Romancing the Rancher

* * *

As it turned out, Jarrett Deeks knew her family a little better than she did.

Theresa was still wiping sleep from her eyes and contemplating the apparent lack of a coffee machine—never mind actual coffee—when she heard the knock on her door. Her foolish, utterly feminine heart jumped before her far more practical brain reminded her that Jarrett Deeks had better things to do than offer her room service.

Or breakfast in bed, she thought, surprised when her thoughts actually went there with images of Jarrett Deeks still wearing that darned hat and little else.

She was pathetic. There was no other word for it. For her body, an instrument that had caused her nothing but pain and misery for months, to suddenly come alive thanks to a man who was so wrong for her seemed almost as big a betrayal as her current weakness did.

Shoving the thoughts aside, Theresa opened the front door.

“I know you said you wanted some time alone,” Sophia said by way of apology, “but I’m here with a special delivery.”

“So I see,” Theresa said with a smile. How could she be angry when her cousin was holding her adorable baby boy in her arms?

Sophia laughed. “Actually, I wasn’t talking about this guy, but he is pretty special if I do say so myself.” She lifted the blanketed baby a little higher, and Theresa got a glimpse of a sweet round face, sleepy blue eyes and a tuft of dark hair. Kyle scrunched his face up in protest as the cool air touched his chubby cheeks, and she didn’t think she’d ever seen a more adorable sight.

“Oh, he’s awake.” He’d been sleeping the day before, and Theresa had only had a peek of him slumbering away in his crib.

“He just about fell asleep on the way over here, and I promise we won’t stay. But I was talking with my mother, and she was worried about you being up here without any food—you know how she thinks food cures everything. Anyway, she wanted to race over and cook enough meals to last your whole trip, but I convinced her I could bring out some leftovers and groceries to tide you over until you felt like running into town.”

“Thanks. I woke up this morning realizing I hadn’t really thought that part of this trip through.” And having to seek out Jarrett Deeks after her bitchy stand about wanting her privacy...well, she’d rather go without breakfast than have to eat crow.

“Oh, you’re welcome. Now, if you’ll just hold Kyle for a second while I run to the car and get everything...”

“No, Sophia. I—I can’t!” Theresa took an immediate step back as her cousin held out her son. A tiny, helpless infant.

A part of her longed to cradle the baby to her chest, to breathe in the newborn’s scent of milk and baby powder. But the idea of holding that life in her hands, of being responsible if something should go wrong— Unconsciously, she drew her left arm closer to her body. “It’s not a good idea.”

Sympathy and understanding filled her cousin’s gaze. “I trust you, Theresa. You know that, don’t you?”

It had taken Michael months before he’d trusted Theresa with his daughter, and that had been a horrible mistake. The car accident hadn’t been her fault, but his blame and Theresa’s own overwhelming sense of guilt weighed her down as heavily as if she’d been the one to run the red light.

“I’ll get the groceries,” she insisted and escaped from the small cabin before Sophia could protest. Broken eggs she could handle much more easily than broken bones and broken lives.

* * *

“This is nice,” Sophia said as she glanced around the cabin once they’d settled in at the small kitchen table for a cup of coffee and a shared strawberry Danish from Debbie’s bakery. She held her son so easily, so naturally in one arm, and true to his mother’s earlier words, little Kyle had fallen into an innocent, trusting sleep. “I knew with Drew being involved in the construction that the workmanship on the cabins would be to his usual high standard, but Jarrett did a lot of the finish work himself.”

“Really?” Theresa asked, only to immediately wish she hadn’t sounded so interested. “I mean, I wouldn’t have thought a former bull rider turned ranch owner would be all that handy when it came to construction.”

The spark in her cousin’s eyes only deepened, and Theresa snapped her mouth shut so fast, her teeth clicked together. Way to overexplain. The last thing she wanted was for Sophia to pick up on her unwanted attraction to Jarrett Deeks.

Recalling her shock at her first glimpse of the man in question, Theresa said, “You could have warned me, you know. From what I’d heard about Jarrett, I was expecting this old guy and not someone—”

“Someone so gorgeous?” her cousin filled in.

