Cowboy Blue Read online

  “Quite all right. I got here after dark myself. Thank goodness Mr. Boyd here was driving by at the right time. I was nearly lost on the ranch. I never expected it to be so big.” Her eyes grew wide.

  Bonner had to smile. She hadn’t been lost at all. She was on the drive headed straight for the main house. She just hadn’t gone far enough.

  “Well then I owe Bonner a thanks. Can’t have my new director of marketing lost on my own ranch, now can I?”

  “We could have come looking for you if Blue hadn’t found you.” Justus jumped in.

  “Blue?” Casey glanced from Justus to Bonner.

  Bonner sighed. He liked to avoid talking about his old rodeo days. The past was best left buried. “It’s just an old nickname. It’s what my father used to call me when I was little.”

  “I call you that.” Justus glanced up from his plate.

  Dakota nodded. “Me too. So do all the guys. And that’s the name you rode under when you were rodeoing. Blue Boyd. I used to come see you compete when I was little.”

  Great. Just what Bonner needed, a reminder of how much older he was than these two.

  “Rodeo?” Casey spun toward Bonner. “You’re in the rodeo?”

  “Not anymore.” And that was all Bonner was going to say about that, even if Casey’s eyes had lit up at the prospect.

  What interest did a city girl have with rodeo anyway? He noticed Jake watching the exchange with an amused expression and decided to bring this conversation back to business, where it belonged. “So, boss, any special instructions for me today?”

  Jake let out a bark of a laugh. “Since when do you ever ask me for instructions?”

  Since he’d been told the new Maverick director of marketing would be up his butt for a week. Bonner decided he shouldn’t say that. Instead he shrugged. “I was just wondering if you wanted me to cover anything in particular with our special guest, is all.”

  Casey turned toward Jake. “I want to see everything. I think you’re right. It’ll help me better craft the tone of the social media campaign if I can be totally immersed in daily life here at the ranch.”

  Oh, Bonner could show her everything, all right. Gladly. Glancing at his boss, the man who’d been like a grandfather to him from the day he was born, he gave himself a mental slap.

  Not gonna happen. He had too much respect for Jake and Maverick Western to indulge his baser instincts and diddle with the new hire.

  “Well, today the boys and I are going to see which cows are open.”

  Her perfectly shaped eyebrows rose. “Open for what?”

  Justus and Dakota both let out snickers. Bonner shot them a look before turning back to Casey. “Open means they’re not pregnant.” He put it in the simplest terms he could since she was a city girl.

  “Oh.” Impossibly, her brows shot higher. And did her cheeks turn a bit pink? “And, um, how do you determine that?”

  Now, even Bonner couldn’t control his smile. “It’s probably best if we wait and not tell you that right now.”

  “Why not?” A deep frown creased Casey brow.

  Tough city girl didn’t like being told no. Bonner tucked that information away for later.

  Justus answered, “Because you’re still eating.”

  The two younger men chuckled as Mrs. Jones came through the doorway carrying a bowl and a mug.

  “Don’t scare her away on the first day.” She put the steaming bowl in front of Jake.

  He scowled down at it. “Oatmeal again?”

  “You know what the doctor said. Oatmeal and decaf coffee, and I don’t want to hear anything more about it.” That said, Mrs. Jones spun on her heel and was gone, back to the kitchen.

  The minute she cleared the doorway, Jake reached out and snagged Bonner’s mug.

  “Hey!” Bonner frowned.

  “Here. Take mine.” Jake slid his own mug of decaf toward him, as if it would replace the coffee he’d stolen. “I’ll eat this wallpaper paste she feeds me, but I refuse to give up real coffee. You gonna turn me in?”

  Jake’s snowy white brow rose.

  Bonner laughed. “No, sir.”

  “Good boy.” Jake’s gaze perused the table. “Hand me a piece of bacon too. Quick, before she comes back.”

