Forever Dreams (Montana Brides) Read online

  Dragging her feet down the stairs, she sniffed the unmistakable scent of freshly brewed coffee. At least one of them would be wide awake. “Ready and willing to work, sir.”

  Trent grinned at her. “I don’t think you’ll make the army with that salute, honey. Here’s your toast. I’ll meet you out back in ten minutes.”

  For the next hour and a half, Gracie did her chores, catching up with Trent as he walked back to the barn with Jordan.

  While they talked about the ranch, she wandered around the machinery parked beside the barn. The hay rake looked like a giant medieval torture rack. Six huge wheels with long spiky bits on the edges rotated along the ground, turning the grass before the baler got to work. There’d been a regular stream of hay baling contractors working on the ranch since she’d arrived. The tractors they drove were monsters. The wheels alone were taller than she was and they rumbled through the fields like an alien invasion from Mars. It was hot, noisy work, keeping the men busy from dawn till dusk.

  Following Trent across the yard, Gracie caught sight of Adele hanging washing on the line. Giving her a wave, she walked up the stairs and into the house.

  By eight o’clock they’d packed their lunch and were heading toward Yellowstone National Park, ready to discover the world of Yogi Bear.

  Gracie looked up from the guide book she’d been studying. “It says here that the Union Falls are two hundred and fifty feet high. Imagine the speed the water must get to, traveling from that height.”

  “Mmm.”

  “And look at this. Did you know there are three hundred geysers and over two hundred and ninety waterfalls in the park?”

  “No kidding.”

  She shot Trent a sideways look. “Do you really care about what I’m telling you?”

  “Sure I do. I’ve just got other things on my mind.”

  “Like who you’re going to marry?”

  He glanced at her. “I’ve given up on that for the moment. After you went to bed, Jordan came back for his truck. He chewed my ear off about his dude ranch ideas. The man has a screw loose to think I’d even look at the idea of getting city slickers out here for a look at ranch life.”

  Gracie put her book away and turned toward him. “I think it’s a great idea.”

  “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” He sighed.

  “You told me the other day you’re making the land better than you found it. It makes sense to show people how special it is and let them experience it for themselves.”

  “Jordan’s been talking to you, hasn’t he?”

  Gracie squirmed in her seat. “Maybe, but I like his ideas. The old barn would make a great bunkhouse for visitors. They could help with all types of chores like the ones I’ve been doing. Jordan could take them on some of the hiking trails and four-wheel drive routes he’s taken me on. They could even help with the cattle round-ups and haymaking.”

  “It’s a lot of outlay for little return.”

  “It will be in the beginning, but once word gets out about what you’re doing, bookings are bound to pick up. But it’s more about letting people enjoy the land. Jordan doesn’t want the ranch to be like an amusement park. It’s a way of helping the land speak for itself and keeping it whole for the next generation.” That she wouldn’t be part of. Just thinking about a house full of junior Trent McKenzie’s was enough to make her heart sink.

  Trent looked straight ahead. He pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and slid them onto his face. “At the rate Jordan and I are going, there won’t be any future McKenzie generations. But I get your point.”

  Getting her point was more than he’d done in the past, so things might be looking up for Jordan’s plans. Gracie opened her guide book, reading about the park while Trent navigated through the traffic and thought about family trees.

  “Jeez, whoever said this trail was a day tramp must have left at six in the morning.” Gracie trudged behind Trent, trying to suck oxygen into her gasping lungs.

  “We’re nearly back at the truck. Only another twenty minutes to go.”

  “That’s what you told me ten minutes ago.”

  “I lied.” He grinned. “Fire me.”

  Gracie tried for a growl, but the noise coming out her mouth sounded like a scraggy wheeze.

  Trent stopped in the middle of the path, dropping his backpack to the ground. “I need to stop for a drink.”

  She gave him a withering look. “Of course you do.” Dropping her pack to the ground, she collapsed beside it. “Oh, God. I don’t think I’m going to be able to move again.”

