The Comeback Cowboy

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Was she also reluctant for their afternoon encounter to end?

“Thanks for letting me tag along during your lunch,” Ty said.

“Are you serious? It couldn’t have been that much fun for you.”

“There were a few high spots.” Like the seating arrangement.

“Next time I try to warn you—” she gave him a stern look “—pay attention.”

“How ’bout next time we go to lunch just the two of us?”

The pause that followed lasted a little too long.

“I…uh…” She inhaled slowly and squared her shoulders. “Thank you for asking, but I don’t date guests.”

He hid his disappointment with a joke. “Is that one of those rules on the list I haven’t read yet?”

“No, a personal one. Less messy that way when the guest leaves.” Without another word, she pushed open the passenger door and hopped out, giving him the briefest of waves as she climbed the steps to the lodge entrance.

Her abrupt departure had Ty wondering if she’d been there and done that, and been left behind with a wounded heart.

And since he was leaving after the Buffalo Bill Cody Stampede, he certainly couldn’t argue the logic behind her rule.

“WHAT’S WRONG?”

“Nothing, Pop.” Adele had practically steamrolled her grandfather in her haste to get inside.

“You sure?” He studied her with concern.

She suspected he’d been watching her and Ty from the lobby window. “Absolutely. Why would you think there was?” She made her way around the registration counter and into the sanctuary of her small office.

Pop followed her, shutting the door behind them except for a narrow crack—just in case someone rang the bell.

“You’re upset, and Ty looked none too happy, either.”

She was never any good at hiding her feelings. “Reese and I ran into him at the feed store. He wound up joining us for lunch. Garth was there, too.”

Pop harrumphed. “Guess I can’t blame the boy for being a touch prickly after that.”

“Actually, he handled it pretty well.” She gave her grandfather a brief account of the lunch.

“Then why are you acting like you two tangled? Is he mad about taking the beginner class?”

“Not at all.”

Pop lowered himself carefully into the office’s single visitor chair, wincing slightly. When he was settled, he let out a long groan. “Damn hip’s giving me fits today. Must be the rain.”

It hadn’t rained in over two weeks and didn’t remotely look like it was going to anytime soon. “You taking the new medicine your doctor prescribed?”

“Yes, and quit nagging me.” They both knew he should have hip-replacement surgery, but Pop insisted he wasn’t going under the knife unless it was a matter of life and death.

Adele thought his refusal had more to do with her than any fear of hospitals. He worried about leaving the entire responsibility of the ranch and Cowboy College to her.

“And quit changing the subject,” he scolded.

“What?”

“From you and Ty.” His wizened features softened. “You like him.”

Hoping to distract her grandfather, she shook her mouse and roused her computer from its hibernation. “He’s just another guest.”

“You don’t date enough. You need to get out and have a little fun now and then.”

“I went to lunch today.”

“With friends. That’s not the same.”

No? It had felt a little like a date. Part of the time, anyway.

“You’ve haven’t gone out with anyone since that Joe kid from Phoenix.”

“Yes, I have.”

“When? Who?”

Adele searched her brain and came up blank. “I’m sure I have.”

Pop just grunted. His way of saying he was right.

She skimmed the contents of her email in-box, hating to agree with her grandfather. Joe had been her last relationship, and it could hardly be called serious. In fact, none of her relationships since she’d graduated high school had been serious.

“Ty’s a good man,” Pop continued, oblivious to her diversion tactics. “And he’s taken a shine to you. I can tell by how he looks at you.”

“I’m not interested in him except as a guest of this ranch and a student in my class.”

Pop chuckled. “I guess that’s why you were walking away from him earlier like a bee flew up the back of your shirt.”

“I was not!” Adele’s heated denial was met with another grunt. She clicked on the unopened emails in earnest, ignoring her grandfather.

He abruptly sobered. “Is it because he’s a professional roper?”

She didn’t respond.

“They’re not all bad,” his said, his gravelly voice dropping in pitch.

“I know.” She turned and gave him a soft smile. “But men like you are the exception, not the rule.”

“It’s been a lot of years, Dellie. Time you moved on. Put your parents and what they did behind you.”

“I don’t want to talk about them. Not now.”

“Just because your mom and dad were lousy parents is no reason to shut yourself off from love. I won’t be around forever.”

“Don’t say that!”

“You need someone besides an old coot like me to dote on. A husband. Children.”

“You’re more than enough.”

“Get to know Ty. Don’t let him being a professional roper put you off.”

Her grandfather had hit the nail on the head, and they both knew it. Work was simply an excuse. The main reason Adele didn’t date much was because the vast majority of single men she met were unsuitable. Markton was a small town and the pickings slim to begin with. Making it worse, she didn’t date employees or, as she’d told Ty, guests. Most others close to her age were either rodeo men or wannabe rodeo men.

After watching her parents destroy each other’s lives and hers, she’d vowed not to become involved with anyone remotely connected with “the business.”

“He’s leaving in a few weeks, Pop. Even if I wanted to give him a shot, I wouldn’t.”

