40
Gordon entered the kitchen at dinner time with dust still clinging to the creases of his jeans and the day’s work riding heavy in his shoulders.
The room was already full.
Luke had made it clear everyone going on the cattle drive and everyone staying behind needed to be there, which meant the table had been stretched, extra chairs pulled in, and Elise had prepared enough food to feed a hungry army and then scold them if they failed to eat seconds.
Voices overlapped.
Cody was talking to Dwight about a trailer hitch.
Travis was saying something about one of the horses needing to be checked before dawn.
Eli leaned back in his chair with a glass of tea in his hand, looking too relaxed for a man who had spent the day working as hard as anyone.
Rose sat beside him, laughing at something Mari said from across the table.
Earl was near the end, already eyeing the platter of rolls like he had strategic plans for them.
And Talia was there.
Sitting in the chair next to Gordon’s.
Her hands were folded in her lap. Her hair was loose around her face. She wore a calm expression, but Gordon had already learned enough of her faces to know the difference between calm and guarded.
He wanted to kiss her.
He wanted to lean down right there in front of Luke, Edye, Elise, Earl, the children, and the entire ranch and tell her he had missed her all day. He wanted to ask if she had thought about him even half as much as he had thought about her.
He did none of that.
He crossed the room and took his seat beside her.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
She looked at him, and for one second, something real slipped into her eyes.
“Hey.”
Under the table, Gordon slid his hand toward hers. His fingers brushed her knuckles.
She stilled.
Then she let him take her hand.
He laced his fingers with hers, keeping both their hands low and hidden beneath the edge of the table. Her palm was warm. Her fingers tightened around his for a brief second, and the knot in his chest loosened.
“What did you do all day?” he asked.
Talia smiled.
But it was not the smile he had started to know.
Not the one that caught her by surprise when Malik said something funny. Not the one she gave him when she was trying not to want him too much. Not the one from his kitchen, soft and barefoot and dangerous.
This was the polite smile.
The reporter smile.
The one she wore when she was holding herself back.
“I finished the article,” she said quietly.
Gordon’s hand tightened on hers before he could stop it.
She felt it. He knew she did.
Her gaze lowered to the table.
Before he could say anything, Luke cleared his throat and stood.
The conversations around the table faded quickly. Forks stilled. Chairs creaked. Even Nia, who had been whispering something to Malik about whether thunder was louder if it was mad, turned toward her father.
Luke placed both hands on the back of his chair.
“Most of you already know the weather shifted,” he said. “Storm front is moving faster than expected. We’re pushing the cattle drive up by a day.”
No one groaned.
No one complained.
Gordon looked around the table and saw only focus.
That was the thing about Luke. If he changed a plan, people knew he had a reason. He did not move men, animals, and families around for his own convenience. He did it because something needed doing.
“We leave at four in the morning,” Luke continued.
“That gives us time to get ahead of the front and keep the herd moving before the ground gets sloppy. Cody, Dwight, Travis, and the rest of the drive team, you know your assignments, but we’ll review them again tonight.
Edye will ride with the supply crew. Elise and Earl, Eli and Gordon are staying here to look after the ranch and those families staying behind.
Brenda is in charge of all things school related.
Elise and Earl are in charge of the house.
Eli and Gordon are in charge of ranch operations.
They will ensure that the ranch is still standing when the rest of us return.
Cell service will be spotty at best, even with the cell tower I allowed to be placed on the property, but we’ll have our short band radios as well.
Everyone staying behind will have a job.
Gordon and Earl will also handle generators, repairs, and property checks.
Brad will be available if needed. Amy and Sterling will coordinate medical coverage from town, but LaRiah will be close if you need immediate medical help.
Mari will be available if the chopper is necessary.
Communication check-ins happen twice a day unless weather knocks service out.
If that happens, we go to radio. Everyone who is staying also needs to know what to do in case of a tornado.
We have underground shelters in a few locations on the ranch.
Make sure you know where they are located. ”
Talia listened quietly beside Gordon, her hand still in his.
He tried to focus.
He truly did.
He listened as Luke went over routes and backup routes.
