Page 23 of Unforgettable Cowboy
While negotiating the challenges of getting his uncle out of the truck and into the house, Hayes made a decision.Once Wade was in his chair, with his phone, the remote and a bottle of water, Hayes said, “If you’re okay, I’m heading out for a bit.Shouldn’t be more than an hour.”
“Kind of late to be working.”
They were going to talk about that later.How it would take days of overtime to get the ranch back into shape.Hayes and whoever else was on the ranch would be putting in lots of late hours.
“Not working.I have something to discuss with Bailey.”Wade gave him a look that made Hayes wonder just how much his uncle really knew about the palomino.
“Now that I have my faculties, I have a question,” Wade said in a milder voice than usual.
“What’s that?”
“Are you okay with me hiring Bailey?I mean…” He let his voice trail rather than state what they both knew to be true.Despite his stoic mask, Hayes had been devastated when she’d dumped him.
“Fine with it.”Hayes managed to sound nonchalant as hell, which probably made Wade’s radar go up.Oh well.“Call me if you have any issues.”
“Okay, Mom.”
Hayes gave a ha-ha twist of his lips then glanced at the clock over the television.“Jess—” the rehab guy “—will be here at six and I’ll be back by then.”
Wade simply nodded and leaned his head back.“Next time I go off a horse, I’m going to take great care not to break anything.”
Hayes coughed.“Yeah.Me, too.”
*
Edna, the animalshelter lady, called just after Bailey arrived home from a full day of pulling old wire out of mud and brush.
“I have a few dogs coming in,” she said after identifying herself.“They’ll be evaluated, and if they don’t need fostering, then, well, you might find yourself that travel companion.”
“That’s great news.”Bailey enjoyed her solitude, but there were limits.And that damned bird in the barn kept startling her.She hadn’t been this hypervigilant before moving back to the homestead, but there was something about the isolation and the old memories that kept her on edge after the sun went down.Maybe it was remembering the uncertainty of her household as the end of the workday approached.Would Bruce come home in one of his amiable moods?Or would he need to take a bad day out on her mother by pointing out all the many ways she’d failed him?
“I’ll be in contact when I know more,” Edna said.
“Thank you.By the way, have you caught the backpack-stealing dog yet?”He might also be a candidate for travel companion if he didn’t have a home.
“Not yet.”
“Good luck with that.”
Bailey ended the call and sat back in her chair, studying the earrings she’d just completed, silver teardrops with blue Montana Yogo sapphires set in the centers.These would go quickly.Tomorrow, she’d photograph them for her online store and the scrapbook she kept on her display table at shows.She got out of her chair, stretched, then stilled at the sound of the diesel engine moving closer.
What the heck?
Deliveries were made in the barrel on the county road.No one, save Jim Reed, the farmer, had driven into her property via the main driveway since she’d been there and that had only been once, because he always took the shorter back road between his place and hers.
She went to the portal window and pushed back the stiff curtain but didn’t have the right angle to see the drive.She dropped the curtain and started for the door.
Maybe itwasJim, stopping to check something in the fields on his way home from Marietta?
It had to be.
She slipped out of her trailer, hating the fact that she felt vulnerable, and stepped to the corner where she could see the truck approaching.It was not Jim’s.She squinted against the setting sun, which was just above the treetops, then her shoulders sank in relief as she recognized Hayes’s truck.Said relief quickly dissipated as she began to wonder why Hayes was there.He should be at home helping Wade settle in.She crossed the weedy patch that used to be a lawn to meet him after he parked.
“How’s Wade?”
“Stewing about incarceration.”He pulled the keys from the ignition and dropped them on the seat.“Got a minute?”
“Sure.”
