Page 9 of Alive and Wells

Cecily sinks into the chair opposite me, and the way her shoulders slump makes it clear she’s feeling everybody’s stare. Her blue eyes drop to study the knots and dents in our family heirloom table. For half a second, I feel bad for drawing attention to her when she clearly doesn’t want it.

“Wait, who’s this?” My youngest brother, Denny, yells from the other side of the island as he crams a blueberry muffin into his mouth. Within seconds, he’s turning on the charm. “Why did nobody tell me we had a pretty girl on the property?”

Beryl shoots him a look, rubbing her hand over the city girl’s shoulder. “Everyone, this is Cecily. She’s my new help. Cecily… well, I don’t know where to begin, but this is a good chunk of the gang. You all be nice to her, alright?”

“But not too nice”, I’m tempted to add, as the men seem to take notice of her good looks faster than a grass fire. Even in leggings, a baggy hoodie, and hair in a ponytail. I knew I should’ve told Beryl I thought this was a bad idea. Even if it meant having to suffer a lecture about women being treated equally. It’s not that I think Cecily isless thanbecause she’s a woman. I just don’t need my ranch hands getting distracted. Simple as that.

“Hi, Cecily,” Colt, Sundial, and Jacky say in unison.

Like that. Distracted like that.

“Grab your lunches and get.” I stare down the men until they leave, although each ignores me for long enough to ensure they give Cecily a proper introduction, complete with a handshake. As if they’re fucking gentlemen.

She sits up straighter, ensuring each ranch hand has a moment of undivided attention. A smile, a cheery hello.I shake off the desire for a second chance at introducing myself—or third, I suppose, since I technically had two yesterday and fumbled both.

As quickly as the first boys are gone, a second group files in for their lunches. And probably to take a peek at the hot new piece of ass at Wells Ranch. Good news travels fast around here. Red goes so far as to kiss her on the back of the hand during his introduction, earning a blushing smile from her. My stomach drops. She needs to leave.Yesterday.

“Well, I’ve already forgotten half their names.” Cecily shakes her head with a honey-sweet laugh. I ignore the weird somersaulting in my guts—clearly I drank too much coffee on an empty stomach. “If I had known everybody would be here so early this morning, I might’ve brought a notepad with me to write it all down.”

“Not everybody gets to laze about in the morning. This is a working ranch.” I drop my empty mug into the sink, motioning for Beryl to follow me into the hallway.

“Austin, what has gotten into you?” she scolds, rapping the backs of her fingers against my chest. Even though I was a grown adult when she came here, she’s the closest thing I have to a mother now. She definitely has no problem treating my brothers and me like her sons.

I shake my head and thrust my pointer finger toward the kitchen. “She needs to go. Hire a girl from town. She has no idea what it’s like to be on a ranch. Also, say what you want about me, but I don’t think we need an attractive young woman working here with all these horny ranch hands. You saw how they acted.”

“The boys were all perfect gentlemen. You, on the other hand?” She crosses her arms. “You told me I was free to hire anybody I wanted if I needed help. I can’t keep up with you lot the way I used to. And Kate’s a wonderful help, but she’s busy trying to raise a family here, too. I hired Cecily, and I’m going to give her an opportunity to prove she’s capable of the job. You don’t have to like it, but that’s what’s happening.” She tilts her head with a self-satisfied look, pushing me to spar with her.

“Don’t forget, I’m the boss. I could fire her whenever I wanted to…And you.” There’s an instant guilty pang when I say it. Though it’s the truth, Beryl’s ‌family. There’s no way I would ever fire her.Could ever fire her. My brothers have equal say in things around here, and they’d never let it happen.

“Love to see you try, honey.” She winks. Turning on her heel, the old woman struts back into the kitchen, her long grey braid slapping against her back.

Though I have nowhere to be right now, I can’t go back to the kitchen. Not after I made a comment about not having the time to sit around and do nothing. I’m sure the guys heading out to pound fence posts this morning would appreciate the extra hands. Building and repairing fences on over 100,000 acres is damn near a full-time job. Not a fun one, either. But I’m happy to bust my ass in the hot May sun if it’ll take my mind off Beryl’s new hire for a few hours.

Normally, we work from sun up to sun down this time of the year. But today’s unseasonably warm, and I can’t afford to lose workers from heat stroke, so we call it quits shortly after lunch.

It’s a pleasant surprise to find Beryl and Kate sitting on the front porch, with my four-year-old niece, Odessa, plucking daylily blooms from the garden below.

“Does your mom know you’re picking her flowers?” I tease as I walk past, causing her spine to stiffen and the bouquet in her arms to drop in a whirlwind to the ground. Kate stands up and peers over the railing, shooting her daughter a scolding look.

I lower my tired body onto the steps and kick my legs straight out in front of me. “See you took my advice about firing the new girl then.”

Beryl cackles. “Austin Wells. You know me better than that.”

My chest cramps. I can’t tell if the feeling is annoyance or anticipation about seeing Cecily again. Running my family’s 20,000-head operation, managing twenty-two employees—twenty-three with her included—would be infinitely easier without a beautiful woman distracting my men.Distracting me.Her presence has already sent me out to pound fence posts, on a day when I should have been catching up on paperwork left over from the calving season.

“Heard you’ve got a problem with Cecily?” Kate stops reprimanding her kid to start in on me. “And you were apparently a real D-bag this morning? We need the help here and she’s already proven her worth today. She helped me clean bunkhouses and weed the flower bed. Now she had to run some errands, so she’s grabbing groceries and Odessa’s prescription.”

My eyes cut to her cabin. Her car’s gone.Goddamn it.“In her car?”

Kate and Beryl exchange a glance, both shrugging. “Assume so,” Kate says.

“Tell her to take a ranch vehicle next time. If she ends up with another flat tire, she’s gone. I don’t give a shit what either of you say.” I brush the powdery dirt from my pants and head to my office.

We haven’t used the hayloft above the quarter horse stable for hay storage in over thirty years. Not since the ranch’s remuda expanded well beyond what 200 square bales can feed. Then my grandfather switched exclusively to rounds, making this space unnecessary and unused. After spending most of my childhood using the loft as a secret spot to read the entireGoosebumpsseries, it was a no-brainer to make some alterations to change it into an office. Especially because putting a workspace in my small home would mean giving up either the couch or my bed.

Breathing in the comforting smell of horses, old wood, and alfalfa, I swing open the hay door next to my desk. Partially for sunlight and fresh air, but primarily for the view. Grabbing a stack of papers, I plunk into the well-worn, burgundy armchair pointed toward the open door. My handmade oak desk may be a more logical place to get work done, but it overlooks the stables below the loft. And right now, I need the driveway in my sight line.

I’ve never noticed how many vehicles come and go from the ranch before every set of tires crunching on the compact gravel made me look up. In the middle of making a mental note to have another meeting with the crew about biosecurity, I glance up to see a silver Honda Civic turn the corner. First, there’s a reflexive sigh, knowing she made it to town and back safely. Then, a grating inhale when I catch Red and Jacky elbowing each other, as Cecily clambers out of her car with her arms full. Always the damn gentleman, Denny appears from nowhere, and carries her groceries into the big house. Smiling his “lady-killer” smile and shaking out his shaggy brown hair.

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