Page 13 of The Cowboy’s Reckoning

“Works fine.”

She felt an odd reluctance to see him go. Maybe because if he was there she would have a better chance of knowing what he was cooking up.

No. It was more than that.

She was noticing little things about him, like the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he fought a smile, and the bump where his perfect nose had been broken. Her awareness of the man was pulling her back into the world she’d abandoned when the traumas had come raining down upon her, leaving her little time for anything other than ducking and dodging and trying to stay on her feet. She wanted to go back to that world. She definitely wasn’t looking for a man, but she didn’t mind looking at a man. Letting down her freaking guard for a moment or two.

But did it have to be with this man?

Lil had no answer to that other than she dared any red-blooded woman not to be distracted by this guy.

Meg drove across the field just as Jordan’s truck went over the cattle guard. She parked the ATV and pushed her ball cap back as she watched Jordan’s truck disappear into the aspen grove. “Why was he back?”

“Repairs.”

“He’s actually going to have the roof fixed?”

Lil nodded as she watched his rig disappear around the big corner at the aspen grove. “The prettier the ranch is, the easier to sell.”

“Maya said not to worry.”

“I’m not.” Much.

“I’m hungry,” Meg said.

Lil could do with a meal herself. She hadn’t eaten all day. Meg let out a breath as they started for the house, their boots scuffing on the gravel. Meg pulled the elastic band out of her hair and combed her fingers through it as they walked. She was smaller than Lil and their hair different colors, but other than that, they were close to identical in appearance thanks to their father’s strong genes. Maya was the outlier in that regard, with a rounder face, and a softer appearance, although woe be to anyone who believed that meant a softer personality.

“I wonder who his prospective buyer is?” Meg asked.

Lil had been wondering the same thing.

When they reached the front gate, Lil stopped and turned to her sister as a thought struck her. “Jordan says that he didn’t know Carl Jordan.”

Meg made a face. “That’s weird.”

“I thought so.”

As they continued up the walk, Lil asked, “Do you think the names are a coincidence? Jordan?”

“What else could they be?”

Lil, not a fan of conspiracy theories, hesitated before voicing her own. “A baby mama making a point?”

Meg frowned.

“It ticks the boxes,” Lil pointed out. “Local cowboy inherits ranch from rich out-of-stater he doesn’t know.”

“Yes,” Meg said slowly. “I guess it does. Except for prison dad.”

Lil had been thinking about that. “A name on a birth certificate doesn’t necessarily mean paternity.”

*

Jordan leaned against the fence post he’d finished tamping in before Jess Connery, the broker who’d made the offer to buy the Willow Creek for an unknown client, called. “My lawyer checked the lease, and it’s within her rights to stay.”

“Are you sure she can’t be convinced to leave?” Connery asked for the second time, this time with obvious impatience.

Jordan had yet to get a clear read on the real estate broker. He was smooth and professional, a given, dealing with high-end clients as he did, but Jordan wasn’t high end, so he was getting glimpses of a different man. A guy who tried to bull people around when he didn’t get what he wanted. Jordan had made a mistake in letting Connery know he was eager to sell early on and now he was paying the price. Connery, or rather his client buyer, was in the power position.