Cowboy Protector Read online

  But the real reason had to be because he was unattainable. She could admire him from a distance, but there would be no future for them. This attraction wouldn’t lead to any kind of commitment. She wasn’t good at commitments—the one serious relationship she’d had led to this situation. Hiding. Always on the run. Always looking over her shoulder.

  No, Austin Taylor was safe to be attracted to. Nothing would come of it.

  As she left the kitchen with Austin behind her, he flipped off the light, throwing the hallway into dimness. She paused a few seconds to allow her eyes to adjust. Her bedside lamp was on in her room and cast a soft glow out into the corridor at the other end. She headed toward it, every nerve ending pulsating with awareness of the man following her.

  Near her bedroom she stopped and swung around to tell Austin goodnight. His gaze seized hers and held it. Intensity poured off him, raw, primitive for a few seconds before he managed to veil it.

  “Are you and Misty going to the barn early tomorrow morning?”

  “Probably, but not until after breakfast.”

  He stepped closer until half a foot separated them. “My grandmother was right about hiring you.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, although her words came out in a breathless rush.

  “I’ll be perfectly honest with you. I didn’t want to hire you. Too many questions. I was wrong. Obviously the answers weren’t important. You’re perfect for my daughter, and that’s what is important.” He leaned in a few inches. “And you’re good for my grandma, too. That’s a bonus.”

  The scent of his mint toothpaste teased her senses and alerted her cautious side. She should move back. And yet five years of staying back from others had made her so lonely. She’d always had a lot of friends in California. His very nearness prodded those yearnings to the foreground.

  “Thank you, Hannah Williams, for taking the job.” His whispered words caressed the corner of her mouth.

  With supreme willpower she kept herself from melting against him, throwing her arms around him. Her lips tingled with the need to feel his against them.

  It was too dangerous emotionally. She inched back, her fingernails digging into her palms. Because she couldn’t do anything casually and walk away, she wanted it all. So it was okay to look but she could go no further.

  Another step away. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  His expression shadowed by the dim lighting, he glanced toward his daughter’s bedroom then at Hannah. “Yes, tomorrow. Good night.” Pivoting, he headed down the hallway.

  Hannah escaped into her room and closed her door. She touched her mouth and wondered what his lips would feel like on hers.

  Yeah, she was safe all right. Maybe from Devon Madison but not from Austin. How in the world had she thought he was safe to be attracted to because nothing would come of it? The thought of him chiseled a hairline crack in her heart she was afraid would only widen before she left the ranch.

  FIVE

  The next day the sun beat down on Hannah as she and Misty left the barn after spending some quality time with Candy, Barney and Snowball. The smile on the child’s face rivaled the sun. Off in the distance, lodgepole pines poked up through the snow that covered the mountains, but in the valley most of the last snow had melted away to only a few patches in the shade.

  “Daddy told me this morning it was gonna be warm today.”

  “He mentioned to me he’s going to make time this afternoon to take us on a tour of the ranch.”

  “Me, too?”

  “Yeah, especially you. I wouldn’t want to see the Triple T without you to tell me about it.”

  The child’s chest puffed out. “I can do that.”

  Out of the corner of her eye Hannah saw the cowhand who had been in the storage room heading straight for her. “Misty, you go on to the house. I’ll catch up with you in a sec.”

  The fury on the man’s face seemed to drop the temperature about her. She wouldn’t let the child hear what she suspected was on the cowhand’s mind. But as he neared, she braced herself for an onslaught. He stopped close to Hannah, near enough that she took a step back and her foot encountered one of the piles of snow still around.

  He bent forward. “You had no right sticking your nose in my business.” He tapped the side of his temple. “I’ll remember you, little lady.” With his breath reeking of tobacco, he spun on his booted heel and stomped away.

  Flashes of Devon Madison’s rage toward her after his brother’s trial deluged her, holding her immobile as though she’d frozen in place. For a few seconds all Hannah could do was watch the man jump into his old, red pickup and screech out of the yard.

  As he passed her on the road, paved around the house and barn area, she stepped back farther, seeing the anger in his expression. Both feet encountered the cold feel of snow as her tennis shoes sank into it.

  Austin came out of the bunkhouse, probably drawn by the sound of the truck’s tires burning rubber. He glimpsed her and advanced toward her. “Did he say or do something to you?”

  “I—I…” She couldn’t forget Devon’s threats, ones that had set in motion what she’d done the past five years. That cowhand’s pinpoint searing gaze had been so similar, even the same color—cold gray like the clouds of a blizzard.

  Austin clasped her upper arm. “What did he do, Hannah?”

  She swallowed the fear and looked at Austin. “He blames me for being fired.”

  “He blames you when…” His words splattered to a halt. He filled his lungs with gulps of air. “He’s the one who I found taking a nap in the bunkhouse. He doesn’t even stay here, but it was obvious he hadn’t gotten much sleep over the weekend. I’d have fired him for that. That’s the third time I’ve found him loafing on the job in the past month.”

  “That’s not the way he sees it.”

  “I’m going into town the day after tomorrow. I’ll find him and make him see the real reason. I thought I made myself clear. Obviously not.”

