Page 23 of All in with the Maverick Montana

“I don’t think any time with you is ever wasted.”

Amy opened her mouth. Closed it. Her cheeks pinked. “Just drive, cowboy.”

“Did your words get tangled?”

She snorted.

“I mean it, you know. If you didn’t want to come to the ranch, I would have done anything else. I just…wanted to spend some more time with you.”

“And I wanted to spend time with your horses.”

He barked a laugh. “Glad we cleared that up.”

They grinned at each other again as Josh went racing down Juniper Road to the ranch, the fields on either side of them painted a soft green in the late afternoon sun. He’d driven this road thousands of times, but now he wondered what Amy saw when she looked at it. Did she think the fields looked like rolling green waves? Could she smell the honeysuckle that wafted from the meadows? Could she hear the buzz of insects on the wind?

“How was the rest of your day?” he asked.

“Well, Faith put me to work discounting old stock.”

“Fascinating.”

“I know. I’m allowed to put big yellow stickers on everything I can reach from the ground.” Amy huffed. “I think since the other day she’s afraid to let me near a ladder or lift anything heavy.”

“Have you been feeling poorly again?” Josh asked, suddenly worried.

“No, I’ve felt fine. She’s just…overprotective sometimes. Sisters, you know.”

He tilted his head thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t know. I’m an only child.”

“Oh,” Amy said. “I guess it’s like… When you’re young, you affectionately want to kill your siblings all the time. For everything. Stealing your clothes. Breathing too loud. Eating your food. Talking to the boy you like. And then you sort of, I don’t know, grow up a bit. And you hit this place where they’re suddenly your best friends and you’d do anything for them. Fight off the world if you had to.” She laughed to herself. “It probably sounds strange.”

“No,” Josh said. “It sounds…nice.” He didn’t know what it was to have siblings, but he imagined he’d feel the same if he did. “Is that what Faith was doing when she invited you down to Tenacity? Fighting off the world?”

Amy hummed in agreement. “Letting me hide from it more like. One of their employees actually just went off on maternity leave, so it sort of worked out timing wise. Caleb and his dad needed an extra set of hands a few days a week, and here I was. But I appreciate them letting me bunk in for a while all the same.”

“Guess you can’t complain too much about them putting you to work then.”

Amy laughed. “I really can’t.”

They turned onto the ranch, driving down the long stretch of gravel, the rocks nicking off the bottom of the truck. Josh parked and hopped out. Amy climbed out before he could even dare to open her door again. The look she gave him told him she knew exactly what he’d been thinking.

“So, this is it,” he said, gesturing from the house he’d grown up in to the massive barn that housed his cattle.

“Why is it called Split Valley?”

“There’s a creek that runs through the property,” Josh said. “We’ll pass it on our ride.”

“Oh, that’s lovely.”

“It’s the bane of my existence actually.”

“What? Why?”

“The calves like to get themselves stuck down there.”

Amy laughed. “You’re telling me you have to mount calf rescue missions?”

“At least a couple times a year. Ranching is all fun and games until you’re trekking through knee-deep water after some baby that’s still too new to know not to run away from you.”