Rancher at Risk. Barbara Daille White

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СКАЧАТЬ her relief, Becky burst into the room and, already chattering away, ran up to Kayla.

      Like any child her age, her niece walked around with a head full of never-ending questions. And like any inquisitive, active child, she forever wanted someone to talk to and play with. Happily, thanks to her mommy, Becky knew plenty of kids who signed.

      A five-year-old without friends who could communicate with her found life lonely and isolating at times.

      Adults didn’t have it any easier.

      Why hadn’t she seen through Mark sooner?

      You’ll never survive without me.

      Ridiculous, as Kayla had said.

      She couldn’t bring herself to tell Kayla the words he had flung as his parting shot.

      With his mouth so contorted in anger, his face so filled with scorn, she’d had trouble reading his lips. Seeing her struggle, he had gone out of his way to speak slowly and deliberately. To make sure she got the message:

      You’ll never make it anywhere, Lianne.

      She understood that, all right. And those words had made her cut her losses and leave him.

      No matter what he thought, she could live in both the hearing and the deaf worlds. And she would fight any man who wouldn’t treat her as his equal in either one of them.

      * * *

      BY LATE THAT AFTERNOON, Ryan and Caleb had inspected a good portion of the eastern boundary of the new ranch. The horses had no trouble getting them back home, which reminded him of the question Caleb had asked that morning. Did he have any trouble finding the ranch? He had given Caleb a firm negative. He’d had no problem at all making his way there.

      If only that had been true about his trip through town. All day, he’d had a hard time keeping the incident out of his mind. But no way would he bring it up with the boss.

      “We’ll take care of some of that fencing during the week ahead,” Caleb said, looking at his watch. “Let’s call it a day.”

      “Sounds good to me.” It had been a long afternoon after a longer trip, and with all he’d had to get done before leaving Montana, he hadn’t closed his eyes for almost two days now. But lost sleep trailed at the end of his long list of troubles.

      Tony, the gray-haired stable hand he’d met earlier, ambled out of the barn, his gait unsteady due to a bum leg and a built-up boot heel.

      As they dismounted, Tony gestured to the horses. “I’ve got these.”

      Ryan held on to the reins, standard procedure on the Montana ranch. Except in an emergency, a rider took care of his own mount. To his surprise, Caleb handed over his reins and then nodded at him. Frowning, Ryan followed the unspoken order.

      After the cowhand had led both horses into the depths of the barn, Caleb said, “Tony’s an old buddy of mine. When I got back home again, I went to Amarillo to look him up. He’d run across a mean bull in rodeo years ago. Not everybody’s as lucky as I was.”

      Lucky, hell. He knew why the boss had just leaned back against the barn door to give his leg muscles a rest. The former bull-riding champ had met a badass of his own and still stiffened up after a while in the saddle.

      “Once Tony heard I was buying the ranch, he said he’d been spending too much time on his butt and wanted something to do.”

      That explained the new procedure with the horses.

      Just like his boss, always willing to help an old friend.

      “As you saw,” Caleb went on, “there’s still plenty of work to do and men and horses and cattle to bring in before this turns into anything like the working ranch in Montana.” He looked at him. “We’ll need to go over some specifics.”

      Ryan nodded. The tour had gone fine. Too fine, maybe. As he’d learned the hard way all through life, good things might come in threes, but so did bad ones. After his run-ins that morning with the unnamed woman and the judge, he wondered what to expect from his talk with the boss.

      Not once since his arrival had Caleb indicated either by word or by action any lack of trust in him. But if he didn’t watch his step, he’d be pulling stable duty with Tony.

      Judge Baylor’s name hadn’t come up, either. Not for the first time, he wondered why the boss had talked to the man about him.

      “I’ll have the laptop with me tomorrow,” Caleb continued, “and we can run over the list of wranglers we’ve got on board as of now.”

      “Good. Always nice to know something about the men you’re working with.” No reason he shouldn’t get along with those here. He’d always done just fine back home...until lately.

      “I mentioned the renovations.” Caleb gestured toward the bunkhouse. “The contractor’s not done yet with the addition. Things will be a mess over there for a while, but since we don’t have a full crew, that shouldn’t be a problem. I want you to bunk down here at the house, anyway.”

      Puzzled, Ryan said, “You and the family haven’t moved in yet?”

      “No. We’re keeping our rooms at the Whistlestop for now. My mother-in-law has plenty available.” His grimace told Ryan business hadn’t picked up for the family-owned inn. “Anyhow, the bunkhouse is low on the priority list. I’ve had the contractor’s men working on the cabins.”

      “Cabins?”

      “Yeah. Phase two.” Caleb eyed him for a long moment.

      From inside the barn, metal clanged against metal. A horse nickered. Tony’s soothing response reached them as a murmur, reminding him of the woman on Signal Street.

      Caleb gave him a wry smile. “We’re not up to speed yet, mostly because it took me a while to decide what I wanted to do with the property. I’ve finally figured it out. We’ll eventually get this place running as a working ranch. But along with that, I’m setting up a school for disadvantaged boys.”

      Ryan shoved his hands into his back pockets and forced himself not to break eye contact. Hell, not to break into a sweat. He knew enough about his boss’s history to understand his interest in folks who didn’t have much to call their own. But Caleb knew his history, too. “You never mentioned kids.”

      “I am now.”

      He sucked in a breath. This wasn’t part of their deal.

      As if they’d actually agreed on his reassignment.

      “We’ve got student applications coming in, and we’re in the process of hiring. Officially, we won’t open till August.”

      Four months from now. He would be long gone.

      The contractors had left a sawhorse just outside the barn door. He settled on it and crossed his arms over his chest.

      “I’ve brought in a project manager to handle the school setup,” Caleb added. “Meanwhile, I’ll be keeping a close eye on things.”

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