Just Like A Cowboy. Delores Fossen
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Название: Just Like A Cowboy
Автор: Delores Fossen
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Вестерны
isbn: 9781474069489
isbn:
“Careful there,” he mumbled.
“Too late for that.” Cursing herself for her near slipup and her sudden bout of clumsiness, Carlene extracted herself from his grip and got moving again toward the house.
“Doesn’t it get lonely out here all by yourself?” he asked, picking up the second cup of hot chocolate and following her.
“No. I date Birch Davidson now, and we spend a lot of time together.”
That was a total lie. She had gone on a few dates with Birch, one of the horse trainers at the nearby Granger Ranch, but Birch was about as interesting as that frozen cow patty she’d just dodged.
“I don’t mind being alone here, either,” she added. “I’ve always loved this ranch.” Which explained why she’d worked here for the past three years since...
Well, just since.
Running things was hard, sometimes backbreaking work, but Joe had allowed her to make it into the only ranch in the area that exclusively bred and raised champion-bloodline Santa Gertrudis cattle. People came from miles around to buy the calves and the bulls, and Carlene had plans to expand—to add a small, sustainable farm, too. There was an old cabin in the back that had once belonged to Joe’s dad, and she could convert that into a huge chicken coop.
Wynn stopped when they reached the back porch, and he looked out at the pasture. “I’ve got plans for this place,” he said.
That got her attention, and Carlene wondered if she’d said aloud what she had been thinking. She whirled around, frowned. “What?”
“Plans,” he verified. He went inside and looked around in there, too. Carlene went after him. “Now I can make it what I’ve always wanted it to be.”
Her heart went to her kneecaps. “What?” she repeated.
Wynn looked back at her, his forehead bunching up. Then he cursed. “You didn’t know? Joe didn’t tell you?”
Her heart just kept falling, but Carlene managed to shake her head. “Tell me what?”
Well, Wynn wasn’t grinning and charming her now. “I thought you knew. I thought that’s why you were being so chilly toward me.”
“I was being chilly...” Carlene stopped. No, best not to get into their past when it appeared there was plenty in their present they needed to clear up. “What did you think Joe had told me?”
Wynn stared at her. The stare of a man trying to figure out how to deliver really bad news. “Uncle Joe signed over the place to me.”
Oh, God. No, this couldn’t be happening.
“I’m sorry,” Wynn went on. “I honestly thought he’d told you.”
She managed a headshake. Nothing more. Hard to talk with no breath.
“Joe did have one condition, though,” he added a heartbeat later. “I own the ranch. At least, I will soon when the papers are all signed. But don’t worry, Joe’s condition was that I keep you on so you won’t be out of a job. And I agreed. So, I guess that means you work for me now.”
JUDGING FROM THE gobsmacked expression on Carlene’s face, she hadn’t had a clue about Uncle Joe’s decision to give Wynn the ranch. No wonder she’d been so surprised to see him.
And no wonder there was suddenly fire in her eyes.
This fire was nothing like the heat from the flirting that’d gone on in the back. Nope. She was pissed off.
Without saying another word to him, Carlene marched into the house and yanked her phone from her jeans pocket. No doubt to call Joe. But his uncle was only going to tell her what he’d already told Wynn.
“Joe liked my plans for the place,” Wynn told her while Joe’s line rang. He set the hot chocolate he’d gotten for Carlene on the coffee table. “And he said it was time for me to be the owner now that I’m giving up bull riding.”
Her mouth didn’t fall open, but it was close. Clearly, she hadn’t known that, either.
Where the heck were the gossips when you needed them?
Wynn hadn’t bothered to tell Carlene that little detail about bull riding—or the fact he was returning to Wrangler’s Creek—because he’d figured it would be old news by now. Such old news that he’d half expected to find her packed up and moved out since it was obvious she wanted to avoid him.
Even though Carlene didn’t put the call on speaker, Wynn was close to her and the house was quiet enough that he could hear Joe’s phone ring and ring. While she was waiting for an answer, Wynn had a look around. The place hadn’t changed at all in the past three years. Actually, it hadn’t changed since he’d moved here as a kid.
There was something comforting about that.
The house itself not only had good bones, the furniture and furnishings were suited for a ranch—saddle-brown leather sofa and chairs, his grandmother’s quilt hanging on the wall, the hammered-copper countertops in the adjacent kitchen. While he was continuing to have his look around, he went up the hall to his bedroom, opened the door.
And Wynn frowned.
This was a definite change because it was jammed with boxes and stuff. The bed was still there, but someone had turned it into a junk room.
“What happened here?” he called out.
There was no answer, so he went back into the living room to find Carlene staring at the phone as if she might crush it in her tight fist. “Joe didn’t answer,” she said. “So I left him a message.”
Yeah, he was betting she had. And that it wasn’t a friendly How are you doing? message, either. Carlene wanted answers, but he hated to tell her that talking to Joe wasn’t going to change things.
At least, he hoped not, anyway.
The papers weren’t final yet. They were on the way to the lawyer here in Wrangler’s Creek, and maybe Carlene wouldn’t put up such a fuss. He also hoped that Joe wouldn’t back down on this deal.
Because Wynn needed this.
Actually, he needed a life, one where he could manage the pain from his bull riding injuries and deal with the fact that he was a thirty-year-old has-been.
“Why is all that stuff in my room?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed so he had to guess she didn’t want to jump into a change of subject when the other topic of conversation hadn’t been resolved yet.
“I’m sure Joe will call you back as soon as he can,” Wynn assured her. Of course, that was bull. Joe was enjoying Florida and had been spending his days fishing and reading. “Now about that stuff in my room.”
“The boxes belong to me. СКАЧАТЬ