Page 8 of Charlie Takes a Chance

Max shakes his head. “It’s winter. I’m feeding cattle every day on this side of the ranch, and I have a few late calvers in the front pasture. Of course I’m staying here.”

“But that doesn’t mean it’s your house,” I push, despite the grumpy look on his face.

He leans forward and plants a hand on the counter. When he leans forward like that, it makes his chest muscles flex, and I truly wish he were wearing a shirt, because it’s distracting—especially when we’re arguing about housing arrangements.

“You’re going to be out of this house when I get back from work today. You got it? You’ve got the whole lodge to sleep in. You don’t need my bunkhouse too.”

“There’s no heat or water in the big house.”

The firm look on his face slowly dissolves into a smirk. “Hmm, it’s almost like I said there was a lot to do…”

That’s it. All bets are off. If it seemed like too big of a job at 2 a.m. this morning, well, now it’s not. I’m staying here until I restore that lodge to its perfect state.

“I guess you’ll just have to get used to sharing the bunkhouse with me,” I say with a sweet smile.

The smirk falls from his face. “If I come back and find you here, I’m throwing you out. Because this is my house.”

I have a feeling that he means it in a very literal sense.Game on. I don’t have to hold myself back withhim. Nope. He’s going to get the full force of Charlie.

I grin up at him. “Well, I’m here to stay. And don’t worry, I’ll call Magnolia and clear up this whole thing.”

He frowns at me. “This isn’t even up for debate. I’m staying here. You can’t stay here too.”

“How interesting. I guess we’ll see about that. Who knows, maybe you’ll find somewhere else to stay while I’m here. I’ll only be here for a few weeks.” I reach out and pat the back of his hand in the most condescending manner I can muster. “Even you should be able to handle that.”

Max clenches his jaw, and his left eye twitches.

He brings his hand up to point at me. “You better be out of here by the time I get back here.”

I make a face at him, and that eye twitch gets a little more obvious. This know-it-all. Thinking I couldn’t handle something little like broken pipes and no heat. He hasn’t ever dealt with me before.

He’ll learn. And then he’ll eat his words.

I keep my eyes on him as he stalks past me and down the hall. Both dogs sit next to me until he turns around to glare at them. They hurry after him in a guilty shuffle.

“See you tonight!” I call after him as he walks away.

His back jerks ramrod straight, but he continues on his way, not gracing me with an answer. That’s okay. Time will show him that I mean what I say.

CHAPTER 4

Max

Well,it didn’t take long for the city girl to fold. I thought she’d leave first thing in the morning after spending the night in such an empty, beat-up lodge.

What I did not expect was to walk out to feed cows this morning and find her sleeping on my couch.

But there she was, snuggling Jim—the traitor. What was I supposed to do? Pull out the frying pan and cook her breakfast? Offer her the queen bed I sleep in? I don’t think so. Itoldher it was too big of a job. She should have headed back into town last night.

The Shaky Pine Hotel always has vacancies, unless the Barlowes are having a family reunion. But that’s always in the summer, so there’s plenty of room right now. She could have rented a room and then driven back home. Maybe she’ll do that this morning. It’s the only reasonable thing for her to do at this point.

I check my phone to see what time it is—9 a.m. and I’ve fed all three barns. Time to go find the momma that didn’t come in today.

I have deep regrets about buying the load of sale barn cows, because their calving schedule has been all over the place. And that doesn’t even touch on the half-jersey cow I ended up with. Or the Holstein. It’s flat-out embarrassing.

By the time I finish my work for the day, there’s a light skiff of snow on the ground. I can’t believe the weather has held off this long, actually. The ground has been frozen the last week, and the weather report has been calling for snow for about two weeks now. It was only a matter of time before the Weather Channel report was actually right. Sometimes, the first snowfall likes to come in with a splash. But this isn’t too bad.

Because the fall weather had been so nice, I was able to keep the cattle out on grass longer than normal. Now that winter has set in, it’s too cold for any grass to grow, and I’m left feeding cattle until the spring thaw.

---