Pursued by the Rich Rancher
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Catherine Mann
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11
One
Nina Lowery just didn’t get the cowboy craze.
Good thing she lived in Texas. All the cowboys made it easy to resist falling for any man after her marriage combusted. And never had she been more neck deep in cowboys than today as she accompanied her son to the weeklong HorsePower Cowkid Camp.
Nina peeled the back off the name tag and stuck it to her yellow plaid shirt that was every bit as new as her boots. She knelt in front of her four-year-old son and held out the tiny vest with his name stitched on it.
“Cody, you need to wear this so everybody knows which group you’re with. We don’t want you to get lost. Okay?”
Silently staring, Cody kept his eyes on the ground, so she had a perfect view of the top of his blond buzz cut. He lifted his hands just a hint, which she took as the okay to slide his spindly arms through the vest, leather fringe fanning in the wind. The summer smell of freshly mown hay mixed with the sticky little boy sweetness of perspiration and maple syrup from his breakfast pancakes. Cody had them every morning. Without fail.
They’d been running late today, so he’d eaten his breakfast in the car, dipping his pancake in a cup of syrup. Most of which drizzled all over his car seat. But after waking up at 4:00 a.m. to get ready, then driving from San Antonio to Fort Worth, she was too frazzled to deal with the fallout of disrupting any more of his daily routine. Syrup could be cleaned later.
There were far tougher issues to tackle in bringing up Cody than combating a trail of ants.
She would do anything for her little boy. Anything. Including immersing herself in the world of boots and spurs for seven days. Yeehaw.
About a month ago, when her four-year-old’s eyes had lit up during a field trip to a farm, she’d been taken aback. He’d been mesmerized by the horses. So Nina had devoted herself to becoming an expert on all things equine related, desperate for a means to break through the walls surrounding her autistic son.
Finding a pathway of communication was rare and cherished when parenting a child with autism.
Never in a million years would she have guessed this particular world would pique Cody’s interest. Usually boisterous encounters spun him up, leaving him disoriented and agitated. Sometimes even screaming. Rocking. His little body working overtime to block the excess stimuli.
But he liked it here. She could tell from his focus and the lack of tension in his body. She’d only seen him this way while drawing. He was a little savant with crayons and paint, finding creative canvases from rocks to boxes and, yes, walls. She even had a Monet-esque flower mural down her hall.
Apparently he was a horse savant, as well.
She held out the pint-size straw hat and let him decide whether or not he wanted to take it from her to wear. Textures were an iffy proposition for him. The brush of a rough fabric could send him into sensory overload, especially on a day when there were already so many new sights and sounds, horses and humans everywhere. She sidestepped to make way for a father pushing his daughter in a wheelchair, the tyke’s arms in the air as she squealed, “Giddyap, Daddy!”
Cody clutched his tiny Stetson in his hands until a long-legged ranch hand strutted past. Standing straight, his eyes tracking the man walking away, her son slid his hat in place and tilted it to the side just like the stable hand he watched. Nina breathed a sigh of relief. She’d made the right decision to come here.
The cowboy camp for special-needs kids was a clear fit for her son. The program had only started this summer, but was already receiving high acclaim. The wealthy McNair family had put their power, influence and money behind launching HorsePower Cowkid Camp on their hobby ranch—Hidden Gem. The bulk of their fortune, though, had been made in their jewelry design house that created rustic Western styles.
Cody toyed with the fringe on his vest, tracing the stamped jewel patterns imprinted in the leather. She reminded herself to stay cautiously optimistic. They’d only just arrived.
She’d learned long ago not to set unrealistic expectations. Life worked better when she celebrated individual moments of success, such as how Cody took steps toward that cowboy. A horse whinnied and her son smiled. That meant more than the hundreds of hugs she would never get.
