Page 16 of Christmas with the Cowboy
“What?” Jay started toward the tractor like he was going to take care of business, but Reed casually hooked the man’s ankle with his boot.
One look at the other guy’s face after he’d scrambled back to his feet told Reed that his muscle memory had better be damned good. That was when Henry put the tractor in gear and started toward them.
Reed assumed that Henry intended to scatter them rather than run over them, which was a conversation they’d have later. He dove toward the river, the other guys ran toward the new fence, and then the blast of a horn stunned everyone, except for Henry who couldn’t hear it in the tractor. But he stopped as Trenna Hunt jumped out of her car and strode toward them, her eyes ablaze.
“What in the hell?” she demanded of Jay, who’d gone down again and was climbing to his feet. His knee buckled a little, and Reed recalled a football injury from long ago. Good information if he faced off with the man again.
“And you!” She faced Goon Two, who pressed his lips together in a flat line, looking as if he wasn’t used to being yelled at by a mere woman, but when that woman was the boss’s daughter, what choice did he have except to scowl and take it?
“This isn’t your concern,” Jay muttered.
“Yeah?” The imperious tone brought color to the big man’s face.
She marched over to Reed and looked him up and down. “I called my dad. These two will be leaving.” She lifted her chin while drilling him with a look. “Any misunderstandings between our families will be handled through appropriate channels—not with a tractor.”
As if this shit was his fault.
But he sucked in a breath and nodded. This wasn’t over, and he could tell that Trenna was well aware of the fact.
“Go back to the ranch,” she said to Jay.
Jay looked close to exploding, but he gave a curt nod before jerking his head toward his truck, as if his buddy needed direction.
“Good thing the cavalry arrived in the nick of time, Keller,” the big man muttered before starting toward the rig.
Reed’s mouth tightened into a hard line as Trenna once again fixed her gaze on his face. She was pissed.
“I don’t know what to say.” Her gaze strayed to Henry, who’d just opened the tractor door.
“Not much you can say,” Reed said. “They started it and I—”
“Was about to be pounded into the ground?”
“You aren’t doing my ego any good here.”
Jay’s truck roared to life only seconds before he shoved it into gear and made a U-turn, the wheels bouncing over the rough ground before spraying gravel as they got purchase on the roadbed.
“I guess not.” Trenna let out a breath. “I should go.”
“Probably best,” Reed agreed. She could take his words any way she wanted, but right now he had a job ahead of him and he wanted to get it done before Jay returned with reinforcements.
“You should go, too.”
Reed’s silence spoke for him.
Trenna cocked her head, some of the fight going out of her eyes. “Do you plan to spend the rest of your summer tearing out fences only to have my father build them again?”
“If need be.”
“Let the lawyers handle this.”
“Lawyers are slow. This makes a point.”
Trenna rolled her eyes, then turned toward her car, muttered something about stubborn men as she walked away. As soon as she’d gotten into the car and put it in reverse, Henry joined him.
“We’re going to finish.”
“I figured.” Henry headed back to the tractor as Reed picked up the chain. Reed walked to the next post as Henry maneuvered the tractor into position.
