Mary Brady - Winning Over the Rancher

Baylor spread the papers and sorted them into piles for filing. Now that he had made the decision, he was going to throw himself at the situation as if it were a worthy stallion needing some tender loving care to be a great stallion. Not that “tender loving” was anything he planned on aiming at K. L. Morgan.

Tempting, though.

Tempting. That was crazy thinking. If he let crazy thinking rule him, unintended consequences happened.

He had finished tucking away the last papers when he looked up to see K. L. Morgan standing in the doorway with her flimsy coat draped over one arm and her hands folded together in front of her as if in apology.

He rose quickly from the chair and made a gruff coughing sound to cover his laughter at his sorry old self.

“Come in,” he said when she didn’t enter the office.

She stepped inside. “I ruined whatever chance I had at making a great impression, didn’t I?”

He hadn’t realized how melodious her voice was, but in the small office, it made the air vibrate.

“Is your life ever dull?”

She shrugged and stepped up to the desk. “You’ll undoubtedly find out, so I might as well tell you, I met your Sheriff Potts.”

Baylor studied the molding around the ceiling, trying his best to bury a smile. Unintended consequences, he thought. “He called.”

“I’d hoped he wouldn’t snitch on me. Damn.”

He snapped his gaze to hers. “Don’t let my mother hear you say that word. Darn and heck are all right if you’re highly provoked, but damn, hell and crap are over the top. Have a seat, please.”

Radiating confidence and poise, she draped her coat over the back of the chair and sat down across the desk from him. He couldn’t deny his brother’s assessment that K. L. Morgan inspired admiration for her courage under fire—but that didn’t mean he had to be taken in by it. He scowled and retook his seat.

“Oh, darn.” She raised her brow in question.

He gave a slight head nod of approval and she curled her hands together on her lap. “How much did the sheriff tell you?”

“He said he found you and we should be expecting you soon.” He paused for dramatic effect. “And then he laughed.”

“How did he know I was coming here? I don’t remember telling him.” She thought for a moment. “When he left, I didn’t even know.”

“He knows people. That’s why he’s so good at his job and that’s a reflection on our judgment as well as yours.” He paused. He was about to tell this woman she could hold the family’s future in her hands, and Sheriff Potts’s positive assessment of her had made that decision easier to live with.

“He is so kind to just have laughed at me.” She studied her fingers for a moment. “Is it too late to start over?”

“Do you think it would help?”

Alarm spread across her face, and then when she realized he was chiding her, she smiled a smile as bright as a sunny day in the Bitterroot Mountains, and he felt that smile all the way down to the toes of his Sunday boots.

She relaxed her hands on her knees. “I think at this point, it would only muddy the waters.”

“My family thinks you’re the best choice for this project.”

“Okay.” She waited for him to explain.

“But they’ve left the choice up to me.”

“I realize I’m not what you expected and that it’s a stretch for you to consider me for the job, but if you do give it to me, I will give you more than you asked for.”

More than he asked for…

“I’m willing to go along with my family and give you a chance.” She sat up straighter and he continued. “Two weeks. After two weeks, if things aren’t working out, you would be paid for your time and, of course, we’d pay you for your designs.”

He watched her closely.

“You won’t be sorry.” Her words indicated her delight while her face showed her focus on the future.

“That’s what my family tells me.”

She nodded her head once. “Now tell me why your family puts so much stock in your opinion.”

Her green eyes, the color of leaves in the light of sunset and rimmed with dark lashes, were highlighted by the merest touch of makeup.

“Because I’m the youngest brother?”

She nodded again.

“Fair enough.” The Doyles knew so much more about her than she suspected. It seemed right she should know more about them. “My older brothers wanted no part of college. They were happy working the ranch and their wives were happy with their husbands and their lives. My parents could read the writing on the wall, but my brothers would rather ignore the signs the ranch was faltering.”

She listened as though she were gathering facts without passing judgment. He found himself liking KayLee Morgan more and more, at the same time telling himself it wasn’t his job to like her.

As he told her about his family sending him to Montana State University in Bozeman and why, she barely blinked.

“Wow,” she said when he was finished.

Her lips held the form of the last W as she explored the thoughts in her head, and it made him want to kiss those puckered lips—and to smack himself on the back of the head for thinking such a thought.

“So do you still want to work for us?”

“They have put a lot on you.” Deep concern dimmed the sparkle in her eyes.

“Someone has to take the reins and I can.”

She placed her palms on her knees and leaned forward. “Yes, I’d still like to do the job.”

He reached across the desk with one hand and when she put her soft hand in his, she gripped solidly.

“Welcome to the Shadow Range Eco Ranch project,” he said, and found himself sincerely meaning it.

Either he was a step closer to his dream and his quest, or he’d chased them out onto the far horizon. Whatever happened, he found himself wanting her to succeed for herself, as well as each and every Doyle.

“Now tell me what you think,” she said as she let go of his hand and sat back in the chair.

Baylor shifted. Tell her what he thought? That she’s hot or that he was already in trouble because he was beginning to see why his family wanted to hire and protect her?

“I like to think I’m an open-minded kind of person. I admit, your—”

“Pregnancy, sex, age?” She grinned.

“Once I realized you couldn’t be as young as you look, that was not even a consideration.

“As for your being female, you’ve met Holly, Amy and my mother and…they don’t balk at much.” An image of his missing sister pushed into his thoughts. She had one of her defiant looks on her face and her hands were balled into offensive fists. “And they’re tame compared to my sister, Crystal.”

He could see KayLee wanted to ask about Crystal, but he wasn’t ready to talk to anyone yet because he had nothing of substance to say. So he hurried on. “Your proposal offers the most support and oversight—with the possible exception of a period of time when you will be otherwise occupied. If you are as good as you say you are, I expect this job will go well.”

She gave a heavy sigh of relief and a warm smile that a part of him wanted to interpret as sexy.

“I expect the same. If I could, I’d like to look around a bit, see the place I proposed the first cabin be built.”

“Now?”

“The sun shines. Isn’t that when I’m supposed to make hay?”

K. L. Morgan kept surprising him with her understanding of the situation. She might work out better, though, if he could pretend she was the mid-forties man he had expected.

“Do you have warmer clothes?” he asked.

She glanced down at her blue dress. “I have different clothes. Warmer, probably not.”

“Boots?”

She lifted a foot with a shoe meant for a city street. “This is the best I’ve got. The boots I have are not the sort you’re talking about.”