  With a glance at the kitchen door to make sure the coast was clear, Bonner shook his head and did as asked. “Don’t blame me when you fall over dead one day.”

  “I’ll outlive you boys. Just wait and see.” Jake winked at Casey.

  She smiled. “I’m starting to envy you all your life here.”

  Jake paused with the spoon of oatmeal in mid-air. “Oh, really? And why is that, Miss Harrington?”

  “It seems like much more fun working here than in the offices in New York.”

  Jake laughed. “Come back to me a week from now. We’ll see if you still think so.”

  She cocked a brow, making her look like a vixen…and Bonner really needed to stop looking at her like that. He wasn’t into torturing himself. Wanting something he couldn’t have would be just that. Torture.

  Besides, who’s to say she’d even look twice at him. What would a city girl want with an old ranch hand like him?

  “Is that a challenge, Mr. Maverick?” she asked.

  Jake pressed his lips together and nodded. “Could be. You up to it?”

  Bonner shook his head and watched them square off against each other. Casey and Jake couldn’t be more different, yet it seemed they had one thing in common because the old man never could resist a challenge.

  “Of course, I’m up for it. I’m a New Yorker.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m worried about, darlin’.”

  Her expression wavered and for the first time today, Casey didn’t ooze cool confidence. Instead, she looked a little worried.

  This little visit was proving to be more interesting than Bonner had imagined, in so many ways.

  CHAPTER 5

  “So, they run the cows into a squeeze chute one at a time.” Bonner stood next to her in the cold morning air.

  “Okay.” Casey watched as the two young cowboys accompanied by a barking Misty, the cattle dog, did as Bonner described, herding a cow between the metal rails.

  “Then the vet feels her uterus to see if she’s been bred and is carrying.”

  As the vet lubed his arm from hand to shoulder, Casey began to figure out the purpose of the extremely long plastic glove he’d put on. Her eyes opened wide.

  No, he couldn’t possibly…but then he did. The vet lifted the cow’s tail and then his entire arm disappeared inside the cow who—immobilized in the chute—didn’t have a whole lot it could do about it.

  Casey cringed. “Wow.”

  Beside her, Bonner laughed. “We need to know which cows aren’t bred. Rectal palpitation isn’t as reliable as blood tests or ultrasounds, but it’s the quickest and cheapest way to separate the cows that are bred from the ones that aren’t.”

  “I guess so.” She swallowed hard as the first victim was released from the chute and the next one was subjected to the vet’s inspection.

  Jeez, couldn’t they all just pee on a stick and see if it turned pink? That seemed a hell of a lot easier than this, for everyone involved. As the vet did his thing the cow let out a short moo of protest.

  A shudder ran through Casey and she didn’t think it was from the cold air.

  Glancing over, she noticed Bonner smirk. Casey turned her attention to him—a much more pleasant sight than what was happening behind the metal rails of the chute.

  Damn, he was hot. Even though most of his sentences contained only a handful of single syllable words, they were delivered in a low, slow way that made her insides heat.

  After all these years, it seemed she still hadn’t gotten over her cowboy obsession. It was well ingrained by her eight-year-old self’s unquenched desire for Cowboy Cody.

  It didn’t help that the man next to her looked uncannily like him, right down to the intense blue eyes beneath the brim of the c
owboy hat…the exact eyes that were focused on her now.

  He expected her to fail at this ranching stuff. For her to run crying back to the city. She could tell that just by the ever-present smirk and the way he watched her.

  That was not going to happen. Casey Harrington didn’t give up.

  On the other hand, she might well be fired if she didn’t prove herself to Jake Maverick. She knew she could do this job. She just had to make sure he knew that too. And if not blinking an eye at this insane cow rectum inspection was what Bonner Blue Boyd needed to make a favorable report to Mr. Maverick, then so be it.

  She folded her arms and leaned back against the fence, settling in for a long haul. “So, how many are there to test?”

  “Couple hundred.”

  Her eyes opened wide. “A couple hundred? This is going to take all day.”

