Janice beamed.“That’s great.We don’t have to stay late.The sun doesn’t set until after nine this time of year, and by then I’ll probably be ready to head back home.I’ll pick you up around six?And don’t worry about a thing—I’ll bring a picnic basket.”
“Oh, but…”
“Schools have closed for the summer break, so I have time on my hands while you’re working all day.This is my way of welcoming you to our town.”
“Okay, great, but let me meet you there.I’m not sure what time I’ll close.Sometimes clients wander in at the last minute.”
“Okay, if that’s what you prefer.I was also wondering whether Rose wouldn’t be interested in joining us?”
Ellie hesitated.They’d been having a surprise kitchen tea for Laura in the Yarn Cove on the day before her wedding, when a disheveled and crying redhead stumbled into Ellie’s shop.Rose Dalton.Even after a month, her name was still the only piece of information they had about her.
Since Laura had moved to the Weston Ranch, she’d offered her house in town to Rose to stay in for as long as she needed.So far, Rose hadn’t talked to anyone about herself.They still didn’t know where she was from, how she’d ended up in Marietta, nor why she’d been crying on the night they’d met her.
“I doubt she’d come—she still hasn’t left the house as far as I know—but I will ask her.”
Clearly worried, Janice nodded.“I’ve been there a few times to drop off books or something to eat, but she’s not talking.It’s such a pity; she looks so lost.I wish there was something we could do.”
“Give her time.Something very traumatic must have happened.I’m sure she’ll talk when she’s ready.”
“Okay, I’m on my way,” Janice said.“See you on Friday!”
As Janice left, Ellie glanced across the street again.Becket was leaving the bookshop, another bag in his hand.The dog in the truck right outside the shop barked joyously, tail wagging, waiting to be petted.Grinning, Becket talked to the dog.To her surprise he got into the truck.It was his dog.Well, well.She wouldn’t have thought he was a dog person.Where would he find the time with all his womanizing?
Quickly, she turned away.Stop thinking about the cowboy.Her eye caught on a packet lying underneath one of the cupboards.Crouching down, she picked it up before realizing what it was.A condom.“Skin-on skin feeling for enhanced sensation and pleasure.”Those words were forever engraved in her brain.
Muttering and blushing again, she quickly stuffed the package in her handbag beneath the counter.She still couldn’t believe she’d read the words out loud.What had she been thinking?In her defense, her mind had been so muddled by Becket’s presence, she hadn’t been thinking at all.
With a groan, she pressed her fingers against her eyes.She was happily single, she wasn’t getting involved with anyone and even if she was to start dating at some point, Becket Weston was so not the kind of man she’d even consider going out with.He was too big, too strong…
She waited for the fear she used to get in her belly when she’d been with Marcus, but strangely, Becket’s big frame didn’t frighten her.He did make her feel off-balance, though, not a feeling she was comfortable with.
Stop thinking about the man, for crying out loud!Checking her watch, she grabbed her bag.She was going to pick up something from the deli for lunch before dropping in to check on Rose.
*
By three o’clock,Becket was back in the saddle and riding along with his two brothers and sister to check on the bulls.During summer, when breeding season was approaching, the herd was sorted into their different breeding groups.On the Weston Ranch they’d moved away from single-sire breeding to managing the genetics in more specific ways.To ensure the production of high-quality offspring, bulls and cows were carefully matched using genetic data and other factors such as birth weights, weaning weights, production history, and so on, with one bull covering twenty to thirty cows—his own harem so to speak.
Bulls lived happily together during the rest of the year, but during the breeding season when they had their cows with them, they would bellow at one another across pastures, one guy warning the other off.They sometimes even went through fences to fight.It was dangerous breaking them up and a pain getting them back where they belonged.Some bulls were mellow, though, and preferred to just take their cows and leave.
Once a bull hit three years old, he might get harder to handle and more dangerous to be around.Most bulls were sold at the three- to four-year mark.Some bulls, though, were sweethearts their entire lives, but were still not to be trusted during breeding season.Those hormones.
Becket couldn’t help chuckling at his thoughts.Humans were not so different, were they?
It was therefore important to regularly check on the bulls to make sure they were healthy and that they were still in the pastures they were supposed to be in.
“Coop,” Hayden called out and moved closer to their younger brother.“The fences adjacent to the Higgins Ranch—those were checked?I don’t want to give Higgins another chance to accuse us of stealing his cattle.”
“Yep,” Cooper said.“Becket and I checked it yesterday.”
“Becket?”Willow asked as her horse trotted closer to him.“Why are you so quiet?We missed you at lunchtime.”
Becket looked away.“I had something to do in town.”His sister had an uncanny way of knowing what they were thinking.Fey, like their grandmother, their mother called it.Cooper had it too, although he focused on animals.If there was a stray anywhere close by, it would find its way to Cooper’s house on the ranch.Recently Luke, Hayden’s son, had also seemed to have a sixth sense about things.It was disconcerting, to say the least.When he was trying to keep something to himself Becket took great care not to look them in the eye and not to react to anything they said.
“Like visiting the lovely Ellie Campbell in her yarn shop, I’ve been told,” Willow chuckled.
Becket whipped his head around.“How on earth…?”
Willow grinned.“Gotcha!I heard about it minutes after you left the shop.From none other than Janice O’Sullivan, the town matchmaker.Rumor has it, you held her in your arms for quite some time.I was wondering how that happened?”
