Cowboy Comes Back / The Cowboy's Convenient Bride: Cowboy Comes Back / The Cowboy's Convenient Bride

“That herd is in fine shape. Not too big, not too small. The range is holding up well.” Which was why they had relocated the mustangs to that particular region after a devastating fire two years ago. It had turned out to be a wise decision.

“There’s some question about that.”

Libby raised her eyebrows. This was the first she’d heard of a problem with that range. She was about to say so when Ellen clipped out, “Those are all the questions I have. For now.”

“Fine.” Libby headed for the door. She had questions now, but she wasn’t going to ask them of Ellen. She would gather more information and find out what her boss was getting at first.

KADE HAD KNOWN better than to use his dad’s ancient Chevy truck when he made a dump run Friday afternoon, but it carried more trash than his own short-bed truck and he’d felt like driving the old beast again. Besides which, it needed the carbon blown out of the engine, and he was in a mood to do just that.

Unfortunately, on the way back from the dump, he blew more than carbon. If he wasn’t mistaken, he’d just blown a rod.

Kade got out of the truck and lifted the heavy hood, propping it open as heat rolled off the engine. Crap. Now he had a walk ahead of him, because his phone was in the pocket of the jeans he’d changed out of prior to loading the trash. Even if he’d had his phone, however, who would he have called? He didn’t have anyone’s number—except for Libby’s landline, which he still knew by heart. Wouldn’t be calling Libby, that was for sure.

A rooster tail of dust appeared down the road where it hooked onto the paved state highway, and Kade felt a small surge of hope. Maybe he could catch a ride, take advantage of his status as a washed-up minor celebrity.

As the vehicle neared, though, he realized he’d have no such luck. It was Jason Ross.

After their exchange in the hardware store Kade fully expected Jason to drive on by, but instead he pulled to a stop on the opposite side of the road and rolled down his window.

“You appear to have a situation,” he said in a flat voice.

“What’s new?” Kade asked, irritated. He didn’t need people stopping by and pointing out the obvious. He was about to say words to that effect when Jason asked, “You want a lift?”

The words came out grudgingly, but Kade figured this was no time to resent the less-than-enthusiastic delivery of an invitation. Not unless he wanted to walk four miles in old cowboy boots. “I’d appreciate it.”

“Hop in.”

Kade got into the passenger side of Jason’s truck, something he’d done a couple of thousand times during high school. His old man had rarely let him drive the very truck he was now leaving by the side of the road, but Jason had always had wheels and been happy to share. Back then Libby was usually sitting between them wherever they went, whether it was to a party, on a hunting trip or to a rodeo. Probably a good thing she wasn’t there now, Kade reflected, since it would put the odds at two against one. When push came to shove, Jason would side with Lib.

“Are you going to call Menace?” Jason asked.

“I don’t think I’ll have it fixed. I may just tow it home, then sell it as is with the ranch.” Which brought another thought to mind. He cast Jason a sideways glance. “Cal Johnson told me your wife’s family is in ranch and farm real estate.”

Jason nodded without taking his eyes off the road. “Yeah, they are.”

“Would it be worth my while to call them? About my place, I mean.” Kade was probably pushing things, but he felt certain Jason would set him straight if he was. “I had Marvin look it over, but … he doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”

Jason actually smiled. “Well, Marvin’s only had his shingle out for a few months now, and I don’t think he’s made too many sales.”

“So what about your in-laws?”

“They pretty much stick to big-money deals. And if they did buy your ranch, they’d probably chop it into lots. It’s the way they do business.”

Kade shrugged. “If they can sell the lots, more power to them. I don’t care what happens to the ranch once I’m gone.” No truer words had ever been spoken. Kade couldn’t wait to unload the place, along with the memories, to move on, start over.

“Maybe your neighbors care.”

“I’m not trying to screw my neighbors, but I’ve got to sell and I’ve got to get as much out of it as I can. I had some trouble with the IRS.”

“I heard.” Jason turned the corner into Kade’s driveway, then pulled to a stop next to the barn. He shifted in his seat to face Kade. “You, uh, might talk to Kira. My wife. She and her sister have their own real-estate business. Kira handles small ranch sales in Nevada and her sister takes care of those up in Idaho.”

