The Cowboy's Promise Read online

  She smiled. “Any time.”

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible since she was leaving in less than twenty-four hours, signed agreements in hand. But if she lived nearby, hanging out with these horses every day would be an honor.

  When they arrived inside, though, she saw that for these guys, it was all in a day’s work. The horses were in stalls, but the two ranch hands were cleaning out two of the other stalls using pitchforks. Hank stood next to a wheelbarrow.

  “I’ll take care of her,” Hank said, striding over to take the lead from Clay. “Enjoy the rest of your visit, ma’am.”

  He literally tipped his hat to her. She smiled and nodded. Maybe she should have bought a cowboy hat and matching boots for this trip. At least she would have fit in a little better.

  “Ready to see some cattle?” Clay asked as they stepped out into the mid-morning sunlight.

  Harley opened her mouth to answer, but he was already halfway to his truck before she had a chance. The message was clear. If she wanted to keep up with him, she’d better move fast.

  She lived in the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest. If there was one thing she could do, it was move fast.

  6

  Clay never made this drive without taking a moment to appreciate nature’s beauty. Green all around, exactly as it should be. If he let this alluring woman next to him have her way, all this would soon be pavement and tall brick structures.

  He’d seen what had happened to sold land around these parts. He routinely passed once-beautiful acreage that seemed to become dirt and rows of bulldozers overnight. Months later, that dirt set beneath the frame of a building. Then the sign went up, letting you know something was coming soon. Maybe an express oil and lube or a car wash. Could be the area’s ninetieth fast food restaurant or pizza place.

  In many cases, though, the land became a subdivision. Rows and rows of houses, all small modifications of the same basic design. There would be sidewalks to capture some sort of old-fashioned community feel. That would be what happened to Cedar Tree Ranch if he agreed with Harley.

  “Do you use all this land?” Harley asked.

  He knew why she was asking. As much as he wanted to tell her they did, the truth was, they didn’t. The cows came this way sometimes, and he often explored on horseback, but for the most part, it sat unused.

  “It’s part of the ranch, yes,” Clay said instead of the whole truth. “Cattle need space to roam.”

  He hoped she bought that. Unlike most city people he met, Harley seemed fairly savvy when it came to ranch life. The way she’d looked at that palomino tugged at his heart almost as much as the way she’d looked up at him a few minutes before. Animal lovers were his people. Always had been, always would be.

  “What’s that?” she asked as he navigated a particularly curvy road.

  “That’s the barn,” he said. “It’s our next stop.”

  She was leaning forward, looking up at the barn like she’d never seen one before. Surely, she had.

  “Not much to see there,” he warned her. He didn’t want her to expect some big, palatial building filled with people working and livestock grazing inside. It was just a barn. Lots of hay and wood.

  Once the truck stopped, she hopped out and was on the ground before he had a chance to get around to help her down. She seemed to be getting the hang of this exit thing. Darn it.

  He didn’t really want to admit it even to himself, but he’d enjoyed that moment at the stables a little too much. The feel of her curves beneath his hands as he’d helped her down, the look of her plump lips as she’d stared up at him afterward. In that moment, he’d been all too tempted to kiss her.

  Sure, it had been a while since he’d been on a date—or even been in the company of a woman he found attractive—but that wasn’t it. This wasn’t just something he was missing from his life. This was something he’d been missing all his life without even being aware of it. This level of attraction was deeper than anything he’d felt before.

  And there was no room for it in his life, especially not with a woman who was trying to convince him to go against his parents. She had her goals and he had his. They just happened to clash, and for that reason, he could not give into the desire he was feeling for her, no matter what.

  He’d noticed her tennis shoes were nice and clean, but he hadn’t said anything. Hopefully, she didn’t mind them getting a little dirty. Some areas of the ground were slightly soft from a recent rain. But for the most part, it was just the dust clouds from walking that were covering her sneakers in a layer of dirt.

  They entered the barn and he was glad to know the odor that had overwhelmed the stables was mostly undetectable here. That meant his guys had already mucked out the barn. He let Hank handle the morning routine and do things in whatever order necessary, as long as everything got done, but he’d never noticed until now what time the barn was safe for visitors.

  “The cattle hang out in here?” Harley asked.

  He shrugged. “Sometimes. It’s mostly for storage, as you can see.”

  The floor was covered in hay, but there were also bales stacked everywhere, along with boxes of feed. It was neat and well organized, but boring. He wasn’t sure why he’d even brought Harley in here, aside from just giving her a behind-the-scenes look at his ranch operation.

  “This is a beautiful space,” Harley said, stepping to the middle of the room and looking around. “It reminds me of a friend’s farm when I was growing up. We used to climb up to the hayloft and hide from our parents.”

  “Sounds dangerous.” The words slipped out before he’d even realized he was going to say them. But he knew how far a drop it was from his own hayloft. He certainly wouldn’t let a child climb up there.

