Chapter Two
Colt sat in an
Adirondack
chair on his deck, enjoying his morning cup of coffee. The sun had just begun to peek up over the horizon. Putting the cup to his lips, he surveyed his land. The fifteen acres of property his house resided on were not part of the Lonestar ranch. Situated on a hill along the edge of the Lonestar property, the house, a two-story rambling log cabin with a huge deck across the back and a stone fireplace lining one side, was his sanctuary. It belonged to him and him alone. He’d paid for it in blood, literally.
Before his dad passed away, Colt had been a reigning rodeo champion. Calf roping and saddle bronc riding were his claim-to-fame events. He didn’t mind giving up the circuit to raise his brothers. The rodeos had served their purpose. The winnings paid for his home and land. Mace lived at the ranch and Cade lived on the road, following the rodeos. The slant of the sun across the deck told him it was getting late. Time to go to work. Colt drained the rest of his coffee and headed for his truck.
He drove his silver Ford 250 pickup truck the mile from his house to the ranch office. Elise invaded his thoughts as he made the final turn into his parking space. She must have left the ranch after she took off yesterday because he hadn’t seen her again. He was glad to see her gone. He didn’t need her to try to prove him wrong. Her green eyes, infectious smile and sexy, throaty laugh were way too inviting.
He’d tossed and turned in his bed all night long, thinking about her lips and just how kissable they were. Setting his jaw, he pushed all thoughts of Elise Hamilton from his mind and hoped the next time he saw her would be when she handed him the papers selling her half of the ranch to him.
Colt entered the office and said his usual, “Good morning” to his secretary, Mabel, as he put his hat on the rack by the door.
“Good Morning,
Colton
,” she responded with a smile. She tilted her gray head and gave him a concerned look. “You look a little tired, dear. Are you feeling well?”
“I’m fine.” He didn’t want to be reminded of his sleepless night. “Any messages?”
“Yes, there’s a message from Jim Peterson. He wanted to meet to go over the proofs from the last rodeo.” She handed him the pink slip of paper.
“Why didn’t Mace take the call?”
She cut her eyes back to the half-closed door of Mace’s office where the sound of laughter floated to the front of the office. “Well, he was otherwise occupied, so I just took the message. If you want, I can give this to Mace.”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll tell him myself.” Colt’s boot heels dug into the carpet as he walked back to his brother’s office and pushed open the door.
Elise sat in Mace’s chair in front of the computer. Mace leaned behind her, his arm slung across the back of her chair in a casual manner. He looked at the computer and smiled at something she showed him.
“Colt,” she looked up, her smile bright. “I just figured out how I could make myself useful.”
I’ll just bet you have
. “Oh, really?” he said, trying to sound as bored as he possibly could when all he wanted was to tell Mace she was off limits. She was his. His gaze, as he flicked it to his brother, must have held some kind of territorial gleam, because his brother backed away and gave him a telling smile.
“Mace, Jim Peterson called. He wants to meet to go over the proofs from the latest rodeo. Seeing as how you’ve taken over PR duties, I thought you might want to call him back personally.”
Taking the pink slip from Colt’s hand, Mace said, “I think Elise might be on to something. Check it out while I go call Jim.”
Elise beckoned Colt with a wave of her hand. “Come look at this.”
He moved around the desk and stood behind the chair, looking at the computer screen. “It’s the Lonestar’s website,” he stated the obvious.
Elise laughed as his stoic manner. “Well, give the cowboy a star! No, here’s what I wanted to show you.” She proceeded to pull up other rodeo ranches’ websites, pointing out differences in them.
Colt put his hand on the desk and leaned forward as she pointed to the idea others had used of selling tickets to the rodeos right over the Internet. “Why doesn’t the Lonestar do that?” She turned her face to look up at him.
“We have a person contracted to run our website,” he replied. “To be honest, it wasn’t something I thought much about.”
“Well, you should,” she admonished in a light tone and turned back to the computer screen.
As she clicked into the screen to show him how easy it was to buy a ticket online, he had to admit she was right. It would help to increase ticket sales by making advanced selling easier. He leaned closer. The smell of her shampoo mingled with her own natural scent was an enticing combination. The scent reached in and wrenched him right in the gut, well, in this case, right in the groin as the tightening of his pants could attest to.
She continued to talk about websites and webmasters and ticket sales and all he could think about was what her eyes would look like as he touched her. Would the green color change when she was aroused? Colt shook his head to clear his lustful thoughts when something she said did get his attention.
“You could save the outlay of cash to have your website revamped to include selling tickets online.”
“Really, how can I do that?”
