Front Range Cowboys (5 Book Box Set) Read online

  Rhonda sighed. “I’m not trying to poke at you, Maggie. I just wish you would crawl out of that shell you’re so determined to hide in and get involved in something. You know?”

  “I get it.” Maggie offered Rhonda a half-hearted wave. “I’ll see you tomorrow. All right? Maybe it will all look better then.”

  Rhonda was laughing when she left the office. “That’s my Maggie,” she called over her shoulder. “She won’t help you, but she’s happy to be your cheerleader and the one to remind you that every cloud has a silver lining!”

  Maggie didn’t respond to that jab. It wasn’t a fair statement. Maggie had grown up in a very quiet household. Her parents had been older and scholarly, and there had been no conflict. Did nobody ever realize how insane it felt to be embroiled in family drama and people drama and just drama when you had been insulated from it for practically your entire life?

  Spinning in her chair, Maggie stared out her big picture window toward the playground. She remembered being in grade school and having friends who had been in constant conflict with other friends, their siblings, their parents, and pretty much anyone else who would engage. Then Maggie would go home and she would talk about her day with her parents. They would smile and nod and tell her that there were much better ways to solve problems. Conversation will carry the day. That was her mother’s favorite adage. Was it any wonder that Maggie had turned out as she had?

  With a huge sigh, Maggie shut off her computer. Screw this report. She would do it later that night. It wasn’t like Olivia was going to do anything with it before tomorrow morning. The timestamp on the email would show when Maggie had sent it, but for once Maggie felt too tired to care. Later sounded pretty darn good. It was already dinnertime and she was starving. Maybe dinner at her favorite restaurant would help alleviate some of the stress she was feeling.

  Maggie covered her computer with its plastic sleeve. Then she gathered up her purse and her keys. The other offices in the administrative wing were already dark. Maggie was obviously the last to leave. Even Rhonda’s desk was bare and quiet. Sometimes the school seemed eerie like this. Everyone had gone home to be with their loved ones. And then there was Maggie. She was going to go eat in a restaurant by herself so that she could watch families and not be involved with them. Then she would go home to her empty little apartment and try to pretend that her life was satisfying and complete.

  Who was she kidding? And how much longer did she really believe she could keep this up?

  Chapter Five

  “I don’t want to go to dance class.” Bella had barely buckled herself into the car when she dumped that bomb on him.

  “Come on, kiddo. You should at least show up. You know,” Darren coaxed. “Just put in an appearance so that your father won’t be mad. Please?”

  “If you take me there, I won’t get out of the car.” She folded her arms and gave him a stubborn look in the rearview mirror. “The other girls are mean. They make fun of me because I don’t dance good.”

  Well, that wasn’t nice, but Darren had long ago stopped wondering why kids were mean to each other. He had been the football jock. He could remember plenty of kids he’d bullied over the years before he’d moved on to become the little fish in someone else’s pond and had gotten his ass handed to him more than once.

  “You’re really not going to get out of the car? You’re just going to sit there in the seat and let me walk inside that dance studio all by myself and explain that Bella is refusing to dance?” Darren attempted to make it sound as dramatic as possible in hopes of teasing the kid out of her bad mood. “Come on, Bella. We have to go somewhere. Poor Mrs. Naranjo will know that we came home too early if we get there before dinnertime.”

  It didn’t work. The expression on Bella’s features was set in stone. Darren didn’t bother asking her anything else. It was plain the girl had her mind made up and wasn’t going to budge. Darren hit the brakes. The car squealed to a stop in the parking lot.

  “What are we doing now?” Bella demanded from the backseat. “You can’t just sit here, Uncle Darren! Don’t you know how to do car line?”

  Bella was, of course, referring to the myriad of cars beginning to line up at the curb in front of the school in order to pick up kids from aftercare. Apparently, car line protocol was very important. Well, it was important to everyone but Darren. He was blocking the exit while he tried to figure out what to do.

