*Jethro kissed Sadie, loath to let her go. But it was morning and he had things to do. One lazy afternoon and night making love to her wasn’t enough, but work came first. “I have to go and check on Bulldozer and the girls. Come with me for a ride.”
She stretched out on the bed, and pointing her toes like a ballerina. “Sure. So long as you have a horse that’s not likely to bolt, that is. I haven’t been riding for years.” The thought of her riding the range with him was appealing, especially after shutting themselves in the bedroom for most of the weekend.
“Grandpa had an old mare that’s pretty quiet. Doesn’t get out much. She could do with a decent ride.” He pulled her hand and together they walked down to the stables.
Sadie helped saddle the horses and it soon looked like second nature for her to pick up a horse’s leg and run the hoof pick around it. She was doing the right thing by choosing to stay with him, but she had to be certain for her own piece of mind.
They rode quietly to start with, ambling alongside each other while Sadie found her rhythm again. The sun rose high in the sky, the soft breeze blew over the pasture bringing with it a slight chill from the snow-capped mountains. “This is like a painting, it’s so pretty.”
“It sure is. Don’t know how I’d leave it. Best thing Mom did was bring us boys out here.”
“You miss her?” Sadie leaned forward and ran the mare’s forelock through her fingers.
Mom was such a faded memory now, the hurt had long gone. “Yes and no. I was pretty young when we lost her. Every now and then I can almost imagine her on the front porch with a glass of iced tea and then it disappears like I imagined it.”
“That must be hard. My parents can be difficult to handle some days, but at least I always know they’re there if I need them.”
He shrugged. “I guess I’m better off making new memories than trying to hang on to something I’m not even sure I have right.” He pulled his horse to a halt and stood up in his stirrups, gazing around the pasture.
“What’s wrong?” Sadie copied his stance. “I can’t see anything.”
“That’s the problem. I can’t see the cattle either. They were in this pasture, and we’ve ridden right through it, clear to the other side.” He kicked his horse forward and broke into a canter straight for the fence line. Sadie followed and pulled in beside him when he halted. Jethro kicked his feet free from the stirrups, swung a leg over the saddle, and slid from his horse. He tramped over to the fence and bent down. “Here’s the problem.” He pulled at a broken strand of wire. “They’ve busted through. Damn it!”
“But you can fix it, can’t you? They won’t go far, surely. What’s one pasture more than you thought? We have time to go riding and find them.”
He turned to her, his heart sinking to his boots. “There isn’t any more fencing. This is one of our boundary fences, and that through there”—he pointed toward the trees that dipped into a gully then rose up into the hills that disappeared into snow-capped peaks—“isn’t my land and it goes for miles. I may never find them.”
Sadie’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, crap. And you have Chance’s bull.”
“Yeah. I’m well and truly fucked in this town if I don’t find him. He’s worth a fortune, and I can’t ever hope to replace him. I don’t have the money.”
“I can help you—”
Jethro held up his hand. He knew what people were going to think. That he was after her for her money. This was one battle he would never give in on if they made a go of it together. “No, stop right there. This is my responsibility and my problem. I’ll be the one to make it right.” He grabbed the horse’s reins, reached for the pommel, and pulled himself into the saddle. “Best thing I can do is organize a search party to help, more hands and all that. You and me doing it won’t make much of a dent in an area this vast. Too much land to cover, too many gullies and trees.” He turned his horse back toward the ranch house, his nerves strung tight. “Let’s go.”
Jethro nudged his horse and they raced over the pasture to the house to call up help.
*
Sadie stood quietly watching while Jethro called Chance and told him what’d happened to his bull. The raised voice over the phone didn’t come as any surprise. They were both expecting it, but still her heart felt heavy for him. Jethro hung up and jammed his hands in his pockets. “He’s on his way over along with Tyson and Callie. I have to get Nate and Crease ready, and we’re all going out searching. You don’t have to come with us, Sadie. Go back to town if you want to.”
“Of course I do.” She wasn’t going to let him suffer through this without her, not if she wanted to get a taste of what it would be like to be part of the family. “I want to help find them.” She wound her fingers through his. “It’s important to you, so it’s important to me. I’ve just offered to be part of this, Jethro. I’m hardly going to turn tail and run at the first sign of trouble. It’s not up for discussion.”
