Last Year's Bride (Montana Born Brides) (11 page)

He might have grunted a reply.
It was hard to hear over the sound of both engines. Swallowing a sigh, Nell rolled her window back up. Cole did the same. She swished the wipers again to clear off the snow that had accumulated in the couple of minutes they had stopped there, then eased her way up onto the deserted highway.

The big county snowplow must have come through less than an hour ago.
While the road was snow-covered again, the cover wasn’t deep and the snow pushed up onto the margins of the road made it easy enough to see where she was going.

She glanced in the rear view mirror to see when Cole turned around and headed back toward the ranch. Instead she saw him pull out onto the highway behind her.
Nell frowned. Was something wrong? Would he catch up and tell her she was going the wrong way?

She wasn
’t going the wrong way. In the far off distance across the valley she could see the glow from Marietta’s street lights reflected in the low-hanging clouds. Nell slowed down, expecting him to pull alongside. There was no one else on the road for miles as far as she could tell.

But he didn
’t speed up. He stayed steadily behind her, slowing when she slowed, speeding up when she did. She considered trying to call him, to ask what he was doing, but she didn’t want to take a hand off the steering wheel to fumble for her phone. Besides, the closer they got to Marietta, the more she thought she knew what he was doing: he was seeing her home.

It was Cole all over
—Mr Responsible. He wasn’t leaving her halfway to Marietta on a snow-covered highway. Despite the late hour, despite his obvious exhaustion, despite the fact that he would have to turn around and drive all the way back home again—even further up to the cabin—and despite having to get up again in a few short hours to do it all over again, he was determined to do what he thought needed to be done. Shaking her head, Nell drove on.

Cole followed her all the way into Marietta.
She ended up parking at the far end of the Graff Hotel lot because, of course, all the other spots were taken. He sat in his truck in the deserted street as Nell got out of the truck, locked it and clutching her bag against her chest, slogged through the unplowed parking lot toward the hotel doors. As she walked through the lot, Cole’s truck inched along the street keeping pace, seeing her to the door.

When she reached them, Nell turned to look at him.
The side windows were fogged with condensation, but she could still see him through the front. She smiled and waggled her fingers at him. He lifted a hand in response.

But he didn
’t leave until Nell actually turned and went in through the hotel doors. Then he made a U-turn and headed back toward the highway.

Nell stood hugging her bag, watching until his tail lights disappeared around the corner.

“You care,” she said fiercely to his departing truck. “And so do I. We can make this work, Cole McCullough. I’ll prove it to you.”

When Cole came back down to the ranch house only scant hours after his head had hit the pillow, it looked like they’d been invaded.

He had figured he had time to get the feed loaded and be out of there before Nell and her crew showed up.
But there were already four crew cab trucks pulled up near the house, one of them the truck Nell had driven back to the hotel the night before.

Was she here then?
There were lights set up all over the yard, making it bright as mid-day, but he didn’t see her.

Three guys on the ground were setting up something that looked like railroad tracks out by the calving shed.
One, bundled up to his ears and carrying a clipboard, was striding around, waving his arms. Cole thought he was yelling. But it was hard to tell because the huge damn generator truck was making enough noise to wake the dead. The dead themselves were milling around in the latest fashion in winter jackets, looking sleepy, drinking coffee and scowling.

Welcome to reality TV, he thought grimly.
How the hell was he supposed to get past all these people and trucks clogging the narrow ranch road, then get back past them to reach the cattle?

Teeth grinding, Cole flicked off the engine, jumped out of the truck, and strode toward the house. Before he even got to the yard, the kitchen door opened. Nell came out, beaming at him.
“Ah, you’re here. Just in time!”

His heart was kicking over at the sight of her, but Cole stopped and regarded her suspiciously,
“What?”

“
Sam said you’d take the guys out with you to feed cattle. Teach them to load the truck and how to feed the cattle.”