“Cody, let’s walk around and explore. We have a couple of hours to settle in before the first activity.” She was used to rambling on to fill the silences. Her son did speak. Just not often. Rather than expecting Cody to answer, she was advised by the speech therapist to accept it as a pleasant surprise when he did and take heart in his advanced vocabulary choices.
Cody held up his hand for her to take and she linked her fingers around his. A rare reach-out. Her heart filled at the chance to touch her child. If Cody wanted the ranch experience, she would follow that broad-shouldered cowboy to the ends of the earth.
Weaving around the other families, she tried not to notice how many of the children were accompanied by two parents. She savored the feel of her son’s hand in hers and charged ahead to a corral about ten yards away, on the periphery of the camper chaos.
Multiple barns, cabins and corrals were walking distance from the lodge. Some would call the lodge a mansion—a rustic log ranch mansion with two wings. One wing for vacationers, the other wing for the McNairs’ personal living quarters. The place had expanded from a B & B to a true hobby ranch, with everything from horseback riding to a spa, fishing and trail adventures...even saloon-style poker games. They catered to a variety of people’s needs, from tourists to weddings.
And now this special needs kids’ camp, as well.
She refused to be wowed by the family’s power. She’d walked that path, been too easily blinded by her ex’s charm. The thought of a wealthy life of ease with a handsome guy had seemed like a fairy tale and so she’d seen what she wanted to see. But her would-be prince had definitely turned into a toad, taking that fairy-tale ending with him.
Nina skirted past a half dozen children surrounding a rodeo clown passing out toy horses. Childish squeals filled the air.
“I wanna spotted pony.”
“Please, please the brown one with a girl rider.”
“I wike the one wiff sparkles on the saddle!”
Cody, however, kept his eyes on the cowboy. For the most part, she’d only seen chaps on men in aftershave commercials. Even in Texas they weren’t common. This guy’s leathers were dusty and worn, the type a man wore to work. A real man. Not an overindulged toad prince like her ex.
So okay, maybe there was something to be said for the cowboy appeal after all.
Cody’s cowboy leaped over the split-rail fence in a smooth blend of instinct and strength, his tan Stetson staying firmly in place. He walked with loose-hipped confidence toward a wild horse pawing the ground, nostrils flaring. The animal clearly didn’t like the saddle on his back and eyed the approaching man with wariness. The horse danced nervously, shifting uneasy weight from hindquarter to hindquarter, powerful muscles flexing. She felt her son’s pulse kick in excitement. So in spite of the tremor of fear in her heart, she stepped closer to the corral.
She’d been thrown once as a child and hadn’t been a fan of horses since then. She liked to think she was a person who learned her lesson. Once burned. Twice shy.
Yet the man in front of her showed no fear as he spoke softly to the stressed beast, lulling with his hypnotic voice and gentle strokes. Her stomach gripped just as he slid onto the horse’s back.
Pinning his ears back, the horse yanked hard on the reins. Now the animal was well and truly pissed.
Cody tugged his hand free. “Let go.”
And she only then realized she’d been squeezing too hard. “Sorry, sweetie.”
“Uh-huh.” Her son walked closer to the fence, and a different fear took over. Her child had very little sense of danger.
She stifled her own anxiety and stepped closer. “Cody, we have to stay outside the fence to watch. We can’t go inside and disturb the man’s work.”
“Kay...” Her son nodded, enraptured.
The cowboy urged the horse gently forward. The horse bucked hard but had no luck at unseating the skilled rider. His cowboy hat, however, went flying. The midmorning sun glinted off his head of thick black hair.
The kind of hair a woman could run her fingers through.
The wayward thought hit her as hard and fast as those hooves pounding the ground. She’d never bought into cowboy lore, especially after being tossed on her butt by that supposedly docile pony. Until now. At this moment, she couldn’t take her eyes off the smooth flow of the ranch hand’s body as he became one with the horse. He rode the frenzy without letting it take control of him, rolling naturally with the unpredictable movements. She understood the restraint and self-control it took to tap in to that Zen state in the face of such outright terror.
