Page 8 of Unforgettable Cowboy (Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys #1)

“I do some data entry work on the side during the slow times, but most of my income comes from selling buckles, bits and jewelry.” She couldn’t help the touch of pride in her voice. It had taken years to get to the point where her smithing was the main income instead of the side gig.

“You went to art school after all?”

She laughed. That had been something she’d wrestled with that summer before college, when Hayes had her ear. Art school was her dream, but being self-sufficient was her all-consuming goal. Art was chancy. Business was not.

“I majored in business, but it wasn’t all that satisfying, so I took an apprenticeship from a retired silversmith. I happen to have a knack for engraving and setting stones, and now I’ve got a pretty good client base.” She took hold of the brush in both hands. “How about you?”

“I retired from rodeo and went to work for a ranch.”

“But I heard that you’re riding in the Copper Mountain Rodeo.”

“Following my career?”

“No more than any other local guy’s.”

“Ouch.”

She bit the inside of her cheek, then let the smile through, even as her little voice whispered, “This is how it started last time.”

“You can take it,” she assured him.

He rubbed his chest where her punch had connected. “If you say so.”

Bailey eased back half a step, countering the urge to close the space between them.

This guy was like a magnet. “I’d better get to work.

I’m checking the north fence where that fire was a few years ago.

There are a lot of compromised posts that I’m flagging.

I’m also tacking wire back to them, but that’s temporary, of course.

It’s going to be an expensive job fixing all the weak spots. ”

“Great.”

She shrugged. “It’s not so far gone it can’t be saved, but you guys have work ahead of you.”

“I guess you can say that about a lot of stuff.” He met her eyes in a way that made her breath catch. What the heck?

Her imagination was getting the better of her.

She pulled her gloves out of her back pocket, gathering them in one hand. “I’m leaving an hour early today.”

Hayes lifted his eyebrows. “Have you checked with the boss?”

She gave him a mock-sweet smile. “Wade lets me set my own hours. I have to get to the post office before it closes. I don’t have delivery and I’m expecting some smithing supplies.”

“If I’m around, let me know when you take off.”

“Will do.” She touched her ball cap. “See you around four.”

*

Hayes glanced at his watch, then the field, hoping to see the side-by-side emerge from the timberline. It was past four and no Bailey, who had planned to leave early.

“Hayes!”

He turned to see Andy striding toward him.

“Yeah?”

“I need a couple more parts for the tractor.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “Got the numbers here. I’ll just shoot them to you.”

A split second later Hayes’s phone dinged. He read the list, then nodded. “I’ll head out shortly.” Thankfully the implement store stayed open late during harvest. If he couldn’t get Wade’s tractor back in operation, he’d have to wait until Jim had a spare to lend.

“I could try to use the smaller tractor, but it’s not in the best shape.”

Kind of becoming a theme on the Tree Fork.

“Yeah. We’ll get that one back on its wheels, too.” Hayes rubbed his neck. “How long to put the big one back in action?”

“You get the parts today and it should only take an hour or two tomorrow morning.”

“Great.”

Andy headed back to the tractor that had been acting up and climbed into the cab.

Hayes just hoped that it didn’t totally give up the ghost before they got the hay in.

He checked his watch again. Okay. He was going to have to go looking for Bailey.

Then he’d try to get to the parts store before closing.

He started for the barn where the quad was parked, when a flash of movement on the opposite side of the field caught his eye, and his taut muscles gave a little. It was Bailey, late but in one piece. The magnitude of relief he felt was stupid.

A few minutes later, when she drove through the gate he’d opened for her, he sensed that while all might be well now, it hadn’t been earlier. Otherwise, the front of her shirt wouldn’t be covered with mud and there wouldn’t be little flecks of the stuff on her ball cap and in her hair.

“What happened?” he asked after she’d parked the side-by-side.

She wiped the back of her hand across her cheek, causing dried mud to flake off.

“I had an issue.”

“No kidding.”

“I handled it.”

“Mind sharing?” he asked politely.

She gave him a look, obviously not in the mood for politeness. “I bogged down the side-by-side, had to dig it out. I didn’t have a shovel, so it took some time.”

“If the ground even hints at being soft, avoid it.” He knew he was stating the obvious, but he was still working on his reaction to her being late. Way out of proportion to the situation.

“Thanks, Mr. Helper Man.” She wiped her hands down her jeans. “Can I borrow a shirt? And maybe a sponge to get some of this off my jeans?”

“You’re still going to town?”

“It’s Friday. I want to get my silver.”

