Chance For Love (Colorado Blues) (7 page)

Chance noticed the way her back stiffened and could
have kicked himself for his outburst. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.
I was worried when it took you so long.”

She undid the cinch strap before she pulled the saddle
from Sultan’s back. Without looking at Chance, Callie lugged it to the door of
the stall and threw it across the wooden rail. When she turned back to him, her
face was set and angry. “I have a job to do, deal with it.” Callie grabbed a
brush and gave the horse a quick rubdown before letting him walk into the
stall.

“I said I was sorry. I know you have a job to do and I
understand that, but it’s your first day out there and I was worried, okay?”

She reached up and kissed his cheek, following it with
the palm of her hand, cupping him with a gentle slap. “Try not to be a
smothering husband. There’s a good boy.”

Callie grabbed her saddle and took it to the tack
room, leaving him wondering what he’d taken on. She was more independent than
he had thought she would be. “Have you looked at the sky lately?”

“Nope. It wasn’t raining so I didn’t think it was a
problem.” She came out of the tack room with a bucket and headed to the corner
of the barn where the chickens had been hiding their eggs. She reached down and
scooped them up into the bucket and then waltzed back to him. “I could go for a
coffee and something to eat before I do the afternoon chores.”

Chance let his angst ease away knowing he was being
irrational and overprotective with his new bride. “What can I get you for
lunch? Seems the least I can do since you are doing all the outside work while
I can’t.”

“Well now, that depends on what you’re offering
cowboy.” She winked at him and Chance’s blood pounded faster through his veins.

“You’re going to be the death of me at this rate,
woman. I can just imagine what the doctor is going to say when I go back to get
the pins out. ‘Not healing, Mr. Watson. What have you been doing?’”

Callie laughed and slapped her hand on her leg. “You
started it, pal. I was quite happy to ease into the whole sex thing getting to
know you slowly, but you just had to take it fast. You have nobody to blame but
yourself.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way. After lunch I
want to take you into town to look at some pups. Now we’re going to be living
here full time I think a dog is doable. What do you say?”

The light in her eyes said it all. “Really? I miss my
dogs. I had to shoot them before I left.” A shudder raced over her skin and
Chance grabbed her arm.

“Why couldn’t you re-home them?” He hated to see the
pain in her eyes as she talked about the dogs.

“Because there are too many stations
that’re
struggling to feed the stock they have. Another
couple of farm dogs rate very low on the scale of importance when you live in
the outback where everyone is fighting to make ends meet.”

“I’m sorry. But talking of guns, I must show you the
gun locker in case you need a weapon for anything—an emergency or a cougar
attack.”

“Cougars, you get them out here?”

“Rarely, but yes sometimes. I haven’t had one here
since I’ve owned the place, but it pays to be prepared anyway. I know of two
deaths in the last ten years in the mountains. Not keen to make that three if
we can help it.” He placed an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get you fed and
we can go into town and choose a pup.”

Chance made her sit down and put her feet up while he
prepared a steak sandwich and a large coffee.

When he placed it in front of her, Callie picked it up
with both hands and smiled. “Are you trying to fatten me up?”

“No. I figure you need decent fuel if you’re going to
be working hard and you can’t do that on an empty stomach. Eat up, it’s good.”

He watched as she took a big bite, the juice from the
home grown meat dribbling down her chin. With a laugh she wiped it away with
the back of her hand before he could suggest doing it for her. Was he so easy
to read where she was concerned?

***

“We’re going to have to make some rules.” She saw the
desire that sparked in his eyes when she took the first bite of her lunch.

“Oh, really. And they would be what?” He looked at her
with an innocent expression on his face.

“No sex during the working day.” As she said the
words, she mentally kicked herself. Never before had she had sex in a hay loft
and seeing as there was one on the ranch, she was having all kinds of fantasies
about using it to its full potential.

“You don’t really mean that, do you?” He looked so
crestfallen that she had to grin.

“I do. At least I think I do. For now anyways, until I
get the hang of this place and everything is sorted with your brothers.” She
took another bite and chewed while thinking. “It wouldn’t look good if they
arrived unannounced and caught us in the act.”

“Might save some explaining later on.”

“Somehow I doubt that. Pretty sure it would make
things more awkward. Now we need to stick to the original plan and let them get
to know me and see how happy you are here on the ranch before we break it to
them.”

She watched the emotions in her husband’s eyes as he
warred with himself over her words.

“I want to test out every possible place we can have
sex once my hip is better. That’s a promise and that’s how long I’m going to
give my brothers to get used to you before we come clean and tell them the
truth.”

“I can live with that. I’ll keep you to it too. I
often wondered what it would be like to wake up with hay in my hair.” She
laughed at the face he pulled. “I never said I was a prude or frigid. Stop
looking at me that way. Sex is normal.”

“I couldn’t agree more. I just never expected to find
someone who would be as easy to get on with as you are.”

“You mean easy in bed, don’t you?” She put her
sandwich down on the plate and picked up the paper serviette to dab at her
mouth.

“No, I don’t and I wish you didn’t have such a low
opinion of yourself. When we
skyped
I knew you had a
determined attitude and I like that about you. I had hoped we would be sexually
compatible because that always helps in my opinion. It would be terrible to
live with someone who didn’t turn you on without trying. You do that for me and
I hope it goes both ways. That doesn’t make you easy or slutty if that’s what
you’re thinking. It makes us both very lucky to have found one another.”

Callie looked at him hoping he was telling her what he
firmly believed and not what she wanted to hear.

