Page 16 of A Reckless Memory

“Yes,” I said over my shoulder, continuing to walk toward the house. “I’m in the finance office.”

“You got your degree?” he called out.

“Why wouldn’t I?” The challenging tone slipped in before I could stop it.

“Because you hated the thought of college.”

I had at one time. I’d only told Daddy I was going to go so he’d give me more responsibilities around the ranch.

I stopped and faced Ansen. Seeing him on my land with my old barn in the backdrop unraveled a secret fantasy that should’ve stayed locked up. Maybe I should fire him. My gaze strayed to the horses that were now in my care. Too late. “Mama’s life insurance didn’t come with health benefits or a retirement package.”

“You could’ve gone back for a career you enjoyed.”

“I don’t mind finance.” My pitch rose at the end like I’d been busted in a lie. I was good at my job, and while I wished I wasn’t office-bound all day, I actually enjoyed running numbers. I thrived on working in an environment where I was respected. The refinery filled the role.

“Living a life doin’ what you hate is a waste.”

“I never said I hated it. It’s honest. Now load up.” I spun, my boots crunching against the dirt path. Whether he followed me or not would seal his fate. I couldn’t tolerate insubordination, not after he’d had such a hold on my heart.

The nagging observation that he wasn’t the same man I’d left that day haunted me. A haggard man with shadows in his eyes who wore stress like a second outfit wasn’t the carefree boy I once loved.

I didn’t know this man, and the knowledge sifted through me until I had to admit the Ansen who showed up today was a thousand times more dangerous to me. The only reason I didn’t reconsider my plan and offer to reimburse his travel expenses and send him on his way was how he looked at the horses.

His expert gaze had taken them in, and an appreciation he probably wasn’t aware he showed shone in his brown eyes. He respected them just for grazing like horses. He read them, could tell they’d been mishandled and neglected, and he was likely already forming a plan in that sexy brain of his.

The animals. They were the reason Ansen could stay.

Four

Ansen

I wasn’t ready to go out and about in any North Dakota town. I knew how small the world could be. Circling around Coal Haven earlier had been for nothing. We were in fucking city limits now.

We’d skirted the edges of Crocus Valley on the way to Coal Haven. Crocus Valley had a few businesses lining the highway we’d taken, and the rest of town sloped into a valley and spread out while Coal Haven surrounded both sides of the road. The town was on flatter land, and the seed co-op was on the outskirts. At least we didn’t have to drive through it, but it was so small I could see from one end to the other.

The odds of running into a relative rose higher than I first thought. Fuck this day.

I stayed on the edges of the store as Aggie chatted with the older guy behind the counter, who was planted on his stool like he could talk all day. He looked gruff, with bushy eyebrows and salt-and-pepper hair spraying out from under his trucker hat and out of his ears.

He talked like he was Santa the week before Christmas, getting all the information. “Montana, eh?”

I wanted to clear my throat in a wordless plea to move the hell on, but that’d only bring attention to me, and this guy was ferreting out more information about Aggie than the government probably knew.

“Not far from Sidney,” she answered with a smile in her voice, the first I’d heard since the efficient, twenty-minute ride here where she outlined the duties she expected from me while I wondered when she’d started using a shampoo or lotion with a subtle hint of coconut in it. It was October, and she smelled like an expensive beach vacation. “My daddy’s Barnaby Knight.”

“Oh, what the heck. Knight’s Arabians?”

I was still trying to catch up with my change in life’s direction, and she was winning over the guy working at the seed co-op.

Her grin was serene. “Yes, sir.”

He chuckled. “What brought you here?”

While I listened to her tell him about her job at the refinery farther down the highway, I wandered around the entry. Shelves of minerals and supplements lined the walls. The chicken feed we were after was stacked in the corner. The grainy yet subtly metallic smell of the place was something familiar, calming my anxiety. Places like this were my world up until the last few years. The building was a long, flat steel structure with silver grain bins towering behind it. Grain trucks were lined next to the bins, and we’d passed a few leaving as we’d pulled in.

I was still in the world I loved. Nothing but the help, but I should be used to that by now. I just wasn’t accustomed to being resigned to it.

The door squeaked open.

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