My Billionaire Cowboy Protector: A smell town enemies to lovers sweet romance

Chapter 1 Lane

“Tell me about your experience working on ranches,” Lane Johnson said, running his fingers through his dark brown hair.

“I haven’t actually worked on a ranch, but I’ve watched a lot of episodes of Yellowstone, and I’ve read all of the Louis L’Amour books,” the man eagerly announced. “I saw the ad for the job and thought that it would be a lot of fun.”

“Have you ever been up close and personal with cattle or horses?”

“Not really, unless you count zoos. But I’m a quick learner.”

Oh boy,Lane thought. This one is actually worse than the last guy who thought we used a hot iron with a small point and actually drew brands on animals.

Lane did his best to plaster a pleasant look on his face. “We are a self-sustaining ranch. Do you know what that means?”

“I’m guessing that means that you grow your own food for the cattle.”

“You guessed right. Can you run any agricultural equipment, like a swather, combine, or hay baler?”

“No, but I can learn. I’ve used a riding lawnmower my entire life,” he said.

Lane bit his tongue to keep from laughing. “Thank you, John. I’ll make my decision by the end of the day and let you know.”

The man stood up and shook hands with Lane. Lane noticed that they were velvety smooth.

I doubt this guy has ever done a day’s work of hard physical labor in his life.

His next interview had already arrived.

I hope this fella is more capable than the last.

It was almost calving season and he was short a couple of hands. He had interviewed four people already and none of them were qualified. One was a drunk and another didn’t know one end of the cow from the other.

His heart sank when a five-foot-two woman walked into his office.

“Taylor Williams?” he asked.

“That’s me,” she said.

He noticed that she had a firm handshake and that her hands were a little rough. Probably from gardening. There is no way this tiny woman has ever done heavy ranch work.

However, he didn’t want to be completely rude and kick her out without talking to her. It might even prove to be entertaining.

He gestured to a chair and sat down behind his desk. “Tell me why you applied for this job.”

“I need a job. My husband died a year ago. We owned a large ranch, so I have a lot of experience. I can’t see myself sitting behind a desk or waitressing. I love the hard work and fresh air.”

“What happened to your ranch?”

“His father had got into a lot of debt, which we inherited when y husband inherited the ranch. Then, my husband was killed by someone who was drinking and texting. I couldn’t do the work by myself, although the Good Lord knows that I tried. Eventually, it got foreclosed on. I’m hoping to earn enough money to buy it back when it goes on sale.”

“What types of jobs would you be able to do?” he asked, expecting to hear things like milking cows, collecting eggs, and bottle-feeding the calves.

“I can brand, fix fences, throw hay bales, and whatever else needs to be done. I’m familiar with the different diseases that affect cattle and can spot them early on. I can run the machinery. If it needs to be done on the ranch, I can do it.” She looked at him dead in the eyes and said, “I can keep up with any man.”

He hesitated for a minute. She was a tiny woman and hardly looked capable of doing the extremely hard work that ranching required, but she was confident in her ability. Taylor needed a job and he needed a ranch hand.

“I’ll give you a week’s trial. If you’re as good as you say, you have a job with us,” he said. “You obviously can’t stay in the bunkhouse with the men, but I do have a very small cabin you can live in. It’s not much.”

“I don’t need much. All I have is a duffle bag of clothes since I’ve been living in a motel. Everything else is in storage.”

“Breakfast is at six, lunch at noon, and supper is at six,” he said. “I give out the daily assignments right after breakfast.”

She nodded. “Thank you for the opportunity.”

“Let’s introduce you to the others.”

He led her outside.

“Robert, this is Taylor. She’s our new hire,” Lane said. “Robert has worked on this ranch since he was eighteen. I’m pretty sure he knows more about it than I do.”

“Welcome to the Rocking J Ranch,” Robert said. “Let me know if I can help.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it,” Taylor said.

They walked over to the barn. “This is Anthony. He’s been with us for a couple of years. Anthony, Taylor is going to be working with us.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. We need a man who can keep up with us and get work done – not some dainty butterfly we’re going to have to babysit.”

