Page 3 of Texas-Sized Secrets

“No! Don’t hurt the cow!”

The boar rammed the cow again.

Since the woman still leaned over the downed bovine, the force of the boar’s impact catapulted her backward. She hit the rock wall behind her, sliding down to land hard on her butt.

When the boar backed away, preparing for another charge, Reed aimed at the hog’s head and fired.

The hog dropped where it stood.

Reed raced to where the woman sat, rubbing the back of her head, her eyes glazed.

“You all right?” He held out a hand.

She ignored him and scrambled to her feet. “Move!” Shoving him to the side, she ran a few steps along the base of the bluff before doubling over and throwing up in the dirt.

Reed hurried over to her and held her hair out of her face until she was done, hesitantly patting her back. He wasn’t sure what to do. Something inside him made him want to comfort this woman who’d gone through a particularly scary event.

When she straightened, her face was pale, but her lips were firm. She looked like a woman with a tentative grasp on her control and the determination to maintain it. “Can you give me a hand with the calf? It’s stillborn and stuck.”

Reed stared into her eyes until he was sure she was going to remain on her feet, then he turned to the laboring cow.

He’d seen this happen before when a cow tried to give birth to a calf too big for the birth canal. Half the time, they lost cow and calf. With the calf already dead, the best they could hope for was to save the cow.

He sat in the dirt behind the cow, braced his feet against the animal’s backside and grabbed hold of the dead calf’s legs.

Too tired and battered to help, the cow lay on her side, breathing hard. When the next contraction hit, she bellowed, and tried to push with what little strength she had left.

Reed pulled with all his might. The calf slid out a little farther.

“You’re doing good.” The woman squatted beside the cow and smoothed a hand over her head. “Hang in there.”

Another contraction rolled over the cow’s belly and her legs stretched straight out, her stomach muscles convulsing.

Reaching down to the calf’s shoulders, Reed tugged as hard as he could and the calf slid out the rest of the way.

For several long moments, the cow and Reed gathered their strength. Then the cow rolled to a sitting position and nudged the dead calf.

“Sorry, girl, this baby didn’t make it.” The woman patted the cow’s neck.

While the cow licked at the calf’s face, Reed stood and wiped his hands on his jeans.

The woman straightened, the top of her head only coming up to Reed’s shoulders. “You here about the job?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She walked around the cow to stand beside the dead boar. “Was I mistaken or did you drop that boar with one shot?”

“You were not mistaken, ma’am.”

She dusted her hands on her jeans and reached out. “I’m Mona Grainger. You’re hired.”

Chapter Two

The man with the sandy-blond hair, moss-green eyes and a square jawline stood with his cowboy hat in hand, staring at her. “You’re M. Grainger? The owner of the Rancho Linda?”

She had to give this guy a little credit. He asked without the usual shocked look. “That would be me.” She’d gotten the shocked response from all the applicants thus far. They expected a wiry, grizzled hulk of a man like her father. Not a petite young woman who barely topped five feet three inches.

Her father had died less than a year ago in a riding accident, leaving her as the sole surviving heir to the ranch. She couldn’t change her sex or size. What you saw was what you got. “Do you have a problem answering to a female boss?”

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