Staking His Claim (Ranchers of Chatum County 1)

Obviously, she wasn’t going to get it.

She searched her soul, trying to understand her own self. With an inborn woman’s intuition, she knew if she started something with Raul it was going to be something serious. She felt like she had control in that respect, at least for awhile. As long as he was unaware of her age, she knew he would continue to try to keep his distance. If and when she gave him the green light, she figured he’d jump on it.

Trevor called and asked her out, and she turned him down. She wasn’t interested in him the same way he was interested in her, and she didn’t want to give him the wrong idea. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she was trying to please Raul. No doubt he would be pleased that she stayed away from Trevor, and anyway, the last thing she was thinking about was starting something with somebody else. All she could think about was Raul Vega. She didn’t need anything or anyone else clouding her confused brain anymore than it already was.

She spent her days going over job prospects in the small town. There was an opening for a teller at the bank, and she applied for it. The interview went well, and she thought she had a shot at the job. She waited to hear.

One day led into the next, and she couldn’t believe how difficult it was to stay away from Raul. She thought about driving to his house more times than she could count, and the knowledge that his number was programmed in her cell phone was a temptation that was hard to ignore.

But she persevered, and in the end, managed not to call or text him at all.

****

The day of Elaina’s birthday party, Raul had trouble with a mare in foal. The breech birth had been rough and ended up costing him. He had to call a veterinarian out and by that time it was too late. He lost both animals. Losing an animal in the birthing process was never easy.

He was in a savage, black mood.

It had been two weeks since he’d seen her. Two weeks in which he’d done his damndest to stay away from her. If he could just make it through until she went back to school, he could breathe ea

sier and his damn conscience could shut the fuck up for awhile.

Every day felt like pissing nails, his guts ached for her so badly.

He arrived late to the party, after ten, and it was in full swing. He grabbed a beer from the cooler on the front porch and pushed his way into the house. Janie had pulled out all the stops for Elaina’s party, and the house and yard were decorated in hundreds of lights and lanterns. The evening was frosty but mild with no wind, and guests circulated from the house, to the yard, and back again.

He popped the top and took a swig and tried to contain the ferocious heat running through his blood. Experiencing death first hand sucked, and he needed something soft and sweet to knock the dark memory from his brain and force life back into his veins. He needed her.

He’d managed to stay away from her for two aggravating weeks, and now as he searched for Elaina, he had to stop time and time again to speak to people he knew. The guest list was varied. Older married couples interspersed with middle-aged singles. Dotted around in groups were teenagers and young twenty-somethings. He imagined Janie had invited them for Elaina. He glanced around as casually as he could and tried to break free from a neighbor who had heard from the vet about the loss of his animals. Word travelled quickly. It was the last thing he wanted to talk about, and he pulled away as quickly as he could.

Still, it was forty-five minutes after he arrived before he found her. And when he did, his mood turned even more black and ugly. The fire in his gut smoldered with feral jealousy as his tortured gaze saw her and the animal inside of him tried to break free.

She was outside in the gazebo, holding a glass of champagne, surrounded by a group of young people, both men and women.

That wasn’t the part that made him see red.

Trevor stood beside her with his hand playfully twirling in her hair. He wasn’t touching her anywhere else, but it was enough to send rage and jealousy spinning through Raul.

He stood on the pebbled pathway, downed half his beer, and tried like shit to gain some fucking control. He wasn’t going to jump. Trevor was basically a good kid and Raul absolutely couldn’t go over there and kill the little prick. His feet took two steps toward the gazebo and he froze.

He was not fucking going to go over there and jump down that kid’s throat. He wasn’t.

He lifted the beer, drained the rest and crushed the can. His throat tightened and he waited for Elaina to see him.

When her eyes lifted and fell on him, she stilled. Completely.

He was twenty feet away but he could see the tremble in the hand that held her champagne.

It made him feel slightly better.

Her head tilted to the side, away from Trevor, and he watched as she surreptitiously lifted her hair off her neck and made it fall from the younger man’s hand.

The kid let his hand drop as he turned away to laugh at something one of the other girls in the group said.

As Raul stood and watched the scene in front of him, he heard the rumble of an engine and looked across the way and saw Brian on a tractor, hauling a twenty foot trailer full of hay around to the back of the house.

One of the girls screamed, “Hayride!” and one by one the kids took off toward the trailer loaded with hay and a cooler full of drinks.

Elaina stayed still and Trevor reached down to pull on her arm. She hesitated, watching Raul.