Wrangling the Cowboy's Heart (4 page)

“You could have done an internet search,” Finn joked.

Jodie shot him a wry look. “Internet? That complete waste of time? Besides, back then it would have been slow dial-up service.”

“That's right,” Finn mused. “We just got the wireless towers in the past few years. Now I can waste time even faster.”

Jodie's light chuckle made him feel better than it should.

“So when you two are done...” Vic waved as if trying to catch Finn's attention.

“Sorry, Vic,” he said, feeling foolish as he turned away from Jodie. “What do you need?”

“I'll get my horses sorted out and we can load them up and be out of Jodie's hair,” his friend said. “You stay here with the riding horses. I want to put them on the trailer last, and these two will get all antsy if I leave them alone.”

Finn wasn't keen on the idea. He knew he should get going. Jodie had held a dangerous fascination for him once. But she was too much like his mother, not enough like his beloved Denise.

Before he could object, however, Vic was gone, leaving the two of them alone again.

“So, if you behave, I can take you out in the back pasture,” she was saying, still rubbing Roany's nose. “Just like old times.”

“You enjoyed riding, didn't you?” Finn asked.

“It was one of the few things I liked about being on the ranch,” she countered, stroking Roany. The horse closed her eyes as if reveling in the attention. “Erin and I rode more than Lauren did. I missed it when...” Her voice trailed off again, as if she had other things to say, but either didn't want to or didn't dare.

Which immediately made him curious as to what she'd been planning to say.

“Anyhow, I wouldn't mind going riding again,” Jodie was saying. “I'll have nothing but time the next two months.”

Finn knew he should let it go, but she'd raised his curiosity. “So why are you staying a couple of months?”

For a few seconds she said nothing, just kept stroking Roany's coat. Then a couple other horses came close, and the mare pinned her ears back and charged at the newcomers.

Jodie stepped away, then wiped her hands on her skirt. “I'm between jobs right now.”

“The waitressing one or the playing-piano one?”

“How do you know about that?”

“Your father told me. We did spend a lot of time together at one time.” And Keith had always talked of Jodie's occupations with a hint of anger. He was much prouder of Lauren, who had gone on to become a civil engineer, and Erin, who was a graphics designer.

“Both. But I have an opportunity with a band that hopes to start touring soon. They need a pianist and I'm on the short list.”

“No plans for settling down?”

Her face grew hard. “No. Not in my destiny.”

“And home is Wichita now?”

She frowned in puzzlement. “How did you know?”

“The plates on your car.”

“Of course.” Jodie sighed, looking back at the house. “For now I'm stuck here, though, thanks to the condition Dad put on the will.”

Finn's curiosity won out over his desire to keep her at arm's length. “What condition was that?”

“He wanted each of us girls to stay on the ranch for two months before we could sell it. So I'm doing my duty. Lauren will do hers as soon as possible and we're hoping Erin will come, as well.”

Two months? At the ranch?

That the idea created such conflicting emotions both surprised and annoyed him.

Finn couldn't deny that Jodie being around that long held a strong appeal for him. At the same time, she wasn't the type of person he should allow himself to be attracted to, and he knew it deep in his soul.

“So you're positive I'll only get meat prices if I bring these horses to the auction mart in town?” Jodie was asking, turning her attention back to the horses.

Finn nodded, wishing he could detach himself from the thought that these amazing animals would be slaughtered. “I wouldn't make a decision right away, though,” he said. “Maybe ask around. See if there's anyone who would be willing to take them.”

Jodie nodded again. “For now, it looks as if they need their hooves trimmed. Do you know anyone who could do that for me?”

“I could, if you wanted,” he said. He owed that much to Keith.

“That'd be good.” Jodie's smile tugged at his resolve to keep his distance from her.

Then Vic was back to grab his riding horses. Time to go.

“I'll see you tomorrow when my shift is over,” Finn said to Jodie.

“Stop by the house. I'll give you a hand,” she replied.

