Page 4 of Mad About Her Cowboys

“More like I try to convince them to go along with what I say.”

Dev laughed, and Connor was again struck with how different Dev was from the rough cowboys around here. “You know…” the server said. “Someone bought part of the Last Chance Ranch’s land from Briar Rhodes, and they’re opening a horse training facility.”

“Really? No, I didn’t know.”

Dev nodded. “I can send some info over to your place, if you want. With your guests taking out those horses, you’ll want them as trained up as possible.”

“That would be great. Thanks.”

Dev smiled happily. “It’ll be there tomorrow.” With that, the server headed off again.

“Speaking of guests…” Franklin started. “I got final confirmation a few hours ago; that group of physicians will arrive Thursday afternoon. The guy facilitating their leadership building will get in a few hours before that.”

“Right,” Connor answered. He kind of wished they wouldn’t have guests this weekend. He wanted to focus on Madison. Still, it was their livelihood.

When they’d started their experience service, he’d been worried about competing with the Last Chance Ranch, but as it turned out they had similar but different operations.

The Last Chance gave people the opportunity to pretend to be cowboys—the whole City Slickers, dude ranch thing. The Lazy Q was all about vacation memories and facilitating events. Experiences. Their guests came here to relax, take pictures, go fly fishing, ride horses, hike and the like. Occasionally, they hosted business functions, weddings or family reunions. No one really wanted to rope a steer or wrangle cattle. If they wanted to check that out for a few hours, the Quists partnered with the Last Chance to offer the experience. All in all, it worked out well, and Daly was becoming known as a great place to vacation—though, truth be told, it was also a difficult place to get reservations. Both operations were nearly fully booked through to next fall.

“Anything on the job posts?” he asked.

“Nothing yet. People are leery about moving to BFE, even with our reputation. If something doesn’t pan out soon, we might want to check with Robert. His place slows down some over the winter. That might get us a couple month’s labor.”

“Maybe. Let’s give it a few more weeks.” The Flying D was the biggest ranch operation in Wyoming and the second largest in the United States. Even in winter months, they were busy.

“So, back to the girl…” Neal started.

“Our woman,” Franklin said. None of them questioned that she was theirs, despite never speaking to her, and in three of their cases, never yet seeing her. Connor’s gut had spoken, and none of them questioned it. His gut feelings were legendary in their accuracy.

“Right. But what’s the plan? What if she hates us?”

“Fuck, what if she hates even the idea?” Edison added.

“Language,” Franklin and Connor said in unison.

“Aw, c’mon guys, it’s not like we have customers around. It’s not like the cowboys in here care.”

“Habits,” Franklin reminded.

Edison rolled his eyes. “I can’t fucking wait until I’m away at college, and I’ll fucking swear all the fucking time and no one will fucking care.”

“We’ll see. I have a feeling Ma and Dads will have something to say about that.” While the younger two would have their own place in Cranston and wouldn’t be living with their foster parents who considered the four boys to be their own, the younger two Quists would still be in their back pocket.

“Fuck that,” Edison muttered under his breath. Connor fought back a grin. Eds was such a rebel when he got something in his craw.

“Neal?” Connor asked. “Want to hand over your barn chores for tomorrow. Seems Eds could use some thinking time.”

“Oh, come on, Connor!” Edison protested. “You’re not the boss—”

“Kinda is,” the other two interrupted. This was a banter they’d often engaged in with one or the other of the younger men. They were all partners in the business, but Connor owned Quist Encounters at the Lazy Q, having developed it with the small trust he’d received on his twenty-first birthday, from a relative he hadn’t even known. It had been enough that the bank hadn’t baulked at giving him a business loan for the rest of the operation’s needs. So, yes, Connor was the Quist Encounters’ boss, but they each took their parts seriously.

“Fine, Dad,” Edison gritted out. “Though I think your freaking language rule is stupid.”

The other three laughed.

“It’s not like I have any other hard and fast rules—other than not screwing with the female customers.”

Neal knocked his shoulder into Eds. “But feel free to have at any of the guys.”

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