A Real Cowboy

With more than a touch of irritation rising inside her, she knocked briskly. He opened the door and her breath caught just a bit. Without his hat, his dark, slightly shaggy dark hair gleamed in the light. His intense blue eyes widened before he raised a hand in front of his face.

“Turn off that flashlight,” he exclaimed.

Warmth leaped into her cheeks as she realized she’d had the light shining directly on his handsome, chiseled features. She quickly clicked it off. “Sorry about that.”

He stepped outside and looked around. “What are you doing out here all by yourself in the dark?”

“You told my son that cowboys only bathe once a week and now Sammy won’t get into the bathtub.”

By the light of the room spilling out where they stood, she saw his amusement curve his lips upward. “Is that a fact,” he replied. “Sounds like a personal problem to me.”

“It’s all your fault,” she said, at the same time trying not to notice the wonder of his broad shoulders, the slim hips that wore his jeans so well.

He raised a dark eyebrow. “The way I see it, you started it.” He turned his head and spit to one side. “Oh, sorry about that. I’m just doing what cowboys do.”

This time the heat that filled her cheeks was a new wave of pure embarrassment. “Look, I’m sorry. When I told my son those things, I’d never really met a cowboy before. The only cowboy I’ve ever even seen in my entire life is the naked singing cowboy in Times Square.”

This time both his dark brows rose in surprise. “There’s a naked cowboy who sings?”

“Well, he’s not really naked. He wears a pair of briefs.” She shook her head in frustration. “But that’s not the point. I now have a little boy who refuses to take a bath because he’s decided he wants to be a cowboy and you said he only had to take one once a week. Can you please come back to the house with me and tell him differently?”

Lucas leaned back on his boot heels. “Little boys can get pretty sweaty just sitting around and doing nothing,” he mused. “Your son must be pretty headstrong for you to resort to coming all the way down here for my help.”

“He’s usually a good boy, but it’s been a long day and he’s a bit out of sorts and he told me the only way he’d get into the tub was if Cowboy Lucas told him to.”

Amusement once again danced in his eyes as he gave her a smile that made her feel just a little bit breathless. “Basically you’ve come to say you’re sorry about your preconceived notions about cowboys, because I think it would be nice if you apologized before asking for my help about anything.”

“You’re right. I am sorry,” she replied, wondering if he wanted her to get down on her knees before him and grovel, as well.

“Okay then, let’s go.” He pulled the door of his unit closed behind him and fell into step next to her.

“A naked, singing cowboy...and you New Yorkers think we’re strange.” He laughed, a low, deep rumble that she found far too pleasant.

She realized at that moment that she wasn’t afraid of cows or horses, that she wasn’t worried about falling into the mud or getting her hands dirty.

The real danger came from the attraction she felt for the man who walked next to her, a man whose laughter warmed her and who smelled like spring wind and leather.

She didn’t want to get too friendly with anyone on the ranch. She definitely didn’t want to feel attracted to any cowboy who worked here. She knew Cassie’s plan to sell the place and get back to New York City.

All she needed from Lucas was for him to straighten out bath time for Sammy and, before she knew it, she and her son and Cassie would be back on a plane headed back to their real life in New York.

Chapter 2 (#ulink_dbaeabdb-f3e4-54cf-9d88-57cc312f1970)

Nobody was surprised when six o’clock rolled around and there was no new boss in the building. Lucas sat at one of the long picnic tables sipping coffee as most of the other cowboys finished up their breakfasts.

Sunday morning breakfast was usually the quietest of the week, as lack of sleep and hangovers were invisible, unwelcomed guests. This morning the crew was a bit livelier than usual as they anticipated meeting their new boss.

“Think she’ll be here by noon?” Clay Madison asked Lucas drily.

“Big-city folk probably never see a sunrise,” Jerod Steen said from his seat down the table.

“I think maybe we should all cut her a little bit of slack. It’s the first morning and they’re now on central time, not eastern time,” Lucas replied.

He was perfectly content to sip his coffee and wait until Cassandra Peterson showed up for her official coronation as the new leader of the pack. He only hoped his fellow “brothers” wouldn’t tear her to bits on the very first morning.

