A Cowboy To Keep. Karen Rock

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СКАЧАТЬ “And where’s that?”

      “Don’t know yet. I’ll be on the lookout.”

      “All my wranglers bunk down together.”

      He tugged at his shirt collar, creases appearing in the corners of his eyes. The strengthening sun beat down from the vast arc of blue overhead and a trickle of wet pooled at the base of her neck. “I’m not part of your crew.”

      “You are while you’re undercover. Guess that makes me your boss.” She enjoyed the extra white that appeared around his dark eyes a little too much. “Do you mind having a lady in charge?”

      “Got a problem with anyone telling me what to do. Look, boss, we need to get one thing straight. I only take orders from one person—myself.” He held the reins loosely in his left hand, his body swaying along with Pokey, his ease in the saddle evident.

      She opened her mouth to mention he’d have to hide his tattoo as part of the dress code but decided to put off that argument for another day. Hopefully he’d locate Smiley quickly and leave before their first guests arrived. She’d do everything she could to facilitate those events, though strangely, another part of her felt let down at the thought.

      Her mama had always said she attracted trouble like a fiddler attracted square dancing. And her mother had never been wrong. A long sigh escaped her.

      There was the time she’d lost a school year’s worth of playground privileges for taking Frankie Joe’s dare to walk on top of the monkey bars. Another was when the church youth group leader had personally brought her home after Dani brawled with an older boy who’d called her “chicken legs” the first time her mother had gotten her to wear a dress.

      She’d been a ponytail-wearing, makeup-avoiding, bruise-and-scrape-covered, bone-breaking horse fanatic who’d surprised everyone by cleaning up good once in a blue moon...and those only happened every other year.

      How her mama had despaired of her. If only she could see Dani now. She still wore her hair back and didn’t so much as own a tube of mascara, but she’d walked straight since her huge mistake years ago. Would this brush with the law yank her back to that time? Undo all of her hard work to steady her life?

      They rode along the sloping path, following a trail that came up the back of a bluff, through a clump of aspens with white trunks and green fluttering leaves, and led across a level patch of lush grass and wildflowers to the rocky edge.

      She dismounted. Storm, used to being petted, rubbed her sleek, silver head against Dani’s arm then dropped her head to graze. “If you’re not leading groups out on horseback, taking them down the Arkansas rapids, fly fishing, zip-lining—”

      “Zip-lining?” he interrupted, his tone incredulous, as he eased off Pokey and joined her at the ledge.

      “Oh, you’ll love it.” Her voice rose as she warmed to the thought of the Goliath dangling from a line and speeding over treetops. “Nothing but you, a harness and pine trees. We have the longest and fastest zip lines in Colorado. Six in total, from 850 to 1,900 feet. Right out there.” She pointed to the high peaks rising across the valley that comprised this section of the Continental Divide.

      He stared at the steep inclines then back down to the flat, muddy water of the South Platt River below. “Thanks for the invite. I’ll pass.”

      “If you don’t fit in with the rest, they’ll question it. You don’t want to alert anyone, do you?”

      A hawk wheeled overhead in lazy circles. “I don’t think there’s much chance of me fitting in, is there?”

      “Why not?” she insisted. When she turned to look at him, he was disturbingly close, her senses alive to the brush of his shoulder against hers.

      He gazed out at the valley. “You know what I look like.”

      It wasn’t a question—just a statement of fact with a hint of resignation at the edges. It made her soften toward him.

      “Lots of people have, uh, scars,” she floundered, trying to find a polite way to describe the deep ridge that looked bad enough to have gone bone deep. “It adds character. Makes you interesting. The guests will want to know about you.”

      A humorless laugh escaped him. “A character? Interesting? Well. That’s something. Consider me your newest attraction.” He grabbed Pokey’s reins and mounted in a move so agile it aroused her deep, feminine appreciation. There was something about a man who rode well.

      She watched as he and Pokey disappeared around a bend.

      Her next attraction indeed...

       CHAPTER FOUR

      JACK RODE ALONG the trail, alert for signs of Smiley and possibly a partner passing through. Another horse trotted up behind him and he found himself smiling. Dani Crawford.

      He had to give it to her, she didn’t intimidate easy and he liked that. Too much. Although he shouldn’t make a lot out of the way she dismissed his scar. She hadn’t looked him square in the eye since he arrived. Clearly he made her skittish, no matter what tune she sang. He pulled his hat brim down against the low sun and nudged Pokey up a steep incline.

      As for his following her rules, that wasn’t happening.

      “Where’s that lead?” He pointed at a yellow-painted wooden arrow that marked a new trailhead on their right.

      “Coyote Ridge.”

      He looked over his shoulder and glimpsed the pretty picture she made in her white tank top tucked into worn jeans, her braided red-gold hair grabbing every bit of light leaking through the forest canopy. The stubborn tilt to her chin caught his eye, as did her unabashed gaze. Cute was too small a word to describe a fierce woman like Dani, though it came to mind. Then again, he had no business deciding which word suited her best.

      He slowed Pokey as they neared the opening. The trail sloped upward into denser forest then turned out of view.

      She and the gray quarter horse pulled up on his left side and he angled his head to see her. Her big eyes swerved out from under his. Why the guilty flash in them? His instinct not to trust her the way the Mays did returned.

      “It also goes to one of the old mine shafts,” she added offhandedly, her tone a little too casual for his taste. “They used to dig for copper here, and the railroad stopped on our property for it up until a hundred years ago.”

      His shoulders tensed, his senses alert to every sound. His target could be hiding nearby, and he wouldn’t be caught unawares, especially with a woman present who could end up in the cross fire. Of course, Dani seemed more than able to defend herself, though he’d be sure never to put her in that position. “Let’s check it out.”

      He’d already guided Pokey up the path when he heard her say, “But you need to know the orientation trail. It’s where we take guests on their first day.”

      “I’ll study the map. Go ahead without me.” Pressing on, he guided his horse around a steep turn, hoping to leave his jabbering “boss” behind. He’d have no chance of surprising anyone if she was along chitchatting. More important, he wouldn’t risk putting her СКАЧАТЬ