Her Unforgettable Cowboy Read online

  Morgan’s gut twisted in a knot and he came up short as if he’d slammed face-first into a flag pole. He had a clear shot of her. Rocks lodged in his throat. She was beautiful.

  She had the boys’ attention instantly, looking vibrant and full of life, every inch the world-class competitive kayaker that she was, long legs and tanned skin in well-worn jeans and a sleeveless orange tank top. She jumped from the vehicle with a big Julia Roberts smile on her face—and a hundred watts of pure joy slammed into the group.

  It felt more like a sucker punch to Morgan.

  “Who is that?” Joseph whistled as long strides brought her closer. There was no mistaking his admiration of Jolie. The kid was seventeen after all.

  Wes elbowed Joseph out of the way. “Hubba, hubba, come to papa,” he said. Morgan bopped him on the back of the head.

  “Watch your manners, hotshot,” he warned. “Both of you,” he added as Joseph glanced at him, too.

  “I didn’t mean any harm,” Wes said, his blue eyes dreamy. “I’m just in lovvve.”

  Joseph put his hand on his heart and patted it, then gave his full attention back to Jolie.

  “She sure is pretty,” Caleb gushed as she came nearer.

  True on all counts—Morgan could not deny it. Jolie still had the ability to take his breath away.

  “What’s up, fellas? How’s it going?” She greeted the guys like she’d just seen them yesterday and knew them by name. Looking like a bright beam of sunlight, she seemed to sparkle. She hadn’t looked at Morgan yet, focusing all her attention on the sixteen totally engrossed fellas whose lower lips were now sitting firmly on their boot tips.

  “You fellas must be my new class. I’m Jolie Sheridan, your teacher.”

  “You are?” Sammy cooed. The rest of them had suddenly become speechless.

  “You bet I am.” Jolie chuckled. “I’m excited to start school.” Those luminescent green eyes met Morgan’s for the first time and he was fairly certain he looked as grim as he felt because her smile faltered.

  “We don’t have to start today, do we?” Sammy blurted. Jolie gave them another sucker-punch grin as she put her focus back on the boys.

  “Don’t worry, little dude, school’s not till Monday. You have freedom today and tomorrow...and then you’re all mine, all mine,” she sang the last words and ended with a wink. “I’m just getting the classroom fixed up today.”

  The woman had skills when it came to winning over a crowd. Of course she’d had this fickle group at her first hello.

  “I’d be glad to help you,” Joseph offered, finally finding his voice.

  Wes Grinned. “Count me in.” His chest was so puffed out Morgan feared the teen would throw his back out of whack.

  Their eagerness had Morgan rethinking some things...like maybe it was time to offer Joseph and Wes some guidance on relationships, and what was acceptable around a girl. Not that the boys were around girls very much because they went to school on the ranch. Still, there were local girls at church and around town. Morgan made a mental note.

  Jolie’s eyes widened at their offer. “I would love some help if you fellas want to. Only if Morgan doesn’t have plans for you, though.”

  Every eye turned toward him.

  “You don’t, do you?” Joseph vocalized their question.

  He wanted to say that yes, in fact, he sure did. He wanted nothing more than to tell the kids they had other things that required their attention besides Miss Jolie Sheridan. But any cowboy worth his salt knew when he was caught.

  The right thing to do—the courteous thing to do—was help out the new teacher and offer assistance.

  Him included.

  If it had been any other person, he wouldn’t have even hesitated.

  “Nope,” he heard himself saying. “No plans that can’t wait. Helping Miss Sheridan get settled would be the gentlemanly thing to do, so we’ll do that first and then we’ll go build the fence.”

  “I don’t want to disrupt any plans you’ve already made,” she insisted.

  The guys erupted like squawking geese, assuring her it was no problem. No problem at all.

  Morgan suddenly wanted to take the boys and get as far away from Jolie as possible. But instead, he said, “Like the guys are telling you, it’s not a problem. We can build the fence Monday after school if we don’t get it done this afternoon.”