Cole stared.
He was still focusing on her smile, on how she always made the day look better. He had to drag his brain around to what she’d told him his dad had said. Then he bristled. What the hell was Sam thinking? Like he didn’t have enough to do without nursemaiding a bunch of actors?

This might have been Sadie
’s hare-brained idea, but Sam had agreed to it. Let him talk the actors through it. Where the hell was the old man, anyway?

Sam
’s truck had been parked behind the cabin last night when Cole had finally got home. He didn’t remember it being gone this morning. But after driving clear into Marietta last night, he’d grabbed barely three hours sleep. He’d barely had his eyes open when he left this morning. Something in his expression must have told Nell he wasn’t exactly thrilled. She looked dismayed. “Sam didn’t mention it? You didn’t know.”

“
I didn’t know.”

Her mouth twisted, but then she nodded.
“Right. Well, never mind. We’ll think of something else for right now. Perhaps later we can hire someone who can teach them how and—”

He could see her mind, gears spinning, trying to come up with a useful alternative.
He ground his teeth, knowing he was making it harder for her. And that wasn’t the point. It wasn’t the point at all.

“
I’ll take ‘em,” Cole said grimly. He should have known better than to avoid the meeting at the ranch when Nell and her boss had met Sadie, Gran and Sam to discuss the possibilities. If he had been there he could have scotched the whole thing right then.

Now he was stuck with it.
And whatever else he had to deal with on a personal level, he damned well didn’t need somebody else’s hand here messing with his cattle.

“
Have somebody get these trucks out of my way,” he told her. “And I’ll take all of ‘em.”

“
They come with a crew,” Nell ventured apologetically.

Cole rolled his eyes.
“Whatever. The cows are hungry. Let’s just get this show on the road.”

The sudden smile Nell gave him was absolutely blinding.
But then she said nervously, “Are you sure, Cole?”

He was sure it was going to be a disaster, but what else could he do?
There was no point in screwing up her job to make a point. Besides, loading up the truck and feeding the cattle wasn’t rocket science. He reckoned the walking dead could do it.

“
Move the trucks,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ll be down at the barn.” Then he turned on his heel and stalked back to his truck before he agreed to something else he’d regret. He had more regrets—and more desire—where Nell was concerned than about anything else in his life.

He got in the truck, banged the door shut and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, waiting.
Down by the house, in the lights they’d strung so they could work before the sun came up, he could see Nell in her bright red down jacket gesturing and pointing, talking earnestly to a guy holding a camera, a couple of unidentified crew members and some of the walking dead.

Moments later a game of musical trucks began as the crew moved them out of the way and left the road clear for him to get to the barn.
When a path opened, he drove through, giving them a small salute with a couple of fingers to the brim of his hat as he went past.

Nell, the cameramen, a couple of crew members and four guys who looked as if feeding cattle was not their idea of a good time were already at the barn when he arrived.

Nell introduced them all. It was a blur of names to him. Then she said to them, “This is Cole. Listen to him. Do what he says. Don’t do what he tells you not to do. He’s the boss.”

“
I thought Sam was the boss.” One of the cameramen grinned.

“
He’s the owner.” Nell corrected. “Cole is The Boss,” she said as if he was made of capital letters. And she gave them a steely look, reminding Cole of his sixth grade teacher, Mrs Hard-ass-ty. A grin touched his lips.

“
Understand?” Nell eyed them unblinkingly.

Every one of them nodded fervently
—even the walking dead. The cameraman said, “We got it.”

Nell favored them with a brilliant smile.
“Okay, then,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Cole figured he would just show them what to do and they
’d do it. He didn’t count on cameramen pointing cameras at him and some guy with sound gear hovering and waving something in the air while he did it. He scowled, self-conscious and suddenly tongue-tied. He jammed his hands into his pockets.

He was sure Nell noticed, but she didn
’t say, “Just ignore them,” as if he could. Instead she said to the reality guys, “You want your spot in the limelight? Ask questions. Get involved.”

