Cowboy's Bride (4 page)

2

Trace spurred his horse and caught up with
her, settling to match her pace as they flew across the range.

Angrily, Kalli pulled her horse to a
walk.

Trace reined in and looked at her.
"I'll stay
on as foreman until you decide what you want to do."

"I already know what I'm going to do.
I don't
need you undermining my confidence and trying to get me to
sell."

"I won't.
I'll show you all I know.
It's in
both our interests to keep the ranch going in top condition."

Kalli looked away, considering his offer.
If
he owned the Flying Cloud, he had to know what he was doing.
He had
enough money to buy her place, if she would ever sell.
Could she
trust him, however?
A sudden unwelcome thought arose.

"You mentioned a daughter yesterday.
Are you
married?" Surely he couldn't be.
If he was married he wouldn't be
putting his hands on her legs, wouldn't have caressed—yes caressed—
her hip when checking to see if she fit the saddle.
At least she
didn't think he would have behaved in such a manner if he was
married.
He didn't strike her as the type to play around.
But then,
what did she know of him?

"No.
Divorced." His gaze touched on her for a
moment, then swept across the acres before them.
"I assume you're
single, as well," he said, not looking at her.

"Yes.
Tell me about your daughter." The
relief she felt hearing he was divorced was surely too strong to
make sense.
She just needed him to guide her in running the ranch.
If she took him up on his offer.
She wasn't looking for an affair
with a sexy cowboy.
Especially one she was sure didn't like
her.

"She's twelve.
As tall as you, but not filled
out as nicely."

"Does she live with you?" Kalli ignored his
implied compliment.

"Yeah.
Her mother didn't want her."

Kalli looked at him in surprise, but he was
studying the far horizon.
"How could any woman not want her own
child?" she blurted out.
She cherished the warm ties in her family,
the love and affection of both her parents toward all their
children.

He looked at her in some surprise.
“There’re
a lot of woman who aren't maternal.
Alyssa wanted fast cars and
fast men.
She had no use for domesticity.
No use for a kid.
She
left us, we didn't leave her.
Becky does just fine without
her."

"Does she write or visit?" Kalli couldn't
comprehend a mother turning her back on her own child.
How awful
for the child.
Did she feel abandoned?

"Haven't heard from her in over eleven
years." His eyes narrowed.
"Not that it's any business of yours,"
he said bluntly.

Kalli felt the heat rise in her face.
He was
right.
She was just being nosy.
But she was interested.
She
couldn't understand anyone ignoring her child for eleven years!
That meant he had raised his daughter since she was an infant.
"It
must have been hard on you, raising her all alone."

"I've managed." He bit out the reply, not
wanting to admit to her or anyone the tough times he'd had.
He'd
made it through, and Becky was doing all right, even if he didn't
have much idea what to do with a girl approaching her teens.
Before
long he'd have to get someone to help him.
He knew nothing about
dresses and makeup and parties.
Becky was almost a teenager—she'd
be wanting all those things soon.

Kalli longed to ask him just how he managed,
but his last comment was cold enough to keep the question silent.
She wondered if there was any way she could help him and his
daughter, in exchange for his teaching her about the business of
ranching.
It was an idea.
If she allowed him to stay.

"Yonder’s part of your herd." He nodded to
the field that was just coming into view.
Spread out before them
stood a couple of hundred head of reddish cattle with white faces
grazing knee deep in the tall spring grass.

"What kind of cattle?" Kalli asked, drawing
her horse to a stop and gazing at the herd, a feeling of wonder and
delight welling up inside her.
Her cattle!
She was truly on her
ranch.
Briefly she thought of her uncle.
They had not been close
except for the summers she'd spent at the ranch.
But she still
missed him.
Giving him silent thanks for leaving her his place, she
attended Trace.

"Herefords.
Last fall the herd was over a
thousand.
You need to take a tally soon to count the new calves.
Past time for spring branding, tagging and castrating."

"So many?" She bit her lip and studied the
cattle.
She didn't have a clue what to do with them.
What did she
know about branding and calving and selling cattle for profit?
Nothing.
Spring roundups had already been finished each time she
came to visit.
The magnitude of the undertaking before her began to
unfold.
She was a nurse, not a rancher.
Could she learn enough to
run this place?
Or would she forever be dependent on men who had
been raised in ranching to do the actual work, make the final
decisions?

Trace slouched in his saddle and studied the
woman beside him.
He hoped maybe she was starting to get a feel for
how little she knew.
She looked worried as she stared at the
cattle.
He shrugged.
Good, maybe she'd realize it was too much for
her and leave.

"Small herd.
Needs to be built up.
Got any
plans for that?"

She flashed him an angry look.

"Of course I don't have any plans.
I don't
know what I have.
I don't know what's expected to run a ranch.
Don't you think I need to learn all that before making plans for
the future?''

