Free Once Upon a Cowboy by Maggie McGinnis Page A

time.
    “Well, Hayley’s turning out to be the anti-bridezilla. Here I am, out here in Montana early to help, but she doesn’t need me for anything.” She looked around, pretending nonchalance. “Any chance
you
need help with anything this afternoon?”
    “By
anything,
I’ll assume you mean something that would involve you, a trail, and a horse?”
    She nodded, smiling. “Have anything like that on the list? Because if you do, I’m totally your girl.”
    “How do you feel about kids?”
    Jess jumped.
What
? “Um, depends on the context?”
    He laughed, pointing through the window toward the main lodge. “Ten kids will be running down that hill in less than a minute.Don’t suppose you’d want to help me with them?”
    Kids? Oh, boy.
    “Um, sure?”
    “You say that with the enthusiasm of someone who just volunteered to saw off her own arm.”
    Jess laughed uneasily. “Sorry. I guess I assumed you guys had counselors or something for the kids.”
    “Nope. I’m a jack-of-all-ages, Jess. I take on the elderly, the infirm, the kids—and everything in between.”
    “Does this meanyou guys have finally branched out beyond the desperate singles market?”
    “Careful. You were one of them a couple of summers ago.”
    She laughed. “Single, maybe. Certainly not desperate.”
    “Of course. Didn’t mean to imply that.”
    Jess leaned against the metal desk that was shoved against one wall. “I’m curious to see how you handle the elderly and kid populations. So far I’ve only seen your single-womenshtick.”
    He grinned. “Eh, it’s all bravado. Elderly women scare the crap out of me, and kids? You just gotta pretend you know what you’re doing, or they walk all over you in two seconds flat. This confidence? It’s all just an act.”
    “Right.”
    “So, what do you think?” He pointed to the row of kid-sized helmets. “Want to help me wear out some munchkins?”
    “Depends. Do they bite?”
    “Periodically.”
    Jess laughed. “What’s on the agenda?”
    “Scavenger hunt.” Cole wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “Since I know how much you love those.”
    “As long as no one pilfers my map and sends me on an eight-mile detour, I’m fine with scavenger hunts.”
    “There will be no pilfering. Or detours.” He raised his eyebrows again. “Unless you maybe want to take a detour with a cowboy.”
    “Oh! Do you have one here?”
    He shook his head, smiling. “Careful, cowgirl. I could give you a bad map. So do you want to help? Or not?”
    Jess weighed the benefit of spending the next couple of hours with Cole against the cost of having to do so with ten children in tow. In the end, the benefit won out, but she was ashamed to admit it was a close one.
    “All right,” she finally said. “I’m game. Is it a competition?”
    He raisedhis eyebrows. “Got a monster competitive streak under that Zen-yoga exterior?”
    “Maybe?”
    “Okay, competition it is. You take half the kids and I’ll take the other half. Ma hid the stuff this morning. First team back with everything on the list wins.”
    “What will we win?”
    The smile on his face got suddenly serious as his eyes landed squarely on hers, just long enough to send heated arcs throughher midsection. But she’d barely registered the feeling before he winked and clapped on his hat.
    “Pick your team wisely, cowgirl.”

Chapter 8
    Thirty seconds later, a couple of squeals announced the first two girls racing toward the stables. Jess cringed. “And here they are.”
    Cole let out a practiced sigh. “Ready or not?”
    Jess watched the kids careening down the hill. “Just a quick question before we head out there? Exactly how hard
is
it to wear them out?”
    “Really hard.” He winked. “Hope you had your Wheaties this morning.”
    Jess watched as he strode out into the corral, trying to keep her eyes above his waist, but not quite succeeding. She tried to tell herself it was her years of studying the human body as a yoga instructor