Page 44 of Ride Me Cowboy (Coyote Creek Ranch #1)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Beth

H E WASN’T WRONG ABOUT Nash. Beau’s music producer twin arrives the very next afternoon, presumably just about as soon as he could make it here from Phoenix. He arrives alongside a plume of high-speed dust, a slammed door, and a bellowed, “What the hell is going on?”

I’m the only one in the house, so there’s no one else to face the music but me. I stalk out to the kitchen to find him pouring a quick slosh of coffee from the machine into his mug. His body is a line of tension.

“Hey,” I say, so as not to startle him.

He whirls around. “Mackenzie’s gone viral and I’m the last one to hear about.”

“She’s gone viral?” I ask, pulling my phone out of my pocket. When I checked this morning, she’d had even more likes and comments, and our followers had exploded exponentially, but holy crap.

Nash is right.

When I check the ranch account again, the comments are flying in thick and fast. The hashtag ‘MackenzieSings’ is trending—Cassidy must have added that.

I don’t even realize I’m smiling ‘til I look at Nash and see the glower on his face.

“What’s the problem?” I ask. “This is good news, isn’t it? Great news for Mack.”

“She’s like a sister to me,” he says, jamming his hands on his hips, reminding me forcefully of Cole. “And I’m a music producer. Why the hell hasn’t she given me a demo or something?”

I grimace, and contemplate not answering—after all, this is up to Mack, not me.

But she’s probably already having a meltdown at the way things are turning out.

If I can pave the way a bit with Nash, that’s probably for the best. “She didn’t want you to think she was taking advantage of you.

I mean, if you hadn’t liked her music, it would have put you in a pretty awkward position. ”

He swears. “Not like it? Are you kidding? I’ve been looking high and low for Mackenzie, but holy hell, she’s the whole package.

She’s gorgeous and natural, her voice is totally unspoilt, she writes her own songs, she’s a music producer’s damn wet dream.

I am so angry with her right now, I can’t even tell you. ”

“Well, how about don’t be angry with her,” I say, laughing. “She can’t help being both talented and considerate.”

He glares at me like it’s the last concession he wants to make.

“And the good news is, now you know, and you can offer her some big fat recording contract or something.”

“You!” He says, and from the way he’s looking past my shoulder, I gather someone else has walked in. I spin around to see Mackenzie frozen just inside the door jamb, the color draining from her face. “Why the hell haven’t you shown me what you could do?”

Her eyes go wide, and she looks at me, appealing for help.

“We just went over that,” I say.

“This is between Mack and me,” Nash says, then grimaces. “Sorry, Beth, no disrespect intended.

I lift my hands up, to silently accept his apology. Then, Nash is moving closer to Mack, though he stops about six feet away. I watch, fascinated by what he’ll say next. It’s clear he’s hurt, that he feels like he’s the last one to find out.

“The others didn’t know either,” I rush to reassure him. “Cole, Beau, Austin, Caleb. It’s just Cassidy and me.”

“Cassidy knew?”

Whoops. I’ve dropped her in it now.

“I asked them both not to say anything,” Mack explains quickly.

“I only told Beth because I thought she might be able to use some of my music for backing tracks, for the videos. Because, you know, it’s hard to get good royalty free music.

I could give her music for nothing, and she could use it, and…

” her voice trails off, and she starts fidgeting her hands in front of her.

“I can’t believe you saw it and drove out here. ”

“Honey, the whole world’s seen it,” Nash says, but with his lips compressed in a line of impatience. “You’re what the internet calls a viral sensation. TikTok is full of remixes, those British girls have made a dance.”

“What?” she screeches, and she looks so incredibly pale I think she might actually pass out.

Nash is one step ahead of me, though, putting a hand on Mack’s elbow and guiding her across to the kitchen table, drawing out a seat. “My guess is, you’re going to have an inbox full of offers by nightfall.”

“How can people…I don’t understand,” she shakes her head as she sits down uneasily.

I go to get a glass of water then change my mind and pull a bottle of wine from the fridge.

Austin was telling us about it last night—this time a Riesling.

I pour a handy measure for Mack and carry it across to the table.

“She can’t drink that, she’s only twenty.”

“Desperate times,” I murmur, and Mack throws me a look of gratitude.