“Someone so young, that’s all. I was just surprised.”

“You’ve got to watch him at work, Theresa. I had to stop by the stables to ask which cabin was yours and saw him with one of his horses. It’s...breathtaking.”

“So says the happily married woman.”

“Yes, to her gorgeous and single cousin.”

Theresa rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, don’t pin your matchmaking hopes on me and Jarrett Deeks.”

Or on me and anyone else.

Her heart was still reeling from her breakup with Michael. The car crash had shattered nearly everything in her life—personally, professionally...and emotionally. When she first woke in the hospital, her first thoughts had been of Michael—and of his daughter, Natalie. She’d loved them both and wanted to be there for them in any way that she could. Just as she’d needed Michael to be there for her. She’d counted on him being there. Instead, he’d walked away.

Now that she’d gotten back on her own two feet physically, Theresa wasn’t about to start leaning on another man. Wasn’t about to trust one again. And no matter what crazy emotions Jarrett might have inspired in her the day before, without trust, those heated thoughts would stay in fantasyland, where they belonged. At least until she could find a way to get the man off her mind altogether.

“I was not matchmaking,” Sophia insisted. “Merely commenting that you and Jarrett have something in common. I know how much you like to ride.”

“Liked,” Theresa stressed. “Past tense.” When her cousin would have argued, she continued, “Besides, Jarrett and I didn’t exactly get off on the right foot, so I think we’ll both just keep our distance.”

Sophia frowned. “That doesn’t sound like Jarrett. I mean, he doesn’t talk much, but I’ve never known him to say something inappropriate—”

“No, it wasn’t anything like that.” Theresa wished she’d kept her mouth shut, but now that she’d stuck her foot in it, she was going to have to explain. She couldn’t let Sophia think Jarrett had done something wrong when he hadn’t. “He was just being polite in offering to show me around the stables, but I’m not interested. I told him I want to be left alone, and it came out a little sharper than I intended.”

“So you’ll go down and apologize and ask him to give you the grand tour.”

“Sophia—”

“Look, I meant what I said about Jarrett being a good guy, but he’s not exactly the type to make an offer like that simply to be polite.”

“No, he did it because the stables are one of the perks of staying here.” She was a guest and nothing more. Theresa didn’t want to think that his offer may have been a personal one.

“If you say so,” Sophia answered in a singsong voice.

“I do.” And whatever it took, she was going to force herself to believe it.

Chapter Three (#ulink_4c06d7d9-9ed1-5327-ac13-b71e50f39476)

“Um, no.”

Make that hell no, Jarrett thought as Nick Pirelli dogged his heels as he walked down the narrow aisle of the stables. The local veterinarian had offered his services as soon as Jarrett started the rescue operation, and a part of him had been waiting for this moment. Well, not exactly for this moment, he thought, still feeling the jolt of surprise at the request, but for the moment when the other man would call in his chips.

Oh, sure, Nick had told him pro bono work was something he did on a regular basis. That he respected the rehabilitation Jarrett did with the rescue horses and wanted to be a part of it. But Jarrett had learned long ago that nothing in life was free, and once you owed another person, they owned you.

So he insisted on paying for the vet’s services, though he suspected the bills were greatly deflated from what Nick would normally charge, and the year before he’d taken on an abandoned horse as a favor to the other man. Not that he would have turned the horse away under any circumstances, but it’d been a way to try to even the score.

His muscles were tight, his movements jerky as he stripped off his scarred leather work gloves while he waited for Nick to turn his request into a demand. He was the only large-animal vet in the area, and they both damn well knew it. Jarrett couldn’t run the rescue or the ranch without Nick’s services, and that dependency—that need—to rely on another person twisted his gut. How many times had life slapped him down with the lesson that the only person he could count on was himself?

“Look, Jarrett,” Nick began, and Jarrett braced himself for the ultimatum he knew was coming. Do this or the horses suffer. “I know it’s a big favor to ask, but I’d really appreciate it.”

Stuffing the gloves into his back pocket, Jarrett met the other man’s gaze and waited. Then waited some more. That was it? Just the simple request? No blunt demand...no subtle insinuation of what might happen if Jarrett didn’t fall in line?