Ranch Hand For Auction: A Western Romance Novella (6 page)

Somber energy stifled the kitchen air, making it hard for Jake to breathe. He’d been planning to have a serious talk with Meg that day. Planned on telling her just how much he cared for her. Telling her about his short-lived run as a playboy, and his dedication to steer clear of that activity for the last year. Seems like a girl from his past beat him to the punch.

By the physical description Meg gave, Jake figured it was Carrie. He hadn’t done right by that woman, and figured she was smearing his name through all the mud she could find.

He knocked his knuckles on the counter, shaking his head in frustration. Meg had clammed up after the incident. Ignored him while finishing the last few batches, and then insisted she go out back and check for missed grapes while he stayed in the kitchen tending to the processor. Like there was anything to it. Stand there. Wait for the steam to reduce the grapes to juice. Nearly an hour of standing and pacing and going crazy in his own head. They had only two batches left. Two batches, and she insisted on separating.

“Damn it,” he grumbled under his breath. He couldn’t let this woman go. He was crazy about her. About the snarky way she spoke back to him. The way she studied the beauty of simple, everyday items. The way she felt in his arms.

A quick lift of the lid told Jake they had another twenty minutes to go before bottling the juice. Now might be a good time to go on back there, insist that she stop picking for a minute, and talk. Talk about his past. About their future. She hadn’t exactly come out and said she was done with Michael, but she’d nearly said as much with her behavior. Any outsider watching Jake and Meg the last few days would guess they were an item. And that suited him just fine.

With the exhale of a deep breath, Jake looked out the window. There she was, hunched beneath a patch of leaves, the empty-looking basket by her side. A laugh bubbled up in his throat. They’d already picked all the grapes, done a thorough job of it too. She wasn’t going to find anything. He tapped on the window with the exhale of a nervous breath.

Meg spun around and glared at him through the glass.

Jake smiled. Half nervous, half entertained, and cracked the thing open a few inches. “You getting anything?” A small laugh coated the last word.

“Yep,” she hollered without delay.

“Let me see.” He covered another smile as Meg lifted a single cluster – a small one at that – high in the air for him to see.

Another chuckle. “That’s it?”

Meg dropped the cluster back into her basket without another word.

Hmm.
That hadn’t gone too well. Okay, it was time to stop putting this off. He’d go out there, sit down with her, and say everything he needed to say.

With his mind made up, he rounded the counter and stepped toward the sliding glass door. He had a solid grip on the handle when the loud chime of the doorbell filled the house. An eerie echo hummed in his ears like an ominous, pulsing beat.

In all the days he’d been there, the only person to ring that bell had been the delivery guy Jake sent for.

Should he answer it himself or call for Meg?
Meg,
he decided. Definitely. He slid open the sliding glass door. “Someone’s at the door,” he called.

Meg didn’t budge. Kept her head beneath the foliage. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Didn’t you answer it?”

He huffed out a breath. “No. Do you want me to?”

Meg made a scene of coming to a stand, adjusting her clothes dramatically as she stomped toward the sliding door. “I guess I’ll get it.” She kept her head high as she walked past, glancing at him for the slightest of seconds.

Jake gave her a grin, one she almost returned.

The bell rang again. A knock followed.

“I’m surprised they haven’t left yet,” Meg grumbled.

Jake followed her into the front room, watched as she opened the heavy oak door and squinted his eyes as he took in the sight at the other side of the screen. A sharp knot sunk deep into his gut.

Meg gasped. Took a step back, and spoke the one word Jake least wanted to hear on her lips. “Michael?”  

How in the…
What
in the… “What are you doing here?” Meg asked. It hurt to look at him. Why did it hurt to look at him?

Michael’s eyes looked red and swollen. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.” She pushed open the door and held it with her arm.

Michael stepped inside, his presence bringing a strange, new energy into the room.

“Do you want to have a seat, or…” The sentence dropped as Meg realized what Michael was staring at. W
ho
was more like it.

Her eyes trailed a slow and timid path toward the other man in the room. The one who stood no more than three feet from her:
Jake.

His arms were crossed, his broad shoulders tight, and his posture squared straight toward the door. There was a challenge written in the dark glare in his eyes, one that lit a small fire in Meg’s tummy.

“This is Jake,” she managed through a shaky breath. When Jake’s arms didn’t budge or loosen to shake hands, Meg glanced back at Michael. She cleared her throat. “And Jake, this is Michael.”

The two settled for head nods. And then their attention was set back on her.

