during the night
, and braided them again. She yanked up a pair of light blue jeans and slipped on a blue cotton shirt that matched her eyes.

She buttoned the pearl buttons and yawned. Terrible nights made for terrible days, she thought with a sigh. And she had some extra baggage to see to that day.

Tanner
. She didn’t even catch his first name. She had been
too
busy fighting off the knee jerk reaction to ogle. He was undoubtedly the most devastatingly handsome male she had ever seen. His dark good looks were offset by a deep vibrating voice that haunted her in her patchy sleep.

She gave herself a mental shake,
finished getting ready
,
and headed downstairs.

The scent of coffee helped to clear the grogginess she felt as she pulled out a mug. She
drank two cups, black before she left the house.

“Good morning, Joy.” She paused to please herself by running her hands up and down Joy’s neck. “Want to ride today? I took Prince yesterday but today, it’s just you and me.”

A high pitched whinny from three stables down had Alex chuckling. She patted Joy once more before moving down to the buff colored quarter horse she called Hope.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
Alex ran a hand along Hope’s bulging belly. “Couple more weeks now and you’ll be a mommy.” Her voice was soft as she spoke to the horse. “Being a mommy is the most wonderful thing in the world. There’s nothing better than that.”

Hope nuzzled Alex’s neck and
she
took in the comforting smell. Hope’s foal was due around Faith’s birthday. The idea of it amazed Alex. It brought the feelings of sadness and loss to the surface
,
but
at the same time she was anxious and anticipated new life.

Within hours, the
temperature shot up
. Alex had discarded her shirt and was in her plain white sleeveless top and jeans while she carried lumber from the truck in front of the house to
shed she had been repairing.

Mr. Tanner would see
that things on Morgan were going on as normal
and he would know that Alex had no inten
tion of letting her mother sell.
With that in mind, she hammered the morning away. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and whirled around to a grinning Jack.

“What are you doing, sneaking up on me that w
ay? Shouldn’t you be working?”
she snapped, but ruined her tirade and chuckled.

“Called your name a few times.
Guess you were too involved to hear me.” Jack took his cowboy hat from his head and wiped his brow with his forearm before replacing it. “I can see you
disappearing
before my eyes, child. Go in and eat some lunch.”

“I will as soon as I finish up with this pile.” She motioned toward the piled lumber she had just stacked.

Jack stalked
away
muttering to himself
.

Alex shook her head in exasperation when he came back out carrying an apple. He tossed it at her and she caught it with one hand. “Thanks.” She smiled as Jack strode away still muttering.

She
managed to avoid Mr. Tanner for
almost the entire day. She didn’t
go into the house, even once. Instead, she took her dinner in her room in the barn where she stuck cheese and c
rackers in the cooler that
held
medication for the horses.

After she washed up in the small
half
bathroom attached to her barn room, she wondered if she ought to just sleep there tonight. The portable radio was on for company and Alex absently hummed to
Aerosmith
while she dried her hands on a rag. She walked outside and into the corral that held a tan and white paint Alex had deemed Crazy Horse.

He was young, barely three and Alex had bought him while he was
a
yearling from
the
same man who had sold her Joy—
a
man who liked to use a whip on him.

It
had taken her months
to earn Crazy’s trust and even longer to earn his love. But after many bumps and bruises, Alex had finally tamed his wild and
frightened
heart and only
had issues with him when a stranger was around. Until recently, that had been very seldom.

As soon as Crazy Horse heard her coming, he huffed out a breath and stuck his head through the iron bars.

“Hello, Crazy.” Alex climbed the fence and made herself comfortable on the top bar. “Did you miss me?”

He had been gone for three days after cutting his leg on a barbed wire fence. Despite Alex’s attempts with ointment and cleanings, it became infected and she had been forced to call Doc
Davis to come to the rescue. Doc, deciding the infection needed to be watched closely, took Crazy Horse and boarded him at the vet clinic in town.

After a three day stay, observation, and treatment; she now owed more money to the veterinarian than she spent on Crazy Horse when she bought him.
And it had been completely worth it.

She checked the bandage high on his back leg and clucked her tongue.

“You’re worth every penny though, Crazy Horse.” She murmured
to him,
stroking his cream colored mane. “Want to go for a ride tomorrow? I haven’t been thrown o
n my ass in days.”

“Isn’t the point of riding to stay on the horse?”

Alex whir
led around at the deep voice, almost losing her balance. After steadying herself
, Alex blew a few stray strands of hair from her eyes
and squinted into the
sunlight
.
She didn’t need to look to recognize that baritone voice. She looked anyway, to buy her time.

“Sorry,
”
he
grinned. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

Alex shook her head then swallowed. ‘Startle’ wasn’t really an apt term for what he did to her system.

“It’s all right.” She forced her lips to curve. “I was just ah…”
What was she doing?

“Talking to your horse?” h
e supplied
with lazy amusement
.

“Yeah.
”
Her chin came up in defense
. “He’s been gone for a while.” She reached out and continued to stroke Crazy. Vaguely, she n
oticed the sun had begun to set, casting shadows throughout the corral. The air outside was cooler, but inside Alex was burning up.

Lane climbed up the fence and sat beside her on the top rail. Alex tried not to admire the way his muscles bunched and strained under his cotton shirt. Instead, she watched his wide-palmed hand reach out and his long, narrow fingers stroke Crazy Horse on his mane. The horse
shied a little at his touch but was soothed when Alex m
urmured to him.