Her Cowboy Dilemma

Maddie’s kitchen was a warm, cozy place. The wooden table and chairs had the sort of “distressed” look that came from decades of being used and not coddled, as did the wooden floors and cabinets. The counters were cluttered, but clean, and the big farm sink gleamed as if it had been disinfected recently.

The focal point of the room was the antique, black, wood-burning cookstove. Warm air drifted from the stove to soothe the sore muscles of Farley’s shoulders and upper back. He fought the urge to close his eyes, knowing that if he succumbed to sleep he might find himself still in this room an hour later.

He crunched down on a couple of crackers and a slab of the cheddar, then followed the food with a swallow of hot, almost scalding, coffee. Maddie made it the old-fashioned way, boiled in a percolator on the stove.

“So what’s up at Coffee Creek?” Maddie asked him.

He hesitated before answering. Everyone in the community of Coffee Creek was aware of the rift between the Turner sisters, though no one knew the exact cause. Some people felt that Olive’s marriage to neighboring rancher Bobby Lambert had been the start of it. One fact was irrefutable: Maddie hadn’t attended their wedding. And despite the size of the wedding—apparently several hundred—the absence had been very conspicuous.

“One of their horses has strangles,” he finally said.

“Sorry to hear that.” Maddie sounded genuinely concerned.

“Hopefully it hasn’t had time to spread. They have the sick horse quarantined and Cassidy is going to be disinfecting the barn.”

“Cassidy? So she’s home from college, is she?”

Maddie seemed to know a lot about her sister’s family. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Since she’d never married herself or had children, the Lamberts were her closest relations. Which only made the feud between the sisters that much sadder.

“Only for a few weeks, apparently. She’s hoping to get a job with some accounting firm in Billings.”

“Really? I can’t imagine Olive letting her do that.”

“I’m not sure Olive has much say in the matter.”

Maddie’s lips tightened. “Then you don’t know my sister very well.”

“She hasn’t been able to keep B.J. from the rodeo circuit,” he pointed out.

“All the more reason she’s going to fight like hell to keep her daughter close to home.”

“You think? Cassidy’s no pushover.” Tenacity was in her DNA. And growing up with all those brothers had only made her tougher and more resilient.

“You don’t know Olive,” Maddie repeated.

“Not as well as you do, obviously,” he allowed. “But my money’s still on Cassidy.”

Chapter Four

Cassidy took the time to have tea with her mother, then changed into rubber boots and gloves and headed back to the barn. She had her faults, but avoiding hard work wasn’t one of them.

After diluting the disinfectant that Farley had left with her, she started with the horse troughs and feeding buckets. Once those had been thoroughly washed and rinsed, she went to check on Lucy.

Oh, how she hated to see the sweet mare in obvious discomfort. Lucy had a fierce spirit, but she was also gentle and trusting with her rider. Olive had purchased her from one of the best trainers in Montana and it showed. Cassidy had known she’d spent a pretty penny on her, too, when Olive demurred from sharing the purchase price with them.

Privately, Cassidy thought Lucy’s potential was being wasted as a working horse on a cattle ranch. She had lovely footing. Cassidy bet she’d make a great barrel-racing horse. And she was so pretty, she’d be a real crowd favorite.

In high school Cassidy had dabbled in the sport, coached by her brothers and encouraged by her mom. But in her final school year she’d decided she needed to focus on her grades and she’d given up competing.

She hadn’t run a course since.

“Hey, Lucy. Think you’d like being the center of attention in a rodeo ring?”

The worst waste of all, of course, would be if Lucy didn’t recover from the strangles. Cassidy took some comfort from the fact that Farley hadn’t seemed overly worried.

Cassidy went to the tack room to heat some compresses, then returned to Lucy’s stall.

“I have something here that should help you feel better.”

Lucy nickered and shuffled restlessly. Her nostrils were oozing pus again and she looked as miserable as a horse could look without actually collapsing to the ground.