Before her grandfather could comment, the bell on the reception counter rang. Adele sprang to her feet and called, “Be right there.”

As there were no new guests scheduled to arrive today, she fully expected to see one of their current students standing at the counter, waiting to inform her of a need. At the sight of the lone, middle-aged woman wheeling one small suitcase, Adele came to a sudden stop, every thought flying instantly out of her head.

“Who is it?” Pop asked, hobbling out the office door. He, too, drew up short. But unlike Adele, he wasn’t at a loss for words. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Adele wanted to know the same thing.

“Oh, Pop,” Lani Donnelly chirped. “Is that anything to say to your daughter-in-law?” She turned to Adele, a too-sunny-to-be-real smile on her face. “Don’t just stand there, baby girl, come give your mom a hug.”

Chapter Four

Adele didn’t move right away. She couldn’t. Waves of hurt, anger and resentment hit her all at once and kept her rooted in place. She was vaguely aware of a guest coming out of the business center and leaving through the lobby entrance. She was acutely aware of her grandfather standing beside her. For a man with debilitating arthritis, his spine had snapped as straight and rigid as an iron bar.

“Please, baby girl.” The pleading in her mother’s voice penetrated the haze surrounding Adele.

She shored up her defenses, only to discover they weren’t as impenetrable as she’d hoped. The sad and neglected little girl inside her still longed for the comfort of her mother’s arms and the reassurance that she was loved.

“You okay, Dellie?”

At Pop’s question, Adele glanced down, to see that her hands were shaking.

“I’m fine.” And she was fine. Pulling herself together, she wrung the tremors from her fingers and raised her chin. No matter what, her mother wasn’t going to hurt her again. Not after Adele had worked so hard to create a good life for herself.

“Hello, Mom.”

They each took a step, then two, and met in the middle. The hug Adele offered was reserved. Not so for her mother, who clung to her, then burst into great racking sobs.

Adele wanted to remained unaffected, but couldn’t. Years of mistrust and disappointment, however, enabled her to extract herself from her mom’s desperate grasp.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing.” Lani dabbed at her eyes. “I’m just so happy to see you. It’s been months.”

Almost two years, but Adele didn’t bother correcting her.

They were about the same height and had once possessed similar figures. A weight loss during the last two years had left Lani painfully thin. Combined with her rough-around-the-edges appearance, she looked years older than her actual age. Her green eyes, highlighted with too much makeup, darted around the lobby with the desperation of a starving animal seeking its next meal.

“You should have called to let us know you were coming.” Adele struggled to keep bitterness from creeping into her voice. Her mother may have hit rock bottom—the only reason Adele could think of to explain the unexpected visit—but that didn’t erase all the bad memories.

“The battery died on my cell phone, and I haven’t had a chance to replace it.”

She was lying. Adele could feel it in her gut. Her mother had probably been unable to pay her bill without the help of a man.

Was else was she covering up?

“You look good, Pop.” Lani smiled at Adele’s grandfather, though her eyes were still filled with tears.

“You don’t.” Leave it to Pop to cut to the chase.

“This last year’s been pretty hard on me.” She swallowed.

He hobbled closer. “Is that why you just showed up out of the blue?”

“I, ah…”

One of the housekeeping staff entered the lobby pushing a cart laden with cleaning supplies, fresh linens and a vacuum. After a hesitant glance at them, she changed direction and went into the TV lounge to begin her work.

Lani rolled her suitcase from one side to the other. Uncertainty clouded her features, and she blurted, “I need a place to stay for a few days. Maybe a few weeks. I know it’s a lot to ask, and Lord knows you have every reason turn me away, but I’ve got nowhere else to go. I’m willing to work off my room and board.”

Adele took a step back, stunned by her mother’s request. She didn’t know what shocked her more—that her mother had the gall to show up unexpectedly and ask for a favor, a big one, or that she was actually willing to work. Lani hadn’t voluntarily sought employment that Adele could recall.

“I don’t know, Mom,” she hedged. “We’re kind of full right now.”

“I can always sleep on your couch.” The offhand remark came across as desperate. “You’ll hardly know I’m there. I swear.”

Adele almost choked. Her mother sleeping on her couch? Not in this lifetime. “Mom—”

“She can stay in room nine.” Pop stepped around Adele.

She started to protest, not wanting her mother anywhere near Seven Cedars, only to shut her mouth when Pop took hold of her mother’s suitcase.

“Come on, we’ll take you there now. Dellie, grab the key and bring the golf cart around.”

Though they ran the ranch together, it technically belonged to Pop. Adele might disagree with his decision, and would tell him later when they were in private, but the choice to let Lani stay was his to make.

She promptly spun on her heels and fled to her office without glancing back.

In addition to eighteen fully equipped cabins, they had a building with nine hotel-like rooms behind the main lodge. Number nine was on the end, the smallest of the rooms, and contained only a twin bed. For that reason, it was usually vacant. The room had been reserved for the upcoming weekend, but the guest had canceled.