  He couldn’t very well bully the kid into going to dance. On the other hand, he might be able to kill some time to keep Mrs. Naranjo from reporting back to Laredo that Darren hadn’t fulfilled his task of taking Bella to dance lessons and Darren could go have a chat with Aria Callahan at Clouds End Farm too. This way, if Laredo got pissed at him, Darren could just say it was a business-related side trip.

  Yes. This was a perfect solution.

  “Uncle Darrrrrennn!” Bella moaned. “I’m going to be embarrassed tomorrow!”

  “Nobody will know who we are in this vehicle anyway,” Darren told her. “It isn’t like I’m driving my company truck with our brand plastered all over the side. We’re like undercover FBI agents in this car!”

  He turned out of the school parking lot and started driving out toward the outskirts of Denver. They passed the city limit sign and kept going. Clouds End Farm was way outside of Denver proper but not nearly as far out as the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company.

  “Um, Uncle Darren?” Bella’s little voice seemed small.

  He glanced at her in the rearview mirror and realized she was sitting up super straight in order to see out the windows. Her nose was practically pressed to the glass. “What’s up, Bella?”

  “Where are we going?” Bella wanted to know. “There aren’t any more buildings!”

  “We’re going to see an old friend of mine. She owns a horse farm.”

  “A horse farm?” Now Bella was bouncing in the seat. It was so enthusiastic that Darren was mildly afraid she was going to brain herself on the roof of the car.

  “Hey! Calm down back there. It’s just a business meeting.”

  “But there are horses?” Bella wanted confirmation. Was the kid horse crazy or something? She was Laredo’s kid. Darren wasn’t sure why he was so certain that meant Bella hadn’t been exposed to horses very much and preferred city girl activities. Darren’s older brother hadn’t always been a total city slicker.

  “Yes, Bella. There are horses. But it’s still just business. You know, in case your dad asks.” Darren couldn’t tell the kid to lie to her father. That would have been wrong. He just had to keep his fingers crossed that Laredo wasn’t going to find out that Darren had let Bella skip dance class to play hooky at a horse farm.

  In just a few minutes, Darren was pulling up the long gravel driveway to a set of barns, outbuildings, and houses grouped together pleasantly in a little valley with a great view of the Rocky Mountain front range. Clouds End Farm had always been a very pleasant place. Darren actually liked it better than the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company main camp where he and his brothers had grown up. At least Clouds End Farm had a homey feel to it.

  Darren drove up to the main barn because there was no way Aria would be up at her house this time of day. After school was prime teaching time for horseback riding lessons, and that’s how Aria made her living. Putting the car in park, Darren started to turn around to tell Bella that she could get out of the car. There was no need. Bella was already out of the car and running toward the fence where several horses were loafing in a paddock as they waited to be caught by their riders.

  “Bella!” Darren shouted. “Don’t go running off! Stay—Bella—Bella!”

  There was a low, feminine laugh behind him. Darren turned around in time to see Aria Callahan smirking at him. “After all these years, Darren Hernandez shows up at my farm with a kid in tow?” Aria’s dark head was tilted to one side as she stared at Bella. “She’s certainly a Hernandez. Is she yours?”

  “Laredo’s, actually.” It was odd, but Darren could have
sworn he saw something very strange touch Aria’s face at the mention of Laredo and children. How odd. But that wasn’t why he was here. “Bella came with me because she refused to go to her dance lesson. I’m actually just here to talk some business.”

  “Business?” Aria raised an eyebrow. She was still watching Bella with something almost like hunger in her eyes. Finally, she turned to stare at Darren. “Why on earth would Laredo and Joe Hernandez send Darren the football jock to talk business with me?”

  “I believe they were trying to soften you up.” Darren batted his eyelashes at her. Aria had always been a bit of a tough customer, but only because she was so close to Darren’s adopted sister, Jesse. “They thought if they sent me, you might be more willing to talk.”

  “Talk about what?” Aria laughed. “Do you even know what this is about?”

