Page 31 of A Rancher's Heart

She got the girls settled with sandwiches and veggie sticks in front of a movie then headed out to the barns to track down Caleb.

She ran into Kelli around the first corner.

The young woman stopped and gave her a smile. “Hey, girlfriend. Heading for a ride?”

“Need to talk to Caleb.”

The words came out a little clipped, and one of Kelli’s brows rose. “Oh?”

“Know where he is?”

Kelli extended an arm deeper into the barn, pointing the way. “Give a shout if you want backup.”

Tamara did her best to keep from stomping. “I’ll be sure to tell him that.”

A soft snicker reached her ears, but it wasn’t enough to make a dent in her level of frustration. And when she poked her head into the room at the end of the hallway and discovered Caleb working on saddles, she marched right up and got in his face.

“I think I missed a few things. I need you to clarify for me.”

He blinked in surprise. “Tamara. Everything okay?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice was laced with sarcasm, so she pulled back enough to not dig herself too huge of a hole in case she was wrong. “I asked the girls when we were going to do their chores, and they informed me they only go into the barn when you’re with them. Which makes me think they probably don’t have chores.”

“They have chores,” Caleb looked confused. “We talked about this. You said that they were already doing them.”

“Dishes and cleaning inside the house. What about outside chores?”

“They help weed the garden in the summertime. I guess they could probably shovel snow, but there’s been no use for that because Dusty uses the tractor.”

He was not listening, and her temper kept rising. “There’s always a lot of chores taking care of animals. What’re they responsible for in the barns?”

Understanding came into his eyes. “Oh. Yeah, they don’t have barn chores.”

Caleb turned his back, lifting the saddle into place on the wall as if the conversation was done.

Hell nowas this conversation done. Tamara tugged on his arm, attempting to get him to face her. She’d have more luck rotating a tree, but she was angry enough to try.

“You live on a goddamn ranch. What if they want to take care of it with you? And if you say they can’t because they’re girls, I will find where you keep the castration tools and prove that a girl can learn to do any task she sets her mind on—”

“We have horses, and hands, and I don’t want little people wandering where they can get hurt.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “There’s this awesome concept called supervision, darling.”

Caleb stared at her from his full height, locking his dark brown eyes on hers. But instead of the fight she thought she’d get, he spoke softly.

“Right,darlin’. Now that you’re here, you can give them the supervision I couldn’t before. You want to add outdoor chores, go ahead.”

And that was it.

Huh.

It was bit of a hollow victory considering he didn’t even raise his voice.

He was turning away when Tamara spoke again. “What animals can they help with?”

His shoulders drooped for a moment before he straightened and moved closer. “You ever listen?”

“When there’s something worth hearing.”