Kitabı oku: «The Wrangler's Last Chance»
Moving on is easier said than done.
Can two people with broken pasts
come together to form a future?
Self-proclaimed wanderer Carter Kelly doesn’t intend to set down roots when he’s hired as head wrangler at Red Dog Ranch—then he meets Shannon Jarrett. Still healing from a troubled past, Shannon finds a kindred soul in Carter. But will working on a fund-raiser with Shannon make Carter see what’s been missing in his life all along?
Red Dog Ranch
Avid reader, coffee drinker and chocolate aficionado JESSICA KELLER has degrees in communications and biblical studies and spends too much time on Instagram and Pinterest. Jessica calls the Midwest home. She lives for fall, farmers’ markets and driving with the windows down. To learn more, visit Jessica at www.jessicakellerbooks.com.
Also By Jessica Keller
Red Dog Ranch
The Rancher’s Legacy
His Unexpected Return
The Wrangler’s Last Chance
Goose Harbor
The Widower’s Second Chance
The Fireman’s Secret
The Single Dad Next Door
Small-Town Girl
Apple Orchard Bride
The Single Mom’s Second Chance
Lone Star Cowboy League: Boys Ranch
The Ranger’s Texas Proposal
Home for Good
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
The Wrangler’s Last Chance
Jessica Keller
www.millsandboon.co.uk
ISBN: 978-0-008-90618-4
THE WRANGLER’S LAST CHANCE
© 2020 Jessica Koschnitzky
Published in Great Britain 2020
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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“I’m going to stay in the barn all night to make sure he’s okay.”
When Carter opened the door to the small office the strong smell of bitter coffee wafted out. “Want a cup?”
“Sure.” Shannon followed him into the small room.
“Fair warning.” He pulled two mugs from a deep drawer. “It’s the leaded stuff.”
“Good.” Shannon accepted the cup of coffee from Carter. “Someone has to keep you awake.”
He set his mug down and cocked his head. “You don’t have to do that, you know. I’ll be fine on my own. I can drink the whole pot. I won’t let anything happen to Tater Tot, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
After the pangs of loneliness Shannon had felt around her family earlier, she didn’t want to head back to her bunkhouse. All that waited for her there were more reminders that she was alone and might always be. She wanted Carter’s company right now.
Maybe she needed it.
And maybe—just maybe—he needed her company, too.
Even if he wasn’t willing to admit it.
Dear Reader,
The statistics aren’t pretty. One in three women will experience domestic violence at some point in their lifetime, and one in ten children is a victim of or witnesses domestic violence in their homes. If that’s you, know that you are worthy of love and it grieves the heart of God to see you mistreated. When you’re ready, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Carter and Shannon both deal with a lot of really tough things and I was so excited when they reached a happy ending. Make sure to look up the rest of the books in the Red Dog Ranch series. Each sibling gets their own story! Please connect with me on my Facebook author page and remember—book reviews are always greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading!
Jessica Keller
But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me;
my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
—Psalm 3:3
For Krista,
who patiently answered all my horse questions, and for introducing the word shrapnel into my daily vocabulary twenty years ago. But this still doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten that you laughed at me when Serasity bucked me off.
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
About the Author
Booklist
Title Page
Copyright
Note to Readers
Introduction
Dear Reader
Bible Verse
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Extract
About the Publisher
Chapter One
Wing Crosby wasn’t breathing.
Shannon Jarrett had charged into the water and scooped out her beloved pet goose when she spotted him floating upside down in the small pond in front of the staff bunkhouses at Red Dog Ranch. Now she dropped to her knees on the damp ground and ran her fingers down the goose’s body. His little white-feathered head lolled to the side. His normally bright blue gaze was completely lidded.
“No. Wing. Please, don’t do this.” Her fingers trembled as she tried to feel for a heartbeat near his keel bone, but her fingers were shaking too much. She couldn’t feel anything.
“Please don’t die.” She croaked out the words. “I can’t lose you.”
Not Wing. Not the little goose she had raised.
Please don’t take him.
After everything she had been through the past year, she couldn’t stand another loss. She wasn’t certain she could survive another heartbreak.
Hot tears blinded her for a second.
Was it possible to perform CPR on a goose? She knew their bones were different, hollow. If his heart wasn’t beating, could she give him chest compressions without shattering his sternum? She had no idea. Maybe she would make things far worse.
Yet another situation in her life she would handle entirely wrong.
She had collected a lot of those lately.
A shiver rattled through her body. Being sopping wet at the end of March was a bad idea, even in Texas. But being cold was the least of her worries right now.
Move. Do something. Save him.
Blinking fiercely, she scanned the large ranch where most of her family lived. The ranch house was too far from where she was. Even if her eldest brother, Rhett, was inside, she would never make it to him in time. Not that he would necessarily know what to do anyway; he loved the dogs that hunted waterfowl, not the birds. Her brother Wade and his new wife, Cassidy, lived with their young daughter even farther across the ranch in the house they had recently finished building. Despite the fact that Wade only ever referred to Wing as Thanksgiving Dinner, she knew her twin brother would never hesitate to help her.
But there was no time.
In her haste, she had left her phone in her bunkhouse, or else she would have run a quick search on the internet for ideas. She had nothing. Nothing but the small body of her favorite little buddy dripping in her hands. He was dependent on her for his life and she was failing him.
A door slammed nearby and Shannon whirled to see who it was. Two doors down from the bunkhouse she called home, a tall man carried a bag into a staff house that had been empty for most of the last year. He had to be the head wrangler Rhett had recently hired. Shannon hadn’t met him yet and didn’t know anything about him, but at the moment he was her only hope.
Cradling Wing Crosby, Shannon rose and ran in the man’s direction. “Help! Please. Help me.”
He dropped the bag and jogged toward her.
“My goose. I need help.” Shannon held out Wing Crosby. “I don’t think he’s breathing.” Her voice broke. “I don’t know what to do.”
The man’s electric-blue eyes latched onto hers. He nodded once and ripped off the coat he was wearing. He wrapped the fabric around Wing Crosby’s body before gingerly lifting the goose from her arms and then he dropped to a knee, Wing Crosby in his lap. Opening up the jacket, he pressed his ear to Wing’s chest.
“Not breathing, but there’s a heartbeat.” He squinted. “It’s faint, but it’s there.” With a great amount of gentleness, the man opened Wing Crosby’s beak and swept the inside of the goose’s mouth with one of his fingers. “Did you see him choking on anything, or were you feeding him something when this happened?” The man kept his attention on Wing Crosby while he asked the question. His fingers combed over the bird’s white feathers for injuries.
“I don’t know what happened.” Her voice took on a desperate tone. “I found him in the water. I didn’t see anything.”
He wrapped the jacket back around Wing and tucked the goose into the crook of his arm so the bird was snug against his body like a football. With his head tipped down, the man’s dark hair fell across his forehead. The stranger rolled his shoulders as he took a deep breath.
Shannon dropped down in front of him so their knees touched. She just wanted to be by Wing. “You know what you’re doing?”
The man glanced her way, the intensity of his blue eyes startling her again. He cocked an eyebrow. “You want me to save him, right?”
“Of course.”
He nodded and focused his attention back on the goose. He wrapped a finger over the holes in Wing Crosby’s bill, then put his mouth over the goose’s bill and blew into the bird’s mouth five times.
The man repeated the process three times before letting out a frustrated growl. “We’ve lost his heartbeat.”
“Wait.” Shannon laid a hand on the man’s arm. “He’s dead? Are you saying he’s dead?” Her voice pitched up.
A muscle in the man’s firm jaw ticked. “Not on my watch.” He tugged open the jacket. Using three fingers, he pressed down on Wing’s chest rapidly ten times. He followed that with five breaths and kept switching back and forth.
“I’ve had him since he hatched.” Tears slipped down Shannon’s cheek as she watched Wing being worked on. “He’s not even a year old yet, but he’s really important to me,” she said. “I can’t lose him.”
She had lost too much.
Too soon.
