A Rancher's Love (6 page)

The man was more alive than any of them had seen him while Zoe was there, and now he was just giving 36

A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery up. It wasn’t that he was miserable before, but the life he had shining in his eyes was different when she was here—brighter and better and warmer. They all missed seeing him that happy.

When Saturday came Guy gave up trying to keep Dean out of the stables. He wanted to work even though he looked like death warmed over, and Guy needed to get to town to pick up supplies. He couldn’t hand hold a grown man, especially when that man was stubborn as a bull. He wasn’t doing well, not at all.

Guy punched in the cell phone number Jasper took off Dean’s speed dial on the home phone. When she answered he thanked God for her voice.

“Guy! How are you? I’ve been trying to get through, but Dean and I keep missing each other, and then I had to put my stuff in storage.” She laughed. “How is he?”

“Not well, Zoe.”

“Oh my God, what’s wrong?”

“He’s in a real bad way. I don’t know…I just don’t know if he’ll make it. Can you come? I know it’s asking a lot…”

“I’m leaving today. I’ll catch a flight, the first flight I can get. I was supposed to leave for New York tonight, but I’ll change my ticket. I’m coming.”

“I’ll pick you up at the airport,” he exhaled sharply. The relief evident in his tone; relief that she didn’t say no. “Thank you, Zoe.”

“Please tell him to hold on for me. You guys keep him as comfortable as possible and don’t you dare let him die on me.”

She hung up the phone so fast. He could hear the tears in her voice. At least she was coming; that was what Dean needed—to see her, to hold her. She could save his heart and his life if she just came back.

Zoe had made a mad dash for the airport. She had already sold her car because she wouldn’t need it in New York. She was thankful for that now because the extra money was going to allow her to change her 37

A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery ticket with short notice. It cost her a pretty penny, but Dean was worth it. By the time she made it to South Dakota she felt her heart racing with fear. What if she wasn’t in time? What if he had died?

Guy had swiftly squeezed her suitcase onto the rear seats in his truck. She noticed the supplies in the cab. She could marginally understand that. The ranch had to keep functioning, they needed supplies and he had to come into town to pick her up so why not pick up supplies too? On the other hand, he was Dean’s best friend and he should have had his behind by Dean’s side right now.

“How is he?”

“Not good,” he admitted. “You got here in record time.”

“The time difference helped. And I paid a lot of money to get on that flight out. There were only two connecting flights. Are we almost there yet?”

“The airport is almost two hours away from the ranch.”

“We’ve been driving forever.”

“We’ve been driving thirty minutes,” he turned his head to look at her, giving her a warm smile to soothe her worrying mind. “Calm down. He’ll be there when you get there.”

She was impatient and worried and each minute felt like an hour. When the ranch was finally in sight she felt her heart pounding in her chest. Then she felt anger because he drove right past the main house. Couldn’t he drop the darn supplies off after she saw Dean?

“We’re here,” he drove up to the barn. She saw the men working and then she spotted Dean covered in mud.

“You said…”

“He’s been sick since you left, Zoe. I swear.”

She slowly got out of the truck. She could tell from the expression on Dean’s face that he was just as surprised to see her. He dropped the saddle he was carrying, hopped over the wooden slats and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight. That was not the action of a man near death.

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A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery

“What are you doing here? Not that I’m complaining. Oh man,” he stepped back from her and looked at her. “I got you all dirty.”

She looked down and realized her white pants suit was covered in mud. She didn’t care. She had been so worried about him that mud was the farthest thing from her mind right now. “I thought you were sick. I thought you were dying.”

“Who told you that?”

“Well you were sick,” Guy said swiftly. “You’ve been in a foul mood since she left. You won’t eat, you’re barely sleeping. The man we knew as our boss was slowly dying,” he slammed the truck door on his side shut. “But I never really said you were dying.”

She laughed. “No, he just implied the urgency. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I’m glad you’re here. Come back to the house with me. We can get cleaned up. And since Guy deceived you he can take care of your bags too.”

“I just have one bag.” She watched the solemn expression spread over his face. “I was supposed to go to New York tonight. I put my stuff in storage on the island and I just packed the one bag. When I got the call from Guy I just changed my ticket.”

“So when do you leave?” His voice was so low she barely heard him.

“I bought a one-way ticket so I’m open.”

He smiled briefly. “But you did settle on New York?”

“No. Not really. I was just going up. I figured I’d see if I could get things to work out there—find a place to live and a space to rent for the bakery. I didn’t have anything cast in stone other than my ticket and my reservations at the hotel. Both were easily broken for a fee.” She looped her arm in his. “Come on; let’s walk back to the house. And we better go through the kitchen area or Jasper is going to kill us.”

“We better hose off first too or she’s going to kill us. I have two robes in the shed so you can wear one of them, I’ll take the other.”

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A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery She nodded. The shed was right on the side where one of the watering areas was. She had seen Dean go there after work to rinse any hard dirt off of him before coming back to the property with his wet clothes in hand, and his feet in his wet boots before putting everything in the dirty bin, except his boots. He was in the habit of entering through the hall off from the kitchen. The boots he left in the hall on the rubber mat.

She figured she would have to do the same because she was now just as dirty as he was—well, maybe not just as dirty. The man looked like he had rolled in a mud pit.

“What were you doing to get so dirty?”

“Breaking a horse, and she threw me over into the mud ditch. We had some rain,” he pulled her just a little closer to him.

“I thought the younger guys broke the horses.”

“I’m not that old.”

“You’re too old to be breaking horses,” she admonished. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“Honey, once you break a horse you never forget how to do it. But to be honest I am going to feel today come morning. I just needed something to take my mind off my troubles.”

“What were your troubles?” She asked him as he turned the hoses on her and helped rinse off the mud on her clothes.

