"What's going on?" There was concern in Bert's voice.

Chanel sighed. "I know him. Well, I don't know him, know him, but he's from Doumit."

"Uh huh."

"It's Maddox Warren," Chanel said quickly before she changed her mind and hung up on her friend.

"What?" Bert shrieked into the phone causing Chanel to jerk it away from her ear.

"I know, right? You can't be any more shocked than me."

"What's Maddox Warren, football hottie and stud man doing at your ranch?"

"Learning how to drive a tractor."

"You're going to have to send me proof. E-mail me a picture or something."

"Bert, he doesn't belong here. He got his Miata stuck in a washed out spot in the road. Who drives a Miata into the woods?"

Bert's cackling laugh rolled through the phone. Chanel sat and waited for her friend to calm down. She knew she was wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing her mascara if she hadn't removed it yet for the night. Finally, Bert sniffed and said. "Sorry, hon, but when a Miata is all you have..."

"He doesn't know how to do anything, and he doesn't want to learn. He's a conceited p.r.i.c.k. Plus, Dad plans on me babysitting him all summer."

"There are worse things in life than being out in the middle of nowhere with one of the hottest guys in the state. Chanel..."

Chanel braced herself for the words she knew were coming.

"You need to get laid this summer. You're so uptight, you can't even see what the universe just dumped in your lap. I say you take him for a ride in that tractor."

Tingles made their way through Chanel's body as she remembered tumbling into Maddox's lap that morning-his smell, his arm muscles bulging below his t-shirt sleeve.

"Chanel? You there?"

"Um, yeah, sorry," Chanel replied.

"You were thinking about it, weren't you?"

Chanel gritted her teeth. Sometimes she hated that Bert knew her so well. "You have to work in the morning. I better let you go."

"Look at you running from the idea. You're attracted to him. Go with it. I plan to get some this summer too. It's not a crime."

Chanel smiled and rolled her eyes. "Good night, Bert."

"Goodnight. And I'm serious about the picture. See if you can get one with his shirt off." Chanel ended the call when Bert started cackling again.

Maddox heard Chanel's voice drifting from around the back of the house as he walked up the driveway. He hated having to see her again after their argument that morning, but he needed to send an email to his parents. He was still kicking himself for getting distracted by Lila and forgetting to buy a phone card when Mitch took him to town. Against his better judgment, he skipped knocking on the front door and cut through the yard to the back deck. He found Chanel reclining in a wooden chair, her slippered feet propped up on the porch rail. She looked thoughtful as she gazed out over the horses grazing in the field. The only light on the deck was what streamed from inside the house.

"Hey," Maddox said as he mounted the steps.

Chanel jumped to her feet dropping the phone she'd been holding.

"Sorry to scare you."

"You're pretty stealthy for a big guy," she said placing a hand over her heart.

"So, um, I'm guessing you have Internet up here. I need to email my parents." The request was blunt, not at all what he should have said. That was going to tick her off. Almost immediately, the softness left her face, and she stood straighter.

"Didn't you get a phone card while you were in town?"

"Slipped my mind. So, can I use your computer, or not?" He was dying to turn around and return to the bunkhouse, but she'd already outmaneuvered him that morning. It wasn't going to happen again.

The sliding gla.s.s door slid open and Mitch stepped onto the deck. "Hey, Maddox. I figured you'd be gettin' some shuteye. We've got another early morning tomorrow."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'll be on time, don't worry. I was wondering if I could use your computer to email my parents."

Mitch smiled and smacked him on the back. "Sure, come on in. Feel free to come by anytime you need to use it."

Victory pulsed through Maddox's veins as he followed Mitch into the house. He couldn't resist a glance back at Chanel. Sure enough, she was seething on the deck. As long as he kept Mitch happy, he could keep her on her toes.

Mitch led him through the open living room and kitchen and down a hall lined with landscape photographs. Before Maddox could ask who had taken them, Mitch stepped into a cluttered office.

"Ignore the mess. Take your time," Mitch said and headed back out again.

