Falling for the Rancher Page 2

  “Darling, you’re being needlessly stubborn,” Muriel Bailey chastised through the phone. “Coming home for an extended visit would be a win for everyone. Since you aren’t busy with work—”

  “I’m busy looking for a job.” Word had spread through the medical grapevine from Dallas to Houston that Sierra had been fired. Ever since Muriel had learned about it last week, she’d been relentlessly campaigning for Sierra to move back to Houston. There’s a better chance of my being elected president and moving to the White House.

  Her mother sighed. “But it’s always difficult to get vacation time approved after starting a new position. What if they won’t give you the days off for your brother’s wedding?” According to Muriel, Kyle’s December nuptials would be The Social Event of the Decade. “I need you here so you can help me with the millions of details! Then you’ll start job-hunting again after the holidays. New year, new career.”

  Trapped under her parents’ roof from September until January? Little spots appeared in front of Sierra’s eyes, and she gripped the edge of the granite-topped kitchen island for support. “I’ll be sure to mention that my brother is getting married during interviews and give prospective employers a heads-up.” Assuming she got any more interviews.

  By affronting the hospital’s board of directors, she seemed to have damaged her options here in Dallas. Only two people had been willing to meet with her so far—a sleaze who’d ogled her breasts throughout the entire conversation and a sycophant who’d gushed about what an honor it was to meet the daughter of esteemed Chief of Neurosurgery Frederick Bailey. She didn’t want to take a job that was offered because of who her father was, but if nothing better materialized...

  “Sierra, are you even listening to me?”

  “Um.” Not for the past five minutes or so. “I may have missed that last part.”

  “Douglas Royce has been asking about you. He can’t wait to see you at the wedding.”

  Oh, for pity’s sake. Her mother couldn’t possibly think there was still a chance Sierra might one day become Mrs. Douglas Royce? Opening the fridge, she searched for a bottle of wine. Damn. The downside of no paycheck was a serious lack of groceries. “We broke up years ago.”

  “Yet you haven’t had a serious relationship since! Perhaps because, deep down, you—”

  “Paul and I were plenty serious.” Just not transcontinental serious. When Dr. Paul Meadows had left a couple of months ago to do medical work in Africa, they’d shared an affectionate goodbye. It was true she hadn’t dated much between Douglas and Paul, but three years of grad school and twelve months of residency hadn’t left much free time. “You’re conveniently forgetting, I never loved Douglas half as much as you and Dad did. So you’re not going to use him to lure me home.”

  “Parents shouldn’t have to ‘lure’ their own flesh and blood. Where’s your sense of familial duty?” Muriel huffed. “Who’s going to help me with this mountain of wedding tasks?”

  Sierra supposed it would be sheer lunacy to suggest the bride. Was poor Annabel getting any say in her big day? I warned Kyle they should elope. “Don’t be afraid to delegate to the zillion-dollar-an-hour wedding coordinator, Mom. That’s what Annabel’s family is paying her for. I hate to cut this short, but I have a phone interview this evening.” Could her lie have sounded less convincing?

  “Really? With whom?”

  “Um...” Sierra rubbed her temple. “Oh, I think that’s my other line. Gotta go, love to Dad, ’bye!” She disconnected before her mother could respond, poured a glass of water and went to the living room, where her laptop sat on the couch. For a moment, she considered checking flights to Africa. Maybe she should follow Paul’s example—go help people in another part of the world and put an ocean between her and her parents.

  Instead, she checked email to see if her job search had netted any new responses, then fired off a quick note to Kyle.

  Subject: Our Mother Is Off The Rails

  Annabel must REALLY love you to put up with Mom. Hope you know what a lucky guy you are. See you in December—and not a single day sooner! S.

  Her brother never replied to any of her messages. No doubt he was too busy plotting corporate takeovers.

  She started to close her email, but her gaze lingered on a name in her inbox. Daniel Baron. He’d written to her two days ago, but she still hadn’t decided whether to act on the information he’d passed along.

