Chapter Four
S am left his house early the next morning, irritable and groggy. A certain city girl had haunted his dreams, inspired by the sight of her and that perfect ass in those perfect jeans marching up the steps of the Bramble House. Jeans his fingers still itched to throw somewhere else.
Like over the side of his truck bed.
Stop it. The last thing you need is to go falling for another city girl.
Wasn’t that the truth? It’d been five years since Sasha had packed her things and flown south, and he was still licking his wounds. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t look. He just wished the sight of this particular woman didn’t call to him like it did.
The woman sent to jeopardize his family’s livelihood.
“Well, you look like hell this morning.”
He threw a dark look at Gran, the only other Miles family member who woke as early as him. She stood in the center of the lodge’s kitchen, coffee brewed and breakfast cooking. The aroma of her famous steak and egg breakfast instantly set his stomach to grumbling.
“Went to Grey’s last night, was my turn to be on the lookout for Scooter.”
Nick Johnson, aka Scooter, was an old high school buddy.
He was also a recovering alcoholic with a known tendency to fall off the wagon this time of year.
Not that anyone could really blame him. Sam and the others all agreed they would have taken up drinking, too, if their girl had run off a month before their wedding with a rodeo star passing through the area.
Next week was the ten-year anniversary of the “great departure,” so his friends were all on red alert.
“Was he there?”
“Nope.” Sam grabbed a plate and held it out so Gran could serve him his usual—a steaming cut of steak and two eggs, sunny-side up. “But Natalie Wright was.”
Gran’s spatula stopped in midserve. “Did you talk to her?”
“Had to. Local vultures from the other side of the tracks were practically drooling at the bar rail. Felt like joining her at her booth was the right thing to do.”
Gran must have approved of that answer. Her pan-fried steak resumed its journey to his plate.
“Tell me you didn’t say anything damning.”
Had he? All he could really remember was him trying to come up with every logical reason under the sun as to why that resort shouldn’t be built here and her batting them away like flies. “No one raised their voices, if that’s what you mean. Much.”
“Dammit, Samuel.” Gran swatted a hot pad at his head. “We can’t afford to piss off the one potential ally we have on their side.”
“Ally? Gran, she’s determined to find a way to make this resort work. Nothing I said last night swayed her an inch.”
He dropped his plate onto the family table.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree…
Right, like he was going to let that happen.
“That why you’re so hot and bothered this morning?”
He met his grandmother’s gaze and found amusement there. “I’m not hot and bothered, dammit. I’m… frustrated.”
“Don’t we all know it.” She removed a pan from the stove, collected her half-full coffee mug, and joined him at the table. “High time you find a way to burn off some of that frustration.”
“We are not having this conversation, Gran,” he said, sawing through his steak with more force than necessary.
If he had a dollar for every time she or Gramps or even Madison brought up him needing to get back out there and date, he could have bought himself a new mare by now.
And he’d tried dating, darn it, but there hadn’t been anyone in a two-hundred-mile radius who’d managed spark his interest since Sasha had left.
Not until last night.
What was it about Natalie that had him all out of sorts? Was it because Gramps had teased him about her from the start? That subtle, sexy perfume he’d experienced up close when she tumbled into him? Those curves that begged a man to pull her close and explore each one, thoroughly?
He shoveled food into his mouth rather than admit any of this aloud, then thanked Gran and got the heck out of Dodge.
Sam opted to work alone that day, intent on getting as many repairs done to their easternmost barbed wire fences before the midday sun made it unbearably hot.
Mending fences required concentration to keep from getting torn up in the process, which he’d hoped would help keep Natalie off his mind.
And it did, mostly, all thanks to their meanest, thickest, and most prized bull, Old Stubby.
Sweat trickled down Sam’s back as he paused midday to both appreciate his progress and estimate the remaining needed repairs.
Old Stubby had made one hell of a mess the last time he’d gotten loose.
Pa figured he’d caught wind of one of Gran’s wild berry pies cooling on the windowsill; Gramps suspected it was the call of Miss Petunia, one of the Highland cows being bred at the next ranch over.
Sam didn’t care what it was, so much as he wanted whatever was calling Old Stubby to stop.
Mending barbed wire was one of his least favorite chores.
He was just pulling to a stop before the next section of damaged fencing when Jackson Dean’s “Don’t Come Lookin’” broke through the silence. He glanced at his cell phone’s screen then the clock on his dash before answering the call handsfree.
“Everything okay?” he asked Gran.
“We got a call that Miss Natalie is headed over to the Main Street Diner to meet with the mayor. So, I rounded up my quilting group to be there at the same time. Figure we can listen in on their conversation.”
Sam shook his head. Gran and her group of nosey townies were never to be underestimated when on a fact-finding mission. “So, you need me back at the lodge?”
“No, Norah’s here and can watch over things for me. What I need is a ride into town. You at a good stopping point?”
Sam squinted at the mangled fencing ahead, responsibility warring with weary. “My arm could be twisted. What happened to Gramps? The prunes get to him again?”
“No, the old fool can’t find his teeth. I swear, Samuel, sometimes I think that man loses them on purpose.”
Sam laughed, the sound filling his otherwise empty cab.
It felt good to laugh, something he didn’t do as often as he used to.
But then, it wasn’t always easy to be lighthearted when the woman he’d given his heart to had crushed it like a herd of cattle over grass sprouts in the spring.
