The Cowboy Lassos a Bride (Cowboys of Chance Creek) (5 page)

H
annah tried to
slip in through the front door of the Cruz guest ranch Big House without being noticed, but just like every other time she failed utterly. The Big House was an imposing structure with large windows that overlooked a sweeping view of the ranch and the mountains far in the distance. Originally designed as a private home, Autumn and Ethan Cruz had transformed it into a guest lodge earlier in the year. Their business had done fairly well so far, but as fall turned into winter, the guests had dropped off and they had no bookings at all for the coming weeks.

That was bad for the Cruzes, but good for Hannah, who’d needed a place to stay when she’d broken up with Cody. Ethan and Autumn charged her a very reasonable rent for one of the pretty guest rooms upstairs. At first she’d wondered if it would be strange living with the Cruzes, but she’d found it comfortable so far. Though Ethan and Autumn were in and out of the main floor all the time during the day, they slept down at the converted bunkhouse at night. The bedrooms at the Big House were meant for guests, not family. Hannah knew they intended to build an addition onto the main floor that would make up their personal quarters just as soon as they could afford it, but that hadn’t happened yet. For now they used the fantastic Big House kitchen and living room during the day and retired to the bunkhouse at bedtime.

Hannah wasn’t left alone, though, in the large residence. Two other young women—Mia Start and Fila Sahar—had moved in, too, for the time being. Each of them needed a cheap place to stay and Autumn had jumped on the chance to make even a small profit off of three of the empty guest rooms. Come spring when things picked up again they’d all have to move, but Hannah was confident she’d have things figured out long before then.

Although confident might be too strong a word.

The truth was, she wasn’t exactly sure how she’d handle her upcoming expenses. She was still paying off her student loans from her undergraduate years. She had a lot of those. Her parents would have loved to put her through school, but with her father’s medical expenses they were hard pressed to pay their own way. She’d been ten when her father was first diagnosed with cancer, and twelve when she began to babysit every weekend night for spending money. As her parents’ savings slipped away on ever-increasingly expensive treatments, she bought her own clothes and paid for her school supplies. As soon as she was legal, she picked up a part-time job and took over the family’s car insurance payments. When she graduated, her parents downsized and moved in with her uncle in Billings to cut costs and be nearer to her Dad’s specialists and a hospital. She wished she could help them more, but at the very least she wouldn’t burden them with her own expenses.

“Hannah! Good, you’re home. Dinner’s just about ready,” Autumn called. A small woman with lovely brown hair and delicate features, she was moving around the kitchen area of the open-plan main floor. Hannah cursed that open plan every day for just this reason.

“Hi, Autumn.” She hung up her coat, kicked off her boots and made her way over to the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. Autumn bent over the open oven door and awkwardly pulled out a roast. Six months pregnant, her belly was beginning to counteract some of her natural gracefulness. She refused to take it easy, though. In fact, she seemed invigorated by it all.

“It’ll just be a minute while I mash the potatoes,” she said. “Fila and Mia will be down shortly, too.”

“I keep telling you not to cook for me. You’re not my housekeeper, Autumn. If anything, I should cook and clean for you since you’re putting me up here.”

“You’re paying rent,” Autumn said. “Dinner and clean sheets comes with the room. That’s just the way it works around here.”

“I’ll go wash up. Be back in a minute.” Hannah headed upstairs to the room she’d occupied on the second floor.

A familiar feeling of dissatisfaction washed over her when she thought about her life. She’d started well, but somehow things had gotten off track. When she’d graduated from college with a degree in biology, the recession made it hard to find work, so when Bella Chatham offered her a position as the receptionist at her veterinary practice and animal shelter, Hannah had taken it, thinking it was temporary. Soon work and life swallowed her whole. The job was busier and more interesting than she had imagined, and when she started dating Cody, he took up the rest of her time. She loved working with Bella and she loved the way she got to help with the veterinary tasks. Unfortunately, her limited education held her back from taking a more active role with the animals’ health care. Although she enjoyed interacting with Bella’s clients all day, she wanted to do more.

She wanted a career. Something challenging. Something that used every shred of her ability. She had already taken the first step toward that career—getting accepted at Montana State.

