Healing a Cowboy's Heart (Cowboy Dreamin' 2) Read online

  “She’s a doll too.”

  “I think it’s sweet how they all wait for the guests to get their plates before they get their own. It’s nice that they have their own table, too, although I think it would be great if the cowboys ate with us.”

  The first lady giggled. “You just want one of those hunky youngsters to simper all over you, Marg.”

  “You’re damn tootin’, Liz. I may be old, but I ain’t dead!” They both laughed as they approached the serving tables.

  “Brisket, ladies?”

  “Yes, please.”

  They went through the line chitchatting away like two little chickadees roosting on their nests. The two of them were too cute.

  Terri looked down the long room and noticed the table with Nina sitting with a group of men. Younger men, except one older gentleman Terri assumed was probably her husband. The rest looked a lot like Joshua with one of them looking identical. Twins? Wow. She glanced around hoping to see Jeff so she could avoid him, but he didn’t appear to be present. Had she gotten a reprieve? She hoped so. Now if she could avoid him for her whole two week visit, she would be thrilled. Somehow she didn’t think she’d get so lucky.

  The little boy who’d been in his truck sat next to Nina. He really was a cute kid. Jeff’s? Hmm.

  One thing she had noticed yesterday when they’d run into the infuriating man, he hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring. George had mentioned an ex-wife who was a bitch, but he hadn’t remarried or anything? Why she’d noticed was beyond her, but she had. Surely, she wasn’t attracted to him?

  Well maybe she was, but it wouldn’t do any good. They were definitely on opposite sides of the spectrum. Her an architect with a firm trying to take the rangeland and turn it into housing developments and him a cowboy trying desperately to hold onto his way of life. She really couldn’t blame him, but she was just doing her job, the one she’d trained for all through college.

  The door creaked open at the end of the dining room. Terri glanced behind her to see Jeff come waltzing through the door looking like a cowboy of old. Dusty cowboy hat perched on his dark hair, western style shirt molded to his broad chest, dark worn jeans encasing his legs and dirty cowboy boots on his feet.

  She quickly hid her face, turning toward the serving girl as she approached the hot tables. Jeff walked right past her without paying any attention to the people around him, although his cologne lingered.

  The two older women sighed. “He’s so standoffish. What do you think is his story?”

  “I’m not sure. He’s friendly enough when you talk to him, but he sure doesn’t give anything besides polite conversation.”

  “He’s the eldest you know.” She waved her hand. “Of all the boys.”

  Terri continued to listen to their conversation as they made their way to the refreshment table to get coffee, milk or lemonade.

  “He runs pretty much everything around here, but I think he tries too hard.”

  “The little boy is his from his marriage.”

  “He’s a cutie.”

  “Yes he is, but the father? Sad case of being burned by a woman.”

  The women wandered off to a place to sit, while Terri kept her head down and moved as far away from the family table as she could to avoid Jeff. She’d eat and hole up in her room. Maybe she could find Joshua to ask about the things she needed to know or one of the other brothers although she didn’t know their names.

  Hopefully he would be working most of the time so she could get her research done. She bit her lip. She really needed to find out the answers to her questions. Unfortunately, he seemed to be the best one to ask being the eldest.

  She ate her brisket while she kept a keen eye on him. Not that he was such a hardship to look at. He did have the cowboy thing down pat.

  He touched Ben’s head and smiled at him before he leaned over and kissed the boy on the head. Apparently, he cared a lot for his child.

  Her heart skipped a beat. The man had a great smile, but obviously didn’t seem to do it a lot. The family continued to chat amongst themselves.

  She hoped Nina or Joshua wouldn’t mention her.

  She finished her food and pushed her plate away. If she got up to put her plate in the dirty dish bin now, he might see her. Maybe she’d wait until other guests were going up there. Damn, avoiding him might be harder than I thought.

  Several other people went up to put their dishes in the bin so she took the chance and followed. She managed to put her plate in the tub, but when she turned to head back to the door to make her escape, her heart stopped when she heard Jeff raise his voice over the crowd.

