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She nodded, and thankfully, her legs managed to turn her body out of his embrace before too much longer. They stood right close to Squire and Kelly, which meant everyone was looking almost straight at her and Beau too.
“Welcome to lunch,” Squire said. “There’s no real reason today, other than we all have to eat lunch every day, so I’m just gonna have….” He glanced around and seized onto someone. “My daughter, Libby, say the prayer.”
Charlotte folded her arms and ducked her head, finally feeling the weight of moving morning drift away from her. She let herself shrink until she was very small on this very large ranch, in the small town of Three Rivers, which felt absolutely huge compared to her.
Everything expanded out and out, and Charlotte let herself feel the familial vibes that existed here—and she knew.
God had led her here, to this ranch, at this time.
She belonged here. So she wasn’t going to let anything—not her heart condition, not the hard conversations she might have to have because of it, nothing—stop her from being on this ranch, doing this job.
Not even the handsome cowboy beside her.
Chapter Seven
Beau’s stomach felt like it might burst by the time he jogged up the steps to his front porch and went inside the cabin. Charlotte followed him, and as she closed the door, Beau sighed.
“Busy day,” she said.
“Yeah,” he responded. He still had plenty to attend to on the ranch, though he didn’t do a ton of the feeding and care of animals, which was a twenty-four-seven job. “And we’re not done.”
He went around the island in the kitchen and faced her, letting all the repressed irritation and yes, downright anger, to rise through him again. “So you can’t scamper down the hall and close your door until we talk about your health problems.”
“First.” She came to a complete stop and cocked one hip. “Don’t call it a health problem. It’s not a problem.”
“You have a heart condition that makes you faint periodically,” he shot at her. “That is so a problem, Charlotte.” He planted both palms on the counter and leaned into them. “You weren’t hungry the day you came to interview. You fainted because your pulse and oxygen levels dropped.”
“You startled me,” she said.
“So that’s when it happens?”
“It…can happen for a variety of reasons,” she admitted, and Beau figured they were going somewhere now. He took the glaring down a notch and unlocked his shoulders. No need to make himself look bigger if he wanted her to talk.
“It’s a very mild heart condition,” she said.
“What’s the name of it?” He pulled out his phone and quickly tapped to get over to his notes.
“Are you going to write it down?”
“Yes, I am.” He was not going to back down on this either. Beau looked up when she remained silent. Oh, this woman was as headstrong as she was beautiful. That only made her more attractive to him, and he lowered his phone, trying to connect some dots.
“Charlotte,” he said softly. Maybe it was a growl. He wasn’t exactly sure. “I am the foreman of this ranch, and everyone here is my responsibility. The thousands of cattle are my responsibility. All those horses you’re going to care for are my responsibility. I get to know everything. That’s just how it is.” He set his phone down on the counter to hopefully put her more at ease.
“I don’t want everyone to know,” she said.
Beau didn’t fire right back at her. “Okay,” he said, wishing his mind worked faster. “Some people are going to have to know.”
“Who?”
“Squire,” he said instantly. “Pete. And another cowboy who spends a lot of time in the stables. Kenny. I’d tell those three up-front. Just to make sure you’ve got help if you need it without lengthy explanations.”
“Three people.”
“There might be others,” he said. “Who work with the horses a lot. I can see that not everyone needs to know, and that’s fine.”
She regarded him, some of the fire in her stunning aquamarine eyes burning out. “Three people is fine. I just—Beau, I don’t want anyone, including you, to treat me differently. I can do this job.”
“I know you can,” he said quickly. Her desperation for the job was abundantly clear, and Beau realized as he watched it roll across her face like a Texas thunderstorm that she really needed to prove it to him.
