A Family for the Rodeo Cowboy
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Jen Gilroy
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22
CHAPTER ONE
AS COLE CARTER shut the pickup truck’s door, his nine-month-old beagle pup stuck his nose out the half-open rear window and whined in protest.
“Sorry, Blue.” Cole reached inside and rubbed the dog’s silky brown ears. “You can’t come with me this time, but I won’t be long.” He drew in a breath of crisp May air. Once again, the seasons had turned, and it was springtime in Montana and for him too. A new start after a long, dark winter.
He stuffed his keys into the front pocket of his faded jeans and set his cowboy hat more firmly on his head. Then he moved around the truck with the Tall Grass Ranch logo on both doors toward a red-brick building at the far end of the block.
With the Memorial Day weekend coming up, High Valley’s wide main street was busy. On the warmest day of the year so far, diners enjoyed the Bluebunch Café’s outdoor patio. Across the street, the owner of the Medicine Wheel Craft Center had strung a banner across her front window advertising a local art fair.
“Afternoon.” He nodded at several women gathered in a knot outside the bank who went to the same church as his family.
As the women greeted him in return, he was conscious of the muted buzz of conversation that followed in his wake.
Waiting for a truck to pass before crossing the street at the corner, he imagined a variation on the theme he’d heard since second grade when, joking with another boy, he’d knocked over the advent wreath with its lit candles and accidentally set the church’s Christmas tree on fire. His dad, the minister and a bunch of others had put the fire out but from then on and until he’d left to ride rodeo, here in High Valley the name Cole Carter had been synonymous with trouble.
He straightened his shoulders and crossed the street. He couldn’t keep regretting and thinking about what might have been—or imagine what people were saying about him either. He wasn’t the first guy who’d had to retire from rodeo earlier than planned, and now was his chance to make something of himself beyond a rodeo arena.
And despite everybody knowing your business and having an opinion on it, Cole had to focus on the good parts of once again living in the same place where he’d grown up. In this small Montana town in foothill country, where the Rocky Mountains nestled along the western horizon, he had family, friends and community. Although a lot of them had witnessed his mistakes, today was the first step in proving to himself, his family and the town that he could change and be a different man in this next part of his life.
As he continued along the street until he reached Healing Paws Animal Rehabilitation Center, for the second time today he noted the business name in black swirling script on the front window. Over a hundred years ago, in the town’s early days, it had been a newspaper office. He pushed open the glass door in the center of the building, a bell jingled overhead and Carla, a girl he’d gone to school with, looked up from behind a desk.
“Hey, Cole. You must be here to pick up Jess. I heard you dropped her off when I was at lunch.” Carla smiled as she moved around the desk, her heavily pregnant stomach coming ahead of her in a scrub top patterned with yellow and green dogs against a blue background.
“That’s right.” His boot heels clacked on the white tile floor in a sunny waiting room with pale yellow walls hung with framed paintings of animals. “I also want to see Mel McNeil about the cowboy challenge we’re running out at the ranch in August.” A one-day public event his older brother Zach and sister-in-law Beth had come up with to raise the ranch’s profile and, through sponsorship, entry and admission fees, support the local animal rescue. “Beth said Mel might be interested in helping us out.” Although Cole was supposed to be in charge, everything Cole knew about event organizing could be summarized in one word. Nothing. He had a sneaking suspicion Beth and Zach had given him this job to make him feel useful and needed.
“Sure. Your mom already paid online, so I’ll go get Jess and grab Mel too. The cowboy challenge will be a fun day out for the whole family.” Carla patted her belly. “This little one will be here by then.”
“Super. The more the better.” He’d forgotten how many kids Carla and her husband had, but, like most people he’d gone to high school with, this new baby must be number three or four.
Cole had left High Valley because he wanted a different life. But even though he was no longer a rodeo cowboy, he still wasn’t one to settle and have a family. As Carla went into the employees-only area at the rear of the clinic, he put a hand to the pocket of his flannel shirt and rummaged for the handwritten list his mom had given him.
“Drop off and collect Jess from her treatment.” Before today, Cole had never heard of a dog having physical therapy or massage, but Healing Paws had opened a few months ago and was associated with the veterinary clinic that treated all the Carter family’s animals. “Talk to Mel McNeil, who’s new in town, about the cowboy challenge. Buy nails at the hardware store. See the farrier and—”
“Here’s your daddy. Are you going to tell him what a good girl you’ve been?” The voice was light, feminine and cheery. The kind of person who saw a glass as half-full, no matter how dire the circumstances.
“She’s not... I’m not...” As the sable-and-white collie skidded across the floor, barking a greeting, Cole bent to pat her. “Hey, girl.”
