Harlequin Superromance January 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: A Ranch for His Family\Cowgirl in High Heels\A Man to Believe In (31 page)

“I guess that's because you're from the other side of the Mississippi.” He bounced the rope off his leg again, the coils making a soft clacking sound, impatient to get back to his place, away from her. He debated about announcing that he'd be gone for the next couple days, but decided not to take a chance on her messing things up. She wasn't there to take over ranch operations. She was there to get a feel for how it was run. His absences were part of the package. “I didn't get a chance to write my bullet points yet.”

“Let me know when you do.” Spoken like a boss.

“I will. And I'll have Lonnie keep an eye out for Hiss. Now, if there's nothing else, I haven't eaten yet and I'd kind of like to.”

“Of course,” she said briskly as she took a step back. But there was something in her expression that he hadn't expected to see there. A touch of disappointment. A touch of...loneliness?

Welcome to rural life, lady.

CHAPTER FIVE

E
LLIE
WAS
ALMOST
at the house when a loud bellow made her jump. One of the cows out in the pasture was making a noise that she'd had no idea cows made until she'd arrived here. She went into the house, closing the door behind her, shutting out the cows, the night. Her closest neighbor who hadn't been able to get away from her quick enough.

It was understandable. These guys were concerned about their jobs with a new owner taking over. Since she spent her time advising people on hiring and firing issues, she was used to employees giving her a wide berth when possible, measuring words as they spoke to her, but she wasn't used to it happening in a situation where the employees were the only other human beings around for miles.

Damn it, she'd lived alone for years and being by herself shouldn't feel so overwhelming.

Except that now she was alone with a lot of time to think.

Ellie went to the kitchen and put on a pot of tea. She'd probably regret it later that night as she made her way to the john, but right now she needed something to help her relax and chamomile was her only option. While waiting for the water to boil, she opened her notebook, reviewed her goals. Tomorrow she would make progress on all of them. She'd research obstetricians, call Milo for more information on the ranch consultant and contact a few business associates. It wouldn't fill the day, but she'd be moving forward. She was going to be a mother—to a child who was offended by the smell of pumpkin—and she needed to get her act together.

A mother. Wow.

The thought still hit her hard. Ellie pressed her fingers against her abdomen, closed her eyes, tried to visualize. There was a baby in there. A little, tiny, totally vulnerable child. How long until she felt it move? Would she still be here at the ranch? Ellie dropped her hands, stared down at the notebook again. Funny how getting nauseous over the pie had made the baby seem real, made her realize that she no longer half hoped that nature would take care of matters. She wasn't ready for any of this, wished with all of her heart it hadn't happened, but it had and she was going to deal with it. All of it. Babies, jobs, ranches. She might not be able to follow her old path, have her old life back, but she could make a new life, a new path. She just wished that as she did it, she felt more like her old self. Confident. In control.

The kettle started to whistle and Ellie closed her notebook. Instead of being confident and in control, she was afraid—afraid that she was never ever going to feel like her old self again. Afraid of being responsible for a child. Afraid of messing up.

And that was why she hated being alone right now. Too much time to think about just how afraid she was.

* * *

E
ARLY
W
EDNESDAY
MORNING
Ellie managed to get hold of Milo at the hospital before he started work and to ask for more information about the ranch consultant.

“I didn't get you that? I thought I forwarded the correspondence.”

“Maybe it got lost in cyberspace,” Ellie said.

“Or maybe I got busy and forgot,” Milo said. “Sometimes I don't know what day it is.

“How's it going there?”

“I'm settling in. I've met the employees and taken a look at the property. Now I'm going to observe day-to-day operations.” Although she'd yet to determine exactly how she was going to do that when the employees didn't want her around.

“Excellent,” Milo said. “How's everything else?” Meaning, of course, her pregnancy.

“I'm researching obstetricians. I should have an appointment by this afternoon at the latest.” It felt strange discussing OB appointments with her uncle, but Milo and Angela were the closest thing to grandparents as her child would probably have. Mavis would make the occasional appearance, but Ellie had no misconceptions about her taking a role in the child's life.