“Can I talk to you alone some place?” Michael asked. “Maybe out here on the porch?” His eyes darted to Jake before settling back on her.

It took nearly everything she had in her, but Meg did not look back to Jake. “Sure,” she said. Out the front they went. The sun had started its slow descent toward the horizon, but Meg couldn’t get herself to even look for the sunset. Something was happening inside her. Something she couldn’t describe. A celebration, maybe. A bit of triumph, too. Michael had come clear out here for her. She mattered that much to him. That was satisfying. So satisfying she wanted to smile or squeal or… or throw up.

“Do you want to sit?” she asked.

Michael shook his head and glared toward the house. “Let’s walk.”

“Okay.” She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket as she took the stairs, unwilling to hold his hand. She didn’t appreciate the curt tone he took with her. The entitlement in his face and words and voice. He was entitled to nothing – as per his own stupid preference to remain unattached – and she’d make sure he knew it.

She started up with a fast pace once they hit the sidewalk. A sidewalk she hadn’t trailed in years. “Well?”

He stopped walking at her prompt, but Meg continued.

“That’s all you have to say?” he asked, gaining speed to catch up with her once more.

“I’m still waiting to hear what
you
have to say. I assume Shayna told you about Jake.”
Why did she like the sound of his name so much?
He was most likely just as much of a dead end as Michael was.

“Yeah, she did. And you know what my first thought was?”

This time Meg stopped walking and spun to face him. “What?” She looked at him – really looked as the familiar connection between them linked together once more. The pull of three years spent giving and taking and building something that mattered. It mattered, she assured herself.

“My first thought was…” he ran a hand over the back of his neck. “It was, I am such an idiot.”

Satisfaction – the deep and thorough kind she’d longed for all these months and days and years – settled over her. First over her skin, creating a ripple of goosebumps up her arms. And then into her heart – kindling the warmth she still torched for him.

“I’ve been a fool to string you along the way I have,” he continued. “I don’t know why I was dragging my feet so much. I was scared, I’ll admit. But this… having you spend time with some cowboy from your hometown – hearing that you have feelings for one another – that scares me a whole lot more than committing ever has.”

The comment rubbed Meg wrong. Her head tilted. The warm feeling cooled. The goosebumps on her skin disappeared.

She folded her arms. “Huh.” He looked scared, all right. Like a scared little boy trying to get out of trouble just a little too late.

“I want you to come back to Denver with me,” he said.

Meg leaned on one hip, lips closed, eyes locked on him.

“And then we can talk about our future. We don’t need to make definite plans or anything, but I do know one thing for sure. I definitely don’t want you to date anybody else. Not ever again.” He stepped closer to her, slid his hand along her jaw, and looked at her with penitent eyes. “I’m sorry for being so stupid.”

~ + ~

Jake could not believe his eyes. Was she really falling for that stuffy jerk and his load of bull crap? Could the guy really win her back so easily?

He stepped away from the window, wishing the vision of Meg and the idiot touching her would disappear as quickly as the actual view of them. But it stayed in his head, even through the new view before him. The carpet in the front room, the tiled floor in the kitchen. The stove, processor, and the steam rising from it as he lifted the lid.

Grapes are ready
, he realized. Jake prepped the bottles numbly, positioning the oven rack as visions of Michael’s hand on Meg’s face burned at his insides. He couldn’t let that guy just step in and steal her away, could he?

The words
steal her away
seemed to bite back.
He
was the one who’d stolen the girl, wasn’t he? She’d been with this guy for years now. Had told Jake about him from the beginning.

But told him what? That she was with a guy who was too much of a fool to make her his. The guy deserved to lose her, as far as Jake was concerned.

“Mind if I take over for you?”

The voice of Thomas Bolton took Jake by surprise. He glanced toward the mudroom, realizing he must have come through the back door.

Thomas cleared his throat as he walked through the dining area. “I just uh… figured I’d bottle up the last few quarts,” he explained. “Thinking of Meg’s mother the way that I am, it’d probably do me some good. A bit of healing, as they say.”

Jake gave him a nod. “Sounds like a good idea.”

Thomas caught his gaze once more, angling his head to give him a knowing look. “That means you can go find Meg.”

“Oh. I don’t want to bother – ”

“Go on,” he said sternly. “She’s just down the street. I’ll finish up here.” He began removing his suit coat. “Hurry now. I don’t want her with that Colorado kid any more than you do.”

