Rancher's Covert Christmas

The last thing they needed... Erin’s thoughts spun. Losing Dave just as the family was about to realize their profits for the season...

Certainly the hand’s injury put a crimp in the family’s ability to get the work done on schedule. Could this explain the why of the damaged ladder? Assuming it was purposely damaged and not simply an accident as the majority of the ranch seemed to believe. In light of the upcoming auction, would they hire a new hand? Even a temporary worker to help get the cattle to market would be better than nothing.

She furrowed her brow and picked at the seam along the knee of her jeans as she ruminated on that possibility. When she raised her gaze, she found Zane watching her with a peculiar look on his face. Quickly she schooled her face and backtracked mentally to where she’d allowed their conversation to drop.

“Oh, uh, apology accepted,” she said with an awkward smile.

His hands rested on the desk, and he tapped his thumb restlessly. “Where did you go just then? You were frowning.”

“Just remembering the accident. Dave’s leg...” Her stomach recoiled at the memory.

Piper entered the office and took the second chair that sat at an angle facing Zane’s desk. “Okay, the kiddo is squared away.”

“How old is your son?” Erin asked.

“Eight going on thirty-eight. He doesn’t see the need for learning addition and subtraction in order to help run the ranch someday.” Piper rolled her eyes.

Zane snorted, and one of his cheeks twitched with humor.

“You rang?” Josh said as he sauntered in and swept his gaze around the room. “Wow. Is this an official parley? Something up?”

Erin smiled at the third sibling of the McCall triplets. “Nothing formal. I just wanted to get to know you all and begin planning my research for my...article.” She swallowed and squeezed the arm of her chair. She’d almost said investigation. Her near slip was an unpleasant reminder of the ruse she was operating under.

“So I suppose, since I have the owners of McCall Adventures here—” she made a vague gesture to the three siblings with her hand “—this would be a good time to talk about the company, where it stands and...what happened a few months ago to stall the opening?”

Both Piper and Zane cast looks to Josh, whose chipper expression darkened at her mention of the zip line sabotage. Though she had an encapsulated version of the story from the triplets’ father, she was interested to see how the siblings viewed the incident.

“Well,” Piper started, “first, let me say that my husband, Brady, is actually an equal partner in McCall Adventures.”

“Oh, right. Of course,” She jotted a note on her notepad. “Should we invite him to join us?”

“He’s not really available. He’s helping Connor with his homework. Have you met Brady?” Piper asked.

Erin nodded. “I think so. This morning, right before...well...” She let her words tail off when Piper’s face fell, clearly distressed by the reminder of the morning’s accident.

“I can tell Brady you want to talk with him later, if you want.” Piper tucked a wisp of her dark brown hair behind her ear.

“Thanks,” Erin said, nodding. “I’d like to talk to everyone on the ranch at some point.” She tapped her pad with her pen and shifted her gaze to Josh. “So the zip line?”

Zane cleared his throat. “Is it really necessary to bring that up? We’ve moved on from the trouble this spring and are ensuring every possible safety precaution is in place as we go forward.”

She made a mental note of Zane’s reaction to reviewing the zip line sabotage. Defensive? Protective of the business or of some other secret he wants to hide?

“That’s good,” she said. “And I do plan to focus on the future of the business primarily, but...I think it’s important for me to have a full picture of what happened, how it impacted the people involved and the business itself—such as the finances of the company—in order to put the journey forward in perspective.”

“I’ll tell you how it impacted me,” Josh volunteered, shifting his weight and poking his thumbs in his pockets. “And I was the one closest to the incident.”

Zane pulled a face as he shot his brother a look that said he wasn’t happy with Josh’s willingness to discuss the recent trouble.

But why? What was it about the past vandalism the family experienced that had Zane’s guard up? Was he just wary in the same way Michael was being cautious by asking her not to reveal her true purpose to anyone?

For his part, Josh returned an even look and said, “Chill, man. It’s all good.” Facing Erin, he flashed a cocky smile. “The woman on the zip line when it fell is not only safe and sound, she is preparing for our wedding in three weeks.”

Josh’s happiness glowed from his eyes as brightly as his smile.