At that moment Cassandra came through the door, followed by both Nicolette and Sammy. Sammy’s gaze tracked around the room, and when it landed on Lucas he gave him a big smile and an enthusiastic wave before he and Nicolette sat down on the picnic table bench closest to the door.

Cassandra stood just inside the door and cleared her throat, obviously nervous as she faced the dozen cowboys, who had all fallen silent. Cookie, the ranch-hand cook, made a baker’s dozen and now stood in the doorway between the dining area and the kitchen.

By the faint tremor in her voice and her forced smile, it was clear that Cassandra was uneasy. Lucas knew his attention should be focused on the woman who held his future in her trembling hands, but instead he found his gaze shifting to Nicolette.

Both she and Cassandra were clad in skinny jeans that probably cost more than Lucas’s entire wardrobe. Cassandra wore a tailored white blouse, the jeans and a pair of heels, but Nicolette had on a pair of gold sandals and a green form-fitting spring lightweight sweater. And the form it was fitting was slamming hot.

Unlike last night when her hair had hung freely beyond her shoulders, this morning it was neatly tamed and clasped in a green-and-blue little beaded tie at the nape of her neck.

Although he’d liked her hair the way it had been the night before, slightly wild with a touch of curl, this morning with it pulled back it gave him a perfect view of her long neck and delicate jawline.

He was vaguely aware of Cassandra talking to them about repairing the damage from the tornado and getting the ranch back up to normal.

Sammy turned his head and gave him a quick thumbs-up. Lucas nodded to the boy, whom he had found both bright and a bit precocious the night before. He’d had little interaction with Nicolette as he’d told her son that actually real cowboys bathed every night.

He wondered where the kid’s father was and if he was in the boy’s life. Lucas knew all about growing up without a father. Hell, he knew all about growing up without much of a mother, too.

The absence or not of a father in Sammy’s life is not your problem, he told himself and directed his attention back to Cassandra, who had introduced herself as Cassie. As long as she didn’t call herself Cass, he thought.

They were all Cass’s cowboys, and Cassandra Peterson had a lot to prove before any of them would even begin to consider themselves Cassie’s cowboys.

He turned his attention back to Cassie, as she appeared to be winding down. “I know it’s going to take a while for us all to get comfortable with each other. I also know that I’m asking a lot in hoping that you all will continue to do whatever you do as daily chores and get the property repairs finished as soon as possible.”

She turned her gaze to Adam, who worked as foreman. “If you could come up to the house with me, I’d like to have a chat with you about exactly how things run around here.”

Adam rose, looking none too happy, and he, Cassie, Nicolette and Sammy disappeared out the door.

“Guess that’s a wrap,” Dusty Crawford said, and grabbed his hat from the bench next to him.

“They won’t last a week here,” Brady Booth replied. He got up from the table and grasped his hat. “She looked so nervous, like she half expected us to rope and hog-tie her and send her back to New York.”

Dusty flashed dimples in a grin. “I wouldn’t mind roping her, but I might have something else in mind rather than sending her back to the big city. I wouldn’t mind having her as a bunk mate. She’s just my type, blonde and small and sexy.”

Lucas stood and tipped Dusty’s hat so it nearly covered his face. “Big talk from the baby in the group.” At twenty-six Dusty was the youngest of all the men. Truthfully, Lucas was just glad that as they all left the dining room the talk was about Cassandra and not Nicolette.

Not that he cared about the dark-haired beauty. He didn’t know anything about her and in any case didn’t need to know anything. She was just his boss’s friend, nothing more, nothing less.

He followed the rest of the men out into the early May morning and headed for the stables. The daily tasks were rotated, and today was Lucas’s day to ride the fence line and look for any breeches or issues.

Thank God he’d mucked the stalls the day before and wouldn’t have to do that nasty task again for another eleven days. It was one of the jobs that had to be done that nobody particularly liked to do.

This morning it was just his horse, Lucky, and him and the wide-open pasture. He strode toward the stables, breathing deeply of the clean air and enjoying the warmth of the sunshine on his shoulders.