A Rancher's Love Read online

  Basically, he wanted to know if anybody would want to eat her food. She hadn’t screwed up. She handled the fondant only. She had some of it herself while she made it just to be sure the taste was up to her standards. She didn’t get sick. The problem wasn’t her fondant. The problem was the cake. The problem for her was that scandal was more titillating than truth.

  She deleted that message and made a mental note to change her phone number—again. She wondered who the source was. Not too many people knew she was doing the show since she hadn’t told anyone other than Val. Val had let it slip to Darin and Daphanie, but that was it—as far as she knew. She wouldn’t have told Val if she hadn’t thought the timing might conflict with her mother’s wedding.

  The next message was from Gracie. “I shared your good news, hope that’s okay.” Apparently somebody else had let it slip to Gracie. Despite her words, Zoe was sure Gracie was far from concerned on whether or not it was okay. The last three messages were from Darin and her mother. They were sorry about the cake, but “after talking to your sister we figured it wasn’t the best choice,” her mother and her soon-to-be stepfather had said. “Thanks, Val. Couldn’t leave that message before I lugged my eight pound cake book to your luncheon.” She mumbled sarcastically. “And she’s my half sister,” she mumbled again.

  Maybe she should leave town before the wedding. It wasn’t as if she was in it anyway. In fact, she was the only child not in it. She was, “better at planning,” Val had said. “Plan your own damn wedding,”

  she snapped. She had been putting up with a lot. She had been smiling and pretending and trying to be the mature, dutiful daughter that wasn’t even allowed to call her mother, Mom. But she couldn’t do it anymore.

  She just couldn’t.

  Tempted; she was so tempted to pick up the phone and make that call. “They need me in Washington early. Hope you won’t mind if I miss the wedding,” she could say. Those words would be so 10

  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery easy to say right now, but she wouldn’t. Val was still her mother, and beyond that, Zoe had already agreed to help plan the wedding so she couldn’t go back on that.

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  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery Chapter Two

  The wedding day was like the day from hell, literally. Her mother looked flawless as always and the grounds were beautifully decorated. Red roses were everywhere, which made for a very potent, bee friendly environment. Honestly, the wedding was beautiful. It was what she had to endure at the wedding that made it hell.

  “To think you could have married that man,” Stella Castle smiled so sweetly when she uttered those words, as if she didn’t mean to be cold and heartless.

  “Oh yes, you were dating him weren’t you. I didn’t even realize the two of you had broken up until I heard he was dating your mother.” Beverly Dickens chimed in for the wedding day gossip session.

  Yeah, well, that made two of them because she hadn’t either. Several more conversations like that and it was just too much to handle. She had tried to sneak away unnoticed. Everybody else was having such a good time that she didn’t think it would be a problem, but unfortunately, she didn’t make her escape fast enough. Her mother so sweetly pulled her up on stage and thanked her for being so supportive of her marriage to Darin. As if she really had been. Then she went on and on about how they wanted her to do the cake, but after the Enrique problem it just seemed better not to chance it. Zoe couldn’t see her own face but she was one thousand percent positive that she was redder than a red bell pepper.

  When her mother finished publicly humiliating her Zoe gave a few smiles as she gracefully dismissed herself from the wedding. She didn’t even bother to check her body into bed. She showered, put on clothes suitable for a road trip, loaded the car, locked up the condo and hit the road. She had a little time so she stopped along the way at interesting spots, finding new ingredients to try in some of her cupcakes and enjoying the many bakeries the small towns had to offer. She loved seeing great bakers at work. Of course she did have some place she had to be so she couldn’t make too many off the mark stops no matter how much fun she was having.

  Everything was going great until her GPS betrayed her, and Bambi decided to occupy the road. At that moment her road trip took the path her career and personal life had taken, and it was definitely not the path of least resistance.

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  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery

  “What was that?” Dean Collins dropped the reins on Snow Button, his white Mustang.

  “I don’t know,” Guy Forbes, Dean’s best ranch hand turned his head in the direction Dean was looking.

  Dean noticed the tension creeping into Guy’s shoulders. He figured he must have had the same realization—that noise sounded a lot like a crash which meant somebody was injured, maybe even dead. It was too loud not to be something serious. “Get the truck,” he took hold to Snow Buttons reins and handed them to Justin so that he could put her back in her stall. “We’ll go check it out.” As they drove closer to the edge of his property he heard the car horn. Once the wreck was in sight Guy increased his speed.

  “I hope whoever it is survived that;” Dean jumped out of the truck the moment it came to a complete stop and he ran across the creek. His blue jeans got soaked up to his shins as he crossed.

  “It’s a woman,” he yelled. He reached inside the open window and unlocked the car door. He tugged open the door and gently pushed her back from the steering wheel. He checked her pulse. “She’s alive. Let’s get her back to the house. It’ll be hours before an ambulance can get up here and we can’t leave her out here.” He unhooked her seatbelt and carefully lifted her into his arms.

  “She’s so beautiful,” he stood looking down at her. He was getting the hard on of the century and she was unconscious. But her body fit so perfectly in his arms. She had soft curves and delicate skin and something about her made him think of an angel.

