Begin Again - Lee Dutton
Pairing: Lee Dutton x OC (Natalie WentWorth)
Summary: The life of renowned lawyer Natalie WentWorth was quiet in Boston, but everything changed when she received a call from a former Harvard colleague, Jamie Dutton. After reflecting a lot, Natalie agreed to solve some problems at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, but she did not imagine that her life would change completely when she arrived in Montana. One of the reasons for this change was Lee Dutton, the eldest son of John Dutton, cowboy and livestock agent, who would represent all the comfort she needed to have in the midst of the chaos of the Dutton family. Natalie could begin again at that ranch.
Warnings: Subtle sexual innuendos, brief language, alcohol consumption, angst, smut, fluffy.
Part I
Cowboy stuff
Lee was sitting in one of the stands of the Greater Montana Livestock Auction when the president of the session asked everyone to get up, as the Montana anthem would be sung. There were around a hundred people scattered around the shed, some went to really buy the cattle, the buffaloes or the horses arranged surrounded in the center, others accompanied those who would come to buy, to have fun, and others, those who were upstairs of the place, came to do politics. It was in that place that his father was at that moment.
Lee stood up, took off his hat and held it on his chest as a sign of respect. The little girl of no more than twelve years old singed the Montana anthem in the microphone while the rest of the audience stared at the Montana flag extended from top to bottom on the wall behind the auction directors' table. He had not yet returned home since what happened at the Reservation, he just had time to stop by a cafeteria to buy some donuts and remove the bulletproof vest. Lee wore the same heavy boots dirty with mud, jeans, flannel shirt and a cream jacket, which matched the color of his hat.
After the anthem was sung, everyone clapped their hands and the auction actually started. Two cowboys rode on the horses and began to chase half a dozen cows in the enclosure while the announcer explained the qualities of those horses. However, Lee could not pay attention to the first batch because the entrance door opened and that lawyer appeared. Like him, she still wore the same clothes that afternoon, with the difference that the curls of her blonde dyed hair were falling apart, but she was still beautiful.
Lee watched Natalie walk aimlessly through the corridors between the stands as if she were looking for a familiar face or some specific place to sit. Her small size probably prevented her from seeing on the other side of the fence, despite wearing very high heels that highlighted the shape of her legs. She walked confident, with her expression concentrated, but Lee somehow knew she was lost.
Then he raised an arm and waved to her with a smile. Natalie didn't realize it right away, since he was on the other side of the enclosure and the announcer screamed in the microphone. Lee got up and went down the stairs from the bleachers, walking towards her.
"Are you lost, Miss WentWorth?" He joked as he approached her, scaring her slightly.
"Why are you everywhere I go?" She asked, still looking upset.
"This is my state, madam. You're the intruder here." Lee mocked by trying to pull out a smile from her, but she was irreducible. "I can guide you where you want to go."
Natalie sighed strongly and pierced her eyes through the environment. "I have no idea. Jamie told me he would be here, but he didn't clarify where he would be."
"Jamie? Jamie Dutton, my brother?" He asked surprised and she nodded. "I'm confused."
"I don't have time to explain now, Mr. Dutton. I just need to talk to your brother urgently."
"OK." Lee sighed and looked up at the office on the second floor of the auction. "He's up there."
"Thank you." Natalie was already heading towards the office, but Lee interrupted her with a hand on her small arm.
"I don't think you're allowed to enter there. There are only the most influential people in the state and they don't allow anyone to enter." Lee explained politely, but you could feel a little afraid in his tone.
"I was invited by your brother to be there. I'm sure they'll let me in." She got rid of his touch easily since he didn't squeeze her tightly. Natalie took a few steps towards the cabinet again, but stopped and caught up with Lee. "Aren't you like John Dutton's successor? Shouldn't you be up there too?"
"I spend all the day busy with this political bullshit, ma'am. I don't want to waste my night with that either." He explained looking upset about something for the first time. "If you want to try your luck up there, it's your problem. I'm going to stay down here doing something I know and like to do: cowboy stuff."
Lee hid his hands inside the pockets of the jacket and turned his back on Natalie, walking back to his place in the stands. He observed that she disappeared through the door that gave access to the stairs on the second floor and he decided to concentrate on what he had come to do there.
