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Nicolette sat across from her best friend and business partner at the round wooden table in the kitchen. Sammy was upstairs, unpacking his things in the small room with the twin beds.
“I didn’t expect the ranch to be so big,” Cassie said as she wrapped her fingers around a hot mug of coffee. “I mean, I knew on paper how much acreage there was, but I didn’t really grasp it.”
“That’s because the concept of big to us is an apartment with three bedrooms,” Nicolette replied.
Cassie smiled, but only briefly. “I also didn’t expect to see all the damage.”
Nicolette nodded. “You hear about tornadoes and the damage they do on the news, but you don’t really get a clear picture unless you actually see it with your own eyes.”
As they’d driven past the small town of Bitterroot on their way to the ranch, they’d witnessed the devastation in the area that the massive storm cell had left behind.
“I feel so bad that it’s hard for me to mourn a woman I scarcely knew. I mean, I only saw Aunt Cass a couple of times when I was young and then after my parents died we kept up through occasional letters, but we weren’t exactly close,” Cassie said. “We lived in such different worlds. I never dreamed that if anything happened to her I’d inherit her ranch.”
“Have you definitely decided what you’re going to do?” Nicolette asked Cassie. She knew how stunned Cassie had been to learn that her aunt Cass had died and left her as sole beneficiary to a working ranch with over a dozen employees.
Cassie sat back in the kitchen chair and looked around the large kitchen. Her friend was probably thinking of how different this kitchen was from the one they shared in their tiny Manhattan apartment.
“I’m still thinking that the best option is to get the damage cleaned up as quickly as possible and then sell the place. I’d make enough money from the sale that we could move into a bigger apartment and get a larger storefront to sell both my artwork and your clothing line.”
Nicolette grinned ruefully. “Right now my clothing line is just a bunch of sketches in a book.”
“But, if I sell this place we could make it all a reality,” Cassie replied. “We could even afford to actually hire some help so that we aren’t spending all our time at the store.”
“What about the people who work here?” Nicolette’s head instantly filled with a vision of the tall handsome cowboy who had greeted them.
Cassie waved a hand as if to dismiss the hired help. “I imagine the new owner would probably want to keep most of them.” A grin lit her face and a small laugh escaped her lips. “I can’t believe Sammy told that man what you said about cowboys.”
Warmth leaped into Nicolette’s cheeks. “I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole. I’ve never been so embarrassed.”
Cassie laughed again. “At least he appeared to take it all in good humor.”
“I guess, although he seemed pretty brusque after that when he showed us around the house.” She looked at her watch. “It’s getting late. I need to get Sammy into a bath and to bed.”
“Yeah, and I should probably go to bed pretty soon if I’m going to be up by six to meet with all the cowboys. You will come with me, won’t you?” Cassie looked at her hopefully.
“Are you going to tell them tomorrow that you intend to sell the place?” Nicolette asked.
Her friend frowned thoughtfully. “I think I’ll just keep that to myself for right now and if anyone asks you, you don’t know what my plans are.”
“Are you sure you want to play it that way?” Nicolette asked, and got up from the table. “Maybe it would be better if you’d just be up-front with everyone.”
Cassie’s frown deepened. “I’m afraid if they know I’m planning on selling out, they’ll all quit and find other jobs before the work here gets done. They certainly don’t owe me any loyalty. Besides, at this moment I have no idea for sure what I intend to do. Just please tell me you’ll be there with me in the morning when I face them all.” Cassie got up from the table, a look of pleading on her pretty face.
Nicolette released a deep mock sigh. “You know that means that I’ll have to wake up my six-year-old son to come to the bunkhouse with us, but you also know I’ll do it because I owe you so much.”
“Nonsense, you don’t owe me anything.” Together they put their cups in the sink and then headed for the stairs.
Nicolette told Cassie good-night as she veered into the first bedroom, where her son had unpacked his suitcase and was now seated on the bed clad in his pajamas with his handheld game system in play.
“Whoa, what are you doing in your pajamas already?” Nicolette asked. “You know it’s always bath time before bedtime.”
