Page 16 of Cowboy Needed

Not.

“Good man. Thank you.”

He had no idea how long the truce would last. Hormones sucked, and teenagers were volatile.

But if he could get a nap in, well, he would be pretty happy.

Chapter Six

“Hey, Rick, what’s up, man?”

Ellis hadn’t wanted to answer Rick’s call, but he’d done it anyway. He put it on speaker and put the phone on top of the fence post he was stringing wire to, the wire puller fighting him every step of the way.

But if he wanted to start running cows, the pastures had to have good fence.

And until people would hire on, he was on fence duty.

“Hey. How’s the job going, Ellis?”

“Oh, it’s going.” From the get-go, he felt the need to be cagey. Rick was real pissed about not getting his hands on the land, and Ellis had said he would let him know if there was a way in, but he didn’t want to give him anything now.

He liked Ichabod and the kids. Hell, he loved this baby ranch. It was a sweet set up. It just needed some love.

“Yeah? So, what have you got for me?”

“Well…” He grunted, bending wire. “I’m riding fence and getting it patched so I can run in some cattle.”

“What?” Rick’s voice rose.

He decided to go for stupid. “Which part didn’t you get, the stringing fence or the cattle?”

“Don’t be an asshole, you fuckmonkey. You’re not supposed to be making things better. You’re supposed to be figuring out how to get me Vic’s land.”

He didn’t think that was the best idea on earth. To be honest, he didn’t think Rick had any intentions of keeping the farm. Ellis knew he didn’t. Whereas Ichabod was trying his damnedest, was sinking money into infrastructure.

“Bro, they don’t have a house to go back to in Denver anymore. Those kids need a roof over their head.” He would appeal to Rick’s better nature. Surely the guy had one.

“Chris’s husband sold the house. He has money. He had insurance money and the cash from the house. He’ll be fine. I need the cash for an investment.”

“Well, I think he means to hold out and keep it for the kids like Vic intended.” He damn near lost a wire and decapitated himself. “Shit!”

“What happened? Ellis? You okay?” Rick sounded worried, almost scared, and Ellis’s heart softened.

“Oh, the damn wire almost took my head off. Look, I’ll talk to Ichabod about his plans, without mentioning your name, but that’s all I can promise, okay?” He liked this job, and it could be long-term.

“All right. I need them to get off the property, so I can sell.”

Ellis was pretty sure it didn’t work that way…

But he would meet Rick for lunch one day or some shit and explain wills and trusts. Lord.

“Well, I’ll let you know what he says.” There. That hedged his bets, right? “I’ll come over to Denver on my day off in a few weeks.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be staying at my mom’s.”

“Good deal. Talk at youlater.”

“Sure, man.” He hung up, then went back to working, thinking how he needed to figure out how to tell Ichabod about Rick.