He thought about offering to pick it up, then decided that if she wanted to go herself, so be it. She probably had other things to do on top of stopping at the post office. “Let me grab you something. I have to leave, too. Tractor needs parts.”

“I can handle changing without you.”

He smirked at her, and she smirked right back. “White T-shirt okay?”

“Anything. Thank you.” She fell in step as he headed toward the house.

Hayes went to his room, pulled a shirt out of his yet-to-be-unpacked duffel and then joined Bailey in the laundry room where she was standing at the utility sink, next to the crumpled horse blanket, sponging the mud off her jeans.

She’d gotten herself into trouble, then got back out on her own.

Something stirred in him that he didn’t care to look at too closely, so he pushed the feeling aside as he laid the shirt on the top of the washer.

“I need to get going,” he said. “Can’t risk having the tractor down.”

“Thanks, Hayes.”

It was the first time she’d said his name with any warmth, and again he felt things stir inside him that were better left dormant.

“You bet.” He gave her a quick nod and headed for the door.

*

Bailey just made it into the post office in time to collect her parcel. She bypassed the grocery store—a rare event on her equally rare trips to town—but on a whim, slowed when she drove past Edna’s Dog Rescue and the sign outside said, “Open Today.”

Impulse dog shopping. Why not? After spending too much time wallowing in mud that day, she needed a distraction.

When Bailey got out of her truck, she found the place oddly quiet for being a rescue facility.

The grassy pen at the side of the building held only two dogs, sleeping in the shade of the lilac bush.

She stopped in front of the bulletin board outside the animal shelter as a computer-generated Wanted poster caught her eye.

In the center was a zoomed photo of the cutest tri-color collie mix trotting along with something in his teeth.

The poster was captioned, “Have You Seen This Dog?”

“A joke from one of the staff,” the woman tending the counter said when Bailey entered the shelter. The woman’s gaze traveled over Bailey’s face in a way that made Bailey wonder if she’d missed some mud spots. At least Hayes’s T-shirt was pristine. It’d been a day. “That’s Rascal.”

“Did he escape?”

“Has yet to be caught. He’s wanted in several robberies.”

“No kidding.”

“He takes things and leaves them elsewhere. Just yesterday he was seen trotting down Main Street with a child’s backpack, which he abandoned outside the Java Café.”

“And you can’t catch him?”

“We’re not trying that hard—yet. Someone is obviously feeding him. We don’t know for sure that he’s homeless, thus the poster and the Facebook alert on the community page. We’re asking for information. He seems healthy and happy other than his tendency toward kleptomania.”

“Do you have any dogs who aren’t kleptomaniacs?”

The woman sucked air between her teeth. “We just had an adoption event, and it was very successful. We have the two older sweethearts sleeping outside, but they are geriatric and require special care.”

“Okay.” Bailey was aware of a deep sense of disappointment at the thought of returning to her lonely home.

Maybe she had been meant to have neighbors, even though the neighbors she’d had before selling her house had driven her a little nuts with late-night parties and too much yelling over trivial matters.

“We also have three dogs in the process of rehabilitation with their foster families. Abandoned dogs sometimes have issues.”

“Well, I’m glad the event was successful.

I don’t think an older dog will fit my needs.

I travel and I don’t know how comfortable they would be on the road.

” And she wished she’d known about the adoption event, but that’s what happened when a person lived off the grid, immersed in their own solitary world.

“Would you like to fill out a form? Just in case? At this time next week, we may have all the kennels loaded. There’s no telling.”

Bailey smiled, forgetting her for-the-best platitude. “Sure.”

After finishing the form, on which she indicated she was looking for a companion to travel with for part of the year, she stepped out into the sunlight.

In a week and a half, the town would be transformed due to the Copper Mountain Rodeo.

The shops would be decorated with rodeo themes and the sales she’d looked forward to every year would commence.

There’d be a street dance and dinners and fundraisers.

She’d be in her booth alongside other vendors—saddle makers, leather workers, weavers, jewelry makers, artists and various western artisans—on the rodeo grounds until the welcome dinner commenced.

At that time the vendors closed up shop and joined the townsfolk and rodeo competitors for some quality party time.

She loved the Copper Mountain Rodeo. Ten years ago, she and Hayes had had a wonderful time there. So wonderful that she’d panicked. Left him that awful note before driving back to her dorm in Missoula. And come to find out, it had been for nothing.

This rodeo would be different. She and Hayes may spend some time together there, but she knew the score, as did he. They’d be okay.

No need to panic.