Spotlight & Giveaway: The Cowboy’s Reckoning by Jeannie Watt

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Jeannie Watt’s new release: The Cowboy’s Reckoning

She’s building a future on his land. He has to take it away.

When former rodeo rider Jordan Matthews inherits a ranch from the father he never knew, he plans to sell it fast—until he learns the deal comes with one condition: the property must be empty. Lil McAllen refuses to leave. After losing her father and her home, Lil has rebuilt everything on that land—for herself and her younger sister. Walking away isn’t an option.

If Jordan can’t force her out, the deal collapses—and with it, his only chance to leave the past behind for good. Then the ranch becomes a target. Fences are cut. Equipment is sabotaged. Livestock disappears. With danger closing in, Jordan has no choice but to stay and protect what isn’t his—working side by side with the woman who stands in his way.

Lil doesn’t take risks. Jordan is nothing but risk. But the longer he stays, the harder it is to ignore the truth—the man who came to take everything might be the one she can’t afford to lose.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Cowboy’s Reckoning 

Chapter One

Jordan Matthews rested his hands on the horn of the slick fork saddle and hunched his back against the cold late spring wind. His gelding stretched his neck to the ground, taking advantage of the long stop to grab a mouthful of new grass, while Jordan studied the ranch nestled in the valley below.

It had taken well over an hour to ride high enough onto Turner Ridge to get a decent view of the Willow Creek Ranch, a property he’d studied multiple times on Google Earth. But seeing the land with his own eyes rather than through satellite imagery made it real. Or as real as an unreal situation could be.

He was still having trouble wrapping his brain around the fact that he owned the place, and try as he might, he couldn’t move past bitter feelings toward the man who’d blessed him with two hundred and fifty acres of prime Montana real estate. He wasn’t foolish enough to not take advantage of his windfall, but that didn’t keep him from seeing the inheritance as a slap in the face. A message he hadn’t needed to hear. You weren’t worth acknowledging while I was alive, but you can have a consolation prize now that I’m dead.

Jordan had to admit it was a pretty good consolation prize, but he would have rather not gone through life thinking that his father was a thief who had died of pneumonia while incarcerated. Imagine what it would have been like to know that his dad was a different kind of asshole. The kind who ran a Chicago business and refused to acknowledge his offspring rather than the kind who went to prison for stealing cattle.

Behind him the brush rustled. His horse jumped at the unexpected sound and Jordan nearly came out of the saddle. He regained his balance, then pulled his horse around to find a woman mounted on a big red roan staring at him from the opposite side of a gully.

“Hey,” he said, wanting her to know he was friend rather than foe, but a crash in the brush to her left brought her head around.

A cow, followed by a calf, bulled her way through the thick bushes at the edge of the creek. The woman shot another quick glance at him, then turned her horse and took off after the cow-calf pair, her long blond braid bouncing on her back as she disappeared into the trees.

He debated following, helping her guide the animals down the hill to wherever they needed to go, but decided against it. Even at a distance, there’d been no missing the tension in her expression as she’d studied him, which Jordan chalked up to unexpectedly finding a stranger in an area where she assumed she was alone. He was probably trespassing. His father knew a guy who knew Tom Baxter, the owner of the grazing land that pushed up against Jordan’s inherited ranch. The friend had assured him that even though Baxter was notorious for kicking people off his property, he wouldn’t mind Jordan taking a trail ride. Jordan decided to take the man at his word. He wanted a full view of his ranch before ridding himself of it. He had to admit to being impressed, but that didn’t sway his decision to sell.

He turned his horse toward the trail leading to his truck and trailer. In the distance, he could hear the crashing of the cow as the brush thickened, and when he reached a clearing, he stopped to watch the rider, now a good half mile below him. Instead of turning the cow and calf toward the country road as he’d expected, she hazed the pair along the fenceline toward the open gate near the creek. His gate.

Shit.

He let out a low breath as he realized that he’d probably spooked Lil McAllen, the ranch tenant, whom he was scheduled to meet tomorrow.

Normally, he wouldn’t have cared about first impressions, but this meeting decided his future in both the short and long term, and the last thing he needed was for her to see him as a creepy trespasser.

“A guy was spying on the place?” Lil McAllen followed her sister as she lugged the heavy saddle into the tack shed.

The stab of anxiety that had followed Meg’s stark announcement was dissipating, and now she wanted facts.

