Chapter Ten #2
“How did you know that I met with him?”
“I called him.” And before he could point out that was similar to what he’d just done, she added, “I planned to set up a meeting with the three of us. If nothing else, we could discuss the fences that keep coming down. We shouldn’t be working at cross purposes.”
“I understand that.” And he was beginning to understand that this was not a solo mission.
His instinct was to get to the bottom of things quickly and efficiently, and that meant acting alone. He was used to being in charge. Calling the shots, managing chaos. He occasionally dragged his brothers into situations, and they returned the favor, but in general, he liked to work alone.
Looking at the perturbed woman standing in front of him, he wondered how long he was going to feel that way.
“He didn’t have much to say other than seeing a guy looking for a dog on his property in May. He didn’t know my dad. He knew of my mom.”
“Things got personal.”
“They kind of had to. There was a great big elephant in the room.”
Lil pulled in a breath. “Okay, maybe I didn’t need to be there for that. But I want to know what the plan is. Who’s doing what.”
She had a point.
“Okay. We’ll coordinate.”
“Until this thing is solved.”
“What if that never happens?”
“That’s it. Cheer me up.”
He smiled. “Just trying to be realistic. We can look, but we may find squat.”
She considered the ground for a moment. “You want to check the fence with me?”
“There is never a time when I don’t jump at the chance to check a fence.”
She gave him a ha-ha look, but there was genuine amusement in her eyes. “We can take the quad. I’ll drive.”
Jordan hadn’t ridden on the back of an ATV since leaving for college. He didn’t remember it being this much fun, but he hadn’t had Lil in front of him, her ponytail occasionally tickling his face as he hung on to her waist.
They hit a bump and she threw a quick sorry over her shoulder as he recalled why the back wasn’t the best place to ride. He’d nearly been bucked off the thing.
“I’ll drive back,” he said into her ear, tightening his grip on her waist.
He liked the way she smelled, all fresh and floral, with just a hint of barn dust.
“No. I get the front.”
“I’ll wrestle you for it.” He felt her laugh and his groin stirred.
They found one area where a deer had quite possibly hung up and the rest of the fence was trouble-free. Stretched wire was easy to ratchet tight again and they were back at the ranch sooner than Jordan anticipated.
And maybe because the fences hadn’t been messed with and the day was sunny and unusually optimistic, Lil felt the need to bring up the subject that had probably been playing on both of their minds. Definitely on his.
“How long do you plan to stay, Jordan?” she asked driving the ATV to the gas tank for a fill-up. “I mean, you have a life.”
He ran a hand over the side of his face. “Right now, my life is kind of this ranch. I put in the mortgage application yesterday. Should hear in a week or so.”
She nodded. Waited.
He shifted his weight under her scrutiny. “I’d like to stay a little longer. Just because it’s quiet it doesn’t mean things are over.”
“Agreed.”
He undid the gas cap, then took the pump handle from the tank. “Do you want me to go?”
Her shoulders dropped as she exhaled. “Honestly, I don’t know what I want, other than my old life back.”
“The life before I inherited?”
She grimaced. “Some aspects of it anyway.”
He topped off the tank, replaced the pump handle then screwed on the cap. “I can’t blame you there.”
“It’s not you.” She seemed to reconsider. “Well, it is you.” She met his gaze. “Aubrey told me that you were an accidental breaker of hearts.”
His jaw went slack. “Excuse me?”
“Not an insult.”
“Sounds like one.”
“Not the way she told it.” He frowned his lack of understanding and she said, “I don’t consider that a bad thing.”
And then he understood. Lil, who liked his company, considered the fact that he didn’t make commitments easily a plus.
He didn’t know that he agreed with her. “I’m always upfront,” he said, unable to refrain from defending himself of being a breaker of hearts.
“Thus the accidental part.”
He started to respond, then thought better of it. He wasn’t ready to have this conversation.
*
It was almost eleven when Jordan finally started nodding off after replaying the conversation with Lil in his head a couple hundred times, only to be jerked awake when his phone rang.
He grabbed it, instantly thinking that there was an emergency on the Tree Fork, and was surprised to see the name of a former coworker light up the screen.
“Ready to come back to work?” Rex Caldwell asked, not bothering with a hello.
Jordan’s shoulder muscles automatically tightened.
He still hadn’t recovered from his last job. “I’m not.”
