Page 2 of Unforgettable Cowboy
The Tree Fork Ranch was semi-isolated and was not a place that people came to by accident.The farmhands had left hours ago and, after his accident that morning, Wade had been adamant about not bothering his nephews until he knew what he was dealing with, giving Bailey orders through gritted teeth as the EMTs loaded him into the ambulance for transport.
Stubborn man.But she owed him a debt of gratitude, so even though she’d found the phone numbers on the handwritten list tacked up in Wade’s kitchen, she’d stifled the impulse to call Trev or Jordan Matthews.Calling Hayes Matthews was out of the question unless she had no other options.
But maybe the hospital had contacted them?
The sound of the truck door opening, followed by boots stepping into deep gravel, made her stomach twist.She’d love to turn off the light but couldn’t chance giving up her location.Better to just melt into the shadows.News traveled rapidly in the area and there were people who wouldn’t mind dropping by an unattended ranch to see what easily salable items might be lying around.
Or if a certain horse might be there.
That was her fear, but it was also an overreaction.There was no possible way that Chance Meyers could have sussed out where the mare was.Bailey had been very careful.
But maybe not careful enough?
Footsteps came closer, crunching in the gravel before growing quieter as they hit the soft ground that surrounded the old building.Bailey’s nerves hummed as she eased out of the stall and slunk behind a stack of hay bales before working her way along the wall to the side door, where she could slip out unseen.She reached the door, held her breath as she turned the latch.The resulting squeak was crazy loud, and she froze still gripping the handle, heart slamming against her ribs as she listened.
All she could hear was the blood pounding in her ears.Then the door was yanked open from the outside, pulling Bailey with it.She let out a yelp as she let go of the door handle and automatically threw a punch at the person pressing in on her.He let out anoofas her fist connected and then she pushed past him, knocking him off-balance before running toward her truck.
“Hey!”
A second later she was yanked to a stop and spun around as her pursuer caught hold of the back of her oversized denim jacket.She lost her balance and went down, only to be hauled upright again by a hand on her collar.She kicked and twisted, and must have yelled something, because her assailant suddenly released her and she stumbled sideways, unprepared to support her own weight.
“Bailey?”
The familiar voice rolled over her and even though she would have rather faced anyone else, save Chance Meyers or maybe a tweaker looking for something to steal, relief made her knees feel JELL-O-like.Apparently, she wasn’t going to have to fight for her life, but the primitive part of her brain was having a hard time accepting that reality.Fight or flight was a bitch at times.
Bailey pushed back the hair that had fallen in her eyes and gave the man in front of her an accusing look.“You scared the crap out of me, Hayes.”The words came out in gasps as her lungs fought for air.This wasnothow she’d envisioned a reunion with the man who’d once tied her in knots.
“I thought you were a thief.”He, too, was breathing heavily.“What the hell are you doing here?”
A reasonable question since she hadn’t been on the ranch since she’d broken up with him many years ago.Bailey braced her hands on her thighs as she pulled in a couple of deep breaths that did nothing to slow her heart rate.“Robbing the place, of course.”
Hayes made a noise that sounded like a growl, and she lifted her head.“I’m working for Wade.”
“Since when?”
“Since mid-July.”Two months.Another deep inhalation, then she rose to full height.Better.“I take it you and Wade don’t talk too often?”
It was a little jab.Undeserved, because, as demonstrated that morning, Wade might communicate regularly with his nephews, the boys he’d raised from toddlers to adults, but he wasn’t about to tell them that he was having issues running his ranch.Not unless his back was against the wall.
“We talk,” Hayes said.“Were you here when the accident happened?”
“I’m the one who called the ambulance.His new mare fought him and went over.Landed on him.”
“Shit.”He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“The mare is in the barn.She hurt her leg in the accident.Wade asked me to take care of her.”She’d stopped by to check on her way home from a fruitless early evening visit to the hospital.Wade had been out of surgery, but no visitors were allowed except immediate family.
Hayes’s gaze came up, his eyes looking more silver gray than blue thanks to the odd tint of the overhead pole light.“Whyare you working here?”
He made it sound as if she should have learned her lesson the last time she’d been hired on to the Tree Fork, which had been the summer after her stepdad walked out on the family and she and her mom needed income.Wade, their closest neighbor, had reached out to help the struggling mother-daughter duo, hiring them for day work, despite not needing additional help the way he did now.Hayes had been in the middle of his second pro rodeo season and had come home to recover from an injury.Wade, of course, put him to work while he was home, doing what he was able to do with a bad elbow.Bailey had worked with him, mainly to keep him from reinjuring himself, and it didn’t take long for sparks—the good kind—to ignite between them.
“It’s temporary.I’m spending the summer on the old place and stopped to tell Wade that he had a neighbor when I first arrived.”
Bailey had always harbored a soft spot for the man, who’d broken character to help her and her mom, and apparently that went both ways.It wasn’t until he offered her work “if she wanted it” that she came up with the idea of trading man-hours for boarding Dakota Sunshine in a safe place.A place where it was unlikely Chance would look.“We worked out a deal where I’d do some day work for him until the Copper Mountain Rodeo.”Which was now two weeks away.Her friend Jenna, who’d been in radio silence for almost two weeks now, had promised her that she’d find another place for the mare by then, thus freeing up Bailey to head to the western gear shows where she made a fairly decent living selling her hand-engraved silver.“He needed an extra hand.”
“Nice of you.”
He spoke as if he sensed there was more to the deal.