Although she had heard of people doing better with their grandchildren than with their own children. Maybe...?

Ellie refused to get her hopes up.

After talking to Milo, Ellie spent the morning reading reviews of obstetricians in surrounding cities and towns, noting the pros and cons of each: distance, insurances accepted, patient relations. It'd taken most of the morning for her to compile a list of acceptable doctors, only to call the top three and discover that they were booked full. They wouldn't be accepting patients for the next several months, although she could join the waiting list.

She didn't have several months, and the idea of joining a waiting list seemed ludicrous under the circumstances. Ellie felt the beginning of panic as she hung up for the third time. Apparently patients of her top candidates saw the doctors long before they actually got pregnant—as in they'd planned to get pregnant. Well, that'd been the way Ellie had thought it would happen to her, too. She'd meet a guy, date until she was certain she wanted to spend her life with him, they'd marry, wait two years and then get pregnant. They would, of course, have one boy and one girl. That had been the plan.

It was so thoroughly depressing that it wasn't working out that way for her. That she was going to have to scramble to find an obstetrician that met her standards.

Doctor number four was located in a smaller town close to the ranch, and when she called she was relieved to hear that they were taking new patients, but the soonest they could book a consultation would be in three weeks. Ellie took the appointment. She would have felt better, and more invisible, with a doctor in Bozeman or Butte, but people were going to find out she was pregnant sooner or later. She might even end up having the child here.

In a place where she'd alienated everyone in a ten-mile radius.

Maybe she needed to do something about that.

* * *

I
F
THERE
WERE
cows on that mountain, then they were doing a pretty damned good job of evading him. Ryan had spent almost ten hours in the saddle trying to find the strays, and he was beginning to wonder if someone had taken the animals. Whatever, he was late getting home and he still had to load PJ and drive two hundred miles tonight.

Ryan had just dismounted when he heard the door of the ranch house open and close. Great. The boss.

He continued to unsaddle the gelding as footsteps came across the flagstones, then crunched on gravel. Ellison stopped several yards away from him and for a moment said nothing.

“I don't know if Lonnie took care of the snake,” he said, answering the question he was pretty sure she was going to ask.

“He looked for it, but couldn't find it,” Ellison said. “You were gone a long time today.” She shifted slightly as he shot her a quick glance, wondering if the comment was a conversation starter, a criticism, or what. “I saw you ride away early this morning,” she continued. “What do you do on a horse all day?”

Conversation starter. Maybe the boss was getting lonely. “Today I looked for missing cattle.”

“How do cattle go missing?”

“Any number of ways. They can get through a hole in the fence. Gates get left open. Sometimes we don't find them all when we move them to different areas.”

Ryan started brushing Skipper. “Walt says you're bringing in a consultant,” he said without looking at Ellison.

“My uncle is.”

“Do your aunt and uncle plan to take residence soon?”

“They'd originally planned to move to the ranch at the end of the summer, but my uncle recently took a promotion instead of retiring.” Ellison's expression told him that she wasn't one bit surprised that her uncle had chosen work over retirement. “Now he's chief of staff at his hospital and the move has been pushed back.”

“And you're here to hold down the fort.”

“Milo wanted someone from the family here while the consultant did his evaluation.”

“And you happened to be at loose ends.”

“Yes,” she said, meeting his eyes as if daring him to ask more. A nerve touched there.

Tempting as it was, he decided not to press matters. “Do you know anything about this consultant?”

“He comes highly recommended.”

“By?”

“One of the neighboring ranchers.” He cocked his head and she added, “The Kenyons.”

“Is his name George Monroe?”

“You know him?” Ellison asked.

“I'm familiar,” he said flatly.

“You don't seem too pleased.”

Ryan turned toward her, keeping one hand on Skipper's damp back. “I don't know how to say this politely, so I'm just going to say it. The guy's a tool.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Why do you think that?”

“He fired a totally competent crew at the Vineyard and brought in another that was no better than the first. He shakes things up just because he can.”