“After talking to you in the hardware store, I didn’t think you wanted me hanging around your womenfolk.”

“Yeah.” There was a touch of chagrin in Jason’s expression. “I’ve been thinking. What happens between you and Libby isn’t any of my business. It’s just that … well, I don’t want to see her—” he hesitated “—like she was.”

“For that to happen, she’d probably have to stop hating me, and I don’t see that on the horizon.”

“Good point.”

“Yeah,” Kade said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. “So, do you think your wife could stop by and take a look at the ranch and give me some advice on how to make it most salable?”

“I’ll have her call you. There’s a pen in the console. Write your number on something.”

Kade wrote his cell number on the back of a receipt. “Thanks,” he said as he handed the paper to Jason.

“No problem.”

And it sounded as if he might actually mean it.

KADE HAD JUST entered the trailer when his cell phone rang. Maddie’s name appeared on the screen and he picked up immediately. School was barely out—Maddie never called this early, before her homework was done.

“Dad, Mom says that if I visit you, I can’t go to horse camp!” She sounded both angry and distressed.

Thanks, Jillian. “Honey—”

“Shandy gets to go, Dad, and we wanted to share a bunk bed and everything.”

“Maddie, we’ll work something out.” Riding horses with Dad wasn’t going to compete with riding horses and sharing a bunk bed with her best friend. “Could I talk to your mom?”

Maddie instantly yelled for Jillian, holding the phone close enough so that Kade winced at the volume.

“Well, I’m the bad guy,” he said as soon as his ex said hello, “which isn’t fair, Jill, because all I want is what I’m supposed to get according to our agreement. Thanks a lot.”

“I thought that you of all people would want Maddie to have this experience,” Jillian said primly.

“I want my time with my daughter.”

“Then why did you move to Otto?”

“You know why.”

Jillian’s voice dropped as she said, “Yes. And if you remember I warned you about Dylan Smith. I told you I thought something about him was off. But no. You said he was a friend and doing a great job handling your money.”

“Damn it, this isn’t about my accountant or my stupidity or anything else. I paid for that mistake.” And several others. “I’m fixing it the quickest way I can. And meanwhile, I want to see my kid.”

“Fine. I’ll tell her.”

Thus making him the bad guy. She’d set him up well on this one. Maddie would come for the summer. And she might even have some fun. But she’d be thinking about what she was missing, and Shandy would have stories to tell. Oh, yeah. Kade couldn’t win here.

“Don’t. But we will work something out. If not, I honestly am seeing a lawyer.”

“Don’t threaten me, Kade.”

“Then follow the agreement. What you did this time. We agreed not to play Maddie as a pawn against each other.”

“I’m not doing that! I’m just trying to keep her life stable.”

“By shutting me out?” Kade asked quietly. There was a long silence.

“I’m her dad, Jill. Her real dad. She has a right to know me and I have a right to know her. And I’m serious about the lawyer.”

“I believe you.”

“Let me talk to Maddie.”

Kade told Maddie she’d be going to horse camp and that she could spend a couple of weeks with him in June and August—which was about all the time she had after school ended and before it started again. Not the best solution, but one that would work. For Maddie, anyway.

By the time Kade hung up, his daughter was happy again, and he was wavering between feeling good that he’d made everything all right with her, and depressed because he’d really wanted them to spend more time together during the summer.

LIBBY GOT HOME from work mentally spent. It was exhausting to hold both her tongue and her temper for ten hours. That woman had to go.

After finishing with Libby, Ellen had browbeaten both Stephen and Fred. Fred didn’t care, but Stephen had come back to the office looking like a whipped pup. The only positive note was that they were about to have a four-day break from the Ellen regime while she attended a state conference.

“I tell you,” Fred had grumbled, rubbing a hand over the gray bristles on top of his head, “one of us needs to go along and keep a rein on her. Who knows what kind of lies she’ll tell or what she’ll promise to do?”

But Ellen wasn’t allowing anyone to go—probably for the same reasons that Fred had suggested.

The more Libby thought about it, the more certain it seemed that Ellen was up to something—and it probably involved accumulating political support. Ellen didn’t so much want to do a competent job as a showy job, one that would get her the promotion she wanted as she climbed government ranks. It ticked Libby off that in order to better her own position, Ellen would probably do things that were actually detrimental to the area but looked great on paper. And there wasn’t much Libby could do about it. But what she could do, she would.