“I don’t know that he was spying spying. He was there for a long time, just staring at the place, like he was casing it or something.” Meg gave Lil a look. “The ranch isn’t that captivating.” She hefted the saddle onto the saddle tree and set the damp pad upside down on top of it to dry. “I watched him for maybe four or five minutes, waiting to see what he was up to, then my mare moved and he heard us. That was when the cow-calf pair decided to make an appearance and I took off after them.” She gave a careless shrug before pushing her blond braid over her shoulder. Lil’s hair was pulled into an identical braid, but her hair was dark, like their mother’s had been. She was the outlier of the three McAllen sisters in that regard.

“At least the cows are back where they belong, and Baxter didn’t call to bitch at us,” Meg said.

That was a plus. Their neighbor to the north was finicky about who or what was on his grazing land. Yesterday evening the cows had breached the fence for the second time in as many weeks and Lil and Meg, with the help of their part-time ranch hand, aka a teenage neighbor kid, had managed to find all but one pair before it grew too dark to ride. Today Meg rode Turner Ridge alone looking for the missing cow while Lil waited for a client to drop off her horse for a two-week tune-up.

“Freaking Shane,” Meg said, more to herself than to Lil, who’d wondered if her sister was going to put a name to her reaction. “I know it’s not him,” she added with a quick glance at Lil before hanging her bridle, “but I hate jumping at shadows.” She let out an exasperated breath. “Whoever that guy on the ridge was, he must have thought I was nuts.”

“Big deal.” Lil was a proponent of the better-safe-than-sorry approach to life. “I’ll help you fix the fence this afternoon, after I evaluate the mare,” she said as they left the shed.

Normally, they took turns with fence repairs, but having a guy possibly watching the place changed things.

Meg latched the door and turned to Lil. “I can handle it.”

“You’re sure?”

Meg lifted her chin. “This has nothing to do with Shane. I overreacted.”

Maybe so, but Lil had a hard time tamping down the need to protect her sister, even when her sister didn’t want to be protected. “Meg—”

“He’s in Alaska.”

Lil’s mouth tightened. “As far as we know.”

“Trust me,” Meg said grimly. “He is. I’ve become very good at cyberstalking.” She pulled in a breath, squaring her shoulders. “I’ll see to the goats, then the fence.”

As her sister walked away, Lil glanced up at Turner Ridge. The man Meg saw probably had a very good reason for being there. He could be a new cowboy working for the herd district. That said, there were no cattle on Turner Ridge this time of year, so there wasn’t much reason for a cowboy to be on the hill.

Maybe he was out for a pleasure ride.

The clouds hugging the top of the ridge had darkened to a deep blue gray and wind whipped across the pasture, bending the new grass. According to the weather app, they would get snow at elevation that day despite it being early June. Not the best weather for a pleasure ride.

But what else could the guy have been doing? She and Meg were responsible for the fence along that stretch of the boundary between their property and Baxter grazing land, and there were no hunting seasons open.

The new mare whinnied again, the young gelding answered, and Lil blew out a breath that puffed her cheeks.

Let it go until you know more.

Easier said than done. They’d been walloped too many times during the past two years to not jump at the shadows. Would they ever feel normal again?

The normal they once knew was long gone, and all they could do was to make a new normal. So far, so good, despite the usual ranch problems and miniemergencies. The Willow Creek Ranch had a good vibe to it, one that Lil couldn’t explain, but felt deeply. After being forced out of the only home she’d ever known, she’d expected to feel a disconnect from new surroundings. Instead, she’d found herself bonding with her new home and, with a seven-year lease, she could finally breathe. Or so she kept reminding herself.

Betty White, the Pyrenees mix Meg had rescued when Shane, her overly possessive ex-boyfriend, had started harassing her, lumbered out of the open barn door, followed by a kitten batting at her tail and jumping at her back feet. The dog made a beeline for Lil and offered her rump for a good scratching. The kitten wrinkled his back, then sprang at Betty’s giant hind paw, wrapping around it and kicking violently with his hind feet.

“Nice disembowelment.” Lil gave Betty a final pat, then scooped up the kitten as a car came into sight at the tree line. Best to keep the babies out of the driveway. “Back to the barn for you.”

She tucked the squirming kitten into the front of her jacket. A paw shot up and smacked Lil in the chin. Lil closed the top button and headed to the barn, the kitten punching and rolling inside of her coat. Once inside, she extracted the tiny feline warrior, deposited him on a high hay bale, then headed back outside in time to see a familiar green Outback cross the cattleguard.

