The Reluctant Texas Rancher

These two were beauties.

Mutts, to be sure, but gorgeous ones. Both fast and agile as could be.

“Meet Mud.” Travis pointed to the smaller one. He had a thick brown-white-and-black coat and looked to be part border collie, part beagle. “And Jet.” He indicated a glossy black Labrador retriever–German shepherd mix.

“Hey, fellas.” Liz smiled from her place in the saddle.

“I borrowed them from my parents’ ranch,” Travis said. “They’ve got about two dozen cattle dogs out there, so we can keep them as long as we want them. What brings you out here?”

“I was told you needed help moving cattle.”

His expression didn’t change in the slightest. Yet there was something in his gray eyes. Some small glimmer of bemusement …

Liz stifled a moan. “They knew you had the dogs helping you, didn’t they?”

Which made her assistance unnecessary, as there were only seventy-five mama cows, with fifty baby calves to date. A lot for Liz’s mom to handle on her own, but nothing for a cowhand as fit and experienced as Travis. Especially when he was accompanied by two well-trained herding dogs.

He shrugged lazily in response to her question. “Introductions were made. Plans announced.”

Liz bit down on an oath. “Tillie and my mom are matchmaking.”

“But not Faye Elizabeth.”

Liz shrugged. “Of all of us, she’s the one who worries the most. So, you take that, plus her past—growing up without a dad, losing her husband so quickly after they married then watching my mom lose hers—I just don’t think she can bear to see any of us experience that kind of heartbreak again.”

“Whereas Tillie …” Travis prodded.

“Is still deeply romantic.”

“And your mom?”

“Practical to a fault.” To the point Reba was angling to make Travis Liz’s baby daddy. But Travis didn’t need to know that.

His eyes gleamed. “I figured it was something like that.” Again, he wasn’t the least upset.

Liz swallowed. It didn’t matter how sexy he looked in the saddle with a cowboy hat pulled low over his brow. She was his lawyer; he was a ranch employee. Their agreement specified nothing about social activities between them. And for good reason. Their lives were already complicated enough.

Liz grabbed the reins and wheeled her horse around. “As long as I’m here, let’s get to it.”

The next hour was spent cutting the mama cows and their calves from the herd. While Jet and Mud ran back and forth, barking and chasing the cattle toward the gates, Travis and Liz sorted those with calves into pasture 62, the still-gestating cows into pasture 54.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.