The Wrangler

He did.

Sam sighed. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, like riding a horse. She hadn’t ridden much in the past few months—doctor’s orders—but it was a lot like roller skating. Once you knew how, you never forgot.

“Okay,” she called out, trying to ignore the saddle horn as she squeezed Red. English saddles didn’t have horns and so she was somewhat distracted by its presence. “Here I go.”

The pattern was deceptively simple. Big circle at a lope, change of pace, then a small circle. Switch leads. Do the same thing going the other direction. Stop in the middle. Spin. Red didn’t like the spin, but she dug her leg into him and made him do it. All in all, it wasn’t a bad pattern, and she loved the last part where she got to run down the middle of the arena at a full gallop, coming to a sliding stop at the end. That part Red did beautifully.

“Bravo!” Eugenia called out when she was done. “That was terrific.”

Perhaps not terrific, Sam thought, but she gave Red a pat on the neck nonetheless. They’d hardly win points on the quarter horse circuit, but she was proud of her ride and, man, it felt wonderful to be back, almost as wonderful as the look on Clint’s face.

“I bet I really could work some of those cows,” Sam said, riding up to where her audience stood.

“How long has it been?” Eugenia said.

“Not since the accident,” she said. She hadn’t had the heart when they’d finally given her the go-ahead, not when she was going to have to sell her horse anyway to cover her medical bills.

Coaster, her beloved black gelding, was going to a new home soon.

“Accident?” Clint asked. “What accident?”

“The one that killed my parents,” Sam admitted.

Chapter Five

Her parents were dead?

“What?” Clint asked.

“They died four months ago,” she said. “Just before Christmas.”

Damn. No wonder Gigi had taken an instant shining to her. His grandmother’s maternal instincts were legendary. Crap. It’s what’d gotten him through the death of his own parents.

Gigi had never truly recovered from the death of her only child. To be honest, Clint had never truly recovered, either. Even though he’d lost his mom and dad years ago—ten, to be exact—he still missed them every day of his life.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his gut twisting as he recalled his own grief. “I know what that’s like. It’s not easy.”

She nodded, Red shifting beneath her, but she controlled the horse beautifully. He was an honest man—something he prided himself on—and she had one of the nicest seats he’d seen on a woman in a long time, and he wasn’t talking about the seat she sat on. Although that was nice, too.

“You should stay with us.”

Clint jerked his head up. He’d been leaning against the top rail of the gate and he damn near stumbled backward when he heard Gigi say the words.

“What?” Samantha asked.

Gigi nodded toward the woman on horseback. “You should say with us,” she said again. “You can help us prep for the gathering in a few days.”

“Gigi,” Clint said in a low, furious voice, hoping the woman behind him was hard of hearing. “Are you crazy? We just met her today.”

“Clinton McAlister,” Gigi said, turning toward him. “I can’t believe you would say that. Just look into that child’s eyes. She’s still grieving.” And this time it was his grandmother who lowered her voice. “And you know better than most what that’s like. Don’t be a complete ass.”

Ass?

His grandmother spent entirely too much time on the Internet.

“Fine,” he said, because what else could he say? If he kept on protesting he would, indeed, end up looking like an ass. “But she stays in one of the bunkhouses.”

His grandmother shook her head. “The boys’ll be using that next week. She can’t be staying in a bunkhouse with men. She’ll stay in the house.”

“Gigi!”

“Don’t you Gigi me,” she said, wagging a finger at him. “I’ve swatted your butt a time or two before and I’m not afraid to do it again.”

“Wait.” Gigi and Clint turned to face Samantha. “You don’t need to open up your home to me, Mrs. Baer.”

Her home? It was his home. But, of course, Samantha didn’t know that. Or maybe she did. Frankly, he didn’t care. She couldn’t stay with them. That was that.

“Don’t be silly,” Gigi said. “If you’re going on the roundup, you’ll need to stay here. We don’t leave until later this week and there isn’t a hotel within twenty miles.”

“Yes, but—”

“I won’t take no for an answer,” Gigi said, holding up a hand.

He would take no. “Gigi—”

“You can sleep upstairs,” she added. “In the room next to mine.”