  Harley glanced at him. “Have you ever thought about monetizing it? Event barns are huge right now. The structure is ideal for it. Just take out all the hay and those big boxes and it would be the perfect place for a couple to get married.”

  Whoa. Where had that come from? He knew all too well about the event barn craze, as well as the overpopulation of fall pumpkin patches and horseback riding stables in Montana. There was no shortage of ways to make money off a farm or ranch these days that had nothing to do with raising and selling cattle.

  “My parents want this to remain a working ranch,” he reminded her.

  “And it could,” she said. “This is just one part of it.”

  He tried to imagine his parents coming home for Christmas to find their barn had been turned into some sort of party facility. He could already picture the expression of disappointment on his father’s face.

  Harley wandered further into the barn, surveying everything. “I’ve been to weddings where the bride and groom had their pictures with cattle as the backdrop. There’s no reason they can’t coexist. Oh, also, a dude ranch. Dude ranches are huge right now.”

  Clay stared at her. She was so excited about her new ideas, he was pretty sure she didn’t even realize what she was saying. Should he remind her that her goal was to buy all this from him and sell it to someone else? If he turned this into a dude ranch or wedding chapel or whatever, how would that benefit her?

  “With the right investor, you could turn this into a money machine,” she said.

  Ahh, there came the catch. He was willing to place a pretty large bet that she was the investor in that scenario. Well, her boss, anyway.

  “This is my family’s property,” he said. “My parents would never go for giving it to someone else to control.”

  “You’d still be in control,” she said, still speaking in that over-caffeinated, too enthusiastic manner. “We’d be investors, but we’d just get a portion of the profits. Let me talk to my boss and see what I can do. There’s real potential here.”

  No matter what discovery she felt like she’d just made, he wasn’t on board. He couldn’t stomach people traipsing around his property in high heels and fancy gowns. He didn’t want to have to build another barn to store his feed. The r
anch had to remain as it was when his parents left.

  He just wanted to remain competitive in selling his cattle. He wanted things to be the way they were back before the world had filled with vegans and people looking for non-GMO meat. Was that too much to ask?

  She pointed toward the back of the barn. “Can I see the other side of this?”

  He wondered what would happen if he said, ‘No.’ Would she let go of this new brainstorming session of hers and let him show her why this place needed to remain as is?

  Definitely not. So he motioned toward the door, inviting her to go first. She was keeping an eye on the ground today, he couldn’t help but notice. He figured she wanted to make sure her feet steered clear of cow dung. She still didn’t know he’d gotten up early that morning to carefully clean the shoes she’d left on his brother’s front porch. He was saving that surprise for when she checked into his brother’s place.

  If that ever happened. At this point, it was looking highly unlikely.

  “This would be perfect for a reception, too,” Harley said. “You could pour a patio over there and set up a tent with those little heat lamps for when it’s cold outside.”

  Clay cocked an eyebrow. “Have you spent any time in Montana in the winter?”

  “I live in Seattle,” she reminded him. “It’s not exactly tropical.”

  “There probably aren’t a lot of outdoor weddings there, either,” Clay commented.

  “I’ve been to a few,” she said. “You’d be amazed at what some heat lamps can do. But we could always do a wedding and reception combo inside the barn.”

  “Barns aren’t heated, either,” he pointed out.

  She brushed that aside as if it wasn’t important. “Oh, we’d have to do some renovations. That’s where the investors come in. We can do so much with just a little space.”

  Sure. That wouldn’t surprise him. Nothing surprised him these days. Not in the business world, anyway.

  “The answer will be a big ‘no’ from my parents,” he said. “I know them. Can we go now?”

  She turned to look at him, narrowing her eyes, seemingly studying him. “I don’t think it’s your parents. I think you’re the one who’s uncomfortable with change.”

  That was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. He had a responsibility to his father, plain and simple. Sure, he loved this property and wanted it to remain a working ranch as it had been when he was growing up, but that didn’t mean he feared change or anything. He just thought this place was meant for raising livestock, as would any rancher you asked.

  He casually leaned against one of the wooden poles. “If you know me so well, I guess you know you’re wasting your time trying to convince me to sell this place. We can just cut to the part where you go home and take your paperwork with you.”

  “I’m not leaving until those contracts are signed,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Whatever it takes.”

  He almost smiled at her stubbornness. “So you plan to just move into my house?”

  She nodded. “Or your brother’s.”

  “It’s a rental. Another renter will be coming along any day now. I’m pretty sure there’s something in your contract with my brother that said you’d be out when your time was up.”

  “And I’m pretty sure there was something in there about me actually being able to get the door unlocked when I arrived,” she said. “I guess we’ll both be disappointed.”

  He had to admit, he liked the way she held her own. Some people would try to reason with him—or, at the very least, say whatever was necessary to make him think he was winning these arguments. Not Harley. She seemed completely fine with going toe to toe with him.

  “I could just stay in your house,” she said.

  She was watching him, and he realized she’d probably expected him to get a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. Instead, he kept his features blank. He wasn’t sure how else to react. When he really stopped to think about it, he didn’t mind if she stayed at his house long past her checkout date.

