doing doughnuts in the field, showing off for the boys, and he’s gone and clipped the fence at the south pasture with his new SUV. Now we’ve got our randiest bulls mixing in with Mrs. Redfern’s cows, and you know how she gets about her dainty ladies. When I saw the dust from your tires, I left the boys working to deal with things and came here full tilt.”
Steven muttered something beneath his breath, a word Jackie was pretty certain he would never utter around his daughter. He looked at her and then at the house. And then back in the direction that Ben had come. She understood—he didn’t want to leave her here with his child while he tended to the emergency.
She probably should be angry, but after her lecture about leaving his child open to strangers, she could hardly be that.
“I’ll just wait in the truck,” she volunteered.
He didn’t stop to argue, just made sure she was in the seat before he shut the door, then hopped back in and raced across the field behind Ben.
“Thank you. I’m sorry.”
“Is there any danger?”
“Not really. Just the danger of my bulls taking advantage of Mrs. Redfern’s cows. Mrs. Redfern doesn’t approve of illicit mating of animals. She doesn’t have many cows, but the ones she has are considered pets and they’re all artificially inseminated. Not that she can stop nature, but…well, she has a point. My animals don’t have any business straying onto her land. It’s my concern if that happens. Not a neighborly way to be. If a man can’t control his own herd—or in this case, his own men—he doesn’t have any business being a rancher.”
“But you weren’t even here.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m in charge. I’m sure you feel that way about your business, too. Even though you’re gone, things have to run smoothly.”
For half a panicked second, Jackie worried about the fact that she had left Parris at the helm. She saw what Steven meant. But then he was pulling the truck to a sudden stop. There were horses tethered to another vehicle.
“I have to ride from here. Mrs. Redfern is a purist, so I can’t bring the vehicle onto her property unless we’re on the roads. Don’t get out of the truck,” Steven told Jackie.
Hot anger lurched through her. “I’m no danger to your ranch,” she told the man. “I don’t intend to sabotage you just because I don’t like you.”
He blinked at that. “I wasn’t worried about that. I just don’t want you getting hurt. Do you have any idea how much a full-grown bull or cow weighs?”
“A lot?”
He shook his head and smiled slightly. “Yes, a lot would be a good guess. And you’re a city girl. I don’t want you getting a broken foot, or worse. People might think I set you up to get rid of you.”
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