Realization struck – he had her father’s approval. A warm dose of appreciation washed over him, filling him with new determination.

At once he gave Thomas a nod and bolted for the door. The view from the porch was similar to the one he’d seen moments ago. Only this time they were walking toward the house instead of away from it. Lit by the sun on the sidewalk. Michael reached a long arm behind Meg and pulled her against his side as they moved. Meg tipped her head toward him, walked willingly by his side. Slow strides. Words at their lips that Jake couldn’t hear. Words he didn’t want to hear.

A mean blade of heat pierced his chest, the contents seeming to pool around his ribs like lava. His throat tightened along with his fists.

Perhaps the guy had finally come to his senses. What if he had proposed down the block? Were the pair on their way back, ready to announce the news to her dad?

Jake’s heart sputtered and clanked. He couldn’t wait around for that. Couldn’t handle hearing that kind of news. Thomas had freed Jake from the chore in the kitchen, but he couldn’t use that freedom in the way the man intended. Not after seeing her cuddled up to Michael.

And not after the day he and Meg had had.

The two had barely spoken since breakfast. Since the woman from Jake’s past had soiled his name. Planted doubts in Meg about his character. Hell, she was probably happy to run back into Colorado-guy’s arms.

With roaring flames in his chest, the thundering pound in his heart, Jake sunk a hand into his pocket, fished out his keys, and made for the truck. By the grace of God, he’d parked along the street instead of the driveway. At least he’d be able to sneak away without making a spectacle of himself.

He walked faster as he neared the truck, anxious to get away from the scene. Chances were, Meg was too caught up in the moment to notice. Jake roared up the truck, sunk the pedal to drive away. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was leaving behind. A woman who was better off without him, or a woman who’d just reentered the trap of her past.

Whichever the case, one thing was certain. Jake was leaving behind a woman he was meant to love. And he wasn’t sure he’d ever recover.

“Wonder where
he’s
going in such a huff,” Michael said, speaking Meg’s thoughts aloud.

Meg broke free from the arm he had around her back and stopped walking, a sick knot twisting in her gut. This didn’t look good. If Jake had seen the two of them walking together, he would have definitely gotten the wrong idea. He couldn’t have known that only minutes ago, Meg had broken things off with Michael. Told him she’d be staying in Montana whether she ended up with the cowboy
(
as he’d called him) or not.

She’d simply been saying goodbye to the man she’d spent the last few years of her life with. Saying goodbye to the friendship and all it meant to her.

But Jake couldn’t have known that.

She’d seen emergency flares burst into flame, recalled the time her father lit one when the car broke down on the freeway one night. It felt as if that very flare had struck its fiery flame right inside her chest. It was screaming for help. Calling for action. But there was none to take.

She told herself that very thing as she sent Michael back to the airport, back to his life in Colorado. There was nothing she could do. She didn’t have Jake’s cell phone number to reach him – hadn’t needed it, seeing that the two had spent every waking moment together the last week. 

The sunset came and went quickly. Meg rested quietly in the chair by the front room window, waiting. She held a book in her hands,
Art and Fear
, a book she’d read nearly a hundred times. A book she adored like a cherished friend. And though she wasn’t reading it right then – distracted as she was – the well-worn paperback offered comfort.  

“Time to hit the sheets, young lady.” Dad’s voice came from the dark entry of the hallway. “I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow to get his things.”

“To get his things?” Was that all he needed to do?

Quiet footsteps shuffled into the room. “Well Meggy, he most likely thinks you’ve left to be with Michael. But when he comes back, you can set him straight.”

Meg nodded, bit at her lip, and wiped the silent tears that streamed down her cheeks.

“If it makes you feel any better, I called over to the Barnhart’s place, asked if he’d shown up. Billy said he’d come by to get a few things and was headed back home to the best of his knowledge.”

She turned toward her dad, eyeing him through the shadows. “You
did
? You called?”

“Mm, hmm.”

“When?”

He chuckled under his breath. “Uh, about ten minutes ago.”

Meg gasped. “Dad, what time is it?”

“Not quite midnight.” A hint of shame coated the words. “Hell, I’ve come to care for him too, you know? He’s a good man, that one. Barnhart’s can’t say enough about him.”

She nodded. “Yeah. He is.” A moment ticked by as Meg dared herself to share something she hadn’t yet. “We got in kind of a fight today.”

Her dad made his way over to the couch, lowering himself as he spoke. “Did you, now?”