Elise turned her gaze to him. “Haven’t you been listening to me, Colt? I can do all this for you. I have a degree in computer science. All I did was work with web programming languages.”
He looked into her sincere eyes. “You really want to do this, don’t you?”
“If you’re asking if I really want to help, be a part of the Lonestar and carry my weight, then the answer is yes.”
Colt wondered about his sanity as he answered, “Okay, but only until the website is up and running. There are no other jobs here for you, Elise.”
Elise glanced up at him. “We’ll see about that,” she said with an enigmatic smile before she turned her attention back to the computer screen and started taking notes on the pad of paper in front of her.
* * * * *
Elise rolled over in bed and groaned at the incessant ringing of the telephone. Lifting her head from the pillow, she opened her bleary eyes and glanced at the window. Still nighttime. Her head pounded from her late night vigil in Mace’s office the night before as she finished up her notes for the revisions on the website.
Glaring at the annoying phone, her gaze shot to the alarm clock. 5:30! Who in the world would be calling her at 5:30 in the morning?
Leaning over, she picked up the phone from her nightstand. “Hello?”
“Elise?” It was Colt. “Get up and get a move on, woman.”
“What?” she mumbled, her voice sounding raspy.
“As part owner of the Lonestar, you have responsibilities to attend to. I’ll meet you at the ranch in half an hour.” With that said, he hung up the phone.
Elise set the receiver in its cradle and clenched her teeth at his presumption. Counting to twenty, she had to remind herself…she did ask for this. This was her chance to prove to Colt she was serious about staying.
With a sudden burst of energy, Elise jumped out of bed and headed for the shower.
* * * * *
As she pulled her red Audi coupe up beside his truck, Colt walked to her car in long, purposeful strides.
“You’re late,” he commented, irritation obvious in his tone when she opened her door.
Elise looked at her watch as she climbed out of her car and gave him a patient look.
“I’m one minute late.”
He turned on his heel, calling over his shoulder, “Come on. There’s a lot to do before the workday gets started. Every minute counts.”
Elise followed him over to the stables. No one was around. Well, of course not! Who would be up at this ungodly hour?
Colt handed her a pitchfork. “Here, put some hay in the stalls for the horses.”
Elise gave him an incredulous look.
His eyebrow shot up. “Not above doing a little hard work, are ya?”
She clamped her lips shut to keep the retort that sprang to mind from escaping. Turning on her heel, she headed for the broken up bale of hay. As she shoved the pitchfork into the straw, she imagined it was Colt’s rear end. At least that brought a smile to her face.
Thankfully, someone had at least cleaned the stalls and that wasn’t her assigned task for the day. While she shoveled hay, Colt fed and watered the horses. After an hour, she stopped and brushed her hand across her brow. The smell of the stables and the fresh hay assailed her nostrils, causing a smile to ride up her face. She forgot how much she loved the smells, well, minus the odor of manure, of course.
“Hey, get to work, slacker,” Colt called out from over one of the stalls.
She stuck out her tongue before she started moving hay again.
Colt looked back down, but she thought she saw a smile before he turned his head.
Ten minutes later, Sam walked into the stables. A surprised look crossed his face when he looked at the pitchfork in her hand.
“Mornin’ Miss Hamilton,” he said respectfully as he turned questioning eyes to Colt.
“Mornin’ Sam.” Colt walked over and took the pitchfork from her hands.
He handed the tool to Sam and escorted her out of the stables. “I guess it’s time for us to get to work.”
Elise rubbed her sore hands on her jeans. “Anything else?”
He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Not right now.”
She saluted him and sauntered off toward the office.
* * * * *
Later that day, Elise smiled to herself while she opened another file on the computer. With Mace out of town for a couple of days, she had complete access to his computer and had already made good progress on the website. Glancing at her watch, she realized it was almost lunchtime. She rolled her shoulders and decided to work a little longer to get to a good stopping point. If she worked over, she could always go see Nan in the kitchen.
Before Mace left, he’d told her about Nan, “Not only does she fix the meals, but she helped raise us.” He’d winked at Elise on his way out saying, “Yep, Nan’s as much a fixture around the ranch as the horses.”
After a half hour, she shut down her computer and started to pull her purse out of the drawer, ready to head out for lunch, when Colt walked into her office with an extra cowboy hat in hand.
“Where are you going?”
She looked up at him. “I’m going to lunch.”
Colt reached over and put the hat on her head. “Not right now, Princess. We have a fence that needs mending. You can eat later.”
“Now?” She gave him an exasperated look.
Colt turned on his heel, expecting her to follow. “Now. The cattle can’t wait, Elise.”
