Authors: Cat Johnson
Midnight Wrangler (5 page)
“Honey, this is Rohn. He's a classmate of Bonnie's and heard you were looking to hire help.”
“You tell him that?” her father asked Bonnie.
“No, sir. I didn't even know you were looking to hire anyone.”
Rohn pushed his chair back and stood. Bonnie knew he was tall, but it wasn't until he moved to stand in front of her father that she realized how tall. He had about six inches over the older man.
Knowing her father, he'd really hate having a kid in high school dwarf him.
“Sir. My friend Brian lives not far from here. He told me you might be looking to hire and since I'm looking for a job myself, I thought I'd stop by and inquire.”
Her father's gaze went from Rohn's face to the hand he extended. Bonnie held her breath, thinking for a moment that he wouldn't do Rohn the courtesy of shaking his hand. Finally, he reached out and pumped Rohn's hand once.
Rohn continued, “I've got experience. I've worked with combines and harvesters. I've done plenty of haying. I've worked with livestock, too. Horses and cows, if you've got any. If you take a chance on hiring me, I can guarantee you won't be sorry.”
“So you know Bonnie from school?”
“We're in the same grade, but I'm sorry to say we've never been in any classes together.”
“Why sorry?”
Rohn smiled. “Well, you see she's in the advanced classes and I'm sorry to tell you that I'm not. I hope you won't hold that against me when considering me for the job. I try keeping my grades up, but with football practice and chores, it's hard to find time to study.”
The mention of football seemed to impress her father. He looked interested and less suspicious of Rohn for the first time since walking through the door. “You play football?”
“Yes, sir. I'm a linebacker. First string. I'm going to NEO in the fall to hopefully play on their team.”
“Linebacker. That makes sense, a boy your size.” Her father nodded. “I played a bit myself back in high school.”
“What position?”
“Quarterback.”
Rohn smiled. “That was going to be my guess. I bet you were real fast.”
Bonnie's eyes widened as her father actually smiled, when she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him do that. At least, not in the house with just them. Usually his smiles were reserved for when he was talking to his male friends after church.
“Yup. No one could catch me. I held the record for touchdowns.” Her father tipped his head toward the table. “Let's sit down and talk about this job. Bonnie, pour me some sweet tea.”
“Yes, sir.” She'd barely left the seat to do as he'd asked when her father sat in her chair and pushed her glass of tea aside.
She'd be fine with his dismissal if it meant he hired Rohn for the summer. Her heart sped at the thought as she moved to the cabinet and took down another glass. She shot her mother a sideways glance to see her reaction to this odd situation.
Her mom smiled. “Looks like we might have some help around here. Nice-looking help, too.”
Her mother had kept her voice low so only she could hear. Even so, Bonnie drew her brows low. “Mom. Shh.”
She laughed. “Don't worry. They're too busy talking about football and crops to bother with us. Now go deliver that tea and then come back over here and help me make the salad for dinner.”
Bonnie moved to the table and put the glass down in front of her father. She turned away again, but not before noticing they'd moved on to talking about what hours and days Rohn would be working.
When she returned to stand at the counter, her mother asked, “Should we invite our new hired hand to dinner?”
Pulse racing at the thought, Bonnie considered that, and then shook her head. “No, I don't think so.”
“Why not?”
Just because her father was on his best behavior now didn't mean it would last. Rohn seemed to be saying all the right things at the moment, but that didn't mean he wouldn't say something to get her father mad later. Better to be safe than sorry. End things on a high note.
Bonnie didn't want to tell her mother her fears, so she came up with what seemed like a plausible excuse. “His mother's probably expecting him for dinner at home. And I'm sure he'll want to tell them about his new job.”
His new job at her father's farm. The realization hit her full force. Rohn Lerner would be working at her place nearly every day for a whole summer.
It was like a dream come true. She could only pray that things stayed just as good as they were right now.
Chapter Five
Summer, 2015 (Present Day)
“Hey, boss man.” Rod, owner of the lumberyard that had been in his family for two generations, shot Rohn a grin from behind the counter. “What're you doing here? I don't often see you in town running errands these days.”
“I need some eight-foot fence posts and some two-by-sixes.”
“Don't you got no kids on the payroll to do this kinda menial shit for ya now that you're a big successful rancher?” Rod had been around long enough to have seen Rohn go from a hired hand to a ranch owner in his own right.
Rohn smiled at the old man's teasing. “Yup, but I'm smart enough to know my hired hands will take two hours to do an errand that should take twenty minutes. I'm better off leaving them working at my place while I handle things myself. That's how I stay a successful rancher.”
The old-timer snorted out a short laugh. “Ain't that the truth. With the kids I got working here, it's easier to take care of things my own damn self.”
“I hear ya.” Rohn couldn't agree more. Besides, he'd left the three clowns digging fence post holes. Given a choice between driving to town in his air-conditioned king cab pickup, and digging holes in this heat, there was no question which task Rohn was going to delegate and which he'd be more than willing to take on himself.
“So how many posts and two-bys do ya need, boss man?” Rod took the pen from behind his ear and stood waiting to write up the order on the pad in front of him.
