The Cowboy Meets His Match (Fatherhood) Read online

  When the pickup came to the end of the lane and stopped, Dylan hurried over to the truck and opened the door. “I was wondering what was keeping you,” he said as Jake climbed from it. “Good, I see you brought your new ranch hand with you.”

  Erin couldn’t hear what Jake said, as Jonah rounded the front of the truck and joined them. After what she suspected were introductions, the three walked toward the house.

  After Dylan introduced Jonah to Luke and Glory, Hayley stepped outside to join them with the barbecue sauce in her hands. Luke took the bowl from her and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, honey,” he said. “I guess I should have told you earlier that it took more than one little bowl.”

  “It wasn’t a problem,” she answered, smiling. She turned to Jonah. “So you’re the new wrangler we’ve been hearing about. How do you like working at Jake’s ranch?”

  “It’s good,” Jonah answered, and looked to Erin.

  “He’s a fast learner,” Erin said with a smile for Jonah.

  “A lot like Jake,” Dylan added. “He was as green as he could be, but look at him now, a successful rancher.”

  Jonah looked at Jake. “I have two great teachers.”

  “Think you’ll stay around?” Luke asked.

  With a glance at Erin, then Jake, Jonah shrugged. “All I have is the summer, but I’ll be back next year, if they’ll have me.”

  Jake smiled at him. “Whenever you can make it, there’s a job open for you.”

  Erin smiled, too, but didn’t say anything. If everything went as she hoped, she would be back racing barrels by next summer. But nobody needed to know that. Not yet. Not until she had MacDuff trained to perfection and the money she needed. Until then, she would continue working for Jake.

  Luke put a hand on Jonah’s shoulder. “Erin will find a way to make sure there’s a spot for you. She’s stubborn that way.”

  “Stubborn?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips and scowling at him. “There’s no one more stubborn than you two.”

  “Except Jake,” Dylan added. “He said he’d be back, and he is.”

  Jake held up both hands. “Hey, I didn’t plan it, but it worked out. And talking about work, this house has had a lot of work done on it. I hardly recognized it.”

  “You haven’t seen the best part,” Dylan said. “Come inside and see what Glory did with it.”

  Hayley turned around. “Where’s Brayden?”

  “Right here,” Jake answered.

  Brayden stood in front of Jonah, staring up at him. “Jake,” he said, and everyone laughed.

  Jonah shook his head with a small smile, as Luke corrected the mistake. “That’s Jonah,” Luke said. “Jonah, this is my son, Brayden.”

  Jonah leaned down. “Hi, little buddy. Do you like horses, too?”

  Nodding, Brayden glanced at Jake, then back again at Jonah. “Jo-nah,” he said, grinning. “Wanna ride a horse?”

  “You bet,” Jonah answered. “Maybe in a few days?”

  “Yeah!”

  Dylan motioned for everyone to follow. “Time for a tour.”

  Luke offered to keep an eye on the ribs, and Hayley said she would keep him company, but the others followed Dylan into the house. Erin waited to be the last one inside. She’d been in the house a thousand times but still felt odd about everything that had changed. Not that she didn’t like it. She loved it. But it sometimes reminded her how much she missed her parents, and she hoped they were proud of who she and her brothers had become.

  “Wow,” she heard Jake say as she stepped into the kitchen. He turned to Glory. “You did this?”

  Laughing, Glory nodded. “With help. What do you think?”

  Jake turned around in a circle, looking at everything. “If you’d blindfolded me and brought me in, I wouldn’t have known where I was, but it’s great. Really great.”

  Dylan led them through the rest of the house, then upstairs, and Glory explained the work that had been done. Jake listened carefully, asking questions, obviously impressed.

  “I didn’t know so much could be done with a house this old. It’s almost like new but still has the charm that I remember as a kid. What do you think, Jonah?”

  Busy playing a game of hide-and-seek with Brayden, Jonah turned to look at him. “I don’t know what it looked like before, but it’s really nice. Comfortable, you know?”

