The Cowboy Meets His Match

He knew the instant she realized what he was doing and was certain he’d blown his chance.

She tugged at her ear as if weighing the pros and cons of working for him, then looked him square in the eye. “You pay pretty well, right?”

He searched for the right words, knowing he couldn’t push. “No one’s complained.”

“Cutting horses and roping?”

His heart beat faster. This might work, after all. “Yeah.”

“You’re offering me a job. Again.”

Hoping he didn’t sound desperate, he answered, “I am.”

Seconds that seemed like hours ticked by as a range of emotions moved across her face. Indecision, apprehension and then capitulation. “All right,” she said. “I’ll take it.”

He looked down, fighting a smile of victory. When he had it under control, he looked up. “You’re sure?”

She locked her gaze with his, determination turning her blue-green eyes darker. “I’m sure.”

Nodding, he allowed a small smile. “Welcome to the team, then. When can you start?”

“Whenever you want me.”

His imagination ran wild, but he kept a straight face. “Is that so?”

She seemed to be fighting a snappy comeback and then sobered. “There’s just one thing.”

“What’s that?” he asked, shoving lusty images from his mind.

“Treat me the same as you do the other wranglers.”

This time, he didn’t try to hide his smile. “You mean we shouldn’t be intimate friends?”

She drew herself up and looked him in the eye. “Don’t start, Jake, or I’m gone.”

Ready to agree to just about anything, he dipped his head in a quick nod. “Whatever you say.”

After telling Sollie goodbye, while pointedly avoiding making eye contact with Jake, she turned for home.

“Monday morning, eight o’clock,” he called to her. “And don’t be late.”

She waved a hand without looking back and kept going.

He watched her, hardly believing she’d accepted. He’d won. But how long would his victory last? Only time would tell, and he had plenty of that.

Chapter Three (#ulink_ff0de224-5793-5421-b322-c0260272a7fb)

Erin’s boots felt as if they were filled with cement as she walked across the neighboring pastures to the Morris ranch. Or the Canfield ranch, she corrected, since it now belonged to Jake, Carl Morris’s nephew. By Saturday night, after she’d told Jake she would work for him, she’d come to the conclusion that she’d made a dangerous error by accepting the job he’d offered her. Sunday found her feeling fifty-fifty about it, with half her time spent reminding herself that she hadn’t found work anywhere else and this was the best she could do for the time being. The other half had been spent wondering if she’d lost her mind. By this morning, when her alarm went off, she’d come to the point of not caring. She had a job. One she might even enjoy, in spite of her employer.

Now that she was halfway to the ranch, her nerves had stretched as tight as a size eight girdle on an elephant. She was crazy. Work for Jake? He’d always been her biggest weakness. She’d thought she’d outgrown that, but apparently she hadn’t. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t stop her from doing the best job she could, if only to prove to Jake that she was even better than he thought.

As she approached the ranch, she could see the other cowboys arriving. What would they think of working with a woman? Her apprehension grew with each step she took, until she found herself at the edge of the largest of the corrals, behind an obviously new barn. To the right of it was the sprawling two-story house with the wraparound porch, where Jake had spent his summers. Without thinking, her gaze moved beyond it to the big gambrel-roof barn that held the memory she’d put behind her. Or tried to. Everything that happened after that, except the accident that had taken her parents’ lives, had been affected by the decision she’d made that night he’d come back from college.

She took a deep breath and looked away to see several smaller, new corrals encircling the large ranch yard—strong indications that he planned to stay. If she gained nothing else from this crazy need to prove she could be strong and face down anything thrown at her—including working for Jake—at least she would earn the money she needed. He obviously had plenty.

Lost in her thoughts, she nearly jumped out of her boots when she heard him say her name. Slapping her hand over her suddenly racing heart, she spun around to find him standing only a few feet away.

“You made it,” he said, a hint of surprise in his gray eyes.

Proof, she thought, that he’d expected she wouldn’t show up. “Of course I did. Why wouldn’t I?”

“No reason.”

He looked her over from top to bottom and back again, sending a warm flush through her, until her clenched teeth made her jaw ache. No one could affect her the way Jake did, and she wished he would stop.

“Come meet the others,” he said, turning around and leaving her to cool down and collect her wits.

She nearly had to run to keep up with his long strides. Ahead of them, she saw the other ranch hands greeting each other. “Is this all of us?” she asked. “Three men and me?”

“For now, it is. I could use one more. Maybe two,” he answered. “As the ranch grows, so will the crew.”

Impressed, she had to smile. “That business degree is paying off.”

They’d almost reached the others when he stopped and looked down at her. “There’s no degree.”

When he moved on, she stumbled as she hurried to catch up with him, her mind stuttering on what he’d said. “Why not?” she asked, curious why he hadn’t finished the college degree he’d seemed to want so badly. Badly enough to leave her behind.

“Why not what?” he asked, keeping his attention straight ahead.

“Why don’t you have that degree?”

Several steps later, he answered. “I quit school in the second semester of my sophomore year.”

This time she didn’t stumble. She came to a stop, unable to take another step. He quit school? But before she could say it aloud, he’d joined the others and stood waiting for her.

“Erin, these are your coworkers. That’s Bobby Ray,” Jake said, pointing to a tall, lean, forty-something cowboy, who tipped the brim of his hat with his finger.

“Ma’am,” he drawled.

“Hello, Bobby Ray.”

Jake barely gave her a glance, his focus on his employees. “That over there’s Gary. We’ve worked together for several years. And this here’s Kelly, our most recent employee.”

And the youngest, she thought. Mid-twenties, she guessed when Kelly smiled at her. Gary was close to Jake’s age, in his mid-thirties, with light blue eyes framed by deep crinkles at the corners.

“This is Erin Walker, boys,” Jake finished. “And before you think there isn’t a whole lot to her, I can assure you she not only knows what she’s doing, she’s a lot tougher than she looks.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Erin said, looking at each of them.