The Rancher's One-Week Wife (4 page)

That explained her skittish reaction to Boomer when she’d first arrived. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got the perfect horse for you and it won’t take any time to teach you how to ride her.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” she commented, reaching for a roll. “Horses don’t like me.”

“Why do you say that?” he asked. “You just admitted that you’ve never really been around horses. How would you know if they like you or not?”

She frowned. “Your horse snorted and stomped his foot at me this afternoon. If that wasn’t an indication he didn’t like me, I don’t know what is.”

“Hoof,” he countered, correcting her. “Horses have hooves and he was just shooing away a fly when he moved his leg.” Blake took a bite of his steak. “And for the record, Boomer didn’t snort. Gently blowing through his nose like that is a horse’s way of sighing. It signals that he’s relaxed, curious or in some cases just saying hello. Boomer was just being friendly.”

“His name doesn’t exactly instill a lot of confidence,” she said, shaking her head. “Boomer sounds rather...explosive.”

Blake laughed out loud at her inaccurate assumption that the gentle gelding’s name reflected his temperament. “Boomer is short for Boomerang and the reason he got that name is because he likes people so much he can’t stay away from them. I can turn him out into a pasture with other horses and before I know it, he turns around and comes right back to me.”

“That’s great, but it doesn’t mean he likes
me
,” she said, looking doubtful.

Blake grinned. “I’ll introduce you tomorrow morning when we go out to the barn to take care of the calves. You’ll see. He’s as gentle as a lapdog.”

She looked skeptical, but didn’t comment until they had finished their meal. “I can help you feed the babies, but I’m afraid riding a horse tomorrow is out of the question. I didn’t expect to be away from home more than a couple of nights and I really don’t have anything to wear that would be suitable for a horseback ride.”

He smiled at the relief he heard in her soft voice. He’d bet every dime he had that she’d spent the entire meal trying to think of a way to get out of riding.

“We’ll remedy that tomorrow morning after I get the feeding done,” he said, smiling as he helped her clear the table. “We’ll make a trip down to Eagle Fork’s Western store and get everything you need.”

“That sounds like a lot of time and trouble for a pair of jeans,” she said as she put containers of leftovers into the refrigerator. “And besides, I don’t want to interfere with the work you need to get done.”

“It won’t be any trouble at all,” Blake said, barely able to keep from laughing at her attempts to escape his plans. He was not only determined to find out what she wasn’t telling him, he was also going to give her a ranch experience she’d never forget. “I need to get a new shirt for a Labor Day barbecue on Monday anyway and you’ll need something to wear to that as well. In fact, it would probably be a good idea to get you enough clothes for a few days since there’s no telling how long the strike will last.”

“I can’t crash your friend’s party,” she said as she turned to wipe off the kitchen island.

“You won’t be crashing the party.” Blake wasn’t about to take no for an answer. “You’ll go as my date.”

“That would be rather awkward,” she insisted.

“Only if you make it that way,” he said, even though he knew she was right.

“How on earth would you even introduce me?” She gave him a pointed look. “We may be married right now, but we’re little more than strangers on the way to a divorce. We wouldn’t even be married if the papers had arrived as they should have. I’d just as soon avoid a lot of questions about our hasty marriage and the upcoming divorce.”

“Easy. I’ll just tell them that we met in Vegas and you came for a visit,” Blake explained.

She stared at him before she frowned. “Do you really think it will take that long for the strike to be settled?”

He shrugged. “It’s a holiday weekend. There’s really no telling. Even if they come to an agreement over the weekend it’s going to take at least a day or two for the airlines to get all of the schedules lined up and the passengers from the canceled flights who haven’t found other means of transportation on their way again. And with Labor Day on Monday that’s going to delay things even more.”

“I suppose I could drive from here to Lincoln County,” Karly said, looking thoughtful.

“I know you want to get this divorce over with, but do you really want to drive fifteen or sixteen hours in holiday traffic?” he asked. “You couldn’t possibly get there tomorrow before the courthouse closes and it won’t reopen again until Tuesday. By that time the strike might be settled and you’d be able to fly.”

