Page 36 of A Rancher's Love

“Damn right,” Ginny said, followed immediately by, “Oops. I mean, darn tooting.”

Emma giggled, and Sasha laughed. Caleb shook his head, but he kissed Ginny’s cheek then rounded up his children. “Come on. Your mama deserves a break. You can be my clean-up crew.”

“Which means you and I have treasure to find,” Tamara told Ginny firmly as they headed down the stairs.

Treasure. A reminder of the mysterious present and the puzzle Ginny needed to solve. But right now, this was more important. Time with family, with her nieces and brothers.

Time to whup her younger brother’s ass. She could hardly wait.

Tucker didn’t botherto knock upon reaching Luke’s house. He did, however, peek around the corner before marching into the kitchen, just in case. No use scaring the daylights out of anyone.

Well, except maybe Luke. Scaring him would be priceless.

The coffeemaker was on, but no one was in the room. Tucker strode forward and made himself at home, filling a cup to the brim and fixing it up just right.

He turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin. Luke stood inches behind him, grinning like a feral beast.

“Fucker,” Tucker grumbled as hot coffee sloshed over his fingers. He changed his cup to the other hand and forcibly jammed his palm against Luke’s shoulder to spin him out of the way. “Good morning, you jerk.”

“Good morning, sunshine.” Luke grabbed his own cup of coffee. “Did you find the food I put in the fridge? I saw you had some stuff in there already, but I figured what the hell. May as well leave it.”

“Yeah, thanks.” No need to expand on that comment.

Luke gestured him toward the two easy chairs in front of the fireplace. They were positioned to one side of the general living room, a cozy place for two people to spend a morning.

“Sit for a minute,” his friend ordered.

“This is a nice spot.” Tucker looked around in appreciation. Nothing too over the top. The house construction was solid, but all the furnishings looked as if they’d been picked up at a secondhand store. “I bet this is where you and Kelli sit in the mornings when you get a chance.”

“You got it,” Luke agreed. Then he made a face. “Of course, both of us having the morning off happens only a couple of times a week. Ashton does his best, but it’s nearly impossible to keep from scheduling one or the other of us for a morning shift.”

“Maybe that’s something that can change.” In fact, if Tucker had anything to say about it, it was something he would make damn sure happened.

Yeah, his uncle had years of experience, but if things were going to change for the better, this was something that needed to happen.

Luke looked confused. “You know some way to cut chore time in half? Or some way to add hours to the day?”

“I know a perfectly simple way to cut your work hours,” Tucker said dryly. He paused, took a sip of his coffee and made an appreciative noise. “Damn. That’s good.”

Luke leaned back in his chair and laughed. “Stop being an ass. Tell me.”

Tucker shrugged. “Seems Caleb’s announcement means there’s a little more money in the coffers. Hire some more hands. You’re the best person for some jobs. Kelli is amazing at what she does—and neither of you need to do the grunt labour anymore.”

His friend blinked hard. “Holy shit.”

A soft chuckle escaped Tucker. “Seriously? The idea never once crossed your mind?”

Luke shook his head. “My first thought was all the money I plan to spend on stock and training equipment.”

“You’ll have to make decisions about priorities, but seems to me getting more time to spend with Kelli is valuable enough to figure a way for it to happen.”

Appreciation spread as his friend nodded slowly. “Good to know you’re not just a pretty-faced hick.”

“Jerk,” Tucker said dryly.

Luke leaned forward, coffee cup put aside as he met Tucker’s gaze intently. “Here’s the thing. I felt bad yesterday. I didn’t mean to rush you off or make you feel as if I didn’t want you around.”

It was Tucker’s turn to be surprised. “No idea what you’re talking about.”