Page 11 of Samuel

“Of course.”

He heard the shake in her voice and the sniffle as she turned her back to him and busied herself with work at her desk. God, he knew he was being an asshole, but he couldn’t stop himself. She shouldn’t be out on the ranch in her condition. And that included in the office.

She walked towards the door.

“Evie, wait. I?—”

“I just need to use the restroom, Sam. Is that something I also need to ask your permission for?” There was a clear bite in her words, but she didn’t turn to face him down.

“No. That’s fine. You don’t need to ask me for that.”

“Good.” She sighed. “When I get back, I’ll show you the new filing system I set up. I think you’ll find it a better method than the piled chaos on your desk.”

“What was I thinking, Jellybean?” Evie whispered into the small bathroom just next to the office. She was sure the walls were thick enough to hide her crying, but didn’t want to take the chance that her voice would carry through.

Sitting there, she came to a stomach-churning realization. It was all a mistake. Thinking that moving across the country, running from her problems, would solve anything. That she would just magically end up somewhere that she could put down roots had been so foolish. And hiding her pregnancy. Of course, an old-school rancher wasn’t going to be happy about that. He was probably at capacity after offering the office manager job to a woman. Mistake after mistake.

Evie let her head fall into her hands. She’d allow herself to cry for thirty more seconds and then that would be it. No needto wallow. If there was only one good quality about her, it was her ability to push through anything and find her way to the light on the other side of the tunnel. Even if she always had to do it by herself.

Although, she wasn’t truly alone anymore. Evie picked her head up, wiped the tears off her cheeks and pressed her hand to her swollen tummy.

“We’ve got this, Jellybean. Time to show Sam Cooper that the Red River Ranch has never seen a force like us before, and now that we’re here, they won’t be able to function again without us.”

She held her head up high as she marched back into the office, expecting to be met with the grumpy cowboy at his desk. But much to her surprise, the place was empty.

Oh well. She knew it was probable that he would be called away for ranching duties. That was the whole reason she was there, wasn’t it? So he could spend more time out with his herd and less with the administrative tasks she enjoyed.

Evie wanted to slip an earbud in and listen to some music while she worked on organizing all the paperwork scattered about, but knew better. Sam would certainly have a problem with her doing that.

Looking around the office, she’d already made some progress with the early hour organization, but there was so much more to tackle. It might make sense to rearrange their desks and the filing cabinets. The flow of the office was off for maximum efficiency. Of course, that would mean taking down the cowboy hats that lined the room.

Stepping up to the wall, Evie ran her hand along the edge of the hat closest to her. It was worn-in and weathered and looked to be at least a hundred years old. She pulled it down off the nail, letting the soft leather warm in her hands.

Flipping it to look at the underside, Evie’s heart skipped a beat. Inside, there were two names branded into the leather.

GinnyandEzra.

She hadn’t heard anyone using those names at the ranch. Although, she hadn’t been introduced to the rest of the Coopers… could it be Sam’s mom and dad?

“What do you think you’re doing?” Sam’s growl from over her shoulder startled her. She turned around, shoulders squared and ready to put up a fight.

“I was just trying to picture how we can move the furniture around to make it a more effective space to work.”

“And you needed to touch my things to do that?”

She gave him a saccharine smile, turning to place the hat back on the nail. “I thought we might need to move these hats in favor of putting a few file cabinets up against this wall. Who are Ginny and Ezra?”

“We don’t need to move anything in here,” he answered, clearly ignoring her question. “This office is set up just how it was before the fire. It’s worked this way for decades. We can make it work too.”

“Sam, I’m just trying to learn about the ranch.”

“Yeah, well, there’s ranch things, and there’s personal things. Those hats are personal.”

“I don’t think it’s wrong of me to be curious about the history of this place, or your family. I think this ranch is incredible. What you’ve kept going even when times have been really tough.”

“You haven’t earned the right to know about my family,Evelyn. And I doubt you’ll be around long enough to dig into anything too deep about this ranch.”

Evie clenched her jaw tightly and forced herself to smile. “Sure thing,Samuel. But just so you know, I’ll be here tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.”

---