  The fact that Austin would do that surprised her because he was a busy man and tracking down the cowhand would take time away from his work and family. “Thanks, but just let it go. He’ll calm down.” At least she hoped he would. She’d seen to what lengths a person would go for revenge.

  Austin removed his hat, raking his fingers through his hair and staring off into the distance toward the main road. “You’re probably right. Besides, the reason I’m going into town is for Misty to see her pediatrician, and I want you to go, too. He wanted to see her after she’d been home a while to make sure she was doing okay.”

  “Sure. I’d love to see more of Sweet Creek.” She started toward the front deck where Misty waited for her, her feet cold from the wet snow that had seeped inside her shoes.

  “I figure you might be getting stir-crazy stuck on the ranch most of your time here.”

  She scanned the beauty surrounding her, meadows that in the spring would be littered with wildflowers, mountains not far away blanketed with a pristine cloak of snow, an occasional glimpse of a wild animal like a bighorn sheep or an elk. “Actually I love it here.”

  “The isolation doesn’t get to you?” He tapped his cowboy hat against his jean-clad leg then put it back on.

  “Isolation? There’s Misty, Caroline, your employees and you. That isn’t isolation,” she said above the chatter of a magpie in a nearby oak tree.

  “That’s how I feel, but my…” He snapped his mouth closed, his jaw set in a firm line.

  “What?” she asked, aware she was probing into his personal life, but she wanted to know more about this man.

  “My late wife hated it here. She always wanted to go to Billings or Missoula. She needed people—lots of people—around her. We weren’t enough.”

  His last sentence, spoken with an edge of confusion and anger, tugged at her heart. “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?”

  “Yes, although Jillian would never use those words. She’d thought she was marrying into a wealthy fam
ily that would allow her to move in a higher social class. Her words, not mine. We never have, and I wasn’t going to start when my responsibilities are to the ranch and my family.” At the bottom of the step, he lowered his head nearer her ear and whispered, “I haven’t shared that with anyone else but my grandmother. I never want my daughter to know that side of her mother.”

  “I’d never say a thing to Misty. That wouldn’t help her. She’s already said something about her mother being gone for a long time.”

  “Thanks, I knew you wouldn’t. I couldn’t stand to listen to my daughter cry herself to sleep like she used to after one of Jillian’s calls. Misty used to beg her mother to come home, but Jillian always had something she had to do and couldn’t make it. Then she showed up unexpectedly. Misty was so excited.”

  “Daddy, are we gonna go now to see the ranch?”

  He rotated toward his daughter, who had maneuvered her wheelchair to the edge of the steps on the deck. He plastered a grin on his face, but Hannah saw the tic in his jaw as though at any moment the smile would collapse and his real feelings would push through.

  “After lunch and a nap for you.”

  “But, Daddy, I don’t need—”

  “I want you rested when we go, munchkin. Okay?”

  Misty nodded. “Hannah, can we eat now?”

  Although she pretty well knew what time it was, Hannah made a production out of checking her watch. “It’s only ten-thirty. Rene won’t have it ready yet. Besides, weren’t you going to write a thank-you note to the church for the wonderful party yesterday?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  Hannah shared a glance with Austin, all strain in his expression gone. “Thanks for your help. I’m looking forward to the grand tour.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t know how grand it will be. We’ll be limited on where we can go. Now if I taught you to ride, you could go anywhere.”

  “Not in this lifetime,” she said with a laugh and mounted the steps.

  While Misty turned her wheelchair around and drove toward the front door, her father stood at the bottom of the stairs and said, “I can be mighty persuasive, ma’am.”

  When Hannah peered back at him, he winked and tipped his hat, then walked toward the barn.

  In the large foyer Misty stopped, swinging about. “What did you and Daddy talk about?”

  “You and our trip to the doctor in a few days.”

  A pout creased Misty’s face. “I hate going to the doctor.”

  “Why, honey?” She knelt by Misty’s wheelchair.

  “It hurts.”

  “This should just be a checkup to make sure everything is going all right. I’ll be there with you.”

  Her eyes brightened. “You will?”

  “Yes. Now let’s get that thank-you note written. You can tell me what to write and I will. We can mail it when we’re in town.”

  Misty drove her wheelchair into the living room, where Caroline sat on the couch reading a book.

  She looked up at her great-granddaughter and smiled. “Did you have a nice time at the barn?”

  The little girl nodded. “Hannah, I have a picture I drew. I want to send it with the letter.”

  “Where is it? I’ll get it.”

  “I can.”

  The whine of the wheelchair filled the quiet as Misty made her way from the room.

  “She’s already got an independent streak a mile wide, just like her daddy.” Caroline closed her book.

  “We can write the note in her bedroom or the kitchen.”

  “No, I’m at a good place in the story to stop. I’ll be able to take it to my ladies group when we go into town on Wednesday. Austin’s going to drop me off at church while Misty visits the doctor. This will be the first time I’ve been able to go in two months. I believe things are beginning to get back to normal.”

  “Yeah, normal,” Hannah murmured, wishing her life was “normal.” The nagging thought she needed to call Violet and find out why she was looking for her kept pestering her like a hungry mosquito.

