Accidental Cowgirl (7 page)

“Now, sweeties. We’re not really spa-package gals, anyway. And let’s not exaggerate. We weren’t lost, exactly. Just a little misaligned.”

“Well, I hope this is
our
ranch you’ve realigned us to, Miss Let’s-go-for-a-walk. It’s getting freakin’ dark out here.” Hayley swatted another mosquito. “And buggy.”

Jess held out the bag of M&Ms. “Here. Eat. Stop whining.”

As they walked toward the faint lights glowing among the trees, the path became clearer, and Kyla breathed a bit easier, knowing they were almost back. Just as they reached the edge of a clearing, Jess pointed at a cabin ahead of them and to the right. “I think that’s one of the staff cabins. Cole and Decker are living in one of them this summer, and there’s supposed to be another one. I think it’s just too dark to see the other cab—oh, no!” Her voice suddenly sank to a whisper.

“What?!” Kyla hissed as she backed up a step.

Hayley backed up with her and grabbed her hand. “Yikes. There’s a guy coming out on the porch.”

Kyla giggled. “Great. They’re going to think we’re out here spying on them like hormonal teenagers.”

Jess pulled both of them back into the trees. “Let’s just hide here until he goes back inside. He’ll never see us. Make like a tree, ladies. Be one with the forest.”

Kyla giggled softly. “We are so going to get in trouble.”

“Not if we don’t get caught,” Hayley hissed. “Shh.”

As they backed into the woods, Kyla stepped on a twig and suppressed another giggle. “I cannot believe we’re doing this. I feel like we’re back at Freshman Camp, sneaking over to the
boys’ cabin.” Her stomach quivered as she tried to suppress her nervous-giggle reflex.

“Jess, Kyla’s giggling. Shut her up.”

“You know that’s impossible.”

Kyla stifled another giggle. “Sorry. I can’t help it.”

“Hush.” Hayley glared as she peered through the trees. “I think he went back inside.” She waggled her eyebrows at Jess and Kyla. “Hey, as long as we’re here, who wants to go take a peek in the window?”

Kyla giggled again. “Right. Because that would be a really mature and only borderline illegal thing to do. Didn’t you learn your lesson at Freshman Camp?”

“Those guys totally asked for it. They tormented us from day one.”

“So you thought sneaking into their cabin and stealing all of their clothes was a strategy likely to
end
that?”

“Nope, but it was fun.”

“It wasn’t all that fun when they exacted their payback, Hayls.”

“Oh, please. The lake was gorgeous that night.”

“It would have been more gorgeous from shore.”

“Now, now. Just because we had no clue how to sail back after they dove in and ditched us in the middle of the lake, there’s no need to be bitter.”

Kyla laughed quietly. “Good thing it was a small lake.”

“Plus”—Hayley winked—“it all worked out pretty well in the end.”

“For you, maybe. You got Steve. I got poison ivy.”

“Ooh. I forgot about that. Come on.” She elbowed Kyla. “Aren’t you even a little bit tempted?”

“Hayley, you’re impossible,” Kyla hissed.

“Admit it, sweetie,” Jess whispered. “We know you’re curious. Not that I’m condoning the whole Peeping-Tom thing.”

“What is wrong with you two? I am most certainly
not
curious. So he’s hot. Really hot. Even, perhaps, exceptionally hot. Happy?” Hayley and Jess nodded. “That doesn’t mean I’m crouched here, looking at what might possibly be his bedroom window, dying to take a peek.” Kyla giggled again as a twig snapped. “Stop moving, you guys! We’re going to get caught.”

“I didn’t move,” Jess whispered. Kyla heard another snap, this time closer.

Hayley grabbed Kyla and Jess, squeezing hard as she pulled them downward toward the pine needle carpet. “Neither did I.”

The darkness suddenly disappeared as a huge flashlight beam sliced toward the tree where they were hiding. All three girls screeched and scrambled to huddle together. Jess was the first to recover. “Who’s there?”

“Depends. Who’s
there
?”

Oh, thank God. It was Decker’s voice. Kyla started giggling. She couldn’t help it. They were in the dark, out in the woods, talking about spying on a gorgeous grown man like twelve-year-olds, and they’d been caught.

“Decker, is that you? Oh, thank goodness.” Jess put her arm around Kyla’s shoulders and motioned to Hayley to do the same. At the same time, she poked Kyla’s tummy and whispered, “Behave.” As a threesome, they stumbled back toward the path.