  “You’re a very prominent horse trainer in the state.” Darren wasn’t stupid, and for some reason, he felt very compelled to make this obvious to Aria. He could do this business stuff. He was a people person. Right? “You’ve sent a lot of business our way when it comes to private sales of really expensive horses.”

  Aria gave a low laugh. She started walking toward the fence where Bella was now attempting to pluck blades of grass and feed them to the horses on the other side. “Sweetie, you’re going to get your fingers nipped off like that. Let me show you.”

  Darren didn’t interrupt as Aria gave Bella a quick instruction lesson in a low soothing tone of voice that reminded Darren very strongly of Maggie. That was one of the things that he’d been so impressed about with the guidance counselor with the shocking strawberry-blond hair. She was so calming. Everything she said was welcoming. Even when she was talking about something uncomfortable, she had the ability to do it with a smile that made a guy feel like a million bucks.

  “Darren?”

  He turned and realized that Aria was giving him a sideways look. “Did you totally lose interest in our topic? I know that happens sometimes with you.” She made a face. “The losing interest quickly.”

  “People change,” he told her softly.

  Aria’s retort was swift. “Your father and your brother don’t.”

  “Is that why you’re not doing business with them anymore?” Darren hoped he was able to smooth things over. He’d bragged to his father that he could, and disappointing Joe Hernandez was not a fun experience. “Surely it was as lucrative for you as it was for them.”

  “It isn’t that I’m not doing business with them.” Aria pursed her lips together. “You do realize that all of this came about because they’re pressuring Jesse to give up control of her ranch? The woman just turned twenty-one. The ranch is hers. She’s earned the chance to try and run it, and your father isn’t willing to let that stand. All I told him”—Aria made a face—“was that I would be continuing to do business with Jesse just like I have for years. I don’t care what ranch Jesse is based out of. She knows good horses. Jesse is the one who has been funneling me these great horses for my clients. Not your dad. Not Laredo. So, when your father the pompous ass came here to inform me of his perspective and to tell me that I needed to remember which side my bread was buttered on, I just told him that my bread looked exactly as it had for the last two years.”

  Darren wished he had something to say to that. A snappy retort. A statistic. Anything. But he didn’t. He could only shrug, sigh, and rub one hand down his face. “So, basically, you’re telling me that you aren’t changing the way that you do business or who you do business with.” An idea was forming in Darren’s mind. It would be the ultimate avoidance tactic. “And the only one who is changing anything is my father because he’s driving Jesse away with his heavy-handed attempts to keep her ranch under his thumb.”

  “And his letterhead,” Aria muttered. “The man is insufferable. Seriously, Darren. Have you never really thought about your father’s behavior when it comes to Jesse?”

  “Don’t get me started on that.” Darren sighed and shoved his fingers through his hair. If he was going to get Bella home before Laredo got there, they needed to get moving. “I know my father has a weird hang-up about the Collins ranch and Jesse. He’s obsessed with something that happened a million years ago when Jesse’s parents died. We don’t know what it was, or is. And he won’t say. He just keeps saying that Jesse needs to be careful because her relations are going to come and steal away all of his hard work.”

  “Jesse is smarter than that,” Aria muttered. She folded her hands over her chest. Her gaze kept returning to Bella. Why? It was like she was dying to ask questions and yet refused to do it.

  “You should go,” Aria murmured. “I don’t have anything else to say to you about this. If you want to come back to just hang out because we’re old friends, then maybe we can do that sometime.”

  Darren smiled at Aria. “Thanks for that. I really appreciate it.”

  “It must be hard coming back this way.” Aria gestured to his leg. “How’s the knee?”

  “How did you know?” Darren froze. He didn’t like people thinking that he was weak.

  “Jesse heard it from Cal, I think.”

  “Right.” Darren shouldn’t have been surprised. No matter how angry Jesse might be with Laredo and their father, nothing would harm the bond she had formed over the years with his eldest brother, Calvin. Cal was her rock.

