Bet You'll Marry Me (3 page)

“It sure did,” Billie drawled. “I think she hates you.”

“Billie,” he pleaded, and glanced down the stairs to make sure no one was listening, “the only reason I'm doing this is for
you.
You're the one with the hundred-thousand-dollar gambling debt. Do you have any idea what Victor Lucarelli will do to you if you don't get the money to pay him back?”

“I'd rather not think about it.” Billie's face blanched. “I made a mistake.”

“Two mistakes,” he corrected, following her to her bedroom. “First you cheated the casino owner—didn't even
think
the security camera might catch you in the act, and then you lost all his money to someone else.”

“It was supposed to be a private game of poker and I was mad at Lucarelli for being so haughty.” His sister set her suitcase down and walked around in a circle. “Nice room.”

“It's not the Hilton.”

“Cedar plank walls. Creaky floorboards. Remember when we were little and I was convinced there was a ghost on Grandpa's ranch? I stayed up all night waiting for it to appear so I could spray it with Silly String.”

Nick grinned. “Then you would be so tired you wouldn't wake up in the morning.”

Billie looked down at her feet and then up at him. “Nick, do you think Lucarelli and his men will kill me?”

“They'd have to kill
me
first,” he said fiercely.

“I'm sorry.” Billie sounded more sincere than he'd ever heard her. “I'm so sorry.”

“I know.” He drew in a deep breath. “If I can win the bet and get Jenny to marry me, the O'Brien land will be half mine. I'll have the missing piece of acreage I need to sell my land tracts to Davenport. Not only will we have the money to pay off your debt, but we'll have money to buy Jenny another ranch to live on.”

Billie shrugged. “So what do you want me to do?”

“Become Jenny's friend,” he said, nudging his sister with his shoulder. “From what I've learned from the people in town, she could use a good friend. Find her weak spots. Give me an edge so I can get close to her.”

“You never needed my help with a woman before,” Billie teased. “Do you really think you can get her to marry you?”

Nick grinned. “Go study some cookbooks.”

 

Chapter Three

A
FTER A RESTLESS
night's sleep Jenny awoke early, threw on a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt, and tied her long hair up in a ponytail.

Had she overreacted to her uncle's decision to hire Chandler? The work on the ranch kept everyone busy from sunup to sundown. Surely the chances of the man having any spare time to bother her would be slim.

She was wrong. Nick Chandler fell into step beside her as she made her way down to the stable.

“How about you and I go for a ride this evening? You could show me the layout of the land on horseback.”

“That's Harry's job,” she said, and then cast him an appraising look. “Besides, you won't be up to it.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“It means those smooth hands of yours, which are no doubt accustomed to delicate office work, will be covered in blisters by nightfall. You won't be able to hold on to the reins long enough for an evening ride.”

Chandler winced, as if she'd punched him in the gut.

“If I
am
able to hold on to the reins,” he said, shooting her a sideways glance, “will you ride with me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don't want to.”

Josh Hanson, her young newspaper-delivering neighbor, came from behind and ran between them. “The only one who can get a date with Jenny is
me.
She gives me riding lessons every Monday.”

Nick tipped his hat toward the boy. “Great idea.”

“Forget it, Chandler,” Jenny warned and turned toward Josh. “You can get Echo ready and meet me in the arena.”

Josh ran ahead, and when Jenny reached the stable she found Harry arguing with Frank Delaney.

“Managing a ranch is hard work,” Harry shouted. “I need someone who will take on a challenge, not hide behind it. I need someone assertive.”

“Well, you certainly are assertive,” Jenny muttered, and glanced at the dark-haired man beside her.

“I heard that,” said Chandler, giving her a wink.

“I'll show you assertive,” said Frank. His upper lip curled as Chandler approached. “We'll just see who the better man is.”

Frank snatched a saddle off the rack and went out the back door in a huff.

“He's going to be a problem,” Jenny predicted.

“Nah. He'll cool down in a couple of days.” Harry took a brown leather bridle from one of the hooks along the wall. “What do you think? Should we have Nick ride Satan?”

She hesitated. Satan had been her father's horse. Although he desperately needed to be exercised, the temperamental black quarter horse had been difficult to control since her father's death six months ago. She doubted Nick Chandler could stay on him ten minutes, let alone a full day in the fields.

“No, I don't think he could handle him.”

“I can handle any horse you give me,” Chandler insisted.

How could he be so sure he could handle an animal he knew nothing about? In her opinion, it was high time Nick Chandler got knocked down a notch. Riding Satan would probably knock his bolstered ego down
several
notches. Would it be enough to make him quit?

