by Jill Snow
Easier said than done. Her parents needed her here.
“I know you feel obliged to be with us and believe me, I don’t think I could have got through the past four years without you. But enough is enough. It’s time for you to be happy. To live the life you were meant to have.”
She sat closer to him as he hugged her to his chest. “I love you Ashley. Your mom does too.”
“I think we both know that’s not true dad. Kayleigh was always her favorite.”
“Kayleigh was your mom’s girl and you were always mine. But I loved your sister deeply. It’s the same for your mom and you. The next month will be difficult but after the anniversary I am going to speak to her. I want those shrines out of the house and I want your mom to start living her life again. We will never forget Kayleigh but she would be the first to kick our butts for letting life pass us by.”
Ashley couldn’t believe it was her dad talking. Just last weekend, he hadn’t said a word. Simply sat in his chair looking depressed.
“I know I haven’t been easy to live with lately darling. But that is going to change. I am going to try harder. I need to be your dad again and not someone you have to look after.” Her dad hugged her close. “Just be patient with me darling. It will not happen overnight.”
“Thanks dad. I love you.”
“I love you back. Now come on inside.”
Ashley stood up, gathering her shoes in one hand and holding her dad’s hand they walked back to the house.
Chapter 6
The next morning, Adam woke with muscles he never knew he had, every single one aching more than the first. He walked slowly into the breakfast area where Loretta greeted him with a knowing smile.
“First day’s hard labor causing you problems?”
“Not at all. I am perfectly fine,” he replied through gritted teeth, making the housekeeper laugh.
“You will get used to it. It’s been a long time since you did any fetching and carrying, I imagine.”
He couldn’t disagree. He didn’t even move his drum set nowadays as there were runners to do that. The memory of what it had been like in the early days with him dragging his drums around to gigs, hefting them up the back stairs of Whelan’s pub in Georges Street. He had been physically fit and excited in those days, before they became famous enough to be mobbed everywhere they went. Back when it was fun to be in a band.
“You ready to eat or do you just want to stand there all day?”
“Can I eat standing up?”
Loretta giggled. “I saw your attempts at learning to ride. Just how many times did you land on your butt? I don’t think I’ve laughed that much in a long time.”
“Glad I provided you with some amusement,” he said, but he smiled to show her he would have found it amusing, too, if he hadn’t been the one that kept hitting the ground.
“You will be fine today. Ashley is a great teacher. Plenty of patience, too. Good thing as she needs it in this job. Okay, your breakfast is getting cold. Ashley will be here soon to round you up for the next set of chores.”
Adam wasn’t sure if his body was up to more chores, even if it did mean seeing Ashley again.
Ashley found Mack out in the stables. He looked up as she walked in.
“Morning, Mack, sorry I’m late.”
“I think I would die of surprise if you arrived on time.”
“Thanks a lot, boss,” she replied.
“Only teasing, you know that. Want the good news or the bad news?”
“The good.”
“We need to check the herd. Boss heard rumors flying around town that someone is rustling cattle from the ranches up north. Sent me one of his emails this morning. Wants every animal checked.” Mack rolled his eyes, causing Ashley to smile.
Not only did he hate computers, but he didn’t have much time for his absentee boss either. Ward was an investor, not a rancher. If truth were known, he probably didn’t know a steer from a milk cow.
Not that he’d ever admit that. He liked dressing up in cowboy boots and a hat for the ads for his various ranches. He had a whole string of them across the country. Ashley had never spoken to him. He didn’t mix with the staff. He issued orders through Mack. She knew the foreman only did what he thought was right. The rest he ignored, like the time the boss thought they should invest in sheep. Mack would have walked out rather than babysit a load of sheep, as he put it.
“Cattle rustlers? Is he serious” she asked, a feeling of dread coming over her. If they took the cattle what would happen to the ranch? Would her life be turned over again? She needed this job. She wasn’t sure she could start over next time.
“I haven’t heard anything. Have you?”
“No.” But then she wasn’t likely to. Her parents’ herd had been wiped out some years back. No point in paying attention to news like that. It always came too late.
“Guess we’ll have to check them,” Mack growled.
Ashley knew he hated wasting time and he had more on his plate than usual. They were short on hands—well, experienced ones, that was. The boss thought their guests could make up the slack but most of them knew less than he did about the ranching business.
“Sure thing. Are we bringing any of the guests?” she asked.
Mack rolled his eyes. “That’s the bad news. You got to take the two new guys.” Like Ashley, Mack needed this job. The pay was good and for Mack, it came with a nice house for his wife. Charity McDonough was confined to a wheelchair following an accident with a horse. No longer able to ride, she loved watching the horses every day. It would break her heart to leave.
“Seriously?” How was she supposed to check the entire herd with two greenhorns for company?
“Yes, Adam and Tyler.”
She sighed but didn’t complain. There was no point. Mack didn’t have any choice. He had to do as he was told, just as she did.
“I am sorry Ashley. I don’t mean to land you with them but I got so much on my plate. I know you will have to take it slow as they can’t be expert riders even with you as a trainer.”
