Falling For The Rancher

A young woman with a long curly blond ponytail burst out of the building, headed straight for Darcy and pulled her into a brief hug. “I’m so sorry, honey. I was helping in the nursery, but heard about what happened in there—that you bid on someone no one else wanted. That was the kindest thing ever. I know how much you wanted Edgar instead.”

No one else wanted? Logan didn’t want to be in this situation at all, but hearing he didn’t compare to some guy named Edgar didn’t sit right, either. “Who’s Edgar?”

Darcy ignored him. “Please—tell me Ed went for some impossible amount so I couldn’t have won his bid anyway.”

The woman bit her lower lip. “Two seventy-five.”

Darcy’s face fell. “Nooo.”

“But remember, you’ll never know how much higher the winner would have gone to beat you—it could have ended far, far above your budget.”

Darcy scooped Emma up into her arms. “I’ll keep that thought when I go back to trying to hire someone.”

“Who knows? Maybe your guy has some great skills, too.” The woman’s speculative gaze swept over Logan. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Hannah Dorchester, one of the physician’s assistants in town. And you are...”

“Logan Maxwell.”

“So you’re the one Darcy just bailed out, in front of all those people?”

Bewildered, he looked between the two of them. She’d bailed him out? “This was all a mistake. I’ll go inside and straighten this out right away.”

“Please don’t make a scene.” Hannah sidestepped to block the door. “The kids are all excited and celebrating. Anyway, it’s all over now, so there’s no rush. Go home. Think about it. Do you have any idea what Darcy just did for you?”

Darcy rested a hand on Hannah’s forearm. “It’s okay. He never agreed to this in the first place.”

“I need to get back inside to help Beth wrap things up for the night.” Hannah glanced at her watch, then tilted her head and gave Logan a brilliant smile. “Can I stop by the clinic for a few minutes first thing tomorrow? You can give me your decision then.”

He gave a noncommittal nod, though he already knew what his answer would be.

Once she’d gone back into the building, he turned to Darcy, but at the sound of a horse delivering a another solid kick to the horse trailer, he reached for the keys he’d shoved in the back pocket of his jeans. “I’m being paged, so I’d better get those horses home.”

She smiled at that. “Of course.”

He would be free of this crazy situation tomorrow, no doubt about that. But all the way back to his new home, he couldn’t escape the vision of Darcy’s expression.

She’d been clearly embarrassed, but he’d also caught a hint of desperation and bitter disappointment. So what was going on with her, for this auction to matter so much?

And who in the world was Edgar?

* * *

Hefting another bale of fragrant alfalfa that the farmer had just tossed down from the hay wagon, Logan looked over his shoulder at the approach of an unfamiliar car.

A moment later, the woman he’d met after the auction last night stepped out of the vehicle and approached him with a hand shading her eyes from the morning sun. Hannah, if he remembered correctly, though last night he’d been so tired he didn’t know for sure.

“I called the clinic, but Marilyn said you were taking care of a hay delivery. So I decided I’d just bop out here. Beautiful drive, anyway, with all of this timber and those rocky bluffs. I always loved coming out to Doc’s place for his annual barbecues.”

“I could’ve saved you the trip if I’d had your number.”

“That’s why I wanted to see you in person.” She laughed softly. “Beth and I are hoping you won’t get off that easy.”

“I’m sorry, but—”

“Honestly, I think you’d be better off if you just let it stand. Good PR and all that.”

He tipped his head toward the house. “Even if I wanted to help y’all out, I just don’t have the time. I can barely get in the door with all of the moving boxes stacked inside. It’ll take days to finish fencing the pasture and longer to take care of repairs in the barn.”

“But—”

“And then there’s going to be extensive remodeling at the vet clinic. A lot of time just getting the new practice going, and we’re still in foaling and breeding season, which means long days and even longer nights when I start seeing clients.”

“Last year a guy backed out,” Hannah said darkly, as if she hadn’t heard a word about his complicated life. “It was the talk of the town for months when the winning bidder demanded her money back from the youth group, and that started a big flap about the future of the auction—liability, worries about lawsuits—but without this big fundraiser, too many deserving kids will miss a wonderful opportunity. This year we’d been praying there wouldn’t be a single glitch to jeopardize the auction concept. But now there is. You.”

“This reminds me of a conversation I had with Beth at the cafe.” He stifled a laugh. “Darcy has some pretty convincing friends.”

“My fiancé likes to say I’m forthright.” Hannah rolled her eyes. “Others just say stubborn. But if it’s for a good cause, why not?”

There were now a good twenty bales waiting for him on the ground. The man on top of the stack was holding another and eyeing him impatiently. “If that’s it, then...”

He turned to get back to work, but she touched his arm. “Please.”

“Look, I—”

“If you don’t care about the kids, well...”

“It isn’t that I don’t care—I just don’t have time.”

“Then think about Darcy and what she gave up for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s single, you know, with no family around to help. Her little cottage is a wreck, and she’s been trying to hire a good handyman for months. But the good ones are booked ’til after the end of the year. And now, with her job in jeopardy since you showed up, she might have to sell and move. The cottage needs a lot of work before it can be listed.”

Baffled, he shook his head slowly. “How could just twenty hours of labor make enough difference, then?”

“She wanted to win Edgar. She’d been saving for months, hoping he would get the work started and then be willing to keep working for her. He’s a wonderful craftsman, but takes very few new clients.”

“Then she shouldn’t have bid on me.”

“That’s what I say. But she has a soft heart. She felt bad for you when no one else would bid. I’m sure she didn’t want you to face any ridicule.”

“I’m sure I could’ve handled it,” he said dryly.

“Maybe so...but with half the town angry over you threatening to fire the entire vet clinic staff, why add more fuel to the fire? And—” Hannah bit her lower lip, as if deciding how much more to say “—the other woman who drove the bidding up is...well, I think Darcy went so high ’cause she was trying to save you from a potentially bad situation. Very bad.”

The man on the hay wagon cleared his throat. “Hey, Doc, I need to get back to the farm. You want me to just keep pitching these off or what?”

Now there were a good fifty bales tossed into a jumbled pile on the ground, and at last one had landed wrong and broken. The farmer was muttering under his breath.