Page 84 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

“Oh, they asked,” Finn said, rocking back onto the heels of his cowboy boots. “I’ve been roaming this summer, since I got home. I guess word’s gotten out that if someone needs help, they can call my daddy, and he’ll send me.”

“Have you been here before?” Dawson asked.

“Can’t say I have,” Finn said as he took in the modern kitchen, with clean, state-of-the-art appliances, and smooth, polished countertops that could’ve been granite or could’ve been quartz. “Or if I have, I was too young to remember.”

“Same,” Dawson said. “It’s really nice.” His voice pitched up on the last word, and that caused Finn to stop taking in the beauty of the house and look at the other cowboy.

“It is,” Finn said with much more caution in his voice. He wasn’t sure why, but something told him to be careful here. “Are you living at your family’s ranch? Working there with your brother?”

He knew Duke Rhinehart had taken over the Rhinehart Ranch south of town several years ago, because he’d been the one organizing his men to help on other ranches after the flood, and Finn had worked on his for a couple of days too.

He lived there with his wife, Arizona—once a Glover—and his four kids. Two girls and two boys. Finn could only hope to have such a perfect life one day.

“Yeah,” Dawson said, doing the rocking thing too. “Yep. Live there in a cabin with my brother. I handle a lot of the back-end things.”

“Back-end things?” Finn asked as Bethany Ann shuffled papers on the table. No one had started to give out assignments yet, and Finn’s skin itched to look into the backyard and see if there’d be room for Edith’s she-shed. Surely there would be.

“Making sure we meet zoning laws,” he said. “Fill out all the right business forms. The financial accounting on the ranch. All of that.”

“Oh, you went to school for some of that, didn’t you?” Finn asked.

“Yes, I did.” Dawson grinned at him and then around the cabin. “Got a degree and everything.” He chuckled and shook his head. “I hear your sister did the same.”

“Yeah, she sure did.” Finn met his eye again, and all of his defenses fell. If Dawson was so engrained and important at his family ranch, surely he wasn’t looking to buy his own.

“All right,” Ace said. “Ranger’s back, so let’s get some assignments out. Bethany Ann?”

“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “I need some help in the house to go through closets and pack up anything we don’t need. My daddy’s coming with a moving truck, and we can put the boxes in that as they fill. We’ll have a few pieces of furniture that need moving too….”

She continued to go over the house, but she spoke quickly, with plenty of authority and no minced words. Then she turned to her husband, and said, “All right, Kev. Your turn.”

He drew in a deep breath, which seemed to hurt him slightly, and said, “I haven’t been able to keep up with the chores outside.” He ducked his head as if embarrassed, and Finn’s heart went out to the man. “Things are a bit…messy out there. Ace knows most of it, so he’ll direct you as a team as you move from building to building out there. Again, anything we don’t absolutely have to have here, we’re going to put on the moving truck. Our realtor wants the place as clean and as sparse as possible for listing.”

“Questions?” Holly Ann asked. “Pearl Jo, Mary Ann, Fawn, and I are going to stay here and help Bethy in the house. Ace will take all you big, strong cowboys outside with him.” She clapped her hands together and added, “And…go! Lunch will be at one o’clock.”

“I’m setting an alarm,” Ace said as he tapped on his phone. “I’m hungry already.”

Holly Ann grinned and shook her head, and Finn moved with Ace and his two boys, Ranger and his teenager, and Dawson as they all went outside. Kevin followed them at a much slower pace, and he said, “Thanks for coming Finn.”

“Of course.” Finn turned back to the man. “I haven’t been here before. It’s really nice.” His heart pounded as he met Kevin’s eyes. How did he say he wanted to buy this place? Did he even want that?

He’d seen only a portion of it, and he wasn’t exactly sure how much a place like this would cost. Perhaps with the outbuildings, the cattle, the land, the house, it would be outside of his price range.

“How many head you got?” he asked as the others reached the edge of the deck and went down the steps. The backyard held just as much grandeur as the front, with the river in the distance on the right, and plenty of room for Edith’s she-shed on the left.

The chicken coop sat straight ahead, with a paddock with several goats in it beside and behind that. Then the barn he’d seen from the road, as the lane ran right past it.

“I’ve got a hundred and three cow-calf pairs this year,” he said. “We just finished the weaning, which is why things are a bit behind right now.”

Finn wasn’t a math genius, but he knew a hundred head of cattle could provide a good living. He wasn’t going to bring in millions like his father, but he also didn’t employ fifteen cowboys and several more to run the administrative side of his cattle operation.

“That’s amazing,” he said. “My daddy said this place is a hundred and eighty-five acres, so it must produce well to support them.”

A flash of a smile crept across Kevin’s face. “It does. It has in the past, at least.”

Finn tucked his hands into his pockets, feeling a bit guilty as the others reached the end of the gravel walkway that split the grass and went between the coop and the pasture. Ace was obviously speaking, as he pointed to the right, and then gestured to the left.

“How much are you going to list it for?” he asked, his voice anything but casual.

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