Among Wildflowers (5 page)

Macy was woken up by a cold nose
nuzzling her face. She gasped, swatting blindly at the obnoxious intrusion and forced herself to wake up enough to open her eyes.

“Well, mornin’, sleepy heads. I thought you might end up sleeping all day.”

Macy sat up in bed, pulling the covers up to her neck.

“It couldn’t possibly be morning yet,” Lane groaned from the bunk above. “It’s not even light out.”

Macy shook her head to wake up and blinked the sleep out of her eyes.

Ryland Quinn stood in the doorway, cup of coffee in hand. The shaggy mutt sat dutifully at his feet, panting even though it was freezing inside the cabin. Quinn was grinning broadly. Macy found herself staring at him with her mouth slightly agape. Quickly, she shut it and looked away.

“Sorry if Boomer woke you up. He’s always full of energy first thing in the morning,” Ryland said with a chuckle.

“No, it’s okay. I love dogs,” Macy said, finding her voice.

“Ready?”

“For what?”

“You guys wanted to come get a story about my ranch, right? Well, there’s work to be done. Let’s go.”

“Oh no,” Lane said groggily from the bunk above Macy. “We’re not here to work. We’re just here for the article.”

Ryland’s chest rumbled as he tried to contain a hearty laugh. His eyes darted between Macy and Lane, and she could only guess what he must think of the two of them in that moment—bed head, half asleep, and obviously disoriented by the early awakening.

“This is the story. This is my life. If you’re not interested, feel free to leave.”

“We’ll be ready in ten,” Macy finally said, clutching the covers around her against the chill.

With a nod, Ryland turned and left, allowing the door to bang shut loudly behind him.

“What the hell, Macy?” Lane grumbled as he clambered down from his bed. “This is bullshit.”

“Yeah,” she said as she began rifling in her bag for warm clothes, trying to shake the uneasy feeling she’d gotten when she met Ryland.

“But damn, is he even cuter in person. I like the cowboy thing he has going on.”

“Of course he has a cowboy thing going on, he’s a freaking country music singer,” Macy said irritably. She really didn’t want to admit to Lane that she had also been taken aback by Ryland’s attractiveness.

“Let’s just get this over with. The sooner we can get this story done, the sooner we can go home.”

“Agreed,” Macy said, pulling a thick hoodie over her head before slipping into heavy boots. She grabbed her camera and slung the strap over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

As they stepped outside, they wrapped their arms around themselves against the cold. Macy looked around for a moment before spotting Ryland by the stalls surrounded by three horses.

“Come on.”

“Is that what you’re riding in?” Ryland asked with his back to them.

“We’re riding?”

Ryland turned and the grin he flashed Macy was both stunning and obnoxiously arrogant. The scene from his music video sprung into her mind and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. Instead she tried to fight fire with fire and presented him her most dazzling smile in return.

“I’m so sorry, Ryland. We weren’t told we’d be riding horses. I hope the clothes that we did bring will do.”

He shrugged and turned to finish saddling the horse. “Guess they’ll have to.”

Macy turned to Lane and made the motion of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head while Ryland’s back was turned and Lane covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.

“Alright, let’s go,” Ryland said, handing Lane and Macy their respective reins.

“What are we supposed to do with this?” Lane asked, looking down at the rein in his hand and then up at the horse with trepidation.

"Oh, I don't know about this..." Macy said. Her horse neighed and threw its head in the air. "Oh!" Macy staggered backwards in surprise, tripping over her own feet and then yelping as she fell right in the middle of a pile of horse manure. She gasped and looked up to find Lane looking down at her with horror and Ryland practically doubled over with laughter.

"Oh my God!" Lane cried, holding a hand over his mouth.

She glared at Ryland and got up off the ground while trying to brush manure from her rear.

Ryland stopped laughing just long enough to walk over to the barn and grab a couple of clean rags that he handed to Macy. She bristled as he continued to chuckle at her while she attempted in vain to clean her pants.

“Get on your horse,” Ryland said with a smirk to Lane, and then under his breath, "Maybe this week won't be so bad after all."

Macy huffed at Ryland’s comment, but Lane had apparently missed it.

“Alright,” Lane said, straightening his shoulders. “No problem.”

Macy couldn’t help but giggle as she backed away a few feet and lifted her camera. She began snapping shots of Lane as he struggled to get his foot high enough to get into the stirrup in his tight designer jeans.

