Betting on Texas (2 page)

He
couldn’t
leave! What would she
do?

“Show me around later.” Miranda shooed him away.

She really was desperate to see the house and wasn’t about to
wait a minute longer. The house had played a major part in her move to
Ramblewood. From the listing information the Realtor had emailed her, it had a
great deal of charm and a homey quality. Ever since, Miranda pictured herself
there, with a husband and a houseful of children. The fact it was a thousand
miles away from Washington, D.C., was an added bonus.

“Let’s get a few things straight, Miranda. I’m not your
personal tour guide.” Jesse took her arm and steered her down the stairs. “You
can see the house on your own time. The sooner I show you what to do around
here, the sooner I can be on my way.”

He walked ahead to the stable entrance and waited for her.
Miranda was torn. It was probably wise to pacify the cowboy for the time being.
After buying the house and the truck, she only had enough money left to tide her
over for a year. She not only needed help with the ranch, she needed a friend in
town. Not an enemy.

“Oh, well, I’m sure this won’t take long.”

Inside, the pungent smell of hay assaulted her senses, causing
her to sneeze. Jesse took a pair of leather gloves from his back pocket and gave
them to her. He grabbed another pair from a shelf and put them on as he walked
to the last stall.

“Do you have sneakers or work boots to put on?” he asked. “What
am I asking? You wouldn’t even know what
work boots
look like.”

Miranda narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s wrong with these?”
She stuck out one foot, proud of her new red-and-turquoise leather cowboy boots.
They sure were pretty.

“They haven’t even been broken in yet. Those are meant for
riding, not walking. You’ll regret wearing them in five minutes flat.”

“I’ll be fine, thank you.” She pushed a few long strands of
hair behind her ears as she strutted past him.

“Suit yourself.” Jesse unlatched the stall door and stepped in
to stand beside a large gray horse. “Tell me. Do all rich city girls buy
property without seeing it?”

Again with the insults?

“You don’t quit do you?” Miranda tried to think of the shortest
way to explain her situation. “My best friend is from San Antonio and he thought
the Hill Country would be a perfect place for me to start over.”

“What was so horrible you had to run away? I know! You ran out
of places to shop.”

Miranda chastised herself. This was her one shot at a new
beginning. The citizens of Ramblewood didn’t need to know what her life had been
like before she arrived.

When she didn’t respond, Jesse laughed as he adjusted a harness
over the horse’s head. He led the horse down the long corridor and outside,
double-checking to make sure Miranda followed.

“Never walk close to the back end of a horse,” Jesse said over
his shoulder. “It’s a surefire way to get kicked.”

Miranda quickened her steps to put the equine’s business end
behind her.

“Surely I wasn’t the only one who could have outbid you. Why
take this out on me?”

Jesse ignored her and turned the horse loose in the corral with
the others. Miranda rested her arms on the top rail of the fence while he
returned to the stables. Fresh, clean air filled her lungs. She couldn’t believe
she was here, in Texas. On her land.

He reappeared with another horse. She fumbled with the latch as
she tried to open the gate for him. With the flick of his thumb, Jesse swung it
open, grinning at her.

Miranda closed the gate with Jesse still in the corral. He eyed
her warily, stepped up on a fence rail and hopped over it, landing less than a
foot in front of her. For a moment, Miranda thought he’d end up on top of
her.

“You were the only other bidder,” he said as he headed
inside.

Why would that be? If he didn’t want to expand on that
information, she’d drag it out of him.

“There was no guarantee no one else would bid.” Miranda was on
his heels when he turned to face her.

“Everyone in Ramblewood knew I wanted this place,” he snapped.
“You don’t get it, do you? They all knew this was my ranch.”

Miranda held her ground. His intimidation tactics were not
going to scare her this time.

“How was I supposed to know? And it’s not your ranch. It’s
mine.”

“I deserved Double Trouble!” he shouted.

“And you’re about to get it if you shout at me one more
time!”

