*Sadie snuggled under the blankets after her solitary dinner and considered what she’d learned so far.
She wasn’t sure she ever wanted kids, if today’s event was anything to go by. All the fears she had about dealing with Jethro Hansen had blown out the window after seeing him in action this morning. He was soft and charming instead of belligerent, which she’d expected from the brash, loud man she’d heard about. The rumors around town about his wild ways and out-of-control drinking did nothing to prepare her for the man who’d stepped up when she fell in a heap.
She couldn’t look to fall in love—like—with anyone while she was in Marietta. It wasn’t on her plan of things to do, and thus love it was out of the question. Period!
From all the gossip she’d heard, the Hansen boys were rugged and spent all their time drinking and fighting. As much as Layla had insisted Jethro was a nice man and was doing his best, she was the only one in town who thought so.
But it was the old plate with the blue bonnets that did it. It brought home to her that someone at some stage had mothered this man, and even though it was for such a short time, it’d made enough of an impression on him to give him the softer side Sadie saw today. He didn’t even bristle when Tyson punched him in the face. Such a nice contradiction.
And the realization that animals did like her—or at least the old dog did—had topped off what was an extraordinarily hectic day.
She rolled over and thumped her pillow, then settled down again. He was a hiccup in her road to where she was going. Her life was planned out down to the last, minute detail. The life chart she’d started in high school sat pinned on her bedroom wall so that she wouldn’t lose track of her progress; she only put it away in a file at the end of each year when a fresh road map went up. Each time she passed a milestone it wasn’t ticked off, it was highlighted so she could keep track of her accomplishments.
A hot cowboy didn’t fit into that spreadsheet. Not even a tiny bit. She wasn’t looking for a husband yet. Not by a long shot. But maybe it would work. Keep it purely based on needs and not bring her heart into it. That way she could have a satisfying affair and not lose sight of her future plan, the husband she hadn’t yet found. They were both adults and old enough to understand that people had affairs that didn’t necessarily have to go somewhere. Not everyone was looking for forever.
It was worth thinking about.
It wasn’t as though Jethro was in a position to take a wife anyway. She, more than anyone, knew his financial position wasn’t pretty. The last thing he’d be looking for was a life partner when he had his hands full trying to make the ranch pay for itself again. Even with the budget changes Layla had suggested to him and the minor tweaks Sadie had added, it was going to take years before the place was viable, and that was only if nothing went wrong in between. There was no contingency for floods or droughts, stock losses, or any other catastrophe. He simply didn’t have the money for anything to go wrong.
Maybe if he had a plan like hers, perhaps not quite so in depth, he’d be able to see what his future held. It was a good idea, especially for someone like her who loved to write down every single step of her future. It seemed the logical way to go for him, too, but so far, neither Layla nor he had suggested it. It’d also make Sadie feel so much better for having a casual fling with him—she wouldn’t be on his plan.
Tomorrow after work, she’d drop in casually, update him on how Layla and the baby were doing, and make the suggestion. What could possibly go wrong?
With her little organizing heart soothed, Sadie fell asleep with visions of colored Post-It notes lined up on a big whiteboard calendar in the ramshackle ranch house.
*
“Nice of you to show up for work.” Jethro scowled at his youngest brother and went back to cleaning his horse’s hooves.
Crease rubbed his hands over his face and groaned. “Not my fault. Nate got drunk and I had to stay and look after him. Got kicked out of the bar again.” He leaned on the fence and watched Jethro do each of the hooves before speaking again. “Want me to get the saddle for you?”
“If it’s not too much trouble.” It was too much to expect his brothers to help out on a regular basis and he understood that. Not that he liked it. They were annoyed he was the only one getting a decent wage while they got a mere few dollars to keep their heads above water. Most of it went to the bar, much to his annoyance.
“Stop being so damned ungrateful. I’m offering to help out.” Crease glared at him and strode into the tack shed, returning moments later with Jethro’s saddle. He threw it over the horse’s back and pulled the girth strap tight while Jethro fitted the bridle. “What’re you doing today?”
