A Cowboy's Promise: A Single Mother Cowboy Romance (Pastures of Passion Book 1)

Chapter One

Mia

“Good morning, sir. How can I help you today?” I’m smiling at the tall, broad man who walks into the hotel reception. What he can’t see is that I’m exhausted behind the scenes, that I’m trying my best to be polite.

My phone vibrates in my pocket as I speak, but I ignore it. It’s probably Ellie’s school—they’re the only ones who call me at this time of the day. Or any time, really. I’ll call them back when I go on lunch.

The guest doesn’t seem happy. There’s a grimace on his face, and he’s holding a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. Looks like one of our invoices. This is going to be a long day. I don’t change my expression. I’ve practiced it for years. I’ll pretend like this is the best conversation I’ve ever had.

“I booked a room with a queen bed, and you give me a double!” he shrieks, an octave higher than I expected his voice would be able to go.

“Can I please have your name, sir?” I ask, the robotic response to any shouted introduction.

“Why do you need that?” He slams his fist on the counter along with his answer, making me jump.

One finger is already hovering over the panic button below my desk. I don’t have the energy to deal with any of this. A headache is building right behind my eyes. My phone vibrates again. If the school’s called twice, this must be an emergency.

“I need to confirm your booking, sir,” I reply, refusing to let my voice shake or to look away from his bloated red face. “That’s the only way I can help you.”

“Get your manager,” he says before he lets loose a string of curses.

Now I need to deal with Rachel, too. “Sure.”

I walk back to her office and knock, steeling myself for the nasty welcome I will no doubt get.

“What?” Rachel yells, only worsening my headache as I open the door. She’s got the landline in one hand and is clutching a stack of papers in the other. Looks like I’m not the only one having a bad day.

“There’s a guest who wants to speak with you,” I tell her with a shrug. “He’s refusing to give me his name.”

“Why are you making this my problem?” Rachel snaps, slamming the phone onto its receiver. “Can’t you deal with it yourself?”

My phone starts ringing one more time. That’s enough to convince me that this really is an emergency. I decide to answer it, lifting one finger at Rachel to point out that I’ll be doing so.

“Mrs. Hurst?” The voice on the other end sounds like a teacher. Clearly one who doesn’t know me.

“It’s Miss, actually,” I correct her as Rachel audibly gasps at my audacity.

“Hey, put that down!” she growls, getting up from her desk. “No personal calls at work!”

“Rachel, it’s an emergency,” I answer as calmly as I am able, close to an explosion.

“There’s been an incident with Ellie. She—” I don’t hear the rest of the teacher’s sentence. Rachel grabs the phone from me and ends the call.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Rachel screams, so close to my face that spittle lands on my nose. “Get back behind your desk and deal with that guest!”

The storm that has been brewing in me suddenly changes to a numb sensation that spreads quickly through my limbs. I realize that I don’t have the energy to do this anymore. Not today, not ever.

“You know what, Rachel, no.” I pull the magnetized name tag off my chest, leaving my blouse wrinkled. “You can deal with him, and every other ungrateful beast that walks in here.”

“Excuse me?” She backs off, hand over chest, as if I’ve delivered some shocking news.

“You heard me.” I drop the tag on the floor without hesitation and swing on my heel. I walk out of her office and right past reception, ignoring both Rachel and the man, who’s still yelling for my attention.

Part of me is grateful that I’m free of this after three years of sucking it up. The other part is already thinking about all of the ramifications of this decision. How will I afford Ellie’s school? Our medical costs? The rent?

I ignore those thoughts as I hurry to my old second-hand Toyota. When I get in, I spot Rachel in reception, brown-nosing the guest, who certainly doesn’t deserve it. I shake my head as I start the car and reverse out of the parking lot.

It was the right decision to leave. They’ll find a replacement quickly and treat her just as terribly. Heading to Ellie’s school, I push every intrusive thought to the side. If there’s a real emergency there, I need to focus on it with everything I have left in me.