Jesse flinched at her retort. This wasn’t quite how she
imagined her first day in Texas. She figured she’d see her house, walk around
the property, maybe drive into town and have a bite to eat. Anything but
this.

“Some welcoming committee you are,” Miranda huffed.

“Sugar, if you’re looking for a warm welcome, you’re barking up
the wrong tree.”

“To think, I drove all the way here for this. I’m starting to
regret it.”

“Oh, goody.” Jesse clasped his hands together in mock glee.
“Does that mean you’ll leave?”

“Not on your life.” Miranda didn’t appreciate his sarcasm. This
was her home now. She wasn’t about to let some cowboy chase her away.

As she opened her mouth to tell him where he could go, a horse
neighed from inside the stables. Her mouth snapped shut.

What was she thinking? She couldn’t send him away. He was the
only one who could help her now. At least until Jonathan cleared up this
mess.

From where she stood, the ranch seemed endless. It was a
magnificent piece of land—the photographs hadn’t done it justice. There was a
small cottage behind the house, nestled amongst dogwoods. From beyond the white
pasture fencing, fields of wildflowers faded into a copse of trees. A couple of
bungalows stood alongside a dirt road that ran through the pastures, toward the
hills. The ranch seemed to roll with the landscape. She understood why Jesse was
so protective of someone turning it into a housing development. The Hill Country
was all she dreamed of and more.

Jesse stood beside her as he took in the same view. When
Miranda turned to face him she noticed his features darkened by sadness. She
found herself stumbling for words to comfort him in some small way.

“It really is beautiful here,” she said.

The wall between them needed to come down so they could work
together. Miranda thought their mutual admiration for the land was a good
start.

“Yes, it is. As long as you don’t ruin it.”

So much for that idea.

“Once again, I’m not going to ruin it. Give me a break, will
you? I came here for some peace of mind.”

“Peace of mind? What’s been stressing you out, sugar?” Jesse
eyed her top to bottom. “Your shopping sprees? Bet you’re still using Daddy’s
credit cards to buy everything. You wouldn’t know the meaning of an honest day’s
work if it bit you on the—”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Don’t beg, sugar. It doesn’t become you. Now come on, we have
work to do.”

Miranda went with him, willingly this time, toward the stables.
He removed a wheelbarrow and shovel from a storage room and pushed it toward
her.

“Start with the first stall and work your way around. Shovel it
completely out, down to the floor. Old bedding goes in the large green container
out back for composting. We use the last stall on the left to store fresh
bedding. Open five bags in the stall and spread it around till you have about a
two-inch depth. I’ll check in on you later and show you how to wet the bedding
to fluff it up. Good luck. You’ll need it.”

* * *

J
ESSE
KEPT
HIS
LAUGHTER
in check until he’d turned
the last horse out in the corral. He’d never seen a woman so rip-roaring mad in
all his life. After her hissy fit, she’d settled down and got to work mucking
the stalls. She had to learn the ropes somehow.

He had to admit, even with all the aggravation she caused him,
he sure did enjoy the sway of her hips when she walked and the way her hair fell
free, to the middle of her back. She was a looker. There was no doubt about
it.

Jesse knew the instant Miranda climbed from her truck, the name
Double Trouble finally rung true. She was shapelier than a Coke bottle and had
green eyes the color of spring leaves. A woman like her could only make a man’s
life difficult. And she’d proven to be no exception so far.

Not only had he lost everything, he’d lost it to a beautiful
blonde. But there was something different about her. She possessed such a deep
self-confidence yet her face reflected a loneliness that reminded him of a child
on the first day of a new school.

When Fran Carter’s sister put the ranch up for sale, Jesse was
livid. He’d offered Caroline more than a fair price for the place. Nevertheless,
she had been determined to get all she could for it.

It didn’t matter one iota that Fran and Ed Carter had spoken at
great length about their intentions to sell Double Trouble to Jesse. They
treated him like a son and Jesse considered himself blessed to have a second
family. While the Carters enjoyed the ranch, the house had needed more and more
repairs. They were tired and wanted a stress-free retirement in a smaller house
near town. Then tragedy had struck.