"Now, we're gonna start out with lot number two! It's Royal M. Duke a 2013 registered English bull ofered by Double G Angus Ranch sired by Supreme Domino out of Miss Domino. Now, we're gonna start the bidding out at 25,000." The announcer screamed in the microphone while the animals paraded in the enclosure.
"I'm at 25!"
"I'm at 50!"
The ranchers raised their plates to warn about the auction bid and Lee was just watching for now. He used to do that long enough not to be enchanted by the first lots, because they were usually the most expensive and did not always have enough potential for the price. If it were his father there he would certainly buy those oxen, since they were strong and virile, after all it would be a great way to resell them later. But Lee just thought about how those animals would behave in the pasture, whether they would be able to help or destroy the ranch. It was like his father always said, Lee had a thought of a cowboy and not a landowner.
After lot two was sold, Lee noted that Natalie reappeared on the ground floor with a worse expression than she was before. She stepped on her heels so firmly that even from afar Lee could swear that he heard the 'tec-tec-tec' noise on the floor. Natalie crossed the fence and found Lee's bleachers. She snaked between the people until she reached the last step, sitting next to him with all the strength she had. Natalie snorted so much that she looked more like one of the oxen being sold down there, although those oxen seemed more docile than her at that moment.
"Do you want to...?" Lee tried to talk, but she interrupted him with her index finger in the air.
"No word. If I hear another Dutton speak today, I'll explode!" She squirted keeping her hands closed next to her head and Lee widened his eyes.
Then he scrambled in the bag and removed a pink box, where the donuts were stored. Lee chose one with a vanilla flavor and offered one of the donuts to Natalie without saying a single word. He watched her eyebrows descend in accordance with her shoulders and she chose a chocolate-flavored doughnut. When taking a big bite, Natalie let out an exhausted sigh mixed with satisfaction. Lee didn't say a word, just smiled and continued to observe the following lots.
When lot five was sold, Lee felt confident enough to talk to the woman next to him. She seemed calmer, she had eaten almost all the donuts he bought, but he didn't care. She seemed to be having a very difficult day, so a little sweet wouldn't hurt her.
"There's only one thing I like more than taking care of my father's ranch." He started in a mild, polite tone.
"And what would it be?"
"Donuts." Lee lifted the empty box and Natalie seemed to realize that she had attacked those donuts.
"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have..."
"It's okay. They were really a lot of donuts." He smiled playfully and she gave a mini smile. "A smile. We're getting progress, aren't we?"
"I'm not always like that, you know? You're only seeing me on a bad day. And getting hungry affects my mood even more." She confessed watching the horses run through the fence.
"I'm glad I had food, otherwise I would probably be the food." He played once again and she kept her smile. "How many hours have you not eaten?"
"Since I arrived in Montana. It's a novelty after novelty and I didn't have much time to eat or even to go to my apartment." She paused to look around. "And now I'm sitting in the stands of a livestock auction next to a person I don't even know. What a strange way to end the day, don't you think?"
"What do you mean we don't get to know each other? You know my name and my job, you even know who my family is. And now you know I love doughnuts. That seems to me to know a lot about someone."
"This argument is so unbelievable that I almost agree." She crossed her legs and watched him for the first time that night, noticing that there were doughnut crumbs on his beard. She laughed internally. "There are...crumbs in your beard..."
"What?" He tried to look down as if it were possible to see the crumbs that way and tried another way. Lee ran his fingers through his beard, but because it was too thick it was difficult to remove the pieces.
"Here, let me help you." Natalie advanced her hands towards him, but Lee interrupted her with a dazed look.
"Be careful, it's hard to make it perfect like that."
Natalie rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'll be, now, shiu."
Lee watched her little fingers reach for his beard, wiping his hair with concentration and dexterity. He watched her small face, brown eyes, prancing nose and small, full lips, as if they formed a heart. She was a really beautiful woman, a different beauty from the one he found in Montana, it was something refined, subtle, feminine. He could barely feel her touch, but he still did. It was a delicate one, even kind. Lee was enjoying that version of her. At least, Natalie didn't want to kill him anymore.
"Your father doesn't want my help." She confessed seriously while still touching his beard. "The reason for this you must know by heart."
