To Court A Cowgirl. Jeannie Watt

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      Max gave a snort. “It’s getting late. I need to get to bed.”

      “Have you taken all your meds?”

      Another sharp look. Max didn’t like it when people tried to control his life, which was why Kate looked so tired.

      “Yes.” Max got up out of the chair, moving a bit slower than usual. Jason didn’t like seeing that. He waited until he heard the bathroom door close before he went back into the kitchen, where Kate was just finishing her beer.

      “Pop is going to turn us into alcoholics.”

      Jason smiled humorlessly as he took a seat across the table from his sister. “His own life is out of control, so he needs to control ours. Gives him a sense of security.”

      Kate eyed him darkly as she set the can on the table in front of her. “Thank you, Dr. Freud.”

      Jason shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “Tell the truth, you probably haven’t done this much life analysis in a long time, have you?”

      “Nope.” She raised an eyebrow. “But I imagine you have.”

      “True.” Making the decision to quit football hadn’t been easy.

      “No regrets?”

      Jason shook his head. Eight good seasons were something to be proud of. “Other than having to find a job that doesn’t involve Uncle Jimmy.”

      Kate regarded her hands for a moment before looking back up at him. “If you ever want to talk or anything, I’m here.”

      “Talk about what?” Jason asked cautiously.

      “You’re my brother. Football was your dream career since you were seven or eight. Your life. And now it’s done. There’s got to be some adjustments to be made.”

      There were definite adjustments, such as not having a goal front and center on every waking day. “Maybe a few,” he admitted.

      “I can’t help but think about Pat.”

      Jason stared at his sister. “I’m not going to drive my car into a tree.”

      She let out an exasperated breath. “What I’m getting at is that the transition from professional ball to regular life will take some getting used to—especially if you don’t have a job to slide into.”

      “I’ll get a job.” He gave Kate a sidelong look. “You aren’t joining forces with Dad to get me to go to work for Jimmy?”

      Kate smiled, but her heart wasn’t in it. She was honestly worried. “No. But I remember how confident Pat was. And how high he set the bar for his postprofessional career.”

      Pat Madison, Jason’s friend and football mentor, had indeed set the bar high for himself upon retiring from football three years before Jason. He’d fully expected to become a sports broadcaster. It hadn’t happened. After that he’d set his sights on landing a job coaching for a major college or university and from there work his way into coaching in the pros. After a year with no offers and an increasing reliance on alcohol, he’d dropped his bar another notch and applied for an assistant athletic director job at the university where he and Jason had played football together. He’d assumed the job was his—he was an alumni and he’d had a successful football career. It wasn’t. After the first round of interviews, he’d been dropped. A day later, on the second anniversary of his retirement, he’d driven his car into a tree.

      “Are you still on this planet?” Kate asked softly.

      Jason raised his gaze and decided his sister should know the truth. “Here’s the thing. I haven’t told Dad yet, but I’m trying to start where Pat gave up. I’ve been in contact with people at Brandt.”

      “Really?” Kate sounded surprised and pleased. She was also a Brandt University graduate and loved the place as much as Jason did.

      “Really.” And even being an alumni and an ex-pro, it would be a long shot, since he had no experience. Brandt was one of the top football colleges on the west coast and hired accordingly.

      “Is it the same job that Pat—” Kate gave a small grimace “—applied for?”

      “One notch lower. I figure it’ll give me toehold and then I can work my way up.”

      Jason didn’t mind the idea of growing his career slowly. His plans and dreams were different than Pat’s. He’d enjoyed his status as a football player—a little too much at times—but he didn’t need the limelight. He was an athlete, not a performer. Pat was both—or he had been until alcohol and the so-called accident had irrevocably altered his life.

      “Well,” Kate said, “I see some waves ahead where Pat’s concerned, so my offer stands. If you need to talk, I’m here.”

      “Dad wants me to move in around the corner. Want to talk about that?”

      Kate laughed. “He tried to get me to do that, too.”

      “That makes me feel better about saying no. But I did go talk to Ray Largent. He told me about a place that’d been for sale a while ago, but taken off the market. I took a trip out there this evening.”

      “Rather than staying home and taking a few hits for me?”

      He shot his sister an amused look. “It was your turn and I didn’t think it would take long. It didn’t. I practically got frog-marched out the door.”

      Kate gave him an amused look. “Where?”

      “The Lightning Creek Ranch.”

      Kate’s eyebrows went up. “I didn’t know that was ever for sale. Allie Brody just moved back so she could go to work for the elementary school. She’s taking over for Tricia Kettle while she’s on maternity leave.” Kate wrinkled her forehead. “She frog-marched you off the place?”

      “Pretty much and I don’t know why.”

      “You didn’t mention Ray’s name, did you?”

      Jason shrugged. “He’s the guy that put me on to the place.”

      Kate rolled her eyes. “He’s also her ex-father-in-law. And it was not an easy divorce from what I hear. Kyle tried to get a chunk of the ranch in the settlement and didn’t.”

      “Well, shit.” Jason rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, which was still a little stiff from his discussion with Max. “Maybe he could have told me that.”

      “Maybe he thought you knew.”

      “I don’t know how.” It’d been a while since he’d been home for more than a couple of days, and certainly not long enough to catch up on all the local goings-on. And, honestly, Allie Brody probably wouldn’t have been a subject of conversation, even if Ray and his father had been business associates for years and Ray had been her father-in-law. In fact, when he thought about Allie all he could remember was a hot body, a lot of blond hair and an attitude that had smacked of smoldering resentment toward him after he’d bested her for valedictorian.

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