“Mazel tov! Congrats!” Erin already heard about the upcoming nuptials for Josh and his intended from Michael, but seeing the groom’s joy warmed her inside. Her heart also gave a slow drub of envy. Would she ever find someone who filled her with that from-the-soul glow of happiness?

“Yeah, as much as I like Kate, I have to wonder about her sanity, hooking her wagon to this doofus,” Piper said with a teasing smile and pure affection for her brother in the wink she gave Josh.

“I still say it’s Stockholm syndrome. Josh had to have brainwashed her while they were alone those two days,” Zane added, lacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back in his deck chair.

“Hardy har har,” Josh returned wryly as he moved to the saddle Zane had set up on the sawhorse. While his siblings chuckled under their breaths, he swung his leg over the saddle and sat astride it, arms crossed over his chest, his expression as content and smug as a cat with a canary and a bowl of milk.

“I just oiled that,” Zane said.

“You did?” Josh asked, frowning as he stood and checked his clothes for stains.

Zane snorted dryly. “Made you look.”

Josh gave his brother’s shoulder a shove before he resettled on the saddle.

“Boys,” Piper said, rolling her eyes, “you’re wasting the nice lady’s time.”

Erin wanted to say that the interplay between family members and the ranch employees was exactly what she wanted to observe. She needed to get a sense of hidden tensions, jealousies or competition that could shape her investigation.

She honed in on an element of Zane’s jab at Josh. “You were alone with your fiancée for two days after the accident at the zip line?”

Josh nodded. “That’s right. Two crazy, drama-filled, brush-with-death days.” He curled up a corner of his mouth again, and his eyes—the same shade of startling blue as Zane’s—twinkled. “It was great,” he said without irony.

Erin was busy comparing how bright and full of life Josh’s countenance looked compared to Zane’s harsher, more serious expression, and she almost missed the seemingly contradictory postscript.

“Great?”

“Well, maybe not at the time. But in hindsight, I wouldn’t change any of it. Except the parts where Kate was in danger.” He inhaled deeply, his nostrils flaring and his brow creasing. “That part still gives me nightmares.”

“Understandable.” She paused, taking mental note of how each of the McCall triplets reacted to the mention of the danger Josh and Kate had experienced.

Piper watched her brother with a knitted brow and a tighter grip on the arm of her chair. Concern.

Zane gave his brother a look of disgust...or was it anger? She focused on him. “Zane, Josh’s experience seems to irritate you. Why?”

He jerked his gaze to her, clearly startled by her question. “What?”

“He’s still ticked off because I didn’t do what he wanted,” Josh said.

With a peevish side glance to his brother, Zane sat forward in his chair, propping his arms on the desk as he narrowed his eyes on Erin. “My brother has no one to blame for what happened after the zip line fell but himself.”

Josh groaned and shook his head.

“He took unnecessary risks, like he often does,” Zane continued, ignoring Josh’s noises of disagreement, “and put Kate in danger.”

“With a guarantee of the same end result, I’d do exactly the same again, too.”

Josh and Zane exchanged hard stares, as if challenging the other to be the first to blink.

Erin was following the tense standoff when she felt a hand on her arm. She turned to Piper, whose mouth was twisted in a lopsided moue. “That smell you smell,” she said, waving her hand as if stirring a scent in the air, “is testosterone and the reek of McCall stubbornness.” With a quick glance at her brothers, she added, “They actually do love each other. They’re best friends. Two peas in a pod.” She cleared her throat. “Right, guys?”

After a beat, Josh cut a side glance to Erin and cracked a grin. “It’s true. Zane and I are like this.” He held up crossed fingers. “But lately my twin has been in a perpetual bad mood.”

Zane made a rumbling noise in his throat and firmed his mouth as he broke his stare at his brother. “If you hadn’t noticed, our family’s legacy is about to go down the toilet. We’re under attack from some unknown vandal, and our planned adventure business nearly got someone killed. We’ll be lucky if we can find the cash to make repairs and reopen in the spring. I’d say I’ve got good reason to be in a bad mood.”

“Fa-la-la-la-la. La-la. La-la!” Josh sang, mocking his brother.

“It’s not a joke!” Zane groused. Then, as if remembering Erin was watching them, he jerked his gaze to hers and schooled his expression.

Interesting...

