Cowgirl Makes Three / Her Secret Rival. Myrna Mackenzie

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СКАЧАТЬ been two years, but just as soon as she thought everyone had forgotten about her, some new model would shoot to the forefront and the reporters would seek her out again for a “whatever happened to” segment, and she just couldn’t do that.

      She’d enjoyed modeling and her looks had brought her honest work, but how she felt about the loss of those looks was…complicated. Her scars were a reminder of a life she had loved and lost, but even more than that, they were a reminder of her failure to save her baby, and she never hid them with makeup. She had lived while Bo died. She couldn’t forgive herself for that, but she wouldn’t discuss it, either. No. She needed anonymity and enough money to allow her to disappear.

      So, yes, she felt guilty about her impulsive comment to Noah, but she couldn’t give up. Taking her pliers in her gloved hand, she snipped the wire and pounded the staple home, snugging up the wire.

      “Nice job, but it won’t work, Ivy. Most of my fences are in good repair.”

      She whirled, and there he was. “How did you sneak up on me like that?”

      “Applesauce knows how to be quiet.” He patted the big black gelding.

      “Applesauce? He looks more like a Thunder or Killer.”

      Noah almost smiled. “My daughter named him.”

      Daughter. Child. He had one. Hers was gone. The familiar arrow of pain bit deep, but she was ready. She’d heard that he had a child, so she was able to keep from crumbling. This time.

      “She’s a little young to be naming horses, isn’t she?”

      “Lily’s almost three, but she loves horses and she also loves—”

      “Applesauce,” they said at the same time.

      Ivy let that sink in. A man who would risk being ribbed by other men for riding a horse with a silly name in order to make a child happy seemed more human than she wanted to acknowledge.

      “The horse is irrelevant, though,” he said. “I’m not hiring you, Ivy. You’re wasting your time and mine.”

      Okay, no matter that she was touched by his regard for his daughter, Noah was never going to be on her list of favorite men. If she had such a list, that is.

      “You haven’t even given me a chance.”

      “I don’t have to. I own the ranch and I call the shots.”

      Desperation began to crawl through her bloodstream as she felt her last chance slipping away. “So you’ll hire a man with inferior skills just so you won’t have to hire a woman.”

      “I didn’t say that.”

      “The fact that you won’t even test my skills implies as much.”

      “Maybe I just don’t want to hire an insubordinate employee.”

      “I wouldn’t be insubordinate.”

      He chuckled. “Ivy, you’re arguing with me. Isn’t that the definition of being insubordinate?”

      She frowned. “I know how to follow directions and be submissive.” Unfortunately she knew that all too well. And the word submissive…maybe that hadn’t been the best choice. He was looking at her as if she’d said something sexual. Then he swore.

      “I’m sorry. You obviously have your reasons for pursuing this, but I have my reasons for saying no. It’s not happening, Ivy.”

      She opened her mouth.

      He groaned. “Give up, Ivy.”

      Something inside her cried out at the injustice, but she knew when she was beaten. She’d traveled this “no way to win” path before. In this very town. On the ranch she’d grown up on.

      Pocketing her pliers, she turned to walk away.

      “You don’t have to walk. I’ll arrange for you to ride.”

      She stopped, tipped her head back as she pivoted and stared up at him. “No. You have only one thing I want and that’s all I’ll accept from you.” A ride was a pity gesture. She had what it took to do this job, even if Noah couldn’t see it. Walking home was nothing. Deciding where she went with her life from here? That was the difficult part.

      Still, she wouldn’t let him see her fear. A frightened woman wouldn’t change his mind. Ivy squared her shoulders and marched away. She and Noah were done, unless…

      Stop it, she told herself. There won’t be any unless. He’s made that clear.

      But then, she’d always had a stubborn, rebellious streak. Sometimes a good dose of stubborn was all a person had to see them through the day.

      “What’s that you’re eating, pumpkin?” Noah asked his daughter.

      Lily held out one chubby little hand, in which she clutched a mangled piece of toast with jam. She looked up at him with her huge blue eyes and smiled. “Cook-ie,” she said with a little laugh.

      Noah wiggled his eyebrows. “That looks like toast to me.”

      Lily giggled. “Cook-ie,” she insisted.

      “Marta, are you giving our girl cookies for breakfast?” he asked incredulously.

      Marta gave a dramatic sigh. “She insisted.”

      Noah shook his head. He pointed to the toast. “No cookies for breakfast, Lily.”

      “Cookie,” she said with another laugh, her blond curls swaying as her little body rocked with delight at this strange little routine she and her daddy had somehow fallen into.

      Noah did his best to look stern. “Okay, hand over the cookie, Lilykins.”

      And here came the good part, the part she loved. “No. Toast,” she said with great relish and popped a piece into her mouth.

      “Ah, you are a clever one, sweetheart,” he told her. “And a stubborn one. You know how to get your way when you want to.”

      He was still thinking about that when he wandered outside to work. In her own way, Ivy reminded him of Lily. Stubborn and determined and proud and hard to resist.

      Noah stopped in his tracks. That was a road he didn’t want to travel. Ivy had no business invading his thoughts. That was how all bad things with women started—when you let ones you had nothing in common with start creeping into your thoughts uninvited. Next thing you knew you were in high water, unable to get back to shore or swim against the strength of the current, and they were leaving you. Or even worse, they were leaving Lily. Hurting her. Without so much as a drop of remorse.

      Noah growled.

      “Bad night?” Brody asked, coming up beside him in the barn.

      “You sound hopeful.”

      Brody laughed. “Not at all, but if you did have a bad night, your day isn’t going to be any better. Ed broke his leg last СКАЧАТЬ