Wishing for the Rancher’s Love (High Country Ranch #5)

Chapter 3

3

Clementine tried not to stare at the hockey players dodging around on the ice, but her gaze kept straying there anyway. They were all so strong and fast and good-looking. Even Grady had an appeal. Like the others, he’d shed his coat and rolled up his sleeves almost to his elbows. She’d never known forearms could be so manly, but his were most definitely eye-catching, with their flexing tendons, pulsing veins, and popping muscles.

Not only was he a strongly built man, but his presence both on and off the ice was commanding—particularly on the ice. He skated and played hockey as if he owned the place and everyone and everything belonged to him. It wasn’t arrogance. But it was close.

Regardless, she could admit he was the best player on either team—probably the most experienced, the strongest, and the most decisive. He was fun to watch.

But she didn’t want to give him the pleasure of knowing she enjoyed seeing him play. He would never let her live it down, would forever be teasing her about ogling him.

Beside her, on the sideline of the pond, Willa was chattering with the fellows they’d mingled with over the past couple of evenings. Although Clementine was attempting to stay part of the conversation, she was distracted by the game... and Grady.

Willa laughed at something and then nudged Clementine. “Isn’t that right, Clementine?”

Grady was in the process of ducking underneath the arm of one player while hitting the puck with his hockey stick, and she didn’t want to take her attention off his fluid yet strong moves. But she forced herself to smile brightly at her friend. “Is what right?”

Willa twisted one of her long dark locks of hair and smiled coyly at the fellow beside her. “We’ll be at the dance tomorrow night.”

“Oh my, we wouldn’t miss it.” Clementine bestowed a smile on the two men.

“Then I claim the first dance with you.” The taller of the two—John—reached for Clementine’s mittened hand.

She allowed him to capture it. What harm was there in letting him hold her hand for a few seconds?

He seemed decent enough, had explained that he and his friends were new to the area and had come to mine and strike it rich. He had a nice-looking face, even if his mustache was sparse as if he was trying to grow facial hair but hadn’t been able to sprout it yet.

So far, he and his friends had been lively and fun.

John swung her hand. “I don’t want to wait until tomorrow to dance. How about if we dance right here tonight?”

“Here?” Clementine glanced around at the others crowded along the pond. “Tonight?”

Mill Pond was only two blocks away from the general store on Main Street—close enough that Clementine had been able to walk to the hockey games. The trip was much shorter and easier than riding into town from the ranch as she’d had to do in previous years. That was another advantage to living in town—she could join in more of the evening activities.

The pond was a leveled-out area of grassy embankment near the Blue River. Someone had created the pond a number of years ago for ice-skating, keeping the water level only a couple of inches deep so it would freeze over more quickly than the river.

In November, when the daily temperatures often rose above freezing, the pond sometimes melted during the day. It stayed more consistently frozen throughout the winter than the river. During particularly snowy times, tents were erected over the pond to keep it free of too much accumulation.

Over the years, it had become a popular place for the young people in the area to gather. Lined with lanterns hung from lampposts strategically placed around the perimeter, the pond was busy with clusters of onlookers cheering on the game and others who’d simply come to mingle.

And now, apparently, John wanted to have a dance there.

He lifted her hand into a waltz-like pose—at least, she thought it was waltz-like, since she’d never actually waltzed. Then he began to move forward in a dance, loudly humming the music.

She let him lead her and would have joined him in humming, but she didn’t know the tune.

He twirled her, bent her over, and then brought her back up. He was smiling brightly, his eyes alight with his own enjoyment of the moment.

This was the kind of man she liked—one who was spontaneous, who danced with her on a whim, who didn’t care what anyone else thought, and who appreciated the joys of life. Unlike Grady, who never did anything without first calculating every risk and hardly ever took the time to enjoy the simple things of life.

As John twirled her a final time, she laughed with pleasure... until he wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her abruptly against him so their bodies were pressing together.

His expression turned earnest, and desire flared in his eyes. She’d seen desire enough times over the years to be able to recognize it.

She liked having fun with young people her age, including the fellows, but fun was as far as she was willing to go.

She jerked her hand from John’s and pushed his chest.

He only gathered her closer. “You’re so beautiful, Clementine.”

“Let go of me.” She shoved again.

He dipped his head near hers as though he meant to kiss her.

She lifted her hand to cover his mouth. “Stop right there, mister.” She wasn’t opposed to kissing, but not like this and not with him.

To the side, she saw Willa halt her conversation, likely sensing the growing tension.

John broke free from her hand over his mouth. “Please, Clementine. I’d like you to be mine.”

At his words—identical to what had been on the note she’d found in her coat pocket—she froze. Was John the person who’d been leaving the gifts and notes?

“Stop.” She managed the one word even as her blood turned to ice. If he’d been sneaking around the store and her workroom, then he’d definitely taken things too far, and she had to make him understand the need to stop.

“I want to marry you,” he continued, his voice radiating with passion.

“No, John.” She struggled against him, but he refused to release her. “I’m not interested—”

He reached for her again, dragging her against his chest.

In the next instant, he was being wrenched backward and away from her. He squawked a girlish scream and flailed his arms as he strained to see what was happening.

Clementine could see easily enough. Grady had a fistful of John’s coat and had lifted him off the ground by at least an inch. Grady hauled the fellow away, then flung him like dirty water being emptied from a wash basin.

John stumbled backward several steps and then toppled to his backside, landing with a hard oomph on the ice.

Grady was scowling fiercely. His bare arms were taut and his hockey stick raised as he stepped after John and towered above him.

“Don’t touch Clementine.” Grady growled out the words. On the ice, the game had come to a halt, likely because Grady had stepped out of position to be a hero she didn’t need. And now all the players were watching him.