This was the kind of place Rohn liked. A nice family-owned business that knew the customers' names and used a good old pen and paper to take orders instead of some fancy computerized shit. Small-town living at its finest. It was a comfort knowing that even if he didn't have a woman in his life, he still had plenty of good friends.
He also had a ranch to run. Time to get back to work. Rohn glanced at his handwritten list. He rattled off the lumber he needed while Rod wrote it all down in his usual chicken scratch. After the order was totaled, Rod turned the invoice around to face Rohn. “Put this on your account?”
“Yes, sir. That'd be great.” Rohn scribbled his signature at the bottom.
“All right. You're all set. Just drive around back to the yard.” Rod tore off one of the two copies from the pad. “Give this to Jed and he'll load it up for you.”
“Thank you much.” Rohn nodded. “Don't work too hard.”
Rod let out another snort. “No chance of that. You, either.”
“I'll try my best. Thanks.” Rohn nodded and turned toward the door and the yard where he'd parked the truck.
Errand complete, and in under a quarter of an hour, too. If he'd sent Tyler, who Rohn was pretty sure had been in school at the same time as Jed, this one stop at the lumberyard could have taken an hour if the two got to shooting the shit. Today's youthâno work ethic. Not how it used to be in his day.
The thought gave Rohn pause. When had he become such an old stick in the mud? He was beginning to sound more and more like one of the old farmers he'd worked for when he'd been a much younger man and used to take whatever job he could find.
Rohn had spent four summers wrangling cattle for Mr. McMann before the old man had died. A stint in Vietnam hadn't gotten the old rancher. Getting knocked down and trampled by a bull hadn't killed him. Needing to walk with a cane in his last years didn't defeat him. A microscopic blood clot in his brain had.
But even when the old man was nearing the end of his life, he wouldn't have put up with half the shit Rohn's ranch hands got away with. Rohn was nowhere near the end of his daysâGod willingâbut his guys got away with more shit than he cared to think about.
Then again, this was a different time. Hired hands could be few and far between. Ranches were lucky to be in business at all nowadays, let alone turn a profit. Maybe Rohn should relax before he gave himself a stroke. He could cut the kids some slack and still get the job done.
Cut himself some slack, too, because playing the big boss all the time was exhausting. Especially when there was no feminine comfort for him at the end of the day. Hell, aside from his trips into town or the stock sales, the only other people he saw regularly were his hired hands.
With that thought in mind, he decided to go ahead and treat the boys to something they'd enjoy. Him, too. He'd pick them all up a good lunch. Not a bag full of greasy fast food, either. He knew exactly where to go to get what he needed.
After the lumber was loaded, he headed in the direction of Tyler's favorite barbecue spot. When the shack and trailer came into view, Rohn swung the truck into the lot and parked.
The place looked like nothing. It basically amounted to a wooden lean-to that housed the smoker, a building the size of his office with a few picnic tables inside, a few more tables outside, and the trailer where the employees served up customer orders. It might not look like a five-star restaurant, but damned if it wasn't the best food he'd had in a good long time.
The smell of that day's batch of meat in the smoker was enough to have Rohn's mouth watering before he'd even cut the engine and climbed out of the truck's cab.
Tyler could be an ass some days, but he hadn't steered Rohn wrong when he'd brought him to this place and claimed Rohn would never eat barbecue anywhere else after tasting the food here. He didn't like to give Tyler credit for being right too oftenâ it might give the young cowboy a swelled headâbut as he anticipated his first bite, he had to admit the kid knew his barbecue.
Rohn had just stepped out of the truck when a woman who looked too familiar to be a stranger caught his attention. He squinted through the midday glare, frowning, until recognition hit him like a sledgehammer to the chest.
A smile bowed Rohn's lips. It had been a long time, but it was her. Yeah, she had changed a bit. She was older, a bit curvier, but he'd recognize her anywhere. From the blond curls that had tickled his cheek, to the curve of the hips he'd held on to tight in the bed of his truck where they'd first made love, he knew her. Even twenty-five years later.
In deference to the heat, she wore a tank top that showed enough of her creamy white skin he could see she was still as fair as ever. Her shoulders were pink on top, proving that she'd still freckle and burn rather than tan.
Back in the day she would have been wearing cutoff shorts. Daisy Dukes that showed off her legs to such advantage that Rohn had been able to think of nothing else but having her thighs wrapped around him. Today, she wore knee-length khaki shorts, but that didn't stop him from picturing what lush curves were hidden underneath.
Gone were the cowboy boots she used to love to wear on the farm, even in the summer. In their place were sandals that let her toes peek out.
She stood with her back facing him as she held the door open for an older couple walking out. When they stopped to say thank you, she turned her head so he could see her face.
If he hadn't been one hundred percent certain before, he was now. He took a few long strides in her direction. “Bonnie?”
She turned at the sound of his voice. When her eyes widened, he knew she recognized him, too. “Rohn. Uh, yeah. It's me. So you are still in town.”
“Yup. Never left. I own a place not far from here. Cattle ranch.”
“Oh. Nice. Good for you.”
It was a shock, and a coincidence since he'd just been thinking about her recently. “Bonnie Blue Martin. Back again.”