They had just passed the one-year anniversary of her father’s sudden death, and hitting that first milestone had left her feeling raw all over again. He had been hit by a car; the driver had been focused on their phone instead of the man in the crosswalk. But that wasn’t the only thing weighing her down. Her mother’s Alzheimer’s kept advancing, so every day it felt as if she was losing her all over again. Rhett had returned to the ranch exactly a year ago to claim his inheritance, but he had married right away and taken over the ranch house, which meant Shannon had been moved to a staff bunkhouse where she was living alone for the first time in her life. Her twin brother, Wade, who had been assumed dead for five years, had returned to the ranch last summer. Which was positive, but it had still been traumatic coming to terms with his betrayal, the fact he was still alive and forgiving him for letting them believe otherwise, only to find out he had cancer and they could lose him all over again. While Wade was considered cancer-free now, there was always a chance it could return. Being his sole support during that time had been stressful.
And then there had been Cord.
Who had gifted her the negative track of thoughts that played on repeat in her mind.
The boyfriend who had left bruises on her arms.
Scars on her heart.
At least the experience with Cord had broken Shannon of her childish daydreams about relationships and love. There wasn’t a perfect someone out there waiting for her. Maybe for others—people like her brothers and their wives—but not for her. She needed to pick herself up, be strong on her own and figure out what a life without anyone else in it looked like.
Because despite how much she loved being around people, loved connecting and had always wanted a family, alone might be what God had for her.
And she was determined to be okay with that.
No matter how much it hurt.
While breaking free of Cord had ultimately been a good thing, it had sent her world reeling. With her brothers busy in their new marriages and her mother no longer capable of being her confidante, Shannon had been entirely left out and alone. The only thing that had gotten her through the worst of it had been raising the little abandoned goose, because he had been completely dependent on her for survival. He had given her something to focus on.
He had needed her when no one else had. He had nestled up to her and gazed at her adoringly when her family had treated her as if she was weak, as if they expected her to fall apart. Whenever their eyes met hers, the pity they held was too clear to stomach.
For once she just wanted them to see her as strong. She wanted a reason for them to be proud of her. She would give anything to be seen as more in their eyes than the little sister they all had to watch out for, to constantly protect.
All of a sudden, Wing made a horrible half honk, half gasping sound and his whole body trembled. In one swift motion the man set the goose down, grabbed Shannon’s arm and hauled her to her feet a few steps away.
“If you’re right in their face sometimes they’ll bite when they come to,” he said. His gaze fell to where he gripped her arm and he immediately let go of her. “Even people they know. Their body goes into a mode. Thinking something is latched onto them—that’s usually the behavior of a predator, not someone trying to save them.” He shoved a hand into his almost black hair and let out a long, loud breath. “And geese have shockingly painful bites.” His laugh was soft and self-conscious.
Wing Crosby’s eye blinked open and drooped shut, then flew open again. The goose tried to lift his head but set it back down again. He opened his bill and wheezed a few times.
He was alive.
Shannon squealed and threw her arms around the man. “You saved him. I don’t know how to thank you. I can’t believe you were able to save him.” She hugged him tightly. He was so much taller than her. His chest was solid, his shoulders wide, and he smelled of something delightfully spicy. She was breathing deeply when she realized he wasn’t hugging back.
In fact, upon contact, the man’s body had gone completely rigid.
Shannon was so used to the freedom of hugging her brothers, she hadn’t stopped to think before tossing herself at the poor guy. Then again, she never nuzzled for extra whiffs of her brothers, either.
She extricated her arms from around his torso. “Sorry.”
“No problem.” His lips tilted into something that looked like it wanted to be a smile when it grew up. He scooped his coat off the ground and offered it to her. “You’ve been shuddering the whole time. It’s a little wet from him, but it’ll be better than nothing. I’m guessing I won’t be able to convince you to leave him to go change.”
Wing gave a loud snuffle as he finally sat up.
Shannon slipped on the man’s coat right before she picked up Wing.
The man leaned closer to the goose. “I’d call your vet and get him looked at. They often need to be intubated after something like this.” He tentatively petted Wing’s head. “You’ve got a beautiful bird there. Looks like a pilgrim gander.”
So not only did the man know his goose breeds, but the correct term for a male goose, as well. Not to mention knowing how to do CPR on one.
She opened her mouth to say something but wasn’t quite sure where to start.
“He needs to be warmed up while you wait for the doctor,” the man continued. “If you have a heating pad they work great. Just put a towel over it and put it in a carrier so he’s contained and on top of the warmth source. You’ll want to minimize any stress for him.”
“I will.” Shannon offered him a smile. “I’m Shannon, by the way.” And between charging into the pond and crying, she probably looked a wreck, but thankfully, the man was treating her as if this had all been a normal, everyday interaction.
“Carter Kelly. New head wrangler.” He thumbed toward the large barn situated at the front of the property.
“And apparently goose saver,” Shannon said. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
He shook his head. “Don’t mention it. It was nothing. Seriously.”
Shannon hadn’t been paying much attention to the man’s looks while she was worried about Wing Crosby, but now that she was looking at Carter he was hard to glance away from. Dark, almost black hair and blue eyes that matched Wing Crosby’s. In his boots, jeans and white T-shirt, Carter Kelly could have been the image that popped up on an internet search titled World’s Handsomest Cowboy. A few jagged scars along his neck and jawline only added to his appeal.
“You should call the vet,” Carter repeated.
His voice snapped her back to normal behavior. First she had hugged the guy and now she was very obviously gawking at him. Great first impression.
Shannon nodded and stepped backward. Her arms tightened around Wing Crosby as he tucked his head onto her shoulder. “I’m going to. Right now.” She took another step back. “What are you going to do?”
“Me?” Carter chuckled. “Probably go gargle antibacterial hand soap a few times. Birds are germ magnets.” He shrugged. “Then finish unpacking.” He pointed at her as he backed away. “But let me know what the doc says, okay?”
“I will,” she said and then rushed Wing Crosby into her bunkhouse to warm him up, change into something dry and wait for Dr. Spira to arrive. While she waited, she tried to think of an appropriate way to thank Carter Kelly. The man had saved her pet. She had to do something to thank him.
Seeing his blue eyes and chiseled jaw again had nothing to do with it.
It didn’t.
Because Shannon Jarrett was done with men.
For now, certainly, but maybe for good, as well.
“Well, except for you, of course.” Shannon patted Wing’s head and he honked quietly from his perch on the blanket-covered heating pad. His eyes closed again.
She no longer trusted her heart when it came to these things, so the fact that she found Carter attractive meant nothing. Her heart only ever got her into trouble. So it had been demoted. Every choice from here on would be logical. Thought through. No emotions. No heartache.
But it was logical to thank someone.
Living a life without roots meant Carter Kelly had never owned much, but the generous bunkhouse he had been given as one of the perks of his new job at Red Dog Ranch dwarfed his meager possessions even more than usual. It was almost embarrassing, but it would be the biggest place he had lived in since his stepdad had tossed him out on his ear all those years ago. At least the place had come furnished. If it hadn’t, his new home would have looked really pathetic with nothing in it.
Not new home.
Temporary.
Temporary home.
He couldn’t afford to think of places as his or grow attached to anything. It wasn’t his style. Getting attached meant getting involved, meant hurting when he left or was told to move along. It meant missing and longing for a place and people who probably wouldn’t think about him after he was gone.
No, thank you.
Going down that road once had been enough for him. He would work here a year or two, tops. Pay down some of his school debt while he enjoyed the free room and board and then move on to get experience elsewhere. Carter would gather as many different learning experiences as he could. If he stayed on course, he could one day achieve his dream of saving enough to begin his own practice. Then when people and animals were solely dependent on him, he would be prepared. He wouldn’t let any of them down or fail them.
It was a solid plan. The perfect plan.
One that had worked for him countless times before.
One that had kept him safe.
Still, he thanked God for at least the twentieth time that day for providing him this job at Red Dog Ranch. Nowhere else he had applied to had offered room and board along with a decent salary. Some offered a place to stay but charged a small rent. Not to mention the fact that the other prospective employers had all asked probing questions about why he would want to work grunt jobs for them when he had a DVM degree.
You’re a doctor, son. Why would you waste that here at my farm?
Of course I could use a veterinarian on staff, but I don’t have the money for one and this is a lowly position at a pig farm, so I have to ask myself what you’re trying to pull here.
But his new boss hadn’t seemed all that concerned or impressed with Carter’s credentials. All Rhett Jarrett had wanted to know was what experience he had with horses, what leadership roles he’d been in before and who his references were. So many years spent working any job he could find at the ranches that dotted both the West and Midwest had paid off. Rhett had been impressed with his horsemanship and the quality of the ranches Carter had worked at.
