Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(13)

“You got the work narrowed down to where you don’t have to do anything when it’s hot or cold? Can’t take the weather?” He mounted a vehicle and turned the key to start the engine.

She did the same. “I can do anything that keeps this ranch going. Don’t get your hopes up, chief.”

“I thought we’d settled that business of racial slurs,” he growled.

“OK, then don’t get your hopes up, period. Want me to lead?”

“I know the layout of this place as well as you do. Maybe better. You can follow,” he said.

“Not me. I don’t follow anyone anymore,” she yelled over the roar of the engines.

They rode side by side down the west side of the ranch, checking the fence as they went. Only once did she stop and fix a broken barbed wire with the equipment she kept in the saddlebags behind her seat. He watched, prepared to step in and finish the job when she broke a nail or scratched her hand, but she did the job expertly, with no problems.

“You can take care of the next one,” she said when she was ready to ride again.

“You think I can’t fix a fence?” he asked.

“I think you can do anything on this ranch. If you’d been lazy, Aunt Maud wouldn’t have let you come back after the first summer. Seems I remember you bein’ here every time Momma made me come spend a week or two. Only then Aunt Maud called you Bud, not Eli or Elijah,” she said before she started the engine.

He threw one leg over the seat like he would if he’d been sitting in a saddle on the back of a horse. “Uncle Jesse called me his little buddy when I was little. I grew into Bud when I was a teenager. So there’s a bit of information for you.”

“I remember you being a hard worker. That’s a good thing. I can always use a good hand on the place,” she said.

A sly grin tickled the corners of his thin mouth. “I remember you being sassy and bored to tears, which isn’t a good thing. But you can fix a fence and keep pretty good records, and I can always use a person like that on the ranch.”

“So are you making fun of me or hiring me? I didn’t even know there was a position open,” she said coolly.

“Right back atcha, darlin’. You tryin’ to hire me? I don’t work cheap,” he said.

“Touché, darlin’! We each got a point and lost it. Let’s go check on the rest of the place,” she said.

It was eleven thirty when they completed the tour. Elijah was pleased with what he saw. The war against the prolific mesquite trees hadn’t been won, but Sophie and Maud had kept it in check. The cattle were fat and well fed on pastures that were still producing. The calf crop for the fall looked good and profitable. He’d already begun a mental list of the bulls and the cows that should go to the sale.

She parked her vehicle beside the yard fence. He did the same.

“We’ll clean them up and refuel after we eat,” she said.

He nodded in agreement.

Things were the same as the last time he’d been to Baird, Texas. That was a good sign in his books. Steady and sure. Peaceful and home.

She washed up at the kitchen sink and dried her hands on a tea towel, wasting very few motions. He watched as she removed containers from the refrigerator and opened them.

She motioned toward the cabinet top. “You are a big boy and know how to use a microwave. Fix yourself a plate from the leftovers. We don’t waste much around here.”

“It’s good food. Be a shame to waste it.” He remembered many times when he would have given half his bank account for leftovers from Aunt Maud’s refrigerator.

Their hands brushed when they both went for a slab of ham at the same time. Sparks flew, but she attributed it to anger. He figured it was the result of looking at her long legs too much that morning.

She pulled a can of Pepsi from the refrigerator while her food heated in the microwave and set it on the kitchen table at one end. No way was she conceding the head of the table to him on the first day.

He fixed a plate and set it beside the microwave to wait his turn and got a can of soda pop from the fridge. He set it on the other end. He wasn’t about to take a lesser place and sit on the side.

“So tell me, who are you dating? That preacher man from over in Albany?” Elijah asked.

Her jaw began to work in a fit of anger. “What makes you think I’d date another preacher? Or that I’m dating anyone? This ranch takes all my energy and time. Keeping it running smoothly and taking care of Aunt Maud didn’t leave time for men.”

“I understand it left Sunday afternoons. You have time for those two girlfriends of yours; you’d have time to date. Unless you like the girls better than you do men folk?”

“You are not going to fire up my anger, Mr. Jones. I like men just fine. I might even like one well enough to date someday. But not now,” she said.

“Why? You aren’t that ugly that no one would want you. You landed that television preacher easy enough,” he said.

That ugly! So that was his opinion of her.

The microwave buzzed. She removed her plate with hot pads and carried it to the table. “Matt taught me a hard lesson. Don’t trust.”

He set his food inside and turned the dial to three minutes. “So what’s it going to take for you to trust?”

“Kate, Fancy, and I had this conversation a year ago. Kate said a man had to ride up on a white horse and be her knight in shining—and then she couldn’t think of the right word, so she said ‘whatever’—and make her truly believe in the words ‘I love you.’ Well, it took Hart a while to convince her that he was her knight in shining whatever, but he did finally. And Fancy said that someone had to offer her a forever thing.”