Chapter Eight

Hunter was riding the kinks out of a green bronc with a stubborn mind of his own when he noticed a cloud of dust rolling up the driveway. A sure sign they had company arriving at the B Bar D Ranch.

He shifted his focus back to the half-wild cayuse he rode and tried not to wonder who had come to visit this early in the day. Mid-morning, it was already hot, and he had a feeling the temperature would continue to climb as the day wore on.

Since the circus two weeks ago, he'd kept himself busy between training Dally's horses, helping Rowdy wherever he needed an extra hand, and making plans for the property he'd purchased. The two pieces of land were now officially his. He'd approached the older widower who owned the property on the other side of the creek, letting him know he'd give him a fair price if he were ever of a mind to sell. Mr. Rickert had said he'd keep that in mind, then wished Hunter well in his endeavors.

Flynn had ordered the poplar trees that would serve as a windbreak. He and Hunter had agreed it would be best to wait until early spring to plant the apple trees, but Hunter had already put in orders with the growers Flynn had recommended. Hunter also wanted to try his hand at growing some apple trees from seed and planned to get a greenhouse constructed before winter arrived.

The list of things he needed to see to at his own place was lengthy and growing by the day. However, Dally needed his help now, and he gladly gave it. His sister had always been generous with him as well as supportive. The two of them understood each other in a way he'd never experienced with his younger brother. Jeff was more like their father, more serious and quieter, often introspective. Hunter supposed he and Dally took after their mother, who was lively, fun, and incredibly kind.

Thoughts of someone lively and kind filled Hunter's mind with a vision of Luna Campanelli. The girl with deep brown eyes, charming smile, and sweet face popped into his thoughts with alarming frequency. He didn't know what it was about her that just stayed with him, but something sure had.

Although he knew it had been hard for her, he was glad she'd told him about her past and what had happened with Matteo, her beloved. Her nervous behavior around crowds and loud, sudden noises made so much more sense now that he knew the cause of her skittishness. He wanted Luna to be young and carefree, but he feared those days were long behind her. The best he could do was to make sure he didn't put her in situations that would cause her distress, like taking her to the circus. Had he been aware of the things that seemed to trigger an onslaught of panic, he'd have taken a far different approach to the circus than immersing her in the jostling crowds and leaving her exposed to the noise and stressors like firecrackers.

Going forward, he'd do a better job of protecting her. At least he hoped she would allow him to escort her again. He'd seen her at the restaurant when she was working, at church, and at Dogwood Corners last week when Lars and Marnie hosted a picnic after the Sunday morning service.

Hunter had somehow been coerced into joining the Pendleton Baseball League. The team captain was Garrett Nash, and members of the team included Lars Thorsen, Kade Rawlings, Tony Campanelli, Riley Walsh, Grant Hill, and Walker Williams. Nik would have joined, but he never knew when he would be called away to tend to a patient and didn't want to leave them short a player.

Despite his protests that he didn't have time for such things, Hunter had found himself playing a practice game with the men last Sunday, and from there, they'd added his name to the roster. Hunter enjoyed baseball as much as anyone, but Garrett and Kade were dedicated fans of the game.

They would play their first big game on the Fourth of July, when a team from Walla Walla would challenge them at the park after the annual parade and picnic.

Hunter wondered if Luna would feel up to attending any of the events. Perhaps if she watched the parade from Ilsa's store, the noise and crowds wouldn't bother her.

Lost in his musings about Luna, he was nearly unseated when the horse beneath him started bucking. Hunter held on with hardly more than brute strength and determination.

"Ride 'em, Hunt!" Rowdy yelled, slapping his dusty hat on his thigh as he sat on the top rail of the corral fence.

"Yeehaw!" he heard one of the other ranch hands call, but then he forced all his attention to riding the bronc. It could have been seconds, minutes, or an hour that passed before the horse stopped trying to send him on a ride to the clouds and settled down. He circled the horse around the pen three times before he rode over to the fence by Rowdy and swung off the animal's back.

It was then he noticed his audience had grown.

