Capturing the Cowboy's Heart (13 page)

She nodded.  “Yesterday when we went for a ride in my car.”

He shook his head.  “Well, if that don’t beat all.  I haven’t seen Cade having anything close to fun since...”

“Since his wife died?”

“Yeah.”  Burk glanced toward the door, then back at her.  “He wasn’t always that way, like a rattler with its rattle going.  Life’s been hard on him the past few years.”

“Life’s hard on a lot of people,” she replied softly, thinking of her grandmother.  The woman who now looked at life through empty eyes.

Stop it, Lacy!  The only thing that comes from feeling sorry for yourself is pain.
 

Straightening her shoulders, she moved further into the barn and looked around.  “So what am I supposed to be doing?”  She certainly wasn’t going to ask Cade and risk getting her head bit off again. 
Or her lips kissed.
 

Burk unbuttoned the cuffs on his shirt and rolled up the sleeves.  “Did you ask Cade?”

“No.  And I’m not even sure how I’m going to do this story seeing as how I have no intention of speaking to that man ever again!

A knowing grin moved across the ranch hand’s face.  “So you’ve taken a shining to him, huh?”

“Excuse me?”

“You like him.”

Lacy snorted.  “About as much as I’d like getting a root canal done without
Novocaine
.”
             

He chuckled again.  “Something tells me Cade is in a lot of trouble.”

She wasn’t sure what Burk meant by that, but decided she was better off not knowing.  She just needed to do her job, get the story and get the heck out of Cowboyville. 

“Just give me something to do so he can’t say I’m not keeping
up
my end of our agreement.”

Rubbing his chin, Burk looked around the barn.  “Well, let’s see.  Why don’t we have you start with watering the horses?” 

“That sounds easy enough.”

He moved over to the first stall in a long row of many.  “Let me introduce you to the horses first, seeing as how you’re gonna be helping take care of them while you’re here.  There are only four horses left, so it shouldn’t be too hard to remember their names.”

“Left?  What happened to the others?”

“Had to sell ‘em off.”  He reached out to run a hand down the horse’s back.  “This here’s
Ace
.  He’s a Dun.”

“A Dun?”

“That’s a breed of horse.  You can tell them apart from the others by their sandy color and dark mane and tail.  He’s Cade’s.  Belonged to him forever.”

“He’s huge.”  Yet she had no problem seeing Cade astride this beautiful animal.

“That’s just because you’re a wee thing.”

She smiled and rolled her eyes.  “Don’t remind me.  What I wouldn’t give to have legs like Katie O’Brien.”

“You know Katie?”  Burk’s eyes lit up at the mere mention of the woman’s name.

Cade was right.  There was something there.  “We met yesterday.”

His smile widened.  “Nice gal, that Katie.  A little too independent if you ask me, but nice.”

“You don’t like a woman who’s independent?”  She wouldn’t have guessed Burk to be a chauvinist.

“It’s not that.  I don’t mind a woman who can take care of herself, even one who speaks her mind like Katie does.  She’s Irish.  That part just comes natural.”

Lacy smiled.  “So what’s the problem?”

He shifted as if uncomfortable by the turn in their conversation.  “The problem is that sometimes a man wants to do some of the taking care of.  That’ll never happen with Katie O’Brien.”

“Never say never,” Lacy teased.

Purposely ignoring her last comment, he turned back to the horse.  “
Ace
here’s the only horse Cade’s ridden since his injury.”

“Why is that?”

“Riding pains him sometimes. 
Ace
here’s a smooth ride and Cade is used to him.  Not to mention he loves this horse.”

“Humph,” Lacy scoffed.  “I didn’t realize that man was capable of loving anything.”

Burk perched a booted foot up on the bottom rung of the stall.  “That’s where you’re wrong.  Cade’s fully capable of loving, only he refuses to let himself do so.  He’s afraid to let go of the past.  Hell, I’ve seen more emotion from Cade since you arrived than I have in a very long time.”

It seemed to her the only emotion she brought out in Cade was irritation.  She normally tried very hard not to rub people the wrong way.  But with Cade it just seemed to happen.  They were like two sticks of dynamite with very short fuses. 

Burk moved on to the next stall.  “This here’s
Loco
. 
Like his name, h
e’s plumb crazy, so stay away from him.”  He pivoted on the straw littered floor and pointed to the horse in the stall across the way.  “That’s
Sunny
.  He’s a Chestnut.  A
fine specimen of horseflesh if I do say so myself.
”

“Let me guess
,” she said with a smile.  “
He
belongs to you.”

“
Sure does
.”  He led her down to another stall where the last of the horses stood watching them, it’s head craned out as if begging for their attention.

“That’s
Dakota
.  He belonged to Karen.”

“Cade’s wife?”

“Yeah.”

“What really happened?” 

He shoved his hands into the front pocket of his jeans and turned to her.  “Do you want the real version or the one reporters wanted the world to believe?”

“The truth.”

“Car wreck.  It was raining real hard that day.  Karen had gone to town to do some shopping.  Cade usually went with her, but he was down with the flu that day.  On her way home, she lost control of the car and took out a tree.  She died instantly.”