  “I could always give you a piggyback ride to the parking lot.”

  Gracie turned up her nose at his suggestion. “Do you know how embarrassing it would be if someone I knew saw me clinging to your back like a leech? Thanks, but I don’t think so.”

  “Suit yourself,” he shrugged. “It’s your legs.”

  Reaching inside her pack, Gracie grabbed a bar of chocolate. As it melted in her mouth she looked up at Trent. He was swigging back some water. “You know, cowboy. Apart from being bossy and emotionally deficient, you’re a pretty good guy.”

  A spray of water exploded from his mouth and he choked on what had already made it down his throat. “What do you mean, emotionally deficient?”

  Sucking on a piece of chocolate that had stuck to her back teeth, Gracie took her time answering. “Well, let’s see. You don’t want to marry for love, you just want the perks, including, but not limited to, the Triple L and kids.” Leaning back against her pack, she crossed her ankles in front of her. “I think you’re too scared to let someone into your heart again. You’ve emotionally detached yourself from human relationships because you were dealt a lethal blow after your first wife left and you’ve never recovered.” Smiling sweetly at his scowl, she asked, “Want a piece of chocolate?”

  Trent moved sideways as a group of tourists walked past.

  Gracie gave them a sunny smile and a friendly wave in case they mistook her for a sweaty slug and stepped on her. After they’d passed on bye, she caught a look on Trent’s face that wasn’t healthy. She stood up real fast.

  Her pack bumped against her back as she high-tailed it along the dirt trail. Thirty feet later Trent still hadn’t made an appearance. Looking over her shoulder, she yelled, “Come on. What’s taking you so long?”

  “I refuse to walk with a woman who thinks I’m emotionally deficient, when she hasn’t allowed herself to fall in love with a man. All that tells me, Gracie Donnelly, is that she’s too worried he’ll leave her, just like her father.”

  She stared back down the trail. Trent didn’t move. Even from this distance she could feel how hurt he was. He was looking for a wife, and she’d turned the whole thing into some kind of sideshow. It wasn’t as if she was the leading expert on how normal people acted. For most of her life she’d run scared from any kind of relationship and up until now it had suited her fine.

  “Don’t talk rubbish. Of course I’ve fallen in love.”

  “Yeah? Who was he? And anyone under the age of sixteen doesn’t count.”

  Gracie stuck her hands on her hips and glared. “I’ve forgotten his name, okay?”

  “Yeah right. If I’m emotionally deficient, then you’re an emotional chicken.”

  “I’m not a chicken.”

  “Prove it.”

  “How? By marrying you? We’ve already been down that road and it leads to a dead end.”

  Trent started walking toward her. “You could do a lot worse, you know.”

  Yeah. She did know. She liked living with him. She enjoyed his company and even laughed at the corny jokes he thought were hilarious. And then there was the chemical explosion that left her feeling wobbly whenever they touched. It was just the bit about him not loving her that made marriage the worst thing they could ever do.

  Trent stopped in the middle of the path. “What’s going through that pretty head of yours?”

  She gazed at the heartthrob standing in the middle of Yellowsto
ne National Park, wondering how she could have been so thoughtless. “I’m sorry about the emotionally deficient comment.”

  He took a deep breath, staring at her so intently that she felt as though he was looking into her soul.

  Gracie’s heart raced, waiting for what he would say next.

  Trent reached forward and rubbed his thumb along her cheek. “No chicken feathers here, either.”

  She let go of the breath that she didn’t know she’d been holding. A bubble of mischief fizzed inside her body. “I must be the craziest woman in the world to turn down your offer of marital bliss. And I think you really need to reassess your chicken testing technique.” Dropping her pack to the ground, she started flapping her arms in the air, chirping like a chicken on steroids.

  Trent burst out laughing. He moved toward her, dodging her arms as she spun around in circles. “Come on, chickadee. If you won’t marry me then the least I can do is give you a lift home.” He moved his pack to his front and knelt on the ground. “All poultry aboard.”