“It was stupid, really.” Meg explained how things had gone. The girl in the restroom, the half-hearted way Meg had confronted him, and the hesitant way he’d replied. “I was kind of freaking out by the time we got home. Realizing that – in some ways – Jake and I have grown closer in one week than Michael and I have in the entire time I’ve known him.” She laughed, shrugged, then wiped at more tears as they came. The truth of her own words touching tender places in her heart. “I pretty much ignored him the rest of the day, and then Michael showed up and… now he’s gone.”

“I see,” her father said. “You’d had a bit of a rift between you then.”

“Yeah.”

He came to a stand, resting a hand on hers. “What’s that saying your mom used to quote? Something like… some things don’t work out because greater things are in the works.” He nodded. “Think that’s how she said it. Anyhow, it’s true. And I think – in this case – Jake’s the greater thing that came along.”

Meg glanced up, caught a grin from him in the moonlight seeping through the blinds.

“Most likely, whatever it is this gal was razzing you about in the ladies’ room, was probably nothing to worry over at all. You’ll get your chance to talk with him about it soon enough.”

“I hope so.” She couldn’t help but feel that her father was right. Jake just didn’t seem the womanizing type. She only wished she could rewind time, get all of her doubts out of the way, and enjoy the day with him. Their last day together.

That flame flared up in her chest once more.
No, don’t think like that. He’ll be back. He’ll be back.

~ + ~

“Whoa,” Jake mumbled as he approached the downed post. “Right here, Dodger. Right here.” A bright beam of morning sun shone on his back as he climbed off his horse and reached for the saddlebag. It’d been a long time since he’d done ranch work on Sunday, but he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t doing him some good.

With the proper tools in hand, he approached the post, eyeing a tall weed that stood nearby. Spots of moisture clung to the green leaves, the dots ranging from large to microscopic, like Meg’s painting of the plate.

That familiar, biting pain roared up in his middle again, seeming to hollow out his insides one vicious bite after the next. How she’d left such a hole in him was beyond comprehension. He’d barely had a week with Meg Bolton yet she’d managed to own nearly every thought he had. Every desire too.

All to have it snatched away by some
miserable-ever-after
man from her past. The guy was a card and Jake knew it. So why hadn’t he stood up to fight for the woman he cared for?

Because she’d stopped caring for him. He’d seen the light in her shut off in the diner. The way she’d turned from hot to cold. Meg didn’t want some womanizing cowboy she’d barely met. She wanted the man she’d invested all that time into. The one who’d hopped a plane, showed up at her door, and begged her to come back to him.

And though Jake hadn’t gone back to the house since, he knew that’s just what she’d done. The couple had probably announced their engagement, flown back to Colorado, and began making preparations for a spring wedding.

He sunk the spade of his shovel into the damp ground, grateful for the pre-dawn storm that had moistened the soil. Yet as he dug up the broken post, anxious to replace it with a new one, Jake couldn’t help but think of how badly he’d like to fix things with Meg.

He’d been working his way up to a serious conversation all week long. A conversation about his past. Mistakes that he’d made. And another one about her future, and how he hoped to be a part of it. He never had gotten a chance to talk about those things, the diner incident turning it all sour as it did.

Then in walked Jackass. King of the Stupids come to reclaim his prize.

Is that really all it took? Hop on some airplane. Show up at her door, and
wham!
She’s yours again.

Yours again…

He flung a mound of soil away from the post and sunk the shovel once more. The idea wasn’t half bad. It had worked for Michael, hadn’t it? Was it possible it could work for him too?

Jake moved at a heated pace, the idea sinking into him like roots from a massive oak. Strong and deep and certain. He needed to go and get her back. He had to.

Who was King of the Stupids now?
He
was, if he let Meg go so easily.

The desperation that took over was unbearable. He needed to find out where Meg’s apartment was, catch the first flight out, and win that woman back.

Without a second thought, Jake stuffed his tools back into the bag and climbed onto the saddle.

Within minutes he was steering Dodger toward the main road. He’d head to the Bolton’s first thing, get the address to Meg’s apartment and take it from there.

It was Sunday after all, her father should be home. He recalled what the man had said to him the other night when Michael had returned. Something about not wanting Meg to be with him any more than he did.
Yes.
Thomas would definitely help; he was the one to encourage him that very evening. Jake only hoped he’d forgive him for chickening out the first time around.

Dodger’s hooves thundered like the pounding of Jake’s heart as they made their way. There would be no chickening out today. This time,
he
would be the one to bring the girl home. For good.