Her Surprise Cowboy
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Claire McEwen
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17,7K
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20
CHAPTER ONE
LIAM DALE OPENED his eyes and looked at the stubby straw between his fingers. Looked at his brother Boone’s straw. Long. Looked at Tommy’s. Even longer. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Looks like you’d better start packing your bags, little brother.” Wyatt grinned at him with the smug face of someone who hadn’t even had to draw a straw. As the oldest, Wyatt did the accounts for the Dale Cattle Company. His business skills were too valuable for him to be caught up in this absurd notion of their father’s.
“You want to trade?” Boone leaned forward on the hay bale he was sitting on and offered his straw. When Liam reached, Boone pulled it away. “Just kidding.”
“Jerk.” Liam glared at his brother. He glanced around the barn. Leave here? With the early-spring sunshine lighting everything up, the air fresh and clean, it was the best time of year in Texas.
“Aw, don’t be like that.” Tommy, sprawled next to Boone, sent an elbow into his brother’s ribs. “Poor Liam here has to go to California. Land of sunshine and surfer girls.”
“You want to go?” Liam held out his small straw. “It’s all yours.”
“Thanks, but I’ll stick around here, I think.” Tommy glanced out the barn door like he had somewhere to go. “I’ve got a lot going on right now.”
“Yeah, like chasing after Red Harris.” Boone’s grin had enough mischief to power a thousand pranks. “If he lets her out of his sight, she’s likely to just forget he even exists.”
“It’s got nothing to do with her.” Tommy tossed his straw on the ground. “I got over her a long time ago.”
Liam caught the way Boone glanced at Wyatt. And the brief shake of Wyatt’s head that meant knock it off. Red and Tommy had dated ever since high school, but a couple months ago, Red had decided she needed to spread her wings. Tommy had been moping ever since.
“It’s okay,” Liam said. “I’ll go.”
“You’ll get to hang out with one of your bull-riding heroes,” Wyatt reminded him. “You might have a lot in common.”
“Except that Jace was never dumb enough to get stepped on.” Liam glanced down at his leg, though from the outside, no one could tell that it was held together by pins and plates. The inside was a different story. He ran his knuckles alongside his knee, where it always felt tight.
“You’re not dumb,” Wyatt countered. “It was just luck. Yours ran out that day. Maybe this trip will help you move on from that.”
Liam glanced at Wyatt suspiciously. “Did you rig this straw thing? Maybe we need a do-over.”
“No way,” Boone protested. “I’d never survive out in California. Too much tofu. Not enough steak.”
“Jace raises cattle,” Liam reminded Boone.
“Grass-fed. Organic. Humanely raised.” Boone punctuated each term with air quotes. “Does Jace meditate with them, too?”
“Don’t be dumb, Boone.” Wyatt crossed his arms over his chest, which meant they were in for one of his pep talks. Or lectures. “Jace is building a forward-thinking business. More and more people want to eat top-quality beef. That’s why Dad wants one of us to work with Jace and bring his methods back here. We’ll be able to sell a lot of meat to high-end restaurants if we change our ways.”
“I get that Dad wants to raise niche beef. But I don’t see why I need to move to California to make that happen.” Liam stood, unable to contain his frustration. “Hasn’t Dad ever heard of the internet? We can just look up whatever we need to know. Or give Jace a call and ask him.”
Wyatt shook his head. “Nah. Dad wants one of us to really understand the ins and outs of this before we invest any money in it. There’s a lot of innovation going on around Shelter Creek, the town where Jace lives. Methane capture, composting, stuff like that.”
“I never thought I’d see the day when Dad got excited about going green.” Liam couldn’t shake the feeling that this trip to California wasn’t really about Dad’s business plans.
“The world’s changing.” Wyatt glanced around the barn with a grim expression, as if he could see the changes right there in front of him. “We’ve all got to rethink what we’re doing. Better to be on the cutting edge than left in the dust.”