  Guy cleared his throat. “We should get her back to the house. She’ll be more comfortable in your bed;” he reminded him that they couldn’t just stand there all day.

  “Right,” he forced his legs to move from where he stood. She was probably in some measure of pain after that crash and a bed would be more comfortable than his arms in her present condition. He crossed the creek and got into the truck, holding her gently and safely in his arms. While Guy closed the truck door for him, Dean stared at her, mesmerized by her beauty. It had been a long time since he had that kind of reaction—too long.

  “Get Doc and have him come up to the house.”

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  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery

  “He’s a vet,” Guy put the truck in gear and started driving. It wasn’t as if Dean needed a reminder.

  He knew what kind of doctor the man was. He also knew whenever they had an emergency on the ranch he was the first guy he called while they waited for an ambulance to come up. “What if she needs a human doctor?”

  “It will take a while for anybody to get up here. We’ll have Doc look her over and make sure. If she can’t wait then we’ll call it in and get an ambulance to come up here. It’ll be over an hour before they get here so she has to wait either way. And if Doc says she looks good enough not to go in, we’ll nurse her to health here.”

  “Uh huh,” Guy mumbled knowingly. Yes, he was just trying to find a way to keep her on his ranch, at least long enough for her to wake up and tell him who she was. He needed to hear her voice, to know her name. He felt something, something he hadn’t felt in years, something burning inside him and he wanted to explore the desire. He couldn’t do that if they took her down to the hospital. It was too far away and she would probably be gone before he knew it. No. She could recover on his ranch, provided there were no serious injuries. If she needed the hospital then he would make sure she got there; otherwise he was going to be one selfish bastard and keep her in his bed while he helped take care of her.

  He looked down at her soft features once
more. She was beautiful. Even unconscious she looked at peace. He reached one hand up and traced his finger over her cheek. Her skin was so soft, so smooth to the touch. He sighed heavily. People always said the Lord worked in mysterious ways, but did his work have to include hitting him with such a heavy load of sexual awareness of a woman he probably didn’t even have a chance with? He had been single for a long time—since his wife’s death, and on that day he had cursed God for taking her from him. He had sworn he would never love again; never want, or desire another woman again, and yet here he was wanting, desiring, the woman in his arms and he didn’t even know her.

  “I’m in trouble now,” he mumbled more to himself than anybody else.

  “Maybe she’s single,” Guy said; reminding him that he was in the truck and he could hear every word—maybe even every thought. Dean had never been good at completely masking his feelings, especially not from Guy. Guy had been with him since he started the ranch. He was more of a friend than just a worker. His sandy red hair had started graying on the sides, and he had a few wrinkles around the eyes, but he still held the strength and the energy of the young man he had hired on the spot. They were getting older yet somehow they had aged well. Guy was fifty-three to Dean’s fifty years of age and they both, as the other 14

  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery hands had said, looked closer to their mid forties at most. Jasper Glory, his cook, had said he was lucky because he had aged so well and she was cursed because she looked her sixty-two years of age. She actually looked a little older, but he had the brains, and the sense to use them, not to tell her that. She was a good cook. She spoke her mind without reserve, and at the end of the day she was like family too. They all were.

  And suddenly he found himself wishing this woman would be a part of his family too.

  “Yeah, maybe,” he mumbled. “But I’m too old for her anyway.”

  “The hell you are.”

  He shot him a crosswise look. “There’s a lady present,” he reminded him just in case he had forgotten that fact.

  “She’s out like a light. She can’t hear me.”

  He shook his head. “I am too old for her,” and that was a fact. “She’s probably twenty-three, twenty-four.”

  “That’s legal,” he said. Guy wasn’t about to let him off the hook here. “And if you really want to know her age you can look through her things after I come back from getting them out of her car.” He chuckled.

  “I wouldn’t do that and you know it.” Snooping was dishonest and wrong. He hated dishonesty with a passion and he would never allow himself to take on that character flaw.

  “Curiosity gets the best of you and you will.”

  “Remind me never to let you into my home,” he chuckled, knowing Guy had been in his home several times—more times than he could count actually. “After you get her stuff, see if you can hook up a tow to her car from the F250 and pull it out of the creek and to the other side of the fence. We’ll need to get that fence fixed before night.” That fence wasn’t just for decoration or to let people know where his property started. He needed to make sure he kept the animals he left out to roam inside his property line.

  “Will do.” He acknowledged. “I’ll take a couple of the guys with me and leave the rest working on their present tasks.”

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  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery

  “Thanks.” Sure it was Guy’s job to do what he asked, but a simple thank you wasn’t out of his character. His men worked hard, were loyal and were like family to him. After Daisy had died they were all the family he had left.

  He walked up the steps to his home and through the front door. He could hear Jasper yelling at him already. “You dirty man you don’t get to track your filth through the house. You hose off outside and leave your boots at the kitchen…” Her voice trailed off as she caught sight at the woman in his arms. “My word, what happened?”

  “She crashed through the fence, or more like her car did, with her in it. I’m going to take her upstairs to my room until Doc gets in here.”

