Page 45 of Stars May Fall
“You act like it.” She released his hand and brushed at her tears.
Felicity wiped at her own face. “You’re going to be brilliant, baby.” She smiled and smiled. “Tell her, Mace.”
“You’re going to be brilliant, Char,” he said dutifully. He did smile at her, and the overprotective brother melted away for just a moment. “Just make sure you don’t overdo it.”
And there he was again. Bossy. Overbearing. Always right.
“I’m going out there again tomorrow,” she said, the tears finally subsiding. “I’ll get everything worked out, when I’ll move and all that.”
“And did you talk about a signal or safe word for when you’re not feeling well?” Mason asked.
“Not yet,” she hedged, and that wasn’t a lie. She’d stabilized quickly after sitting down, after the rush of everything. “Oh, I’m so excited. I’m going to go tell the kids, and then I’m gonna call Momma.”
She got back to her feet and headed inside the house. What were the chances that Mason, Felicity, or her mother would ever come to the foreman’s cabin on Three Rivers Ranch? A place forty-five minutes from anything?
“Slim to none,” she muttered to herself, the three words making her giddier than ever. She could pack everything she owned into her SUV, no problem. She didn’t need Mason’s help with furniture or heavy items. She’d been living with them for ages, and it was assumed the cabin would come furnished.
No problem. Nothing to explain. She wasn’t lying if no one asked. So no one needed to know she was living with her boss.
No one needed to know that at all.
Chapter Five
Beau pulled up to the white-sided farmhouse on the quiet street in one of the small communities in Three Rivers. He could feel the life pouring from the house, and it almost kept him from getting out of his truck and going inside.
He did so anyway, calling as he entered, “Howdy-ho, Garth. It’s just me.”
“We’re in the sunroom.”
“Of course they are,” he muttered to himself. Garth Ahlstrom had run the ranch as the foreman for the past couple of decades—maybe not that long—and he’d retired a little over six months ago.
Beau had gotten the foreman job after him, and he lived in the same cabin where Garth and Juliette had raised their two boys. They weren’t quite adults yet, and Beau wasn’t sure if he’d find the teens in the sunroom.
He knew he’d find Garth and Juliette, and he grinned at them as he entered the golden-lit room at the back of the house. “It’s warm here,” he said.
“We turn the fans on in the afternoon.” Garth looked up at him from the wood and knife in his hand. He’d been carving for as long as Beau had known him, and Garth claimed he needed something for his hands to do so his mind didn’t run away from him. “What brings you by?”
Beau groaned as he sat down in an available chair. “Nothing. Where are the boys?”
“Football camp,” Juliette said with a smile. Her hair had started to go gray, but she was still soft and wonderful, and Beau had never met anyone as good with animals as her. Maybe Squire, who did work as the full-time veterinarian on the ranch, and Juliette had been the vet technician.
“You have business in town?” Garth asked.
Beau nodded and clasped his hands between his knees. “Yeah, yep.” He took another breath. “Had some pick-ups at the feed store. Grabbed some breakfast.” He raised his head and looked over to his friends. “Prepping the cabin for someone to move in this weekend.”
Garth’s eyebrows lifted right up to his already-gray hair. “Someone’s moving in with you?”
“The other cabins are full,” he said.
“You’re the foreman.” Garth exchanged a glance with his wife. “Who is it? Why are they moving in?”
“Johnny went back to Tennessee,” Beau said. “We need a new Stable Manager, and since Three Rivers is a drive and a half from everything, we decided to list it with board.”
“Ah.”
“I didn’t anticipate hiring a woman.” Beau let the words sit there as he looked out the screens and into the backyard. “Pond looks good.”
“It’s a woman?” Juliette asked. “You’re moving in with a woman?’
