“Well, I’d still be willing to take you back to my place.”
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked completely flabbergasted.
She couldn’t believe his gall. Who did he think he was? She’d pulled out of his grasp and stared at him. This was the biggest problem with the dating scene. It seemed that no matter how beautiful and successful and competent she might be, the men always expected more. More beautiful. More successful. More competent. And these same exact men were balding and overweight. Or too drunk to carry on an adult conversation. It just wasn’t fair.
If she could just meet a man who could see her for who she really was, and what she really had to give. But she had never met one in the concrete jungle where she worked. Most guys were completely self-absorbed or already taken. At twenty-eight years old, she was beginning to feel like her chance for love and a family had already passed her by.
After she’d refused to go back to Tim’s place, he’d brushed by her without another word and taken off back down the street, leaving her alone in the cold. She’d had to walk all the way back to her parking lot alone and drive home. Not only had it been a complete waste of her time, it had left her deeply hurt. The fact that a guy like Tim could hurt her feelings made her feel even worse.
“I definitely need to work on my boundaries, Charlie,” she said.
That was when her cell phone rang. She picked it up and looked at the caller ID. “Mom.”
“Great,” Sylvia said, flicking her finger over the answer button.
“How did it go?” her mother asked.
“Mom! Where do you find these men?” she demanded, not bothering to soften her tone.
“What happened? Tim seemed like such a great guy when I met him at the market.”
“Mom, just because somebody seems like a great guy to you in the grocery store doesn’t mean that he is husband material.”
“What happened, Sylvia?”
“It was the worst experience of my life,” she mumbled.
“You would think that a grown woman who works as an auditor wouldn’t exaggerate so much,” her mother chided.
“I’m not exaggerating. First, he didn’t even pay for my drink. Which is fine, but still. Then he wanted to leave before I was even done with my wine. When I touched him because he was walking too fast he looked at me like my touch burned his skin. Then he insulted my clothes. After telling me my looks will never catch me a man, he invited me back to his place… Need I go on?”
“Sweetheart,” her mother said in a more sympathetic tone. “I’m so sorry that happened.”
“Mom,” Sylvia said. “I’m never going on another blind date that you sent me up on ever again.”
“Never say never, Sylvia.”
“In this instance, I am definitely saying never.”
“Have it your way, dear. Just don’t blame me when you’re thirty-seven and still don’t have a husband or any children,” her mother said before hanging up the phone.
“God dammit,” Sylvia growled, throwing her cell phone to the other end of the couch.
It plopped on the cushion with an unsatisfying thud, causing Charlie to meow and start scratching the couch upholstery. Sylvia scratched Charlie’s ears until he started to purr. Having her warm kitty by her side, a pan of chocolate fudge brownies, and a romantic comedy playing on the big screen did help the sting of yet another terrible date.
Chapter 3
Dame, the big brown quarter horse, grunted in her stall as Leland entered the barn. She was an experienced twelve-year-old who knew her way around the herd. He remembered her from when he’d come home for a few months after the war, seven years ago.
He saddled her up and made his way outside. Leland squinted in the sunlight as the rainclouds parted in the distance, leaving a yellow-gray cast over the land. His brothers had said the herd was in the northern pasture by the river. The saturated spring ground was muddy under Dame’s feet as they made their way down the hill.
Walking out into the muddy pasture, he found plenty of hoof prints but no cattle. His heart sank and started to slam in his chest. He was a rancher, born and bred, even if his brothers had given up on their family’s heritage; he had not.
He whistled for the herd, trying to spot heads or tails of them. As he encouraged Dame through the pasture, he heard a muted moo off in the distance, coming from down by the river. He turned Dame’s head and followed the sound coming to the fence line. Following the fence line, he stopped at a huge break in the barbed wire lines. Dismounting Dame, he gritted his teeth and moved closer to inspect the wire.
The line had clearly been cut. Three neat clips had been made by wire cutters at some point. Nothing natural made cuts that clean. Leland looked around, his mind racing. Who the hell would cut his father’s fences? He got back on Dame and started down to the river on the other side of the fence. It was muddier and rougher terrain on the other side, but soon he found the herd.
His family’s herd of black Angus cattle were standing by the raging river in at least six inches of mud. Leland’s chest clenched. It was worse than he’d feared. He growled to himself as he walked Dame past one of the new mothers who was nursing her baby calf. He dismounted and knelt to inspect the mother from a distance. The herd was used to horses and men and the momma cow didn’t balk at his proximity. Not that it would have made much difference. The damage was already done.
They had wet hoof and it was going to get really bad in about six seconds if he didn’t get them somewhere dry. Even the northern pasture was too muddy, let alone the river bank. He knew the high pasture to the south near the road should be nice and dry, but he didn’t know if the fence line was intact. Something strange was going on at the ranch.
He rode up to the barn and dismounted Dame, looking across to the machine shop. Neither Jessie nor Buck were anywhere in sight, and the timber harvester was gone, along with one of Jessie’s dirt bikes. Leland gritted his teeth and went to the barn, leaving Dame tied to a hitching post. He went into a side room where his dad kept veterinary equipment. The herd was going to need about a metric ton of medicine. Leland looked in the mini-fridge and found a few dog vaccines. Not helpful.