She carried fears of her own. Of not being able to care for her son as a single parent. Of trusting a man again after the hell and betrayal her ex-husband had put her through before their breakup and then his death in a motorcycle accident.
Those fears were nothing compared to the terrors her son faced. And the roadblocks.
Somehow she could tell this cowboy understood that fear. Knew how to ride through the moment until peace returned. He had the well-being of the horse in his care in mind at all times. And Cody was mesmerized.
So was she.
Finally—she had no idea how long they stood watching—the horse settled into a restless trot, circling the fenced area, snorting. Nina exhaled in a rush, only just now realizing she’d been holding her breath and secretly rooting for him.
Cody knelt down and picked up the man’s hat, shook off the dust and held it out. “Mister. Your Stetson.”
Her son’s voice came out a little raspy from being used so infrequently. The cowboy tipped his face toward them, the sunshine streaming over...
Oh my.
He’d stepped right off some Wild West movie poster and into her reality. High, strong cheekbones and a square jaw, damn good-looking power. She blinked fast against the sting of dust in the air.
He guided the horse to their side of the fence, and her stomach flipped. Because of close proximity to the horse, right?
Ha.
She’d quit lying to herself a long time ago.
The cowboy dipped closer, extending an arm toward Cody. “Thank you, little man.” His voice was like Southern Comfort on the rocks, smooth with a nip. “I’m guessing by that vest you’re here for camp. Are you having fun?”
“Uh-huh.” Cody nodded without making eye contact. “Spectac-u-lar.”
Would the man understand? This was a special needs camp, after all.
The cowboy stroked a hand along the horse’s neck. “I see you like Diamond Gem. He’s a good horse, but too large for you. The camp counselors will start you out with pony rides and before you know it you’ll be ready for the big leagues.”
Cody shuffled his feet and tugged at the fringe on his vest.
“Thank you,” Nina said. “Cody’s not very talkative, but he understands all we’re saying.”
He looked at her, his eyes laser blue. A shiver of awareness tingled through her. Did all of him have to be so damn charismatic?
A dimple tucked into one of his cheeks. “I’m usually not much of a chatty guy myself, actually.”
He’d done better with Cody today than her ex-husband ever had. Warren had been a charmer, sweeping her off her feet with extravagant gestures, making her believe in the fairy-tale ending right up until...ribbit. Warren was a shallow, spoiled mama’s boy with too much money and too little ambition other than the next thrill. When life got real, when the day-to-day specifics of dealing with their son’s autism added up, he’d checked out on the marriage. Then he’d checked out on life altogether in his reckless motorcycle accident.
Cody scuffed his little boots in the dirt, his mouth moving, repeating, “Rodeo man, rodeo man.”
The cowboy dipped his head, then nodded. “Back in the day, I was. Not any longer.”
Cody went silent, and Nina scrambled for something to say. For her son’s sake, of course, not because she wanted another taste of that Southern Comfort drawl saturating her senses. “Then what was that show all about?”
“Just doing my job, ma’am. This was actually a low-key session,” he said, his voice washing over her as he sat astride the horse, his muscular thighs at eye level...and his hips. Diamond Gem shook his head up and down, shaking the reins, a reminder that the horse, although calm now, was still unsettled. “Diamond Gem and I have been working together for a couple of weeks.”
That was an easy session?
“Do you miss the rodeo days?” she found herself asking, unable to stop herself from thinking of all the regrets Warren had lamented over after settling down.
The dusty cowboy scratched under his hat, then settled it back in place. “Let’s just say these days I prefer to spend my time communing with the animals rather than performing for people.”
“And this horse? You were communing?”
“This fella was confiscated by local animal control for neglect and...” He glanced at her son. “And for other reasons. Releasing him into the wild where he would be unable to fend for himself wasn’t an option. So he came here to us where we can socialize him. He’s a little green and gun-shy, but we’ve made progress.”