Carter flipped a switch and can lights nestled across the ceiling buzzed to life.
He had thought about touring the ranch after he finished unpacking, but with it still being only early spring, evening had draped the area quicker than he had anticipated. He would save his exploring for tomorrow.
Sighing, Carter tugged the folder full of his loan paperwork from his backpack and tossed it onto the kitchen table. When it landed, the folder slid a bit. A small dog-eared notecard peeked out the edge. He picked it up and ran his thumb over the Bible verse he had written there. But Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. He had carried this for twelve years. Ever since Audrey.
Most of the time, Carter put a lot of effort into not thinking about Audrey, but a reminder as he started at a new place wasn’t a bad thing.
A warning to be careful—not to let his guard down with anyone—no matter how much his extrovertly wired brain begged him to connect with others. Connecting only ever got him burned.
Audrey was his cautionary tale.
A lesson he never needed to learn again.
So why had he told the woman today—Shannon—to keep him updated on the gander?
Carter scrubbed his hand over his face and shot out a long stream of air.
He was a veterinarian who had performed a procedure on an animal and he wanted to see if he had done the right thing, learn if there was something else he could have done in the situation. Grow as a professional and be better prepared for the future he one day hoped to have. That was all.
The fact that Shannon was beautiful wouldn’t—couldn’t—factor in. Though with her short, wavy blond hair, curvy frame and wide eyes, she was impossible not to acknowledge. Even dripping water from a pond overrun with algae, she had caused him to be flustered for a moment there.
He tucked the verse card back into the file.
He ruined people’s lives when he got involved.
He was a liability and always would be.
Someone knocked on the door and Carter rushed to answer it. Even though he wasn’t set to officially start working until Monday, maybe his new boss wanted him to take care of something today.
He opened the door to find Shannon smiling beside a bald, hunched-over man with age spots peppering his face and hands. She held a teal-colored plateful of what might have been cupcakes. They were certainly baked in cupcake wrappers, but whatever frosting there had once been had melted and pooled onto the plate in a shiny puddle.
Shannon grimaced. “These were supposed to be a thank-you.” She glanced down at the plate. “I’m not the best cook. Not like Cassidy—she’s our head chef, and these would make her faint.” Shannon pressed the plate toward him. “They’re just from a box and I think—okay, I know I didn’t wait long enough before frosting them but...” She lifted one shoulder in a half shrug.
Frosting sloshed onto Carter’s thumb when he took the plate. He looked down at the offering and his chest felt tight. He swallowed hard. “You made me cupcakes?”
“Well, sort of.” Her laugh was quiet, a little nervous. “I wanted to do something nice for you but you totally have my permission to throw them away when I’m not looking. I probably should have just picked you up something from the bakery in town tomorrow.” She reached to take the plate back. “In fact, let’s do that. Let’s pretend you never saw these and I can just toss them myself.”
He protectively moved the plate to his side, away from her so she couldn’t reach them. “No, it’s not... I, ah—” Carter cleared his throat. Get it together, man. Baked goods weren’t supposed to make a person emotional. He swallowed once, twice. “It’s just no one’s ever made something for me before. Thank you. I want to keep them.”
Shannon tilted her head. “I find that hard to believe.” She rolled her hand. “I mean, someone at some point has baked you cookies. That’s pretty standard. Your family or—” her eyes narrowed as she assessed him “—I’d guess a girlfriend.”
No, but his last girlfriend had called him trash. Did that count for bonus points?
He shook his head. He had already been too vulnerable and he needed to reel the situation back to somewhere comfortable for him. Carter motioned for them to follow him into the bunkhouse. With great care, he set the plate of cupcakes on his table.
The older gentleman braced his hands on the other side of the table. “That was some fine work you did on Wing Crosby, if I do say so myself. You’ve got some great instincts.”
“Wing Crosby?” Carter looked between them for an explanation.
“My goose.” Shannon frowned. “Well, I guess if I’m talking to animal people I can call him a gander.” Then she added, “I like old movies.”
“I’m going to bring him back to my clinic to monitor him overnight, but he looks great. Your quick thinking definitely saved our little friend.” The other man held out his hand. “I’m Dr. Spira.”
Carter shook the man’s hand and gave him his name.
Dr. Spira held on to his hand. “Shannon said you were a natural with Wing. Seems to me as if you’ve had some advanced training, given the instructions you gave her afterward.”
There was no reason for Carter to withhold the truth. His degrees had been clearly labeled on his résumé when he applied to Red Dog Ranch.
“I have my DVM,” Carter confirmed.
“Ah.” The doctor nodded. “So you’re Dr. Kelly, then. Well, meeting you is my pleasure.”
“I’m not practicing right now,” he explained as if that mattered. To him it did. “Just Carter.”
“DVM.” Shannon’s brow scrunched. “I feel as if I’m at some elite convention where everyone talks in codes and I’m automatically supposed to know what you’re saying. The force be with you, and all that. And that’s cool, but can someone please translate for me here?”
Dr. Spira turned toward her, his smile warm and fatherly. “Doctor of veterinary medicine.”
“Wait.” She whirled toward Carter. “You’re a vet?”
He shrugged. “I could be. But not right now. Today I’m a head wrangler.”
Dr. Spira grabbed Carter’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “It’ll be nice to talk to someone with fresh training. I’m the only one local and don’t get too many meetups anymore. Do you mind if I come and consult with you from time to time when I’m at the ranch? My office is in town, but I’m here often enough.”
Thankfulness surged through Carter’s chest again. Learn from someone who had years and years in the field with no catch involved? He wanted to hug the man, but he refrained. However, he was certain his excitement was plain in his voice when he said, “Not at all. I’d love that, actually.” It was more than Carter had ever dreamed of when he accepted the position at Red Dog Ranch.
Dr. Spira excused himself but Shannon stayed in his bunkhouse. She crossed her arms and studied Carter.
Carter raised an eyebrow. “Still trying to take back those cupcakes?”
She pursed her lips. “I’m trying to figure you out.”
His laugh held an undercurrent of nerves he hoped she didn’t pick up on. “I’m afraid there isn’t much to figure out.” He lifted his hands at his sides in an exaggerated manner. “Just a simple man trying to make an honest living.”
Her eyes narrowed and for some reason that made her even more adorable. “Does my brother know you’re a vet?”
“Your brother?”
Shannon huffed. “Rhett.”
“Rhett Jarrett is your brother?” The information landed in his mind like a punch. Would he always be attracted to the wrong women? At least these days he knew not to act on attraction. Or because a woman had done something nice for him, like bake him cupcakes. Just because he was starved for kindness, he couldn’t read more into such gestures than what they were—neighborly behavior that most of the world probably wrote off as simple, everyday occurrences.
She tapped her chin. “That would explain why my last name is also Jarrett.”
“But I saw you head into one of the staff houses.”
“It’s a long story.” She sighed. “But the quick version is my brother owns the ranch, so he and his wife live in the big house and don’t exactly need me wandering around there while they’re living their newlywed life.”
“He knows.” Carter brought the conversation away from the dangerous territory of getting to know someone more than was absolutely necessary. “I didn’t hide anything from him. If that’s what you’re asking.”
“Oh, settle down.” She held up her hands. “I wasn’t accusing you of anything. If you have an asset that could be useful to the ranch I only wanted to make sure Rhett knew.” Shannon glanced around his bunkhouse. “Well, I’m sure you want to relax after moving in, so I’ll leave you to it. But I’ll see you around, okay?”
Carter walked her to the door to see her out. He leaned around her to open the front door and caught the scents of vanilla or caramel or something equally sweet. Probably from baking. But she had showered and changed since their earlier run-in and she was even more beautiful than she had been then. Her large brown eyes held his for a moment and he sucked in a sharp breath.
He pulled back, leaving as much distance as possible as he opened the door for her. He stood in the doorway as she walked two doors down to her home, the whole time telling himself to go back inside, to look away. But she had been the first person to hug him in years and he just wanted to make sure she got home safely. That was it.
Because Shannon Jarrett was off-limits.
She was his boss’s sister.
Another life he would destroy if he allowed himself to get involved.
Which he wouldn’t. He never did. Not since Audrey.
He would keep his head down. Do his job. Learn what he could from Dr. Spira, then hightail it out of Texas. Run to a place where no one knew him and start over from scratch like he always did.
But first he would have a cupcake.
