Beth Cornelison - Rancher's High-Stakes Rescue

“Right,” she said, still stroking Lucy’s nose. “I grew up on a farm. Remember?”

Josh paused from loosening the knot tied in the reins. “Oh, right. So you know horses? This lesson is moot?”

She raised a shoulder. “Refresh my memory. It has been quite a while since I saddled a horse.”

“You got it.” He handed her a currycomb. “Let’s see how much you recall.”

Zane walked up to the door of the stall. He smiled a greeting to Kate, but she sensed tension in him that tightened the edges of his mouth. “Josh, can I borrow you for a few minutes?”

“Um...” Josh glanced at her, and she gave a nod.

“I’m good. I’ll be grooming her until you get back.”

Josh touched the brim of his hat. “Good deal.”

Kate began brushing Lucy with long strokes, slipping the mare another apple slice almost as soon as Josh was out of sight. “Yeah, I take care of you, and you take care of me. That’s how it works. Right, girl? You’re gonna be good to me?”

The horse nickered softly and nuzzled Kate’s shoulder.

Outside, Kate could hear men’s voices joining Josh’s. Low at first, then growing louder and more angry. She stilled, then edged nearer the stall window, shamelessly eavesdropping. What was wrong? What could have made her dimpled cowboy so upset?

Chapter 3

Josh clenched his fists, seething. “I told you no good would come from doing business with that rat bastard.”

They hadn’t even officially opened McCall Adventure Ranch, and already the triplets’ high school rival—and, unfortunately, their loan officer—had found a way to screw them. Josh wanted to punch something. Preferably someone—Gill Carver. Dave had returned from an errand in town, where he’d learned troubling news and shared it with their foreman, Roy Summers, then with Zane, Josh and Brady.

“Look,” Zane said, his mouth set in a grim line, “I’m not happy about this either, but there’s no law against Gill opening or investing in his own adventure ranch. It’s called free enterprise, and competition is at the root of how the American economy works.”

“Not in the mood for a civics lesson, bro.” Josh snatched his hat off and thwacked it against his legs.

“Gill doesn’t own a ranch, not since his father’s went belly up, and he doesn’t know jack about adrenaline sports. Who’s running this new enterprise for him?” Brady asked.

“That’s the real kicker,” Roy said. “Dave said he’s hired Townsen.”

“Karl?” Josh gaped at their foreman.

“You know another Townsen?” Roy asked. “Dave said the Jacksons had defaulted on their loan, and Gill offered to assume the payments and pay the startup costs if they’d allow their ranch to be used as the home base for a new business idea he had.”

“A business idea he stole !” Josh growled. “Along with stealing our employees!”

Zane shook his head. “He didn’t steal Townsen. After we let him go, Karl was free to go where he wanted.”

“I’m not surprised he took the opportunity to put the screws to us, considering how ticked he was over the theft accusations and his firing,” Josh said, grinding his back teeth.

“So what do we do?” Brady asked, veins standing out on his neck.

“Nothing we can do,” Zane said, far too calmly.

“Nothing?” Josh repeated, aghast. “You want us to roll over and play dead? Are you telling me this doesn’t piss you off in the first degree?”

Zane faced his twin, his nose flaring and his jaw tight. “Of course I’m pissed. But we have guests in there.” He aimed his thumb over his shoulder to the stable. “Guests whom it is more important than ever that we impress. And by nothing , I mean there’s nothing we can do about Gill opening a competing business. What we can do is offer a better product. We out-perform him. We bring our A game and kick his sorry ass. Our success is all the vengeance we need.”

Josh exchanged a glance with Brady, his lifelong friend, new business partner and future brother-in-law. If possible, Brady hated Gill more than the McCall siblings did. Josh could see the roil of disgust in Brady’s expression morph into sheer determination. Brady finally jerked a nod of agreement and raised a fist. “Yeah. Let’s kick some ass.”

Zane cracked a grim smile and bumped Brady’s fist with his own.

Sucking in a cleansing breath, Josh joined the fist bumps. “Let’s do it.”

As he turned to go back in the stable to check on Kate, Josh felt a weight settle on him. His family had already needed the adventure ranch he and Zane had dreamed up to be a success to save them from financial ruin. Now they needed to succeed as a matter of pride. A feat made more difficult thanks to the competing efforts of Gill Carver, slime bag extraordinaire.

The triplets’ history with Gill was as dicey as it was long. Gill had been a thorn in their side from the day in fourth grade when Zane had beaten Gill in the spelling bee, and Gill, ever the sore loser, had arranged a posse of his friends to waylay Zane on the playground. That was the first time of many that Gill learned that if he picked on one McCall triplet, he got all three and Brady to boot.

A bitter rivalry had been born and fed throughout high school. Salt had been added to the wounds when Gill’s father fell on hard times, like many of the ranchers in the area. The bank had foreclosed on the Carvers’ holdings and at the foreclosure auction, the triplets’ father had purchased not only a top breeding bull for the Double M, but had added a parcel of the Carvers’ land that abutted the McCalls’ property. Gill had turned his spite up to DEFCON 1, not just toward the McCalls and Brady, but most of the town. He’d made clear to the triplets that his career path, becoming a loan officer at the local bank, having the power to foreclose on homes, ranches and small businesses of the townspeople he’d grown up with, was part of his plan to seek revenge against the people of Boyd Valley.

Josh had just stepped back into the shaded stable alley when a figure moved out of one of the stalls and issued a quiet “Psst.” He blinked, his eyes adjusting to the dimmer light, and Dawn Fetzer came into focus, waving him over to her.

He shook off his bad mood, knowing he couldn’t let the dark cloud of bad news affect his dealings with their first customers. Pasting on a smile, he strode over to her and nodded a greeting. “What can I do for you, Dawn?”

“Listen,” she started in a hushed tone and drew him into one of the empty stalls. “I need a favor.”

“Okay...” he whispered back, matching her volume.

“Kate is—how should I put it?—trying to overcome some personal issues, some fears based on a childhood trauma.”

Josh arched an eyebrow, intrigued. What sort of childhood trauma? This insight to the woman he found himself so powerfully drawn to fueled his curiosity about her.

“She’s probably going to need a little cajoling and special encouragement to go the extra step on most of the adventures this week.” Dawn bit her bottom lip and glanced guiltily out of the stall as if afraid her collusion with him would be discovered. “She’d kill me if she knew I was telling you this. She only told me because I asked her flat out why she was acting so freaked out on this trip.”

“I see.” Josh poked his fingers in his front pockets and rocked back on the heels of his boots. “So, what is it exactly you want me to do?”

“Well...” Dawn fidgeted with one of her hoop earrings. “If it isn’t as obvious as I think it is...she’s into you. You’ve definitely turned her head, and I think you can use that to our advantage.”

“Um...” Josh shifted his weight, uneasy with the track of the conversation. While it pleased him to know his attraction to Kate was mutual, he was wholly uncomfortable with any ploy to trick her based on that attraction.