“I’ll get back to you on that,” he replied. “But I can say I’m enjoying the fresh air.”
“Well—” she said, and they both stopped in the middle of the driveway at the main house. Liz looked down at her feet, and Jake cleared his throat.
“Yeah. I think I shouldn’t keep Tanner waiting, should I?”
“Okay, then. Good talking to you Jake,” she said. He turned, walking backward, and waved at her, a smile on his face that made her stop short. He was completely disarming when he was happy, and her heart skipped a beat. It didn’t hurt that all his muscles were popping out from his run, and his hair was falling over one eye. He combed it back as she pulled her lower lip into her teeth. Men around here did not look like that. Mind you, men around here wouldn’t be caught dead in shorts that showed off their perfectly toned thighs like that either.
“Hey. Why don’t you and I go into town to get my things later today? You have time?”
“Okay,” she said quickly, a funny feeling of elation hitting her square in the stomach. “I’ll hook up my two-horse trailer and come get you. Around one?”
“It’s a date,” he replied, spun, and jogged the rest of the way up the driveway to the house.
Liz let out a breath and looked up to the sky, willing her heart to stop flailing against her chest.A date.
“Well, you wanted to get to know him, girl. Here you go,” she said to herself, and made her way back to the stable.
* * *
Liz honked the horn outside the office, and when no one appeared, killed the engine to the truck and hopped out. They must be ears-deep in the books. She’d said one o’clock, and it was around a quarter past now.
West men, it seemed, were, to a one, not good at timekeeping.
Walking down the hallway between the main cattle barn and the office, she caught voices having some sort of an argument. One deep and even, and one frustrated.Shit. She should have known better than to leave Tanner alone with Jake. Hopefully they hadn’t started throwing punches.
She poked her head into the office. Jake, in well-fitting jeans, a crisp short-sleeved polo, and his hair a complete mess, was on one side of the room looking through Brett’s old ledger. Tanner was on the other, arms crossed, in a pair of oil-stained brown coveralls and beat-up muck boots.
They looked so different it took her a moment to reconcile that the two of them were in the same room. But they were, because the glares Tanner was throwing at Jake were deadly.
“Hey—” she started, but was cut off when Jake ran his finger across the ledger and shook his head.
“So Bobby makes more than Kevin, but both of them make less than Harry or Rowan? Trevor makes more than Liz—”
Tanner interrupted Jake. “Look, this isn’t a fancy restaurant. These boys are hired for their know-how and their muscle. Hours are long. Bobby, he’s newer than Kevin, but has a diploma from the Ag college. So, yeah, he makes more than Kev. Harry, he’s our head cattleman, and Rowan is his son. They’re the best when it comes to our beef lines. I trust ’em, so I pay ’em more. Liz runs the stables, and Trevor gets a cut of the lesson program fees on top of his salary.”
“It’s so arbitrary, I mean—” Jake said, flipping through more pages. “And how is it this isn’t in accounting software?”
“Dad hated computers. We haven’t switched it over yet,” Tanner snapped.
“Lizzie,” he muttered, glancing up at her. He looked beyond frustrated at having to explain everything to Jake, justifying what he paid the staff. Which included her.
She waved back silently and leaned against Brady’s desk, waiting for Jake to notice she was there. He was so deep into that ledger, she was sure he was going to inhale the ink. He was taking a lot of interest in something he really didn’t need to concern himself with.
She’d seen that book so many times, the spiky ink in whatever color pen Brett could find inching across the page, the years marked, the names scratched in over and over. They’d been on Brett for a couple of years about learning to use a computer for all of it, but he’d always refused. Old dog, new trick. Liz usually stayed up late right before tax time reading off numbers while Tanner plunked them in, single finger typing across an Excel spreadsheet. Tanner was only mildly better at using a computer than his father. It could be funny, as Tanner would get frustrated, swearing at the screen as if that would help.
Jake made a noise, pursing his lips. “These boys don’t make much, comparatively. How on earth do they make ends meet?”
“Doesn’t cost much to live out here. Those who live in the bunkhouse behind Liz’s place, rent comes out of their pay,” Tanner growled. “Enough. I’m through justifying numbers to you. The bank should have set up the paperwork for you to do when you go to town with Bobby later.”
“Actually, I’m taking him in,” Liz said, and Jake turned his head. Seeing her, his eyes sparkled with amusement. She shook her head at him, trying not to laugh as she realized he was maybe enjoying goading her brother over the numbers. Those two, under the hood, were two peas in a pod. Payback for Tanner insinuating Jake was useless earlier, likely.
Tanner made a frustrated noise, and Liz looked over at him.
“Tan?”
“Where’s Bobby?” he snapped.
“Brady needs him this afternoon,” she lied. “I gotta get some senior feed, salt blocks, and maybe that set of hoof nippers you ordered is in. Might as well get Jake’s stuff while we’re at it and I can drop him at the bank after. Trev is working the horses we need to today, so I have the time.”