Large aerial maps covered two of the walls, a bookshelf and whiteboard dominated a third, and a huge window took up the fourth. Paperwork was scattered across the heavy wood desk along with what looked like cow catalogs. You could order cattle from catalogs? The idea amused Maddox, and a smile played on his lips as he sat down in the well-worn rolling leather chair. Impressed with the large flat screen monitor, Maddox never would have pinned Mitch for a tech savvy guy. He clicked the Internet icon and while it loaded, noticed a couple of dirty coffee mugs on the desk near an eight by ten picture frame. Maddox leaned closer and studied the woman and the girl in the photo. It was clear the girl was Chanel. She was probably around second or third grade. The woman looked more like Chanel now right down to the dimples. Both of their hair was streaked from the summer sun. Where was she now? A wise person would have run screaming from this place.

He entered his parents' email addresses into the to line and keyed a couple of quick sentences saying he'd arrived safely, the people were very nice, and he'd begun work in the hayfields. It wasn't worth going into detail with them. They were both caught up in their own lives and wouldn't spare the time to do more than take a quick glance to make sure he was still alive. Though the hayfield part might give them pause, as they would envision him doing manual labor like the immigrants all around them in Southern California. But then they would rea.s.sure themselves that as long as he was healthy and still eligible to play, that was what really mattered. His football career made them look good. He'd be shocked if one of them responded. Yet, if he hadn't reported in, they would have had a conniption.

Leaving the email window open, Maddox opened a second and brought up social media to see what the outside world was up to. His newsfeed was choked with pictures of his friends stretched out on the sand or engaged in beach volleyball games. Several of his favorite lady friends had private messaged him, asking why he hadn't been answering their texts and wondered when they could hook up. He sighed and closed the website. It was too depressing to see what everybody else was doing, and there was no way he was going to tell those girls where he was. It was better to just play aloof right now and get back with them when school started. They'd forgive him; they always did.

Before he logged off, Maddox decided to send a note to his buddy Hollace. Maddox knew his friend would give him proper pity for being stuck in the sticks with a bunch of b.u.mpkins. His eyes roamed to the picture of Chanel and her mother. She was not a b.u.mpkin. Chanel was something else. A b.i.t.c.h, for sure, but something else niggled at him too. He could tell Hollace about the "farmer's daughter," which would spur some hilarious comebacks and provide a thread for them to banter on for the duration of summer, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. After nixing that topic, Maddox realized he had nothing to say after all. How could he admit to beaching his car and almost seriously injuring a girl when he dumped her on the dashboard of a tractor because a coyote startled him? Oh, and don't forget the frying pan alarm clock. Aside from meeting Lila, the last three days had been one humiliation after another. Trashing the email, Maddox closed down the Internet and switched off the monitor.

The house was quiet when he emerged from the office. Maddox spotted Mitch and Chanel still out on the deck. Feeling sorry for himself, he turned and slipped out the front door.

CHAPTER SIX.

Cattle spilled over the hill, and Chanel's heartbeat quickened. Watching horses gallop through a field was her favorite sight, but this was a close second. Mother cows calling to their calves, and the little ones bawling back created hundreds of voices raised in chaos. Cowboys yipped, and dogs barked as the crew funneled the herd into an oversized log corral.

A calf tried to break away, but Chanel spotted it and called out to Soda, "Left circle." The black and white dog zipped around the calf and neatly tucked it back into the swarm of bovine bodies.

The dust would choke most people, but Chanel inhaled deeply the smell of manure, sagebrush, and dirt. Excitement zipped through her as she fingered the rope tied to her saddle. The night before she'd thrown a few loops around a roping dummy to warm up her shoulder. It'd been a year since she'd attempted to catch anything, and she knew the guys would be ready to give her a hard time if she was off today.

Jerry rattled the metal gate into place behind Fritz, David, and Mitch. They would begin sorting the grown cows and bulls out of the pen, leaving behind the calves to be branded and vaccinated.

Chanel led Vivi, her palomino mare, to a nearby tree and tied the lead rope to a branch. The sound of a motor, just audible above the mob of irritated cattle, made her peek over Vivi's back. Christine's red pickup bounced along the faded tracks of an ancient road. Her aunt pulled the truck into a shady spot under a couple of pine trees across the clearing from Vivi and Chanel. Maddox jumped out of the cab with Jessi close behind him.

"We'll find out just how good he is at tackling things," Chanel murmured, and the mare switched her white tale in response.

