Cowboy to the Core Read online

  “Is that so?” He was like a wall. Totally unimpressed with her. And also totally not intimidated by her.

  She didn’t know what to do with that.

  “Yes. We get a lot of people coming to the ranch who don’t necessarily have experience with horses, but want to learn. A lot of people later in life who’ve never been on one.”

  “It must be an interesting job that you have over there.”

  She blinked, unsure of what to do with the way he’d taken the conversation and turned it to her. He sounded sincere—that was the weird part. Not like he was mocking her, and all things considered, she’d have expected mockery.

  That was how her brothers would have behaved.

  But not Gabe, apparently.

  “It’s fine.” It was a job that she was going to be taking a break from in the next year. After she’d saved enough money to get herself on the road with the rodeo. After she’d found the right horse, and done all the work she needed to do in order to not...humiliate herself barrel racing.

  Wyatt was a rodeo legend. A bull rider who’d won the championships four times.

  Jamie wanted to make her own mark in the rodeo. Oh, she knew barrel racing didn’t command quite the enthusiasm from the crowd the bulls did. But she wanted to succeed on her own. On her own merit.

  She wanted to get out and do things on her own. She needed to.

  She’d been in Gold Valley all this time. The most distance she’d gotten from her family was working at a Western-themed store in town called The Gunslinger. Otherwise, she lived on the ranch, worked on the ranch.

  Her life revolved around it. Around them.

  She knew that her father and brothers all felt like they took care of her. Right down to Wyatt being completely and utterly disapproving of her taking a job with Gabe Dalton. He’d been on her about it ever since Gabe had approached her about the job a few months earlier, which was ridiculous. He’d given them plenty of time to sort out schedules. Really, it had been overly planned. Which seemed to make Wyatt even more obnoxious.

  As if Gabe was planning to seduce her or something.

  As if he could.

  Hell, she’d grown up in a house full of men just like him, and those men had brought their friends around. Had brought other rodeo cowboys around.

  They smelled. They left the toilet seat up. They hit on everything that moved. She’d spent her life picking around men’s underwear in the clothing baskets, had been rinsing whiskers out of the sink with great distaste since she was ten.

  Between her father and her older brothers, men had been pretty thoroughly demystified.

  Body odor, constant swearing, jockstraps, asshole behavior...

  Gabe was watching her while she mused, his lips tipped up slightly as if he could read her mind.

  “Does Wyatt give you a lot of freedom?”

  She snorted, the action loosening some of the tension in her chest. “Wyatt doesn’t give me anything. I work at our family ranch. Otherwise, I do what I want.”

  Cowboys were not her type. Not at all. She supposed that in order for them to be interesting at all, their behavior had to seem romantic.

  And to her, it just wasn’t. But then, Jamie wasn’t a romantic. She was a practical kind of girl. She was well aware of the way the world worked, well aware of the way cowboys worked.

  Her desire to get back into riding had nothing to do with cowboys, as a matter of fact. She was always much less interested in a man on the horse than she was in the horse he was riding.

  If she was going to be interested in a man—and someday she supposed she’d find one—it wouldn’t be one like that.

  Gabe Dalton was exactly the kind of man she was immune to.

  But Wyatt worried.

  What Wyatt didn’t understand was that she had always taken care of herself. But until she wasn’t right at home, he was always going to feel like that was his responsibility.

  Jamie had learned early on how to be self-sufficient.

  Babies didn’t choose to be born, and they definitely didn’t choose the manner in which they were born.

  Jamie certainly hadn’t chosen to cause a blood clot that led to her mother’s death days later.

  But the fact of the matter was her mother had essentially traded her life for Jamie’s.

  The boys and her father had lost her, and gained Jamie.

  In return, Jamie had done her best to be tough. To be like them.

  Maybe that was the real reason cowboys didn’t hold a lot of appeal or mystery to her.

  She hadn’t just been raised by them. Hadn’t just been surrounded by them.

  She’d learned to become one of them.

  Tough as nails and confident in who she was and what she knew.

  “My work at the ranch is definitely interesting,” Jamie said. “But I’m looking forward to this. To a change.”

  “To getting Wyatt out of your hair a few hours every day?”

  Jamie bristled. “My brother is the best man, and the best cowboy, out there. You could probably learn from him.” It was one thing for her to think uncharitable thoughts about Wyatt, but she would be damned if she would let Gabe Dalton say anything.

  “He’s a bull rider,” Gabe pointed out.

  “Yeah, and he can ride both.”

  “There’s a reason I chose not to,” Gabe said. “First of all, I have a brain in my head. Second of all, I like horses.”

  “I thought you chose to ride saddle bronc because that’s what your daddy did.” She hadn’t meant that to come out quite like it had. Yes, Hank Dalton was a famous rodeo rider, who’d had celebrity status that had transcended that thanks to endorsement deals. But Gabe had fame in his own right. And she was actually pretty annoyed with herself for making the comment. Given that she was fighting against that concern herself.

