“The lawyer said that you’d been helping my grandmother out with running the place. He said I should talk to you if I had any questions.”
“Good advice.” Chet crossed his arms over his chest.
“So?” she said. “What’s the first step?”
“Your grandmother—rest her soul—sold off most of her cattle at auction a couple of years ago. That was her version of retirement. No ranch hands, no employees and just a handful of cows she could care for on her own. But you can’t keep this place going on fifteen head. You’ll need a good herd and some ranch hands who know what they’re doing, and you’ll have to be careful with that. If they think you don’t know squat about running this place, they’ll take advantage.”
Ranch hands were the least of her worries right now. Was he going to try to scare her off running this place on her own? No one had been more shocked than she’d been when she inherited this place. If anyone was going to get it, it should have been her father, and that fact had been rubbing at her conscience ever since the lawyer had called. She was the least qualified member of the family to inherit the biggest responsibility, and this was already affecting her relationship with her dad. She scuffed a boot in the dirt, her mind sifting through Chet’s words. She had no idea how she’d get this ranch rolling again, and right now she felt most thoroughly beaten. “In the meantime, what do I do?”
“Chores in the morning, chores at night. In between that, you fix everything that keeps breaking.” He glanced through the barn. “Looks like you got the cows in all right.”
The cows had taken care of themselves, trotting inside without a word from her when she opened the back barn door.
“I understand you’ve been paid for your time out of the estate,” Mackenzie said.
He nodded, silent.
“And you know how to run this place better than I do,” she went on. “I’m not sure what you’d want to be paid, but—”
“I don’t want to be paid.” He let the words hang in the air, then turned and walked back toward the fence. His boots clunked against the dry ground, and he lifted his hat and resettled it on his head without once looking back. She knew what he was after. He wanted to buy this place and send her packing. Still, he’d had a point about being taken advantage of by employees, something she hadn’t even thought of. She needed help.
“Chet!” she called.
He paused and finally looked back at her. “Yeah?”
She’d make him say it. She’d make him offer to buy the place, turn him down flat and get that out of the way. “So what do you want, then?”
“To be asked.” There wasn’t a hint of humor in his expression.
She blinked. That wasn’t what she’d expected. “Fine. I’m asking.”
“The whole thing.” He crossed his arms, meeting her gaze evenly.
Mackenzie muttered an oath under her breath and closed the distance between them. Was his plan to prove to her how little she knew about managing a ranch? If it was, then she’d just have to prove him wrong—learn everything she could from this frustrating man in spite of his reticence.
“Chet Granger,” she said with a resigned sigh, “would you be so kind as to help me with the running of this place until I can figure out what to do with it?”
“What do you mean, what you’re going to do with it?” he asked.
There it was. She’d piqued his interest. Maybe her father would want to buy her out, although besides being deeply hurt that his own mother had cut him out of the will, he hadn’t shown a lot of interest in this place.
“Obviously, I can run it or sell it. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet.”
“But you want to run it?” he clarified.
She nodded. “That was the plan.”
She had a lot of regrets that needed plowing over. She wanted a fresh start, and a ranch didn’t land in a girl’s lap every day. This seemed like the kind of thing she should take advantage of. She was hoping that her father could forgive this eventually—but if she were honest with herself, the philanderer had a little karma due.
“All right.” He fixed her with a direct stare. “But I put my ranch first. I help you out after I’m done with my own land.”
“Fair enough.” She held out her hand and he took it in his strong, rough grasp.
“I’ll come by after my chores are done in the morning.” He released her fingers, tipped his hat and then bent down to ease his body between the fence rails once more. Once he was on his side of the property, he added, “And I’m not doing the work for you. I’m teaching you how to do it yourself. But I’ll help you out for a bit while you build up the stamina. It’s harder than it looks.”
“Do you really think I’m searching for a man to take care of little ole me?” she asked wryly.
“Just being clear.”
“I’m not looking to get free labor out of you, Chet,” she said. “And I’ll pay you for your time. I won’t have it any other way.”
If she’d had anyone else to ask, she would have, but Mackenzie didn’t know anyone around here but the Grangers. When Andy broke up with her, he’d told her enough to make it clear that Chet had been at the core of it. She’d always sensed that Chet had never thought she was anything more than a city slicker, and he’d never approved of her wasting Andy’s time when he should have been thinking about more serious things like animal husbandry and crops.
Andy hadn’t cared about the ranch the way Chet had, and that had always chafed between the brothers, but she’d never thought that Chet would go so far as to break them up. That was a low blow—lower than she’d thought Chet was capable of. But then, her father had proven himself even lower, so perhaps she shouldn’t have been surprised.
Chet gave her a nod. “Good to see you again, Mack,” he said. “You look good.”
Then he turned toward his own property and walked across the field with that slow, rolling gait of his. She heaved a sigh. She needed to figure out how to run this ranch on her own or sell it to anyone but a Granger. And being beholden to Chet wasn’t even an option.
* * *
CHET’S SIDE KITCHEN window overlooked the field that separated his property from Mackenzie’s, and he stopped in front of the sink, casting his gaze over there in spite of himself. He pulled his eyes away and slammed a kitchen cupboard just to hear the satisfying bang.
Mackenzie Vaughn was back.
He hadn’t been sure if she would actually come and take possession of the ranch or sell it without setting foot on it again. Of course, he’d hoped for another chance to see her, but he’d never understood Mack very well. She’d been pretty and tomboyish with long blond hair and even longer legs. She hadn’t changed much in the past decade, apparently.
He’d thought the years had washed away the memory of her, especially when Chet took over the running