After she changed her clothes and washed up for supper, she met Fila in the corridor outside her room. Fila was a new arrival in Chance Creek. Born of Afghani parents in the United States, she’d traveled to Afghanistan when she was twelve years old to attend a funeral and ended up staying there against her will for the next decade after her parents were killed. Seized by Taliban relatives, she’d been forced to knuckle under and became a model Afghani woman, but she never forgot her true home in the United States, and she’d managed to escape with help from an organization started by Aria Cruz, Ethan’s mother. Once she made it back to the States, Fila had come to the Cruz ranch in the hopes that Aria’s daughters would help her learn to raise funds for their mother’s organization. She’d ended up moving in.

Hannah found Fila a bit of a mystery. On the one hand she dressed and acted like any other American. She’d quickly lost all trace of the accent her years in Afghanistan lent her, and when she went shopping she gravitated toward the latest styles, although she avoided miniskirts, and the necklines of her blouses and T-shirts remained high. On the other hand, there were gaps in her knowledge of modern life. She’d never used an up-to-date cell phone, iPads and tablets baffled her, and even her skills on desktop computers were hopelessly slim. They all tried to help her acclimate to these most important modern conveniences, but Hannah could see it would be a long haul. Soon after her arrival, some Taliban men had tracked Fila down and come to get her back. The resulting shootout was one of the deadliest nights in Chance Creek history and affected many of them. Hannah had been at the scene of the shooting with Fila and another friend, Rose. Most of the men from the Cruz ranch and the Double-Bar-K had been there, as well.

Hannah still had nightmares about that night and she knew Fila suffered, too. While Fila told them every day how grateful she was to be here, Hannah sensed the woman also felt a profound loss—not for her old life in Afghanistan, exactly, but for all the years she’d spent there, the years she’d never get back. She said she felt like she didn’t exactly belong anywhere. Hannah hoped she set down some roots, fast.

“Looking forward to tonight?” Hannah asked her. About an hour after dinner people would begin to show up for Poker and Pool night. Hannah enjoyed these get-togethers, but she wasn’t sure if Fila did.

“Yes.” Fila’s face told a different story.

“If it gets too much for you, it’s okay to head up to your room.” Fila had done so on previous occasions, and Hannah wanted her to know no one held it against her.

“This time I intend to stay. I’m getting used to it.”

Hannah took her hand and squeezed it. “I’m glad. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me, too,” Fila said, but she sounded wistful.

Mia met them by the stairs.

“Long day?” she asked Hannah.

“It always is. The clinic is overrun. Chance Creek needs another veterinarian.” That wasn’t why she felt so drained tonight, though. The thought of losing Gladys weighed heavy on her mind. So did Holt’s words. As if she could just climb into bed with Jake for fourteen nights and then climb out again. What if she propositioned him and he refused? She’d never be able to face him again.

On the other hand, if she slept with Jake for fourteen nights she’d be hard pressed to give up the habit. How could she possibly handle work and school and a new boyfriend?

As tempting as the idea was.

Mia nodded. She looked tired, too. Hannah knew the reason for that, although she wasn’t sure if anybody else did. Mia was pregnant. Hannah didn’t know who the father was. From the little Mia had told her, she knew he was married and not pleased about the child. Mia refused to go after him for support, and she knew her parents would be devastated when they found out about her pregnancy, so she’d made arrangements to move out of their home and into the Cruz ranch for the winter. Hannah assumed she’d tell Autumn and everyone else about her pregnancy soon, but she understood Mia’s reluctance to broadcast the news. She earned minimum wage at the hardware store. People would have things to say about her ability to raise a child alone. They wouldn’t be supportive in the same way they were of Autumn, for example. Autumn’s rounded belly brought coos and congratulations wherever she went. Hannah had to admit that sometimes when she caught sight of Autumn she felt a tug of desire to start a family herself, but she quickly brushed that feeling aside. She had plans, and settling down played no part in them.

But maybe a fling with Jake could. She allowed herself to picture what that might be like—two consecutive weeks tangled up in the covers with a sexy cowboy. Fourteen nights of unbridled lust and pleasure.

She could use some unbridled lust and pleasure. In fact, she could use it a lot.

