The Lone Star Cinderella

“Then we have a deal.” He held out one hand to her and waited for her to take it. “You should come to the ranch for dinner tonight. We can work out the details there.”

Nodding, Mia slid her hand into his and couldn’t help feeling that just maybe she was swimming in waters way too deep for her.

Three

Dave pulled the collar of his dark brown leather jacket up higher on his neck and squinted as he climbed out of his 4x4. He took a deep breath, dragging the cold air into his lungs with a smile. Just being on his ranch settled him like nothing else could.

Land swept out to the horizon. He took a long look around, taking in the wooded area crowded with wild oaks. The stock watering pond shimmered a dark blue beneath the lowering sun and the grassland was dotted with Black Angus cattle. He tossed a glance at the dark, cloud-studded Texas sky. October was rolling in cold, signaling a rough winter to come.

But he was prepared. No matter what Mother Nature threw at him, Dave was ready. He had the ranch he’d always wanted, more money than he knew what to do with and the future was looking good—except for one small fly in his proverbial ointment. But, he reminded himself, he’d found a way to take care of that, too. Who would have guessed that Mia Hughes would be the solution to his problem?

One thing he’d learned over the years, though, was that sometimes answers came when you least expected them. And he was quick enough to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves.

He’d worked for years to get this ranch. He’d sacrificed, wheeled and dealed and risked more than he cared to remember. But he’d finally done it. He’d reclaimed the life that should have been his from the beginning. And he’d done it in style.

Damned if he’d be defeated now.

His ranch would be a success without TexCat and he knew it. But the bottom line was they were the best, and he wanted that contract to prove his ranch was the best. It was a milestone of sorts for Dave and he wouldn’t rest until he’d reached it.

Walking away from his 4x4, he tugged his hat down lower over his eyes, stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and headed for his ranch foreman, Mike Carter. Somewhere in his late fifties, Mike was tall and lean and the best ranch manager in Texas.

“Hey, boss,” he said as Dave approached. “We found those ten yearling calves we were missing huddled together in Dove canyon.”

With this much open land, cattle tended to wander, following the grass. And the young ones were always straying from the safety of the herd, going where they were easy prey for wolves and coyotes. It was inevitable to lose a few head to predators every year, but Dave was glad to hear they’d recovered the stock safely this time. “Good news. You got all of ’em?”

“All but one.” Mike pulled his hat off and tipped his face into the wind. “Wolves got that one. Found the signs.”

Nodding, Dave frowned. The one thing he did not have control over was nature. If wolves wanted to pick off a calf, there wasn’t much he could do about it. Losing one was hard, but they’d saved nine, so he’d have to accept that and be grateful for it.

“Fine. But I don’t want to lose anymore. Let’s move the herd farther from the canyons, make it harder for the young ones to wander off.”

Mike grinned. “Already done. Got a couple of the boys moving cattle to the west pasture.”

“Good.” Dave glanced around, his gaze sweeping across his land, and he knew he’d never tire of the view. Acres of good Texas earth stretched out for miles in all directions. There were rolling hills, meadows that ran so thick with sweet grass the herd couldn’t manage to eat it all. There were wooded acres of oaks, a dozen stock ponds and a couple of lakes with the best damn trout in Texas. It was everything he’d planned for, and now Dave just needed to seal the ranch’s success.

“I bought some first-calf heifers this morning,” Dave said, remembering the phone call he’d made before setting out to talk to Nathan and Mia. “They’ll be here by Friday and should start calving in the next couple of weeks.”

“Good deal,” Mike said. “We can always use new stock. But what about that new beef contract with TexCat?”

Frowning, Dave said, “I’m working on it. Should know something soon. Meanwhile, start culling the herd, separating out the stays from the gos.”

“We’ll do it.”

When Mike went back to work, Dave told himself he should do the same. Ranch work wasn’t all done outside. There were papers to go over, bills to pay, calls to make. Plus, he had a “fiancée” coming over for dinner and he’d better let his housekeeper, Delores, know.

He drove back to the main house, but rather than go inside, he walked to his favorite spot on the Royal Round Up ranch. He skirted the flagstone decking that ran the length of the sprawling ranch house, walked around the massive free-form pool and took the rough-hewn stairs to the rooftop, wraparound deck.

From that vantage point, he could see for miles. His gaze slid across the beautifully maintained grounds, the stocked trout lake that lay just beyond the pool and then to the massive guesthouse he’d had built two years before.