Of course she was grateful Grady was looking out for her. She wasn’t na?ve enough to think she could overcome a big man like John if he decided to force himself on her. But she didn’t like it when Grady ran to her rescue as though she were a damsel in distress.

“I don’t know who you are,” Grady was saying in a deadly tone, “but I’d better not see you anywhere near Clementine ever again.”

John scooted back on the ice several inches, as if he was afraid Grady might hit him with the hockey stick. “I was just proposing—”

“Looks like she said no.” Grady lowered the hockey stick, then pretended to swipe it at John.

John ducked his head and emitted another high-pitched scream.

Clementine shook her head, unable to rein in her exasperation. “Grady Worth, leave the poor fellow alone.”

Grady halted the hockey stick near John’s head.

Clementine strode over to Grady, huffed, then jerked the stick out of his hand.

Grady didn’t spare her a glance—was too busy trying to scare John.

She wrapped a hand around Grady’s arm and began to drag him away from John and away from the pond. Thankfully, he followed her, walking as easily on his ice skates as he did in his work boots. She could feel his resistance in his arm flexing beneath her fingers, the muscles hard but his skin warmer than she’d expected on the cold night.

When she reached the dark shadows that were untouched by lantern light, she halted and spun to face him. She didn’t really care if people heard her chewing Grady out, but she wanted to get him away from John so the whole incident could end without anyone getting hurt.

It wasn’t the first time Grady had stepped in to try to protect her from a man getting too frisky. He’d done so on other occasions over the past few years. But the last couple of times he’d intervened, he’d given the fellows bruises— souvenirs , he’d said with a smirk.

“I didn’t need your help, Grady.” She tried to put her hands on her hips, but since she was still holding Grady’s hockey stick, she could only fist one and suspected she looked only halfway peeved.

“He was about to kiss you,” Grady hissed, tossing a glare at John, who was slipping and sliding and nearly falling as he tried to get off the ice and back onto solid ground.

“I realize that. And I wasn’t planning to let him. I had things under control.”

“It didn’t look that way to me.”

“Well, I did.”

He rolled his eyes in typical Grady fashion. “Why can’t you just stay away from the fellows, Clementine?”

She rolled her eyes too. It was immature, she knew. But sometimes she couldn’t seem to help herself around Grady. He made her so mad. “Oh, so now I’m supposed to go to Denver and join a convent and become a nun?”

“Maybe.” Grady leaned down so his face was a handspan away. “If that would keep you from flirting with every fellow that walks into Summit County, then maybe I’ll drive you down to Denver myself.”

“I’m not flirting with every fellow.”

“It looks that way to me.”

Clearly he’d been keeping half an eye on her while playing his game. Or perhaps he’d noticed John’s advances during a break in the game’s action. Whatever the case, she didn’t need Grady scaring men away.

“What if I’d been planning to accept John’s proposal?” She never would, but Grady hadn’t known that.

Grady released a low scoff. “That pancake?”

She bit back a smile. John was a bit of a pancake, whatever that meant. Especially if he was the one secretly leaving her the gifts and notes. She still needed to tell him to stop. But maybe now, after Grady’s scare tactics, she wouldn’t need to.

She lifted her shoulders, then pinned him with a glare. “Stop interfering with my social life, Grady.”

“Then stop being so careless with men. One of these days, all your flirting will get you into trouble.”

Another denial pushed to the tip of her tongue, but Grady lifted a finger to her lips and silenced her in one touch. His finger was hard like his expression, but that hardness sent a strange shimmer along every nerve ending, all the way to her toes.

Grady’s gaze dropped to his finger against her lips, and his dark eyes widened a fraction before he jerked his hand away, almost as if the touch had burned him. Then his brows furrowed into another deep scowl.

There was the Grady she knew. The grumpy pest.

From the pond, Grady’s teammates were calling him to return to the game.

Grady gave them a curt nod before glowering at John and his friends, now hurrying along the path that led toward town. He watched them for a moment before taking his hockey stick from her.

“Wait for me”—his voice was much too bossy—“and I’ll walk you home.”

Did he think John would be in the shadows, waiting for her to pass, ready to jump out and grab her? She scoffed. “I’ve been walking back and forth alone all week.”

“Clementine Oakley,” he growled with impossibly dark eyes. “You’re the most aggravating girl I know.”

“Woman.”

He didn’t respond.

“Aggravating woman.” She wasn’t a girl anymore, and it was past time for him to accept it.

He sighed, then turned away and started back to the pond. “Either wait for me to walk with you, or make sure you go with Willa.”

She hesitated several beats. “Fine.”

As soon as she gave her answer, he picked up his pace into a jog. And a moment later he was racing on the ice as though he was trying to outrun a demon. But even with his speed, he had a control and deliberateness that never failed to amaze her.

He was a man of so many contradictions that he sometimes left her dizzy. One minute he was beating an overzealous fellow away from her with a hockey stick, and the next he acted like she was the most troublesome person he’d ever met.

There was no doubt in her mind that Grady was a good man. He watched over her like an older brother would, except that he was an annoyed older brother who had little patience for her and wished she wasn’t around to bother him.

She wasn’t sure what had happened to cause him to feel that way, but at some point she’d done something to earn his disdain. Or maybe as they’d gotten older, she’d changed into a person he no longer liked.

Whatever the case, he made no secret of the fact that he didn’t get along with her. Maybe at first she’d been hurt, and his rejection had stung, especially because she’d adored him, had even fancied herself in love with him at one point. Over time she’d come to accept that she and Grady would never be anything but at odds with each other. And that was perfectly fine with her.