So he’d used the old skills to help this horse. Was he playing on her heartstrings as a part of some camp gimmick or was he as genuine as those blue eyes? She settled on saying, “That’s admirable of you to risk breaking a rib—or worse—to help the horse.”
The dimple twitched at his cheek again. “I may have enjoyed myself a little bit...” His eyes dipped down to the name tag stuck to her shirt. “Nina.”
Her skin prickled and heat flushed through her at the sound of her name coated in those whiskey tones. What harm was there in indulging in a light flirtation with a regular guy? No risk. She was only here for a week. Although she could be imagining his interest.
It was probably just his job as an employee to be polite to the customers.
“Well, my son certainly enjoyed it, as well. Thank you.” She backed up a step. “We should start unpacking or we’ll miss the lunch kickoff.”
“Wouldn’t want that to happen.” He touched the brim of his hat. “Y’all have a nice time at the HorsePower Cowkid Camp.”
Her skin flushed, heating at the sound of his low and rumbly voice soothing ragged nerves. How strange to be lulled and turned on all at once. But God, how she craved peace in her life. She treasured it in a way she never would have guessed a decade ago.
And watching the lumbering cowboy ride away, she had a very real sense of how smooth and sexy could coexist very, very well in one hot package.
* * *
For the first time in months, Alex McNair was stoked about the possibility of asking out a woman. He’d been telling himself for months he needed to move on after his cousin got engaged to the only woman Alex had ever wanted to marry. But the one-night stands he’d been having lately didn’t count as moving forward with his life.
He slung the saddle off Diamond Gem’s back and passed it over to a stable hand. Diamond Gem looked sideways at Alex from the cross ties and let out a long nicker. He preferred to brush and settle his own horses, but his responsibilities overseeing the Hidden Gem Ranch interfered more often than not with that simple work these days. He missed free time in the saddle, but his MBA was needed here more than his equestrian skills.
And the number-one priority today? He was due to meet his grandmother for an early lunch. That took precedence over anything else. He didn’t know how many more meals they would share, since she had terminal brain cancer.
With his grandmother’s illness, he had to step up to fill the huge void left by their McNair matriarch. Which probably made this a bad time to think about starting a relationship, even a short-term one, but the woman—Nina—intrigued him. Her curly red hair and soft curves snagged his attention, and the memory of her berry scent lingered in his senses.
And the protective way she watched over her son drew him in at a time when his emotions were damn raw. He didn’t want to overanalyze why she pulled at him. He was just glad as hell for the feeling.
It had taken him a long while to get over the fact that his cousin would be marrying Johanna. But he’d gotten past that. He had to. She would be in the family forever now. Family was too important for any kind of awkwardness to linger.
The family needed to stick together, especially with their grandmother’s cancer. They needed to support her, and had to make sure the McNair empire ran smoothly through this time of transition. Giving their grandmother peace during her final days was their most important task.
Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman—Nina. He didn’t even know her last name, for God’s sake, but he sure intended to find out. He could see asking her to accompany him to his cousin’s wedding. How far did she live from here? People came from all over for the camp, but the bulk were local.
Regardless, distance didn’t really matter. Not to a McNair. He had the family plane at his disposal. And yet all that money couldn’t give them the one thing each of them really wanted.
Their grandmother’s health.
He strode toward the main house, veering off to the family’s wing where he was to meet his grandmother on the porch. His boots crunched along pine straw, children’s chatter and a banjo playing echoed in the distance. Branches rustled overhead. Some of those oak trees were older than him and he’d climbed those thick branches as a kid.
He neared the family porch where his grandmother—Mariah McNair—already sat in a rocking chair. A tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of tea waited on the table between the two rockers.
His gut knotted with dread over the day that rocker would be empty.
Her favored jean jumper and boots fit her more loosely these days. And her hair was shorter now. For as long as he could remember, she’d worn it long, either in a braid down her back or wrapped in a bun on her head. But she’d undergone a procedure to drain blood buildup in her head a few months ago. Her hair had been cut short and shaved away at the surgery site.
