style="font-size:15px;"> What had Grace been thinking when she’d agreed to help him? And she had agreed. He hadn’t missed that part. He might’ve missed hearing that she was glad to see him. Or that she’d thought about their night together. Or that she’d wanted to call him. But he really hadn’t wanted to hear any of that, did he?
A fist rapped against the closed window of the truck cab. He glimpsed Katie’s frown a second before she smacked a piece of paper against the glass.
Not just any piece of paper, but a delivery notice for one rabbit and four sheep. In bold print: no returns or refunds. The words mocked him. The notice also explained the invoice for twin sets of long-wool providers he’d found in Big E’s desk. Zoe hadn’t ordered wool bales, but purchased sheep for her new petting zoo. Clearly, he needed to look through the recent purchase invoices and translate Zoe’s handwritten notes on those as well.
Before he could respond, Katie smacked a second piece of paper against the window. Thankfully, not another delivery notice. But, the title, “How to Set Up a Petting Zoo Business,” drilled a hole in his stomach. As did the phrase liability insurance required, which she’d carefully highlighted in yellow.
Big E’s checking account dipped further into the red. They were out of time. They needed professional advice and they needed it last week. There was no time to find a substitute. Help would have to come from Grace.
He climbed out of his truck, yanking the delivery notice from Katie. Curse words banged around inside his mouth like popcorn kernels chipping his teeth, but he located his inner gentleman before he spewed any into the air. “We don’t have a place for these sheep.” He needed to chase down spare cash, not sheep, across forty acres.
Katie checked her watch. “You have two hours to figure something out.”
Ethan crumpled the delivery notice in his fist and lashed out. Each word pinged like a burned popcorn kernel. “What are you doing in the next two hours?”
“Locating a battery for the ATV and making sure all the linens are clean and accounted for.” Katie shoved her hands in her jeans pockets and tipped her chin toward the stalls. “The horses still need to be ridden. Butterscotch could use another walk or even some more attention.”
The mare had been a birthday present from the family to Ethan’s mother. After his mom had passed, Ethan had become the mare’s guardian, protecting the paint from Big E’s temperamental wives. Butterscotch hadn’t judged Ethan when he’d curled up in her stall more than once to give in to his grief. But he’d left for college and abandoned Butterscotch to Zoe’s whims. The mare deserved better. Ethan wouldn’t fail her now.
He dug his boot into the dirt, grinding the last of his temper into dust. “Sorry. It’s not you, it’s me.”
Katie punched him on the shoulder and grinned. “I didn’t know we had a thing.”
He laughed, but sobered quickly. “It just seems every day there’s something else. Something we aren’t aware of. Something we aren’t prepared for.”
“That’s the nature of ranch life.” She reached down and rubbed Hip behind her ears. Hippolyta was the Australian shepherd dog’s full name and she was Katie’s sidekick and one constant.
Lately, Ethan’s one constant seemed to be bankruptcy-induced worry. “No, that’s the nature of Big E’s current wife.” He frowned at the main house. Zoe’s extreme overspending had dismantled the past. The enormous guest lodge was the latest in a series of renovations to turn a working ranch into something from a movie set. There’d been nothing wrong with the Blackwell Ranch when his grandmother and parents had lived on the land. The original Blackwells had respected heritage. Bitterness replaced his frustration.
“We still have sheep arriving and nowhere to put them,” Katie said.
“I’ll figure it out.”
“And the insurance,” she prodded.
“That too.” Ethan stuffed the delivery notice into his back pocket, stuffing the pain and memories from the past away too. “Grace agreed to help us. If we can get the books straightened out, we can get people hired.”
“I hope she works fast.” Katie whistled to her dog and strode off toward the supply shed.
He did too. But not for the same reasons.
Ethan didn’t want to be around Grace for too long. What if he was tempted to have another thing with her? She was his ex-girlfriend’s little sister. There were rules about that and he’d already broken them once. That was more than enough.
He strode toward the barn. He’d walk Butterscotch and then hammer together a pen for the arriving sheep.
He needed to find a full-time job that paid, unlike the Blackwell Ranch, and was preferably in the equestrian world. If he wanted to rebuild his credit, he couldn’t default on his student loans too. He had yet to find a veterinarian that would look past his poor financial history and consider his skills. But he wasn’t deterred. He’d prove to his grandfather he could make it on his own. And if selling the Blackwell Ranch aided Ethan, all the better.
An hour later, Ethan ran water from the hose over his head. He had to cool off. Jamming his baseball cap back on his head, he went to meet the delivery truck rattling to a stop in the driveway. All too soon, Ethan understood why the truck arrived ahead of schedule.
Ethan greeted the driver and peered inside at the sheep. Behind them, he saw the Angora rabbit huddling against the back of its wire cage. The lack of wool across the rabbit’s back alarmed Ethan. There were many causes of alopecia, but until he knew the exact reason for the hair loss, he wasn’t putting the rabbit with the other petting zoo animals.
Animals had been Ethan’s companions since he’d been a toddler. He’d only required his mother’s Maine coon cat curled up next to him to fall asleep as a kid. As he grew, he’d spend hours outside, searching the creek for frogs, catching fireflies and climbing trees to peer at the baby birds in the nests. After his parents had died, his bond only deepened. Animals, he discovered, were simple to figure out: they loved without conditions. Never had hidden agendas. Only ever seemed to want his love and attention. The wounded, the scared and the rejected always tugged at those invisible heartstrings he didn’t want to admit to having. The pathetic rabbit tugged at those heartstrings now.
He sighed and signed off on the paperwork, bid the driver goodbye and frowned into the cage at the pure white rabbit. “Looks like we’re going to be sharing a cabin for a while, Coconut.”
Water bowl full, bath towels on the floor and an empty toilet paper roll stuffed with grass for Coconut’s entertainment, Ethan returned to the petting zoo. He had to add a steel gate to the pen for the sheep. With the last nail drilled into place, Ethan gripped the new part of the enclosure and tested its strength to make sure there wouldn’t be any escapees.
Katie approached, her boots kicking dirt and stones around her. “You can’t spend all your time on these animal pens. There were calves born last month that still need vaccinations and branding.”
“It’s hardly a waste since this is the new petting zoo.” Besides, he never considered protecting animals a waste of time. “We need a plumber and an electrician to finish. And last time I checked, I wasn’t certified in either.” The last time he’d tinkered with electricity had been in middle school and he’d blown more than the fuses that night. Big E had made him
