Should've Been A Cowboy & Cowboy Up: Should've Been a Cowboy / Cowboy Up

Gabe and Morgan sat on the far side of the table, and Morgan also had an empty chair beside her, no doubt reserved for Tyler. A pretty blonde woman who looked to be in her fifties occupied the next chair, and a ruggedly handsome man of about the same age sat next to her.

Tyler finally remembered who they were. The woman, Pam Mulholland, owned the Bunk and Grub B and B down the road and was somehow related to the Chance family. The man next to her was Emmett Sterling, the ranch foreman, and he was dating Pam. Coupling up seemed to be the norm around here.

“There you are!” Sarah was the first to speak. “You both clean up real good.”

“Thanks.” Tyler smiled. “It’s great to see everybody again. And I sure hope you all have your thinking caps on, because Alex and I have been trying to figure out how to keep tomorrow’s guests out of the rain. The barn is one option, but we need some more.”

Nick glanced over at them. “I could have sworn you ordered some event canopies, Alex. I remember talking about it.”

“I ordered three,” Alex said. “But only one made it here. I’ve exhausted all the options for getting any more by tomorrow.”

Jack set down his empty beer bottle. “The tractor barn. We’ll move the equipment to a back pasture, temporarily cover it with tarps to protect it from the weather, do some cleanup, and use that space.”

“That’s a great idea,” Alex said. “I didn’t know that was possible, but—”

“Hold it.” Mary Lou bustled in, carrying a steaming plate in each hand. “No more talk of the open house until these two eat. Tyler, I want you over there between your sister and Pam. Alex, you can sit next to Josie.” She deposited the plates at the designated places. “Who needs coffee?”

A chorus of requests went up.

“I’d love some, too,” Tyler said as she walked around the table toward her chair. Before she made it there, Gabe came to his feet and pulled the chair out for her. She thanked him and glanced down the table, noting Sarah’s pleased smile. “I’ll bet you drilled manners into these guys when you raised them.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Tyler, you have no idea.”

“Remember those Sunday dinners?” Gabe said.

Nick and Jack both groaned.

“Pure torture,” Jack said. “She would use every blessed piece of silverware in the drawer and we couldn’t eat until we’d correctly identified all of them. The forks were the worst. I was the only guy my age who could tell you what a seafood fork looked like.”

“I was not about to raise a bunch of country bumpkins,” Sarah said.

“Sounds like a great idea to me,” Morgan said. “Between Sarah covering manners and Jonathan showing them the finer points of country swing, I’d say the Chance boys got the perfect education.” She patted her tummy. “I want the same for this little...kid.”

“Ah, you almost slipped, Morgan!” Sarah’s face was alight with anticipation. “You’ll tell us the sex of that baby, yet.”

Gabe looked fondly at his wife. “Nope. It’s going to be our secret until July 2.”

“But I’m really serious about the manners and the dancing, Sarah,” Morgan said. “I want this kid to be able to handle a fancy meal and navigate a two-step.”

Tyler put her napkin in her lap. “It’s not a bad idea to know those things. I had to learn on the job.”

“You must have,” Morgan said. “There wasn’t a lot of formal training going on in the O’Connelli van.”

“Lots of ideals, though.” Tyler cut into her steak. Suddenly she was starving. Making love to Alex had taken her mind off food, but now that he was across the table from her and completely out of reach, she breathed in the aroma of a meal carefully prepared, and she settled in to enjoy it.

“You’re right about the ideals,” Morgan said. “We were taught respect—of ourselves, other people and Mother Earth. That was a good thing.”

“It is a good thing.” Dominique looked across the table at Morgan. “That reminds me. Did you take your parents out to the sacred site while they were here for the wedding? It seems like something they’d like.”

“There wasn’t time. When they come back, I definitely will. They would love it.”

Tyler swallowed a bite of the best steak she’d had in ages and cut herself another one. “What sacred site?”

Dominique gave Nick a warm glance before turning back to Tyler. “You should get Morgan to take you out there while you’re here. It’s a large, flat rock that’s big enough for you to park a pickup on, although you wouldn’t want to. The rock is granite laced with quartz. The veins of quartz sparkle in the sun...or in the moonlight.”

Tyler figured Dominique and Nick had shared some moonlit time on that rock. She was intrigued. “And why is it sacred?”

“It’s part of the Shoshone tribe’s belief system.” Emmett hooked an arm around Pam’s chair and leaned forward to look down the table at Tyler. “When Archie and Nelsie Chance moved onto the ranch property, they discovered that the tribe conducted ceremonies out there, even though the land didn’t officially belong to them. So Archie and Nelsie told them they were welcome to continue, but the tribe doesn’t hold ceremonies much these days.”

“Wow.” Tyler glanced over at Morgan. “You have to take Mom and Dad out there next time they visit. They would eat that up with a spoon. I’m surprised you didn’t make time while they were here last summer.”

“I thought of it. I just...didn’t want to encourage any weirdness during the wedding.” She winked at Tyler. “If you know what I mean.”