Chapter Two
Shannon ran a currycomb in a circular motion over the bay gelding named Memphis. Memphis was a large but gentle and patient horse, which made the big lug perfect for the Mighty Girls Horse Lessons Rhett had placed Shannon in charge of for the spring session. Girls from the area who were in the foster care system were offered the opportunity to learn how to ride and take care of horses for free at Red Dog Ranch. The winter session had been canceled, but they hadn’t wanted to do that again. Her father had been gone a year and it was high time for all the programs to be up and running as usual again.
While the Jarrett family homestead was a working cattle ranch, the main mission of Red Dog Ranch was to serve to better the lives of foster children. The ranch ran a free summer camp program, hosted holiday parties, had internships available to teenagers who wanted experience for their résumés and had programmed classes and lessons throughout the year, like the riding lessons, among other things. Rhett and his wife, Macy, had recently gone through the process of being approved to be foster parents, as well. Everyone who lived on the property was busy and many were overextended at the moment.
Mighty Girls Horse Lessons was usually run by one of the staff members, but there had been so many changes at the ranch in the course of the last year that the staff was still in flux and Rhett had been at a loss, which was how the lessons had ended up on Shannon’s plate. Not that she minded. It was nice to be in charge of something, even if it was temporary.
Even if she had been his last pick.
She was surprised he wasn’t here to hover over her. Like he usually did.
Since the breakup with Cord, Rhett and Wade had both engaged in far too much hovering. As if Shannon might fall apart if they weren’t around to take care of her. At first she hadn’t minded—it had almost been sweet—but now it was nothing short of annoying. She knew they had watched over her these last nine months because they loved her and wanted only the best for her. And whenever she got frustrated, she reminded herself how blessed she was to have a family that cared so much, but it was high time they let her be.
Allowed her to sink or swim on her own.
Between Cord’s controlling ways and now her brothers’ overprotection, she was so sick of men calling the shots in her life. She wished someone would come alongside her and cheer her on or join what she was doing instead of telling her what to do.
Was it so bad to want her brothers to see her as something other than their baby sister? Once, just once, she would love it if they had admiration in their eyes, pride instead of pity.
Because either her dad or brothers had always stepped up to run things, Shannon had never actually been in charge of anything at the ranch before. In high school she had been happy to serve as a summer camp counselor at the ranch, and as she had gotten older, she had started floating around the ranch, pitching in wherever necessary but never having a defined role. A fact that had never bothered her before, not as long as she was busy and felt useful. But now she questioned why she hadn’t asked her father for more responsibility and opportunities to lead when there had been chances. The way her life had panned out, she knew a little about a lot of aspects at the ranch, but she was a master of nothing. She wished it was different, but wishes never helped anything.
Shannon gripped the brush a little harder. She would change all that now. She would square her shoulders and swallow her doubts and learn how to lead.
Rhett had told her the new head wrangler would be aiding her with the lessons, and for that Shannon was grateful. While she didn’t want one of her brothers nosing around, she didn’t mind the newcomer. He didn’t know her past, her failures. For all he knew she was capable and smart. A strong woman.
Far from the truth.
Finished with the currycomb, Shannon traded it out for a large stiff brush that she used in a sweeping motion to clear the dirt and hair the currycomb had loosened. She sighed. If only it was as easy to brush away her mistakes and worries. In a show of affection, Memphis leaned into her. There was a reason he was one of Shannon’s favorites among all their trail horses.
In nearby stalls Carter and Easton, a teenage boy who’d started volunteering at Red Dog Ranch a few months ago, were both busy getting other horses ready for riders. There were only six girls in the class this session, so they had two horses apiece to prepare.
“How long are these lessons?” Easton’s words from one stall over made her jump.
“Forty-five minutes. We’ll do fifteen minutes of review to make sure they remember everything from the last session since it’s been a few months, and five minutes of instruction for the emergency dismount. Then they’ll have twenty minutes to practice and work with their horses before cleanup,” Shannon answered.
Carter came up to Memphis’s stall door and leaned his forearms across the top of it. “Emergency dismount? That’s tough stuff for new riders.” He tilted his head. “How old did you say these girls were?” Last night Shannon had considered him attractive, but today he was even more appealing in his cowboy hat.
She fumbled with the brush in her hand. Memphis snorted.
Appealing was dangerous. She would do well to remember that.
She sucked in a sharp breath. The scents of straw and dust and dirt reminded her of what was important. The kids the ranch served. The ranch itself. Making her brothers proud again and carrying on her father’s legacy.
“These girls are intermediate-level riders,” she said. “They’ve already passed our other courses.” She rested a hand on Memphis’s side. “And hopefully, they’ll never need to perform an emergency dismount, but I’d rather have them know how to do it than get into a dangerous situation on a horse someday and not know how to handle themselves.”
“Makes sense.” Carter nodded as he straightened. “This is your gig. I trust your judgment.”
He probably wouldn’t have said that if he knew her. Still, it was nice to hear.
She forced a smile as she checked her watch. “Ten minutes until they arrive.” She peeked at Easton through the slats between the stalls. The redheaded teenager wore a baggy T-shirt over his thin frame. “Tell me you brought a coat this time? It’s cold out there.” Cooler than March in Texas normally was.
Easton shrugged. “It’s not so bad.”
Shannon’s heart twisted and she fought the urge to go into the next stall and hug the boy. Or shake some sense into him. But Easton had been in and out of foster care his entire life, so she knew he had little in the way of possessions and was often not dressed for the weather. They did so much to help kids like Easton at Red Dog Ranch but there were always more needs than resources.
She tugged keys out of her jeans and tossed them to Carter, who impressively caught them one-handed. “Check the office at the front of the barn. My brothers are forever leaving coats in there.”
Carter held the keys up by the keychain that was shaped like a rose. “Your brother gave me keys to the barn office, too. I work here, you know.”
Right. Her cheeks warmed. Carter wasn’t one of the teen volunteers she had grown used to working alongside in the past year; he was the head wrangler. A paid staff member. Any more, the barn office would be more his domain than hers. She held out her hand, taking the keys back with a small apologetic half smile.
As Carter turned to go, Shannon traced her fingers through the soft hairs on Memphis’s neck. He nickered. She sighed and rested her forehead on his shoulder for a second. She loved working with the girls and didn’t mind teaching lessons but she couldn’t help feeling as if something was missing from her life. The lessons would only last for a few weeks, and then, after that, what would she do? Lately, because they had been short on staff and she had always enjoyed working with the animals, she had been helping to take care of the horses and doing chores around the barn, but with a new head wrangler she would no longer be needed as much here, either. She would go back to floating around the ranch doing odd jobs.
No set place. No set path.
Rhett owned the place and was the director. His pregnant wife, Macy, was a codirector and she managed the ranch’s office and administrative affairs. Shannon’s twin, Wade, had recently taken over the position of head of maintenance, and his new wife, Cassidy, was the head chef. They all had defined roles. Purposes. The ranch would cease to function without any of them.
But if Shannon up and left she wouldn’t be missed.
The ranch would continue on just fine.
For the first time in her life, Shannon wasn’t sure she belonged at Red Dog Ranch.
A pit formed in her stomach. She wasn’t needed.
A text made her phone buzz in her back pocket. She slipped her phone out to see a message from Wade: Cassidy and I have to run out. When you go to get Thanksgiving Dinner make sure Rhett goes with you.
She rolled her eyes at Wade’s name for Wing Crosby and was trying to think of something clever to text back when the barn doors slammed open and six ten-year-old girls rushed in.
For now, in this space, she was needed. She would pour herself into these girls and send them back to their homes full of praise and encouragement and the knowledge that people at Red Dog Ranch cared about them.
Afterward she would have plenty of time to figure out where and if she still belonged here.
Carter stood in the center of the corral and turned in a slow circle, trying to keep an eye on all the riders as they practiced their emergency dismounts. Clouds plodded through the sky like a herd of lazy cattle, but even then, it was much nicer out than he was used to for the time of year. March in the Northern states still brought plenty of snowstorms and frozen ground, but here in Texas it was already sunny and green. He had to cover a smile when he heard Shannon insist that all the girls zip up their coats.
