Cowboy Temptation (Dalton Boys Book 8) Read online

  He slammed the truck into park and jumped out, his boots eating up the gravel between him and the door. When he burst in, nobody took much notice, but when he strode up to the man who had his arm around Easton’s girl, they sure as hell did.

  “Get your hands off her,” he demanded.

  Katie whirled, her face going from peaches and cream to sickly white in the matter of a heartbeat. She edged out of Skeeter’s embrace. “Now wait a minute, Easton.”

  “Who the hell’s this?” Skeeter asked with a sort of nonchalance that said he really didn’t give a damn because he knew his girl would never stray.

  “I’m the guy she slept with two nights ago.” Easton stared over Katie’s head at him.

  Skeeter’s demeanor changed in a blink and he pushed Katie aside to step into Easton’s space.

  “Go on and get in my face. Fine by me. I’ve got long arms and could knock your teeth out from here but why work harder if I don’t have to?” Easton drawled.

  “Easton, no.”

  But it was too late—he took a swing and connected with a brutal clash of knuckles to Skeeter’s midsection. Skeeter crumpled over briefly and came back double, but Easton ducked the blow.

  At least the first time.

  Stars rattled around inside his head as the next punch rocked him.

  “Stop! Gavin, do something!”

  A smash sounded as Gavin circled the bar with a ball bat and struck a chair, splintering the back. The noise didn’t faze Easton—nothing did if he had his sights on a target.

  “Somebody call his brother!”

  Easton wanted to laugh—Justus wasn’t likely to break up the fight, not when he could get some boxing practice in too. Daltons stuck together and asked questions later.

  Katie kept throwing herself into the middle of the fight, but Skeeter swiped an arm out to shove her away, which only made Easton see red all over again. Then Easton would push her aside and Skeeter would come at him harder.

  The whole bar was on its feet, gathered to watch. Easton’s cheekbone was cut and the inside of his cheek as well where it’d been smashed against his teeth. Only the whooping noise of the sheriff’s siren broke into his haze of fury, but he still couldn’t stop throwing punches until two cops restrained him.

  Cuffed him and stuffed him, and his last sight of the bar was of Katie standing there over her boyfriend, tears running down her face.

  That was the first night Easton had ever spent in jail. And the last he’d ever fight over a woman who didn’t want him.

  * * * * *

  Easton’s muscles burned with the hard work he loved. The oil rig was exactly what he needed right now—coarse men and back-breaking labor and no sign of the local bar he’d warmed a stool at for far too long.

  “Dalton!” The crew leader waved at him to come over.

  Easton dropped what he was doing and crossed the work site to his boss. They’d been friends for what, three years now? Yet the man had no idea of Easton’s struggles the past week. At least the charges had been dropped.

  “Problem with the drilling equipment, Dalton,” he said as he neared.

  Easton stared at him. “Somethin’ I worked on?”

  “Yeah. Seems like some bolts got turned around when it was put back together and now it’s froze up.”

  Easton swallowed hard. His head wasn’t on straight when he arrived but he always did his job right. Didn’t he? He’d never been tested before now and a fuck-up like this could cost the company thousands—or more.

  “I’ll take a look at it now,” he said.

  “Jenson’s already on it. Been noticin’ that your mind is elsewhere this past week. What the hell’s going on?”

  Shit, he’d never expected his emotions to bleed through to his work. He’d been throwing himself into everything, glad for the distraction from the pain he was feeling after a year-long fantasy coming true, only to be crushed under the wheel of a mud-caked truck driven by a guy named Skeeter.

  Easton rubbed a hand over his jaw, his beard in full growth. “I’m good, boss. I got this.”

  His crew leader eyed him. Maybe those three years of friendship counted for nothing when you cost the company time and money. There wasn’t room for error on a setup like this one. Working twelve-hour shifts on a platform where cranes and heavy equipment constantly swung overhead could cost anybody his life. Not to mention the highly combustible materials.

