Counterfeit Cowboy (10 page)

“Sorry. ‘Morning, Shel, Jake. I was up early, so I decided to take a ride around the place and check out the crop.” He poured a cup of coffee and grabbed a slice of toast.

“You think we should start cutting soon?”

“Tomorrow. You never can tell when this spell of fine weather will end. What about you, Jake? Got any experience pitchin’ hay?” The corner of his mouth kinked.

“Not at pitchin’ hay, but I can drive a tractor.” Jordan stood and went to the percolator on the counter to replenish his coffee. “My father is a potato farmer who fishes lobster in season.”

“You grew up on a farm?” Travis’s smirk turned upside down with surprise.

“I wasn’t born playing a guitar.” He glanced up at Shelby. “But enough of that. No back stories or personal stuff, right, Doctor?”

“Right.” She turned back to the stove.

“Yeah, well, great. We’ll start tomorrow. I’ll get the tractor revved up this afternoon. Maybe Andy will let us borrow one of his. It will go a lot faster with Jake operating one and me the other.”

“Andy?” Jordan looked at him.

“Our neighbor, Andy Crowell. He has a big dairy farm next door, down the road. Was hell-bent on marrying Shel, before she went off to veterinary college. Still is, I’m pretty sure.”

“Is that a fact?” Jordan looked up at Shelby as she brought her own breakfast to the table.

“It was a high school thing. Long, long ago. Travis, I don’t appreciate your gossiping.”

“Not gossip. Fact. He still rushes over here any time you crook your little finger,” Travis continued his taunting. “A good thing he does. I don’t know who else we’d have gotten to look after our stock so we could go to that show in Halifax.”

“Interesting.” Jordan kept his gaze fastened on her. Here was a bit of back story he hadn’t anticipated. Was this Crowell guy still on the make for the lovely doctor?

“Moving on.” She flushed as she worked at clearing her plate. “Travis, after breakfast, go over and see if Andy will lend us a tractor. The faster we get that hay cut, baled, and wrapped, the better.”

“How about driving over to Andy’s with me, Jake?” Travis finished his toast and looked over at him. “That way one of us can drive the tractor back. Shel usually brings the truck back, but she has patients this morning.”

“Sure, why not? Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be down at the barn starting on the clean-up.”

Why pass up a chance to get a look at the man out to marry Doctor Shelby Masters?

“I’ll go with you.” Travis headed for the door, and Jordan followed.

“Just a minute, cowboy.” Shelby stopped him. “Sit. There’s something I want to discuss with you. Travis, you go ahead.”

Her brother cast a curious glance from one to the other, then nodded and went out.

“Fire away.” He turned back to her. “Why should I sit down? How serious is it? A review of my job performance? A report card on my progress as a student?”

“Be serious. It’s about Michelle Latton.” She picked up the coffeepot and refilled their cups.

“What about her? Haven’t heard any more from her, have you?” He went back to his chair at the table.

“No, and I’m wondering why.” She sat down across from him and faced him, green eyes ready to brook no dancing out of the situation. “What have you done?”

“What makes you think I’ve done anything?” He took a sip to avoid her penetrating gaze.

“Because I know Michelle, and she’s not about to let go of what she thought could be a big stepping stone in her career. So now I want the truth.”

“Okay.” He leaned back and rolled his shoulders. “I called my agent and got her to do some damage control.”

“Such as?”

“Seeing to it that Ms. Latton got an audition with a Hollywood producer in September, providing she keeps her mouth shut.”

“I’m taking it Ms. Latton agreed?”

“Haven’t heard anything to the contrary.”

“And was your Annie serious, or was she just buying time?”

“Annie is a lot of things, but a liar when it comes to deals—definitely not. She wouldn’t be where she is today if she were. Your friend will get her audition, and that’s for certain.”

“So we’re safe?”

“Pretty safe. Unless she decides it’s more important to do a number on you than get a movie deal.”

“Doubtful. Ruining me is nowhere as important to Ms. Latton as getting a crack at being up on the big screen, trust me. Thanks, Jordan.”

“No need to thank me. It’s to my advantage as much as yours to keep her quiet. Now I better get down to the barn. Lots of work to do. Then we have to go tractor-borrowing.”

****

Hell, I hope that’s not Andy Crowell
.