  Gracie laughed as she crawled onto his back, hooking her legs around his waist. “As long as you don’t want to pluck me, I’m all yours.”

  Laughter rumbled through his chest. “You’d better watch out, honey. That’s the best offer I’ve had all week.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “What do you think about Vegas, Gracie?”

  She looked up from the table, a slice of cold roast beef dangling from her fingers. “You mean as in casinos, naked ladies, and lots of glitzy shows? Can you pass another slice of bread over?”

  “Here’s the bread and yes to the naked ladies.”

  “I think I’d only want to take a few dollars into a city like that, otherwise I’d be broke within an hour. Do you have any mustard in the pantry?”

  “Forget the mustard, I’ve got a better deal for you. How would you like to come on an all expenses paid weekend with me to Sin City?”

  Her eyebrows shot in the air.

  “Get your mind out of the gutter.” Trent grinned. “I’ve got a Conference there this weekend and two tickets burning a hole in my pocket.” At her look of disbelief he walked into his office and came back waving the tickets in the air. “You could shop during the day and see a couple of shows with me in the evening.”

  Gracie wiped her hands on her t-shirt and reached up to check the tickets. “How did you get two tickets?”

  “The Cattle Raisers Association worked out a deal. If you bought one ticket you got another one for free. They probably think the second person will spend up large at the casinos.”

  Biting into her sandwich, Gracie leaned back, chewing on the pickle, beef and cheese doorstop in her hand.

  “You’ve got two minutes to make up your mind otherwise I’m phoning Jordan and taking him.” Trent couldn’t believe it was taking her this long to decide whether she’d go to Vegas with him. Two nights in the city that never slept sounded like a sure fire winner over a quiet evening on the Triple L. Especially with what he had planned. It was time to shake Gracie’s world up and Vegas was just the place to start the earthquake.

  She sipped her glass of water, staring at him like she was hunting for any ulterior motives behind his offer. He had plenty of those, but he wasn’t about to let Gracie in on his plans.

  “I’m coming on one condition.”

  “You only ever came with conditions attached,” Trent sighed. “I’d die a happy man if just once you agreed to something without putting a catch at the end of it.”

  Gracie dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “I’m not that bad.” She smiled at the frown plastered across his face. “I’ll come with you if I pay for my flight and half the accommodation.”

  After living with her for nearly a month, Trent knew she wouldn’t go anywhere with him unless it cost her a week’s teaching salary. “Fine, whatever you say. I’ll find out the cost of the flight, but the accommodation’s on me. I’d have to pay for it anyway.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean ‘no’? It’s a perfectly fair split of the expenses.”

  Gracie put her empty glass on top of her plate. “I want my own room. I refuse to share with a man who snores like a beached walrus.”

  Trent ignored the grin nearly splitting her face in two. He’d give in with dignity and then play dirty once they got to Vegas. “Okay, deal. I’ll email the hotel today. We leave here at four o’clock on Friday afternoon.”

  Scooting around the table, Gracie gave him a happy smile. “Sounds like a good excuse for a shopping trip in town, but I’ve got to find Jordan. He’s taking me on one of the trails with Daisy.” She stacked her dirty dishes in the dishwasher and headed to the back door. “We should be back by five. Tell Adele I’ll cook the vegetables and fold the washing when I get home.”

  Standing at the kitchen door, Trent watched her skip down the stairs. “Remind Jordan not to go too far into the mountains.”

  Gracie turned and gave him an exasperated stare. “Yes, daddy.”

  God, she was a cheeky wench. Life had been a whole lot simpler before the Donnelly factor arrived on his doorstep.

  He turned toward his office. There’d been another wolf attack on a neighbor’s property a few days ago and everyone was on full alert. He didn’t want Gracie anywhere near the mountains in case the wolves came back for more cattle.