“That's your perception,” Ellison replied calmly.

“Yes. That's my perception.” Ryan tossed the brush into the bucket in the trailer tack room.

“One reason I'm here is to determine if I agree with his recommendations.”

Was she trying to make him feel better? If so, it wasn't working. “By your own admission, you know nothing about ranching.”

“I know about people and employee efficiency.”

“But if you don't know this business, how can you judge its efficiency?”

Ellison's chin came up as he spoke, making it more than obvious that she didn't like being challenged any more than she liked being wrong.

“Efficiency is usually evident. Like, say, if someone leaves a gate open and then spends the entire day looking for the cattle that got out.”

The first shot fired.
All right.
“They didn't get out through an open gate.”

She settled a hand on her hip. “But if you mentioned the possibility, then I assume it has happened.”

“Ranch gates are almost always left open by people who don't work on the ranch. Hikers. Hunters.”

Her mouth made an O before she said, “Regardless, searching for lost animals doesn't seem the best use of time.”

“
Seem
being the key word here, because, by your own admission, you don't know enough to make a judgment,” Ryan pointed out reasonably, pulling his attention away from her lips.

“Then perhaps you could edify me.”

“I'd be happy to,” he said. “But not tonight.” Even though it was only six o'clock, he had four hours of driving ahead of him.

“Plans?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He didn't elaborate and after a few seconds Ellison nodded.

“I won't keep you,” she said, her cool demeanor slipping back into place. She gave him a faint smile, then turned and walked back toward the house.

Ryan coiled Skipper's lead rope and then, despite his best intentions, glanced over the horse's broad back to watch Ellison retreat, feeling an unexpected twinge of regret. He could have made some inroads into her good graces, since it appeared that she'd come to the barn just to talk. But once George's name came up, everything had gone to hell, which was probably only a taste of what was going to happen once the consultant got there.

Ryan couldn't wait.

He heard the door to the main house close as he led Skipper toward the pasture. Ellison was back in her sanctuary, a place where he was fairly certain she was ready to climb the walls or she wouldn't be seeking out his company. She was lonely and because of that a few cracks seemed to be appearing in her walled-off facade.

He hated to admit it, but there was something about her touch-me-not quality that was drawing him in—no doubt the challenge of discovering if there was more to her than met the eye.

A challenge best not acted upon.

* * *

E
LLIE
GLANCED
OUT
the kitchen window and saw Ryan loading his black horse into the trailer. He disappeared into his house, then came out carrying a small gym bag and a cooler, stowed those in the front of his pickup and then drove away.

To where?

Did it matter? As long as he did his job, Ryan Madison was none of Ellie's concern...except that she was interested in where he was going so late with a horse and a cooler.

At least he had something to do. Tomorrow Ellie planned to touch base with some business acquaintances, let people know she'd be looking for a job soon, but at the moment she had nothing but TV to fill her time. Or she did until the wind suddenly rose around ten o'clock that night, howling through the trees and bending the birches in the front yard at an alarming angle. The lights flickered a couple times and then went out, leaving Ellie in the dark, staring in the direction of the blank TV screen and wondering how on earth she'd managed to get to this point in her life. It was then that she noticed that although the lights were off in the house, the yard light was still on. She was no expert, but that seemed wrong.

There were no lights on in Ryan's house, either, but it wasn't until she was halfway across the gravel drive with her hair blowing wildly around her that she noted that the truck and trailer weren't in their usual spots. He hadn't come back.

She knocked anyway, just in case. No answer. He was well and truly gone and she well and truly had no electricity. She got into her car and drove the half mile to Walter's house, which was also well lit.

As she got out of the car, fighting to keep the door from blowing out of her hand, the old man opened the door and came out onto the porch.

“Hi,” she called. “I don't have power.”

“It's late,” Walt said.

Ellie's chin lifted in surprise. “I know, but the yard light is on, so maybe it's just a fuse or something.” He blinked at her as if to say, “And that's my problem because...?” Ellie pulled in a breath through her teeth. “I don't know where the fuse box is,” she explained with more patience than she felt.