“Oh, totally. Good call. They could have decided you needed a shaman to bless your union, and no telling what else they would have dreamed up once they were inspired by an ancient Native American ceremonial site.” Tyler turned back to Emmett. “So what’s this sacred stone supposed to do for a person?”

“According to legend, it provides clarity. So if you’re dealing with some issue and you’re mixed up about it, the stone is supposed to help you figure it out.”

“That could come in handy.”

“Oh, it has,” Nick said. Once again he and Dominique exchanged a fond glance.

Jack cleared his throat. “Then again, sometimes it’s just a great place to share a few beers with your brother.”

“That, too,” Nick agreed.

“Well, now I have to see this sacred site,” Tyler said. “I don’t have any large issues I’m dealing with, but I still want to see it. After all, I was raised by flower children, so even though I’ve left that life behind, I haven’t completely rooted out those woo-woo tendencies.”

Gabe put down his coffee cup. “Neither has Morgan. We took a trip out there when we were deciding on names for the baby.”

“Just don’t call her Sunshine or Starlight,” Tyler said.

“Or Moonbeam,” Morgan said with a laugh. “Don’t worry. It’ll be a gender-specific name that won’t make a single person wince. I promise.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and heaved a martyred sigh. “There you go again, tempting us with the fact that you both know whether the baby’s a boy or a girl, and we don’t. Why not just tell us?”

“Because we like the suspense,” Gabe said with a laugh. “And we don’t want any preconceived notions about this baby. This kid could decide to be a rancher or a foreign diplomat. We don’t want anyone making plans for the kid’s future based on gender.”

“Other than teaching manners and the two-step,” Morgan said. “I’m good with that.”

Sarah tucked her napkin beside her plate. “Well, some of us are on pins and needles and can hardly wait until the official due date. Some of us are going quietly insane as we deal with this suspense you love so much.”

“Then maybe this is the time to share our news,” Josie said. “That might give you something else to think about, Sarah.”

Sarah straightened and fixed a laserlike gaze on Josie. “Are you saying that you and Jack are...”

“Confirmed this morning.” Jack’s dark eyes glowed with pride. “Josie and I are going to have a baby.”

The dining room exploded as chairs scraped back and everyone jumped up to give hugs, squeals and hearty congratulations. Tyler caught a glimpse of Alex enfolding Josie in a warm embrace, and for some unexplained reason that brought tears to her eyes. Maybe she was imagining how Alex would react when he received the news that he’d be a father rather than simply an uncle.

She couldn’t really say why she was feeling so emotional. Babies were fine for Morgan and Josie, but Tyler wasn’t into them, at least not at this point in her life. Babies equaled the loss of freedom to pursue work that she loved.

She understood there were trade-offs, but she wasn’t interested in hearing about them right now. If she were totally honest with herself, she’d admit that listening to a woman rhapsodize about the joys of marriage and children might interfere with her enjoyment of the single life and her career success.

Maybe a part of her envied the spontaneous joy generated by Josie and Jack’s announcement. The ship’s crew celebrated things, too, but it was...different. The emotions around this table ran far deeper. She hadn’t realized until now what she was missing, yet she wasn’t willing to give up a dynamite career for that kind of connection. Or was she?

In the chaos surrounding Josie’s announcement, Tyler was surprised to hear Alex’s voice speaking her name. She turned to find him crouched beside her chair, his expression worried.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You look a little pale.”

She met his gaze. “Do you know where this Shoshone sacred site is located?”

“Yeah, I’ve been out there a couple of times.”

She guessed that he’d gone because he needed to sort through his thoughts about Crystal. She decided not to ask. “Do you know if it’s still raining?”

“No, but it was letting up about the time we came in. Why?”

“Because I’d like to go out there.” She’d been so sure of what she wanted, and now doubts pelted her like hail. Her big promotion was within reach. She could always settle down later after she’d enjoyed that promotion for a few years. But it wouldn’t be with Alex, and it wouldn’t involve this family.

“Now?”

“Right now, if that’s at all possible. Will that look too crazy?”

Alex stood. “I don’t care if it looks crazy or not. If you want to go, we’ll go. Let me get the keys to one of the ranch trucks.”

She liked that he fell in with her gonzo plan so easily. Not all guys would. She liked many things about Alex, in fact. Too many things. The sacred site was supposed to give a person clarity. She desperately needed that.

Chapter Seven

Twenty minutes later, Alex was at the wheel of one of the older ranch trucks, with Tyler belted into the passenger seat beside him as they bounced down a rutted road toward the sacred Shoshone site. Tyler had gone up to her room for a dark green hoodie, and he’d grabbed his denim jacket from the closet and an old blanket from the top shelf.

The night was cool, so he kept the windows rolled up on the truck. After the rain it wouldn’t be particularly cozy on the granite, either, but he’d do what he could to compensate. He’d so hoped for an innerspring mattress tonight, but it didn’t seem to be in the cards.

“By coming out here, I think we’ve tipped our hand,” Tyler said. “Everybody must have guessed that we’re...temporarily together.”

“Oh, well.”

