To Tempt a Cowgirl

“Any ideas where to eat?” he asked.

“That all depends if you prefer Mexican or burgers.”

“If I prefer burgers are you taking me to a drive-in?”

“No. A café with booths,” she said. “Red vinyl.”

“It doesn’t get any better than that.”

She smiled politely and started the truck. Ten minutes later she parked in front of a building that had obviously once been a gas station. He held the door for her and a woman in a classic pink waitress’s uniform pointed them to a booth in the corner. The menus were waiting at the table, but Dani made no move to look at hers.

“There’s only one thing to get here—The Works.”

“I always make it a point of trusting those that know,” he said, stashing the menu back behind the napkin holder.

“An excellent practice,” she said, sipping her water. The waitress started toward them but stopped when Dani held up two fingers. “I hope you don’t mind Coke,” she said. “It’s either that or orange soda.”

“Coke is fine,” he said reaching for his own water. “Quite the ordering system you have here.”

“Saves time.”

“Looking to get away fast?” he couldn’t help asking.

“Oh, no,” Dani replied, looking vaguely guilty. “It’s just that...” She fought with herself for a moment, then one corner of her mouth twisted a little before she said, “To be honest, I was engaged to be married until a little over a month ago. I’m not looking for, well...anything.”

“Not even friendship?”

She frowned as she studied him, as if debating whether or not that was possible. “Friendship is fine,” she finally said. “But I make friends slowly.”

“Warning me off again?”

“I’m a believer in full disclosure,” she said, her hazel gaze meeting his candidly. “I like to know where I stand and I assume other people are the same.”

“I agree.”

Dani leaned back as the waitress set two Cokes on the table, waiting until the woman walked away before saying, “Please understand that I’m not saying we won’t become friends. It’s just—”

“Full disclosure. I get it.”

“Thanks.” She pushed the napkin-wrapped flatware aside so that she could rest her elbows on the table. “How is it that you came to vacation at the Staley house?”

He gave a casual shrug. “I wanted to...disappear, I guess—somewhere in Montana—and I found the place through a private company that specializes in leasing executive homes.”

“Oh.” She gave a considering nod. “I always thought of the Staley house as more of a big-ass mansion than an executive home.”

Gabe smiled. “It is huge. I rattle around in it, but the windows are big and the light is great.”

“You’ll have to give me a tour before you leave. I’ve lived next door, endured their traffic while growing up, but have never been in the place.”

“Sure,” Gabe said, pleased that she was talking about seeing him again sometime in the future. “Does the traffic across your place bother you?”

She shook her head. “Not recently, because no one has lived there, but when the Staleys were in residence, yeah. The road is just a little too close to the house. Dad used to cuss out Granddad for granting the original owners access across our property, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.”

“Shame,” he said, sipping his Coke. And interesting. He waited until the food came before he asked her what she did for a living.

“Until recently I worked in marketing at a winter equipment wholesaler, but they went out of business, so I decided to move home and try my luck at training horses.”

“You can make a living training horses?” Gabe asked.

“I’m going to try. It’s the perfect time. I have a little severance pay to invest in my business and we own the ranch outright.”

“Those are good circumstances,” he agreed.

“My sister Jolie might join me after she gets done with graduate school. She’s doing an internship right now at a big experimental farm in southern Idaho.”

“She trains, too?” This was looking worse and worse, but the more he knew, the more he could plan how to approach this matter.

“She’s a barrel racer. She puts on clinics, but I prefer working with horses to people.”

“Why?”

She smiled. “Horses,” she said, tapping her spoon on the table, “are logical. People are not.”

“I’m logical.” A characteristic he’d ignored until he started college and discovered that there was comfort and security in step-by-step processes—a welcome change from his former scattershot approach to life and the resulting chaos. He’d reached the point where he couldn’t imagine operating any other way...or perhaps he was afraid to, afraid he’d lose everything he’d worked for if he went back to shooting from the hip.

“To a point. But if a horse does something, it’s the result of a stimulus, either current or remembered. The right stimulus will produce the right result. Progress may be slow, but if you take your time—” she shrugged her shoulders “—you’re usually successful. People, on the other hand...people have agendas.”

He shifted slightly. “Are you saying all horses behave logically?”

“Oh, no. Sometime horses are too traumatized to overcome their flight responses. They short-circuit.”

“And are no longer logical.” He wondered if she was talking about the paint mare she’d just bought.

“They would be if they could overcome the fear factor.”

“Maybe people are the same.”

“They are,” she agreed in a halfhearted way that made him wonder if she was thinking about her own recent past.

“Do you prefer horses to people, Dani Brody?”

She gave a slow considering nod. “Yes. A lot of the time I do.”

* * *

THERE WAS SOMETHING about Gabe Matthews that drew in Dani, made her want to know him better. Perhaps even trust him. Maybe it was that behind his easy charm, she sensed that he was as guarded as she was. That he had his secrets and his vulnerabilities, just as she did.

Once upon a time she hadn’t been guarded, or even all that vulnerable, despite the knocks life had sent her way. Nor had Allie—at least not in the way she was now. But look at the two of them today, ready to believe that anyone who was friendly or showed the slightest inclination toward pursuing an acquaintanceship had an agenda. She wasn’t as bad as Allie, but she now had barriers where there hadn’t been any prior to her experience with Chad the Liar.