Chapter Nine
Approaching the Sweet home, Clint felt a bit like a stray mutt about to stain the pristine home with his presence.
He always felt that way around Alice Sweet and her family.
He wished he could have done more to help them after that sleazebag of a foreman and his ranch hands swindled them out of almost everything they had.
Shaking his head, he thought back to the day Ray hired him.
It had been rough finding work with his record.
Ex-cons everywhere had a tough time getting a fresh start, but he’d been particularly worn down.
When all Ray had to say was “everyone makes mistakes,” Clint had thought he’d stumbled onto the best man on the planet.
In return, Clint had worked doubly hard to repay the foreman, only to slowly notice a few anomalies and then one day, everyone was gone, along with all the new equipment that had been purchased.
It hadn’t taken much to connect the dots.
He’d been hired because the thieving foreman thought an ex-con would fit right in with the rest of the gang.
The irony of it all was that the same foreman was probably one of the few people on the planet who knew Clint was a hard-working honest man who would never have…
. Shaking his head, he was not going there. Not now. Not today.
Pausing to use the boot scraper, he knocked lightly before entering the home. At the counter Alice Sweet, hunched over, wielded a massive knife as long as the counter space in front of her.
“I could come back.”
Alice glanced in his direction. “Tomorrow is Kade and Cassie’s seven-day anniversary.”
“Day?”
She shrugged. “They had a smaller than small ceremony, no reception, no honeymoon. Didn’t seem right to wait a whole year to celebrate.
” She straightened, stretching her back left then right, before setting the cake she’d just sliced across the middle onto a pile of other cake layers.
“I considered waiting a month, but this made sense for Kade’s favorite. A seven-layer cream cake.”
His gaze shifted from the stack of half cakes on the side to the whole one on her left that was obviously the next one for her to tackle. “I’m guessing you’re not using whole cakes to avoid creating the Leaning Tower of Pisa.”
Her chuckle made him smile. “Good observation.” She pulled the last cake over. “Don’t tell me you bake too?”
He came within a flash of telling her that his wife had loved to bake. Instead he merely shook his head, remembering how that woman loved to tinker in the kitchen. The house always smelled of cinnamon, or vanilla, or some combination thereof.
One palm flat on the top of the cake, she slowly sliced through the middle of this last layer. “Preston tells me that we’ve just about caught up with your back salary.”
“Yes, ma’am, but I told you—”
“Don’t even go there,” she cut him off. “And that’s not the reason I asked you to stop by.” She set the sliced cake aside. “Apparently, we have enough breathing room that we can hire one full-time ranch hand for you.”
“For me?”
She spun about to face him. “Well, for us, but since you’ve been doing the bulk of the full-time work around here with sporadic help from my children and me, I think—we think—you should be the one to interview the candidates.”
He knew his eyes had to be bugging out of his head. He’d worked here less than a year. Was a lowly ranch hand. He had no business making those kinds of choices for the family. “I don’t—”
Her hand shot up, and once again she cut him off. “And you might as well know, you’ll be made foreman.” And just like that, a huge smile spread across her face at the exact moment her arms crossed in front of her, practically daring him to argue.
A smile slowly teasing the corners of his mouth, he slapped his hat against his thigh and lifted his gaze to meet hers. “Thank you, ma’am. I won’t let you down.”
“You haven’t yet. I doubt you ever will.”
He had to ask himself, would she think that way if she knew the truth about his past?
“I still think it would have been more fun on horseback.” Cassidy hopped out of the four-wheeler.
“Trust me, when we’re done working the line, you’re going to be darn happy that we can get back to the ranch quickly on a cushioned seat and not a leather saddle.”
“If you say so.” Of course she believed Kade, but she’d lived in too many households with too many young boys, not to want to give them a little grief along the way.
Even someone as nice as Kade. And the man was very nice.
Of course, she’d thought so from the first moment she’d noticed him and he’d come to her rescue.
Had she not felt totally safe and secure with the man she’d known less than twenty-four hours, she would never have agreed to this crazy scheme.
Which, if she were being honest, didn’t seem so crazy anymore.
“You’re smiling.” Kade hefted a toolbox out of the back of the four-wheeler and stood there staring at her. “What’s got you so happy?”
Her gaze scanned from left to right. “Who wouldn’t be happy out here?”
“A lot of people,” he sort of scoffed before walking the tool box over to the broken fence line. “Especially folks raised in the city and used to a gas station on every corner and a shopping mall within walking distance.”
She shrugged. “Convenience is nice, but it doesn’t compete with this beautiful sky and warm sunny days.”
“Wait till winter hits and all you can see is miles and miles of snow.”
“Snow’s pretty.”
Kade chuckled. “You always find the bright side of things. Don’t you ever just want to rant?”
“Sure, but what’s the point?” She’d spent plenty a night crying about where she lived, or what she had to deal with, or that last year in the system wondering how she was going to survive on her own, but none of her tears changed anything.
Walking behind him, she came to a stop at the downed post. Together, they held it up as Kade used his clippers to cut off the damaged wire and restrung the post.
If she did say so herself, she thought she was improving at the fence line. She’d fumbled too often the first day they went out to help, and the second day she’d cut her fingers up, even with gloves. Today, she thought she was doing darn good.
“You’re smiling again.” This time he had a grin almost as wide as hers.
Shrugging, she met his gaze. “I think I’m getting better at helping.”
“No thinking. You are.”
She shifted for a better grip on the post. “Mathematical things come pretty easily to me, but I’ve never had to work much with my hands. It’s nice. Though my back doesn’t always agree.”
Looking up, he frowned at her. “Maybe we should call it an early day. I can get Clint to help tomorrow, or one of my brothers.”
