Chapter One
My buddy Dave and I were breaching the entrance of an enemy compound and it blew before we could move.
We both turned around, but the blast hit us from behind.
Traumatic brain injuries for us both. I had a headache for months, vision was blurry and I walked like a damn drunk until I got out of physical therapy.
I stretch and pop my back as I look over my acreage. My parents loved this place, even if they never had the finances to make it what it is today. They died in a car crash when I was fourteen. I wish they could’ve known my girls… I wish they could’ve known the love of my life.
I can see Toby, my ranch foreman, jogging up to the house with a stack of papers in his hand.
Probably more applications for new hires.
Some of my bunk boys are moving on. It’s not that they don’t like it here at Silo Springs Ranch, a lot of them just get antsy.
Cowboys like to roam and wander and switch up the scenery now and then.
“Mornin’, sir. I’ve got a few more applications emailed in. You’re gonna want to look at the top one first.”
“Why? What’s so interesting about the top one?
We can’t hire men with broken backs or ones that can’t ride long days on horseback.
You’ll just kindly have to tell them we’re sorry.
I wish I could save everyone, but I can’t.
I’ve already got a chuck wagon position and enough men on office duty with all this damn paperwork. ”
Toby chuckles and hands me the stack. “It’s not any of that this time, sir. She’s from Texas.”
What the hell is he talking about? “She? What do you mean—she?”
“Says she’s a cowboy, and she’s experienced. Guess cattle ranches down in Texas don’t see tits as a red flag.”
It’s not unheard of to see a woman in a bunkhouse in Montana…
but it sure isn’t common either. I read over her credentials.
“Dixie Wilder… Thirty-three years old, fourteen years on the job…” Shit that’s a long time.
Shouldn’t she have gone to college or been wifed up by a cowboy?
Not turned into one. “Why does she want to come to Montana? It’s fuckin’ cold up here. Aren’t Texans desert people?”
I continue to read the resume while Toby takes his hat off and wipes the sweat from his forehead. “If ya ask me, sir—it’s hotter than Satan's balls out here right now, I think she’d feel right at home.”
My brow stretches up my forehead. “It’s June.
What about when November rolls around? She’s not gonna feel at home then, that’s for damn sure.
” I’ve never hired a female before. Much less one that calls herself a cowboy.
I send Toby off to get the rest of the bunk boys situated for the day.
Then I sit down in my rocking chair, still staring at her name.
Flipping through her references, I don’t bat an eye, they’re all great.
Not a single one gives anything less than total praise for her skills and her work ethic.
Seems like she has a reputation down there in the lone-star state.
The two other applications in the pile are good, but hers still stands out.
I hear Toby come back as he walks up the steps to ask me what I want to do.
I lift my nose, hand him the stack of papers and nod. “Hire ‘em all.”
“Even the tits?” Toby looks like I just hit him with a sledgehammer.
I pause a moment to match his stare. “Even the tits.”
I might be insane. My men are good and they’ll treat a woman right…but they’re still men. I don’t know how pretty Dixie Wilder is, but she’s thirty-three, and that’s saying something. She’ll either be a hindrance to the cowboys or she’ll be their rival. Either way, I’m taking a risk.
Toby’s still standing a few feet away from me, staring at the papers I handed back to him.
“Well, don’t just stand there, get on the phone and tell the new hires I need them here by next Monday if they want the job.
We can’t wait around. They’ll get a bed at the bunkhouse and three meals a day.
We’ve got cattle out there that need to be pushed up the mountain. ”
Toby shifts his stance and tips his hat. “Yes, sir.”
We usually wait until July when it gets really warm, so the cattle can graze and be comfortable in the cooler temperatures.
This summer though, we need to move them earlier.
With the three new hires, we’ll have enough men to drive the herd up the mountain and enough to stay back home to monitor the ranch.
I’ll ride up to the cow camp with the herd, then head back home to be with my girls once they’re all settled.
Speaking of my girls—I hear the screen door attached to the kitchen, squeak and smack as they run onto the porch.
I wrap one arm around each of them and give a little squeeze when they sit on my lap.
Addie is now eleven-years-old. Evie just turned nine.
Every time I look at one of them, I see their mother.
Though it’s clearly obvious who takes after her the most…
Adelaide. Long, honey blonde hair with cornflower blue eyes that sparkle like crystal.
She was our rainbow. Evolette has pieces of Claire woven through her, but she looks like me.
Chocolate brown curls, golden brown eyes and a lot of spunk. She has more of my personality.
There’s anticipation radiating from both of their faces.
“Can we go see Lythie and the baby today?” Evie asks.
My niece, Blythe married our foster son, Justin at the beginning of last October.
Their new little man is so damn cute. He has Justin’s dark hair and Blythe’s freckled face.
They named him Jake. I couldn’t be happier how that marriage panned out.
Justin Forge is finally, legally, family.
The way it should’ve always been. There’s a ten-year age gap between them, but that’s exactly what they needed.
Claire was only two years younger than me and that worked for us.
People ask me if I’ll ever jump back into the dating pool, but I had my chance and I’m not looking for another one.
Not to mention, I’m too damn old. I turned forty-five last month. Inside though? I still feel thirty.
I swipe a finger down Evie’s nose. “I’m sure she’d love that.”