Page 18 of Second Chance with the Rancher

“Cream?” her brother-in-law asked.

She nodded. “Please.”

He went to the fridge and brought back a carton of half and half.

“Where’s Triss?” she asked.

“Triss likes to get in a run before breakfast and work most days,” Asher said, plopping a bowl of savory oatmeal in front of Mieka. It smelled delicious. Two runny fried eggs, crumbled turkey bacon, salt, pepper and melted Monterey Jack cheese. Her belly grumbled.

“Oh, I forgot that she has to work,” she sipped her coffee, feeling like a fool.

“I’ll keep you busy, Minx,” Nate said with a wink over his coffee mug.

Her face grew hot.

“How are you at decorating, Mieka?” Asher asked, plopping an identical bowl of oatmeal in front of Nate and then another one for himself at the table before taking a seat.

“Well, I’ve never really had a place to decorate myself, but I don’t think my eye for what works and what doesn’t is terrible, why?” She picked up a big piece of crumbled bacon and popped it into her mouth.

“We’ve built three log cabins along the river about a thirty, forty and fifty-minute ride, then a fourth one up on the hill roughly a ninety-minute ride from here. They’re small and rustic, but we need to add furniture, dishes and décor. The plan is to rent them out as mini getaways. We’ll ride guests out there on horseback, pack in all the food and guests can stay out there and go hiking, fishing, swim in the river or whatever. Little retreat-style things.” Asher sipped his coffee. “It was Triss’s idea. The cabins, and you decorating them.”

“What do you think, Minx?” Nate chewed his breakfast.

“I think it’s a great idea. Where do you want me to find the furniture? Am I ordering it or …”

Nate nodded. “Yep. I’ll direct you to the websites and you can just order what you think will work. We can take a ride out to one of the cabins today if you’d like to get a better idea. They’re all identical.”

Alone on a ride with Nate? Butterflies took flight in her belly, along with a few worried ladybugs, too.

“Minx?”

“Hmm?” She shook her head and blinked a few times, lifting her gaze to Nate’s probing one.

“Do you want to take a ride to one of the cabins so you can make a list of what we’ll need?”

“Uh yeah, sure. Sure.”

He nodded.

“How will we get the furniture out there once it arrives?” she asked.

“Well, hopefully you get stuff that can be assembled after delivery, and we can take the boxes out via trailer and ATV,” he replied. “IKEA is your friend in this case.”

“After what happened with Dare, we decided ATVs and snowmobiles were a good idea.” Asher’s expression turned sad. “We should have had them at the very beginning, but we were trying to cut costs. And ended up paying the ultimate price.”

She met her brother-in-law’s eyes and mirrored his sad frown. She’d never met Asher’s horse, but Triss filled her in on what happened and the story had absolutely ripped out Mieka’s heart.

“Do you guys need to still go out and feed the horses and stuff?” she asked.

They both snorted and dug into their oatmeal. “Been up for two hours already, Minx,” Nate said. “Everybody’s been fed. Now it’s our turn.”

“Oh!”

He smiled. “You’ll learn ranch life soon, don’t worry.”

“Will I be able to ride with a broken arm?”

“We’ll put you on Macklin, he loves you so he’ll be gentle and take it easy. It’ll be like riding on a cloud.” He sipped his coffee, but the twinkle in his eyes said he was smiling and found her concern amusing.

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