Western Hearts: A sweet, cowboy romance (Cowboys of Aspen Valley Book 1) Read online

  Kip’s voice made Nicole look up. All she saw of him was his outline silhouetted against the blue sky. He looked larger than life and, as he had the past couple of days, the sight of him lifted her heart. Being around him gave her the tiniest thrill.

  It’s the whole rugged-man thing that he carries off so well with his piercing gaze and smoldering looks, she thought, trying to pull back and analyze her reaction.

  And let’s not forget the cowboy hat.

  As well, despite the words he used, his tone of late had evened out. Shifted from antagonizing to teasing. He smiled at her a bit more often.

  Which didn’t help her situation one bit.

  “I go by height,” she said airily, trying to dismiss her reaction to him. “If it’s tall and healthy-looking, I figure it must be a weed.”

  “Gramma is helping,” Justin said, pointing to his grandmother, who sat on a bench at the end of the garden overseeing the operation. “She’s telling us what to pull.”

  Nicole glanced over the mat of green tangled plants. “It’s an ongoing battle,” she said.

  “The curse of the earth,” Kip replied. “Adam had to deal with it from the beginning.”

  “So why are we doing this instead of you?”

  Kip laughed, then reached over and yanked out a large-leafed plant. Pigweed, Mary had told her. “Because I’m tilling the ground on a different scale.”

  “At least you get to use a tractor.”

  “Air-conditioned, too,” he added, pointing to a bead of sweat working its way down her temple.

  She hurriedly wiped it away, suddenly self-conscious. Usually when she was talking to men she wore a suit, her hair was pinned back, and she had an attitude. Usually, she was in charge. Not on her knees with dirt under her nails and probably smears on her face.

  Despite that, she knew she felt more comfortable than she had around any man she’d met in a while.

  It was a distraction she couldn’t afford. She had her own plans, the culmination of which would mean her leaving with the boys he claimed were Cosgroves. That leaving would effectively kill any hint of attraction she sensed growing between them.

  And why did that bother her?

  “Have you ever done any gardening before?” Kip asked.

  “The closest my mother came to having a garden was when I brought home a bean plant in grade six.”

  “In a foam cup too, I’m sure.”

  Nicole laughed. “You too?”

  “I think it’s a classic.” He pulled another weed and tossed it aside. “So, you know what a bean plant looks like.”

  “I don’t know if I can think back that far.” She moved forward a bit more and reached for another weed just as he did. Their hands brushed each other, and she jerked hers back.

  And now you’re acting like you’re back in grade six again.

  He sat back on his heels, growing suddenly serious.

  Her heart shifted as she wondered what he was going to drop on her now.

  “I have a couple of favors to ask,” he said. “Tomorrow I promised a buddy that I would go help him do some welding, so would you mind watching the boys?”

  “So, you won’t be around?” she said. This would be a treat for her, not having him around.

  “Nope. Sorry. I know you’ll miss me like crazy, but a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do.” He smiled at her again, his eyes crinkling up in a way that was far too appealing.

  Nicole couldn’t help a chuckle at that. “Noble of you. But no, I don’t mind.” It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him if she could take the boys to town, but she thought she could save that for another time.

  He pulled out another weed, then pushed himself to his feet and walked over to his mother.

  “Good to see you out here,” she heard Kip say. Then she glanced over in time to see him crouch down beside her, touch her hand with his. Just a simple gesture, but it spoke to his relationship with his mother. And once again, Nicole felt a shimmer of envy.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked her.

  “A lot better. Nicole convinced me that I’d feel better if I went outside and she was right.”

  “Glad to hear that,” Kip said.

  He looked over at Nicole. “I know I don’t always say it the right way, but I do appreciate what you’ve been doing for us.”

  His compliment surprised her and, at the same time, settled into the part of her heart she had always kept safe. The part of her heart that had been bruised and disappointed too many times.

  “Gladly done,” was all she could manage. She wondered what Kip was like when he really poured on the charm.

  Then decided best not to find out.

  “I’m glad to know that.” This was accompanied by another smile, then he stood. “I better get back to work. Didn’t get as much done yesterday as I hoped.”

  “You got the fence fixed and went out on Duke,” Mary said. “You haven’t had a chance to go riding in months.”

  “Nope. I haven’t. Duke was a bit out of shape.”

  Nicole heard the longing in his voice. She wasn’t surprised. This morning Mary had told her that Kip used to practically live with the horses before Scott died.

  Then she had given Nicole a bright smile. “Thanks to you taking care of the boys, he’s able to go now,” she had said. Then Mary had launched into further stories from the past. How Kip, an A-plus scholar, had dropped out of school when his father died so he could take care of the ranch and his mother and Isabelle.

  Nicole had heard about all the work Kip took on when Scott left and how Scott had returned to the ranch with the two boys, which only made more work for him. How Kip provided for them all and how he worried about the financial well-being of the ranch.

  Mary showed Nicole pictures of Kip, but the one that stood out the most was a picture that had been taken when he won at the Ponoka Stampede. The photographer caught him standing on the chuck wagon, leaning forward, reins threaded through his hands as he urged his horses on. His gaze was intense and yet he exuded a joy and excitement that made her heart stutter.