Erin took mental notes, not wanting the siblings to know their interaction was of key interest to her. She wanted them to be as natural as possible, not stifling reactions to put on a good face.

“This pessimistic version of you is getting old, Zane.” Piper tipped her head as she considered her brother. “We may have troubles, but we have plenty to be thankful for, too. Lots to be happy about. My reunion with Brady and Connor. Josh’s wedding plans. Roy’s sobriety. A roof over our heads. Christmas...”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zane said, shrugging a shoulder. “I just get the feeling sometimes that I’m the only one with my eye on the ball. We do have a business to run and financial issues to deal with. Not to mention this other unknown threat looming over us.” He sat taller in his chair and squared his shoulders as he centered his cerulean gaze on Erin. “But that’s not what you came to write about, nor is what we need to be talking about now. Am I right?”

Erin chewed the end of her pen. “Well, maybe not specifically. But getting the lay of the land, so to speak, will help fill in details for a richer story, one with heart and depth.”

“‘Heart and depth,’” Josh repeated, nodding approvingly. “There you go. I like that.”

At almost the same moment, pings and buzzes sounded in the office. The instant tension was palpable, and the siblings exchanged meaningful looks as they all pulled out their cell phones.

“Crap,” Zane and Josh said at the same time.

Erin’s gaze darted from one face to another.

“Hoo-boy,” their sister added.

While Piper’s and Josh’s faces reflected frustration and mild concern, Zane’s expression seemed almost...relieved. Curious.

Erin couldn’t wait to get back to the guesthouse and begin making notes on her observations. “What’s wrong?”

Josh swung his leg back over the saddle on the sawhorse. “Gotta go.”

Piper pushed to her feet. “Roy found a place where the fence is out and some of the herd got loose. Shorthanded as we are, it’s all hands on deck to get the strays rounded up and fix the fencing.” She shoved her phone in her back pocket and extended a hand to Erin. “Nice to meet you. I’m sure we’ll talk again soon.”

Josh replaced his hat and nodded to her as he hurried out. “Sorry to have to bolt. Catch you later?”

“Sure.” Erin turned to Piper. “You’re going out to round up cows, too?”

Piper grinned. “I did in the old days, but now I’m headed back to the house to stay with Connor while my husband goes out in the pasture.”

Zane tapped a few keys on his computer, closing programs, and turned off his monitor. When he faced her, he turned up his palms and shrugged. “This is life on a ranch. We’re all on call 24/7.”

Erin stood and flipped her notepad closed. “Understood. No worries. We’ll continue this some other time.” She studied Zane as he stacked and straightened files on his desk, put away his pen and calculator in a drawer and pushed his chair under the desk. So orderly and neat. Her brother, Sean, an engineering student at the time of his death, had been the same way. She could still hear Sean saying, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”

“Question?” she said as Zane took his gray cowboy hat from a hook made from bull horns by the office door.

“Okay.” He motioned with his hand for her to precede him out the door.

“When the call—or should I say the text?—came in just now about the trouble with the fence, I felt the mood shift in the room. Everyone tensed.”

He nodded, his expression flat. “For all of us to get a text at the same time is a bad sign. It means there’s trouble.” After a slight hesitation, he amended, “Usually.”

“I get that,” she said as they walked down the hall together. His broad shoulders filled the space between the walls where family pictures and shadow boxes with ribbons and medals had been hung. She wanted to spend more time in this hall with the old photos and awards, but Zane ushered her forward. “My question is this—when you read the text, instead of worry or frustration, like I saw on your siblings’ faces, you looked...relieved.”

Zane snapped his gaze toward her. “I did?”

“That’s how it seemed to me.”

A muscle in his jaw flexed as he stared at her. His brow furrowed, and his lips set in a taut line. While he was every bit as handsome as his twin, his more serious countenance and the lines of stress etched around his eyes made him appear older than his siblings.

“I suppose I was,” he said finally as he continued down the corridor. He sidetracked briefly to the foyer to retrieve Erin’s coat and hold it for her as she slipped her arms in the sleeves.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling and adding another mental tick mark in the “gentleman” column for Zane.