The thought flashed through his mind as a tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking man emerged from the massive red barn. He’d driven with Travis over to the neighboring farm to discover it was a huge, state-of-the-art operation with big barns spread over several acres. Beyond them lay acres of pastureland dotted with more healthy-looking black-and-white cows than he cared to count. And up near the road, away from the farm operation, stood a beautiful split-level house with manicured lawns and a gazebo in the rear. Parked beside it was a gleaming white latest-model SUV. Beside the barn waited an equally new king cab truck, liberally trimmed with chrome.

This guy is doing more than okay. Shelby could do worse.

“Travis, how’re you doing, kid?” The man came to slap Travis on the shoulder as he climbed out of the old truck. “What brings you here this great morning? Prime hayin’ weather, what?”

“Yeah, that’s why we’ve come.” Travis turned toward Jordan, who’d stepped around the truck to join them. “This is Jake Banks, our new hand. I wanted to ask to borrow one of your tractors. If you say okay, I’ll drive it back to our place and Jake can take the truck.”

“New hand, huh?” He looked Jordan up and down with the same assessing gaze Jordan figured he’d use when summing up livestock. “Didn’t think Shel had the funds to hire help.”

“Yeah, well, we did good at that show in Halifax, and with the business it drummed up…” Travis was struggling.

“I came cheap.” Jordan took up the slack. “Mill closed down where I was working, and what with child support payments, I had to get something, anything. I don’t plan to lose my driver’s license or end up in jail for defaulting.”

“Ah, so you got a kid.”

“Four.”

“Man, you have got yourself a hefty burden.” Apparently convinced of Jordan’s plight, Andy turned to Travis. “Okay, Travis, let’s see what we can find for you.”

“That was some whopper.” Travis hissed in Jordan’s ear as they followed the farmer to his equipment shed.

“Not really. I am responsible for the boys in my band.”

He put a hand on Travis’s shoulder as they walked and tried to swallow away the empty feeling in his belly. He’d had a good breakfast. It didn’t make sense. The fact that Andy Crowell appeared the perfect mate for Shelby couldn’t be causing it. That would be just plain stupid.

“What about this one?” Andy Crowell paused beside a big red machine. “Won’t be using it for a couple of weeks, and it’s set to go. Even got a full tank of gas.”

Jordan looked around the massive steel shed at the six state-of-the-art tractors inside.
This guy is one big success
.

“Great. Thanks, Andy.” Travis climbed into the cab and looked over the dashboard. “Think I can handle it. Hey, a stereo. And air conditioning. Way to go, Andy.”

“No sense making work any harder than it is.” The farmer stood back and grinned. “Take her away, boy.”

Travis started the engine, gave the two men on the ground a thumbs-up, waved them aside, and rolled the big machine outside and toward the road.

As he headed down the lane toward the highway, Jordan turned back to their truck. “Thanks again.”

“Hey, like a tour?” The farmer stopped him. “I got a few minutes.”

“Sure, why not.”
Might be interesting
. He followed the farmer toward the first of three huge barns.

****

Twenty minutes later, as they stood leaning on a pasture gate watching a large herd of Holsteins peacefully cropping grass in an extensive area dotted with shade trees and a large watering trough, Jordan had to admit he was impressed. Andy’s herd of healthy and apparently happy cows numbered up into the hundreds. His facilities were all state-of-the-art, and he seemed in complete control of the big farm and its half dozen workers.

Jordan had been especially impressed by the pristinely clean milking theater, where a constant line-up of cows ready to have their udders relieved were hooked onto milking machines by a pair of workers, and the computer area where each cow’s input and output, health, and other vital statistics were recorded and monitored.

“Things have come a long way since I used to visit my uncle’s farm as a kid,” he remarked.

“Yeah, well, my old man kept up to date right until his retirement two years ago, when his health caught up with him and he and Mom had to move to Arizona for the drier climate. The only thing he didn’t modernize was the house. We had a dinosaur like Shelby’s. So as soon as they left, I had it demolished and built that.” He jerked his thumb toward the split-level near the road. “Everything you could want in the way of convenience. All it needs now is a woman’s touch to perk up the inside. And I’m hoping that, by the end of the summer, Shelby will give me to understand help in that quarter will be here by Christmas.”