  “I’m sure it won’t come to that, anyway,” Harley said. “We’re going to iron all this out. I need to talk to my boss and let him know just how important it is to you to keep this a working ranch. I know he’ll have some great ideas. He’s a genius.”

  “Don’t you get to make any decisions on your own?” he asked.

  At this point, he was unashamedly revving her up. She seemed like the type of person who made her own decisions. The thought of her having to get some dude’s permission didn’t quite gel with what he’d seen of her so far.

  “Only when someone isn’t paying me to make them,” she said. “He takes his business dealings very seriously. He’s a land investor. It’s how he made his money, and now he’s showing me the ropes. It’s really a great gig.”

  “You learned from him that valuable land like this is worth its weight in gold, I assume,” he said.

  She hesitated. “Not necessarily. It’s just—well, you’re in a good spot. He has this software that analyzes various areas and pinpoints exactly where he can get the best value for his money, based on future projections of property values. It’s a whole…thing.”

  “So I gather.”

  “I’m sure you already knew your land was valuable, no software required,” she said. “But all the way in Seattle, it’s tough to know that. This is the first time I’ve even been to Montana. I’ve always wanted to visit.”

  “And here you are,” he said. “But, as I said, this property’s not for sale. I guess that means his software’s broken.”

  “It showed under some sort of government record as being available,” she said with a shrug. “I’m not sure why. Your parents list it for sale when they transferred it to you or something?”

  He shook his head. “No sale. They still legally own it. It’s just understood that it transfers to the four of us if they die someday.”

  “Hmm.”

  She looked confused, and he couldn’t blame her. He was fine with saying her boss’s software was flawed, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t be on board with that. Instead, she’d assume it was something he didn’t know about his own parents.

  She pursed her lips in thought. “I guess I’ll talk to my boss about that, too. Maybe he’ll want to switch to a property that’s actively for sale. Shame, though.”

  The fact that she was looking around the barn again made him afraid to ask, but he did anyway. “Shame?”

  She sighed. “I have so many great ideas. You’d just have to agree to make some changes.”

  Yeah, they were talking in circles here. To put an end to it, he gestured in the general direction of his truck. “Ready to see my brother’s lakefront property? I think you’ll love it.”

  7

  The lake was beautiful this time of year. The leaves were starting to change, so the trees were full and just colorful enough to reflect off the water. Harley took a deep breath and forced herself to be present in the moment. She could see how someone would never want to let this property go.

  “Why did Reilly get the lake house? Is he the oldest?”

  “I’m the oldest,” Clay said. “Reilly had his house built here because he spends most weekends on the lake, as long as the weather is bearable. It doesn’t do anything for me.”

  She looked over at him. She didn’t buy that at all. By the way he was looking out over the water, he fully appreciated the view. But she supposed it was somewhat noble to let the brother who was really into water activities build over here.

  “There’s plenty of waterfront land,” she said, gesturing to the area off to the left of her. “Perfect for building at least one other house.”

  If you sold the rest of the property was the underlying message there. She decided this was the time to really make her sales pitch. If the property went into foreclosure, they’d have little say in what happened. This way, he’d have a say, including lining his homes up along this waterfront.

  “There’s a restrict
ion on waterfront building around here,” Clay said. “Soil erosion, water quality—all the usual. Besides, the reason this is so peaceful and beautiful is that there aren’t a bunch of houses blocking the view.”

  She could see that. “Which is the reason you like the absence of development around here in general.”

  “Growing up here as a kid, there’s nothing like it. I’ve only been back a year after spending some time in Chicago. I’ve done the big city thing. Once you’ve tried to enjoy some downtime in your own place with traffic whizzing by outside, you realize the value of rural living.”

  “There’s also light pollution,” she said. “I noticed it last night. You forget how the night sky really looks when you live in the city for a while.”

  He dipped his head in agreement. “True.”

  They dropped into silence again. She knew she should just leave it be. Enjoy the view for a while, maybe. But she wasn’t quite used to the silence of ranch life just yet.

  “Why were you in Chicago?” she asked.

  “Work,” he said. “I was chasing a dream, but it turned out to be a nightmare. Plus, there was a… Well, long story.”

  Okay, he couldn’t just drop that bomb. “A woman?” she dared to ask. Something about the way he’d stiffened a little when his voice trailed off told her there was very definitely a woman involved.

  He hesitated briefly before forgoing on ahead. “She was a corporate attorney. We lived together. We made the mistake of moving in together before we really knew each other, mostly because it saved on rent and other expenses. We were not the right fit.”

  All of those words, on paper, would have seemed believable. But Harley could hear in his voice and see in his body language that it was not simple at all.

  “How long were you together?” she asked quietly.

  This was none of her business, and he’d have every right to say as much. But there was something about this quiet, picturesque lake that brought out the urge to dig deeper and really get to know him. She’d call it The Ranch Effect.