He wasn’t the only one watching. I gave Jude a sharp nod. The foreman climbed into the tractor, starting the engine.
“This ain’t a rodeo,” the new ranch hand in question called back to a chorus of snickers from Will’s team.
“Cause you last eight seconds for anything,” Will muttered under his breath as he cleared a shrub jammed under the tractor’s rear tire and sent Jude a thumbs up. “Hell, honey, if you want to go a few rounds, I’ll give it a try. But usually I prefer blondes with a whole lot more in the bust area, you know?” He looked up and shot Odin a saucy wink.
The older ranch hand stared at Will for a moment, then burst out laughing.
I hid a grin as I directed Jude out of the mess we’d made of the already slushy drive and prayed no one needed to use it for a day or more, seeing as we were already perilously low on salt. Maybe I shouldn’t have worried about Will. The kid could clearly handle himself.
“Thanks, Archer. There’s always some bully or asshole who thinks the little guy is the one they can pound down on.” Will rolled his shoulders and neck, looking up at the sky that threatened to close in on us overhead.
I considered him for a long minute, doubting that anyone would be pounding down on the barrel chested cowboy before me. “Sounds like you’ve had plenty of firsthand experience."
“I’ve clocked the hours.”
“Then you know how to manage him. Ignore the age difference. He’ll keep testing you. Give him boundaries.”
“Just like a toddler, huh?” Will’s eyes sparkled at me.
“Just a like a toddler.”
My daily wisdom thus imparted, I made my way back to the big house, following Jude’s tire tracks.
The fourth morning I stayed at Red Hart Jude met me at the barn holding the reins to two behemoths. I had little contact with Eve apart from collecting my coffee at the kitchen bench in the big house after breakfast along with everyone else. She barely spared me a glance when I thanked her quietly, but each morning she pushed my thermos across the bench and held my gaze with that same unreadable expression.
Like she was waiting for something.
And each day I waited for her to let me in. Because after what happened the last time I kissed her, there was no way in hell that I’d risk breaking her unspoken rules.
And so I stared up at a tall, black horse, and hoped to God that Jude didn’t want me to get on it.
Thankfully, the foreman passed me the reins to a chestnut mare. Mounting easily, he turned his horse before I could question his sanity and disappeared into the pre-dawn darkness.
Grumbling under my breath, I gripped the reins in my gloved hands, pulling myself up. I succeeded, but there was little grace in my actions and I was glad for the cover of a cloudy morning that left us in a haze of ambiguous light.
By the time I caught up with Jude several paddocks later, my ass was numb and the horse and I had developed an instant mutual dislike for each other.
“Damn good thing you’ve been driving a truck. Especially when you were playing at being a cowboy in front of Eve last Christmas.” Jude nodded to me. “That was fucking abysmal, Archer.”
“I never said I was a cowboy,” I groaned, attempting to stretch one leg over the horse, but nothing cooperated. Or coordinated. With a mammoth effort, I hauled my ass myself down. The horse whickered, sidling away from me.
I didn’t blame it.
“Good to know you’re human.” Jude watched me with his arms folded across his chest. “You over it, yet?”
“Over what?” I asked with my back to him. We both perfectly well knew what. Or maybewho.
A hand clapped me over the back of my head.
I winced, biting my tongue. “Damn, man.” That was usually my move reserved for younger Rangers. I turned to stare at him. But a smile cracked my grumpy-ass facade when Jude’s weather lined face didn't so much as shift. “No one’s been brave enough to do that in a decade.”
“A century is more like it. Up here, you’re just a man, Archer. Not a hot-shot Ranger. Just you.”
I grinned. Oddly enough, I liked that step down a little too much. Maybe Montana suited me after all.
Jude nodded to me, his point made, and gestured toward an upturned water trough.
“How the hell did that happen?” I studied the giant contraption that looked like a behemoth had turned it on its head overnight.