“If it wasn’t for the risk of someone knocking on the
door now, I’d take you on this table and bugger the consequences. That is what
you do to me, Callie. Thinking about it makes me as horny as hell.” He wiped a
hand across his forehead in dramatic fashion.

She laughed, the sound filling the large open plan
room. “Well, since you said it so nicely, how can I not believe you? I’m sorry,
I don’t mean to be so touchy but I’m pretty sure someone else will come up with
something along those lines.”

“Not if I have anything to do with it, believe me. My
brothers I can deal with. Anyone else has no business making assumptions when
they know nothing about us. Now, eat up and let’s go and find you a new dog.”

When they pulled up at the home where Tyson said there
were pups for sale, Callie got excited. It’d broken her heart to put her dogs
down but there was no other option. It would have been cruel to leave them on
the farm when there was nobody coming in to take over and work the place.

She jumped from the truck and waited for Chance to get
out. The excited bark of puppies was heard over the shouts of a man trying his
best to gain control. Together Chance and Callie walked toward the gate and
looked over the fence of the cottage set on the front of a small holding. The
tin fence held in a litter of boisterous pups fighting over an old man’s boots
as they tried to pin him down. “Get down. Go on, get.” He waved his arms at
them to no avail. They were determined to latch onto his boots and use them for
a chew toy.

“Looks like they’ve got you surrounded, Jim.” Chance
leaned on the fence and laughed as he tried to get away from the pups.

“Chance? Heard tell you were at the ranch
recuperating. Give me a hand here will you, young lady. Damned pups have taken
a shine to my boots and I can’t seem to get away from them.” He waved his hands
to brush them away, but being as frail as he was, he was no match for the fast
growing litter.

Callie hopped over the fence and walked into the
melee, picking up a couple of pups and tucking them under her arms. She backed
off and the others followed her leaving the old man time to get out of the
dogs’ yard. He hurried over to Chance and she was left holding the wriggling
bundles of fluff.

“Well aren’t you just the cutest little creatures.”
The two pups decided she was the next toy to play with and gleefully licked at
her chin, wriggling to get closer, their sharp little teeth nipping at her
skin. She squealed and laughed as she made her way to the fence, suddenly the
center of attention.

Chance was watching her, something in his eyes she
couldn’t make out. Was it passion or was he thinking of something more?

“Thanks, little lady. They’re getting to the handful
stage. Don’t know why I even bother breeding them anymore. About time I stopped
and let someone else do the dirty work.”

“Come on now, Jim. You always have great dogs. These
ones look top class.”

“Yeah I know, but I’m getting too damned long in the
tooth for this mucking around. This might be my last litter. Now who is this
pretty lady you have here?”

“Callie, I want you to meet Jim. Known him since I was
knee high. Jim, Callie moved over from Australia to be my ranch manager.”

“Australia you say. Now that’s a fair long distance to
come for a job, missy.”

“Yeah I guess, but it was advertised and just what I
wanted so I thought, why not. You know what they say, a change is as good as a
holiday.”

He eyed her up and down, obviously giving her answer
some consideration. “Hmmm, guess I can’t argue with that then.” He turned back
to Chance. “So what are you doing here? After a dog at long last?”

“Thought it might be high time I got one. Now Callie
is living on the ranch I think it might be a good idea. A cattle dog that can
act as a companion would be handy.”

Jim chewed it over and looked between the two of them.
“Right. Well, you can choose a pup if you like. None of them are taken just
yet, but I doubt they will last long once I put the word out. You prepared to
train the little rascal, missy?” He pinned his dark little eyes on Callie and
she blushed under his scrutiny.

“Done it before, and I’m pretty sure I can do it
again.”

“Callie comes off a station in Australia, Jim. Had her
own dogs over there.” She knew Chance was trying to make things easier for her
with the old man. He’d told her on the way down Jim had a reputation for being
a hard hitter and not to take anything he said personally.

“Girl can talk for herself, can’t she?”

“Of course I can. I’m not a fool. What did you want to
know?” Callie waited for him to take her to task as Tyson had.

“What do you know about the breed?” He leaned on the fence
and watched her carefully.

“Australian cattle dog. Clever, fast, and deadly
loyal. I had two I had to destroy when I left because our station was taken by
the bank and nobody wanted them.”

“Damned shame that. So, you prepared to take on a pup,
scattered as they are?”

A grey and white cattle dog jumped the fence and
sidled its way up to Callie, sniffing her boots before sitting down beside her.
The dog had one blue eye and one brown eye, a trait that popped up every now
and then but didn’t affect the dog’s ability to see what it was doing.

“Sherbet, get
outta
there.
Go on, get.” Jim waved his hands at the dog, but it turned its head and ignored
him.

“Damn stupid thing. Lost her pups and has been acting
silly ever since.”

Callie glanced at Chance before putting down the pups.
“How old is she?”

“Hmm, about four years old, I reckon. First litter was
good, second not so great, and the last one a total failure. Not much good for
breeding which is good, cause I’ve just about had enough.”

Callie reached down and stroked the dog’s ears. It
looked up at her with its odd colored eyes and leaned into her leg.

“How much for her, Jim?” Chance winked at Callie and
she smiled.

“You want her? She’s yours, Chance. Can’t sell her as
a breeder and I doubt anyone with a lick of sense would want her over a good
pup.”

“Woo
hoo
.” Callie ran back
in the fenced yard and whistled to the dog, holding her arm in the air.

Sherbet turned and ran, sailing over Callie’s arm with
ease, following her every move with intense concentration. Callie crouched and
flicked her fingers and the dog launched over her back spinning on her feet to
await the next command. The whistle for “way back” sounded and the dog launched
herself over the fence.