Page 8 of Taming the Wild Cowboy

Was he going to rescind his offer? All they’d had so far was a handshake deal.

“Where are you staying?”

“Why do you ask?” she said, tamping down a spike of unnecessary guilt. She wasn’t breaking any laws … that she knew of, anyway.

“Wondering if you could swing by Lane’s Feed and pick up some probiotic paste before heading out tomorrow? It would save me a trip to town. They open at seven o’clock.”

“No problem.” In fact, it was excellent, because it meant she honestly had a job.

“You can put it on the Tree Fork account. Get a dozen tubes.”

“Will do.”

Maclyn sat on the trailer’s wheel cover after ending the call, watching the two horses eat. Trev Matthews was now her boss.

That was Twilight Zone stuff—almost as Twilight Zone-y as having Brooke, her supposed friend, turn on her. Or discovering that Frank Carrington, the CFO of the family company, her father’s best friend, had driven the business into the ground and had been lying about it for months after her dad’s death. And then there were the Benningtons, who had also turned on her, but given their entitled personalities, that wasn’t surprising. It was the people Mac thought she could depend on who caused the trouble. Brooke. Frank.

Fortunately, she’d discovered a solution for that.

Stop depending on people.

*

Trev pushed his phone into his pocket, glad that he didn’t need to run to town. The few remaining tubes of probiotic paste in his calving stash were close to expiring and he wasn’t going to the trouble of pushing the stuff down calves’ throats if it didn’t to do their guts any good. Thankfully, he had a new hire who could pick up the stuff on her way to work the next day.

What a strange turn of events that was.

He was glad to have someone to help out for a few days, but how in the hell had that someone ended up being Maclyn Kane? And how had she gone from showing all the signs of casual wealth to being essentially homeless? She’d been desperate for work, that had been clear, but she’d also been about to drive away before she’d dropped the bomb about Brooke.

A clever ruse to get a few days’ work?

He had to admit that felt like a stretch, which left him with the grim possibility that he’d been wrong about her, and that there were things he hadn’t known about the former love of his life.

He grabbed his hat and headed for the door, needing to find a distraction, but instead of gathering his tools to fix the split rails on the bull pen, he stopped on the porch steps and after a moment’s debate, called the one guy who had been there when all this had gone down. He needed perspective, and his stoic roping partner was the guy to give it to him.

Dylan answered on the second ring, the sound of equipment running in the background making it hard to hear.

“Give me a sec.” The noise quieted and Trev went through the hey-how-are-you bit, before stepping off the deep end.

“Quick question.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Brooke was cheating on me?” He pushed the words out carelessly, brushing aside the cringey feeling that made his shoulder muscles tighten.

Silence followed the question, the kind that made him wish he’d kept his mouth shut on the subject.

“What brought this up?” Dylan finally asked. “I mean, it’s been six years.”

“My new hire.”

“Who’s that?”

“Maclyn Kane.”

Dylan let out a choked laugh. “How is Maclyn Kane your new hire?”

Trev recounted the story, clipping it down to a few facts. She showed up. She needed a job. She said Brooke was cheating on him. He hired her anyway. Yep, he was that hungry for help.