Page 11 of Unforgettable Cowboy (Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys #1)

“A caretaker.”

It was the second time that Wade had said the words, as if expecting Hayes to say “Just kidding” if he repeated them enough times.

The truck rolled to a gentle stop at the hospital exit, where Hayes waited for a woman pushing a stroller to cross in front of him. She waved her thanks and Hayes started the truck moving again, wincing as the front tire hit a pothole.

“Are you doing okay?”

Wade, who had the front seat pushed back as far as possible to accommodate his injured leg, gave a solemn nod. “Fine and I don’t need a caretaker.”

“She’s more of a housekeeper who helps if you need it.”

“They said I could move around the house.”

“In a limited way. It’s not like you’re going to be doing housework and cooking, and until we hire a guy, I’m not going to have time to do that either.”

Wade let out a disgusted breath and turned to look out the side window as Hayes pulled up to the light.

The rodeo was a week away and the shops were starting to decorate.

Trev was due to arrive home in a few days, and Jordan on the first day of the rodeo since he was cheering rather than competing.

Hopefully Estelle would still be working for them at that time.

If not, then Hayes was going to have to come up with plan B, which at the moment was a blank page. He had no plan B.

“I don’t want someone getting in my way. Cramping my style.” Wade’s dark eyebrows were almost touching.

Hayes frowned back. “I think your style is mostly going to be being immobile.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Hayes wished he would have been able to hire someone a bit burlier than petite Estelle Mendoza, because it was possible he was going to have a fight on his hands when it came to making his uncle follow orders.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Wade said, speaking to the side window, “I appreciate why you hired someone, but…” he sent an accusing look at his nephew “…you should have conferred with me.”

“So that you could have said, ‘No way in hell’?”

Wade nodded. “Exactly.”

Hayes was about to tell his uncle that this was a temporary thing when he spotted a cowboy wearing a distinctive blue-gray felt hat ambling down the sidewalk. He didn’t get a good look at the man’s face before he ducked through the door of Grey’s Saloon, but Hayes was certain he knew that hat.

“What’s wrong?”

“I thought I recognized the guy. I didn’t.” Lots of people could have a hat that color, he assured himself. He was only concerned that it might be Chance Meyers because Bailey never left his freaking thoughts.

“Who didn’t you recognize?”

“A tie-down roper Trev competes against.”

Wade made a scoffing sound. “Wouldn’t be that unusual to see a competitor in town what with the rodeo coming up. Speaking of which, am I going to be able to go? Or are you going to confine me to the house?”

“We’ll do our best to get you out of the house.”

They rode in silence until Hayes passed the city limits. Then his uncle exhaled.

“You understand, right?” Wade spoke with the same gruff softness he’d used when one of his boys was hurting and needed to be propped up. “You’ve been beat up by a bronc or two. Got confined when you didn’t want to be.”

“I might get beat up again at the Copper Mountain, and then we can heal together and be glad that we have a housekeeper.”

Wade gave a small harrumph. “I appreciate your help. You know I do. I just hate the idea of someone being in my house.” He never minded Vera in his house, but Vera had known how to work around Wade, and she wasn’t called upon to help him get out of a chair.

“Only for a while. Estelle will be there either until you’re out of the cast and can take care of yourself during the day or until the Parkers return.”

“Estelle?” Wade’s expression seemed frozen when Hayes glanced at him.

“Mendoza?”

Wade let out a strangled sound.

“What?” Hayes gave him a confused look.

“Total battleaxe.”

“Estelle Mendoza? Five foot three maybe? A hundred and ten pounds?”

“Force of nature.”

Hayes figured his uncle had to be joking but another quick look assured him that he was dead serious. WTF?

“She’s the only applicant and you need her.

” Hayes spoke more sternly than he’d probably ever spoken to Wade, and surprisingly, Wade didn’t argue.

He was quiet for the rest of the way home, leaving Hayes to wonder if they were indeed speaking of the same woman.

It also left him time to wonder if the guy wearing the expensive hat was indeed Chance Meyers, or if having the palomino on the ranch was making him see things.

While negotiating the challenges of getting his uncle out of the truck and into the house, Hayes made a decision. Once Wade was in his chair, with his phone, the remote and a bottle of water, Hayes said, “If you’re okay, I’m heading out for a bit. Shouldn’t be more than an hour.”