  He stared out of the office window, catching sight of her as she walked across the yard. Gracie managed to frustrate the hell out of him, but he enjoyed having her around, enjoyed the chaos she created. She had a way of filling up a space so that all the energy in the room was sucked dry when she wasn’t in it. He’d never felt this much attraction for anyone in a long time. Whenever he saw Gracie working outside in her tight jeans, or God forbid, the skimpy little blue shorts she favored on hot afternoons, he felt like a drooling fool.

  The weekend in Las Vegas had come at the right time. He hadn’t planned on attending the conference this year, but if a desperate man ever needed a bit of divine intervention, then it was him. He wasn’t too sure Hooty and Charles would see themselves as divinity’s, but as Association President and Treasurer they’d provided him with the perfect excuse to get Gracie alone and naked.

  Not that the naked bit was compulsory, of course.

  Gracie slid into a white painted chair in Angel Wings Café. She smiled at two women sitting at a table pressed against the front glass window. Gracie had met Jessie and Doris the other day when she’d been out shopping for barn dance decorations with Karen. Doris and her husband Jake owned the biggest hardware store in town. Between the two seventy-if-I’m-a-day women, there wasn’t much news that didn’t float their way.

  “You’re a bad influence on me, Karen.” Gracie pulled another chair out, dropping some of her shopping on the seat and leaving the rest on the floor.

  “I’d say we’re just about as bad as each other. Remind me never to wear high heels when I go out shopping with you again. You’d walk the hind legs of a horse the way you gallop around the stores.”

  Gracie laughed as Karen slowly lowered herself into a chair. For the last three hours they’d been looking for a dress that Gracie could wear to the conference dinner in Las Vegas. And for shoes, makeup and another couple of other items that had snuck their way onto her credit card. More than a couple if Gracie counted all of the bags under the table, which she wasn’t terribly inclined to do.

  Tess grinned as she made her way across to their table. “Someone’s been having too much fun.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Karen said. “Gracie’s the one that made Sandra Lees’ day.”

  “I think I helped Sandra exceed her monthly sales figures. But if I don’t have a hot chocolate in the next five minutes I’m going to fall down from exhaustion.”

  Karen smiled at Tess. “Gracie’s main problem is that she doesn’t know how to pace herself. I tried to talk her into having a break earlier, but no, she had to keep pounding the sidewalk looking for the perfect dress.”

  �
��And does the perfect dress have enough room for a slice of hot apple pie with whipped cream?” Tess asked.

  “That’s not fair,” Gracie groaned. “You shouldn’t tempt me like that. Especially when the dress in question has lots of shimmery sequins that show every little ripple on my hips.”

  “There are no ripples anywhere,” Karen laughed. “Except where it counts. Apple pie and cream sounds divine. I’ll have mine with a low-fat cappuccino.”

  Gracie glanced up at Tess. “You’d better make that two apple pies and cream. I still have to find presents for my class in New Zealand.”

  “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. I’ll even throw an extra sprinkle of chocolate on your drink if I can peek at the dress.”

  “It’s a deal.” Gracie watched Tess walk across the café and disappear around the far side of the counter. She flicked switches on the coffee machine and dished up two plates of apple pie. The café smelled like cinnamon and chocolate, with the tiniest whiff of freshly baked bread thrown into the mix. “I’m going to put ten pounds on just inhaling the smell of all the food in here.”

  “We’ll just have to walk a bit faster around the stores to burn off the extra calories. Talking about calories…” Karen’s eyes practically watered at the decadent dessert Tess put in front of her. A three inch high slice of double-crust apple pie, golden and hot, sat on the table. A ball of half-melted cream rested against the pastry shell, curling around the dessert like a sweet river of indulgence.

  “And one low-fat cappuccino.” Tess laughed at the look on Karen’s face. “Yours is coming right up, Gracie.”

  Karen dipped a fork into the centre of her pie. “I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

  The doorbell jingled and Gracie glanced across the room. Kristina Green walked in. She blinked when she saw Gracie, and stopped in the middle of the room. Her gaze darted between Gracie and Karen, a frown settling on her face.