Daisies in the Canyon(23)

“Good.” Bonnie flashed him a brilliant smile.

“Bonnie inherited Ezra’s ’shine ability. What did you get, Abby?” Cooper asked.

“His stubbornness,” she said quickly then wished she could cram the words back into her mouth. She should have said that she got nothing from him because she sure didn’t want to have even one tiny cell in her body like Ezra Malloy.

“And you?” Rusty looked over at Shiloh.

She pushed her dark hair over her shoulder. “Mama said that I had his temper and his blue eyes. ‘His mean blue eyes’ is what she actually said.”

“I haven’t seen that,” Rusty said.

“You haven’t crossed me.”

On the outside Shiloh was the quietest one of the three, but evidently there was a fair amount of grit on the inside. That meant she would most likely fight for her place on Malloy Ranch.

“Shit,” Abby huffed.

“What was that?” Cooper asked.

“Thinking out loud,” she said.

“Ezra did that. He said shit under his breath a dozen times a day when something didn’t go the way he wanted,” Rusty said. “A part of him will live on with y’all here.”

All three sisters looked at each other and rolled their pretty blue eyes toward the ceiling. They could read each other’s minds in that moment, because they were all thinking the exact same thing. Each of them wanted their own ranch, but they sure didn’t want to be compared to the man who’d made it a possibility.





Chapter Six

The wind whipped Abby’s hair around her face to the point that she was spending more time pushing it back than throwing hay off the back of the truck for Bonnie and Shiloh to cut loose and kick around for the cows. She finally bent at the waist and gathered it up in a high ponytail with her fingertips, then secured it with the rubber band she found in her pants pocket.

Bonnie slapped a cow on the flank to get her to move to one side. That girl had spunk. Yes, she did. She hadn’t shown fear of anything since she got there and she spoke her mind. Shiloh was a different story. She’d been reserved, but she reminded Abby of a lit stick of dynamite.

“Hey, Rusty,” Abby called out above the whistling wind, “how much does that big round bale machinery cost?”

“Anywhere from three to ten thousand dollars would be about right. We could probably pick up a really good used one for five thousand,” he said.

“And how much does a round bale weigh?” she asked.

“From a thousand to twelve hundred pounds.”

“That means we could bring two out here in the winter once a day, right?”

He opened the truck door and stepped out. “You’d need a spear to attach to the front of the tractor, which would be another five hundred or so, but yes, that’s right. The other thing about the big bales is that you don’t have to hire haulers to get it from the pasture to the barn. You can just line them up against a fencerow and they’re waiting there for you when you need them.”

“I’m buying that stuff next January when these other two sell out to me,” she said.

“It ain’t happenin’, woman.” Shiloh’s cold blue eyes could have frozen her on the spot.

“We’ll have to make small bales this year and believe me, you’ll want the machinery for the big ones after a long, hot summer of hauling hay,” Rusty said.

“I wouldn’t think this red dirt would produce anything but cactus and wildflowers,” Abby said.

“You’ll be amazed what happens with a little irrigation. There’s a shallow creek that weaves its way over here so the water doesn’t cost us anything. Most of it’s over on Lonesome Canyon, but a nice wide loop comes through Malloy Ranch. That’s it, ladies. Time to take care of the pigs, milkin’, and chickens and then Shiloh can go to the house until after dinner and you other two are with me,” he said. “Don’t forget your gloves.”




Abby could hear the truck coming before she could see it. When the vehicle stopped on the other side of the fence, Sheriff Cooper Wilson crawled out, shook the legs of his trousers down over his boot tops, and waved.

“What is he doing here?” Abby asked.

“I called him,” Rusty said.

“In sheriff’s capacity?” Bonnie asked.

“Yes,” Rusty answered.

Abby fiddled with a small plastic bag in her pocket, took out a lemon drop, and popped it into her mouth. Oh, yes, she was definitely suckin’ on the bitter to get to the sweet. Hauling tree limbs and sticks to a brush pile was not her idea of learning how to ranch and take care of cattle, but there wasn’t a way in hell she was going to let Bonnie get ahead of her.

She’d been so proud of herself that morning—she’d gone all of thirty minutes without even thinking about Cooper, and now there he was. She looked like warmed-over sin on Sunday morning and he was all sexy in that starched uniform and the distressed leather jacket.

Cooper stopped at the barbed-wire fence and propped his elbows on a wood post. “Looks like y’all got a good runnin’ start. So how do you women like ranchin’ today?”

“I’ve cleared land before,” Bonnie said.

“It’s all work. What are you doing here?” Abby couldn’t get the memories out of her mind—the way his hands felt on her body, his lips on hers, or the way his eyelashes lay on his cheekbones when his eyes fluttered shut. It had been a wild, crazy mistake and couldn’t happen again. And yet she wanted the thrill of his kisses and his body next to hers again and again. Subconsciously, she’d hoped a one-time stand would take him out of her mind; it hadn’t. Consciously, she’d known it would be awkward; it wasn’t. He acted like it had never happened, standing there with his legs slightly spread and leaning on the fence post.