Her Rugged Rancher. Stella Bagwell
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very nearly made him smile, but he stopped himself short. What the hell was he doing? He didn’t smile at women. He didn’t even like them. Not after the hell Camilla had put him through.
“I helped measure and hammer a few nails, but not much more than that. When it comes to carpenter work I can do a few repair jobs, but nothing major.”
She said, “I made a little doghouse once with the help of my grandfather. It turned out pretty good, but the darned dog never would get in it. Probably because Grandmother kept letting him in the house.”
The main ranch yard of the J Bar S sat just across from Jett’s house. While Bella had lived there, Noah had often spotted her going to her car as she left for work in the mornings. And sometimes late in the evening as he’d dealt with barn chores, he’d seen her return. She would always be wearing dresses and high heels and carrying a leather briefcase. With that image fixed in his mind, it was hard enough to accept she was a competent horsewoman, much less imagine her using a hammer and nails.
“Sounds like your grandmother spoiled your project,” he said.
“Not really. My cats used it.”
He inclined his head in the direction of the windows. “I don’t get much sunlight in here. I’ll turn on a lamp.”
“Don’t bother on my account. I can see fine.”
Noah wasn’t having any trouble seeing, either. Yet he was having a problem deciding if the vision standing in his cabin was real or imagined. Other than Jett and a couple of the other ranch hands, he’d never had visitors up here. And bringing a woman home was definitely off-limits. How Bella had managed to be here was a different matter. But she was here just the same and for now he’d try to deal with the situation as best he could without being rude.
“Have a seat. The couch is a little hard. You might find the chair more comfortable.”
“Thanks, but I’ll sit later. Let me help you with the hamburger meat. I can make the patty.”
She followed him over to the kitchen area and though she stood a few steps away from him, Noah felt completely smothered by her presence.
“I’ll do it,” he told her. “You’re a guest.”
Laughing softly, she leaned her hip against the cabinet counter. Noah tried not to notice how her jeans hugged the ample curve of her hips and thighs and the way her blouse draped the thrust of her breasts. And even when he looked away, the image was still so strong in his mind it practically choked him.
“I’m not a guest,” she reasoned. “I’m just a neighbor who’s intruded on your privacy. But thanks for letting me.”
Why did she have to be so nice? Why couldn’t she be one of those spoiled, abrasive women that got on everyone’s nerves? Why couldn’t she be a woman who considered herself too good to come near his cabin, much less enter it? Then he wouldn’t be having this problem. He wouldn’t be wanting to throw caution to the wind and let himself simply enjoy her company. Instead, she was warm and sweet. And just having her near filled him with a hollow ache.
“Well, I don’t normally have company. Uninvited or otherwise,” he told her. “So my manners are a little rusty. I’m afraid you’ll have to overlook them.”
He glanced her way to see she was smiling and for a moment his gaze focused on her dark pink lips and white teeth. That mouth would taste as good as her voice sounded, he imagined.
“Who’s worried about manners? You and I are family,” she said. “Well, practically. You’ve been here on the ranch longer than I have. We just never had the opportunity to talk much. When I was still living with Jett, you would stop by, but never say a word to me. I’m glad you’re being much nicer today.”
He laid a portion of ground meat onto a piece of wax paper and smashed it flat. “A guy like me doesn’t have anything interesting to say to a lady like you.”
From the corner of his eye he watched her move a step closer. “Lady? I’ve not had a man call me that in a long time, Noah. Thank you.”
Her voice had taken on a husky note and the sound slipped over him like a warm blanket in the middle of a cold night.
“That’s hard to believe, Bella.”
She shrugged. “Not really. Men aren’t very chivalrous nowadays. At least, not the ones I cross paths with. Maybe that’s because of my profession. In the courtroom they see me as an adversary. Not a lady.”
“Jett says you worked hard to get your degree. He also says you’re good at your job.”
“Jett is obviously biased. But I can credit him for getting me in the law profession. When I was growing up, I never dreamed of being a lawyer. But after Marcus and I divorced the course of my life changed. Jett got me interested in being a paralegal and from there I guess you could say I caught the bug to be in the courtroom.”
Her gaze fell awkwardly to the floor and it suddenly dawned on Noah that every aspect of this woman’s life hadn’t been filled with success. She’d endured her own troubles with the opposite sex. And though he’d heard Jett label his ex-brother-in-law as a liar and a cheat, Noah had never questioned the man about Bella’s divorce or how it had affected her. It was none of his business. But that didn’t stop him from wondering how much she’d really loved the guy.
Or whether she was finally over him.
Clearing his throat, Noah said, “Excuse me, Bella, but I’d better take this out to the grill. It’s probably hot enough to put the burgers on now.”
“Sounds good,” she told him. “I’ll join you.”
She followed him out of the cabin and around to the back. Although there were only a few clumps of grass growing here and there over the sloping ground, he kept it neatly mown. For a makeshift patio, he’d put together four flat rocks. On one corner of the space, he’d erected a small charcoal grill atop a folding table.
A few steps away sat a lawn chair made of bent willow limbs and cushioned with a folded horse blanket. Near it lay a huge pine trunk that had fallen long before Noah had ever moved into the cabin. The smooth, weathered log made a playground for squirrels and chipmunks and a seat where he often drank his morning coffee.
While he positioned the patties on the hot grill, Bella ambled a few feet away where the forest opened up to a view of bald desert mountains in the distance.
“Are those mountains on Jett’s land?” she asked.
It surprised Noah to hear her call it Jett’s land. He’d always suspected that she was a partial owner in the ranch, but apparently he’d supposed wrong.
“No. They look close, but they’re at least ten miles away. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious. This is going to sound silly, but there are places on this ranch that I’ve never seen. Especially since Jett and Sassy bought the adjoining land a few years ago.”
“You obviously knew your way to the cabin,” he said.
“That’s right. My grandparents built the cabin,” she told him. “And when I was a little girl, my grandmother and I would come up here in the summer and pick wild berries.”
“I met your grandparents back before Christmas, when they came up to see little Mason after he was born. Nice folks.”
“Yes. I keep promising to drive down for a little visit with them, but it seems like I can never get that many free days in a row to make the trip to California.” She turned and strode back to the shaded area where he was standing. “One of these days I’m going to clear my work schedule and go anyway. My grandparents aren’t getting any younger and I want to enjoy them while they’re still around.”
“Melvin