The Cowboy Way

Chapter 1

Levi took a deep breath and wished for the millionth time he hadn"t been forced to open the ranch up to strangers in order to make ends meet as he pulled the SUV into the airport in Casper. He had a half dozen clients due to land in the next fifteen minutes and he was running late. He"d gotten away from the X-bar-Z on time, but there had been road construction he hadn"t planned for. The entire time he"d sat on the highway, waiting to be let through, he"d stressed about being late and leaving the client"s waiting. When his accountant had told him the bad news and suggested they start taking in tourists to help make a little money, he"d hoped it would be easy.

Now, he hadn"t even picked up the first set of clients and he was already on the verge of screwing the whole thing up. He was ready to pull out his hair as he worried about whether or not he was going to be there on time or if he was going to blow the whole thing and lose the X-bar-Z. He couldn"t lose the X-bar-Z. He had more than five hundred acres that had been in his family for more than a hundred years. That he was so close to losing the ranch had him desperate. He was willing to do almost anything to save it, including turning part of the ranch into a dude ranch to host corporate fools who wanted their employees to "bond" and were willing to pay for their employees to come out and spend a week on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming in order to become closer to each other. Levi shook his head as he parked the SUV in the garage. He didn"t understand it, but he would sure as hell take advantage of it.

He hated being away from the ranch to do this but he knew that the Los Angeles big-wig who"d booked this trip would expect nothing less than the ranch owner to pick him and the rest of his party up. He grabbed the clipboard and laminated sign that said X-bar-Z Ranch from the dash and headed for the elevator, praying he would make it to baggage claim before his new clients did.