Sammy didn’t look up from his game. “I took a bath last night, Mom. That means I don’t have to take a bath until next Friday night. I told you that I’ve decided I’m going to be a cowboy.”
“Sammy, I’m not going to argue with you about this. Now, get into the bathroom and into the tub.”
He finally looked up at her, his blue eyes filled with innocence. “But, we’re on a ranch and I just told you I’m a cowboy like Cowboy Lucas and he told me cowboys only take a bath once a week.” His chin jutted out in a show of stubbornness.
“Cowboy Lucas was just joking,” Nicolette replied, knowing that it was her own words and Lucas’s response that had prompted this ridiculous problem.
Normally Sammy was a good, obedient child, but on the rare occasion he got that chin-jutting going on he became a monster child who could throw a tantrum as big as the entire state of Oklahoma.
“He wasn’t joking. He didn’t even smile when he told me cowboys took baths once a week,” Sammy replied and folded his arms across his chest.
A rising irritation began to build in Nicolette, not because of the child on the bed, but rather toward the man who had filled his head with such nonsense.
“If Cowboy Lucas tells you he was just joking with you, then will you be a good boy and get into the bath?” Nicolette asked.
Sammy looked at her suspiciously. “I gotta hear it from him. You can’t just pretend that you talked to him and then tell me that he said I had to take a bath. I gotta hear it from the cowboy’s mouth.”
Nicolette stared at her son in dismay. She knew she could do one of two things—she could demand that her son obey her, resulting in tension and tears and a battle she was too weary to endure, or she could go get that handsome cowboy and straighten this out once and for all.
“You wait right here,” she said, and then left his room and walked down the hallway to the master suite. The door was open and Cassie had already changed from her clothes into her nightshirt. “Cassie, could you do me a favor and keep an eye on Sammy while I go chase down a cowboy?”
Cassie raised a blond eyebrow and gave her a teasing grin. “I never took you for the pushy type, but I have to admit he was rather hot.”
“Aren’t you a funny one,” Nicolette said drily. “I need to make Cowboy Lucas talk to Sammy and tell him that cowboys bathe every night, not just once a week.”
“Uh-oh, sounds like our ideas about cowboys have come back to bite our backsides,” Cassie said. She grabbed Nicolette by the arm and they headed back to Sammy’s bedroom.
“I’ll read him a story. You’d better find a flashlight if you have to go all the way to the bunkhouse. You don’t want to step in any cow poop.” Cassie grinned and then gave Nicolette a quick hug. “I can’t thank you enough for taking this journey with me. Now, go find your cowboy.”
“He’s not my cowboy,” Nicolette muttered darkly as she headed down the stairs. She went into the kitchen to look in the cabinet under the sink, which seemed a likely place to store a flashlight.
“Bingo.” She grabbed the big yellow-handled light and headed for the door in the kitchen that would take her outside and in the direction of the bunkhouse.
She just wanted this night to be over. The past week had been frenzied with them closing up the store indefinitely, packing and preparing for their trip here. The day had been particularly long as their plane had been delayed twice in a layover in Chicago. Then there was the task of obtaining a rental car and taking the forty-minute drive from Oklahoma City to Bitterroot and the ranch.
She shone the flashlight beam on the ground before her as she made her way toward the building in the distance. Thank goodness she was also aided by the light of a full moon overhead.
In truth, she’d rather eat dirt than ask Lucas for his help, but he owed it to her considering he was the one who had told Sammy cowboys bathed only once a week.
Well, if she was perfectly truthful with herself, she was the one who had first told Sammy that, but that had been before she’d actually met a cowboy. She’d never dreamed she would be on a ranch with real cowboys, and she marveled now at all the paths she’d walked so far in her relatively short life.
She’d gone from wife to a wealthy man, to near poverty and single parenthood in what felt like the blink of an eye. What little money she’d had when she’d left her husband she’d invested in the store, but that venture was barely making money. New York was a brutal city if you didn’t have money.
She looked ahead to the structure looming close. Lucas had been right; it did look like a twelve-unit motel. It was easy to see which one was Lucas’s, as it was the only unit that had lights shining out the window.
