Haunting a Cowboy

By Randi Alexander

When ranch foreman Thad McCade’s life is disrupted by something supernatural, he reluctantly allows a ghost whisperer in to try to clear his home. But Madam Ruby is not at all what he expected. She’s actually Cheyenne Redford, wears a business suit, and drives an expensive SUV. In seconds, she discerns the identity of the restless spirit, and Thad immediately ushers her out of his house. He’s not ready to face memories he has buried for years.

Despite her parent’s insistence that she work in their respectable family business, on weekends Cheyenne indulges her secret passion for communicating between worlds. This time, though, the spirit haunting the sexy cowboy is powerfully intent on making itself a nuisance, and its disturbances are escalating. Despite Thad’s resistance, Cheyenne is determined to find out why.

The hot Montana summer spurs a sensual attraction between Cheyenne and Thad, and they indulge their craving for a physical and emotional connection. When Cheyenne pushes the cowboy for more information to help her release the earthbound spirit, he walks away, leaving her heartbroken and confused. Can Thad overcome his fear and guilt before time runs out for the ghost...and before Cheyenne moves on with her life?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randi Alexander
• Release date: Sep 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310960581

Randi Alexander

Randi Alexander writes romance novels in a fun variety of genres, like western, paranormal, menage, BDSM, motorcycle club, and even sweet. When she’s not writing a story or dreaming about her next book, Randi is biking trails along remote rivers or snorkeling the Gulf of Mexico. Forever an adventurous spirit with a romantic imagination, Randi is family-oriented and married to the best guy in the world. Give in to the allure of passion as Randi’s emotional love stories sweep you off your feet and leave you breathless. You’re guaranteed a story that’ll give you a happily ever after.

Book preview

Haunting a Cowboy

Ghosts of High Paradise Ranch Series, Book 1

by

Randi Alexander

HAUNTING A COWBOY

Ghosts of High Paradise Ranch Series, Book 1

Original Printing 2015

Revised Version Copyright © 2021 Randi Alexander

*~*~*~*

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system-except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the web -without permission in writing from the author.

Chapter One

Go ahead and fire me. Thad McCade stared at his boss, Sayde Grant, across his kitchen table. But I’m not taking a vacation.

Sayde laughed, the crinkles around her eyes a telltale sign of her age. She tapped her pink-painted nails on the table. "Thad, you’ll do well to remember, High Paradise is my ranch, you’re my foreman, and as I see it, your well-being and the well-being of the ranch are interrelated."

Why do you want me out of here all of a sudden? Do you have another foreman in mind? He ran his hand through his shaggy brown hair. He’d meant it as a joke, but he had to wonder what had gotten into her today. Had he done something wrong?

She shook her head, her gray braid skimming across her shoulders. Of course not. She rolled her eyes. You’ve been an effective foreman for seven years, and before that, for five years, you were the best ranch hand I’d ever had, even though you hired on here as a pimply-faced teenager. There’s no way I could replace you. Her voice softened, and a little smile curved her lips.

Relief flowed through him. All those years ago, he’d come looking for a job; hungry, dirty, and exhausted from hitchhiking his way across four states to this northwest corner of Montana. He knew he’d found home when he saw this ranch tucked up against the Purcell Mountains. He ran his forefinger and thumb over his mustache, then down his goatee. Sayde had been more of a mother to him than his own had been.

But.... She set her elbows on the table and stared into his eyes. You never get away from the work. You never leave this ranch.

He sighed. It was true. Since his wife passed away, he’d become more of a hermit with each passing year. He worked up a plausible untruth. Ma’am, I get out more than enough. And it’s mid-October. It’s busy around here.

It’s always busy around here, and you’re working too hard. It’s gonna catch up with you.

I have a life outside work.

The coffee cup in front of Thad tipped over, spilling black brew that ran straight toward the edge of the table and his crotch. He jumped up. Son of a…. He couldn’t believe it happened again, and in front of someone else.

Mm-hmm. See, even your poltergeist knows that’s not true.

