Montana Hearts (15 page)

“While growing up my mother always told my sister and me that we could never go to bed angry. All our fights and disagreements had to be resolved before sundown. I couldn't sleep because I thought you were mad at me and I didn't know why.”

“Luke followed you last night to Gavin McKinley's lodge,” Delaney informed him.

“Del, I wasn't looking to hunt,” he said, realizing that's what she must have thought. He decided it was time to let her in on his own secret. “I promised a friend I'd look into the local outfitters to try to find out who's been poaching.”

Her somber expression changed to one of surprise. “Is Gavin a poacher?”

“I'm not sure,” Jace admitted. “But he has grand dreams of future expansion and offered me half of Fox Creek Outfitters.”

Delaney gasped. “What did you say?”

“I told him that I started out hunting to provide meat for my family. Then I continued to hunt over the years to help thin out the population so the remaining deer wouldn't starve to death from lack of food. I let him know that the media had blown my desire to hunt out of proportion and that I donated the meat of the fallen to the homeless shelters, so the ­people there could eat, too. But
never
have I hunted for sport or for the pleasure of obtaining a mounted trophy.”

“You turned him down?” Delaney whispered.

“Yes,” Jace said, and grinned. “I turned him down. Gavin wasn't too happy about my decision.”

“No, I bet he wasn't,” Delaney said with a shake of her head. “But I am.”

He gave her a rueful grin. “You're not still mad?”

“Not anymore. In fact,” she said, and smiled as she tilted her head toward him, “I might even like you.”

“Whoa! Watch yourself,” he teased, wrapping his arm over her shoulders. “You almost sounded as if you were
flirting
.”

She didn't reply, but her smile widened, and as she continued to gaze at him in the glowing moonlight he had an incredibly good feeling their future might be just as bright.

D
E
L
A
N
E
Y
W
O
K
E
U
P
smiling the next morning and made her way down the stairs with an extra bounce in her step. Her good mood must have been contagious because Meghan looked at her and giggled. Swooping her little girl up into her arms, Delaney danced into kitchen, spun around, and exclaimed, “I've got a good feeling about today, Grandma.”

“That's quite a turnaround from last night,” her grandma teased. “Any special reason?”

“Yes, any special reason?” Jace asked, a glimmer of a smile lifting the corners of his mouth as he came out of the pantry stirring the contents of the bowl tucked in the crook of his arm with a wire whisk.

“Are you cooking?” she asked, unable to keep the surprise from her voice.

He grinned. “You're a master at sidestepping other ­people's questions, aren't you?”

She smiled. “Are you making pancakes?”

“Sidestepping me again?” he teased. “You know, you're not going to be able to sidestep me forever, Delaney.”

She wasn't sure she wanted to.

Jace had almost kissed her after they descended from the roof of the stable and prepared to go their separate ways. He'd taken both her hands in his and leaned his head in close as he said good-­night, giving her heart a jolt. But a ­couple guests who Jace had befriended during archery practice had come up the moonlit path and called to him.

“Tomorrow,” he'd promised a second before the men caught up to them.

She'd smiled, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed, then slipped away.

Afterward she'd lain in bed dreaming of what it might have been like to kiss the rodeo star. Or would kissing Jace be a mistake? After all, she had Meghan to think about. She didn't go around casually kissing men but wasn't sure she was ready for another relationship either. And the hunting issue still lay between them. Jace had claimed his reasons for hunting were noble, but he hadn't said he'd
stop
hunting either. She wasn't sure she could live with that.

Beside her, Meghan sucked in her breath and exclaimed, “Jace, are you making me pancakes?”

“I sure am, Megs,” he said with a grin, and tossed Delaney's grandma a nod. “I have a good teacher, and I thought I'd make breakfast.”

“For everyone?” Delaney asked, thinking of all the pancakes they'd need for their dozens of guests. Why, he'd be in the kitchen all morning, instead of spending time with her.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Just for the three of us.”

The three of us.
Delaney smiled, and another one of her impossible dreams popped into her head. The dream of a family—­a loving, caring, unified family of her very own.

Delaney could hear the sound of the front door opening, and a moment later Bree called out her name. “Come quick!” her sister shouted. “We've got a deer trapped in one of the cabins!”

A deer? Trapped in a cabin?

“Meghan, stay with Grandma,” Delaney instructed, and shot a worried glance at Jace, thinking it would be better if
he
stayed with her grandma, too.

No such luck. As if reading her thoughts, Jace handed Grandma the bowl of pancake batter and said, “I'm coming with you.”

