Page 3 of Ash on the Range (Red Hart Ranch #6)

CASSIE

I hoped my brother turned up at Red Hart for their rodeo. I hoped he walked into the big house and left his jaw on the floor.

Because that’s where mine had been when I stepped through those double glass doors—shoes off, of course—after Eve, leaving my jacket on a hook alongside everyone else's. I grew up rich, or thought I did, but Red Hart blew everything right away in my apparently limited experience.

And I wanted to see the day my brother got bitch slapped by a pair of antlers like he deserved for bullying Will, even though the scrappy rodeo cowboy would never admit to it.

It hurt seeing Will wince every time he moved or someone touched him, including me, knowing I was responsible for his pain, at least in part.

I focused on that as I toured the enormous bottom floor of the big house, following Eve around as she pointed out the double length table that I could imagine all too easily fitting all the men outside for a single sitting meal laden with table at its heavy wood surface.

That matched the kitchen that featured its giant bench top, scarred and worn in its open plan setting across the main area that still left abundant space for chatter and socializing.

Hanging above it all in a cathedral pitched ceiling was a cluster of deer antlers that formed a chandelier above the centre of everything, too big to simply be a feature over one small room, but enough to spread over the entire open space.

The effect was awe inspiring. I stood gawking in the appropriate manner, wishing Will was here to tell me that his jaw hit the floor on his first time too, or that he drooled at least a bucket’s worth so that I didn’t feel so alone.

But in the absence of an overwhelming crowd the room simply…. echoed.

“It can be a bit much,” Eve acknowledged my unspoken thoughts. “But when the room is full at night for a meal, well…” she shrugged. “It gets kind of frantic. You’ll see.”

“And you feed everyone? Will mentioned,” I added when she raised an eyebrow.

Eve shrugged, glossy chestnut hair rippling with a silky sheen I could never hope to achieve. My own hair felt limp and lackluster next to this rural goddess.

“My mother did it, back when she…” Eve coughed into her hand and faced me in full.

“This ranch has been run by my family going back generations. Right now, Travis and I are the only things holding it up, along with all those people you saw in the yard outside. Red Hart has always been a place where people work hard and are fed well for their efforts. Just because our family line appears to stop here doesn’t mean our hospitality will.

” This last part came out at a rushed pace, her words clicking at the ends.

I blinked. "That's one hell of a mission statement.”

Eve huffed a laugh. “It’s what I considered putting on the website last night.”

I shook my head. “Don’t. Please. We can workshop that. I’m pretty sure of it.”

Her laugh this time was a full one. “Are you studying?” She made her way around the edge of the long kitchen bench and flicked on the coffee machine. The rich aroma of fresh heavenly beans filled the space, mingling with the scent of heavy oiled wood.

I leaned over the end of the bench, stretching my legs.

After sitting in the car for so long, it felt good to move about.

My bag settled at my feet. “Nursing, at Montana U. I’m on break.

Semi personal enforced. I…deferred some of my studying to help my brother out.

That was where Will found me, at the rodeo circuit and…

Now I'm here.” I echoed her shrug from earlier.

“He promised to take you back after a stint here?” Even guessed, rummaging about in a cupboard she could barely reach for mugs. The woman was tinier than I was, though I suspected she must have been a good few years older than me.

“Let me help,” I offered, bemused when she shook her head, warding me away.

“Nope. My kitchen, my rules,” she said firmly, pouring the coffee. “Cream?”

“Black, please.”

“Perfect. Did you stop at White Cap?” she asked as I resumed stretching.

“‘Last coffee stop up the range’,” I quoted Will. “Wasn’t bad, either. Some place called Barnies?—”

“Beanie’s,” Eve corrected me.

I grinned. “Beanies. At least they had decent coffee. For a rich kid, my brother can be a tight ass. And my monthly allowance dropped while I wasn't studying so…working for him was my only option." I grimaced.

Eve looked at me shrewdly. “So you need a job while you’re here, then?”

“Uh—” I hadn’t actually planned that far ahead, stuck on the cowboy who dreamed big and fell hard. In hindsight, that seemed fairly remiss.

“It’s okay, Cassie, don’t panic. There’s always work to be done. You said you’re studying nursing, right?”

