The Rancher's Return. Carolyne Aarsen

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      Carter pushed the memory and guilt away, pain hard on their heels.

      “This Emma girl,” Carter said, “why did you hire her?”

      “I told you I needed to hire another hand to replace that useless character we had before.” Wade picked up the horse’s hoof again and began working at it with a rasp, getting it ready for a shoe.

      “I assumed you were going to hire a guy.”

      “She had the best qualifications.” Wade shrugged. “I hope that’s not a problem.”

      Carter looked over at the corral again. Adam now sat on top of Banjo, and Emma led him around. He heard her voice, though he couldn’t make out what she said. Adam laughed and she patted his leg, grinning up at him.

      She turned and looked his way, then abruptly turned around.

      “It’s not a problem if she knows what she’s doing,” Carter said, turning his attention back to Wade.

      “She’s good. Really good. Has a great connection with horses, and some unique ideas about pasture management.” Wade tapped the horse’s hoof. He dropped it again and grabbed a horseshoe from the anvil.

      “So what’s her story?” Carter asked while Wade nailed down the shoe. “Why would she want to work here?”

      “She used to work her daddy’s ranch till he gambled it away. Says she loves ranch work, and it shows. She’s been a better hand than the guy I had for two weeks before I hired her.” He tapped in another nail. “She wants to talk to you about subdividing an acreage off the river property. Says she wants to settle down here.”

      “Really?” So that’s what her son was talking about when he said they had to ask him about the acreage.

      “Don’t sound so surprised. Some of us love it here,” Wade grunted as he tapped in another nail. Then he looked up, a horrified expression on his face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I know why you’ve stayed away. Of course being here is hard, and I get that—”

      “Can she afford to buy the acreage?” Carter asked, cutting off his friend’s apology. He felt rude, but he knew where Wade was headed.

      The same place he’d been going for the past year in any of their conversations and communications. The ranch was Carter’s home. It was time to come back. To get over what happened.

      Trouble was it wasn’t so simple. It was difficult enough dealing with the “if onlys” when he was away from the ranch. If only he hadn’t gone out on that gather. If only he’d stayed home instead of hiring that babysitter. If only he’d taken better care of his responsibilities, Harry wouldn’t have wandered out of the house and climbed on that corral fence. Wouldn’t have fallen—

      “Depends what you want for it,” Wade was saying, breaking into the memories that Carter had kept stifled. “I know you’ve never been eager to have anyone else living in the valley, but hey, she’s single, attractive, and now that you’re back—”

      “I’m not looking,” Carter said, cutting that suggestion off midstream. “And I’m sure there’s enough other guys who would be interested in Miss Minton.”

      Wade shrugged as he clipped off the ends of the nail protruding from the hoof wall. “Been enough of them trying to ask her out since she came here.”

      “I’m not surprised.” Carter heard the squeal of the metal gate between the corrals and watched as Emma pulled the halters off the horses’ heads then coiled up the ropes.

      He understood why the single men of Hartley Creek and area would be interested. She was pretty and spunky and had a girl-next-door appeal.

      “She’s a great gal, but she’s turned them all down flat. I think she’s been burned too many times.”

      Silence followed his comment. But it was the comfortable silence of old friends. Carter had missed that.

      In the past two years Carter had worked as a ranch hand in Northern B.C., a wrangler for a stock contractor in Peace River and, recently, laying pipe for a pipeline in the Territories. That was where he had been when his grandmother had her heart attack.

      He never stayed in one place long enough to create a connection or to build a sense of community. Which had suited him just fine.

      But standing here, watching Wade work, not talking, just being, he found he missed this place he knew as well as he knew his own face.

      Wade looked up at him, as if sensing his melancholy. “Did you miss the place? The work?”

      Carter bit his lip, not sure what to say. “I missed parts of it. I missed seeing my family. Nana, the cousins. You and Miranda.”

      “I missed you too, man,” Wade said. To Carter’s surprise, he saw the glint of moisture in his friend’s eyes.

      The sight of Wade’s unexpected tears created an answering emotion that he fought to push down. Emotions took over, and he didn’t dare go down that road. Not alone, as he was now.

      “I couldn’t come back, Wade. I couldn’t.”

      “I know, but you’re here now.”

      “You may as well know,” Carter said, taking a breath and plunging in, “I’m not coming back here to stay.”

      Wade frowned, pushing his glasses up his nose. “What? Why not? I thought that was the reason you came back.”

      “My Nana’s heart attack was the main reason I’m here.” Carter held his friend’s puzzled gaze and steeled himself to the hurt in Wade’s voice. “I can’t live here. I can’t come back. I’m going to sell the place. Sell the Rocking K.”

       Chapter Three

      Emma looked up from her Bible and glanced over at Adam, still sleeping in the bunk across the cabin from her. The morning sun slanted across the bed, a splash of gold.

      What was she going to tell him?

      Yesterday, after working with Banjo, she had come to get Elijah when Wade was done shoeing him. Then she overheard Carter’s determined voice say, “I’m going to sell the place.”

      If Carter Beck was selling the ranch, would she still have a chance at getting the acreage? For that matter, would she still have a job? Would she and Adam have to move again?

      Her questions had fluttered like crows through her mind while, on the other side of the barn, she heard Carter make his plans. He was going into town to list the property. Nana Beck was moving off the ranch. It was time.

      Each word fell like an ax blow. She’d prayed so hard to be shown what to do. When she had left her father’s ranch, she had made two promises to herself, that she would trust in God to guide her life, and that Adam would always be her first priority when she made her plans.

      Coming to Hartley Creek and the Rocking K Ranch fit so well with both. Here she had found work she loved, had found community and, СКАЧАТЬ