Page 68 of The Rancher’s One and Only

“You just seem like you’re a really stubborn girl, Ernestine, and I like that about you. You’re stubborn, in the best way.”

“Thanks. You too.”

It was almost a friendship moment. And that was kind of amazing. This place was magic. She looked up from her plate, and out at the view. At the sun-washed sky and the painted hills. All that glorious red all around her. It was just amazing.

She had come here thinking that she was going to make some scientific discoveries, and she had. She had come here hoping that it would change aspects of her life, but she had no idea how much that would be true. She had no idea that it was going to change more than just her career. Things inside of her had changed.

Because of Jax. Because of Rowdy and Dakota and Jessica. Conversations and questions and answers that were so honest, and didn’t make her feel silly for having asked the questions in the first place.

It was time to load back up into the wagons, and they brought all their dishes in with them.

“When we actually do this, one of us will be running food service, and will take the dishes away.”

“Probably me,” said Jessica.

“Yeah,” Rowdy said cheerfully. “Probably.”

“I’m going to kick you in the teeth, Gardner.”

“Don’t hurt yourself. Your leg’s not so good.” He elbowed her, and she laughed. It was genuine. Not something that she had to reach for. It was a wound, in all the ways that word implied, and yet she seemed to have a really good way of dealing with it.

It made Ernestine realize that she just didn’t know enough kinds of people. It was a side effect of having jumped into her career so young. She had gone from her family to her colleagues, and even though she had been with many different groups doing digs in different places, had been in academic settings and museum settings, they were all sort of the same people in slightly different fonts, so to speak.

Jessica was a different kind of tenacious, determined. Rowdy, Dakota and Jax were all such tough, strong people. And smart. Extremely smart, even though none of them were academic.

She had never been a snob about things like that. She was very aware that she was smart about one thing in particular. And that it was different than other kinds of smart.

But knowing that, and seeing it, seeing the way that it played out in their lives, was creating a profound shift inside of her.

She had spent her life asking lots of questions. But she’d never had a deep understanding of other people who were so different than her until now.

The wagon trip took them to the most beautiful corners of the property. Places she hadn’t explored yet. She had been localized to her dig site, and her cabin, and other than the trail ride she had taken with Jax, she hadn’t seen everything yet.

And when they finally arrived at dinnertime at the tent camp, she was in awe of how much they had improved it.

“This looks amazing,” she said, looking at the seating and the firepit. The beautiful tents, the cooking area and the place for games—horseshoes and darts and even some axe-throwing lanes.

There were barbecues in the cooking area, and Jessica and Rowdy took up the task of cooking while Jax started a fire and Dakota leaned against the side of the wagon, watching the proceedings.

“I’m observing,” he said, smiling just slightly. “For my art.”

“He’s a liar. He has to drive the wagon back so that the horses can bed down for the night.”

She knew that this was in fairly close proximity to where the horses were kept. So it would be easy to drive the horses back, spend the night in the ranch house and bring them out the next morning to pick up guests. She assumed that was how they were going to do it.

“Yeah, kind of,” Dakota said, when she asked that very same question.

“People will have the option to wait and take the wagon, or to linger. It’s walkable to the parking lot. It’s just that this place is a little bit mazelike. But we’ll have signs up for the pads soon. I’m making them.”

“Oh?”

“In his studio,” Jax commented. “He’s got all kinds of things in there. He’s a mad genius.”

“Yeah,” Dakota said dryly. “That’s me.”

Dakota was the only one of the three brothers—and she did think of them as brothers now—that she didn’t really know much about. He was an artist, so it kind of seemed like if any one of them was going to be a little bit more open to sharing about themselves it would be him. Except she had the distinct feeling that wasn’t true. That with Dakota, that openness was a bit of a put-on, and if you tried to get under his skin you would hit a brick wall.

“Are you going to join us for dinner?”