Page 76 of Roping Her In

“Link and Misty live in the Top Cottage,” Hailey said. “It’s about fifteen minutes up a dirt road past Gun’s house. Right next to the homestead is Bull House, and Uncle Ward and Aunt Dot still live there; a couple of their boys are still at home.

“Down the road is the Ranch House, and Uncle Judge lives there with Aunt June. Around the corner and down a little bit is where I grew up. My momma and daddy still live there with Joey and the twins. Then you get to Uncle Bear’s new house, and he lives with Uncle Cactus and Aunt Willa now, because all but their two daughters are gone, and Uncle Cactus doesn’t have any kids at home anymore.

“If you keep going out and around the back of the ranch, you get to the Edge Cabin, and that’s where Uncle Cactus used to live. But Rock and Clover live there now.”

“This is a lot of people,” Jake said, glancing over to her as the truck started to climb the hill.

Hailey grinned at him. “Then we have the cowboy cabins, and Smiles lives there, as does Pearl Jo, Fawn, and Betty. The ladies share one right now; I think Smiles lives alone.”

“Do they all work on the ranch?”

“Pearl Jo and Fawn do,” Hailey said. “But Betty works down in town. Then, right behind True Blue—I’m sure you’ve been to the big barn where we do weddings, feed people in crisis, all of that—is another homestead, and that’s Uncle Bishop and Aunt Montana.”

He stayed quiet for several long seconds as he crested the hill and went under the arch boasting that they’d arrived at Shiloh Ridge Ranch. “So nine families,” he said.

“And my Aunt Arizona lives right across the border at the Rhinehart Ranch,” she said. “Dawson lives right there too, you know?”

“Yeah, I’ve been to Dawson’s place a couple of times,” Jake said.

“Well, they’re all going to be here,” Hailey said as he came to a stop at the top of the hill. “You can park at True Blue, in front of the homestead, or down by our fire pits, and we’re meeting out at our main corrals between our small animal pastures and our stables.”

She looked left and right as the ranch opened up before them. “Not that you know where any of those places are.” She laughed, though nerves made up most of the sound.

“Finn and Henry said they’d be here,” Jake said, also looking left and right before he finally met her eyes.

“My family invited everyone,” Hailey said. “And it looks like we’re some of the last to arrive.” She pointed left again. “I’d go that way. There’s way more parking at True Blue than there is down by the stables and family fire pits.”

Jake followed her directions and eased the truck left, finding a spot closer to True Blue than the center of the ranch. They got out, and Hailey collected her water bottle, while Jake did the same, though there would be plenty to eat and drink here on the ranch.

In fact, Hailey’s mother had asked Hailey if she wanted to be on the planning text for food, but since she didn’t live there and hadn’t planned on adding this enormous event to her schedule, she’d declined. But she knew Aunt Sammy, her momma, Aunt Holly Ann—who used to own a catering company—as well as Misty, Savannah, and Clover, had taken on feeding the two hundred people Hailey expected to see on the ranch that day.

Jake took her water bottle and tucked it into his backpack. Then she laced her fingers through his, another round of nerves firing through her. They walked down the gravel road, their feet crunching over the rocks, and it sure wasn’t hard to find where everyone had gathered.

They came up from behind everyone in the main pasture, and Hailey saw that they hadn’t started yet with the branding and tagging. She found cousins and aunts and uncles grouped together, laughing and talking, some of them still sipping coffee. On the edge of the wide, grassy space, closest to their family fire pits stood a row of tables, at least thirty feet long.

“They have breakfast,” Jake said, surprise coloring his voice.

Hailey squeezed his hand and leaned into his arm. “I told you they would.”

“Trap and Ty are here,” he said.

“And JJ, and his brother, and his daddy.” Hailey nodded over to where they stood with Colt and Elaine in their cluster.

“With all these people, this surely can’t take all day,” he said.

“It takes a fair few hours,” Hailey said. “I think our official count this year was eight hundred twelve calves, and they all have to be tagged. I think Wilder and Smiles—well, and Rock, and Gun, and Robbie—they kind of all run the ranch together.”

Hailey didn’t know how many details Jake really needed. “I think they bought an additional seven hundred head this year, and they need to be branded. Whenever we get done, we usually head down to the river and swim a little.” Happy memories flowed through her mind. “I loved swimming in the river when I was younger.”

“Did you?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Hailey said. “It was a nice childhood, growing up here at Shiloh Ridge.”

“I bet it was,” Jake said.

Hailey adjusted her steps to move a little bit further left, and she joined a group of cousins closer to her age. “Hey, everyone,” she said, as no one seemed to be talking.

“Hailey,” Shiloh said with such fondness in her voice that Hailey felt truly missed. She grabbed onto her and hugged her. Then she reached for the tall cowboy at her side. “You remember Brett, right?” She gazed at him with all the love in the world.