They passed Loretta as they followed Bree to Cabin 26, the one farthest away from the main house. “It sounds like the deer is tearing the entire cabin apart,” she shrieked, her face full of panic. “I think we need your father to get his gun.”

“I have one in my cabin,” Jace told her.

“No!” Delaney shouted, and glared at him. “At least give me a chance to try to save it.”

Sometimes animals couldn't be saved, but Jace didn't tell her that. Instead, he followed her the rest of the way to Cabin 26 to assess the situation.

Loretta Collins was right. From the loud thumps, crashes, and squeals coming from within the cabin, it sounded as if lamps, chairs, and tables were being destroyed.

Delaney pushed through the crowd of gaping, wide-­eyed guests who circled the cabin and stopped up short by the front porch. “How did it get in there?”

Bree pointed to a group of three women. “When they came back after breakfast they opened the door and saw the deer inside.”

“I thought I was going to be gored by its antlers,” one of the women exclaimed.

Jace spotted the open cabin door and frowned. “Why won't it run out?”

One of the other women said, “It's stuck!”

“What do you mean, ‘stuck'?” he demanded, following Delaney toward the door.

All three women motioned to the tops of their heads and it didn't take long for Jace to see what they meant. The deer had put its head through the thin, wood paneled wall separating the kitchen and bedroom and as the buck twisted this way and that, trying to free itself, the large set of antlers kept it trapped. As he and Delaney approached, the buck let out a bloodcurdling yelp and kicked its back legs out at them.

“He's bleeding,” Jace said, shooting Delaney a glance. “His neck is sliced from the wood.”

“We can save him,” Delaney said stubbornly.

He admired her tenacity, but he had no idea how they could get close enough to free the deer without getting hurt themselves. He swallowed hard and said, “Del, I know you don't want to hear this, but it might be better to put the deer out of its misery.”

“You didn't put Rio down without trying,” Delaney argued.

“This is a wild animal!”

Delaney narrowed her eyes. “Who
also
deserves a chance to live.”

“It's a buck,” Jace said, staring at the eight-­point rack sticking through the wall as if the deer's head were already mounted. “He could get shot by a hunter the moment we free him.”

“He deserves a
chance
,” Delaney insisted.

Jace glanced at the deer's neck again. There seemed to be a lot of blood, and it was splattering everywhere, down the paneling, onto the floor, the kitchen counter. Then he looked into the deer's panic-­stricken eyes. The deer was suffering, surely Del could see that.

“You go around to the other side while I stay here in the kitchen and talk to him,” Delaney instructed.

“
Talk
to him?”

“Jace,
please
,” she begged, her whole face filled with compassion for the poor animal she wanted so desperately to save. He hesitated, and her expression hardened. “Help me,” she said, her voice low, “or you can leave this ranch and take your bloody endorsement with you.”

He'd never seen Del so serious. His heart pounded in his chest and he flicked his gaze toward the deer again. The animal trembled, but wasn't thrashing about as much. Either it was too terrified, or it didn't have much time left.

“All right,” he said, his adrenaline pumping into high gear as he met her gaze. “Let's do this.”

D
E
L
A
N
E
Y
S
T
A
Y
E
D
B
Y
the deer's head in the kitchen while Jace ran around the other side of the wall into the bedroom to deal with the back half of the animal.

“Don't move,” she pleaded with the buck in a whisper. “Please don't move.”

She reached a hand up and touched the side of its head. The deer flinched, and kept his eye on her, and uttered another cry, but she kept talking to the animal. And as she did, she moved her fingers toward the splintered opening and picked away the sharp pieces of wood as fast as she could. Other pieces of wood fell away in the opposite direction, and when she saw Jace's fingers, she realized he was trying to do the same thing.

“Yow!”
Jace's shouted. “He tried to kick me.”

“Watch out,” she called, grabbing hold of a large broken piece of the wood paneling that was giving way around the deer's antlers. Then she pulled with all her might and the piece of wood came free, opening a large hole.

“Almost,” Jace called to her.

The deer thrust his head back and forth again and, on the second try, more of the wood split off and the buck withdrew its head through the opening toward Jace. Delaney ran into the other room and spotted Jace on top of the bedroom dresser, which he'd used to keep himself above the deer's body while he worked on widening the opening.

“Delaney, get back!”

She pressed herself into the hall closet and the deer jumped over the bed, darted past her into the living room, and out the door. A shout of surprise sounded from the crowd outside, and Delaney ran out onto the front porch just in time to see the deer, unharmed except for the few slices to its neck, run into the nearest patch of woods.