  “I guess I’ll forgive you for tracking in a mess just this once,” she tacked her hand to her hip and looked him up and down. His pants were dripping water all over the wood floors and he was sure she was on the verge of blowing steam because of the mess. She wasn’t just the cook, she cleaned too, and then she went back to her place on the other side of his property. That had been one of the benefits for her working for him. She had free housing, but not in his house. He liked his privacy. He liked being alone. After Daisy died all he wanted was to be left alone. Now…now, he wanted the woman in his arms to share his home with him. The feeling was frightening, alarming, and at the same time, comforting. His heart hadn’t frozen over solid; it was still beating. Right now it was beating in a triple allegro movement that he couldn’t seem to tame—and he didn’t want to.

  When Doc did finally walked through the door Dean hadn’t missed the subtle exchange he and Jasper shared. She knew too much for her own good—or more like his own good. They all could see he felt something for this woman. No matter how much he didn’t want them to know it, they knew it. He sat in the corner, watching as Doc looked her over and made sure there wasn’t too much damage.

  “She’ll live,” he brushed his hand through his short graying hair. “She’s got a nasty bump on her head, a concussion so you’ll need to wake her sporadically, but I think she’ll be fine.”

  Dean approached the bed and leaned forward, slipping his fingers through her hair, pushing it back off her face and tracing the bandage on her forehead that Doc had placed there. She stirred. Her eyes fluttered open and there was a hint of what he thought might be a smile on her lips before her eyes closed again.

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  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery

  “See, she’ll be fine.” Doc confirmed.

  “So we don’t need to call the ambulance in?” He could hear the desperation in his own voice. He wanted her to stay there, to recover there. He wanted to be the one beside her when she woke up. And he didn’t want her waking up in a hospital bed alone, scared, lost and confused.

  “She can stay,” he agreed. “If anything changes I’ll call in the ambulance, but honestly I think she’ll be more comfortable here.” He straightened up and chuckled. “You all have to stop calling me in for people.

  I’m an animal doctor.” He shook his head.

  “You’re the only doctor living on my property,” Dean said absently. “Double duty, Doc.”

  He laughed. “Or triple sometimes,” he shook his head. “I have to check on the new foal, but I’ll come back later tonight before I turn in, just to make sure she’s still doing okay.” Dean figured Doc was giving him such an assurance because he was probably picking up on the sudden sense of panic Dean felt. If she needed to go to the hospital he would get the ambulance there—or maybe it would be better to take her himself.

  “She’s fine, Dean. Trust me. She just needs to recover a bit. She’ll be up and chatting your ears off like any other woman by morning.”

  Dean shook his head. Doc thought all women were chatterboxes just waiting for an opportunity to open up; “they start talking and never stop,” is what Doc always said.

  “You know we don’t all talk incessantly,” Jasper snapped in a friendly banter way.

  “You do,” Doc chuckled. They all knew Jasper could talk a man into the grave. The rest of them were just smart enough not to say it out loud, especially not in her presence. She cooked breakfast and dinner, and they enjoyed being able to eat it without wondering what went in it.

  “Oh you just wait, Doc. You’re going to have to eat my food and I won’t promise that it won’t give you the runs for a week.”

  “Ouch,” he shivered. “Is it too late to apologize?”

  “Yes,” she pushed her shoulders back and stuck her nose up the air before walking out of the room.

  Doc followed behind her, desperately trying to put himself on friendlier ground
with the woman who 17

  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery prepared the meals on the ranch. Dean chuckled. “Good luck with that one, Doc.” He was sure Jasper wouldn’t forgive him. Jasper was a woman, and as his wife had once said, no matter how forgiving a woman was, she was still a woman and women never forget anything.

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  A Rancher’s Love ~ Capri Montgomery Chapter Three

  Dean smoothed his hand over her forehead, brushing soft curls from her face. He remembered earlier when he had done the same action and she had stirred. Her eyes had fluttered open, and he could swear she smiled at him before her eyes drifted shut again. That brief moment gave him a connection deeper than the physical. It wasn’t the softness of her eyes, or the beauty of her face. He felt something; something that told him he might want forever with this woman. Could he convince her to give him that chance? He was going to try. Provided she wasn’t a stickler for age there shouldn’t be an issue. As Guy had pointed out, he wasn’t too old for her—at least he hoped he wasn’t. He was good looking, in great shape, smart; he wasn’t a bad selection. Although, he was probably a good thirty years her senior; maybe more. He was tempted to rifle through her purse and look at her identification, but he resisted that urge. If she weren’t consistently conscious by morning he would snoop freely because at least then he would be doing it for a good reason. It couldn’t possibly be dishonest if it was for a good reason; at least that’s what he told himself.

  There was the possibility that she was dating. She wasn’t married—no ring or tan line on her finger.

  That didn’t mean she wasn’t dating. She was too beautiful not to have men lining up. Suddenly he didn’t like that idea.

  He had insisted on staying with her. He showered and changed out of his work clothes, but he was quick to return to her side. He wanted to be there when she became fully awake. He didn’t want her to face one moment where she felt alone, lost and afraid.