“Yes,” Jenny said, amusement bubbling up within her. “Let's put him on Satan.”

J
ENNY LED THE
horses from their stalls to the outside paddocks, fed them their morning flakes of alfalfa, then met Josh for his riding lesson.

The twelve-year-old, who lived two mailboxes down the road from her, had already tacked up the small chocolate colored Arabian with a western saddle and bridle.

“Bring her up to a jog,” Jenny instructed, and entered the white-fenced circular arena. “That's good. Loosen the reins, and sit straight, no slouching.”

“When are you going to let me help drive the cows back and forth between the pastures?”

“When you're ready,” Jenny said with a smile. “First you need to practice your sharp turns.”

“Do you think I'm fast enough to enter the Pine Tree Dash?”

“That's a tough race,” Jenny told him. “Not only do you have to be fast, but you have to maintain control. Do you think you could keep control of the horse at a gallop?”

“If I were in open fields instead of an arena, I bet I could gallop faster than an airplane can fly.” The boy gave Echo a small kick and sped the horse's gait from a jog to an easy lope.

“Good job, Josh. Be careful with the reins. You don't want to jerk the horse's mouth.”

“That's what my dad tells my mother,” Josh said, circling around. “He says she forces him to complain.”

“What does your mom say?”

“That he tortures her on purpose to make her quit the marriage.”

Jenny thought of Nick and wondered if Satan had tortured him enough to quit the ranch.

“I'm sorry to hear your parents are having problems. It must be hard on you and your sisters.”

“Yeah. Everyone in town is betting on who you will marry and they're all betting if my parents will divorce.”

Jenny grimaced. “They place bets on any idea that pops into their head.”

Josh cut across the arena, first in one direction, and then another. “Have you ever met a
person
you can't get out of your head?”

“What? Yes. Yes, I have.” Jenny had to suppress a laugh. Every moment since she'd met Nick Chandler she couldn't stop thinking of ways to get rid of him.

“I mean,” Josh said, as he came around again, “when you see them you feel like you can't breathe—like you have asthma or something.”

“Like when a bully backs you into a corner at school?”

“Not a bully,” Josh said, riding past her. “But someone you kind of like. My friend Zach has an asthma inhaler he uses at school. I asked him if it helped when he was around girls, but he said he didn't think so.”

“Girls?” Jenny smiled. “Do you like one girl in particular?”

“Maybe.” Josh slowed the horse to a walk and came over to her. “Jenny, what do you think of dating a younger man?”

A younger man? She didn't think of dating at all. Well, maybe once in a while—but only in a fantasy-world, remote kind of way.

She frowned. “Did David Wilson put you up to this?”

“No,” Josh sputtered, color rising into his cheeks. “I'm asking for myself. I just wanted to know how you felt about it.”

“I don't think age matters too much as long as there's love.”

“Great!” Josh averted his eyes, and blushed even more. “I mean—good to know.”

Jenny gasped. Did Josh have a crush on her? She'd thought the reason he'd been hanging out at her ranch so much was to avoid the turmoil at home, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe he hadn't been joking when he'd bragged to Nick earlier. Did Josh think
he
had a chance to win the bet?

How cute! What an adorable, sweet, little boy!

“Josh,” she said slowly, “is this why you want to take riding lessons—to impress a certain girl?”

The twelve-year-old nodded, while keeping his head bowed. Then he looked up and his expression changed to one of complete anguish.

“Karen Kimball is fourteen, two whole years older than me, and she enters all kinds of competitions. Her family has the bicycles for sale and I really want one. It would be great to ride a bike when I deliver newspapers, but if I go over there I'll have to talk to her and nothing comes out of my mouth when I try to talk to her. I shouldn't even like her. But she catches bullfrogs with her bare hands, and tips the canoe over in the lake on purpose, and is always teasing me. But I like the way she teases me. It's not the way my parents tease each other. My parents always fight and scream and lock each other out of the house. No wonder you don't want to marry. I don't want to marry either. But I can't stop thinking about this girl.”

“Karen Kimball.” Jenny swallowed hard. Of course Josh hadn't meant
her.
She was too old for him. Why would he have a crush on her? She was only interested in her horses. She never did anything with anyone else. She always did things . . . alone.

“Don't tell anyone I told you,” Josh pleaded. “I don't usually talk about this stuff. Zach thinks I'm crazy. But I thought you'd understand because of the way you look at Nick.”

Jenny bristled. “How do I look at Nick?”

“Like you secretly like him.”

