Learning To Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series:Book 1) (6 page)

             
“I plead the fifth,” he said simply, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair.

             
“I see. Well, there you have it.”

             
“No, that only explains how you came to be on the dating site in the first place. Whatever made you decide to pack up and leave New Jersey?”

             
“Have you ever been to New Jersey? If you had, you wouldn’t have to ask!” she answered teasingly. “But seriously, I was in a dead-end job, keeping the books for a small company, I had a sister to take care of, a boyfriend to get rid of, and an apartment that is literally smaller than this office. I hadn’t done so well for myself up to that point, so I thought, ‘Why not? I should go meet this guy and see where it takes me because it can’t take me anywhere worse than I’ve already been.’”

             
“There is a business matter to discuss,” Bernard continued, his voice growing serious. “I have arranged for a parcel of land that neighbors Carson Hill Ranch to be put in your name as part of our arrangement. This piece is small, only a couple hundred acres or so, but it would be yours outright, regardless of your marital status. Your husband cannot sell it or develop it, not without your permission. If you decide not to go through with the wedding, I would sell it off. But if you do get married, it is your property, regardless of what the future holds.”

             
Miranda sat up straighter, watching the man carefully. How was this possible? She’d practically been chased from Newark by her circumstances and now, this man was going to make her a property owner? She used to struggle to pay the rent on a one-bedroom fifth floor walk-up, how was it that she would own a small ranch?

             
“As for your duties here, of course, there will be some assisting within the house, probably with meal times and especially with holiday events. My wife used to make the biggest fuss at the holidays, and we really haven’t celebrated all that much in the past few years. And then, I have two young sons who could use a firm tutor, and all of us could use a woman’s touch around here when it comes to our manners. Someone to see to it that we actually follow through with Bible study and prayer times would be helpful, too, if you’re religious at all. It used to be really important to my wife.” Bernard moved some papers around on his desk as Miranda sat numbly listening to the list of her duties. It was a far cry from helping a homesteader pull a plow, that was for sure, but it was also no worse than filing papers from nine-to-five as a creepy boss tried to look down her blouse.

             
When she was dismissed, Miranda felt hopeful for the first time since climbing on that bus. This might actually work after all, especially with the very generous gift of her very own land. She felt lighter than she had in days.

             
So why did Casey Carson have to go and ruin that feeling, just by walking in the door?

             
Casey stopped short when he saw Miranda standing at the bottom of the staircase, one delicate hand on the gleaming wooden handrail.
Why in the hell did Dad have to go and bring her here?
he thought sourly.
This ranch is no place for a lady, especially not one dressed like that. She’ll ruin her clothes just by walking through a doorway, let alone stepping foot out on the farm.
He nodded curtly and kept walking, a small part of his mind aware that she was watching him go.

             
There was no point in making nice with her, especially when Casey had every intention of putting off this wedding idea of his father’s for as long as possible. Long enough, hopefully, that she’d get tired of waiting and head back to wherever it was his father had found her. Ladies like her didn’t belong out here, especially not ones who made hungry field hands who’d been up working since before dawn stand when she entered a room and eat with their elbows off the table. Meals weren’t about social niceties, they were about getting enough food into you to hold you until the next meal, with hours and hours of back-breaking, sometimes life-threatening, work in between.

             
But there was one thing Casey knew a city girl could do for this ranch, and that was give Bernard something to do. The old man was really feeling the strain of being cooped up inside his own house, a house that he helped build with his own two hands in his younger days. There aren’t many people on this planet who could have done what Bernard Carson had accomplished; if he wanted to spend his retired days being fawned over by a delicate daughter-in-law and bouncing grandbabies on his knee, that was not too much to ask after the decades of hard work he’d put into the ranch. And that work was all going to be left to his sons. Maybe it wasn’t too much to ask that those sons show some gratitude by leaving the man a family legacy.

