Taming Clay Read online

  She wasn’t really worried about his attitude, his demeanor, or even the way he spoke. And she was only slightly concerned about the immediate physical reaction she had felt when she saw him that hadn’t diminished yet. The slow burn inside of her as she watched him walk across the yard was evidence of that. But that would pass.

  What really worried her was that settled feeling inside of her. It had crept over her soon after she turned off the highway and started the five-mile trip from the road to the ranch house, growing with each mile. And it had completely filled her when she stopped in front of the huge two-story log house. It almost seemed to breathe a welcome with its wide front porch and large windows in every room. Well, until you met the owner. But it was more than just the house. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. That in itself was odd, but the deeper concern was that if she couldn’t last on this job it would mean that she would have to leave this place. And she was pretty sure that if she did, she would miss it greatly.

  She walked down to the car and waited at the front until she saw him come back out of the stable doors with another man in tow. She chuckled softly. Night and day. Black and white. She had no doubt that the man at Clay’s side was Laine Watson. They were about the same height. Same sexy build. But that’s where the similarities ended. Clay’s dark blonde hair was in direct contrast to Laine’s midnight black, at least what she could see under the natural-colored straw hat. Clay’s stride said he had a destination and purpose in mind. Laine’s was easier and more comfortable. Both had terribly handsome faces, but Clay’s was set into a serious, almost angry expression while Laine’s was lit by a bright smile. She saw Laine’s steps falter only slightly before he turned his head to Clay and said something she couldn’t hear, but the smile didn’t go away.

  “Holy hell, Clay. I thought you said you weren’t ever gonna hire another good-lookin’ woman.”

  “Just do your goddamned job. Follow her into town, pick up her stuff, and get your ass back here,” Clay snapped.

  Laine turned his gaze back to the woman. He was suddenly looking forward to riding back from Bozeman with her. She was beautiful. The shiny black hair was short, but not mannish. Very casual, soft around her face and just below her ears in the back. She wasn’t deeply tanned but her skin had a glow to it that only the sun could give you. And he couldn’t remember a time when he’d seen a woman built exactly like that. High-rounded breasts, a waist his hands would probably span…if he was so inclined. Perfectly rounded hips and legs that just wouldn’t quit. And he didn’t have a single doubt that she was a confident woman. Most of the women who applied for this job came out there all dressed up in their Sunday best. Not this girl. This one was wearing a light-blue western shirt covered by a leather vest, really snug light blue jeans, and a nice pair of boots. If she didn’t belong on a ranch, he’d eat his hat.

  When he let the light breath hiss out Clay stopped walking and Laine turned back to him after a few steps.

  “Is this gonna be a problem for you?” Clay asked lowly.

  Laine chuckled and let the smile broaden even farther. “Hell, no. Can I drive back slow?”

  “You watch your damn step. She may not last, but maybe she can at least help me straighten out the fucking mess Pepper made out of everything,” Clay growled.

  “Wasn’t planning on running her off, Clay. You’re the one who does that,” Laine shot back but didn’t let the smile waver or the amusement in his eyes as he turned back around and started walking without waiting for Clay to catch up.

  He reached the car a couple of steps ahead of him and swept his hat off with a wide smile. “Ma’am. Laine Watson. I’m the ranch foreman. Welcome to the Double-C Bar ranch.”

  Hailey smiled broadly at the twinkling brown eyes and extended her hand. “Hailey Lambert. Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Laine.”

  Laine took her hand and lifted it to his lips then smiled up at her. “Oh, I guarantee you that the pleasure is mine. We’re taking this car back to town, right?”

  Hailey nodded. “Yeah. I rented it at the hotel, so that’s the only place we have to go,” she said before Clay quickly cut her off.

  “If you’re through playing Romeo, go get the goddamned truck. Follow her back and drop this off then get her stuff. And don’t take all damned day. She’s got work to do and so do you,” Clay snapped and then leveled a steady glare at Laine when he didn’t take his eyes off of Hailey’s or let the smile collapse.

  “Clay’s our own personal Welcome Wagon. Does a good job, don’t you think? I’ll just go get that truck. Be right back,” he said then laughed softly under his breath and took a step back when Clay took one in his direction.

  As he turned to go, Clay’s glare followed him before he turned a steady gaze back to Hailey. “I’ll give you time to put your things away when you get back. After that, find me. I’ll show you what I need you to do first.”

  “I don’t have much. It won’t take long,” Hailey said as she met his eyes without flinching. When he nodded just slightly and turned away, starting back to the house she let just the slightest grin tug at her lips. The men were polar opposites. Maybe Roselyn was right, maybe they did balance each other out. She had no doubt that she had just stepped squarely into the middle of a road that would prove to lead her through some very trying times, but something told her that she wasn’t going to regret the decision…if she could keep from getting run over by a big truck named Clay Cardell.