  She smiled at him and it hit him in the gut like a two-by-four. He was in for a beating while she was around, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

  “Well, okay. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said, his breath jamming in his throat.

  She hesitated, her eyes locking on his for a second before turning back to the boys. Only then could Morgan breathe.

  “If that’s the case then follow me, good men that you are,” she directed with a laugh. “Let’s go see what adventures await us.”

  Waving to the fellas to follow her, she headed for the three-room schoolhouse. The boys trotted behind her looking like a litter of puppies with their tongues hanging out.

  Morgan watched them go. “Just call me Jolie,” he heard her telling them, her voice drifting to him over the distance, like a long-forgotten song.

  “I heard she was back.” Pepper came out of the stable to stand beside him. “Your grandmother told me she stopped by the kitchen yesterday and said hello. She said they had a real nice visit. Said she was worried about you, though. Me, too. I figure from that scowl on your face you just found out this morning.”

  So even his grandmother knew.

  “How many others knew about this?” he asked, not even trying to hide his anger.

  “Don’t get me to lying. I just happened to see her coming out of your dad’s office yesterday when you and the boys were off working cattle with Rowdy. I asked your grandmother about it.”

  Morgan shook his head, watching Jolie in the distance. His stomach rolled like he’d just been thrown from a rough bronc. What had he been thinking when he’d offered to help?

  Staring from beneath bushy eyebrows with concern, Pepper clapped Morgan on the back. “You hold your ground, Morg. Dig your boots into that gravel and don’t budge. I helped scrape your heart up off the sidewalk once, and I ain’t lookin’ forward to doing it again in this lifetime.”

  Morgan shot him a firm look. “You don’t have to worry about me. I learned my lesson a long time ago. I’m just looking out for the boys today.”

  “Good. I haven’t ever disagreed with your dad about much, but this time I have to admit that I did. He should have never let that girl come back. It just ain’t right, accident or no accident.”

  Morgan knew about the accident. His grandmother had told him how Jolie had nearly drowned in competition on a river. It hit him hard then and still did now, even if he had gotten over his feelings for her the day she’d given him back his ring.

  Tugging his hat down low, he gave Pepper a nod and headed off toward the school. Might as well get this over with.

  Despite the anger that still lived inside him, his pulse picked up speed as he started after Jolie. And his boots followed suit, not dragging anywhere near as much as he thought they should, considering he was going to help the woman who’d left him high and dry with his heart—and his engagement ring—in his hand.

  Chapter Two

  Did I make the right choice coming home to the ranch?

  Jolie’s emotions had been tumbling around inside her like clothes in a dryer since the moment she’d spotted Morgan standing beside the stables. The cowboy had always turned her world upside down with his midnight-black hair and deep blue eyes. Six feet of lean Texas cowboy with an extra inch added on for good measure—like the guy needed any extra help.

  He’d been thirteen when she moved to the ranch with her parents. Immediat
ely she’d thought he hung the moon. He’d probably thought she was a ten-year-old pest but was too kind to let her know it, unlike his brother Rowdy. Instead he’d endured her childish adoration with a patience that she’d tested on a regular basis.

  How could she not have fallen in love with the guy?

  “Where should this go?” Joseph asked, looking at her desk.

  “I think I’d like it over there by that wall.” Jolie pointed to the opposite side of the room from where the heavy oak desk was sitting now. She smiled, determined not to let the rush of the past and the uncertainty of the present distract her from getting her classroom set up.

  She was impressed with the way the boys were willing to help. And startled and a bit shaken by the fact that Morgan had offered his help, too. Especially because he’d not hidden the fact that he was unhappy about her being here—his eyes had told the tale. She’d hoped time had healed old wounds, but even if it hadn’t, she’d had to come home to the ranch.

  Needed to come home.

  Needed desperately to find the person she’d been, the person she’d lost somewhere in the depths of West Virginia’s Gauley River.