The guesthouse was an exact replica of the ranch house that had been his family’s until he was ten years old. Until his father had lost the ranch and then took off, leaving Dave and his mother on their own. He’d built the damn guesthouse as a trophy. A way of reclaiming the past. And as a way of giving his mom a place to call her own. A place where she could take it easy for a change. But the hardheaded woman refused to leave her small apartment in Galveston. So the completely furnished, three bedroom, three bath guesthouse stood empty.

Until Dave could change his mom’s mind. Which he would manage to do eventually. Hell, he’d gotten Mia Hughes to agree to his proposition, hadn’t he?

The wind pushed at him as it raced across the open prairie, carrying the scent of grass and water and land. His land. He felt like a damn king when he stood up here surveying the stronghold he’d built.

He slapped both hands onto the thick, polished wood rail and leaned forward, letting his gaze move over the view. His hands tightened on the railing in front of him as he eased the jagged edges inside him by staring out at his property. Good Texas pastureland stretched to the horizon and it was all his. He’d come a hell of a long way in the past several years and there was more to do yet.

Landing that deal for his cattle was paramount for the rest of his plans. He wanted his ranch supplying the beef to the best restaurants and organic grocers in the state of Texas. And TexCat would help him accomplish that. Without that contract, Dave’s plans would take a lot longer to come together. And if this bargain with Mia worked as he thought it would, the deal was as good as done.

Smiling to himself, he gave the railing a slap, took one last look at the vista rolling out into the distance and then took the stairs down. He’d head back to the main house and get some work done before it was time to meet with his fiancée.

Scowling, he realized it might take some time to get used to even thinking the word fiancée.

He ducked his head into the wind and muttered, “A hell of a thing to need a wife to make a deal.”

* * *

Mia didn’t know what to wear.

Was there a protocol for having dinner with a pretend fiancé who was paying you to pretend to love him so he could sell cattle? She laughed a little. It sounded bizarre even to her, and she was living it.

“Oh, God. I’m letting him pay me.”

Her chin hit her chest and she took a long, deep breath to try to steady the nerves jumping in the pit of her stomach. It didn’t help. Sighing, she flipped through the tops hanging in her closet and listened to the clatter of the hangers sliding on the wooden rod. She wasn’t finding anything. It had been so long since she’d been on an actual date—she stopped short at that thought.

This wasn’t a date. This was...

“I don’t even know what this is,” she muttered and grabbed a dark blue cable-knit sweater from the closet. Why she was worried about this was beyond her. What did it matter what she looked like? It wasn’t as if she was trying to impress Dave Firestone, for heaven’s sake.

“Exactly,” she told herself. “This is business. Pure and simple. He didn’t ask you to dinner because you swept him off his feet.”

Mia laughed at the very idea. She was so not the type of woman to catch Dave’s eye. No doubt he went for the shiny, polished women with nice hair, beautiful clothes and the IQ of a baked potato.

Potato.

“Oh, God, I hope he has potatoes at dinner.” She sighed again. “And steak. I bet there’s going to be steak. He’s a rancher, right, so he’s bound to like beef.”

Her mouth watered and her stomach rumbled so loudly it took her mind off the nerves still bouncing around in the pit of her belly. Shaking her head, she carried the sweater out of the closet and tossed it onto the edge of her bed.

Since taking the job with Alex Santiago as his housekeeper, Mia had been living in the private suite of rooms off the kitchen of the big house. Living room, bedroom and bath, her quarters were lavishly furnished and completely impersonal but for the few personal touches she had scattered around the place.

Mia had been travelling light most of her life, so she didn’t have a lot of things. There were a few photographs and a ratty stuffed bear she’d had since she was a child. But mostly, there were books. Textbooks, paperback thrillers and romances, biographies and sci-fi novels. Mia loved them all and hated to get rid of a book. She’d recently treated herself to an ebook reader, but as much as she loved the convenience, she preferred the feel of a book in her hands.

“And you’re stalling,” she told herself as she walked to the bathroom. Staring into the mirror, she looked into her own eyes and gave herself a stern talking-to. “You’re the one who agreed to this, so you’re going to suck it up and do what you have to do. It’s only temporary. One month and you’ll have enough money to pay the regular household bills and no school loans hanging over your head. Of course, if Alex isn’t found by the end of the month, then you’re right back where you started....” She stopped that thought as soon as it popped into her head. Alex would be found. And with the money from Dave she could pay pesky things like the water and gas and electric bills. Thank heaven Alex didn’t have a mortgage on the place because she didn’t know how she would have made the payment.

One month. She could do this. And get her life back on track.

Sounded good, she thought as she picked up the hair dryer and turned it on. She ran her fingers through her long, dark brown hair as the hot air pushed at it. Okay, she was nervous. But she could do this. How hard could it be to pretend to be crazy about Dave Firestone?