He closed the mini-fridge door and grumbled again. He’d have to special order it from the feed store. When he came back outside, he heard the distinct sound of a dirt bike motor jumping over something somewhere in the distance. He looked at his horse and shook his head. Jessie was off playing on his dirt bike. Buck was up in the mountain cutting timber. God only knew where Cyrus was. And the herd was sitting down in the muddiest place on Timber Bear Ranch!
“Come on, Dame. Let’s see about this fence line.”
He mounted up and started to the southern pasture. It was about fifteen acres of high ground with mature spring grass. Perfect for the cattle to dry their feet and get more nutrients in their bodies. He rode Dame around the outer parameter of the barbed-wire fence and found three sections of weak fencing and one where the line had completely snapped. But none of it looked cut like the line down in the northern pasture.
He knew there weren’t any fencing supplies in the barn. He’d have to get those from the feed store too. The dollar signs were adding up and he’d only been in charge of Timber Bear Ranch for forty-five minutes.
Leland had been managing a ranch in Texas since he got back from serving in the war seven years ago. No matter what his brothers thought of his decision, Leland didn’t feel he’d had a choice. He and his dad had been butting heads for years before the war and after they all got back, it had gotten even worse. He’d been offered a job in Texas as the lead cowboy at one of the biggest old ranches in the country. It was a hard job to pass up.
He’d enjoyed his work, and he’d learned an awful lot from his time there. Unlike at home, he’d had total control of the herd. He’d been able to really be himself working in Texas.
His dad making him Alpha of the ranch had come as a major surprise. He couldn’t even believe it at first. Part of him didn’t f
eel he deserved the ranch. It had been his family’s home for the last five generations, and the opportunity to run his own land again was impossible to pass up. He loved his home and he’d sincerely missed his brothers. Sometimes. Well, most of the time, if truth be told. He’d even missed his father, the stubborn old coot.
He still couldn’t believe his dad died. The man was a rock, and had been a legend among bears. Leland gripped his own heart as he rode Dame toward the herd.
He might not be able to get the cattle into the southern pasture, but he could get them into the barn paddocks. They could stay there until he got the fences fixed and it would give him an opportunity to give them the shots they’d need to heal. He herded the cattle up to the paddocks and threw them a few dozen bales of hay to tide them over.
Back in the barn, he took off Dame’s saddle and gave her a rub down before heading out to his truck. He hadn’t even unpacked the things he’d brought with him from Texas. Now, he was in charge of Timber Bear Ranch.
It wasn’t a minute too soon.
Chapter 4
After a long day of mending fences, injecting the herd with medicine, and moving them into another pasture, Leland built a fire in the fireplace in the front parlor.
He’d called the ranch in Texas at midday and given them the bad news: he wouldn’t be coming back. There was no going back now. He was the new Alpha of the ranch and had to start acting like it.
As he sat by the fire, drinking a glass of old whiskey, he dug through his father’s paperwork, looking for records and documents. The more he dug, the worse he felt. Everything was disorganized. It was all so unlike the meticulous man Leland remembered as a child. He’d known his dad had gone downhill since the war, but he’d never expected this.
His dad’s books were a mess and full of holes. His bills were past due. But that wasn’t the worst of it. He soon realized his father hadn’t filed taxes in years.
His heart sank into the pit of his stomach. It was becoming more and more clear that the ranch was in a tremendous amount of debt. Where it had come from was a question he couldn’t answer.
Leland rubbed his temples and shook his head before taking another sip of whiskey. If Buck wanted to wade into this mess, maybe Leland should let him. The job of Alpha of the Kincaid clan had just become a million times more difficult. It was one thing to come onto a ranch where the herd had been standing in mud, but it was another thing entirely to find that the ranch itself was deep in debt and in danger of going under at any moment.
As the manager of a ranch, Leland was well acquainted with the business side of things. But the nightmare of this financial rabbit hole his father seemed to be dug into was beyond his comprehension. He didn’t know if he could unravel the mess himself. He simply didn’t have that level of expertise. He was sure the entire estate was close to bankruptcy, and he sincerely wondered if either of his brothers even knew.
After a few hours of research and a growing sense of fatigue, Leland decided to go to bed. That’s when he realized he had no idea what room to sleep in. Buck had built his own house a long time ago and Jessie stayed with him now. The main old farmhouse was empty. Leland stood and made his way up the stairs to the second floor where the bedrooms were located. He peered through the door into the room his parents had shared when he was a boy and found it almost exactly the same.
The thought that they were both gone now hit him hard, like a tree falling in a windstorm. He gripped his chest as he turned out the light and closed the door. He wouldn’t be staying in that room for now.
Leland went down the hallway to the room that used to be his and found that it was full of storage. Random boxes of old clothing, dirty boots, and a mixture of books, horse tackle, and junk mail. He shook his head and turned out the light in that room, continuing down the hallway to the room that his mother had designated as a guest room. He looked inside and found it still decorated with her soft feminine style. There was an oil painting of a horse on the wall, and a patchwork quilt made by his grandmother spread over the bed. He let out a long sigh, knowing he had finally found a place to rest his head for the night.
