Page 5 of Unforgettable Cowboy (Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys #1)

“I spend holidays here. And I flew Wade to the National Finals Rodeo every year.” Even when he wasn’t competing in the event. “You know, I get the feeling that you’re trying to make me responsible for the state of the ranch.”

She shook her head. “Not at all. I know Wade. He’s both stubborn and prickly.

My mom used to call him ‘that gruff old son of a bitch,’ but she really liked him, even before he helped her out.

” She studied the table, her fingers lightly gripping the coffee mug.

“He pretty much saved us that summer we worked here. He’s good at giving help, but he’s not good at asking. ”

“I’m kind of aware of that.”

She raised her gaze and Hayes was struck by the seriousness in her expression.

“Great. Also be aware of this: he’s getting older, Hayes.

Even if Parker comes back at one hundred percent, he’s going to need more help around the ranch.

” She paused, possibly for effect, then said, “We both know that he’s never going to ask for help. ”

*

“I don’t need more help.” Wade gathered the sheet in his weather-beaten fingers. “I need to get out of here.”

“And you will. Just as soon as I can jailbreak you.” As he’d suspected, his question about the state of the ranch had not gone over well. Wade had bristled and his monitor had shown his blood pressure creeping up, so Hayes backed off, saying simply, “In the meantime, I’ll see to business for you.”

He’d already explained about leaving his job, which Wade agreed was the only thing he could do.

No good ever came of working for a corporate ranch.

He hadn’t minded Hayes seeing to the daily chores while he was in the hospital, but balked at the idea of Hayes staying until Parker was back on the property.

“I’m not tying up your life with my problems. How’s Bailey?” Wade said the last words on a less gruff note.

“Kind of startled her when I pulled in last night.” An understatement. “She says she’s been there since July?”

Wade nodded and reached for a cup of ice water, sipping it through a straw. “I hate hospitals.”

As did he.

After setting the cup back on the table, his movements painfully slow, Wade settled his head on the pillow and Hayes noted his uncle’s eyelids were starting to droop. He had no idea whether Wade was tired or if there were pain medications in his drip.

“How’d she come to work for you? The last I heard she was somewhere in Wyoming.”

Wade’s mouth curved into an ironic smile. “I needed help.” The smile faded. “There’s something going on with her.”

“Yeah? What?”

“Dunno.” Wade’s eyelids drooped until the short lashes touched his cheeks, then they slowly came open again. He frowned as if wondering where he was. Definitely drugs in the drip.

“Bailey,” Hayes reminded his uncle gently.

“Right.” Wade gave a little snort that might have been a reminiscent laugh. “She stopped to say hello and to tell me that she was living on the old homestead. Her mom always liked me, you know.” Wade’s eyelids began to succumb to gravity again.

“Who doesn’t?” Hayes asked, earning a weak smile.

“She asked about boarding her horse. My day hand had just quit and I asked if she wanted to do a trade. Part-time work in exchange for board. She said yes.”

“Okay.” Kind of a sketchy explanation, but Hayes could fill in the blanks. The important ones anyway—with the exception of “something going on with her.”

“That palomino is a real beauty…”

The last words slurred as his eyes drifted shut again. A few seconds later his breathing became steady.

Hayes stood studying his uncle’s face, now relaxed with the exception of the permanent frown drawing his still-dark eyebrows together. Despite the wind and weather, he didn’t look much different to the way he had back when he’d taken in Hayes and his brothers.

Clean living, no doubt.

Hayes shook his head at the thought. Wade Matthews had been a hell-raiser before becoming guardian to Hayes and Trev, then foster father to Jordan, who’d fit neatly between Hayes and Trev age-wise.

Wade’s hell-raising had stopped, but try as he might, he hadn’t been able to keep his charges from following in his footsteps.

Now as Hayes studied his uncle, he knew that Bailey had been totally correct when she’d schooled him that morning.

Wade had been the same for so long that it was kind of a shock to realize that even his seemingly invincible uncle had changed with time.

When Wade gave his second uneven snore, Hayes quietly got out of his chair and headed toward the door. His uncle stirred in his sleep and muttered something that sounded like, “Get me out of here.”

“Soon as I can.”

And maybe, once Wade understood the limited extent of his mobility, he’d listen to reason. Hayes didn’t think his stubborn uncle had many other options.

*

Jenna and Bailey had agreed to keep contact to a minimum while Bailey was in possession of Dakota Sunshine.

Even coded messages would be few and far between due to the possibility of Chance getting his hands on Jenna’s phone.

Or a lawyer demanding phone records as they fought to decide ownership of the mare.

Déjà vu, Bailey thought as she loaded her gear into the back of the side-by-side for the trip off the mountain where she’d been checking fences that day while Hayes visited his uncle.

Bruce had kept tabs on her mom. She didn’t know if he’d trespassed on her mom’s phone, but she wouldn’t have put it past the man.

And then he’d just up and left, leaving her mother shell-shocked.

Bailey could still recall the conflicting emotions that had swamped her when they’d realized that Bruce’s clothing and tools were gone.

