you for offering to drive her. I don’t want her going to the ranch alone.”
Taylor shifted her course toward the calves. The babies were growing fast, and she was almost as good at feeding them now as Jancey was. “Do you think there’ll be trouble?”
He let out a snort. “I know there will be if Jancey goes to the main ranch and tells off Miranda.”
“Ah. I’m supposed to keep that from happening?”
He smiled down at her. “If you did, I’d be grateful.” He leaned his arms on the top rail of the calf pen. “Jancey has a lot of fight in her, and I think it would be best if she didn’t tangle with Miranda right now.”
“Let things cool for a bit.”
“Yeah.”
“So that you can do the tangling?” He didn’t answer, and Taylor bumped her shoulder up against his.
He turned and smiled down at her. “I plead the fifth.”
“Yeah.” She captured his face between her hands and kissed him. This thing they shared…she liked it. She was comfortable with it, and after dissecting the matter late last night when the wind was leaking through the loose windows and the critters under the bunkhouse were particularly active, she decided that it was because they understood one another. He knew her goals, she knew his. They were comfortable with sharing the time they had. A rare thing and special thing, one she would treasure as life went on and their paths eventually diverged.
* * *
SHE AND JANCEY left for the ranch at the same time Cole headed off to Missoula. She followed his truck down the highway until he entered the freeway and she continued on to the Bryan Ranch. When they got to the place, Jancey’s friend Matt was there, throwing hay to the horses.
“He’s taken over feeding for me,” Jancey explained to Taylor. “He has fence duty, so he can work it into his schedule without going out of his way.” She gave a small shrug. “I can pay him a little more than I thought I could, too, because I’ll make more working at Culver’s.”
Jancey crossed the drive to speak with her friend while Taylor opened the SUV’s hatch and laid the back seat down to make more cargo space. Then she hauled the empty boxes they’d brought onto the porch. The house was locked, so she sat in one of the weathered rocking chairs and surveyed Cole’s beautiful property while she waited for Jancey to finish her conversation.
Once Matt got on his ATV to head back to the guest ranch, she and Jancey got into the house, and Jancey started dumping the contents of her dresser into black trash bags. The clothes hanging in the closet were doubled over and also stuffed into bags, hangers and all. She cleaned out the small bathroom, loading the boxes, and then stacked the books on the shelf by her bed into the last box.
“I think this is it for now.” She propped her hands on her hips and looked around the room. “I’ll get the rest later, if I need it.”
Taylor gave her a sympathetic nod, then grabbed one of the heavy trash bags and headed for the SUV. They’d just finished loading when the sound of an engine brought their heads up.
“Shit.”
A small open Jeep rounded the corner, an auburn-haired woman at the wheel. She pulled to a stop in front of the SUV, as if to block its exit. Fine. Taylor would back the vehicle onto the lawn if she had to.
Miranda got out and pulled off a pair of driving gloves as she walked toward them. “Moving out?”
“I am,” Jancey said with an upward tilt of her chin. “I got a job. It pays more than the job you messed up for me, and I’m working for people who know exactly what kind of a person you are, because I told them.”
Taylor sucked in a breath, but before she could intercede, Miranda asked, “What about your horses and cattle?”
“I’ve hired someone to feed them.”
“Ah. Of course. Well.” Miranda smiled a bone-chilling smile. “Good luck with the future, Jancey. I’m sure it’ll be bright.”
“No thanks to you.” Jancey gave Miranda a cool look. “Have you heard the term ‘cut off your nose to spite your face’?”
Taylor frowned at Jancey’s use of a phrase that she hadn’t heard since her grandmother had died. Miranda didn’t seem to notice. She merely lifted her eyebrows in a silent invitation to continue.
“That’s what I’m going to do. I’ll tell anyone who will listen not to stay at this place. It might hurt me, but I hope it hurts you more. Social media is a wonderful thing, Aunt Miranda.”
The woman’s face turned to ice, and Taylor took hold of Jancey’s arm, intent on getting her out of there before more damage was done.
“We’re leaving,” she said to Miranda. “Cole wanted me to tell you to stay out of his house. He means it.”
She got Jancey into the SUV without any more salvos being fired.
“Mission so not accomplished.” She gave Jancey a dark sidelong look. “What you just did was what I was supposed to prevent.”
“Sorry,” Jancey said, but it was obvious she was not.
“I understand why you did it.” The woman had screwed with Jancey’s life and Jancey very much wanted to do the same to her. “But maybe pouring gas on the matter isn’t the best solution.”
Jancey let out a huff of air. “There is no solution, so I settled for a moment of satisfaction.”
Taylor slowed as she crossed the cattle guard, then gave Jancey a quick glance. “Cut off your nose to spite your face?”
“We had to do an English paper on idioms,” Jancey said on a sigh. “Damn it. That woman…”
Her voice trailed off, and Taylor hoped Jancey standing up to Miranda wouldn’t cause that woman to seek yet another path of petty revenge.
Later that evening, when Cole got back from Missoula, they walked the perimeter of the smallest field and Taylor told him about the confrontation.
“No way to keep it from happening,” she said in conclusion.
“Yeah. I get it.” Cole pulled a long weed as they walked and tossed it aside. “I just wanted you to keep her from going to the main office and telling off Miranda. Nothing you could do about Miranda showing up.” He gave a small snort. “Which she did just to upset Jancey.”
“The woman is a classic bully,” Taylor mused. “You can’t reason with bullies.”
“No kidding,” Cole muttered.
“Have you ever considered selling the place?” The thought had worked its way into her head a number of times that day. Cole’s expression darkened. “Okay. No.”
He shook his head, his mouth flattening. “I won’t sell. She won’t win.”
“Sometimes winning isn’t all that great if it eats your soul in the process.” He looked down at
