Page 8 of Rope Me, Cowboys

8

Amber

Now

When I woke up the next morning, the house was so quiet I thought I’d gone deaf. I leapt out of bed, scrambling frantically for my phone. The tone when I turned it on told me I still had my hearing, and I faceplanted on the bed in relief. I wasn’t deaf. Wyoming was just freakishly devoid of pissed off drivers blaring their horns.

After my heartbeat had returned to normal, I rolled over and sprawled out, luxuriating in the huge, soft bed. But soon enough, my stomach growled and I had to give up the warmth of the blankets. After freshening up and getting dressed, I headed downstairs. I hadn’t heard a peep from the rest of the house, so I took my time looking over everything in the big lodge. The cursory glance I’d given it the night before proved to be enough, though. There wasn’t much to see besides the building itself.

The lingering smell of food drew me to the kitchen. If I’d been hoping for a homemade breakfast waiting for me, I was sorely disappointed. The fireplace was going in the big living room, and a small black stove was putting off heat in the kitchen, but there was not scrap of food sitting out. Besides a rack of dishes beside the sink, the kitchen was as barren as if no one lived there.

Luckily, the refrigerator was stocked with lots of food, and I happened to make a mean omelet. I whipped one up and scarfed it down, grateful no one was there to see me inhaling the food. After eating nothing but airplane food the night before, I was famished.

Having fortified myself with breakfast, I still hadn’t seen any of my stepbrothers, but I remembered Holden’s warm welcome the night before. A smile crept across my face and refused to leave when I thought of him filling up my bedroom with his genuine warmth and earnestness. He’d said that everything was mine to explore, and if I wasn’t going to be stuck wiping snotty noses and nagging three kids to get off their phones and get outside all day, I was going to take full advantage. I couldn’t believe how much I’d lucked out. Not only was I not watching spoiled kids all winter, I was living with two super hotties.

Who are your brothers, I reminded myself. Which was true in a weird legal sense. But there was no law against looking.

Grabbing a canvas jacket off the hook beside the door, I stepped outside. A blast of cold hit me first thing. It wasn’t the kind of clinging cold we got in New York, where the snow stuck around for ages in the spring, sitting in grey slushy piles in the gutters and sticking to your boots. This was a dry chill, windy and wild. I pulled the jacket tighter around myself, although like the house, the clothes here were lacking in style.

But I didn’t care any more than I would have if the boys turned out to be five-year-olds like I expected. So, I headed down the steps and looked around. The ranch was flat as far as I could tell, but there was a gorgeous view of the mountains jutting up in one direction. In the other, at the edge of a seemingly endless expanse of fields, a line of trees had burst into bright, daffodil yellow.

“Yoo-hoo,” a high voice called. I nearly jumped out of my skin. But I needed my skin for later use, so instead of jumping out of it entirely, I just jumped a foot into the air and shrieked.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to scare you now,” said a woman who looked to be in her late fifties or early sixties. She was short and round, with short, curly blue hair, narrow eyes, and round, red cheeks. As she waddled up to the porch, I checked for a vehicle, but she must have parked around back. Or she lived here.

“Hi,” I said, bounding down the steps so she wouldn’t have to walk up. She seemed a little out of breath already.

“Hi, there,” she said. “I thought I saw one of the boys coming home late last night.”

“You live here?” I asked, thinking she was the cook or housekeeper.

“Out back, in the last cabin,” she said. “Who are you?”

“Oh, sorry,” I said, holding out my hand. “I’m Amber. Their stepsister.”

“Oh, you’re Amber,” she said, her beady little eyes scanning me up and down. “Hmph.”

What was that supposed to mean? I drew myself up straight and tall. I wasn’t going to let this nosy old bird intimidate me.

“And you are?” I asked, giving her my best New York attitude. Which, admittedly, wasn’t great.

“Oh, I’m Mrs. Grimes,” she said. “Mr. Grimes works with the cattle, but I’m around here all day, and just next door every night.”

I wasn’t sure what she was insinuating, but I didn’t like it one bit.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll make sure to come by if we need anything.”

Just then, a man strode around the side of the house. He looked about the same age as her, but he had on a ball cap and a canvas jacket just like the one I’d pulled on.

“Oh, Gerald,” Mrs. Grimes tootled. “Come and say hello to our new resident.”

Gerald stopped and took me with one sweeping motion of his eyes. “Hiya,” he said, nodding at me as he pulled on a pair of work gloves. “I got to get to work. Nice to meet you.” And with that, he was gone.

“He keeps to himself,” Mrs. Grimes said. “Likes to say that whatever happens under a man’s roof is his own business. That’s why we ladies have to stick together. Isn’t that right?” She gave me a wink.

“I guess so,” I said slowly.

“Good,” she said. “You make sure to let me know if there’s anything going on that I should know about.”