  His boss’s stare pierced him. “You sure? Because we can’t be here only in body, Dalton. This job’s mind, body and spirit, heart and soul and all the sinew you got to pull your weight around here. We can’t have bolts in the wrong places because what if that equipment had frozen while it was up there?” He pointed upward at the tower of metal rising like a steeple into the big Texas sky.

  “I got it,” Easton repeated. Pissed at himself and feeling a rising boil of anger that he’d let a woman get the best of him. “I’m focused now.”

  “But you weren’t when you came on shift a week ago.”

  Easton wouldn’t own up to that either. He scrubbed his jaw again. An ache had begun from clenching it so hard.

  “I’m giving you the month off, Dalton. Get your things. Austin will drive you back to camp so you can get your truck.”

  He stared at his boss. “What?”

  “You heard me. I can’t have a walking bag of clothes on this site. I need to pump a thousand barrels a day off this land.”

  “But you’ll be shorthanded. Who will—”

  “Already got Edgar on the way.” For the first time, his boss looked sorry to be doing this. He grabbed Easton’s shoulder. “Look, take the month, get your head on straight. I don’t know what the hell happened, but I can’t have errors and you of all people know that.”

  He pushed out a breath he’d been holding till it burned his lungs. “I do.”

  “Look, it ain’t personal, buddy. You and me hit it off on day one and I’ll always have your back. Which is why I’m giving you time off. Any more mistakes and you won’t have a job.”

  Damn. He was right.

  “Okay. I’ll be back in a month and you’ll never know there was a problem.”

  He clapped Easton on the back. “Good. Enjoy your break. Not peeling your eyes open at five a.m. for your shift will sure be a change of pace, won’t it?”

  “Yeah.” Easton didn’t feel a bit relieved at the thought he’d get more sleep. He’d also have more time to think about Katie and what an idiot he’d been. Over the course of a week—and in that grungy jail cell too—he’d had a lot of time to think on just how hung-up he’d been on Katie. He’d been so sure she was meant for him that he had blinded himself to what was really going on.

  That she was just a bartender smiling for tips. Like his brothers had said.

  Dammit, they were right and that was going to burn when he saw them again. By now the whole family would have heard about his arrest through the rumor mill of their small town. He’d left for the rig without even saying goodbye to his momma.

  Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go home after all.

  He caught that ride with Austin to camp and kicked aside a dozen empty energy drink cans littering the floor around his bunk to grab his bag and stuff it full of dirty, sweat-stiff clothes.

  The drive home gave him more time to think, and he just hoped to hell his family didn’t ride him for what had gone on that night in the bar. The cut on his cheekbone was scabbed over and Easton’s feelings were also. He just wanted to forget it.

  When he got there, Momma was in the living room watching her soaps and she hopped up in surprise to see him standing there, holding his bag like a kid who got kicked out of camp.

  “Easton! You’re home early. Are you hurt?” She looked him over as she always did when he came home.

  “Nah, just…” Did he admit he’d screwed up and been given a month off? “Just got some time off is all. Where’s Pops?”

  “He and Justus are at auction.”

  “And the
girls?” His pain-in-the-ass sisters were in various stages of education, one earning a degree in biology, one studying nursing and the other a senior in high school. He hoped they were all out of the house right now because he couldn’t deal with them asking questions.

  “At classes or work, who knows,” his mother said. Something happened on TV that had her sinking back to her recliner. “Grab yourself a sandwich if you’re hungry. I’m just going to finish my show.”

  In seconds she was so engrossed that he could have detonated a bomb by her chair and she wouldn’t have moved. He carried his bag to the laundry room and didn’t bother dumping it out. He’d deal with the dirty clothes later.

  When the phone rang in the kitchen, he walked in and picked it up. “Daltons.”

  A beat of silence on the other line and then his brother Ford’s voice filled his ear. “Easton? Thought you were on the job this week.”

  “Thought wrong.”

  “Oh.”

  “Why are you calling? Everything okay?”

  “Yep. I was hoping to talk to Justus. He around?”

  “Momma says he and Pops went to the auction.”

  “What the hell can they be buying there? We don’t have land enough for more animals.”

