Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(51)

“Good grief. A man takes a woman fishing it’s serious as sharing his hymn book in church. I’ll get the wedding plans going.”

“Don’t you dare!” Sophie gasped.

Kate’s laughter rang in her ears a full minute after she hung up.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN


The week went by like greased lightning. First there was a meeting with the lawyers over the sale, then the bank over the transfer of funds, and then signing enough papers that Sophie wondered if she was buying the whole state of Texas. While they were doing that, Hayden and Kendall were off checking prices on fencing and new barbed wire. When they found the place that would give them the best deal, they tallied up the total and brought the figures to the kitchen table.

Tanner supervised Frankie and Randy while the rest of the hands were busy, and they did chores, plowed and planted three hundred acres of winter wheat, and took care of the mundane everyday business of a ranch.

Come Thursday night all seven of them pulled chairs up around the kitchen table. Hayden reported that he and Kendall had bought and hauled in enough fencing to go around the whole original Double Bar M. Tanner reported what he’d gotten done with the cattle, and set up a date to work all the new calves. Tanner would be responsible for bringing the vaccinations from the feed store in Baird. Randy and Frankie would help with the branding and inoculations.

That left Hayden and Kendall to start replacing fence.

“We’ll put up a mile of new and then take out the old. When you guys get the cattle worked you can help us. It should keep us out of jail for a month,” Hayden said.

Frankie laughed. “At least through the week. Ain’t makin’ no promises about stayin’ out of jail the weekend after payday.”

“You get in jail once, I’ll bail you out and dock your paycheck for the amount,” Elijah said. “Twice and you can hunt for another job.”

“Daddy’s rules.” Hayden smiled.

“That’s right. They worked then and they’ll work now if these boys want to have a job on the Double Bar M,” Elijah said.

Frankie swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Yes, sir.”

“Daddy always had at least five hired hands besides us boys,” Tanner said. “That was rule number one.”

“What was number two?” Randy asked.

“No drinking on the job,” all three brothers said in unison.

Elijah laid a hand on Randy’s shoulder. “You drink on the job, you endanger your life and the partner you are working with. Drunk man can wreck a piece of machinery and kill himself, a dozen cows, and another hand. So no drinking on the job.”

“Any other rules?” Kendall asked.

“Number three: no women in the bunkhouse,” Hayden said.

“Not even for supper?” Kendall fired back.

“Supper is fine. Watchin’ television is fine, but kiss ’em goodnight at the door and send them home. Weekends are yours to do whatever you please. And if you got the energy to chase skirts through the week after workin’ all day, then have at it. You fall asleep on the job, you’ll be lookin’ for another one,” Elijah said.

Suddenly Sophie was very glad she had a man to help her run the ranch. She’d never even thought about rules with the hired hands since Gus took care of all that.

“That all?” Randy asked.

“One more,” Hayden said. “That is if we’re going to run this like Daddy ran the cotton farm.”

Elijah looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Hayden went on. “Saturday, at straight up noon, is payday. Miz Sophie will have your checks written out and ready when you come in to eat that day. You better be in the bunkhouse on Monday morning at six thirty for breakfast. In the case of an emergency, you’ve got Miz Sophie’s cell phone number so call her. And that’s the only reason you’ll not be at the breakfast table, sober and ready for work on Monday morning. Anyone of you got a problem with the rules, or do I need to write them down and nail them to the wall in the bunkhouse?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Then I expect we’d best get on about our jobs this morning. Soon as we get this fence up, we’ll be doing a heck of a lot of plowing and planting. You’ll be wishin’ you could string barbed wire before we get more than a thousand acres ready for winter wheat.”

Kendall rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “We’re going to get it all done this winter?”

“Nope, but we’re not going to slow down,” Hayden said. “We’re going to fight mesquite until the Double Bar M is as clean as the cotton farms out in West Texas. Until our pastures are as green as Irish land and our cows are so fat that people beg us to sell to them. I expect you two”—Hayden looked at Elijah and Sophie—“had better go find us some equipment to work this big old patch of countryside. Two tractors ain’t goin’ to get much done, and we ain’t seen a mule on the place.”

Tanner shook his head. “Mules might be cheaper than tractors, even used ones.”

“Yeah, but the production ain’t as good, and I’d rather be ridin’ in an air-conditioned cab as walkin’ behind a mule all day,” Kendall said.

Frankie slapped him on the shoulder. “How do you know? You ain’t never looked at a mule’s fanny all day long.”