Her stomach tensed as she approached the door. Even though she’d told Sammy first about cowboys not taking baths, Lucas should have told him different. It was his fault that this whole mess had happened with Sammy.
With more than a touch of irritation rising inside her, she knocked briskly. He opened the door and her breath caught just a bit. Without his hat, his dark, slightly shaggy dark hair gleamed in the light. His intense blue eyes widened before he raised a hand in front of his face.
“Turn off that flashlight,” he exclaimed.
Warmth leaped into her cheeks as she realized she’d had the light shining directly on his handsome, chiseled features. She quickly clicked it off. “Sorry about that.”
He stepped outside and looked around. “What are you doing out here all by yourself in the dark?”
“You told my son that cowboys only bathe once a week and now Sammy won’t get into the bathtub.”
By the light of the room spilling out where they stood, she saw his amusement curve his lips upward. “Is that a fact,” he replied. “Sounds like a personal problem to me.”
“It’s all your fault,” she said, at the same time trying not to notice the wonder of his broad shoulders, the slim hips that wore his jeans so well.
He raised a dark eyebrow. “The way I see it, you started it.” He turned his head and spit to one side. “Oh, sorry about that. I’m just doing what cowboys do.”
This time the heat that filled her cheeks was a new wave of pure embarrassment. “Look, I’m sorry. When I told my son those things, I’d never really met a cowboy before. The only cowboy I’ve ever even seen in my entire life is the naked singing cowboy in Times Square.”
This time both his dark brows rose in surprise. “There’s a naked cowboy who sings?”
“Well, he’s not really naked. He wears a pair of briefs.” She shook her head in frustration. “But that’s not the point. I now have a little boy who refuses to take a bath because he’s decided he wants to be a cowboy and you said he only had to take one once a week. Can you please come back to the house with me and tell him differently?”
Lucas leaned back on his boot heels. “Little boys can get pretty sweaty just sitting around and doing nothing,” he mused. “Your son must be pretty headstrong for you to resort to coming all the way down here for my help.”
“He’s usually a good boy, but it’s been a long day and he’s a bit out of sorts and he told me the only way he’d get into the tub was if Cowboy Lucas told him to.”
Amusement once again danced in his eyes as he gave her a smile that made her feel just a little bit breathless. “Basically you’ve come to say you’re sorry about your preconceived notions about cowboys, because I think it would be nice if you apologized before asking for my help about anything.”
“You’re right. I am sorry,” she replied, wondering if he wanted her to get down on her knees before him and grovel, as well.
“Okay then, let’s go.” He pulled the door of his unit closed behind him and fell into step next to her.
“A naked, singing cowboy...and you New Yorkers think we’re strange.” He laughed, a low, deep rumble that she found far too pleasant.
She realized at that moment that she wasn’t afraid of cows or horses, that she wasn’t worried about falling into the mud or getting her hands dirty.
The real danger came from the attraction she felt for the man who walked next to her, a man whose laughter warmed her and who smelled like spring wind and leather.
She didn’t want to get too friendly with anyone on the ranch. She definitely didn’t want to feel attracted to any cowboy who worked here. She knew Cassie’s plan to sell the place and get back to New York City.
All she needed from Lucas was for him to straighten out bath time for Sammy and, before she knew it, she and her son and Cassie would be back on a plane headed back to their real life in New York.
Chapter 2 (#ulink_dbaeabdb-f3e4-54cf-9d88-57cc312f1970)
Nobody was surprised when six o’clock rolled around and there was no new boss in the building. Lucas sat at one of the long picnic tables sipping coffee as most of the other cowboys finished up their breakfasts.
Sunday morning breakfast was usually the quietest of the week, as lack of sleep and hangovers were invisible, unwelcomed guests. This morning the crew was a bit livelier than usual as they anticipated meeting their new boss.
“Think she’ll be here by noon?” Clay Madison asked Lucas drily.
“Big-city folk probably never see a sunrise,” Jerod Steen said from his seat down the table.
“I think maybe we should all cut her a little bit of slack. It’s the first morning and they’re now on central time, not eastern time,” Lucas replied.
He was perfectly content to sip his coffee and wait until Cassandra Peterson showed up for her official coronation as the new leader of the pack. He only hoped his fellow “brothers” wouldn’t tear her to bits on the very first morning.
