Page 3 of Ash on the Range
And now we had our own coming to Red Hart. My shoulder twinged on cue and I rotated the sore joint. A week on the road hadn’t done me any favors, but traveling with Cass had been easy. Without her I would have hauled ass across the country, slept on the back of the truck instead of in highway motels, and done the trip in two days. With her…we took our time, and the last week was less a blur than a break in the middle of no man’s land for me. Time I shouldn’t have stolen with her, but I did anyway.
“He’s already started. Says he spotted smoke up on the north ridge. Near the road, right?” Jude stepped in neatly for me.
I nodded, and Travis's naturally hard face cleared. He’d gotten harder after his father was murdered a few seasons ago, and then the twins lost their mother shortly afterward. Tragedy hit Red Hart year after year, but the ranch kept on going. People like Travis and Eve and Jude and even newcomers like Gage who inserted themselves into the landscape like they were part of the dirt kept it going.
Maybe, if I was lucky, one day I’d put down roots somewhere and find myself a -place to call home. If I was twice as lucky, maybe that somewhere would be with someone like Cass. Or just with Cass, period.
One week together and I was already head over heels for the girl who I couldn’t keep my hands off. Or my eyes. My gaze kept drifting off toward her, taking my attention with it.
Jude cuffed the back of my head none too gently. “Throw your stuff in the bunkhouse while Eve shows Cassie where she’s sleeping. Give yourself ten minutes to get settled, then get your ass back out here, ready to work.” The foreman fixed a hard look at me, though the corner of his mouth twitched.
“Yes sir,” I said sheepishly, leaning across the tray of the truck to pass Cass her small bag, and tidied up as I grabbed my own.
She looked about nervously as Eve started talking and I got the impression that my girl didn’t take in any more information than I had just missed from Just or Trav's pep talks.
“You’ll be fine.” I stepped up behind Cassie and slipped my arm about her waist, giving her a gentle squeeze. I had less than ten seconds before Jude ripped me a new one for loitering, so I’d make the most of it. “I’ve never been upstairs. Tell me what it’s like.” I pressed a kiss to the sensitive spot right below her ear, then let her go, already striding off in the familiar direction of the bunkhouse.
If I hadn't let her go then and there, I wouldn’t have let her go at all, and the yard would really have had something to rib me about.
My feet chewed the path I knew well between the big house and where I’d be sleeping for the season. Yet again my heart lamented the time I should have spent in her arms over the last nights, time I wouldn’t get now we were on ranch land.
I kicked open the bunkhouse door and was assailed by a strong waft of stale cowboy that rocked me back half a step. Communal living wasn’t where it was at.
Yeah, shoulda spent more time in her arms, and skin to skin.
Maybe we’d get some time together over the next weeks while we were here. Red Hart had plenty of romantic places. I huffed a laugh as I threw my bag on the soggiest bunk in the cabin.
Yeah. And maybe Jude will give me a day off with full pay and let me take her on a date for the hell of it.
Because neither of those things were ever gonna happen.
I should have spent more time with her when I had the chance.
I left the bunkhouse at a jog.My ten minutes were nearly up, and I doubted Judge had gotten any softer this season. Maybe if I was real lucky, he’d let me shovel a pile of deer shit, and Cassie could see just how romantic ranch life could be. I clapped my hat on my head and double stepped it back to the barn.
CHAPTER TWO
CASSIE
I hoped my brother turned up at Red Hart for their rodeo. I hoped he walked into the big house and left his jaw on the floor.
Because that’s where mine had been when I stepped through those double glass doors—shoes off, of course—after Eve, leaving my jacket on a hook alongside everyone else's. I grew up rich, or thought I did, but Red Hart blew everything right away in my apparently limited experience.
And I wanted to see the day my brother got bitch slapped by a pair of antlers like he deserved for bullying Will, even though the scrappy rodeo cowboy would never admit to it. It hurt seeing Will wince every time he moved or someone touched him, including me, knowing I was responsible for his pain, at least in part.
I focused on that as I toured the enormous bottom floor of the big house, following Eve around as she pointed out the double length table that I could imagine all too easily fitting all the men outside for a single sitting meal laden with table at its heavy wood surface. That matched the kitchen that featured its giant bench top, scarred and worn in its open plan setting across the main area that still left abundant space for chatter and socializing.
Hanging above it all in a cathedral pitched ceiling was a cluster of deer antlers that formed a chandelier above the centre of everything, too big to simply be a feature over one small room, but enough to spread over the entire open space. The effect was awe inspiring. I stood gawking in the appropriate manner, wishing Will was here to tell me that his jaw hit the floor on his first time too, or that he drooled at least a bucket’s worth so that I didn’t feel so alone.
But in the absence of an overwhelming crowd the room simply…. echoed.
“It can be a bit much,” Eve acknowledged my unspoken thoughts. “But when the room is full at night for a meal, well…” she shrugged. “It gets kind of frantic. You’ll see.”
“And you feed everyone? Will mentioned,” I added when she raised an eyebrow.
Eve shrugged, glossy chestnut hair rippling with a silky sheen I could never hope to achieve. My own hair felt limp and lackluster next to this rural goddess.
“My mother did it, back when she…” Eve coughed into her hand and faced me in full. “This ranch has been run by my family going back generations. Right now, Travis and I are the only things holding it up, along with all those people you saw in the yard outside. Red Hart has always been a place where people work hard and are fed well for their efforts. Just because our family line appears to stop here doesn’t mean our hospitality will.” This last part came out at a rushed pace, her words clicking at the ends.
