Ami Weaver – From City Girl to Rancher's Wife (страница 8)
Josie stiffened at his look. His eyes narrowed as he took in her and Cade. But Cade had a smug look on his face he wasn’t bothering to hide as he rocked back on his heels.
Cade gave his brother a nod, but Josie saw Luke’s face darken a little. Was he unhappy to see her in his space? That seemed unlikely, but he was hard for her to read. Cade looked from her to Luke, and the smug look turned into a smile.
“You want to finish this, big brother? I thought it’d be a good idea to let Josie get acquainted with the ranch while she’s here.” He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to get ready for my client anyway.” He touched her arm lightly. “Is that okay, Josie? You’ll be in good hands with my brother here.”
Luke gave her a nod, but his face remained expressionless. “I’ve got some time.”
“Great. See you later.” Cade strode off whistling, and Josie stared after him for a minute, wondering if somehow they’d just been played. Cade hadn’t seemed very surprised to see Luke.
Well, of course not. They all worked here after all. And now it was just her and Luke. She looked at him and waited for him to say...anything.
“What did Cade show you?” He was ever so polite. No hint of the fun and humor he’d displayed on their trip to town a few days ago. They were back to the stiffness and formality, clearly. She swallowed a sigh.
Josie turned around and indicated with her hand. “Some of the horses, which he explained was his own business on the ranch. I’m not sure where we were going next, actually.”
“Okay.” Luke walked toward the back of the barn. “Let me show you something.”
Curious, she followed him out of the relatively dim barn into the bright light of outside.
Almost immediately her gaze seemed to hone right in on him, rather than the gorgeous scenery around them. He wore worn jeans that looked as if they’d been made just for him, hugging his rear and legs in a way that made her want to reach out and run her hand over the curve of his butt. Appalled, she jerked her gaze back up to his shoulder blades. His broad back was equally as enticing, with the henley shirt he wore stretched nicely across his back. Goodness. She slid her shades off her head and onto her nose. What was wrong with her? She’d never even looked at Russ that way, as if she just wanted to eat him up, and she’d been planning to marry him.
Maybe. But there was no way to follow that to its logical conclusion. Frankly, just because she thought Luke was hot didn’t mean anything more than that. She stepped up beside Luke rather than walk behind him and get herself in trouble, and headed toward the large, round, fenced-in paddock where a trim woman was working a horse.
“Hey, Nikki,” he said as they approached the fence. “How’s he going today?”
The big bay horse tossed his head, but didn’t break stride as Nikki slowly rotated to keep up with him as he loped in a circle at the end of a long line. She was tall and slim, and in her sleeveless top, her arms were muscular and browned from the sun. Her long blond hair was caught in a loose ponytail under her hat, and Josie thought she bore a striking resemblance to his ex-wife.
But Nikki’s smile was wide and open as she glanced at them next to the fence, with no sign of anything flirty. And why that mattered, Josie didn’t want to even think about. Maybe after so many years of being on the sidelines and not noticed, being eclipsed by the guy with her, it was just nice to not have another woman look at her as though she was the enemy. “Good. Real good, Luke. I think he’ll be ready soon. I already told Cade.”
Luke kept his eyes on the horse and Josie sneaked a look up at him. He was clearly assessing the horse’s movement, and there was a genuine sparkle in his eye. She nearly peered closer, but that would be rude. So instead she looked back at the horse, who had slowed to a trot. She didn’t know much about horses, not really, but she did think this one was beautiful.
“Ready for what?” she asked, leaning on the fence. The smooth wood was cool on her arms. The sun was getting warm on her back, but it felt good. The pound of the horse’s hooves on the hard ground was steady background noise.
“Cade trains top-notch cutting horses here,” he said. “Nikki’s one of the best around.”
Nikki made a motion and the horse stopped, but his eye was still on her. She walked over, looping the rope up, and patted his neck as she led him to the fence. “What Luke didn’t tell you is he’s just as good with the horses as his brother is. Modest to a fault.” When Luke shifted beside her she gave him a knowing grin. “You are.” To Josie she held out her hand and said, “Nikki Thurman.”
