“Mom, I’d like to introduce Claire Kincaid. Claire, this is my mom, Marjorie, and my dad, Daniel.”
This was a disaster of epic proportions. Claire clamped down on the urge to blow her bangs off her forehead in frustration; it never helped, and she ended up looking like she’d been caught in a windstorm. Besides, her current situation wasn’t Benton’s fault. He’d been a good guy back in Bonnyville. It was her own wishful thinking that he’d forgotten about her or would have ignored her if he saw her.
After the adrenaline had subsided, all her other options of how to manage the Benton situation suddenly popped to mind. She could have kept walking, confident that her new hair colour and style would have fooled a person who wasn’t looking for her anyway. She could have crossed the street and continued on her way. She could have looked through the bakery window, noticed Benton, and run like the wind. But no. She’d let Benton Lawson hug her, and then her brain decided to short-circuit.
It wasn’t the first time.
The cowboy was a walking distraction. She remembered seeing him back in Alberta even before he’d walked into the detachment. He’d been at a cattle feed store in town. Benton had climbed out of his pickup, slapped his cowboy hat against his jeans-clad thigh, and then set the hat on his light brown hair and strode into the store. Three other women stopped walking to watch him go by. It had taken every bit of her training to keep things professional when he’d come in to make his report.
A couple days later, when they’d run into each other at the local coffee shop, she made sure to sit beside him at the counter when she ordered her donut. When he didn’t make a joke, she asked if he wanted to have a meal together sometime. Things improved from there.
Part of her regretted that she knew they didn’t have a future when they started. Benton was upfront about only being in Alberta for a little while, and they agreed it was for the best. Their practicality didn’t make their goodbye any easier. Claire’s saving grace was knowing she’d never see Benton again, so she’d be able to forget him.
Stupid criminals. If it weren’t for this marauding crew of ranch-robbing thieves, she’d be happily diving into the dating scene back home. Now, not only could she not start a romance with anybody in Hopewell because she didn’t want to lie to them, but she also had to do it while she was running into Benton at every turn, and she couldn’t restart anything with him without putting him in danger.
She needed to arrest somebody. Soon.
“It’s good to meet you, Marjorie and Daniel. Benton’s told me a lot of stories about his family.” She handed his mother a bouquet of flowers, which were admired appropriately before his mom excused herself to go to the kitchen to put them in water.
“We have to admit that Benton didn’t tell us anything about you, so you’re going to find we’re very curious,” Daniel said with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Benton says you met in Alberta, Claire. How did that happen?” his mother asked once they were seated around the dinner table. It wasn’t just the four of them either. Benton’s oldest brother Clay and his baby sister Shannon were both in attendance as well, smiling at her and grinning at their brother.
It was a good thing they’d decided to stick as near as to the truth as possible. “I was working near Bonnyville for my old boss. Benton had come into town to purchase new tires for one of the machines on his uncle’s ranch, and we got to talking,” Claire said. Then she gave a small grin. “It didn’t hurt that I’d seen him on the rodeo grounds the week before giving a roping demonstration to some local teens. He was very humble after showing up all the other instructors. I was so impressed that when he asked me out on a date, I said yes, and we saw a lot of each other while he was around. Then we said goodbye a few weeks later.”
“I didn’t know you’d done any competing while you were at Uncle Will’s, Benton,” Clay said. Claire couldn’t help but notice how closely the dark-haired, dark-eyed eldest Lawson resembled his father. “Dating, competing. You were whining about how hard you were working.”
Claire glanced at Benton. His brother didn’t seem to be impressed with their story. Benton gave her a miniscule shake of his head. “Don’t be jealous of my multi-tasking abilities.”
“You were covering for the twins. I can’t believe you got distracted—”
“Anyway,” Marjorie interrupted, “we’re glad for the chance to meet you now, Claire. Benton, your uncle had no complaints. All we heard about was how hard you were working in between Blake’s award-winning barbecued meals.”
“Blake?” Claire asked. “Blake, your cousin who pitched the perfect game at the baseball tournament? You never told me he made award-winning barbecue.”
Benton was half amused and half shocked at her response. “I made you my chili, though, which, by the way, was voted better than his.”
“But…barbecue!”
Benton turned to his mother. “I guess it’s a good thing Paul and his television famous corn muffins aren’t here, or Joni would have some serious competition with Claire.”
“Wait, Paul Lawson and his corn muffins from Canada’s Best Recipes is your brother?” Claire asked, her voice cracking as it hit new heights.
“Didn’t I mention that?”
“No! You said your family were fans of the show, but that was it. Do I even know you at all? I’m thinking corn muffins and a batch of chilli would be a good apology for that oversight.”
That broke the ice and conveniently moved the conversation from how they met to his family and their various cooking pedigrees.
“So, Claire, what are you doing now? Are you and Benton picking up where you left off?” Shannon asked.
