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Lilly’s expression crumbled with concern and the same kind of desperation Cora felt. “I wish I knew what was going on with him.”

“Me too,” Cora said, her throat tight. “I have to go pick him up.”

“What can I do? Do you want me to take the appointment with Deb? I’ve got a meeting for Mile High, but—”

“No, I’ve got it under control.” When Lilly opened her mouth clearly to argue, Cora shook her head. “I have to do this. All of it.”

Lilly closed her mouth and nodded. “Good luck. Call if you need anything.”

Sandwich forgotten, Cora grabbed her purse and headed out, because no matter how much she wanted to give to this job, she needed to give more to her son. Clearly, so very much more.

She didn’t allow herself to cry as she drove down the mountain. It’d take at least twenty minutes to pick up Micah. Which didn’t give her enough time to figure out who could watch Micah. Lilly had a meeting, and everyone else was out on excursions. Summer was high season, and Cora didn’t have time for Micah to have been kicked out of camp. Not when she had a wedding to plan in record time—herfirstwedding.

She inhaled sharply. Panic was building, but that wouldn’t do. Her motto this year wasWhat Would Lilly Do. Lilly would handle it. She’d find a way to juggle it all.

So, that’s just what Cora would do, too.

* * *

Shane rarely pounded posts these days. It was a job left to ranch hands or summer help, or sometimes even Lindsay if she was being particularly bratty.

But a little physical labor could clear a man’s mind. Shane would’ve preferred a long horse ride out to the far edge of the property to handle the small cattle drive, but it was Gavin’s turn, and his brother probably needed the air a little more than he needed to pound things. While physical labor evened out any aggression Shane felt, it tended to only stoke Gavin’s close-to-the-surface temper higher.

“Got a hand if you could use it.”

Shane took a minute to school his scowl into something more stoic before he turned at Ben Donahue’s voice. “Aren’t you on stable duty?”

Ben had his hands shoved in his pockets and that laid-back, nothing-matters demeanor that grated against every last nerve Shane possessed. Ben smirked, tempting Shane’s ruthlessly controlled temper even more.

“I know you boys think you can scare me off with the shit jobs, but let’s be clear. I got nearly a decade on you, boy. I don’t appreciate the bullshit orders.”

Shane put down the post driver, because he was a little too tempted to use it as a weapon. He wiped his brow with the back of his forearm and took a deep breath. Ben might be older than him, but Shane knew who came out on top when it came to controlling temper. “Far as I know, you still work for me, Donahue.”

“I work for the head of this ranch, who happens to be your mother.”

“I’m the foreman.I’min charge of the ranch hands. Which is the paycheck you collect.”

“Yeah, a paycheck your mother signs. Not you.”

God, how he’d love to punch that smirk off this man’s face. But, he didn’t have time for a pissing match. “I have a ranch torun,Donahue. If you’re not going to do the jobs assigned to you, why don’t you go discuss that refusal with my mother.” Shane didn’t have much hope it’d get the stables shoveled, but he didn’t want to deal with Ben directly. It could only end badly.

Ben took a deep breath and squinted out at the mountains beyond the ranch. “What exactly have I done that’s got you so bent out of shape over me?”

“You want a list?” Shane retorted sharply, one of those rare impulses he couldn’t control.

Ben’s sharp blue gaze met Shane’s. “Yeah. Maybe I do.”

“You’re lazy. Routinely late for work. You disappear, and no one knows where you are. You don’t take orders, and it makes it impossible for me to run this ranch the way it needs to be run. If you were anyone else, my mother would have fired you by now.”Or let me do it.“But she has stepped in and asked for lenience. Well, I’ve been lenient, but if you’re going to come at me, I’ll be straight with you.”

“That’s about me as a ranch hand, not about me as a man.”

“In this family, in this ranch, who you are and what you do go hand in hand. Talk is cheap. If you can’t show a little work ethic, I don’t need to worry about getting to know you as a man. You’re not the kind of man worthy to lick my mother’s boots.”

“I know damn well your mother’s a good woman, better than me. She deserves—”

“I know what she deserves,” Shane snapped.

There was something like a light of triumph in Ben’s expression. That flash of temper evening out. Ben smiled, that kind of “screw you” smile that had Shane itching to throw a punch.