She followed him through the kitchen and into the mudroom where he paused to toe off his athletic shoes and jam his feet into a pair of well-worn boots, saying, “Considering everything that’s been happening around here lately, I guess I was glad the news wasn’t anything worse. Loose cows and a broken fence we can handle. It happens now and then. Nothing new.” He exhaled a sigh as they stepped out into the winter chill, and his breath clouded. “The news just as easily could have been another disaster because of our saboteur, or a problem with my dad’s health, or bad news from the hospital about Dave, or—”

She grabbed his arm, stopping his progress across the ranch yard. “First, have you ever heard the expression ‘borrowing trouble’?”

He nodded. “I know. It’s a bad habit...especially lately.” He dragged a hand down his face and gave her weak smile of chagrin.

A pang of sympathy prodded her chest, and she had to remind herself that her job required her to stay as unaffected emotionally as she could. She didn’t have a heart of stone, but to judge people fairly and accurately, she couldn’t let her personal feelings sway her perspective. “Second, where’s your coat?”

He hitched a thumb at one of the outbuildings. “I have a work coat in the stable.”

“Well.” She took a step backward and motioned toward the area where she saw Josh mounting his horse and riding out. “Don’t let me keep you.”

Touching the brim of his hat, he turned and took a couple steps before returning. “Erin?”

“Mmm-hmm?”

He screwed his mouth into a frown of consternation. “I don’t want the incident this morning or the tension you saw in my office earlier to affect your research.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Easy there, cowboy. That sounds a bit like you’re about to try to censor my work.”

His brow dented, and he shoved his hands into his pockets. “That’s not what I meant. Although...ideally, I’d like your article not to be a laundry list of all the troubles we’ve had of late. That’d hardly be a sales pitch.”

“I told you before, and I’ll say it again, the integrity of my work requires no interference from the subject of my writing. My intent is not to sabotage your—” He flinched at her word choice. “Sorry. I’m not out to hurt your business. Trust me to do my job, okay?”

He hunched his shoulders against the cold as a chilly breeze buffeted them. A shiver sluiced through Erin, as well, but for a different reason. Every time she had to defend her work as a supposed journalist, she cringed internally. She could feel herself sinking deeper into a quagmire of deceit that dragged at her soul. Asking him to trust her, even as she led him to believe falsehoods about her, rankled.

He made a noncommittal sound in his throat. “What I meant was...I want you to have every opportunity to talk with the family, interview us, hear about our history, learn the business, get a close-up, inside view of the daily operations...despite the fact that we’ll be operating shorthanded. That, more than the troubling incidents that have put us on our heels, is what defines my family and this ranch.”

She raised her chin. “Oh,” she said awkwardly. She flashed him a lopsided smile. “Looks like I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have presumed...” She bit her bottom lip, letting her sentence trail off. Was she already letting herself be swayed by Zane’s serious disposition? Was she overcompensating because she found him so attractive and such an enigma at the same time?

The taut lines in his expression eased. “How about a mutual agreement to extend some trust, the benefit of the doubt?”

She released a deep breath, her grin warming. “Agreed.”

“In that spirit then...” He shivered visibly and jammed his hands deeper into his pockets. With the wind stirring, he had to be freezing. “How would you like to come with me and help round up escaped cattle?”

Erin gave a startled laugh. “Me?”

“It doesn’t get any realer than broken fences and rounding up a straying herd.”

She only hesitated a second before throwing her hands up with a snort of amusement. “Why not?”

“Good. This way.” He hitched his head toward the outbuilding where she’d seen Josh earlier. “You want a horse or an ATV?”

Falling in step beside him, she wrinkled her nose at his question. “An ATV? That’s not very Americana. Cowboys are supposed to ride horses.”

“It’s the new Americana. More efficient in many cases, and you don’t have to muck an ATV’s stall or pay for vet bills and feed. Every ranch I know is using some form of motorized vehicle these days.”

They reached the outbuilding, and as they stepped inside, the scent of manure and straw grew stronger. As her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light inside, she scanned the long aisle of stalls where a few horses hung their heads over their gates, snuffling and flicking their ears.

While Zane pulled on a coat he’d retrieved from a hook just inside the main door, she walked over to one of the horses and raised a hand to pat its nose. “Hi, beautiful. How are you?”