  Thank you, God.

  * * *

  “This is it?” Laine asked as he hefted the two suitcases into the back of the truck.

  “It is. I didn’t bring much with me,” she said as she set a pair of scuffed and worn work boots in the floorboard of the truck then turned and leaned against the side with her arm propped against the top of the pick-up bed. She pointed at one of them and then grinned up at him as she settled a black straw hat on her head.

  “That one…that’s not your typical clothes. That’s my ‘never leave home without it’ bag. A felt hat, a really nice belt with a turquoise inlaid buckle, riding gloves, a sheep-skin coat, a couple of vests and a rain slicker.”

  Laine burst out laughing and leaned against the truck beside her. “See I knew it. I said when I first saw you that you belonged on a ranch. You just looked like you fit there. Climb in and we’ll get started.”

  Hailey climbed inside and was just fastening her seat belt when Laine got in from the other side.

  “Where are you from?” he asked as he started the truck.

  “New Mexico. My dad had a ranch there pretty close to the Texas border. It was about as close to being in Texas as you could get without actually being there.”

  “Is he still there?”

  Hailey shook her head. “No. He died a few months back. Turned out he had a thing for the ponies at Ruidoso that I didn’t know anything about. He borrowed a lot of money that he managed to keep off of our books. The ranch had to be sold to pay it off.”

  “That sucks. You should have had that ranch,” Laine said softly. He could hear just a tinge of anger and hurt in her voice that he was pretty sure she didn’t want him to hear.

  “Yeah. It does. But that’s the way it is. How long have you worked for Clay?”

  “I’ve been at the ranch for six years. Clay took over after old man Cardell died about five years ago. Hailey, he’s a little, um…rough. I guess you’ve already figured that out.”

  Hailey blew out a short laugh and lifted her shoulders in a slight shrug. “Yeah, well. He’s gonna have to pick it up a notch if her wants to compete at my old man’s level.”

  Laine laughed in surprise and said, “Don’t judge him too quickly. He was on his best behavior today.” He grinned broadly when she burst out laughing.

  “Don’t worry, Laine. His bark’s not going to run me off. I’ve been known to bark back myself. Bite, too when I have to.”

  “Oh, this is gonna be so much fun. I can’t wait. I don’t think he’s ever had
anybody stand toe-to-toe with him. I’d damn sure like to be a fly on the wall for that,” Laine said laughing.

  “You think a lot of him, don’t you? Just the way you talk about him.”

  Laine nodded and said, “I think the world of him. Don’t get me wrong. He can be an ass. But deep down he’s a good guy. The old man’s the reason he’s the way he is. He never cut him any slack, not once. He’s tough, but he’s fair.”

  “I heard some talk in town. He hasn’t been able to keep anybody?”

  “Not many people…women, will put up with him and he’s never had a man apply for the job. He’s not gonna treat you with kid gloves just because you’re a woman. To him you’re just another body hired to do a job. And if you don’t do it well, you’ll know it.”

  “What happened to the last one?”

  Laine blew out a disgusted laughed and shook his head. “Pepper. That woman…I told him he should check her references. But he never does. Says he can tell in the first day if they know what they’re doin’ or not. And truth be told, she probably knew exactly what she was doing, but it wasn’t what he hired her to do. I guess she didn’t expect him to get a wild hair to check up on her one night. Started going through the books himself. I swear to God, I heard the explosion all the way out to the bunkhouse. She’s got that stuff so fucked up…damn, I’m sorry…messed up that it’ll probably take you and him together a month to get it straight. You’ll see. That’s the first thing he’ll have you do is start trying to figure out what’s been paid and what hasn’t. Hell, at this point I don’t think he even knows how much money’s in the bank.”

  “He fired her?”

  “Yes, ma’am. On the spot. Two o’clock in the morning he had me carrying stuff out to her car and giving her five minutes to get dressed and out of the house.”

  “We’ll straighten it out. How long was she there?”

  “Six weeks. I’ve got my fingers crossed that some of those payments that aren’t recorded as being paid actually are. He just fired her two days ago. He hasn’t had a chance to get everything even sorted out yet, much less figure out what’s what.”

  “Sounds like I’ve got my work cut out for me. There’s coffee I hope,” she said then grinned when Laine laughed.

  “Plenty of that. I like you, Hailey. If we can keep Clay from driving you off, I think you’re going to fit in out here just fine.”