“Gigi,” he repeated, and then lowered his voice. “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s plenty of other rooms for her to choose from.”

Which gave his Gigi the wrong impression; that he was okay with Samantha staying with them.

“Fine,” Gigi said, a smile settling upon her face. Obviously, she felt as if she’d won this particular battle. “You can pick your room, Samantha,” she said.

“Call me Sam,” the woman on horseback said with a smile. “Nobody calls me Samantha except used car salesmen and telephone solicitors.”

“Sam,” his grandmother said, “there’s plenty to choose from.”

“Well, I—” she started to say, until Red put his head down and let loose a snort that drowned out her words.

“What was that, dear?” Gigi asked.

“I think she said no,” Clint pointed out.

“Actually, I said I don’t want to impose,” Sam explained, pulling on the reins because Red was trying to sniff the sand in the arena.

“You wouldn’t be imposing. We’d love to have you, wouldn’t we, Clinton?” Gigi asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Clint said jovially. “I’d love to have you.”

His grandmother elbowed him again, the expression on her adorably wrinkled face clearly warning him to behave.

“I just don’t think it’s a smart idea,” Sam said.

“Clinton,” his grandmother said, “now that that’s settled, why don’t you untack Red here? I’ll show Sam to the house.”

“Gigi, she just said she didn’t think it was a smart idea.”

“Nonsense. Sam, hop on down from there. Clint can take care of Red.”

“But, I—”

“Best do as she asks,” Clint advised. “Once she gets an idea in her head, you’re not going to get it out.”

“Are you sure?” she asked Gigi.

“I’m sure, honey. Now hop on down from there.”

“But I can untack him.” Sam slipped out of the saddle.

“Excellent idea,” Clint said with his own bright smile—though his was false. Okay, maybe not false, more like wolfish. He’d spotted the blush on Samantha’s face, the one that had flared at his “I’d love to have you” comment. “Maybe we can both do it together.”

“Clinton,” his grandmother snapped in warning. “Quit teasing her. You’re making her uncomfortable.”

Obviously, his grandmother had spotted the blush on Samantha’s face, too. He looked at Gigi in question. He hadn’t seen her so protective in…well, he couldn’t remember when she’d taken someone under her wing so thoroughly, and in such a short amount of time. She must like Samantha Davies a lot. Then again, he supposed that was to be expected. He and Gigi had been through more than their fair share of grief. First his parents, then her own husband five years ago to a heart attack. His grandmother had deeded the ranch to him, she’d been so stricken by grief. For a time there, Clint wasn’t sure she’d make it through. But she’d managed to recover. And now she had that light back in her eyes.

“I’m sure Sam’s tired from her drive. You can take care of the horse.”

“That’s okay, Mrs. Baer, I can do it myself—”

“Gigi,” his grandmother said. “Everyone calls me that.”

Everyone? The only person to call her that was him.

“Gigi, I’d really like to untack and brush him myself.”

“She could untack and brush me,” Clint said under his breath.

His grandmother shot him a look and muttered out of the side of her mouth, “What you’re after is a piece of ass, and don’t think I don’t know it.”

“Gigi!” Clint said, pretending to be horrified. He opened the gate for Sam and smiled up at her. “Seriously,” he said to Samantha, “I’ll help you out.”

Maybe he could scare her into going away.

SHE COULD UNTACK AND BRUSH ME.

Had he been flirting with her when he’d said that? Somehow she doubted it. And why didn’t he want her to know who he was? Earlier, when she’d been talking to his grandmother, it’d been clear that he’d wanted Eugenia to introduce him as a simple ranch hand…and not as his grandson.

Why?

“Clint,” she said. “I, uh…I know you’re Eugenia’s grandson.”

He stopped so suddenly Red tossed his head. “You do?”

She nodded.

“Did Gigi tell you?”

She shook her head. “I knew from the first moment I met you.”

“Oh,” he said. She could tell he was trying to hide his surprise from her.

Moisture still hung heavy in the air. A breeze played with her short hair and it blew the scent of him toward her.

He smelled like a man.

