Page 42 of Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

Chapter 10

It had been a hell of a week. Snow Monday, then rain ever since. Spring really was upon them, as the ranch became little more than a vehicle for mud.

Alex was thrust back into every calving season he’d endured as a kid, and it was a weird kind of nostalgia. He was living this thing he’d done as a kid, and there were things he remembered, things he didn’t, and things he’d clearly glorified or vilified at turns.

Then, in between all that, he and Gabe were trying to get the bunkhouse in some kind of order and finding problem after problem they couldn’t fix. It poked at Alex in a way he didn’t want to examine, so he always went in search of something he could fix.

“Lunch,” Jack barked from the doorway of the bunkhouse, the sun shining through it making him nothing but a dark shadow.

“In a sec.”

“You said that ten minutes ago. Get your ass out here.”

Alex sighed and looked at the floorboard he’d been carefully pulling up so he could replace it with a non-warped plank.

It could wait. This wasn’t the navy, where you didn’t take a break until the task was done. This was just life.

He rubbed at the tight band around his chest and got to his feet. It didn’t matter what he felt, as long as he kept moving. It didn’t matter how everything felt off-kilter on the inside, as long as on the outside he appeared perfectly normal.

He walked through the narrow bunkhouse and into the bright, spring day. Becca had insisted on making up sandwiches this morning, so they could enjoy the first sunny day in weeks with a picnic lunch.

Gabe, Jack, and Hick were sitting next to the bunkhouse, where a picnic table that Alex thought might predate his existence was situated on a little concrete pad. Star was happily waiting for scraps, while Ranger was likely following Becca around.

The other guys had already passed out the sandwiches and drinks and had started eating. Alex didn’t feel hungry, but skipping lunch would either earn him looks or questions, so he decided to choke down a sandwich one way or another.

“Where’s Becca?”

Hick nodded toward the stables. “Something about a rooster and a goat, and that’s about the point I stopped listening,” he said in the same smoker’s gravel he’d had since Alex could remember.

“Why don’t you go get her, Alex?” Gabe suggested innocently. Way too innocently.

Alex narrowed his eyes. “She’s a grown woman. She can eat lunch when she wants.”

“I’m done,” Hick said, tossing his baggie into the trash can next to the bunkhouse. “I’ll get her. Girl gets lost in her own head sometimes, grown woman or not.” Then he strode off to the stables.

Alex slowly unwrapped his sandwich, glancing at where Hick had gone. Becca had stepped into the doorway of the stables and was talking to Hick. The sun teased red highlights out of her dark braid, and her smile was wide and pretty even this far away.

He couldn’t hear her or Hick, but somehow he could think of exactly how it would sound if she were standing next to him laughing, instead of yards away with Hick.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should cut her out,” Gabe said in an overloud voice that had Alex jerking his head back to the conversation.

“What?” he demanded. “What are you talking about?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m not sure she’s made of stern enough stuff for this,” Jack said before polishing off his sandwich.

“Stern enough stuff for what?”

“I don’t know,” Gabe said with a shrug. “Ranch work. A bunch of guys hanging around. She’s a skittish little thing—maybe we should keep her separate. Cut her out of the ranch stuff. Let her handle the easier stuff. You know.”

“I do not know. She’s tough as nails and knows more about ranch work than you ever will,” Alex retorted. “Where the hell is this coming from?”

Gabe and Jack suddenly exchanged grins that didn’t make any sense to Alex whatsoever.

“How long until he breaks, ya think?” Gabe asked.

“I’ve got ten bucks on a month.”

“Oh, she’s going to get to him before the month is out. I take that bet,” Gabe said, holding his hand out to Jack, who shook it wholeheartedly.