Page 6 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
“That I understand.”
Spence was remarkably debt free because he didn’t sink money into things that didn’t give a decent return, and when he had debt, he paid it off as quickly as possible. He owned his truck and the travel trailer he lived in on locations if his expenses weren’t covered by his contract, which they usually were. He had enough money in the bank to meet his needs for several months—actually, for more than a year if he was frugal—and he planned on rustling up some welding jobs while he was in the area. But he was not going to sink capital into a rundown homestead house when his mom assured him that she loved having him in his old bedroom. It would have been better if it wasn’t now her sewing room, but in the few days he’d been home, they’d managed to work around one another.
“Can you still ride?” Reed asked as they stepped out of the homestead house.
“What kind of question is that?” Spence hooked the hasp that served as a secondary lock to the place.
“When’s the last time you were on a horse?”
“I can outride you.”
“We’ll see about that tomorrow.” When they planned to ride the allotment fence prior to turning out the cattle.
“Yeah.” Spence lifted a hand to shade his eyes as he studied the dust plume rising behind the truck that barreled into sight where the driveway emerged from the tree line. “I’d say Dad has something on his mind.”
“Shit.” Reed propped his hands on his hips. “I was hoping that we were done with this crap.”
Spence watched his brother’s face tighten. Reed was engaged to Trenna Hunt, the daughter of the guy who was raising hell with the family in an attempt to gain right-of-way across their best hay field in order to build a resort on the mountainside. Spence couldn’t say that the family was wild about the idea of having a resort looking down on the ranch, but they could accept it, mainly because they had no choice. Hunt owned the land. What they couldn’t accept was a barrage of traffic traveling across their fields on their way to Hunt’s resort. Carter Hunt had another option to access the property, but it involved building a bridge across the deep V of a narrow rocky canyon called Robber’s Gorge. That option would be wildly expensive, so Hunt continued his quest to get the Kellers to bow to his wishes.
Daniel Keller and family were not prone to bowing.
By the time the truck pulled to a stop, Reed and Spence were waiting by the barn. To Spence’s surprise, Henry Still Smoking, their longtime ranch hand who was supposed to retire, but didn’t seem able to get the job done, was at the wheel. The normally easygoing guy looked as pissed off as Daniel, which was saying something.
Daniel Keller grimaced as he worked his way out of the truck. He’d had back surgery a few years ago, and now he was looking at another round to fuse the vertebrae about those that were already fused. The price of ranch work, the surgeon had said.
Indeed. Ranch work, coupled with stubbornness and a refusal to accept that he might have to change his ways. The prospect of the second surgery had slowed him down a bit, but Spence couldn’t help wondering if his dad would be right back at it once he healed a second time.
But with Reed home, and Henry reluctant to pull the plug, Spence figured his time at the ranch would be over in the early fall. Once winter set it, there wasn’t much to do beyond feeding cattle, which Reed could handle.
“What happened?” Reed asked Henry, giving their dad a chance to regain his composure after the pain of getting out of the rig.
“That asshole found a loophole to shut off the irrigation to the east fields.”
“We’re junior water rights holders by one year,” Daniel explained. “One year. And since Hunt has been using that right in a piddling way, he’s kept it. Now he plans to pretty much drain the canal before it reaches us.”
“What if he gets to put a road across the field?” Spence asked.
“I imagine his water usage would revert to normal,” Daniel said grimly. “Meanwhile, the field dries up.”
*
What was shegoing to do without Vince?
Hayley’s stomach began knotting while she helped pack and load his truck. Vince’s acceptance into law school had been something of a long shot this year and with the labor market being tight, she’d hoped that he’d get into law school next year.
Selfish wish. She should have worked harder at a backup plan, but in reality, how? It seemed unlikely that she could have found someone to wait in the wings just in case Vince got the call he’d been waiting for.
Tonight she’d post on social media to see if she could find additional help for the summer. The situation wasn’t dire. She and Connor and Ash could handle the work, but she needed a second come fall when the boys went back to school. She could use a second right now to help with the general workload—especially now that she was developing the farmer’s market side gig. That was for personal satisfaction, and it could slide, but she’d just gotten her greenhouse and was excited to start production.
“That’s it, boss.” Vince came out of the duplex cottage, pulling the door shut behind him. Remy snuffled at his pant leg, and he bent down to rub her ears. “I think I’ll put her away and say goodbye,” he said.
Hayley nodded and watched as Vince pulled a carrot out of his shirt pocket and called the pig to the yard, where he gave her the carrot before locking the gate. “She can’t chase me now.”
“Unless she digs under the gate.”
“I’ll be gone.” Vince gave Hayley a long look and she could see how torn he was about leaving.
“It’s not like I’m never going to see you again. And who knows? Maybe I’ll need a lawyer.”