She didn’t look happy about what he was saying, but she finally nodded. “You’re probably right.”

“I know I am.” When she yawned, he pointed toward the hall. “I can finish cleaning the kitchen. Why don’t you go ahead and turn in for the night? Mornings around here start early.”

“How early are we talking about?” she asked, hiding another yawn with her delicate hand.

“I’ll start feeding the livestock in the barns around dawn,” he said as he loaded the dishwasher. “That will take about an hour. Since you don’t really have suitable clothes for that yet, I’ll wake you up after I get finished.”

She looked horrified. “Good Lord, are the animals even awake at that time of day?”

“They’re not only awake, they’re usually making a lot of noise because they know it’s time for breakfast,” he said, laughing.

When she yawned again, she started toward the hall. “In that case, I think I’ll follow your advice and go to bed.” She stopped at the door and turned back. “Thank you, Blake.”

“What for?” he asked, walking over to her.

“For giving me a place to stay until the strike is settled and for being so nice about all of this,” she said quietly. “You really didn’t have to be, considering how badly I handled filing for the divorce.”

He barely resisted the urge to reach for her. As he stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans to keep himself from doing something stupid like taking her in his arms and kissing her until they both gasped for air, he shook his head. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You had no control over what happened after you put the papers in the mail. And like I told you earlier, I’m old-fashioned. As long as we’re married it’s my job to provide you with a roof over your head and something to eat.”

She stared at him for several long moments before she finally nodded. “Well, thank you anyway. Good night.”

“Yeah, see you in the morning,” he mumbled as he watched her walk down the hall to the stairs.

Taking a deep breath, he waited until he heard her close the door to her bedroom before he started the dishwasher and turned out the kitchen light. As he slowly climbed the stairs to his own guest room, he couldn’t help but wonder how everything had become so damn complicated. Eight months ago, things had been simple. He’d found the woman he was going to spend the rest of his life with and she’d told him that he was the man she wanted to share hers with, too.

He had no idea what had changed from the time they left Vegas until she called him a few days later from Seattle to tell him she wasn’t joining him at the ranch as planned. But one thing was sure—before she left this ranch to file for divorce and return to her life in the city, he had every intention of getting an explanation and settling the matter once and for all.

* * *

The following morning, as Karly sat on the passenger side of Blake’s truck, she looked out over the side of the mountain. On her drive up the winding road the day before, she’d been so focused on getting Blake to sign the new set of divorce papers and returning to Cheyenne to make her connecting flight back to Denver that she hadn’t taken the time to notice the scenery. Although the mountains surrounding Seattle were more lush—with tall, straight conifers, beds of ferns and thick moss carpeting the forest floor—the ruggedness of the Wyoming landscape was no less beautiful. The pine and aspen trees didn’t seem to grow as thick as the forests of the Northwest, but the jagged, snow-capped peaks and vast valleys of thick prairie grass, with colorful late-summer wildflowers, were utterly breathtaking.

“It’s really beautiful here,” she murmured aloud.

“Imagine that.” Grinning as he steered the truck around a tight switchback, Blake added, “It’s amazing how different things turn out to be from our preconceived notions, isn’t it?”

When she’d called to tell him she’d changed her mind about the marriage, she’d said some things about the land he so obviously loved that she deeply regretted. In hindsight, she’d been trying to convince herself that living in a remote area of Wyoming was unsuitable for her. She’d been trying to create enough distance between them to make divorce the best option. But that didn’t change the fact that he’d taken offense at her comments. She’d hurt him unintentionally.

“I guess I might have been a bit hasty in my assumption that the area had nothing to offer,” she finally admitted. “But you have to understand. I’ve lived most of my life in a city, where everything I want or need is close by.”

“I understand that,” he said, nodding. “But it’s not the backwoods, off-the-grid type of living you envisioned, is it?”

“No,” she admitted. “But you helped to create that misconception.”

“How do you figure that?” he asked, frowning.