Liam would bet his next paycheck that Wyatt had planted that smallest straw in his hand. In his older-brother, manage-everything way, Wyatt was trying to give Liam a fresh start.
But Liam was already working on his fresh start. Eighteen months out of rehab, learning to face pain instead of numbing it, that was his fresh start. Being free of the painkillers that had sedated his very soul was a fresh start. He was doing okay here at the family ranch. He was sober and productive and staying out of trouble. The last thing he wanted to do was step out of his comfort zone.
Working on the ranch, seeing to the cattle—it was simple and good and a routine he could manage. Sure, he was restless sometimes, but that just made him work harder.
Still, he owed his family. They’d pulled him back from the edge and got him clean. Probably saved his life in the process. So if Dad wanted him in California, Liam would go to California.
“I bet it’s going to be nice out there. Good weather, great scenery.” Wyatt’s compassionate smile couldn’t hide the worry in his eyes. Ever since Mom passed away six years ago, Wyatt had tried to step into her shoes. Someone had to. Half the time, Dad was too obsessed with his ranch and business to realize he had sons. He mostly seemed to think of them as low-priced ranch hands.
“Kind of poetic, though.” Boone’s grin hadn’t changed since he was twelve and Liam was eight and he’d put a frog down Liam’s shirt. “Jace used to work for Dad during the off-season, and now you’re going to work for him.”
“Boone—” Wyatt pushed himself off the wall he’d been leaning on “—you’re supposed to be seeing to that steer with the wire cut. It’s about time to change the dressing.”
Boone might have a smart mouth, but when it came to animals he was the most patient of all of them. He had no formal veterinary training, but he worked closely with the vet whenever he visited, and seemed to know intuitively what a sick animal needed. “You’re right.” Boone pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. “I’d better get going.”
Wyatt fixed his managerial gaze on Tommy. “Did you get down there and fix that fence? We need to move it away from the edge of the wash. It’s steep there. I think the steer slid under it somehow.”
Tommy stood. “Will do.” He put a hand to Liam’s shoulder. “You gonna be okay? I’ll go to California if you’d rather stay here.”
Liam glanced at Wyatt, but his brother’s face was carefully neutral. Still, he could practically hear his thoughts. That Liam had to step out of hiding at some point. He had to learn to face the world. Only then could he trust that he was really and truly able to live sober.
Jace’s ranch was a safe space to do that. It also wouldn’t hurt to see how Jace was adjusting to ranching life, now that his rodeo days were behind him. It might be nice to learn how to do something other than just hang on.
“Thanks, Tommy. I appreciate it. But I’m fine. A couple months in California is a couple months away from you clowns. It’s going to be so peaceful, I might never come home.”
“Can I have your room?” Boone clapped his hat on and disappeared out the door before Liam could get close enough to smack him. Tommy followed, and Liam could hear the two of them laughing as they made their way down to the lower barn.
“Are you going to be okay with this?” Wyatt fidgeted with one of the cuffs of his button-down shirt.
“I’m fine. It’s a good chance to redeem myself. Contribute something to the family business, instead of robbing it.” Liam’s face heated, the way it always did when he remembered reaching into the safe in a 2:00 A.M. haze.
“Oh, come on.” Wyatt’s steady gaze met Liam’s. “You wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t been desperate. None of us knew what you were going through. We should have been paying more attention.”
Liam shrugged, the shame sour in his throat. “I guess so. Still doesn’t make it easy to live with.”
“Another reason to take this trip. Get a change of scene and get a break from all the reminders of what you went through. I’ll bet it will be good for you.”
“I’ll bet you arranged the entire thing.”
Wyatt had the presence of mind to try to look shocked. He was a terrible actor. “I’m just glad it worked out this way.”
“That, bro, is a nonanswer.”
Wyatt shrugged. “And you, bro, better get packing. It’s a long drive to California.”
