Page 1 of Taming the Wild Cowboy

Chapter One

You’ve got this.

Maclyn Kane silently repeated the words to herself as she turned off Highway 89 onto the road leading to the Tree Fork Ranch. Raisin, her curly-haired canine sidekick, jumped onto the console as soon as the tires hit gravel, bracing her front feet on the dash as she searched the edges of the roadway for marauding bunnies and ground squirrels. Maclyn never needed to worry about rodent attacks while traveling with her trusty sidekick.

Sunlight broke through the cloud cover as she crossed the cattleguard, her truck lurching on bad shocks that she had intended to replace in a month or two. Yeah … she’d have to wait on that. The sunlight faded as the clouds closed in again and Mac let out a silent sigh. She did not have this. She was on a fool’s mission.

Such a bad idea.

Unfortunately, it was her only idea, which she’d acted on before she talking herself out of it. As her former coworker Shay Crawford had said, the worst that could happen was a no. Well, that and getting her past shoved into her face, although Shay had no way of knowing that.

Shay had been more of an acquaintance than a friend during their time together at the Sweet Grass Guest Ranch, where Maclyn worked as a wrangler tending to the horses and Shay managed the house, tending to well-to-do guests. Their paths didn’t cross often, so Mac had been surprised when Shay called to check on her after the blow-up and to suggest a job possibility at Lane Feed and Supply.

“My brother quit there last week, and they might still be looking.”

So it was that Mac had visited the feed store, a mile or two north of Marietta, Montana, only to find that the job had been filled days before. She was about to exit the store, wondering yet again how she was going to fill the void until her final paycheck came in, when the counter lady called, “If you don’t mind ranch work, there’s a job opening at the Tree Fork Ranch.”

She pointed to the bulletin board next to the door. “Seems they’ve had a touch of trouble with their current hands.”

“Yeah?” Maclyn found the notice posted on the corkboard, surrounded by ads for puppies, horses, farriers, and hay. Help Wanted. General ranch work. Experience calving required. Tree Fork Ranch. A phone number followed. Mac took a photo of the sign, then turned to thank the woman.

“You know where the Tree Fork is, right?”

Mac shook her head.

“The Matthews place? About five miles north. Take Reed Farms Road off the highway. There’s a sign for the ranch.”

Maclyn barely heard the directions. “Matthews?”

“Wade Matthews.”

And that would be the sound of the universe giving her yet another one-two punch.

She managed to work up a smile. “I knew a Hayes Matthews from rodeo. Is it the same family?”

The woman beamed. Hayes had that effect on people. “Wade’s nephew. He’s not in the area right now, but if you drop his name, I bet Wade’ll hire you.”

“How about the other brothers?” Mac asked, doing her best to act as if her nerves weren’t suddenly thrumming. “Where are they?”

The counter lady frowned. “Jordan’s working in the Boise area. He and my son still get together when they’re both in the area, but I don’t know much about what he does.”

“And Trev?” Her voice almost squeaked in her effort to appear casual. She cleared her throat as she waited for an answer. Mac was not a squeaker.

“He stopped by the store around Thanksgiving, but I haven’t seen him since. I think he works in Missoula doing computer stuff.” She made a face that Maclyn had no trouble interpreting. Trev Matthews and computers were an odd combination. “I don’t think he spends much time at the ranch.”

Maybe the universe was giving her a break after all. Heaven knew she was due. The past several days had been hell. The shame and anger at being fired was now muted by the very real question of what next? and a growing sense of desperation.

Her final paycheck had failed to land in her post office box, and she knew that driving the thirty miles south to the Sweet Grass Guest Ranch to demand payment would do no good because the payroll was outsourced to a Bozeman-based accounting firm. The Benningtons were in no hurry to settle their debt with her, but at least she had enough cash for a few weeks of food, hay, gas.

Gas.

Maclyn glanced at the gauge, thinking she needed to do that more often. A tick over a quarter tank. She’d be able to get back to Marietta with her tail between her legs if this mission failed.

If?

More like when.

The odds were against her, even if she and Trev Matthews didn’t share a history.