I nodded, then shook my head. “But I don’t think I’m that good with animals," I said in a hurry. “The last cat I held tried to murder me, and I might have accidentally drowned my niece's goldfish.”

“In air?”

“In water,” I said remorsefully.

“That’s quite a talent,” Eve observed. “So, you’re not keen on animals, just people."

“Mostly helping people achieve healthcare, especially in low socioeconomic areas. It should be available to everyone,” I started, turning the mug she passed me in my hands, warming my palms. “I feel the same way about education too, especially at a college level, but you probably don’t want to get me started on that subject, unless you’ve got a lot of alcohol under your belt and are prepared to pass out at least halfway through my diatribe. ”

Eve watched me thoughtfully. “Not good with animals, passionate about helping others… How are you with websites?” she asked hopefully.

I snorted into my coffee. “Have you given up on yours?”

“Just about.” She swirled her mug in her hands.

“You picked up my language the moment that you walked in. If you want the job of handling updates on marketing while you’re here, I could use the assistance.

There might be some other jobs about the place too.

Did Will mention how we work here?” That arched eyebrow rose again.

I bet she didn’t even have to pluck it.

“He said only the family went upstairs,” I recalled, blushing at how he’d kissed me in the car.

“Mmhm.” Eve seemed lost in a memory of her own.

“There’s a spare room up there, but he’s right, the ranch hands do have to stay downstairs.

The land is pretty spread out. There’s two hundred and fifty thousand acres between us and the next property, and there’s some stunning places to visit.

Make sure Will shows you the creek, and the outcrop.

Maybe he could take you on a picnic sometime…

” Eve drifted off as she finished her mug and headed around a corner, calling out names.

“How many men were in the yard just now?”

I counted imaginary heads, and when I lost count, I stuck my own back out the front door of the big house, but the yard was empty. “Where did everyone go?”

“Oh, they’ll be off working,” Eve said cheerfully, her arms full of an oversized bowl and what looked like every root vegetable known to human kind.

“Ah, do you want help?”

I stared at the pile of food prep, unsure where to start or what she had planned as she disappeared back around the corner and returned with a side of— Actually I had no idea what sort of meat that was, but whatever it came off, the animal left life huge.

“Nope, I’m good, but thanks.” Eve started cheerfully chopping and prepping all by herself in the empty, enormous house.

It hit me then—this was her life. Everyone else left to work for the day, doing whatever it was that they did around the ranch, and she was left here in the house, cooking and prepping and waiting for them all to come back.

And the marketing and accounts and branding for the farm and whatever other things that she did, by the sounds of it.

Without any help at all, from the short time I’d been about for.

“Um, okay.” I edged toward the stairs, bag in my hand, suddenly as unsure as I had been the moment that I’d climbed out of Will’s rusty truck that had more character and that he; loved more than anything glossy and shimmy that my brother had ever been given in his life. “I’ll just?—”

“Up the stairs, go along the corridor, third door on the right. The second door is the guest bathroom. Have a shower. Soak. I’m sure it’s been a long day.

Or week. You can’t miss any of it,” Eve called me as the knife came down with the sort of rhythm that spoke of a woman who was used to hard work and reveled in it.

Eve and Travis obviously had a lot too, but from what I saw they earned every cent, working hard and that mattered.

She might be alone in the house but she obviously loved what she did.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask if everything was grown here—apart from the meat, obviously they ran deer not whatever was being placed in the world’s biggest bake tray as I climbed the stairs, but the moment passed and I moved along with it. I could ask later, maybe.

I made it up the stairs without disgracing myself, and passed a pair of doors closed on the left hand side, and a large bedroom with the door open on the right.

That looked like it hadn't been used for a while, the floral cover pulled up neatly.

I kept walking, past the bathroom, its door slightly ajar, and found the next room, the last on the right.

That one was shut. I pushed it open to find a double bed set out in the middle of the room, its cream cover decorated with a lace pattern woven through the middle laid out over a green oval rug.

Matching curtains were pulled aside to let the afternoon light filter into the room.

I placed my bag beside the bed, running my fingers over the sturdy wooden posts that matched the bedside tables, and leaned across to peer out the window.