Page 2 of Claimed By the Cowboy
I burst through the door to find Cheese Puff standing in the middle of the living room, a shattered lamp at her feet, and her teeth firmly clamped around the TV remote.
Dad stands frozen in the kitchen doorway, coffee mug halfway to his lips, wearing the thousand-yard stare of a man who's seen too much goat-related chaos.
“Your goat,” he says calmly, “is eating our electronics.”
“Not my goat,” I mumble through my numb lips, lunging for Cheese Puff.
The goat sidesteps with surprising grace for her size, the remote still dangling from her mouth like a rectangular cigar. But I’ve tracked insurgents through the Afghan mountains—one spoiled ranch goat isn’t going to outsmart me.
“Tom,” Dad says, his tone making me pause mid-lunge. “You okay?”
“Root canal,” I explain, or try to. It comes out as “Roo cahl.”
Dad’s expression softens. “Ah. Bad timing.”
That’s an understatement. “The bwide... Delaney... awiving in an hour.”
“She’ll understand.” Dad steps around Cheese Puff, who’s now investigating the slippers beneath the coffee table with intense interest. “Unless she’s the shallow type, in which case you’re better off knowing now.”
The thought hadn’t occurred to me. What if Delaney takes one look at my lopsided face and decides Montana isn’t for her after all? What if she’s expecting someone smooth and charming instead of a battle-hardened cowboy who can’t feel half his face?
The possessive streak in me flares. According to Marlie from the agency, Delaney has experienced her fair share of adversity—one of the reasons she should be a good match for me and this ranch.
“Dad...” I start, then stop. How do you ask your father if he thinks you’re worthy of love when you can barelypronounce your own name?
But Dad’s always been good at reading between the lines. He sets down his coffee mug and looks at me the way he used to when I was a kid, steady and knowing, like he can see straight through to what's eating at me.
“You’re worried,” he says. It’s not a question.
I nod, swallowing hard around the numbness in my mouth and the tightness in my chest.
“About the ranch, or about her?”
A month ago, I would have said the ranch, no question. The ranch is everything—our history, our future, the veteran program that’s helping guys like Angus heal after being discharged from their service. But watching Henry fall for Shay, seeing the way he looks at her like she’s his whole world, and then Angus finding Luna...
“Both,” I admit.
Dad nods slowly. “Your brothers found the real thing. Not some business deal dressed up with vows.”
“Yeah, but dey didn’t have firty days tomake it happen.”
“Love doesn’t run on schedules, son. It happens when it happens.” He pauses, glancing at Cheese Puff, who’s now chewing on the corner of the throw pillow. He firmly guides Cheese Puff away by the collar. “But sometimes, if you’re open to it, it happens faster than you think.”
My gaze sharpens on his face at the certainty in his voice. “You fink I’ll fall for her?”
“I think,” Dad says carefully, “that your mother was a lot of things, but she wasn’t wrong about love...”
He doesn’t finish the sentence, but he doesn’t need to. Ruth Sutton had a way of seeing into people’s hearts, of knowing what they needed before they knew it themselves. Maybe this forced arrangement could become something real.
Something that’s mine.
“I should go,” I mumble, checking my phone again. One-fifteen. “Before she decides small-town Montana isn’t worth the trouble.”
Before she takes one look at this place and heads straight back to the city.
Cheese Puff chooses that moment to knock over the magazine rack, sending issues of Ranch & Rural Living cascading across the floor.Dad sighs and starts gathering the magazines.
“Tom.” His voice stops me at the door. “Just be yourself. If she can’t see what a good man you are, she’s not the right woman.”