“Thanks. Didn’t mean to bite your head off. I’m so freaking stressed right now. I can’t afford to lose even one cow, let alone Chance’s top bull. I should’ve made doubly sure those fences were okay. I thought I’d done a ride around that section.”
“Maybe someone cut it.”
He looked up. “I don’t know. My cows aren’t worth rustling. The bull though, that’s a different story. But everyone knows Bulldozer. It’d be next to impossible to do anything with him, even if they took him out of Montana.”
“Maybe he busted the fence. You know the old saying ‘the grass is always greener.’ Perhaps he’s just being contrary and wanted to roam a bigger pasture.” She slid her arm around his waist and hugged him, feeling the tension in his body. “Stop stressing. We’ll find them.”
“I hope so. I don’t even want to think about what Chance will do to me if we don’t. Come on, let’s go hustle those boys.” He held her hand and together they walked down to the stockman’s quarters and rustled up his brothers. Both Nate and Crease looked under the weather from a late night.
They stumbled outside and covered their eyes from the sun. “Damn, it’s bright out here.” Nate walked over to the water trough and looked at it as if deciding whether it was worth it to dunk his head. But he only turned back to the bunkhouse. “I need a shower before I do anything.”
“Make it quick, then. The Watsons are on their way to help out. I’ll go saddle up your horses.”
Crease rubbed his hands over his face. “I’ll help.” He stumbled to the fence and whistled. The horses lifted their heads and slowly ambled over, where they were rewarded with a scratch to the head and a handful of oats.
Together, Jethro and Crease readied the horses for the search. By the time Chance, Tyson, and Callie arrived with their mounts, Nate had returned with mugs of steaming coffee.
Chance strode over to where they all stood while Callie and Tyson unloaded theirs. “I hope you’ve got a plan, Jethro.” Angry white lines creased his mouth.
“Yes, I do. We go in pairs and each take a side of the hills and meet up around the back. I doubt very much if they would’ve gone past the tree line, but I’m not going to risk it by wasting time, and that’s the reason I called you instead of trying to do it on my own. I’ll do a loop around once I get to the gully and hope they’re holed up in there.”
“Let’s hope you’re right. Not in the mood to lose that bull.”
“Me either. Let’s get going.” They mounted up and, with final instructions from Jethro, they broke into pairs and started out. Tyson tagged along with Jethro and Sadie when they got to the broken fence.
The conversation was stilted; Jethro was wary of the older man and his moods, but Tyson seemed more chill than usual. Maybe becoming a father had given him the focus he needed to let go of the family bitterness.
“How are Layla and the baby?” Sadie pulled up between the two of them when they passed the broken wire.
A big grin split Tyson’s face. “Perfect. He’s a little stinker. All he does is eat and sleep and keep his momma awake at night when she needs her sleep.” He looked down at the ground and pointed his horse toward the left side of the biggest gully, forever the tracker in the family. “This way.”
“I’d love to stop over and see her. We’ve spoken on the phone, but I haven’t seen the baby for a while now. I bet he’s growing fast.”
“That he has. I’m sure she’d like to see you, too. Told me she offered you a partnership. You going to take it?” He looked between Sadie and Jethro.
“I think so, although I haven’t made up my mind definitely yet. We’ve been discussing it, but then we found the cows had busted a fence, so that conversation is on hold for now. But I’ll let her know as soon as I can.”
“Good. I’m sure you’ll like living here well enough. Not as busy as you’re used to, but Layla got used to it, so I doubt you’ll have too many problems. Will she, Jethro?”
“Not from me, she won’t.”
“Good. So long as we understand each other.” He paused and looked at the ground again, then nudged his horse forward.
They kept at it for another hour or so, and Sadie felt the tension in her back each time they crested another hill and rode down another gully without finding them. It’d been a long time since she’d had riding lessons, and now the stiffness had begun to creep in along with the anxiousness.
“There they are.” Tyson whooped and kicked his horse, Jethro right behind him as they rode down into the deep gully and spooked the cattle out of the scrub. Thundering hooves shook the ground beneath her, and the whistling and cracking of the whips the men carried filled the air. Sadie held her horse in check while it pranced excitedly, and stayed beside a tree out of the way. Bulldozer lumbered up the gully like a freight train, the cows following behind him.
