Page 25 of A Family With the Cowboy

Where did that come from? She was his son’s teacher. That was all. This madness that had taken hold of him whenever she was around…he simply had to ignore it until it went away. He needed to stay as far away from her as possible until he could see straight again.

Cooper returned from the bar with two bottles of wine and water for Laura. Glancing toward the dance floor, he smiled. “I see Luke has stolen my date.”

“You’d better go and stake your claim,” Arlene said. “Luke isn’t the only one who wants to dance with her.”

Hayden turned to see a man approaching Laura and Luke. He recognized the cowboy as Dan Smith, an employee on Higgins Valley, a neighboring ranch.

Tipping his head, he swallowed a big gulp of his beer. Damn it, he didn’t want to watch Laura dancing with someone else. But…she was free to dance with anyone she wanted to. It had nothing to do with him.

“Well, she’s not exchanging partners,” his mother said. “Good for her.”

His head turned in her Laura’s direction again. The cowboy was walking away, scowling, and Laura was laughing down at Luke. His heart settled down.

Only when the song ended did Laura and a beaming Luke return to the table.

“Hayden-freaking-Weston,” someone said from behind Hayden.

Hayden turned around to see who was talking before he got up slowly. From the corner of his eye, he saw Cooper moving closer.

It was Tim Higgins, the owner of Higgins Valley. After Hayden and his brothers had begun with the practice of high-density grazing on the Weston Ranch and had proof to show the way it improved the land, Hayden had invited the owners of neighboring ranches to come look at what they’d done. They had to work together to preserve the land for the next generation was his argument, and they’d tried to persuade the other ranchers to also give the system a try.

Many ranchers had been impressed with what they’d seen and had been happy to try out the new system. And when they got similar results to that on the Weston Ranch, even more ranchers tried it. Tim, however, was one of a few ranchers who hadn’t been interested in changing anything.

Tim wasn’t steady on his feet. If the rumors were true, they were having a difficult winter.

“Tim.” Hayden nodded.

“You…” Tim said and pushed a finger into Hayden’s shoulder. “You’re the reason we…” He staggered backward.

Hayden looked at Cooper. “Maybe we should take this outside…”

Coop’s eyes widened. “Watch out—” but before Hayden could ask what for, a punch landed on his face. It wasn’t hard and mostly missed him, but he tasted blood in his mouth, nevertheless.

“Tim!” A clearly distraught woman rushed closer. Tim’s wife, Sheryl. She tried to grab her husband’s arm, but he pulled away, stumbled, and swore. “I’m so sorry, Hayden, I don’t know what came over him,” his wife said, her eyes filled with tears.

Becket appeared and put his hand on Tim’s shoulder. “Let me buy you a nice, strong coffee, Tim,” he said.

Tim tried to shake him off, but Cooper put a hand on his other shoulder, and together, he and Becket steered Tim toward the door, his wife hurrying after them.

Muttering under his breath, Hayden touched his face and looked around. There was no sign of Laura or Luke. Some people were looking curiously in their direction, but the music was loud enough that most of the guests seemed not to have noticed what had happened.

“Where’s Luke?” he asked.

Willow motioned toward the dance floor. “Laura quickly led him back to the dance floor when Tim appeared.”

And there she was, dancing with his son, trying to distract him.

“You’re bleeding,” his mom said. “Let me…”

“I’m fine. Excuse me.”

*

Laura joked andteased Luke until his smiled returned. She’d managed to get him back on the dance floor before his father was hit. Her insides were still shaking. The moment she’d seen the man behind Hayden, she knew something was wrong and she should get Luke away from the table as soon as possible. While she was steering him back to the dance floor, she’d caught a glimpse over her shoulder of the man punching Hayden. She couldn’t believe what had happened, but she had to try to prevent Luke from seeing what was going on.

“I think I need a sip of water.” She smiled as walked toward the table with Luke.

As they neared, Arlene motioned to Luke, and he ran toward his grandma.

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