She smiled at his praise while thinking of Adam falling on his butt. “It’s okay. I’ll go fix up their horses and meet you back at the house. Mack, sorry about this morning.”
“Ashley, forget it. What the boss doesn’t know can’t worry him. You do more work in the hours you are here than most do in the day.”
Glowing from the praise, she picked out two relatively tame horses, saddled them, and, riding her own, led them back to the main house. Their guests were waiting.
Chapter 7
Ashley waited until both Tyler and Adam were mounted. She was surprised at how much Tyler had learned yesterday even though he didn’t seem like he’d been paying attention. Adam was doing well, too. He looked good on a horse.
“Come on, you two. We got work to do and we’re running late,” she called to them.
“Sorry,” Adam replied.
Tyler didn’t respond. She didn’t acknowledge either of them and instead let Devil run. The stallion took off quickly. She debated for a second whether to wait for the other two or let them catch up. Greybird and Snowy delighted in running fast, too. Adam looked to be enjoying himself while Tyler was holding onto the reins too tightly.
“Loosen up, Tyler, or you’ll hurt her mouth.”
“How do you slow her down then?” he asked.
“You can do it like this.” She showed him with her own reins. “Like we went over yesterday. Just be kind…if that’s possible.” She muttered that last part, sure he hadn’t heard her. She couldn’t afford for one of their guests to make a complaint to Ward. He only put up with a female ranch hand on Mack’s word. He made it clear he believed the work could only be done by a man.
She slowed Devil, allowing Greybird to catch up, and then Adam on Snowy came next.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to delay you guys,” Adam said while running his hand softly over Snowy’s mane.
“We’re almost there,” Ashley said, not ac
knowledging his apology. “We’ll leave the horses by the river under the shade and head out on foot.”
“To where? All I can see are cows,” Tyler said.
“If you see cows you need your eyes tested. That is a beef herd. We’re going to count every one of them before we go home.”
“There are thousands of them,” Tyler balked.
“Hardly. There’s between fifty to eighty in this area. The rest of the herd are on the northern side. We’ll check those tomorrow.” Ashley dismounted and walked her horse to the river. Adam followed suit, but Tyler jumped off and headed to the shade to drink from his canteen.
“Tyler, animal first then human,” Ashley instructed.
“What? I’m thirsty.”
“A good cowboy always looks after his horse first.”
“Yeah, well, I told you. I’m not a cowboy.”
Ashley whistled. Adam watched in amazement as the horse Tyler had been riding walked over to her and nudged her arm as if to say “hi”. She patted her down before she brought her to the river to drink. Then she led both horses to the trees.
Adam followed. “Do we need to tie them up?”
“No, not today. The horses are well trained. They’ll stay here.”
“You’re the boss.”
He caught the look she gave him and smiled, hoping to dispel any thoughts she had of him being sarcastic.
She didn’t smile back but her eyes were back to sapphire blue. With her strawberry blonde hair, she was a remarkable-looking woman. Not beautiful, but arresting. He wondered again if she was dating anyone. He quickly told himself to stop it. Looking for love had landed him in enough trouble. Tyler ignored her advice and tied Greybird to a tree.
“You heard what Ashley said. We don’t need to tie them up.”
“She can do what she likes, but I’m not walking back to the ranch if the horses run off. Least this way, she can’t go anywhere.”
Ashley didn’t seem to notice the horse was tied up, so he didn’t feel right telling her. It was too much like tattling at school.
“What are we looking for?” he asked.
“Pardon?”
“You said we had to check the herd. So I wondered what we need to look out for? I’m rather like Tyler. I wouldn’t know a male cow from a female one.”
She giggled.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I know I sound like an idiot but where I come from, milk comes in plastic containers.”
“If you tried to milk a bull, you would learn quite quickly.” What she said next shocked him. “For what it’s worth, you don’t seem a bit like Tyler.”
She was gone before he could react. He saw her walk a bit farther along the stream before she refilled her canteen. He followed suit.
“The boss heard rumors that there may be cattle rustlers around. We, along with Seth, will check all the cattle are accounted for.”
Adam looked around but couldn’t see another man.
“Who?”
Ashley whistled but it was a different one to the one she used with the horses. In seconds, a blur of black and white came racing toward them and bounded into Ashley’s arms.
“This is Seth. He’s the best cowboy on the ranch.”
“He’s a dog,” Tyler said dismissively.
“He is, but worth more than most humans.” Her look clearly consigned Tyler to the worthless humans.
Adam stepped forward.
“Careful, Seth is fabulous but he isn’t keen on strangers.”
Adam didn’t say a word but held out his hand to the dog. Seth sniffed it before Adam moved it to tickle the dog behind his ears. He caught the look of surprise in her eyes.
“I love dogs. I have two at home. At least my mam has two. I miss them.”
She didn’t respond but when she let Seth down, the dog jumped up at Adam. He bent to ruffle his ears.
Then she whistled again. At once Seth was on guard beside her.
“Come on, Seth. We have work to do.”
“Wait. Why can’t we count them when we are riding? You can’t possibly expect us to walk in there.” Tyler pointed at the herd, his fear evident on his face.
