Colorado Courtship Read online

  “Yes, I know. We need to hurry and hope and pray that Cody is paying attention.”

  Amazed at how fast Sunny’s short legs moved, especially since she had to pick them up and set them down because of the snowshoes, Jed had trouble keeping up with her.

  Within yards of the horses Sunny suddenly stopped, slipped her rifle from around her shoulder, aimed and fired.

  Cody jumped up and whirled. The mountain lion lay only feet from him.

  They rushed to the motionless animal. Jed pressed his boot on it and moved it, making sure the animal was in fact dead.

  Cody stared at the large cat, his face white as the snow around him. “I—I didn’t even hear it or see it.” His gaze went to Jed, George and Matt, but not to Sunny. “Thank you, whoever shot it.”

  “Sunny did,” Jed informed him, his foot still on the carcass.

  Cody’s wide eyes flew to Sunny. He gawked at her, and his cheeks turned the same red color as his neckerchief. He ducked his head, headed to his horse, untied him and swung himself in the saddle. With one last look at them and the lion, he fled down the mountain.

  “I didn’t mean to embarrass him.” Remorse shrouded Sunny’s face as she looked up at Jed, then at George and Matt. “But that lion would have killed Cody if I hadn’t seen her and shot her when I did.”

  “No need to apologize. You saved Cody’s life. The man should have been paying attention.” Jed shifted his focus from her onto the men. “Let’s get this thing loaded and get out of here.”

  All the way down the mountain Jed thought about Sunny. He may have only known her a short while, but without a doubt, he knew he wanted that sweet, gutsy woman for his wife. But he also knew that wasn’t ever going to happen.

  Chapter Seven

  For almost a week now, Cody had avoided Sunny. Wouldn’t even look at her. Jed seemed somewhat distant, too. Oh, he was nice to her and all, but the easy friendship they had shared somehow didn’t feel the same anymore.

  What had she done that was so wrong? To Jed? And to Cody? Was it because she’d shot that mountain lion? If so, would the two of them have rather that she let that lion kill Cody? It wasn’t as if she was trying to show off or anything. When she’d seen it, it was within seconds of pouncing on Cody. She didn’t have time to ask them if one of them wanted to shoot it. If she had... She shuddered to think of what would have happened. That lion would’ve had Cody by his neck in an instant.

  Thinking of Cody, Sunny set her sights on the bunkhouse where she’d seen him head moments ago. She stormed away from the water trough over to the bunkhouse and banged on the door.

  “Who is it?” She recognized Cody’s voice. Rather than give him a chance to ignore her again, she said nothing, hoping he would just come and answer the door.

  She banged on it again.

  “All right, all right. I’m coming.”

  Footsteps pounded inside. Sunny took a step back when they neared.

  The door swung open. Cody frowned and started to close the door, but Sunny put herself in its way. “We need to talk.”

  “I have nothing to say to you.” No anger, no feeling at all came through his voice.

  “Well, I have something to say to you.” She pushed past him, relieved to see it was just the two of them. The smell of leather and wet wool filled the air.

  Cody peered outside before closing the door and facing her. “Fine. Say what you have to say, then you need to leave.” Cody crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the door. He stared down at her, his face a sheet of blank emotion.

  “Look. I’m sorry I embarrassed you the other day. What did you expect me to do? Just let that mountain lion kill you?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand you, Cody. One minute you’re teasing me, the next you’re angry with me. Why do you dislike me so much?”

  “I don’t dislike you.” He shoved off from the door and stood so close to her she could smell his citrus soap. His green eyes peered into hers. “I do, however, have a problem with working with you. I just don’t believe women are capable of doing man’s work. Ranching can be dangerous. Especially for someone as tiny as you are. You’re gonna end up hurting yourself or someone else. I’ve seen it happen one too many times.”

  Sunny couldn’t believe her ears. For days now Cody had seen what she could do. She’d even saved his life. What more would it take to convince him and others like him that she was capable of doing ranch work—all of it?