  “Jesse said you had surgery,” Aria continued. “Did it fix anything? I only ask because that hasn’t been my experience with surgery.” She was unconsciously rubbing her shoulder.

  Darren ran a hand through his hair. If anyone understood injury and how it affected work, it would be someone in Aria’s line of business. “Nope. You’re right. It didn’t fix a damn thing. In fact, I think it just made everything worse.”

  “It usually does.” Aria waved to Bella. “I have to go teach some kids. It was really nice to meet you, Bella. You can come back and pet my horses anytime. Maybe on your next visit we can find some carrots or something for you to feed them.”

  Bella’s blue eyes were gleaming with excitement as she clapped her hands together and jumped up and down with excitement. Then, in an almost comical reversal, she froze. “Oh! I forgot!” Bella exclaimed. “You’re not supposed to jump and act crazy around horses. It scares them.”

  “Very smart,” Aria told the little girl. “Although, these horses are pretty used to crazy kids jumping and acting silly all around them. By now they’re what we call bombproof.” Then Aria pointed to some horses way on the other side of the property. “That’s why I have them so far away when kids come to take lessons. They’re not ready for all this excitement yet.”

  “Thank you for letting me visit,” Bella said with painful politeness. “I hope I can come back soon. I would like to learn to ride.”

  “Your daddy has a whole ranch full of horses, kiddo.” Aria cocked her head to one side. “Hasn’t he taught you how to ride?”

  Bella actually laughed. “My daddy doesn’t ride horses, Miss Aria. He’s really important at his company. He wears suits and ties and goes to work every day to make lots of money.”

  Darren sighed. Bella was obviously parroting something that she’d been told. Unfortunately, he could tell from Aria’s smirk that this little speech was pretty much exactly what she found wrong with the Hernandez family these days.

  Then Aria gently put her hands on her hips and gave Bella a wink. “When I knew your father many, many years ago, he was a straight-up cowboy in dirty ripped jeans, worn boots, and a T-shirt with horse snot all over it.” Aria started to walk away. She threw her last comment over her shoulder. “I think he was better that way. How about you?”

  Darren could not help but think that Aria was right. Laredo had been a whole lot more tolerable when he’d had dirt on his jeans. Or maybe that was Darren wishing that he could be just a little more successful in life, like his brother.

  “I like her,” Bella decided. She craned her neck back to stare up at Darren. “We should introduce her to M
s. Brown.”

  “What? Why?” Darren could not imagine why Bella would be thinking about Maggie Brown right now.

  “They would like each other.” Bella made the words sound perfectly reasonable as she began to do a hopscotching leap from foot to foot on her way back to the car. “They’re both really nice. I like them. I just think it would be fun to introduce them.” Bella stumbled over the long word. “You know?”

  “Yeah.” Darren ruffled her wild black hair. “I think you might be right, kiddo. Maybe we should let you do all the ranch business. I think you’re better with people than the rest of us are.”

  Bella was still laughing about that crazy notion when they got back in the car to drive home. Darren wasn’t entirely sure he was being funny.

  Chapter Six

  Soon enough, Darren was pulling into Laredo’s driveway with Bella, who was now smiling. Apparently, as long as they substituted any notion of dancing with a visit to a barn, Bella was willing to be in a fine mood. Go figure. Laredo would probably say that Darren had just irrevocably corrupted his daughter. Darren just didn’t particularly care.

  Darren parked the car and got out. Bella hopped out with a sunny grin on her face as though nothing had happened and as if she hadn’t just performed a neat mutiny on him. Could you call it a mutiny when there was only one tiny person involved?

  His niece was looking up at him with an all-too-knowing smile on her face. Darren swept the kid up into his arms and ignored the protest in his lower back and his knee at the sudden bend and twist. He carried her toward Laredo’s front door, glad as hell that his brother wasn’t home from work just yet.

  “So, you got your way. No dance class. What’s with the big grin? You can’t possibly be that happy that you got to come straight home,” Darren growled as he flung Bella over his shoulder. “You might as well tell me what you’re really thinking.”