Shannon repositioned her horse so the kids could get another look at how to perform the dismount. “The most important thing is to get your feet clear of the stirrups.” She had told them they would only be practicing the dismount from a stopped position today but if they did well, then they could try it at a walk in the coming weeks. “Hands on the withers.” She put her hands on the horse’s neck. “Kick out of the stirrups, then jump, using the horse as a vault—really push away from him.” She perfectly kicked her legs out and vaulted away from her horse, landing to the left. Done demonstrating, she handed the reins to Easton. “Really launch yourself away from your horse. Remember, if you’re doing an emergency dismount it’s a bad situation to begin with, so you’re trying to get off and away.”
Shannon stopped to give a struggling rider some extra attention, and within a few minutes she had the girl laughing and trying again. She caught Carter watching her and smiled as she crossed to where he stood. Her short blond curls bobbed with each step.
“Are you sure you’re not cold?” Shannon jutted her chin toward him. As she stepped close he caught a whiff of the same vanilla-and-caramel smell that had lingered around her last night. So not just the cupcakes. Something she wore.
He swallowed hard.
Carter knew she was talking about his coat. When he hadn’t found an extra in the office, he had shed his, giving it to Easton. At first the boy had protested, but when Carter had insisted, he’d relented easily enough.
“I’ll be just fine.” He realized that people who were used to the Texas weather might think it was cold out, but his Northern blood was feeling warm even in the jeans and button-down he had on. He should have just worn a T-shirt. He had been glad to shirk his unnecessary coat. Even gladder when the teenage boy had fawned over the article of clothing like it was the nicest thing he had ever worn. Carter would probably just tell Easton to keep it.
“I had wanted to have an indoor arena built last summer.” She hooked her thumbs into her pockets and scraped the toe of her boot into the dirt. “That way we could ride in any type of weather and it would shield the horses and riders from the worst of the sun in the summer. It would have opened up the ranch to host more types of events, too.”
“They’re useful, but they can be expensive.” He had helped build one when he had worked at Dove’s Peak Ranch in Wyoming. But there they were sometimes hit with feet of snow, so the arena had been a much-needed addition to keep the horses exercised during the long winters.
“It had been on the list, but with the storm—” She met his gaze. “Did you know this place was almost leveled by a tornado a year ago?”
Carter took his time looking out over the expanse of Red Dog Ranch—large buildings, brand-new cabins and barns, fields of healthy grasses and a huge herd of cattle. “You guys have done an amazing job rebuilding.” He noticed Shannon’s frown. Carter cleared his throat. “But I’m guessing the indoor arena got scrapped from the build list after the storm?” And for some reason that really mattered to her. He wondered why. Maybe she just really loved horses.
“For a while it was still on, but everything else took priority, you know?” Her mouth twisted to the side. “So it just kept getting moved down the list until there weren’t funds left. I tried to argue for it but I was overruled.” She sighed. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”
His mind was stuck on overruled.
“By your brothers?” Rhett had explained to Carter how their father had passed unexpectedly last spring, leaving Rhett with the ranch. Now, from what Carter could tell so far, Rhett and Wade oversaw everything. But if Shannon was a Jarrett, then her opinion should matter, too.
She gave a quick laugh. “Yeah, all three of them. Even Boone, who doesn’t even live here, outvoted me.” She held up a hand. “But they were right. It was the least important item on the list. It would have been nice on a day like today, though. The girls are freezing.” She rubbed her arms as if she might have been cold, too, despite the fitted jacket she had on. “And it would definitely come in handy in the summer.”
Carter folded his arms over his chest. He hadn’t known there were three Jarrett brothers. All the more reason to give Shannon a wide berth. Carter didn’t want to get caught in the crosshairs with any of the Jarretts.
Still, he fought the desire to press her about why the arena had been so important to her, but he swallowed that question. Too personal. Stick to the weather. “It’s what—upper fifties out here?”
Shannon kept her eyes on the girl she had just been helping. “It’s a little colder than normal. Usually we start hitting the seventies by now.” A couple of the kids even wore winter hats.
Carter chuckled. “Where I’m from this is called summer weather. We don’t wear coats unless it’s well below freezing.”
Shannon turned to face him. Even in the diminished sunlight, her brown eyes held unreadable depths of both light and dark hues. “And where is that, where you’re from? You haven’t said.”
He had walked right into that, hadn’t he? Personal information he didn’t want to give.
Carter shrugged. “North.”
She didn’t need to know about his sad upbringing in Montana or the many states he’d meandered through in the last thirteen years, either.
“That encompasses a lot of places.” She arched an eyebrow. “But you know that, don’t you, Doctor?”
Doctor.
The title still felt odd, like a child slipping into his dad’s too-big shoes.
If you were going to spend all that time and waste so much money, I don’t know why you couldn’t have become a real doctor. That would have been something. But you threw that all away on animals. Too bad. It would have been nice to tell people my son was really a doctor.
Carter clenched his jaw as he shoved his father’s words away. His dad’s opinion had stopped mattering the day he had walked out on Carter and his mom to run off with his much younger mistress. Had mattered even less when he had turned Carter away when he had showed up at his front door as a homeless teenager.
I don’t want you near your half siblings. You’ll be a bad influence on them. I haven’t even told them they have a big brother. They have bright futures and I don’t need you ruining their lives.
Then his father had taken his new family and moved to California. Far enough to make sure Carter would never be a part of his stepbrothers’ lives.
There was a reason he didn’t dwell on the past.
He mentally shook his father’s words away like a horse shaking off bothersome flies so he could focus on Shannon, who was smiling warmly, waiting for him to answer her.
“I’ve been a lot of places.” There. Nonspecific and revealed nothing.
“How cryptic of you.” Shannon popped her hand on her hip. “Work with me here, cowboy. At least name your favorite one.” She blew a strand of hair away from her face. “Listen, I just want to hear about someplace other than here. I’ve been nowhere. Never left Texas. Pathetic, right?”
“It’s an awfully big state,” he offered.
“But I’ve always wanted to see other places. Be adventurous.” She shrugged.
“Moving around, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Still, what was your favorite place?” she pressed. “I’d love to hear.” Apparently Shannon was an expert at directing the conversation and was used to dealing with difficult men, because she wasn’t about to let up. The fine art of male question avoidance didn’t seem to faze her whatsoever.
Oh, well. Talking about places he had lived in didn’t have to be personal. “Montana is really something. The sky there,” he said. “It doesn’t compare to anywhere else. But Idaho has something special, too—something different. It’s a sort of hidden gem.” And if she asked Rhett, she would know he had studied at Colorado State University, so it didn’t hurt to mention that state, either. “Then, of course, Colorado and the mountains are pretty inspiring.”
She gave a low whistle. “Well, cowboy, you really have been everywhere.”
“Not everywhere,” he said. “The world’s a big place and there’s still a lot more to see. I’d like to mark it all off my list someday if I could.” The last part had slipped out. More than he had wanted to share with her.
“That’s as good a dream as any, I guess.” Her smile was wistful. It made him want to ask what her dream was. He bit that question down right away.
She called to a girl named Susan. “Don’t be afraid to grab the mane if you need to stabilize yourself before you jump, okay? It won’t hurt your horse at all.” They watched each of the girls try a few more times before Shannon told them that they could stop practicing their dismounts and ride a few laps to close out the session.
Carter came up beside her again. “Have you heard from Dr. Spira? About the goose?”
Her face lit up. “Wing had a great night. The vet said I could go pick him up this afternoon.” She bounced a little. “I can’t wait.”
“That’s great to hear.” He was glad the little gander hadn’t experienced any complications. It was nice to know he had done the right thing. Carter might have received his DVM but a piece of paper and a handful of years in school didn’t mean he automatically knew everything there was to know about doctoring animals. That was where experience and further study came in.
Someday he would be confident enough in his abilities and knowledge to strike out alone. But not until he knew more. Not until he was certain he would always be able to help and make the right call. Right out of school he had worked at a clinic and made a mistake in a diagnosis that had cost a family their beloved pet. He never wanted that to happen again.
“Do you want to come with me into town?” Shannon’s question surprised him. “To pick Wing up?” She rocked on the toes of her boots. “I’m sure Spira would love the chance to chat with you again.”
While he did want more opportunities to get to know the local veterinarian, he didn’t know if offering to go anywhere with his boss’s sister was the best plan for his future. “No, you go. I’ll take care of unsaddling the horses so you can head out right when the girls leave, if you want.”
Her smile faded. “Right, okay, that works.”
