Runaway Cowboy. Judy Christenberry

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      Pete obviously wasn’t. “He is? You a cowboy?”

      “I was at one time. Going to be again,” the man said.

      Jessica finally found her voice. “Granddad, what do you mean?”

      “Jim is Tony’s nephew. He’ll be great.”

      “Who’s Tony?” Jessica asked. She didn’t mean to be rude, but she needed the facts.

      “He’s the guy I go fishing with down in Texas. Remember? We were in the navy together.”

      Holding her smile in place when she wanted to scream, she nodded at the man. Pete just stood there stone-faced.

      “What are you good at?” Pete asked, still eyeing him.

      James Bradford remained silent.

      Both Pete and Jessica stared at their grandfather.

      “You’re not going to like this, but I hired Jim to run the ranch. You all will report to him,” Cliff Ledbetter said.

      Dead silence filled the room. Then both Pete and Jessica started to protest, loudly, to their grandfather.

      Mr. Bradford raised a hand and calmly said, “May I suggest we take this discussion somewhere that the guests can’t overhear?”

      Guiltily, Jessica looked around. He was right, of course, but she didn’t like a stranger pointing out the obvious.

      “Let’s go to the kitchen,” she said.

      She knew their chef, Mary Jo, who had gone to school with her, would be in her room. They had a window of about an hour before lunch preparations began.

      Abandoning her desk, Jessica marched toward the kitchen, listening to the purposeful footsteps that followed her.

      When she could stand it no more, she whirled around and faced her grandfather. “Granddad, how could you do this?”

      “I did it for you, child,” her grandfather said, but before Pete could complain, he added, “and for your brothers.”

      “But, Granddad, we have it all arranged,” Jessica said, even as a hundred different problems that had come up in the past few months popped into her head.

      “And is everything working out?”

      “Well, not exactly, but—”

      “Hell, no, it’s not working!” Pete answered.

      Before she could question him, she heard her name being screamed in the hallway.

      She swallowed. Great. Another temper to deal with!

      “We’re in the kitchen, Hank,” she called out to her middle brother.

      “I can’t believe you—” Hank abruptly halted, his mouth still open, when he realized she wasn’t alone. “What’s going on here?”

      “Granddad just hired this dude to be our boss,” Pete said precisely, leaving no doubt to his opinion.

      Mr. Bradford stepped up. “Look, this is the reason your grandfather hired me. He said the three of you are always arguing about everything. That must be hard on all of you. But if I’m the bad guy, then you won’t have to fight among yourselves.”

      “But—but you’re a dude!” Hank complained, using the phrase that described their non-cowboy guests. People who knew nothing about cattle or horses.

      “Give me a few minutes to change, and at least I won’t look like one,” Jim said with a crooked grin.

      Jessica found herself captivated by that grin. Then she shook her head, trying to rid herself of the thought.

      “You don’t think I can pull it off?” he asked, catching her smile.

      “No, I wasn’t— I mean, I was thinking of something else.” She hoped she didn’t blush.

      “We got one of the bedrooms in the back hallway still empty, don’t we, Jessie?” her grandfather asked.

      “Yes, but—”

      “Good. Come on, Jim. I’ll show you where to put your stuff.”

      “My bags are still in my car, Cliff.”

      “Where are your keys? The boys can bring them in.”

      “Why don’t I go grab everything and change clothes. Then I’ll see what I can do to put out some fires.”

      “Good, good, that will be great,” Cliff said, nodding while he proclaimed his approval.

      As soon as Jim left, the battle ensued. Both of her brothers were yelling at her, her grandfather was yelling at her brothers, and Jessica just gave up.

      They were all still mourning the sudden deaths of their parents six months ago in a car accident. After the shock had worn off, they’d made plans to keep on with the cattle operation, while continuing to run a working ranch, but to add a dude ranch to bring in extra income. They had all thought the Lazy L had a better chance of surviving when the price of beef went down as it sometimes did. But the stress of the transition was wearing on all of them.

      Their grandfather actually owned the four-hundred-acre ranch. It had been in the family for three generations. Many years ago, though, he’d moved into town and left his son and his daughter-in-law to run it. When they died, Cliff returned to the ranch to ensure that everything went well.

      Only it hadn’t.

      When Jim returned to the kitchen with his bags, Jessica got up and showed him the way to his bedroom. Anything to get away from her brothers.

      “Are you about to cry?” he asked the moment they shut the kitchen door behind them.

      “No!” she snapped.

      He said nothing till they reached his room. “I’ll be out as soon as I change.”

      Realizing he was waiting for her to go, she marched out of the room, after telling him where the employee bathrooms were.

      But she didn’t want to go back to the kitchen and fight with her brothers. They were hurting, too, she knew. None of them had taken the time to mourn their parents’ deaths.

      Ever since that horrible tragedy, the three of them hadn’t been able to get along. They had fought constantly the past six months. It amazed her that they had gotten as far as they had.

      The door behind her opened and she spun around, surprised to see how much a change of clothes had changed Jim. Before, the man had looked like a Wall Street big shot. Now, in jeans, boots and a western shirt, he looked like a real cowboy. A handsome cowboy, she admitted.

      “Let’s go,” he said, putting his hand on her elbow to guide her back to the kitchen. “I’ll try to get this mess sorted out as quickly as possible.”

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