  Daniel was a former bull rider and past patient. She’d reached out to him last week when it became clear she needed more references. Not only had Daniel been happy to hear from her and more than willing to endorse her, he’d learned of an unusual job posting through a friend of a friend. He’d told her about a family in Cupid’s Bow, Texas. She’d almost rolled her eyes at the town name, but she supposed it was no quirkier than Gun Barrel City, Texas. Or Ding Dong, Texas.

  According to Daniel, the teenage daughter of the family had been in an accident, and the Rosses were looking for someone to live on the ranch and work with the kid for about a month. A ranch...where there were horses. She shuddered.

  I am not a small-town person. But she prided herself on being tough when she needed to be, and it wouldn’t be a long-term situation. With a guaranteed roof over her head, she would have time to investigate other opportunities. Three and a half weeks could make the difference between finding a position where she truly fit and simply accepting a paycheck so she could continue indulging in luxuries like food and water.

  After she’d first read Daniel’s email, she’d looked up Cupid’s Bow online. It was tiny. Her parents’ country club probably had a higher population—ironic, since the club worked at actively excluding people. Sierra doubted there were any symphony performances or science museums in Cupid’s Bow. But worse than a potential dearth of culture or even the presence of horses was the possibility of nosy neighbors. Weren’t people in close-knit communities subject to scrutiny and gossip? Given her parents’ wealth and high social standing, Sierra had spent her teen years feeling conspicuously visible. People who’d never even met her had opinions about who she was and who they thought she should be. She detested feeling as if she had to answer anyone.

  All right then, don’t call the Rosses. Stay here and get a job waitressing. With your gracious nature, you’re sure to make enough tips to pay off those student loans.

  Lord. No wonder she couldn’t get a job—she even gave herself attitude.

  Decision made, she pulled her phone from her pocket before she could change her mind. As she dialed, she reminded herself there was no guarantee the Rosses would hire her. If they did, she’d survive roughing it in Cupid’s Bow one day at a time. How many times had she lectured patients on the necessity of breaking down tasks into less intimidating chunks?

  “Quit looking at it as months of PT,” she’d tell them. “Just get through each set of exercises, one day at a time. This first set’s only ten minutes. It may be uncomfortable, but you can handle ten measly minutes. Don’t wuss out on me now...”

  She cajoled, encouraged and berated people into cooperating. The least she could do was take her own advice.

  The phone rang, and she inhaled deeply. After a couple more rings, she began mentally rehearsing the message she would leave on the voice mail. But then a man answered.

  “Hello?” The irritation in his deep voice made the word less a greeting and more a challenge.

  She hesitated, but for only half a second. Tentativeness wasn’t in her nature. “May I speak with Jarrett Ross?”

  “You got him. But if you’re selling something—”

  “Only my professional services.” Someone should tell Mr. Ross that anyone who placed a Help Wanted ad should curb his hostility; it made people not want to help. “My name is Sierra Bailey. I’m a physical therapist, and Daniel Baron, one of my former clients, gave me this number. He mentioned your family
is looking for someone with PT experience.”

  “Oh! Yes. God, yes. Sorry, you just caught me at a bad time. Of course, that describes all of the time lately, but— Sorry,” he repeated. “I wasn’t expecting applicants to call me. Most of them have been phoning my mother.”

  “Ah. You’re not the girl’s father?” Daniel had given her a name and a number. He hadn’t outlined the family tree.

  “Definitely not. I’m Vicki’s older brother. But I might as well talk to you. After all, you and I would be the ones living together while my parents are away.”

  Living together. The words gave her an odd jolt. Although Paul had spent enough nights at her place to warrant his own dresser drawer and a sliver of counter space in the bathroom, she’d never technically lived with a man. You wouldn’t be living with this one, either. Not in any personal way.

  “My parents’ trip is why we’re seeking the extra help with Vicki,” he continued. “Not only could she benefit from physical therapy here at the house, we could use someone to keep her company while I’m working the ranch. If she needs something, I’m not readily accessible on the back forty. What was your name again?”

