CHAPTER 53

jackson

A ll right, listen up!” I snapped, annoyed beyond belief. My guys stood in front of me, fidgeting and silent—as they should’ve been. “I don’t give a fuck whose goddamn fault it is. What I give a fuck about is that the fucking boundaries got moved. My cows don’t belong hanging out with my horses!”

As if I needed to, I glared pointedly at the forty-some cows currently mingling with the horses as if it was the most natural thing in the goddamn world. Maybe it was but not on my ranch. Not with everything we had going on.

“We have the fucking boundaries up for a reason,” I continued. We’d lost too many damn cows for them to be fucking up my system. How the hell was I supposed to keep more of them from dying if the quarantine boundaries were breached? “Do I need to go over why the hell we have boundaries again?”

I waited. And waited. And kept on fucking waiting with the expectation that one of them said something. There was no goddamn reason for my cows to be so far in.

“You’re going to get your asses back out there and get my fucking boundaries set back up. I want my fucking cows back where they belong!” I damn near shouted to make my point.

“Watch out, boys,” West said, his voice startling me. I hadn’t seen him all morning. Even the horses were ready by the time I got up and out here. A part of me worried that we were back to him avoiding me. But no. He leaned against the fence on his forearms, looking at ease as he joined us. “All this hootin’ is goin’ to lead to a hollerin’ if you ain’t careful.”

The men laughed while I scowled.

“Is the peanut gallery done?” I demanded. His lips turned up in a small smile—more than I was used to seeing from him. And damn if I didn’t love that fucking smile. Not that I’d say that in front of my employees, and he knew that.

“Simmer down, cowboy,” he replied. I glared at him, but he was completely undeterred.

“Now,” I went back to yelling at my employees for their fuck up, “if you don’t get it right this time—”

“You’ll have yee’d your last haw,” West interrupted once more, eliciting more laughter.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked. Turning, I put my back to everyone else because so help me, if this fucking man made me smile in front of them, I’d lose my credibility as a hard ass.

“Woke up in a good mood today.” He shrugged as if it was that simple. Maybe it was. What did I know? This whole thing was new to me.

And despite the joking way he poked at me in front of my guys, I was so goddamn thrilled to hear it. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew how big a deal last night was for him. It was the entire reason I’d been up all night overthinking things. Had I been wrong for pushing him just a little bit? Was it too much? Was he going to run away from me again? Or avoid me completely?

The truth was that I didn’t know what I was doing where West was concerned. And that scared me. I’d let down a few too many walls all too easily with him. The potential to get hurt grew with every day.

But he was worth it—more than he’d ever understand .

“All right, you goddamn morons!” I yelled, turning fast on my heel. “I want those boundaries back in place asap! And I want my fucking cows to stop hanging out with my goddamn horses. Got it?”

A murmur of agreement rolled through them. They didn’t need more direction than that as they dispersed. Only Mickey remained, watching me closely as he fussed with the brim of his hat.

“Mick, a word?” I jerked my head slightly, gesturing for the old man to follow me. Even though West had been clear about not being mad at Mickey, I still hadn’t worked through my shit. I needed to though. If West wasn’t mad at him, I wasn’t sure I had a right to be either. I wanted to believe there was more that they could’ve done to protect West, but everyone kept telling me it wasn’t as simple as that.

“What can I do for you, boss?” he asked when we were a good distance away from everyone else.

“Your knee okay?” I replied, glancing down at the knee brace he wore. Mickey rarely wore them out in the field.

“Just old.” He chuckled.

“Okay,” I said. “I need to go into town for the day. Why don’t you take Tess and pop her in a UTV with you for the day? I need my cows back where they belong as soon as possible. We’ve been doing damn good with them but until the vet comes and clears every single one of them, I can’t have the whole goddamn herd together. I can’t afford for shit to happen. The ranch won’t survive it.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Jackson,” I corrected.