  “What the hell are you doin’ here?”

  * * * *

  The last fucking person Jeff wanted to deal with tonight was his ex. He’d had a shitty ass day working in the south pasture on the water trough. Damn thing had sprung another leak after he’d fix the one yesterday. “What are you doin’ here, Misha? I told you never to come out here without callin’ first.”

  She pushed forward, headed for the door, past a blonde woman. “I need to talk to you.”

  “There’s nothin’ you need to say to me in front of my family and our son.”

  “Please, Jeff. It’s important.”

  “Everything is important,” he snapped, grabbing her arm to drag her into the main lodge area. Whatever she had to say, he didn’t want said in front of the guests or his family. “What the hell is this all about?”

  “I need a thousand dollars.”

  “What? Are you fuckin’ crazy! I ain’t givin’ you any money.”

  “You will or I’ll take custody of our son.”

  “Bullshit! We’ve been through this, Misha. We’ve already been to court and they gave me full custody. You have visitation. Nothin’ more.”

  She yanked her arm out of his grasp. “I’ll lie or whatever I have to do to take him from you.”

  “You bitch!”

  “That’s right. I’m a bitch. The same bitch you fucked, got pregnant, and then dumped the minute your dick didn’t get what you wanted.”

  “I’ll see you in hell before you get my son or any money from me. Now get the hell off my property before I have you thrown out of here on your ass.”

  “Is there a problem here, brother?” Jeremiah asked, standing close enough to Misha to intimate her from the shifting of her stance.

  His entire family surrounded Misha and him. “I can handle her.”

  “You don’t have to alone, Jeffery,” Nina said, wrapping her arm around his waist. “You’ll leave now, Misha, and don’t bother threatening Jeff or Ben again. I’ll mortgage this entire property to keep him from your clutches.”

  “We’ll see about that!”

  Misha pushed her way through the throng of people his family made up, stomping her way toward the door. She didn’t even stop when Ben called, “Mama?”

  Jeff hurried to Ben’s side and picked him up. “It’s okay, buddy. Mama had somewhere to be.”

  “She didn’t even stop, Daddy.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.” He hugged Ben tight as tears gathered in his eyes. What the hell did I ever see in her?

  “Don’t worry, son. We won’t let her take Ben,” James said, patting Ben on the head as he stuck his thumb in his mouth and laid his head on Jeff’s shoulder.

  God, I wouldn’t know what to do if anything happened to Ben. The kid was his life. He was sorry every day for the hell Misha had put him through, but he wasn’t sorry she’d given him Ben.

  Maybe someday soon he’d find a woman he could tolerate long enough to get laid, but he sure wouldn’t be able to handle one as a permanent fixture in his life. They are all too bitchy, self-centered, whorish, and didn’t give a shit about the man or what his needs were. A man had the need to feel loved too. Not just used for the pleasure he could give a woman even though doing those things were pretty cool, they weren’t everything.

  “Why don’t you take Ben in the kitchen for some ice cream?” Nina said, pushing hi
m and Ben toward the double swinging doors. “I’m sure there are even some sprinkles in there.”

  “But, Ma?”

  “Nonsense. He needs some Daddy time right now, Jeff. Go on.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, son. Don’t worry about her. She’s all talk.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  He took Ben into the kitchen, found the scoop and the five gallon bucket of ice cream.

  “Want some ice cream, buddy?”

  Ben nodded before he wiggled to get down. “I love you, Daddy.”

  “I love you too, Ben.”

  After about an hour, they finished eating their ice cream, cleaned up the kitchen and he took Ben out to his truck to head for home. He hoped he didn’t run into any guests. He didn’t want to have to play nicey-nice with anyone tonight. If they could just run cattle on the place, he’d be a happy man. His parents didn’t see it the way he did though.

