Cowboy's Special Woman

The wind shifted, giving renewed energy to Jake to battle the blaze that was now turning back on itself.

In another hour they had the blaze under control and the professionals took over to finish the work. On blackened ground lay the smoldering ruins of the barn, the garage and the other outbuildings. Everything was destroyed except the house.

“I think you should let a doctor look at your burns.”

When he turned, Maggie stood only a few feet away. She had cleaned up and changed clothes. Now in jeans and a blue shirt, she looked cool and as sexy as ever. She had combed her hair and it hung in a thick braid over her shoulder.

“I’m all right.”

“You don’t look all right. I’m going to the hospital to see about my dad. Come with me to the emergency and someone will treat your burns.”

Half of him wanted to get on his bike and go. The other half was drawn to her soft voice and big blue eyes and the sense that she really cared.

“Sure,” he answered, feeling he was making a mistake, yet unable to resist hanging around her a little longer. “I need to move my bike from the road.”

“I’ll take you to get it.” When she jerked her head, he saw she had brought her pickup back to the house. It was still loaded with her belongings.

“If you’d like, I can help you unload first.”

She shook her head. “I want to get to town to see my dad.”

They walked in silence to the pickup, and he climbed into the passenger side. Sliding behind the wheel, Maggie started the motor. In a few minutes she dropped him off at his bike, turned around and drove back to the house with him trailing behind.

Jake parked his bike, yanked on his black T-shirt and climbed into the pickup. “Want me to drive?”

“No,” Maggie answered with amusement. “I’m accustomed to doing things for myself. And your hands look as if it would be painful to drive.”

“I don’t mind.” As they drove away, he glanced out the window. “At least your house is saved.”

“Thank heavens! It’s bad enough to lose everything else, but our house would have been so much worse. I’ve been working to turn our home into a bed-and-breakfast. I’d hate to see all my efforts plus our belongings go up in flames like the barn did.”

“Aren’t you a little far out from any town for a bed-and-breakfast?”

As she shrugged, he shifted slightly in the seat, turning to study her, looking at flawless skin that he knew would be soft.

“I think some city people will enjoy a ranch experience and I can run the bed-and-breakfast while my dad runs the ranch. I’m going to give it a try. We have a big house, and I think I’ll succeed.”

“Have you always lived here?”

“Except for the two years while I was married. When I went to college, I lived at home and commuted. Where do you live?”

“First one place and then another,” he answered. When she glanced at him, he suspected she didn’t approve of his vagabond lifestyle.

“Dad said he’s seen you in rodeos.”

“I’m a saddle bronc rider.”

“Dad used to do calf roping, but that was a long time ago. His health isn’t as good as it used to be.”

“Too bad. This fire is another burden.”

“Thanks for stopping to warn us. It would have been worse if you hadn’t.”

“I don’t know. No one could contain it until the wind changed.” Jake continued to study her, wondering about her and her life. She was a beautiful woman, and he couldn’t imagine her living like she did. “Don’t you feel buried out here on your ranch?”

“Buried?”

“Seems like a quiet life.”

She flashed him a smile, the first he had received, and it made his pulse jump. She had a dimple in her right cheek and the smile showed in her eyes, animating her face in a quick, enticing flash like the sun coming out from behind a cloud.

“It’s a quiet life, and I love it that way. Where’s your home now?”

“On my bike.”

He received a startled glance and grinned at her. “I don’t like a quiet life. I travel.”

“Do you work or am I prying?”

“Pry away. I do bronc riding and I train horses. I just quit a job working with horses for a friend of mine near Fort Worth. After a while I get restless and I move on.”

“Where’s your family?”

“I don’t have any.”

“You had to have parents.”

“They were killed in a fire,” he answered, looking out the window and clenching his fists. He had told few people in his adult life about his family and he wondered why he had just told her.

She gave him a searching glance and then returned her attention to the road. “That’s why you fought our fire so hard,” she said quietly. “Dad and I wondered.”

“Why would you wonder? Everyone out there fought hard.”

“Not the way you did. You went after it like you wanted to put it out single-handedly.” She gave him another searching glance.

“Is your little girl in school?” he asked, not caring about her answer, but wanting to get the conversation away from him and his family and fires.

“Not yet. Katy was just five last week. She’ll be in kindergarten when the fall term starts.

“Where did you meet your husband?”

“Bart grew up here and we’d known each other forever. I think we married too young—too young for him, at least, and he didn’t like being tied down. Particularly when Katy was born. He was here only a short time after her birth and then he was gone. Just like that, and Katy was without a father. Bart asked for the divorce.”

“You can marry again,” Jake said, thinking she could if she got off the ranch and met people. “You’re young.”

“I’m twenty-nine.”

“That’s young. I’m thirty-five.”