  “Did I mention that I’m stubborn? And I do love a challenge.”

  Laine laughed again and said, “Then you should love this job. God knows it’ll be that. Between those boots and your special bag back there, I don’t guess I have to ask if you ride.”

  “I do. Daddy didn’t think I should. Not that he had anything against riding, but he didn’t think it was proper for me to go out and work with the hands. Still, when I had time, that’s just what I did.”

  “He wanted a proper young lady?” Laine asked with a little grin. He was pretty sure that would produce a scowl and laughed when it did.

  “Something like that. He thought I should wear ribbons in my hair and marry the son of the guy who owned the ranch next to ours. I didn’t do that either.”

  “I think that’s a good thing for us. We’ve got plenty of horses. When you get time, feel free. It’s a big ranch. If you’re good with directions and picking out landmarks, you’ll be okay. If you want somebody to ride with you for a while, if I can’t go, I’ll find one of the hands to ride with you. That cell phone you’ve got on your belt there won’t do you much good on most of the ranch. It’ll work around the ranch yard and back towards the highway but that’s about it. Given where you grew up, I know that you already know all about making sure you’ve got water and a rifle. Maybe a little something to eat if you’re gonna get very far from the ranch yard, but just so I’ll feel useful, let me go over those things with you before you ride out the first time. And there’s a map in my office that shows the layout of the ranch and some landmarks. It might be good for you look over that first, too.”

  “I do know that, but I knew our place like the back of my hand. I’ll find you before I ride out. It sounds like I’m not going to have time for a little while. There will be plenty of time after we get things straight. I saw a computer on his desk. Do you use any kind of ranch management software?”

  Laine nodded. “Yeah. It’s a good package. That’s what makes what Pepper did so damn frustrating. It does half the work for you. If she thought that was too hard, she should have been here when Old Man Cardell was running the place. He wouldn’t let a computer on the property. Everything was by hand then. Well, truth is he never would have hired her to start with. About the only thing he rated lower than computers on a ranch was a woman.”

  “Really? How did he wind up with Clay?”

  “Well, I didn’t say that exactly right. A woman did have a place on the ranch. As long as she was there to cook, clean, and have babies. He probably rolled over in his grave when Clay hired the first woman ranch hand to ever set foot on the place. And I’m surprised he didn’t rise right up out of it when he decided he needed a business manager and it turned out to be a woman.”

  “Huh. He’s sounding more and more like my daddy all the time. Not to speak ill of the dead, either one of them, but I lived long enough with one like that.”

  “About the best thing you can say about Clayton Cardell is that he died. And the bastard didn’t even pull that off right,” Laine said lowly.

  Hailey opened her mouth then snapped it shut. She wanted to ask what he meant, but something about his tone said that the conversation was over. So instead of asking what she wanted to, she moved on to a different subject.

  “How many women do you have?”

  Laine’s eyebrows jumped just a fraction and he glanced at her with a wicked smile then chuckled lowly.

  Hailey laughed and shook her head. “Let me rephrase that. How many women do you have working at the ranch?”

  “Oh. That,” he said then waited until she stopped laughing. “Seven. We had eight but one got married and her new husband didn’t want her to be a ranch hand.”

  “No problems?”

  Laine shook his head. “Not so far. Clay hired the first one before I was the foreman. I hired the rest. It takes a strong woman to do what we do. There’s not a one of them that won’t back a man into a corner and let him know real quick the error of his ways if he gets out of line. I’ve never had to step in yet.”

  “I’m looking forward to meeting everybody. Truthfully, this job was just about my last shot. I thought if I didn’t find anything here I might try Idaho, but after that I was going to have to head back south. Can I ask you a question? It’ll sound a little strange.”

  “I do strange. Shoot.”

  “This place. Is there something about it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Her face dropped into a small frown as she tried to figure out how to say it. “It’s just that when I drove out here, as soon as I turned off the road it just felt…different. Sort of …I don’t know what I’m trying to say. Like a calm feeling, or a settling. Why are you smiling? Do you know what I’m talking about?”

  “I know exactly what you’re talking about. Like coming home. That feeling you get when you’ve been away a damn long time. Bone tired and wore down and you’re finally home. It’s this place. There is something about it. But I don’t think it’s that way for everybody. I think it’s a special few. And you must be one of them. Welcome home, Hailey,” he said then watched her as the frown deepened a little.

  “Is that a bad thing?” he finally asked.

  Hailey turned to look at him and shook her head just a little. “No. No, not a bad thing. I’m just wondering how bad it will feel if he doesn’t let me stay.”

  “Well, we’ll just have to not let that happen, won’t we?”