Lauri Robinson - Dance with the Rancher

Colorado, 1879

Jilted once, Garret McCoy has sworn never to fall in love again. But that doesn’t stop him from wanting to have a little fun, and he bets he can be the man to get the preacher’s shy daughter out on the dance floor. He never gambled on her stealing his heart, though!

Rory Boyle has kept to herself, fearful if the townsfolk learn her secret, she’ll be an outcast. But she can’t resist taking a turn with the handsome but ornery Garret. Or giving in to his kisses...

Dance with the Rancher

Lauri Robinson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Stetsons and Scandals!

Rancher Garret McCoy rarely takes off his Stetson, and Rory Boyle, well, her entire life has been a scandal. One she doesn’t want exposed.

At his daughter’s wedding, my brother did get me on the dance floor, and that night, long after the reception ended and I was dozing off to sleep, the fun of the night swirled into a story. How would a woman feel when she discovers a man only danced with her to win a bet? Of course, one dance always leads to a next, and that’s what happens for Rory and Garret.

Stories are like that. It doesn’t take much more than a flicker of a thought to spark into a fire that soon catches air and grows. I love those initial flickers. No, they don’t all become stories, but I’m glad Garret and Rory’s did.

If you enjoy their story, the other book of the Stetsons and Scandals miniseries is Rescued by the Ranger, where you’ll meet Texas Ranger Trace Edwards and Annie, his brother’s wife.

Blessings,

Lauri

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Dedication

To my younger brother, Jeff, who bet he could get me on the dance floor.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Copyright

Chapter One

Eastern Colorado, 1879

Old Chester Franks, stomping one foot against the wagon bed as he drew the bow across the strings of his fiddle, filled Grady Campbell’s barn with a tune that had folks tapping toes and clapping hands.

Garret McCoy tipped back the brim of his hat, taking in the women dressed in ruffles and bows and men in suit coats and string ties. He had on a string tie, too, though he’d rather not have. He’d have much preferred to be home, spending the evening in the bunkhouse listening to Art and Sam reminisce about the old days and playing cards.

Being the dutiful son didn’t allow such luxuries. Ma needed him, so he’d sent his younger brothers, Toby and Jeb, to drive the herd to the rail station in Dodge. He’d be here until the wee hours of the morning, when he’d pull out the wagon being used as a stage, clean up the party debris and help Grady get his critters back in their stalls.

There was no sense regretting it, but he sure didn’t have to enjoy it.

“Hey, McCoy!”

Garret turned toward the speaker in no rush. Craig DeLong always had something to say, and most of it wasn’t worth listening to.

“You want in on the bet?” DeLong asked.

Letting the question settle as his gaze wandered the inside of the barn again, Garret pushed off the frame of the open doorway and meandered his way toward the hay bundles someone had fashioned into a table and benches—complete with a red-checkered tablecloth to keep the cards from getting stuck in the hay—beside the barn. “What’s the game?” he asked, nodding toward Ray Ray Jepson.

Shuffling the deck as if he was on one of the paddleboats he bragged about gambling on before losing one eye when a game got out of hand, Jepson said, “We ain’t started playing cards yet. We’re betting on who can get Rory Boyle on the dance floor.”

Garret did his best to hide the sudden chill that stabbed his spine like a sharpened spur. “Why?”

“Uh?” DeLong looked utterly confused, as did several others sitting on the bundles.

“Why would anyone want to get Rory Boyle on the dance floor?” Garret asked.

“‘Cause she’s the prettiest gal at the dance,” DeLong answered. “Mayhap, the county.”

“All that yellow hair and those blue eyes—I’ve only seen a few prettier in all my years of riverboat gambling,” Ray Ray said, nodding as if that bit of information was of high importance.

It wasn’t. What was important, to Garret, was the fact Rory Boyle was the reason he was at Grady Campbell’s barn dance instead of on a profit-making cattle drive. She’d convinced his mother he should be the one to stay home this time. That Toby and Jeb needed to learn to handle the drives by themselves. His brothers could handle the drives, all right; there wasn’t a McCoy who couldn’t handle anything thrown at them, and it wasn’t Rory Boyle’s place to stick her nose in and say boo about any of it. Every day that went by, she got more uppity, waiting on Jim Houston to return. Half the town had figured out it wasn’t going to happen—Jim coming back, that is. He’d always been a scalawag, a blowhard not worth the time of day.

The thought of another girl waiting for her beau to return filtered into the back of Garret’s mind, but he slammed that door shut. He was not Jim Houston, and Emily Rosengren was not Rory Boyle.

“You all turning suicidal?” Garret asked the group. “Rory Boyle is none too fond of men.”

“We know that,” Ray Ray said. “That’s what makes it a challenge. You in?”

Garret tried to tell himself he wasn’t the least bit interested, but damn if he wasn’t. He’d be at this blasted party until it ended, and entering the bet would give him something to do. Irritate Rory. The opportunity to bend that snooty little nose out of shape may not come up again. “How much is the ante?” he asked, digging in his pocket.

“Ten dollars,” DeLong said.

“Ten dollars?” Garret repeated. “That’s awfully steep.”

“The high ante means only serious bidders will play,” Ray Ray said. “Of course, if no one wins, everyone will get their money back, minus my holding fee.”

“Holding fee?” Garret asked, more to himself in simple disbelief. It never failed to amaze him how some men made money.

“Fifteen percent,” Ray Ray said. “Someone needs to assure the hundred and fifty dollars remains safe.”

“A hundred and fifty dollars?” Garret asked. No doubt there were a few men in town who’d ante up ten bucks to be the one to lead Rory Boyle across the dance floor. DeLong had been right calling her the prettiest thing in the county. There might not be another woman in the state as cute as her, especially when her dimples showed. He’d admit that. It was her demeanor that got to him. “You already have fifteen men striving to get Rory on the dance floor?”

“You’d be the fifteenth one,” DeLong said. “But the Rose brothers haven’t arrived yet.”

“We believe the kitty will be two hundred,” Ray Ray said.

“Two hundred bucks and all I have to do is make Rory Boyle dance with me?” Garret asked for clarification.

“Yeah,” DeLong answered.

“Well, you can’t hold a gun to her head or anything like that, Garret,” Ray Ray added seriously.