I pull up in front of the school, already out of breath. Ellie hasn’t ever been in a fight, as far as I know. The only other time they’d called me this insistently was when she developed a fever. I’m not sure which is worse.

Inside the office, the receptionist doesn’t recognize me, and that makes me feel even worse. I’ve missed a lot of events since I’m always stuck at work trying to fill another hole in our budget.

“I’m looking for Ellie Hurst,” I announce. “I’m her mother.”

“Oh, I see.” The receptionist nods, and I’m almost sure I can notice her rolling eyes. She probably thinks that I’m the worst mother in the world. “The principal has been trying to reach you for a while.”

“I’m sorry, really, but I’m here now.” I don’t want to sound rude, but at this point, I can’t help it anymore. “Can I see her?”

“They’re waiting for you.” The receptionist points behind her half-heartedly. The principal’s office. This must be more serious than I thought. Can’t be that she’s ill. If she was, Ellie would be with the nurse. That makes me wonder what she’s done. Has she gotten into a fight or disrespected a teacher or something?

Nervously, I pass the snappy receptionist and start down the hallway. Ahead, the door to the principal’s office looms large, as if ready to swallow me. Today already hasn’t been so great for me. I’m not sure I can handle some major school scandal, too.

My three rapid knocks sound like gongs in my ears as the blood rushes stressfully to my head.

“Please come in.” The voice belongs to Mrs. Heinfeld, a principal scarier than any I met in my own time as a kid. Strange to find someone so terrifying in an elementary school. Pulling myself together, I open the door and step inside.

Ellie is standing with her head down in front of the principal’s desk. Mrs. Heinfeld sits imposingly behind it, while Ellie’s teacher, Miss Merryman, is seated on one of the guest chairs. The principal motions to me to sit down on the other, and I do so without extending a hand in greeting.

The atmosphere in here is tense and imposing, as if Ellie has been found guilty of some felony-level crime. She hurries her way into my lap as soon as I take my seat, wrapping her arms around my neck. That makes me wonder what happened before I got here. Has she been berated this whole time? The thought of it makes my blood boil.

“Mrs. Hurst,” the principal begins, and I hold up a hand to stop her right there.

“Miss,” I insist with confidence in my tone. I won’t allow my marital status to turn me into some kind of martyr. Ellie and I have been fine for years, and we will be all right without a man in the future, too. I have no interest in changing that or throwing her into a world where I bring back a new Mr. Right every week.

“Miss, then.” Mrs. Heinfeld says that with derision, and I’m not surprised. Of course I’m not good enough for her standards. “You have been called here because Ellie instigated a physical altercation with a young boy. He ended up with a cut on his arm that required a Band-Aid after she pushed him to the ground.”

I almost want to ask if she’s serious. That’s barely an injury at all. At the same time, I know I’d be furious if another child started a fight with Ellie in the first place, no matter how minor the injuries. Still, I frown. Ellie’s never been physical with anger in her life.

“Why?” I ask immediately. From the principal’s expression, she probably expected me to start yelling at my daughter right away. Unfortunately for her, I always offer Ellie the chance to explain herself.

“He said that you’re a bad mommy ‘cause I don’t have a daddy,” Ellie says as she buries her head in my shoulder. “You’re not a bad mommy.”

I want to sigh at that. It’s not unexpected that kids will be cruel, but some part of me has always hoped it wouldn’t happen to Ellie. How do I explain this to her? It’s not as simple as telling her it’s water off a duck’s back. This will shape her entire childhood.

Quickly, I realize that I’ve been staring at her, probably turning paler by the second. Clearing my throat, I shift Ellie in my lap so that I can look her in the eye.

“I know that, sweetheart, and so do you,” I start, pushing a stray hair behind her ear. “It doesn’t matter what other people think. You shouldn’t let it bother you. And we definitely don’t fight with other kids, no matter what they say.”