That made it real for him. She was going to die sooner rather than later, and not of old age. That damn tumor was going to steal her from them.
“You made it,” she said, clapping her hands. “Come sit beside me, load up a plate and let’s talk.”
“I’ll clean up and be right back down.” He worried about her getting sick on top of everything else.
“Now is better. A little dust and dirt isn’t going to make me keel over. Besides, I’ve seen you messier.”
“That you have.” He swept off his hat and hunkered down into the rocker beside her, resting his hat on his knee, thinking of how cute that kid Cody had looked passing it back to him. “How are you feeling, Gran? Do you want more tea?”
He reached for the pitcher, noticing she’d only nibbled at the corner of a sandwich.
“I’m fine, Alex, thank you. I have the sunshine, a glass of sweet tea and one of my grandchildren here. All is right in my world.”
But he knew that wasn’t really true. She didn’t have long to live. Months. Maybe only weeks. She’d been getting her affairs in order, deciding who would inherit what. Not that he cared a damn thing about the McNair wealth and holdings. He just wanted his grandmother.
He reached for a plate and piled on sandwiches, more to make her happy. His stomach felt as if it had rocks in it right now. “Thanks for lunch. It’s a chaotic day with all the campers coming in.”
“Stone surprised us all by starting that camp instead of taking over the jewelry enterprises, but in a good way.”
Alex touched his hat on his knee. “That he did.”
“His new life fits him. Johanna helped him see that path while she helped him with his inheritance test.” Mariah set her plate of uneaten sandwiches aside. “Alex, I want to talk to you about your test.”
“My test?” The rocks in his stomach turned icy. “I thought that was just a game to get Stone and Johanna back together.”
At least he’d hoped so as time passed and his grandmother didn’t bring up the subject of putting her three grandchildren through an arbitrary test to win their portion of the estate.
It wasn’t about the money. It was about the land. A mega-resort developer simply could not get a hold of Alex’s portion of the land. That, he definitely cared about.
“Well, Alex, you thought wrong. I need to feel secure about the future of what we’ve built. All three of you children have a stubborn streak.”
“One we inherited from you.”
“True enough.” She laughed softly before her blue eyes turned sad. “Much more so than my two children.”
Her daughter had been a junkie who dropped her child—Stone—off onto Mariah’s doorstep. Alex and his twin Amie’s father had been unmotivated to do more than spend his inheritance and avoid his wife.
Mariah had been more of a parent to Alex than his own.
He, Amie and Stone were like siblings, having grown up here at Hidden Gem together. Once they’d finished college, they all turned their attention to home, working to keep the McNair holdings profitable even after their grandfather died. Each one of them had a role to play. Alex managed the family lands—Hidden Gem Ranch, which operated as a bed-and-breakfast hobby ranch for the rich and famous. Until recently, Stone had managed the family jewelry design house and store. Diamonds in the Rough featured high-end rustic designs, from rodeo belt buckles and stylized bolos to Aztec jewelry, all highly sought after around the country. And Amie—a gemologist—created most of their renowned designs, even though the McNair jewelry company was now under new management, an outsider his grandmother had hired.
Gran rocked slowly, sipping her iced tea, her hand thin and pale with spidery veins as she set the glass back on the table between them. “Now back to what I’ve planned for your test.”
That damn test again. Stone had already passed his test to retain control of the jewelry business. Gran had made Stone work with Johanna to find loving homes for his grandmother’s dogs. Yet once Stone had finished, he surprised them all by proposing to Johanna and announcing he didn’t want to run Diamonds in the Rough after all. He didn’t want the all-consuming ambition. The camp had been Stone’s brainchild, shifting his focus to the family’s charity foundation, investing his portion of the estate into a self-generating fund to run the HorsePower program while a new CEO assumed command as head of Diamonds in the Rough.
