Chapter Thirteen
“No more for me, thanks! I have to drive back to the ranch tonight, and I have an early morning tomorrow.” With that statement, Holly fished in her purse for her keys.
“Ah, come on, Holly,” Mike Guthry, the foreman at the Bar T ranch, wheedled. “We brought you out to show you a good time. To thank you for all your hard work.”
“And I had a lovely time.” She grinned as she shouted over the loud music in the crowded bar. It was Friday night, and apparently everyone close by had decided to come out and blow off some steam.
“All right, young lady. But you be careful getting back,” Mike acquiesced with good grace.
“I will.” She swiveled around on her stool, stood and waved at the other men who’d come out with them.
She was glad she’d had the foresight to drive her own truck here, knowing the guys would probably stay out a lot later than she was prepared for. As she drove away, she turned the music up loud, glad she’d asked for a Coke in a to-go cup from the bartender before she left. The caffeine would help, since the Bar T was about a forty-five minute journey.
A ways into the drive, Holly’s phone rang, flashing Marcus’s name on the screen. With a sigh, she used her Bluetooth to answer. “Hi, Marcus.”
“Hi, Holls.”
She grimaced at his use of the nickname, one she’d never liked. “I can’t talk long because I’m driving. I may even lose you.”
“Oh, okay.” He’d taken to calling her, just wanting to talk. Mostly about Georgia. Holly appreciated that she must be the only person he could share things with, and the poor guy was still wrecked over her friend’s death, so she hadn’t put a stop to the calls, yet.
“You far out?”
“Yeah. I’ll be back in town tomorrow morning, though.”
“Maybe we could have lunch?”
“I’m going out to the Hills’ ranch to try out Solario on their track.”
“Oh.” Marcus’s tone perked up. They’d shared their mutual love of horses during some of their talks. “I’d ask to come watch, but I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
Holly chuckled. “Probably not.”
“Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later. Be safe driving home.”
“Thanks. I will.”
She ended the call. A few miles farther down the road, her phone beeped on the seat beside her, letting her know she had a text message. Did Marcus forget something? She made a mental note to check it when she got back to the ranch. She’d spent the last three days at the Bar T ranch inoculating all their stock against blackleg. Luke had helped the first two days but had to leave for an emergency birth at another ranch late yesterday.
Holly had wrapped up treating the rest of the stock on her own, with help from the ranch hands, of course. Still, she’d been busier than a moth in a wool mitten for the better part of today. Luckily, no other calves had shown any sign of the disease since they started.
Wally, the owner of the Bar T, had insisted Holly stay one more night and do the long drive back to La Colina in the morning when she wasn’t quite so tired. She’d agreed, and the hands had taken her out for a thank-you drink—which had turned into several rounds of drinks—at the closest local bar. They’d been a hoot, and Holly had enjoyed her evening.
She’d only had one beer, early on, but the hard work, the alcohol and a late night all combined to make her sleepy. To counteract the effects, she took another swig of her Coke and cranked up the radio. Not too much farther to a nice comfy bed.
Holly swung her truck off the dirt road she was bumping along and onto the Bar T property. She turned her headlights off as she neared the house and used moonlight to guide her way, not wanting to wake up Wally, and his wife.
After she parked, Holly dragged herself inside, did her best to wash up then flopped down onto the bed in the lovely guest bedroom they’d provided her—all rustic charm with a hand-quilted cover on the bed and a rocking chair in the corner.
That was when she remembered her text message. She debated ignoring it for a minute, but Luke might need her for something. Plus she’d probably forget in the morning. Better to check now.
Holly frowned at the unfamiliar number. Opening the message, her heart fluttered a bit.
Hi Holly. It’s Cash. Got your # from Luke. Hope that’s okay.
Cash must’ve texted instead of called because it was so late. She went ahead and replied, though she didn’t expect a response this late.
No worries. What’s up?
Sophia wants to watch you work your horses with Will. When is that? came the immediate response.
She guessed Will hadn’t told Cash about their plans tomorrow, and she hadn’t seen him lately to tell him herself.
At the ranch tomorrow.
