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

Chapter 4

4

Willa Vance.

Grady unlaced his skate and studied Clementine’s friend. He didn’t care that he was staring or maybe even being obnoxious about it. If he had to pick a woman to court and fall in love with, then he couldn’t be shy about it.

He didn’t think Dad had any love interests yet. But Dad was friendly and not bad-looking, and sometimes women came into the store and paid him attention.

Just in case his dad already had a woman he’d been thinking about, Grady couldn’t afford to sit back and waste time. Which was why he needed to survey the few single women who’d come to watch the hockey game.

A couple of women on the opposite side of the pond had been eyeing him and some of the hockey players on his team. He could go over and introduce himself and find out more about them. But why bother doing that when Willa was nearby and smiling at him, clearly having noticed his attention?

Willa was fairly new to Breckenridge—had moved into town over the past year with her family, who had come up from Denver and built a hotel. She worked there with several of her siblings.

She was pretty, especially for a fellow who liked thin, small-boned women with dark hair and pale skin. He actually preferred a more curvaceous woman with fair hair and tanned skin.

His gaze shifted to where Clementine stood, animatedly talking with Buck, one of his teammates. She was shivering and hugging her arms across her body, which only served to outline her figure with all the right curves in all the right places. Her beauty was a fact, and he wasn’t going to ignore it just because he didn’t like her. Of course she had the prettiest fair hair of any woman he’d ever met. And her skin still contained the golden-brown hue she’d gained over the summer.

The trouble was, every other fellow was noticing Clementine as usual. And she loved it.

He knew he shouldn’t care. She was old enough to be courting. But she needed to be more selective and stop leading men on. With her laughter and talkativeness and classic flirtatious smile with a wink, she was sending messages that shouldn’t be sent.

If she were less friendly, then maybe fellows wouldn’t be putting their hands all over her.

The anger from a short while ago still simmered low in his gut. Of course, he’d been aware the moment the tall fellow had reached for Clementine’s hand. Then the pancake had pretended to dance with her just so he could get a feel of her body and steal a kiss. It had been obvious that was what he’d been aiming for.

When Clementine had started struggling to get loose, Grady hadn’t been able to hold himself back any longer. He’d done the right thing and had gone to her defense.

He wouldn’t have had to, though, if she’d been more careful.

With an exasperated sigh, he finished removing his skates, tied the laces together, and draped them over his shoulder. He’d already shrugged back into his coat, which he almost never wore while playing. Now, as he made his way toward Clementine and Willa, he swiped off his knit cap and combed his fingers through his hair, which was damp with perspiration.

He could feel Willa still watching him, waiting for him to look at her again. Although he wasn’t necessarily attracted to her, he needed to consider her as a potential love interest, didn’t he? He’d heard of couples who hadn’t been attracted to each other at first but had simply had to give love a chance to grow.

Clementine’s brother Ryder was a perfect example of that. He’d put an advertisement into a newspaper for a wife. Genevieve had traveled west, and the two of them had gotten married without knowing each other. From what he’d overheard Clementine telling his dad, now Ryder and Genevieve were madly in love with each other—if being madly in love were even possible.

Grady would settle for plain and simple love or even liking.

He forced himself to shift his attention to Willa, settling on her face, which was pretty, even if it was thin and angular.

“Good game, Grady,” she said as he stopped in front of her.

He shrugged. “It was all right.”

Her smile widened, and her eyes seemed to brighten. “I thought you played fabulously.”

He couldn’t remember if he’d ever talked to Willa before. Maybe in passing. It was time to change that and get to know her better.

She watched him expectantly, as if waiting for him to answer her comment. For a second, he stood awkwardly, unsure how to start a conversation.

“It was just an okay game.” Clementine waved to Buck as he headed away with another fellow, then she turned her attention to Grady, narrowing her brow critically. “You had some good passes but missed too many goals.”

“Only a few.”

“More like a few dozen.”

He snorted at her exaggeration.

She rubbed her mittened hands together. “You were definitely off your game tonight.”

He narrowed his eyes back on her. “How would you know? You were too busy getting fresh with that pancake to watch my moves.”

Clementine’s narrow brows turned down into a V, and her hands dropped to her hips. “I was not getting fresh with John.”

“You let him put his hands all over you.”

“I did not.” Her voice held a note of mortification.

He wasn’t being fair. She’d done her best to make the pancake behave.

“John is very sweet.” She tossed the words at him, as if they could justify everything that had happened. “In fact, he secretly left me two silk roses today at the store.”

“Sweet or not, he’s not the man for you.”

“And who made you the expert on the kind of man I need?”

“It’s not hard to see.”

“Is that right? Then since you’re so smart, why don’t you enlighten me? Who is the perfect man for me?”

Willa’s gaze was bouncing back and forth between him and Clementine, her smile slowly fading.

