Chapter Three

I zzy Payton was no pushover, that was for sure.

As dust spit up from her back tires, Nathan sat on the porch bench and watched the surprising woman drive away in her bright yellow Range Rover. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a car as bright as the noonday sun. What was even stranger was that the shiny vehicle so completely matched Izzy’s personality. Her sass had almost hoodwinked him into taking a second look.

He frowned. Nope. Not going there. Still, her cheerful determination had gotten inside his defenses. He didn’t think he’d ever been as intrigued by a woman as he was by the way Izzy Payton was so set on showing him she could save the ranch. Maybe she could. Maybe she couldn’t.

She was as cute as a newborn foal, but he didn’t need an outsider pulling the Triple L up by its bootstraps. That was his job. He just had to try something he hadn’t thought of before.

Shaking his head, he went back inside but not before he realized he’d followed Izzy out of the house without relying on his cane for balance. Grabbing her business card off the entry table on his way by, he found the cane leaning against the chair he’d been sitting in at the table.

Tossing her card on the island by the pastry box, he grabbed a jelly donut and stepping away from the bribe, ate the pastry while he stared at the cane. How in the Sam Hill did she know what donuts he’d liked?

She’d admitted she hadn’t known, so that meant they had something in common, dang it. Even more surprising—he didn’t need the cane anymore. He still limped a little, but he could manage that.

Malorie had said one day he wouldn’t need assistance to walk, but he hadn’t expected it to come so quickly. Dusting bits of sugar off his hands, he grabbed the cane and put it in the hall closet where it wouldn’t be a reminder of how he’d spent the last seven weeks. Immobile and forced to turn over his ranch chores to Blake. That he had to give up his barrel-racing students was bad enough. He wasn’t sure he could get enough of them back in time to make a difference.

Picking up Izzy’s card, he took it with him to the window, where he stared past the covered back porch and out at the fenced-in pasture that stretched as far as he could see. He knew every inch of it.

“Did I hear a woman’s voice a moment ago?” Jonas asked from behind Nathan.

He twisted, only to find his brother yawning big and stretching. Jonas was good at sneaking up on Nathan. “Yeah. Izzy Payton stopped by. She just left.”

“I’m sorry I missed her. Did she convince you to let her take on the ranch?”

Nathan scowled. “Not exactly, but she’s working on it.” Stuffing her business card into his pocket, he indicated the pastry box. “She brought donuts.”

“That was nice.” Jonas dug into the box. “I’m guessing from the frown on your face that you didn’t hire her.”

He smoothed out his brow. Maybe Izzy Payton was nice. He didn’t know. She left just when their conversation was getting... interesting.

“I’m thinking about it. She’s putting together a proposal for us.” She definitely had enough enthusiasm to save not only one very loved horse ranch but humanity from extinction too.

“No cane?” Jonas’ brows arched. His brother was always quick to notice such details.

Nathan shrugged. “Don’t need it.”

“I see. Well”—taking a second chocolate-covered donut with him, Jonas sat at the table—“I think you shouldn’t dismiss the lady so quickly. She comes highly recommended by folks other than Malorie. And she could have ideas we haven’t thought about.” He grinned, motioning with the donut in his hand. “And she has great taste in donuts. You should nab her while you can. We don’t have time to turn away someone with her skills.”

Nathan didn’t need the reminder. He didn’t always agree with Jonas, but this time he did.

“I have to check on the horses.” He got up and headed for the great Colorado outdoors where the sun was shining and everything made sense.

“Hold your horses, little brother. I’m heading into Strawberry Ridge to set up the new office. I can’t give you a hand with the horses, but I’ll be back this afternoon and maybe we can brainstorm ideas for how to get out of this jam.”

Nathan took a deep breath. “I’ll be here.”

Jonas closed the donut box as Nathan eased the front door shut behind him. His brothers being absent was a familiar feeling and at least gave him several hours on his own to plan his comeback as a trainer. He wouldn’t admit it to his brothers, or Izzy Payton, but the obstacle was he wasn’t quite ready physically to spend a lot of time in the saddle, even though Duke had the smoothest gait of any horse he’d ever ridden.

The horses were in the front pasture. Blake must have put Duke and his mares there before he’d left that morning to take his new family-to-be fishing. It was something their dad often did. The fact that his brother was following family tradition made Nathan feel more separated from his brothers than usual.

