Josie narrowed her eyes at him. He found her amusing, and that it was almost worse than the fact that he was still here.
His presence meant that George still thought that Mr. Thomas might marry her. Well, she’d show them both.
With a smile she hoped looked less devious than it felt, Josie tilted her head and fixed her gaze on Mr. Thomas. “Shouldn’t that be my responsibility?” she asked in a voice that was higher than usual. Out of the corner of her eye she could see George’s confusion written all over his face.
Mr. Thomas, however, lifted his eyebrows just slightly and said, “By all means. I’d love for you to show me around, Mrs. Gresham.”
Lifting her chin, Josie threw her brother a sideways look, and he stepped back.
“Are you certain?” George asked.
“More certain than I’ve been about anything in my life,” Josie replied with the same forced smile.
The two men exchanged a glance, and then George strolled out of the barn and off to whatever work he had planned for the day.
Josie turned then and fixed her gaze on Mr. Thomas. He watched her with a quiet intensity, his serious façade betrayed only by that lift of his lips.
She’d like to see if he was still smiling when she was finished with him.
“Mr. Thomas, have you had the pleasure of meeting our milk cow, Dolly?” Josie‘s voice was so high-pitched she almost felt as if she ought to end the question with a bat of her eyelashes.
“I have not,” he replied. “Are you going to introduce us?”
“I will, if you’ll follow me.” She turned and almost wished she had skirts to flounce. Mr. Thomas followed her to the front of the barn where Dolly stood contentedly, waiting to be turned out to pasture. At least George had had the presence of mind to milk her earlier.
Josie ran a hand along Dolly’s back. “We’ve had her for several years. She’sveryfriendly. I’m certain she’ll like you immediately if you come around the other side and scratch her back.”
Josie waited for Mr. Thomas to fall into her trap, but instead, he leaned himself against the frame of Dolly‘s stall and tucked his hands into the pockets of his trousers.
“I know an ornery cow when I see one,” he said. “And that look in her eye says she’ll kick out at anyone who comes up on her right side.”
Josie paused, her hand resting on Dolly’s flank. Mr. Thomas was brighter about farm animals then he looked. Dolly wouldn’t have done him serious injury, but he would’ve received a nice bruise. Anyway, Josie wasn’t about to admit that that was exactly her plan, so instead she moved around the cow and stood by the stall door, facing Mr. Thomas.
“Did you grow up on a ranch?” she asked.
Mr. Thomas seemed to assess her for a moment, those eyes making it hard for her to look away. Of all the men George could have chosen to write to, he had to pick this one. Mr. Thomas was likely the most handsome man who had strolled into Last Chance since the ladies of the town had placed that advertisement last fall.
“A farm in Indiana,” he said. “We grew corn and the like, and had a few milk cows. Most were docile as could be, but we had one grumpy cow like Miss Dolly here. Got the same look in her eye. Getting kicked once makes a fellow remember not to get kicked again.”
Josie nodded at the leg that held the limp she’d noticed before. “That how you hurt your leg?”
His face darkened just slightly, and Josie immediately knew it was no grouchy milk cow that had given him the pain caused that limp.
“That was a casualty of my previous profession,” he said. His eyes wandered across the barn. “George showed me about the place earlier. You’ve got quite the spread. It’s nothing short of a miracle the way you’ve managed to keep it up over the past year.”
The kind words made Josie almost feel bad for what she’d planned with Dolly. Almost. “It wasn’t easy. We’ve hardly had any help since the blizzards.”
His eyes caught hers again. “That’s what I would like to do. Help, I mean. I’ve always wanted to work a place like this, at least since I figured how much I missed this sort of life. And this place has a lot of potential. I think we could really make something of it.”
We? The word twisted in Josie like the knife she kept at her side. So, he still thought he was going to marry her. But even as she bit back the words that longed to spew from her mouth, Mr. Thomas seemed to look around the barn with something akin to reverence. The words in Josie‘s mind drowned in her throat, and something more sympathetic seemed to rise in their place. Suddenly, she was picturing Mr. Thomas as a small boy, working alongside his father and maybe a brother or two as they raked out straw in a barn, or worked together to repair a fence.
“Mrs. Gresham? What do you think?”
Josie pressed her lips together as she figured out what to say. Mr. Thomas didn’t seem to be one easily fooled. She decided that truth was the best here, even if it was more of her soul than she wished to bear to any man.
“I think . . .” she started. “This is my home. This was the land my parents worked so hard for. This was everything they wanted, and it’s everything I want.”
“What do you want it to be?” His face was entirely serious, as if he valued her opinion on the business of the ranch.