  “Maybe he’s sellin’.”

  Ford chuckled. “Not likely. Anyway, I wanted to know if Justus could take some time to come up to Paradise Valley.”

  Easton felt a leap of interest. “For what?”

  “Susannah has a lot of clients in her horse therapy program and she wants to do something nice for the kids. She wants to make a maze for Halloween.”

  Lizard Lilah in her sci-fi costume popped into Easton’s mind.

  “We’re too busy with the branding right now to spare much time, but I thought Justus might put in some hours up here.”

  “I’ll do it,” Easton said at once.

  Ford was quiet a minute. “Well, yeah, the offer’s there for you too.”

  “I’ll be up in the morning.”

  Ford was silent again. “Easton, what the hell happened at the bar that night?”

  He inwardly groaned. News traveled fast and all the way to Paradise Valley, apparently. He said, “Did some stupid stuff, learned some lessons. I’m over it now.”

  “Good. Then come up, but you can’t be mopin’ around like you have been for the past year over that bartender.”

  “I won’t.” He wanted to shut Ford up and get him off the phone at once.

  “See ya then, bro. And bring your shit-kickers. We need a cowboy, not a roughneck.”

  Easton laughed. “I’m pretty sure I can make my way around Paradise Valley, brother. I’ve never built a maze, but I’ll try my hand.”

  Right now, he’d take any job to stay busy and shake off the blows he’d been dealt these past two weeks.

  Chapter Two

  Stepping foot on the Daltons’ ranch in Paradise Valley had always infused Easton with a sense of coming home. The sprawling land, the low of the cattle and now the squeals of little kids spilling from the windows of the main house.

  Easton shouldered his duffel and rounded the truck, the corner of his lips tipped in a smile. He’d never thought of his mischievous cousins who were always getting in trouble siring their own offspring, but they had done their jobs full force. When Easton stepped into foyer, the high-pitched voices got louder. He dropped his bag and walked into the kitchen where all the activity was taking place.

  The big table was crammed on all four sides with Daltons of various shapes and sizes. And at the head sat his aunt and uncle, side by side and wearing matching grins as they watched all hell breaking loose on their sons.

  Easton chuckled, and Aunt Maggie looked up. Her eyes sparked and then she jumped to her feet. “Easton! We’re so glad you’ve come!” She crossed the kitchen to wrap her arms around him, smelling of baking and fresh laundry.

  He squeezed her gently and said, “I hope there’s an extra biscuit or two sitting around.”

  “Oh, more than that!” She swatted at him playfully. “Everyone, look who’s come.”

  The table grew more silent except for some kids chattering away and demanding homemade strawberry jam. A chair scraped back, and Easton’s own brother Ford got to his feet.

  “Good to see you, man.” He held out a hand, and Easton gripped it hard, pulling his brother into a hug.

  Ford pounded his back. “You got here just in time. You always did have a nose where food’s involved.”

  Aunt Maggie had a folding chair in hand and nudged his cousin aside to make room for it. Then she bustled over to get another place setting.

  As Easton made his way to the seat, he greeted his cousins Hank, Cash, Witt, Beck and Kade, along with nods and smiles for their wives. A little girl grabbed at his hand as he passed, and he smiled down at the tiny blonde who could only belong to Hank.

  He tugged on her blonde pigtail. “Hey there, Lacey. Gonna show me the baby animals later?” Last time he’d been here, he’d been helping to fight the wildfire that’d broken out. And Lacey had taken him from pen to pen to show him that the baby animals were all safe and sound.

  “Na,” she drawled in a girly form of her father. “I’ll show you where we keep the worm farm, though.”

  Easton chuckled. “From cute baby animals to worms. I’ve missed a lot, I guess.”

  As soon as his backside hit the folding chair, food was heaped onto his plate. His stomach groaned at the thought of all that good food. While on the job, he got what he got, which wasn’t much better than cheap cafeteria food. It fueled the body but didn’t do much for the palate.

  He tucked into the corn on the cob straight away, and when he finished off an ear, he looked up to find several family members giving him a stare.