And she was attracted to that scent. It made her recall—perfectly—what he’d looked like with his shirt open. Those cords of muscle, the tan hue of his skin, the way she’d caught him looking at her earlier, as if he’d like to—

Sam!

“She’s really a special lady,” she said through a throat gone dry with—okay, she should just admit it—lust. She hadn’t been with a man since the Mesozoic era.

“Yes, she is.”

But she wasn’t the type to indulge in an affair although if there was one time in her life when it might be okay to do something impulsive, that was now. Sex with him would be something to remember for a lifetime, and since she was going blind…

Blind.

She couldn’t breathe for a moment, forced her lungs to pump air to her heart. The sad truth was that she couldn’t imagine it. She could only try her best to prepare for it. She’d been left behind for some reason. She had to believe that reason would present itself at some point in the future.

Maybe it was the Baer Mountain Mustangs.

“Tell me about them,” she said, their entrance into the barn giving Sam a second or two of panic when her vision dimmed. But it was only her eyes adjusting to the sudden darkness.

“Tell you about what?”

She led Red to the cross-ties. “The mustangs.”

He didn’t say anything. She swiveled around and grabbed Red’s halter from the hook Clint had hung it on.

“Yeah,” he said. “About the mustangs.”

She slipped the bridle from Red’s head, before turning back to him. The horse spat the bit out as if he was aiming for a spittoon.

“What about them?”

“Gigi can be too trusting sometimes. Gullible. Naive.”

“So can we all,” she said, remembering a time when she’d thought life would never change. It had only been last December. She was too young—just barely twenty-six. Her parents had still been young, too, and healthy. They’d had years ahead of them. Or so she’d thought, four months ago.

“She likes you,” he said. “But the jury’s still out as far as I’m concerned.”

She slipped the halter over Red’s head. “That’s not what it seemed like earlier,” she said as she buckled the crown piece. Though she was losing more and more of her peripheral vision, she’d been having trouble focusing up close, too. She worried about what that might mean, then shook her head. What did she have to fear? That she was going blind? She already knew that for sure.

Enjoy every day.

Her doctor’s words echoed in her ears. She would enjoy every day. That was going to be her motto from here on out. So when she finished, she faced Clint with more bravado than she truly felt. Maybe it was the gut-wrenching realization that she would be unable to see him in the not-too-distant future. Maybe it boiled down to good, old-fashioned lust—God, she’d never forget what he looked like tapping that pole into the ground—but for some reason, she felt like playing with him.

“You mean you can take me to the mustangs, but then you’ll have to kill me?”

“I, well, I—” He frowned. “No. Of course not. I’m just not taking you anywhere until your background checks out.”

“So you’re going to do a background check on me?” she said, closing the distance between them. He seemed to lean away from her. Or maybe he didn’t. But his pupils flared, his chin lifting a bit when she got too close. Like a horse about to turn and run, Clint’s muscles tensed. She could see the cords of his neck pop out, watched as his eyes narrowed.

She would never forget his luminescent blue eyes.

And hungry.

He was attracted to her.

“You could be a reporter for all I know,” he said.

“I’m not.”

“Just what are you then?” He scooted closer to her, turning the tables.

He leaned into her. Sam couldn’t breathe. And then she sucked in a breath…and got a mouthful of musky-smelling Clinton McAlister.

“Who are you, Samantha Davies?”

Chapter Six

One of the horses snorted in the stall behind Sam. He saw her jump. She was on edge. Excellent. So was he.

“What do you do for a living?” he asked, staring into her big, green eyes. “So far all I know is that you ride horses.” He smirked. “English.”

“And that should reassure you,” she said, lifting her chin. “I’m a horse person, and so I can’t be half-bad.” She patted Red.

He moved even closer, smiling when he saw her swallow. Hard.

“Yeah,” he said softly, “but what do you do for a living?” he asked again. The question wasn’t that hard. He must have her rattled.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” he repeated, and he could swear he felt heat emanating from her all of a sudden. Her cheeks grew rosy, and then the color spread to her neck.

“I’m a geologist.”

That caught him off guard. “A geologist?”