“They won’t hurt you. You just need to approach each animal slowly. Don’t do anything hastily and don’t run. For any reason. I want you to check each animal in case any were hurt. If you have any doubts, just call me and I will check them over.”
Tyler didn’t look reassured. Adam just wanted to get it over with. He walked faster to catch up to Ashley. If he were honest, he wanted to keep her eyes sapphire and not the cold grey they had turned to whenever she’d glanced in his direction previously.
Chapter 8
The work wasn’t as unpleasant as he thought. So long as he watched where he moved, he was okay. Which was better than Tyler, who had slipped and landed almost face first in a cow pie. It didn’t do anything to improve his companion’s mood. He was furious Ashley wouldn’t let him smoke and kept moaning about it. Adam kept his distance. He had no intention of spending more time with Tyler than absolutely necessary.
When they had checked about thirty animals, the foreman, Mack, arrived.
“How’s it looking Ashley? Any signs?”
“No, thank goodness. Looks like a false alarm.”
“Good. I thought you guys might be hungry so I brought lunch out to you rather than wasting time by trekking back to the lodge.”
“Good idea,” she said. “We are a bit behind so this’ll give us a chance to get finished up today.”
“This is slave labor. I demand a proper break,” Tyler whined.
“You can demand all you like, son, but ain’t nobody going to listen to you,” Mack said. “Back in my day, if you got caught doing something as stupid as you have, you would be inside a cell. Where you belong. Now quit your whining and get on with it. We aren’t asking you to do anything Ashley and I don’t do. Every. Day. Of. The. Year.”
Tyler stalked off, a surly expression on his face. Adam had to hide a smile as the muck he fell in earlier fell off his clothes. His smile disappeared as Mack turned his eagle eyes onto him.
“You feel the same as your friend?”
“No, sir.”
“At least one of you seems to have your head screwed on straight. Okay, let’s go wash up and eat.”
Adam looked around for a tap—he couldn’t help himself. Then he saw them heading for the river. He hoped they hadn’t noticed. He moved quickly to catch up with them.
The lunch was delicious, but he guessed after the hard work of the morning, anything would have tasted good, even Caitlin’s cooking. He wondered how his little sister was doing. He hadn’t heard anything since her letter telling him she hated him for making their mam cry.
“You did this type of work before?” the foreman asked him.
“No, sir. I grew up in a city.”
“In Ireland, right? I can’t place your accent other than to know it’s Irish.”
“Yes, sir. I grew up in Dublin, the capital.”
“Where they bring milk in plastic containers,” Ashley piped up. Lord above, but she actually smiled at him. He couldn’t have been more stunned if the cattle had started singing his latest hit. He’d been wrong before; she was beautiful. When she smiled, her whole face lit up.
“Is he catching on?” Mack asked Ashley.
“In fairness, he’s not bad for a city boy. Least he makes an effort.”
Adam saw her glance at Tyler who was still sulking as he smoked.
“Want a bet?”
“Nope, Mack. You always win,” she replied.
“Ah, go on. You have the upper hand this time.” Mack’s eyes sparkled as he challenged Ashley.
“What are you betting on?” Adam asked.
“It’s for fun, really. We sometimes bet how long a newbie will survive on the ranch. Whoever loses buys the first round at the monthly staff happy hour.”
“Yeah, real fun. Mack always wins,” Ashley said but she didn’t seem put out. In fact, the look
she gave Mack told Adam she adored the older man. He wondered if they were related.
“So how are my odds looking?” he asked, wanting to know what she thought of him yet despising himself for caring at the same time.
“You shouldn’t be involved in this conversation,” Ashley said primly.
“You brought it up,” he retorted.
“Actually I did, and from where I’m looking, I think your chances are higher than your friend over there,” Mack said.
“Will you quit calling him that? I don’t know him from the back of a bus. He just happened to be standing outside when I got here.” Adam knew he was being ornery but it irritated the heck out of him being grouped with Tyler all the time.
“Okay, put your shirt back on, son. I can see that despite the fact you both landed here for similar reasons, you seem to be different.”
Adam couldn’t say anything, could he? Mack was right. Regardless of what he knew, in their eyes, he was there for the same reasons as Tyler. Both of them were suspected of drug offenses.
“Is it just me and Tyler here or are there others?” he asked quietly.
“There’s about ten of you in total. Bill and Henry have the others on barn repair duty. We thought we’d break you guys in gently.”
Adam sensed Mack was being sarcastic, maybe even testing him to see if he would react. He didn’t. He had some honor left. He had to make restitution for the grief his choice in girlfriend had cost everyone, not least of all his family.
Chapter 9
Soon Ashley whistled again and they were back to work. This time, Adam was more sure of what he was doing. The cattle didn’t seem to care what he did so long as he didn’t stop them from munching. He looked up at one point to see Ashley patting one of the animals like you would a dog. He wondered if she had names for all of them. That would be rather silly, seeing as they were being reared for meat.
His eyes wandered to her a few times as he worked. She had no right looking as good as she did in jeans and a shirt. He found himself imagining her dressed up to go to one of his gigs. Then he closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he’d be allowed another gig ever again. His brothers had told him they were done with him.