  The shock of that shook her resolve to handle whatever Bonner and the Maverick ranch threw at her.

  “Yup.” The man of few words was observing her reaction again.

  Fine. Let him. She forced herself to look unfazed.

  “Blue! You gonna help us or what?” Justus was out of breath as he yelled over. It was his job to slam the gate shut behind the cow once it was in the chute. He, Dakota and the dog were scrambling to keep up with the veterinarian, who seemed to be able to check the cows as fast as the cowboys could herd them into the chute.

  “You two can handle this just fine on your own.” Bonner leaned back against the fence next to her and crossed his arms.

  Justus made a face but didn’t argue. The kid had other things to worry about since the barking dog was running a cow right at him. The near trampling might have helped with his compliance.

  Casey watched with interest. “You enjoy bossing them around, don’t you?”

  “No.” Bonner glanced at her with a frown. “Young cowboys are like young horses. They need a strong hand. I was no different at that age. We’re all cut from the same piece of leather.”

  That was one hell of a good line. She could use that in the Maverick marketing. She wasn’t sure exactly how but she would. Somehow. Somewhere.

  Casey pulled out her smart phone and opened the note application. Her fingers flew over the keyboard.

  “What are you doing?” A crease knit above Bonner’s ice blue eyes.

  “Writing that down.”

  “Writing what down?”

  “What you said. About being cut from the same piece of leather.” She glanced up at him again and was tempted to laugh at how deep the furrow between his brows had grown.

  “Why?” His frown turned into more of a scowl.

  “Because I’d like to refer back to it for my marketing plan. Lines like that, right out of a cowboy’s mouth, will lend flavor. Believability. Buyers will love it. Besides, you heard Mr. Maverick. He’s concerned I’m from the city. I have to prove to him I can market a western corporation or I could very well find myself on the unemployment line.”

  Bonner shook his head. “He wouldn’t have hired you if he didn’t think you could do the job.”

  Wow. Phone still in her hand, Casey turned her full attention to Bonner. “Thank you. It means a lot to hear you say that.”

  “It’s the truth. From what I’ve seen so far, you’ll be fine.” Bonner shrugged and gazed at the action as the cowboys continued to herd the cows to the vet.

  Casey had received lots of compliments from many men throughout her career. Some sincere, some pure flattery, but none of them had made her want to jump the man saying it. Not like Bonner’s plainly spoken words just had.

  She realized they were in the midst of an awkward silence as he glanced back at her. She tried to talk her woman parts out of inviting Bonner’s man parts over to play.

  Damn, she felt like a horny teenager again, only the object of her attention was no boy. He was all grown up and all man.

  Trying to get control of herself, she scrambled for a safe topic. She glanced down at her phone. No signal.

  “I just wish I had some kind of connection. I can get one, maybe two bars on my cell if I lean it against the window of my bedroom. Otherwise, it’s pretty much worthless. My tablet’s not picking up a signal either. I feel cut off from everything I need to do my job. Do you have cell service out here?”

  “Here? Don’t know. Never checked.” He pulled out his phone and glanced at the readout. “Nope.”

  “No? Aren’t you worried?”

  “’Bout what?”

  “What if one of you gets hurt?” Casey’s mind spun with the possibilities, each more horrid than the last.

  What if they were on horseback, far from the ranch, farther from help, with no cell phone signal and no vehicle to take them to the hospital?

  He shrugged. “There’re usually the three of us working together. If one gets hurt, one will go for help and the other can stay to tend to him.”

  “But…to have no means of communication.” She’d panicked the one time her phone’s battery had gone dead, and she was in a taxi in midtown Manhattan at the time.

  Bonner glanced at her and shook his head. “You city folk are too dependent on your gadgets. Ranchers a hundred years ago didn’t have cell phones. Hell, most ranch hands twenty years ago didn’t.”