She let out a short laugh but it somehow lacked humor. “I haven't heard anyone call me that since high school.”
“That's good to hear.” Rohn cocked one brow. “I don't know how I'd feel about some other guy using the name I'd given you.”
“No worries about that.” A look close to guilt crossed her face as she shook her head. “So how have you been?”
“Good. And yourself?” he asked.
“I'm doing all right.”
As they made meaningless small talk, Rohn absorbed everything that had changed about Bonnie, and all the things that had remained the same. She still seemed shy, though that naïve innocence that had cocooned her back then seemed to have been stripped away by time. She seemed harder somehow. Less delicate. More guarded.
The ready smile she'd always had for him was a whole lot more reserved now. It eluded him, just as her gaze did. She barely glanced up, not holding eye contact for more than a few seconds, but rather looking around at anything but him.
“What are you doing in town? Are you back home for good after all these years?” As time had passed, and the decades slipped by, he'd given up hope of ever seeing her again.
That he could feel this good about seeing Bonnie again surprised Rohn. It wouldn't always have been the case. Her leaving without saying good-bye had cut his young heart deep. It had been hard to remember the good moments for a long time.
But that time was past. Seeing Bonnie was a welcome sight today. Running into her unexpectedly had brought back good memories of that summer and his youth. Memories he needed right about now to remind him he'd had another life, another love, besides Lila. And with any luck, he'd find one again now that Lila was gone.
That hope soothed him like a gentle rain after a long drought. Perhaps time really did heal all wounds.
“I'm only back temporarily to handle some things.” She raised those blue eyes to meet his before she yanked her gaze away again. “My father died.”
His mouth dropped open in surprise. Here he was joking, borderline flirting with herâor at least thinking about doing itâand she was grieving. “Jesus, Bonnie. I'm so sorry. I hadn't heard.”
“It's okay, Rohn. There's no reason why you should have heard. I know he kept to himself mostly.”
Rohn dipped his head. “That he did. Private man, your dad. I used to see him at the auction occasionally. Not for the past couple years though.”
“Yeah, I understand that he sold off the lower field. He couldn't plant any crops the last couple seasons. He couldn't handle the work. Not with his diagnosis.”
“Diagnosis?” Rohn raised a brow at the word.
“Throat cancer,” Bonnie elaborated.
Rohn sucked in a breath between his teeth. “Sorry to hear that. I lost my wife to cancer five years ago.”
“Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know.”
“Thanks.” There was no reason why she should have known. He brought the subject back to her grief. “When did your father pass?”
“Last week.” Bonnie's answer surprised him.
“Wow.” He supposed Bonnie's losing her father in his later years was completely different from his losing Lila before she'd even reached the middle of what should have been a very long life. “Again, my condolences.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “It's not like it was a surprise, chewing tobacco the way he did for most of his life.”
Rohn tipped his head. “That I do remember.”
Bonnie's father always had a wad of chaw in his mouth. It was still difficult to reconcile that the intimidating man had been taken so quickly. Then again, Rohn knew firsthand the quick devastation cancer could wreak.
“So anyway, I'm here to take care of things.” She drew in a big breath and blew it out, sounding weary. Looking that way, too, now that he took a second glance and noticed the dark shadows beneath her eyes.
“What are you planning on doing with the old place?”
She let out a snort. “Good question.”
“You don't know?” he asked.
From what Rohn remembered, it was a decent piece of land, even if the lower field had been sold. If memory served, her father had put in a good-sized crop of wheat in the field behind the house.
“No. Not really.”
They'd been holding this conversation while standing in the doorway. As a man pulled into the lot, parked, and came toward the door, Rohn moved to the side, out from the shade of the awning and into the heat of the sun. Bonnie followed him.
“Are you in a position to keep the property?” The thought of Bonnie moving back to town woke an interest inside Rohn he'd long since buried. Maybe the first love a man had never completely left him.
“And run it by myself?” Her brows rose high before she shook her head. “No. But I'm not sure now is the right time to sell. The economy sucks and the real estate market's so depressed. I can't imagine farmland is all that valuable at the moment.”
“You could maybe try finding a renter. Someone who's interested in farming but doesn't want to take on a mortgage right now. Or rent the house separately and then find a local farmer looking to expand his crop beyond his own acreage.”
“I guess. You interested?” She asked it with a smile and he could tell she was only half-joking.
“I wish I could say I was, but wheat isn't my choice of crop. I got cattle at my place and I've got my own hayfields. The extra bales I need to get through the winter I buy from my neighbor.”
“Know anybody who might be interested? I've been gone so long, I feel like I'm a stranger around here.”
It had been a long time. “Plenty has changed. Then again, there's plenty that's stayed the same. But if you're thinking about looking for a renter, I guess the best thing to do is put an ad in the paper.”
“That's a good idea. Thank you.” She eyed him, those blue pools finally focusing on him from beneath her blond lashes. “Everything else seems to have changed, but not you. You still look just like you did back in high school.”
“Do I?” He laughed. “Then that brings to light one more change right thereâthat you need glasses.” Rohn grinned as she rolled her eyes at his teasing.
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