“You’re not helping, Mace,” Lane said as he finally swung his leg over the horse’s back and landed roughly on top of it, making the horse startle slightly.

“Whoa, whoa,” Ryland said soothingly to the horse, patting its side gently. “It’s alright, Levi.”

The horse calmed and once again looked bored despite the utterly terrified man sitting on top of him.

“Your turn, Macy,” Ryland said, flashing her a smile that both made her knees weak and gave her the urge to slap his smug face.

She suddenly realized she’d never formally introduced herself as she would have normally when she met a client—in the confusion of the morning she’d forgotten. But since Ryland obviously already knew their names, it was too late to worry about it.

She secured her camera strap across her chest and reached up to grasp the saddle horn as she attempted to get her foot in the stirrup.
But before she had even realized what was happening, strong hands appeared around her waist and hoisted her into the saddle with
ease.

“Oh!” She clutched at the saddle horn, suddenly feeling very frightened about being on top of such a large animal. “Will it buck me off? Is it going to run?”

Ryland put a hand on her leg, bringing her attention down to him.

“Brownie’s not going to throw you. She’s as gentle as they come. You just tell her what to do and she’ll do it, alright?”

“Alright,” Macy whispered, suddenly very aware of the man’s hand on her knee. She took in the sight of Ryland. His eyes were a clear blue color and his jaw was strong and defined. Never had she ever thought plaid looked good on anyone until this very moment. But that smug look on his cocky face was really putting her off. Swallowing, she finally said, “What do I do?”

“Just pull back on the reins to slow her down or stop, kick your heels a little to get her going, and pull the reins this way or that way to tell her which way to go.”

Macy nodded. “Doesn’t sound too hard.”

“Piece of cake.” Ryland backed away a couple feet and looked
Macy up and down, making her blush. “Well, hey now, you look just like a cowgirl in a country music video. All you need is a cowboy hat.”

Unable to contain her annoyance any longer, Macy said, “That’s alright, I don’t really like country music anyway.”

Ryland’s smile faded instantly and he turned away abruptly, strutting toward his horse. Macy watched in awe as he approached the animal and hopped on with ease.

“Come on, Belle.” He gently kicked his horse with the heels of his boots and the animal led the way, with Macy’s and Lane’s horses seeming to automatically follow in behind.

Macy wondered if Lane had caught her outburst, but she decided that he was way too distracted by terror to notice.

“So where exactly are we going?” Macy asked.

“Well, I thought you two might want to see what’s it’s like to wake up on a ranch.”

Looking around at her surroundings, Macy didn’t see anything of interest. Shrub oak and scraggly trees. As they rode on, she clutched the saddle horn tightly, never taking her eyes off the giant animal she was riding.

“There, see what I mean?” Ryland said as he stopped his horse in front of them.

“Whoa!” Macy cried out as her horse came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a steep embankment. “Whoa, horse!”

“She did ‘whoa’,” Ryland said, chuckling.

Macy shot him a sharp look. “What are we—”

“Look,” Ryland said, tipping his hat towards the horizon.

“Oh my,” Macy whispered as she turned her attention to the breathtaking sunrise casting glorious shades of orange and red over the landscape. “That’s beautiful.”

Ryland nodded and smiled. “It’s one of my favorite things about living out here. You can’t beat watching the sun rising over these rolling hills.”

Macy snatched up her camera and quickly began snapping. It really was spectacular.
Aunt Suzy would love it here,
she thought as a smile played across her lips. When she glanced at Ryland she caught
him watching her. When her gaze caught his, he grinned that stupid grin and winked at her, leaning his arm on the saddle horn, looking positively cocky. Once again she had to stop herself from rolling her
eyes.

“Isn’t this remarkable, Lane?” she said, looking over her shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s great.” Lane had his arms wrapped around himself
and looked stiff. She wasn’t sure if Lane was freezing or terrified of the horse, or both.

Macy turned back to Ryland and shrugged, offering him a smile.

“Thank you for showing us this. I think I have some great pictures.”

“You’re welcome,” Ryland said with a small tip of his hat.

“Uh, yes,” Lane said. “This is just wonderful. Ryland, would you be open to maybe sitting down so I can ask you a few questions?”

“Maybe tonight,” Ryland said as he turned his horse around and began making his way back to down the trail. “I’ve got work to do today.”

