Page 1 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

Chapter One

MacFarland Ranch, Paradise Valley, MT

Tyler sipped his coffee and scrolled through his emails. He didn’t know why he bothered, most of it was spam. The morning sun filtered in through the window, hitting the kitchen table where he was sitting and making him check his watch. He’d need to get a move on soon. As much as he enjoyed his quiet time before he started the day, he had to get over to the lodge and start preparing breakfast. He didn’t mind; he loved to cook. Although, he was looking forward to the day when he’d get to do something more creative than feeding the tourists who stayed at the lodge.

He looked up when his brother, Tanner, entered the kitchen and went straight to the coffee pot.

“You want a refill?”

“I’m good. I need to get my ass into gear.”

Tanner leaned back against the cabinets and grinned at him. “Any hits on your profile?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t play innocent with me; you’re checking to see if you have any messages on that dating site, aren’t you?”

Ty made a face. “No, I’m not. You know as well as I do that’s the girls’ idea, not mine.”

Tanner came and sat down beside him, turning the laptop so that he could see the screen. “You mean you haven’t gotten any interest, so you’re calling it a waste of time?”

“I had a bunch of messages –that’swhy I’m calling it a waste of time.”

“Show me?”

“I don’t have time for this shit. I told you I need to get to work. I need to delete the profile as well. I already set the messages so that they’ll go straight to my spam folder.”

Tanner gave him a puzzled look. “They were that bad?”

He shrugged. “Some of them, yeah. I had everything from a fifty-three-year-old, who wanted to be my sugar mama, to a twenty-two-year-old, who wanted to call me daddy.” He shuddered. “And the worst of it is that, for all I know, either of them – any of them – could really be a forty-year-old dude. Talking online like that, you just can’t know, can you?”

“You could if you got them on a video call straight away. I mean, you can’t fake that.”

“I guess, but like I said, I’m over it.” He got to his feet. “And I need to get to the lodge.”

Tanner pulled the laptop closer to him. “Mind if I have a look?”

“Have at it – you’ll soon see what I mean. Just go to the site – my login’s saved.”

“Okay. Are you going to the bakery this afternoon?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I clean up after lunch.” Ty smiled. “I’d skip it, but Nessa’s getting back today. Ace said that they’re going to hit the bakery on the way back from picking her up at the airport.”

Tanner laughed. “That’ssofreaking awesome!”

Ty laughed with him. Tanner’s high-pitched impression of Nessa’s over-the-top enthusiasm sounded nothing like her, but it reminded Ty just how much fun Nessa was to have around.

He took his mug to the sink and dumped out the last of his coffee.

“Damn!” Tanner exclaimed as he peered at the screen.

Ty hurried back to peer over his shoulder. “What? What did you find?”

Tanner laughed. “Nothing. I’m messing with you, but now I know that if I can find you someone decent on here, you’re interested.”

Ty slapped the back of his head. “Not necessarily. I was just curious how you found someone that’d make you react like that so quickly.”

“I haven’t yet, but I’m going to poke around and see.”

---