Libby drove up to her house and instantly knew something was wrong when the Aussies came shooting out of the pasture, instead of appearing from the porch. She parked and jumped out of the truck, running toward the pasture. There at the far end she could see that one of her horses was down. Colic? If so, she had to act fast. She felt in her pocket for her phone, then realized it was back in the truck. She didn’t slow down.

It wasn’t colic.

Her best gelding, Cooper, was on his back with his feet in the air, entangled in strands of smooth wire fencing, his sides heaving as he struggled to breathe. It looked as if he’d rolled into the fence while taking a dust bath, got his feet caught in the wire and then panicked. His eyes showed white as Libby approached. She quickly assessed the situation and then raced back to the house, the dogs at her heels. She needed wire cutters and she needed help.

The vet was on speed dial, but when she hit Stan’s number the answering service came on, telling her he was away for the week and to contact his colleague, Sam Hyatt, in Wesley. Libby didn’t have time to wait for Sam to drive down from Wesley.

She hit Jason’s number. He answered immediately and she blurted out her story.

“Lib, I’m in Elko,” he said when she paused to take a breath.

Libby cursed, squeezing her eyes shut against tears of frustration. “I’ll call Menace.” She couldn’t think of anything else to do.

There was no sound on the other end of the line for a few tense seconds, then Jason said, “Call Kade. He’s close and he knows horses.”

Libby’s eyes snapped open. “Are you kidding?”

“He can get there fast and he’ll be way more help than anyone else near your place. Especially Menace.”

“I don’t have Kade’s number.”

“He just gave it to me. Hold on a sec.” When Jason gave her the number, she hung up, repeating the digits over and over until she’d punched them into the keypad. Kade answered on the second ring.

“It’s Libby,” she said without hesitation. “I have a horse down. I need help.”

“Should I bring anything?”

“Wire cutters. Big ones. I’ll be at the far end of the field.”

The phone went dead and Libby grabbed her vet kit and headed out to where Cooper was struggling. She started working on the tautly stretched wire, trying to cut it with the only cutters she had at hand, but they were too small for the job. She needed her fencing pliers, wherever they might be.

Cooper’s breathing was ragged, but Libby couldn’t get the wire loose, much less get him back onto his side so that he could breathe better. She was frantically hacking away when she heard Kade speak behind her.

“Let me.”

Libby backed off, letting him crouch down to use his cutters. He did live nearby, but he must have driven ninety miles an hour to get there that fast.

“Watch it,” he said as he squeezed the handles. After the first wire popped, zinging wildly, he cut the second. The horse heaved, making the ends of a third wire, which was still wrapped around his hind leg, bounce.

“Damn,” Kade murmured as he saw how tightly it was wound, cutting the animal’s flesh.

He snapped the last wire, then started unwrapping it as Libby held the horse’s head steady.

“I did everything I could to make the pastures safe.”

Her parents had never done a damned thing for the small ranch, except let it fall down around them. When Libby had returned to Otto after college, she’d bought the property from them so that they could move to Arizona and continue drinking themselves to death.

The house and barn had been in fairly decent shape, only needing new roofs, which had almost bankrupted her, but the outbuildings were shot and the pastures had lain fallow for years. The fence posts were rotten and barbed wire was strewn everywhere, cropping up out of the ground in unexpected places, where a fence had gone down and had then been overgrown.

Libby had spent most of her free time cleaning wire out of the pastures and refencing them before she turned out her horses to graze. She didn’t want any of her animals injured, and now one of her horses was.

“If you have animals, accidents will happen,” Kade said without looking at her. He glanced up at what was left of the fence. “He must have got caught while rolling.”

“That’s what I thought.” It felt so odd, being there with Kade, agreeing with him, as if there was no bad history between them.

“Do you still ride him?”

“I did.”

“You’ll ride him again.”

Libby swallowed hard as she watched Kade work, stroking the horse’s neck to reassure him that she was there and that they were helping. Kade was probably right, but now Cooper’s hind legs were badly skinned and burned where the wire had cut and rubbed against them. Recovery was going to take time.