             
Casey shook off the thought and returned to the tack room to saddle his horse. He had fifty miles to cover before lunch break, and he was doing it on only a couple hours’ sleep, thanks to that frilly girl and her stupid suitcases. Casey couldn’t believe his father actually made him go back out in the dark and retrieve them, like they wouldn’t have still been sitting there in the morning. It was no concern of his if she had to wear the same clothes two days in a row. Hell, half the men out here only owned two shirts and they wore them for a solid week at a time.

             
“Well, look who’s able to walk around today,” Jack called out with a leer in Casey’s direction. “I’d a thought you wouldn’t be able to get outta bed today, what with that pretty little woman of yours keepin’ you up all night.”

             
“Close your mouth, Jack. You and I don’t have anything to say about that. Besides, she’s not my wife and I didn’t sleep with her.” Casey kept walking toward his horse, reaching down the brush from where it hung on a nail inside the barn. He began scrubbing down his horse’s flanks, readying it for the saddle for the long morning ride.

             
“Well, hell, if you ain’t got her in the bed her yet, I’m happy to step in, get her all ready for ya,” Jack offered spitefully, laughing with some of the other men working among the stalls.

             
Casey balled both fists and stomped in Jack’s direction, suddenly not too proud to beat a man who had to be at least fifty years old. For his part, Jack threw both hands in the air in surrender and took a step back.

             
“Don’t go gettin’ defensive now, young ‘un, I’d hate to have to put you in your place in front of all these men. Remember, you might be up for ownin’ this ranch one day, and when that day comes, you’re gonna need ranch hands who are loyal to you. You don’t wanna go pissin’ on the men who are gonna care for your cattle and drive your herd, or accidents could happen,” Jack hinted through clenched teeth.

             
“Any ‘accident’ that happens around here is going to involve your head under some stampeding hooves. You’re not the only man who knows how to spook a horse until it throws its rider,” Casey whispered in Jack’s face, reminding the foreman of the suspicious death of a new ranch hand last year, his accusation thick in his words. “And ‘that woman’ is my future wife. You don’t touch her, you don’t look at her, and you sure as hell don’t talk about her, to me or to any other man. If you can’t remember that order, you’re going to find yourself about one hundred miles out into the desert without so much a hat to swat the flies with. I swear to God, I will leave your carcass out there for the coyotes to tear in two.”

             
Casey shoved Jack backward onto a hay bale with both hands and turned in the other direction, picking up his brush and resuming his animal’s care while watching Jack through squinted eyes. Jack slunk away to lick his ego’s wounds, glaring at Casey the entire time.

             
“I told you before, that one’s dangerous,” Carey said, coming up behind Casey. “Don’t go making an enemy of him, or there’s no telling what could happen out on the range one day.”

             
“I’m going to speak to Dad tonight. That man has to go. He does nothing around here except cause trouble. He may have been a big help to Dad a few decades ago, but now…I’m not so sure.”

             
“You’re right. And by the way, when did you suddenly take such a liking to the little missus Dad picked out? I heard you call her your ‘future wife.’ So does that mean you’re going through with it?” Carey asked, turning away from the group of men lingering among the horses to avoid embarrassing Casey.

             
“It doesn’t seem like I have a whole lot of choice in the matter,” Casey answered, sighing angrily as he cinched the girth on his saddle and buckled it, looping the long leather strap to keep it from dragging beneath his horse. “She’s here, isn’t she? And even if it’s not my plan, I guess even I have to admit the thought of someone spending her day sitting around on the computer or playing on Facebook or whatever the hell it is girls like her do all day, is less than ideal. But spending it inside with Dad and keeping him company…I guess I can sort of admit that it wouldn’t be a horrible thing.”

             
“Whew, I’m glad you see it that way. Watching Dad get up on a horse and try to ride with the herd is enough to stop my heart. If he had someone in the house to keep him company and play Scrabble or something with him, maybe he’d leave this work to us. And besides, I’m sure you could have done worse.”

             
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Casey demanded.

             
“Well, she seems smart, and polite, and she sure isn’t ugly. Maybe it’s like Dad said, you get to know each other and you treat each other nice, then next thing you know, you’re in love. Or something like that.”

