Cathy Thacker - The Reluctant Texas Rancher

His gray eyes darkened. He looked a little bemused, and a lot cocky. “Actually,” he drawled, letting his gaze drift slowly over her face, “if you want to get technical—and it sounds like you do—there’s nothing in the Texas Bar Ethics Code or Texas law preventing me from having a relationship with you outside of your work on the lawsuit. Besides—” he shrugged, still not ready to give up on pursuing her “—with you at the helm, this case will be over before you know it.”

Liz appreciated Travis’s faith in her even as she worried that her success meant he would soon be leaving Laramie County.

Wishing her lips weren’t still tingling, she looked him straight in the eye. “That doesn’t mean it’s wise for us to revisit past mistakes. We’ve been down this road before.”

“As kids.”

Past hurt rushed to the fore. That didn’t mean they hadn’t crashed and burned. Or that she hadn’t felt incredibly dejected and cried into her pillow for weeks afterward.

Her lower lip trembled. “You broke up with me, Travis.”

He stood there, patient and ready, raring to turn back the clock. “Because there was too much of an age difference.” Exasperation colored his low tone. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “And we weren’t right for each other then.”

“We’re still not.” She stepped back, not about to put her heart on the line, only to have it smashed to pieces. Again. “So let me be clear.” She slayed him with her best don’t-mess-with-me look. “I’m very happy to represent you. I’m glad you will be temporarily assisting my family and working on the Four Winds. But that, Counselor, is as far as it goes.”

“AT LEAST LET ME SEND YOU off with a cup of coffee and a couple of breakfast tacos,” Faye Elizabeth insisted at six the next morning.

Studiously ignoring the big male interloper sitting at the breakfast table, Liz simultaneously pulled on her suit jacket and checked her BlackBerry for messages.

She’d been up half the night, revisiting his kiss and her response to it, as well as everything that had happened years ago.

Travis, on the other hand, looked like he had slept great.

It figured .

She forced a smile and an attitude of nonchalance. “That would be wonderful.” Liz gave her grandmother a hug. “Thank you.”

Reba frowned, looking from Travis to her daughter and back again.

“What’s going on with the two of you?” she asked.

He kissed me and I responded , Liz thought. My goodness, how I responded …

It was a wonder she hadn’t melted into a puddle right there in the parking lot.

But not about to tell her family that, she shrugged, accepting with a murmur of thanks the breakfast her grandmother had packed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Liz fibbed.

“Something happened,” Tillie concurred, a matchmaker’s gleam in her eyes.

“And why were the two of you in town together last night, anyway?” Reba pressed.

“How did you hear that?” Travis asked.

Liz had heard him say he had gone off to get his belongings. Which he had eventually done, after collecting his vehicle.

“One of my friends saw the two of you coming out of your office, late in the evening,” Reba declared.

Small towns. Nary a secret anywhere. At least that’s how it seemed….

“I want Travis to sign a temporary employment contract with the Four Winds,” Liz said, in all honesty.

He looked at her, in lawyer mode, as able to roll with the punches as she hoped. “I think it’s a good idea, too.”

Faye Elizabeth regarded them suspiciously. “You couldn’t have done that here?”

Clearly, she hoped to keep them apart, or well chaperoned as much as possible to prevent any further romance from developing.

“It’s easier doing business in my office,” Liz said.

Especially with all three other Cartwright women looking over their shoulders, speculating on what was and wasn’t happening between her and Travis.

“Unfortunately,” Travis interjected with a beleaguered smile, “Liz had an emergency with another client that called her away, and we didn’t finish. So we’ll have to go back to it at some point soon.”

They would, Liz realized reluctantly. Which would mean even more time spent alone with him.

Only this time there would be no kissing. She would make certain of it.

“That won’t keep you from checking the new calves in the pastures this morning, will it, Travis?” Reba asked in alarm.

“Not at all.” He finished his coffee and stood. “I’ll get right on it. Thanks for the fine breakfast. Ladies …” He grabbed his hat and strolled out.

“My oh my,” Tillie sighed, her hand fluttering above her heart.

“I quite agree,” Reba said, sizing up his departing image the same way she sized up the procreating powers of a bull for hire. “Having a man like that for your baby’s daddy …”

“Mom!” Liz said, flushing hotly.

“I’m just saying….” Reba eyed her matter-of-factly, in that instant every bit as goal-oriented as Travis. “You’re not getting any younger and we need a new generation of Cartwrights. Travis is here. He’s hot. He’s available.”

“Why not just go ahead and say it—he’s a stud!” Liz interrupted sarcastically.

“And he’s from prime breeding stock,” Reba continued, without skipping a beat. She lifted a palm. “The two of you wouldn’t even have to marry—”

“Of course they would marry,” Tillie exclaimed, her romantic sensibilities offended by the notion of them having a baby and not living happily ever after.

“A romance with a man who’s not going to stick around for the long haul is the last thing Liz needs,” Faye Elizabeth grumbled.

Tired of having her life decided for her, by everyone but her, Liz sighed and grabbed her briefcase and her breakfast. “I’m out of here,” she told one and all grouchily.

To her consternation, by the time she reached the parking area, Travis’s pickup truck was disappearing down a dirt road that traversed the ranch.

Figuring she could talk to him later, she headed for the Laramie County sheriff’s station.

“You have to stop picking fights with people,” Liz told J.T. when they met up in the courtroom.

Disheveled and exhausted from a night spent in the holding cell, he remained defiant. “People,” he returned cantankerously, “need to stop waging battles with me.”

“This isn’t what your late wife would want for you.”

He ignored her reference to his beloved Cyndi. “I want that pool.” He peered at Liz. “And I know you can figure out a way for it to happen.”

Talk about the impossible .

She sighed.

“Meantime, if I get community service for this, make sure it’s something outside,” J.T. continued. “I hate being cooped up.”

Liz tried another approach. “You don’t have to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charges. I can get them dropped if you’ll only agree to get some grief counseling.”

J.T. scowled. “You know how I feel about that.”

“Nothing is going to make your grief go away, I know,” Liz repeated his oft-muttered sentiment.

“Exactly.”

Figuring that, under the circumstances, community service couldn’t hurt, since it would get him out of the house, Liz did as he asked.

The guilty plea was entered; he was lectured by the exasperated judge and assigned twenty hours of community service cleaning up local streets.

An hour later, she was headed back to the office.

It was noon by the time she arrived at the ranch.

Pale gray clouds were obscuring the horizon. Reba, Tillie and Faye Elizabeth were in the midst of gathering up their purses—and raincoats, just in case.