  The door swung open, and Jed stood in the doorway. “What’s going on in here?” Jed looked at Sunny, then at Cody. His face was as hard as flint and his eyes didn’t look any kinder.

  “Nothing’s going on in here, boss. Sunny was just leaving.”

  “I was? We aren’t through with this yet.” She turned her attention onto Jed. “Did you need something, Jed?”

  “Emmett sent me to fetch you.”

  “How’d you know she was here?” Cody asked with a frown.

  “Emmett and I saw her come in here.”

  Cody’s face paled, and his hand darted upward. “We was just talking, boss. Nothing else.” Those words shot out of Cody faster than a fired bullet.

  Sunny fixed her eyes on the man, wondering what was the matter with him. Cody looked downright nervous. But why? She thought about it a moment. No. Surely Jed didn’t think there was something going on between her and Cody. Did he? Well, she’d set them thoughts to rights this instant. “If you must know, I came here to apologize to Cody.”

  “For what?” Suspicion she didn’t like one whit poured over Jed’s face.

  Just who was he to act like that? Resentment pooled inside her. “That’s none of your business, Jedidiah.” She brushed past him and laid her hand on the door latch.

  Jed reached for her arm and stopped her. “It is my business when it comes to Emmett’s niece and his hired hands.”

  Sunny whirled and yanked her arm from his grasp. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

  “Emmett asked me to keep an eye on you.”

  Her eyes flung open like an unlatched barn door caught by the wind as understanding smacked into her. “He what?” So that’s why Jed was so friendly to her. Not because he liked her, but because he was just doing his job. That hurt more than she wanted it to, right in the middle of her heart. But she wouldn’t let him know that and give him power over her like Duke had had at one time. “Fine. You’ve done your job. I’m leaving now.” With that she yanked the door open, stormed around the side of the bunkhouse and strode up through the trees.

  Through a haze of angry tears her uncle’s hunting and fishing cabin came into view. She hadn’t realized she’d walked that far, but she was glad to see it. She’d always loved this place. It held fond memories for her.

  At the snow-covered porch, she brushed the white powder off the tree stump her uncle had cut into the shape of a chair, tucked her full-length woolen coat underneath her and sat down.

  Without wanting them to, Jed’s words scrolled through her mind, hurting her with the same force they had just minutes ago. A fresh round of tears came. She hated that she’d gotten close enough to the man that she was now shedding tears over him. What a fool she’d been thinking Jed liked her when all along he was just doing his job. Well, what did she care anyway? She was here to do a job, too.

  His handsome face and the curve of his lips when he smiled fell into her mind. She squeezed her eyes to blot them out, but all she saw was the blue of his eyes and the crinkles that fanned from the corners of them when he was tickled about something. Her heart reached out to those images, embracing them and pulling them to herself, pulling him to herself. When she realized what was happening, she shook her mind free of the silly schoolgirl notions filling her brain. Notions she would never give in to because she knew all too well the heartache those thoughts led to.

  * * *

  “Remember what Emmett said,” Jed warned Cody. A snake of jealousy had wound through him when he’d opened the door and seen Cody and Sunny standing so close t
ogether. Here he was warning Cody, when what he really needed to do was to warn himself.

  “Seems to me like you need to remember that more than me, Jed.” Stunned by Cody’s perception, he opened his mouth to say something, but Cody beat him to it. “No disrespect, boss, but I’ve seen the way you look at her. And I don’t blame you. She’s quite a looker.”

  “The only way you’ve seen me look at her is with respect. Something you ought to try for a change.” Jed spun around and closed the door behind him.

  Out of earshot, he mumbled to himself, “Can’t a man look at a woman with admiration without everyone seeing more into it than what was there?” Who was Jed kidding? He was attracted to Sunny. “Yes, I am. But I also know she’s off-limits, so it doesn’t matter.” Jed continued carrying a conversation with himself. One he wasn’t winning, so he turned his mind onto following Sunny’s tracks up into the trees.

  Judging by her footprints he’d say she headed toward the hunting cabin near the springhouse and wild strawberry patch, and that’s exactly where he found her. “Sunny.” He spoke her name softly, not wanting to startle her.

