Page 62 of The Guy Who Stole My Ranch

I hadn’t thought through the offer to let her stay for as long as she wanted.

Of course, she was welcome to do just that, but I got the feeling that Brooke didn’t like charity from people. She liked to be in charge of her own destiny. Perhaps I’d thrown that out of balance.

Once the stomping was done, Conner had us scoop up what was in the bottom of the trough and put it into our buckets. Then we paired up and poured the contents back and forth so the wind could carry the chaff away.

I had vague memories of the story of the wheat and the chaff from my religious classes in university, but I’d never imagined the process being so literal.

Xavier insisted on being my partner while Brooke sat out. He seemed to have recovered from his bout of emotions earlier. The kid was smart and never stopped talking. Honestly, I was happy to have a conversation in which I didn’t have to worry about the ego of another business owner or offending someone’s sensibilities.

“How many horses do you have?” Xavier grunted as he lifted his bucket and slowly poured the contents into mine.

“Fourteen.” I moved my bucket so it would catch more. We had a tarp on the ground, but the less we had to pick up afterward, the better.

“Fourteen!” His mouth gaped open.

“Yes.”

For a moment, the kid’s eyes glazed over, and I imagined him tallying the cost of that many horses. Or, more likely, he was trying to think of names for all of them. “Wow.”

“Do you like horses?” I asked as we changed roles and I began dumping the slurry and chaff back into his receptacle. It amazed me that the darker seeds were actually heavier than the grassy bits and that this thousand-year-old process worked.

“Sort of.” He made a face as he blew at the waterfall of what looked like straw.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I fell off once when I was little, and now I’m kind of scared.” He quickly looked toward Todd and Robert. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” I glanced around. “What about your dad and your uncle Todd?”

“They think horses are okay, but my mom says they’re too much work.”

She wasn’t wrong about that. I had a whole fleet of people that took care of my horses, and I couldn’t imagine doing it without help. “Does your dad like the ranch?”

“I guess so.” Xavier put his bucket down and made a show of wiping his forehead. “But it’s a lot of work too.”

That prompted a laugh out of me. “All good things in life are a lot of work.”

“Do you work a lot?” Xavier asked as he watched me pour. He waved his hands to create more breeze. The bits of yellow chaff floated away from the seeds.

“Sure do.” I could feel Brooke watching us. Watching me. Was she still angry? “But it’s not like this. I mostly sit in meetings and have to make big decisions.”

“Like where to go to dinner?” Xavier asked.

“That is a big one,” I said with a chuckle.

“Hey, Brooke,” Rick said from where he and Conner were working. “Take over for me. I have to pee.”

“Aunt Brook likes my dad the best of her siblings,” Xavier said.

Leave it to a kid to share something like that with an almost stranger.

He went on without my prompting. “She says that Uncle Todd and Uncle Danny don’t have to worry about her, but she says it in her mad voice. Whenever they try to help her with something, she basically yells at them.”

“She yells?” I asked. I could picture her raising her voice, but not screaming.

Xavier nodded. “Like my mom when I don’t listen.”

“I see.” I didn’t. “Why does she like your dad best?”

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