Cowgirl Up! Read online

  Cowgirl Up!

  By Carolyn Anderson Jones

  CowgirlUp! is a fictional story. All of the characters who appear in this book and the events which take place are works of the imagination. Any similarity to real persons and actual events are purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright 2012 by Carolyn Anderson Jones

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States.

  First edition

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  In memory of “Red”,

  My beautiful horse that left

  Hoof prints on my heart,

  And “Charlie”,

  My smiling dog who left the

  Paw prints

  Native American legend tells about one lone coyote whose eerie cry at sunrise or sunset warns of an approaching death. Many tried to find this ghostly coyote, which became known as the “Coyote de la Muerte”, or Coyote of Death, but never succeeded. However, his spine-chilling cry can still be heard in areas of the west where coyotes roam free. And so his legend lives on ………

  Chapter 1

  DR. SAMANTHA KENDRICK, DVM, couldn’t believe her bad luck. In one night she’d run into the two men she despised the most in the whole world just because she was so addicted to romance novels she had to stop by the Barnes & Noble bookstore to pick up some new romance novels. Perish the thought that she could get through one night without something juicy to read.

  She frowned as she remembered seeing her old college sweetheart and ex-fiancé standing in the aisle smirking at her. Steve McBride was a rich, arrogant asshole and she’d have to had been brain dead to agree to marry him in the first place. Well, the old saying love was blind had some truth to it. In her case not only had she been blind, but absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt, freaking deaf, dumb and nuts. Fortunately, she’d come to her senses in time and broke off the engagement four years ago.

  She’d barely recovered from that encounter when minutes later she ran into Cheyenne Wells, an old classmate she’d appropriately termed “the creep” in first grade when she’d punched him in the nose for pulling her ponytail and calling her “Miss Baggy Pants.” He may have only been six years old, but he had some nerve calling her names on the first day of school. That altercation set the tone for their whole relationship throughout their school years, and as far as Samantha was concerned, it didn’t end after graduation.

  An involuntary shudder ran through Sam’s slender body as she thought about the whole disastrous evening. It had started out well enough, and she had to laugh when she thought about how her old friend, Ricky Montenegro, had scared the crap out of her when he rapped on her truck window seconds after she’d parked her big Chevy outside the bookstore.

  It was a cold night and had been spitting snow all day. Samantha had pulled into the parking lot at the Flatirons Crossing Mall in Broomfield, Colorado, and turned off the ignition to her diesel truck. The silence was overwhelming. She remembered how she’d grinned and started her truck again. She loved listening to that big diesel engine because it brought back so many happy memories of growing up on her family’s ranch. She turned the truck off, took the key out of the ignition and resisted the urge to do it again.

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Sam,” she had chided herself. “Get a grip!” She’d been sappy all day, but she knew why. That morning she had been called out to check on a newborn colt. Samantha’s heart had almost stopped when she saw him. The colt had the same coloring and markings as her beloved Sinbad, her ninth birthday present from her mom and dad. The beautiful black and white paint horse had been her best friend until his untimely death when she was sixteen.

  With her thoughts on Maggie Mae’s colt, Sam didn’t notice the man who approached her truck until the sharp raps on her window broke her concentration and sent her shrieking at the top of her lungs. She was still screaming when she turned and saw Ricky’s face smiling at her through the glass.

  “Damn you, Ricky! You scared the holy shit out of me!” She yelled as she opened the door and jumped out.

  Ricky was laughing as he backed away with his hands up.

  “I was just wondering if you were going to get out or if you were going to sit in there and talk to yourself all night.”

  “Yes, I’m getting out!” Sam slammed the door and stood in front of him. “And I was singing with the radio, not talking to myself.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  Sam pulled her fist back to give him a jab on the shoulder but he caught her arm before she could make contact. Suddenly they were eye to eye and thigh to thigh.

  Ricky was Puerto Rican and Samantha’s first love in high school. He was the first boy she dated and he was the first to give her a hickey, a French kiss and a few other firsts she was keeping secret. He was hot then and he was hot now. He was pure Puerto Rican eye candy. And he was married to one of her best friends.

  “You don’t want me to arrest you for assaulting an officer, do you?” Ricky asked her with a big toothy smile.

