Trusting the Cowboy Read Free Page A

words clipped.
    Lauren did not want to deal with this right now.
    “I’m going to presume it has to do with your agreement with my father,” she said, weariness tingeing her voice, dragging at her limbs. She felt as if she’d been fighting this exhaustion for the past year. The stress of losing her job and trying to start a new business, and now needing to fulfill the terms of her father’s will, had made every decision seem momentous. Impossible.
    “Can we talk now? Can I buy you a coffee at the Grill and Chill?”
    “Not really. I just want to get to the ranch.”
    “Meeting at the ranch would work better. We could do this right away.”
    This was certainly not the homecoming she had expected, but in spite of her fatigue she sensed he wouldn’t let go. “May as well get this over and done with,” she said.
    “I’ll meet you there in an hour.”
    Lauren nodded, then walked to the door, disconcerted when he pulled it open for her, standing aside to let her through.
    “Thank you,” she murmured, thankful she had worn her heels to see Drake Neubauer.
    Though she doubted they’d made an impression on the lawyer, as she glanced up at Vic she appreciated the advantage they gave her.
    The grim set of Vic’s jaw and his snapping brown eyes below dark, slashing brows sent a shiver down her spine that told her he would be trouble.

Chapter Two
    V ic parked his truck beside Lauren’s car and gave himself a moment to catch his breath, center himself. He rested his hands on the steering wheel and looked out over the Rocking M. The house stood on a rise of land overlooking the corrals below. The corrals and pasture eased toward the Saddlebank River on one side and the rolling hills leading to the mountains on the other. So often he had driven this yard, imagining his brother living here
    It was the promise he’d held out to Dean and himself that got him through the past ten months.
    A way to assuage his own guilt over the fact that he had been too late to get Dean off that rank bronc at the rodeo. As a pickup man, it was Vic’s job to get the riders safely off the horse as soon as he saw they were in trouble.
    But Vic had had other things on his mind that day. Other things that drew his attention.
    It had only been a few seconds, the smallest moment when Vic made eye contact with Dean’s ex-girlfriend Tiffany sitting in the arena a few feet away. Smiling at her. Thinking about how they could be together again. She had told him that she’d broken up with Dean. She had called out to him just before Dean’s ride and blown him a kiss.
    Then Vic had turned his head in time to catch the sight branded into his brain forever.
    The bronc Dean was riding spinning away from where he and his horse were, ready. The horse making another turn, crushing Dean’s leg against the temporary panels set up in the arena. Dean’s leg getting caught in the crossbars as the horse pulled away.
    Vic still heard his brother’s cries of agony, saw him writhing on the ground in the arena.
    The girlfriend walked away from both of them a week later. Dean started walking four months later.
    His brother still struggled with resentment and anger over what had happened.
    And Vic wrestled with a guilt that gnawed at him each time he saw his brother grimace in pain. Each time he listened to Dean talk about how Tiffany had broken his heart.
    Buying Keith McCauley’s ranch was supposed to fix all that.
    And now?
    Please, Lord, let that piece of paper be somewhere in the house. I need this place for Dean.
    The prayer surged upward as he eased out of the truck, heading up the walk, the futility of it clawing at him. He and Jodie had discussed it only briefly, but she hadn’t found any evidence of this agreement.
    Maybe she hadn’t searched hard enough, he thought as he trudged up the stairs to the house. Maybe his presence would coax it out of its hiding place.
    Keith hadn’t left anything about the lease agreement at Drake’s and he hadn’t given