Ambush Before Sunrise: Bonus Story (Cardwell Ranch Book12; Montana Legacy

was crazy. Sometimes she’d find herself studying his face as if a memory was so close she could almost touch it.
“He’s handsome, isn’t he?” Max asked, startling her. She hadn’t realized that she’d reached the chuckwagon. Her mind had been miles away.
“Pardon?” she asked, turning to face him as she conjured up her most innocent face.
Max laughed. “You were staring at Angus Savage—and not for the first time, I might add.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was...thinking.”
“Thinking? I can just imagine.” He turned back to his cooking.
She didn’t want to know what he’d imagined. Nor did she want to continue this conversation. Still, she asked, “Have you ever run across someone you felt as if you knew in another life?”
He chuckled. “That your story?”
“I’m serious.”
Max turned to look at her. “I can see that. I suppose it’s possible the two of you met before. Your mother and his were good friends.” The cook frowned. “I think she took you with her up to Cardwell Ranch once years ago.” So that could have been it, she thought. “You don’t remember?”
She shook her head and yet as he said it, she had an image come to mind of mountains shooting up from a green river bottom and a large red barn set against a wall of rock and pine trees. A memory teased at her. “How old would I have been?”
“Eight or nine,” he said as he turned back to his cleaning up. “You didn’t stay long, just overnight, I think. That’s probably why you don’t remember.”
But she did remember a little. Now it really nagged at her. It wasn’t just that she’d seen him before. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened during that visit; she was sure of it.
She turned to look at Angus again. He’d rejoined his brother and cousin on a log by the fire. His face shone in the campfire light. Max was right about one thing; the cowboy was handsome as sin. Had he remembered her? He would have been a little older than she was by a couple of years at least.
“Why don’t you just ask him?” Max said with a laugh. “Otherwise, it’s going to drive you crazy.”
He was right about that, as well, but what if Angus didn’t remember her? She’d feel foolish. Then again, what if he did? What if he was just waiting for her to say something?
“While you’re making up your mind, why don’t you hand me your dishes?” Max said with a shake of his head as he took them from her.
Leaving camp, she checked the cattle, glad that Brick and Royce had volunteered to take the first shift. She didn’t expect trouble. Not tonight. T.D. was angry and vengeful, but he never planned ahead. He knew she was taking the herd up into the high country for summer grazing today. Maybe he would even wait until she returned to continue threatening her, rather than try to catch them. His laziness might pay off for her.
But unfortunately, she also knew that her being up here in the mountains put her at a disadvantage. T.D. wasn’t stupid. He would realize how vulnerable she was up here. Anything could happen in the mountains on a cattle drive. People got injured. Others died. And T.D. was desperate to get his hands on her ranch. He would come after her.
In the distance she heard a coyote howl. Another answered, then another. She was more worried about wolves and bears, than coyotes. But she could only protect her herd so much. It was the nature of the business.
The camp was quiet as she walked back toward the fire. From out of the dark shadows, she spotted a lone figure still illuminated in the flames. Ella gave her a nod as she pulled up the log next to her again. The heat of the blaze felt good this high in the mountains since it was only early June.
Jinx could feel the long day in the saddle in her muscles. She yearned for sleep, but it had been hard to come by for some time now. It wasn’t just T.D. who haunted her dreams. She didn’t want to think about any of that. Instead, she was curious about this young woman and her lifestyle.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why this life?” she asked after a few moments.
Ella smiled. “Probably same as you. I was born into it. When you’re raised on a ranch, you do what you know.” She shrugged. “I like what I do.”
“But you aren’t working your home ranch.”
She shook her head almost wistfully. “It would have been too easy just to stay there. But I wasn’t ready to settle down. I wanted to experience other places, other people. It’s tougher as a woman to find that kind of freedom. That’s why traveling with my cousins works. They give me space. I give them space.”
Jinx looked toward where Angus had spread out his bedroll in the fallen dried pine needles beneath a stand of pines some distance away. “They seem nice enough,” she joked.
Ella chuckled. “They’ll grow on you.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Jinx said.
“Brick can be a little much.”
The ranch woman shook her head. “He doesn’t bother me. Has he ever been serious about a woman?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Ella said. “A sure sign of fear of intimacy, huh?”
She waited a beat before she asked, “And Angus?”
“Oh, he’s been in love. Got kicked in the teeth not all that long ago, so he’s gun-shy.”
“Aren’t we all?” Jinx considered the young woman. “What about you?”
“If you’re asking if I’ve ever met someone who made me want to settle down...” Ella shook her head. “By my age my mother had been married a few times. I’m hoping I’m a whole lot pickier than she was.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. I thought everyone met someone, got married, lived happily-ever-after. That’s what my parents did. They were high school sweethearts. That was the kind of marriage I’d wanted. The kind I’d