Christmas on the Ranch
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Julianna Morris
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PROLOGUE
ALAINA WAS WONDERING if she’d missed a turn or if her GPS had malfunctioned. It felt as if she’d been driving forever.
“In one hundred feet, turn left,” the electronic voice from the GPS finally intoned.
Sure enough, there was a road marked with a sign for the Double Branch Ranch. She passed over two miles of grassland before reaching the first outbuildings, then finally drove into the ranch center and parked next to a mud-splattered late model pickup.
The main house had two floors and an attic. It was solidly built from logs and surrounded by a broad covered porch. Her imagination instantly painted it with a large family and comfy outdoor furniture.
Lovely.
As Alaina opened the SUV door, a dog raced from one of the barns, barking. To some people he’d probably sound ferocious, but his ears were tilted with excitement, not aggression, and the barks were high-pitched, rather than deep with warning or anger. She’d learned a good deal about animal communication from the wildlife experts she had worked with over the years.
“Danger, come back here.” A tall man strode forward to grab his collar. “Don’t be afraid. He’s protective, not vicious.”
She stepped down from the SUV. “I wasn’t afraid. Hello, Danger. You’re a beauty.”
Danger was mostly black and he swished his tail, his mouth open in a big doggy grin. He whined and tried to get away from the grip the man had on his collar.
“I’m Alaina Wright,” she said. “Are you Gideon Carmichael by any chance?”
“That’s right.” He gave her hand a perfunctory shake. “Am I supposed to know you?”
“No, but I’ve heard about you and the Double Branch. You practice a traditional style of ranching and you’re relatively close to Yellowstone National Park. I’ve also been told you have a foreman’s house that’s going unused.”
A wary expression crept into Gideon Carmichael’s brown eyes. “The place is more a small cabin than a house, but that’s correct, it’s empty most of the time. I was the foreman when I inherited the ranch, so there wasn’t any need to hire a replacement. Why do you ask?”
“Because I have a business proposition. I’d like to use the hou...cabin, for a year. I’ll provide all my own supplies, including firewood, since I understand that while the building has electricity, it’s heated solely by a fireplace insert.”
Gideon stared as if she’d sprouted wings and her skin had turned green. Her sister-in-law, a successful Manhattan lawyer, had suggested sending a letter first, but Alaina had wanted to get a feel for the area before committing herself, and then expedite the arrangement.
“Oh, and I’ll pay you twenty-five thousand dollars,” she added, realizing she’d left out the most important part. “You’d keep the money, whether I remain the whole year or not.”
He cleared his throat. “Why would you want to stay at the Double Branch? This isn’t a tourist location. You could rent a place in West Yellowstone or down in Jackson Hole, or even stay in the park itself. It would be a whole lot easier.”
“I’ve been moving from one accommodation to another for the past six weeks, but I’m a wildlife photographer. Trying to be, anyhow. I can’t get the photos I want with excited tourists around me, and when summer comes it will only get worse. Working from a location like your ranch could help jump-start my career. You’re on the edge of an extraordinary wilderness area.”
The furrows deepened in Gideon’s forehead. “Except in Yellowstone or the Grand Teton, you’d have park rangers to assist if there was a problem. I employ several ranch hands, but none of us have time to look after you.”
“I don’t need to be looked after. You’d have no responsibility toward me beyond being my landlord,” Alaina assured hastily. She handed him the envelope from Janet’s law office. “Here’s the paperwork, which includes a liability release for you, your ranch and your employees. If you agree, you’ll receive a certified check for twenty-five thousand dollars before I move in. That would also cover payment of the electricity I’d use.”
He regarded the envelope as if it were a snake threatening to strike. She’d learned that he had inherited the ranch from his great-grandfather, who’d had a reputation for being the toughest, most humorless man in this part of Montana. A man of few words, except when he had a bee in his bonnet, according to her source. Perhaps Gideon took after the old guy. She’d hoped that he would be more open-minded because he was one of the youngest ranchers in the area, though based on the grim look in his eyes, she’d indulged in wishful thinking.
How did someone live without a sense of humor? Laughter had been a lifeline during the worst times in her life.
“I’ll take a look,” he said finally. “How do I reach you?”
“My cell number is in there, or if you prefer, you can make contact through my attorney, Janet Whitcomb. At the moment I have a room at the Old Faithful Inn, so I’m not too far away. As the crow flies, that is, it’s a fair drive out of the park and around to get here.”
He gave her a curt nod and Alaina took it as a sign that she should leave. Danger cocked his head and let out another whine as she got back in her SUV. Perhaps they could become friends if his owner agreed to let her stay on the ranch.
Gideon Carmichael reminded her of a bull elk—stubborn, arrogant and the master of his universe. She’d have to go somewhere else if he didn’t agree to her proposal, but it would be a shame. The Double Branch was the best location she’d been able to find near Yellowstone to get the photographs she wanted to become known for taking.
But one thing was sure, if he did agree, dealing with him would be one of her biggest challenges.
“WHO WAS THAT?” Gideon’s mother asked as she stepped out on the porch.
His stepdad had passed unexpectedly a few months ago and she’d been visiting each of her children. Her doctor claimed her health was fine, but she’d lost weight and was sleeping poorly, so Gideon had asked her to stay for a longer visit at the ranch or to consider living there permanently. She’d spent her childhood summers here, so it was a place of happy memories. Surely being at the Double Branch would help.
“Son?” Helene prompted as he continued to look at a letter in the packet that Alaina had given him.
“It was a wildlife photographer who wants to live on the ranch for a year. She’s willing to pay for the service, and I’d keep the money, whether or not she lasts the whole twelve months.”
Helene patted his arm. “And you hope she won’t.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. I learned to read your poker face a long time ago, including when you claimed your black eye came from being tackled during football practice.”
Gideon grinned wryly. “You knew I’d been fighting, then?”
“I knew.” She kissed his cheek. “But Stewart thought we should let it go. He was sure you had a good reason.”
A tight ache grew in Gideon’s throat. He missed his stepdad, though their relationship had been rocky in the beginning. Rocky? What an understatement. After his biological father deserted the family, Gideon had carried a chip on his shoulder the size of Montana. But Stewart had let time and patience do their work, and they’d grown close. Now it hurt like the devil to have him gone.
“Dad was a wise man,” Gideon said. “A new kid was bullying the other students. He went after a smaller boy with his fists and I put myself in the middle.”
“That sounds like you. It... I never told you how much it meant to Stewart when you boys started calling him Dad.” She squared her shoulders. “Now, what can you tell me about this photographer?”
“Not much, except that she has twenty-five thousand dollars to throw around. According to the letter from her lawyer, she hopes to have everything settled by the first of June.”
“You could give her credit for knowing what she wants and being willing to pay for it.”
“She wants to take pictures, Mom. She claims she can’t get them in the park, but people have taken millions of pictures in Yellowstone. On the other hand, if I refuse, she’ll just offer the money to another rancher, so why not accept?”
Helene nodded. “At least on the Double Branch you can keep an eye out to make sure she’s all right. From a distance, of course. You wouldn’t want to interfere with her work.”
“Having to look after her is exactly what I’m worried about. I’m too busy to keep a tenderfoot out of trouble for a week, much less a year.”
“Refuse if you have a bad feeling about the situation,” his mother advised.
Gideon thought about the money Alaina Wright was willing to pay. The foreman’s cabin was going empty and a tenant’s electrical use would be minimal. He was doing well with the Double Branch, but the extra income would add a cushion to his cash reserves. So while his instincts said to refuse, he wasn’t going to.
The offer was too good to pass up.