Ilsa, Aundy, Marnie, Caterina, and Luna all stood around, watching him.

"That was marvelous, Hunter!" Aundy clapped her hands in approval, and the other women soon joined in.

The words from Aundy pleased him greatly, considering how handy she was with horses. For a woman who'd spent her childhood growing up in a big city, Aundy had taken to country life like she'd been born to it.

Hunter admired the woman for her tenacity and willingness to do whatever was necessary to succeed, even when that meant taking a step back and letting someone with more knowledge or experience handle the job. Sometimes, that was her husband. Sometimes, it was one of the ranch hands.

Hunter had observed that Garrett and Aundy Nash were more than just man and wife. They were true partners in life, like his parents.

When Hunter got around to considering marriage, that's what he wanted. He wouldn't settle for less than a true partner, someone he could journey through life with, walking shoulder to shoulder.

Being able to have complete trust in and honesty from his spouse was of far more importance to him than marrying for a pretty face or someone who knew how to work their way through all the utensils at one of his grandmother's painfully formal dinner parties. He wasn't even sure he knew the exact purpose of the weird little fork shaped like the king of Atlantis' trident. Seafood, he supposed, but he had yet to stab anything with it.

He would marry for love or not at all, and the woman who became his wife had to be someone who brought out the best in him, who made him want to bring out the best in her.

Annoyed that Luna's face again came to mind, he tried to brush it aside, but his gaze entangled with hers on the other side of the fence, and he found himself unable to look away. He was still gaping at her, noticing that she looked astoundingly lovely in a pale-yellow summer frock with the sun shimmering around the edges, when the horse he'd turned over to Rowdy swished his tail and swatted Hunter across the face with it.

Everyone laughed while Hunter inwardly fumed. Rather than show his irritation and indignation, he swept the cowboy hat he wore from his head, made a grand, sweeping bow, then turned his back to the women and strode over to the center of the corral, where two of the ranch hands held a new horse steady, one Hunter was determined to ride.

He glanced back as he lifted a foot to the stirrup of the bronc saddle and saw the women hurrying up the porch steps into the house.

Dally hadn't mentioned having company this morning, but with a whole gaggle of females, they had to have planned it.

Perhaps his sister hadn't discussed the women's impending arrival because anytime Luna's name entered the conversation, Hunter scowled at Dally. He could practically see the gears turning in her head, plotting matchmaking schemes, but his sister was aware of his caution when it came to trusting his heart to another woman's keeping after Katherine had so thoroughly trounced all over it.

Additionally, Dally knew about Luna's past which included her trauma and broken heart. He'd told both her and Nik, seeing no reason to hide the dear girl's troubles from his family.

Besides, he couldn't come up with a single thing for Luna to be embarrassed about, although that was how she acted. Mortified by what she saw as a weakness. However, he viewed it as a point of strength. She had survived being shot, held her dying fiancé in her arms, and come out on the other side of the horrid moment that had to have been a crucial point in her life. Luna had endured more in her young life than many people twice or three times her age had experienced. He couldn't begin to imagine what it had been like for her, losing her parents so young, traveling with strangers to an unknown country, and then starting over with a family that loved her but had never met her.

He thought Luna was resilient and strong, even if she appeared delicate and lovely.

A vision of her drenched in sunlight filled his head, and he dropped his focus on the horse bucking wildly beneath him. In the blink of an eye, he lost his hold and went sailing into the air, landing in the dirt of the corral with a thump that knocked the wind right out of him.

"Maybe you should take a break, Hunt, before you end up with something broken," Rowdy suggested when Hunter pushed himself up and could finally draw in a breath.

Hunter wanted to argue, but he knew Rowdy was correct. His attention was elsewhere, and until he got his head back on straight, he was putting himself, the horse, and everyone around them in danger.

His first inclination was to march into the house and find out why the women were there and what they were doing.

His second was to climb back on the horse and force them both to pay attention.

The third was to saddle Wind, ride out to his newly acquired acres, and check on the progress of the men he'd hired to start cleaning up the place and plant the poplar trees that had arrived earlier in the week.

