A Real Cowboy

Chapter 2

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.

The stables held twenty stalls, ten on each side. All the ranch hand horses were housed here as well as several other horses that Cass had for herself and guests. When Lucas walked in, several of the men were saddling up their mounts for the morning chores.

Some of them would be heading out to the pasture to check on the cattle, to make sure none appeared ill and there were no signs of prey that had bothered the herd overnight.

Dusty had disappeared into the tack room, where he would spend most of the morning cleaning and oiling the saddles and harnesses that weren’t in use.

The ranch worked like a well-oiled engine. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do each day. Cass had believed in structure and routine, and all of the men had thrived beneath her rigid system.

It took only minutes for him to saddle up and head out, the sun warm and the smell of sweet spring grass filling his head. Lucky was a strong, fast mount who danced his feet as if eager to go for a run.

Sawyer Quincy opened the gate that led to the pasture for Lucas, and when Lucas had ridden through Sawyer closed the gate once again. Although it was rare for the cattle to come this close to the stables and other outbuildings, it wasn’t unheard of.

Somebody checked the fence line every day, but since the storm that had ravaged the area, trees and large limbs had fallen and continued to fall, sometimes causing a new break in the fencing.

He rode at a slow pace, keeping an eye on the fence while enjoying the freedom and sense of pride he always felt when on the back of his horse and working.

There had been a time in his past when he was certain his future held only two outcomes, jail or death. Cass had changed all that and now she was gone.

Sorrow squeezed his heart as he thought of the sixty-eight-year-old woman who had saved them all. Cass Holiday had been tough, but loving. She’d been fair and had instilled a sense of pride, of belonging and of self-esteem in all of the cowboys who’d served her. He shoved away thoughts of the woman they had buried in the family plot not far from where he rode.

Instead a vision of Nicolette leaped into his head. He’d never felt the kind of instant attraction that he’d felt for her for any other woman in his life. The moment she’d gotten out of the car the night before, something inside him had sizzled with an unusual heat.

He thought of the little nest egg he’d saved up over the years. He’d always known that this life with Cass wouldn’t last forever, and there was a small ranch on the other side of Bitterroot that had been for sale for the past year.

He’d often thought about buying it and beginning to build what Cass had here, but his loyalty to Cass had stopped him from any action in that direction.

Now with Cass gone and the future of the ranch up in the air, maybe it was time for him to go his own way. Still, the idea of leaving the men he’d thought of as his brothers, of walking away from here before he knew what Cassie intended to do, now made the thought of going elsewhere painful.

In his deepest fantasies, when he made his move he hoped there would be a woman by his side, a woman who wanted to build something lasting and meaningful with him. Although he told himself that was his heart’s hope, his head told him not to believe that fantasy, never to trust any woman again and to never give his heart away.

If and when he decided to build a life away from Cass’s ranch, he would be alone, as he’d been for so many years.

Besides, the only woman who had captured his attention for more than a minute recently was definitely a woman who would prefer champagne to cold beer, chiffon to flannel and city lights to the starry Oklahoma skies.

It was almost noon when he finally finished his survey, finding no issues with the fence line. He got off his horse to open the gate and from there he walked Lucky toward the stables.

He’d almost made it to the building when he saw Sammy running toward him, his dark hair gleaming in the sun and a happy smile on his face.

Lucas had a feeling his mother wouldn’t be wearing a happy smile when she saw the filthy condition of what had once been white sneakers on the boy’s feet.

“What are you doing out here?” Lucas asked. He guided Lucky into the stables with Sammy close on his heels.

“Waiting for you.” Sammy watched as Lucas unsaddled Lucky and hung the saddle over a sawhorse, where several others also hung, waiting to be oiled and polished by Dusty. “I was hoping maybe I could eat lunch at the bunkhouse with all you cowboys.”

“Does your mom know you’re out here?” Lucas asked.

Sammy hesitated a moment, giving Lucas his answer. “She and Cassie were making a big salad for lunch and talking about Cassie’s painting and clothes.” He wrinkled up his nose. “They’re boring. I want to be out here with you and learn everything about being a cowboy.”

His blue eyes shone with an eagerness that Lucas remembered feeling the first day he’d arrived here at the ranch. Still, the last thing Lucas wanted was to be pulled into the life of some kid who would certainly be around for only a short period of time.

“Where’s your dad?” Lucas asked, more gruffly than he intended.

