Page 50 of Roping Her In

Hailey really needed a new pair of boots. She only worked fifteen hours a week out on the ranch, but boy, she’d put miles and miles on her footwear.

“I think we’re okay,” Tyson Greene said to Jake as he shook the man’s hand. He smiled over to Hailey too, and ducked his cowboy hat in a proper Texas greeting. “My generators kicked in, and I’ve got cameras out here.”

They stood in his stables, where he had four horses wearing blankets, their heads hanging over the stalls.

“Can I?” she asked just as Ty’s wife, Winnie, slipped into the stable with their baby boy in her arms. They’d both bundled up against the cold spell still hanging over the Panhandle. The sun had come out this morning, however, but it only made everything glint with ultra-bright, white light.

“Sure,” Ty said at the same time Jake said, “Hailey’s an excellent intern. She’ll be making the rounds with me today to see how we do things here in town.”

“Yeah, we know Hailey,” Winnie said. “Do you guys want coffee?’

“I do,” Hailey said. “You’d think waking up with six men in the building that one of them would know how to make coffee.” She grinned at Ty and Winnie, and shook her head in mock sadness. “But nope.”

“Hey,” Jake said playfully. “I’ve made you great coffee.”

Hailey grinned at him before she remembered they weren’t alone. She sucked in a breath as she swung her attention back to Ty and Winnie, who both wore expressions of surprise, with maybe some delight mixed in there.

“Hailey and I are dating,” Jake said. Just like that. Out loud. No throat-clearing or anything, and Hailey could admit she liked that.

“Are you now?” Ty asked, his eyes narrowing slightly at Jake.

Hailey took the opportunity to slip away from them, as they clearly knew one another in a way she didn’t. Ty had a nice facility, where the heat blew in—and she was sure this stable would be air conditioned once the brutal summer temperatures arrived too—and his horses wore nice blankets.

Their straw had stayed dry, and Hailey simply took a few moments with each one, running her hands down their necks, and their backs, and their flanks. She didn’t find a single problem with any of them, and she returned to where Jake still spoke with Ty and Winnie.

“What did you name him?” she asked as she peered at the beautiful baby in Winnie’s arms.

“Grant,” Winnie said, her face filled with motherly love. She looked at Hailey and smiled, and something friendly passed between them. “Thanks so much for coming out, Hailey.”

“Sure,” she said. “We’re really close to you guys.”

“We’re one of the furthest out,” Ty said. “Are you stopping at Henry’s? He said he could use some help, but I don’t know if Smiles or Bev or Thad made it out there yesterday.”

“I can’t imagine Smiles did,” Jake said. “Shiloh Ridge was covered in ice. They got hit worse down south.”

“Yeah,” Hailey said. “I got over one hundred pictures yesterday.” She’d stayed at Three Rivers, though, and helped get things cleaned up there. Two more cows had given birth to their calves, as they didn’t care about a severe winter storm passing through, and everyone had then used the sunshine and shovels to get walkways clear.

Other than a few power lines that had been pulled down, along with some now-sagging barbed wire, the ranch had escaped the worst of the ice damage. Shiloh Ridge, on the other hand, seemed to have problems everywhere, from bent metal on the roof of the pig sty, to downed power lines, frozen troughs, bowed fence rails, and wet conditions everywhere.

“We’re stopping at Henry’s,” Hailey said. “And then we’ll check on Alex at Coyote Pass, and then Finn and Edith.” She smiled at Ty and Winnie, already tired and they’d barely started their work for the day. At the same time, excitement coursed through her, making her poor night of sleep from the ice storm fade.

She went with Winnie and took her coffee to go in her thermos, and then she got in the passenger seat of Jake’s truck. He aimed them down the highway toward Three Rivers, and Hailey sighed happily.

“Have you been to Henry’s place?” Jake asked.

“Nope.” She glanced over to him. “I’ve just driven this road a lot, and I always love passing Ty’s place. It tells me I’m almost home.”

Jake reached over and took her hand in his. “You love Three Rivers.” He wasn’t asking, and Hailey noticed he did that quite often, as if he could hear what she was saying without her using the exact words.

“I do,” she said. “Do you really think I’ll be able to get a job here once I’m done with my certification?”

A half-laugh, half-scoff dropped out of his mouth. “Of course I do, Hay. You should hear what people say about you.”

She didn’t want to hear that, actually. “You’ll still write me a letter of recommendation, won’t you?”

He grinned and lifted her hand to his lips, where he pressed a kiss against her palm. “Yes, sweetheart, but I might not want to let you go.”

She blinked, sure she hadn’t heard him correctly. “You’d hire me at Three Rivers?”