  Sam pulled away, grinning. “Okay, Ricky. I’ll go peacefully.”

  He sighed dramatically as he put his arm around her shoulder and walked her toward the mall. “Sam, Sam, I keep telling you that it’s Rick now, not Ricky. How can I be a bad-ass cop if you keep calling me Ricky?”

  “Sorry. I forgot.” But she made a mental note to keep calling him Ricky. Couldn’t let him off that easy.

  “So, where ya going? Barnes & Noble again? What does this make, four trips to the bookstore this week?”

  Sam turned and glared at him. “What are you doing? Stalking me?”

  Ricky stopped and rolled his eyes toward the Police Sub-station next to the bookstore.

  “It’s a little hard not to notice when I work the night shift right next door. What are you afraid of? That I’ll find out you like to read romance novels? Shit, Sallie reads them too. She sends me over to pick books up for her all the time. Hey, I tell you what. I’m on break so why don’t I help you find a good book and then we can go get a cup of coffee?”

  Now it was Sam’s turn to roll her eyes. “So, going into Barnes & Noble and buying romance novels doesn’t interfere with your bad-ass cop image?”

  “Nah. Besides, Sallie would kick my butt if I didn’t.
I’ve been in that romance section so much no one even notices me any more.”

  Sam grinned. “Well, okay, thanks. So, how are Sallie and the kids doing?”

  “They’re great,” he shook his head. “I don’t know how Sallie handles everything and still stays sane and beautiful, but she does. She’s amazing.”

  Sam looked at Ricky and smiled. She may have been Ricky’s first love, but Sallie Brown was his last. She and Sallie were on the pep squad together in high school and good friends so she wasn’t bitter. Okay, she was a little bitter, but she got over it. Eventually.

  They walked into the Barnes & Noble and headed toward the romance section. Ricky pulled a book out of a rack and handed it to her.

  “Sallie just read this one and it must have been a slam doozie. “Damn! She got all hot and steamy and had my clothes off before I could get through the door last night.”

  Sam put a hand up to stop him before he went on. “Too much information. And I don’t know if I can handle that much sex and sizzle. What’s the title?”

  Ricky turned the book over and read, “Sex and Sizzle on the High Seas.”

  Sam took the book out of his hand and put it back.

  “How about this one? I think Sallie liked it.”

  “Hmmmm, California Romance. That doesn’t sound too bad. I think I can handle this.”

  Sam and Ricky wandered up and down the aisles for a few minutes and then he headed toward another section of the store. Sam kept looking through the stacks of books but didn’t see anything that looked like a slam doozie to her. She was thinking about picking up Sex and Sizzle when she saw Ricky walking back with a big grin on his face and a book in his hand.

  “You ready for some coffee?” he asked.

  “Sure. What’d ya get?”

  “Something I thought Sallie would like.”

  He handed her the book.

  “Fifty Erotic Positions for Pleasure,” she read. “You dipshit, Ricky! This is a self-help book, not a romance novel!”

  “Hey! I’m a firm believer in self-improvement. How do you think I got to be such a bad-ass cop?”

  He reached over and pulled out “Sex and Sizzle” and handed it to her.

  “I saw you eyeing this again so you might as well get it. Otherwise you’ll be back tomorrow night.”

  He was right so she grabbed it out of his hand and they headed toward the coffee shop. They got two double cappuccinos and sat down at a table.

  Sam was barely settled in her chair when she looked up and that’s when she saw Steve standing over her. She jumped up and knocked the table over. Coffee flew everywhere and their books crashed to the floor. Sam hadn’t seen Steve since she broke off their engagement and the shock of seeing him at her side so unexpectedly had unnerved her.

  Ricky, not knowing what was going on, tried to get his gun out of his holster as he dodged hot coffee and flying books. Steve watched with amused interest at the whole fiasco while Samantha pulled herself together and motioned Ricky to put his gun away.

  “Hi Samantha,” Steve said in a smooth voice. He had a Wall Street Journal tucked under his arm and was dressed in an expensive suit. Of course he was. Steve was a partner in the law office of McBride & Sinclair, one of the most prestigious firms in Denver. His father’s.

  “Hi, Steve. How are you doing?” she asked as she sopped coffee off her jeans with a napkin.

