A Cowboy For The Twins. Carolyne Aarsen

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СКАЧАТЬ I am.”

      “Are you Noah Cosgrove?”

      “Guilty as charged,” he returned, then realized how that sounded. Too on the nose, he thought.

      Another beat of silence followed his comment.

      “Our uncle Josiah worked for you.” This came out sounding like an accusation.

      “Yes. He did.” Noah shot a quick glance in the rearview mirror at Millie, who sat behind her mother.

      She frowned, as if absorbing this information. Then she looked over at Noah. “You don’t look like an evil man.”

      “Millie, that’s enough,” Shauntelle said quietly.

      “But he doesn’t. He looks like a nice man and he’s helping us.”

      Shauntelle turned to the girls, and Noah caught a warning glance sent her daughter’s way. Millie got the hint and looked out the window.

      They pulled up to Carmen’s place and Noah got out, the girls’ innocent words hounding him. “What do you need?” he asked.

      “I’ll get it myself.” She sounded tired, so instead of listening to her, he got out of the truck as well and climbed up into the box.

      “Tell me what I should grab,” he asked, opening the coolers.

      “The muffins and the two loaves of bread from the box and the meat pie from the cooler. They’re marked with Carmen’s name.”

      Noah found what she described and handed them to her.

      Taking them, she turned and walked away. Noah got out of the truck box and watched her as she strode up the graveled path to Carmen Fisher’s house, her thick brown hair shifting and bouncing on her shoulders. She had an easy grace and presence. He remembered being vaguely aware of her in school.

      And then, one summer, it was as if she had blossomed, and she had really caught his attention.

      Trouble was he was dating Trista Herne, and Shauntelle was four years younger than he was. While that meant little now, in high school it was a vast gulf he couldn’t breach. So he kept his distance. And then, as soon as he had the diploma in his hand, he left. The first time he had come back was for his father’s funeral six years later. By that time, Shauntelle was gone.

      “That’s a cute house too,” Millie said, hanging out the window she had opened. Clearly she didn’t mind that he was “an evil man.”

      “It is,” Noah agreed. “It’s part of the T Bar C. The ranch foreman used to live there.” Noah adjusted his hat, dropping his hands on his hips as his mind shifted back to times he had tried to erase from his memory. Long days and nights working until he could barely stand. Fencing, building sheds, herding cows, baling hay and stacking bales. There was always work to do.

      He remembered one evening he had been baling in a field just past this house. The tractor broke down at the far end of the field. Terrified of what his father would say, he stayed with the tractor. Then Doug and Julie had come home early from their outing. They brought him supper, and while he ate, Doug repaired the tractor. Then he sent Noah home and finished the baling himself. His father, however, was furious that he had made Doug work on his day off.

      “Why doesn’t the foreman live there now?”

      “My mother doesn’t need a ranch foreman,” he said as he got back into the truck.

      “Why not?”

      “The ranch doesn’t have as many cows as it used to.” He wished his mother would sell them. She had to hire someone to feed the cows and the horses that she wouldn’t sell either.

      Noah suspected it was a way of recognizing the hard work his father had done to make up for the way Noah’s grandfather ran the T Bar C into the ground with his poor management. Though his father had struggled to bring it back to its former glory, low commodity prices had made it almost impossible. He worked like a dog and made sure Noah did as well. He’d died from a heart attack when he was feeding the cows. Noah often felt that the hard work, stress and his father’s personality had combined to cause his death.

      Shauntelle came back and got into the truck, giving him a tight nod. “Thanks.”

      “So you’re okay with stopping to see my mom?” Noah asked.

      “I can hardly complain,” Shauntelle said with a note of asperity.

      He sensed it was difficult for her to spend time with him, but she had no choice.

      They drove just half a kilometer back down the road and under the imposing gate of the T Bar C.

      “That’s an awesome gate,” Millie said, craning her head to get a better look.

      “It should be,” Noah said. “I helped build it.”

      “Really?”

      “Yep. Took me and my dad two days and a lot of stress to get it up.”

      He stopped as he heard the bitter note that entered his voice. Too well, he remembered being perched on the top of the upright, reaching for the cross beam his father was raising with the tractor. The near miss as the beam swayed and almost knocked him off. The anger his father spewed at him even though it wasn’t his fault.

      No, the T Bar C held no memories he wanted to nurture.

      They drove down the winding drive lined with elm trees his great-grandmother had planted in a fit of optimism. To everyone’s surprise, they flourished and now created a canopy of shifting shadows that teased the sunshine filtering through.

      “Wow. This is beautiful,” the girls breathed.

      Then they turned a corner, and the log ranch house came into view.

      It was perched on a hill with a small creek flowing in front of it. A wooden bridge arched over it. Flower beds, in various states of neglect, stair-stepped up the side of the hill toward the imposing log house.

      “That’s the coolest house ever,” Margaret breathed, unbuckling and leaning over the seat.

      “Did you build it?” Millie asked.

      “No. My grandfather did. He was a carpenter as well as a rancher.” Noah shot a sidelong glance at Shauntelle to gauge her reaction. Though she had lived here most of her life, she had never been on the ranch, to his knowledge.

      Her eyes were wide and her mouth formed an O of surprise. Then, as quickly as that came, her features shuttered and her lips pressed together.

      He guessed she was comparing his place with her parents’, a place he had seen from time to time.

      And though his parents’ financial circumstances had nothing to do with him, he couldn’t get rid of a sense of shame.

      And, even worse, guilt.

       Chapter СКАЧАТЬ