A rush of hot tears burned her eyes.  How awful that must have been for Cade, to lose
the woman he loved
so tragically.  No wonder he was a bitter man.  He’d not only lost his career and a wife he
treasured
, but now he was on the verge of losing his ranch, too.

Lacy placed a hand on
Burk’s
arm.  “Thank you for telling me.”

“I figure it might help you to understand why he does
some of the
things he does.”  He stepped into
Dakota
’s stall.  “Now back to work.  See how the buckets are half empty?”

She peered over the top of the stall
, watching him
.  “Yes.”

“They need
emptied and filled with
fresh water. 
You can emp
ty them in
to
that sink over there and then use the hose outside to fill them back up again.  Be sure not to fi
ll them so full they spill over when you carry the buckets back into the stalls.  If you get t
he clean straw all wet we’ll have to change it.”

That sounded like an easy enough task. 
“I think I can handle that.”

He pointed to a net hanging above the stall.  “These
are hay nets.  They need
to be re
plenished as well.
”  He handed her a bucket.  “Give me a shout if you have any questions.”

“Thanks, Burk.”

“Don’t mention it.”  He walked away, disappearing into a room at the far end of the barn.

Lacy turned her attention back to
Dakota
, running her hand down the animal’s nose.  “I bet you really miss her, don’t you?” 

The horse whinnied softly.

“I know Cade does.  But I doubt he’d ever come right out and say it.  He the kind of man who’s determined to keep things all bottled up inside, for all the good it’s doing him.”

Lacy sighed softly.  Who was she to talk?  She was just as guilty of keeping her emotions guarded.  She set the water bucket down by her feet and looked up at the hay nets with a frown.  Why hadn’t she thought to ask Burk where she was supposed to get the hay from and how much to put in the nets.

“Need some help?” Cade’s husky voice rang out behind her.

She turned, no longer angry.  Her heart went out to him for all he’d been through.  “
Yes.
”

“I want to show you something when we’re done here.” 
He walked over to
Ace
’s stall and rubbed the gelding’s nose.
  Then he pointed to the net she’d been staring at when he walked in. 
“No clue about hay nets, huh?”

“Not a one,” she replied, her eyes watering as she held back a sneeze.

“Don’t worry,” he
said
with a
surprisingly
warm smile.  “You’ll catch on.”  He pulled a pocketknife out of his front jeans pocket and cut the strings on one of the hay bales stacked against the wall.  “
Ta
ke a sheaf of hay
,
about this much
,
and
place
it inside
like this.”

Muscles flexed beneath the faded blue denim of
his
work
shirt with
every move he made
, making it nearly impossible for her to concentrate on what he was
instructing her to do
.

“
Go ahead and g
ive it try.”

She
plucked some hay from the
bale, her eyes itching and watering
even more
. 
Allergies. 
Whatever possessed her to offer to become one of his ranch hands in exchange for the story? 

“Don’t give them any more hay than I showed you.  We’re on a tight
budget
.”

“That bad, huh?”

His expression grew serious and he hesitated in his reply, looking back at
Ace
.  “We’ve had some unexpected situations arise that cost money I hadn’t counted on spending.  Truck repairs.  Fence repairs.  You name it.
” 
He stepped away from the stall.  “I’ll
go see to
Loco
.”

She wanted so badly to reach out to him,
to tell him how sorry she was that he’d had so much pain in his life,
but she didn’t.  Instead, Lacy stood watching him, so many questions racing through her mind.  All the ‘what ifs’ that would never be answered.

Loco
nipped at Cade as he reached for the net.  He yanked his hand back, rubbing it.  “Damn horse.  Ever hear the saying don’t bite the hand that feeds you?”

“I’ll have to remember that,” Lacy said, handing him another sheaf of hay.  “Cade...”

“Yeah?”

“About last night...  I really appreciate your coming to get me out of that place.”

“No problem,” he replied without turning around.  “I would have been awake all night feeling guilty if I had left you there
anyway
.  Especially, if the sheriff shot you.”

She gasped.  “Shot me?”

“You familiar with the saying ‘going postal’?” 

Lacy nodded.

“Well, much more of your singing and the sheriff would have done just that.”  His husky laughter filled the barn
.

Lacy reached out to give his arm a playful smack.
 
“You’re so mean.”

He responded with a toothy grin.  “And don’t you forget it.”

This had to be the side of Cade that Karen had fallen
in love with.
  The playful, sexy, easygoing manner he was exuding now.  If only he could stay that way for the next week or two.
  Pushing
a strand of hair from her face,
she tucked
it behind her ear as she looked
up at him
.  “What should I do now?”

“First
...
” he said,
swiping
the pad of his thumb
slowly
along her cheek.

She froze.  Was he
about to kiss her again
?
  She closed her eyes and waited.

“You might want to wipe this streak of dirt from your face
,” he said as his hand fell away.

Her eyes popped open.  “What?”

“You had dirt on your cheek.”

“Oh.” 
And if it had been on her lips?

“Now that we’
re done here,
come with me. 
I’m going to
teach you a thing or two about ranching.
”

She followed him through the barn.

“We always
keep our bulls separated from the cows
.”