Taylor lifted up her chin, puffed out her chest, and narrowed her eyes. “I assure you. I can keep up with you.”

Anthony looked her up and down and said, “I doubt it. You probably don’t even know how to collect the eggs right.”

She put her hands on her hips and said, “I don’t know who hurt your feelings, but you don’t have a right to take it out on me.”

Lane held back a laugh when Anthony actually hissed at her.

“Is he always like that?” Taylor asked as they walked away.

“I’ve never seen him be rude to anyone before, but this is the first time I’ve ever hired a female ranch hand. I’m sure that he’s stuck in the 1950s and thinks that women belong in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant and certainly not working on a ranch.”

“I guess there will be some people who think that a woman doing the same work on the ranch as a man is impossible. I know it’s hard work.”

“If you’re as good as you say you are, he’ll figure it out pretty quickly,” Lane said.

“I hope so. I really would hate to hurt his feelings even more,” Taylor said.

Lane had the idea that she wouldn’t hate hurting Anthony’s feelings. He had just met the woman, but in a fair fight, his money was on Taylor. He grinned to himself at the thought.

“Let me introduce you to Sam,” Lane said.

Sam was setting up the bottles for the orphaned calves.

“This is Taylor. She’ll be working with us.”

Sam looked at her for a second and said, “Your mama owns the diner in town.”

Taylor smiled and said, “She does.”

“You look exactly like her. I know your father two. They are good people.”

“Thanks. I’m partial to them.”

Sam grinned and said, “It’ll be a pleasure working with you.”

“You too.”

They went back to the house where he introduced her to Franny, the cook, and Della, the housekeeper. She met Willow, Lane’s younger sister, who took care of the bookkeeping for the ranch. “You’ll meet Colton later. He’s out on the swather.”

She filled out a ton of paperwork.

“We do have insurance. It will start after your week’s trial if everything works out,” he said.

“Benes are always nice,” Taylor said.

After she finished signing the last document, Lane said, “Let me show you the cabin,” Lane said.

They walk a little bit past the tree line of a wooded area to a small cabin. It had a kitchen, a small living room, one bedroom, and a bathroom. There was a large fireplace in the living room.

“It’s not a lot,” Lane said.

“It’s perfect,” Taylor said. “I need to get my stuff from the motel and check out.”

“Dinner is in an hour.”

“I’ll be there.”

Anthony is silent during the meal. Everyone else is joking and laughing. Taylor joins in as though they were all old friends.

Franny said, “It’s great to have another woman with us. Della and I can always use another person on our side.”

Taylor grinned.

After dinner, Lane resisted the urge to offer to walk her to the cabin. She’s my ranch hand, not my date.

He watches her walk away. He notes that she is very beautiful. She’s also very small, especially compared to his six-foot-three frame. His gut told him that he shouldn’t underestimate her.

Lane grinned as he handed out assignments the next day. One of the ranch chores that a lot of people hated was fixing fence. He decided to test Taylor.

“You’ll be fixing fence with me,” he said.

She nodded. They drove in silence to the back pasture where one of the more cantankerous bulls had knocked down a lot of the fence line. Working with barbed wire wasn’t fun.

However, she pulled on her gloves and grabbed the fence stretcher. She had the hammer, staples, and wire clips and went to work where the fence had been knocked down.

Lane was impressed. She knew how to use the tools and worked as hard as he did. They managed to have the huge section of fence fixed before lunch.

“Nice job,” he said.

“Thank you.” She grinned, knowing that he had expected her to either quit or fail.

After lunch, they rounded up the shipment of cattle that had just come in. Robert pushed them through the corral and into the shoot. Taylor branded them while Lane vaccinated them. By the time he was done, she was done. He opened the shoot and Robert drove the next one in.

The brands were perfectly done. By dinner time, they were done.

“Nice work,” Robert said. “I couldn’t have done better myself.”

“Thanks,” Taylor grinned.

Lane watched her walk back to the cabin to get washed up for dinner. There was something special about her. Taylor smiled and joked around but dove into the work without a single complaint, keeping up with him.

“Color me impressed,” he said to himself.