“We’re friends for now. I’ve got a job for the summer with one of your neighbours, I think. Red and Laurie Hiebert? I’m going to be a general handyperson for the season. Then I’m hoping to go back to school in the fall.”
Benton’s entire family blinked at the same time. “I’m surprised to hear that, but glad. The Hieberts could use the help,” Daniel said from the head of the table. “They’ve fallen behind and still have a lot of last year’s storm damage to fix.”
Clay nodded. “We’ve tried to give them a hand. They’re good neighbours who have had a long string of bad luck. Unfortunately, there’s only so much time in the day. I’m surprised that they didn’t hire somebody local for the job though.”
“I must admit that I had an in with them. Laurie and my old boss are cousins, so I had excellent references. Besides, I was told that they were having trouble finding someone local who could do the job.” Everything Claire said was true, but she was emphasizing the wrong parts. Laurie was related to Claire’s detachment commander’s husband. She would be using the Hieberts as a cover while she investigated. The Hieberts had agreed to it because they got a useful ranch hand out of the deal. Claire could swing a hammer well enough to be of use thanks to the summers she had worked at her father and uncle’s contracting business.
“I suppose that’s true,” Clay reluctantly admitted. “There aren’t that many people around who are able or willing to do farm work. Most of the ones our age who can are either already working on their family’s farms or have left to find other work. People have only started coming back to the Hopewell area in the last couple years. There haven’t been many, and those who have already had job offers in their pockets when they arrived.”
“I hope I’m up to the job. I can clean, fix, and organize like nobody’s business,” Claire said with a small laugh.
The conversation shifted again to the Lawsons’ neighbours and the other families that owned the surrounding properties, which brought it around to Claire again. “You’ve met us, but has Benton met any of your family?” Shannon asked. Benton had warned her that his sister was a pit bull when it came to getting the answers she wanted. That sounded right, considering that the youngest Lawson was the originator and manager of the Royal Oak Ranch Dude Ranch Experience. It was an impressive feat for such a young woman.
Claire shook her head. “No. There’s just me and my mom left. My dad died a couple years ago. My mom lives in southern Ontario.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your father. Do you see your mother often?” Marjorie asked.
“My mom’s a flight attendant so she pops up pretty regularly no matter where I am.”
“That’s fun. Does she take you on any trips?”
And they were off again.
After dessert, Claire pleaded the need for an early night to start her new job the next day. “How do you think it went?” she asked Benton as he walked her back to her car.
Benton thought for a minute. “I’d give you a seven out of ten. We got lucky that everyone was distracted by Shannon telling them about her last-minute dude ranch booking.”
“Only a seven?” She thought that she’d done very well.
“I thought you were going to get a four.”
“That’s terrible! How could they not like me? I’m adorable!” She needed Benton to back her among his friends and neighbours. If she couldn’t even get his family on board with her presence, she’d be floundering for weeks trying to establish her reputation in the area.
Claire sighed. The situation was spiralling, and no matter how she looked at it, it was all her fault. She could have warned Benton she was coming and asked him to talk up his old friend who was new to the area. Instead, she took her boss’s instructions literally and didn’t consider him at all. She didn’t want to report that she’d messed up her assignment in the first week, so she was desperate to come up with some way to salvage the situation. “I don’t know what to do. I just know I can’t quit.”
“I have a suggestion. What if we pick up where we left off and start dating again? In a professional capacity only. People would buy it, especially since by now everybody knows we’ve dated in the past. I can introduce you around, and we’ll be seen together a few times. We can always say that the spark fizzled after our time apart but we’re still friends once you’ve established yourself.” Benton didn’t sound thrilled with the plan, but she appreciated that he was putting himself out there to help her. Especially since he wouldn’t be getting anything out of it.
In fact, he would be putting a stranglehold on his own social life to do it. “I’m not interfering with your love life, am I? Are you dating anybody?” Claire asked, horrified that she hadn’t considered that possibility. Benton was a handsome, funny cowboy—odds were good that he did already have a girlfriend, even if he did hug her. It’s not like he would have stayed single on the off chance that they’d run into each other again.
“No, I’m still single.” He did that thing where he beat his hat against his leg to buy himself some time. “Stubbornly single, according to my mother, but she’s using her partially retired status to encourage the rest of her children to settle down. That’s mostly my brothers’ faults. All three of them went from bachelors to engaged grooms-to-be in the last two years. Now my mother is trying to find me a nice girl.” His face brightened as an idea struck. “Actually, this could end up being a good thing for both of us. You get an instant ‘in’ to Hopewell, and I get my family to ease up on the matchmaking. If you promise to break my heart when you go, my mom would be off my back for weeks. Maybe months. Promise me you’ll be cruel? It's the least you could do in return for me playing boyfriend for a couple of weeks.”
“If you do this for me, I promise to be absolutely heartless.”
“Deal.”
Claire laughed as he pumped her hand repeatedly. “Deal.”