“But, Ryland,” Lane said, kicking his horse nervously in an attempt to catch up with him. “We did fly all the way to Montana to speak with you. We were just hoping you’d had some time to meet with us—“

“I don’t.”

Lane and Macy exchanged glances. She thought that perhaps they shouldn’t push Ryland too hard, but she knew that Lane wasn’t one to be easily deterred.

“Could we just sit down for a few minutes? I just have a few things I’d like to go over.”

Ryland let out a sigh. “I do have some things I have to take care of around here this morning, but we can sit down and talk over lunch if you want.”

Lane flashed Macy a victorious grin. “Perfect.”

Ryland hadn’t expected the photographer
to be so beautiful. Whistling at his dog, he pulled his horse to a stop to get a better look at his cattle. The truth was that his ranch hands had the morning’s work completely under control, but he just didn’t want to be around his visitors. He wasn’t comfortable having people he didn’t know at his home. This was his sanctuary, and these people from the magazine were intruders. They wanted to know why he was such a fuck-up. Why he hadn’t released any new music. The worst thing of all was that he knew they were only there to confirm what everyone already thought—that he had turned into a slobbering drunk, which must have been why his career had taken a nosedive. That the reason he had suddenly canceled his tour was because he was an alcoholic or was suffering from some debilitating mental illness.
Screw them, let them think what they want.
But Robbie didn’t see it that way. So here he was, playing nice-nice with a couple of assholes from New York City. If you could call that pretty little blond an asshole.

“Jose!” Ryland called, trotting up to his most trusted ranch hand.

“Yes?” Jose grinned. This was his element. He loved working on the ranch, and that’s why Ryland had put him in charge of most of the operations around the place.

“I’m going to be back at the house for the rest of the day. Do you think you have things handled here?”

“Oh, yeah, you know I do. I had dinner with those two last night.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, they seemed alright.”

Ryland nodded, looking on. “I suppose.”

“That Macy sure is a looker, ain’t she?”

Ryland frowned. “I suppose.”

Jose laughed heartily, slapping Ryland on the back. “For a singer you’re short on words a lot, Ryland.”

Ryland laughed, despite his mood.

“How are your folks doing?”

“They’re doing alright,” Ryland said, giving Belle a pat on her neck.

“Good. I bet they were happy to see you.”

“They were. I enjoyed going out to see them, too. I stayed away too long.”

“Yes, you did.”

Ryland looked at his friend. “Alright, see you later, Jose,” Ryland said, kicking his heels into the sides of his horse and taking off towards the house in an exhilarating gallop.

He knew in his gut that Robbie was right—he needed to be nice to Macy and Lane, but he wanted nothing more than to tell them to get the hell off his land.

***

Macy climbed up the steps to the porch and looked around. No one was around and she figured Ryland was still working. Placing her hands on her lower back, she tried to stretch the kinks out. The rocking chairs caught her attention. They were beautifully designed, made out of some kind of exquisite wood—cherry maybe.

She ran her fingers along the ornate back of one of the chairs, marveling at the care that must have been put into creating it. But once again, her attention was brought back to the fact that one of the chairs was clean and looked like it had been sat in recently, and the other looked like it hadn’t been used in ages. Macy felt drawn to a pile of old flowers that were sitting delicately on the seat, and bent to pick up one of the fragile buds.

“Macy!” Ryland’s voice made her jump in surprise.

“Ryland.”

“What are you doing?” he said, taking his hat off and slapping it against his thigh.

“I was just waiting for Lane. I didn’t see anyone…” She was suddenly at a loss for words. Why did this man make her feel so off-balance?

He stopped at the bottom of the steps and regarded her for a moment before his face softened and he smiled, making her heart speed up inside her chest.

“Ready for lunch?” He climbed the stairs and stood beside her.

“Sure,” she said, turning to search for Lane in an attempt to
avoid looking at Ryland. He was making her feel more
uncomfortable by the minute.

“Let’s go find out what Helen made us today,” he said, reaching for the door handle.

“She seems very nice. How long has she worked for you?”

“Almost six years.” He held the door open for her. “We’d starve to death if she wasn’t here.”

“She’s a good cook. She made a pot pie for dinner our first night and it was simply delicious. Your house is beautiful. I was just admiring your porch. I’ve never seen such a large porch. It almost wraps around your whole house…” She was just babbling now.

“Thank you,” he said, looking down at her.