She shoved a strand of hair away from her eyes. The wind had mussed it up. “I put myself through school, found myself a high paying job. I used to work for one of the chemical companies.”

“Used to? What happened? You get fired?” He wasn’t thinking right. Under normal circumstances he would never ask such a rude question.

She must have him rattled.

“I had to quit. They gave me three months off to heal, longer if I needed it, but I’m still sort of recovering from my injuries. Plus, I started having issues at work, couldn’t focus…so I quit.”

“Quit and came here.”

She nodded.

“But you said you have a horse. One that you used to show.”

“I do have a horse, but he’s for sale down in Texas.”

“You don’t strike me as the type that would want to sell her horse.”

She shrugged. “My medical bills, the portion that the insurance company didn’t cover. It was expensive. My horse is worth a lot of money. I have to do what I can to pay the bills.”

So she was selling her horse. The only thing she owned, if he didn’t miss his guess.

The whole story kind of made him sick. And what injuries was she still recovering from? She looked fine to him.

“You should probably get going before Gigi comes out here and tans my hide for keeping you too long.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said, hooking the left stirrup over the horn of the saddle so she could undo the girth.

“I thought you didn’t know how to ride western?” he asked, resting a hand on Red’s neck.

“I said I didn’t ride in a western saddle, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how the saddles work.”

Despite himself, his gaze drifted downward to her rear. The memory of how it’d felt to have her be the aggressor, however briefly, made his body react in a way that made him uncomfortable given that he’d just met her.

She glanced at him—and caught him still staring at her behind.

A smile slowly lifted the edges of her mouth. “Do I have dirt on me?” she asked.

He knew she knew exactly what he’d been doing: checking her out. But that didn’t seem to bother her, and for the first time he found himself thinking that it might not be a bad thing that she was staying in the house.

“Your rear looks great to me,” he said, throwing caution to the wind.

“So does yours.”

“You sure you don’t want to bunk down in the room next to me?”

He’d pushed too far. He could tell by the way the back of her neck turned red and she suddenly devoted all her attention to Red. “No thanks,” she said as she pulled the heavy leather saddle toward her.

But a western saddle was not an English saddle and she began to tip backward under the weight of it.

“Careful,” he called, reaching out to help her. He pushed the saddle back on Red’s back just in time, and when he turned to steady her, they were belly-to-belly, Clint’s hands clutching her upper arms.

“Uh…thanks,” she said. “I, uh…I lost my balance.”

Let her go.

“Western saddles are heavy,” he murmured. Her arms were tiny. He could just about wrap his entire hand around one.

“Yeah. I just thought…” He held her gaze.

Let. Her. Go.

“What’d you think?” he asked softly. Just touching her about lit him on fire and he couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to kiss her—

“Gracious! You’re still in here.”

They sprang apart.

Gigi stared at him in silent rebuke. “What the devil’s taking so long, Clint? Her tea’s getting cold.”

“DON’T LET HIM PUSH YOU around,” Gigi told Sam as she led her away from the barn.

“Believe me, I won’t,” the young woman said, her eyes peering down at the ground.

“Do you have a hotel back in town?” Gigi asked. “Do you need to go back there and check out?”

“No, but really, Mrs. Baer, I hate to impose.”

She seemed like such a sweet thing. Gigi had wanted to wrap her up and tell her everything would be all right. Samantha had a world of hurt hiding inside.

“It’s fine,” Gigi said. “But you’ll need to watch that one in there,” she said, pointing over her shoulder. “He’s a real scallywag.”

She glanced back at the barn. “I’ve noticed.”

“He thinks because he’s my grandson he can boss me around.”

“I’ve noticed that, too.”

Gigi studied her. “So I take it that means you knew who he was this whole time. My grandson. Not some kind of ranch hand.”

“I knew,” she said.

Clever girl. “Well, thank God for that. With Clint admitting he lives with me, I was hoping you didn’t think me a cougar or something.”

The young woman stared at her for long seconds, but then threw back her head and laughed. It was so good to see her let loose. She had a feeling that hadn’t happened in a while. And, my, but she was a handsome thing. No wonder Clint was interested in her, although to be honest, Clint had had plenty of beautiful women throwing themselves at him in the past. Not that Sam had thrown herself at him. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was just strange that her grandson was showing an interest in the girl when he’d just met her.

