The Rancher Next Door. Cathy Thacker Gillen

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ to the three pastures located at the rear of the property. The square plots were each ten acres, and surrounded by an aging brown split rail fence. A ten-acre hay field sat behind that. The house, barn and detached garage were situated at the front of the property, on the ten acres nearest the road. The Circle Y and Trevor’s Wind Creek butted up on either side of her. She was now living smack-dab in the middle of two extremely ambitious men, both of whom coincidentally wanted her property for their own. Wasn’t this going to be fun?

      “So why is Miss Mim taking another job?”

      Rebecca reluctantly directed her attention back to her “visitor.” What was it about the McCabe men that made them think they had to know everything? “Apparently, Miss Mim has done all the traveling she wants now, and sitting around all day isn’t agreeing with her. A lot of her friends already live at the seniors’ home.”

      Trevor folded his arms in front of him. He reminded her of a general surveying his troops. “When is she going to move the rest of her stuff?”

      “They’ve given her a furnished apartment, as part of the job. So all she’s taking is her clothing and personal affects. The rest she sold to me as part of the deal.”

      “I want to buy the ranch from you.”

      Rebecca blinked. “What?”

      “Add ten percent to whatever you paid her for it, and I’ll pay it to you.”

      “Only ten percent?” she mocked. “Vince Owen has already been here and offered an additional fifteen.”

      “You’re kidding.”

      Rebecca let her too-sweet smile fade. “Do I look like I’m kidding, cowboy?”

      The corners of his mouth took on a downward slant. “What did you say?” he demanded.

      “The same thing I’m telling you,” Rebecca shot back. “No.”

      She wasn’t surprised to see that Trevor looked relieved about that. Which led her to the next item on her agenda. “Back to the cattle. I need you to move ’em as soon as possible. And you’ll need to make sure you clean up after them, or in other words, remove all the dung. I want those pastures clean as can be when I put my alpacas out there.”

      “You’re planning to use all three?”

      Rebecca nodded. “One for the females, one for the herd- sires and another for the nursing crias and their mothers.”

      “How big a herd are you starting with?”

      “Ten. But I expect to expand rapidly.” Rebecca gave him a moment to absorb all that. “So, can I expect this will be done today?”

      Trevor begrudgingly relented. “I’ll have to get some temporary help. I don’t employ anyone else on a regular basis.” He paused. “That may take a few days to arrange.”

      She glanced out at the far pasture, where he had some thirty steers grazing. “Or you could start right now,” she suggested with a discreet lift of her brow, “doing it yourself.” Seriously, how long could it take?

      His hazel eyes darkened. “I can see living next door to you is going to be a challenge.”

      She slapped him on the back, rancher-style. Strode off, calling over her shoulder, “Cowboy, you don’t know the half of it.”

      AN HOUR AND TWO PHONE CALLS later, Trevor met up with Tyler and Teddy at his horse barn. He’d known he could count on his triplet brothers to drop everything and help him out of this predicament, just as he had assisted them on numerous occasions, emergency and otherwise. The three of them were more than brothers and confidants; they were best friends. Their two much younger brothers, Kurt and Kyle, were growing up the same way.

      “That totally sucks,” Teddy said, after Trevor had finished filling them in on everything that happened that day.

      The ever-practical Tyler shrugged. “Should have had a contract with Miss Mim.”

      Trevor brought out the lassos and handed one to each brother. “We’ve never had a contract on any of our arrangements. I just told Miss Mim what I wanted to do. She always said okay. When she needed something, she let me know, and I took care of it for her. I knew she’d want to sell the land eventually—she’d been thinking about moving into town for some time. I just figured when the time came she’d sell it to me.”

      Tyler carefully cinched his saddle. “When it comes to women, I’ve learned the hard way, never assume anything,”

      Trevor squinted, grinned. “You talking about women in general or Susan Carrigan in particular?”

      Teddy swung himself up into the saddle. “You ought to just go ahead and admit it, Ty. There’s never going to be another woman for you but Susan.”

      Tyler guided his horse between Trevor’s and Teddy’s. “Susan and I don’t get along.”

      “Sometimes you do.” Trevor winked, thinking how smugly content his veterinarian-brother could be when his relationship with Rebecca’s older sister, Susan happened to be humming along. And how miserable Ty was at times—like now—when it was “off.”

      “The two of you should just quit all the drama and get hitched,” Teddy agreed, as they rode toward the pasture.

      “You should talk,” Tyler grumbled, with a sharp look at Teddy. “Since you’ve never had eyes for anyone but Amy Carrigan.”

      “Amy’s my friend,” Teddy muttered.

      Trevor stopped at the pasture gate and dismounted to open it. “I don’t see you dating anyone else—at least not for long.”

      Teddy turned his glance toward the cattle they were going to have to move. “That’s because I’ve been busy getting my horse-breeding operation up and running.”

      Trevor knew how hard he’d worked. The Silverado was fast becoming known in Texas as the place to get quality, affordable quarter horses. “Now if you could only train a woman as well as you school a horse,” Tyler teased Teddy.

      Trevor frowned, his thoughts jumping back to the problem that had brought them all together on such short notice. “I could sure use a few tips on how to handle Rebecca Carrigan,” he said, closing the pasture gate, before taking the reins once again.

      “Burr under your saddle, huh?” Teddy replied.

      Worse, Trevor felt responsible for protecting her, since it had been Trevor’s lively public exchange with Rebecca at the feed store that had brought her feisty presence to Vince Owen’s attention.

      Rebecca didn’t know about the bet the conniving jerk had tried—and failed—to make about her that morning. If Trevor had his way, she never would. What worried him was the thought that Vince was going to be living—at least part of the time—on The Circle Y Ranch, on the other side of Rebecca. If Vince were true to form, he’d soon be using his proximity to Rebecca every which way but Sunday in order to get to Trevor.

      Vince’s efforts to annoy, distract and otherwise make miserable were already working. Trevor’s mind was on anything but the business he was supposed to be running on СКАЧАТЬ