At least, that was the plan if she was awake enough by then. She hadn’t expected the vaccinations to take as long as they had.
There was a longer pause before his next message came through. Sounds good. We’ll be there. What time?
Holly wrinkled her nose and thought, doing some timing in her head. Driving home in a.m. Home around 8, load horses and stuff. At ranch 9:30ish.
She put her phone down on the bedside table, slipped between the comfy cotton sheets and turned out the light. Her phone twittered and lit up the room with the blue glow from the screen.
Where r u now?
Bar T ranch. Vaccinating herd last 3 days. Blackleg. As a born and bred rancher, Cash would know what that was.
There was another pause before his response came through. What r u doing up at 2a.m. with a long drive?
Holly’s lips twitched, finding his concern endearing. Those protective instincts must go with the whole sheriff gig. Some imp of mischief prompted Holly to mess with him a little. Hands took me out for a couple of thank-you drinks.
She giggled to herself as she waited for his reply. She could practically hear him thinking about how much he could get away with asking without offending her. After several long moments, finally a response.
Hope you didn’t drink and drive. Do I need to come out there with my cuffs?
Holly widened her eyes. The serious sheriff was flirting with her. Her teenage self would’ve been elated, but she ignored the happy voice inside her. She shouldn’t encourage him. After all, they’d agreed to a truce, a friendship-only truce. Holly nibbled at her lip as she debated which direction to go with her response.
I believe flirting falls under the same heading as kissing.
There was a long pause before his response, during which Holly refused to let herself feel disappointed about calling a halt to things.
Right. Sorry.
Holly groaned as, instead of stopping things, the text flirting turned into full-on fantasy in her mind in which he threatened to come here personally with those cuffs. She could picture peeling that sexy sheriff’s uniform from his toned body. The possibilities were still torturing her overactive imagination when her phone buzzed again.
See you tomorrow.
*
Cash drove through town, still quiet at this time on a Saturday, toward the vet clinic and Holly’s house. He pulled in right behind where Holly’s truck was parked at 8:00 a.m. on the dot. She’d probably had to get up around 6:30 to get home at that time and, after such a late night, and drinking… Okay, so maybe he’d been concerned about her.
He wasn’t sure why, but he felt uncomfortable with the idea of her driving all over Texas—okay only an hour or two—alone, especially hauling that big mobile vet trailer. Yes, she was a grown woman, and she could take care of herself. Part of him didn’t know why he was here.
Cash hopped out into the still morning air and walked toward Holly’s truck, which was parked closer to the vet barn.
“What are you doing here, Marcus?”
Holly’s weary voice reached Cash before he rounded the end of the trailer. He paused at the name.
“I had to come into town for some feed and other supplies. I thought I’d check that you got back okay.”
“That was nice of you.” Her tone indicated she didn’t appreciate the gesture as much as Marcus probably thought she would.
The sound of their voices drifted away from him and he couldn’t hear everything being said. Feeling like a creep eavesdropping, Cash was just about to come out of hiding when they came back.
“Have you asked Cash about letting me see Sophia yet?” Marcus asked.
Familiar, bitter anger slammed through Cash. She was helping Marcus? She’d said Marcus had mentioned asking Cash, but not that he’d enlisted Holly’s help to convince him.
Holly sighed. “No. And I’m not going to.”
Cash pulled up short. What?
“I’m sorry, Marcus. I can see how important it is to you, but I’m not going to push Cash to do something he doesn’t feel is right for Sophia. He’s already told you no.”
Cash ran a hand through his hair. She was taking his side?
“I know you miss Georgia. I do too. Every day. And I can see that you want to be friends, maybe so you’ll have someone to talk to about her.”
Really? Even after everything Marcus put him through she was going to be the guy’s friend?
“But Cash is my friend too,” she continued. “And I promised Georgia I’d watch over Sophia. The best thing for her is whatever Cash thinks is the best thing for her.”
Whoa. Cash leaned against the trailer as he tried to rewire his brain to accept what he was hearing. Holly Jensen wasn’t a bad person, or selfish. She was loyal. Maybe even to a fault. Look at her friendship with Georgia. But now that loyalty was aimed his way, and something deep inside gave a little, loosening the anger he’d held on to for over a year now.