  She saw, through the pictures and Mary’s stories, a side of Kip that she wasn’t sure she wanted to get to know. It was a side of him that created a mixture of sadness and admiration for the sacrifices he had made for his family and for the boys.

  Nicole knew she was in danger of seeing Kip as human. Caring. Compassionate.

  Trouble.

  “Do you think you’ll have a chance to enter a team in any of the races?” she heard Mary asking Kip.

  “Those times are over, Mom,” Kip said with a note of finality that made Nicole think back to the pictures.

  She stopped her thoughts, but even as she did, she chanced another look up. Kip was looking directly at her.

  He looked thoughtful, caring.

  She dragged her attention back to the gardening. She had to make another phone call to her father’s lawyer. Surely something had to have happened by now.

  She couldn’t stay here any longer than she had to.

  Chapter Nine

  “How are things between you and the cowboy?” Heather asked.

  Nicole tucked the phone under her ear and sat down at the minuscule table that passed for a desk in her motel room. “And a good morning to you, too,” Nicole said to her assistant.

  “Sorry. Good morning back. I’ve been hanging around your dad too long,” Heather said with a laugh. “I tend to get straight to the point.”

  “May as well, there’s a lot to do. As for the cowboy, we’ve agreed to disagree,” was all she said, preferring not to talk about Kip.

  Yesterday he had been at his friend’s place, someone named Burke Prins, doing some welding, and today he’d been busy with the horses, which meant he wanted Justin and Tristan out of the way.

  She had been only too happy to oblige. Being around Kip confused her and frustrated her. His smile tilted her heart in the wrong direction.

  “Your father’s been putting major pressure on m
e to pressure you to find out what’s happening with the boys,” Heather said.

  “I don’t have anything to report.” Last week this would have frustrated Nicole, but part of her didn’t mind the time she spent with the boys without her father around.

  “This cowboy of yours. Will he give up the boys or will it get down to a battle?”

  “He’s not my cowboy, and even though we’ve come to a bit of a truce now, when push comes to shove, it will be a fight.” Nicole rubbed her forehead, not sure she wanted to imagine her and Kip in that situation. “He’s attached to the boys and they’re attached to him.”

  “Of course they would be. They spent most of their life with him. No thanks to his brother taking the boys away.”

  Nicole felt the same way, yet each day she was at the ranch gave her more insight into Kip’s life, gave her a bit more knowledge of him as a person.

  Made her more attracted to him.

  “By the way, I stopped in at your place. Did you know your dad is fixing up Hayes’s old room for the boys?”

  A shiver danced down Nicole’s spine. Hayes’s room hadn’t been touched or changed since she left all those years ago. It was left like a shrine, as if waiting for her return.

  “I suppose that’s a good sign. It means he’s moving on.” At the same time, it created an extra layer of pressure that Nicole couldn’t deal with yet.

  “I may as well warn you, your father is doing more than fixing up the room. He’s got me checking out private detective agencies.”

  “That seems a bit extreme.”

  “Nothing else is happening. Kip’s lawyer seems to be stalling out and your dad’s getting antsy.” Heather sighed, and Nicole was sure her assistant was on the receiving end of some of her father’s frustration.

  “Change of subject,” Nicole said abruptly. “I’m still waiting for a quote from the caterer, and the venue’s been making noises about an increase in costs. I’m looking into a few alternatives just to keep them on their toes.”

  “You do realize that I’m perfectly capable of doing that,” Heather reprimanded.

  “I’ve got to do something while I’m waiting for visits.”

  “I’ll call the lawyer again and put more pressure on him, and you should stop worrying about the fund-raiser. I do have some experience with this.”

  Nicole knew that, but the fund-raiser was a major source of income and prestige for the foundation. And the foundation was her father’s passion, the only way he could keep the memory of his beloved wife alive. Nicole’s work for the foundation was one of the ways she had found she could maintain a connection to her father.

  “You just develop some kind of relationship with those boys,” Heather said, “so it’s not such a shock to them when they come here. I’ll take care of what I can over here.”

  Nicole was reassured by the authority in Heather’s voice. Not if the boys come back, when they come back.

  Nicole said goodbye, then got up and walked over to the window. From here, all she could see was the parking lot of the hardware store beside the motel. If she stepped outside, she could see the sun setting behind the mountains beyond the town, and for the faintest moment, she felt a longing to go back to the ranch that had nothing to do with the boys.

  Things were shifting between her and Kip. Her loyalties were getting strained. She had to get back in control of the situation. Starting now.

  She picked up the phone and dialed.

  Kip answered on the first ring, and she plunged in.

  “Hey there. I want to run something by you.”

  “Uh…okay?”

  “I’d like to take the boys to the Calgary Stampede tomorrow,” she said.

  Silence followed her request. She chafed at the pause, feeling like she was a minion begging for favors. The boys were as much hers as Kip’s. Even though Hayes was her adopted sister, she was still her sister.

  “What time would you be coming for them?” he asked.

  Nicole was taken aback. She thought he would fight her on this. “I was hoping to pick them up at eleven and spend the day at the Stampede, then take them on the midway.”