  “Sierra. Sierra Bailey.”

  “And Daniel Baron gave you my number? He’s a good guy. I used to compete against him and his brothers all the time.”

  “Ah. So you’re a rodeo rider.” She hadn’t meant to sound judgmental. It just wasn’t a lifestyle she could wrap her head around. She worked with so many people who were injured through no fault of their own that it was hard to understand anyone deliberately pursuing such a potentially dangerous career.

  “I was,” he said tightly, “but not anymore. I’m committed to the ranch. And to Vicki’s recovery.”

  The patient. Here was comfortable ground. In her other interviews, she’d had to talk about herself, which made her prickly. It was easier to sound competent and professional while discussing the person she’d be treating.

  She asked about the girl’s age—nineteen was older than she’d expected—and injuries. There was a pause before Jarrett began describing them. When he started talking again, the words came in an uncomfortable rush, as if he wanted to get through the list as quickly as possible. His younger sister was healing from several injuries, including a broken wrist, but the major issue was that her pelvis had been crushed in the accident.

  Sierra winced. It was the kind of pity she’d never show in front of a patient because pity made a person feel weak. But the young woman had a rough time ahead of her.

  “You obviously know your field well,” Jarrett said after they’d spent a few minutes discussing medical specifics. Yet he sounded more grim than impressed. Wasn’t her expertise a good thing? “To tell you the truth, Ms. Bailey, you may be overqualified. We were thinking more in terms of a semiretired therapist or a home health care assistant who might not mind some light housekeeping and making sure Vicki gets dinner if I’m working past sundown. I don’t know if Daniel mentioned salary, but—”

  “He did.” Calling that sum a salary was a generous overstatement. “It’s below what I would normally consider, but honestly, I’m taking some time off to decide between several future options.” Yeah, like whether to waitress at a steak house or bartend at a West End nightclub. “This gives me time to carefully evaluate my choices.” Well done, Bailey. She’d managed to make herself sound methodical, not desperate.

  “So you’re all right with our terms?”

  “Well, I won’t argue if you decide after a week that I deserve a raise, but what you’re offering is at least worth my driving to Cupid’s Bow for a face-to-face meeting.”

  “That’s fantastic.” It was the happiest he’d sounded during their entire conversation, and it highlighted how dour his mood had been—from his tense tone when he’d answered to his obvious discomfort discussing his sister’s accident to his doubt Sierra would deem the job worth it. Jarrett Ross clearly wasn’t the president of the Cupid’s Bow Optimists Club. “I just wish my parents hadn’t already booked their flight. They’re leaving in two days, so unless you can be here tomorrow, they won’t be available to sit in on the interview.”

  “Sorry, tomorrow’s full.” Since she hadn’t known where and when she’d be working again, she’d scheduled a number of personal appointments, taking advantage of the time left before her health and dental insurance ran out. “I can manage the next day, though.”

  They agreed on a time, and he asked for her email address so he could send her directions. “GPS or internet maps will get you most of the way, but we’re a bit off the beaten path.”

  Which didn’t bolster her enthusiasm for making a temporary home in Cupid’s Bow.

  Then again, if the town could evade the reach of an orbiting satellite system, she should easily be outside the meddling reach of Muriel Bailey. Ever since Sierra’s last relationship ended, her mother, undaunted by living three and a half hours away, had tried arranging meetings between Sierra and Dallas’s most eligible bachelors. The good news about a town the size of Cupid’s Bow was that there couldn’t be many men who met her mother’s exacting standards.

  So when she ended her call with Jarrett by saying “I look forward to meeting you,” she very nearly meant it.

  Chapter Three

  “Knock, knock,” Jarrett said tentatively, unsure of his welcome as he stood in the doorway of his sister’s room. His voice seemed to echo unnaturally. The house had been damned quiet in the hours since their parents had left at the crack of dawn. According to his mother, Vicki had barely said a word when they came into her room to exchange goodbyes. Did she feel like the Rosses were abandoning her?