“Something wrong, ladies?” Decker shined a flashlight toward them, sweeping it from face to face. It seemed to land on Kyla’s a beat too long, but that could have been her embarrassment talking.

Jess put on her best concerned voice and pointed to Kyla. “Kyla here has a bit of a sleepwalking problem. We just noticed she’d gone wandering, so we followed her out here. Thank goodness we caught her before she went down the hill toward the brook.”

“She sleepwalks? At eight o’clock in the evening?”

“She must have laid down for a nap while Hayley and I were out walking, and when we got back, she was nowhere in sight.”

“Really. That’s quite concerning.” Kyla was sure Decker was shaking his head, though she couldn’t see it with the flashlight aimed at her face. “And she talks while she’s sleepwalking?”

Hayley chimed in. “She does! Almost like she’s really awake. She even giggles. It’s freaky.”

“And is she asleep now?” Decker shined the flashlight directly into Kyla’s eyes.

* * *

“What’s on the schedule this morning?” Hayley asked as she emerged from the bathroom with
her hairbrush. She’d already pulled on jeans and a teal tank top, and was attempting to tame her hair into a ponytail.

Kyla set down her cocoa mug and walked over to where the schedule was posted on the wall. “Crime and Punishment 101: Thou Shalt Not Stalk the Cowboys.”

“Sweetie, that’s not what it says, and besides, you do have a nighttime wandering problem. You’re just not usually asleep when you do it.” Jess came out of her bedroom, tying her glossy black hair in a long braid. She checked her reflection in the wall mirror, then perched on the back of the couch, long cotton skirt brushing her ankles.

She leaned closer to Kyla and ran her index finger gently under Kyla’s right eye. “Did you sleep at all last night, sweetie?”

Kyla shrugged and picked up her mug. “Sure I did. Some.”

She saw Jess and Hayley exchange a concerned look. Hayley took Kyla’s shoulders and walked her over to the wall mirror. “Honey, look at your eyes. When’s the last time you slept through the night?”

Kyla sighed. “You already know I haven’t slept through the night since the accident.” She turned away from the mirror, then paused. “Since the night I found out about Alexis Nightingale. And the money.” The name tasted like acid on her tongue.

“Secret wives should never have names that pretty.” Jess sighed.

Hayley elbowed her. “Not helping, Jess. Really not helping.”

“I didn’t say
she
was pretty. I just said her name was.”

Kyla flopped down on the loveseat. “Well, she
is
pretty, unfortunately. Beautiful, actually. She was perfect for Wes. She probably called him Wesley. They were probably going to have three perfect children named Wesley the Fourth, Walker, and Waverly. All blond, all learning French from the nanny by age three, all tennis players at age four.”

“Well, if it’s any comfort, he lost all of her money, too.”

“Lucky for her, her daddy will set her up with a nice little pied-à-terre in Paris until the furor dies down. I just still can’t figure out how I was so damn stupid for so damn long.”

“Sweetie, we’ve been over this a million times.” Jess sat down beside her. “He was a master con man. You
have
to stop blaming yourself.”

“How can I
not
blame myself, Jess? It’s not just me he destroyed.”

“Your grandparents never blamed you, Kyla. Only
you
blame you.”

“I know. The logical part of me knows. But Jesus, you guys. He
ruined
them. They were going to live in that farmhouse until they died. Gramps always said the only way they were gonna take him off that farm was feet first.”

She could still hear Gramps as he and Kyla had cleaned out the attic right before the closing.
Damn city kids. They don’t even know what they’re buying here. This isn’t a summer house. It’s a home. It’s a home, dammit
. Then he’d turned around quickly and creaked down the attic ladder before Kyla could see the tears she’d known were brewing.

Her ribs constricted when she thought about the irony that though she’d been responsible for them losing their life savings, the only account Wes hadn’t found and pilfered was the one they’d started for her when she was an infant.

When they’d died, the attorney had summoned her to his office and delivered a monstrous check. He couldn’t possibly have understood why she’d dropped it and run right back out of the office.

Kyla sighed loudly, then sensed a tremble in her stomach. It felt almost like a laugh, which was completely inappropriate. Again. Maybe she had Tourette’s or something. The situation was so beyond absurd she couldn’t even believe she’d been part of it, let alone the unwitting victim of Wes’s deception. It sounded like one of those cable channel movies where the blond bimbo got snowed, bankrupted, and then sent to a mental institution. How could any of it be real?