“Bringing in the cows closer to the house so I can see what condition they’re in and how many calves to expect. I need to improve the herd and want to look at a new bull. I don’t think what we have is working too good anymore. Too many cows haven’t fallen pregnant this season, from what I can gather. Going to have to do something sooner than we can afford, but I don’t have much choice.”
“How you gonna pull off that? Good bulls don’t come cheap, you know.” He ran his hand over the horse’s rump and walked around her.
“I don’t know yet. That’s why I want to see what I have before I make the decision. If I have to sell steers to pay for it, I will. We’re not getting anywhere like we are, so changes have to be made.” Jethro grabbed the reins and pulled himself up into the saddle.
“Do you want me to come out and give you a hand?”
“What’s going on, Crease? You swore you weren’t going to help me make things better.” He soothed the horse as she started to step out, keen to work.
His little brother had the grace to look contrite. “Don’t know. Guess you were right. I’ve had time to think, and drinking my life away don’t seem like such a good idea after all.” He heaved out a big sigh, ran his hand over the straggly hairs on his chin. “I know you can’t afford to pay me any more than you do, but I figure if I start pulling my weight, I might be able to pick up a job somewhere. At least I’ll prove to myself that I can do it, put in a decent day’s work.”
“You’ve always been able to do it, you just didn’t want to.” Jethro looked over at the mountains, thinking fast. It would be easier to have help bringing in the cattle. “Go saddle up. I’ll wait.”
Crease bolted inside the tack room, returned with a saddle that he threw over the railing of the paddock where the horses roamed. He let out a shrill whistle for his mare, and she lifted her head, her mouth working on the tuft of grass she had. “Come on, Shadow.” He whistled again. This time she took a step forward. She threw her head and then ran toward them.
By the time Crease had her saddled, Jethro’s horse was prancing around in circles. Jethro gave her a loose rein, and she took off with Crease and his horse, racing behind them, desperate to catch up.
The feel of the sun on his back and the soft summer breeze blowing over his face made all the hard work he was putting in worthwhile. He’d lost a whole day yesterday going into town to see his lawyer, but it’d turned out for the best.
The best thing about yesterday, apart from the baby arriving safe and sound, had been spending time with Sadie. She wasn’t like anyone he’d met before, and she made him laugh, feel good about himself. That was the problem when he hung out in bars all the time—he didn’t get to meet the more genteel type of girls.
It was cute how she didn’t think animals liked her and yet old Clumsy wouldn’t leave her alone. She was funny and sweet, kind of overeducated compared to him but not in the ways of life. The deal Layla had gotten him for the fencing made him want to do better, to prove she hadn’t wasted her time helping him out. If only Sadie could do the same when it came to buying a new bull for the ranch, he’d be made.
And Sadie smelled of old-fashioned roses, much like the memory he held on to of his mother. Holding Sadie’s hand in the hospital had brought that memory back like a kick in the gut. He hadn’t had time to process it until now. After their mother died, they’d all lost their way. Grandpa had tried. Jethro would give him that, but having just lost the one thing they loved the most, they weren’t in the right frame of mind to take any notice of him, a complete stranger whose goal in life seemed to be to order them around.
Last night after Sadie left to go home, he’d gone to his room and pulled out the photo album and flipped through the photos, doing his best to make the memories of his mother come alive again. He struggled to bring back the sound of her voice, the touch of her hand on his back as he tried to sleep. Would she want to see him living his life alone, struggling to make ends meet? He was sure she’d push him to find a good woman to settle down with, to make a future together and not make the mistakes she’d made. For too long, he’d pushed the memories away, and now he feared he’d lost them forever.
He didn’t want to risk losing a friendship with Sadie by doing nothing. Not that he had any chance as far as he could see, but he was eager to give it a shot. Even if he failed, at least he’d know he’d done the best he could. He couldn’t ask for more than that. And a person could never have too many friends, right?