  “That’s more than the usual time,” he said. “But I guess—”

  “I’d like to think I am due more than the usual time,’” she interrupted with some asperity, trying to create some distance. The sound of his deep voice sent shivers down her neck and she wasn’t sure what to do about that.

  “Of course. I understand. What time did you figure on being back?”

  “I hope to be back by nine o’clock in the evening. Of course, that would depend on traffic.” She wanted to sound in charge and firm, but at the same time, part of her was tired of the antagonism between them. She didn’t like it and was hoping they could find a better way to interact.

  And she knew some of that was on her as well as him.

  This netted her another thoughtful pause on his end. “Just a minute. I need to arrange a few things.” She heard his muffled conversation. Which made her wonder what he had to ‘arrange’?

  “Okay. That could work,” he said when he came back to the phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good. And, well, thanks for doing this.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m glad you thought of it. I’ve been hoping to take the boys sometime, but it’s been a busy summer.”

  “I’m sure, what with your mother and all.”

  “Yeah, and all.” He was silent a moment. “The boys will be thrilled. I’ll let them know.”

  A silence followed his comment and Nicole wasn’t sure what else to say.

  Goodbye, she thought and yet a part of her wasn’t quite ready to end the conversation.

  “Thanks again. I’m glad it’s okay with you.”

  “No problem. Like you said, you’ve more than earned some extra time. You’ve been a great help to the family the last few days. Again, I appreciate it.”

  His thanks warmed her heart.

  “Then we’ll see you Saturday.”

  He ended the call, and she held the phone a moment as if capturing the conversation.

  Then she smiled at the thought of spending the day with the boys.

  All by herself.

  But even as she formulated that thought it was chased by the tiniest touch of regret.

  It would have been kind of fun if Kip came along.

  She pushed that thought aside. She had been thinking about him too much lately. Time to focus on what was more important.

  Making her father happy by bringing the boys back.

  Saturday morning dawned with a spill of bright sunshine and a clear blue sky. Nicole smiled as she drove to the ranch, thinking of her day alone with Justin and Tristan. She was looking forward to a break from the tension of constantly being around Kip and his family. The feeling that she was taking them away. The mixed loyalties that ensued because of that.

  She needed to feel like the boys were part of her family. Needed to spend some time one-on-one with them.

  When she pulled into the ranch yard, the familiar sight of the house nestled against the tree-covered hills rolling upward to the mountains created anticipation.

  She was going to see the boys, her boys, again.

  And behind that, the thought that maybe Kip would be around.

  As always, a small part of her held back committing all her emotions. People left, she reminded herself.

  When she stepped out of the car and the boys came barreling down the stairs toward her, however, she ignored her innate wariness, bent over and pulled them into her arms and into her heart.

  They smelled like hay. “Have you been helping your Uncle Kip haul hay again?” she asked, pulling back.

  “We were playing on the bales,” Justin reported. “Uncle Kip had to do some welding, so he said we had to stay away. Because welding is bad for our eyes.”

  “That’s good thinking.” Nicole pulled out a handkerchief and wiped a smear of jam from the corner of Justin’s mouth. “Looks
like you had lunch already,” she said with a touch of disappointment. She had hoped to get them something to eat at the Stampede.

  “Just enough to take the edge off,” Tristan said. “At least that’s what Gramma told me.”

  “Great. Now you boys stay here inside my car and don’t move an inch. I want to say hi to your grandma, and when I come back, we’re going.”

  She buckled the boys in, then fairly flew up the stairs to the house. She was going to have so much fun. She was going to spoil these boys absolutely rotten.

  Then, just as she stepped onto the verandah, the door opened, and Kip stood before her. He wore a clean shirt that looked ironed. His blue jeans were crisply new, and he had shaved, making him look less gruff and more approachable. His hair, still damp from a shower, curled over his forehead and around his ears. He looked even more appealing than he usually did.

  He held a cowboy hat in his hand that looked like it had seen better days.

  Authentic, she thought.

  Nicole pushed down her reaction and forced herself not to take a step back. “I want to say hello to your mother,” she said, hating the breathless tone in her voice. “I’ll just be a minute, then I’ll be leaving.” She ducked around him, catching a whiff of laundry soap and aftershave. She wondered where he was headed, looking so spiffy.

  A date? But he was always talking about how busy he was.

  Why do you care?

  Nicole pushed open the door of the porch and stepped into the house.

  Mary Cosgrove stood by the sink, leaning on her walker with one arm, doing dishes with her free hand. It looked awkward and uncomfortable, and Nicole had to resist the urge to help her. But she was glad to see her up and about.

  “Hey, Mary. I’ve come to say hello,” Nicole said.

  Mary glanced up with a welcoming smile. “Well, that’s kind of you. As you can see, I’m using my walker.”

  “That’s great.” Nicole frowned as Mary washed another plate one-handed. “Where’s Isabelle?”

  “She’s in the bathroom.”

  Hayes used to do that, Nicole thought. Her little sister could make a bathroom break stretch out long enough to miss loading the dishwasher and cleaning up the kitchen. Her mother always let her get away with it.