Macy tilted her head back so that she could look into his face. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of the man towering over her. He smelled like cedar and leather. He was standing so close to her, all she had to do was reach out and touch him. Her eyes swept over his face, noting his strong jaw which always seemed to be covered in a five o’clock shadow, his full, slightly parted lips, and his shaggy dark hair lying in disarray around his face. Suddenly, she realized
she was staring and she dropped her gaze quickly, taking a step back.

“Come inside,” he said quietly.

“Okay,” she breathed, stepping past him. She shivered, pulling her jacket tightly around her.

“Getting cold,” Ryland said. “Storm’s coming in. Probably gonna snow tonight.”

“Jesus,” Lane said as he came in, shutting the door quickly behind him. “It’s freaking cold outside.”

“Well, my heavens,” Helen said, wiping her hands on her apron. “Come get some coffee and warm up. I’ve just finished getting lunch made.”

“Thank you,” Macy said, following Helen into the kitchen. “Smells wonderful.”

“Oh, it’s not much. Just made some tomato soup. Have a seat.”

Macy and Lane slid into a couple of chairs beside each other at the table, and Ryland sat across from them. Macy’s heart was hammering softly inside her chest, making her wonder why Ryland was making her feel so uneasy. She was used to being around celebrities and it didn’t faze her anymore. Maybe she’d gone back to work too quickly. She lifted her eyes and met Ryland’s gaze, then looked down again.

“Here you go,” Helen said, setting down a pot of coffee on the table. She disappeared again for a moment before returning with a platter of soup bowls. “Can I get anyone anything else?”

Macy and Lane shook their heads and Ryland said, “No thanks, Helen. Looks good.”

Helen bowed her head slightly, smiling before turning and leaving the room.

“I’m not used to so much home cooking. Didn’t realize how often I just catch fast food on the fly until we came here,” Lane said, nudging Macy.

Macy smiled. “I know. Helen’s a wonderful cook.” She looked up and caught Ryland watching her. His mind seemed to be working overtime and she wondered why. “Where’s Michael?”

“L.A. on business. So,” Ryland said, clearing his throat. “What do you want to talk about?”

Lane quickly opened his satchel and pulled out a pen and his notebook. “First of all, your fans want to know when your new single is coming out.” Lane was never one to beat around the bush.

Ryland’s face gave away nothing. Eventually, he spoke. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Lane said, his pen poised over his notebook. “Like… I don’t need an exact date. Ballpark would be fine.”

“I don’t know,” Ryland repeated firmly. “I have no idea.”

“O...kay,” Lane said frowning. “So I guess that means no ETA on your album either.”

“What album?” Ryland said irritably.

Suddenly, Lane’s eyes lit up and he scooted his chair back, throwing an ankle over his knee and leaning in towards Ryland.
Oh boy. He was about to unleash the reporter.

“Ryland, tell me what you’ve been up to for the past two years.”

Ryland grinned. “You’ve seen it.” He wasn’t about to give out any information.

“Yes, I’ve seen it. You have a beautiful ranch here. Have you decided to give up your music career and focus on ranching?”

“Maybe.”

“Interesting,” Lane said, jotting down some notes. “Is that why you canceled your tour?”

Macy watched Ryland’s face closely. His jaw ticked and he kept his lips pressed into a thin line. He regarded Lane for a few beats before responding.

“Maybe.”

Macy’s eyes swept quickly between Lane and Ryland. Tension was quickly escalating between the two of them and she didn’t want things to get out of hand. This was the assignment that would help redeem her. If they ended up pissing off Ryland Quinn it would put her back at square one. She placed her hand on Lane’s wrist and gave him a subtle look that said
back off.

“You know, there’s no reason why we can’t finish this later. I think we have a good start.” She turned to Ryland and offered him her sweetest smile. “Would you mind if I took some photos of your
house? Our readers would love to see what a lovely home you have.”

Ryland looked at her for a moment. “Of course.”

“Thank you,” Macy said.

Helen was beside her in an instant. “Let me get those dishes for you. Can I get you two anything else?”

“No, thank you, Helen. It was delicious as always.”

“Thank you, Macy.”

“Lane, why don’t you head back to the cabin and check in with the office while I get some shots around here?” Macy wanted to put some space between Lane and Ryland. They had to get a good story while they were here, and that wouldn’t happen if the two of them were butting heads.