Her stomach trembled again. Good Lord, she really was losing her mind. “Do you think maybe they’ll make a TV movie out of this or something? I should totally get to choose who plays me, right?”

Jess hugged her. “Oh, definitely, darlin’. Who would you choose?”

“Gosh, so many choices.” Kyla flipped her hair. “I mean, the slate of five-foot-three, brunette Hollywood actresses has to be at least three names long, right?”

Hayley leaned toward her. “You should totally go for Nicole Kidman or Julia Roberts instead.”

Kyla laughed out loud. “Jennifer Aniston, maybe? We’re practically twins, right?”

“Jess, she’s laughing. Day Two and we already have laughter. Score!” Hayley high-fived Jess.

Kyla swiped her eyes again. “You know what? You’re right. I think maybe, just maybe,
I’m already starting to feel better. Maybe I just haven’t been thinking about this the right way, because right now, thinking about Wes and my grandparents, I’m so pissed I could eat nails. And
pissed
is a way better emotion than this abject depression thing.”

Jess sputtered her water. “Eat nails?”

“Gramma used to say that. Well, without the
pissed
part.” Kyla stood up, catching herself as her leg threatened to give way. She shook her head and shoulders like a wrestler about to enter the ring. “I’m done moping. I am. We’re in the most beautiful spot on earth, I’ve got my two best friends, the trial’s over, and Wes is in jail. It’s high time to get my life back, don’t you think?”

Hayley grinned. “I
do
think!”

Jess blinked hard as she gathered Kyla into a hug. “Me, too, darlin’. Me, too.”

Kyla pulled back and winked at Jess. “Y’know what? I think I might be ready for you to make that voodoo doll you promised. I want it to look just like Wes.”

“I was kidding about that, honey. I don’t really do those.”

“Hayley? How about you?”

“Oh, I’d be
happy
to stick pins in a Wes-doll! Let’s make one!”

“Anyone know what the most common trail injury is?” Cole tipped back his hat and scanned the guests. Kyla pulled her sweatshirt closed and sipped her cocoa. Holy
brr
, it was cold. It’d been eight-five degrees at noon yesterday, but it was just cresting forty right now. Apparently this was August in western Montana, at least this year.

She longed again for the gooshy, perfect queen-sized bed in her cabin, which was a lot softer and warmer than the log she was currently sitting on. The sky practically crackled blue above her, and she could hear robins and chickadees skittering around in the trees near the ranch house.

“Anyone awake yet?” Cole’s amused voice snapped her out of her daydreaming. “What’s the most common injury we see on the trail? Any guesses?”

“Sprained ankles?” Theresa ventured.

“Nope.”

“Back injuries?” Maureen guessed.

“Nope again.”

“Sore heinies?” Hayley tried, to a round of sleepy laughter.

Cole grinned. “Getting closer. That’s second. Anyone else?”

Jess shivered. “Concussions?”

“Nope. You’re not going to believe this, but the number one most common trail-riding injury here is …” He looked around the circle to make sure everyone was listening. “… sunburn.”

“Sunburn? Seriously?” Cheryl looked up at the sky.

“But don’t worry. Sunburn we can prevent. Today’s lesson is dedicated to the stuff we can’t necessarily predict or prevent.” Cole turned toward the barn on his left with his arm outstretched. “Allow me to introduce my assistants for today’s program, Jimmy and Pete.” They emerged from the stable, hobbling from what looked like multiple fake injuries.

Pete got to the circle first and collapsed on a log, holding his ankle in mock pain. Jimmy was next, bracing his head and blinking rapidly. Kyla looked from one to the other, trying not to
laugh at their antics. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Decker smile as he shook his head.

She jumped. Where had he come from? She’d been so relieved to find him missing from the log circle this morning, since last time he’d seen her, she’d been playing Runaway Sleepwalker.

“Okay, we’ve got two injuries. First order of business—who do we treat first?” Kyla tore her eyes from Decker to concentrate on Cole’s instructions.

“The head injury,” Tom guessed, and Maureen nodded.

“Right. What do we do?”

“Ask him what happened?”

Cole turned to Jimmy. “What happened, Fred?”

Jimmy scowled. “I don’t know, but my head is killing me. I gotta sit down.” He careened onto a log, then clutched his stomach and lurched back up. “Never mind. I don’t feel so good. I gotta lie down.” He stumbled a bit as he walked outside the circle and lay down on the grass.