Page 4 of Finding Her Billionaire Cowboy Mismatch

“You said next time last time.”

“And I’ll say it the time after.” He let the corner of his mouth go, the closest thing he kept to a grin. “Go on. Tell Marlene to keep the lot of you out of trouble.”

Cody shook his head, easy about it, and didn’t push. The crew rolled out in a clatter of tailgates and twangy radio, and Stephen stayed on to load the tools the way he wanted them loaded.

He didn’t hand this part around. The hush after the trucks pulled out was the stretch of the day he came for.

He was sliding the post driver into the bed when a car turned up the ranch road. Annie Bolton stepped out near the equipment barn, a covered dish balanced on one palm.

“Stephen!” She crossed the lot as though the call had been planned for days, never mind that Chad’s truck sat nowhere in the yard. “Tell me you haven’t eaten. I made enough chicken and dumplings to founder the whole outfit.”

“Crew’s gone to the Wagon Wheel, ma’am. You missed them by a hair.”

Annie waved that off and lingered, the dish riding her hip, in no hurry for a woman who’d driven all the way out to feed a husband who wasn’t home.

“How’s the north line holding?”

“It’s holding strong.”

“That’s what Chad says about you. Holding strong. Highest praise he can give.” She laughed at her own joke and rolled on without a breath. “You work too hard, Stephen Garrett. The whole crew does. What we ought to do is throw a proper spread at the joint barbecue this year, Bolton and Hickory Hollow both. Kelly’s already after the caterer.”

Then she lit up the way she did when a fresh subject pleased her.

“Speaking of Hickory Hollow. You ought to meet their office manager one of these days. Elise Pollard. Sharpest office manager in three counties, I’d swear to it. Runs Robert’s whole operation and makes the thing look easy. Pretty as a picture, too, not that she’d ever hold still long enough for a body to tell her so.”

Stephen gave her a polite nod. “Sounds like Robert’s fortunate to have her.”

Annie opened her mouth to go on, plainly wound up for more, but Stephen reached for the next tool, and even Annie Bolton took a hint when a man handed her one.

“Well.” She patted the fender. “Think on the barbecue. Be a shame for the two of you to miss it.”

A nudge, plain as paint.

He let it sail on past. Annie married off half the county in her head and meant not a lick of harm by it, friendly with the fence posts if they’d stand quiet long enough for it.

He raised a hand as she pulled away, then turned to the tools.

The drive home ran a dozen miles of dark county road, fence on both sides, the better part of it Garrett ground once. Stephen rolled the window down and let the night do the talking.

The house stood where he’d left it, porch light tripping on with the timer, supper whatever the icebox cared to offer. He ate at the counter and washed the one plate after.

The house had room for two and always had. His grandmother’s quilts still folded in the cedar chest, her side of the closet bare since before the place came to him. He’d never minded the extra room. A man couldn’t miss what he’d never set out to want.

Then he sat out on the porch step with the dark folding in close, and for a good while the only company he wanted was the land itself, holding on, the way he aimed to keep it.

CHAPTER THREE

Elise found her name card three seats from where she’d put it herself.

She had the seating chart by heart. She’d built the dadgum thing over two evenings of juggling who couldn’t bear to sit by whom, and she’d parked herself at the tail of the family table, close to the coolers, where a person could slip off without anybody marking the gap.

Her card had moved.

Kelly drifted past with a stack of napkins and the airy look of a woman with clean hands. “Oh, I shuffled a few spots this morning. Just balancing the tables out. You had all the talkers bunched on one end.”

“Funny. I balanced them in March.”

“It plays better this way. Trust me.” And off Kelly went, to fuss over the lemonade before Elise could lodge a complaint with management.