  “You know this guy?” Ricky was pissed and Sam could tell he really wanted to shoot someone. Steve would have been a good start.

  “Yeah, I know this guy. It’s okay. He surprised me.”

  Ricky holstered his gun. “I’ll get us more coffee.” He gave Sam a curious look before he went back to the counter. Two shop employees rushed over and set the table upright and cleaned up the spilled coffee. Not a single drop landed on Steve.

  Steve watched Ricky a moment and then turned his beautiful blues on Samantha. “You look well, Samantha. You haven’t changed a bit.”

  Sam’s eyes narrowed as she looked him in the face. She knew his comment wasn’t meant to be a compliment, which was confirmed by the sneer on his lips as he looked her up and down. She suddenly felt very self-conscious in her beat up jeans and jacket with her blond hair hidden under an old baseball cap. Without thinking she pulled her cap off and let her thick hair loose and then ran her fingers through the long curly locks so they flowed freely down her back. An unconscious habit she did when she was frustrated or on the verge of losing her temper and she was close to both. She reined in her anger and looked up at Steve with what she hoped was cool indifference.

  “You look well, too. How are your parents?” She asked stiffly.

  “They’re fine. They’re in the south of France for the winter. They’ll be back in time for my wedding in June.”

  “Yes, I read about your engagement in the society section of the paper. Congratulations.” She was proud of her self-control for not adding “asshole” at the end.

  Ricky came back and handed Sam another cup of coffee but didn’t sit down. Instead he pulled his body up to his full 5’10” height and looked Steve up and down.

  “Steve, this is a good friend of mine, Rick Montenegro.” She remembered in time to drop they “y” from his name.

  Ricky nodded his head and folded his arms.

  “Nice to meet you,” Steve said. Then he glanced down at his Rolex. “I need to be going but it was nice to see you again. Good-bye Sam.”

  He slowly turned away and they watched as he left the building.

  Sam blew out a gusty breath of relief.

  “What was that all about?” Ricky asked. He picked their books up off the floor and sat down.

  “Steve and I were once engaged. I dumped him four years ago.”

  “No shit! You were engaged to that tight-ass snob?”

  “Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe, but when we were in college he was actually a nice, down-to-earth guy. He changed when he got into law school.”

  “Why’d ya break it off?”

  Sam took a big yoga breath and tried to calm down. “We were living together. I came home one night after a hard day at work and he pissed me off.” Sam took another yoga breath and mentally counted to ten before she let it out slowly.

  Ricky sipped his coffee and stared at her. “What the hell are you doing? Your eyes are glazing over.”

  “I’m practicing my yoga breathing so I can bring my stress level down.”

  “Well, you’re freakin’ me out. You look like you’re going into a trance or something. Stop doing that and tell me what he did to piss you off.”

  Sam gulped down some coffee and looked at Ricky.

  His mouth turned up in a smile. “This is going to be good, isn’t it?” he asked her.

  Sam grinned and watched his eyes twinkle in anticipation. “Yeah, this is a good one. Steve told me I had to choose between him and my job. He said he didn’t want a wife who spent all her time in barns covered in cow manure and horse shit. He didn’t think it would be good for his image when he joined his father’s law firm. He gave me an ultimatum, him or my career, and then he left for a study group.”

  “You’re a vet, for God’s sake! What did he expect?”

  “I don’t know. He never objected to my career until after we were engaged and his parents got involved. I don’t think they wanted a daughter-in-law that was a large animal vet, to be truthful with you. I think they put pressure on him to get me to quit my practice.”

  Sam was calm now and smiled at Ricky. “It took me about two seconds after he left to decide what I was going to do. I wasn’t about to give up my career. The more I thought about his ultimatum, the madder I got. Geez, I’m not always covered in cow manure and horse shit.” Sam thought a second. “Well, maybe I am, but most of it washes off. Anyway, Steve was so arrogant and sure I would give in to his demands. I decided to show the jerk what I thought about him and his stupid image, so I loaded up my stuff in my truck and left.”

  Ricky studied her face. “I do
n’t think you’re telling me everything. I’ve known you since first grade. You wouldn’t have left without getting some kind of revenge. Spit it out.”

  Sam batted her eyes at him innocently.

  Ricky shook his head. “That old trick won’t work on me, sweetheart. Talk.”