style="font-size:15px;"> He hesitated only for a moment. “Deal.” Then he held out his hand for a shake.
“Really?” With what he was offering her, she’d be able to open that dress shop in time for the Christmas rush.
“Absolutely. I’d need you to live in, but you’d have a private room and bath. And it’s only for a couple of weeks.” He tilted his head and arched a brow, his arm still extended to her.
She slipped her hand in his and gave it a shake, just as a couple of quacks sounded and a duckling scurried between them, followed by another.
“When do you want me to start?” she asked.
He glanced at the runaway ducklings, then tossed her a crooked grin. “Is now too soon?”
While the kids sat in the back of his crew-cab truck, cuddling their new rabbits and chattering to them in Spanish, Braden loaded the ranch supplies into the back. He’d just locked the tailgate when Paco Ramirez, the owner of the feed store, drove up in his white Chevy Tahoe.
Braden could say hello to the man and then take off and let Elena tell her father about the deal they’d just struck, but that hardly seemed fair. Besides, he wasn’t one to avoid conflict or to be rude to someone he normally did business with. So he headed over to Paco, who was just climbing out of his SUV, and extended his hand in greeting. “Hey, there. I hoped I’d see you this morning.”
“How’s that sprinkler system working out?” the older man asked.
“Great. That south pasture is looking pretty good now. Valley Ag Supply had it installed sooner than I expected.”
“Did you tell them I sent you?”
“I sure did. And they gave me a great deal. So thanks for the recommendation.”
“No problem,” Paco said. “When you’re ready to purchase those calves, I know a rancher about twenty miles north of Wexler who’s looking to sell.”
The older man might only be a small-town business owner, but he was a great source for referrals.
“Thanks,” Braden said. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Grandpa Miller had raised rodeo horses until his passing, and while Braden would continue to do so, now that the ranch was his, he wanted to expand and run some cattle, too.
He’d never expected to become a rancher. In fact, he hadn’t had plans to do anything other than to ride rodeo, like his grandpa Miller had. But when his grandfather first became sick last year, Braden had come home to help his mother with the ranch. And now that the ranch had become his... Well, he’d sort of fallen into the lifestyle. Not that he minded. He’d been raised for it, he supposed. And while he had the money to do whatever he wanted in life, he didn’t flaunt it.
Paco glanced into the truck bed. “What have you got there?”
“Cages for the two rabbits I just purchased.”
The feed store owner chuckled. “I take it that you met my daughter Elena. She suggested we run a special on the small animals. Ever since she was seventeen and we had our grand opening, she’s been a great saleswoman.”
“Yeah, well, I have two kids staying with me for the time being, and when they saw the bunnies on display, Elena didn’t have to do much hard selling. Although, come to think of it, I hadn’t realized a sale on rabbits would turn out to be nearly a hundred-dollar investment in cages and food and whatnot.”
“That’s my girl.” Paco lifted his John Deere cap off his head and ran a hand through his thinning dark hair. “I’ll have to give her a raise.”
Here was the opening Braden needed. But how did he go about telling Paco that he’d stolen his best employee away from him? Braden might not have his older brother’s business acumen, but he prided himself on being a straight shooter and an honest negotiator.
He supposed there was no other way than to just come out and say it.
“I hate to tell you this,” Braden said, “but I just convinced your daughter to jump ship. I offered her a better position.”
Instead of showing disappointment or raising his hackles, a slow grin slid across the store owner’s face. “As much as I hate to lose her, she’s a bright girl. I’m sure she’ll be an asset to your family’s corporation.”
Braden had never had anything to do with Rayburn Enterprises, his father’s business. And he’d never even wanted to. It was Jason who ran the business now.
“Actually,” Braden said, “I asked her to come and stay at the Bar M and be a temporary nanny for the kids.”
Elena’s father stiffened, and his grin morphed into that frown Braden had been expecting to see a moment earlier.
Paco was a good man, a family man with strict, cultural values. He probably had qualms about his daughter moving in with a single man at the Bar M, even if everything was aboveboard.
“She’ll have her own room,” Braden added. “And it’s just a temporary position.”
“Not that she isn’t good with kids, but my girl has her head and her heart focused on her future and she’s not easily swayed by smooth talkers or macho cowboys. How’d you manage to talk her into that?”
He’d bribed her, that’s how. He’d tempted her with more money than she could earn from her father in three months and then agreed to pay off her student loans—without even asking how much they were. Yet while his method might have made Charles Rayburn proud, something told Braden it wasn’t going to sit well with Paco Ramirez.
“I’m in a real bind,” he admitted. “And it’s just for three weeks. The kids staying with me don’t speak English. And with my Spanish being practically nonexistent, I’d be hard-pressed to order a beer with my dinner in Laredo on a Saturday night. So I need someone to help me look after them until my brother gets back to Texas.”
Paco took a look into the truck. Hadn’t he noticed the kids before? Had he thought Braden was pulling his leg?
“What’s Jason going to do with the kids?” the older man asked.
“Become their legal guardian, I suspect. We...uh...” He glanced in the cab, noting that the windows were up. While he knew the twins wouldn’t understand him anyway, Jason hadn’t talked about their situation in front of them—and Braden wouldn’t, either. “Apparently, my father had a secret family in Mexico. Beto and Maribel are my little brother and sister. Jason brought them to Brighton Valley, and I’m looking after them until he and Juliana get home from their business trip in Europe.”
Paco merely looked at Braden in awkward silence, as if this new twist in his paternal family’s notorious dysfunction was somewhat expected. Braden himself was a Rayburn bastard. He was used to the pitying looks the good people of Brighton Valley passed along to the unorthodox and ever-expanding brood of Charles Rayburn’s offspring by multiple women. Really, it should be no surprise that Elena’s father was too polite to voice his disapproval at the scandal.
So then why did he clench