“No.” She shook her head firmly. “We’re almost done. I can handle it.”
“Stubborn,” he muttered, though the corner of his mouth twitched in a smile.
He went back to stretching a new length of wire, the rhythmic creak of the fence stretcher a familiar sound in the quiet afternoon.
Cassidy held the post steady. She liked this.
The simplicity of the work, the tangible result, the easy, comfortable silence between them.
She was so focused on the task that she didn’t notice it at first. It was Kade’s sudden, absolute stillness that broke the spell.
His body went rigid, his gaze fixed on a spot on the ground just a few feet to her left.
“Don’t move,” he said, his voice a low, deadly calm.
Her own gaze dropped. Coiled in the grass was a rattlesnake, its head raised, the dry, chilling buzz of its tail cutting through the silence.
Cassidy froze, her heart leaping into her throat.
Before she could even process a coherent thought, his hand dropped to his right boot, and a small, dark handgun appeared in his grip.
Kade’s movements were a blur of deadly efficiency.
The shot echoed across the open land, and the snake grew instantly still and quiet, its head splattered across the ground.
For a long moment, no one moved. Cassidy’s knuckles were white where she gripped the fence post.
“You okay?” His voice steady, Kade’s eyes scanned the ground around them.
Her throat too tight for words, she could only nod. Silently, he returned the weapon to its ankle holster. She’d known there was a rifle on the vehicle, but had been clueless that he also had a gun on him. “Do you always wear that?”
“The gun?” He nodded, gesturing with his chin toward the now-still snake.
“This is Texas. You’d be surprised how many folks have a license to carry.
Add to that this is ranch country where you never know what critter is going to come along.
” He nudged the snake with the tip of his boot.
“Plus, my military training… well, you can count on most of us carrying. My sisters included.”
Cassidy’s mind flashed to the brief, terrifying moment she’d felt so utterly vulnerable. And then to Kade’s instant, lethal response. It wasn’t just a habit for him; it was a part of who he was. The protector. The soldier. And in that moment, she had never been more grateful for it.
He offered her a small, reassuring smile. “Let’s finish up here. I think you’ve earned that cushioned seat back to the ranch.”
The sound of the shower shutting off pulled Kade from his thoughts. The bathroom door opened, steam billowing out. Cassidy emerged in clean jeans and an untucked button-down shirt. Her hair still damp, twirled into a bun at the back of her head, she looked like an angel.
“Your turn.” She moved toward the dresser.
“In a minute.” Holding a small tin of salve in one hand, he pointed to the bed with the other. “Take off your shirt and lie down on your stomach.”
Her eyes went wide as saucers.
Suppressing a smile, he shook his head, despite the heat creeping up his neck. “For your back. This salve will help with the soreness.”
“Oh.” The single syllable came out small. “Of course.” She hesitated only a moment before inching toward the bed, standing in front of him, her back to him, she unbuttoned the shirt and let it slide off her shoulders then tossed it onto the bed as she climbed onto the mattress and lay down.
Kade settled beside her, warming the salve between his palms. The first touch made her flinch. “Cold?”
“A little.”
He worked the salve into the tight muscles along her spine, feeling the knots from hours of fence work. Her skin was warm beneath his hands, and he tried to focus on the task, not the way her breath caught when he found a particularly sore spot.
“Dad swore this stuff could cure anything. Charley horse—the salve. Sprained muscle—the salve. Twisted something or other—the salve. I’d swear if he’d had any, he would have used it for warts and ulcers.”
The bedspread against her face muffled her laugh. “Windex.”
“Excuse me?”
“My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The father used Windex to fix everything. It was a running gag throughout the movie.”
“Never saw it.”
Shoving up on one arm, she turned her head to glance at him from over her shoulder. “You’re kidding me?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“Oh, you have to see it. It’s a classic right up there with My Cousin Vinny.”
“That one I’ve seen.” His fingers continued to press and rub at a particularly stubborn knot.
Easing herself back onto the bed, she winced at the pressure before sighing.
“I guess I’m more out of shape than I thought.
” They were quiet for a moment, just the sound of his hands moving across her skin, the rhythm of her breathing.
“In foster care nobody touched you unless they had to. Medical checks, moving you from house to house. It was all… functional.”
Why did those words hurt his heart? Children should remember hugs, and laughter and mothers kissing away the pain when you fell out of a tree and scraped your knee. “What happened to your parents?”
The silence hung so long, he wished that he could take the words back. How stupid could he be?
“I don’t remember them very well. I guess, not at all really. I mostly remember the memory but not the people.”
He continued to massage her tired muscles. Even though he’d loosened most of the knots, for some reason he wasn’t ready to lose this connection.
“I was five when my parents were killed in a car accident. The babysitter took care of me for a short time while authorities tried to find any relatives, but they couldn’t.
My first home lasted almost four years. Mrs. Winston was really nice.
At least I remember her that way, but then she got very sick.
Her son explained that she couldn’t care for any of us anymore. ”
“Any of you?”
“There were three of us. Susie was a year older than me and Nancy a year younger. It was nice to have sort of sisters. For a little while.” She heaved a deep sigh.
“It actually felt like a home, like life was…normal. I had thought that was going to be my forever home. Next house wasn’t too bad, but then my friend Penny got moved, or maybe she went back with her parents, not really sure, but I think that’s when I learned not to get too attached to anyone or anything. ”
His mind wandered back to the lack of knick-knacks or personal belongings in her apartment—not a single memento worth bringing with her.
Things were making more sense. His chest tightened and his heart pinched.
Now he was going to do the same thing to her again.
Give her a family for a year, then take it away from her.
In his entire life, had he ever felt like such a heel?