The Rancher Needs A Wife

“It could be the same thing, only different. Like a metaphor.” Jody shot him a smug smile. “We studied similes and metaphors in English this week.”

“And you obviously paid close attention.” Maggie decided to join the breakfast crowd and squeezed in beside Will. “That was a wonderful comparison. Slightly abstract, but loaded with meaning.”

Ellie strolled in from the dining room. She’d probably been up since dawn, working on the books in the office off the front entry. “Morning, everyone.”

Fitz caught her hand as she passed him on her way to the coffeepot. Maggie noticed the quick squeeze he gave her fingers before he released them, and the way his hot and hungry gaze followed her across the room.

Had Alan ever looked at her like that? She couldn’t remember. And surely a look like that would be something a woman would never forget.

“Time for the spelling review.” Fitz picked up the text and flipped through the pages. “Ready, Jody?”

“Ready.”

“Satellite.”

Jody dutifully spelled out the word as Jenna came back into the room and began to assemble breakfast supplies on the counter.

“Reception,” said Fitz.

Ellie selected a large skillet from the overhead rack and turned to adjust the flame under a burner. Jody spelled the word.

“Remote.”

Will tipped his chair back against the wall with the hint of a smile as Jody continued the exercise.

“Control.”

“Hold it right there.” Ellie spun around with the skillet in her hand.

“Oh-oh,” said Jody. “Bad timing.”

“Satellite reception?” Ellie glared at Fitz. “Remote control?”

Jenna’s shoulders shook with silent laughter, and Will’s smile spread across his face. Fitz’s innocent expression was a testament to his skill as an actor.

“It’s an experiment, Mom,” said Jody. “We’re studying subliminal advertising in English this week.”

“Subliminal,” said Fitz. “S-u-b-l—”

“I know how it’s spelled,” said Ellie. “And I know what the two of you are up to. And it’s not going to work.”

“I told you.” Jody glanced at Fitz with a sigh.

“You did not. You said it was a good idea.”

“The satellite TV hookup, not the spelling stuff. That was Fitz’s idea,” she told her mother.

“I can tell when something is Fitz’s idea,” said Ellie. “It’s usually harebrained and half-baked, and comes at me from every point on the compass for weeks at a time.”

“Got to give the man points for trying,” said Will.

Ellie aimed the skillet at him. “You stay out of this.”

“Thanks, Will.” Fitz gave him a comrade-in- arms nod. “I appreciate it.”

“I’m not risking my health on your account,” said Will. “I kind of like the idea of a couple more channels to watch late at night.”

“Since when do you watch TV at night instead of reading?” Ellie asked.

“Well, now…I’ve changed my habits of late,” said Will. “I thought it might be nice to watch some of those nature shows, but I guess there are plenty of other things I could find to do instead of reading.”

At the sink, Jenna made a strangled sound.

“Oh, for crying out loud.” Maggie rose from the table and began to crack eggs into Jenna’s big mixing bowl. “Get the satellite hookup, Ellie. Better yet, get Wes to drag cable out here. Hell, have him dig a ten-mile-long ditch and put it all underground so you don’t have to look at it. It’s not like your husband can’t afford it.”

“That’s not the point.” Ellie didn’t sound too sure of the point any longer, but that wouldn’t pry her stubborn grip from it. Once she’d dug into something, it could take a few sticks of dynamite—or an extra-strength dose of Fitz’s charm—to shake her loose.

“While you’re at it,” Maggie continued, “I’d like to have a hookup at the cabin. There are lots of educational shows I could be recording for school.”

“Hundreds of them,” Jody added.

Fitz stood and carefully removed the skillet from Ellie’s hands. He set it on the counter and wrapped his arms around her waist. “We missed one of my old movies last night. The one where I played a downhill racing skier.”

Ellie smiled and softened against him. “That was Robert Redford.”

“It was? I get myself mixed up with him sometimes.”

“In your dreams, Kelleran.”

“That’s my favorite cue.” He bent and scooped Ellie over his shoulder. Ignoring her shrieks, he headed toward the stairs. “And I’m suddenly in the mood to continue this discussion in private. Jenna, kindly save some French toast for two. The missus and I will have our breakfasts later.”

Jody shook her head with a worldly sigh. “Looks like I’ll need a ride to school again, Aunt Maggie.”

“Sure, kiddo.” She watched with a smile as her brother-in-law toted his bride up the stairs. “I’d like a chance to discuss this subliminal advertising concept with you.”

CHAPTER FOUR

MAGGIE SAT IN A lumpy booth at the Beaverhead Bar & Grill Friday night and stared at her best friend from her school days, Janie Morgan Bardett. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Wish I was,” said Janie as she shoved her empty beer glass to one side. “And on top of mistaking a grizzly for a brown bear, the idiot fumbled his load and the bear got within twenty paces before he finally got a shot into him.”

“At least it got so close there was no chance of missing a second time.”

Another autumn, another hunting season. Another round of tracking lore and venison recipe exchanges. Nothing much had changed in Tucker, it seemed, including the primary topic of conversation each year at this time.

Certainly nothing much had changed in Tucker’s only bar. The music in the jukebox, the beaver profile on the cocktail napkins, the ugly brown felt on the pool tables, the smudged walls and blue-hazed atmosphere, the aroma of hot grease and cold brews was all just as she’d left it fifteen years ago. Even the stale peanuts in the battered plastic bowls looked suspiciously familiar.

A loud crack behind their booth signaled the start of another round of pool. The betting was nearly as impressive as the bragging, if a woman had the kind of heart that fluttered over cowpoke paychecks and poorly disguised sexual analogies involving cue sticks and pockets. Apparently a pair of twenty-something coeds who’d hiked down from the Continental Divide found it all, like, totally fun.