  “You could come with me to the meeting if you wanted.”

  Hannah shook her head. “I promised Misty I would be with her at the doctor’s. I’m hoping that’s okay with Austin. Do you think he’ll mind?”

  “No. He doesn’t do well at the doctor’s. You should see him when they had to give Misty a shot. His face went as white as newly fallen snow.”

  “Austin?”

  “Tell you a secret. He hated shots as a child and has never grown out of that fear. When he was a little boy, he would hide when he knew he had to see the doctor. He even tried to keep any illness from his parents, just in case the doctor would want to give him a shot.”

  “He always seems so sure of himself.”

  “Oh, he is except for that. He knows what he wants and lets nothing stand in his way, but when he was Misty’s age, he had to go through the series of rabies shots because a stray dog bit him. From then on he connected the doctor with getting a shot.”

  The image of him as a child, trying to be brave but not quite able to, firmed her growing attraction to the man because that was the way she felt most of time. She’d had her own phobia of shots as she grew up until she’d gotten over it when she had to have weekly allergy shots for several years. Because of the treatments, she’d conquered that fear enough to allow her now to do what she loved, help others, which sometimes meant giving shots. If she didn’t have her job, she didn’t know how she would make it through each day.

  “Are you all right back there, Misty?” Austin asked as he steered the golf cart over a bumpy stretch of road.

  “Yeah. Can we see Big Red?”

  Hannah relished the fresh air. It had only a hint of a chill. She shifted around in the front seat and smiled at Austin’s daughter, dressed in several layers. “Are you warm enough?”

  She nodded, her cheeks rosy, her eyes bright with excitement.

  “I’m glad the temperature is in the mid-fifties. Misty loves using the cart.” He turned onto another gravel road, heading toward the mountains edging his property.

  Austin slid his attention toward Hannah and hooked her gaze, reeling her in. An instant connection zipped between them, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

  For a few seconds she even forgot a five-year-old child was in the back until he said with a twinkle as though he knew exactly the effect he had on her equilibrium, “I’ve even let her steer the cart.”

  “I love that!” Misty piped in, her leg in the cast stretched out on the backseat and cushioned for the bumps.

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” Hannah dragged her gaze from Austin. If in this short amount of time he could throw her emotions into chaos, what was going to happen in a month? Nothing. It can’t because my life is a lie, and he’d never understand. She had to remember that before she lost herself totally to his charm.

  Austin chuckled. “She sits in my lap, and I control the speed, not that you can go too fast in one of these.”

  “Where are we going now?” Hannah asked, inhaling a deep breath of the pine-scented air, determined not to respond to the sound of his laugh.

  “To see Big Red.”

  “Yippee!” Misty exclaimed.

  “He’s in the back pasture away from the mares and other male horses.”

  “By himself.”

  “Yeah, he’s a stallion and doesn’t tolerate other horses well.”

  “Why do you keep him?”

  “Because he’s a great stud.”

  “Like the bull you have in the pen by the barn?”

  “Yes. See, you’re getting the hang of all this.”

  “Hardly. About all I know is the difference between a horse and a cow.”

  “That’s a start.” He winked at her and brought the cart to a stop by a fenced pasture with one lone horse, a huge chestnut animal. “Will you unlatch the gate?”

  “You’re going to let him out?” Hannah gestured toward the stallion.

  “No, we’re going inside.”


  “Why? He doesn’t play nice with others.”

  “Other horses, but he loves Misty, and I want my daughter to be able to pet him.”

  “Oh,” Hannah murmured, slipped from the cart and strode toward the gate.

  Big Red trotted toward her and stopped off to the side only a few feet away. Her eyes widened at the sight of how big he was. Maybe she should stay on this side of the fence. Don’t animals smell fear?

  With a quivering hand she raised the latch and pulled the gate toward her, only wide enough for Austin to drive the cart through. She quickly shut the gate, still standing outside the meadow.

  When he parked, he rose and walked toward her. “C’mon. He won’t bite. I promise.”

  “What about kicking me?”

  “He only kicks other horses—usually of the male persuasion.”

  “Oh, that’s reassuring.” She eyed the stallion again. “Not!”

  He opened the gate and held out his hand to her. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you or Misty.”

  The little girl’s giggles floated to her. She glanced at the child. Big Red bent his head toward Misty, and she patted the white stripe down his nose. If Austin’s daughter wasn’t afraid, why was she? She fit her hand in Austin’s, the feel of his curling around her fingers causing her heartbeat to pick up speed. And it had nothing to do with fear.

  “See how he is with Misty.”

  “He knows her. I’m a stranger.”

  “That’s okay. I’ve got apple pieces, and he loves them.”

  “So you knew you were coming?”

  “I know my daughter. Besides, I like to check on him. I’ve started expanding and breeding horses to sell. I’ve always wanted to do that rather than raise cattle, my father’s preference. Big Red is an important part of that plan as I make the change over.”

  “Then move him closer to the house.”

  “He likes being alone.”

  Hannah tossed her head toward Big Red nuzzling Misty. “He does?”

  Austin rubbed his hand on his chin. “You have a point, but I have to assure the safety of the other horses.”