“So what do you think?” He eyed her as he buttoned the coat, which she saw was stained with Lord-only-knew-what, along with a liberal amount of dust and dried mud. No wonder he kept it in the stable.

“I’ll save the ATV for another day and try a horse...if that’s okay?”

He nodded and pursed his lips in thought. “I’d recommend Lucy for you. That’s who Kate rides.”

“Kate?” She flipped through her mental Rolodex, working to recall if she’d met Kate yet.

“Josh’s fiancée. She’s still learning to ride, and Lucy is one of our gentlest.” Zane had taken a saddle and reins from a rack and entered the first stall on the left. He stroked the neck of the large black horse in the stall, and the animal responded with a snuffle, nudging Zane with its nose. “Hey, Sarge. Time to work.”

Zane’s phone beeped, and he paused long enough to check it. Muttering a curse, he glanced back at Erin. “That was Roy. I need to hurry. The herd got spooked, and they need me ASAP. I really don’t have time to saddle Lucy for you. Rain check?”

Erin’s heart sank, but she tried to hide her disappointment. “Sure.”

As she turned to leave, he called, “Unless you wanted to ride double with me.”

Walking back to the gate of the stall, she licked her lips and weighed the option. “Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I weren’t. But I need an answer now. Those loose cows are getting near a dangerous area in the hills, even as we speak.” Zane slid the bit into the black horse’s mouth and adjusted the reins while he talked.

“Okay. Am I dressed all right?” She held her hands out and dropped her gaze to her jeans, winter coat and low-heeled suede boots.

“Cows don’t care about fashion,” he said, not even looking as he tossed a blanket over the horse’s back.

“Uh-huh,” she replied dryly. “But what about functionality? Do I need to change anything? I can run back to my room, if so.”

He sent her a quick side glance as he grabbed the saddle off the floor and draped it over the horse’s back. “It’ll do. But if you want to preserve the condition of those rather expensive-looking shoes, I’d swap out for a pair of work boots around the corner by the front alley door. While you’re there, grab some gloves.”

She followed his directions, and by the time she’d swapped her boots out and found a small pair of work gloves in a plastic bin, he was leading his horse—Sarge, he’d called the large black equine—out to the alley. The top of the horse’s head rose taller than Zane’s by several inches, and the beast’s well-muscled flanks were sleek and shiny, his ears perked and alert. Just the same, she asked, “Sarge can manage both of us?”

“For a while. I won’t ask him to work with both of us in the saddle.” He motioned her closer. “You’ll sit in front of me until we get up to the part of the fence where the cows got loose. Then you’ll have to get down while Sarge and I round up strays. But you can observe. Maybe give Roy a hand with repairing the fence?” He slapped the saddle and nodded toward Sarge. “Need a leg up?”

“Onto this giant? Definitely.” She moved closer and poked her foot in the stirrup, a challenge in itself thanks to her tight, slim-legged jeans. As she hoisted herself up, she felt Zane’s large hands on her hips, his fingers digging into her with a firm grip. The heat from his palms sent shockwaves through her, and her breath snagged in her lungs. Erin worked to calm her scattered pulse as she settled into the saddle, sliding as far forward as she could to make room for him. But Zane had a rugged, magnetic presence that was hard to ignore. Especially when his touch made her blood sizzle like Fourth of July sparklers. He swung up to sit behind her, and his broad chest and muscled legs surrounded her. The press of his body against hers was like a vacuum, sucking all the oxygen from her lungs. Dizzying desire flashed through her as his arms circled her to take hold of the reins. “Ready?”

She squeezed the saddle horn, searching for balance as her head swam. She hummed her assent, because she doubted she had the breath left to speak without her voice cracking.

Zane clicked his tongue to the horse. As they rode out, he paused long enough to call to the two dogs that milled around the gate to the pasture.

“Ace! Checkers! What are you two lazybones still doing here? We have work to do.” He gave a whistle and the dogs sprang to action, running into the pasture in front of them.

Erin tried to focus on the blue heelers bounding over the frozen ground ahead of them rather than the hard male body pressed against her back. Easier said than done, especially when Zane settled his hand on her belly, anchoring her as he kicked his horse’s gait up to a canter. She clutched the saddle horn with one hand and his arm with her other.