Next week, he had an appointment scheduled with Walker Williams to see if the architect's opinion would be to restore and remodel the house or if he concluded it best to tear it down and begin anew.

Hunter thought the house had good bones and a solid foundation, at least from what he could see, but he wanted someone with Walker's level of expertise to share his thoughts before any decisions were made.

Hunter knew the men he'd hired for his place were doing a good job, especially since the one he'd put in charge was a nephew to Rowdy and someone trustworthy. Dally would likely tease him mercilessly if he made a flimsy excuse to wander into the house, so that left him with the horse that didn't want to be ridden.

Slowly, Hunter stood and brushed the dust from his clothes. He accepted from one of the ranch hands his hat that had flown off and landed in the corral dirt and then nodded at Rowdy. "I'll be fine."

Rowdy gave him a quick glance, then motioned for two of the hands to hold the bronc steady as Hunter climbed back on. Before he swung into the saddle, he closed his eyes a moment and cleared his thoughts, then he spent the next hour and a half riding the horse until they both were exhausted.

By the time he swung off the bronc's back, Hunter's stomach felt as empty as the preacher's collection plate on a Friday afternoon.

Normally, he would have gone to the bunkhouse for lunch, but he was curious to know why the women were not only there but had lingered all morning. If they hadn't left an hour ago, he assumed it meant they were staying a good part of the day. And if they were staying, there was likely an abundance of good food to be had for lunch.

Rowdy eyed him as he brushed at the dust covering him from head to toe. "You think those ladies really want you intruding into their time together?"

"Nope," Hunter smirked, "which is why I'm going to the house."

Rowdy chuckled and thumped him on the back. "Best of luck to you then. Want me to save you a plate at the bunkhouse?"

"Nah. I'll be fine. Even if they refuse to let me eat with them, I can still rustle up some grub." Inwardly, Hunter cringed at his Western manner of speech, hearing the echoes of his grandmother's lectures about not butchering the English language ringing in his ears.

"All right then. See you in about an hour. I figured you'd want to ride that big bay gelding next."

"That's what I had in mind. He's mostly trained. Just needs a refresher course." Hunter swatted his dirty hat against the leg of his even dirtier chaps, causing puffs of dust to rise in the air.

"Yep," Rowdy agreed as he backed up a few paces and grinned. "Don't say I didn't warn you, son."

"Noted."

Hunter made his way to the back door, where he removed his gloves and chaps, toed off his boots, and swatted his hat against his leg again to dislodge some of the dust. Quietly, he stepped inside the house, hung his hat by the door, and stood unmoving, listening. The women were in the dining room, at least it sounded that way to him.

Doing his best not to make a sound, he hurried up the back stairs, avoiding the steps that creaked, and went to the bathroom, where he stripped out of his filthy shirt, washed up, and combed his damp hair.

He was still getting used to the shorter length. The past year, he'd worn it long just because he could. His grandmother had hated it, his mother had informed him he looked like a pirate, and his dad had shaken his head in disgust anytime haircuts were mentioned.

However, he'd concluded if he was stepping into adulthood with both feet, it was time to look more like a responsible landowner and less like a man who might rob one.

Hunter ducked into his room and snagged a clean shirt, ramming his arms in the sleeves on his way down the stairs. He rolled back the cuffs and stepped into the kitchen, only to hear a gasp.

His gaze lifted and collided with Luna's as she stood at the sink, filling a pitcher with water. She gawked at him like he was a remnant from the circus acts they'd seen a few weeks ago while water overflowed the pitcher.

With a few quick strides, he crossed the room, turned off the faucet, and smiled at her. "Hello, Luna."

"Hi," she said, sounding rather breathless as she spoke. "I … uh, we … the ladies … thirsty."

Effort was required to swallow his chuckles. Hunter hastily buttoned his shirt as Luna continued to ogle his form as though she'd never seen a man's bare chest before, but he knew that couldn't be true. Not with the number of Campanelli relatives she had back in New York.

He lifted the pitcher from the sink and held out his arm to Luna. Her glance flickered from his arm to his face, then back to his arm before she lightly placed her hand on it.