It was hard for him to believe that he had just arrived that morning. So much had taken place already. He’d only spent a few minutes speaking with his brothers before he had gotten down to business, but he knew that if he wanted to make this work, he’d have to spend a lot more time with them. Buck was understandably irritated and Jessie was his same old self, never really wanting to take responsibility for anything.
By all rights, Buck should be Alpha. Leland had left the family years ago, and he knew, in the back of his mind, that he didn’t really deserve to be their leader. How could he possibly ask his brothers for loyalty when he himself had not been loyal to the family?
He kicked off his boots and rested his back against the headboard of the bed, thinking about the mistakes he had made in the past. The Kincaid brothers were typical men. They liked to drink and fight and swear with the best of them, but Leland knew he would have to make things right with his brothers.
He had missed them all much more than he had previously admitted to himself. Now that his dad had made him Alpha, Leland wanted to prove to his brothers that he deserved to be their leader. As different as they could be, Leland had a deep respect for all of them. Cyrus with his independent streak. Buck and his constant loyalty. Jessie with that free-spirited aggression.
They were all good men, and a good Alpha could bring out the best in the bears who followed him. Leland didn’t know it until right that very minute, but being the kind of bear who deserved the title of Alpha and the respect of his brothers was everything he had ever wanted out of life. Except for maybe a mate, but that was another thing entirely.
Working full time as the manager of a cattle ranch in Texas had kept him busy. He didn’t have time for love and often didn’t even have time for friendship. While a lot of the other cowboys on the ranch were settling down, Leland had never found a woman of his own. No matter how much he wanted to see the light in his mate’s eyes when he provided for her every need and made her feel like the most beautiful lady on the planet, he couldn’t possibly do that until he found the one.
As he drifted off to sleep, Leland imagined the kind of girl who would be his one and only. He’d imagined her face as he had before many times, as he drifted off to sleep at night. He would think about the delicious curves of her body and the way she would smile at him when she felt proud of him. He let out a deep, rumbling growl at the same time as the grizzly inside his mind, before turning on his side and pulling the quilt up over his shoulder.
Usually, the idea of his mate was soothing to him, but tonight it was just making him more agitated. Leland was used to responsibility, but what had fallen on his shoulders today was beyond anything he had ever taken on before. He had a herd of sick cows and a ranch that was in trouble of going under. The worst part was he couldn’t make heads or tails of his dad’s financial situation. That made him incredibly uncomfortable. Not even the idea of his beautiful bride could soothe the discomfort.
He tried to clear his mind as the grizzly inside him curled up and grumbled behind his eyes. He needed a good night’s sleep if he was going to get a fresh start tomorrow morning. He had to dig deeper into his father’s financial mess and come up with a workable solution.
He also planned to talk to his brothers and try to make peace with Buck. Leland needed Buck on his side more than anything, since his brother was currently running the most profitable aspect of the ranch from what he could tell so far. Leland knew he could depend on Buck. He knew Jessie would always be around to help here and there, but Buck was the one Leland needed on his side, now more than ever. Unfortunately, Buck did not seem very open to rekindling their former brotherly relationship.
Leland drifted off into a fitful sleep and woke the next morning feeling cranky and hung over, even though he’d only had a few drinks the night before. He climbed out of bed, his inner bear demanding coffee. He grumbled
as he trudged down the hallway, blurry eyed and scratching his behind underneath his boxer shorts. Down in the kitchen, he found a ten-pound sack of coffee in the pantry and proceeded to make a pot in the coffee maker. It was going to be a long damn day. He already dreaded diving back into his dad’s paperwork and considered hiring a lawyer or a financial consultant to go through it for him.
As he was taking the first sips of his morning coffee and staring out the kitchen window at the slope that looked out on the northern pasture down to the river, the landline phone rang in the kitchen. He grabbed the phone and greeted whoever was on the other side.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Kincaid?” said the male voice on the other side.
“This is Leland Kincaid.”
“Hello, my name is Jim Huffman. I’m an auditor.”
Oh boy, here it comes.
“Yes? What is this regarding?”
“Leland Kincaid,” Jim continued. “You are the son of Hank Kincaid, and the new majority shareholder in Timber Bear Ranch, correct?”
“That is correct, as of yesterday,” Leland said, taking another sip of coffee.
These people moved fast.
“We’re freezing all of your father’s assets as of this morning.”
“You can’t just do that without warning,” Leland objected, not sure his father even had any assets.
“You are lucky we don’t freeze yours as well. Your father’s debt now belongs to you as the executor of his estate and majority shareholder of his corporation. We are sending an auditor to the ranch to determine exactly what you owe.”
Chapter 5
Sylvia prepared herself for work Monday morning and dropped a red lipstick into her purse before leaving the house. She doubted it would have made a difference on her previous date, but at least next time she would be prepared for her own sake. When she made it to the office, she grabbed a cup of coffee from the break room and sat at her desk. Sliding her horn-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose, Sylvia jiggled her mouse and woke up her computer. She checked her schedule, and for notices from her supervisors.
Boss Bear Page 2