“I’ll head back in. Wanted to stop by the Fletcher Law Office and talk to Ren about our lease agreement anyway. ”
Yes, it was probably a long shot, but again, they needed to explore every possible angle if they were going to find a way to block this blasted resort. Ren Fletcher was good at taking all that legal jargon and turning it into nice, plain English. Right now, that was what they all needed.
“I figured you’d say as much, so I took the liberty of calling him earlier,” Gran said.
She was so good at reading his mind. “Said he’d be ready to go over it with us late afternoon.
Probably best that you go, anyway; your grandfather doesn’t always do so well with taking notes.
You can drop me off at the diner on your way. ”
The diner—where Natalie was supposed to be. Did he dare tempt fate by crossing paths with her two days in a row?
At least last night he could honestly say he hadn’t been looking to find her. Sam had thought himself lucky for getting a chance to talk to her away from the larger group. That was mistake number one.
Mistake number two was thinking she’d be a reasonable woman.
She hadn’t been swayed an inch by any of his arguments at Grey’s Saloon.
Perfectly logical, reasonable arguments.
Why was it so darned important that her company drop their foo-foo resort here, anyway?
They had a whole continent to choose from—go set up camp somewhere else.
And while they were at it, they could take their all-too-appealing business representative with them.
His thoughts wandered back to that view of her climbing the Bramble House steps last night, after he’d parked across the street to make sure she got back safely, twirling that business card in his hand.
Part of him wished he could have followed her inside and up to her room, no talking about that damn resort needed.
“Why don’t I hear you throwing that truck into gear yet, son?”
“Sorry, Gran, had to make a note of where I’d be coming back to tomorrow.”
He threw his truck into reverse, almost feeling guilty about the fib. But that little white lie sounded a whole lot better than admitting he was pining for another city girl. Which he shouldn’t be. Time to shut that thinking down before he went and got himself hurt all over again.
Sam made a quick stop at his place to shower and change into a clean set of clothes. No sense in making poor Ren suffer through the scent of working man while they discussed the status of their land lease. He was in and out in under ten minutes, then headed straight for the lodge.
“Thank you, Samuel,” Gran said as he helped her into his truck. “I love your grandfather to the stars and back, but some days it’s a struggle not to wring his wrinkled old neck.”
Sam chuckled as he grabbed a fresh T-shirt from the back seat. “Still no luck finding his dentures, huh?”
“No.” She frowned, her gaze shifting to the windshield. “If they weren’t so outrageously expensive, I’d order him a second pair.”
“So, what—he can’t drive without them in?”
Grans snorted. “Of course he can. But you know your grandfather—he can’t go into town without stopping to talk to every friend he sees. And for that, he wants to have his smile on right.”
She rolled her eyes, but Sam knew it was all an act.
Gran and Gramps loved each other more than any couple he’d ever known.
Even more than his parents, and that was saying something.
Their deep connection was something he’d hoped to develop in his own marriage.
For a time, it seemed to be working. But the longer Sasha was here, the more distant she became.
Some people just weren’t meant to be country folk—a saying he’d refused to believe until he’d seen it for himself. He just wished he’d listened to Gramps from the start.
Up ahead, a jackrabbit bounded across his path.
Sam kept his speed slow and steady as he followed their gravel drive out to the main road, doing his best not to upset nature any more than necessary.
His gaze wandered across the yellowing meadow grasses, past the fence dividing the Flying J from the Nelson property, to the sea of alfalfa his family planted on the leased land.
The sight that usually brought him peace today increased his anxiety.
“We’ll find a way to protect the ranch,” Gran said softly.
Sam nodded. “I’m just not sure that you playing nice with Miss Natalie is going to make that happen.”
As he drove, Gran shared her theory. She was convinced Natalie wasn’t fully on board with the resort, not after their family had brought up the lease. After talking to a few of the town’s elders this morning, they weren’t 100 percent behind the development, either.
“If we get her caught in a moral dilemma, it can work to our favor,” she said as they made it into town. “That is, if you didn’t already ruin our chances.”
Sam frowned as he looped around the block so he could drop Gran off in front of the café. “I told you, we talked, that’s all. Shared a conversation between two grown—”
His thoughts scattered as a familiar backside came into view, hurrying up the sidewalk ahead. Damn, he was really hoping not to see her again so soon. Why had Gramps gone and lost his teeth again today of all days?
“Uh, adults.” Sam paused at the four-way stop, then continued on, hoping to pass by without her noticing. Unfortunately, at the sound of his diesel, she turned in their direction, eyes narrowing with recognition.
Gran offered her a wave then looked to Sam. “Then why is Miss Natalie glaring at your truck?”
Because she’s the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met? “Maybe the sun was in her eyes.”
Gran smacked him on the arm. “The sun, my ass. Next time I tell you to play nice, try harder.” As he reached for his door, she added, “And don’t you dare show your face around the diner until I have time to undo whatever it is you did last night.
Better yet? Go hole up in the Java Café.
I’ll come find you there when I’m done.”
Sam remained in his seat as ordered. He didn’t like Gran getting out of his truck on her own, but he wasn’t stupid enough to go against her wishes.
She gave him one more warning look before turning for the diner.
He waited until she was safely inside before continuing on to find a parking spot.
Hopefully, Ren Fletcher would be able to give their family the first good news they’d had this week.