At that moment Cassandra came through the door, followed by both Nicolette and Sammy. Sammy’s gaze tracked around the room, and when it landed on Lucas he gave him a big smile and an enthusiastic wave before he and Nicolette sat down on the picnic table bench closest to the door.
Cassandra stood just inside the door and cleared her throat, obviously nervous as she faced the dozen cowboys, who had all fallen silent. Cookie, the ranch-hand cook, made a baker’s dozen and now stood in the doorway between the dining area and the kitchen.
By the faint tremor in her voice and her forced smile, it was clear that Cassandra was uneasy. Lucas knew his attention should be focused on the woman who held his future in her trembling hands, but instead he found his gaze shifting to Nicolette.
Both she and Cassandra were clad in skinny jeans that probably cost more than Lucas’s entire wardrobe. Cassandra wore a tailored white blouse, the jeans and a pair of heels, but Nicolette had on a pair of gold sandals and a green form-fitting spring lightweight sweater. And the form it was fitting was slamming hot.
Unlike last night when her hair had hung freely beyond her shoulders, this morning it was neatly tamed and clasped in a green-and-blue little beaded tie at the nape of her neck.
Although he’d liked her hair the way it had been the night before, slightly wild with a touch of curl, this morning with it pulled back it gave him a perfect view of her long neck and delicate jawline.
He was vaguely aware of Cassandra talking to them about repairing the damage from the tornado and getting the ranch back up to normal.
Sammy turned his head and gave him a quick thumbs-up. Lucas nodded to the boy, whom he had found both bright and a bit precocious the night before. He’d had little interaction with Nicolette as he’d told her son that actually real cowboys bathed every night.
He wondered where the kid’s father was and if he was in the boy’s life. Lucas knew all about growing up without a father. Hell, he knew all about growing up without much of a mother, too.
The absence or not of a father in Sammy’s life is not your problem, he told himself and directed his attention back to Cassandra, who had introduced herself as Cassie. As long as she didn’t call herself Cass, he thought.
They were all Cass’s cowboys, and Cassandra Peterson had a lot to prove before any of them would even begin to consider themselves Cassie’s cowboys.
He turned his attention back to Cassie, as she appeared to be winding down. “I know it’s going to take a while for us all to get comfortable with each other. I also know that I’m asking a lot in hoping that you all will continue to do whatever you do as daily chores and get the property repairs finished as soon as possible.”
She turned her gaze to Adam, who worked as foreman. “If you could come up to the house with me, I’d like to have a chat with you about exactly how things run around here.”
Adam rose, looking none too happy, and he, Cassie, Nicolette and Sammy disappeared out the door.
“Guess that’s a wrap,” Dusty Crawford said, and grabbed his hat from the bench next to him.
“They won’t last a week here,” Brady Booth replied. He got up from the table and grasped his hat. “She looked so nervous, like she half expected us to rope and hog-tie her and send her back to New York.”
Dusty flashed dimples in a grin. “I wouldn’t mind roping her, but I might have something else in mind rather than sending her back to the big city. I wouldn’t mind having her as a bunk mate. She’s just my type, blonde and small and sexy.”
Lucas stood and tipped Dusty’s hat so it nearly covered his face. “Big talk from the baby in the group.” At twenty-six Dusty was the youngest of all the men. Truthfully, Lucas was just glad that as they all left the dining room the talk was about Cassandra and not Nicolette.
Not that he cared about the dark-haired beauty. He didn’t know anything about her and in any case didn’t need to know anything. She was just his boss’s friend, nothing more, nothing less.
He followed the rest of the men out into the early May morning and headed for the stables. The daily tasks were rotated, and today was Lucas’s day to ride the fence line and look for any breeches or issues.
Thank God he’d mucked the stalls the day before and wouldn’t have to do that nasty task again for another eleven days. It was one of the jobs that had to be done that nobody particularly liked to do.
This morning it was just his horse, Lucky, and him and the wide-open pasture. He strode toward the stables, breathing deeply of the clean air and enjoying the warmth of the sunshine on his shoulders.