  Feeling a bit insulted by the city folk comment, even if she did wonder sometimes if she was becoming obsessed with technology, Casey planted her hands on her hips. He couldn’t possibly be as complacent about this as he pretended. “Then why do you have a cell phone?”

  “They were giving them away for free when you signed up.” He shrugged. “Works just fine in the bunkhouse. It’s useful sometimes.”

  “Oh really, like when?”

  “Well, last year I was at a stock auction and I saw this little black and white Shetland pony. The old man had just had a new great-grand-baby, so I called to ask if he wanted me to pick it up for him to give as a baby gift.”

  The old man. Casey laughed. “There is just so much about that sentence that sounded insane to me I can’t even begin to tell you.”

  This guy was the real deal, all right. Horseman. Cattleman. Cowboy. Lover?

  Mm, wouldn’t that be nice.

  “Why? What’s strange about it?” Bonner turned toward Casey, an expression of confusion on his face.

  “First, you talk about buying a horse like you’re picking up a loaf of bread at the grocery store. But more importantly, a pony? As a baby gift?”

  Bonner shrugged again, something he seemed to do a lot around her. Apparently her city folk questions left him without answers.

  “I was on a horse before I could walk.”

  Cowboy to the bone. And boy did she ache to get to know every inch of him better. She took him in from the felt of his hat to the leather of his boots.

  On a horse before he could walk—that skill at riding horses had to transfer to other activities. Like those that happened in the bedroom. No? All that hip motion and thigh power…

  “Mm. I have no doubt.” The comment came out a bit more sultry-sounding than she’d intended.

  Bonner cleared his throat. “Look, Miss Harrington—”

  “Call me Casey.”

  He let out a huff of a breath. “Miss Casey—” Not exactly what she’d meant but it certainly had its charm. “—I realize I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I know a few things. I know cattle and I know women.”

  This was pure cowboy gold.

  The woman in her wanted to take a step closer to better absorb the cowboy aura of him. While the marketing director in her itched to write it all down, but she was too fascinated by what he was saying.

  She didn’t want to risk distracting him from finishing so she nodded. “Okay.”

  “What I’m trying to say is, I don’t mix business with pleasure.” Bonner shook his head. “As much as I’d like to, and believe me…I’d like to.”

  As much as he’d like to.

  Embarrassment that her attraction to him was so obvious he’d found it
necessary to comment on it warred with her glee that he felt it too.

  Her chest tightened at the knowledge he felt the attraction between them, even though the rest was not what she’d expected him to say. He was basically shutting down all possibility of them being together in any way other than as business associates.

  Though, maybe she should have expected him to hold himself to a high moral standard. There was that cowboy code and all that.

  Most surprising was Bonner’s ability to read her. She’d been caught daydreaming, imagining him and her together under her Maverick Western red and black buffalo plaid cashmere sofa throw.

  This cowboy had not only noticed, but had interpreted her thoughts correctly. It was all very intriguing. His speech may be slow, but his mind was quick as a whip and he sure as hell had her pegged.

  Her cheeks heated with the combination of shame and desire. She wasn’t backing down though. She didn’t get where she was in life by giving up easily. “So let me make sure I have this straight. You’re assuming I’m interested in you and you’re turning me down, all in the same sentence?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Huh. Somehow that only made her want him more.

  She really needed to see a therapist about her addiction to challenges, and cowboys for that matter, but right now she had a man to put in his place.

  Casey Harrington didn’t give up on anything she wanted. Not in her career, and not with men. Bonner had no hope of sticking to his code now that Casey was determined to have him.

  She tilted her head to one side. “I can assure you, Mr. Boyd—“

  “You can call me Bonner.”

  “Can I call you Blue?” She already knew the answer but enjoyed his reaction as he frowned.

  “No.”

  Relishing in the game, Casey smiled and took one step forward. She had to give him credit, he didn’t back up, though he looked like he was torn between standing his ground and running for the hills.

  “Okay, Bonner, I can assure you of two things. One, I’m the consummate professional when it comes to my career and two…”