  “That’s it,” Jake said. “As comfortable as it always was, but updated. It’s great, Glory. You really know your stuff.”

  Glory thanked him and they started down the stairs. Erin noticed that Jake hung back, studying some of the smaller changes that had been made.

  When everyone else had gone, he turned to her. “So what do you think? Lots of changes to the place where you grew up.”

  “I like it,” she answered honestly. Leaning back against the stair railing, she let her gaze travel the upstairs foyer. “I don’t regret hiring Glory one bit. She’s done a wonderful job, and I know my parents would be as proud of it as we all are.”

  Facing her, he took her hand in his. “But it’s hard, isn’t it?” he asked, his voice soft and caring.

  She nodded. “Sometimes. I miss them. I’ve never stopped.”

  Silent for a moment, he moved a little closer. “Did you miss me, Erin?”

  She didn’t want him to see how his question affected her, so she kept her head lowered. “I tried not to.”

  With his other hand, he lifted her chin with a finger. “You’ve done well. You should be proud. I know your parents are.”

  He leaned closer for what she knew would be a kiss, but she saw movement in the stairwell. Jonah stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching them, with a strange expression on his face.

  “They said to let you know the food is ready,” he said, then disappeared.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Jake said.

  But she did. Something seemed odd, but she couldn’t put a finger on what it might be.

  * * *

  JAKE LEANED BACK in the patio chair and sighed. “Now, that’s what I call barbecue. Have you two thought about opening up a place of your own? It’s that good.”

  Dylan shook his head. “No time for that kind of thing.”

  “He’s right,” Luke said. “We keep busy enough and the ranch is doing well. Barbecuing is something we do for enjoyment.”

  “Relaxation,” Dylan corrected. “We don’t do it often enough to get tired of it. Glory and Hayley seem to enjoy it, too.”

  “Something to share with them,” Jake said, not realizing he’d spoken. “You have pretty much everything a man could want. A successful business, great women in your lives, and you, Luke, a son.”

  Dylan nodded, his expression serious in the bright yard light. “We’ve been lucky. For a while there, I didn’t think—”

  “It’s all good,” Luke reminded him. “I hate to say it, but that sister of ours knows how to pick the right women. She should set up a matchmaking business for men who don’t realize they want a wife.”

  “Not a bad idea, considering how happy you two are,” Jake said. “She did a good job with you.” He didn’t have that problem. He’d found Erin again. Now he faced the problem of convincing her that he hadn’t meant to break her heart.

  The sound of the screen door opening and closing caused all three of them to look in that direction to see Jonah coming down the stone steps.

  “Grab a chair,” Luke told him, and pointed to one at the side of the house.

  Jonah picked up the chair and carried it over to set it beside Jake and settled on it. “Brayden was wound up but so worn out that he went to sleep still talking.”

  “He’s a go-getter,” Luke said, smiling. “I was just thinking about the time Hayley showed up here for the nanny job.” He turned his focus on Jake. �
�Just one of Erin’s little schemes.”

  “She mentioned something about it,” Jake said.

  “She’s the one who found Hayley. A niece of somebody Erin knew from the circuit. As usual, Erin wouldn’t take no for an answer, and before I knew it, Hayley was standing on my doorstep. Brayden took to her immediately, when before he wouldn’t have anything to do with anybody else, except Dylan.”

  Dylan, seated next to him, grunted. “He knew a good thing when he saw it. And then she hired Glory—without my permission—to redecorate this house. Look what that got me.”

  “What?” Jake asked. “A great house and an even better woman?”

  Dylan’s mouth stretched with a smile. “Exactly.”

  “Like I said earlier,” Luke said, “you have to be careful with Erin. If she wants something bad enough—even for somebody else—she’ll get it done, no matter what.”

  “I couldn’t have said it better,” Dylan said.

  “Jonah,” Luke said, “Dylan and I have something we want to ask you.”

