Page 5 of Roping Her In

“Charlotte’s getting our horses saddled.”

“Thank you so much,” Jake said.

“If you need to eat⁠—”

“I’ll bring my lunch,” Jake said, because while he’d had a plate of pasta at the small ranch owners’ meeting, that had been almost three hours ago now. “I can eat in the saddle.”

“See you soon,” Beau said, and the call ended.

Jake smashed his cowboy hat on his head and exited the office at a near run. He went down the back hallway, because he didn’t want to encounter Hailey and stutter out something else that would make him a bigger idiot than he’d already been with her.

He’d barely stepped outside into the drizzling sky when his phone rang again. This time, the screen showed the name of his younger brother, Carson.

“Dear Lord.” Jake sighed, because he didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with his boss, an amazing kiss with a forbidden woman, and his brother. Why was God throwing things at him in threes again?

If he didn’t answer, Carson would just redial, so Jake swiped on the call as he went down the steps and turned left to go around the back of the building. “I’m literally getting on my horse in the next four minutes,” he said instead of hello.

“I only need two minutes,” Carson said.

Jake doubted that very much, but he remained silent. He had to navigate a barely-there path behind the administration trailer so he wouldn’t have any chance of running into his future intern—and the woman who hadn’t left his mind for more than an hour in the last few months.

He frowned, because he honestly had no idea what to do with his feelings. His impulsiveness had announced itself at the worst time too.

“I was just wondering if you’re planning to come to Momma and Daddy’s on Sunday,” Carson said, and oh, that cool note in his voice so wasn’t good.

“No,” Jake said slowly. “It’s Thanksgiving next week, and Libby and Rusty are doing Thanksgiving out here at the ranch on Sunday, so we can be with our families on Thursday.” He’d already told Carson this.

His brother sighed like Jake had just told him he needed to borrow thousands of dollars. “Do you have to go to that?”

“Why?” Jake asked, because no, attendance at the Three Rivers Ranch Thanksgiving feast wasn’t a job requirement. He simply wanted to go, because he liked the people he worked with and lived with out here at the ranch. They were so far from town, they really operated as their own community.

“I just don’t want to deal with them on my own.”

“Come out to the ranch,” Jake said as he cleared the corner of the building. “And you’re going to have to figure out how to handle Daddy.”

“I can handle Daddy,” Carson said. “It’s Momma I don’t want to deal with. She asks too many questions, and I don’t have any of the answers she wants.”

Jake understood that, though he didn’t argue with his parents nearly as much as Carson did. He never had. “She just wants you to be happy.”

“I am happy,” Carson said. “She just can’t handle that I can be happy driving delivery trucks, while being single and living with my high school best friend.”

The stable where the cowboys and cowgirls here housed their horses came into view, and Jake picked up the pace as Charlotte brought out his brown-and-white equine. “I get it,” he said. “I’m sorry, Carse. I have to go. I’ll call you tonight.”

“Yeah, all right,” Carson said, his tone resigned.

Jake let him end the call, because he really couldn’t shoulder Carson’s problems in addition to his own.

Jake cleared the corner of the administration building and caught sight of Charlotte leading his horse into the paddock at the end of the stable. His boss and foreman here at Three Rivers Ranch already stood there with his steed, finishing up the saddling.

Truth be told, Libby Jackson was Jake’s boss, and Beau more of an equal. As the head veterinarian, he worked with Beau continuously, as well as Brynn Greene at Bowman’s Breeds, and Pete and Paul Marshall at Courage Reins. No wonder the ranch also employed two full-time vet technicians, and everyone, except for him, seemed happy about the possibility of interns.

Regret cut through Jake as he unlatched the gate and entered the paddock. “I’m sorry, Beau,” he said. “I got back and did a few things, and then someone stopped by my office unexpectedly.”

Beau looked over to him with bright eyes. “Yeah? Was it Hailey Winters? I just saw her leaving.”

Jake nodded tersely, determined not to say a single thing about the woman—or the kiss that had happened in his office. Not to anyone. Ever. “Yes, she was assigned as one of our interns for January,” he said.

“We got more than one?” Beau grinned at him as his wife handed Jake the reins to his horse.