He towered over her as much while seated as he had while standing. Phoebe fastened her seat belt, then gave him a quick glance. Her heart did a one and a half somersault with a half twist at the sight of his profile. He looked good enough to be on a coin.
As Zane drove toward the exit, Phoebe searched frantically for a topic of conversation. Nothing brilliant came to mind. She nibbled on her lower lip as she considered risking the truth. When nothing better occurred to her, she decided to dive right into the cowboy-infested water.
“So this is really strange, huh?”
Zane glanced at her but didn’t speak.
She cleared her throat. “Me being here. I mean you don’t know me from a rock, and I’m going to be staying at the ranch for a couple of days. Maybe we should get to know each other, so the situation isn’t so awkward.”
“If you don’t feel like you belong, why did you come?”
She spent a good three seconds mentally swooning over the sound of his voice before processing his words. He wasn’t exactly welcoming.
“Well, um, several reasons,” she said, stalling, then couldn’t think of any but one. She sighed. “Maya guilted me into it.”
“What did she tell you? That I keep Chase locked in a tower and feed him bread and water?”
Phoebe winced. “Not exactly.”
“But close.”
“Um, maybe.”
Zane’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. “She’s always had a soft spot for Chase.”
“He must be really smart. That must make you proud. I certainly couldn’t design a website and entice people to sign up for a cattle-drive vacation.”
Zane’s ever-so-perfect mouth tightened. “He lied, stole and committed fraud. Pride doesn’t much enter into it for me.”
Phoebe hunched down in her seat. “If you’re going to put it like that,” she mumbled and turned her attention to the scenery.
Signs of civilization quickly gave way to rugged isolation. A mile marker along the side of the road announced that Fool’s Gold was forty-two miles away.
She’d read up on the little town last night. Their slogan was The Destination for Romance. She cast a sidelong glance at Zane. Somehow, she didn’t think the slogan would hold true for her. The man could not be less interested in her.
Mountain peaks rose in the distance. She caught glimpses of white-capped currents in a river that flashed between the thick trees along the side of the road. No doubt the area was teeming with wildlife. Phoebe liked little forest creatures as much as the next person, just so long as she didn’t have to worry about them scurrying across the road or showing up on a serving platter.
What would it be like on the ranch? She’d never been on one before, hadn’t even seen one except on TV or in the movies.
“So are there lots of cows?” she asked before she could stop herself. “On the ranch, I mean.”
Zane didn’t spare her a glance. “Some.”
“Like twenty?”
He glanced at her then, before turning his attention back to the road. “We run several thousand head of steers. Those are the ones that end up on your barbecue. I have another few hundred head of cows for breeding purposes.”
“No bulls?” she asked, unable to keep from grinning.
He sighed the sigh of the long suffering. “A dozen or so.”
“A dozen bulls for a few hundred cows?”
Mr. Hunk-in-a-hat, who had put his hat on the seat between them when he’d climbed into the cab, chuckled. “Yup.”
“Yet another example of our patriarchal society ignoring the rights of cows.”
“You worried about cows’ rights?” He sounded both incredulous and amused. “You a lawyer?”
“No. And I’m not concerned about cows’ rights. Of course I want them treated humanely, as any civilized person would, but I’m not crazy.”
“What are you, then?”
“What?”
He glanced at her. “If you’re not a lawyer, what are you?”
“Oh.” For a second she thought he’d been referring to her mental state. “I work in real estate.”
Fortunately Zane didn’t ask any questions about her career. She didn’t think that telling him she’d been suspended for litigation would improve his opinion of her. At least he was talking. She tried to think of more cattle-related questions.
“How long have you been in the ranching business?”
“All my life.”
Silence. Zane Nicholson wasn’t exactly chatty. Was it her or was it his personality?
“Do you ever sell the cattle for something other than food?”
Zane shifted in his seat. Had he been anyone else, she would have assumed the question made him uncomfortable. But he was too in-charge—too self-assured. Besides, what about it was embarrassing?
“Sometimes I’ll sell off a few cows if we have too many.”
“That makes sense. What about the bulls? Ever have too many of those?”
“Most of them become steers.”
She didn’t want to think about that. “So steers are boy cows?”
“That’s right.”
“What makes you decide who gets to have a really good life and who gets to be a burger?”
“Various factors. I’ve been working on genetically improving the herd.”
“So a new bull with favorable characteristics would get to stay a bull.”
He nodded.
“Sounds interesting,” she said, because it really was. Who knew that ranchers worried about genetics?
“You’re probably not going for things like eye color,” she said without thinking.
Zane didn’t even roll his eyes. “Not really.”
“I didn’t think so.”
“I work with several universities. We have breeding experiments. I also sell to other ranchers.”
“Your bulls?”
There was that seat squirm again. “No.”
Not bulls? “Cows?”
“Sperm.”
Phoebe blinked. “From the bulls?”
He nodded.
“You sell bull sperm?”
He nodded again.
Wow. There really were infinite ways to make a living. So how exactly did one get the sperm from the bull? She shook her head. Not something she wanted to know, she decided. Although she was intrigued by the question of what sort of marketing campaign would be most effective. Still, some subjects were better left unexplored, and this was definitely one of them.
She tried to think of something else to say. Anything, really. But how did one top bull sperm as a conversational gambit?
Maybe it was better if one didn’t try.
* * *
THEY