Sammy shrugged. “Probably he’s on his yacht. He’s a very busy man. I haven’t seen him since we divorced him two years ago and I didn’t see him much before then.” Again Lucas’s heartstrings were plucked. “So, can I eat lunch at the bunkhouse with you?” Sammy asked eagerly.

Lucas put Lucky into his stall before replying. He stepped outside the stables with Sammy at his side. He was about to tell the kid that he needed to talk to his mother, but at that moment he saw Nicolette hurrying toward them...and she looked like a mad bull who had just seen red.

* * *

Nicolette’s heart felt as if it might beat right out of her chest. For the past fifteen minutes she’d run through the house, calling her son’s name without hearing any response.

Unsure where her son might have wandered, but knowing how vast the ranch was and how unknowledgeable he was about the dangers, she’d become frantic with worry.

Now that she saw him safe and sound with Lucas, her worry turned to anger. “Samuel Ray Kendall,” she yelled as she drew closer to the two.

“Uh-oh,” Sammy said and winced.

Her boy understood that when she called him by his full name he was in big trouble. As he should be, she thought, fully steamed. “Don’t ever leave the house again without telling me,” she exclaimed when she finally reached him. “I’ve been frantic, searching everywhere in the house for you.”

“We were just about to come and find you,” Lucas said. “I found him just a minute ago by the stables.”

Nicolette gazed at her son. “You can’t just run wild around here. You don’t know how dangerous it might be.”

“I just wanted to find Cowboy Lucas and see if I could eat at the bunkhouse dining room,” Sammy replied, looking down at his feet. “I’d rather eat a cowboy lunch than a girlie lunch.”

“If you don’t mind, he can eat lunch with me,” Lucas said.

Sammy begged her with his eyes. “Please, Mom?”

The last thing Nicolette wanted was for her son to forge any real bonds with the cowboys here. She didn’t want his heart broken when they eventually left...and they would leave as soon as Cassie decided it was time to go. But, surely a lunch wouldn’t hurt and she hated to disappoint her son, who had already had a lifetime of disappointments.

“I suppose it would be okay as long as you come right back to the house when you’re finished eating,” she relented.

Lucas touched Sammy on the shoulder. “Why don’t you run ahead and tell Cookie that I said to set an extra plate.”

“Cool,” Sammy replied and took off running toward the building in the distance.

“I don’t want him to be a bother,” she said to Lucas once Sammy was far enough away not to hear her.

“I’ll let you know if he becomes a bother,” Lucas replied. “I asked him where his father was and he told me he was probably on a yacht, that he is a very busy man.” Lucas’s blue eyes gazed at her not just with curiosity, but also with the heat of an interest in her as a woman.

Nicolette felt her cheeks warm. “I divorced my husband two years ago and he probably is on his yacht, or in his penthouse or someplace that is party conducive, because that’s what he likes to do.”

Lucas tilted his head, the cast of the sun and the brim of his hat momentarily hiding his eyes. “You don’t sound bitter about it.”

She smiled and shook her head. “I’m not bitter. It’s a long story and lunch is waiting. Sammy was the best thing that came out of my marriage and he’s all I wanted when I walked away. Samuel got to keep his yacht, his trust fund and whatever else he owned, and I got Sammy, definitely the best part of the deal.”

Lucas leaned his head forward so that she once again got a look at his beautiful blue eyes, and they appeared to be filled with a longing and an admiration that she wasn’t sure she understood.

It unsettled her and she smiled again and took a step backward. “I’m keeping you from lunch.”

He nodded. “I’ll see to it that Sammy gets safely back to the house after eating.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” She turned and hurried away, feeling the heat of his gaze lingering on her. She hadn’t been so attracted to a man since nine years ago when she’d first met Samuel Kendall, and never had two men been more different from each other.

She’d been a naive twenty-one-year-old when she’d met Samuel. He’d been elegant, airbrushed and hair sprayed, but he’d managed to sweep her off her feet with sweet talk and empty promises.

She had a feeling that Lucas Taylor had never made a promise to anyone that he hadn’t kept and that the wind-and-sun scent he carried was just as evocative as the expensive cologne that Samuel had worn.

“I see you found him,” Cassie said as Nicolette stepped up on the porch.

“He wants to eat lunch with Lucas at the bunkhouse.”