“Seriously, Gran? You’re still insisting on the test? I assumed since Stone backed out and opted to live on his own portfolio you would pass the company along to Amie.”
“And leave the running of the ranch to you?”
He stayed silent. The land. This place. He’d put his heart and soul into it. But that was his grandmother’s decision to make. Money wasn’t a concern. He had his own. He could start fresh if need be.
Except he didn’t want to. He wanted his home to stay untouched by takeover from some mega-ranch theme park.
Mariah set aside her tea. “Alex, it’s a simple test really. There’s a competitor—Lowery Resorts—that has been quietly buying up shares of the McNair empire through shell corporations.”
Alarms went off in his head. This was the worst possible time for someone to stage a takeover. Stockholders were already on edge about his grandmother’s illness, concerned about the uncertain future of the McNair holdings. “A controlling percentage?”
“Not yet. But between my illness, Stone’s resignation as CEO and his replacement still gaining his footing, some investors perceive a void. If our loyalties split or if they continue consolidating, we could be at risk of having our haven turned into a sideshow resort.”
How the hell had this happened? His hands gripped the arms of the chair and he resisted the urge to vent his frustration. He bit back the words he wanted to spout and simply said, “How did they manage that?”
“When word first leaked of my illness, they moved fast and took advantage of investor fears. I should have seen that coming. I trusted old friendships. I was wrong. I need to move faster now. Time’s too important.”
He should have seen this coming. He should have thought beyond his part of the family holdings. “We could have Stone return as CEO until the crisis with the Lowery Resorts passes.”
“No, he doesn’t want it, and I need to see the company settled with our new CEO, Preston Armstrong, in control before I can rest easily. The board and I chose Preston because we believe in him, but he will need time to gain investors’ trust. So in the meantime, I need your help.”
“You don’t need to make it a test.” He patted her hand, then gripped it. “Just tell me what to do for you and I’m here for you, for the family.”
Smiling, she gave his hand a squeeze back, before her eyes narrowed with the laser focus that had leveled many in the business world. “The Lowery family has a vulnerability in their portfolio.”
“You want me to exploit it?” His mind churned with possibilities he wanted to discuss with Stone.
“Convince the Lowerys to sell back a sizeable portion of those shares bought by their shell companies and I’ll transfer all my shares of the ranch into your hands effective immediately.”
He waved aside the last part of her words. “It’s not about me accumulating a larger part of the homestead. It’s about our family. I will not allow our land to pass into anyone else’s hands.”
She nodded tightly. “There’s that old competitive spirit of yours. I was wondering if you’d buried it completely under that laid-back air you carry around these days.”
“Hmm.” He didn’t like reminders of that side of himself. He picked up his tea and drank. There was still a lot of dirt inside him to wash away from those rodeo days. Things he’d allowed his parents to push him to do. Things he regretted.
“You need to be aware, the Lowery family is going to be resistant. You’ll need to be careful and savvy in gaining the trust of the one chink in their armor. I’ve even given you a head start.”
He paused mid-drink, then set his glass back down carefully. “What do you mean by head start?”
Her thumbs rubbed along the arms of the wooden rocker. “The vulnerable shares belong to the Lowery grandson. His widowed mother is the executor, and she needs to invest wisely for the boy’s future—long-term.”
A kid? A widow? A creeping sensation started up his spine, as if he were about to get kicked by a horse or run over by a stampede. “Gran, what have you done?”
“I investigated all the Lowerys, of course. And when I found out the grandson adores all things cowboy, I made sure a brochure for our camp landed in his mother’s hands so we would have the chance to meet with them—away from the grandparents’ influence.”
Ah, damn. It couldn’t be...
“In fact, I believe you’ve already met her and her son.” She pointed a frail finger toward the corral, where she would have had a clear view of his morning activities.
Crap. He could almost hear that stampede gaining speed, ready to run him over.
“The lovely red-haired lady who watched you work with Diamond Gem.”
