Page 1 of Second Chance with the Rancher

Chapter One

“Stupid piece of shit Ford,” Nate muttered, as he hunched over even more under the hood of his pickup to get closer to the problem. “Found on road dead. Fix or repair daily. Stupid fucking piece of shit.” He let out another string of colorful words that would probably make a sailor turn scarlet in mortification when the crunch of gravel broke through his soliloquy of swear words. He didn’t recognize the sound of the approaching vehicle’s engine, and normally he could tell which truck or car was ambling down the long drive of the ranch just by the engine and the way the tires rumbled over the gravel.

No riding tours were on the books for today, and they hadn’t officially opened the petting farm on weekdays yet. They’d do that soon, once all the kids got out of school for the summer. It was nearly the end of May and although the mornings and evenings were still cool, the days had already grown hot and sweat beaded on his brow like a string of salty pearls. They also hadn’t had rain all month, so things were already bone-dry and dusty.

The car probably just belonged to one of the many families that paid to board their horse on the ranch. As another stream of income, Nate and his brother Asher made a sweet killing offering stables to those who wanted horses but had nowhere to keep them. They boarded them, looked after them and charged the owners a pretty penny to do so. The weekends were busier, of course, but there was usually an owner—or their horse-obsessed teenage daughter—milling around, brushing their horse or taking it for a ride.

He lifted his head to greet the new arrival only to bash it mighty hard on the inside of the hood.

“Jesus Christ, motherfucking piece of shit! Fuck!” He closed his eyes and rubbed his head. He’d have a goose egg for sure.

The vehicle came to a stop.

A door opened. Another door opened but only one closed. There were voices. A man and a woman. Then feet on the gravel followed by another door closing and tires spinning in the gravel as the car—he’d determined quickly that it was a car not a truck—turned around and headed back toward the main road.

Still rubbing his head from where he’d smashed it against the hood, he squinted into the afternoon sun at the slim figure walking gracefully toward him.

Shielding his eyes with his hand—even though he didn’t have to, he knew that walk and those hips well—he sucked in a sharp breath and watched Mieka Young walk toward him, awkwardly pulling a suitcase behind her with one hand, while her other arm and wrist were in a cast that covered the length of her forearm from her elbow to her wrist.

Help her, you dumbass.

As if smacked in the back of the head by an imaginary Nana somewhere, he shook his head to free the cannoning thoughts that had left him paralyzed, and raced forward. “Let me help you.”

Mieka smiled shyly. “Thank you.”

His heart lurched in his chest. It’d been a while since he’d seen her. And the last time that he had it’d been under unusual and difficult circumstances.

“How are you?” she asked, her full lips pulling sideways into a small, awkward smile.

“Busy,” he said, doing everything he could to slow down his heart rate. His knuckles ached from how tightly he was squeezing the handle of her suitcase. He needed to calm the fuck down.

“Never a moment’s rest when you run a ranch I suppose,” she said, throwing in a sexy, husky chuckle.

“Nope.”

Casting her gold-flecked brown eyes around the big open driveway that separated the main barn from the farmhouse, she cradled her broken arm against her abdomen and allowed her shoulders to droop. “Is my sister around?”

“Triss and Ash are out in the back field. They’ve gone to give Dare some news. He’s a daddy. Little Daria was born last night.”

Her eyes perked up. “A new foal?”

Nate nodded and his pulse relaxed a bit. Anything to do with horses eased his troubles, and right now, he was troubled. “Wanna come see?”

Her smile was big and bright and only added to her incredible beauty.

He tucked her suitcase next to his truck and jerked his head toward the barn just as a series of barks erupted from the south side. A moment later, Nate’s Blue Merle Aussie Shepherd came racing around the corner, his tongue lolling out the side of his smiling mouth. He recognized Mieka right away and zoomed up to her.

“Hello, Bruno,” Mieka said, pausing to bend down and pet Bruno who was lapping up her affection like he hadn’t been given any attention in a month. “I love his different colored eyes—brown and blue,” she said. “They’re so cool.”

“It’s why I picked him,” Nate murmured, waiting until Mieka and Bruno got reacquainted and the dog stopped trying to smother her with love and kisses.

Eventually, Bruno settled down and the three of them got back to their task of going to check out the new foal.

Curiosity burned hot inside him as he tossed some side-eyed glances toward the caramel-brown-haired beauty. What was she doing here? Did Triss know she was coming? Was it as awkward for her as it was for him? How long was she staying?

He opened the side door for the barn and allowed her to walk through first. He tried hard not to inhale when she walked past him, but it was fucking impossible. Her coconut shampoo went straight up his nose and made a beeline for his balls. Fuck.

“Which mare did Dare have a foal with?” she asked, turning to look up at him with those unusual brown eyes he’d gotten lost in one night. He’d never seen eyes with so much gold in them before, and then he met the five Young sisters and saw five sets of the unique and beautiful eye color. But Mieka’s were lighter brown than the others and seemed to sparkle more, too. Or at least that was his opinion. It might be because he was also hung up on the woman. Who knows?

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