Hot-tempered thing, he thought, almost
smiling at her reaction.
"Yes, ma'am, I reckon you do.
But
decisions have to be made now.
You can't just take off a few months
to learn things.
Your spring calves are ready to be tagged, branded
and castrated.
You need to inoculate the herd, check for river
ticks, get an accurate count so you can plan which ones to cull for
sale now and how many to keep.
Plan your breeding, what bulls are
you going to use with which heifers.
The rotation of the range for
maximum feed for your herd has to be figured and the cattle moved
appropriately.
The watering places have to be checked and cleaned
if needed.
The fencing monitored.
We had a lot of snow last winter,
some of the fencing's bound to be down.
If you don't get it fixed
before we rotate cattle into certain sections, you could lose
cattle, or they could damage another's property and cost you to
repair.
You need to bring your records up to date, make sure the
IRS is satisfied with the estimated taxes."

He stopped.
Her face was in
profile, but he could catch the glimmer of tears shimmering in her
eye.
She stared over the herd, listening to him enumerate all the
things that needed to be done that he knew she hadn't a clue how to
handle.
Maybe she'd see sense now.

But a small corner of him felt like he had
just kicked a kitten.

Kalli listened to him go on and on about
various aspects of a ranch.
She didn't understand half of what he
was saying.
All she could do was listen as the endless list
continued.
How could she ever hope to manage a ranch?
She was a
nurse.
She was from Boston, not some wild western town where she
might have picked up some aspects of ranching by osmosis.
She
hadn't a clue, and he knew it.
Damn him, he knew it and still
continued relentlessly with his list of things to be done.

It hurt.
She had been amazed, then overjoyed
when she first learned of her inheritance.
She had never expected
Uncle Philip to leave her anything.
Kalli had been quite fond of
him, but except for letters and a few phone calls, she hadn't seen
him since high school.
When she learned she had inherited the ranch
in Wyoming, she felt as if she'd won the lottery.

Now she wasn't so sure.

She cleared her throat, refusing to look at
Trace, refusing to let him see how overwhelmed she felt.
"Is this
the whole herd?" she asked.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise.
He'd
expected her to want to go back to the house, think about all he
told her and start loading her truck.
A glimmer of respect for her
began.

"No.
Some are over near the Flying Cloud.
Come on." He started his horse toward the west, kicked him into a
lope, and he ate up the distance.
The sooner he was finished here
the sooner he could get back to his own place.

Kalli was glad for the riding she'd been
doing in Boston since she found out about inheriting the Triple T.
Otherwise she would never have been able to keep up.

Following Trace, the wind blew the tears from
her eyes.
She eagerly studied the passing land, searching for a way
to remember where she was and how to get home.
That much she'd
learned from Louis L'Amour.

She also studied Trace Longford.
He rode his
horse as if he was part of it.
His long legs tightened around the
saddle, the muscles clearly defined in the indecently tight jeans
he wore.
His back was ramrod straight, like an arrogant Indian
brave of old.
Startled, with his copper skin and dark hair, she
realized he might be part Indian.

Not necessarily, since her own skin was dark,
her own hair almost as black as his.
But maybe.
An Indian.
On a
ranch in Wyoming.
Dare she ask him?

A few minutes later Trace drew to a halt on
the top of a small bluff.
He swung his leg over his saddle horn and
leaned his elbow on it, watching as Kalli drew near.
Involuntarily
she smiled at the picture he made.
Now if he would only pull out a
sack of tobacco and roll a cigarette—

"That's the rest of the herd.
As far from
your house as it can get and still be on Triple T property."

The cattle grazed slowly in the warming
morning.
Beyond than, Kalli could see the endless stretch of barbed
wire fence.

"You own the adjacent property?" she
asked.

"Yeah.
That's why I want your place, to
expand."

"I must have other neighbors.
I'll have to
meet them."

He looked at her with those dark eyes and
nodded.
"In time.
You have too much to do right now.
Socializing
will have to wait." Alyssa had never wanted to work, she had only
wanted to party.
When Kalli finally realized she had to work first,
she'd be glad to sell the land and return to Boston.

Kalli's temper flared again.
How dare he
arrogantly tell her what she could or could not do?
She was in
charge around here, not Mr.
High and Mighty Acting Foreman Trace
Longford, and the sooner she made that clear to him the better.

"I'll meet them if I choose and when I
choose.
What I do with my time is my concern, do you understand,
Mr.
Longford?
You're working as my foreman, not my keeper."

His own anger rose, as much due to the
strumming tension being around her caused as the provocative sass
of her words.

"You listen to me, Miss Boston.
You want me
to work as the ranch foreman.
If you don't like the orders I give,
fire me.
But if you want to run this ranch, your first
responsibility is to learn as much as you can as fast as you so I
can quit and get back to my own place.
If you have another agenda,
then I'll take myself off now and leave you to it today."

His smoldering glare held her captive.
The
heat radiating from him, the tight line of his lips, the rigid way
he held himself under control let Kalli know his temper could match
hers any day.
Maybe beat hers.
She had to face it, she couldn't
afford to have him leave.
None of the other cowboys sounded as if
they knew what to do beyond their own particular jobs.
She needed
Trace.
And he knew it.
But she'd watch him, make sure he didn't
make things more difficult for her.
Though she couldn't imagine
things being any more difficult.
The task ahead was monumental.