Distraction (10 page)

Two hours of riding the perimeter of the ranch
looking for animals that had gotten past the broken fence did
nothing to erase the image of the girl from my thoughts. After
dancing with Poppy on the porch, I could not get her out of my
mind. I’d decided not to tell Libby that she was hiding from
someone. It would only cause Libby worry. I had no idea who a girl
like Poppy would be running from, but my imagination and rage went
wild with the thought of it. It had to be a man or even a husband,
a husband who was brutal enough that she’d run away from him. My
fingers tightened around my reins just thinking about someone
harming her. And that was why I needed to avoid her. The more time
I spent with her, the more I thought about her. And the last thing
I needed was to fall for her. Only now, Libby and her crazy ideas
had obliterated my determination to stop thinking about Poppy.

As I trotted back toward the inner pastures, feminine
laughter drifted over the tops of the tall grass. Jackson’s
laughter followed, and I trotted River in that direction. Libby’s
plan had not been thwarted by my refusal. Jackson leaned his
forearm on the pommel of his saddle as he watched Poppy ride
circles on our old gelding. I rode up next to him.

Her long hair had escaped the pins holding it, and it
shimmered like gold in the sharp afternoon sunlight. Her sweet
bottom was still tucked neatly in a pair of my old denims, and it
popped up and down on the seat of the saddle in perfect rhythm with
her soft cries of joy.

Jackson cupped his hand around his mouth. “Sit back,
Poppy. You’re leaning too far forward.” He dropped his hand.

She swept a long strand of hair off her face and sat
back.

“Now that is a picture,” Jackson said.

My pulse sped up just watching her trot clumsy
circles around the pasture. “What that is, Jacks, is a whole lot of
trouble wrapped in the prettiest package I’ve ever seen.”

Jackson’s eyes were wide. “What’s this? Cade Tanner’s
confidence finally shattered by a girl? I’ll admit she’s not like
any other girl we’ve met, but I’m still surprised.”

It took all my will to look away from her. I reined
River around. “Confidence hasn’t got anything to do with it. I just
know trouble when I’m looking at it.” River’s hooves plodded over
the drought hardened ground. I wasn’t fifty feet from Jackson when
Poppy screamed. I spun River around so fast, the horse nearly fell
back on its haunches. Poppy had slipped to the side of the saddle
but had righted herself just as I reached her.

Her smile greeted me, and it was the kind of smile
that could make a guy forget his own name. “Red went one way and I
went the other,” she said with a laugh. She reached forward and
patted the horse’s thick neck. “He slowed down as soon as he knew I
was off balance.” Her cinnamon brown eyes lifted and she looked at
me. “Forgive me if I startled you. I shouldn’t have screamed like
that.”

“You didn’t startle me.” Of course my heartbeat had a
whole different interpretation of it. Jackson rode up next to us.
He grinned smugly at me. “Well, Cade, you always were one to ride
toward trouble instead of away from it.”

“Shut up, Jacks.” A cow wailed unusually loud in the
distance. “I’d better go check on that.” I pressed my spurs into
River’s sides and headed in the direction of the sound. I glanced
back. “And keep a better eye on her.”

I reached the ridge that overlooked the entire lower
pasture. Most of the herd had stretched out beneath the warmth of
the sun, but one heifer had found her way into a massive pool of
mud. Not wanting to startle her, I dropped out of my saddle,
grabbed my rope, and left River standing on the ridge. I plodded
down toward the animal, trying to decide exactly how I was going to
drag a fifteen hundred pound cow out of two feet of mud, when I
heard the low whinny of a horse behind me. Jackson and Poppy had
followed. They stood on the ridge staring down at the scene
below.

“There’s hardly a drop of water anywhere on the whole
damn ranch and that stupid cow manages to find mud,” I called up to
Jackson. “I think the horses are liable to make her break a leg.
I’m going to try and coax her out on my own.”

“Should be entertaining,” Jackson added
helpfully.

The heifer’s wails grew louder as I approached. She
blinked at me and looked less confident than I felt. I sat at the
edge of the mud hole and yanked off my boots. There was no sense in
losing my best pair of work boots and spurs. One step and I sank to
my shin. The cow shifted her enormous weight as I neared, but the
mud had a quicksand-like grip on its spindly legs.