Jess bounced around his legs with remarkable energy for an almost eleven-year-old dog who’d recently had surgery. More often than not, Jess slept the day away, following the sunshine from room to room in the spacious ranch house where Cole had grown up and, after his father’s death, his mom lived alone.
“Thanks for taking care of Jess.” He tried not to wince as he straightened and the muscles in his lower back spasmed. His back, and most other parts of him, had never been the same since that accident at a rodeo in Arizona. Although not the one that had ended his career, it had likely helped shorten it, and at thirty-five, he sometimes felt like a much older man.
“My pleasure.” The woman who’d brought Jess out smiled. Around Cole’s age, and with hazel eyes behind green-framed glasses, she had a round face and friendly smile. “Jess is a wonderful dog. Along with a gentle exercise program, these massage and physiotherapy treatments are helping her regain a lot of mobility.” The woman’s curly brown hair had reddish tints and was pulled back into a high ponytail that swayed as she talked. “One of my colleagues usually sees Jess, so this is the first time I’ve worked with her. Your wife, Beth, gave us all the information for Jess’s chart, though.”
“That would have been my mom, Joy. Beth is married to my older brother, Zach. I’m Cole Carter. I’m not married.”
“Oh.” A faint flush crept across the woman’s cheeks. “I’m sorry. There must have been a mix-up.” She darted a glance at Carla, who was behind the desk again and tapping on a computer. “Carla said you wanted to see me about a riding event raising money for an animal rescue?” Freckles dotted the bridge of her nose. And when she ran a hand through the fringe of hair covering her forehead, Cole glimpsed a small daisy tattoo inside her right wrist.
“You’re Mel McNeil?” Cole checked his mom’s list again.
“Yes.” The woman’s smile broadened. “Mel is short for Melissa.”
“Oh. I...” When Beth had asked him to talk to Mel, he’d pictured him as a younger version of another Mel he knew, the grizzled Texas cowboy who’d taken Cole under his wing when Cole was new to the rodeo circuit. Friend, mentor and, after Cole’s dad passed, surrogate father, that Mel, Manuel Garcia, had helped shape Cole’s career and had been an anchor in his restless life. His death last year had left Cole even more adrift.
He tried to rearrange his expression as thoughts of gray-haired fatherly cowboys fled. “Beth said you might help us out.” On both the rodeo circuit and in his family, Cole was the joker and good-time guy. He was never ill at ease with people. Yet, and even if he hadn’t started off on the wrong foot by assuming she’d be a man, something about this Mel made him uncharacteristically awkward.
“If you’re still looking for volunteers, sure I can help.” Mel handed him the dog’s leash, and Cole wrapped it around one hand as Jess sat between them.
“We are.” Cole cleared his throat.
Mel was attractive in a wholesome, girl-next-door way. Although he had nothing against that kind of woman, he’d never gone for one because she was the type who’d want to settle down—and ask for things he couldn’t give her. So, why was his tongue tied in knots like a thirteen-year-old boy asking a girl for a first date?
“I haven’t lived here long. I met Beth last week when we were both waiting to pick up an order at the Bluebunch Café. She introduced herself and said volunteering would be a good way for me to meet people. She didn’t give me any details, though.” Mel studied Cole, her expression curious, before she bent to give Jess a treat from the pocket of her pink scrubs. “What can I do to help?”
Cole had only returned to town ten days earlier. That explained why he’d never heard of Mel until Beth mentioned her, one of five or six other volunteers she’d already approached.
“I’m supposed to organize the event, but Beth and Zach already have a lot of people handling things like ticket sales, participation entry fees, company sponsorships, advertising and refreshments.” Was it because they didn’t trust him to do the job? He swallowed. “However, there’s always room for more volunteers either to help with planning or on the day. Do you know about horses?”
“Does she know about horses?” Carla’s laugh rang out in tandem with the phone. “Mel competed nationally in show jumping.”
“Wow. Good for you.” He tripped over the words. “But this is a Western event and—”
“It’s fine,” Mel interjected and took a step back. “I understand. My background is in English riding. Western riding is a different sport. I’m sure there’s someone else who can help. I’ll ask around and we can put a notice here in the clinic too. If you—”
“No, wait.” Cole took a step forward. “Sorry. I didn’t mean you couldn’t contribute. I’d welcome your help.
“English riding is different, sure, but now there’s Western dressage as well.” Cole couldn’t go back to the ranch without having gotten Mel to help. Beth had asked him to do one simple thing. If he didn’t do it, he’d show, once again, that, although he was a rodeo champ, outside the arena he usually fell short. He couldn’t fail at this job before he’d even started. “If you helped at the event, maybe we could learn from each other. Bridge the gap between English and Western riding.”
