A Cowboy Returns by Kelli Ireland

Author:Kelli Ireland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2015-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

11

ELI MADE HIMSELF at home while he waited for Reagan to emerge, grabbing a beer from the fridge and sinking into the deep sofa. Guilt that he hadn’t thought this through very well—being in her private space with Luke—rankled. Somehow, he needed to make it up to her. He didn’t know how, wasn’t sure what to do to show her he respected where she was coming from, but he’d figure it out. She deserved nothing less.

There was a sharp knock on the door and he twisted to look out the front windows. A brown Ford four-by-four hauling a four-horse pipe trailer had pulled up with an enormous Charolais bull throwing enough of a fit that the parked truck was being pushed around like a Tonka toy. A second knock sounded but, this time, the door opened a crack.

“Doc Matthews?” a man called out.

“Coming,” she shouted. Hair pulled back in a French braid, she came out of the bedroom with her boots in hand. She paused, glancing between Eli and the fiftyish man standing in the doorway. “Hey, Gary. What’s going on?”

The man’s identity clicked with Eli. Gary Watson had been a good friend of his father’s, regularly stopping by to shoot the breeze. Growing up, Eli had done some day work on the Watson ranch off and on, though he’d never cared for the Watson family much. Gary’s wife, Linda, always had her nose in business that had nothing to do with her. And she had a gift for pulling other noses in alongside hers. She might not be well respected, but when you wanted to know something, the Watson number was the first one you called.

Gary looked between Reagan, freshly showered, and Eli, also freshly showered, and the older man’s eyes visibly cooled. “Found a wallet on your porch, Doc.” He tossed it on the nearest counter.

“That’d be mine,” Eli said. “Must’ve dropped it when I stopped in to ask Doc Matthews if I could borrow her internet service. Thanks for picking it up.” Eli stood and moved to place himself between Reagan and Watson’s assessing stare. “How’ve you been?”

“Heard you’d come back to handle the estate,” Watson said.

He struggled to keep his free hand loose instead of letting it fist as he wanted to. “I did, yes.”

“Rumor has it your old man left a hell of a mess—a mess we might all end up paying for.” Gary’s voice was thick as he spoke around the dip tucked between his bottom lip and teeth. The words were soft, the allegation clear.

“Rumors are nasty business,” Eli answered just as softly, picking up his wallet and tucking it into his back pocket. “They tend to be based on a lot of false assumptions that only end up fostering a lot of nonsense and hurting innocent people. Hate to think of such a tight community as this singling someone out without all their facts straight.”

The other man’s eyes narrowed. “You got something to say, boy?”

“I was Max Covington’s boy. Not yours.

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