The Cougar and the Cowboy

“Somehow, that isn’t exactly comforting to me, Ralph.” Jace shot back.

He seated himself at the bar and called Maggie over. “You’re much more of a techie than I am and know more about that stuff than I do. I’ve obviously been hacked. Can you help me with changing my password and all that?”

“What makes you think you were hacked, Boss?” she asked while trying to keep from smiling.

“What’s so funny?” Jace asked. He noticed all eyes were on him and everyone seemed to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. The problem was he didn’t know what the first shoe was.

“I’ll tell you why I think that. My phone is full of emails from women I don’t even know. Is this your idea of a joke, Maggie?”

“Oh, Jace…it isn’t a joke. It’s our feeble attempt to get some life back into you. We’re tired of seeing you moping around all the time. I signed you up on a dating site. You can fire me if you want, but you need a woman in your life and you simply won’t choose the one woman who is available and wants you…namely me. I’m not saying you need to get serious or marry someone but for heaven’s sake, you can surely go to dinner or a movie and enjoy a woman’s company.” She ran her hand along his arm, hoping it might reawaken some manly feelings and asked in a sultry voice, “You haven’t forgotten how enjoyable a woman’s company can be, have you?”

He sat there with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds, trying to absorb the dating site information while feeling a bit hot and bothered by Maggie’s sensual touch.

The guys at the front table were enjoying his discomfort way too much while he knew his face was turning all shades of red.

“Okay, okay, joke time is over. Maggie, get my name off that site. I’d prefer to choose my own women, thank you.”

“That’s the beauty of it, Jace. You can choose who you want to contact. Read through all their profiles and answer one. They don’t know your address so they aren’t going to show up here at the bar.”

She turned back to him. “Speaking of showing up at the bar, some young woman in jeans and boots was asking for you this morning. She said something about a ride to Colorado for your horse. I thought you needed to get your horse to Texas, not Colorado.”

Jace shrugged his shoulders, indicating he knew nothing about going to Colorado.

Ken volunteered, “She was pretty darned cute, Jace. Maybe you won’t need that dating site.” He slapped his knee and laughed at his own words.

Turning his attention back to Maggie, Jace asked, “Did she leave a number where I can reach her?”

“No but she said she had some errands in town and would be back in a few hours.”

“Did she at least give you her name?”

“If I remember correctly, I believe she introduced herself as Danielle.”

CHAPTER 9

JACE DIDN’T HAVE any idea who she was or how she knew about his horse needing a ride back to Texas, but if this was the answer he didn’t pray about but thought about praying about, he was more than interested and willing to hear what she had to say.

The lunch customers were nearly all gone and most of the men at the front ‘regulars’ table had left to cause a bit of mischief somewhere else. They were all good men who for one reason or another, had very little to do each day. Several of them were retired ranchers which in this part of the country usually meant their sons or daughters or some other member of the family was now responsible for the day-to-day workings of the ranch. They were native Montanans and couldn’t even conceive of leaving the state they loved. Harry sold his barber shop to a nephew but continued to live in the upstairs apartment because he didn’t want to leave either. Ken was the most vocal of the bunch. His daddy and granddaddy had lived on the outskirts of Bozeman since it was just a blip on the map. They didn’t have a large parcel of land but they made a living. When Ken’s wife left him many years ago, he stayed put. He never discussed what happened and he never mentioned her name. They had no children so he had the entire house and land to himself. He let a foreman run it and he didn’t do too much of anything that anyone could tell except drink coffee all morning at The Branding Iron and harass Jace and Maggie and anyone else he took a liking to.

In the early afternoon, a young woman entered the bar. She paused for a minute to allow her eyes to adjust to the cool, dim interior. She glanced around until she spotted Maggie and recognized her as the woman she spoke with in the morning.

“Hi, again,” she said with a grin. “I don’t suppose, umm,” she fished a piece of paper out of her shirt pocket and read the name, “Jace Matthews …is back yet, is he?”

Jace heard his name and came from the other side of the room. He held out his hand and said, simply, “Yep, he is.” Then he smiled and continued, “I’m Jace and I heard someone was looking for me earlier.”

This startlingly pretty young woman took his hand and shook it firmly…not in the wimpy way most girls did. “Hi Jace. I’m Danielle and I believe we have a mutual acquaintance and perhaps a mutual problem. I hope we can also find a mutual solution.”

They both chuckled at the overuse of the word, mutual. He motioned for her to sit at one of the tables, even pulling out her chair for her. She accepted the offer graciously although he believed she would have been more than capable of seating herself.

“Can I get you something to drink? We have a full bar or soda, also. There’s water, iced tea and lemonade but I’m afraid the coffee pot gets unplugged after the group of men known as the regulars, leaves each day.”

She waved her hand and answered, “I’m not much of an alcohol drinker and especially not in the middle of the day, but I could use a glass of cold water if it’s not too much trouble.”

Mitch appeared almost instantly, like a magic elf, with a frosty mug of water for each of them and a plate of fresh fruit, cut into bite-sized segments, all delivered on a tray, which he sat down on the table with a flourish.

Jace almost fell off his chair in an effort not to laugh out loud at this gesture of hospitality. “Thanks, Mitch,” was all he could manage.

Danielle’s eyes followed Mitch back to the bar and then she said, “Wow. Do all your customers get this treatment…even when all they order is water?”