He forced a laugh as he mopped up coffee with a couple of towels. Poltergeist, is it? It couldn’t be just my clumsiness?

I know you have a ghost, Thad. I’ve been watching. Being alone now…. Her gaze shifted off to another time.

Her husband, Barrett, had passed away nearly eighteen months ago, leaving her to run one of the biggest ranches in this half of Montana.

She blinked back to the present. I’m awake some during the night, and I’ve seen lights going on and off over here, fading and going bright. Now, I know you haven’t installed dimmer switches. Sayde gave him a smirk.

He set the towels in the sink and looked around the light blue kitchen that his wife had decorated. Over the years, there had been odd things happening, just now and then, but the last few weeks, the occurrences had begun to intensify. As if whoever haunted him had a timeline that was growing short.

I don’t know, Sayde, I think it’s just my crazy imagination playing tricks on me. He brought his cup to the coffee pot but decided better of it and set the thing on the white countertop.

You know what? She put her palms flat on the table. Let’s do this. She stood. I know a woman who can handle the situation, or at least appraise it.

No. No, thank you. He didn’t need one of Sayde’s psychic advisors poking around in his house. There’s nothing here that I can’t handle.

The screen door opened an inch and smacked shut.

They both stared at it, then looked at each other.

Just the wind, right? Sayde lifted one gray brow. Even though the trees aren’t moving at all?

Thad’s jaw tightened. Each night for the last five days, around six or seven, his truck keys would rattle in the bowl by the door, then the screen door would creak open a crack and slap shut. Sometimes the porch light snapped on, too. Somebody trying to tell him to get out? Take a drive? Every night, he ignored it, and it went away.

Thad, that’s a sign. Someone is trying to communicate with us, and this woman I know—

Ma’am, I’d really prefer not to do this. It wasn’t often they butted heads about anything, but this was his private life.

She held up her index finger. You’re forgetting who owns this house. She pointed to herself. Now, if I was concerned that you had an infestation of rodents, I’d have an exterminator come out. Even if you swore up and down that the rats were your pets.

He had to bite his lips to keep from laughing. You’re saying I’m infested? He leaned back on the counter, his fingers curling around the edge of the countertop.

I’m saying that I’m concerned about what’s happening, and I don’t want it to affect you.

He had a joke on his tongue about her only being worried about losing a hard-working foreman to a ghost, but he knew it was more than that. She really did care about him as a person.

And if this woman can.... She waved her hands up toward the ceiling. Fluff these spirits to where they can rest, well then we’re doing some other entities a favor, too.

How could he say no to that logic? Okay, fine. Bring on the ghost buster.

Perfect. You won’t regret this. She pushed open the screen door, then turned back toward him. And once we’ve taken care of this, we’ll talk about your vacation.

He smiled and shook his head. You’re the boss.

****

The next morning, Thad rode the fenceline on the lower eighty acres. New hires meant the need to double-check all their work, even though they’d been teamed with an experienced hand. The field of wildflowers stretching for miles in front of him hadn’t been flattened by the cattle yet, and he stopped to look.

The sun angled over the mountains, turning the colors blindingly intense. Butterflies flapped their wings as they flew between blossoms, fuzzy white tufts of seed parachutes drifted on slow, warm air currents.

Melissa would have loved this.

His chest tightened. Not as bad as it did the first couple years after she’d passed, but still, a pain lingered there. He turned Gator toward the middle of the field and kicked him into a run. The leopard Appaloosa took his head and raced across the field, kicking up clods of dirt.

Thad leaned over him, letting the smell of earth and the taste of freedom race through him. His hat flew off, but he kept going, loving the feel of the powerful animal under him. The gelding slid a few times as the terrain became rockier near the river but kept steady. Thad eased back, slowing them until they trotted along the riverbank, then stopped. Gator took a drink from the fast-running, clear water.

At one time in his life, he would have raced Gator through the river and up the other side, but he’d learned how fragile life could be, how one little slip could bring it to a devastating end.

He dismounted and walked the horse a ways, listening to