  She had loved Sunrise Ranch from the moment she’d moved here when her folks had been hired as house parents for one of the two foster homes on the ranch. It had been a wonderful place to grow up. And she was praying it would now be a place where she could heal and find the funny, take-the-world-by-the-horns girl she’d lost beneath the dark water of the Gauley.

  The girl she was faking right now for these boys.

  Coming up out of that water, her world shaken to its very core, the one thing she’d known upon gasping that first lifesaving breath was it was time to face her past....

  Time to apologize to Morgan McDermott.

  As if God was in agreement, this opportunity dropped in her lap and here she was.

  “Is this where you want it...Jolie?” Joseph asked.

  She’d told them right off to call her Jolie. She was just too laid back for anything else, even if she was their teacher. Besides, the ranch was home to the boys. Informality made it all the more true.

  “Perfect,” she said to the earnest young man.

  “You got it, then.” Joseph grabbed the edge of the monstrous desk and she was pretty sure he was about to try and move it himself. Not to be outdone, Wes was eyeing the floor-to-ceiling bookcases with determination.

  “Hold off over there, Wes,” Morgan demanded, coming in the front door and taking charge. Jolie’s insides jangled as his presence filled the large room.

  So much hung between them. She’d hoped to talk to him yesterday when she’d arrived, but he’d been working cattle at the far edge of the ranch. And so here they were in a room full of bright-eyed students, unable to talk about the fact that today had been their first meeting since she’d given him back his engagement ring.

  “We’ll get the desk moved first and then the bookshelves, Wes,” Morgan said as he grabbed the other side of her desk.

  “Thanks.” Joseph grinned at Morgan. “We’re putting it over there.” He nodded his brown head toward the windows.

  With Morgan’s strength, the two were able to move the mammoth desk with ease. Once that was done they attacked the ten-foot-tall bookshelves. It ended up taking Morgan and most of the boys to move them.

  Everyone’s eagerness touched Jolie’s heart.

  She was smiling so much that she was almost able to ignore the fact that being around Morgan was causing her some heavy-duty stress—she could suddenly feel his presence like a weight.

  “Where’s our desks gonna sit, Jolie?”

  Jolie looked down into the big, brown eyes of a wisp of a boy. “Sammy, right?” she asked, and he nodded. Sammy seemed like a nervous little fella. Uncertain of himself.

  “We’ll need to turn them all to face my desk. That way the light from the windows will stream across your desks. I love light and want y’all to enjoy it while you work.”

  “Can my desk be this one?” His words were as timid as the light touch he laid on the desk closest to hers, almost as if he were certain she would say no.

  “Sure. It’s got Sammy written all over it. Matter of fact, everyone can pick their desk.”

  Unsmiling, Sammy nodded and slipped into the wooden seat. “Only till my dad comes and gets me,” he added in a quiet voice barely audible over the noise of the chaos breaking out behind him as the other boys began slamming into desks two at a time.

  Jolie hardly even glanced at what was happening around her as her heart latched on to Sammy, who was so clearly suffering. “Sure,” she assured him. “You can have that desk as long as you’re here.”

  She wasn’t sure what else to say. There were times when kids were on the ranch short-term. But most boys were here for the long haul—Sunrise Ranch had always been geared toward boys who had been totally abandoned by their families. The ranch became their home; the people, their family.

  The poor kid got a wistful look on his face, then patted the desk next to him. “You can have this desk, Joseph,” he called to Joseph—obviously Sammy’s hero—as Joseph watched the rodeo going on over who got which desk.

  “I’m too big to sit on the front row.” Joseph brushed his brown bangs out of his eyes. “One of the shorter kids can sit there, and I’ll sit in the back so I can make sure all you goofballs behave. Hey, goofballs!” he yelled, drawing all eyes in his direction. “One of you to a desk.”

  “Yeah,” Wes barked loudly, crossing his arms and stepping up beside Joseph. “What kind of animals are y’all anyway?”

