Hold Me, Cowboy, page 9
“Thanks.” Brent carried Rosie to the truck. Without him needing to say anything, Kendall slid into the middle seat of the truck and made room for Rosie beside her. He settled Rosie onto the seat and the red-heeler rested her head on Kendall’s lap.
Silence blanketed the truck cabin as he navigated a narrow trail that would take them to a dirt road and would deliver them to Marietta the quickest. When the truck tires spun on the asphalt of Highway 89, his clamped grip on the steering wheel relaxed. Rosie would soon be at the Copper Mountain Animal Hospital and she’d receive the care she needed.
He glanced at the makeshift green bandage that was now blood red and then at Kendall’s pale face.
“Thanks for all of your help and for calling the animal hospital so quickly. Whoever Kelly is, you must have her on speed dial?”
“You’re welcome. Kelly’s a vet tech but she also teaches Zumba fitness and dance at the school gym. Peta had a rare girly moment and signed us up. Needless to say when she realized she couldn’t wear her ranch clothes she didn’t keep on going, but I did.”
Brent allowed a grin to break through his tension. Kendall could always make him smile, even when his world shattered around him.
“Tomboy Peta doing Zumba … now there’s a sight you wouldn’t see every day.”
Kendall too smiled. “I know and one we’ll never see again.”
Silence again fell between them as they entered the town limits and made their way to the animal hospital. With Rosie in his arms he stepped through the door Kendall held open. A receptionist with heavy rimmed glasses and a reassuring smile waved them straight into a treatment room. He laid Rosie on the table just as a tall, sandy-haired man entered.
“Hi, Kendall. Kelly said you had an emergency.”
“Hi, Noah. Yes, thanks for seeing us so quickly. This is Brent and this is fence-jumping Rosie.”
Noah nodded, shook Brent’s hand with a firm clasp and then he turned to Rosie.
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
Speaking softly to the red-heeler, Noah unwound the bandage and examined her leg. Brent stroked her neck while Kendall stood close by.
After several silent minutes, Noah looked up. “The good news is Rosie’s leg’s not broken but the bad news is she has two deep holes, so there’ll be no more fence jumping, let alone running, for at least a week.”
Kendall flashed Brent a relieved grin and he relaxed his tense shoulders. Even keeping hyperactive Rosie quiet was a much better outcome than surgery on a broken leg. “That’s good news.”
Noah grinned as the restless red-heeler wriggled on the table. “Good luck with keeping her off her leg.”
A Zumba-thin vet tech, who had to be Kelly, poked her head into the room. Kendall walked over and the two women chatted while Noah applied cream and bandaged Rosie’s leg. Brent then lowered Rosie to the floor.
Holding her injured leg from off the ground, Rosie walked toward the doorway signaling she was ready to go.
Brent again shook Noah’s hand. “Thanks.” He hoped the simple word conveyed his deep gratitude.
Eyes warm, the other man nodded. “Keep the bandage on for three to five days and give her antibiotics twice a day. She’ll be back to fence jumping in no time.”
They collected Rosie’s medication and left the animal hospital. Brent lifted Rosie into the truck and just like before, Rosie rested her head on Kendall’s lap.
Brent slowly closed the pickup door as his grip on his emotions slipped. Rosie’s accident reminded him how quickly life could change. He couldn’t become complacent and not expect the unexpected … or the heartbreaking. The day Samuel had been trapped under the ATV, and the day his father had had a stroke, had also started just like any other day.
His hand on the door shook. He was a one-woman man and if he lost Kendall she’d leave behind a void he could never fill. Would he be able to silence his fears? Could he open himself up to the risk that some day in the future could start like normal and end with Kendall leaving to follow her dreams?
Chapter Seven
‡
“So how’s Rosie’s leg?” Ivy asked as she opened a kitchen cupboard in the Rose Crown Ranch house.
“Good, considering she’s not the easiest of patients.” Kendall tipped ice into a pitcher of tea. “The first day she stayed in her kennel and followed Dr. Noah’s order to rest. By day two she put weight on her leg. Then this morning Brent removed the bandage and her wounds look to be healing well. I’m sure by tomorrow she’ll be sneaking into the barn to play with the cats.”