“Kind of late to be working.”

They were going to talk about that later. How it would take days of overtime to get the ranch back into shape. Hayes and whoever else was on the ranch would be putting in lots of late hours.

“Not working. I have something to discuss with Bailey.” Wade gave him a look that made Hayes wonder just how much his uncle really knew about the palomino.

“Now that I have my faculties, I have a question,” Wade said in a milder voice than usual.

“What’s that?”

“Are you okay with me hiring Bailey? I mean…” He let his voice trail rather than state what they both knew to be true. Despite his stoic mask, Hayes had been devastated when she’d dumped him.

“Fine with it.” Hayes managed to sound nonchalant as hell, which probably made Wade’s radar go up. Oh well. “Call me if you have any issues.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Hayes gave a ha-ha twist of his lips then glanced at the clock over the television. “Jess—” the rehab guy “—will be here at six and I’ll be back by then.”

Wade simply nodded and leaned his head back. “Next time I go off a horse, I’m going to take great care not to break anything.”

Hayes coughed. “Yeah. Me, too.”

*

Edna, the animal shelter lady, called just after Bailey arrived home from a full day of pulling old wire out of mud and brush.

“I have a few dogs coming in,” she said after identifying herself. “They’ll be evaluated, and if they don’t need fostering, then, well, you might find yourself that travel companion.”

“That’s great news.” Bailey enjoyed her solitude, but there were limits.

And that damned bird in the barn kept startling her.

She hadn’t been this hypervigilant before moving back to the homestead, but there was something about the isolation and the old memories that kept her on edge after the sun went down.

Maybe it was remembering the uncertainty of her household as the end of the workday approached.

Would Bruce come home in one of his amiable moods?

Or would he need to take a bad day out on her mother by pointing out all the many ways she’d failed him?

“I’ll be in contact when I know more,” Edna said.

“Thank you. By the way, have you caught the backpack-stealing dog yet?” He might also be a candidate for travel companion if he didn’t have a home.

“Not yet.”

“Good luck with that.”

Bailey ended the call and sat back in her chair, studying the earrings she’d just completed, silver teardrops with blue Montana Yogo sapphires set in the centers.

These would go quickly. Tomorrow, she’d photograph them for her online store and the scrapbook she kept on her display table at shows.

She got out of her chair, stretched, then stilled at the sound of the diesel engine moving closer.

What the heck?

Deliveries were made in the barrel on the county road. No one, save Jim Reed, the farmer, had driven into her property via the main driveway since she’d been there and that had only been once, because he always took the shorter back road between his place and hers.

She went to the portal window and pushed back the stiff curtain but didn’t have the right angle to see the drive. She dropped the curtain and started for the door.

Maybe it was Jim, stopping to check something in the fields on his way home from Marietta?

It had to be.

She slipped out of her trailer, hating the fact that she felt vulnerable, and stepped to the corner where she could see the truck approaching.

It was not Jim’s. She squinted against the setting sun, which was just above the treetops, then her shoulders sank in relief as she recognized Hayes’s truck.

Said relief quickly dissipated as she began to wonder why Hayes was there.

He should be at home helping Wade settle in.

She crossed the weedy patch that used to be a lawn to meet him after he parked.

“How’s Wade?”

“Stewing about incarceration.” He pulled the keys from the ignition and dropped them on the seat. “Got a minute?”

“Sure.”

Hayes got out of the truck and closed the door, looking very much like a man about to deliver bad news. And he did, without preamble. “I’m not certain, but I might have seen Chance Meyers in town.”

Bailey’s nerves jumped. Shit. Really?

But her voice was cool when she said, “That’s understandable.

It’s almost rodeo weekend.” She’d known going in that she would see the man at the Copper Mountain Rodeo events.

More than once, probably. She could handle it.

He had no reason to suspect that she had a hand in the disappearance of the mare he wanted to steal from her friend.

Hayes studied her in a way that told her he wasn’t fully buying her casual bravado.

“I can handle it,” she said.

“Yeah?” Hayes’s lack of conviction was starting to annoy her.

“If I come face-to-face with Chance, it won’t be until the rodeo, with tons of people around. I’m not worried. I mean do you really think he’s going to force a confession out of me in front of an audience?”

“What if he comes here?”

A scenario that had played through her head once or twice, but she always talked herself out of the possibility. “He has no way of knowing where I live.”