Page 26 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

“There’s three of us,” Rusty said. “I’m the oldest. And I got two sisters who are still living at home, helping Mama with our egg business and the jams and jellies that she sells.”

“Oh, she sells jams and jellies?” Edith asked. “You guys are in southern Oklahoma, right?”

Rusty nodded. “Yep, that’s right, just across the Red River. We could probably stand on one side of it, spit, and hit Texas.”

Finn laughed because that was true; Oklahoma wasn’t that far away. He wondered if Libby had told Rusty that she was set to take over the ranch here, and he wondered when she was going to do it. He thought it would be last year, but she’d stayed in Oklahoma, and nothing had been said so far this year. But it was only the end of February.

“Is Henry coming?” Libby asked.

“I don’t know,” Finn said. “I haven’t heard from him.”

“Is he dating Angel?” Libby asked.

Finn shook his head. “He staunchly says he’s not.”

“No, he’s not,” Edith said. “He needed a plus one for game night. And apparently, she needed a night off the ranch.”

Finn moved the big bowl of lettuce so it sat in the row with the other toppings. “Right. She needed some time away from Lone Star. That’s a big boarding stable that she owns and runs, and so they came for game night. They’re going home later tonight. At least, that’s what I thought.”

Libby nodded as she sat down at the bar. “I saw Paul this morning. He said meeting Brielle’s parents went real well.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Finn said. “I haven’t talked to him yet either.” He didn’t really have a reason to call up his cousins and chat, other than they were family.

“Yeah, he came over for a little bit so he could meet Rusty.” Libby leaned into him as he put his arm around her and stood behind her on the side. Finn thought they were so cute, but he ducked his head to hide his smile.

“All right,” he said. “What’s the news from Oklahoma?”

Libby sighed and folded her arms on the counter in front of her. “I started talking to Tyson last week.”

“Oh yeah?” Finn asked, his heart now booming like a big bass drum in his chest. “About what?”

“About leaving Sunlit,” she said.

Finn pulled open the bag of corn chips. “Finally going to do it, Libby?”

He couldn’t see Libby as he turned to put the cutting board in the sink, but when he faced her, she wore a determined look on her face as she nodded.

“I’m going to do it. I’m staying through harvest at Sunlit, and then I’m going to make the transition to Three Rivers.”

“So, like October?” Finn asked.

“My last day is going to be Halloween,” Libby said. “Then I’ll come back to Three Rivers. Daddy’s going to start teaching me all the things I need to do around here. Probably take a year or more, and then he’s going to move into semi-retirement.”

Finn knew all of this, of course. He’d talked to his father about it, talked about having a place on Three Rivers Ranch, but Finn had wanted his own ranch. “That’s great, Libby,” he said, genuinely meaning it. “You belong there. You’re going to do amazing things with that ranch.”

She looked up to Rusty and said, “I hope so. It feels like a really big responsibility.”

“Well, that’s because it is,” Finn said. “It’s hundreds and hundreds of acres with over a thousand cattle. You’ve got three operations there, and you employ two dozen people. Itisa big deal.”

“Thanks,” Libby said. “That makes me feel so much better.”

Finn grinned at her. “But you’ve been running a big-deal ranch for years, Libs. How many acres is Sunlit Plains?”

“Seven hundred and forty,” she said.

“Yeah, seven hundred and forty,” he echoed back to her. That was a huge ranch, not something to be trifled with.

“But we don’t do cattle.”

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