Shannon drifted toward the edge of the corral and unlatched the gate as she instructed the girls to bring their horses back to the barn to be unsaddled and brushed down. “Make sure you fill their buckets with fresh water before each of you leave.”
Easton came up beside Carter. The tips of his ears were red. “I can take care of unsaddling and feeding. This might be the first riding lesson, but I’ve been helping get the horses ready for the ranch hands for weeks now. You should go with her.”
“Why?” Carter hadn’t even known Easton had been close enough to hear their conversation.
“Her brothers won’t let her go get him unless someone goes along.” Easton slouched as he walked, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of the oversize coat. His posture made Carter’s heart twist. He had been that boy before—scrawny and alone and hoping no one picked up on how sad he was. Carter didn’t want to embarrass Easton by pressing him to reveal more about his situation than the teen boy was willing to, but he promised himself he would keep an eye on Easton and help him whenever he could. Care about him.
Something Carter wished someone had done for him at that age.
Easton rubbed at his nose. “She told me Wade’s busy and I know Rhett’s off ranch today, too. Before the lesson she asked me how long I was sticking around today, but my ride should be here sooner than it would take to go back and forth to town. If she asked me, then she’s at her wit’s end trying to find someone.”
“Why don’t her brothers let her go into town on her own?” Shannon was a grown woman who hardly needed her brothers’ permission to do things. Unease swam through Carter’s gut. In all his interactions with his new boss, Rhett had seemed like a stand-up guy. He really hoped his impression of the man was correct.
“Beats me.” Easton shrugged. “I only started here a few months ago and they’ve always been like that since I’ve been here. All I know is that Miss Shannon wants to get her goose and she’ll catch heat from one or both of those Jarretts if she heads to town alone.”
He’s really important to me.
I can’t lose him.
Shannon’s frantic words from last night swam through Carter’s mind.
Carter closed the gate once all the horses were on their way to the barn. He scrubbed his chin while he watched the retreating forms of Shannon and Easton. He had witnessed firsthand how much that goose meant to Shannon. And she had been nothing but kind to Carter in all their interactions so far. She didn’t have to be nice to the new staff member. He was still touched by her gesture of making him cupcakes.
He lifted his hat to run a hand over his hair. What would it hurt? He could drive into town with her.
To get to know Dr. Spira better, of course.
And if the Jarrett brothers had a valid reason to be concerned for their sister’s safety, Carter hardly wanted her decision to go alone pinned on his refusal. Getting on Rhett’s bad side his first day on the job wasn’t ideal. Carter rolled his shoulders. He could handle being around the sister of the person in charge without losing his head or heart.
It wouldn’t be like last time.
Carter jogged toward the barn to catch her before she headed out alone.
Chapter Three
Carter gripped the leather-wrapped steering wheel as he turned his truck to drive out of Red Dog Ranch. His old pickup rattled a little as it ground its way over the pebbled driveway. He had purchased the thing used years ago and had brought the truck back to life more times than he could count. The hunk of metal had been with him longer than most of his possessions. And definitely longer than most people.
Shannon rested her elbow on the armrest between them. “Thanks for driving with me. What made you change your mind?”
Before he pulled out onto the road, Carter checked another time for coming cars. The speed limit was high on the road in front of Red Dog Ranch and his truck took a bit to get up to speed, so he had to wait for a large window or pocket of space to safely maneuver into. “You made a good point—it’s a good chance to talk to Dr. Spira again. And I’m new here.” He gave her a tilted grin. “I should probably start to get the lay of the land, right?”
She laughed softly. “Oh, that won’t take long. Stillwater isn’t a very impressive town.” She directed him to turn left at the next road. A few minutes later they were driving down Hickory Lane.
“This is the main drag,” Shannon explained.
Storefronts with colorful awnings dotted each side of the road—a bakery, a hardware store, a few mom-and-pop cafés and more than half a dozen small churches. He had seen towns like this before, lived in them and been burned by them. Small towns were dangerous because everyone knew everyone, and people talked and banded together. In places like this, boredom bred drama. If someone important decided they didn’t like a person, then the whole town shunned them. Made them feel as unwelcome as they could.
At least, that had been Carter’s small-town experience.
He pointed at a bright banner suspended above the road. It was festooned with fake flower chains and a large painted sun. “‘Stillwater Spring Pageant. Bring your brightest smile to the brightest event of the year,’” he said, reading out loud. “Big-time stuff here.”
“Hey.” Shannon narrowed her eyes in a joking manner. “That is a big-deal thing around here. Little girls fight to be named the Stillwater Sunshine Princess.”
“Did you ever enter?”
She tucked some of her hair behind her ear. He didn’t miss the wash of red that dotted her cheeks. “I’m pleading the Fifth on that one.”
Carter laughed. At least Shannon was fun to be around. She wasn’t the type to be nervous or try to bat her eyes at a guy. Confidence radiated from her carefree personality. She had clearly grown up around a lot of men and was at ease around them. The realization made Carter finally relax. She wasn’t being overfriendly with him—this was just how she was, and he didn’t need to read anything into her behavior or be worried where she was concerned. He was close to Rhett’s age and she was going to treat him and banter with him the same as she did her brothers. He wouldn’t let his guard down because he didn’t do that for anyone, but he could stop worrying.
“Park up here.” Shannon pointed toward a row of diagonal parking spaces near a large grassy area. “Dr. Spira’s office is over there. And his house is just beyond it, there, by the forest preserve.” The little red building had a sign hanging near the front door that read All Creatures Welcome. A white two-story house sat just to the right of the red building, and an American flag suspended from the wide front porch snapped in the wind. Flowers flooded the front walkway. The house sat at the far edge of town and was surrounded by trees.
Carter parked his truck and hopped out. He rounded the vehicle to meet up with Shannon and found her frozen on the sidewalk. Her mouth was open. Her fingers shook where they were hooked onto her purse’s strap. More than anything, the color in her face had fled.
Her posture made him pause. His muscles coiled, ready for an attack or whatever had made her fearful. A muscle memory from childhood.
They hadn’t known each other long, but every time Carter had interacted with Shannon she had been smiling, challenging, teasing or demanding he save her pet goose. Until now, her cheeks had always had a pink tinge to them. What could make a strong woman like that freeze and shake where she stood?
Carter followed her gaze. Across the street a lean man with shaggy dirty-blond hair had his hands on his hips as he stared Shannon down. More like glared. Sickness burned through Carter’s chest. The possessive way the guy was eyeing her didn’t sit well with him.
It was his stepdad bearing down on his mom, fists flying, all over again.
Carter turned his back on the man and stepped into Shannon’s line of vision.
She blinked as if she was waking up from a long sleep and she stumbled forward to grip Carter’s arm. “Can I ask you something? To do something crazy?” Her voice trembled.
Carter stepped closer to her. Warning sirens sounded in his head. He would do whatever she needed. He would protect now when he hadn’t been able to back then. “Anything.”
“Pretend to be my boyfriend.” She grimaced. “Just for a second. Just until—”
Carter wrapped his arms around her, tugging her to his body in a hug the same way she had hugged him yesterday. She was still shaking a little and every long-buried protective instinct clattered alive inside him. No man worth his salt caused a woman to feel terrified. He fought the urge to fist his hands, cross the street and demand answers out of the man by force. That wouldn’t solve anything. And it certainly wouldn’t help defuse the situation for Shannon, which was what mattered right now.
“I’m sorry.” Shannon’s arms were around him, too. Each of her fingertips dug into his back. Each point of contact sending the same message: I need you. Trusting him—a stranger—to keep her safe. “I’m so sorry I asked this of you,” she whispered against his neck.
Carter’s chest burned. Clearly, this was what Shannon’s brothers were afraid of—why they hadn’t wanted her to head into town on her own. Whoever the man across the street was, he had hurt Shannon greatly. He was a danger still.
“It’s fine,” Carter murmured against her hair. He hoped that from the man’s vantage point it looked like they were whispering sweet nothings to each other. He eased her away, placed his hand on the small of her back and veered her toward his truck. Opening the passenger-side door, he flipped up the armrest and helped Shannon back into the cab. He climbed into the passenger seat as she scooted to the middle seat and then he slung his arm to curl protectively over her shoulders. Again, he hoped the guy could see. Hoped their body language was a clear message for him to back off and leave her alone for good, whoever he was.