He had to concede, even as a part-time rancher—Blake wrote his Timmy, the Superhero books when he wasn’t being a father to the star of the books—his brother had skills that could help the Triple L. He would be stupid to ignore that.

Wandering slowly through the barn, he took in Blake’s work. The stall floors were covered in fresh hay. The tack hanging on the center isle walls had been newly cleaned. Nathan pushed on the freshly painted railing leading up to the apartment where Blake and Timmy bunked. At least it was less hazardous.

“Nathan—” He turned at the sound of Jonas’ voice. “I’ve got a good idea.”

He was afraid to ask. “What’s your idea?” When Jonas had a good idea it usually meant more work for Nathan. He had enough on his plate as it was.

“Now that Malorie has a place in town.” Jonas slid his thumbs into his front pockets. He was dressed in his best going-to-town jeans and his favorite dress shirt. He even had on his good boots. “We ought to offer Izzy the cottage. I’m sure Malorie is glad to have Izzy stay with her and the kids, but the house is a bit small, and Izzy won’t have much privacy. The guesthouse would be a good fit for her and give her room to spread out. Besides, it’s only temporary, right?”

Jonas didn’t mince his words. “Look, you need to take time to get to know her and get familiar with what she brings to the table. The Triple L needs Izzy, whether you want to admit it or not.”

Nathan sat on the closest hay bail. He looked at Jonas long and hard. Big brother was up to something. Did he have a crush or something for the pretty businesswoman? He was sure dressed to catch a lady’s eye. With him living in Denver for the last sixteen years, Jonas hadn’t been around long enough for Nathan to know his falling-for-the-girl tells.

“Are you taking Izzy to dinner tonight?” Not that it was any of his business, but maybe that would explain why Jonas was lobbying for him to hire the lady.

Jonas flushed, surprising Nathan. The oldest Lohmen brother never got flustered, which is why he was a good lawyer, or so Nathan had read in the Strawberry Ridge Journal , Local Boy Makes Good headlines and all that.

“Of course not.” Jonas straightened. “I’m taking Sloane to dinner. We have business to discuss and some catching up to do.”

Nathan raised his brows. That should be a very interesting meal since he had a suspicion Jonas had been avoiding that conversation with his best friend for years. “You’d better get out of here then. You don’t want to keep your date waiting.”

“We’re friends.” Jonas insisted. “Nothing more.”

Nathan got to his feet and walked toward Jonas, mentally urging him on his way. “If you say so.”

“I do,” Jonas tossed over his shoulder as he spun on his heels. Minutes later, he gunned his black, souped-up Mustang and drove, pedal to the medal, down the long drive to town.

Nathan grinned. He wasn’t without skills when it came to managing his older brother. He inspected the tack room. Blake and the kids had done an inventory, but he knew without looking too closely, there wasn’t much left. Finally, his mind spinning in useless circles, he went to check on the horses. Duke met him at the fence.

“Hey, Buddy. How are your girls doing?” He scratched the stallion between his eyes.

Aside from losing his folks, the saddest day had been when he’d had to sell off the stock. He’d hoped to recoup the loss, but to do so he had to keep the land. Up to now, he’d at least kept the ranch in the family. Jonas had even bought two new mares.

Nathan didn’t want a hobby farm. He wanted a working ranch. For years he’d dreamed of buying back the acreage his dad had sold, but every year that got harder and harder.

Duke’s bloodline could save them if he could locate his sire’s pedigree papers. So far he hadn’t had any luck finding them.

Duke, black with a white blanket on his hind quarters that feathered up his shoulders and down both sides of his head. He was the best of his breed, the Colorado Ranger. Good-natured. More so than his owner, Nathan acknowledged. The horse threw his head up and down as if in agreement, his mane bouncing in the air.

Smiling, Nathan nodded with the stallion. “What do you think about getting back to your barrel-racing days, mister?”

Duke nibbled on Nathan’s collar.

“All right. We’ll both get into shape. Soon, I promise.”

The sun was high in the sky and Nathan had some thinking to do. Taking Izzy Payton’s card out of his pocket, he stared at it, then headed back to the guesthouse. He was inside before he realized Jonas had infected him with his suggestion to let the woman stay there.

Walking from room to room, he took a quick look around. Malorie and her twins had left the cottage in perfect condition. He wouldn’t have to do anything to get it ready for another guest. He fingered the business card, then closing up the cottage, walked slowly to the main house.