He nodded, then grabbed his horse's reins and walked over to the horse trailer to load it. But as he did, he couldn't help sneaking a quick glance back to where Jodie still stood.

To his surprise she was watching him, a curious expression on her face.

Chapter Four

S
he still played piano.

As Finn knocked on the door, familiar music drifted out the open windows of the McCauley house. He remembered his mother playing the piece, but never as frenetically as it was being pounded out now. Yesterday, when he and Vic had come to round up the horses, Jodie had been outside waiting. Did she forget?

But before he knocked again, he listened a moment, feeling sorrowful at the sound. His mother, a pianist herself, had heard Jodie play a few times and praised the young girl's talent. Had talked about mentoring her.

But his mom's reliability was sketchy at best and she'd never followed through on her offer. Just as she'd never followed through on her promises to attend his baseball or basketball games, his school programs or anything requiring her to make a commitment. After his father's death, it was as if she'd lost all her focus on her family. As a result Finn had ended up neglected and alone. It was thanks to Keith McCauley's intervention that he'd had someone who was interested in his well-being. Finn owed Keith more than he could ever repay. The man had been a steadying force in his life.

And it was that history that brought him, reluctantly, here today. Keith's animals needed some basic farrier work. It was the least Finn could do for the man who had been such a huge influence in his life.

He knocked again, more loudly this time.

There was still no answer, so he opened the door and called out, “Anybody home?”

The music stopped abruptly. He heard the screech of a bench being pushed back, then footsteps, and a few seconds later Jodie appeared in the doorway. Today she wore an oversize plaid shirt, a tank top and blue jeans cuffed above bare feet. She had her glossy hair pulled back in a loose braid hanging over one shoulder. She looked more like the country girl he remembered than the retro hippie who'd come to her father's funeral.

“Hey there,” she said, folding her arms around her waist. “Glad you could come.”

“You got the horses in the corral?” he asked, wanting to get down to business. He had just come off his shift at work and was hungry.

“Sort of,” she said, biting her lip. “I couldn't round them all up. Mickey and Roany are still out in the pasture.”

“Just as well. I can't trim all their hooves today, anyhow,” he said.

“Of course.” She slipped on her boots and grabbed a worn straw cowboy hat from a shelf above the empty coatracks.

“I couldn't help hearing the piano,” he said, still surprised at the beauty of the music. “You ever play anywhere besides bars?”

“Not much opportunity,” she said, dropping the hat on her head and buttoning up her shirt. “And it works for me. Concert pianist was clearly not in the cards.”

He felt a nudge of disappointment at how casually she brushed off something she had talked about with such enthusiasm that one summer.

“How did that happen?” When they were dating, the music scholarship was all she'd talked about. When she'd ditched him for a wild party that night and missed her audition the next day, he had been so utterly disappointed both in her and for her. The rest of the summer she'd avoided him and hung out with a bad group. The next summer she hadn't shown up at all, and the only time Keith had mentioned her was to tell Finn about the irresponsible life his youngest daughter was leading.

“Life happens,” she said wryly.

Guess that was all he was going to get.

He opened the door for her, but before she walked through, she gave him an enigmatic look. “Still a gentleman, I see.”

“One of the few things my mother taught me,” he said, following her across the porch.

“Where is she now?” Jodie continued.

“Hopefully on her way to Saddlebank.” Finn pushed down the flicker of concern that his mother would flake out on him again. She'd sounded so sincere when she had called him a couple months ago. Maybe things had changed in her life. “She's accompanying Mandie Parker for our church music festival.”

“Mandie Parker. I've heard of her.”

“Really? She sings Christian contemporary music,” Finn said.

Jodie tossed him a wry look. “I'll have you know I have a variety of musical tastes,” she stated.

“Sorry, I didn't mean—”

“That I only listen to blues in smoky bars or hip-hop in clubs. I get it.”

A smile teased his mouth at her quip. “I stand corrected.”