  Looking from Dylan to Luke to Jake, he answered, “Me?”

  Jake didn’t know what might be going on. Neither Dylan nor Luke had mentioned anything to him, and he had to admit he was curious. “Do you want me to leave?” he asked the brothers.

  “No,” Luke answered. “You need to know we’re not sneaking around behind your back.”

  Unsure of what they were talking about, he nodded and waited.

  Jonah cleared his throat. “What do you want to ask me?”

  Dylan leaned forward. “You like ranch work?”

  “Yeah,” Jonah answered, glancing at Jake.

  “We have a proposition for you,” Dylan continued. “Would you be interested in giving us a hand next weekend? With Erin working at Jake’s, we can use a third. But only if Jake can do without you for a day.”

  Jonah glanced at Jake, who nodded, before he answered. “Yeah. Sure. If it’s okay with Jake. And Erin.”

  “Erin doesn’t really have a say in it,” Jake pointed out, “but I’m sure she’d like to be in on the decision.”

  Luke chuckled and looked at his brother before replying. “Sounds like Erin. Is she taking over your place, Jake?”

  Jake had to laugh. Her brothers knew her well. “Not too much, but she does speak her mind.”

  “She always has,” Dylan said. “Not that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Usually. But for some guys, it can be a pain to have a woman around who thinks she knows as much as he does.”

  Jake agreed, except for one thing. “Sometimes she does know as much. But then I haven’t been at this ranching thing as long as the rest of you have. I’m still learning.”

  Dylan nodded. “We all are.” He pushed out of his chair and stood. “I need to go check on a new calf in the barn. Would you like to come along, Jonah?”

  Jonah shot to his feet. “Sure.”

  “I’ll come, too,” Luke said, standing. “What about you, Jake?”

  “You all go on. I’ll sit here and enjoy the evening, then check on the girls to make sure they aren’t plotting something devious.”

  Luke picked up a flashlight from the ground. “If they are, take notes, then come get us.”

  Laughing, Jake watched them disappear in the dark, Luke leading the way with the light. Sitting alone, he thought about the things the Walker boys had said. They knew their sister better than most brothers would, but from what he could tell she’d never let on about what had happened between them. All he wanted now was to get back to where things had been before that night.

  Standing, he went inside to the kitchen. He could hear the women’s voices coming from the living room, but it was Erin’s he heard more clearly.

  “You two need to be the ones making the decision,” she was saying. “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout havin’ no weddin’.”

  Glory and Hayley laughed at her imitation. “You don’t have to know about weddings,” one of them answered. “Just tell us what you think will work and what won’t.”

  Jake guessed it had been Glory who had spoken, but he couldn’t be sure. Wedding stuff. He didn’t know anything about it, either, so he and Erin were on level ground with that.

  “We have to have two ministers,” the other one said. “My dad insists that we have Reverend Fitzgerald, if he’ll come this far. I’m sure he will, but won’t he and Reverend Baker need to get together so they can plan the service?”

  “Hayley,” Erin said, “there’s such a thing as a telephone.”

  “I know, but—” She laughed. “You’re right. See? You are a big help. It’s just that I talked to my mom this afternoon, and she was concerned. I guess I’m not thinking clearly.”

  Jake heard a soft grunt, and then Erin’s voice. “I don’t know how anyone can think, clearly or not, with all this stuff that has to be done just to get married.”

  A gasp drifted into the kitchen. “Erin Walker, haven’t you ever thought about getting married?”

  Glory had said it, Jake felt sure.

  For a few seconds, he didn’t hear anything, and then Erin answered. “Not really. Oh, maybe when I was a dreamy teenager, but, no, not that I recall all that clearly.”

  The other two women groaned, and Jake wondered if he might have been the object of Erin’s dreams. It fit the right time. He didn’t know of any other boy she’d given more than a thought to, and if she had—

  “Now all we need is to know what kind of dress you want to wear, Erin. How simple can that be?”

  “I have to wear a dress?”