Pulling a cola from the fridge, he grabbed his cell and sat on the cushy chair that had become his favorite during his recuperation.

Don’t do it! You don’t need the distraction.

Unfortunately, the warning didn’t stop him. Dialing the number on the card, he listened to the ring. Before he could change his mind and hang up, she answered. “You’ve reached Izzy Payton. How can I help you?”

She was so cheerful! “Hi. This is... Nathan Lohmen...”

“Hi, Nathan.” The click of a keyboard stopped in the background. “I’ll bet you didn’t call just to chat. It was the donuts that sealed the deal, wasn’t it?”

The woman was too much. “Not exactly.”

“No? Okay, then why are you calling?” The sound of the keyboard started again. “I’ve got work to do—a customer waiting for a proposal.”

It wasn’t that her voice had turned cold, just maybe that she’d lost interest in the ranch’s problem. That was fast. Nathan frowned. He didn’t like the speed with which she shifted gears. It was hard for a cowboy to keep up.

“I was wondering—actually, it was Jonas’s idea. Since Malorie has moved to Strawberry Ridge, the guesthouse is empty, and Jonas was wondering if you’d like to stay here while you decide on your next project. It’s private. Quiet. And—”

“What if I’ve already decided which project I want to do next?” she asked, her curiosity reaching out to poke him in the chest.

He’d been going to say, restful , but there seemed to be nothing restful about Izzy Payton. “Anyway, Since Jonas mentioned it, I thought I’d ask.”

“Nathan, you’re not hearing me,” she scolded lightly, then said, sounding more like the woman who’d brought him donuts that morning, “Listen, I’ll be right over, and we can discuss it. While I’m there I’d love to see the guesthouse.” And she hung up.

Nathan held the phone out in front of him, staring at the blank screen. What was that all about? He wasn’t hearing the woman? He’d heard every word coated with so much enthusiasm, he didn’t know what to do with it. More confusing was that she might have moved on already, which meant she wouldn’t need the guesthouse anyway, so why was she rushing out to the ranch?

Instead of just waiting for the whirlwind called Izzy Payton to explain herself, he went into the office and pulled out the ledger Blake was working on. He looked at the numbers that were written in his brother’s slanted handwriting.

For a guy who wrote books for kids—Nathan had enjoyed the few he’d already read—his brother was a traditionalist. While he’d said he was putting the ranch’s financials in a spreadsheet program on the computer, he also made entries in the paper ledger.

He liked the side of Blake that clung to tradition. Not that he wouldn’t still give his brother a hard time. Disagreeing with each other was the bedrock of their relationship after all. Even when they were kids.

But their history didn’t mean he had to get on board with any willy-nilly suggestion that came along. Whatever they did had to make sense for the ranch and its history.

When Izzy got to the ranch, he would show her the guesthouse and the horses, who, with her gung-ho attitude, she couldn’t help but love, he was sure. He was still sitting at the desk when he heard a car door close. Rising, he left her card on the desk and went to greet the woman he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind.

Carrying a tablet, she came toward him with a confident stride he admired.

“Hi.” Bouncing up the steps to the porch, she didn’t blink when it took him a moment to decide to shake the hand she offered. “Malorie told me how beautiful your guesthouse is.”

He frowned at the zip of awareness that stunned him into staring at their locked hands. “The, uh, guesthouse is this way. Are you planning to stay a few days before you leave for your next job?”

“That depends,” she said, then, “Oh my gosh. Look at this garden. It’s even prettier than Mal described.”

Nathan smiled. All the books and movies said the way into a woman’s heart was with flowers. Not that he wanted into Izzy’s heart, but she was so dang appealing with her eyes as big as the yellow daisies lining the garden’s borders.

He let his smile drop as he opened the front door and waited for her to go in. He’d hired people seasonally when he could, but at that moment, it hit him hard how much work it took for him to keep the ranch from falling around his ears. And with less money coming in—

Izzy went straight for the kitchen. “This is lovely.” She glanced out the window over the sink and rubbed her hands together. “Beautiful. If nothing else, if you haven’t already thought of it, you could rent this place out or put it on Airbnb. It would give you a very good, steady income.”

He hadn’t thought of that, but renting the cottage was out of the question. Was that why she’d come out? To tell him what he should do to keep from having to sell the ranch?