“Stay out of the way, Sadie.” She wasn’t hard to convince, although her horse didn’t seem to like being left out. Bulldozer was huge and a force to be reckoned with. Last thing she wanted to do was to step into his path.
Once Tyson and Jethro had the stock up from the gully, they pulled up beside her, and Jethro did a head count while the cows milled around the bull. “They’re all there. Can’t thank you enough for helping me find them. Chance would’ve had my hide, and I don’t blame him either.”
Tyson leaned on the pommel of his saddle, reins hanging loose in his hand. “Happens to us all. Don’t lose any sleep over it, but we do need to have a look at those fences of yours. See what went wrong and make repairs. Meanwhile, I think you need to hold them in a pasture where you can keep an eye on them.”
“Already planned it in my mind. Let’s get them home and let the others know they can stop looking.”
They were unsaddling their horses when Callie and Chance returned. “He doesn’t look any worse for wear.” Chance dismounted and tied his horse to the hitching rail near his truck. “I looked at the fence. One of your main posts might have been used as a rubbing post by the look of things. Wire was a bit suspect, too, but I imagine Bulldozer is responsible.” He undid the saddle and pulled it from his horse before turning to Jethro. “I’ll send someone over in the morning to give you a hand fixing it.”
“You don’t have to do that. It’s my fence, and I should be the one looking after it.” Jethro shuffled his feet.
Chance paused, looking at Jethro with a stern frown on his face. “I know my bull and what he’s capable of. I want to make sure he doesn’t get out again so go with me on this one. You’re actually doing me a favor anyway having him here. He’d be annoying the daylights out of the cows if he was at my ranch.”
“I don’t want to put anyone out.”
“You’re not, Jethro. You’re family anyway. Rupert wouldn’t mind so I don’t get why you do. Roll with it and take it in the spirit it’s intended.”
Sadie didn’t know what to think with the offers of family support and overprotective advice. Nobody’d ever offered her half of what was on show here. If she decided to stay, would she get caught up in the all-encompassing family takeover that was the Watson and Hansen families’ style? Would she be able to cope with all the intrusion and well-meaning advice they seemed to dole out?
Callie wrapped her arms around her husband’s middle. “Bossy, right?”
“You love me to take charge.” He smiled over at Sadie. “Why don’t you and Jethro come over for a meal one night soon? Layla told me what’s she’s got planned for the future. We should celebrate.”
“How about you let Sadie decide what she wants to do before you go celebrating?” Tyson butted in. “Let the poor girl make up her own mind.”
“Oh, sorry. I thought it was all decided.” Chance gave Jethro a quick glance.
“Not officially.” Sadie ran her tongue over her lips. “I want to stay, but I have to sort things out with my family. It won’t go down well, I know that. They had other plans for me.” And I have to make sure I’m doing the right thing. I need to know that I’m not swapping one overpowering family for another.
“You’re old enough to make your own decisions.” Callie spoke her mind, her Aussie voice strong and determined. “Sorry. Tell me to mind my own business, but you fit in here well, and if Layla wants you here, so do we.”
“That’s really sweet. Thank you.”
“Work out what you want and stick to it. You don’t need anyone telling you what to do. You’re the one who has to live your life, not your folks.”
“I know. But I’m an only child, and all my life I’ve had this plan that they’ve gone along with. Changing things now is bound to create drama. It’s how it is.”
“And I don’t fit it with that plan, do I?” The look in Jethro’s eyes made her sad. He wasn’t anything like what her parents wanted for her in a husband, she knew that. And so did he from the look of it.
“You do as far as I’m concerned. Callie’s right. It’s me that has to live my life, not my folks. I have to make the right decision and stick to it. Simple.”
Callie leaned over and gave her a quick hug. “If you need anything, shout out. We girls have to stick together.” She turned back to Chance. “Right, husband of mine? Let’s go home and light the fire, pour a wine, and make love in front of the fireplace. I seem to have worked up an appetite after that little bit of exercise.”
Along with the bossiness and advice, this family seemed prone to “too much information” as well. So unlike anything Sadie’d had before, her family didn’t overshare like the Watsons seemed to do. Was she going to be able to cope with that?
“For you, my dear—anything.” He looked at Jethro. “I’ll have someone over tomorrow to help with that fence.”