“Like you never drank before you were twenty-one,” she snaps at Nash, grabbing the glass of wine and taking two big gulps. But I get her a glass of water as well. Her hands are trembling.

We hear the door closing and voices in the hallway, before they erupt into the kitchen.

“Nash!” Austin says, breaking off whatever he’d been talking about with Caleb and Cole. My gaze, as always, effortlessly shunts to Cole’s and something clicks in place inside me, something I can’t fathom but can’t deny. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think? Staking my claim, that’s what.”

Mack flinches visibly in response to that, then reaches for the glass of wine.

I haven’t known Cassidy that long, but I feel an urgent need to get another Mackenzie ally into this room, someone who can go toe to toe with all these guys and not lose her cool; someone who’s been putting them in their place as long as she’s been alive.

I slip from the room quietly as Nash goes through his grievances all over again.

I hear him enumerating how disappointed he is, how he’ll be the laughingstock of the record label community if it gets out his kid sister—more or less—was sitting right under his nose, the biggest undiscovered talent in country music in a decade.

I find Cassidy out in the rose garden, a pair of scissors in one hand, a big basket of blooms on the ground beside her.

“Hey, Beth,” she smiles at me, lifts her non-scissor wielding hand in a wave.

I think she’s about to say something else by way of greeting, but I cut her off, “We need you inside.”

Worry immediately takes over her features, so I feel a kick of remorse. This is a woman who’s lost a mother, and a father, and has lived through the torment of Beau’s accident.

“Everyone’s okay,” I hasten to add. “But Nash is here.”

“Thought I saw his truck,” she says.

“Well, he’s in there, reading Mackenzie the riot act for not sending him a demo, or even telling him she could sing, and she looks like she’s about to pass out or be sick and I thought you could—,” I taper off, waving my hands around in front of me.

“Yeah, I can handle Nash.” As she walks past me, she squeezes my hand in hers. “Thanks for coming to get me, Beth. We’re all gonna miss you when you go.”

The reality of that is something I really don’t like to contemplate, and I don’t have the bandwidth for it right now.

I follow closely behind her, around to the front door, inside, through the corridor and to the kitchen.

The scene is the same—the brothers and Caleb locked in conversation, with Mackenzie sitting at the table, staring straight ahead, glass of wine clutched in her hands like a lifeline.

“The wine was you?” Cassidy whispers, glancing at me.

I nod.

“Good. Her nerves must be shot to pieces. Nash can be a piece of work when he gets a bee in his bonnet.”

“I doubt that,” I say, before I can think twice. Because the truth is, I’ve known a true piece of work, and it was nothing like Nash. If anything, his indignant temper is kind of adorable. His feelings are clearly hurt by the sense he’s been left in the dark.

Cassidy’s eyes linger on my face a beat too long, yet again reminding me of Cole, then she’s striding into the room, lifting two fingers to her mouth and making the loudest, most ear-splitting whistle I’ve ever heard, and likely ever will.

“Jesus, I kind of need those to do my job, Cass,” Nash grumbles, pressing his fingers against his ears a few times.

“Right, you stop being such a jackass. This is Mack’s moment and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you swan in here and take the shine off of it.

We all know this girl deserves every good thing she can get outta life.

And if she loves music and wants it to be from that, then the only thing she’s gonna get from us is full-throated support. You got that?”

They all stare at Cassidy like she’s some dragon creature, protecting her young.

And that’s just exactly what she reminds me of.

I remember Mack saying that Cassidy fiercely protects her brothers, that she sees it as her job to keep them on the straight and narrow, and I realize now that her love and protection extends to Mackenzie, too.

A strange, heavy emotion washes over me. My mouth is raw.

I have never, and will never, know that kind of love.

Not like this. I can tell that it is drawn from the very depths of Cassidy’s soul, from a place that is all fire and flame, and I have no doubt, in that moment, that if she had to give up her life for Mackenzie’s, she would, without even a beat’s hesitation.

“I said,” she roars, “Y’all got that?”

They all mumble and nod, except for Cole, who just stares her down, before turning to Mack. “We’re happy for you, honey,” he says, and it’s so unusual for him to talk to Mack like anything other than a little tomboy sibling that my already-raw emotions start to wobble. I have to get out of here.

