Chapter 10

Iwatch the woman, Kate, drag a large suitcase from her tiny purple car with amusement. Her cat sits on the hood of the car, a leash snapped on the damn thing, as it watches her with curiosity. I’d thought when she saw the cabin, she might change her mind. It ain’t nothing fancy, but it’s clean and well-built. It’s also completely furnished, but it doesn’t look anything like what a city girl would like. Instead, she’d pulled her car over to the cabin, briefly gone inside, before coming back out to unload her car. I have half a mind to go help her, but it’s almost more entertaining watching her try to roll the suitcase wheels over the gravel. The wheels stop working after a moment and she ends up dragging it instead, leaving behind grooves in the loose gravel where the wheels were supposed to roll.

Wiley’s truck comes pulling up, the back end filled high with feed bags. There’ll be unloading that for the next hour. It’s probably too soon to ask Kate to help, not that I think she can pick up a fifty-pound feed bag. She doesn’t look like she could pick up anything much heavier than twenty pounds. Wiley throws the truck in park, and hops out with a grin.

“You’re late,” I say to him, raising my brow in question.

“Yeah, I know. I. . .” His voice trails off as he spots the purple BMW and blinks. “She actually came.”

“She sure did,” I muse. “Said you sent her and everything.”

Wiley whistles. “Well, I’ll be.”

I shake my head. Leave it to Wiley to open his mouth like that. “What’re you thinking sending a city girl like that out here? The poor woman is gonna have her ass handed to her.”

“She might surprise you,” Wiley shrugs. “Besides, we need all the help we can get. You know we’ve got the cattle drive coming up. Plus, with so many new calves and foals, we’re knee deep in manure and trouble.” He sets his hat on his head after grabbing it from his dash through the window. “Oh, and some of the teens in town said they’d come by after school tomorrow, by the way. They’re tryin’ to make some extra cash for college.”

“Thank god,” I grumble. “Because little miss is gonna take some work.” I watch as Kate walks her cat back out of the cabin, going for more in her car. She sure has that thing packed as tightly as possible. “She has a cat on a leash, for fuck’s sake.”

Wiley laughs. “Hey, any woman who can train a cat to walk on a leash must be magic. Last time I tried petting the damn barn cats, they ripped me a new one.”

I grin. “You know you ain’t ever gonna earn their trust. You’ve been trying for years.”

“God dammit, I’m gonna keep trying. Those beasts will love me. You just wait and see.”

The smile on his face is as bright as it was when we were kids, out getting into mischief we knew we’d get in trouble for. Wiley, Levi, and I have always been inseparable, just three kids up to no good. Those were the days where we could be carefree, where we could go down to the creek and try to catch crawfish with a string and a bit of chicken. We used to be able to have fun like that, to enjoy each other’s company. But we’ve since grown up. Each of us has our own demons to overcome now, and those demons are strong. I don’t even remember the last time I went down to the creek for anything other than searching for a missing heifer.

Levi appears from the barn out front and frowns in the direction of Kate as she bustles around her car before coming out with a small houseplant that looks a little worse for wear.

“Who’s the broad?” he asks as he comes up to us. He has a rag in his hand he uses to clean the dust from his forearms.

“New hire,” I answer.

Levi snorts. “Right.”

“No, he’s being completely serious,” Wiley adds with a grin, clearly amused at Levi’s dawning look of horror.

Levi shakes his head. “I’m not showing her shit.”

“You’ll do what’s needed,” I counter, my eyes hard. She may be a city girl, but she’s here now, which means she’s family until she’s not. “We all have to do things we don’t like in this business.”

“Says the man whose name is on the ranch,” Levi grumbles.

“We need the help,” I point out. “And she came lookin’.”

Levi glances over toward Kate where she’s leading her cat on a leash into the cabin, clearly done unloading whatever she needed to. He looks back at me with raised brows and I raise my hands to placate him with a laugh.

“It’ll be fine,” I reassure him, hoping I’m convincing. Truth is, I don’t know if it’ll be fine or not. This could go horribly wrong. I’ll have to make sure to let everyone know she doesn’t go anywhere near heavy machinery until we know she won’t kill herself. And I don’t even know if she knows how to use any tools. I have to assume we’ll be starting from scratch. Hell, even most of the teens knows something about farm work. City girls? Not so much.

Wiley grins. “Even if it isn’t, at least we’ll be entertained.”

“Speak for yourself,” Levi grumbles, before he turns toward Wiley’s pick up. “Let’s get this feed unloaded before it gets dark, yeah?”

I watch them go, before my eyes trail over to the cabin. I shake my head. Entertaining, my ass. I just gotta make sure she doesn’t get herself or someone else hurt.

But at least the view will be nice until she gives up.