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It was her daddy!
She gasped out. Nooooo! She hadn’t told him that she was sneaking to Harvest Ranch with West, and he didn’t need to know until she was there and he couldn’t do anything about it!
She expertly texted her daddy back with one hand: “I’m flying. Can’t talk. We’ll chat as soon as I land.”
He’d better not call West next!
Chapter Two
Cole had just come in from putting away his horse, Sleipnir, in the barn. The paint was fast and reliable on their grounds, which was why Cole had named him after Odin’s gray eight-legged horse.
He’d gotten his share of teasing from it. Such a nerd! At least that’s what West called him, either that or “the baby.”
His older brother was a piece of work.
The guy had been hounding him for days to show his new girlfriend the place while he took care of “business.”
Yeah, that isn’t going to happen. Take care of your own girlfriend, dude!
Business, business—everything was business with West. Cole, honestly, couldn’t care less if his brother slept, ate, and breathed it, as long as he kept him out of it… which never happened. Cole always had to take up the slack with West’s kids when he came home to “take care of Momma.”
Now it was his girlfriend? Man, what next?
Cole had every intention of laying low this week for his brother’s visit.
He shoved aside his ballcap to run his fingers through his hair—it really was dirty blond now with all that dust he’d kicked up on the range. He had just enough time to take a hot shower before their guests descended on them.
Cole charged up the freshly painted steps that he’d just finished last week. Their family’s homestead was a three-story, colonial-style, brick building designed after a sketch his momma had made of her dream home in high school.
Their old man built it the second the ranch started to turn a profit. Jase Slade would do anything to make “his Lily” smile. The family was constantly making improvements on the land based on Momma’s latest inspirations. Everything that woman touched became beautiful, from her gentle touch on her home to her green thumb. The grounds and wraparound porch overflowed with flowers and decorative bushes and trees. She had five acres set aside especially for her gardens. Her rose garden was especially breathtaking in the summer. People came from miles around to see it.
Ironic that someone who brought everything to life around her was dying. If Momma didn’t get that heart transplant soon, she wouldn’t last much longer.
Cole pushed that thought away and eased open the heavy oak door at the side of the house. After working with cattle all morning, Cole hoped to make himself a hefty sandwich that dripped with beef before climbing into that shower. He’d have to hurry before West got here. No way was he waiting around for a repeat of their last fiasco.
A few months ago, West had promised his sons a camping trip, and guess who else he’d dragged along? Cole was stuck keeping Charlie and Pip busy while West negotiated a high-powered investment deal. It was all Cole could do to stop his nephews from falling off the raft while they were navigating class four rapids.
West’s ex could never find out about that! Liv would’ve had their heads, and Momma would be devastated to lose any time with Charlie and Pip, which was theonlyreason Cole kept that nightmare quiet.
Cole made his way into the kitchen and stopped short, feeling like he’d walked into the frontlines of a battleground—at least that’s what his momma was making of the visit. Her white blonde hair hung over her face as she chopped veggies for a salad. Nash was coming, too, and rumor was that he was bringing Emily. Momma’s fingers shook over her knife. Cole noticed that she was doing more of that as her illness took over. He’d tell her to drop the weapon, but she’d probably turn it against him.
“Jase!” she called to Cole’s father. “Did you know that West was bringing someone home?”
“No one tells me anything,” their old man said from the living room. He was knotting a rope, his full lips pressed together as he concentrated. The work from the range followed them home whenever they were trying to relax in the TV room or falling into bed or at the dinner table… much to Momma’s disapproval.
Cole worked the family business with his brother, Porter, and it was all they could do to keep up with five hundred head of cattle roaming freely through nearly a thousand acres of their land. Their old man talked about hiring more hands than the ones they already had, but so far, with Momma’s hospital bills mounting and their debts to the bank piling up, he had to rely mostly on his sons. After all, he’d had five of them. The only catch was that they kept moving away.
Cole and Porter were running ragged.
Rumor was that Nash was coming home to stay this time. The long lost twins were about to be reunited, and despite the mischief that Nash and Porter managed to dig up whenever they were together, Cole was relieved. Calving season was creeping up on them again, and without his brothers, he’d have to kiss his social life goodbye for a few months.
There happened to be a little redhead at Mo’s that he wanted to get to know better.
His momma sighed across the island in the kitchen that separated her from her husband in the living room. “Honey, run a brush through that hair and shower off all that dirt. We might actually need to impress somerealguests.”
Since Momma had gotten sick, their old man had let his beard grow as rugged as the hair curling against his neck. But when she got it in her head to turn “her boys” more civilized, there was no going back. Cole’s father pushed to his feet, swiping up the rope.
Steeling his shoulders, Cole headed for the fridge before he could be ordered away to join the cleaning crew for the coming invaders. He opened the fridge door.