Cassidy pressed the heated pads against the mare’s swollen lymph nodes. “How does that feel?” She’d wash down the stalls next, then mix up some warm mash for Lucy. She had fencing to clean and the tack room, too, but that might have to wait for tomorrow because she needed to examine the rest of the riding horses before nightfall and make sure none of them were exhibiting signs of the sickness.

Three hours later, Cassidy finally made it back to the ranch house, where she showered and had dinner with her mother. Olive was hurrying the meal because she had a meeting in town at seven.

“I’m sorry to rush out on your first night home. But if I don’t go they’ll just make a bunch of silly decisions that I’ll have to fix the next meeting.”

The committee was working to build a historical site at the intersection of Highway 81 and Main Street, kitty-corner to the Crossroads Gas and Snack. A life-sized bronze of a quarter horse had been donated to the town and the idea was to have a walking loop around the statue with wooden signposts detailing the history of the area.

Olive had been shepherding the project from the start and had contributed a significant chunk of cash to the fundraising efforts.

“That’s fine, Mom. I’ll run over and visit Corb and the gang.”

“I hate to leave you with the dishes...”

“Not a problem. Have fun at your meeting.”

Her mom grabbed her leather coat from the closet at the side door, then slipped on her best pair of go-to-meeting boots. “If you think fun is even a possibility, then you haven’t met Straws Monahan.”

Cassidy chuckled at that, knowing that even the strong-minded Straws whose property was on the other side of Coffee Creek, closer to Lewistown, would be no match for her mother.

Fifteen minutes later, the kitchen was spotless and Cassidy slipped outside to walk to her brother’s. Sky followed at her side for the quarter of a mile to Cold Coffee Lake Road. Trees—a mixture of aspen and ponderosa pine—separated each of the brothers’ cabins, giving them some privacy from one another.

Jackson lived in the cabin closest to the main house. Originally built for B.J., when it had become clear that he was going to be on the road most of the time, Olive had reluctantly given permission for Jackson to take up residence.

The other cabin had been Brock’s. It was vacant now, and Cassidy had no idea what would become of it. She’d heard Corb suggest that Olive offer it to Winnie, but that idea had gone over like a lead balloon.

Olive and Winnie had been like oil and water from the start. Cassidy knew, since her mother had confided in her, that Olive had hoped Brock would marry someone else. And that she felt Winnie fell short of the mark as far as being the wife of a cattleman.

Cassidy hadn’t bothered arguing.

Nothing she said had ever changed her mother’s opinion on anything, anyway.

Cassidy helped Sky up the stairs to Corb and Laurel’s front door. Exhausted from the walk, Sky seemed happy to curl up on a plump cushion on the plank floor of the porch that was obviously a favorite sleeping spot.

Since the door had been left open a crack, Cassidy gave it a nudge. “Hello?”

“Come on in!” It was Laurel who answered. “We were hoping you’d drop by.”

Cassidy left her boots in the foyer and found Laurel in the kitchen, where the counters were littered with stacked dishes and pots and pans.

Laurel didn’t seem perturbed by the mess. She was at the sink, her hands in soapy water. “Hey, Cassidy, some homecoming. I hear you spent the day disinfecting in the barn. But I bet that wasn’t as bad as this mess.” She wrinkled her nose at the stove behind her.

Cassidy came round the counter to give her sister-in-law a hug. Once more she thought how smart Corb had been to marry this woman. Laurel’s easygoing nature and sense of humor were a good match for him.

“Yeah, it’s been a chaotic day.” Cassidy glanced at the stove, which was splattered with baked-on tomato sauce and something that looked like egg yolk. “You, too?”

“Every day’s chaotic when you have a new baby. After two months you’d think I’d have things figured out and be on some sort of schedule, but you’d be wrong.”

Cassidy laughed. Already she felt more relaxed than she’d been all day. “Where’s the rest of the family?”

“Corb’s giving Stephanie her bath upstairs. They’ll be down in a sec.” She glanced at her own T-shirt, which had some stains matching those on the stove. “I could use a bath myself. Not to mention some clean clothes. Sorry to be such a slob.”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.