“We gave him the gate code long ago.We have his, too.”
As man and horse approached, the animal’s shod hooves made a slowclop clop clopon the driveway.
Smiling, she greeted her neighbor.“Hi, Travis.”
Dismounting, he stood beside his horse and held the reins.He touched his hat with two fingers.“Sarah.Good to see you.”
He cast an irritated glance at Ben.“Paxton,” he said.
Stiffly, Ben nodded.
“Heard about the trouble in town.”Butler focused on Sarah.“You all right?”
“Yes, but that poor woman, Annie Smith, needed stitches.I feel just awful.”She hugged her elbows.“As though it’s my fault.”
“It’s not.”Travis studied Sarah.“Seems like by now your hired hand could have taken that guy out.”He cut his gaze to Ben.
Ben’s expression soured.“Seems like,” he emphasized his Texas drawl, “you’d have prevented the press from gettin’ past the front gates this morning.Thought you’re watchin’ out for Sarah.”
“While she’s on the ranch, I do,” Butler returned.“She wasn’t here.”
Like big-horned rams during the rut season, the two faced off.Sarah sensed that matters between them were in imminent danger of escalating.
Subtly putting herself between them, she stepped around to the horse’s nose and stroked it.“How is your spring forage holding up for the stock?”
“Still green,” Butler said, “from all the winter rain.Gonna be a good year.We’re still expecting a few late calves.”
“We are, too,” Sarah said.
“Bet you could use a break.”He spoke to her as though Ben had evaporated into the ether.“Want to get dinner?Say tomorrow night?”
She heard Ben mutter something beneath his breath.
Was Travis really asking her for a date right in front of Ben?She felt like a cow between the two snorting rams.Travis Butler was her long-time neighbor.He was safe.She’d told Ben there could be nothing romantic between them.This would send that message loud and clear.Besides, it was just dinner.She’d shared meals with Travis before.She said, “I’d like that.”
“Pick you up at seven.”With that, he thrust his foot into the stirrup and threw his leg over the saddle.Giving a last cool glance at Ben, he reined his horse back down the driveway.
Watching the other go, Ben scowled.He said, “You know that thishired handhas to go with you, right?”
“Travis won’t take me to Mountain Wood, don’t worry.We’ll go to a neighboring town, I’m sure.I’m armed, and he will be.I think I’ll be okay.”
“Youwillbe okay.”He looked down at her.“Because I’ll be there.With you.”
“No.”Her chin took on a stubborn tilt.“This is my life.And you won’t be going.”
****
That afternoon Sarahwanted to stir around her kitchen making dinner, and so Ben took up residence where he could see her in the small living room.Working his laptop and cell phone, he spent a couple of hours taking care of business matters for his Texas company.As usual, there were a number of fires to put out.
In only a few days, the new men were due to arrive at Paxton Security and the office was in an uproar.
“We really need you here,” Marge, his secretary, told him.“We have fifteen files on these guys and are running our usual redundant background checks on them all, but we’re having computer glitches.It’s slow going.Our IT guy is busy in the server closet sussing out the problem, and I can hear him swearing from here.Meanwhile, the yard supervisor is getting in new equipment to accommodate the extra personnel, However, he’s having difficulty in finding places to put it all.We’re running out of room!”
“Yeah,” Ben said.“The company’s starting to bust at the seams.We could use another building.”
“Did you know that two of the new guys are bringing their trained dogs?Ben, where are we going to put them?”
“Dogs?”His brows went up.“I didn’t know, but that’s great.I’ve wanted to add security dogs for a long time.You’re right, though.We’ll have to figure out the logistics.We’re not set up for animals.”