Ivy smiled as she sat a salad bowl on the bench. “Rosie sounds just like Milly. Keeping them still is a nightmare. But it’s a relief knowing everything’s okay. Brent told Rhett there’d been a lot of blood.”
Kendall didn’t look up. Ivy’s perceptive hazel gaze wouldn’t miss the warmth that had crept into her cheeks at the mention of Brent’s name. “Yes, there was, even after Brent bandaged her leg. Hopefully next time Rosie sees a fence she’ll think twice before jumping over.”
“Fingers crossed. At least Miss Milly is small enough to go under a fence or through the wire. I don’t think she’d rest, even for a day, if she ever injured herself.”
As if on cue, Milly leapt from her bed in the kitchen corner where she’d been chewing an orange dog toy. She dashed to the front door, her sharp barks drowning out the sound of a vehicle driving past the house toward the barn. Last winter Ivy had rescued the abandoned Jack Russell from an interstate gas station and Milly now took her guard job very seriously.
Ivy leaned to her right to peer through the wide kitchen window. “It’s Peta’s silver pickup. Payton called, unfortunately she and Cordell can’t make lunch. Tash has pulled up lame and Payton’s waiting for Noah to take a look. She’s hoping she can still enter the barrel-racing tomorrow. So that just leaves Brent and Ruth and then everyone will be here.”
“They won’t be long.” Kendall pressed a glass to the ice dispenser on the refrigerator. “Brent texted to say they were on their way.”
Ice shot out of the dispenser and she concentrated on filling the glass. She’d already made Ivy’s floor look as though it had been covered in oversize hailstones because she’d let thoughts of Brent distract her. She tipped the ice into the pitcher, along with a handful of torn mint leaves.
Apart from Brent’s text she’d barely heard from him, let alone seen him, that morning. She’d come out early to Rose Crown to help Ivy prepare for lunch knowing Rhett would drive to town to collect their father. She’d then take Stewart home and sleep in her old room so she could go to Grey’s with Izzy. The historic saloon would be filled with cowboys here for the rodeo weekend, and it would be a late night. Not that she would be checking out any cowboys like Izzy would be. There was only one cowboy she wanted to see.
Kendall stared unseeingly at the pitcher, barely registering the clink of ice and metal against glass as she stirred. Brent had again taken to leaving the ranch house before she was awake. Ever since Rosie’s accident, their relationship had slowed to the pace of a Montana glacier. They continued to spend their afternoons together, he still drew her close and kissed her but shadows now dulled his gaze. She’d witnessed his stark desperation when Rosie had been injured and after experiencing such deep emotion it was natural he’d now implement damage control. The part of himself he kept locked away wasn’t yet ready to come out into the light.
“Kendall …” Ivy’s quiet voice sounded, “as kind and as gentle as you are, I also know that you are every bit as strong as any cowboy … especially a certain dark-haired and blue-eyed cowboy.”
Kendall stopped stirring and met Ivy’s gaze. So much for keeping her feelings for Brent and their relationship under wraps. She should have known she’d have no hope of following rule number three around Ivy. Rhett’s fiancée was a master of reading people.
She sighed. “Is it that obvious?”
“No, only to me. There’s a new light in your eyes and the only thing that’s changed is you staying out at Fire Weed. Many would put such a look down to you taking a break from living with your father but I know that’s not why you appear so happy … or so troubled.”
Kendall carefully laid the spoon onto the bench. Ivy had read her like a novel.
Ivy left the salad she’d been pouring dressing over, to give Kendall a quick hug. “Sometimes the greatest battles are not won with force but with understanding. And no one understands Brent better than you do.”
Kendall returned her hug. It had been her family’s lucky day when Ivy had come to live in her great-grandparents’ ranch house. The petite, but strong willed, city girl was gorgeous, both inside and out. “Thanks. I’ll remember that.”
Milly again barked as tires crunched on gravel. Kendall quashed a rush of emotion. Brent had arrived.
Ivy reached for the salad bowl and a pair of silver servers. “Time to get this lunch started. Your father would have eaten all of his favorite white bean dip by now.”