Lee reflected for a moment and understood what she wanted to refer to. "He didn't let you in there, did he?" Natalie shook her head confirming his question. "What about Jamie?"
"Well, he asked me to wait out here." Her tone regained a certain annoyance. "I don't understand why I left my city to come here and be humiliated like that."
Lee sighed strongly, grunting a little. "What do you have with my brother anyway?"
"We studied together at Harvard. We become friends and even work together in some cases. Then he returned to Montana and we lost contact every day. Two weeks ago he called me asking for help with his family's affairs, but apparently he didn't ask for his father's opinion."
"He didn't ask because he knew that his answer would be no. My father doesn't trust those who are not in the family, much less those who are from another state."
"And what does he do up there if he doesn't trust people outside the family?"
"It's an influence. To do politics it is not necessary for there to be trust from both sides, in fact, it seems to me the complete opposite. You must be suspicious of people to be able to be two or three steps ahead of them."
Natalie lowered her hands to her own lap and looked at him with a reinvigorated curiosity. He could even swear that he could see a smile on her graceful face. "For someone who is not interested in politics, you seem to understand it well."
Lee let out an ironic laugh. "I said I didn't like it, I didn't say I didn't understand it."
It was her turn to laugh, but in a restrained mode. "You are more than your name and your job, Mr. Dutton, much more than that. If you were up there you would probably be the kindest person in that room."
"I'm not sure about that, but I certainly wouldn't prevent a competent lawyer from entering."
"I would really appreciate that."
Lee noticed her gaze changing towards him, it seemed more friendly, even kind, as if she were lowering her guard with him. He returned her comment with a complete smile trying to show her that despite being a Dutton, he was not so thick, unless he needed to be, which hardly happened. Dirty work usually stayed with his father or with Rip. Lee only dealt with the real affairs of the ranch and the livestock commission. The conversation between the two did not stretch for long, because they noticed Jamie approaching the stands.
"Maybe I need to buy more donuts?" Lee asked her when Jamie approached.
"Thank you, but I can deal with it more calmly now." She replied with a tiny smile.
"If you think so..."
Jamie crossed the steps of the stands and asked one of the ranchers to move away so that he could sit next to Natalie. It was a discordant vision, two lawyers properly dressed among ranchers who only cared about cattle being auctioned in the fence in front of them. They were displaced, so they caught the attention of almost everyone present in that place, including the people upstairs. They caught their father's attention.
"I see you've already met my brother Lee." Jamie announced it to her with a smile and waved to his own brother.
"It seems that he is the only Dutton who really gives me some credit here." Natalie seriously mocked and Jamie gave up his smile. "Don't tell me I came here for anything, Jamie."
"I wouldn't say that. I just didn't have enough time to tell him because I called you here."
"You had two fucking weeks to tell him, Jamie."
The Dutton sighed strongly and lowered his head, shaking it in accordance with what she said. "He doesn't know the seriousness of what we are facing. There was no one here competent and reliable enough who could help me with that."
"So because of your cowardice in talking to your father about my arrival I was humiliated all day. I'm not surprised that you need help, Jamie, you can't even have the courage to try to convince your father about the matters of his own interest." Natalia acquired a firm and even enraged tone by pouring her indignation on Jamie.
"I understand your anger, Nat. And I'm sorry about that, I'm really sorry. I will be honest about what we are facing and I am sure he will accept your help."
"Are you really convinced of that? He didn't seem willing to change his opinion."
"I can talk to him." Lee intruded in the conversation, having the curious look of both lawyers. "One cowboy understands the other."
"That's not your job, Mr. Dutton. It wasn't you who made me drive thirty-six hours from one state to another." Natalie stared back at Jamie, who swallowed it dry and fixed his suit.
"I'll fix it, I promise." Jamie didn't wait for her to give a triplica about that and soon got up. "Do you need help with the change?"
"I can take care of myself."
"I know you do, that's why I called you."
Jamie went down the steps and was soon walking back to the cabin on the second floor. Lee listened to Natalie's strong and accelerated breathing next to him and decided to leave her quiet, after all, he had no more donuts to calm her down. The next few weeks would certainly be busy and he couldn't wait for them.