Page 11 of Christmas with the Cowboy
“You look all rich and stuff,” Lex explained.
And she’d assumed rich people didn’t swear? She needed to attend one of her father’s cocktail parties.
No. She didn’t. No one needed to rub elbows with some of those pretentious people that Carter secretly, and sometimes not so secretly, despised.
“I’m not rich,” Trenna said dryly. “I’m a historian.”
“Your dad is rich.”
“My dad and I don’t share resources.” Lex cocked her head, and Audrey looked as if she was about to shut down the conversation, when Trenna added, “My dad and I stopped seeing eye to eye while I was in college. He cut the purse strings.”
“He disowned you?” Lex asked, her eyes wide.
“Lex…” Audrey said on a warning note.
Trenna spread her palms. “Not sure about that. We haven’t talked inheritance. But he did stop financing my education, which, let me tell you, was something of a shock, but”—she gave the girl a smile—“it was a good thing in the long run. It’s nice to be totally in control of your life.”
Lex gave a considering nod. “I guess it would be. But money is handy also.”
“And now back to the matter at hand,” Audrey interrupted briskly. “Where do you want to store the baking supplies?”
Lex gave Trenna an I-guess-we-should-play-along look, and Trenna answered with a half smile, taking care not to appear overly enthusiastic about the fact that the girl was starting to warm up a little.
If she could get on the girl’s good side, and Reed spent his time working with Daniel and Henry, then her days on the ranch wouldn’t be all that awkward.
One could hope, anyway, because she’d made a commitment to Audrey, and she was going to keep it.
Chapter Three
“Guess we shouldhave farmed that piece.” Henry tipped back his hat as he surveyed the sturdy new fence bordering the curve of the river a good fifty yards away from what was always understood to be the Hunt-Keller boundary fence. The sun hit the older man’s face, which was gaunter than it used to be, and the black hair that showed from beneath his hat was threaded with gray. That said, Henry Still Smoking hadn’t slowed down one bit. He was retiring because he was approaching seventy, not because he could no longer handle the job.
“Or grazed it,” Reed said. TheD-shaped parcel of land between the old fence and river wasn’t that big—maybe ten acres total—but it was Keller land and now it was fenced as if it was Hunt land.
“Or refenced it.” Henry shot a look at Reed. “Who would have thought?”
Reed wouldn’t have. The property lines were ancient and not always straight, but there was no question that the old fence was the actual line. The owner prior to Hunt had respected the boundary, even in poor condition. Who would have thought that Hunt would be such an asshole?
Anyone who knew him.
“This,” Reed said, “is obviously a hostile possession.” He’d brushed up on the nuances of adverse possession on his phone while Henry drove down the track leading to the river, assuming that Hunt was using the theory to claim the land since his cattle strayed onto the property through the unmaintained fence and grazed it periodically. According to Montana law, the Hunts were responsible for maintaining that stretch of fence. Reed’s family had left the strip as a habitat along the riparian since it was too awkwardly shaped to farm or graze. It was anyone’s guess who would win a legal battle, but legal battles were expensive, and the Hunts were a touch wealthier than the Kellers. But if Carter wanted to fight, as far as Reed was concerned, he could bring it on.
“We’re going to fix the boundary fence,” Reed said. “The real one.”
“Before or after we cut the fake one?”
“Before.”
Henry gave a shrug. “Guess I’ll put the auger on the tractor?”
“We’ll use T-posts. Faster that way, and it’ll make the point.”
“Wood posts would make a stronger point.”
“I want this done today.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were back at the ranch, loading the tractor bucket with T-posts, wire rolls, and a fence stretcher.
“Where’s the chain?” Reed called to Henry, who’d just set a bucket of fasteners in the side-by-side.