Neither Mrs. Heinfeld nor Miss Merryman look satisfied with my answer, but I don’t care. I won’t punish my daughter for having her feelings hurt.

The rest of the meeting doesn’t go fantastically. Mrs. Heinfeld writes down a warning, reminding me that all of this will be on Ellie’s permanent record, and she’s being suspended for a few days. That’s not so bad. I can save on gas and have Ellie with me. I’ll be home, anyway, fielding angry calls from Rachel and trying to find a new job quickly enough to be able to pay rent.

After the meeting, I bundle Ellie into the car and take her for ice cream. Her mood has already lifted significantly. It’s as if this morning never happened. That’s one of Ellie’s strong points. She always manages to bounce back far faster than I ever could.

I pull up in the parking lot of our apartment complex with a heavy sigh. Ellie notices and stares at me with her brows furrowed into a deep frown.

“You feel bad,” she says as her ice cream drips onto her newly-washed shirt. I won’t take that out on her, but knowing there will be more laundry is only worsening my mood. Still, I smile down at her and wipe a bit of the mess from her cheek.

“Oh, not at all, sweetheart,” I say, undoing her seatbelt and starting to gather my own things. She’s more perceptive than a lot of kids her age, and sometimes I really wish she wasn’t. Ellie shouldn’t be dealing with all of the stress that has landed on my shoulders.

The problem is that I can’t exactly hide from her. It’s always just been the two of us, and that won’t change. At least she doesn’t question me any further. Instead, she waits for me to open the passenger side door and hops down, waiting until I grab everything and lead her upstairs. When we get home, Ellie hurries to her room, leaving me to collapse on the couch with a deep breath.

Everything feels overwhelming, and I’m so worried that I’m shaking. How are we going to keep this apartment when I barely have any savings? It’s almost summer, at least, so I can save on the gas needed to get Ellie to school.

But that’s not going to cover much else, and I won’t even be able to pay rent for more than a month. I’m close to tears, but there’s no time to sit here and cry. I pull myself together and set up my laptop on the kitchen counter, shoving aside everything I didn’t have time to clean up this morning.

“Mommy!” Ellie calls from her room. Trying not to let frustration overtake me, I go to check up on her. She needs to change her clothes. It takes twenty minutes, between giggling and her insistence that she refuses to wear anything blue today.

Finally, I’ve got her focused on a coloring book, and I head back to my laptop to start my job search. In my head, I’m doing the math. I have at most two weeks to get something new or we’ll be in serious trouble.

I start scrolling through listings in town. There’s not much. Either the pay is barebones or they require more experience than I have. It doesn’t matter. I don’t have many options. I apply for everything. Maybe I have to widen the net. We might need to move to another place entirely. That’s not great. I don’t want to uproot Ellie like that. Still, it’s possible we need a fresh start. Somewhere nobody knows us.

As I’m thinking, I spot a listing that finally catches my eye more than the others have. A position for a live-in lodge receptionist on a ranch.The pay is more than I got at the hotel before, and it looks like I’d get to eat at the onsite restaurant. No rent and food included? That’s almost too good to be true. I’d be able to start saving up for Ellie’s college, and she could go to school in the nearby town.

I wouldn’t have to deal with all the stresses of the city, and I could isolate myself whenever I need to. It’s perfect for us.

Deciding to apply, I start filling out the forms, even though I know it’s highly unlikely they’ll even look at my resume twice. It’ll end up in the deleted pile, and I’ll end up at some three-star hotel with another terrible manager.

Once I’m done with the application, I get up to cook dinner. I’ll call it a night after that. I’m exhausted.

It’s about a week later when I really start to panic. I’m watching my pitiful savings dwindle by the day, and I’ve been rejected by at least fifteen different places. Ellie keeps asking why I’m home. I don’t know what to say.

An email comes through on my phone. I’m sure it’s another rejection. My eyes widen when I read the subject line.

“Invitation to interview,” I read aloud, my heart beating quickly and hope finally returning. I can’t help but smile when I realize where it’s from.