Without a word, he led the way into the dining room, where the women had a bountiful meal on one end of the long table, and a plethora of catalogs, magazines, fabric and wallpaper swatches, as well as paint samples spread across the other.

"Hello, fair ladies. I found a member of your flock splashing in the water in the kitchen," he said, winking at Dally.

His sister scowled at him, knowing without asking why he'd come to the house for lunch instead of going with Rowdy to the bunkhouse.

"I was not splashing in the water, Hunter Douglas," Luna said, taking the pitcher from him and walking around the table to pour a glass full for Dally.

"Perhaps not," he said, glancing from the food to the falderol and back to the food. "What's going on?"

"Dally asked us to help with ideas for the baby's room," Aundy said, looking at Hunter over her shoulder. "We brought lunch and decorating ideas."

"I see that." Although hunger gnawed at his belly, Hunter walked over to the magazines and catalogs lying open and looked at the cute ideas. A wallpaper border of various animals appealed to him, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Dally was the one who needed to decide what she liked best.

She tapped her finger on the catalog, and Hunter grinned, feeling that odd connection to her that no longer surprised him. Without either of them saying a word, they had both chosen the same wallpaper border.

"What color will you paint the room?" he asked as he thumbed through the various paint samples.

"I was leaning toward a pale shade of yellow, like Luna's dress," Dally said, motioning to the girl who stood behind Caterina's chair, water pitcher still in hand.

Hunter refrained from saying how the dress suited her and made her look like a ray of sunshine. "Yellow is very nice. Cheerful. Quite pretty," he said, then moved toward the other end of the table.

"There's plenty of food, Hunter. Join us," Cornelia said, rising from her seat and handing him a plate from the cherry buffet behind her that matched the china cupboard across the room.

"I won't interrupt you ladies, but if no one protests, I'll fill a plate. I believe the bunkhouse lunch menu is beans and more beans with a possible side of cornbread."

"Help yourself," Caterina said, motioning to bowls and platters heaped with food.

Hunter spooned baby potatoes cooked with new peas in a cream sauce on his plate, added a few pieces of tender roasted lamb, helped himself to a scoop of chicken salad and one of macaroni salad, and even took a serving of marinated mushrooms with artichokes because he didn't want anyone to feel slighted if he ignored the dish they contributed. After slathering two yeasty rolls with butter and fresh strawberry jam, he edged toward the door.

"Thank you, kind ladies, for sharing the bounty of your table." With a polite dip of his head, he retreated to the kitchen where he could eat in peace. Hunter poured a tall glass full of cold tea, sweetened just the way he and Dally liked it, then sat at the kitchen table, offered a silent word of thanks for the wonderful meal, and tucked into the food. He knew the lamb had to come from Aundy, and the marinated vegetables were likely from Caterina. Ilsa couldn't cook, so he assumed her contribution was the box of Oreo cookies sitting on the counter because they were something Dally frequently craved these days.

Dessert offerings included a white sheet cake, brownies, and a cream pie. Hunter sampled all three, grateful there were many good cooks in their circle of relatives and friends. Satisfied and full, he set his dirty dishes in the sink, then walked back into the dining room, where the women chatted about cribs and the best brand of flannel for diapers.

"I just wanted to thank you all for sharing the wonderful food you prepared with me, even if I wasn't invited to your party." He affected a boyish pout and wasn't the least bit shocked when Dally lobbed her napkin at him, catching him in the face. He took no offense, knowing none was meant, and handed the napkin back to her. "Have fun, little mama."

Hunter waved to the others, although his gaze lingered on Luna. She appeared quite breathtaking as she sat in a swath of light streaming in the window. Her entire being seemed to be surrounded by a beautiful glowing aura. He could have remained in the doorway, gaping at her the rest of the day, but Dally would certainly never let him hear the end of her teasing if he succumbed to the urge.

With one final look at Luna, he strode down the hallway, grabbed his hat on the way outside, and headed back to work, even if his thoughts lingered all afternoon on lovely Luna.