Josie took the other woman’s hand, felt the roughness and strength of her palm from all the ropes and horses she handled. “Josie Callahan. I’m filling in for my aunt as the cook at the main house.”
Nikki nodded. “That’s right. So nice to meet you. How do you like Montana? You’re from Cali, right?”
Luke ducked under the fence and took the horse from Nikki. She stepped back, but he didn’t take him anywhere. Josie watched as he stroked the horse’s legs and ran his hands all over the horse’s body. The horse didn’t flinch.
“I am,” she said, shifting her attention to Nikki. “This is—this is different from what I’m used to. Beautiful, though. Overwhelmingly so.”
Nikki nodded. “I understand. I came here from a small town in the Midwest—nothing like where you’re from—but it wasn’t remote like this, nor was it beautiful in this way. Montana, and this more remote area especially, is rugged and wild in a way few places are anymore.”
“How long have you been here?” Josie was genuinely curious. Nikki was young and gorgeous. This didn’t seem like the optimal place for a woman like her.
Nikki put her hands on her hips and cocked her head. The breeze blew her ponytail back over her shoulder. “Six years? Yeah, six years this winter. Yes, I came out here in the winter,” she said on a laugh.
Luke handed the lead back to Nikki. “He’s good. Get video of him and get it up on the site in the next week or so.”
“Sounds good.” To Josie she said, “Nice to meet you. I’m down here every day if you ever want to keep me company.”
“Thanks,” Josie said, a feeling of warmth in her chest. Nikki could be a friend. She hadn’t expected that out here. “I’ll do that.”
Nikki flashed her another smile before leading the horse away.
“What kind of site?” She’d known Luke did something with horses, but her aunt hadn’t really said a whole lot. And Josie didn’t know a lot about this type of business anyway.
“For the horses. When they’re ready, they go up on the website. People wait for them to go up.”
“So you raise and train them?”
“Some,” Luke said. “Some are bought at auction. And sometimes Cade will take on someone’s horse and train it for them. But that takes a lot of time. Nikki and Jim, who’s not here today, are the trainers, and my brothers and I train, too. Cade really runs this end of the operation. No thanks to our father.”
“I see,” she said carefully.
Luke didn’t look at her. Instead, he watched Nikki lead the horse back to the barn. His tone was almost expressionless, but she saw a muscle tick in his jaw. “When I got back here after—after everything ended in Nashville, the ranch was in bad shape financially. My father had made some risky decisions to try to save this place and then he died before he could really make them pan out—if they would have panned out at all. We almost lost the whole thing because of his carelessness. So when Cade wanted to do this it was a far more calculated risk. He’s been known for years for his way with horses. We’ve all worked together to use our strengths to make this place profitable. My dad never would have understood how something like this works. He wasn’t any kind of a team player, even when it came to his kids.”
There was no real way to respond to that, so Josie just said, “How is it doing?”
“Thankfully, really well. It’s been going about seven years now. Cade brought Nikki in as soon as he could and Jim right after. The first year was no profit, but we told Cade to stick with it.” He turned from the paddock and started back toward the second barn, the one she hadn’t seen yet. “I’m glad he did.”
“I’m sure,” she agreed.
“Do you ride?”
The question shouldn’t have caught her off guard, considering what they were discussing, but it did. “I do. Well, I did. It’s been many years since I was on a horse.” Like nearly half her life ago, actually, now that she thought about it.
“Do you want to ride out with me tomorrow? I’m going up to the ridge in the northern pasture—” he pointed in the direction “—and it’s a pretty easy ride and an amazing view. That way I can show you more of what we do out here.”
She snapped her mouth shut before he turned around and saw her standing there with it hanging open in shock. Since he was looking at her expectantly, she said, “Yes. I’d like that.”
Not seeming to notice her flustered state, he smiled at her, the full-on smile that made her forget her own name for a heartbeat. That wasn’t good. “All right. We’ll ride out after breakfast. Say, eight? That give you enough time?”