I slip out of the kitchen as Cole goes to talk to Mackenzie, and the others are distracted by Cassidy’s ongoing lecture.

Cole

Nash is sitting at the table, explaining some options to Mackenzie. Now the dust has settled, and everyone’s calmed down, he’s back to being Nash, and remembering who Mackenzie is to us.

He’s not pressuring her, but just explaining how the industry works, and what she could do if she wants to pursue this further. So far, I’ve heard him talk to her about just keeping it low key, launching her own social media channel, with her own music whenever she wants to share.

She says she wants to stay on the Coyote Creek Ranch account, which I can tell is just about helping us, rather than thinking of her own future. But I’m not about to go into all that with Nash here.

Then, he’s explained how it would work if she wants to sign with a label, or if she just wants to start going to perform at some festivals, get support on the ground.

I’m half listening, half wondering where the hell Beth’s got to, when I hear Caleb talking to someone at the front door.

“Beth McMahon? Do you mean Beth Tasker?”

“Tasker?” The woman’s voice answers, getting closer now, so I gather Caleb’s invited her into the kitchen. “That’s her maiden name. Why would she use that?”

Oh, shit.

Someone from Beth’s old life is here, and all I can think of is my girl.

Needing to get to her, to warn her, to protect her from this.

To keep our bubble wrapped around her for just as long as I can.

I know it’s just that—a bubble. Temporary, due to pop when she leaves this place, and in a way, I’m glad.

Because I can’t let Beth mean more to me than she already does.

If it weren’t for the time limits on this, I’d have broken things off weeks ago, because it’s too real, too much.

Even then, though, I know I have to keep her safe through this.

Elsie’s being here is Beth’s worst nightmare; I have to protect her.

“Maiden name? Are we talking about the same Beth?” Caleb asks, shooting me a quizzical glance as they step into the room.

The woman is slim and reminds me a lot of Beth on that first day.

It’s not ‘til this moment that I fully recognize how much Beth has changed. Back then, I felt like she belonged in some high-end fashion magazine, all prim, and completely untouchable. Over the last couple of months, she’s morphed into something so much more familiar.

It’s not just her clothes and hair, but everything about her.

“Beth, my sister-in-law,” the woman snaps impatiently, tapping a manicured hand against her phone and opening it up to show a picture to Caleb.

I don’t intend to go look and yet, somehow, my legs carry me across the room and I’m staring back at a picture of Beth on her wedding day.

The guy beside her looks nice enough. Blonde, blue eyes, holding her tight, smiling like he’s won the greatest prize in the world.

Oh, Beth.

“This is Coyote Creek Ranch, right?” she asks, jabbing the phone back in her pocket.

“That’s Beth, alright,” Caleb says, meeting my eyes with another quirk of his lips.

From the kitchen table, Mackenzie is also looking at me. “Beth’s married?”

I close my eyes briefly against what I know’s coming next.

“ Was married,” Elsie’s voice trembles a little. “My brother died a while back.” She clears her throat. “Five months ago.”

“I’m real sorry to hear it,” Caleb murmurs.

“She didn’t tell you?”

Caleb looks lost.

“I guess she didn’t feel like she could,” Elsie says, a little witheringly. “Where is she?”

“Well, I can’t say I know.” Caleb says with a small shrug. “Her office, maybe?”

“Which way?” Elsie asks.

My heart pounds. I can’t let Beth be ambushed like this.

I can’t let her get caught out, unawares.

She’s not prepared to see this woman. Hell, I know she doesn’t want it.

She came here to run away; why won’t they just let her do that?

She’ll go back to New York when she’s good and ready; New York has no business comin’ here.

“I reckon she said something about heading to the rose garden,” I lie, surprised my voice comes out somewhat smooth.

“I’ll show you,” Caleb offers, clearly a glutton for punishment.

“Thank you,” Elsie sniffs.

The second they leave, I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Beth’s number, but it goes to voicemail. I swear under my breath.

“I’ll help,” Mackenzie offers, though I can tell she’s confused, because she—like the rest of these guys—had no idea Beth was recently widowed. But she clearly sees some of the concern in my expression, and wants to help however she can.

I watch Mack’s retreating back for a moment before I start to run, faster than I’ve run in a long time, toward the one place I hope Beth has known to go.