He almost slapped himself on the forehead. What was he doing? He needed to talk to Willa, not Clementine. It was just that the words always flowed easily with Clementine—sometimes too easily. But they’d known each other for a long time. And she was practically his sister, since his parents had treated Clementine so much like a daughter over the years.

Quickly, he shifted his gaze back to Willa. “May I walk you home, Willa?”

From the corner of his eye, he could see Clementine’s mouth open as though she might say something. But then she closed it. Was she speechless?

He bit back a grin. She rarely was without something to say, so this moment deserved a special monument to mark the occasion. He was tempted to tell her, but instead held out the crook of his arm to Willa.

Willa’s smile returned, doubling in size, and she sidled closer, slipping her hand into his arm.

He could feel Clementine watching them, her surprise tangible. After taking several steps away from her, he halted and tossed her a smirk. “Tag along, Clementine. I’ll make sure you get home safely too.”

Without waiting for her response, he started forward with Willa. This time, he forced himself to ask her a question. “How do you like living in Breckenridge so far?”

Thankfully, she answered the question in more detail, describing how it was so different from Denver and how she missed the city. He tried to listen, but he was also keeping one eye on Clementine as she moseyed several paces behind them. Of course, she said hello to every person they passed and stopped to chat twice, forcing him to halt with Willa and wait for her.

Even so, the walk to the Vance Hotel didn’t take long, since it was on the western edge of town, a short distance from the pond. The newly constructed building seemed to glow in the darkness, with lights burning brightly in all of its large windows, revealing its freshly painted clapboards and a large balcony running across the second floor. From what Grady had heard, the hotel had an indoor bathtub, and that was drawing visitors eager for the luxury.

As he halted at the back entrance and said goodnight to Willa, she smiled shyly up at him.

Clementine waited a short distance away and was already chatting with a fellow who was lingering at the side of the hotel and smoking a cigar. Why couldn’t she ever pass by a man without talking to him?

“Would you like to go to the dance with me tomorrow night?” Willa asked. “The one being held at Inman’s Lodge?”

He dragged his attention away from Clementine and nodded curtly at Willa. “I’ll meet you there.”

Her smile wavered, but she gave him a few more details about the dance, which he hardly heard through his mounting irritation with Clementine. Finally, when he and Clementine were on their way again and heading down Main Street toward the store, he swallowed another chastisement.

It wasn’t his business whom she talked to. Besides, she was an outgoing and friendly person with both men and women alike. It was just the way she was, and he had to stop making more out of the interactions than was warranted.

Clementine ambled beside him on the boardwalk, not in a hurry. “I didn’t realize you were interested in Willa.”

He wasn’t all that interested, but he was planning to go to the dance with her and at least make room for something to develop between them. “She’s a nice girl.”

“Woman.”

“You know what I mean, Clementine. You don’t have to correct me.”

“I’m not a girl, and neither is Willa.” Her voice took on a sassy note. “And maybe it’s time for you to finally start to realize it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Across the street, two men stumbled out of a saloon, laughing boisterously. Ahead, another group of revelers was standing near a hitching post, talking loudly.

He was tempted to slide a hand to Clementine’s back in a possessive gesture, not because she belonged to him but to keep the men from paying her any heed. Instead, he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets.

“Believe it or not, I’m old enough to get married, Grady.”

“I realize that.”

“Do you?”

Even though at times he still thought of her as the young girl in the long braids who’d spent hours in the kitchen with his mom, he wasn’t blind, and he’d noticed her growing up. It had been hard not to notice, and that had always been an issue because his noticing had taken up more space in his head than he’d wanted it to.

As they neared the general store, they veered off onto the flagstone path that wound around the building. He traipsed behind her, the light from the street fading and darkness enveloping them. Even so, they made their way easily toward the metal stairway on the side of the building, which led to the second floor.

When the upstairs room had been his bedroom years ago, he’d never minded the roundabout way of getting to his room, but he didn’t like that Clementine had to go outside. He’d even debated telling Dad that he’d give up his room in the house to Clementine and take the room above the store instead. But he suspected Clementine would only protest. She’d already hesitated long enough before moving to town, and he didn’t want to do anything that would send her running back to the ranch.

She halted abruptly at the base of the stairs and drew in a sharp breath.

“What?” He glanced up the dozen steps to the dark windows of her room.

But she wasn’t looking at the apartment. She was focused on something sitting on the bottom step. She bent and picked up the item, which appeared to be a flower of some kind.

She moved forward a few steps until she was in the alley, where the light from a nearby business joined with the moonlight to illuminate not only a fake flower but a slip of paper dangling from it.

She’d mentioned something about the fellow at the pond giving her two roses. Was this another rose from him?

She squinted as she attempted to read something written on the paper.

What was she thinking? Did she like the gesture?

At a noise from down the alley, she jumped and glanced around with rounded eyes. Her fingers began to shake, and she tossed the flower to the ground.