  As he walked out toward his truck, he noticed a blonde woman standing on the porch of one of the cabins the guests stayed in. From a distance, she looked familiar, but he couldn’t quit place her. He shrugged. Didn’t matter. He didn’t mix with guests. He avoided them more times than not, unlike his brothers who liked schmoozing with them. His job was to take care of the cattle and keep the ranch running smoothly. Keep the stock fed. Keep everything from falling apart on the cattle side of the operation. If he did that, the rest of them could run the guest ranch into the ground for all he cared. He didn’t like having people on the ranch playing cowboy, but he supposed the investment kept things in the black.

  The woman backed away into the shadow of the porch. Odd. He shrugged.

  “Let’s get you to bed, buddy. It’s past your bedtime.”

  “I don’t wanna go to bed.”

  “Sorry. It’s bedtime. We have to be up early to feed the horses.”

  “Okay.”

  Jeff opened the passenger side door on his truck and put Ben in his seat before he belted the boy in. When he went around to the driver’s side, he glanced over his shoulder to see the woman again on the porch. He wondered for a moment why she seemed to be watching him, but he blew it off as a curious guest.

  He drove up to his cabin a few minutes later. The place was home even though it didn’t have a woman’s touch. He didn’t need it anyway. He liked his place just like it was. Roughhewn logs with a porch going around the front of the house. Two small windows overlooked the front yard he had fenced off for Ben to play in. He loved the small living room with the large fireplace gracing one wall and the kitchen where he had hoped one day a woman would love to cook for him and their children. “Bah! Women. They aren’t worth the trouble.”

  He got a sleepy Ben out of his car seat and carried him inside. Within minutes, he had the boy stripped down to his Spiderman underwear, into his pajamas, and between the sheets on his bed. Ben snuggled down beneath his blankets.

  “Night, Daddy.”

  “Night, buddy.” Jeff turned off the lamp, but didn’t leave the room right away.

  Moonlight played on Ben’s face coming through the window over his bed. His little boy. The tyke carried his dark hair and gray eyes, thank goodness. He was glad he couldn’t see much of Misha in the child, but he knew she was his mother all the same and that chafed his hide.

  If he would have listened to his brothers, he probably wouldn’t have married her in the first place, but he hadn’t. He’d loved her with all his heart. They’d told him she flirted and propositioned them for months before the wedding. Then when she’d disappeared right after the ceremony with her friends and didn’t come home for two days, he should have realized what a mistake he’d made. Stubborn fool.

  “I’m sorry, buddy. God, I wish your mama was someone else.”

  Jeff wandered out to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. Damn, he needed to unwind before he tried to sleep. Dealing with his ex always soured his mood.

  He tipped the bottle to his lips before he studied the clear bottle in his hands. The light reflecting off the golden liquid swirling around in the bottle reminded him of the woman he’d met yesterday. Terri Kennedy. The sunlight reflecting off her hair looked like the beer in the bottle.

  “What the fuck? Where did that come from and why the hell am I thinking about her?”

  He took another swig. Her eyes were green like new grass in the pasture.

  “Huh.”

  He laid his head on the back of the couch as he remembered the woman standing next to George in her citified outfit. She was kind of pretty with her hair back in a ponytail and those wire rimmed glasses perched on the edge of her nose. He laughed a dry, not so funny chuckle as he rolled the cold bottle over his forehead. “I’ve been too damned long without a woman if I’m thinkin’ about her.” He took another long draw from the cold liquid. “She works for those fuckin’ developers who are tryin’ to take over all the property out here to make housin’ developments out of them. Bring all those city folks out here to take over the land.”

  Grabbing the remote for the television from the coffee table, he flipped on the news just for some background noise. He didn’t like the way his thoughts were roaming tonight. Women were the bane of his existence. Thinking about them just brought about heartache on his part. Look where Misha had gotten him. Miserable, that’s where.

  Terri didn’t do anything to you.

  “Terri? Why do I have to think about her?” He finished his beer. “She’s out to destroy the whole damned place!”

  “In more news. The firm working on the land developments in Bandera have hired Terri Kennedy, architect, to work on the particulars concerning environmental aspects of changing the landscape.”