He had a plan, and that plan involved taking time off and setting up a home base before hanging out his shingle as a vertical bore consultant.
“How about in a couple of months? October to be exact.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“It’s a DanCo project; starts the first of October.”
“You’re with DanCo?”
“On the Alaska coast, getting really wet.” Rex coughed. “You weren’t the only one who took a beating from Stanton.”
Jordan had worked for Stanton Boring until the mismanaged project from hell had convinced him that it was better to take his chances as a consultant rather than committing to a single company. Of course, at that time, he’d thought he had a ranch to sell.
After getting the details of the job, he told Rex to contact him closer to contract time, because there were things he needed to settle before he started working again.
Rex, finally realizing there was a time difference between Montana and Alaska, apologized for the late call, then added that he was looking forward to working with Jordan again.
He disconnected and Jordan set his phone on the shelf next to the bunk before adjusting the pillow and staring up at the dark ceiling.
If the job had been scheduled during the summer months, he would have passed.
He had to leave the Willow Creek at some point, but he would put that off until he was sure that nothing more was going to happen.
And then what?
His eyes had started to drift shut when a loud clatter from inside the barn brought him upright.
A metallic clang followed, and he got out of bed, shoved his legs into his jeans and then his boots.
After a still moment, the commotion started again.
He pulled on his shirt then eased open the trailer door.
Wild bleating from the two goats inside the barn, followed by a low answering growl made it obvious that he was not dealing with a human intruder.
What the hell was he going to encounter in there?
He cautiously opened the door, stuck his arm inside and hit the light switch, only to have it pop and go black, startling the shit out of him and whatever else was in the barn.
So much for his electrical short-searching skills.
The battery-operated trouble light was only a few feet away from the door, and he edged toward it as the goats scrambled inside their enclosure.
A throaty growl came from a few yards in front of him.
He snapped on the light and a bobcat blinked at him from the haystack.
Betty, Meg’s big white dog, held ground in front of the goat pen, fur standing straight up on the back of her neck as she warned off the cat with a fierce growl.
The goats continued to bound around the interior of the small enclosure, and he could see that part of the racket had been Betty knocking over the collection of shovels and pitchforks that had been leaning against the wall next to the pen.
The bobcat stared a hole through Jordan, the picture of feline insolence, then turned and lightly jumped to the floor. Betty held ground, thankfully, since Jordan didn’t fancy a late-night vet visit, and the cat strutted out of the rear entrance to the barn.
“Good girl,” Jordan said, deciding he wasn’t going to risk approaching the guard dog until she lowered her ruff.
The half-closed barn door jerked open, and Jordan jumped before turning to see Lil standing in the doorway. Betty shifted her gaze to Lil, then brought sharp eyes back to the place where the cat had disappeared.
“What is going on?” Lil hissed.
Jordan moved to the doorway, leaving Betty to convince herself that all was well. “Bobcat.”
Lil’s shoulders dropped. “Is that all? When I saw that your trailer door was open, I had no idea what to think.”
“Is that all?” he echoed.
Granted, a bobcat wasn’t a cougar, but still.
“We had a cat come visit last fall.”
“Old business then.”
She walked past him to Betty and laid a light hand on the dog’s back. “I think it’s gone, girl.”
Betty did not look convinced. Lil moved to the pen where the two goats were backed into a corner, speaking to the frightened animals in a soft reassuring voice as she crouched near the wire enclosure. “Would you close the back doors?” she asked Jordan.
“Sure.” Jordan headed to the doors at the rear of the barn, which were left open so that the horses could seek shelter if necessary. With the horses now on the Tree Fork Ranch, there was no need to keep the doors open, but no one had thought of closing them.
The goats were starting to calm when he returned from rolling the doors shut.
“No barn lights?” Lil asked, indicating the trouble light with a lift of her chin.
“I didn’t get things as fixed as I’d thought.”
She wrapped her oversized sweatshirt around herself more tightly. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier.”
“I’m the one who said it. You just said it back.”
She sank onto a hay bale. “I’m not good with ties, Jordan. The emotional kind.”
He had a feeling that it wasn’t so much a matter of not being good with emotional ties as being afraid of them. Betty, sensing the unsettled vibe, came to lie at Lil’s feet and she leaned down and rubbed the dog’s head.
“I’m cautious about them myself.”
She smiled a little. “I’ve heard.”