Though Caroline had been devastated by her sister’s and
brother-in-law’s deaths, when it came to the ranch all Caroline could see were
dollar signs. From her Seattle home, she’d arranged the sale of the antiques and
most of the furniture only two days after Fran’s funeral. Assuming the ranch
would run itself she didn’t realize half of what Jesse brought in training
horses was his to keep. Combined with the vet and feed bills, Double Trouble cut
into her bottom line. Thanks to Jesse spreading the word around town not to buy
the horses and cattle, she gave up and left them to the new owner.

After Jesse had forgone his father’s offer to work on his
family’s ranch when he graduated high school, the Carters had hired him. Despite
the fact he loved his family and respected his brothers’ decisions to work
there, he didn’t want anything handed to him.

Bridle Dance was his great-grandfather’s legacy. And while he
was proud of his family, Jesse wanted a legacy of his own. Now fifteen years
later, he had to walk away from what he believed would have been his.

Just when he thought his time on Double Trouble was over, he
had to contend with Miranda. The sight of her stepping out of that new truck
made his blood boil. The woman didn’t know one end of a bull from the other. Now
she owned his ranch. The last thing he wanted was to witness the destruction of
the place he loved.

Common decency told him to show her enough to get by. Help her
hire a foreman and then be on his way. Another part told him to stay in case she
floundered and decided to hotfoot it back home.

If her expensive jeans and new boots were any indication, there
was no way she could handle running a ranch. If his instincts were right, maybe
Double Trouble would be his after all.

A girl like her wasn’t used to this type of life but she was
about to learn the gritty details. And maybe, just maybe, she would realize this
was not for her.

A few hours later, Jesse checked in on Miranda. He expected to
see one, maybe two stalls mucked. Instead, he was amazed to see every stall
clean and freshly bedded.

He gave her credit. It couldn’t have been easy for her, but she
accomplished it anyway. Jesse had to admire her tenacity.

Jesse found Miranda behind the stables, rubbing her feet
through the leather of her boots. His dog, Max, who was apparently
not
man’s best friend, was wagging his tail as he sat
beside her.
Traitor.
He hurried inside before she
saw him. He whistled a Western tune to warn her he was around the corner.

“Here you are,” Jesse said as Miranda wobbled to her feet. “I
see you met Max. For the record, he doesn’t come with the ranch.”

“It’s all finished.” Wisps of hair fell from her makeshift
ponytail. Dust and sweat covered her chest and arms. She looked as though she
was ready to drop. On the other hand, maybe it was the guaranteed blisters on
her feet that were making her face scrunch up as it did. “Now, if you don’t
mind, I’m going to see my house.”

Jesse let her get halfway to the porch before he called to
her.

“You best be careful where you wander off to.” Jesse warned.
“You never know who or what might be prowling around here.”

Miranda spun around, her eyes wide.

“Don’t look so surprised.” Jesse feigned concern. “This is
Texas, after all. We have snakes and all sorts of wild animals around these
parts. Never mind what the livestock will do if provoked.”

Miranda eyed him warily as he walked toward her.

“Remember the old saying,” he whispered in her hair as he
brushed past her. “You mess with the bull, and you’re going to get horned.”

The corner of her mouth rose in a sly smile.

“Be careful, cowboy,” she said as she continued to her house.
“You just may be the one to get horned.”

Jesse caught her elbow before she could go inside.

“Listen, little girl.” He encircled her waist and drew her
close. “Watch it before you get yourself in a whole heap of trouble.”

Miranda didn’t break her gaze, she matched it. Tiny droplets
formed above her lip. He’d gamble those lips tasted salty right about now.
Before he lost complete control, Jesse stepped aside.

She attempted a smile, but fatigue won out. Jesse hadn’t
considered how long she had driven to get here. From the looks of her, all
night. He felt like a heel. He bossed her around for half the day and didn’t
even allow her to see her house.

“Are there any more chores or may I be excused?” Miranda stood
with a look of defiance he had never seen before.

Except maybe in a mirror.