The Cowboy Way

Chapter 2

Mariah waited her turn to get off the plane, not that she wanted to be here anyway. She"d been forced to come on this trip. Her boss, CEO Chandler Sheppard had decided the top executives of Sheppard Entertainment weren"t interacting as well as he thought they should and they needed to "bond", whatever the hell that meant. She just wanted to be home, going to work and home again, living the life she was used to. The entire idea of spending a week in the god-forsaken plains of Wyoming sounded like torture to her. But Mr. Sheppard insisted it would be fun. It might be his idea of fun, but not hers. She liked her bed, she liked her apartment and her car and she hadn"t wanted to leave either.

Chandler stood in front of her and the rest of their party. Mariah glanced at the rest of their party. She noticed, not for the first time, she was the only woman. How the hell had that happened and how had she managed to be required to attend? Not only was she the only woman, she was the only cog in the marketing team. Why was she even here? If Mr. Sheppard had only thought that four of his executives needed to attend, then why on earth had he paid for her to come?

She pushed her gloomy thoughts away and pulled her carry-on from the overhead bin and kept it beside her as she waited for the others to start down the narrow aisle. Mariah was in no hurry to see the ranch, the horses, or the misery that awaited them, so she planned to be the last of their party off the plane so she would spend as little time as possible in this god forsaken land of nothingness.

She trailed through the airport following the men from Sheppard Entertainment without paying any attention to her surroundings. She didn"t care what the place looked like, she just wanted to get it over with, go home and get back to her life. The last thing she wanted to do was spend a week riding horses, sleeping on the ground and eating food burned over a campfire, much less having to participate in stupid team building activities that she was convinced were nothing more than a waste of time. When they reached baggage claim, they stood around waiting for their bags to appear and she finally looked around, wondering how they were going to get to the ranch, which she knew was more than a hundred miles away still. There was supposed to be someone here to meet them, but she didn"t see anyone. Wishing she were somewhere else, anywhere else, she pulled her phone from her purse and powered it up. She hated having to turn it off for the flight and she"d spent much of the trip fuming about not being able to stay in touch as she was used to. With a sigh, she resisted the urge to tap the toe of one boot as she waited for her phone to load.

"Ms. Stein, is that your bag?" Jeremy Frost, one of the executives along for this week of torture said.

Mariah looked up and found the luggage carousel was moving and indeed, her purple plaid suitcase, which matched her carry-on bag was moving away. She scowled at it and considered moving around to catch it, but quickly dismissed the idea, opting to wait for it to come back around. Shoving her phone back in her purse, she kept her eyes on the bags, she wasn"t going to miss it again. When it came back around she bent and lifted it off the rack, wishing not for the first time someone would step forward and take it from her. Yes, she was a modern, liberated woman, but damn. The bag was heavy. Once it was off the carousel and she"d set it down, and pulled out the handle and slid the handles of her carry-on down over the extendable handle, lightening the load she had to carry when their ride finally arrived.

"Mariah, are you ready?" Mr. Sheppard"s voice drew her from her musings.

She looked up and found him, as well as the other four executives who had come from Sheppard Entertainment, all watching her.

"Any time you are, sir." She plastered a smile on her face and took the handle to her suitcase, waiting to see where they were going.

"Good." He turned and followed someone she"d not noticed. A tall man dressed in dark blue jeans, boots and a jacket. Jacket? It’s July, why on earth would he be wearing a jacket this time of year? She followed along, wondering now if she"d packed everything she would need. She hadn"t brought a jacket or anything more than a couple long sleeved blouses. Trailing along behind everyone, to the door and out to the parking lot They didn"t go far before the man they"d been following, who she still hadn"t gotten a good look at, stopped beside a large SUV and opened the back gate. One by one he took each of the men"s bags and stacked them inside, each of the men moving around the sides of the vehicle and climbing inside as they were relieved of their burdens. Mariah was the last one to hand off her bag, finally getting a good look at their driver. He was tanned, as if he spent a good deal of time outside, with pale gray eyes that caught her attention.

It’s July, why on earth would he be wearing a jacket this time of year?"Is that all, ma"am?" he asked.

"Um." She glanced down, realizing he"d loaded both her suitcase and her carry-on. "Yes, that"s all."

"Great. If you"ll have a seat, we"ll get started. We"ve still got a couple hours ahead of us."

Shit two more hours? They really were headed to the middle of freaking nowhere. She found an empty seat on the passenger"s side of the second row of seats and climbed in, thankful the men hadn"t pushed her into the middle seat, or worse, into the third row. She smiled at her seat mates, Jeremy Frost and Howard Lawrence, then turned to see the other two executives, Conner Knowles and James Gould sitting in the third row. They didn"t look too cramped, but not comfortable either. Mr. Sheppard had taken the front seat, which she"d expected. He was the CEO and the leader of their motley crew.

Shit two more hours?