Her friend Aubrey Malone, whom she hadn’t seen in over month due to spring ranch work, climbed out of the Subaru. “Glad I don’t have to go looking for you.” She made a face in the direction of the mare who let out another ear-piercing whinny. “Is she homesick?”

“She’s in love.”

“Ah.” Aubrey hugged her arms around herself as a blast of wind hit them, lifting her long blond hair.

Aubrey’s hair reminded Lil of princess hair, silken with a gentle wave, unlike Lil’s unruly dark mane that needed a good braid to keep it under control.

“I just visited my grandmother and thought I’d swing in and deliver these.” Aubrey gestured with her head toward the back seat of her car.

“What are these?” Lil asked.

“Seed potatoes and onion sets. Grandma had more than she needed.” Aubrey opened the door and leaned inside to pull out a box that leaked dirt from the corner. “And she also sent some iris bulbs.”

Lil took the box from her friend. “I’ll need some guidance with the flowers.” They’d always planted a garden at the old ranch, but it was more of a lettuce, carrots, corn operation. No flowers except for the wild ones that invaded the lawns and fields. There hadn’t been much time for tending plants, and she had no reason to believe she’d have more time now, but the idea of having perennial flowers coming up year after year appealed to her.

“Happy to help,” Aubrey said. “We’ll need to get these into the ground ASAP. The spuds and onions should do fine even though it’s late. You won’t get flowers from the bulbs this year, but we’ll grab some annuals at Big Z’s. Class up the place.”

The place didn’t really need to be classed up, but Lil wanted to add her own personal touches. The last two years had been hell, losing her dad and the family ranch within months of one another, the latter very much the result of the former. The unpaid debts had proven insurmountable when coupled with the cost of the care facility where her dad had spent his last days. Insecurity was one of the realities of ranch life, but she’d always believed they’d find a way to pull through … until they hadn’t. And while Lil and Meg had moved forward, they were still dealing with the aftermath of the last two years. The insecurity. The sense that the rug might get pulled out from under them at any moment. Maybe that was why Lil wanted to add touches to the ranch that made it feel like her own. Or maybe she just liked flowers.

“You want to come in?” she asked Aubrey as dirt dribbled from the open corner of the box onto her boot.

Aubrey shook her head. “I have things to do before we meet up tonight.” She gave Lil a stern look. “We’re still on. Right? No animal emergencies on the horizon?” The usual reason Lil had for cancelling at the last minute.

“Hopefully no. I think Meg could use a night out.”

“Meg.” Aubrey made a face. “Right.”

Lil couldn’t help but smile. Aubrey knew that carrying the burdens of the past few years had changed Lil. It was like the vigilance never stopped and she’d forgotten how to relax. Aubrey was trying to remedy that. Turn her friend back into the person she’d been when they’d gone to school together in Dillon. Lil appreciated the effort but knew she was never going to be as naïve about things working out for the best as she’d once been.

“Meg ran into a guy on the mountain, and it spooked her.” She explained about the escaped cattle and the man on horseback. “She honestly could use a night out.”

Aubrey made an ah noise. “If he was all cowboyed up, he’s probably a local.”

“I know. And so does Meg. Now.” It was hard to explain how knee-jerk reactions overpowered logic to someone who hadn’t been through a similar situation, even a best friend who thought she understood. “We can’t stay out too late. Big meeting tomorrow.”

“The new owner?”

“The new owner,” Lil echoed.

The meeting was a formality because her lease continued no matter who owned the property, but she was so used to things going sideways that she couldn’t help a stab of anxiety. Plus, she had matters to address, which added another level of apprehension. Before this meeting was over, she and the new owner were going to come to an understanding of what was necessary on his part to be in compliance with the terms of the ground lease.

She hoped it would be a collaborative meeting, but if it wasn’t, she’d have to hold ground. She’d let things slide for too long due to the late owner’s illness and her older sister, Maya, leaving the man’s employ. Now that his heir was taking over, things would be different. The ranch that she was coming to love would get the maintenance it deserved.

“It could be a lot of fun,” Aubrey said over her shoulder as she led the way into the Graff Hotel four hours later. The hotel bar was surprisingly crowded, considering the fact that it was only eight o’clock.

“Sounds like it,” Meg answered as they made their way to a table.

