Chapter 9
NINE
CORD
Changing My Pace
I can’t hide from the fact that we have a problem any longer as I stare at the meager collection of last year’s rodeo kit. It’s a hell of a lot smaller than it should be.
“You’re right. They aren’t here.” I tap my hat against my leg. “The stadium seating either never made it back, or it’s been stolen. You’ve put the order in, right?”
“As soon as we spoke about this last time.” West’s voice holds a sharp edge.
“When we spoke last time” is putting that one-sided conversation bluntly—the time he burst into my kitchen when I had Lanie in my arms and he refused flat out to acknowledge she existed.
And still won’t.
“I’m not brushing this off. Do you remember stacking the rest, afterward?” I searched the barn, but there are only so many places to hide forty-eight pieces of metal fencing.
“No,” West admits. “But that time of year is—”
“Insane,” I finish for him. “Okay. Is anything else missing?”
West jerks his head. “Not yet.”
Fuck. Which means I’ve missed a shit ton and have a whole lot of catching up to do. I work my hand along the brim of my hat at the risk of feathering the edge. “Objection noted.”
West turns away, heading out of the barn.
I call him back. “Listen, Lanie is coming up to stay for a bit. Later in the week.” I pause, gauge the chances of him walking out on me.
If he does, I won’t see him for months. That’s happened more than once in the last few years, usually when a situation is more than he can deal with. “Maybe tomorrow.”
Still no reaction.
“I’m not sure what will happen, but she’s my priority.”
“Got it.” West cuts his words short.
My foreman and best friend might not be happy with my choices, but she’s my girl, and it’s my damn ranch. “Be civil to her. She’s not what you think.”
West says nothing as he strides out of the barn, his objection to my life choices loud in his silence.
I stand in the quiet of the barn, count backward from ten, and follow him outside. Today is not the day to host a showdown with the man I’ve worked shoulder to shoulder with for thousands of hours, but I get the feeling it’s coming.
And it won’t be over a pretty girl or stolen stadium seating.
As I head back to Coyote Falls from a quick stop into Valiant Peak for a supply run—neither Billy nor Tripp being where they were supposed to be—Lanie’s announcement about Alaska lances through me like a physical wound.
Sure, I can fund her research there, but selfishly, I don’t want to when it will take her away from me.
The grant might do that anyway. So I opt for the next best choice: find her what she needs on my own land.
My personal contingent of drones is already fitted out with infrared and thermal scanners to track my livestock, and it strikes me they should suit her needs as well as they have mine.
If I can use the tech to hunt for a pack Lanie can study over their territory somewhere at the back of Coyote Falls’ land without being invasive, that could solve this. If I have what she wants, maybe I can convince her to stay. Yes, it’s selfish. But if it achieves her ends as well as mine…
On a different front, both her concerns and West’s bother me.
My foreman’s, because I can’t seem to convince him that Lanie’s intentions have nothing to do with dollar signs, and Lanie’s, because I need to be sure she wants to stay with me.
If that speaks to some deep-seated abandonment issues, then so be it.
That last one hurts more than anything else, though I’ve only known her for a short period. I’m determined to work the kinks out before the Invitational and spend the time afterward convincing her that Coyote Falls is the right place for her.
It’s not just because of the undeniable pull between us.
The chemistry when we touch is ridiculous.
I can barely keep my hands to myself around her.
But when she’s near me, I feel something I haven’t had since before I left for college, when everything in my life that I thought would last forever fell apart.
Lanie Parker feels like home. And that scares the shit out of me.
The strange nomad of a scientist makes me want to give up the isolation I’ve worked so damn hard for these last years.
And I know that the whirlwind of whatever it is we’ve started isn’t one-sided.
How she leans into me when we’re together…
it’s an instant echo response of how I feel for her.
I’m confident of that. She’s so different from the sort of one-night women I’ve sought out in the past. Most of my previous affairs have been short, exactly as I planned them, which is what Winnie scared the shit out of her with, telling tales of buckle-bunny exploits that I used as a strategy for personal protection.
A weekend here or there, fake-as-fuck girls with gold in their eyes.
If they didn’t have it when they arrived, they certainly did by the time they left.
When the rodeo ended, all that remained was the bitter tang of failure I covered with cleaning up in the wake of the event.
Battling the constant calls after the fact grew exhausting, despite setting clear expectations early on.