With a growling stomach, Elise gritted her teeth and followed him out of the office.
He didn’t say a word as they made their way to the stables. When they got there, Colt handed her the reins to her horse.
“This is Bess. She’ll be a good ride for you while you’re here,” he said in a no- nonsense manner before they saddled their horses and rode out.
When they reached the area of the fence that needed repairs, Colt got off his horse. As she followed suit, he said, “Fences are checked often, especially after a rain in case the fencepost loosens in the mud.”
He handed her a pair of working gloves. “Here, put these on.”
She complied and waited for Colt to give her further instructions. He moved over to the fence and pointed out the broken barbed wire. “See this, we constantly watch for broken wire or we could take a chance on having the cattle roam free.”
He hunkered down and indicated for Elise to do the same. Colt pulled on another pair of gloves and used a tool he called a carpenter’s wrecking bar—a crowbar—to hook a barb on the shorter broken strand and pull it taut using the post for leverage.
Nodding to his saddle he said, “Get the staple gun out of my saddle bag and staple this side down.”
Elise retrieved the staple gun and stapled the wire against the fence post.
Colt took the extra wire he’d brought and wound it around the broken wire several times until they were completely spliced. His quick, efficient movements showed his familiarity with even the most basic of chores. Once he’d stretched that wire in the same fashion, he had Elise staple it to the opposite post. When he finished, he stood on the wire saying, “It’s done right if the new wire can withstand your weight without slipping.” Once he stepped down, he turned to her and handed her the crowbar-like tool. “Now, it’s your turn to repair the other snapped wire.”
She arched an eyebrow but didn’t say a word as she took the tool from him. Moving closer to the fence, she started to repair another section, employing the same methods she’d seen him use. After she and Colt had attached the first short wire and she moved on to tackle splicing a longer length to the broken wire, he stood behind her, watching her movements.
“No, Elise, like this,” he said. He put his arms around her, manipulating her hands with the barbed wire.
Heat radiated from his body as he pressed against her back. He smelled of outdoors and leather and faintly of soap. She had to remind herself to concentrate on the task at hand while Colt showed her how to work with the barbed wire. The whole experience felt a little awkward with knowledgeable hands working with unknowledgeable ones. As they manipulated the wire, a spiked barb snapped around and caught Elise’s wrist, causing her to bite back a cry of pain.
Colt dropped the tool and quickly turned her to face him. He pulled his gloves off, and threw them to the ground before he reached for her hand. As he slid her glove off, blood welled from the torn gash on her wrist. “I’m sorry, Elise,” he said, his tone regretful as he pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket and dabbed at her wrist.
She tried to pull her hand away. “It’s okay, Colt. It was an accident.”
Colt held fast to her hand and looked into her eyes, his blue ones full of concern. “When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?”
Tiny jolts of electricity moved up her arm at his touch. She returned his gaze. “Last year, so there’s no need to worry.”
He searched her gaze and then ordered in a gruff tone, “Keep that on your wrist until it stops bleeding.” He picked up his gloves. “I’ll finish up.”
“Uh-uh. I started it, I’ll finish it.” Elise quickly wrapped the handkerchief around her wrist and used her teeth to secure it in a knot.
With swift movements, she pulled on her gloves and held her hand out for the tool, smiling up at him. Colt’s blue gaze held grudging respect as he put the wrecking bar in her hand.
It was after 2:00 p.m. before Elise entered the kitchen at the ranch house. An older woman looked up from shucking corn, a questioning look in her chocolate brown eyes.
“Hi, I’m Elise Hamilton.” She stuck out her hand.
The woman wiped her hands off on her apron and shook her hand. As she grinned her dark skin only enhanced the white in her perfect, straight teeth. “I’m Nan. Heard all about you, child.”
Elise laughed. “Good things, I hope?”
Nan returned to shucking her corn, a twinkle in her eye. “Yeah, Mace seems to think so.”
“Mace mentioned you always have leftovers,” Elise said with a hopeful look.
Nan nodded and pointed to the fridge. “There’s some leftovers in the fridge if you want anything in there.” She squinted at her. “Kind of a late lunch, isn’t it?”
Elise smiled. “Yes, Colt had me mending fences, so I didn’t get a chance to go anywhere.”
Nan raised her eyebrow at her comment. “Showing you the ropes, is he?” she chuckled.
Elise sighed as she pulled luncheon meat and cheese out of the fridge. “Yes, but I suppose as half-owner, I need to learn to carry my weight around here.”
Nan gave her a surprised look before she returned to shucking the corn.