Page 8 of The Cowboy Fix

He frowned at her but sat down. One point to the visiting team. She put a mark on her imaginary scoreboard.

Taking the wrapped donut she held out, he huffed out a resigned breath. “Okay. Make your pitch.”

“First, do I interpret the scene I walked into last night correctly as you winning whatever wager you had with your brothers?”

He slowly nodded. “Dad taught us to play poker when Blake and I turned thirteen. We had more disagreements than he wanted to referee, so he would have all three of us draw cards. Whoever got high card won that round.”

“Even if you were wrong?” She had to give his dad high marks. It was a creative solution. And sad that according to Mal, the senior Lohmen had passed when his boys were so young.

His donut was already half gone she was glad to see. His lips twisted. “It does blow your mind, doesn’t it? I guess he figured it was easier to ramrod one of us than all three.”

“I can see that. Who’sramroddingnow?” Izzy waved the last bite of her donut at Nathan. “Don’t answer that. Tell me instead... you have the final say on whether you give me a chance to help restore the Triple L or not?”

His brows arched as challenge lit up his steady gaze. “Yup.”

“I see.” She popped the last bit in her mouth. She loved a challenge—her mother said it was one of her biggest flaws, but Izzy thought of it as one of her greatest strengths. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a fear or two, like falling in love again or planting roots in one place—that almost gave her the hives—but the challenge Nathan represented? Well, she couldn’t walk away. Not voluntarily, anyway. “You’re the one I have to impress, then.”

That got the rancher’s attention. He leaned forward in his chair, forearms resting on the table, the light in his dark eyes brightening.

She quickly stood and went to close the top of the donut box she’d left open. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

He stood and slowly limped toward Izzy. For the first time, he smiled. “I’ll have to take your word for that.”

“You should. I won’t steer you wrong. Besides, you need me.” His brows shot up, sending her pulse into overdrive.Good grief.She didn’t have time to be tempted by an attraction she had no intention of satisfying. “What I mean is, you and your brothers need to save this ranch. I can help you do that.”

“I’ll have to think about it.”

“You do that, Nathan Lohmen. And while you’re thinking, I’ll put together a proposal that will knock your socks off.”

Tripping over an unexpected attraction was not at the top of her bucket list.Been there, done that, never again.

“I sincerely doubt that, but you’re welcome to try.” A grin spread across his handsome face.

Izzy decided he was kidding, and if he was, she could work with that. Giving him a confident, I-can-do-this nod, she dug her business card out of her back pocket and slipped it onto the table by the door. “Here’s my number, in case you have any questions before I get your proposal done.”

Nathan Lohmen would be a challenge, but she would do whatever she could to bring the ranch back into the black. The one thing she couldn’t do was get excited about a grumpy cowboy who, if she could convince him, would soon be her next client.

Chapter Three

Izzy Payton wasno pushover, that was for sure.

As dust spit up from her back tires, Nathan sat on the porch bench and watched the surprising woman drive away in her bright yellow Range Rover. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a car as bright as the noonday sun. What was even stranger was that the shiny vehicle so completely matched Izzy’s personality. Her sass had almost hoodwinked him into taking a second look.

He frowned. Nope. Not going there. Still, her cheerful determination had gotten inside his defenses. He didn’t think he’d ever been as intrigued by a woman as he was by the way Izzy Payton was so set on showing him she could save the ranch. Maybe she could. Maybe she couldn’t.

She was as cute as a newborn foal, but he didn’t need an outsider pulling the Triple L up by its bootstraps. That was his job. He just had to try something he hadn’t thought of before.

Shaking his head, he went back inside but not before he realized he’d followed Izzy out of the house without relying on his cane for balance. Grabbing her business card off the entry table on his way by, he found the cane leaning against the chair he’d been sitting in at the table.

Tossing her card on the island by the pastry box, he grabbed a jelly donut and stepping away from the bribe, ate the pastry while he stared at the cane. How in the Sam Hill did she know what donuts he’d liked?

She’d admitted she hadn’t known, so that meant they had something in common, dang it. Even more surprising—he didn’t need the cane anymore. He still limped a little, but he could manage that.

Malorie had said one day he wouldn’t need assistance to walk, but he hadn’t expected it to come so quickly. Dusting bits of sugar off his hands, he grabbed the cane and put it in the hall closet where it wouldn’t be a reminder of how he’d spent the last seven weeks. Immobile and forced to turn over his ranch chores to Blake. That he had to give up his barrel-racing students was bad enough. He wasn’t sure he could get enough of them back in time to make a difference.

Picking up Izzy’s card, he took it with him to the window, where he stared past the covered back porch and out at the fenced-in pasture that stretched as far as he could see. He knew every inch of it.

“Did I hear a woman’s voice a moment ago?” Jonas asked from behind Nathan.

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