  “Oh, come on, Erin,” Glory said. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Mostly,” Erin answered. “But I don’t know why you two want to count on me so much. Even to be there. I don’t know where I’ll be next spring.”

  She what?

  Before he could figure out what she might have meant, Hayley spoke. “We would have done this last spring, but with the new hospital dedication and opening, we decided to postpone it. Even so, you’ve always been the only one we want as our maid of honor.”

  “We each have a bridesmaid,” Glory explained, “but we agreed to share you. It’s the only thing we insist upon. And let’s face it, Dylan and Luke aren’t going to let you leave again.”

  He heard a sniff and knew it had come from Erin.

  “I haven’t made any plans to leave, so calm down.”

  “Good,” Glory said, “because we aren’t going to let you. You’re going to be our maid of honor, and that’s all there is to it. Now let’s take a look at some of the dresses. Let me find that page.... Here it is.”

  Jake let go of the breath he’d been holding. No plans. She had no plans. Well, he did, and she would soon learn what they were. He wouldn’t let her get away again, and he would for damn sure let her know how he felt about her.

  Turning, he walked to the door, ready to leave as quietly as he’d arrived. But when he pushed open the door that led to the porch, the hinges groaned.

  “Dylan?” Glory called.

  Damn. He had to find a way to make it appear that he was coming in, not going out. He took a deep breath. “No, it’s me. Jake. I came in to get—” He looked around and spied the refrigerator as she stepped into the kitchen. “A beer,” he said in a rush. “Dylan mentioned there were more in there.” He pointed to the refrigerator.

  “I’ll get one for you,” she said.

  While she pulled a bottle from the refrigerator, Hayley and Erin walked into the room. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Wedding plans,” Hayley answered.

  Glory handed him the beer. “We’re trying to get Erin to pick out a dress.”

  “A dress?” he said, as if he didn’t know anything that had been said. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her in one. Ma
ke sure I get an invitation to this wedding.”

  Glory looked at Hayley, who smiled at her as she replied, “Oh, we will. You can count on it.”

  “Good. I’ll be there with bells on.”

  The way Glory had looked at Hayley told him a lot. He had allies. He felt relieved. He might need them.

  * * *

  JONAH SKIMMED THE LETTER. He’d read it so many times that he’d memorized every word. But reading it gave him hope that what he had to do would be good for everyone.

  Carefully folding it, he shoved it into his back pocket. He would wait until the right time, and then he would do what he came to do.

  He closed the door of the bunkhouse behind him and stepped out into what promised to be another “scorcher of a day,” as his dad always said. Crossing the yard to start a new day of work, he spied Jake standing by the barn.

  “Good morning, Jonah,” Jake called to him.

  “I think it will be,” he answered.

  Jake laughed. “Once you’re awake, huh?”

  Jonah stopped and shaded his eyes. “I’m already there. Been up for an hour.” Pulling out the sunglasses he’d bought in town, he slipped them on.

  “Go on up to the house,” Jake said. “Ada is waiting with pancakes for you.”

  Jonah waved as he walked to the house, his stomach rumbling. “Thanks. I’ll do that.” The day already felt perfect, even with the heat.

  Opening the door, he heard the sound of frying bacon and recognized the smell of fresh pancakes and coffee. “Sure smells good,” he said, when he stepped inside.

  Ada turned from the stove, a spatula in one hand and a smile on her face. “I’ve been waiting for you. Grab a seat over there. I have some pancakes ready for you.”

  “My favorite,” he said, settling on one of the high stools at the counter. “Have you seen Erin?”

  “Not yet,” Ada said over her shoulder, “but I ’spect she’ll be here before long. Pancakes are her favorite, too, and I’d bargain she’ll figure it out, the closer she gets to this ranch.”

  Jonah nodded. He and Erin had a lot in common. All three of them did—him, Erin and Jake. He still couldn’t believe his luck that first day when Jake had hired him. He’d never thought that would happen. But it had, and no matter what, he would never forget it.