a seat at the table with Trish and Kate.
“Reconnected?” Jake asked, and chuckled. “More like she was as surprised to see me as I was to see her. I thought she’d still be barrel racing on the rodeo circuit. Last I knew, she was.”
Luke shrugged. “We finally talked her into visiting more often, but never for very long. Then this past February, she pulled in with her motor home and horse trailer, saying she needed a rest.”
“With no warning?” Jake asked.
“Not a word,” Dylan answered.
“And she’s driving us crazy,” Luke added. “We’re beginning to wish we hadn’t encouraged her to come home.”
Shaking his head, he smiled. “Sounds like Erin. She still have her horse? Firewind?”
“He’s gone. That’s all we know,” Luke answered. “She has a new one, though. She set up barrels in the spare corral and runs them almost every day.”
“But she isn’t happy,” Dylan said. “She needs something more to do to keep her busy.”
Jake didn’t doubt he could keep her busy, but not in the way they were thinking. He hoped her brothers had never learned of what happened that Thanksgiving weekend of his first year in college, when he’d come back to visit. They didn’t need to know just how close he and their sister had once been, not to mention how he’d ended it without warning and taken off, never planning to return again.
He shook his head and smiled. “I don’t see her taking up knitting any day soon.”
Luke laughed. “No kidding.”
Dylan glanced at Luke, before saying, “She could use a job.”
“Job?”
Luke nodded.
With a glimmer of an idea that might or might not work, he asked, “What kind of job?”
Dylan shrugged. “You know her. When it comes to horses and cattle, there’s not much she doesn’t know or can’t do.”
Jake nodded and hoped they’d never know about the things he knew Erin could do.
“From what she’s said,” Luke continued, “she’s spent some of her downtime on her friends’ ranches, helping out when needed. She’s even worked with some of the ropers, ‘refining their skills,’ she calls it.”
Dylan leaned closer. “Why are you asking?”
It was Jake’s turn to shrug. “I just wondered.”
“Are you looking for some ranch hands?”
Jake didn’t want to commit to anything. The chances of Erin accepting a job from him were slim, at best. Then there was the question of whether he wanted her working for him. There’d be battles. She was strong-minded and could be as stubborn as the day was long. But he couldn’t deny that she knew her way around livestock. She would be an asset.
“Maybe,” he answered. “Not that she’d take a job on my ranch.”
Luke and Dylan looked at each other, and Dylan said, “She might.”
Jake was still skeptical.
Luke shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. We understand what a pain she can be.”
Jake didn’t even try to curb his smile. “I guess she never grew out of that.” He was glad she still had the spunk she’d had when they were young. And although he suspected she’d never forgiven him for ending what had barely started, it obviously hadn’t kept her down.
“She has a good heart, though,” Dylan said. “After Pop and Mama died—”
“We appreciated the check you sent to the memorial fund, Jake,” Luke told him. “Your uncle, too.”
Jake nodded. “It was the least we could do. I remember when Uncle Carl called to tell me. I—” He swallowed hard at the memory and how he’d wished he could do something to comfort all of them. David and Ann Walker had treated him like one of their own. “I couldn’t imagine what you all were going through. They were great people.”
Both brothers nodded and were silent for a moment, and a shadow crossed Dylan’s face, before he spoke. “Did you know Erin postponed her rodeo career to stay home with us, until Luke graduated from high school?”
Jake shook his head but wasn’t surprised. She’d always been fiercely protective of the two of them. “I didn’t know, but that sounds just like her.”
“There’s nobody like Erin,” Dylan said.
After another brief pause, Luke put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “It really is good to see you. We all need to get together again.”
“Soon,” Jake answered.
“We’ll do that. And if you hear anything about a job for someone with Erin’s qualifications...”
“I’ll pass it on,” Jake promised.
As they moved away, he noticed that Erin had left the table where she’d been sitting with the others. After a quick glance around the tavern, he saw her. On the far side of the room, she stood with her hands braced on the old jukebox as she leaned forward to read the list of song titles. He felt a surge of heat shoot through his body but did his best to ignore it. He suspected she wouldn’t accept if he approached her about a job. She had a lot of pride, but she had a lot of talent, too. If he hired her it wouldn’t be because he wanted to try to repeat the past.
Or did he? He’d never forgotten her. Hardly a day had gone by that he hadn’t thought of her. Would it hurt to see if she would take the job? What did he have to lose? He’d already lost her, but maybe he could change that.
* * *
ERIN TOOK HER time at the jukebox. She needed to pull herself together. She’d never expected to see Jake Canfield again and wondered if he’d thought the same about her. When she saw him talking with Dusty McPherson and Morgan Rule, she made her way back to the table where Kate and Trish were sitting. She felt light-headed, weak at the knees. She had to stay as far away from Jake as possible until she could regain her equilibrium. Seeing him again had been a shock, and she hadn’t felt this vulnerable for a long time. She knew she could handle it, but she wished she didn’t have to. She had enough to deal with already.
“You always pick the best music, Erin,” Trish said, as she approached the table.
Pulling out the empty chair across from them, Erin settled on it. “There’s not a lot to do when you’re driving around the country from one place to another.”
“And we’re so glad you’re not doing that anymore and have come home,” Kate said.
Even though she’d been home for several months, Erin felt overwhelmed by all the things she still needed to catch up on. “I’ve missed so much. I guess that’s one of the drawbacks of having only brothers. They can rattle off every statistic to do with cattle and crops, but anything else must instantly vaporize
