CHAPTERONE
Triple C Ranch exceeded the end of the sky.
Chase Cooper waited underneath the two-story portico supported by stone pillars. With one of the double front doors open to the house, he heard the grandfather clock chime in the foyer. The tractor-trailer from Castle Rock was a half hour late. He looked west toward the famous fourteener known as Pikes Peak. Chinook winds rustled up the scent of ponderosa pines and waved across the manicured bluegrass in the center of the wide, horseshoe-shaped driveway. The gate to the property was wide open, and the sign above it clearly stated Triple C Ranch-Central. He’d been specific about the delivery being made here and not through the cattle entrance. Feeling the back pocket of his jeans for his cell phone, he remembered leaving it with the keys to his pickup on the granite island in the kitchen.
He headed inside his too-large-for-one-person house and shut the door.
No, he liked living alone and intended to keep it that way. Crawford Cooper, Coop as his grandfather was called, and Chase’s grandmother, Zoe, had built this sprawling stone and wood mountain-style home. Chase’s father, Carson, had been the youngest of their three sons. Decades ago, Carson’s two older brothers, Clarence and Chester, had moved out and built homes east and west of this main house. After Zoe’s tragic accident, Coop had turned this house over to Carson and Chase’s mom, Elle. Coop had built a one-story log cabin to the north on a gentle rise and had lived there ever since.
Scowling, Chase entered the kitchen, wondering where his animals were.
The staff for his ranch, Bob and Teresa Ellis, occupied a two-bedroom rancher between Coop’s cabin and this main house, which Chase had since inherited. The bunkhouse for his ranch hands, along with a couple of other houses, were accessible through the cattle entrance down the road. His younger sister, Chloe, had turned Triple C Ranch-West, the property left to her by Uncle Chester, into a bed-and-breakfast. Little brother Cash had been willed Triple C Ranch-East, a dude ranch, by bachelor Uncle Clarence.
So, it wasn’t like he didn’t have family and friends.
As for women, there was never a shortage. But no matter how they had flirted, what they had offered, or how often they had shown-up at his door during the past two years, Chase didn’t plan on another one complicating his life. He picked up his cell phone, and as he scrolled through it for the number he needed, a doorbell rang. Four chimes, the front door, as opposed to the back door, which had only a two-bell ring.
“Finally,” Chase grumbled. Damn, he was getting bitter and ornery in his old age of thirty. He shoved the phone into the pocket of his jeans, retraced his way through the great room to the oversized double front doors, and yanked one open.
A once-in-a-lifetime kind of beauty stood before him.
Chase stared. This woman was so incredibly gorgeous he must be dreaming. He blinked. Nope. Wide awake. She seemed so ethereal, so unreal. It was almost as if a halo-like aura surrounded her absolute perfection. What? He didn’t think in terms of ethereal and auras. But had someone claimed such a hauntingly lovely woman existed, he would not have believed them. Yet, here on his porch, under the towering portico, stood about a hundred and ten pounds of strikingly spectacular female in the flesh.
“Hi,” she said.
Hair the color of butter swept across her slightly darker blond brows, framing a heart-shaped face and draping elegant shoulders. Thick, black lashes trimmed big, green eyes, quickly growing full of concern as he scrutinized her. Delicate cheekbones and a dainty nose hinted of fresh sunshine. Glistening like cherries, her full upper lip mirrored the shape of Cupid’s bow above her plump lower lip. With such flawless features, this woman had to be the single most exquisite creature walking the planet. Hell, the universe.
“Hi,” Chase finally managed.
“I think I’m a little late,” she said.
“You are. Where are my horses?”
“I don’t know. But youareexpecting me, right?”
“Yeah, with my horses.”
“What horses?”
He’d struck a hard but fair bargain on the purchase he’d negotiated with Ralph Desmond, owner of the Desmond Horse Ranch. So where the hellwerehis horses?
“The black stallion and golden palomino?” Chase asked as if she might be joking.
“I don’t have your horses,” she said, straight, white teeth worrying her bottom lip.
Taking his eyes off her, no easy task, and glancing toward the main road, he saw the cherry red Volkswagen Bug in the driveway. A convertible, no less. Probably another city girl.
“So you’re not Kendra Desmond from Castle Rock?”
“No, sir. I’m Jade Taylor from Colorado Springs.”
Collecting his senses and remembering his manners, Chase said, “I’m Chase Cooper. How can I help you?”
“If this is Thursday, and I’m pretty sure it is, then I’m here until the Monday night fireworks celebrating Memorial Day.”
Talk about fireworks…her emerald eyes sparkled, and her crimson lips sizzled. An unexpected vision of kissing this girl jolted his thoughts. Would her eyes close and her lips part?
Chase frowned in blocking that image and, concentrating, came up with, “You’re looking for my sister’s bed-and-breakfast. Triple C Ranch-West is back down the road toward Pikes Peak and Colorado Springs.”