  His mother was excited that Jarrett was interviewing another candidate this afternoon. Until Sierra had called, the family had decided to offer the position to local retired nurse Lucy Aldridge, a grandmother of five. Lucy was kind, if a bit absentminded, but she was also more than three times Vicki’s age. Anne Ross had worried Vicki wouldn’t relate to her. Jarrett didn’t know specifically how old Sierra Bailey was, but judging from the credentials she’d emailed, she’d been out of med school for only a couple of years. And she certainly hadn’t sounded like a woman approaching seventy. When they’d spoken, Sierra had sounded... Feisty was the word that sprang to mind.

  “Did you need something?” Vicki asked, her voice empty of inflection. Her wheelchair was pulled up to her desk, and he couldn’t tell if she was looking at her laptop or simply staring out the window. This used to be a guest suite, but since it was on the first floor, they’d relocated Vicki after the accident. All the essentials were here, but she’d said not to bother with miscellaneous belongings, like the posters that hung on her walls upstairs. Or the gleaming softball trophies that sent blades of guilt through him whenever he saw them.

  Her blond hair hung crookedly in a limp ponytail. She was able to shower by herself in the remodeled bathroom, but she only bothered to brush her hair when her mother said something about it. And the last time she’d applied makeup was when her boyfriend, Aaron, had visited weeks ago.

  “I just wanted to remind you that Sierra should be here in an hour or so.” When Vicki didn’t respond, he prompted, “Sierra Bailey, the potential therapist. I thought you might like to meet her.”

  She hadn’t sat in on any of the interviews, dismissing it as unnecessary. All of the candidates had been local, which meant she’d met them all at least in passing. Anne hadn’t pushed the issue, since she’d already had her hands full convincing Gavin to leave the ranch. Jarrett was surprised by his sister’s apathy. Vicki had always been opinionated. Surely she wanted to have a say in who was chosen to be her companion?

  “I’ll pass,” she said. “I was about to take a nap. I’m exhausted.”

  From all the energy it took to stare out the window? Don’t be an ass. You don’t know anything about the effort it takes her to perform
daily tasks you take for granted. Besides, fatigue wasn’t always physical.

  He attempted a compromise. “If she seems like a good fit for the job, do you want me to wake you up before she leaves? Then you could—”

  “No.” She shot a glance over her shoulder. It was jarring how her dark eyes flashed with so much emotion while her clipped words held none at all. “Makes no difference to me who pushes my wheelchair.”

  Nobody pushed the chair. They’d rented an electric one to make her as self-sufficient as possible. “Vicki—”

  “I don’t care who you hire, just make it clear she’s not my babysitter. And anytime Aaron visits, we want our privacy.”

  He clenched his jaw, conflicted about his little sister’s “alone time” with her boyfriend. Hypocrite. Like you were celibate at nineteen? Hell no. He’d always been ready and willing to hit the sheets with a pretty lady—a character trait he deeply regretted. If he’d had any self-discipline, Vicki wouldn’t be in the wheelchair. Or in this room. She’d be at college with Aaron and her friends.

  “Close the door on your way out,” she said woodenly.

  “Okay.” As conversations went, he couldn’t call this one a rousing success. On the other hand, it was the most sentences she’d spoken to him at one time all month. Maybe his mother was right about his parents’ trip forcing Vicki to deal with him. Jarrett just wished his sister would let loose and scream at him. Call him an irresponsible ass. Maybe even hurl something at him with that pitcher’s arm of hers. She’d broken her left wrist, but her right was undamaged.

  He went to the kitchen, where he pulled a casserole from the freezer for its two hours in the oven and brewed iced tea for his expected guest. He’d briefly spoken to Daniel Baron this week about Sierra. The man sang her praises. Daniel had worked with her after the bull-riding injury that made him quit rodeo for good, not that he sounded disappointed about his new lifestyle. He was happily married in San Antonio with twin toddlers. If Sierra was under fifty and even half as promising as Daniel made her sound, she had a job.