Branded for You (9 page)

Ryan smiled as his cousin and his new wife headed back down the aisle to start their new life together.

He wondered what it would be like to be married to someone that he cared about as much as Tom loved Janie.

And then he thought about Megan and wondered what she’d look like as a bride and what kind of wife she would be. She was sweet and fun, and seemed like the type of woman he could fall in love with.

He shook his head. It was much too soon to be thinking about love or weddings with a woman he’d just met.

Loud country music throbbed from the live band in the bar where the after-reception party was being held. The new husband and wife had taken off for their vacation in the Bahamas and it was time for the wedding party to party.

Ryan had changed into a western shirt, jeans, and a comfortable pair of boots, and had joined his buddies at the bar. He’d had enough of the tux and all of the formal picture taking and was glad to be able to relax. He leaned up against the bar next to one of the other ushers and knocked back a shot of whiskey before taking a swig of beer.

“How about a dance, cowboy?”

Ryan looked over his shoulder and saw Charity standing behind him, a look in her blue eyes that said “SEX” in capital letters. In the past he might have been intrigued, but not now, not after meeting Megan.

“Maybe another time,” he said and gave her a nod.

“Come on.” She put her glossy red lips into a pout. “What’s one little dance going to hurt?”

Ryan left his beer on the bar with one of the guys who’d been in the wedding, then went with Charity to the dance floor. Unlike Megan, Charity was an expert at the two-step. He’d found Megan’s attempts so damn cute, and by the end of the night she had been doing a fine job. Was it just two days ago that he’d danced with Megan?

Before he knew it, he found himself dancing a country waltz with Charity.

When the waltz was over, he excused himself, but Charity stayed at his side and slipped her hand into his. She stopped and pulled back, forcing him to stop.

“Come on, Ryan.” She went up to him and hung on his arm. “I want to dance a little more.”

“Not now.” He removed her from his arm, took her by the shoulders, and set her apart from him. “I’m leaving.”

“I’ll go with you,” she said. “I could use some air.”

Ryan found his patience waning. “I’ll see you around, Charity,” he said as politely as possible. He turned and walked out of the bar, hoping she got the message.

To his relief, she didn’t follow him and he walked the short distance to his hotel. He thought about how different Megan was from Charity. Megan was sweet and unassuming where Charity was forward and demanding.

When Ryan got to his room, he shut the door behind him then looked at the time on his phone. It was fairly early and since Arizona’s time zone was behind Montana’s, it shouldn’t be too late to call Megan. He wanted to hear the sound of her voice.

From memory, he dialed her phone number.

She answered the phone on the third ring. “Hello?”

Smiling, he slipped off his western shirt, changing the phone from one hand to the other as he said, “Hi, Meg.”

“Ryan?” She sounded surprised. “Hi.”

“Thought I’d give you a call.” He sat on the edge of the bed and started to toe off his boots. “How was your day?”

“Good,” she said. “Busy.” She paused. “I’m glad you called.”

His boots thumped on the floor as he kicked them off. “Did you finish that website work that you’d planned to do this weekend?”

“I played a little hooky this afternoon and I’m trying to catch up tonight,” she said. “I went house hunting for a place to rent.”

He mounded the pillows against the headboard, sat on the bed, and rested against them. “Find anything you like?”

“A couple of places,” she said. “I like one in particular because after ninety days the owner will let me go month to month until I can decide where I want to buy and how soon. I’ll probably tell him I want it tomorrow morning before it’s rented out from under me.”

He shifted against the pillows “Where are you staying now?”

“With my parents,” she said cautiously.

He stretched one leg out on the bed and bent the other knee. “I’d like to meet them sometime.”

She hesitated and he wondered why. “Sure,” she said and changed the subject. “How was the wedding?”

“The tux was a little tight around the collar.” He rubbed his throat at the thought. “But the wedding was nice. Tom married a good woman and she got herself a good man.”

Megan had a smile in her voice. “Sounds like a match made in heaven.”

He nodded to himself. “I’d have to say it is.”

“Speaking of weddings,” she said. “My ex-mother-in-law called me to invite me to her daughter’s wedding.”