“Sure, I guess.” Mel’s smile was tentative. “But I don’t have a horse. I sold mine almost seven years ago.” She fiddled with the hem of her pink scrub top. Her fingernails were short and unpainted, and her hands looked both gentle and capable. “I haven’t ridden since then either, but I...” She glanced at the sixty-something couple and their black poodle who’d come into the clinic after Cole. “I should—”
“I’m sorry. I caught you in the middle of a busy day. Why don’t you come out to the ranch so we can talk more? I can show you around the stables, and you can meet the horses and get a sense of our operation and the kind of event we’re planning. You don’t need a horse of your own to volunteer.”
Asking her to the ranch was the only thing he could think of. Besides, that way nobody would see them together and think it was a date.
“That sounds good.” Mel’s smile broadened, and Cole’s tight breath eased. He liked how her smile began in her hazel eyes and moved to her mouth, like the sun coming out after rain. “I also know where the Tall Grass Ranch is. I was out that way yesterday treating one of your neighbor’s horses and saw the sign from the highway.”
“Is tonight around six good for you?” The sooner Cole could show Beth and Zach he’d made progress, the better.
“Sure.” An expression he couldn’t read flitted across Mel’s face, dimming the sunshine before she bent to pat Jess again.
“See you then.” Cole tipped his hat, nodded to Mel, Carla and the couple with the dog and moved with Jess back toward the clinic’s door.
Cole Carter is sure the odd one out in that family. It’s a shame he can’t be more like his brothers. They’re such good boys, but that one? His middle name is trouble.
The words he’d heard a gossipy neighbor say at a long-ago town picnic echoed in his head. At ten, that was the last time Cole cried, hiding in the trees that edged the town park until his dad had come looking for him.
Although the woman had soon moved away, Cole had never tried to prove her wrong. And as the years passed, her words had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now, though, he was determined to change. He’d done what Beth asked, so why did he still feel off-balance, as if he might have made yet another mistake?
“YOU CAN HAVE dessert when we get home.” Mel glanced at the clock on her car’s dashboard. It was already ten past six. She’d be at least fifteen minutes late for this meeting, but since she didn’t have Cole’s number, she couldn’t stop and text him.
“You said I could have ice cream.” From the rear where she was strapped into her booster seat, six-year-old Skylar’s voice rose in a whine.
“If you hadn’t taken so long to eat your supper and those apple slices, you’d have had plenty of time for ice cream.” Mel made her voice even.
On either side of the two-lane highway, rolling fields stretched as far as she could see. In the distance, the snow-covered Rocky Mountains poked out of a blue-, gold-and pink-tinted sky. This part of Montana looked a lot like the Alberta foothills in Canada, where she’d spent the first eight years of her life. But even though the landscape looked familiar, it was also strange. Or maybe it was because she was different. The girl who’d traded her larger and heavier Western saddle for an English one and made herself become someone else, until she’d lost sight of who that girl had been and what she wanted.
“It’s still not fair. If we’d stayed home, I’d be eating ice cream right now.” Skylar kicked her feet against the rear of the front passenger seat.
“You know the rules about kicking and talking back. Besides, I already told you I have a meeting, and you can’t stay home by yourself.” Mel looked for the Tall Grass Ranch sign on the right-hand side of the highway.
The Carter family owned one of the biggest and oldest ranches in this part of Montana. Before today Mel had only met Beth who’d joined the family by marriage. However, after Cole left the clinic today, Carla had told her about the rest of the Carters, who were active and well-respected in the community.
“I’m bored.” Skylar let out a huff.
When Mel glanced in the rearview mirror, her daughter’s mouth was in a pout.
“Why don’t you read that book you got from the school library? It’s about a horse and soon you’ll see real horses.” Although Mel hadn’t asked if she could bring Skylar to tonight’s meeting, Cole came from a big family. Hopefully, he’d understand because, as a single mom with no family nearby, she didn’t have anyone to help out.
“Can we get a horse?” Skylar grabbed the book from the bag Mel had packed before they left home. Things to keep her daughter occupied while she talked to Cole.
“Not right now. Horses cost lots of money.” Mel signaled to turn into the driveway where a sign with “Welcome to the Tall Grass Ranch” extended from wooden poles on either side of pastureland.
Skylar leaned forward and rummaged in the bag again.
“No juice box in the car, remember?” Dust from the winding gravel driveway rose in clouds around the vehicle. It had been a dry spring, and if it was a dry summer too... Mel made herself push away the thought of what could happen with a drought year. She hadn’t lived on a ranch since early childhood. Together with a passion for healing and good animal welfare, she’d become a physical therapist and specialized in animal rehabilitation for stability. She didn’t have to worry about the weather or any of the other uncertainties that came along with ranching. After some tough years, the toughest when Skylar was a baby, her life was finally in a good and secure place.