  Her gaze swung his way and she crossed her arms over her chest. “If you come up here to keep an eye on me, no need to. You can go back and tell Uncle Emmett I’m just fine.”

  Jed stepped onto the porch, cleaned off one of the chairs similar to Sunny’s and sat down beside her. “I shouldn’t have told you that. I can see I’ve hurt your feelings, Sunny. I’m sorry.”

  She thumbed her cowboy hat up and looked at him. “So that’s the reason you’ve been spending so much time around me, huh? ’Cause Uncle Emmett told you to.” The hurt was right on the surface of her lovely face. “I thought you were my friend. And here all this time you’ve just been doing your job. What a fool I was to think you cared about me as a friend.”

  “I do care about you, Sunny. And you are my friend. When I said Emmett wanted me to keep an eye on you, that didn’t mean hanging around you all day long and talking with you like I have. He just wanted to make sure none of the men got out of line with you was all.”

  Her eyes searched his, and he let them, knowing she was searching for the truth. “I can take care of myself.” Her lashes brushed the tops of her cheeks. “But thank you, Jed. I could use a friend.”

  It amazed him how many times she showed her vulnerable side to him. Something the other men never witnessed. The thought touched him. “Well, you have one for as long as you like.”

  She smiled. “You, too.” She sat back into the chair, looking straight ahead of her. “It’s sure pretty here, isn’t it?”

  His focus followed hers. Aspen and pine trees surrounded the cabin, except for a small clearing where willow bushes outlined it. “Uh-huh. It sure is.”

  “When I was little—” she yanked her head his direction “—no comment from you about being little neither—” she grinned “—my ma and I used to come up here with Aunt Minnie and pick wild strawberries. Then we’d head back down to the house and make jam with them. Ma always said I ate more than whatever made it into them jars.”

  “What was your ma like?”

  “Oh, she was a great ma. The best actually. She was always giving me hugs and telling me how special I was. Always listening to me whenever I needed to talk. We had some right fine talks, too, Ma and me.” Her eyes brightened with the memories.

  Jed wished he had memories as sweet as hers. But his mother and father were not the loving kind. Never had been. And it was pretty clear by now they never would be.

  “Ma worked right alongside my pa. She could rope and brand a calf slicker and faster than anyone. Pa used to wonder how she did it ’cause she was little like me. I should say I’m little like her.” Sunny turned her large brown eyes toward him. “People misjudged her the same as they do me. Ma didn’t care none about it, though. Said God made her that way for a reason and that it wasn’t right of folks to criticize what God had made. Whenever someone did take it upon themselves to do that, she just worked harder to prove them wrong, and she did, too. Ma could keep up with the best of them.”

  “Like you,” Jed said, knowing his voice was filled with reverence and emotions he couldn’t corral.

  Her eyes softened with the smile she sent his way. “Thank you, Jed, for saying that. It’s nice to have someone who understands me.”

  “I sure do.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him and leaned back in the chair. “Whether you know it or not, we have a lot of things in common.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, you want to prove to the men that you’re capable of running a ranch despite your size. And me...I want to prove to my father that I’m just as good as my brothers are. That I can make it on my own, too.”

  “Does he think you can’t?” Surprise lifted her dainty eyebrows.

  It hurt to talk about it, but she’d opened herself up to him, so he felt comfortable doing the same. That’s what friends did after all. “My father thinks my brothers are the only ones who can make something of themselves. Father’s always going on and on about my oldest brother, Daniel, and his big house, his children, his rich banker’s daughter wife. And my brother Sebastian, who has a mansion up the street that’s bigger than my parents’ place. I think my father does it to provoke me into doing the same thing so he can be proud of me, too. But big-city life isn’t for me. Shutting me up in an office all day long would strip the life right out of me.”

  “Same here. Oh, sure, I can cook and clean and do all them kinda things. Ma made sure of that. But I want to be outdoors. Working with cows and horses. Riding through the trees in the summer, hunting down strays or moving the cattle to fresh grazing. Even cleaning pens. That don’t bother me none.”