They did.
And once Cole began answering them and showing them, his natural instincts and his know-how took over. He forgot the cameras and the rest of the crew. And if he never quite forgot that Nell was there, well, he never could seem to forget about Nell.

It was, he told himself, just that he had never had her here in winter.
He’d fantasized about having her with him often enough, even when he was trying not to. But actually having her here, watching, listening, smiling, was somehow balm for his worn-out soul.

He knew it was a mistake. He knew he shouldn
’t bask in the attention. He knew it would just make things harder to walk away in the end. But her being here now wasn’t his idea. He hadn’t made her come to Marietta. That had been her choice.

So, damn it, he was going to take advantage of it.
If he was going to spend the rest of his life without her, why not stock up a few memories to make the years of loneliness a little more palatable?

She knew he
’d be a natural. For all that Cole had a silent, suck-it-up-and-get-it-done approach to his own life, he was patient with other people.

The summer she
’d dated him, Nell had dragged Cole along when she’d shot a short promo piece on a bunch of Girl Scouts at a horseback riding event. He’d been amazing with the girls, endlessly kind and low-key, helping them, making things easier for the leaders who were not exactly going to win cowgirl of the year awards. She’d seen him with the little kids who came to the rodeo, showing them how to hold a rope or resin a glove. She’d seen him take time with old ladies who’d batted their lashes at him in Reno asking if he was a ‘real cowboy.’ He’d even posed for a picture with some of them.

And if he didn
’t thrill to being on camera now, and if he thought he had nothing at all in common with her reality TV guys, he still treated them respectfully. Keith had grown up on a farm in the Midwest, so he had the most experience. But Seth was a born and bred SoCal surfer, Chandler was a trust-fund multi-millionaire from Connecticut, and Mac, well, Mac never said where he’d come from. But he’d made sure they all knew right off that he was at the top of the investment company he worked for, and he didn’t have time for foolishness.

Cole treated them all equally.
He didn’t act like they were stupid when they didn’t know what he had learned at his father’s knee. He didn’t find fault when they screwed up. He just showed them again or showed them another way to do what needed to be done.

Keith took to it easily.
Chandler actually made an effort. Seth rolled his eyes, but when Cole said, “Here. Hold this,” he held it, and did what Cole told him to until Cole told him to let go.

Mac was trying to get a cell phone signal all the time the other guys were feeding cattle. Cole didn
’t say comment except to say, “Try mine.” He handed Mac his own phone.

Nell knew Cole didn
’t get service most places on the ranch. Mac found that out pretty quickly, too. And once he knew it wasn’t just his phone that didn’t work there, he stopped trying, tucked his phone back in his pocket and handed Cole back his much older, more battered model. “Thanks. I’ll try later when we get to the house.” And then he pitched in and helped, too.

“
I suppose you want me to teach them how to deliver a calf, too,” Cole said to her when the calves were fed and they were on their way back to the ranch house. The crew and the reality guys were riding in the bed of the truck or the pickup they’d brought along. She and Cole were in the cab together, just the two of them. It had been Cole’s idea. Nell wanted to bring up their future, but at the moment she thought she should just concentrate on the present, on the fact that Cole had cooperated, that he might be discovering what she already knew, all on his own.

So she just grinned
“How did you guess?”

Cole rubbed a hand against the back of his neck in a gesture she found endearingly self-conscious at the same time she knew he
’d hate it that she thought so. “Cows don’t go into labor when you want them to,” he said gruffly. “Sometimes it’s the middle of the night.” She understood he was trying to put her off.

“
Yes, so you said.” But she kept right on smiling. “We’ll do it whenever it happens. Day or night.”

Cole frowned.
“All the way in from town? I don’t see how. You should stay out here.”

“
The crew like to have their own space.”

“
I didn’t mean all of them.”

Nell blinked.
“Me?” Then a smile really did light her face. “Are you inviting me to come stay with you? And your dad?” Had he actually finally told Sam they were married?

“
No,” Cole said hastily and began back-pedaling. “I just thought you could have a room here. My grandmother and Sadie could share.”