The overwhelming surge of relief knowing the deer was free brought tears to her eyes and made her feel almost giddy, as if she'd drank an entire bottle of champagne or as if one of her impossible dreams had come true. She supposed one had.

Jace stepped out onto the porch beside her and she smiled. “The cuts around its neck weren't nearly as bad as I first thought,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “They should heal over in no time and he's
free
! We did it, Jace. You and me. You—­you
helped
me.”

She looked up at him, and realized that with his dark hair falling down over his forehead and his beautiful green eyes he really was the most handsome man she'd ever seen.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Jace didn't say a word but held her gaze, then he slowly reached out and touched her lower lip with the tip of his finger. She didn't move, didn't try to pull away, but parted her lips ever so slightly and realized the look in his eyes wasn't the same as when he'd flirted with her in the past. It was far more serious, more penetrating, as if he were seeing straight through her to the person she was on the inside for the very first time.
And he admired her.

She took a small step forward and he leaned his head toward hers and captured her mouth in a kiss so warm, so tender, so exhilarating, that the euphoria of emotion she'd already been feeling skyrocketed to a whole new level. A round of clapping erupted around them, and lifting his head, Jace grinned. “Remember how I said last night that I'd kiss you ‘tomorrow'?”

She nodded.

“I always keep my promises,” he said, and looked like he might kiss her again.

Except today, someone called
her
name.

Delaney glanced over the crowd and spotted three figures who wore green Montana Wildlife Rescue T-­shirts staring at her.
Carol, Mary Ann, and Ben.
Jumping away from Jace, she sucked in her breath. “Carol, what are you all doing here?”

“Your ma called,” Carol said, her expression tense. “She said you needed help. We happened to be in the area and came as fast as we could.”

“We rescued the deer,” Delaney assured them.

“Looks like we should have got here sooner to rescue
you
.” Carol glanced from her to Jace, then back to her again. “Delaney Collins, how
could
you!”

Delaney hesitated, unsure what she meant. “How could I what?”

Giving her a look as if it should have been obvious, Carol pulled her aside and asked, “How could you kiss
that man
?”

 

Chapter Nine

“J
A
C
E
H
E
L
P
E
D
M
E
get the deer out of the cabin,” Delaney said, touching the bear claw necklace about her neck as she stood up to the three she'd always considered her friends.

“Are you that fickle that you'd kiss a hunter for doing one good deed?” Carol argued.

Apparently Jace overheard. He frowned, then gave her friend a pointed look. “I'd prefer
not
to be labeled a hunter.”

Carol shot him a look of disgust. “You think if I called you a ‘rodeo star' that would be any better? I've seen how you rodeo ­people treat your animals. You run them into the ground until they're of no use to you, and then get yourselves a new one.”

Delaney shook her head. “You can't slap a title on someone and make snap judgments about them. A title doesn't define who a person is.”

“Isn't it your philosophy that everyone deserves a chance?” Jace added.

Reaching out to take his hand, Delaney lifted her chin like her stubborn sister, Bree, and told Carol, “You don't even
know
him.”

“I don't know
you
,” Carol retorted with unconcealed disappointment.

The woman Delaney had considered a mentor for so many long years turned on her heels and left. Was Carol now jumping to conclusions and making snap judgments about
her
? Mary Ann and Ben hesitated, cast Delaney an apprehensive glance, then followed Carol's lead.

“I'm so sorry, Del,” Jace said softly. “I know that must have hurt.”

“It
did
.” She drew in a deep breath to steady her breathing. “Speaking out always does.”

Swallowing the lump hovering in the back of her throat, Delaney noticed Bree waving her hand to get their attention.

“Come take a look at this,” Bree shouted.

Luke and their dad, only just arriving at the scene, hurried to join them. “Of course the deer had to be inside one of the new cabins,” Luke complained, poking at some of the debris with the tip of his cane. “I just finished building this one seven weeks ago.”

“It's going to cost us,” Delaney's father said with a scowl. “As if we needed an added expense.”

Jace picked a syringe off the cabin floor and said. “I think you've got bigger worries.”

Delaney stared at the fibrous tailpiece at one end and the sharp hypodermic needle sticking off the other and gasped. “A tranquilizer dart?”

Bree nodded. “That's what I wanted to show you. It must have fallen from the deer during his kicking frenzy.”

Delaney thought her sister must be right.

“Someone must have knocked the deer unconscious with the tranq dart,” Luke said, giving them each a look of warning, “then carried him in here to wreak havoc when he woke up.”

Delaney nodded, thinking her brother must also be right. Her older siblings always were.

“That's some prank,” Bree exclaimed, shaking her head.

