“Well, then let’s have the conversation,” Briar said. “I hate playing games.”
Tarr laughed. “Yeah, honey, I know you do. Do you think I’m playing a game?”
“No,” she said with plenty of saltiness in her tone.
“Does that mean if I ask you to dinner for tonight, you’ll go?”
She searched his face. For what, Tarr had no idea. And then, in Briar’s usual hot-cold fashion, her blue eyes became like pools of warm, inviting water as everything around her softened. “Yeah, I’d go to dinner with you tonight, especially if a certain cowboy wanted to take me to that place where they have the cheddar-cheese biscuits.”
Tarr laughed again as he lifted his breakfast sandwich to his mouth. “I don’t know much about you, Briar, but I’ve definitely learned that if I want to get you on my side, I have to feed you well.”
She giggled with him, and after Tarr finished his first bite of breakfast, he asked, “Okay, favorite food?”
“Potatoes,” Briar said, without missing a beat.
“Potatoes?” Tarr shook his head. “That’s barely a food at all.”
“Are you joking right now?” Briar pinned him with a sharp look and shook her head. “You can make potatoes into anything, cowboy. Hash browns, French fries, mashed potatoes and gravy. They’re so versatile, and they’re delicious with salt and pepper, and ketchup, or gravy and cheese. Poutine! Have you ever had poutine? Because it’sdelicious.”
Tarr blinked at her and then burst out laughing. “No, but you’re definitely gonna make me some of that this week for our third date.”
ten
Briar smiled at the snowman standing sentinel in her front yard as she jogged down the front steps and hit the sidewalk running. She wasn’t late, but no normal human being wanted to spend more time outside in frigid weather than they needed to.
She whistled at Wiggins and yelled, “Come on, you,” as she reached the back door of her SUV and pulled it open. She’d come out fifteen minutes ago to start the car, because while she’d grown up in Canada and did enjoy winter, shehatedscraping her windshield.
Wiggins barked and ran in a full circle around the snowman before galloping through the wet mess to the SUV. He leapt into the back seat, and Briar closed the door behind him and hurried around to the driver’s side.
Blessed heat filled the vehicle, and she sighed as she reached to flip on the windshield wipers. They removed the melted ice, and Briar backed out of her cleared driveway and onto the dirt road that dead-ended at her house.
Nerves stampeded through her, because Tuck had said he would come find her that morning after he completed his morning farm chores. He and Tarr fed all of the rodeo animals,which included nine horses, several cows, over a dozen calves, and a couple of bulls. In addition to that, Bobbie Jo cared for more than one hundred goats of varying ages and breeds.
Despite being attacked there, Briar still loved going out to the Goatel, and she helped Bobbie Jo every morning with her herd. Then she’d walk through the stable and barns and pastures where the rodeo animals lived, checking on them as well.
Once upon a time, she’d aspired to be a farrier. She’d even taken a couple of classes, but she’d given that up quickly. Still, she could assess injuries and change horseshoes and do basic, minor things before she had to call in someone more skilled than her. She only held a veterinary technician certificate, so she wasn’t a full-fledged vet and couldn’t prescribe medications and other things that doctors could do, but Tucker had Kristie Higgins on speed dial, as she was currently engaged to the foreman at his family farm. She had come and done a few things here and there when the situation once again exceeded Briar’s expertise and ability.
“He’s going to hire you again,” she told herself as she made the turn and the big rodeo arena and barns came into view.
She automatically glanced left, where Tarr’s RV sat on the far corner of the parcel of land segmented by roads. His truck wasn’t there, as he’d left earlier than her to do the feeding. She hadn’t put an end date on when he would need to have somewhere else to stay, and since the power hadn’t come back on yet, they’d shared the couch bed again last night.
As she started to drive by the arena, she noticed the lights shining from above the doorways. “So the electricity is on here,” she said. It should be the same grid system, though she knew her lines were older and might need more maintenance.
The snow that had fallen had been filled with water—heavy and wet, perfect for making snowmen…and taking down power lines. The main city hub of Denver and most of its suburbs hadgotten their power restored yesterday morning, but Briar had checked the website and knew that crews were still working on some of the outlying areas.
She passed Tarr’s big black truck parked right next to Tucker’s white one and continued around to the back of the facilities where the Goatel waited. Tucker also employed a facilities manager, and he and Bobbie Jo had just hired an agricultural specialist to help them plant the farm next year as well.
She put her car in park and took a deep breath, trying to soothe her worries with the fact that Tucker had said right to her face that he saw no reason to find someone else to take care of the animals. They discussed her salary, both thought it was fair, and he said he’d draw up another contract and get it to her “soon.”
He’d texted a few questions last night about what her actual address was, and whether or not her last name had two Ts or one. A small smile touched her face as she recalled how embarrassed he’d been that he didn’t even know how to spell her last name.
Briar thought about names as she got out of her SUV, released Wiggins, and the two of them made their way into the Goatel. All of the roads and walkways had been cleared by Ashton and the plow he attached to the front of the tractor. Tarr and Tuck and even Bobbie Jo had been out with shovels to clear the smaller spaces, and someone had been in the Goatel with a four-wheeler to move the snow to the fences.
She found Bobbie Jo in the enclosure, talking to some of her goats as she fed them. “Good morning,” Briar said.
The blonde woman turned toward her, a smile quickly appearing on her face and then disappearing. “Good morning to you too.” She watched as Briar reached for a pair of gloves on the shelf next to the door.
Briar hated nothing more than being watched. In general, she really liked Tucker and Bobbie Jo. She’d been very worried about the sale of the farm and the transition to a new owner, as she didn’t always mesh with people. But, as it turned out, Bobbie Jo possessed an incredibly salty streak as well, and she was as no-nonsense as Briar when it came to work, caring for animals, and employing her passion about something she cared about.