“I do not!” she said in a rush. “He's arrogant and manipulative, and he's not even staying on the ranch for very long. He'll be gone within a week.”

“Don't worry,” Josh said, moving back across the arena. “I'll keep your secret, if you keep mine.”

N
ICK EASED FORWARD
in the saddle to adjust his tired seat. His thighs ached, his back ached, his hands were raw, and to top it off, he
did
have a few blisters. Jenny would feel smug about that.

What was he doing on this pitiful run-down ranch? He was a businessman with contracts to sign. He didn't belong here and the other ranch hands made darn sure he knew it.

Every available moment, they'd drive the cattle in different directions. At lunch they filled his saddlebag with manure, and in the afternoon one of them drove a tractor through the fence he'd fixed.

“It's one thing to try to woo some girl,” said Wayne Freeman, all the friendliness from the café absent from his face, “and another to think you can worm yourself onto this ranch and tell us what to do. Frank and I were here long before you strolled into town.”

Even worse than the ranch hands' disloyalty was the fact Jenny planned to lead some of the other bet-wagering cowboys on an overnight pack trip into the mountains.

Harry said Jenny had expected families and 4-H groups to sign up for her pack trips. When the men from the café signed up instead, she'd almost backed out. Except each pack trip could bring in two thousand dollars and she needed the money. Nick shook his head, despair seeping into every muscle of his overexerted body.

Harry was going with her. Still, the other men would have a better shot at winning the bet—unless he gained her affection first. That incredible feat was going to require every ounce of charm he could muster, and at the moment, he wasn't sure he was up to it.

As he drove the last of the cattle into the corral for the night, Nick forced Satan to a halt and the black gelding snorted with annoyance. If it wasn't the ranch hands testing him, it was the horse. At least the horse finally knew who was boss.

Pushing his hat off his forehead, Nick wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand . . . and saw Jenny sitting on the top rail of the corral fence.

She waved to him, an eager expression upon her face, almost as if she'd been anticipating his arrival. He must be mistaken. He turned and looked behind him but no one else was around.

He slid out of the saddle as she approached, and fed Satan another of the special apple and molasses horse treats he'd used as bribery to keep him under control.

“Come to check on me?” he asked, managing a grin as he closed the corral gate and secured the lock.

“Heck no. I came to check on the horse.” Jenny took the reins from his hands and ran her fingers down one of the animal's front legs. But contrary to her claim, her eyes were on him and not Satan.

“Care to go on that ride with me?” he asked, knowing full well she'd refuse.

“Yes, I would.”

“You
would
?” He swallowed hard. When he'd dismounted, his legs had nearly buckled beneath him. Climbing back up into the saddle would be like climbing N.L.C. Industries' New York office tower—without any superhero strength.

Jenny fed Satan a carrot and then turned to look at him, her bright blue eyes sparkling with mischief. What was she up to? Then a brilliant smile escaped her lips and he found it didn't matter. It was the first real smile he'd seen on her, other than the one she wore in the newspaper photo. And in person, it was even more enticing.

His heart rate doubled, and his resolve renewed. This was the chance he'd been waiting for, the chance to spend time alone with her, and for that he would hoist himself back into that saddle or die trying.

A few minutes later, Jenny led two fresh horses from the stable and handed him the reins of a feisty chestnut that had its ears pinned back and its teeth fully exposed.

“Don't you have any horses with a calm disposition?” he asked, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice.

“Of course.” Another smile parted her lips. “I just thought an expert wrangler, such as yourself, would prefer to ride a horse with a little more spirit.”

“Spirit?” He pointed to the animal's threatening stance. “Is that what you call this?”

Jenny laughed and he suddenly had a pretty good idea why she'd agreed to ride with him.
Torture.

Rounding the upper loop trail, Jenny frowned as Nick Chandler coaxed the wild chestnut into an easy lope. How did he
do
it? She had never been able to control that horse, but she wasn't going to let
him
know that.

Jenny sensed Chandler gaining speed behind her.

“Race you!” she called, and pushed Starfire forward with a slight squeeze of her legs.

She rode parallel to the river and couldn't help but scan the embankment. Parts of it were steep where the water had washed away the dirt under a mass of overhanging tree roots. Other areas held large boulders tightly locked within the river walls. But she didn't see any caves or indentations filled with mineral deposits. If her great-great-grandfather had found a gold mine, where could it be?

Ahead, the logjam jump came into view. Leaning forward, Jenny adjusted her weight in the English saddle and prepared to soar into the air. Except once again, Starfire didn't get the height he normally achieved. They made it over but his back hoof scraped the top of the barrier.