LITMIR.BIZ

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her a boost up into the saddle. Touching her cute little backside when she’d mounted the mare the first time had damn near caused him to have a coronary. He could only guess what his reaction would be this time.

      The minute his palm touched the seat of her blue jeans, a jolt of electric current shot up his arm, down through his chest and straight to the region south of his belt buckle. His reaction was not only predictable, it was instantaneous.

      Feeling as if his own jeans had suddenly gotten a couple of sizes smaller in the stride, he waited to make sure Fee was settled on Rosy before he caught Dakota’s reins in one hand and gingerly swung up onto the gelding’s saddle. He immediately shifted to keep from emasculating himself. Fee hadn’t been on the ranch a full twenty-four hours and he was already in need of a second cold shower.

      As they started toward the north pasture, Chance decided it was either going to be the most exciting two weeks of his life or the most grueling. And he had every intention of seeing that it was going to be the former, not the latter.

      * * *

      While Chance called his mother to make arrangements to take Cassie for ice cream the next day, Fee helped clean the kitchen after dinner. “Gus, it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. He knew exactly what to do and everything turned out fine for the momma cow, as well as for her baby.”

      She still couldn’t get over the efficiency and expertise Chance had demonstrated with the pregnant cow. What he’d had to do to help the animal was messy and disgusting, but he hadn’t hesitated for a single second. He had immediately sprung into action and taken care of her and her calf to make sure they both survived.

      It was hard to believe how many facets there were to Chance’s job. He not only had to keep extensive records on all of the livestock, he had to be a land manager, an experienced horseman and an impromptu large-animal veterinarian. And she had a feeling that was just the tip of the iceberg.

      “Don’t go tellin’ him I said so ’cause I don’t want him gettin’ bigheaded about it,” Gus said, grinning. “But that boy’s got better cow sense than even his daddy had. And that’s sayin’ somethin’. When Charlie Lassiter was alive there was none better at ranchin’ than he was. He knew what a steer was gonna do before it did.”

      Fee remembered Chance telling her that his father had run the ranch when he wasn’t out on the rodeo circuit. “How did Chance’s father die? Was he killed at a rodeo?”

      “It was one of them freak accidents that never shoulda happened.” Gus shook his head sadly as he handed her a pot he had just finished washing. “Charlie was a saddle bronc and bareback rider when he was out on the rodeo circuit, and a damned good one. He always finished in the money and other than a busted arm one time, never got hurt real bad. But about three years after he stopped rodeoin’ and went to ranchin’ full time, he got throwed from a horse he was breakin’. He landed wrong and it snapped his neck. Charlie was dead as soon as he hit the ground.”

      “That’s so sad,” she said, drying the pot with a soft cotton dish towel before hanging it on the pot rack above the kitchen island.

      “The real bad thing was Chance saw it all,” Gus said, his tone turning husky.

      “Oh, how awful!” Fee gasped.

      Gus nodded. “After Charlie started bein’ at home all the time, that little kid was his daddy’s shadow and followed him everywhere. It weren’t no surprise to any of us that Chance was sittin’ on the top fence rail watchin’ Charlie that day.”

      Fee’s heart broke for Chance and it took a moment for her to be able to speak around the lump clogging her throat. “How old...was Chance?”

      “That was twenty-four years ago,” Gus answered. He cleared his throat as if he was having just as hard a time speaking as she was. “That would have made Chance about eight.”

      She couldn’t stop tears from filling her eyes when she thought about Chance as a little boy watching the father he idolized die. Although she’d never really known her father and hadn’t been all that close to her mother, she couldn’t imagine watching someone she loved so much die in such a tragic way. That had to have been devastating for him.

      “Well, that’s taken care of,” Chance said, walking into the room. He had called his mother to let her know what time they would be stopping by the main house tomorrow to take his niece to get ice cream. Marlene was keeping Cassie while Hannah and Logan were on their honeymoon, and she could probably use a break. “Mom said she would have Cassie ready tomorrow afternoon for us to come by and get her.”

      Without thinking, Fee walked over and wrapped her arms around his waist to give him a hug. She knew he would probably think she’d lost her mind, but she didn’t care. The more she found out about Chance Lassiter the more she realized what a remarkable man he was. He’d suffered through a traumatic loss as a child, but that hadn’t deterred him from following in his father’s footsteps to become a rancher. And from what she’d seen at the wedding a few nights ago, he had gone out of his way to become close to the half sister and niece that he hadn’t even known existed until just recently.

      “Don’t get me wrong, sweetheart,” he said, chuckling as his arms closed around her. “I’m not complaining in the least, but what’s this for?”

      Knowing that if she tried to explain her actions, she’d make a fool of herself, she shrugged and took a step back. “I’m still amazed that you knew what to do today to save the momma cow and her baby.”

      He smiled. “How would you like to take a walk out to the holding pen to check on them?”

      “I’d like that,” she said, meaning it. “Gus and I just finished up the dishes.”

      Gus nodded. “I’ll see you at breakfast. I’ve a baseball game comin’ on the sports channel in a few minutes.”

      As Gus went to his room to watch the game, she and Chance left the house and walked across the yard toward the barn. She glanced up at him when he reached out and took her hand in his. It was a small gesture, but the fact that it felt so good to have him touch her, even in such a small way, was a little unsettling. Was she already in way over her head?

      “Looks like we may have to cut our walk short,” Chance said, pointing to a bank of clouds in the distance. “We might get a little rain.”

      “From the dark color, I’d say it’s going to be a downpour,” Fee commented as they reached the pen where the cow and calf were being held.

      “Even if it is a downpour, it probably won’t last long,” he answered. “We get a lot of pop-up thundershowers this time of year. They move through, dump a little water on us and move on.”

      Noticing a covered area at one end of the enclosure, she nodded. “I’m glad to see there’s shelter for them if it does start raining.”

      “Cattle don’t usually mind being out in the rain during the summer months,” he said, smiling. “It’s one of the ways they cool off.”

      “What’s another?” she asked, watching the little black calf venture away from her mother.

      “If there’s a pond or a river, they like to wade out and just stand there.” He grinned. “Sort of like the bovine version of skinny-dipping.”

      “I can’t say I blame them,” she said, laughing. “I would think it gets rather hot with all that hair.” When the calf got close to the fence, Fee couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe. “She’s so pretty. What are you going to name her?”

      He chuckled. “We normally don’t name cattle.”

      “I guess that would be kind of difficult when you have so many,” she said, thinking it was a shame for something so cute not to have a name.

      He nodded. “If they’re going to be kept for breeding purposes, we tag their ears with a number. That’s the way we identify them and keep track of their health and how well they do during calving

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