“I just had to get out of there for a while.”

Alex wasn’t sure what was bothering her, but he had some ideas. “You looked a little freaked out after Josie made her announcement.”

“I was, and I’m still trying to figure that out. You looked really happy, though.”

“I was. This will be great for her and Jack, and Sarah’s going to be in hog heaven with two grandchildren to run after. Plus, the kids will be close in age, so they can grow up together. It’s nice for everyone concerned.”

Tyler groaned. “Stop the truck.”

He slammed on the brake. “Are you sick?”

“Not physically. I’m sick with guilt. Talk about self-centered! I dragged you out here when you should be back there celebrating with everyone. Please turn around and go back. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Alex took his foot off the brake and put it back on the gas. “I’d rather be out here with you.”

“That’s nice of you to say, but you’re missing the festivities. I’ll bet they moved the party into the living room and lit a fire. They’re toasting those two babies, and you’ll be the proud uncle of one and probably the adopted uncle of the other one. You should be there with Josie.”

“She doesn’t need me there. She has Jack.”

“I should be there with Morgan.”

Alex sighed. “That makes no real sense. You saw how Josie and Morgan instantly went into a huddle to discuss diet and exercise programs, and whether Josie can fit into some of Morgan’s early maternity clothes.”

“Yeah, I did. And that’s great. They’ll be a terrific support system for each other.”

“Feeling like an outsider?”

She leaned her head against the back of the worn cloth seat. “Yeah, I guess I am. Maybe that’s part of it. But to be an insider, I’d have to marry somebody and get pregnant right away. I won’t do that, of course, but the power of suggestion is a scary thing.”

Alex watched the road for critters. Back in Chicago he’d had to worry about other drivers. Out here he had to worry about hitting a raccoon or a skunk. “I suppose there is a lot of home-and-hearth sentiment swirling around the Last Chance right now.”

“Which is so not me.”

“I get that, Tyler.”

“I know you do, which is one of the reasons I asked you to bring me out here. You may be the only person from that dinner-table crowd who truly understands that I’m not ready for a husband and kids. Morgan says she understands, but I can see in her eyes that she’d love to have me find a guy and settle down, maybe even in Jackson Hole.”

“That’s natural. I’m sure she misses you when you’re gone for long stretches.” He didn’t want to imagine what his life would be like after she left, either. He was afraid the joy would leach right out of his days and nights.

“And I miss her, too, but that’s the nature of the job. On the upside, I get to see amazing places all over the world, and the passengers are terrific, for the most part. Many of them have invited me to visit, and I’m sure their homes are gorgeous. You couldn’t afford this type of luxury cruise if you didn’t have plenty of money.”

“Do you think you will visit them?”

“Probably not. The little time I have off I’ll want to spend with family. Morgan’s the first one to establish an actual home somewhere, but I’ll bet the others will, too, eventually.”

“And your parents? Will they finally stay put somewhere?”

Tyler chuckled. “I doubt it. I picture them waiting until we all have places of our own, and then they’ll make the rounds. I’ve figured out that my dad is ADD. He can’t stick with one job or one place for more than a month or two before he gets bored. I inherited the wanderlust, but I’ve been able to keep this job for almost six years. And I love it. It’s perfect for me.”

“I’m sure it is.” And yet...now he wasn’t so sure. She kept saying how much she loved her lifestyle, almost as if she needed to keep repeating her dedication to the job to ward off any change to the plan. Or maybe that was wishful thinking on his part.

Tyler peered out the window. “It’s very dark out here, isn’t it?”

“Especially tonight, with all the clouds. I’m afraid you won’t see the moon glittering on the quartz unless I use a flashlight.”

“You have one, though, right?”

“There should be one in the glove compartment.”

As she reached to open it, he remembered what else was in there. She’d waited on the porch while he’d brought the truck around, and he’d used that opportunity to shove a handful of condoms into the glove compartment. A handful was excessive, but he hadn’t had time to figure out how many he might need, so he’d just grabbed some.

Sure enough, the minute she opened the compartment, several condom packages tumbled out and fell to the floor of the truck. She began to laugh. “Are the ranch trucks normally stocked with these?”

“No. That was me doing the stocking.” And the sight of them had jump-started his libido.

“I see. That’s quite a supply.”

“I didn’t want to run out.” But as eager as he felt to have her, even those might not be enough.

“Is that so? I don’t remember needing that many in August. Have you shortened your recovery time?”

He wouldn’t doubt it. She seemed to be affecting him more strongly than she had last summer. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” And soon, very soon.

“That depends on whether there’s a flashlight in here. It wasn’t snake season when I lived here as a kid, but last summer I distinctly remember being warned about walking around in the dark without a flashlight because of snakes.”

“It was warmer then. August.” He didn’t want her to get distracted thinking about wildlife. He wanted her mind to be firmly where his was—on sex. “It’s too cold out for varmints to be out moseying around.”

She glanced over at him. “Listen to you, sounding like Yosemite Sam! I’m beginning to think you have turned into a real cowboy, after all.”

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