  It looked as if Wes and Joseph had decided they were going to make certain the boys behaved for her. Jolie hid a grin—and then her gaze met Morgan’s. Morgan’s eyebrow hitched upward, his dark denim eyes cool.

  He has no confidence in me, she suddenly thought. Jolie was fairly certain Morgan would think she needed help in that department—if, that is, he even remembered how she’d let her class get out of control on her first day of student teaching. It had been a long time ago, and he might have easily forgotten the laugh they’d shared over the little boys letting the mice out of their cage and the hysterics that had ensued. Meeting his sardonic gaze, she hiked a brow of her own. “It’ll be okay, guys. They’re just excited. We’re going to be fine,” she said to Wes and Joseph, assuring all of them, as well as herself.

  “Can you ride a horse?” Sammy asked, drawing her attention. She was grateful for the change of subject.

  “Yes, I can. Can you?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Never been on one.”

  “He helped us work cattle yesterday, though.” Morgan stepped up beside the boy, giving him a smile that sent an arrow straight to Jolie’s heart. Morgan McDermott had a soft spot for these boys.

  He placed a hand on Sammy’s shoulder. “You did good, Sammy.”

  “It was scary. I almost got trampled, too.” Sammy’s eyes were huge.

  “Aw, come on, kid, it wasn’t that bad,” Joseph called from the back of the room where he was trying out his new desk. “If you stick with us, you’ll learn not to be scared.”

  Sammy didn’t look too sure about that.

  “I ride,” yelped Tony, a skinny kid around fifteen or so who looked like a young Elvis Presley with his swath of black hair, blue eyes and a crooked smile that made his eyes twinkle. He skidded to a halt in front of Jolie.

  This led each boy to reveal he could ride. Jolie caught the flicker of fear in Sammy’s expression as he realized he was the only one who couldn’t ride. She glanced at Morgan to find his guarded eyes staring back at her.

  “We’re gonna learn to mug steers tomorrow after church,” Caleb said, his freckles crinkling with his smile. “You can come, too, Jolie.”

  Sammy slipped his hand into hers and looked up. “Would you come?”


  Jolie melted right there in the middle of the room. Turned right into a pool of liquid. “Sure I will,” she said. She was pretty sure she would have jumped from an airplane if he’d asked her. “I love to calf wrestle, and scramble, too. But muggin’ is my favorite! I used to be one of the best here on the ranch, you know.”

  “Seriously?” Joseph jerked to his feet, gaping at her from across the room. He and Wes exchanged disbelieving looks. “You can take down a steer?”

  Jolie nearly shook her head. Males.

  “Hey, y’all look like you don’t think I can do it!” she teased.

  “We just aren’t used to girls—I mean, women—wantin’ to do something like that,” Wes drawled, glancing at Joseph and Tony.

  Jolie smiled at the cocky, young cowboys, with their worn jeans tucked into their rugged boots and their T-shirts with the arms cut out of them. It was obvious that they’d been working that morning, most likely hauling hay, an ongoing job she remembered quite well growing up on the ranch. A picture of Morgan in that same getup at that age raced through her head and she glanced his way. He looked about as happy as a grizzly bear that had been awakened in the middle of a really good nap.

  “I’m a little insulted here! Girls do this sort of thing all the time.” She laughed when they all swallowed and looked a bit meek. “You’ll find for the most part that I look at life with a bring-it-on attitude.” She looked directly at Morgan before shifting back to the boys. “I haven’t done it in a long time, but it sounds too fun to pass up. I’ll be there.” She looked at Mr. Grizzly Bear again. “May I speak to you outside?”

  “Sure,” he growled, swiveling toward the back door. “You boys don’t tear anything up while we’re gone.”

  Jolie thought Morgan was teasing even though he seemed far from a teasing mood. Surely he wasn’t thinking the boys were going to destroy all the work they’d just put in. But then again, there was the incident with the desks.