Page 44 of Christmas with the Cowgirl
I like him, Dad.He’s nice.But that’s all.
She sighed, remembering her own words.They were true.That’s all it was.And she would do well to stop wondering if it could ever become something else.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Miles stretched hisback, wincing.The next time he encountered an actor who claimed he was in great shape for a physically demanding role, he was going to send him here for an audition.Make him put in a week or two of this, and the truth would out.
While none of the tasks he’d taken on were individually overwhelming, there was seemingly no end to them.One after the other, from offloading bags of feed to stacking hay bales to lugging heavy gear to repair a fence, they all coagulated to tell him he wasn’t in nearly as solid a physical condition as he’d thought.
In fact, most of the people he knew back home would struggle just to keep up with Riley.She never seemed to stop, going from one task to another with the only downtime, if you could call it that, coming when they had to drive one of the ranch trucks like now, out to fix a downed section of fence.He never thought he’d be so glad just to sit in a vehicle.And if she ever again brought up that she was older than him, he was going to blast her with this truth.
That was after, of course, complimenting her on the various clever solutions she’d come up with for basic ranch tasks.She’d explained the level regulator she’d rigged up on the water trough, to keep it full but not overflowing, without constant monitoring.And the floor pressure plates in the barn, after one of the horses had figured out how to unlatch the stall door and wander over to the feed bin.
“We almost lost him, he ate so much sweet feed,” she’d told him.“I didn’t ever want to go through that again.”
So she’d solved the problem.
And the seemingly endless work continued.Even lunch was on the run, although he had to admit the tortilla-wrapped burritos were handy for that, and very tasty.She’d handed him one as they’d left the house, and the aroma had awakened his stomach in a big way.He’d downed it before they driven a mile in the pickup full of wire and a couple of fence posts and all the necessary tools.
“Valencia’s,” was all Riley said, as if the name explained all.At his blank expression she added, “The best Tex-Mex restaurant in the county, and one of the best in the state.Owned by a Tejano family who’s been here since the last stand.”She smiled suddenly before adding, “And whose manager is now married to Chief Highwater’s brother, Sean.”
He let out a chuckle as he gave a wondering shake of his head.“This place is truly an intricately woven, interconnected web.”
“A very big family, in a way,” Riley said.Then, giving him a sideways glance, she said, “Not like where you live.”
“No.Not at all.I mean, my work is like that in a way, but the city?No.Too big, too many people.”He thought he saw her shoulders tense, as if against a shudder.“Can’t imagine living like that?”he asked.
“People on top of each other, no open space, just concrete and steel?I can marvel at it, from a distance, but no, I could never live like that.”She grimaced.“Ask my ex-fiancé.”
“Oops,” he said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say.Some guy had been lucky enough to get her to agree to marry him, and he’d blown it?Idiot.
“His choice,” she said.“And better that he decided then than a couple of hours later, after the wedding.”
He blinked.“Wait…he broke up with you on your wedding day?”He saw by her expression it was true.He swore under his breath.Then let it out.“What the hell justified that?”
She shrugged.And for the first time he realized how irritating that kind of non-answer could be.But after a moment she said simply, “He never bothered to tell me that he expected me to leave Last Stand and make a life in Dallas.Because who on earth would want to stay in this little backwater when they could live in a vibrant big city?”
“But this has been your family home for generations,” he protested.
She gave him a surprised look then.As if she hadn’t expected him to get that.“I don’t blame him anymore.Actually I never really did blame him, not for what he wanted.Some people are born for city life, just like I was born for this life.It was more his timing that made me furious.”
“You’re a lot more forgiving than I would be.He should have known.”
She shrugged.“He thought he did.”
“You mean he assumed and never bothered to ask?”
This time she smiled at him.The anger whose source he wasn’t even sure of faded away.“Pretty much.”
“Idiot.”He said it out loud this time.
“Some people just can’t see the appeal,” she said.
“They’re blind, then,” he answered.
She gave him a different kind of smile then, although he couldn’t put a name to the change.
They went on a little farther, then she slowed the truck and he could see up ahead the gap in the fence.One post was down and another sagging, pulled by the wire.It was an old-style fence—he’d seen newer stuff at the Baylor place—but this was a long, remote stretch and he couldn’t imagine what it would cost to replace all this.