             
“Oh, really? Well, let’s see if you’re singing that same tune when it’s
your
turn!” Casey argued, punching Carey in the shoulder. “Maybe I found the only good looking, good smelling woman in the whole country! I bet the next online ad Dad runs brings us a whole horde of one-legged, cross-eyed girls, who smell like turnips and fart during meals!” He ducked Carey’s playful swat at his head, and succeeded in losing his hat in the scuffle. The brothers tugged and shoved like they had when they were children, stopping only at the sound of static and a scratchy voice coming through the walkie-talkie attached to Carey’s belt. It was followed only a minute or two later by hoof beats tearing into the dirt pen surrounding the barn.

             
“Hey guys! C’mon, there’s a whole pack of coyotes heading toward the creek bed, and we have the Aubrac herd grazing down there now!” The hand who’d ridden in to tell them the news wheeled his horse around and headed back in the direction he’d come from, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him in his haste. Carey and Casey mounted their horses after pulling their shotguns down from the pegs inside the barn door.

             
The brothers and several other hands tore out across the ranch in the direction of the creek bed, quickly overtaking the hand who’d reported the sighting. It wasn’t long before the stench of coyote urine, where the villains had marked their claim, rose up and filled their nostrils, agitating the horses with the accompanying scent of danger. The four-legged murderers came into view, some of the pack driving straight toward the herd, others circling around to come in at the cows from the other side.

             
“We can’t head them off. We’re gonna have to take them down,” one of the ranch hands said, coming up beside Carey and Casey and leaning over his saddle to catch his breath.

             
“He’s right, Casey,” Carey agreed. “They’re in too far. If we go charging in there after them, we’re just as likely to cause the herd to stampede. They’ll already be panicked because of the coyotes, and six horses barreling in there will be too much for them to handle.”

             
“We can’t go firing into the herd, either. You guys take out the ones heading toward them on this side, Thomas and I will ride around the other flank and try to reach the ones heading for the far bank.” Casey nodded at one of their crew and together, they took off to the left, parallel to the creek, where the herd obliviously stood grazing and drinking from the gently moving water. Casey spurred his horse on, letting his hat fly off and hang from around his neck by its leather chord. They cut through the water, sending a wall of spray from their horses’ hooves up on either side, cutting off their view of the aggressive scavengers for a moment.

             
When they emerged from the creek, several of the coyotes were already underfoot and yelping, scrambling to get away from the thick, deadly hooves coming down around on either side of them. At this range, Casey’s shotgun would be no use, so he drew his revolver and took aim at the closest pack member, firing off a round that caught the animal right behind its front shoulder and directly into its rib cage. For his part, Thomas took out two of the larger animals as they lunged at the creek, directly in front of a heifer that startled at their sudden movement and swam toward the middle of the creek.

             
After shooting another coyote as it attempted to intercept a calf, Casey felt an odd tug at his boot and looked down to see a tan and grey coyote nipping at his boot, jumping at horse’s flank. The sudden scrape of teeth against hide sent Casey’s horse rearing up, throwing him to the ground, knocking the breath from his burning lungs. His head connected with the rocks lining the creek bed, sending a throbbing ache through his skull that nearly blinded him. A sickening crunch sounded as pain shot up Casey’s leg, his horse having stomped on his booted ankle.

             
As Casey writhed on the ground, a low moan escaping his parched mouth, he was blinded by the light of the sun directly overhead. He was startled when a face came into view, blocking out the light but backlit so as to almost be unrecognizable.

             
Almost.

             
But there was no mistaking the ugly, scarred face of Jack, the ranch foreman.

             
He leaned over Casey and said, “I told you accidents happen.” Just then, the sound of a gunshot sounded so close to Casey, that for a moment, he couldn’t find the source of it. An unfamiliar scream sounded, then went silent. Jack laughed over Casey’s twisted, agonized face once more, then a boot kick to Casey’s head made everything go dark.