Page 21 of The Cowboy Who Came Home
Daddy, who’d seemed so frazzled since the first rays of light had started to appear, who’d had his attention exclusively on his phone, slowed and focused solely on Finn. “Coyote Pass, huh?”
“Can we not make this a big deal? You know I’m texting her.”
“How’d they fare? Alex says the river came almost up to their stable.”
“Edith sent some pictures. It definitely looks worse than here—about like Pete’s backyard.”
“Wow.” He rolled his neck and then his shoulders. “Uh, yeah, you should go, but can we get through team and section assignments? And you’ll have to sign out with your team lead.” He thumped Finn in the chest. “And your mother.” He grinned, turned, and re-entered the room.
“Daddy,” Finn whined after him, but his father kept moving with the energy of someone who hadn’t been up all night. Finn leaned into the doorway of the room and watched as his father called everyone together.
“If he thinks having to clear it with Momma will stop me from going, he’s got another thing coming,” he muttered to himself. Then he caught sight of his mother, and she’d found Henry and Mike lounging on the bean bag and was currently getting them to their feet so they could go join the others.
Fine. Maybe his father was right.
“Finn,” Momma said, appearing in front of him somehow when he’d just been watching her. “Get in here. Your father is making teams and handing out assignments.”
“I know, Momma,” he said. “I just talked to him, and you know what? I can hear just fine from here.” He wasn’t anyone special here on the ranch, and he wouldn’t be a team leader. He’d be assigned to a crew, and he’d do whatever was required of him—and after spending an hour at the table with the drone, Finn knew how much work needed to be done.
But Edith had just as much, and as Finn looked at the twenty other cowboys in the room, he had the distinct impression that Three Rivers Ranch could spare him. And Edith, Alex, and Coyote Pass needed him.
Surely Momma wouldn’t be able to argue with that.
“Thanks, Beau,” Finn said a couple of excruciating hours later. “I’m going to be gone for a couple of hours, and I’ll check back in with you when I get back.”
Beau looked up from underneath his cowboy hat. He wore a long-sleeved shirt and a look of annoyance on his face. It melted away a moment later, and he said, “Sure. Let me know. I’m sure we’ll still be here, trying to get these ridiculous fences back up.”
“I’m sorry,” Finn said. “Two hours, tops. I just want to really see how things are at Coyote Pass. I don’t think they have a drone to see things the way we have here.”
“Pete’s letting you take it?”
Finn grinned as he pulled off his gloves. “I had to sign my life away, but yeah.” They both chuckled, and Finn took another look at the few men on his crew with Beau. Finn wasn’t stupid, and he knew his father had put him with the foreman purposely. He wanted Finn to feel ownership of the ranch, to want to run it one day.
Probably tomorrow.
He’d promised all of his kids that they had a place here on the ranch if they wanted it, and Libby would certainly come back here and run things out of the administration building, from the desk just inside the door. But Daddy had an office in the corner down the hall, and Momma ran all the finances.
Finn didn’t have an accounting degree, and while he could do math, he didn’t love it. He wasn’t sure how he’d feel in the corner office, as he’d spent the last ten years in the military in an office role, and he’d thrived there. He’d enjoyed it, even. But it wasn’t ranching, and he wasn’t even sure how his father filled his day.
He knew what cowboys like Beau and Cal did, and that definitely seemed more like something he could spend his life doing.
Here?
The thought came unbidden to his mind, and Finn didn’t have an answer for it. He took his gloves with him, and he stopped by the Courage Reins building to collect the drone before he got behind the wheel of his truck and headed toward Coyote Pass.
He had to drive almost all the way back to town before the road out to the ranch appeared, and then he had to go back north again. Definitely more east too, and about forty minutes after he’d left Three Rivers, he pulled up to a quaint farmhouse at Coyote Pass. The front porch spanned both sides of the house, with the front door right in the middle and a peaked roof above that.
“Big house,” he said to himself, wanting to know what had brought Edith here. He hadn’t seen her since they’d met again on Wednesday, and the anticipation of being in the same space as her had Finn’s heart pumping hard as he got out of his truck.
Edith opened the front door before he could round the hood, and she called, “Finn,” as she crossed the porch and came down the steps.
He couldn’t help laughing, despite the very non-laugh-like situation they found themselves in. “Ah, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” He had a second to drink in her jeans, the navy puffy vest over the pink and white plaid shirt. Then she arrived in his arms, and Finn’s eyes drifted closed as he brought her close and held her against his chest.
Fire burned in his stomach and up into his brain, but he also sensed something amiss with Edith. “Hey, you okay?”
“It’s just so much,” she whispered, and she made no move to leave his embrace.
“Did you get your horses back?”