“As for Mandie, it's amazing that you managed to get her. She's very talented.”

“The festival's in a couple of weeks. If you're staying here, you could come, if you're interested.”

“I just might.” Jodie shoved her hands into the back pockets of her blue jeans as she walked alongside him, past the dented and dusty car she had driven here. Clearly waitressing and playing in bars didn't pay enough to buy decent transportation.

“And how is your mother these days?”

“She's doing okay.”

“I remember hearing her play at church sometimes when Aunt Laura couldn't. She was so talented. I sometimes wished she could have given me lessons.”

“Your grandmother in Knoxville taught you to play, didn't she?”

“She taught all three of us. There wasn't much money for anything else, so she spent her days trying her best to keep us well-rounded and on the straight and narrow.”

Finn was sure he didn't imagine Jodie's sardonic tone of voice. “How successful was she?” he couldn't help but ask.

“Well, you did catch me speeding,” Jodie replied with a saucy smirk.

“It sounds as though you play as fast as you drive.”

“Gramma never let us play outside until we finished the pieces of music she set out for us. I learned that the sooner I was done with what
she
wanted me to play, the sooner I could play the ones I wanted.”

Finn laughed at the mental image of a young girl furiously pounding out the notes to sonatas. “I thought you enjoyed playing the piano? That it was a dream of yours.”

Jodie simply shrugged. “I didn't like what Gramma and my mother made me play. Those endless scales and all those boring pieces. Once I mastered them, I enjoyed it more.” Her melancholy tone made him wonder again what had happened that she had discarded that dream so callously. “Did your mother teach you, too?” she asked.

“Off and on. I never got the benefit of regular lessons like you did.” Or parenting, for that matter.

“Did your mother ever move back here?”

Though she knew what had happened after his father died, Jodie's current interest in his life surprised him. He didn't think she had spared him more than a passing thought after that summer. But it had been another hard day at work, and the conversation was a pleasant antidote.

As was Jodie's company.

“No. She's all over the place right now.” And a constant reminder to him of the perils of an undisciplined life.

“And you're not.”

“I like Saddlebank. Always have. My dad's family has been here for generations. I want to settle down here.”

“You always did like it more than I did.”

“It's a good place. And much of the reason I decided to stay had to do with your father. He was a mentor to me. He helped me find my place in the chaos that was my life.”

Finn added a smile, hoping his words would give her some comfort. But she looked straight ahead, her hands shoved into the pockets of her jeans as they neared the corrals, the horses whinnying a greeting.

“So what can I do to help you?” Jodie asked, clearly not ready to talk about her father yet.

“Why don't you catch the first horse and bring it out here, and I'll get my trimming equipment,” he said.

She nodded and strode over to the hip-roof barn beside the corrals where Keith kept his tack, disappearing inside. A few moments later she stepped into the corral, carrying a halter behind her back. Finn smiled at the old trick, curious to see if it would work.

“Hey, Roany,” she said, her voice pitched low and quiet as she approached the large mare, who watched her with curiosity. “Come to Jodie. It's time for your long-overdue pedicure, and if you behave, you might get a carrot when it's over. I know it's supposed to go the other way, first the carrot then the stick, but it's how we like to roll at the Rocking M.”

Finn chuckled at her chatter. Jodie could always make people laugh.

He set the large wooden carrier holding his tools by the fence where it couldn't get kicked, and buckled on his heavy leather chaps.

To his surprise, Jodie convinced Roany to come and was already tying up the rope halter, her movements quick and sure.

She petted the horse, mumbled a few more nonsense words to her, then led her out of the corral, quickly moving through the gate and closing it behind her.

“Your first customer,” she announced, leading Roany toward him. She leaned her head against the mare's neck, rubbing it on the other side. “And you don't need to tip him,” she said to the animal.

As he took the halter, their hands brushed. She jerked back, startling the horse.

“Sorry, Roany. Just a bit jumpy around you yet,” she muttered.