Grady wasted no time in picking it up and reading the message on the note: I like watching you fix your hair.

His mind exploded with a dozen scenarios, none of them good. “Why are you letting that pancake watch you fix your hair?”

“I’m not.” Her gaze darted up and down the alley again, as if she expected someone to jump out of the shadows.

Across from them and behind the store on a slight rise was the big house his dad had built, a dim light winking in one of its windows. The back of the stable and shed bordered the alley along with the sprawling fence that hedged in the backyard.

As far as he could tell, no one was in sight.

He dropped his sights back to the note and reread it. The words were just as unsettling the second time. “Who’s watching you fix your hair?” he demanded. “Is it the fellow from the pond tonight?”

“I don’t know,” she answered with a shaky whisper.

He examined the gaudy flower and the piece of thin string tied in a knot to the paper. “This is ridiculous.”

“It’s the third one today.”

“Third flower or note?”

“Both.”

“And were they all this creepy?” He couldn’t keep his voice from rising.

“Sort of.” She reached for the note, her fingers still shaking.

She was frightened.

He shoved the flower and note into his pocket and then took hold of both of her hands. “What’s going on?”

She didn’t jerk away from him. Instead, she leaned in closer. “I don’t know.”

Was someone out there even now, watching her?

Maybe if he drew her into his embrace, he’d send a message to the fellow to back off.

Without giving himself time to think, he tugged her closer and wrapped his arms around her.

He was surprised when she melded into him. She didn’t slide her arms around him, but she did lean her head against his chest.

He didn’t move except to tighten his hold, wanting to reassure her that she wasn’t alone and that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He might get irritated with her often, and he might not like everything she did, but she was still like a sister to him.

Maybe that was why Dad had said something about loving Clementine. Grady supposed that, underneath everything else, he had brotherly affection and cared about her well-being the same way he would if she were his real sister.

But his mom hadn’t been able to have any more children after him, even though she’d desperately wanted another baby or two. At the time, when he’d been just a lad, all he’d known was how despondent she was after each miscarriage. Even though she’d tried to hide the crying and the melancholy, he’d heard her sobs from her bedroom and knew she didn’t want to leave her bed.

The sadness had always lingered... until they’d moved to Breckenridge and Mom had met Clementine. Somehow Clementine had made his mom happier than she’d ever been before and had brought sunshine to their home to replace the gloom that had been hanging over them for too many years.

Grady rested his chin on Clementine’s head. They used to get along better, had enjoyed many escapades and adventures together when they were younger. But time had changed them both.

Whatever the case, he had to help her in this situation. It was the right thing to do.

A movement from an adjacent building caught his attention. He tried to shift enough to get a better view of the form, but all he could see was the outline of a leg and a shoe before the person backed up.

A strange unease shimmied up his backbone.

“Come on.” He spoke gently as he wrapped his arm around her back and shifted her into the crook of his arm. “Let’s get you inside.”

She didn’t protest as he began to guide her up the steps.

He led her the whole way, only stopping when he reached the landing and held out a hand. “Key.”

“It’s not locked.”

“Not locked?” His ire spiked again. “Why aren’t you locking your door?”

“You don’t lock the door to the house.”

“That’s because it’s just me and dad.”

“And why should that make a difference?” Her voice took on an irritated note now too.

“Because it does.” He wasn’t planning to stand at her door and argue why she needed to lock it whether she was home or not. “Just lock it from now on.”

She gave a huff, broke away from his hold, and opened the door. As she crossed the room, he remained in the doorway. Both of his parents had stressed the importance of respecting a woman’s privacy as well as her reputation. And even though it was nighttime and no one would see him entering Clementine’s room, he stood back.

He could hear her fumbling with a match, and then a second later a lantern on her bedside table flared to life, revealing the long rectangular space with a slanted ceiling.

A stove stood in one corner, a comfy cushioned chair in front of it along with an end table cluttered with a ball of yarn, knitting needles, and what appeared to be a half-finished scarf or blanket or something. A rug his mom had braided covered the floor near the chair, and a bed took up the opposite wall.

Clementine swept her gaze over the room and halted on the bed. She sucked in a sharp gasp and started to tremble again. Positioned against the pillows was a bouquet of the fake flowers, and they were tied together with a big red ribbon.

Grady had the strange sense someone was watching them from down in the alley. He spun and glared into the alleyway and tried to find anyone or anything unusual. Although he couldn’t see much in the darkness, he called out anyway. “Leave Clementine alone, or you’ll answer to me, do you hear?”

No one replied.

He peered around for another moment before stalking inside, grabbing the flowers from the bed, then returning to the door. He hurled the flowers over the landing and down to the ground. “Take your blasted flowers and throw them in the toilet.”

Again, nothing but silence met his angry call.

A tightness gripped his chest. He didn’t know what was going on, but he didn’t like it one bit.