“It's not a prank,” their father said, his tone ominous. “Someone did this for a specific purpose.”

“Someone who is trying to put us out of business?” Delaney asked. “The rival outfitters?”

Luke nodded. “I think Del's right.”

Really?
She leaned in to hear her brother tell her why.

“I think whoever it was wanted to see Jace hunt,” Luke continued. “They could have put the deer in here to tempt him.”

“It would have tempted any hunter,” Delaney's father agreed. “I heard that buck had himself a fine rack. But why do you think it was meant for Jace?”

“If I shot the deer, Delaney would never forgive me and tell me to leave,” Jace said, looking straight at her. “Chances are I wouldn't give Collins Country Cabins an endorsement after that.”

J
A
C
E
S
U
S
P
E
C
T
E
D
T
H
A
T
if anyone had wanted to prevent the Collinses from getting the endorsement by sabotaging his relationship with Delaney, it had to be Gavin McKinley. After all, the only other outfitter in the area was Isaac Woolly's company next door, but Isaac didn't know either one of them half as well as Gavin. He didn't know they were attracted to each other.

“I think I should pay our friend Gavin a visit,” Jace told Delaney after they left the cabin. “And see if he has any tranquilizer darts lying around.”

“I'll come with you,” Delaney said, her beautiful blue eyes filled with concern. “Right after breakfast. I have to check on Meghan.”

There was nothing he would have liked better than to have Delaney stick by his side the remainder of the day. Except after they'd finally eaten the pancake breakfast he'd promised her and her little girl, Jace discovered he had a surprise visitor.

“Jace,” Natalie said after being introduced, “I need to speak to you.
In private.
”

He could see from her agitated expression that what she had to say was important. Had his mother received another threat?

Excusing himself with a promise to meet up later, he left Delaney at the house with Meghan and escorted his sister to the privacy of his cabin.

“You didn't tell me she had a kid,” Natalie scolded. “What if you date her and it doesn't work out? How will that child feel when you leave?”

“I don't plan to disappoint either one of them,” Jace said, closing the door and taking a seat beside her on the couch.

“Yeah, well, it happens,” Nat said, her face contorting as if fighting off tears. ­“People you think you know and trust disappoint you.”

“Okay, Nat,” he said, noticing she
did
have tears in her eyes. “What's up? Who disappointed you?”

“I told Mom that Aunt Lora wouldn't take the money from you,” Natalie said, shaking her head. “But she still hasn't set a date to meet with them and return their share of the inheritance herself.”

“I'll talk to her,” Jace promised.

“You know how stubborn she can be,” Nat warned.

“Some of her persistence has also rubbed off on
us
,” he reminded her. “We won't let up on her until she does the right thing.”

“What if she doesn't? How will I look Aunt Lora in the eye without feeling guilty?”

“Aunt Lora and the rest of the Tanners have assured me that no matter what happens it won't affect how they treat you or me. They want us to be part of their family.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Nat asked, her expression worried.

Jace nodded. “They're anxious to meet you.”

“Maybe we'll also end up being part of the
Collins
family,” Nat teased, “if you develop a relationship with Delaney.”

W
H
I
L
E
J
A
C
E
W
A
S
busy with his sister, Delaney took the opportunity to sneak off to the old toolshed to check on the raccoon, the pheasant, and bottle-­feed the bobcat kittens. Then she went to the stable to feed the horses and found Rio kicking his stall.

“Easy, boy,” she soothed, running a hand gently over his pink satin nose. “You don't want to hurt one of your other legs, too.”

The buckskin snorted and tossed his head, making the front tuft of his black hair fall over his eyes, reminding her of Jace. She reached up and smoothed the hair back so he could see and then decided to take him out of his stall for a short walk. Two weeks had passed since he'd been injured, and thanks to her herbal wraps and her Grandma's handmade mineral lotion, it appeared the horse's leg was in the process of healing. Rio still couldn't put his full weight on the leg with the strain, but he looked like he was able to hobble around a little better.

Delaney slipped a halter over Rio's nose and the horse got even more excited. He kicked the wall of the stall with his rear leg as if impatiently telling her to hurry. Sliding his half door open, she took the lead rope and slowly led him step by slow step into the aisle and through the double doors. Luckily his stall had been on the end so he didn't have far to go.

Once outside, the horse appeared to calm, enjoying the cool breeze that ruffled his mane and tail. She ran her hand down his neck and back, admiring his soft coat. With the colder temperatures coming in, all of the horses' hair had grown long and thick. Most of them already wore their blankets and soon the temperatures would drop so low the animals would have to be stabled. They all had to enjoy what time they had left.