“You and Shelby have a history.” Jordan felt his gut knot and had to struggle to sound blasé.

“We’ve been neighbors all our lives. My parents and her uncle and aunt always hoped we’d get together someday. With any luck, after I’m finished the haying and other summer work, I’ll have time to convince her they were right.”

“So it’ll be more of a merger, a farm merger?” For some reason, Jordan couldn’t let himself think of it in any other terms.

“Yeah, I guess.” The farmer turned to Jordan and shoved his baseball cap back on his head. “But, hell, you’ve seen her, man. There’ll be a lot more than hay flyin’ when we get together.”

“Yep, well, I better hit the trail.” Jordan felt his hands knotting into fists, realized how foolish it was, and turned away. “Thanks again for the tractor.”

“Not a problem. Anything for my girl.” Andy Crowell headed toward the nearest barn as a farm hand emerged. “Hey, Dave, I thought I told you to move those heifers to the back pasture. Get a move on, man.”

Yeah, the guy’s definitely a success. Just the kind of man Shelby needs. Back off, fool, and let nature take its course.

****

Jordan hummed as he shifted gears to head the tractor down another strip of field. Andy Crowell might not have gotten the girl yet, but he had managed to get the latest equipment. This tractor with all the bells and whistles was the same model he’d recently bought for his father. He grinned as he remembered the day the dealer had hauled the fancy machine into their farmyard that spring.

“You’re at the wrong farm,” Herb Brooks had been quick to inform the driver. “We never ordered anything like that!” He’d gestured at the gleaming blue tractor on the flatbed.

“Says right here, ‘to be delivered to Brookside Farm, Herlihy Road.’ ” The driver climbed down from the cab and wielded a sheet of paper.

Herb Brooks took it into a calloused hand and squinted down at it. He hated to admit that he needed reading glasses and tried to confine them to in-house use.

“He’s right, Dad.” Jordan stepped forward. “Happy birthday.”

His grin broadened as he remembered the first time his father had climbed into the pristine cab of the new tractor. He’d run work-hardened hands slowly, almost reverently, over the gleaming black gear stick and steering wheel.

“It’s too much, Jordie,” he said, sun-crinkled face struggling to conceal emotion he hated to show as he looked down at his son.

“No way.” Jordan climbed up beside him. “I can afford it and you deserve it. Come on. Let’s take this baby for a test drive. It’s got air-conditioning and a great stereo system. You can listen to your favorite country singer while you work.”

Within a week his father was declaring he didn’t know what he’d done without it. Jordan had the satisfaction of seeing his mother wink knowingly at her second son behind her husband’s back.

He wondered what she’d say when she got back from visiting her sister in Halifax and discovered her renovated kitchen, bath, and laundry room. He’d instructed the decorators he’d hired to bring in state-of-the-art appliances without losing any of the old farmhouse charm he’d loved all of his life. The oak table, chairs, and cupboards were simply to be refinished, the brick fireplace in the corner cleaned and repaired, the old couch beside it to be replaced by a new one in the same chintz as its predecessor, whose springs had sagged to the floor. His mother’s rocking chair in front of the hearth was to be rejuvenated to match. It would remain as homely as ever but much easier for his mother to work in.

He came out of his daydreams when he saw Shelby loping Fancy across the field toward him. He geared down and braked to a stop to watch. Man, she was picture perfect on that amazing horse.

“Hey,” he called above engine noise as she halted beside the machine.

“Hey yourself. Have you forgotten it’s time for your lesson?” She held Fancy in check as the mare pranced beside the tractor.

“Is it that late? I’ve been daydreaming. I’ll head back right away.”

“Save time. Leave the tractor here and ride with me.”

He hesitated. Riding double with Shelby Masters should have been a dream come true, but it wasn’t. He’d been fighting hard to keep his distance, and this might just blow the whole thing.

“Come on! We don’t have time to waste. We knew we wouldn’t when we came up with this intense schedule.”

“Okay, okay.” He turned off the motor and climbed down.

“Get aboard.” She kicked her left foot out of the stirrup and held down her hand.

Give me strength
.

Sticking his foot into the stirrup, he grabbed her hand and vaulted upwards. A grunt escaped as he landed harder than he’d expected behind the saddle. He grabbed her around the waist as Fancy snorted and shied.