“You said the ranch was in a remote location and I naturally assumed...” She paused when she realized that with the closest neighbors at least ten miles away at the bottom of the mountain and only one way to get to the ranch, it really could be considered isolated. “I guess I thought that you meant it was without some of the modern conveniences.”

“Tell the truth,” he said, laughing. “You thought that a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night would involve a flashlight and a little shed with a half-moon carved into the door.”

She laughed. “Well, not quite. But I didn’t expect it to have a main ranch house that looks like a log mansion, or the house you live in to have such a cozy feel to it. I guess I was thinking it would be more rustic.”

“You’ve been watching too many old Westerns on television,” he said, steering the truck onto the main road as they reached the bottom of the mountain. “Living on a ranch is like living anywhere else. We have modern appliances, satellite TV and high-speed internet. About the only difference is having to drive a few miles to get to a store instead of it being just down the street.”

“Maybe I have been thinking it would be like the Old West,” she admitted thoughtfully.

They fell silent for the rest of the drive and by the time they reached downtown Eagle Fork, Karly had come to a conclusion that she wasn’t overly proud of. She wasn’t going to tell Blake, but it wouldn’t have mattered if the ranch was rustic and isolated or sat right in the middle of a town. Her choice to divorce him would have been the same. It wasn’t the challenges of living on a ranch that had held her back. It had been the fear she would turn out to be like her mother and discover that a husband and family weren’t enough for her—that her career was more important.

A few minutes later, when Blake parked his truck in front of the Blue Sage Western Emporium, Karly noticed that the store looked as if it had been in business since hitching posts were used instead of parking meters. Abandoning her disturbing thoughts, she focused on their shopping trip. She hoped the clothing wasn’t going to be too expensive. She wasn’t poor, but she did live on a budget and hadn’t planned on buying clothes that she probably wouldn’t wear past the few days she was stranded at the Wolf Creek Ranch.

Blake grinned as he opened the passenger door to help her out of the truck. “Are you ready to get your cowgirl on?”

“Whether I’m ready or not, it looks like I’m going to,” she said, feeling breathless.

She was in real trouble if his smile alone was enough to take her breath away. But it was the feel of his hand pressed to the small of her back as he guided her into the store that caused her knees to wobble.

Stepping away from him, she took a deep breath and the rich scent of leather assailed her senses. It reminded her of the man at her side and sent a shiver of longing straight through her. It would definitely be in her best interest to forego the shopping and make plans to drive to Lincoln County.

But even as she thought it, she knew that probably wasn’t going to happen.

“Pick out as many pairs as you think you’ll need,” he said, ushering her over to a wall with large cubbyholes filled with folded pairs of women’s jeans. He pointed to a couple of racks holding T-shirts and blouses. “And don’t forget to get some shirts and something special to wear to the barbecue.”

Before she could tell him that she wouldn’t be needing clothes because she was going to leave the next morning to drive back to Washington State, a middle-age woman walked over to them. “It’s good to see you, Blake,” she said, smiling. She shot a curious glance toward Karly, as if wondering who she was. “How are things going at the Wolf Creek?”

“I can’t complain, Mary Ann,” he answered. “The hay crop was good this year and we should have more than enough to make it through the winter.”

“That’s always a relief,” she said, nodding. “Eli Laughlin was in the other day and said pretty much the same thing about the Rusty Spur.”

While Blake and the woman discussed what was going on at some of the other ranches in the area, Karly gave up on the idea of driving back to file the divorce papers. For one thing, she wasn’t all that fond of spending so many hours in the car. And for another, sitting in a hotel room for a couple of days with nothing to do while she waited for the courthouse to open wasn’t her idea of a good time, either.

Just as Blake had said, she’d be better off waiting here and looking for a way home after the holiday weekend. Most likely the strike would be done, and the courthouse would definitely be open. She didn’t want to consider why the decision to stay here, with Blake, made her feel so warm inside.

By the time she found jeans and a few shirts that weren’t too pricey, Blake joined her. “Are you ready to try on boots?”