  Jeff sat forward as the woman he’d seen out on their land came into focus on the television.

  “Ms. Kennedy, can you tell us what plans you are working on at the moment?”

  “We are studying the impact the development will have on the surrounding community, but rest assured we are planning to make the smallest changes possible and still get the housing project done. We don’t want to affect the landscape at all if we can help it.”

  “Yeah right. They’ll be fuckin’ digging up trees, moving rocks and disturbing the wildlife the minute they fuck with anything.”

  “It’s imperative that I talk to the local people to find out more about the area. I’m looking to get immediate feedback from the cowboys foremost since they work with this every day.”

  “Not from me, sister.”

  “How are you planning to get your information?”

  “I’m staying at one of the local guest ranches in hopes of talking with the family and wranglers for my research.”

  “Which one?”

  “I’d rather not say. My sources will be kept confidential except for in my report.”

  “There you have it, folks. Straight from the mouth of the firm’s representative. It’s a very controversial topic amongst the locals in Bandera since many would be affected directly by these housing developments. Several of the local ranches in the area don’t want the development in, but there are a few selling out to them in hopes of a better life elsewhere. The weather has been particularly brutal this year with the lack of rain, making grazing especially hard. Many of the ranchers have given up. We haven’t been able to get any of them to talk to us here at Channel Four News, but we’ll bring you continued coverage as the story develops. Back to you in the studio, Marie.”

  “Thank you, Ashley.”

  Jeff flipped off the television before he set the remote back on the coffee table. Seeing the woman’s face on the screen brought back the rush of anger he’d felt after meeting her the other day, but also something else. He remembered the slope of her neck, the curve of her shoulder and the shape of her hips. Why, he wasn’t sure. She wasn’t particularly pretty. Not a beauty in the model sense of the word, but she had something about her, a confidence maybe, that drew him to her.

  “Doesn’t matter.” He stood to
head into the bedroom. A nice warm shower would do him good before he tried to sleep.

  With a touch of his hand, the light in the bathroom flipped on. One thing he did enjoy in life was a hot shower. Tonight he certainly needed it. He wrenched his shoulder this morning fighting with a particularly ornery calf who didn’t want to come out of the brush even when its mama called to it. Some days he really hated his job, but most of the time he loved being a cowboy. Not like he’d known anything else in his life. Cowboying was in his DNA. He couldn’t see his life any other way.

  He quickly stripped out of his clothes and turned on the hot water. One thing he’d insisted on when his parents helped him build his house was a top of the line bathroom. The shower had tile from top to bottom along with a large rain showerhead.

  With a weary sigh, he climbed in and shut the door. Hot water streamed down on his head as he closed his eyes. God, that feels good. He worked his shoulder under the heat of the water to try to loosen it up. He hoped it didn’t stiffen up tonight while he slept, but he figured it would. Some liniment might help.

  While he washed the dirt of the day from his body, his mind wandered to baser thoughts. It’d been several months since he’d been with a woman and even though he didn’t need the headaches of a female in his life, he still had the needs of a man.

  Maybe it’s time to hook up with someone. I could do a bar run into San Antonio and probably pick up some chick there who wouldn’t know who I am.

  Terri Kennedy’s green eyes popped into his head. She did have pretty eyes behind those wire rimmed glasses from what he could see.

  He rubbed the soap over his cock and balls, losing himself in the feel of his hand over his flesh.

  Would she be good in bed? How would she look with all of her blonde hair spilling over his abdomen while she sucked him off?

  His eyes popped open. “Wow. Her?”

  What the hell. He shrugged and closed his eyes again. She’s pretty enough.

  With his cock wrapped in his fist, he imagined her sucking the whole shaft between her lips. Each suck, each lick brought his desire higher. Her beautiful green eyes sparkled with lust as she sat between his thighs bringing him the best pleasure he’d had in a hell of a long time. Moments later, cum sprayed over his hand as he came so hard, he saw stars.