The Wrangler's Woman. Ruth Dale Jean

make it sound like I’m on a vacation,” she said. “I’m here to stay.”

      He nodded, pleased to hear it. “That’s fine by me, but…things may not be exactly what you expect. All I’m saying is that if I can help, I’ll be glad to do it. Any questions?”

      She looked almost panicky for a moment, but a shaky breath seemed to steady her. “This isn’t a good time. Look, Jack, I don’t mean to seem unfriendly but I don’t have the faintest idea who you are and I’m in no mood for company, anyway.”

      She remembered his name. That was a good omen. “Jack Burke, of the XOX Ranch, at your service.” He put out his hand, hoping for a shake so he could touch her.

      She ignored his outstretched hand. Her blank look said that the next time they met she probably wouldn’t even remember him. “Thanks for your interest, but I have business to attend to. If you’ll excuse me…”

      What if he wouldn’t? She didn’t wait to find out, just wheeled and walked into the Snake-oil Building. For a long moment, Jack stood on the sidewalk looking after her, thinking she might be as prickly as her old man.

      But a whole helluva lot easier on the eyes.

      BACK IN THE CAFÉ AGAIN, Dani sat down hard on the booth seat and looked at her startled siblings and grandmother. “He wasn’t in,” she said.

      “The lawyer?”

      Dani nodded. “His secretary gave me a set of keys and wished me luck. I got the feeling she thought I’d need it.”

      Toni picked up a french fry. “At least you didn’t waste the walk.”

      “I needed the fresh air to clear my head.” Not that it had succeeded. “I…” She saw the tall cowboy—Jack something or other, he’d said—at the counter again and she quickly turned her gaze away. The café had only emptied out a little. “I’m getting a funny feeling about this.”

      Toni and Niki exchanged glances. “Funny how?” Toni asked.

      “Funny…like the ranch isn’t all we’re expecting it to be.”

      Granny leaned forward and patted her granddaughter’s hand. “Don’t be negative, dear. I’m sure it’s wonderful.”

      “That’s right.” Niki nodded firmly. “We saw the brochures and brochures don’t lie.”

      Dani had thought at the time that the brochures looked at least thirty years old, but swept up in the excitement, hadn’t mentioned that little qualm. “I’m sure you’re right.” She sighed. “It’s just that this has been a long hard trip and I’m tired. You all must be, too.”

      Toni laughed. “Why should we be tired when you did ninety percent of the driving? Once we get to the ranch, you deserve a nice long rest, Dani.”

      “We all do.” Somehow Dani didn’t think any of them would get much rest, but she wouldn’t rain on their parade. “Why don’t I pay the check and we can get out of here? Until we see the place, we won’t know what we’re talking about.”

      “Uhh…”

      “Uhh…what?”

      Again those surreptitious glances, and Granny said, “It’s a little complicated—the directions, I mean. There are two ways, the long way and the short way. The long way is complicated, but the short way is practically a secret, from what the lady who runs this place told us.”

      “Are you saying we need better directions?”

      “Or a guide,” Toni said, grinning. “Come on, Dani, cheer up! We’re almost there—Gone To Texas! The promised land. Remember?”

      “I remember.” Dani told herself she was being ridiculous, but ever since that brief conversation with the cowboy, she’d had the oddest feeling that something wasn’t quite right at the Bar K. “I’m just being silly,” she added. “Stay here while I pay the bill and get decent directions.”

      Rising, she picked up the check and took the few steps to the cash register. She handed it to the pleasant-faced woman behind the counter, along with a twenty dollar bill.

      The woman smiled and shook her head. “It’s already taken care of,” she said.

      Dani frowned and glanced at the table. All three women shrugged; none of them had paid the check. “I don’t understand,” she said. “None of us—”

      “Jack took care of it,” the woman announced. “Y’all come back, hear?”

      Jack. The cowboy. This couldn’t go on. Dani marched up to where he sat at the counter, grinning.

      She was steaming. “Look,” she said shortly, “I can’t let you do that. Tell me how much our bill was and I’ll…” She fumbled her wallet out of the pocket of her jacket, hoping she’d have the exact change.

      He shook his head. “My pleasure,” he said.

      “Dammit, Jack, you can’t—”

      “It’s done. Short of making a scene, there’s not much you can do about it.” His calm, almost patronizing expression didn’t waver.

      Dani gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. He was right, but how dare he put her in this corner? “Okay,” she muttered, “you win this one. Thank you very much, but don’t you ever do this again.”

      “No, ma’am, I sure won’t.” Clear hazel eyes crinkled at the corners. “Anything else I can do for you?”

      “There certainly—is.”

      His grin widened. “Just name it.”

      “Can you give me directions to the Bar K? My family seems to think it’s at the end of a labyrinth or something.”

      “Umm, not too many labyrinths in Texas that I know of. It is a little tricky to find if you don’t know your way around, though.”

      “You can draw me a map.”

      “I can do better than that.” He rose from the stool.

      “There is nothing better than that,” she flared. “Wait. Grandma always has paper and pencil in her purse.”

      “Don’t bother.”

      “But—”

      “I’ll lead you there.”

      “I don’t want you to show me the way,” she objected in alarm. She really hated how he was pushing in, mostly because she found him so damned attractive.

      “Yes, you do.”

      “Don’t tell me what I want!”

      “Dani,” he said in that lazy drawl, “you do, you just don’t know it yet. Trust me on this—when you get your first look at the Bar K, you’ll be damned glad to have me around.”

      Dani’s stomach dropped to her knees and she could only stand in dumb alarm while he waltzed around her to introduce himself to her family. That lump of dread had just turned into a boulder.

      2

      KEEPING JACK’S PICKUP in sight, Dani drove down dirt roads, through miniforests, over hills, until suddenly the Bar K Dude Ranch lay spread out before them.

      The ramshackle Bar K. A sudden silence fell, and then from the back seat of the Jeep, Toni uttered a faint, “Oh, dear.”

      A tight-lipped Dani braked in a large gravel parking lot in front of the ranch house. To the right lay several outbuildings and a barn; to the left a number of log cabins and a swimming pool, empty and sad in the March sunshine.

      The first word that leaped into her head was paint. The Bar K was in dire need of paint, preferably many coats of it. The house itself, although