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She chuckled. “He walked in on the tail end of me screaming when some arrogant-ass cowboy hung up on me. I told Daniel I needed to take some time off to go back home. He acted all hurt and said he’d wanted to take me to dinner tonight! Tell me, why am I a magnet for unwanted affection from creepy stalker men?” Not that Daniel was creepy, but lately the stalker part fit him well.
The blonde sitting across from her smirked. “Lucky, I guess.”
“Oh, very funny. I need a vacation, need to see my dad, and I need to get out of here today.”
“Let me handle everything. I’ll have you on a flight to Wyoming before dinner.”
“Thank you so much. You’re a life saver.” Ally relaxed back in her cushy leather chair, running her fingers through her hair while her secretary shut the door quietly behind her.
Chapter Two
“Hey,muchacho, you gonna catch up?”
From the back of the line, Matt Gentry glanced up and shielded his eyes from the sun. One of his ranch hands sat turned around in his saddle, looking at him. “I’m fine right where I am, Rodriguez. Somebody needs to keep an eye on you troublemakers.”
Most times, he hung back a little and listened. They all thought he couldn’t understand when they rattled on in Spanish. He kind of liked that advantage, so he’d never admitted he was fluent.
“Aw, boss, you know we ain’t no problemo. Only lookin’ to makeun poco dinero. Can’t help you can’t play poker.”
“Yeah, we’ll see who can’t play poker. I was lettin’ y’all win. Bidin’ my time. Mark my words, the time to lose your dinero is comin’.” He glanced at the creek he and the men rode next to, the sun glinting on the gently moving surface. Not much farther to the grazing acres where they’d meet up with Jesse and the boys he’d taken for roundup.
“We’ll give you another chance tonight, boss,” Rodriguez’s partner Gomez said with humor.
“If y’all don’t stop jaw jackin’, we won’t make it back tonight toplaypoker. Rodriguez, you and Gomez ride on ahead and see if you can spot the others. We should be getting close.”
“Yes sir, boss.” The two men spurred their horses into a run.
Matt chuckled. They were pretty good guys—ornery but reliable at the same time. He had no complaints about any of them. Mostly, the men were all thankful to have jobs. Only every once in a while they’d get a drifter looking for a month or two worth of work and to stir up some trouble in the meantime, but for the most part, he got along with all the ranch hands and only pulled rank when necessary. The men seemed to respect his position as foreman.
He never liked to involve the old man in a barn scuffle unless it got serious or someone got hurt. Jesse loved his place, and no one would ever see a person work harder, from sun up to sun down and then some. Today had been no different, when he had insisted on taking a select group of men to start rounding up the cattle and their offspring, shifting them to closer pastures for the annual spring sale in Laramie.
And because he had taken off so early, Matt had gotten stuck talking to Ally Kincaid. Why was there always a boss’ daughter? They were nothing but trouble, and this one was quite a spitfire. To hear her dad talk about her—which was all the time—she was an angel. Matt wouldn’t ever believe it after their conversation this morning. She was more like an angel with horns—too much time spent in New York City had apparently pushed the cowgirl sweetness right outta her system. However, she did have a right sultry voice with a hint of country twang she tried hard to hide. He bet she’d be a spitfire in bed, too.Shit, man. Don’t go there. He needed to avoid the phone and pray she never came for a visit.
Over the ridge, the foreman spotted Rodriguez and Gomez standing alongside his boss and the others.
“’Bout damn time you showed up, Gentry. Where the hell you been?”
“Hey, someone’s gotta take care of the important stuff when you disappear into the sunrise.” Matt grinned at the inside joke—the old man was normally the first outta the house even before the rooster clucked, more than likely just to pisshimoff most days.
He moved to Jesse’s side for a more private conversation while the rest of the men led the horses downstream a ways to water them. “Got a call this morning from that breeder friend of yours in Cheyenne. Said he had a driver headed this way tomorrow, so he’ll deliver your Thoroughbred.”
Jesse slapped his dusty Stetson against his thigh then wiped his brow with his shirtsleeve. “Blast it all, did you tell him we were doing roundup and we wouldn’t be there?”
“I did, but he claimed he can’t wait ’til next week. He has a whole shipment of cattle coming in then and won’t have anybody to spare. It’s not a big deal. I’ll stick around tomorrow ’til they get here. I don’t want any of the guys dealing with that horse, anyway. From what I hear, he’s on the wild side, and we already know he’s not broke. It’ll give me some one-on-one time with him.”
“All right, if you say so. I’ll go out in the morning, and you can meet up with us whenever you can.”
The men were coming back with the horses, so Jesse turned to mount his chestnut mare. “Oh, shit. I almost forgot. Your daughter called, too—as I was walking outta the house. Little spitfire, she is.”
“Spitfire? Hell you say! Ally-cat’s my angel-girl.”
Angel my ass. “She’d have a hard time proving it by me.”
Jesse settled into his saddle. “What’d she say?”
He shrugged. “She never said what she wanted. Only that she was looking for you. She sure doesn’t sound like a cowgirl much, either, working hard to hide behind her New York attitude.”
“I’ll be damned. I’m shocked she even called me back.”
