Montana Hearts (14 page)

“And when you aren't off on the rodeo circuit you could come here and hunt whenever you want,” the sheriff added.

Jace hesitated. “I have to admit, when I came over here tonight I wasn't expecting this.”

“You told me to make you an offer you couldn't refuse,” Gavin reminded him, then pinned him with a direct look. “So what do you say?”

 

Chapter Eight

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a robe over her nightgown and followed Bree downstairs. When Grandma called a family meeting, they listened, no matter what time of the night. Thankfully Delaney had been able to tuck Meghan into bed first. The evening at the Tanners' had worn her little girl out. Delaney had almost been asleep herself when Bree knocked on her door and told her to hurry.

“What's wrong?” Delaney whispered, padding down the hall in her slippers.

Bree shrugged. “No idea.”

Their father must have overheard them because the moment they came into the living room to join the rest of the family, he bellowed, “I'll tell you what's wrong. We still don't have our endorsement, that's what's wrong.”

Delaney froze, then slowly made her way to the far end of the couch beside her grandma, who usually protected her.

“How
are
you doing with that, Del?” Luke asked, his face drawn and filled with concern.

“Jace knows we asked him here hoping he'll give us an endorsement,” Delaney said, and smiled, remembering her wonderful evening at the Tanners'. “And I—­I think he's having a really good time. He loves the cabins, the property, the river, the stable for Rio. He's been happy learning photography and practicing archery.”

“You haven't let him go hunting, which everyone who has ever read an article about him knows is
what he likes to do
,” her father spat.

Delaney winced. “You and Luke took him hunting.”

“And thanks to
you
, he didn't get anything,” her father said, waving his hands in the air. “You didn't fool anyone by dumping out those clothes in the woods.”

She gasped, realizing she'd been caught. “He doesn't need to hunt. He's been having a good time with me and you should see him with little Meghan. He gives her piggyback rides, and high fives, and plays with her, and—­”

“I see the way you look at him,” Ma accused, her tone hard.

“She fell for that lousy ex of hers fast, too,” her father added, as if she wasn't in the room.

Delaney swallowed hard. “I never loved Steve.”

“And this guy, you do?” Ma asked, raising her brows.

“Of course not, I've only known Jace a week and a half!”

“You only knew Steve one day and you
married
him,” her father shouted.

Delaney stared at him, her eyes burning, and remembered why she hadn't wanted to come back. “You're never going to forgive me for my past mistakes, are you?”

Her father didn't answer, and Bree said quickly, “What's done is done. We can only move forward, right, Grandma?”

“Right,” Grandma agreed. “With newfound wisdom and courage.”

“Feel-­good quotes aren't going to help us get that endorsement,” Ma argued. “And you're wrong about Jace not needing to hunt, Delaney. Do you know where he went after he dropped you off tonight?”

Delaney hesitated, alarmed by the tone of her mother's voice, and with dread sinking like a stone in her stomach, she slowly shook her head.

“He went over to Gavin McKinley's,” her father barked. “Luke followed him.”

Jace went to see Gavin?

Delaney turned to sneak a look at Luke, not wanting to believe it, but her brother nodded, his expression solemn, and said, “It's true.”

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what he did wrong. During his stay he'd humored Delaney by taking the camera and letting her teach him some photography. He'd flirted with her while he taught her archery. And he'd repeatedly refused Gavin McKinley's offer to hunt so he could spend more time with her. Geez, he'd even humbled himself to
sing
to her.

Most women he knew would have been flattered. But today Delaney avoided him, and more than once, he caught her looking at him as if he were some kind of vile snake. He'd spent the day with Luke, who took him down to the river to fish. Is that why she was mad at him? Was she against fishing as much as she was against hunting?

He wasn't very good at fly-­fishing, but it did give him a chance to ask Luke why he used a cane and discover he'd torn his ACL in a motorcycle accident shortly after he'd gotten out of the military. However, that didn't stop him from riding his horse or even catching fish. While Jace didn't catch any, Luke caught three.

Jace thought about his meeting with Gavin. The Collinses were worried he might endorse Fox Creek Outfitters instead of them. However, there was no chance that would ever happen.

He'd already made up his mind to give the Collinses his endorsement, and honestly thought they did have better cabins, guest facilities, food, and pleasurable company than any other ranch he'd visited. Even so, he wasn't about to give them their precious endorsement until his two-­week stay was up. He kind of liked having Delaney try to win it from him, and by waiting, he would have more time to try to win
her
. But at this rate, he might need more than two weeks.

Alicia had come by again this morning to ask if he was interested in a ride up to the silver mine. He'd said no, but Delaney had seen her talking to him.

Could she be jealous of Alicia? He'd smiled at Gavin's head trail guide and acted friendly, but he would have done the same to anyone. Did the fact the woman had breasts the size of basketballs and platinum dyed Barbie doll hair even fairer than Delaney's have anything to do with it? Women were often jealous of each other's looks. No, that couldn't be the problem. He'd already told Delaney he thought that she was beautiful. Honestly, he would prefer her slim, graceful figure and natural blond hair over Alicia's any day.

The one thing Alicia did have in her favor that might have intimidated Del was that she knew how to flirt. Did Delaney mistake his friendliness and think he'd flirted back with the other woman? Or was he totally off target and he had done something else to make Delaney mad at him?

Unable to sleep that night, he tossed the blankets on his bed aside, sat up, redressed, and pulled on a pair of boots to go find out. But when he walked up the path toward the main house, he found most of the windows were dark. What if Delaney was already asleep? How would he get her attention without also waking Meghan?

Despite his restlessness he was about to turn back when he caught a slight movement out of the corner of eye. He glanced up at the top of the stable thinking he'd seen a bat, but then identified the figure sitting up there in the moonlight to be human. Who would be up on the roof at this time of night? And why?