The insinuation that a woman needed a man to claim her as his in order to get another man to leave her alone chafed at Carter. But sadly, he knew how men like the one across the street thought. That man would have bothered Shannon without Carter there and might have even approached them if he hadn’t thought Carter was attached to her.
In the safety of the cramped truck, Shannon rocked forward and dropped her head into her hands. “I feel so stupid. I can’t believe I freaked out like that.” She groaned. “That wasn’t how this was supposed to go down at all.”
Carter placed a comforting hand on her upper back, encouraging her to keep talking if she needed to. Sometimes the presence of another person was far more important than words.
She sat up again and twisted a bit to face him better. “In my head I’ve run through so many scenarios of how I would react the first time I saw him again. But it was never that. Not panic.” She slumped against the seat, which brought her right under his arm again, snug to his side. Carter debated extracting his arm but couldn’t think of a nonawkward way to go about it, so he stayed where he was. He didn’t mind her so close, but he wanted to make sure she was comfortable with their proximity. She seemed to be.
Carter ducked his head so he could make the eye contact she had been avoiding until then. “Are you going to tell me who that was and why he made you so scared?” He held her gaze for a heartbeat. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But if you want to talk, I’m right here.”
She crossed her arms. “He’s an ex. Though I’m guessing you picked up on that by now.”
“He didn’t treat you very well, did he?” Carter kept his voice quiet and steady.
She nodded. “I was going through a rough time when we got together. I felt, I don’t know, really lonely and he was there and always wanted to be around me. At the time that felt really nice.” She laughed once, but it had a bitter edge to it. “I know that sounds dumb now.”
“I don’t think it sounds dumb at all.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. The guy was still there, his gaze trained on the truck. Carter wouldn’t have minded crossing the street to confront him, but he forced himself to look away, to stay put and remain with Shannon. “I get it, believe me.”
She lifted her chin but he could feel the tremors that were still working their way through her body. “Well, wanting to be together all the time turned into him wanting to control what I was doing and who I spent time with. He tried to divide me from my family—I’m ashamed to admit he succeeded for a while.”
“Abusers can start out as being really convincing,” Carter said.
“Abusers,” she whispered. Shannon looked out the driver’s-side window. Away from Carter. “When I finally started to stand up to him he got violent.”
Carter rubbed the stress from his jaw.
Another woman used and broken-down and questioning herself because of the wounds inflicted by an insecure man. Carter had spent too many years watching his mother get tossed around by his stepdad. Too many horrible images were forever imprinted on his mind. Times he couldn’t or didn’t step up to defend her.
Times he had gotten in front of her and taken the hits came to mind, too.
Carter snaked his arm away from Shannon to fist his hands in his lap. He ground his teeth together. “Tell me to go across the street and deal with him, and I will.”
Shannon hooked her hands around Carter’s closest arm, her eyes wide. “Please, don’t. Cord is... I don’t want him to... I don’t—”
Carter forced a smile. It was shaky at best. “I won’t. I wouldn’t have.” Well, he would have if she had asked him to. He ran his fingers over his jaw and blew out a long breath. “I’m just really angry someone treated you that way.” His heart was acting like a penned ram in his chest, going berserk. He hadn’t been this worked up in a long time.
Shannon let go of him and scooted further onto the driver’s side of the vehicle. “So that’s what I am. Now you know my story.” She trailed a finger over the steering wheel. “Some weak girl who—”
“Weak?” Carter angled toward her. “Hold up there.” He held out a hand. “You are not weak.”
Her hands fisted the steering wheel. She kept her head pointed toward the windshield. “Did you hear anything I just said? I am.”
“You’re not,” he said quietly.
“Everyone thinks so.” She finally faced him. Her eyebrows rose with a silent question.
Don’t you think so?
“You left him, didn’t you?”
She bit her bottom lip. “Much later than I should have.”
She had left. Didn’t she understand what a big deal that was? So many never walked away.
“So you’re strong and capable,” he said. “Just like I thought.”
She dropped her hands from the wheel. “I think a strong and capable person wouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with.”
“At some point in life everyone ends up in a situation they later wish they had never been in. I sure have.” He shook his head. “Just remember, how someone else treats you doesn’t define who you are. It only reveals who they are. What you experienced showed you this Cord guy is an abusive jerk who isn’t worth your time and that you are made of strong enough stuff to stand up to him and leave,” Carter said. “Don’t make light of that accomplishment.”
“You really don’t think I’m weak?” she asked as if the answer to his question was incredibly important. It made Carter wonder if others treated Shannon in a way that made her believe that lie. Because it was a lie. She was brave and strong and capable—and if he could see that after knowing her for one day then anyone who thought otherwise had to be blind.
“The woman who demanded a stranger save her goose?” He smiled. “Let’s just say I’m one hundred percent positive the word weak could never be applied to you.” He gently added, “You left, Shannon. Many women never leave.”
His mother hadn’t.
A choice that had cost her life in the end.
Shannon swallowed a few times. “I never thought of it that way.”
They were getting in too deep, touching on too many of his past wounds that he had long ago bandaged up and promised he wouldn’t poke anymore. If he talked any longer she would pick up on the fact that he was speaking from experience, if she hadn’t already.
She was safe. This Cord guy wasn’t approaching her. They could move on.
“Ready to go get your goose?” He jutted his head in the direction of the little red building. Then he opened the passenger door and held out his hand to help her across the seat and out the door. He dropped it just as quickly. Cord was no longer across the street.
They didn’t need to act any longer.
Wing Crosby honked from his place in the pet carrier tucked between Shannon and Carter in the truck. Shannon peeked into the carrier and couldn’t help the smile on her face.
They had ended up visiting with Dr. Spira for more than an hour at his clinic and then Carter had assisted the doctor when someone rushed in with a bundle of abandoned kittens who were clearly starving. After all of that, they had ended up being in town for three hours.
Carter narrowed his eyes as if the incessant honking was giving him a headache. “He’s going to honk like that the whole way home, isn’t he?”
“It’s not honking,” Shannon said. “He’s crooning for you, Carter. You should be honored.”
“Crooning. Right.” Carter hooked his hand over the top of the steering wheel but Shannon caught the glint of humor clear in his eye. When Rhett had first told her he had hired someone to fill the vacant head wrangler position, she had feared he would find someone just like himself. She loved her eldest brother, but he was so serious and withdrawn most of the time. Rhett was happier alone in his office than among a crowd. She was glad Carter hadn’t ended up being what she expected. With Wade and Rhett always busy with their new families, it was nice to have someone around in her age group to visit with who actually seemed to enjoy talking and joking.
It didn’t hurt that he smelled like leather and spice and late-night walks.
Or that he had called her capable and strong and looked at her as if he was proud of her.
How someone else treats you doesn’t define who you are. It only reveals who they are.
Well, his actions had revealed Carter to be a kind and compassionate man who cared about animals and was willing to lend a hand, or a hug when needed. And the intensity in his eyes when they had spoken in the truck had stolen her breath. She didn’t doubt for a second that he would have risen to her defense if he had needed to.
Beyond her family, she rarely shared with anyone what had happened to her. But she felt as if she could trust Carter.
Then again, hadn’t she recently decided to stop trusting her feelings?
She poked a finger through the carrier and Wing immediately butted his head against her. “Please tell me you’re a Bing Crosby fan. Because I don’t know if we can be friends if you’re not.”
Carter made a noncommittal sound.
“Come on,” Shannon urged. “White Christmas is a holiday staple. Tell me you’ve at least seen that one.”
“I mean, I watch it if I happen to catch it on TV, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Oh, no way. That’s not good enough. Watching White Christmas is an event. There has to be cookie making and popcorn and comfy blankets.”
Carter made a show of peering out the windows. “You know it’s not Christmas, right? You’re three months late.”
She crossed her arms. “Have you seen The Bells of St. Mary’s?”
He shook his head.
“What about My Favorite Brunette?”
He gave a little shrug. “What can I say? I’ve always liked blondes.”
When he peeked her way, Shannon rolled her eyes in a teasing way.
She made a mental note to invite Carter to the next old-movie marathon she planned. For the last few years, about once a month she had invited staff members to movie parties. Sometimes she threw themed parties and sometimes it was more of a spur-of-the-moment marathon. Though lately she had been doing more watching on her own than she would like. Before they were both married to her brothers, Macy and Cassidy used to join Shannon for movies. But Shannon understood they needed time with their new husbands now.