“You get along with your ex-in-laws?” He hadn’t realized she was divorced.

“They’re great,” she said, but sounded a little sad, too. “They’re the only part of my marriage that I miss.”

He had the feeling she didn’t want to talk about her marriage as she changed the subject again and asked about the reception.

“For a wedding reception it wasn’t bad,” he said. “A lot of our relatives were there so we did some catching up.”

He told her a little more about it and about the party at the bar. Charity’s persistence came to mind, but there was no reason to bring her up in any conversation he might have.

He asked her about the places she had checked out and what she was looking for in a house. She was practical and knew what she wanted. He liked that about her. She was also funny and cute and easy to talk with.

She yawned and immediately apologized. “That came out of nowhere.” She’d planned on doing website catch up but she didn’t know if she could keep her eyes open.

“We’d both better get some sleep,” he said. “Sweet dreams, Meg.”

“Sweet dreams,” she said softly before she disconnected the call.

Chapter 10

The following Friday morning, Megan picked up the duffel that she’d packed for the camping trip. It was 5:00
AM
and she hoped neither of her parents was awake and she could leave a note on the fridge. She felt reluctant to tell them that she was going camping with a man she’d just met. All she needed was a grilling first thing in the morning like she was a teenager.

If she told her parents what she was doing, her mother would make some kind of remark about her not attracting the right kind of man because she wasn’t the perfect size and her father would judge her for spending a weekend alone with a man she barely knew. She’d never hear the end of it. They would want to know his name and would probably check into him. She didn’t need that.

She was a grown woman and she shouldn’t feel like she’d be punished or interrogated. She hadn’t wanted her parents’ negativity and hurtful remarks ringing in her ears as she walked out the door.

Now that she was back with her family, she wasn’t so sure it had been the right step to take. But family was family.

Megan had moved to Prescott more to be with her sister and niece than for anyone else. Since she and Tess had always been close, it had been difficult once Tess and her daughter had moved away from Albuquerque to be with their parents.

As soon as Megan opened the door to her bedroom, the smell of coffee hit her. No such luck that neither of her parents were up. With her duffel over her shoulder, she headed into the kitchen.

“Hi, Mom,” she said as she walked through the doorway.

Margaret turned from the fridge, a carton of eggs in her hand. “Good morning, Megan.” She glanced at the duffel. “Where are you headed?”

Megan shrugged. “I’m going camping with a friend from Phoenix.” It was mostly the truth, she just wasn’t going to tell her mother that the friend was a man and the friend wasn’t from Phoenix.

Margaret set the eggs on the counter and took a package of bacon out of the fridge. “Do I know your friend?”

“No.” Megan felt antsy and barely kept from bouncing up and down on her toes. “I’ve got to go. I’ll be home Sunday.”

“You should give me your friend’s name and number and where you’re going.” Margaret set the bacon package on the countertop. “In case of an emergency.”

“I have my cell phone,” Megan said. “But we might not get service in the mountains. We’re going to Bear Canyon Lake.”

Margaret frowned. “What if—”

“Everything will be fine, Mom. I’ve got to go.” Megan turned and headed for the front door. She closed it behind her and took a deep breath then let it out in a rush.

When Megan was in her car, she pulled out the directions to Ryan’s ranch that he’d emailed her and she had printed out. She smiled. He’d called almost every day this week while he’d been in Montana. He’d spent a few days with other friends while he was there and from what he’d told her, he’d had a good time.

The drive to his ranch didn’t seem too far and she enjoyed the scenery as she drove through it. She exited the highway and traveled down a dirt road, passing an old barn and shed before she reached a ranch house at the end of the road.

The home looked to be about thirty-years-old and made of large brown blocks. The roof, eaves, sills, and doorframes were white and there was a rock path leading from the driveway to the sun porch. The front yard was desert landscaping and looked easy to keep up.

Out front was Ryan’s silver truck with a new-looking cobalt blue camper trailer behind it. Ryan was loading fishing rods into the back. An Australian shepherd stood beside him, watching her drive into the yard.