“Is it now?” He cocked a brow, and I sighed. Of course, he wasn’t going to make this easy on me.

“Look,” I crossed my arms, “I ain’t going to pretend that I think anything y’all did was right. I think you should’ve done more for West while he was here. I think Harrison should’ve had an accident early on that no one would’ve fucking questioned out in one of our fields. I have a lot of fucking thoughts on what should’ve happened to Harrison. But West ain’t mad. He’s fucking grateful for what the lot of you did for him. And if he ain’t mad, then I need to learn to let it go.”

Mickey made a small sound, a slow smile spreading across his face as he nodded .

“Spit it out, Mick. Whatever the fuck you’re going to say, just say it.”

“Do we need to revisit the HR rules?” he teased.

“Get the fuck out of here, old man,” I snapped but grinned nonetheless. As he began to limp away, I called after him, “And, Mick?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“Find out who the fuck screwed up my boundaries. Someone’s getting fired over this shit,” I told him. His mouth pressed into a tight line, but he said nothing. Mickey liked all the guys that worked for me—hell, I did too. But I couldn’t let this pass without repercussions. Not something this big.

“You got it, Jackson,” he said.

“Take it easy, Mickey. Make my girl do all the hard work.” I wandered back to where West stood waiting for me as I watched everyone head out.

“You’re a mean boss,” West commented when I reclined back against the fence next to him.

“I’m a damn good boss,” I retorted.

“Just another grumpy fucking cowboy giving people shit,” he continued.

“Fuck off.”

“Nah, I don’t feel like it.” Good. “Besides, it’s fun watching you squirm in front of them.”

When we were completely alone, I turned to face him. Before I could say a damn word, he leaned over the fence and kissed me, taking me by surprise. The kiss was brief but fuck me, it sent my pulse through the roof.

“You still look stupid in that fucking hat,” he murmured against my lips. I frowned and pulled back.

“What the hell do you have against my hat?” I demanded but that smirk on his face said it all. “You fucker.”

I kissed him again, letting it linger briefly.

“Where’d you go this morning?” I asked.

“I wanted to check on Betty before getting all the horses ready,” West said. That tracked. Honestly, I probably should’ve assumed he was with the horses instead of avoiding me. Granted, he had a history of using the horses to avoid me so the thought wasn’t completely unfounded. “Turns out Betty likes cows more than she likes horses.”

“Because why the hell would we have one normal fucking animal on this farm,” I muttered.

“And the cows seem to like her.”

“Not surprised.”

“They aren’t the only ones who seemed to like her.” His lips quirked, and I had a sinking feeling I wouldn’t like what he said next.

“What the fuck happened?”

“How do we feel about Zeus doing his thing with Betty?” West asked.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” I ran a hand over my face. I knew we were heading into breeding season with the horses, but usually, I didn’t have to worry about anything. Most of the horses were mares, and the few stallions I did have didn’t seem to give a fuck. “And you didn’t fucking separate them?”

“The next time that beast fucking mounts a mare, I’ll let you come in and tackle him off her,” he retorted dryly. “No, I wasn’t about to fucking interrupt that shit. I like all my body parts where they are, thank you very much.”

“Fuck.” I sighed. “Fine, I’ll let the vet know to take a look at her too. Jesus fuck. New rule, keep Zeus away from Betty. And all of Betty’s friends.”

“Betty’s friends are cows. Are we worried about him fucking cows now too?” West teased. “Lock up your heifers now, cowboy.”

“Don’t you fucking start with that shit.” Somehow, with my luck on this goddamn ranch, Zeus would do exactly that. I’d end up on the front of some science fucking magazine with cow-horse babies. I didn’t need that bullshit. “Come on. We got shit to do.”

Fishing my keys out of my pocket, I headed toward my truck.

“Where are we going?”

“The sperm bank,” I called over my shoulder.

“The what ?” he exclaimed. I just laughed but didn’t stop, forcing him to run after me.