“I can’t say I’m not disappointed,” Marcus said. “But I get it.”
“Thanks for understanding.”
A few moments later, the crunch of boots on gravel had Cash moving. He popped his head around the back of the trailer to see Marcus walking away.
Holly, meanwhile, was finishing unhitching the trailer from the back of her truck. He raised a hand in greeting as he walked over. Cash caught how Holly’s gaze traveled the length of his body, and he wrestled with a sense of satisfaction now filtering through all the other emotions he was dealing with.
“What are you doing here?” Holly glanced behind her in the direction Marcus had left before giving him a wary glance. “You just missed Marcus.”
Cash stopped a few feet away and stuffed his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. So now she was being completely transparent with him, even if she thought he might be angry.
“I saw him leaving. Y’all friends now?”
She turned away to fiddle with the hitch. “He wants to be. I think I’m the only person he can talk to about Georgia.”
Interesting. “What do you think about that?”
She shrugged. “I think he’s a decent guy who’s hurting.” She gave him a pointed look. “I seem to bump into a lot of those guys lately.” Meaning him, obviously. “Is Sophia with you?”
Cash let her change the subject and shook his head. “I dropped her off at my folks’ earlier this morning. Figured you could use some help.”
“But you’ll have to come back for your truck later?”
He shrugged. “We have to come back to town at the end of the weekend anyway, but so does Will. He’ll drop us off.”
Holly blinked at him. She opened her mouth then closed it. Then shook her head. “Much appreciated.”
Cash got the distinct impression she didn’t get offers of help frequently. Here was a woman used to doing everything herself out of sheer necessity. However, she also didn’t sound too thrilled with the help, which made him a fool for coming. Too late now. “What can I do?”
“I could use some help getting my horse trailer hitched up and everything loaded.”
“Sure.”
He followed as she led the way and he tried to keep his eyes off the tempting sway of her hips in those figure-hugging jeans.
They spent the next forty-five minutes getting everything loaded and ready to go. “You take Mischief. He’s a lamb getting into the rig.” She handed him a halter and pointed at the chestnut quarter horse peeking out over his stall. “I’ll wait till you’re in the cab to bring out Solario. I need to put on his mask anyway.”
Cash tipped his head. “Why?”
She grimaced. “He doesn’t like men, and he’s not hugely happy about traveling. He’ll do better if I put him in alone.”
“Okay.” He drew the word out, but she knew her horse better than he did.
She was right: Mischief went right into the trailer, happy as a clam. Cash made sure everything was set then hopped into the cab of the truck. She disappeared into the barn, and he had a few minutes. Enough time to notice exactly how old her truck was. The plastic “leather” of the bench seat was old and cracking in a few places. The dash had a large split in it. The outside was similarly beat up, but that was true even of new trucks in the ranching business. He hadn’t realized hers was quite this old until now.
Cash frowned. He didn’t like the thought of her driving all over Texas alone in this, but he also knew she wouldn’t appreciate his saying anything. Besides, looking closer, he could tell she took care of it—the inside was clean and neat. He’d hazard a guess she kept it running well too.
Catching a flash of movement from the corner of his eyes, he watched from the side view mirror as Holly came out leading a massive black thoroughbred. If he could have, Cash would’ve fallen out of the seat in astonishment. That was quite an animal—at least eighteen hands high, maybe nineteen, and in prime condition. As he watched, Holly expertly handled the skittish horse, who pranced his way around the yard. It took a while. He only caught a few glimpses but, by the metallic thud of the horse’s hooves clomping around in the trailer, it took several tries for Holly to get him in and settled. Cash was tempted to go help her, but she’d been clear his presence would be more of a hindrance.
Finally, she had the horse in, and she closed up the trailer. Then she came around and hopped in beside him. She was covered in a fine layer of dust, kicked up from her stallion’s antics. She didn’t seem to notice.
“Ready?” she asked, as though man-handling a thousand-plus-pound horse was a regular occurrence. But, of course, it was for her.
“Yup,” Cash grunted.
She narrowed her eyes. “What?”