“Do you have a clean area where we can treat him?” Kade asked as he carefully unwound the last bit of wire from Cooper’s leg. The other horses were standing a short distance away, edging closer, curious about what was happening to their compadre.

“There’s a stall in the barn,” Libby said. “I’ll have to run the rest of the horses into the next field so they don’t escape.”

“Go do that.”

Libby jogged across the pasture to the gate. The horses, sensing greener grass on the other side of the fence, followed her. Libby opened the gate to let them walk through. By the time she crossed the field again, Kade had Cooper on his feet.

The horse took a tentative step forward and then another. The three of them walked slowly to the barn, Kade on one side of Cooper and Libby on the other, her hand on the gelding’s neck, talking to him in a soothing voice.

“His leg will probably swell like crazy,” Kade said once they had him in the stall. Libby had spread clean straw and then found a big roll of gauze. Together they cleaned and wrapped the damaged areas on Cooper’s hind legs, duct-taping the top and bottom of the bandages to keep them from slipping off.

Kade opened his own first-aid kit and took out a plastic tube of horse analgesic, phenylbutazone, which he shoved into the corner of the horse’s mouth, pushing the plunger all the way down.

“Do you want me to leave it?” he asked, referring to the medication.

She shook her head. “I have bute, too.”

As she walked with Kade to his truck afterward, she felt as if she were waking from a dream, one in which events and actions that had seemed so reasonable at the time became utterly bizarre upon waking. She would never have expected to end the day by having Kade rescue her horse—or by feeling grateful that he’d come to help.

“Do you want me stop by in the morning to check the bandage?” Kade asked as he set his vet kit on the seat of his truck.

“I can handle it.” She shoved her hands into her back pockets and glanced at the barn. “Thank you for coming.”

“I did it for the horse.”

Libby wasn’t sure if he’d intended the comment to comfort or sting. It did both.

CHAPTER FIVE

KADE KNEW THAT LIBBY wanted him to leave now that the emergency was over, knew that she hated owing him. Well, he’d give her a chance to even things out.

“I need a favor, Libby.”

“What?” she asked cautiously.

“Have you ever seen Blue when you’ve been doing your BLM horse stuff?”

He could see relief in her eyes. “A couple of times.”

He forgot himself and smiled. Blue was alive. “I went searching for the herd a few days ago. Couldn’t find it.”

“We relocated it after the fires two years ago.”

That explained a lot.

“How’d he look? How was he doing?”

Libby pressed her lips together. “He was getting a little poor the last time I saw him.” Her expression softened then, the mask dropped, and for a moment she was the old Libby. His friend. His lover. “He is almost twenty, Kade. It’s a rough life out there.”

“I want to find him. See him.”

“Why?”

He didn’t know exactly. Maybe because the horse had been the one positive thing in his youth besides Libby. And he’d messed things up with Lib, so that only left Blue. “I just … need to see him.”

She frowned, but didn’t pursue the matter. “I’ll show you on a topo.”

“Come with me,” Kade said without even knowing why. Maybe it was because of that brief moment of empathy.

Libby actually took a step back. Not a good sign. No more empathy. “I don’t think so.”

He tried a different tack. “It would screw with the odds makers.” A bad attempt at humor.

“As far as I’m concerned, the odds makers can go screw themselves.” She kicked the toe of her boot into the gravel, glanced at the barn again, then met his gaze. “I owe you tonight, Kade. And I’ll be nice to you tonight. I’ll show you where the herd is on a topo map.”

“Never mind,” he said in a clipped tone. “You can show me later.” As if there would be a later. He got into his truck, and after checking to make sure the dogs were close to Libby he shifted into Reverse.

When he glanced in the rearview mirror on the way down the driveway he saw Libby walking back to the barn. Alone. And he was driving home. Alone.

What a waste.

THE NEXT MORNING Menace pulled into Kade’s place with the Chevy on the back of his tow rig. “Where do you want her?” he asked gruffly.

“Behind the barn.” To rot.

“Jason said you may want to sell.”

“Do you know anyone who may want to buy it?” Because Kade knew someone who could use the cash.

“Yeah. But I can’t guarantee you’d get much.”

“I’ll think about it,” Kade said, and then he got to the subject that had been on his mind all morning. “Hey. do you see much of Libby?”