Chanel crossed the clearing to help unload the truck while the guys continued to sort the cattle. It would be a little bit before they got everything situated, so the branding could begin.

"Maddox, can you lift that barbeque out of the truck for me?" Christine asked, coming around the pickup. "Hey, Chanel. How was the gather?"

Chanel and the rest of the crew had set out at five o'clock that morning to round up the cattle for the branding. "Good. I think we got a fairly clean sweep. Hopefully, the stragglers will bring themselves in before we break camp tomorrow." Every year the Double O set up camp on Jersey Flat for two days of working cattle. It was an adventure Chanel had loved since she was little. From the time she was five, she had a job in the middle of the action. She started carrying the bucket to catch the castrated t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, and moved up to painting tar over the area to deter flies. By the time she was in middle school, she was giving shots and inserting fly tags, but she was practicing her roping skills on the sidelines. In high school she was heading, heeling, and taking turns on the ground crew, wrestling the struggling calves to the ground.

Maddox eased the heavy barbeque off the tailgate of the pickup, and Jessi slithered up to his side. Tied in a knot in the front, her tank top was revealing a good chunk of her belly.

"So, anyway, yeah, it's gorgeous out here at night. I love taking the horses out for a ride in the dark," the girl said twirling a finger in her long ponytail.

Smashing her lips into a thin line, Chanel stalked over to her cousin. With a flick of her wrist she freed the knot in the stretchy fabric and tugged it over Jessi's flat tummy.

"Hey!" Jessi said grabbing the spot.

"Go find something to do."

Jessi rolled her eyes and stomped off toward the corral.

"You're kind of hard on her," Maddox said.

"Really. So I should continue to let my seventeen-year-old cousin pitch herself at you? I suppose you just see her as easy pickings."

"No, actually she drives me kinda nuts, but I just ignore her. She's young and trying stuff out. Whatever. She's a good kid. I have an older cousin, played for Arizona. I thought he was so cool, but he always treated me like a baby. He wasn't that much older than me. It was demoralizing."

Chanel laughed. It p.i.s.sed her off when Maddox sounded like the adult in the conversation. "That's an awfully big word, Jockstrap."

Maddox stepped toward her, leaned down until they were nose to nose. His voice was low but filled with venom. "What's your problem? You don't know everything about everything, so back the h.e.l.l off. I'm not interested in high school girls. Give me a little credit."

Christine rounded the truck and reached into the bed for a large cooler. "I talked to Craig and Bea just before we left. They're driving in and bringing their boys. They'll get a kick out of working with Maddox." She paused and took in the scene. "Did I interrupt something?"

"Nope," Chanel replied, and before she could say anything more, the braying of a mule erupted nearby. "Sounds like Theo's here."

A black mule trotted across the flat. An older man rode straight in his saddle with a slightly squished cowboy hat on his head.

"Is he riding a donkey?"

Chanel laughed, her bad mood melting at the sight of her old friend. "A mule. The father is a donkey, the mother a horse. That's Theo Sansberg. He's ridden a mule ever since I've known him, says they're smoother and safer on rough terrain than horses. He even roped from a mule, back when he could still throw a loop."

Theo and his mule trundled up to the group. "Sh.e.l.lie, you're back!" Theo was the only person allowed to call Chanel Sh.e.l.lie. He'd misp.r.o.nounced her name the first time he met her as a baby, and the nickname stuck. The old man slid down from the mule's back, making a slow landing. Then patted its neck. "Good girl, Matilda."

Theo's movements were stiffer than the previous summer. Chanel came forward to meet him with a hug. "You look great, Sh.e.l.lie," he said into her ear. Chanel squeezed him a little harder. Theo had been like a grandfather to Chanel and her cousins. His wife, Janet, had died young, before they had children. He continued to live on his remote homestead with a few head of cattle, his mules, and what were left of his dogs.

"You too, Theo," Chanel said. She stepped back and took in the lined face with the twinkling pale blue eyes shaded by his dirty straw cowboy hat. "You ready to make some steers out there?" Theo had been in charge of castrating the young bulls since he'd retired his rope. She hoped he could still maneuver quick enough to dodge people, horses, and calves in the tight quarters of the corral.