But everything about my girl is different. The need to have her beside me is almost a compulsion. An obsession I don’t want to fight. A craving for the girl I need in my bed. Hell, anywhere on Coyote land will do.
Maybe West is right. Maybe that should be terrifying, even if he hasn’t said it outright.
Maybe she’s worth the risk.
My phone vibrates. I smile as I read over her message twice.
LANIE
Leaving now. Promise I’m not flaking on you.
CORD
Take your time, beautiful. Coyote Falls isn’t going anywhere.
And neither am I. West can learn to build a little trust. After all, she’s already stolen a decent slice of my heart.
The rest is waiting right here for her to come and claim.
My shirt sticks to a patch of sweat forming on my back as I haul a rope over the last load of the day for Dallas and slap the side of the truck with my gloved hand. “You’re good to go.”
Dallas waves at me from the driver’s seat. “I’ll see you next week. Stayin’ in Valiant Peak. Keep outta trouble until this thing is over, all right?” he calls over the truck’s engine noise.
I frown, casting West a quick look as he manages Tripp and a few of the rowdier boys for the afternoon jobs.
His eyes narrow, but he just shrugs. We’ve barely spoken in the last few hours.
I suspect that when Lanie arrives on Coyote Falls land, he’ll be uncomfortable.
But then, he has his own demons to battle.
I jog up to the truck’s cab, ignoring West’s glare at my salt- and dirt-encrusted back. “You’re not staying here this week? Have we been that rough on you?” I joke lightly.
Dallas scratches his salt-and-pepper head. “Nah. I met a pretty thing in town. Thought I might stay with her before you lot make a hash of things once everyone starts to arrive and really fucks with my peace, you know?”
I grin at him. “Seriously? I thought you were a lone wolf forever.” I hold out my hand.
Dallas clasps it in a rough shake. “Take care of yourself, Cord. Make sure the boys behave. Don’t let them run over you.” His eyes hold a warning he doesn’t say.
“I’ve got West for that.”
He throws me a hard look. “I’m talking about West, son.” Shaking his head and muttering about overindulged ranchers while I laugh at him, he backs the truck out of the yard and heads toward the road.
I watch him leave, studying the load tied to the back.
I made the decision to shift half of the rodeo setup away from Coyote Falls in the event West’s gut is right.
What I know is right. The problem is that I don’t know how to fix what I can’t prove but only suspect for now…
and the who is the part that’s missing in my partial theory.
A soft footfall that belies his bulk announces the other man I need, but then, I don’t think he’s trying to hide, exactly.
“You gonna be okay with Lanie being here?” I ask West without looking at him. The mountains behind the house blend with the fading light until they’re indistinguishable from the dusky sky.
He steps up beside me, slugging water from a bottle. Grit coats his face and half his neck. Hell, I probably don’t look much better.
“You seem sure about her.” He rolls a shoulder, capping the bottle, and tosses it onto the back of an ancient farm pickup beside me. “I’m not here to judge.”
I let out a snort. “You’ve done a fucking stellar job of that.”
He folds his arms, staring out at the grasslands. The odd cow still bears an occasional paint splotch from paintball Sally’s mishits during out previous round with Billy. “I want a good girl for you, man. Quit the bunny habit.”
“What, you want full rein with them?” I laugh outright. Easing the pressure between us feels good.
West doesn’t shift, keeping his same stoic facade. “You know I won’t touch those girls. You know that.”
His attention rides heavy on me as I turn back to watch Dallas’s speck of a truck head away from Coyote Falls.
“Because of money.” I let the brief words that define me fall between us, brittle and staid.
West, as usual, won’t have a bar of my attitude. “Because of money. Do you even count it anymore?”
“I’m gifting it all to you. You can have my worries.”
He holds his hands up, retreating. “Hell, no. I’ve seen what it’s done to you.
Out here, I’ve got it good. Let me work.
Wake up, eat, shit, and sweat. Maybe shower.
Do it over again tomorrow. That’s all I want out of life.
All I had before. You, Rand? You’re built different.
You pretend your money created this place, but it was you, and me, and a hell of a lot of hard work. ”
“And bruises.” I rub the back of my neck, remembering. “I could barely hammer straight.”
“Yeah, you were a regular Lightning Jack back then. But we learned. Did it together.”