“Hold up there, little fella,” said Cranny, a large lion shifter on the ranch.
“Sorry,” Monty murmured, taking a step back so Cranny could unhand him. He was nice enough and had openly flirted withMonty, but after last night, Monty had no delusions about what he wanted. “Were you looking for me or Rue?”
“Rue.” A wide grin stretched over his tanned face. “But I’m happy to find you instead.”
“You’ve found me,” Rue snapped behind Cranny, who had blocked Monty’s view with his wide shoulders.
He didn’t need to see Rue’s expression to know he was pissed, his tone said it all. His voice had practically snapped like a whip on the ground.
Cranny’s smile disappeared, and a frown appeared before he twisted around to look at Rue. The anger that had not dissipated at the cold shoulder drove Monty down the steps, stalking off in the direction of where he could see men, not once looking at Rue.
He heard a muttered curse, but he didn’t know who it was directed at, and he wasn’t in the mood to stop and find out. He stomped to the busy paddock, seeing Isley and Hollis helping Ethan feed and groom horses.
“Sorry I’m late,” Monty said to the group, recalling he’d not said it to Ethan earlier. Rue’s hot and cold routine had completely turned his head to mashed potato.
“Better late than never, suppose,” Ethan muttered, stroking a hand down the chocolate mane of a horse called Bounty.
Hollis continued with what he was doing, barely giving him a look, which made Monty wince. Isley took the pressure off when he offered him a brush. “We still have four horses to groom.” He indicated with his head in the direction of Blaze, a palomino. “I was going to do him next.”
Brush in hand, Monty nodded his thanks. Manual labor was what he needed to clear his head.
Time slipped by and Monty kept his thoughts on the task at hand. The sun beat down on his back as he followed the instructions Ethan gave them. Dust got everywhere, sticking to his exposed skin as the heat built and the flies buzzedincessantly. Yet Monty found a kind of peace in the rhythmic nature of the strokes and how the horse's tail flicked out. He giggled at the horse's nuzzles when the brush occasionally hit just the right spot.
When they finished, Monty found himself feeling relaxed, the dark cloud of the morning having evaporated.
They tidied everything away, then Ethan suggested they find the others and head up to the bunkhouse for food. Monty suddenly realized he was starving.
Ethan headed off in the direction of the big house, leaving him with Hollis and Isley.
“Want to explain where you were this morning?” Hollis locked eyes with Monty, and he could tell he would not be fobbed off when they’d all been in the bar last night.
“I stayed in town.”
Isley hid his grin a second too late for Monty to notice.
“You could have messaged me to let me know you were going to be late. This is aworkingweek and not a holiday.”
The reprimand was deserved. Hollis was a fair boss. “I should have done, and I meant it earlier, I’m sorry.”
He was sorry for much more than being late!
Hollis lost the pinched look. “I know, I was worried.”
“You knew I was with… Rue.”
“That’s why I was worried,” Hollis confessed, looking far from comfortable to be having this conversation. “He’s going to be my brother-in-law—”
“I know,”—Monty held up his hand—“and I didn’t plan for things to go down the way they did.” It was all he was willing to say when Rue was being evasive once more. And Monty had no clue what would happen later when Kendrick expected thembothto go to his house tonight.
“Rue?” Isley questioned, scratching just under the brim of his hat, tilting it back revealing how wet his hair was.
“Yeah.” There was no way he was mentioning Kendrick.
“I thought you were planning to…” Isley blushed beetroot red, eyes dropping to the ground where he kicked at the dirt, “sleep with Kendrick?”
Bollocks! How the heck had he forgotten that?
Rue. Rue was to blame for this!
