Page 40 of Christmas with the Cowboy
*
If all wentwell, and it usually didn’t, Reed and Henry would have the boundary between the Hunt and Keller properties reinforced before the forecasted winter storm moved in. They needed the moisture, but he also wanted to get this fence done before Carter Hunter engaged in more shenanigans.
“Son of a—” Henry finished the sentence with a low growl followed by a more colorful curse as he shook his hand. Smacking a finger with a fencing hammer in cold weather hurt like hell. “It feels like it’s flatter than before,” he muttered.
“Did you break the skin?” Which a good smack could sometimes do, but more often it caused a blood blister or black fingernail. All in a day’s work.
“I am not going to look,” Henry said, resolutely taking another staple out of his pocket and putting it into position. “If we don’t slow down, we can be done in half an hour.”
Reed had no intentions of slowing down. Once this was finished, he had a list of chores waiting for him on the ranch. And then there was Trenna. Was she going to find him as promised? Or had she come to her senses and decided not to share? And if that was the case, what was he going to do?
Mind his own business. That was the only thing he could do. He might be concerned about her, but that didn’t mean he had any right to information Trenna didn’t want to give.
But what in the hell had happened last night?
Reed came close to smacking his own finger and took greater care as he started the next staple. The wind, which had been blowing hard as the storm moved in, stilled after they finished the last section of fence, making Reed wonder if the weather had shifted course, and the snow would miss them. If it landed in the mountains, all was well, and feeding would be easier, but the sentimental side of him hoped for a white Christmas—mainly because Lex loved snow. Nothing to do with him loving snow, too, despite the inconveniences it caused.
They’d just finished loading the wire roll in the bucket of the tractor and stashing the tools in the back of the side-by-side, when Reed heard the car engine. Trenna had found him as promised. Of course, it helped that he and Henry were on the river road leading to her cottage, which he assumed was her next stop after helping his mom.
“I guess I’ll head back to the barn,” Henry said. He climbed into the tractor cab, lifting a hand in greeting as Trenna pulled to a stop. She waved back as she got out of the car, then her expression tightened as he started toward her. She looked tenser than when she’d arrived at the ranch that morning, which was saying something.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t even know where to begin.” She shoved a hand through her blonde waves. “Not a clue.” And she looked pissed about it.
“The beginning?” Reed suggested.
She let out a breath and leaned back against the hood of her car. She pressed her lips together as she dropped her gaze, a fierce frown pulling her eyebrows together. “Your dad warned me off.”
“From the ranch?”
She drilled him with a look. “From you.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Reed muttered, rolling his eyes skyward.What the hell?
“Don’t.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I’m telling you so that we’re on the same page, because like it or not, with my dad doing what he’s doing, and Jay doing what he’s doing—”
“What is Jay doing?”
She raised a weary gaze. “Jay got his ass fired.”
He couldn’t say he hated that. “And…”
“Blames me.”
“Is he the cause of your shitty evening?”
“He added to it.” She spoke in a way that made him believe that Jay was fully responsible. “I don’t think he stole my phone, since he wasn’t that close to me until our encounter, but I don’t know for certain.”
“I think you’d better fill me in.” The change in her expression made him add, “To keep us on the same page.”
“That’s why I came.”
He nodded, then before she could say a word about Jay, he blurted the question he didn’t want to hear the answer to. “What the hell did my dad say to you?”
“He said you weren’t over what happened between us. What I did to you.”
Trenna’s cheeks were a touch pinker than before, and Reed didn’t think it was due to the wind, which was once again rising. And he didn’t think he was getting the full story.