Now all he had to do was figure out a way to make her come back and spend time with him so they could get to know each other better. There was no point in trying to woo her in town. He couldn’t afford any of the restaurants, and the only other place was the bar and she didn’t seem like that would impress her. No. He was better off trying to show her what she was missing. A down-to-earth cowboy doing his best to make things work on an honest-to-goodness ranch would just have to be creative.
Bet she’d never got to get her hands dirty, but he could change all that. He could involve her with some of the nicer aspects of ranch life. Maybe take her out riding, go for a trek up the hills and show her the wildflowers, learn how to muck out the stables, and if she was really brave, tag a few calves. Something she wouldn’t see in the city.
“What’re you thinking? You’ve got a sick grin on your face.” Crease pulled his horse up beside him and together they ambled along.
“Nothing.”
“It’s a girl, isn’t it? I saw lipstick on the coffee mug in the sink. You’ve had someone here while we were out.” He adjusted his hat to shade his eyes from the sun. “Stepping up, brother. First time you’ve ever had a female at the house.”
“What if it is? Ain’t none of your business.” Jethro didn’t need his brothers poking their noses in his affairs and upsetting things before he made his move.
“Everything is my business. You might be the only one earning a decent wage here, but the ranch belongs to all of us.”
“And what’s me having coffee with someone got to do with running the ranch? Last time I looked, I didn’t have to report my love life to you two.”
Crease whooped and his horse sidestepped. “Love life. Hell, yes, you have to tell me what’s going on. Surely that’s part of the brother code?”
When did that even become a thing? “You’re something, you know that? It’s nothing. Not really.”
“So share the details. Don’t know why you’re protesting so much.”
Jethro brought her face up in his mind. The soulful blue eyes, the cute dimples when she smiled, the way her blond hair curled around her ears. “Sadie St. Martin. Works for Mrs. Watson.”
“She’s a lawyer?”
“Yep.” And so much more than just a lawyer.
“Man, you really are punching above your weight. Lawyers aren’t for the likes of us.”
That was what went through his head, too, but a guy had the right to dream, didn’t he? “She’s cute and funny. Hates the sight of blood and thinks animals hate her.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Old Clumsy likes her.”
“Hang on, you were with the lawyer lady when she gave birth yesterday.”
“Yep. Sadie’s her assistant and helped me out. At least she tried to but didn’t do so well.” He grinned, remembering the floral scent of her hair as he stopped her from hitting the floor, the way she gripped his hand as he helped her to a chair while Layla screamed at him to get back to her side. He’d never been in such demand with the ladies as he was yesterday. Funnily enough, he didn’t want a repeat session anytime soon.
He spied a cow in the scrub and dug his heels into his horse. “Let’s go get her, Dancer.” His horse bolted forward as Crease went around the back to make sure she didn’t head out to the hilly pasture, and the two herded her back toward the house. They worked their way out over the back pasture until it looked as though they’d covered it all. The straggly herd was now bunched together.
“Don’t look much like many of these girls are going to calf any time soon.”
A sinking feeling had been building in Jethro’s gut. “Yeah, I’m thinking the same. Not sure it’s even worth bringing the veterinarian to check them out. Be lucky to have twenty calves this year.”
“Sounds like you were right then. Gonna have to offload that old bull and replace him. Thing is, whose gonna sell you one you can afford?” Crease leaned over his horse’s neck and brushed her forelock. “You could always ask the Watsons. They owe you for yesterday.”
“Tyson came over and apologized, brought me a cake.”
Crease burst out laughing, shaking his head so hard his hat fell off. He slid down to the ground and grabbed it, slapping it against his leg to shake off the dust. He put it back on his head and stared at Jethro. “A cake don’t quite say thank you to me. Least not enough for what you did and the punishment he dealt out to you.” He laughed again and leaned on his horse, smoothing his hand down her neck. “No, sir. I think you need to go hat in hand and ask for what you want. What’s the worst that can happen—him saying no?”