Her hands filled with the two iced tea pitchers, Kendall followed Ivy to the front door. The heavy wooden door creaked open. Milly shot outside, her tiny legs pumping as she headed for the barn where their lunch was being held.
Ivy groaned. “See what I mean about it being impossible to keep her still. Rhett assures me she’ll slow down as she gets older, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
Together she and Ivy walked over to the historic barn Rhett had restored. When Rhett had bought the ranch and the foreman’s log cabin, Rose Crown had been abandoned. Now fences stood arrow-straight and black cattle dotted the lush foothills. When Ivy and Rhett were married, the original ranch house that Ivy owned would be rejoined to the land her forefathers had settled.
Kendall watched as Brent helped Ruth out of his truck and then inside the red barn. He reappeared as Ivy and Kendall reached the wagon-wide doors. He was dressed in fitted Wranglers, boots, a crimson shirt and with his dark head bare and Kendall couldn’t stop the flutter in her midriff. He was so gorgeous.
“Hi, Ivy.” He flashed her a white grin. “The table Rhett made looks great in the barn.”
“Yes, it does. He keeps telling me he has hidden talents and as it turns out he does.”
Brent chuckled. “He definitely does have hidden talents. Ask him who holds the record for losing the most number of golf balls in the creek.”
Ivy laughed and in her smile Kendall could see how much the corporate analyst already liked Brent.
Brent stopped before Kendall. “Need a hand?”
For an instant his smile was all blue warmth and then the familiar shutters descended. Instinct told her his reserve was more than just following rule number three to keep their relationship to themselves.
“Thanks.”
She handed him a pitcher and followed him into the barn filled with the delicious scent of a soon-to-be-eaten lunch. Brent headed to the far end of the table to put down his pitcher. Kendall sat her pitcher close to a vase of yellow daisies she’d picked from Ivy’s garden that she’d designed last spring. The snow-white tablecloth was covered in an assortment of dishes filled with fresh salads, corn muffins, devilled eggs and barbecued chicken and steak. Kendall’s stomach rumbled.
She looked down and grinned. She wasn’t the only one hungry. Milly sat close to her feet and stared at her with large amber eyes.
“No you don’t, Miss Milly,” Ivy said, coming over to pick up the Jack Russell. “No more pretending that I never feed you. The size of your stomach tells me someone has already fallen for your puppy-dog eyes.” She turned toward the doorway. “You can go and keep Rusty company in the cabin.”
Ivy walked away and Peta came to stand beside Kendall. Dressed in her customary jeans and western shirt, Peta wore her long blonde hair in a careless ponytail and her face was make-up free. Kendall still didn’t know how her tomboy sister was going to survive being in the bridal party and having to wear a dress and heels.
“Just as well we’re not having lunch in my barn,” Peta said, “because my cows would want all this delicious food instead of their own boring feed.”
Kendall laughed. “I’ve seen what you feed your precious cows and they eat a feast like this every day.” She gazed around. “The barn looks even more tidy than it usually does … I wonder, do you think there’s a reason why we’re having lunch in here today?”
Peta’s brows lifted. “I hope you’re right. There could very well be a wedding in here soon. If I have to wear a dress I’d feel much more comfortable if I was in a barn. Maybe I could even wear my cowgirl boots?”
Kendall grinned. “I don’t like your chances.”
From behind them, her father’s rare laughter boomed. She turned to smile at Ruth who was seated in a comfortable chair beside him. Her father again laughed at something Trinity, a local speech therapist who was sitting opposite him, had said.
“Hello, stranger,” he said, as Kendall approached.
“Hello, stranger yourself, I’ve already seen you today. Twice.”
Her father’s hard expression didn’t alter, but a smile softened his eyes as Kendall gave him a kiss on his cheek before slipping into the spare seat beside Ruth.
“So when are you coming back to Bramble Lane?” he asked.
“Monday, but not for good.” She looked across at Peta as she sat beside their father. “How’s my old room?”
“It’s ready and waiting for whenever you want to come home to the ranch.”
“How come you’re not staying long?” her father asked, voice gruff, “You’re ditching me again?”
