Give Me A Cowboy. Jodi Thomas

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СКАЧАТЬ seen her, but one minute she was on Hayes’ land and the next on Rowdy’s property.

      She knew he’d still be at the rodeo grounds. Everyone would want to shake his hand. She’d even heard several say that his ride was the best they’d ever seen.

      As the land spread out before her, Laurel gave her mount his head and they began to run over the open pasture. Rowdy’s place had always been so beautiful to her. The way the ground sloped gently between outcroppings of rock colored like different shades of brick lined up. The landscape made her feel like every detail had been planned by God. Almost as if He’d designed the perfect ranch. Rich earth and good water. Then, He had set it down so gently in the middle of the prairie that no one had even noticed it.

      She rode close enough to the ranch house to see that no light shone, then decided to turn toward home.

      At the creek’s edge, she thought she heard another horse. Laurel slipped down and walked between the trees until she saw a man standing shoulder deep in the middle of the stream.

      Her first thought was that she might have been followed. But most of the men who worked for her father were at the dance and someone following wouldn’t be a quarter mile away from the pass-through wading in the deepest part of the stream.

      She stood perfectly still in the shadows and listened. The sound of a horse came again not far from her. As her eyes adjusted, she spotted Cinnamon standing under a cottonwood with branches so long they almost touched the water.

      Rowdy had to be the man in the water.

      Laurel wanted to vanish completely. She couldn’t get to her land, he stood in between her and the passage. If she moved he might spot her, or worse, shoot her as a trespasser for she was on his property.

      Closing her eyes, she played a game she’d played when she was a child. If I can’t see him, he can’t see me, she thought.

      “Laurel?” His low voice was little more than a whisper. “Is that you?”

      She opened one eye. He’d walked close enough to her that the water now only came to his waist. His powerful body sparkled with water. “It’s me,” she admitted, trying not to look directly at him because there was no doubt that he was nude. “I was…I was…”

      “Turn around,” he ordered.

      “But…”

      He took a step closer. “I don’t plan to come out until you turn around.”

      She nodded and whirled. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I swear. I was just riding and I thought you’d be at the dance, so you wouldn’t be home and I could ride on your land without anyone bothering me.” She was rambling, but she couldn’t seem to stop. She didn’t want him to think that she was looking for him, or worse, spying on him. “I know I’m trespassing, but you’ve been gone so long I didn’t think about anyone being on the place.”

      “Laurel.” He barely whispered her name, but he was so near she jumped. “You can turn around now.”

      Squaring her shoulders, she faced him. He’d pulled on his jeans and had a towel wrapped around the back of his neck. The same towel she’d given him that morning. She couldn’t say another word. She could only stare. Until this moment she’d thought she saw the boy she remembered from school when she looked at Rowdy, but no boy stood before her.

      “I’m glad you came.” He shoved his wet hair back. “I looked for you after the rodeo. I wanted to say I was sorry I snapped at you. I was nervous about the ride and didn’t feel much like talking.”

      “You were right. You did know what you were doing. That ride was magnificent.”

      He didn’t seem to hear her as he continued. “I’m not used to much conversation, but you had a right. We’re partners after all.” He smiled at her and she swore he could see her blush. “If you ride by here often, I might want to change my bathing habits.”

      “I’m sorry…”

      He reached behind her and grabbed his shirt off the cottonwood. “How about we stop apologizing to each other and relax? Deal, partner?”

      “Deal,” she managed. “Why aren’t you at the dance?”

      “Why aren’t you?” he countered as he buttoned his shirt.

      “I…I…” She could think of no answer but the truth and she didn’t want to tell him that. He could figure it out for himself. She wasn’t the kind of girl anyone asked to dance. First, she was taller than half the men. Second, she was so shy she couldn’t talk to them and, third, everyone knew she was the Captain’s plain daughter. The old maid.

      “I can’t dance either,” he said.

      She smiled. He’d given her a way out.

      Without a word, he took her hand and led her to a spot of moonlight shining near the water’s edge. She sat on a log and he stretched out in the grass as if they were old friends settling down for a long visit.

      Somehow the shadows made it easier to talk. She told him everything she’d heard about the stock and the other riders. He said he’d drawn calf roping for tomorrow. She mentioned all the extra things going on around the rodeo. Besides the dance, there was a box supper one night and a horse race, as well as a sharpshooting contest.

      When they talked of the competition, she told him of her dreams of working in a bank and maybe buying her own little house one day on a quiet street. With the money they’d get if he won, she might have enough for a down payment. Though she planned to put most of the money away for a rainy day. A woman alone has to prepare for that.

      He told her of living on a ranch, a busy, productive one, not a dead one like his father’s place. She had the feeling as he talked of what he wanted to do that he was voicing a boy’s dreams he’d tucked away at fifteen and hadn’t brought out again until tonight.

      They settled into an easy silence, listening to the sounds around them. Finally, he said, “I talked with Dan O’Brien after I rode. He said he’d heard I’d been in prison and wanted to know if it was true.”

      “What did you say?” She knew it wouldn’t be a secret for long, but she thought they might make it through the rodeo without everyone knowing.

      “I said I had.” Rowdy stared up at her. “No matter what folks say I’ve done, I’m not in the habit of lying, Laurel. Not now, not ever.”

      Even when she looked at the water she could still feel his dark eyes watching her. “What did Dan say?”

      “He said it didn’t matter to him, he was in the habit of judging a man for himself, not by what he heard, but he wanted to know from me if the rumors were true.”

      She’d never given the farmer a glance, but the next time she passed Dan O’Brien on the street she planned to nod politely, maybe even say good morning to the man.

      “From the morning I heard about the shooting, I didn’t believe you did it,” she said, almost to herself.

      “You were the only one,” he answered.

      She agreed. “I went away to school before the trial, but I kept up СКАЧАТЬ