“You being gone, and me not being able to get in touch with you. Your home number was disconnected.”

“My lease was up, remember. You had my cell.”

“I tried to call you and the number wouldn’t go through.”

“I’ve been having problems with this stupid phone lately. I’m sorry. I should have left my email address with you so you would have had another way to get in touch with me.”

“I’m glad you came.”

She smiled at him. “Me too. Now,” she took the hose from him. “Let me hose you off dirty man.”

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A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery He laughed. “Be my guest.” He grinned. “I can stand here and look at you.”

“It’s a good thing my suit jacket is covering certain things.”

He growled low. “No it’s not.”

She looked down and saw how the light jacket was clinging to her body. She had on a bra, but good grief, he certainly knew it was dark blue and lace now. “Dean!” She squirted him with more water and he laughed.

“I’m in love with you, Zoe. You had to know that.”

She stood there, frozen in place. He had just said he was in love with her. “I…I didn’t know,” she stammered.

“I understand that I’m too old for you, and you probably don’t feel the same way…”

She flung her body against his, placed her free hand on the back of his head and quickly kissed him hard, passionately and completely. His arm wrapped around her, pulling her closer to him and holding her so tightly. She barely even recognized that she was now pressing the nozzle on the water hose hard and water was cascading down their legs. When she pulled back she was breathless.

“I had hoped,” she whispered breathlessly. “But I didn’t think you would want me. I didn’t think…I’m…different. Nobody wants me when I’m different.”

“I love you because you are different. I don’t care if you’re black or white, Zoe. Love isn’t about a color.”

“And it’s not about an age—as long as it’s legal,” she added. “I’m legal.”

“I know. I want us, Zoe.”

“Me too,” she brushed her lips across his. “But we’d better finish this first,” she laughed as she stepped back. He looked at her and shook his head.

“I’ve gotten you dirty again.”

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A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery She looked down to her mud stained clothes again. “Let’s just take off the clothes and put on the bathrobes,” she laughed.

“Can’t, no matter how much I would want that, we need to get the dirt off or Jasper will kill us for putting dripping wet muddy clothes in the wash room.”

She laughed. “That she will. Okay, then maybe we should get you clean first.” She turned the hose on him and sprayed him in the face while she laughed. He didn’t seem to find that too funny, or maybe he did because he came at her hard and fast, wrestling with her for the hose. Once he got the upper hand he stuck it in the waistband of her pants and let the water go full force. She screamed and laughed and tried to get away, but with his strong grip she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Dean…” she laughed hard. “Stop! Stop!” She kept laughing so hard her sides were hurting. He kept it going a few more seconds before removing the nozzle from her pants.

“That’s for spraying me in the face.”

“Oh, you are so bad.”

“You started it.”

“I did not put the nozzle down your pants, but you just wait mister; I’m going to get you back.”

“You wish,” he chuckled.

Oh she was going to find a way to get him back for that. She didn’t know how. She didn’t know when, but she knew she would; and when she did get him back, payback was going to be delicious.

She couldn’t believe he had said he was in love with her. She had hoped he felt something. She had wanted him too, but she didn’t know if he had. She dropped a few subtle hints the first few days she was there. She had thought that maybe they could talk about keeping in touch, but over lunch one day he had given her the impression that age was an issue. He had mentioned quite frequently how young she was, and how a few of his ranch hands were her age. She took the hint that maybe he was telling her to get to know one of them, but she wasn’t sure. So when they went on the picnic she had said, “that’s what friends do,” to see if he came back with anything other than confirmation, but he hadn’t. He had agreed with her and that’s 42

A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery how she knew they weren’t going to be more than friends. Of course she didn’t want to lose the friendship so she gave him her contact information so they could at least keep the friendship going.

“So we can date, right? We can get to know each other better?”

He nodded. “I think I know enough, but if you need more time; sure.”

What did he mean, if she needed more time? If they were going to be more than friends they were going to have to date—romantically and not as just friends. “I mean like a night out at the…what is there to do here?”

He laughed long and hard. “Well there sure aren’t any beaches for you to frolic on.”

“I do not frolic,” her eyebrows lowered as her eyes squinted with indignation. “Seriously, what does one do here?”

“Hike, camp,” he shrugged. “Bonfires when we have them and sometimes, if we drive into the city there are dances and bars.”

In short there wasn’t much to do within at least seventy miles. “I’ve never been camping, or hiking.

Maybe you can take me sometime.”

“I’ll be happy to give you your first.”

He had already given her a couple of those with the horseback riding and the picnic. That kiss had been a first too—not that she hadn’t kissed before, just that she hadn’t felt it all the way to her toes before—of course that could have just been the water from the water hose. She would have to kiss him again once they got dry in order to tell the difference.

“So, I’ll stay here for a little while, but then I really do have to get a home and business setup somewhere. We can do the long distance relationship thing and see how it goes.” She took the hose from him and started hosing him off like he had done for her. He didn’t say anything about her plan. She hoped he liked the idea because his life was here and she still had to go out there and find work so she could support herself and not exhaust her entire nest egg just lounging around. Plus they were going to have to get to know each other better and that would take some time. She couldn’t stay out of work for that long.

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A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery

“Where are you thinking of settling, Zoe? How long distance is long distance?” There was no humor in his tone, none of the warmth that had been there before.

“Well I was thinking of New York, but Washington is still an option too. I don’t know yet. I’ll do a little more research while I’m here.”

He nodded. “Research is good. You might change your mind about your options.”

She shrugged. “I might. There’s always California, but I don’t really think I want to go there. I don’t know. There are a lot of states, but not all of them will be good for business.” She shrugged again and continued to rinse him off in silence. He was lost in thought and so was she. She had a lot to think about.