  “You have to excuse Cousin Easton,” Ford said. “He’s used to eating like a pig with all those men on the oil rig.”

  With a grin, Easton grabbed his napkin and swiped his face, knowing some corn kernels had to be stuck in his beard. Why he hadn’t shaved before coming to the ranch was beyond him. He’d do that first thing in the morning.

  “Ford’s right,” he said. “We do eat like pigs. Without women and good company around, we pick our teeth, fart at the table and don’t bother with napkins hardly at all.”

  “Oh Easton,” Aunt Maggie chided with a glance at her grandchildren, who’d probably take his words as a challenge.

  “Each time a new cousin shows up at this table, he’s a bad influence on the young’uns and we spend a month straightening them out.” Hank’s wife sent a look at Ford, who only bit into his corn and when he lowered it, butter greased his chin. He didn’t even bother to wipe it away. “Still have some things to teach the kiddos. Look here, Jase.” He held up his ear of corn and bit into it, sending kernels and juices spraying.

  The kids giggled and tried it.

  Aunt Maggie covered her mouth with both hands, but the sparkle in her eyes told Easton that she was suppressing laughter. She’d seen it all over the years raising five boys and whatever cousins came to the ranch as well.

  Which reminded him. He looked around the table. “Where’s Case?”

  His cousin on the other branch of the family tree had settled in Paradise Valley as well.

  “Annabelle’s not feeling well so they stayed home,” Hank’s wife offered.

  “Hope everything’s okay,” Easton said.

  “Oh yes. Just some aches and pains that come with pregnancy,” Aunt Maggie ensured him.

  “That’s right. She’s got a bun in the oven. This family’s expanding faster than I can keep track of.” He took up his biscuit and slathered it with butter and jam until it was oozing.

  “Soon it will be your turn,” Aunt Maggie said.

  Easton paused with the biscuit midway to his mouth. Fat chance of him hooking up anytime soon. Far as he was concerned, he was keeping his distance from women until he figured out how to pick ’em. Clearly his radar for good women was defective, if Katie was anyt
hing to go by.

  Screw it—he was over it. He’d spent a year sweet on her and she’d crushed that with one stomp of her boot to his heart. But he was made of tougher stuff, and besides, he had a wonderful family to help this week. What he’d do with the rest of his month off work was another story.

  His taste buds exploded at the sweetness of the jam and it squeezed from the corner of his mouth and ran into his beard.

  Lacey shook with giggles. “Cousin Easton! Your mouth.”

  “My mouth?”

  She nodded, pigtails flying.

  “What’s wrong with it?” He squinted as if trying to look at his own face.

  All the kids laughed now, and near Ford, Jase scooped up some jam on his finger and painted it down his chin, to his mother’s horror. But Jase’s father Witt just ducked his head to hide his smile.

  “You’ve got jam,” the little girls chorused.

  He sent out his tongue to gather it but couldn’t reach, which had a bunch of kids doing the same.

  “Oh Lord help us mothers who are trying to instill some manners into our children,” Witt’s wife Shelby cried, turning her stare from her son’s messy antics.

  Easton finished his meal and then wiped off his mouth well, making sure the kids all saw him and copied. Then he thanked Aunt Maggie and Uncle Ted for having him.

  It was going to be a good stay. If he could get over worrying about his job security and his stupidity over a pretty young bartender, that was.

  * * * * *

  After the meal was cleaned up and all the kids’ faces thoroughly washed so they didn’t draw flies, the whole family rode up to the site where the maze was to be built.

  Easton leaned on his truck, talking to Ford as the kids galloped around the field. “Good proximity to the dirt road. Nice and flat,” he said.

  “Yeah, Susannah’s so excited.” He looked to his wife, who was holding out a measuring tape to one of the cousin’s wives to begin laying out the design.

  “We’re actually going to measure this maze?” Easton asked.

  Ford chuckled. “Susannah is very methodical about everything she does. Thorough too. If she’s got it in mind to measure every foot of the maze, then she’s gonna. Key to a happy wife is going along with her on most ideas.”