“Easy,” I said in a low voice. I tossed the rope
around the animal’s neck, and it struggled for a moment, then,
either exhausted or smarter than I’d give it credit for, it relaxed
and allowed me to tie the knot. Puffs of heated breath shot from
its giant nostrils as I hurried to secure the rope. I only hoped
the animal still had enough strength to pull her legs from the
mud.

I clucked my tongue as I trudged through the mire
hoping the cow would just follow. The poor thing made a herculean
effort but then sank back into the sticky mud trap. I put my feet
on solid ground. Bits of sharp rock dug into my heels as I leaned
back and pulled with all my strength. The cow’s neck stretched out
long, and it moaned as I pulled. Its legs made no progress. Its
massive body tilted to one side now. I hoped the animal was tired
enough to ignore an approaching horse. At this point, there was no
other way.

“Jacks,” I yelled, “walk River down here.
Slowly.”

Jackson jumped off his horse and wisely told Poppy to
do the same. Red wasn’t the type of horse to run off with a rider,
but anything could happen and she was too inexperienced to risk it.
She walked halfway down the hill in those snug blue jeans and then
sat to watch. I tried to get my mind back on my task.

Jackson led River to the mud and the cow stirred
some. But as I’d hoped, the animal was too exhausted to worry about
it.

I handed Jackson the end of the rope. “She’s leaning
to the side some,” I said. “I’m going to stand over there and push
while you and River drag her up.”

Jackson nodded and climbed up into my saddle. Through
the dense mud, my feet found hard surface. I braced my feet and
pressed my hands against the cow’s side. “All right, Jacks. Start
pulling.”

River’s hooves took small, unsteady steps. The cow
let out a tremendous cry as her head stretched forward. The
heifer’s legs struggled beneath her massive weight. One back leg
kicked free for a moment and then sank back into the mud. “Spur
him, Jacks. You’ve got to pull harder.”

River’s front feet lifted off the ground a second and
then the horse snorted as its head dropped low and it took several
steps. The cow shifted suddenly and slipped onto its side, taking
me down with it. The massive weight of the animal pushed me into
the mud, and I was wedged beneath it. My legs couldn’t move an inch
and keeping my head above the surface was close to impossible. I
pushed with all my might but knew it was futile. I gasped for
breath as bitter mud trickled into my mouth.

Jackson yelled my name. I heard him shouting at River
to pull, but I knew my horse didn’t have the strength to drag the
prostrate cow from its sticky grave. And now it seemed it might be
my sticky grave as well. Through it all, I could hear Poppy’s
screams.

My feet tingled and my legs felt as if they were
being bent in the wrong direction. My body sank farther below the
surface, and I craned my neck as far as possible to breathe. Then,
without explanation, the animal lifted its ungainly torso from the
mud and trotted out of the hole. It took me a moment to realize
that it had actually happened.

I peeled myself from the black mud and looked up at
Jackson. He stared down from River’s back. The freed cow shook
itself off and walked lazily back to the herd as if nothing had
happened.

My legs ached as I stood. I scraped mud off my face
with the heel of my equally muddy hand. “How the hell did you do
that, Jacks?” I climbed out of the sludge.

Jackson’s face was a few shades whiter. “I didn’t do
a thing, Cade. I was repositioning River, and that cow just lifted
up and walked out like some invisible being pushed her up and off
of you.” Jackson glanced up at the hillside. “Maybe she’s your
guardian angel after all.”

Poppy was standing on the hillside with a look of
profound relief. Her silky hair danced around her slim shoulders
and her small white hands were tucked in the pockets of the denims.
And she looked every bit angel.

She nearly skipped down the slope to meet us. “Aside
from being frosted with mud, are you all right?” There was a slight
tremor in her voice.

I made another attempt to wipe some mud from my face
with my mud covered hands.

She smiled. “I think you’re only making matters
worse. Let me help.” Without warning, she stepped directly in front
of me and my heart bounced off my ribs. She lifted her hand from
her pocket and wiped the mud clean from around my eyes with her
soft fingertips.

