Dakota pulled her fingers through her thick, chestnut hair, tugging it away from her face, cheeks still reddened from the cold outside. She’d always been beautiful; the years only seemed to improve her.
“I was expecting Chet,” she said. “He said he needed some extra help on the cattle drive. I’d rather deal with him, if you don’t mind.”
Yeah, everyone was expecting Chet. Andy was here for a couple of weeks at the most. He’d agreed to do the cattle drive this year for his brother and then he was heading back to his life in the city. This ranch—this town even—wasn’t home anymore, and he’d been reminded of that little fact repeatedly since arriving.
“Afraid I can’t oblige,” he replied. “Chet and Mackenzie are in the city. There were some complications with her pregnancy. That can happen with twins, apparently. Anyway, I’m here to take care of things until they return.”
That was why Chet had held off on their cattle run to bring the herd from the far pastures in the foothills back to the safety of nearby fields for the winter months. The warm fall and late winter had felt providential with Mack’s problematic pregnancy, but the cattle had to come back soon, and now Andy would be the one to do it. As long as he was back out of town before Christmas, he’d call it a success.
“Mack’s okay, though?” Dakota asked, her expression softening a little.
“Yeah, she’ll be fine.” He leaned back in his chair. “So, how’ve you been?”
“You haven’t heard?” Dakota tugged her leather jacket a little closer around herself. She looked uncomfortable, not that Andy blamed her. Everyone seemed ill-at-ease around him since his return, and he’d rolled with it, but he didn’t like seeing that discomfort in Dakota’s eyes. She’d always been one of the few to see straight through his act—which had generally taken the form of telling him he was an idiot—and this time he wished she could still see what no one else seemed to...that he wasn’t all bad.
“I’ve been out of the loop lately,” he confessed.
“That’s an understatement,” she retorted. “But thanks to you selling off that land to developers, our ranch is now bone dry.”
“What?” Andy frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“The streams that ran through your pasture watered ours,” she said. “The developers blocked the main ones to make some sort of reservoir. We’re down to a trickle.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know.” Those words didn’t encompass half of what he felt. That sale had been a mistake, and while he’d been able to buy a car dealership in the city, which had turned into a rather lucrative investment, he’d never been able to shake the certainty he’d made a monumental error when he sold his half of the inheritance and the family pasture.
“But glad to know you made some money off it.” Her tone dripped sarcasm.
“It was my land to sell, Dakota.”
It wasn’t like he’d stolen something from his brother. What was he supposed to do—dutifully step back and forget about his inheritance altogether because his brother was using it?
“Yeah, but to Lordship Land Developers?” she snapped. He’d seen the sign beside the road, too—a bit of a jolt when he’d first driven back into town.
Dakota wasn’t so far away from his position. Sure, her parents were still alive, but every ranch faced the same problem. When the owner had more than one child, and the bulk of his financial worth was wrapped up in that land, how did you divide it in a will and still keep the business intact? Who got the ranch and who got cut out?
“What if your brother inherited your dad’s ranch?” he pressed. “Let’s say your dad leaves the whole thing to Brody. What if you were left with some scrub grass and some memories, and that was it? What if you were pushed out and had to find a way to deal? Are you telling me you wouldn’t have done the same thing? It’s not much of an inheritance when no one expects you to lay a finger on it.”
“Then you sell to your brother,” she said with a shake of her head. “But you didn’t. You turned this grudge between you and Chet into something that put a black mark on this whole community. Who says anybody is okay with having some resort built here? We’re a ranch community, not a vacation spot.”
“Take it up with the mayor.” He was tired of defending himself. Everyone had the same complaint—he’d sold to an outsider. That was the kind of misstep the town of Hope couldn’t forgive.
“Trust me, we tried,” she retorted. “Especially when our land dried up and we had to try and graze an entire herd on dust.”
Andy’s stomach sank. Was it that bad? It wasn’t like he could’ve anticipated that, but people around here didn’t seem to care about what was fair to blame on him and what wasn’t. Things had gone wrong, and he was the target for an entire community’s animosity.
“Look, I’m sorry. I had no way of knowing that would happen.”
She didn’t look terribly mollified, and he didn’t really expect her to be. The truth was he could have sold to his brother, but he’d erred on the side of money. The developers had offered more than he could turn down—enough to buy the dealership in the city free and clear.
And, yes, he’d harbored a few grudges against his perfect brother, Chet. This cattle drive was a favor to his brother, nothing more, and the last thing he needed was a distraction. He’d messed up and he didn’t need a four-day-long reminder of that in the form of Dakota Mason, but Chet had asked her to lend a hand before Mackenzie’s pregnancy troubles, and Andy was just filling Chet’s shoes until he got back. This was all very temporary.
“Changed your mind about helping out?” Andy asked. “My brother isn’t going to be back for a while, so you’d have to deal with me, whether you like it or not.”
“Thanks to you, we need the extra money,” she retorted. “So, no, I’m in.”
Working with a woman who couldn’t stand him was a bad idea. He knew that plain enough, but he couldn’t shake the feeling he owed her. Just like the rest of this blasted town. He had a debt hanging over his head that he’d never be able to repay. Andy glanced at his watch. Two drovers had quit on Chet, and they needed two replacements to get the job done. After Dakota, there was only one other applicant to the job posting he’d placed. He wasn’t exactly in a position to turn down help.
“Have you done a cattle drive before?”
She shot him a sidelong look. “Are you seriously asking me that?”
It wasn’t a completely inappropriate question. Andy hadn’t gone on more than two cattle drives in his life. His brother had always been the one who cared about ranching operations—and was the consummate favorite—so their father had taken him along most years. Andy needed drovers who knew what they were doing, because while he was the face of the family for this drive, he didn’t have the experience, and he knew it. Getting the job done was going to rely on the expertise of his team. Which brought up an important question.
“All the other drovers are men,” he said. “Can you handle that?”
“If I can handle cattle, I can handle men.” She narrowed her eyes. “Can you handle a woman on your team?”
Andy shot her a grin. He’d never been one to shy away from women. He’d managed to garner a bit of a reputation for himself over the years. In fact, he’d even dated his brother’s wife back when they were in high school—and when he’d been dumb enough to cheat on her with another girl. Not his proudest moment. But while Hope might remember him as the flirt no one could nail down, the last few years had changed him in ways he’d mostly kept to himself. Seeing Chet and Mack fall in love, get married and now start a family made him realize what he wanted—the real thing.
“I have no problem working with a woman,”