The old man winked at her. "Don't you know it. I'm not stuck in a rockin' chair yet." Then he noticed Maddox. "Well, who's this strapping young man? He belong to you, Sh.e.l.lie?"

Chanel choked on her own spit. Before she could recover, Maddox had his hand extended to Theo. "Maddox Warren. I'm working for Mitch this summer."

The men shook hands, and Theo said, "You look like you could throw a calf with one hand tied behind your back."

A confused look crossed Maddox's face, and Chanel took advantage of his pause. "Maddox comes from the city, Theo. He's in for a lot of surprises today."

A shout came from the corral. "Heads up! Bull fight!"

Chanel looked over to see men on horseback dodging two giant animals heads pressed together, legs churning, oblivious to everything around them. They crashed into the side of the corral. The logs emitted a cracking sound but held firm. Jerry scrambled up and over the fence.

"What the h.e.l.l?" Maddox murmured.

"Happens just about every time two or more bulls are crammed together in a small s.p.a.ce surrounded by cows in heat," Chanel said, her eyes never leaving the corral. Bull fights could be dangerous if a person wasn't paying attention.

"How do you make them stop?"

Chanel looked over at him, his blond brows drawn together. "You don't. They'll get bored and quit soon."

A moment later with snot and spit flying, a silent victor was decided. The bulls separated and went their separate ways. Jerry hopped down from the fence and opened the metal gate to let out the one closest. The sorting went quickly after that, and as the last few cows trotted out of the corral, leaving only bawling calves, another pickup truck pulled into the clearing. The Wilkins family piled out. Chanel greeted Bea, Craig, and their twin teenage boys, Brad and Ryan, with hugs.

"Everyone, this is Maddox Warren. Dad brought him on as an extra set of hands this summer," Chanel said gesturing toward the blond giant standing beside her.

Brad and Ryan's identical faces lit up as recognition hit.

"You outmaneuvered the Cleo State defense for three touchdowns last fall," Ryan said. Chanel noticed the young man trying to keep his voice steady.

Brad held out a hand. "Great to meet ya. We play varsity at Clifford's Bend High. I'm quarterback, and Ryan is a receiver. We're hoping to get scholarships somewhere when we graduate next spring."

Ryan took his turn pumping Maddox's hand. "Yeah, but it's not easy when you're at such a small school. No one notices."

"You just gotta be in the right place at the right time," Maddox said, his smile broad and his chest expanding like Christine's c.o.c.ky rooster. His canned media answer made Chanel blink hard to avoid rolling her eyes.

A loud engine roared to life causing Maddox to jump and spin around looking for the source of the unexpected noise. Her father had fired up the generator to power the branding irons. It was time to get started.

The twins gave Maddox friendly slaps on the back and headed toward the corral to help set up the workstations. Metal stakes with rope and black tubing needed to be driven into the ground, so the calves could be stretched into position. Jessi was already filling syringes for the first round of shots. Another wave of excitement rippled through Chanel, and she turned to fetch Vivi. She couldn't wait to get in there and start swinging her rope.

Maddox caught her by the elbow. When Chanel turned, she saw his grin from earlier was gone and had been replaced with a wide-eyed stare. "What do I do?"

"What you do best," Chanel said, a grin taking over her lips. His insecurity had her feeling a little ornery. "Those calves are the defensive line, and it's your job to take them down."

Maddox ran a hand through his hair, looking agitated. Chanel pulled an extra hairband from her wrist. "And pull back that hair. No helmets out here to keep it out of the way." She'd woven hers into a tight French braid before heading to the barn that morning and covered it with a baseball cap to keep the sun out of her eyes.

"My position doesn't really take down a lot of guys. If I don't have the ball, I protect the quarterback-no tackling." Maddox shrugged, looking sheepish as he twirled the hair tie between his fingers.

A quick stab of embarra.s.sment shot through Chanel at her football ignorance, but she willed it not to show on her face. After a beat, she said, "Watch Ryan and Brad for a while. They can teach you everything you need to know. And watch out for the horses and cords. Things are going to move fast in there, and you don't want to trip or get knocked over."

"I'm supposed to take orders from those kids?" Maddox asked as he raked the top half of his hair back into a tail. It hadn't taken long for his bad att.i.tude to return.