Strange and encouraging. She’d given up all hope of ever having great-grandchildren.

“I wouldn’t have thought that. Well, maybe I might have,” she said. “But only for about one-point-nine seconds.”

“Well,” Gigi said, “as long as it wasn’t for two seconds, I would have forgiven you.”

It’d been too long since Clint had shown interest in any girl, Gigi thought. Oh, there’d been the odd trip into town. He was, after all, a man. But not since Julia had he been so obvious in his pursuit.

Julia. God. Now there was a woman she’d been glad to see the last of.

She can bunk down next to me.

Gigi just bet her grandson would like that.

“It’s a beautiful house,” Sam said, stopping yet again and gazing up at it.

She loved horses. She’d be perfect for Clint.

“It’s been in my family for a long, long time,” Gigi said.

But she was from the city and so that might be a problem. It’d been a problem with Julia. And that made Clint’s interest in Sam all the more strange. Gigi would have thought after Julia he’d give a woman like Sam a wide berth.

“That’s right,” Sam said. “Your family settled this land in the early eighteen-hundreds.”

Maybe he was just flirting with her. Maybe that’s all this was.

“We were one of the first families to live in Montana,” she said. “That’s how we ended up with so much acreage.”

“Twelve thousand acres.”

“No, dear,” Eugenia said. “That’s just this parcel here.” She motioned to the land around them. “We own another hundred thousand to the west there.”

“Really? I only ever read about the twelve thousand acres online.”

She hadn’t known that? Good. At least Gigi wouldn’t have to worry about Sam wanting Clinton for his money…like she had with Julia. It was obvious Sam had been attracted to her grandson before she’d known what he was worth.

“And another fifty-thousand to the east. We have some smaller parcels in between that.”

“I had no idea,” Sam mused.

“We’re one of the largest landowners in Montana.” She watched the woman’s eyes carefully, looking to see if a glint of something entered them. Maybe greed, or delight, or the conniving machination of a woman after her grandson for what he was worth on paper…which was a lot.

“That’s how you’ve kept the horses a secret all these years, isn’t it?” she asked.

So far, so good. The girl didn’t seem the least little bit gleeful.

“We move them around a lot,” Gigi admitted, “which is why they’re not truly wild. We manage them just like we do the cattle.”

“So they don’t run free in the hills?”

Gigi shook her head. “If we let them to do that they’d quickly reproduce in such numbers that they’d become a problem. So we selectively allow them to breed.”

“Oh,” she said, disappointed.

“But they run free on a lot of land,” Gigi added.

“I see.”

One of the first questions out of Julia’s mouth was exactly how many acres did they own.

“We run cattle here, too,” Gigi said. “It’s how we keep the place afloat. We might be rich in land, but we have to make ends meet somehow. Some years, it’s not easy what with the cattle market being up and down. We’ve thought about selling some of our land, but then what would we do with the horses?”

That wasn’t true. That wasn’t true at all, but if Sam here was after Clint’s wealth, like Julia had been, Gigi wanted to know about it. So she watched Sam’s face closely for signs.

She just looked sad.

“Have you ever thought about setting up a trust for the horses?” Sam asked. “You know, maybe gather together some private investors. I’ve met a lot of wealthy people—through showing horses—and so I could probably coordinate it all. That way, when money is tight, you wouldn’t have to worry about caring for the horses again.”

“No,” Gigi said honestly. Because in truth the Baers were wealthy. Very wealthy. They’d sold land over the years, invested it. Yes, they lived simply, hadn’t remodeled the house in the past fifty years, or added expensive horse barns or flaunted their wealth. No need for that. They kept to themselves.

“I’d like to help,” Sam said, “if you’ll let me. Horse people are great. If I tell them I need money for wild mustangs, they’ll be onboard. It’ll be a tax write-off for them. That’ll be a plus. And if they donate money we could generate annual income. That income would grow over the years. You guys would never have to worry about taking care of your horses again.”

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