A smile twitched her lips as she descended the stairs with Fila and Mila, her stomach growling as the aroma of another of Autumn’s amazing dinners caught her nose. She was a big girl—she could have a fling with a sexy cowboy whenever she wanted.

Holt’s preposterous deal simply gave her a good excuse to do the very thing she’d dreamed about: tumble into bed with Jake long enough to get him out of her system before she settled down to classes.

When Jake arrived
at the Cruz Big House, a fire danced in the hearth, tables were set up for cards, and an enormous Christmas tree stood near the large floor-to-ceiling windows. Just like at his parents’ house, the entire space was decorated with figurines, fir boughs and glittering lights. Autumn, setting appetizers out on the counter that separated the kitchen area from the rest of the great room, looked in her element. Ethan was one lucky man to have found her.

Jake frowned and his shoulders tightened at the thought of his earlier conversation with his father. Marry within the month—as if it was that simple. It was ludicrous.

It was just like Holt.

Sometimes he wished he could escape the ranch—to get a taste of the wider world and the knowledge it had to offer. He knew he would have done well at college and if he had gone he would have liked to study modern ranching techniques in a wider context along with land management and environmental studies. The world was changing fast. People were far more aware of how their food reached the table and the impact ranching and farming could have on the state of their environment. His father dismissed all of that as liberal nonsense, but Jake felt otherwise. He felt like a steward of the ranch. Everything from the soil to the cattle to the people who lived on his family’s land was affected by the decisions he made. Shouldn’t he know everything there was to know about it?

It galled him his father and brothers didn’t support his interests. What kind of family went out of its way to clip the intellectual wings of its own members?

The Matheson kind, apparently.

When he spotted Hannah across the room deep in conversation with Ethan and Jamie, looking up at the two tall cowboys and laughing at something Jamie said, Jake’s heart rate increased. Her white-blond hair lay in angelic waves about her shoulders. Dressed casually in jeans and a soft sweater, she looked feminine and sweet, and his fingers suddenly itched to touch her. Maybe do a whole lot more than that.

He wouldn’t lie—Hannah was gorgeous, which is why he’d taken her to that break room at Bella and Evan’s wedding. But she was smart as a whip in addition to being beautiful. She was curious, too—the sexiest trait there ever was in a woman, to his way of thinking. She’d caught his attention at Ethan and Autumn’s poker nights, first because of her angelic looks, but afterward because of her ability to converse with him. Unlike most people, she enjoyed talking about the future of ranching, and about a hundred other topics, as well. So far they’d only chatted for a few minutes here and there, mostly when she came to see Gladys. Still, they could leap from bison to the history of Montana to the strangest thing they’d each ever eaten, to whether or not there was other intelligent life in the Universe in the course of only a short conversation. He looked forward to each meeting, knowing her insatiable thirst for knowledge would have led her to find some new and interesting fact she could share with him. He’d never had anyone in his life quite like Hannah. He was blessed with good friends and a solid family—he couldn’t complain. But he’d lacked this meeting of the minds.

He’d been ready to ask her out this morning until his father appeared to ruin the moment. He’d been pretty sure she would say yes, too, judging by the fact she didn’t move her hand away when he touched it. That touch had fired him up more than he wanted to admit. For the first time, he’d wanted to take things slowly with a woman, because Hannah was so special. If he blew things with her, he wouldn’t just lose a pretty companion—he’d lose a true friend. He didn’t think he could stand that.

Now his father was forcing his hand, and he hoped that wouldn’t ruin everything. With only thirty days to marry her, he barely had time for wooing. How could he speed things up when they hadn’t even gone on a date?

While he wanted to go straight to Hannah, he made his way to the kitchen first, grabbed a couple of Autumn’s appetizers and found a beer in the fridge. There he met Rob, whose shoulder was still bandaged from the gunshot wound he’d taken a few weeks back. That had been one hell of a night—a real shootout with would-be terrorists in the woods down the road from here. Luckily Rob’s wound was the worst of them. Jamie’s hip had already healed, as had Fila’s arm. The bad guys had been rounded up and taken away by the Feds. Peace had been restored to Chance Creek, for which he was grateful.