Last Year's Bride (Montana Born Brides) by Anne McAllister Page A

toward the hotel doors. As she walked through the lot, Cole’s truck inched along the street keeping pace, seeing her to the door.
    When she reached them, Nell turned to look at him. The side windows were fogged with condensation, but she could still see him through the front. She smiled and waggled her fingers at him. He lifted a hand in response.
    But he didn ’t leave until Nell actually turned and went in through the hotel doors. Then he made a U-turn and headed back toward the highway.
    Nell stood hugging her bag, watching until his tail lights disappeared around the corner.
    “You care,” she said fiercely to his departing truck. “And so do I. We can make this work, Cole McCullough. I’ll prove it to you.”

Chapter Five

    When Cole came back down to the ranch house only scant hours after his head had hit the pillow, it looked like they’d been invaded.
    He had figured he had time to get the feed loaded and be out of there before Nell and her crew showed up. But there were already four crew cab trucks pulled up near the house, one of them the truck Nell had driven back to the hotel the night before.
    Was she here then? There were lights set up all over the yard, making it bright as mid-day, but he didn’t see her.
    Three guys on the ground were setting up something that looked like railroad tracks out by the calving shed. One, bundled up to his ears and carrying a clipboard, was striding around, waving his arms. Cole thought he was yelling. But it was hard to tell because the huge damn generator truck was making enough noise to wake the dead. The dead themselves were milling around in the latest fashion in winter jackets, looking sleepy, drinking coffee and scowling.
    Welcome to reality TV, he thought grimly. How the hell was he supposed to get past all these people and trucks clogging the narrow ranch road, then get back past them to reach the cattle?
    Teeth grinding, Cole flicked off the engine, jumped out of the truck, and strode toward the house. Before he even got to the yard, the kitchen door opened. Nell came out, beaming at him. “Ah, you’re here. Just in time!”
    His heart was kicking over at the sight of her, but Cole stopped and regarded her suspiciously, “What?”
    “ Sam said you’d take the guys out with you to feed cattle. Teach them to load the truck and how to feed the cattle.”
    Cole stared. He was still focusing on her smile, on how she always made the day look better. He had to drag his brain around to what she’d told him his dad had said. Then he bristled. What the hell was Sam thinking? Like he didn’t have enough to do without nursemaiding a bunch of actors?
    This might have been Sadie ’s hare-brained idea, but Sam had agreed to it. Let him talk the actors through it. Where the hell was the old man, anyway?
    Sam ’s truck had been parked behind the cabin last night when Cole had finally got home. He didn’t remember it being gone this morning. But after driving clear into Marietta last night, he’d grabbed barely three hours sleep. He’d barely had his eyes open when he left this morning. Something in his expression must have told Nell he wasn’t exactly thrilled. She looked dismayed. “Sam didn’t mention it? You didn’t know.”
    “ I didn’t know.”
    Her mouth twisted, but then she nodded. “Right. Well, never mind. We’ll think of something else for right now. Perhaps later we can hire someone who can teach them how and—”
    He could see her mind, gears spinning, trying to come up with a useful alternative. He ground his teeth, knowing he was making it harder for her. And that wasn’t the point. It wasn’t the point at all.
    “ I’ll take ‘em,” Cole said grimly. He should have known better than to avoid the meeting at the ranch when Nell and her boss had met Sadie, Gran and Sam to discuss the possibilities. If he had been there he could have scotched the whole thing right then.
    Now he was stuck with it. And whatever else he had to deal with on a