Page 4 of Some Cowgirls are Worth Protecting

Hudson rolled his eyes. “It’s not the fact that it’s for sale. It’s who is poking around.”

She turned to the sign again. From what she recalled, Henry said it had only just gone on the market. The man who had lived there was old and he’d let things go. There was a small house on the property, but no one had enforced his mortgage. It was as if the local bank had protected him from getting evicted. But since he’d passed, the property was up for grabs. She didn’t want to admit she didn’t know what he was talking about. Clearly, there was something deeper going on with this particular parcel of land.

He snorted again, drawing her attention to him. “You really don’t know what’s going on, do you?”

Her scowl returned. “I’m sorry if I don’t find myself visiting with the bank officials at their watering hole to discuss the gossip of people who are losing their property.”

Hudson stared at her with a mildly triumphant look on his face. “That place isn’t just any place. It’s the largest piece of land on this side of town. There are acres and acres of land, and the bank doesn’t want to break it up. The guy who lived there—he’d gotten it from his parents, who had gotten it from theirs. They might have been the first people to settle here.”

“Then why is it in foreclosure? Wasn’t it paid for?”

His snicker was getting really annoying. “You really don’t know as much as you think you do. That guy took out a second mortgage on his place. He didn’t have enough income to keep things running, and he also couldn’t live off of what he had for retirement. The bank did him a favor because he was a good member of this community. If it had been any other corporate place, they would have kicked him out decades ago.”

Still, she didn’t know why this story was so important. Besides the place being large, what was the big deal that it was getting sold?

Hudson turned to the field and heaved a sigh. “You know that country club we were at? It used to be rolling hills, too. It was a place just waiting to be developed by money-hungry people who don’t understand what it’s like to live in a place like this.”

“But that club isn’t just a club. There’s the therapy side of it, too.”

“Yeah, we got lucky,” he muttered. “But this?” He gestured toward the land once more. “There’s already talk of a company who wants to turn this place into a bonafide resort. I hear they even want to incorporate a private airport for the super-rich people who want to have a real cowboy experience.”

The disgust was written all over his face. Only the moon was able to illuminate the irritation he had with the whole idea, but she could see it as clearly as if the sun was out and shining.

Rachel stared out at the empty pasture, her heart aching for him. She knew exactly what he was talking about, having visited places like that before. Usually, they were closer to the coast so people could also ride horses on the beach. From a business perspective, this place would be perfect for what he was describing. It was remote enough for the city folk to enjoy that small-town feel and yet large enough that they wouldn’t have to worry about finding the necessities in town. “It will be good business for people operating establishments in Copper Creek,” she hedged quietly.

His sharp gaze swung around at her like an axe. “You can’t be serious.”

She shrugged.

“If that actually happens, you can say goodbye to seeing the stars. Forget about walking along this road without a million cars zooming past us. And you’ll never get a reservation out at that country club. That place was bad enough, but at least it isn’t a magnet for people to come and destroy what we have here.”

“You really don’t like people, do you,” she mused. That was also something she could understand. More people meant more problems. People in her life didn’t have the best track record for being genuine. And there was less of a chance for her to weed out who was genuine the more she was surrounded by them.

“And I’ll never understand why people like you do.” Hudson shook his head and turned to continue walking.

“Who says I do?” She hurried after him. “Why do you think I wanted to get out of there so quickly? Why do you think I wanted to stay out here instead of going back home to where my family is?”

He peeked at her with veiled interest.

“You don’t know anything about me,” she continued. “And if you did, you wouldn’t have said any of that stuff.” It wasn’t that she wanted to share her life story with the guy. Far from it. But she also had never liked people judging her before she had a chance to prove what kind of person she really was.

This conversation was the one thing that helped her decide if he was someone she wanted to confide in, and the answer was a big fat no.

“Honestly, I don’t care if you like big groups or not. I don’t even care that you’re still here. It’s only a matter of time before you get tired of it…” He motioned around him with a wide sweep of his arms. “This place isn’t for everyone. People don’t tend to like it when they start hearing their own thoughts. The world is bigger than they expect. Or there’s something more important for them to go off in search of. Either way, they don’t want to stick around, and they leave. You will too, eventually.”

Her jaw tightened. How had she not noticed his deep-seated pessimism? How had she missed that he was nothing like the easy-going brother her sister had fallen in love with? From what she could tell, this man was nothing like the rest of his family, and it wasn’t any wonder that he was still alone. No one liked to spend time with a brooding child, and that was exactly what he was.

Rachel wasn’t going to let him get to her, though. He was just trying to goad her on, and she was better than that. If nothing else, she could thank her adoptive parents for that. The social circles they’d forced her to swim through were shark-infested. She was used to back-handed comments and dealing with people who seriously wanted her to fail. Well, they didn’t succeed then, and they weren’t going to succeed now.

3

Hudson

Over the next couple of weeks, Hudson experienced something strange. Rachel wasn’t hanging around as much. Athena had said she was busy with one of the charitable projects she was working on and that she would stop by when things got more under control.

That was fine by him. Now he didn’t have to work so hard at avoiding her. Their little walk after the engagement party had been eye-opening, however. He’d been surprised to hear her claim that she liked the solitude Copper Creek had to offer. Normally, people who were raised in the city preferred the busy lifestyle and the constant noise.

Hudson wasn’t convinced. Rachel might be a little different than he’d expected, but she was still from the city, and she was still someone who didn’t know what it meant to live out here in the middle of nowhere.

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