Page 2 of Ash on the Range (Red Hart Ranch #6)

The foreman was still talking, and the white hot shot of pain that blocked out his words for a moment receded long enough to let me focus on the rest of what he was saying.

“Think you can stay on a bull for long enough not to disgrace the colors, Will, or are you going to stare at a pretty girl for the next few minutes and ignore me?”

I grinned again, swinging around, glad he gave me the out I needed. “What am I doing with a bull that I won’t do with a pretty girl?”

A raucous shout went up with the ranch hands already gathered in the yard who I ignored when we pulled up.

I’d said the right thing to save my ass from trouble, thankfully.

I’d always had an easy going nature here and a reputation for being a bit of a joker, as long as the work got done at the end of the day.

Right now, that saved my ass, even if it colored Cass’s cheeks before I turned about.

“We’re hosting a rodeo here on Red Hart grounds. Figured you’d want in, if you turned up on time. Gonna ride for us, Will Kirk?” A very different voice reached my ears.

I turned away from Jude’s weathered facade to face Eve.

Chestnut hair curled around her shoulders to just below her waist, longer than I remembered.

A pristine white shirt, branded with the RHR antlers was tucked into tight blue jeans and boots I knew Archer had bought for her.

I glanced around for him, but she shook her head, her bright smile dimming a little.

“Good to see you, ma’am,” I said softly, my heart clenching at the sight of her loneliness.

Cassie was right—Red Hart had become my home at some point in the last few seasons. I swallowed hard on a lump that threatened my next breath as Eve crossed the yard and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“Quick hug, because that pretty girl you’ve brought with you is burning me to ash right now,” she whispered into my ear, and stepped back. “I swear you’re getting taller every time you come back here, Will,” she announced in a louder voice.

I rubbed the back of my neck that flared with a bout of sudden sunburn.

“Yeah, might be,” I said, knowing I'd been the same five feet, eleven inches since I’d been sixteen, the year after I left home.

I stopped growing and nothing seemed to make that change.

I’d come to terms with that in the last seven years or so.

Even though I wasn’t as tall as Eve’s twin, Travis, who strode out of the big house, dwarfing all of us, to clap my shoulder.

The not so sore one. I grinned and gave him a nod.

“Sir, this is Cassie." I cleared my throat.

“I hoped she might be able to stay while I worked for a while?”

I posed the request with as much respect as I could, asking Travis, not Eve, knowing if I asked his sister I’d get a straight out yes. But it was Travis I’d be working for over the next however many weeks before I took Cass back to college like we agreed when we left the rodeo grounds a week ago .

Travis held my gaze for a long moment, his lips twitching. “Noticed you turned up with your own truck for once, Mister Kirk.”

“Yes, sir.”

He turned back, nodding to Cass, then back to me. “It’s almost as rusty as mine. You’re both welcome as long as you need. She stays in the house. You’re in the bunkhouse with everyone else as always, understood?” Two eyebrows hiked to remind me I wasn’t to go upstairs with Cass at any point.

House rules were house rules, and upstairs was for family only. Cass got a decent bed though, and that was more than I could ask for.

I breathed out and grinned my relief. “Appreciate it always, sir.”

“Good man. Got a few hours left in the day. Are you ready to work?”

“Always.” I tossed my bag back on the truck’s flatbed beside Cass’s meager things we’d taken from her brother’s van before we left the last rodeo.

And now we had our own coming to Red Hart.

My shoulder twinged on cue and I rotated the sore joint.

A week on the road hadn’t done me any favors, but traveling with Cass had been easy.

Without her I would have hauled ass across the country, slept on the back of the truck instead of in highway motels, and done the trip in two days.

With her…we took our time, and the last week was less a blur than a break in the middle of no man’s land for me.

Time I shouldn’t have stolen with her, but I did anyway.

“He’s already started. Says he spotted smoke up on the north ridge. Near the road, right?” Jude stepped in neatly for me.

I nodded, and Travis's naturally hard face cleared. He’d gotten harder after his father was murdered a few seasons ago, and then the twins lost their mother shortly afterward.

Tragedy hit Red Hart year after year, but the ranch kept on going.

People like Travis and Eve and Jude and even newcomers like Gage who inserted themselves into the landscape like they were part of the dirt kept it going.

Maybe, if I was lucky, one day I’d put down roots somewhere and find myself a -place to call home. If I was twice as lucky, maybe that somewhere would be with someone like Cass. Or just with Cass, period.

One week together and I was already head over heels for the girl who I couldn’t keep my hands off. Or my eyes. My gaze kept drifting off toward her, taking my attention with it.

Jude cuffed the back of my head none too gently. “Throw your stuff in the bunkhouse while Eve shows Cassie where she’s sleeping. Give yourself ten minutes to get settled, then get your ass back out here, ready to work.” The foreman fixed a hard look at me, though the corner of his mouth twitched.

“Yes sir,” I said sheepishly, leaning across the tray of the truck to pass Cass her small bag, and tidied up as I grabbed my own.

She looked about nervously as Eve started talking and I got the impression that my girl didn’t take in any more information than I had just missed from Just or Trav's pep talks.

“You’ll be fine.” I stepped up behind Cassie and slipped my arm about her waist, giving her a gentle squeeze.

I had less than ten seconds before Jude ripped me a new one for loitering, so I’d make the most of it.

“I’ve never been upstairs. Tell me what it’s like.

” I pressed a kiss to the sensitive spot right below her ear, then let her go, already striding off in the familiar direction of the bunkhouse.

If I hadn't let her go then and there, I wouldn’t have let her go at all, and the yard would really have had something to rib me about.

My feet chewed the path I knew well between the big house and where I’d be sleeping for the season. Yet again my heart lamented the time I should have spent in her arms over the last nights, time I wouldn’t get now we were on ranch land.

I kicked open the bunkhouse door and was assailed by a strong waft of stale cowboy that rocked me back half a step. Communal living wasn’t where it was at.

Yeah, shoulda spent more time in her arms, and skin to skin.

Maybe we’d get some time together over the next weeks while we were here. Red Hart had plenty of romantic places. I huffed a laugh as I threw my bag on the soggiest bunk in the cabin.

Yeah. And maybe Jude will give me a day off with full pay and let me take her on a date for the hell of it.

Because neither of those things were ever gonna happen.

I should have spent more time with her when I had the chance.

I left the bunkhouse at a jog. My ten minutes were nearly up, and I doubted Judge had gotten any softer this season.

Maybe if I was real lucky, he’d let me shovel a pile of deer shit, and Cassie could see just how romantic ranch life could be.

I clapped my hat on my head and double stepped it back to the barn.