  “See, I told you we had a lot in common.”

  They shared a smile.

  “Well, it’s getting late. Your uncle will be worried about you if we don’t get back.”

  “Suppose you’re right.” They stood and Sunny gazed up at him. “No offense to your pa, Jed, but the man’s wearing horse blinders or something, ’cause you’re already someone he can be proud of.” She stepped away from him and headed off the porch.

  Her words touched Jed deeply. No one had ever said anything like that to him before. It felt good. Real good. He blinked the sheen of moisture from his eyes. “Lord, thank You for Sunny. May I be worthy of her friendship,” he whispered before he left the cabin and caught up with her.

  They made their way back down to the main house just as the mountains filled with shadow.

  When they stepped inside, heat along with corned beef and cabbage met them.

  Standing in front of the cookstove, Minnie turned toward them, holding a wooden spatula in her hand. “About time you two got here.” She shook the spoon at them and winked.

  “Where you been?” Emmett asked from his rocker near the fireplace.

  Apprehension replaced the quietness inside Jed. Was Emmett upset? Did he think Jed was wooing his niece?

  “I went for a walk up to the hunting cabin, and Jed came to fetch me.”

  “Keeping an eye on my girl. That’s good.” Emmett smiled at Jed with a wink.

  Jed didn’t know how to react to that. At times, if Jed wasn’t mistaken, it seemed as if Emmett was throwing him and Sunny together on purpose. But that couldn’t be. His job was to watch out for her and nothing else. Confused and unable to figure it out, he quit trying and joined Emmett in the living room.

  Sunny offered to help her aunt in the kitchen, and the two of them busied themselves there.

  Emmett glanced over his shoulder and then back at Jed. “So, how are the men treating Sunny? Are they being nice to her? They’re not stepping out of line with her or anything, are they?”

  “No, sir. They’ve all been perfect gentlemen.” Well, except Cody. But the boy hadn’t done anything other than tease her, and Sunny handled him just fine every time.

  “You men ready to eat?” Minnie called.

  “We sure are, suga
r. I’m starving. Let’s go eat, Jed.”

  “You’re always starving,” Minnie told Emmett with an affectionate smile.

  Again Jed longed for the kind of relationship they had. If Sunny weren’t off-limits, he would have pursued a relationship with her to see where it might lead, and even seen if she’d be willing to wait until he purchased his own place. But how would that work? She already owned a spread. One he knew without a doubt she wouldn’t give up. And he couldn’t abandon his dream of making it on his own either. He sighed. There were too many things against them. So he needed to stop thinking about her in that way. As hard as that might be.

  They sat down at the table. Steam rose from the platter of sliced corned beef, baby onions, carrots and chunks of cooked cabbage.

  Jed’s stomach growled in response.

  “I heard that,” Sunny teased.

  “Think everyone else did, as well. Come on. Let’s eat, woman.” Emmett smiled at Minnie.

  Minnie popped him on the arm with a clean spoon. “Behave yourself, you ornery old coot.” She kissed Emmett’s cheek.

  It amazed Jed how they didn’t even try to hide their affection for one another. They were always hugging or kissing.

  He slid a glance at Sunny, wondering what it would be like to hold her in his arms. To love her. Something he wasn’t sure if he already did or not.

  Jed’s resolve to not think about Sunny and marriage was becoming increasingly difficult. During dinner Emmett and Minnie carried on about Sunny’s wonderful traits. Sunny blushed under their praise, but Jed could tell it made her feel good, too.

  When they finished the last of their meal, apple pie with cheese, Minnie and Sunny cleaned up the mess while he and Emmett retired to the rocking chairs.

  It wasn’t long before the women joined them.

  “I was thinking,” Minnie said. “In a little over two weeks, it will be Valentine’s Day. Why don’t we invite the neighbors over for an evening of fellowship and skating at the ice pond? It’ll give us plenty of time to let them all know and for us to prepare.”