The Cowboy Lassos a Bride(3)

Thank God they'd been interrupted before things had gone too far. Thank  God she was about to make huge changes in her life, anyway. She wouldn't  have time to have a serious boyfriend.

But damn it, why did he have to play with her like that? He'd been so  far off her radar she'd never wasted time mooning over Jake before. Now  she knew his mouth on hers would haunt her for months. No one had ever  kissed her like that. No man had ever made her want to tear off her  clothes and present her body to him on a platter.

If Jake walked in this bathroom right now she'd do the same damn thing again. He was like crack cocaine, like heroin, like …

Hannah gave herself a mental shake. She was at a wedding-her best  friend's wedding. She was lonely and overwrought. She'd go home, go to  bed and forget Jake. Tomorrow she would get on with her life and those  big changes she planned to make.

But Hannah knew she was lying to herself. This night would stick in her memory for a long, long time.





‡

Chapter One




Late November, six weeks later


It was never easy to get out of bed several hours before sunup on a cold  November morning, but Jake Matheson didn't mind that. Born and raised  on the Double-Bar-K ranch in Chance Creek, Montana, he'd known since he  could walk that one day this spread would be his and he loved every inch  of it. He especially loved these early morning moments when he was  alone with his thoughts-before he caught up with his father and brothers  and got to the real work of the day. For now he could pretend he was  his own man; that the place was all his. Soon enough the others would  intrude.

As usual, his thoughts were on Hannah Ashton. Their interlude at Bella  and Evan Mortimer's wedding was never far from his mind these days. He'd  taken a chance that night, dancing with her when Cody was a no-show,  and an even bigger chance pulling her into the break room at the  reception hall and kissing her as if he had a right to. But he'd wanted  Hannah for months and Cody was an ass who didn't deserve her. He was  afraid if he didn't do something she'd marry the idiot and he'd lose his  chance forever.                       
       
           



       

As things turned out, he nearly had lost his chance. When they'd split  up to leave the break room and see Bella and Evan off, Tracey Richards  had accosted him. They'd known each other a long time, since he often  ate at Linda's Diner, where Tracey had worked for years. Their  friendship, such as it was, was overly flirtatious. It didn't mean  anything, which Tracey knew. But Hannah didn't.

He'd looked up too late and seen Hannah's eyes widen as she watched him  tug Tracey's hair in fun. A minute later she'd dashed away. He hadn't  been able to push through the crowd fast enough after her, and he'd  never found her again that night. Since he didn't want to expose her to  talk-she was still with Cody-he couldn't ask around or enlist anyone  else's help. When she didn't reappear, he left the wedding, furious at  himself for blowing it.

She showed up the next week at Ethan and Autumn's poker night with Cody  on her arm and he'd struggled not to take the man outside and kick his  ass. It turned out he didn't have to. Cody had soon ruined things with  Hannah in a way that set Jake up as a hero in her eyes. He'd arranged to  hunt a bison and had taken Hannah to view it before the hunt. When it  turned out the animal had been hand-raised and was kept in a pen barely  large enough for it to turn around, Hannah flipped her lid.

She went back a few nights later, stole the beast, and tried to hide it  in a corral she'd built in Carl Whitfield's woods outside town. That  hadn't gone well-in fact, that night would go down in Chance Creek  history as disastrous-but the upshot was that the next day Jake helped  Hannah round up the bison she'd named Gladys, and now Gladys lived on  the Double-Bar-K.

And Hannah came every morning to see her.

They hadn't spoken yet about what happened at the Mortimer's wedding,  but Jake planned to, soon. With Cody out of the picture it was time to  make his move. He was determined to ask her out on a date today and he  hoped she would say yes. Hoped they could work their way back around to  picking up where they'd left off in that break room. Once he had her in  his arms again, he wouldn't let her go a second time.

Because he figured Hannah was the one.

As he got to work in the hayloft of the largest of the barns on the  property, preparing to fix a leak under the eaves before it allowed any  dampness to ruin the hay stored within it, he heard the creak of the  barn door as it opened far below him, and his father's voice cut across  the stillness.

"Why the hell are those cattle still in the far pasture?"

Jake's jaw tightened as he felt along the top edge of the wall to find  the location of the leak. So much for peace and quiet. Someday he'd  inherit the Double-Bar-K, and even now he was nominally in charge of the  herd, but as long as Holt Matheson walked this earth, he'd remain a  glorified field hand. As his fingers traced over the rough wood high  above his head, he told himself to rein in his temper and stick with the  job at hand.

"I told you we were supposed to move the cattle," his brother Ned chimed in.

Jake stifled an urge to bang his head against the wall. Ned's voice  often acted like nails across a chalkboard in his mind. This was one of  those times. And it was a reminder that while someday Jake would inherit  the Double-Bar-K and finally get to take charge of how it was run, he  would still have to contend with his brothers-including Ned.

"We'll move them tomorrow. Today we fix the barn," he shouted down to  them, as if he actually held the authority to make such decisions. Which  he should.

But didn't.

"I told you last night to move the cattle!" Holt's craggy face appeared through the trap-door entrance to the hayloft.

"And I told you there's a leak in this barn and I mean to fix it today."

"Those cattle aren't going to move themselves." Ned's voice drifted up from below.

Jake fought back a familiar urge to chuck something at him. Like a  pitchfork. Ned always sided with their father. Always. They were like  two peas in a pod: ornery and stubborn as mules.

"You want this hay ruined?" Jake squared off with Holt.

"You want those cattle frozen when the weather turns overnight?"

"The weather won't turn overnight."

"Tell that to my knees." Holt swore the aches in his knees could predict  everything from thunderstorms to drought. Jake didn't see how his knees  could get any less accurate. He tilted his head down to address them.

"The weather's going to hold."

"Ha, ha. Very funny. Get out there and move that cattle."                       
       
           



       

Ned's head and shoulders appeared through the trap door as his father  paced across the loft to check the leak. "Told you we should move the  cattle."

Jake knew the origin of his father's blustery temper. He understood why  the man acted as if there were threats to his authority everywhere, why  he was quick to challenge anyone who set himself up as an equal. He knew  why Ned followed so closely in his father's path when it came to  temperament. Knowing what he knew, he should have been able to keep his  own emotions in check. Should have been able to keep his mouth shut.

But he couldn't.

Which is why he said, "I know the weather is going to hold. I read the forecast."

Which is why his father decided to ruin his life.

It was still dark when Hannah Ashton pulled into the dirt lane that led  to the Double-Bar-K ranch, but lights blazed at Holt and Lisa Matheson's  stately home and at each of the smaller cabins strung out at intervals  beyond it where their four grown sons lived. Hannah knew that Holt and  his sons would all be hard at work at their various chores around the  ranch. Lisa would be in her large kitchen cooking for any of them who  felt like stopping in for a hot morning meal, and preparing for a busy  day of her own.

Hannah had begun to understand the rhythms of life on the Double-Bar-K.  Owned by Mathesons for over a hundred and fifty years, it meant the  world to the family, and it was beginning to have meaning for her, too.  She loved the way the land spread in every direction, and the far off  mountains that gave texture to the valley. She loved how the stars still  winked high above her when she arrived in the morning, fading away  during her short visit. She loved the air of expectation as the ranch  came to life.

She parked next to Holt's pickup and got out into the chilly late  November air. The sky toward the east was just beginning to brighten,  but sunup was still a ways off. She walked quickly toward the pasture  nearest to the house, anticipation building within her. She was excited  to see Gladys again-the bison she rescued just weeks ago.