River's End (River's End Series, #1)(20)

Jack smacked at the board. “We should hire some decent hands.”

“Joe still set on Chance?”

“Yeah, well, we’re having a talk tonight about that.”

“’Cause of her?”

“Her? Erin? Yeah.”

“Joey likes her, Jack. You gonna throw her out? Joey won’t like that.”

Jack rubbed his neck. “I thought about it. But no. Besides, that’s not what I meant. Today, I heard her screaming. Like terrified screaming, not kidding around screaming. When I got to the yard, that little shit, Chance, had his own sister pinned to the ground, and was rubbing a snake all over her. She was terrified of the snake. It was just a blue racer, but she didn’t know that. She was really afraid, Ian. He bruised up her wrist. Never seen anything like that in my life.”

Ian sat back on a sawhorse, and crossed his arms over his chest. He was quiet a long while. Finally, he said, “I don’t think she’s like him.”

“She also told me she isn’t a college student visiting her brother that she first claimed to be.”

“Well, sure, considering who Chance is. We knew that, Jack.”

“Then what is she?” Ian stared at him through the gloom of the barn, and Jack shifted his feet. “What? Spit it out.”

“Right now, she’s Joe’s girlfriend, Jack, whether you like it or not.”

“I don’t care who Joey’s with.”

“You do. You’ve cared ever since you laid eyes on her.”

Jack paused and looked up at Ian with the hammer he’d been swinging raised in his hand. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Ian shrugged. “Just saying you seem to care a lot that Joe is with the girl. But you don’t have any cause to ruin it for him. Now, taking care of her brother, yeah, we have the right to do something about that.”

“Why is Joey so hell-bent that he stay here? Doesn’t he see it? What a shit Chance is?”

“He’s just trying to prove himself to you.”

“How did you get that from this situation?”

“He’s looking to prove himself around the ranch. He’s more like your son than your brother, yet his stake in the ranch is the same as yours, and he knows he can’t pull the weight you do. No one can. He’s looking to make decisions, and throw his weight around. I’m not saying he’s right; I’m just saying he’s putting himself behind decisions that aren’t so good so he doesn’t look wrong.”

Jack had a feeling Ian was right. “But will the ranch survive while Joey figures all this out before we get rid of Chance?”

Ian shook his head. “It’ll last. It’ll last as long as any of us are alive.”

Jack took comfort in his brother’s quiet words.

“Leave Erin out of it, Jack. She’s not Chance, and she’s Joey’s business right now. If you want to make more of it than it is, then keep criticizing Erin. If you want Joey to bore quickly of her and move on, as he always does, then let it go.”

Jack nodded. “Okay. You have a point. I just don’t trust her.”

“You’re just not used to girls like her.”

“Maybe not. She’s nothing like the girls from around here.”

Ian grinned. “I’m sure you could find a girl or two who’d sleep with Joey just ‘cause he smiled at her. Joe’s that pretty. It’s not his fault, Jack, it just is.”

Jack grinned back. “He is pretty.”

Ian picked up a board and started hammering it in. They worked together for the next couple of hours. Jack always appreciated Ian’s silence, along with his presence and steadiness. Especially, when compared to the drama evoked by their handsome, flaky, little brother who brought trouble onto the ranch in his childish need to declare his independence from Jack. Jack again felt the tension in his neck. He was getting sick and tired of rebellious teenagers.





Chapter Seven


Erin didn’t see Chance that night. Glad to escape him, she went outside to greet another brilliant day. She could easily get used to all this sunlight and aridity. Seattle rained so much, she sometimes felt like moss could sprout from her toes. Who knew that driving four hours could bring her to a place that seemed as far removed from Seattle as if she’d traveled to Arizona?

She breathed in the soft morning air. The sun was warm on her face, and the quiet so intense, she nearly sighed at the sheer pleasure of it. The air was cool and the land was still, other than the occasional sounds of horses and insects.

She glanced towards the barn. Of course, Jack was already out there. The barn stood a couple hundred feet from the house. From there, a long, rectangular, covered arena, filled with sand and lined with more stalls was the place where Jack spent most of his life. If not working somewhere on the ranch, or in the barn, Jack could always be found in the arena. She could view it from the couch side of her trailer. Watching Jack work with different horses, nearly daily, she observed him doing strange things with them, and in return, they did strange, un-horse-like things for him. For example, right now, he had a horse circling him one way, then going the opposite direction by the mere flick of his wrist on the whip-like wand he held. He never touched the horse with it. Then the horse suddenly stopped, and sank down to the sand, before it rose back up. Erin almost applauded.