I was frozen to the core by the cold wet mud that
clung to every inch of me, but the heat of her touch flowed through
me like lava.

She knelt down and used the clean grass to wipe the
dirt from her fingers and then popped up in front of me. “You
should probably get home and wash up.”

I glanced down at my clothes. There was not an inch
of visible fabric. “Oh, I don’t know. It’s not all that bad. Libby
might not even notice.”

She laughed.

Jackson walked over to hand me the reins to my horse.
I didn’t take them. “I’m not going to pull myself up into that
saddle, Jacks. Too much mud. I’ll walk home.”

“Suit yourself,” Jackson said. “Come on, Poppy. We
should get the horses in.”

She gazed up at me with deep brown eyes. “May I walk
with you?” She patted her bottom innocently, not having any idea
the effect it had on me— even covered in muck. “I think I have had
enough saddle bouncing for one afternoon, and I love to walk.” She
looked shyly at the ground and tucked her hair behind her ears.
“Although I’ll understand if you don’t want me tagging—”

“Walk with me.” Hell if Jackson didn’t know me better
than I knew myself. He was right. I’ve always preferred to head
toward trouble rather than away from it.

The crisp air was occasionally interrupted by a ray
of warmth from the blue Montana sky. The ranch house looked like a
tall yellow box as we tromped over the amber-colored hillsides. My
nerves had finally calmed after the harrowing incident. Nonni had
issued a harsh warning that I was not to use my magic, but surely
even she would have used it if put in the same situation.

I peered over at the mud-covered man walking next to
me, his mud-free boots swinging from his fingers. Even coated in
dirt, he was extraordinary. He had saved me from certain death and
now I had returned the favor. And while he had no idea that it had
been my magic that pushed the cow back onto her feet, in my heart,
I was certain I had done the right thing. I hoped it had been just
enough magic to alert Nonni to my whereabouts. On the other hand, I
hoped it had been just little enough magic to keep Angus in the
dark.

“I still don’t understand how that cow managed to
right herself,” Cade said almost as if he’d sensed my thoughts. “I
thought I was a goner.” He chuckled. “Drowning in mud, stuck
beneath a cow, would not have been an honorable death. That’s for
sure.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said. “You were, after
all, trying to save the life of the cow.”

“Well, I guess it would be honorable to the cows, but
my brother would have laughed all the way to the grave site.”

“You and your brother are very different.”

“You could say that. But aside from Libby and
Jackson, he’s the only family I’ve got.” He attempted to smooth
back his long hair from his face but it, too, was heavy with mud.
“What about you, Poppy? Do you have family aside from your
grandmother?” He looked at me rather expectantly. “A husband?”

The night before, his disarming gaze and firm touch
had rendered me vulnerable, and some of my secret had been
revealed. And now it seemed he wanted to know more.

“No husband,” I said truthfully. “I have a sister
though. And we are very different too.” My throat tightened just
mentioning her. “I miss her terribly.”
“Libby had a notion that we might send a telegraph to Salem to let
them know you’re here.” He stopped and looked at me. The dirt
coating his face highlighted the paleness of his eyes. “Or would
that be a problem?”

“It would.” I found it hard to look at him as I
answered. I could never, in a million years, explain to him how or
why I’d arrived in Montana, and I felt the guilt of lying to him
deep in my chest. There were moments that he looked at me with so
much intensity, I worried that I would confide all my secrets to
him.

We climbed a small slope.

“So, did you enjoy riding the horse?” he asked.

“Very much. Jackson was a patient teacher.”

“Yeah, Jacks is a good guy. He lost both his parents
when he was young, and Libby took him in. He never left.”

“Libby has a big heart,” I said. “I hope I won’t be
intruding on her hospitality much longer.”

“You’re far from an intrusion, Poppy,” he said
quietly.

We walked in silence, and I took in the scenery.
There was so much open space around us, it seemed impossible to
take it all in. Much like the ocean, the landscape swept up and
rolled down, and the colors of the grasses seemed to change with
each rise and dip of the land. Out past the fence, running along
the pastures, the ground was barren and flat. Long rails of wood
traversed it with no visible end.