“I don't blame you, Rio. I'd get cranky and restless, too, if I had to stay inside on a nice day like this,” Delaney told him.

The horse snorted again and then raised his head with his ears perked forward. Delaney followed Rio's gaze and then she heard it, too, the sound of pounding hooves coming their way.

Seconds later she spotted Sammy Jo, with her long, dark curls flying out behind her, racing her palomino across the field that connected their two families' properties together. Rio appeared interested in the newcomer, as if he knew Sammy Jo's horse, Tango, was a rodeo veteran, too. Or maybe he was just eager to prove he was the better man. Calling out with a loud whinny, Rio held his head high.

Slowing to a stop a few feet away, Sammy Jo slid out of the saddle and pushed her hat, which had fallen down over her back while riding, up onto the top of her head again. “My, my, look who we have here,” Sammy Jo exclaimed, glancing at Rio. “Part one of your perilous pair. Where's part two?”

“Jace is in his cabin,” Delaney said, smiling, “and he and Rio are
not
perilous.”

“Perilous to your heart,” Sammy Jo teased, then nodded toward the horse by her side. “How's he doing?”

“His leg is healing, but he's not very happy. The stall's making him stir-­crazy and he wants out.”

“Of course he does,” Sammy Jo cooed. “He loves bulldogging and wants to chase himself a bull.” Arching her brow, she added, “How's the flirting with part two coming along? Have you been doing everything I taught you?”

“No,” Delaney said, shaking her head. “But he kissed me anyway.”

“He did?” Sammy Jo asked, and let out a high whoop showing her delight. “When?”

“This morning, right after he helped me save a deer that was stuck in one of our cabins.”

“Talking about getting stuck,” Sammy Jo said, her tone turning serious, “I got stuck in traffic trying to get past the end of your driveway a little while ago on my way into town.”

“Traffic?” Delaney frowned. “On
our
road?”

“Yeah, whoever would have thought, right?” Sammy Jo let out a short laugh, but then her expression sobered once again. “Actually, it's not funny. There are dozens of protestors lined up in front of your ranch waving picket signs and chanting, ‘Save our wildlife' and ‘End animal cruelty.' Some of them are holding a twenty-­five-­foot banner that reads Collins Country Cabins Harbors Heinous Hunters, Poachers, and Reckless Rodeo Rogues. I personally took offense to that last one.”

Delaney's mouth fell open. “They aren't all wearing green T-­shirts, are they?”

“Afraid so,” Sammy Jo said, and winced. “It appears Carol, Mary Ann, and Ben are leading the pack, and there's another group of Montana Wildlife Rescue supporters rallying together in town. They say threats to the animals in our area are at an all-­time high, whether wild or domesticated, and it's time for everyone to take action to bring balance back to the environment.”

“Oh, no,” Delaney said, and the back of her throat closed, nearly choking her. “Because I've helped them in the past, my father's going to blame
me
.”

She was right. Standing in the hallway outside the living room, she overheard her family discussing the situation unfolding outside, and her father said, “They wouldn't even know about our ranch if Delaney didn't volunteer at the local clinic.”

“I'm afraid it's my fault,” her mother said, her voice shrill. “I'm the one who called her Wildlife Rescue friends to come help get the deer out of the cabin. I didn't know they'd get mad at us and think we had anything to do with the deer getting stuck.”

“They weren't mad about the deer,” Bree told her. “They were mad when they saw Delaney kissing Jace.”

“What's wrong with that?” Grandma demanded.

“They didn't know he was staying here with us,” Bree explained. “And they think Delaney betrayed them by kissing the enemy. Jace rides rodeo and hunts, two things they hate. Now they're bad-­mouthing our ranch because he's here.”

“We can't tell him to leave without getting his endorsement,” Delaney heard her father grumble.

“We can't get his endorsement and
then
tell him to leave either,” Luke cautioned. “But if we
can
get Jace to give us that endorsement, I think we'll have enough good publicity to counteract the protestors' complaints.”

“Maybe we should let Bree try to talk Jace into giving us the endorsement,” Ma suggested.

“What about Del?” Grandma demanded.

“She was supposed to get help us create
good
public relations, not
bad
!” Delaney's father bellowed. “Maybe we should let Bree talk to Jace and send Delaney off on a vacation until he leaves and the protestors settle down.”

“No!” Delaney shouted, stepping out to join them. She walked directly toward her father, and if she weren't so angry she might have been afraid, but all she could think about was that he didn't think she could get the job done. And she would
not
let him make her feel like a failure again.