The mysterious dark figure removed their cowboy hat and the moonlight illuminated a head of long, pale hair.
Delaney?

Intrigued, he changed course and headed straight into the building beneath her. Rio nickered a soft greeting and Jace ran a hand over the velvet end of his nose. Then he continued down the aisle and up the ladder to the hayloft. From there, an open window at the far end led him out onto a small balcony, from which he could finally make it up onto the roof.

“I don't want to startle you,” he said, keeping his voice low as he crept forward. “But I was wondering if you'd like some company?”

She spun with a jolt and for a moment Jace feared she'd fall over the edge to her death. His heart raced and he couldn't breathe. In fact, he almost slipped off the slanted shingles himself.

“Careful,” she said, pointing. “There are a few loose boards, and if you don't stay to the right, you might fall straight through and become stall mates with Rio.”

Keeping left, he made his way toward her. “Thanks for the warning.”

“What are you doing up here?” she asked, as if he were crazy for following her.

The moonlight lit her face enough so he could look straight into her eyes. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“I couldn't sleep.”

“Me neither.” He cleared his throat. “What did I do?”

“Nothing.”

He let out a soft chuckle. “Is
that
the problem? Did you
want
me to do something?”

“What do you mean?”

“Were you hoping for a kiss?” he prompted.

“What?” She did a double take, gasped, then sputtered, “Whatever would give you that idea?”

Oops.
Guess his confidence had tripped him up once again. “I thought you might have been a little jealous when you saw Alicia this morning.”

“Me?
Jealous?
” Delaney laughed and shook her head in disbelief. “To be jealous, that would mean that I would actually have to—­” She broke off and stared at him, then quickly glanced away.

“It would mean you would actually have to
like
me,” Jace finished, and an uncomfortable weight pressed in against his chest. “I guess there's no chance of that?”

Her gaze dropped to his mouth and back up to meet his gaze. “I—­I don't know.”

He nodded, and looked up at the moon, so full, so bright, so far away from them. They sat there in silence and he didn't expect Delaney to say anything more. Then she let out a half sob and said, “Sorry I avoided you today.” Then she let out a sigh. “My family is going to
kill
me.”

“Don't worry,” he said, letting her off the hook. “I'll still give you the endorsement.”

A single tear fell down her cheek and she swiped it away with the back of her hand and asked, as if in shock, “You will?”

“I'll write an official statement before I leave,” he assured her.

She continued to stare at him for several long seconds. Then she smiled.

“You have no idea what kind of trouble our family has had over the last few months,” she said, her tone rising with more enthusiasm with every word. “I was living in San Diego, Bree in New York, and Luke in the Florida Keys. We'd each left home one by one after graduating high school because our father, well, you've met him. He's got a gruff way about him and is always making us feel like we can never do anything right.

“Then he hired this ­couple, Susan and Wade Randall, to help him out and he made them his ranch managers. He didn't know it, but they'd been embezzling money, didn't get the building permits or hire on the summer crew they were supposed to, and put special supplements in the horses' grain so that my father's horse would throw him. We think they wanted my parents to sell the ranch to them but they didn't expect us kids to come home.”

Jace had never heard her say so much at once in all the time he'd spent with her and didn't want to stop her now. “Go on,” he encouraged.

“My father ended up in the hospital after his horse reared and when it was clear the ranch wouldn't survive without our help, Grandma agreed to divide the ownership of the ranch between us. She hasn't filed the official paperwork yet, but each month I've been getting my own share of the profits. Which is good because Meghan's father isn't paying any child support.”

“What?” Jace asked, thinking of his own mother and how she'd struggled. “You're supporting her on your own?”

“That's right,” Delaney said with a nod. “That's why I need my family's ranch to succeed. I wanted to be a veterinarian and work at the San Diego Zoo, but the closest I ever got was shoveling poop out of the cages.”

“You said you volunteer at an animal shelter?” he asked.

“Yes, but what I really want is to open one of my own,” Delaney said, her voice soft.

He nudged his shoulder against hers. “Like the one you're hiding in the woods?”

Delaney's eyes widened. “You know about that?” She didn't ask him how he knew, but continued. “I want one I don't have to hide, but it's the best I can do. My father thinks I should focus on the guests instead of the animals, but I have always found the animals more appreciative, and less judgmental.”

“They offer unconditional love?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “They do. Except I won't even be able to keep my little hideaway shelter if this ranch fails to bring in more profits. Susan and Wade Randall ran off in the middle of the night when Bree started looking into the ranch's financial books, but they still have all these other ­people who have been helping them to put us out of business. Maybe even the poachers who are trying to frame us. Bree hired a private investigator to track the Randalls, and he says it looks like Susan and Wade might be moving back into the area.”

“Why would they do that?” Jace shook his head. “Wouldn't they be afraid they'd be caught?”

“My grandma thinks they're a ­couple of half-­crazed vultures moving in for the kill.” She took his hand in hers and gazed at him with such intensity it rooted him to the roof so he couldn't move. “So you see why we need this endorsement? Without it, my family will lose the ranch and I don't know what will happen to us.”

“You'll need more than my endorsement,” Jace told her.

She nodded. “You're right. We'll need a miracle to survive against two other local outfitters offering outdoor activities. But if you let us use your name, and give us the endorsement we need, it would certainly help.”

“I'd love for you to use my name,” Jace said, and wondered how “Delaney Aldridge” would sound to her. He didn't ask, but instead, raised her hand to his lips and gave it a light kiss. “No strings attached. No conditions. No judgments.”

“I guess now you know why I couldn't sleep,” Delaney said, and smiled again. “What's your excuse?”