She needed to start making new traditions. Her life shouldn’t be on hold just because her best friends had gotten married. Shannon made a promise to herself to start being more social again.
“Fear not, I’ll help you get caught up on Bing Crosby movies. I could plan a staff party around it.” Wing Crosby honked again. “Something spring themed to celebrate coming on one year since the tornado. We could host it at the barn—use a tarp to project the movie on the side of the building. I’ve seen that online.”
“Sure.” Carter chuckled. “We’ll hang those twinkle lights in the barn and maybe wrap some flower garlands around Memphis for kicks.”
Shannon sat up straighter. “That’s not a half-bad idea.”
“I was kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“Memphis won’t like garland wrapped around him. I promise. He’d probably eat it.”
She remembered the pageant sign that hung in the middle of Stillwater and an idea clicked into place. “Carter, I’m serious. You just gave me the best idea.” One that would give her something to focus on, a way to benefit the ranch. She could finally raise money for the indoor riding center she had wanted to build and, more than anything, do something that could be her project. She would have to run the idea past Rhett, of course, but she would make a point of not letting any of her siblings or their spouses help out. This would be her contribution to the ranch. Something her brothers could come to and see how successful she could be if they would just trust her.
By the time they got back to Red Dog Ranch, Shannon was so excited she could have hugged Carter. Again.
But twice in two days of knowing each other was probably already far more than Carter had wanted. She definitely hadn’t minded, though. Carter had been really great when they were in town and he had encouraged her about the Cord situation in a way no one else ever had. Something about the new head wrangler put her at ease.
She spotted Rhett, Macy, Wade, Cassidy and their daughter, Piper, gathered near the front enclosure that housed the ranch’s miniature pony and overly affectionate donkey.
Carter tossed the truck into Park and picked up Wing Crosby’s carrier. Shannon exited the truck and rushed around the vehicle to meet up with him. He started to hand the carrier over to her when Rhett called to them.
“Come on over here. I want to introduce Carter to everyone.”
Carter shot out a long breath before heading in their direction. It was funny to see that he was nervous around her family. They were just her siblings and all of them were nice.
Wade greeted them with a huge, lopsided grin. “Ah, good. I see you brought Thanksgiving Dinner home.” He pulled Shannon into a side hug.
She elbowed her twin brother in the ribs. “Stop calling him that.”
Piper, Wade’s spunky five-year-old daughter, skipped up to her dad’s side and took his hand. “Are we really going to eat Wing?” Her brow scrunched. “I really don’t want to.”
Shannon hugged the pet carrier to her body. “Not ever.”
“No, sweetheart. Daddy just thinks he’s funny.” Cassidy, Wade’s wife, hooked her arm through Wade’s free one. They made the picture of the ideal family—attractive, young and so in love with each other—no one would suspect how much they had gone through in order to be together. Only nine months ago, Cassidy had believed Wade to be dead, and then after a few bumps, they had faced his cancer diagnosis and treatment together.
Once Wade had introduced his family to Carter, they headed out.
“I’ve been told we’re headed to the Riverwalk for some ice cream.” Wade scooped up Piper as they walked away.
Piper sent Shannon a wink over his shoulder. “It was my idea. I told him.”
Cassidy laughed and joined her husband and daughter.
Rhett had an arm around Macy when he introduced her to Carter. Macy was seven months pregnant, but she hadn’t let that slow her down around the ranch until lately. Shannon had enjoyed watching her “man’s man” brother turn into a family guy who fawned over his wife and their expected child. At heart, her big brother was a huge softy. Nearby, Kodiak, Rhett’s ever-faithful shadow of a dog, and Cloudstorm, Piper’s gray-and-white cat, lounged in the grass. The two pets had finally come to some sort of an understanding.
That, or Kodiak had finally gotten it through her head that Cloudstorm was the boss around these parts.
After Rhett finished introducing Carter to Macy, he turned to Shannon. “How did lessons go?”
“Good. We worked on emergency dismounts today.”
“No one got hurt, did they?” he asked.
She took a breath before answering, calming her frustration. He would have asked the question to anyone, wouldn’t he? She hoped so.
“I know the ranch’s protocol. I would have called you if someone got hurt.” She set Wing’s carrier down and opened the door, letting him waddle out. He honked and ducked through the opening, shaking his tail feathers in an indignant way. He probably would have appreciated being let out of the carrier the second they got back.
Ever a birding dog, Kodiak’s ears perked up as her amber eyes followed Wing’s movements. But Shannon knew Rhett’s dog was incredibly well trained and wouldn’t lurch at her pet goose without Rhett’s blessing. Rhett had been a professional dog trainer before he had inherited Red Dog Ranch. Cloudstorm eyed Wing, but Wing had chased after Cloudstorm on occasion, so Shannon knew he could hold his own if the cat got any dumb ideas.
Shannon patted Wing Crosby’s head one last time and then faced Rhett again. “There’s actually something I wanted to run past you. An event I want to plan.”
Rhett and Macy stepped a little closer.
“I’d love to hear about it,” Macy said. She reached up to entwine her fingers with the hand of the arm Rhett had draped over her shoulders.
Shannon motioned for Carter to join them. He lifted his eyebrows but stepped into their little family huddle. “It was actually Carter’s idea.”
Carter’s head jerked back. “Wait. What was my idea?” His gaze sought hers.
Shannon plowed ahead. “What if we hosted a fun spring horse show as a fund-raiser?” She held up a hand when Rhett opened his mouth. “Hear me out. People would have to pay an entrance fee and we could have a horse-and-rider costume contest and maybe run some other events like they do at any normal horse show. We can advertise it as something to celebrate the one-year mark from the tornado—show how we have rebuilt and moved forward.” She was thinking and speaking on the fly, so she tossed out ideas as they came. “If we have it a week or two before Easter we can invite vendors to set up shops at the event. There would be a small vendor fee.” She added quickly, “And all the money raised can go into a fund to finally build the riding arena.”
Macy’s smile widened. “I think that sounds like a great idea. We had to scale back the egg hunt this year, so I know the community would appreciate an event to replace it.” Macy had always helped to plan the annual egg hunt, which had spawned into a grand affair that had cost a lot of money to run. Funds that were better spent helping foster children in more tangible ways. The ranch was still going to host a small egg hunt for local foster children who already utilized its other programs, but this year’s event wouldn’t be open to the public like it had been in the past.
Rhett rubbed his chin. “I don’t know. You’d have three or four weeks tops to plan, organize and promote the event. Gathering vendors and participants in that time... I’m not sure that’s doable.”
Macy swatted her husband’s chest. “This man of mine is forgetting that he and I threw together the egg hunt last year in even less time.”
Rhett captured his wife’s hand and pressed a kiss to her palm before tucking her close against him again. “My lovely wife is leaving out the fact that the egg hunt had been a longstanding annual tradition we already had all the information on file for. We weren’t building something brand-new on a short deadline.”
“Just let her try,” Macy gently urged.
Rhett sighed. “We’ll do everything we can to help you.”
Shannon hesitated. As much as she loved her siblings and their wives, if she let them get involved they would take over without even meaning to. And she didn’t want that. The whole point was to show them what she could do without them. To prove she could do something that was valuable to the ranch.
To make them proud, for once.
“Well, the thing is I’m going to plan this alone.”
Macy’s mouth went slack. “That’s just not possible. You need at least another hand. Let me—”
“Not alone, alone,” Shannon quickly added. She hooked her arm with Carter’s. “Carter’s going to plan the event with me. It was his idea, after all.”
Carter’s mouth opened, closed, opened again. “It really wasn’t my idea.”
“It was. He joked about decorating the horses and that’s where the idea started.”
Rhett looked at the new head wrangler. “Are you willing to help my sister with this? It will be a lot of extra work.”
Carter looked to Shannon and she tried to use her eyes to plead with him. He took off his hat and ran his hand over his hair. “Do you want me to, sir?”
“Well, she’s definitely not doing it on her own,” Rhett said.
Shannon swallowed the hot wave of emotions Rhett’s heavy-handed words caused. She knew he loved her. Knew he never meant to hurt her. But sometimes his matter-of-fact way of stating things did just that. She didn’t want to plan the event on her own, either, but Rhett could have handled the conversation better.
Carter dipped his head once, acknowledging what Rhett had said. “Then it looks like I’m going to help plan a spring horse show.”
Shannon could have hugged him.
She didn’t.
But she definitely could have.
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