Page 20 of The Cowboy’s Reckoning

He jerked his chin toward the house. “I’ve got to get back to work. You may as well answer that.”

*

Lil stabbed her trowel into the freshly rototilled earth and scooped out the dirt before burying an onion set. Gardening did not come naturally to her, but Aubrey had big plans for the Willow Creek harvest this year and, as promised, she’d shown up with all kinds of things to plant.

“He said he didn’t want this ranch?” Meg pointed at the ground.

“This ranch,” Lil repeated.

Jordan had still been hammering away in the barn when Aubrey arrived with the start to their garden, but Lil didn’t bring up his odd comment until he’d driven away a few minutes ago.

Lil wiped the back of her gloved hand over her forehead as she recalled the conversation. “It sounded very much like he wouldn’t mind having a ranch. Just, again, not this one. And he didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Has he even been here before?” Aubrey sank back onto her heels.

She’d arrived at the same conclusion as Lil concerning Jordan’s possible parentage—the shared name was hard to discount—but there were other plausible explanations, including coincidence, and they’d decided to leave things at the conjecture stage. It was, after all, none of their business. But that didn’t keep Lil from wondering.

“I don’t know,” she said honestly, patting dirt around an onion bulb, then pushing herself to her feet and dusting the garden soil off her jeans. “He didn’t seem that curious about the place when he arrived for our first meeting, but that may have been because he was focused on business.” And trying to get her to agree to vacate the premises. “I guess the important thing is that I was firm about staying.”

“Stick to your guns,” Aubrey murmured.

“Oh, I plan to.” It wasn’t a comfortable situation, but it was one they were going to have to live with.

That said, she wondered again why Jordan had asked her if anything else had happened on the ranch besides the cut fences. He was the only guy who had a motive to mess with them, so why would he have brought it up? Did he know something she didn’t? If so, what on earth could that something be?

Meg dropped the last spud into a hole and patted soil over it, then glanced up at Lil. “If Jordan’s biggest problem is inheriting a ranch, then I think he has it pretty good. Even if he can’t sell, he gets the rent. He doesn’t need to have anything else to do with the place if it gives him bad feels.”

“Agreed,” Lil said as her sister got to her feet and banged the dirt out of the empty cardboard box.

Aubrey also stood, stretching her back before giving the garden a satisfied once-over. “Good work, ladies.”

In addition to the potatoes and onions, they’d put in corn and squash, carrots and beets, cabbage and broccoli. Two large tomato plants nestled in cages behind the small windbreak fence at the far end of the garden. The irises were planted along the sheep fence that kept the goats out of the garden, with petunias between the bulbs to allow for some color this year.

“If you guys weren’t doing that cow thing tomorrow, I’d suggest a celebratory lunch out,” Aubrey said, wrinkling her nose at the word “cow”, which reminded Lil of a tidbit of information she’d wanted to pass along.

“Remember that Burke guy who was with Jordan at the Graff?”

“It’s hard not to remember Burke,” Aubrey said.

“He was the guy Jordan blamed for the cattle escape in town the other night. Well, he didn’t exactly blame him, but he said that if I knew him, I’d understand why there were cows in the hotel parking lot.”

“That is a true statement. If you’re ever introduced to the man, make certain there are no flames or sharp objects nearby. The guy invites disaster.”

“Are he and Jordan old friends?” Lil asked.

She had a hard time picturing Jordan hanging out with a guy who invited disaster, but what did she really know about Jordan Matthews? She’d only met the man a few days ago.

“They rodeoed together.”

“Jordan rodeoed? What event?”

“No idea.”

“Have you ever been to a rodeo?” Meg asked.

“Of course,” Aubrey replied lightly. “I live in Montana. I love to watch men land in the dirt.” She looked at the sun, as if using it to tell time. “I’d best be going, ladies.”

“Date?” she guessed.