Relief that there would be no more walking on eggshells battled with the very real fear that she and her mom would end up homeless.

Bruce had not wanted his wife to work, and they’d managed well on his electrician’s salary, although you wouldn’t have known it from the way he verbally raged when the mood struck him.

Rages were then followed by charming overtures and the assurance that all he wanted was the best for his family. He was the best and their life should be the best. And it was all on Bailey’s mom’s shoulders to make that happen.

It’d been nuts to watch her independent mother become more and more dependent on the seemingly charming man who’d taken over her life. Bailey hadn’t liked it one bit, but she’d had no clue how to handle matters other than to do as Bruce said to avoid yet another blowup. At least he never hit them.

Bailey had just turned eighteen when Bruce walked out, solving the dilemma of whether she could leave her mom alone with the man when she went to college. But his absence left a financial hole. A huge financial hole. Wade Matthews to the rescue.

Bailey and her mom had gone to work on the Tree Fork Ranch within weeks of Bruce’s departure—Bailey until the end of the summer, her mom full-time. And that was how she met Hayes.

What a beautiful summer that had been—working, flirting and eventually giving in to the amazing attraction between them. It was the point when she considered putting off college for a year to see how things worked out that scared her into realizing that she was getting in too deep, too fast.

She was not falling into the trap of giving up her plans, her life, for a guy.

She still adhered to that rule. She’d met good men and had good relationships. Those relationships might have been a touch shallow, but she felt comfortable in that end of the dating pool. A little fun, some companionship, and then she’d be on her way, no harm, no foul.

The side-by-side bumped over a log hidden in the tall grass and Bailey slowed her speed.

She shifted course to drive past the decrepit line cabin and check the water tank there.

The line needed to be cleaned, which she’d tackle the next day unless it rained.

And then there was the matter of the sluggish ditch.

The culvert needed to be reamed out. After that, there were fence posts to replace.

Hayes said he was going to either stay on the property or help Wade find temporary help until Parker returned.

That freed her up to head out in a couple of weeks as planned without feeling guilty about leaving another Matthews man hanging.

She only wished she’d hear from Jenna soon.

She couldn’t exactly leave if her friend didn’t have a new hiding place for Dakota Sunshine.

*

The palomino really was something, just as Wade had said. And there was something going on with Bailey…just as Wade had said.

After returning to the ranch from the hospital, Hayes had unloaded the groceries he’d bought, then headed out to the barn to check the roan mare, and to get a better look at the freeze brand on the palomino’s left shoulder.

The roan was walking better, and it hadn’t taken much to track down the owner of the Palomino’s brand, a guy he knew fairly well from the rodeo circuit, a big-time tie-down roper—Chance Meyers.

A guy who seemed okay on one level but was just a little too slick and arrogant for Hayes to really warm up to the man.

Had Bailey bought the mare from Chance?

Probably.

On a hunch, Hayes pulled out his phone and logged into the social media account on which he’d posted one picture back in 2016.

Chance, it turned out, was a more avid user.

Hayes didn’t have to scroll too far through Chance’s testament to his own personal glory before finding a photo of the mare with the caption “Have You Seen This Horse? If so pleez DM.”

Pleez?

Really?

Hayes felt his stomach sink as he closed the site and once again tucked his phone away. Apparently, there was something going on with Bailey.

After an hour of debating possibilities as he drilled screws into loose soffit boards, he heard the side-by-side.

His cowgirl was back. He climbed down the ladder and then ejected the drill’s battery, taking it into the barn to place on the charger before returning to watch Bailey pull into the yard.

She pulled the tool bag out of the back to stow in the barn in case of rain, and walked toward him, one side weighed down by the heavy canvas carryall. Hayes automatically reached for it when she got close and to his surprise, she allowed him to take it.

“Did you see Wade today?” From her tone he could tell that Bailey did indeed have a soft spot for his cranky old uncle.

“I did. Braved the hospital smells to do so.” Not smells he was fond of after his few emergency room visits following bronc wrecks.

“How is he?”

“Loopy from the drugs. They told me that he’ll be home within the week.”

“Good.”

Remembering her lecture that morning, he added, “I met with the staff arranging care. Someone will travel to the ranch to help him with rehab and bathing and such for a couple of weeks.”

“Full-time?”

Hayes shook his head. “A couple hours a day.”

“Are you going to handle the cooking and cleaning and be on call while working the ranch?” she asked dubiously.

Hayes had an answer to that question—he hoped. “I’m going to hire a housekeeper-caretaker. Before he gets home.”

“That will be interesting.” She cocked her head. “Are you staying like you said?”

She was surprisingly protective of old Wade.

“I don’t have anything waiting for me.”

Her eyebrows lifted, but instead of asking questions that Hayes didn’t care to answer, she reached for the tool bag. “I’ll put this away, then head home to engrave some silver.”

“Bailey?” She turned, a faint frown drawing her eyebrows together. He tilted his head toward the palomino mare sunning herself next to the barn.

“This mare.”

He didn’t think he imagined the way her cheeks paled, or the husky note in her voice when she asked, “What about her?”

“You wouldn’t happen to be a horse thief, would you?”