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“Stop, it’s fine. How would you have known?” He held her as close as she’d let him. Christ, she felt good in his arms like this. “You didn’t know me, or my family.” He paused, realizing he hadn’t really talked about his father’s death until now. His throat tightened, thickened. “He died of a heart attack, and his death has been a shock. My father seemed in his prime. Yes, he was pushing seventy years old, but I’d pass him off as fifty. He took care of himself. My mother made sure he ate well.”
Emma’s voice softened. “I take it that you’re dealing with his estate, that that’s where the trouble is.”
Usually stress was financially motivated. And maybe she knew that from dealing with Daisy’s estate. “Well, you’re not wrong, but it goes deeper than only dealing with my father’s estate. Earlier this morning, I found out from my father’s accountant that Blackshaw Cattle is struggling.”
“You have the largest cattle company in River Rock, don’t you?”
“I don’t, no,” he clarified. “The company belonged to my father, and apparently, instead of asking his sons for help, he let the company slip. The accountant told me today I have two choices. One, sell the company. Two, figure out a way to bring the numbers back up in less than a year or the company will go bankrupt.”
“Gosh, that is stressful.”
Shep chuckled dryly. “Just a little.”
Silence drifted over them while Tadgh passed through a small patch of the forest where the trail was well ridden. “Why would your father not ask for help?” she eventually asked.
“Pride, I imagine.” Shep wished that hadn’t been the case. This would have been easier to fix two years ago. Christ, even one year ago. “I wish he would have told me. I have my contract with the military now; it’s a little hard to put my life on the back burner.”
“You have a contract with the military?” she asked, turning her head slightly, her brows furrowed.
“I own Blackshaw Survival, which is a wilderness survival company. Recently, I’ve received a new contract with the military, which sends recruits to me for training on how to survive in harsh conditions.”
“Wow. That’s a really cool job.”
“It is that.”
She paused. “But now I’m thinking, shouldn’t you be going back to work, instead of spending time with me?”
Tadgh stepped clear from the forest. Shep glanced back at Bentley, whose head was down in a relaxed position, before he addressed her again. “My next contract doesn’t start for two weeks. I’ve got three guys working alongside me, and we always take time off between jobs. It’s hard work and demanding on the body.”
“I can only imagine,” she said, awe in her voice. “You must love it, though, to do that type of work.”
He nodded, his hips moving with Tadgh’s stride. “I enjoy knowing that I can survive, no matter what
Mother Nature throws at me.”
She sighed, glancing out in front of her. “Yeah, I can see how that would be a good thing to experience.”
A little survival training might be good for her, he thought. Nothing boosted one’s confidence and self-worth more than living in the elements for a week solid with no food or shelter but what you manage to find and build yourself. Though he noted the tension in her posture, so he brought the conversation back to her earlier question, keeping the focus off her for a while. “As to why my father never told us, I can only imagine he didn’t want to put his dreams on his sons.”
“But had you known . . .”
He finished for her, “Had we known that he was struggling, we would have helped.”
“Maybe that’s why he never said anything,” she offered.
“Maybe.” He turned Tadgh to the right, heading up the trail that led toward his house.
A quiet moment went by; obviously she was processing what he’d told her. She finally turned her head again, showing the full side of her face, and asked, “Have you decided what you’re going to do now, with the company and all?”
He let out a sigh that even sounded long-suffering to him. “I need to talk to my brothers and see how they want to handle this.”
“Probably a good place to start.” Another pause. Then, “There’s gotta be a way to balance it all.”
The warmth of her encased him when she laced her fingers with his on her thigh. He leaned in and kissed her bare shoulder. “That’s exactly what I’m hoping for, sweetheart.”
Chapter 7
An hour later, with the horses settled in the small paddock next to Shep’s one-story log house, Emma sat at Shep’s four-person wood table, her steak dinner nearly finished. She studied him from her chair while he reached for two more beers from the stainless steel fridge in the kitchen. Sure, the package was certainly mouthwateringly perfect, but there was something else about this guy who was making her sit up and take notice, something kind and strong.