  Wanting to join the rodeo, not wanting for everyone to think she was there because of Wyatt.

  Something shifted imperceptibly in Gabe’s expression. As if he’d injected his face with granite. The whole thing had gone firm, solid. “I chose to do it because that’s what I like to do. But that’s not what this is about. What I’m doing here has nothing to do with my life in the rodeo.”

  “Well, you’re off to a good start.”

  “I thought you thought I was off to a bad start?”

  “I meant with hiring me. The rest... I’m not so sure.”

  He crossed his arms, his eyes taking on a mocking glint. “All right, Jamie Dodge. You going to show me how it’s done or what?”

  “Gladly.” She stuck her left foot in the stirrup and swung herself up onto the back of Gus. “Watch and learn, Gabe Dalton. Watch and learn.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  GABE COULD ONLY marvel at the way the little brunette handled every animal she came into contact with that day. He supposed he could marvel at the way she talked to him, but that was something else. Jamie Dodge didn’t seem to have much in the way of fear. Or common sense, though she didn’t seem to know it.

  He’d never met such a hardheaded female in all of his life. And that was saying something.

  His own mother had smashed in the headlights on his father’s truck with a baseball bat back when he’d been a kid. At another stage, she had lit a different truck on fire. Literally.

  And he respected the hell out of that. She was a tough woman who didn’t take any shit, and while she’d been more than willing to seek redneck justice when necessary, Gabe felt protective of her.

  Just because she could handle herself didn’t mean someone shouldn’t try to protect her, too.

  High-spirited women—or rather, just women with a strong sense of fairness—had been a fixture in his life since he was a boy.

  Jamie was something else entirely. If little girls were supposed to be made out of sugar, spice and everything nice, he ima
gined that Jamie was made out of star thistles, grit and the total willingness to skin a man alive if it came down to it.

  She was also absolutely the best he’d ever seen when it came to dealing with a variety of temperaments in horses.

  There was something about the way she connected with the animals that reminded him of a piece of himself he’d lost years ago.

  But she could obviously use a lesson on dealing with people. He could go toe to toe with her, show her who was boss in that most basic of fashions. Berate her until she saw things his way, and until she internalized the fact that he was the one who was in charge here.

  He watched men do that kind of thing all the time. Try to use their size, their power, to force other people to respect them, which Gabe had always thought was a weak move. Only men who were afraid they might not have any power had to act that way. At least, that was his take on it.

  That was what men did when they were secretly concerned their power didn’t have any teeth. And Gabe didn’t carry that fear about himself, in secret or in public.

  But he imagined that most men—most people—who went toe to toe with Jamie Dodge gave as good as they got.

  Men didn’t like being challenged, especially not by women.

  And he imagined she wouldn’t be expecting someone to sidestep.

  He grinned. “I’m happy to have you show me how it’s done, darlin’.”

  “I... You are?” She blinked.

  And suddenly, the pit bull looked a whole lot more like a harmless kitten.

  “Sure,” he said, keeping his tone casual. “You’re right. I hired you for a reason. Look, I haven’t worked with horses in this capacity. Not for a long time, at least. And the whole point of having you here is to make it so that I don’t have to be here.”

  There had been a time when he’d wanted her job. When he’d wanted that life. Working on a ranch. Working with horses.

  He’d let that go a long time ago. He’d had to.

  And he’d found something else. A tarnished kind of glory that he’d managed to get lost in for years. On the other side of it, he didn’t know who he was or what he wanted.

  But he could get the ranch up and running. It could do some good whether he was here or not.

  “Well,” she said. “I don’t know how long-term I can necessarily...”

  “You’re the person that I need to get things going here. I never made you give a certain commitment time frame. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Right,” she said.

  “Show me how it’s done.”

  She urged the horse forward, and horse and rider moved in one fluid motion together. Jamie’s connection with the horse was instant. And it was damned impressive. She struggled to get him to make some changeups, but eventually, he would comply. And she was right. It took significantly less pressure on the bit than he’d been giving. When she came back around and dismounted, he nodded.

  “That was a damn fine ride,” he said. “You’re going to have to give me a rundown of your take on the horses we have so far. It would be helpful if we were on the same page.”

  “I...I could do that.”

  “Great. Why don’t we get Gus squared away?”

  He didn’t make a move to take the lead rope, and Jamie grabbed hold of it quickly, turning toward the barn and walking in that direction. He was happy to allow her to think that he was following her lead. Just like the horse was. When they walked back into the barn, Jamie began to remove Gus’s tack.

  “Let me get that,” he said, stepping between her and the horse and taking care of the saddle himself.

  She gawked at him, her brown eyes wide, her lips dropped open slightly. “I can get it,” she said finally.

  “Sure,” he said. “But I can, too.”

  “I work for you,” she said, elbowing her way back in and seeing to the rest of the work.

  She knelt down, lifting Gus’s foot and checking his hooves, digging out any rocks that had lodged there with the pick. “I’m fully capable of lifting anything around here that’s going to need lifting. Ranch work is kind of my thing,” she added.

