To Tempt a Cowgirl

Was this how she wanted to live?

A small voice told her that this was the way she had to live until she got a handle on what Chad had done to her. He’d betrayed her, made her feel stupid for trusting him, made her lose faith in her own judgment. She hated that.

After dropping off Gabe, Dani stopped at the mailbox, then turned into the driveway leading to the house. She was almost to the cattle guard when she stepped on the brake and leaned forward over the steering wheel to peer out the windshield.

“What the hell?” she muttered as she got out of the idling truck and walked over to the edge of a huge stream of water flowing from the edge of the lawn across the driveway to the barn. The white plastic standpipe had been snapped at the base. Dani bit back another curse as she saw a second river flowing behind the barn.

“Son of a bitch,” she said, as she approached river number two. That standpipe was also snapped. What had happened and, more important, where was the water main?

She hadn’t a clue and had no idea where to start looking.

A few minutes later she stalked back to her idling truck, pausing for a moment before she got in to check the driveway for tire tracks and footprints. Nothing.

A fluke. This had to be a fluke.

She put the truck in gear and parked it a few yards from the water flow before heading to the house, where Gus was barking, demanding to be let out. He galloped out, heading straight to the flowing water when she opened the door. Dani followed, taking her phone out of her pocket and holding it for a moment as she debated. She had to call Allie and if she didn’t know where the water main was located, then she had to get Kyle’s number. No way around that, even though she was going to get another earful about bad ranch karma. Not to be helped. She punched her sister’s number into the phone, got the out-of-range recording.

Great. She pressed her lips together for a moment. Mac was working halfway across the state, Gina had babies to tend to. With a sigh, she called her sister again, left a message telling her she needed Kyle’s cell number, then, after ending the call, she hit the number of the closest able-bodied guy in the area. Gabe.

“Hey, this is Dani Brody,” she said when he answered. “Are you busy?”

“Not really.”

“Are you handy with plumbing tools?”

There was the briefest hesitation before he said, “I don’t think I have any lying around.”

“I have the tools. I just need some muscle and know-how.”

“Be right over.”

* * *

WATER WAS FLOWING across the driveway when Gabe drove in.

“We need to shut off the main,” he said as soon as he got out of his car.

Dani gave him a frazzled look. “I’d love to do that, but I have no idea where this one is. I turned off the two I know about, but no luck, so I called Allie and she’s calling her ex-husband, and I should have an answer—”

The phone buzzed in her hand and she turned her back to Gabe as she answered.

“Thank goodness...yes, I’m sure he was happy you had to call him...” Dani started walking “Right...yeah, I know...he’s where? Well, at least that’s good to know.”

Gabe followed as she walked around the barn and kicked dirt off a round cover with one foot. He lifted it, revealing a couple of faucets a good arm’s length down the hole.

“I guess if we turn off both of them, it should handle everything,” Dani said to him, then into the phone she said, “My neighbor. Everyone I know is at work...of course it makes sense.”

Gabe lowered himself to the ground and shoved his hand into the pipe, gritting his teeth as he worked to turn the stubborn handles with little more than the tips of his fingers.

“Is there a key?” Dani asked into the phone. “Thanks. I’ll look.” Dani disappeared into the barn and came out with a long metal fork that she bent down to give him. “Use this.”

Gabe pushed himself to a sitting position, took the fork and shoved it down the hole, using the tines to twist off the faucet. The flow from the closest broken standpipe slowed to a trickle within a matter of seconds.

“Yes, it worked,” Dani said. “Thanks, Al. I know this wasn’t easy...yeah. I will. Promise. Drive safe.”

Dani clicked the phone off and dropped it into her pocket. “Thanks. I kind of panicked when I couldn’t find the main and Allie was out of cell range.”

“Sure thing,” he said, brushing the loose dirt off his side. “Let’s take a look at the problem.”

The problem was that the two standpipes had been snapped off at ground level.

“This is strange,” he muttered.

“Yeah,” Dani agreed.

“I’ll need a shovel.”

“You don’t have to fix them,” she said. “I just needed help shutting the damned water off.”

“And I don’t have a whole lot to do right now.” He gave her a long look and Dani finally nodded.

“I’ll get a shovel.”

A few minutes later he’d dug around the pipe to the point that they had something to work with. “Are all your standpipes PVC?” he asked.

“Only the ones that Kyle, my ex-brother-in-law, put in. He was all about saving a buck.”

Gabe surveyed the place for a moment, taking in the run-down appearance despite the fact that everything had been recently painted. It also appeared that Kyle wasn’t too deeply into working hard, either. No wonder rumor had it that he’d wanted to sell before Dani’s sister had filed for divorce. It was easier than maintaining the place. Now if he could just convince Dani that the property was better off in other hands...but no. Instead of doing that, he was helping her fix the place.

Neal would love it if he could see this. Gabe was going to keep this bit of information to himself.

The pipe hadn’t cracked below the surface as Gabe had feared. It was a somewhat clean break, one that could be sawed off and coupled to the original stand.

“All you need is an inch-and-a-half coupling, some PVC cement and a hacksaw.”

“I have a hacksaw and I’m pretty sure the hardware guy can talk me through the rest.”

And he was pretty certain he was going to do what he could to help her out—if she would let him. But there were things about his situation that bothered him. “I have to ask,” he said, leaning on the shovel, “is this the way your life always goes? Crisis to crisis?”

“Pretty much,” she said with a faint smile. “I think it’s my personality.”

“But this doesn’t seem like an accident. Not unless you have some pretty damned big gophers around here.”

An odd look crossed her face as she tilted up her chin. “It had to be. I mean...what else could it be?”

“Two snapped standpipes?”

He stabbed the shovel into the ground and crossed the distance between them, stopping short when her gaze shot up warily. “Maybe you should report this to the authorities. The mare, the standpipes—it just seems odd.”