But from the way she avoided his gaze, he suspected it wasn't Roany that made her jumpy.

Finn pushed the thought aside, focusing on the hard work that lay ahead. He tied the mare to the hitching post, then ran his hands over her as he walked around her, getting her used to his presence.

Finally he slid his palm up and down her front leg, catching hold of the hock. To his surprise, Roany lifted her hoof.

“Looks as if she still knows her manners,” Jodie said.

“Here's hoping she's like that for all her feet,” Finn grunted. He bent over, pulled Roany's hoof between his legs and went to work with a pick.

“So you manage to catch up with some old friends the past few days?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“I didn't have that many close friends when I visited here. Most have left Saddlebank, though I hear Keira, Heather and Lee are all back at Refuge Ranch.”

“Yeah. Most of them are married now. Lee and his fiancée, Abby, are tying the knot this summer.”

“Good for him. He had a rough go of it, I heard. Went to jail for something he didn't do.”

“He's managed to put it behind him, though I can't imagine how.” Finn had a hard enough time forgiving his mother for her constant absences in his life. Especially after his father died and Finn had needed her the most.

He returned his attention to Roany.

“You're well behaved,” he said to the horse.

“She always was,” Jodie agreed. “I loved riding her.”

“She was your horse?”

“We spent many hours in the hills together, didn't we, Roany?”

The wistfulness in her voice surprised him. Keith had always given him the impression that Jodie resented coming back here.

“Well, hopefully you can get her settled down enough that you can go riding again.”

“I hope so, but I'm not optimistic about her life after this.” Jodie's deep sigh made him glance up at her.

“Why do you say that?”

“You may as well know, I asked around and heard that you have a good reputation as a horse trainer and that you seem to have no problem selling the horses you've worked with.”

“Thanks for that.” He glanced up at her as he lowered Roany's other hoof, wondering where this was going, though he had a fair idea.

“I can't bear the thought of these horses going to the auction market for slaughter. Would you be willing to buy them from me?”

“Sorry, but I don't have room at my place for more horses,” he said giving her a look of regret. “And I can't afford to pay what they're worth.”

At any other time he would have loved to pick up these animals. They had great bloodlines and would give him a solid foundation for the herd he hoped to build up himself.

“Well, would you have time to train them? Get them into shape so I could sell them? You said it shouldn't take more than a month or two to recondition them.”

“No more than that,” Finn said, not answering her question, unsure he wanted to think about spending any more time with her.

He recalled that moment yesterday when, for a moment, he'd held her in his arms. He knew the loneliness dogging him since Denise's death was part of the reason he was drawn to Jodie.

But he also knew she held an old attraction he had to avoid.

“I don't think I have time,” he said. Between his job, his own horse training and the music festival coming up, he was swamped.

“No time at all?”

He heard the plaintiveness in her voice, but steeled himself against it as he lifted Roany's other front hoof. “Sorry, no. I can give you the name of a few other trainers. But if you and your sisters are selling the ranch, the new owner might want the herd.” He couldn't help but think of Vic and his verbal agreement with Keith to eventually buy the ranch. Finn knew his friend had been counting on it, but how would that play out with the terms of Keith's will?

“Maybe, but I don't want to run the risk of them selling the horses for meat. I'd like to know they're going to a good home before I leave.”

“I'm sorry, but I can't help you,” Finn stated as he set Roany's foot on the stand. He began filing the hoof down, the noise of his hasp the only sound in the peaceful quiet. Jodie climbed onto the fence, watching him.

As Finn worked, he found himself overly aware of her scrutiny. Of her presence. When he was done, she jumped off the fence.

“You can lead her back now,” he said, taking Roany's foot off the stand, then arching his back to get the kink out.

He straightened as Jodie came near and untied the mare from the hitching rail, ducking under her to get to the proper side. As she did, her arm brushed against Finn's, and once again he felt a foolish uptick in his heartbeat as attraction sparked between them.