“Look.” Skylar squealed. “It’s a barn like this picture in my book.” She waved the story in Mel’s direction.
“It is.” Mel drove by the barn and past a gracious house with a wraparound porch painted a soft gray with white trim. Then, following Carla’s instructions, she hung a right along a smaller driveway that led to another barn several hundred yards behind the house. Two horse trailers with the Tall Grass Ranch logo sat outside. Beyond them was a fenced pasture with a large water trough in the middle, suitable for several horses.
Mel parked beside the pasture, turned off the vehicle and got out to help Skylar get unbuckled. “Watch where you walk.” She held out her hand, but Skylar ignored it, instead jumping from her seat.
“Why?” Skylar glanced at the ground and at her new purple running shoes.
“Horses and cattle come through here. Unlike people, they don’t have a separate bathroom.” She pointed to a patch of fresh manure near the fence.
“Yuck.” Skylar wrinkled her button nose and jumped back.
“Hey, Mel.” Cole came around the far corner of the barn, leading a beautiful blood bay gelding. The early evening sun gleamed off the horse’s polished reddish-brown coat and black mane and tail. Cole still wore the jeans, boots and hat he’d had on earlier, but his blue button-down Western shirt was topped with a black jacket, half undone.
“Hi. Sorry I’m late.” She drew in a breath. Apart from being of a similar height, around five feet ten or eleven, with dark blond hair and easy charm, Cole wasn’t anything like Skylar’s birth father. Cole was a Western rider too. A man Stephen would have looked down on in principle. “Gorgeous horse.” The kind of horse that before the accident she’d ridden with ease, never thinking about the risks.
“Is he a cowboy, Mommy?” Skylar’s clear treble piped up as she hopped from one foot to the other beside Mel. “Like in the rodeo? My teacher’s brother is in the rodeo. She showed us pictures.”
“I used to be a rodeo cowboy. Now I’m retired.” Cole stopped the horse several feet away from them. “Meet Bandit. He’s the horse I rode on the circuit. Since a big part of me will always be a cowboy, that’s why we’re having a cowboy challenge here at the ranch. It’s a Saturday charity event in August to raise money for the county animal rescue. Zach and Beth hope it will also showcase what we do at the ranch. We’ve started offering public horse boarding and there’s some cattle and agricultural initiatives we’re excited about.”
“A cowboy challenge?” Mel’s stomach flipped.
Beth had talked about trail riding but because they’d been busy at the clinic, Mel hadn’t asked Cole any questions. She could have managed trail riding. But a cowboy challenge was a lot more active—and potentially dangerous.
“Don’t let the name put you off. The event is for cowgirls and cowboys and there are separate divisions for each. There’ll be things for kids and families too.”
“It’s not that.” Mel paused. It was more than seven years since she’d been thrown off her horse midjump and had hurtled through the air at speed. Although it wasn’t the horse’s fault, she hadn’t ridden since. But besides facing her own fear of being around horses, she wanted Skylar to be part of this community and make friends. It was too late in the school year for Mel to volunteer with the PTA or anything else that would help Skylar feel at home. The cowboy challenge was likely her only option. “Okay, I’ll do it.” She forced a smile.
“Great.” Cole grinned and his glance shifted from Skylar back to Mel and then to Skylar again. “I’m Cole. Who are you?”
“Skylar Mary Margaret McNeil.” Her daughter stepped closer to the horse. “He’s really big.”
“Bandit is way too big for you, honey.” Mel put a hand on Skylar’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m going to help Cole with something that will be fun for everyone in High Valley.”
“Can I pat Bandit? Please, Mommy?”
“If you and your mom are okay with me lifting you up.” Cole turned to Mel. “Bandit’s big but he’s well-trained. Skylar will be fine giving him a scratch behind his ears.”
“I guess so.”
“Yay.” Skylar bounced toward Cole and, chattering about the horse, she held out her arms so he could pick her up.
When they’d met at the café, Beth had been so friendly that Mel had let down her guard. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“See what I’m doing?” Skylar giggled as she rubbed the horse behind one ear. “His hair tickles my fingers. Do you think Bandit likes me?”
“He sure does,” Cole said.
“I like him too.”
“We have lots of other horses. If you and your mom want to come inside the barn with me, you can meet them.”
Mel studied Skylar’s excited face as Cole held her and she patted the horse, who stood quietly, its dark eyes solemn. Things had started with Stephen because of a horse too and that whirlwind relationship had almost destroyed Mel. She was finally ready to be around horses again. But, for Skylar’s sake, as well as her own, she wouldn’t let herself get close to any other man who, even superficially, reminded her of her ex-husband. One who, if she wasn’t careful, and thanks to a flutter of attraction when Cole had said he wasn’t married, could not only break her heart but her daughter’s too.