“Why is it that every time you say that cowboy’s name your cheeks get pink and your eyes sparkle just a little bit brighter?” Cassie asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nicolette scoffed and pushed open the door to enter the house. She walked through to the kitchen, where she and Cassie had prepared a chicken Caesar salad for lunch.

She sat at the round oak table and Cassie took the seat opposite her. “You know it would be crazy to get attached to any of the men here,” Cassie said.

“I know that.” Nicolette filled her plate with the salad. “I have no intention of getting close to anyone. How did things go this morning with you and Adam?” she asked in an effort to get the conversation off Lucas.

Cassie groaned. “There’s so much to learn. Thankfully Adam pretty much knows everything and can keep things going smoothly. He told me in the last couple of years Aunt Cass had depended on him more and more. I won’t be here long enough to learn all there is to know. I told him I wanted the repair work to be a priority.”

“Do you think he knows you want to sell as soon as possible?”

“I don’t think so. I told him I wanted him to teach me about the bookkeeping and the ordering process and whatever else I should know. Oh, and the big bell that hangs off the front porch? If we ever need help or anything, we ring it and the cowboys will all come running.”

Nicolette raised a brow. “That’s good to know, and it sounds like you and Adam are going to be spending a lot of time together. Adam isn’t too hard to look at, either.”

Cassie took a bite of her salad and washed it down with a sip of iced tea. “You don’t have to worry about me going crazy about any man here. I know where we belong, and this definitely isn’t the place.”

Nicolette stared out the window absently. Her problem was that since her divorce from Samuel, she wasn’t sure where she and Sammy belonged. As much as she loved Cassie, sharing her tiny apartment certainly wasn’t what she wanted for herself and her son forever.

“We need to take the rental car back tomorrow.” Cassie interrupted her thoughts. “I guess we’ll have to have somebody follow us into Bitterroot and bring us back here. Adam told me Aunt Cass has a car here, so we can use it to go back and forth to town once we get rid of the rental.”

“Did you ask Adam if he could follow us tomorrow?” Nicolette asked.

Cassie shook her head, her pale blond hair glistening in the noon sunshine that drifted in through the windows. “I didn’t want to ask him because I think he needs to be here to supervise things. We’ll snag one of the other men in the morning to take care of it.”

Nicolette nodded and focused on her salad. She wondered what Sammy was eating with the cowboys. She hoped none of them took offense to his being there, although she was certain that he was in good hands with Lucas.

Funny how she’d known the tall, handsome cowboy for only fewer than twenty-four hours and yet she trusted him without question with the safety of her son. She hadn’t ever trusted Samuel completely with their son’s safety.

There was just something strong, something solid about Lucas Taylor that invited trust. She didn’t want to think about the other qualities he possessed that had instantly sparked a physical desire.

As they ate, Cassie talked about new plans for the store, trying her hand at painting landscapes instead of cityscapes and the idea of a new apartment where the three of them could comfortably cohabitate when they returned to New York City.

Nicolette didn’t want to live with her best friend for the rest of her life. She knew she had to somehow figure out a plan of action that would gain her enough money to support herself and her son.

She also knew that there would probably never be a clothing line with her name on it. The idea that she could be a fashion designer with her own label had been born when she’d been the bored, neglected wife of a wealthy man.

Cassie had nurtured the idea because it worked with the idea of her store and her identity as a creative artist who surrounded herself with other creative people. The problem was since her divorce Nicolette hadn’t managed to figure out exactly what she wanted to do and where exactly she belonged.

After lunch Cassie disappeared into her bedroom and Nicolette sat on the back porch to watch for Sammy. A faint breeze blew the scent of grass and hay that was both novel and pleasant. In the distance she could see cows in the pasture, and she heard the rustle of leaves in the trees.

For a few minutes she felt completely at peace. Her thoughts didn’t linger on the painful past, or jump ahead to worry about the future. She was just in the moment, enjoying the lack of traffic noise and the press of people at a stoplight, the feeling that you were always one step behind everyone else in the world.

She sat up straighter upon seeing Sammy in the distance, Lucas by his side. She watched as the two of them headed in her direction and she tried not to admire the confidence and easy roll of Lucas’s hips with each step.

She couldn’t help but notice that Sammy appeared taller, more grown up, as he tried to match Lucas stride for stride.

They got halfway to the house and then Lucas stopped and raised a hand to her. Sammy broke into a run and Nicolette felt a faint disappointment as she realized Lucas didn’t intend to escort him all the way home.