“Yeah, I do.” It almost sounded like a threat.

“One of her horses got hurt last night and I thought maybe you could stop by and see if she needs some help changing the bandage. Apparently the vet is out of town.” And Kade didn’t think he’d be all that welcome now that she wasn’t desperate.

“You know how I am with horses,” Menace said, alarmed. Kade did know. Terrified.

“Oh. I thought maybe after all these years …”

“I’ll stop by and see if she needs a hand. If so I can dig up someone.” The big man had gone a little pale.

“Do that,” Kade said. “And if you can’t find anyone, call me. It’s dangerous doctoring horses alone.”

“Right. I will.” Menace got back in his towtruck and put it in gear. He unloaded the Chevy behind the barn. “You want to pay me now or drop your insurance information by?”

“I’ll pay you now.” While he could. He pulled out his wallet.

“Check on Libby,” he said as he handed over some of Joe Barton’s cash. Menace nodded and got into his truck.

“WHAT THE HELL do you mean, Kade told you to check on me?”

Menace glared, his black beard making him look fierce. “I mean what I said. Kade thinks it’s dangerous to take care of the horse by yourself and he’s damned well right.”

“Well, maybe he is, but I don’t have to like it.” Libby pulled her curls back in a rubber band, then grabbed her gloves off the kitchen table. “Come on, then. Let’s go take care of business.” She was aware that watching her doctor a horse was the last thing Menace wanted to do, but when she’d made a call to the vet in Wesley earlier that morning, he’d told her he had another client in Otto and it would be late afternoon before he could get there.

“Maybe we could call Benny Benson….” Menace ventured.

“Maybe you can just watch while I change the bandage. If the horse knocks me around, you can pick me up.”

Menace’s body stiffened. “If Kade’s so worried about you, maybe he should have come over himself.”

“He’s welcome to do so,” Libby lied as she led the way to the pen, “but apparently he doesn’t want to.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Menace muttered.

Libby turned, took a long look at her big friend and then let out a sigh. “Sorry. Kade did me a favor last night. I hated asking and I don’t like feeling beholden. Things are kind of … weird between us,” she finished. Which was an understatement.

“Libby,” Menace said, “if you’re gonna live in the same community as him, you’re gonna have to suck it up.”

“I’m trying,” she said as she opened the barn door. But it isn’t that easy. She’d just rolled the door back when a truck pulled into the drive. Libby smiled. “Look, Menace … the cavalry.”

“Hey, yeah.” Menace brightened considerably as he recognized Sam Hyatt’s vet truck. The Wesley vet jumped out and Menace started for his truck. “I really gotta get back to the shop, Libby. Call me if you need some help.”

“I’ll do that,” Libby said with a note of irony. Menace didn’t slow down as he waved in response.

THE HORSE’S LEG was swollen, just as Kade had said it would be, and he was hurting, so Libby was glad that Sam had been able to stop by early. The travel costs from Wesley to Otto were going to kill her, though, since Sam’s other client had canceled and she’d be paying the entire fee herself. She had a feeling that Sam would waive it, since she’d agreed to go to dinner with him next Saturday night, but she wouldn’t let him do that. Libby always kept business and pleasure separate. Life was less complicated that way. It was also less complicated if she kept matters from getting too serious and Sam seemed to understand Libby’s emotional boundaries.

“Stan will be back on Monday,” Sam said, “but I don’t think you’ll have any trouble as long as you leave the wound wrapped and keep pouring bute into him.” Sam gave the horse a final pat and then let himself out of the pen. “He’ll be scarred, though.”

“I figured. I just want him healthy.”

“He’s lucky you found him when you did.”

No doubt. Had Cooper spent much longer on his back, he would have died.

“You should have called me,” Sam continued as they left the barn and walked the short distance to his dusty utility truck.

“I didn’t want to pay an after-hours charge,” Libby said with a crooked smile. Sam smiled back and Libby was struck by just how good-looking he was, with his blond hair and blue eyes. Put him in a mackinaw and he’d be the image of a Swedish lumberjack. Shuck him out of that mackinaw—and everything else—and he’d probably be pretty spectacular, too. Libby wasn’t yet certain whether she’d ever be doing that.