Roxann Delaney - The Cowboy Meets His Match

Hoping the dog wouldn’t bite, she snapped her fingers and called again. “Come on, pup. Come here. Let’s see what you’re about.”

She barely had the words out of her mouth, when the dog came running toward her, its furry tail wagging back and forth. Bracing herself for what she suspected might be a lunge—although a friendly one—that would knock her over, she was surprised when the dog came to a skid in front of her, all four feet still on the ground. Most dogs would jump up. This one obviously had some training.

Kneeling, she put her hand on the back of the dog’s neck, feeling for a collar. “Good dog,” she whispered. “Now let me see if you have a tag or some kind of identification to go with this.”

She was rewarded with a tag dangling beneath the dog’s neck but had to brush away the thick, long coat of hair to see it. “Solomon?” She leaned back to take a closer look at the dog. “Is that your name?”

The dog’s tail wagged so hard when she spoke the name that she had no doubt it was his. But she couldn’t find a phone number or anything else that would give her an idea of who the owner might be. Solomon appeared to be well fed and fairly clean, considering the thick brush he’d walked through, and he’d probably come from somewhere nearby.

“Let’s go talk to my brothers,” she said, getting to her feet. “Come on, Solomon. Stick with me, and we’ll get you home in no time.”

He walked beside her to the barn, where she found her brothers helping with the birth of a new calf. Luke looked up as Erin and the dog entered, and he shook his head. “Sollie, are you out visiting again?”

“So you know who his owner is?” she asked, relieved that the dog wasn’t a stray. “Should I call someone?”

Dylan glanced at them quickly. “No. Just take him home.”

“Take him home where?”

“Sollie belongs to Jake.”

She narrowed her eyes and looked at the dog. Traitor. Even though her brothers were working, she didn’t want to deal with the dog...and especially his owner. “Why can’t I leave him here with you?” she asked. “Jake can come get his own dog.”

“Just take him home, Erin,” Dylan said without glancing her way again. “Can’t you see we have our hands full?”

“Of course I do. Can I take your pickup? I don’t want him in my motor home.”

“Walk.”

She started to ask why, but it was clear Dylan’s patience was wearing thin. This obviously wasn’t the first time the dog had come visiting, and her brothers had taken him home. That meant they’d known Jake was back. Why hadn’t they mentioned it?

“Let’s go, Sollie,” she said, heading outside and blinking at the bright sunlight.

The walk wasn’t as long as she wanted to make it out to be, and the dog stayed by her side. At one point, not far from the ranch that Jake now owned, Sollie came to a dead stop, sniffing the air, his ears on alert.

“It’s a rabbit, I’m sure,” she told the dog. “We’re almost home, so don’t you go running off after it.”

As if he understood what she’d said, Solomon loped along beside her, but now and then he would look off in the distance. She was surprised that anything that had been around Jake could be so well behaved.

Approaching the ranch from the back side, as she’d always done, she spied Jake on a small tractor with a forklift attached to the front, struggling to move a large stock tank. As she and the dog got closer, she heard the frustration in Jake’s voice, and she laughed at the words he shouted at the galvanized metal tank that kept tipping to one side. She understood frustration well. She’d bought an extra horse, hoping to train it to be as good as Firewind. But she’d had to have Firewind put down, and MacDuff’s training hadn’t gone well. Just one more reason she’d left the circuit.

“Get under it again,” she shouted over the noise from the tractor. “A little more to the right.”

Apparently he heard her, because he turned to look in their direction. He shook his head as if in disbelief, and then switched off the tractor before jumping down to the ground.

“Sollie, you rascal,” he said as he walked toward them, his mouth pulled down in a frown. He glanced at Erin, but his gaze didn’t linger. “Sorry he caused you the trouble of bringing him home. He knows better than to roam.”

She ran her hand down the dog’s back and patted his rump. “He’s a good dog. Smart, too.”

“Too smart sometimes. I guess I’ll have to tie him up when I’m working so he doesn’t bother you.”

“Oh, don’t do that!” She bit her lower lip, wishing she’d kept quiet. It wasn’t any of her business what he did with his dog. Besides, she wasn’t crazy about the idea of having to return Sollie after every visit. “He wasn’t bothering me,” she hurried to say. “I brought him back because I thought you’d wonder where he’d gone.”

“I had a pretty good idea.”

“What kind of dog is he?”

“He’s a bearded collie. Herding dog, both sheep and cattle. He’s pretty good at it.”

She nodded, not knowing what else to say. Wishing she had insisted her brothers return the dog themselves, she took a step back and realized she’d just met up with her past. If she’d thought there’d been too many memories at home, a single memory of one night here was even bigger than all of them.

“I guess I’ll be getting home,” she said, feeling uncomfortable.

“Hang on a minute.”

She slowed, then stopped and looked back at him. “Why?”

He stuffed his hands into the pockets of a pair of well-worn jeans that hugged his hips and muscled thighs. No smile broke the serious expression on his face, when he said, “Because we need to talk.”

Her heart stopped beating and her throat tightened. The moment she’d realized he was back, she’d been afraid he would want to talk about the past. The words fight or flight flitted through her mind, but she was frozen to the spot.

* * *

JAKE SQUINTED INTO the morning sunshine, watching Erin closely. Her curly, dark blond hair had been captured in a braid, but pieces of it had escaped around her face, and the sun behind her caused a halo effect.

This was the first chance he’d had to get a good look at her. The day before, the tree at the pond had cast shadows on her sleeping form—if she’d actually been asleep. And the tavern last night hadn’t provided the best lighting, either. But now he didn’t miss how pale she’d become when he’d mentioned they needed to talk.

He knew he’d hurt her in the past, but he’d hoped that time might have taken care of that. He’d been young, although not as young as she’d been, and he hadn’t had a choice. Sooner or later she would have gotten hurt, and he’d believed at the time that sooner would be better.

He wasn’t some kind of ogre, out to break her heart again. He really did need the help that she was more than qualified to give. And he suspected she could use the money. He could help her with that, and in turn she would be helping him. Sleep had evaded him for most of the night, as he’d thought about his long-ago dream of them working side by side at a ranch. It could come true now. Even if it was only as employer-employee, it would be something.

But he also knew he had to tread carefully. “I apologize for Sollie causing trouble. If it happens again, give me a call, and I’ll pick him up.”

She avoided looking directly at him. “It’s not a problem. I—I don’t get enough exercise as it is, so he did me a favor.”

Sollie had done them both a favor by getting her on his territory. Now he had the advantage. “Not exactly the kind of exercise you’re used to, but it’s always good to stay active.”