Jeannie Watt - To Court A Cowgirl

“Once you get used to wearing a helmet, it’s hard to go without,” he said as he approached.

“I think legally you’re supposed to wear a hard hat.”

“There’s that, too.”

She started walking toward the rubble and he fell into step beside her as she passed the collapsed main building and walked to the roof, where she stopped to silently study his progress.

“This will take a while.” She nudged a truss with the toe of her shoe.

“I can haul in the big equipment. Just say the word.” Inwardly he was fairly certain she wouldn’t say that word. She was doing this to save money.

“No. It looks like you got a good start.” She brushed her hand over her cheek as if to push her hair back from her face, even though there’d been no hair in her face, and tilted her chin up to look him in the eye. “We’ll give it another day.”

He let out a soft snort. “Another day.”

She nodded as if working day-to-day on approval was a normal business practice.

“I assume then that you’ll be paying me daily?”

Her eyebrows lifted as if she hadn’t considered that. “That does make sense,” she said slowly. “Will you take a check?”

He exhaled. “Yes...you can pay me for two days tomorrow. Unless, of course, you wanted to go wild and hire me for an entire week.”

“Do you think it will take that long?”

He was about to explain to her exactly how long he thought it would take when he realized that she was kidding. “Why the day-to-day bit, Allie?”

“So I don’t overspend.”

“You’re just going to shut down demolition when you hit the end of your budget?”

“Something like that. I can’t afford to go into debt. Not when I have student loans.”

“You’re paying for this yourself?”

Her expression started to frost over. He was edging too close to personal. “Never mind. If you want to work day-to-day, fine by me. You can pay me at the end of the time.”

“I made up a time sheet.”

“Of course you did.”

She shot him a look, which he met with an innocent look of his own.

This was kind of fun.

* * *

ALLIE WAITED UNTIL Jason had driven away before checking on her stubborn calfless cows and found to her surprise that calf number one had been born. The adorable little black heifer peeked at Allie from the safe side of her mother, who was placidly grazing near the edge of the herd, so Allie assumed that all was well.

“See that?” she called to the other cows. “That’s what I want to see—healthy calves on the ground when I get home from work.”

Talking to the cows. No sign of insanity there.

Allie grimaced as she headed back to the car to get her purse. After the wild day in the library, staying home and talking to cows didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Be grateful that you have a job.

Allie was grateful, which made it all the more difficult to deal with the growing doubts she had about whether she’d trained for the right career. One week in and, while she enjoyed parts of her temporary job, she was becoming painfully aware of her shortcomings as a future elementary-level teacher. She liked little kids, found them entertaining and charming, but she had no experience managing them and no natural talent in that arena. High school kids...they were different. After completing a double major in elementary education and secondary art, she’d done her practicum teaching in high school, where she’d had no problem with discipline. Smaller children... Dani and Jolie would laugh their asses off if they knew that she was being taken advantage of by six-year-olds. Oh, they’d started off sweet and shy, like new puppies, then, the next thing she knew, they were practically chewing on her shoes.

Allie pulled her purse out of the car and shut the door again. She’d get better at managing the kids as time went on. If her friend Liz could do it, so could she. She just needed practice holding the hard line and ignoring the cuteness factor. Or pray that the impossible happened and the high school art teacher quit, something Liz assured her wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

The next morning Jason showed up early, just as she’d stepped out of the shower. Jolie had taken her dog with her, so Allie had no warning system, and she might have to rectify that. She’d only known that Jason had arrived because she’d happened to glance out the window and noticed his truck was parked near the arena, at least an hour earlier than he’d arrived the day before.

He was at the back, unloading a bucket of tools, and Allie leaned forward to get a better view. The guy was something, she’d give him that. She wondered how long he’d continue on her job before he’d had enough thinking time and moved on to pizza catching.

Allie’s mouth quirked as she turned away from the window. That hadn’t been a nice thing to say, but he hadn’t taken offense. In fact, Jason Hudson seemed like a patient guy in general. She’d never sensed that about him before.

Yeah, in all the many minutes they spent together.

Even their chess games had been relatively quick. And, if she recalled correctly, they’d tied there, too. Not the games themselves, but the number of wins.

Allie put on a summery dress and cardigan, pulled her damp hair into a loose knot, slipped into flats and headed out to feed her cows.

“Remember,” she said to the ladies, “healthy calves on the ground when I get home.”

Then she looked over her shoulder to make certain that Jason was indeed where he was supposed to be and not witnessing her cow conversation. Another reason she needed to get a dog. Talking to dogs was socially acceptable.

* * *

ALLIE LEFT A little earlier than she had the day before, stopping just long enough to say a cool hello before heading off to her job at the school. Jason watched her car until it turned onto the road, then tossed a two-by-four in a pile a little harder than necessary. If he hadn’t been working today he would have been running—straight up the mountain. His dad was driving him crazy and his former teammate Pat wasn’t helping matters.

Jason had gotten home yesterday to find his sister one step away from throttling their old man. Jason had stepped in to referee and the fight had shifted to him. It was so hard to hold his tongue as Max outlined all of his usual gripes, but he managed. Barely.

Once Max had stomped off to his bedroom, Jason and Kate had had a summit. They decided that Max was still working on facing his own mortality and that they should give him a little more time to come to terms with his current life situation. In other words, they gave him a pass. But the passes weren’t going to last long if he continued the controlling, demanding behavior.

In the morning his father was back at it, trying to pick a fight about Jason not being available for his walks. Jason hadn’t reacted, but his jaw had been clenched tightly by the time he got to his truck. Then to top things off, he’d received a text from Pat, whom he hadn’t heard from in weeks. It’d been short and to the point—was Jason applying to Brandt?

The “for the job I didn’t get” went unsaid.

Jason texted back, saying that if he had an opportunity to apply, he would, but that the job hadn’t officially opened yet.

Pat never responded, which concerned Jason on one level and irritated him on another. Not once had Pat confided in him during his downward spiral. He’d never reached out for any kind of help and when Jason had tried to express his concern, offer support, Pat had turned away. Now he resented Jason for having legs.

Another two-by-four hit the pile with a clatter and Jason realized that he had the perfect job in which to take out his frustrations. Easier than running up a mountain, and almost as satisfying.