Nathan pulled his brows together. “That would mean letting strangers have the run of the property.” He paused to point Izzy in the right direction. “The main bedroom and bath are through that door and there are two bedrooms with a shared bath upstairs.”

It only took a few steps for Izzy to reach the bedroom and have a look around. She sighed happily before heading upstairs. Nathan waited, leaning against the counter while she explored. He’d been on his feet too long. When she came down, he quickly stopped rubbing his hip.

“This is such a great house,” she said, a happy spring in her step. “I would love to stay here.”

Ignoring the hint in her voice, and Jonas’s voice in his head, he tried again. “Where do you go next?”

Needing to give his hips a rest, he limped to one of the overstuffed chairs flanking the sofa, and sat, relieved to be off his feet. Malorie had promised he would gradually regain his stamina, but he was starting to question her judgment on the matter of what he’d assumed would be a quick recovery once he could start walking.

Izzy followed his progress, then sat on the couch near him. “I want to talk to you about that.”

“I’m sure you have other clients lined up to hire you.” Nathan straightened his back to ease the pressure starting to build. From the concerned look on her face, Izzy hadn’t missed the slight movement.

He didn’t need her sympathy. It was his fault he’d put Duke through his paces without making sure he’d checked the stallion over to be sure he was good to go.

Keeping her gaze on his face, she put aside her purse and folded her hands in her lap. She notched her chin. “I do.”

“So, you just have to pick one, right?” It was getting awfully hard to nudge the woman out the door.

With a wince, he carefully rearranged himself in the chair.

“Here’s the thing. I need your help.” She studied him closely, not missing a thing, he’d bet. “Do you want to take some ibuprofen? I have a bottle in my bag.”

“Thank you,” Nathan said simply, breathing a sigh of relief.

She handed him the small bottle from her purse and went to get him a glass of water, at the same time saying as she came back, “It would be a real feather in my cap if I can turn the Triple L’s finances around. I haven’t recovered a ranch before. It presents an interesting challenge, but also it would round out my résumé. I would love to stay here and rent this cottage while we work together on this project.”

“I can’t take rent money from you,” he said firmly, then swallowed the ibuprofen, chasing the two tabs down with the water.

Izzy sat on the edge of the couch, her forearms on her knees, the first serious look he’d gotten from her hid away her high energy. “I have to pay rent to someone. I’d much rather stay here in this lovely cottage with its beautiful garden and pay you. Even if you don’t hire me, renting out this cottage makes good business sense. I’m surprised you haven’t done so already.”

She named a reasonable price, which didn’t make Nathan feel like he was taking charity. Neither did it tick him off. “And when you’re done? You’ll move on to your next job?”

“When we’re done,” she emphasized. “Yes, I’ll move on to the next job. I like my life to be unencumbered. But I would like to stay here through the summer. In any case, recovering the Triple L’s financial health won’t happen overnight.”

The ibuprofen started to kick in. As the tension left his shoulders and lower back, he eased further into the chair cushions. “I have just one condition.”

“We can do this, Nathan,” she insisted, her expression going from serious to optimistic.

He didn’t like revealing his faults, and heaven knew he had plenty, but he also would not let Izzy be surprised when she found out how hard he was to work with. He knew it. His crew when he had one hadn’t been shy about letting him know with a few chosen words that he couldn’t use in female company. The folks he got along best with were his horses.

“I don’t like being coddled. That’s how the ranch started going downhill. I was too buried in my grief and guilt to think straight or stay on top of things. Eventually, there was the accident—”

She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “Things happen, Nathan. I’ve found in my business that it doesn’t matter how we got to where we are, it only matters where we go from here. And what we want to do now is keep the Triple L in the Lohmen family. Right?”

“Right.” Izzy Payton was a dreamer in addition to a savior of failing businesses. His heart cracked open a tiny bit. “Okay. I’m on board.”

“I’ll move in tomorrow morning if that’s okay.” He stood when she grabbed her handbag.

“That’ll be fine.” Holding open the door, he wondered suddenly how he’d gone from saying goodbye to the surprising woman to renting the guesthouse to her for the rest of the summer.

He walked her to her car, wanting to, but unable to tell her he’d made a mistake... she couldn’t stay. Her sincerity and keenness to succeed were just too potent. He was beginning to be a believer.

Opening the car door, she said, “Oh, and I want to get a cat while I’m here.”

With that, she grinned, got in, and drove off.