Texas Heroes_ Volume 1(5)

Maddie bristled. She’d been measured and found wanting, yet again—this time by a man who didn’t even know her. “You don’t have to stay in the barn. Surely that house is big enough for both of us for thirty days.” Then her temper started to simmer again. “You don’t know anything about me, but you’ve already decided my future.”

His blue eyes didn’t soften. “Can you honestly tell me you want to spend your life in a place like this?” A sweep of his arm took in the horizon and stark, sun-baked earth.

For as far as Maddie could see, there was not one other house, certainly no theaters or fine dining or museums. And absolutely nowhere for her to use her skills as a chef. Of course she didn’t want to stay. She would be gone as soon as the thirty days were over.

But his pigheaded certainty galled her, and she would rise to the challenge. Like the optimist she’d always been, Maddie refused to make this less than an adventure, despite the glowering man beside her. She’d do better than endure this stay, and when she left to go back to her chosen environment, she’d have stories to tell for years.

Maddie the Cowgirl. The phrase had a certain ring, and it made her smile. “No, I don’t want to spend my life in a place like this. But don’t write me off, Boone Gallagher. You may think you know city girls, but you’ve never met Maddie Rose Collins.” She turned to follow Vondell, calling back over her shoulder in imitation. “You comin’, Boone?”

When she glanced back, he was still standing there staring at her, hands on lean hips, shoulders broader than the Brooklyn Bridge. So rugged and handsome her mouth went dry.

“You’re wrong, Maddie Rose. I know everything I need to know about you. You’re a city girl, used to fine things and lots of entertainment. Bright lights and noise and bustle. You’ll hate this place, just like—” He broke off.

“Just like who?”

“Never mind. Go on inside. I’ll take care of the calf.” He turned his back and headed away.

It was shaping up to be a long thirty days. Stuck with Mr. Personality in the middle of nowhere when all she had wanted was peace and quiet.

Ah, well. A good chef improvised with whatever ingredients she had at hand.

And Maddie Rose was a very good chef.



Having this land under his feet again felt good. He’d known when he shipped off on the tanker that his absence was only temporary, but after his wife Helen died, the sea was as far as he could get from this place where so much had gone wrong. He’d have traveled to the moon if he could have found transportation.

This land was part of him—when he was growing up he’d never expected to live anywhere else. Then his mother had died, and their world had collapsed. After graduation he’d joined the Navy and found a new home there as a SEAL. The teams had become the family he’d lost—until the mission that had nearly killed him. After losing his career, he’d come back here with a wife who had expected something more than a cowboy…only to lose her, too.

He was fundamentally changed from the boy who had roamed these acres, yet he’d expected to find everything he’d left the same.

Sucker.

He was too damn tired to think anymore. Instead he’d concentrate on the task at hand: the calf.

The calluses on his hands served him well, since he hadn’t come home carrying gloves in his back pocket as had once been second nature. He found a rope in the closest barn and ointment in the big barn. He tied up the cow so she couldn’t interfere while he freed the calf, and he kept the little guy in place between his knees so he would have both hands available.

Once he’d been renowned for his prowess with animals, horses especially. He’d had a calming way with them even as a kid.

But cows weren’t nearly as smart as horses, and this panicked calf strained Boone’s resolve. Over and over he spoke in soothing tones and stroked the calf until he stilled enough. At last Boone got him free, then set to work doctoring his cuts. The cow protested, and the calf bawled, but Boone persisted until he was done.

“There, little guy,” he said, letting the calf up.

The calf scrambled away about ten feet, eyeing Boone with suspicion before seeking the shelter of his mother’s side. Boone approached her carefully and slipped the rope from around her neck, then slapped her on the rump and shooed them both away.

Barbed wire left lying on the ground inside a pasture. His father would have fired a man on the spot. Just how bad were things? And where were all the hands?

Boone rubbed his eyes, wishing he had his old straw hat. He’d walked away from everything when he left, and Sam had probably burned it all. But he was too tired to look for any of it now. He needed to hit the sack and sleep around the clock, then get up to see what he’d inherited.