He nodded when Luke mentioned fence checks.
He caught Cody saying the west gate needed to be inspected again before first light.
He heard Dwight explain which horses would stay saddled in case something went wrong.
He absorbed the information because he had to.
But his mind kept returning to one thing.
The article was finished.
Talia had told him that when it was done, she would be going home.
Home to Houston.
Home to her apartment and her best friend and her editor and the life she had built before she ever drove through Stanley Ranch’s gate.
The hand in his did not feel like someone leaving.
But people left while holding hands all the time.
Gordon knew that.
His mother had left through death. Bettie had never really reached for him. Paul had claimed him and abandoned him in the same breath. Beau and Logan had called themselves brothers while turning every soft thing in him into a target.
People left.
Or they stayed and made you wish they had left sooner.
Talia had said she would go.
He had heard her.
He had told himself he would not borrow pain from a future that had not arrived.
But now the future sat beside him at Luke’s table, wearing a polite smile and holding his hand beneath it.
He was losing her.
The thought struck so hard he almost pulled his hand away.
Instead, he held on.
Dinner moved around him.
Elise passed platters. Edye corrected the children gently when Malik tried to negotiate extra bread before eating his vegetables.
Nia asked if Gordon would be in charge while everyone was gone, and Luke said no one person was in charge, but Gordon had important responsibilities.
Malik declared Gordon could be in charge of hats. That made people laugh.
Gordon smiled because he was supposed to.
Talia’s fingers shifted in his.
He looked at her.
Her eyes held apology.
He looked away first.
By the time dinner ended, Gordon had eaten because Elise watched him. He did not taste much. Talia had eaten even less, though Elise was too busy with cattle-drive chaos to fuss the way she normally would.
After the plates were cleared and final instructions given, Luke looked at Talia.
“You said the article is finished.”
Talia nodded. “The first draft, yes.”
“You wanted us to read it tonight?”
“Yes.” Her voice stayed steady. “If you’re willing.”
Luke glanced at Gordon, then Edye.
“We’ll read it.”
Gordon stood when Talia did.
She reached for the bag she had placed beside her chair before dinner. He had noticed it earlier but not thought much of it. Now he watched her lift it carefully, like the papers inside were heavier than they looked.
Luke led them down the hall to his office.
The room was quiet, masculine, and orderly.
Shelves lined one wall. The big desk sat in the center of the room, papers stacked with the same neat precision Luke brought to everything.
A framed photograph of Edye and the children sat near one corner.
Another photo, older, showed Luke with a woman Gordon knew had to be his mother, Lily.
Talia entered last.
She stood in the middle of the office for a moment, then pulled three clipped copies from her bag.
She handed one to Luke.
One to Edye.
Then she turned to Gordon.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she held his copy out.
He took it.
Their eyes met.
“I wrote what I saw,” she said.
Gordon looked down at the title.
The Cowboy Breed
By Talia Monroe
His throat tightened before he read a single word.
They sat.
Luke settled behind his desk. Edye took the chair to his right. Gordon sat in the chair beside Talia, close enough to feel the warmth of her, not close enough to touch without choosing it.
No one spoke.
Pages shifted.
And Gordon began to read.
The Cowboy Breed
By Talia Monroe
There is a certain kind of man people expect to find on a Texas ranch.
They picture the hat first.
Then the boots.
Then the horse beneath him, the dust behind him, the sun cutting hard lines across his face as he rides across land that has belonged to somebody for generations.
They expect swagger. Silence. A jaw set against pain. A man who can rope, ride, work cattle, fix a fence, and say very little about what any of it costs him.
At Stanley Ranch in Sunset Springs, Texas, you will find those men.
You will find the hats, the boots, the horses, the cattle, the fences, the dust, and the long, punishing hours that make romance look foolish until you see the tenderness hiding inside the work.
But if you stay long enough, if you watch closely enough, you begin to understand that a cowboy is not a costume. He is not made by denim, leather, land, bloodline, or the width of his shoulders. A cowboy is not proven by how hard he can ride away from something.
Sometimes, he is proven by how hard he learns to stay.