Page 41 of Unforgettable Cowboy
“Good point,” she said.Hayes had the advantage, one because she was shell-shocked, and two because his plan made sense.“I really wish I’d been able to get a dog.”
“You still wouldn’t be staying here alone.”
She wanted to argue but if positions were reversed, or if it was Jenna rather than her, she would have insisted on the exact same thing.
It only took a matter of minutes for Hayes to guide Bailey as she backed her truck to the trailer and then dropped the hitch onto the towing ball.Once done, Hayes came to her window.“Are you okay to drive?”
“I’m not incapacitated.”
Hayes gave a slow nod.“I have a bottle of decent Scotch.We could remedy that.”
She touched his face, the stubble on his cheek teasing her palm.“Perfect plan, Hayes.Let’s get drunk and plot strategy.”
Chapter Ten
“She can’t sleepout there.”Wade pointed in the general direction of the barn, where they’d parked Bailey’s trailer so that she could plug in to electricity.“Tell her to come in.The spare bedrooms are empty.”
“I think she’s going to stay where she is,” Hayes said.She was jumpy, as one would be after an encounter like she’d had, but she’d also been determined to maintain her independence in an I-won’t-let-the-bastard-win kind of way.It was costing her, and it was costing him, but he hadn’t fought her.For one thing, Chance Meyers had no reason to suspect that Bailey was on the Tree Fork Ranch, and for another, his ego was huge, but even he had to recognize that a confrontation on the Matthews family ranch might not end in his favor.Chance was ballsy, but Hayes didn’t think he was that ballsy.
“Ask her.”
Instead of telling Wade—yet again—that he’d already done so, Hayes simply said, “Will do.”He wanted to check in anyway.Wade settled back in his chair as Hayes left the room, but he felt his uncle’s gaze drilling a hole in his back.“After I talk to Bailey, you need to accept that no means no,” he called before disappearing out the kitchen door.
The door to the trailer was open when Hayes approached, and he was glad of that because it meant less of a chance of startling Bailey.She painted herself as tough as hell, but she’d been assaulted and had her livelihood stolen.He heard her speaking to someone and stopped a few feet from the trailer door, clearly hearing Bailey say, “He was threatening, Jenn.”
She looked up when Hayes’s shadow filled the doorway and her expression blanked out and her voice took on a brisker tone as she said, “I’ve got to go, but call me.We need to talk.”She lowered the phone, and he could see that she was fighting to keep her business-as-usual attitude in place.The woman had just been assaulted for Pete’s sake.Couldn’t she give herself a break?
“Wade has invited you inside.”
“I’d rather stay here.”
“I told him.”He leaned his shoulder against the trailer as she came down the step.Hayes said nothing, nor did Bailey.Instead, she let out a breath that made her shoulders drop a good inch.“I can’t believe this played out this way.Never in a million years did I think that Chance would do something like this.And now you’re involved.”
“Bailey,” he said matter-of-factly, “how does he know that we’re involved?”After all, she’d gone to great lengths at Big Z’s to make it appear as if they’d just bumped into one another, and Hayes thought it had played well.
“He’s no fool,” Bailey muttered.“If he doesn’t know that I worked here all summer, he’ll find out.”
“So, we play this out.”
Bailey glanced down at the ground, toeing the gravel before she looked up.“I wish this wasn’t a ‘we’ situation.I hate dragging you guys into this.”
Which, as far as Hayes could tell, was how she lived her life.Taking care of herself, and her friends, but not letting anyone take care of her.
“Tough.We’re in it.”
She blinked at him.“I don’t need a hero, Hayes.”
“Never signed up for that.”He took a step closer, then stilled as he caught a movement near the windmill, a hundred yards away.A large shadow cruised smoothly along, followed by another and then another.He cursed under his breath.
“What?”
“Cows are out.”
“Shit.”Bailey instantly took off, running to turn the herd, while Hayes ran the opposite direction toward the corrals.
“Ready,” he called from where he’d opened a gate.
“Got it!”Bailey waved the broom she’d picked up on her way past the barn and whistled, attempting to turn the lead cow, who lowered her head and shook it.Bailey lunged at her, waving the broom and making the yi-yi-yi noise that cows seemed to find either intimidating or annoying enough to make them move away from it.Hayes abandoned the gate, dodging confused calves as he worked one side of the herd and Bailey the other, guiding them to the open gate.Once she saw it, the lead cow, thinking she’d found a means of escaping the pesky bipeds, galloped toward it and the others followed.After the last cow had cantered into the corral, Hayes swung shut the wide gate with a satisfying metal clang, only to have a calf appear out of the darkness, shooting past him while bellowing for his mama.