Her father’s words might say one thing but his almost-smile said he was fine about being on his own. “Yes, I am ditching you again, but you’ll be far too busy to miss me. Carol Bingley tells me that between your chess games in the park with Henry, your upcoming fly fishing trip and attending Lesley’s book club, you’ve become quite the social butterfly.”
From across the table, Trinity winked at Kendall. Even though there wasn’t yet a ring on Trinity’s slim finger, she and Zane would be the next couple on the town gossip hit-list. “I’m not telling tales but someone also has become quite the regular at the Main Street Diner and has a special table.”
Kendall’s father frowned but his familiar glower didn’t contain any bite. “Don’t tell Kendall such a thing, she won’t cook for me again.”
“That’s right. I might also even ask you to take me out to eat.”
“Now there’s a thought. We could all go out to dinner,” Peta said. “I know, let’s go to the rodeo steak dinner and dance on Main Street this Saturday.” She ignored Stewart’s groan. “Dad, it’s been years since you’ve been and all the money raised goes to a new paediatric wing at the hospital.”
“Maybe,” Stewart said, tone dry, “but if I go I’m there to eat, not to dance.”
Kendall smothered a smile as her sister’s blue eyes gleamed. No nonsense Peta couldn’t resist a challenge. In the past her stubborn will had always led to her and their father clashing but now, after the loss of their mother, their conversations contained more banter than temper.
While her father and Peta debated the merits of dancing, Kendall’s attention strayed to where Rhett, Brent and Trinity’s partner, Zane, had wandered deeper into the barn. It had been the wood from Zane’s barn on Hollyhock Creek Ranch that Rhett had used to make his repairs.
Her gaze clung to Brent’s broad shoulders as he strolled with the other two cowboys. She and Brent hadn’t yet discussed the dinner and dance, but they would go. Ruth had already said she’d like to attend. Hope unfurled within her stomach. Would this be the year that the Copper Mountain Rodeo was the best rodeo ever? Would they finish what they’d started that long ago rodeo when they’d sat side-by-side in the bleachers?
*
The lunch tasted as good as it smelled. Around Brent, conversations hummed, cutlery clinked and laughter sounded. Across the table, his mom took another corn muffin from the plate Kendall offered her.
His mother continued to grow stronger. She took a walk every morning through her new front garden, always stopping for a quiet moment beside Samuel’s tree. In the freshly planted back garden there was now a special wooden bench purchased in memory of their father. Kendall hadn’t only brought the ranch garden to life, she’d also helped return the brightness to his mother’s eyes.
He couldn’t thank Kendall enough. She had a gift for knowing what someone needed almost even before they knew themselves. Every so often her foot would brush his under the table, just to let him know that while she might appear to ignore him, she hadn’t forgotten him. He watched her fill up her father’s empty iced tea glass. Nothing escaped her. In a family of dominant personalities, her quiet kindness and calm unselfishness was the glue that held the Dixons together.
Even in daylight she was like a beacon of light; he couldn’t look away from. Her loose, blonde hair shone, her smooth skin glowed and the blue of her wide eyes matched the simple blue sundress she wore. She ran her fingers through her hair as she brushed it off her face. His grip on his fork tightened. He knew exactly how her silken hair felt as it slid through his fingers and how sweet her full mouth tasted beneath his.
Beside him, Zane leant back in his chair to drape an arm around Trinity’s shoulders. The Zane he remembered was reserved and reticent, but he now made no attempt to mask the love he felt for the woman next to him. Trinity turned her head and smiled, before touching Zane’s cheek.
The clink of metal on glass sounded from the end of the table as Rhett tapped his knife against Ivy’s water glass. As the conversations subsided and everyone looked at Rhett, Ivy curled her small hand around her fiancé’s arm and together they stood. Rhett and Ivy exchanged a look of such tenderness that Brent’s throat ached. All around him was proof dreams could come true. Fear didn’t have to stand in the way of happiness.
Beneath the table, Kendall’s foot brushed his and he realized his yearning must have shown on his face. He reached for his beer and their eyes met. He felt the warmth and intensity of her care and concern right down to his soul. Rhett started speaking. Brent broke eye contact to look toward him.