On the walk from the pizza parlor to the hotel, Aubrey had explained how her grandmother was looking for a logistics person to travel with her and some friends on an Alaskan cruise in the fall, hinting that Meg might be the perfect person to wrangle the group.

“I can take Meg’s place on the ranch while she’s gone,” Aubrey said to Lil, as if that would sweeten the deal.

“Right,” Lil replied, barely suppressing an eyeroll.

Aubrey’s ranch skills were nil, and she was afraid of cows.

“I’d love to travel with your grandmother,” Meg said earnestly. “The only problem is that I doubt that the school district will let me take time off at the beginning of the academic year.”

“You got the job?” Aubrey asked on a gasp.

Meg beamed. “Got the call two days ago and I sign papers tomorrow. I’ll be officially employed!”

Aubrey turned to Lil, suddenly serious. “Can you handle the ranch alone?”

“The stuff that needs to be done,” Lil assured her.

“Good, because I was totally lying about taking Meg’s place.”

“No kidding.” Meg’s smile suddenly froze as a group of people vacated the table next to them, giving her a clear view of the bar. “That’s him!”

Lil turned to see three men standing near the bar. “Who?”

“The spy.”

Aubrey pushed her glasses down to look over the top. “That’s Jordan Matthews. He’s local and harmless.” She bit the edge of her lip as she canted her head to one side. “I take that back. Not harmless. He’s broken countless hearts, mostly by accident. But he’s cowboy through and through. Not a stalker or anything.”

“Jordan Matthews?” Lil gave Aubrey a stunned look. “That’s the name of my new landlord.”

“No way.” Aubrey gave her head an adamant shake. “I mean … No. Way.”

“Why?”

“Jordan’s dad died in jail years ago. The guy was a cattle thief of all things.”

“Wow,” Lil said softly, studying the dark-haired cowboy.

He was strikingly handsome, with chiseled cheekbones and a pirate-y smile that flashed as he talked to his friends.

“What about his mom?” Meg asked, obviously intrigued by the cattle thief angle.

“She also died,” Aubrey said, “which is why a local rancher adopted Jordan when he was little. He was two years ahead of me in school. His origin story made him double romantic, you know. Being drop-dead gorgeous didn’t hurt either.”

Lil tried to keep from staring, but the guy was an eyeful, with a perfect profile, easy smile, and a holy-shit build.

She blew out a breath. “I wasn’t expecting … him.”

“It can’t be him,” Aubrey said.

“So why had he been spying on the property just before I’m supposed to meet with a man named Jordan Matthews?”

A few thoughtful seconds passed before Aubrey conceded, “You’ve got me there.”

Lil looked away just as Jordan casually swung his gaze her way. She was very glad to have seen the man in the wild, because it gave her an indication of what kind of guy he was. Comfortable in his own skin. Quick to smile. He looked like he could charm a cranky grandmother into mending his torn jeans.

“Do you know the people with him?” Meg asked.

“Trev Matthews, his brother, on the left, and Burke Thurley, local wild man, on the right.”

“I hope he’s good with a hammer,” Lil murmured. “I have stuff that needs to be done.”

“You do set the bar low,” Aubrey replied as the server approached their table.

She declined another round while Lil continued to low-key study the man who might be her landlord. His friend, whose name Lil had already forgotten, nudged Jordan, and his gaze suddenly swept her way, catching her mid-stare.

Damn.

Even at a distance, she saw a questioning expression form on his handsome face and felt her cheeks grow warm. Surely a guy like that was used to being stared at, so she didn’t look away. He could make what he liked of it. For all he knew she was staring through him. Then, after a few very long seconds, she casually turned her attention back to Aubrey who was once again discussing why her Jordan Matthews couldn’t be their Jordan Matthews.

Lil was ninety percent sure that he was indeed the owner of the place, and she didn’t care how it had come about. She just wanted the man to honor the language of the lease and repair the things that had started to go wrong on the place.

And to maybe not recognize her as the stalker in the bar.

Excerpt. ©Jeannie Watt. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

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Meet the Author:

Jeannie Watt is the author of over 20 contemporary romances and the recipient of the Holt Medallion Award of Merit. She lives in a small ranching community—a place where kids really do grow up to be cowboys—with her husband, dog, cat, horses and ponies. When she’s not writing, Jeannie enjoys sewing retro fashions, running, and buying lots and lots of hay.

If you’d like to know more about Jeannie, check out her website JeannieWatt.com or visit her Facebook page www.facebook.com/jeannie.watt.1.

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