“Nothing…”
She didn’t start the truck—simply sat and waited patiently, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.
Cash couldn’t hold back a small smile. “Just an awful lotta horse for such a little lady.”
Holly rolled her eyes, as she faced forward and started up the truck. “Call me a little lady again and there’ll be dire consequences.”
Her attempt at a mean voice was adorable, and Cash’s smile turned into a full grin. “That a threat? Or a promise, Doc?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “A bit of both, Sheriff.”
“Hmm,” was his only response.
“By the way, I do appreciate you coming to help me out. It’s nice to have some company on a drive for once.”
“My pleasure.” Cash meant it.
“Out of curiosity…” Holly paused as if picking her next words carefully. “Why did you?”
Cash gave a deceptively casual shrug. “I didn’t like the idea of you driving by yourself after such a late night.”
She glanced over quickly. “I believe you were up just as late as I was.”
He shrugged again and turned his gaze out the window at the passing scenery. The skies were a clear, pale blue, almost white, which happened sometimes when the morning started out hot like today.
“You’ve got a hero streak a Texas mile wide. Don’t you?”
“Well…I do have this badge…”
She chuckled as she navigated around a particularly large pothole in the road.
“How’s Sophia?”
“Fine. You’ll see soon. She can’t wait to watch you ride.”
Holly’s lips curved in a soft smile. “She’s a sweetie.”
Cash glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes. He had the strangest flash of mental images—Holly with Sophia like a mother would be. She certainly seemed to love his little girl, but, after Georgia, he didn’t trust his own instincts when it came to a woman he wanted.
He made a noncommittal sound in his throat, which she must’ve taken as agreement, because she nodded. “Liking her new horse?”
“I can hardly keep her off her.”
“Between you, Will and the rest of your family, she’ll be an expert horsewoman before you know it. She’s caught the bug.”
The mention of Will brought up something Cash had been chewing over ever since their texting last night.
“I didn’t realize that you’d taken Will up on his offer to try out your horses.”
Holly gave him a sideways glance, one that had him wondering what she’d heard in his voice. “It was too good an offer to pass up. There’s only so much I can do in the paddock by the clinic.”
“What’s your plan with them? To compete?”
She shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure. I know Mischief could make a go of it with barrel racing. Not sure about Solario. Seems more like a traditional racehorse. But running them myself would take money and time I don’t have.”
“So why bother?”
“Sheer curiosity. I want to know exactly what they can do. Especially Solario.”
“I guess I can see why.”
Another sidelong glance, this one assessing. “Really?”
“Yes. I can hear in your voice how much pride you have in him. The fact you wouldn’t give up on Solario tells me how much you love him.”
Cash couldn’t interpret all the expressions that flitted across Holly’s face, but she’d seemed almost sad for a moment. His impression that this woman had led a solitary life intensified. Not only that, but she wasn’t used to people understanding her.
However, he couldn’t be positive, because she blanked her expression so expertly as she watched the bumpy road.
Cash glanced out the side window again. “I originally thought maybe you had a thing for Will.”
“What? You don’t think I’m good enough for your big brother?” She said it with a laugh in her voice, indicating she was joking.
But something in him, down deep and very caveman, didn’t like the thought much.
Jeez, Hill. Get a grip. “I’m not going to dignify that with a comment. I noticed you didn’t answer the question.”
Holly laughed. “You got me, Sheriff. Are you going to break out those handcuffs you threatened me with last night?”
“I thought we agreed no flirting.” He couldn’t help that his voice deepened a bit at the image that flashed in his mind. Holly in his bed, arms above her head, gloriously naked. He ruthlessly pushed the image away, shifting in the seat to ease a new physical discomfort.
“Right,” she muttered. “Well, nothing’s going on with Will. We’re both horse people is all.”
“Common ground is usually a good basis for a relationship.”
“True. But I’m sure Will would agree, we’re just friends.”
“I see.” Cash waited for the flash of anger, or jealousy, or even irritation. But it didn’t come. As that realization struck, a weight lifted from him. He glanced at Holly, who’d fallen silent beside him.
Maybe he was finally moving on?