An excited thrill went through her belly as Ryan turned and smiled at her. She parked and reached for her small purse. When she straightened, he was opening the car door for her. He took her hand and she climbed out. His old-fashioned gentlemanly manners were so sweet.

As soon as she was standing, he kissed her firmly then drew away and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Meg.” Most people called her by her full name, but she liked the way he called her Meg.

“It’s good to see you, too.” She smiled then looked at the black, grey, and white Australian shepherd. “What pretty blue eyes.”

“This is Ossie.” Ryan rubbed the dog beneath her chin. “She’s the hardest worker on this ranch.”

Megan held out her hand for Ossie to sniff. “She’s beautiful.”

Ryan patted Ossie’s neck. “Don’t let that go to your head, girl.”

The dog looked at him and gave a short bark.

Megan heard the sound of sheep and cows. She looked toward one corral and saw about a dozen Suffolk sheep like the ones she had seen at the country fair. In a larger corral were some pure black Angus cattle.

“Next time you come I’ll give you a tour of the place,” Ryan said to Megan. “We’d better get going while it’s still early. Ready to go?”

“I’m excited to go camping,” she said. “I haven’t gone since I was in an outdoor club in elementary school.” She opened the trunk of her car. “I take it by the fishing rods that we’re going fishing, too. I’ve never gone fishing.”

“We’ll go fishing at Bear Canyon Lake for rainbow trout.” He took her duffel bag out of the trunk. “If you’re half as fast at learning how to fish as you were learning how to two-step, you’ll do just fine.”

She closed the trunk. “Am I right that Bear Canyon Lake is on the Mogollon Rim?” She closed the trunk. “I looked it up on the Internet and saw that it’s three and a half hours from here.”

He nodded. “It’s a bit of a drive but well worth it.”

She smiled. “Can’t wait.”

“I just need to throw a few things into the ice chest and we’re ready to go,” he said as they started toward the house.

Ossie stayed close as they loaded the chest and packed ice around the sodas and beer along with sandwiches, condiments, butter, and a few other things that needed to stay cold. He also had bags with some canned items, aluminum foil, a can opener, marshmallows, crackers, an onion, potatoes, salt and pepper, snacks, and a few other items.

When everything was in the back of the camper, Ryan opened the passenger door of the truck for her and helped her inside.

He said goodbye to Ossie when he went around to his side. The dog trotted up to the house and onto the porch where she looked like she was standing guard.

“Will she be okay home alone while we’re gone?” Megan asked as Ryan got behind the wheel.

“My ranch hands will make sure she’s fed,” he said. “She’s a working dog, so she’ll be helping them run the ranch while I’m away.”

 She suddenly felt tongue-tied. She was about to embark on a three-and-a-half hour drive with Ryan followed by a weekend together and then another long drive back. What if they ran out of things to say? What if he wasn’t so crazy about her by the time the weekend was over?

She straightened in her seat forcing all negative thinking aside. She was going to enjoy herself and his company, and nothing was going to change that.

Just to ensure that nothing put a damper on her trip, she shut off her phone and stuffed it into her small purse and tucked it under the seat despite having told her mother she’d have the phone on. If anyone needed to get ahold of her, they’d just have to wait until she got back on Sunday. She doubted they could get cell service in the mountains, anyway.

“Do you go fishing often?” She studied Ryan’s profile as they drove down the driveway. He was such a sexy cowboy with his rugged good looks and denim blue eyes.

He glanced from the road to her. “Did I tell you how cute you look this morning?”

Her cheeks warmed and she pulled at the hem of her blue T-shirt. “Thank you.” She was simply wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, had her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and wore no makeup whatsoever.

“To answer your question, I go fishing or hunting every chance I get.” He looked back at the dirt road and pulled up to a stop sign. “Which isn’t often. Running a ranch keeps me busy.”

“Who takes care of it all while you’re gone?” she asked.

Ryan guided the truck onto the highway. “My part-time ranch hands put in extra hours when I’m not here and cover the weekend when they’re normally off.” He pressed the accelerator and the truck sped up. “In turn they get additional time off if they want to take it and I pay them a bonus.” He glanced at her. “I’ll introduce you when you take a tour of the place sometime.”