  “But there’s no reason I shouldn’t carry something heavy for you if I’m here,” he said.

  “Sure is. I don’t need you to. You’d do the same for one of your brothers?”

  He shook his head. “Well, no. Because they’re my brothers. And they’re assholes.”

  “I’m an asshole.” She treated him to a mulish look.

  He chuckled. “Also a lady.”

  Her face went scarlet, from the roots of her hair, down to the collar of her tank top. “You didn’t hire a lady to work on your ranch, Gabe Dalton. You hired an expert with horses. That’s how I expect you to treat me.”

  Very interesting.

  And obviously the exact right track to take with her. Because he hadn’t seen her flustered, not once. Not any of the times they had interacted away from the ranch, and certainly not since she had set foot onto the ranch today, her first day as an employee. She’d been all piss and vinegar.

  But suddenly, she was flustered, and that was a damned interesting thing.

  She moved on to Gus’s other foot, her motions jerky, filled with irritation.

  “Are you making commentary on how I treat my staff?”

  “Just on how you should treat me,” she said. “I’m not a fragile flower. I’ve done every single chore at Get Out of Dodge that my brothers have done, at least once. If not more. I was raised by my father, just the same as they were, and the same things were expected of me. I’m not here to be treated differently. I’m here to be treated the way I deserve to be, based on my skill level.”

  “Me lifting a saddle for you is not underestimating you. It’s just polite.”

  “To you. Not to me.”

  She continued on checking hooves, a strand of dark hair falling in her face, her slender arms rippling with muscle every time she moved them. She was small-built, slim, but definitely fit. Obviously someone who was used to working hard, and with her hands.

  When she was through, she got a brush and pushed her hand through the strap and began to work it vigorously over Gus’s back. “So you’re going back to the rodeo?” she asked.

  “Yep,” he said. “Skipping this year, obviously, but afterward I’m getting back in.”

  “Why are you skipping this year?”

  He shook his head. “A whole lot of things. McKenna came a bit ago and that changed things. Now my dad has me working on the ranch. It’s just not a great time to be gone for eight months.”

  His half sister was only the beginning of the different changes that had taken place in his family recently. His dad was getting older, and he wasn’t able to work the land the way that he once had.

  Hank had retired from the rodeo some fifteen years ago, and that had been hard enough for him. But he’d been the old man of the circuit at that point and he hadn’t been winning. Then he’d come home and found his wife ready to walk out the door, and that had been the beginning of something more than toxic fights.

  The toxic fighting had been the status quo for his parents. His mother faithful while his father wandered the country being a bastard, and then the inevitable explosion when it all came out into the open.

  But when Hank had come home for good, Tammy had issued an ultimatum.

  And Hank hadn’t wanted to lose his wife. Not when it came right down to it.

  So he’d been on the ranch. Working the land, behaving himself.

  But he couldn’t work the land quite as well as he once could.

  That had been true for a while, and there had been hands working on the place for a while now, but it was only recently that Hank had admitted just how much he was struggling to keep up with all aspects of the ranch, and had asked Gabe to take on the charge of it.

  You’re my oldest. C
aleb and Jacob, they’ve got firefighting...

  And I have the rodeo.

  I know better than anyone that it isn’t going to last you, Hank had said. It’s why I wanted you to go to school, instead of wasting all the good years your body had on the back of a horse.

  Right. Because you did it. And it wasn’t good enough for me?

  I did it so that my kids wouldn’t have to.

  I’m supposed to believe that you did it for anyone but yourself, Hank? That it wasn’t about your own glory ever? Just about you wanting a better life for us?

  Believe what you want, his father had said. But the fact remains, I always knew that the rodeo wouldn’t last you. It can’t. You break down, and then you don’t have anything. Well, you have this.

  And Gabe had swallowed down his rage and agreed to taking it on as an undertaking.

  But it gave him an opportunity to use the facility the way he’d always wanted to. To get horses into a place where they would be cared for, where they would be safe in their retirement years, and even get a new lease on life.

  Much like a rodeo cowboy, a rodeo horse had a lot of years left in them once they were done competing.

  The question was what you did with the rest of that life.

  He’d known once. But that had been lost along the road. And somewhere in there he’d taken a turn and started feeling like he not only understood his old man, he was also damn close to being him.

  But he could get this started. He could make it happen without being the one running it day to day. And in a few seasons, maybe he’d settle here.

  “I have a few years left in me.” He echoed his own thoughts, a little bit uncomfortable at the parallel he was drawing, even if Jamie wasn’t aware of it.

  “You think so?” She straightened and faced him head-on, her brows lifting, creating a slight crease in that smooth skin of hers. Smooth skin that reminded him she was just in her early—maybe mid—twenties, compared to his midthirties.

  “It’s not like I have one foot in the crypt,” he commented.

  “You’re about Wyatt’s age,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “He retired a couple of years ago.”