Page 1 of Cowboy Stole My Heart
Chapter 1
SAM MENDESpushed through the crowd, holding his hand high in the air as he waved to the fans he’d spent the last hour talking to. No, make thatthree hours.He’d been booked for a two-hour event, and then he’d spent the rest of the time patiently listening to people tell him about their horses and ask him the same questions he’d been answering almost daily for the past year.
“Sam!”
He cringed and forced himself to turn, dialing a smile. He’d been so close to reaching his car…
“I’m Lila,” a pretty brunette said, holding out her hand. “You’re a hard man to get close to, for all the wrong reasons.”
He laughed. “I’m not sure I understand.” Was she trying to hit on him?
“I’m from Star PR,” she explained. “I watched you get mobbed back there, and if you had someone with you, a publicist for instance, we get to be the bad guy and tell everyone you need to get going.” Lila laughed. “It means you’d get home faster, and your fans wouldn’t think any less of you.”
He nodded. “And here I was thinking you were going to ask me out for a drink.”
She passed him a card, her smile fixed, her eyes warm. She was friendly but professional. “Seriously, if you ever want assistance, call me. You’re at the stage in your career when you should be thinking about building a team to work with.”
Sam nodded and turned around, pushing the card into his pocket, doubtful that he’d ever get around to calling her. He was more interested in scaling back on his commitments, not growing them. His rental car was waiting nearby, and he strode across the concrete to get there. He’d been traveling for a month now, a different event every few days to promote his new book and show horse owners exactly how to put his advice into practice, and he was more than ready to get home. He missed his ranch, his dog, and his horses. Hell, he missed just working on his own with horses, quietly out the back of the King family ranch where he’d first started to realize he had a knack for dealing with equines that any sane person would have given up on.
He ran his fingers through his hair, brushing out the dust that was still lodged there from working in the arena and having horses cantering around him. Sam checked his watch. If he wanted to make his flight he was going to have to drive fast, and there was no way he wanted to hang around the airport waiting for the next flight back to Texas if he missed this one.
He settled into the driver’s seat, punched in the GPS so he didn’t take a wrong turn on the way there, and plugged his phone in to charge. It’d been turned off since earlier in the day, and he switched it on, seeing he had new messages. He hit voicemail and started to drive, the monotone voice telling him he had three to listen to.
“Hi, Sam, it’s Phil again. We’re looking at booking another multicity book tour and we need to know if you’re interested and when you’re available. Call me back.”
Sam shook his head. They were like vultures. As soon as his books and training clips had started to do well, everyone had suddenly wanted a piece of him, and although the attention and money had been exciting to start with, he’d soon realized that quietly working long days under the sun was what he liked doing best. He wanted to be working horses, not talking about how to do it. It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful; hell, he’d only been able to buy his own ranch because of all the success, but he needed a break. He wanted to plant his boots in the dirt and work with the animals he loved for a while, wearing his favorite jeans and an old shirt, the sun in his eyes, and his only company the horse he was working or the dog trailing around after him.
He hit delete and the next message started to play.
“Hey, Sam, it’s me. Just checking you’re okay, but I guess now you’re famous you don’t have to check in with your little sister and your nieces anymore, huh?” He grinned as he listened to Faith. He’d definitely been a crappy brother lately. He’d call her once he’d checked in for his flight. “I drove past and put milk and juice in your fridge, and there’s bread and some other stuff on the counter. See you soon.”
When he hit delete this time he was still smiling. He needed to spend some time with his sister and those damn gorgeous little twin girls of hers.
“Mr. Mendes, it’s Walter Ford here from River Ranch.” Sam sat up a little straighter, listening to the man’s deep, southern drawl and recognizing the name. “I know you’re a busy man, but Nate King speaks highly of you, and I’dlike to make you an offer. We need someone here to do some work with our horses, someone with your kind of expertise. There’s a stallion here that, frankly, only a man like you should be dealing with. Money’s not an object, and I’ll have an offer letter waiting for you. But I need to hear from you by tomorrow evening, otherwise I’ll find someone else for the job.”
Sam pushed play to listen to the message a second time. Walter Ford wanted him to swing past for a visit? He would ordinarily have said no, he didn’t do much work on individual ranches anymore for private clients, unless Nate or Chase King needed a hand with an unruly colt or filly, and that was more of a favor, but this had piqued his interest. As an adult he’d never crossed paths with the Ford tycoon, but as a kid? Hell, he’d never forget the day he was playing at the King family ranch, home to his best friend Nate, and Sam’s unofficial second home growing up. Walter had pulled up in his big Bentley, the shiny black car catching Sam’s eye the moment he’d seen it. Ford had stepped out, with a little girl, but she’d run off to see the ponies and Sam had hung around to gape at the car. He doubted Walter Ford had even noticed he existed back then.
Now the man in question had called him personally, and it made him grin. A couple years earlier, he’d never have imagined a man like Ford dialing his number and needing anything from him. Hell, a few months ago he’d have flatly said no to the job, because he’d been too damn busy building his brand and touring the country sharing his horsemanship techniques. But right now, he wanted to get back to working with horses rather thantalkingabout working them, and he was curious about this stallion. Maybe it was the kind of job he needed to take to get some of his passion back.
He’d stop by on his way from the airport, it was only an hour from his ranch and was hardly out of his way. It’d be stupid not to see what Ford had to offer him.
***
Mia Ford sat with her feet dipped in the pool and stared into the water. She wriggled her toes and watched the perfect blue water ripple in a tiny whirlpool around her, pink toenails like smudges of color as she moved her feet.
The sun was warm on her shoulders and she shut her eyes for a moment, blocking her thoughts, pushing everything away and trying to enjoy the simple feel of the warmth of the day and the light breeze pulsing past her.
She sighed and opened her eyes, replaying her latest disagreement with her father through her mind again. He didn’t approve of her most recent equine purchase, and she was terrified he was going to sell her stallion out from underneath her.
She’d fought tooth and nail to buy the horse, refusing to take no for an answer and determined to outbid whoever else was trying to buy him, but she wasn’t stupid. Without her father’s money she’d never have had the chance to own him, and she hated being indebted to him over something that meant so much to her. Especially when he was still so vocal about his disappointment in her choosing a career she loved over one in a big city law firm since she’d returned home from Europe.
“Hey, Mia.”
She turned, smiling when she saw one of her brothers standing behind her, hands shoved into his pockets, cap pulled low over his brow.
“Hey yourself,” she said to Tanner, pulling her legs out of the water and standing up.
“Thought I’d better swing by before I left.”
